RAGBRAI officially gets started on Sunday. Everybody is starting to get into town and get prepped, I can't wait. Saturday night there is a big concert with the Bare Naked Ladies in Council Bluffs, that I heard could have 30,000 people. That would be the only way to get RAGBRAI kicked off. A couple of my friends aren't going to join us until a couple days in, but I'm excited to meet Team Fast As Hell and see everyone else that comes out. I always find people I know at RAGBRAI. Since this is my first year, I will have to do all the Virgin stuff. I know I atleast have to get my legs marked up, we'll see if there's anything else. I'm just hoping my legs can make it through the week. I've pretty much decided, that they have to, no matter how long it takes me to get through the days. I also don't know exactly what to pack yet. I've read the checklists, and I tend to overpack, but I don't want to be the guy that brings way too much stuff or forgets something obvious.
As I always do, I'm going to try to incorporate tech into the ride. I'm planning on tweeting during the week as long as I can keep a charge on my phone or ipod. I found a way to constantly show my location with Google Lattitude. So you can check the map below anytime during the week and be able to tell where I'm at (again, if I can keep my phone charged). You can also stay updated by following the twitter feed to the right, by visiting http:\\twitter.com\oneniner or checking my facebook page . I'm hoping to upload a few pictures to there and track how I'm doing. So feel free to text me if you're in the area, but I may not get back right away.
Just went on a run with a co-worker today, I thought I was getting into shape, but he really kicked my butt. It reminded me why I only ran with him once last year and gave up until I fell for it again this year. I've been training for a 5 mile run at Boys Town on Memorial Day. Last year Amy, her dad, and I ran the hilly, 5 mile course in a little over 47 minutes. We were pretty happy with that, but when I did't run for another 8 months after that I decided I should get in shape for it this year. Especially since I'm planning on riding the full week of RAGBRAI this summer too. So I found a 10K training program and then adjusted it a little for 5 miles instead of 6.2, Amy and I have gotten up to running 10 mile weeks with our longest run being 4.5 miles so far. This Saturday we reach the peak of our training at 5 miles. I thought it was going to be a tough week, but I didn't realize a co-worker was going to take me out for a 4 mile run at an 8 minute pace on my 2 mile day. I was hoping for a relaxing 2 mile run to get me ready for the long run on Saturday. Now that it's 2 hours later and I'm just starting to recover I realize my 10 mile week just turned into 12. I guess I should be a little more ready than I was last year after running about 4 miles a week on a treadmill.
I've been tracking most of my runs on my iPod with Nike+ and felt like trying to display them here. So here's what it says so far. That has helped to motivate me, I enjoy knowing my pace and having a record of my runs without have to write them down or get a fancy gps watch.
The P90X workouts have been struggling a little for me since I started running more. I've had trouble getting 2 in a week. Which I guess is a ton better than I was doing a couple months ago, but I may not look like Tony now. But who knows maybe I'll drop about 40 pounds in the next 3-4 weeks and get pretty cut. Then I would have to get new biking shorts that are smaller and resize my tux for the wedding, I don't know if it's worth all that extra work. Amy did want to marry me for who I am, so I should be happy with it too. :)
RAGBRAI is quickly approaching, I'm getting so excited for it. I've hung out at a couple overnights every year, but never actually rode in it. Last year we met some friends and went about 10 miles, but I wouldn't really consider that riding RAGBRAI. This year I'll find out what it's really like. I had kinda talked myself into it, then found out the overnight towns and got really excited. One of them is Indianola, the home of the Simpson College Storm. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in that town. I was also happy to see it's going through Ottumwa. My sister lives in Ottumwa now, so that should be fun. Plus I know people for college through most of the towns, so I'm sure I'll come across some old friends. It'll be interesting since I don't know how to pack or what to expect for the rides, but I think I'm ready for it. Is anybody else planning on riding? I'd really enjoy meeting up with you and hanging out a little.
well, we are unfeated. Is that a word? If not it should be, it means we haven't won any games. Once again, we got smoked and had a few balls spiked on us. This time, I don't remember having any of our own. Don't get me wrong, we had a couple kills. We had a few good plays, we just need a few more games to get some practice under our belt. I'm not sure if we signed up for the best league, but we're doing our best. It has been really fun, and we have a blast making fun of our opponents after the game, as I'm sure they do of us also. This week we are hoping to win atleast 1 game. I'll let you know who get's "Smash"ed in the next post, since I know you can't wait.
