I did something that I knew I was going to do eventually. I backed out of my garage without looking behind me. My friend’s car provided another example that electron tunneling is something for the nano scale and not the mazda scale.
Here’s me looking sad.
The National Eagle Scout Association has apparently hired a collection agency to find all of their long-lost Eagle Scouts. This is the fifth (maybe sixth) one of these cards that I’ve received. Enough already! Leave me ‘lone!
All photo credits are due to Jennifer Bowie
Yesterday, I finished my second triathlon, the Peachtree International, which was an Olympic distance tri: 1500 meter swim, 40k bike, 10k run. For the metrically challenged amongst you, and there better not be too many of those reading my blog, that’s 0.93 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run. Amusingly (at least for me) the staff of the PIT seem to believe that metric is too much for their athletes and give all the distances in english units. The correct Olympic distances are as noted in Systeme International, though. 15:25 Update: I re-read this entry and realized that I sounded a bit snarky about the PIT staff, concerning the metric/english thing. Let me state for the record that I think the staff and volunteers of the race did a fabulous job and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this race to anyone and I’ll definitely be there again.
The race went well and I finished with a time of 2:54:36, just a hair slower than I had thought I would do. One thing I learned (again) was that open water swimming is really nothing like swimming in a lane in a pool. This is a lesson that was forced upon me during my first triathlon last year, but it was reiterated with a vengeance during the swim portion of this race.
For one thing, 1500 meters, while not that far if you’re lap swimming, looks like a long way when you gaze out across the swim course1. This was disconcerting. For another, and again, I knew this already, swimming in open water involves things like waves and having to sight on the distant buoys. This means you have difficulty getting into a rythym with your stroke. I certainly did. It took me about 10 minutes before I felt comfortable. I need to swim in the lakes around here more often this summer plus I need to practice swimming in a straight line. I hook my stroke when I get fatigued.
I came out of the water at 32:29, 2:29 behind when I thought I would. You can see me crossing the mind-control devices that they use to make sure you’re voting for the right candidate this fall.
First transition was quick and efficient. I have not graduated to the level of not wearing socks yet. Socks, of course, take time to put on, which adds 15-30 seconds to your final time. I’d tried running without my socks last week and it would have been major blister city if I didn’t wear any. Therefore: socks. You can see me sitting on my ass, hidden behind the dude in front, putting on socks and my bike shoes. I was very light headed and dizzy during this transition so sitting down seemed the easiest and quickest way to get things on my feet. My transition time was efficient and I don’t think I could have shaved more than a few seconds without going to socklessness.
The bike course was challenging but not crazy difficult. Jenn and I had driven the course the day before so I knew that I had to save energy for some long hills between miles 9 and 182. The hills were tough on the way up, but they were fun on the way down. I broke 40 mph on one of them. One of the nice things about triathlons is that you’re generally starting and ending in the same place ergo 0 net elevation change.
There was plenty of normal car traffic during the hilly part of the race; people who obviously didn’t realize that the yellow line down the middle of the road wasn’t going to puncture their tires. Hey! Drivers! Just freaking pass already! Having a minivan driving right behind and to my left is very annoying, plus at one point I had to hit my brakes to avoid passing another car on the right, which I didn’t feel was safe.
I completed the bike course faster than I expected with an average speed of 17.7 mph3. Initially, I was thinking 18 mph was going to be my speed, then I saw the hills. I’m satisifed with that pace. If there’s one thing I can do to improve my triathlon times, it’s work on my biking. Raw strength goes a long way on the bike.
The second transition was smooth and serene, the only hiccup was that I forgot to take off my bike gloves before getting off my bike, so that ate up maybe 10 seconds. I removed the bike shoes and helmet, yanked on the running shoes (conveniently laced with Yankz laces) and was off on my 10k run.
If you’ve never run a multiport race, you probably don’t realize just how hard it is to go from biking to running. Your legs are working in a different fashion when on a bicycle and the change to a running stride is uncomfortable at best and downright excrutiating at worst. Thankfully, this transition was closer to uncomfortable than excrutiating. Unfortunately, my nutrition plan wasn’t doing me wonders and I spent the first mile of the run beset by cramps and trying not to vomit. My first mile was about a 10:30 split and my finish split of the 6.2 miles being 56:43 should give you some indication of how much that first mile hurt. I think my final mile split was about 8:15. I wasn’t keeping track on my watch. Suffice to say, I need to do something different on my nutrition next time.
Something that screwed with my head on the run portion: Between miles two and three, I had a person behind me clopping along like a clydesdale with a turnover (step frequency) just a tiny bit faster than mine. You wouldn’t think it (I certainly didn’t) but this really screwed with my pacing. I kept locking into his turnover, realizing it was too fast, going back to mine, then popping back into his due to the loudness of his footsteps. It messed with my breathing and my pace. I guess that is something I need to work on mentally for next time.
That’s me crossing the finish line. I finished strong without collapsing. Overall I felt good when I was done, but didn’t think I could go any farther. Today, I’m sore, but not devastatingly so. I’ll be fine tomorrow.
Lessons Learned:
List of stuff I brought:
List of Stuff I forgot:
I’m getting better at this triathlon thing. Another time or two and I should have the list of stuff to bring refined down to its core elements.
