More about the title later… That’s just a marketing ploy to sucker you make you click the post.

The midweek status for me so far has been pretty good. Although I took Monday off from working out, I had a great 2-fer workout yesterday. Since Tuesdays are my “Terry Days”, I try to plan the errands that work more efficently without other people around. Typically this is a long list induced shopping spree, that requires “Touch and Go” shopping from place to place. No real dilly-dalling around looking at stuff.

Also, I try to include some running. I just remembered, IT’S RACE WEEK! AH! I have a 5k race on Saturday. Okay… more on that in a post that doesn’t include Mountains or Hooters… or any other euphemisms to female anatomy.

So, walking to the Aquatic Center, I was trying to decide how far I wanted to run. My schedule made it possible to run 5 miles at lunch and then not run after work. Or I could run 4 miles and maybe run 2-4 miles after work. The problem was that I was having a craaving for Chicken Wings and the local place that I wanted to go to was near my house. However, the Lowes/Home Depot I wanted to go to was on the other part of the town. So, I could run at 3rd Creek Greenway and then make my way back, but I wasn’t all that thrilled about running on the Greenway.

I decided that I was only going to run 4 miles, but I would do them Tempo(ish) so that if running in the afternoon fell through I wouldn’t be too sad. Also, I didn’t want to do a speed workout since I had the 5k later this week, I didn’t want to burn myself out or violate the 10% Rule (Thou Shalt Not Have Speed Mileage Be More Than 10% of Your Total Weekly Mileage)… of course, I am a “Regular Law Breaker” when it comes to that 10% Rule.

So, I did my Market Square Fab 4 Miler course in splits of 8:32, 8:33, 8:28 and 9:02 for a total time of 34:35 and I was pleased with that workout.

Once i was back at the office, I had an epiphany… or so I thought. Just turned out that I had to go to the bathroom… BUT while I was there, I thought… I should run in the National Park (i.e. Great Smoky Mountain National Park). Everybody loves Cade’s Cove, but I have never ran there. I was actually thinking of running a different trail. I really enjoy trail running, but I was a little skiddish of running on a trail, in the woods, in the park, my first time. But I was in luck. One of my coworkers hikes in the park about every week he is in town. So, I went to the free consultant on the Park and trails.

Just so happens that there are a few decent trails in the park right near the entrance I would be using. Also, since it was in the middle of the week, there should be little traffic (car and foot). So I had a place to run and then the plan fell into place. I would drive to the mountains (about an hour), run, then after that I would drive to Maryville because I could get Mulch at the Lowe’s and it wouldn’t be too inconvenient and what’s in the same shopping center as Lowe’s? Hooters. Chicken Wings and Beer.

It was about an hour drive to were I parked to run. Partly because you can’t go 70 in most places… either the cops will get you or you’ll fly off one of the curves. I decided to run on a unmaintained road. I didn’t want to run on the trails yet, but I wanted to be out in nature. The road that I was on was an old railroad bed, so it was pretty wide, flat and had an incline of 3-4% or so. It also followed the Middle Prong Little River and with the water levels up, it was loud and beautiful. I didn’t see any bear, but I had my Road ID on, just in case I became Bear Chow.

The road that I was traveling was a 3 mile one-way run. 3 miles uphill and 3 miles down hill. At some points, I thought I would turn around early, but I actually went all the way. Turned around and made it back. If When I run Boston, I will run this road or others in the park as a training for the initial downhill section of the Boston Marathon course.

Split times: 30:48 and 24:43 for a total of 55:21

No that’s not a misprint. Some how, I was able to crank up my speed, thanks to gravity and the fact that you use some different muscles on downhill running, I was able to keep up my speed the entire way down. So, I ended up running 10 miles (for the day) in 1:29:56 (although this number is useless for predictions).

But with all that running, I was hungry and wanted to get some food. I had decided that I would eat some gluten by eating the wings plus the beer…. but I forgot that you can get naked at Hooters. Okay, the person getting naked at Hooters will end up having one arrested. You can get your wings “naked” (i.e. no breading). So, that was the gluten source that I was most worried about. My reaction to gluten (now that I have been off of it) is less pronounced with beer (which is nice), so coupled with the fact that I busted my ass on the running, I figured that the beer would a nice way to get some calories back.

