Fishing 2013

Here are some pictures from my fishing trip to Hayward Wisconsin last week. It has become a yearly trip I go on with my best friend and his brother. Spring came late this year in Northern Wisconsin,so we weren't sure what we were in for, but we knew we would have fun regardless. We arrived at 5:30 pm on Wednesday to 50 degrees and pouring rain. We fished anyway and it was miserable, but we had fun :-). We caught a few fish Wednesday night. Thursday was also cold and wet and our boat caught four fish all day (one for me). The fish just weren't interested in eating. Friday, the weather was getting nicer, but the fish were still lethargic. I caught one fish Friday. No problem though, we had plenty of beer, beef jerky, chili cheese chips, trail mix, and slim Jim's. Glad my cholesterol test was two weeks ago :-). Saturday was another beautiful day and the fishing picked up. I caught 22 fish Saturday and our boat caught 42 sealing our third straight fishing tournament win :-).

Didn't take pictures the first two days due to rain. Friday was like this.

Borrowed my friend's late father's (Putie) fishing hat since I forgot mine.

The air just smells clean up there.

No service. Perfect!

This was the first decent fish I caught and my friend had his finger over part of the lense. It means I can make up the size of the fish later, right? Got a good laugh about that one.

Beautiful day

 

My friend bought us matching hideous shirts which we saved for the last day of fishing. We all got quite a chuckle out of it :-).

Kurt with a nice bass.

I had to take a pic with my finger in the way :-).

 

Almost covered my face :-)

Surgery on a northern pike that swallowed a lure.

Me in "the shirt" :-)

Until next year...

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And my next injury is.... Ribs

Saturday I was out running some local single track. It was a beautiful day out there and I was feeling good so I decided to run for about two hours. An hour and a half in, I tried on a root and before I knew it, I slammed to the ground landing on a root with my right rib cage. Ouch! It knocked the wind out of me and left me a little stunned. After feeling around to see if I broke anything I decided to continue my run. As I ran, my ribs hurt pretty bad and felt like something was loose in there. I walked a little poking at them and found a spot that really hurt. Tried to run again holding my ribs with my left hand, but it wasn't happening. Walked the half mile back to my car holding my ribs deciding whether or not I should drive to the ER or go home and shower first. I'm a guy, so yea, I drove home.

My view from the ground

 

After showering I decided to consult Dr. Google. The good doc said I bruised or broke a rib and the treatment was the same. Rest, anti-inflammatory and pain meds. I don't like taking drugs so I just went about my business. Sunday after having my morning coffee I started thinking that flying on Monday might not be a good idea if I had something worse than what I self diagnosed. Once I started looking at how late the urgent care place was open I figured that meant I just need to go get it over with. After a few X-rays and some painful probing, the doc said he didn't see anything broken but cartalidge doesn't show up on x-ray so something could be broken. He said I would know in a week, if it's bruised ribs, it will be better. If something is broken, it will still hurt pretty bad. He said I could resume normal activity, including running, if I could stand the pain. After lunch I decided to give running a try. Made it five steps and walked home holding my ribs. My pain level went from a three to an eight on the first step.

Tuesday my ribs were still about a three on the pain scale until dinner. Sitting through a three and a half hour business dinner, my ribs started barking. I didn't tell our customers about it, or my co-workers except for a couple guys that work for me. I was getting close to telling our customers and excusing myself early, but I stuck through it. That night in the hotel, I woke up about midnight and couldn't find a position I was comfortable enough to sleep. Eventually, I got up at 4 am and went to the front desk and bought a couple Aleve, which helped. Wednesday I had my pain med prescription faxed to Cleveland and I picked that up along with a bottle of Aleve on my way to another business dinner. Wednesday evening I took Aleve, but felt good enough to skip the pain pills. So far so good on avoiding taking the pain pills.

