Friday Funny 228: The Only Exercise Book You'll Ever Need

The TC Marathon and TC 10 Mile are on Sunday morning!! Check my twitter feed on the side bar of my blog (or just follow me on Twitter) for updates all morning. I'll be remotely tweeting from my phone as soon as I finish the 10 Mile.

Oh, and did I mention that Henry's getting baptized tomorrow? He is! We've got a big weekend of fun coming up! Lots of family time followed by a race!

Happy Friday!

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Friday Funny 227: Yoga Mat For Sale

A "Steve in a Speedo" fan on Facebook posted this a few days ago, and it's pretty good. Check out this guy's yoga mat post on craigslist:

Yoga mat for sale. Used once at lunch hour class in December 2009. Usage timeline as follows:

11:45a
Register for hot yoga class. Infinite wisdom tells me to commit to 5 class package and purchase a yoga mat. I pay $89.74. Money well spent, I smugly confirm to myself.

11:55a
Open door to yoga room. A gush of hot dry air rushes through and past me. It smells of breath, sweat and hot. Take spot on floor in back of room next to cute blonde. We will date.

11:57a
I feel the need to be as near to naked as possible. This is a problem because of the hot blonde to my left and our pending courtship. She will not be pleased to learn that I need to lose 30 pounds before I propose to her.

11:58a
The shirt and sweats have to come off. I throw caution to the wind and decide to rely on my wit and conditioning to overcome any weight issues my fiancée may take issue with. This will take a lot of wit and conditioning.

11:59a
Begin small talk with my bride to be. She pretends to ignore me but I know how she can be. I allow her to concentrate and stare straight ahead and continue to pretend that I don't exist. As we finish sharing our special moment, I am suddenly aware of a sweat moustache that has formed below my nose. This must be from the all the whispering between us.

12:00p
Instructor enters the room and ascends her special podium at the front of the room. She is a slight, agitated Chinese woman. She introduces me to the class and everyone turns around to greet me just as I decide to aggressively adjust my penis and testes packed in my Under Armor. My bride is notably unfazed.

12:02p
Since I do have experience with Hot Yoga (4 sessions just 5 short years ago) I fully consider that I may be so outstanding and skilled that my instructor may call me out and ask me to guide the class. My wife will look on with a sparkle in her eye. We will make love after class.

12:10p
It is now up to 95 degrees in the room. We have been practicing deep breathing exercises for the last 8 minutes. This would not be a problem if we were all breathing actual, you know, oxygen. Instead, we are breathing each other's body odor, expelled carbon dioxide and other unmentionables. (Don't worry, I'll mention them later.)

12:26p
It is now 100 degrees and I take notice of the humidity, which is hovering at about 90%. I feel the familiar adorning stare of my bride and decide to look back at her. She appears to be nauseated. I then realize that I forgot to brush my teeth prior to attending this class. We bond.

12:33p
It is now 110 degrees and 95% humidity. I am now balancing on one leg with the other leg crossed over the other. My arms are intertwined and I am squatting. The last time I was in this position was 44 years ago in the womb, but I'm in this for the long haul. My wife looks slightly weathered dripping sweat and her eyeliner is streaming down her face. Well, "for better or worse" is what we committed to so we press on.

12:40p
The overweight Hispanic man two spots over has sweat running down his legs. At least I think its sweat. He is holding every position and has not had a sip of water since we walked in. He is making me look bad and I hate him.

12:44p
I consider that if anyone in this room farted that we would all certainly perish.

12:52p
It is now 140 degrees and 100% humidity. I am covered from head to toe in sweat. There is not a square millimeter on my body that is not slippery and sweaty. I am so slimy that I feel like a sea lion or a maybe sea eel. Not even a bear trap could hold me. The sweat is stinging my eyeballs and I can no longer see.

12:55p
This room stinks of asparagus, cloves, tuna and tacos. There is no food in the room. I realize that this is an amalgamation of the body odors of 30 people in a 140 degree room for the last 55 minutes. Seriously, enough with the asparagus, ok?

1:01p
140 degrees and 130% humidity. Look, bitch, I need my space here so don't get all pissy with me if I accidentally sprayed you with sweat as I flipped over. Seriously, is that where this relationship is going? Get over yourself. We need counseling and she needs to be medicated. Stat!

