SWim bIKe rUN

This weekend I decided to take it a little easy since we have The Race to Robie Creek next weekend.

Tuesday we did an 11 mile mountain bike ride.  It’s been a long time since we’ve been on the single track and it felt really good.  It was a really windy day so we did the climb through Rocky Canyon so that we could have a wind shield.  This worked well until we got to the top.  Now we were riding at about a 65 degree angle leaning into the wind just trying not to get blown over.  Shane, Dan, Brent and I had a great ride despite the 40 mph breeze.

All last week I’d been craving a hill run.  Not sure how you can crave a hill run but I just had this itch to get into the foothills.  Tuesday we did the ride.  Wednesday the weather was awesome.  However, my day to pick up the kids since my wife had to work late.  Thursday was raining.  Ah, Friday.  Perfect weather.  Even though we do our long runs on Saturdays I decided to hit the foothills for an easy hill run.  It was a great run and a really nice way to start the weekend.

Saturday morning we decided to limit our run to 8 miles so we turned around a little early.  We did the Bardenay Route starting in Eagle an running the Green Belt.  I love this run it is mostly dirt trail and runs through a lot of wooded area along the river. 

Sunday I limited my ride to 40 miles and again the weather was perfect.  A lot of hills on the Cartwright Loop running through Hidden Springs.  There was very little traffic and almost no breeze.  Perfect for riding.

A group of us are training for an Ironman.  A few of us are doing Coeur d’ Alene Ironman and a few of us, myself included, are training for the Boise Half Ironman.  Last years, 2009, finish in the Boise Ironman had to have been one of the closest in Ironman history with Craig Alexander passing Chris Lieto in a final sprint to the finish.  Just watching this finish makes you want to get out and run.

Training for marathons and triathlons with friends and setting goals in the same races is one of the best ways that I stay motivated.  There are some Saturday mornings where getting out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for the run just doesn’t sound fun.  These are the times that training with friends comes in handy.  You feel an obligation to be there in the morning and it pays off with some of the greatest runs you’ll have.

This morning we had a 40 mile ride planned out.  Even though the weather wasn’t cooperating 3 of us decided to give it a shot.  We headed out in a wet snowfall in 34F degree weather.  We made it out 1.5 miles when we discovered the water combined with the temp was just going to make this a miserable ride.  We ended up turning around and only getting in about 3 miles.  We got back to Todd’s house and Todd, Brent and I set up our trainers and turned the wheels for 2 hours.  Trainers are not the most fun when compared to riding outside and Todd, Brent and I all admitted that if we wouldn’t have been there as a group we probably would have only lasted about a half our on the trainer instead of two hours.

Training for a Triathlon can get into your blood.  All of us enjoy getting together on Saturdays for a run and Sundays for a ride.  Eventually we’ll end up doing brick training on one of those days.  We all mostly do our own training during the week.  Some of us get together on Wednesdays for an interval run and spin class.  As soon as we have enough light in the afternoons, we will replace this workout with a small brick.

The foothills of Boise were full of runners this weekend and it is truly an awesome feeling to be up in  the hills looking over the city when the sun rises.

My first race was in April of 2006.  Now most people I believe would start off with a 5k or a nice flat half marathon, but not my wife and I.  We chose “The Race to Robie Creek”, the toughest half marathon in the North West, located in Boise, ID.  Runner’s World did an article on Robie Creek calling it “Best Bragging Rights” in 2008.

I hadn’t done much running before 2006.  I’d played a lot of basketball, softball, a little rugby in college but I’d never really just gone out and ran.

I had neck surgery to fuse a couple of discs in my back in 2005.  After this surgery I took to running a couple of miles 3 to 5 times a week.  I couldn’t really do any lifting or jumping in basketball so this was my way to keep in shape.

A couple of buddies that I went to college with and played softball with talked me into running longer distances with them on Saturdays.  They eventually talked my wife and I into running “The Race to Robie Creek” with them.  I’ve been running longer distances ever since.  Our group meets up every Saturday for a longer run and it continues to grow.

After running 4 or 5 marathons we decided to tackle some Triathlons.  In June of 2009 a few of my friends in our running group decided to start their triathlon career with the Boise Half Ironman.  I started mine about a month or so later in the Boise Spudman.  A couple of months later I did the tri in Emmett Idaho.

Currently I’m training for the 2010 Boise Half Ironman which two other friends are racing with me.  A few of the others in our group are doing the 2010 Coeur d’ Alene Ironman.

4 years later and I still can’t wait for Saturday mornings to go running with the group.  The wife and I love running with this group and they are now among some of our closest friends.  I’d have to say that this is the number one way to stay motivated, train with friends.