Coulee Du Race Report

Uff da... I thought North Dakota was cold and windy. Today was the Coulee Du Sprint Duathlon. Race temp was a balmy 34 F with winds at 25 mph and gusting to 35mph. Lacey opted to do the smart thing and not race in the crazy conditions. I started out the day on the wrong note as the wind shut the car trunk on my head as I was getting my bike ready (I pranced around and a yelled a bit, but refrained from swearing due to kids in the parking lot). So now I was cold, bleeding, AND had a headache before the race even started.
The race started out great. The first run was a 5K out and back. I held back a bit and still had a good lead going into T1. Unfortunately, I gave all that time back when I was fumbling with the 5 or 6 handwarmers I had in my gloves. So now I was going to have to out bike some solid cyclists and have enough legs to finish another strong 5K. Jeff Fleig was two weeks removed from IM Arizona. He had averaged a scorching 22+ mph through 112 miles of hot Arizona desert and today the cold wasn't going to slow him down either. We all zig zagged through the windy bike course just trying to keep the bikes on the road. At the end of the bike leg, Jeff had built a huge 3 minute lead on me and I had about a 15 second lead on two guys from the Twin Cities. I was able to reel back a little over minute on Jeff for the second 5K run, but his great bike effort proved to be the difference today. He really did a nice job of muscling through the wind and getting the job done.
I heard a bunch of people mention that the bike course was actually 18 miles instead 17. This made me feel little better as my average would have matched my bike odometer (22.5 mph) instead of what was reported on the results (20.8 mph). Either way, I was a little frustrated as last weekend I was doing 5 mile TT repeats on this same course and I was nailing 25-26 mph averages (but without the wind and cold conditions). I guess you have to be ready for anything on race day! So long story short..... overall a good day with a 2nd place finish..... gonna keep hammering away at the bike with more TT sessions.... I'm happy with how the run is going right now, but I'm going to keep chiseling away those times. OK, nap time.

Steaks and Beer

I finally figured out how to grill a good steak. Apparently I don't need to have the heat cranked up to sub-nuclear level. My parent's, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came over today to help get Lacey moved into my place....and I finally managed to grill a perfect batch of steaks for them (thanks Koobs for the cooking tips).
I had been feeling a little under the weather the past couple days (it seems like everyone has been dealing with a bug the past couple weeks). I didn't have any bad symtoms, but just felt really tired and achy. I felt fine today, but was a little hesitant about doing the workout I had planned for today (5 x 1 mile repeats at my 5K race pace with 3 minutes of slow jogging between each rep). I thought about doing one more easy day to make sure I was back to 100%.....but my conscience got the best of me and I was at the track by 10 AM. I was pretty happy when I nailed all the mile reps right on pace (5:25, 5:24, 5:26, 5:25, 5:25). I also got a good upper body lifting session in afterwards and am feel pretty good tonight (I'm full of steak and beer:)

Fool's Five Race Report

Well, Lacey and I did the Fool's Five in Lewiston this past weekend to jump start the running a bit. It's a pretty good sized event with about 800 participants in the 8K race. As I was heading to the start I saw a runner pushing his kid in one of those fancy running strollers and I got a horrible flash back from a 10K race I did last year.
(que flashback music)
For those of who don't already know, last fall I took second place in a 10K race losing to a dude pushing his kid in a stroller. I watched in horror as this guy picked up the pace in the final mile and slowly pulled away from me like he was out for a leisurely Sunday cruise. It was like one of those bad dreams where you wake up in a cold sweat and you have to convince yourself you really didn't run the triathlon national championships in a bra and jock-strap (I'm pretty glad that one was just a bad dream). This race, however, was very real as I felt like my lungs were going to explode trying to run this guy down. I'm not sure what was more demoralizing, listening to that kid in the stroller laughing (probably at me) as his dad mowed me down or the half laughing-half cheering of the crowd when we rounded the final corner. I won $50 and a lifetime supply of humble pie for my 2nd place efforts (my dad thoughtfully pointed out that I technically finished third overall). OK before any of you make too much fun of me keep in mind that he ran this 10K in just over 34 minutes..... so a lot of good runners got beat by a 1 year old kid and his dad that day. But we all learned a very valuable lesson..... never underestimate an opponite and always remember to bring a hand full of thumb tacks (oh, take it easy I'm kidding:) (que flash forward music)
OK back to the Fool's Five race report. As it turns out, no strollers were to be seen at the starting line, so all was clear to have a good race. Luckily, the rain had stopped just in time for the race. The wind combined with the chilly temps was pretty brutal for the first 2.5 miles, but it was clear sailing on the way back home with the wind at our backs. I finished 8th overall in 28:14. This was Lacey's first time racing a distance greater than 5K, but she did great finishing in 34:30 which was good enough for 5th Female Overall!!! We finished the day at my parent's house with homeade pizza and a couple of cold brews (the real breakfast of champions)!!
Its back to the grind stone getting ready for the upcoming season. I got a solid 9 miles running in this morning, 3400 meters of swimming over lunch, and a tough weight lifting session after work. Got another tough swim workout bright and early tomorrow morning, so I'm going to hit the sack. Hope everyone is doing well and working hard!