Biltmore Lake Triathlon Ashville, NC

I've decided to take my traveling prowess to the next level and have signed up for a sprint event near my grandparents home in Asheville. It's an 8 hour trip. This will be my first race in a normal age group with my new rocket ship. Actually with me on it its more like the Wright Brothers plane and I will soon prove that ;) However its faster than my wife's mountain bike and I get better all the time.

I've still not mastered the whole mounting the bike with the clipless pedals. I've heard people can actually get these things on while riding however if I try it I think the result would be a likely DNF or DQ as I will take out about 3 other riders with me. The dismount is not much better as I've nearly fallen on my a#$@ at least 3 times.

My placing days are going to be done for a while as its a whole different world of competition however it will quickly bring back the reality of Im in this for the health, and fun, and my only competitor is myself. Was great while it lasted.

I expect this is going to be a fun race. My only concerns are the change in altitude and any hills I might encounter as there are NONE in Florida. Psyched about another lake swim though. A perfect swim... No Sharks No Gators! Its going to be like the pool! What could possibly harm you? Bacteria?

Also I should note ... I'm an idiot. I've had my 5k measured out at 3.3 miles instead of 3.1 for about 3 months. What does this mean? It means my 5k is FASTER than I had originally thought. Not alot faster but faster so I'll take it.

And finally the Republican convention is this week. Having read many blogs around the internet I've noticed there is no shortage of political activism and angry liberals however they are few and far between who will say this...Vote George Bush

5K in 22 minutes!

When I started this whole endeavor back in January I couldnt run more than about 3-5 minutes at a time. So I would run 3 minutes walk 3 minutes. By mid-February I ran my first 5k on a treadmill in 33 minutes. In March my outdoor 5k time was 28 minutes by June, 24 minutes, and now August, 22 minutes! It would be nice to be under 20 minutes by the end of the year but Im running out of season and soon will be doing mostly endurance running as I'm planning to do longer distance races next year. So, here's to another milestone!

mile·stone (mlstn) n.

1. A stone marker set up on a roadside to indicate the distance in miles from a given point.

Sleep...need sleep

I'm not much of a sleeper. Never have been. Always seemed to me no matter what time I go to bed I'm up at 7. However I've never been great at early mornings either. Anything before 7 and Im worthless. That has all had to change as a result of the training because I try to do as much of it as possible when the princesses are sleeping. If they're awake and I'm out running I get the evil eye on the missed family time. So its always best they dont know I'm gone.

The last week I had a pick up in volume at 12:30 and a huge drop in sleep. Lets watch a movie, the olympics are on, just one more chapter of Training Bible, its Hurricaning. Sometimes though its not the late night its the 5 am "MEOOWWWW" the cat has to pee. Why the cat has chosen 5:15 am as her I gotta go time is beyond me but it is. When this happens the quality of the workouts goes through the floor and I feel like im struggling through everything. Yesterday I swear I almost fell asleep while swimming.

Friel stresses over and over again the importance of rest but its so hard to turn the workout away when you know somewhere someone is out getting better than you. Not that Im anything more than a MOP'er (Middle of Pack) but if you dont strive to get better than whats the point. This weeks goal is to be in bed at 10 every single night no excuses.

photo: Ta Da!

I've found the ride...

Quintana Roo Kilo Picture | Specs

And now its just a matter of getting the damned thing in my garage. Not for lack of space but rather for lack of funds. A certain local quick oil change place destroyed my car so the money is all tied up in whether or not I have to pay for their incompetence. That situation though is hopefully coming to an end we're I think passed the half way point. Therefore I will be going to look at my new toy Saturday morning. This is just a slight detour to where Im really going taking the baby girl to the zoo.

Im new to bicycles and have a total lack of mechanical inclination so I've had to do a whole lot of research, suffering the humiliation of having to ask a bunch of stupid questions to the true bike geeks etc. before I finally made up my mind. Like anything no matter what question you ask you feel like someone is looking down their nose at you. I can tell you this was no small task.

Trying to find a good deal with the right components while spending just enough to get you where you want to be without having my wife wrap the frame around my neck is next to impossible. I searched high and low for used but everything I found was either not enough or way more than I was willing to spend. I can assure you though I think if I spent $500 or $5000 (Yes, there are $5000 bicycles. I couldnt believe it either). I would get the same response. I can live with that....I hope. If you dont see me post for a while I would like to be buried at sea with my bicycle. Thank you.