Running

I really only needed few days to recover from the half ironman. Felt pretty good most of last week. I'm still pissed off at cycling. And a bit frustrated with the swimming. But I'm still loving all of the extra running. It's time to get back into a nice winter running routine.

And it starts this weekend! We've got the Biggest Loser 5k in Myrtle Beach on saturday. My only goal is simply to PR. It's the first (and maybe only) standalone 5k on the year. My current PR is a flat 26 minutes, and I still have no idea how I actually got there. To break 26:00, I need to target an 8:20 pace maximum. Last night at the gym I killed 4 miles at an 8:27 pace so the expectation is set. 8:20 or bust!

We have a new addition to the backyard:

Halfway done after the weekend (but in the sunlight)

And with the beam up monday night and everybody playing....

You see the extent of their involvement in the construction process.

Actually the girls were very involved and helpful in the tearing down and rebuilding of the swingset. Bigun really got the hang of hammering. It went really well but took a LOT longer than I thought it would. It came together really nicely and they love it.

It feels good to get back into a more regular routine after the half ironman. Have a great weekend!

Bring The Pain

I completed the Patriots Half for my second half Iron distance triathlon and it was a classic. The Patriots Half? On September 11th? The setting was ideal, and ripe for a nice PR. Unfortunately, I was running the Patriots half. Results:

Goals:
1. Don't die
2. Break 3 hours on the bike split
3. Break 6 hours total time

Actual:
1. Sucess! basic survival was achieved.
2. Fail. 3:08:45
3. Epic Fail. 6:55:54

Breakdown:
Swim 1.2 miles: 54:06 321/360 men, 71/81 AG
T1: 6:50 354/360, 76/81
Bike 56.5 miles: 3:08:45 303/360, 66/81
T2: 4:09 322/360, 68/81
Run 13.1 miles: 2:42:05 330/360, 75/81
Overall 70.3 miles: 6:55:54 328/360, 72/81 including 2 DNF's


Williamsburg is known for having a great outlet mall. I found a gem at the Converse outlet store:

The red socks came with the race packet. We got into town Friday night and it is a really cool place. The College of William and Mary is there. It's a very old college with regal buildings and a cool campus.




The town of Williamsburg is very historic. We'd love to come back for a family vacation sometime. It would be really cool to come with someone who was a history major.


Does anybody know what this is?

We've been calling it Brain Fruit because it looks like a brain. Or maybe a moldy orange. Anyway it's hard and I'd love to know what the heck it is. We picked up a couple at the packet pickup to take back for the girls to play with. They loved 'em! Just being weird and bumpy is enough to keep them entertained.

The race packet had a great tech shirt, the red socks above for the Virginia Triathlon Series from SetupEvents, a race belt and plenty of other good swag. We headed back to the hotel to power down for the big race. The race director was saying how fast the second half of the bike course was, how we were going to be swimming with the current..... I was really feeling good ready to get a nice PR and meet my goal times. The weather looked good with a high of 81 and sunny skies.



Race Day:

We got up at 5:00, rolled for breakfast and got out the door. Turns out that wasn't quite early enough. I got my chip and got bodymarked before ever making my way into the transition area. Thank goodness I did. Right after I found my rack the guy on the microphone said that TA was closing in FOUR minutes??? Whoah, I only had 4 minutes to get all of my stuff setup and make my way to the swim start. I threw together what I could, hit up some suntan lotion and that was all.


I actually left TA without my chip, then had to run back in, strap on the timing chip, and head out while carrying the wetsuit, cap & goggles. We had to walk to the swim start, and I thought that walk was a bit short. It only took about 10 minutes to get there. And while that doesn't sound like a short walk, I knew where the swim finish was and that was too close.

The Swim: 1.2 miles: 54:06 321/360 men, 71/81 AG

The swim was brutal. Absolutely the most difficult swim I've ever had in a race or not. Even more difficult than the Festival of Flowers oly swim where I threw up a few times. I've covered 2 miles in the pool in 1:17, so 54 minutes for only 1.2 miles is pathetic.

