Month: October 2016

The 3rd Child (Erik) – 10/29/16

erik

Over the last 6 weeks, I’ve kept posts to a minimum because we were in the final stages and I didn’t want to let the cat out of bag before it was done. This project started in March, and Erik finally came home today!

The extreme generosity of Art Black and Oswego Cyclery made practice possible over the past two years. Having it locally now means the hour plus commute times round trip to practice will be cut down to about 2 – 3 minutes. There’s a path by me that through a couple of connections goes into the Great American Trail if you go North, and a long set of trails if you go South.

And the practice part is just one of the many huge benefits I’ll get from having my own tandem. I am looking forward to getting in a few practices before winter hits and an amazing 2017 with it! And as soon as the pilot’s pedals come in (most common type so they were out of stock), we’ll do just that.

I would not have my tandem without the help of Dare2Tri and the generous support of the Evanston Bike Club. I am extremely grateful to both of them!

Lesson Learned… Finally? – 10/23/16

monster-dash-half

I have a tendency to try and do too much. Most of the time it works out well; this is an example of where it didn’t. And the final swift kick that got me to refocus.

When I did my 2016 schedule, I had it bookended by half marathons. With everything going on in my personal, professional and athletic lives, I honestly forgot about the October Half until one of my coaches mentioned it to me. But since it was on the plan and it was only August, I thought I was okay.

Fast forward to mid-October — I hadn’t gotten in enough long runs, and overall run numbers weren’t where they should have been. I could give you a long list of excuses, but I think the only valid ones would be the two days that it was raining sideways most of the day. Long story short, I wasn’t where I should have been. But I still felt a lot better than I did going into the January one because of all the miles I had put in during 2016.

On race day, the first few miles went well. I was even able to keep going beyond the normal run/walk intervals and felt great. Then between miles 4 and 5, the bottom of my feet started hurting real bad. I was able to work it out the first time, but the second it just got too bad to run. Doug pointed out that while I was feeling it in my foot, it could probably be higher up. He was right, and found a HUGE knot in my right calf. He tried to work it out, but couldn’t (and that was some of the most painful stuff).

So yet another Half where things didn’t go as planned. We did complete the course walking, and finished with a respectable full marathon time. 🙂 After these issues, I will be focusing on 5Ks and building from there once I’ve got a consistent pace (about 33-34min).

A huge thanks to Lee and Doug for guiding me and for sticking it out with me. And a big thank you to Team Ortho for coming through when the previous race I had planned to run put up huge barriers to me doing it.