No doubt everyone has been very disappointed at the lack of blog of late. This largely due to the fact that my little camera died, and blogs without pictures are of limited interest. So, until somebody events the “pop-up” blog format I will find my blogging somewhat limited until I get around to replacing the camera.

That doesn’t mean nothing is afoot. Quite the contrary, as always. But, that also does not mean any of the things keeping me busy are actually interesting to anyone else. Subsequently I will spare you all the details. Basically, been running biking and swimming a lot, and replaced the glow plugs in the van, as well as the upper and lower ball joints and front wheel bearings. That may not sound like much, but it keeps a guy out of trouble.

Since I have no pictures, I leave you with a video. I managed to find this on youtube, it should give you an idea of how to train for the start of an Ironman, and many other mass-start open water races.

This defies the imagination.

I’d explain but there is too much so I will sum up.

Vanessa defended her overall female title at the Mountain Man half-iron distance Tri on Sunday near Flagstaff Az, finishing in 5:03. I came some time later at 5:15, good enough for 14th overall out of 90. Which brings me to my next point, today is the one year anniversary of my hip scope.

Which brings me to my final point, Tuesday (7/22) was anniversary #8 for Vanessa and I. Yeah us!

I had the honor of being “best man” at Noah and Darlene’s wedding. It was an extremely nice wedding, I had a very good time and enjoyed Darlene’s family thoroughly. All the best to Noah and Darlene, they are quite cute together. =)

Getting there was pretty uneventful, although I did come to the decision that I really do hate airline travel. It puts my American sensibilities on edge, as I feel that as soon as I enter the airport I have relinquished all my rights afforded to me under the Constitution. I have no recourse, no matter how negligent, rude, inept, annoying, retarded or down right mean spirited the people there choose to be. I think I’ll try to get around as much as possible as God intended: in a car.

Fast is not amused…

But, once there we all got to stretch out and relax a bit.

The Groom, keen eyed, rested, ready.

The wedding went off without any problems of note, kudos to Darlene and company organizing such a comfortable and enjoyable “hitching” as we say out west.

Now that I’m back, it’s time to start training for IM Az in ernest. Tomorrow.

Parting Shot: A Capybara pic from the Albuquerque Zoo I shot some years ago and am now posting here for no damn reason. (I shot the picture, not the Capybara…)

Why, you replace it of course.

And I’m pretty sure I’m gonna make it. =)

Maybe you have to train for / do an Ironman to fully appreciate this, but maybe not.

It’s time again for the Tour Divide. Starting in Banff, AB and finishing 2,711mi in Antelope Wells, NM. Race kicked off last Friday. You can follow the progress of a 505 girl (Alamogordo), Mary Collier, here. Mary and Brendan are the owners of Siren Bicycles. How about one of these? My birthday is coming up…

Fool Hollow Lake in the town of Show Low Az hosted the Deuces Wild Triathlon Festival on May 31 / June 1. The even consists of a “long course” (aka half ironman distance) and an Olympic distance on Saturday, as well as an XTERRA off-road triathlon on Sunday. I elected to do the Long Course race on Saturday, and headed to the lake to bag a camping spot after work on Thursday.

Fast says: “All you see from the Interstate is Interstate.” The El Malpais National Monument is beautiful and only a short drive from ABQ.

I wound up in the RV “camping” area (which is characterized by full electrical hookups) b/c the “tent” “camping” area was already full when I arrived.
There were some extremely expensive rigs.

I was definitely lowering the rent.

For those of you wondering what Fast eats, here it is. He says it’s good for your coat (and libido..).

So, what do you do when you’ve got some down time and you are “camping”? Build wheels of course:

The long course went off at 0630 Saturday morning in an extremely brisk lake (~61F?), and thanks to the combination of altitude and cold water I had a bit of a slow swim at 37:10 for the 1.2mi (2000m). After that long cold soak on the legs it took some time to get up to speed on the bike, but once finally loosened up the bike went smoothly, hammering out the 57.5mi in 2:42:04, which turned out to be 13th fastest bike split of the day. Heat and wind started to become a challenge on the in the last 14mi (which also contains the majority of the sustained climbing on the course). The combination of Perpetuem and nuun worked flawlessly on the bike as usual. An early mistake in T1 though I think set things in motion for a problem filled run, I took a couple ibuprofen after the swim to ward off the not uncommon post swim headache, having forgotten to bring tylenol. Unfortunately, what I failed to remember is ibuprofen will tear up my stomach in a hot run like we had. The result was an inability to absorb nutrition during the run, so after the initial 6 miles pace was decreasing continuously despite trying to keep up the fuel/hydration strategy that has worked well in the past. Consequently the run was a somewhat disappointing 2:04:12. A testament to the Hammer Nutrition and nuun combination on the bike that I had enough gas in the tank to complete the 13.1 mi run with effectively no nutrition and still salvage a 5:29:38 total time. Good enough for 30th overall and 4th in the 30-34 age group.

nuun is “gettin’ it done”

I know you have all been patiently waiting, and your patience is to be rewarded. It is, once again, that time of year. I give you, Summer Mike 2008.

2007…
2006…
2005…

Mike says “You stay classy Albuquerque.”