Stick a fork in it

It's been a while since my last post, but I have a REALLY good excuse (not like it matters, since I don't think that anyone really reads this). 9 days ago, we had another addition to the family. Child #4 is now here, alive, healthy and BEAUTIFUL! I never mentioned Shawna being pregnant before this, mostly because no one reads it so it didn't matter. But now the baby is here, so I wanted to take a second and talk about it. Just like 2 out of the 3 previous pregnancies, we didn't find out what it was we were having. I joking said that I didn't remember being there for the conception, but when this little one was born there was no mistaking it as one of mine. She looks just like the others when they were born, dark hair and eyebrows that are unmistakably from me (poor kids). So we have now been blessed with 2 boys and 2 girls. We are officially done. I will be going in for the snippy snip sometime before the end of the year to ensure that we are done. I feel that I have so much other stuff to talk about, but I just don't have the time. Instead, I will leave you a pic of the newest addition, forever to be known here as daughter #2.

recap Kona 2012

                  For not having cable tv (even though it wasn't televised), and the tablet not wanting to display the video feed of the event, I was able to follow most of the event yesterday. Or at least as much as possible with the updates being written down, and with the kids and everything else going on yesterday. I missed the run portion as I went with the family down to the pumpkin patch for an afternoon of pumpkins and fun. I missed some of the bike portion when I took off on my afternoon run too, but when I got back, I hadn't missed much as the updates from the bike portion had slowed down. So how'd I do on guessing the podium finishers? Well, for the men I was 1 for 3, and women I had all 3, just not with Mirinda Carfrae taking 3rd instead of first.
       The biggest thing that I was surprised about was where Craig Alexander finished (12th), and that Chris McCormack would completely give up, not even finishing the bike portion. I haven't seen any interviews about what happened to Macca to cause him to completely drop out of the event, but I'm curious to hear what he has to say. I've also not heard Crowie's take on the day, or anyone else's about his performance. I personally believe that Crowie went too hard on the bike from the start, and spent too much energy. He was smoking fast the first section of the bike course, and i was wondering how that was going to pay off for him. Well it didn't. When I got back from my run, he was way behind and could never make up the difference. The biggest surprise was that his run, which is his strength, didn't really help him make up the lost ground from the bike. That's why I think that the strategy on the bike didn't work.

        On the women's side, I thought that Carfrae was in a good position being ~11 min behind the leaders coming off the bike. Last year she was 14 min behind the leader and was able to catch up and pass everyone except Chrissie Wellington. Unfortunately for Carfrae, she couldn't pull it off. Lava magazine reports that she was running 7 min miles instead of her normal 6:30+ pace. Ultimately, Carefrae would collapse at the finish line almost 6 full minutes behind Leanda Cave





Leanda Cave winning both the 70.3 world championship in Las Vegas, and the Ironman world championship in Kona only 5 weeks apart.

Kona 2012

Here's my predictions for Kona. The event is tomorrow am, and I'm anxiously awaiting to see who comes out on top. The biggest bummer is that Lance Armstrong can't compete. Although USADA has done a tremendous job smearing and ruining his name, I still think he's a champ. Anyways, back to the predictions.

Men's podium will have (maybe not in this order)
Alexander Craig
Chris McCorrmak
Andreas Raelert

Women's Podium
Mirinda Carfrae
Leanda Cave
Caroline Steffen

I think that Crowie will have a battle on his hands, but that ultimately he'll pull off the victory. Andreas has been pretty consistent over the last few years on the island, but I don't see him being able to stay with Crowie. The wold card is Macca. He's been off the Ironman gig for a while in his attempt to get an olympic spot this last year. Meaning that he's been racing the shorter, but way faster, ITU circuit. He's slimmed down and had a chance to rebuild his speed. He's also had plenty of time to prep for this event since he knew way before London that he wasn't on the team. He's got two Kona victories under his belt already, and tomorrow might prove to be his third. After all, he did win the last time he raced there.

On the women's side, I see Carfrae taking the top spot. She's been working on her bike speed all season, and trying to keep her run speed the same. She came back from a 14+ min deficit to take 2nd last year behind Chrissie Wellington (who's not racing this season). So long as Carfrae hasn't lost much on her run, I think that she will be extremely hard to beat. After the title, the race is too close to call on where the rest of the women will finish. I don't think that Carfrae will beat her own marathon record this year, but I think that she'll still take the win.

Broken Trainer

Today I broke my indoor cycling trainer. It's not a huge deal, more of an inconvenience than anything else. I've already done the research, and it's an $8 fix direct from Cycleops. The reason for the break down is because of a fault in the design for being able to use 650c wheels. With the smaller wheel, I need to move the entire fly wheel unit in closer so it makes contact. This isn't a huge deal, except that there is a plastic section on the underside of the flywheel that makes the contact needed for the 650c wheel difficult at best. I always wondered why I really had to wrench down on the turn handle to get a decent amount of contact on my tire. So with the travel being restricted, I ended up stripping out the L shaped bolt that holds the fly wheel in place for the ride.

The funny thing is that I don't normally use my trainer. I've been doing lots of rides at work and have been on the station trainer, which is a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer. So while I am now unable to do any training at home, it will soon be back up and running. This is only a little frustrating because, yet again, I get screwed by having the smaller 650c wheels. These wheels truly are the bane of my existence.

