...where our magic number to clinch a spot in the playoffs is 140!
It is too difficult to keep up with the Brewer's magic number every day, so instead, I recommend the UC Berkeley's RIOT baseball website. Click on the American League and National League icons to see the magic numbers for each league. The website is automatically updated every morning, so the information is always accurate.
RIOT (Remote Interactive Optimization Testbed) is a website that has solutions to many optimization problems, basically 'What is the best way to solve Question/Problem A? What solution to Question/Problem A gives us the greatest return/result?'. It's a computer science/mathematics thing, if you don't get it, you don't get it. I can only do so much.
Go Brewers/Twins!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Mad City 100k
For whatever reason (mainly to do something else bad-ass), I've officially signed up for the USTF 100k Road Racing National Championships, aka the Mad City 100k. I'll do the solo race, running all ten loops of the UW Arboretum 10k loop by myself, 62.1 miles in total, on Saturday, April 12th. The race starts at 6:30a and I should get done around 3:00 or 4:00p. I'll post again after the race to let you know how it went...if I didn't die. You can visit the Results website during the race to view my pace and progress, and read the live race blog.
Happy Birthday To Me!!!
Haven't written anything in a month, but nothing new has happened of note, so don't get on my case. A daily post saying 'I did noting today' would be pretty lame.
So, I now have a little time to write, I'll let you know what I did for my birthday. Last year, I had a big celebration, going out with friends for supper, then the Comedy Club and out more later that night. After planning something that involved last year, I didn't really feel like planning as much this year. I still had a busy day, it was long and tiring, but it was more low key.
I'm training to run the US Track & Field 100k National Championships, see next post, so I used the day to train. I ran twelve miles in the morning, refereed three soccer matches, and ran fourteen more miles with my friend Andrea. My twelve in the morning were pretty easy. I went at an easy pace and felt pretty good, but I somehow got a very large blister. I've never got a blister before, and the shoes and socks are ones I've had for a while and are broken in, so there should have been no reason. I popped the blister before soccer and bandaged it for soccer and my afternoon run. My afternoon went less-well, but the blister wasn't a problem. I was later than the time I planned to meet Andrea. I was planning to run some loops of the UW Arboritum, the course for the 100k. I was going to be late to meet Andrea, so I ran the first loop by myself at a pretty fast pace, grabbed a swig of water, and then took off with her at a slower pace. By then, my legs were feeling a bit sluggish, but still good. By the end of our run, I was 'bonking' pretty hard. That means that my glycogen (sugar) stores in my body were completely depleted and I had no more energy. When that happened, I got the chills, my head started to get a bit foggy, I got dizzy and was in pretty bad shape. I walked a little bit to allow my body to catch up a bit and I consumed some food and drink once I got back to the car. In a minute or two I was feeling much better.
After the physical part of my day, Kathryn and I met my parents and my friend Sarah at the Great Dane downtown for supper. The place was packed because it was a Saturday night and the Badger men's hockey team played that night. It was fun to catch up with Sarah since I hadn't seen her for a while.
So, I now have a little time to write, I'll let you know what I did for my birthday. Last year, I had a big celebration, going out with friends for supper, then the Comedy Club and out more later that night. After planning something that involved last year, I didn't really feel like planning as much this year. I still had a busy day, it was long and tiring, but it was more low key.
