Borsch

I'm Back...with friends

2010-06-27T21:32:00.006-05:00

Hey All.

I just wanted to thank all of you for following my blog and I hope you will hop over to my new blog http://jonlaurencemo.blogspot.com/. I plan on continuing to post on my athletic adventures but plan to include the rest of "life."

Once again, thanks for the continued readership and I hope you will join me in my new blogger life.

Borsch

Biggest Loser and P90X

2010-01-08T12:03:00.003-06:00

Who out there loves Biggest Loser!?! I do! I'm totally addicted to the show. I get pissed off at it sometimes, like the first time they made the contestants run a marathon not having trained for one. I always wonder how much coaching they have had around nutrition, hydration, etc. I'm sure the contestants have had enough, but that side of things is rarely shown to the public. I know it is probably boring to air but I can only imagine the number of people that have tried to go run along distances because of this show without any education. I've been fortunate to have Pharmie and Steve to educate me a long the way. Not everyone has an endurance athelete to ask questions to. Ok...Rant needs to end.

In MN the show is on from 7-9 pm, which sucks! I work until 6'ish. Then hit the gymfor 1-2 hours. Every Tuesday in Jan. is a 40 min run followed by P90X Chest and Back. If I kill myself I can burn through the workout in 45 min or so, but my HR is at 150-160 the entire time. That puts me home right around 8. I wish NBC would push it back an hour so I could watch more of it.

Moving on. With the exception of 10 days around Christmas I'm doing pretty well at getting back into the swing of things. I kind of screwed up the Christmas time so I decided to hit the reset button on my training plans. I started the half IM program over along with the P90X calendar.

I'm comfortable with the P90X workouts thus far. I like that most of the lifting, up to this point, is what I like to call "no bullsh*t" moves...or even..."throwback workouts." The Chest and Back workout is an hour of different variations of mostly push-ups and pull-ups. The Legs and Back workout is again variations of lunges, squats and pull-ups. It is all the moves we've done here and there since high school but never stuck with, at least I haven't.

The part I love the most is that these workouts are easy enough to follow that I skim the DVDs and then just take the work sheets (with all the moves/lifts) to the gym. I take a few notes on reps/form and then "Bring It" at the gym. The first few weeks are the hardest. I'm finding muscle groups I haven't used in years. I love these workouts. When you finish you feel like you actually did something. After the upper body days I have the "shaky arms" trying to shampoo my hair or when I reach for a sweatshirt in the closet. It feels great! I must be a little nuts but I love that feeling that I actually did something.

So, to bring this full circle. I love P90X. I love Biggest Loser. I wonder what would happen if I combine them. Well that is exactly what is happening. My gym is having a Biggest Loser competition. I signed up hoping it would motivate me to get to the gym regularly, which is also my plan for having a HIM training plan along with P90X (if I skip 1 thing a day I already did an extreme workout, whether it be endurance or P90x). Steph and I joined this gym in August ( I think) and they did the body fat test, which didn't look good. But we also did it again starting this competition. I'm still clinically obese and in very poor health, according to that fat monitor, but I've lost 1.6% of my body fat already.

I tend to spread myself thin sometimes so my focus the next two months (the length of the competition) is to get my workouts in. I'm working on the eating healthier part but for now I'm going to not stress over it. Steph does a good job of providing me with many healthy options and 2 out of 3 meals a day I do great so I'm going to roll with that. If I happen to be good all day, awesome, but I can't stress over it right now. Getting to the gym and kicking my butt is the biggest hurdle.

Ok. Back to work.

Have a wonderful Friday all!

Borsch out.

So fitting!

2009-12-23T09:47:00.005-06:00

I will be hearing a lot of that this week! I am not a good gift wrapper! I tend to use a ton of paper! Even more tape! And still hope I cover the package.

As for workouts, yesterday I got in two runs. 1 was maybe .75 miles I left work with a headache and was hoping to have a stress relieving run. I got all wrapped up in some warm clothes and off I went. THUD THUD THUD...that was the feeling in my head. Every step seemed to pulse through my head. Ugg....such a bad feeling. So I headed back home and found a cozy spot on the couch to watch The Hangover (one of the greatest movies of the year!). So after a few hours on the couch, some dinner and FB time I got all bundled up again for a 3-4 miler around 8:30 at night. I left the Garmin at home and just turned on some loud angry music and cranked out a few miles. I finished the first mile just after two songs, that means I was running a 7 min mile or so! That is super fast for me! I slowed it down, relaxed my breathing and I gradually felt some of the stress leave my body.

Today I'm going to hammer out the Bending Crankarms Spinnerval DVD. Basically 60 min of pushing big gears followed by squats off the bike then repeat. Should be fun! Then we have some out of town friends coming over for dinner and drinks, maybe some shenanigans. Tomorrow and Friday should eat be an early morning run, nothing long, just long enough to feel like I got a good workout in before attempting to avoid crap food all weekend. :-)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

My Christmas Wish

2009-12-20T22:07:00.003-06:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday Season so far!

This week was a bad week for me! I ate crap on and off, workouts were a little more sparse! I am not happy with how I did this last week. Everyone at work is in that kick to get stuff done. Most people at my work have elected to take the next two weeks off so just about every project has been wrapping up. I put in some extra time today in hopes to make this week a little shorter. I want to eat well, even with Christmas, and get in a bunch of workouts.

So my Christmas wish is to lose some weight! I want that dedication to stick to my plan and not get side tracked in this season when it is so easy to jump ship. So my name ins't Michelle and I don't need nor want to lost 110 pounds, I just need to lose some pounds.

If you truly feel compelled to buy me something just go to Menard's...just about anything there will be just fine. :-)

Lastly, I'm taking recommendations for a 2010 "A" race. Keep in mind I'm entering year 2 of grad school and getting married in May. I'm currently attempting to do most of a half IM training program (minus the swim) and P90X. All I do know is that 26.2 miles is not for me next year so please no marathon suggestions.

Have a happy holidays!

Who the Heck is this guy?!?

2009-12-15T21:47:00.002-06:00

Hey all!

I've been gone a long time! I've been getting my life together. After a crappy summer of training, a crappy marathon this fall and struggles with work I've taken a sabbatical from blogging to do some soul searching and spend some time on the things that matter most. I hit a bad spot this year by being overwhelmed. I put on a good face but don't handle it well alone. I stopped working out, started eating poorly and put on a bunch of poundage. Stress eating sucks! Whom ever invented stress eating they should be stoned.

Anyway, the past few weeks I've hit the gym hard core style. I actually put together a Half IM plan (but haven't swam yet) in conjunction with P90X (hence the new header). My plan is not to do it all but if I have more on the schedule I feel worse if I do nothing. Lately I've been biking about 3 hours a week, running 1-1.5 hours a week, lifting 3-4 hours a week and polishing it off with 90 min of yoga a week. That totals up to 8.5 - 10 hours of working out a week and I'm not even doing all of the workouts, but it is much better than the 1-3 hours of working out I was doing. Week 1 was flat on weight loss but week 2 resulted in 4 pounds down. I'm going to keep weighing myself every Monday morning. I hope I can lose enough to get in the ballpark of my old goal 225, I'm currently at 264...I have a long way to go!

I'm currently enjoying lifting again. P90X workouts are tough but I'm doing lower weight more reps so I can build more toned muscled instead of bulky muscle. I like the workouts, they are no non-sense routines that involve time tested moves like a variety of lunges, wall squats, pull-ups and push-ups. The yoga X dvd is nothing but extreme to me, a yoga novice. I spent most of it either shaking, stumbling or wondering how they bend that way. I give it my best and usually end up with a soaked t-shirt but I have a long way to go!

I know everyone out there has been on top of their game because I've been checking up on you from time to time so KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK and send some will power my way.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season and I will be back soon!

Borsch out.

Is it really that season!

2009-10-11T15:00:00.003-05:00

WEll I'm pretty much healed up from the marathon. I've blasted my chest a few times in the gym and got in 1 spin class that was hell. This weekend has been pretty cold 20/30's up here in MN so while watching the VIKES WIN I decided to throw the trainer tire on. I picked up a few Spinnervals DVD's earlier this summer on super sale and can't wait to kick my butt with them!

Today I think I'm going to blast the quads with "Dropping the Hammer". It looks like a sweaty leg burning 60 min. Later in the week I hope to get in a few short runs (I'm loving SHORT runs) and continue to get back into weight lifting. I've thought about picking back up P90X on a modified schedule so I can continue to do cardio that isn't built into the program.

Cheers to a good fall/winter training session.

Marathon update

2009-10-07T09:33:00.004-05:00

It was a rough day for me. It all started in the metrodome bathrooms. Long lines of guys waiting to go #2 and only having 1 stall to do it in. Eventually 15 min before the start me and a few other guys hijacked a ladies bathroom since there were no lines there. Anyway, got to the start...saw Heidles (pictured with me below, she finished also) and gave her a few pointers. I ran with her for a few miles as a warm up but when we got to the first real hill she dropped back and I went on.

The weather was GREAT! It was perfect, I ran in shorts, a compression shirt with a mesh technical shirt over that and arm warmers.

Back to the race...The miles ticked by. I was right on pace of where I could have a good, yet challenging day. I was eating and drinking just as any other long run. Everything was going great! I kept the 4:30 (last year I finished at 4:34) pace team balloons, in site (on the long stretches). It was really pretty around the MSP lakes, the sun was just coming up. Just a little bit of steam was rising off the lakes, it was a good morning to run. A few more miles ticked by and coming up to mile marker 11 I took a shot of gel (part of my nutrition and calorie plan) and accidentally took to much and gaged on it. The gag reflex led to a vomit reflex and that is where the story turns. All my calories I'd been eating to keep fueled, all my enduralyets (tabs that help prevents cramping, they have lots of salt in them) spilled to the pavement. I got to the water stop just past mile 11 and drank up, I knew I needed calories badly! I ate some shot blocks, drank Gatorade and tried to get going again. Eventually, i was running again and low and behold I started to feel my stomach churn around mile 14'ish. I slowed up hoping it would settle and BOOM! Threw up again. Well this isn't working well. My guess is that I took in too much Gatorade, too much liquid sloshing around on an already not so happy stomach. At that point I was toast! I still had a mile to the next water stop to even rinse out my mouth.

I eventually got there, ate and drank some more and just walked a bit. Miles 15-18 were better, I was running at least a mile or two without needed to walk. But after that I was feeling spent. My body didn't have any calories left and I had all but eaten everything I brought with. Half my enduralytes had been squandered on the pavement. I was starting to cramp in my quads. I just ran until they started twinging and then walked a bit.

Miles 19-22 were TOUGH. Almost all up hill. Granted you are on a very small and steady slope then have a medium hill, medium hill and then one steep mother (about 2-3 blocks long) up to Summit. From there it is just a few small rollers to the finish line. I walked most of those 3 hills but tried my hardest to run when I got to the top. These were probably the toughest miles mentally. I hadn't seen anyone I knew since mile 14 and I was cramping nearly a few blocks after I'd start running. I knew all i had to do was make it to summit and I'd make it to the finish line but at some parts I was starting to doubt that I would make it to the top of the hills.

I tried to stay positive and talk to a few people around me to take my mind off of things but it didn't always work. Eventually I got to summit and felt relief, I was going to finish this thing. I still had 4.5 miles to go but that didn't both me, I just had to put one foot in front of the other. I kept with my try to run the flats and downhill sections and walk the small rollers (or whenever I cramped). At this point we had moved past the stop and walk when things start to twinge, things had to CRAMP to stop now. The hardest part is starting back up so there was no unnecessary stopping.

Around mile 22 I saw my aunt who was over enthused that I was going to finish...but it was good, I needed the friendly face. Then a half mile later I saw my sister and petey (my sister's full-size dog). Petey jumped on my, that hurt!, but I told them how I was doing and that it had been rough and got back on my way. The next stretch I jogged off and on with another guy from 3M. He was a legal guy and kind of boring but I was ok listening because it kept my thoughts at bay. Around mile 25 I left him, he said he couldn't run/walk anymore and he was just going to walk the rest. I knew this area well...I had one very small rolling hill to conquer and then I'd see the cathedral, STEPH and the 20+ people waiting for me to come by. I ran continuously more in that last 1.2 miles than I did from mile 18'ish to mile 25. I only walked just enough to drink some water at the waters stop around 25 1/4 miles.

Around 25 1/2'ish...maybe a little after, there was my aunt again. Yelling and screaming my name, running along side me. Shortly there after maybe a block my eyes locked on steph. I handed her my ipod and race belt (which I used to carry some of my food) and high-fived everyone down the line. Somewhere around 20 people just waiting for me to come by. It was energizing! I actually ran fairly quickly by them only to get past them and feel my quads start to cramp again. No stopping now...less than .5 miles to the finish line. I saw Christine and Petey again...this time I didn't get close to petey, jumping on me would have probably knocked me down at that point. The next .25 was hard not to stop! Not mentally but all downhill and when your legs are cramping they want to cramp more because they take more impact cushioning your landing going down hill. I didn't stop, I kept going through the small incline to the finish and locked up just past the finish line.

Right away I waved the medic away, I'm sure I didn't look good but I didn't want to be taken to the medical tent either. Some volunteers threw on a wind blanket. Then I saw the next group of volunteers, locked my eyes on a rack of medals and told a guy "I'm going to need one of those." At this point you'd think I'd be hungry...nope! I had to force myself to eat a small roll, grabbed another for the road as well as a banana, Pearson's nut roll and some water. I almost missed the t-shirt table but I saw someone drop something out of the corner of my eye, when I looked it was a glorious table full of finishers t-shirts. I needed one of those to! Eventually I made my way out of the finishers area, which is huge...probably 1/4-1/2 a mile just to get out.

I walked around that finishers area again, only this time on the outside...found Steph and Matt (her brother) and we ran into Aunt carol and Christine and Petey walking back up Cathedral hill to the car. Let me tell you, the hardest part was getting in and out of Matt's car...OUCH! That is where this story ends.

Someones gotta yack for it to be considered a work out...right!?!

2009-08-10T15:52:00.004-05:00

After a lazy Saturday putting gutters on 1 side of the garage before getting rained on I joined Steph and here sisters & brother-in-law for dinner at one of our fav. places to eat...The Chatterbox. Love that place! I had the make your own Mac and Cheese. Mine had sausage, grilled chicken, bell peppers and onions. It was delicious! Mmmmm....

So Mn was hot and rainy all weekend and I had an 18 miler on the schedule. Earlier in the week Pharmie and I decided to join up and tackle the heat together. So Sunday morning at 5:30 am I showed up at her place ready to run. Kinda. I set everything out the night before knowing that 5am would come to quickly and I would forget something...well even with setting everything out I forgot something....the bottles to the fuel belt. Ugg...Pharmie was nice enough to empty one of her's and throw some of my Gatorade in there.

The beginning part of the run was pretty uneventful, which is good! When we left that morning the weather station had St. Paul at 75 degrees and 85%+ humidity (if I remember right). We just cruised along and grabbed a drink around mile 3, refilled and kept on our way. Mile 3 - 5'ish we were along the marathon route (going backwards) and I was getting that "urge." Well shortly Pharmie and I got off the path to hit up the restrooms at a local Dunn Brothers....whew, that was close. Back on the trail, Miles 5-7 are just cruising along..drinking (maybe hydrating is a better term?) and chatting. Miles 7 - 9 I was starting to feel it a bit...I think the heat was starting to get to me. The sun was stuck behind some clouds but I just felt zapped on the smalled of inclines. At mile 9 we turned around after a short discussion about how far we were going and i was confused (maybe still asleep).

We reached a drinking fountain at 8.8 miles, according to Mr. Garmin, and Pharmie said lets just go .2 more and turn around and then hit up the drinking fountain. I'm like, what? But then we would be turning around at 9 and the drinking fountain would be 9.2...are you trying to make me run an extra .2? DUH BORSCH! If we turn around at 9 and go back the way we came will we finish with 18 miles. I don't know what my deal was, somewhere in my head I was fixed that the "Bubbler" was the mid point.

After that brain fart we ate, drank and were under way. I was feeling better simply because Pharmie took the water bottles...I carried both on the way out and she got them on the way back. I was hoping that would slow her down on the way back..it didn't. Maybe a mile after the turn around I was feeling the heat again...we stopped at every possible drinking fountain (about every 2 miles) for me to drink, refil and throw water on my head and back.

With a little over 3 miles to go Pharmie was still feeling great and I had an HR in the 170's at a 10:20 pace...ekk! Borsch is burnin up! Pharmie gave me a bottle and went on her way, she wanted to push it home and I decided to settle into whatever pace held me in Zone 3..no higher! Well with the toughest part of the marathon course coming up I was in for it. The chart below shows our route...we pretty much started around mile marker 22, rank to around 13.5 and headed back the same way.

Right about that nice spike in the middle of the hill is where I decided I could no longer keep my past few hours worth of gels, shot blocks, water and Nuun in my stomach anymore! YACK! I felt better after yacking but man that sucked! A nice lady stopped and gave me some water, since my bottle was already out (only 1.5 miles up the hill). I thanked her and she went on her speedy way...she had to be doing 7's. I made it nearly home before I felt like yacking again so I called it quits at 17.8. This week 17.8 miles = 18 miles. The walk back was nice and calm...I'm sure my legs would not have felt that good without it.

Steph and Steve made us all a delicious breakfast...pancakes with blueberries, strawberries and chocolate chunks...mmmm...what a wonderful variety! Thanks guys!

The run is a success in my book! I worked hard, covered the miles and am happy with it...all before 10 am to! I think I'm on my way to my goal for the year...finish Twin Cities, have fun and be able to say I ran hard.

Today I'm heading out for a nice recovery ride and I'm going to enjoy this long awaited recovery week!

What a weekend!

2009-08-04T07:54:00.002-05:00

I had an awesome weekend! First thing Friday morning I left town with Steph and 4 other friends. We headed north to a State Park for some camping, canoeing and relaxation. Lets just say that after 2 full days of drinking with friends I found myself in pretty good shape Sunday morning, ready for my long run for the week. This week scared me a little, 16...something about that 14 mark seams reachable (being only 0.9 milers farther then a half marry). But 16 seemed long. I helped some of the friends pack up sunday morning, did a little reading for school and took a nice nap. :-) Then woke up, ate lunch and got ready to run. I'd say I was off and running a little after 1'ish. The plan was to get in 16 miles however I could. The first few miles felt great. After about 30-40 min of running I noticed the slight breeze died down and the air got humid and stale. Everything seemed hotter. At 4.8 miles I reached a small beach, I grabbed some water to refill my Fuel Belt and ate a small Rice Crispy Bar. Side bar...some how I forgot the nutrition I purposely bought to bring along...whoops! So the "snacks" we brought with had to do. I decided to ditch the trail through the woods and run on the road now. It helped. There was a little more air movement on the road but it really wrapped through the woods well and stretches that were lined with trees on both sides just seemed to have that stale hot air.

Eventually, I reached the road that led into the camp ground and saw Steph...driving out to bring me water. She noticed just sitting at the camp site that the air got stale and humid. She must really love me to jump in her car and drive around hoping to offer me more water! I was actually ok for water at the moment and declined. I made my way back to camp, re-fueled and went out for a little out and back stretch to try and get up to 13 miles. Looking back that stretch, from the campsite (10 miles) to 13 miles (back at the camp site) was ROUGH! I was thinking about throwing in the towel. My Fuel Belt chaffed, my thighs chaffed...I could feel the heat from my legs rubbing with nearly every stride. Back at camp I refueled and hydrated again. Steph was waiting, ready to join me for one last out and back...3 miles...less than a 5k.

As soon as we started I noticed I was getting tight. Steph asked me before we started, "How are you doing?" And my simple response was, "I'm running low & hot." It was nice to have someone with me, we didn't say much and that was ok. On the out stretch I managed to eat bugs #1 and #2 for the day...GROSS! I gaged and only wanted something to drink. Normally this is where I reach back and just take a swig from the Fuel Belt... I left it at the camp site. I figured on these two out and back stretches I didn't need the weight and could like for 3 miles without water. Eventually I tried not to think about water and just kept looking at my watch to see when I could turn around. Steph and I hit the turn around, she kept going for a little bit..just to the next sign and I took that as a short walk break. 1.5 miles to go...and we're off. Gradually I lifted the pace, unconsciously that is. I didn't realize it until I heard Steph breathing harder and harder. I looked down at the Garmin and we went from 10:30's to 9:30's...then 9:15's. It was nice to know I still had a kick at the end of 16 miles but man, I really was just running for high quality H2O.

