Well that was a solid week up until Sunday when family commitments forced me to cut my planned 50 mile bike ride down to 25. The most difficult thing about training for this half iron man for me is getting two long workouts in on the weekend, bike and run. I need to figure out a way to make this work, balance is such a challenge.

But the week looked like this

• Total time 9.5 Hours
• Swim 4,500 yards
• Bike 80 Miles
• Run 17 Miles

I have decided I am going to run the Fox Cites Half marathon in the fall as an attempt to lay to rest the debacle that was the Oshkosh Half Marathon. To that end I have decided to give the FIRST running program a go as it allows me to keep my multisport training a priority. That will begin to be mixed into my weeks starting on my 38th Birthday May 19th. This however will require me to run a 5k sometime between now and then. I am considering the big local 5k called the Sole Burner, more on that later. Have a great Monday everyone.

Well the bike group ride turned out to be a good idea. I guess if you want to call it a group, only me and one other guy showed up but when Ken exited his car in his Kona shirt I knew I was in trouble. After our greetings I said so you did Kona huh cool. He responded that he has done it six times and qualified at all of the North American races except Florida and one other that escapes me. I knew I was in trouble.

I told him that I would likely hold him back a bit but he seemed cool about it. We went out for a nice 31 mile ride and averaged 18.2 miles per hour which is a mile or two per hour faster then I normally get out of myself when I ride on my own. Granted I tucked in behind him a few times to recover and catch my breath. But at the end I was feeling good and not to spent for the effort.

He told me this group is a pretty strong group of cyclists. Some he said are just big and strong and all they do is bike. No women come and it tends to be a bit competitive. I am not sure if I can hang with them but I am going to try. I figure I can only get better if I get pushed.

Well that was interesting, it was nice yesterday and I was all geared up for a two hour bike ride after work even if the wind was blowing 30 mph. But then A called and suggested we take the kids downtown and walk them around the Public Enemies movie shoot downtown. Well this is my fatal flaw and why I will never be an Elite Athlete, this kind of stuff just comes first. Hopefully I can make things up over the next couple of days.



My 10 year old niece came along with us and the five of us set off to get a look at the filming of the big production. We were greeted with the sounds of Tommy Gun fire in Downtown Oshkosh and walking around were excited to see the action. However we were very soon frustrated as you could not get any good views of the filming and it seemed like we were destined to mill around and just people watch and get a look or two at some old cars.



So we milled around and people watched for a while and found out the Johnny Depp would likely come out and meet and great people after he was done shooting at 7:00. Well this is late for our kids but as we walked back we found some spots right on the front of the barricades and the girls were completely into meeting Johnny so we stayed. My youngest was not really into it but we entertained him for the 45 minutes or so we waited against the barricade.



Well it was crazy and not really my thing but as you can see there were a bunch of people down there and the excitement had gotten to everyone, We knew Johnny was going to come out so we just waited. As it turn out he came out and I guess spent an hour with the masses of people shaking hands and meeting and greeting. He paid special attention to the kids which won him points in my book. And as you can see we were up close and personal.



I captured the video below with my digital camera. It's kind of cool and you will get a pretty good feel of what the scene was like. I was holding my five year old in one arm against the barricade and filming with my other. You will here me telling Bobby to hold out his hand and say Hi Johnny. You will see Mr. Depp walk up and say "Hello, how are you buddy" to my five year old. As he goes down the line you will see C's green sleeve sticking through the barricade with my Niece right before her. He shakes both of thier hands and let me tell you it made thier week and then some.

http://www.active.com/video/play.htm?id=1f9fdd92-1e25-4d72-834e-7143a1723647

Well I guess that is it for today, I better get back to training.

Let's go from the start to the finish of Saturdays event, quickly because more then anything I just want to get this post over with and move on setting my sights on my upcoming A race the High Cliff 70.3.

Saturdays Home Town Half Marathon was less then stellar. I worked all week to rehab the ankle and left for the race feeling uncertain as to how race ready the ankle and foot was. I had not run on it all week and simply was going to warm up and test it out. I arrived at the start finish area about 7am and picked up my chip and went and huddled in the tent out of the snow and 32 degree windy day. I felt ready and I was trying to get my head in the game so to speak, push the doubts to the back of my mind. About 15 minutes before the start I went out and used the porta potty and then ran a little two block out and back warm up. This was not a good warm up as I had some shooting pain around my foot. So I did it again and it seemed to loosen up a bit but this did not help with the doubts.

