PoorAxl's multisport blog

What a pity ...

2009-09-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

I am glad that I finished 1/2 Ironman.
I am glad that I did it 2 weeks ago, because ... it would not be possible to do it now. I have twisted my right ankle AGAIN! On straight clean surface, just my leg is not normal. I just stepped completely wrong and now I will be few weeks out of the training again.
But that's life. I will not throw the running away and start again as soon as it would be possible. I know, there will be no marathon this fall (I secretly planned for it), but it is not end of the life, is it?

Pilman - 1/2 Ironman

2009-09-04T03:15:00.000-07:00

I was on my first official 1/2 Ironman race on Saturday, August, 29th.

It was raining in the morning, but I did not mind as I was very exited to be in the race. During swimming, I even did not feel any rain, so it was fine. I think that the swim was a little bit shorter as I finished it in 40 minutes and I am sure I am not so fast. I used my swim suit, so i did not change the dress, just put the "Gear West" jersey on and went riding the bike. The bike route was hilly and longer than it should be (about 94km instead of 90km), First 60km were fine, with the speed average of 29km/h (18mph). Later, my back started to hurt and my legs were tired, so I needed to slow down and finished the bike at 3:21. Very good, as my plans were to be below 3:45, because of the race time limit.
1/2 marathon was very tough. My back slowed me down and my legs did not want to do what I was telling them ;-). In the second half of the run, I was walking in every climb. I finished the run at 2:04. I DID IT!!!
After crossing the finish line I was very tired, but happy. I am looking forward to my next race like this.

The official results can be found here

Athletic Pentathlon

2009-06-15T06:02:00.000-07:00

There was a fun track&field event in Kurim last Sunday - Athletic Pentathlon for teams.
There were 8 teams competing in 5 disciplines - long jump, javelin, 200m, shot put, 1500m. Each team consisting of 5 members and each member competing in a single discipline. For some of the participants it was a first time they were holding a javelin...
We had a family team - me, my 2 bros and my 2 kids. Lubos was one of the best long jumpers with his 477cm. Marek threw the javelin to the distance of 26.78m. Excellent throw, if I take in mind that he has an issue with a knee and will go to surgery next week. My son Vitek was running 200m and he beated his personal best - 31.0s. Lenka was putting the shot at her personal best as well - 5.58m is a decent distance with 3kg shot for 12 years old girl. The last discipline was my task and even though I usually run longer distances, I am really happy with 5:29,1 for 1500m.
Some pictures can be found here.

My first unofficial "almost" 1/2 ironman

2009-05-25T01:38:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I raced my first trail "almost" 1/2 Ironman, see http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8291400
Swimming in the Kuřim's swimming pool: 1.9 km for 41.30 - perfect and unexpected time and 2nd place overall (out of 13). My goal was to test my endurance and not speed (I wanted to complete it survived, not creeping on the ground). So I was just slowly drying myself and changed my dress, while the 3rd swimmer was like a lightening, he dressed himself wet and was gone ;-). So I started the bike on 3rd place. After about 10 kilometers, I fell at the 4th, when I was captured by another racer.
First half of the bike route was more or less on the road, the other on the hard and muddy trail. The bike result was again much better than I have expected. My thighs hurted, but I expected this of course ;-).
Before the run I completely changed all my dress to rest a little and to prevent any unpleasant feelings during the run. It took me 8 minutes ;-) . So even though I was 4th after bike, I have started the run route at 7th place, with the 8th behind my back. I quickly ran over one and the second too soon. The other other one was faster, so I held on the 5th place.
First 13 km was OK, but then my legs started to stiffen and burn, so I had to walk not only up the hill, but sometimes even on the flat parts and downhills.
According to the profile, the 1/2 marathon was really very challenging. Great satisfaction with the time 2:15.
The main thing is, I have survived! My legs hurt, but I am now sure I can handle 1/2 ironman!

Hi, I am still here ;-)

2009-05-21T03:53:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 2 months since my last post. The things are getting better and better. I am a runner again!
I started to run in a middle of April and I was slowly increasing the mileage. On sunday, 5/10, I ran my first race after injury - 8.5k (5 miles). Very nice race in nature around the "Baba" hill. I set a goal to beat 50 minutes and ... yes, it was easy. I did it at 45:25! Nice. I know it will take a while to get in a better shape, I am happy with what I can do now.
Apart of running I do more cycling than in any years before. This means, I reached 1000km just this week. This is mainly due to the fact I could not run, but anyway. It is good preparation for the season. I raced 12-hour race in April in a hard terrain and did >140km. Not bad.
Swimming is usually my worst training part of the triathlon. Till now I did just about 6km :-(. That's because I have no swimming pool at home ;-).
This weekend I signed for a friendly race/trip/whatever in a size of 1/2 iron. Let's see if I would survive this...