1:09p
150 degrees and cloudy. And hot. I can no longer move my limbs on my own. I have given up on attempting any of the commands this Chinese chick is yelling out at us. I will lay sedentary until the aid unit arrives. I will buy this building and then have it destroyed. I lose consciousness.

1:15p
I have a headache and my wife is being a selfish bitch. I can't really breathe. All I can think about is holding a cup worth of hot sand in my mouth. I cannot remember what an ice cube is and cannot remember what snow looks like. I consider that my only escape might be a crab walk across 15 bodies and then out of the room. I am paralyzed, and may never walk again so the whole crab walk thing is pretty much out.

1:17p
I cannot move at all and cannot reach my water. Is breathing voluntary or involuntary? If it's voluntary, I am screwed. I stopped participating in the class 20 minutes ago. Hey, lady! I paid for this frickin class, ok?! You work for me! Stop yelling at everyone and just tell us a story or something. It's like juice and cracker time, ok?

1:20p
It is now 165 degrees and moisture is dripping from the ceiling. The towel that I am laying on is no longer providing any wicking or drying properties. It is actually placing additional sweat on me as I touch it. My towel reeks. I cannot identify the smell but no way can it be from me. Did someone spray some stank on my towel or something?

1:30p
Torture session is over. I wish hateful things upon the instructor. She graciously allows us to stay and 'cool down' in the room. It is 175 degrees. Who cools down in 175 degrees? A Komodo Dragon? My wife has left the room. Probably to throw up.

1:34p
My opportunity to escape has arrived. I roll over to my stomach and press up to my knees. It is warmer as I rise up from ground level - probably by 15 degrees. So let's conservatively say it's 190. I muster my final energy and slowly rise. One foot in front of the other. One foot in front of the other. Towards the door. Towards the door.

1:37p
The temperature in the lobby is 72 degrees. Both nipples stiffen to diamond strength and my penis begins to retract into my abdomen from the 100 degree temp swing. I can once again breathe though so I am pleased. I spot my future ex wife in the lobby. We had such a good thing going but I know that no measure of counseling will be able to unravel the day's turmoil and mental scaring.

1:47p
Arrive at Emerald City Smoothie and proceed to order a 32 oz beverage. 402 calories, 0 fat and 14 grams of protein -- effectively negating any caloric burn or benefit from the last 90 minutes. I finish it in 3 minutes and spend the next 2 hours writing this memoir.

3:47p
Create Craigslist ad while burning final 2 grams of protein from Smoothie and before the "shakes" consume my body.

4:29p
Note to self - check car for missing wet yoga towel in am.

Awesome.

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SPEED vs ENDURANCE

Let me make my point with my "racing timeline" along with my thoughts during that given year. (If you'd like more info on any race that I mention, check out the sidebar under the given year.)


2007:

It was my second year of triathlon, and I was ONLY working on endurance. I did my first Half Ironman and my first (and so far only) Ironman. My finishing times weren't anything fantastic (5:49 half and 13:53 full), but I was in it to "get through it," and that's how I approached my training.

Pharmie and I after doing IM WI 2007 (her second IM)

About 6 weeks after that IM, I wanted to see if I could break 21:00 in a 5K. It was around Halloween, so I dressed up:

The Monster Dash 5K, 2007

I shocked myself by running a 19:28 5K, and I felt like I could go faster.

The next weekend, I WON my first race by posting a 19:11 finishing time at the Tesfa 5K. I worked on running some shorter runs HARD, and by Thanksgiving, I ran a 18:48 5K PR.

Giving Thanks 5K, 2007

2008:

I started marathon training in early March. That marathon training plan had me running intervals on the track every week. I'd never done so much speed work before. I was starting to FEEL fast. Near the end of March, I ran a 17:26 5K at the Joe Plant Memorial Run - a personal best that would hold up for 2 more years!

Hitting the line and looking for my time!
(Also, the debut of the "bowl full of sunshine" shorts!)

I swore then and there that doing regular speed work was the key to running fast. But, all that regular speed work also tends to make chronically injured runners more injured. My heel started acting up.

