Utah State Road Biker

Bear Lake Monster Century 7-9-11

2012-01-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

Third week in a row that I'm writing, yay for me! If you follow my blog and saw my race calendar from last year, and the subsequent changes, you would know that July of 2011 looked to be pretty busy with not one, but two triathlons. That was not to be the case. By July of last year, I was pretty burned out. I don't know why, I just wasn't in a good racing mindset. The thought of doing another triathlon just felt like a chore so training was not as appealing and I was just tired. Then my coach told me about a century ride near Bear Lake. I got pretty excited and it sounded fun, but I was already committed to another race so I told her no. That night I worked. I looked up the ride and it looked like a great ride so all night I stewed thinking "man I'm so mad that I can't do that century ride. It would be so fun. I really wish I could do that ride with Lora and the others from our group." After a while, I just thought, "Ya know what? Screw the triathlon, I'm doing the century ride." So I signed up for the inaugural Bear Lake Monster Century Ride. Sure I was going to miss out on an entry fee but, doing this ride would give me a mental boost and the money I paid for the race was going towards a good cause so I didn't fell bad at all.

The next morning I told my wife I was going to sign up. It was kind of short notice so we spent a little time figuring out how we could get to Montpelier, ID, where the ride would start, in time for packet pickup. Lora had arranged for us to stay at her sister's rental house so I really wanted to carpool with the other people in our group so I knew we would have to work around their schedules. I wasn't sure when packet pickup would end the night before the ride and I wasn't sure that K Jo couldn't get off work in time to make it, so we decided that she would stay home and I would ride up with my friends. The day before the ride, I picked up Lora and Todd, and we made our way to Montpelier. When we arrived we saw this sign:

Hooray for free food!

It was a cool feeling to see this sign and to see the treats her sister had left for us. The house we were in had three bedrooms with four beds, a futon, and a couch. We gave Lora the master bedroom for getting us such a great place to stay for such a reasonable price (can't argue with free). Mindy took another bedroom, Kirsten and Missy (best buddies) took the room with the twin beds, Todd hit the futon and I chose the couch. Before bed, we cooked up some spaghetti and had a thrilling round of Ticket to Ride (if you've never played it, you are missing out).

The NUTs take to the game board.

Todd (L) and me with my bushy, bushy side burns, seriously, get a haircut hippie!

Mindy celebrates a good draw.

We all went to bed in preparation for our 7AM start. I tossed and turned on the couch partly because it was a couch and I really couldn't fully stretch out and partly because I had worked the night before, then slept til noon that day. Morning finally arrived so we all dressed, loaded up some supplies, then rode the mile and a half to the start line.

Lora, Mindy, Todd, and me ready to ride!

At seven o' clock, we received instructions from the ride director, then we were off (you can see a map of the ride here). The first 18 miles flew by. Todd, Lora and I drafted off the lead group at a great pace of about 25 mph. Occasionally, someone in the line would take a drink and start to slow down which slowed the rest of us down, so I would push on and get us all up to the lead cyclists checking to make sure Lora and Todd were still with me. We made a right turn to start the 10 mile climb to Minnetonka Cave. It's no Little Cottonwood canyon, but there were a few miles of a good solid 6% grade so I had a blast, you know me, I love my climbing.

Me, out of the saddle on one of the steeper parts of the climb.

At the top, we stopped briefly for a water fill up then raced back down the canyon (mostly to escape the hordes of mosquitoes at the top). On the way down, I had to stop twice due to problems with my bike computer and I saw Lora almost get taken out by a cow wandering on the canyon roads. We met Todd at the bottom at another aid station and headed off for the last 62 miles. At the bottom of the canyon, we met the highway again, then made a hard left to start a 44 mile out and back course which follows the north end of the lake, then winds south along the east side of the lake.

Me, riding the fast, flat section along the north end of the lake.

We stopped at an aid station at mile 60 which was also the turnaround point. We climbed and descended the many rollers as we rode north along the east side of the lake, chatting with and drafting off many other cyclists while taking in the luscious scenery that is so typical of Bear Lake. At mile 75 we stopped again. There was a small store at this aid station so I headed in to buy a coke. Nothing is more refreshing on a ride than a cold caffeinated beverage. I know it sounds weird, but it is like being brought back from the dead. While I was in the store, Todd took off. He didn't think he would be able to start again if he stopped for too long. Lora and I then headed off too.

Around mile 80, I was in the lead with Lora drafting close behind at a good 20 mph. I got out of the saddle to stretch my back and when I sat back down, my back wheel suddenly locked up. I heard a terrible squealing noise and I could not figure out what was going on. My first thought was that I had run over something and it made my wheel jam. Then suddenly as it had come on, my wheel felt normal again and the squealing stopped. I thought, "That was weird." then I heard the unmistakable sound of a bicycle tumbling end over end on asphalt and I was instantly filled with dread. I knew exactly what had happened. Lora had gone down. I stopped and ran back to Lora who was now in a heap on the road. She got up and started walking around in an attempt to avoid passing out from shock. I surveyed the damage and saw the left shoulder of her jersey torn and her fingers were bleeding. I felt horrible... Lora had a pretty bad crash a few years ago where she messed up her left shoulder. This year, she was in a car accident that left her van totaled and her left arm broken. Now, here she is recovered and some idiot makes her go down at 20 mph on her left side... again... I wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. Lora finally sat down and instructed me to search her saddle bag. I found a band-aid and put it on one of her bloody fingers. Luckily she had some electric tape and a paper towel too, so I did the best I could at making some more bandages for her other fingers. I adjusted her bike which had been knocked a little bit askew and we resumed our ride. This would be the most stressful 20 miles I have ever ridden in my life. I tried to ride as fast as I could and let Lora draft so we could get back sooner but it seemed every time I turned around, she was a good 40-50 yards behind me. I would wait for her to catch up then pick up the pace only to turn around again and see her way far behind me. Sometimes I would ride right next to her trying to talk her through the remainder of the ride. For a good 75 minutes It was an endless debate in my head of "okay, she is just nervous to ride behind someone" then it was "no, she is so mad at you that she doesn't want to be anywhere near you." I tried to keep the conversation light and tried to get her to talk to make sure she was doing okay. We finally made it to Montpelier and had to endure one last short climb over the bridge that crosses the train tracks. I did my best to talk her over the hill, then made sure she made it down okay. We made a few more turns in town, then stopped to make one last left turn to ride the last half mile to the finish line. As we slowed, I watched Lora's left hand shaking and realized that she really couldn't squeeze the brake effectively if at all. I learned later that she also jammed her thumb in the crash... Great, more guilt. We finally made it 100 miles and were rewarded with a hamburger lunch and a coupon for a free shake. I had one of the other girls in our group ride back to the house to pick up my car so Lora wouldn't have to risk more injury by riding with me. We got back to the house and Lora showed us the war wounds to her shoulder before she showered.

Lora's shoulder after the crash.

I again beat myself up for causing so much pain to a friend. After we had all showered we went to the local Arctic Circle to redeem the free shake coupons we had earned at the finish line. When we got back, we all decided that we wanted to go home to our families rather than stay another night. Lora decided to ride back with Mindy saying it would be out of my way to bring her home and Mindy lived close anyway. I said okay but made her promise that she really was riding with Mindy out of convenience and not out of spite for me. I dropped Todd off at his home in Clinton, then was very excited to see K Jo on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning. I still felt awful for the next few weeks especially because I had to endure the teasing of my team members for trying to kill our coach, but eventually I got over it. I am still part of Lora's team and we have become closer since the accident. She still ribs me every once in a while, but I don't mind so much anymore. Minus the accident this was a phenomenal ride and I had a lot of fun. Thank you so much for reading!

Utah Summer Games Tri June18th 2011

2012-01-08T22:34:00.003-07:00

This race was kind of a last minute thing. On the weekend of June 18th, I was planning on going to the Varsity Big Event, a big scout camp held at the East Fork of the Bear, but that was moved to August due to heavy snowfall from the winter. Suddenly, I had a free weekend. When I told K Jo, she said she wanted to take a trip somewhere so what do I do? Start looking for races outside of Salt Lake County. I looked around some of my favorite sites and found the Utah Summer Games Triathlon. I asked her if she was down with going to St George and she was cool with it so I signed up. I then began researching the race to figure out the course, distances, competition, etc. In 2010 the Utah Summer Games held a triathlon which featured an Olympic distance race and a sprint distance race. I checked the results from last year and realized that I could probably do pretty well in this race. Also, they have separate categories for people from outside of Utah so I would only be competing with people FROM Utah (which is good considering the number of people from California that race and train all year long in better than 60 degree weather). This year they only had a sprint distance race, 750 m swim, 15 mile bike and a 5k run (3.1 miles). The great thing about this race was that the bike starts at Gunlock Reservoir and descends to Ivins which is a good 600 feet below Gunlock in elevation so this would be a very fast downhill bike course... wahoo... We left Sandy on Thursday morning and checked into our favorite hotel in St George, The Crystal Inn. K Jo was excited to sit out by the pool so that is the first thing she did when we got there. We stayed the night and again pretty much hung out at the pool all day Friday. She did want to do a little mountain biking while we were there so we hit some of the trails Friday right before I picked up my race packet and drove to Gunlock to drop off my bike at the reservoir, and take a quick swim in the lake. The next morning I woke up early and headed to Snow Canyon High School. I quickly set up T2 and got on one of the many buses headed for the reservoir. While riding I sat next to a very nice man who lived in St George named Kalani Scott. Kalani was about 60 years old and had been doing triathlon almost longer than I have been alive. We had a nice chat on the way to the lake.

We arrive at Gunlock and I set up my T1 then slipped into my wetsuit. They had three swim waves prepared for this race spaced apart by five minute. Wave one was men under 50, wave two was for men over 50, then wave three for the women. I walked into the water and before I knew it, the race had started. The swim was a traditional triangle shaped course. The second leg was the hardest because they had yellow buoys which is not a problem unless the landscape behind the buoy is a pale tan color that closely matches the color of the buoy... I just swam towards the boats... I finished the swim and exited the water to two volunteers coming at me with hands outstretched... Looks like someone (race director) forgot to tell the racers there would be wetsuit strippers at the swim finish... I ran past the zombie-esque volunteers (obviously thinking "wetsuits" instead of "brains") into transition and stripped my own wetsuit (you're not going to take my neoprene you mindless crones!), slipped on my bike shoes and my helmet, stuffed my gear into the race-provided garbage bag, and headed out for the bike. Swim time: 14:08 T1 time: 1:48.

While the bike course was an overall downhill experience, there are a lot of uphill sections on the downhill course, "rollers" as they are called. As I was riding up one of the rollers, I was passed by a man in a blue top and black shorts which looked surprisingly similar to Kalani's. I thought, "no way he just passed me on the bike". I kept pumping and riding and eventually descended my way to the right turn that took me into the parking lot of Snow Canyon High School. I slipped out of my shoes, hopped off my bike and jumped the curb (careful to lift my bike over the curb as to not have a repeat of earlier in the year) and ran into transition. I slipped into my racer and headed around the track to the north end of the football field to start the 5K run. Bike time: 36:19 (24.8 mph average by the way, thank YOU downhill!) T2 time: 0:55

After exiting the football arena, we ran west on the street to an intersection where we made a turn to the north and entered a nice little bike path. The path wound it's way eventually in a northwest direction where it dips under the street where we had just been riding. It drops down a hill to the west where we turned around (up the hill) then made our way back along the bike path back to the high school. As I mentioned last week, the nice thing about out and back courses is that you can see exactly where you stand in the race. On my way down the hill, I counted one guy, then two, then I saw the blue top and black shorts coming at me and sure enough, it was Kalani. I counted 8 or 9 more guys pass me before I turned around. Just after the aid station one really young kid zipped past me on the trail and as much as my mind wanted to keep up with him, my legs wouldn't have it. I made a right turn to enter the football arena and finished strong on the track of Snow Canyon High School while the MC announced my name over the loudspeaker. Finished the run in 21:49.

When the race was over, I found Kalani and congratulated him on a job well done. He finished third overall... not bad for a guy who is 60. Even though he started the swim 5 minutes after me, he finished swimming just two and a half minutes after I did with a PHENOMENAL time of 11:40... I guess there is something to be said about growing up on Hawaii and swimming well... And big 'ol paddle shaped feet... seriously the guy looked like he was wearing flippers. I ended up finishing 12th overall (just like I did at Willard Bay) with a total time of 1:14:59. Kalani had a great race finishing at 1:10:56. There WAS one guy in my age group that finished faster than me, but because he was from Mesauite, he was not eligible for age group awards so I was awarded a gold medal for placing 1st out of men 30-34 (I never thought at 30 years of age I would be winning a gold medal at the Utah Summer Games) and a $20 gift certificate to a St George running store (which I didn't use while I was down there and have since lost). They did not have any photographers at the race so the only picture I can post here is a picture of my medal.

GOLD MEDAL!

I hung out and chatted with Kalani for a few minutes after the awards ceremony, picked up my gear and headed back to the hotel where I found K Jo, surprise surprise, sunning herself by the pool. Thanks for reading!

Willard Bay Triathlon: June 4th, 2011

2012-01-01T17:03:00.001-07:00

Okay... I failed miserably at writing a review for one of my races for 2011 each and every week, but it is a new year so I am going to try again starting with races in June. Here we go.

Willard Bay Triathlon: June 4th, 2011

I did this race with three other people from my TBR (Team Blonde Runner) triathlon team. I woke up early in the morning and drove to pick up Jason in Bountiful, Brandy in Farmington and Kirsten in Layton. We then drove to the south marina of Willard Bay to start our race.

All our bikes on the car at Kirsten's house.

I was excited about this race because it is put on my a buddy of mine, Joe Coles with his company, On Hill Events. I met Joe last year when I did the Bear Lake Brawl. I had such a great time at that race, that I knew I wanted to do more of his races. There were to be two distances at the race. Olympic distance (1500 m swim, 24 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) and a sprint distance (750 m swim, 12 mi bike, 3.1 mi run). When we arrived, we set up our transitions and found that due to the spring runoff, the water we would be swimming in was a pleasant 51 degrees... that is almost as cold as your refrigerator.

Me, Brandy, Kirsten and Jason, ready to start.

I started first with the olympic distance men. They then started the olympic women followed by the sprint distance men (Jason) and finally the sprint women (Brandy and Kirsten).

Found this cool pic they got of me during the swim on the race's website.

The course was to be an out and back for the olympic and an out and back for the sprint but due to the temperature of the water they decided to make the olympic swim two laps of an out and back. I was halfway through my first lap and decided that I was done. I would finish the first lap and exit the water. By the time I got back to shore, my hands, feet and brain were so numb that I probably just forgot to quit and started the second lap. I finished the swim (28:01) and exited the water amidst the cheers of Brandy and Kirsten, literally stumbled deliriously to transition, struggled to shed my wetsuit and wobbled of on my bike. The course was two loops of a fast, flat 12 mile course. I finished the first lap without passing a lot of people. By this time, my body had thawed so I was feeling a lot better. During the second lap I had the sprinters to contend with so I passed a lot more people which was good for morale. Upon finishing (1:09:15) , I hopped off the bike and ran into transition, threw on my shoes and headed for the dike separating Willard Bay from the Great Salt Lake. The course for both distances was out and back along the dike. I like this type of run because you can see exactly where you stand in the race lineup. I passed one guy in the run and counted 11 going the other way before I turned around. I also saw Brandy coming out on her run as I was going in to finish my run. I crossed under the finish banner to finish the run (46:09) and the race and was welcomed by Kirsten and Jason. We then cheered on Brandy as she crossed the finish line.

Brandy crossed the finish line with Jason and Kirsten looking on.

Total time for this race was 2:26:32. My goal was to finish under 2:30:00 so mission accomplished. I was 12th overall and second in my age group. Brandy and Kirsten finished second in their age groups as well and this was Jason's first open water swim triathlon. Overall, a good race put on by good people.

On the podium celebrating second place in my age group.

Post race with our medals.

Stan Crane Memorial XC Mountain Bike Race

2011-11-01T03:54:00.000-06:00

Here it is a week later and I am ACTUALLY blogging again... Hooray! So after my awesome experience at the South Davis Splash n Sprint Triathlon, I trained some more and in the process of training I traveled to Bountiful to swim with my team at the very pool I raced in. Upon arriving at the rec center I finally got to pick up my 2nd place age group award. A large silver cowbell.

A week or two later I started my seven on and got a text from a friend about going on a bike ride. we had been riding together since March and we had recently spent a few hours in Corner Canyon near Draper plastering mud all over our bikes.

He also mentioned a mountain bike race being held in Draper at the Corner Canyon Trail system. I looked up the race and found out about the 6th Annual Stan Crane Memorial XC. I found out that entry was only $40 dollars and despite the fact that it too was on a day that I would work the night before, I thought "Why not?" Mountain bike racing (and bicycle racing in general) is a little different from triathlon. Racers are separated into categories based on their race experience. The most experienced racers are, obviously, the pros, or category 1 or cat1. Below the pros are Category 2, cat2 or expert. Then the cat3 or sport, then finally the beginners or cat4. Having never done a mountain bike race before I was automatically grouped into the beginners. With this race, and I'm sure many other mountain bike races, the beginners do significantly less mileage in their race than do the pros. Our race was basically one loop of an 11.6 mile course. The cat3 guys did 1 1/2 loops, pros did two loops.

I left work and headed to the Equestrian Center where the race was slated to start and finish. I left early enough to register and be ready in time for the 8:00 am start. The weather was cold and the sky was overcast with a light drizzle. I arrived, paid my $40 and found out that the weather had delayed the start for an hour... Great, now to sit in my car for an hour when I could be home sleeping... seriously, what is wrong with me? After an hour, they finally started the race... OH I forgot to mention that at a race like this, they don't start everyone at once. The send the race off in stages so the pros go first, then they send off various other groups in waves based on age group and experience. SO, I had to wait another 25 minutes for my wave to start. While waiting I rode around the parking lot to warm up and solicited the advice of a pro racer that I recognized named Sarah Kaufmann. I knew her because my coach was planning on holding a mountain biking clinic and had asked Sarah to lecture. Anyway, Sarah told me to sprint for the singletrack and hold on. It finally came time for the beginner men 30-39 to start.

They sent us off and I sprinted for the singletrack, then I tried to hold on. I sat somewhere in 3rd or 4th place as we rode around the first section, a 1.5 mile loop through the land adjacent to the equestrian center. We came back to the parking lot near the start line, then came the climbing... something ridiculous like 1250 feet in about 3 miles.

Climbing is tough but oh how I love it!

It was tough but on the way, I did some bobbing and weaving, then some passing and ended up in first place at the top of the climb. We had about a mile of rollers, some through puddles on wide dirt roads, Then came the descending.

Hooray for riding in puddles!

I have never been a great descender on the mountain bike. It kills me that I can bomb the descents on my road bike at 50 mph+ but I am skittish on a mountain bike at less than 18 mph. On the rollers, I lost one place. What we had climbed in 3 miles, we descended in something close to 4.5 miles. On the descent, I did all I could, but lost another place, then at the bottom of the hill, we once again rode the 1.5 mile loop we had ridden at the beginning. Sadly, I was pooped, and lost another place. This put in me in 4th place at the finish line. I had just ridden 11.6 miles and climbed up the side of a mountain. I was tired, muddy, wet and freezing, but I had SO MUCH FUN! I wasn't positive on my placing, so I hung around for a bit to see if I was going to get a chance of standing on the podium. When they place the results, I saw that my time of 1:08:17 put me 2:19 behind the leader, MAN I gotta learn to descend faster, but only 0:33 behind the guy in third. No podium for me. I guess I can't complain. This was after all my first mountain bike race and it meant that I would get to go home and go to bed. I had a blast, and might even do one next year. If anything it was great training for XTerra Utah. Thanks for reading!

So... Where did the summer go?

2011-10-24T13:08:00.000-06:00

Here we are, October 24th and it has been nearly five months since my last post. Where have I been you ask? Racing, training, racing, training and racing along with some more racing and training. Aw man I haven't even updated my monthly goals... SO! While I was on a run a few days ago, (still training) I decided that is definitely time to update my blog more frequently. Over the next few weeks I am going to post a recap of a race I did this summer (and even some state roads that I rode) about once a week. Hopefully after that I will have resumed the habit of blogging like I did before June. So without further ado, I give you part one of my summer adventures:

South Davis Splash 'n Sprint Triathlon

I did this race WAY back on May 14th. I am going mostly off memory from this race, so forgive me if the details are a little fuzzy, but the information should be fun. I did this same race last year and only decided to do it this year because many people from my team were planning on racing the same race.

People on my team Front and Center: Melinda L-R: Mindy, Brandy, Leesa, Paul, Coach Lora, Me, Jason and Carolina

Also, I had just received my new TBR kit (our team is coached by Lora Erickson, aka The Blonde Runner so our team is called Team Blonde Runner or TBR for short... also a "kit" is a "racing kit" which consists a racing top with matching shorts... just check out the pictures) so I was excited to race in that for the first time. I am pretty sure I mention that I hired a coach, but I don't remember if I mentioned that as part of having a coach, I am now part of a triathlon team. We met together a few times a week to train and it... was... awesome... This race was on a weekend that I had to work so I knew it wouldn't be easy to work a graveyard shift, drive to Bountiful, race, then go home and go to bed only to wake up to work another graveyard shift, but I thought it would be fun anyway... I must be some kind of crazy.

On the morning of the race, I left work a little bit early. I headed to my car which had already been packed with my bike and all my tri gear and drove the 40 minutes from the hospital to the South Davis Rec Center. I headed in, picked up my packet, got marked, and headed back to the car to pick up my gear for a transition set up. In transition, I met a bunch of people from my team. We chatted for a bit and I ran up and down the adjacent soccer field to warm up prior to the swim. This race is a snake style pool swim so they started people 10-15 seconds apart. While waiting I waved to my coach and another team-mate who were spectating in the stands of the pool. Coach Lora had been involved in a car accident on the same day of the Provo City Half so although she really wanted to race that day, she was confined to the sidelines. I had set some goals for this race so I had a good idea where I wanted to be and how hard I needed to push during each portion of the race. My goal for the 350 yard swim was 6:20 which was something that I thought was easily within my grasp. I snaked my way back and forth in the pool and as I pulled myself out of the water, I checked my watch to see that my time was 6:17 just under my goal time for the swim. Unfortunately, my run TO transtition was also included in my swim time, so my "official" swim time was 6:40. After putting on my shoes and helmet, I jogged out of transition, hopped on my bike and started crankin'. Transition goal was 2:00 transition time was 1:05. Hooray!

The bike ride was 11.9 miles and I had a goal to complete it in 35:00. I followed the familiar route that I rode last year and pushed hard passing as many people as I could. This year I started farther ahead in the swim lineup than I did last year so there were a lot of fast people ahead of me. I didn't pass as many people this year as I did last, but my results were still better. Out on the course I saw several people from my team. I completed the bike portion in 31:21 for an average speed of 22.7 mph. Gotta say I was pretty impressed with myself as I CRUSHED my goal time for the bike. On my way into transition, I slipped my shoes off my feet, dismounted the bike (yes, in that order) ran into transition, slipped on my Brooks Racer ST5s (a cool running shoe) and headed out for the 3.3 mile run.

Running to transition Exit

Checking my T2 time.

Transition goal was 1:00 transition time was 0:48... meh...

As I left transition and headed out on the course, I saw a guy about 100 yards down the road wearing a Canyon Bicycles racing kit and I set my sites on him. As the run portion wore on, I kept the Canyons guy in my sites passing a few people here and there. I made a right turn and started up what I knew was a subtle but tough little uphill grade. I saw the Canyons Bicycle kit a few yards ahead a made a little push to catch him. When I finally did, I looked up then saw another Canyon's kit about 70 yards up the road. I think the guy up the road was the original guy I saw because the guy I had just caught looked to be in his 50s and was running MUCH slower than the original guy. I again locked my sites on Canyons guy and pushed up the hill I turned right at the top of the little hill, downed some water from the aid station and kept my eyes fixed on Canyon Cycles. Around the last turn, I had drawn within 20 yards and gave a final push to the end to catch him.

Finished!

It was not to be. He finished about 15 yards ahead of me. I collected my medal and congratulated Canyons guy on the great finish and thanked him for pulling me to the finish.

Collecting my medal, Canyons guy on the left

Shortly thereafter, another guy came up to me and thanked my for pulling him to the finish. That is one thing I love about racing. Chasing people helps you go faster, but so does the knowledge that you are being chased. I ended up finishing the run in 23:18 with a pace of 6:57/mile This was just under my goal of 24:00 so I was pleased. My total time was 1:03:12, good enough for 5th out of 267 racers and 2nd out of 33 in my age group. At the finish line, I chatted with Coach Lora while we waited for the rest of our team to finish. We all had a blast and everyone thought my lucky toenail polish was awesome.

Thanks for reading!

