SnakeBite Racing Indoor Cycling - 12/20/11

Tonight was a fun and challenging class - with about 30 in attendance.

Here is the playlist and workout summary:

Pre-ride introduction… I Ka Barra (Habib Koite)
Warm Up - easy spin Clocks (Coldplay)
Warm-up a few jumps: Christmas / Sarajevo (TSO)
Warm Up - easy spin Tonight I'm F-ing you… (E. Iglesius)

Sprints: 0:30 on / 0:30 off - Let the Bodies Hit the Floor (Drowning Pool)
Sprints: 0:30 on / 0:30 off - Re-education through Labor (Rise Against)

Steady seated climb Remember the Name (Fort Minor)

Recovery - Wake Me Up (Evanescence)

Climb with jumps Lose Yourself (Eminem)

Recovery- Send the pain below (Chevelle)

25 minute main set: Alternating between 2:00 at Zone 4… 0:30 at Zone 5 - TOUGH!
Sexy and I know it (LMFAO)
You're Going Down (Sick Puppies)
Faint (Linkin Park)
Hella Good (No Doubt)
Catalyst (Linkin Park)
Hoodie Ninja (MC Chris)
Monster (Skillet)

Recovery - Tainted Love (Marylin Manson)

Out of saddle - Climb with jumps Can I Get A… (Jay Z)

Recovery - HollaBack Girl (Gwen Stefani)

Steady seated climb: High Roller (The Crystal Method)

ALL OUT Sprints: 0:30 on / 0:30 off... Break (3 Days Grace)
ALL OUT Sprints: 0:30 on / 0:30 off... Monster (Skillet)
ALL OUT Sprints: 0:30 on / 0:30 off... last full minute - Wizards of Winter (TSO)

Cool Down: Dream on (Aerosmith)

Shanghai International Marathon - 12/04/2011

This was my first race in Asia and my third race overseas - twice I have run marathons in Europe. It was a fantastic experience! Because this was a last-minute race entry for me, I chose to run the half marathon. I ran a perfectly even paced 1:32 (7:02/mi avg), to finish 129th out of over 8,000+ runners from all over the world.

When I quit my job as Global Operations and Logistics Director at my last company, I thought my international travel days were behind me. Not quite! Two months after I started my new job as VP Operations for an Ohio Manufacturing company, I found out I needed to go to China for a few things. My current Chinese visa expired at 12:00am on 12/02/2011 - so I had to hurry! Then I found out this race was going on during the weekend I was there - but it was already filled and closed! :( I told my friend in Shanghai about it... and he managed to get me in!

Race morning was nice as far as weather goes... clear, sunny and about 50F at the start. We started right on the Bund! Me, and 25000+ of my closest running friends from all over the world! See how tightly packed together we are? I had to stand, jammed in like this for about 45 minutes!

Before the race, there were drumlines, dancers and a "warm-up leader". It was quite something - not quite like the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics - but you get the idea.

Then it was 7:30am and time to start!

The crowded start made it impossible for me to find my friend or for him to find me. The amazing thing is that since I was running with my camera, and taking photos along the way - I accidentially got a picture with him in it!!

About 5k (3.1miles) into the race, we ran up and over the NanPu bridge. I've driven across it scores of times, usually in heavy traffic... it was amazing to cross it by foot with zero vehicles on it!

First 5K was about 21:50... as it turns out, my next three 5K splits would all be the same! I ran quite the even pace for this race!

After about the 10k mark, I finally had room to run. I was surprised and impressed at the number of good runners in the race. I guess I shouldn't have been. This is one of the biggest races in China, and much of Asia. Runners from Japan and Korea were everywhere... as well as some "ex-pats" like myself from Europe and USA. The Chinese runners are solid as well. The fastest marathon for a Chinese was 2:12. Not too shabby! (the top 3 were 2:10-2:11... Kenya, Ethopia and South Africa).

My legs felt good, and since I carried my own nutrition, I was OK in that regard. I wasn't ready to experiment with the local energy drinks, tea or water on the course...

I kept taking pictures and video along the race course. There were a lot of people lining the race course - yelling "Jiao Ye" or something to that effect... Not sure what it meant, but it sounded encouraging to everyone!

In the last 5K of the race, we doubled-back along an earlier section of the race course, where I could see the bulk of the 25,000 runners... man - there were a LOT!

As I came to the finish (1K to go), I let my legs run hard, and had to pound up a bridge with a decent incline and decline. It felt good to have strong legs that far into the race. With no one behind me and no one to catch, I just pushed myself to the last 100 meters - which was packed with people. I turned on my video camera and recorded those last 100m. It was pretty cool!

Once I finished, I learned that I won a pair of socks for my finishing position. (top 50 won shoes, next 100 won socks).


I gathered my post-race food and drinks and my finisher's medal, then found my friend and his wife outside. We made our way back to the finish line to watch the professional men finish the marathon... and cheered in the first place man at 2:10:XX (from Kenya) and second (South Africa) place only :07 seconds behind! Third place (from Ethopia) made it to the finish, and then I was right by him when I staggered around, totally out of it. He had put himself into the hurt locker big-time... it was kinda cool to see a world class athelte hurting so much right after a race!