I recently had a friend complete her Ironman in Arizona at the great age of 43. Sylvia finished her Ironman a hair under 16 hours. Given that I trained with her while she was biking, I am completely inspired to try to do the same thing.  The only concern is how do you compete in a grueling event like that with a back that has proven to be occasionally troublesome?The biking I have no concerns about. The swimming requires training, but that is just time doing a sport …[more]

I went on two back to back runs this weekend around Greenlake. The weather was so beautiful and the weather was so warm I went out two days just to enjoy the feeling of it. My lower back felt fine as I was wearing a heel lift and was focusing on keeping my posture upright as I run.  After I ran I had to focus on doing my stretches, but they seemed to have kept my back pain-free to the point I am starting to think about increasing my mileage.Obligatory Stats:Saturday…[more]

After months of training, climbing the steepest hills in Seattle,  adjusting weight, equipment and life, I completed RAMROD last Thursday. The ride this year was a 153 miles and 10K feet of climbing taking the highways around Mt. Ranier, climbing up to Paradise, circling around to Cayuse Pass, and returning to the start at Enumclaw. The ride started at 5:00 am at Enumclaw High School. The ride begins with 55 miles of gentle rollers to the south side of Mt Ranier.  Once t…[more]

Last ride before RAMROD ended up being a nice 50 mile loop around Lake Washington with a long rest in the middle to tour the Bellevue Art Fair.  The ride was uneventful with the only thing to note was that I was wearing new cycling shoes with a cleat fit and they felt great.  My old shoes were losing a lot of their stiffness and the straps on the shoes were almot worn through, so a shoe upgrade was in-order. The new SIDI shoes felt great, the legs felt ready to go, a…[more]

I biked 205 miles from Seattle to Portland this past Saturday with friends and family. Of the 9500 riders doing STP 25% did it in one day and 75% did it in two days.  The ride starts at the University of Washington, heads south to Pyualllup, Centralia, Winlock, Kelso, and finally Portland via the 30.The weather for the ride was gorgeous in the morning and 90-95 degrees as we approached Portland via Kelso.  I did the ride with 4 friends from Seattle so w…[more]

200 miles in 3 days! So this weekend was a veritable plethora of bike riding and each day has its own mini-story.July 4th Friday -- Seattle to Camano Island (77.5 miles)I finally got to ride with Lauren! With Elias out of town Lauren and I had a glorious ride to Camano Island as we were powered by a monster tailwind, and the ability to both be on our "skinny-go-fast" bikes. The trip was taken using the same route I took last year, which I was able to load onto my watch and use it…[more]

Yesterday I spent an hour climbing the hills by my house in NE Seattle. The bike ride was shorter then most but I made up for it by climbing all the 15% to 17% grade hills that lead up from Lake Washington. I had not ridden for about a week and spent the weekend playing in a pool with a bunch of kids, so I was wondering what type of shape I would be in for the riding. Surprisingly, my legs stayed strong the whole time, I never went below 5MPH even when climbing the monster hills, an…[more]

I spent last weekend continuing to slowly increase the training ramp for RAMROD.  The training ride was 102 miles, with climbs up Tiger Mountain, Flaming Geyser, and Lakemont to Lewis Creek Park. The goal (other than finishing) was to finish the ride strong. For the first time in a few weeks, I was able to finish the ride without any leg cramps! That said I was unable to keep up with the lead pack and was eventually dropped at mile 90 on one of the climbs as I decided to take …[more]

This past weekend's ride got a lot hillier and a lot faster. The drive out looked gloomy and rained a bit, but once we got to Issaquah the skies only remained overcast all day. The ride looped down to East Lake Sammamish, took a loop up through Tolt hill, and another loop up to Snoqualmie Falls. The big hill of the day was through Harman Heights and the "Uplands" with a fast descent down Cedar Falls Road (my new favorite downhill), and then a quick loop back to North B…[more]

1) Saturday I trekked out to Issaquah to do the next in the RAMROD training series. Normally, I wouldn't ride in the wet and rainy conditions, but my ride picked me up thinking that I was the hardcore rider and the only reason he was biking was because he felt obligated since he was my ride to the start. (Mental note: I must ride with people who better know my aversion to rain.) The ride started out dry, but ended up sopping wet in the middle, and only dried up a little bit …[more]