Kill the Coward

Lance is more fun since he stopped racing.

So , Mike Woell the guy who would spank me at every race we entered together, has made the big time.

Congrats, now please stop tearing my legs off! If you look close, you can still see the 'Little Gym' and 'Flanders' logo and where they removed the logos from the side of his shorts and his back.





In other Kurt news, Carl G is a youTube celebrity.

2007 in Review

23 Races
3 Wins
7 Top 5's

One of my big goals was to win a race, which I did first at the informal hill climb and then a few more times over the summer.

May 9th M-Hill hill climb 1st Cyclist
June 26th Summit Crit 5- 1st
Proctor Cycling Classic RR 5b- 1st
Tour or Granite County Omnium- 1st

I did 23 total races, which is a bit more than I'd like to do. Its hard to focus and take each race seriously when you're doing them one after the other after the other. I was able to upgrade to a 4 and was nearly able to become a cat 3, which will happen with one more first or a second place and any other top 6 finish.

Other races include:
Redwater Roubaix
May 22nd OPUS Crit
Minnesota State Crit 4/5- 9th
Afton Avalanche MTB Sport- 7th
June 12th Summit Crit 3/4/5- 7th
June 19th Summit Crit 5 and 3/4/5
June 26th Summit Crit 3/4/5
Mankato NVGP Amatuer Crit 4/5- 2nd
Proctor Cycling Classic Crit 5- 3rd
Northfield Crit- 4/5, 3/4
Hopkins Crit- 4/5, 3/4
July 17th Hollywood CRS- 4/5 and 3/4/5
July 24th Hollywood CRS- 4/5
Tour of Granite County RR 4-3rd
Tour of Granite County TT 4- 14th
Tour of Granite County Crit 4- 2nd

I beat John, though it was mostly by following his every move and waiting til he was burnt out. He's a great racer and I hope I have the chance to race him again.

And finally, I finished a sub four hour marathon.

So, 4/4 as far as this year is concerned.

The real triumph isn't that I finished the marathon or that I won a few races. Its that I was able to do both in the same season and that I was on crutches for 10 weeks in the fall of '06. Next year I'll sight my sights a bit higher and see if I can continue the success. I should be out on Long Island all summer (though not for sure yet) and I'm trying to find a team to race with. I've talked with the guys down at Carl Hart; I'll miss wearing Flanders red and white, but the CBSC guys seem pretty cool and they're right out my back door. Training starts in 4 weeks!

The Super Computer Sale used to come by Minneapolis twice a year. I've built two computers, purchased a monitor and many other small parts at the shows. Now it is no more. Their website has the show scheduled as 'coming soon' for the last 5 months. Its probably for the best. I should probably start buying my computer components at legitimate prices from legitimate retailers, not someone who sleeps in a motel and drives to a different city each week. I will miss it though.

Rest in peace shelves filled with used monitors, boxes full of old mice, hard drives for 70% off. RIP Bloomington Indiana (or was that Illinois) salesman whose memory would lock up, angry Asian fellow who yelled as he took my cash, and slimy salesman who sold Joe not one but two video cards that didn't work. RIP boxes marked "Adults Only", special corner section for semi legitimate car audio parts, five year old Palm Pilots for sale and negotiating five dollars off a CD burner. I will miss you all.

My favorite is the blue socks.

3:58:51

That was my time at Philadelphia this weekend.


Tori and I drove down Saturday morning and discovered just how many tolls there are between Long Island and Philadelphia. We met Kris and her roommate downtown and wandered around the city, seeing Independence Hall and the Liberty bell and the Masonic Temple and all the other goodies. After a pasta dinner downtown, it was time to drive back to the hotel and get ready for the next morning.

5:30 came pretty early Sunday morning. I downed a bowl of cereal and jogged to the start. I've never been to a race this big, and it was amazing at the start. Everyone (15,000 runners I'm told) were warming up, stretching and making their way to the start. I'm sure to a higher being it was like watching ants scurry around. I lined up just before 7:00 and then the starting gun went off! and I waited... and waited.... and five minutes later I started moving ..... and two minutes after that I crossed the starting line. Apparently I lined up a little further back than I should have, because I spent the first 5 miles weaving around slower runners. Once I settled into a decent pace, I was really feeling good.

