Friday, August 15, 2014

Just Some Ranting...

I've had so many thoughts that conclude with I should blog about that... Yet the updates continue to be rather infrequent. Hmmmm. Here's a little bit of what's been going on though... warning... maybe a little  <ranting> involved.

Last weekend our island shut down because of the threat of a hurricane. Ok so better safe than sorry I guess, but I feel like decisions were made quite pre-maturely and so.much.overreaction was the result... Everything closed (schools, parks, gas stations, stores) and everything was cancelled (all races and weekend events) and we ended up with a bit of rain and then perfect weather for the rest of the weekend. Honestly I think my biggest issue with this was that even after it was obvious that the storm was headed south and not going to hit us, the news people were still all over the TV warning about DANGEROUS DANGEROUS driving conditions, etc. It was almost as if they didn't want to just say Hey it's cool sorry for the inconvenience but we're all good... I finally just had to shut off the news b/c their reporting felt patronizing to me, and it was almost as if some loved the idea of the drama that surrounds the possibility of a big disastrous storm- playing it up even after the threat was gone. It seems like this happens fairly often but I swear, the more of these false alarms we get, the less likely I am to believe any warning going forward... So that's my rant about the hurricane thing.

This was the day of the 'hurricane'...

So we get to do a half-ironman-ish race tomorrow... It's really called an 'Endurance Triathlon' b/c it's not really a 1/2 ironman. It's a 1/2 mile swim (one way with the current/chop), get out run barefoot on the sand back to swim start, repeat 1/2 mile swim, long run to T1... So once again we have a triathlon where the swim is minimized as much as possible. I won't even start on my rant about that. OK I lied- I'll start the rant- It is possible to become a strong swimmer, but that requires actually going to the pool more than 2x/week and swimming more than 1500/session, and for more than 3-4 months of the year. I do think that if triathletes actually trained appropriately for the swim, they could/would become stronger swimmers, then triathlon swims wouldn't have to consistently be dumbed down all the time. I will say this though- we have been out at that beach practicing the swim/run/swim thing and it is way harder than you think to dive in and swim after running 1/2 mile barefoot on the sand... My prediction is that spectators will see quite a bit of breaststroking in the beginning of that second swim lap!

Then the bike is supposedly 57 miles, mostly with a pretty strong tailwind, so it should be pretty fast. Funny how in my race plan my true thoughts come out... I think my exact description was Not a legit bike course... So the distance is there but I ride that road all the time and know that a rider can go 20+mph averaging ~130w... so the advantage in this race is not going to go to the stronger riders, and the bike split cannot count as a 'PR'... though I suspect a lot of athletes will be pretty damn happy with their bike split when they get to T2 (If only I had a dollar for every time someone will say I had a great bike!). Now, IF we got to turn around and ride back it would be a completely different story- requires 180+w to go 19mph into that wind... That would be a tough bike course!

The run should be legit and hard though- it's flat but will very likely be HOT HOT HOT, so that'll be a good challenge. Regardless, it should be a fun grassroots type racing event, and it's the last triathlon of the year for me, so I'll give it my best shot and see what I've got. Training has been going ok the last few months. I've been doing it all and sometimes seeing/feeling glimpses of fitness but I don't feel as overall like a BULL like I have in past years which makes me think that it's a bit of a crap shoot tomorrow. So we'll see. In all honesty, after this race is over it becomes Running Season and there's something about that that is extremely appealing to me right now... But more on that later!

And of course a blog entry wouldn't be complete without an update on the chickens. They are all good! Snow disappeared (again) for a few weeks and I thought the worst for him (again) but then he reappeared on the side of the road (again) this week so that was fun to see him! Not sure if someone is taking him away to mate with their hens or if he just goes and hides in the fields on his own? Either way, he's been out there long enough that I would expect to see some hybrid silkie chicks here in the next month or so... The other day I stopped to feed him and as I was driving off I saw a woman stop her car, get out and take a picture of him. He really does stand out among all the other wild chickens on that road. Here at home my girls are all doing well too. My new Snowball is happy and healthy and running around with my other little white ones, who are not so little anymore... but they are like a little gang of four following each other around the yard. They are almost big enough for Ozzie to leave them alone, but yesterday Ozzie twice went after them and twice I had to rescue one of them from the neighbor's hard. At least now they are all aware of Ozzie as a threat so they pay attention and are able to get away from him when he gets that stalking look in his eyes. Ellie is still too much of a Queen to associate with any of them, but she does warn them with mad clucking skillz when Ozzie is in the yard and watching, so in that regard, she's shown herself to be a team player. When it comes to food though, she is not a team player. At all.

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