Chicago Triathlon

Well the race was a blast and there were so many fun things going on!! And the race and my time was around what I expected. Below I cut and pasted my results and I will try to post the link if I can. Now its time to get ready for the marathon!! in 2 month

http://results.timberlinetiming.com/results/index.cfm

my bib is was 3110, you may have to type that in.

Thanks

S3 is number one!!!

After here talk at the Picnic tonite it sounds like a few people (wink wink Katie) thought are group sounded super fun from the Blogspot and well they were right!!! So we can't let our rep. die down now that Abes is over... We will have to keep posting, emailing, and calling to stay in touch and keep in shape, oh ya and dont forget the SOCIALS!!! We will also have to plan another race to train for coming up this fall, and just keep picking races as we go for a goal. Unless you would rather shot for a beer chuggin contest or see if we can get Bill to actually take a real shot of tequilla. Also everyone did an OUTSTANDING job at the race, it went better than expected and we all had alot of fun doing it!!! Thanks for a great 12 weeks and I look forward to all the weeks to come! My cell is 2177256999 and email is ddrennan@ucbbank.com . If everyone wants to post there cell numbers or email me them and Ill send out a list we can keep in touch that way. but I think we do need another social coming up in the next few weeks!!! Have a great rest of the week, great job S3, and lets keep up the s3 tradition and have fun at everything we do!!! Start thinking of races you would like to do, or a day that works for running and a few days that work for socials!

Dave

Race Pics

And the times are in...

Great job everybody!! What a great morning for the race. Here is the Journal's article on the race. Results are at OnlineRAceResults.

I was surprised to see some of you come in at under an hour! I didn't know you had it in you! I've got some pictures here and we'll probably get more at the picnic tomorrow (Tuesday). 5:45 at Lincoln Park at the shelter on the South side of the park. Should be a good time! You just need to bring whatever you want to drink.

Individual Results: (and it does appear to be gun time, not chip time, so subtract roughly 30 seconds from this and that will be your chip time.)

Becky
Amy
Deb
Dave Manson
Dave Drennan
Bill
Jeremy
Brad
Julia

Thoughts for post-race

I know i just posted the other information but I wanted this to be separate.

Some of your goals for this may have to get in shape and I think that you've done that. Some of you may have wanted to lose some weight and I can't say whether you've done that or not. I think that what you have accomplished is built a good base for continuing running and for moving on to longer distances or faster paces.

People have written that sometimes runners feel depressed after a big race is over that they've trained for. One way to combat that is to pick a new goal and work towards it. Maybe its speed you want or maybe you want to go longer distances. What you can do is look forward several months and pick a race to train for. Set a goal that is currently unreachable and train for it. Runners world has a training coach that can build a training program for any race distance based on your current mileage. You can use that to build your own programs to work for any race.

If you were looking for weight loss you've built a good base and can now do more than 6 miles. One of the easiest ways to boost weight loss is to run long distances. Go out at an easy pace and run for a long time. Just take it slow and easy and increase your distance by a .5 mile every weekend until you get to 10 miles or so, then you can start increasing it by a mile. Every 4th week you should take it easy and drop the miles back to 6 or so to give you a break. If you can push yourself out to 10 miles, you will be burning more than a 1000 calories in one day, over what you burn normally. It doesn't take too long for the weight to start coming off. All you have to do is keep doing what you are already doing. Just as an example, when I ran the 14 miles the other day, my GPS thing said that according to its calculations I should have burned more than 2000 calories on that run. That's more than 1 lb. of fat (1600 cal = 1 lb fat I think). And by running at an easy pace you are forcing yourself to remain running aerobically (burning fat for energy).

I haven't heard you guys complaining about either of these but I have seen other peoples posts and some emails from other groups that mentioned that they were still waiting for weight loss. It's not a fast process but if you can change your habits and do it slowly you will have a greater chance of success.

Get ready for race day

Well, its almost here. The race has snuck up on us. For this week take it easy. The book says only 30 minutes for Thursday and nothing on the weekend. You'll want to drink plenty of water on Saturday and get a good meal that evening. Don't overdo it, but get enough to eat. If you can get up early enough to let it digest I would make sure to eat something the morning of the race. Something light like toast and peanut butter or yogurt or a bagel. You just don't want to show up with a belly full of food.

Packet pickup is at Athleticare on South 6th Street from 12-5 on Saturday. In there will be your bib number and a chip. The chip will go in your laces of your shoe and will provide the time of your run.

For race morning we are to come in gate 8 which is on the west side of the fairgrounds north of the Orr building. It should be the one that is right across from Staff Carpet. It will be easier if you come at the fairgrounds from the exit off of Veterans Pkwy on the North side by the DNR gate (7). Traffic goes counter-clockwise around the grounds and unless you come from there you will have to go all the way around the grounds to get to gate 8.

