Episode 17 - 2008 Wrap

Somehow we did it... we wrapped up 2008 on New Years day, and I'm just now getting it edited and published on Itunes. Hope you enjoy our last show of the year - we hope to do more in '09 and keep the laughs coming. Sometimes it's hard to find stuff to laugh about. But when you're good, you're good, right?

MN B2B is shaping up!

Holy Moley!  The Minnesota Border to Border, or MNB2B, is turning out to be quite the hotspot in the world of Blog-land.  Ok, it's got a few folks coming at least.  The teams are far from confirmed, but organization of the teams is developing.  Tentatively (and please please please read that last word - TENTATIVELY) it looks a bit like this so far:

Girls Team:

TriMama

Iron Jenny

Momo (who is still unconfirmed)

****open****

Boys Team:

Bigun (that'd be me)

Taconite Boy

Blink

***open***

Minnesota Mixed:

Jumper 2.0

Iron Girl Nyhus

Borsch

***open***

So there you have it.  3 teams so far with open spots on each one of them.  I'm sure there will be others wanting "in", and some who may have life get in the way.  It happens.  Some concern of logistics and transportation was mentioned...I'm sure that we'll be able to keep the "Team Vans" or RV grouped - I mean, how far apart will the teams get?  Plus, we'll be staying in the same hotel as each other each night - so the festivities will be very much a group thing.  

I don't know.  TriSherpaDi will undoubtedly be Super Sherpa-ing one team.  Perhaps with help from none-other-than Commodore.  Big J will undoubtedly cater the girls team.  Not sure who will Sherpa the Minnesota crew.  Obviously the names of these teams will need to be determined - they need to make a statement.  They need to be Bold!

Speaking of Bold, wouldn't it be a coup if perhaps the legend.....ary Bolder came out of retirement and joined a team?  I really hope we get enough interest to put more teams together.  Keep in mind, the teams can be 2, 3 or 4 man teams.  Just how big a stud or studette are you?

Base Canoe II

You guys think I'm funny!  This canoe shizzle is some serious stuff.  There are, like, races - marathon and ultra type races - across the country in canoes and kayaks.  There's an event that takes you AROUND FLORIDA....seriously, all around Florida - at the top, you have to do a 40 mile portage.  Portage, btw, is when you carry the boat, not paddle it.  Oh yea, I'm "in the know" now.

Since it turns out that this canoe aspect of my multisport career brings so much hilarity and entertainment to my triathlete brethren, I'll continue to enlighten you with exploits of my dry water exercise.  I think I've found a one stop shop for all my canoe training questions - believe it or not, there is a web site called Fitness Paddling.  I'm just excited to have yet another thing to train on - three just wasn't enough.  Sure, I could have picked darts, or horse shoes - but now that I don't have my lawn business anymore, I need to spend more time outdoors. 

And for those of you just tuning in - what is the need to do this canoe training?  Well I'll tell ya - the Minnesota Border to Border.  At the end of that 4 day relay, we have a 50 mile canoe leg.  And by "we" I mean - Me, Taconite Boy, someone else and someone else.  Yes!  That's right.  It turns out the girls we had on our team had decided to go "ladies only" (I know what your thinking - yes, I'm thinking it too...but stop).  TriMama and Iron Jenny may be teaming up with Momo and some other yet to be unnammed tri-hawtie.  Of course, there is no limit to the number of teams - the more the merrier.  I'm not in charge - I'm just bringing YOU, the interested reader, all the latest and greatest on what is sure to be an epically fun week.

If by fun, you think I mean lots of racing AND drinking / eating - you'd be right!  TriSherpaDi will be showing off her mixology AND driving skills as LEAD Sherpa of one of the teams.  If Momo throws her hat in the ring then Big J would likely bring the RV and head up the Sherpa duties of the all girl squad.  Lucky bastard.  Now I've heard rumblings of other folks that would be heading up and joining the fun (like Blink - who's not joining a team; he's just riding and running with us), but there has to be some semblance of rumor control (by control, I mean the only rumor will be of Momo and Big J's participation so far...) so I'll wait for more rumors before I leak any more possible participants.

Base Canoe

Today's workout:  4 mile Canoe on the Hillsborough River.  Did the same thing last year, but not with the foreboding B2B 25-mile canoe leg on the horizon.  Averaged 2 miles per hour today.  Took it waaaaay easy.  Call it a "base" canoe workout.  

Ol' Excel Man actually took his heart-rate monitor with him on this trip.  Sure, the Garmin is bad enough.  But he actually wore his Polar as well.  I was seriously out-teched today.  I gotta get a carbon-fiber paddle or something....