Overall 2012 was a pretty darn good year on many fronts. The kids are all doing well in school and related activities. Business has been good. The weinerschnitzels are healthy and Carla is happy.....What more to life is there? Good question and the answers lie below :)
Winter Death Race Finisher - 33 hours (So cold, went in injured but persevered)
Summer Death Race Finisher - 60 hours (Very hard due to cross fit style of race)
Ironman St George Finisher - 15:40 (Windy/rough swim & hot & windy Bike!)
Dirty 30 Trail Run Finisher - 7:29 (very hard track)
Country Music Marathon Finisher - Top 2%- 1:39
Cedars of Lebanon - 6th place overall - 46:39
Leadville Marathon - 2X Finisher - 6:00 (elevations reach 13,150 feet)
Leadville Silver Rush 50 Mile Trail Run - 3X Finisher -11:16 (Toughest 50 miler)
UTMB Finisher - 24:19 (Weather was awful sleet, snow, rain, wind & mud)
Clarksville Century Ride Finisher - 5:10
Berlin Marathon 3:25:45 (Course was 26.68 miles..so much for German precision)
Fiesta Marathon - 1st place division, 5th overall - 3:38 (Ran 27 miles+)
Ironman Arizona Finisher - 12:51 (Hot day, wrecked on bike at mile 15 but persevered)
2012 was by far my most active year in endurance sports. The highlighted races above are what I would consider "A" races. Most people would attempt only 1 or at best 2 of them in a given year. Completing 6 major endurance races over the course of 2012 is a great feeling and sense of accomplishment. What you don't see is the amount of training that went into being able to finish all of theses races along with the family sacrifice of my training. As I reflect back on 2012, it was a really good year but I have many things to improve upon and look forward to 2013 as it approaches. It's nice to look back at the past and forward to the future, but more important to live in the present....Cheers!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas
Today there will be no training. Instead I will spend the day playing games with the kids (me included) and stuffing as much food down my pie hole as possible. Like the great grizzly bear, I need to pack on some winter fat before heading to the Yukon Territories in 5 1/2 weeks. The only difference is that I won't be going into hibernation, I'll be working off the fat over 300+ miles of some pretty gnarly terrain. Body fat currently is less than 10%, probably close to 7-8% with the heavy training and race schedule over the past 6 weeks. IM Phoenix and Fiesta Marathon jump started the metabolism and my daily 12 mile treks with my 30 pound tire and 10 pound backpack have only continued to burn fat calories.
Overall I'm feeling pretty good. I must say that pulling a tire for 12 miles across pavement beats up the hip flexors, quads, calves, achilles, foot arch and core. I'm hoping and praying that the sled will be much easier to pull across snow than a tire on pavement. I've been toying around with the idea of putting a blow up inter tube sledding device in one of my drop bags to place under my sled to reduce friction and make it easier to actually pull the sled. I've got to check it out and give it some thought as to how I would jerry rig this to my sled or if it'll even help.
It's a little concerning that if I'm sore after pulling a tire 12 miles, exactly how I'll feel after the first 100 miles of pulling sled. Still plenty of time to get in some good training....but today will be a day of "rest".
Santa has already come to Brentwood, TN and while the kids sleep I'm sitting in front of the fire sipping coffee with my little ole pal Oliver. Very peaceful.........Merry Christmas.
Overall I'm feeling pretty good. I must say that pulling a tire for 12 miles across pavement beats up the hip flexors, quads, calves, achilles, foot arch and core. I'm hoping and praying that the sled will be much easier to pull across snow than a tire on pavement. I've been toying around with the idea of putting a blow up inter tube sledding device in one of my drop bags to place under my sled to reduce friction and make it easier to actually pull the sled. I've got to check it out and give it some thought as to how I would jerry rig this to my sled or if it'll even help.
It's a little concerning that if I'm sore after pulling a tire 12 miles, exactly how I'll feel after the first 100 miles of pulling sled. Still plenty of time to get in some good training....but today will be a day of "rest".
