Burpees are fun!

I lied. Burpees are not fun.

They are, supposedly, the "best" exercise you can do.  The burpee uses many large muscle groups, strengthens your core, and increases balance.  It also makes you want to cry if you do too many in a row.  It's a fairly popular training method now a days, due to crossfit.  It's popularity is best defined by a quick google search.

Jenny was a large advocate of the burpee, and the Burpee Challenge.  It's starts off so simply - on day one, you do one.  Easy and smooth.  On day 2, you do 2.  Please, thats not hard.  By day 40, you're breaking them into several sets, and you're starting to regret this decision.  Then, you miss day 44, and you have to do those the next day with the new 45.  89 burpees later, you hate life.  

This was my experience the fist time I tried the challenge with Jenny and her facebook group in the fall of 2012.  I did not make it, and I felt so shame in that.  After we lost her, my gilt kicked in, and I felt like I let be she and myself down.  I immediately started my own 100 day challenge, and powered through it.  I found that I actually liked the concept of the challenge one I really committed to it.  You do the burpees everyday, so there's very little thinking involved.  "Is today a rest day?"  NO.  "How many burpees do I do today?"  One more than you did yesterday - it's not rocket science.  

As I finished my personal 100 day challenge, I felt empowered, strong, and entirely sure that I would be done with these self induced torture moves.  Then, someone suggested on the 100 Day Challenge Facebook group that we do a challenge that ended on Jenny's birthday.  I knew that I could complete it,  and I'm a glutton for punishment, so I joined in.  We all posted video's and pictures on the group page, and I feel like a lot of people completed that one together.

Then someone wanted to do another challenge that ended at the end of the year, just like Jenny did the last year.  What the hell, lets see how much I can handle in year.   I exposed my poor friends to watching me do burpees on new years eve while normal people were having drinks.  15,500 burpees later, I declared myself King of the Burpee, poured myself a celebratory drink, and promptly stopped doing them.  

This year, I've been a slacker, and I'm completely OK with that.  I did an abridged challenge over lent where I went up by 2 each day, but other than that, I've been avoided them.  But now, it is time to climb back on the torture horse.  Yesterday was day 1 of the next 100 days, and I'll finish exactly one week before the Chicago marathon.  

My burpees will be my companion for the summer.  They will always there, waiting for me at the end of the day, making me stronger, making me want to puke, and humbling me.  

My First Triathlon - Bigfoot Sprint

So I completed my first tri, and everything went perfectly.  The minute I hit the water, I was like a fish.  I was able to draft a carbon bike on my ride, and I had a PR on the run.  (Did that read as ridiculously unreal as I meant it to?)

My race didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped.  When I was topping off my bike tires the night before, my pump broke, and my back tire deflated.  I could have taken that as an omen if I believed in that sort of thing.  The Triathlon motto is Swim, Bike, Run.  My performance was more like Flail, Bike, Walk, Repair, Bike, Run.  At least 2 things did go well: I had a good time, and the people I met were great!

Before the race could start, the officials had to clear the start.  The fog on the drive over was intense, and as we were waiting on the beach, you couldn't see more than 2 buoys out.  I walk talking with new friends on the beach, and I said that they would let us start either when the fog cleared, or everyone got too frustrated.  After a half hour of waiting and worsening fog, we were informed that we were going to start, but there would be no olympic swim.  The frustration got to them, so here we go.

1st: the Swim.  I'm not a great swimmer, and I know that.  I started at the back of my starting wave, entered the water gingerly, and started to make my way through the half mile.  I started with a freestyle for a few minutes, but had trouble regulating my breathing.  I did a bit of side stroke, but spent most of the time on my back.  The backstroke isn't the fastest, but mines fairly strong, and it got my through.  Half way through, my goggles completely fogged up, and combined with the sky, I couldn't see a thing.  Popped them on my forehead, and just kept going.  I think that's the real motto of Triathlons: Just Keep Going.

