The Hayes Hustle 5K Run

Today I entered my first running race of 2009, The Hayes Hustle. The 5K race is held at Hayes Elementary School (Catholic), which hosted the race in Muscatine. This is only my second 5K run since I began running in August of 2008. My first was a 5K trail run in September of last year. I wanted to do a taper so my body was ready for this run, but I went out Thursday night (2 days before) and rode my bike on the Muscatine Cycling Club's paceline ride. It is supposed to be an 18-20 mph pace, but that night we hardly fell below 20mph. So my legs were dead meat when I got home that night. I did take Friday off of running and riding, but really could of used one more day to rest up.

The race started at 9am and there were just over 200 runners. Our first mile was mostly flat and the 2nd mile was a good downhill, but the last mile was all up hill. There were timers out on the route that shouted out our times at the end of mile 1 and 2. My first split was 6:41, the second was 6:59 and my last was 8:19 for a total of 21:59 (an average of 7:05/mile). My time was 3 minutes faster than the 5K I completed last fall. The biggest difference was this was on pavement, while the run last fall was a trail run on a very hilly course.

I ended up getting first in my age group (55-59) out of 6 runners and overall was 25th out of 206 runners. Since I am primarily a cyclist I thought I did a pretty good job competing against other full-time runners. I only have about 50 running miles in for the whole year, while I have running friends that put in that many miles each week. My next running race is in mid-May.

What Is A Brevet

Well today I found out. At 8am 13 of us left LeClaire heading to Bellevue and then back to LeClaire. This was a 200km (125 mile) Brevet and was sponsored by the Quad City Randonneur Club. Randonneur is a French word that means, a male long distance cyclist. And a Brevet is a sponsored ride that requires certification of your completion of a Randonne'e. And a Randonne'e is a long ramble (ride) in the country side which is a timed event and with a time constraint on how long you have to complete it.

Besides myself there were 3 other riders from Muscatine, Chad, Bill and Joe.

At the start of the race we were issued a certificate that had certain control points that we must stop and get a signature and a time posted on the card. Our first control point was Low Moor, which was 44.7 km into the ride. The control was a conveience store and the clerk signed and wrote the time on our cards. The second control point was Bellevue at 103.2 km. Then on the return we went back to Low Moor at 161.1 km an ended back at the Comfort Inn in LeClaire for the end.

After the first half hour we had broken into two groups and I was in the last group. Each group had 6 people and the 13th person was behind us all. At the first control point, the first group was just leaving the convenience store when we pulled into town. One of the riders in the first group had gotten dropped and we picked him up just before we got into Low Moor. Just before we got to Bellevue we picked up another rider. The first group was still taking a break in Bellevue when we pulled into the convenience store. When we left Bellevue there were 4 (including Chad, Bill and Joe) in the first group and 8 in our group. By the time we got to Low Moor our group had whittled down to 6. We all stayed together into LeClaire and I checked in at 3:41. My bicycle computer registered 17.4 mph average and 7 hours and 11 minutes. The additional 30 minutes reported on my check-in time is attributed to the 3 stops we made. The ride was pretty hilly and the organizers indicated that there was 4,350' of climbing.

A brevet ride is pretty structured and the organizers have to file our stamped tickets and register our ride in France, where our names get added to the "Roll Of Honor" for cyclists. Woop-ee.

The weather was pretty good today. The temps were cold for the first 2 hours with low 30's during the start and a northeast headwind at 9mph. It did warm up as the day progressed, but the winds shifted more to the east and we didn't have much of a tailwind coming back. My legs are a little sore and of course I am tired and there were times I wanted to drop off the pace and slow down, but I survived and the other riders I rode with were good to cycle with. There were a few riders from the Quad Cities, but surprising there were several from out of town. One was from Galesburg and another was from Cedar Falls. Two other riders I didn't catch where they were from, but they had stayed at the Comfort Inn the night before, so must have been from out of town.

This picture was taken on the return route of a silage silo on a farm.

Century Territory

Today one of our club members, Joe made plans for a century. The plan was to start at 10 and get in 50 by 1:00 and then go out again and do the last 50. We had another windy day with a 15 mph wind out of the east and the wind chill was in the upper 30's to mid 40's throughout the day.

Seven of our club members (including 3 of the riders joining me on my Colorado ride) came out for the first 50 and two more joined us part-way through. My average for the first half of the century was 17.2 mph. I was having trouble with my speedometer and I only registered 43 miles for the first loop. I didn't get a chance to ask anyone else what they logged.

