CafeChatNoir

Yeah, time to get back to reality. Finished off vacation time with a jaunt up to Adams Morgan with the Marine on Friday night - nothing quite like charging headlong back into the DC scene. He’s probably going to be deployed here soon, so no way I would pass it up.

DC drivers didn’t improve while I was gone, either.

Tons to get done this week. Gotta get back on the training wagon in a big way, get the painting scheduled on the townhouse, and a slew of other annoying miscellany that I didn’t miss one bit down at the beach.

On a completely unrelated note, I think I’d like Grey’s Anatomy more if they threw Meredith Grey out a window.

It’s a good thing I have Columbia ahead, cause I think otherwise, I would be constantly doing the what if. Which is bad. Captantony near bit it on the swim and is now rethinking the sport. :( I feel so bad for him.

DNF on the swim!! And I’m not the slightest bit upset about it. (Perhaps a testament to how NOT hard core I am, LOL.) And I rode the bike course anyway.

Screwy day. Water was 79 degrees, fully wetsuit legal w/a USAT amendment due to the jellyfish… Pre-race meeting scheduled for 6:40 - planned on warming up in the water from 6:30-6:40. Wrestle into my wetsuit and get ready to head for the water and they’re now saying the meeting will be at 6:30 and are telling people to get out of the water for it. And we stand around and wait, and wait and wait, then find out the delay is because there had been an accident out on the bike course and the sheriff’s dept was getting it cleaned up. Finally the first wave goes off (men 39 & under) and we watch and try to figure out what on earth is going on since they’re all inside the buoys. Can you say strong current? Next wave goes off, with a little bit more success as they angle themselves more to the left. The women head out and we’re near going straight left trying to compensate. Went out very slow, no OWS freakout but also keeping my head above water simply because I need to keep track of where I am after watching the first two waves end up all over creation. Past first bouy, getting on to the second and all forward motion pretty much ceased. (Apparently this was where the current was kicking in, or I suck even worse than I ever thought) I am expending WAY too much energy to get NOWHERE. But, absolutely no panic whatsoever. I’m looking at where I am, and where I need to be to make the turn and there is no way it’s gonna happen, not with the water seriously not cooperating with me. So, I realize I can snag a kayak now and get in a boat under my own power, or try to continue on, get in real trouble and get pulled out by the back of my wetsuit. Discretion being the better part of valor, I went for option A.

The guys on the boat were super nice, kept asking if I was OK, I was more worried they were going to ground the boat getting me to the beach. Handed off my chip to someone and they said they were so sorry, I just said “No worries, I’ll kick it next year” which I guess isn’t a normal response cause I got some very surprised looks. Got out of my wetsuit and dried off a bit and went back down to watch the rest of the swimmers come in and that confirmed I made the right call - they were hurting bad coming out of the water. Folks were so off course trying to come back in because of the current - one of the race officials said he was sure folks did a minimum of 1200-1400M with the current. One other gal came in on one of the boats, and she was in tears - I felt so awful for her, and hugged her and told her it was OK. She said she was going to bike and run anyway, which for some reason sounded like a great idea to me, too. So, off we go to the bikes. This may have been in violation of several rules, but the bike course was open to traffic with no aid stations, so it’t not like they can tell some random person on a bike they can’t be on the road.

I have mixed feelings about the bike course. Technically, loved it - the hills weren’t nearly as bad as they seemed when I drove them last night, it was a very straightforward out and back with 2 turns and the turnaround. (However, one turn was 90 degrees at the bottom of a hill.) From a safety standpoint, it sucked in my eyes. Course was totally open to traffic, just some police & volunteers at the intersections. Fortunately, the traffic wasn’t heavy. The 90 degree turn had an oil slick on it. The “shoulders” were gravel & grass, so if you had to go over the white line, good chance you would wipe out cause you only had another 6 inches of pavement. 5 cars intentionally came as close to me as they could, including one pickup truck deciding to honk as he got right by me, despite my being near on top of the white line and there being NO oncoming traffic. On the way back in I saw the last rider on the way out w/the sweep behind her. The two cars behind it decided they wanted to pass, and came over into my lane. No crash, but WAY too close. I discovered I do have nerves of steel sometimes, as on all 6 occasions I managed to ride as straight and perfectly as I have in my life.

