Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Lets see if I can get through this year without injuring myself further! :D

I hope you all have a great, fun, and enjoyable year!

Of bruised ribs and concussions

Mountain biking is probably one of my favorite things to do! Even when I end up injuring myself in the process, which seems to be happening at quite a high rate.

I've been biking with my buddy Rob from work. (Seen in the blue top) The guy can ride. As much as I can kick his ass in a 2 mile run, or with push ups, Rob can make me look like a child on the singletrack.

So the other weekend, I was doing a bit of track known as "Chicken Soup" at Lynn Woods. This bit of trail involves some really big boulders that are extremely scary to look down from. Some aren;t so bad, unless you do like I did and go over your handlebars right into some large rocks, bruising your ribs and banging your helmet on one of the previously mentioned large rocks. Ouch. Not too bad except that it hurts to sneeze, cough, laugh, and sometimes breathe. Still, I'm ready for another ride!

Like the ride we did this weekend at Carlise State Park. It was a nice easy ride, with nothing too technical. Of course, that doesn't stop me from taking what should have been a simple bunny-hop over a small rock, on the widest, flattest bit of trail we rode that day, and turning it into a horrendous high speed crash into the ground. I landed quite hard on my hip, landed on my ribs... again... same spot... and hit my head extremely hard on the ground. Sand can feel very hard if you hit it fast and hard enough. But I think I'm all right... My bike! Amazingly enough, I didn't break anything on it... this time. So far, I had managed to break something on the first two major rides I've owned this bike!

I did, however, find myself with a minor concussion complete with partial vision loss. That makes the third time in my life that I've had a concussion with vision loss. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as previous, and the partial vision loss lasted only a short time.

I'm ready for another ride! (Maybe I'll wear some chest protection next time...)

By the way, World... Meet Ivy, my new GT Force 2.0! :D

Happy Halloween!

I'm slacking on the posting here and on my main site as I've been a bit busy lately.  Busier than normal, at least.

Since the last post, I've picked up Tess, my new Cervelo P2C carbon fiber Tri bike, a new GT Force 2 mountain bike, and went for an awesome ride at Harold Parker State Forest with my co-worker and buddy Rob (on the old bike).  I'll be going back there to try out the new bike, hopefully this weekend, after the Halloween madness!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Runner 131: The Down and Dirty Duathlon

Today, I have ran and biked my very first multi-sport event, with the Down and Dirty Duathlon, a run/bike/run event in on the trails and hills of Lynn Woods! Yeay! I think that makes me a Duathlete now? It can't be all that tough, now can it? Well.... if you happened to have spent the previous night at the Harpoon Octoberfest with a bunch of friends, and just happened to drink about 6 pints of bear, ate about a foot worth of free sausage, and had a nice greasy fried egg and bacon sandwhich at 11pm, before catching the 12:10 train home... and woke up with a hangover, then yeah, it can be a bit tough. :P Both events, the night before, and even the race with a hang-over, were totally worth it. :)

The race day at Lynn Woods, much like the Rowley race day, started off feeling way too cold, with temps at 43 when I woke up, but fortunately warmed up to a perfect temperature for running and biking. It was one of those days where you needed a hoodie, a windbreaker, and constant movement to stay warm. It was an absolutely perfect day for running the race; Perfect temperature, bright and sunny, and almost zero wind. You can't get much better than that.

The run was a fairly easy run out, on a nice wide dirt road, although there were lots of little rocks to watch for lest you end up twisting your ankle and falling. Hills weren't all that bad with a sort of large rolling up and down, with not too bad of a grade. At the turn around point, we had to cut off the wide road, and immediately up these horrendous "steps", made from logs used to keep the steps from eroding out, that were covered in gravel, loose rocks, roots, and those dangerous rocks rooted in the ground that like to eat ankles for breakfast. Just at the top, when all looked clear, the girl I was following, who had been setting a very nice and consistent pace, twisted her ankle pretty bad, but was able to keep going. :( I felt bad since there wasn't really anything I could do to help out.

Back in the parking lot area, I made a fairly slow transition to bike, and watched a few people I had been in front of head on out on their bikes as I was strapping my gear on. The bike route, followed the same route as the run but kept on going past the turn around to go on a wider, longer route. So we had the same rolling hills, except these suck more when I'm on a bike. :P This is where I got to see a bunch of guys on cyclocross bikes zoom right past me. Note to self: Work on hills. Hills, hills, hills.

The second half of the bike ride was where the rolling hills suddenly became longer, steeper, ruttier, more pitted, and completely covered in more of those dangerous ankle rocks and loose stones. Did I mention I need to work on those hills? I hated every single climb up. :P And then, on the worst hill, the biker in front of me took a fall and I had to dismount and walk the way up. Fortunately for the rider, he wasn't hurt, and fortunately for me, walking was actually helpful because my calves decided that'd be a great time to start cramping up on me. Not fun at all.

