Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Wife's Get in Gear 5K

Today was all about The Wife.  As I've mentioned before, this is the day that she ran her first solo race at the Get in Gear 5K.  Eventually she'd like to do a half-marathon, and this 5K is her first big step. 

The Get in Gear races are a HUGE event.  There's a 2K, 5K, 10K and half-marathon all going on at the same time at Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis.  There were over 8,500 racers this year.  Yeah.  It's THAT huge. 

The weather was pretty gross.  Temps were in the upper 50s and the rain was steady.  For someone that was just getting into running, I was hoping that the weather would be perfect for her.  Oh well.

We started by heading over to my mother-in-law's place.  Conveniently, she lives less than a mile away from Minnehaha Park.  We walked over to the park which was crooowwww-ded.  We were there in time to watch the 10K and 1/2 marathon runners take off.  Then we took a little jog down to the start of the 5K.

Here's The Wife getting ready for the race while we dry off under 'The Party Bridge' near the starting line.

I headed a couple hundred yards onto the course so that I could snap a photo of her starting the race.  Unfortunately, I forgot the data card for the camera and had to take photos with my phone. 

I think I did a pretty good job with the camera-phone, all things considered.  Here's the little lady heading heading out onto the course.

That running hat and tush sure are running fast!

After the wife headed off, I turned around and headed back towards the park and the finish line.  On the way, I ran into two of our good friends - Ike and Maggie.  Ike was also running his first 5K, so he had to get onto the course pretty quick.  Maggie and I hung out and got ready to take photos of our loved ones as they returned.

Here's The Wife coming back.  Those are Maggie's hands on the right-hand side, probably taking a better picture.


Here's the best photo I was able to get of her.  Yes.  I actually made her TURN AROUND so that I could take a picture.  *sigh*
Great job honey.  Now go finish so we can dry off.

She was sore when she finished, but still psyched about the 'whole running thing' and is already looking forward to her next race.  Way to go sweetie.  I'm proud of you!

Tomorrow, I'll be riding in the Ironman Bike Ride in Lakeville.  It's supposed to be cool and rainy again.  It's not the best forecast, but I've done this ride in the snow before.  Rainy and 46 degrees should be a piece of cake.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Gettting Some Structure in my Life

In my last post, I admitted to mis-calculating my time remaining until race day in September.   Now that I actually have my act together, I know that my 20-week Beginner Triathlete plan officially begins on Monday.  While the last 2 weeks of following the plan may not have been necessary, it was probably good medicine to get some structure to my workouts.

Monday
The weekly workout schedule has me doing three days a week with one workout, and three days per week with dual workouts.  Monday was a dual.

The swim was the longest of the plan so far.  The warmup was 6 x 100 yards where I was supposed to focus on specific elements of my stroke to improve.  Okaaaaay, this was a little vague.  I wasn't sure how to approach and just ended up doing most of the warmup with slow, deliberate strokes.  Next time around, I may do a round of form drills.  They're more familiar and really isolate stroke components.

The body of the workout was 4 repeats of 500 yards each with a 'steady' pace.  Again, that's a little vague, so I just aimed for about 75% of a long event race pace.  It was a nice, sustainable pace.

The cooldown was 300 yards with the pull buoy.  Its a foam device that you hold between your thighs.  It keeps your legs level so you don't have to kick.  The idea is to focus on your form - especially arms and torso rotation.  It's harder than it looks.

Okay.  So it wasn't the most challenging of 'long' workouts, and I should probably up the pace for the repeats when I do this again in a couple of weeks, but at least I knew that there was a run to do when I got home from the pool.

I haven't been a fast runner since high school, which is almost 15 years ago.  Yikes.  Last year, my run workouts averaged around 5.2 to 5.5 miles per hour.  Yeah.  I'm THAT slow.  This year I'm able to hold 6.1 to 6.5 miles per hour while keeping my heart rate in the mid 150s.  That's fastER, but not FAST fast.  You know what I mean.

