Too much Siberia

Our minds are numbing, our fingers and toes are falling off, I think Siberia is going to get the best of us. We managed 233 miles this week, but with only 11 days worth of miles left and 880 miles left, it seems certain that we will have to be air-lifted out of this bitter region. We are just going for pride at this point.

Eastern Siberian Coast (and what has happened since Thanksgiving)

It is fitting that we are stuck in Siberia right now, the weather has been formidable. However, feel lucky that you do not live in Oymyakon, Siberia, a town through which we recently passed. This town is believed to have experienced the lowest temperature ever for an inhabited area (-96 degrees F in January of 1926). They have average highs of 71 in July, but they also have a July record low of -9. Happy picnicking!

We are now near the Sea of Okhotsk along the Eastern Siberian Coast, just west of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

We have had some very low mileage totals since Thanksgiving, and I certainly have not done anything to change that. However, some people have been doing yeomen's work of late. Specifically, Mike, Megan, and Katie have all been piling up big miles. Megan was high-person the week before Thanksgiving (74.5 miles), Katie was high-person during Thanksgiving week (71.8 miles), and then Megan was nearly high-person again the following week (105.9 miles to Mike's 106.1). That gives us 5 different weekly leaders over the course of the year:

1. Mike Wente - 40 weeks
2. Rob Haaland - 5 weeks
3. Clay Peterson - 2 weeks
4. Megan Dabroski - 1 week
5. Katie Green - 1 week

A couple of cool milestones were reached. Chris Fry and Rachel Hohenstein each surpassed the 1,000 mile mark for yearly running (joining Mike). Also, Megan surpassed 1,000 miles in biking. Rob is a measly one running mile from becoming the first individual to achieve all 3 of his goals, and Mike is only about 220 biking miles from joining him. Lastly, we have surpassed 25,000 total miles for the year as a team, and we are only about 1,200 miles from US soil. Keep working, we still have a chance!

Last 3 weeks

3 weeks ago we had one of our best weeks in recent memory (over 500 miles), followed by a solid week (440 miles), followed by a lackluster week (390 miles), and I expect the current Thanksgiving week to be one of our worst. On the bright side, we will all have lots of turkey to work off so we should really start to pick up the pace.

We are currently near the village of Ytyk-Kyuyol in the Sakha (Yakutia) region of Russia. Those that are fans of the game Risk certainly are familiar with the region, formerly known as Yakust (the city of Yakust is the capital of the region), not to mention the folly of engaging in a land-battle in Asia.

We are about 2000 miles from Alaska, if we keep the shoulders to the grindstone I think we can get there.

Some people have really been stepping up of late, including Megan (225 miles the last 3 weeks), Katie (190 miles the last 3 weeks), Rachel (37 miles running the last 3 weeks), Chris Fry (leading runner the last 3 weeks with 65.2 miles), and Chris Ruf (35 miles biking the last 3 weeks). Keep up the good work.

Lake Baikal

This past week (October 26-November 1) we visited the world's largest freshwater lake, Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal contains more fresh water than all of the lakes in North America combined.

Slow week, just 377 total miles. It appears that the first week in November will be much better. With just a couple of months left, we need all of the miles we can get, so keep plugging away.

Across Mongolia like a Golden Horde

"Goddamn it, how come every time us Chinese put up a wall, stupid Mongolians have to come and knock it down?"

So we finally completed our trip through China, and then I chose to elongate our trip by veering westward through Mongolia. I will certainly regret this decision when we are stuck in the middle of Siberia on December 31, but I had two reasons for doing so: 1) I am fascinated by Mongolia, and 2) I wanted to visit Lake Baikal (we are currently in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia, and we will get to see the lake this coming week).

Why the fascination with Mongolia? I think it started out with a fascination with Ghengis Khan and the power he wielded during his hay day, largely fed by the History Channel. Then I picked up an Outdoor Life magazine in a doctor's office 5 or 6 years ago and found an article about fly fishing in Mongolia. It seemed like one of the few remaining frontiers on this planet. What else is cool about Mongolia? It is the most sparsely populated country on the planet. It is the second largest land-locked country on the planet (give yourself a gold star if you knew that Kazakhstan was the largest). The Mongol Empire, established by Ghengis Khan after he united the nomadic tribes of the region and set up kicking everyone's ass near and far, is the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world. At its peak it stretched from present day Poland to Korea, and from Siberia to Vietnam (almost 13 million square miles, 22% of the earth's total land mass). Pretty sweet. Unless of course you talk to people from the middle east, who apparently were not happy about the scorch-the-earth tactics and the destruction of a large chunk of their culture. Some people are so sensitive.

