Labor Day Weekend

It has been a while since I've been on here, time to catch up.

Last weekend, the weekend before labor day, I went camping just south of Dallas. Very fun, very relaxing, and I sure didn't want to come back.

This Labor Day weekend was fun. My parents and sister came up from Houston and we just hung out, ate a lot and played cards. On Saturday I went for a nice 30 mile bike ride on the new Blue road bike. I was going to go a little more, but I got new pedals in and need to adjust the cleats a bit, my right knee was starting to hurt a little. No big deal though. Only a couple more weeks until the MS150. If you want to donate, click here. I am almost at my goal, only $5 more.

Sunday I went for a 9 mile run. Felt a little sluggish at first but got into a decent rhythm. I started a little later than I wanted, but it wasn't too bad. I did go through a bottle of Gatorade though. That is pretty much it for now, hopefully I'll have more to write later.

Weekend Roundup

Well I had a pretty busy end of week/weekend. Friday I got my new bike out of the shop after getting the last few parts moved over. Only bad part was I didn't have pedals for it so the test ride would have to wait.

So instead of a bike ride on Saturday I went for my long run. This was my first real long run of the training plan and I was scheduled for 15 miles. I got out the door and was hit by wet air. I knew it would be a long day but I headed out. I got about 8 miles in when I finally ran out of water. It wasn't real hot but the humidity really sucked the life out of you. Luckily I was close to a big park up in Edmond so I made a little detour. Surely there was a water fountain I could refill at. After 10 minutes of searching, I finally found one tucked away in a pavilion by the restrooms. Naturally the water tasted like sand. Great. I filled up the bottle hoping I would find somewhere else to dump this out and get good water. No such luck so I headed on back home. I realized I wouldn't get my entire 15 in, but I ended up with 13.5, so not too bad. If I would have had good water I would have added on a little.



That afternoon Kim and I headed to a couple bike stores to get some pedals. After finding some with the right cleats, I have older style pedals, I bought them. When i got home I started looking online and found that I could get 2 new pair of pedals (for my tri bike and road bike) and new cleats, for $30 less than what I paid. I ordered those and took the ones I got at the shop back. This meant I still didn't have pedals, so I had to take the tri bike out on Sunday.

I went my usual route, way out into the country, turn around, take a back road to Lake Hefner, one lap around and back home. I stopped once for about 30 seconds to eat something but that was it. I forgot to start my GPS right away so it read a little short, but I got in just over 50 miles on the bike. Most of the ride went great, but the last 25 minutes or so were into a stiff headwind that just started up.




After all that I really just watched the Olympics the rest of the day and continued to be amazed by Michael Phelps. That guy is crazy good. The 100 Fly was one of the best finishes I have seen since, well, the 4x100 free relay with the epic comeback.

New Bike

Well, I have another bike :)

While cleaning my old road bike I found a crack in the headtube, where the fork connects to the bike. Since that is a high stress area it was no longer safe to ride I went looking for a new frame. I picked up a used Blue RC4AL frame from a guy on my Tri Club team.

I was able to take just about everything off my old bike and move it to the new frame.




I should get it back from the bike shop today completed and out for a test ride. Can't wait.

Spin Your Wheels

This Saturday I participated in a charity ride for the Childrens Center in OKC that benefits children that are faced with severe medical issues. Quite a few riders come out and support the cause, by far the biggest ride I have done so far.

This is just a small sampling of the riders.




I did this ride a couple years ago and I suffered through 50 miles but this year I decided to do 100k or 62 miles since I am gearing up for the MS150 (donate here, shameless plug). There were 5 different ride lengths, 100mi, 62mi, 50mi, 25mi and a 10 mile family ride.

The longest 3 all left together at 7:30 on the nose. It took me a few minutes to actually leave since there were so many people in front of me. I finally got out on the road and people were all over the place trying to get to a comfortable speed. All of the riders took up all 3 lanes of the road, it was pretty cool. I got into a group of guys going at a pretty good clip and tucked in behind them and we were on our way. One thing I did learn is a triathlon bike is not the best bike to have in a pack like that since the brakes and shifters are on different bars. About 6 miles in everyone was finally spaced out and I was able to get in my aero bars and go at my own pace.

I stopped at mile 25 to get more water and a couple little bites to eat to refuel and was off again. It got a little hilly at that point until the turn around which made for some really fun downhills. I got up to 35 on one. I stopped at mile 37 for another top off of water and headed for the finish.




It was pretty uneventful after that. I was able to cruise for the most part except for a couple stop lights towards the end that added on some time. I rolled into the finish at 3 hours 13 minutes and 59 seconds.



After that I got a free massage some BBQ and lots of water. Good way to end the day. I also won a door prize, a $40 gift card to a bike shop. I can do a little damage with that. It was a very good ride all in all, great weather, no crashes, free massage and I won something. I will be doing this ride again next year, hopefully the 100 mile ride.

Getting hot

Man it has been hot around here lately. The lowest high (does that make sense?) in the past week or so has been 102. At least we waited until late July to hit that mark. It has really been taking its toll on my body though. Last week I commuted by bike 3 times and this weekend my long run really suffered. I just felt weak and slow and just overall blah. On Sunday I made it up though by going on a 62 mile (100k) bike ride. It was really weird how it ended up being 100k on the nose. I started at 6:30 AM and by the time I was done at 11 it was in the upper 90's. I drank at least 70oz of water and I still came back weighing less than when I left due to losing all the water weight. I have to get these rides in to get ready for the MS150. If you would like to donate and support me, just click on this link. Thanks for any help and a big thank you to those who have donated.