If I were going to dope...

I'd talk to this guy. Fabian Cancellara defended his world championship Time Trial crown by 52 seconds over a 44.9-km course. wow.

You might be taking yourself too seriously...

If you're 70, and you're cheating at triathlons. Seriously? Seriously.

Triathlon growing in Lexington

Lexington is finally growing up a little bit. The Tri for Sight is now second in size (in KY) only to IM KY. Not bad.

Tri for Sight Pictures

Dave (one of my bosses) and Myself Looking alert and sessy before the swim.

Dude who wouldn't let me pass him for the last 250m. Little frustrating, but oh well.


Me in T2 wasting time on the watch. I don't think I've ever come back to that empty of a rack.

Coming in on the run. Man that was painful

Getting my award (a piece of glassware)

Cheesin' at the finish line

Tri for Sight Race Report

So one of the goals I had set for this year was to podium at a race. I thought this would push me to train harder and work for some goals. That said, let's get on this race report, shall we?

I wasn't quite as strict with the diet this week. I had already put in 90+ miles on the bike prior to the race. I drank beer on friday, I ate pork and beef at the company picnic on saturday. I just didn't care. I told a couple friends friday night that I was either going to podium or blow up on the run. Saturday night, I had a splitting headache. I think it was due to large stressors in my environment the past few days. Dealing with the fallout of getting run off the road on thursday afternoon during my long run, having to call 911 for a guy having a stroke or heart attack at my company golf scramble, etc could have both contributed to it. Thankfully, I have a great girlfriend who took care of me and helped me get ready last night while I was laying on the couch, hurtin'.

7 am races are early, so I got up at 5 still with a bit of a headache. I popped an Excedrin Migraine, drank some coffee, a diet coke, and ate some cereal. I was ready.

Swim: 800m, 14:29 (1:47/100m)

It was a pool swim, and I felt really good. Passed about 3 or 4 people, was passed by one. these times seem long to me, but everybody's times are slow. Maybe I need to swim more. 500 yds this week is a bit thin.

T1: Long run from the pool to the Community College included: 4:14

Bike: 18+ miles, 49:55 (21.6 mph)

I didn't feel all that great on the bike today, and apparently I need to take a class on gear shifting. I threw my chain again. It's a pretty hilly course, but fun day out there regardless. Guy I know caught me at the end of the bike, and I knew I was going to have to hammer the run if I was going to beat him.

T2: nothing much to tell other than dropping my bike into my leg and gaining a nasty cut. 1:01

Run: 4 miles, 25:04, (6:16/mile)

I didn't know I was running this fast, but I was trying to hold true to my blow up/podium promise. It hurt, but I kept passing people and finished pretty strong. I beat my friend on the run by 2:30. Beat him overall by 12 seconds. whew!

Overall: 1:34:41, 7th overall (out of about 300 I think) 1st/23 in AG.

One guy in AG actually beat me, but he won the overall and is trying to qualify for nationals. Dude's fast. So I got the AG trophy (pics later). Needless to say I'm pretty stoked.

The Trail Beckons

On mornings like this, the gym doesn't have a chance to win the toss - I've been away from my beloved Pinellas Trail for over two weeks - and the overcast sky and cooler air brought on by whatever tropical storm is out there right now makes a convincing assertion that summer may actually be coming to an end.

I'd been biking our rails-to-trail for many years before I realized that trail cyclists considered it one of the best "urban" trails in the country. Kyle and Sam were young homeschooling tykes when we first hopped on our bikes to ride the very first completed sections in the middle of our long thumb-shaped Pinellas county. Now it's 34-36 miles end to end with several off-shoot spurs, it connects a bunch of city and county parks, and travels through a wide spectrum of commercial and residential neighborhoods from the housing projects to upper class Belleair with "white trash" and retiree mobile home parks and scores of middle class neighborhoods in between.

