Beach to Battleship race report

B2B race report:

About a year ago the NM Outlaws were casting about for an Ironman race to compete in for our club race. B2B won out over some very tough competition – it won mainly because of the location, time of year (weather ) and cost. North Carolina in early November is incredible!

We had a house on the beach, the weather was perfect, the cost of the race was about $200 cheaper than an M dot race, and they have a half-iron distance and relays. I think the half iron distance race really cemented B2B as our race of choice this way we could include club members that are either not ready for an iron distance race or had other plans that didn’t include a big race in November. B2B is definitely a race destination worth considering.

Packing, driving, flying and organizing 12 athletes and 3 sherpas is a really hard task, Thankfully everyone took on some responsibility and all of our plans worked out flawlessly! Special thanks to Debi, Margaret, Cory, Lorna, and Loraine, you guys had us organized, transported, and fully supported!

Sitting in the Albuquerque airport I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my bike shorts and my run shorts. Darn, that really put me into worry mode, I wasn’t sure if I could find a suitable replacement for bike shorts and I need compression shorts to run in. You all know how you have your favorite non-chafing, correctly padded shorts. Thankfully the expo had some bike shorts. Since I totally suck at shopping it took forever for me to find something, Well, I actually didn’t find anything, Jane and Lorna found the shorts. The local Tri-shop had some very expensive compression shorts so now I had my replacements, and for only $150 dollars. Well, I can always use more shorts.

The days leading up to the race were hectic and not very restful though tons of fun! It’s great hanging out with Anal-retentive, tapering, hyper athletes that eat nonstop. We had a great time walking on the beach, discussing our race tactics, clothing of choice and general logistics. Of course maybe we were all hyper from the sugar of 15 dozen cookies (Thanks Lorna and Cory!)

Race day came much too quickly, The morning started at 4:00am, the usual nutrition, and off to the races! After a quick trip to drop off some last minute items in the T1 bag and then out to the beach. The trolleys to the beach were nice, warm and frequent. After changing into our wet suits and dropping off our gear we headed out to the beach. . We had a bunch of outlaws at the swim start Margaret and Namoi (in their IM debut), Mark T and Jane were up for IM number 2, Miguel, Tim and myself. Margaret looked a little worried, or maybe it was the cold, Naaaa – she never gets cold! A few last minute hugs, good lucks and we were off! The sand was really cold and my feet were numb by the time we got to the starting line but the warm 69 degree water and brisk swim quickly warmed them up. The swim is amazingly fast! That’s one IM pr that I’ll never break! 53ish minutes and it was all over. After the swim I had THE BEST wetsuit stripper of ALL TIME! He unzipped me pulled down my suit over my shoulders, told me to sit, one yank and the suit was off. Wow! That took all of 5 seconds.

The run to the bike start wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, a 400 yard jog in 48 degree temperatures, wet and without shoes isn’t something I would normally do but it just wasn’t too bad, at least my feet were cold enough the asphalt and corresponding little rocks didn’t bother them.

The bike: I had purchased a disposable cotton tee shirt and gloves for the bike because I knew it would be a bit cold out. They worked perfectly and I shed them at the second aid station. The station that actually had nutrition! I’ll be sending the RD a recommendation that he actually have nutrition at the first aid station – like the booklet says. Not only didn’t the first aid station have nutrition it was 30 miles into the bike. I had already gone through my “emergency” gels and all my fluids by mile 25 thinking that the aid station was “just around the corner”. The fist aid station did have fluids and I picked some up, but that meant I needed to make it to the next aid station for nutrition. It turns out that the next aid station wasn’t until about mile 50! That’s 50 miles on Heed and two gels, not a good thing for an IM race. I was pissed, and loaded up on everything because I didn’t know if the other aid stations could be depended on for nutrition. I finally caught my friend Miguel at the special needs station (mile 65) and he wanted me to work on his bike because it was making noise. Huh? Right, I’ll get on that right away!  Anyway, the rest of the bike was uneventful except for the head wind for the last 30 or so miles. Wow, the air is thick at sea level and that 5-10 mph wind really took its toll, this wasn’t

Rolling in to T2 was a huge relief, staying aero for 6 hours isn’t much fun and I was definitely ready to get off the bike, my neck hurt, but sit bones hurt, my hip hurt and I was just plain tired of riding.

