SWim bIKe rUN

So I did this route a few weeks ago with Todd and Shane and I figured there’s a route I could live without doing again. 

http://swikun.com/swimbikerun/Maps/ViewRoute/115

Sunday I was persuaded to give it another try with Ryan and Brent, can you say suckafish?  I have to say it was no easier this time than last.  In fact I think it was worse after having run the The Race to Robie Creek trail twice in the last 5 days leading up to the ride or I’m just a pansy or both.

The ride didn’t start off too bad.  We were expecting some pretty good winds but they weren’t there.  We set off towards Horse Shoe Bend.  Nice ride, tired legs.

The climb was brutal as I knew it was going to be but just knowing I had a good downhill once I reached the top kept me going.  I got to the top to find Brent waiting for me and Ryan was gone.

Brent and I headed down the hill.  My top speed going down was 43.1 mph.  It was at this speed that my front wheel started shaking back and forth about 2 to 3 inches.  Don’t know if it was just the speed plus a crosswind that had picked up or what but it was not a great feeling knowing you may be going down.

I spotted a truck ramp and figured if I make it there at least the surface my face was going to hit would be slightly softer.  Luckily I brought my speed down to 35 well before the ramp and got my wheel shaking stopped.  I continued down the hill about another mile until I saw Ryan stopped at a pull out.

I pulled over to join Ryan and clean the shit out of my pants and Brent pulled in right behind me.  After a few minutes of me cleaning my shorts and brining my heart rate down we finished the remainder of the route to Horse Shoe Bend.

We headed towards Emmett and the ride was great through this entire stretch.  We stopped again after about another 20 miles to GU and eat a little something.  Here is where Ryan screwed us over big time.  He mentioned how calm it was and even showed us a flag that was barely moving.  At this time Brent and I started cursing him for cursing us.  Sure enough, about 2 miles later, we were heading into  a 20 mph wind.  (This measurement was taken by Paul’s holy crap the wind is blowing hard device)  This wind hit us in the face for the last 20 or so miles home including the climb up Freeze Out coming out of Emmett.  Pure joy riding up that hill.

After reaching the top of the hill the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful until about 1.2 miles before the finish.  Pop ssssssssssssssss.  Flat by Goat Head.  Ryan came back and picked me up in his truck.  1.2 miles wasn’t worth the tire change after 70 miles.

I’d tell you that I’m done with that route but I’m a sucker and I’m pretty sure someone will talk me into it again.

Since The Race to Robie Creek is drawing near we decided to do a dry run.  We started at Forte Boise and headed up Shaw Mountain Road.  It was a great morning but a little chilly in the beginning.  This hill is a relentless climb and doesn’t give you many flat sections for recovery. 

Around mile 5 I could really feel the run that I did 3 days before on the same hill.  Tuesday’s run was 10 miles starting at the dirt and reaching the summit.  Saturday’s run was 14 miles running up the coarse to mile 7, about a mile from the summit,  and coming back down.

I held up pretty good and even felt like I wasn’t taking too bad of a pounding coming downhill.  My hands, however, were frozen all the way up and back.  By the time I was finished I couldn’t feel my fingers.  John, Trina, Kerry and Ryan all had warm hands.  John was even nice enough to mention that he had to take his gloves off at the top of the run.

We finished 14 miles at 2:05.  This wasn’t too bad considering the elevation climb but I’m still needing to shave about 6 or 7 minutes off of my climb during the race to finish under 2 hours.

The race is in 17 days 21 hours and 32 minutes.  Not that I’m counting.  April 17th 2010 at 12:00 noon.

In 1999 Adidas ran an ad campaign that struck a cord with runners, mostly long distance runners.  I had these sent to me in an email awhile back by a fellow runner.  I find them more amusing now that I actually have experienced most of these.  From what I’ve read these ads were a pretty big success.  I’m proud to say that as a farm kid I had the rocket mastered years before I became a runner.  Cooper is 2 and he already has the 4th pic mastered.  Probably a bit more than we’d like.

I have a cold.  I have a horrible cold.  It is all in my head.  I mean it is a head cold not that I’m just imagining that I have a cold.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading trying to decide if I should go out for my 20 mile run tomorrow.  Most of the articles that I have read say the same thing.  If it is above the neck, you can run.  If it moves into your chest or you get a fever don’t.

I’ve decided to just listen to my body tomorrow morning.  If I feel like going for a run tomorrow I will.  If I only get to about mile 3 and decide I should turn around I will.  If I wake up and feel like possums have made a nest inside of my sinuses I will remain in bed until such nest has been evacuated.

The problem is I don’t want a break in my training.  I don’t want to fall behind the rest of the group.  This is where many runners, triathletes, and wannabes like myself struggle.  You work so hard to get where you are afraid of losing what you have achieved.

So in my computer geek expertise, if it’s above the neck proceed with caution.  It’s probably ok to run or ride but don’t push it or over exert yourself.  Keep your pace and distance moderate.  You have the cold because you immune system in compromised.  Don’t make it worse by pushing to hard.

I have plenty of time before The Race to Robie Creek and even more time before the Ogden Half Marathon and Boise Ironman.  A little rest may be what I need.

Now I’m off to take the night time sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so I can rest medicine.

Since we had a brutal weekend of training doing a 13.1 mile hill run and a 68.7 mile bike I decided I was going to do a nice easy run in the Boise foothills last night.  This trail would have had two short steep climbs but then the rest of the run would have been pretty moderate,  Kestral, Crestline and Lower Hull 5 mile loop. 

