Multisport Athlete

Hey, blogging two days in a row, CRAZY!!! Just checking in as I take a break from meetings, slam a red bull and eats some veggie food. A mostly rainy day here in the Cedar Valley, that's ok my lawn had a nice green/brown camo look going on and needed some H2O. Temps have cooled to below 70 degrees, feels great after highs in the mid 90's. Yesterday was a day off from training which was good. I was at work from 7:00-4:30 and then at the shop from 5:00-11:30.
That makes for a long day. Tonight I have to sneak in a 25 min run and some time in the weight room, shouldn't be a problem. Remember, if you go on RAGBRAI don't have tent sex under a tree, it may cost you your life!

ED, Done!

I guess I can start at last weekend. Hudson days was a good time. Fireman’s dance went well and the parade on Saturday was fun. It was Ainsley’s first ride on a fire truck and she had a blast. Katie even made her a little Hudson Firefighter in Training shirt. Sunday’s water-ball fights didn’t go so well for the locals. We had 9 teams and none of us placed. Maybe cause there were 3 former State champs there!

Monday I woke up with a head cold and could not shake it, so being dumb I went on a 20-mile bike ride that night and made it worse. Went to sleep and at 1:42am my pager goes off for a garage fire out on Shrock Rd. I spring out of bed, get some clothes on, put my contacts in and race to the station. When we arrived at the fire there was a 2 stall detached garage throwing flames. Fire was hot enough to melt the siding off the house and another garage. This was a first for me, usually the heat will wrinkle the siding, but this time it melted like hot taffy. Needless to say this didn’t help me to rid my body of my cold. We didn’t get home 5:00. A quick nap and it was off to work.

By Friday I was over my cold and training is back on track. I’m tired but I feel pretty good. Work has been kicking my ass; I’m spending 20+ hours a week in meetings and still expected to take care of my normal day to day duties, lovely! Not to help matters the shop has more work on the schedule now than ever before, so that’s taking another 3 nights a week from me. It will slow down soon, I hope!!!

I heard this guy named Lance won some bike ride for like the seventh time in row. I guess this is some big deal or something, I don’t get it, I won RAGBRAI like 9 times in a row and nobody made a big deal out of it. PS, look for Lance to compete in a Triathlon near you!!

Ok, better go. I’ll do my best to update more often this week but no promises.

First 3 workouts of my mid-season improvement plan are in the books and I'm feeling pretty good. Wednesday night was a 50min session on the trainer while watching the tour. It was funny, as the stage was ending and you could see riders pushing for the line I looked at my heart rate and I was up 5 beats. Guess I was racing with them! Last night was a 20 min run and 15 min in the weight room. Today is an off day, which is good cause the weekend it nuts!
Fireman's dance tonight. 6:00-12:00am
10:00am parade Saturday. Party at 4:00, wedding at 5:00, another party at 6:00, and fireworks at 10:00pm. How am I going to make all that work????
Sunday is Waterball fights, always a good time.
Enjoy the weekend.

ED

Nothing exciting going on so here are a few thoughts.

We had a fire call Sunday for a vehicle fire. One firefighter had started another firefighters truck on fire. I was laughing so hard at the scene I could hardly help them.

I saw a female cyclist on the trials the other day riding a KHS single speed. I was impressed.

Sights of the Tour – Here is the picture. Car on the left of the bike, mechanic hanging out of the car window reaching over a rotating wheel and trying to adjust the rear derailleur. HOLLY DANGEROUS BATMAN.

Speaking for dangerous, did anyone hear about the Nitric Acid spill at Bossard? Yea, that’s where I work. Lactic acid bad, nitric acid also bad!

I purchased some new running shoes, Adidas, I like them so far.

15-mile ride to get in sometime today. Looks like it will be tonight after I get done working at the shop. Bust out the lights!!

Big weekend in the Hudson area coming up. Firemen dance Friday night, Fireworks on Saturday and water-ball fights on Sunday afternoon.

Iowa games are this weekend, good luck to all who are participating.

I have run out of topics, Ed out!