I'm five days in and still hurting. We'll know for sure Saturday when I try to run. Hope I'm better before my fishing trip in a few weeks. I'm the motor man in out boat and the thought of pull starting the engine a hundred times a day hurts. My best friend just might have to learn to drive a boat :-)

 

Soon to be view while fishing

 

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100 mile month

In April I had my third ever hundred mile running month. The last time I had one was a month before my 5 minute half marathon PR. If I could string a few of these together, I might be able to have another running PR. For now I'm happy not to be injured and that I got 100 miles running in April even with traveling every week.

Unfortunately my bike and swim graphs don't look so good. I am totally at peace with it though. Work has to take precedence since triathlon racing will never pay the bills for me.

I do miss cycling. I have plenty of alone time with all this traveling and cycling is a lot of alone time for me so not a total loss.

I'm not a strong swimmer and likely never will be but I do miss the solitude involved with swimming. At least my last race involved my best race swim yet.

In other news, I am still getting my cooking time in on the weekend. If you follow me on twitter and/or instagram, you've already seen these, but they are worth seeing again. :-).

I like my neighbor's recipe for baby back ribs.
- peel the back side skin off the ribs (let me know if you want more info)
- get a big roasting pan and fill with 50-50 water and apple cider vinegar
- add Lea and Perrins sauce and ground pepper to taste
- bake 2.5 to 3 hours at 250 degrees
- Move to the grill to finish them up

I made this up based on my wife showing me some Facebook post. It turned out amazing.
- slice zucchini
- Lightly cover with olive oil and dipping bread seasoning
- grill at medium heat for ~5 minutes (defined as holding hand an inch above the grilling surface and being able to tolerate it)
Grill side one for five minutes, flip then add Roma tomatoes and cheese. Grill another five minutes or until the cheese looks done.

So what is medium heat on a charcoal grill? If you can hold your hand about two inches above the grant for about 2-3 seconds, no more, no less, that is perfect. Enjoy!

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Amazing Run

I haven't had much to blog about this year seeing as I don't have any races on the schedule and life has been crazy hectic. I have been pretty good about keeping up with my running. More about that in another post.
So today when I was getting ready for my run, it was 50 degrees with a light rain. I wasn't sure exactly how to dress, so I walked outside to get a feel for the temp. 50 degrees in the spring feels a lot warmer than 50 in the fall. I decided on shorts, a light long sleeve compression top and a running t-shirt plus some light gloves.
I arrived at the trail head to find I was the only one there. Perfect. It wasn't long before I noticed how peaceful it was out in the woods. The trees were green with newly budding leaves, birds were singing and the light rain made that nice soft sound. It was like I was running with one of those soothing sound clocks playing.

Things are getting green

Decided to wash my hat by wearing it in the rain :-)

Not many flowers out in the woods

Fun getting muddy :-)

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Breckenridge 2013

Last week my son and I flew to Denver to meet up with my mom and head to Breckenridge for some skiing, running, rest and relaxation. Denver was in the middle of a blizzard when we arrived. You know it's not good when the pilot says we are at the limits of our visibility for landing so don't be surprised if we have to go around a couple times or maybe even divert. It was a bit rough coming in but we landed on time with no issues. My mom was delayed by 10 hours so we ended up staying the night in Denver. My son and I went to visit my cousin then out to dinner. My cousin has done a few 140.6's slits always fun talking training with him. The roads were a mess and we saw over twenty wrecks.

Not fun driving

We made it up to Breckenridge Sunday, got supplies then settled in. We stay with my Mom's friend from college and they have an awesome setup for guests. With all the snow, skiing was great Monday and Tuesday though it was a tad cold Monday morning. -5F when we woke up made me wonder why we don't go to Mexico for spring break, but it warmed up to +10 and with all the right gear, we were comfortable.
Just like last year, I was the only one to crash. In my defense, two of the crashes were on a black run with moguls which is clearly outside my ability. It was kind of funny. We ended up at the top of peak ten and saw all black runs. Oh well, I decided to head down first so I could take pictures of my son and mom braving the moguls. I crashed hard and was glad I was wearing a helmet. My day probably would have been done without it. Anyway, my son skied down the run with no problems and my wise mother asked ski patrol which run to take and they pointed her to a black run with no moguls which is well within our abilities. Live and learn :-).

