Virtual Training Partners via Chicago

Fleet Feet

Trish18 — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:49:21 GMT

Yesterday I went to Fleet Feet in Lincoln Square to buy a much overdue pair of running shoes. I went for a little run in the afternoon to take advantage of the 60-degree weather we were having.

Heading north from my apartment, I ran along the beach to Loyola park and then cut over to Sheridan. I kept running northward until I hit Sherwin, and then I headed back towards my apartment staying on Sheridan the rest of the way back.

I didn't feel great--but it was nice to get out there, get moving and enjoy the beautiful weather! Looking forward to starting a structured program tomorrow with you.

< 1.5 miles >

Bike Trainer

Trish18 — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:00:12 GMT

Hey friend,

I set up my indoor bike trainer for the winter and took it for a spin. I did a quick 20-minute workout and happened to catch the end of the Mizzou/Purdue men's basketball game (Mizzou pulled away within the last two minutes to win over the young Boilermakers).

I am going to hunt through my old softball lifting and conditioning programs because our trainer, who now trains the Minnesota Timberwolves, had an amazing bike workout in there somewhere--it packs a powerful punch in to 20 or 25 minutes of cardio. If I find it, I'll post it.

I think I'm going to head downtown tomorrow with MB to check out Christkindlmarket. This is the 12th year for the German holiday fest (side note: I saw on Yahoo's homepage yesterday that the price of German beer could double worldwide! Yikes.)

We are getting sleet at the moment in addition to the 4+ inches of snow from the other day. Good luck on your final!

< 20 minute bike >

Podcasts ;)

Wilco — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:18:00 GMT

Hey Smalls;

I ran for 7 miles yesterday after you left STL. Today I'm staying in to work on a paper. Flying tomorrow, so I probably won't get around to doing anything until Thursday. I think I might actually go to the gym? I usually don't go simply because I think the most you'll ever need to lift is your own body weight, but mixing up the routine is always fun. Maybe I'll try and get a w-ball club started! Stay warm!

<iframe src="http://js.mapmyfitness.com/embed/blogview.html?r=e4b86e41c13ed31a4907eff4c240b4b3&u=e&t=run" height="700px" width="100%" frameborder="0">Tinker 7
Find more Runs in Tinker AFB, Oklahoma</iframe>

Wallyball

Trish18 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:52:00 GMT

Wallyball is one of my favorite ways to be active-ever! Not many people are familiar with the sport, so I decided to take a little bit of video to share. It is very similar to volleyball and is played in a racquetball court. When we play, this leads to crazy rallies and some pretty funny stuff.

While it may seem chaotic, there are rules that govern play. The most important to remember are:

You may only hit one side wall during the serve. It cannot hit the back wall or two walls.
The ball may never hit the ceiling when it crosses the net. However, the ball can hit any number of walls, including the back wall and ceiling during the course of your three hits on your side.

I love volleyball and racquetball, so it makes sense that I enjoy this action-packed combined version of the two. But I think the best part is how much it makes me laugh; even the most serious rally sometimes ends in a humorous way. You can expect everyone to laugh when the ball gets wedged between the wall and someone's arm and squeaks to a stop. But check out when my teammate in the black shirt completely misses the set because he runs into the wall, and then comes back by spiking it on our side...

< 2 hours of wallyball >

New Feature

Wilco — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:32:00 GMT

Friend, I have a new feature for you. MapMyRun.com

I did a quick 3 miler to clear my head before starting a long paper. Felt really good and would have gone longer, but I have to write about tobacco regulation. Sorry w-ball was canceled, but sweet soccer video!

<iframe src="http://js.mapmyfitness.com/embed/blogview.html?r=b50b8c11e2e0b4ad1c777f4ad7ad894a&u=e&t=run" height="700px" width="100%" frameborder="0">3 Miles
Find more Runs in Tinker AFB, Oklahoma</iframe>

Soccer: Same night, different team

Trish18 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:11:00 GMT

Fortunately for me, when I'm home in St. Louis I am able to continue my weekly routine of soccer on Monday nights because one of my best friends has a team in a women's league here. Unfortunately for her, the team they were playing against didn't have enough players to start the game. Since I was a guest player anyway, I volunteered to play on the opposing team so we could have a game.