I can take the Gulfport spur near the southern end to eat lunch on a rooftop overlooking the Gulf of Mexico or watch the swing dancers at the pavillion, then cross the inter-coastal in the section pictured above, then much farther north, paralell the Gulf again in Dunedin, Crystal Beach and Tarpon Springs, smelling the briny air across the mangroves, even when I can't see it. You can bike for breakfast, lunch or dinner in downtowns made for day-trippers (Gulfport, Dunedin, and Tarpon), and the food is so good at some of these places, that it will take you quite a few bike trips to sample them all.

On my relatively short ride south this overcast Saturday morning, I mostly passed or was passed by other "serious" cyclers (road bikes with helmets, bike shorts, tops, and shoe clips) riding in small groups, with relatively few walkers, runners and skaters. I also encountered a tyke on one of his first rides without training wheels being coached by Grandpa and Grandma who crashed into the fence pictured above just after I passed, a couple of homeless dudes with bikes having a chat by one of the overpasses - a pretty regular occurrence in certain sections of the trail, an assistant cook heading to work with a dangling cigarette, an orange Fanta, and a serious hangover clouding his face, and the best part of my coffee break: a blue/black crow who strutted around the Starbucks patio like a gun-totin' outlaw, forcing the tiny wrens to safer ground.

I like passing commercial buildings sporting murals on several sections of the trail (St. Pete, Clearwater, Tarpon), a homeless dude who routinely reads the paper on a bench just over the fence from the swankiest neighborhood in the county, women who walk the trail barefoot in their Sunday suits and hats with high heels in hand on their way to the African Methodist Episcopal church, compact Mexicans on their way home from work, middle-schoolers clad in baggy blacks who clump together for identity and power, and cast-net fishermen hoping to snag supper from the Anclote River.

It's our trail, its my trail and I love it.

At least we're better than Mississippi, West VA, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee

This post is mainly meant to be a provocateur for Steve. State obesity rankings are in.

So my question is this: what's it like to be a vegetarian in the fattest state in the union?

It's baaack...A short photo essay

So It's certainly mainstream, violent, and whatever derogatory moniker one would like to choose, but the author can't help feeling a little like the two in the photo below now that football season is back.

It's even more fun when it doesn't totally dominate your saturday or sunday. However it feels like this when your alma mater pulls an upset on a top ten rival.

And it's bound to happen at some point in February, the no football blues will come...

But take heart, because before you know it, Mike "Toast" McKenzie will be back with his ridiculous hair and being shown the back of numerous players' jersies on their respective ways to the endzone.

THE END.

More Music City Pics

Exiting the swim

My supporters (minus 1) looking moderately confused

In T1 wasting time.

Rod and Myself Running step for step.

Me on the verge of puking but putting in the kick

Music City Triathlon Race Report

This is the second Olympic Distance Race of the season and really the final prep race for Miami Man in November (I'm doing the local sprint this week, but I don't really think it qualifies due to its short distance).

The weekend began with the drive down to Nashville to stay with Amber's very hospitable family (A big Thanks to the Leslie's). Saturday, we went over to get registered since I signed up late and was on the waitlist. I was pretty sure I would get in, but didn't want to leave it to chance, so I showed up before they opened. I got in, got the right size t-shirt and a blue cap (you'll see below why this was so interesting-it did help the spectators find me though. I might try to do this in other races). Race Report Below: The pic below is me hangin' out before the race. I'm easy to find with my blue cap. If you look directly to the left of me, you'll see a guy who I think is related to Mr. Miyagi. Dude was whipping out some dojo stretches before the race and Steve and I shared a few good-natured laughs over it. Steve also gave me some swimming tips on streamlining my body in the water. Thanks brotha!
Swim: 1500 m (I think + run to transition, not sure) - 27:32.87 (1:50/100m)

I felt pretty good most of the swim. I also felt smoother in my stroke than I did a couple weeks ago. I still swam off course a little bit, but still an improvement. I'm hoping to keep getting better on the sighting. It'll come. I got out and my adoring fans were cheering me on the run to transition. It was pretty cool.

T1: 2:08.9 - No big deal. I ran out the wrong way at first and had to turn around. I just need to keep getting quicker.