I still looked happy here. We did all the normal prerace stuff, prayer, national anthem, but there was also a moment of silence for the 9/11 remembrance. I noticed plenty of military people among the athletes too. Very cool.

Dang, that dude looks mean. He's ready to kick some ass.

The weather was perfect. The crowd was all amped up, the river seemed calm. The sun was shining and temps were still in the high 60's. It did turn out to be a wetsuit legal race, so I was suited up. As of Friday it was still not wetsuit legal.

The cool thing in this picture? The chick on the right looking my way. Guess what I'm doing? If you said pissing in the wetsuit, you'd be right! I really had to pee before it was time to get in the water but had no time to hit the port-a-let. Normally you just let loose when you get in the water, but it was so shallow. We weren't even waist deep for the starting line. So I got out to about knee deep and got comfy.

Here you can see the start of my wave - the green caps. We walked the first couple of minutes just aquajogging until it got deep enough to start swimming. That was kind of strange.

Here's where it started to go really wrong. Other people were swimming too. Actually in the far top right of this picture you can kind of see a yellow triangle bouy. It was about a half mile out and we had to swim diagonally against the current into the current.

THIS WAS WEIRD

And it sucked too. It was the first time I found myself in the washing machine. I got kicked in the head. I have never accidentally grabbed that many men's asses before. One dude actually pushed me aside for swimming too close to him. I swam over a couple of chicks too, which means the waves that started after me caught up and passed me before hitting the first turn. I got way off course, did a lot of breast stroke, even puked once. First time I've done that this year. freaking rough.

It took me about 35 minutes just to get out there. Once I made that left hand turn it took about 5 minutes to make it the 0.2 miles to the next triangle bouy then it was half a mile cross-ways against the current again! At least this time it wasn't too active of a fight. Maybe 15 minutes to get back to the shore.

Holy crap! That wife of mine does have an eye for candy.

Once we got out of the water there was a really long run from the sandy beach on the river across grass to get up to the TA. There was this one really strange hill to climb up, so these pics are supposed to show how steep the hill was and how many people were coming out of the water before me.

Yea, how many people were getting out of the water now? DUDE I was at the end of the line. That's ok though. My main focus is getting the sub 3 hour bike split.

T1: 6:50 354/360 men, 76/81 age group

I came, I got out of the wetsuit, threw on the bike shoes and helmet and got the heck out of there. Ok, I did take a bit of time to regroup mentally. I didn't get the time before the start to tape any gels to the top bar of Roberta like I prefer to have, so I counted gels and made sure everything was right before heading out.

Bike 56.5 miles: 3:08:45 303/360 men, 66/81 age group

I kind of kicked ass here. Not as much as I hoped, but still asses were kicked. That is the highest age group and overall placements I achieved. Goal was to break 3 hours. I was freaking determined to break 3 hours. I missed it by 8 minutes.

Get ready.......

Get set......

ROLL BABY ROLL!!! IT'S GO TIME! SUB 3 HERE I COME!

I was starting from the back of the pack thanks to that torture swim. That meant there was a lot of slow people in front of me. I only got passed by three people. I passed maybe 30 people total.

Know This: If I can see you on the bike, I will pass you. Balls out.

Also Know This: The wildflowers in coastal Virginia are beautiful this time of year. Balls tucked again.

This was supposed to be a fast course. I've really been rolling out the bike miles in preparation for this leg. I'm ready to roll and roll strong. I knew at the start that the first half was not as fast as the second half. It was supposed to be flat/false flat/rolling hills until mile 34, then "you will take off like a rocket" according to the race director.

Now we've all been on courses where sometimes you feel like the wind is at your back and there's a slight downhill, so you can just coast your way to 23 mph. That's the way the first 25 miles of the Tarwheel Century ride was. And the B2B bike was a lot like that too. Fast 21-23 mph going out and a headwind coming back. So this time I was pretty excited to have it be the other way around.