On the next loop some of our earlier riders went home and we picked up one new rider. There were five of us on this ride. My legs were starting to give out and I needed to get back home to meet some friends for dinner, so I returned to the truck with a total of 84 miles for the day. It was my longest ride of the year and was pretty tired after the ride. I know I need to do many more of these longer rides to build up some endurance for my Colorado ride.

Bike Path Riding

This afternoon I was in Davenport and took my bike. I rode the Duck Creek Bike Path and did a loop that gave me 21.5 miles. Temps were in the low 50's and there were a lot of walker, joggers and bikers out enjoying the sunny day.

Yesterday I was going to ride with our club on our Tuesday night ride, but the weather cooled down to 43 and there was a 25+ mph southwest wind that discouraged me. So I spent an hour on my trainer inside the house. I was hoping by this date I would be doing all my riding outside, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I took this picture at the west end of the Duck Creek path where it runs adjacent to Emeis Golf Coarse.

Windy Spring Weather

Today the weather was going to be questionable all day. Chance of rain and very windy conditions-25-35 mph. I finally got out to do a short 15 mile ride. The wind was out of the east-southeast and my ride was on a north-south road. There was a few times I had a little trouble keeping from being blown off the road.

This is a picture of my wind sock out at the end of my driveway.

Biking Club Rides

The last 4 or 5 days have been nice enough to get outside and bike. Two nights ago I attended my first club ride of this year. The Melon City Bike Club simply calls this their Tuesday night ride; however, most of the riders that attend call this race night or hammer night.

There were 8 of us that showed up for the ride. The wind was blowing swiftly (20+ mph) out of the southwest. We headed into the wind and we let the fastest riders do all the pulling on the first half of the ride. Averaging 18-20 mph into this kind of head wind was amazing. Since I am the senior citizen in the bunch, I let everyone else do the work and I drafted. Hopefully, as the season progresses and I get into better shape I will be able to do some of the pulling. Coming back was real quick, averaging 28-30 mph. The wind had started to die down a little, but it still gave us a good boost. Two riders turned around before we got to the halfway point. I got dropped before we got back to the starting point, but ended up with a 20.9 average for the 34 mile ride. I found out that you don't get much of a draft from a good tailwind.

My Colorado ride this year is scheduled for June 28-July 3. So far I have several that are planning on going. Hopefully, I will make our lodging reservations in the next week or two and put the final plans together to make this ride happen. If you would like to see a preview of this year's ride, you can go to my web-page: www.crazyguyonabike.com/iowacyclist

St. Patrick Day's Ride

Yesterday the Melon City Bike Club had their annual St. Patrick Day ride. Patti and I took the tandem and we counted around 25 riders in our group. We headed south of Muscatine on Stewart Road. The wind was coming out of the southeast at 5 to 7 mph. The sun was out and it was close to 60 degrees. Such a great day for a leisurely ride. We ended up with around 24 miles for the day. It was the first time getting out the tandem this year and the first time that Patti had ridden outside since last fall.

The weather is looking good for the next 2 days as it is supposed to be in the upper 60's to lower 70's. I am hoping to get out on the Tuesday night club ride this week.

The sunset picture was taken in late January during our vacation in Jamaica.

Spring Around The Corner

After a very long...long winter things are looking up. Yesterday it got up to 73 degrees (a record). There is still snow in ditches and on the north slopes, but it won't last long.

I went out and did a 50 mile ride yesterday, riding into the wind (15-25 mph) for the first half of the ride. The return was very enjoyable with the wind at my back.

I started using a different training program for my cycling a couple of weeks ago. It is called "Power To The Pedals". It's structure uses 2-1 hour sessions per week that are very intense and work on different approaches to building cycling strength. It's too early to tell how this compares to my previous cycling training methods.

Will be taking a couple of days off and going to an in-door water park with our daughters and grand-kids.

Warm Weather In February

It has been a long winter and it isn't over yet, but today it got up to 58 and tomorrow we are expecting much the same. I went outside for my first bike ride since late November. For the past 2 months I have been spending time on my trainer and doing a spinning class at the YMCA. I did a short 17 mile ride today and averaged a good pace of 18 mph on a fairly hilly course.

I didn't get a chance to go snow-shoeing today, but will go in the morning. I suspect that most of tghe snow will be melted by tomorrow night.

It looks like we have a 5 day recourse from old man winter before it turns cold again. It felt good to get outside and bike along a road with some scenery. I didn't get chased today by any dogs, but did have one bark at me for a while.