So far, all of the runs in this plan have asked for an RPE of around 3/10, and Monday was no different.  The only change was the addition of 20-second 'strides' every 5 minutes.  They're quick bursts of speed that are supposed to teach your body to run faster.  Total running time was supposed to be near 45 minutes.  Here are the splits:

9:46;
9:31;
9:39;
9:28;
5:04 (.57);
That's 43:28 for 4.57 miles or 6.3 mph.  For this early in the season, I'll take it.

Monday night was even better because I got to pick up The Wife at the airport.  Yay!  The bad news was that her flight didn't land until 11:00pm.  Needless to say, neither of us got the rest we needed that night.  Oh well.  Whadya gonna do?

Tuesday
Tuesday was another dual workout.  This time it was a run/bike combo.  I started with another RPE3 run.  This one was only around 3.5 miles.  The plan called for 45 minutes, but I wanted to hit the bike as soon as I could so that I could make it down to the Tuesday Night Time trials to watch some of the Twin Cities Spoke gang race in the Crit series.

Run - 3.4 miles, 33:38
Bike - 23 miles, 1:21.  My average was below 17 mph, but that includes some putzing around once I got to the race course.

Wednesday
There was just a solo pool workout set for Wednesday.  The meat of the workout was 2 1000 yard stretches with an RPE4 and RPE6.  I tried to do the RPE4 stretch just a hair faster than my 'steady' pace back on Monday.  With the RPE6 portion I tried to keep it close to race pace.

I came away with a 17:24 and a 16:39.  I'm not sure what this means yet, other than the fact I have some control over how fast I go.  Hopefully it will mean more once I get some more workouts under my belt.

Thursday
This is the last workout before the weekend - another 90 minute slow run at...say it with me now...RPE3.  I knocked out the first half after work, but before my wife got home.

She wanted to join me for the 2nd half of the run.  This will be her last run before racing this weekend.  We did a nice 2.4 miles together - her to stay fresh, and me to do a recovery run.  Sure, I didn't go the full 90 minutes today.  Sue me.

She'll be doing the Get in Gear 5K on Saturday.  This is her first solo race.  Last year we did the St. Paul Triathlon as a team.  I did the swim and bike and she knocked out the run.  For all the sacrifices she's made for my...ahem..."Lifestyle Choice",  I'm looking forward to serving as support for her this weekend.

Then, on Sunday, I'll be riding in the Ironman Bicycle Ride down in Lakeville.  There's a 100 mile route available, but I think I'll take the smart road and stick with the 65 mile ride.  Especially if it's going to rain.  We'll see.

Hopefully there will be some photos posted late on Sunday as proof of our adventuring.  Hopefully I'll also have a better photo for my profile.  That thing's GOT to go.   Toodles!

Monday, April 19, 2010

A Weekend to Myself

This past weekend, my wife took a mini-vacation with some of her friends to Las Vegas.  So, I was on my own.

I need to come clean on one thing first.  Last Monday I posted that I was just beginning a 20-week training plan from beginnertriathlete.com. We'll as I was downloading the next 19 weeks of training details, I noticed that the plan left me 2 weeks short of the Ironman date of September 12.  Well, this genius here is so bad at math, he couldn't even add up the time between April and September.

In any event, I'll just do weeks 1 and 2 of the plan, and then start over with week 1 again and move forward (this time for real). 

Friday
Friday was my first official 'Rest Day'.  Hooray!  Granted, even through the fall and winter, I've gotten used to taking Friday off, but man, it feels good to have an 'official' break.

First, I had to get my things together.

1. Pajama Pants...check.
 This rest day has been brought to you by Dr. Pepper.

2. Recliner...check.
3. TV Remote and XBox Controller...check, and check.
4. Trusty Sidekick, AKA, "The Bark 'n' Sniffer"...check.
She barks.  She sniffs.  She's a Bark 'n' Sniffer.