It was not the other way around. I was pushing pretty hard at first to keep up 18 mph. Spent plenty of time at 16 mph (my typical group ride speed). it felt like a false flat slight uphill the whole first 20 miles or so. There was one slight downhill where I got up to about 21 mph, but that was short. too short.

There were hills in miles 25 - 34. Rollers and some steepish climbs. I kept it in the big chainring the whole time, but had to really push to get up some of those hills.

Mile 34 came and here comes the rocket. It lasted about half a mile before it went right back to the false flat uphill into the wind. it was a nice half mile. But it was time for me to start pushing again when I was really hoping I wouldn't have to push that hard.

This is when the mental aspect of triathlon really kicks in. I knew I still had sub 3. I pushed for sub 3. I went through all of the mental mantras: You've got sub 3. You are strong enough. You've got the fuel left, get sub 3. You can push this, get sub 3. Climb that hill, get sub 3. Pass this guy, get sub 3. Get out of that saddle and get sub 3. I thought at 2:45 that I still had it.

Here comes that last hill. The RD said a strong cyclist could take it in the big chainring, so by God I was going to. I came out of the saddle and passed 3 people going up that hill. It was a bridge in mile 52. Once I saw it was a bridge I knew I could take it and it was going straight downhill after the crest. So I could ride that extra speed back to the TA and get my sub 3!! Then I got stuck in 18 mph again just like for the whole rest of the ride and I was having to push again. I pushed it all the way in.

The garmin said 3:04 when I got back on some cart path to head back to TA. To tell the truth, I was pretty dissapointed at the time. I knew I had given my best effort and left it all out there. Sometimes the wind or the course just isn't in your favor. The course was beautiful. There was a ton of farmland and blooming wildflowers. So when the results come in and I missed my primary goal time by eight minutes I can live with that. Not happily, but I can certainly live with it.

T2: 4:09 322/360 men, 68/81 age group

Off with the bike shoes and helmet, grab the visor and running shoes and let's head out for a half marathon. Still got a couple of gels? yep, lets' roll. I also drank all of the water I had left in my transition bag. I knew I was a bit dehydrated from the bike, I just didn't drink enough.

Run 13.1 miles: 2:42:05 330/360 men, 75/81 age group

This guy made it out first for your viewing pleasure. Kelley loves the eye candy. Can't say I blame her!

On the other side of that spectrum, before the first mile marker I got passed by a 64 year old dude who farted less than 10 feet in front of me after passing. It was loud and I laughed.

It was a 2 loop run course. Here I'm coming back in from the first loop. I put so much into the bike that there was absolutely nothing left in the gas tank to run with. You can see that my head is down already and I'm just pushing forward.

Boy I'm glad to see the end of that first loop. 6 miles in and I'm halfway dead. I mean done.

The run course was awesome! It was just a cool course. Two loops, started out through this field, then it was off to a paved greenway as the stem of a lollipop. The pop was all gravel trail through a park. So there were no roads to run on! There was a small bit of open sidewalk but most of the course was shaded, which was good since temps were climbing into the 80's.

Headed back out for loop #2.

The next time I come back here I'm headed straight to the finish line.

There was a lot of walking. Miles of walking. There were 18 aide stations on the 13.1 mile course. So my original strategy was to run between the aide stations, and I thought I would be ok without having to complete a single straight mile. I took in tons of fluids at each station, 2 waters and a heed and sometimes a gel. But running between the aide stations soon turned into running to "that tree", or until the garmin rolled up to the next mile marker (never more than .2 miles) and I was struggling to get there.

This is where pain management kicked in. I had no advil or electrolytes like I normally keep with me on a marathon. And there was lots of pain. My feet and legs were killing me. at 60 miles I wanted to get fat. like biggest loser contestant fat. By mile 65 I was ready to start smoking again. At mile 68 I was contemplating the difference mentally between realizing that you were doing something that could actually kill you and wanting to die.

