Week 3

Mixed emotions on week 3.  One good run, one crappy run, one kind of in the middle of it all, but leaning towards the crappy side.  Just shy of 20 miles in total.  Shins still hurt, but I did pick up some new shoes Saturday that feel much better overall.  I don't know how Mizuno Wave Rider 14's can be that much different than 13's.  But they suck, and they are going back to the store this week.  I'll likely exchange them for something else, and split my runs between the two pairs.  Leaning right now towards something in the Brooks line.

Really need spring to get here.  Tired of running in the cold winter wind.

Ray's Again

Headed back to Ray's again on Monday.  This time with Patrick, our nine year old.  Patrick has always been pretty timid when it comes to trying things out of his comfort zone.  Doesn't like roller coasters or any water park ride that is remotely foreign or scary, so I wasn't sure how he'd do at Rays.  But we looked at a lot of pictures, watched some videos, and he really wanted to go.  So Monday we headed over.

I couldn't have been more impressed with the kid.  Still very timid, but he worked through some different mental obstacles of his at his own pace and ended up having a great time.

First obstacle, getting him to go up the little hill to the top of the beginners skill area.  I'll bet it was almost two hours before he attempted to go up it.  I got off my bike and stood near the top of the hill, trying to assure him that I would catch him if something happened.  Still took about 5 runs before he made an attempt, which he cleared easily.  It was funny because you could see in his face how much he wanted to ride up, then at the last second slow down.

Next obstacle, going back down the hill.  After that it was pretty much off to the races.  We jumped around from the beginner skills area to the street park to the cross country loop and back again.  There were a couple spots on the cross country loop he walked, but I was very impressed he rode any of the hills at all.

Second biggest accomplishment in my eyes, him not quitting after a couple to tear inducing falls, one in the street park, one in the skills area.  Either one of which I was sure was the end of our day. But he recouped, again at his own pace, and kept riding.

Riding the teeter totters, one of his favorite features.

The teeter line has one big rock he couldn't ride over, but he'd stop walk over it, get back on and keep riding.  Probably rode this line 40 times.

At one point he wanted me to jump into the foam pit.  I told him I'd go right after he did.  He very quickly dropped the issue.  Which leads us the next big wow.  I watched him succumb to peer pressure, or maybe he just really wanted to jump into the foam pit and needed a push. 

Somewhere mid afternoon he met another kid with a similar skill level as his and they rode together off and on the rest of the day.  At one point the other kid wanted to go to the foam pit and P wanted to go as well.  Off we went.

We get there and I tell him, leave your bike here, walk over to the top of the ramp, and decide if you really want to do this.  He does, watches several others, comes back and gets his bike.  At this point I'm still pretty confident there is no way he is doing this.  The lower starting point is maybe 7' up, ride down a steep hill then back up probably a 5' ramp with a 60ish degree launch angle.  No way.

P and his new friend at the top of the ramp.

Picture pretty much says it all.  He started to get mad when he couldn't get out from under his bike.  But he did it.  I'm still kind of amazed.

Which of course meant I had to do it.  Went from the top deck (to the left in the picture above).  Fun, I just wish I could defy gravity like some of the other kids riding here.  I maybe got 3-feet of air.  I watched kids that had to be 9-10-feet up.  The more I ride here, and the more I watch other people ride, the more I feel like I have no idea how to ride a bike.

We stayed from when they opened at noon until almost 7 pm, when I had to drag him out of there.  I was super impressed and very proud of P for overcoming some of his fears, taking on challenges that he was initially very uncomfortable with, and getting back on the horse after some bad dismounts.  All without much of any push from me.  The only thing I really encouraged him to tackle was that first hill, everything else was his doing. 

We'll be back, I don't know when, with his basketball schedule taking up most weekend days, but we will definitely return.  It'll be interesting to see what he'll attempt on the next go round.

Craptacular

That pretty much sums up my feelings towards week #2 of marathon training.

Craptacular.

In my own defense, it was fucking cold in Wisconsin last week.  Barely into the double digits if we were lucky, usually with a nice wind to boot.  Next week we are supposed to see highs in the mid 20's.  I expect it to feel downright balmy.

To top things off, week 1 took a toll on me.  But that's on me for not getting in shape for this training program.  I felt the best of the week on Saturdays aborted long run.  The wind wasn't that strong, but it was cold.  Earlier in the week I shortened both of my runs slightly, partly because of cold, partly because of what I think were shin splint pains.  But as mentioned, Sunday's outing felt better, it was just to damn cold.  I'm crossing my fingers that the shin split thing will be last weeks news and not a lingering issue.

