The Clydesdale Trot

Marquette Mania 2004

2012-01-25T07:58:00.001-06:00

Fooled Ya!

2011-03-24T14:17:00.001-05:00

Just needed to get this pic on the web so I can use for a different program......

A return...

2009-12-11T16:58:00.005-06:00

Well it's been a while since my last and very foolish post about blogging once a week, but somewhere in the last few weeks, I have to admit, I've become somewhat Facebook'd out. Yeah it's great for quick hits, funny little comments, etc....but at the heart of it, it seems a somewhat artificial way of keeping in touch....almost impersonal to a point. Don't get me wrong, I'll be on Facebook, but I think I definitely want to kick up posting again. I've met some really cool people that there is no way in hell I would have met otherwise, and although the trend may be shifting in public opinion to Facebook from blogging, I think there will be some, like me, that will be returning after a while. Facebook is like the cliff notes of peoples lives....I feel blogs are the full on novel.

Now that all that crap is out of the way, I've got some shit going on.

1st off, some of you may know, but I'm doing IMWI 2010. Call it a drunken bar bet or whatever, but my ass is signed up and we are about t-minus 7 days away from official training. Surprisingly I haven't been eating like I'm trying to get on Biggest Loser these last few weeks. In actuality, I'm already 9lbs lighter and about 6% less bodyfat than I was when I actually raced in 2008, all good signs in my book (I'm still a Clyde, but shrinking -- 217lbs and 15% BF) And unlike the first one, where it was just to cover the 140.6, this time I've got goals, goals that need to be hit. (more on that in a later post).

2nd. I've found my cocaine, and it is delicately packaged like this:

Don't let the professional packaging fool you, thinking it's healthy because it's basically flavored peanut butter....this stuff has some serious street value....not to mention that if you look at the nutritional info, you're better off eating mayonnaise.....but still, this shit is for real.

3. I actually suckered one of my best friends into doing IMWI with me. We are pretty close in athletic ability, so even though my first one is special, I am really looking forward to having someone to take on this second journey with me.

4. P90X, TRX and Yoga -X (hell there's a lot of X's in there and it's not even anything porn related) have become staples of my workouts. I highly recommend them all.

5. I have produced another child. I realized for some of you that don't know me on facebook, it's been a while, but I actually persuaded a women (my wife, I'm not Tiger Woods) to have sex with me, more than once!! So I now have two beautiful little girls (31/2 and 8 months), it's going to be interesting to see how I can fit in workouts as well as make sure that I still have a marriage after this is all done, haha.

6. Despite my biggest objections, I have been swimming. My petition to the IM board to omit that part of the race is still pending, so I figure I better start preparing in case they dont' see it my way. I'm a little slower than I was in my peak at 2008, so that's a good sign as I haven't lost much speed, but I do have some work to do. I have even started going to Masters, again all against my will but on the advice of my coach.

That's all for now, got to run, train ride is almost over.

New Bike

2009-10-26T21:47:00.004-05:00

Steelhead Race Report

2009-08-04T22:23:00.002-05:00

Pre Race….nothing too exciting here….get up to the race site, unpack in transition and get everything laid out. Make our way 1.2 miles down the beach to the race start.

Race Start: 1^st wave went off at 7:00, w/ 7 minute wait between heats…that means, that’s right, me being in wave 14, did not start until an hour and half after the first wave went….it was kind of disheartening to know the pros would be almost half way through the bike course before I even got to get in the water.

However, in all reality, it wasn’t so bad. The entertainment at the start was nice, with lots of modern songs, and that did seem to make the time fly….the water as well was a balmy 69 degrees, so I spent a fair share of that time just chilling right on the waters edge watching the other waves go off. Luckily I knew before hand what time we were to set off, so I brought a bottle of Gatorade as well as an extra Special K bar to the race start to keep on the calories during the wait.

So our wave finally lines up to go off, and as we have 2 minutes to start, of my favorite Killers songs come on “All These Things I Have Done”….. right then I thought the day was going to be a great day…little did I know what Mother Nature had planned for us.

So the horn goes off and in we go, and I have the song in my head for the good first half of the swim “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier”., over and over in my head…..there was a little washing machine effect, but not too much, I found a few guys that seemed to be going my speed and hung to the left of them….I noticed they were sighting very often, so I just kept focus on my stroke and keeping pace with them. The swim was pretty uneventful to be honest, waves were probably 2-3 feet, nothing too bad. I only spotted twice on my own, instead relying on the people to my right to keep my on course, and it worked brilliantly. Before I knew it, we were at the last buoy, took a right and was heading for the beach.

I got out of the water feeling fine, definitely much better than 2006 when I thought I was about to pass out. I ran up the beach and into T1. My swim time was 38:50 something, so a definite improvement over my 43 min swim last time, and I felt MUCH better. However that placed me 28^th/49 in my division…..yes I know I need to work on my swim…

Get through T1 and get on my bike and I’m feeling good, the first two miles are pretty flat and I take in some calories as well as get my HR settled. The next 3 miles or so are primarily uphill work, so I get through those and then know the real fun (rollers) are about to start as I had ridden this course twice this summer. On the way out of town, there is no wind and I’m absolutely feeling well. Holding around 22 mph for that first hour, while keeping my HR where it was suppose to be.

It was around this time (we took a right turn and started heading east) that I started to notice something….the winds were definitely starting to pick up, and not in the good direction either…..we had just come south to north with no wind….however now there definitely was a south to north wind, with the majority of the course coming up going back exactly that way, not good I thought…in the mean time though, it was all cross wind.

I continue on, I get to mile 38 at the 1:40 mark, and I’m feeling pretty good. I figure if I can hold around 19-20 for the last 10 miles or so, I should be pretty happy with my bike time as that should be a 2:35-2:40 or so….however all that change pretty quickly as soon as I took the last turn on the course that would lead south for the last 18 miles of the bike course.

That fatal turn, ha.

To say it was work to get back to T2 is an understatement. It took me only a matter of a mile or two to realize that any time goal I had was going to be out the door…miles that had been going buy as quickly as 2 and a half minutes were now in the high 3s. Even on the downhills, you had to push to even get to get above 20 MPH, it was crazy. There was total carnage on the course, my friend doing the race said he saw people walking their bikes up the hills (he unfortunately shredded the sidewall of his tire and had to DNF, so he got to ride back in a SAG vehicle, missing all the “fun”). I didn’t see that, but I can tell you that the majority of people were up in there bullhorns in that crouched over position you see when people are absolutely spent. The wind was nonstop and relentless, and coming directly at you. I’ve been in some pretty bad biking situations, and I have to say this ranks right up there as some of the worst miles I have ever put in on a bike. It just made you so hard just to move along at a snails pace. I think you get the idea.

So anyway, the last downhill FINALLY showed up after an hour and fifteen plus minutes of riding into the wind…..I cruise down that hill totally humbled by what just had happened, and my right butt cheek is absolutely on fire. Like someone had stabbed a knife right into the middle of it. I get into transition and get off my bike, try to run, but the pain in my ass, literally, only allows for a slight shuffle…

And then it happened as I went to rack my bike. I had a thought I never had in a race before. I thought about saying “eff it” and quit right there in transition. I remember saying to myself, what do I have to prove? I’ve been here before, I’ve done this distance, no one is really going to care if I wrap it up right now. Sure it would suck, but why not? But then I remembered the sick feeling I had at Racine last year when I double flatted and didn’t have a choice in the matter…that got me back on track….I went to the porta potty, regrouped, and headed out. I may be in pain, but I’m not a quitter. I had just won the mental game these races can throw at you.

Somehow through all that wind and butt pain, I managed to move up 10 spots in the Clydesdale category on the bike, so it’s pretty clear that I was not the only one suffering out there. 18^th/49 in my division heading out for the run.

So I start running with small steps, hoping that it’ll eventually work loose what feels like the knife in my ass, but after about ¼ mile it’s evident that it’s not, the pain is still there…so I try something else. I decide to try and take a slightly longer stride than I normally do, in essence using the muscles just past where it’s hurting, and to my surprise, it worked.

The next miles are by no means my best run splits. The work on the bike in the wind had not only taken its toll on me, but on other competitors. Although not a large sample, I can say it seemed like more people were walking at Steelhead on Saturday than I can remember of any of my other races.. I saw a lot of people walking, and I’m not talking just on the hills.

The run course itself was alright. There were 3 pretty big climbs and then one more that was more gradual but still work.

I managed to hold low to mid 9 min/miles for the first 10 miles. In all reality probably around 8 to mid 8, but I made sure to stop at every aid station and try to get in as many calories as I could, hoping to get my real legs back, but they never came.

Around mile 10 is when my friend Mr. Cramps started to show up. I had been taking salt tablets all day, but that apparently didn’t matter…my legs were torched and he wanted revenge. I managed to waddle through another mile, and then it happened around mile 11, my legs just cramped up so bad I couldn’t even waddle…for the next two miles I did some walk/run as my legs would allow. I would push my legs to the point where they would cramp up, then walk it off, then continue. I had managed to catch up to Kristin from my tri group around mile 10 and she caught back up to me at mile 11. I told her to go ahead, but she insisted on finishing with me. That made it easier as we were chit chatting and it got my mind off the issues going on, and passed the time quicker than if I had been solo.

Finally the home stretch along the beach came and Kristen took off, I had no gear left so I ran as fast as I could to the finish and finally put the rough day to rest. Many lessons learned.

Initially I was pretty disappointed with my time, I really was hoping for a sub 5:30, but as the minutes passed after the race, I became more at ease with it, knowing the conditions were not ideal for it. Then after I saw that on the run I passed 8 more people in my division and finished 10^th of 49, I finally felt OK about it. Only 7 minutes was the separation between 10^th and 5^thplace, so I was right there.

Overall I’ve made some great gains this year. Every race I’ve done I finished in the top 20% or higher of the divisions I have raced it..…but there is still much I can improve on and am really looking forward to getting leaner, taking swim lessons, and overall getting faster for next year…..I want to win a race in the Clydes division next year. That is my goal. Mark it down.

All it took was one.....

2009-06-30T20:17:00.004-05:00

(Yeaaaay for Blogs!! (and Duathlons too!!))

...a funny thing happened along the way....this blog got lost. Period. No other way to describe it. Father of two now, increasing work load at work, and a new commitment to workouts, has left me little time to scribe some classic epic posts. However, that all changed this past weekend.

I was walking back from my pre-race warm up at the MetLife Duathlon, (a race I just so happened to finish SECOND in my AGE GROUP, no not weight division, but AGE GROUP!! And yes there was more than two people in that group. 33 to be exact, and I was second, yeay Me! (27th overall out of 450+ racers)...but this new found speed will be another post.)...when out of nowhere I hear something I have not heard in a while. Someone called out my blog name.

"Are you the Clyde?"

It took my brain a few seconds to even comprehend the sentence...Clyde = your old blog name = the blog you have left behind like a red headed step child, you prick....as long as it took my brain to comprehend, it took me even longer to mutter something back...

"Yeah, I said, although I've been very bad about keeping up with it, I must admit. I am the Clyde."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Rich, I follow your blog"....and then he went on to describe words I never thought would be adjectives to describe me or this blog. "Inspirational", "humorous writer", "I printed up your words of wisdom post", etc, etc (I was thinking more along the lines of "suck", "horrible" and "I'm glad you hung it up"....as I told Rich, I started blushing and got butterfly's in my stomach. It made me feel good that through this little space of the 'net that Al Gore gave us all, I have helped someone else out through my writing.

...but it also made me feel EXTREMELY guilty...guilty that I let this space basically go to hell over the last half year or so. Facebook took over, the world of one lines, Mafia Wars (even though I don't play) and video links....but it's still through the blogs were you can lay everything out on the table...let people in a little deeper. It's a side that Facebook still doesn't really have.

And so my "faithful" followers, not sure if there is anyone out there besides Rich left, but from here on out, I will try my damnest to post once a week at the very minimum. And so this is my post for this week, haha. I'll follow up next with a race report for Elkhart Lake (2nd place Clydesdale) and then the Metlife Du (mentioned above)....as you can see, somewhere along the line something really strange happened. This chubby Clyde somehow discovered he has some speed in him.

(On a side note, it was really nice to meet you Rich!! Thanks for coming up to me, we'll have to set up a ride in Aug/Sept or something...my last official race of the year is Steelhead Half Ironman, Aug 1st, so my schedule should be more open after that.)

A few things I've learned along the way.

2009-05-06T07:41:00.002-05:00

Blame Facebook, that's all I'll say.

Anyway I just realized that next weekend will officially be my 5th full year of endurance sports. This being my first race. WOW does time fly, when I started this I looked at a half marathon like the pinnacle of all achievements, now 13 miles some weekends is not even the length of my training runs...how things have changed.

That being said, I figured I'd share somethings I've learned along the way that others may find useful. Some of these took me years to figure out, some I have been doing from the start.

1. Always do some sort of warm up and cool down....no matter how far the distance, getting the body warm is the way to go.

2. Fuel: In events or trainings lasting over an hour, it's critical to get nutrition in. It may vary for each person, but for me 300-400 calories does the trick. I really learned this lesson last year training for my IMWI and have carried it over, even to my not so long workouts and it works. I can't remember the last time I "bonked" on any event or training since I've been fueling properly. You can be the best endurance athlete in the world, but if you don't fuel, you're going to falter.

3. Recovery: Be it an ice bath, recovery socks, getting in a 3:1 carb/protein drink after a workout, etc...do it. It's important. You need to give your muscles the nutrients to recover to prepare for the next workout. I have found ice baths (last year) and compression socks (this year) particularly helpful for a quick recovery after particularly hard workouts.. Some may think they look funny, but yes, I have worn them out in public. I look at it this way, if the person giving you the weird look even attempted half of what you were doing, they'd be in the ER with IV's all over them, so who is really having the last laugh?

4. HR zone training....another HUGE key for success. Get a VO2 max test so you know what your HR zones are and train in them. You should know your L1,L2,L3,L4 and L5 for both the bike and run. Once you know them, it's so much easier to make sure you are putting for the right effort for each workout. It's really dummy proof at that point.

5. Yoga. There I said it. Yes the Clyde does Yoga, usually at least once a week, but he tries to sneak it in twice a week. It works. Period. You will be stronger, more flexible and overall feel better. Personally I have gone from being able to only reach halfway below my knee to being able to touch my ankles, and it's only been 5 weeks since I started.

6. Weight Programs. Another key component, and I'm not talking meathead weights...programs such as Kettleball or P90X, (which I'm currently doing)...which incorporate real life movements w/ weights is where you want to be heading.

7. Sleep. Ties into 3. They say 8 hours is optimal, but even I have problems w/ that, so I try to make sure I get at least 7 a night.

So that's the list so far, it may seem very short and straightforward, but each one was "learned" by me at some point over the last 5 years. Each one has helped to make me a much better athlete than what I was when I toe'd the line that May 5 years ago. I'm sure in 10 years I'll have more to add for that's one of the greatest things about this sport, you never stop learning new tricks.

I'll be posting again soon....

2009-03-12T17:19:00.005-05:00

...but in the meantime, don't think I've been slacking.....weight/power wise I'm much further along that I was even vs Ironman training at last year at this time......this year should be a good one!!

And I've found a solid training partner as well.....and I'm not kidding when I say she has ridden that tri-cycle in circles for up to an hour and half straight while I do my workout.

You can't see it very well, but I'm actually watching a movie on my laptop....

(Notice the bail out stand to my right....luckily I no longer need that)

.....and yes, the garage is a disaster here....it's better now, thank you very much.

This is not a political statement....

2009-03-05T14:33:00.000-06:00

but " change "is coming.....stay tuned.

Treadmill "Speeds" vs Real Life Splits

2009-02-11T16:12:00.001-06:00

Pretty awesome link.

http://www.hillrunner.com/training/tmillchart.php

Almost done...

