Merry Christmas from Jet

Don't know why the stupid monkeys make me wear this hat but...WHATEVER!!!!

Merry Christmas from The Dog!

Bike tire gods?

Does anyone know what offerings appease the bike tire gods? It seems
that they've been hating me for some time and I'd really like to stop
the flat tires.

On the bright side, today's ride was good practice. My B2B race will
be that much more bullet proof.

The day dawned at a reasonable 50F before dropping 2 degrees by 8AM.
Whatever. Yes, trash talk from my bloggie peeps was a consideration
but it really came down to Linae's Weather Rule: "If the weather is
like this on race day, would you quit? No? Then get out there." So in
an attempt to weather proof my B2B race next year I learned the
following lessons:

-cross dressing works! running clothes make good layers on the bike
(note: buy better tights)
-I will drop the water bottle if my fingers get too cold (note: find
the full fingered gloves)
-the fleece ear warmer thingie is probably best saved for skiing, too warm

And thanks to the curse of the Bike Tire Gods, I learned that if
you're sweaty when your tire flats out, the wind is not your friend.
But even with cold hands, I can change my tire in less than 10
minutes. Got to use my spiffy carbon fiber mini-pump. Worked great.
I totally justified buying it when my back tire flatted while I was
changing the front tire. Normally I would freak out lest I run out of
CO2 but that's not a problem anymore, thanks to mini-pump.

Now I'm off to make a list of bike clothes I need.

Jet break

Now that I have a little more time on my hands, it's time for a brief dog break.

Jet's new favorite activity: pulling the dirty laundry out of the hampers for personal use.

Back in the saddle!

Finally, finally, finally! A ride where my leg supported me, let me
clip out at stop lights, and climbed the tiny bridge without stabbing
pain. Heck, without any pain at all. No soreness near the end of the
ride. No problem lifting my leg over the bike to dismount. My heart
rate even broke into my aerobic training zone. Yes! Actual training
outside the pool. It felt so good.

And the weather was fabulous. 60F with only 62% humidity. Blue
skies. "My" ospreys, Boris and Natasha, were sitting near their nest
in the preserve chatting away in their squeaky osprey voices. A
little windy but the wind was no problem because my leg had strength
to push back! There is hope that my hip will let me run before New
Years.

Now if I can just survive my sports massage this afternoon. I still
can't get over how much it hurts. Oh, for the days of relaxation
massages!

And people say ironman triathletes are crazy

Here is a link to a friend's website. http://www.marathonswim.com/

He's raising money for the CKNW Orphan’s fund (http://www.cknw.com/orphans) by....

Swimming 26.2 miles.

Exactly my reaction. There are many noble ways to raise funds but swimming an actual marathon. Not calling the swim a "marathon swim" even though it's only 5 miles or so. Not swimming around Key West in a relay. 26.2 miles. In a pool.

Amazing. Go Tony.