Finally back to regular training. I didn’t go too long following the accident without some form of training, about a week and a half, but when I did start exercising I was always really spotty and a lot of it was walking… Now I’m training just about every day and actually getting in some quality workouts… This week started with a 20 mile ride on Sunday followed by a quick mile run. Another 20 miles on the bike on Monday as well as 1,000 yards of swimming. Of note on the swimming, I started with a 500 yard timed swim, starting out cold, did it in 7:02 or 1:24 pace… Tuesday started out with a 7 mile run with the Tues/Thurs run group, 136 runners this Tuesday at 5:30am! The run was followed up with physical therapy and later in the evening I joined the Tuesday evening bike ride for a brisk 20 mile ride. So far on the week I’m at 60 miles of biking, 9 miles of running, and 1,000 yards of swimming…

I went down to Forsyth MO to the Back a Child Sprint Triathlon on the 26th of June and got my first triathlon win of the season. I had done this race back in 2003 and had placed third, but had gone on to beat the top two finishers the rest of that season. So I felt I had a good chance to return and do well.The race starts out with a 400 meter swim in Swan Creek that finishes in Lake Taneycomo, a rather chilly lake.

Coming out of the water I was in 7th place so I had a lot of ground to make up in the 20k bike.

After averaging 24.8 mph on the bike, I had taken the lead and had a 16 second advantage heading into the 5k run.

I wasn’t sure how the running would go, but by the end of the run I had extended my lead and won by a minute and ten seconds.

Finally decided I ought to write a race report from TriJesus, only about a month late… Better late than never I guess…

Perhaps it is because it is the first triathlon I ever won, but TriJesus ranks as one of my favorite triathlons. Last year’s race I had gone in a little over confident and had been beaten by 35”. I had also made it a goal last year to break 1 hour but had fallen 2 minutes and 2 seconds short. I was hoping to remedy both those short comings this year…

I spent the night in Kirksville at my friend’s house and drove to Quincy race morning. After arriving early and finding a decent rack spot, I was happy to see several other CMCer’s, especially when I realized I hadn’t brought my pump… Rodney Adkison graciously allowed me to use his even though he knew I was going to give everything I had to beat him in a few hours… Rodney had beaten me a month or so earlier in the Sean Martin Memorial duathlon and I was hoping to get my revenge here.

While I was confident I was faster than the previous year, I had also wrecked on a bike ride two weeks earlier and had only been able to run two times in the previous two weeks. So I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready, but I was definitely ready to find out…

Being a pool swim we lined up according to our predicted swim time. I strategically placed myself in a position in line where I would start exactly two minutes behind Rodney. Knowing Rodney can out run me, I figured my best chance is to catch him on the bike and have enough time in hand so he can’t get it all back on the run. If I could enter T2 at the same time as Rodney, 2 minutes in a 5k would probably be enough…

The swim this year felt a lot better and I actually found myself passing several swimmers. I got out with a time of 7:05, 11 seconds faster than last year, not much but every little bit helps. Once out on the bike things felt good. I was holding a 24 mile an hour average and passing several cyclists. However, once on the hilly part of the course things started to slow down a little, but I continued to churn on constantly looking ahead for the next cyclist, hoping it was Rodney… But nope, after 13 miles I still hadn’t seen him and so I pulled into T2 and did as fast a transition as I could. Kimberly Mouser who had come with Ryan to watch, hollered out that I was 40 seconds down. I didn’t realize that she was accounting for the fact that I had started 2 minutes behind Rodney, so I thought I had made up 1:20 on him. Just maybe I could run the 5k within 1:20 of Rodney… As it turned out he took 1:26 out of me on the run and beat me by 1:44 overall… So once again 2nd place overall, the first looser was going to have to do… I had taken 19 seconds of my time from last year so it wasn’t all bad… Actually, it was a really fun race and I’m sure I’ll be back again next year for some more. Of course, Rodney had also broken an hour, so my goal of being the first under an hour is no longer an option… I guess next year I’ll just have to set the course record…

It took a while, but I finally got my screen built to go with my homemade movie projector. I’ve posted a few pictures here…

Just a few quick details, the screen cost me about $30 to build, but looks like a $100 screen. The actual screen is “black out” cloth which is used to line the back of draperies. I had been told that it stretched, so I purchased a 96″ x 54″ piece. However, when it came time to stretch it onto the 96″x54″ frame I built, it turns out that the width only stretched, not the length. Unfortunately this kept me from being able to get the cloth completely stapled to the frame… Eventually I will replace the cloth with a piece a couple of inches longer…