Mad Beach quickie

I finished in 1:37ish which is almost a 15 minute PR. Rocked the bike!
43.5 for 15 miles which is a PR pace. Shawn beat her Top Gun time
from last year even though this race is a longer swim and 5 extra
miles on the bike.

Good day!

Game on, Bigun

So....this evening I received a text message. It seems that our esteemed Bigun is concerned that I might pass him on Sunday during the Mad Beach Triathlon.

He has an 8 minute head start. Our swims are comparable His bike is a bit faster but the same could be said about my run. Is it 8 minutes faster? We'll just have to wait and see.

Surprisingly nervous

The Mad Beach sprint triathlon is Sunday and I'm actually nervous. On
a Friday night?

My enemy is not a competitor or the course, it is my evil inner
committee that clings to the past. They say I didn't train hard
enough, lose enough weight, and that I'm not tough enough to go all
out. I'm worried that I will give in to the pain of the effort and
settle. A course PR is not enough. The 2003 PR is soft. Somehow I have
to settle into my personal pain cave and throw a party there. In the
end, it's not about the time or where I finish in my age group, I will
lose on Sunday if I finish the race thinking "I could have gone
faster."

Memorial Day: Pause at 3PM

(CNN) -- Americans are being asked to stop whatever they are doing at 3 p.m. local time Monday to share a minute on Memorial Day and honor those who have died in the cause of freedom.

Americans are being asked to take one minute at 3 p.m. Monday to pause and reflect on those who died in battle.

"The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday," according to the White House Commission on Remembrance. Congress established the National Moment of Remembrance.

"The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom," the Commission on Remembrance said on its Web site.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/25/memorial.day.minute/index.html

http://www.remember.gov/

Fwd: OUTLOOK: Special Tropical Weather Outlook

Clearly, I'll never swim again. Most of the thunderstorm activity is
on my side of the storm.

Linae

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: SIU Weather Processor <ldm@weather3.admin.niu.edu>
Date: Fri, May 22, 2009 at 7:45 PM
Subject: OUTLOOK: Special Tropical Weather Outlook
To: WX-ATLAN@listserv.illinois.edu

ABNT20 KNHC 222345
TWOAT
SPECIAL TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
745 PM EDT FRI MAY 22 2009

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IS CENTERED OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO
ABOUT 200 MILES SOUTH OF PENSACOLA FLORIDA.  SATELLITE IMAGERY
INDICATES THAT THE ASSOCIATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS CONTINUE TO
INCREASE THIS EVENING.  ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THIS SYSTEM IS
POSSIBLE...AND A TROPICAL DEPRESSION COULD FORM BEFORE THE LOW
MOVES INLAND OVER THE NORTHERN GULF COAST ON SATURDAY.  AN AIR
FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT WILL INVESTIGATE THE LOW
TOMORROW...IF NECESSARY.  THERE IS A MEDIUM CHANCE...30 TO 50
PERCENT...OF THIS SYSTEM BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE
NEXT 48 HOURS.  REGARDLESS OF DEVELOPMENT...HEAVY RAINS AND
OCCASIONALLY GUSTY WINDS ARE EXPECTED ALONG PORTIONS OF THE
NORTHERN GULF COAST TONIGHT AND SATURDAY...AND INTERESTS IN THIS
AREA SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THE SYSTEM.

ANOTHER SPECIAL OUTLOOK ON THIS SYSTEM WILL BE ISSUED EARLY SATURDAY
MORNING...IF NECESSARY.

$$
FORECASTER BEVEN

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--
~~~---~~~---~~~---~~~
Village Idiot, Ph.D., Ironman
writing from beautiful Florida
http://linae.blogspot.com/
Save a horse, ride a cowboy

Some great training weeks

Ever since drawing a line in the sand, my training mojo has come back. As you may recall I gave myself 6 weeks to get my act together or switch to the half IM distance at Beach to Battleship. My goal was to complete 85% of the workout time assigned and miss no more than one workout a week. I start my training weeks on Mondays and so far we have....

The week of
April 20th 9:07 of 9:45 scheduled (missed one bike)
April 27th 9:07 of 9:30 (missed open water swim due to rough weather)
May 4th: 10:07 of 10:10 (missed run due to losing my little lovebird Sat night)

Not too shabby at all. And the scale has been cooperating nicely. I may still qualify for the Athena class at the end of May but it will be close.

Thanks for all the inspiration and race reports. They help push me out the door!

Memories of Kayko

Joe bought Kayko a few months after we started dating. I've never been a bird person but it's hard not to love an ugly bird with a black beak and few adult feathers. A few people have pulled the "he was just a bird" line but no one who ever met Kayko would say that.

Some of Kayko's more endearing traits:

• He would fly onto our shoulder if we called him.
• He loved to sit on the shower rod during showers, taking a mini-bath in the spray.
• He was completely fascinated by my hair dryer, often flying onto my back while I dried my hair.
• Kayko could shred an entire piece of paper in 15 minutes using the most perfectly replicated strips of paper you've ever seen. Joe and I often commented that you could start a shredding business using rescued lovebirds.
• Kayko could find the final version of your manuscript in a stack of papers. And he would shred the top of those paper before any other.
• His love of shoe laces was legendary. Loved to chew on their little knobby ends. Loved to untie your running shoe.
• He loved to bite thin fingers.
  
• He loved to sit on your leg while you surfed the internet so you could rub his head with your free hand. If you didn't rub his head he would climb under your hand to remind you that you should be rubbing him.
• And as has been discussed, he loved to land on the dog, tease the dog, and generally act as if he was invincible.

Just a few memories of an amazing little bird. I didn't want to like him. I didn't. But he gave you no choice.

Goodnight to my "little man"

We had to put down Kayko, our original love bird, last night. He has been with us for over 13 years. You'd never imagine how much personality fits into just a few ounces. The seizures that started a month or so ago suddenly became a constant event. It was so sad but when we realized they were not going to stop, we knew what we had to do.

The emergency vet and office staff were super, super nice. So nice that we may use her as the vet for our remaining lovebird. Why must all this stuff happen in the middle of the night?

Fast chicks

Because I'm a masochist, I looked at the time it would take for me to place top 10 in my age group at the end of the month....

Overall 1:30:29
1/2 mile swim 16:05
T1 1:06
15 mile Bike: 45:15
T2 0:54
5K run 27:10

Ahhhh, maybe next year. :) Actually, my transition times from 2004 are within 40 seconds of her times. That I can fix. I'm close on the bike but the run and 1/2 mile swim need little work. I've never broken 30 minutes on a 5K at the end of a sprint tri and a 20mph bike split for 15 miles would be my best effort. There are some fast bitches in my age group!

Gotta dream big!