What's Next? Murph's Elevator Haters!

Goal: Get 20 People to Sign Up for the Kolh's Step Up for Kids, a stair climbing contest at the AON Center in Chicago that raises money for Children's Memorial Hospital here in Chicago.

Secondary Goal: Have team raise $1500.

So this is kind of a tricky deal.  Obviously this is a little different of a project for me.  It requires a lot from other people.  

Climbing the 80 floors of the AON Center can sound like a very difficult task.  Who among us doesn't lose their breath after jumping up one flight of stair, never mind 80 stories worth?   But as someone that has participated in a number of these stair climbs, I can tell it much easier than you would think.  

That and the project is worth while as the charity is one my favorites in Chicago.  I ran the 2005 Chicago Marathon for Children's.  

Thus, strange blog world, meet Murph's Elevator Haters.  

I Understand Why Charlie Brown Wanted a Real Christmas Tree

Happy holidays blog world.  What's Next Girl and I picked out a tree last week.  Good fun to be had.  

I really understand Charlie Brown's search for the real tree.  After growing up with a fake tree, I think the process of getting the tree is more than half the fun.  

Along with the tree, I also picked up a new tree stand.  Spent a little too much dough on it, but the investment paid off as it took me all of 9 seconds to put it in the stand.  I used the time saved to put more lights on the tree.  It doesn't look like there are a thousand lights in there, but there is.  

I hope you are enjoying the holidays season.  Don't take it all too seriously. 

Wait... Did you finish the Tri?

Yes, I did. But it wasn't pretty. Here are my results from the Hy-Vee Triathlon in Des Moines. I think my age group had 135 finishers. I am not sure how I beat anyone in the swim (but there are only 4 of you out there, and I pity you).

PLACE RANK SWIM TRANS RANK BIKE TRANS RANK RUN RANK FINISH
125 131 53:49 5:32 119 1:20:44 3:58 99 56:55 125 3:20:56

More discussion on this later.

Whole Lot Going On

Hello strange blog world, remember me?

Sorry I have been gone for a while. I decided I needed a GRAND REOPENING of What's Next? Here you go:

What's Next?

Hopefully, a couple of things...

First, after running a few distance races I decided I need to get faster again. Thus, I am going to try to break 20 minutes in a 5k. It's another stupid physical thing, and eventually I want to get away from those, but they are easy distractions to my everyday life.

I went for a run tonight and did speed work. Warm up mile, faster half (3:35), 5 or 6 quarters, and another half (3:10). Good fun. Let's see if I can keep it going. This might not happen before the winter hits as I may have some stuff come up that might keep me from training.

Luckily, I have a second, concurrent goal.

After my first post, the guy who designed the magic number count posted on his website on how he liked my first post, but thought I was crazy if I was serious about the cubs. EAT ME geek.

That is all I am going to say about my second, concurrent goal.

Fastest 5K this summer 21:10. Cubs have a one game lead in the NL Central over the evil Brewers.

Speaking of Reaching Dreams

I know, it's a stretch for my blog, but this is great. WND blog readers, please meet Evan, spelling bee champ and dream reacher:

Rainy Day Update

Welcome to a rainy day in Chicago. It has been a while since I set up the blog and posted first post. I have had some great feedback and been brainstorming, and you will see some changes over the next couple of weeks, but for now I know I owe you a training update.

So in the true, Swim/Bike/Run triathlon fashion, here goes...

Swim: Well no miracle has occurred, I am still a terrible swimmer. I did received some "lessons" from my friends Kristin and Sara while we were all on vacation. I think they were surprised by my lack of buoyancy.

A little more valuable was a book that Kristin loaned me. It is a book on Total Immersion swimming. It is this movement on becoming a more efficient swimmer. So far I got a couple of good tips from it, but I thought I needed a few more pointers, so I decided to take swim lessons.

More on how not to sign up for a swim lesson tomorrow (if I don't drown in my first lesson tomorrow morning).

Bike: First things first, I bought a bike. Its a 2006 Lemond Reno. I got it at Village Cycle in Old Town. I went with a little cheaper bike than most I tried, but thus far I have been very pleased. The specs are as listed on the website, with the exception of Bontrager SSR wheels from the factory, and I put Look pedals and areobars on it. I also picked up some shoes and shorts. Yeah, it was a big $ night for me, but so far the "King of Buyer's Remorse" has been pleased with everything.

Although, my clips didn't work at spin class. I guess they are the "new" Look pedals.

I don't have a ton to say about Village Cycle. They are cheep, fast, with a huge inventory. Next time I will probably buy from a better shop with more support. I just found that most of the other shops didn't have good options for level entry. I just thought with this purchase I didn't know enough to spend a lot. Plus I wanted to get started training.

Which I have. I went out for a 38 mile ride on Sunday, going from my place north on Sheridan. Some of my biking friends said that was popular route among serious roadsters. What I learned on my ride Sunday is that they start in the suburbs. Lesson learned.

Moral of the story is the roads are better in the suburbs, and I was a little sore after riding the day after a big running race.

Run: Since the last update, I ran the 1/2 in Nashville, a 3.5 m JPMorgan Chase Corp Challange, and Soldier Field 10 Mile. In each of them I did pretty well. In the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville I set a PR at that distance by 10 minutes (although my previous 2 attempts were pretty lame). I met a guy from the University of Mississippi med school near the start and we ran the whole thing together. Finished in 1 hour 46 minutes (8:13 mile pace).

Last Saturday I ran the Soldier Field 10 Mile. It is one of my favorite races in Chicago. You run along Lake Michigan, South of downtown. It really has great views, and it is a well run race. Despite not really getting much sleep the week before due to work, I ran pretty well. I ran it in 1:19:14 (7:56 mile pace).

Other notes: Despite dropping their last four, the Cubs are only 6 games out of
first. I put that in because someone noted that I have their magic number posted here and thought it was pretty funny.

He should see me swim.

This Week:
22 Lengths of the Pool
38 Miles Biking
13 Miles Running
Cubs 2-8 in last 10 games

Long Day (Swim 13 Laps)

This is the story of what's next in my life. At first this will be the story of a very bad swimmer doing his first triathlon, but who knows where this blog thing will take me.

Consider the goal list below is always in flux. Any list you see from me a rough draft until I let you know otherwise.

Why blog about this? Well it isn't that I think anyone cares (although my parents might like to hear I am alive). It was an idea from an article in this month's Runners World, 101 Kicks in the Butt. It suggests it as a motivation tool. I thought it might be good for that, plus it will help me keep track of what I have done in training for these different events.

What Runners' World doesn't know is I already found some motivation. Everyday I don't work out that I am suppose to, I owe my friends Meg and Sammi $10 each. The good news is, if they don't workout, they owe me. So I will also use this blog to let everyone know how much money they owe me.

Back to what I am up to next: for the time being I will just write about races, and for now the major races I am signed up for include the Country Music 1/2 Marathon in Nashville (April 28), and the Soldier Field 10 Mile (Memorial Day Weekend).

I am also very interested in competing in my first triathlon in my hometown of Des Moines June 17 (Happy Father's Day Pops). That is the Hy-Vee Triathlon. I am not signed up yet, because I need to make sure I can swim and I need to buy a bike. As soon as I can do 10 straight lengths of my pool at the gym and I have a bike to train on, I will sign up. I did 26 lengths tonight, but only maxed out at 4 straight.


This Week:
Grand Total:
45 Min Spin
3 Mile Running
26 Lengths of the Pool
Sam owes $10 (tough opening day in Detroit)
Meg owes $10 (lazy over the weekend)