My Times:
Swim – 32:29 (20/39 in my age group) 2:10 per 100 m pace
T1 – 2:04 (13/39)
Bike – 1:22:16 (31/39)
T2 – 1:07 (11/39)
Run – 56:43 (30/39)
Total – 2:54:36 (26/39)
I placed 163/302 overall. Not bad.
Some interesting analysis of the results (all within my age group, here):
1A guy I was standing next to in the line for the porta-potties remarked to me, “I hear the swim in just less than a mile! [ed: it is]” to which my unspoken response was, “you mean you didn’t check to see how far we’re swimming?” That was weird.
2Yes, I know it’s hypocritical to chastise people for depending on english units and then turning around and using them for my race evaluation, but most courses are marked by mile and not by kilometer and that’s how we train and think. Still, it doesn’t absolve people of knowing kilometer to mile conversions.
3the race results are lying to you. I’m not sure what they’re measuring in order to calculate the average bike speed, but the difference between 18.2 mph (results) and 17.7 mph (my bike computer) is 2.3 minutes. That’s a big difference, one that is difficult to write off due to small measurement anomalies. I’m sticking with my bike computer.
This is what happens when you’re eating a beignet at Cafe du Monde, which is covered in powdered sugar, and the gust front of a thunderstorm swoops in.
Today marked several things, two of which I’ll mention:
One, I ran farther than I’ve ever run before (at one time). I mentioned this last fall, but I’m training for another half marathon and today I ran 13.3 miles. Very exciting, for me, at least.
Two, we went to see Doomsday at the theater today. Ugh, double ugh. I honestly have nothing good to say about it. I suppose I can state that it was gratuitously bloody, but that’s not a plus in my book. They randomly blew up a little bunny rabbit! Seriously, the movie was a bad compilation of several others including Road Warrior, Aliens, and Escape from New York. Do not see this movie at full, or any price. You have been warned.
If you are not a gamer, or related to a gamer, or you do not hang around with gamers, you may be unaware of Gary Gygax, one of the co-founders of Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Gygax wrote a great deal of the early D&D and Advanced D&D books, of which I own most. His name is prominently displayed on the covers and indirectly had enourmous impact on my childhood. A large set of my friends growing up were people I played D&D and Battletech with. While we would have probably found things to do without the gaming aspects, we bonded and throve inside the gaming world that we created. No romances bloomed that I’m aware of, but of the people from high school that I still talk to, 75% of them were friends that I gamed with.
While I haven’t played any D&D in a long time (frankly, I haven’t gamed in a long time) the name Gary Gygax still pulls me back to middle school and high school game sessions, solving puzzles and killing monsters. He provided for us an environment where we could do whatever we want. His creation allowed us to explore fantasy realms that would have been unimaginable without the prompting of the game setting (I’m aware of the irony of the term “structured freedom”).
It’s been years since I was involved in anything that Gary Gygax was directly related to. His association with D&D ended in the mid 80’s and since then his other projects have been things I wasn’t interested in. His creation of the original D&D is enough legacy, though, to pull me back and to make me remark on the passing of a man who has affected so many.
On Tuesday morning this week, I learned that I wasn’t going to be at work on time.
A strong, fast, thunderstorm blew through Georgia and my house was about 200 yards away from a particularly strong set of winds. Several homes in my neighborhood were damaged and three in the neighboring subdivision were playing host to trees in their living rooms. You could see the line the most serious winds followed by looking for the half-gone pine trees that had been snapped off. It was impressively narrow and straight.
The morning fun involved me, my neighbors, and a chainsaw, just so we could get out of the subdivision. Thankfully, no one was hurt (according to Cobb County), and the clean up went remarkably fast. I got to see how the utility companies deal with problems on a crash basis. They don’t bother with making things neat, they just get it working ASAP. I saw one utility pole that had been chainsawed above and below the utility attachment points, then that stub was strapped onto a new pole. Quite entertaining to look at. They have subsequently moved the attachments to the new pole.
We had an interesting morning today. At 6:30 AM we awoke to gust front of a storm. Actually, the gust front was the storm because we got barely any rain, but a significant number of lightning strikes plus some major down-bursts of wind. The neighborhood got hit pretty hard, with numerous trees down and several damaged homes and cars. I had to unleash the chainsaw to enable my quarter of the subdivision to get out.
I’ll post some pictures later. Fortunately, no damage to our house.
A week or so ago, I alerted all of my email lists and livejournal communities, etc., that a Crappy Refrigerator in my garage was free for the taking. You just had to come and get it.
This fridge has a storied history of moves and uses, and finally ended up in my garage, gathering dust. I’d never plugged it in. I told the email lists that it was availabe until this Saturday, when I would be taking it to the dump.
I awoke on Saturday morning to go rent a truck for the refrigerator’s last ride and lo! An email is sitting in my box saying, “I’ll take it.”
Ethan and Jonathon came and got it. The Crappy Refrigerator lives to chill another day!
This is why I’m always getting into trouble when I discuss politics. I can piss off everyone and anyone in the room, no matter who they support, or what policy they envision.
71% Bill Richardson
64% Mitt Romney
63% John McCain
61% Rudy Giuliani
58% Hillary Clinton
57% Mike Huckabee
56% Chris Dodd
55% Barack Obama
55% Fred Thompson
54% John Edwards
52% Tom Tancredo
45% Joe Biden
44% Mike Gravel
39% Dennis Kucinich
39% Ron Paul
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz