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I finished.

I haven’t seen the official time yet but I suspect it is right about 2:02. I had a lousy swim, beautiful if windy bike ride, and it was a great day for a run.

I wasn’t very prepared for today. I have a lot of good excuses for my lousy swim but the major factor was that I wasn’t prepared. Maybe having a cold and the lack of breathing through my nose contributed. Still, hitting the pool is in order between now and September.

I’m glad that I’m able to complete a triathlon without much prep. However, this will hopefully be the kick in the butt I need to get ready for the Trihawks in September. I want to do better than “just finish” that race.

The bike course was a bit longer than the pigman sprint. The aero bars on my bike were a success. I was able to average about 1.5mph better pace than I did in June according to my cyclocomputer. I can certainly feel it a bit more in my hips when I run following the bike with aero bars but a little more training should work that out.

I also managed to keep myself better hydrated on the bike leg of this race. I have to remember that I’m not just out for a Sunday drive and as I push up the hills I need to force myself to keep drinking. I have this same problem while at my desk at work. Gotta remember to keep taking in water.

Sadly I noticed a week and a half ago that my front derailleur is way out of whack. I got it back into mostly usable shape as I didn’t have time to get to a shop. Because of this my chain popped off twice on the first hill of the race. I was passed by 2 people on the bike leg and I’m positive that one of them wouldn’t have caught me if I hadn’t had that issue. The other bike issue was just a dumb error on my part. I was trying to put my water bottle back in the cage when I hit a bump and dropped it. I stopped, went back and got it. USAT rules say no abandoning gear on the course, the bottle was right where the guy behind me would hit it, and most of all I’m WAY to cheap to leave a $20 Gel-BOT laying on the road! I’m thinking of devising some kind of little bungee to put on the neck of my water bottles so that I have a fool proof way to retain them while trying to put them back in the cage.

I’m headed to a week in San Francisco tomorrow morning at 6:00 am. I plan to bring the running shoes, swimsuit and goggles along on the trip. No time like the present to start working on the Trihawks training.

I haven’t been writing here much this summer. I think that is a good thing in general since I have been busy doing many other summer activities.

I’m going to be participating in my 2nd triathlon this Sunday. It is a small triathlon being run for the first time at Lake MacBride state park just south of where I live. I’m not nearly as prepared as I was for the Pigman in June. I think I’ll be OK tho. I rode 2 20mile loops last weekend with the new (and cheap) aero bars installed on my bike. Here is a picture of the setup. I’ll post my results here next week.

Bike setup for triathlon

Almost one year anyway.

I started this whole “lifestyle change” last year just before July 4 when I started walking in the evenings.  I had reached my all time heavy weight and it was obvious that a change was needed.  I had been told that I needed to become more active and eat better for a couple of years.  For some reason it never clicked tho.  Even when I had started walking it didn’t really kick in and I was certainly on a path back to the couch.

One event changed all that however.  I couldn’t find anything entertaining to do on the 4th of July and I decided to walk in the 5k fun walk/run here in Cedar Rapids.  I “power walked” the 5k and thought I wouldn’t make it.  The 5k race starts at the same time and shares the start and finish with the 8k run.  I got to finish my walk along with many of the people doing the 8k run.  The crowd was HUGE.  People were cheering.  I decided on the last 1k of that walk that I needed to be able to run in that 8k race.  I set myself a goal to be able to run that race in 2008.

I’ve been working  on that goal for a year now.  As life twists and turns I won’t actually be in town for the 8k race this July 4.  I’ll be on vacation with my family instead and that is a better use of all of our time.  I do feel I’ve mostly reached my goal however.  I finished my 1st sprint distance triathlon this spring in under 2 hours and almost everyone I talk to agrees that I can certainly run 8k if I can do a triathlon.  I’ve run longer than 8k in some of my training runs as well.

So for the 4th of July I’m going to be in southwest Florida.  I’ve found a 5k race on July 4th in Naples.  The “Firecracker 5k”.  I’m signed up and excited to participate in this 1 year anniversary of exercise.  I’ve been trying to set “lofty” goals for myself as I know that I need something almost impossible to keep myself going.

Most times I don’t state those goals out loud or write them down for others to see but I have to set them for myself to have the drive to keep going.  I’ve been working to get my 5k time under 30 minutes.  That is a pretty slow time really but it is faster than I’ve run one so far.  On my 2.2 mile run tonight I managed a 9:32 pace.  If I can manage that on the 4th I’ll check another goal off the list.  After that comes the 27 minute mark.  I really want to be under 27 minutes some day.

I’ve signed up for another triathlon this fall.  I’m working on my “lofty goals” for the future.  I’m really trying to psyche myself up for training for a marathon.  I’m so far away from being able to do a marathon right now that I’m trying to determine if that goal is too lofty.  But that is where my head is.  Can I be ready for the Sarasota Marathon on February 15th 2009?  I guess time will tell.

I completed my first triathlon today.  The Pigman Sprint Distance Triathlon was held this morning June 1st at Pleasant Creek State Park just north of Palo, IA.  I’ll post more info and some photos that my dad took later but the basics:

• Swim: 10:45
• T1: 3:20
• Bike 59:45
• T2 1:59
• Run 35:06

I made it in under 2 hours (1:50:53)  I’m pretty slow but I finished and that was the goal.  I’m really happy with my swim split.  The bike ride was great but I can’t believe it took me a whole hour.  Thought I was going to die on the run.  I made it tho.  More later…

Added 6/2/2008: I have put some of the pictures my dad took up on flickr.  You can see them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aalbinger/sets/72157605373534130/

This morning was the perfect morning for the Marion Arts Festival 5k. Sunny and no wind. My previous 5k personal best was 33:40 (10:50 pace) and today I ran a 31:19 chip time which is a 10:15 pace. I’m fairly happy with that improvement from last fall.  My splits were 10:10 for the 1st mile, 10:11 for the 2nd mile and 11:31 for the final 1.1 miles.