The last left turn to get back to the race site was no longer manned as I approached it - no biggie for me, I’m not racing anymore, but there are still folks behind me! I turned left a block early and just went through the neighborhood to get back over to the site. I decided to bag running since I figured I’d already tired out my guardian angel between the swim and the bike route, and 6 more miles of being a slow moving target might not be the best idea. (Full traffic on the run route, too.)

So, what could have been a really craptastic day was actually really good and I made two goals - happy (even without the finish) and under 2 hours on the bike. No OWS panic and some really good calm, clearheaded decision making.

Don’t know if I’d attempt it again next year, obviously there is always the revenge factor, but nearly getting creamed 6 times on the bike doesn’t have a lot of appeal.

OK, so I think I am good to go for Sunday. Just a matter of getting the bags & bike in/on the car in the morning and taking off.

Thinking internet access is unlikely as the only free wifi spot I have been able to locate is the local library, so, probably no posting til Monday unless they’re voice posts.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy 4th Everyone!! Don’t blow off any fingers.

Kicked off my day with a 5K over in Potomac - not a bad way to start off the day.

Now it’s time for FOOD.

If you just leave OLN on television all day long, you can come and go all day and eventually you will see the entire TdF stage for the day, as they seem to be replaying it at least 3 or 4 times.

Really enjoying it this year - definitely interesting with all the usual suspects out of the tour.

Today I went and did a brick (bike/run combo) and capped off a very, very good month of training. Things are getting easier (while I won’t say they are easy, just easier), which is really nice. There is a lot to be said to look at a training day that says “1000 meter swim” or “20 mile bike ride” and think “Yep, totally doable.”

Covered over 130 miles this month. :)

MCM distance runs start this weekend. 194 weekend miles between now & October 22. (Plus the shorter weekday running & cross training.)

I feel like I’m in a really good place with all this. Not necessarily faster, but a lot more endurance. Life is good.

Little bro is out of town until next week at a wedding up in NYC. (It’s sad how many places I have written down “Pick Up Donald” for next Wednesday, cause I know I’ll forget.) He only left yesterday, and yet today I found myself completely at loose ends without him “around”. It’s not like we’re joined at the hip or anything like that - we meet up for dinner & beers maybe once every week or so. But I kept finding myself checking to see if he was on IM, or getting ready to send him an email about some stupid thing or another in the news and realizing that the bugger was out of town and NOT going to be online. Damn, if he ever moves out of the area, it’s gonna be weird to be sure. (Somehow I see myself offering to pay for his internet connection…)

Stopped in at the pub this evening for a nightcap - just feeling restless and wanted to get out of the house - caught up with the newest manager-type-dude at GD’s (Dan, but not ), to whom I owe an extraction at some point. He rescued me a couple weeks back when I had the weirdo du jour next to me that I just couldn’t politely escape. It was a exceptionally nice weirdo that just well, was just a weirdo that you don’t necessarily want to be stuck next to - I managed to snag one of the gals I know when he went to the men’s room and told her, “I NEED HELP!” and she sent Dan over. “How’s your boyfriend?” is the current running joke w/my bartender. Dan has a somewhat loopy chick hot on his heels, so I think I’ll be able to repay the favor at some point soon.

Be interesting to see how long it takes me to get used to little bro being out of town…

So, we’re getting bits & pieces of Mike’s IMCdA experience from his girlfriend (I think he’s still in a post race coma.)

The water temp is 60 degrees, and the swim is 2.4 miles long. This is not the time to have a wardrobe malfunction in the form of a busted zipper on your wetsuit, (2 minutes before the swim start) and yet, that is exactly what happened. So, what do you do? You’ve trained for god knows how long, dropped a decent wad of cash on the registration, you’re not injured, dropping out just ain’t in the cards if you can avoid it. You really can’t go without the wetsuit, and swimming w/it unzipped just defeats the purpose.

