Runners Vs. Joggers

Tonight, I did my first outdoor run since the Drumstick Dash 10K back on Thanksgiving.  Since part of my family celebrated Christmas over the weekend, I got the chance to try out the my new gear, including the bacalava I got from my mom and the sweet long-sleeved top I got from my sis. 

Now, for those of you who live outside of the Twin Cities or Minnesota in general, you may not be aware that it's been a little snowy here recently.  Aww, who am I kidding?  Old Man Winter is beating us like a red-headed stepchild. Most of the roads are plowed, but a good chunk of the public sidewalks haven't been hit for a while.  So, the footing is pretty bad.  I only averaged about 10:30 per mile.  But, with all the huffing and puffing at least I knew I was getting a good workout.

I stopped at a gas station at the half-way point in my run.  First, I needed to get some cash from the ATM (I like to multi-task with workouts whenever possible).  Plus, I needed to de-fog my sunglasses.  While I waited, I started to chat with the attendant.  She said, "You must be a jogger, huh?  You look like you're a jogger.  My sister is a jogger too". 

We chatted for a couple minutes longer, but man, for some reason being called a 'jogger' rather than a 'runner' really got to me.  Of course, I didn't correct her because I live in Minnesota, so I'm a classic passive-aggressive.  Read: I won't say anything to your face, but I'll gladly rip you anonymously on the Interwebs when I get home.

For some reason, the word 'jogger' conjures up images of pudgy middle-aged men in sweatsuits shuffling around the neighborhood, or trendy moms pushing giant 4x4 strollers while yakking on their Bluetooth.  I'm a RUNNER man.  Runners are machines.  We're speed machines.  We're Energizer Bunnies in sneakers. 

I don't know.  Should it have bothered me so much?  Probably not.  What do you think?

In any event.  I bid adieu to my buddy at the gas station and headed back home through the snow.  When I got home, I snapped a few quick pics.

Here's one of my bacalava:

As you can see, it keeps me plenty warm.

This is not to be confused with baklava:

I do NOT suggest wearing this on your head to keep warm.

Incidentally, when I did a Google image search for bacalava, the first result was the following image, which begs the question: what possible circumstance would require you to wear a bacalava while topless?

I can't imagine any practical use for this outfit.

I also grabbed a shot of my new long-sleeved top:

Pasty Skin + Sweaty Ta-Tas = Super Sexy

That's all for now.  I'll be back shortly for a mini-special on indoor cycle training during the winter months.

Cheers!

An open letter to Mother Nature and Old Man Winter

Hi guys.  It's me, Eric.  You remember me, up here in Minnesota.  I'm the one that used to beg for snow back in high school so that the cross country skiers could wax up and hit the trails. 

Now, you guys know that when it comes to winter weather, Minnesotan's are a hearty folk.  We understand that, while the calendar tells us winter starts on December 21, you guys could start sending the white stuff our way as early as October.  

I don't want you to think I'm not grateful.  You gave us some pretty sweet weather last summer, and I know that there's a bit of a penance that needs to be paid for all those beautiful training days.  But, c'mon guys, this is getting silly.   I woke up this morning, looked out my window and saw this:

Half-way up the window?  Really?!?

I though, 'Okay.  Whatever.  I'll dig out the driveway and be done with it'.  So, I did.  It was a good job, if you don't mind me saying.  The Wife was able to drive to work for a half-shift.   I patted myself on the back, snuggled up on the sofa, and all was right with the world.

A few hours later, I got a call from The Wife.  "I'm stuck," she said.

"Oh, that sucks," I said, "Let me hop in the other car.  Where are you stuck?"

"I'm in the driveway."

I thought, "Hmmm...that can't be right.  I just cleared that thing down to the concrete a couple hours ago."

But there she was, half-way up the driveway, spinning her wheels in 6 inches of fresh snow.  So, I cleared the snow.  Again.  She made it into the garage.  I patted myself on the back and hopped onto the trainer for a nice, long spin (to cool my percolating temper) and all was right with the world. 

After the spin, I got cleaned up and asked The Wife what she wanted for dinner. We decided on Chinese food, so I got ready to head out and pick up some Lo Mein and Fried Rice.  I love me some Lo Mein and Fried Rice.

