They call me wolfman

So I think that Julia being overseas will be the best thing my training has ever seen. I don't think there is a better way to wipe my mind than a run.

Anyway, today was my first two-a-day since...maybe since the season ended. The workouts were pretty easy, something like a 2500 m swim and a 5 mile run. But it's the principle that I'm looking at here. And I think I get some man points for my run.

Champaign-Urbana and surround areas have taught me one thing about dog owners: Most people should not own dogs. They are largely untrained and dangerous. For this reason, my ability to square up to a dog and yell it down from whatever form of excitement it is experiencing has become finely tuned. Today, with about a mile left in the run, and German Shepherd comes charging out of a house, snarling and barking. So naturally I barked it down. I scared the pants off the dog. Unfortunately, the little girl who had accidentally let him out likely peed herself as well. I felt like a jerk, but...come on...those are big, angry looking dogs. Also, I felt like a champ scaring the dog so bad.

Welcome 200.....10?

Well the brand new decade begins, and I might just write on this thing...or at least I'll try. It is looking to be a rough semester ahead. I have yet to square away my class schedule, I have to figure out if I am definitely in grad school, and worst of all...my lady is overseas until the end of June! AH!

I am not sure how I will approach this race season. Originally I had planned for this to be the summer of the Half. But I'm having doubts. At the forefront is the fact that I hardly enjoy racing. I love training. Obviously I love the post race high. But I stress too much to enjoy a race.

I hope that as soon as I kick myself in the ass and get moving a bit I will be feeling more confident and ready to race, but as of now, the idea seems awful!

Macroscopic!

A week or two ago, as I was enjoying some coffee and wasting time walking to class, I got stuck behind a couple of girls. Their camouflaged cutoff shorts and tiny tank tops matched perfectly, and meant that either the army has gotten a lot more lenient on uniform, or they had just joined a sorority (like...omygawd!). I gave up trying to listen to my jams through their gabber, so I decided to listen as they complained that...like...their macro...like....economics test like......was totally like...gay.

I had no real reason to let that irritate me. I spent all of thirty seconds walking behind these newly-bred sheep before finding a different, longer path to class. But for some reason, I found the "macro...like....economics" chirping through my head for ten or fifteen minutes of my ride yesterday. Luckly the idea of "macro" anything became more appealing than thinking of them talk.

In a sort of cool way, triathlon training exposes you to two sides of the world, the microview, and the macro. When you run, I feel like you see your area on a micro level. You learn all of the streets, all of the routes and distances from one place to another. You see things you would have never seen otherwise. The bike gives you a much broader view of the world. You learn what your county, and adjacent counties look like. You learn all the big and small towns, and all of the major roads, as well as minor dirt roads to avoid at all cost. Biking gives you the big picture of what an area really looks like.

See...I can be deep sometimes...just like swimming!

Finally some rest!

This is my favorite time of the season. It's getting cool out, the leaves are changing, and (best of all) I can do WHATEVER I want to do for my workouts. I don't have another race until spring, so it's time to enjoy myself.

I've been feeling under the weather lately, so I didn't mind taking Isaac out for an easy run yesterday. We did somewhere in the 8:30 range, and it was wonderful. The real question is going to be whether or not I am going to want to stay so loose. I enjoy having structure and some intensity to my day...not to mention that tucked somewhere in the back of my head is the need to get more speed on my run. I have about four months before I need to buckle down again for next season, so maybe closer to Christmas, when running outside really blows, I can get on that.

Before I forget

I need to write about TriHawk!

What a weekend that was. FIT represented big time with nearly 30 racers showing up to Coralville lake in Iowa. Most of us trucked it out there in a 3 car/church van caravan on Saturday afternoon. The four hours went by pretty quickly with all the company. We grabbed our packets, some dinner, and a bit of hatred for the swarms of hawkeye fans who were pouring from a train into the mall as we arrived. Things went smoothly, and we checked into our hotel to prep for the race. Unfortunately, Morgan, Todd and I had to wait up for our bikes, which came with one of our community members at midnight.

Race morning, we pulled up at about 6:30 for the 9:00 race, so we had more than enough time to get situated. We scoped out the start of the course, and were astonished that it started up a big ol' hill! And to top it off, the decent from the hill was into a spill way. It was the first time that I've felt like I was riding cyclocross in a race, I fishtailed through the loose gravel at the bottom.