I made it home and finished the all 16 miles. I drank a crap ton of water and threw ice under a hat, held ice on my neck & thighs. That was really good! I got in a nice stretch and then Steph treated me to an ice cream sandwich at the little store near our camp site. Mmmmm....

Recapping the run, it felt ok. It was a little slow but that is just fine with me. I've moved on from trying to beat last year's time. Today I just want to finish and finish being able to say, "That is as hard as I can run 26.2 miles today." That is all I want. I'll take whatever Mother Nature throws at me on 10/4 and just run with it...pun intended! :-)

Monday I felt pretty good, just stiff and sore. I am a little shocked that I feel this good. Today I'm headed out for a 3 mile easy run and I'm actually looking forward to the 18 miler that looms for this hot weekend they are forecasting for us in MN.

Quick update!

2009-07-29T08:44:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know...I FINISHED ECON & PASSED! I got 95% on the final which...moving that long run and bucking down for two days really paid off.

On to running news...
My long run this week didn't go well. I got out there and the heat zapped me! A number of issues that came up:
1: Found a pair of shorts that are not long run shorts! OUCH
2: Black top trails on hot sunny days means demoralizing heat blasting you from both sides.

I turned around at mile 2.5 and ran home to re-apply some body glide where my shorts were "treating me wrong." They worked so well on my last 5 miler but in the heat I could just feel my inner thighs just getting hotter with every stride. So when I got home and did my thing, re-fueling as well...I started out and just ran to the end of the road (about 0.9miles) and back. Take some water and repeat until whipped out. It was comforting not to have my fuel belt on as well as know water is no more than a mile behind me.

I really hope Oct. 4th is not a hot day. I will be miserable for 26.2 miles. I'm sorry it was a little cold for all of you people last year but I will take cold and rainy over hot and sunny any day on a long run.

Enough for now...I'm off to be productive.

Long runs galore...

2009-07-27T13:17:00.004-05:00

So it is no secret that school has thrown my once steady schedule into a whirlwind of organized chaos. I've been fitting in house work and work outs where they fit. This weekend Steph and I spent two solid days racking the yard, mowing, cutting down over grown bushes, hauling them away, cleaning & organizing the garage, putting in new locks, and entertaining my family Sunday afternoon. We are getting to the end of our immediate "To Do" list. All we really have left is to continue to clean up the over grown parts of the yard, finishing cleaning the basement and to a better job at organizing the pile of housing documents in the office.

Thankfully this has been a week off of school and I can enjoy the coming 3 day camping trip. I'll throw in a 16 mile run one day but other than that it will be hiking, canoeing and beer drinking fun with friends.

That brings me to my title, long runs galor...
Last weeks long run was put off until Econ was finishing, which meant Wednesday evening. That 12 mile went ok. I came home and said "that was as hard as I can run 12 miles right now." It felt good all the way until that last mile. I was running on a trail and I knew there was a drinking fountain 2.5 miles away from my house. I went out comfortable and came back strong. But when I got to that last drinking fountain I couldn't get any water out! It was barely flowing over the edge of the spout. I soon gave up and started my way back at a more comfortable pace hauling my empty fuel belt bottles. Lets just say the last gel I consumed leading up to that drinking fountain didn't stay well in my mouth. I got that cotton mouth sensation and came home walk/running the last mile in 11:20. I was running seriously low...which lead to small cramps while stretching post run. All in all I think that was a good run, I neg. split the run by over 2 min (even with that final 11:20 mile) to finish with an 10:07 average.

Today is going to be my 14 miler I skipped this weekend to focus on yard work. It is supposed to be sunny and 80+. Hot weather works me over so this should be interesting. Anyone who knows me, knows I "run" hot all the time. My skin is always warm so when you throw me in a warm climate I'm instantly sweating buckets. I'm going to need to be smart about my route tonight, making sure I work in known "working" drinking fountains or water stops.

Then sometime this weekend I'll hit up another long run, 16 miles, while I'm up north camping. I haven't decided when I want to do it yet but either way I'll be enjoying some nice country scenery. Maybe Saturday morning so I can just spend the rest of Saturday dragging my feet over the front end of a canoe with a beer in my hand.

3 long runs in 1.5 weeks has left little time for other work outs. Steph and I did a recovery ride last week and then I counted the 2 days of yard work as cross training. I'm hoping this week will have a recovery ride tomorrow, Wednesday easy run, Thursday hard ride, then the weekend is up in the air as to where the long run will fit.

I hope everyone is having a good Monday! I'll check in on everyone later!

The crazy midnight mind of Borsch

2009-07-20T13:23:00.002-05:00

Last night I was working on my Global Econ final and sometime around 11pm I was like what!?! Look at me, I have a mess on the desk and yet I'm slightly organized.

The pictures below say it all...

ps..If you missed Saturday's 70 mile bike ride and house pics scroll down!

I've been a bad blogger!

2009-07-19T11:12:00.010-05:00

Wow, where did I go?!? It has been tough to make time to write blog posts! Even just posting pics of the house! I have a few below...check them out! The last few weeks have been getting crazier, if that is possible! We put stuff away in the house for the most part, we got most of the initial "to do's" done. Now it is finals week for my Global Econ class and the start to the "real" build for marathon training. This week starts three weeks of uncertainty for me...12, 14 & 16 for long run mileage. I've been there before, I know I can go there again but man...after my last long run it seems like so far! I've come to terms with myself and I just know I'm not going to be as fast as I was last year (really not that fast at all). I was struggling to hold 10:00-10:30's on my last 3 mile run! I'm not sure if it was lack of sleep, lack of hydration or both but it just didn't come to me at all. I couldn't find it. After that 3 mile run I joined some friends, and the TCBC Bike club, for 32 miles of PAIN! 5 miles into the ride my right calf CRAMPED! We weren't going at an above average effort but it cramped, shortly followed by my left calf. I slowed and tried to work both of them out. It seems to work for a while, but every time we hit a hill (there were enough of them) I found my calves twinging again and again. I was trying to compensate and to more work with the quads but that only led to my quads cramping with 1 mile to go. Lets just say I was in a world of HURT!

I tried to rehab them because Saturday was a 73 mile ride around Lake Pepin. The ride is very scenic and we go at an easy pace around a "lake" in southern MN that divides MN and WI. It is really just a bay in the Mississippi. We had a good group, some strong riders to pull...a few good pace riders to take some turns at the front. As you can see in the pic below I wore thermal tights to keep my calves warm. That and the "compression" factor seemed to help. They were ok through the ride. They were tight through most of the ride but never gave me any trouble. The day started in the low 60's and was maybe in the mid 60's by the time we finished.

We had 1 rider who had never goen over 25 miles and she wanted to join us for this 70+ mile trek. Needless to say she BONKED. By mile 4 she hadn't drank half a bottle of fluid and ate nothing. That may work on a 1 hour effort but not 2+ hours in with 2+ hours to go. We gave her a quick nutrition 101 course at the rest stop and forced her to eat and drink the rest of the way. The frustrating thing was that we paced her back 30 miles at 15-17 mph. I found myself out front for around 25 miles of that 30 grinding away at 80rpm. I found it tough to go slower with a high cadence. I either wanted to "go" or bounce around in my seat. So I just kept grinding at 80 rpm's. All in all it was a nice day but I would have loved to finish with a stronger average.

All of us pre-ride. From L to R.
Lauren, Mike, Natalia, Kari, ME, Matt

All of us post ride. Everyone is smiling!

NOW....HOUSE PICS!

THE FRONT

Starting with trim work...

Painting over the test colors...

And the living room/dinning room is DONE! Well at least the red is.

The kitchen.

Steph working hard on the kitchen.

Steph and Steve working away at the "wheat grass" color on the rest of the living room/ dining room and sitting room (where they are now). Why does Steve have the roller sideways....Steve, turn it the long way, it works better.

Pharmie came over as well! She scrubbed our bathroom for hours! THANK YOU! It was gross, full of contractor dust, dirt and just a film of something over everything. I guess that is what happens when it sits empty for a while and has only had contractors in it in the last 1.5 years.

Putting the garage door opener together.

And it is up! My dad and brother came over to help! Thanks! Here my dad is turning the screw that adjusts the height while I'm down below pushing the button over and over again. It only took a few turns and we had the door opening and closing at the correct height and pressure! Be assured if your children get caught under my garage door it won't squish them!

Here is part of the yard.
I'll post more pics later. The upstairs of the house is mainly in order but we do have some boxes piled in a few corners left to sift through.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Time for me to keep cranking out this final!

Week 3 in the books...

2009-07-07T07:11:00.003-05:00

Week 3 of training is in the books. One 5 miles run got skipped but I'm sure I made up for it some how. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was on my feet from when I woke up to when I went to bed. Steph and I were painting, cleaning, second coat, cleaning, touch-up's, start another room, organize, install garage door opener, second coat in other room, touch-up's followed by more cleaning/organizing. Then Monday morning I did a 10 mile run in the morning. It was good, I felt good. I went out at a comfortable 10 min/mile - 10:15/mile pace. At the turn around I was feeling good so I picked it up a little. I was remembering something Phamrie had told me, she is planning on dragging me through a 4 hour marathon. So I decided to see what this body had left after being on my feet all those days. I managed to crank out 9:15's for a while but after 3 miles or so I needed some water a shot blocks so I walked a min while I scarfed those down and got right back at it. I found myself holding 9:30's and feeling ok. At mile 9.1 it all turned. I went up this little hill that left the trail I was on so I could take side streets back home and I really don't know what happened, I just started to feel low. I shot some more water at my gut but kept moving. Around 9.5 I was toast, I was nauseous and decided to walk home. I drank two huge glasses of water and ate a hot dog bun. We haven't went grocery shopping yet so all we have are turkey burgers, hot dogs, lean pockets and milk. The hot dog bun seemed to help, I did a quick stretch and wardrobe change and was off to my old place to begin the 10+ hours of: drive, load the truck, drive, unload the truck, box spring doesn't fit up stair case (stupid old homes!), drive, load the truck, drive, unload the truck, drive, buy new split queen box spring, drive, unload box springs, drive load the truck, drive, unload the truck, drive truck back to dad's.

It was a busy weekend, I'm glad this is a recovery week! I can get in some shorter runs, get some fun bike rides in and clean up the house. I'll post some pics later in the week!

TGIF...well close enough!

2009-07-02T08:03:00.004-05:00

Hey all, sorry for going MIA again. For my first order of business I just want to let you all know that Steph and I closed on our house yesterday! I spent the day cleaning, doing paint prep and making a trip to Menard's...ah, the life of a home owner. Today we are going to actually throw some paint on the walls and get ride of the "trust tan" that is in every room. Tomorrow is a company holiday so I'm sure I will spend tomorrow rolling the second coat of paint in the kitchen, living room and dining room (which are the rooms we'd like to get 1 coat on this evening). The rest of Friday will prolly be spent prepping another room for paint and installing a garage door opener. Saturday is where the real fun starts...more paint! We are going to be as high as one of those battling kites in The Kite Runner. We are hoping to wrap up the kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom and main bath before we move in Monday. This should be interesting!

As for workouts go, I've knocked off two weeks of marathon training not missing a single run! I may miss today's and do it tomorrow morning then move my long run another day out. So I think some things are starting to balance out and I'm making ME a priority again.

That's all I have time for right now, back to work!

Free Shoes

2009-06-15T20:24:00.001-05:00

Steve is giving away shoes!

http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2009/06/who-wants-free-pair-of-shoes.html

What a weekend!

2009-06-15T09:01:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone had as good of a weekend as I did.

I just want to throw in the word homework because it doesn't show up that much in the rest of this post. :-)

Last week I tripled the amount of workouts I had been getting in from 1 to 3! I got in two good runs. Both were shorter runs but I'm ok with that, my base isn't where it should be. Especially considering that TODAY is the beginning of training for TCM². Saturday morning I started out the day with a 7am bike ride. It wasn't a long one but I shot over to a friend's house (only a few miles from my new house in 2 weeks!) and road down the Gateway Trail. I ended up with 17 miles at 18 mph. It wasn't the fastest ride but my legs (mostly my calf) were tired from the run the day before. After the ride the peeps were finally awake and I changed at their house, ate a banana and PB&J (second breakfast) and we were on our way for 18 holes of golf!

I actually took the "Assistant Coach" (Mr. Garmin) along on the golf trip. I wanted to see how far I actually walk on a course. This course is 5793 yards (roughly 3.3 miles) long (tee to green, tee to green). With some zig zagging around holes and into different fairways on the front 9 I quickly added to that total. This was my first round of golf in over a year and I straightened it out some what on the back 9. Total I walked 4.92 miles. I will say, there were a couple good "jaunts" between holes. Saturday was 85 and sunny all day, it was a great day for an early ride followed by a good game of golf! Plus walking 5 miles with a 35 pound bag on your shoulder = 616 extra cals. according to the coach.

Today I begin the marathon training. Since my base is lacking I'm starting the first couple weeks pretty easy then doing a SOLID build. This week I'm GOING to get in all 3 runs I have scheduled and hopefully 1 bike ride. Then next weekend is a long camping/canoe'in weekend. It should be FUN!

FIrst long run of the season...

2009-06-07T21:13:00.003-05:00

I've been bustin' my butt with HW most of this weekend. After 4 hours of reading global econ on Friday evening I took the rest of the night off and drank a few too many beers. The left me in rough shape Saturday morning but didn't slow down the important activities of the day; get home owners insurance and a trip to Home Depot. Steph and I looked at window treatments, cab. hardware, light fixtures and area rugs. After that I hit the books again and finished almost all of my reading for the week. Today I hit up some more homework, and went out for my first "long run" of the training season and jumped right back into home work.

Today's run was supposed to be a long run with Pharmie down in St. Paul on Grand Ave. after the Grand Old Days celebration. Sorry for having to bail on your Pharmie! I just couldn't justify the driving time away from school work. So this afternoon I headed out for my "long run" deck out in cold weather gear! Seriously, it was 48 degrees with occasional mists here. THIS IS JUNE! 45 in the middle of the afternoon! The first few miles of the run went well. About mile 3 I got stuck at a stop light and when I started back up I noticed I was a little stiff in my calves. WTF. Ok, keep going. Mile 4 and I'm starting to feel some twinges. Grrrr. The rest of me is fine, why is wrong with this calf! 4.5 and I'm thankful this was a loop. I started to head home because my calf was cramping and I couldn't loosen it up. I finished a 5 mile "long run" (I was hoping for 8-10).

I think I decided my calf issues are mostly due to WEIGHT! I've been gaining weight regularly since last October. It is time to cut that shit out! It helps that I have to fit in a tux this August and look good, as well as NEXT MAY! :-)

Steph and I both would like a new TV when we move into our house, but today Steph brought up the idea that we can't get a TV until we reach a weight loss goal. I think that sounds like a good idea! I'm very goal oriented and that would be a great goal for me...besides the marathon. :-)

The king of Quick updates

2009-06-03T09:26:00.002-05:00

Hey all! I just wanted to throw down another quick update.

Running and biking aren't going so well. I'm only finding time for a work out or two a week! This really needs to change! Marathon training starts in 12 days for me...I am not ready! I do not have a good enough base! This first month or so of training is going to be painful! Needless to say, I'm a little nervous about how this season is going to to with all the other things I have thrown on my plate right now.

As for the house situation...the inspection went well. We are just waiting on the bank's appraisal. Steph and I took a short trip to Menard's the other day though to look at paint, rugs, window coverings, etc. We are really excited! We think we picked out most of the colors for the main floor, as far as paint goes. We also found two rugs we like, we are planning to look at more over the next month but might be back to buy those on July 2!

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well!

Happy News!

2009-05-28T12:57:00.002-05:00

They took our offer as is! So, if the inspection...appraisal and stuff go well I will be a home owner on July 1! WOOT!

We are still waiting...

2009-05-28T09:47:00.002-05:00

We are still waiting on the response for the house...

Other than that, I woke up at 5:30 am not able to sleep and went for a short run because I couldn't sleep. So there are good and bad benefits to this unknown...

Wish me luck!

2009-05-26T22:11:00.002-05:00

Put anothe offer on a house! I have a better feeling about this one! Cross your fingers for me!

Happy Memorial Day!

2009-05-25T09:40:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone is enjoying our lovely holiday weekend! I know I am!

After I knock off my 3 miler today I'll be three for three on workouts this weekend. Saturday monring I hit up a 5 miler before Steph and I went house hunting. I met a friend I hadn't seen in a while. My runs lately haven't been the greatest my running partner (mr. shadow) and I had a great relaxed run! Just us and the road. Let me set the scene...it is about 6:30 in the morning. It is about 65 degrees and the sun is coming up over your right shoulder. A calm breeze swirls the sweat off your brow every once and a while...what a great morning it was to go for a run!

Steph and I found some very promising homes that morning as well! We had two that we really wanted to see that we couldn't get into, our realtor couldn't get ahold of them. I'm sure they were just out of town already. Even without seeing those two we found two others that meet everything we are looking for except they have smaller dinning rooms. We would like to entertain and it would just be slightly more complicated with smaller, well non-existent dinning rooms. They were both eat in kitchens, one had a table tucked in the back of the living room, but it was a small two person table. Not ideal for seating 8-12. We are going to see the other two and a few others Steph found over the weekend early this week. If one looks like the pictures on the inside and has decent bedrooms (not pictured) we'll take it. The thing looks gorgeous! Hard wood floors front to back. Big 6 inch base boards, original turn of the century woodwork with modern updates. All new appliances, new kitchen counter tops, basically a new kitchen. Cross your fingers!

Sunday was a semi-relaxed day for me. I did some reading, well I've really been reading all weekend off and one but Sunday is when I sat down to really crank it out. Steph and I went for a nice bike ride. It was 70's and sunny...it was perfect! I really enjoyed going for a ride with her, we don't get to ride together very often. I had a few times where I pulled away to do some sustained effort intervals. I think at the end of the day I did 4 of them. Pushing as hard as i could for 0.5 miles to 1 mile. The first one was the hardest, but after that I was ready to kick it every time. I'd look down and see the speedo reading 28...30...33...33...32...32...31...29...27...and done. Those were great! I really don't do enough of them! When I ride with the Wed. night crew it is like 5 mile repeats. It seems like we are all out for 5 miles and then we are stopped to re-group. We typically have 3-4 of us that pull away from the group and then we need to wait for the string of others to catch up.

Today I'm going to start writing a paper for my Global Econ class. I've been reading 150 pages in this huge ass global econ book all weekend. This stuff is so dry, it is hard to keep it moving! So today I'm sitting down to crank out the paper that is due next Monday on this stuff. I basically fit two weeks worth of HW into one weekend (if I get the paper done). Next weekend is my "Memorial Day Weekend". Steph's little sister is graduating HS next week so we are going down there for a weekend of graduation celebrations!

Once I get a good crunch of this paper out of the way I'm heading out for an easy 3 miler sometime today. I've been skipping some of these "easy" runs lately and I need to stop that.

Anyway, wish me luck on the paper!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend!

Holy Wind and Heat

2009-05-21T08:30:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Dave Dahl (local weather man) decided to combine the wind and the heat. It was 93 with gusts up to 40 mph when we left for our ride. We decided to head out into the wind first and hopefully keep the wind at our backs most the way home. That idea kind of worked but we had one 6-7 miles stretch of road with a NASTY crosswind. When we finally made the next left and had the wind at our backs life was grand! We ended with close to 39 miles at a 15.2 average. For those wind conditions I'm calling that a good day!

We road pretty hard and I'm feeling it today! I might have to skip my run today and make it up Friday...I think I need a stretch date with the foam roller. I woke up last night with my right calf cramping, not a good feeling!

Anyway, off to be productive at work then hopefully find a house!

Holy Heat!

