A Fight Gone Bad and Running weekend

Yesterday at the gym, we did the Fight Gone Bad workout. This workout is three five minutes rounds of one minute at the following Box Jump, Barbell Push Press, Row for cal, Wall Ball, and Sumo Deadlift Hi Pull. You total your number of reps/calories for the three rounds. I got a score of 304 which was much better than my 274 from February. It is always nice to see improvement.

After the workout, I think I took a step back as I competed in a cupcake eating contest. The rules were run one lap, eat 5 cupcakes each, and run another lap. There were three teams and Brian and I finished a distant second. The first place team had a competitive eater, so in my mind we finished 1st in the novice division.

This morning I got up and went for a run with Sean and Jason. Sean is working toward the Portland marathon and Jason wanted to punish himself. I have decided to run with Sean whenever possible so he has a training buddy for the Marathon. I have no plans of running a marathon, but if I can help him get ready I will. Originally the plan was to do a 12 mile run, but as it turns out the run.com web page had an inaccurate route distance and we actually ran got in 8.5 miles. Personally I thought the distance was just right. I can tell you my legs would have preferred even less distance, as they are very sore today. I will say that doing a long run (for me this was a long run) is mentally a challenge. There were several times where I just wanted to quit and walk but I knew I shouldn't. At roughly the 7.5 mile mark I caved and started walking. Sean ran back and I pushed to do a couple of 1 min walk/run intervals. After only a couple of intervals, I got a second wind and finished the run out much stronger. Pushing my limits doing something I don't really like is good for me. Even thought I don't really enjoy running, when ever I do something physically I have never done before it is satisfying.

Softball and Burgers

Last night I had my first fall league softball game. The weather was gorgeous, but our playing was not. We couldn't string any hits together, and our defense was as bad as it has been this season. Hopefully it was just rust and we come out and play better at our next game. I know it is all just for fun, but I can't help but to be really frustrated and mad when we lose. I guess with certain aspects of my life my competitiveness will never go away.

After the game I went to meet the Recreate Burger Crew for our Thursday Burger outing. It turned out to be just me and Todd at the 5th Quadrant a small brew pub in the NE. The burger was actually very tasty. This burger is a bit different than our recent selections, as this is a more classic American burger. It didn't have any fried onion strips or pimento cheese. I had a bacon cheddar burger cooked medium rare. I found the toasted buttery bun to be better than your typical sesame seed bun. The peppered bacon was good. The meat had a sweet smokey flavor, but was a bit to greasy for me. Overall I thought this to be an average pub hamburger. I think if I went back I would try the bacon chicken sandwich.

Saturday is fight gone bad workout day at the gym. I don't remember what my score was last time we did this workout, but I do recall Nathan setting a goal for me. I guess I should figure that out before the workout so I know what I am shooting for. After the workout I am taking part in a cupcake eating race and a BBQ. The race consists of running a lap around the building, then eating 10 cupcakes between you and your partner, then running another lap. I don't remember the last time I ate 5 cupcakes in one sitting, and I know I have never ate cupcakes like that and then ran. It should be fun.

Tuesday Thoughts

I went back to the gym today after taking Monday off to recover. My legs were very sore on Monday. I had to get up several times at the office and just walk around, as they wanted to tighten up. I went for a light bike ride yesterday evening just to get moving. I think that was a good idea, as today I felt much better.

The workout at the gym was a partner workout of :30/:30 consisting of the following: Wallball, Ball Slam, swings/ring plank, and finally mountain climbers. We stayed at each station for six :30 working intervals and then moved to the next. The mountain climbers made my quads really burn. I felt slow today during the workout, but it did feel good to move.

I found another Triathlon to do this fall. It is called the Aluminum Man Triathlon in the Dalles, Oregon 80 miles east of Portland. The name makes me smile, as it is a play on the Iron Man. I am not sure yet if I will do it, but I am leaning towards doing one more this year. For this one you swim in the Columbia river and then the run course is also along the Columbia. It sounds very scenic and fun.

Portland Triathlon Results

I ran the Portland Tri this morning. It was fun but extremely hard.