2009-01-27T21:32:00.003-06:00

Thought I'd share this little bit with you.....finally got around to editing my IMWI video. And yes I still think about IM several times a day, it really is worse than any drug out there.

Enjoy, I still think I want to touch up the ending, but not too bad for a few hours of editing.

(Found a nice little surprise at 2:50 as well, tonight was the first time I heard that)

I hope this counts as a post Pam, ha

A Stat to keep focus on.

2009-01-20T15:34:00.001-06:00

Weight lost---- seconds/minutes saved:

2 lbs - 12.4 seconds for a 5K, 25 secs for a 10K, 52 seconds for a half marathon, 1:45 for a full.
5 lbs - 31 sec - 5K, 1:02 -10K, 2:11 - half marathon, 4:22 - full
10lbs - 1:02 - 5K, 2:04 - 10K, 4:22 - half, 8:44- full
20lbs - 2:04 - 5K, 4:08 -10K, 8:44 - half, 17:28 - full

I'll be back with a real post soon. (OK Pam, ha.)

What the hell is that smell?

2008-12-18T09:17:00.005-06:00

Long story short.

Tuesday night at the health club I puked in the shower.

The reason? The stench of a guy that was in the locker room. It was sooo bad it literally gagged me until I puked. I am NOT kidding.

The closest thing I can think of to describe the stench would be to imagine if your feet were continually wet and left in boots for, say, 3 weeks. That dead skin, rotting smell.

I know I wasn't the only one who noticed or was offended by it because I heard another guy actually complain to the front desk about the stench too, not realizing it was actually coming from another patron.

So that's a first for me. Puking off of someone's body stench. Just thought I'd share. You're welcome.

Disgust.

2008-12-16T13:19:00.007-06:00

One of the things they don't tell you about in the parent manual when you have a child, (and if you think they actually give you a manual, I want to talk to you) is how much more aware you become of tragedies in today's world, especially ones towards children. It seems everyday I run across a news story that I wouldn't have paid attention pre-V. From the man who threw his 4 children off the bridge in Florida, to the mother in Sweden (I think it was), who called each of her children upstairs one by one, and held each one quitely in her lap, right before she slit their throats in an attempt to "save" them from the world. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with news anymore. Everytime I read one of these horrible stories, it just makes me sick to my stomach.

That being said, every time I hear about the Caylee Anthony story or a new development comes out from it, I feel like someone has just sucker punched me in the gut, leaving me short of breath. I'm not sure why this one has struck me so much. Maybe because Caylee was close in age to V, or because she very vaguely looks like my daughter or what, but I can tell you this case has really hit home with me.

Although the bones have not yet been 100% identified, they will be soon, I hope for all the supporters, volunteers, searchers, as well as Caylee's Grandparents, (who I feel have been duped by their daughter this whole time), that it will bring some kind of closure or peace during this holiday season. I don't know how I'd be able to deal with it if I was in their shoes. And although her mother will be given a proper trial, I hope they show her no mercy when they find her guilty and they do with her life exactly what she did to that poor little helpless girl.

Deja Vu.

2008-11-26T12:36:00.005-06:00

This post is not going to be a typical tri-talk/nonsense post. I know some of you know what I'm about to say, others don't. I'm going to share something that has been foremost in my thoughts for the past few months. It was also part of the reason I just didn't feel like blogging as I didn't feel like I was myself 100%. It was a part of me that I tried to suppress during my day at IMWI and just enjoy the day, but I also drew strength from it, knowing that I wasn't the only one battling for something.

As some of you may remember, just over a year ago, we had the unfortunate experience of going through this. Well lo and behold, in August, we found out that once again one of my little Michael Phelps had won its race again. We were ecstatic.

Fast forward about a week or so, towards the very end of the month. I was downstairs getting my clothes ready for work the next day when I heard a scream unlike one I've ever heard from J. It literally sent a chill down my spine just by the sound of it, you could hear the raw fear in it. I rushed upstairs, expecting the worse, I remember my heart beating out of my chest and that pure adrenaline rush take over my body.

It still bothers me to think about it, but my first thought was that J walked in to wish my daughter "goodnight" in her bedroom and found her not breathing or even worse, but that was not the case, thank God. To save the gory details, we'll just say that there was a lot of stuff discharged that shouldn't be there when one is with child. J was hysterical, I was very, very concerned and I didn't know what to do. So a quick call to her Mom to come over (at 11 PM) and we head to the ER.

All I was thinking was "not again". The first one was hard enough in the nature it happened, by us being totally blindsided, to have another, and for it to go like this without any warning again, I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to deal with it.

I remember the drive over to the hospital as seeming to go on forever (about 10 miles). I kept reassuring J that everything would be OK, but I wasn't sure myself. I didn't see how the outcome could be positive from what had just occured.

We get to the hospital, get checked in, and the moment of truth awaits. The ultrasound. The doctor grabs the wand, applies it to J's belly and then I see it. I see the little warrior in there and I see its little leg do a kick. I felt relieved. I am no doctor, but having been through enough ultrasounds by now, I thought things looked good. The doctor left the room for a minute and I told J that the baby was in there and that I saw it move. I thought we were in the clear.

The doctor returns and confirmed what I saw, the baby was alive, HR was fine. However, he also detected a blood sack that had formed in the placenta that was not normal. He seemed VERY concerned. We asked the question. He answered he didn't know. It could go either way. There were no official stats to back up one way or the other, we just had to let nature take its course. We were in the ultimate limbo. A trip to the OB/GYN was recommended, and we went within the next couple of days.

As good as our OB/GYN is, he pretty much echo'd what the ER doctors said. All we could do was go on as best we could, and hope for the best. The only way to be able to tell how this was going to turn out would be bi-weekly ultrasounds to measure the babies progress as well as to see if the sack was getting bigger or smaller. I'm not sure if any of you have ever felt completely helpless in a situation, but let me tell, it's the worse feeling in the world. There was literally NOTHING we could do, besides J taking it easy.

And so has been the story of my life the last few months. Every 14 days or so, we would go in and get checked. Checked by the regular OB/GYN, by the high risk OB/GYN, getting tested, measurements being taken, more tests. Every 14 days, going back and seeing how things are, every 14 days going in and hoping there's a heartbeat, hoping that there's movement. As you can imagine the process really starts to wear on you, it just emotionally drains you. It's there, always in your thoughts, and there's nothing you can do but wait. Wait through phrases like "high risk", "very concerned", and "up in the air", that even though our OB/GYN is great, he couldn't tell us the sentence we wanted to hear.

Until finally, a few weeks ago. When finally we started to hear words like "low risk", or "evasive action can be taken if need be" (ie the baby is getting to the point where it could be removed if need be, obviously worse case scenario), and better yet, the check ups have moved back in length, now 4-6 weeks. And so even though we are still not 100% out of the clear, things are looking much, much better.

And so we go on, best we can. The baby is now kicking hard enough to feel it through the tummy. J's starting to look preggers, and is gaining weight like she should. We are keeping our fingers crossed, but life these past few weeks have been much more enjoyable than the last few months.

I just thought I'd put this out there, as it seems to some like miscarriage is a taboo topic, but after researching it after our first one, they say anwhere from 10-25% of normal pregnancies will end in miscarriage. It blew my mind that it's that prevalent, 1 out of every 4 by the numbers, yet you don't hear about it much, people don't talk about it.

Not sure if this post proves anything, maybe it helps someone out there that has gone through one, knowing you are not alone. From my perspective, it feels good just to have it down "on paper" for once, so I can move on and look forward to numero dos's arrival, who, if things play out the way they should, has an ETA of March. Thanks for listening.

....and now back to our originally scheduled program........

Updates, Updates....

2008-11-18T21:22:00.005-06:00

Boy, it's been so long, I forget how to even write a quality post, if you could call my prior posts "quality".

Boobies. Poopie.

Well there, that's a start, at least it made me laugh.

Life has been fast and crazy lately. I went to Nashville and then Vegas all in the span of 7 days. That broke up what had been a pretty dedicated 5 weeks of working out.

I thought the offseason was a time to relax, but I'm still managing to get anywhere from 5-10 hours a week of workouts in. I'm loving it though. I'm getting faster everyday and that makes me very happy. Tonight, for example, did a 4 miler in 31 minutes, (all in primarily low zone 2 HR) so that gets me jacked up, knowing I'm doing that well now, if I can keep this up, I should be flying by the next race season.

Other than that, I must admit, I have become a TOTAL facebook addict....this "may or may not be" another reason this blog has taken a hit. It seems facebook is all I do, I mean it has even cut into my porn time, and that's saying a lot. (On a side note if any of you want to friend me up, just let me know, (Djgoldnboy1635@gmail.com)).

I'm still planning my 2009 race season, so far my only "for sure's" are the Green Bay Half Marathon and The Spirit of Racine Half Ironman, so if any of you know of a fun race besides those, I'm all ears.

I'm also kicking around doing an X-terra next year. I've been hitting the singletrack around here (amazingly it's pretty decent for Illinois) and that kind of has given me the itch to try it. We shall see.

I should be back around here more now, work is coming into its slow season, so that means my internets cruising time will go up.

Also pondering what I'd look like on this for the upcoming year, because I don't have a "true" road bike, and we all need one of those too, right? The new Felt AR road series.

(Note: this is like a subliminal message to the wife, you know, like plant the seed now and let her think about it, by March she'll accept it, see how that works? Feel free to use this technique yourself, no need to thank me).

Clyde, where the hell have you been?

2008-10-31T12:25:00.006-05:00

...give me another two weeks and I'll be back...life/work is getting crazy right now, still keeping up with the workouts and even trying to lose some weight...just not enough time to post anything worthwhile....that being said, enjoy some pics from Palos Park Forest Preserve...don't let these pics fool you, I only seem to take pictures where the terrain is easy for some reason.

Starting point...you can see the trail off to the right.

Yes that is hair on my chin....I figure if I'm going to go mountain biking more now, I might as well look the part.

Loop through Cemetary Hill......

Hole in the lake....weird.

A sweaty Clyde after a nice hour and half ride.

Be back in a week or two. Nashville this weekend, Vegas next...time to play a little!!

OK, last IM post for a while

2008-10-10T20:53:00.004-05:00

...sorry, I'm still on cloud 9 about it really......got my hands on this, of course he called my name out when I was up in the chute, so it's missing my name.....guess I'll just have to do another one so I can finally hear my name in front of "you are an Ironman"..... (I'm under the arch at :43 seconds on the clip, in red)

Inked...

2008-10-09T11:04:00.002-05:00

My apologies to Cindy Jo, who I know hates these from some of her posts.... but to all else, enjoy!!

(PS it's actually on my right leg as this picture was taken in a mirror with me looking back into it..)

No worrying about crowded lane lines here.....

2008-10-07T11:07:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow.....

2008-10-06T15:43:00.002-05:00

I'm doing it, enough of the debating.....tomorrow it is!!!!

Pics forth coming......

My day of Iron...Ironman Wisconsin 2008

2008-09-16T20:35:00.040-05:00

This is a long one......and sorry if some of the verbiage is weird, I'm trying to modify one race report for a few different groups of people (ie family/friends, tri-group, coaching group) without having to do a full length copy for each.....

I get up at 4:30 and I don’t know why, but I took a shower. I guess I just wanted to feel clean and I guess it did wake me up. Ate my race day morning nutrition (2 cliff bars, some Gatorade and half a banana) and started to get ready. I grabbed my special needs bags, my wetsuit, and we are out the door.

I go down get body marked and then head to the terrace thinking that’s where I needed to drop off special needs. Luckily another athlete saw me kind of looking around and informed me that the special needs was actually two blocks north by the capitol.

(Me trying to figure out where special needs is)

So I trek up there to drop the bags off,…get back and I’m pretty much under the gun to get down to the lake. I make my way down, ran into coach who gave me some last words of advice while giving me a shot to the tummy (photo evidence)

...I say goodbye to everyone, zip up and eventually make my way into the water.

(off I go!!)

SWIM:

I feel calm.

I must say, there is something special about sitting in the water and looking up and just seeing people EVERYWHERE. On the sidewalk path, up both of the helices, on top of the terrace, everywhere I could see, there were people. It was something I’ll never forget.

I tread water as the pros go and I know my day will start soon. The kayaks start moving and before you know it the gun goes off and away we go.

I must admit, the swim wasn’t half as bad as I was expecting. Sure, there were a few parts where it seemed to get congested, but overall I didn’t get elbowed or kicked around like the horror stories I’ve heard. It could be that I was throwing elbows at everyone around me like I was in a cat fight and kicking really hard so people would back off……just kidding…..but honestly, I didn’t think it was that bad at all, a few close calls, but nothing too bad overall. Just like Sat, it was VERY cool to swim along the terrace and see all the people clinging all over it. It definitely made the swim go by pretty quick, at least mentally.

My race plan for the swim per coach was to start off with a moderate effort for the first loop, and then kind of back off the second loop. That’s exactly what I did. I felt good for the entire swim. I make the last corner, and swim the last straight away back to the shore, look up and the clock reads 1:20. Not the quickest, but I’ll take it. I felt great, which was more important to me than time anyway.

(I'm in the middle there)

T1:

Run out of the water, past my friends (stop for a quick pic) and up the helix. Grab my bags, run into the mass naked room, and change. Do a fairly quick clothes change, throw on some Assos Cream (sorry but that name cracks me up no matter how many times I use it) and I’m out. Grab my bike, run towards the end of transition and I’m on my way.

BIKE:
The plan for me was to go zone 1 for the first 30 miles, then climb to mid zone 2 for miles 30-108, and bring it back down to low zone 1 for the last 4 miles to spin and get my legs ready for the run.

As I get down the helix and head out on John Nolan drive, I once again ride by my friends (who have ran from one side of Monona terrace to the other as I was in T1) and they cheer me on. About 1/2 down the road, I hear this yelling from the road. I look over and much to my surprise it was Cheese and Meg, in their vehicle, heading out to the bike course. Talk about totally random.

I have to admit, as I was heading out, I felt like I was standing still numerous times. People were just BLASTING by me. “Race your race, this is your first one, all you need to do is finish”, I kept saying to myself. It took me about 5-10 miles to get my heart rate down to Z1 where it needed to be but I did it and stayed the course. I got to Verona and started the loop.

I’m not sure if you have all done the loop or not, but let me tell you, that stretch from Verona to Mt. Horeb, except for the first 4 miles or so, you are not missing much. It’s a series of false flats, along with some small climbs, and a couple of downhills that seem to end in turns and are definitely not as far down as the hills are up. To me that part of the course is just mind numbing, but I kept my heart rate in check and pushed on through. Made the corner into Mt. Horeb and hit the first climb.

By this time I was allowed into zone 2, so I felt good up the hill and knew one “fun” part of the course was coming up. Made it through the town, and hit the rollers. Now being a Clyde, as you can guess, hills are not exactly my strong point, however, the downhills are. So for the next 5 miles or so after Mt. Horeb, I was yo-yo’ing with a lot of people. They would get me on the climb and I would literally blow by them on the downhill. Made my way through the rollers after Mt. Horeb and got to where it primarily downhills into Cross Plains. I started to pass a lot of the people here that had passed me earlier in the race before Verona.

Made my way through Cross Plains and onto the “bitches” as they call them. Up the first long one, with all the spectators there it made it feel MUCH different than when I rode it during the summer. It was great. Almost every step of the way someone was yelling out my number or encouraging me on. I made it up the long climb and spotted my family and friends just after the crest. So I passed them by giving them a close buzz by and then it was on to the short and steep hill one mile down the road.

(My little girl, this is one of my all time favorite pictures.)

Again, the spectators on this hill made it a night/day comparison to when I rode it during the summer. I knew another hill was four miles down the road, but it felt good to have the first loop pretty much down. I ended up seeing my friends Casey and Dave on that last hill so I made it up that last climb with those two encouraging me on and got back to Verona (where I saw Meg and Cheese again, Meg screaming so loudly she almost scared me off my bike, haha). I stopped at special needs once I got through Verona to refuel with my Carbo Pro for a quick second and then was on for loop number two.

