This is just a quick and simple Top Five list.
Top Five PARTYbRides I am looking forward to this year.
5. CRABFART
4. Bud Ride
3. BAD BOBBY HAWAIIAN RIDE
2. RAGBRAI
1. Any and all Bicycle Rides!!!
Posts Tagged ‘cycling
19
Jan
16
Top Five Tuesday
11
Mar
14
Dreaming…
BICYCLE WRITER
I have always dreams of the perfect job. And my title would be “Bicycle Writer” I would love to have a job to be able to bike around and write about it, write short stories, write a novel, write a biography and even write a few status updates. I didn’t go to school for creative writing, but I can be pretty creative. I have some goals this summer to do some longer bicycle rides, one I hope to do is a bicycle rice to the Windy City. It would be fun to leave early Wednesday morning and arrive around later afternoon/evening on Friday. Have my wife meet me there, stay for the weekend and drive back. I would map out the trip out to find some camping spots. By myself a B.O.B. trailer to carrying my stuff, although pack light.
I was in a day-dreaming mode at the gym today and thought I would blog it.
10
Mar
14
Week of the 5K’s
This past week I have ran more miles than ever. From Sunday to Saturday I ran 4- 5K’s (28:37 to my quickest one of 25:52) and I ran 1 Mile before cycling class on Saturday (7:26 not my fastest, but one of them). Total of 10 miles in a week and my legs felt pretty solid. With the weather warming up now (hopefully for good) I am looking to get some miles outside in because everyone can admit treadmills are BORING! I plan to in the next few months to head out to Palo, IA where the Triathlon is and do some practice runs to work on the course and get my times quicker. Last year I had a goal to finish my first Triathlon in under 2 hours, which I did at 1:40:13 as the official time. Now I got a time to beat…
Swimming:11:29 (like to get it under 11 minutes)
Transition 1: 3:40 (think it took me too much time to get the damn wet-suit off, so plan to practice this to get it under 3 minutes…one thing to remember this year is after I swim to run to bike even though I am tried I need to hustle more)
Bike: 53:28 (I know I can get this time under, I didn’t factor in the wind and I went slower than I usually can so I could save my legs for the run, but after doing it I felt I could have gone faster)
Transition 2: 2:31 (I was pretty quick at this, but still think I could be a little faster ad getting the shoes changed.)
Run: 29:03 (I think now that I have gotten a time under 26 minutes I can get this down as well. My overall pace was kind of slow and I think the last miles I could have went balls to the wall and just finished.
I think if I can shaved off the seconds to minutes I have above I would like to try and finish under 1:30:00. One thing I will consider is my bike placement, I will try to have my stuff on the outside for let fight with the crowd of getting my bike. Maybe have it closer to the swimming part since it took me longer to get to my bike last year.
I am ready for this year, have better and bigger goals to accomplish!
BRING ON THE TRI!!!
Well, the RAGBRAI (www.ragbrai.com) ROUTE for 2014 was announce on Saturday. I had a guess of it being north, and I did guess Emmetsburg and Waverly, BUT that was all I had right. 1 key thing I like to hear *2nd Flattest route* Also, I think the day from Forest City to Mason City will be a AWESOME DAY! It’s the shortest day on RAGBRAI I have ever done…36 miles. I know it’s not a challenge to ride 36 miles, but that;s why I train for miles before RAGBRAI. I usually get in minimum 1000 miles before RAGBRAI, but to me RAGBRAI is not a race, not a competition and I don’t feel I am there to prove anything…it’s my VACATION, which means, biking, drinking, biking, drinking, camping, drinking, dancing and oh…some drinking as well 😀 It’s probably the best week I look forward to every year, no e-mails, no work, and to quote Bob Marley I’ll be “Singin’: “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right.”” The only thing I miss when I am on RAGBRAI is my wife and my 2 dogs 🙂
This year will also be my 10th years of doing RAGBRAI and I am excited. I have met a lot of fun people on RAGBRAI (Team Black Betty, Team Fohty, Team Xtreme, and many more) But am glad to call my self a Boozehound from Team Boozehound! We like to Ride Right and Party All Night!
Most of all it’s fun to hang out with the great team!
GET ON THOSE BIKES AND RIDE!!