I get a call the other day asking if I would play volleyball. I couldn't turn that down, so I said I was in. 10 minutes later I get a call back, "I wrote your information down as the coach, thanks". So I guess I'm coaching a volleyball team. That's a new one to me. My sister has been a head HS volleyball coach the last few years, so she loved hearing that. Since I got a head start coaching, I've been giving her advice on how to handle parents and have fun with coaching, and now she finally got her chance to give me some advice. I guess i could say that it's now the 5th sport I've coached, 6th if you consider slowpitch softball different from baseball.The first game was a fun experience. Nobody knew the rules and we didn't really warm up, but we were all eager to play. We didn't do too bad, the first game was about 15-25, second was 17-25, and the 3rd was quite worse, something like 7-25. We had a good time though and there were a few good plays. The surprise appearence by Leslie, was definatly a help. She's the one that should be coaching. The rest of our team consisted of Ashley (didn't not play, because she's too cool), Berto, Dot, Michelle, Mark & Sara helped us out, then Amy & I.Our next game we knew we had 6 showing up, so it worked out perfect that nobody had to sub, only bad thing is that I was the only guy playing. Which wasn't all that bad. We got a slow start getting used to the new player (just kidding Lisa), and lost the first game about 10-25. I say probably because nobody ever knows what the score is. I'm not sure if it has to do with the beer, nobody knowing how to keep rally scoring, or nobody cares, but each game is kind of an estimate. The second game was much better. We started to pull things together and had a pretty good lead like 23-18, then gave up enough points that it was tied. We were able to get the serve back and kept serving for game point, then they'd get it right back and need 2 points. So we had the advantage, but couldn't close the game. I was actually nervous, I haven't felt that feeling for a long time. I guess i'm not as confident in my volleyball abilities as slow pitch softball. We ended up losing the game about 31-29. I know it was 2 points and I know it was higher than 25. We again played a 3rd game for fun, which I believe would've been around 40-12. We just kept playing, it was good practice. There were a couple highlights on the night. One of which happened when a guy on their team decided to spike the ball pretty hard on one of our players. It wasn't a huge deal, but he hit it pretty hard. I don't complain about this kind of stuff, because I dont' want to get into the bickering about carries & lifts, or how many guys hit the ball, or other stuff like that. There aren't any officials, so if we start complaining, they are going to have plenty to complain back about. Not to mention that my fiance went under the net and took out an ankle earlier in the game. So I calmed down our team and said not to worry about it. Then maybe 2 serves later, I get a perfect set and hit it about as hard as I could right at the guy. I picked him out and aimed it at him. I wasn't trying to hit him, just have some fun. The ball landed at his feet and you could see he was a little surprised. Both teams had fun with it, his team was saying "payback's a bitch isn't it". Needless to say, he didn't spike any more. We had some really good team work during the second & third games. We were doing the whole bump, set, spike thing, it looked good. Once we play together a couple more times and get our rotation figured out, we'll be pretty tough decent ok.Sounds like we are going to have a couple new faces next game, I'm looking forward to it. A little more testosterone, never hurts. :) Tuesday's @ 7:30 @ Digz, see ya there.
We had huge turn out for the pregame party. Berto, Michelle, and I had a couple drinks and I think ate about 4 hot dogs. I'm not sure if it helped since I don't remember the outcome and Berto stole the score book. I believe we won the next game on 10/9, then just barely lost the finally by the mercy rule. It's too bad we had to make up the rain game as the last game, just when we thought we were going to win 2 in a row that team showed us how slow pitch softball is supposed to be played.
To sum the season up, I would say that our team had a lot of fun. That's kinda like when you talk about a blind date as being nice. It's also like the experience that the fat chick has while playing dodge ball... it was fun. There were a few highlights. Double plays, diving catches in the outfield, a home run that bounced off the top of the fence and went over, an entertaining catcher for our team that we didn't even know, camping under fly balls in the outfield that would hit the ground untouched, catching a one hop throw to the plate and celebrating while the runner comes home, pulled hammies (yes plural), new players every week, a few of which asked why we were wearing gloves and which hand they go on, coaching batters how to just hold the bat on their shoulder, having to take beer out of our dugout multiple times, playing music too loud when we weren't playing, an umpire that loved to punch people out even if they weren't out, sliding into home with no throw with a ripped up knee, having at least 5 people play 1st base in 7 games, a player that got put on waivers, breaking phones while tackling girls at 3rd base, out gestures by a pitcher, a great catch by our catcher, and many others that aren't coming to my mind right now.
In closing, It was a blast and we're going to have to get a team together for next year. Now that we have our freshman season under our belts, the sophomore should be better. It was also nice to get a chance to know a few more people outside of the office and I was glad to see so many different people give it a try, but I think I'd have to agree with Michelle when she said, "it's a good thing we didn't have our company name on the jersey's".
This week break out your Red Bull and coffee mugs as we look to extend our winning streak to 2 against the Partners 4 Biz at 9:30/Kelley Field #7. Let me know if you can make it and we will start the planning.
-Berto
Also if anyone is interested I’m thinking I’ll open my doors for pre-game. I live at 147th & Maple, so it’s a short drive to the field. We’ll grill up some burgers and get mentally prepared. Anyone can come, we’ll be there from after work (5:45ish) till 9, let me know if you’re interested and need directions. There will be plenty of food & drinks, just bring your game face. -Nolan
Some call it "huss", some call it dedication, others just refer to it as stupidity. Who slides in beer league softball? Well, Berto does, and the picture above proves it. He tells me this is a picture of his knee, I'll just take his word for it. This is the result of him sliding not once, but twice. To his credit, they weren't bad slides. And with the final result of the game, nobody else is complaining either. We were able pull of the victory with clutch hitting, and some nice defense.
