BO KNOWS!

If you haven't seen any of the 30 for 30 documentaries, pick one and watch it! All of them are really good.

Yesterday, I skipped the bike trainer due to being exhausted from two nights of crappy sleep with my son kicking me most of the night during thunderstorms. He's nervous about storms. I was going to nap, but started looking though Netflix and saw the 30 for 30: You Don't Know Bo. If you are in your mid 30's or older, you should watch it! Bo was THE MAN! Short lived professional career, due to an injury, but he truly was an amazing athlete.

This actually got me excited for off season cross training. Nike had Bo as the main marketing guy for their new cross trainers. This is where the whole "Bo Know's" thing came from. I think it was Nike's best campaign ever. Who doesn't remember those commercials? Every kid had a Bo Know's poster on his wall. Great stuff!

This reminded me how I had gotten myself in great shape in 2009-2010. P90X. That's a great program, but I've ended up injured every time I've done it. My right elbow is messed up from it. I will most likely use portions of it when I can't get to the gym. One thing I do know I want to incorporate is the winter cycling program on beginnertriathlete.com. I've wanted to do that for years, and always forget about it until it's nearly spring. I've got trainerroad too, and it's a great tool! I may use a program of theirs instead, before or after.

I'm thinking of this really early. It's mostly due to the fact that I've been busting my butt doing triathlon training, and not seeing the type of change I want. Same thing happened back in 2008 and 2009. I thought all the swimming, biking and running would get me lean. Nope. It'll make you feel great. It'll give you an aerobic base that the gym rat's don't have. The only problems is, it doesn't build muscle like resistance training. Build muscle to burn fat OFF of your body, and keep it off. Keep up with the cycling, so that spring is a building phase instead of a base phase. Running? Swimming? I'll probably run and swim enough to keep things interesting. Swimming has always been a really nice way to have some active recovery. No impact, good aerobic and flexibility work, to break up the usual routines.

But before all of this can happen, I need to get through the State Games of America Triathlon, Gravel Worlds and maybe the Good Life Halfsy.

Trolling the internet.

Whenever I read an article on the internet, I scroll down to the comments and forget half of what I just read. There are just so many buttheads with negative opinions these days.

I just read a new entry of a long term test of two motorcycles. The KTM 1190R and BMW GS ADV. Both great bikes. I should know. I own the KTM, and my good friend owns the BMW. They are at the top of the pile of adventure touring motorcycles, with very little to nitpick about. The article basically echoes the same. GS is a better mount for long highway miles, and the KTM has the edge once off the pavement.

Then you read the comments, and every idiot with a keyboard and a negative attitude is tearing apart bikes they've never owned, or ridden. Gimmie a freakin' break! Too heavy. Too expensive. Too fragile. Too tall. Only for geezers in the midst of a midlife crisis. LOL!!!!

Try to be more positive folks. If everyone would start their comments with something nice to say about the article, the internet world would be a much better place.

Family trip, two weeks til...

Two weeks until my Tri. OH SHIT!

More or less, I'm ready. Running is lack luster. Biking is ok, but I don't feel fast. Swimming should be good. It's always good. Well, except for the OWS at my Uncle's cabin last weekend.

Let's back up.

My wife finally took a week off (she works way too hard!!!), and we loaded up the kids and headed North. My Aunt and Uncle live in Minneapolis, as well as my (step)Sister and her wife. My Aunt and Uncle also have a cabin near Hayward, WI.

Traveling with a 4 and 2yr old can be a real challenge. My son (4), is pretty awesome at traveling now. Watch a movie. Play a game. Take a nap. Have a snack. Pee in the ditch of the interstate on ramp. Pretty normal stuff. The PRINCESS (2), is another story. She has been all up in the terrible two's for a couple months, with no sign of backing off. Tell her not to do something, and you can bet she'll look right at you as she does it. Lot's of "time-outs" these days. The trip up wasn't too bad. We broke it into thee, three hour segments. Three hours, Lunch. Three hours, hotel near Mall of America. Next day, Three hours to cabin. The trip home was tough. 9hrs with as little stopping as possible, since we had to get home in time to spring our dog from the kennel. That darn 2yr old was screaming about nothing for about 4hrs of the 9 we were in the car. She slept MAYBE an hour. It was not fun.

They loved the Mall of America. Basically we spent most of the time in the amusement part called Nickelodeon Universe. The kids went on several rides, and I even went with my son on the Orange Streak (roller coaster) at his request. He handled it better than I did... LOL!!! I don't like coasters.
Petting stingrays in the aquarium, having dinner with my Sis and getting new Croc's were some of the other highlights.

At the Cabin, we went for a boat ride, Did some stand up paddle boarding (with and without the kids sitting on the board), and spent lots of time jumping off the dock and looking for snails and clams. Campfire S'mores, Lumberjack show, star gazing, and listening to the Loon's call were all great experiences for the kids (and adults).