My transition was slow, but not too bad.  Half the bikes in my area were already gone.  I hung the wetsuit, grabbed my helmet and bike gear, and got on my way.

2nd: the Bike.  The bike ride starts with a decent sized hill.  My legs were fresh, so that didn't seem like a big deal.  As a started, my chain popped off.  OK, I can deal with that; put it back on and continued.  then my back derailer started to stick.  I pedaled through it, and kept going.  Then, .5 miles into the 12 mile ride, my chain completely broke off.  So, I picked up my chain and coasted down the hill, and then walked the rest of the way to the nice mechanic tent that helped me fill my tires before the race.  He had no extra chain, so he removed a couple of links and told me "it isn't perfect, but it'll get you on the road".  That it did.  I reclimbed the hill, and got back on my way.  I actually had a fairly good ride from then on, and tried to make up time.  I passed many mountain bikes, and got passed by many carbon bikes.  At one point, my wife drove by, and at a stop sign I was able to pass and say hi.  It was a little thing, but it put me in a better mood, and sped me up.  About halfway through, I passed a lovely dairy farm with a lovely dairy farm smell.  I joked about it with an older woman that was deceivingly fast on her tri bike, and we kept pace with each other for the rest of the course.

Time didn't really matter anymore for my second transition, so I took my time.  Almost all of the bikes in my area were already back.  I put on my running shoes and got back into my comfort zone.

3rd: the Run.  This was a trail run.  It's not what I usually do, but it's not totally foreign either.  I ran hard, and actually started to catch the slower people in my original wave.  It wasn't record setting, but I was in the top 20% in this section.  At least one leg went well.

Overall, I had fun.  The swim was rough and I was incredibly frustrated by the chain failure, but the ability to get back out there and finish turned everything around.  I had my beer (or two), hung out with my wife and new friends, and enjoyed the morning.  It didn't all go to plan, but I kept on going. As I do more races of all types, my new mantra is: Just Keep Going.

I made a blog! That's still a thing, right?

Welcome!  This is my new blog about my journey to finish an Ironman, and everything else along the way.  I'm going to post about my training and races.  I'll try to post on a semi-regular basis, but no promises.  This first post is going to be a little lengthy, so bear with me.

So lets start at the end, that makes sense right?  I'm going to compete in Ironman Madison on September 11 2014.  That day will be the 15th anniversary of 9/11, the 5th anniversary of when Jenny Carter Boyce completed her Ironman, and her birthday.  There are at least 6 of us committed to this insane adventure, but I think I'm the first IronVirgin.

Now, lets jump back to the beginning.  Jenny was a friend of mine from high school.  I say was because she was taken from us all to early.  She was an amazing woman.  As she aged, she became a better version of herself.  She started running, she started biking, and she started swimming.  I remember watching an Ironman competition on TV, and thinking that it was almost literally impossible.  Then, Jenny goes and does one on her 30th birthday.  She showed me that anything is possible.  She showed a lot of people anything was possible.  She convinced a ridiculous amount of people to do the burpee challenge with her.  She made the world a better place, and she did so by the sheer power of her will.

The next year, she ran the Chicago Marathon.  I got to see her, cheer her on, and do a burpee with her.  As we were talking afterwards, she told me that it was my turn next year.  Like an idiot, I committed, because hey, I could always back out.  3 months later, she was gone, and there was no backing out.  Team Jenny was formed, and the training had to begin.

As I ran, Jenny ran with me.  Whenever the runs got long, and things started to hurt, she was always there with me.  Well, not so much with me, but just in front of me, passing me, and showing me that I could do more.  I learned that I'm actually not a bad runner.  I stuck to my training (kinda), and by the time the Marathon rolled around, something clicked.  I wasn't just running for Jenny anymore; I was running for me too.  By the time the other members of Team Jenny got to my house, I was a runner.

Now I'm moving onto the next step in my grand experiment to find out what I can do.  My first Triathlon is a week and a half away.  A friend from work recommended the Bigfoot Tri in Lake Geneva.  Training is underway, and I'll keep you updated here.