Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Tonight’s swim was annoying. I couldn’t ever get down into a true groove because the pool was unusually crowded. Kids, splashy mcsplasherson in the next lane, swim lesson in the other lane, lots of waves in the pool, and generally annoying all over. So, I suppose it’s time to switch my swim and run workouts, doing the swims in the morning and runs in the evening. I’m not fond of running after work, but it’s easier to dodge tourons on the waterfront than kids in the pool. And it’ll start me acclimating to a run in heat, and I can stop having to get up at 4 on Wednesdays to do a long run. I’ll give it a try on Friday and see how it goes.

The day started with a bit of lightning.

A storm moving through the area woke me a bit earlier than planned, so I went ahead and got up around 2:30 to start getting ready. Got the car loaded up and took a slower than usual and much, much wetter than usual drive through the storm system up to the race site, where we parked on a sort-of grassy-sort-of-muddy field. Grabbed the one bag, got it down there and unpacked, took it back to the car, then brought back the pump to inflate my tires, then back to the car and off to the club tent from there. Got there with oodles of time to spare, so was very glad I had my portable chair for under the tent. The rain continued as we lead up to the swim start, and the weather report was threatening more as the whole race went on.

The water was particularly muddy once we got in, lots of feet having churned up the start area, so the beginning of the swim was like plunging into utter darkness. Where normal lake water lets you see to a little bit past your hands, this seemed to cut off around the elbows. It cleared up after a short bit, but it was a freaky way to start a swim, even for someone used to doing open water swims.

Only managed to get kicked once, going around a buoy. Otherwise I did fairly well with a steady-ish pace. Did tend to pull to one side or the other, and couldn’t quite get into my head which way I was pulling at any given time. In any case, the steadyish pace paid off in terms of coming out of the water not completely sapped of energy, and with a swim PR for the Olympic distance, 32:54.

The bike. Lord, what a mess. It was cold and wet, and as I believe I’ve observed before, drizzle stings at 20+ miles per hour. I had determined based on the rainy conditions that I’d focus on the swim and run and let the bike fall where it would. I did try to use downhills to the extent I could, and I suspect most other age groupers were riding fairly conservatively as well. Only one freakout moment, where a guy I was pacing down a hill veered suddenly off to the left in front of me (and I suspect may have gone down – someone did around that area), leading to a bit of “holy shit” on my part. Made it through okay, and the rest of the ride was without incident.

As I came up toward the end I glanced down at my time to see how I was doing, and was quite surprised to see that I was coming in faster than my previous top bike time on this course, and a good bit faster than I’d rode it in practice a few weeks earlier. Got a huge grin on my face and started laughing as I came up to the final turn, then into transition and another PR, though only for this course, 1:26:56, about 9 minutes faster than my previous best, though not as quick as the very flat Nations course. Still, I came into transition feeling pretty darned good.

The run out went pretty well, keeping a relatively quick pace for the first mile as the rain died out (not to return during the run), then gradually slowing with some walks on most uphills. Ran every downhill on the course, keeping to my new mantra courtesy Ken Mierke – “downhills are free speed” (use it on the bike, too, but learned it in the run context). I need to practice hills more, but as I came up to mile 5 I realized I could take almost 18 minutes to finish the last 1.2 miles and still meet my prior run score. Final score, another Olympic distance PR: 1:03:52.

Finished the entire race in 3:12:52. Overall, I shaved 21 minutes off my previous PR at the Columbia course, and about 4.5 minutes off my previous Olympic distance PR at Nations last fall. Completely not what I had been expecting out of this race, but I’ll take it!

This means so far I’m three for three this year for PRs at the distances I’ve gone. Barring a DNF next month at Eagleman I know I’ll PR there as well (simply because I was so unprepared for Diamondman that I have to do better than finishing third from last!). Pretty good way to spend this race season, I have to say.

With five seasons under my belt, I think this is the most prepared I’ve been this early. Packet pick up is done, the bike has been dropped off in transition. I’ve put my folding chair, the floor pump and the cookbooks I’m lending to my friend John in the car. My tri suit, chip and heart rate monitor strap are laid out with body glide for the morning. Transition towels, bike shoes, socks, nutrition, helmet and gloves are in the bag, as are my running shoes and socks, race number, run nutrition, and hat. Wet suit is hanging at the ready. Water bottles have been cleaned and are drying for the morning. A change of clothes for cleaning up at John’s place after the race is good to go. Coffee’s brewing so it’ll be there tomorrow morning to be zapped (takes too long otherwise). All that’s left is setting the alarms tonight and crashing later. Then in the morning it’s up, pack the car, get up to the race site, set up transition and get going. My wave starts at 7:16, should be done somewhere before 10:50, heaven willing. Fun day ahead, and I’m looking forward to it.

