Ayerd{dot}com :: Triathlon

/me drools

Racermate Computrainer.

Hopped on the pedals today for a wee 30-mile ride. The first 15 or so felt great... then the 35° wind started to take a toll on my toes. Nothing worse than having your toes slowly go numb as you try to power up a hill.

You'd think my body would realize it was plenty uncomfortable with the cold and maybe it shouldn't compound the problem by insisting having a running nose the whole time. But, noooooooo. I really do think my saftey word is "more".

After the bike, I kept to my training promise of running after every bike. Quick transition and then out the door for a 30 minute run. Once the feeling came back in my feet, it wasn't too bad. I think there may be hope for me yet.

The real question is how my damage did I do to myself? Won't really know until I try the 1/2 marathon tomorrow at Tyler State Park. I'll post an update after that bit of pain has been worked though.

Started out pretty good for a Saturday. Up at 5:00 so I could make it to the gym parking lot by 6:00 for a run. Karen and I ran for 1:20 -- not sure how far we got, 9-10 miles or so. It was colder than I'd like for a run but didn't really notice until the end when I pulled the headband off and saw the ice/frost all over it.

After the run it was off to the pool for the JAM (Jersey Area Masters) workout. Had to miss some of it to talk with the coach about team stuff, but I did manage to get in around 3,500 of the 5,000 in the workout. Since I got an extra swim in on Thurday I think I'll let the extra 1,500 go.

For the swim I used a pair of new TYR goggles -- the Aqua Shift™ Rockets. While they are for "racing", the are plenty comfortable for the daily workout. The only problem I had was getting them off inbetween sets. It was hard to get a grip in lens to pull it away from my eye. Since I didn't even notice them on my face in the water, I guess they were just tight enough. After one practice, so far, so good. As I wear them more, I'll keep you updated on their performace.

Overall, it was good Saturday.

Sunday was the bike day. Late start for a ride -- 11:30 -- but at least it allowed the temperature to eek into the 40° range. No cold toes for me! Zipped along for 2 hours thru some slightly more than moderate hills in the Sourlands. I think the final total was only in the 25-26 mile range. This ride wasn't about distance, it was about getting my ass used to hitting that bike seat for 4-5 hours.

I did get a chance to try an electrolyte replacement drink on the bike. Using this stuff called Perpetuem. They claim it has a "mellow-orange 'Dreamsicle' flavor" and it sort of does. Wasn't the best. I think it would be better if was just "orange" flavor, but maybe there is a reason the vanilla needs to be there? The taste was a tad too sweet, but practically nothing in terms of an after-taste. Thanks the Gods for small favors. The most important part is that it works! While it wasn't the hardest workout I've ever done on a bike, slurping down a bottle with 2-scoups in 16-oz of water left me feeling pretty good. We'll see how it goes as I use the product on some harder ride as the temperature creeps up past 50°.

A fine week for training. Lots of stuff to record from this week so here goes. After last week's run-swim-bike combo things looked great for another go this weekend. Even better, it was supposed to over 40° all weekend. w00t!

The great weekend weather held up and Saturday was a nify 9-mile run at 6:00. Last week there were only two of us on the early morning trek, but this weekend we were up to five. Can I get a "Hell yea" from the crowd? For sure!

After the run some of the group headed to a tri-clinic to work on overall tri-related stuff while the lovely Angela and I headed to the pool to attempt the 5,000 yead Saturday swim. I'll admit I was a little more tired than I'd like to be but rather than face my own version of CMS — and after goading Angela into the pool in the first place — it was into the pool for some swimming goodness. Things went well. After about 3,000 a request came over to work on flip-turns. So, yea, I stopped swimming! After all, the Marathon is 35 days away but the first Tri of the year is 70-days away. Plenty of time to swim later 'cause it was turn-time!

Sunday was the day of the Bonk. Up at 7:30 for food and prep. At 9:00 it was onto the bike and off to the races. Or, at least off to the town about 20-miles up the river. The ride went smooth and while trying to keep my speed up I worked on drinking plenty of fluids — I have this habit of missing the bottle holder and having to stop to retrieve the bottle from the road side. Next ride, start to work on eating foods. I'm still not sure how you nosh 300+ calories an hour in an Ironman, but I suppose this is why we get to practice.

