Back from the race, unpacked, and the bike is sorta clean. No really, it was ridiculous how dirty it got from one race. Covered in sand and I am not even sure where the sand came from, plus it was covered in grease too. Grease in places that did not make sense, like the top tube and crank arms.
I will have a full race report Tuesday. I am now heading to bed (despite it only being 8 PM here) because I have to be at work at 0430 tomorrow. I get to play at the range with new assault rifles. YAY for blowing shit up with NATO 5.56 projectiles!
Today is the 365 day of existence of my blog. To celebrate I am going to host a contest and giveaway. I am going to be giving away a selection of home work out gear, to enter I want you to send me pictures of you home work space. More details to come, but as always with me- there will be twists.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Excited
I am excited and I can't sit still, so I'm blogging. Thank you everyone for the kind words and support.
Fyi- I brought whole wheat with pb and honey, plus a banana for breakfast. A gel for before the race. I have heed calories and 360 calories in hammer gel in flasks with a few drops of water. I also have a bottle of nuun , but more on that later. I also have two montana huckleberry gels in a flask for the run.
A few hiccups on the ride here, but <b> no worries</b>. I realized I forgot to put a cage my bike so my aerobottle is it! My plan was to take nuun as soon as I got on the bike and then use that bottle to refill. I will now stop and drink BEFORE I leave t1. I also got here and found my pump (not bike pump) didn't fit my air mattress. I've had it for 4 years and never used it. I went back into town and got a pump, I needed to get some dinner anyhow. Got back in and hunted the race site. I wanted to find my rack and scout the buoys. My rack is the second into transition from the swim. Score. Buoys were not up yet, but I did see it was a 200m run up a large pine straw hill to transition. I may leave my flip-flops out at the end. I really wanted to see how far 1500 would be- oh well.
My coach emailed me to remind me this is just a dress rehearsal for the usat championship qualifier in august.
I have fire lit, cb is making fun of me for blogging, time for smores, uno and sleep.
Can't wait for tomorrow!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Fyi- I brought whole wheat with pb and honey, plus a banana for breakfast. A gel for before the race. I have heed calories and 360 calories in hammer gel in flasks with a few drops of water. I also have a bottle of nuun , but more on that later. I also have two montana huckleberry gels in a flask for the run.
A few hiccups on the ride here, but <b> no worries</b>. I realized I forgot to put a cage my bike so my aerobottle is it! My plan was to take nuun as soon as I got on the bike and then use that bottle to refill. I will now stop and drink BEFORE I leave t1. I also got here and found my pump (not bike pump) didn't fit my air mattress. I've had it for 4 years and never used it. I went back into town and got a pump, I needed to get some dinner anyhow. Got back in and hunted the race site. I wanted to find my rack and scout the buoys. My rack is the second into transition from the swim. Score. Buoys were not up yet, but I did see it was a 200m run up a large pine straw hill to transition. I may leave my flip-flops out at the end. I really wanted to see how far 1500 would be- oh well.
My coach emailed me to remind me this is just a dress rehearsal for the usat championship qualifier in august.
I have fire lit, cb is making fun of me for blogging, time for smores, uno and sleep.
Can't wait for tomorrow!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
IMG00151-20110604-1254.jpg
Packing for an overnight race has proven interesting the last two times. This time is even worse. Normally for a weekend, its bike, race bag, and a bag of clothes/toiletries between us. Since I don't like taking my wheel off before a race it limits space even more than a bike in general.
For this race I have all my camp stuff in an action packer, plus regular pillows (instead of my normal stuff sack w/ clothes), plus linens in another bag (I'm bringing an air mattress since I'm not backpacking why rough it), then it becomes a question of how to fit everything. I don't like anything hard near my bike and I don't want to get anything girly on it (or cb doesn't want bike grease on her bags). I put everything in with great care, but it never fails I bumped my pedals and dropped my chain.
Had a great swim yesterday. 1000m plus a few extra w/ fins. The guard said the temp was 86+. My wet suit hasn't got here yet, but the race director posted the water was 82 this morning. Don't need the wet suit but so much for 2 days shipping.
Off to the race!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Thursday, June 2, 2011
My new non-fitness related venture
For the third period in two years I have found myself playing with web design in my spare time. This time probably a little more in depth than the last two. I have been playing around with open source design software, searching for tutorials, getting deeper into coding, doing spec work and going through blogs and articles about freelancing.