That fall, I ran the Tesfa 5K again, and I lowered my time on the same course from the year before by 30 seconds per mile and finished with my second fastest 5K time ever: 17:48.

Jon and I after the 2008 Tesfa 5K

2009:

Nothing really stands out in 2009. I did a Half IM at the start of the year, and then some shorter races throughout the year. I still was trying to hit the track to keep up my speed - I still swore by "the speed of the track."


2010:

I was building my mileage slowly, but I was still hitting the track pretty regularly. That combo lead to my current 5K PR on a certified course:

Flying to the finish of a 17:11 5K

I set my current 13.1 PR about a month after that 5K with a 1:22 performance in WI. I started realizing that having a lot of endurance was helping my shorter distance speed. I had some 10+ mile runs under my belt before that 5K (as part of my training for the half mary), and that endurance helped carry me through that last mile of the 5K while working hard and hurting (my closing mile was 5:19).

A few months later, I set my Oly Tri PR of 2:15:37, and I got my first Age Group win in a Tri:

Liberty Olympic Triathlon

Finally, that fall I worked with Coach Jen, and she had me put in some of my biggest mileage weeks to get me to my big goal for the year: a sub-60:00 10 mile at the TC 10 Mile. She only had me hit the track ONCE in 8 weeks, but she worked in a lot of race pace miles as I posted about last week. I remember telling her that I was nervous NOT running on the track for such a length of time. She built my endurance up, and "played" with my speed now-and-then.

Nearing the finish of a 59:05 10 mile

2011:

My 2 good running performances in 2011 don't really add much to this conversation right now, but I can still point them out. Early this year, I ran my first indoor 5000 Meters, and I finished in 17:17:

25 laps is hella-fun

And then a few weeks later, I ran a 1 mile at the Meet of the Miles in a personal best of 4:49:

Post race

Looking back, here's what I realized:

- When I started doing intervals, I started getting fast. But WHEN did I start doing intervals? It was during my training for my first marathon. Looking back NOW, I don't know how much speed was from the INTERVALS and how much was from the LONG RUNS. I assumed it was from the interval workouts that I was able to run a 17:26 5K PR back in 2008, but I was also running 15 mile long runs at that point.

- I didn't point much out in 2009, but I did note that 2009 started with a Half IM in April (in New Orleans). That built up my endurance very quickly, and I could sort of "ride" on that endurance for a few months as I then worked on my speed. I didn't realize that then, but I can see that now.

- Last fall, Coach Jen proved to me that it was NOT all about speed work. I needed to build my endurance. Pure and simple. I had the short-distance speed, but I couldn't sustain anything near that for races much longer. Her longer runs got me there.


So, here's my "Tip of the Week:"

With regards to SPEED and ENDURANCE, work on your weakest of the 2! If you can run forever, but you aren't very fast, try some intervals or fartleks (hee hee) now and then. (Sorry, I can't say "fartlek" without giggling.) If you can run shorter races pretty fast, but you don't have that speed (or similar speed) in longer races, work in more longer runs. If you work on your weaker area, you WILL become a better runner!

I kind of think of it this way: if you go out fast in a race (but at a pace you think you SHOULD be able to sustain) but get winded right away, WORK ON SPEED with intervals. If you can maintain a solid pace throughout a race but end up really dying at the end, WORK ON ENDURANCE with more long runs. That's not a perfect rock-solid theory, but that's how I'm simplifying it.

Happy training everyone! We'll see how my slight lack of endurance this year will treat me at the TC 10 Mile THIS WEEKEND!!

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RACE WEEK!!! (Thoughts on the TC 10 Mile)

As I mentioned last week, I've been following Coach Jen's workouts from my TC 10 Mile training last year. But I've missed pretty much ALL of my cross-training workouts, and I've missed about half of my runs. But, as I mentioned in my "Tip of the Week" post a few days ago, I've been making sure to try to get some "race pace" miles incorporated into my long runs.


