I think (and hope) I saved somebody's life today

I was traveling through town with my 2 kids, it was a misty rain coming down. I was northbound on main st and the vehicle ahead of me was traveling at a low rate of speed maybe 15-20 mph. Coming to the light at Madison Avenue the light turned yellow and the vehicle ahead of me stopped almost a car length into the intersection. i was stopped at the white line and was wondering what this dude was doing. Vehicle proceeds to take a left on Madison Ave traveling in the parking lane of all places. stays in this lane for a few block and then veers over into oncoming lane. Good thing there wasn't any traffic coming at him. Speeds went from 8mph to 35mph . He turned into the Health Club lot and turned around. I have since called the police and reported this guy. After his turn around at the Health Club he absolutely flew back into town. I kept an eye on as he got caught at the light and I caught him then. While traveling down Robert street south, I noticed an officer that started to come out to monitor him. I slowed down at the light in the left lane to turn off. While turning off to the left and having the officer behind the guy the vehicle in question came into my lane and almost hit me. I sure hope the police saw that!! I have no tolerance for drunk drivers. If this guy was drinking and driving and would have hit somebody and I didn't call him in could I have lived with that?

Commute to work on the TTX aka Earth Day

Today this morning's commute to work was:

16 miles a little over 50 minutes. 487 k/j averaging 169 watts. It looks as I need to up the watts. The next ride I am going to maintain an average 190 watts for the ride. This will force me to ride at a quicker pace and train the body to clear the lactic acid. Wish me luck!

I am happy to have this streak of building on the bike over for a few days. Tomorrow is a run and a day off from the bike. I want to come back fresh for another week of build. The HHH 100 is coming and I have to hit the hills!

First test on the course

Today my co-worker Keith and I hit the IM-MOO bike course starting in verona for one loop. I took the road bike with the new test saddle and Bontrager Aeolus front wheel. Figuring this would be a light set up for optimal performance out there I forgot one thing. I am on my road bike and not the TTX. What's the big deal you ask? Well on the TTX I have a 50x34 crank chained to a 11x23 cassette. Perfect combo. I forgot that the road bike was a DA 54x42 chained to the same 11x23 cassette. Wow talk about aggressive. It was doable for training but not for racing. I was going up some of the hills at a whopping 6 mph with no more gears left for climbing. I will do it again with a more reasonable 12x27.

The entire ride was set at a pretty easy pace not going to aggressive. Including a stop in each town for refueling we came into Verona after 42.19 miles in 3hr 3 min. total consumption was one package of Sport Beans, one bottle of Gatorade, 2 bottles of water and one gel. This is the first time ever that I actually had to pee on the bike (I did stop for that). I had my hydration down for that ride with a lot still to learn. Total power was just under 1900 k/j which was a pretty good workout. I averaged a low 160 watts. I have to ask around if that was good or not... Until next time :)

30mph headwinds

Today in Wisco there were 30mph headwinds on the lunch ride today. A 20 mile loop turned out to over an hour and 15 minutes! Going into the wind the watts were going through the roof. At the 10 mile turn around point, I had registered 653 k/J. There were points in the ride going out that we hit a downhill and we were not gaining any speed. It kept the same 12 mph. Talk about demoralizing! The return trip was great. At the turn around it was like somebody just turned off the hurricane fan. We didn't feel any wind at our backs but the speed were were going it sure helped. Imagine siting up in the hoods (road bike) and going close to 30 mph on a flat with no pedaling. That's what happened! The ride ended rather quickly after the turn around. Were were back to work in what seemed like minutes. I finished the ride at 778 k/j so you can see how much the wind helped.

Tomorrow, if the wind is right i will ride that hurricane winds to work. I will get some free commuting miles before the Bike to Work Week.

Checking in

A lot has happened since my last posting. I have been concentrating on swimming mostly. I found out that I am swimming with my hands going into the water upside down which slows me down. I am concentrating on putting my thumb in the water first. Just with that improvement I gained a few seconds in my 100 yard time.

My brother who is a former collegiate swimmer has been consulting me on some swim training. I am now in the middle of intervals. These are the 100 yard sets that make you want to puke if done correctly. It took me a few session till I got it right but I finally did it. I found out I can consistently hold a 1:50 per 100 yard. Over the next few sessions I will be aiming to improve that so I can claim myself a 1:45 swimmer.

Biking is starting outdoors with lunch rides really stepping up this week. It is supposed to be in the mid to upper 60's!!! After a long winter here in Wisconsin it will feel down right balmy!

Running I fell has been improving with the exception of one treadmill run. I have realized why I hate the treadmill. I ran on tuesday on the dreadmill at work and hurt for 3 days afterwards. I only ran a 5k on it. Well today I did a 5 mile run and it felt fine. I ran it faster and harder than the dreadmill run and when I was done felt like I could do it again. I didn't as I am going to go for a ride tomorrow at work. While I was out running today I was listening to a type of music that is completely foreign to me. After reading a post on ST I was directed to a website that had some free downloads of so called running music. They are called Podrunners from Dj Steve boy. I went with the 150 square one track. Holy shit! It was awesome! I am not really a techno fan but running to 150 beats per minute was great. IT really pushed me. goto the site and try one out. I downloaded all of them for the upcoming running training. Hopefully I can work up to the 180 V-tach workout.