The answer?

Packing Tape.

I saw pics of it - looked pretty good to me. I wonder if duct tape would have worked as well? Something else to toss in the transition bag, just in case…

Cause I’m in for Colonial Beach on 7/9. 1K OWS in the Potomac, 40K on the bike and a 10K run. Managed to find a room less than 2 miles from the race site this morning so I made my reservations and registered. I will have my Oly done before the beach!

Someone who did the race last year says it’s a good course - longest leg of the swim goes with the current, not too many hills on the bike and the run is flat. Works for me.

Did a 2 mile run today. Well, mostly running. It’s 75 degrees with 95% humidity, so I didn’t push it hard and stuck tight to my run/walk pacing, and I am not dead for it. :) Halfway through I passed a woman hosing out her trashcan in her driveway (No, I don’t know why she couldn’t just leave it out in the rain…) and she apologized for the water running down her driveway and the ensuing puddle. Pointed out to her that I didn’t think I could get any wetter anyway. Rain thankfully kicked in about the last half mile and the thunder held off until I was back in the house.

Dog just came in, shook himself off - right next to the cat. I don’t think I’ve seen Snoopy look quite so offended in a long time.

OK, so there is Colonial Beach… To go or not to go? I’d have to get a room, the host hotel is already sold out, the nearest is Doc’s Motor Court, so I think I’ll call tomorrow and see if they have any openings - I’d prefer not to be too terribly far away if at all possible, since I can’t tell from the website what the parking situation is like.

If I can get a room, I will do it. It’s only a 1000M swim, which would be much better for me I think. Ernie said he’d give me the lowdown on it since he ran it last year. I think I let the mental games get to me WAY too much for Montclair, sick or not.

Who knows, maybe I can find a swim angel. Or wouldn’t it be a freaking hoot if I was someone else’s swim angel? :)

I need an Oly and I need it sooner rather than later - I don’t want Reston to be the first go at it.

I could still get my regular workouts in, drive down on Saturday morning which is a rest day anyway, and kick ass on Sunday. Even cutting out the taper, the workouts next week wouldn’t be too bad to screw me. Yeah, I think I’ve talked myself into it.
So much for, “You won’t get my ass into the Potomac River…”

88 year old great grandma loves triathlons

She entered her first triathlon in Beloit in 1993 at age 75, joining her son Bruce — who has competed in several triathlons himself — and her granddaughter in a three-generation team. Each one competed in one leg of the race.
…
She entered her first triathlon on her own in 1995. She’s done 10 more since.

Mike finished IMCdA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Couple folks think that the swim course ran long today at Montclair. I’m still amazed the whole thing didn’t get flooded out with all the rain we’ve gotten, but I’m happy they didn’t have to cancel it, especially since this was the first year for this one.

There is another Oly on 7/9 in Colonial Beach, still has a lot of slots open - that might become the makeup for today. Shorter swim (1K vs 1 mile) - so, something to think about for the next couple days.

Well, just because I am down for the count today doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a couple other races from a distance. Today is Ironman Coeur d’Alene, and Mike is there, as well as the Buffalo Springs 70.3 (half IM distance) and Bill is racing there. Both of these are part of the Ford Ironman Series, which means they have the athlete tracker on the respective race websites. Making it even easier is that Bill & Mike both have the same race numbers.

They’ve both gotten through the swims and are on the bikes! Bill should be coming in for the run any time now. The IMCdA swim had to have been brutal. 2.4 miles, which isn’t the problem in and of itself, especially if you’ve been training up for it - but the water temps were below 60. That is freaking COLD. And as always, there seems to be a few glitches, given that it is showing Mike out of the water, but no transition time. It will probably show up halfway through the bike leg… (They just finally added the T1 time, so he is for sure out on the bike course.)

Me, I’m heading back to bed. I don’t know what on earth I picked up, but the timing couldn’t have been worse. Haven’t heard back from any of the other folks I know that were racing to hear what the conditions were on the course. I am thinking messy to say the least. I’m disappointed, but I still have another Oly to take a swing at this season, so all is not lost, and there is always next year to give this one a go.