Provo City Half Marathon 5-7-11

2011-05-29T20:06:00.000-06:00

So here we are, a full two weeks after this race and I am Finally getting around to writing a recap. I know this has absolutely nothing to do with cycling, but I sometimes run too... As many of you know, I am planning on racing Ironman St George next May... in fact look at the top of this page and you will see a countdown to Ironman St George. To prepare myself for this event, I decided that running a marathon would be a good thing to do to see how my body could handle such a long distance. I signed up for the Provo City Marathon, then took a week or two off to let my legs recover from overworking them in January. I decided to bump down to the half marathon hoping that I could knock out a 1:45:00 smashing my best time of 1:53:18 by over eight minutes. Then I hired a coach. Lora has shown me a lot of the ins and outs of training smarter. One of those things is training at or just below lactate threshold, which is the point when lactic acid starts to build in the muscles faster than the body can get rid of it. Anyway, upon analyzing my training, Lora came up with a number for me: 156... Yup... 156... Another thing Lora has introduced me to is heart rate training. For all the non-elite athletes in my circle of readers, MY lactate threshold (according to Lora) is 156. SO when my heart rate climbs above 156 beats per minute, I am above my lactate threshold, which can be bad for training. So, I started to play with some numbers, I ran 6 miles and tried to hold a pace of less than 8 minutes per mile. My heart rate steadily climbed and at about mile 4, reached 164 and stayed there until the end of my run. Another day, I went 5 miles and tried to stay at 8 minutes 30 seconds per mile. My heart rate stayed an even 145 for nearly the whole run. SO despite my hopes of running 1:45:00 in the Provo Half Marathon (by the way, to run a half marathon in 1:45:00, you have to keep a pace of 8:00/miles the whole 13.1 miles) I knew I would have to stay somewhere above 8:00/mile but I could run faster than 8:30 per mile. Then came race morning. K Jo had decided to run the Marathon, so we had to be there EARLY... 6:15 early... The buses taking the marathon runners to the start line were leaving at 6:30, so K Jo had to be there before then. My race didn't start until 8:00 so I got to hang out for an hour and a half until my race started. Finally, the MC called racers to the line and I found the 1:50:00 pacer (the guy that was holding a sign indicating that he would run the race in 1:50:00) and saw that his pace was to be 8:24/mile... perfect. The gun was fired (actually the countdown was started) and we were off. I hung with Landon (the 1:50:00 pacer) as we twisted and turned through the streets of Provo. The mile markers we passed had humorous ad libs printed on them. Mile 2: yup, this is only mile 2... Mile 3: if you were doing a 5K you would almost be done. I didn't see signs for miles 4-9 but luckily, I had Landon who was running with a Garmin (GPS unit) that beeped at us every mile so I could measure my pace. Just before the halfway point, we entered the blessed shade of the trees lining the Provo River Parkway

At the halfway point with Landon just behind me.

We continued on, emerging from the parkway into a small park and back onto the roads of Provo. As I passed mile marker 10 I read: feeling fine, cause I can't feel anything. At this point, the course rejoins itself and we started to see the marathoners. I offered encouragement to those that I saw and kept an eye out for my little wife, but did net see her. Perhaps she had already passed. I had become dependent on Landon's Garmin as I don't remember seeing a sign for mile 11 and just before mile 12, Landon told me to press on at my current pace, as he would slow down to hit the 1:50:00 mark. I started to push myself a bit, then looked at my watch to see 9:00... oops, missed the mile marker. I hit the lap button to record a 9:04 for mile 12. We were now headed back to the start/finish line and up the bridge on University Ave that crosses the train tracks. Shortly before this, my watch started beeping at me telling me my heart rate had climbed above 156. I didn't care. I had achieved my goal of keeping my heart rate below my lactate threshold for 12 of the 13.1 miles of this race... It was time to finish strong. I pushed towards the finish chute and saw the clock ticking away 1:49:30, 1:49:31, 1:49:32. I wanted to finish before 1:50:00, so I kicked it into high gear with all that I had left, and finished at a solid 1:49:42. Well ahead of my previous personal record of 1:53:18.

Yes, the guy behind me IS wearing jeans and skater shoes.

I found K Jo in the finishing chute waiting patiently for me to finish. She had run 13 miles and made it to the start of the half marathon and decided that it was too hot to run another 13.2 miles. I was glad to see her. I picked up my medal, and gave up my timing chip, then we scarfed down some oranges, drank some water and headed back to the car. I pulled off my shoes and quite literally peeled off my socks to discover that one of my toenails had ripped a tiny hole in one of my toes. No pain though so hooray.

I was pretty happy with my performance and I had accomplished my goal... Ironman, here I come... Thanks for reading.

April 2011 Goal Update

2011-05-06T19:01:00.000-06:00

Here we are, May 6th... As good a time as any to blog about my goal update. For April, I set out to ride 300 miles, run 45 miles and swim 10 km. For April: 351 miles cycling, 38.6 miles running, 7.2 km swimming. I fell below my running and swimming goals, but training with Lora has proven more beneficial than mindlessly repeating laps in the pool and running lots of miles. I am getting faster in the run and the swim by doing shorter distances in regular intervals at faster speeds, so I don't mind that I was behind for April. Besides that, I did a quick calculation and found that I am above my goals for cycling and running through the month of April (thank you January). Tomorrow is the Provo Half Marathon. Look for a quick recap of that in the near future.

SR-167 and SR-226 April 23rd, 2011

2011-05-04T04:30:00.002-06:00

I love to ride my bike... obviously as I have decided to take on all the highways in our state. Sometimes, life makes this love affair more difficult than I would like it to be. Saturday before last, I rode SR-167 and SR-226. I finished my regular work shift (seven days of ten hour graveyard shifts) on Wednesday and was back to work Thursday and Friday morning to cover shifts at Salt Lake Clinic's lab (I actually did do 22 miles on Thursday, cause, ya know... we make time for what we love). Kathy Jo was planning on running Strider's WRC 30k that Saturday so we decided to stay at the Red Moose Lodge in Eden for the weekend. I had made plans to volunteer at the Legacy Duathlon that same morning, so I would not be able to see K Jo race. Friday, I got off work, drove home, packed, drove to Bountiful for my coach's gear sale, went to dinner at wingers, then drove to the hotel arriving around 7:30. I was exhausted, cold I had to get up early and I was cranky so I didn't ride, which made me more cranky. I had planned to ride my bike that day and now it was going to be dark soon, and I hadn't packed enough cold weather gear and that made me cranky... did I mention that I was cranky? Kudos, to K Jo for putting up with me... I woke up the next morning and made my way down the canyon to a Smiths where I got some breakfast and then drove on to North Salt Lake to help out at the race. I was assigned to be a course marshal directing the short course people to turnaround at the sign. It was fun because I had a lot of friends doing this race and I had my camera with me so I got some nice shots. I will post those later. I left the race and went home to grab some lunch and some tools to help my friend Dane disassemble his bike and pack it up to send it to Florida for a race he was planning on doing. We took his bike apart, packed it up and went to UPS to find out it would be no less than $190 to ship his bike... on the way back to Dane's place, Dane altered his race schedule for the year ever so slightly... I finally arrived at our hotel around 5:00 in the afternoon and spent the next 15 minutes dressing, prepping and assuring K Jo that I loved her more than I loved my bike. It had been a busy couple of days, but I was finally off...

SR-226 starts at Snowbasin Ski Resort where it rises sharply into the mountain for a mile, then plummets 2 more miles to SR-167 where it terminates.

As I mentioned above, we were staying in Eden which is on the North-West side of Pineview Reservoir which is East of Ogden. I started out heading South, then crossed the dam where I shot East on SR-39 to the North Terminus of SR-167. The sky was overcast and the temps were chilly, but not frigid. I turned right and snapped a pic of SR-167's signs, then began climbing (hooray!). At the top of Trappers loop (aka SR-167) I swung another right and got a pic of the "end" sign for 226... I think it worth mentioning that I began SR-226 by riding it backwards as is my typical MO. I climbed some more then was treated to a fast, fun downhill to Snowbasin where I turned around, captured a pic of the SR-226 East sign and looked down to see that I was standing in two inches of mud, cleverly disguised as roadside gravel. I spent the next 10 minutes digging mud and gravel out of the cleats of my bike shoes... For you non-cyclists out there, most Road Bikers have special pedals, called "clipless pedals" on their bikes matched to special shoes they wear on their feet. Those shoes have a "cleat" that attaches to a spring-loaded mechanism on the pedal that keeps your foot 1) in proper position on the pedal and 2) attached to the bike... this means if you crash on a road bike, the bike can stay attached. Engaging and disengaging the cleat into the pedal or "clipping in" and "clipping out" (which is dumb because you have to "clip in" to a "clipless pedal") can be likened to squeezing into and out of last summer's shorts after a winter of riding the couch and eating Oreos. It's difficult, but it's possible and you might end up falling over. Now imagine you had been covering those Oreos with peanut butter and dipping them in whole milk... That is what I was dealing with. Oh! Add into this mix that I was now 1400 feet higher and 5 degrees colder than when I started... and I wasn't pedaling anymore. Brrrr... I finally got my shoes "clean" enough to start riding again and crested the hill for a fast ride back to SR-167.

I hung a right and again, rode down the mountain into Mounatin Green at speeds that would make formula one racers pucker. I stopped at the local gas station to fill my water, then rode to the start of SR-167

SR-167 starts at the I-84 interchange just west of Mountain Green. It flows East for two miles then makes an abrupt left where it rises about 1100 ft in about 5 miles, then drops rather sharply for the last 4 miles where it terminates on the north end at SR-39 totaling 11.1 miles.

After turning around, I downed a GU and headed back into Mountain Green where I made a left and started my climb. I was getting concerned because looking at my bike computer told me I had been riding almost two hours and I still had to climb to the top of Trapper's Loop, descend back to the reservoir and ride around the reservoir back to my hotel. It was getting colder and I knew it was going to be dark soon. I felt better when I realized that I had ridden 6 extra miles by heading out and back on SR-226 and I wouldn't be riding it again. Nevertheless, As I passed mile marker 2, I viewed the mountain looming before me, gauged my clock and mashed my pedals. I spun, grunted, pushed, sweated and worked my way to the top of the hill, where I passed SR-226 and mile marker 7 and saw that I had climbed 1100 ft in about 5 miles in just under 30 minutes. 10 mph up a 4.2 % grade is not at all on par with the Tour de France boys, but it made me feel pretty good. I was then home free. I descended back to SR-39 like a cheetah on crack. I was after all, trying to beat the sun back to the hotel.

I hit SR-39 and rode like a time-trialist back around the lake to the Red Moose Lodge where I found K Jo happily watching a movie. She had just ordered pizza to be delivered to our room...

best... wife... ever...

A few moments later, our delivery girls showed up with our grub. K Jo and I spent the rest of the night eating pizza and salad, drinking coke, and watching movies. I wasn't cranky anymore. These highways are numbers 24 and 25. I rode 45.1 miles in 2:47:50 averaging 16.1 mph. I topped out somewhere around 45 mph and climbed close to 3300 ft. So far I have done 266.4 miles of state roads, 745.8 miles of riding. Thanks for reading!

Frontrunner Metric Century 4-9-11

2011-04-19T22:35:00.001-06:00

It's been over a week, I suppose I should get around to recapping this ride. I was not happy when I looked at the forecast for the weekend... high 30s to low 40s with a chance of snow showers... ugh... My riding buddy, Dave had been contemplating doing this ride for some time, then backed out when he saw the forecast... I was optimistic. Friday rolled around and I drove ever so cautiously to the Gateway to pick up my packet while snowflakes the size of half-dollars (remember those) pelted my car. I said to myself, "if it is like this tomorrow morning, I am NOT riding." I walked into Jason's deli and chatted with Matt and Robyn, (husband and wife, co-organizers of the ride and fellow churchgoers) while they gave me my packet. I exited the restaurant and the snow had stopped which gave me hope. When I got home, I got all of my clothes ready, set them next to my bed and packed a bag with post-ride clothing for the train ride back to SLC. I went to bed and woke up early to be at the inter-modal hub in time to get a good parking spot. I dressed in my warmest bike clothes, then stepped out onto my front porch to see something akin to this:

Well, that settles, it... I am not riding... Then I look to the north to see a lone figure on a bicycle wearing a red jacket and a white helmet... Well... If he can do it... I can do it... I threw my bag in my car, put my bike on the trunk rack and again, cautiously made my way downtown. When I arrived at the inter-modal hub, I put on my bike shoes and helmet, threw my bag over my shoulder and walked to the parking lot that was the designated start point. I handed my bag over to Robyn, who was sitting in a U-haul, and drank some hot cocoa. I then I see someone ride up in a red jacket wearing a white helmet. It was Eddie, who goes to church with Matt, Robyn and me. I laughed and told him that I saw him riding away that morning and he was happy to know that he had spurred me on to attempt the ride. After a few minutes of standing around in the cold, we received some instruction from the ride organizer. We were assured that there would be a volunteer in an orange vest, or a clearly marked sign at every key turn, and we were given cue sheets that gave us a list of all the critical turns. We then lined up to start the ride and stood around in the cold for a few more minutes... Then we were off, like maple syrup out of a squeeze bottle... seriously, we started at a (relatively) slow pace of 15-16 MPH. It was a little frustrating at first, we were after all following a ride leader who was supposed to know the entire course. It was obvious that there were some who were frustrated with the slow pace and they took off ahead of the main group. I of course followed. We made our way through the north western parts of Salt Lake until we crossed the bridge on Center Street in North Salt Lake that crosses Legacy Parkway, then descended the bridge where several guys, despite the volunteer directing them, got off course. I had studied the map like a good little athlete and made my way back along Center Street to get on The Legacy Parkway Trail and go under the bridge we had just crossed. I was now the new ride leader.

I did my share of pulling the group and chatted with those who would pull after me. I met a nice elderly gentleman named Charlie, who later went down in a twisted heap of bicycles and riders on the trail just behind me. That's just what happens when you ride in snowy, wet conditions. Just after watching that crash, I met Zac. Amidst introductions and pleasantries about the "pleasant" weather, Zac asked me if I was wearing a heart rate monitor and I said that I was. When I told him my heart rate was resting comfortably at 140, he exclaimed that I was in much better shape then he. We made our way north carefully crossing several wooden bridges in the wetlands that had two inches of snow on them.

It was pretty sketchy at times, but we made it safely to the 1st aid station at mile 20 where we refueled, I answered the call of nature (again with the wet soaking into my bladder) and we headed out on the route following the direction of the volunteers. We soon found that we were supposed to be following signs with arrows that read "Run Endurance" which didn't make sense for a bike ride, but at least we had some direction. At one point in Kaysville, I was fortunate enough to see a sign that another rider had missed. I chased him down, and got back on the route with the lost rider following. Zac patiently waited as I got back on the route. We soon made it to Layton and hit Gentile street. I pulled out my cue sheet and saw that the next turn was on 3000 w. I watched 2200 w go by, then 3100 w and when we got to 3200 w Zac and I stopped to evaluate. Another group of riders stopped too and waited while we discussed where to go. They impatiently took off heading north on 3200 w while I waited for Zac to pull out his smart phone and study the route. He found that if we kept heading west on Gentile we would eventually make it to 3000 w. None of this made sense until we passed a sign that said "Welcome to Syracuse" and I started seeing houses marked 625, 670, 700. It then hit me that the towns in Davis county are not all on the same grid like the towns in Salt Lake County. Armed with this knowledge, we pedaled through Syracuse, past West Point (riding SR-110 in its entirety, 3.5 mi, but I was too cold and wet to take pictures, so that post will come later) and into Hooper guided by my cue sheet where we stopped at mile 40 for aid station number two, all the time, seeing taut flags indicating a good strong headwind... it wouldn't be a good ride unless I was riding into the wind... We were greeted by much-to-excited-considering-the-weather volunteers and were informed that were the first riders to come to their aid station... we were in the lead...

While we were standing around eating, a man rode up, agitatedly asked for GU gel, but settled for a few granola bars, and took off. I didn't want to lose my lead, so I told Zac, "Finish you grapes, and let's get riding" We again followed my cue sheet, and Zac expressed regret that I had been pulling the entire time while he was content to stay in my draft. He then said "I feel bad, but I'm just trying to keep my heart rate under 160." I checked my monitor and saw that I was still keeping right around 140 and told him, "I am using this as a training ride, so as far as I am concerned, you can stay in my slipstream all day." We rolled through Hooper and into Kanesville where we made a left turn as per the cue sheet despite there being no volunteer or sign directing us to do so. We passed signs for Taylor and West Weber then made a right turn in Plain City where I was relieved to finally get out of the head wind that we had been fighting pretty much the whole time we had been on the road. We followed Pioneer Road that meanders through Marriott-Slaterville until we hit 1200 W in Ogden and I knew we were tantalizingly close to the finish line. Fueled by a nice tailwind, we rocketed south where we saw the granola bar guy, and I told Zac, "There is the leader, we are going to catch him." he just nodded as I dropped into my aero bars and mashed my pedals. We eventually caught and passed our granola bar friend, made a right turn onto Wall ave and went hard until 25th st, where lies the Ogden Depot and the finish line. Just before riding into the parking lot, I saw Matt with a big grin on his face, waving me in. As I entered the parking lot, I saw several riders already handing their bikes off to volunteers to be shipped back to SLC. Matt informed me that I was the first rider he saw, and that I was likely the first to cross the "finish line" as I was the first to ride the whole route. I collected my post ride clothes and my finisher's medal:

then changed in a truck trailer. We grabbed some lunch provided by Jason's Deli and Zac, Eddie and I all ate our lunch, shivering in the truck trailer while we waited for the train. Yes, I was more cold AFTER the ride eating lunch wrapped in a hoodie AND a jacket than while I was riding in the wet snow. After finishing, we all boarded the train and had a nice chat on our way back to SLC. The CR England truck arrived with our bikes, and I gave Eddie a ride home. This ride was snowy, wet, dirty and sometimes a little confusing, but I can honestly say that I had a blast. I talked to Matt in church the week after the ride and he said he had negative feedback from only one person and that person was only mad because the weather was terrible. From start to finish, this ride took us about 4:25:00. My actual riding time was 3:48:41, a little less than 16.5 mph. You can see the whole route here. Thanks for reading.

March 2010 Goal Update

2011-04-10T12:37:00.000-06:00

I started this post earlier, but for some reason, never got around to finishing it until today. So my goal for March was 250 miles cycling, 40 miles running, 10 km swimming. I was a little perturbed this month to find out that I had been swimming in a pool that is 25 yards and not 25 meters, which is a difference of a little over 9 feet, Not all that much, but when you are swimming that 9 feet 100 times a day, it turns into 900 feet which IS a big difference. I am still keeping my swim goal for the year at 125 meters, instead of bumping it down to 125 yards. I will just have to keep swimming and hope that by the end of the year, I am where I want to be. SO, actual stats for the month: 273.7 miles cycling, hooray! 45.1 miles running, hooray! 9.2 km swimming, awww... Maybe next month.

Icebreaker Triathlon 3-26-11

2011-04-09T16:44:00.001-06:00

So I am FINALLY getting around to writing a recap of the race a did two weeks ago.

Icebreaker Triahlon

My brother's wife is studying music at BYU and had her trumpet recital the night before my race, so my mom happened to be in town. She decided to come with me to my race, which was nice because K Jo was planning on running the Riverton Half Marathon that same morning so now I would have someone there to take pictures. I have to be honest, I wasn't looking forward to going to this race. The weather forecast called for rain and temps in the high 30s. Less than perfect weather for a triathlon. Nevertheless, I had paid for the race and have been training for most of the winter, so I packed a cycling jacket, and arm warmers and went anyway. Mercifully, the race did not start until 10:00 am so we left my home around 8:00 that gave me plenty of time to set up transition, get my timing chip and body marking and do a good warm-up before the race. Mom sat in the car and read her book. In transition, I chatted up some of the other athletes and hung my cycling jacket on the rack, praying that I wouldn't need it. About 15 min before the race, I downed a GU, grabbed my swim cap and goggles and lined up next to the pool. Some of you may have read my race report of Xterra Utah last year... one thing I forgot to mention... While I was setting up T1 for that race, I started chatting with the guy next to me and realized that he had painted his toenails... I thought "That is so cool." So I decided that this year, I am going to paint my toenails the night before I race for good luck. While I was standing in line to jump in the pool for this race, I hear the girl next to me say, "Hey we have the same color toenail polish!". I turned to see an absolutely adorable 21 year old girl, then looked down to see that we did indeed have the same color toenail polish. We chatted before the plunge and I found her after the race, found out her name is Kelly, and snapped a pic of of us... and our toes:

I entered the water just 10 seconds after Kelly and started my way down the first of six laps in American Fork Rec Center's 50 m pool. Typically when I do a triathlon, I get halfway into the swim, and think, "what have I gotten myself into?" This race was no exception. Somewhere during lap 3, I was fighting for position, all but forgetting about kick turns and good form, I again thought: "WHY". soon however, I was done with the swim, crossed the timing mat, checked my watch and found I had swam the 300 m in 6:13, a full :43 seconds slower than I had hoped for... I knew I would have to make up time somewhere. I grabbed a towel I had stowed on the deck, and headed out the door of the bubble expecting a blast of frigid air and was pleasantly surprised to find the temperature somewhat mild. I passed Kelly and handed her my towel. She mopped some water off her face and dropped it in the parking lot, so I ran back to get it. I entered transition, slipped on my helmet, glasses, shoes, and race belt and ran out of transition. As soon as I was on the bike and moving I checked my watch again to see that I had completed T1 in 1:34, much faster than the 2:00 I was shooting for. I felt good. I was on my bike, the air was a balmy 43 degrees and I was making up the time I had lost in the swim.

The bike course in this race was 13 miles, kind of a lollipop format, we headed out, up a steady hill, completed one loop, rode a second loop, then back to the race venue for transition. The hill was more of an annoyance than anything. Not too steep, but definitely steep enough to slow you down a lot. I was glad to get to the top. The rest of the course was pretty flat except for the Alpine Highway which is a subtle downhill grade. This part of the course was my favorite. I followed my usual MO of racing the bike portion... find a person, visualize a target on their back, and pass them like they are standing still. I don't often get passed in the bike ride. After the second loop, the course continues south on the Alpine Highway where we made a left turn after the cemetery and descended a short drop into the parking lot. Just before entering the parking lot, I reached down to unstrap my shoes in preparation for T2 and while the air wasn't too cold, it was cold enough to make my fingers numb enough to make unstrapping my shoes difficult. At the end of the parking lot, I deliriously jumped the curb and ran into the baseball field for T2. As I was crossing the curb, I made the mistake of not lifting my bike and slammed my back wheel on the curb. It bounced high in the air, then slammed back down on the grass as I was running into T2. I could tell I had jacked my wheel because the bike was fighting me. I crossed the timing mat, hit the lap button on my watch to see I had finished the bike in 37:12, a shade faster than the 38:00 I was shooting for.

What's wrong with my wheel?

Sweet... a great bike time...

I was pleased with my bike time, but worried about my bike. I slipped on my shoes and visor, and ran out of transition, checking my watch again to see I was five seconds slower than the 1:00 T2 I had hoped for... stupid bike wheel...

Strapping into my shoes.

And here we go with the run...

I figured that this had me just under my goal times which was a little frightening. I had set a goal for 22:00 for the 5k, I was tired, and I had to run up a big hill. In my last post, I talked about recently hiring a triathlon coach. She has a video posted on Youtube and on her website that talks about running in a triathlon. She says in the video to use your arms to set your pace in the first half mile of the race (which is probably why she has the team on the hundred push-ups program). I did just that. I pumped my arms and went as hard as I could before I had to climb the hill, then I pumped my arms up the hill, then I pumped my arms after the first aid station. When I run in a triathlon, I just try to hold on to whatever lead I gained in the bike. If I can pass someone, great, if not, great, if I get passed that's fine, I had a faster bike split than they did. As soon as I started up the hill, I saw a guy in a gray shirt and it became apparent about halfway through the run that I was going to catch him. I started pumping those arms and caught him. Soon after that I could hear footsteps behind me, and was passed by a man I met in transition before the race. I recognized him as the one who said he would run the 5k under 16 min, so this was no surprise. Soon after that I heard more footfalls and was passed by the women's leader... I started the swim well after her, she is not a threat... About a half mile from the finish, one more girl passed me, but I pumped those arms and kept pace with her then used my greater weight to give me momentum down the last hill, passed her and finished a good 10 seconds ahead of her. As I crossed the finish line, I stopped my watch and checked my time... 1:07:06...

Hooray for me!

I had achieved my goal of a sub 1:08:00 and let out a whoop. I checked my split times and literally jumped for joy and let out an even louder whoop when I saw that my 5k time was 21:01... fastest 5k I have ever run... Soon after I finished they posted preliminary results, and I saw that I had finished third in my age group. Looking at the times I could tell that I was at least top ten and would later find that I had placed 9th overall out of 180 racers and 9th out of 113 men. You can see all my results here. I hung out until they handed out awards and got my medal for third in my age group.

I happily drove home with mom, who shot all these photos, thanks, Mom! It was a great day and a great race. Thanks for reading!

Ch ch ch ch changes...

2011-03-28T00:20:00.002-06:00

As I said here, I did not think my racing schedule would change all that much. I remember way back in January typing that and thinking, "I don't know why I am typing this because I am sure it will change a lot." Well... it has... and here we go. I had some trouble with sore legs in February so I decided to back off the running a bit to allow my body to heal. Doing so put me ever further behind in a marathon training plan in which I was already behind, so I e-mailed the girl in charge of registration and had her switch me from the marathon to the half marathon. Willard Bay Tri is no longer my first Triathlon of the year. It is... or was... the Ice Breaker Triathlon in American Fork.