After a brief run, we got into our swim gear (first time without my wet suit since I bought it!!) and took a warm up swim. I had convinced Morgan to line up at the front with me, so we settled into our spots.
"Hey dude, you know we're on the front, inside right? Isn't....like...everyone coming here?!" He was right. Before I had a chance to figure out what happened, I heard the "GO" over the loudspeaker and we were off. Five seconds later my left goggle did the same. I swam with just my right eye for a bit, and was out of the intense chaos within about 100 yards, but I kept trying to fix my goggle. In retrospect, it worked fine, and I never did reseal it. I could have saved an awful lot of time if I had left it alone: Moral of the story...over 9 minute 500...bummer!

I trotted up the beach and into transition. For the first time leaving without socks, I was able to clear transition one in under a minute for the first time. I took the first hill without my feet strapped in tight, and was able to rest a second at the top while I got situated. The bike ended up being the hilliest I have ever ridden. Iowa surprised me! There was never a time where I could get into a rhythm in my aeros. I was happy with a 21.9 average, sadly.

The run started pretty poorly. Again I was able to clear T2 in under a minute, and I shuffled up next to Todd for the first hill. A few kids stationed themselves at the top, and I gave em a big high five. That little bit of motivation got me moving. The run ended up going great, with about a mile and a half on the road, a half mile through a wickedly steep stretch of trail, and the rest back. All the guys were giving battle cries, so the run just flew by!

Overall, Iowa surprised me. The course was grueling and intense, but I felt good after the fact. I ended up 10th overall, and 4th collegiate (Robert took home 2nd!).

Bahaha!

I don't even know why I keep on this!! I haven't updated in well over a month...

Well the new club season is crankin' away. We've had a few team practices and rides and all of that, and turnout is ridiculous! There are actually people at the running workouts! It's been insane. The positive side effect is that I've had some awesome times training lately. The Friday before last was my first legit speed workout since regionals, and having sooooo many people at the track made it easy to push through it. The swims are a ton more fun with people to go with, and we've even got a cross country run in. I've also been meeting up with a few of the guys from the team to put down some good rides and bricks. I feel like I haven't had a ride lately that spanked me, but just going out and having fun makes me enjoy it more.

I have tri hawk(most likely the last race of the season) coming up in two weeks from today. It's a sprint, so we'll have to see how it goes. I have had a few things i need to work on before then: Primarily my eating...which is too much all the time. Besides that, I need to start getting geared up for hard workouts. I haven't had the desire to really throw down lately, and I need to work on that. I think that once things start getting as busy as they are now, the thought of pushing myself to exhaustion is not a good one.

Okay then, I'm off for a long run!

It's been a while...

I always forget that I have this thing sitting around!

Well since that last post a ton has happened. I started my summer anatomy class, as well as work. The two of those have consumed almost ALL of my time. I came to realize that the first few weeks of summer gave me all the time I wanted to train. Since I have gotten a real schedule, training has become far more difficult, but I've managed to get it in.

I also raced our regional championship race: Evergreen Lake International, in Hudson Illinois. It was a unique race if there ever was one. I managed to keep my nerves down pre race, which was definitely a plus compared to Delevan. Going in, I knew the run would be pretty lame, so I just didn't worry about it. I had practiced my bike mounts, and had figured out how to race in my favorite shoes. Most importantly, my swims had been rockin', and so I figured the race would go well. Unfortunately, I had neglected my sighting practice. The swim hurt, and felt like it took forever! (Although it was significantly faster than Lubbock). I was stoked to get on the bike, and after a bit of a shakey transition I was off.

In another (possibly) unfortunate turn of events my computer was not working, so I found I zoned out of how fast or slow I was going most of the time. Instead I just rode, and about 10 miles in I started feeling pretty good. The course had 2 decent hills going each direction, and was otherwise flat, which was a treat compared to my previous two races.

The transition into run went poorly. I had a rough time calming down to get my shoes on and tight. I actually ran my bike completely passed by rack. I also ran almost all the way out of transition without my number belt! The run hurt, but I didn't get the brick wall feeling in my legs until nearly the end, so it could have been worse. At the end, I PRed by nearly 10 minutes (somewhere in the 2:16 range).

Since the race I've been training, though not as much. I'm tossing around the idea of doing the Naperville tri in august again, but it isn't cemented...