Africa Hot

Good freaking grief it was hot yesterday! At 8pm, after my workout, on the drive home it was 88 degrees. I get to the park and I can see that it had just rained - the steam is rolling off the wet, soon to be dry again blacktop. Riding through that is like 99% humidity. Forget glasses.

So I get setup, pump up the tires, fill up the water bottles for a 37 mile ride (three laps), and then - Crash - huge, monster Florida lightning. But, I came to ride, and lightning rarely hits a moving object on pavement, right? So off I go. 10 seconds later, pouring like an Amazon monsoon. But, hey, it feels good - right? One mile into the ride - snap - my right forearm pad bracket snaps off at the bolt! WTF? I pull in to a little water stop with some shelter, and the skys just open up. As if it weren't teaming before, now the lightning's gonna play "Apocalypse Now - Redux" with me. We're talking zero seconds from flash to bang, repeatedly, for 5 minutes. When the leading edge of that storm was by me, I took off my bike shoes, ran down the trail, grabbed the broken arm, and got back to the bike, all without getting struck by lightning. Somehow.

The 36 miles were pretty uneventful - but today my arms are a little sore for staying in the drop the whole time (yes, it was a base ride, and yes I kept my avg HR to 138, but it was tough in the heat). It rained, it would stop, then rain again, just before you finally dried out. At one point, the "bikers" came out. The Crews. The draft lines of 5 to 8 dudes and chicks that go and do 14 or 21 miles in a draft line - and I've rode up on these lines, they're only doing 21mph or so. They crack me up. Of course, Mr. Needs-a-can-of-shut-the-hell-up! was there, leading one of the groups. You know the guy - rides up on you while your peacefully enjoying your solitude and proceeds to speak for the next 20 miles. Next ride...same shit, different day - complete with the same stories!

A glutton for punishment, I just wasn't dehydrated and overheated enough, so I bricked 4 miles after - no rain, just a little shade. It was funny-miserable; when it sucks so bad you just have to laugh. I saw Excel Man while I was out there - so he wasn't sleeping on the couch like usual. The park has installed bike wash stations - there are some off-road trails here too - that cold water felt awesome after that run/death march.

Things to do today:

- get bike fixed before tomorrows time trial
- cut 4 lawns
- swim 2500 meters
- blow off run 'cause I'm freak'in exhausted. (ok, so I changed my t-do list - so shoot me!)

Time to get a move on!

Liv'in Large in CdA

Landed a rental house today for CdA - yes it's a year from now (less...) but the community is so small that you have to make your plans...NOW! So that's one big headache done for the race. Still have the rental car and the plane tickets, plus bike transportation. Knowing where we are staying was the one thing I was worried would get away from us.

Once we get all the blogger peeps settled an in lodging, we'll have to compile addresses so we know where to go to bug each other. Plus, Momo's Big J, I hear, doesn't go anywhere without good beer and Ring Dings - and man I just love beer and Ring Dings. Like you couldn't tell.

Daggum Jetpack calls me up this morning and asks me to go and ride 6 hrs with him on Friday morning. UG. I'll get as much as that as I can, but I'm not promising the full 6. It's gonna be a lonnnng week.

Community Slots...Community Slots...

I can hear them calling you - those community IMCdA slots! That's right, Kahuna. You too Iron Jenny. Robo-Stu. Iron Shane. That would seem to round out the one's I know are thinking about it. Coolness. Join the fun.

Anyway...lets see. I got my sign from Nytro - turns out she didn't adopt a Deer. Duh. I'd try and get even but I'm afraid she'd stab me with one of those nips.

Looking for a house to rent in CdA with the help of Johnny Tri - that's no easy task! I'm getting some leads though and sould have the place wrapped up this week - then it's just a matter of getting another job to pay for it all. Rental house, rental car, plane tickets...I hope Romen Noodles and Cereal are good pre-race food!

Excel Man and I have a great race week planned - plus training - With the TDF on as motivation, the 15k bike time trial will be cool - and perhaps I can finally break a 22mph average speed for an official bike race time. Plus beating Excel Man will be fun. I can hear him printing that line out and taping it to his top bar...let me make it easy for you:

Beating Excel Man at the Time Trial on Thursday will be Fun! - Bigun

Somehow I have got to find time to train with JetPack - gees did you hear his last Podcast?!? I was looking for a refund for my IM registration after listening to it! Remind me never to podcast, and if I start getting to sound a little negative, a little down in the mouth, like the Jet, please, someone, snap me out of it.

And hey, who's snapped out of "it"? None other than Mr. Commadore himself - getting up early and putting one foot in front of the other, again, on his journey towards IMAZ'08. Awesomness. Oh, and Comm - the Devil called - he needs his house painted and it's just too hot out for him...could you help him out?

I'm sure that Sweetness raced again this weekend - what else is new? Probably PR'd..again. I just hope he doesn't get all tuckerd out before the 101 down in Woodlands - when we go toe to toe for the first time - mano eee mano. On paper he's got me beat. But you don't race on paper, do you?

