Rose City Triathlon

A while ago, sometime in September around the 17th, Sonia and I travelled north to the quaint town of Tyler. We got up there early enough to meet up with Alan and Kathy for some dinner and beer.

The race was Saturday morning and early... why do triathlons, even short ones, start soooooo early? Oh well, my goal for the race: don't lose on the swim. Not long before the race we found out it was the South Central Conference Sprint Triathlon Championships (I think that's what it was called), so my hopes of actually getting podium went down hill.

Race:

The morning was pretty nice actually and the water was tolerable. We cut it close getting to and through transition and out to the dam to stage for the start. We were both pretty excited and, um, a bit nervous. My goal, don't die in the swim.
Before I knew it the gun went off and we were sailing through the water, in my case, splashing through the water. I managed a pretty good time through the swim and had a decent T1.

The bike was good, the hills were hard, I passed a lot of people as I anticipated I would. My T2 wasn't too bad.

The run was good, fastest 5k I've managed with a 6:54 min/mile pace. I ended up 11th in my age group which I didn't think was too bad since it was the SW Conference Sprint Championships.

The race was great, Sonia had a lot of fun, I think we'll be back next year.

Magnolia Hil

Two weekends ago was the last XTerra of the Texas series. "It was hot" could be the understatement of the century. I went up and did an easy lap on Saturday to get a feel for the new race course. It was good, tough, and loose. Some parts reminded me of riding in a sand box, with loose sand in it. Oh well. I headed home to get out of the effin' heat and rest.

Sunday came early, we got to the race plenty early cause I had to pick up my packet and Sonia was doing the trail run that started at 8. We hung out, I casually got ready, and tried to keep Sonia focused on the trail run.

My race started at 9, with an 800 meter swim, ugh! That's not actually THAT far, unless you swim like I do, bad. Just as we were getting ready to go I saw Sonia running in to finish so I cheered her on. After some encouraging and and direction she went to finish. (She got second in her age group, Congrats!!)

A quick good luck from Sonia and then the race was on. The swim was long and with about 150 meters to go my stomach started to cramp a bit, wonderful... I got out of the water, way behind, had a good transition and then headed out on the two-lap, 12 mile bike. The course was about as tough as I remember it AND I had to pass all the people that out swam me. I made up some positions on the first lap without killing myself. I passed some more people on the second lap and tried not to kill myself. I tried to get some fluids in me before the run, a move which I'm pretty sure led me to really hurting on the run. After a pretty good transition it was time to run.

I started running and then had to slow it down to a quick walk, and then just settled with a walk. My legs felt fine but it felt like I was running with a bowling ball in my stomach, no bueno... On my first lap of the two mile run course I walked quite a bit. I really thought about quitting. It was hot, my stomach hurt, and I wasn't going to place very well. "Just suck it up and keep going," is what I said to myself, so I did. I got around to the feed zone where race mom and Sonia were. They cheered me on, gave me some water and I kept on trudging along. Amazingly, about a quarter way through the second lap I started feeling a bit better so I started running with a little bit more intent of trying to go faster. I did end up catching three people before the finish, a tiny consolation for such a horrible run.

I sat around for a while but was really not feeling well so Sonia hauled me home. We had to stop on the way to get that bowling ball out of my stomach but that made things much better.

I did end up 23rd overall and 3rd in my age group, I'm really glad I didn't throw in the towel.

Here's some picture if you want to see me in action, some good, some not-so-good: http://www.backprint.com/view_user_event.asp?PID=bp%1E%7BFz&EVENTID=90286&BIB=23&S=230&PWD=

Can it be this hot?

I guess Mother Nature is holding the magnifying glass on Houston this past month and a half. For some reason though, 108 degrees seems a bit extreme. Check out the weather here. We've already set the record for the most consecutive days in a row over 100 degrees, somewhere around 23 or 24 days I think, and there's no end in sight...

Tomorrow is my second every XTerra, in Navasota, Texas. I went out and pre-rode today, the trail is pretty good but it's going to be so damn hot! An 800 meter swim, 12 mile bike and 4 mile run and then I'll be able to try to rehydrate. Hopefully no overheating tomorrow!

Futile effort?

