Busy Summer Happenings

Hey strange web world...

Over the next few weeks I have some time off of work and I plan to do some more posting. For the time being, here are a few photos from my "A" race this fall:

Thus, WhatsNextDave Gal is now Mrs. WhatsNextDave.

Here are a few more photos. Thanks to Michael Rastall for his great talent.

'Cause I'm Coming Home Again...

Couple of notes before we talk off for Des Moines...

• Positive thoughts going out to my boy, Chuck, who is taking the day off to swim around Key West. Not just your average day at the beach... this is a 12 mile swim. Check out the website. He is gearing up for the English Channel swim this August. This is a big test. He started swimming around 9 AM EST. I talked to him last night and he said there were 11 solo swimmers giving it a shot. I am sure he will do great. Looking forward to Sunday afternoon by his pool swapping our weekend war stories.
  
• It's my sister's birthday this weekend. You know you are a self-centered athlete when you get you sister up at some ridiculous hour on her birthday so she can watch you doing silly sporting events. Hey, it's all about me people (see link). She is turning 24 (?), and while the rest of the world may have figured it out a few years ago, she has matured into quite a special woman. Happy birthday Patricia.
  
• Cub-Sox Part 1 is this weekend. Despite losing a few games in a row, the good guys haven't given up much ground to the evil cardinals in the NL Central. That is all fine and dandy, but for the next three days no one I know really cares about the NL Central. Let me sum up my feelings on the subject: Sox suck.
  
• Better now than later in the year, but I am a little annoyed with the Cubs articles reading like medical reports.
• Not only is this the weekend of the Redline Classic, the FL Swim for Chuck, Patricia's Birthday, Dave's Next Attempt at Drowning... it is also the weekend Mo and Coach meet Jane and Craig (aka WND Gal's Parents). Very exciting indeed. Melissa and I agree, they are so much alike. I am sure they will get along great.
  
• There was an article today linked in Daily Triathlon with 10 Tips to Keeping Up Your Relationship While Being a Self Centered Endurance Athlete (I might have improved the title a bit). I was going to link it, but the article was really bad. It had me going until one of the tips basically recommended that you don't cheat on your loved one. Brilliant advice dumbass. So I am going to put that on my list of posts to write this summer... right after I figure it all out. 

Lastly, it has been a while since I have had a good music post. In honor of my trip home to Des Moines, and my love of all things Chicago, and my infatuation with Coldplay now, I give you Kayne West's Homecoming:



Catchy tune right? Doesn't Chris Martin (from Coldplay, lending his vocals to the song) sound like Sting? "Oh-ie oh-ie, oh!"

Batavia Triathlon Report

It's a crazy sport that calls an hour plus event a sprint.- Annette Jonker, CTC

A good look at the swim layout for the triathlon. (and Melissa's best photo of the day)

I am still a relative "newbie" to the triathlon world. I knew this summer that I wanted to try the Hy-Vee Triathlon again, other than that I took me quite a while to plan my races this year. I think part of my slow planning comes from my background in running where you didn't really sign up for most races until the morning of.

Well times have changed and races are becoming more popular, and triathlons especially fill up quickly. For example, as soon as I figured out most of the Chicago Tri Club (CTC) members do Galena and Tri-Shark as their early season warm-ups, they were full.

I had to look for another option to give me a race to get under my belt before I took my revenge on the Hy-Vee course. Enter the Batavia Sprint Triathlon. I liked that I didn't have to travel for the race, saving the price of the hotel. I liked that the run is 4.1 miles, was longer than most sprints, which typically have end with a 5k. Without knowing much about it, I was in. A sprint triathlon would be a great way to see how all this training was paying off.

3:35 AM: Alarm goes off. Ouch early. It's raining. I threw the tri shorts, a tee shirt, and the flip flops on, brushed my teeth and I was out the door. Pulled up the car, tossed in the bags, and secured the bike.

I live in Wrigleyville USA, home of the Chicago Cubs and about 40 bars and nightclubs. This was one of the first times I have ever awoke before 4 AM while living here, but I knew what would be outside. Let's just say it wasn't other triathletes packing their cars. No, it was the leftovers of Saturday night's fun. And like a tuna sandwich after four days, it wasn't looking so good.

Despite having the option to sleep in, Melissa decided she would join me for the day. I was a bit surprised as she is a self-confessed sleepaholic, but I couldn't have been happier. Despite her ever decreasing patience for all of my crazy endeavors, she has come to enjoy race day. As I have learned watching my friends run the Chicago Marathon, as a spectator you can't help but feel a lot of the anticipation, excitement, and pride that the participant feels, even to the point where you typically feel very tired at the end of event(although it could also be partly due to the obscene early hours at which time you have to get out bed for these events).

So half awake Melissa and I took the drive out to Batavia, a pleasant suburb about an hour west of Chicago (or around 40 minutes at 4:20 AM).