The second loop was pretty much the same, except for the mind numbing Verona to Mt. Horeb leg, the wind decided it would pick up drastically. So not only did we have to deal with the false flats, and overall slow elevation gain, we were riding straight into the wind.

And oh yeah, this was also the area where some kind lady decided to take a piss on her bike, RIGHT IN FRONT of me. Now I’m not the rant type, but let’s think about this for a second. Right about this time in the race, we are somewhere between 1300 or 1400th place, I’m just saying. I mean, is it really going to kill you to stop and take a piss at one of the porta potties that were along the course? And if you have to take a leak on the bike which I guess I can come to deal with, couldn’t you at least look back to make sure no one is right behind you (4 bike lengths of course)….I’m just saying, I mean I had my aero-bottle on the front of my bike, directly in the line of fire…yeah you get the picture. So I shot out and passed her and wiped that straw down as many times as I could before I took another drink. Unreal.

So after that little dilemma, I made it to Mt. Horeb…on the climb into the town my left hammy felt like it was about to cramp up, you know how the leg kind of gives you that “warning” twitch? Well mine did. So I immediately threw down a few electrolyte tablets. It would be a concern for the next ten minutes or so as I know the second round of rollers where coming up. Luckily they did the trick and I made it up the hills......

-

....through Verona, where my support crew had moved, so it was great to see them as I knew the hard part of the bike course was over and the wind would be at my back the rest of the way. With that I headed back to Madison, up one last hill, which was tougher than I thought it would be, and finally the course flattened out and I closed in on Madison.

My bike time was 6:50. Not exactly the fastest, but when you consider I was in zone 1 for the first 30 miles and the headwind on the second loop, I’ll take it. Again, goal number 1 was to just finish.

T2

So I drop off my bike and head into T2 to change. Get my bag, and start changing. It’s right around this time that I decided I had to let one fly. So I start to pass it when all of a sudden I get a code red from down there, not good. Considering I had been sitting on the bike for 6+ hours, I didn’t exactly have full control, if you catch my drift. Luckily, I was able to contain it before any got out. By this time I didn’t have my shoes on. I threw my glasses, HR watch and visor into my shoes, and head out of T2 with them in my hand. I head directly to the porta potty…THANK GOD they were right by transition. So I get in there and I will not go into details, but let’s just say I came out A LOT lighter than I went in. (and it also explains the 15 minute T2 time, honestly I had to be in there for 10 minutes). So while I’m taking care of business, I put on my shoes, sync up my Garmin, get my glasses and visor on. I finally feel comfortable (or safe) enough to stand up, and head out on the run.

Run:

To my amazement, I start running and my legs feel FRESH as can be. I head out very encouraged. I really don’t remember much of the first few miles. I do remember the crowds, and tons of people cheering me since I had my bib number on my front. The nice thing about Ironman is that aid stations are placed every mile, so if you don’t look at the big picture, but rather think “It’s just a mile until the next aid station”, the miles tend to click by, at least for me they did.

The only mistake I made on the run, was that I forgot to put the orange gu’s in my jersey for the first half of the race (I could have sworn I did on Sat when I packed my run jersey). Luckily with all the aid stations though, I was able to get powergels, even though they are not my favorite. The first half of my run went well. I was averaging 9:30-10 min/miles the first 12 miles or so. It was there that my legs started to act up.

Not many of you know, but up until about 4 weeks ago, I could barely run. Pretty much right after the Spirit of Racine, they basically went to hell. I had major right hammy and left quad pain when I ran and when I did run, I could barely muster 13 min/miles, much different than the 7:45 min/mi pace I was doing in May and June. Luckily through weekly deep tissue massage and tons of stretching, my legs did get much, much better the last few weeks. Unfortunately it meant that the longest run I was able to do was 14 miles, and that was way back in May. So it only made sense that my body would start to fight me at this point.

However things were not that bad. I was still able to run, just not able to push off as hard as I would like. So instead of 9:30 to 10:30 min/miles I was doing at this point, I had to ease up and settled into about an 11 to 12 min/mile pace. Mentally I felt fine, same goes for my heart rate, it was in check, it’s just that I couldn’t push my legs harder without fear of them giving out.

So I started out the second loop, got my Gu’s finally from my special needs bag, and was on my way again. The second loop was fine, I never was in a position where I thought I wasn’t going to finish, or where I couldn’t push forward. There were a few times were a pain would flair up, but I just kept thinking “It’s suppose to hurt, if it didn’t everyone would do it”…..that motto kept me going.

I eventually made it up and down state street and I knew I had only 6 more miles until the moment would come that I have been dreaming about for the last nine months. One longer stretch out along the lake to the last turnaround and I knew it was 4 more miles to go. At this point, my legs just seemed to get lighter. My garmin at this point had lost reception, but I can tell you that I “surged” those last 4 miles. I only stopped at one aid station that last home stretch. I could taste it.

I got to the last climb around the capitol and I could hear it, I could hear the man from the elevator a couple of days of before. If I wasn’t a man, I would say that I shed a tear or two, but I’m a manly man, so of course that didn’t happen…….I made it up that last incline around the capitol (again what kind of sick joke is that?)…..to where it flattens out and I can see the left turn that’s going to take me home.

From here on out I don’t know how to type it. Something took over me. All I know is I was yelling the whole way down. I remember jumping in the air a couple of times, but then felt my legs cramping up, so decided against doing that again. I remember clenching my fists and raising my hands in the air in a “pump up the crowd” motion (all the while I’m still yelling, of course) and I remember running along side of the fence and clapping people’s hands down the chute.

You know what I don’t remember? That’s right, I don’t remember (or didn’t hear above my own yelling) Mike Reilly saying “Chris Schabel, you are an Ironman!!”….so now I have to wait for the little finish line video you can buy to hear the words, haha.

Finish Time: 13:33 --- not the fastest in the world, just on the back side of middle of the pack, but to be honest, I couldn’t be more pleased considering it was my first one.

Overall this year has been one of the best experiences of my life, it has made me stronger of a person than I ever thought I could be (both mentally and physically). It’s over a week later and I still can’t stop smiling. Putting on that M-dot official piece of clothing for the first time was such an honor for me, it’s something I’ll never forget.

To me, I guess that’s what it’s all about. Not everyone has Kona qualifying ability, but if you can you look at yourself in the mirror after it’s all over and say, I gave it all I could, trained the best I could and I respected the distance to the best of my ability, well then it really doesn’t matter if you finished first or with four seconds to go, like the lady did at the end of the race this year. You are an Ironman, and no one can ever take that from you.

(On a side note, were any of you there for the finish at midnight? I was, I came back after I ate and showered. For the lady that finished with 4 seconds to go I was almost as excited for her to finish as I was for my own finish – 4 seconds to go before the cut-off!!! The crowd went CRAZY when she finally crossed the line, it was pure pandemonium. When the finish line video comes out, check hers out for sure and just watch the crowd, unbelievable).

Not sure what’s next. For the first couple of days after the race, I wasn’t thinking of doing another IM until 2010, but to be honest, these last couple of days I’ve been thinking I’m not sure if I want to wait that long….so I think I’ll give myself a few weeks to ponder it. It’ll have to be either Louisville next year (which would be fun as it sounds like a few of you are doing that) as that’s the only one in the US still open, or something in 2010

To finish up this post, I just want to say "THANK YOU" to everyone who has supported me...this post already has take over two hours (poor me, I know)..so I'm not able to fit every detail of the day I wanted to with everyone, but I want you all to know it's not forgotten.

To my family, all of you that came out, it meant the world to me. Jeanette, you've been a top notch IM widow all year. Letting me come and go pretty much as I please for workouts. I couldn't have done it without you.

Cheese and Meg, all day you were awesome, how such a big sound comes out of such a small girl still amazes me. Wade, Casey, Josh, Matty, thanks for making it up to see me, I know it was a long day for you guys too. Amy and Mark, although I hear there was some difficulty meeting up with the crew, it was great to have you out there to cheer me on. For my MSM south tri-group, I can't ask for more. The support, training rides and knowledge all of you have given me this past year was very much appreciated. To the TFP crew and Coach, obviously you saw me through this year and got me to the finish line. To Dave, Dan, Steve (even though you scared the hell out of me, haha) for rooting me on during the day, Glenda and Lauri for taking care me at the finish. To the ladies I saw out on the course cheering me on as well, I truly appreciate it (sorry I don't have all your names down yet, but I will be around more next year to help you all prepare for 2009). Mommymeepa, thanks for medaling me. Spandex King, sorry I didn't get to talk to you after I finished, but I will be up there next year volunteering, so you bet your ass I'll be cheering for you. To everyone who reads this blog that gave Jeanette an email of encouragement to give to me, she printed all them up and I opened those up the night before the race, I laughed at some, perhaps shed a tear at the others, thank you, it was pure motivation for the next day....now I know what it feels like when an actor wins an award...I hope I'm not forgetting anybody. Thank you to all.

Out.

Thurs- Sat

2008-09-12T22:58:00.014-05:00

Thursday: Decided to head up to Madison on Thursday for a few reasons. One being the Hilton required a 4 night stay and two my parents were coming up to camp at nearby Stoughton for the weekend (Viking Village – GREAT campground), so I figured a little downtime wouldn’t hurt. Got to the hotel, checked in, dumped my stuff in the room and as we were getting on the elevator to go down, I look up and who happens to be in the elevator? The voice of Ironman himself, Mike Reilly. So I make some small talk and as we are about to leave the elevator I tell him I’m looking forward to him announcing my name on Sunday as I cross the line, then I said my name to him slowly (first and last), so he could announce it correctly, haha. After that we headed out to the campground (a quick 10 mile drive) and actually decided to just sleep in my parents camper that night.

Friday: Got up, came back to Madison, registered, got my transition bags, race stickers and checked out some of the stuff at the expo.

Spent most of the day at the hotel and Monona Terrace then head back to my parents camper early afternoon, dropped off the little one, and headed back for the athlete meeting. Meeting overall was pretty informative, a few funny points, and oddly morbid as they spent a good chunk of time explaining all the different ways you could die on Sunday. After that Cheese and Meg stopped by my room for a little bit and then it was time for bed. They say it’s not the night before a race that’s the most important, but the night two days before the race, so I wanted to make sure I got a good nights sleep.

Sat: I get up around 9 and head down to the Gatorade swim. Coach said to do a 5 min warm up – 10 minute medium effort- then 5 minute cool down. Swim felt good. It was kind of surreal to be swimming with the huge building right along the lake front, but having something to look at seemed to pass the time of the swim.

After the swim, headed up to the room and got the bike ready, checked over my bags for the last time.

I went down and dropped them off at the terrace and my bike in transition."No turning back now" I said to myself.

Future Ironman?

See, she's going for the finish line already.....

Can you find The Clyde?

As I was dropping of my bags at the terrace, I ran into fellow blogger Mommymeepa, who was volunteering (thank you, ALL the volunteers were top notch throughout the weekend). It was nice to meet up with in the real world for once!

After that, as you guessed it, we headed back out to the campground. I rounded up the troops (Meg and Cheese met up again with us, along with my family) and we drove around one loop of the bike course to show them what I’d be up against the next day. It was a nice refresher for me, although I had biked the loop 3 times already. After the drive, judging by the looks on their face, I pretty much got the notion they thought I had lost my mind. I just kept hearing them say, “You have to do this TWICE?" and I believe Meg something to the effect of "If you make it through that tomorrow, you have definitely EARNED your Ironman"

After that, my wife’s parents were coming into town for the night and so we all had a nice spaghetti dinner put on by my Mom at the campground. It was a pretty relaxing meal and a nice added surprise showed up. One of my best friends, Wade who said he couldn’t make the race had flown in from Virginia and surprised me at the campground. After the meal we all said our goodbye’s and I made my back to the hotel. A quick call to coach, and I was in bed. Although it took me about 3 hours to fall asleep, I eventually managed and got very good sleep for 5 hours I was able to squeeze in.

Looking at the finish line.

View I was looking at Saturday night from my hotel room.

Race Report ..

2008-09-10T22:21:00.006-05:00

...it's coming, trust me. However, it's back to real life for a few days first (I had 500 emails in my inbox when I got back to work today, sure not ALL work related, but still, I was only out 4 days!!!)....

I'm going to break up the report into 4 parts, so I don't totally bore you with one long one.

In the meantime, the sweet taste of victory, as pictured below....

Just one pic for now...

2008-09-08T20:58:00.003-05:00

This is for my boy Moonpie.....

....you know, The Clyde just chilling with his good friend, Hillary Biscay, who just happened to win the race yesterday.

IRON!!

2008-09-08T08:40:00.001-05:00

Have to get packed up and home, but I did it!!! More later.

The Storm Before The Calm Before Storm.

2008-09-03T21:41:00.005-05:00

Well my fellow friends, bloggers, lurkers, etc....I was going to post a nice long post on the eve of heading up for Madison, but truth of the matter is, I just gotz no time to do it.

Between trying to figure out how to stop my effing bike seat post from creaking (last minute of course because I finally found out the true cause of the noise), to packing (casual suitcase and race suitcase), to making sure I have everything (bike, check, shoes, check), to trying to tie up all loose ends at work (let's not even go there, taking 4 days off during my busy season), etc, etc...you get the idea...the last few days have been pretty nonstop.

So with that being said, now that everything is almost packed up, work is behind me, and all I have is a little car ride up to Wisconsin, I feel the next couple of days will be much more relaxing than the last few were. (And who knows, maybe I'll have time for that long sappy post about what this race means to me over the next couple of days, we'll see)

I'll post pictures as best I can over the next few days. As a veteran of many races non-Iron distance, I realize that the first of any kind of race is always extra special, and I want to absorb as much of it as I can.

I really don't have a game plan for the next couple of days. I know Cheese and Megan are coming up Friday sometime, so we'll be hanging out when they arrive I'd imagine. Saturday, I was thinking if anyone wants to meet for lunch we can (do bike check in then get some food), and then after that (Sat afternoon) I am planning on driving one loop of the bike course to show my parents and Mrs. Clyde the "roller coaster" course that it is, but that's about all I have on the schedule. (I guess there is an hour long mandatory athlete meeting Friday night as well.)

If any of you are interested in lunch or course preview Saturday, either give me a call or text (I know this is taboo to put your number on the scary 'net, but 847-323-3037 is my number), or email me at Djgoldnboy1635@gmail.com (Goes to my blackberry so I have email where ever I go) and I'll let you know when plans are finalized.

And with that, I'm off. I'm nervous, excited, scared, confident all in one. These next few days are going to be "totally epic"....if you catch my drift.

On my way, on my way....hopefully to be...

(BTW...... HUGE props to Cheese's designer friend who came up with this logo for me, I always knew Cheese was that artsy type. Yes, I said artsy, not fartsy, but both do apply.)

Trying to start her early....

2008-09-02T20:03:00.002-05:00

...but so far this is about as far as I have got......although it's a pretty cool little bike trainer...she's still just a tad short for it...a few more weeks and she'll be flying all over the place I'm sure.

One last IM post tomorrow, then I'm heading up Thursday AM......

Bib Number

2008-08-30T09:23:00.002-05:00

From this day forward, I will be officially known as Christopher Allen Quinientos Setenta Ocho.

Hey, if he can do it so can I right?

Fool.

Bib #578.

T-minus 1 week.

I've got to go poop now.

Last Chance Workout

2008-08-26T12:18:00.009-05:00

So I had mistakenly thought my taper would be 3 weeks, but rather it's more like a 2 week process. Probably better for me that way as I feel like I'll go stir crazy not giving a good effort for 3 weeks.

That being said, I headed up Saturday with a group of riders from the Fitness Pursuit and headed to Madison to ride TWO loops of the course.

It was a great time. I have never met the majority of the group and they all made me feel like I was an old friend. If only I lived closer I would be able to participate in more of the fun stuff they do up there. Perhaps some persuading of Mrs. Clyde is in order.