We have 4,000 miles worth of Siberia in front of us. There are some people who are continuing to kick butt week after week, and I commend them for that. If we can keep this up, and maybe pick up the pace a little, I think we can get back to North America by the end of the year. It won't quite meet the goal, but making it back to the good old US of A will feel pretty good.

A few goals to mention: Becky reached her running goal, and I reached my biking goal. Mike is making a big push to reach all of his goals and kicking big ass in the process. Rob already flew by his biking goal, and is closing in on both swimming and running. Lauren has both her biking and running goal within reach, and Alysha has surpassed her biking goal. Chris and Rachel are nearing 1,000 total running miles for the year, and Megan is nearing 1,000 total running+biking miles. Great job to everyone, continue pushing towards those goals.

500 Water Miles

Well, the water miles have been a struggle lately, it has pretty much just been Mike, Rob, and Lauren keeping our heads above water. However, thanks to their help, we did just reach the 500 mile plateau. Well short of our goal of almost 2,000, but still a milestone.

We are still in China, but we are getting close to Mongolia.

Milestones

We are still in China (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region), in between the Ordos and Gobi deserts. We are now over 5,000 miles running, over 15,000 miles biking, over 20,000 total land miles, and nearing 500 swimming miles (489). Keep up the good work.

Tibet/Qinghai Plateau

We continue our trek atop the Tibetan/Qinhai plateau in the Qinghai province of western China. A little scenery to help you visualize.

Worst week since mid January (362 miles), but some people are still plugging along pretty well. We are nearly to 20,000 total land miles, which I think will be a pretty sweet accomplishment. Stay motivated, keep having fun, and stay active. We have put in nearly 9 good months, just 3 more to go.

Nepal, back to India, Bhutan, Tibet, and China

We crossed over the Himalayas, and saw tons of cool stuff along the way. I don't have the time to write about any of it, but check out the map and explore some of the Wikipedia links. This area of the world would be near the top of my list for places to visit.

About 950 miles the last 2 weeks, a definite improvement over our train wreck of a week at the end of August. Let's keep it up.

Nepal, the Himalayas, and such

Fewest miles since the week of January 12, things are starting to look bleak. On the bright side, we are meandering around in the Himalaya mountain range in Nepal, visiting the Monkey Temple and fun things like that.

More India

I won't have much time to post over the next month or so, but I will continue to update the mileage chart and map. We are still in India, hanging out near the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve and National Park. You might want to sleep with one eye open.

Indian Subcontinent

We find ourselves in Jalandhar, India after racking up 909 land miles the last two weeks. Some great weeks by Lauren Liaboe, Megan Dabroski, and Robin Hayward (2 weeks ago, that is). Rob completed a half-iron man last weekend, finishing in just under 5:30, so congratulations to him.

The summer vacation is winding down, time for everyone to start refocusing. Keep up that effort, there are still over 4 months to go.

Italy and the former Yugoslav Countries

Very brief post this week, have to pack for RAGBRAI.

We finished off the northern part of Italy, had a quick cup of coffee in Slovenia, and then spent some time in southern Croatia (skirting the border with Bosnia Herzegovina). We came to rest in Serbia after a respectable 615 mile week.

Becky, Robin, and I completed the Moonlight Chase 4-mile race in Eldridge, IA last Saturday (results). Becky did especially well, finishing 6th in her age group (31:04). I was a little slower than I had hoped, but I managed to outkick Becky at the end (30:58). Robin had lots of fun.

Mike competed in the Life Time Fitness Tri in the Twin Cities, he won his age group, and placed 8th in the open division with a time of 2:13:28.8 (results). He had the top bike in his category, and the 2nd overall in the open division (averaged 24.4 mph). Congratulations Mike.

There will be no post next week, we will be biking across Iowa. Look for our bike jump in miles coming in 2 weeks.

Reverse Tour de France

We kind of rode against traffic on the first few stages of the Tour de France last week as we made our way along the Mediterranean coast from Girona, Spain (beginning of TDF stage 6) to Bereguardo, Italy. Hopefully we all enjoyed the French Riveria (Cote d'Azure) and are energized for the remainder of our trip through southern Europe.