Winter Training

It has been 6 weeks since I have updated my blog. The Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Holidays have been a busy time for me and my family. And to top it all off, December was one of the worst for the amount of snow and the cold that we have had here in a long time and for that reason it was mid-November since I have been outside on a bike.

I started riding my bike on a trainer in our rec. room on November 17th. I set a goal of doing 6 to 7 hours of riding per week on the trainer. Last year I put in more time on the trainer, but found it boring and difficult to go much more than 1 hour at a time; so this year I have decided to do some cross-training to supplement the bike riding. I began in late November and early December running 3 miles per day. When the snow hit, I switched to snow shoes and am doing 1 to 1.5 miles per day. I also wear a 35-40 pound pack to put a little more stress on my legs. Snow shoeing give you a good aerobic workout.

I also was working in 1 session per week at the YMCA on the spinner and in a Pilates class. I wasn't able to get in those routines during the Holidays, but hope to begin again this week.

Training Resumed

Yesterday I got back into my exercise routine. Mid-September was the last time I was really doing some consistent training. In the last two months I have only been on the bike 3 times and put in about 50 miles.

I have decided to add running to my biking routine this time. What I plan on doing is a 3 mile run each day and bike maybe 60 minutes per day on the trainer. Longer than 60 minutes is quite boring. Last winter I put in some 120+ minute rides on the trainer and it was hard.

The weather right now is not very accommodating to bike outside as it was 18 degrees this morning and the high will be in the 30's. I am hoping that there will be more good days during this winter period than last year to get outside. This helps break the monotony of being on the trainer all the time. So yesterday I did my 3 mile run out in the woods behind our house and then later in the day got on the trainer for a 60 minute ride. Let's see how long I can keep this up. Last year I started my training program on December 31, so I am getting a head start this time.

Elk Hunting-2008

Back in mid-October I drove out to the Montrose Colorado area to my sister's home. Riding with me were my mother and sister. We made a two day journey out of it with an overnight in Laramie Wyoming. On the first day I met with a customer in Louisville Nebraska and had dinner with a customer in Laramie.

Joining me for the elk hunt was my brother-in-law, Robert, and his son, Jason. Jason is only 13 years old and this was his first time to join us. This would be my 5th elk hunt. The first day was spent packing into the backcountry of the Lizard Head Wilderness area, near Telluride. Besides the three horses we rode, we also took two horses for packing our gear. After sitting up camp we rode around the area to do some scouting. The scouting didn't turn up anything and for the next three days we would hunt in this area. Unfortunately, after covering a tremendous amount of country during those three days only one elk was sighted (by Robert) and it was legal (needs to have 4 points on one side to be legal).

We packed out the afternoon of the 3rd hunting day and went back to my sister's house. The next morning we hunted on their ranch property with permission from the outfitter that has the hunting rights for this land. During one period when I was walking through an aspen forest, I had just finished taking a break and was putting my pack back. A loud noise in the timber alerted me to something moving very fast toward me. I grabbed my gun just as I saw a cow elk and a bull following her emerge near the edge of the timber. They quickly made a 90 degree turn and entered the densely wooded area again and by the time I drew my gun and brough the bull into my sights, the timber was obstructing my view. I took one shot, but the bullet was deflected by a tree and I lost my chance for this year.

After returning to the house and getting a birthday dinner, we left early the next morning back for Iowa. I normally fly when I make these trips out to Colorado, but had taken my truck this year so I could haul back my trophy from last year's hunt. Last year was my most successful hunt of the 5 years I have been making this trek. I connected with a 6x6 bull elk. My brother-in-law, Robert, had went around behind me and walked through a growth of aspens and scared up a herd of elk. The first bunch had 20-25 elk, including some small bulls that weren't legal. The next bunch followed about 10 seconds later and included a few cows and this big bull following the herd. They were moving fast across the open meadow angling away from me, but I managed to hold my cross-hairs on the elks right shoulder and connected. I wouldn't know for another 20 minutes that I had connected as the bull never slowed down and vanished across the meadow into the dense timber. Once Robert returned we got on our horses and went down to the area that I made my first shot and found a blood trail that we followed. As we got to the edge of the timber we could see the bull down just 20 feet inside. Now our work was just beginning, as it took us 3 hours to field dress the bull and skin out the hide to preserve the head mount. Then we had to load everything up on our two horses and walk and hour to get back to the truck.

This year the weather was way to warm and we believe this was the primary reason we didn't find elk at our first location. Elk move to different areas and different elvevations depending upon the prevailing weather conditions. Hopefully, next year we will not have a repeat of this year's experience.