Ultrasonography

2009-03-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I visited a doctor who checked my ankles with ultrasonograph. Hopefully he has found the root cause of my continuous ache in the ankle. He told me several interesting things.

1. I have too large interarticular spaces in general. I can do nothing about it, just live with it and make the muscles around as strong as possible. This is the main reason I twist my ankles so often. I will begin special exercises for my ankles.

2. I have got some kind of liquid in my right ankle, which prevent the ankle to move properly and creates a pain. This liquid must be absorbed and to do that, I will take some pills. (I hope it works).

3. I should start to run as much as it does not hurt. I like this kind of advise. My previous doctor just told me - "don't do anything"

I am very positive about my running future now and I hope to be back on trail soon.

The winter is over?

2009-03-10T06:45:00.001-07:00

Probably not yet. But days are longer, air is warmer and snow is gone. For now. This would be ideal for more intensive running. I really deserve to run, to feel the fresh wet air in the woods, to hear the birds talk and ... But my ankle still does not allow me to do it. I tried several times to run on flat surface, but I can do it just for a short while. So I am just walking.
Last Saturday I took my bike out for the first time this year. I wanted to bike for about an hour. Unfortunately, after 2 miles I developed a flat. I had a reserve inner tube with me, but ... I forgot to take a pump :-(. So I just walked back.

I hope next time it will be better.

Back in the training ... may be

2009-02-16T03:23:00.000-08:00

This week I will try to start running again. Just slowly, carefully and on flat surface. I do not feel any pain in the ankle during walking, so it may work. However, I am still wearing brace to protect my ankle. I have also scheduled to visit a specialist doctor, who will hopefully help me to prevent such injuries in the future.

Last Saturday we had a running race in Kurim. I did not run, of course, but I helped to organize it and also took some pictures. There was a not bad weather for running, but on some places the surface was icy and so dangerous. Some runners were even running in shoes with nails.

"Kids at the start of their 1 mile race"

Injury again

2009-01-25T02:53:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I was racing in 10k race in Radostice. Very nice race, perfect nature scenery. Just it is difficult because of the weather, that is usually here in January. A lot of mud and pieces of ice.
I did not run it very fast and I enjoyed it even the conditions were not perfect.
But then it happened...

It has been 5 months since I twisted my right ankle. And on Saturday I did it again. :-(.
At least I could use the help of one spectator, that helped me to get to the finish line and my friend helped me to get home.

It means, that I cannot have any running plans for this year. And may be I will need to completely stop my running as my ankle is strictly against it.

No race schedule yet

2009-01-21T02:44:00.000-08:00

I did not plan the race schedule for 2009 yet. I just know I want to run marathon or 1/2 Ironman this year (finally). I had the same plan for last year, but was not able to complete it.
After my ankle injury in the fall and a lack of exercise, I am in a bad shape. I need to slowly increase my running mileage (15 miles last week is really poor) and definitely I need to start swimming in the pool. I will not set any dates for races until I get to a better shape.

Running again

2009-01-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

I am getting old. At least my "friends" told me that when I first came to work after Christmas. They had a good reason for that, because I was not able to turn my head without turning my whole body. On Saturday morning, when I was getting up, my neck was blocked. I really could not do anything, just lay horizontal.
Today I feel much younger and I am glad to run my first miles in 2009.

New Year's post

2009-01-06T03:35:00.000-08:00

It's been sooo looong since I posted my latest post. Isn't it time to renew my blog? The start of the New Year may be the good time for it.

It is also a good time to set goals (as I need to do for my employer also). So my sport's related goals may look like this:

1/ get rid of the 20 pounds overweight (running and biking will be much easier ;-))
2/ finish my first 1/2 ironman or similar distance (do I really want to set this goal?)
and finally - regularly send posts to my multisport blog (is 1 post per month enough?)

Hmm,these goals are definitely well measurable, but ... are they also achievable? Let's hope they are.

1/2 marathon in Brno

2008-05-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

Even though I did not follow my training plan during last week and just 9 days before the 1/2 marathon I went to donate my blood (fortunately just 0,5l), I decided to run this race. Also thanks to my family, as Jitka and Vitek promised to come with me. They helped me with refreshment and gave me motivation during race.

I had a goal to be better than last year and so wanted to reach as close as possible to 1:40. After the first lap of 2, my time was 49:55, which is less than half of the goal time, but I knew that I would slow down. The winner among women, Magdalena Mukunzi, was very fast. She was 11. among all and I think I could not pace with her even 100m. Furthermore, she looked like she was just on a trip.