The run starts off well enough then you hit the mother of all bridges. This thing must be a mile long and goes up and up and up! Nope, didn’t run most of it, my legs just weren’t there yet. Miguel and I left T2 together so at least we had company on the initial walk! After the bridge and the first aid station what comes next? Yes, another bridge, but this time you get a metal grate with little metal things sticking out. Yeah, that was fun, Oh you mean I get to do this three more times? I must say that the first few miles of this marathon was about the ugliest scenery ever. After crossing into downtime Wilmington with the red bricks and cobblestones I changed my opinion of the run. This section was great, the we got to run through some old neighborhoods with cool houses, then to a very nice park area, and then back down to t2. Since this was a two loop course I got to see all my Outlaw buddies and facebook friends on the course. It was great seeing everyone out there having a good time! Everywhere we went people were shouting go Outlaws! By about mile 9, I had dropped Miguel somewhere, and I just started talking to random folks. Most people were happy to talk but a few were a bit cranky – undoubtedly caught up in the dark side of Iron distance racing, not a good place to be. By the second loop I hooked up with Gary, together we pushed and actually negative split the second half. Way to go Gary!

Coming into the finish line was a bit weird. They had the timer about 100 yards from the actual finish line, strange After finishing I found Mr T shaking uncontrollably, and walked him over to get some warm clothes. A few slices of pizza, water, and some nice salty chips I was feeling much better and went to go greet the rest of the outlaws.

Congratulations to everyone! Margaret ( See, under 14 hours!) and Naomi on your first Ironman races, Mr T – thank you for not going into shock from pushing too hard. Miguel, you are a great training partner, double congratulations on your 1st place. Jane, you rocked the course, even with the ITband issues. Tim, wow, you are fast! Congratulations to Orlando who finished his first HIM. Michi, First in her age group! MG – you are tough guy! Debi and Hartley, very nice long brick! Wish I could place in one of my “training races” haha!

Getting ready for B2B

It’s been a fun few months getting ready for the Beach to Battleship iron distance race and I’m about as ready for it as I can be.

I feel like I’m in pretty good shape, but my low swim yardage makes me nervous. This is the first year I haven’t consistently been swimming masters, though I have been swimming a couple of times per week, It’s just not the same without someone on deck keeping you honest.

For the record, I’ve done 4 century rides, many 70-80 mile rides. One marathon, one Ultra marathon, the hard leg of the Colorado relay which totals 23 miles, and have been consistently running 20 mile runs. Oh, and don’t forget all those bricks! All that has to be worth something come Ironman time, right?

The bikes are loaded and most of the gear is heading out to NC. As I write this Margaret and Cory are just outside of Amarillo heading towards Groom Texas. You just couldn’t ask to be associated with nicer people! Big thanks to you guys, you rock!!!

Now I just need to get my butt(preferentially healthy an rested) to the start line. .

Palo Duro Trail 50k

Palo Duro 50k Trial run, The Beast

Brian first talked to me about the Palo Duro 50k right after the Socorro Chile Harvest Triathlon. I must have been high on the endorphins from having a good race and started actually thinking it was a good idea. After all, the race was several months away and I would be in “good shape” after running the Colorado Relay and all the training getting ready for the Beach to Battleship Ironman. Yeah, it sounded like fun….

After convincing Margaret and Jane it would be a good idea, after all good friends don’t let friends do stupid things – alone. We registered, made reservations and made training plans.

Great, now I had three things to get ready for, the Colorado relay – which I was lucky enough to get the hardest leg (had to arm wrestle Margaret for it), the Palo Duro 50K and the B2B ironman. My training plan for B2B just wasn’t going to cut it. Luckily Jane has a coach and Margaret has a really good training plan!