Anyway here are some of the highlights:

1. I didn't realize our bus driver was actually a Fitness Pursuit member, so I couldn't believe it when he parked the bus and pulled out his bike. I remember thinking "Damn, this guy doesn't know what he's in for with this group". Only to realize a few minutes later he was a member (and a fellow Clyde at that, so him and I got along - you know us Clydes have a demented sense of humor). It was funny, I guess you had to be there.

2. Really getting down my nutrition/water,etc. I was fine all day. No hunger and the body felt great. I had one minor cramp the last 1/4 of the last hill on the second loop. Gave it a few quick rubs with the hand and it was good to go. Not sure if it was a mental cramp as I knew I was done or what, but 3 miles later it was gone and my leg felt 100%. Either way I'm going to bring electrolytes on the bike with me just in case.

3. Having the advantage of the course virtually memorized now. For those of you who have not rode it, there are about 9-10 decent climbs, 3 of them being pretty good efforts. (Those 3 are all after Cross Plains)

Remember this, I'll do one last quick course overveiw. Once you complete the first hill coming into Mt. Horeb, you're done for about a mile or two as you go through the town. Then you have about 5 good miles of rolling hills, pretty much up and down that whole time (but you can FLY on the downhill of these). After that you have a nice little recovery area (about 10 miles or so) and then once you pass through Cross Plains and around Lake Katherine on the right, you have another 4-5 miles with 3 good climbs. ("Long and Sexy" as I like to call hill 1 for obvious reasons, "popcorn" (it just pops up on you) as the TFP'ers call hill 2 (note: only about a mile inbetween hill 1 and 2) and then "south beach" for hill 3 (look to left on the hill and the houses look like they should be from Cali) this is about 2-3 miles after the first two).

4. After riding it 3 times now, I really do find the course enjoyable. If you pace yourself right, stay within your HR numbers, it can be a lot of fun, almost like a rollercoaster ride to some extent. My speed ranged from 46mph all the way down to 4mph....

5. I'm not over confident, but I'm much less nervous about the bike than I was last week. Loop 2 we had a firm headwind coming from Verona out to Mount Horeb (about 10-14 miles), it was here that I really drew upon a previous training day. I knew I had biked further in stronger winds, in worse shape than I am now and for a longer distance than what I was about to do...even though I had a loop under me, I was able to keep a good pace in zone 2 HR through the wind and smaller hills and felt fine riding the rest of loop when the wind was aiding me.

6. Getting to pick the brain of one of the TFP'ers who did the course last year. Despite a very noise bottom bracket that he put up with (don't worry Flash is in the shop as I type this, it got pretty bad out there), it was great to pick his brain and listen to what he had to say about the race in general.

7. Being able to shower at the pool after the ride and Dan giving the lifeguards an accidental half flash due to him only having a small golf towel to cover himself.

All in all, a VERY good day for me. If I feel only 50% as well as I felt on Saturday, I'll be fine for the bike portion of the race.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

16 Days....

2008-08-21T12:53:00.001-05:00

Spectator Guide - IMWI

2008-08-18T11:08:00.003-05:00

For you blog readers, here is an "early preview" of the spectator guide I put together for my friends/family that are going to the race.

For you other IMWI participants, feel free to download and copy it/change it, because that's what I did from another guy (you may have to sign up to Scribd, but it's free, and then can you download it as a PDF or Word, etc)...I feel it's a pretty thorough spectator guide.

Ironman Wisconsin Spectator Guide - Upload a Document to Scribd

Great Weekend

2008-08-18T10:05:00.004-05:00

I tell you friends, if every weekend was like this one for Ironman training, I'd be doing them every month.

Friday - 8 mile run with The Big Cheese after work (he actually got assigned to some storm damage claims close to where I live so it worked out). Nice and steady, Cheese is battling through some injuries right now. Remember Man, stretch and ice. Especially after you run.

Sat - Early morning swim with the tri group, at a great "secret spot" in the city that we decided to try out to see how it was. (Plus there were not one, but TWO different model photo shoots going on at different times during the morning, tough to compete with that Ohio St. beach, sorry.) Not to mention it's marked off nicely as a 1/2 mile from one side of the bay to the other. Besides the photo shoot, there was maybe 4 or 5 people there max. We had the place all to our own. 12 mile bike right after the swim, headed up to the city on the bike path that goes right by the beach.

Side note - got in a minor bike accident (not my fault), but luckily didn't get hurt. Apparently this girl saw no harm in taking a blind corner in the left lane (ie the oncoming traffice lane) on the bike trail. I'll bet she drives down the wrong side of the interstate as well. Her front tire hit right behind my foot, so I was lucky. She took a tumble, I didn't. I didn't feel bad, sorry I didn't. It's hard for me to sympathize with stupidity. Asked her if she was alright, she said "yes" and then I headed on. The biker I had just passed that was behind me actually gave her a little earful for me anyway from what I heard as I was pulling away.

Sun - 56 mile bike/4 mile run with the tri group and one of my best friends GB who came along too. Beautiful morning and I felt strong. Mindy's Buffalo Chicken Wrap for the post workout meal. Nothing to complain about here. Nothing. At. All.

And there my friends, you have a GREAT weekend, if only every training weekend could have be so much fun.

T-minus 3 weeks....run taper has begun. 80 miles on Sat (two loops of the bike course)...and that's all she wrote until the big dance. WOW.

IMWI 2008 Blogger Meet Up/Lunch?

2008-08-13T15:20:00.004-05:00

I know last year was the mega huge RaceAthlete blogger convention at IMWI, and to my knowledge no one so far has set anything up like that (or at least I haven't been invited yet, don't worry I will not take it personally).

So I'm just going to throw it out there.

If anyone wants to do a lunch gathering Fri or Sat, let me know. I would say we could do Fri dinner, but there's that "mandatory" dinner us athletes (and I use that term loosely with myself) must attend, so that puts the kibosh on that idea.

If interested, leave a comment, or better yet email directly at Djgoldnboy1635@gmail.com and I'll get a group email together. I know Meg, Cheese and I (and a few non blogger friends of mine) will be hanging out for sure for a good portion of that weekend, so if anyone wants to join us, feel free. As Meg can attest, Cheese and I don't smell THAT bad.

Also, go over and send some good vibes Spandex King's way on his recovery....he hit a deer going 40 on his bike...he's been training for IMWI all year, and now he will not be able to compete. I feel soooo bad for him, I'm just stunned, just goes to show you can't take ANYTHING for granted. Freak shit can happen anytime.

Some Days It Pays To Be President....

2008-08-11T10:57:00.004-05:00

......just like a kid in a candy store.

Flash....Version 2.0

2008-08-03T16:59:00.003-05:00

Before:

After:

Yes, yes everybody, here she is in FULL glory, Flash, Version 2.0.

Sorry for the long delay on this (like you really care, but still, humor me). It's been an interesting week getting these things on and up and running. There were several things I didn't realize I needed. Rim tape, removable core inner tubes, valve extenders, etc.... are all things I learned about the hard way about this week. But in the end it's all good, I figured it out. (Not to mention I can now also change a tire using just my hands thanks to the numerous times I had to change inner tubes this week, so some good did come out of it.)

I had a 10 mile ride on them yesterday, and a 102 mile ride on them today. For all of you out there who are not sure about getting race wheels, after my last two days on them, I can tell you they are 100% worth it. And whats nice about these C2's is that they really are durable, enough to use as your everyday rim, so you can really get your money's worth if you want.......(according to Annie Hed and I'd think she would know.)

I was going to go into this whole big thing of why HED vs Zipp, but I'm not feeling like it now. And that's boring gibberish anyway....basically there was a thread on Slowtwitch that covers most of it (an employee of HED responded as to why the C2's haven't been making much noise since they were recently released, he said they don't spend much money on marketing, they let word of mouth/the product sell themselves essentially), but I don't think you can wrong either way really. My interactions with HED have been top notch both times I called them. First, talking with Annie, then a week later with the sales guy who answered my questions honestly as I was placing the order -this was about an upgrade to the wheels that he didn't think was worth the extra cost.

I can't begin to tell you what an impression these rims have made on me in just my two rides. As you can see on that link, these things are WIDE. I removed my old tires, and the new ones barely fit in the brakes, even though they were "released" to let the other tires out. You can read on the link, but apparently the wider rim has a ton of advantages. I can tell you that compared to my other rims, they corner super aggressively, you can really feel the tire "grip" the road. I could also noticeably tell the lower drag of the rims, on my century ride today, even though I was only zone 1 and 2, I still could feel the bike just "push" forward, almost on it's own it felt like sometimes. Right now (about 3 hours after the ride), I still have the biggest smile on my face, I couldn't be happier.

So there you have it folks, Flash 2.0 as she'll be called from here on out. I have to go take care of business, if you know what I mean, no redtube needed today, I'll just be thinking of my new Jet C2's (60 on the front, 90 on the back).

(Oh and btw, the rims are the reason for no new bike or moped this year....I decided I would probably be best served with new rims vs. a new bike. I can use these rims for a long time, even on new bikes down the road . I also felt guilty for attempting my first IM on something other than FLASH (not 2.0 at the time), who has basically gotten me to where I'm at right now. It's not like she's that out of date yet as a frame (carbon forks and aluminum mainframe). I figured new rims would give me more speed than a new bike with stock rims. So that was what I decided to go with, I think I made the right decision.)

I got 'em....

2008-07-28T10:37:00.002-05:00

All I can say is "WOW"....pics to follow in the next few days when they are up and running.....

A DNF in pictures.....

2008-07-20T18:58:00.017-05:00

Let's get this party started.....body marking in the morning......(by the look on my face you'd think she's holding a needle)
Get the legs too....notice the little one in pink checking out the massive calves...don't be frightened, they will not attack unless I tell them too, haha.
This schmuck wouldn't be smiling if he knew what was going to happen today.......The Clyde is ready to get this race going...
I'm in here in the middle to the left, setting up my bike.
Walking to the beach with Meg, talking about holding in poop or going before the race, why Cheese chooses Minnesota over us, the water temperature, "I don't read him", and bunch of other fun stuffe .....

Dennis, myself and Meg, just before we learned our faces were going to freeze. Water temp was a balmy 56 or so degrees.
Me telling "the boys" they'll be alright, just ride high and tight for the next 40 mins or so...
Yes, my face froze like this....notice the fog in the background...the race was delayed a full hour, and the fog never lifted....sighting was a total nightmare. Does anyone look good in a swim cap and googles? Cuz I sure don't done.
Start of the Clydes, I'm in there somewhere.
Out of the water....notice all the bikes in my rack...I had a GREAT swim for me (33:31), felt fine getting on to the bike, was ready to rock.
What great timing, eh?
Climbing up the hill (on the right in white).... literally right out of transition.....with these two pictures, you've seen approximately 25% of my time on the bike. I got up that hill, turned right and settled in. Grabbed a GU from my pocket and "BAM".....was all I heard....next thing I know my front tire is all loose on me...I look down...the tire is off the rim.....I swerve to the left, right into oncoming traffic lanes, without any control (LUCKILY no oncoming traffic or you'd be reading my obituary right now, seriously).

Somehow I managed to get the bike under control and land on a grass patch between the sidewalk and the road. Dump the bike and get my spare tube out of the pack from under my seat. Start to change the front.....all of a sudden I take a look at my back tire, that's flat too. GAME OVER. I only had one tube. I didn't know what to do. I sat on the curb for a good 15 minutes, wondering what to do? I realized most don't carry more than one tube, so should I ask? Should I wait for course officials? Finally pick up my bike and do my walk of shame back to transition....it was a long, lonely walk.
My bike, the only one on the racks....I thought at the very least I could do is take a picture, as this is the only time it'll ever be the only bike in the racks by itself (you can see it on the the third rack from the front).

On the DNF....for the first few hour or two, I was "OK" with it I guess, as "OK" as you can be. As the day went on and I saw all the others coming in off the bike, then heading out on the run, etc...it really started to bother me more and more. I have never DNF'd. Never. It's not in my vocabulary. In this situation I felt I was more than prepared (considering I've had maybe 4 total flats in my 3 years of triathlon -- 2 of them being today), I never even considered carrying two extra tubes. Lesson learned I guess. Such a bummer though, because I felt SOOO good out of the water...I was very excited for the short time I was on the bike. Temp was great, body felt fine, and I was ready to roll.......or so I thought....

SOO....when's my next "race" you ask? Well I talked to coach, and since I have vacation this week, he "ok'd" a self supported HIM on Wednesday....which is great.....I've got a little score to settle.......

Also, if you guys could, stop by Meg's and give her a comment or two of support, she had a really tough day in HORRIBLE water conditions (no visibility and very, very cold temps).

Spirit of Racine....RACETIME FINALLY!

2008-07-15T10:43:00.007-05:00

Going to be another crazy week, so this will probably be my only post.

I FINALLY have a race this weekend. Spirit of Racine Half Ironman. It's going to be a much needed break from all this training...finally being able to throw down (hopefully) a little bit and see what I can do.

I haven't disclosed it yet, because I know the Pro Males would think I'm weak and use it to their game plan advantage against me, but I have had a quad pull for the last 2-3 weeks or so that I'm trying to overcome. Hopefully it holds up this weekend. I'm able to run, just the first few miles are always a little awkward until it gets warmed up and it flares up a little after if I "forget" to stretch. Nothing really major, just nagging, that's all

It's funny two years ago (Steelhead)...I was SO worried if I could even do this distance, this year it's almost like the race is part of a short training day...weird. And hey, you get to run through a zoo on the run course, so that should be something to keep my mind busy.

I know there are quite a few of you guys that are going to be in Racine, so if you see me "in the real" world, don't be afraid to say "Hi"....I'm only a prick on the blog.

Also, stop by Moonpie (1st Ironman) and Cindy Jo's (multiple finisher) place and wish them luck at IM USA this weekend. As soon as I'm home from Racine, I'll be on the laptop, victory brew in hand, rooting them on, in between my porn sessions, of course.

A New Arrival....

2008-07-11T13:57:00.006-05:00

......shall be here within a couple of weeks......stay tuned.

(Hint: I just got off the phone talking to Annie Hed for about 10 minutes. Found out she's doing IMWI this year after a 17 year absence from Ironman. She did her first OF FIFTEEN Ironmans starting in 1983, but had been "retired" since 1991, talk about old school. She said her kids are grown up and gone now, business is running well (hint, hint) and she's ready to roll again. How cool is that?).

The Long, Lonely Road........

2008-07-08T10:33:00.007-05:00

I think the mental part of training is really starting to mess with me. Maybe it's because I feel like I haven't really "nailed" a non swim workout in two weeks to my liking. Maybe it's the heat and humidity (along with all the storms this summer) that it seems like the same day over and over again when I'm out training. It just seems lately I'm less and less thrilled to do certain workouts. Oh I still do them, and have missed very few workouts, just to clarify, as coach reads this ;-) , it just seems lately like my "umph" is a little bit tarnished.

I guess coming into triathlon I realized it is an individual sport, much different than what I have participated in my whole life, ie... baseball, basketball, golf -individual, but you normally golf with others, hell even snowboarding I always go with friends. But here's the thing. Throughout this IM training so far, I have done a GREAT majority of the training all by lonesome self.

Don't get me wrong, I'm part of a great triathlon group (have to give some love to them, they read this too, haha) Multisport Madness. They do tons of training things everyweek/weekend. The problem comes with Me. A lot of the stuff they have planned just doesn't jive with my open training time, not to mention that in the last 8 weekends, I've been away from home about 6 of them. The one weekend I was home, I did the Metlife Duathlon with them, which was a total blast, the other weekend I was going to do a ride with the group, the thunderstorm gods put the kabosh on that idea. (We met, and then saw the clouds and decided it's best not to ride). And so I continue on.