Then all I had to do was execute my routine.

1. Locate Recliner and insert ass.
2. Watch all the guilty-pleasure TV that The Wife doesn't ordinarily approve of (South Park, Family Guy and Star Trek) along with the weekly creature-feature on Sci-Fi.
3. Periodically pet The Bark 'n' Sniffer and/or rub her tummy.

Good times.

Saturday
Going along with the plan, I had a swim and a bike on the agenda.

The swim was mean to improve my speed.  Yay.  I like speed.

warmup: 200y, 4 x 100 - 50 swim, 50 kick (on my new kickboard)

8 x 100 (25 easy, 25 build, 25 easy, 25 hard)  This was my first try at the 'EBEH' style of swimming.  Usually I do my repeats at a steady rate, so alternating intensities was interesting to say the least.  It required more mental discipline than anything else.  It was easy to get into a run and forget where I was. 

300y cooldown

I headed out for what was supposed to be about an hour long bike ride.  I was supposed to warm up and cool down with easy spinning, so I headed West towards County Road 24 in Plymouth and the course for this summer's Tuesday Night Time Trials.  It's got some good rolling hills.  They're not quite the roller coaster ride that I'll find on the Madison Ironman course, but they'll do for now. 

Once I hit the course, I shifted into the big ring and tried to hold a steady pace.  Not hard, just steady.  The ride out was straight into the wind, so I kept low on the aero-bars.  I covered the 5.4 miles in 17:54.  That's an average of just over 18mph.  Not fast, but I'll take it.

The ride back was quite a bit faster - a 20mph average.  Okay.  That's better.  Then it was just a matter of spinning back home.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a ride.

Sunday
The only thing on the schedule for Sunday was a 90 minute ride.  Again, it was another GORGEOUS day.  You could tell from all the fair-weather athletes out on the roads.  Which, by the way, if you're going to hit the road, at least learn to read a stop sign and put on an effing helmet!  There sure are a lot of potential organ donors out there.  Sigh.

I headed South into Minnetonka towards Mount Willy.  It's a hefty uphill on Williston Road between Excelsior Boulevard and Highway 7.  It's also a favorite of the Wednesday night rides for the Twin Cities Spoke.  I did a couple loops up the little bugger and then headed home.

 A view from the top.


Monday(Today)
This is my last day of being Wife-Free, so I could still train on my own schedule.  You know, without having to be home at a certain time to start up dinner.

Today was supposed to be a 'long swim'.  The meat of the workout was 4 500-yard repeats.  It wasn't anything crazy, but I suppose that's not the point this early on in the season.

The run was similar to last week - 45 minutes at about a 3/10 for effort.  The only change was the addition of :20 'strides' every 5 minutes.  The idea is to take 20 seconds to build into a higher cadence with a focus on good form and fast foot strikes.  It's not a sprint, but it's supposed to teach my body to get used to a faster pace.  Here are the splits:

Mile 1...9:46
Mile 2...9:31
Mile 3...9:39
Mile 4...9:28
Last .57...5:05

I felt sluggish for the first mile or so, but I think it was a matter of being a little waterlogged from earlier today.  In any event.  It's a long week.  We'll see how things go tomorrow with a run and a bike.  Hopefully I'll even have time to visit the OPUS Crit Races.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Mid-Week Workout Update

I'm now 4 days into the 20-week training plan.  I got off to a slow start on Monday.  The plan called for both a swim and a run, but there was only time for the run portion.  Expecting to adhere to a training plan 100% just isn't realistic, so it's almost a relief to have my first skipped workout early on.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I stuck pretty strictly to the plan.

Tuesday

Tuesday called for a 45 minute run with an effort of 3/10, followed by a quick 60 minute bike.

First off, I LOVE my Garmin 305.  Granted, I've only had it about a month and haven't gotten close to exploring all of the options.  However, I appreciate being able to get immediate feedback for my Heart Rate, distance covered and mile splits all on the same screen.  Nice.