The course went downtown, through historic Philadelphia, back up to U Penn, by the Zoo and up and back down the Schuylkill River. The first twenty miles went well. The weather was great for running, forties without much sun, so I was able to enjoy running without many distractions. The rest of the race was a little different. When I saw mile marker 21, I remember thinking 'Ok, it should only take 45 minutes from here'. In my mind, though, I remember the last five miles taking about two hours. Once I hit the last mile I was able to pick it up and smile as I ran through the finish. My ankle is angry at me today... I guess its expected to struggle through the end of a marathon your first time.

Overall it was an excellent experience. The race was well organized, Philadelphia was good to visit (Tori loved the city), and I think I trained and prepared pretty well. When I do another one of these, which won't be a while, I think I can put in a much better time. Between the slow start and two unscheduled pit stops, I think I could easily make up 20 minutes. A little more training and I could finish with more in the tank, too.

Thanks to Tori, Kris and Sarah for cheering and giving me Gu handups through the race. Just six weeks 'til its time to start training for bike races.

No posts lately

I haven't been updating much because, frankly, I don't have much to write about. Outside of commuting, my time on the bike has been next to nil. And marathon training is just about the most boring thing one can write about: "I ran 8 miles today. It was hard. I thought about stopping halfway through, but then I didn't." Don't get me wrong, I enjoy running, its just not enjoyable to hear about. Two things I have learned about running:

Running is HARD, and in a different way than biking. In a bike race, I can see an average HR of 175+. If don't think I could ever see a HR of 165 BPM while running. My legs would fall apart first. I suppose if you can hold that kind of heart rate, you'd be Paula Ratcliff.

I usually disdain lifting weights for endurance training, especially in season. Lifting isn't really analogous to endurance; if you can squat 500 pounds, you can't necessarily run more than a mile, or even win a sprint. Training is specific to a given activity. The only time I'll really lift is in the winter, when its too cold to do anything outside.
That said, I had a nagging injury in my hamstring and calf during September. I started lifting just an hour a week and its completely gone away. Maybe its only applicable to running, or my specific case, but maybe weight lifting year round is good injury prevention.

T-minus 11 days. Weather.com says to expect sun and 50's, but who knows.

I know I said I'd have pictures.... two weeks ago.....
I have no excuses, I'm a lazy blogger.

One of Tori and my favorites was the lobster cart. They went first and got shafted by judges who were expecting just a little too much.

Numberator 2.0 pictures, after taking first place.
Oregon trail is a classic for anyone born between 1980 and 1985.
The Flintstones car was awesome.

Some serious nerds celebrating their win.

In marathon news, I ran that yesterday. Three weeks til this. Its lookin good.

24 hours in Rhode Island

Justin, Anthony and the guys were in Providence this weekend for the Red Bull Soap Box Challenge, so Tori and I drove up to hang out and watch the whole thing. The competition was right on the Brown campus and it was a beautiful day, so it was fun just to go, but Red Bull put on a great show too.

We got there at 11:00, just in time to see all the different cars and pick out a good spot to watch from the start. Each team would do a little skit then race to the bottom of the hill. The winner was decided on style and creativity, their skit and their race time, so winning wasn't so much being fast as being all around awesome. I thought the really low key Numerator 2.0 wasn't going to stand out next to some really outrageous vehicles (especially a flying toilet which, if you wanted to get on Sportcenter, seemed like just about the best way), but Justin built a sweet car, Anthony drove super fast and Charlie literally pee'd his pants for the win.

That night we played the part of groupies and followed the team around Providence for the celebration, hitting up some sweet clubs before crashing with Bob and Anthony. I never would have thought it, but Providence is a really cool city. It mixes its traditional roots with new commercial buildings to keep downtown in business without selling out.

Pictures (maybe video too!) to follow.

Save the World Human Powered Speed Challenge!

Just as catchy as "save the whales!" isn't it?

The WHPSC has been undergoing some strife lately. First SR-305 started to break down, then a proposed chip seal solution (which would basically ruin the road for high speed runs), now the wind and temperature is making record attempts harder than usual this year.

None of these is as detrimental to the event as waning turnout though. It seems like participation has been down the last couple years (to me, at least). This year, there's no Matt Weaver, no Sean Costin, no Fast Freddy and only three guys are going over 60 mph. I've only seen the results for the first three days, but if you look at 2005, it seems like turnout is down. If no one shows up to race, there will be no reason to keep the event going.

Anyway, the Rolla guys seem to be doing well. I've heard of other college students going to Battle Mountain, but I don't think anyone has taken it as seriously since Berkley did six years ago. Good Luck!

Pictures!

Damjan rides his Eivie backwards

Sam's Diablo 3, based on the 81 mph Diablo 2