Illicit Post

Shhh, don't tell anyone you read this because I'm actually posting from work so we want to keep this quiet. Ok, ok, I'm on lunch but still. A few days back I gracefully spilled about 20 ozs of water onto my laptop, directly onto the key board. I immediately reached for it to flip it over to drain and dry and in my haste I punched the "On" button. After waiting a couple days for the thing to drain and dry I discovered that indeed my keyboard is fried but the computer is operational. I got a remote keyboard and mouse as a temporary fix but it really sucks because I am now constantly inadvertently punching weird buttons, deleting e-mails that I haven't read, canceling e-mails and blog posts that I am leaving comments on and sending the computer into hibernation mode. Fortunately I can just order a new keyboard and have it installed and everything will once again be peachy.

In triathlon news my IM training is going pretty well. This past weekend I had a big brick planned for Saturday, 20 mile ride followed by a 20 mile run. The bike went well and I felt strong and then jumped off and felt like I was running well, about 10 min miles with my HR in the mid 130s. The course I chose to run is basically 10 miles uphill and then 10 miles back down, about 750 feet of elevation gain. I thought it would be a good course because, well, frankly I'm sick of doing my long runs in one straight, flat line and I figured I could use some elevation change. As long as I was on the flats I was running around 10s but when I started climbing I was hitting 11s and 12s. The day started heating up around mid run, somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 degrees and I hit my refuel station at mile 12.5. I took about 10 or 15 minutes to top off all water bottles, hit the head (that's restroom for you non-Marine Corps/Navy – Coast Guard? types) and stretch out a little then it was back to the trail. I experienced a stabbing pain in my left knee about three times between miles 13 and 16 and I take that as a sign that I really need a new pair of shoes. It just occurred to me the day before the run that I was probably having some knee pain because I have somewhere over 350 miles on this pair of shoes and I really can't get away with much more than 250 or 300 miles to the pair. Anyhow I was able to finish off the run feeling tired but pretty good and had an average pace of 12:10 per mile including my pit stop and the couple of walk breaks I took to quiet my knee. It is my hope that I can hold a slightly faster pace for IMKY but I'd be happy with a 12:10…actually I'll be happy with anything that involves me running 50% or more of the course.

After the brick I iced down and waited upon my lovely bride, we headed home for a shower and nap and then later that afternoon we headed up to Cochiti Lake to take our new tandem Kayak for her maiden voyage. Yea!

Kayaking is one of those things I have wanted to do for years but have just never gotten around to it but I finally said enough is enough and took the plunge. The maiden voyage was quite the experience since the GEEKGRL and I have no idea what we were doing and were simply trying to paddle together…oh, and I had failed to install the RUDDER.

Anywho…we were not exactly paddling straight or efficiently but we got where we wanted to get to. After a while I simply took over the paddling by myself and let the GEEKGRL relax in the bow…I know you are already impressed with my grasp of the nautical.

After about an hour and a half of paddling around the lake a huge storm blew in and the winds picked up and the lake became choppy and we were on the other side of the lake from our car. I kicked it into high gear and started paddling for all I was worth. I got up to pretty good speed and the GEEKGRL bet me I couldn't out run the storm, sort of…she actually said "let's see if you can out run the storm." So there I was paddling like mad with my rudderless tandem kayak bouncing on the chop. Meanwhile the boat was trying desperately to head in a direction I did not want it to go. I started paddling mostly on one side to keep it turning in the direction I wanted it to travel but was having only minimal luck so I began in on using wide sweep strokes, which worked far better, that is until my paddle snapped in two. So there I was in the middle of this lake with a New Mexico gale blowing in and the GEEKGRL counting on me and the two halves of my paddle in either hand.

Without further ado I stuffed one half of the paddle in my cockpit and had at the lake with the remaining half of the paddle and got the job done canoe style. We made it back to shore safely and the rain only started hitting harder once we were ashore where we were greeted by park rangers admonishing us to hurry up and load the boat so they could lock up the park entry gates.

From time to time I have thought of myself as the Homer Simpson of triathlon and now it looks as if I'm off to a banner start with the sport of Kayaking. I can only say that I am glad I have such a brave wife who will put up with my antics with only a modicum of exasperation.

Sunday was far less exciting. The GEEKGRL and I hit the road for an easy 60 mile ride and then went home to lounge…oh, that is after I went to REI to return said un-trusty paddle.

One more week of high volume training and then it's taper time…YEA!