So, I sat at the bar, watching ESPN (under closed captioning) and had 20 Naked 911 Wings +2 Yuengling Drafts. You know what, the wings were GOOD. The sauce was actually spicy hot, the wings were a decent size. It hit the spot.  Now, sitting at the bar watching ESPN makes it a little obvious when you are turning around trying to absorb the atmosphere, but it does lend credence to see what the fry-cooks are doing, especially when it comes to your food. All I can say is that fry-cooks were some weird looking dudes. I don’t know if the management just hires these dudes to avoid employee relationships or what. But despite their appearance, they fried up some mean wings.

But in the presentation of the check, I was hit by some marketing ploy… would I support the Hooter’s Breast Cancer Fundraising Campaign. A restaurant that is named after slang for women’s breast, known for marketing their waitress’ breasts so that Men (and some women) will frequent their restaurant to see said breasts is campaigning for the fight against breast cancer. Oh yeah, that’s marketing that I can’t decline… sign me up! I’m blogging about this! Actually, you get to write your name on one of the little cards (that very few people read), So I put my name and a plug for my website.

I did make it to Lowe’s and got back home without a problem and not too much later than I normally would. Next time I go to the mountains, I am going to run on one of the trails, but I doubt that I will frequent Hooters in the near future. It’s a nice place to go for wings, but if you are like me and the guy next to me at the bar. It’s a little creepy when you are there sitting by yourself watching the fry-cooks when you aren’t straining your neck to see the TV.

Anyway, here’s a picture of me from my run… and I have more pictures (and videos) to post soon.

[ed. Response to my "It Would Take a Miracle" post]

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THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL

April 26, 2008

Noble: The donors to St. Joseph’s Catholic school in Petersburg, Va., for saving their school with tremendous fund-raising.

On April 3, Bishop Francis Xavier DiLorenzo of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond announced that the town’s single private, parochial school had less than one month to raise $1 million to save it from closing. St. Joseph’s had been struggling due to underenrollment and high costs. Facing a $500,000 deficit, the bishop set a lofty goal of pulling the school out of debt and paying for improvements to the school and teacher contracts.

Earlier this week, in an effort many are calling miraculous, St. Joseph’s parish leaders announced the school would remain open. In less than three weeks, the community raised more than $900,000 with additional pledges trickling in. It’s clear that the school has earned this astounding success.

For rallying to keep their beloved school open, the donors to St. Joseph’s are the Nobles of the Week.

It’s Friday and I am rather a little, eh, bored. I have stuff that I need to do, but I don’t have a whole lot of motivation to do them.

I’m still waiting for the “official” results from the Ribbon Run from this past Saturday. Which reminds me that I need to send in the check that I earned on World Autism Day. Maybe, I’ll hold out until I get my results!

My legs were a little tired today, that plus having to hang out at the office… I didn’t work out today. I did swim 1000 meters yesterday as I begin to ramp up to the 1600 meter (~1 mile) mark. Actually yesterday, I was able to swim 400 meters before taking a break even incorporating some ugly looking flip turns.

Saturday should be rather packed. IN the morning we are going to try to meet up with one of our friends who happens to work for one of the banks that we use. Not only do we get to sign some papers, we’ll get the boys together to play. Hopefully we can meet up at the Zoo.

But before the Zoo… we are going to participate in the MS Walk that is here in Knoxville tomorrow. We didn’t raise any money for the walk, but we’ll be out there supporting the Mother of a friend who has MS. Most of you already know that my biological dad had MS and on my birthday, I donate a sum of money equal to his age… or rather how old he would have been since he passed away April 2006. Since 2006, I have been earing a red bracelet that says “Hope” along with my “Pray for Elijah” band. These come off very rarely… I’m either in a Tuxedo or Naked getting a double massage… else they are worn.

I think if I ever did a fund raiser, it would be for MS 150 which is the bike ride. Here in Knoxville you ride down to Chattanooga and back over 2 days. I had wanted to do this in 2006, but I didn’t make it. I might pencil this in for 2010 or 2011, although I don’t plan that far out. I’d do that AFTER I did the Olympic Distance triathlon which will either be this year or in 2009.

