More wonderful photos!

For those of you who love pictures, I am adding one more of the Sobelman burger from the other night.



Some photos from this morning's race in Kansasville are already up on my Facebook page. That majority, in high resolution no less, will be available on my photography company's webpage. Perhaps we will be lucky enough for Brent to write his first post and give a race recap! We can only hope! He did do awesome today, clocking a 57:09 on his computer! Wicked!

Chris and I are planning on going for an approximately 40 mile tempo ride on our time trial bikes in the morning! Come join us! You know it will be fun!

Double Bong 40k TT

Brent and I just arrived at the double bong 40k time trial in Kansasville, WI. I am just here to take photos and be race support while Brent is actually racing. It is really cool to see so many cyclists out early on a Sunday morning excited about punishing their bodies on a solo effort against the clock. There are even 11 people over the age of 70 racing today! Holy cow! Definitely makes you question the weenie voice in your head. Check back later for more photos and race results!

Some pre-race photos:

Gluttony is delicious

Chris, his two boys, Daniel and myself found ourselves at Sobelman's celebrating my weight loss and enjoying a wonderful meal. I chose to go for the quad. It is the only natural decision. I have only gotten a burger smaller than a quad one time and finished the quad, 5 and 6 patty burgers numerous times. They are wonderful! Brent always told me to maximize my calorie to dollar ratio. The double is $9 and the quad is $13. Who do you think has the better deal! I hope you enjoy the photo of my over 4000 calorie meal!



Yum!

Why we are idiots

Chris and I had another one of those great realizations today that we truly are idiots. To preface, he and I both work jobs that some people might believe require some semblance of a brain; however, we are here to prove that is not necessarily the case. Chris is a civil engineer for the City of West Allis and I am finishing up my PhD in neuroscience and biophysics at the Medical College of Wisconsin. I typically describe my job as "being paid to play with brains" to which most people respond that I must be smart. I usually politely respond that that is what they say. Please believe me that I am not trying to be arrogant, just proving a point.

Anyhow, back to our story. A few weeks ago, Angie on the Cafe Hollander Bicycle Team joined us for one of our longer rides. On this ride, we stopped at a McDonald's attached to a gas station. Mind you, Chris and I have been stopping there about once a week for several months prior to this ride. Angie, her first time stopping at this location, immediately went for the bike rack. Now I know what you're thinking, "what's so special about placing one's bike in a bike rack?" Here's what special about it, Chris and I had never noticed the bike rack before and had just been placing our bikes on the railing by a door a mere 20 feet away. That's pretty sad for us, but it happens. We have been using that bike rack ever since. Thanks Angie!

This brings us to our ride today. We decided to hold off on stopping until the McDonald's in Mukwonago to minimize our number of stops. When we get there, trying to be smart, I decided to take a quick ride around the McDonald's searching for a bike rack. During this time, Chris decided to just place his bike by a trash can near the front door. (Note how nice our bikes look next to the trash can below.) After failing to find the bike rack, I parked my bike next to Chris' and we went inside, muttering how the Mukwonago people must not be as classy as the Waterford people in providing multi-modal parking situations.



After releasing some bodily fluids and filling up our bottles, I consume my banana. While discarding my banana peel, I glance out the window and see the thing that eluded us earlier. I mention to Chris to come here and look out the window. There it is. The bike rack! We chuckle and mention how dumb we are and how we should document our stupidity to share with others.



Following the pictures, we get back on the road and finish our ride. We saw some turkeys and gorgeous skies. It was a beautiful morning for a ride. On the way in, we both decided that we earned a sausage mcmuffin from McDonald's Dollar menu. It is a wonderful 383 calories of nutrition!



Come join us tonight at Sobelman's for a quad at 6:30pm! It will be quite delicious! By the way, here's the data for those of you who are curious.

Happy Riding!

Waupaca Area Triathlon Race Report

I have to say that the Waupaca Area Tri is my favorite.  Sure, I do some other well run races.  But, this one is the best.  The level of volunteers and the fact that the whole community comes out to watch and cheer makes for a great event.

 

Anyhow, Julie and I arrived early Saturday morning and got ourselves set-up.  The swim is 1/2 mile, the bike a little short of 20 miles and the run is supposed to be 3 miles (it is 3.22 according to Mr. Garmin).  The long swim and little longer bike plays well into my strengths without making me run any more than necessary.  Julie, on the other hand, was not thrilled with the 1/2 mile swim.

