uh?

What the Fruit?!

Looks like Kahuna and I need to have a talk? !

My first race report..

Wow...over a week since my last post. I did spend the last part of the week getting ready for this. I then spent the first part of this week recovering from this. Yikes, when they said the trail run was a little hilly they mean it. The total feet of climbing in the two 7.75 mile loops was 1845 feet.

To put that Gar-Stat in perspective, that is close to the same number of climbing feet that I do on my HILLY 62 MILE BIKE ride out to Watertown, Minnesota and back!

Trimama and I took the new Tracker over to the race early in the morning, met up with Marz Racer who was preparing to blaze the course. Followed by an Iron Jenny sighting. More like a sighting because when the I J is in her native setting she can be found fluttering in butterfly like movements amongst all her friends/fans (usually half the race participants). I also caught up with my local training buddy Tri-Jeff.

Note that Trimama and I are not satisfied with that name for him. Tri-Jeff is known for his training intensity and also having a German heritage he trains like a pre-Berlin wall east German Olympian (no steroids though), therefore he shall be called Tri-Sour-Kraut.

Anyhow, TSK ran with me most of the race, which was quite enjoyable. The day was overcast and cool with little wind, which I found perfect for running. The course does not have a flat section...anywhere. Not kidding, not one part of the course was even close to horizontal. After enjoying rolling hills on grass for the first several miles we entered a single track, jagged/leathery section which winded up 300 feet to the top of the fricken ski hill! At which point you were to run straight down the steep hill, no, not sideways or swithbacking...straight down. I think this is the section of the course which took my IT band and beat it like a bongo drum. You were given the privilege of completing this ascent twice being that this was a two loop course. Did I mention we climbed 1800 feet in total..oh I did well just a reiteration. The rest of the course ran through beautiful wooded areas on wood chip trails.

My final time was just barely under 10 minute miles, 9:59 to be exact for the race. I had some real problems at the beginning to the second loop because my IT seized up. Which sucks. I've done all kinds of work on my ITBS problems, but have found that if pushed to hard they can't hold up. So lots of rest is on order right now, which works well with the idea of tapering for Wildflower.

Post race recovery for me was far less about sore joints(other then IT) because the trail was quite soft. The sorest part of my body was my butt, which got quite the workout climbing those hills.

9 days to Wildflower. I am so looking forward to this weekend. What a blast to hang with so many different bloggy friends.

Speaking of metro-sexual, Kahuna is planning on quite the hosting day on Wednesday for Trimama, Ironjenny and myself. Should be fun as long as we keep it all legal.

Speaking of legal, my Flash-Point equipped Tri bike should be illegal. The bike is too young to be such porn. Pictures coming soon.

Tac out

Less Reluctant?

As I mentioned in my last post...



I'm a reluctant super hero.

Oh sure, I'll spray some carbon out of my spidy like wrists and repair cracked and chipped carbon bikes of the populace at large, but when it really comes down to it, I'm too freaking busy with the business and training to really make a concerted effort to use my pee-pee sterilizing eye ray at every pool I come upon. It's just too much effort right now. So if you find yourself being drafted by some jerk at a race, I may use my anti-drafting road spray on him, but chances are..it requires too much effort. So take a care out there.

Unless of course, I get recognized.

I'm swimming in the pool early Tuesday morning and stop at the wall for on of my intervals. The guy next to me has a water bottle from one of the tri's I've done in the past. We strike up a conversation and he suddenly inquires,

"Are you Taconite Boy?"





"Why yes I am"

"Oh yeah, I read the blogs all the time, I recognized you."

"You recognize me"

I thankfully said to myself, not out loud. Ahhh, that's cool.

Words aptly spoken to awaken the superhero within.

I might just be able to spray out some more carbon today to fix the occasional cockpit from cracking off at 29 mph down a hill or even sterilize the pools Kahuna will visit this week. I feel so good, I could even use my Tri-Jedi powers to remove Greyhounds bow-tie when's he's in aero.

