Picture Blog, Texas style...

Taking pictures while driving, probably not the safest thing... Sunny day with snow on the ground looks good to a Texan.



I guess snow is fun if you only see it once in a blue moon. Really, I gladly shoveled driveways and dug people out and pushed cars... Its fun to a Texan...

Sometime I have fun on my own terms, alcohol isn't needed for this Texan.

OK, even the second and third time a moronic Texan was "Balls to the Wall" with the shovel!

Brrrr.. Don't know if my Texan body has ever been in weather like this.

Nothing is better than a dumb Texan "Roboting" in the snow... Anyone feel the need for a dance off?

Uh... the only time a drunk can drive like a drunk and get away with it...

Obviously a Canadian, I don't know where he gets it from...

Hello Walls....

Priceless... Convincing a bride still in wedding dress to put her finger up her nose for a picture... hahahaha... I'm still laughing about this one...

Pace Less Hammer More...

Robin: "Boy! That was our closest call ever! I have to admit that I was pretty scared!"

Batman: "I wasn't scared in the least."

Robin: "Not at all?"

Batman: "Haven't you noticed how we always escape the vicious ensnarement's of our enemies?"

Robin: "Yeah, because we're smarter than they are!"

Batman: "I like to think it's because our hearts are pure."

long story... short...

So, I bloggage has slowed down a bit these last few week, but I'm back.. Back to normal, as if I was ever normal... The objective right now is to run through the facts only to be backed up with pictures tomorrow. See, my current location is at the Detroit airport and my cable for the camera is in Lake Jackson, Tx... ok lets back track....





a week from today, last Monday I went to the Ortho Dr only to find that my wounding knee troubles are arthritis and his diagnosis is to "stop running" WTF!!! I'm in the best shape of my life, heather and happier than ever and he tells me to break up the Beatles?? nope. so he gives me an anti-inflammatory and tells me of some new methods that have helped others but that aren't approved by the FDA.. HUH.. Confusion set in.. its all good.. I refuse to "mail it in" I'll be doing the 1/2 Iron distance in Galveston the end of the month, NO EXCUSES... 5:30!!!!





Tuesday, business as usual, train hard.. Morning bike, Mid-day run, evening swim....





Wed AM... Flew to Detroit (snow everywhere and cold), drove to Lemington, Ontario for my beloved cousins wedding. She is a cousin technically, but I love her like a sister, were separated by a good distance, but I wouldn't have missed the wedding for anything. Because its the time of year for standardized testing, my wife (and kid) stayed home. She is marring the guy that my wife blames personally for my triathlon addiction (he did Ironman UK last year). This year he will be doing Ironman Louisville, and by the way he trains he isnt "mailing in" anything. We got in a good treadmill run Wed PM and I got to meet his fellow Canadian IM buddies...





Thursday.. Visited relatives.. got in two workouts with my soon to be cousin, a Bike session in the AM and a Hill Run in the PM.. it hurt so good...





Friday.. AM Run, and we were forced to skip the afternoon swim to help with last minute wedding plans... More visiting with relatives in the PM... It started snowing after dark, I like the snow probably because I dont see it much.





Saturday.. AM snow everywhere.. Got to shovel snow for the first time.. I did it as fast as possible, took about an hour and since the wedding was that evening there was no time for training, so my shoveling experience had to do for a workout. Wedding was in the evening, my job was to escort the bride and since it was still snowing she was late to her own wedding.. Sorry Jules... :(





Sunday.. Woke up in Windsor Ontario, at another cousins house, had lunch as was headed back to detroit for my 5pm flight. Yeah Right... it took me over 3 hrs to get back to the airport. Normally, only 35 min.. I missed my flight. I miss my family. Got a hotel closeby... no training today:(





Monday.. juggling my destroyed secedule. going to miss work today as my flight doesnt leave until noon... ahh.. I miss my family.. everytime I speak to my wife I can hear the little guy talking in the background. These days being gone for a few days means I miss something new...