After a couple of months running the foothills, a couple handfuls of 20+ mile runs, several centuries on the bike, and hill repeats every Thursday I finally felt comfortable running the 50k. Well, I wasn’t so much comfortable with it as I was fit enough to run it. Truth be told, I was really nervous about the distance as it was an unknown.

I’m use to road marathons where the energy is high, people are anxious, the music is blaring, and the road is smooth. Trail runs seem to be diametrically opposed. The energy is low key, most folks are relaxed, there’s no music (well, there was a live piper –which was very cool) and the roads are anything but smooth.

At the pre-race pasta feed we checked in, got our swag, race numbers, ate our fill, and talked shop. What a great time. And, as a bonus, I got the coolest race number of all time, 666, yep the number of the beast! So as a group it was decided that I needed horns for my running hat, which Walgreens provided for $1.99 and Jane painstakingly attached to my prized IM St Louis hat.

The start was a bit difficult since it was in the dark and the route quickly turns to single track where it’s almost impossible to pass. It turns out it was probably a good way to start off, nice and easy with plenty of walking for the first 3 or so miles. The Dread Pirate and I ran the first three miles together, with me trying to shine a flash light far enough ahead of us that we could see the obstacles. After the 3 mile mark the trails started to open up, by mile 6 the runners had separated enough to get into a nice grove and the sun came up. Nice….

Mile 6 saw us back at the start and ready to run two big 13 mile loops. Margaret and I found each other and started to run, it’s great to find some your own speed to run with. We ran the whole race together, switching off taking the lead and taking pictures of interesting landscape items and each other.

One of the most fascinating things for me was the feed stations. I’m accustomed to powerbars, fruit, gels, the aid stations at trail events consist of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, cookies, snickers bars, M&M’s, salted baked potatoes, coke, pretzels as well as bananas. At first I was nervous about the nutrition and took in a few gels but after about 15 miles I relaxed a bit and just started eating whatever sounded good. It appeared to have worked since I finished the race feeling well and never had an energy slump.

The run was designated as a easy training pace but with the hills, single track, and dirt, my heartrate seemed to climb right up into the serious racing zone, I spent about 4 hours in zone 4 and about 1.5 hours in zone 3. Not necessary an easy training run but it worked for me.

The course was gorgeous, wet lands followed by rolling hills out into the deep red canyons, running along red cliff walls, through dry river banks, climbing rough single track, Beautiful scenery all over the place. Oh, and don’t forget the wild life, There was one runner making crow calls and entertaining us with his English accented calls. We could hear him from miles away.

The race was fantastic, and I’m totally hooked on Trail runs. The weather was perfect, nice and cool in the morning and no wind with the temperature heating up to around 80 by noon. My total time was right at 6 hours for 31.5 miles, definitely not a road race! If you ever get a chance to do this run go for it! You won’t regret it.

A welcome recovery week!

As most of you know I’m training for several things at once. Long term goal is the Ironman St Geroge in May of 2010, which I’m a little nervous about because of the bike profile, but that’s an entirely different post. Short term goals are the Colorado relay (Sept 11-12, Palo Duro 50k (October 17) and Beach to Battleship iron Distance race (November 17).

I’m less worried about Beach to Battleship than I am about the Palo Duro 50k, which is really strange. B2B will be my 4^th Ironman and I’ve never done a 50k run so I guess I’m nervous about the unknown as opposed to the bigger race. The Colorado Relay is hard but lots and lots of fun!

The training for both short term goals is going really well and I’m at the end of a four week build period that has been pretty intense. Each weekend has been a very tough workout and I haven’t missed a scheduled weekday workout, my fitness has steadily been improving and I’m gradually getting down to race weight..

This weekends run was a 20 mile hard trail run where I spent the majority of the time in zone 3 and zone 4, Not good, but running in the foothills east of Albuquerque makes it easy to push much harder than you would normally do your long run at.

