The President's Challenge Gold Award

Yea! It took 141 days to do it, but I received the President's Challenge GOLD AWARD! I really didn't know how long it would take to get, but I figured it wouldn't be very long with all of the Ultra Marathon training planned for the year. Next up, the PLATINUM AWARD - only 850,000 points to go.

McNaughton 150M - Pittsfield, VT

Going for a walk,
Not ready to talk.

Trail Marathon - Hell, MI

Going for a run,
Report to come.

Windy Bike Ride Home

I decided to commute home, and talked Paula into riding with me. She biked down to the restaurant to meet me for the ride home, and from there we headed to Stony Creek Metro Park to get some extra miles in. But because the wind was kicking at about 20mph, we b-lined it home - via back roads - when we realized that the wind wasn't going to let up.

I was looking for an easy ride and this one could have been nice, it was just ten degrees too cold with the wind along with the tired legs; they got trashed from last weekend's race, and I really felt it on this ride - I had no leg strength to pick up the pace, but no injuries that I could feel.

The President's Challenge Silver Award

I started the President's Challenge on January 1st, 2011. With last weekend's Potawatomi Trail 50 Mile race - I Just received my President's Challenge Silver Award - Yea!!! 90,000 points so far.

The Potawatomi Trail 50M - Pekin, IL

Going for a run,
Report to come.

My First Outdoor Bike Ride Of 2011 - Hill Repeats

Everyone wanted to do hill repeats, so Paula and I headed over to John and Jaime's house then straight for the back roads. Our plan, warm up on the back roads on the way to Markwood - aka "Marky Mark". This is the tallest, steepest, longest dirt road in the area. Once we got there, we set out to do as many repeats as were comfortably possible - I had no idea how many I could do, Jaime was going for 2-3 repeats, and John and Paula were aiming for 2 each.

The first went well - I kept Jaime in my sights all the way up, hit the top, and passed John and Paula finishing their climbs on my way down. At the bottom, Jaime and I waited for the others and headed up again. We ended up getting a total of 5 repeats, Jaime beating me to the top every time. Paula got a total of 4 repeats. And John got 2.5 repeats.


Afterward, we took our time cooling down on the trip home. The weather was perfect for the ride, the company was great, and the results were better than I expected - which led to a great first ride of 2011.