To start off the game, the umpire searched our dugout without a warrant, I think Berto & Dan were strip searched, then Mike was interogated and for what you ask... Beer in the dugout. Last week we couldn't play music during the game and this week they wouldn't let us have a cooler of beer in the dugout. I guess impairing your judgement and slowing your reactions is not a good thing for beer league softball.
Once again we had a couple new faces. The girls on our team decided we are too much of an embarassment for them to show up. With Ashley being the only girl from our team, we had to borrow a few players from the team that beat us in the first week. Yup, the gully members from AOK were gracious enough to play for us, actually we forced Tiffany, Renee, Jess, & Sarah to play. Also Mike finally took a night off from traveling for work, to come out. After he got away with leading off in the first inning and once he figured out some of the rules, he turned out to be a real asset. Mr. Jung played well on the hot corner, making a couple tough plays. Berto threw a runner out at the plate and we caught a few fly balls. Dan and Ashley played solid in the middle, Brian & Jess were errorless in the outfield and Tiffany caught everything thrown her way at first. Renee hit the ball well, but I think the umpires were holding her responsible for the beer or something, because they kept making bad calls against her. If it weren't for a few walks given up by the pitcher (not to mention names, but it was me), then we would have held them to a lot less runs. They really only had 1 big inning, but we were able to get a couple runs almost every inning and had a big inning exactly when we needed it. The score was tied and it was getting close to the time limit so we knew that the top of the sixth would be our last atbat and we needed a couple runs, then to defend our lead. Brian and Sarah came up to bat and put a couple hits together to give us baserunners, then we just continued to hit the ball and doubled our run total (kinda). We batted around that inning and scored 6 runs. Giving us a pretty comfortable lead going into the bottom of the 6th. We haven't had the lead many times, but we'd been in this same situation a week ago. We were ahead and had to defend it in the last inning, last time it didn't go our way.
So here's were the controversy comes in. After both teams agreed that we were tied 7-7 before the inning, we batted around and scored 6 more runs, then as we take the field, their "score keeper", I use that term loosly, claims that the score is 10-7. He somehow missed 2 of the runs we had just scored and then took away a run from the 3rd inning. So after debating with an older guy that napped the first half of the game, the umpire takes his side. Now to be honest, noone on our team kept the score that inning, but it was me that hit a triple and scored on a basehit that they weren't counting, so I'd think I'd know what was going on. We cleaned up the score book the next inning and are sure that we were right. But the umpire took their side since they won the coin toss and were home team (yes you heard that right, a coin toss determines how many runs you're allowed to say you have). So we took the field with a 7 6 run lead 12-6. We held them to a couple runs and got them to fly out to close the game. So we didn't have many friends after the game, but we won and that was all that mattered.
UPDATE (09/29/08): New picture that you can actually see. Only bad thing is, this is after it has healed for 4 days now. Ouch! Should be fun to watch him run next week.
The blog entries are taking a little longer to put up every week. I think we need a win to get the blogging community excited. We were the closest we've been this week. With only 3 outs left to seal the victory, we gave up about 6 or 8 runs in the last inning that we couldn't answer to. We put up a valiant effort and it was a good try. 2 of the things I don't like to hear during sports games. We were vastly improved though.
Nancy, Mike, Shannon, & Jacki filled some gaps in our lineup from missing people. Some how everybody came up with kids to watch, a business trip to take, or something better to do, I can't imagine that. But our new faces, played very well. Luckily Nancy never got hit to, and was able to focus on her at bats. She crushed the ball a few times although 1 time she almost got passed while scoring from first base. Mike even surprised himself with a couple of the plays he made at first. We couldn't get him to play anywhere else he liked it so much. Shannon had an amazing catch behind the plate, on a foul ball.
Now we know what it takes to win and we'll put a complete game together. Once again thanks Keytstone for Always being smooth, even when we're not, and unthank you to the Gully Keepers for showing up to our game to cheer us on. You showed up just in time to make us lose.
After having a week off due to inclement weather, the team has put together a new game plan and is refocused. I feel sorry for the Flying Marsupials for getting in our way, they don't know it yet (and probably never will), but they are in for a treat when they walk on to the field tonight.
Pre-game festivities are taking place at the Ice House and we are expecting our biggest crowd of the season. They may be cheering against us, but Keepin it Gully has decided to grace us with their presence at the game. A few of us are also planning on hanging around to help distract them during their game. We're going to dust of the balls, gloves, & bat, so come out and be a part of the record attendance to cheer on the Grass Stains. 7:30 @ Kelly Fields #7.
Looks like the Drinking Team gets a break this time. We'll see who has the biggest "Softball Problem" on October 16th. Hopefully our secret weapon can make it to the next game. She was really hoping she could make her debut tonight. We'll keep the secret under wraps, in case she plays later.