After the bike came the bonk. I've told myself that after every ride this year I'll run for 30 minutes. Today, I hopped off the bike and started down to the canal. At the 1.5 mile mark I felt good! So good I said the heck with the stopping, lets try for 4-miles. About mile two it happened. The spirit was willing but the body started to make noises along the lines of "didn't we run yesterday?" and "the bike was plenty for you today". With the complaints coming in, I 180-ed and started to head home. I got about half a mile and made a mistake. I stopped running.

When I tried to restart the motor, I had nothing. /sigh. Let me just say that 40°-45° feels good when you're moving. Not so much when you stop. And are sweaty. And happen to be about a mile and half from home. Sucked walking, but don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

I think I would have been okay 'cept for the running yesterday. At least, that is my story and I'm sticking with it.

Next week, I think I'll bike on Saturday. Maybe. I think I've been talked into the Ocean Drive 10-miler and that may be enough running for one weekend.

Took the new bike out for a recovery ride. Only an hour on a flat-ish road, but man, was it nice. I thought Dave was kidding about gaining one or two miles-per-hour on the new wheels. He wasn't!

The fit was wonderful. No pain in the back or legs. I did notice that my toes went a little numb near the end of the ride. I think that means something is hitting a nerve in my butt (dare I say, taint?), but if it happens again I'll mention it when I go to have the cables tighted in a week or two.

The areobars where a nifty new addition. I thought it might take more to get used to them, but it didn't. In fact, after only a few minutes it was more awkward to not use them. I did feel like I wanted to slide back on the seat -- pushing my spine a little flatter -- when I was in the aero position. Don't know if that was me flopping into the wrong position or a fitting thing. When I find out, I'll let you know.

Using the behind the seat water bottles was interesting. It was easy enough to grab them but replacing them in the holders took some getting used to. Maybe what I want to do it start with 4 bottles on the bike and as the ones on the frame empty out swap'em to behind the seat so I don't have to fumble about returning the bottle to the holder? Then again, it could just be a matter of getting used to the cage placement.

Man, I'm plenty psyched for some longer riding! I think the century ride on the 7th is going to rock.

When you set out for a 100 mile ride on your bike, you tend to lay everything out the night before. No sense running around in circles getting everything set at 4:30 AM the day of the ride. That time is better spent stuffing food in the maw.

As I was putting everything I needed in a bag, bottle, or on the bike Friday evening I thought my checklist was golden: long sleeve undershirt, jersey, shorts to wear for the car ride, shoes, socks, helmet, gloves, sun glasses, windbreaker, bottles (1 of Heed, 2 of Perpetum, and one of Gatorade), a Red Bull for rest stop around mile 75, Gu, clothes to change into for the ride home, and lastly nutrition for breakfast so all I had to worry about in the morning was feeding my face.

Everything was going great that morning. Up about 5 minutes before the alarm went off. Breakfast down the pipes, wife and bikes packed in the car and zoom, we were off. Heck, the forcasted rain wasn't even present, just some clouds that you could tell would be burned off by mid-morning. Life was good.

Was. Notice the "was". If you look over my checklist, you'll see one very important piece of equipment missing from the list. Bike shorts. You know, the ones with the padding.

/insert colorful expletive here. repeat.

Here are the numbers for my 2005 Columbia Triahtlon:

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the sub 3-hour time. The cold I had all week continuted to work it's magic on race day. My stomach was a nightmare and we won't even talk about my nose was up to. Still, the day was beautiful: sunny and cool from a slight breeze.

The swim was pretty good. The lake is fresh water and a little on the cold side when you first jump in. The kind of cold that takes your breath away the first couple of times you stick your face in. I missed my goal time of 21-ish minutes, and actually went almost 1 full minute slower than last year. The problem was that when the guy said "go" I was in the the process of working towards the outter edge of the pack. I got boned, dead center near the front. The fools around me decided become a wall with all the normal kicking and extra arms you expect in the middle of a swim pack. It took a while to work around them. I also had problems once I hit the back-end of the wave that started before us. It was a pretty good time and I think if I had been swimming strong the last two weeks instead of other stuff, it would have been better.

T1 sucked ass. I not sure exactly what went wrong but 5 minutes is too long. Maybe I had more problems with the wetsuit than I realized? Maybe I was trying to run in the clip-shoes? Maybe, it was just a bad day for transitions.

The bike was nice. The new hotness made it happen and I felt fairly good on the bike. Telling moment for me was when I was going down hill at around 35 mph and dudes were passing me. Sup wit dat? But, yo, it was a good ride. Killed last year's time by almost 10 minutes and 2 mph. My bike computer claims a top speed of 38.1 — Sweet. I think I could have done better with my liquid and nutrition on the bike but my stomach wasn't going to allow that. It was a pretty unhappy beastie out there with me.