2009-05-20T10:34:00.004-05:00

Workouts have been a struggle lately! I'm finding it hard to schedule workouts with school and house hunting. I'm starting to lose steam with all of them. Especially after yesterday! Yesterday lovely Minnesota hit 93 degrees! Three days ago I went for a bike ride in 45 degrees (mid 30's windchill)! Needless to say, I wasn't ready for that! I was going out for a "easy" 4-5 mile run yesterday and It was cut short. I started out easy, got into a comfortable pace and within 1.5 miles I was hot as hell, couldn't settle my breathing and was feeling highly dehydrated. I ended up running/walking my way home with a desire for water! My mouth was as dry as a dessert! Nearly a 50 degree swing left me in a world of hurt! Hopefully I will acclimate soon, this whole week is supposed to be 70's and 80's.

Yesterday I sat down and made my marathon plan, it starts in 3 weeks! I have to get in my runs and keep building that base so I'm ready!

Today I'm going to hit the bike with the ride group out of LifeTime. Tomorrow is prolly going to be another short run followed by house hunting. :-) Wish me luck!

I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys the long weekend!

Holy Windage!

2009-05-14T10:05:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I left work a tab bit early. I wanted to get in a long ride, I'd been hoping for this the last few days. The weather looked nice, except they were calling for wind. I was like "Fine, I can handle a little wind." The first 10-15 miles weren't that bad. I just kept pushing along, mostly into the wind. I was riding to the gym to meet up with the Wed night ride crew. Once I got there I stood around and got cold, they were running around 20 min behind schedule. Some people were still pumping tires, putting in a new tube, etc. When we finally hit the road I was sluggish! I was struggling to hold the "B" group's wheels. My legs felt heavy and it didn't get better. The first stretch was back along the way I just came, only in the opposite direction. Wind at our back! Great! Except they all had fresh legs and wanted to fly. I did my best to keep up. At our "regroup" spot the "A" "B" and "C" groups all arrived around the same time. That was fun. Pretty soon we were underway again, except about 5 of us got caught not being able to cross a busy street. We all said screw-it! We were a good quarter mile behind everyone now. We just took turns pulling. For some reason it felt like I, the only guy, was cycled to the front more often. 2 of the 5 didn't pull at all, that is fine normally but I was hurting!

When we finally got back to the gym a few people wanted to go next door and grab a beer, to bad I still had about 15 miles home. :( The way home wasn't that bad, mostly with the wind at my back. There were a few times when the road curved back into the wind. So, lets get to the fun stuff. I was finishing my last climb of the day. I got to the top and decided to stand up and stretch the legs a bit. WOOOOZERS! Right leg, quad and calf completely locked up. In a faint attempt to bend that leg my other quad locked up. I very awkwardly stopped my bike and un-clipped. Then I noticed I couldn't raise my leg over my bike to dismount. That sucked! I ended up calling for a ride home less than 2 miles away. After a few minutes of water and walking awkwardly my legs loosened up some and I could get off my bike. Soon after my sister showed up to give me a ride home....Thanks sis!

My numbers for that ride:
43.5 miles
14.3 mph average! Yay..that's right...14! Not 18, 19, or 20....14! Holy Windage.

Case of the Mondays

2009-05-12T08:22:00.003-05:00

I hope everyone called their mom on Sunday! I had mine over for a bbq with dad and the rest of the fam.

So, after my last post things kinda shifted. Monday morning Steph and I got up to go look at reception halls. Well the first one we went to, the Mankato Armoury, was a big disappointment. We weren't expecting much going into it, but it failed those expectations. I was thinking it might be like a VFW, just for the National Guard, it wasn't. It was a large gym the guard uses to do drills. The floor was a weird plastic floor with basketball lines on it. I was like "Ummm sir, does this come up?" NOPE. Then we found out that they are only $250 cheaper than a hotel for rental, we have to set up and tear down all the tables and everything the day of. Are you kidding me! On to the next place, Country Inn and Suites. "Ok, you don't have the dates we are thinking about but what else do you have an can you show us around?" Ok, sounds great! You set everything up, tear it all down. We just do some of the decorating (or hire it out) and show up. Wow! Ok, we will be in touch. The third place was very similar we left again with a list of dates.

Then on the drive home I get a call from our realtor. He tells me that there was another offer on the house about 4500 above our offer. That is about 3000 above the cap Steph and I put on what we would offer on the house. Ok, we can't match that. All because we were in Mankato and couldn't sign and fax back the agreement that morning. Oh well. We will find another place, just a Monday full of disappointments.

Letter from the seller:
Brad Adams

I Charles XXXXX, owner of 1982 Hilding St, am rescinding my counter offer to Jonathon Borscheid and Stephanie Linder that was verbally offered on 5-10-09. The original contract from the buyers was written on May 7, 2009.

Charles XXXXX

Cross your fingers

2009-05-10T21:10:00.002-05:00

We got a steal of a deal talking the seller down 15k! Cross your fingers that it passes inspections!

If it does we bought a house!

Happy Friday!

2009-05-08T08:21:00.001-05:00

WE PUT AN OFFER DOWN ON A HOUSE! WISH ME LUCK!

What a weekend!

2009-05-05T09:29:00.002-05:00

Thank you everyone for the warm regards and congrats! I really appreciate it!

First I just want you all to know I'm still stalking your blogs, just through google reader. I'll catch up with some comments later but for now I have to concentrate on a long week of work and the final project (not the paper mentioned below) that is due for this first class Monday.

Lets start the weekend with a long day of work on Friday (even though I left at 2). That was followed by drinking and BBQ at a friends house. Then I was up at the butt ass crack of dawn for duathlon (I was photographer) about an hour away. The race was fun and they even served burgers post race. I know I wasn't a participant but I hit that up (Thrice!), I was hungry after the night of drinking.

The rest of Saturday was studying for me. I got a good bit done but not as much as I would have hoped for. Sunday Steph and I went to look at some houses. Then it was back to studying for me. I had my first final paper of grad school due Monday. Eventually Sunday night rolls through and I'm falling asleep on my computer around 1:30. Oh yea, you know it is coming. I managed to delete part of my paper from sleeping with my computer on my lap and my hands on the key board. Some time through last week I lost my license, so Monday morning I was at the DMV applying for a new one. I got there 5 min before they opened and there was already 10 people in line, which took like an hour and a half. Holy cow! What kind of issues do people have? It took me 5 min. at the counter. After that I hit up a coffee shop where Steph and I were meeting my cuz the realtor and I managed to recreate 2/3 of what I deleted in an hour. Yay me! Then my cuz took us around to a few homes and we talked about the process a little. We set up another time for Thursday to see some more homes and then Steph and I grabbed lunch! We had a really good lunch at a small pub down the road. Everyone from TC check out the Blue Door! Great burgers!

After a lunch of house talk Steph and I went our separate ways and I went to finish my paper at school. Then 3 hours of class and I was homed 30 min later sleeping on the couch. Then sleeping in my bed, whoops...shut off the alarm in the morning and got to work 45 min late.

Holy cow! What a weekend!

It was a good weekend, just frazzled and crazy.

TGIF!

2009-05-01T10:01:00.004-05:00

Well, I have some good news for everyone! I think it is safe to post this now, all the families should know....

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

I was lucky to find a great girl a few years ago, on some pretty long odds, and I can't let her get away. Ok, the long odds...Here sister and my sister went to pharmacy school together. Neither of them go out for pub crawls but that day they both were planning on going out. My sister and I never went out to a bar together prior to that, it just didn't happen. Well my sister never really went to the bar. So eventually Steph and I were there talking it up and eventually I akwardly, with her sister and brother - in -law there, coaxed her number out of her.

She is the sole person that got me into endurance sports and really loving it. Prior to her I would run 3 or 4 miles but hated every min of it. Because of her I signed up for my first half marathon, I was really trying to impress her because she was training for her first marathon.

Ok, gotta get back to work. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm engaged to the best woman ever!

I Love You Steph!

Winter Be Gone...but Spring was out in full force.

2009-04-28T09:01:00.004-05:00

Sunday was the coldest, most wet duathlon in history! Wind temp was in the mid 30's and it was raining off and on. Twenty min before the race 3 of the 5 of us had thrown in the towel. It was pouring, transition was flooded and I even think there was hail here and there. It was nasty!

Eventually the race director yelled, "Everyone is doing the short course and it starts in 10 min." AER YOU KIDDING ME! Half the people weren't even ready in transition because of the rain, lightning, hail and possibility of it being canceled. I was frazzeled with all the rain, I forgot bike shorts and my cold weather gloves in my car. As people were making their way to the rainy start line 3-4 blocks away I ran back to my car for the gloves, those would be needed on the bike.

At the start we had to wait an extra ten min because so many people forgot chips since we had 10 min to set up in transition and make our way to the start 3-4 blocks away. So they brought out chips for everyone who forgot them and we were off. I ran the first 2.25 miles with Steph. It was great to run with her, we haven't ran together in a LONG time. We took it easy, 9:50's and came into transition comfortably.

Every leg of the race was out and back so we constantly got to see everyone as on person was heading in as I was still heading out or vice versa. On the bike I was super comfortable with what I wore, I was a little warm on the runs but I was good on the bike. I never got passed on the bike! That felt good! The course was hillier than I remember! There were a fair number of turns on this short 12 mile out and back course but it seemed like we went into a nice wind for 9 out of the 12 miles. I looked at my Assistant Coach for the splits and I only had 4 miles with an average above 20mph. I was definitely going into the wind more than not. Overall I was 35th out of 115 on the bike with an 18mpg average. Last year my bike average was 13.5. I think I officially crushed it!

The second run was a little iffy at first. I threw my bike in transition and grabbed the running shoes, which were full of water, and stepped out of transition. Man my foot felt funny, crap there was a pack of shot blocks in my shoe. How didn't I notice that!?! Oh yea, my feet were soaked and numb...it was 35 degrees out. I took those out of my shoe and tossed them back into transition and was off. The first .5 mile was iffy for me. My inner thigh and right calf wanted to cramp up. It was scary for a while, until I noticed that I was cruising at 8:30's. I slowed down to let my legs loosen up and then picked it back up. I ended up coming in at 8:26's for the second run.

My total time was 1:24:03. Not bad considering the conditions. I was hoping for 1:20:00 (that would have been a good day). I think I was a little optimistic about the bike this early in the season but I felt good and pedaled hard.

I was having a great time the entire race. I was cheering for everyone I passed. Saying hi to the volunteers. I had a good day regardless the conditions.

I haven't had time to get some photos so stop by Steve's blog or Brian's Blog. Jeremy, Pharmie and her brother (Matt) and sister (Steph) were present as well. Steph!!! Congrats on your first du! I hope next week has perfect conditions!

I'm looking forward to another "A" group ride tomorrow where I get my butt kicked just trying to hold some one's back tire. I need to get faster and catch Steve who led the group's bike average, only because Jeremy broke a chain. In my defence Steve, Matt, Pharmie and Jeremy all have bikes that easily give them 1-2 mph....just wanted to throw that in there for the fat man (me) trying to keep up with these beautifully aero tri bikes.

What a differnce a day makes...or two.

2009-04-24T09:27:00.005-05:00

First off...TGIF! I hope everyone had a great week! I'm finally starting to get in full weeks of workouts and balance school with work. It feels really good.
Short recap:

Tuesday was a 4 mile run at 9:15's. It was a moderate to easy pace on rolling hills...it felt great!

Wednesday was a group ride. The Lifetime ride started back up, so I'll be doing that every Wed. for pretty much the rest of the summer. I had a good time, I rode with the "A" group for the first time. I was successful at not getting dropped so I was happy. There were a few times when I looked down and we were cruising at 28-30mph in the paceline. HOLY COW! We actually caught the "C" and "B" groups who left before us(within the first 10 miles), and we had one guy with two bike issues we stopped for. After that we kind of rode easy with the "B+" group. It was a good day!

Thursday was another 4 mile run. I actually stopped at 3 miles because my calf was acting up again and I didn't want to be out of commission for this weekend's race. I still averaged 9:12's over the 3 miles at a comfortable 155 HR average. I love those easy recovery miles!

Today will probably be an EASY bike ride and date with the foam roller. I really need to do some work on the right calf. I've been throwing around the idea of testing some compression socks...anyone have any thoughts?

I sure wish 2XU would send me a trial pair and make me a believer!

Other advise needed!

I ran across a triathlon that sounds fun. I'll most likely do it, it is just whether or not I do the long course. It is around 12 weeks away....Can I be ready to swim a mile by then? Going from pretty much ground zero. I have a slight base with all the drills I was doing to prepare for the indoor tri but after that I really fell off on the swim.

So here is how the race sets up:
Long Course: 1 mile swim, 34 mile bike, 9 mile run

Short Course: .25 mile swim, 14 mile bike, 4.4 mile run

Any thoughts? How long will it take for me to be up to the task of swimming a mile? Can it be done in 12 weeks? Or do I do the short course swim and "get lost" on the long bike/run courses. :-)

Have a great weekend!

The day I ran 26,000 miles

2009-04-19T21:23:00.007-05:00

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We had some BEAUTIFUL weather in MN! The last week has been full of 60 and 70 degree days, I couldn't ask for better weather!

***WARNING: LONG POST***

For starters, and those who may have missed my last post, I signed up for Twin Cities Marathon (TCM). This will be my second marathon, TCM 2008 was my first marathon. I'm excited to have something to train for...I mean to REALLY train for. I currently have some other races on my calendar (duathlon, half marathon, TTs) that I can push myself for pace, but that just doesn't get me motivated as much as pushing myself farther. Pushing myself to those distances that hurt to keep going.

Last year I just wanted to finish the marathon and that really hasn't changed going into this year. Last year I had something to prove, this year I really just want to get back to the point I was at least year. I was nearly 20 pounds lighter, I looked for reasons to go for a run. This year I've been looking for reasons to skip workouts. So I guess what I'm getting at is that my major goals for this year, and marathon:

Finish
Lose weight
Successfully scare myself into training
Have fun
And of course, beat last years 4:39

I hope I see some farm animals on the course again!

Moving on, I've gotten in a solid week of workouts! 2 solid bike rides, 2 solid runs and 1 brick workout that left me out of commission the last two days. I did a hard rolling hills ride last Wednesday and then Thursday I joined up with Matt (the cow in the picture above) for a good brick ride. We did a 19.4 mile ride with a few "straight up" climbs. After the Wednesday's ride (and the 2 runs the 2 consecutive days prior) my legs were a little tired! Matt and I hit the flats hard and attacked the hills. Take a look at the two hills we ended with, OUCH! They weren't the longest hills but they were steep!

After that ride we laced up the running shoes and within a few blocks my calf started cramping up. It was bothering me a little on the two final hills but on the run it left me unable to run. I had to walk a few blocks. After that I did manage 26000 miles! That's right!

If you can't read the image below, it says I ran 26,669 miles in 13 min and 51 seconds. In reality it was 1.4 miles in that 14 min. I just want to thank Garmin for the smile and story!

I'm looking forward to next weekend! I've got my first duathlon of the year next Sunday! It should be a good time! Last year I did it on my 12 year old mountain bike because my new road bike was in the shop. My results from last year was:

Run 1 (2 miles): 17:46
Bike (12 miles): 57:41 12.5 mph/average
Run 2 (2 miles): 20:34

This year I want to destroy that time! I'm in much worse running shape but much better biking shape (and I have an actual road bike this year!). I'd like to average 9 min miles on the runs (or better) and crank out a 19-20 mph average (36 min). So that would take me from last years 1:39:17 total time to 1:15:00 (adding in a few min for transition). I know that is an optimistic time, but 1:15 - 1:20 would be a good race for me next weekend. Even at 1:20 that cuts off nearly 20 min! WOWZERS!

I hope everyone has a good week!

The day I ran 26,000 + miles...coming later this weekend

2009-04-17T15:12:00.003-05:00

Wow...where have I been this week!?! Who knows! I know this will sound like a broken record but I've had one hell of a week! I haven't barely started my HW for this week. On the flip side I have gotten in a full weeks (except 1 day) worth of workouts. A couple runs, a couple good bikes! I'll share some of that later this weekend...for now I just have one summer changing thing to announce!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-10T11:09:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!

I'm excited to get in a good weekend of workouts! I'm planning on an easy run tonight, 30 min TT on the bike tomorrow morning, easy short bike on Sunday (after eating a bunch of delicious food!) then a 9-10 mile run on Monday. I think I'm getting back into the swing of things! Now, how to get to the gym and hit some weights...

Who loves recieveing a package? I DO!

2009-04-08T21:33:00.004-05:00

I got home today and while I was pulling up I saw a large box sitting outside of my door. It was my new kicks! My last new pair of sneaks were chewed up by a crabby dog. :-( I did a little checking around and I actually found the shoes I trained all last summer in. And ran Twin Cities Marathon in...there is a little bit of an attachment issue. I didn't want to get rid of them, but I just can't run much in them. I get those little aches and pains. They have well over 400 miles on them so they have to do.

So on Nike.com I found the exact pair, I went as far to compare the SKU number on the little tag inside the shoe. They were only like $60 online, I paid $90 from the local running store so I bought two while I had the chance. I'm not sure if I will alternate shoes, or just use one pair until they are toast. Any thoughts? Do you alternate shoes?

OLD SNEAKS

NEW KICKS IN FRONT. Old pair in the back.

So, who's excited for EASTER! I am! I'm playing host to the fam again. I'll be making a lovely ham, some kind of veggies (prolly grilled) and some 'doctored up' baked beans (they are at EVERY family gathering). I've delegated the salad, potatoes and desserts. I should have a much easier day than last Thanksgiving when I did everything. I mean what do I really have to do...a crock pot of beans, throw the ham in and grill some veggies. This will be easy!

I'm not sure I've mentioned this before but I'm now through 8 days of no sweets. This might not sound like much, but I am around them everywhere! My sister loves to bake and makes cookies, pies, bars...whatever every week! And my floor at work is large enough that there is always someone having a B-Day or some other reason they bring in cake, cookies at least 3 times a week. And of course the table it sits on is pretty close to me AND between me and a few other team members. Keep in mind I walk over to these team members 10+ times a day. At the end of the day I'm a sucker for a cookie while making dinner after a good workout. Who isn't? So...for April I'm not touching any sweets! 8 days successful and counting!

Last but not least I thought I would bring you an actual workout that we've been doing in our Wed. Spin classes. They are always different so this was just today's. Side note: our Wed. Night spin instructor has a professional coach and Wed is supposed to be her interval/tempo day so that is what we've been doing the last few months. Ok, here is the workout...

Warm-up

15 min

Simulated Race

Micro Bursts (hard effort / barely spin)

15 sec. on/ 15 sec. rest (5 min)
20 sec. on/ 10 sec. rest (5 min)
30 sec. on/ 15 sec. rest (6 min)
1 min on/ 30 sec. rest (5 min)

Hills

5 min Big Ring - loaded hill climb (roughly 60-70 cad.)
1 min rest (easy spin)
5 min Big Ring - loaded hill climb (roughly 60-70 cad.)
1 min rest (easy spin)

Race Winning Move

30 sec. sprint w/ medium load
3 min hammering w/medium load
10 sec. all out sprint to the finish

Cooldown

First tramp stamp of the season

2009-04-05T13:34:00.006-05:00

Wow, I feel good! I'm starting to take control and find some balance with school/work/training. Thursday I did my first out door bike ride. I did a solid 19 miles. I forgot to reset my Garmin from my last run so the pace was off, but I think it was around 19 mph. Friday I did a nice 4 mile run. I live by a HUGE hill so I start or stop every workout with this hill. Friday I chose to end it with the hill. When i got to the hill at the end of the run I took the down hill portion easy and just tried to find a good song for the next two min of hell! Because of my wonderful assistant coach (Mr. Garmin) I can keep track of my pace and time it takes me to do this hill every time. The last three times I've done it I was at a 9:45/mile pace, 9:25, 9:22 and on Friday I ran it at 8:43/min pace! WHOOT! I hit that biatch hard! I was toast at the top of the hill but bring on spring, I'm ready to train hard.