Do you know what I found when I lifted the garage door?  DO YOU KNOW WHAT I FOUND?  I found another 6 inches of snow.  Now, this may have been 6 inches of NEW snow, or maybe you just decided to blow all that shoveled snow back onto the driveway.  I don't know, and frankly, I don't care.  What I DO know is that this has got to stop. 

Sure, the two of you like to beat the crap out of us up here in the hinterland.  But c'mon guys, this is just showing off - and nobody likes a showoff. What good is snow for cross country skiers if they can't even open their front door, let alone drive to the trails?

You two had better get your act together, or I'm moving this show to Arizona.

Drumstick Dash 10K Race Review

Before I get to the race report, let me give you a little background first.  The Wife has been down in Florida all week visiting her dad, so I've been home alone.  How does that affect my race?  Well, when I'm home alone, I tend to stay up too late and eat, well, let's just say that I eat irresponsibly (hamburgers and Oreos anyone?  I've also been filling in some late shifts at work, so last night I didn't head home until after 9pm, and didn't get to bed until well after 11pm.

As a result, I wasn't particularly enthused to get out of bed this morning to tackle a 10K.  It's funny how your bed can feel its most comfortable after you're done using it.  In any event, I got up, hopped in the shower to warm up a bit, and then headed to the kitchen to get some breakfast.  That was when I saw the current temperature.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

Single digits.  Yay.

When I told my dad I would be running on Thanksgiving, he said, 'Oooh.  Make sure to keep your junk warm'.  Good call Dad.  I started by putting on two layers of compression shorts and then my running tights.  For good luck, I put my green Covenant Pines shorts - the same one's from the Monster Dash a month ago. Remember....?

On top, I went with a long-sleeve base layer and a running t-shirt over that.  For a shell, I used the same jacket from the Monster Dash.  It's not too heavy, but really keeps the wind out.  For my noggin, I went with a plain old winter cap.  I have a skullcap, but it can't soak up too much sweat, so if I got overheated, things could get messy.

I learned my lesson at the Monster Dash that there's no point in getting to a fun race waaaay ahead of schedule, so when I got to the Lake Harriet area, I just sat in the car until there were about 20 minutes to go.   I walked/jogged about a half a mile to get to get to the band shell, and did a few pick-ups to get my blood flowing.  The band shell provided some protection from the wind, so I could do some light stretching without getting blown around.

With a few minutes to go before the start, all of the racers shuffled over to the course.  Most of us hopped in place or did some high-knee kicks to keep warm.  At 8:01 on the nose, the race started.  There was no gun, no horn and certainly no Ironman cannon.  It was just a nice, casual 'Okay....GO!' from one of the race officials.

My goal pace for this race was a sub-9:30 mile.  Okay, it really wasn't a goal, but more of a prediction.  I haven't been as motivated lately to bust my rump for a good time, plus, I had no idea how my asthma would be impacted by the cold.

Mile 1 - 9:44   As with most races, the 1st mile was the slowest.  The road was at it's most crowded and everyone's legs were still warming up.  I hopped onto the running trail to get a little more room to maneuver, but only stayed on for about 1/4 mile.  My Minnesota High School Geometry education told me that staying on the path would mean running a shorter race (Circumference=Pi x D, and all that).  In other words, I didn't want to be a cheater.

Mile 2 - 9:09   There were a couple steep hills on the back side of the lake.  Sure, they weren't fun to get up.  They weren't long, but they were steep.  The downhills on the other side though, well, they were long and shallow, which probably aided in speeding me up.

Mile 3 - 9:12   As we finished our first loop around the lake, the road conditions got worse.  Basically, you had two options.  You could run on the firm ground and risk hitting an ice patch.  Or, you could run on the snowy ground where, you wouldn't slip, but each footstep would sink down an inch or two.  Either way, it was hard to run efficiently.  Lots of effort was wasted on slipping or sinking feet.

On a side note, there was a water station at the 1/2 way point, but all of the water was freezing in the cups.  I've never had to chew my water during a race before.  Sweet.


Mile 4 - 9:13  At this point, I thought, "cool, only a few more miles to go".  This chunk of the race was fairly uneventful.  Although, I did have to take off my shades.  They were so fogged up that everything was a big gray blur.  I guess I must have been generating a little heat.
  