They just posted Bill’s bike split - he’s doing great! Just a half mary to go for him.

Ugh, no racing for me today. Sick as a dog.

Well, seeing as how I need to get up in about 4 hours, I should be getting to bed. Got the required “Oh shit, where is it?” hunt out of the way (couldn’t find my timing chip, it was 6 feet away from where I’ve been sitting all night.) Of course, that didn’t happen until 10:45.

There have been flash floods in PW county (where the race is) and with more rain to come overnight, it may be a challenge just getting there tomorrow morning. Should make for an interesting day if nothing else!

Hit packet pickup this afternoon and I do believe I am ready to go - transition bag is packed up, clothes are laid out for tomorrow, and all I need to do in the morning is get the bike on the car rack & fill the camelbak and water bottles. Drove the bike course, and I like it - some gradual rolling hills, but nothing super painful, and I think it’s going to run fast. (Well, if it’s dry.)

Right now, the only real question is the weather. Weatherunderground is calling for the following…
5AM - 70 degrees, 87% humidity, 90% chance of precipitation, Widespread Thunderstorms, Widespread Light Rain Showers
8AM - 72 degrees, 83% humidity, 90% chance of precipitation, Likely Thunderstorms , Likely Light Rain Showers

Race start is 7AM. If there is lightning, it will become a du and we’ll skip the swim. If it’s really, really bad, then the race will have to be cancelled, which would suck, but better than putting people out on an unsafe course. If we’re lucky, the storms will have run their course by 7.

Looking like the water temp will be under 78 - last reading they took was right at 78. The race directors really want it to be wetsuit legal, and understandably so - there are apparently a lot of first timers (both first tri & first Oly distance) and the wetsuits help SO much on the swim - they don’t want to have to be pulling people out of the water.

I’m going to have to be up gawdawful early, and I need to set some backup alarms, because with the storms coming through tonight (and starting right now), I wouldn’t be surprised if the power cut out again like it did the other night.

Transition opens at 5:30, need to be ready to race by 6:45ish - also there is swim warmup time between 6:20 and 6:35, and that would definitely be a good thing for me. Unfortunately, parking is 1.5 miles from the transition area, so that’s a good 15 minute walk there. (I might ride it, but trying to do that w/a full transition bag may be too unwieldy.) I figure I’m going to have to leave here somewhere around 4:30 - Google maps says it should be a 30 minute drive down there, but it took me closer to an hour today with the traffic…

So, I know two other folks that will be out at Lake Montclair this weekend - Ernie & Tim (daerath). Chippy, who was with us at Virginia Run, will be off at IMCDA cheering on her boyfriend, Stake. (These are the folks I ran with in my first race down at Quantico last fall.)

Chippy dropped a comment in Ernie’s blog: Take care of cindy — *we* all know that she is going to kick ass, but I think she is still a little unsure of that, so make sure she doesn’t freak out to much before the race

It’s good to have folks looking out for you.

OK, so today I got my butt down to Lake Anna for a while to do some open water swimming. Now, it’s been well over 20 years since I actually swam in something other than a pool (not counting floating about at the beach), and it was in the dead of night… Daytime is quite different! At night, your brain doesn’t expect to see anything above or under water and doesn’t care. Daytime? Your brain wants to see…

The water was too warm for a wetsuit - probably over 80, but that’s fine, I was actually comfortable. Now, Lake Anna is more of a boaters/fishers place, so the swimming area isn’t huge, but it’s nice - little beach, snack bar, guarded and cordoned off so you don’t have to worry about getting too far afield from shore. $6 entrance for parking & beach fee.

The swimming area is cordoned off into 3 areas - the “shallow” line runs to about 2 feet, then the next section goes to about 5 feet deep, then there is the “deeper than I am tall” section. I stayed in the middle section, cause I actually felt more comfortable around more people (the back section was totally empty), which surprised me, cause at the pool I want everyone as far away from me as possible.

