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Monday, July 17, 2006 at 8:31PM 
Emily and I completed the Dallas Triathlon (Olympic distance) with only a few major mishaps. If it wasn't for Triboomer, we'd still be wandering around Big D looking for our race packets. This post is really just a teaser, so check back soon for one with audio. Here's a pic of my beautiful blisters. There's five in total, the longest over an inch long.
Saturday, July 15, 2006 at 6:34AM Time to roll your little triathlete bodies out of bed and get to swim practice! I know it's tough sometimes, so I play "Revolt" by Blacksun to help get you motivated. I swore that all the growling and screaming said "Repent", but what do I know? I just speak English; not whatever those guys are convulsing conversing in.
The rest of the show contains a plethora of audio from a variety of sources. I discuss swim practice (the one thing I actually know something about) and how American coaching is the best in the world, in spite of how our other sports' coaching styles are being dragged down by "feelings". Jumpy sends us audio from the Wisconsin IM bike course that he pre-rode with none other than Iron Wil and Simply Stu. After Jetdriver pops in with a voice mail, I play an audio out-take between Coach Adam and myself where we talk about all things triathlon, but most specifically swim coaching.
Right now, I'm writing to you from the 12th floor of the Radisson Hotel in Richardson (Dallas). The family unit is really pulling off the tri-fecta in triathlon: We're on a road trip, we're meeting up with distant relatives that we haven't seen in a while, and we're doing a race. Deep inside, I'm a very happy camper because I'm a laid back kinda dude and we've scheduled plenty of time to do what we need to do and still have buffer time inbetween. We got into Dallas around 10 pm last night, we're going to do some last minute shopping for Clif Shots, oatmeal, and whatnot this morning, pickup our race packets three blocks down the street, hangout with any Triscoopers that show up for lunch, then go to an afternoon pool party with family. Nice Schedule!
The only downsides to our trip include having to drive across Dallas to be inside the park before 6:15 am on Sunday and the heat. It was 93 degrees at 9 pm last night (that's what the bank sign said) and the heat index for race day is forcasted to be over 100.
Well, this will be our last post until after the race, so let's hope we finish safely. Emily's goal is to finish her first Oly in one piece and mine is to beat my old PR on this same course. Blogs ya later!
Oh, please visit "A day in the life of Erich" to give Professor Erich some hell or good luck (whichever you prefer) for his trip across the eastern half of the U.S. No grown man should travel that far with a best friend and have that much fun without being razzed some by those of us that couldn't go with.
Monday, July 10, 2006 at 10:41PM Hey tri-studs! Emily, Triboomer, and I hope you can catch up with us at Richardson Bike Mart or Chili's in Richardson, TX for a Zentri and Triscoop fan meetup! We'll be at the bike shop for packet pickup around 11:30 AM on Saturday the 15th of July for the Dallas Triathlon and then cap it off with lunch at Chili's Too across the street. The bike shop and Chili's are across the street from each other at the intersection of Coit and Campbell roads. I'll be wearing a white t-shirt with the Triscoop.com logo across the chest and hanging out with a chick that looks too hot to really be my wife. We'll be recording interviews, so feel free to ask to be on the air!
Ok, so of course you'll want to hear the podcast. Click here to check out my triathlete point-of-view of the world while chillin' on my back porch, enjoying the Texas sunset. I play audio from Cav, describing how his training is going and how he's approaching Ironman AZ. He gives Moonpie a little razzing as well. Also, there's a voicemail and even more audio from Jetpack's International Adventures. Jetpack seems to be racking up the interviews, pulling in one from Drew in Bend, OR. You should check out all of them at www.aircrewphotos.com/audio.
Most importantly, there's been two very cool bikes born into the family as of late. Emily and I picked out encouraged my nephew's dad to get him a bike for his 5th birthday. It was a huge hit and hopefully he'll keep riding the wheels off of it like
he did when he got it. Kai got himself a Specialized Hot Rock, a sweet-looking single-speed with 12 inch wheels! Both bikes came from our local bike shop, something I insisted upon. Buying bikes from Target or Walmart practically ensures that they'll rust to pieces and you get free lifetime maintenance on these quality babies. I told everybody who'd listen that Jaren's Giant and Kai's Specialized are both brands being ridden by pros in the TDF. Gotta start them early!
Wednesday, July 5, 2006 at 9:46PM Check out this podcast to hear what it's like to race through traffic at night from checkpoint to checkpoint. It's called alleycat racing and it's p-s-y-c-h-o. Actually, it's a ton of fun and I'd like to thank Jayme for pulling me into the dark, seedy underworld of bike messenger culture and showing us some scary bike skills. If you want to find out more about this sub-counter-culture, take your sissy ass over to www.trackstarnyc.com and leave your spandex covered "Should I wait at the light?" fear at the door. Here's a photo of us on our fixies.
Next, Jumpy (our Chief Midwestern Chief Correspondant) sent me some audio from the Twin Lakes Tri in the Chicago 'burbs. His bit is around 10 minutes long and includes interviews with some HAC's. Niiiiiiice.
Towards the end, I drag you along with me on a 10 mile trail run where I kick off my shoes and barefoot it. I was running in a bottomland swamp during a downpour and eventually turned around because I was sure to end up in a nest of cottonmouths (a very aggresive and deadly pit viper snake).
I did the 10 miles with my Camelbak holding a half frozen bladder and sucked down 2 Clif Shots along the way. The dripping trees and swampy conditions made it seem like I was running through a tropical rain forest.
At the beginning and end, you can hear my nephew contributing to the show. Marcus actually helped me edit the Alleycat portion and has demonstrated some talent for this stuff. Maybe we'll hear more from him someday. Thanks, Marky!
Oh, and I'm still looking for sponsors for the Arizona IM. If you're interested or know somebody who is, send me a message at texafornia at gmail.com.
Monday, June 26, 2006 at 7:49PM I sat down with my laptop to do a ton of work at Barnes and Noble on Sunday morning, assuming that they had free wireless internet (this is 2006, right?), only to be confronted with a "please pay ATT Wireless $3.95 for two hours" page. I can go to my local ice skating rink and get free wireless, so why would such a progressive bookstore be asking for such a steep rate? I was very irritated, especially because I had dragged a 1.5 year old in there with me and all my crap to do some work. I bitched about it at work and found that lots of people knew about this and NOBODY liked it. Of course, the only way to initiate change is to let people know. Here's a copy of my complaint form to B&N. Wake up!
"I was very disappointed to find out that your store in College Station, TX charges for wireless internet. I lugged my child and laptop in there for coffee and to buy a magazine and get some work done when I found out that it costs almost 4 dollars for two hours of access. I (and everyone else) am already paying for internet at home and I'm not going to pay more, especially when I can get it for free at almost every other business I go to. I packed up my child and laptop and went to Coffee Station instead and spent my money there. I also was telling people at work and in my neighborhood about this situation and they said that even DAIRY QUEEN has free wireless internet. Please quit charging for it so that I may go back to your store and spend my money while doing my work and not feel like I'm getting ripped off. You'll attract far more customers that way than charging for it."
I feel bad for airing my complaint to everybody, but it was very annoying to drive there, drag everything in, then have to do it all over again to go to a place with coffee and free internet. Let's hope they open up their access and quit charging for what's free everywhere else and losing business over it. I know it'll change someday soon anyway, but the sooner the better.
