04-30-2011 Get in Gear Half Marathon

My goal was to negative split the race and still have something left for the Minnetonka Half tomorrow morning. I think I did it. It was cold and raining realllly hard. Like a downpour the whole time and winds were 20-30 MPH. Jason would refer to it as miserable. I like it and I think I run better in the rain, except for the blisters that you get from running in wet shoes. I am doing emergency treatment on them to make sure they are ready for the morning. Tomorrows race will feature snow showers in addition to a 20-30 mph West wind, that the first 7 miles of the course runs straight in to. Unfortunately the course never gets a wind advantage because it is a point to point that goes West and then South.



Results link. 81st out of 1021 overall. The race details are pretty cool, you can kinda see how I moved up as the race progressed. I actually beat me last Road half marathon, capital city in 2009 (by 3 seconds) and there was a lot more elevation change in this race.

04-26-2011 Run

04-24-2011 Run

Finally a nice day!!

I was really hoping that it would start getting nice out before I have to leave. I at least hoped that I would see a leaf but on a tree, that probably won't happen. It was really nice today though.

04-22-2011 Run

04-20-2011 Run

Saw Doc today, he claims that most likely I need two procedures done. An adducter release, and Sports Hernia surgery. Both are relatively simple procedures. The sports hernia is basically grafting mesh onto a tear that I have. The one that scares me is the adducter release, they cut the tendon off of the bone where it meets the groin. Apparently a lot of athletes including high level runners have it done and the success rate is over 95%. It just freaks me out to have a tendon "released". Recovery time is about 6 to 8 weeks, so not really that bad. I have to run really hard this week, to try and get it flared up really bad so I can then go back to see him next Wednesday for a final diagnosis.

If all goes well, I might be able to have the surgery done before I go back to Oregon so I can get on the road to recovery.

04-19-2011 Run

Tomorrow the big day!! (I go see the Surgeon) Had to do a couple of speed bursts to ensure that I am in sufficient pain tomorrow.

04-17-2011 Run (MudBall Classic)

This was a fun race, that was probably easily winnable given the appropriate effort. It was an easy course for a trail run, they could have made it much much tougher, they kind of skirted around all of the big hills and kept the course on big easy trails. I need to start my own race in there. It would have be a 5k with 2000' of vertical.

Downtown popping over the lakes and trees.

And Begin.

For a mudball classic there really wasn't very much mud. There was one really muddy spot that got everyone really good. But the rest of it was just a nice little trail run. There is a pretty tough trail half marathon here in September that I would like to do.

04-13-2011 Run

A little bit..

04-08-2011 Run

Barefoot run with The Bec on South Beach. South Beach Triathlon is this weekend, so lotsa triathletes running around.

04-06-2011 Run

I love Spring!

04-05-2011 Run

Hit the trails a little bit to get an idea of what the Mudball Classic is gonna be like. Snow is just ankle deep slush for the most part on the trails. I'm imagining that in a week and a half, its gonna be super muddy so that the race will happily live up to its name.

04-04-2011 Run

Lake ice is fading fast. I bet there will be open water by the end of the week.

04-02-2011 Run

Beautiful day. Tons of people on the trails.

Here is a sweet video that someone made within the past couple of days riding around Minneapolis. I don't have the balls to ride through traffic the way they do yet, but I suppose I might get there. They stop by a couple of bike shops too. Pretty cool. At 3:00 into it, you can see Rebeccas design studio. Its the big castle looking thing in the distance, its the old Grain Belt Beer brewery on the Mississippi River. Her company spent 25 million renovating it.

04-01-2011 Run

Oh my god. The last 5 months of running have been the most pathetic things I have ever seen. I'm not really saying its gonna get any better immediately. I see the surgeon on April 20th. But I probably won't have surgery until I get done with this project. Maybe this fall??

The snow is rapidly melting so there are ankle deep slush filled streams everywhere. I love it!

I have started going to Masters again, I am the slowest person in the slowest lane, but I expect that to change rapidly as I regain some fitness.

I love Cycling as my main form of transportation!