Mileage-wise we were in the low 500's, not too bad, but not quite like the 800-mile week a few weeks ago. Chris Fry ran the Alliant Energy 8K last weekend, clocking in at 36:17, good for 29th in his age group and 237th out of all males. That is an impressive race, I remember watching it with Deep Fat about 10 years ago while sitting on some lawn-chairs we found in the trash: you really need to see that lead pack in person to appreciate just how fast they move. This year was no different, with the winners running around 4:30 pace.

I believe Mike is competing at the Life Time Fitness Triathlon in the Twin Cities this coming weekend, so good luck to him. Also, good luck to all those that are putting the finishing touches on their RAGBRAI preparation (just over a week away!).

Until next week, stay healthy out there.

Event Week; Halfway point

We had lots of stuff going on this week, including multiple events, some interesting sight-seeing, and reaching the halfway point of the year. I will touch on our travels to begin.

We continued to make our way through Spain, coming to rest near the Spain-France border. Along the way we passed the La Mancha region, a harsh, arid region known for several important agricultural crops, its famous windmills, and for the being the setting of the novel "Don Quixote." We then visited Madrid before making our way back to the coast. We hit the Mediterranean coast around Tarragona and Salou, where we could experience Europe's fastest roller-coaster, Furius Baco, a hydraulically-launched beast that takes you from 0 to 84 mph in 3.5 seconds. It is also the world's fastest roller-coaster with an inversion. Had we been passing through several week's later, we could have enjoyed the International Fireworks Display Competition in Tarragona (Becky would have loved that).

We continued northward along the coast, passing through Barcelona, and eventually finishing off in Girona. Barcelona is of course notable for many things, but for me personally the first thing that comes to mind is the Barcelona Olympics of 1992. That event, during the formative years of my life, is largely responsible for my love of sport in all shapes in form. Plus, I had a crush on Kim Zmeskal.

Several notable events this week: Mike and Rob competed in the Hy-Vee Triathlon, both turning in great performances (results). Mike finished in 2:14:58, placing 2nd out of 151 in his age group, and 66th out of 984 for all males. Rob finished in 2:26:25, placing 21st out of 116 in his age group and 158th for all males. Good job to them both.

Becky and I competed in Maquoketa's Timber City Adventure Race, a canoe (8 miles), bike (14.5 miles), and run (3.1 miles) event. We placed 2nd (out of 4) in the coed racing division, but were also beaten by two coed teams from the rec division (the race has way too many divisions). Out of all the coed teams we were 4th out of 18. We both improved over the last time we did this event 2 years ago (Becky by 4 minutes, me by 30 seconds), so we were happy with the result.

Jake and Megan completed the longest 30 meter walk of their lives. I didn't get their time, but I know they finished in high style. Congratulations to them. I also just realized that I did not post the week of Sandra's wedding, so a belated congratulations to her, Ryan, and their new arrival Maggie the viszla.

We are about halfway through the year, as a team we are about 40% of the way around the world. Individually, some are way beyond their goal pace, some are right on, and some are lagging a bit (check the mileage chart below if you are interested). Keep up the good work, and if you have been in a funk, now would be a great time to jump-start your training.

Have a good week, and stay healthy out there.

Another weekly record

I was hoping for a 700-mile week, but instead we rolled up a 836 mile week. We were helped out a great deal by UGRAB, but there were great contributions from non-UGRAB people as well.

We finished off Morocco, passing through some interesting places on the way out. We went through Cassablanca, which of course is best known for being the inspiration for this classic film, and this unforgettable piece of dialogue:

From now on the essence of this hotel will be speed. If a customer askes you for a three-minute egg, give it to him in two minutes. If he askes you for a two-minute egg, give it to him in one minute. If he askes you for a one-minute egg, give him the chicken and let him work it out for himself!

We also passed through Tangier, which sounds like a pretty cool place to visit. One has to be careful when everything you know about a country comes from Wikipedia, but Morocco as a whole seems pretty neat. Did you know that it was the first country to recognize the independence of the United States of America, and that it is our partner in our longest unbroken Friendship Treaty? You do now.

We crossed over the Straits of Gibraltar, through Gibraltar itself (which I did not know was a self-governing British territory), and then made our way along the Mediterranean coast of Spain for awhile. More beaches and resorts than you can shake a stick at. We then headed north and came to rest in Manzanares, Spain. Along the way we passed the site of the Battle of Los Navas de Tolosa, where in 1212 a bunch of Christians got together and beat up a bunch of Muslims, essentially driving them from the Iberian peninsula, back to Northern Africa. Interesting to think how differently Europe may have turned out had the battle gone differently.

