I gotta lay off the crank man! I entered the state crit championship today! We got there over an hour before the race and I registered. The race started pretty slow but then after about a lap the speed was upped greatly! No problem though for a while but after a couple premes I found myself towards the back. My legs were already getting cooked. Of course at my most tired moment I was about 4th to last in the pack and the guy in front of me crashed and we all had to slow. I watched the pack go away. Screw that. I started cranking and it took me 2-1/2 laps but I finally caught back on. After that the pace eased up except for 2 more premes (I think we were offered 6 premes in the race.) I went for one and came up a bike length short, but mostly I just wanted to get near the front.

I spent the rest of the race about mid-pack (we had maybe 20-25 guys left) and then the corner before we took the 3 laps to go my foot came out of the pedal. Weird. I try to click back in and it felt like it was going to fall right back out. Great. I look down and my crank was loose, 5 more pedal strokes and it would've fallen off. So that was that, I turn onto the finishing straight to take 3 laps to go in about 8th place, peel off and ride onto the sidewalk and to where our stuff was, sat down and pouted. It's all my fault, I installed a new bottom bracket last night and I clearly didn't tighten the crankset enough. I've had nothing but problems with that crank this season and it isn't getting any better. So come Monday it looks like an upgrade (parts not category) will be in order.

Aqua-tastic!

Life here is going pretty good leading up to the Ironman. I've got a new project to work on while I taper and rest for the Ironman. I'll post pictures of it lately. I've got some other things to check into as well so life certainly won't be slow once the Ironman is done!

Last night was the Aquathon. After scoring 4 of 5 points in the Gun Show earlier in the day I was ready for some swim and run action. For the first time I got my wetsuit on without assitance. I went and swam the course before the event started and I swam strong. So Aquathon starts and I am right at the front. I thought it would be smart so I wouldn't get kicked but people are cutthroat and I got friggin dunked as some dude swam over me. This was like a childhood fear relived! I resurfaced and kept going, and swam pretty strong, 16 something for the 1k swim. My transition sucked, 1:40 or something, :40 to :60 slower than most. I ran hard to catch people though and ended up running the 5k in 25:01. Which is pretty good after all I had been through that day. So 42 something was my time. Of course I think I can drop 2 minutes pretty easily but I won't get to find out, it is my last one this season!

Weekend:
Tonight- Movie (Little Miss Sunshine)
Tomorrow- State Crit Champs, Bristol Nascar Race
Sunday- Devil's Head race

After working this coming Monday I'll have the next 3 off from work...sweet! Happy weekend!!!

It's Wednesday evening and I am taking the night off from working out. I worked out 12-1/2 hours in the last four days so an easy day today is what my body ordered! Aquathon and Gun Show tomorrow, easy day Friday and then the State Crit Champs on Saturday round out this week. Might (should) be racing Devils Head on Sunday and then I'll get my taper on! That's right, starting Sunday I will be tapering down to the Ironman.

News: So it took me several months but I finally accepted that I had a male friend with a pony tail. Of course then he had to go and cut it all off. Now he looks kind of normal, which will take some serious getting used to.

News: Chalk up a digital camera to Chili's Chew Toy list. He didn't ruin it but it doesn't look pretty.

News: Chili turns one tomorrow. Happy Birthday!



Training has been going really well and my confidence is pretty high right now. Although the other guy at Pacific was asking me what my "massage schedule" looked like and indicated he had like 5 scheduled before the race himself. Uh, massages cost money! It's funny the different strategies we've taken to get to this point.

Thanks to some of my loyal blog readers for some funny videos and photos lately! Good times!!! Keep them coming!

So Jess wanted to go on vacation. She didn't care where just soon. So after the Ironman we are going to Florida! Inexpensive flights and hotels are just the start. We'll hit some amusement parks, a baseball game and some mountain biking! Mountain biking? They've got one of the sweetest trails I've ridden on (Carter above) and last time I busted my ass. Plus they have a trail that locals love tons more than Carter too so we'll try that! Should be awesome!!!

SOAP!

Friday after work we finally went...Snakes on a Plane! I was pretty sure I'd hate it. Turns out I was incorrect. It wasn't really scary at all, instead it was pretty funny, kind of cheesy and so unoriginal it was well...original! It was pure entertainment! After that we went to Uno's with Riz and Kari and played a couple games of Trigon. Good times!

Saturday- Bike Ride. It was pretty lame the first hour, so we (Jerry and I) ditched off and did some hills and intervals. It's always nice to ride through New Glarus. Ended up at about 50 miles in 2:50. Took the dogs to the park, worked on bikes and got the Tux stuff together for our wedding. Didn't really do much else.

Sunday- Woke up and did an 11 mile run. Pace was real good and the body felt great and still does. Weird. After that we went to the dog park. We wanted to see if Chili could swim. We went to Indian Lake. Big mistake. Water was green and dogs needed to be on a leash. Chili kind of waded and then once he actually jumped in. Hated it and he could touch so we didn't know. We then went to another park, corner of Hwy M and 113. Much better. Chili still didn't like the water so I kind of pushed him in. It was a pretty steep dock. It appeared he could indeed swim. Popeye accidentally fell in as well, but he swims like a champ! After and hour of running and Chili going into the beach on his own we came back to the dock. This time I just picked him up and tossed him in. He didn't like it much but he still swam and didn't hate it as much as we thought. Before long he'll swim on his own...we have to hit that park a couple more times before fall. Boring Sunday afternoon planned, should be nice! :)