I'm not really convinced anyone reads blogs anymore, let alone write blogs... but... what the hell, I'll keep going.


The past couple of... months(?) seem to have been pretty uneventful in the way of racing. The last race was the Yfreedom triathlon. First ever road triathlon, pulled fourth in my age group. Not bad considering my swim time was almost one solid minute slower than anyone else in my age group. Still suspicious of their timing... It was pretty fun though, not sure how I managed to do as well in the run as I did. And I pulled 45th overall out of 407 racers, not too bad...


Beyond that little effort, my time has been taken up by training for the upcoming XTerra at the end of August. On a ranch that is "event only". Should be interesting, at least we'll all be at the same disadvantage of not knowing the course. Then, three weeks after that, I'm doing my second road triathlon, the Rose City Tri, in Tyler, TX. This will also be Sonia's first triathlon!


Other than that triathlon business, the mountain bike races I'm looking to do this Fall include the 24 hours of Rocky Hill, the Waco race, and the Rocky Hill marathon race. I'm also throwing around the idea of a trail run half marathon at the Dirty Du in November... sounds painful!


What else is new? My Mom is coming to visit this weekend. I'm building a new, carbon mountain bike. I am going to sell my 29er Orbea Lanza. Work is good, busy as normal. It's hot here (on this note, it's only about 2 degrees higher than normal and now we are under a "Heat Advisory", what are we under all the rest of the summer?). It's shark week. Today, in 1108, Louis the VI was crowned, he was the "fat" one.

Rocky Hill Horror Show

So somehow I convinced Sonia to come out to Rocky Hill to ride and check out some sweet singletrack even though both I and another one of her friends told her she would hate it the first time. I'm pretty sure that is what happened.

We went out on Friday so we could get out for an early pre-ride on Saturday. It was effin' hot and super humid!! I had originally planned on doing a short Cat II lap but was stupid and hadn't realized the Cat II and Cat I loop was the same 17.5 mile loop. So off we went, like I thought, Sonia hated all the climbing at the first part, I do believe the line, "I hate all of these stupid rocks on this stupid hill!!!" came out at one point. Then she realized why the course was Rocky Hill : )


Once we got out of the first part of the climbing and into the flatter, more flowy singletrack the riding became fun!! We were cruising along at a pretty good clip, stopping every once in a while. The ride was a great pre-ride. Then the ride started getting a bit long, I was getting some looks from Sonia saying, "How long are we going to ride for?" After a bit more riding I started thinking the same thing... Then we stopped and Sonia asked, "How far in are we?" to which I responded, "about three-quarters of the way," I had no idea...

We kept trucking along, Sonia being a champ, and giving me dirty dirty looks until we got to the spot I knew was getting pretty close to the end. I sent Sonia down the easier trail with another lady while I rode the rest of the trail, good thing, it was significantly different with a lot of sweet, new singletrack. I ended up passing Sonia and other woman on the way down to the finish, I stopped by the turtle pond so the turtles could cheer Sonia up a bit, she was NOT happy with me. But after seeing turtles and having ice cream things were a bit better. We met up with Kyle and Mom for dinner on Saturday, it was great to see them!

Sunday brought on the race, it was warm and a bit muggy. I got a good warm-up in and felt pretty good, the legs were a bit sore from the long-than-expected pre-ride but they felt ok. As I expected, it was a hammerfest up the hills, the singletrack was feeling pretty good until about mile 7, then the legs started going. I eased up a bit but the legs did not come back and I couldn't get the heart rate to drop. No Bueno!! I held a bit easier pace but I was toast. I settled with pacing it in feeling the legs the whole way and trying to enjoy the singletrack. It was a bit of a disappointing end to the season but I learned to check the race course before riding from now on. I got some food after the race, the worst decision I made the whole day. Thankfully, Sonia was there to drive me home. The next 28ish hours after the race were pretty ugly but I'm better now and back to training!!

I ended up 5th overall in the series, not bad for only having five races and forgetting to turn in my Paydirt.

Wisconsin again...