I was kind of surprised by this. I hit Washington High School at 5:30 this morning to swim 1100 yards prior to packet pickup (I forgot to go pickup up stuff last night) and a race start of 8:00 am. I ate a clif bar and had some water before the swim. I should have had a gel or something else with some caffeine in it. I really noticed during my first 600 yards how tired I was from just waking up. By 1100 yards I really noticed. I did have a Gu “espresso love 2x caffeine” 15 minutes before the start of the race. Good thing too. I needed a little pick me up.

I certainly noticed the effects from swimming during that 1st mile of the run. My calves were very tired. I made it tho. I walked for about 10 seconds through the water station at 1.5 miles. I ran the rest of the race.

This is the 1st time I’ve taken advantage of the the free massage services after the race. My right hip has been bothering me after long runs and it was a bit sore today. The massage really seems to have helped. I suppose I should get myself a massage prior to the triathlon.

All in all not a bad training run for the pigman in 2 weeks. Hopefully we will have this great weather on June 1st!

Nothing like last minute planning.  I signed up on Wednesday for the Marion Arts Festival 5k race.  The race is tomorrow!  The Pigman Triathlon is only 2 weeks away.  I guess this is a good warm up workout.

Jerica has convinced me to try get up even earlier than planned to go swim with the Milky Way Masters at 6:00am and then head over to the 8:00am run.

The plan was to stop and pick up my race packet on the way home tonight and I completely spaced it off.  Guess I’ll have to swim quick and then go pick up my packet in the morning.  Swimming at 6:00, packet pick up opens at 6:30 and closes at 7:45.  Race starts at 8:00.

Originally I was going to try break my personal best 5k time.  I’m not sure that will happen if I swim first.  I’m trying to decide whether to do a quick 600 yard swim or to try get in 1100 yards.  (about the same distance as the triathlon or about double the distance)  I guess some of that will be decided by the clock as I’d hate to miss packet pickup.

I’ll post tomorrow with the results!

The Pigman triathlon is coming up quickly.  My parents arrive in town to cheer on the 31st of May.  The triathlon is on the 1st of June.

A month ago I was doing an awesome job of exercise every day and a super strict diet.  I’ve somehow slid back to exercise 5 days (or more) a week and a really good diet but not the strict 2000 calories with nutrients balanced exactly as prescribed by a personal trainer.

Work is mostly to blame.  A couple of weeks of travel to the east coast sure messed things up.  I have a couple of weeks here to continue hitting it hard and then take a week to taper down and get ready for the race.  I’m pretty confident that I’ll live through the race.  No visions of “competing” tho.

Lots of friends and co-workers keep asking me what I’m shooting for as a finishing time.  I’m not!  I’m shooting to finish!  If I try plan the times I certainly won’t get it right.  I’ve never done this before! I have no clue how I’m really going to feel after swimming 550 yards and then trying to take off a wetsuit and ride a bike.  I kind of know that when I get off my bike and try to run my legs are going to be toast for the 1st 5 minutes or so.  At least that is what my recent training is showing me.

But folks seem to want to know a guess anyway.  :)  Here it is.  The awards ceremony starts almost exactly 2 hours after the projected start time for my wave.  My goal is to finish before the awards ceremony starts.  This isn’t because I think I’m going to place (or even come close) but because the door prizes are awesome and you have to be present to win.  I really would like some of those door prizes!

I’ll post again on my training sometime before June 1st.

I have recently upgraded from my wonderful Canon EOS Digital Rebel 300D (the original “Digital Rebel”) to a lightly used Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI (400D).  A small jump from 6 to 10 megapixel and some added bells and whistles that should make things work better with my studio flash.

Since my 18-55mm kit lens was sold with the 300d and my new camera came body only I’m lens shopping.  I’ve decided to try and go with a 50mm and a 35mm prime lens instead of a zoom.  The advantage of going with these fairly inexpensive prime lenses is that they are rated f/1.8 and f/2.0.  That is some mighty fast glass for a low budget.

My 50mm showed up today.   I unboxed it, tossed it on the camera and took a few pictures of my beautiful wife Jennifer sitting at the kitchen table.  She hates posing for the camera.  Not sure why, I think the photo turned out great!

You can see this and my other photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aalbinger.

If you are in the greater Cedar Rapids area and need some photos taken please drop me a note.  I’ve got some great equipment and can hook you up with some very affordable pictures.

http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

The kids and I attended locally last year and had a good time.  We will be out tomorrow to attend again.

See you there!

It is time to sell off some stuff I just don’t use anymore. Sadly the first thing that probably needs to go is my Epiphone Les Paul ES guitar. With 5 other guitars in my house this one just doesn’t get picked up much more. In an effort to upgrade my digital camera I’m going to have to sell this guitar.

I have a flickr gallery located here. You can see some high resolution pictures of the guitar. Click on “all sizes” when looking at any particular image to see them in HUGE resolution.

Quick details: Semi Hollow Body, Flamed Maple Archtop, Set neck, Seymour Duncan SH-6 “Duncan Distortion” pickups, Epiphone hard case included.

This guitar is easily in 98% condition. The 2006 blue book of guitar values lists the last MSRP at $899. NIB price as $625. 98% price as $550.

I’m asking $500 firm.

Let me know if you want more info.