March 26th

Ice Breaker Triathlon

As I said, this WAS my first race of the year. I did this race yesterday and was extremely pleased with my race results. I didn't want to make this post really long, so I will be posting a race report coming later in the week. When I wrote about my race schedule back in January, I forgot to mention that I am riding in the Frontrunner Metric Century.

April 9th

Front Runner Metric Century

The Frontrunner Century is actually a metric century meaning that instead of 100 miles, it is 100 km which is roughly 62 miles. A guy in my ward is directing this race and I have known about it since last year. We begin the ride at the Salt Lake City inter-modal hub. We then head north through Davis County into Weber county where the ride ends at the inter-modal hub in Ogden. Our bicycles will be transported back to SLC by truck and we will be transported back to SLC by Front Runner Train. We have some young men from our ward volunteering for this ride and the brother organizing it has generously offered to donate money to our ward scout fund on their behalf to pay for summer camp.

May 14th

Splash n Sprint Triathlon

I did this race last year. I considered doing it again this year but it is on a weekend that I work so I thought no... Then I got this crazy notion to hire a triathlon coach... I found her on facebook, she is friends with a girl that I work with and I have seen her name in other places. Last year she was the overall women's finisher in the San Rafael Classic. Her name is Lora Erickson. She is the owner of a company called Blonde Runner Health and is known as "The Blonde Runner"... she is Blonde... Anyway, she has been coaching runners for the last 15 years, and now coaches a triathlon team, Team Blonde Runner. Triathlon is an individual sport. Individual finishes don't really count towards points in any races really, but we train as a group a few times a week. Triathlon teams are becoming more and more common and they function just like a football team, or a basketball team. We have a group of people we are familiar with all participating in an event, in this case, a race. I am surprised more and more of the mental component of Triathlon. Having several people you know at a race cheering you on and chatting with you after the race is PHENOMENALLY helpful during a race. One definition I have seen of TEAM is an acronym: Together, Everyone Achieves More. Team Blonde Runner started out as a women's team. Lora decided last year to start coaching men and this year there are three of us on the team. Several of my team members are going to be doing the Splash n Sprint, so I thought it would be fun to join them. It starts at 0800, and I get off work at 0700. If I leave a little early from work, I can get there in plenty of time to set up transition, warm up and get marked. I am looking forward to this race. Last year I placed 21st overall, finishing in 1:11:15, this year I am shooting for 1:06:20. I think that much improvement is totally possible. Look for a race report sometime in mid May.

I Think I CANyons will no longer be a go for me. I am quite disappointed about this as I was REALLY looking forward to this ride. They changed the date from July 9th to July 16th and I will be doing Scofield that day. I was really bummed about this change. I had taken off work and had been looking forward to training for this one. Then I happened to look up a race I love that I have done in the past, the San Rafael Classic, and low and behold it is on July 9th this year... hooray!

July 9th

San Rafael Classic Triathlon

There is and always will be a special place in my heart for this race. It is held in Emery County where I grew up and 2008 was not only the inaugural year for this race, it was also the first triathlon I ever did. I had hoped to make this race annually, then last year my schedule changed and I missed it in 2010. I am planning on racing this year, and if I need to change my work schedule next year, I will be racing that year too. The San Rafael Classic starts the swim in Huntington Lake in Huntington State Park. There is a sprint and an Olympic distance to this race. The Olympic people start first and swim two 750 m laps. When they are done, the Sprint people start the bike on a closed course (no cars) out a VERY rural road north of the State Park out and back. Sprint is one lap, Olympic is two. The run takes place on a dirt road around the lake which empties on to the VERY rural road and follows the bike route back to the park for the finish. Again, sprint it is one lap, Olympic two. This is a great race, very well run and I thoroughly enjoyed it both years I have done it. It also benefits the Emery County Search and Rescue, so the race fees go towards a good cause.

I am still planning on Willard Bay, Scofield, Bear Lake Brawl and Xterra Utah. I am also still doing the Tri States Gran Fondo, but before that there is a VERY good possibility that I will be doing The Layton Marathon Oct 8th, and The Powell3 Triathlon Challenge at Wahweap Bay in Lake Powell on Oct 22nd. K Jo says she is on board for both of these, we'll see how I feel later in the summer. Hope you are all looking forward to race reports as much as I look forward to writing them. Thanks for reading!

Feb 2011 Goal Update, $47 Soakfest, etc.

2011-03-18T02:55:00.000-06:00

WOW Okay, here it is, March 18th and I have still not reported my stats for the month of February. So, here we go. My goal for the month was to cycle 225 miles, run 35 miles and swim 5 km. This was a pretty lean month. I ended up riding 180.1 miles, running 22.15 miles, and I only swam 1 km. Now that all of THAT unpleasantness is out of the way, on to other things. Remember here in my race schedule I wrote about the Zion Early Spring? Well, WAY back on February 26th, K Jo and I made our way down to St George. She was planning on running the Dog Town Half Marathon, I was to ride. I called a buddy of mine a few days earlier to talk about our upcoming ride and he informed me that he would probably not make it down, scared off by the weather forecast... temps in the 40s, rain and snow... c.r.a.p... I already paid $47 for the ride and I already paid for the hotel... Well, at least we can get away to St George for the weekend. We arrived in St George and the weather was not too bad. We knew it was supposed to rain AND be cold, so just after dinner the night before our events, we hit the Big 5 in town for some cold weather tights. We got back to our room, and, just before bed, I looked out the window to see puddles on the asphalt and raindrops in the puddles. I thought to myself, "I'll be okay". I had packed plenty of warm cycling gear. I did, however, REFUSE to pack my warm weather tights, as if to will the weather to be warmer. Good thing I bought those tights. I woke up, ate a small breakfast and roused K Jo so she could get ready for her race. She opted to sleep in and avoid the nasty weather, so I drove to Hurricane, windshield wipers wiping away as the rain pelted my car. "I'll be okay" I thought. I arrived at the designated start, stepped out of my car, into the windy, rainy weather and thought, "This is a bad idea." I then took my bike off the car, and rode to fill my bottles. "Hey it's not so bad once you're on the bike" I thought. As I walked back to my bike after filling my bottles I could hear the MC say something about starting the ride and a mental institution down the road, so I hopped on my bike and followed the cyclists ahead of me. To make a long story short, I was soaking wet after 5 miles, so wet in fact that the water soaked right through my body and into my bladder, because I had to pee the ENTIRE time I was riding. At mile 20, I could squeeze my gloves and watch the water stream out. At this point, we hit an aid station and I finally got a potty break. Walking to the bathroom was painful. My feet were so cold I couldn't move my toes and it literally felt like I was walking on pins and needles. I decided to get on with it, and pedaled away from the aid station. This ride took us from Hurricane to the entrance of Zion National Park, then back to Hurricane. I turned around at the park, rode past the aid station and about a mile later, more rain water leaked into my bladder. Here I was at mile 30. Cold, soaking wet and I had to pee again. I was still 20 miles from my car... I gave up... I ducked under a bridge to relieve myself, got on my bike and joined with several others in finishing only 50 miles of a 100 mile ride. I am not ashamed. I can't say that I was happy with this ride, but I'm glad I did it. This was not a good day.

Not About Cycling

2011-02-13T23:25:00.002-07:00

Don't worry, all is well on the home front of cycling, I am still riding and still enjoying myself. In the meantime, my brother, Josh, and his wife, Emily, came up this past weekend (Feb 11th) to do some shopping and to attend the temple. K Jo and I got to babysit their children James (2 1/2) and Lily (8 mo). James received a sled from his grandma and grandpa, my parents, for Christmas and Josh has taken James sledding many times this winter in the mountains above Castle Dale. He has told me that James likes to go "up a mountain" more than he likes sledding. I told Josh that if that be the case, I would like to take James on a short hike this summer when they visit. While I was on the phone with Josh telling him about this, he told James, "Uncle Chris wants to take you up a mountain" to which I could hear James repeating over and over again "up a mountain", "up a mountain". The next day, Josh told James that they were coming to visit us and James said "Uncle Chris, up a mountain". So, while we were babysitting, I took James to a park not far from our home that has a large hill and James and I went "up a mountain" together. While there, we saw a couple of teenagers rolling down the hill in what looked like a very large inflatable hamster ball. When James saw it, he said, "Ooh, big ball" Check it out for yourself:

the hill

Hold my hand before we get there, buddy

It's a long way for such short legs

James checking out the "big ball"

I'm coming Uncle Chris

I can see the top!

Those teenagers are weird and this is a great view!

Thanks for taking me "up a mountain"

Playing in the snow after our hike

January 2011 goal update

2011-02-03T22:20:00.001-07:00

Here we are already into February of 2011 and thus here is an update of my fitness goal for 2011. For January I set the goal of 125 miles cycling, 30 miles running and 5 km swimming and I am happy to say I exceeded that goal with 187.9 miles of biking, 57.9 miles of running and 5 km swimming. Hopefully I will hit the pool a little more than I have been. Thanks for checking in.

SR-17

2011-01-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

So remember how I said I needed a break? Well, I decided to extend our break. It is so sunny and warm here in St George that I couldn't bring myself to go back to Salt Lake, so here I am early Sunday morning writing from the business center of the Crystal Inn in St George. Oh... and remember how I said I was going to run a portion of the Ironman St George run course... yeah that didn't happen either. I woke up and got ready to run and my legs were SO achy. Not really sore, just achy. I don't know what it is but it is very frustrating. I think I landed wrong snowboarding or something because they just hurt. So I decided to take a few days off of running and scale back my distances, which will most likely mean I will be doing the half marathon distance in May instead of the marathon distance. It's okay, there is another marathon in October that I have my eye on. Anyway, because I did not run yesterday, I decided to see what other state roads are close to St George. Also, because I decided to ride, I also decided to extend our stay one more day... it didn't take much to convince K Jo. I looked at some maps and saw SR-59 which extends from Hurricane about 22 miles to the Utah/Arizona border and thought, "Perfect, out and back about 45 miles." So I made a map and an elevation profile yesterday morning. I had breakfast and we checked out and drove around St George for about an hour. I hit the bike shop and bought chain lube cause my chain was pretty thirsty and squeaky. After we checked in, I lubed up my chain, got on my bike and went, "AAAAAHHHHH". Turns out that even though you ride once or twice a week during the winter for an hour each time, it really does not prepare your tush for a nearly four hour ride. My butt is sore! Great, now my legs ache and I have a sore butt. So, K Jo and I went exploring the hotel. They have a huge outdoor pool and the weather was amazing. I also remembered from perusing maps that there is another state road near St George that is only 6 miles long so I decided to make yesterday a swim/bike day. I swam in the pool for about 20 minutes and the water was AMAZING. I also rode SR-17.

SR-17 begins in La Verkin at SR-9. It dips down to La Verkin Creek where it begins to climb in a north by north-west direction. It then passes through the small town of Toquerville and shortly thereafter it curves back to the south-west then back again north-west where it continues to climb until it terminates at I-15. It is 6 miles long. Although I ached to ride 45 miles by going out and back on SR-59, I decided my sore bum couldn't handle that. I also didn't want to only ride 12 miles so I started this ride in the middle of Hurricane. I parked at the Family Dollar, put on my shoes and helmet and began my ride by heading west on SR-9. I soon found that SR-9 is under construction and had to dodge traffic and ride on the sidewalk. Soon, I made it through construction to the Virgin River which is at the bottom of a breathtaking gorge. I am still kicking myself for not taking pictures, but here is a picture I found on Google Maps of the bridge spanning the gorge:

I continued on unharmed by the traffic or the sidewalk and finally made it to the beginning of SR-17. I sped down the hill toward La Verkin Creek and relished in the fact that I was riding at 30+ mph in January without having to wear tights or a jacket... Nope just my bib shorts and my jersey. When I reached the bottom, I began to climb and you know me, love me some climbing. This route has a narrow shoulder but there is not really a ton of traffic, so the climb, although moderately difficult, was nice. I stopped near the freeway to snap a picture of the end sign below... gotta love that azure sky... and turned around after passing under the freeway. I again grinned from ear to ear as I screamed down what I felt to be a well earned descent back into La Verkin. I crossed the creek and began the climb back to the SR-9 junction, fought traffic and the sidewalk back through construction to the Family Dollar where I used the facilities and bought a coke and some salt n vinegar pringles... so luxurious after a ride... I put my bike on the car and headed back to St George where K Jo and I had dinner and watched a movie in our hotel room. Another great day. SR-17 is state road number 23. I rode 19.5 miles today in 1:10:05, averaging 16.7 mph. Top speed was somewhere around 35 mph, my computer got reset on the way back to the hotel before I could see the top speed. Thus far I have ridden 700.7 miles, 252.3 miles of state roads. Thanks for reading!

If you look closely, you can see that this used to be a US-50 sign.

SR-34 and SR-8

2011-01-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

I needed a break... So I booked two nights in St George... I had to get away from the cold and the smog and the snow... So here I am writing this blog post in the business center of the Windgate by Wyndham in St George while my wife is on the treadmill. It was 65 and sunny today and it was AWESOME! I was feeling pretty crappy and thought, "It has been nice and sunny in Salt Lake for nearly a week straight and I didn't get to enjoy it cause I had to sleep all day"... Stupid graveyard shift... I did get one AMAZING day of snowboarding before we came down here, but on the way up to Brighton I got called into work that afternoon which meant I wouldn't see K Jo all night which meant she was feeling pretty lonely which meant I had to go have lunch with her which meant cutting my snowboarding day short... It's okay, I'm going again on Monday. Anyway, so we came down to St George and I thought since I am in St George, I might as well get a state road done. I should also mention that I have decided that instead of Ironman Florida in 2013, I have decided to do Ironman St George in 2012. As I was training one day this winter, it hit me that training for an Ironman during the winter probably wouldn't be nearly as difficult and depressing as I thought it was going to be. I went to Ironman St George's website, and found that registration is still open for 2011, so I should have no problem getting in for 2012. Plus, it will be WAY less expensive with no airfare and no shipping the bike. I looked up the course and it is likely the hardest course in the country with lots of climbing, but you know me... I love me some climbing... This decision also had a small part in our coming to St George this weekend. I am so excited about competing, that I wanted to preview the course so today I rode the big loop that is done twice during Ironman St George, and it is likely that tomorrow I will run the "out" part of the two loop out and back part of the run... I don't think that made any sense... it doesn't matter... I am running tomorrow... Today however, I included SR-8 and SR-34 in my bike ride.

SR-8 is 1.3 miles of Sunset Blvd in Santa Clara. It begins at N Dixie Dr and ends at SR-18... and it's flat... pretty boring... I did it anyway... I hope you liked the picture of the sign... The blue sky is pretty nice... This one was pretty busy as far as traffic goes, but it has a pretty good shoulder for riding. There was a really nice "end sign" but it was across the street from where I was riding and I didn't want to cross the street just to get a picture.

SR-34 also starts at SR-18 in St George. It is 100 N in St George, aka St George Blvd. This one is also pretty busy in terms of traffic, but it is one of the main thoroughfares of St George so there are a lot of cool businesses along this road. It has a pretty narrow shoulder, but it has a nice wide sidewalk. It terminates on its East end at River Rd. This one is a whole 2.1 miles long... are you impressed? You should be... as you can tell, it is pretty hilly... I rode it backwards, so I was pretty much going downhill the whole time... You don't have to be impressed if you don't want to be. Here is a picture of the "end sign":

Obviously my ride for the day did not end there. As I mentioned above, I wanted to preview the Ironman St George bike course (which can be found here) so I did the loop from St George to Gunlock, over to Veyo, then back down to St George. If you want to see my ride on a map, you can go here. Technology is so amazing. I love these mapping websites SO SO much. As you can probably tell, the elevation profiles look different. With mapmyride.com, you can map a ride, then save it and it will tell you all of the elevation data which you can export to an excel file and from that, you can make a chart which is basically what constitutes an elevation profile... a simple graph... anyway, with this new discovery, I can work my Microsoft paint magic and make some pretty sweet elevation profiles. When I was done riding SR-8, I continued on the same road which eventually becomes Old Highway 91. It heads out to a really pretty canyon cut by the Santa Clara River as it passes through the Shivwits Paiute Indian Reservation. At the bottom of the canyon, I headed north towards Gunlock Reservoir which was REALLY full due to recent flooding. I then rode through the town of Gunlock. Just outside Gunlock, the road was closed where the river had washed out a portion of the bridge. Luckily, it wasn't closed to bikes, so I continued on. Eventually I hit a hill that is referred to as "the wall". It is 2.6 miles long with an average grade of 3.3%... thank you mapmyride.com... At some points the grade gets up to 15% so it is a pretty tough climb. Just after that climb, I made it to Veyo where I called K Jo and downed a red bull and some jerky. It was then a fast descent into St George along SR-18 which parallels beautiful Snow Canyon. I made my way through St George and back to our hotel room. Such a great day. Today's ride was 60.9 miles. It took me 3:45:58 with an average speed of about 16.2 mph. My top speed was somewhere around 32 mph. I can't be sure... When I stopped in Veyo, my computer FREAKED out and started displaying speeds of 47, 50, 65 mph so I don't really know the top speed. Once I took it off the bike, it went back to normal. These two routes are 21 and 22 for my project. I have ridden 681.2 miles, 246.3 miles of state roads. Thanks for reading.

2011 Race Schedule

2011-01-15T02:26:00.003-07:00

So I have decided on a few races for the year. Most of these I am pretty sure about doing, and though nothing has been set in stone, I don't think my schedule will change all that much. SO! here we go...

February 26th

Zion Early Spring Century

When the year started, I wasn't planning on participating in this event. K Jo has a yearly goal of racing in at least four half marathons every year. In accordance with that goal, she decided to to the Dog Town Half Marathon on Feb 26th. One day, I commented on my facebook page that I was aching for a warm summer day to ride my bike and a guy I met at the Viva Bike Vegas commented that I should come down and do the Zion Early Spring Century. K Jo was reading over my shoulder and told me that if I wanted to ride, I could... SOLD! So, I am now registered and planning on riding. This ride starts in St George, then winds its way through Washington, then heads South around Sand Hollow State Park where it turns North through Hurricane, and La Verkin then it follows SR-9 to the entrance of Zion National Park (DANG! If it went all the way to US-89, I could take care of SR-9 for the state road project, oh well, another day) where it turns around and heads back to St George. Total mileage is somewhere around 107 and there is only 3000 ft of climbing... okay, that is a lot, but compared to the other century rides I have done (Vegas: 6100 ft, Tri States: 7700 ft) it's not all that much... I'm crazy... Looking forward to this one!

May 7th

Provo City Marathon

That's right, I have decided to do a marathon. I wanted to wait to attempt such a long race, but I decided late last year that I want to eventually complete a full ironman triathlon (2.4 mi swim, 112 mi bike, 26.2 mi run). I will probably attempt this in 2013 and I will either do the Ironman Florida, or the Ironman Arizona so, I wanted to see how my body would react to the full marathon distance before I attempt that race... a marathon it is! This one fit well into my schedule for the year. This race starts in Provo Canyon, Descends the Provo River Trail then follows University Ave heads past the mall to Utah Lake State Park, then again following the Provo River Trail back to University where it ends. The race descends about 1100 ft, so I think this will be a good first marathon.

June 4th

Willard Bay Triathlon

I know I said I was going to do this race last year, and then never did, but I am for sure going to do it this year. This race is done by a company called On Hill Events (they did the Bear Lake Brawl last year), and I found out that if I volunteer an On Hill Events race one day, I can get free registration for a different race. I will be volunteering at the Legacy Duathlon, so that I can get free registration to The Willard Bay Tri. This one will be an Olympic distance tri (1500 m swim, 24.4 mi bike, 6.2 mi run). The swim will be in Willard Bay, the bike is two laps of a 12.2 mi course that loops around the farmlands of Plain City and Farr West, and the run skirts the southern end of Willard Bay. Looks like a good solid race and I am looking forward to it.

July 9th

I Think I CANyons

No, that is not a typo... If you thought I was crazy for riding 112 miles with 7700 ft of climbing, you will want to medicate me for considering this one. 110 miles, 12000+ feet of climbing. The ride starts at Skyline High School, climbs Little Cottonwood Canyon, then Big Cottonwood Canyon, then Mill Creek Canyon, then Emigration Canyon, then you ride back to Skyline High School, thus the "canyons" part of the name... thank you Captain Obvious... The "I think I can" is in the name because this ride benefits the Fourth Street Clinic which you may remember was the beneficiary of a race I did last year. As crazy as it sounds, I am REALLY looking forward to this ride, the only problem is I will have to take two days off work to do it, which will be really difficult, but oh well.

July 16th

Escape From Scofield

Again, I said I was going to do this one last year, but instead ended up going to California for the Strawberry Fields Triathlon, which was fun, but expensive. This race is pricey too, but I have wanted to do it for a while so this year I will finally get to it... maybe... K Jo has a week off work and July 16th is right in the middle of that week off, so we'll see. We may end up going to this race then going to Moab for a few days... again... we'll see.

August 27th

Bear Lake Brawl

I did this race last year, and I had a blast, but I didn't reach my goal of breaking 6 hours, so I am going back to beat this thing. The course is a little different, this year it goes around the lake instead of out and back on the East side of the lake. This race will also be free, well, the registration will be free because, as I said before, it is an On Hill Event and I will be volunteering at the Layton Triathlon on July 30th. I think I would like to do the Layton Tri in the future. It is unique. You swim 300 m, bike 5.5 mi, then run 1.55 mi, then do it all over again. I have been in contact with the race director and he said he has thought about adding one more lap... I am going to try to convince him to do that... then I will race...

September 24th

XTerra Utah

Did this one last year too, but I love it so I want to do it again. I may bump up to the long distance for 2011 though, just to see how I do. I have a long time to decide. It's also worth mentioning that LoToJa is on September 10th of this year. I will be applying, but it is doubtful that I'll get in... We'll see, if I get, in, I'm doing it, if not, I'll apply next year.

November 5th

Tri States Gran Fondo

Had so much fun last year, I decided to do it again this year. K Jo will probably join me for this one. She wants to get her four half marathons out of the way early in the year so she can start riding her bike to do a couple century rides later on in the year. Nothing on the plate for October just yet. Viva Bike Vegas is in October, but I haven't seen a set date for that yet...

Well, I hope you enjoyed reviewing my race calendar for 2011. I look forward to racing and writing about it, I hope you look forward to following along. I also hope that in training for all this racing, I do a few more state roads. Look forward to that as well. Thanks for reading.

Dec 2010 Goal Update and 2011 Goals.

2011-01-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hello blog fans! I hope you all had a great Christmas and a Wonderful New Year's Day. I know I did. Santa (aka K Jo and myself) brought me new snowboard stuff for Christmas, new pants, coat, helmet and goggles and they are awesome! K Jo got a GPS running watch and a 26" TV for the bedroom (she watches a lot of TV in there and if I am to join her in the watching of said television... I want a decent TV). I think by far, my favorite gift this year was given to me by my brother, Josh. Instead of telling you about it, I will show you:

Okay, I will tell you about it... He made it from a scrap of wood at the wood shop of the high school where he teaches math, good 'ol Emery High School. The shop there has a laser engraver which is where the lettering and the cyclist come from. He routed the edges and added hooks. I have decided to hang my race medals on the hooks, so I will be needing to add more. Also, if you look close, there is a vein in the wood about halfway up that looks like a horizon behind the cyclist... LOVE IT!

Anywho, on to my December goal... It is snowboarding season... 'nuff said... My goal this month was 100 miles cycling, 25 miles running and 5 km swimming. Actual Stats: 83.6 miles riding, 22.5 miles running, and 0 km swimming... I kind of abandoned swimming in late October... Again... Snowboard season started...

SO! totals for the year 2010! My goals for the year, if you remember, were: 3000 miles cycling, 500 miles running, and 100 km swimming. Actual stats, 2536 miles cycling, 456.5 miles running and 107.7 km swimming. So I fell a little short of the distances I was shooting for biking and running, but I still feel pretty good about the year, I also had a goal to complete a half ironman distance triathlon (which I did) in less than six hours (which I did not). But, I DID complete the race, so I am happy with my performance last year. As for my goals for this year, I have decided to up the distances for all three sports even though I did not meet my goal last year. Last year I had some pretty lean months, but I have decided to be a little more disciplined this year. I am planning on competing in Ironman Florida in 2013. I would do it sooner, but the registration fee alone is $575 and then we would have to fly out there, stay in a hotel, ship my bike out, etc. so I have to save up for that race. Also, nearly three years of training will, I think, prepare me even better if I were to race it in 2011 or 2012, so I am going to up the distances. for 2011, my goal is to ride my bicycle 3250 miles, run 525 miles and swim 120 km (almost 75 miles). I think it is a good goal and I think I am off to a good start. I have a tentative race schedule in mind which includes two century rides before August, two Olympic distance triathlons, a half ironman distance triathlon, Xterra Utah, a Marathon and quite possibly two century rides, one in October and one in November... we will see. I hope you all enjoy following along this year. In parting, I will add some pictures from snowboarding this year, thanks to my friend, Seth who brought his camera.

Here I go, off the jump

Just gotta nail the landing...

uh oh...

I think I'm in trouble...

Whew, I stopped... Okay, board is okay, and no broken bones... Hooray!

Following Seth on our last run of the day.