After the run was supposed to be a 3500 yard swim but due to cramps in both lower legs I just couldn’t get past 2500 yards. Every time I would push off the wall one calf or the other would cramp. By the time I decided to call it quits both feet were also cramping. I’m not sure if the cramping was due to dehydration, stress from running the foothills or just an electrolyte issue.

The weekend’s bike rides were great, the main group did about 80 miles and two of us decided to get an extra climb in and did an extra 20 miles in the process. Nice even 100 miles for the first ride. The next days ride was a famous coffee ride. We ride out to Bernalillo (about 17 miles one way) get coffee, pastries or whatever and ride back home as a group. The coffee ride is a totally social and a welcome break to the intense training that we have been doing preparing for our various races.

This week is a very welcome recovery week, well, if you can call running a 170 mile relay race recovery!

The Ride Part III

The Ride Part III

For me the ride is always the most interesting and most fun. We started from the paved road just below the cabin and headed down for a nice brisk 6 mile decent, the same one that I ran down the previous day. Its funny how altitude plays tricks on you, my legs and lungs were both hurting by the time we got to the bottom. What’s up with that? It’s supposed to be a decent! Hope this isn’t an omen for the rest of the ride!

We made our way into Chama proper to meet Steve and the kiddos. The kids were having a great time eating pancakes and Steve had this wonderful looking breakfast burrito with bacon and green chile hanging out the sides. I decided right then and there we were stopping for one of those on our way back through town.

The ascent to the top of the pass and the continental divide is an 8 mile, 2000(ish) foot climb. The scenery is spectacular! The road sports a smooth wide shoulder with plenty of room to weave side to side when the oxygen deprivation starts hitting. We left just a few minutes before the train started its trek up the pass and our loose goal was to beat it to the top. Right out of town the hills start but they are small and we stayed together as a group. When the hills started getting steep our nice little group fell apart as we started climbing at our pace. The “Leaving New Mexico” sign came up much faster that it did last year so maybe that’s a sign that I’m in better shape, or maybe it’s just the thin air playing tricks on me. Either way, it’s a great regroup point and we took full advantage of the rest stop. We had fun taking pictures of the train as it passed us and then it was time for the final assault on the summit. The train passes under the main road and I was determined to beat it to that passing, not really that hard but it’s a fine line between blowing up and making it to the pass gracefully. I could see the train on my left as it picked up speed, and luckily I had a nice downhill section where I could also pick up some speed. I pushed hard, determined to beat the train and felt like I was a cowboy trying to ride my horse ahead of the train to the safety of the other side. Yeah I was getting a little hypoxic. I beat the train to the pass and now I needed to beat it to the top! The final hill looks daunting, I saw it and wondered if I would even make it to the top much less beat the train. As it turns out its an optical illusion, while the it’s most certainty a good hill it’s nothing compared to what it looks like. Even after climbing the hill last year I was still fooled into thinking about how difficult the final ascent was. Having cleared the final big hill it was an easy ride into the train station. I handily beat the train, Nothing like racing 100+ year old equipment up a hill.

Next in was Jane and she also beat the train, Orlando, Hartley and Debi all made it to the top and we got to take a great picture.

The ride back to Chama was fantastic! Not TDF fast but it sure made up for the ascent. Back in Chama, Jane and I ordered our burrito (with double meat), it came just in time as I was starting to fade and seriously doubted I would make it back to the cabin. Orlando ordered a breakfast plate and Debi and Hartley rode back to the cabin.

Back on the road it was an easy ride to the cabin road but now we had that 6 mile hill up to the cabin plus an extra 2 miles to Corkins lodge to make an even 60 miles. Riding the hill wasn’t as bad as I feared and we made it without any problems. What a great ride with great friends.

