A Run And Someone Else's Race

Oh.... I almost forgot how much fun running can be. After last week's trouble at the Ache and a boring treadmill run on Wednesday, I finally had a good run again! It was dry, cool and not too windy. It was the first time this fall, that I wore a long sleeved shirt, a headband and some gloves too.

I mentioned yesterday, that I needed to catch up on some sleep and that's what I did. Slept in and then very slowly started my day with some lounging around and then out for a run. In order to get the puppy out as well, I decided to do a short two mile loop around the block first and then drop her off before heading out for the rest of my run. She actually did pretty good today running on the leash. NICE! Oh... And after those first two miles, I also got rid of the gloves! ;-)

Around here, Terry has specific routes, he always uses e.g. his 2 mile loop, his 4 mile loop, his 6 mile hill loop etc. I pretty much took my workouts from his loops, but today I felt like I wanted to mix it up a little and I also didn't know how far I wanted/could go. So I started out and turned here and there, picked up a stray dog for a while to keep me company, kept on adding mileage to my run and felt great doing it. I ended up with a 7 mile run in 1h 10 mins (incl the 2 miles with the puppy) and was once again reminded that I really like to run.

After getting back in from the run, I grabbed a shower and a snack and then we headed out to watch the Paris Mountain Downhill MTB Race. We took the shuttle to the first parking lot and then hiked up to an area that was maybe the last .2 miles of the course. Cheered for the riders that where just about to finish up their first run. Then hiked down to the finish and back to the parking lot from where we took the shuttle to the top. Up there we saw the first couple of riders starting their second run. It was quite chilly out there, so we called it a day after that. Returned to the house for some extreme couching! That's the only sport I haven't been doing lately at all! ;-)

Here are some pics from the race:


That was at our first viewing spot. Before this, the riders where coming down a hill, had to cross a wet wood bridge and then up on the other side while trying not to hit the tree in the middle of the trail.


That was close to the top. You can see the starting line tent in the background. This guy was riding down the hill with two MTB frames welded on top of each other. I don't think that needs to be further commented! ;-)


Action shot!


Oh yes, that us... This time the self portrait worked at the first try! ;-)

Random Thoughts To Start Off The Weekend

Fridays are always welcome, but this week I needed it more than I normally do. Why? See below some of the reasons mixed in with general randomness.

1. I have another long weekend ahead of me. Since we have to get rid off all the vacation and comp time days by the end of the year, I will take off days here and there and a big vacation over Christmas/ New Year.
2. Tomorrow is a Downhill MTB Race at Paris Mountain. That sounds like a fun thing to watch!
3. I have been lazy when it comes to workouts on Thursday and today, but I am looking forward to some nice running (preferably on a trail) and a longer outside bike ride.
4. They finally forecasted dry conditions over the next couple of days... I really need a break from the rain.
5. On Fridays, I normally have a chiropractor appointment, that's a good thing... My lower back was killing me all week and my knees acted up a couple of times. Once again, Renee did her magic and all is better now.
6. Terry and I need to start making Germany plans: picking out a race that we want to do (racing internationally, baby!), pulling together some sort of itinerary... We definitely want to stay a couple of days in Bavaria to meet up with some friends and do some cross country skiing, winter hiking and sightseeing in Munich.
7. I don't get any household duties done during the week and I always feel better after I got caught up with stuff.
8. I need to catch up on sleep!
9. According to the National Geographic Adventure magazine issue from Aug/Sep '09 page 20: "Follow that German! No matter what corners of the globe you've reached before any of your friends, you've likely found one thing there upon arrival: Germans. Somehow, they manage to get everywhere first. Since August is Europe's biggest vacation month, we checked in with Hauser Exkursionen in Munich to find out where Volk are going this year - so we know where to book for 2011." I thought that was funny. By the way... Namibia, Libya and Armenia are the places to go! ;-)
10. Kerrie, my team mate from the Blue Ridge Relay is taking off for a relay ride from Greenville SC to Austin TX this Sunday. This is the Palmetto Peloton Project Challenge to Conquer Cancer Ride (P3C3). Please have all the riders and their support crew in your thoughts and prayers. You can follow them on their blog!
11. Speaking of relays... The American Odyssey Relay is still planned for next year for team D.N.R. or a variation of it. Now I learned that there will be a solo attempt by this guy. Good luck for the preparations!
12. We decided to do the Dan Davis Memorial Turkey Trot again this year. That was my very first 5K (my first ever race was an 8K a couple of weeks before) and will also be the first race that I do for the second time. It's a nice race (good course, well organized) raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on Furman Campus.
13. This week, I was pretty good when it comes to food. There was just one cake incident yesterday (homemade banana chocolate-mousse cake), but that's okay....
14. They finally decided to turn on the heat in the office, after it felt like living in an iglo earlier this week... Well, let me rephrase this... They finally decided to turn of the A/C in the office. Thank goodness.