With that in mind I went out for a nice 10 mile run today. It was a lovely 32 degrees (26 windchill) with a fresh inch or so of snow on the ground. I grab some gel and my fuel belt and went out the door. I don't know why, but I was running 9:30's to start and this felt easy. I tried to slow down, but didn't find it comfortable. A few miles in I settled into my 9:45-10:00 min pace. The first 5 miles flew by, I was feeling great and loving life! It was a beautiful time to run. 30 degrees, light flurries and the sun was out. When I turned around I started to get cold, the wind picked up a little ( I was on top of a hill ). I just threw the gloves back on and found a new song to distract me with. Eventually I was hidden from the wind by houses and buildings and I had the gloves back off in a matter of min. Everything was great...until... a little over a mile to go. I started getting THE URGE...you know...you've all seen that person running weird because they are clenching their butt cheeks. Yep, that was me. Around mile 9.6 I called it quits! It was either stop or 'go'. I walked/jogged the last .8 miles back to the house. I was happy to see that my 9.6 miles was done in 10:02...right on my 10 min pace! I couldn't have been happier, well maybe if that last mile would have been better!

***EDIT***So the reason for the title on the blog post...I chaffed for the first time this year where my fuel belt rubs in the back at my waist line. Oh the feeling of getting in the shower with freshly rubbed raw skin and salty sweat water running through it.....oh yea that's good!

I just put a half marathon on the schedule, Grandpa Stays Home Half Marathon on June 6th. I haven't see a course or anything but the timing fits around other obligations.

Last but not least I decided on a name for my bike! Some where on my run the name Jonny Poser popped into my head and I fell in love! Can't you just picture some guy with the name Jonny Poser on an aero helmet and you pass him. :-) That would be hilarious! So, I'm Jonny and my bike is Poser. Poser wants to be a race bike but he is missing a few things...aero wheels, a better component group, he also needs to cut some weight. The picture to the right is Mr. Poser and I playing sherpa at Grandma's Marathon last year.

If you didn't catch it before my Garmin was name Assistant Coach on my run today to. He can't be coach, he only gives me all the info I need to make the plan.

Hola Bloggy Buddies!

2009-03-31T20:05:00.002-05:00

I'm just throwing a quick update down, I need to study!

I had a nice chat with my boss about 'rush' projects and how I'm not doing them any more. Somehow I was thrown two last week, which is why I about died from lack of sleep. The good news is they are both done and happy with the information they have. I've gotten in a few runs this week, I hope to bike tomorrow! I really need to get in some speed work at the end of the week here, we are less than a month away from the Winter Be Gone Duathlon.

I hope all of you are doing well! I'll be stalking your blogs later tonight...after reading and a beer with some friends.

2009-03-28T00:10:00.002-05:00

I'M DONE! I officially turned in my assignment for school at 12:00am 3/28. That is technically 1 min late (11:59) but I'm confident that I won't get docked 10% because it was late, at least I hope not!

I know I worked like a dog all week but this was a rewarding day! I feel like I answered 2 of the 3 discussion questions with really good thought out replies. The third was a little 'shooting from the hip' since it was the last one and I started it with 15 min left. I put my mental diarrhea on the page and posted it 1 min late. Oh well.

1 of the big projects I was working on all week gave the team some really good information. This is for a product that doesn't exist yet, nothing like it on the market and I gave the team exactly what they need and then some to take this product past feasibility to prototype. :-) We got importance scores of different attributes of the product on the individual level. We can calculate the most preferred product on the individual level, most preferred product by industry (data showed preference difference between industries), messaging for each industry, price sensitivity and demand on the industry level. It feels good when you put together a research study that gives the product/marketing teams all the information they need to take this to the next level.

FYI - I'm watching COPS right now and some guy said he hasn't smoked any pot tonight and he has a half smoked roach tucked on top of his ear. Wow..how out of it is this guy!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm going to go to sleep and not set my alarm. I'm hoping to go for a long run 8-10 miles today. I'll see how I feel when I wake up, I would like to take the trainer tire off my bike and hit the pavement sometime soon.

TGIF!

2009-03-27T09:05:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm still alive! One presentation done and delivered! One to go, just a few things to finish up and I'll be knocking that thing out of the park. After that I'm going to come home and try to fake my homework...I'm basically going to give it the old "take home test method". I'm going to look at the questions we are supposed to answer (in depth) and skim the reading looking for those answers. I do have something to look forward to, Steph is going to bring me dinner! Yay! Thank you Steph!

Hope everyone has a great day and weekend!

UGGGGHHHH!

2009-03-25T23:26:00.004-05:00

My garmin, bike, running shoes, bike shoes (both pairs) are all pissed at me. Why might you ask? After my great weekend I got in a SOLID day or HW on Monday prior to class. Ever since I've done nothing but work, sleep, work, miss meals, work, work, scrounge for ~~a good hearty meal~~ crap to eat. But there is an end in sight! Friday! Yay....oh wait....it is only Wednesday. And as soon as I finish these two projects I get to dive straight into a late night of school work. I have to read a hundred pages...maybe two hundred ( I haven't looked yet) and answer some discussion board questions in detail with a well thought out answer. I have this feeling I'm going to skim the reading searching for answers to the questions and hopefully get lucky and not miss something major.

If you wonder what I look like after a nice stretch of work, little sleep, lots of caffeine and neglect for personal hygiene just take a look below...

A weekend of races

2009-03-23T09:30:00.009-05:00

Saturday was the stationary bike race. It was a super fun time! Everyone was really nice and committed to raising funds for cerebral palsy. I ended up riding two sessions on the bike since our team was short a few people. My first ride was all out! I pushed as hard as I could at the time. Looking back I wonder if I could have pushed just a little harder if I had known what the winning distance would be (like Ralph knew he had my 10.3 miles to beat). Anyway, I won't dwell on the fact that I lost by 0.06miles. Ralph inched me out literally at the gun! He was very kind and hit the brake on the back tire (as I did) when the 25 min was up. We knew it would be close so we rode the same bike, stopped it with the brake and just tried to be fair. I think we did a good job and he was the ultimate victor. I didn't have as much for the second ride, I rode 8.6 miles in the 25 min. Not as good as the first one but not bad either.

Here are a few pics of the day...

There are actually no pics of me, that I have. The person who used my camera didn't take any that turned out.

Here is a shot of the room. Each team had a table with a bike next to it. They switched bikes around as people needed, for size. You'll see people around the rider cheering them on and fanning them with piece of boxes (that felt SO GOOD!).

Here is Ralph digging deep around half way through his ride. His daughter is there telling him where he is at for speed and distance. By the end of his ride our entire team was cheering him on.

Any event with some dancing fools has to be fun right?!?

On Sunday I signed up for the St. Patty's Day Human Race 5k. My friends Heidi and Holly were doing it so I decided to do it with them. After my hard effort Saturday this was a recovery run for me. The goal was to get Heidi across the line at 30 min. Holly and I were trying to pace her to her goal. Heidi just missed her goal, I'm sure she will get that soon. Just past half way I thought Holly was picking it up and somehow Holly thought I was picking it up. Well we ended up dropping Heidi and came in at 28 something. Heidi wasn't far behind us 30:30 ( I think ).

Here is a pic of all of use before the start...

Heidi just past half way still smiling (on the right)...

I had a great weekend of races! I hope you all had a great weekend!

Date with the foam roller

2009-03-19T21:32:00.003-05:00

Monday I went out for a nice 9 mile run. I went out with no course, distance, etc in mind. I ended up running on a road that had a little too much grade. I switched sides a few times but I eventually started to feel some tightness in my IT band. I actually stopped at my parents house on my run to have one of them give me a ride home. It was either run another 2.5 miles home or call it a day and not push it. So after a really hard spin class yesterday my IT band was really tight today.

I had a 'man date' with an old HS friend tonight and after that I went on a date with the foam roller. Let me say...OUCH. I've befriended the foam roller previously but this time the foam roller was not my friend. The foam roller just laid on there as I passed my body over it time and time again. It hurt! The foam roller did nothing to ease the pain, it seemed to intensify. After 6 - 8 passes in each spot I had to call it quits.

Tomorrow is going to be an easy 90 min spin. Saturday is my Stationary Bike Race to benefit Cerebral Palsy. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED TO THIS GREAT CAUSE! If you still want to donate or find out more about the race and cause please visit my personal donation site. http://www.firstgiving.com/borschintraining

If I only ride one 25 min time trial on the bike I might head out for some intervals, if I end up doing 2 (our team is short three people as of yesterday) I may wait until Sunday. I'd like to get in some solid half mile intervals before the Winter Be Gone Duathlon next month. I think I'm in good shape for doing long runs but another faster than 9:30's really starts to zap me. I'm going to do the short course for the Winter Be Gone which is 2.25 mile run, 13 mile bike and it finishes with a 2 mile run. So it is time for some speed work!

Biggest Loser Half Marathon

2009-03-17T19:46:00.004-05:00

I'm really proud of all the BL contestants! Everyone pushed themselves and accomplished new PR's in distance. I know I was a little taken back in my last post, still curious though, when they first announced this challenge but it still sounds like a leap from where they were at.

OK, who didn't get choked up when they were finishing? I know I did! I remember that feeling of crossing the finish line all too well. My first half marathon wasn't that long ago, fall of 2007. At mile 12 I had to fight back tears because I knew I was going to do it. Who remembers that? I hope you do! That was the moment in my weight loss (scroll down a few posts) that I truely felt like I could do anything.

My first marathon was just last fall. I hope that feeling never goes away...that sense of accomplishment and pride.

IS ANYONE ELSE WATCHING BL?

2009-03-17T19:32:00.004-05:00

WHO THROWS THESE PEOPLE INTO A HALF MARATHON?

Did they get any guidance on hydration? Nutrition? Enduralytes?

Seriously, I want to know the longest distance they have run at the BL campus...

Spring is in the air!

2009-03-16T12:12:00.002-05:00

A few of you asked about about class starting on a Friday...Friday and Saturday was a mandatory Leadership Seminar for the program. So it technically wasn't class. Classes actually start next Monday. We already have a TON of reading to do. And starting in two weeks we will have a paper due every week. Keeping up with school work and working 40 hours a week will definitely keep me busy. I'm planning on a few 5 am workouts to keep me on track and free up the evenings for studying ( I study better at night).

As for today, it is finally 60+ degrees here in MN! I'm planning on hitting the road for a 7+ mile run. I'm not sure how far I will go, I have 7 on the schedule but I may go longer if I'm enjoying myself and the weather. We are supposed to have 50's and 60's all week so I should get in some quality workouts outside without having to wear 80 layers of clothing.

Yesterday I hit the roads on the mountain bike. The roads around here have far too much salt and sand on them still for me to want to take the road bike out. I didn't do anything hard, just road around, cruised through the LARGE puddles, flung some mud around and came back dirty as hell after 15 miles of riding. It was a great day!

I hope everyone is having a good start to the week! And forgive me if I fall behind no blogging!

I love it!

2009-03-14T18:13:00.002-05:00

It was 50 degrees and sunny when I got out of class today! I went for a run in shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt and had to roll up the sleeves! I LOVE IT!

I can't wait for regular 50's and 60's.

Back To School

2009-03-13T05:00:00.000-05:00

I start grad school today.

"Tales of a Virgin Athlete"

2009-03-12T08:57:00.005-05:00

Steve is currently hosting a contest, which closed last night. I found it very hard to stick to 300 words. When I started writing I hit 300 words half way through. Go ahead, count the words...300 exactly! Anyway, I thought I would share my entry with you...

It’s Christmas Eve 2005. I’m working for a local paper company driving truck. The time is 9pm and I’m just beginning my shift. I’m loading my truck full of papers for stops between Red Wing, MN and Lacrosse, WI. I’m prepared for a long night, this route usually take 9-10 hours.

Jump ahead 3 months. I’m beginning to establish myself in my first corporate position. I was on top of the world, no more working nights and lots of disposable income. I denied myself nothing! 700 calorie mochas, burger and fries for lunch, DQ anytime and plenty of beer. I never turned down a friend who wanted to close down the bar.

Jump ahead another 3 months. I’m beginning notice significant change in my body. I’ve went up a pants size and I’m tipping the scale at 295 pounds. My roommate and I decided we wanted to start working out again so we joined a gym. I would hit the Stairmaster for 15 – 20 min and then we would do some upper body lifting. We were both football players and went back to what we knew, lifting. One day we decided to give running a shot.

We laced up our shoes and headed out for a 2 mile loop. Within the first 6 blocks I found myself walking to the top of our first hill. I made it to the top and started running again. Within a few more blocks I was huffing and puffy. No I wasn’t preparing to blow any houses down; I just couldn’t control my breathing. I eventually ran/walked the rest of the loop and every other day until it was too cold to run outside. Over time I started to feel good, I felt strong! I rarely denied myself the opportunity to run my loop.

Before...

After...

Indoor Tri Photos and Results

2009-03-09T22:35:00.010-05:00

If you haven't read yesterday's recap of the indoor tri please see the last post.

The official results are in and the actual results are below it. They had a typo that cost me 5 points. Either way I cracked the top 3rd. Click on the thumbnail to blow it up.

*EDIT- Oops! I was wrong. I forgot when I was giving myself more points for moving up in the run that others would be moving down. Lifetime emailed me this morning and told me they fixed my results...I think they are doing blog mining. I actually moved up to 21st!

ps.. I can't think at night, 21st is just outside of the top 3rd...27th and 30th is the middle of the middle. D'OH! No more writing blog posts while sleep.

Here are some photos...

Everyone at the beginning...

3 of the girls starting the bike...

The rest of us beginning the bike...

Sometime around 15 min in, I think I'm checking Steve's distance...

Split decision...

All focus...

Running wild...

Indoor Tri Recap

2009-03-08T11:05:00.005-05:00

Today is the day I'm going to become a triathlete*. You may ask why the asterisk...well this is an indoor tri where you can finish as long as you don't quit. You don't have to cover any set distance, just show up and swim for 10 min, bike for 30 min and run for 20 min at YOUR pace. This race also has some long transitions t1=10min t2=5min. To be honest, they went by very quickly! During t1 some people are still making their way out of the pool and heading into the locker room. I then toweled off quick threw on bike shorts and a shirt (compression shirts suck to get on while you are wet!). Then you walk/jog through the club to the bike studio, set up your bike and get ready to go. I was ready with 2 min to go, 8 min flew by! t2 is simply a walk out of the bike studio out to the main exercise floor, it seemed that most of us were there waiting to go with 2 or 3 min left.

It was 7 am when I met Steve and 4 of his students at Lifetime. Myself and the 4 ladies had never done any form of triathlon. Here is a quick photo of us prior to the start.

Now lets get move onto the good stuff...

The Swim

10 min of who knows what will happen.

I really had no idea what to expect here. I go in the pool with the idea that I was going to give it my best. I know I went out too hard when Steve and I started and I was barely 8 feet behind him. To be honest, I completely forgot about the drills and doing correct movements on the 6 (of 16) drills I've completed in the Total Immersion program. After 3 laps (6 lengths) I was breathing hard. I stood up for a second at the end of the pool to catch my breath and dove back into it. Within another couple lengths of the pool I was swimming freestyle 1 length of the pool and back floating back to the other end. That really did help me catch my breath so I kept doing it until I heard 1 min left.

I finished with 14 lengths of the pool. I was really happy with this since I had no idea what I was going to do.

The Bike

30 min of BRING IT!

When the bike began I was ready to bring it for 30 min. Going into the race I was a little worried about the bikes being set loose. They were set a little loose, but not as loose as I thought they were going to be. A few min in the bike I noticed that I was feeling my legs already. WTF! I think I kicked too much on the swim. My legs were already tired, this wasn't going to be good for my goal of winning the bike. I looked over at Steve's bike computer about half way through and I was about .6 mile ahead of him.

I think I leaned over to Steve a few times and said I need some different music. It was nice to have the stereo on with 3 or 4 people hanging out in the bike studio grabbing people water, towels and even biking with them for some motivation. If this would have been one of my first times in the bike studio I would have loved that, but I am a bike studio veteran. I didn't want to listen to popular wedding dance songs and other music that was semi-upbeat but still too light and flaky for me. I wanted some of the new Nickelback, Metalica, ACDC...anything that pumps me up.

Anyway, with 5 min left I just shut my eyes and focused on my breathing. When I ended I was at 15.2 miles (just 0.2 miles ahead of Steve).

The Run

Hold on for 20 min.

The guy working our area said "GO!" and we were off. You could hear all the beeping of all the treadmills around me as were all speeding them up as fast as we could. I started out easy at 10 min miles and after 1 song on my ipod (Finally good music) I felt good so I sped up to 9 min miles. A little while went by but I started noticing my right calf twinging just on the verge of a cramp. I backed it off a bit and just played a little game, 1 song at 9 min miles, 1 song at 10 min miles. I was able to keep my calf from totally locking up but that wasn't too much fun.

I finished with 2.1 miles. I am happy with this, I went into this hoping to keep a 10 min mile.

Overall

It was a good day! I had a hard workout by 10 am and I can now call myself a triathlete*.

More photos and results to follow tomorrow.

Who's excited?!?

2009-03-06T22:56:00.003-06:00

Sunday is my first attempt at a multi sport event that involved swimming, biking AND running. I'm super pumped for it! Maybe not as pumped as Steve but I'm still pretty excited. I don't have many goals for this race. It feels weird not to have an idea about what I will be able to do in a race. I don't know what to expect on the swim. I really have no goals for it. I am guessing I won't come in last, but will be far from the front. As for the bike I'd like to take 1st...I probably won't but that doesn't mean I'm not going to shoot for it. I'm in the last wave so I should have a good idea about what I have to beat. Honestly, I'll be happy as long as I give a good effort even if I place towards the middle of the pack. Moving on to the run...who knows! I've done a few bricks and a few spin classes followed by an easy 1 mile run off but I've never pushed all out for 30 min on the bike and then tried to run hard at a 2% incline.

Whatever the day brings I'm sure it will be a good time.

T - Minus

2009-03-01T15:28:00.005-06:00

I feel like things are always sneaking up on me lately...

T - minus 5 days until the Lifetime Indoor Tri. My first tri, even though I don't think I'm counting it as an official tri.

T - minus 11 days until grad school starts. My program starts 3-4 cohorts a year making it more flexible for working professionals.

T - minus 45 days until the Twin Cities Marathon sign up opens. I'm not sure if I want to do it again while training for a tri (maybe) attempting to work and do school work. I really enjoyed the way I felt last year, I looked good, my jeans fit better. So I'm just throwing it out there, it has been on my mind lately.

T - minus 55 days until he Winter Be Gone Duathlon. This was my first multi sport event last year that I had to do on my 12 year old Schwinn since my new road bike at the time was in the shop. I had a 13.5 mph average on the bike last year, I'd like to destroy that this year. I'm shooting for a 20 mph bike average. If you are in the Midwest come join us...I think we have a good crew 5 - 7 people doing this race this year.

T - minus 22 pounds until I'm at my goal weight. I don't know what happened after Twin Cities Marathon last year, but I pretty much put on a pound a week until Christmas and now I'm paying the price for not being conscious. I'm down 4 pounds in the last two weeks, lets keep this going down.

On to other news, I did the Total Conditioning class last night and it kicked my butt! I made a huge mistake with not eating before I went. I crashed and got nauseous and light headed. It wasn't fun. We started with some step, jumping squats and jumping jacks to get our heart going. Then we moved into push ups on those half balance bars holding a body bar, uneven push ups (1 hand on the half ball, 1 hand on the floor), ad decline push ups (toes up on the half ball). After that we did more squats and lunges, with and without weights, on a step lunging up and down off the step in different directions. Then we did some back stuff with our dumbbells and bands while moving and lunging and squatting. We then did some more bicep, tricep work with the dumbbells. Finished everything off with abs and some yoga stretching. THIS CLASS KICKED MY ASS! I'll be doing this class again, but I'll have to remember to eat better before I show up.

A middle aged man that cycles with me on Wednesdays was talking some shit to myself and to some of the other ladies in the class around us.

I just want to say one last thing...
1) I don't care if you are almost twice my age
2) You have been doing this class every week for the last two years...lets go do any of the P90X workouts and I'll make you look like my little bitch. Or lets hit the pavement with some running shoes for a speed workout, I bet I make you puke!
3) If you are going to talk smack about us "cocky young bucks" you should at least be able to do the moves. I want to see your chest get to the ground on the push ups! I want to see your leg at a 90 degree angle with your knee over your toe while lunge...none of this two inch squat shit.
4) When we were doing jumping squats I want to see you actually fight for some height, not just going through the motions.
5) How about we don't swing the weights bicep and tricep work! Try controlling the weights, it hurts more!
6) Watch out on the bike...no more sucking my wheel for 20+ miles every Wed. I'm going to walk right by you before you have a chance to jump into my draft.