Getting in the water, first there were little fish - small, maybe 4-5″ long, - very cute little things, bluegill I think. Those didn’t bother me, but the largemouth bass that then wandered by my feet damn near did me in. Once I got past the fish and into deeper waters where I couldn’t see my feet anymore, it was time to attempt swimming, and I had the required open water freakout. Once you go head down, all you can see is green (bright green at least), and my brain basically short circuited and went “OMGWTF, we could just see our feet 30 seconds ago!!” But it did get a little better, I found out I can actually sight (being able to bring your head up and look forward above water to check your location while still moving forward) and spent some time on alternate “head above water” strokes to remind myself I CAN do them if I have to, and flipping over and going along on my back whenever I felt strange.

I don’t feel bad about the open water freakout - pretty much everyone runs into it, I’m just glad I know what it feels like and I have a plan in place to deal with it on Sunday, and I am REALLY glad I made the time to go down there before the race. I made a nice afternoon of it - took lunch, chilled on the little beach and read and worked on my tan sunburn. (Actually I did remember my sunscreen, but I missed a couple spots on my back.) Figure if I do this once a week for the rest of the season, I might actually be semi-comfortable with OWS by the time Reston rolls around in September.

We got an email today w/ a reminder on the wetsuit rules - if the water temps are under 78, it’s totally wetsuit legal. 78-83 is legal, but you’re ineligible for awards. 84 and above - no wetsuits whatsoever. They’re going to be sending something out tomorrow w/the latest lake temps, which makes me think we may be heading towards non-wetsuit legal for the swim. The downside for me of non-wetsuit legal is the loss of the nice additional buoyancy & speed that comes w/a wetsuit. However, the upside is that I would actually not freeze my ass off in the water, and most folks seem to find warm water to be icky, but I find it absolutely lovely.

So, I’ll be VERY interested to see what the temps at Lake Montclair are - granted, it’s tiny compared to Lake Anna, but it’s also over an hour north and doesn’t have a nuclear reactor next door to it.

Interesting thing going into Lake Anna - there is a sign that says, “You are less than 10 miles from the North Anna nuclear facility. In case of an emergency…” and then you can’t read the rest of it, cause that’s the point where your car goes past it, cause the print is too small and it’s too wordy to read quickly - so I just figure the rest is “lean over and kiss your ass goodbye.”

Arm is right as rain today - all is well in my little world. Off to the lake to splash about and try and get used to no visibility…

Dammit, I was doing so well with staying relatively injury free this season. Yesterday, when I was out running, I caught my toe just perfectly on a seam in the sidewalk and went flying. At the time, I couldn’t find anything wrong beyond a couple little scrapes on my hands and my knee, so I got up, dusted myself off and continued. Well, upon waking up this morning, I discovered that I bashed the crap out of the outside of my right arm just below my shoulder. I’ve got full range of motion, and there are no internal grinding noises, so it’s basically just a good hard bruise, but damn it kinda hurts.

So, the debate today is do the workouts, but extra easy, or just give things a rest and pick back up on Wednesday w/the next scheduled workout. (Bike & swim today, both requiring that arm.) DAMMIT, I am pissed.

Edit: Hour ride on the trainer, requires no arms… Swim TBD.

Did a 5K here in Fairfax yesterday - pretty fun, if a little warm. Did it in 32:26, which is a 10:16 mile - not too bad at all. :) So, if you’re looking for a 5K to do next summer, check out the Tim Harmon 5K, starts & ends at the Gov’t Center in Fairfax. Free massages at the end, sodas along w/water at the finish (yeah, you know I went for a cold Coke), a nice area to run in and a band.

Next weekend is Lake Montclair. Mile lake swim, 24 miles on the bike and then a 10K run. If I can get through the swim, it’s all good. Gonna get down to the race site this week and scope things out - I’ve heard the bike section has a few hills on it and it would probably be good to know where those are ahead of time. Also heading down to Lake Anna for some open water swim practice this week - there’s probably closer places, but I don’t know where they are, and this is a guarded area, so it’s all good. Figure I’ll pack a lunch and make a day of it and work on my tan. :) Granted, I should have gotten in an OWS practice before now, but finding a swim legal guarded area has been a bit of a challenge. (The lake at the race site apparently requires a HOA pass.)