IN the afternoon, My Lovely and Talented Wife will be having an appointment and according to Famundo [our yet to be nicknamed] Au Pair will be having the kids, so what does that leave a guy to do? I’m thinking that I should go take the dog out for a trail run, followed by some gardening, then wash the dog, get dinner ready for me and My Lovely and Talented Wife… at least that’s the tentative plan right now. The one constant thing at our household is that Volatility of Plans is high and they may changed immediately if not sooner.

As for Sunday, I think that has yet to be penciled in at this point. I’m sure there will be Church Going and House Cleaning at some point in time.

Well, I confirmed that Lexapro causes mysterious weight gain in people even though the medication itself is supposed to be weight neutral. Knowing what I know about Statistics… they may have orchestrated it, but without seeing their analysis it’s just a hunch.

Anyway, I found a message board where a bunch of people were complaining about gaining anywhere from 20-40 lbs using this drug. I actually found some quite humorous because they were “told by their doctor” that it wouldn’t cause weight gain. Uh, when it comes to medications, I don’t really trust ANY doctor to know ALL the side effects. Sure we know that a 4 hour erection with  Levitra/Viagra/Cialis is dangerous because it’s shown about every 2 minutes on sports related television stations. I would think that a Pharmaceutical Rep would know more about the specifics of the drug than the doctor. Not bashing doctors, but they should have a working knowledge of the drug, but I don’t expect them to know everything about every drug… there’s a ton out there. And there’s the Intertube for information… anyone heard of The GOOG?

So, I went to the all knowing Intertube to figure out what was up with that. I was pleased to know that this drug did wonders for some people (as it has for me) but they couldn’t stand the weight gain and changed drugs. Yeah… to another depression/anxiety drug that didn’t cause weight gain. *crickets chirping*

so, I know that in my Thermodynamic Diet, the medication is going to work against me. Perhaps I should take up some Crystal Meth for some weight loss. Nah, I’ll go Old Skool with some Speed. Actually, I am going to go a little different and pump up my workout schedule and race schedule. I’m not really going to increase my running (as that would lead to injury) but I am DEFINITELY going to get into marathon training. I DEFINITELY going to do some more multi sport activity. AND, I am DEFINITELY going to go to the Spa more often.

Wah? Go to the Spa? Sure! This past Monday, My Lovely and Talented Wife went to the spa for Date Night. Now, ladies, before you get all ooie-gooie over the fact that I took My Lovely and Talented Wife for a Double Massage… I had help from my Mom. Yeah, I’m not that much of a forward Date Thinker to do that all by myself. Of course, now that “Double Massage” is in my memory banks, it’s a NOUN in my Mab Lib Life. PLus, the fact that I get to be naked (technically covered with a sheet) with THREE other women in the room getting rubbed down by someone other than My Lovely and Talented Wife…  uhhhh…errrr….yeah. Be hard to forget that one.

Where the hell was I? Oh yeah. Weight.

So my Initial Reading on the Weight Scale of DOOOOM was 175.6. My goal should be somewhere around 165-167. Apparently, even working out 5-7 days a week with a 1800 calories diet didn’t help one person (which is freaky) on the med. So I need to make sure that I eat smarter… or rather strategically. I going to to workout more to lose weight, but in the process my body is going to demand more calories which won’t go away as fast because of the meds, which will make me workout even more which will… Dizzy Yet?

First thing I need to do is limit the amount of candy bars I eat. Yeah, that’s a no brainer there. I also need to portion control better than I have been and make better decisions when eating out. I’ll also need to move into Grazer mode rather than Feast and Snack mode.

Hmmm… another 25 would put me in the Clydesdale category for races.

No, this isn’t a reference to the running movie Run, Fat Boy, Run. No, this is reference to yours truly. And technically, I know that I am not “Fat” but according to the National Institute of Health, I am officially overweight. I know this because my Doctor called me and told me.

He also told me that my cholesterol was back up and that I needed to Eat Better and Lose Some Weight.

Yay.

