Bikes and the Ocean

A few weeks ago I decided to make a few changes to the stable of bikes. After IMC the road bike was hung with flat tires and never saw the light of day for the remainder of 2009. It's actually sad, I put in a lot of road and trainer miles last year and the Felt took it all in stride. Due to all the road training I barely rode the Rush after the 24 hour last May.

IMC took a lot out of me, mainly my desire to ride. It's a weird side effect as I can't recall any other time in my life that I would NOT have wanted to ride. I had to do something to get back on the bike so I sold the Rush and Felt and picked up two 29ers. A '09 Cannondale 29er 4 mountain bike, and '09 Marin Hamilton 29er SS for commuting.

The Cdale -

The Marin -

I never seem to find the stuff I want locally, but the Marin I found in Seattle on clearance at REI. I was looking at their range of bikes when I saw this one sitting on top of a Thule display. It had clearly been there a while as it was covered in dust. The '10 models are in, so this one was a steal I couldn't pass up. I swapped the the lame OEM seat and pedals with the parts off my old commuter, including the rack. The niner is sweet for commuting, bigger wheels and larger tires make for a smooth ride on rough Seattle streets. The SS isn't so bad either, some of the steep side streets downtown have me walking though.

I found the Cannondale on Craigslist in Portland. After riding one in Seattle I started shopping around finding this one on accident. I really didn't expect to find a used one, let alone one within driving distance. Of course, when I asked Becky if she was up for a day trip, she responded by saying we should spend the weekend at the Ocean. So we did.

After meeting the seller and picking up the bike we headed to Manzanita for a stay at a cozy little motel near the beach. The kids (including the dog) had an absolute blast. We spent Sunday on the beach in Manzanita then went up the coast to Cannon Beach.

Here are a few pics-
Manzanita, OR

Change is good

2009 was an epic year for me thanks to IMC and the training leading up to it. I fully expected to finish, take a few weeks off, and roll into a marathon or two. My reality was a bit different. I basically stopped until December when I finally managed a few runs and some skiing. I didn't get on a bike until January.

A few weeks ago I decided I was ready to get back to it, but I needed something to kick start the fire. So I sold my mountain bike and the road bike I used in IMC and picked up a couple bikes - a new Marin 29er single speed commuter, and a one season old Cannondale 29er 4. I've decided to bag the road rides this year and focus on running, mountain biking and getting outside. I may do an off-road tri, but I'm pretty much done swimming for now.

The race plan as of today - Mercer Island Half and Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon. That's it. I may do a local mtb race or two, 5Ks, 10Ks.. who knows. But I will be having fun and rebuilding fitness :-)

Selling the Cannondale Rush

Looking for a great XC Mtn bike? I'm selling the Rush to make room / justify a 29er.

CL post here

happy new years

holly cow! a decade gone! dang that was fast.

here's to a great 2010!

checking in

The last few weeks have been crazy busy and everyone in the house has had the flu. Little J even had a trip to the ER with super high fever and breathing issues. Everything is calming down now. Finally.

My workout universe has been very quiet. A couple runs, some yoga, a nap. Not quite the November I had hoped for. I may still do a half marathon in Jan, but I may just do a 10k. I have no motivation to do anything at the moment. If I can get a few consistent weeks of running in I may get going again.

I'll try to get out this weekend and do something fun. Might make a decent post :-)

October already

IMC has come and gone. Work has magically filled the hours I used to train with not so Ironman results. I've put a few pounds on, and a 3.5 mile run feels long. It's amazing how fast fitness goes. I did manage to get a week of camping in at Mt. Rainier with my daughters class. We took 24 4th graders on a few hikes totaling 20 miles, it was a lot of fun and a nice break from the day to day.

So it's time for another goal, but it has to be realistic as this is a very busy time of year for our family. Nookachamps Half Marathon is going to be my fall/winter motivator, with as much mtn biking and skiing as I can fit in.

More to come.

Reflecting and planning

2 weeks ago, I finished IMC. Now what?

I've embraced the post-Ironman recovery period and pretty much focused on catching up on the to-do lists at home and work. Today I went for a 5k run and felt good while I was out, but afterwards I was surprised at how fatigued I was. I guess I'll still be taking it easy for another week.

Shifting from 10 months of always training to suddenly not training has been interesting. I find myself wondering what run I have to do today, or thinking about pool schedules while I run errands. Training has become so hard wired into my daily thought processes that I have to force myself to focus on the downtime as much as would focus on a workout plan. To get an idea of just how much training I did, I pulled up my log from November to race day - here it is:

Bike - Commuter	132 miles	10:05:00	11.14 mph avg
Bike - Mountain	100.16	11:12:00	8.94 mph avg
Bike - Road	1265.9 Miles	83:25:55	15.17 mph avg
Bike - Trainer	720.04 Miles	47:55:23	15.03 mph avg
Run	818.63 Miles	119:48:20	8:47 per mile avg
Swim	99400 Yards	39:19:58	2:22 per 100 yds avg
Total Time	311 Hours, 46 Mins

Some folks worked out more than that, some less. I'm pretty sure I won't see workout volumes that high until again until the kids are out of the house. My next Ironman will likely be in 2020 :-)

What's next? I've thought about this quite a bit. The Seattle marathon comes to mind, but it falls on a bad week. My next long race will likely be Nookachamps, that way I have a reason to train through the winter. Cyclocross looks like fun, so do winter tri's and Biathlon. The only thing I know at the moment is I don't want to ride my road bike, and the dirt is calling me. There's a great off road duathlon in Bellingham in a few weeks, maybe I'll do that. I don't have a real plan yet, but it will come along.