Mile 5 - 8:48  I was still feeling pretty good and could keep a faster pace, so I decided to push the last couple of miles.  Surprisingly, the asthma was behaving itself too.  I was a little warm, and probably could have done without the short-sleeved t-shirt, but it never got to the point where I was uncomfortable.

Mile 6 - 8:46   I kept pushing through the last mile.  The footing was a little wonky from time to time.  My lungs were really starting to burn from the cold air, and my quads were barking too. 

Mile 6.25 - 1:54   As with most races, the last little bit is fueled purely by adrenaline.  Having a downhill finish helped a bunch too.  I hit the line and stopped my watch - 56:45.  That meant I averaged 9:05 per mile.  Not too shabby for being under-motivated.

I didn't stick around long after finishing, and neither did many other people.  Once my heart slowed down a bit, I knew that all my sweat was going to start to give me the chills, so I headed for the car.  That's cool though.  Not every race has to have a party afterward. 

When I got back to the car, I snapped this photo.  Behold, the season's first beard-cicle:

Also included: the season's first eyelash-cicle, sideburns-cicle and 'stache-cicle.

I felt good about the race.  No, that's not quite it.  I feel good about the RUN. It was nice to get in a good winter workout that wasn't on the treadmill at the gym.  Hopefully, I can stay motivated to run more outside, regardless of temperature.  With some changes to my work schedule, I'll have the opportunity to do some morning runs every Wednesday, at least for a little while.

For tonight, I'll be tackling the late shift at the office, so that everyone else can snarf down some bird.  Don't worry about me though.  I've got a family dinner with my name on it on Saturday.  I'll even have a new 'Fun in the Kitchen' post tomorrow as I prepare my portion of the meal.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

Oh, and Dad - my junk is just fine.

Drumstick Dash 10K Race Preview

As far as race previews go, this one won't take too long.  Honestly, I signed up for this race yesterday on a whim.  Back in high school, I did the Arena Club 5K (which has since morphed into the Lifetime Fitness Turkey Day 5K) along with the rest of my buddies on the cross country team.  With The Wife out of town this week, I figured now was as good a time as any to renew the Thanksgiving race tradition.

The Drumstick Dash 10K will follow a 2-lap course around Lake Harriet in South Minneapolis.  You may remember this from the Monster Dash a few weeks ago.  Like the Monster Dash, the activity will be centered at the Harriet Band Shell.

What am I expecting for the race?  Well, for one, weather conditions will be unfavorable.  The forecast is predicting snow from tomorrow afternoon until early morning on Thursday.  Temperatures are aiming to be in the teens for the race.  We'll have to see how the weather affects my performance.  Cold weather can really wreak havoc with my asthma.  Some days, there's no effect.  Other days, it can really be a little bastard.

I've also been pulling back on the training volume lately.  sure, I still get some kind of workout in about 5 days a week, but I haven't done many runs lately over 6 or 7 miles.   Do I feel prepared to run the 10K?  Heck yeah.  Am I taking this race seriously?  Heck no!  I'm approaching this the same as I would a tough workout during the summertime.  I'm not going to get bent out of shape if my time stinks.  Heck.  I'm not even going to bother predicting a time.

"No time?" you ask.  "Why bother racing?"  you say.  Well, there are lots of reasons.  For one, it'll give me a kick in the butt for running in the cold.  It's a long winter, and the sooner I get used to it, the better.

For another, there's the Wow Factor.  When I tell people that I ran a 10K on Thanksgiving, they'll say "Wow.  You're nuts!".  For some reason, people thinking I'm nuts feels good. 

Still not good enough for you?  Fine.  How about knowing that the calories I burn at the race will help to offset that extra helping of turkey, or 2nd slice of pie?  If PIE isn't a good reason to race, then I don't know what is. 

What?  You STILL want a time goal?  All right, all right.  If the course hasn't turned into a luge run, traction isn't a problem and the asthma behaves itself, then I'll be aiming for mile splits around 9:30.  Yeah.  I know.  That's significantly SLOWER than my splits for the Monster Dash.  Like I said, I haven't put in the longer distances lately.  Hopefully, my recent speed work will help keep the pace up, but who knows?