I'm not sure why I felt the need to post this, maybe to just get it off my chest, and see if others have felt the same, but it even feels like when I'm out training on the trails/roads. I am the only one.

Take yesterday for example. 8 mile run, that I started about 3. Sure it was hot (again) and humid (again)....but you think in an hour or so of running around 3 o'clock on the only major trail in the suburb that I live in you'd see more than TWO other runners, right? Or my ride on the 4th of July (90 miles), where I saw a total of TWO other bikers (again a portion of it on a very well known trail)....I guess it's little things like that. Being a somewhat social guy, the soloness of this sport is something I'm going to have to deal with.

I guess the silver lining of this all, is come Sept 7th, where the IMWI crowd is typically 50,000 strong, I will feel like a kid in a candy store......

(Hopefully) I'll see you guys out there soon.

Love Nugget.

2008-06-30T11:49:00.002-05:00

It has been brought to my attention that my blog has become a little intensive on the trainig stuff, and not so strong in the comedy department. In response to this "criticism" I leave you guys this little text exchange from the weekend.

Mrs. Clyde: Can you pick up some balmex from the store on the way back? (For our little one you sicko's, not me)
Me: 10-4, and just so you know, you left a floater this morning.
Mrs Clyde: I know, I left it for you.
Me: Awesome, that's hot.... and just so you know, this is sooo going on the blog.

IMWI Loop Report

2008-06-24T21:00:00.009-05:00

Growing up in WI, I knew there could be some pretty good climbs, but I must say, the Ironman Wisconsin bike course manages to find some of the steeper hills in WI and bundle them into a nice little loop. Wasn't that kind of them? So here we go, my thoughts from my ride on Monday.

1. By far the most important thing I learned was that you absolutely CAN NOT blow your wad on the first loop. After riding it yesterday, I 100% expect to pass a bunch of carnage on the course (probably those who have not rode the course before hand) on the second loop. I knew coming into it you had conserve yourself from other blogs, etc.....and I had an idea of how much to hold back, but riding it confirmed that even more, and I realized that even I would have gone out a little too hard initially had I not previewed it. The first loop you absolutely have to reel it back, no matter how many people are flying by you or how good you feel at the time, or how bad you want to go hard because "I'm doing the Ironman"......you have a 100 or so miles left by then (not to mention the marathon after it) and you have to keep that in mind and stay disciplined. No two ways about it, you go too hard and get burnt out before the first lap is over and it'll be a VERY long afternoon. If that happens a DNF becomes a very real possibility.

You have to ride patiently, stay within your low heart rate range, and just keep spinning up the hills easy, no matter how slow you may seem to be going. The best visual I can think of is to think of the hills you see in San Francisco, the hills are of that steepness, just not as long.

2. That being said, there were really only two hills I remember that require extra special attention, however they are pretty close to each other towards the last 1/4 of the loop. The rest are best classified as rollers, albeit some pretty big rollers.

Old Sauk (I believe that is the road name)gets special attention just because it's a little longer of a climb as it snakes through some trees. You kind of get into a rhythm on the course of these steep climbs that are over in a few minutes, followed by a downhill and then BAM this one comes along and messes with you as it keeps snaking around in the trees, going up, up, up. (Notice the guy walking off to the left. The pic doesn't do it justice)

The one pictured below that follows it not too long after. I forget the name of the road, but it is the one in the two pics below...notice the tree tops way in the background of the second one especially.

This one gets special attention because it's just so d@mn steep. Period. The pictures above, again, do not do it justice. I think my coach said it best...."Most spectators will be on this hill on the second loop because it's where bikers will just fall over from the grade of the hill." ....then he laughed.

3. As much as the hills are brought up about the course, people don't always mention that when you're on the bike, you're going to be very busy. You hardly are ever in the same gear for more than a few minutes, so getting down your gearing is critical. Like Coach said, you'll see people drop their chains because they are switching around so much and I could see how that could happen pretty easily on this course. Make absolute sure you get a bike tune up a week or two before the race and have them check all your gearing components.

4. Along those lines....the course keeps you on your toes. For the most part you are always turning somewhere or moving around on the bike. There are a few sections where you can sit in aero and hammer for a while, but expect to be on the bullhorns quite a bit as well.

5. Another thing people forget to mention is some of the awesome downhills on the course. Now I'm normally one who has a pretty big sack when it comes to bombing down a hill, but I have to admit with even just the light winds out there on Monday, combined with the steep declines, there were a few times where I had get out of my aero bars to get down on the bullhorns to put my mind at ease. I hit 40+ a couple of time on the course and high 30's a few other times. So yes, you do some climbing, but you also get to enjoy some real sweet downhills as well.

6. Oh and get a 12/27 if you don't have one already, you WILL thank me for it later. No matter what "others" may say, there were times out there I was wishing I had even a higher toothed gear. Just my humble opinion.

7. I will be heading back up in a few weeks to do two loops. I will bring my camera this time and take a little better visual presentation of the course, but that's what I got for ya'll so far.

Also for those of you not aware...Simply Stu has a nice little video of the bike route you can watch that goes over it VERY well....once again though, the video doesn't do justice to the steepness of some of the hilss.

Recon Report For IMWI bike course.

2008-06-23T21:16:00.002-05:00

Two words:

Holy. Shit. Hilly.

(but do-able)

Full Report Tomorrow

The funniest treadmill accident you will see in quite some time.....

2008-06-19T22:48:00.002-05:00

Best line....."shit"....about 20 seconds in.

...in Milwaukee for the weekend, going to be a nice change of pace to do some workouts in new (yet old..I attended Marquette in Milwaukee) surroundings......

Break You Down, Build You Up.

2008-06-16T09:13:00.005-05:00

Boy what a crazy few days it's been. To say training is starting to get serious is an understatement.

Thursday: 1 on 1 training session with coach (1.5 M swim/35M bike). This was more fun than I've had in some time in the water. In order to prepare me for IM, coach decided we would do a simulated IM swim start. What does that entail you ask? Well it was coach basically doing whatever the hell he wanted to me during the first .6 miles of my 1.5 mile lake swim. Hitting me, swimming over me, pulling me down, splashing water in my face as I came up to breathe, ie simulating everything I'm going to see in Sept. It was GREAT training tool, but to be honest, there were times I was almost on the verge of laughing....I kept imaginging what people on the shoreline (if any) were thinking. Seeing these two guys in yellow caps, with one just blantantly molesting the other one, it had to be a site from the shoreline if anyone noticed.

(I briefly stop this post for a PSA as well...if you roll with the cut off shoulder wetsuit like I do, PLEASE don't forget to put body glide on your shoulders and neck or you'll end up looking like this..... it still hurts today)

After the swim (he also had me swim without goggles which showed me I have to learn to sight better because I swam in a cirle), we headed out for the bike and a few intervals. It was a nice little 3 mile or so loop. On even laps he went at my pace. On the odd laps, I had to stay as close as I could to him, so that was fun, it's much easier do intervals when you're trying to chase someone than when you are just going against imaginary competition. On the last interval, he gave me a 10 second lead, and told me that I had to hold him off or break a secret to all you blog readers that he had noticed on the bike. Needless to say, he passed me (I had been staying within 15-25 seconds normally on these loops so 10 seconds was a little less time than what I probably needed) so here it goes:

Due to unfortunate circumstances, the brand new pair of bike shorts I have are apparently "thin" when I get into aero position....so yes, on Thursday, when I was in aero, I was the "crack guy" you sometimes see at races. I apologize to all those motorists I have offended. Like I said, they were BRAND NEW shorts, so I'm not sure what the deal is. Perhaps my backside is so muscular that no fabric can contain it? Yeah, that's it......

...now back to our regularily scheduled program....the rest of the ride went OK, I was a little drained for the last 10 miles (it was super hot and humid on Thursday, not good conditions for me)..but we also determined that I need to work on taking in more electrolytes, so I will be trying that out the next few weeks.

Friday - 10 mile evening run...hot/humid like it was on Thursday, legs felt tired. Took me about 10 minutes longer than plan, due to hilly course, a little fatigue in the legs, and the heat/humidity.

Sat - 20 mile real slow ride...this felt good after Thurs/Friday.

Sunday 80 mile ride: Get out the door by 7, get about 5 miles into it and meet up with the Tri group, when we notice the weather doesn't look so nice coming from the west (yeah I probably should check that before I leave, I've never claimed to be Einstein here)...turn around....storm beats me to my house.....driving rain, wind, branches falling on to the path in front of me for the last two miles or so...crazy stuff....took a nap, storm clears, get back out around noon.....get in about 55 more miles (65 total for the day) and at almost the exact location as in the morning, get caught in round two of the storms...but by this time I was like "eff it" I'm getting it to show 80 miles on this Garmin if it kills me...luckily the rain stopped for enough of a break for me to get the last 5 miles in without rain. Got to my garage and called it a day (I was suppose to do a 2 mile run after this, but going 2 for 2 for the day of getting rained on, I decided against it as another cell was moving through. )

So there you have it. A crazy, tiring, four days...but to be honest, this morning, my legs are as fresh as they have felt in a while, funny how that works.....

Honest Opinion.....

2008-06-10T12:41:00.007-05:00

I'm kicking around getting a scooter for when I have local errands to run, my 2 mile or so commute to the train everday, etc, etc.....not sure if it's more impulsive than anything else....so what do you think.....

So cast your vote, yea or nay?

Obviously this one helps sway my opinion..... http://www.peirspeed.com/madass125.htm

The other option would be "possibly" this.....but this one would need some approval of the wife as I just got my other bike two years ago. Perhaps I can try Tom's approach (Seriously scoll down on that link to see what happens when a bike jumps off a car rack.)

Decisions, decisions........

Tailwind/Headwind...a ride with two distinct themes....

2008-06-08T21:10:00.005-05:00

More on this tomorrow, but this pretty much sums up the NASTY winds (along with storms) we had in the midwest this weekend......the blue line in the bottom was my speed.....as you can see it takes a sharp decline exactly at mile 24.5, where I turned around.....the arrows and time show you how much faster my out vs back was......I earned every foot of every mile on the way back....

Recon was also canceled due to storms, but will be made up in two weeks, so no worry on that soldiers.

Oh Boy.

2008-06-05T14:44:00.002-05:00

So yeah, tonight at 8 P.M, I have what they call an RMR test. (Resting Metabolic Rate) Basically all you do is sit in a chair for 15-20 minutes and breath into a face mask and it tells you how many calories you burn while you're at rest, so you can dial in how many base calories you should be taking in during a day. That's the easy part.

The hard part?

Well in order to get an accurate result, you have to do an eight hour fast before the test.

Excuse me, what?

AN EIGHT HOUR FAST?? No food, no juice, no caffeine, nothing........

Yeah, I think you and I are on the same wavelength here....the number of times The Clyde eats a day is a very close second to the number of times he breathes.....so to fast for eight hours, well to me that's an endurance event all in itself....

2 hours, 54 minutes, 32 seconds and counting....

Recon...

2008-06-04T13:43:00.004-05:00

Friday, 9 AM....Coach and I are going to do a little recon. 40 mile bike, 7 mile run. For all you Ironman Wisconsin hopefuls this year, I'll let you know my thoughts on the course early next week. (And guess what came in the mail yesterday, that's right Ryan, my 12/27, can't wait to put it on and try it out!!)

Suddenly this race that seems to be only happening in my mind is more and more becoming reality.

Miller Lite Ride For The Arts

2008-06-01T20:59:00.017-05:00

I'll just roll with pictures....

The starting line, looking back....the crowd goes way back behind the trees where you can't see.

Looking forward, of course we (Team Renegade) started near the front, the goal was to win the ride, but we failed miserably in that aspect (and considering it wasn't a race).

Heading out through beatiful downtown Milwaukee.

How long does it take 5 somewhat avid cyclists to change a tire? How about 68 minutes. Yes, 68, not 6.8.....little did we realize that GB's brand new innertube was also defective (aside from the one he had on the tire at the time that was flat) ...no wonder it wouldn't inflate. So after trying the 2nd new innertube, we were finally back on track.

The paceline, catching back up to the leaders.....or not. Clyde yelling, left, right, left, lets move this paceline people!!!

Who knows, probably when I was yelling.......

If you were a bird, about to take a shit on my head as I bike, this is what you would see. My first feeble attempt to get a picture of the guys riding behind me.

Clyde leading the crew back home. Giddy Up Fellas!!!

Ride finished. Refuelling for the 8 mile treck back to the house from the starting line.

Trying to take a picture of the sunburn on my noggin. You laugh, but I challenge you to try and do it and see how easy it is.

And as a PSA....if you don't use sunscreen and happen to be freakishly bald like yours truly...be prepared for the sunburn helmet stripes....they are even more visible today at work. Yes my self esteem is rather low, and the ridicule from co-workers rather high.

Overall a great ride, 75 miles and my legs felt REALLY fresh off of the bike. Of course I forgot to take pictures of all the awesome views. The first half of the ride was along Lake Michigan, from about 3 miles away, but you could see it all on the horizon. Spectacular.

Oh, and with this ride I feel I have finally nailed down my nutrition on the bike 100%, but that's another post for later this week.

Now this is sexy....

2008-05-30T12:42:00.005-05:00

Yeah yeah, let's hear it for the 12/27 rear cassette on it's way as we speak....heading up to the Verona loop next Friday... coach thought it might be better than the 11/23 I currently ride....I think I'll agree whole heartedly......

Coming up this Saturday? A 75 mile Ride For The Arts...should be a good time, doing it with my lyrca fearing friend GB and another buddy from college...nice and slow per coaches orders as it's a little longer than he would like me to go right now, but I asked nicely, so he let me.

...plus the ride is sponsored by Miller, so you know what that means at the end. Victory Beer!!! (And Shuttle , of course).

Story of the week...

2008-05-29T19:29:00.003-05:00

Link Here....

And do you ever feel like you're alone?
And do you ever wish you'd be unknown?
I could say that I have..
I could say that I have..
And do you ever feel things here aren't right?
And do you ever feel the time slip by?
I can say that I have..
And I can say that I have..

So hear this please
And watch as your heart speeds up endlessly
And look for the stars as the sun goes down
Each breath that you take has a thunderous sound
Everything, everything's magic
Just sit back and hold on, but hold on tight
Prepare for the best and the fastest ride
And reach out your hand, and i'll make you mine
Everything, everything's magic

And do you ever lay awake at night?
And do you ever ask yourself don't try?
Don't try to let yourself down
Don't try to let yourself down
And do you ever see yourself in love?
And do you ever take a chance, my love?
Because you know that I will..
Because you know that I will..

So hear this please
And watch as your hearts speeds up endlessly
And look for the stars as the sun goes down
Each breath that you take has a thunderous sound
Everything, everything's magic
Just sit back and hold on, but hold on tight
Prepare for the best and the fastest ride
And reach out your hand, and i'll make you mine
Everything, everything's magic
Everything, everything's magic

So hear this please
And watch as your hearts speeds up endlessly
And look for the stars as the sun goes down
Each breath that you take has a thunderous sound
Everything, everything's magic
Just sit back and hold on, but hold on tight
Prepare for the best and the fastest ride
And reach out your hand, and i'll make you mine
Everything, everything's magic

Green Bay 2008

2008-05-20T19:55:00.012-05:00

WOW...what a weekend....Green Bay is such a special place, even though I may be a biased Packer fan, but still, the Green Bay Cellcom race is one everyone should do at least once...but more on that later.

Let's start off on Saturday.

Since our little one is CONSTANTLY running around, we decided to enter her into the kids Power Run that they hold on Saturday morning. The "race" was a 1/4 mile around a building near the river. She was entered in the 4 and under category (Although I must say she was the smallest one by quite some size). A 1/4 may seem like a lot for a 20 month old, but trust me, her favorite thing to do is go around our block here at home. Not as in me pulling her around the block in a wagon, more like me "chasing" her while she's running around it, she's non stop movement when she's outside, she just enjoys always being on the run all the time, literally.

