September 23
so at these triathlon deals.. they have photographers… and so you know I did my best to make sure the pics were of me at my best.
im eagerly awaiting the pics of jim w/ a flask
so at these triathlon deals.. they have photographers… and so you know I did my best to make sure the pics were of me at my best.
im eagerly awaiting the pics of jim w/ a flask
Dear Sinuses,
Really, don’t you think enough is enough already? You are hereby forbidden to become infected again during the remainder of the 2005 calendar year.
Thank you,
Jen
P.S. I have nine more days of antibiotics to go. Don’t even think that you’re going to rebound on me this time.
so, pretty soon the Dewey Beach triathlon photos will be up on brightroom, but until then, feel free to marvel at our jocky sportitude. at my flickr account.
so a redesign is in order, but not quite sure how or what, but it might involve the fine jacket cherokee got me from neighborhoodies
contrary to what swiz might say, for holden words are just excercises, and he has sure been working out. As of late he has been saying the following.
1) mama, although it sounds like baba, either way its close enough damnit
2) luve you , this started last night and ensured that he gets what ever he wants
3) bob , as in sponge bob, not sure why as that he has only seen the movie maybee 3 times, hes obsessed
4) growl , this is my doing he will now do devil and animal growls, and has recently picked up growling at pictures of tigers , lions, and aligator, and really anything with shown teeth.
5) bye bye , once again ensures he can continue to be captain chaos and still get what ever he wants.
6) moo , any barn yard animal is a moo
7) please, thank you … slowly not always when prompted
8) all done , sadly normally said after he throws all of his food on the floor
9) bear, which sounds more like baa
so this weekend i did something that the old me never thought he could possibly do. By the old me I mean the body for which I have inhabbited my entire life. Sure I played organized sports as a kid, my last memerable attempts being middle school through freshman / sophmore years of high school playing lacorsse. Even then I decided that due to my lack of any kind of sustanable endurance I played goallie. This weekend I completed my first sprint triathlon, at dewey beach.
so here is my play by play
Pre: we all wake up at half past but, consume some bagels and penut butter, and head out. Im getting pretty freaked out but more excited than anything else… we get there in just enough time to get stuff ste up and jump in the water a bit.
Swim: Me being in the first timers wave, I ended up being in the last set of people to start. Now this is good and bad. Good because I got to watch a bunch of people go ahead of me, and take it all in. Bad because I had to wait over a half hour after jim to start. Which meant I stretched for a half hour and pissed on some sand dunes. When we finally got in the water I was so excited that I bolted past the first marker, and kept swimming out to sea. A life guard on a kayack asked If I was planning on swimming to NJ. As a consequence when I got to the second marker, I ended up having to swim id say 4 minutes into shore just to reach it. Basicly I think I swam in a big half circle as opposed to a straight line. As I swam in, I was greated w/ cherkoee, jen, holden, and my family cheering on. As well as my calves deciding not to work. Eventually they followed my directions and allowed me to run up to the transition area. My brother in law keith followed me screaming for me to go faster. Now I did this last year to him, and I know I deserved it, but man that sucked.
t1: I felt pretty ok, and reasonably fast in and out.
Bike: this is where I probably felt the best. I felt pretty fast, and past about 10 people, which after my long ass swim it made me feel much better. The ride in general felt short, and quick, and as that its straight pretty uneventful.
t2: jim followed me into trainsition screaming at me, and chasing me with ice cream.
Run: I ran out of transition and by the time I reached the road, I felt kind of weak. I had been looking at my run as one of my strong points, not because im fast or nothing, but because ive been doing it the longest. Well after a 1/2 mile swim and 16 mile bike ride… my body sure didnt feel confident. I just pushed through it and around the turn around point my brain told my body to shut the hell up, and I started to pick up the pace a bit. I didnt really feel good about the run until maybee the last 1/2 mile. On the way in I saw jim waiting for me to take pictures, I prompty flipped him off, and picked up the pace, figuring if I left transition like I was a zombie, I might as well come back like flesh hungry living dead instead. As I came near the finish line I saw the fam, and then just before I crossed I heard jen scream “you can doooo it”, and I busted out laughing before crossing.
Afterwards I felt dead, but not like im going to die dead, but just tired. But pretty sure I was going to do another one.
the end
Oh, yeah, it’s that day: Arrrrrrrg!
Post race wrap up. Dewey beach triathlon was yesterday. Mike, Chris (a friend of mike’s brother in law Keith), and I woke up at 5-5:15 and then rolled out to Delaware seashore park. We parked, checked the bikes in and got marked. The goody bag was well stocked. In the interest of staying friendly to both genders, there is almost always some kind of make up in the goody bags. Not wanting to waste anything. I painted my toes the night before. According to jen, I did a bad job, but some people at the race seemed to think that I did OK.
Before we headed out to the water, I saw an old friend/ex-co-worker. I was incredibly excited to see her because she is a 2 time cancer survivor, but I had heard that she was a 1 time cancer survivor. It seemed like a bad idea to tell her that I was so excited to see her because I thought she was dead.
OK. Now to the sports. Water was warm and pretty calm for an ocean swim. I swerved a bit, but nowhere near as much as before. I also managed to keep up with people a little bit better. About 10 minutes from the end, some part of my wetsuit started rubbing on my neck. By the time I got out it was raw and hurt like crazy.
T1 was pretty slow, but went OK. Took off on the bike pretty quick. 16 miles out and back on coastal highway, the most interesting part was the bridge over Indian river. I pulled the ride in less than 50 minutes. The winds actually made me tempted to put my aero bars back on my bike for the next one.
T2 was smoothish and the run wasn’t terrible. Boring, but not terrible. The course was essentially a swim at dewey, a ride to Bethany and back, and then a run to Rehoboth (almost) and back.
When I finished, I got to watch mike come in on the bike. I chased him through the transition area while singing eye of the tiger at the top of my lungs. I didn’t piss him off, which I was half hoping to do, but not really.
2 interesting things during the race. One guy doing it on a fixie. Someone else wearing a giant pirate hat during the run.
Photos and post race wrap up from mike will probably come later.
Over and out.
submitted for your non approval…. songs picked to keep me in a good mood while I wait for my start tomorrow…
So, I have been infrequently bike commuting to/from work. I rode in/out a few times when I only had to be in by 8AM. The main plan though is to (once a week) drive in with bike in truck. ride home. ride in next day and then drive home with bike in truck. This is mainly because I have to be in the building by 7 (contract) but prefer to be there by 6:30. Doing that everyday might kill me. it’s 17 miles one way (the best route) and 13 miles if I take the faster but high-traffic poor road condition route.
Today about 3-4 miles in at 5:15 in the pitch black AM, I pulled over to take my jacket off (today was especially warm). When I went to clip out with my left foot, it wouldn’t go. It turns out I lost a screw in my cleat and the cleat was stuck in the pedal and just spinning on the shoe so I couldn’t get out. After removing the shoe and then getting it out of the pedal I was faced with the dilemma: a. turn around and hop in jen’s car? b. ride another 13/14 miles on eggbeaters without being clipped in? c. fix it?
I quickly remembered something that I probably read on bikeforums.net and then took one of the screws for the water bottle out of my frame. It fit in the shoe and only poked at my foot a little. I was pretty damn proud of myself.
I pat myself on the back pretty damn hard everytime I ride to/from work. Eventually I will probably get to the point of “that’s jsut what I do.” but until then, I take a special joy in answering all of my curious co-workers questions.
Oh and a quick product review
Cateye HL-EL500
It’s good enough to use at 5AM in the dark-ass morning. Just barely good enough, but good enough none the less.