Endurance events for 2009

With Spring arriving I am looking forward to a new season of triathlons and related endurance events to keep me busy through October. As a result, I have compiled a preliminary listing of all the events I am either planning to do for certain, or may compete/participate in depending on how I feel on the given week or day assuming I remain injury free. A fair warning though for those newbies out there--the number and frequency of these events would be considered extreme by most endurance athletes--my fellow competitors tend to compete in official races far less often than I do. Most triathletes usually compete once or twice a month at most though there are exceptions. Also, many of these events are not races--specifically the trailnet rides and the long distance brevet series rides in Edwardsville and if I wake up not feeling up to a ride on Sunday after a hard race on Saturday, I will skip certain events. For me the rides are an opportunity to ride in a pack and typically I won't be pushing too hard unless that is my only event scheduled that particular week. Without further ado, my tentative schedule for the remainder of 2009:

Triathlon and endurance/racing events for 2009

April

April 4th Saturday 200k or 300k long distance bike ride Edwardsville IL
April 5th Sunday Flat as a Floodplain ride Trailnet
April 11th Saturday Shakespeare’s Duathlon Columbia MO
April 12th Sunday Rez Run crestwood MO 5k plus road race
April 19th Saturday Go St. Louis Marathon
April 25th Saturday 200, 300, or 400k long distance bike ride Edwardsville IL
April 26th Sunday Steamboat triathlon Cape Girardeau MO

May

May 3rd Sunday Trizou triathlon Columbia MO
May 9th Saturday Trailnet ride or O’Fallon Criterium race or open water swim in New Town St. Charles
May 16th Saturday 200, 300, or 400k long distance bike ride Edwardsville IL
May 17th Sunday Trailnet Ride or Rolla Road Race
May 23rd Saturday Wheels over wildwood
or brevet ride Edwardsville IL 300 or 400k or open water swim
May 24th Sunday Wheels over wildwood day 2
May 25th Monday Highland biathlon or Trailnet ride
May 30th Saturday O’Fallon road race or open water swim New Town

June

June 6th Saturday QuaterMax Triathlon Innsbrook or Mud Run 5k Mascoutah
June 7th Sunday Trailnet Ride
June 13th Saturday Trailnet Ride or 600k long distance bike ride Edwardsville
June 14th Sunday Mo State Road Race Championships Ste. Genevieve
June 21st Sunday St. Peters Rec Plex triathlon or O’Fallon MO cycling race
June 27th Saturday 600k long distance bike ride Edwardsville
June 28th Sunday Trailnet Ride

July

July 4th Saturday Macklind Mile
July 11th Saturday Soulard Criterium
July 12th Sunday Joker’s Wild Half Marathon or Trailnet ride or Babler Circuit Race
July 19 Sunday Racine Half Ironman race, Racine Wisconsin
July 26th Sunday Tour de Kirkwood Triathlon or Trailnet ride



August

August 1st Saturday Missouri cycling Time Trial Championship (Jeff City?)
August 2nd Sunday Road Criterium Jefferson City or Trailnet Ride
August 8th Saturday Wood River triathlon
August 9th Sunday Trailnet ride
August 16th Sunday Trailnet ride
August 23rd Sunday Trailnet ride

September

September 4th Friday Gateway Cup Lafayette Square MO (?)
September 5th Saturday Gateway Cup (?) or Great Illini challenge triathlon (?)
September 6th Sunday Gateway Cup (?) or trailnet Giro ride on the Hill (?) neighborhood
September 12th Saturday MS150 (?)
September 13th Sunday MS150 (?) or Trailnet ride (?)
September 19th Saturday Redman Triathlon Oklahoma City, OK (?)
September 20th Sunday Millstadt Biathlon or Trailnet ride
September 26th Saturday Charleston duathlon in Charleston IL
September 27th Sunday Trailnet ride

October

October 11th Sunday Chicago Marathon (?) or Lakeland Duathlon or Ride the Rivers
Century Ride
October 24th Saturday Great Floridian Full Ironman race, Clermont Florida

*The bold connotes events that I have either already committed to in the form of paying race fees or anticipate competing in unless something extremely unusual would compel me to be elsewhere etc. Also, a number of additional races will likely be added as the season progresses and additional races send out race entries.