This post will be split into 5 small sections:

A. Year-to-year comparison
B. Splits from the last 2 years at the TC 10 Mile
C. Predictions for this years TC 10 Mile
D. Other race-day thoughts
E. Why I haven't been training as consistently this year


Part A: Year-to-year comparison:

Here's how some recent "important" runs went (comparing last year to this year but without the full notes as to not give away all of Jen's coaching secrets), and then my thoughts on my current level of fitness:

- Wed Aug 31: Medium distance run with last 2 miles at sub 6:05 pace.
2010: 2 miles in 12:00.
2011: 2 miles in 12:01.
"Holy hell. I might be in better shape than I think this year!"

- Sat Sept 3: Long with with Ross. I briefly posted about this 3 weeks ago. I crashed at the end of this run. Walked twice.
"I'm no where near the shape I was in last year. Poop."

- Thurs Sept 8: Long run: 2 miles easy, 1 mile building, 5 miles FASTER than race pace.
2010: 29:26 for the 5 miles.
2011: 31:44 for the 5 miles.
"I'm depressed. Shoot." But, for what it's worth, I did this in the heat of the day between class and a school ceremony and on a course with slight more hills than I'm used to.

- Sun Sept 11: Long descending run: warm up for 2, then descend for 5.
Descend miles in 2010: 6:22, 6:25, 6:12, 5:52, 5:47 for a total of 30:38.
Descend miles in 2011: 6:59, 6:29, 6:14, 6:01, 5:41 for a total of 31:23.
"Slower than last year, sure. But that's the FIRST sub-6 I saw in a LONG time! Yay!!"

- Tues Sept 13: All-out descending tempo. After a WU and before a CD, descend 4 tempo miles.
2010: 6:03, 5:55, 5:42, 5:45 for a total of 23:25.
2011: 5:52, 6:02, 5:45, 5:45 for a total of 23:24!
"ONE second FASTER than last year! YA-HOOOOO!!!" Sure, it's not a perfect "descend," but I was working my ASS off for the run. And I KNOW this 1 run doesn't mean I'm in better shape than last year at this time. Duh. Still... I'm happy.

- Sun Sept 18: Long run: 2 miles WU with 5 miles at race pace, then long cool-down.
2010: 29:26 for the 5 miles.
2011: 30:00 for the 5 miles.
"This is AWESOME!! Yes, it's still 34 seconds slower, but this was a killer run! Confidence booster!"

Part B: Splits from the last 2 years at the TC 10 Mile:

Here are my splits from the last 2 years of running the TC 10 Mile superimposed over the elevation chart:

1:02:43 in 2009
59:05 in 2010

Part C: Predictions for this years TC 10 Mile:

I don't have the endurance this year that I had last year. At this point in Sept in 2010, I'd ran 97 miles. This year I'm 21 miles shy of that (76 miles), and I haven't swam or biked in the past 5 weeks! Last year, I swam 20,000 yards in Sept and biked (and hit the trainer) a bit. All of this will hurt me around mile 6-8 of the race. I'll be H.U.R.T.I.N.G. at that point, and I'll have little to pull me through.

If I had to give my prediction of my finishing time, I'd have to break it down like this:

- 10 Mile PR (sub-59:05): 0.00% chance. Nope. Not happening. Never in a million years. Don't call me negative. Call me realistic.

- Sub-60:00: 10% chance. This MIGHT be possible this year. One fact that needs to be thrown into the mix is that I've gone sub-60 before; my body knows how to do it. Now, WILL I be able to do it on less training? Doubtful. But if the morning is perfect, my legs are light, and there's a hurricane-force wind from the west... it's possible. (It's a point-to-point run with the final 4.5 miles heading straight east down Summit Ave.)

- "Pre-coached" 10 Mile PR (sub-1:02:19): 65% chance. I think this is what will happen. Using what Coach Jen gave me last year will keep me working hard. I've been doing many of the "important" run workouts this year from my training log last year. She taught me how to suffer, but I don't think I can "suffer my way" to a sub-60 finish. But I THINK I can keep it under 1:02:19.

- 10 Mile PW (1:02:44 or slower): 25% chance. This is quite possible. My SPEED is there, but my ENDURANCE is not. So I could really die in the closing miles.

And all of this could be thrown out the door on race day. This is all just a crap shoot. We'll see what this weekend brings.


Part D: Other race-day thoughts:

- I'll probably go out somewhere between my slower start in 2009 and my faster start last year. I bet I'll hit mile 5 in under 31:00. (Heck, it could be close to 30:00). But the true test will come at mile 6, 7, 8, and 9...

