Mom's Day? Why the heck do I do that?

I forgot to get a card for Mommy, from the mighty Mo. Is that a crime? Mommy gets at least one lovey dovey card a month from him year round. I caved in and bought her a gift certificate at her favorite clothing store. Is that a crime? I have bought her flowers every week for ten straight years. Nothing fancy, just the $5 bouquet at the market, but they are always pretty, no roses but daisy's or tulips or mixed stuff.

As you can see I am not big on pre-fabricated holidays. BTW, I feel the same about Father's Day, Arbor Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Halloween, St. Patty's Day, Cinco De Mayo, pretty much all holidays in that vain. Yes I love Christmas and celebrate Easter and birthdays. I appreciate New Years for its sense of renewal and 4th of July for it patriotism and Thanksgiving for its sense of family and communal unity.

I believe in treating your loved one's right year round. I should not have to be reminded by the Hallmark-Hersery-Industrial-Complex that I need to spend money on their products to feel like I can absolve myself from guilt. I buy my mom flowers and books and take her to lunch and do nice things for her all the time. I look into my wifes eyes and tell her I love her all the time; not in the passing each other through the bathroom door kind of way but the look into eyes, complete appreciation of her sacrifices and struggles as a mom and wife with a heartfelt hug and kiss. I also apologize A LOT. Even when I feel I haven't done anything wrong because I never know what I do that can upset her.

So have a good day however you celebrate it.

First miles down, thousands to go

My first weekend of training in four long weeks. Plus today I took the last two pills to fight the pneumonia I had. I'm Free. I'm Free.

Lucille and I decided to take a trip to the barber shop down the road so I could trim my lovely locks. We were having such a good time that I passed the place and had to turn around.

Now my barber, Pauline, is a pro. She's like 70 years old and been cutting hair for fifty years. I think she knows what she's doing. I even recruited my dad to her and he loves the cut she gives. Anyway, she and the other barber googoo'd and gaagaa'd over Lucille and how she doesn't have a rear post and how do you use the pedals, Lucille was a happy bike.

After that we trolled down the road a few miles then looped back around to get home. As I was slowing down a trio of cyclists cut across the road at the light and since they were going my way anyway I decided to draft them and pick up some conversation.

They were great and very nice and amicable. The leader half joked that they were going to go up Usery Pass, which is the only hill of any note in this part of Mesa-well come to think of it anywhere in Mesa- and the other two started to groan. It was a good laugh. They were only moving at about 14 mph so I picked my clip up a bit to 18 mph and motivated myself home.

Oh, I posted that Lucilles computer was on the fritz. Well actually it was the magnet for the cadence system was missing and the front wheel magnet for distance was moving out of alignment due to centrifical force (the spoke was too small for the attachment). Which is what Kevin at Tribe fixed.

He fixed both yesterday but today when I switched into the big chainring, somehow the zip tie holding the magnet to my crankarm was sheared off. I looked down and saw it hanging there on the arm and turned into a parking lot to put it in my pack. Well I couldn't find it, which was weird since it was such a short area to look, but at least now I know what the problems is. Maybe we can move the sensor to the left crankarm? Any of you have that problem?

Hello Hugh

While surfing my blogs I always go to Hugh Hewitt's. He has the first blog that I really paid attention to and in a way was the impetus to start my own. It was as if I witnessed a burning bush to see my hyperlink on his front page.

With my work I am driving more than sitting, so as a confessed conservative talk radio junkie, I often plan my drives during the day around talk radio timelines. The best time to get a bottle of water or stand in line at Starbucks is the ten minute window at the top and bottom of the hour. I know if I have to leave one location and go to another that if I wait just a few extra minutes then I can maximize my talk radio time. I always wanted to call a host and scream, 'I agree' but never have. Are you like me?

If you are then you also have goals that are bigger than yourself. You have a busy, sometimes stressful job, a spouse, children and little time to yourself. Still with me? Then you need to start exercising. Whether you prefer to swim, bike, run, lift weights or just walk around the block you will do yourself so much good. But have a goal. Start small and build gradually. You can't run a marathon without running a 5k (3 miles) and you can't do that without getting outside.

In fact I will make you a deal. I understand that you still may not be convinced to get outside or into a gym to workout, so bookmark this page. Everyday you are procrastinating at your computer and surfing the web come back to Common Man Syndrome and read about how I am defeating this insidious disease.

In my sidebar is the Triathlete Alliance, a handful of dedicated teachers, mothers, fathers, graphic designers, heck we even have a retiree from Florida, more ornery than any radio host. They also detail their exploits in ways that only they can express. Just one of these blogs will hopefully stimulate the deep, latent desire within you to dare to be great.

Look Pa, That Thar Triathlon Is A Comin To Town

The computer on my Softride 'Lucille' went schitzo so I lovingly placed her in the back of the truck and took her to Tribe Multisport here in Scottsdale so Kevin could perform an emergency diagnostic before my ride tomorrow.

It looked like a M.A.S.H. unit triage tent when I came in the door. Apparently I wasn't told they were the packet pick up location for a local tri here on Saturday. Its an off-road tri, so all these muddy suspension bike were leaning against the walls and people were comparing knobby tires and dual suspension forks. So it was a bit incongruent to see Kevin, two women and a twenty year old ten speed up on the rack getting the once over. Who knew Panasonic made ten speeds, I thought they only made lousy telephones and decent televisions.

