Make Up Post

Well, isn’t this embarrassing? I go off spouting that I need to be more diligent in my blogging and then I don’t blog for a couple months. A lot has happened in the last 2 months. The big one is that I traded in my Saab 900 convertible for a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country. That’s right, a minivan. And guess what….I love it. I don’t think it’s possible to be happier with an automobile choice. My daughter, now 4 years old, helped me come up with a name for her. We named her Wonder Red. (she’s a cartoon character from PBS Kids). The seats fold into the floor and I can put my bike and all my gear, including coolers, inside and still have comfortable room for 5 people. I even got some personalized plates. Check it out.

As far as training is concerned, I’ve been hitting it pretty hard. I’m swimming 2000 to 2500 yards in my workouts. I’ve had some really great bike rides and some really crappy rides as well. One weekend, I got into the zone and before I realized what was happening, I’d gone 50 miles in 2 hours and 32 min. I took 2 miles to cool down but I was flying. It was awesome. Then the very next weekend, I went out to test the Ironman Boise bike course (56 miles) and the weather turned sour. It was cold and super windy and I made it 44 miles in 2 and half hours and just threw in the towel. It was so stinkin cold. My buddy Jarom handed out gels and water at the same point along the course where the aid stations will be. He got a video of me grabbing a gel right before a really rough hill section.

 It was kind of a dance. I’d grab the gel and he’d get back in Wonder Red and drive up next to me and I’d toss the empty gel pack through the passenger window then he’d speed ahead to the next aid station point.

I also had a really funny thing happen on that terrible ride. I had a Rocketeer moment. There I was, going down a hill, facing a massive head wind.  This wind was directly in front of me. Blowing so hard, that even down a hill in full aero position, I was only going about 28 mph. I was pretty happy I’d chosen to wear my aero helmet, until this happened. I get to the bottom of the hill and it feels like there was a small break in the wind so I sat up and stretched my neck. I thought I heard a car behind me so I rode the line and turned my head to look over my right shoulder. And that’s when it hit me. A gust of wind hit me head on and with my head turned wearing that aero helmet, it wrenched my neck and it pushed me and my bike onto the shoulder. The only reason I didn’t eat it was because there was no curb and about 8 feet of shoulder. Super lucky.

Fast forward through a week of crap weather and a lot of indoor training to Saturday the 5^th of May. Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! My first open water swim of the year. Don’t I cut a cunning figure.

This was my 2^nd swim in the wetsuit. I swam half of the just over half a mile then ran for 45 min after. I think my transition was close to 20 minutes though J. I swam slow but I’m ok with that because it was more of an educational experience. I’ll get a couple more in this week because the weather will actually be cooperating.

Ironman Boise is now less than 5 weeks away and it seems like time is going faster. I don’t seem to have enough hours in the day. But isn’t that the way of things? Anyway, I’ll try to blog again at the end of this week. See you then.

P.S. The Avengers movie was awesome!! Make sure you stay for both of the clips in the credits.