November 2010 Goal Update

2010-12-07T06:40:00.001-07:00

Well, November went faster than I realized, but I it was a good month. K Jo and I had Thanksgiving at our house and apart from the cops showing up and my cousin's three-year-old peeing on my carpeted stairs, we had a great time. Here are my stats for November's goal: the goal was to bike 200 miles, run 25 miles and swim 5 km. I biked 304.9 miles (thank YOU Tri States Gran Fondo), so I got my cycling goal. I ran 20.2 miles so I fell a little short of that goal and I did not swim at all. I have reached my swim goal for the year, so yay! but I am 581 mile short of my cycling goal and 70 miles short on the run goal for the year. It's cold and snowy so I'm pretty sure that I won't reach either of those goals, unless I push myself extremely hard, and I'm just not up to that. So far in December, I have only ran 5 miles and biked 16.5 miles. Curse you snowboarding! I think I will keep the same goal for 2011. I'm pretty sure that I can reach it next year. Also in 2011, I want to do one sprint tri, one olympic tri and one half ironman. I also want to run a marathon, hopefully a sub 4:00:00, but I think I would be happy just to finish and see how my body reacts. I want to do at least two century rides, one of the will be I Think I Canyons (hopefully it is on my week off), and I want to take a trip to Moab and Fruita to go mountain biking. 2010 has been a good year, and I hope 2011 will be just as amazing. Just for kicks, here is the pic of everyone at our place for Thanksgiving (minus Ashely and Khiler, the three year old, were downstairs cleaning up)

Two Century Rides

2010-11-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

If you read my last post about my October 2010 goal, you noticed that I have ridden an unusually high number of miles for so late in the season. That is because in October and in November I rode my first two century rides. October 9th was the Viva Bike Vegas, and November 6th was the Tri States Gran Fondo.

The RTCSNV Viva Bike Vegas is a 115 mile loop that starts in Downtown Vegas, goes down to Lake Mead and over the brand new hoover dam bypass bridge, through Boulder City, up to Red Rock Canyon, then back down to Downtown Vegas. It also climbed somewhere around 6100 ft. As per my usual blog postings, here is a map and elevation profile, both pulled from the event's website:

K Jo and I headed down to Vegas that weekend looking forward to some fun. Oct 10th is our anniversary and I can't think of a better way to celebrate seven years of marriage than by spending seven hours in the saddle. My morning started early as the ride started at 6:30. We stayed at the Golden Nugget Casino which was only a mile from the start line. I left around 6:15 to get there in plenty of time for the start. When I did get to the start, it was PACKED. I would have guessed that there were more than a thousand cyclist there, but upon looking at the timing results, I saw that only 582 people finished, so it was probably less than that. The start was very slow as we had to get all those people out of the gate. I arrived somewhere around 6:20 and had to find someone to let me borrow their pump to air up my tires, so I was in the back of the pack. We slowly made our way north, then east. As the miles started to tick by, the group thinned a little, especially on the hills. Around mile nine, we were climbing a hill and I saw a guy wearing a BYU jersey so I sauntered over and started talking football. Turns out this guy's name is Randy and he was riding with two other guys, Joel and Bryant. I found that all three grew up in Utah, but Joel and Randy now live in Vegas. Bryant lives in Utah, but he had just recently moved from Vegas to Kaysville. Bryant and Joel had been friends for years, and Randy goes to church with Joel. They were all really nice guys and it was nice to have someone to talk to for the remaining 105 miles, at one point, Joel told Randy, "Hey we ought to run 26 miles after we're done to make this an Ironman event." to which I said, "you guys get your swim on this morning? I did... and by this morning, I mean last night... and by swim I mean shower..." I got a couple of chuckles from the surrounding riders. We hit the first aid station at mile 18, refueled, emptied our bladders, and took a couple of pics.

Me and Bryant at the first aid station

We then headed up and down the hills, mostly down, until we hit the second aid station at about mile 35. We then made the long descent to the Black Canyon of the Colorado to cross the newly completed Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge otherwise known as the Hover Dam Bypass Bridge. We were all excited to be in a group of people to be the first to cross the bridge... It was pretty anticlimactic. We get on the bridge and hey! It's a road... I did get some good pictures though.

Hoover Dam from the Bypass Bridge

Me in my bones jersey on the bypass bridge.

Once we were done at the bridge, we passed through Boulder City, but not before ascending a good hard hill where we ran into one of Zazoosh's fantatstic photographers.

From L to R: some random girl, Bryant, Me, Joel, and Randy with Lake Mead in the background.

Just outside Boulder City, we hit the local bike path. Just after emerging from the bike path, we reached the halfway point where we scarfed down some lunch. At lunch, Bryant called his wife and told her to meet him at one of the aid stations up ahead. We went up and down the gentle rollers at a fantastic pace to reach her, and ended up dropping Joel and Randy off the back. As we passed an aid station I asked Bryant if he wanted to stop and wait for Joel and Randy. He was in a hurry to see his wife and kids, so he said no... big mistake... If you look carefully at the elevation profile, you will see that from mile 71 to about mile 91 is a long steady climb. We skipped the aid station somewhere around mile 60 and both ended up running out of water just as we started to climb, and just as it started to heat up. I started to get a little delirious and seriously thought about calling K Jo to come get only to remember that I had the keys to the car. Then I thought about hitting one of the in roads to get to downtown Vegas, but I pressed on. Bryant got ahead of me and I could see him bumming water off a girl. I met up with a guy also named Chris who has been riding since I was in diapers. I think he could tell I was struggling, cause he kept talking to me. Mercifully, we saw a SAG wagon around mile 80 and we were graced with ice cold water which got us into the town of Blue Diamond where we stopped for at least 20 minutes to recover and wait for Joel and Randy. we left Blue Diamond and crested the final climb where we were treated to a fast descent into Vegas. One more aid station at the top of a short climb put us 11 miles out. Bryant and I got behind the wheel of this tiny girl who pulled us to the finish line. I think her name was Erika, but she gots some skills! My total riding time was somewhere around 6:52:00, total time from start to finish including aid stations was 8:56:56. After the finish, we waited around for Joel and Randy to finish, snapped some more pics, then I rode the one mile back to the hotel where I met K Jo, finished off her room service and vegged on the bed for the rest of the day. Later that night we saw a show, went to bed and headed home for the long drive on Sunday morning. It was a great weekend.

The Tri-states Gran Fondo is... well... just that. A Gran Fondo (long distance event) through three states: Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

Again, with the map and elevation profile... this time, the event website combined the two:

This ride was somewhat capricious on my part. K Jo found it online, and having become facebook friends with Joel and Bryant, I decided to tell them about it too. Joel had plans on the weekend of Nov 6th, but Bryant rearranged some things and said he would be there, so I decided to sign up about two weeks before it was to take place. The start for this ride was at 7:30, so not such a harsh morning. Bryant and I met in the parking lot of the Virgin River Casino where we were both staying and rode the half mile to the start line.

Me and Bryant at the start line.

The course undulates up and down for the first 7-10 miles then starts to climb. There were only 125 people signed up for this ride, and I was in the lead group of about 30 for the first 7 miles or so. Eventually, their pace got too fast, and I dropped off hoping to save myself for the next 105 miles. As I was riding, I caught and passed a man named Jose. He eventually caught up to me again and we started chatting and I found out that he is from Orange Co California. He was nice enough to snap a few pics of me.

Jose catches me with the Arizona desert scenery in the background.

Eventually, we both caught up to Bryant who was riding with a guy named Dave. As it turns out, Dave Bern is the person who came up with the idea for LoToJa. A VERY popular 206 mile ride that climbs over three mountain passes (9000+) feet from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole in WY. We all chatted about riding and our lives while I snapped a few shots of Bryant

Bryant climbing the subtle incline up to Utah Hill.

Eventually, the four of us made it to the bottom of Utah Hill at around mile 17. Utah hill (from the south side) climbs over 2300 feet (most century rides don't climb that much in 100 miles) for 10.6 miles at an average grade of 4%. Not normally a tough climb, but enough to get you heart pumping and your sweat flowing especially knowing that you still have more than 80 miles to go when you reach the top. At the top was our first aid station where we filled up, packed some food in our pockets and started the very fast 1400 ft descent down the north side of Utah Hill. About seven and a half mile later we took a very hard left to start the loop portion of this lollipop route. The 58 mile loop had some very short, very steep climbs (some reaching grades of 15% we were told) but once those were over, we were able to rest while we descended or just moved our legs in the flats. The loop passed by Gunlock Reservoir, where we had a few hard climbs where we reached aid station number two in Veyo. I called K Jo and again refilled then we took a hard right onto SR-18 (be patient, I will get around to riding the whole thing someday) and descended passed Snow Canyon. With four of us, we went a little faster than I would have if I were on my own. One of us would hit the front while the other three got to rest for a few minutes in his draft. We made good time and before we knew it, we made another right onto Snow Canyon Parkway. After a few mile of this, we passed through the town of Ivins and just after mile 72, pulled into the third aid station. I did the outstretched camera thing with Bryant and all four of us took a much needed break.

This aid station was great because they had ice cold cans of Coke and Mt Dew. You wouldn't think that a carbonated beverage would be very appetizing on a long ride like this, but I gotta tell you, the ice cold combination of sugar and caffeine really really hit the spot. After a few miles, we finally closed the loop and made it to the bottom of the north side of Utah hill at mile 77. Now it was up to us to climb back up the 1400 feet in 7.6 miles to the top and the final aid station. Dave was the first to fall off, but not before Bryant pulled ahead. I started to fall back to ride with Dave and realized that he had ridden LoToJa's 206 miles and 9000+ feet of climbing 25 times in the past 27 years, I figured he would be okay, so I soldiered on. I caught Jose and we rode together for a little while, but eventually felt like setting my own pace and pulled ahead. The climb probably took the better part of an hour but we all finally pulled into that last aid station for more refills, more Coke and now V8. The salt was oh so delicious after sweating so much. The final 27 miles were sure to be a breeze as it was mostly all downhill. Dave pulled ahead of us to snap some photos for Cycling Utah, a local cycling magazine. We all hit the bottom of Utah hill and started to draft off each other until Bryant and a guy named Bruce that had joined us in Veyo pulled ahead. Eventually, Dave fell off again and Jose pulled ahead of me. At around mile 100, the road went up and down for the last 12 miles. With about 4 miles to go, Dave caught me and we rode to the finish line together, but not before being stopped at a stop light not 100 yards from the finish line... So anticlimactic... We pulled into the finish together as Bryant took a picture. Riding time for this ride: 6:57:00. Total time including aid stations: 7:54:14.

Dave and I cross the finish line.

We hung up our bikes, and I called K Jo who showed up with ice cold Red Bull (so amazing after a long hard ride) and got a picture of the five of us under the finish banner.

Dave, Jose, Bruce, Bryant and me after 112 miles and 7700 ft of climbing.

We all ate and talked about the ride while we ate sandwhiches and K Jo got a picture of me in my new hat.

All in all, this was also a great ride. I fell asleep around 8:30 that night from sheer exhaustion and K Jo and I arose early the next morning to head home. It was another great weekend. Thanks for reading.

October 2010 Goal Update

2010-11-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

It's a little late in coming, but here is the goal update for October. Goal for October: Bike 275 miles, run 35 miles, swim 5 km. Actual stats: Cycled 316.93 miles (thank you, Viva Bike Vegas), ran 27.25 miles, and swam 4.55 km. Totals so far at the end of October: Biked 2147.59 miles, ran 409.87 miles and swam 105.7 km. I did some quick calculations and so far in November, I have biked 239.24 mile. This means I have 613 miles to go to meet my goal... I don't think that will happen... However, I ran 5 miles last weekend which means that I only have 85 miles of running to go to meet my goal. With 7 weeks left in the year, I would have to run about 12 miles a week which is completely doable. I think I will shoot for that goal for sure. Stay tuned for a post about two century rides that I did within a month of each other. Thanks for reading!

September 2010 Goal Update and Xterra Utah

2010-10-12T18:47:00.000-06:00

Oi! Oct 12th and I never got around to updating my September goals! Okay, I started, but got a little lazy and never finished. AND I raced in the XTerra Utah on the 25th and never gave a recap of the race so here they are together. Goal for this month was 275 miles of riding, 40 miles of running and 10 km of swimming. I pedaled 248.16 miles, ran 32.75 and swam 4.25 km. So, I almost, made my goals. After I finished the Bear Lake Brawl, it has been hard for me to get out and train like I did before such a big race. Really the only thing keeping me going was knowing that I had a big bike ride coming up. Last weekend (Oct 9th) I rode the Viva Bike Vegas century ride (blog entry to come later). Now I just hope to work out at least 30 minutes a day until next racing season. I'm not worried about gaining weight or anything, I will be snowboarding a ton this winter, I just don't want to lose the level of fitness that I feel I have gained. At any rate, despite reaching my swimming goal, my running and biking goals seem pretty far off at this point. There is always next year. Now, on to XTerra.

I did this race last year, and was hoping for improvement. I was pretty confident that I would do better because of all the hours I had put in prior to this race. I woke up the morning of the race and rolled over to wake K Jo. She was sleeping like a rock and when I finally roused her, she declined on attending the race with me. I have to say, with all the racing we have done this year, I don't blame her for not wanting to wake up at 6:00 AM on yet another Saturday. I almost didn't want to go myself, but I had paid for the race, I might as well at least pick up my t-shirt. I left the house around 6:30 wishing I could leave just a little later because my race didn't start until 9:40. When I arrived at the race venue (Pineview Reservoir) I had to wait at the turnoff for ten minutes while the Trail Runners crossed the highway. When they were finished, I made it the the lake, picked up my packet, got marked up and put my bike and wetsuit in T1. I then had to drive up to Snowbasin to set up T2. I parked my car and asked about the bus back down to the lake only to be informed that I had just missed the last one. I hopped back in my car and as I was exiting the parking lot, was flagged down by two other racers needing a ride to the start line. Kylir and Mario promised me a ride back to my car after the race, so I was feeling pretty good. I finished setting up T1, and just as I was putting on my wetsuit, the pros started the swim. I watched as the pros finished the swim and I recognized Conrad Stoltz, Melanie McQuaid and Nico Lebrun (all VERY talented athletes). The Xterra long course athletes were up next followed by we short course competitors.

The swim was great and for the first time I didn't feel like I was suffering. There were 271 racers in the water, so it was pretty crowded and I got smacked, groped, and kicked several times. I was okay with this though, as I did a lot of smacking, kicking and groping myself. It's hard to avoid it during open water swims. I must be honest and say that halfway through the swim I thought of packing up my bike and heading home. I had raced a lot this year and really what was one more race? Then I remembered that Kylir and Mario would be waiting at the finish line, so I had better at least finish the bike. I exited the water, checked my watch and felt pretty good about my swim time. I stripped off my wetsuit, grabbed my bike and ran out of transition. 750 m swim time with transition: 17:46

Last year was my first time racing XTerra so I just kind of went with the flow and finished the race. The first few miles are wide double track so it is easy to go your own pace and pass people as you come to them. The rest of the ride is on singletrack, so passing is pretty difficult. Last year, I would get caught up in groups of people, then after getting bored, would ride on. This year, I vowed to go my own pace the entire 12 miles. The ride was just as I remembered it last year. There is one little section about 1.5 miles long that is a pretty fast downhill and during this section I got caught up in a group with two women followed by one guy. I wanted to go a little faster but, at those speeds, I was not gutsy enough to make a move. When we finally got to a section where I could pass, I noticed an 80 on the lead woman's calf... that's right, an 80 which means this wonderful lady was over 80 years old and she was racing the long course! I finally came to the ski resort, slipped out of my biek shoes and ran into transition where I headed out for the 5k run. Once I had finished the bike, I was feeling so good that I forgot entirely about quitting the race. Ride time with T2: 1:26:11.

As I started the run, I heard the MC anounce that Nico Lebrun had just finished third in the pro men's divisoin. The run from this year changed slightly from last year, but it wasn't any less difficult. As with the bike, I had a running strategy in mind. The run course follows a ski run up the mountain, then heads left up a cat track until it comes upon an actual trail at about mile .75. The next mile is a beautiful section of flat trail in and out of the trees. We then took a right up a very steep cat track for probably half a mile, then another right to run the last .85 miles down the same run we had just ran up. Last year, I ran the ski slope, walked the cat track, ran the trail, walked the cat track and pretty much fell down the mountain for the last section. This year, I was going to run everything. I made it up the ski slope easily enough, and the cat track wasn't as bad as I remember it. The trail running was fabulous and I gave it my all, letting gravity take me down the short downhill sections, pumping my legs as hard as I could up the short rises. When I got to the second cat track, I wasn't even sure if running slowly up it would make any difference from walking, but there were plenty of racers walking, so I would soon know. I was pleased to find that though it was, slow, I did pass a few runners up that section. The downhill section went by quickly and it took all I had to not fall down the mountain this year. As I descended, I passed our 80 year old friend riding her bike up the second part of the long course. I was impressed. I finished the run strong to the cheering of the crowd at Snowbasin. Total run time: 23:42. I found out later that Stoltz took the men's division win and McQuaid was the overall female winner. She finished just a few minutes before I did. The second place girl, Lesley Paterson, passed me in the last half mile of the run and Shonnie Vanlandinham, third overall woman was announced while I was in the finishing chute. And now for your viewing pleasure, a collage of pictures from Brightroom:

I felt good about the race and I was glad I could finish. Total time was 2:07:39. 16:10 faster than my time last year, good enough for 30th overal and 6th out of 36 men in my division. I had to wait around for literally an hour until I saw Kylir and Mario again and another hour for us to eat and get back down to the lake. I finally pulled into my garage around 5:30 that evening. It was a great race and overall a good day. Thanks for reading.

SR-114, 146, and 265

2010-10-02T02:33:00.000-06:00

I think I am crazy... That is the ONLY explanation for my behavior. Tuesday, (September 28th) I rode three state highways. I am training for a century ride in Las Vegas on Oct 9th called the Viva Bike Vegas. Okay it's not really a century ride (100 miles), because it is really 115 miles so it is a century-plus-fifteen ride. In order to get ready, one has to spend more time on a bicycle than should be allowed by local, state, federal, and universal law. Case in point, Tuesday I spent 4:52:02 in the saddle and rode 84.5 miles. A milestone for me as that is the farthest I have ever pedaled my bike and it is the longest amount of time I have spent on a bike seat... ugh... Interestingly enough, it was not my butt that was sore, it was the back of my calves that were sore... huh... Anyway, the three highways were SR-146, SR-114 and SR-265.

SR-146 starts at US-89 in Pleasant Grove. It rises slowly through some nice neighborhoods passing schools, churches, parks and even a golf course. It then peaks just before the end where is drops abruptly to terminate at SR-92, 5.3 miles long.

I started my day at home where I headed east then south along 700 E (SR-71). I eventually made my way to Minuteman Dr in Draper aka the I-15 frontage road by the Geneva Quarry. I rode past the quarry at the point of the mountain with (surprise, surprise) fierce head winds, then made my way down the hill past the Utah state flight park into American Fork where I hit SR-92, made a left and headed up the hill to reach the mouth of American Fork Canyon to ride SR-146. Now... next time you decide to go on a VERY long bike ride, do yourself a favor. Check UDOT's website to see what major roadways are under construction so you can avoid a million orange barrels. You will also avoid the wondrous experience of making a choice between riding on pristine asphalt in traffic or riding 2 foot wide slabs of asphalt covered in gravel behind the safety of a million orange barrels. That's your tip... I've done my good deed for the day. I made it through the gauntlet safely and ascended the short steep hill at the end of SR-146 (it wouldn't be a state road ride with Chris if he didn't ride it backwards) and gleefully pedaled to State St in Pleasant Grove.

Sorry, didn't see any "End" signs

After finishing SR-146, I headed right on US-89, then took an immediate left to start SR-114 (rode this backwards too!).

SR-114 starts at US-89 in Provo otherwise known as 500 W. It follows Center Street west up and over the train tracks (thus the spike in the profile), then dips under I-15 until it reaches Geneva Rd. The street then heads right (north) paralleling the freeway eventually passing SR-265 and SR-52. It again crosses under I-15, then terminates at US-89 (State St) in Pleasant Grove. This one passes by acres of farmland, some nice little neighborhoods some seedier parts of Orem and what used to be Geneva Steel. From the freeway to state st in Pleasant Grove the road is not very bike friendly, but there is a sidewalk to escape to, 10.8 miles.

I did my best to avoid becoming road pizza and as you can see, survived. I liked Geneva Rd once I got past the scary part south of I-15. I would have guessed that this would be a popular bike route, but I didn't really see that many bikers on this road. Maybe because it was a Tuesday. When I reached University Pkwy in Orem, I stopped at the Chevron to fill my water bottles with ice and bought some jerky. 'Nuther tip for you: if you want to get some strange looks, walk into a gas station wearing bike shorts and this bike jersey:

K Jo bought it for me a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it. It has the same thing on the back side of the jersey, only it looks like you are looking at the back of the ribcage. Moving on. From the Chevron I continued to make my way south until I made it to Center St in Provo. I turned left to head West and saw more "road work ahead" signs and thought, "Great... Time again for 'let's see how many close calls Chris can have'". In all reality, this construction wasn't too bad and Center St, despite being an older bridge, has a nice wide sidewalk to ride on. At the bottom of the hill I came upon 500 W (US-89) and was a little surprised to see the end sign. I thought the route went a little farther, but I was wrong. I took a quick break to snap some pics and moved on.

Gotta love Provo with their little decorative planters.

I headed to 900 E in Provo, took a left, then rode north to University Pkwy. From there I rode through the campus of BYU on an exquisite bike lane until I passed LaVell Edwards Stadium on the right to start SR-265. Again... backwards...

SR-265 aka University Pkwy starts at SR-114 in Orem it heads East up a big hill passing Utah Valley University. At the top of the hill, it is relatively flat as it makes its way past numerous commercial property filled with all kinds of businesses and The University Mall. From that point, there is a bike pat that curves south as it descends then south-east past more businesses where it ends at US-189, University Ave, 4.3 miles.

After admiring LaVell Edwards Stadium, I stopped at the light on University ave and felt sorry for the poor Cougars and Bronco. Hang in there guys, you will never be as good as Utah, but you will probably win another game this year... hopefully... I rode past the practice fields, got a nice pic of the 265 sign rode up the bike path to the top of the hill. At State St in Orem, I got back on the road and went down the hill stopping again at the Chevron to refill my water bottles and give K Jo an update on my ride status. By then, I had traversed 45 miles, only 35 more to go!

As I made my way north, back on SR-114, I crossed some railroad tracks and as I did, I heard the sickening clunk of my rim hitting steel, then the depressing "psssssssshhhhh" that followed as the air escaped my tire. I pulled over for a change of tube and as I pressed my CO2 pump on the valve, half the gas went into the tire while the other half escaped out the sides of the pump. GREAT... 35 miles to go, I got a pinch flat and now I have to ride on a tire that is half full, which will only increase the chance of another pinch flat. I did my best not to be disheartened, and plowed on. I made a wrong turn on Center St in Lindon (supposed to make a left at Center St in PG) and rode to a few dead ends before I realized my mistake. I again found SR-114 and kept riding only to be coerced off the road by a rather large semi. I had been riding for 50+ miles so I was okay with the sidewalk. I got to Center St (the right one this time) and went west hoping to eventually meet up with Redwood Rd which would take me straight to 9000 s, which would take me home. I made another refill stop at a gas station in PG and kept heading west until I crossed I-15. I rode over the freeway at the brand new Pioneer Crossing in American Fork and was really pleased to find it VERY bike friendly. As I crossed the bridge, I saw a sign for SR-145. Another state route that I wasn't planning on. The ride from the freeway to Redwood Rd was simply awesome despite the fact my tire was only half full. At Redwood, I saw a SR-145 end sign and realized that my plan to ride three state routes had just turned into a ride with four state routes. I had already turned off my GPS, and SR-145 is not on Google Maps yet, so I'm gonna have to make another ride to Utah County. At Redwood, I turned right and rode up a big hill, into more headwind (surprised anyone?) until I saw an oasis in a Smith's gas station where I refilled my tire to 3/4 full (why oh why do gas station compressors only go to 80 psi?), and made one more H2O stop in Bluffdale. Despite the vicious wind, I finally made it to 9000 s in South Jordan and then rode home. These three roads constitute 18, 19 and 20 on my quest. 620.3 total miles ridden, 242.9 miles of state roads. Thanks again, folks, for reading.

6 Hour Sufferfest. AKA Bear Lake Brawl Triathlon

2010-09-05T22:57:00.000-06:00

Shortly after finishing the Tour de France this year, Lance Armstrong was interviewed by Versus TV. They asked him what his racing plans are for the near future he said, "When you’ve suffered for three weeks, the last thing you want to think about is ‘Oh, what’s my next six-hour suffer-fest?'" Last weekend (Aug 28th) I endured my very first six-hour suffer-fest. That's right folks, I completed the Bear Lake Brawl Half Ironman Triathlon.