- I might walk. I've come to terms with that. My SPEED will tell me to keep up the pace, but my ENDURANCE will be cursing my mother under it's breath. I will try to keep from doing this, but I just might have to take a walk break through an aid station or 2 around mile 7 - 9.

- My closing miles will be fast. When I question my endurance, I usually ease up too much in the middle, and then have a lot to use in the final mile or 2. So no matter how I finish, mile 10 should look good on paper. This isn't a good thing.

- Here's what I'm worried about: If I realize I'm going to finish at some random 1:01:XX time, I'll need to fight off the urge to walk. My mind will be saying "But it's not a PR. It's not sub-60. If you finish 20 seconds slower, it really won't make a difference. Come on... just take a short rest." I do NOT want to give-in to that voice. IF I stop to walk, I want to make sure it's because I'm truly hashed; NOT because I don't feel like I have anything specific to shoot for.


Part E: Why I haven't been training as consistently this year:

I don't always want to be away from my little guy, Henry. And those of you close to Pharmie and I know the truth in this statement: he's been a LOT of work. (He's officially colicky, he has some intestinal issues, and he's still eating like a 1 month old even though he's 3.5 months.)

Saturday morning, Henry and I hung out for most of the day:

Cozy and sleepy while Pharmie went for a run


Smily after his nap


Rolling around with Ella in the guestroom


Sat night giggling in the kitchen. Direct link: http://youtu.be/TzCdkggX8Gg

Back with a bit more on my thoughts on SPEED vs ENDURANCE in run training soon.

Happy Monday!

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I Got A Nice Package...

... in the mail a week ago.

Here's a peak:

Do you know what this means?

There will be a SWEET giveaway in the next few weeks!!

Stay tuned for that....

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Friday Funny 226: Drying Off

Every man has asked himself this question:

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Friday Funny 225: Unfortunate Newspaper Ad Wording

Ummm... I'm pretty sure you'll save more than that....

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Friday Funny 224: Little Girl Learns About Penises

Turn up the volume.

http://youtu.be/SzJyHigCvDM

Wait.... Grandma has a WHAT?!? I could listen to her say that over and over. Too funny!

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Local CC Runner Featured on Yahoo Sports

From Yahoo Sports:

Runner carries injured foe half mile to help in middle of race
By Jonathan Wall

Josh Ripley didn't have to stop. Running in a recent cross country meet for Andover (Minn.) High, the junior varsity runner was making his way through the trail at the Applejack Invite when he heard a loud scream during the first mile of a two-mile race. Most of the other kids running didn't pay much attention to Lakeville South runner Mark Paulauskas, who was writhing in pain at the time, as they passed by.

Josh Ripley

The only person who decided to pay attention was Ripley. As an Anoka-Hennepin school district release reported, Ripley immediately noticed Paulauskas holding his bloody ankle. Then, instead of running back and calling for help, he did the only thing he could think of: He carried the injured runner a half mile back to coaches and family members.

"I didn't think about my race, I knew I needed to stop and help him," Ripley said in the school district release. "It was something I would expect my other teammates to do. I'm nothing special; I was just in the right place at the right time."

It was a good thing Ripley had the foresight to carry Paulauskas so he could be rushed to the emergency room. When Paulauskas arrived at the hospital, doctors realized he had been accidentally spiked by another runner's shoe during the race. The injury required 20 stitches and a walking boot to keep the wounded area from opening up.

Andover cross country coach Scott Clark couldn't believe what he heard when word got to him that Ripley was carrying another runner back to the starting line.

"Then Josh comes jogging into view carrying a runner," Clark said. "I noticed the blood on the runner's ankle as Josh handed him off to one of the coaches from Lakeville. Josh was tired and you could tell his focus was off as he started back on the course."

.........

The story goes on to say that Josh turned back around and essentially started his race over again. He finish his race (obviously much slower than most everyone else) and went on his way.

It's good to see a local good deed make national news. Way to go, Josh!

UPDATE: I just saw this story on the local news, and it turns out the cut was pretty bad. They could see bone! So this kid NEEDED someone to carry him back to get help right away!

