Paul Asay

Last spring when Rev3 announced the season ending race in Venice Florida at the end of October, I planned to enter. Same location as our family get together in October the last two years. Sisters and brother said they would come and the race was on. Arrived just in time for the far edge of hurricane Sandy to stir up some serious waves. Day one at Venice I hit the beach for a practice swim in the angry ocean. Had a great talk with lifeguard Jamie Who gave me some good advice before venturing the waves. Try as I might I couldn't swim north into the current for anything. Had a good feeling the swim would get canceled with the crazy wind, waves and currents. No way to swim a straight line. Two days later on race morning with the wind still whipping 20 to 30 mph the swim did get canceled, so just the 56 mile bike and 13 mile run. Cake walk right :) Started in number order one every 3 seconds, basically by age so I got to meet all the other 50-54 guys. Nice bunch for sure. Got to r...

Last night the ISU campus sponsored a “Glow Run 5k” that benefited Habitat for Humanity so I joined in.  Needed to do a speed workout this week anyway so I just thought I would make that it.  My plan was to treat it like a typical workout so I got in a good swim at lunch and just did my normal thing like any other day.  Good and bad, but I had a meeting after work that included a really nice dinner so I participate in that to (nothing like a speed workout on a full stomach).  Probably finished dinner around 6 PM, made it home to change clothes and back on campus at 6:45 PM to register for the race.  Thankfully it didn't start till 7:30 so I had a bit of time.  My plan was to start easy, run the middle section full speed and then coast it in to the finish as a cool down.  The start went pretty much like that, and after the first ½ mile I was going race pace (makes it fun to pass people that way).  The whole glow run theme was kind o...

Last weekend was the return to Lake Lemon to yet once again face a very tough sprint triathlon course.   Made this trip with my friend Greg Lucas to set the swim course and transition area on Friday, then race the course on Saturday.   After the setup was finished on Friday afternoon we headed into Bloomington to the hotel and packet pickup.   Talked briefly with Scott Jerden, along with his dad William was there to pick up their packets.   Scott is a former winner of the race, so I had a feeling he would repeat the next day.    A bit later in the evening my friend Scott also can down and joined us for dinner. Race morning we loaded up and got to Lake Lemon well in advance of the race.   Found a bike rack near the top of transition and looked for a reasonable warm place to hang-out till the race start.   Water temp was 64 and air temp around 50 so a bit on the cool side.   Race time we were called to the start in 3 waves, and at ...

Raced the new Rev3 Wisconsin Dells triathlon this past weekend, and had a blast doing it.   We arrived a couple of days early to get in a practice swim and the bike check-in well in advance.   Sherrie and Jacob came along to make a long weekend/short vacation out of the trip.   We were able to book the Tamarack Resort for 3 nights so we had a full size two bedroom condo to stay in.   Pretty sweet deal with tennis courts, indoor pool and the like.   Race site was at the Tommy Bartlet Ski Show just about 3 miles away.   Got to check-out the venue Friday night when we had dinner at the Ravina Bay restaurant just across the lake.   Nice side benefit you get to see part of the ski show while having dinner on the deck.   Saturday was an easy day with the practice swim and bike check-in in the morning.   They still needed some extra volunteers so Sherrie and Jacob signed up to work the finish line.   Jacob got in some back to school sho...

I’m training for a ½ Ironman race in Venice Florida October 28th so my weekends for the next few months will be very predictable.   Long ride on Saturday, long run on Sunday, repeat until a couple weeks before the race.   There you have it.   This past Saturday I didn’t get out for the ride till later in the day and headed generally north.   Figured I would just head 22.5 miles where ever I felt like it, turn around and head home.   Had two large water bottles on the bike and figured I could make it on just that.   Turns out that was a bad idea.   I ended up riding through the small town of Mecca which I don’t normally ride to.   They have a monster hill just on the other side of town that knocked my energy level down a full notch.   Soon that road meets back up with highway 41.   Though about turning around there, but noticed a road I‘ve never ridden before heading south toward home (325W specifically).   So what the heck I h...

Yesterday morning while I was riding into work I was just about to turn on the Heritage Trail I noticed another rider whom I have had some past history with.   Maybe two years previous riding down the trail to work I happened to pass him just cruising along when he apparently considered it either an insult or a challenge and he made the effort to pick up his pace and pass me back.   Found that a bit humorous, but no big deal I just let him do it.   Turned out to be a mistake, just as he got to the end of the trail thinking he was way in front of me he proceeded to do a slow U-turn and head back.   Just riding my own pace I was right behind him and except for a last second effort to throw the bike hard left I would have T-boned him.   Considering his past history of trying to play Alpha Male I figured he would do the exact same tactic.   With that in mind I decided to pass him quickly and just hold a hard pace for the 3 miles or so to the end of th...

Spent last week at Camp of the Woods Canada and happened to hear a very interesting comment by an older gentleman just after the evening meal.  He asked if anyone owned a Million Dollar Race Horse.  Of course none did and he went on to relate how your body is worth more than such an animal and how do you treat it?  His statement seemed a simple yet straight forward question to consider.  To be honest I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Just for fun I looked that statement up in Google and found the correlating story by Zig Ziglar    Hard to argue with the concept.  Finding a proper balance on diet, exercise, stress and such factors is often overlooked.  Yet few things are more important. On a related note, we had a fairly scripted schedule during camp, but they always made time to stop and meditate on what God has for you today.  We had 75 cord of wood to cut and stack so we were generally anxious to get to work.  Howev...