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What have I been doing lately? I’ve mentioned that I’ve been doing some triathlons a bit, but I don’t know if I mentioned that I have been coaching a few people for the same. I’ve got one more to do this year, and am having a blast doing them. Last one is an International Olympic Distance race put on by the Purdue Triathlon Club in 2 weeks. Interested in seeing how well I’m doing? I’ve got my own website for that – yep another place to have to check for the crap I write.Â
I haven’t had a smoke in 1 year today…
The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 14-18 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 18. Need some ideas? Here are 50 ways (large PDF) to celebrate Bike Month.
I actually started the commute to work yesterday. It’s roughly 25 miles, and takes about an hour and a half. If I were to drive my car, it takes about an hour in traffic. I even rode home when I got off work at 10:30PM last night, and felt safe the whole way. It’s funny what a $15 set of bike lights from Wal*mart will do for you.
Now, I’ll just have to learn to ride without training wheels.Â
Last week was the Splash Flash & Dash in Carmel on Sunday. 400M Swim, 10 mile bike and 5k run. Though I need to work on my Bike to Run transition, and I need lots more overall conditioning, I was pretty happy with my results:
Total: Â 1:18:47
Swim:Â 7:11
T1:Â 2:52
Bike:Â 32:22
T2:Â 1:38
Run:Â 34:43
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Yeah, I know, no update recently, things have been kind of hectic. New baby, my neck surgery, lovely wife’s gall bladder surgery; everything adds up. I’m back to working full time now, and may have a little more motivation to write more here.Â
Speaking of motivation, how’s this for some? I’m back into running again (I hate the term jog). I’m planning on running 40 miles this month. The motivation is if I don’t get it done, I’ll let someone shave my head bald come 2/1. Believe me, I’ll get it done, I don’t look good bald.
Well, I made 1/2 of my goals last weekend… If you remember, I said I was planning on completing a sprint triathlon all by myself; I was what they call an age grouper. I had not mentioned that I wanted to complete this one, a fairly longish sprint, in under 2 hours. The race, the Mighty Mississinewa Triathlon, was the first annual (first annual?) race put on by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as a fund raiser for the Indiana Heritage Trust, money to be used to purchase additional properties around Mississinewa Reservoir, one of my favorite hunting spots in the area. So, I signed up for the race, still feeling crappy from my Myelogram (after 9 days), wondering if I was just being stubborn or stupid (the lovely wife would tell you probably a little bit of both). Saturday AM, I get up at 4, eat breakfast, load up the car and pick up my dad, who will drive the car when I thoroughy hurt myself or have a coronary during the event.Â
Well, like I said, it was a longish sprint triathlon. Normally, they are about 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike and a 5k run. This one had a 16 mile bike and a 4 mile run (with the normal length swim). I’ve biked that far a couple of times, not too worried about that at all. The run was what had me worried, as I have only worked my way up to about 2/3 of that distance. Short story, I made it and finished the event. 2 hours would have been an awesome time for me, I would have been estatic. Well, I was close, finishing in 2 hours 3 minutes. My first tri as an age grouper in 15 years. I’m actually even pretty happy about the time. Results are here: http://www.timingiseverything.com/Races/MMT06.HTMÂ
You guys are lucky, season is over with, so no more race talk from me for a bit. My goals for the winter are to build up some base, I need to be able to run 3 miles in 21 minutes-ish next year. I need to be able to swim 500 yards in about 8 minutes. I need to be able to ride 10 miles in about 30 minutes. With good transitions, at about 2 minutes apiece, I should be able to finish the Indy Sprints in about an hour and five minutes. We’ll see if it can happen.
So, I went to see the surgeon last Tuesday, he is recomending surgery to fix the pinched C6 nerve in my neck. They are going to take out the disk and put some bone chips to fuse the vertebrate. This is scheduled for 11/6 at this point. He wanted to schedule it for later this month, but it would take about a month until I can pick up someting heavier than my little dog. That means I can’t pick up Tanner afterwards. So, with the new baby coming in three weeks, we decided to put off surgery until November.
Speaking of the new baby, can you believe it is only 3 weeks away? There is still so much to do before then, and so little time. Currently, the C-Section is scheduled for 10/4 at 2PM. I am sure the lovely wife is hoping it happens much earlier.
Tanner is doing fantastic, learning many new words each week (including “Oh Shit”), and her personality… Well, let me just say that if she were any more animated, she’d be a cartoon character. Such a great kid, like her big sister, except for the two times she bit me (though it was by accident).