So a whopping 14.24 miles.  My long run was supposed to be 15, I did 6.  And no cross training this week either.  Craptacular.  I did shovel snow for hours on end Monday, that should count for something.

But the Packers are in the Superbowl and the boy and I are heading to Ray's tomorrow.  It's hard to be too down.  And of course it's going to be warm this week, things are looking up.

Royal

Turned what I believe was my first royal flush Tuesday night on Stars, in spades no less.  Was playing in a pot limit omaha high/low tournament, was fairly early.  Was dealt the king and 10 spades, along with an offsuit queen and a smaller card I don't remember. I'm guessing it was an 8 or 9.  Can't imagine what else it would have been where I wouldn't have raised but still play the hand.

Multiway limped pot, flop was the ace and jack of spades, with another small card I don't recall, giving me the nut flush draw (any spade), along with the broadway straight draw (any king, queen, or 10), and the royal flush with the queen of spades.  Three of us got it all in right there, me with the aforementioned draws, one opponent with a set of jacks, and a third with a pair of aces and a crappy low draw.

Queen of spades popped on the turn and the river put another high card out meaning no low.  Always nice to triple up.  Ended up donking off all my chips up shortly after, as usual.

I tried to get a screen shot of the hand, but apparently my computer abilities on this particular night were far exceeded by my card catching ability.

Week 1

Week 1 of marathon training (of 16) is in the books.  24.02 miles at an average pace slightly faster than dead.  Or so it seems.  But considering the 24 miles is more than I ran from August - December of 2010 combined, any pace that relates to me continuing to move forward is acceptable.

Within the next couple of weeks I hope to have my average pace down below my personal Mendoza Line of 10min/mile, then progress down from there through spring.  One can hope.

So Week 2 is underway.  Hope to mix in more cross training this week.  It snowed again, so the skis are definitely coming back out.  I may even put Wilson on the trainer, although I've been resisting that urge for weeks now.

Ray's Recap

 

Blue with a flat front tire at the end of the night.

Ray's is awesome.  I intended to come back with a plethora of pictures, but I didn't want to stop riding.  That much fun.  On a bike.  In January.  In Wisconsin.  Who would have thunk it?

That's about I have to say.  I will be back.  Soon.  Many skills left to learn.  Much fun to be had.

Ray's

Heading to Rays tonight after work for my first look.  Way to excited about it.  Been daydreaming all day about doing backflips into the foam pit.  It'll never happen, but one can dream.....

Bel

Bel began as a figment of my imagination well over a year ago.  Blue needed some fixing and many of my searches on Ebay for the right parts came back with "vintage" or "retro" in the title.  WTF?  So I started dreaming and searching for a new mountain bike.  29" wheels, disc brakes, decent fork, hardtail.  Those were the criteria.

After a long search I purchased a 2008 Salsa Mamasita frame with a Rockshox Reba SL fork off Ebay.  It was one of several frames I had narrowed my search down to, and the price was way to good to pass up.

Generic 2008 Salsa Mamasita photo, not Bel

And so the build begins, while no longer a complete figment of my imagination, we are still a long way from being done.  Most of the individual parts are now on hand, thanks to the purchase of a second "donor" bike.  Again at a steal of a price, again on Ebay.  I still need a couple of things, brakes being the biggest, but we should be ready to roll long before the snow melts, um, for the winter.

New Years Day Dash

Combine race day temperatures in the high teens,
add winds gusting up to 48 miles per hour,
factor in the fact that I ran a total of 3.7 miles in December,
and you wind up with the slowest 5 mile race I ever ran.

I initially signed up for the New Years Day Dash as an incentive to actually start running again and get in shape for marathon training, didn't work.  If not for my friend Wade, who was running it with me, I would have just stayed in bed, the wind was that bad.

Despite wearing two pairs of socks, three pairs of pants, five tops, gloves, a hat and a hood; my feet, face, and hands were basically frozen by the 1/2 mile mark.  The race itself is a distant blur, I know I stopped on four separate occasions to walk, all at points shortly after turning into the wind.  Felt like being force fed air while running, not fun.

The wings, beer, and camaraderie were by far the highlight of the run.  But now there is much work to do.  LaCrosse Marathon is May 1.  But perhaps more importantly, the Point Bock Run is coming up in March.  It's a five mile affair as well, and if I hope to beat last years time I'm going to have to shave nearly 12 minutes off yesterdays effort.  Ugg.