I wen't mountain biking with my Uncle on two of the days. The CAMBA (Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Assoc.) trails are pretty great! Most of it is pretty easy, with some short climbs and descents that keep it interesting. I would be up there every weekend if I lived within 3hrs. :D

Now that we are home, I have to get focused on the Sprint Triathlon that is looming just 10 days away. I could get all negative about how I'm not under 220lbs and my running has been lackluster. Or that I've only been on my road bike (set up for tri's) outside ONCE. All other rides have been on the trainer, or a different bike (All-City Macho Man Disc!!). Or that I suddenly don't like swimming as much, after getting SEA SICK on a short Open Water Swim at the cabin... WHAT THE CRAP?!?

I won't go all negative though. I'm a positive kinda guy.

I've lost weight. 20lbs since January 1. :D  I feel 1000 times better than last year at this time. I can run. I am pretty sure I'll even be well under 30min for the 5k in the tri. I've built up a nice bike base, that was fairly evident after both 1.5hr mountain bike rides in Wisconsin. The same trails that I rode one year ago, and felt absolutely horrible after. This time, I was bummed we didn't have time to ride longer!!  Today's pool swim (with ear plugs) was good. I swam a 500 with no warm-up for race simulation, and was just over 8:00. If I can go just a touch faster at the tri, with a decent bike split and smooth transitions, I just MIGHT beat my previous time at the same event way back in 2009.
Those times:
Swim: 17:04 (there is a 100yd run from the water to the timing mat. and it was supposed to be 1000yd swim that year. I think it was 750ish? This year it's labeled as 500m swim.)
T1: 0:56
Bike: 38:40
T2: 1:07
Run: 27:21

Total TIme: 1:25:05

I remember feeling very similar back then. I was not nearly as good at swimming, but biking was stronger. I also remember telling myself that I just had to run the entire run. No walking. I don't recall if I walked some of the hill that goes up the dam, right at the turnaround, or if I gutted it out. I know for sure that I will be able to gut it out this time. Of coarse I have some strategies rolling through my head, but I usually end up just going at about 90% the whole time, with my inner voice chanting "don't blow up, don't blow up"...."push a little harder"....."easy dude, don't blow up".....  If only I could have headphones on with some crazy Dubstep going.

I can't tell you how excited I am that my kids will be there to see me doing it!! Even though they are really young, I think it will start their understanding that anyone can do anything they want to. Just set the goal, and work towards it. That, and it'll make "daddy" look even more super man like. You know how kids brains work ;)

Final note.
I'm really excited to be back doing a triathlon. Scheduling wise, this may be the only one I do this whole year. I'm going to try and do a couple more next year, one of which may be a 70.3 with my little sister. She agreed to it, so we'll see. :D

NEW BIKE! Summer beers!

I was finally able to get some brewing done a few weeks ago. With the interest of time, I did two batches at once. An extract batch (IPA) in the boil kettle, while an all grain batch (blonde ale) was in the mash tun. It worked perfectly, and I'm excited to have 20gal of beer in fermenters. Both batches will be "tweaked" with 5gal of each of them being slightly different from the other, as follows:

Blonde Ale:

5gal with US05 yeast, and 4lbs Strawberries.

5gal with US04 yeast, and 5lbs Raspberries.

IPA:

Both 5gal fermenters got US05 yeast and the same amount and variety of dry hops (Simcoe, Citra, Cascade, Amarillo and Summit)

One of them will get Oak cubes for one week. :D

I'll report back with the results soon.

THE NEW BIKE!!!

Well, if I'm going to be getting into this whole "gravel grinder" business, I had better upgrade from my 9yr old 29er mountain bike. Enter the Macho Man.

All City Macho Man Disc. Steel frame, disc brakes, Shimano 105 and clearance for 42c tires. NICE!

I was looking at ALL of the options, with no budget in mind. This bike was near the top of my short list despite being a full $1000 cheaper than a couple of the other bikes on that list. The other two were the Salsa Warbird 105 and the Raleigh Tamland 2. Both sounded like great bikes, and I was planning on riding all three, as well as anything else that was available. So far, I had ridden a Cannondale CAADX (horrible!) and a couple Trek's, including the Boone 5. The Boone was great, but really didn't have any soul. Hard to explain, but that's how I felt.

So, I take a look on Craigslist, just out of curiosity what might be around, and there sits El Macho, less than a mile from me, but in a seemingly smaller size than I require. I ride a 55cm LeMond roadie, and my Medium (17-18") mountain bikes are on the small side of perfect. The Macho was a 52, so I contacted the seller, expressing interest but that I would need to check geometry numbers and get a good test ride. Amazingly, he was the same size as me, with a bit longer inseam. Turns out the 52 for All City has a 55 top tube. Perfect! After a very short test ride, I was totally sold on the bike. Everything just felt right about it. I knew I could quit looking, and start negotiating. 