Have a great weekend everyone... Enjoy! ;-)

Where They Burn Books...

I was debating back and forth today, if I am going to mention this in today's post or if I just need to ignore it. Maybe this is the originator's only wish to be in the news and have people talking about him and I really didn't want to promote those efforts. On the other hand, it's just too disturbing and if someone is wrong (in my opinion anyways) I feel that I have to speak up, however small my audience might be. Especially after reading this quote:

"Where they burn books, they will also burn people."

Out of Almansor: A Tragedy (1823) by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856)

Okay, I guess by now you must be completely confused by me rambling away. Let me explain. This morning I saw in the news that the pastor of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton N.C. is planning on burning books on Halloween e.g. bibles in other version's than the King James Version because they are "satanic" and a "perversion" of God's word... click here for the full article.

This is wrong on so many levels, that I don't even know, where to start. First of all, I think there is a lot of truth in the line out of Heinrich Heine's work and throughout history, book burnings have always been used to judge other people's beliefs and opinions and a lot of the time, it didn't stop with burning books. It's a very strong statement of disapproval. What makes it even worse, when Christians start to burn bibles is, that they fight against their own team. Even if this process of burning books is not illegal (at least, I don't think it is), the act in itself has a bad aftertaste and the signal that is sends doesn't promote the Christian beliefs. It starts with them burning bibles, but what is next? Will they start to attack Christians in their community that "dare" to use other versions than KJV? Will they start to attack people of other beliefs in their community? This is an open invitation to any aggressive nut job out there!

When you start things like this, where will it end??

Puppy Diaries: Excitement on a Sunday Afternoon

Last Sunday afternoon, my female human took me out for a brief walk... The usual... Up the driveway to the right along the road. No new scents around, pretty boring... Why am I the only dog that ever gets to walk around here? At least Cassanova is out in the yard. I would like to play with him so much and I always get so excited whenever I see him, but my humans just never let me go to play. I think he likes me too. We turned around at the stop sign and on our way back we met this older gentleman dog that always walks the neighborhood on his own. How free must he feel? My human lets me greet him but the old guy is grumpy all the time and never wants to play. Back at the house I am thirsty and there is my dish and there is still water in it. Jackpot! My human takes off the leash and lets me drink while she already walks into the house doing something... I want to see what she's doing, but I need to drink first... Hmmm? What was that? Is the old guy in our yard now? Should I drink or try to play with my human or check on old grumpy? Okay... Gotta run, human. Catch you later!!

It really was him in the yard and he leaves his marks everywhere... I gotta check this out and over here... Oh boy... My human is following me, why is she shouting my name? I just want to sniff around here and play. Where is old grumpy anyways? AHHHHH... Over there... He maybe decides to play, if I am following him a bit. Why does my human sound so frustrated? Oh! Cassanova is still in the yard and I am off the leash, so I finally can go over to him and say hi.

He plays pretty rough and chases me a lot. My human is also in the yard now, so are his'. Why is everyone so excited? Hmmmm.... this is getting a little tough for me and I think I just run over to my human now and let her pet me a little. My human grabs me by the collar and then Cassanova, my human's hands and I are one ball wrestling around. This is getting a little too much for me now and I feel dizzy, I think I just plop on my back and surrender. Cassanova's humans pull him away from me... I am still a little dizzy, but nothing hurts... I just want to lay here a little. Then I hear my human talking to me. I think she wants me to get up and go home, but I really want to relax some now. She is pretty persistent about it and I wonder why? She finally just rolls me over to my side and props me up on my feet. Oh well, I would have liked to relax some more, but at least I didn't have to get up on my own. She has me on the collar and I follow her...