For the run, the effort was supposed to be a 3/10 for 45 minutes.  For me that means, staying aerobic and keeping my heart rate under 160.  Of course, my ego also wanted to keep my mile splits under 10 minutes (6mph).  I ended up covering 4.51 miles in 43:32 with an average heart rate of 151BPM (thank you Mr. Garmin).

In all honesty, my Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) was probably more like a 4 out of 10.  But hey, I stayed aerobic AND ran 9:40 splits.  That's a big thing for this tub-o-goo.  Last year, my splits were between 11 and 12 minutes.  Yay me.

After the run was a 60 minute easy bike ride.  I just headed out towards Medicine Lake and zig-zagged around Plymouth and New Hope until it was time to head towards home.  But the weirdest thing happened around 2/3 through my ride.  My left calf cramped up.  I rarely get crampy calves.  I'm guessing it was a sign that I was starting to get dehydrated.  In the future, I'll have to remember to drink more for extended workouts.  Of course, I can always set my Garmin to remind me to drink every 10 minutes.  Yay technology!

Wednesday

Wednesday was just an easy pool workout.  After running on Monday and Tuesday, it was nice to give my legs a rest and hit the pool.

They must have just re-filled the pool at the gym because the water was frigid.  It took a few minutes to get used to, but once the workout started I think the colder temperature actually helped me keep from overheating.

Warmup: 4 x (75y, last 25y backstroke);
400y RPE3, 400y RPE4, 400y RPE5;
Cooldown: 150y easy



For a guy that's used to workouts somewhere between 3200 and 5000 yards, this little 1650 yard fella was a nice break.  I got to get home ealry and then head to Old Chicago for their Cinco de Mayo tour.  This may be my last mini tour for a while.  I don't think that training and beer mix that well.  I may have to wait until October to continue killing my body with alcohol. 

Thursday
Thursday's workout was a long easy run around 90 minutes.  Basically, it was doing Monday's run 2 times.  Again, I wanted to keep my heart rate under 160 and run aerobically.  I started by doing a southern loop that I knew was just about 4.5 miles on the nose.

I stopped in the house for about 10 ounces of Gatorade and a handful of Powerbar Gel Blasts.  Then I headed out for a northern loop that was a little over 4 miles.  On the way back to the house, I saw that I had a little time left before I hit 90 minutes, so I added another loop around the block to boost my total time up a little.  Here's a look at my splits

10:03
9:44
9:40
9:29
9:44
9:25
9:34
9:42
9:20
4:16 (.45miles)

They're kind of all over the map.  I'm pretty sure that the 9:20 split on mile 9 is a combination of adrenaline and an extra-long downhill.

That's it for now.  Tomorrow's a rest day.  I'm looking forward to Sunday.  I've finally got a chance for a long relaxing bike ride.  It's about freaking time.

Monday, April 12, 2010

20 Weeks to Go

Today was a big step for me in Ironman training.  I officially started the Beginner training program from beginnertriathlete.com.  It's a 20-week program designed for first time attempts at this distance.  In all honesty, I've put in enough training time in the last year and a half, that the Intermediate program may be more appropriate.  In particular, the swimming and cycling distances seem shorter than how I trained last year. 

My plan is to stick with the Beginner program for now and re-assess every 3-4 weeks to see if I need to kick it up a notch. The first big test will be the Liberty 1/2 Ironman in June.  Last year at the Square Lake 1/2 Ironman, I had MAJOR issues on the run, especially with cramping in my quads.  If the Beginner plan works, then I'll be expecting improved results in the running leg, even if it means holding back some on the cycling leg. 

For now, it'll have to be about getting my butt out there and doing the work.  Which, as I found out today, is easier said than done.  The plan told me that today was to be 45 minute run and some work in the pool.  Well, some obligations after work took away the time for a swim, and I was just able to finish the 45 minute run as the sun was setting.