Rachel Hohenstein successfully completed Grandma's Marathon in stifling heat last weekend, so congratulations to her. She finished 552 out of 2273, with a chip-time of 4:17:52 (results). And good luck to Mike and Rob in the upcoming HyVee triathlon this weekend.

Race Result

I almost forgot to mention, Chris Fry ran the Grandview Gallop 4 miles race in Dubuque last weekend. His time was 27:23, finishing 14th in the 30-39 age group (results). Congrats!

BEST...WEEK...EVER!

We hit a new high this week, 687 miles. I think we can get over the 700-mile mark here in one of the coming weeks. It was really a group effort, lots of people were in on the action. Let's keep up the good work.

As for our travels, we have moved from kind-of-Morocco (Western Sahara) into Morocco proper. Another solid week will take us to a new continent.

Lastly, we should wish Rachel Hohenstein good luck for Grandma's Marathon this weekend. She will be running on Saturday morning (7:30am), if you want to track her progress via text message or e-mail, sign up here.

Slow week.

Mileage was a little low this week, I think a lot of people have things going on in this early part of summer, plus some of our participants were preparing for races. We have moved up into Western Sahara, a territory whose control is disputed. It is one of the least densely populated regions on earth, with nearly all of its inhabitants clustered in a handful of oasis towns.

Mike Wente had a race in Buffalo, Minnesota the weekend of June 7. He did very well, placing 20th overall and first in his age group (results). Congratulations, Mike!

In further Wente news, Dave is off his ass and putting in some miles! 52 miles on the bike last week, to be exact. Good job Dave, keep it up.

10,000 Mile Mark

As a group, we have passed 10,000 total miles, as well as 3,000 running miles. We have continued to move northward along the Western African coast, finishing off the country of Senegal and entering Mauritani, offiicially known as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. If I had been told to locate Mauritania on a map one week ago, I am not sure I could have come within 10,000 miles of it, but now I know.

I am not sure about everyone else, but I had a major dip in motivation the last two weeks. If others are going through the same thing, I strongly encourage you to maintain some activity level, and re-evaluate your goals and why you are doing what you are doing. I was getting bored, so I changed up my training focus a little, and now I feel I am getting back on track.

Good luck to everyone, keep up the great work.

AFRICA!

Sorry about the delay in posting, I have been a little lazy. During the 2nd full week in May we had our first 600 mile week, and that was enough to finish off the Americas and send us over to the western African coast. Specifically, we traveled to the city of Natal on the far eastern coast of Brazil. From there, we jumped over to Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Over the following week, we traveled through Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Gambia, and some more of Senegal, where we eventually came to a rest. We didn't do quite as well that week, but we were still over 500 miles. I know that I personally need to get back on track, I have been as lazy with my workouts as with my postings.

We will continue to work our way up the African coast, check back next week to see our progress.

Warm Weather = Biking

We are starting to rack up some bike miles, with the contributions from people who previously were not biking making the biggest difference. This is a sure sign that the weather is taking a turn for the better. Conversely, the water miles are tanking big time, and I am leading the retreat (0 water miles for me this past week). Oh well, let's focus on the positive. When Becky comes back from injury, and when Dave and Sandra start reporting, we will really be moving along.

Chris Fry ran a 5k last week (22:32). Congratulations, keep up the good work. Any other races coming up for anyone?

We should finish off Brazil this week, and then move our traveling circus over to the west African coast. I am kind of excited about that, it seems that we have been in Brazil forever. And Brazil is no place to spend an extended period of time, what with their rampant street crime, monkey infestations, and Xuxa worship.

7,911 miles down, 22,889 to go

We are at the 1/3 point. We have made it about halfway through Brazil, I think we can switch continents if we get a couple of strong weeks in a row (hopefully a little better than this past week).

We are 15% of the way to our water miles goal, 22% of the way to our biking goal, and 44% of the way to our running goal. Mike and Rob are well ahead of their goal pace, Lauren is still close to her goal pace, and several others are catching up. We had a great running week from Rachel (44 miles), and our individual week yet for Mike (172 miles total). One of our stalwarts is fighting with a calf injury (Becky), so that hurt our total a bit this week. We also had a lot of precincts that did not report. As I said, hopefully things will pick up over the next few weeks and we can get ourselves to Africa.

Have a good week, stay healthy our there.

Brazil is Big

Still in Brazil. We crossed the Amazon river this past week, and we are slowly making our way eastward towards the Atlantic. Not much time for posting this week, but I would like to commend Megan Dabroski and Robin Hayward for good weeks.