Look at that cumulative place 361! Nice. I will now lobby the race director to stop all future events at this point and simply call it a day!

Hopping off the bike into T2 wasn't all it could be either. My stomach was really rolling by then and I needed to really take a leak. Dumped the bike and headed to the port-a-potty for a wiz. I think that cost me a minute or two.

The run wasn't too bad by my standards. Way better than last year's, but still pretty slow compared to most people. I was hoping for less than an hour and was fairly close (even counting the bathroom break). Stupid stomach was doing me wrong and was plenty uncomfortable for the first 4 or so miles. Right near the end it started to come to terms with the idea it wasn't going to make me stop and we got into a groove. At least I finished strong!

Overall, not unhappy. See all those "better than last year" references above and you know I cannot complain too much. Without the cold (and flood and car problems) the two weeks before the race it would have been better, but hey, that is why we get to race again next year.

Next up Eagleman. I can't wait for a race with no hills. I'll take my chances with the wind. And, the damn cold better be done soon so I can get back to some real training. I miss the pool.

Bike, bike, bike. Swim, swim, swim. That is what went down over the long weekend. The weather was wonderful! Sunny. Warm. Breezy. Loved it!

Saturday was a big ride. Really didn't feel riding at the start but rationalized the pain/shame/agony of not finishing my Ironman would be a zillion times worse than any joy I would feel at slacking. Went 57 miles in a combination of mostly rolling hills with big up-hills over the last 15 miles. Started out around 7:00 AM with a group of 6 other folks. Average speed for our little group was 16.8 mph with a big downhill speed 36.3 at some point in the 3:23 hours. After the ride was a 15 minute run just to get the legs moving. Yes, the mood did improve as the ride wore on.

Sunday was a recovery ride of 24 miles. Met Angela at the gym. We took an easy ride into Princeton and then over to ETS to view the prison-esque environment (Yes, that address is correct). After the 1:45 ride it was into the pool for an easy 2,500 yards.

Monday was a dedicated swim day. Cranked out 5,000 yards in just under 2 hours. Felt pretty good but was clearly getting near the end of my limits for the weekend.

I do know I kept thinking out that entry on Tri-Geek Dreams by Tri-Geek Kahuna about being special:

We are special. Statistics show we are among .007363 percent of the American population who can complete a triathlon. It's a nice feeling, isn't it? The Tri-Geek Kahuna feels especially satisfied on Sunday night, when his body is worn out from a weekend's worth of workouts. He doesn't want to admit it, but the dark part of his heart wants to say to the other 99.93848% of the American population: "Hey, I'm better than you. I just rode 30 miles, ran 10 more and swam 3,000 yards and what the hell did you do? Put on a few more pounds and worked on bettering your chances for a heart attack?"

He's right you know.

As a warm-up to Eagleman, I took a stab at the Belleplain Triathlon this past Sunday. The main goal was to focus on the transition after the nightmare transitions at Columbia. The results this time were much better and it looked like this:

The tri was held at scenic "Lake Nummy" in Woodbine, NJ. Nice park. The water was a little dark, like a somewhat strong tea but otherwise clear. Since I was there for the transitions I went with the wet suit even though the water was warm enough to go without. I started at the back of the pack hoping for an easy swim. Once we got started though it wasn't long until I had worked my way to the front... even at the easy pace.

Out of the water and a quick run to the transition area. Did much better here than at Columbia. Suit was off in a jiffy, on with the socks, shoes, and helmet. Clipped the number on and I was off clopping down the road toward where I could mount the bike.

The bike ride was nice and relaxing. I started out pretty quick and caught up with the guy who left the transition just before me. As soon as I passed him I recalled this was a "C" race and I should hold back so as not to kill the legs. After that I settled into a comfortable 19-20 mph pace for the 15 miles. It was a great day to ride.

T2 was a small problem. The woman who had racked next to me was in her first triathlon and I think her T1 didn't go as smoothly as possible. Water was all over my shoes, towel, and just about every flat surface I could use to chance into the shoes. I had also forgotten to untie the running shoes before the race started and wasted some time undoing the knots. Still, it was a good transition.