Tomorrow… or actually, probably this morning for my regular readers. I will get my morning sans clothing weight and that will be my baseline for my weight loss. [ed. I did get this and it will be in a subsequent post]

I think Stacie is right in the fact that the meds are a culprit of the weight gain. I do need to research to see how much of the weight gain is a result of the medication or if it is making me hungry and thus I grab that extra Snickers bar and get some extra Fat grams there.

As a scientist (I have a piece of paper that kinda suggest I know something of the sciences), I beleive that all diets can be broken down to one thing: Thermodynamics. Just like everything moving in the natural world (paranormal probably acts differently) can be broken down to Vectors, dieting is nothing more than Thermodynamics. Lost? Let me translate: Count Calories.

Food is nothing more than energy. This energy is represented by calories. Some have high calories some have low calories. Calories are calories… but some material mass in food has different amount of calories. Fat has 9 calories, Protein 4, Carbs 9 calories. So, I need to see how many calories I am taking each day and making sure that 1) I am getting enough for my lifestyle and that 2) I’m not going over board on excessive calories. As much as Hallie would argue, you can’t live on a Vitamin pill and Diet Coke alone.

Now, as an athlete, I do have a little advantage here. On days that I have a rigorous exercise, I can eat a few more calories and I can be less picky from the source of the calories. If I get my metabolism furnance hot enough, I can burn it off, to some extent.

Back in 2003, when The Elder was born, I had gained a few pounds and had my sympathy maternity weight and I was pushing about the same size that I am now around 172-178. For about 6 weeks that fall, I did this crazy diet. I made it all the way to 159 and I felt like crap. I couldn’t run fast, but I was thin… I’ll have to break out my times and see how it did affect me. I think an ideal weight for me is about 163-165… I would still be “Overweight” according to “The Government” but I know that is more of a function of my muscles more than fat.

I think now, I am definitely going to participate in some extra races this spring to help with burning the calories. Plus, I’ll switch to some more Salads because they are Gluten Free and Casein Free if you order them right.

This is a story about the school that I attended from 1st to 7th Grade. My Stepdad is on the Finance committee.

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washingtonpost.com > Education > Virginia

PETERSBURG

Catholic School in Familiar Peril Hopes to Avoid Familiar Fate

By Anita Kumar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 20, 2008; Page C07

PETERSBURG, Va. — For 132 years, St. Joseph School has helped provide a foundation for this small southern city rich in history but besieged by crime, poverty and economic misfortune.

But now, as with many Catholic schools across the nation, St. Joseph’s future is in doubt.

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond has given the school until Monday to raise $1 million or its doors will shut, imperiling students and teachers, as well as a city on the brink of rejuvenation.

“What happens to Petersburg may depend on what happens to St. Joseph,” Principal Ruth Bonner said.

Parents and other residents, many sporting “Save Our School” T-shirts, are raising money through cookie sales, a vacation raffle and pleas to friends, alumni, even strangers.

If the money is not collected by Monday — a deadline chosen to give the 149 students and 28 employees enough time to find another school — St. Joseph will close June 6, at the end of the academic year. A meeting to determine the school’s fate is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.

So far, more than $750,000 has been raised for St. Joseph, considered one of the only alternatives to the city’s failing public schools. “We’re so grateful, absolutely grateful for the outpouring,” said Annette Z. Parsons, chief school administrator of the diocese. “We hope people will respond to the challenge.”

St. Joseph’s plight mirrors that of other Catholic schools across the nation.

Financially strapped schools suffering from an economic downturn and declining enrollment have been closing at increasingly high rates — a topic Catholic school officials, including Parsons, discussed with Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the District in the past week.

President Bush said Friday at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast that he will host a meeting at the White House this week to find ways to keep Catholic schools open. A recent report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute estimates that more than 1,300 Catholic schools, most in big cities, have closed since 1990. More than 300,000 students, many of them minorities from poor areas, were left searching for new schools, with taxpayers footing the $20 billion bill for those who transferred to public school.

Enrollment in U.S. Catholic schools peaked in the early 1960s with 5.2 million students. That number has fallen to about 2.3 million. In the District, the Catholic Church plans to give up operating seven of its schools.

