Thursday, August 21, 2008

Almost time to tri again

Not much time to post, lately. Sorry for that.

Doing the Clearlake Int'l Tri this Saturday. A bit nervous. When I signed up about a month and a half ago, the decision was difficult for me. I know I can do each of the distances seperately, no problem. 1k swim. I do that every time I hit the water, at least twice per week. 30k bike. That'll be the hardest, but it is only about 3 miles farther than CB&I, so I know it is doable. 10k run. I'm already up over that in FIT, so obviously doable, even in the heat.

With all of that said, my real goal is just to finish. This will be my first foray into anything longer than a sprint (though I know that this isn't even as long as an olympic tri!), and certainly my first endurance event over 90ish minutes.

Of course, I do have some times in mind. Anything less than 3 hours should be totally doable, even if I blow up. Based on my times at the CB&I, if I can just keep the pace up, I should be able to pull a 2:45 (12 min swim doubles to 24, 55 min bike plus 15 min for 3 more slow miles, and 60 minutes for the run, plus 4 minutes for slow transitions), and if my day is truely stellar, then 2:30 would be my out-of-this-world amazed goal.

I'm nervous, but we'll see how she goes. Just going to try to forget all of these numbers, have fun, and finish upright. Oh, and learn from my CB&I mistakes, and learn from any new ones I make, which I'm sure I'll do....

Sunday, August 17, 2008

On the power of Phelps

I, of course, am following the Olympics.

When I was growing up, every four years (and later every two), my family would gather around the television and watch the Olympics. And I mean *all* of the Olympics. At least, all of the coverage that was available. If we weren't home, we'd tape it. In fact, I believe that I probably still have some of the old tapes somewhere...

Anyways, that isn't ever going to change for me. Once every other year, you can expect me to be totally incommunicado for a few weeks, because I can't drag myself away from the tv.

But I wasn't thinking of the Olympics when I bought my tickets to the Astros game on August 16th waaaaay back in April. I was just thinking about how the tickets were half price...

So you can imagine how horrified I was that I would be missing the Olympics. Even though my trusty tape-replacement machine (aka the DVR) would be recording the evening's festivities, what if it fucked up? What if I came home and nothing was there? I checked the thing a few times before we left, but ultimately the cheapness in me won out: we went to the Astros game.

I was wanting an Astros technical T so that perhaps I could sweat slightly less miserably when going to games, so some time in the middle innings, Preston and I vacated our seats to go look in the shop. It just so happened that Michael Phelps was about to swim the 100 fly, and the shop had it (instead of the Astros game!!!) on the tv. We gathered around with about 40 other fans to watch. Holy fucking shit, that was the. most. awesome. way. to. watch. Phleps. win. by. a. fucking. fingernail. Seriously. When he was heading into the last 25 I looked at Preston and said, "He's lost it." But no. He proceeded to make the most unreal, 40 strangers yelling at the tv during an Astros game comeback EVAR.

Oh, yeah, and the Astros won.

And I get to go see Randy Johnson pitch tomorrow.

Annnnnd, the DVR in fact DID NOT record the Olympics while I was gone. Let the record show that I am obsessive-compulsive about DVRs and alarm clocks because this shit ACTUALLY HAPPENS. I'm not just paranoid. (Though I am that.)