Started out on the run and about 5 minutes in realized I had lots of little rocks in the shoes. Wet socks are like magnets for those things. Since it wasn't a big run for me I jumped over to the side, chatted with some spectators and cleaned out the shoes and socks. Once that was complete I took off again on the run. At mile 1, I stopped again to take a leak. When nature calls who am I to deny what needs to be done. The rest of the run was slow, but by my standards practically blazing! 9:30 miles. Hot damn!

The best part is I felt like I could have kept that pace up a lot longer. I was definitely getting stronger as the miles ticked by. Bring on that 1/2 marathon.

This was a great tri on a great day. Well worth getting up stupid early and driving for two hours. I think/hope/pray I've worked out the transition demons and learned to check everything twice before starting out on the course.

Dig it, the workout schedule said, "...take advantage of the holiday weekend to cram in more..." By more, I think the idea was more bike miles, and that I shouldn't "feel obligated to do it!" Well, I got the "more" part down, didn't do too bad on the biking part, and failed on the "don't feel obligated" part. 1.5 out of 3 isn't too bad.

Overall, it went well.

Me: ran, bike, blah-blah-blah. 90/30 brick Saturday, felt great! 5-hour/20 minute brick Sunday, felt okay. Running a marathon after biking 112 is going to be icky! At best. I say this after a 82.5 mile ride and a 2 mile run today and wow was that run a test of will. At least the upcoming week is a recovery week. I think I need the rest.

Rabobank: Big props to Team Rabobank, they had a great weekend. Saturday Peter Weening just eeked it out on the stage from Pforzheim to Gérardmer. Sunday Michael Rasmussen kicked buttocks all day for a big stage win before the rest. Whoa.

Oh yea, and Rabobank has the best jerseys on the Tour this year. Hands down!

Or, as Bob Roll would say, Tour Day WaWa! That right people, 105 miles of riding in South Jersey over the weekend. Jumped into a century just to see how it would go — and that distance was already in my schedule.

It was better than the last century ride. I even remembered the bike shorts. Total time for this 105 miles was around 5:30 with an average pace of 19.1. I can only hope to do that will in Florida.

Sunday was another bike ride, but only for 90 minutes. Followed those 28 miles up with a 90 minute run. Managed around 10 miles in that time which, for me, is blazing speed! I think I'm getting the hang of this running stuff.

Next step: rest Monday, swim and run on Tuesdy. w00t!

If you happen to be in the NJ/PA area this weekend, there is the Lake Nockamixon Century on Sunday. Should be a pretty good ride. Since it is so close to my house (11-12 miles), I'm going to bike there, do the ride, and bike back. It will make the post-ride run (30-45 minutes) that much easier to get in and then food and shower will be über close. Sweet!

Friday

What, I ask you is better than a 6 hour tempo ride? You guessed it, an hour run off the ride. Yes sir, nothing better.

6 hour Tempo Ride

30 min warm-up
3	x	30 min 145-150HR
		20 min 155-160HR
		10 min 160-165HR
		5 min ez 130HR
3	x	30 min IM pace
		15 min base
30 min ½ IM pace
30 min base-cool-down

Run OFF BIKE 60min at IM effort

Lots of stuff to think about during those 7 hours. Not as much, "Why am I so stupid?" as you'd think.

I realized I was the only guy brave enough to pipe into the posting on Carrie's chest. Sure, you wonder what people will think about that deleted reply (it was a typo). (and who are the Hams?)

Then you think about the run and how can this run be better then the Timberman run.

Around hour 4 you ask yourself if anyone had ever died from choking on Pop-Tart crumbs and you're greatful you didn't crash during the choking fit.

You realized that Fruit Punch Gatorade starts to be less tasty than you'd like about hour 5 but you know you need to keep drinking it lest you dry up like that dude in the third Indiana Jones movie when he picked the wrong cup.

You're pretty stoked when the run goes faster than you thought it would. Both in terms of how long it feels and how you feel at the end.

And after the ride and run, you think about what you thought about and realize there are more blanks in your memory of the ride than you're comfortable with. At least you think there are holes, but you can't be sure.

Saturday

Wedding. Yea for Donna and Mark!

Sunday

And welcome to the start of the NFL season. In order to get the most out of the opening weekend, you get up early to get in your 150 minute run. Nothing too exciting about the run. Felt better than I thought it would, in fact I felt pretty strong. Negative split of about 5 mins on the out-and-back 15 miles along the canal path.