Ok so less than 3 weeks until my 1/2 IM... I CAN NOT miss anymore training.. My swim is better than ever, my bike is stronger that ever, my run is hurting because of the knee stuff. I have 2 weeks to fix that, hopefully without injury.. No excuses, no "mailed in" performances allowed....











Pace less Hammer more!!!

















“It’s not pollution that is hurting the environment, it’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.”[Dan Quayle]

Much Ado About Nothing

Just wanted to document a monumental milestone in my training.

Because of my knee issues, I have run very little these last two weeks. That doesn't mean my training has gone away. My swims are longer and my cycling consists of longer intervals. Hopefully, my running will pick up where it left off next week. I'll be rocking a 5k tomorrow in West Columbia, time to rock out with my C%^# out... Not really, I kid I kid..

Anyway last year at the local relay triathlon in which I placed myself on team ME. I swam 1100 yards in 16:15 or so. My goal was to bring that down 30 seconds this year. So this morning I went for an 1.5 hour bike and short swim. Now, going back the last 2 months my shortest swim has been no less than 2500 yards. Today I wanted to see what kind of speed I had. 1st 500 @ 7:14, 2nd 7:07, 3rd 7:14.... So I was pumped, this is a milestone for me.

A year and a half ago I was near death doing a 200 in 4:00... Now I'm on my way to doing a 1100 in 15:00. I have a little background in swimming, learned at a young age and in middle school I can remember swimming with the high school students in the summer time. Of course, swimming wasn't as cool as basketball, soccer, or football. So swimming got dropped, now if I could go back that is something I would change. I ruined my knee my senior year of high school football (2nd game), missed my senior year of basketball because my ACL was jacked. So it was all for nothing, but this is my redemption song (Bob Marley) my new goal in the pool, 1100 yards in sub 15:00.... I might get dropped in the run, but I will be first in AG out of the water....

Pace less ... Hammer More...


"Go fuck yourself." —Vice President Dick Cheney to Sen. Patrick Leahy, during an angry exchange on the Senate floor about profiteering by Halliburton

Random Babbling

This past weekend I was given the opportunity to give to a cause and feed the competitive monkey on my back. This was my 1st 5K, it was close to the house, and I wanted to see how well I could perform on a short course like this.




The course was CHS's Cross County route, so over the hills (not really hills, but the ditches were crazy steep) and through the woods, we went. Being self-programmed to run on sidewalks, streets, and Memorial Park type places, I REALLY enjoyed the change. I knew it was going to be fast and I wanted a fork to be in me by the finish, so I mentally prepared myself by listening to Howard Stern on the radio before the race. Nothing says "hammer more" like an interview with Jenna Jameson. Only kidding, I just wanted to throw in some doltish laughs... I know, porn star humor is probably not funny to most.

Therefore, the gun went off and so did my heart rate. Controlled breathing yeah right, I felt like a chained smoked a pack of "reds" for the first mile. By the time, I hit the halfway point I was feeling better, but the pace was excessively fast for me. The quads were screaming for Calgon, my lungs wanted oxygen, but the 15 year old in front of me kept me in there without saying a word. I was on his tail for the duration. It went fast, what a rush! At the end I wanted to puke, I could hardly walk without a limp (not good), this meant I had a fork in me, I was happy. My time? I couldn’t believe this was accurate, is it possible I did a 20:46 (the picture below is 2 sec's off, because that’s how I live my life, off)?? No way, can’t be... Once I caught my breath, and blood was pumped back into my brain, I asked the HS kids that organized the run about the accuracy; they said it is exactly the same run that the CC team races on. So hey, it must be true...

So after the race I talked with some of the other runners that told me that there is another 5K in the area the following weekend (Race for the Cure). This will give me the opportunity to check my time with an encore performance, I'm pumped. This fast stuff is nice, other than the fact that my knee with the ACL damage is not as thrilled about it as I am. I attempted to run a bit later, it hurt, so I shut it down and went swimming.

