Things and Stuff Plus a Super Short Race Report

Got to learn to post quickly or nothing will ever get up here again.

Job: I made the top 5 in the applicant pool for the Chief of Psychology job and now it’s on to the final rounds, 30 minute interview by a panel to make sure none of the top 5 will simply lose it. Done, passed and was told I did very well. Next up is day long series of interviews with and a professional presentation to the medical staff.

Running: Ehh, my ultra training has been lackluster. Not that I haven’t been climbing like crazy, I have, it’s more that I’ve been somewhat inconsistent and my mileage isn’t anywhere near where it should be. The frightening thing is…I don’t really care. I know, BLASPHEMER! Well, all I can say in my defense is that I am enjoying the hell out f my running. I think I’m having more fun with it than I have in years. What more can you ask for?

Multisport: I haven’t done a triathlon this year but I did ref one. I haven’t been training much at all. Winter is dragging on here in Albuquerque and for whatever reason I have absolutely refused to drag my butt and my bike through the freezing temps like I have so many years past. I haven’t really been swimming much either, about 4500 meters so far this month and ZERO meters for the previous three months. However, when I jumped back on the bike and back in the water things seem to be snapping back nicely but here’s something weird. I am terrified of riding fast downhill. I have ridden maybe 6 times since January and EVERY SINGLE TIME I have had at least one flat…yes sometimes I have more and all but one of them has been on the front tire. I had some Continental Gator Skins on the bike, they are modeled after the evolutionary dead end crepe paper skinned alligator. In short, they suck. Now I am back on the Bontrager Hard Cases and of course they ROCK. I have ridden Bontragers until the rubber was pealing off in strips and still haven’t had a flat. So, now that I have real tires n my bike the confidence is starting to cme back.

Yard work: I love it. Did you know that I once had a yard that I designed and had registered as a back yard wildlife habitat? Yep. My last house had no yard to speak of and it was near a golf course, which are about the most toxic places on earth and can not support life but now the GeekGrl and I have our sweet home in the foothills of the Sandia mountains and I have this great big yard and I’m going crazy. Right now I’m building a pond that is 20 X 12 feet. Ok, I won’t bore with details.

Racing: Funny story, I was thinking to myself that I had better start cycling again at least a couple months before the Buffalo Springs half-iron so I decided to register for a race to get my motivation going. Well, the race was only two weeks away so I went and hammered out 60 miles and nothing else. It kind of defeated the purpose but I did race, raced today at the Atomic Man Duathlon. I did the Fat Man course, apropos I know. It is 10K – 40K – 5K. My main goal was to survive because I really didn’t have any sense of what kind of shape I’m in due to my weird training. Turns out I’m not in that bad a condition. I ended up with a PR on that course by about one minute despite having a headwind uphill all the way out to the turn around, being afraid to go to fast on the down hills and having the most wicked downhill on the course covered in a fine coating of gravel. I also took first place Clydesdale. Yea!