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A Running "Tip of the Week"

I've been trying to re-do some of the workouts that Coach Jen gave me last year for the TC 10 Mile. They really have me thinking about what the POINT of the runs were when Coach Jen gave them to me a year ago. Last year, I just did the runs like coach said - like a soldier receiving orders. "Yes Ma'am." Don't think I'm complaining... she got the job done! This year, I really started looking at WHY I was given certain runs. There's one thing that really stood out in the workouts I was given.

RACE.
PACE.
RUNS.

And lots of 'em.

My issue in the past was that I was OVER-TRAINED. I would run most every training run HARD. I knew that when I worked with Coach Jen last year that she'd "slow me down" a bit to keep me from over-training and burning out my legs. But as I look back over my training from last year, I saw something familiar in every run: there were at least 2 miles in about 80% of my runs that were at race pace.

- If it was an easy, easy, easy day, I wasn't doing race-pace running, but that was only about once every-other week.

- If it was an easyish day, it might have been 6 miles with miles 4 and 5 at 6:00 pace (my goal pace last year for the TC 10 Mile).

- If it was a tempo day, the run contained 4 or so miles FASTER than race pace.

- If it was a long run day, I'd maybe run a total of 10-12 miles, but 5 or so would be around race pace.

There was always an easy warm-up, and always an easy cool-down, but most runs contained some FAST running. And all of this did NOT lead to over-training, and I nailed my sub-60 goal with a 59:05 finish:

Half way into the 2010 TC 10 Mile

So, here's my "Tip of the Week:" add in some race-pace running to a number of your weekly runs. Don't go nuts and go "all out" all the time. But pick up the pace for a few miles on a long run to get your legs moving the speed you WANT them to go during your next race. They need to LEARN to move at that pace. (I think this idea would only work for about a 5 mile - 10K race or longer... anything shorter and you probably shouldn't be running THAT fast all the time.)

Back with more on my TC 10 Mile training shortly. I've been doing many of the same workouts as last year, but with different results....

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Pharmie's St. Croix Valley Sprint Tri Photos

The official photos are in from Pharmie's St. Croix Valley Sprint Tri 2 weeks ago. It was 12 weeks after giving birth and her first race since the easy 5K she ran a few days before Henry arrived.

Exiting the water

Pharmie looks better (and less insane) than I did at my last race:

Remember those crazy eyes? How could you forget.

Here's Pharmie coming down THEE hill. Notice that there appears to be at least 4 people walking their bikes up in the other direction. That's why all the bike splits were so slow:

Smiling while descending


All smiles at the finish!

Congrats Pharmie! Looking forward to watching you run past to the finish line of the TC Marathon in under 2 weeks!!

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Training?... Not So Much

My new job and my new little man have been taking a lot of time lately. Compare my training from the last 5 weeks LAST YEAR to the last 5 weeks THIS YEAR:

Mid Aug - Mid Sept 2010



Mid Aug - Mid Sept 2011

Look especially at those last 3 weeks. It's been nothing but some quick, crammed strength work (I've been known to quick do some of my leg exercises in my office) and a bunch of runs. Nothing else.

Let's look at the total numbers from this 5-week block of time:

2010: Run 133.08 miles
2011: Run 96.58 miles

2010: Swam 29,780 yards
2011: Swam 2,040 yards

2010: 95.79 miles (plus a trainer workout)
2011: 64.05 miles

The biggest difference is the swimming. Last year, Coach Jen had me doing a lot of swimming on active recovery days, and I think she was also using those swims to build / keep up my endurance. My swimming yardage is down so much this year for 2 reasons: (1) I don't like swimming, so if no one is telling me to swim, I won't; and (2) I usually swim in the early AM, but the early AM is my time with Cranky Hank.


There ARE 2 bright spots in my training compared to last year, but they both don't mean a whole lot.

1. Last year, I "logged" about 9 hours of walking the entire year. This August alone, I logged 13 hrs 21 mins walking Henry! While that doesn't do much for my training, I think it does help my weak heel and butt - the extra easy walking builds up some strength in those areas.

2. Last year I had 4 hrs 21 mins of strength / core-work over these 5 weeks, and this year I have 8 hrs 49 mins of strength / core-work! The Y is close to where I teach, so if I have 30 minutes to spare between a meeting and class, I sometimes go quick bang out a core session. That doesn't help my running TOO much, but it DOES help a little.