I had decided I was just going to go out and try to run below my PR of 1:43:56 but do it just trying to run on feel. I had the Garmin but I decided that I was not going to perseverate over splits, but instead just try to run smooth and pay attention to my foot.

The race was well put together, a good group of runners, support out on the route, and nice water stations. I will break the race into three parts. Two five mile segments and the final 5k.

The first five miles went well and I am happy to report the shooting pains in my foot were gone after the warmup never to be heard from again. I settled into a group of people that seemed to be about my pace and I was just keeping to myself, tucking in behind groups when we turned into the wind and just cruising along. I finished the first five miles in almost dead on 40 minutes.

The next five miles I slowly began to fade. One problem I have is a I can't drink while I run so I stopped for a drink and lost my group of neon yellow runners I was trailing and never really found my rhythm again. Most of these five miles were done into the wind and looking back it definitely took it's toll on me. It is somewhere in this five miles where I felt my left quad starting to tire and whine at me. It didn't take me long to realize that it must be compensating for the weakness in my ankle. But I pressed on feeling fairly good and quickly approaching the last 5k. I hit the Ten mile mark at 1:20 and a bit of change.

So I did the simple math knowing if I could just run a sub 24 minute 5k I could likely set a PR on a crappy day with a bum ankle. So I asked my tired mind and body the question, do you have three sub 8 minute miles left in you? The answer on this day was no. Plain and simple I knew it straight away. So I slowed down, I quit. I ran a 27:20 minute final 5k for a final time of 1:47:38. I am not pleased, with it at all. I want to justify it saying I was injured and I could have done better. But the fact is I had right there, right under my nose. All I had to do was kick it the final 5k and I have a good race, but I quit and had a bad one. I chose the easy way out, it was truly a 5k of shame, not matter how I think about it, justify it, look at it, that is how I feel.

But no fear I am coming to terms with it and this post is the point where I put it behind me, plan my week and focus on getting my foot back to 100% and set my sights on my upcoming 70.3 race. And since I have never done a Half Iron distance tri before I am guaranteed a PR, so I have that going for me.

On a side note this Saturday morning marks the first run of a running club I am helping get started at the local YMCA. We have been getting things organized and our plan is to focus the training on the Fox Cities Festival or Races which includes a 5k, Half and Full Marathon. My motivation for starting this group was two fold. First as a big YMCA supporter and a believer of the mission of the Y I thought the Y needed a running club. Second was I wanted to help support Rural Girls Run the World effort. Both are simple ways to share love of fitness with others and help support a more healthy community. So even though I suck, I am still doing some good things.

Have a great day

I have a few topics I want to cover today and not much time to put it all together so forgive me if this post jumps around a bit.

First off I want to say Thank You to Toby and Teacher Woman. Your concern for my long term health is appreciated. Honestly if I step outside of myself and look inward I likely would pass on the same advice. But as you might have guessed I will not be heeding your advice. I plan on toeing the line on Saturday and right now I am more worried about the weather then my left ankle. It has continued to improve and hopefully will make more progress over the next 48 hours. The swelling continues to go down and the lovely purple color continues to spread and even out throughout the foot. Looks ugly but no real associated pain. I attached some pictures at the bottom of this post if you care to view the progress.

On a side note here is the picture of downtown Oshkosh as crews from the Film Public Enemies continue to get the intersection ready for the shooting of the Bank Robbery scene. Supposedly Johnny Depp is in town and rumors abound as to where he is staying. Wonder if old Captain Jack is planning on running the Half Saturday morning? Anyway below is a photo of the intersection which interestingly was the original start of the race which the movie shoot required the race director to change.

I guess they are laying fake cobblestone mats today to make all the streets and sidewalks look like cobblestone. To give you the lowdown the building on the right that is just see the corner of, with the group of men on the corner is the building that they are using as the bank, and of course back in the day it was a bank. The rounded building on the corner is presently a coffee house and they have turned it into a restaurant and saloon. The Tan Canopy on there is part of the set, they are putting those on a number of the buildings to give them a 30's look. The picture is taken looking North up Main St. from the roof of the Exclusive Company which is a music store that they have turned into a Walgreens, was there really Walgreens in the 30's? The thing on the left was constructed to screen a Sundial that is in the little park there as it would have been a bit modern for the movie I assume. They built all of that in the past two weeks. The set extends for a block down to the either way up Washington Ave which is the street running left and right in the photo. I am tempted to go watch some of this. I will let you know if I do. They are shooting I guess over the next ten days. It's amazing how worked up this town is over this, almost funny. I will update you over the next ten days if I feel there is anything woth sharing.