Bike: 22.5 miles - 1:01:28.43 (21.96 mph)

The bike was really good. It was a hilly course, but most of the hills were shorter than the ones here in KY. Honestly, I just had one of those really good days where I felt like I had juice in my legs in almost every gear. At about mile 16, I thought a big climb was coming up and tried to gear into my small chainring. As I did this and threw the chain, I swore at myself for being an idiot. I had to slow down and stop to put it back on and lost probably a minute to minute and a half. In hindsight, this was a painful mistake. About 10 people I had passed in the last 5 minutes passed me when I stopped. I was pissed, but decided I was going to use it for motivation to track people down on the run. All in all good bike, but I need to not have mistakes like that

Run: 10k - 40:12.21 (6:29/mile) PR by 6 seconds for a 10k!

I got out of T2 and almost fell down on some uneven ground. Ran about a quarter mile and then went up a 1/2-mile switchback hill that was brutal. At the top, I fell back just a little bit of some skinny dude that looked to me like he was going to put together a good run. So I latched onto him a little bit to try to keep a good pace. After a while we got out to the dam and I was running next to another guy named Rod. It was an out and back and we ran over a dam and down a large hill that we had to come back up (also painful but we made it). On the back, Rod pulled me up one hill and said "hang on and get up here!" I'm grateful for that as I would not have had the run I did without him. As we were getting back to mile 5, I knew it was mostly downhill and I wanted to repay Rod for his help, so we started picking it up to try and catch dude in gray who was in Rod's AG. On the .5 mile steep downhill, I just let it rip striding out fully and going about 5min/mi pace. Rod yelled at me from behind "It's not even fair with those long legs you've got!" I told him my large arse was pushing me down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, I was hurting bad, but still had about .3 miles left. We had passed gray suit dude on the hill and all I wanted to do was beat him. We caught another old guy at mile 6, and I poured on almost all I had. At about 50 yards out, we went in through the fence (and my cousin Steve said he thought I would get kicked at the end), I decided I'd worked too hard to lose at the end, so I poured on everything else I had and finished strong in front of rod and old dude. We must've dusted gray suit dude (or he was demoralized by watching me stride past him like a bloated camel), because he wasn't in the video that Amber took.

Total Time: 2:14:06.25, 4/29 in AG, A really solid race for me. The real twist now as I look at the race results is if the guy ahead of me is really in 3rd place since he had a 2 min drafting penalty (cheater). If his penalty has yet to be assessed, I finished 3rd. Oh well. Good day regardless. I'm asking the RD if I'm reading the results correctly and will update when I find out.

Summary: I need to keep getting better on sighting in the water, keep speeding up my transitions, and not do stupid crap like throw chains on the bike. However, I do believe this HR training/base training really works. I feel so much better running at that speed now. It's uncanny. I'm really looking forward to lower volume, smooth pace base work this winter in hopes of really cranking it up for next spring at the Louisville Triple Crown and St. Anthony's.

I've attached some pics below of Amber and Myself after the race, and Steve messin' with my bike with me thinking I was leaning out of the picture.

So I Love Dogs, But

Sometimes they get their comeuppance. I was riding today, and I heard a dog come up on me. I've learned in the past year that if you want to keep a dog out of your spokes, you have to scare them off and keep them away from your bike.

So without even thinking about it as the dog came up next to me on the right (running full speed), I let out a strong "HEY!"....I definitely scared his butt, because he tried to stop on a dime. I kid you not, he had so much momentum when he stopped that he literally somersaulted right next to me. I was a little worried at first that he was hurt, but then he got up and looked at me. I smiled to myself with a great sense of accomplishment. Today's Score: Sam 1, Dogs 0

Racing into Shape...or Something like it.

So one way to work in some speed when you've been struggling to get the speed workouts in is to race frequently. I've got one this weekend, the Music City (1.5-K Swim, 40-K bike, 10-K run) and the Alcon Tri for Sight in Lexington (800-m swim, 18-mile bike, 4-mi run) next weekend.

