Meet the Sloths

I found this vid via twitter. It has nothing to do with this blog, but I liked it anyways and thought you might too. Enjoy.

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

KC Triathlon Pics and Race Report

Here are a few pics and my race report from yesterday's triathlon. I'm still wavering if I want to do another one. Maybe.

Tri thoughts...

There has been a fair amount of other stuff going on, but I think I'll focus on athletics for this post.

This week is Bike KC week, in which bicycle/bus/walking commuters are able to log on to bikekc.org and log their commute miles. I've been doing ok so far, I think I'm just shy of 60 miles, and hope to log about 25 more on Friday. It's been a lot of fun, and I even got some air time on KCUR/NPR yesterday as I was interviewed by Steve Kraske on Up To Date. You can listen here. If that doesn't work, go to KCUR.org and look for Up To Date and download Tuesday's show.

So that's commuting. Now let's chat Triathlons. I received my Blue Seventy Reaction wetsuit last night from the FedEx man, and it fits perfectly. I got hot in about 15 seconds after putting it on, so I should be in good shape for the 60 degree water I'm expecting on Sunday. It looks like the temperature should be about 73 degrees by the time I finish my run (9:30, I'd guess?). I'm starting somewhere after 7:30am, and have/need to be onsite by 5:30 at the latest. That's going to be an early day, but I'm going to bed right after the kids on Saturday night.

I'm still a little nervous about the swim, but I'll get through it. Britton also graciously hooked me up with a Pinarello Dogma for the bike race. It's not a tri bike (he was all out), but it is a sweet, sweet carbon road bike that should be a good bit faster than my dear cross bike. And it ought to be for $11k. Yea, seriously, eleventhousanddollars. I might just keep riding all the way to some secret hiding place. So if that sweet ride isn't enough to make me vigorously splash 750 meters of water, I don't know what would be enough encouragement.


Packet pick up is tomorrow, and I'm getting excited!

Cyclocross race schedule

Yes, I know it's wicked early, but I have to have something to take my mind of the tri, you know! I will probably pick up one more race, but here is what I have lined out so far.

9/18 - KC Cup Cyclocross, Swope Park
9/19 - KC Cup Mountain Bike, Swope Park
10/17 - Boulevard Cup, WyDot County Park, KS
11/14 - Leavenworth, St. Mary's College, KS State Championships
12/31 - Cross off the Old Year, Stump Park, Shawnee, KS
1/2 - Epic Holiday, Tuilleries Plaza, NKC
1/9 Grote Prijs, Hermann Laird Park, Shawnee, KS

And just a little something to get you (me) in the mood even further...

Singlespeed Cyclocross World Championships 2008 from bce on Vimeo.

Procrastination

So, perhaps if we didn't procrastinate in buying a battery/backup sump pump kit, I could have gone to sleep at a normal time instead of wondering if my theater was going to get ruined last night. We lost power at about 9pm, and it came on for about 10 mins around 11:30pm, and then it was on for good around 10:45am this morning when KCP&L came out and replaced the transformer in our backyard. I'm glad that they did, but not too thrilled about the ruts in the backyard AGAIN.

I think I'm just going to pave the backyard.

Inspired Bicycles - Danny MacAskill April 2009

Another incredible Danny MacAskill video. I was kind of rocking out with the music too, when I realized this is the band we saw last weekend. They opened for Pearl Jam and this is one of the songs we heard. Very cool!

Way behind

Life is Full Tilt Boogie right now.  I can't believe it's Mother's Day/middle-of-May already.  I'm utterly unprepared and feeling stressed that I won't be able to make it as special as it should be for my wife.  From a male's perspective, this is the one holiday you don't want to mess up.  I think being a mother is the most important thing she does, and if I don't take care of her, no one else will.  Seems to add more stress than I should really feel.  I'll have to put some time in to this!

I had a great trip out to StL last weekend, and despite the tornadoes and rain, I had a great time.  Good food, great friends, and we helped my buddy Stitz get some stuff done on his house so he can get back into normal life.  He pretty much gutted his house and moved some walls around, updated a bunch of stuff, and hopefully he's getting his sheet rock done this week.  Hopefully this project will wind down soon, but there is a lot of work yet to be done.  He has a much greater tolerance for household-project-pain than I do, that is for sure.

Went to Pearl Jam on Monday night, and it was a very good show.  I thought the sound sucked, and it was wicked loud.  I never thought I'd say this, but I actually missed the amphitheater.  Not a big fan of the Sprint Center.  If they ever play at the Midland or a place with some actual acoustical forethought, I'd pay $200 a ticket.  No joke.

I am going to die at the triathlon, it's official.  Or I'm going to miss the T1 time cut.  I might have to revert to the back stroke for the last 700 meters.

K is a babbling fool.  He's getting lots of words out, and it's like someone flipped a switch on his vocabulary.  He is so funny too!  He is always hamming it up and getting a big goofy smile.  Between him and AB, there is going to be a lot of laughs in our house. 

On the flipside, he's been waking up again at 4:15am the past couple of mornings, and that is getting tiring.  This kind of thing comes and goes, so I can't get too bent about it.

There is much more, as always, but this will have to do for now.  See you all soon