 

Standing on the beach before the start of the elite wave, there were two young guys doing very vigorous warm-ups.  They were both wearing red "guard" Speedos and Swedish goggles.  I looked at them and said, "Self, those are the feet to follow."  My thoughts were confirmed as I over heard them planning on taking turns at the front every big buoy.  Yeah!  The horn went off and into the water we all went.  The Speedo guys did not disappoint.  They went out fast and I was just able to stay in their draft.  I thought that I would be able to stay with them and maybe get a PR on the swim.  Well, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.  At about the 200m mark, I was forced to swim over set of Speedo feet one.  I don't know what he did, but I think he just stopped or slowed way, way down.  Anyhow, I sped up a little to catch back on to Speedo feet number two.  I was not on his bubble for more than 100 meters when he too fell off.  He actually grabbed the lane line.  So, around him I go.  I had to hammer a little more than I would like to catch the lead group which had put about 20 or 25 feet on me by the 1/4 mile turn around.  After the turn, I was able to find a good pace and a couple of feet.  But, the feet I was finding were a little on the slow side.  I wound up swimming the last 300m by myself.  Not my plan, but what can you do.  I got out of the water in 3rd or 4th.

 

I passed one or two in T1 and onto my bike I went.  This year's bike route was a little different from the last few years.  Luckily, Julie and I were able to ride the changed portion of the course on Thursday, so I had a good idea of what to expect.  The new course has a bunch of little hills rather than the two on the previous course.  Anyhow, on the bike I worked just off my cadence.  I've found a way to disconnect the speed sensor (remove the wheel magnet, duh) so I just get my cadence and nothing else.  My goal was to spin 90 to 100 rpm for the race distance and see what I get out of it. 

 

At about the 10 mile mark, I was passed by another guy on a pretty P2.  I have to admit to being partial to the white and red Cervelos for an unknown reason.  I was able to stay with him for about 2 more miles, but those young guys are pretty fast.  While I was still with him, a course marshal indicated to us that we were 2 minutes behind the leader.  That put me in 3rd overall.  Knowing this and being able to hear the sound of two disc wheels echoing down the country road made me very happy with life at the time.  After a while, I was not able to keep up the pace that my new friend was keeping, so I slowly lost touch with him.  With around one mile to go, I was passed again going up a hill.  I repassed this guy after a 90 degree corner (which he must have used his brakes going around) and a little down hill section that I was willing to hammer on just before T2.

 

In T2 my new Nike Lunar Racer 2's went on way easier than the ones "lost" at Tri-ing for Children.  Plus they match my Emery's kit better too.

 

The run course is flat and fast.  This is not good for me.  The guy I repassed on the bike re-repassed me at about the 1/2 mile mark and proceed to run about 30 seconds per mile faster than I was able to.  Forth overall.  Let me remind you, gentle reader, that I really enjoy running the most.  I am just not the fastest runner out there.  I know this.  So, when on the run, I am in "just try to save the time you gained in the water and on the bike" mode.  I thought I did a pretty good job of that.  Another fast guy passed me around the 2 mile mark.  Fifth overall.  I was able to up the pace a little within the last 1/2 mile, or so, and finish strong.

 

It turns out that the overall winner came from wave number 4.  So, my 5th was actually 6th.  But, hey I'll take that.  Final result was 6th overall and 1st in my old guy age group.

 

After I was done, I was able to see Julie and her friend Jen through T2 and then catch them both out on the run course.  I have to say, I'm really getting into the whole cheering out on the course.  It is way more fun than I would have thought.

 

Overall, it was a great weekend.  Julie and I were able to get a good race in.  The kids got some solid time in the lake with grandma and grandpa too.  Heck, the dogs even got a bath.  So, life is good.  Fluffy puppies and tired kids are always good things.

 

Over the next couple of weeks, I am planning on posted some stuff about training plans and equipment choices.  I've been looking at new toys, their prices, and what they might do for my race results.  I've also been noticing that although I do like racing (a lot), I may actually like training better.  More to come...

Riding Your Bike: It Does the Body Good!

For those of you have not spent a whole lot of time with us on rides (we highly recommend you join us), you may not have noticed that I've dropped a fair bit of weight the last few months. All of this weight loss can be attributed to my cycling and use of an iPhone app Kari found for us called Lose It!.