I did crush a mouse. Poor little guy zipped out right in front of me. Why he thought he could make it or why not wait another 4-5 seconds before attempting to zip across the path, I'll never know. I do know that it is pretty gross to flatten an animal on the run. Makes you feel bad inside too.

Thank the Gods I didn't slip and fall. Thank any remaining Gods it wasn't a snake. Man, I hate snakes. Actually stepping on one would too horrible to consider. Feel bad about the mouse, but, damn I'm glad it wasn't a snake.

The perfect post-work brick. Take 1 hour of hill repeats followed by a generous portion of 1 hour tempo run. Yum-yum!

It was a great day to get out and just be outside. Not to hot, not too cool, not too sunny. Just right. I can only hope for a few more weeks of this.

Tomorrow is long run day. Icky. There are way better ways to spend the afternoon than a 2:30 run. The sad part is running that long no long punishes me physically — don't get me wrong, it is plenty hard, just not crippling — I just don't want to spend the two and a half hours doing it.

I'm glad we're coming in the home stretch. Word of advice: don't spread out the training too much when getting ready for Ironman. I've been working to this point since last December when I started training for the Jersey Shore Marathon. That is about 10 months of work with one more to go. I've not taken more than 2-3 days off from training that whole time. Too long. I just want to stop and sleep in.

Next year in getting ready for IM-CDA I've got it down to 19 weeks. 12 to get ready for a half IM in North Carolina and then 7 weeks after that, Idaho. I think that will be better. Much better.

Last night I zipped home from work, dragged the dog quickly around the block and then jumped on my bike for a quick 1 hour ride in the hills. For the first time leaves where being swooshed around when I passed them and that dried leafy smell was in the air. Very fall-like.

It also got dark, and did so rather quickly. About 20 minutes from home the sun dropped behind the trees and it was (day)lights out. At least I made it home before the street lights came on. Mom would be proud!

As I got back from the ride the Loving Wife™ was heading out for a 3-mile run. Since I was feeling good I opted to head out with her. (Yes, you just read that I opted to go on a run. I may have a fever.) We went at her pace which is slower than I would normally go. Being a foot taller and having worked myself into decent running shape for IMF will do that. It was a good stretcher run along the darkened canal.

You can't tell from where you're sitting, but around 12:00 I came down with a horrible illness. It was soooooooo bad I had to leave work. Lucky for me it cleared on the ride home. *heh*

Today was a 3 hour ride followed by a 45-minute run. The ride was nice, if a bit windy. The wind really took a toll on the shady parts of the ride. At least I've come to accept that the summer is over and wore long sleeves for the ride.

The run felt pretty good too. Nothing special but at the start my legs were nice and springy. That feeling lasted pretty much the whole run. I think I'm about as far along the "in shape" curve as I'm going to get. Let's get this race started already!

This weekend was a tough one. Saturday morning was cold and wet. Since I've recently discovered a huge fear of wiping out or falling or tripping and hurting myself before Florida, I decided to move the bike ride to Sunday and get the swim in on Saturday.

Off to the pool for the regularly scheduled masters workout. While I should have been doing distance, it was a butterfly workout. It felt pretty good, but some of the flipper work would come back to haunt me on the Sunday run. 3,500 yards so I traded distance for intensity and that is okay in my book.

If missing 1,500 yards in the pool 14 days before Ironman makes that much of a difference I've failed somewhere else in my training.

Sunday the rain was gone but the cold fall wind was blowing pretty strongly. I started out around 9:00 for a 2-hour loop with the idea being I'd get a second loop in and then run for an hour. Since it was cool — around 60° — I did the layer thing and went with long pants for the ride. It worked, my legs and torso felt fine even in the wind. I did, however, have the wrong socks on. Whoa, the feet froze up after about 40 minutes and stayed numb the whole time.

The start of the ride featured a detour as the road I really wanted to use was closed for an emergency preparedness drill. Old folks home evacuation practice! Nothing better on the Sunday morning. Nothing. The rest of the ride featured on a killer headwind.

Needless to say, at the end of the 2-hour loop I felt miserable. On roads that normally have multiple pelotons of 10+ I only say one other rider. He looked cold too.

Hitting the home to exchange the water bottles I decided to bag the other 2-hours and instead headed out for a run. It took a bit for my toes to warm up but after than it was a good run. Felt strong!

One other thing of note happened: The water temp station at PCB didn't record a single hour at or over the magical 78° mark for 24+ hours. Could be Wilma, but I think it is a good sign. w00t!