So here's why my new job has been keeping me from training. Our darkroom at CVA has just moved. Over the summer, we totally re-worked a space to make some great labs. We (meaning non-contractors) FINALLY got into the space 8 days ago on Friday. I've been working in the labs ever since to make it ready for students this upcoming week because they are ready to process film and make enlargements.

One week ago, the B&W darkroom had no enlargers in it, and it was stacked floor-to-ceiling with boxes that I needed to be unpacked and I needed to find / make a new home for them:

I couldn't even get to within 10 feet of that
far wall because there was so much stuff!

After putting in close to 70 hours in the darkroom since last Friday NOT INCLUDING TEACHING MY CLASSES or working on files at home (really!!), the darkroom looked like this last night:

One of my work-study students doing a final scrub of the sinks
(notice some enlargers put in along the back wall with coverings over them)


A peek into the cleaned-out enlarger carrols before the enlargers were put in

(If these photo things get you a little excited, then we could probably be friends. Also, keep an eye on my Photo Blog for a whole lot of photos that will be going up shortly!)

So if I were one to make excuses, this darkroom work would be my excuse for my lack of training lately. :)

Back with some notes on recent training runs shortly! Happy weekend, everyone!

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Friday Funny 223: Challenge Accepted

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Friday Funny 222: Two Awkward Condom Funnies

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Friday Funny 221: Nerd Test

If you're a nerd, you'll laugh:

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It's Been Proven Before: I Look Horrible in Race Photos

If you remember, I did the Lake Marion Tri a few weeks ago with Justin and Matt. THEY look great in the photos. I do not.

Here, let me prove it to you.

These are the "official" photos from the race. Here's one of Matt getting into the zone:

Here's Justin talking with someone who went to his college:

And here's one of me eating a PowerBar in the MOST CREEPY WAY possible:

WTF?

My horrible photos don't stop at pre-race. At the end of the swim, here's Justin hitting the beach for the FIRST TIME in his FIRST TRI:

This is his first race and he already looks like a wetsuit model! Sheesh.
I mean, really - this looks like it could be an ad!

Sure, when Matt exited the water, he didn't look GREAT...

... but at least he didn't look like he's pausing to steal the soul of nearby children. Because that's apparently what I'm doing:

Crazy eyes. (And yes, that's Matt right behind me!)

You could tell Justin was a noobie when he ran up the beach. He STARTS getting his wetsuit off....

.... but then he stops stripping his wetsuit to cheer for his cheering section!

Matt daintily took his swim split:

And I still kinda had my crazy eyes:

On the bike, the race photographer got COOL PHOTOS of Justin and Matt:

Seriously, one of the coolest photos ever of Matt!

I just got "normal," boring photos from straight on:

(My left ankle always goes wide like that...)

Side note: I found a forum about a year ago where people were wondering why race photographers didn't take bike photos like those of Justin and Matt. We can clearly see that those 2 photos are way cooler than the ones of me from straight on. Being a BFA and MFA trained photographer, I was going to give my 2 cents, but someone else had given my exact explanation before I had a chance to answer. With the "normal, straight-on" photos, the race photographer can zoom in and take a handful of photos of each athlete (I think I had 4 or 5 of me from this race). But with the "profile zooming by" bike shot like Matt and Justin got, the photographer literally has 1 shot to make it work. And if there's a small pack of bikers, it's pretty much impossible to get everyone individually as they go by. So I just want to note that and say that I'm not really complaining that I got a "normal" photo on the bike. OK, back to your regularly scheduled post.

On to the run... Here's Justin excited to be nearing the end of his first tri:

Matt looked a little rough in the final sprint, but that's because he was getting ready to puke:

My first run photo looks OK. In fact, my leg looks all muscly and strong:

Just before mile 3 of the 5K run

But then I have an awkward about-to-hit-my-watch-while-easing-up-on-my-pace photo:

Well, it looks like that will do it for my multisport season. All I've been doing lately is running (no swimming or biking), but I suppose that's OK being the TC 10 Mile is under 3 weeks away! More on that soon...

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