I'll do my best to get that race report up on Thanksgiving, but I'm not making any promises.  Whether you're hitting the road for a race, spending the weekend with friends and family, or celebrating the holiday solo like me, I hope you and yours have a happy Thanksgiving.

Later dudes.

Winter Hits Minnesota

A week ago, I posted about a casual ride around Lake Minnetonka.  I mentioned that 'The Snow Was Coming'.   Well, now I kinda wish that I had kept my big mouth shut.  Yesterday morning, I woke up to THIS...

and THIS...

Yep.  We got 10 inches of heavy wet Slurpie dumped on us over the weekend.  You know, the kind of snow that weighs about 80 pounds per shovel-full.  The good news is that the snow should be gone in no more than 5 months.  *Sigh*

Yeah, I know. When you live in Minnesota, eventually winter is going to slap you around, give you a wedgie and push you down the stairs.  I also know that around here, we were blessed with beautiful fall weather.  But that's cold comfort (pun intended).  Now, I'm trying to come to turns with how my workouts are going to change.

Time on the bike will be indoors.  Sure, I've got a pretty nice setup where I can plop my trainer in front of the boob tube and catch up on 'my stories', but nothing can replace an outdoor ride.  I don't run at night much, so since daylight savings hit last weekend, I've already been doing most of my runs on the dread-mill at the gym.  I can still do longer runs outside over the weekends if the paths are clear.  It's just harder to pick my lazy butt up off of the sofa when it's below freezing outside.

My biggest fear is that it'll start to become too easy to make excuses NOT to train.  The last thing I want to do is put on 10 or 15 extra pounds over the winter.  I want to hit spring running (again, pun intended) and focus on getting faster rather than losing weight.

Maybe what I really need to do is get some more races planned.  Sometimes, the best way to get motivated for training is to lay real money down for registration fees.

Stay warm kids.

Hey! I'm kinda-sorta a published author! Yay Me!

It's official.  I'm now a published author...well, sort of.  Let me start from the beginning.

My sister works for WCCO, a local CBS affiliate, producing content for their website.  A couple of weeks ago, she approached me looking for input about some local bike shops.  You see, another reporter was working on a piece for the 10 best bicycle shops in the Twin Cities.  He had plenty of good stuff for shops in the metro area, but needed some content for those of us out here in the 'burbs.  That's where I came in.

Now, to be fair, I know a heckuva lot more about the shops in the western 'burbs than I do about those on the East side.  So, naturally my recommendations focused on places that were on this side of the Mississippi.  Of the ones I threw out there, three made the 'official' WCCO list: Maple Grove Cycle, Excel Cycle and my personal fav Gear West. 

The article was published just a few days ago.  You can check out the whole thing here.

The coolest part happened in the last 24 hours.  I sent a thank you e-mail to the journalist that published the article.  But, being the shameless self-promoting attention whore that I am, I also asked him to put a link to my blog in the article - which he promptly did.  Sweet!  So, hopefully I can expect an up-tick in traffic.  Sure, I'm doing this for the love and not for the money, but a little ego-stroke never hurt.

In other news, there are only 3 days to go until the Team Ortho Monster Dash.  I did a tempo run tonight to get my legs spun up and familiar with pushing the pace again.  Let me tell you, running in 40-degree weather is a rude awakening compared to the 65-degree luxury we've had for the last month.  I even got to experience my first wind-chill since last spring.  Man, that wind.  Mother nature sure is a harsh mistress.

I'll be back in a day or two with some more Fun in the Kitchen.  If you can't wait until then, you can always check back on my last food-related post to hold you over.

Toodles.

More Mega Miles

I'm tired.  Like, really tired.  I'm in the meatiest part of my training plan right now.  Here's a quick summary of the last few days.

Thursday

Last Thursday, I had my longest run workout ever. Yes. My Longest.  Run. Ever. In. My. Life.

I got home from work and hit the road as soon as I could - knowing that I'd probably need all the daylight I could get.  I wore my new De Soto shorts and jersey for two major reasons.  First, I'm planning on wearing the same kit for the Ironman and wanted to get the best simulation I could for race day.  Second, the jersey has 3 big pockets, and I needed to carry half a dozen Power Gels to keep fueled for the run.