We arrived just after 5, with the transition area open from 5-6. Already I felt rushed. The chip pick-up and number writing went smoothly. I gave Melissa a quick kiss and headed into the transition area to set up my gear.

I found the rack numbered with the range that matched my race number, found an open spot and couple of pretty friendly guys next to me. Set my my stuff out, took a quick sip of the Gatorade and decided I should hit the restroom before donning my new wetsuit.

Well it turns out I wasn't the only one with that idea. There were four stalls, and about 20 people in line. It was 5:38. I told myself, "if I can get out of here by 5:52, I should be OK." Well, I was out of the bathroom at about 5:54. On my way out I saw the line had grown to about 50. Timing is everything.

There was a lot of discussion around water temp and should you wear the wetsuit or not. Well, I decided I needed to practice with it, so it was going on. Then I hear from the PA, "The time is six o'clock. The transition area is closed. Participants please make your way down to the pool area." My first thought was, "oh crap," but I really didn't have much to worry about. My transition area was set up, I just need to toss my new CTC jersey on, spray a little "suit juice" on the right spots (a lubricant designed to make putting on and taking off the wetsuit a little easier), and put on the wetsuit.

Sounds easy right? Well I had only put on a wetsuit maybe three times before in my life, and I think the average time was about 10 minutes. But they had to do the pre-race announcements, the Star Spangled Banner, and then they were not starting in big waves, but a person every three seconds. I was around the 240 person, so I had some time.

AND it only took me a couple of minutes to get the wetsuit on (a subtle brag).

The "Swim"
They had us line up by our race number (see above, thanks to Melissa for the photos), which was also in order of the average 100m swim time we put down when we registered. I had put 2 minutes per 100, because that is my reach goal for a 1500m swim. This was a 400m swim. No worries, I was glad to see how the whole thing worked before I got in the water. As they didn't care what swim cap you wore, I put on a different color one so Melissa could see me.

When it was my turn to start, I have to admit I was VERY nervous. Not like running races, it was more of a surreal moment, one which I can probably most compare the beginning of my college boxing matches. The water temp felt great with the wetsuit, so I am glad I had it. Once I took my first couple of strokes, I was fine, but also swimming in a crowd for the first time this year. It was also the first time this year I swam in open water, but I felt much better about it compared to last year in the Hy-Vee tri.

I quickly noticed that swimming in a wetsuit was great. I felt the buoyancy right away. I kept to the inside mostly so I could see the side of the island we were swimming around on my breaths. That worked well until it took a turn towards my right and I was all the sudden pushed into traffic around the turn.

After around 80-100m it was time for a U-turn left for the second half of the first of two laps. I was feeling pretty good now, but then people started standing up. It was shallow enough on the whole backstretch you could stand. Now I had watched the first swimmers swim almost the whole lap, so you didn't have to stand up there, but it was very hard to swim around people that were walking in front of you. I did by get around a couple of people, but after a while it was too shallow to swim (as we had been told), so I plowed my way around the end of the first lap (see below).

The second lap was more crowded than the first. What I should have remembered is how short the actual swim is and just gunned it, but I think the nerves got the better of me. The second back stretch had twice as many walkers, which made the swimming very difficult. None the less, when I came out of the water I was glad to see the time on my watch was under 7 minutes. Good enough.
I wanted to focus on transitions today, and they were faster than the last race I had, but still slow. I need to remember to do my recovery from each event during the next. Still, considering I had to take the wetsuit off, and everything was wet from the rain, I think the first transition was OK. With practice they will get faster.

The Bike
The bike course was nice. There was a pretty solid cross wind on a couple of miles of the backstretch, but overall it was a very pleasant day for a ride. I tried to go out hard early, but I am not sure if that worked out. I always seem to "warm-up" on the bike, and pick up speed as I go. I averaged over 19 mph on the ride, but I still see this as one of my weak disciplines. I am going to try to get a little extra time in the saddle the next two weeks.

I felt like T2 was fast. The shoe change was quick, but I did eat a gu and take a quick sip of Gatorade (why I didn't do this on the bike is beyond me.) I say it felt fast, because according to the times from the tri it was painfully slow (third slowest in my age group?). I had all these times on my watch, but the memory was full prior to the race and I couldn't go back and look at my splits. This whole dumb move with the watch is especially annoying because there was a three minute difference between my chip time and my watch (not in my favor).

I keep telling myself that the watch splits don't matter, but I am curious as to where those three minutes went. Let's just say I am very suspicious with the tri's timing system (not helped by the fact it took them over a day to post the results).

The Run
The switch from bike to run is a tricky one. Your legs typically feel like they weigh a ton each after getting off the bike. That being said, after leaving the transition area, I felt surprisingly good. I felt like I was moving fast, mostly because I was picking off a lot of other runners.