One problem with the Music City: I signed up late and got put on the waitlist because the race is sold out. I should still get in according to race directors, so I'll be there. Look for the Race Report(s) coming up and then a little break for some ramp up to MiamiMan.

A Good Week

The plan for the week was to recover quickly from the race the weekend before, then start putting in the miles on the bike. I didn't get any swimming in this week, but I'll fix that this week. The recovery ended up turning it into a bigger weekend. Friday involved just under 60 miles on the bike, Saturday had a 8+ mile really hilly run. Sunday was a ride up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for some more riding while those with me chilled at a waterfall picking blueberries (seriously). Suffice it to say, it was a long descent (about 3 miles) and steep from where I began. I did a couple of decent climbs going out and it was tough but fun. i took a picture on the way out, and below is what I look like without thinking about facial expression...

And this is what I look like 30 seconds later when I realize how horrid that first picture looked...

The final climb back to the beginning was a doozy. I'm not sure exactly of length and elevation because I forgot my Garmin. However, I was climbing for about 13-15 minutes in my granny gear. Good stuff. I got to the top and hiked in my bike shoes to a little overlook. Then I came back and hung out with my cool peeps (who gave me relatively no crap this weekend for all the training). We were going to eat at the BRP that night, and I told them about the overlook I found. So we ate turkey tacos/burritos on the side of the mountain. A look at the fare and the ambience is below.

We closed out a good ride home with some flowers in the hair (and a bike in the back :D )

Finding Inspiration

Just wanted to say thanks to Sam - who couldn't resist breaking out a little Harry during the pre-race dinner - for letting the momster tag along for the Buck Creek International Triathlon last weekend. It helped me to see how the race actually worked - getting ones gear set up in the transitions, etc.

But I also appreciated men and women who were obviously - obviously - older and heavier than moi chugging past me - in swimsuits! - on that steep uphill out of the swim and steadily working to propel their bike down the road. KUDOS to all those people who were able to set aside all thoughts of "I'm not young, slim, fast, buff enough.." and just got out there and DID IT. Thank you, thank you. You spur me on.

for linking Kuota Kueen K

Buck Creek International Pics

Here's a few snapshots from the Buck Creek Triathlon this past weekend. Of course, most are featuring Sam, but I figured that would be ok with Sam's fans.

I'm a novice at posting pics, so please bear with any strange layouts.

First swim wave of the sprint distance. Looked to me like 3/4 of the athletes did that shorter distance.

This green cap /dark goggles/wet suit with yellow lightning bolts might be Sam.

The sun was in his eyes, the hill was steep, but Sam, I think, was happy to have the swim behind him.

Yes, it took Sam awhile to peel off the wetsuit, but I'm not sure if anyone else who wore a full length suit did it much faster. They were all unzipping on the way up the hill, except for one fellow who sat down as soon as he reached the start of the grass hill and pulled his suit off pretty quickly. Many didn't wear wetsuits - especially in the sprint division.

I realized, too late, that if you want to take reasonably centered photos of a specific person approaching and flying past you on a bike, knowing their face, body build, and clothing/gear colors are not enough - you simply must have either a spotter or a set of binoculars, preferably both, along with your digital camera. I didn't, so I have some nice pics of riders I don't know. The first time Sam passed, all I got was a backside shot of him pedaling away from me.

Water station two miles into the 10k run.

A

Sprint to finish

About 60 seconds after finishing the triathlon, Sam has a gracious smile for the momster who is bugging him for yet another mug shot.

Buck Creek International Triathlon

(I do not as of yet have any pictures to post, but as soon as I get some, I'll slap 'em on here) The Buck Creek Triathlon was Sunday Morning. The Madre came up friday and we hung out friday night, and drove up saturday afternoon. There was a massive T-storm on our drive over to the park and I was excited at the prospect of an overcast day for a race.

