One Last Thing

For those of you who asked, my bib number is:

1015

I only hope that I am truly blessed as much as I feel I am :-)

Wes

Nothing Left but the Doing

All my race gear is laid out on the dining room table. As I pack my transition bag, I will go over everything again. Matthew's tournament schedule worked out perfectly. Jimmy will be able to take him to all his games and meet his obligations for the weekend. I like that.

Friends are already in Orlando, and more friends will be arriving tomorrow. Right now, the plan is to shuttle the boyz off to school tomorrow, then get out on the road between 9 AM and 10 AM. That should put me in Orlando by 5. We'll see.

Friday night, I'll probably just take it easy. Saturday, I have a very short brick to do. Then its registration, bike check-in, then the expo. After that, I would really like to put my feet on the beach. We'll see how that works out.

Sunday, the race is scheduled to start at 6:30 AM. My wave goes off at either 6:47 or 6:50, depending on which one I am in. The weather forcast is seventy-one to ninety-one, slightly over cast. That should work out OK.

I'll be thinking of all my homies racing this weekend. As they say, the hard part is over now. Nothing left but the doing...

See ya on the flip side of half-iron,

Wes

On Cycles

It's fun, no, I should say, it's imperative that one step outside one's body and/or life and take a look around. It's kinda like putting life on hold, taking two steps back, breathing in a deep breath, and looking around to see what the hell is going on.

As my first A race of the season quickly approaches, I was curious as to how the focus of my mind shifted as the day got closer and closer. Back in my early days (can I say that?), my primary focus was two fold. First, I wanted to stay injury free. The thought of missing out on a race due to injury was painful. I wrote quite a few posts about little aches and pains, only to have hardened and wise veterans come by and tell me to knock it off. Second, as my workouts shifted from max hours and peaking to taper, my posts transitioned more and more to the philosophical side of my endeavors. You do know I like to wax philosophical every once in a while.

Realizing this has given meaning to these last few weeks. I am in truth not a rookie anymore. I know what to expect. Been there, done that so to speak. Yet, I let the thoughts of swimming 1.2 miles in open water, sans wet suit drift back to the forefront of my consciousness this week. This wasn't helped by the fact that I learned there would be no pre-race swim warm up. It's not allowed. Just damn. I've preached and preached about a proper swim warm up to you guys, and now? I can't even warm up on the swim before the biggest race in my life. Somebody shoot me :-)

But, I got to thinking. The distance does not scare me et al. I grasp the cycle of how an open water swim affects my mind. As a matter of fact, I practiced in the pool today. The first hundred meters, I am working strictly on breathing, wondering how the hell I'm going to do this for 1500 meters (or 1.2 miles). Then my arms start to feel fatigued, and I worry that they will give out, and I'll drown. (In the meantime, my nose may or may not be trying to choke me.) Then, at about 500 meters, I feel the strength in my arms, the soreness and achy-ness flee. By one thousand meters, I'm cruising at my race pace.

I know me. I know this cycle. Now, I'm just excited.

True to yet another cycle, I'll be back tomorrow to say fare thee well...

Wes

ORN: 3 miles, 30 minutes, 10 mmp
OSN: 1000 meters, 20 minutes, 2x500

Inaugural All Female Indian Springs Triathlon

Please welcome guest blogger, Dee Dee "The Bug" McK, Athena Masters Champion!

So you all know what its like to get absolutely zero sleep the night before a race right?

Well consider this, attending your oldest son's State High School Soccer Championship game the night before on top of it! That's right! Emotions are already high, and now you have such an adrenalin rush. Your son just won the State Championship, and you have to leave him to travel an hour and a half away. Thats right! You have your first race of the tri season to do.

This is how it went down. We arrived at the luxurious Best Western Plantation Inn at 11:00 pm. No wait! I forgot. We made a quick stop for some late night snacks and breakfast food at a stupid Walgreens drug store. Yea, we got hot fries, coke, g2, and powdered sugar dough nuts and a muffin. Needless to say, the hotel was, lets just say, a “nonsmoking” room that smelt like chimney. Gross! I could not sleep but finally managed to close my eyes around 1 AM. You know the movie, My Cousin Vinny? Let's just say, you might know what I'm about to say. I woke to the sound of a loud roaring engine around 5:15 AM!! Thats right! Our hotel was right by a railroad track. Toot Toot!!! Screech!! Okay, so much for sleeping till 5:30. I got up, showered and then ate our crap we bought from the drugstore. Lets just say that I did not eat a lot.