It'll be interesting to see how my schedule shakes out in the coming weeks.  Training may turn out to be the easy part.  It's dealing with all of life's other obligations that will be the REAL work. 

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Scoping out Madison

Friday's plan was to drive down to Madison and ride as much of the Ironman cycling course as I could. I left home at around 11:00am. The drive was approximately 4 hours, plus a stop for gas and some groceries.

I parked at the Kwik Trip near the corner of County Road M and Verona Road. It's a short distance from where the 'stick' portion of the course meets up with the 'loop' portion. See the blue dot below:


By the time I got changed in the Kwik Trip bathroom (an adventure in and of itself) it was already past 4pm. I had to get moving.

There was just one problem. I checked my handy-dandy Google Maps directions only to find that just every-other had printed. In other words, I had turns 1-4, 9-12, 17-20, etc.

At least I had a large map with the course outline. The only problem here was that most of the streets weren't marked. Ugh.

In any event, with a little luck, I was able to make it around the loop and was able to accomplish most of my goals:

Waved hello to a farmer on a tractor...check
Resisted desire to yell 'MOO!' at a cow...check
Rode the rolling hills up to Cross Plains and down Timber Road...check
Raced the sunset back into Verona...check
Make it back to the car before dark...check

If there was one thing I could say about the course, it's that you never really have time to get into cruising mode. There were no flat sections of road that lasted more than a mile or two. Most of the time you were either dealing with a steep climb or a screaming descent.

It reminded me of the rolling farm land I sure won't get bored with the course, but by the time I hit about the 50th rolling hill I had had enough with the terrain.

I have a feeling the best way to prepare for the bike leg is to spend as much time on the rollers as I can. They can wear on you after a while and I'll have to figure out a way to build up an immunity to the mental fatigue.

In the end, it was a good experience. Plus I was able to make it to the bachelor in time for mini-bowling and pitchers of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Heck yeah! Oh - and we had THIS for breakfast on Saturday:

Five Words: "Nom nom nom nom nom"

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Fun in the Kitchen

Okay. So, today's run was nice and easy. The wife and I went for a quick jog around the neighborhood. She's been under the weather and is just easing back into things so that she can run in the Get in Gear 5K in a couple of weeks. I didn't mind cutting back a little for today because I'll have a hefty bike tomorrow afternoon in Madison We did 2.32 miles in 28:30. It wasn't a blistering pace, but I can think of worse ways to enjoy the beautiful weather.

But I don't want to write about my workout today. The main story today is my first attempt at a Bacon Explosion for my buddy Doc's bachelor party this weekend. Let's get started now shall we.

First I got together my ingredients.
2 pounds of thick-cut bacon
2 pounds of loose Italian sausage
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle BBQ Sauce
Some of my own special BBQ Rub
1/4 of an onion.
The next step was laying out a 12 inch by 12 inch lattice of bacon. In my case, that meant a 7 slice by 7 slice pig blanket.

Now, let's spread on some of my special rub.

Over the top of the rub goes the 2 pounds of Italian sausage (mild Italian - we are in the Midwest you know) patted down into a ginormous patty.
Patty-Pig Patty-Pig...

The remaining bacon goes in the frying pan for the next step.

It's a labor of love...love of BACON

Not a chance dog.

The crispy bacon gets broken up and added on top of the sausage, along with some Sweet Baby Ray's sauce.

And chopped onion...

Beg all you want, it ain't gonna happen.

The sausage/crispy bacon/onion blanket gets rolled into a tight log.



Then wrap the log in the bacon-lattice
Almost Done...


Tuck in the corners, and you're good to go.

It's all for you Doc. See you in 24 hours buddy.



Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Pool Repeats and the "Bacon Explosion"


Today was a fairly basic pool workout - a 400 yard warm up followed by 400 yard repeats with
60 seconds rest between each.