This has been pretty exciting and I need a nap now.

Fall Flavors And Following The Line

It's fall (at least in the northern hemisphere)... I don't have to tell you that, I am sure you know it already. I just had to remind myself yesterday, when I walked out of the office. I didn't notice the smell when I got in the morning, but in the afternoon it almost knocked me out of my shoes. Blooming holly trees around the plant create a wall of scent. Allergic people really never get a break around here... South Carolina's Upstate is not called allergy capital of the U.S for nothing.



I took a picture of the holly tree yesterday already, but it was all grey and foggy and rainy. So today, it was just an amazing mild fall day and that is a so much nicer backdrop for the picture! Enjoy and envy, if you live in other parts of the country/ world, where it's not that pretty right now! ;-)

The leafs take their time this year to turn the color. You see a couple of trees in bright red and yellow, but it's going to take them another couple of weeks until the peak. Beginning of November we are planning to take part in the "Leaf Tour" (not to be mixed up with the "Tour de Leafs") organized by the Greenville Spinners. By then, I need to get my cycle legs back otherwise the hills are going to be a sufferfest.

In the last couple weeks I started to get back into the pool on a regular basis. There is hardly anything I hate more (exercise-wise) than swimming in the morning. But going in the evening is not really an option, because the pool is always full and I don't mind sharing lanes in general, but sometimes that's a little irritating too. So I got my lazy butt in the pool this morning once more and I bet it's funny to see me there. I just dread to get into the cold (it's a competition pool and I think the water is way too cold) water and most of the time, I sit down a little and stick my toes in there a couple of times until I can work up some courage. But once I am in there, it's great. A lot of people don't like to go swimming, because they say it's boring. But for me it has some therapeutic value to just swim and follow the line on the bottom of the pool... Not being distracted by anything, my mind just wanders and works through whatever bothers me. I guess my form suffers when my mind is somewhere else and without my lap counter I wouldn't know how much yards I made.

And now, I will get my reality TV fix and watch Biggest Loser! :-)

Off-Season Ready!

Living in South Carolina has a huge weather advantage. Basically, we'll be able to ride our bikes all through the winter at least as long as it's light outside. That means mostly on the weekends as long as there is no ice on the road which we normally have ice and snow on the road a couple of days per year... Not too bad. I actually know of one group that is going out riding each Wednesday night all winter long... I respect that, but I am just getting cold too fast and also think that's pretty dangerous even with lights on the bike. Car drivers around here are fairly used to cyclists by now at least during the day, but at night, I think that would take them completely by surprise.

Even with the plan of riding through the winter, only on the weekends just won't cut it, to keep and hopefully improve my bike fitness. So with the b-day money from my parents, I set out to get myself a Cycle-Ops Fluid2 trainer and yesterday we finally set the thing up in the downstairs living room and I also tried it out right away. I don't have anything to compare it with, but the ride felt pretty good. The trainer was fairly easy to set up since we did it with family team work, held the tension I was putting on and wasn't too noisy either. That is the first impression and I'll keep you posted on how things develop. I did a 13.8 miles in 31 minutes which is very fast for me, so I wonder, if I set the bike computer up correctly. Given that I got the cheapest from the cheapest, since I use my Garmin on outside rides. On the other hand, I wasn't putting wicked tension on and still felt my quads burning quite some after the workout... The reason for that could be lack of cycling workouts recently. ;-)

I have been doing a couple of spin classes over the past couple of weeks and on the one hand, I do enjoy the group experience in a class, but on the other hand, the spin bike just feels very different from the road bike. Also, the classes I went to were more like an aerobics class on a bike and didn't feel like a preparation for the real thing.. If that makes any sense to you. Another improvement, that the option of working out at home on my own schedule brings, is to be able to sleep in on Mondays instead of getting up at the crack of "two hours before dawn" to be in the gym by 6AM... In general, I hope that it is going to decompress my days a little and give me a couple of hours more sleep per week.