Teressa is doing great too. When we were down there a few weeks ago, she had her first boy friend of the school year.
Well, enough from me tonight. I’ll try to get back in the habit of writing more.
Triathlon pictures from last week were posted on their website tonight. If you want to order the pictures, you will find them here. There are more photos in the “lost and found” section, start on photo 263 and tell it to display 10 pictures. The first 6 are me on the bike.
I’ll try to get back on here this weekend to tell you of the terror that was the Myelogram I had this week. I’ve been unable to do much since that happened on Monday morning, and had to go back on Wednesday for a blood patch. You’ve never had a headache until you have had a spinal headache. Migrains are nothing compared to a spinal headache. More on that later.
Here are some pictures you ya from last Saturday’s race. Announcing below….
Team Thrown Together
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TJ returning from the swim     TJ Heading out for the bike ride         Andy in for the finish
I should have the professional pictures I will scan in so we can get rid of the “PROOF”, though for now, we can say it is for proof of finishing the triathlon.
If you are interested in purchasing pictures, they are on shutterfly. You can see the album for purchasing here. Alternatly, if you click on the pictures, you will be taken to the ordering page on shutterfly.
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Some important news for this week!!!!  I have a new triathlon to do next week, and I took on a new partner… I’ll give you a hint, the triathalon is in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and the new partner, when asked, said “That would be AWESMOE!” Yep, for those of you who have guessed it, Teressa and I are going to compete in the Old Hickory Triathlon next weekend. More on the specifics later, but for now, you can see about the event at: http://www.team-magic.com/tmtri/ohltri.htm
Well, we’ve been busy trying to get things ready for the new baby. With about 7 weeks left, there is not much time. We’ve moved Teressa to the back bedroom, though we still need to set her room up. Tanner has officially graduated out of the nursery to Teressa’s old room, and has, for the last week, been sleeping in there, in her big girl bed, with no adjustment problems. That means the nursery is ready to paint and get ready for Thomas.  I don’t know if I’ve mention that we have decided to name the baby Thomas Trent Tryon Jr. (I guess it would actually be the third)… A couple of more weeks and we are getting the final ultrasound, and Thomas will be here soon enough. So far so good though, both Momma and the baby are healthy. The baby is head down, and kicking the crap outta Momma ALL the time, which is driving Momma crazy at this point in time. Momma is (extremely) cranky, which is driving Daddy crazy at this point in time (*grin* makes training for a triathlon that much sweeter *snicker*).
On a different note, today I was in another triathlon, the third (of the yearly series – my second this year) and last of the series I was in last month. I suckered a buddy into running for me, so I signed us up as a team, and I did the swim and bike portion of the race myself. I did the swim much slower than I did last month, but I did it so I could have the energy to do the bike portion. All in all I was pretty slow, but I did feel good in finishing it. I’m a bit sore and tight tonight, but no worries. With a little more training, I think I will be comfortable doing the whole sprint triathlon (Indy Sprint -> 1/3 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3 mile run). Unfortunatly, the Indy Sprints are done for the year, but there is one up at Mississinewa in 3 weeks. I should be able to get all trained up for that one to be able to do it myself, though I do have an email out to my running partner to see if he wants to run it. Results (teams) for today’s tri are at: http://www.tuxbro.com/results/2006/TRI3T.HTM (July tri results are at: http://www.tuxbro.com/results/2006/INDSPRT.HTM)Â
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I spoke to my friend Craig today, he wanted to confirm we were still going to team up for the triathalon again on the 19th of August. Plans are for the team to stay the same as we did last time, with me swimming, Craig biking and Matt running. Sounds good, I’m in, and I’m going to have a few more weeks of training in by then.
These triathalons are not the Ironman length of triathalon, as I don’t think any of us are in enough shape to do one of that length. The Ironman is the longest of the Tri’s, with a 2.5 mile swim, 100ish mile bike and a full marathon of running (26 miles) to bring the race to a close… No, not even close, we are doing a sprint length triathalon, which is MUCH less… 500 meters of swimming, a 10 mile bike and a 3 mile run. I’m going to try to get myself to the point that I can do a full race, all three parts, by myself next year. I’ve been training for a month now, with a few swims in the lake, a few runs around the neighborhood, and now, I can say I have a few laps on a bike. I broke down and bought a new bicycle. Now I can really get ready for a triathalon myself next summer, maybe compete in the Blacksnake Biathalon again, and even ride the Hilly or the RAGBRI again…