Wednesday brought about some unstable weather. As Dan and I were out looking for morels as ways from home the thunder started rolling. It was coming fast so we B-lined it back to the house. Dan headed on back to Marshfield and I headed into town for my nephew's birthday party/cookout. I got to meet my new nephew at the party and I think he liked me. I didn't get pooped on or puked on and I held the baby so: SUCCESS!! We had a lot of fun, pinata and all.

On Thursday I ventured down to Grandma’s house to make her breakfast and so she could teach me how to make Cinnamon rolls and her legendary oatmeal rolls. It was loads of fun and we had some delicious cinnamon rolls.
Cinnamon Rolls:

Oatmeal Rolls:

After eating one more cinnamon roll than I needed I thought a bike ride would be a good way to burn some of those calories so I headed out to do some climbing. The original plan was to ride down to C, up Rough Rd. to Rustic Rd, down Denzer Rd. and then do another lap. I got to the part where I came down Denzer Rd. and noticed some storm clouds building and I didn’t know if I had time to make it all the way around again so I turned around and rode back up Denzer Rd., what an awesome hill! Then I flew back down and headed on towards home. I got hit with a pretty good downpour going through Denzer and by the time I got home I was pretty much dry again, since I was dry I decided to do some cyclocross laps around the field. Those cyclocross laps were hard but that was some awesome training!! Then I headed out to find a couple more morels, mmmm…

Friday

I had planned with Dan to meet up at Levis do ride some bitchin’ singletrack so I pulled in around 11 to meet up with Dan. It was cold and a bit wet but this made for nearly perfect riding conditions. With the trails a bit tacky and the weather just cool enough to hold of most of the sweating the riding was great. Dan was having a little trouble with his new chain and old worn out cassette so Levis was a little sandier than normal that day. Haha.

I hadn’t ridded a bunch of the singletrack at Levis but the stuff I hadn’t ridden was just as amazing as the trails I had ridden. What a great day of riding!

After a beer, a cinnamon roll and some trash talking with Dan’s friend we headed in to Eau Claire for some food… and a whole lot of beer. We met up with Laura, Dan’s fiancé, for food and then we headed back to the place we are the most familiar with, the Joynt. $3 pitchers of beer mean way more beer than one should consume in one evening... Thanks to our good friend Major for putting us up and taking care of us!

Saturday morning brought about a headache and fuzzy-headedness... After drinking a bunch of coffee and water I headed out to my Grandpa's Birthday party. It was a great time seeing the whole side of the family I don't typicall get to see! Post party I headed on back home with Katie and the new nephew. Then it was time to pack up for the trip back to Houston...

I got a late flight on Sunday so I didn't have to rush to the airport and I could have a little more time home. It paid off, we got to celebrate my, then upcoming Birthday with the most amazing cake ever created by human beings.

The German Chocolate Cake:

I packaged up a bunch of cake and headed to the airport, I got in pretty dang late and was very thankful that my good friend Sonia was there to pick me up!!

Wisconsin

I headed up to Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago for the primary reason of getting the fields planted. I got in late Friday night and lucked out with an awesome day of weather on Saturday so I got the fields all worked and, with a little help, got all the corn planted. This is a good thing, meaning, I had a whole week to do whatever I wanted, AWESOME!!

Sunday was Mothers' Day and on the way into town to see mom I ran into my good friend Ryan who loaned me a sweet bike and then plans of some sweet rides in the hills came about. After chatting with Mom for a while I headed on home, went out on a short ride and then headed down to Grandma's for a good ole cookout! Food was amazing and it was great to see the family and all the little kids I hadn't seen in a while. The rest of the evening was nice and calm, perfect.

Monday I didn't do a whole heck of a lot, went for a good long trail run and then just relaxed a bit. I went over to catch up with Ryan and Lisa and have a couple beers until pretty late, good times.

Tuesday, my buddy Dan came down to visit and not long after he got there we headed out on a sweet ride. We headed down to Hwy C then up Orchard Rd. to Ruff Rd. then down the big Denzer hill. That was the best part of the ride, then we headed in to town via Swiss Valley Rd. to go see my Mom and visit the winery.

I noticed they got a new painted cow at the winery so I thought I'd take a picture with it:

Then the cow attacked me:

The Dan and I headed out to pick some morels:

Delicious!! The night finished with a good campfire and beers, Good Times!!