We packed up the car and headed to the race . It was only four miles from the hotel. We arrived to see it was going to be small, but I was looking forward to a small race for my first race of the season. I checked in, picked up my timing chip and got body marked. We headed over to the transition area and set up my stuff. I decided to head down and look at the swim start. I found out the water temp was 77 degrees and decided to wear the wet suit. We ran into Lauren, said our hello's and introduced our respective spouses.

It was time to put the wet suit on and warm up. I was very nervous to see how far the swim really was. It was 600 meters. I had never done more than 400 meters. I said damn! At least if I wear my wet suit, I won't drown. Just a few minutes later, we started. I was off with the second wave. I went off too fast and about 3 minutes in I got kicked in the freakin throat. I gasped , choked, and swallowed something from the lake into my mouth. At this point, I was trying not to throw up and drown while trying to make forward progress at the same time. Needless to say, 25 minutes later I was on the beach.


I did not prepare my self properly for this length of a swim, not enough swimming and not doing enough laps to get ready for it, but I did not quit! I was pleased to see that I was in and out of my wet suit and out of transition in 2:30.


I jumped on my bike and was off and out of the park. I knew I could make up time for my sucky swim on my bike. It was up and down hill on the way out, more up hill and then whack! Holy crap! My ankle is on fire. I just got stung by a freakin bee! You gotta be joking! I am only 4 miles out and I have 8 left to go. I am allergic!!! What to do? I just calmly tried to settle down, and I figured I had enough adrenaline in my system that as long as I didn't get to short of breath I could finish. I was at the 6 mile turn around, and I knew that it would be a lot of down hill on my way back. I hit 34 mph on the long down hills. I was flying. I arrived back to the park was in and out of transition and saw Wes. I told him I got stung by a bee and t2 was only 48 seconds!!!


I took off on my woggle in and out of the woods to the road and off the road. The run was up and down hill! “Okay, you guys are cruel”, I thought. I started up my first long hill and over came a Tri Chica. She introduced herself as Carole. I said, “Holy crap!”, said my name to her, and she asked if she could run with me up the hill. I told her sure, but I am going to woggle if you don't mind. She smiled and said if I made it to the finish line, she would buy us a margarita. I told her deal! I would see her at the finish! I ran slower than I thought I would but was encouraged that others around me were trying to catch my fat ass!!! Some girls just laughed, and others decided to catch up. I continued and made the final down hill turn to the wooded path leading to the finish.

This young girl was struggling with her breathing. I said, “Hey! We are almost done! I'll run in with you if you want?” She said, “Really?” I said, “Sure!”. I told her how to slow her breathing down and she thanked me. This was her first triathlon. I told her how awesome that was and that when she crossed that line she would be a triathlete!

SHE JUST SMILED.

Dee Dee running with Carole Sharpless

We turned the corner and there was my new BFF, Carole waiting for every girl. She ran me half way in. I thought, “Man is she ever an inspiration!” Carole Sharpless finished last. That was her goal!


Later, I found out I placed first in my division. I said, “No way!”, but I did. The best part of this was the fact that the girl I ran in with me came over later and thanked me for running in with her.

Our Champion!!

Woo hoo!!!

What an incredible couple of days. First off, my numba one son's team won the State Championship last night in the AA/A division of soccer by defeating Dublin 3-1. You can read all about it here!

Second, my darling wife came in first in her division, at the Inaugural Women's Tri the Parks race this weekend, with a time of 2:09 and some change (600 meter swim, 13 mile bike, 3 mile run). Here is a picture of Dee Dee hanging out with her new BFF Carole Sharpless. (I'm trying to get her to write a race report :-)


I'll give y'all the long version of all this stuff later if Dee Dee declines to write a race report.

Numba two son Matthew won his soccer game today! Woot! Way to go Matthew!! He got moved up to the second team for this one and we were excited for him.