But unlike most of the other schools, St. Joseph was not closed outright. It has been given a chance.

Two weeks ago, the diocese told school officials that St. Joseph could remain open if they raised $1 million. The money would be used to reduce debt and to renovate the building. Donations have ranged from $25 to $50,000. Two students raised $400 by circulating a jar at an arts festival downtown. Others students have donated their savings. Several in-kind donations have been made for the building repairs.

Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, who attended Catholic school in Northern Virginia, visited St. Joseph in the past week, contributing $1,000 and bringing news that his former classmate, Dominion Power executive Thomas F. Farrell, had pledged $20,000. McDonnell described St. Joseph as “the lifeblood of Petersburg for 130 years” and sent an e-mail to 10,000 supporters asking for donations.

“As Petersburg begins to rebound from the setbacks of years past, it would be devastating for the community to lose St. Joseph School,” he wrote.

St. Joseph School has been a fixture in downtown Petersburg since it was founded in 1876. It was the first Catholic school to be certified by the Virginia Board of Education, and the only one in a city where most public schools lack accreditation. Today, the brick building is adorned with a huge yellow banner that reads “Please Save Our School.”

Parents describe St. Joseph as a welcome alternative to expensive, exclusive private schools and failing, dangerous public schools. Tuition ranges from $3,000 to $5,000 a year, though the actual cost of educating the students is $7,000 per pupil.

Teacher Beth Knight, whose son, Christian, attends first grade, said other area schools are not an option. “It’s vital for us to be here,” she said. “It’s a safe haven.”

Francis Stevens, with a son attending the school now and a daughter who hopes to do the same next year, has talked with his wife about moving if St. Joseph closes. “If we lose St. Joseph, you’re not going to get the families you need in Petersburg,” he said.

St. Joseph enrolls 149 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade; more than half are minorities, and only 20 percent are Catholic. “I like it because it’s nice and it’s 130 years old and it’s very cool,” said Joshua Coover, 7, a first-grader who helped collect donations. “I like it because my friends are here.”

Petersburg, 25 miles south of Richmond, has approximately 35,000 residents, about 80 percent of them African American. It is best known as the site of a Civil War battle, depicted in the 2003 movie “Cold Mountain.” Crime and poverty have taken a toll, but for the first time in decades, Petersburg is seeing signs of redevelopment.

New houses are in the works, a revamped golf course is about to open and the downtown is attracting more visitors. The expansion of nearby Fort Lee and the opening of a Rolls-Royce aircraft engine plant in a neighboring county are expected to help.

But city leaders and residents fear that families will leave Petersburg if the schooling falls short. “This area needs this school,” said Ken Pritchett, a member of the Petersburg City Council who grew up near the school. “For the first time in probably 50 years, you see the activity that’s going to bring Petersburg back to the good old days.”

Congratulations to I Run For My Life: Susan from Arkansas, she was the Winner-Winner from the weekend.

She had the winning guess for my Ribbon Run 5k on Saturday and then was a mere 3 seconds off from my Trideltathon time.

Susan wins the Official Planet3rry Sticky Pad as well as a special prize (yet to be determined) for winning both.

I had thought for sure that I would have beaten the guesses this weekend… but no such luck. Next Guess My Time contest will be for the Run for the Deaf 5k to be run on May 3rd.

The past two weeks have been up and down for me. I’ve been stressed out for a number of reasons, none of which were any huge things, just lots of medium sized stuff that made things tough.

Taxes - We are still waiting to get our taxes done. Waiting for that K1 from the In-Law Parents. Obviliously an extension has been filed on our behalf, but for someone who likes to have everything done when it’s supposed to be done (read: Rule Boy). It’s very stressful to be at the mercy of someone else to get my stuff done. So, that’s passed.