Sometimes you don't. Sunday's race was a "don't". Here's how it went down.
Kelly and I left for Union Grove State Park about 6:45am for the race. Pulled in around 7:20 and started to get ready. I felt fine, hydration was good and the weather was great. Did a little bike to warm up and I felt ok, then I swam about 200 yards and I was feeling pretty good.
Swim started and I was off. This was by far the cleanest swim I have ever done. I'm not talking about water color, I'm talking about no grab ass, arms tangled up, or other horse play. I could get 10 strokes in before I would have to sight a bouy, that was awsome. Out of the water and on to the bike where the first 2 miles were normal then I hit hill of death for a granny gear grind. My heart rate went through the roof and I struggled for the next 4 miles to get it back down. Did the turn in town and then headed back for the park into the headwinds. My breathing was off, my legs felt heavy and I had already sucked down a water bottle. This was not good, I usually get through the entire bike leg with only one bottle. I finished the bike leg and came into T2 somewhat defeated, I knew today was not going to be my day.
I started the run and knew right away I was going to fight heavy legs and a stomach full of water. I got up the Hill of Death without walking and finished the race watching people twice my age pass me, I was upset but couldn't do anything about it. Finished at 1:21:00 and my mile splits were over 8:30, Damn that's slow.
On a much brighter note my cousin Kelly busted out another great performance finishing 4th out of 25 in his class, that's awsome keep it up!

So, time to look forward and fix what is wrong. So what's wrong I asked??? Simple, lack of consistant training. I got what I deserved in this race. Garbage in, garbage out right!! So I have decided to pass on Big Creek this year and do CyTri on August 28 and the Tri-Hawk on September 18. I found some training programs on the net and I have set up a 9 week program that will conclude with the Tri-Hawk race. I must stay with the program. Today was a 20 min run and some weights this morning. Day one complete, and on the road to success. I will give daily updates on the training, and if I don't, call me out. Say, whassssup yo - you like finishing in the back of the pack?? hehe.

OK, ED out............. Try to avoid swamp ass today, conditions are perfect!

Just about. Sunday marks race #2 for my season. Cornman Sprint Triathon (www.cornmantri.com) at Union Grove State Park just outside of Gladbrook, Iowa. Early in the week my excitement for this race was pretty low, work and other outside factors have been reducing training time. But, I have had a really good week of training and I’m feeling up to the challenge. I expect to lower my time from last year and hopefully improve my placement in the final standings, last year I placed 5th in my class. This will be my 3rd time on the course so I know my game plan. If anyone has read some earlier posts I have mentioned the “Hill of Death” that is part of this race. You hit this hill on both the bike and the run. It’s hard to describe the hill, not very long but really steep, so steep I’ve see people walk the bike up it! I have done hill repeats and the euro crit to prepare for this; I believe it will pay off.

Race Plan –
Swim – Start on the far right of the swim start line. Clay and Kelly know why, it’s shorter!!!! Stay steady on the swim; don’t get kicked in the teeth and bust butt to T1.
Same plan for the transition here as Pigman, don’t waste anytime and get to the bike.

Bike – The start of the bike leg is inside the park and has lots of little rollers (this is also the end of the run leg). The plan is to stay in a low gear and spin to wake up the legs. Outside the park it’s go time, crank it up and get comfortable. The turnaround is a block-by-block loop through the town of Gladbrook. The roads are really rough and the pace slows down considerably. Then we take the same route back to the park.

Run – Ha, the run. Well the first ¾ mile is mainly down hill, then the Hill of Death hits. After that it is little rollers to finish.

Everything should go well, I’ll have a race report on Sunday afternoon.

Wait, that would be the Cedar River that now runs through ditches and farm fields througout Blackhawk County. Ok, enough about fish. I did almost nothing yesterday. I was going to borrow a fellow firefighters skid loader and do some more damage in the back yard but he could not get it to run, Bummer. That kind of threw my morning plans out the window, so I just did little odds and ends and watched to Tour. Lance catching Jan was awsome, what a kick in the junk. Mr 24 (www.jeffkerkove.blogspot.com) was going for a spin at 6:00 so I decided to ride with. Went to Lookout park early to do a Euro Crit run. Everything was good till I hit upper Hartman. The trails were over grown with poision ivy and after hitting two trails and having to double back I gave up and just ran back to Lookout Park. This made me a bit late for the ride but being the nice guy that Jeff is he was still waiting for me. We did the Finchford, Janesville, Cedar Falls loop. This is a nice ride with flats, rollers, Lamas, Elk, Rabbits, and other animals that run in the ditches and scare the latic acid right out of you. I returned home, made a monster smoothie and called it a night. Oh, almost forgot I used the Elite product for the first time. Seems to work well. The best part is it doesn't have a sweet taste that lingers on your taste buds, it's just like drinking water.
On other notes............ Dirtram, how's Xterra training coming along? And the wheels rock, thanks again!
I hear the Jackal got to run a boy scout camp solo this weekend, hope that went well.
Anybody get buzzed by a drunk driver yet this weekend? Hope not, that's scary!

ED OUT!