101 World Record Holder

Now I know why Accelerade and Inside Tri are so interested in my thoughts - I'm a World Record Holder. That's right, folks. The Bigun. Best in the World. Di can't even contain herself, now that she knows. The Excel Spreadsheet, compiled by the Bigun (Excel Man would be proud...) shows the results for Clydes, if you don't already know, the distances are:

Swim - 1.86 miles
Bike - 80.6 miles
Run - 18.6 miles

You'll possibly note an absence of the "Clydesdale 1" category - 185 - 199lb a Clydesdale does not make - I'm sorry, the line was drawn at 200lbs a while back - it's a good line...why mess with it?

For the Triathlon One-O-One series, over 40, 225+, Clydesdale - so far, I'm the only one who's completed one, ergo, the World Record Holder. No Halifax race, so no challengers there. Next chance is at Woodlands. Let's see, any challengers?

In the 40+ Clyde 3 Category (225+) we have a few:

Scott Woods, from Sugarland, TX is 40 (did a sprint this year...)
Richard Tramm, from Spring, TX is 42 (did a Half Mary at 3:24 in April)
Jay Branson, from Houston, TX is 51 (racing more this year with a few sprints)
Ralph Stanley, from Austin, TX is 51 (has done quite a few 70.3's, all around 6:30)and
Me.

In the 40+ Clyde 2 Category (under 225) we have a few as well:

Peter Foster, from Houston, TX is 49 (had done a 6:45 half IM)
Shawn McMahon, from Klamath, CA is 46 (has done a 7:00 Half IM and 2:10 half mary)
William Pruett, from Ft. Worth, Tx is 41
JIm Pike, from The Woodlands, TX is 40 (sprint tri's)
Mark Cathcart, from Austin, TX is 52 (races in FL - 6:30 Half IM)
Bill Tommaney, from Spring, TX is 42 (races ALOT and has a 5:42 half under his belt...)
Bryan Pilgrim, from Rio Rancho, NM is 42 (aka Sweet Baboo - races every day, constantly PRing)
Gerado Ordonez, from Kyle, TX is 42 (no races found)
Ralph Benson, from Ft. Worth, TX is 40 (races often, 6:16 last Half IM)

We still have 126 days until the race so I'm sure there will be more contenders. Now that there are 3 races that day, maybe some of these guys are signed up for the shorter distances. To be honest, I'd really like to compete with the "skinny" Clydes, and when I get my weight down to around 230lbs, I should be more in the mix.




Speaking of skinny Clydes, you may have noticed a familiar name in the list above - Pilgrim, or Myles aka Sweet Baboo from Clydeologist fame. Now I know he'll be gunning for the Bigun, and I him, but really, shouldn't he be more worried about holding the 101 Skinny Old Clydesdale World Record than about beating a guy that outweighs him by a good 25 - 30 lbs?

NO!!!

He shouldn't be more worried about the record...he should be worried about me. The Bigun. In 18 weeks we go "Round One" in the Old Fat Clyde vs Old Skinny Clyde smakdown (Round Two is Coeur d'Alene, unless we meet before then, like say, oh...IMFL70.3'08). It's going to be ugly.

Pass

Can I just get a pass for this week? I mean, what with the rain, and the wasp sting, and the family just leaving today (I still would have liked to have them stay a few more days...)...this week just turned into crap - the real crap, not the Mo crab substitute.

Wait, there may be a bit of sunshine today after all. Too bad it's almost dinner time.

Sorry about all the whining - next week we'll return to our normally scheduled programming. Nice 15k bike Time Trial on Thursday. Sweet. Ocean 1-mile Swim on Saturday. Nice. Morton Plant Meese Sprint Tri (1/3 Mile Swim, 16m bike and 5k run) on Sunday. No taper. Taper was this week. It's a "C" race after all...

Oh, and that's a before and after, for this past race I did...Slowtwitch inspired B&A shots - just the attitude leaving the water - thats a nice difference - exhausted vs. raring to go bike!

New Photos

I like to make these collages - anyway, for those of you still wondering if I was a Clydesdale, these photos are proof.

This is the Crystal River Sprint Tri #2.

Now I know never to ride the HED Jet 90 up front without the rear wheel cover (ie, fake disc) - it looks really dorky.

This whole time I was thinking that I was a bit stretched out with my new front end, but this shot seems to make my position look ok. 20 lbs to go....

Zapped!

I got stung by a wasp yesterday - or bit, whatever, the sucker got me! Lower leg - got me good. No big deal yesterday, but today, after my little bike ride, it's HOT and RED and SWOLLEN and it HURTS!

Yea, sounds like a good excuse to take it easy for the rest of today.

Happy Independence Day everyone - enjoy your parades, bbq's (yes, it is a noun and a verb, Winzy) family, and friends. And if you get some training in, enjoy that too! We took this picture of both my legs - the right one is the freakishly swollen one - amaizing what one little tiny insect can do!