Financial advisers - My Lovely and Talented Wife’s networking group has a financial planner who we started working with and seeing what could be done. We have family support and it really makes sense to have someone help guide you for the future. It’s even better when they are objective (i.e. not a family member or close friend) because if you don’t agree with the advice, there’s no hard feelings. Life is pretty strange. We have to get all kinds of certificates to prove that we are educated, able to drive a car, fly a plane, perform CPR. However, there is no required education to 1) Be a Parent or 2) Manage your Money. That’s so illogical, I want to throw up. At least with the Financial Advisers, getting the papers together wasn’t all that bad because I was already getting them for the taxes. I think I would enjoy being a financial adviser, because I like the Helping People part… but 1) I’d be so paranoid about giving the wrong advice and 2) I like to dress nice, but I don’t want to wear a suit everyday.

Trading - I’ve tried to update my New Trading blog, but that has been slow. Part of the reason is that I totally got hammered with April options. I basically lost 60% of my portfolio. Yeah, that’s Sixty… the big reason is that I didn’t have a plan for getting out of the trades if they went against me. I was Gunslinging. I should have only lost 12% but I wasn’t trading according to my plan and basically froze. So, I am in rebuilding mode…

Gardening - Gardening is not one of my Aspergian Special Interests, but it’s something that I enjoy. I am in the process of making a small garden in my Side Yard. I’ll get pictures. I did start some starter seeds of Pumpkin, Squash, Zinnias, Sunflowers. I’ve lost almost all of them because I wasn’t ready… So, I rescued what I could and started some new seeds. We’ll see if my thumb is green, I might have to get the green sharpie out.

Running - I had really hoped to have placed at the Ribbon Run. I thought for sure that I would have gotten a low 23 time. But it wasn’t the case. Actually, if you breakdown my Trideltathon time, it’s a 23:27 5k equivalent time. So, after running 3.1 miles the day before, swimming 400 meters, riding 6 miles, THEN I run the pace I wanted to… go figure. The plan now will be an attempt at a 5k PR time at the Run for the Deaf on May 3rd, if I don’t get the 5k time, then I will work towards a 10k PR time at the Expo 10k at the end of May.

Doctors - In the past 10 days, I’ve seen my Brain Doc and my Body Doc. My Body Doc is doing my 6 month cholesterol check up (I’m borderline high in the low 200s) and he made a comment about my weight. Yeah, I know… you’re so skinny… or something to that affect. Well, in November last year I was around 162. I’m now around 175ish. I know I posted a blog in relatively recent past about my weight. I’ll be interested to see what he says about my Cholesterol, but for now, I need to start thinking about managing my weight.

My brain doctor and I agreed that I should increase my anxiety med a little, mainly because with everything that has been going on, plus the summer will be less predictable. It’s my plan that when The Elder gets back to school, I can go back to the lower dose… maybe even sooner.

Charity - I am in the process of creating a new charity. I’ve bought the domain and am working with my Web Genius to get the website up and running. I’ll see with the Financial Advisers about getting it classified as a legit 501(c)3 organization so that you can write off donations as tax deductions. I’ve wanted to create something like this for a while now and now all the pieces fell into place.

Palm - My Palm T|X touchscreen has been going crazy. Out of the few “coverall” insurance add on scams plan that I have purchased. This one might come in handy.

The second of two races on the weekend of April 19/20th 2008 was the Trideltathon, a sprint triathlon. The Delta Delta Delta sorority hosts the Trideltahon as a fund raiser for their local charity: East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. It’s a Sprint (meaning less than Olympic Distance) Triathlon that is held on the campus of Univesity of Tennessee. It consists of a 400m pool swim, 6 mile bike and 3 mile run. It usually draws a couple hundred participants and this year was no different.

This race was special to me because it fell on the 2nd Anniversary of my biological Dad’s death. I had to fore go the Trideltathon that year but was granted a pass to participate in another series event at a lower cost.

In the past, the swim had been in the indoor pool, but I think because instead of having around 200 participants, they were nearing 400, they moved the swim to the outdoor pool. There is nothing wrong with the outdoor pool except that it was only in the upper 50s while we were waiting. The pool swim is set up basedon anticipated swim times. The faster you are, the sooner you go. Since i had wrote down a 8:50 swim time, I was  in the back of the pack. I think i stood outside for about 20 minutes in nothing but my speedo… Oi!