Last Friday, K Jo and I packed up the car, said goodbye to the dogs and headed to Logan, where we stayed at the Anniversary Inn. I little pricey, but it's not often that you do a half ironman, so I figured we could splurge a little. The first night, we stayed in the Lake Powell Suite. A Lake Powell themed room with a loft bed, jetted tub, big screen TV and gigantic fish tank. We lay in bed watching The Prestige while I drifted in and out of consciousness. The movie finally ended, we turned out the light and the next thing I knew, it was 5:00 AM, time to get up. We finally left the hotel a little after 5:20. My race started at 7:00 so I figured arriving around 6:15 would give me plenty of time to get ready for the race... Turns out, it wouldn't be... Just before the summit of Logan Canyon, we hit an elk... That's right, an elk... Well, okay it was only an elk calf, but still, it'll ruin your car not to mention your day. I was supposed to be competing in a half ironman in an hour, I really didn't need this to happen. Lucky for us, not so lucky for the elk I guess, we only kind of glanced the poor creature so it only smashed the windshield, ripped off the mirror, caved in the right quarter panel and ripped the headlight off its supports. Well, you can see for yourself:

I think the elk's head hit the windshield, K Jo said it looked at her right before we hit it.

The Car in my garage when we got home with views of the quarter panel, hood, headlight and mirror. We taped the windshield to keep glass shards out of the car.

The car was still very much drivable so we made it to Bear Lake with a little bit of time to spare. Then we hit the line... The race started at Rendezvous Beach on the southern end of Bear Lake which is part of the state park system so apparently we were supposed to pay to enter the park... So was everybody else, which made for a great big line of cars trying to get to the beach. Glad somebody told me... Oh wait... nobody told me. I parked the car on the side of the road and left K Jo just as the highway patrol called my phone to talk about the elk. I rode into the park pausing briefly to be told by an ornery park ranger that I had to pay three dollars to get into my race... seriously?... I handed him my debit card and watched him walk away from his little pay station... c'mon I'm already late dude! I FINALLY made it into the transition area with 10 minutes to go until race time. Now all I had to do was set up transition, go to body marking, pick up my timing chip, tape some GU to my bike and put on my wetsuit. I was just about to sit down and bawl when I found out that the race had been delayed 20-30 minutes because the previous night's storm had blown the buoys to Idaho. Hallelujah. For once the wind was on my side. Eventually I made my way down to the beach, listened to the Race Director's instructions on the race and the half ironman men were off. The swim course consisted of a diamond roughly 950 meters around. Two laps made for a little over 1900 meters which is 1.2 miles. we walked out to the first buoy roughly 50 meters off shore where we started swimming in knee-deep water. Some of the guys walked the first 100 meters or so... I was there to swim. The water was clear, cool and wonderful so the swim was great. I made it back to the beach and ran back to the park to enter transition. The 1.2 mile swim plus the run back took me 42:27. On to the bike.

The bike portion started at the state park, went out to SR-30 (coming soon to a blog near you) then up the east end of the lake. At the north end of the lake we turned west for about 7 miles where we turned around and headed back the way we came. I was feeling pretty good after the swim so I was not surprised when I was averaging around 22 mph on the first half of the bike. About 5 miles into the ride, I realized that I had left about half of my perpetuem (race fuel) in transition. I figured I would be okay because I could use it during the run... riding 56 miles gives you a lot of time to think. I tried to prepare well for this race by bringing plenty of fuel: GU, granola bars, and perpetuem. As I went to grab one of my two granola bars at mile 16, the other one fell out. I didn't really want to stop and turn around, but I didn't panic, we were riding an out and back, I could grab it on my way back. Around the 18 mile mark, there were two girls handing out bottled water so I grabbed one and stuffed it into my race singlet. I figured I would use this bottle for my perpetuem on the run. We finally hit the north end of the lake and started heading west when I realized why I had been rocking the bike. If you have been following my blog for long, you will know that I have a mortal enemy. It's the movement of air from a high pressure system to a low pressure system commonly known as wind... duh duh duh! Sometime while I was riding, the wind had picked up... ferociously... I rode to the turnaround point and back, then turned south... into the wind... *sigh* I hate wind... The first half of the bike took me somewhere between 1:10:00 and 1:15:00. The last half, around 1:45:00... I hate wind... Eventually I made it back to the water girls and they filled my water bottle for me while I took another bottle and stuffed it into my singlet. Remember when I said riding 56 miles gives you a lot of time to think? Sometimes you start to think about quitting. As I passed the point where I dropped the granola bar, I spotted it... in pieces... all over the road... I thought about quitting. I had trained for 5 months and now because of the stupid wind, I wanted to pack up and go home without even finishing my race... I hate wind... I eventually pedaled into transition, dismounted amidst K Jo cheering me on and found my spot. I finished the 56 mile bike portion in 3:04:28. I hung my bike on the rack, took off my helmet just as K Jo got there to talk to me. I told her I was exhausted and didn't really feel like continuing. K Jo told me she thought I was awesome for even trying and she knew I could finish. Like I said, I had trained for five months and thought about this race for even longer, so I decided to persevere. I grabbed two more GUs, mixed my bottled water with perpetuem and ran to the transition exit. On to the run.

The run was... well, it was supposed to be 13.1 miles. It follows some rural roads in Laketown, UT in a loop that is 12.7 miles long. Knowing this, the race director decided to add a spur on one of those roads that goes out and back to add the 0.4 miles to get to the full 13.1 mile distance. Happily, there were aid stations every two miles. Sadly, there was nobody to man them. Remember the cantankerous park ranger? Apparently he scared off 30 volunteers from Logan the night before the race, add to that the storm and only 20 of the registered 90 volunteers showed up to the race. There was again wind during the run... did I mention I hate wind? so much so, that I actually cursed the wind... out loud... using swear words... After the windy bike ride, I was spent. I also didn't eat enough during the bike (leaving perpetuem in transition will do that to you), and I dropped one of my GUs somewhere during the run. Around mile 10, I broke down and had to start walking. I tried to walk as little as possible knowing full well the faster I go, the sooner it would be over. I finally made it back to the park and it was still packed with spectators cheering me on. I felt pretty emotional running the last 100 meters. I looked everywhere in the crowd to see my darling wife, but never found her. I crossed the finish line, knocking out the run in 2:18:30. I put my hands on my knees while they took my timing chip off my ankle and put a finishers medal around my neck. I stumbled over to a picnic table and laid down where I overheard some people saying the run was actually 13.8 miles. Remember that little spur I was talking about? I think the people placing the turnaround cone didn't really think this through. I think they figured, that's about half a mile, so we need to go down this road for about half a mile, which added more distance to the run... that's just cruel... I downed some water and an orange slice and made my way to transition where I packed my stuff. I found K Jo watching a movie in our car on the portable DVD player. She had missed me running in, but I can't blame her, she had been waiting for seven hours for me to finish the race. Overall, with transition times, I finished in 6:11:31. Good enough for 35th place out of 96 racers. I was mad all weekend long because of the elk, the wind, the lack of volunteers, the ornery park ranger and the longer than expected run. I was also upset that I didn't finish in less than 6 hours like I had hoped. Just as Lance said he wasn't looking forward to his next six-hour suffer-fest, I never wanted to do another triathlon again. Monday night I was getting ready for work when it hit me... I completed a freaking half ironman... WOO HOO! Can't wait 'til next year when I will break that 6 hour mark!

I have been training since April for this one event so it was nice to finally get it over with. Along the way I have done other races like Fourth Street, South Davis, Salem Spring, and Strawberry Fields. I also did a couple of half marathons, but I never really felt like I could go all out on those races because those were only preparation for this race. Now it's over and I only have one race left. Xterra Utah. I did this same race last year, and I am looking forward to competing again, hopefully to cut oodles of time off last year's results, is it okay to say oodles without saying noodles right after? I WILL be going all out on this race, hopefully so much so that K Jo has to carry me back to the car. Once that is finished, I have two weeks to "relax" before K Jo and I head to Vegas for the RTC Viva Bike Vegas Century ride. It's been a great couple of months. Hope you enjoyed reading!

August 2010 Goal Update

2010-09-01T05:47:00.000-06:00

Well it is the early in the morning on the first day of September and it just hit me that I need to throw down a goal update. My goal for August was to bike 350 miles, run 60 miles and swim 10 km. I was close. As they say, two out of three ain't bad. I a.l.m.o.s.t. got to my biking goal pedaling 333.1 miles last month. I did run 71.6 miles and swam 16.7 km so those goals were accomplished, and I actually competed in, and finished a half ironman triathlon. That race was August 28th. I finished in 6:11:31 falling short of my goal of sub 6 hours, but I am still happy and proud. I will post another entry about the race itself. I still have one triathlon and at least a century ride this year, so I feel like I still have plenty of time to get to my goal. So far I am halfway to my biking goal, almost two thirds of the way to my run goal and I am less than seven km short of my swim goal. Look for a posting about my race to come shortly and keep watching every month for goal updats. Thanks for reading.

SR-65... and 86

2010-08-16T03:08:00.000-06:00

Few things are more exhilarating than blowing snot rockets with one hand on the handlebar at 35 mph down a 6% grade. If you haven't figured it out by now, I did a little descending on Thursday (Aug 12th). Okay... a lot of descending... But I also did a lot of climbing, so I EARNED those 35 mph snot rockets. I went on a long ride to the tune of nearly 5 hours on SR-65, and since I decided to add all the little short highways I also did SR-86.

SR-65 starts at I-80 near Mountain Dell Reservoir. It heads north, descending down a short hill to Mountain Dell Golf Course where it then climbs a steep grade for a mile until it levels out and passes Little Dell Reservoir. About a mile after passing the reservoir, the road ascends a little over 4 miles to the top of Big Mountain Pass where it continues down into East Canyon. A short while later, it passes East Canyon Resort, then East Canyon Reservoir where it intersects with SR-66. The road meanders north east for a little less than 9 miles until it terminates near the town of Henefer at I-84, 28.3 miles long. In the town of Henefer, SR-65 runs into SR-86. That road runs from Henefer to I-84 for 2.1 miles. Here is the map and elevation profile:

Training for the half ironman is going well. I was supposed to 3 hours of riding, then 20 minutes of running on Thursday, but I have been itching to do this route for a while so I decided to just go out and hit it knowing full well it was going to take me well over three hours. I headed out early Thursday morning to beat the heat, and pulled off the freeway at the Mountain Dell Exit, then parked my car at the top of the hill. On the way up, the radio said... the DJ on the radio said (radios don't talk, silly Chris) that the high for the day would be somewhere in the 80s, currently somewhere in the 60s. Uh Oh. I filled my water bottles from my new water cooler, and hit the road (he he). On the way down the hill, I thought through my frozen brain that arm warmers would have been a nice thing to bring. I wiped the frozen snot from my nose at the bottom of the hill and started up the steep incline desperately wishing the increased blood flow would bring life back into my icy arms. After conquering the short climb, I thought seriously about heading back to the car until I came into the sun and started to thaw a bit. For me, riding and running is ALWAYS most difficult at the beginning. I passed Little Dell

Little Dell Reservoir from Big Mountain. I took this one day while riding my mountain bike

and looked ahead to the archway formed by the trees over the road and saw a red flashing police light. I thought "that's weird" then quickly realized that the red light was in fact a red bike jersey which gave a nice flashing light effect as the rider passed from shadow of the trees to the light breaking through. Ha ha! My first victim! I gave a little extra effort then upon thinking of the horrid amount of climbing I would have to do, I backed off. I eventually caught the poor soul only to find that he was in fact a Dr. Matt Belman. I had no idea who he was, but I thought it would be nice to climb with someone to talk to. On the way, we chatted about cycling and triathlon and I asked him where we might stop for refills. We continued pumping our legs on up the steep switchbacks

Again from the top of Big Mountain, you can see some of the switchbacks of SR-65 on the mountain in the middle of the picture.

passing a couple more riders on the way. I never got their names, but they seemed like nice fellows. When we reached Big Mountain Pass, we stopped for a minute or two for a food and water break, then Matt told me I could descend as fast as I wanted but that I ought to wait at East Canyon Resort (for a refill) I did... of course... hitting 44 mph and I caught up to the "nice fellows" near the bottom of the descent. I waited for Matt who showed up a few minutes later, and we refilled. We continued on and kept chatting when the wind in our ears and the width of the shoulder would permit. We climbed a short steep ascent, then cruised on into Henefer. On the way we discussed where to go once we reached Henefer. I stopped at the freeway to snap a pic of the end sign and Matt continued on to see what the road to Echo Reservoir looked like. When I finished up, I saw him coming back to me, so we continued on to the general store in town for another refill. I convinced Matt to ride with me down SR-86 (didn't take the time for a sign photo here) and he convinced me to take the freeway... yes, the freeway... down into Morgan. It probably isn't the best idea I've have ever had, but judging by the fact that I am here writing this, it turned out okay. There was one particularly frightening moment when we were passed by two semi trucks, side by side traveling upwards of 60 mph four feet away. For you mathematicians out there, I'm talking to you Josh, that's 40 mph hour faster than the 20 we were riding. He he. We reached Morgan and stopped at the 7-11 in town for yet another refill before the ride back up the hill to East Canyon Reservoir. While there, I bought some jerky to snack on. Matt did the same thing at the general store in Henefer so I figured I'd try it out and I think it is going to become a habit... so good... thanks Matt! We rode up the road (SR-66 if you didn't figure that out) and were nearly hit by a crazy lady in a big SUV going too fast around a blind corner not paying attention with another car coming the other way. We threw our hands in the air, Matt had a few choice words for here, and she skidded to a halt. I rode up to her window and she squabbled something about us being in her way and I told her, "We have more to lose of you hit us... You ought to be more careful!" She stared at me like I was from Pluto and yellled, "I need to be more careful!?" and squealed her tires as she sped away angry. I told myself that she thought about it later, realized she was in the wrong and prayed to her Heavenly Father for his and my forgiveness... I forgive her... After summiting SR-66, we rode past the reservoir back to the resort for another refill and begin the arduous climb back to Big Mountain Pass. I did most of the talking at this point. I was still feeling pretty fresh despite having ridden 50 miles already, but Matt had ridden close 15 miles more than me when I caught up to him. We continued on up the hill and finally reached the top. We stopped for another food break and Matt thanked me for the great ride and for pulling him up the hill (it's a cycling thing, you don't actually pull people up the hill, it's just a bit easier to go when you have someone with you). We exchanged phone numbers and I descended down to my car, blowing snot rockets on the way. I got in my car, stopped for a picture and headed home. After arriving, I got right on my treadmill and ran 2 miles. Yes... I am crazy. Today's ride was 74.1 miles, somewhere around four hours 55 minutes. Top speed 44.1 mph, average speed, 15.1 mph. These are my 16th and 17th state roads, 535.8 total miles ridden, 222.5 miles of state roads. Thanks for reading!

July 2010 Goal Update

2010-08-03T02:45:00.000-06:00

August is here, July is over. Time for a 2010 goal update. July's goal was 400 miles cycling, 65 miles running 15 km swimming. I fell short of the biking goal and biked 301.33 miles. I smashed the running goal and ran 95.2 miles this month. A big portion of that was running two half marathons this month. The Handcart Days Half Marathon and the Crandall Canyon Memorial Half Marathon. K Jo and I both ran both of those races. I did them as training runs in preparation for the Bear Lake Brawl Half Ironman. Handcart Days Half was in Bountiful. I ran the first 3.5 miles w/ K Jo then kissed her and said, "Have a good race, I am going to start running now." I finished 2:02:41, K Jo finished in 2:24:37. It was a good race and a nice course, but there were only three aid stations and no bathrooms that I could see on the course. Crandall Canyon started at 8800 feet at the top of Huntington Canyon then rose and descended to the entrance of the Crandall Canyon where the Crandall Canyon Mine is located. For some reason they dropped us off in buses about a quarter mile behind the start line. We ran this one together. Again, it was just a training run for me and it was fun to push K Jo a little bit. We finished in 2:11:57. One of her best finishes ever (I think her best, but she says she and her sister ran a race before we got married and she ran 1:43:something... I'm not holding my breath for proof). She was happy about it and I got my training hours in. As for my swim goal, I eeked over that with 15.1 km swimming. I have a lot to make up if I want to reach my goal for 2010, but there is time and a lot of good things in my plans. K Jo and I are for sure going to do a century ride in Vegas in October and maybe another in Mesquite in November. I will write about those too. Thanks for reading!

Strawberry Fields Triathlon and Cali/Vegas Trip

2010-07-25T00:45:00.000-06:00

Last weekend (July 18th) I competed in the Strawberry Fields Triathlon. Before Sunday, I had never done a triathlon outside of Utah and I was itching to see how I would perform at sea level and I thought it would be way fun to race in the ocean so I found this race. It took place in Oxnard, CA which is on the west coast near Ventura, CA or about 50 miles west of Los Angeles. Since K Jo had the week before the 24th of July off of work, we decided to make this our summer vacation and we had a blast! Our original plan was to head to Cali and stay 5 nights at one of the hotels offering reduced rates for racers. Then K Jo reminded me of an e-mail we received from the Suncoast Casino in Las Vegas where we stayed for my first half-marathon in March of 2009. They were offering $40 a night for weeknights, so we decided to stay one night on the way down and two nights on the way back. We left Sandy Thursday afternoon and stayed the night in Vegas. We left the next morning and headed to Oxnard. On the way down, we drove through the Mojave National Preserve just inside the California state line. We continued on through to I-40, then to Oxnard and arrived at our hotel Friday night. We went to the beach Saturday morning where I snapped a pic and sent it to my very jealous friend, Griffin (he is a surfer and is currently stuck selling satellite TV in Illinois).

I picked up my race packet and we spent a few hours at the beach where I practiced going out past the break water and then coming into the beach so I didn't get completely swallowed by the ocean on race day. It was a good thing I did, because I got munched by more than a few waves (and later got a sinus infection from it... I think... It is amazing how you can feel water running into your nose and down the back of your throat whilst rolling around on the ocean floor). We headed back to the hotel and I headed out on a bike ride. I got back and showered. Upon toweling off I once again came to discover that sunscreen is generally a good idea (I was excited to go swimming and took my time to apply).

The next morning we woke up very early and headed back to the beach for the race. They had a parking lot right at the race venue which was convenient, but it also cost 5 dollars AND it closed at 6:30. We got there a little after that, so we parked in the free parking about half a mile away. Normally this would pose a problem, but they offered assigned rack space in the transition area. I rode to the park and prepared. For this race, they had two distances: sprint (750 m swim, 11.5 mile bike, 5k run) and olympic (1500 m swim, 23.2 mile bike, 10k run), (a map of the race is here) and they sent the racers out in waves, which was prudent considering there were over 850 people racing. The sprint waves started at 7:30 and the olympic waves started 20 minutes later. They closed the transition area at 7:15 and we all walked out to the swim start.

I did the olympic distance race and had to wait. I played in the water and chatted with other racers until we saw the sprint racers take off.

Finally, we got to enter the water where we took off straight into the waves and swam for about a quarter mile until we hit the first buoy where we turned right. Four more buoys and nearly half a mile later, we turned right again and headed to the beach. The swim was a little harder than I expected, but body surfing the waves near the finish was way fun. I was hoping to finish in 30 min, but instead pulled a 34:28. Part of that time was running from the beach to transition which was a little less than a quarter of a mile through fairly deep sand. I headed into transition, put on my shoes and helmet, grabbed my bike and headed out for two loops of a flat, flat, flat bike course. The bike followed a road that paralleled the beach for nearly three miles, then turns right and heads past acres and acres of strawberry fields for another 2 miles where we turn right again past more fields for about a mile and half. The course turned right again and headed just over a mile down a long stretch of road, up a small hill where we turned around for a fast return to the main bike course taking another right.

We continued on where we finally hit civilization passing numerous condos and shopping centers for a last right turn onto a street that goes up and over the Channel Islands Harbor where the road sneaks back toward the park where we started loop number 2. I had fun, but tried to back off a little bit. I didn't want to empty the tank before I got to the run, so I was more than happy to let all kinds of people pass me.

After loop 2, the course took a left into transition where I grabbed my running shoes, racing hat and a GU and headed out to the run course, not entirely sure I could run 6.2 miles. I finished the 23.2 mile ride in 1:06:54. I was hoping for a 1:10:00, so I was pleased with my ride. The run course was great. It left the park and headed down a beach path into a quiet residential neighborhood. Along the path, K Jo was waiting for me and snapped some pictures. We headed up a dead end street then turned around and ran a mile to another turn around and an aid station. Along the way, residents were on their porches watching the race, some with hoses and sprayers offering the racers a way to cool off. After another mile, the sprint racers headed to the finish, and we olympic racers headed out for round number 2 of the run course. After the turn around here, K Jo got a pic of me dumping water on my head to cool off.

I ran the second half of the race faster than the first half. I felt the strongest at mile 5 and turned up the heat a little bit. Just before the finish, I saw K Jo again where she snapped some good pictures.

The professionals at brightroom also got some great shots

I finished the run in 50:31. I was hoping for just under 50:00, but I was happy with my result. I had a goal to finish in 2:30:00 (excluding transition times). I came in at 2:36:14, so I was pretty pleased with my race. You can find my full results here. I am number 19 on the list. I was a little disappointed with the post race food, but they did have big cups full of huge delicious strawberries.


this is gonna be awesome!

mmm...

We stayed that night in Oxnard and watched the sun set over the ocean.

Going...

going...

gone.

The next day, I woke up and went on a ride back towards the coast. I headed north and went through Venture where I found a bike bath that followed the beach. I followed that path for about 7 miles then turned around to look at a map. I stopped to admire the ocean and as I did I could see several dorsal fins coming up and out of the waves. There was a small pod of dolphins swimming about 40 yards off shore. It was amazing. When I got back, K Jo and I packed and drove down the pacific coast highway through Malibu. We stopped at a public beach so I could go swimming again and K Jo sat and watched me make a fool of myself. Again, I got munched by the waves, but I had a blast. We got to Vegas and when we went to check into our hotel room, the clerk told me that the hotel was sold out so they upgraded us to the luxury suite. It WAS sweet. Our room was just under 1800 sq feet (a shade smaller than my townhouse) and it had floor to ceiling windows on three sides of the room, a bar, a living room, four televisions (two of which were 32 inch flat screens), a gigantic jetted tub, a huge shower, remote control curtains, a king side bed and one and a half bathrooms. Check it out:

Entry way. Right is the living room, left is the bedroom.

living room.

bedroom

master bathroom.

I woke up the first morning and went on a long bike ride. I got back just in time to see K Jo leaving for the gym. After she went running, we headed downtown and rode the NY, NY rollercoaster, and caught a Cirque du Soleil show. We didn't really feel like leaving our room to eat, so we ordered TGI Fridays to our room. The next morning I got up and rode again, then went on a short run. When I got back, I showered and we drove home. It was a great vacation. Up next is the Bear Lake Brawl and more than likely a few state road rides. Thanks for reading!

June 2010 Goal Update

2010-07-08T02:21:00.000-06:00

Hey blog fans. Just a quick update on my 2010 goal. In June I had a goal to bike 650 miles, run 60 miles, and swim 15 km. I fell short in the bike, rode 291.9 miles, and the run, ran 32.8 miles, but I exceeded my swim goal with 19.2 km. Training is going pretty good. I'm feeling stronger, and going faster than I have in the past, so I feel great. The real goal is to stay fit, and I am doing it! Yay me! In about a week and a half, K Jo and I are off to sunny SoCal for the Strawberry Fields Triathlon and in only 8 weeks I will be doing the Bear Lake Brawl Half Iron Man! Hope you all have enjoyed reading!

SR-190

2010-06-29T13:05:00.000-06:00

Don't you hate it when you're riding your bike down a hill and all you can think is, "Go faster you stupid car."? I didn't actually think that on Tuesday (June 29th), I have before, but not then. I thought I would because I rode SR-190, aka Big Cottonwood Canyon which is a big... freaking... mountain... As the saying goes, what goes up must come down, I went up the mountain and so I HAD to come down the mountain... to the tune of wind screaming past my ears at over 50 mph... but only for a second or two. My average speed down the hill was probably closer to about 35 mph. You still get pretty good screamage at 35 mph. I had a pretty rough weekend... Work was crazy... I was busy attending a wedding reception and church, and I went home teaching. I have stuff going on at home that is UBER stressful that I won't go into now and Monday afternoon... I sliced my finger opening an envelope... that's right... an envelope. Monday night, I went to a movie with Kathy Jo, which wasn't stressful, just time consuming. Tuesday was the last night of my seven on, and with all the stress, I chose to sleep instead of train (not really sure if it was a good trade off) so I hadn't done anything "cardio" since I ran on Friday. With all the other things going on, I was in sore need of a fix. All night long Monday night, all I could think about was riding. I wanted to do a good, hard, long ride and thought, "Big Cottonwood Canyon".