Areas of improvement on the current set-up: I need a piece of wood or something to elevate the front tire to have it on the same height than the back tire. We need to put the TV from the guest bedroom down there, because that one actually works properly. (DONE!) The TV that you see in the picture has a horrible picture, the remote doesn't work and I have no clue how to change channels on the TV itself. So I ended up watching CMT during my test ride yesterday... The conclusion of "Footloose" and the beginning of "Coyote Ugly"... Oh well, I guess it could have been worse, but it could also have been much better. I need to organize a DVD to put there... We should have a portable somewhere. Remember to put the fan next to the bike before I start.

Other than that, I think I am off-season ready!

2009 Ache Around The Lake 8K Race Report

Just the numbers for starters and then let me explain!

Results (based on Guntime)
59:11 mins (11:55 min per mile average)
Overall 133/180
Age Group 4/6

I did this race mainly because my tri swim coach is the race director and I heard from several people that the race course is very pretty, but also very hilly. And they were right... Very pretty and hilly. The course is a loop around Lake Lanier SC/NC. The organizers put together a great race and they should be proud of that. Time keeping was done by the peeps from Setup Events and those guys just know how to run a race and are always fast with posting results. I am planning on going back there next year!

For me personally, disaster struck at this race. But I guess after doing 15 or so races over the last year, I was just due to having a really bad day. On the positive side, at least I crossed the finish line in the end. My goal was to post a decent time and that didn't happen... Still, at least it wasn't my first DNF.

The day started out early. The alarm went off at 5.30AM and by 6.00AM I was on the road to Tryon NC. It's an one hour drive up there and it was still dark by the time I got to the event parking lot. Of course, I passed the lot wondering why there are so many people that early and then DUH! it dawn on me... It was still early, so that's my excuse! ;-)

Picked up my number, t-shirt (nice shirts by the way) and the water bottle and got ready in the car. There was a shuttle bus to the start line, but I decided to walk. Then I learned that start and finish are not in the same spot and debated what I am going to do with the rain jacket that I was still wearing. I could have just left it at the finish line, since it was near enough to drop it off there before going to the start, but it was early enough and so I decided to walk down to the car, put the jacket in the car and walk up again. No use for me to stand around at a start line that long, it's just too tough for my nerves and since I wasn't planning on racing this thing, I didn't feel like warming up either.

Right when the gun went off, I saw a girl that I used to work with. I said hi and off I went down the hill... Starting a race on a downhill is not bad at all... Then around the corner, passing the finish area, over the bridge and up the first hill... Okay, this is why people say the course is hilly... Not really surprising, since Tryon and the lake is in the mountains. While running up the first hill, I met a swim buddy of mine from the tri swim class from earlier this year. We chit-chatted a little bit and I told him to take off, since he is much faster than I, but he stuck around and we passed the first two miles talking. But then I started noticing my stomach. After having to do a walk break and then another one, I told my swim buddy to just keep going. The third mile wasn't to bad either, but I had to do several walking breaks due to my stomach. I took them on uphills or downhills whenever I felt very uncomfortable and whenever things improved I started running again. Going into mile 4, things went from bad to worse. Not only did the frequency of my walking breaks increase, but they became longer and longer and I even had some complete stops pacing back and forth debating what I am going to do. I guess some of my fellow competitors noticed me and when the race organization was driving along the course, they asked me if I was alright and if I needed a ride back. I told them, that I am going to try to finish and kept on walking... jogging... pacing back and forth... A couple of minutes later, I wished I had taken them up on their offer.

Finally, after passing the mile 4 marker things got better and I was able to run uninterrupted again... It also helped that there where hardly any hills left on that last mile and I even passed a couple of people. When I turned for the finish and saw the official time.... I had lost track since my Garmin is on autostop and I stopped a lot... I just had to shake my head... 59 minutes and something... I was very disappointed, but at least I stuck it out and finished the race.

I grabbed a cup of water and then walked back to the car to drive home. As soon as I was in the car, I called Terry for mental support and that helped some. On the drive back home I saw a bobcat and a turkey crossing the road in front of me... not at the same time. As soon as I was back at the house, I laid down... This was a tough day for me and I didn't feel good and it was just 11 AM. There will be other races and next time things are going to be better... hopefully. It's really odd that this happened, just after I was writing about stomach issues in my last post.