Chicago Chase Corporate Challenge

Chase Corporate Challenge

Ran the chase corporate challenge last week, no photos or garmin track for this post as the computer that has the garmin software on it is currently dead (needs a new graphics card).

The good..

Had a great time ran a 26.15 for the 3.5miles (7.5 ish min miles). This by far was a PB for me across that distance. 2 years ago it was my first race in my new healthy lifestyle and ran it in 35 mins. So it was great to come back and see how much I had achieved.

Newtons felt great, performed really well and with the new shoes I continue to not have blisters.

The bad.. (my rant)

23600 people complete this race, so as you can guess it can be quite congested as its only 3.5 miles. However the organisers try to take this into account by trying to set minutes per mile banners at the start to give people an idea of where they should be lining up. However... not everyone seems to understand how fast 7 minute miles really are.

Walking is not 7 minutes per mile! 2 years ago when I ran this I started in the 10 minute section and ending up walking almost the first half mile, so this year I lined up at the 7min mile knowing I would run between that and 8 min mile. However there were a large number of idiots walking and running very slowly who did not seem to understand why they should line up correctly.

Also these walkers/runners tend to run in pairs meaning all of a sudden the path is blocked in front of you. Afraid after the 4th or 5th last second dodge around people, I lost my patience and barged between the next pair. (hangs head in shame, I know very rude). I did notice all the dodging did tweak my hamstrings a bit while they were cold and it took a while to warm up properly.

After the first mile it was easier to move through the crowd as everyone is running roughly the same pace.

Baby update..

Babies are still not here, Gemma has her c-section planned for 6th June, so only a few more weeks of just the two of us.

What a difference 6 months makes!

What a difference 6 months makes..
6 months ago the element was my tri transport vehicle, it was great I could put the bike in their fully assembled and take a ton of kit with me.. here is a picture of the car when we drove down to Florida for IM.

6 months later and the babies are about to arrive. The car has changed from being my tri transport to the baby transporter.

Not shown in this picture is also the massive twin bob stroller that now takes up the trunk space!


Guess my poor bike will be relegated to a bike carrier on the outside. Unless that is, it is legal to strap the baby seats to the roof.... um must look into that. Just a little worried about strapping the bike to the back of the car, wouldn't want it to fall of ;-)

Ran the Chase Coporate challenge last night, will I tell you about that in my next post also in that next post you will hear me rant about an incident on the chase corporate challenge. (I rarity for me I know!)

Cycling Socks at Work

Flatman set a challenge to wear your coolest cycling socks to work. For me there was only one pair of socks that would do...

1st Bithday

Today is my first birthday, its been a year since I completed my first official triathlon. 1 year ago yesterday I completed the Galena sprint triathlon. (660yds lake swim, a hilly 16.8 mile bike, and a very hilly 4.3 mile run.) Upon completing this first triathlon I knew triathlon was for me, and that I had found my sport.

Entered a few more events now
A number of friends are running the Muddy Buddy here in Chicago so have signed up for that, team name is Nor4k n Chance (say it quickly).
I still have a half IM to sign up for but other than that I think my season plan is complete.

Shamrock Shuffle (Completed)

Chase Corporate Challenge 3.5m Run - 22nd May (Entered)

2 Mile Swim - Splish Splash Lake in the hills - 14th June (Entered)

Oly Tri - Twin Lakes Tri - 29th June (Entered)

2 Mile Swim - Splish Splash Crystal Lake - 12th Jul (Entered)

Oly Tri - Lake In the Hills Tri - 19th Jul (Entered)

Running - Muddy Buddy - 3rd Aug (Entered)

1/2 Iron - Lake Geneva - 6th Sept or Great Illni. Not sure which yet.

100m - North Shore Century - 21st Sept

100m - Apple Cider Century - 28th Sept

IM Florida - Nov 1st (Entered)

Two weeks ago I completed a 9 miler (the longest in my Newtons so far) and I got the largest blood blister I have ever seen! Went back to the Tri shop and talked through what had happened. Without a question they switched out the shoes (had them for 4 months and run almost 60 miles), and they got me to try a different pair of Newtons with less support. Been running with these for 2 weeks now (couple of 5 milers and two 8 milers) and the difference is amazing. Confidence in the shoes has been restored.

Babies are doing well, we are now past 35 weeks and they are due any day. Finally persuaded Gemma to create a blog, to show friends and family the babies development.

2 posts in one day wow. This is more a post for my UK readers, but it was an emotional weekend for another reason. I am a Football fan (soccer for any US readers) and yesterday was the last day of the season for my beloved Southampton FC. And as usual we were at the wrong end of the table fighting relegation.

(Relegation for any US reader is where the team can drop down to a lower division, a very different concept from US sports I know).

We needed a win, and to hope that other teams lost to stop us getting relegated. Well we managed to survive. Below is a little video showing what my emotions were like..

