Night Run

Last night I got in a 8 mile run after work. I started in the fading light of the day and finished in the dark. For some reason, I love running in the dark. It seems like it takes less effort and with the right shadows, it feels like I am being chased. Last night's run was the first run of the season that has actually felt good.
Running is a strange thing. In the beginning, you spend almost every moment of your run, trying to talk yourself out of stopping to walk. However, eventually you get to a point where that goes away and you can think about other things. That is what took place last night and that is when I know it is going to be a good run.

Update

Ran 5.5 miles in Sunday
4.2 miles on Monday afternoon and
6.23 miles yesterday afternoon.
Rest and recovery today.
8 miles scheduled for tomorrow.
:)

I'm a runner now ( or will be soon)

Allright then, with the pending birth of our 3rd child coupled with my desire to stay married, I've decided to forgo triathlon next year ( at least long course... I may still jump into a couple of sprints or oly's) and become a marathoner. I reason that this should keep my longest workouts to less than 2 hours allowing me to help Yvette with the cadre of children we are bringing up in this world. I will do my best to keep everyone up to date on training and soon will be choosing the races that I will be doing next year.

Chris

Catch up

Sorry that it's been a while since I've posted, and it's not for lack of workouts either. I'll get you up to speed on recent workouts.
I'll start withb today and work backwards to May 25th.
June 6th, ran with Yvette (my wife) this morning. Slow four mile loop then she got into the car and drove back to the house. I ran the last 1.5 miles at around a 6:15/ mile pace

June 5- Rest day

June 4th- 13 mile run with a new training buddy named Jeff. He has a 4 hour 30 minute 1/2 IM time on his resume, so he is fast and a welcome addition to the list of people that I train with. Good run. The goal was to keep it slow and we did. We ran 8:50/ mile pace and held a conversation for most of the time. Mission accomplished.

June 3rd- Woke up REALLY early for a 5:15 am start time for a ride with some strong riders. Jeff, Dan from the shop, Karen, and her friend and Kylie (who is getting a lot faster) took off for a quick ride. We put in a 24 mile loop that was good and strong then came back to do the shop ride at 7:30. The shop ride is typically more tame, but no one slow showed up so we went out for another 16 miles at a tough pace. All in all a great morning and I was home before 9:30 am- huge deposit in the family time bank account.

June 2nd- 5.5 mile run in the way too hot and way too humid afternoon. My GPS says it was 93 degrees with 15 mph winds and 27% humidity. I averaged a respectable 7:48/ mile pace, but had to stop three times because I felt so terrible. There may have been a couple of other factors (read below)

May 30- June 1- Another round of sickness. I picked up a cold from the kids on Sunday and should not have ridden on Memorial day. But the people I was riding with were counting on me being there for physical and moral support and I was the only one that knew the entire route for the day. Slept until 2pm on Tuesday and on and off for the rest of the day to try to get over the cold.

Memorial Day- Rode to the beach with Doug, Megan (my protoge') and Yvette. I also added the challenge of pulling my two kids in a trailer behind the bike for 36 miles. Not so tough without the wind, but when the wind kicked up in my face, it acted more like the parachute on the back of a dragster. Doug had flat issues on his handcycle about 25 miles into the ride, so things got a little interesting. With the cold I had, the wind on the trailer and having to race to the beach in order to get back to Doug stranded on the side of the trail, I was exhausted by the time this was over and in no mood for the barbeque that we had invited everyone to at our house. But, alas, it was a good time anyhow. This ride was a real confidence booster for Yvette, Megan and Doug, and the kids behaved great in the trailer.

May 28th- 11.5 mile run with Jeff and Dan. Jeff had some problems with his right quad. On the 2nd loop Dan and Jeff started poking fun at my smallish calves, so I had to put a hurting on them to stop that talk. Jeff couldn't play because oif his quad ( and I'm glad because he is faster than me) but Dan was another story. We ran the 2nd 5.5 mile loop at an average 7:27 pace with lengthy periods of 6 minute pace. Dan won't bring up the subject of my calves anymore, and I feel like I've gotten into his head for the upcoming Vineman race.

May 27th- 4.2 mile run at a good pace by myself.


That should bring everything up to speed. Back into the water for a swim tomorrow morning.

My New Toy and a Couple of workouts

Let's see, training started in earnest yesterday for Vineman 1/2 on July 3oth. I ran a small run on Tuesday. Yesterday I did a 3300 meter swim workout that was fairly tough. One-armed Willie and I swam in the same lane and he's been putting quite a bit of time in the pool getting ready for the Escape from Alcatraz race this weekend and Ironman Roth (Germany). Alcatraz has a legendary swim that starts on a boat off the coast of the old prison. You jump into some super cold shark infested water that has aweful currents and swim to shore. So when he and I were swimming in the same lane I noticed he had gotten quite a bit stronger. Normally, I can dump him in the swim when I want to, but he was holding his own and never more than half a body lenght behind. He has a HUGE kick when he swims.
Today I got out and ran 5.3 miles this morning. I got a new GPS toy that I wear on my wrist that allows me to take you with me on the run. When I get home, I upload the information into my computer and you can go online and watch a dot race on the actual course at the actual time and pace that I ran. It's really pretty neat. Go to http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=22976&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=818651&backgroundDatasourcePk.pkValue=11
Click on the Orange Button that says Dashboard that is on the bottom. You'll be able to watch the run almost like you are there.
Here's some info on the website
"Check this out! You can view this activity online at MotionBased. The Map Player is especially cool because a 'Dot' simulates the movement on a map (You just need to download the Adobe SVG Viewer)."
Another big swim tomorrow, then a small bike ride on Saturday, big (and early 4:30 am) 12mile run on Sunday, then a ride to the beach on Monday.
Should be a pretty easy weekend.

