Jamestown Adventure

This is just a quick note to relate a recent ride that I did on Father’s Day. It was a quick trip to Denver for the Denver Century, and to see my dad. Although the entire trip was an adventure I just wanted to relate how much fun the rides were, and they went something like this.

So the day before the scheduled ride, Dean and I decided to go on a little ride. It was something just to stretch out our legs and for me to get things moving after the long car ride the day before. The ride started out in Boulder and we rode up the highway towards Lions. Before arriving at Lions was turned west and started up a valley towards the small town of Jamestown.

The initial part of the ride totally wore me out because it was a gradual uphill that I really didn’t pick up on because it was so gentle. I just thought that I was really out of shape and must have a brake rubbing. Dean was cruising along and really keeping the tempo high, that was until he had to wait for me to catch up.

Finally, I got a break when we caught up with a larger group of about seven folks who were riding along at a good pace. We’ll unfortunately for me, they were just waiting for one of their pack to catch up. Once, he caught up they took off. Dean went with them and I didn’t catch up until we all turned to head up the valley.

On the way up the valley things were really mellow, at a slower speed. I really enjoyed it, but after a while got kind of bored and decided to see how well I could push the tempo up the climb. So, I passed the group and with Dean right on my wheel we started going up. Because I don’t get many opportunities for great long climbs out in Kansas, I decided that it would be fun to see if I could drop Dean. We always have a little bit of a game to see who is in better shape. Generally it’s pretty even, with both of us redlining the other during the rides. Dean usually is in the better shape, but I still have fun giving him a run for his money (we really don’t bet though).

I was working really hard at keeping the tempo up and was eventually at my max heart rate (or close to it I would guess). I couldn’t see straight and was almost drooling Every time I looked back, I would see Dean just hanging out on my wheel. After a long time of this, Dean pulled up on my left shoulder and I barely mumbled a question about how far to the top. Dean responded that it was about two miles and then proceeded to pass me like I was standing still.

I couldn’t believe that he was totally hanging on my wheel the whole time and then decided to take off and leave me in the dust so near the top of the climb. At that point I was too exhausted to respond, so I let up on the throttle and decided to take it easy but at a steady tempo to the top. After a few minutes, I realized that Dean was starting to come back towards me. He was gradually slowing down just enough that I was catching him.

He got closer and closer and I thought hey, this just might work out. However, just as I realized that I might catch him – the first buildings of Jamestown started to come into view. The official finish to the ride is in front of a café near the top of the climb. I saw it coming into view and decided to go for it. I stood up on the pedals and climbed as fast as I could. Just as I rolled up to Dean’s shoulder he looked over and saw with a huge shock that I had caught up right for the line. It was awesome. We both pulled over and got off the bikes laughing really hard. I almost couldn’t breath because of the altitude, heart rate, and because I was laughing so much.

www.goPlaykansas.com is Live

I'm totally stoked. Today the www.goPlaykansas.com website went live and was published about in the Wichita Eagle newspaper. The website is a very cool tool because it shows where recreation resources are located throughout the Wichita area. Be sure to check out this totally awesome website.

www.goPlaykansas.com


Here's a link to the article
http://www.kansas.com/news/story/925494.html

Kansas 70.3 Triathlon - Quick Thoughts

This past weekend I had a great time participating in the Kansas 70.3 half Ironman competition. Last year the race was called off early due to a tornado threat. Fortunately, this year the weather was less dramatic. Storms threatened early in the morning but scooted south of the race area. The clouds remained though and kept the race cool until just before the run.

My finish time at the Kansas 70.3 was a little slower than the race at Buffalo Springs. However, I felt a lot better at this one. The biggest issue is getting the nutrition factor down correctly. As in the last race, I ended up having to walk a the end. Primarily it was due to not feeling as though I had the energy to continue and not because my muscles were burned up.

During the bicycle ride I ate three Cliff bars, three goo packets, and drank about 1.5 bottles of Gatorade and one bottle of water. I felt great when I started the run, and used my heart rate monitor to keep track of my pace so that I didn’t blow up like in Lubbock. Despite all of these efforts, I gradually got slower and felt like I just ran out of steam. I stopped at all the aid stations and walked through them as I drank alternating cups of water or Gatorade.