Moving house, and getting ready for the twins

Wow its been a busy 2 weeks. No babies yet, which is a good thing. Gemma is now 33 weeks, and we need the twins to stay in for another 3-4 weeks.

Last weekend we moved apartments, I think you forget how much stuff you accumulate, and by stuff I mean junk.
With Gemma being pregnant she could not help at all, much to her frustration, so we relied heavily on friends. Without them I could not have moved us. It took 5 of us 10 hours to move a 2 bedroom apartment. I was exhausted by the end of the day. Great strength workout though.

So now we are in our new place Gemma can start nesting. The cribs went up last night, and Gemma can start getting the babies room together. (I can put the bike up on the trainer in the spare room and start nesting with my sports kit!)


On the training front, I have been able to keep up my low level of training. Continued to do 2 spin classes a week, 1 core class and 2x 5-10 mile runs a week. Nothing major, just enough to keep myself ticking over until the end of this month when training will start to increase for the run up to IM FL. Need to get back into some swimming as well. (Update.. got a 6.3 mile run done plus a 36 mile bike this weekend. Bike was on the trainer and I noticed the speedo was still reading 112 miles as that was the last time I'd ridden my bike!)



B-FitB-Day
I have joined Romans B-FitB-Day site. Originally I didn't sign up as my Birthday is the beginning of Jan and the site wasn't set up then. So I was talking to Roman and I am going to nominate a Birthday for this year as my Birthday was before the site was up. After further discussions I am going to choose the week the twins are born (sometime in May). I doubt there is a chance I can do the Gold, of all events in 24hours, but I hope to be able to get the silver (all in 72 hours). For me that means 3 miles swim, 30 miles bike, and 3 miles run.

My First Baby Purchase

Iron Babies (I know a terrible extravagance but they look great!). 2 in yellow for the baby girls. Though they only had them in size 12months so they will have to wait a while to wear them.

IM Florida Plan 2008

Just starting to finalise our 2008 IM plans. How to get there, number of days there etc.

Last year we drove from Chicago to Panama City Beach (2000 miles there and back), however with the twins being here when we head down to PCB we have decided that a 2 day cross country drive may be too much, so instead we are going to fly down there.

Also Gemmas parents are likely to be in Venice Beach during that period, so the plan is..

• Fly down to Sarasota/Bradenton from Chicago on the 24th, and then head down to Venice to meet Gemmas parents. Spend a few days by the beach getting the bike setup and getting a few beach swims and runs to acclimatise.

• Then I will drive up to PCB on the Wed 29th Oct, Gemma is probably going to stay with her parents this year due to the complications of moving the twins around. She is not happy as she has been to every one of my events.
• Then spending 29th Oct through to the 2nd or 3rd Nov in PCB before heading back to Venice, and then flying back to Chicago on the 7th Nov.

Would love to meet any bloggers who are going to be around, maybe a meetup on the Wednesday/Thursday night? Sherpa help, friendly faces on the course would greatly appreciated.

This leads to the second reason of my post.. bike boxes. One of the reasons we drove last year was the concern of my bike getting damaged, going all that way and my race being ruined due to a damaged bike.

So if we are flying I guess I need to consider a bike box. I have looked online and found a nice one for under $300 Trico Sports Iron Case. What cases have other people used, is there one people can recommend?

Looked at renting and because I don't belong to a Tri Club its likely to cost around $100.

Looking at the airline they will charge me $50 to fly the bike, so not too bad. I think I will get future use out of having a bike box.

And yes I know travelling with twin babies on a plane will not be easy either!

Guess Where I Went This Weekend

Went to Wisconsin this weekend and went to Wisconsin's No 1 Single Attrraction "House on the Rock" very wierd place. On its own not enough to make a blog post, but on the way back I got to stop at Ironman mecca...

Yep I went through Madison. Thought I'd throw these pictures out for those of you getting ready for Wisconsin this year.

As you can see the water was fairly choppy, and the weather was not very nice. I am sure it will be much nicer for the actually event. Also got to see Mt Horeb, glad I didn't have to go up that in Florida.

This is now my third IM city I have been too, (Louiville, Panama City Beach and now Madison). I didn't really get to see Louiville much, but Madison was certainly a much nicer location than PCB.

Wore my IM jacket, and it made my day when I was asked about IM. Had a great conversation with the team at the Erehwon Outlet Store, one of whom has volunteered at IM Wisc for the past few years.

My Shamrock shuffle route

Last weekend I got to use my 305 for my first race of the year. I understood that in the city it would have 'issues' with satellite locks, here are some shots of my route...

Honest I didn't take shortcuts!

Firstly, I mixed it up by adding a water leg to the race..

Next was the 'I got lost moment'

When I got out from downtown it worked fine. The overall route was...


Note the straight line I ran down W Jackson Blvd (another swim leg added). According to the Garmin the course was long, but when I look at the route I went it might explain why the Garmin had me at 5.5 miles for an 8k race.