Run, swim and bike course profiles and pictures from AIT

(Click on pictures for larger version)
Run Course Profile ( bottom)

Swim Course

Bike Course Profile (top)

Official Race Times From Auburn

Here are the official Race times from the race


Place Name Age
35 Chris Patterson 35

SWIM
RANK TIME
50 34:20.9

BIKE
RANK TIME
39 3:33:31.5

RUN
RANK TIME PACE
34 2:09:32 9:53

TOTAL TIME
6:17:25.3
End of the race photo

Auburn Race Report

(Photo of my car with Doug's Hancycle on top and our bikes on the back)
We woke up in the morning at 4:50 and packed up for the 30 minute ride up to Auburn. I ate my can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup for my pre-race meal. An Ironman buddy of mine taught me that trick. Chicken Noodle soup is so loaded with sodium that it helps keep you from cramping. So I ate my soup and drank an XS sports drink for breakfast. . Joe and I drove up to the finish area which would also act as T2 for the race (transition area 2 from bike to run). We made a game day decision to drive down to the start. The race director had recommended riding down to the start as a warm up ride, but I couldn’t understand how a 6 mile downhill ride at 60 degrees outside would warm me up. So we decided to drive down (right decision I might add). On the way down we almost hit a deer. Joe saw her early enough to alert me. She missed my car and ran between me and the BMW behind us.
Got down to T1( transition from swim to bike) and got our rack spots. We got our swim caps and watched everyone go through their various routines to get ready. There is a tremendous amount of nervous energy at the beginning of every race I’ve done and it’s become somewhat entertaining to me to watch how people deal with it. Some talk incessantly, some go into a cocoon, some run. It’s really entertaining to watch. I got into the water for a warm up swim and everything felt good. Then back up onto the boat launch ramp to wait my turn. 2 waves of swimmers would go out before me. Men’s sprint distance racers and women’s sprint distance racers. Then it would be men 39 and under along with elites. My buddy Joe did the sprint distance race and did a great job. I was especially impressed with him; because this was his first open water swim and he hadn’t really been doing any swim training since last year. Open water swims are really scary when you first start because you can’t just stop and put your feet on the bottom or swim over to a wall to rest. You have to keep going or drown. He did great.
Off Joe went then the ladies, then our turn into the water. We had a deep water start, which I really liked. Our heat had about 150 people in it, but not too much kicking and shoving at the start. Usually, a mass start like that has all sorts of unintentional punching, kicking and swimming over or being swum over. This one was uneventful for the most part. I quickly found some fairly clear water to swim in and got into a rhythm. It was a great swim course. The valley on both sides of you and swimming to a point on the mountain made it easy to swim in a straight line. In fact, for the first time ever in an open water swim, I held a pretty straight line. Out of the water in 34 minutes, which put a big smile on my face and up to T1. Things went smoothly in transition. Out onto the bike course where we would climb for the first 6 miles before the ground finally got level.
Brad Kearn’s (the event organizer) creates legendary bike and run courses in his races and this one was no exception. This bike course had everything. Super steep climbs, to long sustained grades and very technical white knuckle descents. My mantra for the day was “make money when you can” which meant. Whenever the road turned flat or downhill, instead of soft pedaling or coasting, I would force myself into the aero position and pedal. I would do the same on the downhills in the run. Things went well on the bike, not necessarily a stellar performance, but I felt good for most of it. It was a beautiful course along windy small roads that went back into the mountains to nowhere. It was open to traffic but we hardly saw any cars and the volunteers did a great job of letting you know about where to go and when there were upcoming things to look out for. At around mile 30 I saw the flashing lights of a motorcycle cop coming at me, closely followed by the race leader. All you can do at that point is shake your head and marvel at how strong the pros are. I started feeling the twinges of a quad cramp in my right quad around mile 30 so that started my salt tablet regimen. I popped two tablet then and 2 about 20 minutes later and changed bike position to use more of my hamstrings on the climbs. That meant no more standing up out of the saddle on the climbs, because when I would try to do that it would get dangerously close to a full on cramp. Good news though, the left leg was feeling fine. I drank my first bottle of XS sports drink loaded with carbo pro (about 450 calories) within the first hour and a half and tried to stick to 2 gels (chocolate flavored) per hour. In total I ate 6 gels. At every aid station I took on a fresh bottle of water from the volunteers, including the aid station around mile 40 which had cold bottles (that was a treat). There was a hill called “LeMonde Walked” hill at mile 50 that had me a little worried. It was a 12% grade for .4 mile. In fact, I caught myself soft pedaling a couple of times on the way to that hill. Somehow though, it didn’t turn out to be that bad because at mile 54 I was still looking for it. It turned out to be just another hill in a very hilly course. Mile 56 and I’m feeling good. Into T2 where Joe was waiting by my gear, to tell me things were going to be good and help me find my shoes. I felt fine, until I stepped into my running shoes. In the process of pushing my feet into the shoes, first my right quad, then my left cramped. This has happened in every race I’ve done. I think I am going to get some of the quick lace adjusters so that I don’t have to work so hard to get the shoes on next race. Joe asked if I needed salt, I said “No, I’ve got some in my run belt” and off I went. Grabbed some cold water in the aid station and headed down the hill on the run.
The run was beautiful. It was a lot of single track running up and down hills. Down hills were a little technical and tricky because you use your quads a lot to control yourself going down and mine were crampy. It wasn’t horrible, but in the early miles each uphill was a delicate dance to keep the quads from going into full cramp mode. I ate some more salt and started working on another bottle of XS sports drink and Carbo Pro. I had unexpectedly lost one of those 450 calorie concoctions off the bike at around mile 40 after only drinking about ¼ of it. That made me a little worried, but so far I wasn’t having any energy problems that I could perceive. In fact, on whole for the day, my nutrition worked out great. I never got hungry, and when the energy level did dip a bit, I had a gel or bottle to bring it back up. My only real issue was with the electrolyte balance and the slight cramping.
The race director has told us, the night before, that there were only 2 hills on the run course. One was from mile 5.7 to mile 7 and climbed 440 feet called the “Dam Wall” because it was part of a Dam and the other was between mile 10 and 11.5 that climbed a similar distance. The course was two loops that went through the finish line once right about mile 7. At the bottom of the Dam Wall there was an aid station. I walked through the aid station so that I could grab two cups of water and drink them without spilling too much. At the end of the aid station was a guy with sponges soaked in ice water. Did I mention it was hot? It was definitely warm out there and with brush waist level high in many parts. The brush held in the humidity and kept it even warmer in those areas. So when the guy asked if I wanted Ice cold water squeezed down my back, I was more than happy to let him. Wow! I turned to the racer next to me and said “I now know what heaven is going to be like” He just looked at me and said “I definitely know what hell feels like” and off we headed up the Dam Wall. Shortly into that climb, I made a decision to walk quickly. It was almost as fast as I was able to run it anyhow and I could better control my heart rate. And I was back to my mantra of “make money when you can” and the Dam wall was not it. Got to the top of the wall and headed through the celebration at the finish line. Stopping never entered my mind, but I did think “it sure would be nice if my Joe would run through this second loop with me.” He was there cheering me on, but was not going to be running with me. Back down the hill for loop number two. Cramping was pretty much gone by now and it was just a matter of measuring my effort so that I could do well throughout the remainder of the race. I felt really good in some spots and was able to stretch it out. At the bottom of the hill were ice cold bottles of water. Into the mouth and over the head, turn around and head back up hill for the final brutal climb of the day. Back up a minute, at mile 9 there was an aid station with a girl in a bikini top with a big sign that said “Happy Thoughts”. She had a cow bell around her neck and was quite the cheerleader. She was also the one giving ice sponge baths. Reassurance of what heaven will be like with that squeeze of water down the back. Just a side note, if you ever go out to one of these races, don’t underestimate the power of a positive word to the competitors as they go by. It makes a big difference. We are battling all sorts of negative thoughts in our heads and a simple “good job” or “you look great” goes a long way.
Ran and walked up the last big climb of the day. Cheerleader girl had put some sign in the bushes on the way up “finish strong” and “triathletes are hot” are two that I remember. At the top of the hill were the final miles. Brad had said they would follow a water canal and were completely covered in shade from the trees. He was right. At mile 11 I stretched out my legs a little on the run and when I saw the mile 12 sign, I made a decision to finish strong like the sign said. At that point, my mind says “I can handle anything that comes my way in the next 1.1 miles”. So I started running and passing people. I felt really good. Around the last corner and hear the announcer say my name. Finish strong and look good as you do where the thoughts in my head then. I glance at the clock and it says 6 hours 16 minutes. I don’t have the official time right now but that is close enough to what I have on my watch. I wanted to finish in around 6 hours, so I was a bit off my pace, but for the severity of the course, I am more than pleased with the results. The guy at the finish line has some great words of praise, takes my timing chip and hands me a finisher t-shirt. I go over to the food table grab a Cytomax drink, two of the best strawberries I’ve had in my life and half a banana. Amazingly everything feels pretty good on my body. Doug and his brother Drew are there to congratulate me. What a day.
All in all I am really pleased with the results of the race and would do the course again. Brad runs a great event that lives up to the finisher t-shirt slogan that says “still the world’s toughest half”.
I am typing this up as we drive back to Etiwanda. I felt fine when I woke up this morning. A little stiff and sore, but nothing like the day after my 1st haf-ironman race last year.
A Special thanks to our hosts up in Sacramento Drew and Heidi. They were awesome. We had everything we needed, including a great barbecue Saturday night. They dealt with the selfish nature of race preparation up to and including touring us around the course the day before. We got to celebrate Drew’s 52nd birthday on Saturday night with a big ice-cream cake.
Thanks for following along. Next race is July 30th. I’ll keep the postings coming.
Some photos from the race are below.