If you read my Ribbon Run 5k Race Report, I had a little bit of equipment malfunction. Today was no different. My swimcap, as i was getting ready to put it on my head, split into two. Oh, well… I just hoped that my long(ish) locks of hair wouldn’t get in the way. I don’t think that speed gained by wearing a swim cap would be all that much for an amateur like me.

I was pretty chilled as I was ‘released’ to get into the pool, but the UT outdoor pool is heated. Ahhh, it felt awesome and I took off.

The Swim

The plan for the swim was to be consistant. The nice thing about starting near the back is that the traffic isn’t too bad. I found a good rythym and stuck with it. By the 3rd (of lap I was finding that I was passing some of the other swimmers who may not have been as fast as they thought. There is a HUGE difference between lap swimming and swimming in a triathlon.

At lap 5, I came to a point where I had to make a decision. There were two swimmers in the lane as I started Lap 5. I had been very consistant at this point and I was in the zone. As I came up on the two swimmers, both were struggling. I could tell in the water that the swimmer on the left was switching strokes to find something that worked, the swimmer on the right seemed to be doing a slow freestyle. I made an In Situ Race strategy Decision and plowed in between them. I know I kicked one of them, not hard, but I still hit him. This was a race, and I was not going to let him get in my way.

On Lap 8, as I was coming to the steps, I knew that I was doing well. When I saw my watch, it said 6:50 and I was shocked that I was doing THAT well. Later, I checked my watch and there was a 2:00 lap on there that I must have hit.

Official Swim Time: 8:47

Transition 1

I didn’t try to sprint to my bike. I just kept at a light run so that when I got to my bike I could get my stuff on. I had a small towel to dry my feet (I hate wet socks) and get my socks and shoes on. I put on a longsleeved shirt that already had my race number. Put on my Bike Helmet and yellow glasses. While in the transition, you HAVE to walk your bike. So I had to walk my bike out an the mount my bike and take off.

The Bike

The bike course hadn’t changed since I had last done the race. It’s 6 miles out and back mostly on campus. What this means is that it’s 1 mile downhill, 4 miles rolling hills and then 1 mile uphill. Since I hadn’t been on a bike in a while, I was only trying to survive the bike. I had a stomach bug earlier in the week, so I wasn’t going to jump on a bike on Friday and then Ride again on Sunday. I figured that my biking muscles would still be sore, so I was going for the “Shock and OW” method of performance. I didn’t do terrible in the bike… and I never had to walk the bike up Lake Loudon Drive. I tried to hydrate some as I was on the bike. I did get passed a couple of times, but they were by people with real nice bikes. My bike is a 1986 bike that I am basically “eternally” borrowing. One day, I’ll get a new bike, but this one is good-enough.

Official Bike Time 26:31 (officially contains both Transitions)

Cumulative Time 35:18

Transition 2

Again, you have to dismount and walk your bike to your rack, rack your bike, ditch your helmet and take off. I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade that I think that I would just ditch when I was done. So I was off.

The Run

My race strategy here was about the same as the bike, survive. I knew the course pretty well and the back-side is pretty brutal. I like hills, and this one has some big ones. When you get off the bike and go to the run, your legs feel like Jello. You don’t feel like you are running very fast. Some of this is perception and some of this is true.

I was feeling pretty good running. As a runner, this is where you can pass people left and right. Most cyclists who can blow by you on the bike, suck at running. Thus you can make up some time and the longer the race, the greater the advantage. What’s also nice in triathlons is that the put your AGE on your calf. Strategy wise, this is awesome. It makes it so much easier to figure out who you need to worry about and who you don’t.

Given that I had ran the Ribbon Run the day before, I had depleted everything in my reserve. I only had enough juice for about a 20 yard kick at the end. And I finished tired but very very pleased at my performance.

Official Run Time 22:40

Official Cumulative Time : 57:57

My personal goal was to finish in under 1 hour. I accomplished that and really had a decent showing. I think that I’ll be doing the sprint triathlon on Memorial Day and that I will do at least one longer triathlon, but I would love to do an Olympic Distance this year. I’m just not sure if I can get all the training in at this point. That’s not until June/July… so we’ll see.

Overall Place 151st out of 378

Age Group Place 11th out of 23