The last 5km I started to feel my body too much. Missing kms in the training, overweight, may be also lack of red blood cells. This way the time 1:42:23 is very nice, even though it is 1 minute worse than last year.
Happy face in the finish means, I survived an can do it once more in the future. ;-)

Table tennis

2008-04-25T04:25:00.000-07:00

One of the games I like and may be I play it well (it is always relative) is the the table tennis. During winter I play once a week or once in 2 weeks with my friends. almost each Sunday night we meet at my neighbor's house, drink wine and play doubles. This winter season ends with a table tennis tournament in the small sport's hall in our neighborhood.
And this tournament was just the past weekend. 10 men and 4 women fighting to win the small "golden" plate statue. We were divided into 2 groups of 5, where we played in the table. After that there were 2 semi-finals, the match for the 3rd place and the final. I was able to win all matches in my group, losing just 2 sets (we played for 3 wins). In the semi-final I played against my friend that I know from doubles, so we knew each other and it was quite easy for me to win that match. However the final match was real drama. The player - Lukas was his name - was not from our village and I wanted to keep the victory "at home".

The first set, good services at both sides, very close score. The end of set were better for him - 0:1.
The second set, I have found out how to return on his service, I was leading from the beginning and - 1:1
The third set- Lukas has also found how to return my service. We kept to play very evenly till the end of the set and ... I lost - 1:2
The forth set. Again very dramatic set. The set is supposed to end at 11 points, but the difference must be min. 2 point. So we played 11:11, 12:12 and - I won 14:12 and the score was 2:2.
The final set - Lukas seemed to be mentally down (maybe because he is younger?) and the last set was easy for me 11:4. And yesss, I'm the winner!

Biking in the rain

2008-04-17T03:32:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, I have started with biking to and from work. It is quite a long distance (29km = 18 miles), so in the beginning I bike just once a week. This Tuesday it was the third time this year. Next week or maybe after my 1/2 marathon race, I will add more days per week and "officially" start the triathlon training.

This Tuesday it was good exercise of how to bike in the rain and get used to it. Everything was fine in the morning, but I forgot to look at the forecast and at 5pm, when I left work, it just started to rain. "Hm, I don't wait, it could be only worse later", I said to myself. After 5 minutes I was completely wet and started to be cold as well. It may have been the first time I hated downhills and enjoyed uphills - just to get warm. The profile offers me a lot of both:

Exactly following the Murphy's law, it stopped raining just when I arrived home. I was looking for a warm bath, but before that I needed to do a favor to my bike. My path is just partially on streets and more often I follow forest trails. And after the rain, there is a lot of mud everywhere and especially on me and my bike, of course.

Next time I will look at the forecast more carefully ;-).

The spring is here

2008-04-14T02:43:00.000-07:00

The spring is here, so we decided to do our every year activity of cleaning the forest from the trash. There was a rain on Saturday morning, nevertheless there was more than 20 kids with their parents coming. I never understand, why people throw their garbage in nature. We gathered 8 full big 50l bags!
In the meantime, experienced woodsmen roasted very good "buffalo" meat (the recipe by E.T. Seton) and we prepared a game for all the kids. They were looking for a treasure of a bandit named Lotrando.

The bandit Lotrando

In the evening I ran my longest run in 2008 so far. I wanted to do 20km, but my legs did not. So I ended up with 17km. So far so good. I took a free Sunday, because my legs were still unhappy with what I did to them day before.

I am free as a bird (full of endorphins after a race)

Here I add a nice picture from the race last week. If you do not have a friend to run with you, take your dog. If you get lost, he will always find his way home. In this case to the finish line.

Weekend plans

2008-04-11T03:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today it was extremely warm. Above 20°C. The weather forecast for the weekend is not so optimistic anymore, but still much warmer than in MN. So what can we do for a weekend?
Lenka is sick, so family trip is not an option. But we can go on a bike ride with Vitek. If he wants. And I need to continue with my 1/2 marathon training, so I could try the longest run of this year.

And of course, there is plenty of work to do in our garden after winter.
No boredom at all ...

fatigue

2008-04-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

I feel really tired this week.
The spring is coming, which is excellent. It also means I start to travel to my work by bike. Do you know, how is it to sit on a bike after 5 months not biking? It's terrible! First few miles are fine, but it is almost 28km to my work, with 2 steep hills. And I need to ride it back too. My butt, my back, my thighs, all it hurts.
As I want to finish a marathon this year I want to do a half of it first. I subscribed to a 1/2 marathon in the beginning of May and started to increase my running mileage. After 56km on my MTB on Tuesday I ran 15km on Wednesday. My longest run since ... I do not remember.
However, all it means I am tired, tired, tired. Why don't we have a bed at work?

The first one

2008-04-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

OK,
it's been a year after my registration here. So may be it is a time to post my first blog?

I like sport in general. During last years I do more running and cycling, tried few running races and short triathlon races. This year my training was poor so far, but still I would like to finish my first marathon and 1/2 ironman. Who knows, may be I will do it.

More later and hopefully not next year ;-)