Auburn International Race Report.

(Joe and I the day before the race pre-swimming the course)

Swim Start Mayhem

Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Another Day

Doug, Joe and I drove up last night in about 7 hours. It was a good ride and uneventful. In-n-out for double double cheeseburgers in Cattleman City ( I'm not sure where it is either). It was super hot on the drive up and hot here yesterday. Our hosts here in Sacramento, Drew and Heidi, are fabulous. Joe and I are sharing a room and Doug has his own room. Drew took the day off and showed me around the Auburn area. We ate all day today. Waffles with blueberries and bananas along with an egg for breakfast and Spaghetti factory spaghetti for lunch. We got over to the swim venue this morning and got to get in and swim around for a while. The water was great. Warm (probably in the high 60's low 70's), clear, and fresh. No saltwater, no waves and most importantly no sharks. After we got out of the water we went and drove some of the bike course. It is going to be as tough as advertised. The run may be a little bit tougher than I had expected. I'll let you know tomorrow afternoon.
Tonight, we checked in and got our race number and then came the rain. It rained for a couple of hours including during our pre race briefing. It was warm enough, but still no fun to stand out in while we heard about the race course from the director.
It looks like it should clear up before morning though.
I feel good. I feel like I've done everything right in preperation. I should have a good race tomorrow. I'll let you know.

Small swim

I jumped into the swim workout with every intention of taking it easy this morning. Instead, I got baited into doing the large workout and at a pretty intense effort at that. The blessing was that I had to bail out early for a meeting in La Mirada ( 2 hours away). So I cut the workout short and drove across town. The nerves officially kicked in yesterday for Saturday's race and as I sit here and type this, the butterflies in my stomach are moving about.
Tonight, I'll get most of my stuf packed so that we can make a clean escape tomorrow afternoon for the 6 hour+ plus drive to Sacramento. I'll do another entry with some pictures on the drive up.

Taper- defined

The best word on your schedule when you are training for a large race is "taper" and that is what I shall do this week.
Saturday I left the bike shop in LaVerne climbed (on the bike ) to Mt. Baldy Village at about 5200' then instead of bombing down the frontside, turned around and rode back to the sho the way we came. This route makes the day a lot harder because the climb out is sustained uphill for the first 8 miles then goes up and down for the next 12 miles. So on the way back you get some crazy speeds while descending then climb 8-10 tough climbs before your back to the top of GMR where you have and 8 mile white-knuckle ride down the hill. This was made tougher by the fact that the only person to join me was an amazing triathlete from the shop named Ryan. He's a really quiet guy who lets his legs do the talking. I've never pretended to be in his class. I tried to hold his wheel for a good portion of the climb, then after being dropped (with ease I might add) tried to limit my losses so as to look like a half way descent athlete. The human body is an amazing thing. See, the thing is, I know with a couple more years of training under my belt, I can get to that level, but where will he be when I get there? Total ride 50 miles and about 6000' of climbing.

