Stand up and be counted...

Things are going like gangbusters for me right now. Finals are going and even though I only have one actual exam, I also have a couple of papers that I am having trouble motivating for. After Thursday it will all be over and only my thesis will stand between me and my degree. I keep saying that I can not wait until it is over, but the truth is that I really like what I am doing and really look forward to my PhD program.

Yesterday was the East Canyon bicycle race. I like this race even though the worst climb is in the first few miles. Unfortunately for me I was already OTB when we got there. Given the circumstances, I would not do a thing differently though. In about the first mile my teammate, who is super fit right now, broke a spoke on his front wheel. I gave him mine and Nater pulled him back to the field while I got a new wheel. At this point I was way OTB. I figured I would ride hard for a while and see if I could pick off some remanent of the group. Well 59 miles later I crossed the finish line by myself only to be greeted by my teammates who were ultra-supportive and excited because the guy I gave my wheel to won! Like I said, I would not change anything about it except for the Cat 3 that blew his nose in my face.

Next week is another race, but there is a lot to do before then.

oh yeah and for those about to rock, we salute you!

Too much going on to write much...

...but I needed some sort of update. Here is a picture of my buddy Turbo, aka RB, aka Big Daddy, aka Joe-Dirt-Wannabe, and so on...

update

Dice-K was decent, but hard to win when you only get 1 hit! Kind of like trying to win from the 2nd chase group....

In this corner....

Tonight:

Dice-K vs. Godzilla

I know where I will be at 7:05 ET. Do you?

Hell

So the Hell of the North bicycle race was yesterday and kicked off the local bike gaming season. This course is particularly difficult not because of any hills, it is actually dead flat, but best 1.75 of the 5 miles per lap is gravel road. The first lap was super fast and my legs (see below) were still heavy and aching. Each morning this week my legs have just plain ached while lying in bed. They feel better as the day goes on and the same was true with the race. I ended up with in the second chase group and we rode hard while giving each other a hard time. It was quite fun though I should have eaten something before I got hangry. A quick snack took care of this, the only other problem was running out of water. I cannot believe I went through 3 bottles! It makes me realize that my problem seems to be hydration related.

The Sox seem to be having a hard time right now too. I would much rather see them struggle in April than any other month. Last year they seemed to hit stride early and lose it later in the year. Speaking of hitting stride, Arod had his best game in a long time--2 homers, one of which was a walk-off grand salami! Good for him--it really should be only Sox fans that boo him! Today is the battle of the 11.5 ERA's and hopefully the Sox can salvage one game from the Rangers.

Gary and Dice-K

These two have nothing to do with each other. Well except that Gary compared Arod to Lance and Tiger. I did not agree with this not because I was born into it, but because I feel the Yankee fans are justified in their booing Arod by lack of clutch performace. Dice-K pitches for the Sox and had his first outing yesterday. Thus connection made.

Gary has an interesting post on simplifying life, training and how to manage all this. This is definitely a struggle and makes me realize how easy it is to become self-absorbed by endurance sports. I see this a lot with cyclists and I know I get sucked into it sometimes. It can be difficult to keep up relationships and communication when you are tired and focusing so much energy on work and training. As Sleevie has observed, this can be difficult even if training is not part of the equation. It seems that he has regained that all important perspective.

Seeing friends having families, friends losing loved ones and someone I completely admire going through brain surgery, cycling suddenly seems so very trivial. Life is important and while this move is exciting, the thought of leaving friends makes it really tough. Be good to each other.

i hate coming up with titles!

My workout today was super not fun and I had just called it quits when I ran into a couple guys that motivated me to finish it out. I am not sure I feel much better other than to say that I made it through a lot more than I would have if I had not run into them. It will payoff down the road I'm sure.

Here is another picture of the house (if you click it, it gets bigger). We are currently negotiating based on the findings of the inspection. Amazing the detail and number of things they look at--best money we've spent yet on this whole thing. Given the age of the house, there are a few things in need of repair and I am hopeful we will get it all figured out. We are at least telling ourselves that we can always walk away and find something else.















We seem to have finally figured out the problem causing the flood in our basement. I really hope this is not what has been making SP not feel so hot. I need him to get back on the bike so he can pull me along and make me motivated to train!

Fool's April...

Sometimes you are the windshield, sometimes you are the bug and sometimes you get pushed into the mud. I truly believe that life has a way of balancing out and I have had my share of both ups and downs. To me it has become crucial to remember who I am and where I came from. You can't face the future if you are running from the past.

I am reminded about the ups and downs because of the open of the 2007 baseball season. As many can tell the life of a Sox fan is full of ups and downs. Usually, the downs outweigh the ups just enough, but I think this is in part why I am a romantic. The feelings of animosity and angst were brought up when I just saw an ad for the 1986 Mets. Who cares about the 86 Mets?!? Who wants to hear Vin Scully (rest his soul) say "A little blooper up first, behind the bag..." I won't go further because 2004 was such a great year. Anyway, I look forward to another season of listening and watching games. I love hearing Joe Castiglione, Jerry Trupiano, Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo call the game as it reminds me of NE! Hopefully it will be an up year.

In case you haven't heard, we are officially moving to Bozeman, or Bozangeles as the local farming and ranching community call it. This is a big up for us though leaving our friends here in SLC is a big, big down. It's a done deal at this point and we have a house under contract:















Here is what Anna is planning when we paint it:














The local bike racing begins in earnest this weekend; should be fun!!