RobbyB

Hooray! This morning I was able to pull myself out of bed early enough to squeeze in a run. You may be thinking big whoop-idi-ding-dong-doo, but to me it's something to celebrate. My alarm has gone off at 6AM for the past three weeks -- at the risk of waking our baby and stirring up an earlier than welcome morning. Every day before today, the magnet of a warm bed was too strong and I simply slept the next hour away in nine-minute increments. But not today. Today was a success, but it almost didn't happen. I hit the snooze once, but was able to overcome and get myself out the door. And it was a great day to be out, too. Crisp at 20°F, frost blanketed the cars and fog hovered over the lakes. In fact, the fog was so thick in front of the Monona Terrace, it reminded me of Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. I wish I had my camera to take a picture. In the end, it was thirty minutes of morning running. Something I haven't done since November, I think. I'm going to have to keep this up if I decide to run the Medford half-marathon.

Yesterday, teammate Michelle proposed:

How about coming up to race a half-marathon in the big town of Medford? Flat, old railroad bed, fast course. No bling, few spectators, but you'd get to see me and Stu!

My initial reaction was to say no. It's the same day as Crazylegs, and I haven't missed that since 2004. And I'm wickedly behind on my base development and 13.1 in April would hurt. But, it would be a really great motivator to get myself back into shape. And to hang out in the bubbling metropolis that is Medford is serious hard to pass up. Plus, there were only 50 people total in the half last year. I have a serious shot at hardware in a running race. Unheard of!

So, what should I do? Stay home, run 5 miles and be comfortable? Or, challenge myself and push to get ready to run 13.1 miles in 50 days? Let me know!

BTW, this is what Michelle responded with when I expressed my hesitation:

Crazy Legs?!!! Pfft!!! The racing experience in Medford would far surpass that! Who cares about wickedly overweight and out of shape but you? Not I.

So I think I got one bike in along with along with last night's indoor triathlon in the last two weeks. Not quite the every day effort that I was hoping for. Add to that the fact that I'm gaining weight faster than my daughter. I could make lots of excuses, but I won't. I need to plan my day better, get to bed earlier and not push the snooze button in the morning. I'm giving myself until the end of February to get into a rhythm and then we'll see what March brings.

In other news, Team Evotri should have some big announcements in the near future. JP is interviewing some awesome pros for the website and Stu has been doing the same on the Simply Stu podcast. We've been planning for our team race at the Rev3 Cedar Point races along with WIBA 2010. Note the new weekend of July 9-11, 2010 and watch for all the news in April.

What with all the celebrating, eating and drinking over the holidays, it's too easy to get carried away with setting crazy resolutions in January. Plus, with the arrival of Elsa Grace, who knew what kind of time there would be? Would there even be time to train? Would I want to? All good questions that I put off for a month until we got into a more "normal"¹ schedule.

Now that Elsa's eight(!) weeks old. we're getting closer to a normal schedule, and since a year (Okay, 11 months) is too long to commit to, I decided to use month-long chunks. It's also handy that February is the shortest month -- not that I'm afraid of commitment or anything. So for February, since I need to get back to active movements, I've committed to doing something active² every day.

Thus far, I'm two for two. Woot! I got a short bike ride in Monday and a nice run in the snow Tuesday morning. (And yes, I ran because it was snowing, not in spite of it.) With any luck, I hope to make it 28 for 28. I'll try to keep some updates logged here, but you can always follow me on Twitter, too.

¹ What's normal anyways?

² Active can be any swim, bike, or run. It can also be breaking out the Wii Fit Plus, or basketball, or walks with my family.

At the end of every year, I guess you're supposed to look back and review things. Since time is of the essence in our household these days, I'll keep things quick and make a list of the big things in no particular order:

• Evotri Road Trip to New Orleans (Pre race report)
  
• Spirit of Racine Half (A half PR of 4:40!)
  
• Madison Mini Marathon PR
• Delivered I-15 (a big work project)
• Going to six different weddings (two in one weekend!)
• Finishing the front porch railing on the house
• Finished 1st in my age group for the Aquathon series
  
• Started announcing races for Race Day Events
  
• And most importantly, we welcomed Elsa Grace:

Here's to a great 2010. And if this post is any indication, it's going to be hectic and unpredictable. (It took me three days just to get this prepped and posted.) There's some cool stuff brewing with Evotri, I get to continue announcing races, and I look forward to being a dad.

Today I ran my final race of the summer season, the inaugural Madison Mini Marathon, a half marathon in the heart of downtown Madison. Hosted at the Memorial Union, the course set itself up to show off the best of Madison, the Capitol Square, State Street, Kohl Center, Vilas Park, Arboretum, the Lake Shore Path, and finish line at the Memorial Union.