I followed up the bike with a 1 hour run. I screwed up my nutrition so I was cramping in my quads from the 40 mile point of the ride, so I knew the run would be a gut check, especially since I was running solo. Almost every step of the run was a test in balance. Too much stress on the quads and they'd seize up, too little and I could count on hamstring cramps. So, I walked that line of running carefully so that each step just had a twinge in the quad muscles (front of the legs) but not enough to have them squeeze down on my legs. It's scary the first time it happens and sucks every time it happens, but it is something you learn to deal with if you're going to do endurance sports.
I think the factors that contributed were- not enough water at the sushi dinner the night before for my birthday, the first hot day of the season, and the compression shirt I was wearing under my cycling jersey acted more as a sweat suit than temperature regulator. Note to self, only wear that shirt when it is cool outside.
No run on Sunday because I hurt too much and had a crazy busy day with Mother's Day.
Back to the word taper- it means light exercise only for the week. My longest run will be less than 4 miles and I won't touch the bike (it's at the shop getting tuned up) until rce day. I will do a couple of light swims and will spend the whole week drinking water (see above) and eating LOTS of carbs and salting all of my food this week.
FYI, I'll be bringing my computer up to Auburn and will have updates throughout the days leading up to and after the race. I may also post again before we head up.

Workout that sent someone to the hospital

You know it's a good workout when someone goes to the hospital.
Here's what happened. 6 am swim workout with the new crazy coach. She puts up 3 levels of workout, beginner, moderate, advanced. Willie chooses advanced, so join him I must. Our buddy from Brazil, Fabio joined us too as well as one armed Trudy and some other. About 20 minutes into the workout crazy coach Jenny has one of the lifeguards bring over her Asthma inhaler. I see her puffing away. She tried to swim some more laps, but I saw her gasping at the end of the pool, I thought she may have just been catching her breath from this tough workout she put together. Next thing I know she's out of the pool and gone. Reports from the pool deck were that they took her to the hospital. It's a stones throw to the hospital since the swim center is for employees of the hospital. That's a good thing. I hope she's alright. I'll let you know on Monday.
Total swim distance 3200 meters or about 2 miles. All that before work.
Tonight we're going to sushi for my birthday (35). Yeah, I changed age groups. I get to race 35-39 now. Yesterday I had to run a 3:10 to qualify to run the Boston Marathon, today I have to run a 3:15 ( I will make an attempt at qualifying in St. George, Utah in October. I'd love to race Boston.). That's the great thing about aging. I actually think I am in the best shape of my life right now and hope that I keep improving as I get older. My older friends that I race with have proven it can be that way. One-armed Willie turns 45 this year and won the Catalina Marathon and can kick my butt running and biking any day of the week.

Stroller run and great swim workout

Yesterday, I got home from work and took both kids out for a 4 mile run in the jogging stroller. Isabella taunts me to "go faster Daddy" the whole run. I may start leaving her at home :) It is fun running with them because Bella talks the whole time and Diego just looks around with wonder at everything. I enjoy it and think about the days when they are old enough that we go on runs together and talk about important happenings in their life. I hope that we have that type of relationship.
This morning I got up and went to the pool. Willie had told me that a lady named Jen was running workouts from the deck and I was excited to join in on that. Sure enough she was there and there were about 8 of us doing her workout. I'm not sure who she is and why I should listen to her, but I did. It was fun to suffer through a workout with a bunch of others working through the same thing. It made the sometimes boring sport of swimming, not so boring. And telling and listening to lies in the hot tub afterward was good too.

Confidence Building Weekend

This weekend was a great one.
Saturday's workout was 5 hours 51 minutes and was the same climb we did up to Mount Baldy Village a couple of weeks ago. I rode with Coach Tony again and if I had one of those wise relatives who put me on their knee and gave me advice as I grew up they would have said, "Never poke a stick in a hornet's nest". Coach Tony is one of the quietist people you would ever meet, but he is a fierce competitor. On the ride out to the start of the climb, I took the opportunity to test out my legs on a short climb on Baseline right by Webb Schools. I hit that hill really hard, and when I got to the top, Tony had answered my attack by quietly going past me right before the summit. I knew I was in for a tough day, but I noticed something else. My heart rate was way higher than it should have been and I wasn't recovering right. My resting heart rate had been 75 that morning, which is an indicator that I was still sick from that stomach virus I had been dealing with all week. It should be 62-64 for me. On the climb up GMR it really showed itself. 2 unknown guys joined us on the ride for a little challenge up the hill and when the pace picked up, I could not play. I did get to watch Tony hand out a butt whoopin' first from the road below. It was pretty impressive. When he attacked, they tried, but alas could not answer the pace. I was hoping they had been demoralized by his attack and tried to work my way back into the fight from a long way back. I would find out at the summit that once he had destroyed them, their next battle was to not let me catch them. I got close, but when we got to the top, I was still the last one there.
The remaining climb up to Baldy Village was just a stupid sufferfest for me. The good thing was that I knew it was from the sickness and could measure my pathetic showing against a great showing two weeks ago on the same road, so it didn't effect my attitude too much.
60 miles and 5000'+ of climbing, then we get back to Tony's house and go for a 6 mile run. We ran about 8 minute mile pace on the run and I was starting to feel better. When I got back to my house and ate, I found out that my stomach virus was still alive and well though. I was hoping all the exercise had killed it.
Sunday, I got up feeling better. RHR (resting heart rate) 64. Laced up the shoes and headed out for a 12 mile run. 1 hour 50 minutes. It was a really good run. The body worked well. Hopefully all this sickness is behind me.
2 weeks until the Auburn International 1/2 IM race. I'm feeling pretty confident about it right now.

Morning Run and Official TImes for Sunday

4 1/2 mile run this morning. It was easier getting out of bed this morning, but I have some sort of stomach virus that is causing all sorts of pain in my stomach and some significant dehydration, so my average heart rate was 166 for a run that I would rate as moderate pace on a perceived effort scale. Hopefully I can get this stomach pain to go away.
WB Timing posted the official times for Sunday's race and I'm even happier.

MALE 30-34
5th in Age Group
30th overall
915 Bib number
CHRIS
PATTERSON
34 age
0:19:54 5k time
0:33:12 Bike Time including transition
0:06:33 Swim time, including transition/ run to the pool/ swim and run out of the pool (no it did not take me 6 minutes to swim 125 meters)
0:59:39 Overall time

Wanted: Swim Stroke- Reward offered

I'm not sure when it left and where it went, but the swim stroke that left me on Sunday, has yet to return. If you happen to see one lying around, please email me the location so I can run by and pick it up.
I got in the pool today for what was supposed to be a 1 mile quick swim at lunch. Instead, I found out that I have lost the ability to swim well. The whole, shortened workout was a struggle. Sometimes when my stroke leaves me, I just bag the workout early and come back another day and today was no exception. Perhaps it'll return on Friday when I get back into the pool.