Well, after a low ball offer, and some back and forth, I gave him $100 less than his asking price. This didn't seem like all that great of a deal until I really thought about it, and realized I had just gotten a $1550 bike, with $100 set of extra tires for $1100. The bike was only a month old, and didn't have some much as a scratch on it! SWEET!!!!

Now, I start riding it as often as possible. A few small items start to pop up that need adjustment for my liking. I pull the kids in a Burley most of the time. Any little hill or headwind, and I was hurting with the road gearing. 46/36 chainrings and 12-28 cassette. I looked at all of the options, and decided to order a 9spd XT derailleur and 10spd 11-36 mountain cassette. These are reported to pair nicely with the 105 shifters for much wider gearing. They both just came today, and I started the swap. The only hiccup is that the XT der. doesn't have the threads for the cable adjuster like on the road derailleurs. Back to looking for options.... I decided that a Jagwire Rocket II adjuster, reported to fit nicely into the hole on the XT would be a good easy way to go. I was going to put an inline adjuster in, but the former option just seems like a clean option. So, if Amazon Prime pulls through, I'll be rockin' in a couple days. The XT is on, but the shifts aren't perfect with out the micro adjustment I need from the Rocket II adjuster. That, and I don't have a cassette removal tool...yet. 

The only other things that I have changed are the seat and bar tape.

New seat is a Brooks Cambium C17. I like it pretty well so far. My longest ride was about 2hrs on gravel, and it didn't bother me. Still need to tweak the position a touch. The bar tape was put on prior to said ride; I chose Salsa Gel Cork tape, in natural color to match the saddle. It's close enough to look good, and seems like it'll work nicely. It's got a bit more cushion than the stock stuff. I probably should've used the stock stuff for another month or so, and then done the swap. Oh well, it's only $20.

Cheers.

Approaching the FENIX

I ordered a Garmin Fenix 3 as my birthday present from my wife. That was back in mid January. It's FINALLY shipped, and should be here in a few days.

I've wanted a GPS sports watch for years. I finally pulled the trigger, since I think it's not only bad ass functional, but it's finally good looking enough to wear daily. A little bit on the big side, but still much, much better than the stuff I was considering back in 2009=10. Besides, it's almost a smart watch, with notifications and stuff. I won't get all into it, since I wouldn't do it justice anyhow. If you want to know more about it, check out DCRainmaker's write up. Seriously, more info than you need!

I'm super excited to see if this will help me figure out how to get faster, instead of just doing the workouts that I think are going to make me faster. I'm going to try to keep my HR down when I am supposed to, as well as get it peaked out when I'm doing those hard intervals.


Approaching the Natural.

Have you heard of it?

It's a book, by Sid Garza-Hillman. Basically a vegan type guy, certified nutritionist, and amateur athlete (ultra runner). I think he's sorta like Rich Roll, but not nearly as addicted to things. Hey Rich, you want to replace an unhealthy addiction with a healthy one, good for you. The thing is, you can preach your fanatical lifestyle to everyone that will listen and then some, but I doubt anyone will go as far as you did. I digress...

Sid has a very much opposite approach to the healthy lifestyle. Baby steps! I'll sum up what I heard on the first podcast of Sid's that I just listened to the other day. Take a deep breath.  

No, really. Take a deep breath right now, and do nothing but listen to your breath.

Done?

You just took a baby step toward meditating. Congratulations! You are not on Sid's "plan" for Approaching the Natural state of being a human animal.

Now, you can start drinking a glass of water in the morning. Or going for a walk regularly. Even taking your shoes off when you are out in the yard, playing with your kids/dog/self (lol).

There is a little more to it, but I'm not the nutritionist or writer or podcaster or athlete that he is. So go CHECK HIM OUT and see if it's something you dig, ya dig?

Cheers,
Kurt

Let there be flowers..... PLEASE!

"Training" is going ok. I've been pretty good about sticking to my schedule, other than sick kids and snow storms throwing things off a bit. I need to get a little more running and biking in, but that will remedy itself once spring gets here. I'm really looking forward to morning walks/runs with a dog, and bicycle trips to the park with the kids. I can't wait to see green grass and flowers!

Hopefully the last dog we met, Ralphie, will be ours soon. We like him, and are just waiting on the rescue group volunteers to give us the OK to adopt. It's beyond frustrating!

Odin's Revenge?