I'm training to run the US Track & Field 100k National Championships, see next post, so I used the day to train. I ran twelve miles in the morning, refereed three soccer matches, and ran fourteen more miles with my friend Andrea. My twelve in the morning were pretty easy. I went at an easy pace and felt pretty good, but I somehow got a very large blister. I've never got a blister before, and the shoes and socks are ones I've had for a while and are broken in, so there should have been no reason. I popped the blister before soccer and bandaged it for soccer and my afternoon run. My afternoon went less-well, but the blister wasn't a problem. I was later than the time I planned to meet Andrea. I was planning to run some loops of the UW Arboritum, the course for the 100k. I was going to be late to meet Andrea, so I ran the first loop by myself at a pretty fast pace, grabbed a swig of water, and then took off with her at a slower pace. By then, my legs were feeling a bit sluggish, but still good. By the end of our run, I was 'bonking' pretty hard. That means that my glycogen (sugar) stores in my body were completely depleted and I had no more energy. When that happened, I got the chills, my head started to get a bit foggy, I got dizzy and was in pretty bad shape. I walked a little bit to allow my body to catch up a bit and I consumed some food and drink once I got back to the car. In a minute or two I was feeling much better.
After the physical part of my day, Kathryn and I met my parents and my friend Sarah at the Great Dane downtown for supper. The place was packed because it was a Saturday night and the Badger men's hockey team played that night. It was fun to catch up with Sarah since I hadn't seen her for a while.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Happy Birthday D O!!!
Yesterday was my dad's 60th birthday, a culmination of a weekend of fun with family and friends. Friday, my mom's sister and husband arrived in Madison for the weekend. Since two of their kids (Dan and Anne) went to Mankato State and Anne played hockey for them, going to the Kohl Center to watch the MSU women take on our beloved and two-time, back-to-back national champion Wisconsin Badgers in the great and glorious game of hockey seemed like a good idea. We went to the game which Wisconsin won 4-2 (and the UW won 5-0 Sat. to sweep MSU and move on in the WCHA playoffs) and then to Dottie's for a burger after. Saturday, Dick and Judy (mom's sister and husband) and my parent's friends Allen and Lollie came over to my house to see it. They were very impressed by the house and enjoyed the tour. Saturday night, we celebrated dad's birthday with fifty of his closest friends at The Stable at Quivey's Grove in Verona. It was fun to see many of my parent's friends, most of which I hadn't seen since my brother's wedding.
Dad, Jake and me
Jonathan, ex-neighbors Tom and Linda (also great volunteers in the IM medical tent), Jake's parents Jake and Carrie, and Jake.
Jonathan, Megan and Kathryn
Singing and drinking in a barn. Does it get more Wisconsin than this? (The correct answer is 'No'.)
Sunday, I again, with Kathryn, met my parents, aunt and uncle, and Allen and Lollie for brunch at Cafe Continental. It was the first time I'd been there and I was really impressed. Good and interesting food. Sunday evening, Kathryn and I met my friends Chris and Jen for supper at Chili's. We see them often at Chris and my weekly soccer match, but we haven't done anything together. It was nice to see them, but all of our lives are pretty boring and we seen them often, so we didn't talk about much new. Just catching up on how their 14-month daughter Hanna is progressing.
That's it for now. Still running for the Mad City Marathon and Grandma's Marathon, and training for my next Ironman Wisconsin, September 6th, 2009.
Oh, and for those of you wanted to see the fabled UND-MSU women's hockey fight, here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZAehXzjG0w. YouTube has confirmed my thoughts that UND are just a bunch of goons...and the women's team is just goons with ponytails. Check out some of the other YouTube UND hockey videos. There is a UND-Gopher and UND-Badger men's fight from this year, and an old-school UND-UW hockey fight from the 80s that spills out into the tunnel and the beer garden. 'Honey, I went to the beer garden and a hockey fight broke out.' Kind of a new play on the old adage, 'I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.'
Thursday, February 21, 2008
You Know I Would
What would be a perfect storm for someone who likes (really) cold weather, (lots of) snow, endurance sports and is able to run?
http://www.arrowheadultra.com/index.html
It would be a lot less taxing on friends and family than RAAM (http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/). At least I could just go up there by myself for the weekend.
...I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
http://www.arrowheadultra.com/index.html
It would be a lot less taxing on friends and family than RAAM (http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/). At least I could just go up there by myself for the weekend.
...I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
Monday, February 18, 2008
More Snow (...and you expected something else?)