Good Morning Run

Here's a picture of me looking fast on Sunday. This is the sprint to the pool after the run and bike. This was a reverse order race. Meaning, we ran, then biked then swam. They do that because the swim is in a pool and sending a couple hundred people into a pool at the same time would be ugly.

Run this morning:
There's something about running early in the morning when it's dark and foggy out that's almost spiritual. That was this morning's run. I ran over to the park to meet some folks at 5:30. I got there at 5:33 and no one was there, so either they left right at 5:30 or slept in. So I took off on my own. 7 miles later I was back at the house feeling great. I'm going to meet up with everyone for a swim tomorrow morning.

1st race of the season

Here's my report from yesterday's PossAbilities Sprint Distance Triathlon.
The race started the night before with packing up 2 cars for th race. Since I had to leave early enough to arrive at the race both as a participant and advertising rep for my advertisers that had sponsored the race, Yvette decided she would bring the kids and my mom later in a separate car. So I packed my stuff for the race and Isabella's stuff for her race (which she decided not to do on race morning).
I woke up race morning at 4:15 ate my chicken noodle soup which has become my race day and large workout day breakfast because of the huge amount of sodium in it. I got this tip from an Ironman friend of mine who said it keeps you from cramping, and I agree, it does.
Left my house at 5 am and headed over to pick up Doug and his daughter Natalie. Doug did the bike portion of a triathlon relay and Natalie ran a 10k in just over an hour.
Everything went well in race prep. Special thanks to Dan and Ron at Foothill Cyclery (www.foothill-cyclery.com) for the loan of an awesome wheelset. Some day I may break down and invest the $1500 for that wheelset, but until I do, the race day loan form these guys is much appreciated.
I got in a good warm up run and waited for the horn to sound.
Horn blast and we're off. Within the first couple hundred meters of the run a friend of mine who owns King Leo Candy (www.kingleocandy.com) named Pierre (47 yes old) says, "Hey Chris is that you?" We chatted for a few seconds while we both still had the ability to talk before we got too winded. I had a great 5k run. I knew Pierre was right behind me the whole time and there was some 10 year old kid right in front of me that should be on the TV show That's Incredible, because he was half my height and had almost an identical length stride. Who over he is, he has a future in sports if he decides to stick with it because I came in top 30 on the run and he was right in front of me.
Quickly through transition and out onto the bike. I picked up a couple of spots in transition ( I saw the 10 year old out on the course much later) and almost immediately picked up a couple of spots out on the course. Pierre was still behind me but since the course looped and I could see him, I knew he was close. Each loop included a 1/4 mile climb of a pretty good hill. On the second loop we started passing through lapped traffic. I got slowed up a couple of times because the slower folks didn't know to stay right. On the second climb of the hill, I feel Pierre grab the back of my seat to help me up the hill a bit. His kind way of saying "I'll be going by you now" without saying a word. I raced the rest of the bike trying to keep him in sight and not get passed by anyone else. I had success in both of those. I'd love to know the bike split so I can figure out my average MPH, but I know we were moving pretty fast.
Dismount the bike and almost dump it going into transition when my legs turn to jelly on me. Rack the bike and start the long run to the pool. I jump into the pool and my arms won't work right. The swim is only 5 laps of the pool. My average workouts are 60-100 laps non-stop, so this should be a breeze. But the effects of redlinning my body for the last 50 or so minutes catch up and the swim is awful. I've got a guy breast stroking next to me that I can't seem to pass. I lost at least 2 places in the pool. Up out of the pool and sprint to the timing mat for a time of 1.01:39. That puts me 5th in my age group (30-34) and 30th overall amongst a pretty tough field that included about 10 pros. I felt really good about the race and my placing. Chatted with Pierre afterwards and if I had swam better, I might have caught him. He finished in 1:01:17. Good times.

Thanks to all of my friends and family who came out to race and cheer. In the middle of a race, I hear people shout my name but I rarely see anyone. This race I did manage to see a lot of you out there and it helps a lot. Thanks.

Next Race, May 20th- World's toughest Half Iron-man distance race. This will be a whole different type of racing. No redline heart rate hear, just a long day.

GMR Photo

The yellow line is the end fo the first race Tony and I did. It's another 12 or so miles after this to Mount Baldy Village.

Like there was no chain!

Last year in the final days of the Tour de France, Lance made a comment to the effect of, "today felt like I was riding with no chain". That comment was made even more impressive, in that, the day consisted of climbing the French Alps. I remember thinking, yeah right you freak!
Then it happened. Saturday I finally got out for a ride after being sick and getting ready to move all week. I went for a 60 mile ride with my coach that consisted of a 5000' climb up to Mount Baldy Village via Glendora Mountain Road. I've ridden this ride many times and it is tough. In fact, I've ridden it with Tony before and been left behind by a margin of about 30 minutes. So with a fresh set of legs from having rested all week and a good couple of months of training under my belt, we set off.
I could tell it was going to be a different day when Tony, a guy named Jaime, and I rode the first 7 miles up the mountain at a good pace while holding a conversation the entire time. Usually, I reserve this time for breathing and suffering. Towards the top of the climb, Tony and got into a really hard race to see who could make it to the top first. Jaime joined in too ( who was this mystery guy that neither of us had ridden with before?) It was an attack, recover counter-attack move that got me to the top first, but not by much. The next 12 or so miles are interesting on this road. They roll up and down in some spots with a 4 miles sustained grade right in the middle that takes you to the highest point of around 5300'.
We all climbed together again, but this time no one was talking. Then it happened. It only lasted for about 15 minutes, but I heard Lance's voice when it hit. On a particularly tough section of the climb I actually shifted down a couple of cogs to a harder gear and it felt like the chain had fallen off. I was climbing pretty much without effort. I wish I could say it lasted all day, like Lance did, but alas, reality and gravity came back to me and I was back into an easier gear and pushing hard after about 15 minutes. But I do know the feeling. Soon after, Coach Tony pulled up to me and commented on how strong I had gotten and that he was having a hard time holding my wheel. He laughed that he used to be able to drop me with the "blink of an eye". It is more a compliment to him, since he is my coach.
At 5300' it got really cold, so after one short downhill section, I decided to hammer out a short uphill to get warm. Tony pulled up and said "thought you could shake me, huh?". I just said, " Nope, I'm just trying to stay warm". He looked over and said "I'll keep you warm". With that another race was on. The last 3/4 to 1 mile of that climb became an all out race to the finish. I pulled out to the front, but never wanted to look back to see where he'd gone. I raced like he was on my wheel. I was surprised when I got to the top a full minute or so ahead of him. He would get the last laugh though.
We had decided early in the ride that we would do a short 2 1/2 mile run after the ride. When we got off the bikes and started the run, I realized he was going to have his way with me. It was a tough short run and in the end he kicked and I had nothing to answer with. That is why he is an Ironman.
Sunday, I took my friend Megan out for her first ride on her new tri bike. That was fun. It's a blast to watch new people coming into the sport. She did well.
We moved into our new house and today I got in a short run before it started raining on me. I will be able to get back to some sort of normalcy soon and really buckle down on my training.
This Sunday is the first race of the season. It's a sprint distance race here locally that the station helps to put on. We'll see how I measure up this year.

