NCO 10K with a ride

Well Sunday was the first outdoor race of the season, it was a local 10K partially through a forest preserver and with a relatively small field of 1000 runners between the 5K and 10K races.

The race was well run and it was great day for a morning run plus it was the third race that my wife has attempted ever, and a good test going into the Indy Mini-Marathon in a couple of weeks. The best part of the day was that myself and wife both passed our expectations by a decent margin. In prepping for the half marathon I have been running mostly 8:15 miles but averaged 7:31's on Sunday so was quite happy with that as there were a couple of 7:15's in there to catch up for the slow first mile. Even more exciting was seeing the wife run 8:30's as she was expecting 9:00's. Definatley helps the confidence.

Following the good morning run and how well it went an addition to some decent weather I decided to head out for a nice ride why the boy took his afternoon nap. So without a predetermined route or any expectations I just headed out and when all was said and done I got in a decent 35 miles and felt pretty good overall.

The downside of all this great training on Sunday was my legs were jelly for swimming Monday night but that is the price you pay for picking it up little to test were you are going in to May.

Good Run

Well last night I had my best run of the year as far as time goes. This is hopefully a sign that progress is being made at least in the terms of speed.

I headed out for a quick 5.5 miles while it was still somewhat light out. I felt pretty good throughout and didn't seem be really pushing myself to much so maybe it was the jamming out to some good old AC/DC live that helped things along.

The end result 5.5 miles with an average pace of 7:30 per mile down from my usual 8:15 so not to bad in my book. I hope this is the result of the additional long distance runs I have been throwing in as well as the consistent commitment to the bike and swim.

Now the goal is to replicate that time again this weekend in a nice little 10K.

Triathlon Season is here

Well last night was the first night of the new session this year at Masters and you can tell that the triathlon season is right around the corner here in Chicago. Over the last three months we had at most two people to a lane, last night was a different story. There were four to five freakin people to a lane, I am all for people getting into Triathlon but man lets try to get things going a little earlier than April people.

The worst part is that the skill level is all over the place so it usually takes a couple of weeks to sort everyone out. To get the fast ones the confidence to swim up with the fast group and the mid range to realize they aren't where they were last year at the end of the season and to slide on down with the slower groups. Overall it wasn't that bad but more of a shock to show up and see that the pool has been invaded.

The Biggest Loser Tri

The Beert family is a big fan of The Biggest Loser, I personally think it is great television for a few reasons. First I love the fact that people are pushing themselves to the limit to meet their goals and in most cases sacrificing a significant amount of time away from their family's in order to accomplish these goals. Second the concept is great who would not want to do this, I mean where else do you get to be away from work for three or four months and only have to exercise. For me this would be heaven, having someone lay out your workouts and laying out what you eat and all you have to do is show up. That would be the life! Third I think this is one of the few "reality" shows which is somewhat legit, I mean you either lose the weight or you don't. Don't get me wrong the drama at the weigh-in is a little stretched but hey it is still television.

So last night the final five contestants did a sudo Triathlon which was really cool as I think it is a great sport for the average person that gets bored with just a single sport. This introduces the sport to people that may have never thought of taking part before. The best part was that at the end of this mini tri they had to climb forty-four flights of stairs, man now that would be a little tough I will admit.

I would love to follow up with these contestants in the future and see if any decide to get into Triathlon as part of their training going forward, as you all know it is addicting.

Overall I think this is a great promo for the sport and hopefully helps grow the sport even more than it has already in the past ten years.