Things good.

Things good.  Swim races went well yesterday.  Here are pictures.

 "Try to swim a straight line as fast as you can"

Everyone is always in such a hurry

Very hot around here right now!  Keeping busy. Off for vacation this week, going to explore the NE quadrant of the US.  Visiting the Boston area and coastal Maine.  Fun times!

See you next week.

Ch ch ch ch changes

Well if you have not been tuning in to my wife's briblog, you may have missed the news.  The Gaal family will be expanding by one in the next few months.  He is heir to the throne in our little hereditary monarchy.   King of the castle!  We are looking forward to the next chapter in the adventure we call life.  Time flies, life is a miracle, don't waste a second, and so on.

And that's all I have to say about that.  I may occasionally post some news about this most interesting development, but don't look to me to be a baby daddy blog.  In general, I am about as sentimental as a suitcase.

In other news:

Been very busy.  We have started a couple XC practices for the high school team each week and summer triathlon season is in full effect.  The next open water swim is right around the corner, coming up this Saturday.  As it turns out with all the various trips and what not I won't race again until mid-September.  This is fine since I've already done a bazillion triathlons and runs and swims.   Next year has been given to briblog to race as much as she wants, while we make googoo faces and clean poop.

Well, this doesn't count the 10th annual Margarita Mile in mid-August.  This is a mile race hosted by the Downtown YMCA Running Club in Orlando.  Bri and I ran with the group for several years and as it turns out were the inaugural winners of this prestigious event.  We made some great friends through the group and will be heading down in mid-August to cheer/socialize/race.  I don't think I have another sub-5 in me but it won't be for lack of trying.  Bri ran 5:17 and I ran 4:51 in 2001.  Those report are certainly buried somewhere on our old blogs if you have a ton of time to waste today.

 I have caught a few minutes of the Tour de France here and there but am not getting to sit and watch for a few hours straight, which is awesome.  It is like watching golf. 

I cannot wait to see Cowboys and Aliens.  I am just so geeked out about this movie.  If it sucks I will be escorted from the theater for screaming at the screen.  I mean, it has got cowboys, which are awesome, AND sci-fi stuff, which is awesome.  How could it be bad.  Seriously.

Rock on.

Old School #2

Old School Aquathon #2 went well despite storms on the horizon and some wind chop on the first swim.  It had been storming on and off in the Triangle area throughout Wednesday, and the "what's going to happen" emails started coming in from participants.  I sent an email blast to everyone explaining that we planned to host the race and only cancel if absolutely necessary.  Scattered thunderstorms = bad in some places and fine in others.

There was a dark cloud on the horizon rumbling at us, but it held off and we were able to start the race just a few minutes behind schedule.  We had about 80% of the field there which is good, considering 10-15% are no shows no matter what is going on.  (That is why Ironman overbooks its races).

The format was something I thought people would enjoy, and the location (Vista Point sailboat launch area) was perfect for it - a short swim with a good beach to dash in and dash out on, and quickly onto a quiet road for the out and back run.  3 x 300 meter swim and 1 mile run. 

The buoys both launched when a strong sustained gust came in, and pushed one of the buoys into a shallow area, allowing people to dive/walk for an extra 50 yards.  Just to keep it interesting.

All in all it looked like everyone had a good time and enjoyed themselves.  We all then gorged on PBJ sandwiches and generic soda.

I would post pictures but have none this time, was in the water for most of the race.  We need to hire a staff event photographer.

It has been a busy week / month / year so far.  It looks like I won't be doing any triathlon racing in July or August, we are traveling a bit and the weekends I am around there is nothing local and I'm not interested in driving 2+ hours those days.   Will just get some good group rides in.   Will look for a 5k to do.

Next up are the Little Uno and Big Deuce 1 and 2 mile swims, also at Vista Point!

Funny signs

Bri pointed out some funny stuff on the internet to me.  Well meaning signs that people have run away with. View the entire series at Happy Place.