Two years ago, when Kari and I met, I had just completed my first marathon, Grandma's Marathon, and I was at my lowest weight since my junior year of high school. I am a fairly big guy, 6'3", and at the time we met, I was weighing around 190 pounds. Running hours a day will help shed weight like nobody's business, but it is not super friendly to the joints. By the end of the summer following my marathon, I was running 5k's in sub-7 minute pace, wicked fast for a non-runner, such as myself, but I also irritated my plantaris in my left knee a little. While this was no serious cause for alarm, I backed off my running significantly.

Around this time, I also trained a kid through his first ever triathlon. He had approached me during my marathon training and asked if I would help him prepare for a triathlon. I said that I would love to as soon as my marathon was done, I do love coaching people through things they believe are impossible and helping them get out of their own way. I told him to pick a race, and that we would train as much as possible together and do the race together. He chose Tri-ing for Children. We had a blast training and racing together. He did very well. He was 57th out of 302. Pretty awesome for a first-timer! My high result was also partly the reason behind why I decided to race again the following weekend at the race where I met my future wife! It is a cute story that may be shared another time. Triathlons definitely do the body good!

Ok, that is enough of a tangent/back story. During the last two years of dating Kari, my weight started to creep up. Until she got a good road bike that we could rely on being available to ride together more often, we did not always work out while we were together. Combine less working out, more eating out (she lives at a distance, so cooking good meals for ourselves can actually be more expensive than just grabbing a quick bit at a restaurant), and the stress from trying to get myself graduated from grad school, did not lead to a very conducive lifestyle to maintain a healthy weight. Needless to say, I ended up ballooning up to the largest I've ever been this last December at around 225-230lbs! Yikes! I knew that riding my bike would help pull it off, so I got really committed to indoor workouts and really pushing them hard.

When April rolled around, I had dropped some of the weight, but I was still tipping the scales at around 212lbs. This is rather large for a cyclist, especially when the road points upward during a race. During my visit to Kari in the last weekend of April, she happened to find the Lose It! application, because she also wanted to cut some weight. We both installed it to our phones and began the process of cutting weight. I set my calorie budget to lose 2 pounds a week and my goal to drop down to 185 pounds, a little smaller than I was at the time of my marathon. That first weekend of use was a little rough. We had never been super disciplined with our food, and now we have a device telling us how much we can eat! Crap!

Over the last 3 and a half months, I have been really disciplined in recording everything I consume and all of my time working out. I try to be as conservative as possible by over-estimating my food and under-estimating my exercise. I have been very impressed with the results. Currently, I am sitting at 186 pounds, so I only have one more to go for my goal weight. It has been going so well, that Brent, Chris and myself think that getting it down to the upper 170s-180 would be good to prep for the few pounds I may gain during Christmas time. I am comfortable racing in the 180-185 range, but it would be nice to be closer to the low end of that before I hit the off season weight training to be able to add muscle where I deem necessary.

I believe this is enough rambling about my diet for now. One word of warning, I do not recommend trying to cut weight while in season. It sucks! On my rest days, my calorie budget is ridiculously low. It is also tough to properly prepare for a race while keeping the calories down. I have found a way to get some decent results this year, but I realize that my results will be better next year because I will not be trying to cut weight. The application also has a maintenance mode, which is a very nice feature. As soon as I call it quits on the weight loss, I can just flip it over into weight maintenance mode and keep recording for that purpose. I have already developed the habit of keeping close tabs on my nutrition, so I might as well keep it up. For those of you interested in joining, Brent, Chris and myself are hitting up Sobelman's as soon as I hit 185 (so some time next week) to celebrate before I continue cutting to 180. Also, both Brent and Chris will be racing this weekend. Brent will be at Race the Lake and Chris will be at Waupaca Area Triathlon. If you find yourself in either of these locales, be sure to cheer them on!

Southeastway Park Crit and Upgrades

For those of you who are also fairly new to the sport of cycling, I just learned a rather valuable tidbit this past week. When you have completed enough races or earned enough points for an upgrade, all you have to do is ask for one. It costs no extra money (something that I thought it might) and USA Cycling makes a little print out available to show race organizers that you are allowed to race the new category that is not on your license. That being said, I am now a Cat 4! I realize that this is not a gigantically huge accomplishment, since I only had to survive and finish 10 mass start events, but I was rather excited. This new upgrade has already opened some doors for me. The first being the ability to race more than one category at a race, something that was previously not allowed for me.