I feel like a slug

This darned cold has kept me sidelined too long. No workout Monday nor yesterday. This afternoon I WILL get a run in. I am planning a 1 hour run. It has been really windy by my house, so it should be a good challenge. I am excited to move next Monday to our new house we bought. It gets windy there, but not nearly as often as at our house we currently live in. Saturday the 30th is my first race of the season. It's a sprint distance race, so it should be a blast. Bella is racing her first race that day and I imagine Diego will too as he watches big sister. Yvette is running the 10k.

Let's try this again

Here's the photo.

Megan's new bike

I forgot to put a picture in the blog entry below of Megan's new bike, so here it is.

I hate being sick

This weekend was a bit frustrating. I picked up another cold, or still haven't gotten rid of the last one, so my training suffered.
Oh, and as for my fast on Friday- I changed the time frame to be from 7pm Thursday to noon on Friday, because by the time noon had rolled around, it was getting pretty ugly. So I ate a HUGE lunch and a snack before bed.
Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of rain and a sinus headache that made me feel like I had been punched in the left cheek (a feeling that still exists even now). I had promised to meet some people for the ride and I had the directions, so I jumped in my car and drove 30 minutes east to Redlands to meet my friends. I secretly hoped no one would show and things looked good as I sat at the coffee shop sipping a latte. But my friends are freaks and don't care about rain, so I got the phone call at 7 from Coach Tony saying "don't leave without us, we're running a little late". In a strange way, I was sort of excited that I would get to ride. Tony and Melinda showed up and off we went. About 1/2 way up one of the big hills, I noticed that Tony was behind me and that is something that never happens when we ride together in the hills. Either I was having a great day or he was still not recovered from having done Ironman Arizona last weekend. It turns out it was the latter. He threw in the towel and he and Melinda headed back. When we talked later he told me his legs just weren't responding and he didn't feel like suffering that much. I had a great ride to the top of the hill and turned around realizing that I would have to finish the ride on my own. That was not likely to happen being that more blood rushing to my head was not helping the sinus pain I was having. So I bagged the rest of the ride and headed back to the car. I still rode a 1 1/2 hour ride that was very tough, so I was somewhat ok with having to cut it short.
Sunday, I took Isabella for a run in the jogging stroller between church and brunch. It served a few purposes. 1st to make my gorge at brunch guilt free. 2nd, I hoped that running would somehow make the pain in my head and face go away (which it did after about 15 minutes). And lastly, we were hoping to get Bella to take a nap before going to brunch. As we got into the stroller, she said "maybe I can take a nap in the stroller". She is a blast to run with, because she talks to me most of the time. She asks all sorts of questions and makes all sorts of observations as we run. We got about 3 miles into run, and blew a tire on the stroller. A piece of glass cut into the tire and tube. So we called mommy out to rescues us and sat on the side of the road talking and throwing rocks until she got there. It stunk that my run was cut short, but the time with her was still very good.
Yesterday afternoon, I met a friend of mine, Megan in a Olive Garden parking lot in Yorba Linda in order to help her out with a bike she was looking at buying. I helped her find it through my triathlon club. It was a great deal on paper and when I saw it in person, it was still a great deal. She basically got a $1500 bike for $500. The guy selling it fell in love with Xterra off-road triathlons and needed the money for a new mountain bike. I am going to help train her to complete an Olympic distance race by the end of summer.
Today is a rest day. Hopefully this cold/ sinus issue will go away before the end of the day.

Happy Easter

Got in a 1500 meter swim yesterday in 25 mins 16 seconds. It was a little off my normal time, but it felt like it should have been even worse. Some days when I get in the water, it feels like I am gliding effortlessly, and some days it feels like I am struggling to keep from going to the bottom. Yesterday was definitely the latter. I'll get back in the pool next week and dedicate a day to doing drills. That should get me back to swimming like I know I can. 500 meter splits 8:14/ 8:30/ 8:32
Last night I went back and rode the training loop again. I took 3rd place on the ride up the hill, but the group was a little different, so it isn't fair to say that I moved up from my 4th place finish on Tuesday. I will say this, the 1st and 2nd place finisher last night don't have much to worry about from me and provide an inspiration that I can get faster. Funny thing is, when you ride with the same group for a while, you can think you're getting fast and strong, andf then you go out and ride with a different group and find out how far you can go. This is that kind of group. It was a bit windy on the ride back, so pacelining became even more important and I learned a lot last night. I ride a lot, but most times in small groups or with triathletes, who are notoriously bad a riding in a group. These guys ride in groups all the time, so they have all sorts of tips and tricks ( and expectations). Riding in a group is fairly dangerous because you are riding inches off of someone's back tire and if you rub tires you're almost certain to go down and go down hard. When that happens, many times you will take down riders behind you. It's a skill I work at. You need to be super smooth and consistent and as any abrupt movements are unwelcomed, at best.
Tomorrow I am doing a 60 mile ride with 7000' of climbing in it. It ought to be interesting. Today is Good Friday and a day of Fasting, so I am wrestling with how to fuel myself for tomorrow. Normally a large carb filled lunch or dinner is in order. Perhaps, I'll set my alarm clock for 3 am and eat a large carb meal then.
I'll let you know what I come up with.

Have a great Easter!

