We modified the Velo Club's Beckman Mill Route, just because Mike felt like it. It was hilly and challengin and I got my first set of weird tan lines for the season - glove tan, Garmin tan, watch tan, and bike shorts line. Activity Route: Beckman Mill modified Elev. Avg: 842 ft Location: Rock, WI Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 04/20/08 Up/Downhill: [+1745/-1748] Time: 10:20 AM Difficulty: 4.4 / 5.0   Weather: Clear with Haze   68 F temp; 56% humidity   68 F heat index; winds Calm Performance Distance: 34.86 miles Time: 2:31:46 Speed: 13.8 mph Pace: 4' 21 /mi Heart Rate: 136 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1890 170 bpm (Peak) Map Rock, Wisconsin   Elevation (ft)   Speed (mph)   Heart Rate (bpm)   Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 167 - 185 0h 02m 1%  0.45 mi Zone 4 148 - 167 0h 39m 26%  6.84 mi Zone 3 130 - 148 1h 07m 44%  16.95 mi Zone 2 111 - 130 0h 56m 37%  15.01 mi Zone 1 93 - 111 0h 03m 1%  0.96 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0%  0.00 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 4' 32 +0' 11 13.2 -0.6 123 0 ft 2 5' 06 +0' 45 11.8 -2.0 138 +6 ft 3 3' 40 -0' 40 16.3 +2.5 138 -46 ft 4 4' 41 +0' 20 12.8 -1.0 131 +33 ft 5 4' 25 +0' 04 13.6 -0.2 146 -3 ft 6 3' 38 -0' 42 16.5 +2.7 132 -55 ft 7 3' 58 -0' 22 15.1 +1.3 120 -16 ft 8 4' 10 -0' 10 14.4 +0.6 130 +17 ft 9 4' 27 +0' 06 13.4 -0.4 146 +26 ft 10 4' 04 -0' 16 14.7 +0.9 131 -65 ft 11 4' 04 -0' 16 14.7 +0.9 135 -13 ft 12 4' 19 -0' 01 13.9 +0.1 119 +16 ft 13 12' 31 +8' 10 4.8 -9.0 147 +135 ft 14 3' 13 -1' 07 18.6 +4.8 114 -111 ft 15 0' 03 -4' 17 1008.2 +994.4 140 -10 ft 16 4' 59 +0' 38 12.0 -1.8 -- +59 ft 17 8' 04 +3' 43 7.4 -6.4 151 +42 ft 18 4' 51 +0' 30 12.4 -1.4 138 -46 ft 19 0' 01 -4' 19 3564.1 +3550.2 144 +13 ft 20 4' 04 -0' 16 14.7 +0.9 144 -26 ft 21 5' 14 +0' 53 11.4 -2.3 131 -46 ft 22 0' 31 -3' 49 115.0 +101.2 127 -7 ft 23 4' 41 +0' 20 12.8 -1.0 144 +27 ft 24 5' 21 +1' 00 11.2 -2.6 134 +56 ft 25 5' 17 +0' 56 11.3 -2.5 145 +66 ft 26 3' 39 -0' 41 16.4 +2.6 125 -62 ft 27 4' 21 +0' 00 13.8 -0.0 122 +14 ft 28 3' 25 -0' 55 17.5 +3.7 114 -134 ft 29 4' 36 +0' 15 13.0 -0.8 135 +36 ft 30 4' 15 -0' 05 14.1 +0.3 134 +3 ft 31 3' 23 -0' 57 17.7 +3.9 134 -43 ft 32 2' 56 -1' 24 20.4 +6.6 136 +7 ft 33 3' 27 -0' 53 17.4 +3.6 141 0 ft 34 3' 55 -0' 25 15.3 +1.5 147 +33 ft 35 4' 49 +0' 28 12.4 -1.4 139 +20 ft 36 3' 46 -0' 34 15.9 +2.1 134 +6 ft 37 4' 05 -0' 15 14.7 +0.9 146 +23 ft 38 5' 01 +0' 40 11.9 -1.9 146 +36 ft 39 4' 36 +0' 15 13.0 -0.8 138 +10 ft end 5' 50 +1' 29 10.3 -3.5 141 0 ft Versus average of 13.8 mph

Posted from bimactive.com

Six Word Meme for today's bike ride

After work tonight I set out on my pretty pink ride out into the country. I have a 25 mile ride on deck for tomorrow with a swim, but I won't have time for both after work tomorrow so I swapped out the ride for tonight.