I got to take a few shots off of my friend who playes goalie, which I've never had a chance to do in a game. But "my" team ended up winning 3-2. We all thought they officially lost and we were just playing the game off the record... but it turns out the loss counted for my friends team. Oops.

Here's some footage of the game. I thought maybe I could catch a goal on video while I was on the bench--it didn't work out, but I thought I'd share anyway.

I'm playing wallyball tonight. I'll take some video of it and include it in next post--it's intense! Crossing my fingers that it doesn't sleet on your run this evening.

< 1 hour of soccer >

November Rain

Wilco — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:49:00 GMT

Greetings friend;

Went out for a run today and got about a mile into it before it started pouring, which quickly turned to sleet. I don't mind rain or snow, but sleet is too much. We might be getting up to 2 inches of snow tonight which is awesome! I love winter and it has minimal impact on my level of activity. I've been doing quick 4-5 mile runs about 5 days a week. Nothing too extreme, but enough to not feel like a sloth.

Looking forward to the wallyball video!

<16 minute run - cut short by sleet>

Pending...

Wilco — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:38:00 GMT

I wrote a long post and the system failed. I'll ammend this later

<42 minute run>

Competitive Recreational Soccer League

Trish18 — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:21:00 GMT

I play in a paradoxical soccer league: It's a rec league run by one of Chicago's sport and social clubs, but it is exceedingly competitive. We have several former college athletes on the team and one ex-professional soccer player. That being said, we won our semi-final match on Monday but lost the final game 2-1.

The physicality of the league is worth mentioning. You might think that because it's coed that play would be tamer than usual. Definitely not the case. In addition to the torn ligament, broken nose, stitches above the eye, and temporary loss of vision that called for an ER visit that I have witnessed in my one year on the team--on Monday night a player on the other team got knocked out for two or three minutes when play got a little too physical and tempers flared. Yikes. I think it is this mix of very competitive athletes that don't play the game at the level they used to and don't have quite the same skills or control that leads to frustration and things getting a little out of hand.

Either way, we have a few weeks off now. I don't think we start another session until just before Christmas when we'll move indoor. Hopefully things will settle down a bit. And so begins the effort to be extra active over the holidays!

< 2 hours of soccer >

Tennis, anyone?

Trish18 — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:38:00 GMT

Hey, it's been a while since I've posted updates on my activities. I've been slacking on posting about the routine soccer game (we're into playoffs already for this session!) and the occasional yoga class or racquetball match. But I've also been slacking a little bit in keeping my activity level up as high as I'd like it.

I plan to start spinning and swimming regularly this winter at Halas. But before the Chicago winter puts a major damper on outdoor activities, I was determined to play tennis one more time. I knew I was running out of days until the next best time to get out and play would be April, so this morning I got up to play before work. The temperature was hovering right around 40 degrees at the end of Pratt Blvd/on the lakefront. Yikes!

Hope it's warmer in OKC and that you're able to find some time to start training.

< 1 hour of tennis >

Cheering on the Chicago Marathoners

Trish18 — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 04:49:00 GMT

Today marked one of my favorite days of the year in Chicago--the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. After playing in the Loyola Softball Alumni game and catching up with many former teammates from near and far (one of who ran the marathon today) well into the night... it was an early morning (and a beautiful sunrise!) as I rose to drive a teammate to the airport.

And then it was time to get serious about being a spectator. And I mean that seriously. With 45,000 runners and 1.2 million spectators moving around a compact metropolis--you have to have a solid game plan. I signed up to track our former teammate Andrea, printed off course maps, calculated her approximate location, and another former teammate of mine and I were off on our bikes to cheer her on as much as possible. We biked down the path to the South Side and made our way to Chinatown which, while I have never run the course myself, I have heard is one of the coolest parts of the race.

I never received the notification text messages, so we were a little uncertain about how the first half of the race had gone. But, if all was going according to plan, Andrea was scheduled to be coming through shortly after we arrived. Well... we waited for an hour, sifting through the athletes with our eyes, to no avail. We finally figured that she must have been having a great race-day performance and was better off than she guessed she would be. Sadly, we decided to grab some food and then make our way to the finish line to meet up with her. As we sat down to eat our Chinese food, I got a text that Andrea had just ran by. We packed it up and booked it out of there. Flying around the city on our bikes, we were able to catch her in the last stretch.