The route I picked out started by heading West to Medicine Lake.  Then I did 2 laps around the lake.  The good news was that I only had to carry one 12-ounce water bottle since there are several parks around the lake with drinking fountains when I needed a refill.

The map is courtesy of my Garmin FR305 and SportTracks.

The run itself was definitely a learning experience.  My goal was to average 10-minute miles as long as I could and then just wait to see what happened.  Things went fine for about the first 10 miles.  It got a little weird from about mile 12-15.  My heart rate started to drop and I felt sleepy.  My best guess is that even with a gel every 30-minutes, I was low on calories.  For future long runs, I'll likely have to up my gel intake to 1 every 20 minutes.

In the end, I ran for 3 hours and averaged 10:17 per mile.  It's not nearly as fast as my run leg during the Liberty 1/2 Ironman.  But, I didn't have adrenalin on my side this time around.  My goal for Madison is a sub-5-hour marathon.  A 10:17 pace puts me in at 4:30.  There will be no way to know for sure if I'll break 5-hours on the run, but I'm still optimistic.

Oh yeah.  And as a reward, I treated myself to Kentucky Fried Chicken for a recovery meal.  Take THAT nutrition plan.

Friday

Friday was a rest day, as in 'butt in recliner, watching TV and going to bed early'.  It felt freaking GREAT.

Saturday

The plan called for a 5 1/2-hour bike.  This coincided perfectly with Tour de Tonka, a great community ride that leaves from Minnetonka High School and continues on to a few different route choices ranging from 16 to 100 miles.  Of course, since I'm in Mega-Miles-Mode, I did the Century.  Here's a photo of me just before the ride started all dolled-up in my Twin Cities Spoke jersey.

This is my 'excited' face.

The weather was a little dreary for the first half.  By 'dreary' I mean, it rained from mile 2 until 49.  It wasn't terrible.  The rain helped cool things off - just don't ride immediately behind someone with your mouth open.  Eew.

The skies magically cleared up for the 2nd half of the race and we were treated to a beautiful 50 miles.  The wind was even at our backs once we made the turn and started heading East towards Waconia.

This is my 3rd year doing Tour de Tonka.  They always seem to do a good job.  One would think that a community ride with half-a-dozen different routes and over 2000 participants would be a logistical nightmare.  But, these guys pull it off well.  The courses are well marked, rest stops are well stocked and there are volunteers everywhere - even on the Century course.  Well done.

Sunday

Sunday was a simple open water swim.  I drove over to Lake Independence.  It's the same lake that held the swim for the Liberty 1/2 Iron.  They have a long stretch of beach that is protected by buoys, so I was safe from playing bumper-cars with the speedboats and jetskis.

The swim was nice and relaxing.  I put my Garmin in a zip-lock back and tucked it into my swim cap to try to track my route.  It worked out pretty well -

I wanted to swim for 75 minutes - which would have brought me pretty close to race distance for the Ironman.  But when I saw lightning on the horizon I decided that maybe Mother Nature wanted me to go home have some leftover KFC.  Thanks Mother Nature, you're a real pal.

Monday

Today was another long pool workout.  It was a combination of a ladder and some 100-yard repeats.  For the most part, it was uneventful - except for the parts when the lane lines kept coming unhooked from the edges of the pool and floating into my lane.  Bah.

I'll be hitting more heavy-duty hours on the road, in the water and on the bike this week, but I've got a recovery week coming up, so I suppose I can tolerate just a little more suffering.

How NOT to do a Ride in Hot Weather

Well, if you read this blog to check on my workout progress, then this is your lucky day.  Last weekend I polished off the end of a bike-centric week with a 4 and a half hour ride last Saturday.  Let's start there, shall we.

Saturday

I packed up the bike with all the nutrition I could, including 50 ounces of Perpetuem, 24 ounces of water, PowerBar Gels, Shot Bloks and Endurolytes. 

The wind was blowing at a steady 20 miles per hour from the South, so the plan was to head South first and then turn to go with the wind as long as possible before heading home.

I made my way through New Hope, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie before ending up in Chaska, home of my next race: the River City Days Triathlon.  On a side note, if you've never done a tri before and want to get your feet wet, this is a great race to start with.  It's small, well organized, and has a 1-mile-long downhill run to the finish.  That'll boost anybody's ego.