I suspect that it might have been a salt deficiency. I might try salt tablets for the next 70.3 and hope that helps. In addition, I might work towards using more liquid calories.

I know I could have swam about five minutes faster if I had used clear goggles instead of the sunglasses version ha. I kept swimming back and forth instead of straight out.

The bike leg of the race was a blast and was about 15 minutes faster than my Lubbock finish. If I can get the swim a little faster and the nutrition thing sorted out, then I think I can make some great progress in reducing my times. All and all it was a fun race. I really can’t wait for the next one.

Cheers,

River Run 2009

This weekend was the annual River Run. It's always an awesome race and this year we had the best weather ever. The times were really fast this year. I was fortunate to hang on with a 6 minute mile average for 17th place overall in the 10K. The 2 mile was more difficult and I ended up out of the top 20 this year, maybe next year ha.

The best thing about the River Run is getting to see everyone. This year I had the great pleasure of seeing many of the running crew and folks that I haven't seen in a while. After the race I had a great surprise when I saw Toni and Charlie from Iowa. It was totally awesome to catch up with them.

We also had the first live marketing endeavor for www.goplaykansas.org . It's going to be an awesome website, so be sure to check it out. It will launch officially sometime this June, so look for good things soon.

Minneapolis APA Conference 2009

APA National Conference Minneapolis

A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Minneapolis for the national American Planning Association conference. It was a great event and I learned a lot during it. I took advantage of the opportunity to learn a lot about bicycle facility planning and transportation related design.

There are many amazing things about Minneapolis, especially the bicycle community. I was shocked to learn that they have the second highest number of people who report bicycling or walking to work (according to the US Census).
http://hr.blr.com/news.aspx?id=76065

Brew to Brew 2009

Brew to Brew 2009

A couple of weekends ago the team from the Downtown Y headed up to Lawrence for the annual Brew to Brew. The race is always a great adventure from the Boulevard Brewery in KC to the Free State Brewery in Lawrence. It’s a 44 mile race through all kinds of landscapes – urban, rural highways, dikes along rivers, muddy country roads. The weather this year was also mixed, with everything from sunshine to snow.

We came away from the event with a lot of laughs, some twisted ankles, but mostly stories of adventure. One of the most amazing and difficult parts was the last leg, where Harms and I ran close to five-minute miles with the wind and then turned into the wind to discover people walking backwards because the wind gusts were preventing almost all forward movement. I don’t think my heart rate has ever been so high running, outside of Pikes Peak – of course ha.

If you see Joe Cole, be sure to ask him about his fancy new gloves ha.

Downtown Wichita Jingle Bell and West Y Tri

West YMCA Tri 2008

It was an adventurous weekend for me. Saturday morning I participated in the annual Jingle Bell race downtown. It was a really well run race and was in a fantastic location. The best part was running down both sides of the recently redone river corridor, while the crew teams were rowing in the middle. It was absolutely picture perfect.

The first mile of the race I took out way to fast, but it was a lot of fun racing that way. The last part of it was a bear, but I was able to finish with a 6:30 mile average. Not too shabby.

The next day was the Sunday indoor tri at the West Wichita YMCA. It was a ton of fun. The best part was being in the lane with my buddy Randy Phelps. We both put down pretty accurate swim times, because we were neck and neck the whole time. He would constantly pull away from me during the swim, but I would catch up to him off the wall. Once he gets that kick from the wall thing down, he’s going to be a rocket.

The transition to the indoor bikes went well. I maintained a little over a 20 mph average and was able to finish the six miles relatively quickly. It took a lot of effort, but I surived. With the fried legs, I made it to the run course pretty quickly. The first mile of the run took a while, but the second one was a little quicker. It was a lot of fun with the cheering section of the local tri club athletes!

I finished second in my heat, and second in my age group. It was great time and I’m looking forward to the next one about a month away. I was also able to get in some home improvement projects this weekend. I’ll post some more info about those soon.