Random and occasional thoughts on

Warning This is a long read, but hey, it was a long race. Preparation I signed up for this race after a lot of thought and discussion with my wife.  Christine has never seen first hand the schedule and effort that goes into preparing for an Ironman so I tried hard to tell her what my time commitment would be if I signed up for this race.   I did my first, and only other Ironman the year I turned 40 so this would be a decade later and the year I turned 50.  My job had a somewhat flexible schedule and no other significant commitments, so it seemed like the stars were in alignment and I decided to go for it. I had already been running a lot and did a trail marathon in February so I thought my running was on track.  I did a couple of open water swims, but never managed to get in the water as regularly as I had planned.  I wasn't too worried about that since my swimming background is pretty strong.  I tried to get 3 bike rides in a week when I was...

It was beneath an overcast post-dawn sky that this epic ride was started.  OK, maybe most people wouldn't consider it an Epic Ride.  Alright, I wouldn't even have considered this an epic ride a few years ago, but hey, I just doubled my 2009 bike mileage in a single morning.  Pretty embarrassing to admit that my total logged bike miles for 2009 was 4. It did feel good to get out for a bit over 30 min this morning and I hope to get more rides real soon.

Grant Baird has a great website about triathlon. He has pieces of information on many of the racers and races. He either takes the pictures himself or finds other photographers willing to share some shots. He has featured a bunch of shots from several different photographers for Ironman Arizona last weekend including about 5 of mine. Take a look at his IMAZ November page and see some great shots. It is always fun to watch the professionals, especially when you see the leaders really moving by. At this point, Joanna Zeiger was only about 13 minutes behind the lead men by my watch. Feel free to drop by Flowing Desert Photography and see more of my pictures. If you like what you see, please feel free to rate your favorite pictures (at least a quick thumbs up is appreciated) and tell your friends about it. Thanks.

No, I'm not closing up shop or anything, this is just a weekend recap/summary. I went for a Bike ride Saturday. I rode about 27 miles to an activity at church and then another 27 to get home about an hour later. I had estimated it would be about 25 miles and planned on leaving 90 min before I needed to be there and was shooting for an easy 15-16 mph pace. I was a few minutes late getting started and it was a few miles longer so I ended up with about an 18 mph avg speed in order to try and avoid being too late. By the time I headed home, it was about 90* F out, so I did take it easy and averaged about 15.5 mph for the ride home. Yard work, church, groceries and laundry were all done on Sunday with some help from the guys -- it just doesn't sound right to call them boys when they are getting so big and acting so darn responsible. Then we played a little Aerosmith Guitar Hero to finish the day. Well, gonna try running in the morning and then planning on Functional Strength T...

bike + camera = cool videos I am so totally doing this! I think it will motivate me to get out on the bike a bit more often. Of course, I'll do it with my "old" point and shoot camera, not my new DSLR, but it usually works out pretty well. I think my Dad has an old, little digital P&S that he doesn't use.

A while back when I was on my bike (bicycle, not motorcycle), I had a guy honk at me and wave me towards the side of the road (I was pretty much on the line and the shoulder went away completely just ahead). I caught up with him a little ways ahead and stopped next to him and motioned for him to roll down the window and said "did you have something to say?" He said "get further to the side and make room for cars" I said "In this state a bike has the same right to the the road as you do." he comes back with "you don't pay taxes". Since when do my rights depend on how much I pay in taxes? Not to mention, it is likely that I probably pay more in payroll taxes than he does, so his argument was not only flawed , but wrong as well . It is this kind of ignorance or bike-hating that contributes to the danger of biking when this kind of people feel justified in running us off the road. One movement that is trying to raise awareness of bicycles...