The swim felt great. This was definitely my weakest portion of the Hagg lake triathlon. I sucked it up and joined LA Fitness so I could have access to the pool to train. It paid off, and made me feel like it is money well spent. Not only was I able to reduce my swim time (see below for results and analysis) I found I actually quite enjoy being in the pool. It is one of those exercises that I feel refreshed when I am done.

The bike was difficult. Both Sean (my training buddy) and I underestimated the biking portion. We had ridden on several occasions the portion of the bike route we had access to, and it didn't seem that difficult. However on race day, they had the necessary streets closed and we were exposed to the entire course. It was like a smack in the face. The course started out with a nice steady climb and then just past the 2 mile mark turned to a very steep climb 15% grade. Once I reached the top of this section my legs were spent. Then it was a mostly down hill back to the river front and on to lap two.

The run was mentally challenging. The bike took a lot out of me, and my legs didn't want to move any more. I had to convince my legs that it was going to be okay. This section felt like it took forever, and was painful every step. I managed to put one foot in front of the other and make it though. I wasn't really smiling at the end this time though.

Below are my results for the Portland Tri and Hagg Lake Tri. Since I am a big math geek, I have included some analysis to compare the results. Please note, that the pace results below are based solely on distance vs. time, and don't account for environmental factors such as swimming up stream in a river.

I tried like hell to get a table put in blogger to present my data nicely, but after two hours of trying, I give up. So in a text format here is a rundown of my results:

Hagg Lake vs. Portland

Swim: 0:20:40 vs 0:18:35
Pace: 1.45 mph vs 1.48 mph
T1: 0:04:17 vs 0:03:52
Bike: 0:51:26 vs 1:03:46
Pace: 14.58 mph vs 15.47 mph
T2: 0:02:27 vs 0:01:27
Run: 0:31:26 vs 0:29:35
Pace: 5.91 mph vs 6.28 mph

Some further analysis, to compare my results to the other competitors reveals the following.

Hagg Lake within my age group (30-34 Males), I finished 27th out of 31 competitors or I beat 12.9%. Overall I finished 241st out of 303 competitors or I beat 20.46%.

Portland within my age group (30-34 Males), I finished 14th out of 18 competitors or I beat 22.2%. Overall I finished 160th out of 274 competitors or I beat 41.64%.

Even though I didn't reach all of the goals I set for my self, I am proud and satisfied of my performance.

With my second sprint triathlon under my belt, I am convinced that I really do find this sport very satisfying. My long range plans are to complete an Olympic triathlon next year (twice the distance as the sprint). With a solid winters worth of training, I am excited to see where my times can go.

If you would like to see pictures from this race, please visit my flickr page. The link is on the right.

Portland Triathlon

As many of you already know, I am running my second sprint triathlon of the summer tomorrow bright and early. I thought I would take a couple of minutes to post my goals. Since this tri has slightly different distances than my last one, I decided to make individual event goals as well as an overall time goal. So with that in mind, I have the following goals for tomorrow.

Swim 18 min to complete 750 meters in the Willamette River (Hagg lake was 800 meter swim that I completed in 20:40)

Bike 60 min to complete 16.4 miles (Hagg Lake was 12.5 miles that I completed in 51:26)

Run 28 min to complete 3.1 miles along the Willamette River (Hagg Lake was 3.1 miles completed in 31:26)

With transitions figured in, I am hoping to complete this in under 1 hr and 50min.

I will post my results as soon as they are posted, hopefully tomorrow.

Hello Again

Well, my last post was nearly two months ago, and now that there are several things to post, I thought I would sit down and fill everybody in on life in Portland.

On Sept 25, Adrienne turned thirty. I think it was a little bit depressing for her. She kept talking about how frustrating it is that she was thirty and hadn't started her career. I kept trying to explain how it was really pretty awesome that she was able to hold out for so long. We had a really nice evening, as we went to the Portland City Grill for tapas and drinks, and then went to the Last Thursday street fair in the NE (Alberta). The street fair is really pretty cool, as they shut down a main street in the neighborhood, and many local artists, performers, musicians etc. sell their wears or perform. It brings a really interesting mix of people, so it is a great place for people watching.