I thoroughly enjoyed my ride, although it was painfully slow at times and I actually had to walk one GIGANTORIFFIC hill just on the other side of Hanover. You see, I hadn't ridden there since last fall and I knew the turn was coming up and couldn't recall exactly where it hit on the hill, so I was going slow looking for my turn and simply lost momentum. I had some mean hill climbing goat like skills last summer, I need to get those back into shape soon.

I did manage to get in a little blog reading and so I was thinking about Misty and Pirate's posts about the 6 word memoir. Seeing that it took me almost 2 hours to complete my ride, I had plenty of time to work on a few myself. Here is one to describe my experience today:

Riding outdoors, country roads, exquisite bliss.

To see the pretty graphs and stuff from my ride on Bones in Motion, click here.

In other news, we got the call that Nick was accepted to Charter School. He starts tomorrow morning. It is self-paced so hopefully that will be motivation to work on this as quickly as he can and get that diploma in his hand in time to graduate with his class. Yeah! We will get the chance to update his last graduation picture!

My Life in Pictures

(Click To see my Bones in Motion Log for this run with all the data, maps and graphs.)

Today, we took a slow run down to our usual pre-winter running grounds. This used to be a nice run for us that was quite scenic, picking up the bike path that runs alongside the Rock River. In the fall, we could watch the boats go by, watch the Water ski Team practice their pyramids, and watch a whole host of birds and critters go by. Quite a different story these days. The river is flooded and much of the neighborhood that the bike path passes is underwater after the snow melt from massive quantities of snow, followed by the last week or so of torrential rains. Our path is closed from the hospital through Riverside park, our usual turnaround spot to head back towards home. Today, we ran into Riverside Park a different way and this is what we saw.

This first view is from higher ground coming down into the park after going through the Riverside tunnel and turning right. You can see a street branching to the left. Going forward from there you see a house and what used to be a street in front of it. This next shot is a little closer up of the same area.The part underwater? Yeah, that's our run path, there along that tree line.

See that line of posts sticking out of the water? That is the spot where the path becomes a run/bike-only blacktop path. If you look closer, you can see the street sign there behind it. It normally stands about 8 feet high, but most of it is submerged.

See Mike crying? This is the spot where the path goes underwater inside the park. Behind him is normally a winding path that goes behind that stand of pines and around to the right, back to the spot where the street sign looks to be about 2 feet tall. Not running there today buddy!











Here is the sign pointing to the start of that Kiwanis trail from Riverside park. Apparently its a true triathlon trail now. You can run, bike, AND swim on it!



















Here is a shot of the pavilion where I normally would refill my water bottles for the first time on my long runs last summer. See that speck in the middle of the picture? Yeah, that's a park bench. We didn't wade out that 200 yds or so to sit on it though. Not today.

Here is another park bench in the middle of the river. No thank you, I'll just stand on shore.

When I took this picture, I patted the pocket of my jacket I had taken the camera out of and had a mini-panic attack that my cell phone was not in it. We then back-tracked our steps around the park Family-Circus-style for the next ten minutes. Then I patted the pocket of my tights and realized my phone was in my pants pocket. I forgot to take a picture of Mike's happy face ;-)

Looking back through my camera, I realized we never posted pictures of our bike fittings, so here they are. What a difference it makes to have someone make your bike just the perfect fit for you and the way you ride. It was an awesome experience!

And last but not least is a picture of Nick with Mike after picking him up in Bessemer Michigan to bring him home last Sunday. we had just stopped for lunch about an hour back south into our drive home. Notice how high the snow is around them. Did I mention this was in April? Insane. This same day in Janesville, it was in the 60's sunny, warm and beautiful. Best day for a bike ride all year. It's a good thing we like this kid!

Keep your fingers crossed for Nick tonight. We interviewed yesterday for the Rock River Charter School yesterday and we will find out on Monday if he can get in right away. Best case scenario is he can start right away in the self paced e-learning program and he moves quickly enough through it to complete the coursework in time to walk the stage with his graduating class in June. I've been crossing my fingers, toes, legs, arms, and eyes since yesterday, which might account for why I was running so fricking slow today!