Santa has already come to Brentwood, TN and while the kids sleep I'm sitting in front of the fire sipping coffee with my little ole pal Oliver. Very peaceful.........Merry Christmas.
Monday, December 24, 2012
The Fiesta Marathon Results.....
Where to start....? I guess the real question of the day was, where to go? The gun went off at 6:45AM on a 65F cloudy morning in McAllen, TX. It was nice to have a warm start for a change. Most IM starts are cold and require the athlete to jump into cold water. Every ultra running event that I've ever sone has had a chilly start as well, if not down right cold. So, a 65F start was a nice and welcomed change.
Francisco, Ray, Greg, Andy and I all got off to a good start with a preset pace of 7:35/Mile. The first 2 miles were a loop around the convention center and then the course took us out 12+ miles for an out and back type of a loop for the 26.2 miles. The goal of the day is always to finish, but for Ray and I we were looking to win a spot in the 2014 Boston Marathon. To accomplish this we had to both run an average of a 7:49/Mile or better, which equates to a sub 3:25 marathon. Doable, right? WRONG!
The race conditions, I thought were perfect. A warm start, humid..but not crazy humidity, a flat course, well trained, weighed in at 176-177lbs, lots of rest and 5 experienced runners supporting each other to nab a Boston qualifying time. Things went awry after the first 2 mile of the race when we were directed to do the initial 2 mile loop twice by the race officials on the course. When we got out onto the course and passed the 7 mile marker my Garmin read 9 miles.....Damn! Evidently all of the marathoners were given the wrong directions and did the first loop twice. This meant that in order to get a sub 3:25 finish that Ray and I were going to have to run an average of a 7:15/Mile pace. That wasn't happening.
With the support of Andy he was able to guide me to a spot on the course where I could make up some time/miles...about 1.25 miles to be exact, but it didn't matter. My legs felt really heavy at mile 18-19 and my pace began to slow down and I didn't have it mentally/physically to get a sub 3:25 marathon. Andy's wife was great as she handed me 2 bottles of gatorade at two critical points for me during the race that extended my hopes of a sub 3:25 finish. My finish time was 3:38. Not my best. Not my worst.
The race overall was a success in my book. Without the extra 3/4 mile my time would've been around a 3:28. While I didn't qualify for Boston, there will be many more opportunities. It was a great training session to beat up my legs and build up my speed training for the Yukon Arctic Ultra 300 mile race in 6 weeks. It was also great to spend a weekend with a bunch of guys that love to run and compete as much as I do, with great attitudes and don't take things too seriously. Andy took 1st place (4th overall) in his division 50-54 while Ray and I (5th overall) took 2nd and 1st place in the 45-49 division. Greg grabbed 7th place in the 35-39 division and Francisco got 6th in the 50-54 division. Not too bad.
It's been one week since the marathon finish and I'm back in full training for the YAU 300 in 6 weeks. This past week I managed to get in two 11+ mile hikes with my 30lb tire. Legs are feeling beat up in unusual places. Taking epsom salt baths for recovery along with rest in general and trying to eat right. Big training week ahead. Going to get in a 40 mile hike with my tire which should take about 10-11 hours, I'm guessing. More to follow.....Cheers!
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| Where's Andy?? |
The race conditions, I thought were perfect. A warm start, humid..but not crazy humidity, a flat course, well trained, weighed in at 176-177lbs, lots of rest and 5 experienced runners supporting each other to nab a Boston qualifying time. Things went awry after the first 2 mile of the race when we were directed to do the initial 2 mile loop twice by the race officials on the course. When we got out onto the course and passed the 7 mile marker my Garmin read 9 miles.....Damn! Evidently all of the marathoners were given the wrong directions and did the first loop twice. This meant that in order to get a sub 3:25 finish that Ray and I were going to have to run an average of a 7:15/Mile pace. That wasn't happening.
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| Hawaiian Ray Pre-Race Meditating |
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| This came with Geritol & a tube of Bengay |
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Last Chance to Qualify for Boston in 2012.....
Ray, Greg and I all arrived in McAllen Texas yesterday in pursuit of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. Ray and I each have to run a sub 3:25 marathon, which is doable if we have a good race. Greg has a larger hurdle with a sub 3:15 time as he is 39 versus Ray and I at 45 years of age.