Amazon Rain Forest, Brazil

We are in the Brazilian state of Para, working our way through the Amazon Rain Forest. We had our best biking week of the year so far (443 miles), and our best total ground mile week of the year (578 miles).

We had one of our shortest water weeks in awhile, but we did reach the first water landmark we have seen for some time. We are now 258 miles into our swim, and we just reached Fernando de Noronha island. It is a cool little spot with a population of just over 2,000 and some beautiful beaches. Perhaps we can regroup a little there so that we can pick up our water miles from here on out.

Canaima National Park, Venezuela

6,278 miles down, only 24,522 miles to go! That's right, we are a little over 20% there.

We came to rest last Sunday in Canaima National Park in Venezuela, near the Venezuela-Brazil border. This park is known for its tepuis, or table-top mountains. Among them is Auyantepui, from which Angel Falls, the highest waterfall on earth, descends. I think it is fascinating that such a natural wonder was not officially "discovered" until 1933, when Jimmy Angel crashed his plane atop Auyantepui.

Kind of a slow week for us, but there were a few people that normally report that I did not hear from. Hopefully we will start to pick it back up this week.

Quick Update

Not much time for blogging this week. However, we are still tooling around in Venezuela, check the updates on mileage and on the map.

A little low this week (just under 500 miles by land, 16.5 by water), I think we had a couple of recovery weeks going on. Rachel Hohenstein has taken over as our top runner (almost 300 miles), and Mark Peterson is back on the board.

Quarter-Way Point

We are roughly 25% of the way through the year. We find ourselves in northern Venezuela, just east of the capital city of Caracas. We have totaled 5,032 total land miles (1,684 running, 3,347) and 216 water miles. We are 14% of the way to our biking goal, 31% of the way to our running goal, and 17% of the way to our total land miles goal. We are only 11% of the way to the water goal, but we knew that would be a tough one.

I have added a table down below to show our individual progress towards our mileage goals (for those that set goals).

Congratulations to those that are on pace. In addition to the above individuals, we should probably also mention the people who did not set goals but have been consistently kicking tail. Chris Fry and Rachel Hohenstein are among our running leaders at 231 and 253, respectively. Megan Dabroski has been consistent, and is currently at 109 miles running and 39 biking. The same can be said for Beth Pape, who is currently at 68 miles running. Lastly, despite missing several weeks recovering from knee surgery, Katie Green has totaled 71 miles running and 69 miles biking.

Lastly, for those that missed Lauren's training blog, she ran a 5k in artic temps in Waterloo last weekend, and she was very pleased with her time of 24:39. Check her blog for more details.

Keep up the good work.

South America (March 16-22)

Best week so far, 550 total miles (532 land, 18 water). We are over 3,000 miles biking for the year, over 1,500 running, and just under 200 water miles.

The usual suspects (Chris Fry and Rachel for running, Mike and Rob for all-around) are still doing their damage, and we also got a great week from Katie (33 miles biking, 10.5 running), and great contributions from Beth (10 miles running) and Renee (17 miles biking).

As for our travels, we continued across the Darien Gap, crossing from Panama to Colombia along the way. We passed through several major cities, and also several national parks (here's a pretty cool picture from Panachi, aka Chicamocha National Park). We just crossed over the Colombia/Venezuela border before coming to rest.

After this current week we will be roughly 25% done with 2009, and I will update our team and individual progress. Have a good week, stay healthy out there.

March 9 through March 15

Sorry about the late update, I have been out of town.

I was hoping we could total 500 miles this last week, and we managed to put in 499.9 (no kidding). Great job all around, I think we will soar past the 500-mile-week barrier this week.

During the second week of March we spent most of our time in Panama. About the only thing I knew about Panama, other than the canal, was the extradition of Noriega in 1989 ("God bless him and his drug money."). It turns out it is the fastest growing economy in Central America. Real estate and tourism are booming due to the low cost of living and the fact that within a single day you can visit white sand beaches on 2 different oceans, mountains, and rain forest.

Much of their economy is based upon commerce, largely due to the aforementioned Panama Canal, a project that was discussed for centuries, and attempted several times, before finally being completed. It is estimated that 27,500 lives were lost during the project, mostly to malaria and yellow fever.