Anyway, I was already out of water and had the salt munchies, so I stopped at the local Walgreens to snarf down some Pringles and pick up some H2O.  Then, I headed out West towards Waconia.  My legs were doing fine, but temps were over 90 (dang hot by Minnesota standards) so I knew that endurance may be a factor.

After Waconia, I headed North towards Minnetrista.  At this point, I was FINALLY going with the wind.  My average speed jumped from 18-19mph up to 22-23.  Yee-Haw!  Unfortunately, I was having such a good time enjoying the tailwind that I made my biggest mistake of the ride - I didn't stop in Minnetrista to grab more fuel and water.

By the time I reached Independence I was out of Perpetuem and water, my legs felt heavy and my back was sore.  I was hurting.  Big time.  I hit up a Holiday station near Maple Plain for 2 more liters of water and some fruit, but the damage had already been done.

I decided to cut about 10 mile off of my route and just limp home the quickest way possible.  I finally reached the homestead after 4:25 on the bike and 74 miles behind me.  Unfortunately, that gave me an average speed of just 16.7mph.

At that point, I was so overheated, the only thing that felt good was lying nude, spread-eagle under the ceiling fan in the bedroom.  Not a pretty picture.

I think that when I do long rides in the future, I'll load up the car with copious amounts of fuel and fluid and drive out to a loop.  That should help prevent me from running out of gas and turning a training ride into an Epic Fail. 


Sunday

Sunday was a recovery day.  I did a quick 19 mile ride - two loops around Medicine lake and then back home again.  Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.  Then, The Wife and I did a short jog around the neighborhood.  She started getting overheated, and I was still reeling from Saturday's suffer-fest, so we cut the run short and headed home to veg out.

Monday

Monday was all about my dad's birthday.  You can read all about our shenanigans here.   I did manage to squeeze in a quick 30-minute run before all the birthday-fun.  No muss, no fuss.

Tuesday

Since this is a run-centric week, Tuesday as my first chance to really pound the pavement.  The good news, no, the GREAT news, is that my Superfeet seem to be working.  I've felt little to no pain in my left foot for over a week.  HOORAY!

The run workout started with a 10-minute warm up and then proceeded into 6 repeats.  The idea was to go hard for 7 minutes, then easy for 3 minutes, and repeat 5 more times before a 10-minute cooldown.  This was a rough workout.  It wasn't the longest of the year, not by a long shot. However, I don't remember working so HARD during a run workout.  My heart rate was maxing out just shy of 180bpm.  During repeat #3 I had to fight off a strong urge to start walking

It was strange that repeats 4-6 actually felt easier.  Okay, maybe EASIER isn't the right word.  They were still hard, darn hard.  I just think that my mind finally convinced my body to stop complaining and get to work.  All in all it was a satisfying day.

Wednesday

I got a change of pace Wednesday with a swim workout followed by a bike.  The pool workout was 2 1500-yard repeats.  My pace for the first repeat was a respectable 1:34/100y.  I must have slacked off a bit for the 2nd repeat because I slowed down to 1:38/100y.  Hmmmm.  I'd better keep an eye on that.

Then, as usual, Wednesday was a group ride with the Twin Cities Spoke, leaving out of Wooddale Church.  The turnout was smaller than usual - it had been raining earlier in the afternoon - but we made the most of it with a 31-mile at 18mph through what turned out to be a beautiful evening.

Thursday

Today, I did another pool workout.  This one was more about speed.  I did a warmup and then settled into descending repeats starting at 300y.  In other words, I swam 300 yards, then 275, 250, 225, 200, 175, 150, 125, 100, 75, 50 and 25.  The hardest part was just keeping track of which repeat I was on and how many laps I had to do.

The plan also called for a run today, but life appears to have gotten in the way.  Our lawn has grown so gnarly in the last couple of weeks that I had to make an attempt to mow, or I'd have to apply for a White Trash Membership Card.  That sucked up the rest of my daylight, so I'll have to postpone today's run for the weekend.  Meh.  Next week is a rest week and includes two off days, so I guess that a hard weekend won't kill me.

Happy Birthday Dad....or...Fly Me Up? Fly Me DOWN!!

This weekend was big.  First, I had my first long ride of the season - in 90 degree heat no less.  I'll go into more detail in the next day or two for that workout.  Suffice it to say, by the end of the ride I was doing my best Wicked Witch of the West impersonation - after Dorothy douses her with water.