Francisco picked us up at the airport, while Greg drove in from Austin...which is abut a 5 hour trip. Francisco made us a nice dinner and we we took it easy and rented Ted, with Mark Wahlberg. Very very funny flick. I got to bed at a reasonable hour and got in about 8 hours of sleep. This morning we enjoyed a nice light breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee before heading up to the local running store to pick up some gear and then our race bibs. We all have pretty low numbers as I believe that there are less than 150 marathoners. There is a sporting chance that if we run a 3:20 race that we could win our age division.
The weather in the morning is suppose to be in the low 60's and creep into the mid 70's by the time we finish. The gun goes off at 6:45AM CST, which means if all goes well then we should be crossing the finish line by 10:05AM CST. McAllen is at sea level and is a very flat course. There are a couple of Francisco's local friends that will be running the race as well. The aid stations are at every two miles and should have Gatorade and water. I'm bringing along hammer gels and a pack of shot blocks as well.
Getting ready to chow down some pasta right now and then off to bed early. Read a little and then up at 4AM for a egg sandwich and coffee before the race.
Gotta run........Cheers!
Francisco picked us up at the airport, while Greg drove in from Austin...which is abut a 5 hour trip. Francisco made us a nice dinner and we we took it easy and rented Ted, with Mark Wahlberg. Very very funny flick. I got to bed at a reasonable hour and got in about 8 hours of sleep. This morning we enjoyed a nice light breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee before heading up to the local running store to pick up some gear and then our race bibs. We all have pretty low numbers as I believe that there are less than 150 marathoners. There is a sporting chance that if we run a 3:20 race that we could win our age division.
The weather in the morning is suppose to be in the low 60's and creep into the mid 70's by the time we finish. The gun goes off at 6:45AM CST, which means if all goes well then we should be crossing the finish line by 10:05AM CST. McAllen is at sea level and is a very flat course. There are a couple of Francisco's local friends that will be running the race as well. The aid stations are at every two miles and should have Gatorade and water. I'm bringing along hammer gels and a pack of shot blocks as well.
Getting ready to chow down some pasta right now and then off to bed early. Read a little and then up at 4AM for a egg sandwich and coffee before the race.
Gotta run........Cheers!
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Fiesta Marathon...
In one week I will be in McAllen, TX racing in the Fiesta Marathon. It is the last opportunity in 2012 to qualify for Boston. After missing the BQ cutoff in Berlin by 45 seconds I am anxious to get that monkey off of my back. I haven't specifically trained to race to qualify, I am in good overall shape post IM PHX and have been getting in the miles. My training has been more race specific for the Yukon Arctic Ultra race in February about 7 weeks out.
Hawaiian Ray and Francisco will be racing as well. Thinking that I will try to hang with Ray, hoping that he runs a 7:30-7:40 mile pace. Looking forward to getting this race done and focusing on YAU. The weather for the race in McAllen will be cloudy with a low of 60F and high of 79F. Francisco is claiming that this course is pancake flat....hoping he's right...otherwise Ray and I may be making a call to INS :).
Unfortunately I won't be "tapering" into this race given the fact that YAU is only 7 weeks out. I will only run a couple of miles on Friday and Saturday to just stay loose, but other wise will plan on logging at least 40 miles this week prior to the marathon.
Time to hit the rack....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Hawaiian Ray and Francisco will be racing as well. Thinking that I will try to hang with Ray, hoping that he runs a 7:30-7:40 mile pace. Looking forward to getting this race done and focusing on YAU. The weather for the race in McAllen will be cloudy with a low of 60F and high of 79F. Francisco is claiming that this course is pancake flat....hoping he's right...otherwise Ray and I may be making a call to INS :).
Unfortunately I won't be "tapering" into this race given the fact that YAU is only 7 weeks out. I will only run a couple of miles on Friday and Saturday to just stay loose, but other wise will plan on logging at least 40 miles this week prior to the marathon.
Time to hit the rack....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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