21
Jan
14
TWO a DAYS
This year I feel that I need to kick it not into high gear, but EXPLOSIVE gear. I have done it again…NOT sure how it happens (would like to think it’s muscle) but I was 200 in Jan-2013 and now Jan-2014 I am at 204. Funny thing is I was down to like 183 lbs back in July. My goal is to get to 170 lbs before my 2nd Triathlon. I have taken some eating habits as necessary steps for this goal. 1st. I have continued to give up sweets (candy, cookies, cake, etc…) the only sweet all of last year I allowed myself was 3 things…A. Frozen Yogurt (with fruit on top), B. Plain Vanilla ice cream, and C. Dark Chocolate covered almonds. This year I have continued this trend, except I am adding PIE back to the table, because honestly, last year on RAGBRAI I didn’t have one slice and usually I have 1-2 per day. So…PIE is back on the table, but everything else I will continue to go without. 2nd. I have decided to go ALL year without fried food (tenderloins, fries, fried green beans, fries pickles, fried..ANYTHING) **Except I don’t count chips, some people say those are fried too…but I mean more like deep battered and fried food or aka BAR food** It has only been 21 days, and so far so good on the fried food, but the struggle will be when the BAR HOP Bicycle Part Rides start happening… Well, got off topic there, but the 3rd thing I will do to get more out of my exercise is by adding Two-A-Days to my workout routine. I have started a new lifting schedule of Mon/Wed I do Upper Body Lifts and Tues/Thurs I do lower body lifts. I am liking the routine. The Friday I do my cycling class with an instructor that KICKS MY ASS each time, Saturday I do Cycling class or just cardio, and Sundays I try to get in a Triathlon at the gym (Run/Bike/Swim). Now I will be adding some more running and swimming to my schedule. I will go back Tues/Thurs to run some at least 1-3 miles and then swim 10-15-20 laps. Wednesday I will go to Cycling class and get my ass kicked some more! I think the added cardio will help.
Overall the number 1 thing I need to do is Binge….Eating. I have a small problem when I am home, bored, watching TV of eating pointless snacks (some maybe healthy) but I eat 2-3 snacks mainly because I am bored. THIS IS A MUST QUIT for me…I need to stop this and get into finding an activity to do when I get snack hungry. (Advice? Tips? Comments? are always welcome!)
HAHA I Saw this…Maybe this should be my Motivation Poster!
12
Jan
14
Triathlon Training
Well, another Sunday…another day of TRI Training Day! So I usually do a Backwards Tri (Run/Bike/Swim) I went upstairs to run, finished another 5k (without stopping) time was 27:54. Biggest improvement since 2013. Last year at this time I could run 1-2 miles and be tired, and not able to run a full 5k without stopping. After that went to bike room to bike, just did 40 minutes. The bad part is I went to the pool and ALL lanes were double full, so I didn’t get to swim. OH WELL Was a good workout and just glad I can continue to run at a decent speed.
If you have any training tips, comments appreciated! 
15
Jul
13
RAGBRAI is less than a week!!
I have been out of the Blogging world for a while, RAGBRAI is coming! 
Ready to party and bike with some of these crazy guys again!! The Boozehounders!!!
On June 2nd, I woke up at 5:00 am, feeling motivated, determined, focused and ready to kick some Triathlon ass! I got my gear ready to go as I was waiting for my ride, aired up my bike tires, double checked my bag, got my wet-suit and had a bowl of yogurt with a bananas and some water. As we arrived at the beach, some nerves started to kick in, but once I got my bike to the designated area I was focused and ready for the event. I got all my stuff sorted out and ready to go, put on the wet-suit and headed for the water. I saw everyone that was waiting in the water, so I got in and it was a lot warmer than I thought it would be.
Swim: As I looked into the distance of the loop I had to swim around I felt I was unprepared. I was like shit, this will take me at-least 15-20 minutes to do. My average time was 10:45-11:30 for the swim trials. When I was up to go I forgot about everything, got focused and ready to complete the swim part. As I was swimming, It felt like it was taking forever. I felt as if I was close to the loop, but was still further away than I thought. I just kept moving forward. When I got to the end of the swim, I stood up to run, but the water was still too high to I stumbled a little bit getting out, but got out and ran to my bike.
Swim-Bike Transition: It could have been quicker, but took a bit to get wet-suit off, but I got it off, slid my bike sandals on while I was putting my jerseys on (which got stuck to my wet skin and took me a bit to get it completely on), I put on helmet and I was ready to go. I had a cycling cap I accidentally put in my bag so I said forget it, didn’t really need it anyways.