I hit the first mile marker at 7:25, which is pretty quick for me. The second one was closer to 8 minutes. I don't know exactly what the last two were (watch and the memory issue), but I think the mile markers may have been a little off. My pace didn't drop that much.

I think I may have had four or five people pass me in the run total. I probably passed two or three dozen. That being said it was so tricky because the race wasn't organized by age group (by numbers or start times), but by estimated swimming time.

The run course was very nice. It was along the fox river in Batavia. It reminded me of running along the Iowa River in Iowa City. A wide, full, slow moving river with a nice bike trail running along it. We actually crossed over the river at the turn around point, and then crossed back as we approached the finish line.

Melissa was there at the finish, she was impressed with my day. I felt good, but I wanted to go faster. Overall I was right at the top third (179/517 finishers), top half in my age group (22/49). My goal was top half of my age group, but this is kind of a beginners tri with a very short swim (my weakest link), so I will have to put up a much better effort to keep that kind of place in Des Moines.

Final Times: Batavia Sprint Tri
(400 m, 14.7 miles, 4.1 miles; first number is my age group place out of 49 people)
Swim: 28 6:36 (1:39 per 100 m pace)
T1: 32 3:29
Bike: 20 45:28 (19.4 mph ave)
T2: 45 3:34
Run: 16 32:38 (7:58 per mile pace)
Total: 22 1:31:43

100 yards away from the finish

The Lord Stanley's Cup

The Mac in the photo makes it look strange, but this is what it looks like to watch playoff hockey (especially in a 3OT game).  It as exciting as sports get.

The good guys lost that one, but won the next to bring home the goblet.  

Congrats Red Wings  Have fun with Lord Stanley's Cup this summer.

Specializing vs. Triathlons

Why be really good at one sport, when you can be mediocre at three?
(A common runners joke about triathlon training. I heard it first from Dan Lee from the Chicago Triathlon Club)

Writing on all things triathlon, running, and general dream fulfilling, people tend to email me articles from time to time.  I really appreciate the help, and they are typically either every informational articles or just downright amusing (see open water training video below).

Every once in a blue moon there is an article that gets enough press and speaks to my vast and loyal readership, that I receive it from multiple sources.  

A good example of this is the article about triathlon training in the New York Times three weeks ago.  I think four or five people emailed me that day to tell me about it.  Take a read for yourself, but the article discusses how the training for triathletes is spread too thin to actually find a peak performance in any of the three disciplines.  

Duh.

I think that quote from Dan Lee at the top really sums it up.  Although it is well worth noting that I am in the middle of the peak of my triathlon training now, and I have set two PRs in the last week in my main discipline of running (half apology for the not so subtle brag) AND I am as good as a swimmer and biker as I have ever been.

Of course, I am working out a fair amount now.  And the argument is that if I would just specialize in one of the three, I would be better in that sport.  I agree with that.  While I am nearing the best running shape of my life, if I solely concentrated on running I probably wouldn't be talking about a 1:43 last weekend in the half-marathon, but closer to a 1:38.  

This was most definitely a concern of mine as I drove up to the race this weekend.  I have spent a lot of time in the pool recently, and I was worried that I was not in good enough running shape to do the half well.  

And furthermore, I am also starting to worry a bit about the Pikes Peak Ascent in August.  While I am in good shape for running on flats, running up a mountain does take some specialized training.  I tried some of that out last night, running on a treadmill with the incline jacked up to 15%.  Not easy.  In fact I was a little surprised on just how hard it was.  I have plenty of time to adjust to the different actions associated with climbing, but it is nothing I would have typically done as a part of triathlon training (unless of course the triathlon was on a mountain).

It all comes back to the great metaphor of the triathlon as the mistress.  This is Donald's metaphor not mine, but I think it makes a lot of sense to me.  I am a runner.  I love running and what it does for me.  I see myself running many more marathons and maybe trying to dabble in ultras.  I love going out on a trail and getting lost for a few hours.  There is nothing that clears my head better or calms me to a greater extent. 

But triathlons are fun.  They are intense.  There is a TON of cool gear.  Every day you get to do something new.  And I am participating in sports where I have a lot of room to improve.  

But in the end, like Donald, I see myself going back to running.  She will be there for me.  We have been together too long to leave her forever.  

How does that relate to the New York Times article?  

I may or may not keep hitting PRs in my runs this summer, but I am doing events that are interesting and new to me.  I have never woke up in the morning and ran up a 14,000 ft mountain.  I have never decided it would be a good idea to swim along some of the best architecture in the world.  I had never ridden my bike 100 miles in a day.  And I have never had the chance to have an artistic expression about things I am passionate about.  But I will this summer, and I think that is pretty cool.

So thank you for the articles.  Keep sending the blog fodder my way.  I added an email link to the right to make it easier when ideas come up, but feel free to leave comments on the blog entries as well.