We currently are hacking our way through the Darien Gap, a 100 mile stretch of undeveloped swamp and rainforest that represents the only break in the Pan-American Highway. It has remained undeveloped for ecological and political reasons, and it is home to several fascinating native tribes. Ian Hibell, a British Adventure cyclist, completed a ride from Cape Horn to Alaska from 1971 to 1973. He and 2 companions crossed the Darien Gap. If any of you think you have crossed rugged terrain with a bike, you have to watch this video. Crazy, crazy stuff.

We also totaled 16 water miles this week. We will need to pick up the pace a bit on the water miles, so all of you that have been avoiding the pool, come on in, the water is fine.

Lauren's Swim Meet

I meant to pass this along earlier in the week. Lauren competed in a Master's Swim meet (because she is old) this past weekend. Her results are as follows:

200 IM: 2:39.87
100 IM: 1:13.26
100 Free: 1:02.37
50 Fly: 32.01

Congratulations to her, and if anyone else has recent results to pass along, we would love to see them.

Dominical, Costa Rica

Wow, we really went by some cool stuff last week. We passed through Nicaragua and most of Costa Rica, covering 421 land miles in total, and 19 water miles. In Nicaragua we passed numerous volcanoes, several large fresh-water lakes, and got our first close view of the Pacific. Did you know that you can see the Pacific from Lake Nicaragua, but it is considered an Atlantic port due to its connection through the San Juan river? Well, you do now.

More spectacular sites in Costa Rica, including numerous national parks. Costa Rica is one of the world leaders in biodiversity and ecology. Not only that, but they abolished their national military over 60 years ago. That's right, all of that biodiversified goodness could be ours, they are nigh defenseless! Maybe it wouldn't be that easy to take over their country, I am sure they could slap together some sort of resistance. Besides, they seem to have a pretty good thing going sans military, they have been one of the most stable central American countries over that time span.

We rode over the Mountain of Death, so hopefully everyone got in a little hill work last week. We came to rest in a fishing village on the Pacific that is also famous for its big waves, attracting surfers from around the world.

We are just over 500 miles from reaching South America. I think if we made a big push this week we could get there. So crank out those miles, Punch-N-Pie is counting on you.

Honduras

We cranked through 2 countries last week (Guatemala, El Salvador), and came to rest in a third (Honduras). The weekly total was 416 miles (395 on the ground, 21 in the water). As a team, we broke the 1,000 mile barrier running, and the 2,000 mile barrier biking. Katie Green made her triumphant return after a few weeks off following knee surgery. Welcome back, Katie. Everyone keep up the good work, and keep those finger crossed for some warm weather.

2,771 miles down

We have almost made our way through Mexico. We will definitely be in South America by the end of March. Our weekly mileage, 431 road/18 water, was our best since the 3rd week in January, and we have several people that have not yet reported, so that could increase.

Rob threw out the idea of some smaller challenges to include within our quest to keep us interested. I think this is a good idea, does anyone have suggestions? Rob mentioned shooting for a 500 mile week. I thought it might be fun to keep track of your times in a 5K, 500m swim, and 15 mile bike all done in a given week, and then try to improve that cumulative time every month or so. I would love to hear any other ideas.

That is all for now because I am tired and need sleep. Happy miles.

2,326 Miles down, 28,474 to go

We made our way through Mexico City, and then headed back towards the Gulf. We came to rest in Veracruz. Our timing is fortuitous, we are just in time for the largest Carnaval celebration outside of Brazil.

Rob led in mileage this week, the first non-Wente-led week (I think Mike was doing a recovery week). Rachel Hohenstein became our second 100 mile runner, Mazel Tov. Dave Wente got on his bike for the first time this year. And lastly, I would like to acknowledge The Wife, she has increased her mileage each week so far in 2009. And good luck to the Women of Troy in the tournament.

Mileage Goal Progress

It just dawned on me that we are roughly 10% of the way through 2009. I already mentioned that Mike Wente was on track with his goals (just under 10% with biking, 11% of the way to the running and swimming goals). In addition, Rob Haaland is ahead of his goal-pace in running (12.7%) and biking (11.7%), and nearly there in swimming (9%). Lauren Liaboe is ahead of pace in running (11.5%) and also close in swimming (9.4%).

Everyone else is a bit further behind their goal pace. I am sure many put the bulk of their miles on during the more temperate months, and I know there are some who are building a base right now so they can pile up the miles later in the year (I know Becky and I fall into this category).

Congratulations to those that are on pace, that is very impressive for this early in the year. For those that are lagging behind, remember that the ultimate goal is health and fitness. Use your goals as motivation, but do not become a slave to the numbers. If you think you should take a week off of running, do so. If you want to Yoga or lift weights instead of biking for a while, do so. And then when you are ready, get back to the miles in a happy and healthy frame of mind.

