Another Grey Day in MN

Today started out with a 30-40 min oen water swim with (Dan, Jason & Dennis) at Cedar Lake's south beach. Air temp was a little warmer than it was on Tuesday for Lake Ann (~40 degrees), I was actually very happy to get into the water on Tuesday. This morning meet me at the door with overcast rain looking skies and not much motivation. After last night's short track workout under clear blue sunny skies, I was more than dissappointed to wake to the Seattle like weather again. I gathered all of my open water swim stuff and headed off to meet the rest of the boys. The swim went well, we worked on starts after the over and back roughly 1650 yard swim. The guys gave me some good pointers about starting and what to do. A sport of constient learning. I stuggle to follow feet at the start and usually find myself in either no mans land or busting my butt to get on someone's feet after being lost at the start. If I want to continue to improve I will certianly need to work on this area of swimming.

This weekend I have the Buffalo relay with Jim and Jen. This should be the makings of a great relay team. Jim is a former U of M swimmer and Jen is solid runner. Hopeefully I'll have some good photos to post of the race. I was able to prove to myself that I am capable of biking on Tuesday night at TNT. So for the bike portion I will bury my head and go for broke. Tuesday night in Medina I was able to average just under 25 mph on a fairly hilly challenging course. I finished 11th out of 52 entries. Dennis, same one from swim this morning, beat me by only 8 seconds. I say "only", but thats a pretty good gap. My quads and lungs were burning. I had a blast at my first bike tt and am looking forward to the next one in a few weeks.

Not much else is exciting, Rach started her 2nd to last class on Tuesday. She will finish up all class work the end of July and than its off to externship, lord only knows where. More than likely I'll be a "single" guy for 3-4 months; just me and Jack hanging out protecting the house. She is waiting to her back from a counselor at school if Madison is still a possibility. She might be able to get a spot at HCMC in downtown Mpls. We would be able to stay together for those 3-4 months and she would get great work experience. She is a little hesitant about HCMC, being a Level 1 trama center, but she knows her stuff and would be able to hold her own. I mean, where else can you get the everyday gun shot victim, stabbing victim and over dose?? Sounds like a real treat, huh? Sure beats pushing papers and filing charts

First Time for Everything

Well, as modern technology continues to grow and human interaction is less and less these days; I figured I should jump on the band wagon and create a blog. I thinks its a little goofy to have something posted on the Internet that is more or less shameless self promotion. But after talking to buddy of mine on the way back from a race this weekend...he informed me that its a great way to keep is parents and family members up to date on his happenings. So I thought that I would give it a shot and see what happens, plus Rachel just took off to meet her mom in Woodbury for some shopping and I don't want to mow the back yard. So here goes nothing......



This morning I got up and went out for the first of many open water swims at Lake Ann. The water temp was not bad, face was a little cold the first minute or 2 but not bad. I tried out a new wettie (wet suit, stealing the Aussie term, thanks Ry) from Jason. I have a full body sleeveless suit, and this borrowed one has sleeves. I was thinking that the shoulders might feel a little tight once I got going, but its not that bad. Plus I now have a new wettie for the season and zero cost to me. Thanks J for the use of the suit!!!



For those that don't know me and just stumbled upon this blog, I race triathlons all summer long. This is a pretty expensive sport for the none money winning athletes like me...so any little help goes a long way.



This coming Tuesday I have my very first cycling time trial in Medina. This is an out and back 11 mile suffer fest ride. Just put your head down and go as hard as you can. Really the pain cant be that bad, can it?



I will do my best to keep this up to date as times moves forward. I hope you will like what you find and read here. If not sorry, I am new to all of this.