Part II - the Swim

The swim was supposed to consist of a 2500 yard open water swim in Heron lake. After refueling from the run we goofed off a bit and I played around with the kids, face booked and generally relaxed. We had a few hours to kill while Steve was off riding to the top of the continental divide (He volunteered to watch the kiddos while we swim). We made it to the lake, trying to ignore the storm clouds building in the horizon, and got ready to swim. The water was perfect, the lake was calm, clean and we found a great spot to start from, but those darn clouds were looking ominous. We made it about 500 yards out before the first squall hit us. The waves started getting bigger and started capping, I looked up and saw lightning in the horizon. Our pleasant swim turned into a make it back to the shore as fast as you can type race. We all made it back to shore with just a few panic attacks. Debi’s fancy new GPS unit said we swam 1.25 miles in a little over 16 minutes. Yeah! Those new fancy wet suits sure help! The ugly truth is, she forgot to reset her previous workout so we only ended up doing about 1000 yards, which still isn’t too bad.

Back on shore we quickly packed up our gear and headed off to the cabin. We had a barbeque planed for the evening and despite our attenuated workout we were all still starving.

The evening’s activities consisted of rolling on the foam roller and watching a great documentary about hiking the continental divide from the south end of the US all the way to Canada. The first part of the show was focused on New Mexico and they showed the Continental divide monument which would be our destination on tomorrows bike ride. Those hikers are seriously crazy, It takes anywhere from 4-5 months to do the hike – that’s 20 miles per day, rain or shine. Serious stuff.

High Altitude Workout Training - Part I

High Altitude Workout Training (HAWT) as the ladies of the tri camp have designated it.

Debi and Hartely were incredibly kind enough to host a tri training camp at their cabin in northern New Mexico. Last year we had a “Race the Train” ride where we try to beat the Cumbers & Toltec train to the 10,022 foot continental divide. We had so much fun last year that we did it again this year except we threw in a run and an open water swim.

The weekend started early at with a half day of forced vacation. I was told early Thursday morning “either you use it or you lose it” so of course, I used it.

Fellow outlaw Orlando, my son and I drove the 2.5 hours to Chama and arrived at the cabin around 8:00pm, received a warm welcome and a table full of sandwich fixings, roast chicken and fruit. We promptly stuffed ourselves in preparation for the weekend’s activities and anticipated caloric deficit.

DP, hubby and twins arrived later that evening around 11:00 pm just in time to save me from impending doom in the jingo game that Debi and I were playing.

The next morning started off at a relaxed pace. No reason to get up early and run, the mountains are cool and it was late August so we got to sleep in. Everyone had different runs scheduled. Mine was about 18 miles but I figured I could cut it down a few miles because I was running hills and we were at 8000 feet. We all ran down to the paved road form the cabin, at the bottom everyone headed up the hill except me, I headed down. Now, down hill is not as easy as you would assume, especially at 8k feet! The first 6 miles of the run is a net loss and my legs and lungs were feeling it. It seems that I just couldn’t catch my breath and I chalked it up to the high altitude but by mile 5 I realized that not only was the altitude getting to me I was also having some asthma issues, funny how the altitude masked things. At the turn around point I used my inhaler and wow I could breathe! The run up the hill promised to be long and painful, and it was. By mile 11 I was spent and ended up taking a little walking break, which really helped. I pushed on past the road leading to the cabin and ran the rest of the way up the hill, another three(ish) miles to the end of the paved road to my turn around point. What a great feeling to start running down hill again!

My total run time was 2:39 for 16 miles at about 8k feet with an ascent of 2600 feet. I’m not sure my Garmin is lying to me or not about the 2600 feet, it just doesn’t seem right ( I think it's too much), but I don’t have a way to verify it. When I got back from the run Hartley was making breakfast and we had a great time talking about our individual runs.

Picture of me after the run. Yeah,I think it’s the gayest picture I’ve ever taken but hey, maybe the socks had something to do with it?