Getting ready for her 1st race....for the 3 seconds she would sit still.

Getting in a few warm up laps.

Coming down the home stretch...look at that smile, she loved it. Grandpa trying to keep up in the background.

Mom and Dad at the finish with our little speed racer.

Looky, looky, she didn't finish last, despite being the youngest....she beat three 2yr old boys...how about that? Next year she's coming back for the crown.

On to Sunday. The Green Bay half has been my "A" race for this half of my season all along. The course is flat, fast and 95% of it is through residential tree lined streets, so there is always shade to be had. I have done a few different races now and I can honestly say Green Bay is BY FAR the most enjoyable course I have ever done. Trust me, if you have to do one race next year, make it this one.

Anyway, I get up at 5:15 on race day and ate a little oatmeal, got dressed and got the group ready to go (my Dad and Brother-In-Law did the half marathon as well - registration was their Christmas present from Me, aren't I great? And my wife did the 5K run/walk pushing our little one).

So we head out from the campground at around 6, thinking we would make the stadium by 6:30, giving us plenty of time to park and warm up. Boy was I wrong. Traffic was terrible towards the stadium, we eventually parked about a block away, and walked...I literally got to the port a potty at the starting line with 4 minutes until race time. A quick last minute leak, and I head for the start line.

Unfortunately with about 8000 people in front of me, I only made it up to the 12 min/mi pace group before the gun went off......boy this was going to "fun"...boom goes the gun and the runners slowly starting moving in front of us. Eventually I got to the starting mat and just went for it....for literally the next 2.5 - 3 miles I was sticking and moving through runners like I was playing some video game (and don't get me started on the people who needed to get all the way up front only to be walking less than a half mile into the race (and this was not the 5k walkers, they do a different course) and no I'm not kidding)...although fun, it definitely hurt my time. At the 3 mile mark, I looked at my Garmin and saw 24:08, so I knew I had some work to do.

It was from there that I put it down for a few miles and luckily the crowd had cleared up. My 5 mile split was 39:35, so I ran those next two miles in 15:27, my 5- 10 mile split was 38:55, so despite my poor start, I was making up time. However it was a little too late, my last 3.1 miles registered at 23:50, still an improvement over my first 3, but not enough to make up for it and post a PR, none the less I was pleased. I, for the most part, hit my heart rate that I was not able to hold at Palos. I'm not going to blame it on those first three miles, but I feel that if I had planned better/left earlier it would have been a different story, but it still would have been close (we left the same time we did in years past and have had NO problems getting there with time to spare). So lesson learned I guess.

It was a fast Clydes field this year on top of all that.....last year I ran a 1:48 and finished 10th overall, this year I ran a 1:42 and finished 16th overall, go figure. (The winner Clyde ran a 1:29, that's seriously ridiculous). So at any rate, no PR overall, but I did take 6 minutes off my time from last year.

Final Results
1:42:21
16th/158 Clydes division
359/3350 Overall

Yellow shirt guy and I, we had literally gone back and forth since about mile 4.

He would surge past me on the two small "hills" and I would catch him on the flats, we shook hands at the end and thanked each other for pacing ourselves during the race.

Coming around the last corner, about 100 yards from the finish. (Note the constipation look I apparently get on my face when I am in pain/focusing on finishing. Am I taking a big deuce or finishing a race? You decide.)

Finishing.

(Note the headphones: Cellcom is a headphone LEGAL race, just another plus in my book, nothing like running to some Blink-182, Sum 41, Linkin Park, etc to pass the time.)

Pics from the Easter ride a few weeks ago..

2008-05-15T14:22:00.000-05:00

(Note this is an old post I forgot to publish, just thought I'd throw it up now).

Just two pics from the Easter ride....

Here is one of GB and I, surprisingly he keeps that helmet on, even when he's off his bike, it's mandated by the state I guess....he also has a phobia of anything having to do with Lycra.

Here's a group photo of the MultiSport Madness South Division Group (not all, but a good portion). As you can see by the graphic, I am looking for a few Clydes to join me out in the south west suburbs, as I am severely outnumbered by the non-clyde type in the group....haha. I look like Shrek out there vs the other guys.

Green Bay Weather This Weekend

2008-05-14T08:55:00.003-05:00

Green Bay - Sun, May 18 ---Showers 40%- --High 62°--- Low 45°

If the showers hold off (hell even if they don't, I like running in the rain), that's perfect weather for me, probably around 50 by race time. The only thing missing in the forecast is the pain I'll be feeling, but I know that's coming for sure.

1:40 or bust.........

I'll be bib 3217, you can follow me automatically if you want by signing up here.

The KEYS to looking good during a race.....

2008-05-06T22:09:00.004-05:00

(or as I like to say, how to be "that guy" at the races...photo taken right near finish line)

1. Start off with a headband, in my case it's of my alma mater, Marquette... (If you don't know me, know this, I'm a Marquette FREAK)

2. Next up is the "tattoo" arm warmers (by Primal).... I love these things, the number of second looks in disbelief I get always cracks me up whenever I wear them.

3. Represent your local tri-group (go Multisport Madness!!!). We had 16 members racing this weekend at the half marathon.

4. Last, but not least, PASTY, and I mean PASTY white shaved legs....they'll be tan soon enough, but got to embrace the whiteness while you have it.

And for the love of God, DO NOT GOOGLE "Pasty White" with safe search turned off, unless you want to see this. (Hey I warned you, you had to click it, didn't you?)

200 out of 1370

2008-05-05T11:21:00.003-05:00

http://theracershub.com/files/106-130.txt

Unfortunately no Clydes division....would have been interesting to see how I fared in that division.

I must have crossed the line in 1:42 and some change instead of 1:41 like I thought, I'll blame it on the euphoric state of mind I was in to have been done.

Total time of 1:41:44, I know I can go faster than that at Green Bay in two weeks. It's a flatter course for sure and I definintly could push a little harder the first few miles, as this was just a "tune up" race per my coach. Time will tell I guess.

Palos Half Maraton Report

2008-05-04T17:49:00.005-05:00

I'll keep this nice and short. Ran the half marathon this AM. OK course, out and back, not a lot of spectators except for 3 or 4 main intersections (literally the run was on a semi-country road). First 2-3 miles, slight rollers, then it flattened for a while, then probably miles 4.5-6 were a steady uphill and reverse it the other way since you did a 180 once you got to mile 6.5. For being the first year, there was a great turnout, probably over 2000 people, and I bet that number would double for next year once the word gets out.

I don't remember much of the race details honestly, I was focused on how my body felt. I know my 5 mile split was 37 something, but other than that, I don't remember the splits, I'll have to check my Garmin.

Overall I finished in just a tad over 1:41, perhaps even high 1:40 once the chip timer results are online. I started the first few miles relatively slow, easy pace (heart rate wise), so I think I could trim a little time off in two weeks, although I was pretty beat crossing the finish line, so we shall see. Either way, my prior fastest time for a half was 1:47:59, so I'm pretty excited with how the race turned out, basically a 7 minute PR, I'll take it.

I'm beat, sorry this post is so blah, but I'm about to take a nap. Just wanted to post before the sandman hits me with his beat down stick. A beating I'll gladly take right now.

Two pics from the Easter ride a few weeks ago.

2008-05-03T15:05:00.007-05:00

She Knows Me Well...

2008-05-03T14:36:00.004-05:00

Text exchange from today as I was at the packet pick up for the race tomorrow :

(I offered to take V, our 20 month old daughter, thinking I would give Mrs. Clyde some free time . She's a stay at home Mom and watches V a great majority of the time when I'm at work and/or training)

Mrs Clyde: Is V doing OK?

Clyde: Yup, got balloons and a beach ball and a whole lot of attention from cougars...

Mrs. Clyde: So that's why you wanted to take her....Did you remember to take your wedding ring off?

Clyde: Nope, they don't care about the minor details.

....and that my friends, is true love. Haha.

Forgot to mention...

2008-04-29T15:42:00.004-05:00

....I am doing a half marathon on Sunday (thought it was Saturday, good thing I checked).....

Now this is suppose to be my tune up for my "A" race in two weeks in Green Bay, so for some reason, I "thought" in my mind of lazy minds, it would be a nice zone 1 or zone 2 level run....guess my coach has other plans....

"Race miles plan:

1-3 build to top Z2 by the mile one mark but don't be too fast to get there.
4-10 mid Z3
11-13 top Z3 to low Z4 "

WOW...so I have to get in the right mindset for this now....I hate to see what my Green Bay race plan will look like.... guess it'll be all zone 4 and 5 in two weeks. Start out fast, hope to not pass out, and try to finish....

Hide the women and children, this could get ugly.

The cool thing about the run though, is that a large contigency from my tri group will be there, so it will be fun to see everyone start, perhaps run with some, and then if I'm not last in, see some finish (They are a skinny, fast bunch, guess who's the odd man out there?)

On a side note, go check out Twitter, you'll notice the little add-on to my sidebar (The Clyde 24/7)...as if this blog isn't enough, now I can update you whenever/wherever I am through short texts on my cellphone. It's pretty sweet. So far this has been the BEST USE I can think of for it. So for The Clyde's sake, please pay attention to that. Please.

I may or may not have....

2008-04-25T16:27:00.003-05:00

......held 6:37 min/miles today for two miles.

Granted:

..... they were two 1 mile intervals with a 90 second rest inbetween.

.....they were on the treadmill with .5 incline in perfect conditions and not outside.

....but still, 6:37 min/miles for a Clyde? I'll take it. I owe a lot to this guy and his weekly torture sessions, especially all this speed work of late, but it really seems to be starting to pay off.

(Oh, on a side note, my right hammy is coming around, slowly but surely. (Knock on wood.) It's an injury I have not disclosed to you all, but it's been pretty painful the last three weeks, this week has been MUCH less pain, just a little bit every now and then. The stretching and icing must be working, two ice baths included, "the boys" are still mad at me for those.)

Everyone go wish Megan well. Two weeks ago she finishes her first Ironman, this week she donates a kidney to a less than grateful family member. Unbelieveable.

IM on the brain.

2008-04-16T11:10:00.003-05:00

After following Megan on Sunday in her quest to finish IMAZ (which she did handily in horrible conditions, Congrats again Megan!!!).....my mind has been constantly thinking about IMWI in Sept.......especially this.......

....it's funny to think how many times I've ran under that IM arch and onto that grey carpet already in my mind.......less than 5 months and ticking......

New Header...

2008-04-13T10:55:00.002-05:00

...oh yeah, I feel big time now......I know, I know, it's pretty bad, but bear with me.

It's my first ever header. Really my first ever time working with photo enhancing software (besides basic red eye removal, which any monkey can do). I'll be doing a few more just to tinker around with the program, but I spent 2 hours on the stupid imagine above, so you better bet your ass I'm going to put it up, no matter how bad it is.

Oh, and if anyone wants FREE photoshopping esque, software, try Gimp, it's what I used....totally free and there's quite a bit you can do with it.

Show some love...

2008-04-11T09:13:00.003-05:00

Go here.

Show Megan some support, even if you're just a lurker here, go there and wish her luck.....This is a gal I've come to know over the last year (as well as her boyfriend), that was going to attempt IMAZ last year, did all the training for months and months, only to have her dream taken away from her due to some back problems 6 weeks before go time. Her IM dreams were over.

Did she quit? No, she got better, got back on the horse and started training this year again for it.

Sunday, she will ROCK the course!! She will become an Iron(wo)Man!!!

Go get 'em Megan!!!!

(and Cheese lay off the Heart Attack Grill out there, OK?)

This has made me laugh for 3 days straight now.

2008-03-31T22:34:00.003-05:00

To wear or not to wear?

2008-03-31T10:35:00.005-05:00

Having not ever completed an IM, until very recently, I felt I'd be somewhat of a "poser" wearing one of these during my training runs. That being said, with the amount of time I've already put in for my IMWI preparations, the hours I will be putting in this summer, as well as the fact I'm registered to compete in IMWI in September, I feel I have a certain right to be able to wear it (as well as just being a fan of Ironman in general). Which leads me to another point...

Why is there a perceived notion among Ironman that is so elitist about it's logo? (At least it seems that way to me). That you can't wear the logo unless you have officially completed one? I just don't get it.

I mean sure triathlon has come a long way in terms of recognition, but still, any exposure to the general public is good exposure, right? You don't see people who follow Nascar say you can only wear Nascar apparel if you have raced a car, do you? Or people can only wear the Tour Du France merchandise unless they have raced in it? Where is the logic in that? One of the triathlon mags touched on this in one of the last few months, and I've been debating in my head for a while since I read that article, as I've had the visor above sitting in it's plastic wrap from the online store for the last few weeks, not quite sure how I really felt about it.

However this weekend, as I was completing my 11 mile training run, I made up my mind, and come next Saturday, on my 13 mile planned run, it'll be firmly sitting on the Clyde's larger than normal sized-melon. I may not be an Ironman yet, and maybe things will not go my way in Sept, hopefully they will and I'll complete it, but either way, I'll have put in the hours, I have the love for the sport, and you better believe that if I don't finish, I will try again the following year. That spirit alone, I feel, gives me the right to wear whatever the hell I want. "Poser" or not according to others, I realized I couldn't care less.

And you thought I was kidding......

2008-03-30T21:42:00.004-05:00

..........................about how I'm shrinking per below.....

Numbers

2008-03-19T15:57:00.005-05:00

As Ryan from "Caught on the Run" commented on my last post, I realized I haven't posted much about training lately. But don't you worry your little hearts out, The Clyde has been rocking his schedule strong.....last week alone was a total of 4100 yards in the pool, 81 miles on the bike (all trainer, bleh), 17 miles of running and two hour long weight lifting sessions...not bad considering IMWI is still 6 months away.

So let's look at some numbers for those numerically inclined.

233 - what I weighed Dec 15 (start of training)
225 - what I weigh now. (still 20lbs to go to reach where I want to be, but I'll take it as my diet has been suspect at best of late). With all these workouts my appetite seems to be non-stop, unfortunately I don't always make the "best" decisions when it comes to refueling....pizza anyone?

33% -BF% on Dec 15
20% - BF% as of last week. I'm EXTREMELY happy about this......even if I am still 225, I would rather be 225 and say 10-12% BF than 205 and 25% BF, basically I might not be losing weight, but what I am losing is all fat, keeping muscle...... however I'm not sure I quite believe Mr. Tanita on this one 100%. As I noted above my diet hasn't been exactly clean of late. I stepped on it 3 times to make sure last Thursday, I'm afraid to go back on it tomorrow to see if it was a dream or if it really read that last week. But either way I'll take it. I have noticed that my waist does seem to be getting smaller, clothes are starting to look baggier, I can see some veins I've never seen before in my arms, and I have less neck fat (3rd chin is gone, second one is diminishing), all good signs in my book. I'd give you an over the shoulder picture, but I don't have one yet. (How well played was that Megan and Cheese?)

7:35 ----- minute/miles I ran on Monday in perfect conditions (ie treadmill at .5% incline) for my 4 mile time trial (mid zone 2 only!!!), total time of 30:20. You don't understand how happy this makes me as I did a 3 hour ride bike the night before on the trainer so my legs where not exactly fresh. (It has also motivated me to eat better so far this week (2 whole days, I know, I know)...if I can do this at 225, how fast can I be at 205).

21:05 -- time it took me to swim 1000 yds in a time trial the week of Dec 15
18:56 --- time it took me to swim 1000yds in today's time trial. (THANK YOU CHICAGO BLUE DOLPHINS !!!!)

That's all I got for now....time to get get ready for Marquette's Final Four run in the tournament.

GO MU!!!!

Tagged - 7 Random Things

2008-03-12T20:59:00.003-05:00

So the deal is I have to tell you seven random things about me...so here we go. Thanks to the Spandex King for tagging me:

1. My real name is Gustav Christopher Schabel......when I was little that lead to some problems as you can imagine, so I decided to just go with Chris, life has been much easier since then.