SR-190 starts at the junction of 6200 S and I-215 in Holladay. It meanders lazily in a south-east direction up a hill until it becomes Wasatch Blvd where you can start to see the canyon.From there, it descends for about a mile until it runs into Fort Union Blvd where it takes a hard left and heads east up Big Cottonwood Canyon. When I say up, I mean UP! It is one tough climb. Just before entering the canyon, you cross the Wasatch fault. As the sign says, there is a "geology sign" in a parking lot just off the road. The sign explains a little bit about the geology of the canyon and throughout the canyon there are more signs similar to the one above showcasing the canyon's geology. The first four miles of the actual canyon are well shaded by trees which makes for a nice ride. Just before milepost four, you pass the Stairs Hydroelectric Power Plant. It was built in the late 19th century and is still run today by Pacificorp generating a little over 1 megawatt of electricity.
Right around milepost six, you hit "the S curve" I "zoomed in" on the S curve in my map at the top of this post, because it is one of my favorite features of this canyon. In about a quarter mile, you rise about a hundred feet. The S curve itself is not really steep, it is the hundred yards of a steep 20% grade at the end of the S curve that make it so difficult (aka fun) to ride. Just after milepost 8, there is a well spring that provides delicious drinking water to thirsty cyclists (or hikers or drivers or whatever you may be). The canyon continues to rise passing several hiking trails, picnic areas, campgrounds and residential homes until milepost 14 where you pass the first entrance for Solitude Ski Resort. Just before milepost 16, you enter what is called "The Brighton Loop". A one way road, about 0.7 miles long that passes homes, a church and Brighton Ski Resort (a favorite of mine). The route loops around (thus the loop) and temporarily ends where it joins back with itself at the end of the loop. The route then resumes 0.3 miles later as the road switchbacks for nearly three miles to Guardsman Pass where it terminates at a dirt road marking the county line totaling 19.9 miles.

Monday night, I mapped out a ride figuring out how far I would be riding, estimating how long it would take me and waited. I finally left the hospital and got home to get ready. I decided that since I am riding up such a narrow windy road, I should be as visible as possible so I donned my bright Maillot jaune (yellow jersey for those that don't follow le tour... shame on you...) with my matching jaune... socks... (I don't know the french word for socks...).

yes, they do say "addict" and "live to ride" See:

gotta love it!

I figured it would take more than three and a half hours to finish this ride, so I wanted to take the opportunity to practice fueling for the half iron-man in August, so I packed ample amounts of fuel:

It is amazing what you can fit into three pockets of a cycling jersey.

I didn't actually pack the BIG bottle of "perpetuem" or the big bag of dried fruit, but I did pack the small baggies next to them. I usually only carry two bottles of water when I ride, but I wasn't sure how many opportunities to stop and refill I would have, so I decided to stuff one extra bottle into my jersey pocket. I also packed four granola bars, a packet of electrolyte supplement, four GUs and a packet of GU chomps (kinda like fruit snacks, equivalent to two GUs). Before leaving, I ate one of the GUs, and a slice of bread and taped the other three GUs to my bike (a trick I learned in a triathlon video I got from the library):

When I need a GU, I just tear it off and it's ready to eat!

I aired up my tires, attached my GPS unit and my cycling computer for maximum accuracy. I was pleased as I was riding to see the limp flags on the few flag poles along 8000 S. As many of you know, I often ride in fairly windy conditions, so it was nice to ride in calmer weather. I was a fool to think the day would be so simple. I made my way along side streets to 6200 S and Holladay blvd where I was nearly run over by some inconsiderate jerk in a big black SUV. I caught up to him at the light and menacingly stared him down only to see that he was on his cell phone... typical... I let it go and proceeded under I-215 to begin the actual route. As I rode up the hill, I glanced behind me looking for an end sign in case there was not one at Guardsman Pass, I didn't see one, but I did see the big brown sign you see at the end of this post (no end sign at the top of the pass either) along with another sign for SR-210 aka Little Cottonwood Canyon. I pulled over to snap a photo. My phone was in the same pocket as one of my water bottles which was filled with ice. I think the cold affected the battery because my phone did not want to cooperate. I finally got it to behave but I was facing the sun and decided to come back later in my car to take a picture. I continued on and realized that I had forgotten to turn on my GPS unit. I considered heading back down the hill, but figured I was coming back anyway so I could record my GPS data then and I had a heck of a lot more climbing to do and the sun was rising fast only making it hotter. No time to waste by backtracking. I continued on. I made it to Fort Union and rode left to the mouth of the canyon. The shade provided by the many trees lining the road was SO nice I hardly noticed how hard I was working to make my way up. I passed the power station, and made it to the S curve in surprisingly good time. I girded my loins for the sharp rise and was shocked at how easy it was to ride the curve until I got to the steep section I noted before. Near the top, I turned my head and saw a lone rider in a brown jersey at the bottom of the S curve and reflexively pedaled harder as to not be caught. I had to tell myself to slow down. "I am not in a race and I have a LONG way to go still". As I climbed I would glance back to look for my new friend but didn't see him till much later. I passed the spring and considered stopping, but decided to wait until the Spruce Campground (if I stopped he would catch me and we can't have that now can we?). I soon made it to the campground and pulled off the main road to find a water spigot. As I was riding in the campground, I looked to my left and about five yards away from me, I saw this guy:My heart skipped a beat when he saw me and started to run. I was relieved to see he was running AWAY from me and I found my spigot, refilled my water and turned around. I saw him again about 25 yards off the road so I pulled out my phone, zoomed all the way in and got a few good shots of the big guy (the whole time I had one foot on the pedals ready to drop my phone and ride if he started to charge). I made it back to the main road sure that brown jersey was long gone... oh well... I continued climbing past picnic areas, more campgrounds, beautiful views of Big Cottonwood Creek, and several trail heads. I eventually came to Solitude and thought "how nice, should be a short ride to Brighton, then a nice hard climb to Guardsman." I passed Solitude and saw yet another steep hill. By now, I had been riding about twenty miles, had finished one bag of perpetuem (by the way, perpetuem is in powder form. You mix it with water then drink it), and a bottle and half of water. When I saw that hill, I thought, okay... just make it to that tree, then look for another land mark. I would make it to the next tree, or the bend in the road or the next delineator post until I made it to Brighton loop. I headed straight for the lodge to use the... facilitates... only to find that all the doors were blocked with garbage cans from the inside so I continued around the Brighton loop. If you look closely at the elevation profile, you can tell where I was at this point because it is the only portion of the ride where I got to go down the hill until turning around at Guardsman Pass. I descended a little over a quarter mile to the turn off and used as much momentum as I could to carry me up the hill. I rounded the first switchback and thought, "That wasn't too bad". I started up the next hill and pulled over for "sweet relief". After exiting the bathroom, I saw another cyclist and the knee jerk racing reaction kicked in again and I spun to keep up and again had to tell myself to slow down... I looked up... about 400 feet above me and to the north to see a car heading along the mountain thinking "There is no way that I have to go there"... I did have to go there... It was another game of make it to that bend, okay now that tree, okay now get to the top of that rise. Every time I crested a hill, I was disappointed to find another sharp rise looming in the distance. I had to stop to catch my breath twice up the hill. I was after all about 9400 feet about this time. I decided on one of my short breaks to take a picture of Big Cottonwood from (near) the top:
Eventually, I cranked my way to the top and was rewarded with a nice view down into Heber Valley and Park City:
I had just climbed about 5300 feet in just over 26 miles. I chomped on one of my granola bars while marveling at the view. I also chatted with a very nice man from the mid-west here in Utah visiting his son. He told me that they had ridden the Wasatch Crest Trail the day before on their mountain bikes... an excellent trail if you ask me. I said goodbye to the man and headed back down the mountain. The wind had picked up be now and was blowing pretty hard from the south. I am dead serious when I say it was more fun climbing Guardsman Pass than it was descending. It was pretty scary. The grade is so steep, that even with the brakes on you are still clipping along at a good pace... maybe I need new brake pads... Anyway, I finally made it... alive... to the canyon and from there the grades are not nearly as bad. This is where the fun began. I descended and descended and descended and felt like a pro biker in Le Tour. It was really cool because there was long straight, steep section of road where I maintained about 49 mph for about a minute and a half. I pushed a little harder to see if I could break 50 and I did for only the second time in my biking career. By the time I made it to the spring the wind had shifted and was now blowing north east which meant I was riding into the wind... what is it that the wind has against me? My favorite part of the ride was, of course, descending the S curve. I restrained myself in the speed department and swung around the curves at about 20 mph. I have never leaned at such a sharp angle on my bike... it was exhilarating... I giggled like a giddy school girl... I finally exited the canyon and headed straight down Fort Union to 900 E where I turned south (directly into the wind) and headed home. I was on the roads for over four hours! I think my GPS unit affects my bike computer (it is wireless) because my bike computer always matches the rides I map out unless I am riding with the GPS. The computer said I rode over 52 miles and that I had a top speed of 66.8 mph... yeah... I don't think so. Maybe from now on, I leave the bike computer home on state route rides. Actual riding time was 3:46:51. I rode 50.7 miles. If you are interested, you can see the whole route at map my ride. I averaged 13.6 mph and topped out at 51.1 mph (don't freak out mom, I felt perfectly safe going that fast and people have survived bicycle crashes at much higher speeds). This is my 15th state road, 461.7 total miles of riding, 192.1 miles of state roads. Thanks again for reading!

May 2010 (finally!) Goal Update

2010-06-24T00:41:00.000-06:00

So now that we are 2/3rds through June, I FINALLY decided to give an update on my 2010 goal for May. Mostly I have been putting this off because I didn't want to add all of those distances up and figure out how far I went this day, or how long I swam that day, but I have been VERY consistent on logging my training on strands.com and they have done all of the addition for me so these updates will be coming at the first of every month instead of later. Thank you Strands! I blew past my goal of running 55 miles this month and came out with 63.25 miles. I fell short of my 300 miles of biking only coming in at 270.4 miles (I think there were a few days that I opted not to work out and maybe if I had, I would have met that goal). I again smashed my goal for swimming this time more than doubling the 10 km I had planned and swam 22.86 km. May was a pretty intense month, but I'm feeling good. I have lost 10 lbs since April, and I feel WAY stronger running and swimming. I went on a long bike ride today and felt pretty crappy for the last 15 miles, but I did do a lot of hills and I was riding into the wind most of the time. On Sunday (June 20th) I went riding on yet another windy day and coming down Little Cottonwood Rd (a hill) with the wind at my back I saw my speedometer hit 51.8 mph. I have ridden a bicycle faster than 50 mph! Next goal: 55! I do feel stronger on the bike, I just wasn't feeling it today.

On another note, I did register for XTerra Utah, and I am very excited because the USA X-Terra Championships is being run in conjunction with the Utah X-Terra so this year I will get to meet some of the pros and get some autographs and some pictures. They were there last year too, but I was SO oblivious. This year I hope to meet Melanie McQuaid, Conrad Stoltz, and Shonny Vanlandingham. I also made another change to my race schedule, so this year I will be doing three out of the six races I had planned. Instead of doing the Utah Half on Aug 28th, I will be doing the Bear Lake Brawl half iron-man distance.

(I know the picture says "Sprint and Olympic challenge", but I did sign up for the half iron-man distance, I promise) It is up (obviously) in Bear Lake on Aug 28th. K Jo and I opted to spoil ourselves and I made a reservation for the Anniversary Inn at Logan in the Lake Powell Suite. I thought about camping at Bear Lake to save race day travel time, but I went camping for three days with the scouts last weekend and woke up every morning sore and stiff and that would not make for a good race day. We also changed our plans for staying in Cali for the Strawberry Fields Triathlon. Instead of staying five nights in California, we are driving to Vegas, staying one night, continuing on to Cali for three nights, then back to Vegas for two nights. It will cut our travel time to about six hours per day, it extends our vacation by one day and it will cut our hotel costs by about $80. An all around good idea. Thanks for reading!

SR-152

2010-06-13T19:41:00.001-06:00

Today (June 13th) was the first day in almost a week since I have ridden. I have been following my half iron man training program, and last week was very swim intensive. I also took three days off. Anyway, today called for a 75 minute ride, so I decided to tack on SR-152 (aka Van Winkle Expressway) as part of my ride. 152 starts out at SR-71, about 900 E and 4800 S in Murray. It winds its way south east, up a small hill for 3 miles where it terminates at I-215 in Holladay. I, as per tradition, rode this route backwards (okay I don't have a "tradition" but it seems like the last few routes have all been backwards first). The route was kind of scary at first because it is signed at 50 mph and for the first half mile, there is no shoulder, and it interchanges with I-215. I did my best to avoid being plastered, and finally made it to 6100 S where an ENORMOUS shoulder opens up. Being an "expressway", I didn't think SR-152 would get much bike traffic, but I actually saw two other cyclists on this road in the 10 minutes I was on it... on a Sunday... in yucky cloudy weather... Anyway, because I was riding it backwards, I was going down the hill and made a good pace. The route is also lined with trees which block the views of the surrounding homes, and at one point it passes through a nice little wooded area. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice of a ride this was. It's a short route, so this will be a short blog entry... sorry... Today's ride was 23 miles. I finished in 1:19:23 averaging 17.3 mph. Top speed was 36.5 mph. To date, this is my 14th state road. 411.1 total miles ridden, 172.2 miles of state roads. Thanks so much for reading.

Salem Spring Triathlon June 5th 2010

2010-06-10T23:41:00.000-06:00

Before I start, I was looking at the post about my race schedule for the year, and I realized that out of the five races I was planning on doing, I am probably only doing two. I did 4th street, Boise got canceled, I opted for Salem Spring instead of Willard Bay, I am going to California instead of Scofield, I will do the Utah Half, but I might not do the X-Terra. Funny how our plans change. Anyway, back to the re-cap.

As previously advertised, (also here) I recently competed in the Salem Spring Triathlon in Salem... Utah... not Oregon... or Massachusetts. This is a fun and technical race. 800 m swim, 13.5 mi bike, 3.1 mi run. Lots... of... hills... I did this race last year, but that was back in May of '09 before I started this blog, so no recap of that race... Okay maybe a short one right here. Got up, drove there (on the way had a cop put his hand out the window and tell me to slow down), got to the race, checked in, got marked, set up transition, swam, biked, ran, finished, then went home. At home, checked my times and a few days later, purchased photos from the race and here are my results from last year. I finished in 1:27:20, was 206th overall out of 640 racers, and 28th in my division out of 70 men 25-29.

For this year's race, I was planning on doing this whole big huge blog entry about race day from the time I got up until the time I got home. I was going to have K Jo take pictures of me at the registration table, getting marked with my race numbers, setting up transition, post race food, the whole nine yards. I got up and ate a small breakfast and packed all my gear. I then woke up K Jo and told her to get ready. I then went downstairs to put the bike on the car

and saw my bro-in-law, Gordon, as he was getting ready to leave (he stayed the night at our place and we were dropping him off in Spanish Fork after the race plus he wanted to see what a triathlon was like). I then ran back upstairs to check on K Jo only to see that she was still in bed. I roused her again and we all met at the car to head to Salem. As you can see, they were both SO excited to be up at 7 AM on a Saturday.

We went to the chevron down the street for a diet coke for K Jo and a banana for me, then turned back around and headed home to pick up something I forgot. Take Two. We hit the freeway and were making decent time only to discover that from 106th south in Sandy to about 146 south in Draper, we hit traffic... on a Saturday... I was thinking "I better see a pretty smashed up car if I'm waiting this long" but all I got was a couple of guys in orange vests smoothing some cement. This only delayed us further meaning no pics of the registration table, no pics of body marking and no pics of transition preparation so all you're getting is pics and a recap from the actual race. Some were taken by Gordon (aka Gordo), some were taken by the professionals at Zazoosh. Maybe when I compete in the Strawberry Fields Triathlon, I will have better luck... I won't hold my breath...

We finally arrived in Salem. I parked the car and headed to the race venue followed by Gordon who had been dancing in the back seat for the last 10 minutes of the drive (he had to go). K Jo laid her seat back and took a nap. As I found a spot in transition, I heard the MC announce that the "packet pickup table is closing in five minutes so get those shaved legs over there if you haven't already". I don't have shaved legs, but I went over anyway because I hadn't yet picked up my packet. After picking up my packet and timing chip, I got marked with race numbers and headed to my transition area to prep. In a triathlon, you are typically marked on your arm or arms with your race number, and on one of you legs with you division (usually your age). If you are competing in a race with multiple distances (sprint, olympic and duathlon) they will also write which distance you are doing along with your race number. This is terribly convenient when racing because you know that you need to edge out the guy with a 25 written on his calf and an "S" under his race number but you can ignore the guy with a "D" on his race number or a 42 on his calf. It also serves to impress when you see a guy that looks your age has a 56 written on his calf. When I made it back to transition, I saw a girl there that looked vaguely familiar. Turns out it was a girl named Megan that played basketball my freshman year at CEU. She said that she recognized me as well, and we chatted about triathlon stuff for a bit. By then, it was almost nine, time for the swim waves to start. Salem Spring Triathlon is held at Salem Pond which is a fairly small body of water. Last year there were nearly 650 racers, this year there were over 400 so to put that many people in the water at the same time would be pretty disastrous (assuming they all FIT). SO they do the swim in wave starts. The elite athletes start at 9:00, men under 29 at 9:05, men 30-39 at 9:10 etc. I grabbed my wetsuit (first time I have been able to use it, yay!) and headed to the water. When I got there I remembered from last year that the waves actually start at the transition area, where we all walk together as a group, so I headed back, stopping along the way to pull on my wetsuit. We watched the elite group start the swim then all settled in the water for our start. I used the time to marvel at how easy it is to float belly up in the water when you are wrapped in 5 mm of neoprene rubber. They sounded the alarm and we were off. Salem pond is long and narrow and there is a bridge that crosses the southern end. The swim portion took us under the bridge which is roughly the halfway point. As I was swimming, I was looking up or "sighting" to see the buoy that marked the turn and I happened to "sight" K Jo and Gordon standing on the bridge. I stopped, waved and called out K Jo's name. She jumped up and down excitedly and waved back, Gordo Snapped some pictures.

I am the one with his head turned. I know it looks like I am spitting water, but I am really not. I did however swallow about half a gallon of water during the swim... yummy... Salem Pond Water... I turned at the buoy and headed for the beach that marked the swim finish where I stripped my wetsuit down to my waist and jogged to transition to get ready for the bike. I finished the swim in 13:27. As I was pulling off the rest of my wetsuit, I glanced over and saw my cheerleaders at the edge of the transition area where Gordo got some more pics. One of me pulling my bike off the rack

The other one caught me heading to the transition exit.

The bike portion is 13.5 miles, a two loop course where you begin by rounding the southern end of the pond which has a small downhill grade. Then you climb. It's not a big hill, but it makes you work. At the bottom of the small downhill grade, I was passed by a guy in a red jersey (later found out his name is Sean). I passed him going up the hill, then he passed me at the top of the hill. When I caught up to him again, I asked him if this would be an all day thing, I pass him, he passes me. He laughed and said, "You can set the pace as long as it is easy." I sped ahead and took a drink of water where I dropped my water bottle. Why oh why do these things never happen in training, but often happen during races? Sean inevitably passed me. My usual MO in the bike portion is to look ahead and pick out a racer, then pick him or her off. This time I had Sean's red jersey to stare at. I finally did catch him between miles 3 and 4. He said "Nice recovery on the water bottle." I smiled and said "Yeah" then set my sites on another racer. The last two miles of the course are one of those deceptively flat hills except this one goes down. If you push a little harder, you can get some terrific speed. I dropped the hammer and also dropped Sean. As I was finishing up the first lap, I glanced to my right to see my cheerleaders chatting, completely unaware of my presence. I whistled as I passed. The second lap was pretty uneventful except that we started to see some of the women who started the swim a good 15 minutes after we did. I kept my eyes open for Megan, but never saw her. As I finished the last part of the second lap, K Jo and Gordon saw me and cheered as I sped past. Later, I was looking at the pictures Gordo took, I didn't see any of me on my bike. K Jo explained that I was just too fast... Thanks, baby... The professionals at Zazoosh, however, have a camera that is faster than me and they got this lovely work of art:

So serious! I descended the final hill into transition, stepped out of one of my shoes, unclipped the other and clopped into transition. Finished the bike in 36:21.

After taking off my one shoe, and my helmet, I put on my running hat and shoes and headed for the transition exit. The run portion heads immediately north and crosses another bridge on the north end of Salem Pond. I got off the bridge and caught up to a woman with an "E" on her calf and exclaimed, "I caught an elite athlete!" She laughed and I continued on. The run course for this race is on the local streets of Salem and it starts out by going up some subtle hills. Not anything to make you really work hard, but annoying just the same. At around the halfway point there is an aid station where I dumped a cup of water on my head and one down my gullet. Just after the aid station, Sean caught up to me and passed me and said hey as he did. This of course gave me a little motivation to push a little harder, he did after all have a glaring 26 on his calf meaning he was in my age group. At mile 2 the course finally starts to descend some hills. I caught up to Sean and stayed right next to him chatting about the hilly course until we had half a mile left. I asked him, "You aren't going to make me sprint to the finish are you?" He laughed and said "I sure hope not." to which I replied "Maybe we should just to give the crowd something to cheer for." He laughed again when we hit the bottom of the last little hill. Remember when Sean first caught me at the bottom of the little hill on the bike, well, that hill is at the end of the run. It rises, then falls sharply where you have about a quarter mile left. I started pumping my legs down the hill and gained about what I thought to be twenty yards on Sean. I saw my cheerleaders at that point but zoned them out and zoned in on the finish line just 100 yards away. Zazoosh just happened to be there too.
As I reached the chute that leads to the finish line with 50 yards to go, I heard the MC announce, "Looks like we have a duel for the finish." I thought "oh %*&#!@" Then I see out of the corner of my eye... a red jersey. I opened the throttle and gave it everything I had and screamed, "You said you wouldn't do this."
Sean just laughed as we crossed the finish line. I love that we are both smiling, but even better is the looks on the faces of the people in the crowd. We gave each other a high five and congratulated one another on a race well run. I finished the run in 23:26. With my T1 time and my T2 time, I had a total time of 1:17:37. NEARLY TEN MINUTES OFF MY TIME FROM LAST YEAR! Sean beat me by one tenth of a second! Little stinker. He was 6th in our age group and I was 7th out of 45 men 25-29. Overall, I was 79th out of 417 people. You can see all my results here. After crossing the finish line, I scarfed down some oranges, watermelon, and drank half a bottle of water, then dumped the other half on my head.

It felt so good. My cheerleaders showed up and K Jo said "I was yelling at you trying to warn you that that guy was catching up." I told her that I had tunnel vision for the finish line and was noticing little else. I grabbed some more food, then sat on the grass where Gordo got some more pictures of me and K Jo.

Just enjoying some licorice. And chatting with my pretty wife.

Gotta fix my number to look presentable for the camera. You gotta admit, I got some killer tan lines on my arms and legs.

I headed to transition to get my gear together and while I was, Megan came running up with her bike. I asked her how she was doing and she said, "Ah man I am so mad. I got a flat." She then headed off for the run. I looked up her times later and, other than the flat, she did pretty stellar on the whole race. We headed to the car, and got cheeseburgers on the way home. A great day and a great race. Thanks for reading!

SR-151

2010-06-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

A few months ago K Jo was working on our computer when it crashed... and we lost EVERYTHING. Pictures, music, video game save files, you name it, it was gone. About a week prior to the crash, I had moved all of my state road data from my flash drive to my desktop and never got around to moving it back so I lost all of that too. Pictures, maps, elevation profiles and perhaps most devastating... the list. I spent hours on that list and now it was gone, SO I have once again been working on a list of all the state roads in Utah. This time I just decided to go for broke and make a list of all the state highways, including the ones shorter than 5 miles unlike I had previously planned. While working on the new list, I decided that hitting the short routes would not be too difficult, it would just require a lot of planning. So the other day (Friday June 4th) I headed out on a training ride and decided to add SR-151 (aka 10600 S, aka South Jordan Pkwy aka 10400 s). As I said before, this is one of the short routes only 4.2 miles long. My actual training ride was about 18.8 miles. The highway starts at SR-154 (Bangerter hwy) then heads straight east and drops to the Jordan River where it rises briefly to terminate at I-15 in Sandy. I did this road backwards and started at I-15. This is one of those deceptively flat roads on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley where you will be riding along pushing yourself thinking "I am making great time." only to look at your bike computer and realized that you are making less than 15 mph and you don't understand why until you finish the ride and look at an elevation profile and realize that you climbed about 325 feet in 3.5 miles... Then you feel a little bit better about yourself. The rest of the ride was great because it was all downhill. I finished the ride in just over an hour so I was feeling pretty fast. The next day I did the Salem Spring Triathlon. I am waiting on pictures from that so show up so you will see a post about that soon.

This ride was 18.8 miles I did it in just over an hour averaging just under 18.8 mph. I don't remember the top speed but it was probably somewhere in the 30s. This is the 13th state road I have ridden. Total mileage: 388.1. Total state road mileage: 169.2 miles. Thanks again for reading.

SR-248

2010-05-22T18:16:00.000-06:00

I know, I know it's been like seven months, but it was winter, and I THOUGHT I MIGHT ride some of southern Utah's highways, but K Jo and I started snowboarding and I started training for The Utah Half, and... Anyway here is my latest adventure on Utah's State Highways: SR-248. To sum up the whole ride, here is a picture:

I love seeing flags when I ride because they are such great indicators of wind speed and direction. Yeah, that was my day... wind. I am picking up some shifts at Park City Medical Center so Saturday morning (May 22nd) I went there to become acquainted with the lab. I really didn't feel like driving all the way to Park City JUST to see the lab, so I decided to see what state roads were near Park City. Luckily, I found SR-248. I am in the middle of training for the Utah Half, and today I was supposed to ride two hours. How fortuitous that this road is 14.5 miles long with lots of hills meaning out and back would take two hours. The road starts at SR-224 in Park City. It drops slightly then rises a bit where it drops again to Jordanelle Reservoir. From there, it winds its way up the mountain where it peaks around 7000 feet, then drops into Kamas Valley finally terminating at SR-32 in Kamas.

