Smack Recap

I had the privilege of meeting Jetpack today for a ride on Suncoast Trail here in Sunny Florida (I know how the fact that it was in the 60's when we STARTED our ride this morning really burns you Northerners up), and got to see, first hand how nice the BMC sponsored bikes are. WOW - awesome piece of work, all the right components, I mean, these guys are training with Zipp wheels, zipp crank, zipp aerobars, all DA drive train, wireless Power Tap...very cool! Jetpack only had an hour ride on his schedule, with a 1:45hr brick run afterward, so he was taking it easy, and we went part way together.

After he broke off at about the 12 mile mark, I continued on for the rest of my 83 miler (that's my speed above - lots of road crossings...) and listened to the Simply Stu raceAthlete interviews in their entirety (I got a nifty blue IPod Shuffle for my Birthday - thanks Ma!). Lots of Smack. I really, really like Smack, if you couldn't already tell. Can you see me salivating as I write this? Leading off, Rural Girl thinks her running is for crap, and since she hasn't run further than 18miles in a single week, it's no wonder. If you want to get better at running, you gotta run, right? "Cut her some slack, Bigun, it's all snow and ugly up there"...ok, WILCO. Stu's enamored and thinks shes the dark horse of the rA group - but Roman, we find out later, is gunning for her.

Roman, the Everyman, the Clydesdales of Clydesdales, will be relying on muscle memory to get him through an Ollie (learned a new one from Bold during the interview, but it's still spelled Oly), but we've seen the swimming results - so we know he's been in the pool ("shhhhh, c'mon Bigun, no one's paying attention"). He's on a crazy fast bike compared to last year, and we already know he's not giving up much on the run...With 5 training weeks left, I'm going with Roman by race number buckle...unless, of course, there's a completely unforeseen and tragic incident involving a large black snake and low sodium.

Stu and Bolder - now there's an interesting duo. They've got side bets and back bets worrying about each other's numbers and hair pants. Did you hear how Stu has future bike washing pictures being posted on "his or her" website? Who's the her? Bold - Stu's calling you a little girl. A little girl with long pony tails and freckles and a pink skirt. I wouldn't take that. Even if I was Canadian, I still wouldn't take that kind of abuse. Now that we have Bold fired up, I'm going with the Colorado boy by a bit more than a second. That's an American second, BTW and we all know how much faster those are...

Jetpack vs Brett - you've seen the movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, right? Well, I've looked at the numbers, and Jetpack better have one up his keester if he's got a shot at avoiding a bloody, limb-hacking, everything-is-bigger-in-Texas style beating by Mr. Texafornia. And I'm rooting for my homeboy! That's right, I want to see Jetpack pull off a screaming fast bike in the hills of Wildflower - oh, BTW - there's a good 3,650 ft of climbing on the Longcourse - so have fun with that! Brett seems to think that Jet is all about cupcakes and slow rides with the Mrs (to be) in the lap of luxury known as Tampa - Brett, you just go ahead and keep thinking that - the Bigun's on a mission, and that is to get my hommie ready...boys, we going into training mode! First ride together - that "easy" 42 mile trail (below) you were talking about - up and back, baby!

Now Iron Wil and Sweetiepie didn't have much smackin to do. This surprises me - Wil's been a running fool, and everyone knows that an Ollie (like that?) is won on the run. Set a good pace on the swim and bike, and she'll have Redneck Girl in her sights at mile 4. You watch. You read it here first.... Mr Sweet - he'll be all over this bad boy - he should be talking age group smack! The rA guys could always throw down the gauntlet and shoot for the fastest times through T1 and T2 - yea baby, kick some Sweet A**!!!

Oh, and give me a break! While talking to IronWil, Stu gets a call on his cell,

Stu: oh, I gotta take this, one minute Wil..

Wil: Sure...

Stu: oh hi, Jessi, yea, can I call you back in like 5 minutes? Great -

Wil: wow, you hung up with Jessi Strensland to talk with me?

Stu: aaaa, yea, Wil, of course, you're my teammate, right?

PAALEASE! Stu, that was your buddy Jessi Finklehoffer from Podunk, MI calling about scoring a bag of weed. You Wisconsonians are all the same! You can't pull one over on the Bigun! No way, brothah, No way.