Keeping myself busy with work and training and attempting to get sleep. Last night was the first good night of sleep I’ve had in about a week and I’m hoping to follow up on it with another good one this evening. Between a weather front that’s been passing back and forth over DC (hot, cold, hot, cold, and always wet) and just being drained at work I was a mess the past week. It seems to be evening out finally (though the oil spill is not helping…), and I keep reminding myself that the work front should be busy but in a different way once the other fiscal attorney comes on board after Memorial Day.

I’m a bit disappointed with where my biking is at the moment. I’m mostly happy with swimming and running. I took a run clinic earlier this month from the guy who wrote the book on the style of running I use and that was enormously helpful. I’ve continued to try and focus on form while I run, and just by that I’ve been a bit quicker than I was before, though I’m having to watch the heart rate. The beepy-thingey has been my constant companion (a metronome like thing that allows me to try and turn the legs over at a certain rate), much to the amusement of other people on the trail I’m sure. Swimming’s been okay, and the changeover I did to 100s, with each one a focus on a particular aspect of the stroke, has also helped. Biking, on the other hand, I feel behind on mostly due to scheduling things on the weekends. Not sure where I’d make it up, though if I keep waking up at 3 am and not being able to crash I might just do it in the morning rather than the weekend. Silly body.

Continuing to read like mad on training stuff. And I’ve started doing some reading into Buddhist notions of the self. Interesting take on things, and one which seems to resonate. Not sure where that will go, but the reading is interesting.

Trying to play through the video game Infamous on both hard mode and trying to play it as the good guy, and it ain’t easy. My old tactics while playing the evil side (blow ’em all to hell as quickly as possible) don’t work; I keep getting an “execution” bad karma hit that throws the entire mission off. Very annoying. But, challenging, and I’m keeping at it off and on. That might go to the side though, I just got a copy of Prototype to try out.

Had a date or two. Trying to decide which way a crush is going. But nothing definitive on that front at the moment. Which may be for the best; once the new triathlete stuff is done this year, training starts to ramp up a lot.

Other than the Comcast situation, things are pretty good here. Training is going apace, I have a plan for my swimming (the weakest of the three legs for me). I’m a tad apprehensive about getting up to the right volume of long rides given my volunteer duties with NTP, but I think I’ll be there for Eagleman. I’m already up to it for Columbia, and I expect that race will go fairly well, all things considered.

We’ve passed two candidates up to the next and final round of interviews for the other fiscal law position at work. Hopefully the interviews will get scheduled soon and we can get him or her on board in short order. Took us longer to get the reference checks done simply because of the nature of scheduling at work the week before last.

Along the same lines, I’m trying to get a better handle on my work load so I can know what things should and can get passed along to the new person. There are several ‘what if’ projects I’d like to start laying out as well, getting reference materials together to make it easier for myself and others to find things related to our budget and the organizational structure of the BGA.

Hosted my friend Rob this weekend, up from Richmond. Mostly I let him wander on his own as I had club and cable stuff to deal with, but we did get to spend some good time together, which was fun. I’m afraid such events will become more scarce as August approaches and I become pickier about my training and recovery needs.

Signed up for a running clinic next month with the folks who established the style of running I’ve been trying to do. Should be interesting to get some feedback from them on how I’m doing with their stuff. I suspect I’m going to be told to turn my legs over faster, but that’s fine and doable. More worried that I’m just completely off on what they were aiming for, but that remains to be seen.

Started another pair of socks yesterday, and I got yarn and a pattern from a club on Friday to knit a pair of fingerless gloves (‘texting gloves’ as they were called). Fun and interesting pattern, and great yarn for it. Looking forward to making those, but want to get the socks done first, or at least well started since those can be a Metro project where the gloves are a bit too complex for traveling.

Biked up for errands this morning (dentist, picking up glasses, etc.), and there was a serious amount of stupid on the trail in Rock Creek. No helmet, helmet on but unbuckled (doesn’t do much good if it flies off your head when you fly off the bike…), people running on the left side of the trail, etc. Most annoying. Kinda makes you want to get “Trail Rules” signs like they have on other trails in the area.

