Updates galore

The Bet

We survived having to serve up pizza at the corp. office. It wasn't too bad, but dang there's a lot more people there than you'd think. A little over 400 people came and enjoyed some good Chicago Pizza from Lou Malnati's.

How do you serve pizza to 400+ people all at once? I know the answer to that now. We had 210 pizzas frozen and shipped overnight from Chicago. We hired a caterer with big ovens to come setup in the parking lot and start cooking about 10. Kept them warm in big warming ovens, and started serving at about 11:30.

We got our digs back in though, as we had a little powerpoint slide show running on a projector. The last slide of the loop was a picture of the seahawks mascot saying "Enjoy your pizza!". So we got the last laugh there.

Training

Training keeps going well. Not going to get around to posting all my workouts from the last update, but it's basically more of the same. Lots of swimming, lots of biking, and lots of running. Though not so much biking yet this time of year. I'm still heavily into a run focus. I've added a yoga class ( pilates ) once a week, and started swimming with a Masters group on Saturday mornings. Really liking both, and the Masters group should give me the extra motivation I need to push myself harder on swimming.

I'm also really liking the rather mild winter so far. It's made running outside ( apart from one really brutal cold snap ) pretty enjoyable. If only we could get some sun to shine, but at least it's not raining. I'll take gray and cloudy over gray and rainy anyday.

Racing soon!

I've got my first "real" race coming up the end of February. I'm running the 1/2 marathon at the Gasparilla invitational down in Tampa. I know a bunch of people doing the race, and I can definitely use a break from the Chicago weather and lack of sunlight. I'm going to be shooting for a PR at the distance ( not too hard since my most recent 1/2 marathon's have been the tail end of 1/2 IM race! ).

Travelling

On the road for work. Still training. Still kicking butt. :)

Just not able to keep the blog updated as frequently. I'm still here and doing well though.

Stupid Bears

Damn Bears had to go and get cocky and forget to show up and play the game on Sunday. Thanks to their loss, I have to go humiliate myself. Our corporate HQ is in Charlotte, NC. So a little bet was made between the president of our division here in Chicago and the CEO. If the Bears win, management from Charlotte has to come to Chicago and serve us up some good BBQ. If the Panthers win, management from Chicago has to go to Charlotte and serve up some good Chicago-style deep dish pizza.

Well, as you know, Chicago blew it. So I along with a couple others have to go eat crow in Charlotte and wear Panthers aprons while we serve up pizza slices in the corporate cafeteria.

I guess I'll have to fall back to that time honored Chicago tradition... "Wait 'til next year!"

Weekly Wrapup

Here's the last week and a bit:

• Sat - 7
• AM Run 1h5m
• PM Weights 1h
  
• Sun - 8
• AM Run 1h10m
  
• Mon - 9
• PM Swim 45m easy
  
• Tue - 10
• AM Run 1h
• PM Weights 1h + Bike trainer 30m easy spin
  
• Wed - 11
• AM Bike trainer 1h2m ( Big Gear work, urgh )
  
• Thu - 12
• PM Swim 1h20m + Run 50m
  
• Fri - 13
• PM Weights 1h
  
• Sat - 14
• PM Run 1h20m
  
• Sun - 15
• AM Bike trainer 45m ( 5k TT )

Whewf. That about does it. Not bad for the week coming off being sick. Though there's probably a few people who will read that and insist that I'm still sick.

Avian Bird Flu! SARS!

Not sure which one I got, but I definitely got one of those, or something. Knocked me out about midweek, and I even used a sick day! I can't remember that last time I used a sick day for actually being sick.

The good news is I'm feeling better. Got out for a run yesterday morning, and hit the gym for some weights yesterday afternoon. Still got some green chunky stuff to deal with in the mornings ( hope nobody is eating ).

I'd post my weekly workouts, but uhm, well, there's nothing worth writing about. Fortunately for me it hit during my recovery week, so I didn't miss much in the way of training. Thank goodness for considerate germs.

Happy New Year!

2005 is in the books, and 2006 is upon us.

2005 was pretty eventful. I skied some crazy EX terrain in Colorado. I turned 30. I finished my first 1/2 IM distance races. I ran the Chicago Marathon. I got to see the "big show" in Kona. I stood inside an active volcano.

I also racked up some hefty numbers for training.

• Bike: 198h 35m - 3078 Miles
• Run: 135h 44m - 790 Miles
• Swim: 135h 14m - 390617 Meters

2006 should be an even bigger and better year. I'm taking on Ironman Wisconsin in September. Work is going very well, our VOIP product is going like gangbusters. It should be a great year.

Too bad it started out with me being sick. Hopefully it's just a cold, but it's not too much fun.