Swim workout Part II:

Yoga

I’ve been doing the same yoga for a couple of years now and decided it was time for a change. Since I had extra time on Thursday night I decided to do a hot Vinyasa yoga class. Normally I do the Bikrams yoga once or twice per week and while it’s certainty hot and I get dehydrated it’s very doable. The Vinyasa class kicked my butt! The poses aren’t particularly hard but the combination of 105+degree heat the second workout of the day conspired against me. At one point I thought I was going to pass out, which would have been a little embarrassing, it was a tough class.

The 6:00 am yoga class that I’m used to going to is very low key, little talking, not many people, serious and most folks are over 40 years old and generally a 50/50 split between men and women. The 6:00 pm vinyasa class is the complete opposite. Everyone was talking, laughing socializing, and three quarters of the class was under 30, female and the studio was packed. It was a totally different experience, and I really enjoyed it (minus the whole passing out thing). I think what surprised me the most is seeing what some of the women were wearing, I realized it’s hot and all but is that really a reason to wear next to nothing? I normally wouldn’t complain about these things but it was pretty difficult to concentrate and I kept falling over. The women didn’t seem to have a problem with what I was wearing, go figure.

I think I'll try and make a few more of these classes, it was a lot of fun and well worth the hazards of falling over. If you are looking for a hard workout look up a hot yoga studio.

More on the POJ

After a many requests to see my POJ, Okay, well, actually only one request. Here it is. I like to call vehicles like this a 50/50 vehicle. Now, I’ve been around cars all my life, grew up working on them, rebuilding engines, body work, paint, the whole nine yards. I know when a car has the potential to look good and I know some cars will never look good without a lot of body work or a paint job. This is one of those vehicles that look reasonably good as long as you don’t really look at it. Where was I, Oh yeah, the 50/50 truck. A 50/50 vehicle looks good from 50 feet away (when you can’t really see the details) or at 50 miles per hour (when you can only get a quick look at it). This is my 50/50 truck. Don’t look at the bent up fender/door the hood is bent and pounded back to a reasonable shape. The rust over the rear tires isn’t all that bad, all the scratches and little dents on the bed and front fender aren’t too noticeable. In the end, a good buffing, cleaning the rims and a little chrome polish go a long way toward making a POJ something that can be used as an everyday driver. At least everything works. Well almost everything, I still need to change three light bulbs, fix the drivers side seat so I don’t sink to the floorboard, and replace the broken bolt on the drivers side mirror so I can actually bolt the mirror on to prevent it from shaking sliding around. It’s getting there.

My POJ

I recently picked up a truck from a friend, who has been having some financial difficulties, and I was trying to figure out what to do with it. My first thought was to fix it up and let my middle daughter drive it. That thought was quickly nixed because the truck doesn’t have air bags and I wanted something a little safer for her to drive during her first few years of vehicular mayhem. So, I thought, it would be great to have a second vehicle at work so when I ride to work I would still have a vehicle to do errands in at lunch time, or have the ability to pick up kids from school in an emergency, and it would be kind of nice to just have a second vehicle. The University has a nice safe underground parking lot that is patrolled by security 24x7 and I can just park the truck there and use it when I need it. Sounds like a great solution to my bike commuter woes, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. The plan is to drive it in on Monday (with the bike in the back) park it for the week and drive it home on Friday (with the bike in the back).

The truck is lovingly referred to as the POJ – that’s Piece of Junk, or as I less decorously refer to it as my POC – piece of crap. My son was around when it was named so it’s officially the POJ truck.

The truck itself is fairly solid now and is actually kind of fun to drive. It’s been getting about 23 mpg in the city, which is much better than my F150. Unfortunately, I have more money in it than I paid for it. Mind you, all the work has been done by me and my son, so the money is in new and used parts, no labor.