This is where the twist comes in. The race directors called the race off. It was in the high 80s with high humidity. The Sun-Times reported 250 people went to local hospitals and one man died. If you hadn't hit the halfway point by 11:45am you were diverted to the finish area immediately via cutting across downtown. Anyone who was in a 4:00 finishing group or behind them were told by police to walk the rest of the way. In addition to the heat, that was why everyone's times were so far behind the predictions.

We spotted our friend and ran out on the course to offer our support for a bit. She was in pain, from the heat and her knee, and asked us to walk her in the rest of the way. The last mile seemed to be about half marathoners and half supporters as everyone walked it in to finish the 30th LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon--hottest race day in history and a unique second half.

I've gone down and cheered on friends in the marathon for a few years now. It is unfailingly inspiring. I'm always happy to go down and experience part of the excitement. Maybe one of these years I'll complete it myself. But for today--with the bike down to Chinatown and back to my apartment--I coincidentally biked almost exactly 26.2 miles

< 26 mile bike >

You Are Not Forgotten

Wilco — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:58:00 GMT

Did a ten mile run today for POW/MIA day.

There are still 1,773 people unaccounted for from the Vietnam War, 8,300

from the Korean War, 3 from the Gulf War, and 12 from current operations.

Fall has Fallen

Trish18 — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:42:00 GMT

The first full day of fall was a beautiful day to get outside and be active (although I really hate to see summer go). I decided to ride my bike to my soccer game. This session we are playing in Lincoln Park just south of the zoo--the fields are in pretty terrible shape, but the location is amazing!

Because it's on the lakefront it's convenient to hop on the path and cruise down there on the Trek instead of driving. I left a little bit late so I got a good warm up in hammering out the 7 miles trying to get there by game time.

We won the game 5-1 to remain undefeated in the young season.

We had one of our best finishers go down just before half time with a pretty serious 50/50 collision with the keeper who had come way out of the box to clear the ball. They were both on a 45 degree collision course and Ryan was on the wrong end of an inadvertent head butt. He had to go to the hospital to get stitches. It's a good thing we have an ER doctor on our team--we've had a severely sprained ankle and a broken nose that happened to our opponents while playing us and on our team we've had a guy experience temporary loss of vision in one eye for a while after taking a shot to the eye at really close range, and now stitches. It's a pretty serious co-ed "rec" league!

< one hour of soccer / 14 mile bike >

PT Test

Wilco — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 02:05:00 GMT

Hey Trish! Here are my PT results:

1.5 Run - 9:20
Sit-ups - 63 in one minute
Push-ups - 53 in one minute
Chin-ups - 24 in one minute
200 Meter Swim - passed (no time requirement)
Waist - 30.5"
Composite Score - 94.2 (top 10% of the Air Force)

I'm pretty pleased with the results. In other news, Chicago 2016 relesed its new logo on Wednesday. It's pretty sweet. The six-pointed star matches the stars on the Chicago flag and the points represent shared values that the city and the Olympic movement have in common. The top point represents Hope, the next point, Respect, then Harmony, Friendship, Excellence and Celebration. I think the colors are the best part though. The blue is Lake Michigan and it fades into green which symbolizes the nearly 26 miles of lakefront parks and beaches. The blue fades to red and yellow which is indicitive of the skyline reaching towards the sun. Pretty awesome.

Cycling and Soccer

Trish18 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 01:32:00 GMT

A couple days behind, but need to document what was probably my most active day in my life. On Sunday, I finished the North Shore Century ride--100 miles and many hours on my bike. If you want to read more details about it, see a few photos and the route, check it out here. I noticed late that night and the next day my Achilles tendons were both sore but soaking them in Epsom salt seemed to help.

I was back in (slow) action on Monday night as our soccer team started a fall outdoor session. I didn't have much in my legs but I played the whole game because we didn't have any female subs, so I played conservatively. We started off this season with a 2-0 win.

< 100 mile bike / one hour of soccer >