6:48
6:43
6:41
6:44
6:35
6:35

Nice and steady. Good.

Tomorrow will be the run workout I was planning for today. The 2nd half of which will be with The Wife.


Tomorrow, I'll also be prepping a little surprise for my buddy Doc. He's getting married in May and the Manly Men will be celebrating his bachelorhood with a get-together in Milwaukee.

My role will be to kill him with pork.

I've come across a recipe that involves 2 pounds of bacon and 2 pounds of sausage rolled into a log of artery-clogging goodness. Check out the bacon explosion for what I am about to attempt.

And the best news is...it's Kosher!

More to come on this tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Change of Plans = Indoor Spinning



So, I had a change of plans today. I had planned to go for a 2 hour ride through Minnetonka with a handful of repeats up Williston road, just for flavor. It's been raining most of the day, not cats and dogs, but enough to keep things cool and moist. That's not the problem. The problem is that I came home to a washing machine full of still-wet lycra-spandex, including all of my cool weather gear. I had forgotten to switch the load into the dryer last night. Ugh. The only clean clothes I had left were a backup pair of shorts and an old (AKA Baggy) jersey. I guess I'll be on the trainer tonight.

My Rusty Steed set up for some indoor goodness



Pardon me for not being terribly enthused about an indoor ride. I've been doing them since November and just got used to the idea of cycling outside again. So, today's workout will be short and sweet.

I spent 60 solid minutes alternating between cadences and trying to keep my heart rate over 130, but under 140. The good news is that I got to catch The Simpsons (Apu has octuplets, CLASSIC!)

Tomorrow is looking better though. I'll hit the pool for a while after work and even got The Wife to agree to a quick run before dinner.

What I'm REALLY looking forward to is Friday. I'm taking the day off to head to Milwaukee for a friend's bachelor party. On the way, I'll be stopping in Madison to test out some of the Ironman bike course. Yay!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Crowded Pool Repeats and a Quick Run

I'm planning to use the Beginner Ironman workout on beginnertriathlete.com, but that plan doesn't kick in until next Monday. In the mean time I've just been mixing up my workouts and trying to work on some of my weaknesses.

Last year was all about building endurance on the swim. I've got plenty of drills for improving the efficiency of my stroke, and I've done enough laps to feel somewhat confident in my ability to last in the longer races. But I've had problems in the speed department.

To fix this, I've been doing some more repeat workouts - repeats, ladders, whatever - anything to break things up and push the pace a little. So, today's goal in the pool was to do 10-15 100 yard repeats at 1:50 each.

I started with a 500 yard moderately paced warmup. Two other swimmers had claimed the middle lanes, so I was stuck in one of the side lanes, which means dealing with some pretty intense water jets. This made the 'outbound' lengths a bit harder, but the return lengths were a breeze with the jets pushing me all the way back.

I did some light stretching and fidgeted with my Garmin to set up an alarm every 1:50. I wanted to keep my repeats consistent, which meant holding back just a tad for the first couple of laps. My first lap came in at 1:32. Which, needless to say, was not going to be sustainable, I pulled back just a hair for laps 2 and 3 where I came in at 1:42 and 1:41. Okay, that's better.

As the repeats continued, keeping that pace got more and more difficult. Well, duh. By the time I got to lap 10, I had a pretty good side stitch going. At the end of lap 10 another swimmer asked to share lanes. Bless her heart for being polite about it, but with only 8 seconds before the start of my next repeat, I didn't exactly have time to share life stories. My half of the conversation sounded something like "Share? Yeah, yeah, okay, me on the left, yeah, ok, okaygottago!" I hope she didn't think I was being rude. Though, I did let her take the side AWAY from those water jets, thankyouverymuch.

Ah well. I finished up 2 more repeats and then decided to call it a day. I did another easy 500 yards as a cooldown and then headed to the showers.

