August. Good stuff.

Update for early August. A happily busy peak of summer season.

First, reunion weekend 8/3. So many people = great. So little time = not so great. No good deed goes unpunished: Eileen Pulls off a helluva reunion and then suffers an injury. Get well Eileen. Put that foot up and have some cold bev. Better coverage of the reunion here and here.

Then, a killer training weekend 9/10, now a race weekend 9/17. Followed by weekend races in September along with a weekend in NYC. Love it.

Note: If you've missed the pics from his trip out to California, it's well worth jumping over to the 5th kid's blog entry and photo show.

On to a not too geeky report on my jaunt out to Deep Creek 8/9-10. Rode the Savageman Half (9/21 race) course a couple times. Had long been looking fwd to it. Grateful to be healthy enough to do it. Drove 3hrs up Fri. afternoon, back Sun. afternoon.The weather cooperated. No rain, little wind, lows around 50, highs ~72F.

The weekend was bike focused. Lots of riding, lots riding uphill and generally flogging myself silly. A little optional swimming and running. Oh, and much eating (an underrated aspect of the tri life). My road bike with the triple ring was the machine of choice. I spent a lot of time in the granny gear.

They've added a nasty climb to the already evil race course, nasty and evil in a cyclist's heaven kind of way. Saw plenty of racers similarly scoping the course. DC groups, Baltimore folks, Morgantown people.

20mile cruise followed
by 35miles of
suffering

Sat.: Rode the course with some other DC area knuckleheads, Frequent stops and some social riding allowed me to eat plenty, recover some from climbs and enjoy the views. Post ride food, recovered and then hit the clear crisp lake water for a short swim with transition to a 35min easy run.

Total ride time: 4:49
Stoppage time: 46mins
Rolling: 4:03 (hill crest noodling included)

Sun.: Rode the course again with a different mix of folks. Less noodling, chatting. The last 10miles seemed a whole lot lumpier than Sat. Wooden legs. Wet, heavy, blocky, hardwood. Standing in the pedals for the final climbs, I feared I might go rubbery and crack all together. Transition straight into a 35-40min run. Tried to run with some purpose (tried). Clean up, stretch. Drive home.

Total ride time: 3:56
Stoppage time: 23mins

Rolling time: 3:33

Bike time for the 2007 Race - 3hrs 40 for the bike, including 4mins in pit stops.

2008 Race goal: 6hrs
Swim: :35mins
T1: :5mins
Bike: 3:30
T2: 3mins
Run: 1:47
Total - 6hrs

*Gas for $3.55 along 68 on the return drive.

Hazy Lazy Dayz

Sunny days, warm weather, long rides, Olympic Trials & Games, the Tour de France, barbecue dinners with the master cooks and Devereaux garden produce, blueberries ready for picking somewhere up north - July may be my favorite month of the year.

And, the beauty of kicking back in a chilly dark theatre taking in a summer flick after a long day under the July sun. It helps when the movie is good. Tell No One - big thumbs up.

Re the image above, I'm playing around with cut/paste, figuring out how to copy a chart from training log software and turn it into a pic that can be uploaded to a blog post.

The chart shows my weekly (Monday through Sunday) training hours for 2008 , current to today. Line graphs for the total hours each week and for run hours. Bars for the other elements swim, bike, strength. That 16 hr peak a few weeks ago may be the biggest week ever for me, at least since I've started tracking my time consistently.

I'm recovering quite well for the last 6-8 weeks. Not feeling like I'm doing large volume during the bigger weeks. My running mileage/time is relatively low. That may have a lot to do with it. Will see what happens when I up the running.

Hope others are enjoying the summer as it flies by. It should go out with a flurry for me. Family reunion in LV next weekend, mountain riding the next, racing the week after that. Two races in September, along with a trip to NYC. Then a final race in early October. Throw in work and life and my weekends are pretty well booked through late October.

Looking forward to seeing relatives and lots of photos next week. Happy July birthday wishes to Ed and cousins John and Patricia.

Paid $4.15 a gallon for the cheap stuff. Saw lots of $4.19 and up for the same. Spied a $3.91 price at one spot.


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Committed to racing:
8/17 North East Tri (Olympic Distance, small, local MD)
9/14 Nation's Tri (Olympic Distance, huge (3500 yikes!), local DC)
9/21 Savageman Half (Deep Creek, MD)
Yep, returning to take revenge from a rough '07 experience, they've claim to have made the course just a bit tougher. How is that possible? Make the swim uphill?

10/12 Brierman Tri (small, first year, local, MD, "in between" Olympic and Half Iron distance, right up my alley swim 1500m, bike 40mi, run 9.3mi )

Memorial Day Weekend 2009 - American Triple-T (as in triple triathlon, 3 days of racing, OH)