Biking: This part came easy, or so I thought. I was cruising for the first 5 miles. We had 2 loops to go around. The first loop I got to averaging about 23-25 mph, but when I turned the loop the head wind was so bad I dropped to 13-14 mph. I had about 5-6 miles in the bad head wind and up a hill. The second loop seemed to be forever away. I got to the loop turned around and was glad to have Mr. Wind back at my back. Especially since I had to go up another hill. I got my average back to 17 mph and could have gone faster, but I was thinking that I still had to run, and didn’t want to have to stop while running cause my legs were tired. I got to the transition area…STARVING!
Bike-Run Transition: I got my bike put back on the rack, helmet off, and sandals off at the same time. Quickly put on my socks and shoes, but was very hungry so I grabbed a granola bar out of my bag to give me a boost of energy. Then I was off for the final loop…
Running: I started running up a small slant, and was like oh shit, my legs are killing me, but my goal was to go, NOT STOP and finish strong. I got to mile one and was like only 2.1 left to go, then hit the loop and picked up my speed a bit. Passed mile 2 and said to myself…”You only got 1.1 miles left, kick ass, don’t stop..NO PAIN NO GAIN” I kept repeating to myself. As I rounded the last corner, saw the finish line I picked up my speed a bit and cross the FINISH LINE! I didn’t stop, I completed all events and am very proud of my accomplishment!
Well looking up the full results: Overall Results I finished 317/612… Overall Male Results 246/392…Overall Division (Male 25-29) 16/27, Swim Time 11:30, Bike Time 53:29 (17 mph average), Run Time 29:04 (9:21 average). Now I have a goal and a time to beat next year!
PIGMAN CERTIFICATE!
01
Jun
13
One More Night….
So, after signing up for the triathlon back in late December. The time as come, the PIGMAN TRIATHLON is tomorrow at 7:00 AM. I have been training since the beginning on January. I am very pumped, or in a quote from Armageddon, “I got that “excited/scared” feeling. Like 98% excited, 2% scared. Or maybe it’s more – It could be two – it could be 98% scared, 2% excited but that’s what makes it so intense!” I have been waiting for this day for over 5 months. I biked a lot (last year I had 2500 miles in by the end of the year) but I barley swam (mostly for fun) and running..HA I don’t run (or I guess I should say 5 months ago I didn’t run).
Looking back on it all I think it has gotten me more into my workouts. I actually enjoy running now, and am looking to sign up for some 5K runs (starting out slow) but there is a Duathalon in Aug (Run/Bike/Run) so I might sign up for that.
Some Stats I am impressed with…
Jan 7th- Ran a mile in 9:11 then on May 18th I ran a mile in 7:30
Jan Weight was at 200 and am down to an average of 186 (looking to be at 170 in the next month)
Swimming starting in the beginning of the year, 10 laps was at 11:21 and quickest was at 10:54 (could be better, but will always improve)
My training has been worth it, even with all the set backs (being sick the first week of January, spraining my knee/ankle and was out about 3 weeks and the damn weather from keeping me form getting more cycling miles outside), I think…no I KNOW I am 110% ready for this race!
Number 1 Goal: FINISH THE RACE without STOPPING!!
Wish me luck All!
The One….The Only….BAD BOBBY
This coming Sunday I will be participating in my very first triathlon. I started my official training for it back in the second week of January. I would like to think I have come a long ways.
First of all…I don’t run nor am I considered a runner. I ran the CR Flood Run back in 2009 (7miles) but that was a half ass run and walk combo. Before that I only ran the mile in middle school gym class, or if I had to run laps in high school sports. I was thinking back to Jan when I started training. I ran one mile on the treadmill to get my time. It was 9:30 …last week I ran a mile in 7:30, a whole 2 minutes faster. Not that I can average that for 3.1 miles but its taking me 26:35 to run 3.1 miles. So I think I have vastly improved my running ability since January. So much that I don’t mind running anymore and will most likely start signing up for some 5k runs Herr and there.
Swimming….uh well swimming is swimming. In January I was like running will suck, I will do great in the bike and swimming well I can do that easily…WRONG-O! I can’t swim as fast or as good as I thought I could. Funny thing is back in high school swim class the teacher told me I was fast and should go out for swimming…I guess since I haven’t swam laps since high school my speed and decreased. I think I got it down now though …but I don’t think I could go longer than the distance of .5k in this sprint triathlon.
Biking I have been doing for years not to worried about that since I also been doing cycling classes all winter at least 2-4 a week.
I am about 90% prepared going to go rent a wetsuit today. I will be 110% ready by Sunday and ready to not kick everyone’s ass (cause I know that’s a dream) but the goal is to finish without stopping or doing anything stupid!
BRING ON THE TRIATHLON!!!!