Tac out (and less reluctant)

This Weeks Random Thoughts...

Pete Townsend invented the guitar smashing antics of the late 60's and early 70's to celebrate a awesome performance. Something like this..




So after my very encouraging ride on Saturday, I found it fitting that I as well smash my 'axe' in celebration...




Disclaimer. No Tri-axe was damaged in this shot. Unlike Pete Townshend, Taconite Boy does not have the funds to replace said axe each time he has a good ride.

The Numbers

62.25 Miles
3 Hrs 28 Min.
Avg Speed 17.9 (yea!)
Avg Hr Rate 120 (thanks heart medication..makes my beats lower)
Total Climbing 1884 ft.
Calories Burned 4149??? Seems a wee bit high :<

What an amazing confidence booster a good ride can be. I remember last year Trimama having these types of rides and just being happy for her, but not fully understanding their impact on her training year. Well, I get it now!

Needless to say, training seems to be going well. I took the week off from swimming because my shoulder was really sore, I think a combination of heavy lacquer spray work at Paradise and 11000 yards in the pool the week prior really wore me out. Starting to feel better now though.


I'm a reluctant super hero.

Oh sure, I'll spray some carbon out of my spidy like wrists and repair cracked and chipped carbon bikes of the populace at large, but when it really comes down to it, I'm too freaking busy with the business and training to really make a concerted effort to use my pee-pee sterlizing eye ray at every pool I come upon. It's just too much effort right now. So if you find yourself being drafted by some jerk at a race, I may use my anti-drafting road spray on him, but chances are..it requires too much effort. So take a care out there.


Oh yes and I did celebrate my ride yesterday with this.



mmmmmm

Tac Out

P.S. GO COMMODORE!!!!

Question of the week.

Let's say you stole some zipp wheels from said spouse. How often would you use them.

A. Only on race day

B. For training the week before

C. For training two weeks before

D. Never. Because you stole them and your a loser

E. Other

Tac Out :)

Apparently I am doing Ironman Coeur d'Alene

WTF (what the fudge)? I go over here today and find out that Trimama has officially changed her mind and wants to do the IMCDL together. Thanks for the whiplash dear. You all thought I was joking when I said I do tri's cause Trimama makes me. We are currently in debate mode about getting our IM Geek on in 08. We have to decide soon because sign up is in 2 months or so. Oh Yeah...just a week ago I heard,

"There is no way we could do an Ironman at the same time!"

This was during one of our creative criticism exercises based around massive stress.

Uh..hu What ev dear.

The idea is to do a 12 week training plan, since all the kids will be in school during the first 2 months of training. We want to do the whole race Stroke for stroke, pedal for pedal, stride for stride...and blog about the experience. Were hoping we can get a bunch of other couples to sign up with us. No need for just married people. Like IronJenny and IronNyhus will probably do it for sure because I think they are joined at the hip anyhow. Although Jenny, it's time for Bob to get his IM on.

Tac out (But maybe in for IMCDL?)

Sneakin one in.

Usually that could refer to Trimama/Tacboy extra-curricular activity, but more bike, less sex. The good news is that I got in a 3.25 hr ride outside on rolling hills, right before we get hit with SNOW!!! *^%%^&&(. The bad news is how freakin slow I was. I had a 1.5 hr LT ride the night before which may have slowed me down, but come on. 16mph average. Not 16.5 16.7 nope 16.0...WTF (what the fruit). Very disappointed. I expect to be 17.5 on long rides most of the time. Well, I have two more long rides before the Flower so will see how those go.

The first two years of Triathlon, I was really training to be as fast as possible. I've intentionally slowed down so that I can build my endurance, but I'm finding the resulting times tough to look at. Both my bike and run are painfully slower than previous years, but I assume this is part of base building. I guess my dreams of a sub 6 hour Wildflower are fading quick! Oh well, I'm just going to swim, bike, run and enjoy my many new bloggie friends!

Oh what a self-centered post....sorry

Tac out

PS The very exciting news referred to a April 1st deal that Trimama chickened out on. :(