Normally I don't have a problem with people at the gym, but who starts talking smack about people? Especially when that person is actually trying. They are doing what they can do. There is just no class in that. Or if you want to talk shit, do it when they can't hear you.

That's all I got....I'm out...have a good day!

Make you wanna puke intervals

2009-02-26T05:39:00.004-06:00

Last night I joined the normal crew+a few others for Patti's spin class. She has always been nothing but intense and yesterday was no exception. I hurt my knee a little over the weekend and was planning to just show up and spin easy through the class. Why does that never happen? Seriously? I always get caught up in her class and then I'm kicking my butt later for being stupid. I thankfully didn't get hurt yesterday. When we started Patti informed us that we were doing intervals...ok I can handle that. We have never done intervals like this before. I have never pushed so hard on a bike, this class was probably not meant for half the people in the room. Some of these people don't work out enough or hard enough to be at the point where they can push themselves in zone 5 for a few min.

Here are the details:

15 min warm-up

5 ALL OUT intervals (4 min, 3, 2, 3, 4)

4 min recovery after each interval

I burned more calories in that class than any normal Wed. spin class with Patti. (1234 compared to 800-900 calories) Take a look at my heart rate through the class, I does a great job at telling the story. Click on the thumbnail to blow it up.

If you are interested in a group bike/run see last post.

Calling All Minnesotans!

2009-02-23T22:33:00.006-06:00

Who is up for a group training session?

There have been a number of inquiries from some of you out there for some long training rides. I'd be up for a 2-4 hour ride with a short run afterwards. As always people can customize to meet their own needs/wants.

As for location here are a few options I thought of:

meet up at some one's house/garage with bikes and trainers
we can all meet up at a gym (I could try to get guest passes at Lifetime) and use their bike studio
if anyone has any other suggestions let me know

As for times/dates:

I have my first tri on March 8th, so I could do something easy on the 7th.
The weekend of March 14th might be my first day of grad school. I'm still waiting on my acceptance letter (or rejection). Either way, I'm free that Sunday.
After that just about any weekend works for me.
What works for others? (see sidebar pole.)

5 Hour Spin...NOT

2009-02-23T14:55:00.007-06:00

Just a quick update here.

1) I’m still sick, barely noticeable to everyone else but I feel congested and a little out of it.

2) The 5 hours spin was cut short. I stepped off the bike around 3:20 into the ride. I wasn’t feeling bad or really hurting I just decided that I had enough and didn’t want to over work it on Sunday which would leave me on the sidelines for other workouts this week. And to be honest, I’m not training for anything that requires more than 3 hours and 20 min of effort. Really I’m not training for much other than a 2mile/14mile/2mile duathlon.

Steve, Pharmie, Steph and Matt joined me for the spin. Steph and Steve both went around 3:20 and 3:30 as well. Matt did 4 hours and Sarah stayed on all 5 hours.

A little side note about the 5 instructors that made the time go by…some were better than others. Lady #1 (hour 0-1) was good. She had some good triva. Lady #2 and Guy#1 (leading hours 1 – 3) weren’t that great. Lady 2 brought up ‘talking points’ and most of it was naming all the states capitals. Guy 1 was very soft spoken; I kept saying he should be a yoga instructor.
“And we’re going to lighten up in 5 – 4 – 3 - 2 – 1. Ok now let some load off.” (Imagine a 300 pound 6 foot 4 inch guy as timid and soft spoken as they come. ) I think his cadence never got above 50…maybe 60 on the ‘speed drill’. I stuck around 20 min of Lady #3. She was a little intense. I think she forgot that everyone already had 3 hours on their legs. She was doing lots of sprints and hills. I’m not sure what instructor 3 (Guy #2) was like. But while I was stretching in the back of the room he seemed more energetic, walking around the room. I wasn’t paying attention enough to know if he was killing everyone or not.

3) The good news was that I got off the bike with a 3 min transition to get the running shoes out of the locker room and got on the treadmill for a 1 mile run. It felt good to run. At first I felt like I was standing still. I was going an easy/comfortable 10 min mile but my mind wanted to go faster. I kept running up on the front of the treadmill.

Steve was already on a treadmill doing 5 miles. He is an animal!

4) Then Steve, Steph and I sat down to stretch for a while. Steve and I were going to do abs but I had to bow out. Doing the first few sets were fine but the bicycle abs killed me. My legs were burning more than my abs and I was cramping up a little holding my legs up like that. I’m planning to fit in some abs today to make up for my lack of abs yesterday.

5) After that we showered up headed over to Davanis’ from some delicious food. I had 2 pieces of cheesy bread, a south west chicken side salad and a ‘solo’ 5 meat pizza. Mmmm, that hit the spot!

6) Pics from the day are below. Check out Steve’s blog for more pics!

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Me 1 hour in.

Sarah and Steve 1 hour in.

Steph and Matt 1 hour in.

Steve and I running. I look like hell and Steve still has a smile on his face. WTF

For those of you who enjoy a little added information...

I stayed in zone 3 for a good chunk of the ride
Hit zone 4 for 45 min (10 of that was my run)
All in all I say a solid endurance ride!

I'm dumb!

2009-02-21T22:59:00.003-06:00

So after 3 days of being sick here I am, sitting on the couch at 11pm. I have a stuffy nose, slight headache and just feel like crap. I was hoping to take some NyQuil and get a good nights sleep before tomorrows 5 hour spin. Well, I'm dumb! In my sick stupor I took the DayQuil instead of the NyQuil. So here I sit, sick and not tired at all.

1 good thing, American Chopper is on. I love this show! The family has a great dynamic and they turn out some awesome bikes! I used to watch it on discovery channel all the time! If I could subscribe to just the discovery channel I would.

Anyway, I'm going to turn off the computer and lights and hope I fall asleep. If you haven't done so, take a look at the last post for some awesome winter running around a credit union. Note: posts written under the influence of sickness!

Brrrr....

2009-02-21T13:57:00.004-06:00

I woke up today, a little stuffy, but feeling better than the last few days. I've been sick for about 2 or 3 days. It just sucks because I haven't worked out while sick either. I just had a bad head cold, stuffed up, head ache and just feeling crappy. Today I felt a lot better and just have a stuffy nose. After 3 days with no workouts I was itching to get back at it. We have a typical MN morning, teens with a nice windchill bringing the temp down to single digits. I bundled up this morning cleared the 3-4 inches of snow off the driveway.

After that I cleaned up the parents driveway and sidewalks. At that point I was nice and warm and feeling good. I decided to put on the running shoes and go out for a nice easy run. Less than two blocks into the run I knew this was a bad idea! 3-4 inches of made it feel like you were running in sand. All of the sidewalks around me are "city owned" so I'm sure they weren't priority to clear off this morning. I made it about 3/4 of a mile before I had enough with the crappy footing and constantly slipping on snow and ice. I saw a nice credit union that is closed on weekends with a lovely plowed parking lot. So I ran around the credit union a dozen times or so, then ran back home. Click on the picture below to blow it up, you will notice the circles around the credit union.

I know some of you out there put screws in your shoes and others of you use the YAKTRAX Pro. I just have a hard time buying something I'm not sure I'm going to like. I'm really cautious when buying anything for running. Am I going to get blisters? Will these cushion my feet enough? Will this shirt rub my nips off? Will these shorts chafe? I guess I should just 1) stop my whining about running in crappy conditions or 2) do something about it.

On to other news, there is a 5 hour spin class tomorrow. I'm probably not doing all 5 hours. I'm shooting for 3 or 4 hours and then probably a good ab workout and a good stretch.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

The Great MN Stationary Bike Race

2009-02-16T19:52:00.002-06:00

Hi All,

On March 21, 2009 I'm participating in the 13th annual Great Minnesota Stationary Bike Race to benefit Minnesotans with cerebral palsy.

I'll be pedaling for 25 minutes, as a part of a 10 person team, on a stationary bike to raise contributions for the program and services provided by United Cerebral Palsy of Minnesota:

Information & Referral Assistance
MN Assistive Technology Loan network
Consumer & Legislative Advocacy
Support Groups

If you would like to donate to United Cerebral Palsy of Minnesota, I have set up a donations page. Feel free to sponsor me and support the cause.

http://www.firstgiving.com/borschintraining

Many Thanks!

Quick update

2009-02-13T11:08:00.004-06:00

I've had a good week with workouts:

3 spin classes + a 3 hours spin tomorrow
1 run ( I was really pulled by a dog for three miles) He ran well at 7:30 or 8 min miles but not my 9-10 min miles + 1 easy run today
1 yoga session
2 pool workouts - just drills
1 weight day
3 days of ab ripper x

Yesterday Steph and I had dance, we totally rocked the place! Not really though. A little background. So far we are focusing on 2 main dances (swing and salsa) and tango is our filler dance (usually last ten min of the session). Last time we added female turns in both swing and salsa. Easy for me, I didn't have to change my footwork at all. This week we added a male turn to both. EEEEKK! Both male turns are complicated. I have to move my arms just right or I elbow her in the face in salsa. We did two versions, 1 where I just spin and drop her hands and another where I drop my hand behind my back and transfer her hand to my other hand while I spin. And with swing we are doing an inside turn (we've down the outside turns) which involves us both going around each other and we both seem to get off time with our feet. We also end up to far away. This might take some practice. I think we are both too timid to kick or step on each other. We are making some progress and not looking half bad. :-)

If you are in the St. Paul, MN area give me a shout and join me for the 3 hours spin tomorrow! You don't need to be a lifetime member, I'll get you in. I gots connections like you wouldn't believe.

Peace...I'm out.

4:30

2009-02-10T07:44:00.005-06:00

Picture yourself, laying in bed nice and comfortable. Dreaming of that perfect camping trip. Your floating down a river in an old canoe. Beer in hand, sun shining, SO getting some rays in the front of the canoe. You start to hear this faint sound of voices. You look around but see no one. They keep getting louder and louder. Still just a faint echo in the trees lining the river. All of the sudden you are startled awake by this loud vibrating sound. The sound of a cell phone vibrating on the night stand as a backup alarm. 4:30...the time my cell phone scared me awake. Can you see that in the picture? My alarm clock is just a faint glow in the darkness of my room.

The wind was howling outside and my bed was cozy and warm. Who on earth would get out of bed? I hit the snooze and rolled back over. 5 min later, BAM! cell phone vibrating again. Ok Ok. I'm getting up. I was fumbling to hit any button to make it stop, I was eventually successful. I went upstairs to grab some cereal and a banana. After eating slowly watch every news station recap the presidential press interview last night I got dressed, grabbed my gym bag and was out the door. Heading to a 5:30am spin class. I felt kind of nuts, yet slightly excited.

The spin instructor was not what I was used to. It was a tough class and my HR was riding zones 3 and 4 the entire ride but I think that was because I'm not used to working out in the morning. The instructor said she was tired from the getting t bed late so she wasn't going to be pushing that hard, but that shouldn't stop us from working to our limits. To be honest, it was hard for me to stay focused sometimes when she stopped 'climbing the hill' or 'sprinting' half way through to grab water. I mean she sat up, grabbed a drink, sat there, grabbed a drink and then came back down with like 15 seconds left on that hill or sprint. Patti and Suzanne, my normal spin instructors, are good and intense. But they are always working just as hard or harder than you. It was tough to sprint when she would say "match my cadence" and she was maybe pushing 95 rpm's. Shouldn't we be pushing 105-120 for a sprint? I think I had a cadence higher than what she told us to have the entire way through.

Ok, enough complaining about my struggles to execute simple directions. It was a good class, I def. got a work out. I did the "Ab Ripper X" workout after spin and stretched a little. And to be honest I was toast...I was ready for a nice hot shower and a cup of coffee (ummm....water?). Will I do it again...YES. I think I may shoot for twice a week, they offer 4 5:30 spin classes. We'll just play it one day at a time for now though.

I think I missed our nice warm weather and my chances to get in some quality runs outside. This morning was 46 degrees and raining during my drive to the gym. By 5pm it is supposed to dip back into the 20's and everything is going to freeze. I'll see what the sidewalks are like this evening, I was hoping to run with the Lifetime run club tonight (for the first time). They meet every Tuesday and Thursday and my fav. spin teachers teach Wednesday and Friday. That works out pretty well for me. Run, spin, run, spin. :-) Then I can throw in some pool workouts and lifting where ever they fit with other obligations.

In conclusion, my day is off to a good start and it is time to start answering some of the 4 bagillion emails I seem to get over night....how can you leave work(at 5:30pm) with like 2 unread emails and come in with 47? Seriously people! What happened to the 9-5 (well 8-4:30'ish for me) work day? Have a great day!

Quick Update

2009-02-07T19:52:00.004-06:00

Friday was a killer 90 min spin class. I have two main spin teachers I like and they just teamed up on Fridays. One person does the first hour and then the other does the last 30 min and they switch every week. Patti is GO all the time. I think I had an average HR in the 170's when she was done. Suzanne is all load. She does some faster stuff but typically her classes involve a lot of hills and load. Having those two people team up just killed me on Friday. Saturday morning I did 90 min of Yoga X. I'm getting better at surviving some of the hard parts. All of the downward dog stuff did help me stretch out my legs after that spin class that had me cramping up half way through.

I'm pausing for effect....

More pause....

I did my first pool workout. I wasn't anything spectacular just the first three lessons in the Total Immersion program. I learned to float on my back, find the sweet spot and extend my body.

I'm confident I can progress and be ready to swim for ten min next month. :-)

Have a good weekend!

Do you wanna get to know me? Interview Me!

2009-02-04T08:30:00.007-06:00

Last week I saw a post by Teacherwoman that included some interview questions, I wanted to play along so I asked her to "Interview Me". Below are the questions she sent me. If anyone wants to ask anything else, just leave a comment and I'll throw up another post with the answer.

1. What is one goal you have in each of the following areas: swimming, biking, and running?

Swimming: Just do it.
Biking: The need for speed, I’d like to have more races/events and training rides with a 20+ mph average. At the end of last year (my first year) I was able to do this. I’d like to come out of the gates this year being able to sustain a 20mph average on most rides.
Running: 1:45:00 or faster in a half marathon.

2. How do you like to spend a day away from the gym or working out?

With friends grabbing dinner and a drink.
Spending time on the couch with the gf is nice to.
I think I have to throw in learning dance. The gf and I have been taking dance lessons (her Christmas present) and I have to say I’m actually enjoying it.

3. Is it more difficult for you to speak kindly or honestly?

This was a tough questions. I think it depends on the group/person I’m conversing with at the moment. At work it is always hard to be honest because I’m trying to be kind/polite and ‘business like’. With friends it is hard to always be kind when you just have to call someone out on something. But it is all in good fun…right?
Overall, I spend more time at work so I have to say it is harder to speak honestly.

4. If you could compare yourself to a character from a movie, which one would you choose and why?

Hitch (Will Smith) from the movie Hitch...well maybe a little bit of Albert as well. I can know all the right moves to make but just can’t execute on any of them. And lets face it, I’m a little shy and nervous when first meeting someone.

5. If possible, would you live year round in your favorite season?

Probably not. I love FALL a lot, but I also get really energize by any season change.
Spring is great because you can get back outside
Summer is even better because you have even more time outside…and who doesn't love long days.
Fall brings us football, colorful scenery, and those cool nights with friends around a bonfire.
Winter has that first pretty snow fall. This season also brings us the birth of Baby Jesus. Christmas (enough said).

Do you want to play along? Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Going Aggressive

2009-01-30T18:42:00.008-06:00

I went to the LBS today and had the super sweet sales man (same guy who hooked me up with my bike in the first place) there help me get in a more aggressive position. Don't get me wrong people, this isn't a real $100 -$200+ dollar fit with computers and stuff. But he does measure you up, test your flexibility and study you while you pedal.

This first pic of my position all last year. You will notice the stem angle is way up and the handle bars are above my seat.

This next picture is of the new aggressive set up. I mean WAY aggressive in comparison to my previous set up. We basically dropped the stem 24 degrees.
If you looked at the picture close enough, or read my last post, you will notice the addition of aero bars to the bike. Yep, those little doggies are on my bike, fit up (we moved the pads out and angled them slightly), wrapped w/S-Works bar tape and have a key piece of equipment mounted to them.

Now the bar tape isn't the straightest and isn't even, but for my first time wrapping any kind of bars I think I did a decent job.

I'm ready to begin the 2009 biking season with a purpose...break land speed records....NOT!

Stupid Cars!

2009-01-30T10:34:00.003-06:00

Well I'm at the car dealer right now getting 'serviced'...and get your mind out of the gutter (you know who you are). After taking a hit in the wallet I'm thankful for extended warranties! Free inspection, free labor, I just have to pay for parts. I'm saving about $800 having purchased the extended warranty when I bought my car. Granted it costs more than that at the time but I saved another grand or so the last time on labor. So I'm sitting here at a table and it is kind of crowded, about 12 people, so 1 guy sat down at my table with a paper. Ok, that is fine. I can share. But wow, not more than 5 min went by and I was moving. I went to sit on the couch which is less than ideal to work at. This guy WREAKED of cigs and BO. I'm sorry, I'm not a smoker and I just can't handle the smell. My dad smokes but he doesn't seem to smell like this guy. So it isn't that I'm not exposed to smokers regularly, this guy is a pack or two a day guy. And I'm certain he hasn't showered in days. I just don't understand how people can go out like that. Do you not smell yourself?

OK...now for the good stuff!

I got a new package yesterday! I bought these puppies on Ebay for $30 (~$100 retail). I ripped the package open and threw those bars on my bike. I'm going to the LBS today to get a new bike fit. They do adjustments for 2 years when you buy a new bike through them. Last year I was new to cycling and opted for a more comfortable fit. My bars are slightly higher than my seat. I want to take some of the stacks out and drop the bars some, hopefully this will get me into a more aggressive position. Right now I feel more comfortable on my drops than my hoods...I'm sure that shouldn't be right.

Then I have to mount the equipment (computer and Garmin) to these biatches and I'll be ready to fly by all you triathletes in my first outdoor triathlon (just kidding!).

Quick Update

2009-01-28T11:14:00.003-06:00

I SIGNED UP FOR MY FIRST TRI!

There was overwhelming support for me to break into the world of triathlon so I did. I'm doing the Lifetime indoor tri. For those of you unfamiliar you here is how it breaks down...

10-minute swim in lap pool (no drowning allowed, just stand up)
10-minute transition (swim to bike)
30-minute bike in cycle fitness studio (bikes preset for resistance)
5-minute transition (bike to run)
20-minute treadmill run (I've been told this is with a 2% incline)
The total distance you cover across the course determines your score.

I'm not going to like the bike! I've been told the bikes are set pretty loose and this just isn't going to fly for me. I'm a bigger guy with some leg power...I like to hammer some load at 90 rpm. Not spin out of my shoes and blow out a knee.

This race is March 8th...come join me! It should be fun! Steve is prolly going to win. He has done this race at other clubs and I compared his distances vs points with those races to the results of the last time my Lifetime had this race and he would have won with the same performance.

Frozen 5K Race Report

2009-01-26T09:45:00.009-06:00

Race #1 for the year is under my belt. The 5k had a very fitting name for the weather this year. We knew it was going to be cold but when race morning came I just couldn't believe how fast my hands froze while attempting to tie my car key to the draw string in my pants (anyone else have a better place to tie a key when you have no zip pockets?).

The day didn't start out that well...I got up at 4 am to drive the sister and brother-in-law to the airport. Then I ate some breakfast and picked up around the house while watching the news off and on. Eventually I could leave to pick up Steve and Pharmie for the race. I wasn't even 1 block out of my driveway and I see sirens. Seriously! What are cops doing in -27 billion degrees pulling people over at 6:40am on a Saturday? I came to a nearly complete stop at the stop sign at the end of my block. There was no one around so I rolled through at like 2 mph. The cop had just been coming up the hill to my right when I was pulling into the intersection. I told him I was tired from driving the sis to the airport and now I was going to run the Winter Carnival 5K. He thought I was nuts and eventually let me go with a warning after a little lecture.

When I finally got to Steve and Pharmie's place Steve was calling wondering where I was. They grabbed their stuff and we were in the car heading to the race. Here is Pharmie and I going up the escalator to the packet pick up with Steve. For some reason people were doing same day signup....CRAZY! We don't look that bundled up here...I like being deceptive.