While doing this I stumbled over a blog about how to become a freelancer in 31 days. I read over the site and started some notes in a notebook. I then decided I would treat it as an experiment and see where following the program gets me. As an experiment I decided to share my results of each step, much like a scientist with his findings.
I posted yesterday asking for tips on how to journal my work. Blogging came back as the answer. I took Mandy's tip and went with wordpress. I hated the dashboard and couldn't figure it out so I came back to blogger. I spent last night setting things up and writing my posts through the end of the week (can't work while I'm out of town to race). I looked ahead to next week's assignments and saw that several days are spent working on a wordpress portfolio, so today I worked on wordpress and got familiar. It seems some my issues were my theme. Personally, I find blogger more user friendly, but Wordpress more professional looking.
So before my wife even knows what I am up to, I unveil to you, my friends, The Freelance Experiment- Freelance or Failure.
I can't get the page tabs to change order, but the one entitled "The Experiment" explains the background some.
Since I am using open source web design programs, open source graphic design software, open source vector software and open source blogging, I enabled comments on wordpress so i could incorporate other's tweaks. It has the ability to be an open source business.
Note: this is not the project I was asking about mentoring for. That will hopefully come later.
While doing this I stumbled over a blog about how to become a freelancer in 31 days. I read over the site and started some notes in a notebook. I then decided I would treat it as an experiment and see where following the program gets me. As an experiment I decided to share my results of each step, much like a scientist with his findings.
I posted yesterday asking for tips on how to journal my work. Blogging came back as the answer. I took Mandy's tip and went with wordpress. I hated the dashboard and couldn't figure it out so I came back to blogger. I spent last night setting things up and writing my posts through the end of the week (can't work while I'm out of town to race). I looked ahead to next week's assignments and saw that several days are spent working on a wordpress portfolio, so today I worked on wordpress and got familiar. It seems some my issues were my theme. Personally, I find blogger more user friendly, but Wordpress more professional looking.
So before my wife even knows what I am up to, I unveil to you, my friends, The Freelance Experiment- Freelance or Failure.
I can't get the page tabs to change order, but the one entitled "The Experiment" explains the background some.
Since I am using open source web design programs, open source graphic design software, open source vector software and open source blogging, I enabled comments on wordpress so i could incorporate other's tweaks. It has the ability to be an open source business.
Note: this is not the project I was asking about mentoring for. That will hopefully come later.
Nervous Excitement, Peter Organics Winner
Nervous excitement, that is what I have today. It has been brewing all week. I am sure it will build further tomorrow. I really should take the day off work just to be focused. I know that sounds odd or like I have poor work ethic, but honestly when I get excited before a race I can't focus at work. Being at home lets me work out in the yard and get my mind off things. Being here in the office lets me obsess about details.
Wait, why am I excited? Three weeks ago I decided to change my race schedule to try to find more Sunday races in my series. This lets me work my part time and be able to afford some of my races. This Sunday, with only three weeks of thought going into it I have my first Olympic!
This will be my longest race to date. This will also be my first open water swim in a race.
Can you see why I might have nervous excitement. This is a big weekend for me. The upside is that it is not just general nervousness, but excitement.
The swim will be my biggest challenge. I have only done one open water swim, it was 4x100 and is sucked. That swim should be warmer as that swim was about 68 degrees and I was in a tri suit. My Sponsors at Synergy Sport have given me a great deal on a new wetsuit. I look forward to getting it today or tomorrow. It has a 5mm front and a 2 or 3mm back. This should help the shock of cold water as well as some extra buoyancy. The downside is that as I wrote the temp. above, I realized I should check the current temp. of the lake I will be swimming in. Yesterday's temp. was 86. Not only is that above, the cut off for awards, this is above the cut off for swimming with a wetsuit at all. Hopefully it will drop by then or my new suit will be moot and I will wish I had ordered a skinsuit instead (I almost did).
The next big question then becomes nutrition. During my long brick last week I combined gel every 45 minutes (I think) and water every 10. I will do this again. However, we decided to camp at the race site, it is a state park, so I am not sure how to do breakfast. I usually have toast, except I have no electric at the campsite and no toaster. After reading Jeff's race report and Mandy's race plan I am considering some sort of substitute like Ensure, paired with a sandwich. I am also considering taking something like an uncrustable on the bike, just in case I need a little extra.
Funny story- I wanted to stay at the same campground as the race site. I had to reserve a campsite and was scouring over all the course and park maps trying to figure out where would be closest to the race. After an hour of this, it hit me- screw closest to the race, at 0dark:30 I want to be closest to the shower!