Here’s a list of things that I have done to it.
Replace the gas tank - The old tank leaked whenever it had more than a quarter of a tank.
Replace the fuel filler hose – It would leak more gas on to the ground that got into the tank
Major Tune up – It almost flunked emissions – the tune up really helped
Replace the turn signal switch ( brake lights, and turn signals wouldn’t work with the old switch)
Oil change - normal stuff
Transmission oil change – Wow, it was bad, surprised it even shifted
New Battery – it died, when I was driving it home, I had to push the darn truck into the Checkers parking lot, my son was not impressed.
Replace all 5 tires – bad rubber = bad stopping power and drivability.
Replaced about half the lug nuts so they would be the same size, just incase I did get a flat.
Replaced one of the windshield wiper arms – the old one was zip tied together!
Replaced all shock absorbers - only one was actually working – I was getting sea sick driving the truck because it was bouncing so much!
Put a working stereo in it, I need my jams.
Replaced the steering wheel - the old was totally trashed, how do you trash a steering wheel?
Had to find a spare tire carrier at the junk yard to replace the rusted contraption that was under the truck

Replaced the air filter box – I had to get one from someplace in Louisiana
Pounded out the door and fenders so the drivers side door would open
Put bolts in said fender so it wouldn’t fall off.
Aligned the hood so it would open and close
Replaced about 7 light bulbs, including both headlights (still have three to replace but they are non critical)
Buffed out the truck so I wouldn’t get oxidized paint on me whenever I brushed up against it
Cleaned up the trash form the inside of the Cab
Replaced the shifter knob, how do you shift without a shift knob?
Fixed the doors so they actually open from the inside – great design idea.
The minor fixes go on an on.

On the bright side though, it has good brakes!

There you have, it my solution to not having a vehicle at work when I commute by bike. Now I don’t have an excuse not to ride everyday this summer.

Slow Start

This season, like many others has really been off to a slow start, if it’s not one thing it’s another! Every year I say I’m going to get a great start on the season and almost every year something comes up.

This year I had a Hernia operation, and while the operation and recovery aren’t necessary that bad the pre-operation slowdown was horrible. It’s been exactly two months since the discovery of “Ernie” (as he has been affectingly nick named) and I’m just now getting back into the swing of things. Next week I’ll start on my normal training load.

This weekends easy bricks were pretty tough on me and the scar formally known as Ernie. I’ve had this persistent muscle pain/spasm in my side since the surgery and on the bike ride it decided to start acting up. Wow, that was rough. Guess I did a little too much too soon. Oh well what’s a triathlete to do?

Funny thing: Before the surgery the Doc said he wouldn’t put any restrictions on me after two weeks of the surgery. He said it wouldn’t do any good anyway, “triathletes are always pushing their bodies to the limit”. Funny guy, he’s a runner…

My Much Neglected Blog

Well, lets see, what has happened since I last posted something/anything.

Duke City Marathon. What can I say about the marathon? It was just training for IMAZ. I wasn’t even sure If I was capable of finishing the marathon but I actually felt pretty good. The goal was to go nice and easy so it ended up being around 4:10. This years race was actually pretty well run! I swore I would never do it again after they ran out of water several years in a row but they got their act together, Water at the aid stations and there were also people there to hand out water! So, I might do it again next year.

I finished IMAZ with a PR of over an hour!! That was really cool! It seems all the commuting on the bike over the summer really paid off. Oh, and I got my Asthma under control so that helped. Of course, maybe it was the new top-o-the-line wet suit that helped, Or maybe the cool weather. It might have been Stitch that pushed me on during the marathon. Hummm, maybe it was everything finally came together. Yep that’s it.

Pic of the prerace dinner an the Ironhouse bikeroom.

Several months of doing nothing but fun runs, coffee rides, yoga, and weight lifting. Okay, so maybe not doing “nothing”, but not really training either.

Egg Nog Jog, fun little 4 mile race on New Years Day and we had a Outlaw get together after the race

Sandia Snow Shoe Race. Wow that race is hard but a lot of fun! Oh and I got chicked big time by Mo.

I got my .35 nanoseconds of fame on house hunters, MG’s episode finally got aired and they had a couple of shots of the Outlaws riding.

I almost have Lornas bike built, it’s been a long process of collecting parts