Packet pick up was smooth, We did a little pre-race exercise at the hotel just to work out the kinks from traveling in the car, then it was off to dinner for some fish and a sweet potato, along with a salad...and some bread...and some of mom's salad...and some of her steak...I think I was done after that. Got back to the room and set up the bike and got all my stuff out and ready to go. Didn't sleep well at all, but that's typical the night before the race. I need to figure out a way to solve this.

I don't like showing up too early at races as I hate sitting around. That said, i was there at 6:40 and had almost two hours to get ready. Plenty of time. had the Garmin FR 305 all set up with Multi-sport function and ready to go. It was pretty warm, but they said the water was 76.5 F. I didn't buy it, but really wanted to give my wetsuit a shot at a race. Humor of the day: as the sprint race was getting ready to start, some dude walks up to the guy with the Megaphone...Dude with megaphone delays race start and asks if anybody has experience in popping shoulders back in place because dude would like his shoulder in correct position before starting his swim wave. Unreal.

After all the sprint waves, the 0-39 International distance wave (mine) was set to go. I was chatting with some dude before the start. He said he signed up elite and was hoping to go 2 hrs. He wasn't convinced though. He also said he thought the swim was a bit long. I had thought that the day before, but didn't really care as I was planning on going out easy on the swim and then pushing on the bike and run. My swim isn't exactly a strong point.

Swim, 1500 m + run up massive hill into transition: 32:36
I went out easy just like I had planned. The current was such that the out leg of the rectangle was tough and the back was easier. I gained on a lot of people on the back of the first lap, then lost a lot to them on the second lap. What happened was that I am not a very good open water swimmer, and I was all over the place. It's totally my fault, but I'll bet I swam at least an extra 200m if not more. I pushed a bit at the end and came out winded, thus going pretty slow up the hill to T1

T1: 2:23 :
No big news here other than my transitions need practice. I couldn't get that dang wetsuit off. Bike, 40k (23.7 miles) : 1:07:03, 21.2 mph I felt pretty good on the bike most of the time. It was rolling, but mostly flat. Definitely flatter than what I ride in KY most of the time. For the most part, people were riding a really clean race. Except for one guy, he was drafting everybody he could. It was ridiculous. I passed him on the second lap only to have him bridge the gap and draft me for 3 miles heading back to T2. I didn't want to waste energy on him out there, but I kind of wish I would have seen him after the race to let him know people know he's a rat fink putz.

T2: 1:38 :
No big deal still need to speed it up here.

Run, 10k, 44:50, (7:14/mile)
I had taken in a bottle of gatorade and two gels on the bike, which I thought was pretty good, but there was definitely some cramping going on during the run. It was pretty flat with the exception of a couple tough hills. I wanted to go a bit harder but just couldn't really on the second lap of the run. I came in feeling pretty good, all alone.

Total: 2:28:31, 6/12 in 25-29 AG, 21/90 total Int'l finishers.

I need to speed up the swim just a bit, and definitely get the sighting worked out. I need to keep improving bike fitness as it was definitely in better shape. And transitions, I think I could easilty take a minute off just by working on those. Other than that, nutrition needs to be figured out for the 1/2 in miami. Let me know if I missed anything.

Hmmmm?

Am I scared of pink? No. I even sport it to work from time to time. But I'd like to say that Spencer Smith is in possession of a set.
Wow. Just. Wow....But I'd take that bike (even in pink) if they gave it to me. And I'd ride the crap out of it.

Oh ya...It's on!

Here we go. Bring the jitters and the excitement. It's race week. The race is the Buck Creek International Triathlon. The course maps can be seen here. The race organizers describe the course as rolling to sometimes hilly, but from looking at it on Google Earth, and it being Ohio, It looks kind of flat to me. But we'll see.

I certainly pump the excitement as I write here, but the most difficult thing with all this stuff is staying relaxed around the race. So that's the focus for the week, especially friday through sunday. I'm looking forward to testing myself and pushing it this weekend. We're also hoping to be able to stop by IM Louisville on the way home as well. Should be gangbusters. If moonpie wants to make an appearance, he should bring it.

Motivation?

Check out some George Sheehan quotes here.