I'm being facetious of course, but those last miles were tough. Dealing with the pain was not fun. Emotionally and mentally I had to push myself into places that I don't like to go. But on the other side of that was this:

The fist pump crossing the line. That other guy didn't do it.

Hey, where's my coffin?

I got the finishers medal and three bottles of water and found a spot in the shade to sit down. It just happened to be on the hub of a Reddy Ice trailer. Catch my breath, rehydrate. Let that feeling like I just cheated the grim reaper go away and let the recovery process start.

You don't really know yourself until you really push yourself beyond any acceptable limits. I mean really push what you think you can do into accomplishments that are measurable and seem impossible. that is what happiness looks like.

Pretty soon I was smiling again. I felt fat all day in that suit. Notice how low I had the zipper down trying to keep cool while I was running. Boy that medal felt great. I actually had sweat so much that salt crystals formed on my arms! Couldn't get a good picture of that though.

They goofed on the medal! Can you see what's wrong?

it only felt like a 13.1 mile swim.

Check out those tan lines baby! That's a badge of honor. Finishing in 6:55, almost an hour slower than I was mentally expecting was tough. Getting that funny burn is going to be tough for a few more days.

Overall this was a great race and a fantastic weekend. I can't wait to go back to Williamsburg just for fun. As for racing.......

Half Iron Preview

It's that time! This upcoming Saturday is the Patriot's Half Ironman in Williamsburg, VA. This is my second half iron after the Beach 2 Battleship last November. Now I'm not as nervous about being able to complete the distance, but I want to be able to set and meet some time goals. This is all still a part of Ironman Prep Year 2010, and I'll probably do another spring or early fall half next year in prep for Ironman Florida.

This half should be really fun. The weather is supposed to be mostly sunny with a high of 81 on Saturday. The half is the only game in town that day; I hate running a half anything when there is a full going on. So this time everybody's hitting the same race.

The 1.2 mile swim is in the "brackish" James river, whatever "brackish" is supposed to mean. I have no idea if it's wetsuit legal or not, but I bet the water temp is going to be around 80. The start and finish points change with the tide, so it's a guessing game until right before race day. But that means we will swim with the current, so that's good. I've been feeling good in the water lately, so I'm predicting a 30 - 40 minute swim time.

The big goal is in the bike leg. Break 3 hours. If I can break 3 hours on the 56 mile bike everything else should fall into place. On the event web site it claims to be mostly flat with some rolling and false flats, but you can leave your bike in the big chainring the whole time. I've never seen an event description actually claim that. And I've been killing the bike lately, so I am very hopeful for a good bike split. Reading other people's race reports from last year's race they all seem to agree that the bike was faster than anticipated. I'm just going to roll my 20 mph minimum and push as much as I can. The B2B bike split was 3:11, so it's just a small amount of time that I really have to make up here. and that course had bridges and tons of false flats, plus I feel much stronger now.

The run should be around 2:20. I know the B2B half marathon was 2:40. I really think I can make up some time here. The running has been going really well the last few months. And the run course in this race is supposed to be the best part! I'm just going to try knocking down 10 minute miles, maybe some 9:30's if I'm feeling good.

So the goals:

1. Don't die.

2. Sub 3 hour bike split

3. Sub 6 hour total time. If I roll sub 3 then sub 6 is totally within reach.

4. Have fun! It's my first time in Williamsburg and it's supposed to be a great town.

I hope this is as much fun as it was last time in Wilmington. I'm really looking forward to a good weekend away and running a nice hard race. Cheers!

P.S., in family news Evil Genius started kindergarten today! It's a 3 year old program at the church nearby. I'm so proud of my baby girl for embracing school like this! See how happy:

I think that backpack is going to swallow her whole.