Speaking of water, the weather was horrible Saturday afternoon, the wifey wanted to do some painting so "The Kid" and I went on a field trip. Sea Center Texas, only a few minutes from the house and it’s free! Thinking that because of the bad weather there would be more people around, we were surprised to see that we were there keeping the volunteers company.

This is the best part of being a daddy, field trips!!! He loved it. Normally his attention span is on average less than 10 seconds, but Saturday he wasn’t distracted by anything. I just sat and watched his amazement. There are about a half dozen large aquariums with native fish for our area. In addition, an area for kids to get their hands wet while touching crabs, muscles, turtles and other sea creatures. Good Stuff...

So, Sunday, rolled out of bed ouch, the knee wasn’t liking me. Tried to run, NO WAY JOSE!!! It only hurts when I run, and the pain is excruciating (Going to the Dr. Thursday). Sorry Mr. Gump your running on your own today! Later on in the day was my first attempt for open water swimming at Twin Lakes in Manvel Tx. The weather was awesome, but my manhood is still a bit skittish due to the water temp. My first reaction was to scream like a girl, and I did. It took a while to warm up, much more than usual, but it ended up being a good day.

We all know what happens after a good swim.... hunger pains... Ouch... If you were looking for the beef, I found it!!!!

And with all that said, I must go... Pace Less Hammer More....

"He dribbles a lot and the opposition don't like it - you can see it all over their faces." - Ron Atkinson

Nothing to Brag About

Its been about a week since my last post and nothing extraordinary has moved me or knocked me on my ass. So, I guess an uneventful few weeks is nice for a change. I've stepped up my training and it feels great. Running 3 times a week for 22 miles on avg and gradually adding to it. Swimming between 9000 and 12000 yards a week, adding only speed and faster intervals in the upcoming weeks. Cycling, (once again not meeting my goals) I've mounted "The Dude" only twice in the last few weeks, although I’ve been hitting the stationary hard in the morning workouts.I have a long weekend coming up so I'll try to get in a couple rides with some hill repeats. The knee has been giving me a bit of discomfort so I'll take it easy on the running, it could just be the temperamental weather and the barometric changes that come with it. Enough of that mess, no one cares, I know...

Last weekend we took a little road trip to Lafayette, to see some friends and take the kid to his first Mardi Gras Parade.

Mardi Gras in Lafayette is nothing like the big show in New Orleans. Its family oriented, the drunks are polite and the flashing doesn’t exist. The cops are in abundance to see that a family friendly celebration runs smoothly.

Before the trip, I found myself checking out mapmyrun.com to plan a few runs. Its official, I'm a slave to training. Sunday, didn’t offer me an opportunity to do anything as we spent the morning visiting with our dear friends that we only get to see about twice a year. The afternoon was spent on the road, as captive to Interstate 10 it gave the opportunity to catch up on some magazines that have been piling up. Then we got home just in time to make it to a Super Bowl Party, what a game huh? After the game I was a bit tipsy and it wouldn’t have been wise to attempt a run in that state of inebriation. Therefore, Sunday was a dud, and the guilt piled up on me for getting nothing done, thus the assumption of a tri-slave. Ah Tri-Slave, could it be the blog name I have been looking for?

Something came up the over the weekend with a tri-friend, he/she was going into detail about the swimming drills that made up the workout they were doing. Drills? Drills? This person has difficulty swimming 150 yards w/o stopping and they want to do drills (one arm, catch-up, pulling? I listen and I keep my mouth shut (in protest of course) not wanting to be that guy who offers advise without reasoning. I'm not a coach it its not a goal of mine to be one, but should I offer my opinion to this person that they should forget out the drills and build some endurance before working on technique? Or should I just shut up and blow him/her out of the water at the next race? You make the call...


Robin: "Holy molars! Am I ever glad I take good care of my teeth!"
Batman: "True. You owe your life to dental hygiene."