This post can be summed up this way: Old and busted: new hotness. New hotness: red and white frame.

Can you dig it?

Well, okay, I can clarify. Two weeks ago my friend Karen went down to Elite to get a fitting for her road bike and to be talked into buying a tri-specific bike. When she got back with the fitted (loaner) frame, she wanted to take it for a spin in the unseasonably warm weather. So, I went down into the basement to grab the Orange Hotness from where she was placed after Florida and pulled her upstairs for a light dusting and some oil/lube. While wiping her down I noticed a small — about 1/4 of an inch — crack in the seat post. Needless to say, I had a slight seizure.

Dents, scrapes, scratches, Gatorade stains that you think wouldn't stain but do, and 1% of that sticky from race numbers that collects grime until the end of time... you can live with all of that stuff. A crack, however, is fatal. When I saw the crack in my orange beauty I was pretty upset.

I called the guys at Elite and was all like, "yo, crack in the frame near the top of the seat-post." The told me the bolt holding the seat was proably overtighened. Since I'm pretty much useless when it comes to bike repair I knew that wasn't me and they are the only guys who have ever worked on the bike. Wiping it down after riding is about the extent of my skillset with bikes. They said I'd probably live though a short ride but I should bring it in for them to look at.

Had I realized it would be my last ride on the Orange Hotness, I would stretched it out.

So, the next day I drive down to Philly and get the news. They'll try to fix it, but it would probably be easier/faster to just give me a new frame. The new frame wouldn't be orange. Now, I was really torn. While I was very psyched to be getting über customer service I was bummed I would be losing the orange hotness.

I have problems with colors. Reds and greens tend to fade out of sight and everyone has a black bike (damn carbon frames). Not too many orange frames out there. In the transition area, she really stuck out. Just run to around where I left her and look for the orange. That frame got me through Ironman. I didn't want to give it up! Dave said they'd give repair a shot, but don't hold my breath.

A few days later I got the email. Repair possible, 10 weeks for repair and repaint. 10 weeks! Too long. He did have this Pearl White with red decals he could give me instead.

White... not orange. White!

So, today I'm heading down to Elite to have the white frame fitted. I'm not sure how much I'll be digging it. I'm sure it will be okay, but even though it will still be a Magnus frame, it won't be the same. It is, infact, bringing me down.

If I can get a good picture of the White Hotness on my camera phone, I'll post it. Until then, in lieu of flowers, please send Gu or CO2 cartridges.

Oh, Saturday. The long bike day. Ummmmm, yea! Nothing better. Well, it could have been better. It is beyond cold outside so I traded in the great outdoors for a spin. A three hour spin to be exact. Headed over to Karen's unGodly early to get started and by 5:05AM I was in the saddle turning over the pedals. My legs were bit fried from yesterday's 4,700 swim and then Hot Yoga, but it was just a matter of not stopping.

Tired is for non-Ironman, right?

Near the end of the three hours it got bad. Oh, the spin was still good but the other decided it would be "cool" to fire up the TiVo and watch "American Idol". Just so you know, there is no God. HE wouldn't create a world where you get trapped on your bike watching lame-ass TV. Just to put this in perspective, this was the first (and hopefully last) time I've watched that show or any of it's ilk. How can people stand it? My only regret was I couldn't spork my eyes out before it started.

On the very plus side, when the show came on I was able to drop my head and focus on my heart rate monitor. Since I couldn't see the Spinnervals DVD that well, I aimed for a 5-minute "on" (heart rate at 145+) / 5-minute "off" (easy spin, rate over 110) for the duration. Worked out pretty well, but I was glad to get off the bike at the end.

Off the bike there was wee 30-minute run in the cold. The legs felt pretty good and when the wind let up the run was almost fun. There are a goodly number of beer, wine, and hard liquor bottles on the roads in Skillman. Scary.

After the run it was home for a shower and nap. Long morning, but I'm glad the brick was done early. Frees up time for other stuff.

Ha! Suck it Mazda USA. Sure you put some obstacles in my way, but with a little bit of effort and the help of international shippers.... BAM! Bike rack in effect.

Sorry they are little blurry. With only a camera phone it is harder than you'd think to get good images at twilight. Some time this week I'll need to take a test drive just to prove to myself the bike won't fly off once I get the car up over 25.

I also found this image on the phone from my 6 hour ride over the weekend. It looks cool, but was expontentially cool in person. She's actual size!