So below are the graphic pictures of my ankle's present condition. View at your own risk, and have a great day. That is a long enough post for today.

Well people this little tidbit of information is almost to embarrassing to admit but I am all about the truth so I will give you the dirt. As a bit of background back in my High School football days I severely sprained my left ankle a couple of times and I don't think it has ever been the same stability wise. As I have gotten older I have avoided the sports that lead to me re-injuring it. I no longer play pick up basketball as I generally can't make it through more then like three games before I twist it. So on and so on I constantly worry about my left ankle. In fact I think it will someday be my first limiting factor in endurance sport as I age. We shall see.

Anyway Saturday evening I went to a Bachelor party for a friend. Second marriage, not a big deal but a bunch of 30 and 40 something guys hanging around, beer, food cards. Well when I arrived they were playing a game of Kick Ball, yep you heard me right Kick Ball. With some modified rules of course to aid in a bit of beer consumption. i.e. chug a half a beer at second base before you can advance. So I arrived late and was added to the line up and before I even had my first sip of beer I was up to bat, or kick or whatever you want to call it. So I run up and get a pretty good kick and take two steps and roll my left ankle. Now those of you that have rolled ankles know that pain is always severe at first and then it subsides and you never really know how bad it is. This was the case with this twist. Pain and then it got better and since I am not a wimp I continued on with the game all be it a bit gimpy.

About and hour later when the games ended I checked the ankle and I could see the swelling through my sock, not good. So I put some ice on it and sat down to play some cards. I excused myself early and went home. Well below is what it looked like on Saturday at about noon, after a night and morning of RICE. Now my feet are not pretty, they are kind of like Jeeps ugly but they get you there. So yea anyway the pictures below are a bit graphic, but they get the point across. I am working on getting the swelling out and getting it feeling better. I am icing as much as I can and doing the cold to hot therapy. I am spelling the alphabet with my big toe. Come **** or high water I plan on running the half next Saturday but it just may not be a PR attempt. I am going to ride on the trainer and swim this week to keep things going and hopefully the blood flow will aid in recovery. Wish me luck and if you have any sage advice feel free to pass it along.

Here is the lovely looking left ankle, isn't she a nice pretty shade of black and blue?

Here is the Right foot, perfectly healthy and wondering what is wrong with lefty.

Foolish man out!

For some reason this is how my training has felt lately. But I guess I will just keep on keeping on, I need a bit of focus. I have hit all my workouts this week although I cut my bike 15 minutes short on Monday and my Run yesterday afternoon was with my Daughter on her new bike. She has a new six speed that we gave her for her birthday. It is her first bike with hand brakes and a shifter so there were stops here and there to show her how to shift down when going up hills and shift up when going down hills. While not the greatest workout I have ever gotten it was wonderful to spend the time with her outside. I spent most of the run just going easy, yakking with C and concentrating very specifically on form and my footstrike.

The weather here is actually beginning to turn almost springlike, there are some 50's in the forecast starting Friday and going into next week with only Sunday looking to be cloudy with some rain. I may even take my bike off the trainer for the first time in I don't even know how long. That is an exciting thought. To do this however I may need to switch my weekend workouts around to Bike Saturday and Run on Sunday.

So A and I watched American Idol last night and I am sorry but Simon is normally a punk, however most times I tend to agree with him. But last night he seemed to be just being a jerk. Although when Dolly Parton is the mentor I can see how it can be a bit boring and frustrating to listen to. I have been watching this show now (DVR's Rock) all season and I think it's pretty obvious the next three gone are Ramiele, Kristi Lee Cook and Syesha, I put Brooke White and Dreadlocks boy in the next tier and then the best four are David Cook, David Archuleta, Michael Johns and Carly Smithson. My predicted winner is David Cook, gone tonight Ramiele. With that said I have no idea why I watch that show, if it was not for DVR and the fact that my wife likes it.....

That is all I have for today, exciting stuff I know.