R&G TT

So I decided to do a Time Trial with the Ride & Glide team this evening. It was a trail benefit for ski trails, and I wanted a fitness check for the Half this weekend.

The 13.4 mile course was out in Withrow, MN,(NE of White Bear Lake) a place I've never been to, but it seemed like it wouldn't be that difficult to get there from work (in Chaska) by 5:30pm. I had my bike along, and I would just shoot up 494/694. I wasn't changed into my Gear West kit, I had no sports drink, and I'd been drinking water all day, so I figured I'd stop off at a gas station and take care of all 3 once I got off the highway.

This never happened, because apparently, nobody needs Gatorade, gas, or a public restroom ANYWHERE north of White Bear Lake. After driving for 1.25 hours, passing the race site, I drove for about 20 effin' minutes back toward civilization before finding a gas station. I swore a whole lot.

I finally checked in late, and was in the company of some of the fastest cyclists of the evening.

I took off FAST. I was averaging 28+mph in the first couple miles. This didn't last. I ended up getting past by a couple (really fast) guys, the pain set in, the lungs started burning, and I got into a pace. The course wasn't challenging, but any rise had me really pushing hard to hold pace--my goal was to go above 23mph. I haven't seen my time yet, but I'm confident I achieved that.

Highlight: I did pass one guy on the course, and this made me very happy, because he was on a $6000 titanium Litespeed bike.

internet stalkers

So J-Mo just celebrated her 9000th profile view. Can you say stalkers?

But then I just remembered, my Flickr account is registering in at ~8340 views, and I'm now recalling that an acquaintence of mine actually knew a female Flickr "admirer" of mine who was inquiring about my status. (at the time time I was taken) I pih-shawed all of this, but I have to admit --I was secretly thinking about a slender & lithe half naked woman serving at my beck & call.

But then I met (a different) one of my stalkers recently, and it was Über-weird.

Here's an exerpt from an email I got the other day from "married-mother-of-three":

It was so awesome visiting with you. I told you I was going
to email you. You were so nice to visit with and I mean it, your
photography is amazing. I came home and looked at it again. It is beyond
breath taking. Words don't even describe it. How did you figure out that
you were so good at that? You look great too. It's too bad you don't live
around here.....I would love to keep in touch with you. Maybe when we come down to the cities sometime, we can get together.
Keep in touch, okay,"

CREEPY.

Although she was in pretty good shape, I was totally turned off by this.

My Myspace profile: ~3800 views. And it's been a private account for nearly a year.

My Plant committed Suicide

My aloe plant killed itself in the last few days. I discovered it today on the balcony, uprooted.

You see, it always seems like the damn thing would never just grow straight up. It always liked to grow sideways. Even when I'd turn it away from the sun, hoping it would reach towards the fiery ball, and thus center it's course upward, it would not comply. It finally just started growning down over the pot onto the floor.

Maybe it didn't like being cut all the time to soothe my sunburn or something, bnd in the last couple days, it had enough weight to leverage its own roots out of the soil. It was mostly krinkly brown....we'll see if any of my effors to re-root some small offshoots works.

10 years

I was at my 10 year reunion last night, and I had a very positive experience. Everyone was very sociable, and lots of people came up and talked to me who probably wouldn't have done the same so long ago.

I also got tons of compliment on my photography. I left a link to my photo site on our page @ classreport.com, almost as a joke, but it turns out lots of people are looking at it and appreciating it. I had at least 15 people (mostly women) approach me and their first words were to compliment my photography.

Good to know someone is appreciating my wasted time. One girl wants me to photograph her family, and another wanted me to photograph her future wedding. Not something I could do, I don't think.

I did see one girl that I totally thought was the cat's meow in high school and was hoping to see. Today has her own physical therapy business in OR. No kids, not married, does bike racing & triathlons, super fit, still gorgeous. But *like* 10 years ago, she has a boyfriend. Go figure.

Ouch. And REALLY OUCH!

So I've been feeding my mountain biking habit quite a bit this summer, and have been riding Theo Wirth quite a bit lately--mostly due to the fact that it's really close.

Theo is a tight windy course through trees--great for learning to handle a mtb bike. Since I've gotten back from scandinavia, the trees have grown out, hiding the trees a bit, and last week I smacked my left shoulder into a tree going at a moderate pace. This ripped the top layer of skin off even though it was underneath my shirt.

Yesterday I foolishly left my SPF "Vampire"-rated sunblock at home and got caught outside after the tri showing too much skin an sunburnt both shoulders, effectively sunburning the scabbed up wound.

THEN,

Today I went mountainbiking at Wirth again, and did the same thing on the right shoulder. This hurt pretty bad, since I tore off sunburnt skin. Since I was wearing a white shirt, it stained through my shirt.

Anyone wanna see pictures of the gore?

Solace

This Wilco song struck me hard when I first heard it, and I knew it was beautiful and would be close to me, but now I understand it.

"Either Way"__________________________________________________
Maybe you still love me
Maybe you don't
Either you will or you won't
Maybe you just need some time alone
I will try to understand
Everything has its plan
Either way
I'm gonna stay
Right for you

Maybe the sun will shine today
The clouds will roll away
Maybe I won't be so afraid
I will understand everything has its plan
Either way_____________________________________________________

After some talking this weekend, I told K that although I've gone through difficult times, I've always emerged a better person because of them. He told me that people usually let their regrets eat them alive or learn from them, and that I've already made a track record of learning from them.

I think these past few days have been watershed moments in my life--maybe even moreso than my trip experiences.

I might still be learning, but I'll be ok. Either way.

Waconia Tri

Well,

Despite a big lack of training due to my vacation, and a gastrocnemius cramp that had been lingering since a hard workout on Wednesday, staying out late the night before drinking beers at Brian's house, and a case of insomnia this past week, I had a pretty decent race.

Swim:
Ok, I haven't been swimming that much, and I've only been open water swimming once this summer, so I did have some diffuculty sighting and swimming in a straight line. I finished the purported 1/2 mile in 16:00, faster than most in my age group, however it was definately longer than 1/2 mile.

Bike:
I felt FAST. I was passing everyone! But I was in the last wave, and that's probably why. I did get passed by a couple in my age group, but I rode my race.
Average speed over ~20 miles: 21.7mph. This was a rolling course with a couple big hills. I'm not disappointed with my bike leg.

Run:
The 4 mile run was PAINFUL. About 1/4 mile from transition, we had to run up a huge hill. And really, there was very little flat on the run course altogether.

My personal record for running pace was done last year. It was a 3.1 mile (5km) course, and I ran 7:39min/mile. Here's what the elevation profile looked like:

(flat as hell, in other words)

My pace today was 7:42min/mile on this course.

This is Good!

I'm quite happy with my results given that I've ranked this a "C" race, so I should be in line to do well in the races I want to crush later this year. I've got 3 weeks of hard training to before the Heart of the Lakes, and I'm looking forward to mashing out some tough miles.

I placed 9/28 in my age group, and 60/296 men.

Funny Note: I was jousting with another guy in my age group in the last 200 meters. I thought I had him, but he closed a 10 meter gap at the last second and beat my by half a stride. We both finished in a total time of 1:45:02.