I wore:

Smart wool ski socks

Running Shoes with Duct Tape on them (see pic below)

Thermal running tights

Old school long underwear

Running pants

Thick under Armour shirt

Light technical pull over

Med Technical pull over

Thin gloves

Sweet Ski gloves

Old school face mask

Knit stocking cap

Jeremy, Jen, Baddapple and his son joined us. We all hung out until the race started. Jermey, Jen, Pharmie and Steve were all doing the 10K (shortened from a half marry). Badapple, his son and myself were doing the 5k. Here is a nice group photo...

The 10K started first, and the 5K started 15 min later. While we were lining up for the start I took my usual spot about half way back but since the door we were all coming from was closer to the start tons of people piled in from of me who shouldn't have been. I spent the first 3-4 blocks skipping from side to side trying to get to the outside around these people. Somehow I got to mile marker 1 at 8:12'ish!?!?!? WAY FAST FOR ME! Just for the record, I was planning on just 'jogging' this and having fun. I didn't wear my garmin or watch. I really didn't care where I finished. If you would have been with me the day before you would have seen that even more...I did a brutal spin class. 2 instructors, they traded off after 40 min...the 2nd instructor got on the bike and said "Crap, only 21 min left. We gotta get to work." She was on fresh legs since the class was beyond full (all 50 bikes) and she gave up her bike since she would be moving upfront eventually.

Back to the race, I slowed down a bit. I was feeling the spin class and leg workouts from the previous days. Somewhere near the turn around I started talking to a nice old man, Dennis. He is in his early 60's and is on some ungodly number for 5k's. I want to say he said over 5,000 but that sounds high. He has been running since HS but, I'm thinking I didn't hear him right. We chatted all the way to the last .5 miles when he fell back on the large hill (7% grade 1.5 blocks long) leading up to the finish (which was 3 blocks farther up hill but not as steep). Here is the elevation chart.

Steve flew by me (finishing his 10k) when I had about 1 mile left on my 5k. I saw him cheering as I was finishing up. I think I finished in the low 28:20's. I slowed up a lot from Mile 1. But it was nice to hang out and talk to Dennis. Here is a great pic of what I looked like after the race...

Just a little frosty! Click on it to blow it up!

It was a good day! Steve, Pharmie and I stopped at Caribou on the way home for a nice warm cup of coffee.

Check out everyone's blog for more pics and their recaps of the day...
Jeremy, Jen, Baddapple, Steve and Pharmie

ps...Jeremy, I can't find my Nike+ transmitter. It must have still been in the shoe when I tossed them. Sorry!

Gonna freeze my testes off tomorrow

2009-01-23T08:29:00.005-06:00

Tomorrow I will trade thoughts of my nice warm bed to drive my sister and her hubby to the airport at 4 (effing) am. I'm all for an early flight to save some money but come on. If I made a flight at 5:20 am I would get a cab and not make people drive me there at 4 am. After that I'll probably just stay up, eat breakfast and maybe do some plyometrics before the looming Secruion Frozen 5k. The name is very fitting for this year...
W.E.T.S.U.P.
( I can't remember where I heard this first but I saw it on a blog recently and decided to resurrect it.)
FYI - We Eat This Shit Up.

...I'm so happy I decided not to do the half marathon! I'm looking forward to jogging through my 5K and going back to the car for a thermos of Hot Cocco and a large winter coat. Steve, Pharmie, Jeremy, Jen...I'll come back and take some photos. I'm not planning on my race being fast, I'm going for a leg workout tonight and a spin class so tomorrow will just be fun. No pr's no traget times...just a jog. Does anyone use that word anymore, jog? When did the world switch from jog to run?

Jog: to run or ride at a slow trot b: to go at a slow, leisurely, or monotonous pace

Run: to go faster than a walk ; specifically : to go steadily by springing steps so that both feet leave the ground for an instant in each step

I mean they both fit but in my head jog seems more relaxed than run.

Anyway...on to P90X

I've had another half good week. I once again kicked my butt with the Chest and Back workout. This time I wore my heart rate monitor and you will never guess what my average HR was....162. That is kind of high for lifting for me. Immediately after a set of push ups or pull ups my HR would be closer to 190. That is like I was running at a 7 min/mile clip. My average HR was above that (162) for the whole workout because I did intervals on the treadmill prior to the push ups and pull ups for an hour.

Yesterday I whooped through the Shoulders and Arms workout. I did almost drop a weight on my head with the last set of over head presses, that was scary. The gym was packed but I somehow managed to get there and someone was leaving their bench in the middle of the free weight section just as I was walking in. I dove on that thing and grabbed my weights and started to induce pain. It is only the 2nd week of the program (3rd week I've been doing these workouts but I'm taking off days for cardio) and I'm seeing improvements in my numbers. Both for the last workout and this workout. Push ups - number has went up, pull ups - I'm using less weight on the machine that 'helps you up', curls - I'm fighting through more reps, tris and shoulders - I've added more weight to each of the exercises.

I am totally loving these workouts! They are just fundamental exercises that work major muscle groups. It is nice to have such a variety of workouts to do. Not all of them work well with cardio days (i.e., Legs and Back...50 min of mostly squats and lunges) but it is just something to plan around. I think these workouts might stick with me for a while. I'm enjoying picking which workout I want to do on days I run/bike/etc. If I had tried to follow the program 100% I might have already quit it. Too intense for what I'm looking for.

With the overwhelming support for me to do a triathlon this year I will probably have to start some swim training to please my readers. :P I'm looking forward to doing a sprint tri or two. Who knows, depending on how the swimming thing goes you might find me here towards the end of the summer. One place you will not find me competing, The Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. It is $140 to register, then the $10 or the USAT 1 day membership. I mean...I could do 3 other races for the price. Lifetime - knock it off! You don't really offer any swag. You do put on a well organized race but stop dipping into the average man's pocket book so you can attract a few more pros we will never see after the gun goes off. And then you will be announcing their names when I am less than half way done.

Does anyone want to put together "The Average Joe's Triathlon"? Everyone is welcome...athletes will organize it so we have everything set up the right way. There will be no prize money, prollly some average joe prizes (drawn at random). Bike lube, Tech wear, GC to LBS, etc. Maybe a BBQ afterwards. Just a thought.

One Question >>>>Look at the sidebar

2009-01-20T12:25:00.002-06:00

To Tri or not to Tri, that is the question.

As most of your regular readers know, I am not a triathlete. Most of you know I'm currently kicking my butt with P90X. I can barely find time to fit in some running and biking with the mass amounts of soreness that accompany this program. Could I fit in pool time? Can I get into the pool, besides splashing around on vacation? How much swim training do I need to knock out a sprint or two? The other kicker is that I'm starting dance lessons with the gf this week. So 1 night a week might be completely blocked off for that. So much training to do already and I just keep adding more stuff. Again

So...to Tri or not to tri?

I've been tagged

2009-01-14T23:11:00.002-06:00

Irondiva tagged me...here is how it goes: go to your 4th folder (where your pictures are stored - On the Dashboard page of Blogger, at the bottom, click on Picasa Web Album - this is where all of your uploaded blog photos are stored) and find the 4th picture….and post it. Then explain it. And tag 4 people.

I believe this picture of Steve and myself warming up before the Joe Plant 5K this spring. We both PR'd that day, it was a great course and went to a really good cause.

I tag Steve, Ironmin, Formulaic and Brooke.

Next lets do a little P90X update...on the day I was going to do the Legs and Back workout I forgot to bring my sheet with the exercises. I had the Chest and Back workout with me so I did that workout after a 2 mile warm up run. This was the workout that sent my heart and lungs in over drive last week and I had to give up early. Well, same thing. This time I made it all the way to the end. I started my last set up push ups...I almost fell flat on my face and then...so then I had to give up. My arms were dead and I was running out of gas. I was starting to feel sick and running low on energy. Eventually I got a recovery drink and some food and felt much better, after I almost puked in the shower at Lifetime. Speaking of which...I put that in the poll on the right side, have you worked out so hard you've puked?

Today I opted for a spin class then jumped straight into the Legs and Back workout. It was rough! I spent 40 min doing lunges, squats, a few pull ups and then back to lunges and squats. I HURT! I can't wait to try this workout on fresh legs. I was soo weak at the end I could barely lung or squat with good form. I'm going to take whatever tomorrow gives me. I'll either run, do the Kenpo DVD with the program or just do the X Stretch DVD.

OUCH!

2009-01-11T19:53:00.004-06:00

OUCH sums up the last few workouts! P90X is nothing but hardcore. I wouldn't consider myself the most out of shape but I haven't done a ton of lifting or really anything but running and cycling the past 12 months. Getting back into lifting if fun for me. It is a different kind of adrenaline. The Plyometrics workout was nothing but intense. It is go go go the whole way. My average heart rate was in the 150's and there were plenty of times when it was in the 180's. Jumping, squatting, jumping from this side to that side, just moving all over the place an hour. I woke up the next day with that deep burn in my hamstrings.

The next day I did the Shoulders and Arms workout. That was a good workout! Just tons of curls, upright rows, shoulder flys and triceps extensions. I didn't wear my heart rate monitor to the gym that day but I was soaked through my shirt when I was done. Today I did my FIRST attempt at yoga. I say attempt because I was shaky, falling over and looking confused. The Yoga X dvd is a really good program. I had an armature yoga attendee with me and she said it was a hard yoga workout. The first 40 min was the hardest. At that point we were like, lets make it to 1 hour and shut it off. It got easier after that and we ended up doing a bunch of balance posses and stretching with a 7 min ab workout. Again, no heart rate monitor but sweating like mad and my legs burned.

One thing I really love about these dvd's is that these are real people. Tony Horton (the trainer) can walk around the room with the cameras following and others in the workout are shaking, struggling or he is correcting their form, giving tips on how to make the exercise harder or easier for us. I really like that.

Something else I decided is that I'm not going to do the program in 90 days. I can't! My arms are in a constant state of soreness and pain lately. I'm not used to lifting with this intensity. I'm hoping within a week or two I'll be back into shape and I can do a lifting workout every other day. But in my mind it isn't going to be the end of the world if I don't finish it in 90 days. Having days off from lifting and making some more time for cardio (i.e., running and biking) is also important to me.

I'm looking forward to this week! Tomorrow is Legs and Back, then we move into a high energy kick boxing /tai bo workout called Kenpo X. Wednesday is going to be Spin and X stretch. Wish me luck as I continue to kick my butt.

Have a great week everyone!

New years Resolutions

2009-01-08T14:10:00.003-06:00

So who out there made a new years resolution? I didn't, it is futile in my mind. I would rather make a life change than try to better myself in this area this year. By March most people don't care anymore anyway. If you belong to a gym, and have been there, you've noticed an influx of cars and people at the gym. I went to the gym to start my first P90X workout on Monday and couldn't get on a damn thing. It was ridiculous, waiting for a pull up spot, dumbbells, treadmills. After 20 min of waiting for equipment I gave up and went into the spin studio for a while. I had this feeling of being defeated. It was really demoralizing, I was super pumped up the whole way to the gym and as soon as I saw the parking lot I knew it was going to be hell. I'm glad people are getting motivated to change their life and work out some, but make it a life change and do it regularly. If they did there would be demand for more/larger facilities and there wouldn't be as much waiting as there is (well was for me Monday). Should us regulars get priority? One could argue not becuase we all pay for the use of this equipment but feel like I shouldn't have to rearrange my life becuase someone wants to come to the gym for a month or two.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. I decided to go to the gym later (7pm) on Wednesday and start my P90X workouts. It stinks going that late, at least for me, that is my usual dinner time. Wed. I had to snack twice in the afternoon to get me through my workout. When I got there it was still busy by the weights so I hopped on a treadmill for a few miles, man that seemed to take forever! I haven't been on a treadmill in about 10 or 11 months and the time passed sooo slowly. After that I went to scope out the weight area and I could get some dumbbells, pull up machine (since I'm fat and can't do more than 3/4 of a pull up) and some floor space for push ups.

The first workout is Chest and Back.
It goes something like this...

Standard Push-ups
Wide Front Pull-ups
Military Push-ups
Revers Grip Chin-ups
Wide Fly Push-ups
Closed Grip Overhand Pull-ups
Decline Push-ups
Heavy Pants
Diamond Push-ups
Lawnmowers
Dive Bomber Push-ups
Back Flys
Repeat steps 1-12 in a different order
Then Ab RipperX

I gave myself 2 min per exercise ( I think the dvd gives 1 - 1:30)...this was to do the exercise, write it down and rest for 20-30 seconds. By the time I was on my second time through I was breathing really hard. Eventually I couldn't slow my breathing so I had to call it a day. I sat on a spin bike for 10 min, really easy, half hyperventilating. This program is going to kick my butt! And I love it for that. I'm pretty sore today, I've had worse but seeing as I only did 3/4 of the workout I'm pretty satisfied with my soreness. It was one of those lift your arms to shampoo your hair and your arms hurt and shake from raising them.

Today is 30 min on the trainer and 60 min of plyometrics and tomorrow is Shoulders, Arms and Abs (looks more intense than Chest and Back). Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T11:08:00.004-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season!

I just want to let everyone know that I've been transferring all my bloggy stuff from my 'work' computer to my SWEET NEW personal computer. I'm trying not to miss any rss feeds for any of you, wish me luck.

Because life seems to happen alot lately P90X didn't start on Jan 2nd. I did get in the fitness test and even with all the holiday pounds and lack of motivation lately I met all the min requirements for doing the program. I'm looking forward to braving the New Years Resolution'ers at the gym in the coming months as I do some of the workouts at the gym. I have a bike, tredmill and Chuck Norris approved Total Gym at home but no free weights or place to do pull ups so those workouts are going to be done at the gym. I've put a few of those workouts on my iPod so I can glance at the small screen and switch to the next exercise. I've 'flipped' through a few workouts and think I'll be able to easily flow from exercise to exercise since they are all pretty routine after you do each dvd a time or two.

Now, lets look forward through 2009.

Steve recently posted about his 2008 and 2009 and something struck me in that post. "Workout with a purpose." I have not done that lately and I'm about to start! I did all summer, I had goals for most of my workouts. What do I want to get out of this run, bike ride, etc. With P90X giving me new focus and no excuses for not going to the gym I'm ready to get back on that train. The Holidays are over, I enjoyed them fully and my snug pants show it.

While I rock the P90X program I'm going to really try to get in some running and biking. The half marathon I was planning on doing this month is out. I'm just not in shape for that, I know I could finish it, but the last time I tried to train for a half marathon in a month I hurt myself. I might do the 5K associated with that race though. I'd like to get in at least 1 race a month. This would probably be comprised of 5k's through the winter, some duathlons in the spring, a few half marathons in the summer, maybe a century ride or two and possibly a late season marathon. I've been invited by a cousin to join her and her husband for the NYC Marathon this year. I wouldn't have to start training until August so that would give me plenty of time to get full use out my bike, something I missed last year with my fall marathon.

I still have my friendly competition with Pharmie for the fastest half marathon. Stakes still haven't been discussed, but I plan on kicking her butt and hopefully going from 2:00:00 (my pr) down to 1:45:00...yes I just typed that, 15 min pr. Keep working the Dome Running Pharmie, you're going to need every min of it.

With that being said my theme for 2009....BRING IT!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2008-12-21T23:59:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season so far! We are just a few days away from Christmas and I'm excited! I was on the phone with my sister a little while ago and I asked what Anika (my niece) wanted for Christmas. My sister said, "Anika, uncle Jon wants to know what you want for Christmas." Anika's reply was, "A bike mommy." Just imagine that coming from the cutest little 3 year old ever! I'd put up a pic but I don't have a recent pic. My sister hasn't figured out how to click on that paperclip icon and attach photos to an email. Anyway, guess what uncle Jon is getting Anika for Christmas.....yep...a bike (well trike).

If you live in or around MN you know that Saturday was pretty snowy. It snowed pretty much the entire day. We had something like 6 or 8 inches of snow. Besides shoveling for the rents and shoveling our huge azz driveway I spent the rest of the day indoors. I made some chili, what a wonderful meal after a few hours of shoveling. Then I proceeded to bake the cookies I mixed up earlier.

Steph, the gf, showed up as the last few cookies were coming out of the oven. We (well she) whipped up some burnt butter glaze and we started the decorating process. Glaze and sprinkles were flying every where. Not really though, we kept everything confined to the counter. If you blow up that image you can still see the dog (black and white) searching for something to clean up on the other side of the counter. I must say, Steph has a much better touch with the frosting. She has all the cute cookies...

Ok...on to the good stuff. I'm in a workout slump! It has been pretty much negative wind chills around here for a while and I'm finding it hard to stay on the trainer past 30 min lately. With that being said I've decided that Starting Jan 2. (being realistic that I'll be out of commission Jan. 1) things are getting intense. I'm going to make up a running/biking schedule that I'm going to stick to and follow the P90X program for some added variety. I'm going to do my best to stick to the workout program and the diet calorie, protein, carb, fat plan but I don't think I'll be following the included menu. It is a pretty expensive menu. I've read a few other bloggers that have done/are doing P90X and they have all said to do your running before the dvd's. I'm guessing that will be my plan also. The trick is going to be moving the short, tempo and long runs around the leg burning P90X days.

My biggest problem is going to be doing this program partially at the gym and at home. I don't have a place at home to do pull ups so I'll probably go to the gym for the pull up/push up days and stay home for the cario/kick boxing days. Being at the gym I will also have the option to tons of more machines and dumb bells. The one machine I'm going to love the most is the pull up machine. It basically looks like a pull up/dip station except for the bar that flips out for you to stand on. You can vary the weight, which counters your weight, to get the workout you are looking for. On one of the dvd's they talk about bands or standing on a chair but I think this will work best for me. I do really well with structure and knowing how much 'help' I'm getting, writing that down and trying to use less help with the hopes I could get back to being able to pulling my body weight up unaided more than once.

I'm sure I'll post more specific goals for this program in the coming weeks, probably not until after Christmas.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday week!

Borsch to Ironman!

2008-12-18T09:56:00.003-06:00

NOT!

I bet you are saying who is this guy. Sorry for being gone so long! Things have been pretty crazy, working way to much, trying to apply to grad school, making Christmas cookies, eating Christmas cookies, working some more and trying to fit in a workout or two while maintaining a life. I've been secretly popping by blogs checking in on people. I promise to put up a post this weekend, I relaly want to sit down and put together a plan for 2009. I will have some exciting news for 2009. Jan - March is going to be taken to the extreme! I may not be stating Ironman training but I will be starting something else.

p.s. I came into work today and my desk looked like Christmas morning. 5 or 6 presents all wrapped up from the boss and other co-workers saying good job on this project or that project.

Anyway, back to work!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T10:14:00.006-06:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I did! My day started the way every lazy day should start...coffee and the paper. :-)

Eventually I decided to be productive and get things ready for the Thanksgiving meal. Did I mention I was nominated to make Thanksgiving dinner for the family. That would make me the first Borscheid man to make Thanksgiving. I got everything out on the counter and organized it. I brined the turkey the night before in a apple juice, orange juice, nutmeg, cloves, salt water brine. (I also made a pie the night before) Mmmmm...it smells good! I rinsed off the turkey and threw that birdy in the oven. Then I peeled all the potatoes and threw those in a pot of water to hang out until it was time to cookem up.

At this point I was bored...what's so tough about this cooking stuff? I went down stairs to clean up a bit and BAM!

The floor drain in the basement was overflowing. CRAP. Try to plunger it, wet/dry vac the water, plunger plunger, run the snake down it. Nothing was working. Eventually I had to get back to dinner and just told everyone that was showing up to not run any water.

My sister and Steph were helping in the kitchen at this point. I started the stuffing I was making on the top of the stove and the potatoes were ready to be mashed. We got those two things finished and I started on the glazed carrots and Steph started the gravy. At this point the turkey was done, time to carve. The kitchen was stacking up with knives, spoons, bowls, pots and pans, etc. Nothing could be washed or rinsed off so there was stuff stacking up everywhere. I was originally hoping to put someone on dish detail while things got wrapped up for lunch but that didn't happen. So my boring day got a little hectic. I had two CRAZY dogs running around. My cousin brought her 11 month old puppy over (full size lab) so we could dog sit while she went to her SO's. Our 2 year old German Shepard/husky mix was going crazy with this dog. They were running around constantly from the time we got him. They were playing tug of war, chasing each other and just wrestling. Those pups coupled with my two nieces, who want to get into every thing and the drain over flown down stairs definitely got rid of the boredom.