On Sunday, I did just that. The Southeastway Park Crit had Juniors, and Cat 4/5s race together at 10:45 and Cat 3/4s race together at noon. I figured, and checked with Brent and Chris to get their take, that this might be a good, albeit it crazy, idea to race both. Granted, both races were an hour long and I was only going to get at most 15 minutes rest between, but why not? We only live once. Let's crush our bodies to the max!

On the morning of the race, Kari and I were running a little slow, so we got to the race a little later than I wanted. There was also a rollerblade marathon occurring on the same course we were going to race on, which delayed us getting on for warm-ups and the first race a little. At the registration tent, I found out that not only would I have to switch bottles between races (something I had planned on), but I would have to switch race numbers (both on myself and my bike). Yikes! Where was I going to find the time to recovery, relax, rehydrate, refuel, and re-number myself? Thankfully, I had Kari with me to help! She was awesome! She also took some great photos (some are on this site on the photo page and the rest are on my website).

Time for the race re-cap. The first race (Cat 4/5s) felt really good. My legs were responding well and I kept myself at the front for almost the entire race. I also got into a couple breakaways. Unfortunately, with approximately 8 laps to go, my pedal touched down in the technical corner and sent my rear wheel air born. Thanks to Brent Emery, I have become a fairly decent bike handler, so I managed to stay upright (was congratulated by some of my fellow racers) and kept going. Needless to say, I was a little rattled and lost my momentum going into the slight uphill grade. While glancing at my bike to survey any damage, I started losing contact with the field (they happened to really be ramping it up at this point). After chasing for a couple laps and noticing that I was not gaining or losing ground, I decided to start recovering to prepare for my second race.

As soon as I crossed the line, I searched for Kari to swap bottles and numbers. I asked the official to make sure they wait because they were already having the Cat 3/4s line up and beginning the pre-race instructions. Great! My heart rate was definitely not going to drop much in the 5 minutes they gave us to try to get back on track. Oh well. I got into the bunch about 1 minute before they sent us off. Bang! The Cat 3/4s went off like a cannon! In the first pass of the technical turn, two guys went down right in front of me, causing me to go off course to stay upright. Now I'm chasing the field again! Awesome! My legs were not quite ready for the next few laps of suffering while the race was getting sorted out. I ended up falling off pretty early and accepting my fate to ride solo for the next 50 minutes. During this time, one racer jumped off the front and started to work to lap the field (he succeeded). Eventually, I found someone else who was suffering and did not want to quit, so we worked together for the majority of the race. It was nice to not have to suffer alone.

All in all, I survived my first ever double. My legs were not happy with me, but I definitely learned a lot. For one, the Cat 3/4s were slower than the Cat 4/5s. Granted, I was more active in the 4/5s and was driving the field, but it was interesting to see that the overall average was slower with the 3/4s. There were some high points with the 3/4s that were higher than the 4/5s, but they were not outrageous. Very good to learn that I can hang with the Cat 3s, when my legs are not trashed! I also learned that doing hour long races back-to-back with almost no rest is quite painful. While my legs felt ready to go at the start of the second race, they did not have enough left to go for that long. I definitely needed more calories going in.

Here's a sample picture with more at the above posted links. Come join us for some of the fun on the roads before the madness of cyclocross begins!

Everything is Something and Other Random Thoughts

Well.  I guess I stepped into something with my last post.  I wish I could say that I am sorry that some readers did not enjoy my thoughts.  But, alas, I cannot say that.  I really do believe that if you work towards something then you own whatever it is you have created.  Whether the creation is a home-made airplane (A stupid example, but I am trying to make a point) or a personal best time at the Pewaukee Triathlon does not matter.  You are the one that makes such things exist or happen.  Sure, you are assisted by family, friends, the wrenches at Emery's, etc., etc.  But, you are the one that "creates" the idea and then puts it into reality.  You own it and you deserve the rewards that come from what you create.  Let's just leave it at that for now.  If you want to discuss this more, you will have to meet me for a bike ride or a run (It is hard to have a conversation while swimming and my swim workouts are usually less than a half-hour.  And, this requires more time that that).

 

On to random thoughts...

 

The brake system on your bike can hold a lot of calories. 

