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.