Just before T2 is one of the places I lost some places, when we were entering the parking lot area on bike, course volunteers were telling us to ease off the bike speed as runners were coming in against the bike traffic. Being the kind of guy I am, I of course slowed on down as I headed for the line, and watched in bewilderment as 3 guys zoomed by at full on sprint speed on their bikes! WTF?

T2 is the other spot I lost a few places, as i performed an amazingly slow exit out of my Velcro strapped bike shoes, and an even slower entry into my running shoes. I had sat down, and my body starts shaking and tells me "Joe. This is good. Sit a little longer. You don't need to go out for the run, you just did one a bit ago before you depleted me during the biking." The shakes were not very fun here. Fortunately for me, one of my good friends came along to help me out and got me some Powerade, which I had forgotten to put in the Transition area.

The second run phase followed the same course as the first run stage, so I knew exactly what to look forward to. Thankfully, I didn't lose any places on the second run which I was utterly amazed at, considering how the only thing I could think of was "Wow! Talk about moving at an old man shuffle! Come on Joe! Step it out! Just stretch that stride a little longer!" And then my knee with the ITB problem decided "Yeah... This is awesome, but ITB is is being a whiny little punk". I am thoroughly thankful, that it was only a minor pain, and not something that forced me to stop and walk.

And the finish. I finally, after almost the entire 2.5 miles of running, managed to catch the guy in front of me and pass him up in my usual "Joe as a gazelle sprint bounding to the finish" style. Overall, I think I can use a lot of work on the biking up hills portion, and the endurance bit as well. There was a guy I kept passing on the down and level parts, but would get passed by him on the uphill parts. Over all, I finished behind a few people who I out ran on both the first and second run, but lost the advantage during my slow biking phase. And lastly, multi-sport is completely awesome!

Especially when bacon is served afterwords!

My results:
Overall Placing: 23rd
Overall Time: 1:09:57
9th Place for my age group (30-39)
Fastest individual from Salem, again!

Phase 1, Run:
Placing: 16th
Time: 17:22 (6:57 mile average)

Phase 2, Bike:
Time: 31:06 (:16 mile average)

Phase 3, Run:
Time: 21:29 (8:36 mile average)

Down and Dirty Duathlon results for 2008

D&DD registered

I am now registered for the Age categoty for the Down and Dirty Duathlon!  Thats one thing down, four more to go.

1. Make sure I get there in one piece.
   
2. 2.5 mile run
   
3. 5.9 mile Mountain bike ride
   
4. 2.5 mile run
   

Oh yeah, and 5.  Free Pancakes afterwards! :D

I'm a little bummed that my debut into Multi-sport racing will be a day in which I perform at not quite 100% performance levels, as I'm still trying to recover from some tendon injuries in my legs. :(  Thats what I get for pushing myself too hard!

Still, I'm pretty excited to be doing it! :D  I'm extremely excited to be getting into a sport that requires multiple disciplines, potentials for long distance and determination, and technology of course!  You really don't want to know how much money I already know I could drop on gear and hardware if I had the cash...

However, races make me really nervous.  Its the competition.  I'm more than capable and confident when competing against my own personal goals and challenges.  Its when it involves other people, and being judged by someone else, that I start getting butterflies.    

But I can do this, and it's going to be completely awesome, even if I do have to go at it feeling like I'm just going out for a jog!  The fun and accomplishment of doing and finishing the event is winning enough.

To victory!

Getting there...

Slowly, slower than I'd like, my knee and ankle are getting better. I picked up a compression strap setup for my ankle, and its feeling much better, with only a tiny bit of pain if I do the pinch test on the Achilles tendon. My knee also still needs more rest and light workouts to get it in shape.

Oddly enough, probably because of the way having an injury on each leg makes it very hard to walk properly, my knees on both legs kind of hurt but in different locations. (Under the knee caps)

Well, I estimate myself at about 60% right now, and the next race is on October 4th for the Down and Dirty Duathlon in Lynn Woods. 2.5 mile trail run, 5.9 mile mountain bike ride, 2.5 mile trail run. Hopefully, I'll be back into race shape for that one, because I know I won't be when I get out of this race. :P

Listen to your body

"Listen to your body".  I've now heard it twice in the span of an hour.  I really should do just that.  Apparently, I managed to injure my left achilles tendon area and my right outer tendon around the knee during Saturday's 5k race.  Today was my first running workout since then, and I had to stop at mile 5.5 out of my planned 7.5 miles. :(  The knee is all right now that I'm not moving, but it was hurting enough to slow me to a crawl there at the end.  As for my left leg, its awful painful to the touch.

I think its time to take a break from running and biking for a few days.  Maybe I'll just swim and lift weights.  For those who don't know, I absolutely hate the feeling of being limited by injuries from doing physical activities that I know for a fact that I can do with no problem. It rather makes me feel weak and out of control. I know I can do something, but I'm being held back by my body. I hate it.