We chose Spitfire

The steam coming off my head looks like a cloud :-)

We skied Monday and Tuesday then I had a couple blogger meet ups Wednesday. Wednesday morning. I met Kovas, Laima and their youngest boy for coffee after they dropped their other kids of at ski school. It's funny I met them in Colorado seeing as we all live in Illinois. It was really nice chatting with them. They are a super nice family.

Blogger meet up number one!

After meeting with Kovas and Laima, I headed to Idaho Springs to meet up with Jill. Idaho Springs is a neat little old town and we met at a great pizza joint. It was nice getting to know her better after following her blog for a couple of years. Her athletic accomplishments are impressive and she has some big races coming up. I think I'll just live vicariously through her while I sit out for a while :-).

Blogger meet up number two!

Funny story about the blogger meet up with Jill. I was wondering how to ask my wife if it was ok to meet up with a woman I met on the Internet while I'm on vacation and she's not with me. Awkward! It was an interesting conversation for sure :-). I guess after 25 years she trusts me.

Main drag in Idaho Springs

Besides skiing and running at 9000+ feet, my son and I watched seasons one and two of the walking dead. I was also in bed by 10:30 every night catching up on sleep. Oh, and I cooked to earn my keep. Our hosts seemed to appreciate it and I love to cook, so it was a win-win for everyone.

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Call Me Crazy

I'm still cracking up about the nurse that I saw before the nurse practitioner saw me yesterday. I go to a small doctors office in a rural town in the middle of cornfields, so I doubt they see many middle aged men since farmers are way tougher than me. Even more unlikely is middle aged triathletes. Anyway, the conversation went something like this.

Nurse: What brings you in today?

Me: Lower back and hip pain.

Nurse: What happened?

Me: Well, I've had lower back pain off and on over the years since I hurt it diving for a frisbee in college. It flares up if I carry something heavy the wrong way or if I'm under a lot of stress. Work is stressful right now and my back was bothering for a couple weeks keeping me from running much, but it felt better Saturday, so I ran six miles in the woods in 6 inches of snow.

Nurse: You did what ?!?!!!! Your crazy!!!!

Me: i got into endurance sports a few years ago and I run that far all the time, just not in six inches of snow. Probably over did it.

Nurse: What else do you do besides run?

Me: Swim, bike, triathlons, half marathons, half Ironmans, that type of stuff.

Nurse: You are crazy!!!! How does your wife keep up with you?

Me: She doesn't. She just puts up with me :-).

Then the nurse practitioner came in and we went over everything again, how I could barely walk Monday and Tuesday after running, how my right hip felt like bone on bone if i moved it a certain way. How it was actually feeling better, just a little tightness in the lower back. He didn't call me crazy like the nurse, but I could tell he was thinking it. I think he wanted to say "Are you surprised you hurt yourself running that far in deep snow at your age? I'm not."

Anyway, after he did some tests, he ordered an X-ray just to be safe, but said he didn't see any reason I couldn't run. Woohoo! On the way out of the office the nurse said "you're crazy, I'll pray for you" :-). Cracks me up!

So today I ran six miles in the woods :-). The snow was no deeper than an inch or two and had melted on about half of my route. Here are a couple pics.

 

Saw a beautiful wood pecker out there, but he didn't want his picture taken.

Oh, I almost forgot. After running last weekend, I used my foam roller for the first time and may have overdone it. I rolled both hips, outer thighs, glutes and calves for about a half hour. Could I have loosed my IT bands up enough to hurt my hip and lower back? Anyone ever injure yourself with a foam roller? My hips and outer thighs were sore to the touch for a couple days.

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T.H.I.N.K

I've used this poster a few times this week to keep from saying things I would regret.

 

It worked and I'm glad because what's said is said and can't be taken back.

 

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