On Oct 6th, Adrienne finally started work. Now she is officially a member of corporate america, as she got a badge and a cube. It is actually only down the hall from my space. Since she didn't have to be there until 9:00 for orientation we didn't go in together on her first day. That being said, I really enjoy going into work together in the morning. We catch the street car together, and get to chat in the morning the whole way to work. I think I will like working together. It reminds me of going to class together in college.

On October 24th, I was forced to address my wife as Doctor Menniti. This is the day that five years of hard work was granted with a PhD. For those that don't know, the process ends with a presentation to a committee of 5 PhD's. Two of which have to be from a university that is not your own. Adrienne chose to have two of her members from France, so she gave her presentation via video conference. So after you give your presentation to a general audience there is a short Q&A session. Then the general public has to leave and your committee grills you for another two hours. At which point they pass or fail you. Adrienne passed of course. It was really great to watch her presentation and I am really proud of her accomplishment. It was a long road with lots of ups and downs, but all in all the PhD experience was a good one for both of us.

November 1st, I finally got Adrienne to go hiking with me. She had been really busy since she got to Portland with the big push to finish her degree, so we hadn't had the time to go. With the fall colors it wasn't hard to convince her, but it did take some persuasion to talk her into a weekend off. Based on some reading about fall colors in Oregon, I chose to go to Silver Falls. I had went on my first weekend in Portland, but with the colors it was supposed to be even better. Let me tell you it didn't disappoint. It was fabulous. I don't think anything can really compare with colors in West Virginia, but there aren't to many waterfalls as backdrops for the colors. We spent the afternoon walking to a couple of the bigger waterfalls and took lots of pictures.

I am sure I will post again after the holidays, as we will be travelling. It will be nice to see family and friends.

Here are a few pictures from our hike. I will have pictures of the PhD day after Thanksgiving.

New Apartment

So since I haven't posted in a while I figure I will give you a recap of the last 6 weeks of my life. Starting with Adrienne's visit at the end of July. While Adrienne was here, we spent our time searching for a great place to live. By the end of an exhausting weekend, we had looked at more the 10 apartments, Adrienne had trianed at two gyms, and we went to the farmers market. By the time Adrienne left we had a new apartment picked out.

August 8th, I went to LA to watch Adrienne take the silver medal at the World No-Gi BJJ tournamant. It was a really nice mini vacation, as we stayed at a hotel real close to Hermosa beach. After Adrienne was done competing on Saturday, we went for dinner on the pier, and spent most of sunday relaxing and planning the upcoming move. This is also the weekend my buddy from work Brian played Handyman at our housing, fixing the items from the inspection. Much appreciated!!!!

August 15th is the day Adrienne and I closed on our house, and are no longer homeowners.

August 21st I met my sister in Dallas Texas to see my grandfathers grave, and officially say good bye. It was a really nice weekend spent with family. We did everything we wanted to do, and had a lot of fun together. It was a nice way to say goodbye and share memories together of Grandpa.

August 23 Adrienne got to Portland. I was in Texas Adrienne went to the new apartment today and got the keys.

August 24 Adrienne and I are finally in Portland together for good.

August 26 our stuff arrives. WOW!!! I don't know how we accumulated so much stuff over four years. It finally dawns on me that we have a lot of stuff to get rid of.

August 26-September 14 - Lots of trips to Ikea, and lots of hard work moving boxes around and it is amazing to me just how much garbage you generate in a cross country move. I bet we have filled our buildings recycle bin with paper and carboard.

On a really cool note, our friends Rachel and Glen were able to come to Portland tonight and see our new apartment. We went to dinner at the Bridgeport Brew House (within walking distance to us). It was really nice to be reminded that we met some great friends while we were in Champaign. Friends that will be around for a long time.

So here are a few pictures of our great downtown aparment. See my Flickr page for more.

Our new address is:

900 NW Lovejoy Apt. 708
Portland, OR 97209