Castlewood Cup Race on 2/28/09

Saturday morning was the inaugural Castlewood Cup race sponsored by Big River Running in a local park in the suburb of Ballwin. It is one of the locations where the Big River runners meet twice a month for their long runs. Since late December I have made it a point to show up each Sunday when I haven't been competing to get in a long run on a consistent basis. The course itself was almost exclusively on trails through the park which also are used for mountain biking. I don't normally use the specific trails of the race course during my training runs since they are pretty hilly and I am usually trying to keep my effort and pace fairly consistent on the flat ground which is actually not that hard since this is a very large park with probably a couple thousand acres I would guess.

The race course was quite hilly in parts especially near the beginning when we started up a massive hill after running around the edge of the parking area for the first 1200 meters or so. I came out two weeks prior to the race and previewed the course, and thus knew the hills would be brutal to try and race. During the preview I actually walked up part of the first hill since there was a backlog of runners on a small trail but also because my poor legs needed a little break. I anticipated having to walk parts of the course during the race on the first hill but the runners ahead of me never bunched up and I held back enough not to need to walk on that first hill. I ended up seeing quite a few runners I knew and that I expected would finish near me in the final standings. There were quite a few announcements at the start of the race but I was far enough back in the field so that I couldn't hear about 95% of what was said. Good times. I ran fairly evenly coming through the five mile mark in about 47:30 with the majority of the hills coming in the first 6 miles of the course. Just after the five mile split/water station there was a major hill and quite a few people walked up it. I ran/jogged slowly up it slowly but surely and passed a few people.

Did I mention the weather? Yeah, it was cold, very cold. About 21-23 degrees during the race and I was wearing two bottom layers and three top layers plus hat and gloves. Trail racing is not really a specialty of mine so I was just happy not to twist an ankle and finish the race. It was billed as a 10.1 mile course but part of the instructions I missed probably included the fact that due to recent rain/weather they cut the course short to about 9.2 miles. I came out of the woods (around mile 8) and shortly thereafter we had to cross a creek and everyone's shoes became soaked with very wet water. We finished about 1 mile later but running in wet shoes in 20 degree weather is not a normal training occurrence. I tried to hold my pace the last mile or so but it was something of a struggle. Overall a good effort and I was surprised to finish in 129:19. I expected to finish around 140:00 but the short version of the course certainly helped my final time. I only walked/stopped long enough to drink half a cup of water at the five mile mark/waterstop.

I am a huge fan of the Big River Running races/guys so I will certainly be back next year assuming they come back to Castlewood for this race in 2010. Overall I finished in 115th place out of 297 total runners so I was in the top half of overall finishers.

The following day on Sunday I went back out to Castlewood to meet up with the Big River Running group for their weekly long run and just a handful of people showed up. I dropped off the pace of the fast guys almost immediately and ran alone for about an hour including on some of the hills. My legs were still quite sore and I stopped after the first five miles rather than the two hour run I had hoped to complete. As I type this on Monday my legs are still sore.

Running powerfully.....

Last night I went out to St. Peters to run with a few new friends I became acquainted with through the website Meetup.com. The group run was actually sponsored by a local running store called Fleet Feet. Anyway, St. Peters is pretty much on the outer fringe of how far I like to travel for anything other than a special occasion since it is on the opposite side of the city from me and further west. It takes about 45 minutes in light traffic and with traffic you are looking at an hour or more easily sitting on the highway. However, I discovered a bike spinning class from 6-7 pm near the run store and then the run from 7-8 pm so I could get in a weekly mini duathlon workout which sounds promising. However, my bikes chose not to cooperate and the tires kept going flat as I was preparing to go so I had to skip the cycling this week but I did check it out first before the run to know what to expect if I decide to go next week. Only two cyclists showed up and neither of them were what I would call experienced cyclists so I am undecided on attending next week. I arrived at the run as everyone was just starting out so although I saw my friends who are slower than me, I took off with some of the fast guys to try and get a good workout in. In addition, with a 7 pm starting time it was completely dark outside and several of the runners had head lights on allowing them to see directly ahead of them. I latched on to the back of two runners who had lights (I didn't) and just hung on as the initial pace was pretty fast and two guys just took off at what looked like sub 6 minute per mile pace. They were gone from sight in short order. I was moving at a good clip and eventually I moved up past the two guys I had been pacing off of and found the back of a newer runner up ahead to pace off of and "steal" his headlight view though I stayed about 15 feet behind him for over a mile before he slowed down or I sped up and caught him. We chatted briefly and introduced ourselves. We were both moving at a pretty good clip probably around 8:15-8:30 pace per mile which is just off race pace for me. However, because of the quick pace we were gobbling up territory fast and running on sidewalks which were constantly either going up or down in elevation or curving around the road terrain which meant that I had to pay close attention to where my feet where being placed so I didn't fall and get hurt in the darkness etc. I haven't run on sidewalks like this at such a pace since college and I was instantly transported back to my runs in college with the cross country team where we would be flying along at a pace that was fast but under control though we had to be careful what was ahead of us due to our pace. I didn't give it much thought at the time but we were quite power runners and I have missed that feeling of floating along with another runner on training runs. Since I have been back running over the past 18 months or so I have only felt fast while doing speed work on the track or in races. This was the first road workout I have experienced in over ten years where I finished it thinking, "I am back baby!" My legs felt strong and powerful and were working, but at any point I could have picked up the pace if I needed to and it was all run at what coaches call threshold pace which is basically so fast that you are near race pace but your body is coping well and discarding the lactate that is being created in your body just as fast as it is created. In short a gloriously fast but controlled run. I didn't realize how much I missed running like this until I re-experienced the feeling last night. I will probably try the mini-duathlon next week but may drop back and hold off running so fast next time assuming I do the spinning class first.

