It has been a quiet week here in lake...oh never mind I've been listening to NPR too much this weekend.
In fact it has been a long and painful week as I near the peak of my training for Ironman Wisconsin.
Please notice the utter dazed and confused look in my eyes as I exit the water from Sunday's open 2.4 mile Horsetooth swim race.
I was completely OTP (of the plan) as in training plan for this race. My good friend Michael Stone asked me to join him for this annual early morning swim race. In years past I have done the longer and non-wet suit legal crazy long 10K race, but this was a great chance to share a great swim with great buddy, and have a great time.
It was all that and more and I got in a last, and come to think of it first, long training swim before the Ironman. I also had a chance to swim with a friend, and that's always a winning combination in my book. We finished together at just over 1:13 but got a little confused at the end. We didn't didn't realize we had to walk out of the water for the time to register...so let's call it 1:12.
Once again just look at the picture and you'll see I was a bit dazed and confused.
Mike Ricci had me doing a 7.5 hour ride this weekend on Saturday, but because of my schedule I decided to do it on Sunday after the race.
This was harder then I imagined it would be as the swim and big Cajun breakfast that followed made it hard to get on the iron steed for 7.5 hours. So I compromised and headed up to Ward for a grueling 40K climb.
Sorry Mike, I promise I'll try harder to stay OTP next weekend!
I figure if you can't do the time you may as well do the climb. I keep hoping that the old saying is true that hills (mountains in this case) make you stronger on the flats, but flats don't make you stronger on the hills.
On the way down from Ward I just outran a massive lightening and thunderstorm. That is just until my new chain on my road bike turned into spaghetti on the front derailer. Did you know that you need to shorten a new chain before you put in on the bike? I didn't know that until now.
Anyway, the rain hit in huge and very wet driving drops as I was taking the front derailer apart. I was tired, wet , greasy and did I mention wet.
The only good news was that the rain did drop the temperature from the mid-nineties to the low-nineties. I was happy for small miracles.
I'm now just under two weeks from my so called A race. No not Ironman Wisconsin, but the Chicago Triathlon. Last year I took second place in my my age and fat catagory.
Funny story this. I was back from Chicago last year at the local pool when one of the pro triathletes who coaches my son in swimming mentioned that they had announced my name at the Chicago Tri awards ceremony. I nearly fell in the pool as I have never even come close to winning anything in my life before.
The Clydesdale who beat me last year for the top spot on the podium went 2:34. I went 2:39. I figure that with Mike's help, the new bike, and cool weather I can go 5 minutes faster this year.
So that's the plan. I just hope that Bigun (who is also racing Chicago this year) doesn't go 10 minutes faster still and completely upset the wagon. To tell the truth I would be thrilled to have my butt kicked by another raceAthelete.
Speaking of raceAthlete...with Ironman Wisconsin just around the corner, it seemed like a great time to unvail the new raceAthlete web site.
We've changed the format around to make it easier to navigate and in the process we've done a bit of uncluttering as well. You'll notice that we've tried to keep the best parts of the old Blog/Website and enhance both the look and function by creating this brand spanking new site.
Please note that this new site is definitely still very much a work in progress so we'd love to have your comments and suggestions on how to make it better.
FYI: You'll find all of the same great daily team news under the tab called "Blog" Today we feature a longtime teammate (TriBoomer) who is doing something very special indeed for all of us at Ironman Wisconsin,
Check it out HERE
We've also expanded the web site to include your race and gear reviews. So if you have a race of gear review you'd like featured just send me a note.
More importantly, we also want to include more of you in the site so we need photos of you racing, training, hanging out, or just having fun. But the catch is that you need to be doing it in raceAthlete gear.
If you have such a picture please send it to me so that we can make you a raceAthlete star.