9-14-2008 

So, last week was Ironman Wisconsin.  GREAT RACE!!!!!  In typical Madison fashion, the weather was not so good when Emily and I got rolled into town late Wednesday night a few days before the race.  I've heard the horror stories about mid 50 degree temps in the rain during race day....hypothermia and athletes just giving up.  Not that I'd quit, but I've raced 75% of the time this year in wind, rain, and hail.....brother just looking for some nice weather.  Thursday....woke up and wanted to go out and ride some of the coarse and get a feel for some of the climbs that I would be undertaking on Sunday.  Then the rain came in.  It was cold and rainy before I set foot out the door of our hotel.  So, I used this time to check-in, get weighed, etc.  I still wanted to get a feel of the climbs, so we loaded up the car and drove it.  Friday....no rain????  It was nice outside, actually, very nice.  I used the morning to go down to the lake and swim a mile or so to loosen up and stay fresh.  Felt great!  The water was a perfect temp for a sleeveless wetsuit without getting too hot or your arms/hands going numb.  Later Emily and I met up with a couple guys from a team that I used to race on in Portland, Or...Shout Out to SpeedSHOT Racing!!!!!  Went for a little ride to test the gearing, make sure everything is shifting smooth.  Lite little run in the evening.  Saturday...total relax day, turn in bike, special needs bags, T1 and T2 bags, then enjoyed the day.  Emily's parents met up with us that night and brought our little "brown bomber" Murphey (see entry form 6-30 for pic).  Allie was glad to see him, and it was nice having the fam together, although Murph is quite the bed hog!  Sunday...RACE DAY!!!!  Alarm goes off at about 4AM, so I can get up and do the morning routine.  After my pre-race breakfast and shower, I made sure that I had everything and was off.  The weather was GREAT!!!!!  Forecasts called for mid to lower 70's, very light wind, and most importantly......NO RAIN!  So, after making sure that I had said my "See ya in a few hours" comments, it was down to the swim start.  The swim went great, but it did get really crowded on the turns.  Here's a pic of the swim.  There's about 2200 people, that's 4400 flailing arms and 4400 feet kicking you!:

If you look real close you can see me ;)  The bike was awesome and for those thinking about it in the future, remember that cork breaks don't work well if wet on carbon.....a couple of guys found that out on the downhill 90 degree turns.  The run was a little tougher than I had planned for, but still no rain.  So:  SWIM:  (2.4 miles) 1:16; BIKE:  (112 miles) 6:00; RUN:  (26.2 miles) 4:48.  TOTAL TIME:  12:20

Now I'm ready for a couple of beers!!

Ryan 

8-4-2008

WOW!!  Last weekend Emily and I went up to Michigan, for the Steelhead 70.3 event.  This is the first time that I have had a race director cancel the swim due to weather.   Below you can see people headed back to the transition area, because they canceled the swim.  The wind really picked up and made Lake Michigan super choppy.  So, instead of the 1.2 mile swim, we had a 2.1 mile run, then the 56 mile ride, and 13.1 mile run....a duathlon.  So, it became the Whirlpool Steelhead 71.2.  I will say that there was a little bit of a "beach" run included in this that caught me be surprise.  I ended up having a great race, and came in at 4:34 and some change.  My bike split was a 2:23.....great bike course.  Still working on the run (1:52) but I did negative split by about 30sec per mile-as was my goal.  My legs were still a bit tired from the 40+ miles that I ran on them the week before still building to Wisconsin.  It was funny to hear people complaining about not swimming.  Some people actually left the race..?  You'd hear things like, "Well, there goes my nutrition plan" and "I need to get mentally prepared for not swimming now."  I was looking forward to swimming with the current, but whatever.....semper gumby (always flexible).  I tell my athletes to prepare for what you can control, but don't worry about the things you can't.  For some, I think because they couldn't swim, it was obvious that they just weren't going to have a good race....I sure hope that I'm not that Type A.

 Ryan

7-29-2008

 I completed my second Xterra race at Westwood Park in New Castle, IN.  DINO does a fabulous job with the race organization.  We drove over Saturday morning before the race.  Heather showed me a short cut on county roads which we managed to navigate without getting lost.  It was a great course.  For the first three miles of the mountain bike, I was getting passed, but only fell over once.  After everyone got by me, I settled in and really felt comfortable riding.  The run was on the very choppy horse trails....I would hate to run on those when they were wet as it would be super difficult to tell the difference between the mud and the poop! 

 Emily

7-22-2008

Once again, it rained during the entire race!  I'm talking about the Evergreen Triathlon, which was the USAT Mideast Regional Championship.  I must say that the rain was a bit nice, as it kept my body from getting too hot.  I pre-rode the course the evening before the race, and it was wicked humid.  So, the rain on race day was nice, even though my feet didn't appreciate it during the run.  Forward Motion Athletics Multi-Sport Club had two individuals competing in the event, Paul and myself, and we both qualified for Age-Group Nationals!!!!!!  Congrat's to Paul, who really smoked the rolling bike course.  Portland, here we come.

 Ryan

7-14-2008

Emily and I just got back from Oregon, where we went to my family reunion.  It's great to see everyone together, and meet some for the first time.  I found out that my family settled in Indiana in the late 1800's, and that we used to own some of the land that Purdue University now sits on.  We did manage to get a pretty solid run in, and I gave Emily a tour of the NIKE world headquarters in Beaverton.  If you are ever in Portland, Oregon, it's only about 20 mins. outside the city and the headquarters is more like a college campus with running trails and soccer fields, than a fortune 500 company.  And, we couldn't miss the chance to stop by Hayward Field, home of the hardest team to make-University of Oregon!  They still had many signs left up from the Olympic Trials that had taken place there just a week ago.  GO USA!

Ryan 

6-30-2008

Our chocolate lab, Murphey and our golden, Allie love going to races, but are lobbying for a larger vehicle to travel in.  I will say that so far, it  seems that the 'Hampton' is a great place to stay if you're traveling with your four legged kids....plus the beds are super comfortable.  The kids would like to add that the hotel also has plenty of pillows!!!!

 

 Ryan

6-23-2008

So, we thought that we'd start an update page to let people know what's going on, how training is going, etc.  Hope everyone enjoys!

Last week was the first rest week after a really big build in my preparation for IM Wisconsin.  My legs were pretty tired (put in almost 200 miles on the bike and 38 running), but I thought I'd do a local sprint triathlon for fun, and had a great time!  I think that when all you do is long coarse events, you forget how short the sprints are.  There was a large field and I finished 70 out of 600.  Not too bad, with tired legs and all.  I did notice that my running speed for the 5K needs improvement, but all's good.  After the race, we loaded up the kids (Allie and Murphey) with the two bikes and headed for the Torn Shirt Xterra event in Michigan.  Emily had a great race in MI and I ran while she was on the trails.  It sure was great to run in a wooded park with lakes, ponds, and in the 20 miles I ran, I only saw two other runners.  It was nice to just go for a run by yourself, no Ipod, no cars, just the sound of your foot steps and nature.  When was the last time you did that? 

We did come across a totally pink VW Bug, in Michigan, with "Barbie" written on the side.   The guy that owned the car was very proud of his auto!

 Ryan