Rain, Rain go Away.......

Normally I would not be posting but the weather has turned uncooperative in Honolulu with a constant downpour of rain this morning. I of course did not really bring any clothes for rainy weather (my jacket is water proof though) so my plan of walking through it on my way to pick up my race packet at the Expo died quickly since I gave the key to the apartment to the parents. I will wait for a ride from either Cara or the parents to get to the Expo.

This morning I just took a shower and watched an episode of the Office with Cara before she had to go to work. As she was leaving Cara fell down the stairs outside her apartment since they were slick with rain and she was only wearing flat bottomed sandals. Not smart since they have no traction but I guess people are so use to wearing them here that they forget about the downside to wearing flat shoes when the weather turns bad. She bruised her elbow and back and was generally shaken up and then called into work to take the day off but apparently they needed her to sign something so she had to go in. She's quite a trooper! Since then I have caught up on email and surfed the web. Good times.

Dad and I were suppose to go to Pearl Harbor to do the tourist thing but he called and said it was closed due to the rain. He is on his way over here to do something else but either traffic is bad or he got lost; maybe both! (Mom just called to say he did get lost!)

I may not write more before the trip is over since I will be pretty busy. I promise a full update on all my vacation activities when I get home though.

The Past is Prologue to the Future.....

I am a big fan of South Park and by extension Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Some years ago they made a movie called Team America World Police which I have read was partially inspired by the 1982 movie Megaforce. I was 9 years old when that movie came out, and I think Matt and Trey were approximately the same age or slightly older. Megaforce was heavily marketed to the kids of my generation and we all rushed out to see it once it hit theatres. Unfortunately it was not exactly a blockbuster and soon made a quick exit from the local cineplex. Nevertheless, I think it inspired many kids to dream of riding their own rocket propelled motorcycles to hero status. Sadly, it does not enjoy widespread appeal beyond a tiny subset of the population who were say, boys 8-12 years old in 1982. Yeah, you kind of had to be there to get it.

I have also heard that Matt and Trey like to watch the movie several times a month for inspiration working on South Park and one episode even references the movie explicitly. Early in the Bush Administration there was a movement to downsize troop levels per Rumsfeld and the theory behind the move was that technology would allow us to do the same job with fewer troops. I heard one reporter say it sounded like someone at the Pentagon had based the plan on watching Megaforce which I had to laugh at, but admittedly was a truly insightful comment. The plot line of the movie involves a small rapid reaction military force made up of members from numerous nations who use light and fast vehicles like motorcycles and jeeps outfitted with lasers and advanced rockets to outmaneuver and outflank slow and cumbersome tanks and standard military weapon systems of the time period and would be sent in where conventional forces doing the job might be impossible or imprudent for some political reason. Does that sound familiar?