The two ladies were getting a long course on a short subject, "How to change a tire 101." I don't normally get into watching instructional pieces on tire changing but I could not help but be transfixed. The woman had just bought the bike from a friend, and the bike is in really good shape by the way, but ancient. All of us took great delight in watching Kevin remember how to work on a piece that has not been made in fifteen years. He tried to convince the ladies to ditch the hand pump circa 1990, and switch to air cartridge. Well apparently one of them had a bad experience with a cartridge in the past so that was not going to pass muster. Even when he explained it would take a hundred pumps to inflate the tire, they were intransigent.

So after a decent amount of time in instruction, they both seemed to have the knack of changing a tire, though NASCAR pit crew they will not make. The owner was simply resigned to leave the bike on the course and walk back to transition if she got a flat. I think I can relate to that after having more flats than tubes on one particular ride.

There were many people crowding the wares and picking up race packets and a great general buzz in the store. Triathlon is such a growing and still maturing sport in many ways. Each year it brings more and more people to the line, ready to subject themselves to a swim, a bike and a run. Those two women, who were doing the off road tri, so not really sure why the ten speed was there, were doing their first triathlon. They had that gleam in their eyes, the stary look of doing something bigger than themselves.

One of the ladies told me that she hadn't swam in ten years. That until two months ago she hadn't swam longer than a play pool length to get a beer and tomorrow was going to swim 850 yards and oh yeah ride and run. She said it with such pride that I knew she was getting no sleep tonight. Tonight is going to be like Christmas Eve.

I think its important to remember what it's like to get into a sport. To control and master fears, to learn discipline and self control. Like after a few marathons, they become highlights of a yearly training program, not the capstone. Triathlons have such a intrinsic gut reaction of, "Oh my goodness, I could never do one of those. I haven't swam since high school, I don't own a bike and they costs too much money, I haven't run farther than after my kid heading down the driveway and towards the street in years." Yeah I said all that too. Then I thought bigger than myself, I got that gleam in my eye just like that lady and my first triathlon hooked me so bad that next year I am going to finish Ironman Florida with a dozen friends I have never met, except online, and you know what...I just know they have that gleam in their eye too.

Oh No, She's Coming

My mother-in-law is coming for the weekend. Her mother passed away at Christmas and since she lives in another state, again but sure to be back, Mistress invited her to come this weekend, which is also the same weekend as Mother's Day and on Sunday the Mighty Mo is Blessed at our church.

MIL and I have had a lukewarm relationship at best. After ten years she has come to realize that I am not planning on ruining her daughters life and that I can even be a good guy. She MIL and I have some pre-relationship with daughter issues. Namely I was an ass as a teenager, before I was in a really bad car accident which set my life right, and MIL knew all about my being ass, as did most the town, Mistress and I grew up in. MIL never really forgave me for my transgressions and still harbors some ill will towards me. Father-In-Law (Step) is not a bad guy, I actually like him though we are complete opposites. He is a genius introvert and well I am a genius extrovert. He has said less than maybe 1,000 words to me in the last decade...that might be high. He reveres his step-daughter and when the Mo was born he looked at me said, not good job, or beautiful baby boy but...well guess I can't deny you sleeping with my daughter now.

Anyway, got in 600 meters this morning, 90 minutes of weight training and rehab last night, a 30 minute run yesterday morning. Its been a good week. Tomorrow is a long bike and I need to get an hour run in before Sunday night.

My New Clock

Okay,

This has taken me way to long to figure out these html changes . The big one as you can see is a countdown to Ironman Florida that based on my reviewing of past races dates will be on November 4, 2006. Yes that is how many days are remaining.

I also went deep into html code and fiddled with the numbers that represented colors for my links, visited links and post titles, oh yeah the main title. It was actually pretty simple but time consuming. First I saved all of it to a word file, then located the place I wanted to change color and then worked with the code there. Its numerical, if the code is: #c80 or #996 for example, I just changed it by ten or twenty points up and down to see which way I wanted it to go and then worked it that way, each time I changed something I hit Preview and then went back to work on the color in the template.

If you want the countdown timer html for yourself, go to this site and scroll down. It has a black background as I previewed it, but disappeared after I saved the template changes and refreshed the site. It took me quite a while to get it set on the page in the right spot. By checking my source page you should be able to see it based on the heading and then figure how to relate it to your site.

Instead of listing a gob of sites I found with interesting first person accounts of IMFL while researching the date for next year, I would simply instruct you to Google Ironman Florida 2001 (or whatever year you want). Iin a matter of seconds I was able to get a list of dozens of personal notes.

Course discription IMFL

I was over at Ironman Florida and decided to check out the course descriptions. Initially I was shocked at the spikes on the altimeter readout until I looked at the side bar showing feet above sea level.

The swim, no surprise is at sea level. Its a two lap course with a water exit then entry to start the last lap.

The bike course is nice in that it is essentially a big loop and although the altimeter readout looks impressive the route never gets over 161 feet and is mostly around 50 feet. Thats pretty flat, folks.

The run looks to be a really nice out and back on a spit of land, ocean on one side and bay on the other.

This is motivating. I once did a marathon in Lincoln Nebraska and it was the flatest marathon I have ever ran. Only one little hill and that was because it was an overpass above the freeway. So flat is good.

In Phoenix its about 1300 feet above sea level and hotter, so that helps a little though the humidity will take a lot outta of me (us) . As a heat stroke casualty I have to be aware of that stuff.

Yes I know, a heat stroke casualty who is a runner who lives in Phoenix. Believe me I know.