Lucas had a track meet, I had some miles on the training plan to get in. So as a compromise, we froze our asses off at the track meet at Monetery Stadium and I ran home. I was hoping it was 5 miles, but ended up at a little over 3.5 with an extra loop up to Austin Road and back to the house. Would have added more but it was dark and I was a popsicle. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 834 ft Location: Janesville, WI Elev. Gain: +124 ft Date: 04/09/08 Up/Downhill: [+301/-177] Time: 07:08 PM Difficulty: 2.4 / 5.0   Weather: Mostly Cloudy   43 F temp; 76% humidity   43 F heat index; winds NE 8 Performance Distance: 3.56 miles Time: 0:47:02 Speed: 4.5 mph Pace: 13' 13 /mi Heart Rate: 164 bpm (Avg) Calories: 392 175 bpm (Peak) Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Heart Rate (bpm)   Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 167 - 185 0h 23m 49%  1.69 mi Zone 4 148 - 167 0h 27m 58%  2.20 mi Zone 3 130 - 148 0h 01m 1%  0.08 mi Zone 2 111 - 130 0h 00m 0%  0.02 mi Zone 1 93 - 111 0h 00m 0%  0.01 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0%  0.00 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 12' 57 -0' 16 4.6 +0.1 159 +20 ft 2 13' 47 +0' 34 4.3 -0.2 163 +40 ft 3 12' 26 -0' 47 4.8 +0.3 166 +53 ft end 12' 55 -0' 18 4.6 +0.1 167 +14 ft Versus average of 13' 13 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

What a weekend

Nick's home. I'm tired. For now, read what Mike said.
More from me later.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Diva's Maiden Voyage

The bike is awesome, the wind was wicked! Activity Route: Jwim's Black Angus SW Elev. Avg: 832 ft Location: Rock, WI Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 04/05/08 Up/Downhill: [+964/-967] Time: 01:05 PM Difficulty: 4.2 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 63 F temp; 33% humidity 63 F heat index; winds SW 17 G 25 Performance Distance: 23.10 miles Time: 1:38:50 Speed: 14.0 mph Pace: 4' 17 /mi Heart Rate: 148 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1294 174 bpm (Peak) Map Rock, Wisconsin Elevation (ft) Speed (mph) Heart Rate (bpm) Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 167 - 185 0h 10m 10% 1.65 mi Zone 4 148 - 167 0h 51m 51% 10.90 mi Zone 3 130 - 148 0h 50m 50% 11.51 mi Zone 2 111 - 130 0h 05m 4% 1.51 mi Zone 1 93 - 111 0h 00m 0% 0.00 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0% 0.00 mi

Posted from bimactive.com

Took a quick run around the neighborhood, including a pit stop at the elementary school to vote. 55 Days to Madison Marathon --- need to get my big butt in gear! Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 860 ft Location: Rock, WI Elev. Gain: -9 ft Date: 04/01/08 Up/Downhill: [+223/-232] Time: 05:40 PM Difficulty: 2.5 / 5.0   Weather: Mostly Cloudy   45 F temp; 48% humidity   45 F heat index; winds N 17 Performance Distance: 4.62 miles Time: 1:00:22 Speed: 4.6 mph Pace: 13' 04 /mi Heart Rate: 173 bpm (Avg) Calories: 552 186 bpm (Peak) Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Heart Rate (bpm)   Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 167 - 185 1h 01m 100%  4.50 mi Zone 4 148 - 167 0h 11m 19%  0.86 mi Zone 3 130 - 148 0h 04m 6%  0.08 mi Zone 2 111 - 130 0h 00m 0%  0.02 mi Zone 1 93 - 111 0h 12m 20%  0.01 mi (none) out of range 0h 03m 4%  0.01 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 11' 58 -1' 06 5.0 +0.4 167 -62 ft 2 12' 57 -0' 07 4.6 +0.0 171 -6 ft 3 13' 04 +0' 00 4.6 -0.0 175 -6 ft 4 19' 17 +6' 13 3.1 -1.5 173 +29 ft 5 3' 23 -9' 41 17.7 +13.1 176 +16 ft end 01' 15' 00 +01' 01' 56 0.8 -3.8 175 +20 ft Versus average of 13' 04 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

The wait is Over

We got a chance to speak to Nick yesterday and to my relief no one had hacked him up and buried him in the backyard, he is alive and apparently OK, living with his friend and some other people in UP Michigan, population 2000. I was able to tell him all the essential info I thought he needed to have as an adult living in the world on his own (health insurance, car insurance, and whatnot...). We even offerred to mail him some things he left behind, like all of his underwear and socks if he would give us an address to mail it all to.
From what he says he has an address, but couldn't recall what it was ...... AND he has enrolled himself in the high school (I checked - there is only 1 jr/sr high in town) and he wasn't sure what the name of the school he was now going to was....... so I'm not exactly sure what's up but my bullshit meter is alarming full tilt. Maybe he is going to Riverdale High with Archie and Jughead.... I'm pretty sure that was an imaginary high school too.
At any rate, the lines of communication are open again hopefully, which I am grateful for.

So here is my public service message for the day: Remember this when you are looking at that sweet little child with the halo hanging from his head........ Someone once told me this and I thought it would never apply to me but it applies to everyone eventually I've come to believe.
"Little kids, little problems; big kids, BIG problems."