I need to double check with my wife, but I am hoping to send a postcard tomorrow for registration of the "short course" ride. It will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 90mi of gravel in the hills of South Western Nebraska. Yes, there are hills out there. Pretty big ones! My cousin said he sent his in today... I'd better get going! The registration is capped at 50 for the short course and 100 for the long. I won't be ready for the long course by June. It's 180mi!!!  I'm not sure I will be ready for 90mi either, but what the heck. ;)

It's currently 12°F outside. My son is getting pretty stir crazy being inside most of the last couple weeks. Last night he kept asking me if we could go for a walk. It was about the same temp then, and the sun was setting. Spring needs to get here ASAP! 

-Kurt

Humpy McHumperson, the dog.

Yo Dogg,
In my last post I was excited to meet a Golden Retriever that was a possible fit for our family. Long story short, it didn't work out.

He was a sweet dog, but he had a "mounting" problem. With little kids, they would all get excited, and his reaction was to try and mount them. If our kids were older, it wouldn't have been much of an issue.

The wait continues.....

I did fill out the adoption form for a local no-kill shelter, that has a huge amount of dogs. Hearts United for Animals hua.org is a great place, that really gives a ton of dogs a fair shot at a good life. They don't have any Golden Retrievers right now, but there is one Australian Shepherd that I like the looks of.

Running:
I had my first really nice run the other day. I went out after dinner, while my in-laws were over hanging with the kids. It was just perfect out, with a slight breeze and cool temps (very warm for January). Clear skies, with quite a few stars, and an empty golf course to run on. I just ran as I felt, walking up some short inclines so I didn't spike my HR too much. Not fast, that's for sure, but it was just one of those times when you go out, and it just feels good! I should have eaten just a little less though. I was choking back the re-flux quite a bit. LOL!!!

Cycling:
With the unseasonably warm weather, I have gotten out on a few rides with my cousin. Although I am nowhere near anything that resembles "good cycling shape", it feels great to get out and spin the pedals. I'll just keep going out on long rides when I can. The first ride was about 27mi, with a late lunch stop toward the end. The second ride was a much faster 20mi ride on the rail trail. Slow speeds still, but we were pushing the fat tires on mountain bikes, with a stiff breeze and some really wet, squishy and slow spots on the trail.

Swimming:
Swimming rocks! I got the Total Immersion MP4 vids, and put them on a DVD for my brother-in-law. I will use them as a technique review, and work on perfecting my stroke. He will use them (hopefully) to learn how to swim, without drowning.

Weight loss:
As of this morning, I am officially down 5 lbs. Still have not broken into the 130's, but I am hoping that a lean eating day today, and a nice run tonight will allow me that moral boost for my official weekly weigh in day tomorrow.

Cheers,
Kurt

Golden Boy

I may be getting a running partner soon!

We have been on the waiting list with Golden Retriever Rescue In Nebraska (GRRIN) for a few months. They have a dog that we are considering, and going to meet tomorrow. He's 5yrs old, and very gentle. He has also been craving more attention and exercise. He will get an abundance of both at our house! As long as he is good with the kids at the meeting, I think he will be our new doggy!!! 

Brewing wise, I finally got to brew a week ago. My good friend Josh came down and we brewed a split batch of wheat beer. Half of it was brewed as a traditional German Hefewiezen, with noble hops and WLP300 yeast. The other half was brewed more like Blue Moon, with orange peel, coriander and American Hops, with WLP320 yeast. The primary fermentation was much more vigorous with the WLP300, and I'm very happy about that. I'm hoping that the "Blue Moon" comes out with very low yeast character, to let the adjuncts shine through. I'm letting them sit for another week, and then I will keg them. I might drag them up to a warm spot in the house, and let the yeast clean up the beer. If the weather cooperates, I will cold crash them in the garage.

Things are going pretty good in the training dept. Getting back into the swing of things swimming wise makes me feel like I'm actually "training". While my son is at pre-school, I take my little girl to play in the child care area at the YMCA (she LOVES it), and I hit the pool. My stamina is nearly non existent, and my form needs some touch up. My brother-in-law goes with me, and he makes me look like an Olympian. He would drown if he had to swim farther than 50yds. With this in mind, I went ahead and ordered the Total Immersion DVD, partly for me, and mostly for him. I'll have him swimming great in a month with that technique. He is really willing to learn, and is starting from square one. I wouldn't be surprised if he became a really good swimmer this summer. Talking him into a triathlon with an OWS might be a different story. He doesn't like deep water. At all! I tried to get him to tread water in the deep end (6'6"), and he wouldn't go further in than about the 5' spot. It will be interesting to see how he progresses. 

I'm 5lbs down from my starting weight a month ago. I feel better than I have in a couple years too. I'm really excited for summer....or spring at least. The 60deg weather the last few days really helped my cabin fever. I fear winter will rear it's ugly head again soon though. Feb is still in the heart of winter, and March can have some of the biggest snow storms. We'll see.

-Kurt