I headed home from the gym and found that I had about 30 minutes left before The Wife got home, so I decided to head out for a quick run. The weather report is calling for rain through the middle of the week, and I detest running in the rain, so it was time to hit the road.
I kicked it into gear and trotted over to a park exactly 1.1 miles from the house. Last year, the same run took me 11 minutes. Today, I came in at 9:22. Not too shabby. I did some light stretching for a minute or two and then headed out for another 2.3 miles around the neighborhood and back to the house. I took it easier through the end of the ride, but still made sure to keep it under 10 minutes per mile (don't want to keep The Wife waiting after all).

That's it for today. It's time to re-introduce my butt to the recliner and soak in the Butler-Duke game. Weather permitting, tomorrow will be a bike ride after work. I'm thinking of doing some hills down in Minnetonka. We'll see.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

A Quick Easter Morning Spin



Today's goal was to hit the road for a couple of hours in the small ring and enjoy a beautiful Easter morning. I had to wrap it up soon after Noon so that I could meet The Wife for a holiday lunch with her family later in the day.

The temp was in the mid 50s, so I went with the classic 'Twin Cities Spoke' kit with arm and leg warmers. I've been known to overdress for early spring workouts, but this combo seemed to be just about perfect. Check the link here for my buddies at the Twin Cities Spoke: http://www.twincitiesspoke.com

I headed out West on one of my usual routes towards Plymouth. It's a great place to start a ride because there are a lot of lightly traveled county roads and plenty of chances to extend or reduce your route, depending on how the Spirit moves you. The wind was steady, but not cold, just a bit of an annoyance early on when I was heading into it.

I turned South towards Wayzata and then wiggled around the Northeast corner of Lake Minnetonka. At this point, I was glad to have the arm warmers, as the breeze coming off the lake is still pretty chilly.

Once I got to Minnetonka Boulevard and started heading East I got to enjoy a great tailwind. I sped into St. Louis Park and then headed back North along my commuting route. In the end, I did 33.2 miles in 1:57.

Oh yeah. I promised to tell you more about my wife, Megan. She's great, and super-supportive. By 'super-supportive' I mean, tolerant of immense amounts of triathlon-related bull-hooey like long training hours, piles of funky spandex and 'eccentric' grooming habits.

Here's a picture of us from a redneck themed party a year ago. She usually dresses much more respectfully, and I've lost a little weight, so my arms no longer look like raw bratwurst.


Excuse me ma'am, I'm going to have to check your ticket...your ticket to the Gun Show.

That's it for now kids. Tomorrow will be some speed work in the pool and maybe a quick run if daylight allows.

Into the Wild Blog Yonder

Greetings. I'm new to this blogging thing, so you'll have to beg my pardon if I fumble around with my posts for a little while.

I've got two main reasons for starting the page:

1 - Journal my training so that I can keep track of all the day-to-day things that usually have fallen out of my head by the time the knowledge would come in handy. For example, if I have a good (or bad) workout, what made it different, and what can I do to encourage (or prevent) a similar situation in the future.

2 - #2 is all about accountability. As of this post, I've got 5 months and 1 week of training left to go before Ironman Wisconsin. With an average of 9 workouts per week, that's just a hair under 200 workouts between now and then. Eek. I'm hoping that making regular posts, I'll be able to hold myself accountable for my own training. Heck, if I can make this blog mildly interesting, I may even meet some accountabili-buddies along the way.

Now, you're probably saying to yourself "Okay, okay, that's great, but what the heck is with the whole 'Captain Tan Lines' thing?". Well, as any committed triathlete, cyclist or runner knows, by the time August rolls around, you've got some pretty wicked tan lines cooking. I figured, why hate when I can celebrate? And, as far as the 'Captain' thing goes, I thought it sounded a little less creepy than 'Private Tan Lines'.

Anywho. I'll post my first workout shortly, along with whatever else I should probably post on this thing in the early going.