Why is it that you say “I’m a triathlete” and suddenly you become all intimidating to some people?

I really, really wanted aero bars on my single speed bike this morning while down around East Potomac Park. File under “you know you’re a triathlete if…” you want aero bars on all your bikes. The instinct to get down on the bars while on a straight, flat stretch was pretty strong. Good sign that training on the tri bike is going well. Or at least has become second nature.

No A/C yet in the building, so while I wait for the cable guy to come by and slap a cablecard into the new TiVo it’s kinda warm. We’ll have it in two weeks once they transition the system over from heat, and I’m semi-okay with this because the new general manager here at the cult co-op is having his guys come by and do a comprehensive sweep and check of all the convectors in each individual unit to ensure they’re working, clean, lubed, etc. First time it’s been described that way (past just the usual “we’re changing the filters”), so I’m okay with delaying to ensure all the equipment is working at peak efficiency, or at least at a better clip than the norm. Having vacuumed off my own units, I have seen how nasty they can get, so I can only imagine what some of them look like. It’s nice to have a proactive manager for once; he’s been big on getting in to do preventative maintenance, which is much appreciated here.

Had plans with a friend to do some gaming, but he got called in to do more on a research project he’s leading at school, so no go there. A nap sounds like a good alternative. With the lack of A/C and temps in the 90s the past few days sleep has been elusive. Lots of tossing and turning and odd dreams, including some disturbingly vivid erotic ones. Waking up at 2 am with an almost painfully raging hard-on from one of those is not conducive to a lot of rest.

I’ve been indulging a crush, which has been fun. I feel like I can begin dating again, that I’m ready for that, with the result that I’ve been keeping my eyes open and my flirt meter at “medium high”. But I also feel like I’m looking more with an eye to finding something more than just casual. As always, nothing is set in stone, but we’ll see where the path leads.

The first weekend of spring was absolutely glorious here in DC. Despite my normal thing that Sundays are supposed to be my one, true “rest” day from exercise during the week I managed to bike across town and back twice, and over to the Hill once. Grabbed brunch with friends this morning up in Dupont, stretched it to an almost two hour affair, until the sun came round the building and started to hit us. The Hill trip was to pick up new tires for the tri bike, which is off the trainer, hopefully for the season, and needed new ones to make up for the wear from using the trainer all winter. I’ll keep the old tires for next winter.

Five gazillion people were on and around the Mall both trips up to Dupont, and in the afternoon coming back from brunch. “When marches/causes collide” could have been the caption. One of the many reasons I love living here, you never know what stuff folks are going to be in town protesting or praising.

Biked back up to Dupont for a last minute dinner/drinks (club soda for moi) thing with my friend M who is vaguely trying to hook me up with another cute friend of his, P. This was the second time we’d met, and P seems a little bit shy, but was generous with a hug both when I got there and when he left, so we’ll see.

In between bike trips I managed to take care of bills, update the financial software, sort mail, and vacuum, but not a lot else. Gotta say, I’m quite happy I picked up a little Dyson 24 from Woot last month, it’s been a peach, and has cleaned a hell of a lot better than my old vacuum did. I’m trying to keep the dust population down this year, hoping that will help with ye olde allergies, and this sucker has been very good for that. The sole complaints I had with it are that there’s no place on the unit to store the extra little non-carpeted-floor attachment that came with it (no biggie, I just toss it in a bucket I keep in the same hall closet), and that the cord is too short to get the entire apartment from one plug (it’s a small apartment), which has been remedied by use of an extension cord I had lying around. It gets under the bed easily with the little floor attachment, and it’s small enough to carry around when I’m using said attachment around the hardwood floors. Definitely a good purchase.

Goal for the week is to complete recovery from the race and prep the schedule for the next two to three races. Really happy with how the season has started, and hope it continues in the same vein.

It’s dark at 4 am when you get up for a race. I had to wear my glasses to bike over to the race this morning, since it started at 7, which was about 15 minutes before the sun came up. Switched to the sunglasses even in the dark because I knew I’d want them on the course, but not for biking over.

Nice, cool morning. Bike ride over was easy, though it took me a bit to find bike parking. I was the only one on the actual rack near the finish line – most people just locked up to street signs. Changed into running stuff, ran into club folks who were volunteering, club folks who were running, and other friends and coworkers who were running as well while we waited inside. Seeded myself back according to the time I thought I’d do. Interestingly, they assigned us to “corrals” according to our speed, but then didn’t put numbers out for the corrals, just the expected times. Ooookay.