We will meet on the north side of the Pork Patio between 7-7:15 to greet and get a group picture. After the race there is a party in the Bud Tent (right by the finish line) where there will be food (and beer too I think) and awards will be passed out. Plan to be there for the party. Bill thinks that we will be able to shower somewhere but I don't know where. I'll have to see if that is possible. The 4H dorms is the only place I can think of that has showers on the fairgrounds.

There was some talk last night about getting together for group runs on different days of the week. We'll have to coordinate that and figure out how that will work.

I've included a map of the fairgrounds and if I get any other information I'll post it.

Great job guys and its been great running with you for this.

Some thoughts.....

I went for my weekend run yesterday and because of some longer than normal partying Saturday I was unable to do the run Sunday morning at 6 am. I was finally able to work it into my schedule at 6 pm Sunday. I had planned to run 14 miles, but because it was hotter than I normally run I was going to wait and see what happened.

Well I got started and it took me 2 miles to settle into an easy long run pace. I thought for sure I was a goner. I had plenty of GU packets with me so I took them at a 50 min interval just like they should be taken. Now, I thought that since it was hotter, and I hadn't hydrated very well, and I was tired that I wouldn't be able to make the 14 miles as planned. But man was I mistaken. I got to 5 miles or so and took my first GU. I'd been drinking every mile or so just like I would be during a race, but I wasn't stopping since I have that tube thingy I wear. I just kept going at an easy pace, trying to keep it at 10:30 /min. When I got to 9.5 miles I took another GU since I knew I would need it to finish the rest of the miles, and since it was easily accessible from the pocket of my belt I just kept running while I ate it. Now this is pretty easy to do since its like honey anyway, you just have to suck it out of the packet.

As it turns out, I was able to keep running until 11 miles. At that point I stopped and walked for 2 minutes, then picked up running again and ran until 14 miles. I ended up finishing 14 miles in 2:27:03 (10:30 pace). Man was I surprised!! 11 miles non-stop!

Now... I'm telling you this to make a point to not get stuck in a rut, and to try new things. I thought that I would do better running in the morning, and it turns out I might be wrong. Its possible that since I don't eat before I run that my performance is less than it would be otherwise. I ended up running at 6 pm when it was probably 85 deg, but was gradually getting cooler. I thought that it would be harder, but in the morning it starts out cool at 70-80 and eventually gets to be over 80 at the end of the run when I'm at my worst. I also didn't think that I would make it 11 miles without stopping.

So....don't be afraid to do something new every so often. Its actually important as you can get used to the same routine and not get as much benefit out of the same run. If you change up your speed/course/distance every so often you are forcing your body to adapt. Also, changing the time of day can give a welcome change of pace. It was nice to be running through neighborhoods where the kids were all out playing basketball or riding bikes or to run past families riding with little kids or out washing cars.

See you all tomorrow night at Lincoln Park.

What a RUN!!!

That was really great last night. We all finished around 1:01 - 1:03. I was at 1:01 something and Dave Manson was a few seconds behind me. The rest of you came in over the next minute or so. Now that you've run the race and know what to expect you just need to try and duplicate that effort. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and it won't be blazing hot that morning. Keep in mind that pace and try to use it as a guide. You were all pretty consistent at about a 10 min mile pace.

For the rest of the week just check what the book says as far as runs. Soon they will have you tapering back before the race. It might not be this week but definitely the week before the race you will be running shorter distances at easier paces to get ready for race day.

For next week we will meet at the pavilion in Lincoln park to run the hills between the park and in the cemetery. The fair will be in full swing so I would come to the park from the south side, otherwise you'll get stuck in fair parking traffic.

Again, great run and I'll see you all next week.

Race practice run

First of all, sorry I couldn't make it to Sammy's. Hope you all had fun.

Tomorrow is the practice run for the race. We will all (all the groups) be meeting at the fairgrounds to run the entire race course. I believe I read somewhere that they will have water at the same places as during the race. The fair will be starting Thursday night so the fairgrounds will be busy. You'll have to park in lot 21 (across from DNR inside the grounds) as you won't be able to park up close to the grandstand anymore. I would come in from the North side of the fairgrounds as there will be lots of traffic trying to get into/out of the grounds.

Weather.com says it should be in the 80's with a slight chance of scattered storms. See you all there at the grandstand.

Its a hot one!

I just went out to fill up my coolers with ice. As far as I know we are still on for the run. I will have multiple coolers stocked with water and gatorade (and ICE!!) at various points on the trail. I think if we take it easy and make sure we all hydrate and walk if necessary (any way to cool down), we will be OK. Just be careful, this isn't a day to push it real hard. Just being out in it and actually running is hard work enough. Just remember how good the get-together afterwards will be.

See you all at the Post office.