Thursday, July 31, 2008

Just something quick and short.....

.....for my blog post, not my swim this morning. Coach had me down for 4200 yards. That is 24 yards short of the Ironman swim of 2.4 miles. Completed in 1 hour 20 minutes. That's including rest between intervals or sets, warm-up and cooldown. My goal on race day is to hold close to 1 hour on the swim. Lake Placid swim was 1:05. 800 yards today are race pace totaled 12:14, that's about 1:32 / 100 yards.

Game On.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Where in the world am I?

Not posting on my blog that's for sure. Work has had me traveling during the week and training has kept me busy, and tired, on the weekends. I'm posting this from the Las Vegas airport. No this wasn't a pleasure trip, business. Really.....needed to have a customer meeting. I'm not saying I didn't have fun. My sister-in-law was also in Vegas for work so we managed to have dinner together.

My Ironman training has been going extremely well lately. The weekends are kicking my ass but in a good way. I am getting stronger with each ride or run. I'm resting more so that my body can recover for the next round. This past weekend I did a hilly 4 hour ride followed by a 2 hour run. Aimee accompanied me on her bike during the run and it was a big help.

Oops....they are boarding the plane. I hope to be back soon with another post.

Game is On......so is my training.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Family and Friends Friday - All of You

I consider all of you my friends. For some you stop by my blog, read my ramblings, endure long droughts of nothing, wait patiently for something to show up. I hope you manage to be entertained, learn something, take something away from my posts.

You are my friends. Without you I wouldn't be able to share my experiences and knowledge, especially over such a great forum that has a wide reach. Your blogs and posts provide me with entertainment and motivation. So I say thank you.

Friends should not be shy to ask friends for favors. You have waited since the beginning of the year, so today I finally post my declaration of intent for Ironman Wisconsin.

I sent the following message out to those in my Yahoo contacts:

CANCER SUCKS......IRONMAN IS COOL........

You want to be cool, right?

As some of you may already know I am currently training for Ironman Wisconsin at Madison, WI on September 7th. This 140.6 mile event will be my second Ironman. Similar to 2006 and my fund raising at Ironman USA, I have accepted the Janus Charity Challenge and have signed up to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation of Northest Ohio.

I have chosen this charity again because of who they are and who they support. In 2007 Komen provided grant money to the Karen P Nakon Foundation, http://www.nakonfoundation.com/, whose Turkey Trot I've run the past two years. It is wonderful to see grant money staying local and helping organizations in your own city.

I have also dedicated my race season and Ironman to Hallie Nanda, you can read my blog post about her here... http://trierictri.blogspot.com/2008/02/family-and-friends-friday-halle-nanda.html

Hallie lost her battle with ovarian cancer earlier this year leaving behind her husband and two young children. Her courage and fighting attitude will provide me with the motivation I need for my training and race.

I'm keeping this request short but the attached document has much more detail about the fund raising program, including web links that would be useful.

Please consider helping me raise funds to fight breast cancer. My goal is $5000. Visit the web-sites below to help us all reach the finish line together. If you have any questions please let me know.

My web log (blog) site to read about my Ironman journey.
http://trierictri.blogspot.com/
Fund raising website to make contributions and track my progress
https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorreg/donorpledge.asp?ievent=250249&supID=225415826
Susan G. Komen website to learn about the fight against breast cancer
http://www.komenneohio.org/
Ironman Wisconsin web site for event information
http://www.ironmanwisconsin.com/
Ironman Live for tracking day of progress during my race
http://www.ironman.com/

Please pass this information forward to anyone whom you feel would be interested.

Thanks in advance for your consideration and contributions.

Why do I do this..........

Because I Can

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Running the Numbers

40 - minutes to get out to Findley State Park to run the trails

5 - Deer seen while running the trails.

3 - Wild turkeys, 2 adults, 1 baby

1 - family of geese I passed three times.

4 - water crossings that were at least up to my shins.

5 - times I fell during the run.

2 - roots that caused two of the falls while stubbing the same toe each time.

1 - knee bashed and bleeding

10 - miles run on the trails

2 - hours of feeling completely alive.

Game On

Thursday, July 10, 2008

The Daily Double - Video Post

Do not try this at home. Remember I am a highly trained cyclist.






Game On

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Don't Try This at Home - PSA

I'm managing to keep my head above water between work, training and home life. Unfortunately haven't been able to post much. I finished my race report from Spirit of Morgantown so I hope to have that posted soon.

In the mean time I wanted to share a little incident I had on the road while riding my bike last night.

I was in the early stages of a 1.5 hour ride. I was approaching a stop sign where I would be making a left hand turn. I looked behind and saw I had enough room behind me to take possession of the lane and signal my turn. As I was signaling my left turn the driver behind me crossed the double yellow and passed me within 100 feet of the stop sign.

I lost it at that point. I moved towards the center line so I could pull up close to the rear bumper of the drivers side. I yelled at the guy that I had the right of way. When he didn't acknowledge my comment I back handed his rear fender and yelled at him again. He paused shortly and made his left hand turn.

I moved through the intersection quickly after him since there was no traffic coming. I saw the street he turned onto and very briefly thought about following him, then reconsidered. It wasn't worth the effort, time, or aggravation.

I regret I lost my cool and may have put some other cyclist at risk in the future by becoming the a$$hole the driver already was. The rest of my ride was uneventful and the remainder of drivers I encountered were patient at stop signs/lights and provided plenty of passing room.

One bad driver......oh well.

Be safe out there on the roads.

Game On.