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NEWSROOM * CIRCULATION * ADVERTISING
Friday
March 2010
12
Community Blogs
Greg is a professional from Oak Creek, in his late 20's, that has a passion for Cycling and Triathlons. His blog focuses primarily on raising awareness for charity through his cycling events and efforts. In addition to cycling for charity, he will focus on highlighting the biking routes around south eastern Wisconsin, Triathlons throughout Wisconsin, and training tips for those looking to get into the sport. Doing his part to make a difference, one mile at a time.
Closing the Book on my First Triathlon Season
I started out strong on the swim. I was feeling good and wasn’t getting very fatigued. My first split clocked at 9:50, which is about on par from my previous three races. Still I know if I focused more on training for swimming I could probably get another minute trimmed off of there. However, I have bigger weaknesses to focus on. ;) The T1 transition I still need to focus on. I’ve cut down how much I need to do in that transition to trim some time, but I still have difficulty getting my barrings together after getting out of the water. About 3:14 later I was on my bike and off on the route.
Bike Route
Doing this route for the second time definitely was an advantage. I knew what turns were coming next and what kind of terrain to expect. Unfortunately, the winds are what got to me. Starting out there were strong winds coming from the west. Considering that most of the ride was heading north and south, that gave me no help and really just kind of pushed my bike all over the road for most of the ride. I had about a mile of having the wind at my back, otherwise I was fighting the winds and riding in the drops most of the way. I managed a respectable time of 46:23 on the bike with an average speed of 18.1mph. My goal was to get at least 19mph, but on a day like this, that just wasn’t going to happen. I had a great T2 time of 1:48, but I felt pretty gassed getting off of the bike. I headed out to the cross-country trail for the 5k.
Run Route
It was nice to do this running route when it wasn’t drenched from the rain. After getting a sip a water and walking for a few seconds to get my heart rate down, I was off. I felt pretty good running. Going through the nature preserve was pretty peaceful and helped me stay focused on the task at hand. I didn’t really see anyone on the run, which made it difficult to try and pace myself, but for the first time, no one passed me during the race. That was a first for me. :) Granted there were only about 200 people total in the race, but hey, you have to have your achievements somewhere! I finished the race strong and finished with a time of 1:35:27, about 13 seconds off my PR. It wasn’t the time that I wanted to finish in, but given the more difficult bike and run courses, I will take that time into the off-season. In all, I would say I had a successful season. The first triathlon I did I finished in 2:03:38 and 5 months later I managed to trim more than 28 minutes off of that time. Not too bad! Like I’ve said before, this is a great triathlon to do for anyone who’s looking to get into the sport. The swimming is in the lap pool which, for many people, is the biggest deterrent for doing a triathlon. There is plenty of helpful staff around and they understand that many of the participants are newbies.
What’s Next?
Next I am going to spend the rest of the month of October resting my body. My shin splint is still hanging around, so I’m going to stay away from running. I’ll be hitting the pool once or twice a week to keep that fitness level going and I will probably try to bike to work a couple more times before it gets too cold. After that I’m looking into getting a coach for the high expectations I’ve set for myself next season!
In regards to my Riding for a Reason campaign, I am getting ready to order my LIVESTRONG jersey and shorts. After that I will be setting up my 2010 Grassroots Fundraising page and begin some preliminary fundraising. I’m looking for corporate sponsors to place on my jerseys, so if you’re interested, check out my About page or feel free to e-mail me.
2016 Olympic Cycling could be held near Madison
There has been a lot of talk lately about the 2016 Olympics and Chicago's chances of landing the bid. We will find out next Friday, October 2nd, when the host city is announced. More importantly for Cycling fans and the State of Wisconsin, the mountain and road cycling events would be held near Madison in Blue Mounds, WI. The area is well known for it's hilly terrain and is host to the annual Horribly Hilly Hundred ride.
Here's a great ESPN article about choosing the location for the course.
Olympic bid could help bring high speed rail to Wisconsin
With the cycling events scheduled to be held about 160 miles from the host city of Chicago, transportation could be an issue for both the athletes as well as spectators. Cars will not be allowed at the venue, so spectators would need to be shuttled to the race. This would add yet another argument for Wisconsin to build a high speed rail from Chicago to Milwaukee to Madison by that time. In addition to cycling events, the sheer volume of people attending the olympics would add tourism opportunities for both Madison and Milwaukee to host visitors with the dense population of Chicago.
Want to test out the course?
It may not be the mountains that cyclists climb through in the Tour de France, but this isn't a walk in the park! The 22-mile loop ranges in elevations from 750 to 1,750 feet. Here is the mapmyride.com route. If you want to check out a race there, check out the Tour of America's Dairyland.
Map
- Click to enlarge
Elevation
Check out the full blog entry here.
Allow myself to introduce... myself
Hello everybody! I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself before I jump head first into this blog. Here's a little background about me. My name is Greg. I’m 27 years old and I live in the Milwaukee area. On New Year’s Eve 2008, some buddies and I made a New Year’s resolution to do a triathlon together. Little did I know that it would spark a passion in me and completely change my life. I began training for a “pre-triathlon” before the July race that we chose. I competed in my first Tri using my mountain bike from middle school, and trained 2-3 times a week, not really knowing what to do or what to expect. My intent was that if this was something I enjoyed, I would buy a road bike to continue competing. Well I fell in love with the sport! Although my bike time was pretty slow at about 13.5 mph, the positive atmosphere and my competitiveness was quite a euphoric experience. A couple weeks later I found a used road bike on Craigslist that was too good of a deal to turn down.
Now that I had invested into the sport of triathlons, I new I had to help justify that investment aside from 4+ races a season. I decided I was going to bike to work 1-2 times per week. At 32 miles round trip, it’s a pretty long haul at 5am in the morning, but the view is worth it! I set a goal to bike 500 miles during the summer of 2009 and I accomplished that in 3 months! Every time I get on the bike, my passion just grows deeper for the sport.
My mission
I originally started blogging as a personal diary to keep track of my biking adventures. While that will always remain a part of it, I’ve decided to add another layer to it. I thought, if I’m going to keep logging these miles, why don’t I start to do it for a reason other than myself. This is why I refocused my blog to Riding for a Reason. Starting January 1st, 2010 every mile that I ride is going to be for the Lance Armstron Foundation. Each year I will select a different charity and use this as a format to not only share my experiences and fundraising successes, but also to post information and articles to help raise awareness for that charity.
If you would like to join in on my efforts, please let me know. The more the merrier! My initial goal is going to be 1,000 miles in 2010.
What you can expect out of Riding for a Reason
- Articles and information to help raise awareness for cancer and the Lance Armstrong Foundation
- My adventures commuting around the city as well as the bike routes that I use
- Training routes for people to use throughout the Greater Milwaukee Area
- Cycling groups and weekly rides
- Triathlon teams and weekly workouts
- Triathlons and Cycling events around the state. (Both competiive races and charity rides)
- Other interesting training articles and tips that I find for both cycling and triathlon
- If there's anything you'd like to see covered in my blog that you feel relates to the blog, don't hesitate to comment or e-mail me. I'd love to hear from you!
If you would like to check out my full blog including my blogging over the past year as well as pictures and other related articles, please check out my site. Keep reading and I hope to hear from you soon!
Tags: Fundraising : Grassroots : J-Hawk Latebird : LIVESTRONG : Riding for a Reason : Triathlon : Whitewater : Wisconsin
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