Somewhere in the midst of all this my mom showed up, with a turkey. Did I mention I was going to be the first Borscheid man to make Thanksgiving. She had to make a turkey and stuffing just in case mine didn't 'turn out'. We got everything set out ready to eat. It was all coming together. :-)

We prayed and sat down to eat. MMMMMM....I ate a lot! p.s. Everyone liked my turkey better. Sorry for the lack of pictures on the later part of the meal prep. things were getting a little crazy.

Eventually I called Roto Rooter to come clean out the drain....$238 and 15 min later we had running water. I was glad I was doing the right things to clean it out, my snake just wasn't long enough. So Steph and I got back to the millions of dishes and powered through those. After that I played with my two nieces and then sat on the couch watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.

I hope everyone had a great day!

I have to inform you that the "challenge" is over. In all of the meal prep and chaos I didn't get to get in a workout. I went for a 'long run' today but cut it short at 2.5 miles. For some reason I was freezing. I was wearing my normal winter running gear and I couldn't warm up, it was only 25 degrees. That isn't that cold to run in. I usually am cold for a few blocks and heat up quickly, but today was different. I blame all the pie. ;)

Stay tuned for a new challenge for December!

How do you start your Monday?

2008-11-24T14:14:00.006-06:00

I start by hitting the snooze button a time or two, finally jump out of bed, eat some cereal (Usually Smart Start) while watching Good Morning America. After that I shower, get ready and I'm out the door. The whole process takes 30-40 min. :-)

My day really doesn't start until I arrive at work. I unload the laptop and get it fired up. While it is turning on a walk down to the cafeteria where we proudly serve 4 varieties of Starbucks coffee. I go straight for the "Extra Bold" coffee of the day. I take it black (write that down, you never know when you will have to get me coffee). I have a little OCD when it comes to my coffee cup...the 'java jacket' seam needs to line up with the coffee cup seam and the lid opening must be on the opposite side of the seam. I know, stupid, oh well.

I then bring the coffee back to my desk where I proceed to open on all the programs I'm going to need for the first few min of the day: Lotus Notes, SPSS, IE, FireFox, etc. While those are loading I take the lid off my coffee so it can cool, it is always WAY too hot for me to drink. I'm a wuss when it comes to hot (temp.) foods and drinks. After a few min of cooling, I'm ready to begin my Monday.

As for recent workouts...

The Challenge Stays Strong!

I did a hard core spin class Friday.

Saturday was 7 miles at 9:00 min miles. I went out early (did 4 miles) and finished at the track with some peeps who showed up for the Saturday Speed workouts.

Here is a pic from the start, did I mention we got a dusting of snow that night. It made for a couple sketchy intersections (where people spin their tires to get going...DON'T DO THAT), but for the most part didn't affect my running at all.

Here is Jeremy joining me for my last few laps. We had some great chats about IMMoo and his plans to do an IM every year until he can't walk. Go Jeremy!

Sunday was just a stretching day. My legs were spent, I was sore from a weeks of speed workouts in spin classes and Sat. being my longest run since TwinCities Marathon.

Today I haven't decided if I'm going to go for a run or hit the trainer.

I hope everyone has a great week and Thanksgiving!

Looking for 2009...

2008-11-21T09:09:00.003-06:00

Is it sad that I'm looking for the new year already? Jan. 1 2009 hopefully means a lot less stress in my life. Work is still consuming my life and I am struggling to stay on this 35 day challenge. Yesterday I had planned for a 3-4 mile run after work and when my boss schedules a 4:30 meeting I knew it wasn't going to happen. I settled for a 2 mile walk through our sky ways that connect 4 buildings. I bet I looked like a total goof because I put my Garmin on. Picture a guy in business casual dress wearing a HUGE ASS watch doing laps in the sky way. Tons of people do laps throughout the day, some (we call her crazy lady) even power walk the hell out of it. When I see her I feel like she should be wearing a speed suit and a sperm helmet.

2009 hopefully means less stress because budgets will be figured out, hopefully we will stop laying people off, I will be moved. Our company laid off a thousand people a few months ago and now we are laying off another thousand. I'm safe, thank God. But for how long, how many more rounds of lay offs will we have? Stupid greedy bastards!

They are moving my group to the north side of our floor, my team of 4 are the last ones on that side of the floor. They have been tearing down cubes and re-wiring in the ceilings to accommodate the new group that is moving in there. It is really distracting! All I hear is drill drill drill, hammer, bang, hammer, drop this, one guy yelling to another guy to pull that, drill drill drill.

Sometime this weekend I'm going to try to nail down some 2009 races and make a decision on weather to tri or not.

Begin rant...
I am not an economics major, but like everyone else I have my opinions on why we are in the crapper right now. EVERYONE'S GREED! Person 1 wants a house they can't afford. Person 2 wants a nice commission so they sell Person 1 a house they can't afford with a shitty mortgage plan that only allows them to pay for it for 3 years and then they get hosed when the fixed rate period is over. Person 2 doesn't care because they got their commission, and then they get another commission when Person 1 comes back in 2.5 years to refinance. EFF you Person 2! So many banks gave people loans they shouldn't have. The masses should be looking to bankers or guidance...not as a broker. Person 1 needs to really take a step back and chill the EFF out. Just because you wanted a house now doesn't mean you should have 1 now.

That brings me to Big Auto. You three CEO's (you know who you are) are arrogant pricks! None of you could raise your hand and sell 1 effing jet? Fly first class and save yourself around 19,000 per flight in the US. You aren't that important, you will most likely never get recognized, no one is going to try to kill you, you will save your company a SHIT TON of money over the long haul. Isn't that what your job is? Grow your company...so why the unnecessary spending? I work for a Fortune 100 company...WE ONLY HAVE 1 PRIVATE JET! You pricks each have 7 or 8....why?!? All 3 of your businesses have been loosing money for years, why did it take this long, why did you wait until d-day to make a plea for money? Why didn't you take drastic action years ago when foreign car makers were taking your business and not even offering a reach around?

I think big auto should go into Chapter 11! I know it means bad things for our economy but lets face it, these three businesses aren't going to get turned around with a little coin in their pocket that they WILL burn through by spring time. Chapter 11 means disbanding unions, restructuring, laying off workers. It means TONS of layoffs. It also means Big auto renegotiating the wages/benefits/etc of their employees. I believe compensation is a main reason why the big three can't stay competitive with foreign auto makers. Foreign auto makers had smaller cars, more fuel efficient, but they are also paying import taxes to bring their cars over here. Well, not Toyota who has some plants here in the US but still...this has been developing for a decade. You can't tell me no one saw the signs! This goes back to your company, your business...where were you flying your effing jet to that you weren't paying attention to the signs?!?

I say liquidate your inventory! Don't just lower the prices, give that shit away! Do whatever you can to free up cash, sell those jets. The first move should not be cutting workers and closing plants! Cut luxuries first, then liquidate inventory! You are in desperate times, cut your losses with the current inventory and start over. Mr. Mulally (Ford CEO) made 45 million dollars last year...how many employees would you not have to lay off with that kind of cash? You didn't do anything last year, your company is in the crapper, DON'T TAKE A BONUS! And why is your wife, children and guests flying Ford Motor Company jets without you? You made enough money to fly them first class you greedy bastard!

Survival of the fittest...the big three have been lazy..."you are the weakest link, Goodbye"...Chapter 11.

Rant over...

I hope everyone has a good weekend! I'm going to get in a long run this weekend and finish up at the St. Thomas track for some stairs with Steve and whoever else shows up. Holla!

Looking forward

2008-11-17T16:15:00.006-06:00

Saturday kicked off the first "Saturday of Speed". It was a great morning! I met Steve at his house Saturday morning (8:45am). He was ready to go! He even had a GINORMOUS backpack full of extra clothes, water and a boombox. Why he didn't want to jog to the track with it on this shoulder like this guy I don't know.

Steve and I got there right around 9am, we were shortly joined by Ryan, Pharmie, Laura, Greg and Jenny. Steve and I were planning on doing the The Sinclair Special, basically 600 at 10K, 100 easy (I did 200), 200 all out, 400 easy. We were both planning on doing 5 sets, let me tell you, after the 3rd I knew I went out a little hard. I was super excited to get this going and do some hard runs, what I didn't take into account was the spin class, squats and lunges the day before. Whoops! So, #4 came and at the end of hard 200 I was spent...gasping for air...I had to walk 20-30 seconds just to catch my breath. I had to do the same on the 5th set, but at least on the 5th set I was DONE! That was a tough workout, but it went by pretty quick. It wasn't as hard as my first 20 mile run, it wasn't as hard as my first 50 mile bike, but it was hard! What holds true for spin classes holds true for intervals...you make them whatever you want them to be. I decided to make it a tough workout and ran my ass off. I haven't had a chance to download the garmin data yet but I can't wait to take a look at it. :-)

If you are looking to gain a little speed or just something different, I'd suggest you try the Sinclair Special. I'll be doing it again. I'm not used to running fast and shooting my HR up, I can't wait to do this a few times over the next couple months and compare.

After gasping for air and waiting for a few others to finish their workouts I saw Steve head over to the bleachers...crap. He started running stairs and for some reason I joined him. They hurt! But I'm stronger for it. Here is a picture of me ~~peeing on the stands~~, re-setting the garmin for another lap of high heart rate cardio (the stairs). My heart rate hit 192...my "max" is 195. I had an average HR of 182, just above AT.

I think Steve is planning on doing another track workout this Saturday. If I'm going to beat Pharmie at a half marathon next year I need to keep some of my endurance so I'm planning on getting in a 'long run' (7-8 miles). If anyone plans on doing a speed workout at the track with Steve next week let me know...I'll come and finish up my long run there. Who knows, maybe I'll talk myself into more stairs.

When does one get a break?!?

2008-11-13T01:16:00.003-06:00

So...I'm in another one of those 'work consumes all' weeks. It is really starting to drain on my motivation. It is 1:15 in the am and I just got off the trainer. I got in 30 min and we are checking it off as another successful day. It technically didn't fall in Wed, but since I haven't slept yet it is still Wed to me.

I just want to throw a quick shout out for the Saturdays of Speed Steve and I are throwing together. We are hoping to do a couple each month, doing anything from short intervals, mile repeats, yasso 800's, to the "The Sinclair Special" (which is on the schedule for me this Saturday). If you haven't heard of it I'll throw a description below. I believe Steve has gathered a few other peeps to come out...a couple plan on doing speed work with us, others a 5k on the track, and I think one or two are just going do their own thing. I think this is great! There isn't a coach giving orders with a stop watch, everyone is still in charge of their own training and we can all just be there for support and encouragement. If we build some friendships along the way that is just he icing on the the cake. So, anyone who lives or is going to be in the St. Paul, MN area feel free to shoot me an email or stop by Steve's blog for directions.

The Sinclair Special (Source: RW)

You only want to do one interval day a week? Not a problem. Here's a workout that will boost both stamina and speed in a single, thoroughly delightful session. Basically, this is a 600/200 (best starting point) or 800/300 (something to work up to) combo plate. "It's one of my favorite workouts," says Sinclair. "It has length and sustained effort, but also a strong speed/anaerobic flavor. You run 600 or 800 meters at 10-K pace, float 100 meters, then go as hard as you can for 200 or 300 meters. Jog an easy 400 meters before you start the next set." What's "float"? Something close to your normal long-run pace, that is faster than a jog. Think of it as partial recovery on the run. Most interval workouts give you full recovery. This isn't one of them.

Borsch joins the 21st century of training

2008-11-09T16:02:00.007-06:00

Last Thursday Christmas came early for this guy. I got home from work to see my new Garmin Forerunner 305 sitting on the door step. I was really happy it was there, mostly because the Fedex guy left a $300 package on the door step! I live in a nice neighborhood but seriously, who knows when someone will walk buy and just rip that package open.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. I'm excited to be able to train by heart rate, distance, pace, etc. Thus far I mostly guess at distances or mapmyrun and just go run trying to stick to a set pace. Thursday I did the setup, attached the bike sensor and quick mount to my bike (which is sadly on a trainer for the next few months). I made sure everything was running right and left it at that. Friday I got home from work early and decided to sneak in a 3 mile run before meeting up with some friends for apps and taps. I've had one run with this guy on my arm and man, I didn't know how much my heart rate changed with inclines. I knew it did somewhat but never let it really slow me down.

So I started on the three miles, I tried to keep from looking at my new watch every ten seconds and just keep a good pace. My whole area is rolling hills, it gets kind of annoying! Here is a little graphic of how my HR mimicked the elevation changes. The top line is HR (red) the middle line is elevation (green) and bottom line is pace (blue). The two peaks are the two stop lights I hit. But it is amazing, my pace was really steady and my HR followed the elevation change exactly. I'm really going to enjoy looking into some of this workout data when I get more of it. I'm kind of a data geek.

I'd like to ask you all a question...Saturday I was frustrated with my mom and sister, arguing about the outcome of the election, that I just had a huge headache. I wanted to go for a quick run and just get some frustration out, I made it 3 blocks before I walked back and laid in bed the rest of the afternoon. My head hurt so bad it put me out of commission the entire afternoon. The question to all of you is...is my 35 day challenge busted because I didn't get in my work out that day?

Later today I'm going to collect some HR/speed/dist. data on the bike. :-) I'm super excited to join the 21st century and train with more information....now I just need to get someone to pony up for the rest of my Christmas list.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! and to those who are racing.....GO GO GO!

Way to go VIKES!

What did I order....

2008-11-06T09:50:00.002-06:00

I like the idea of playing 20 questions.

You ask a question and I'll answer.

So far we have....

Q1. What's in the box?
3 smaller boxes

Q2. what is it? animal, vegetable or mineral?
None

Q3. We have different forms of..."WHAT IS IT?!? Damn you!"
See answer #1 :P

Everyone loves hump day!

2008-11-05T00:15:00.003-06:00

First...I'm glad everyone 'Rocked The Vote'. It makes me proud to say I'm an American when a) so many people show up to vote and b) when the losing candidate can stand up and proudly endorse the winner. We live in a peaceful nation for the most part. I was reminded earlier tonight that in other countries McCain might have already picked up an AK47 and walked over to Barracks house to gun him down.

Second...The challenge is going well for me. You can check out my workouts in the right hand sidebar. I've rocked a few runs, spin classes and weight sessions lately. I've had a very good variety, with the exception of that elusive first swim. If I'm going to do a tri next year I might want to attempt to swim a few laps. I've been very good with keeping the tv off and getting to bed, not tonight though. I'm tired but can't fall asleep for some reason.

Third...Is it Christmas yet?
Thursday is for me! I got a sweet deal online for a nice piece of equipment.
I can't wait! I was going to ask for this for Christmas, or at least for the 'rents' to chip in as my Christmas present. When I found it online I immediately emailed my mom and she said her and dad would 'go in on it' if I wanted to buy it. I was like sweet, and had that thing on my credit card in a matter of min.
So...it arrives Thursday.

CONGRATS to all those who rocked FL IM or NY Marathon!

Gotta love PR's! Tesfa 5K

2008-11-01T16:06:00.012-05:00

Lets start by saying today was a great day for anything outside in MN! Today was a perfect fall day.

Here are a few pics of the state park we were running at. The one on the left is the lake and the one on the right is one of the trails. Did I mention it was a picture perfect fall day; tons of color, leaves on the ground with a perfect running temp. right around 40. My cell phone camera really doesn't do it justice.

When I got to the race site I saw Steve right away, I went and picked up my race number and we were heading towards the start line. We both dropped some clothes at the start line and after a few words from the race director, director of the Tesfa foundation and an introduction of a young boy (maybe 5) who has selflessly been working to raise money for the organization. Within a few min we were underway, the small boy was right beside me...his enthusiasm was inspiring. I'm not sure if he ran the entire 5k but he was so excited he was going out at a 7:30 pace and sucking wind at mile 0.25. I don't know how he finished but I hope he had a good day!

The rest of my race we spent sucking wind, because I had no idea what my pace was until mile two. I missed the first mile marker and said what the heck just hold on to this pace and we will see where we are at whenever we see a mile marker. Around where mile 1 should have been I was passed by the director of the Tesfa foundation, after a few words about how great the weather, day and trails were he took off in front of me. I was shortly thereafter passed by a woman in her, ahhhh, IDK 70's? She was motoring along completely in control, she eventually passed the Tesfa director. The Tesfa director was my mark, keep him in my sights. I did that the entire way.

When I hit Mile 2 I looked down to see 15:23...hmmm. Are these miles in the right spot? I'm not a 7:40's guy. As soon as I saw that I knew this could be a PR day. Steve and I talked before the race about this not being a PR course. It is mostly flat, a few small rollers, but a little over a mile maybe a mile and a half is run on a packed gravel trail. Steve 'spins his wheels'. I'm not that fast so it worked to my advantage! I like that type of trail, I'm a larger guy and it provides a little bit of a cushion for me. I came down to Mile 3, hit my watch and saw 8:03 (23:26 total). Crap, I'm doing it...PR is in the bag. Keep in mind this entire race I felt like I was having an asthma attack. At the end Steve and I talked with Kat (spelling?), it was her first race, she said the course was so nice that she forgot she was supposed to be 'racing'. I didn't see most of the course, I was completely focused on breathing. At 0.2 and 2.9 (I think) there was a local drum core providing music, I saw them and kicked it home. Look how much air is under my feel...
Thanks for the photos Steve. If you weren't so fast we could take pics of you finishing. :P

Overall, it was a good day. I finished second in my age group...second only to Steve. This is a pretty small race, only 52 people but a fun one. Here are the final results...click on it to blow it up. I'll take a 24:05 any day! That is 50 seconds off my first 5k of the year and I've been training for slow and long! I can't wait to see that number drop this winter. :-)
Should we say 22 min?

Here is Steve and I after the race and since they had way too much stuff donated we made out like bandits. I literally went to grab a power bar or two and one guy just handed me a box of that and the Snickers Marathon bars.

After I found some food I went out in the yard to rake leaves, holy cow! I always forget how much of a workout that can be. I had 4 huge piles in the yard and bagged up 8 bags. I'm probably going to be sore tomorrow.

Happy Spook day!

2008-10-31T09:11:00.002-05:00

I hope all of you enjoy at least 1 piece of candy today. I will! :-)

As for the 'challenge'...I'm still on track!

Monday was lifting and abs.
Tuesday was spin. (I think I 'tweaked', pulled or IDK...I did something to my calf)
Wednesday was a KICK AZZ spin class. This was full of calf cramps by the half way point.
Thursday was a 2 mile walk with the dog. I was hoping this would help stretch out the calf.
Today is going to be upper body weights, abs and a hot tub session.

Tomorrow Steve and I are doing the Tesfa 5K at Fort Snelling State Park here in MN. If you are in the area come on out! The Tesfa Foundation provides early childhood education to disadvantaged children in Ethiopia. Slow and steady Steve won the thing last year!

We should have some nice weather, they are calling for a low of 36 tonight and a high of 60 tomorrow. I'm hoping we split the difference by the 10am start time and get up to the high 40's. This was going to be my 'winter of speed' benchmark race, but unless my calf shapes up today I might just have to go slow and steady. It is a little better today but still pretty tender to touch in a few spots and stretch. I'll just take what the day gives me.

I would like to take this section to make a few updates/revisions to the tv portion of the challenge. I'm not sure I conveyed my exact intentions with the tv portion since I was witting that blog post off 3 hours of sleep late into the evening. I will probably turn on the tv if I'm bored as hell on the trainer...I really just want to keep it off during the week. I want to get through some books and get to bed at a decent hour. That doesn't mean I'm going to be watching tv all day during the weekend. I'm still going to try to keep it off, besides football, just to be true to the challenge.

I would also like to add something to my challenge...eliminate the junk food! I don't know about your work place but mine is littered with candy, cookies, bars, pies. It is just nuts! So with the exception of Thanksgiving I'm going to test my will power and walk by the goodie table at work and take NOTHING.

I think it is truly amazing that so many of you want to join me in this crazy challenge! After today we are only 30 days away.

PHARMIE....

