ASPHALT JUNKIES Summer Bronzing Crew - CLOSED (Page 29)

Tracy - Glad to hear you are recovering from the stress fracture and are able to run 5 days a week. Still don't know how you get on the bike for that long of a stretch. Sorry to hear about the gym ending childcare and that you will lose some students.

Will - My props to you for directing youth camp all week. I'd rather do many, many other things than be responsible for the health and safety of that many kids. As a parent, thank you! As for signing up for a IM, I'd say go for it, but I know how hard it is to juggle everything else on top of trianing, so I hope you make the best decision, whatever that may be. I think Jeff makes a great point about IM being a "calling."

Dirk - Thanks! The folks that came in 2nd and 3rd were close to 60, so they definitely schooled my butt with their sub 20:00 finishes.  

Jeff - "When I finished, I saw my bloody toe which I thought was just a random leakage, skin peeling off the bottoms of my feet, and the Achilles hurting worse than ever before and it took half the joy away. 
In the aftermath, I suspect my toe was broken when I entered the water.  But it doesn't hurt much unless I squeeze it or move it (under it's own muscle power).  The Achilles is the real problem."  For starters, I LOVE reading your race reports, and secondly, I cannot imagine what the people around you were thinking when they saw you and your bloody foot. Perhaps they just thought.... stay out of that crazy guy's way!   

Tales from an Asphalt Junkie..... "How you know you are a Asphalt Junkie".....

So, I am getting ready for a Sprint Tri on July 4th, but am considering running in a 5k this Saturday. No biggie in my mind, right? The Sprint will not be an "A" race, just a chance to get more OWS practice in. So, this guy I met while being a vendor at a recent Century ride and "Mr. I've done 30 Triathlons" (he prefaced his advice with that info) offers unsolicited advice to me yesterday. He tells me that clearly I haven't done a triathlon before and that I need to start resting and better not run the 5k on Saturday since it will be 4 days out from the triathlon. MMhhmmm..... my reply to him.... clearly you are not at Asphalt Junkie. Still not sure if I can make it to the 5k on Saturday since it is a long drive and an early start, but I will be hammering out a bike ride come Tuesday morning.

Jen,  I had to laugh about the sage advice from such an experienced athlete.  There's one in every crowd I suppose.  I actually know a guy (and trained rarely with) who's experiences in triathlon, that I am aware of, extend only to sprints yet he offers advice for long course racing.  Now, that in itself isn't the crazy part because that's possible to give good advice based on knowledge and application of training principles.  The problem lies when he tells me how easy it will be for him to KQ when he's 50 years old.  He believes that he will be fast enough to place in the appropriate places to earn a spot. ..........I can pretty much beat him at any race right now other than a 5k foot race, and even the 5k would be a very, very tight finish.  Triathlon I would definitely beat him at any distance because I can thoroughly thrash him on the bike.  Now I kind of laugh to myself when he gives me advice and tells me how he'll get to Kona in a couple of years.

BTW, DO BOTH RACES!!........Then find this guy somewhere else and report back to him how you kicked the trash out of everyone at both races one week apart.

Dina,  it's good to have you back with the rest of the world.  It sounds like you had at least some time for yourself while on vacation.  Those alone runs in unfamiliar or new-ish routes can be pretty nice sometimes just to recapture our vibrancy for our sport.  It was kind of like that for the hilly ride I took in Ohio a month ago.

Joanne,  Those are amazing pictures from your PA trip.  I would imagine your disconnect from the civilized world felt pretty good too.  Many times when we plan a trip camping for a weekend or a longer time period I try to get outside of my employers footprint.  I can mentally disconnect more easily and not think about storms response, etc.  I have always loved watching storms with large amounts of lightning but as a supervisor I have learned that many times it only means more work and I have lost that passion to watch them.  Outside our service territory I can reclaim the joy of watching storms for a while.

Jonathan,  You know I'm going to agree with Jeff about your response to training with a family and I know how much of an impact your father has made on your life.  Keeping things in perspective as you are is keeping priorities in line with where you need to be as a person and a father.  Beginning that journey now, even before kids, will reap tremendous benefits as you begin a new family.  A strong commitment now will mean a greater impact later.

Jeff and Warren,  Umm?  Heck yeah I'll be using the excuse that I had to run after T2!!  I would be a fool not to!  Especially if I get the trashed kicked out of me.  In all reality I would hate to have to race without both of us being 100%. 

Here's a link to some really good advice for all of us and a point that I believe Jeff is living out this weekend.  Good on Jeff for doing for being the example we all should follow.

Tony,  I have yet to read your RR from Syracuse.  I should get to that later this morning.

_________

Brenda and I will be racing against each other tomorrow morning....again.  This will be the second race this season and both Lis and I are looking forward to seeing her. tonight at packet pick up.

Before we head west I was planning a swim at the long course pool but that plan was foiled.  Lis and I have been sitting all morning discussing some vacation (long weekend plans) upcoming.  Those plans will not afford me the luxury of racing Rev3 Cedar Point again this season.  I am very disappointed I will not be back over there in September because I wanted to see what I could do with one year of experience at the 70.3 distance and a little training could do for me there...again. 

Lis finally told me recently that she wants to do something for her for a change (I don't mean this in a negative way) and I will certainly oblige her.  Her willingness to chase me around for these years of racing has been an incredible gift to me and I cannot even consider telling her how badly I would like to race Rev3 again.  We are planning to go to Destin Fl. again over the Labor day weekend and extending it for a day or two and the added expense of a major race won't work well.  At least the way we did it last year with the camping, meals, Cedar Point entry tickets and additional gas to drive that far towing our camper.

We have begun discussion of me finding a closer, long-ish course race for the late season that will be much cheaper in overall expenditures, but those negotiations are in the very beginning stages.

Now I just have to figure out how to get the Rev3 race off my race calendar.

I just got to spend a little time with Dirk and Lisa!   They make me laugh.  I almost didn't recognize Dirk because he looked a bit like Grizzly Adams.  He promised to shave his face for the race as it'll drop some seconds off his time.   His legs were nice and smooth, though, so I guess he prioritized.       It's good to be with friends.  

I have this little sprint race tomorrow then I'm off the racing scene for a while.   We have family vacation week then a week off which will be laundry and more laundry then repack for a "hubby and me" vacation week while the kids are at camp.  The month of July is going to fly by!     I'll stay as connected as I can with you all because you bring me Junkie Joy!

May you each find your happy place this weekend, whether you're racing, training or taking time off.

You all may kick me out of the Junkies, I'm afraid I have really lost the motivation to race this summer. I've been fighting this feeling all spring if you remember, well I was invited to come race for free today at a small local tri and I turned it down.  If I can't get motivated to race for free then what will it take?!