I left the lab around noon and headed south to the highway. I took a left and began my ascent (the road to the hospital is at about mile 3 of the highway) I got to the top of the hill no problem and started to descend. Now, the wind was blowing pretty good in a north west direction. I was headed east, blissfully unaware that I was riding into the wind because I was descending a big hill. I got to the bottom and started a hard ride up another hill, again, into the wind. I reached the top but not before getting a great view of Jordanelle reservoir (I would have liked to take a picture, but I left my phone/camera in my car). At the top, the wind shifted slightly and was now blowing from the south. From the top of the hill, the road descends straight east right into Kamas. I screamed down the hill (go fast, take chances) topping out at almost 45 mph. When I hit Kamas, I stopped at a 7-Eleven to answer the call of nature. I tried this new stuff called perpetuem. It is a soy based endurance fuel for crazy people like me who go on bike rides and run and swim for two hours or more. I did a lot of research to plan adequately for the race in August, and apparently if you exercise for more than two hours, your muscles begin to cannibalize themselves for protein. To avoid this one must consume proteins, calories, carbohydrates (fuel) during the race. Anyway, perpetuem comes in powder form and you mix it with water. So I drank that stuff and a little water and it made me have to pee... a lot... After 7-eleven, I turned around and noticed that the wind had shifted... again... blowing in a north east direction... which meant riding into the wind... again... up the big freakin' hill I had just come down... I finally made it to the top and started to descend (again into the wind) so I never went any faster than like 35 (could not go fast, could not take chances). I made it to the bottom and looked up at the hill I had to climb and couldn't remember it being that big, then I realilzed that I had ridden down the hill (blissfully unaware) into the wind, so of course it didn't seem so big. About half way up, had to pee again but, Park City was still a few miles away. I eventually made it into town, did my business, and turned around to head back to my car. This time, I was riding down hill, with the wind and it took me only 7 or 8 minutes to get back to the road to the hospital where my car was parked. I had to turn almost completely around to head back west towards the hospital, and the wind had picked up considerably so it took about 5 more minutes to ride the mile back to my car. I got in my car, called K Jo and headed home. On the way, it snowed at Parley's Summit. I stopped to pick up some groceries, then got home and went... again... maybe this perpetuem is not for me. All in all, is was a great day.

Today's ride was 31.1 miles, I did it all in 2:04:53 averaging 14.9 mph with a top speed (amazingly) of 44.9 mph. This is the 12th state road I have ridden. 369.3 total miles, 165 miles of state roads. Thanks again for reading.

Couldn't find an "end sign" at either end of the highway but I don't think it would have mattered anyway because I left my camera in my car. The two pics I did get, I took in Park City while on my way home.

South Davis Splash 'n Sprint Triathlon

2010-05-13T01:39:00.000-06:00

Saturday I competed in the South Davis Splash 'n Sprint Triathlon. It was a pretty good race. 400 m swim in the South Davis Rec Center's pool, 12 mile bike ride around Bountiful including the legacy parkway trail and a 3.3 mi run on the streets around the rec center.

I started my day early, packed my bag put the bike on the car, drove to Bountiful (about 25 minutes from my house) and ate breakfast on the way. I arrived at the rec center, dropped my stuff off, picked up my race bag and timing chip and got all marked up (for those that have never been to a triathlon, they usually mark your arm and leg with your race number). I then set up my transition area then wandered aimlessly (and took a warm up lap around the rec center) for about 20 min before the race started.

They lined us up along the deck of the pool according to our estimated swim times. While waiting in line, I chatted with a really nice guy from Bountiful named Jon. This race was pretty much like my last race, except I didn't have to wait for an hour to get in the pool because they started us every ten seconds. It was nice to get in the pool faster, but it was obvious that people were having trouble passing other swimmers. I watched one guy dog paddle behind three girls in obvious frustration for about three laps. I decided I wasn't going to have any of that. I jumped in right after Jon and went my own pace. I didn't feel like I was pushing that hard, but I struggled a bit with the swim. I wondered "If I am struggling this much in a pool, how am I going to swim 1.2 miles during the half, or 1500 m in the ocean?" I ended up passing 4 or 5 people including Jon, had a head on collision with another racer, got out of the pool, ran along the deck to the door and on to T1. Finished the 400 m in 8:47 which was surprisingly slow to me. I thought for sure that I would finish sub 8. It was good enough for 77th out of 258 swimmers.

I opted to wear socks for this race because during my last race I got some pretty wicked blisters. Putting on socks added about 20 seconds to my T1 time, but I think it was worth it. Jon arrived at transition about 20 seconds behind me and left about 10 seconds before me (T1 time was 2:10 looks like I got some work to do) and I thought for sure I would catch him. It was not to be. I saw him ahead of me and tried my best to keep him in my sights but he was just too fast in the tuck position on his aero bars. I pushed pretty hard to try and get him so I did pass about two dozen people. One thing I didn't like about the bike portion here was that there just wasn't enough traffic control. We had to pass through one traffic light with no volunteers meaning if you got there when it was red, you were either stopping or running it. I was lucky enough to get there just as it turned yellow. On the way back the light was red, but c'mon this was a race... did I run it? You bet I did! As I neared the rec center, I saw a line of cars where I thought we were supposed to turn, but there were no signs and the volunteer posted there didn't say anything until I was about a 40 feet past where I was supposed to turn. I turned around, rounded the rec center, undid my shoes and pulled my feet out, hopped off the bike and into T2. I finished the bike in 34:12, 32nd out of 258 riders.

I got new shoes in between my last race and this one (getting pretty nasty shin splints is a good motivator to spend money), which also meant I got new elastic shoelaces (T2 time was 49 seconds, can't complain, thank you elastic shoelaces). This run felt good! I felt good at the start, I felt good running up the hill at mile 1.5 and I felt good on the run back down the hill to the finish. I passed Jon at about mile 1 and when he asked me how the bike went I told him "I wanted to catch you so bad, but you took off and I never saw you again!" He laughed and said, "Well, I won't be seeing you again." I promptly passed him and left him in my dust. About then, some guy with a short Mohawk passed me. I didn't want any of that so I turned it up a bit and stayed with him until the hill where he couldn't handle the uphill pace. Mohawk man caught me again at about mile 2.5 and stayed ahead of me for the rest of the race. At about this time I could hear someone clopping behind me so I turned slightly to see this kid:
He stayed about 20 feet behind my until the last 150 meters where he stayed RIGHT behind me (drafting maybe? no, more like every time he moved I followed his shadow to stay in front) until he tried to make a move with about 10 meters left:
Here I am thinking "OH no you don't" He tried to blow past me, but sheer willpower moved my legs to the finish line where I edged him out about a foot and a half ahead. I finished the run in 25:17. That put me in 44th out of 252 runners (I guess some people quit after the bike). I did some calculations and for that pace at 3.3 miles, I would have finished a standard 5K in 23:45. I felt like it was pretty good. Hopefully I can get a little faster. At the finish line they handed us a finisher's medal,
and asked us to hand over our timing anklet. I stood there for a second debating on bending over when suddenly it was whisked off my ankle. Yay! I headed to my little transition area to rehydrate and get my stuff together when Jon showed up. He finished in about 29 minutes and said he was pleased with his time because he had been in the ER two weeks earlier for severe dehydration. I took off my singlet, and donned my new shirt:
and headed home. It was a good race. Now the funny thing about doing a triathlon is that the race doesn't always go to the fastest runner or cyclist. I put down my ranking for all three portions (77th (swim), 32nd (bike), 44th (run)). Not great, but I finished in 1:11:15 (all results here) for 21st out of 251 finishers. I was pretty stoked about that, and I find it so fascinating that being consistent in all three sports can make give one a better finish. Hope you enjoyed reading.

Another change to my schedule. Instead of doing the Willard Bay Tri on June 5th, I opted to do the Salem Spring Tri again this year (800 m swim, 13 mi ride 5K run).
I did it last year, so I am interested to see how my times will be different, hopefully I am faster this year. Still planning on Strawberry fields, Utah Half and XTerra Utah!

April 2010 Goal Update

2010-05-02T05:43:00.000-06:00

So I just realized that today is May 2nd, which means that April is over, so here is my mileage for April. I did 29.3 miles of running, 184.8 of cycling, and 13.05 km of swimming. I fell well short of my running and cycling goals for April (275 mi cycling, 45 mi running) but I don't care. I am following my training program pretty closely so I feel good about my training and the whole reason I set this goal in the first place was to get out there and train. I also made another (possible) modification to my race schedule. I decided that it might be fun to do a triathlon at sea level with a swim in the ocean so I did some research and found The Strawberry Fields Triathlon which takes place on July 17th in Oxnard, CA.

I am pretty excited about doing this race. It's an olympic distance race (1.5 km swim 22 mi bike 6.2 mi run), so it's longer than any race I've done, but I still think it will be fun. Also, if I do this race, I get to go on a vacation to California with Kathy Jo which is one of the main reasons I wanted to do a race in California. They are also doing a duathlon (run and bike) in conjunction with the triathlon. That race is a 2 mile run followed by a 12 mile bike ride then a 3 mile run to cap it off. If K Jo doesn't get into LoToJa, then I want here to do this race. I think she will have a blast. Look for a race update somewhere in the middle of May and you never know, maybe I will actually ride a state road between here and there now that the weather is (kind of) warming up. Thanks for reading!

Fourth Street Clinic Triathlon

2010-04-25T02:12:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I competed in the 10th annual Fourth Street Clinic Triathlon. The Fourth Street Clinic is a medical facility that provides health care to the homeless people in downtown Salt Lake City. The triathlon itself is short so it was a good season opener. The race started with a 300 m swim in the HPER pool at the University of Utah. The one thing I didn't like about this race was the swim... okay actually the swim was fantastic. The water was clean and cool and felt SOOOO good, but waiting for an hour to actually get IN the pool was the worst part of the race. There were literally people finishing the race before I even got to start the swim. They divided us into three groups: slow, medium and fast. They said if you can do the whole swim without finishing, and you don't think people will pass you, you are fast. If you can do the whole swim but think you MIGHT get passed, you are medium and if you can't do the whole swim without stopping... slow. I got in-between the fast and medium group and started a conversation with a nice guy from Ogden. As we chatted, they took around 30 men and 30 women (they have two pools there so each gender had it's own pool) to the locker rooms to shower off before the race. After 30 minutes or so we noticed that the "slow" people had been slowly (he he) migrating behind us into the fast group. I ended up in the last group of men. I wasn't too ticked off about that because it meant I passed a lot of people. I swam pretty hard and ended up passing three guys in the pool. I passed another guy on the way to T1 (transition one or swim to bike). Swim time: 6:22 (which includes the run from the pool to the transition area). I quickly pulled off my goggles and pulled on my shoes, sunglasses and helmet, and headed for the bike.

This was a mountain biking triathlon in the foothills above the University of Utah, about 5.4 miles. The transition area was on the lawn on the north end of the Huntsman Center which is in the middle of campus. We had to climb about 10 steps to get onto a sidewalk that headed to the legacy bridge where we had to hike the bike up 4 big flights of stairs to ride over the legacy bridge. We then rode on the sidewalks of upper campus until we reached the foothills... and it was all climbing. Eventually the course leveled off, but the level spots were intermediate technical. Because I started with the slow group, some of the riders were... less... than... skilled... I don't mean to be rude, but it was kind of annoying to have to lose momentum on the sketchy parts because someone is walking it. Those spots are SO much easier if you're going fast. With about two miles to go I got stuck behind a guy and a girl walking up a hill. I cranked it out but couldn't pass the guy. Finally I got past him and set my sites on the girl only to see here 100 yards ahead! I was surprised so I turned it up to catch and SLOWLY I caught up to here. I was impressed. As I passed her, I told her, "You are cruisin'... I love it!" I raced as fast as I could to the end of the trail, then back onto lower campus to follow the path we took up. I rode down the four sets of stairs and looked behind me to see cruisin' girl walking down the steps. Ha Ha Ha! I got to the transition area but not before pulling my feet out of my shoes. I slipped my running shoes on, cinched up the laces (I bought elastic laces for my shoes) and headed to the run. I passed probably two dozen people on the bike and came in at 30:48. If you want to see a map of the ride it is HERE.

The run was a typical 5K (3.1 mi) around the U of U campus. It started out by following the bike course until the legacy bridge where it continued north. We headed towards north campus drive where we hung a left. At this point I had passed a couple people, but as I turned I noticed a guy in the black race shirt we received tailing me. North campus drive is a hill, so I booked it down thinking for sure that I would lose my black shirt tail. We made it to the parking lot of the Merrill Engineering building and hung another left where we met an aid station at the one mile mark. I was disappointed to glance behind me and see that black shirt still right behind me. I grabbed some water and splashed it into my mouth. The course then follows 100 South where it enters the school's campus just before the 100 south reaches University street. 100 South is another big hill so I bounded down that one too, sure that this time I would lose the tail. We made our way around president's circle where I glanced in any window I could to see if black shirt was still on me and sure enough he was. We came out to University street which is pretty level. I kept a good hard pace to stay ahead where we came to another aid station. This time I didn't stop, and hoped black shirt would so I could put some space between us. Around this time just as I was passing another runner I got passed by none other than cruisin' girl. I kept pace with her till the two mile mark where we turned left again and up some stairs on the sidewalk parallel to South campus drive. I passed her up the stairs, and kept ahead of her for about 200 yards, but she passed me again and stayed ahead for the rest of the race. We continued up the hill, passed the front of the library and turned around to head past the back of the library. It was here that black shirt finally caught me, got one foot ahead until I kicked it into high gear and stayed ahead. I think this was kind of demoralizing for him because he promptly fell to about 50 feet behind me and stayed there for the last half mile. At this point I also noticed that the arches of my feet were starting to burn. Turns out I was getting some pretty wicked blisters. Looks like I need to body glide my feet for my next race*. I crossed the finish line and thanked black shirt for pushing me the whole race. I then saw cruisin' girl and told her, "You are one fit chick!" I finished the 5K in 25:24. Not my best time, but still pretty good considering that this is my first race of the season and we did a whole lot of hill climbing.

It was a good race. My overall time was 1:02:58 you can see all of my results HERE.. I finished 18th out of 250 racers (and there were actually 20 relay teams included in the 250 so really I finished 17th out of 230 racers which means I was faster than 19 relay teams... yay me!), I was 16th out of 145 men, and 7th out of 72 men ages 19-29. I felt pretty good about this race. I have been training hard, and it payed off. It was a lot of fun.

*note: In my schedule it says I will be doing the Boise Speed Triathlon on May 22nd. That race has been moved to May 30th and to a different location because they drained the lake to build some white water park. I work that weekend, so I cannot race this race. I requested a refund and signed up instead for the... wait for it:
South Davis Splash and Sprint Triathlon. It should be a fun one. 400 m pool swim (yuck again), 11.7 mi bike, 3.3 mi run. It's only two weeks away, but it will be a good one. Wish me luck.

March 2010 Goal Update.

2010-04-20T22:02:00.000-06:00

Haven't written in a while so here is a quick update on the goal for the year. March was pretty lean for training, but there was snowboarding aplenty. I only got in 2 km of swimming, 39.9 miles of riding and 12.2 miles of running. I did however go snowboarding... a lot... it's expensive, but so worth it. We are now 2/3 of the way through April and for the first 1/3 I again did a lot of snowboarding, but little training. On the 11th, I started my half iron-man training program which can be found HERE. So hopefully the numbers will go up. K Jo signed up for LoToJa, so if she is picked to ride, we will be heading to Logan on September 11th so she can ride 206 miles. She has been riding a little, which means I have been riding with her. I hope she can make it in, she is really looking forward to it. Hope you all enjoy reading. Here are some pics from Brighton:

February 2010 goal update

2010-03-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

Another goal update. This month started out so well. For the first two weeks, I was doing great... I trained six out of seven days... Then K Jo and I took snowboard lessons the Friday before Valentines Day. Here are a few pics of us at The Canyons:

I took four days off because I was sore, then felt crappy that I had taken four days off so I just kind of fell off my game... Then cold season struck... It zapped me. I fought back valiantly, and ran 4 miles smack dab in the middle of my illness, but the damage had been done. I got over my cold and K Jo and I went to Price to buy snowboards at my friend's shop. It was kind of an all day trip, so I didn't train that day. Friday saw me moving furniture. K Jo got sick of the treadmill shaking the townhouse, so we moved the treadmill to the first floor. We also have a set of bunk beds and a queen size bed that had to be moved, so I felt like I had earned something. I went night boarding at Brighton... again no training... Saturday worked at the Salt Lake Clinic, Sunday... just lazy... Monday, hooked on boarding, went all day... Taking so much time off had played games with my head, so I lost my motivation. I tried to come back... I made a plan to meet my goals... Didn't happen... But I am a week into March, and I am desperately trying to find my motivation again. I played ultimate Frisbee on Saturday, and am WAY sore in the hamstrings. I need to do some speed work... I tried running on the treadmill during the first part of the month, but just felt to crappy so I quit after a mile and a half. I can do this! I WILL do this! My goal for this month is 250 miles cycling, 35 miles running and 10 km swimming. I've got some catching up to do, but I think I can do it. K Jo wants to do LoTaJa so if she follows through with that, I will do a LOT of riding with her. I fell short of my goal for Februaruy. Only 99.2 mi biking, 19.2 miles running and 4 km swimming. Oh well, it is a new month.

2010 Race Schedule

2010-02-09T01:24:00.000-07:00

After much intense thought and many minutes on trifind.com, I finally figured out my race schedule for this year. Now this was no easy task mind you. I had a "rough draft" in my head of the races I wanted to do this year, then my Mom goes and does something like, oh I don't know, schedule the family summer party on a weekend that I had to work. That meant switching my week to accommodate them. That meant switching the races that I wanted to do (for those of you that DON'T know, I work seven on seven off, which means 7 ten hour shifts followed by seven days off so I have to work every other weekend, all weekend, which means I only have certain weekends that I can race). That was still no problem, because I had several races in mind. After a little web browsing (can I still say web browsing?), I found that the races I wanted to do would be on a weekend I was working OR they were already full... I had no idea that you had to register for a half-ironman so early in the year, I mean it's only February and the races are already full! So I weighed the options of traveling farther from home to do a race. There are going to be half-ironman races in Missouri, Texas and Florida that would work with that schedule, but after a registration fees of $200 plus, then plane tickets, a hotel, a rental car, shipping a bike to the race location, kennel fees for the dogs, I figured $1000 or more for one race just wasn't worth it, so I bagged the idea of a half-ironman completely for this year. I found some other exciting races that I could do with my schedule, and was satisfied. THEN I found out that the guy working opposite of me might not be able to switch weeks... Back to the drawing board... I then figured out a race calender if he could not switch weeks, and had two possible itineraries. I contacted my co-worker and found that he would trade me some days but could not switch weeks, so I can do the race I had originally planned on, AND make it to the reservoir party.

My calender is thus:

April 24th

The Fourth Street Clinic Triathlon
300 m swim, 8k Mountain bike, 5K run.

This is a short race put on by the Fourth Street Clinic in Downtown Salt Lake. I'm not really sure where this one takes place. The website didn't have a whole lot of info, but trifind says that the swim is in the HPER pool... I think that is the gym on the U's campus. The bike is an 8K (5 mi) ride in the foothills above the hospital. I have ridden some of those trails and I think it will be a tough ride. The run is a 5K (3.1 mi run) on the sidewalks of the U's campus. I'm pretty Excited about this one, it will be a good warm up for the season.

May 22nd
Speed Tri Boise
500 m swim, 12 mi bike, 5k run

I had to find a race out of state for May because Utah didn't really have a race in May on a weekend I wasn't working. I told my wife that I was thinking about doing this race and she got excited because she has been wanting to stay at the Boise Anniversary Inn for a while. I guess that is where we will be staying when I race. The swim is in a small pond just off the Boise River. The bike is two loops of a 5.4 mi course, and the run looks to be on a running trail that runs parallel to the river. Should be a good one, and I might be able to get a state highway or two out of the way on the way up or back from Boise.

June 5th
Willard Bay Triathlon
Olympic Distance

Originally, I had planned to do the Salem Spring Triathlon this same day, but that race is only a sprint distance. I am preparing to do a Half-ironman so I wanted to build up to it by doing a few Olympic distance events, ergo the Willard Bay Tri. I know it is in Willard Bay, I know it is an Olympic distance event (1500m swim, 24.8 mi bike, and a 6.2 mi run), and I know the race starts at 8 am, but they are still kind of building the site for this one, so I don't know much more than that. Kind of nervous for this race. It will be my first Olympic distance race and it is only 2 weeks after a short sprint race. We'll see how I do.

July 17th
Scofield Triathlon
Not sure of the distance of this one yet.

The reason I say not sure, is Scofield has three different distance one could race. A sprint, an olympic and an "escape" distance. There is a triathlon in San Francisco called the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon. In that race, competitors swim from Alcatraz Island to The Marina Green Beach... whatever that is... then they bike and run in the streets of San Francisco. The "Escape From Scofield" triathlon is a swim from the island in Scofield Reservoir 1.75 miles to the Marina followed by a 37 mile bike ride concluding with a 10 mile run. I am not sure if I want to do the Olympic distance or the escape distance. The Olympic distance I'm sure I can do, the escape will be harder because it's longer, but it will be good to see how I fare doing a race that will be closer to the half ironman distance. That 1.75 mile swim seems like it just might be too much, I think I may wait until it gets closer to decide which distance to race. Oh! Fun fact, Scofield Triathlon has the highest elevation of any triathlon in the United States at around 7800 ft (if you can find one that is higher, let me know). That will make it just a little bit more difficult.

August 28th
The Utah Half
Half Ironman Distance

This is the goal for the year, the Utah Half. This race is a 1.2 mi swim, 56 bike, 13.1 mile run. I am as excited about this as I am nervous. That is a long way. My goal is to complete the race in less than 6 hours. I figure if I can do the swim and T1 (swim to bike transistion) in 60 min, then do the bike and T2 (bike to run transition) in 3 hours and finish off the run in 2 hours, that would be 6 hours. I think it a pretty viable goal with a lot of hard work. I ran the Mesquite Half Marathon in less than 2 hours and last fall I did a 50 mile ride in gusting wind and pouring rain in less than 3 hours so I think it possible. I found a half ironman training plan online at beginnertriathlete.com that lasts 20 weeks. The training is anywhere from 5-10 hours a week and I looked at some of the workouts. There is a crazy one that helps you work on transitions where you run for 4 min, bike for 10 min, then run again for 4 min, then you repeat that 7 more times. Looking forward to starting this program halfway through April.

September 25th
XTerra Utah
XTerra sport distance

I did this race last year. I think of it as a reward for all the hard work I will do this year to complete the half ironman. Last year, the race was tough but I had a BLAST! I seriously underestimated the race last year but this year, I am looking forward to considerable improvement. The swim is in Pineview Reservoir above Ogden. You transition into the bike and ride up to Snowbasin ski resort where you finish by running the ski trails of Snowbasin.

Well there is my race schedule for the year. I will post updates after each race to let you know how I did and of course after each state road ride. I look forward to writing this year. Enjoy!

Chris

January 2010 goal update

2010-01-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

So in my last post, I talked about my goal for 2010, and my goal for January's distance. Today is the last day of the month, so I thought I would post an update. This month I had a goal to swim 5 km, bike 100 miles, and run 25 miles. I a.l.m.o.s.t got there... I only swam 4 times this month and each time, I did 40 laps in a 25 m pool (1000 m or 1 km) so I only got 4 km of swimming in, but I biked 101.8 miles and ran 26.3 miles so I met those goals. Tomorrow I plan on swimming to make up for that 1 missed km, and I will probably bike too. I guess I should clarify. In my last post, I talked about how miserable winter is which makes riding outside somewhat unpleasant. In truth, I only REALLY rode 37.3 miles. That was actual road riding the other 64.5 were "virtual miles" spent on a stationary bike trainer. On a lot of the rides I have done in the past, I usually average somewhere around 18 mph on any given ride. I figure that if I can ride 18 miles in 1 hour, I would count 1 hour on the trainer as 18 miles of "riding" so in reality, I rode 37.3 miles and spent about 3.5 hours on the trainer. Well, since tomorrow is the first day of February I will tell you my goal for February. Upped the mileage a little bit so now it is 5 km swimming, 125 miles riding, and 30 miles running. Thanks for reading.

Chris

Goals for Two Thousand Ten... Twenty Ten... Ten?

2010-01-26T03:30:00.000-07:00

What ARE we supposed to be calling 2010? Okay, okay I know it's been a while but I have my reasons... okay so they are only excuses but still... My last entry was the Telos Timp Triathlon WAY back in November. Not long after that entry, K Jo and I went to Mesquite for a short trip to run the Mesquite Half Marathon. We had fun and mostly just stayed in out hotel room watching movies and reading. Very relaxing. We also went out and saw New Moon, the new twilight series movie and after the race, I went to the hotel's spa and got my first ever massage. It was nice, but I don't think I would pay for another one. Anyway, I had a goal to run a sub 2 hour race and came in at 1:53:18. Here's me near the finish line:

K Jo wanted a sub 2 hour as well, but she got sick during her run and stopped at a park bathroom for 10-15 minutes and came in at 2:19:50. I have a picture of her at the finish line, but she objected when I said I wanted to post it here. In preparation for the Triathlon and for this race, I didn't get any state road riding in. I also did mostly running after my triathlon to prepare for the Half Marathon and it paid off. I was sore for the next two days but that was it. This was my second half marathon. My first was in March of last year and I was sore for a solid week and my knees hurt for a month after that race. I took all of December off to try and heal from a shin splint and started training again shortly after the New Year in conjunction with some fitness goals I have set for myself for 2010. I don't want to call them resolutions, because those never work, so I'm calling them goals.

