topher's Summer of Pain
Training / Racing Blog: August
Beginning of Month Weigh-in: 163 pounds
1 August, 2007 — August began with a Wednesday morning run with the Badgerland Striders at Hart Park. I'll describe it as hot and leave it at that.
2 August, 2007 — 24 miles on the mountain bike today, which was just as hot as the running yesterday, only I got treated to a little cooling rain at the end. August is underway.
5 August, 2007 — I've been hyping-up the Muddy Buddy for the last two months and today Melissa and I finally got to get muddy. The rain all afternoon and evening on Saturday made the course an absolute mess. It was a muddy Muddy Buddy, indeed.
The race covered 10 kilometers divided into 2-kilometer sections. Between each section was a military-styled obstacle. We climbed cargo nets, flipped over walls, and wove our way through the Ranger Weave. The highlight was an ill-conceived, mud-covered balance beam. At each obstacle, the racers switched off between running and mountain biking. The last 50 meters we finished together, however, and it was the muddiest part of all!
Official Results:
Finish Time — 0:59:36.2
Overall Placement — 54th of 1,202 teams
Co-Ed Division — 10th of 502 teams
Co-Ed 56-65 yrs — 6th of 150 teams
6 August, 2007 — Today I did another run-swim-run for Monday's open-water-swim nights at Pewaukee Lake. I managed to avoid getting hit by any cars this week.
8 August, 2007 — Lots of running today! I started with an early morning workout with the Badgerland Striders at Hart Park. Then Leanne joined me for some trail running at Nashotah Park.
9 August, 2007 — Just some strength training today. I gotta keep the core strong or my poor, abused back will not remain on good terms with me.
10 August, 2007 — Well, it seems that form and function, though not mutually exclusive, occasionally have trouble working together. I had to buy a new pair of running shoes today. They're comfortable, to be sure. But they are the ugliest things I've ever run in.
After buying new running shoes, I decided the best thing to do was a bike ride. So I took a late afternoon ride through lake country, pedaling west from Pewaukee out to Delafield and back, taking in a few side roads along the way. I got to take advantage of a great downhill section during which I set a personal speed record on a bicycle—42.5 MPH. This is the fastest I've ever gone on a bike, with the exception of the rotational speed of my flailing limbs during some spectacular bicycle crashes I've had. But that's just the speed of my flailing limbs, and it's short lived, so it doesn't count.
11 August, 2007 — It's Saturday and that means long-run day with the Badgerland Striders. Yes, I did the highly imprudent thing and took my brand new shoes on a 14-mile run today. This was doubly imprudent since I have a triathlon to race in tomorrow. But I'm happy to report that there are no post-run blisters and I'm feeling great! Thanks to Leanne for running with me again. Now I just need to stretch, stretch, stretch before tomorrow's race. Wish me luck. And where's the Ibuprofen?
Thanks to Performance Running Outfitters at the Ruby Isle Shopping Center in Brookfield for fitting me with some great shoes. Ugly, but great.
12 August, 2007 — Wow! The word of the day is pain. I just finished running the Oshkosh Olympic Triathlon. Let me tell you, that 14-mile run yesterday was dumb. The swim and the bike ride went well today, and I ran OK, but the run was demoralizing. My body wanted nothing to do with the movement I was asking it to produce. My body wanted a hot tub.
The race went well, though. I don't have my official time yet, but according to my watch, I finished in 2:32:17. I anticipate my official time will be a little closer to 2:34:00. I'm pretty pleased with this. This race was more than twice as long as the Pewaukee Triathlon, and I finished in only slightly more than twice the time. So I was keeping some pretty good paces going. It just hurt like listening to Mariah Carey.
Congratulations go out to Tami and Tyler who work out with me at The WAC and also raced today. Tami raced in the sprint event and took first place for her age division. Rock on!
My hero today, however, is Julie. Julie and I just met at the running store the other day, but today she did something pretty hard core. Julie was in today's triathlon and having a good race right up until she just about finished the bike. With 1/2 mile left to go, Julie's front tire went flat. She rode it in! Riding with a flat front tire is taking a pretty big chance. So, Julie, my hat's off to you. Brave stuff.
I'll post official times/splits once I get them later today. Right now I'm going to hit the hot tub and maybe jump out of a plane or two (for good measure).
Oshkosh Tri Update: Official results are in for the Oshkosh Triathlon. It turns out my watch wasn't too far off from the official clock.
Official Results:
Finish Time — 2:32:23
Swim— 26:23 (slow)
Transition 1 — 2:15.6 (including reattaching my race number, which I accidentally tore off)
Bike — 1:19:40.8 (21+ MPH)
Transition 2 — 1:33.9
Run — 42:29.7 (6:57 / mile)
Overall Placement — 44th out of 286
Age Group Placement (Male 30-35) — 8th out of 31
Oshkosh Tri Footnote: This evening I did as I said I would. First I soaked in the hot tub at The WAC. Then I went and got two skydives in at SkyKnights—a fine end to a painful, painful day.