Thank Goodness THAT'S Over

Well folks, we've done it. Survived another August. Made it through Hell and come out the other side ready for football.

Not to rub it in, but college football starts tomorrow night with a South Carolina game on TV. I like that.

So what did I do in August?

Swim: 4000 yds, 3 swims
Bike: 250 miles, 8 rides
Run: 33.9 miles, 7 runs
Strength: 7 workouts
Stretching: 8 yoga's

And everything's cool in the mind of a gangsta. 3 swims is kinda pitiful, but I lost until the 11th swimming thanks to the tattoo. 250 miles on the bike is awesome!! I'm really hoping for a sub-3 hour bike split at the half ironman next weekend so I tried to bike it hard this month. The only race was the DNF at BikeFest.

September is going to be great! 10 more days until the Patriot's half ironman and I feel great. Actually I've got the typical Ironman paranoia that you never think you've done enough training to meet the goals. But I'm trying to be confident here. I've also got the 5k in Myrtle Beach coming up. And college football starts. And fall is really on it's way now. You might not believe it with the high 90's temps we've been having this week, but it's getting dark earlier now and I'm getting hopeful to see the end of this heat soon.

Here's to a great September!

The August Month

WTH? So this is the first post for August since I put July's totals up. I even had a cycling event and didn't post anything before or put up a race report after? Now that's just odd. True, the event sucked, but it's still the first time in years that I haven't put a race report up within a few days. Just strange.


I have been training a LOT this month. Most of it's been inside stuff, some have been quite long. Some workouts totally blew and some felt like I could keep going forever. I've also had a lot of time with Kelley and the kids, and overall a much better month than I was expecting. There was some time in the repair shop though.


BikeFest = trouble. August 7th I was supposed to be riding a metric century, but it got kind of nuts. I've been riding since 2008 and never had a flat tire. 5 miles into this 62 mile ride I got my cherry popped. And by cherry I mean my back tire. I was doing pretty good for the first five miles though. Of course I had no spare tube and no idea how to change a tire anyway. So the SAG wagon came and took me up to the first aide station where the on-site mechanic was.


This was about 25 miles into the course, and we had to stop several other times to help others. That experience by itself really makes me want to volunteer to ride a course in a sag van. It was so cool getting to see the other riders and help out when we could. very cool


The onsite mechanic was kind of an ass though. It was supposed to be a $6 charge for a new tube, and turned into a $25 tune-up. By this point, I was at the back of the pack. Most of the riders had already cleared out, including the guys I started with (from work). The people on the route were the back of the packers, and they had 20 more miles on the legs than I did. So I started at mile 25 and rode well. It was so cool to be passing people in bunches. I wasn't in a paceline, I was passing whole pacelines like they were standing still. That was fantastic.


Then the $25 tuneup came back to bite me. Actually, going up a hill I shifted into the biggest gear in the rear cassette. The plastic disc that keeps the chain from rubbing the spokes (called the dork disc lol) got caught in the shifter. It then shredded, bent, and caught the chain and rear deraillieur and flipped the whole thing upside down. So now the rear der is on top of the back gears instead of below them, the chain is twisted around and the back tire won't roll.


I made it a total of 30 miles. 5, then a flat, then 25 more. The entire set of pacelines that I just blew past came right back past me again. I was just stuck on the side of the road waiting on the sag wagon again. I swear cyclists are the nicest people you will ever meet. I even had cars with bikes on the back that were not associated with BikeFest or the Tarwheels at all stop to see if I needed anything. I got tired of waiting on the sag wagon, and wrestled my chain free to let the wheel turn again. I then walked (in road cycling shoes, not an easy task) towards the next aide station. This is when my buddy Kyle (who was 89 miles into the 100 mile route at that point) even stopped to see if he could do anything. Eventually a volunteer for the race found me and gave me a lift.