First off, I have a goal to complete a half iron man distance triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). In order to accomplish this goal, I will have to train a lot so I decided to set another goal to swim 100 km, bike 3000 miles, and run 500 miles. To make this goal a little easier, I tapered the training so that I do less in the winter months (when it's cold and miserable and I don't even want to look outside at the snow and the bad air and the overcast cloudiness and snow covered mountains let alone GO outside to run or bike) and more in the summer months (when it is warm and sunny and warm). For example, this month (icky, icky, yucky winter January) I plan on running 25 miles, biking 100 miles and swimming 5 km. I'm pretty close to that right now, and we still have 5 days left in the month. July (warm, sunny, lovely summer) will be my hardest month. I will be running 65 miles, biking 400 miles and swimming 15 km. I know it sounds like a lot, but I plan on including all of the races I do this year in my mileage, so with a half iron man, I will have about 1/4 of July's distances done AND it is SO much easier to get out in 80 degree bliss than 25 degree hell, wait no, hell is supposed to be hot... 25 degree m.i.s.e.r.y? That works... I also plan on doing a lot more state roads in the spring and summer. I don't know what races I am going to be doing this year because I haven't figured out my schedule yet, but I will know soon. I'll keep everybody posted at least once a month on my progress towards my goal this year. Thanks for reading!

Chris

NO... I am NOT a slacker... I've been busy... and Telos Turkey Tri

2009-11-11T04:06:00.000-07:00

So it has been almost two months since my last post, and I promise I have not given up on my little project, I have just been sidetracked. We lost one of our staff to Riverton Hospital Lab, and so I picked up two shifts every pay period until December... Working seven on seven off is hard enough try nine on five off... It's killer. Anyway, I thought since I haven't been riding any state roads, I could write about my latest endeavor, the Telos Turkey Triathlon.

So this race is run in April and again in November. It is a reverse order tri meaning you run first, then bike then swim. It is run early/late in the race season when it is just a bit too cold to be swimming in a lake and it is run in the middle (literally, the bike course rides along Center street) of Orem where there is no lake in which to swim so the swim is last and in an indoor pool. The run is a typical sprint distance 5K (3.1 mi) with a good downhill followed immediately by a grueling uphill. The bike is advertised as 10 miles but it is really about 9.4 miles. Two laps of a course that rides along Center street, then down to the campus of UVU, north along 1200 W, then up a wicked hill along 400 S where you make a left on 800 W to the Orem Rec center. Climbing the hill on the second lap is difficult because you have to pass a lot of people walking their bikes up the hill... well, I have to pass a lot of people walking their bikes up the hill... he he... The swim is only 350 meters in a 50 meter pool. I competed in April and I did okay. You can see my time here. In that race, I was 8th out of 28 in my division (men 25-29), 40th out of 159 in my gender and 47th out of 284 overall with a time of 1:05:55.

This time I competed against a guy in my ward. His name is Jeremy. When I did the XTerra, I found out that that he enjoys triathlons just like me. I happened to look up the Turkey tri one day while online and low and behold, it was on a weekend I wasn't working so I signed up only a week and a half before the race. I am training for a half marathon on the 21st of November and have been swimming and biking intermittently while running, so I didn't have to change much to prepare for this race. I told Jeremy about it too, and he got excited so we made plans to carpool. The night before the race, he and his wife had us over for dinner and the plan was after dinner, we would drive to Orem to pick up our packets. I didn't feel like spending an hour on the roads with a full tummy of delicious spaghetti, so we decided to leave a little earlier in the morning and pick our stuff up the morning of the race... always a bad idea. We got to the race with plenty of time to find a spot in transition, but the line for packet pickup was longer than my... well it was pretty long (Ocean's Eleven anyone?). When we got out of line for packet pickup, it was into another line for timing chip pickup after which we frantically set up our transition area, which was surprisingly simple because of the nature of a reverse order tri. With no time to warm up, we headed to the start line.

They started us off en-mass which was annoying to me because there were over 460 people registered for either the triathlon or the 5K. You had to dodge people after crossing the start line 15 seconds after the official start was announced. Jeremy and I were pretty evenly matched for the first 2 miles. I would pull ahead of him, then he would pull ahead of me until the top of the grueling hill where he pulled ahead and stayed there for the last mile. I put on my bike shoes in transition and turned to see Jeremy had left already. The worst part of this run were the two twelve year old boys that paced me until the last half mile where they pulled ahead and smoked me at the finish. I figured it would be okay, because I would catch them in the bike.

I started the ride and couldn't see Jeremy anywhere. About a mile into the race, I spotted him about 50 meters ahead of me and vowed to catch him. Half a mile later I passed the pesky twelve year olds (take that juvenile body geometry!). I closed to within 30 meters or so down the hills at UVU and again closed to within 10 meters up 400 S, but he had a brand new Felt triathlon bike (yes I will use that as an excuse) and smoked me on lap two finishing about 50 meters ahead of me. The bike portion is my best discipline, so I felt bad about not passing him in the bike until I looked at our time splits and found that he finished five hundredths of a second faster than me in the bike. Not bad eh? I slipped my feet out of my shoes before entering transition and ripped off my arm warmers and helmet on the way to my area so all I had to do before the swim was grab my goggles and take off my race belt (which I forgot to do until I saw Jeremy running back to his area to remove his race belt) and I exited the transition about a second ahead of him. We ran to the pool and jumped in.

As I mentioned before, the swim was seven laps in a 50 meter pool, snake style where you go to one end, duck under the lane divider then swim back. I quickly caught one guy and had to swim close to the side of the pool in the first lap until I ducked under the rope and pushed off hard to pass him. Halfway through lap three, I saw some chick speed past me and consoled myself by telling me she probably won the state finals in the 400 freestyle in high school. At the end of lap three I popped my head up and saw the clock registering 56:00. With four laps left, I thought I can push hard, swim 50 meters/minute and slide in just under an hour. Near the end of lap 6, I turned my head to see the clock at 59:10 and I saw another swimmer approaching on the right side of the lane. I cut in to duck under the rope and felt another body on top of mine keeping me under the water. I pushed off the wall hard and gave it my all. I glanced ahead and saw that the culprit was another woman's state high school finalist (probably finished second after the first girl) I finally made it to the end of the pool, pulled myself out and crossed the finish line at 60:28. I saw what I think were the two girls who passed me (and two of the only three or four people to pass me in the swim) and the both looked like Dara Torres, so I didn't feel so bad that they passed me. I waited less than a minute for Jeremy to pop out of the water. He was shocked at how well he did overall. Hoping for 65:00, he came in at 61:19. We put our gear together, grabbed some snacks at the snack table and headed home. This time around, I was 8th out of 40 in my division, 26th out of 216 men, and 31st out of 393 overall. I cut 5:27 off my time from April, so I was feeling pretty good. It was a good race to cap off the season and a good day. I hope I can race with him again next season.

X-Terra Utah 2009

2009-09-29T08:19:00.001-06:00

Okay, so this isn't about road biking, but I am still pretty stoked about this race I did. I have been kind of slacking on my state road project. I have still been riding, just not on any state roads. I picked up a whole bunch of extra shifts at the TOSH lab, so I haven't really had time to ride state roads as much as I would like. Also, I did this race on Saturday September 26th, and in training, I got a shin splint so I have decided to ice my leg and to back off of training until that goes away. OH and I signed up for The Mesquite Half Marathon in November so I have been running more and biking less. Anybody else think I am crazy? Anyway, back to the race.

Now, when most of you hear the word "X-Terra" you probably think about the popluar SUV, (which is named after the race). In reality, X-terra is an off-road triathlon race series, meaning it's a race where competitors swim, then bike then run off road. A "normal" triathlon takes place in open water swiming, such as a lake or the ocean, then you bike and run on roads. The X-Terra series is similar but with mountain biking and running on dirt trails. Races take place at different locations around the world during the year culminating in the world championship (kind of like soccer's world cup, this year it is in Hawaii). The USA championship (kind of like the super-bowl of off-road triathlons) was in Utah this year and was started 20 minutes before my race. The championship race was a 1500 m (.9 mi) swim, 30 km (18.6 mi) mountain bike ride, then a 10 km (6.2 mi) trail run. I did the "sport" distance which was 750 m (.45 mi) swim, 20 km (12 mi) bike and a 5 km (3.1 mi) trail run. The course starts with a swim in Pineview reservoir, then a bike ride up Wheeler Canyon to Snowbasin Ski Resort finishing with a run up above Snowbasin. Here's a map of the race:

I wanted to stay close to the venue, but decided that I didn't want to spend money on a hotel. I then thought about staying at my Granparent's house (my mom's parent's live in North Ogden, my Dad's mom lives in Washington Terrace) but then mapped out the distance to the reservoir and found that by staying at either of their homes, I would only save 30 minutes travel time, so we decided to stay home. So on Saturday, K Jo and I woke up at 6 AM to make the drive to Pineview Reservoir. We got to the race and I set up my T1 (swim to bike transition). We then drove up to Snowbasin ski resort where I set up my T2 (bike to run transition). In a triathlon, there is usually a designated area, called the transition area, that is roped off and only accessible to the athletes where they can keep the gear they need to compete in each event. Normally the tranition area is one spot, but for this race, they had two transition areas, one at the lake and one at the ski resort. We got back down to the reservoir, K Jo dropped me off, and I headed back to T1 to don my wetsuit. I walked over to the shore amidst the other athletes and watched the championship swimmers finish. After a few moments, we were off as well. I trained pretty hard for this race and for the past few months have been swimming 1250 m twice a week, so a 750 m swim should have been no problem, but I kind of struggled with this one. Part of it was the fact that in an open swim with close to 300 people, you are being kicked and punched and grabbed from every-which way. Mostly I struggled because I was having trouble breathing well... stupid EIA. I finally rounded the third buoy (the swim is done in a triangular pattern), ran up the marina while stripping my wetsuit, waved to K Jo as I passed her and she cheered me on, and transitioned into the bike.

I slipped on my bike shoes, put on my helmet, gloves, sunglasses, and race belt, downed a GU and some water and ran out of the transition area to hit the trail. In preparing for this race I figured that with the ride only being 12 miles, I could most likely knock it out in 1:10:00, maybe even get it done in less than an hour. Well... I GROSSLY underestimated this race. The bike starts at the lake at about 4800 feet. It stays pretty level and parallels the road for about 2 miles where it drops down about 40 feet then it's a tough climb to 7000 feet over the next 4 miles. At the halfway point, the trail drops to somewhere around 6450 ft in 1.5 miles then for the last 4.5 miles it climbs back up to the ski resort at 6800 feet. If you ever want a way to work out your glutes and have a nice sculpted bum, take up mountain biking. My glutes burned for the entire initial climb. I think I worked the hardest in that first climb because it was mostly double track, trail about 5 feet wide, so it was easy to keep my own pace and push past other racers. Once we hit the halfway point, it was all single track or trail that is about 18 inches wide... much harder to pass people so you would get stuck in a group of about 8 or 9 riders all taking the same pace. It was nice to keep a leisurely pace and chat up other racers for five or ten minutes, but then I would get bored and would forge ahead. Along the way, there were several aid stations doling out water and Gatorade which was also nice because there were people to give you a boost by cheering you on. The last mile was pretty tough and about 600 feet from the finish line, I had to dismount to get over a really rocky section. Other than that section, and having my chain fall off twice, I did pretty well on the bike and came in just over 1:30:00, far off my initial thoughts of a sub 1 hour ride. I dismounted and jogged into T2, hung my bike on the rack,
changed my shoes, donned a running hat, downed more GU and headed out for the run exiting the transition area just as they called my name over the loud speaker. K Jo filmed it, and cheered and even though I didn't hear her, I was glad she was there. You can see the video here, it's a little over 1:30.

The run was pretty tough too... if you haven't figured out the general theme of this race... it is "tough". It climbs up a ski slope for around half a mile. I tried running the whole ski slope, but had to walk the last 500 feet or so. The trail then levels off for another half mile. The trail then climbs again for about three-quarters of a mile. At this point, I abandoned running in favor of walking. Another racer caught up to me and we talked while we climbed. We hit the last aid station and it was a pretty steep downhill to the finish. I was just behind the guy I talked with and thought, "I will be courteous and not pass this guy cause we were buddies walking up the hill". Eventually I passed him and stayed about ten feet in front of him. With the finish line is sight, he passed me and stayed about 10 feet in front until I passed him with 50 feet to go... He heard me coming and pushed on to finish about a foot ahead of me...
the official results listed me as finishing one second ahead of him though... tough break... for him... (I finished 118th, he finished 119th). Lesson learned, don't hold back for any stupid reason.

As I said before, I was 118th out of 252 racers, 11th in my age division of 24 racers. I finished the swim and T1 in 22:02, the bike and T2 in 1:34:11, and the run in 27:06. Looking back, I could have done much better in the bike AND the run, but you know what they say about hindsight. If I do this race next year, there will be CONSIDERABLE improvement. I had a blast, and the next morning my feet were sore... the bottoms of my feet... weird... and they stayed that way for two days! My glutes were also sore for about half a day. All in all it was a good day and a good hard race. I also got a nice singlet sunburn and if you look close at the picture below, you can see the 8 and even the 4 from my race number for the day: 842.

I wanted to get the pictures done by the race photographers to put on this blog, but they were about $50 for the entire digital collection and if I'm going to pay $50 bucks for pictures of a race, I'm going to have someone like Lola take them. If you want to see those pics, you can see them all here.

SR-138 and SR-112

2009-09-14T21:58:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend, K Jo and I went to visit my parents in EC so she could participate in the Little Grand Canyon half marathon. At packet pickup the day before the race, she asked a guy standing at a table if she could borrow his pen to fill out her registration form. She then did a double take, grinned sheepishly and blurted, "I read about you in my magazine". She recognized the man as Dane Rauschenberg... see also here (you know you've made it when you have a Wikipedia article about you) who in 2006 ran 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise money for the Mobile (Alabama) chapter of an organization called L'arche which benefits the mentally and physically disabled. He was featured in a running magazine that K Jo and I subscribe to and she recognized him from a photo in the magazine. He was in Price to run the half marathon that she was running and to promote and sign his book. I bought a copy and K Jo read about half of it aloud on the way home. I recommend it. We talked for about ten minutes about running, and my blog before K Jo and I had to leave and we chatted again on race morning where he won the Half marathon. K Jo ran a very respectable 2:15:49. I was so proud of her.

In a previous post, I talked about how I am trying to limit my riding in the Central Region as much as possible so as not to exhaust all of the State Roads here prematurely. Following suit, I headed to the Western Region today which includes Tooele County, so not too far from home. I also decided that I am still trying to pack on the mileage for training so I figured why not knock out two birds with one stone? Ride two state roads, get some significant mileage, and get one of those pesky less-than-ten-but-more-than-five-milers out of the way. I rode SR-138 and SR-112 today. I will start with SR-138 since it was first on my ride today.

SR-138 starts at the north shoulder of I-80 about 9 miles northish of Grantsville. It heads in a southish direction rising about 125 feet from where it started until it runs east through Grantsville where it plateaus, intersects with SR-112, then levels out about 50 feet below the city in a northwest direction finally terminating at SR-36 just outside of Stansbury Park at 20.4 miles.

I got up this morning and got ready for my ride which included fixing a flat front tire. I did all I could to check for burrs, thorns, etc in the tire and rim as to avoid a repeat flat, and another punctured tube, but could find nothing. I packed the car, loaded my bike and drove off to Stansbury Park in sunny, beautiful, calm clear weather. As I headed west on I-80, I looked around and saw something akin to this:

I thought... "aw crap". Now, take another look at the picture of the SR-138 sign at the top of the post, and notice the nice, clear blue sky. That is what I saw when I left my house. The more I rode, the more I saw of what you see in the picture directly above... wind... and storm clouds. As you can tell from the picture, this is no light breeze, but a full on make-you-want-to-vomit, no-fun-to-ride-in wind blowing from the south. As I was headed almost directly southwest for the first eleven miles of my ride, I was fighting for position on the road almost the entire time. The only relief came momentarily when I would be passed by a semi truck which cut the wind enough to suck me a full foot to the left. It was pretty scary, but more exhilarating. I laughed out loud on more than one occasion. I think they only reason I did not turn around right away (and I thought about it) was that I knew that eventually I was going to be riding with the wind which would give me an awesome push and some wicked speed. I stopped briefly on the way to Grantsville to snap a picture of a sign and to... answer the call of nature... and again IN Granstville to snap the flag picture. As I left Grantsville, I kept looking at the ominous storm clouds in the distance hoping that they would skirt to the west of the mountains and avoid me. Alas, it was not to be. The ride to the end of the highway was pretty uneventful except that I averaged about 35 mph for nine miles... No seriously I rode 9 miles in like 16 minutes, I was pretty surprised... Riding like that can play with your mind too. When I approached the end of the road, I thought, "Sweet, the wind has died down". Then I turned around, started riding and went, "oop, no it hasn't".

I fought the wind for the better part of an hour. About halfway back to Grantsville, somewhere around mile 25 (when it started raining lightly), I noticed that my front tire was a little squishy. Road bike tires run somewhere around 100 psi, which is not squishy. I decided to push forward for as long as I could debating whether to risk my CO2 cartridge on a punctured tube, or risk puncturing a new tube on who knows what. I opted for the former and at mile 27, refilled my punctured tube. I figured, it got me out to Stansbury Park, and 27 miles into the ride, it ought to last to at least Tooele where I may or may not find a bike shop. I finally made it into Grantsville amidst light rain. So lets recap: wind, rain and a flat tire. Could the day get any better? We shall see, on to SR-112.

Okay, before I start, I want to say something about the elevation profile. If you look between miles five and six, you will notice a small dip. That used to be a very LARGE dip, about 90 feet of dip. When I first looked, I thought no way, that can't be right, the road fell 90 vertical feet in a tenth of a mile? There has got to be some mistake. I removed the data points to make it look like it does, and thought about it. My GPS unit takes measurement of elevation in two ways, one through regular GPS, and two, through a barometric altimeter which uses air pressure to determine altitude. Anyway, the only explanation I could talk myself into was that it started raining pretty heavily while I was riding this road, and somehow the weather messed with the air pressure just enough to make my elevation profile record 90 feet lower than the actual elevation for the last 2 or 3 miles... I thought it interesting.

SR-112 starts just east of Grantsville on SR-138 and runs almost exclusively southwest for 8.6 miles. On the way it passes the Tooele army depot, the Miller Motorsports park and ends in Tooele at SR-36.

After passing through Grantsville, I stopped to get the picture of the SR-112 sign, ducked my head and forged on into the wind towards Tooele. I took a look at my computer. I saw that I had gone 32 miles in just over 2 hours. I thought, "If I can make it into Tooele in 40 minutes, I could get 50 miles in less than three hours. It was only 9 miles into Tooele and just under 9 miles back to my car with the wind at my back. Remember, I had previously traversed 9 miles in 16 minutes. The going was good at first. I saw a sign saying Tooele: 9, and was going about 15 mph, so I thought, sweet, about 30 minutes into Tooele. Then the wind picked up and I started riding 13 mph, no problem, then the rain came, and came, and came, and came. At around mile 37 (4 miles left to Tooele) all I could do was duck my head and glance at the road ahead to see where to go and to get a glimpse of the rain blowing at a 45 degree angle. It stung too... Oh and I was down to 10 mph now. My hopes of hitting my 50 in 3 were falling like the rain. On the way into Tooele, I saw a Tooele County Sheriff's cruiser speeding in the opposite direction and thought nothing of it. I forged on and on and eventually made it into Tooele. My tire was still holding up and I snapped a picture of the end sign. I waited at the light to make a left onto SR-36, and glanced at my computer. I noticed that I was at 41 miles with a time of 2 hours 40 minutes. "I'm gonna make it" I thought. As the light turned green and I pedaled on, the wind died. "NO, NO, NO! IT'S NOT FAIR". The stupid wind really plays tricks on your mind when you are riding in it. I kept going and noticed the rather large flag in the parking lot of a grocery store was flying pretty high and thought, "firetruck you wind!" (It's a quote from Dane's book) I was making REALLY good time and peaked at 38.1 mph on a small descent on my way back to the car. On the way back, I heard another siren and thought, that's weird. The truck passed me and I saw the word HAZMAT plastered on the back of the vehicle. "That can't be good" I thought. I found out later on ksl.com that a semi was blown over on I-80 in Tooele county with gusts of wind up to 65 mph (I was riding in that wind mind you). I can only assume both the emergency responders were for this particular incident. I raced as fast as my legs would spin averaging somewhere around 30 mph. I made a left onto SR-138 and passed my car at mile 49.9. I'm making 50. At mile 50, I stopped and the clock read: 2:57:27. I was pretty elated. I'm no Lance Armstrong, but I felt like a freaking stud. I walked back to my car, took off my helmet, and had to take a picture of this:

Helmet hair, take two. K Jo's favorite was this one:

If you look real close, you can see that my eyes and my skin are red from the pounding rain. I was feeling pretty good about myself because I hope to someday finish a Half Iron-man in less than 6 hours (1.2 mile swim in 1 hour, 56 mile bike in 3 hours, 13.1 mile run in 2 hours). If I can do 50 miles in less than 3 hours in hard wind and pounding rain, I can surely do 56 miles on a decent day in less than three hours. Today's ride as I said before was 50 miles. Rode it in 2:57:27 (yeah I'm a stud) averaging 16.9 mph, topping out at 38.1 mph. Now I am up to 11 state roads, 338.2 miles of total riding, 150.1 miles of state roads. Thanks for reading.

Chris.

SR-111

2009-09-11T13:59:00.000-06:00

We are headed to EC this weekend so K Jo can do another half marathon. She worked this morning and since I didn't really feel like leaving her alone at my parent's house, I did a ride this morning and headed to SR-111.

SR-111 starts at SR-48 (New Bingham Higway). It heads slightly north for the first few miles curving to the north west and eventually heads straight north into Magna. Most of it is downhill and it ends at SR-201 after 10.6 miles. Along the way, it passes the junctions for SR-173 (5300 S) and SR-171 (4500 S). Pretty boring, huh?

If I had to sum up this ride in one word, it would be disappointing. I started out my ride from my townhouse and headed to 7800 S which eventually turns into New Bingham Highway. When I hit SR-111 I took a picture of the cool end sign, which is different from all the signs I have seen before, and headed North. I was pretty excited about riding this one because I had ridden sections of this road South of SR-48 and it was a lot of fun to ride. From SR-48 to SR-173, which is almost 6 miles, there is only one section that has a shoulder wider than one foot, and that section is less than a mile long. The rest of it is VERY narrow. I didn't think that there would be much traffic on this road either because it is pretty remote, but there are a lot of big semi-trucks that run this road. Add to all this the fact that the road is posted 55 mph. So what do we have here, big semis going 55 mph, narrow shoulder with dirt/gravel to the side, less than 100 feet of elevation change up and down (meaning you can't really get going that fast), for 6 miles... imaging riding a bike on a tight rope with elephants stomping and trumpeting on your left side for 30 minutes... that's how I felt riding today. After being buzzed by a dozen cars and trucks, I just decided to risk it and ride in the dirt, which actually wasn't to bad except when I hit the dirt on a downhill going 25 mph. I tell you, mountain biking in the dirt that fast is no big deal, but riding with skinny, slick tires, gives a pretty high pucker factor.

(Pucker Factor: Tension caused by high stress during a difficult or dangerous situation. So named because your sphincter tends to tighten up or "pucker" involuntarily during such times)

Thankfully, once passing SR-173, the shoulder widened to five or six feet and it was a good downhill grade all the way to the end of the route. I headed immediately East to 8000 W, turned south and made my way (on roads with great big wide shoulder and bike lanes) to the Jordan River Parkway where I headed north until I got off near 5300 S and headed to K Jo's office. She was just finishing up, so we headed home together. All in all, today's ride wasn't too bad except for that one section of the state highway. Working on this project has been a very good learning experience giving me great insight on what roads are good for riding in the Salt Lake Valley, and which ones should be avoided. Today's ride was 42.8 miles. I rode for 2:26:57. Top speed was 38.7 mph, average speed 17.4 mph. With SR-111 being 10.6 miles my totals to this point are 121.1 miles on 9 state roads, total riding on "state road" days: 288.2. OH I forgot to mention, a few weeks ago, I went online and bought a Road ID. It came in the mail on Monday. Here is a picture:

Basically it has my name, and where I live, but on the back there is a number that can be entered in www.myroadid.com and it gives any medical personnel who may have to help me all of my medical, personal, and emergency contact information. Anyway there isn't much to see on SR-111 except for vast tracts of farmland and Magna, UT, so not a lot of pictures on this post. Thanks for reading anyway.

Chris