1,827 miles down, 28,973 to go

We started off in Monterey, Mexico, and we are making our way towards Mexico City, with a little detour to see the Gulf of Mexico at Tampico, Mexico. I rely almost entirely upon the Wikipedia notes from Google maps to pick up info about the regions through which we travel, and Wikipedia does not have a lot to say about this particular region (come on residents of Tamaulipas, Mexico, do your part!). However, I did find out that there is a family that is taking a 2 1/2 year bicycle trip from Alaska to Argentina along the Pan-American Highway. In fact, the Vogels were recently in the very area that we find ourselves. Check out their progress, I think you will find it interesting.

Our mileage was a bit lower this week, but I expect those dips occassionally. I think until the weather gets nicer we will hover right around that 400 mile per week mark. A couple of milestones have been met. We reached 1,000 miles biking as a team, and 500 miles running as a team. Additionally, Mike Wente has reached 500 miles biking (over 9% to his goal) and 100 miles running (over 11% of the way to his yearly goal). Chris "Deep Fat" Fry competed at the Luther alumni meet this week, jumping 1.75m in the high jump, and 12m in the triple jump, not bad for an old lawyer. I would also like to recognize everybody's favorite celebrity couple, Megan Dabroski and Jake Abbott (or Jagan Abboski, as the tabloids have dubbed them). Cumulatively, they have totaled 48.5 miles running and 18 miles biking. Keep up the good work. And Jake, this would be a good time to practice those tire-changing skills, you will need to be sharp come July.

Everybody practice exercising while holding your breath this coming week, we are heading through Mexico City. If you are looking for realism, you might want to try exercising while smoking a cigar, or alternately try biking behind diesel vehicles all week long. And lastly, Mike Wente wanted me to pass the following message along to Dave: get off your butt you frickin' pansy (paraphrased).

Monterey, Mexico

"You boys like Mex-ee-co?! Yeeeeeehah!"

So we are officially international. After making a brief stop to tour the River Walk in San Antone, and a briefer stop to pay homage to one of the great recording artists of all time in Pearsall, we crossed over the Rio Grande at Laredo. We were lucky enough to pass through Laredo during the Washington Birthday Celebration, a nearly month-long party to celebrate George Washington. We were able to partake in the Jalapeno eating contest and a little Jamboozie (think Texas Mardi Gras). We finished up in Monterey, Mexico, not only one of the finest cities in the world, but home to one-time World's Largest Man, Manuel Uribe (weighing in at a svelte 1,257 pounds).

We are a month in, and this is the time the nagging injuries usually start. I'll share some advice from your peers to keep you healthy and motivated.

Even horses like Big Mike Wente back off a bit every month or so to let the body recover, so don't be afraid to take it easy every now and again.

Rob points out the importance of moderating your intensity while trying to build miles. You can't go high intensity and high volume at the same time, something has to give.

If something doesn't feel right, for God's sake take a little time off, better to miss a day or two than an entire month once it gets bad.

A number of people pointed out the importance of strength work. It is easy to neglect this aspect when we get wrapped up in mileage goals, but take your time and build a good base, including strength. The mileage will come eventually.

Lastly, I would encourage everyone to keep their egos in check. We are not all young anymore, our body does not recover like it once did, and we are not all in peak condition (yet). Take things slow. Slow, steady progress is the greatest motivator. People usually get sick of working out when they quit making progress or start feeling lousy (overtrained). These things can be prevented by setting attainable, short-term goals, and taking a conservative approach to achieving them.

Welcome aboard to Chris "Deep Fat" Fry, who has recently joined our quest. Congratulations to Dave Wente for logging his first miles of the year, and congratulations to Katie Green and Alysha for good weeks. Unfortunately Katie suffered a sprained knee while playing some racquetball and may be out of commission for a bit, but we will certainly all send get-well wishes her way.

Keep up the good work.

RAGBRAI Route Announced!

The route came out today.

Below I-80, just as we suspected. Time to start looking for parking spots for the "Legal".

Event Dates

Check out the calendar below. I have included some race dates for the year. You serious triathletes out there likely have your races picked out for the year, but if you are still looking you may find some events that catch your eye. I would like to get a group of us together to compete at a few things this year, I thought the first good one could be the April Fool's 5k in Waterloo on March 28. Anyone interested?