This changed when I gave Shane a call on my way.  I told him I was going for a run so we decided to meet at Municipal Park in downtown Boise and run up the face of Table Rock, swing around back and then run back down the face on an alternate trail.  Not one of our best decisions.

When you haven’t run a trail in awhile you really don’t remember sometimes how steep it really is.  This trail delivered a nice little one two punch.  The climb was brutal with many steep climbs and very little recovery time.  Our legs were beat by the time we reached the summit and we could really feel the workout from the weekend.  The trip down was a constant beating.

The weather was perfect.  64 degrees out, only a slight wind and sunny.  It was nice to see so many people out on the trails.  A lot of people out in Boise exercising.  We met a nice couple at the top enjoying the view that snapped a few pics on us on Shane’s Crackberry.

Look at this friggin map! 

http://swikun.com/swimbikerun/Maps/ViewRoute/115

So around mile 60 to 65 is a pretty good climb.  Now pan back to mile 5, WTF are these guys trying to do to me.  This ride is definitely one that we can call bragging rights.  The route ended up being 68.7 miles and we finished in 4h and 39m.

This map is more intimidating than the hill turned out to be.  I think the longer training rides that we’ve been doing have really been helping us out.

It started off at 9, the new 8, with my hands freezing and the toes not far behind.  Finally after we started up the big damn hill, aka Summit Ridge Road, my hands warmed up with the sun starting to shine and the hands remaining in that sun.  Coming back down was another story averaging around 35 mph the hands an toes again turned to ice.

Shane being the ever ready photographer got some pics of us at the summit.  We were at about mile 15 or 16 by the time we got to the top of this monster. 

We did as the sign instructed and proceeded in a lower gear.  We managed to make it down without having to use any of the runaway truck ramps which is always a good thing on a road bike.  After making it down we stopped at the bottom and fueled up.  Here I decided to add extra protein to my ride by biting a nice chunk out of my cheek.  Good thing was that they were so numb from the downhill that I didn’t notice until I felt a loose piece of cheek with my tongue.  Nice eh!

We headed out again on Highway 52, Black Canyon Highway and followed it past Black Canyon Reservoir which is where the Emmet Triathlon start is.  We went through Emmet and headed up Freezeout Hill.  Which looks like a small bump on the map and really isn’t too bad unless you are on mile 55 and have already climbed up Summit Ridge Road.

We got to the top and coasted back to Todd’s place for a nice little 4 mile follow up run where we got our asses chewed out by Master Baker, aka Shane, for running at a pace that we had no intention on racing at.  Point Taken Sorry Master.

All in all it was a good ride.  Besides some unwanted chafing by Todd throughout the ride and by Shane after making fun of Todd in spots we don’t like to mention and the Silver Dollar sized chunk of rump roast I took out of my cheek it was a great morning/early afternoon.

I woke up Saturday morning hoping that the rain would hold out until after our run.  No Luck!!

My Posse

There was just a slight breeze and a little drizzle when I left the house.  On the way to Forte Boise the snow and wind came a running.  I really don’t mind running in the snow when it is falling as long as the roads aren’t slushy, we had slushy roads.

We started off up Shaw Mountain Road and broke off onto Table Rock heading up to where the pavement ends.  I was at about mile 2.5 when my feet were soaked.  SLUSH!!!!!  As we neared the top of the hill the wind was really blowing.

Now usually when you start to head down the mountain there is a certain feeling of relief.  That was also the case here until we got about 100 feet into the downhill and realized the snow was now in the form of little pellets and the wind was causing a nice stinging feeling in the face.  I had a couple pelt me in the eyes that felt just marvelous!

As we got back to the Shaw Mountain Road, Table Rock Road junction we headed up Shaw towards Rocky Canyon until we hit the dirt trail.  At this point we started the pain all over again turning around and climbing back up Table Rock.

Again the decent down table rock was a little painful until we got low enough that the falling snow had softened up.  We had a pretty good pace going downhill this time and I believe it was because we all felt the end was near.  The snow stopped falling just in time for us to take this photo.

We ended up with 13.1 miles in 1h 55m.  Even with the weather being as horrible as it was, I had a really good time running with my posse yo

I know it’s been a long time since my last post.  I’ve been working on the mapping tool and trying to figure out what I want the design of this site to look like.  Not really a good excuse but there it is.  Shane was nice enough to take this pic of the group.  We had a great turn out.

I think I’m getting pretty close to all the functionality on the map my route tool now I just need to make it look pretty so that Shane will use it.  Then all that’s left is the ability to store more information about the route like terrain.

We’ve been doing well with our Ironman and Half Ironman training.  This weekend we did an 18 mile run on Saturday which was, as the French say, PAINFUL.  I’m really hoping to break that 2 hour mark on the Race to Robie Creek.  Damn the mountain!

We followed that run up with a 73.5 mile bike ride on Sunday.  This is my longest ride to date and I was pulled along by Ryan, Todd, Brent and Shane.  It was a good day.  We made it to mile 58 before some old redneck hero buzzed us with his Champaign colored Nissan X-Terra.  Then we had another nice fellow pass Shane and Todd real fast only to turn right directly in front of them.  I yelled out something to do with him being a donkey.  We’ve just conceded to the fact that we will never get a ride in where everyone on the road that day is polite to the cyclists.  Just not going to happen.