Tragedy Averted

I forgot to mention how I saw my life flash before my eyes on my way to Traverse City.  Were we almost in a car accident?  No, worse.  My bike almost came loose from the car.  

Melissa (the girlfriend formerly known as WND Gal) saw the color flush from my face as I stared intently into the rearview mirror.

"What's wrong? Are we being pulled over?"

"No, it's worse. My bike."

Luckily, it was pretty well strapped on to the carrier. While it was flying horizontal for a while, and it did scratch up her pretty little frame a bit, we didn't lose her. Oh, and Melissa was fine too.

[A note to Melissa's Mother:  I am only kidding about my bike being more important than getting in a car accident.  Obviously your daughter was the most important cargo that day, and every day she rides with me in the car.  And I would also like to note that I am a very safe driver.  I use my turn signals at least 87% of the time, and passed drivers education and all DOT and DMV (depending on the state) tests in my first attempts.]

Notes

• Speaking of ultramarathoning, like triathlons they are increasing in popularity.  It seems that we are all getting totally more extreme.  My guess is most people that do ultras might not like its newfound popularity, but I doubt there is much that will stop it (see me thinking about it).
  
• Speaking of running at altitude (tough segway there, I know) the 30th Bolder Boulder, the worlds largest 10k in Boulder CO, was last weekend. Running superstars Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor, who will both run for the US in the Olympic Marathon, are running.  Kastor finished 7th (she has won it three times).  There was no mention of Hall's place in the articles.  The weather was very good for fast times.  The lead pack of men averaged 4:32 per mile.  Sick.  Nasty sick.
  
• As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with sharks… “Unprecedented Collision with Pelican Sends Woman to Hospital."
  

Training This Morning:

20.23 mile bike, 1 hour 13 min, average 16.6 mph

OK, OK, Her Name is Melissa

Driving back from Traverse City on Monday, the girlfriend formerly known as WND Gal (see this post for why she was cool enough to actually get a pseudonym in the first place) made her last ditch effort to get her name changed on the blog. [This dialogue may be slightly paraphrased, I can't remember word-for-word the conversation.]

"Seriously, will you please just call me by my name. Everyone knows it's me anyway."

"Sugar plum, you just don't understand how blogs work. It is very important that remains anonymous, otherwise I loose all of my web-cred."

"You have web-cred?"

"Sure I do lovie-dovie. My millions of readers from India to Marion, IA will no longer think of me as a ‘cool’ blogger. I will just be another guy who posts his photos of his vacations for his family to see."

"I thought you said no one reads your blog but my mom and your two friends from college. Plus, we don't get vacations; we just go to your races."

"Races in exotic places."

"Like Des Moines?"

"Yes, and Chicago, and Traverse City, and Colorado Springs!"

"We live in Chicago. Anyway, everyone else in your blog get to use their name."

"They are not as important of characters as you are, my sweet pretty princess."

"You mention how Kevin beats you in every race. He is in like every blog entry. And who really wants to hear any more about Charlie?"

"Yeah, but WND Brother-in-law just doesn't have a ring to it."

At the end of the day, I just ran out of good arguments. Therefore, WND Gal is, and will be referenced to in the future as, Melissa, my much, much better (and smarter) half.

WND World Meet "What's Next Dave Gal"

Blog World, What's Next Dave Gal... What's Next Dave Gal, Blog World.

In the tradition of anonymous nature of blogging, have tried to use as few names as possible. Of course I kind of ruined that when I named it after myself (in response to the first rule of blogging, "Be as self-centered as possible").

That being said, I did blatantly steal from "The Sports Guy," Bill Simmons, when I started calling my girlfriend, WND Gal (for What's Next Dave Gal). He for a long time referenced to his girlfriend (and future wife) as "The Sports Gal." Eventually he let her write little blurbs in his column.

There has been some rumblings in the lurking world about what does WND Gal mean, and why don't I just use her name, is he embarrassed by her, why does he write that stupid blog anyway, etc, etc, etc...

Since WND Gal has been so patient with me, between my working, working out, and blogging (which she is learning to really not like), I decided I would devote a whole entry to her so you all get to know her a little better.

As you can see from the photo above, she is a very good sport (and damn good lookin' in a poncho). She is the only women I found that can deal with me 85.7% of the time. For example the photo above was taken opening day. She pinky swore "on our relationship" that she would not complain about the weather, and she more than held her end of the bargain.

I on the other hand, did not make such an agreement and complained about the weather for a good hour or two (read: until I downed my first 2 beers). I digress...

WND Gal is fun, witty, and a perfect companion for me.  She both my teammate and my partner in crime.  That is why I am renaming her in the blog... she will no long be known as WND Gal... from now on she will be known the blogging community as the What's Next Dave Gal!

Congratulations.