Busy busy.

I have been busy working and moving. Along the way, we picked up our first worm bin. Our new house has a yard (the dogs seem stoked), a greenhouse, and no crackhead neighbors, well at least not as many as the last apartment, and an Argentinean landlord. Things are great.

The worm bin is a Triformis Can O Worms. I have stared putting bedding (shredded paper and cardboard) in the bottom and soon I hope to buy some worms.

One of our neighbors got a dog in Washington and it seems to be a wolf. At least part wolf.

I finally got out and caught a trout on a river. It has been a while. I guess things will go on as normal. Until 2012.

A few more leg smashing workouts form the coach let me see baby deer that had to be less than 2 weeks old. I was smiling as I flew down the hills until I hit the swarms of bugs that left me looking like I ate handfuls of poppy seeds. To the guy on the Cervelo trying to keep up with me on the incline, thanks for lighting the fire on the last repeat, I needed that.

5430 Sprint Pictures.

The bike pictures are all from the first mile of the bike portion. I look pretty happy to finish the run.

Red fox at night, cyclists delight.

I just got back from a leg smashing ride. Coach Mark prescribes just the right amount of hurt each time. Anyone that wants to be faster, have someone to hold them accountable, or not think about what their training should check him out here.

Riding out to the hurt zone, there were deer walking beside the road. On "what excuse can I come up with to be finished now" hill repeat number one there was an adult magpie feeding a juvenile magpie something rotting on the side of the road. It was cute. At the end of the workout, there was a fox trying to get in on the rotten carcass action. The birds were circling overhead squawking trying to get the  fox to leave their meal alone.
It was a great ride and I look forward to the rest of the weeks workouts!

Longest sprint ever.

This weekend was the first of three triathlons in the Boulder Tri Series. This was the first year that Ironman bought the races and there were quite a few complaints heard. At packet pickup, there were two lines snaking through the expo. Nobody told you which line to get into first and most people waited over an hour to pick up their race number and free goodies. The t-shirt was less than impressive so people weren't happy about the free things they received. It looks like most other race shirts, I could care less. It was pretty nice going to an expo and not working it although it made me realize how much I love the athletic industry.
Race day came around and I was excited to test myself. After my last sprint triathlon where I averaged 6:27 per mile and the Bolder boulder 10k where I ran 6:24 per mile, I was ready to see where my fitness was now.
Mark is a great coach and having him show his support at these races has been great. It must be tough not being able to race, but he is still so enthusiastic about his athletes.
My swim went well and I was top 10 out of the water for my age group. I had the 55th fastest swim time out of 1600. Out on the bike everything was going to plan for the first mile. Then my front tube exploded. Not a slow leak, but a big bang and then it was flat. I pulled over (swearing loudly) and tried to use my pit stop to plug the leak. Foam was spilling out of my tire and I knew I was screwed. I was determined not to quit. I started walking the bike course thinking of CAF athletes and Rutger Beke. About 3 miles into it an official on a motorcycle informed me that the bike course was almost 18 miles long. I turned around and walked back to transition. After 6 miles of walking barefoot on the road I was close to limping as I hit T2. I ran a 20:37 5k making my pace being 6:39.
I was disappointed with the whole day. After resting today however (and not catching any fish) I am eager to get back to training and kick butt at the Olympic distance race next month.

Fly Fishing for lake species.

Yesterday, we headed to Coot Lake to try and suppress my "run off blues". The "run off blues" occur when the rivers are too high to fish and there is nothing to do but sit and wait for the river levels to recede. Jay (links to his YouTube channel) from Front Range Anglers is putting on fun competitions to get trout people like myself out fishing in lakes and ponds. We caught more of these bluegill than we could count. I was able to stalk to carp which was much more exciting than I thought that it would be. It is always fun to go fishing and for the first time, we actually caught fish in a lake. Of course it felt good that we were using flies that I had tied.

Bolder Boulder.

Here is Crowie running away from Terenzo. Crowie's form is amazing. Mine is closer to T-Bone's. We even have the same shoes. I want to run more like Crowie.

These are gently borrowed images from this years Bolder Boulder.

Teva Mountain Games

Thanks to everyone for donating to my MS charity. Here is what we will be missing now that the 'stache is gone.

This weekend we headed to Vail to participate in the Teva Mountain Games. It was a blast. We entered the fly fishing competition sponsored by Costa. 

Even the dogs had a competition. Our dog trainers did very well jumping their dogs over 25 feet! 

The fly fishing competition was a series of three targets at different distances. My guess is that they were about 25, 40, and 55 feet. I hit all three, but not consistently. The wind was a constant factor and it was blowing the wrong direction when it was time for my distance cast. Despite being able to hit the 55 foot target semi accurately, I couldn't hit the minimum 50 feet to count anything for distance. In fact, my longest distance cast was 49 feet. We didn't make it to the semi finals, but the swag bag was insane. Sharkskin fly line (msrp $100), leader, hats, t-shirts, water bottles, and much more for a $35 entry fee!

The rivers were raging at over 500% what they should be. The plan was for getting a lot of fishing in over the weekend, but mother nature fooled us again. We tried our luck at lake fishing and I was reminded why I hate water that doesn't move. At least the scenery was beautiful.