Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The noose around my feet

Ok, now that stuff is actually happening in the world of triathlon, and I am doing a bunch of training and racing, I promise to update this most excellent blog more often. A quick recap for those watching at home. Raced a 5k, sneak attack style (or stealth as some would call it). Shooting for 17:30’ish. Ended up with an 18:26. Oops, kinda overshot it. Maybe next time. Then I started out my triathlon season with T-Gator #1. ENM swears that I won in her absence just to spite her. Looking out for my personal safety, I would completely disagree with her. Fast forward two weeks, and LA Triathlon was on the books. Jimmy B invited me to his camp, err, gi-normous house, so that I didn’t have to wake up uber-early to get to the race. I was mucho appreciative of the gesture, even though I failed his IQ test in figuring out the meaning behind the name of his camp. Race morning was pretty uneventful, except for the body marking incident and the run transition incident. Oh yeah, and the bike incident. Quite a few incidents, when I think about it. The body marking and run transition were one in the same, as a volunteer went ahead and reminded me that “Jesus was 33 when he died”, while I was teasing Will about his age. Uh, yeah lady, way to go. Mortality is almost a guaranteed to halt any conversation. This same lady came out of the woodwork, and tried to convince me as I’m leaving on the run that I was to in fact, ignore the large Orange RUN spray paint with arrows pointing in the direction I was headed. Visions of the heckler from Happy Gilmore popped in my head, as I kindly told her to lock it up, and continued following the large orange spray painted arrows. The race was fun, and I actually came out of the water with the leaders (my super-secret swim training is encoded in the title). As for the bike, I slipped a pedal, gashed my knee; f’d up my front derailleur, and drove the bus to the turnaround before getting destroyed. I pressed the gas on the run, and my legs said “Not today, junior.” All in all, a good time had by all. 3rd place was still a solid result, and I was glad to drink all the Monster energy drink I could get my hands on afterwards. Funny thing is that on the way home, ENM asked, “How does it feel to win and finish 3rd in your first two races of the season?” Well, honestly, it feels about the same as finishing two races in the top half, I guess. A lot of pain, followed by cookies and coke.
What I’m really excited about is the Ironman training block I’m in now. Knocking down some quality work in the past two weeks, and I’m looking at a killer schedule this week before I take some down time. Another cool note is that I found someone who actually enjoys motor pacing me. So that is working out quite nicely, although I think he’s just entertained by the folks coming the other way with looks of disbelief and shock on their face. Some dude almost put his truck in a ditch from staring too long the last time we went. Speaking of the moto, I am in the market for a scooter. So if you know of anyone who has a quality used one they aren’t using and wanting to get rid of, email me.
That’s it from mundane Ironman training world. And yes, of course, that Triathlon Championship belt resides in my living room now! VICTORY! Of course, Will informs me that the last race of the year is a duathlon. This belt could be switching hands more than a mortgage bank.

Thanks for reading....