I did call Kelley from the side of the road. We couldn't find a babysitter for the night, so she stayed home and I was riding this one solo anyway. So she packed up both kids and drove the 45 minutes into Hillsborough to get me. Of course Bigun threw up three times on the drive out there. She had to bring cash so I could pay the on-site mechanic (he held my car keys as collateral). He even tried to sell me a new rear der when I went back to pay him! what a jerk. Paid up and got the hell out of there.


I ended up taking the Jamis into the shop too, it had a series of very small repairs needed that came up to about a c-note. Took Roberta the Cannondale to several shops about the rear der and ended up leaving her at the shop I bought her from back in Greenville SC for $151. Some tuneup. So BikeFest totally blew. Too bad, it was a great route. I'd gladly do it again next year. But I've never had a DNF like that, mechanical failure. boooooooooo.

The Jamis to show where the parts should be on the back of the bike. See that thing hanging down and keeping the chain at bay?





Roberta post muck-up. The hanging down part is now up. and the chains is all twisted around everywhere in lots of places it shouldn't be.


I had an awesome workout on Sunday. Started out with 60 laps in the pool. The swim felt fluid, but I'm still trying to get my groove back after taking the time off for the tattoo. My form was kind of choppy, but it was still fun. Then I went upstairs to the cardio cinema and rode the stationary bike for an hour and forty-five minutes while the new GI Joe movie was playing. The movie kind of stunk, but I was glad to get the time on the bike. Could have gone 2 hours solid but I was starting to get hungry. So it was time to head downstairs and get on the treadmill. Ran 4 miles with relative ease. Still hungry, but I took a gel before starting. I could have run longer, I was just trying to cover miles LSD style. Another good run ruined by poo.

The Patriots half ironman is only three saturday's away. I am feeling prepared, but you never know what will happen until you really get out there. Sunday's brick is a great start, but I need more long workouts like this. I was planning on doing at least two 60 mile bike rides, with one of them being the BikeFest. With BikeFest blown and the bike still in the shop the second 60 isn't looking much better than the first.

We are adding a new race to the schedule too! I'm very excited about this one. The Biggest Loser is putting on a 5k in Myrtle Beach! Kelley and I are both running it. Being a BL event it is timed, but the goal is to finish. There are no age group awards. Trainer Bob Harper is going to be greeting people at the finish line, and there will be other contestants hanging around for photo ops. Of course NBC is going to be there, and it's going to air sometime in November, I suppose on an episode of BL. Race is September 25th, come on down and run it if you're a fan of the show. Maybe we'll end up on national TV!

July? What July?

July was a wild month. I had my 35th birthday, got my first tattoo, finally got into the Triangle Sprint Triathlon, and hit 2 miles of swimming for the first time. The specs:

Swim: 5.7 miles total, 5 swims
Bike: 208.5 miles, 9 rides
Run: 27.8 miles, 6 runs
Strength: 1 hour, 4 workouts
Yoga: 1 hour, 2 workouts

WHADDUP!!?!?!!? Remember June? that hot piss poor month?

Swim: 3.85 miles, 5 swims
Bike: 130 miles, 6 rides
Run: 16 miles, 4 runs
Strength: 1 hour, 3 workouts
Yoga: 30 minutes, 1 workout

Yea, let's just go ahead and double that volume for July. 5.7 miles in the pool and (and?) my first month riding over 200 miles without a century ride? You've got to be kidding me. The swimming I can understand thanks to the 2 mile target. That means I've completed all of the basic distances (separately) of an ironman. The increased bike milage is in prep for the metric century next weekend and the Patriots half in september. I'm still more concerned about the bike leg of Ironman than anything else.

I do still have to get back into the routine of doing my tri power workouts and yoga regularly. I really miss yoga these days. More running would be nice too. I need to watch my sleep more, so that I can get up earlier and hit the strength and stretch parts of this balanced workout plan with some consistency.