13 August, 2007 — Rest day.
14 August, 2007 — No running, swimming, or biking today...letting the legs recover some more. Just some strength training today.
15 August, 2007 — Wednesday morning with the Badgerland Striders. Great running workout; it was good to get the legs moving again, and they felt pretty good. This evening it was back to the Wednesday spin sessions at The WAC. I got a great 2-hour bike workout in.
16 August, 2007 — Mountain biking tonight, and it wasn't easy making it happen. First we went to the John Muir trails, and they were closed. Then we drove to the Emma Carlins, and they were closed. So we drove to the Ryan trails in Pewaukee, and they were open. Yippee! We made one loop of the trails and Melissa's poor bike (the extra one we used for the Muddy Buddy) began moaning and groaning. It was suffering from some residual mud-induced maladies from the race. So we took a quick 10-minute break to rip the bike apart and fix it up a bit. Then we got some fun riding in!
17 August, 2007 — I rested the legs again today and just did some strength training. Oh yeah, and I threw in a skydive for good measure.
18 August, 2007 — Saturday morning run with the Badgerland Striders! We woke to a much cooler and less humid day than last Saturday, to be sure. It made for wonderful running weather, which was good, because we ran 16 miles today. It felt wonderful and I finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes.
19 August, 2007 — Sat on my sore, tired ass. Swallowed some Ibuprofen. Did occasional stretching.
20 August, 2007 — Monday is the usual run-swim-run night. I ran. But Pewaukee Lake was freezing. Within minutes of hitting the water my muscles were getting so tight from the cold that I wasn't getting any training benefit out of the swim. It was more like special forces cold-water training, only I had spandex swim trunks on and no one was screaming at me. So I got out of the water and just kept running. So the run-swim-run turned into run-rinse-run. And it was a cold, rainy, windy run-rinse-run at that, all 7 miles worth.
21 August, 2007 — Strength training and lap swimming today.
22 August, 2007 — Another 2-hour spin barrage this evening at the WAC. I never bothered to check the schedule and ended up in back-to-back interval workouts on the bike, which hurt. But it was a great workout.
And yes, Wednesday should have seen me working out with the Badgerland Striders in the early AM. But it was thundering and lightning outside, so I stayed in bed. I figured no one else would be there.
23 August, 2007 — Muddy trail running at Lapham Peak State Park tonight. Melissa, Carri, Crystal, and I ran all over the trails and even made a few runs up the stairs of the observation tower. The humidity and hills made it a brutal workout, but a good one.
24 August, 2007 — It's been building up and building up, and finally I reached the end of my tolerance for the issue. Nipple pain, that is. I finally had to break down and buy some Body Glide. With the Saturday-morning runs getting longer and longer, the rubbing of my nipples against the inside of my shirt was causing blisters that would barely heal before the next week's run began. It got to be too much. Tomorrow I shall run with lubed nipples.
Other than buying nipple lube, I packed up my house for another move (this is about 17 moves in 10 years) and did some strength training.
25 August, 2007 — This morning's run was wonderful. The adverse weather remained at bay. The wind was minimal as we ran along the lakeshore. And the biggest crowd of Badgerland Striders I've seen so far gathered for a splendid 18 miles of running.
My lubed-up nipples treated me well and remained pain free. It was almost a pleasure to have them along on the run. And though they were sore by the end, my legs did well and carried me the entire 18 miles without issue. In fact, my legs feel better now than they did all week so far.
27 August, 2007 — Tonight I ran 6 miles and spent more time packing up my apartment for the move. With the incredible amount of rain we've had lately, I didn't even try to swim at Pewaukee Lake tonight.
It's going to be a hectic week. Check back to see how the training and moving progress as I get ready for this weekend's race!
29 August, 2007 — I spent nearly 11 straight hours moving my household goods. This was workout enough, so I took the day off from training.
30 August, 2007 — Tonight I got a great brick workout in—biking a little over 20 miles and then immediately running 6 miles. My body felt great, but the middle toe on my left foot is getting absolutely abused...
31 August, 2007 — August comes to an end! Tonight I got in some much needed strength training, as it's been light this week. Then I got in a 6-mile run to cap off the running for this month. It felt great and was a great way to close out a hectic week.
End of Month Weigh-in: 165 pounds (I've finally started to put weight back on, which is good, because my face was beginning to look gaunt.)
The Summer of Pain has officially begun. Send in some donations for the kids...Thanks.
More to come...