Slow start

The Bigun's got family over for the holidays, so I've had a slow start to my training week...big fat zero hrs training so far, unless you count 6 hrs of cutting grass as "exercise".

I think I need to be a bit clear - when I said I was a "ways away" from seeing an "Iron Training Week" - I meant it! Those numbers aren't for everyone - they are what I see as what my Iron Week would be - 12k swimming would be double my goal average and way above my current weekly swim volume - so that has to be eased into. Biking 200 miles in a week - that's two 50's and a century - doable, but consistently? Not yet. Running 34 miles in a week - c'mon - this is the Bigun typing here. I have a hard time averaging 10 and I consider 20 miles in a week to be STELLAR! So I'm a ways out - and these are my numbers - for other people with different aspirations and body types, your numbers can and will be different.

Accelerade - yay.

Did anyone else get an e-mail offer from Accelerade? I'm supposed to be getting a month's supply of the stuff for free to try out and report my opinions on in mine and their website. Pretty cool if it's legit. I've always liked their gel - their powdered drinks...I have a hard time with. But it could be something that is an acquired taste, so I'll give it a shot. Seems that "they" went to my blog and thought, somehow, that I understand the demands of nuances of the multi-sport athlete...go figure! So, that's neat.

A while back I was selected to be in the Inside Triathlon Age Group Team. It's been slow to develop, and other than posting on Inside Tri's website blog, there hasn't been much involvement from me. With the sponsorship comes some discounted stuff and some free race entries (which is why and how I am racing Woodlands 101, btw), and we've all been eagerly awaiting the LG tri-top and shorts that will be custom team wear. Those should be here any time. I think. As IT's first Age Group Team, I'm sure there are growing pains that we are putting in motion, and possibly next year's team will benefit from our year. I hope so - it's cool to get an e-mail telling you that you've been selected - if you ever get a chance to write about yourself to apply for selection or sponsorship - do it! You just never know.

raceAthlete - yay! Roman (Everyman) sent me a nifty Zipp carbon water bottle cage and a tube of NUUN - seems I won a lottery of sorts on one of his posts - I installed the cage before my last 82 mile bike and could feel the weight loss with every pedal stroke. Thanks Roman!

So tomorrow will bring a better training day - I'm going to try for a three-discipline brick...maybe a bike ride first thing, come home, run a bit and then see if the pool really is open on the 4th like they said it would after 11am, and put a few laps in. Get this week jump-started! Before the hamburgers and brewski's and more family arrives...

Iron Week

This was not one of them. I've got an idea in my head of what an Iron Week should look like. Swim 12,000 meters. Bike 200 miles. Run 34 miles. Swim should consist of one 4k effort, Bike should have a buck, and the run have a long run of at least 16 miles. This is what is right now a "crazy" 20:45 hrs training week - make that crazy insane. I've a feeling it will be a good while until I have an Iron Training Week.

At first, an Iron Leg Week is the goal. Along with other training, do an Iron Week workout in one of the three legs. That would make it an Iron Leg Week. Don't be confused if I manage an Iron Leg Week of swimming.

The next 50 some-odd weeks will be Iron-Focused. Well, actually, there are a couple of important things to do first. Like the Chicago Oly. The Florida Challenge Half (which I'm boldly not tapering for...) and then Woodlands 101. Woodlands is 19 weeks away, and will mark the end of the '07 season. Then, the focus will be purely Iron. But I'll still be thinking about it 'till then.

Like this week. Not even a Half-Iron Leg Swim Week, and the run, well, that was pitiful. The bike, pretty good - a Two Thirds Iron Leg Bike Week. And we raced. A sprint out at Crystal River. Since there was no taper for it, and it was really just part of the weekly training (albeit a fun part), you can just get the highlights:

Swim: 1/4 Mile in 6:38 for a 1:30/100yd pace (PR)

Bike: 15 Miles in 42:14 for a 21.3 mph pace

Run: 3 Miles in 26:28 for a 8:49 pace

Total Time: 1:17:44

HEY LUKE - YOUR '05 TIME AT THIS RACE WAS 1:17:07 - Just in case you were wondering...oh, and my '05 time, this was my first triathlon ever - 1:29:02..

This was good for 6th place overall Clydes, 3rd for Clydes over 40, although they did not have an official category for old clydes. Looks like I might have gotten ripped off for a few tenth of the bike and then some time in transition - the 'ol "trusty" Garmin had me at 21.8mph, and I saw 22mph on the screen before I made the final turn to transition - oh well...

Excel Man was there racing Saturday too, and ran 1:14:30. Took 4th - they only had medals down to 3rd place - so neither of us came home with anything other than race t-shirts. Results are dubious as there wasn't an electric timing system, and I heard them call my number out twice wrong and had to correct them. Anyway. Di was sick so no pictures of this race and no cowbells; darn!

I actually had a pretty good "101" Training week - since I had a swim workout over 3,000 meters, and a bike that was 82 miles. Just need to work on that run....