UPDATE:
As of 2/21/08, we currently have 83.7 inches of snow for the season, which broke the old record of 76.1 by a good amount, and we still have much more winter to go. I figure, if we break it, we might as well smash it. I'm hoping for 100 inches by the end of it. Don't mind me, I'm just nuts.
Sunday had the potential to be epic, and it was, but not in the way I was expecting. We were forecast to get 5-9 inches of snow. Big deal. This winter we broke the old seasonal snowfall record total of 76.1 inches. Right now, we have over 80 inches of snow and it is only mid-February. There is a good chance we could get to 100 without much effort. Sunday, it began raining at 1:00am and continued for twelve hours. At first the rain fell and froze on the roads, but then as more rain fell, it melted the ice and produced huge puddles since the water couldn't drain with all the ice and snow. Finally it started snowing around 1:00pm and continued most of the night. We only received a few inches of accumulation, but the snow on top of the water and ice shut down the whole city. This morning when I awoke, we had a new band of snow...no surprise this winter. It snowed a little today. Tonight, I'll scrape off the driveway and hopefully get all the ice the accumulated yesterday. I used the snowblower yesterday to removed the top few inches of snow and then I was planning on scraping the ice tonight. But, there's more snow, so I'll have to shovel that too.
All this weather comes as I'm trying to start my marathon training program. I've put in all the required miles for the schedule, but yesterday was absurd, so that eight-mile run will be moved to today. I don't know if that will be outside or inside, with the conditions still probably slick and the temperature dropping to the low single digits. Inside it is.
...regardless of conditions, it's still better than 40 with grass showing. That's not winter, it's hell.
As of 2/21/08, we currently have 83.7 inches of snow for the season, which broke the old record of 76.1 by a good amount, and we still have much more winter to go. I figure, if we break it, we might as well smash it. I'm hoping for 100 inches by the end of it. Don't mind me, I'm just nuts.
Sunday had the potential to be epic, and it was, but not in the way I was expecting. We were forecast to get 5-9 inches of snow. Big deal. This winter we broke the old seasonal snowfall record total of 76.1 inches. Right now, we have over 80 inches of snow and it is only mid-February. There is a good chance we could get to 100 without much effort. Sunday, it began raining at 1:00am and continued for twelve hours. At first the rain fell and froze on the roads, but then as more rain fell, it melted the ice and produced huge puddles since the water couldn't drain with all the ice and snow. Finally it started snowing around 1:00pm and continued most of the night. We only received a few inches of accumulation, but the snow on top of the water and ice shut down the whole city. This morning when I awoke, we had a new band of snow...no surprise this winter. It snowed a little today. Tonight, I'll scrape off the driveway and hopefully get all the ice the accumulated yesterday. I used the snowblower yesterday to removed the top few inches of snow and then I was planning on scraping the ice tonight. But, there's more snow, so I'll have to shovel that too.
All this weather comes as I'm trying to start my marathon training program. I've put in all the required miles for the schedule, but yesterday was absurd, so that eight-mile run will be moved to today. I don't know if that will be outside or inside, with the conditions still probably slick and the temperature dropping to the low single digits. Inside it is.
...regardless of conditions, it's still better than 40 with grass showing. That's not winter, it's hell.
Monday, February 11, 2008
The Official Start of Ironman Wisconsin 2009 Training
It begins. We are 'T minus' one year, six months, three weeks, four days, twenty-two hours and counting away from Ironman Wisconsin 2009, September 6th, 2009. Today I start my Mad City Marathon training program from Fleet Feet in Madison, WI (a very good running store and a recommended stop). This training program will hopefully help me to break three hours, ten minutes to qualify me for the 2009 Boston Marathon. My best marathon was 3:19 last year (7:35 minute/mile pace), so a 3:10 marathon (7:15 pace) is certainly within the realm of possibility. Stop back often to see how my training and racing is progressing.
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