Picture of Yvette's new shes

Stability
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Grit
Speed
Walking

Adrenaline GTS 6 (42166)

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Price: $90.00

Yvette's new shoes

I didn't get up yesterday to swim, so I am going to do that at lunch today. I did get in a 30 minute run on the treadmill last night at 10. I feel good for having done that. I think I am going to try to catch the training ride tonight again at 5:00.
Last night I took Yvette to a running store over in La Verne so that she could get new shoes. I have hard time understanding how someone can make a living off of one of these store, being that they are so specialized, but I appreciate the fact that they are there. The manager, a guy named Rob who has been running 19 years and is the cross-country coach for Claremont high (and looks like he is about 16 years old), fitted Yvette for some new shoes. He watched her run and found that she is a over-pronater. That means as she runs, her foot rolls towards the inside. That explains the significant pain she had in her knees at the end of the 1/2 marathon she ran last year. Most people (85% according to Rob) overpronate and most running shoes that are sold are sold for neutral runners (those whose foot rolls straight through from heel to toe). Neutral runners need little lateral support. Over-pronaters need lateral support built into their shoes. Can you see the problem yet? Yvette is going to run a 10k at the end of the month in her new shoes so we'll see if it fixes her problem. In fact, I just got off the phone with her and she was walking into the gym to spend some time on the treadmill.
I had Rob check my run gate. He said I overpronate when I walk, but as the treadmill speeds up and I start to run, I move up onto the balls of my feet and end up with a neutral gate. Good thing too, because I just ordered 2 pairs of new running shoes that are for neutral to mild over-pronaters and they should be on my doorstep today when I get home.
This is probably more than you wanted to know about running shoes, unless of course you have pain when your running.
Talk to you in a bit.

4th Place

I took fourth place in tonights training ride. I felt pretty good. We had 17 or so riders out on this loop and the guy who finished 1st races at a semi-pro level. He was pretty far ahead, but number 2 and 3 were close enough to see. I think I'll be able to beat them next time. This is a chippy ride. It starts out slow and conversational but whenever the road turns up, it gets pretty serious. The top guys are pretty good and they ride pacelines pretty well together. That being said, I took a super long pull on the front of the paceline and pulled the tops guys at around 32 mph for quite a while. I got to play lead out boy at the end of the ride to the 2 sprinters. It was fun to watch them go at it and I felt like I was able to help by lifting the pace right into the last 100 meters of the ride. I know that I am not training my sprinting muscles, so loosing that battle was ok. I would like to place 2nd or 3rd on this ride next time though. It's a fun ride that only should last about an hour, but they stop to regroup for the slower riders, and there are some really slow folks. Tomorrow morning is a swim workout. Pray that I have the discipline to get out of bed in the morning.

My daughter

So here it is, my latest excuse for not waking up to workout. At 5:00 this morning my 3 1/2 year old daughter, Isabella, comes running to my bed scared from some bad dream. She crawls into bed and snuggles up to me. This is one of my favorite things in life. So when the alarm goes off 20 minutes later, it was easy to roll over and go back to sleep.
This afternoon, I am heading out to do a club training ride that is more of a race. It ought to be an interesting ride. We'll get to see who slacked off in the off season and who was sweating in their garages getting stronger.
I'll give you all the report tomorrow.

Finally I get to workout again

Last week was dedicated to the common cold. I rested Monday per my training schedule. Tuesday's workout fell victim to the time change for daylight savings time. I couldn't get out of bed when the clock read 5:30 am when my body knew that it was really 4:30 am. So I slept. Good thing too, because by the end of the day, I had caught a cold. It kept me down until Saturday. Sunday, I finally got back on the bike for a 2 hour spin of about 40 miles.
I had to train Saturday because I knew that a bunch of my friends were dong Ironman Arizona. A good friend of mine and smack talking competitor, Dan, was doing his first race at this distance and he had an incredible race, based on the times. He finished in the top 300 out of about 2500 racers and I can't wait to hear the stories. He and I are racing for the 1st time head to head in July at the Vineman half Ironman. We have very close times in all of our races, but I'd be lying if I said that his times at Arizona don't give me a lot to think about. He did the 2.4 mile swim in 1:05 the 112 mile bike in 5 hours 37 mins (avg. 19.9 mph) and the 26.2 mile run in 4 hours 55 mins (avg. 11:15 min/ mile). I am super proud of him. Now that he knows he can push himself that far though, he will be even more dangerous.
I'll keep you up to date on this weeks training throughout the week.
Finally, I sucked another person into my triathlon vortex. A good friend of mine and co-worker named Megan is going to be doing her first triathlon this year. I suggested she do the Olympic distance race (1500 meter swim/ 24 mile bike/ 6.2 mile run) at Carpinteria in September. I will be caoching her through this race. It was my first race and I know that she will love the course. Wish her luck in her endeavor.

Another great training weekend

Even though it rained on Saturday it still turned out to be a great training session. I did the 3-hour Spinerval workout in my garage on the bike trainer, but the cool part was that Yvette joined me for the first hour of it. I have been trying to get her to join me on some training rides. Typically she will not. But since we were on the bike trainers, she knew she wouldn't get dropped. She did great and I think she even enjoyed it. The Spinervals 13.0 workout is 3-hours of training just below Lactate Threshold level. Which for me means, three hours at between 150 bpm (heart-beats per minute) and 175 bpm ( my LT is 167 bpm). You can burn upwards of 2500 calories during the workout and loose 5 pounds of water weight. My trainer told me that I averaged 21 miles per hour and went 63 miles. That is made even more significant since a good portion of the workout is spent alternating between a seated position and standing in all sorts of gearing combinations. There are times in this workout when you want to crawl through the TV screen and choke the guy running the workout for making you stand when you don't even want to pedal any more. I love the feeling I get knowing that I've finished it, once it is done.
Sunday morning we had daylight savings time kick in and some beautiful weather. So I slept in until 8 am and went for a one hour run at a strong pace. Total run time was 53 minutes and I ran between 7 and 8 miles. I was trying to chase down 2 guys that were about 1/4 mile ahead of me, but they were moving out at a pretty good pace, so I was only able to close about half of that gap. Today is a rest day, then I start a new cycle of training tomorrow.

Sore Left Knee

For some reason my left knee is pretty sore. It started mid-day yesterday and got pretty bad last night. I woke up this morning pain free, but as of an hour ago it started to hurt a bit again. I swam a very strong 1500 meter swim at lunch yesterday at 24 min 30 seconds. Even splits on the 500 meters of 8 min 3 seconds 8:15 and 8:03. That felt great. Since my knee hurts, I am going to go swim a long 4000 meter (2.5 mile) swim today after work. If we have no rain tomorrow, I plan to bike with my coach. If it rains, I'll be banished to the garage for another exhilarating 3 hour training session going nowhere. Pray for dry weather.