What did I do this weekend? Nada :-) Let's see. I bought all my Mother's (My mom, Dee Dee's mom, Dee Dee) flowers for Mother's Day. I bought Dee Dee that HAWT new Zoot tri suit for mama's day. I ran 45 minutes at a 10:26 pace, and I'm thinking about doing a 1:30 hour bike ride at the Silver Comet tomorrow. Oh, and I sherpaed the champion to victory in the Athena Masters division (she's getting old ;-)

Alrighty then... I'd love to stay and chat. But I gots to take the spousal unit out to dinner. I got soccer games to ref tomorrow, so tonights the night!!

Happy Mother's Day all you sweet wonderful Moms out there!!!

Wes

ORN: 4.3 miles, 45 minutes, 10:26 mmp

These Hands

I know I've reached the bottom of the barrel when I can no longer keep my eyes open in the car on the way home. More than once, I had to jerk myself awake to keep myself from running my car into the jerk in front of me. Hee, hee. I crack myself up... I actually prefer to drive myself home rather than accidentally finding myself riding in the front seat with the person ahead of me.

The entire family is home when I arrive. Dee Dee is home early on Wednesdays. She was taking Jimmy to watch the girl's varsity play their semi final game over by Stone Mountain. I lay down in the bed exhausted, fully clothed, as Dee Dee puts on the finishing touches of her beauty in the bathroom. Somehow, I fail to hear her leave. After about twenty minutes, my internal alarms go off. I'm supposed to be riding, yet here I am, checking my eye lids for cracks. I hurriedly get out bed, gather my things and take Aerowyn out into the neighborhood. Thank God for shorter sessions. I still have time to get my ride in and get Matthew to practice.

My legs feel heavy. In my mind, I know I should be a little more diligent following the plan. Not diligent with time. I am anal about doing my time. Rather, diligent at effort. I tend to train at one pace on the bike. As I pedal up the hills and out of the neighborhood, I can feel the residual pain and stiffness in my thighs, and I hail the call of the plan and take an easy pace. I'm sure I'll get my five minutes of hard effort at SOME POINT in this hill ridden bike route.

As I climb hill after hill, I feel the tiredness, the self imposed slothness, and the pain shed my legs like the shackles that bound the legs of a young Forest Gump. I'm sure you guys have felt it too. The strength returns to your legs and all is well with the world. Now I could of pulled a patented manuever and busted tail for the remainder of my ride, but I did not. I enjoyed the envigorating feeling and stayed within the boundaries of the plan. Taper is taper after all.

I often, these days, find myself staring and pondering the wonder of my hands, and particularly my wrists. I always admired the lean and mean physique of hardened triathletes. I stare in amazement at the paddles at the ends of my arms, at the slimness of my wrists, as if, in my minds eye, I still expect to see the bloated appendages that used to hang there in days gone by. Arms and legs that were fed beer after beer, bottle after bottle of gin and bourbon until my body had no choice but store all the extra fluid in my extremeties.

These hands are mine. They propel me through the water. These arms are mine. They pull me on the swim. These legs are mine. They power me on the bike and take me places on the run. The face I admire in the mirror on the elevator? That's mine too, and it reminds me to never forget.

Wes

OCN: 12.3 miles, accidently reset bike computer
OCN: 13.6 miles, 45 minutes, ~18 mph (trainer)
ORN: 1.5 miles, 16 minutes, ~10:30 mmp

A Class Act

Almost without exception, unsolicited acts of human kindness recharge my batteries and lower the bar on my bullshit meter. For those of you who have some time and feel the need to be touched deeply in your soul...

Start here.
Then go here.
Finally, here.

My body is tired. Physically. Mentally. Refereeing adult soccer games on Sunday night has taken its toll. Yet, I find that I am enjoying my time on the pitch like never before. I so desperately need some time off to recharge my athletic batteries. I'm hoping that taper has arrived just in time to do the deed.

Along with taper comes my first series of shortened workouts. My swim times have been cut to thirty minutes, my mid week runs to forty. I did 5x300 in the pool yesterday for an even 31 minutes. My son's high school soccer team played in (and won) the semi-finals last night. That gave me the opportunity to run by the river after work. The plan called for forty minutes with 3x2 minutes hard effort with 1 minute recovery. I nailed them and felt better for it.

Happy Hump Day, y'all!

Wes

P.S. Getting five hours of sleep last night did NOT help. I had Chili Verde to cook, people!!

OSN: 1500 meters, 30 minutes, 5x300
ORN: 3.9 miles, 40 minutes, 10:15 mmp