However, the REALLY big deal this weekend was my dad's birthday on the 4th.  I won't say how old he is, but it's a nice round number. 

On Sunday, The Wife and I met at his place where I commandeered the barbecue and whipped up some beer-in-the butt chicken. 
Step 1: season raw chicken. 
Step 2: cut top off of beer can. 
Step 3: fill can 1/2 way with your favorite brew. 
Step 4: violate chicken with open end of beer can. 
Step 5: place chicken and beer can on grill until roasted.

Voila:

Nom Noms

Add to that some burgers.

It was a small party, but my dad's never really liked being the center of attention.  We ate, chatted, and ate some more.  Not too shabby.  But the REAL fun would come the next day.

My dad's always been a bit of an aviation enthusiast.  Shoot.  When I was a kid, we had the first ever Microsoft Flight Simulator game - for an Apple II.  So, since it was a BIG DAY, we decided to get his butt up in the air inside a small aircraft.

We showed up at Flying Cloud Airport and met our pilot, Andy.  No, not "Captain Smith", not "Andrew 'Maverick' Smith", not even "Andrew", just plain ol' "Andy".  Yeah.  The kid from Toy Story who writes his name on his toys' feet would be taking us several thousand feet in the air.  Hoo boy.

My dad and Andy going over the pre-flight checklist.

Going over the rear flight controls.

Next, it was time to board the aircraft.  Now, usually my dad is pretty selfless.  He'll always let someone else take his place in line or have the last slice of pizza in the box.  But, when I said 'why don't you fly in the co-pilot seat so you can take the controls' I didn't get any argument.  He hopped right in.  Awesome.

Trying to figure out how we were going to squeeze 3 grown men into a flying phone booth.

Yay!.  Cup Holders!

Once we were all packed in, the only thing let to do was fire up the engine and take to the skies!

All strapped in and ready to go.

Taxi-ing.

Lift-off!  AAAAAAHHHHhhhhhhhh!!!

Once we gained altitude, Andy let my dad take the reigns and we headed north, over lake Minnetonka and towards his brother's house in Elk River.

We then proceeded to circle his place for some photos - likely scaring the crap out of him, his family and most of the neighborhood.

Hey Uncle Dan - mow your lawn!

Then, we started making our way back to Flying Cloud.  About half way back, we got a report from the airport that there was a storm cell heading towards the field and we were going to have to race it to the runway.  Oh joy.  It was during this last 20 minutes in the air that I heard 4 things that I wasn't hoping to hear on my first ride in a small aircraft.

1.  Air Traffic Controller:  "We've detected a precipitation cell that has been described as 'extreme'".

2.  Air Traffic Controller:  "You're going to have to keep your speed up if you want to beat this thing".

3.  Andy: "I'm going to have to red-line the throttle so we can get some more speed".

4.  Andy (preparing for final approach): "Okay boys, let's have some fun".

Photo out the left window showing our runway.  Notice: we are 10 seconds from landing and I am taking a photo of our runway out of the SIDE WINDOW.

Getting ready to touch down.  Not shown: me pooping pants.

The actual landing went smoothly - more so than most commercial flights I've been on.  We made it indoors just as the skies opened up and the rain came.  After waiting for a few minutes for the rain to stop, we decided to make a break for it and run swim to the car.

Safely back in the car, we met up with our wives and then each went home to change into dry clothes.  Later that afternoon, we met up in Red Wing with my sister and her new husband for dinner.  I had the jambalaya.  Yummers.

The Wife, me, Dad, Kristi, Karna and Joe.

Happy birthday Dad!

For those of you hoping for more tri-related ramblings...hold your horses.  It's coming.  But, it's late and I'm going to bed.  I'll have plenty to share about the long bike ride and my quasi-triumphant return to real honest-to-goodness running.

Ironman Bike Ride Report

This is my 3rd try at this event.  The first time around was in 2002.  I was just getting into road cycling and was gearing up for a 100-mile ride with Team in Training later that spring.  It had snowed the night before, so we started the ride with temps around 30 degrees.  It was damp and cold, but at least it wasn't windy.  We ended up doing their 30-mile ride 2 times.  So, my college-level math is telling me that I went 60 miles.