Austin City Limits

We are in the Austin metropolitan region after a little over 400 land miles this month. We are working our way through Texas, only 240 miles until we go international.

We passed through Oklahoma City early on in the week. Did you know that Oklahoma City went from a population of zero to a population of 10,000 within a 24 hour period? We passed through Norman shortly thereafter. Norman is the home of Oklahoma University, which of course is the alma mater of the one and only Stacy Dales. She is right up there with Brittany Spears, and Tara Reid in competition for blonde celebrity that Becky hates the most.

Moving south, we fought the traffic in Dallas, survived, and continued down to Waco, home of Chris, Megan, and Mad Dog Ruf. Waco was named after a local indian tribe (Hueco), and it was also the original name of the beverage Dr. Pepper (which was formulated in a Waco soda shop).

As noted, we came to rest within the Austin city limits. Seems like a great place to hang for a while before we make our push into Mexico.

This week was out best water week yet (19.9 miles this week, 51.1 miles total) with great help from Mike Wente, Lauren, and Renee. Also, I'd like to recognize some of the Lanesboro folk: Mark "Speedo" Peterson of Iron Nads III t-shirt fame logged 9 bike miles, Dan "I wish I was related to Clay" Peterson put in 12 miles running and 20 on the bike, and Mike "The baby maker" Lukkason took a break from impregnating his wife Dee and put in 8 miles running this week.

Good work by everyone again.

630 miles down, 30,170 left

This past week's (January 12-18) adventures have carried us through the hearland of America.

We passed through Kansas City, MO, which apparently is known as the "City of Fountains." Its 200+ fountains are more than any other city in the world but Rome. It also has more boulevards than any other city but Paris, France. So it has that going for it, which is nice.

A little further into our trip we passed through Cassoday, a town of 130 that is the self-proclaimed Prairie Chicken Capital of Kansas. Eventually we made our way to Witchita, the largest Metropolitan area in Kansas. I had no idea how much Wichita has going for it. Not only is it known as "Air Capitol of the World" for all of the aircraft coorporations founded and headquartered there, but it also was ranked among the top 10 big cities within which to live by Money magazine in 2006, and it was ranked the #1 most affordable city by MSN real estate. They also have some pretty cool history, a thriving cultural scene, and they are the birthplace of Pizza Hut and White Castle. I am thinking about making a move.

We ended up at Perry, OK, home of the Ditch Witch, one of the greatest innovations of the 20th century. Not that we couldn't have had the trench dug in a couple of days with our spades, right Rick? And some all-you-can eat Burger King and minimum wage is all we would ask (only 2 people will actually understand this reference, the rest of you should just smile and nod).

Mike again led the way, but I would like to note strong performances by Rob, Sandra, and Rachel.

Renee Sedlacek has joined our pack and already contributed some swimming miles, and Chris Ruf is also in (I expect that 15 minutes of biking so far to be the beginning of something big).

All Precints In

Everyone has now reported their mileage, which added an extra 57 land miles onto our trip. This moved us from Bethany, MO to Lathrop, MO. I would throw in some interesting tidbits about the I-35 route through northern Missouri, but that is liking trying to squeeze blood from the proverbial turnip. So in lieu of interesting tidbits, enjoy this recipe for turnip soup.


Good job by everyone for this first week. Let's stay healthy out there.

We're on our way!

There are probably a couple of people who have logged some miles but not yet reported, but according to all of those that have reported we have gotten ourselves out of Iowa in the first week and a half of 2009. We covered 221 land miles in all (150 biking, 71 running), largely in thanks to Mike Wente (though he characterized it as a "slow" start for him). We have come to a stop in Bethany, MO.

Along the way we passed by Ames, IA, home of the Iowa State University of Science and Technological Arts. ISU boasts such notable alumni as Clifford Berry, co-creator of the first digital electronic computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer), as well as Ed Droste, co-founder of Hooters. Making our way down I-35 we swung around the Iowa capital, Des Moines. Des Moines is french for "of the moines" (actually means "of the monks," pardon my Farley tribute).

We also passed through Lamoni, IA, home of Graceland college, which is affiliated with the former Church of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ). Lamoni is the name of a pacifist king from the book of Mormon, and it was the home of Joseph Smith III (son of the founder of the Latter Day Saints).

We have also accumulated 16 water miles, enough to get us from Venezuela to Trinidad and back, the first part of our water journey. Trinidad y Tobago is the birthplace of steel-pan drums, calypso, and the limbo. With that little round trip out of the way, we will now head out across the Atlantic.