It is official, I'm calling you out! Fastest half marathon in 2009. BRING IT!

And now a picture of my costume...

Time for Change!

2008-10-27T14:52:00.007-05:00

That seems to be a common theme around the country lately. However, I'm thinking about it on a smaller scale....just me. I need change! I need to take control of my life again. The week after the marathon I was on a high. The stress and weight on my shoulders of this looming race, this big unknown was gone. I was lovin' being able to go for a 3 mile run and call it a good day. Pace didn't matter, HR didn't matter...nothing mattered. It was just me and 3 miles of road. Over the past two weeks I haven't seen that road. I haven't seen the bike studio, I haven't seen my bike or the trainer I just bought for it. I've let work control my life. I've let "The Man" tell me he needs this by the end of the day or week or whatever and I've just smiled and put in the extra time. Not having worked out in two weeks is killing me, I'm stressed and harboring anxiety about work issues. Let me say this once, for all to hear (well read)....I'M DONE! Today is the day I take my life back. I'm going to get back to basics and challenge myself.

My plan going forward is to try and better myself physically and mentally. I'm going to challenge myself, and anyone who wants to join me, to the following:

Work out every day until the end of November.
35 days of nothing but making my body better, healthier and stronger. Now I'm not talking I have to run every day, lift every day. I just mean I'm going to run, bike, lift, spin, stretch, ect every day. Yes, ten min of stretching is going to count as a work out because I feel that your body benefits from stretching.

I've put on some weight since the marathon, due to not working out and stress, so I'm going to build on my earlier stated goal of getting faster. I want to get stronger, it has been almost a year exactly since I started the running longer because I hurt my shoulder lifting. A year ago today I could bench 315 pounds, weighing 250. One day I over did it and hurt my shoulder, a lingering football injury, and started running farther than 3 miles because I felt like I needed to make up for not lifting. I was easily addicted to pushing myself farther. So this winter, faster and stronger. I'm not talking about bulking up, just start hitting the weights again.

I also want to put on a compression shirt and NOT have the words "muffin" or "top" come to mind. I have done almost no core workouts since I started marathon training this spring. Today is day number 1 or abs, wish me luck.

To sum up the working out every day category:35 straight days of bettering my body

No TV until the end of November.
Ok, with this being football season I would like to reserve the option to watch tv and/or football in a social setting. I'm basically stating this because I tend to stay up late watching crappy tv for no reason. I also have some books on my night stand I never get through because I stay up later than I should watching crappy tv shows and when I get to bed and crack the book open I'm out in a page or two. So I'm going to leave the tv off, except for social or football reasons, until the end of November. By doing this I'm hoping to get through a few books and say hello to my pillow at a reasonable time each night. This one is going to be really tough for me...I almost always have the tv on for back ground noise.

So...anyone who wants to join me with 35 straight days of bettering your body or 35 straight days of shutting off the tube and getting back to basics let me know.

Going Insane...

2008-10-23T12:28:00.004-05:00

So lately I've been busy at work, and this week it got crazier. More 'rush' projects...get all this other stuff done; basically do more in less time and don't go over 40. Yes sir, ok sir...as soon as he leaves it looks something like the picture to the right. The boss walking away with the win and then there is me.

And it really just snowballs. I haven't worked out in a week, which means I feel crappy and I haven't worked off any stress. I'm very confident there was some emotional eating in the midst of all this. Besides a crazy week at work I've been trying to have a social life...really, I know you think that can't be possible but yes I do have friends. Saturday night I had some friends over for drinks and games...we ran through a case of beer and a handle of captain between 3 guys and 1 girl. The other two girls were drinking win and water. So the point of that was we were having a good time. Sunday when I woke up all I could think about was how much work I should be doing. Somewhere among the eighteen hundred 'down to the wire' football games I got some work done but not enough. Sunday night I was off to see So You Think You Can Dance with Steve, Pharmie, Steph and Melissa. It was a good time, while I was there I was entertained. But to and from the concert all I could think about was work...seriously, this is starting to sound like a problem.

I've had another week with a few late nights (2am) working. At least I have Friday off and tonight Steph and I are going to the T-Wolves game. She scored box seats from her boss! I'm not a big B-ball fan but it is free beer. :-)

Now that I've complained about my week I want to leave you with a little story about a man and a women, not me or anyone I know.

Girls -- Please have a sense of humor!

I never quite figured out why the sexual urge of men and women differ so much. And I never have figured out the whole Venus and Mars thing. I have never figured out why men think with their head and women with their heart.

FOR EXAMPLE:

One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed. Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, 'I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me.

I said, 'WHAT??!! What was that?!'

So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to hear...

'You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man.

She responded to my puzzled look by saying, 'Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?'

Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep.

The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which one to take, so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to compliment her new clothes, so I said, 'Lets get a pair for each outfit.

We went on to the jeweler department where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings. Let me tell you... She was so excited. She must have thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't even know how to play tennis.

I think I threw her for a loop when I said, 'That's fine, honey.' She was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement.

Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, 'I think this is all Dear, let's go to the cashier.

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, 'No honey, I don't feel like it.

Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled,
'WHAT?'

I then said, 'Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman.

And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, 'Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?'

Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either....but at least that bitch
knows I'm smarter than her.

Six random things about me

2008-10-20T12:00:00.003-05:00

I was tagged by xt4 a bagillion years ago, but I finally got around to typing this up. So get ready to be blow away by the inner crazy of Borsch.

1. I HATE bent silverware. If I eat some place and the silverware is bent I usually try my best to bend it ‘straight’ as nonchalantly as I can.

2. I’m semi OCD about the cleanliness of my car. Until this past year I would wash and wax my car every weekend. This year that got put on the back burner with the Sunday evening long runs and all day Saturday bike rides. But I’d like to get back in the habit of doing that next summer. Also, I HATE trash in my car. The trunk can be messy, but at any given time you probably won’t find more than a water bottle and a pop can in my car.

3. I detest messy ketches! Unless I’m feeling really lazy I’d like to wash the dishes that night, wipe down the counters and make things clean. I also like to rinse off cups/bowls/plates/pots/pans/etc. after I use them so crap doesn’t get stuck on them. It takes two seconds to rinse out the pan from browning hamburger, or a bowl oat meal. If someone doesn’t do that it can take forever to scrub a pan clean…what a waste of time!

4. I’m an idiot. Quite often I think to myself that I should go to bed; but time and time again I’ll flip channels, sit on my computer, read a book, etc. I always find myself getting to bed an hour or two later than I had hoped. I average 5-6 hours of sleep during the week and 7 on the weekends. I really have to get better about going to bed when I want/think I should.

5. I get along with females better than males. I have more lifelong female friends than male friends. Why, who knows! I just have an easier time hanging out with the ladies. That leads me into point 6.

6. I shop like a ‘woman’. No offense to any of you ladies out there, but if we use the stereotypical female shopping style…wander, browse almost every rack, try on tons of stuff and walk out with 1 or 2 things from lots of stores…that’s me. I like to try on this pair of jeans with that top, then this shirt, that sweater…ok…switch jeans and repeat. I’ve been told that I take longer in the dressing room than most girls I know. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. When I'm on a mission, going to get just this one thing, I can do a good job about going in and getting just that item...unless I see a SALE sign.

7. BONUS: I know I’m supposed to do 6 but I thought I’d give you guys a bonus fact for reading this.
I wax my eyebrows. Not always regularly, but I try to keep things ‘clean’. I have this amazing ability to grow facial hair (brows included). I feel like I shave for the ladies, why not have two eye brows for the ladies. :-)

So who's next....LittleMissSunshine, IronMin, M & Formulaic....TAG!

My Friend, My Partner, My Therapist

2008-10-13T12:27:00.007-05:00

We met in the spring of 2008. It was lust at first sight.

No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get you off my mind all night.

I took another home, which in my heart just wasn’t right.

Through a bit of luck we were brought together.

Time and time again we prayed for good weather.

Wanting nothing but to spend some quality time together.

Hour after hour, mile after mile;

We rolled down the road in style.

It was wonderful, I couldn’t help but smile.

Time and time again I trusted you.

I trusted you to get me through.

Wasn’t it exciting getting through our 100 mile debut?

Leading up to that we shared loads about each other.

Mile after mile, a dialogue understood by only a cycling sister or brother.

We grew to understand how to help each other get through further and further.

If it wasn’t for you I would have been a mess.

You allowed me to continually confess,

This past summer we’ve shared just about every emotion one could express.

Pain and sorrow, happiness and bliss.

Mile after mile we worked out stress that persists.

Cooler weather is settling in and soon we will be apart again.

It saddens me to think won’t be able to share the slow lane.

Hour after hour, mile after mile…I will remember and look forward to the warmer weather to come. The time when we can be together sharing the open road. But until then I will turn to you for support and therapy even if it has to be indoors racked up on your new trainer.

Thanks for a great summer My Friend, My Partner, My Therapist!

What's Next?

2008-10-12T20:45:00.013-05:00

My finishers pic from last weeks marathon.

This next pic does wonders for telling how I was feeling at mile 26.

Here are a couple other pics of me crossing the line.

Ok, now on to the good stuff. What is on the agenda for the rest of 2008 and going into 2009? Lets start by examining my goals for 2008....

My 2008 goals...

Lose weight (20 pounds) - 1 pounds to go as of last Monday morning
I'm pretty sure this swung the other way this week. We'll find out tomorrow morning. But I had a weekend filled with beer, pumpkin bars, cakes and pies. Mmmmmm...
EDIT - I weighed 227 this morning. That means 2 pounds until goal weight. Lets see if I can do that this week. :-)
Run a sub 25 min 5K CHECK
Run a sub 24 min 5K (added this after 25 min was achieved in first 5k of the year)
Run a sub 2 hour half marathon CHECK
Finish a Century Ride CHECK
Run a marathon CHECK

I have just a few things left to check off this year. A long time ago I said this was going to be the summer of speed...ummm...I think I went the other way on that one (first marathon and first century ride). Having accomplished those items I think I'm going to make this winter the winter of speed. My plan is to hit the running speed workouts hard, push some spin classes to the max and try to keep a 10 mile long run base.

I have an informal challenge or two at the 13.1 distance. I need to hit the 1:55 mark to beat Pharmie's PR, but I think I need to get down to 1:45 to keep LittleMissSunshine at bay.

So...2009 is probably going to be a year of speed. I need to shoot for 8 min miles on the run and I'd like to get consistent 21+mph bike averages. I'm still uncertain if I'll hit the water and join most of you in the "TRI" world. I'm mainly uncertain because if I do I have that feeling that a half IM could end up on the agenda. I'm not sure I want to do the endurance thing next summer, I'm thinking I want a summer with less commitments to training. Training for the marathon and the 100 mile bike ride really meant every weekend this summer was focused on a long run or bike. So...to tri or not to tri? That might be the question for 2009.

NEW TOY TIME! :-)
Here is my new trainer...

I'd like to leave you all with some pics of my two nieces. I took the girls to the pumpkin patch on Saturday so their mom could clean her classroom and run errands. They are SUPER CUTE so drink it in....

Finish a Marathon.....check!

2008-10-06T18:04:00.016-05:00

This might be a long one so grab some coffee and get cozy.

The marathon weekend started with a pasta party....would you have expected anything else? Below is a blogger pic, just 6 of the 14 people scarfing down pasta and chicken.

(from left to right...Steve, Pharmie, Stew (in front), Robby B, Rural Girl (in front) and ME)

Then a pic of just the runners...

After that, it was early to bed for me, I was out by 9:30.

Sunday morning...I woke up a number of times starting at 4:30am. Finally at 6 I was up eating oatmeal and watching the day's weather. Steve's blog has some good pics of the events up to the marathon and the barn yard side of the day. Basically, we all got ready and jumped in the cars. We snapped a few pre-race photos and Pharmie and I went into the Dome for some pre-race bathroom stops. Somewhere along the way Steph took this pic, I look happy and ready to go...what is Steve doing?

Here is a pic of everyone pre-race...

From left to right...Steph (the photographer), Steve (the chicken), Me, Mike (the pig), Pharmie, Brianna (farm girl), Matt (the cow), Annie (farm girl) and Monica (the mom).

At this point Pharmie and I made our way to the start line....after trying to go into the sub 4 hour corral we weaved our way through the back of corral #2 to the 4:20-4:30 group.

Ten min later we heard the gun go off for corral #1, 3 min (it seemed like forever) we were off. The heard of people was walking towards the starting line. I honestly thought with 11,000 other people starting within 3 min of me that I was going to have to 'jockey' for position more than I did. Pharmie and I settled in, or at least I tried. As soon as I crossed that start line I got really nervous, I just kept thinking about what is this day going to bring? Am I going to slow her down? It took about half a mile for me to shake that feeling and just get let go of those nerves. Here is a quick pic of us at mile 0.25...

The first few miles went by pretty quick. Pharmie was pointing out a few things on the course (this was her 9th TCM), like where all the guys pee on a wall around mile 2 (???). Within those first few miles we ran up on a man in his 80's that had a sign on his back, "This is my 300th marathon". WOW...what a mind blow! 300! I was on #1. Pharmie was on #10....300! I hope you did well MR. 300.

Somewhere within the first few miles it had started to rain, which really didn't bother me. I was feeling great and clicking through miles around 9:50 - 10:00 min. When we reached the lakes I got colder, a cool breeze was coming off the lakes and the rain picked up. At first it was ok, but 30 - 40 min later my shoes were soaked and I was ready for the rain to be over. At mile 7 I dropped a gel trying to open it because my fingers were SOOOO cold and numb. I let it go and knew I would be ok with the nutrition I had and what was waiting at mile 15. Miles 8 and 9 fell into the rear view mirror and I was still telling Pharmie, "I feel floaty." I felt great. My shoes were soaked but I still felt light on my feet. Not wearing a Fuel Belt probably had something to do with it, but I'm going to give most of the credit to race day excitement. :-)

Mile 11 was a blur, I spent the entire mile eating a semi-frozen power bar. Small bite after small bite; I hate those things! But I need the added fat and protein the gels, blocks and liquids just don't give me. Shortly after I scarfed the last bite I saw my fearless cycling instructor and her hubby...thanks for coming out Patti and Al!!! It was great to see you! Miles 12 - 15.5 continued to be great! Mile 14(?) I ran by Kari and her gf (can I say gf yet???) and then at mile 15.5 I ran into the barn yard again. Here are a few pics of me and Pharmie running towards the group and I'm even stretching on the chicken....

The next section of the race is where it got tough for me. I was trying to break the race up in my mind and all I could think about was the three hills awaiting me on my way to Summit Ave. I'd ran these hills on numerous training runs, I knew exactly what to expect...they always kicked my butt! Also, this is when I really started to notice some pain settling in. My feet started to hurt, they were swollen and that made my laces start to rub. I'm guessing that the pain in my feet made me run differently because this is where I started to notice 'twinges' in my calf and real tightness in my IT band. We came upon mile 19 and my right food started to cramp, Pharmie and I stopped so I could walk it off and stretch it a bit. We started running eventually and I had to stop again...in the middle of the three hills. After a good stretch I made it up the third (steepest/largest) hill, thinking there would be water at the top of the hill and I would have a chance for food/water and another stretch before the jaunt down Summit ave towards the finish. The water stop wasn't at the top of the hill, it was 3-5 blocks down, so I got that eventually.

Pharmie got me back on my way and this is when I channeled another blogger, IRONMIN. She had a heroic IM MOO finish this year and I remembered something I read on her blog. "Just one foot in front of the other. You have a good pace. Just one foot in front of the other." Pharmie was by my side, all of you were there with me in spirit and IRONMIN's words were circling through my head. I was focused on what I needed to do, one foot in front of the other. I'm sorry if I was distracted as I ran by all of you on Summit; Kate, Eryn, Kari, Scott, Drew, Luke and his wife (sorry, can't remember your name!), sorry if I missed anyone else...I was a little zoned out. It was great to see all of you! A familiar face did wonders for my motivation.

It was amazing how fast miles 22 through 24.5 went by (looking back), in the moment they seemed to take forever. At mile 24.5 I got a quick awakening, my right leg cramped completely! It brought me to a halt! There were some small cramps from mile 19 to 24.5 but nothing that wasn't manageable. But out of no where I was brought to a complete stop! I hobbled while pulling up and slowing, you've all see that awkward looking runner pull up with a cramp...that was me. I told Pharmie to go...this just had to be stretched out. I knew I was going to finish even if I had to walk the rest. I didn't walk much more than a quarter to half a mile when I saw Jairo, this seemed like forever though! So many people cheering, telling me I'm almost there and to keep going. And here I am, walking! I was half ashamed! Then I saw Jairo and had a big smile on my face. He crossed the street and by that time I talked myself into trying to run again. I did, and he was running next to me. I don't remember anything that we talked about but whatever it was, it took my mind off of the pain. I'm not sure if I was running/hobbling or what but I was moving faster again. Jairo, you got me moving again...THANK YOU! Below is a pic of me approaching the barn yard scene at mile 26 with Jairo on my right in blue...

As I passed the barn, Jairo dropped off and i was strolling down hill towards the finish with a purpose...get that medal draped around my neck. Shortly, I ran into Kari again. She ran a ways down the stretch yelling for me to kick it home. I yelled back, I have nothing left. She kept trying though. Kari, Thank you! For everything, you've become such a good friend this past summer! I honestly got chocked up running down the stretch, knowing I had so many friends come out to cheer me along and even run with me. I ran into the finishers chute pumping my arms in the air, asking the crowd to make some noise. I'll post my finishers pics when they are online.

After I crossed the line I got my medal and saw Pharmie. I was just two min behind her. We gave each other a big hug and congrats then worked our way through the food area. We both loved the Chocolate Milk! Not much else tasted good to me. I honestly only ate 1 fun size nut roll (forced) and a banana. I was thanking all the volunteers I saw...I was on cloud nine! Eventually we got to the spot where they take your chip, I put my foot on the ledge and my calf cramped...I almost kicked the poor woman's fingers off. I'm sorry! Then she was soo nice to untie my shoe (I tied my chip with into my laces)and then re-tie my shoe...only to tie it too tight (swollen feet) I kinda cringed and bent over to retie my shoe. She said not to worry and retied my shoe looser. I thanked her so many times, I even think I told her I loved her....

Pharmie and I made our way out of the finishers area and the crew found us. We slowly made out way back up to the cars, like an hour of chatting, walking, chatting, walking. Having three giant farm animals with us meant frequent photo ops with random people. Here is a pic of me and Pharmie shortly after we found the crew...

Eventually we went back Pharmie and Steve's place for some food...

To sum up the day...it was a good day! I ran the best I could for the day, the conditions and the way my body felt. I left nothing. I can't ask for anything else...so I'm really happy with the outcome. If you read my last post you know I was hoping to finish around 4:23...I ended up with 4:39. 16 min slow but I know I did the best I could for the day...and I've got my bling so I'm happy. :-) As for physical injury...my feet and ankles are swollen, I hurt from waist to floor. Getting up after sitting for a while hurts, stairs hurt, but once I'm standing walking isn't too bad. I have no blisters, no black toes and I only chaffed on my left underarm.

If you are a skimmer stop and read this part. All of you have played a role into me achieving this goal. Before this spring I never thought I could finish a marathon, even then it was a small star in the night sky...just barely visible. Everyone has helped me focus in and work towards that moment when that medal was placed around my neck.

Stef, Steve, Pharmie...I've learned soo much about endurance racing from you guys! Before I met you guys I'd never ran past 4 miles...and in just a little over a year I crushed that and finished a marathon. I didn't even just do it, I was able to do it and be smart about it...thank you for all of your years of experience/knowledge and motivation through training and race day! I owe you guys soo much it isn't even funny!

Kari, Jairo, Patti, Al, Scott, Kate, Erin, Lauren, and anyone else I missed...thanks for being there to cheer me on! You've all provided so much inspiration and motivation throughout my training this summer! I've pulled valuable knowledge from you guys! I'm really glad I bought a bike and met all of you this summer! Thank you so much!

All of you bloggers! I wish knew more of you personally! Almost daily I read about all of your journeys...good times and bad times, smiles and frowns. I feel like I'm there racing with some of you. I just want to thank you guys for all of your support/motivation and inspiration this summer!

I just feel soooooooooo lucky to have a number of support groups.

This pic was taken before the race but I think it does a great job of summing up the day...