Straight away, the start was up Langdon. A hill the entire way to the Capitol, it was a good thing I warmed up by running to the start line. It worried me when I glanced at the first mile, a 7:09, so I backed off a bit and settled into a groove of a sub 7:40/mile pace. The miles ticked off relatively fast, and before I new it, mile 5 flew by. By now, I noticed two others at my pace. We constantly traded places, right until the 7th mile. By now the urge to pee that haunted me since the beginning of the race was too unbearable, so I took the break, feeling more relaxed and ready to continue. Out of the bin, I noticed my running mates were only 30 seconds ahead, something I could make up.

I knew that if I made to the lakeshore path and the final two miles in any kind of shape, I could make a decent effort for a decent finish. One last gel, and I was ready for the finish. Around a few bends and the turnaround, I was cruising right along. At mile 12, I saw 1:31 and change on the clock. A sub-1:40 -- an extreme goal at the start of the race -- was within reach.

I made the path a "no comfort zone" to make sure I wouldn't relax and fall into an easy pace. It also helped to pass folks that had passed me much earlier. The final few turns and downhill to the finish, a big high five to Stu, and a fine finish.

Overall, a PR of 1:39:18, with relatively even splits (except for the bathroom break in the middle). I was surprised at how comfortable, but at the same time uncomfortable, the race was. A great course, showing the best parts of running in Madison. Giving the location and timings, it's likely on the list of races to do again.

After a tough day in New Orleans, I decided within that week upon coming home I would return to Racine for its excellent half-distance triathlon. I first raced in Racine in 2005 (wicked hot) and returned for a nice day in 2006. This time I was going for broke, with a goal of a sub five hour day. I had it all figured out: 0:25/2:45/1:45 with 5 min of transitions is exactly five hours. With a current aided swim course and perfect conditions, I realized that goal in a major way.

All of us in the upper Midwest are waiting for summer to arrive. We get hints of 80 degree days now and then, but nothing has stuck thus far. This was more than evident in the water temperature of Lake Mendota on Thursday evening. For the first race in Fleet Feet Madison's Aquathon series, the City of Madison declared the water temp at 62°F. Yikes. To warm up (if you could call it that) I waded in and took my time getting used to the water. It was cold and hard to maintain a smooth stroke. I just had to remember that everyone would be going through the same thing.

SWIM
Lots of young'ns from the UW were there racing as a team, so there were plenty of us by the first buoy. Also, I need to figure out how to get a black line on the bottom of the lake because I couldn't swim in a straight line at all. The cold water forced me to breath every stroke, and with it, I kept veering right. WAY right. By the second and last turn, there were only three of us. And on the way in, only two. I never felt warm on the swim and my muscle tightness reflected it. I missed the $50 gift card by a few seconds, but was happy just getting out of the water second overall.

T1
I nearly toppled over in transition from dizziness. It was extra difficult putting socks and shoes on really cold feet.

RUN
Out on the run, there must have been a nicely sized group behind me, because I was passed relatively quickly by about five people. But, they weren't pulling away as fast as they have in the past -- a good sign. I held my pace, keeping it as steady as possible, as I tend to let the mind wander and my pace slows. It was hard to do with numb legs for the first mile or so. Up and over the final hill, I gunned it for the finish, keeping my promise to myself to not let anyone pass me on the finishing straight.

Final numbers:
1K Swim: 11:47 - 2nd Overall
5K Run: 22:48 - Aquathon split PR!
Total: 35:23 - 11th Overall (2nd in AG)

Have you signed up for The Wisconsin Brick Adventure (WIBA) yet? The laid-back, self-supported training weekend on the Ironman Wisconsin course is coming up really soon. Swim, bike and ride with Evotri team members and others that have experience in the race. Check the site out for more information and registration. Hurry! Registration closes soon!

We were watching HGTV's House Hunter's International tonight about an American who quit his job in the US to move to Argentina, where he started a successful real estate business, and now needs a vacation home.

Curious about his business, I did a quick Google search and found his story on his website. Clicking around some more on his site, I found a link to renovations, in which he describes how he spent lots of time and effort on a house in Punte del Este. Turns out, it was the same house he "chose" on the TV show. Only the house they showed him (number 2 on the episode) was the same one he highlights on his website, post renovation! They just took down some pictures that he put up after he moved in. It was a total sham!

How many of the episodes are a big fake? Was the episode before about the wine loving couple moving back to Long Island to a new home right on a vineyard too good to be true? Makes you think, doesn't it? Stupid reality TV.