The uselessness of names

Once upon a time in triathlon world, there were 4 major distances in racing:
Ultra /Ironman  - 2.4m swim / 112m bike / 26.2m run
Long / Half-Ironman or "Half" - 1.2m swim / 56m bike / 13.1m run
International / Olympic - 1.5k / 40k / 10k
Sprint - Meant to be 750m / 20k / 5k but a lot of 400meter-10m-3m in Florida racing

These days there are races all along this spectrum as well as above and below.  I am happy about all that as it provides variety, and if you want to stick with 250 yard pool swim - 8mile bike - 2 mile run you can find a few. 

What I am tired of is seeing races use the terms above for races that don't stick to the distance.  The worst are International and Olympic names on races.  If you have a 1 mile swim - 30 mile bike - 5 mile run, it is not an International triathlon, at all, in any way shape or form.  It is just a mid-distance triathlon.  There is no real one "International" distance - all distances are International since any nation can hold any distance.  Duhhhh-huhh?    It is Olympic distance or it is whatever you want distance if it is not Olympic distance.  If you do a 1k swim - 17 mile bike - 3 mile run, it is not an International Sprint Distance triathlon, it is just a shorter-than-Olympic-distance -distance in your backyard triathlon.  

All standardization has gone out the window.  The technical guy in me demands some standards or it is chaos, man, total chaos. Give up the "International," "Olympic" and "Sprint" monikers on distances you know aren't codified in some fashion.  Just give your race a name like the Tomato Man Triathlon or the Big Banana Triathlon and let people R-E-A-D the distances. 

(Btw, there is a Tomato Man Triathlon that can call its distance a Sprint because it adheres to the more or less standard 750m swim - 20k bike - 5k run.  I just looked that up.)

Kure Beach 2011

We had another fun weekend of racing and training at Kure Beach.  The sprint triathlon is a funny format 375m swim - 1.5m run - 12 mile bike - 1.5m run - 375m swim. I really enjoy the race although am always in a great deal of discomfort during the race itself. 

The day before Bri and I put on an open water clinic and that was well received.  We get to teach people to dive through the waves and body surf, which is hellacool.

After the clinic I ran into Wilmington to invest in a new stand up paddleboard (SUP).  This is money well spent as we will use this for additional water patrol/safety during our swims and aquathons.  But it will also be fun.

During the race I felt good went hard and ran pretty fast on both splits. 5th overall and 1st Masters.  Here are a couple pictures.

I false started a bit

This cop was making fun of my haircut

Combined age = 130

Hard to believe I am in the old guy race now, but I still feel good!  The recovery after a hard race like this does take longer than 10 years ago, that is for sure.

Next up is the Old School Aquathon #2 at Vista Point, check it out.  The race is a 300 meter swim then 1 mile run, done 3 times.

Blue Ridge / Boone camp 2011

We hosted our 2nd Blue Ridge training camp over the weekend and it was a lot of fun.  This is an essentially unadvertised camp that Bri and I put together for our athletes, friends and training partners and it is billed as a train and have fun camp, not a train and then talk more about training and sit for lectures on training then go to sleep so you can train more camp, which also have their time and place, just not here. 

We rent a large house on the side of a mountain and then fill it up with food, people, and adult beverages.

Thursday ride - 47 miles with 4,000 feet elevation gain + The Viaduct

Thursday run - 5 miles flat on Boone Greeneways (these are nice if you're ever in the area)

Friday ride - ~40 miles, with washout bridge crossing, 3,500 feet elevation + Shoals Mill pass

Friday swim - between 3,000 to 5,000 meters

Saturday run - up from Bass Lake to Moses Cone Park to the Firetower - 1,100 feet elevation gain in ~5 mile climb

Saturday swim - stormed out, we did try to get this in but not too many complaints

Saturday night - brawling with the Roller Derby girls (here is one happy camper before he was tackled to the ground by seven sweaty roller girls)

Sunday morning - ride rained out, 2.4 or 4.6 mile flat run around Julian Price Lake just off mile 296 on the Blue Ridge

Sunday cleared out by 11am

The end!  Recovering from the effort this week and then the Kure Beach double sprint this weekend.