2. When I was around 5, I knocked myself unconscious on a bike. My neighborhood friend had a Darth Vader type of mask that I wanted to try on, while riding my bike of course. Apparently the mask was too big, fell over my eyes and I ended up riding right into the back of a parked pick up truck, knocking myself out cold. I don't remember much of it.

3. I was a DJ in college, and occasionally I still dabble with my CD mixer/turntables. By my junior and senior year at Marquette, if you were going to one of the big parties on any given weekend, there was a good chance I was DJ'ing it. It was great. I got to drink, always had a "house" cup where ever the party was at, and I got to play the music I wanted to hear all night. Marquette even hired me out for a few gigs. I would say the biggest crowd I played for was probably 400 or so people. I actually met my wife through being a DJ but that's another post all together..... yes, she was my groupie and the first time we met was in a stinky, beer covered floor, low light basement. Romantic, I know.

4. I love to play basketball. I am living proof that you can practice as much as you possibly can and still not be good, so don't believe the hype kids, it's al bullshit. As much as you don't want to believe it , like I didn't want to, you will most likely NOT make the NBA, or even get to play college hoops for that matter, so please, study hard. Before all this Ironman training nonsense, I would play 2-3 times a week. I still sneak a night or two in when I can.

5. On a dorkier side, I also dabble in R/C cars. I currently have 3 cars and one very beginner airplane. As time is pretty tight, I definitly don't get to play with them as much as I would like, considering some of the midwest's best R/C tracks are literally 7 miles from my house. As I get older (aka when my knees are completely shot), I think I'll put more and more time to this.

6. Surprisingly I (as well as my 4 close high school friends) were voted to be members of my schools prom court. It was kind of an "upset" so to speak. You see, none of us were jocks, had girlfriends, drank at that time (I manged to stay "good" until the summer before college) or were considered to be in the "cool" group of kids. Apparently all the "not cool" people of the student body took a stand and voted for people they thought were real, not treating it as a popularity contest. It lead to some of the self appointed "cooler" kids who got snubbed, to skip the prom all together because my group of friends of got on. No shit. It was events/people like this that made me want to leave my hometown as soon as I graduated and get as far away as possible.

7. I am also a fairly good foosball player. My parents for some reason got a professional grade foosball table when I was little (even though neither of them play) and I use to play it a lot. I knew I was decent when I started to beat my bar rat uncles when they would come over and I was still in grade school. When I play against my friends, I usually play 1 vs 2 and still usually win with ease.

8. If you believed number 1, then I should tell you that I'm also a "little" bit of a practical joker. That is your bonus random fact about me.

Sweet, I've been...

2008-03-04T15:56:00.003-06:00

Tagged!!

....considering that I'm pretty sure there's still a game of "capture the flag" back home that I'm still waiting to be picked for (I never got picked for sh!t growing up, even though there was a pretty decent athlete under all that flab)..... I'm pretty excited about this. Now I just have to find seven random facts about me. Stay tuned.........

So F#ck Me.....

2008-03-01T20:16:00.015-06:00

I guess that's what I get for saying I'd be able to do a post last week, work decided it'll kick my a$$ for another week.....so anyway, since we all hate long written blog posts, I'll just do the cliff notes version, because honestly, it got me through college, so that should be good enough for you guys on a blog.

First some cool facts about Lake Tahoe.
1. 12 miles wide
2. 22 miles long
3. 1645ft deep (at least they think, no one has ever been able to measure to the true bottom)
4. It is a widely held rumor that there are dead bodies floating around 800-1000 feet below the surface of the lake. Since the lake temperature is so cold that bodies don't decompose, and bodies become buoyant at that level, there is said to be a mass grave of floating bodies down there. (Tahoe was a big mafia hang out in the 50's) Internet searches bring up different opinions, (read the second link on that page) but I think it's interesting none the less. (If you want to read more about it, look up Cousteau and Lake Tahoe). Since Lake Tahoe is owned by the Federal Gov't, they have not allowed anyone else to go down in a submersible to check it out. Apparently when Jacques came up he said "The world isn't ready for what was down there." Good stuff.

And now on to the pictures......

The view from our condo....this is about 1/3 of a mile of trail you see of Heavenly...and this is the very bottom small part of the mountain. Heavenly was massive

"Velcome to Kahlifooonnnniiaaaaa" (Heavenly sits on the Nevada/Cali border)

Picture of Lake Tahoe from almost the top of Heavenly.

Looking down from the top of the first "little" hill from the first pic......our hotel is on the left of pic (if you blow it up), right on the lake, green roof. Casinos are about 2 miles to the right.

Other side of Heavenly (non lake facing)....pictures don't always do mountains justice....you're looking out about 35-40 miles here....with storm clouds hovering overhead.

How many people can you fit a 7 person hot tub? Well I see at least 8, and this was just our half of the hot tub.

Who said I don't clean up well? Having some fun at Cabo Wabo club in Harrah's Casino (I think it was Harrah's)

Who says you need a couple thousand dollar camera to take good pictures? Me thinks not. More Tahoe awesomeness.

The group photo.....evidence that terrorists are everywhere, right Nirmal?

The Clyde and the Mrs. Clyde solo....9000ft up on the snowmobile tour.

The next day, at Squaw Valley...some dude with a funky new board, called a makboard...didn't see him on the hill after this to see it in action, but there's a video on the website. Pretty sweet.

The view from the top of Squaw....it's about 3.5 miles down to the base.

One of my best friends since kindergarten, Unertl, who now that lives in Hong Kong. He obviously likes to touch himself a little too much. No arrests for indecency here, luckily. Anyway this is a view from Squaw Valley, you can see Lake Tahoe in the background.

That's all I got, hope you enjoyed.

Yes I'm alive.

2008-02-22T12:02:00.003-06:00

Last week coming back I had to catch up with work...this week has been a "build" week triathlon/training wise (mostly two a days all week)...so to say I've been short of time is an understatemet. I'll have a very beautiful post coming early next week.

Go MU!!!

Lake Tahoe

2008-02-08T23:56:00.001-06:00

The Clyde, in possibly the coolest photo he's ever been in.

Still in Tahoe, more to come next week. Having a blast!!!

Athlete and Hair and Lake Tahoe

2008-01-31T13:09:00.001-06:00

Much in the spirit of "The Spirit of the Marathon"(well played if I do say so myself), the "Athlete" documentary is coming out this year....kind of the same, but this one also covers people trying to accomplish an IM...looks interesting, make sure to keep it on your radar.

http://athletemovie.com/Athlete_Movie_Web_Site.html

Video Trailer

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=321297

That's all I got for the next week or so....I'm leaving for LAKE TAHOE on Tuesday for five days of snowboarding, so I'm more than likely going to neglect this blog for a few days.

On the hair front, I still have it. A friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, sent this text.

"u r gay for real i just read your last blog and I am really disturbed that you put this much thought into going hairless although your arm hair is icky" (I do have NASTY tricep hair if I don't shave it, I will admit, I mean really who has tricep hair, what is it's evolutionary advantage? I have no idea, but I can thanks Pops for that one.)

Now, my friends, this is coming from the same guy that took a picture of me with pants at my ankles when, in a drunken stupor, I thought I had sharted my pants and was checking to make sure everything was OK. So said friend basically breaks open the bathroom door, much to my surprise and snaps a pic of me....... So you tell me, who is more gay?

(And let's not go down that anti-gay route because I'm not, I have a few friends and a cousin who is gay, so this is all in fun, but I digress).

But back to the NADS, I think I'm going to give them a try when I get back, and I'll try to provide video goodness for all of you, so stay tuned.

Later y'all.

Going Hairless

2008-01-29T12:41:00.000-06:00

Well it's getting to be that time for me where I feel I should take the next step in my training and lose the winter coat my body likes to keep year round and and I'm looking for some advice.

Do I just keep with the status quo and do the bi-weekly shaving with the trusty Gillette Fusion like I did during my last try season? (Only downside is it always takes a long time and the hair seems to grow back pretty quickly)

Do I try, and I kid you not, Aussie Nads? With a name like that I'm not sure what to think. I actually already bought this, since it said "no heat hair removal", I thought for sure it had to be better than Nair for Men, only to open it and find out it's basically the same kit as featured in "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (ie wax and paper pull tabs)....so to be honest, I'm a little scared to use it. I mean seriously, does this look like fun below? (However it does say hair stays gone for up to 8 weeks). (A little FYI, for this scene, they really did pull out his hair, if you look close during the movie you can actually see blood, Carrell said it was VERY painful in interviews)

And then there's obvioulsy Nair for Men. (Times vary as to how long they claim hair takes to grow back)

The reviews for both NADS and Nair seem to be mixed out in the cyberworld...so I'm not sure. I am thinking of a two prong attack maybe. Get most off with the Nair, and then use the NADS to clean up the rest (I'm thinking this will be the less painful way, since I bought it, I'd feel guilty if I didn't at least try it once).

Thoughts?

True Story

2008-01-23T13:25:00.000-06:00

Location: New Lenox Cardinal Fitness Center, Men's Locker Room, TWO, note TWO available showers.

I had just completed my 8 miler on the treadmill (because it was only like -15 outside w/ wind chill), I head to the locker room, turn on the shower to warm up the water and proceed to shower and stretch (yes I stretch in the shower, it saves time post run and feels pretty damn good to be honest). The shower I'm in is of decent size so I towel off in there as well. I go to open the curtain...

..and...

...wait for it.......

..... standing no further than literally a foot away from the shower curtain is a fully NAKED man that looked like the Grandpa from Lil Miss Sunshine (great movie by the way, SuperFreeeeekaayyyyy) .... so imagine this face but only about 10 inches away from you, and did I mention he was totally NAKED????

I immediately jumped back...(shocked really from realizing that when I pulled the curtain aside my hand was literally about 8 inches from his junk, which was in clear view, because again he was standing NAKED in front of my shower)..... and I said "OHHHH, excuse me." (not being a smartass, really it was a reaction because I was so startled)....when he immediately replied, and I shit you not ...."you're not suppose to towel off in the shower, get out once you're done".......excuse me, homosaywhat? Is this guy kidding me?...so I look immediately to my left and notice the other shower OPEN and DRY as a sand trap and shoot back, "Well it looks to me like there is another shower that is more than available"....to which the old man mumbles something about "Kids, blah, blah, blah"....and something else under his breath......

Seriously, unf#ckingbelievable.....I will be scarred for the rest of my life.

On the Ironman (I get chills just typing that) front:

Training stuff here..."big" weekend (I'll be in Wisconsin at my parents house) coming up, 9 mile run Sat AM, snowboarding all afternoon (last Lake Tahoe warm up, can't believe it's less than two weeks away) and then a 2.5 hour trainer ride on Sunday. Yes my friends, the IM training is starting to get serious.

Also, make sure to check out Cheese's blog and wish him well on his first half marathon this weekend (Miami Half Marathon).....(Megan too who will be running the race and being SAG for him at the same time, ahhh warm fuzzies). Here's to a nice flat course and cool temps for both of you. Cheers.

Lance an Ironman?

2008-01-11T09:17:00.001-06:00

I know there has been on again, off again rumors about Lance flirting with the idea of an Ironman, but I came across this quote in the latest Inside Triathlon and I have to admit it has got me wondering how cool it would be if true. And I quote from the article .....

(Unfortunately The Clyde is too often on the wrong end of this look when biking with others)

"When asked post race press conference (of this years NY Marathon) if he would come back to New York in the 2008, Armstrong said he foresaw taking on "another sports challenge".

....now obvioulsy that could mean that he's going to try and make that Olsen twin put on some weight, or it may mean he's thinking about a full monty IM. Obviously the mag may be WAY off base on this, but none the less, it's something fun to think about. Let's not forget that Lance use to be a very good swimmer, obviously his bike skills are up to par, and at this last NY Marathon he posted a 2:46:43......could make it a very interesting storyline if he did decide to do one.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I have the 305.....

2008-01-09T10:41:00.001-06:00

.....but this thing just looks too sweet to pass up.

The NEW Garmin 405. Touch sensitive bezel, smaller form factor, I likey.

Read about it here.

So I know many of you are sitting

2008-01-08T12:14:00.001-06:00

there wondering, "So Clyde, where the hell have you been?". Well fear not my faithful followers, I am alive and well. Instead of going into long verse about what I've been up to I'll do the cliff notes.

1. Since I last left you I have not missed one workout, and this includes the one the day after my nephew got married, where you could have licked the sweat off of me and still got drunk.

2. Since I last left you I have not passed on a single holiday feast or candy, I am almost as proud of this as I am of number 1.

3. Since I last left you I don't think I have shed any weight, but we'll find out tomorrow afternoon. (The weight loss is back on tomorrow, the pizza and Mountain Dew I'm having right now confirms it.)

4. ..... I managed to talk my Dad and Brother in Law into doing the Green Bay Half Marathon with me in May. (Well they were about 80% sure they wanted to do it, so I paid for their registration for their Xmas presents, thus taking the plunge for them.)

5. ...... I managed to break my nephew's arm (not the same as in number 1) by taking him snowboarding. Luckily (if there is any luck to it) it happened at the end of the day, so we got to enjoy the 6 inches of snow that fell that day.

6. ...... I managed to live 7 days without Direct TV, high winds knocked my dish out of alignment and with the holidays it took that long to get a repair man out to fix it.

7. ...... I managed to buy a new bike trainer, (it's awesome) the rollers where fine, but too hard to do consistent intervals on without falling off.

8. ..... I managed to have my car broken into in Milwaukee, but the thieves NOT notice the two notebooks or Ipod that were in it (trunk), leaving me with "just" two broken windows and some door damage to the tune of $1800.00. Thank God for insurance.

9. ..... I managed to avoid my somewhat annual post Christmas let down. Knowing a ski trip to Tahoe is coming in 3 weeks will do that to you, bonus here is that one of my best friends who is now working in Hong Kong is coming in to snowboard with us for a few days of our vacation, should be a blast.

As an added bonus to today's post, for any of you who want to follow my training, with the feature of looking at some pretty graphs (although they are not always accurate for some reason), go here. You can even click on the link on that page and it gives you a break down of what I'm to do each day. Enjoy.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-21T15:22:00.000-06:00

Just a quick "Merry Christmas" (or "Happy Holidays" if you're not into the Catholic thing) to everyone out there.

After doing some research, I found the bike I'm going to buy for IMWI this year. Check it out.

For some reason, I'm not so worried about the bike course anymore.

http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/la-hy-throttlejockey092607-vid,0,3625521.ipixpicture?coll=la-home-middleright

The Calm Before The Storm.

2007-12-07T10:14:00.000-06:00

It seems like as with many bloggers, the holidays affect the amount you post and I'm no exception. So much else is going on, blogging takes a back seat.

My official training starts Dec 15th. My trainer is already paid in full for the entire year, for some reason that really comforts me, like everything is ready to go, like those moments before tip off/kick off of a big game. I have no doubt I can finish in my head right now, even if it takes me 16:59:59, and with the plan he lays before me, I feel I'll sure as hell be more than prepared. So it'll be up to me, with months of training, just to put it together on that day in Sept that I've been obsessing about. (I mean seriously it's 9 months away and it's always on my mind, what is Aug going to be like?)

I expect I'll post more once the training starts and would even like to make a little video journey as well here. But we shall see how ambitious I am in that. I don't want to scare away anyone with my huge nogging being posted here on a weekly basis, but I think it's a cool idea.

Oh yeah one more thing, I picked up this little bad boy for my trip to Lake Tahoe....got to love E-bay, I got this brand new, never used, for over $200 less than what it sells for at advertised.

I present to you the 2008 Burton Custom X......

That's all I got for now.

Just some pics.

2007-11-27T11:12:00.000-06:00

Here are a few reasons the Palos Forest Preserve seems to be on my mind so much lately. In the last 3 weeks I've re-realized why I enjoy mountain biking so much. These pics are of the very easy trails, but there is a lot of technical trails there too, I seem to forget to take pictures of those.