A great couple of training days

I feel really good right now because I have been sticking to my plan. Tuesday I swam a hard 1500 meter swim. I finished in 24min 50 sec with very even splits per 500 meter. That felt great. Last night I got home and did a hard 35 minute run (about 4.5 miles) right at dusk with some very ominuous looking clouds approaching. No rain though. This morning I got up and rode Doug's Handcycle ( something like the photos to the right) to his house and then went for a run. He just had new gearing added to his bike and it works great. I kinda wish I had one of these to work out on as they give you a great upper body workout. The run this morning was probably about 3 miles. It was a pretty easy pace. I am going to try to get in a swim at lunch today. We will see. We had some really long meetings this morning at work that are going to eat into my day.

Pray for a dry weekend so that I can get in some good riding.

Rest Day

I did it. I spent yesterday as a true recovery day. I swapped out my run this morning for a swim that I am going to do at lunch because my legs are still kinda sore. I'll go swim 2500-3000 meters in a bit. Hopefully it will rain while I am swimming. I love doing swim workouts in the rain.

Sunday Long Run

My legs hurt! There you have it. It is Monday morning and my legs feel super heavy. It's not the kind of pain you get when you go back to the gym and do a heavy workout, it's more like an achy dense pain that is deep in the muscles. I got up yesterday morning and ran 11 or so miles. About 4-5 miles of this run course is a sustained uphill grade and yesterday added a 15-20 mph headwind for about half of that. But, when I turned the corner for the last mile of downhill run to my house and picked up a tailwind man did I feel great. I was running a low 5 minute mile pace at the end of a long run and that really swelled my ego. It was a great weekend of training and today I am doing what my coach says is the most important day- rest. This may sound strange, but that is actually pretty tough to do. I'd love to go do a light run, or a light swim- but I need to let my body repair itself. So today I will relax.

Up to speed

So much has happened since my last post. Here is the recap. Last Friday I bought a new house, which meant I had to sell the 2 I have currently. And with the tremendous amount of stress it put me under, my training started to go to crap. Last Saturday I got in a 50 minute training session on the bike trainer which should have been a 3 hour ride at minimum. Sunday, I was supposed to run, but instead I was painting and laying tile at my house in Alta Loma. Monday I blew off for no good reason and by Tuesday I decided that I needed to get back to working out, if for no other reason than as a stress outlet. So Tuesday and Thursday I got 1 hour spin sessions on the bike trainer. Then came the phone call. Thursday afternoon Dan Christensen called me. Dan is the guy who owns Foothill Cyclery, where I buy all of my bike stuff. He raced the California 1/2 Ironman last Saturday and had a respectable race time. In fact, he bettered his previous best time and was a bit faster than my best time. Dan loves to instigate rivalry and he and I go back and forth a lot. We are pretty darned equal on the bike. He is a better swimmer and I have a better 1/2 marathon time than him. I am pretty sure I can beat him in a head-to-head race and he feels that he can beat me. To say the least, when we do race, we will both end up in a lot of pain. We will find out July 30th in Sonoma at the Vineman 1/2 Ironman race.
Yesterday I put in an awesome ( and I think Dan would even say so) 1500 meter swim and a short 30 minute run. Tomorrow I plan a 2 hour run and today my friend Joe and I put in an epic ride.
Maybe next time I'll read the course description before I head out on the ride. Yesterday Joe Vasquez suggested we do the Rotary ride at the Tour of Redlands. Having done the Tour of the Canyons in the past, I thougth I knew what was in store for me and when he said it was only 60 miles, I thought to myself, wow, I even get 12 miles less than years past. Was I in for a surpise. The course t-shirt said "Savage" about the course ( I saw that 30 miles into the ride) and the description says 5'000 feet of climbing with grades up to 22%. In short, this ride goes down as one of the best courses I've ridden and I had a blast. Many times on many stretches of this course I found my front tire lifting off the ground while my legs begged me to get off the bike and walk.

Feeling Better

So far today, I am feeling 100% better than yesterday. I have a busy night scheduled but the plan is to get on the bike trainer for at least 45 minutes tonight. That'll probably take place at around midnight with everything I have going on tonight. Tomorrow morning, I am going to meet Ron at Citrus College to get my swim critiqued. That should be a really good thing.

Sick Day

At least once a training cycle, IT happens. What is IT, you ask? IT is the cold or flu that my kids give me just as my training is starting to get into a rhythm. I mean, how many times can you wipe a runny nose, and avoid getting the cold yourself? And IT happened last night on the way to dinner at Islands. It started with some pain in the ears, then a tingling in the throat- and as of right now, that is where it has stopped- and hopefully will not progress any further. I took the day off from work, slept in and have been returning phone calls and emails from bed. I blew off my swim training this morning and hope to get to some light spinning or running tomorrow. We will see.

Spinning in the Garage

Chris' Triathlon Training Ramblings
I got up this morning and did 45 minutes on my bike trainer in the garage. I watched Jackie Chan's "Around the World in 80 Days" to help with the incredible boredom of sitting in the garage at 5:30 in the morning on a bike trainer. The thing about riding on a trainer is, and especially in the morning, you spend the whole time talking yourself out of getting off and going back to bed. The more you can do to distract yourself through either friends or movies, the better. It does pay off though when you hit the road.
Tomorrow morning I am meeting a friend of mine named Ron so that he can fine tune my swimming. That means a 5 am wake up call for a 1 hour drive each way to spend 30 minutes in the pool. I hope it pays off. I'll let you know.

Training Day

Here is my first foray into keeping a blog. We'll see how it goes. I am hoping to be able to spend a few minutes in here daily to keep those of you who read my newsletter up to date on my training as I get ready for at least 3 Half-Iron distance races. I'll try to keep these posts short, while at the same time give you some insight into how I am feeling both physically and mentally.
Coach Tony, my coach, would call today a training day, even though I did nothing, because it was a scheduled recovery day. Saturday, Doug, Joe and I did a 3-hour Spinerval session on bike trainers in the garage that was brutal and I am still recovering. Yesterday I was supposed to run, but the weather was crummy outside and I was tired from Saturday, so I chased the kids around the house all day instead. Tomorrow's plan calls for 1 hour on the bike trainer. Now that I have to answer to this blog, I'll have to get my butt out of bed at 5:30 and actually do it. I'll let you know how it goes.