Foreshadowing for August: I hate august. It's the suffering we have to go through to make it into the cool bliss of autumn. Here in the deep south, August means heat and humidity. It's going to be over 90 degrees too many days (1 day is too many), and the humidity will make the air as thick as soup. I've got to stay hydrated, keep my weight/nutrition in check, and workout inside as much as possible. seriously. you can barely walk outside right now.

August will end with football. And this makes the wait worthwhile. Come on football!

Dropped the Duece

I must admit that one of the benefits of working from home was that you rarely ended up in an office. This prevents a lot of bacterial contact from other people in an office. So I came down with a sinus thing and ended up flat on my ass friday instead of going to work. This turned out to be a 48 hour bug, so it started around 4 pm thursday and stuck with me until around 4 pm saturday.

Saturday at 7 am was supposed to be The Big Deuce 2 mile open water swim race. I did not end up being able to attend. I did go get the packet/t-shirt. And since I was feeling better on sunday I ended up heading to the gym and put my 2 miles in the pool. That's 144 laps in a 25 meter pool if you are counting at home. I timed it out in 1 hour 17 minutes. That would have put me finishing 100th out of 108 people. I'm just glad I covered the distance. It's an ironman prep thing to build my swim capacity to a 2 mile status. So I got my miles in the pool instead of the lake, big whup.

In other news, Bigun got into the school we wanted after all! I'm very excited. It's a year round school, so it started July 9th with a huge waiting list. By last week a spot opened up and she got in! So she's officially in the Wake county school system now, in 5 year old kindergarten. Here's a picture of her first day at school:

Being in a year round school she goes for 9 weeks and gets 3 weeks off instead of a traditional 12 week summer break. That means she'll have most of september, december, march and june off. We're all really looking forward to trying this new schedule out. I prefer to take vacations in the fall/winter/spring, so I think it will be fantastic.

And now I have to tell an Evil Genius True Story. We're working on potty training her, and it's going pretty good I think. Until Sunday. She did put a nice dookey in the potty, and that's great. But she did not wipe or flush. Instead, she came and sat down on my foot. Because daddy makes the best toilet paper? wtf? She just stood up and there was shit on my foot. Then I found some more on the floor of the bathroom. Wow, the hits just keep on coming. That child is special.

I also got a tattoo yesterday! It's my first, and such an odd thing for a 35 year old to do. Couple of pics:

I got the word "Balance" on my chest. The irony is not lost of putting the word balance on one side of my body instead of in the middle, thereby throwing me out of balance. But I can totally understand why tat's are addictive. I knew that I couldn't swim for a few weeks after getting one, and with that 2 mile swim behind me I knew I could take a few weeks out of the pool. I'm pretty sure I will end up getting more in time, including the m-dot on my right leg after finishing ironman florida next year.

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I've been debating tattoos for several months now. What to get, and where, it's just an urge that wouldn't go away. This one is meaningful because I wanted something small enough to where I couldn't abandon when they were halfway through if it hurt too much. It didn't hurt that bad, so I'm planning the next (larger) one.

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Balance is a goal for me. I've preached for years on here about the benefits of balanced training. We also have to watch for work/family balance, family vs personal time, balancing your friends with your commitments, even beer vs..... well ok you really can only drink beer and be ok (as opposed to wine or liquor - Coffee, water, and sports drinks are still staples).

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But the fact remains that everything you do and every choice you make has a balanced offset sometimes called an opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of taking the wife and kids to dinner could be having beers after work with your cube-mates. Finding that balance can be tricky. Taking time to train takes time away from your (and my) kids, and that can be a tough balance. Going out to lunch with a group from the office often enough might mean you won't have the cash for a race entry fee (a cost cost?). So balance has been on the brain a lot for a long time. I'm hoping this ink will be a reminder to keep everything balanced.

Up next is a metric century bike ride august 7th. It's a local charity ride, and I'm using it mostly as a training race to get a time established for the half ironman in september. Should be a hot blast, I'm really looking forward to it!