I did some number crunching for this last month, and I have decided that I will start to total my monthly miles and share them with you. So for the month of Sept, here's the final miles
Swim:  2200 yds (remember, I'm working on form, not volume right now)
Bike: 146.4 miles (It was actually more, but somehow I lost the mileage on one of my training rides)
Run: 18.6 miles
This is also on top of the Crossfit that I do as well.

My last few workouts, I've really been paying attention to my heart rate while on the bike and now while on the run since I got my Timex GPS. It's some interesting stuff. While reading the Time Crunched Cyclist book, I've learned more about heart rate and zones, and how they can be used for different types of training. So I'm starting to pay more attention to where the ol' ticker is at while I'm doing the work.

Lastly, I thought that I'd leave you with a music video of a song that I can't get out of my head. It's from a band called Dead Sara, and I'm pretty sure that I've posted another video from them for a song called the Weatherman. This song is called We Are What You Say

REI Garage Sale and my OCD

                         Saturday it was go time for the REI garage sale. I usually only get to one of these a year and it's probably a god thing that I don't go more often. I always have a list of what it is that I'm going to look for, but inevitably, there is always a find or two that I can't pass up. This year was no exception. The sale starts at 9am in the parking lot. I got there just before 830, and had plenty of time to wonder around the outside of the sale area (they have it blocked off with the orange snow fencing) to see what was potentially available. First thing I noticed was a pink bike. This is one of the balance bikes that has become popular for the kids. It's basically a bike without the crank and pedals. It allows the younger kids to push themselves on the bike and learn how to balance. Then when it's time for a "real" bike, the transition is super smooth and no training wheels are required. How can I NOT go for that bike? The little girl will be turning 2 in another month, plus Christmas is right around the corner. I NEEDED THAT BIKE! I also saw a Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer and a Cylceops wind trainer. I already have a trainer, and I get a killer deal on the Kinetic fluid trainers anyways, so they were further down the list. My new list was the bike, and then a Garmin GPS watch.
                           REI's method for letting people in is designed to prevent people from camping out the night before. It used to be a first come, first serve, so people would camp out the day before to score the best deals. Now, it's a lottery system based on your member ID number. They tell you to look at either the last or second to last digit, and then they start drawing numbers from a hat. The luckier you are, the sooner you're called. Last time, I was in the first round thanks to my buddy Jeff who had the right number. Each person can bring one friend in. The way to play the game, and maximize your chances though is to get the member cards of friends that can't make it, and therefore increase you're chances of getting in early. I had 2 other cards with me besides my own.
                           The first number was called and it wasn't mine! BUT, it did belong to my friend Randy. Randy grabbed Jeff and started toward the door. I told Jeff to grab the pink bike and he looked at me like "are you serious?" Yeah, grab the bike! Off they went in, and Randy grabbed the bike as he went to look for other stuff. One of my 3 numbers was called next, so off Shawna and I went to go shopping. I saw Randy walking around with the pink bike and thought that he looked so cute I shouldn't take the bike from him so soon. But then he saw me, and handed over the bike. The bike was VERY popular, as Shawna and I had multiple people come up to us and ask if we were going to buy it. One lady even followed Shawna around for 10 min just in case.

                        With the bike in hand, it was time to get back on track with what was really on the list, and that was a Garmin. Searching through the bin, there was a ton of electronic stuff, mostly just heart rate monitors, and other cycling computers. I thought that I just might not luck out, but then Shawna pointed out another table. At that table, I found a Timex GPS run trainer watch with a heart rate monitor. Later in the morning, Shawna pointed out a Motorola GPS watch that had an 8Gb MP3 player built in. I thought that was pretty cool, and now I needed to make a decision. I almost went with the Motorola until I realized that I was going to have to pay extra for the heart rate feature on the unit. A heart rate monitor was way more important to me than the MP3 player. After all, I already have a music player. So I went with the Timex one. The only small problem is that it has some pink on it. A small pink ring around the face, and then the buttons are also this pink/purple color. Seeing how I was getting this for more than 1/2 off, I could really care less that it has a little bit of pink. The reason for the return, according to the label was than it was bought new, but looked used. The previous owner also returned it a week earlier, so I'm thinking that they returned it in hopes of re-buying it for cheaper. All in all, it was a fairly successful trip to REI.

                      Later that night, I had a bought of OCD strike. Now I think that everyone has some sort of OCD, it's just a matter of how it wants to manifest itself. For me, my normal OCD is every night I need to go down stairs and make sure that every door is locked. Open the garage door, ensure that it's closed, then lock the door from the garage to the kitchen. Check the back, slider door. Check the front door. This includes making sure that all the child locks are locked on each of those doors as well. Well Saturday night my OCD got the best of me. I had to move the fridge to retrieve a picture of my Grandfather and I (it's the last picture that was taken of the two of us before he died)  and when I did that, I noticed that the back of the fridge was dusty. Holy crap was it ever dusty and linty. I then spent the next 30+ minutes dusting and cleaning the back of the fridge. It was only midnight by the time I got done. I wasn't expecting to do that, but once I saw the all the lint I couldn't leave it alone. There was no way I could leave it alone. But now, it's all clean, and I have my picture back so everything is as it should be.