 

Here is the back story:  A few weeks ago, the rear brake on my TT bike stopped releasing.  It was gummed up with the following:

 

Dirt

Energy gels

Energy drinks (various types, but orange Gatorade seem the most prevalent with green a close second)

More dirt

Lubricant

 

After removing the brakes and cleaning them, I was amazed just how much stuff can sit on a set of brakes.  I had two full paper towels covered in crud.  I like to put ice cubes in my watter bottles, but with the recent humidity, I think the volume of condensation this causes added to this issue.  Using a gel pack as an example of 100 calories, I would say the rear brake had 150 and the front a little less than 100 calories.  I would bet that with my between the aero bars bottle mount, I could get more on the front brake.  But, I also use my front brake way more than my rear.  So, the front probably has less opportunity to build up.  I train with, but do not race with, two behind the seat bottle holders.  Putting two sweating bottle right over the rear brake and using it only every other ride or so must account for the large volume of crud accumulated.

 

The more you ride, the better your bike handling skills will get.

 

After cleaning my brakes on the TT bike, I put the brakes back together and went out for a ride with Ben.  Just a usual ride with me (because I was on my TT bike) pulling for the first two-thirds of the ride.  About 20 miles in, Ben says, "Hey man (he says that a lot), your rear brake is rubbing."  Upon examination, it was.  So, I pushed it over but in swung back to rubbing.  Then I adjusted the cable tension to minimized the force of the rubbing that was unfixable (is that a word?) without a pliers (which we did not have).  The cool part about this was that we were going 24mph down Racine Ave. while all these repairs were done.  I'd like to say that I stayed in my aero position as I did these repairs, put I did have to use my base bar to turn the cable tension down.  Anyhow, a few years ago I would never have thought about monkeying with the rear brake while moving.  In this case, it didn't even cross my mind to even slow down let alone stop.

 

Riding with Brent Emery will make you a better bike rider.

 

I have to admit that my life has made it difficult for me to train with Brent as often as I would like.  But, the last Thursday I was able to make the 6am ride.  Bent had recruited a new guy for the ride and I was able to sit back and watch the new guy and Brent "discuss" (I use this word for lack of a better word to explain Brent's normal intensity) the new guy's riding.  Now, let me say that the new guy was definitely a life-time athlete and really was on the ride to learn.  The guy that finished the ride was not the same guy who started it.  In the span of a little more than an hour, he went from a 53x12 pedal masher to a high cadence spinning, pace line member.  Very cool to watch, very cool to be a part of.  Heck, I learned more than a little too.

 

You can train too much.

 

Overtraining exists.  Where it starts, I'm not exactly sure yet.  But, I think I was there.  I took three full days off after the Tri-ing for Children race and came back to training like a new man.  My guess is, like tapering, this is a very personal thing.  My goal for the rest of the season will be to go even harder on my hard days, but go much (read as much, much) easier on my easy days.  I'll report back on my results.  So, you might just see me at some group rides I usually would not do.  My hope is that other groups will force me to keep my pace in check, or accelerated, as needed.

 

And finally, cycling gloves are nice.

 

So, I bought a pair of gloves from a fellow Slowtwitcher for really, really cheap.  And, I had sold some old aero bars, so I had some money sitting in the PayPal account just burning a hole in my CPU.  To date, I have not worn gloves.  I never liked gloves while lifting weights and generally don't wear them in the winter if I can get away with it.  Fast forward, the gloves arrived, fit, and were as advertised.  On the first ride, an easy fifty miler, they were a distraction for at least the first hour.  By the last half-hour I had to agree they were nice.  What I really liked was their ability to absorb the volume of snot that I threw at them.  For the road bike, gloves are a plus.  I actually took Julie to Emery's that very night to get her a pair.  She came to the same conclusion: Gloves make riding nicer.

 

I did try them with the TT bike, but the jury is still out on gloves and the TT bike.  I actually felt like I was not as connected with the bike with the gloves on.  I'm going to try more in the future, but I have to admit that my tempo ride on Friday morning was done sans gloves.

 

Now, the above paragraph needs to be read with a grain of salt.  I am real touchy, literally, about my contact points on my TT bike.  I have a really good "feeling" while on that bike.  Not to say I don't feel good on my road bike, I just feel better on the TT bike.  I have even kept the old bar tape on this bike, when I got replacement tape for Christmas last year, for fear of messing with my feelings (yes, this is me talking about feelings) on this bike.

 

See ya.  Drop me an e-mail so we can get together and ride or run.