My 2nd attempt at this ride was 2 years ago.  This time I was getting in shape for RAGBRAI.  I had been out late the night before and was still a little hung over tired.  Again, it was rainy, chilly and breezy.  This time I pussed out and only did the 30-mile loop.

This year, I had high hopes for warm temps and clear skies.  But I think this ride is going to be perpetually cursed with foul weather.

I got to the Lakeville High School to sign in at just a hair after 8:00am.  I made one more quick stop at the Hoigaard's booth to pick up a pair of sweet new Specialized gloves.  They're thin enough to wear in warm weather, but still keep my fingers warm down to around 40 degrees.  I'll have to write up some kind of review of them soon.

Sweet!

It was raining steadily and most of the other riders had a less-than-thrilled look on their faces.

Here's a shot of all the cars lined up along the streets near the high school.  Notice how everything has a nice damp-wet look.

Delicious.

I pulled the hood on my rain jacket up over my helmet and headed out to the course.  It took a few miles for my legs to warm up, but by the time I got to the split in the course (the upper-right-hand corner of the map), they were ready to go.

The weather was on the miserable side.  The rain was steady and the wind was gusting from the North.  This was going to be a LONG ride.

Then, at around mile 10 I passed a young couple and then heard 'Hey Eric!' come from behind me.  It was Craig from the Twin Cities Spoke and his wife Jen.  They're both fresh out of college at Bethel and Craig is going to be starting Med School soon out in Milwaukee (which means 'The Good Land').

This dude is in SHAPE.  He's one of those guys who's taller than you, but weighs 30 pounds less.  He's basically a 150-pound speed machine.  I WANT to hate him, but he's such a dang nice guy.  He's getting Jen started in road cycling and this is one of her first real long rides and she was a real trooper.

A few miles later we came across a rider who was having some mechanical problems and kind of had that 'help me' look on her face.  We stopped to say 'hi' (her name was Bridget) and see if we could help.  She was riding with her 13 year-old son and ran into problems while her son, Logan, kept riding on ahead.   Fortunately, her rear wheel had just come out of the rear dropout.  We re-seated the wheel and she was on her way.

We chatted for a little while and then I headed out to get a little speed in before the first rest stop at about mile 23.  I saw a young kid just kind of waiting around and asked him, 'Hey, are you Logan?'  Well, he was, so I let him know that his Mom was on her way.   Okay, there's one good deed done for the day.  Yay me!

We grabbed some snacks and made the necessary pit stops in Jordan.  I had a feeling that Craig and Jen were going to be going their own pace today, so when we got separated at the rest stop, I took it as a sign to head out on my own.

The 2nd 1/3 of the ride was the closest that the weather ever came to being 'pleasant'.  Since the wind was coming mostly from the North, it did a good job of pushing me along the course.  The rain held up for a little while and I even started to feel a little warm.

I cruised through New Prague and into Lonsdale for the 2nd break.  Again, this was another well-stocked rest stop.  Shoot.  They even had full-size Snicker's bars!  Score!

My joy was short-lived because the last 1/3 of the ride was absolutely brutal.  Someone turned the rain back on, and as we turned north back towards Lakeville, we started heading directly into the wind.  It wasn't a nice breezy 'isn't that refreshing' kind of wind.  This was a slap you in the face, knock you down, make you cry and make fun of your mama kind of wind.  Blech.  After already going 45 miles in this baloney, cruising along at 12-14 mph for the last leg was no fun.  NO.  FUN.

Eventually, I made it back to my car where I took a quick shot of my war-ravaged mug.

Let's see, we've got salt residue, chapped cheeks, and a general look of "what the hell was that!?!"

Then, I emptied my pockets and tallied up my loot from the rest stops.  Two M&M cookies, a Salted Nut Roll and one of those full-size Snickers bars from Rest Stop #2.

You look beautiful.  I want you inside me.

The only thing left to do was go home, take off about 9 layers of clothes and utterly de-STROY the bathroom.

Don't tell The Wife, she'd be PISSED.

All in all, it was a good day.  A tough ride, sure, but still a good day.  I'll probably keep coming back to this ride again year after year.  Sure, the weather's dreadful, but I'm too dumb to learn my lesson.