Clearly, I have some directed nervousness at this point, I want it to get to race day so I can get it done, I want to be able say I've done it, move on to training for the USAT qualifier and have more confidence in my ability to do a 70.3 once I have this down. I have been discussing possibly doing REV3 in South Carolina with Cb, but it's a question of how to afford it. We are still working out the details for REDMAN as that will be an ORDEAL.
In the end, wet suit in transit, registered for race, campsite reserved, tonight after my workotu and working on my new project I will go into the attic to grab the tent and stuff.
Wait, why am I excited? Three weeks ago I decided to change my race schedule to try to find more Sunday races in my series. This lets me work my part time and be able to afford some of my races. This Sunday, with only three weeks of thought going into it I have my first Olympic!
This will be my longest race to date. This will also be my first open water swim in a race.
Can you see why I might have nervous excitement. This is a big weekend for me. The upside is that it is not just general nervousness, but excitement.
The swim will be my biggest challenge. I have only done one open water swim, it was 4x100 and is sucked. That swim should be warmer as that swim was about 68 degrees and I was in a tri suit. My Sponsors at Synergy Sport have given me a great deal on a new wetsuit. I look forward to getting it today or tomorrow. It has a 5mm front and a 2 or 3mm back. This should help the shock of cold water as well as some extra buoyancy. The downside is that as I wrote the temp. above, I realized I should check the current temp. of the lake I will be swimming in. Yesterday's temp. was 86. Not only is that above, the cut off for awards, this is above the cut off for swimming with a wetsuit at all. Hopefully it will drop by then or my new suit will be moot and I will wish I had ordered a skinsuit instead (I almost did).
The next big question then becomes nutrition. During my long brick last week I combined gel every 45 minutes (I think) and water every 10. I will do this again. However, we decided to camp at the race site, it is a state park, so I am not sure how to do breakfast. I usually have toast, except I have no electric at the campsite and no toaster. After reading Jeff's race report and Mandy's race plan I am considering some sort of substitute like Ensure, paired with a sandwich. I am also considering taking something like an uncrustable on the bike, just in case I need a little extra.
Funny story- I wanted to stay at the same campground as the race site. I had to reserve a campsite and was scouring over all the course and park maps trying to figure out where would be closest to the race. After an hour of this, it hit me- screw closest to the race, at 0dark:30 I want to be closest to the shower!
Clearly, I have some directed nervousness at this point, I want it to get to race day so I can get it done, I want to be able say I've done it, move on to training for the USAT qualifier and have more confidence in my ability to do a 70.3 once I have this down. I have been discussing possibly doing REV3 in South Carolina with Cb, but it's a question of how to afford it. We are still working out the details for REDMAN as that will be an ORDEAL.
In the end, wet suit in transit, registered for race, campsite reserved, tonight after my workotu and working on my new project I will go into the attic to grab the tent and stuff.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
More Thinking.........
I am once again reaching out to my peers for a suggestion. I am about to embark on a new project/experiment. It is completely non-fitness and dieting related.
I have been working on this project for the last two days and want to document and share my results. As it doesn't seem to fit here I don't want to use this space to document it.
Everything keeps coming back to starting another blog, but i want to avoid that as I have this one already, plus my other one I update once every 6 months (it was intended for once a week, hows that working for me?).
I searched around facebook thinking they might have a blog type feature and didn't find one. Any suggestions on how to do such a task via any venue?
Sadly, this experiment is creative in nature so i feel sheepish asking for brainstorming help as it seems paradoxical. How am I going to succeed on a creative project when i am not creative enough to figure out how to document it?
After thought: If I decide to go with a blog I then consider if i stay with blogger for this one or do i mix it up and move over to wordpress, just for the experience?
I have been working on this project for the last two days and want to document and share my results. As it doesn't seem to fit here I don't want to use this space to document it.
Everything keeps coming back to starting another blog, but i want to avoid that as I have this one already, plus my other one I update once every 6 months (it was intended for once a week, hows that working for me?).
I searched around facebook thinking they might have a blog type feature and didn't find one. Any suggestions on how to do such a task via any venue?
Sadly, this experiment is creative in nature so i feel sheepish asking for brainstorming help as it seems paradoxical. How am I going to succeed on a creative project when i am not creative enough to figure out how to document it?
After thought: If I decide to go with a blog I then consider if i stay with blogger for this one or do i mix it up and move over to wordpress, just for the experience?
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