They threw the professionals out on the course and then began the slow crawl toward the starting line. Once we got going I did pretty well pacing myself at just under 10 minute miles (and the results show my 10k split was at an average page of 9:55 min miles). The last half was a bit slower as we hit hills and I tired out some, but the 2:15:03 finish time was perfectly fine by me. As the first race of the season I wasn’t looking to break any personal records, just to get out and do the distance before the tri season got started. The course itself was good, the right level of challenge for an early race, though it was a tad quiet since a good chunk went through downtown’s business district and some sleepy neighborhoods. Adams Morgan was nice and cheery, with a good crowd, and there were good pockets of cheering here and there as well through North Cap and the Hill. I had fun giving high fives to a bunch of little kids along the race course where I spotted them in time. In any case the kids cheering always brought on a good smile.

Mile 11 seemed to be the missing mile for a lot of people, as in we hit 11 and then the next thing you knew, you were hitting the marker for 12 and thinking, “where did that last mile go?” At least 2-3 other people I talked to had the same experience. The last couple miles were challenging, and I was thanking my lucky stars I was just doing the half as it was starting to warm up as we came into the finish chute. I’m nicely sore this afternoon after a short nap and some goofing off on the PS3, post-race, but not injured and feeling pretty good. A good way to start the season, and I look forward to the rest of it.

February just sucked gorilla butt.

Since I haven’t posted since mid-February here, there have been a number of changes, with the usual ‘things in threes’ as well. On top of the death of my grandfather, Mike and I broke things off, and I finally discovered what the third casualty was. In the mess in the middle of the month my office and I completely lost the invite to the GAO annual one-day update on the state of appropriations law over the past year. On Friday I found out it had happened the day before. Understand, this is the one bit of professional development I get to do each year which is actually relevant to what I do at work (as opposed to the annual CLE requirements & courses for the bar, which are a complete waste of my time), and I haven’t missed one since they started doing them until this year. So, yeah, February sucked gorilla butt.

March has been better. I’m on track to do okay in the half marathon next weekend, and by extension the 10 miler next month. I’m getting a good base built for the IM, setting the stage for that little challenge at the end of August. To keep myself on track there I’ve actually stopped drinking. I’ve found that when I do drink, even just a single drink, I tend to drag badly the next day, which prevents me from training (and puts me in a foul mood). The IM is too important to me to let a preventable thing stand in the way, so I’m not letting it. I’ve gone out a time or two to bars with friends now, and it’s actually not been bad not drinking.

Works’ been crazier this month than last, and we’re starting to run against political pressures on spending. Thankfully my office advertised for another fiscal law specialist, which closed Friday, so we’ll start setting up interviews for the next week or two. I hope the process goes quickly, I definitely need the help, and soon.

It’s been a heck of a week here. With the snowmageddon, followed by the 3rd blizzard of the season just a couple of days later, I was off work for the majority of the week, and actually chomping at the bit to get back just so I could socialize with people again. Not to say I didn’t see my neighbors on occasion, but it’s not like we spend a ton of time hanging out. Finally got back to work Friday morning only to leave early after getting the news that my grandfather passed away that morning (probably while I was trudging through snow to try to get to work). I’m headed down here in a bit for the funeral, if I can ever get myself moving this morning. I will enjoy getting to see all of my cousins, at least.

In better news, I managed to pay off a student loan last month (the one with the highest interest rate) and just yesterday scheduled a pay off payment for a credit card which should hit that account tomorrow. It’s a card I keep low and try to pay off monthly anyway (I put a couple of recurring bills on ‘autopay’ on it), but I’d gotten a small balance there with an unexpected expense or two, so now that’ll be back to normal. Used the federal tax return to kill that off and rejiggered the budget to put the extra cash I was using to pay it down (less the regular bills) over to paying off the next card. That second one should get paid off by the end of this year at the current pace (9 months?), freeing that cash up for other debt. I know, “been there, done this” with the cards & student loans, but with my mortgage having been sold to an idiot of a company (not to name names, but they go by the initials “Green Tree Servicing”), I want the other things gone so I can do things like fix up the apartment here and have it in a more sellable position, as well as more comfortable/livable in general.

The snow has been limiting on being able to get out and run, so I’m feeling a bit behind on my training for the half in March, but I think I can get some good running in while down at the parentals’ place this week and get back on track.