Though they lacked the flying motorcycles in the movie, the special forces in Task Force Dagger that helped overthrow the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan could in some ways be the modern equivalent of the Megaforce idea of using a handful of highly trained troops with technology backing them up to achieve amazing tactical victories. In the Afghanistan case the military had a few elite spotters on the ground who were sending in targeted coordinates to planes circling above them and were able to defeat huge massed forces with local assistance from anti Taliban locals who performed essentially mop up operations after the bombs from fighter planes and the C-130 gunships did their work. However, once the war shifted from just defeating a military force to actually trying to mold the people of Afghanistan into a cohesive and fully functional government the handful of special forces were too few in number to effect profound change in winning the peace. As the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has continued and the need for additional troops became obvious I think the Pentagon plans to create a permanent smaller military force ala Megaforce all but died in the planning stages. However, Megaforce itself shall live on in infamy among the thirty somethings who walked out of megaplexes dreaming of flying motorcycles with rockets.

In locating clips to post to my blog I came across this quote which I thought did a brilliant job of summarizing the movie, "This is one of those rare movies that punched right through the bottom of bad, and came out at the top of awesome. " I could not put it any better. This movie is so cheesy bad that it became great for its unabashed flag waving cheese factor....and that is a hard task to accomplish. The mystery science theatre boys did a ten minute commentary on the flick which was kinda funny: If you have some time check it out:




My only complaint about the mystery science theatre clip is that it does not include enough of the action of the movie which is really what appealed to me in the first place. So, check out this clip starting from 1:24 into the thing to see what appealed to any neoconservative hawks who favored a smaller rapid reaction type of military similar to the Megaforce team:



I will leave you with this vintage Hunter quote which he delivered to the bad guy right before he flies off on his motorcycle after hopping up onto the guy's tank and knocking on the hatch, "The good guys always win, even in the 80's." As Charlie Munger might say, "I have nothing to add."

How do you like them apples?

I went to the library last night and renewed my card while checking out some new books. I am a huge fan of the local library and used to check out books all the time. When I was young I would always return the books before the due date since I was too poor to afford the fines, and I loved to read but couldn't pay for all the books that I wanted to absorb in my fertile mind. As I became older and started working I would get sidetracked with work and the days would fly by without my having finished all the various books I checked out. So, I responded with two divergent strategies; I started buying more books and have now amassed quite a library of my own, and alternatively, I started running up fines for those books I checked out. When I went to renew my card last night I had 27 dollars in fines on my card! Actually, about half of that was to pay to replace a book I "lost" which was over twenty years old about the standards of how to repair historic masonry according to the Department of the Interior standards to allow one to qualify for tax credits. I actually couldn't find it for over 2 months and they finally just charged me the cost to replace it via email but a week later I found it in my trunk. I actually was ok with paying the cost of the book to keep it since it was a hard to find item that I tried to purchase online by looking on Amazon and other websites to no avail. I had turned the rest of the books back in a few weeks late but the idea of paying over 20 dollars in fines seemed on some level absurd so I delayed checking anything out. Finally yesterday I faced the music and paid off my fine. Now I can check books out again but have decided to turn over a new leaf and try and avoid any further late fees or other fines. We will see how that goes.

The whole episode brought to mind a good flick Good Will Hunting in which Matt Damon's character makes reference to the fact that one could obtain the equivalent of an Ivy League education with just a library card and a $1.50 in fines. A good movie even if Matt does underestimate the fines in my case. I don't purport to assert that I am anywhere near as smart as Matt's character; but I do agree you can certainly improve yourself with little to no cost via a local library. Andrew Carnegie agreed and commissioned the building of hundreds of libraries throughout the country around the turn of the 20th century many of which are still in use today. Here is the scene where Matt references the powers of a library card and takes the arrogant Harvard Grad student to task:

Snowing and 29 degrees

I woke up to a light snow this morning (it is not sticking to the roads yet) which means that running outside will be cold. The wind is also averaging about 20 mph which means it feels much colder. There is a running store that holds a Monday evening run at 6 pm that I normally try to attend. There is a good size crowd of about 20-40 runners who show up on a regular basis though fewer came with the change in daylight savings time as the start time meant we were running in the dark. However, the run only began as a fixture on the scene last spring and we haven't been faced with these type of temperatures and weather before for a group run. So, I am kind of curious to see if they will still hold the run, and if so, how many crazy folks will show up????? Normally I would go run with the crazies but with my marathon coming up I don't want to get sick or injured by doing this run so the jury is still out on attending. I may just do a workout at 24 hour fitness that includes running and perhaps a class or two--that would be the smart thing to do.