It's hard to see, but this last one is overlooking a cliff, I'd say it's about a 50-60 foot drop off to the road below.

And here is what happens when Dad messes with the little one. This one is called "Let's see how high Daddy can hike up your pants. "

Tree rug or Medieval costume? You decide.

She already thinks she's getting something for Xmas, looks like all the Christmas hype is starting early.

Other than that, I had a great Thanksgiving, it was nice to go back to my parents and relax for a few days with my side of the family. I did get in two 5 mile runs as well (one a family run I actually organized Thanksgiving morning- 2 cousins and my brother in law ran with me), so I wasn't a total slacker. On Sat night my wife and I met up with Cheese and Megan to share some laughs, pizza and beer while watching Kansas lay a turd unfortunately. The past week was great, exactly what we needed considering all we've been through the last few weeks.

Thanks.

2007-11-20T09:43:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has commented or emailed me over the last couple of days, it definitley has helped in dealing with what is going on. Day by day things get a little better, but then moments of weakness and complete sadness still come up out of nowhere and your mind wanders. (Like when I pass by the four pumpkins we bought for Halloween on our front porch steps, one for each member of the family before we knew. I was going to throw them out last week before we found out, now I don't have the heart to do it, those pumpkins may be there for a while). Thanks again though, the support does help.

I did manage to meet my tri coach on Sat and do my bike and run EMR's, so now I know what heart zones I need to train in. Official IM training starts December, so that's a welcome change of pace.

On Sunday I headed out for a two hour solo mountain biking ride at Palos, as I was a little late for my tri group meet up there. I explored some new trails and found some really nice routes. It was great to get out, clear my mind, and kick my own ass (second day in a row, coach did it for me on Sat).

I did have an accident involving the end of the my handle bar straight into my manhood though. I was going uphill and hit a root that was sticking out with my front tire, it turned my handlebars sideways and set me to the ground on top of it. My inner thigh has a HUGE bruise on it. I'd take a picture and post it, but it would take to long to block out the massive specimen next to the bruise, so I'll leave it to your imagination. But just imaging a plum attached to inner thigh and you have a pretty good visual.

Missed Miscarriage

2007-11-16T10:11:00.000-06:00

If you would have asked me last week at this time what that meant, I wouldn't have had a clue. Unfortunatley I do now.

You go to the doctor thinking everything is fine and you are going to see your child for the first time on an ultrasound..... you leave feeling empty after no heartbeat is found.

Keep my wife and myself in your thoughts please. I'll be back when I'm feeling semi-normal again.

Here's to my little pumpkin, you may have only been 7 weeks old, but you were still loved.

Week 2 Weight Watch

2007-11-08T08:46:00.000-06:00

Total lost this week:
Weight - 1.5 lbs, Body Fat: 2.6%

Total lost overall (2 weeks)
Weight - 3lbs, BF 4.6%

So overall, even though the weight isn't dropping off in clumps, I'm losing the right stuff (fat not muscle). Even though they are not "The Biggest Loser" (Hi Jillian and Kim, hit me up, would you?) type of numbers, I'm happy with them. Two weeks down, many more to go, I'll be looking nice and trim by next spring, even at this pace.

Some Singletrack Action

2007-11-05T20:02:00.001-06:00

This weekend I went to Palos Park Preserve and officially gave "Granola" the breaking in she deservered ....although not a bunch of real technical stuff out there...the trails were a blast. Not to mention I got to meet up with some of my tri group (who I feel like I'm the prodigal son after doing one ride with them all year).

Enjoy, the first 4 pictures are of a really deep ravine...you shoot down and then try to pedal up...the pictures don't show the grade, but it was SUPER steep....none of us made it up.

Dennis of Runbubbarun, smiling early in the ride, he looked mad at the world after it in the parking lot though.... apparently he forgot his nutrion, 2hrs + and no nutrition, I would have been done.
You can see Granola taking a nap up the trail
These pictures really don't do it justice, the group was moving so fast I didn't have time to take a ton of pictures, next time I promise more, there were sooo many beatiful trails there. We hit maybe 15-20% of the total trails, so there is much more out there for me to explore.

Winter Anticipation

2007-11-02T11:30:00.000-05:00

Besides being a triathlete and ungodly handsome, The Clyde also enjoys snowboarding. Having snowboarded very often for about ten years (8th grade through college) and then experiencing a slight decline in participation, (in the last five years or so having gone maybe a couple of times a year) it was decided that a ski trip was order for this winter.

That being said, he is taking a trip to Lake Tahoe in February for 5 days, which to say he's a "LITTLE" excited about would be an understatement (no not that way Cheese)....your honor, evidence 1A.

However, the old trusty Burton Custom 164 snowboard he rides is almost (gulp) 10 years old, and it's time for a new one. So tomorrow he's heading over to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, for the Chicago Snowboard Expo (and for you two plankers, Ski Show), to look and see what new boards are out there and take it all in.

Hopefully he can find a nice deal and bring home a new addition to the family.

On a side note, if you hear some loud sobbing come Sunday afternoon, that's probably The Big Cheese after the Pack continue on their Superbowl run through KC....time to get aboard people, the GB train is moving on.

Next weekend The Clyde himself (along with 4 buddies) will make a pilgrimage up to their Mecca, to watch the Pack in person....debauchery and details may or may not be forthcoming. Although it may not make news like some other LF visitors, it will none the less be something Green Bay will not soon forget.

1lb, 2% body fat.

2007-10-30T11:06:00.000-05:00

That's how much I dropped this last week vs last week......not huge numbers by any means, but I'm not discouraged........

You see this weekend I went back to visit my folks for the weekend, and we all know what that means, don't we?

Yes, Mom made enough food to feed a small nation for every meal.....and I can honestly say I only slipped up on two meals (OK, and "a few" of the homemade sugar cookies as snacks, if you had one you'd understand)....so all in all, with the trip back home (and all the food), and still being able to drop a pound, I'm happy. I even managed a 4.5 mile run with my cousin and brother in law on Sunday to combat the cookies a little.

More than that though, I think the 2% drop in BF is great and I'll take that for the next 8 weeks if possible. Realistically what it comes down to is even if I'm at 210-215 next year instead of 200-205, if I can get my BF down to 10-15%, I'll look "fit", even if I'm heavier than what I want to be. So as long as that keeps dropping, I really am not majorly concerned with the lbs. I feel they will take care of themselves in the next weeks though, as I increase my cardio again.

Sorry boring post, but I was up late last night after the Green Bay, I had to let my "Favre On" go down after the exciting game last night so it took me a while to get to sleep.

Up next the cream puff Chiefs..........Go Pack.

A Productive Week.

2007-10-23T11:10:00.000-05:00

Yes I am going to actually talk tri stuff and bore you with this post.

Last week I had my first meeting with my Coach, Matt from The Fitness Pursuit, total cool guy. Our meeting lasted about an hour and a half, we went over everything. My goals for next year, my strengths, my weekness, my lifestyle, etc....even down to the type of porn I like (girl on girl if you were wondering). It was exactly what I was looking for in a coach. A down to earth, no nonsense type of guy, not a cheerleader.

Coming out of the meeting we came up with a tenative gameplan for me for IMWI.

1. My "official" training will start in January.

2. If I'm going to lose weight, I need to do it now, so I have basically a 3 month challenge to drop 20-25 lbs.... he felt that weight loss will come as part of the training, but TRYING to lose weight and do training at the same time is something he recommends against.

3. That being said, I have joined SparkPeople (it's free so don't think I'm big time or anything), and will be tracking my diet for a while on their calorie/nutrition tracker)....I figure if I can maintain between 2000-2500 calories a day the next few months, I should be ready to go come Jan.

4. I need to get my bike fitted and my run gait re-analyzed to make sure I'm as comfortable as possible for the next year in both areas. Matt brought up a good point that as you run more and more, you should periodly go and get rechecked out to make sure your stride doesn't change. Say you start out in cushioned shoes, that may change over time so that perhaps you don't need that type of shoe anymore. It's been 3 years for me, so I think I'm due.

5. I am also going get my EMR done so I'll be training in my right zones. So basically this is a 15 minute test where you run/bike yourself to failure....boy I can't wait for that. Nothing like seeing a fat man sweat.

5. As for the picture at the top....I went paintballing for essentially my first time last weekend (I went once in college, but don't really remember it if you get my drift)...WHAT A BLAST....not that triathlon leaves a lot of time for other hobbies, but outdoor paintball is best in the spring and fall when the temps are not so hot, perfect for the downtime of the tri calender for me and most midwest racers with no warm weather winter races on their calendars. Anyone looking for some fun cross training, I highly recommend it, nothing like your heart rate capping out as you're trying to dodge paintballs from all angles behind trees, cars, old airplanes, etc....a new hobby is born. (On the reflection side, it makes you respect soldiers so much more. As you're sitting there and paintballs are flying all around you, you can't help but think of how crazy a REAL war must be, you get hit there your dead for real, not just until the next game.)

6. There is ALOT going on right now behind the scenes, once the dust settles I will let you all know, not like the 3 of you really care, but this is my elementary attempt at suspense.

2008 is shaping up.

2007-10-12T12:57:00.000-05:00

May 18th - Green Bay Half Marathon
July 20th - Spirit of Racine Half Ironman
Sept 7th - IronMan Wisconsin

I've got nothing else right now, work has been absolutely high maintenance of late, and as most of you know, I'm not about high maintenance, in work or when I use to date. So as soon as the suckage is over this is all you get.

And to top it off, I have no idea why this post is in purple and I'm too lazy to highlight it all and change it back to black.

She Eats Just Like Her Father

2007-10-05T14:19:00.000-05:00

Since everyone and their mother seem to be getting sappy in blogosphere of late, I figured what the hell, if you can't beat them join them.

So, I just want to say Happy Birthday Goomba on more time.!!! Daddy loves you, hope you enjoyed your first birthday, I know everyone else did.

On the Tri front, tonight's my first official weigh in/picture taking sessoin for my own personal challenge......and hell no you're not going to see those, at least for a few weeks so hopefully you can see the change. A shirtless Clyde, as of now, has been known to blind small children and women, so really I'm doing all you a service, you should be thanking me.

Packers 21, Bears 9. I'm out.

It's Official, Official.

2007-10-01T10:58:00.000-05:00

IRONMAN WISCONSIN 2008

Your registration has been successful!
"Active.com-Registration" will be displayed on your credit bill.
Confirmation Number: 27182120-100______28
You will receive an email confirmation of your registration.

Here we go.

Um, Hell Yeah.

2007-09-28T13:26:00.001-05:00

I'll take a pair....

Al's Run - The Hotness

2007-09-24T14:20:00.000-05:00

Get the eye bleach ready kids, don't say I didn't warn you. Here are pics from Al's Run, it's going to take some work on your part though.

Click HERE.

Type in "Al's Run"

Then click on "Al's Run 2007" , it should be the only option.

Enter Bib 4801, hit enter. Enjoy.

C'mon your triathletes, I don't want to hear the complaining about having to do the work.

(For some reason the website wouldn't let me connect directly to it.)

Al's Run - 5 Mile-40:15

2007-09-18T15:56:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note, busy week. I did Al's Run this weekend, a 5 mile race in Milwaukee.

Finishing time was 40:15, not too bad considering I have not trained for any type of speed lately (remember folks I'm 225 give or take) and my weekly mileage's have only been 15-20 the last 4 weeks or so.

I finished somewhere around 850 out of 3300 or so, no Clydesdivision unfortunately but I only saw one dude who looked bigger than me pass me during the race, so I'll take it. Little victories. (On a side note I did see a kid fall flat on his face tripping over a curb, did I laugh? Of course.)

I'm out for now, some fun things going on in terms of IMWI, but I'll save that for a later post, this Clyde is going to grow some fins this winter........

IMWI In Pictures

2007-09-13T11:32:00.001-05:00

Oh Boy, where to start with the IMWI report, what a truly inspirational weekend, and I didn't even compete. I'm not an epic writer, so I'll give you the cliff notes version, because let's all be honest, we only skim these posts anyways.

Highlights :

1. The first line The Big Cheese said to me as I'm sitting in a bar waiting for him (he was an hour late because he had to tidy up his "landing strip" down under, but blamed it on Megan.) As I'm sitting there waiting, all of a sudden I hear

"I didn't know this was a gay bar"

I knew right there we'd hit it off. The weekend with Cheese and Megan was so much fun, and very weird in some aspects, considering I had never met either of them before Friday, but honestly it seemed like I was hanging with old friends. This "blog world" is really crazy sometimes.

2. This guy. Don't Ask. It's Madison, the freak central of Wisconsin, and being from Wisconsin, we can take it to a whole new level.
3. The Essen Haus in Madision. (Evidence below, those watered over eyes can only mean one thing, LOTS OF DRINKING) . Notice how the mug attacked Cindy Jo's head, beware of out of control mug's is the lesson learned here. (On a side note, meeting Moonpie and Cindy Jo was very cool as well, back to point 1, it seemed like I've known them for years, the five us sat at the table and drank/talked the night away like old war buddies or something, surreal.)

4. Telling my buddy Casey's cat as it started to lick my chest, as I was trying to sleep on his couch at 4 in the morning. "Yes I have nipples, but good luck trying to get milk out of them". I don't remeber this but Casey told me about it the next day.

5. Seeing the swim start, ahem, Cheese, Megan, Moonpie and Cindy Jo. Yes someone actually got up after only two hours of sleep to see it (including the time it took to get pulled over for speeding).

The IMWI" Washing Machine"
6. Cowbell-ing in Verona...taking a page from Moonpie/Brett Wildflower taunts (Seriously people, that is the way to cheer!!! LISTEN TO THAT AUDIO.)... calling out each rider I was cheering for specifically, they absolutely loved it....trust me....we chose to cheer for riders wearing anything pink or in obnoxious neon and then those wearing headbands, arm bands, arm warmers and then whatever numbers we could read as they zoomed by. By the end of almost 3.5 hours, my arms were pretty sore from hitting that bell.

No we didn't even plan that.

7. Seeing an old basketball friend, whom I lost contact with since I changed locations at my job 2 years ago, turn the corner right at mile 25, knowing he was going to finish in under 12 hours. (I didn't even know he was racing, sadly that was the first time I recognized him all day).

8. Sitting at that finish line, for 4 hours by myself, pretty much from 8 on, without moving, just standing in the bleachers, taking it all in, putting it into my memory as motivatin for next year.

I laughed, I cried, I boiled with pride, I felt their pain, I WAS that scary solo guy in the bleachers, except I didn't have a big set of headphones on to complete the look.

Looking south towards the finish line. Capitol behind me.
Looking North towards the capitol.

I'm telling you, if you have never been at an Ironman finish line from 8 or so until midnight you are missing something. It's electric, it really is. I can't count the number of times I got goosebumps. The video in the post below sums it up, the crowd is just nuts. So moving.

9. When after opening up this bottle of champagne, Hillary Biscay asked me up to her room to help her finish it. A Gentleman never tells my friends, so don't bother asking.

10. This......

...2008 Ironman Wisconsin, here I come.

Frank Farrar Finishes Ironman Wisconsin

2007-09-12T19:47:00.000-05:00

Frank Farrar, 78, finishes Ironman Wisconsin, with little less than 2 minutes before the midnight cut-off. For the full story, click here.

(Click on the plus sign where it says "Watch Video Here" after you hit the link, I can't get it to load to this page for some reason)

Oh yeah, one more thing.....

2007-09-11T12:31:00.000-05:00

I kind of forgot to mention that after an hour and fifteen minute wait yesterday, I'm officially IN for IRONMAN WISCONSIN 2008!!!!!!!

Boy I just got the chills writing that.

I'll do a complete post in the next day or two about the entire weekend, it was "EPIC", and I'm not just talking the size of Cheese's man boobs.

But in the meantime, congrats again to all the IMWI 2007 finishers, what an accomplishment!!!