So, with the upcoming race, workouts are somewhat reduced this week, and then next week is recovery. WOOT. Then no races until 8/13 - I’m gonna get the DT’s. ;) Though I may scout around to see if there is a July 4th run within a reasonable distance.

Edmonton managed to tie up the series last night - I’m happy it’s going to be a full 7 game series - tomorrow should be a ton of fun to watch.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating - the folks over at The Bike Lane are terrific. Now, I am well past the “big cash” being dropped point when I head in there - now it’s a $6 tube and that’s about it, however, I am still in the “lots of little adjustments” stage with the bike, and every time I go in there, they manage to find time for me. Yesterday it was replacing a defective sensor on my bike computer and getting the seatpost & pedals tweaked for the clipless pedals/shoes - it was a mob scene cause it was Saturday, but they got me taken care of, the bike feels great and I have a working computer now and another spare tube, since I got to use one of them this morning when I had a flat. (Which I was able to handle quite well - always sketchy on a bike you’ve never worked on before - at least for me.)

Also - DC folks - yes, there is a tropical storm out there. At the moment, it doesn’t appear to be tracking anywhere near us. At all. So, was it really necessary to clean out the damn grocery store?? WTF, folks, it was like locusts had gone through there.

Oh, and in other news, at least one other BT’er thinks Cancun 70.3 is a very good idea. We’ll see what the 2007 racing season brings. :-D

I think I’ve found the one:

Ironman Cancun 70.3

Clear OWS, bike ride through the route of the ancient Mayans, and oh, yeah, IT’S IN CANCUN.

(Actually, it’s also very well timed - mid September race so you have all summer to prep for it. Much better than being stuck inside training all winter. Yeah, that’s it.)

And another one is in the books! 1:43:15 for a pace of 11:05 - woohoo!!! Could not have asked for more absolutely perfect, spot on weather for it - 70 degrees and a very, very light rain through most of the race.

Full race report is over here.

And last night’s 4 mile run put the lid on my best training month to date. Over 5K of swimming, 43 miles on the bike plus trainer time, and 20 miles of running. (The running mileage is definitely lower than it’s been this spring, but the swimming has been much MUCH more necessary.) 15K on tap this Saturday and then a mini tri Sunday - it’s just a 250M indoor pool swim, 4 mile bike ride and a 1.4 mile run - should be an fun & insane free for all. (This is assuming I am not in too much pain from the 15K, in which case, I may just go and volunteer.) Overall, just incredibly pleased with what I’ve accomplished last month.

On tap for June is to keep the training volume up and the following:
6/2 - Volunteering at packet pickup for the mini. (I am writing this down because I keep worrying that I’ll forget.)
6/3 - 15K down at Quantico
6/4 - Manassas Mini (depending on if I can move, LOL)
6/17 - Tim Harmon 5K
6/25 - Lake Montclair Olympic distance tri.

I just registered for the 5K this week, they had flyers for it at the 10K last weekend. I’ve never done a stand alone 5K before, and it should be fun. It’s also a whopping 20 minutes from the house and starts at 8:30, so I don’t have to be up at 5AM. Lake Montclair is why my swimming volume has been upped so much - it’s a 1 mile lake swim to start things off, so I’m shooting for 3x a week in the pool. I’ve added in a speedwork day on Tuesdays for running - just around the block (1.5 miles) and it’s walk 1 minute, sprint 1 minute. Did that yesterday w/ a 10:56 pace, not too bad considering half of it was walking. :)

Oh, since I’ve stopped the whole “work” thing, I moved the laptop out of the office down to the living room. The dog is MUCH happier with this setup as he can chill out on the sofa with me instead of cramming himself under the desk. He’s becoming a fan of the Late Late Show as well.

Oh, and this was sent by a friend of the family - damn funny video - it’s like they have seen me & my brother go at it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcA4Ry65FU Work safe.