Top 25 Ways to tell your girlfriend is a triathlete. (or wife!)
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
Top 25 Ways to tell your girlfriend is a triathlete. (or wife!)

1. You find yourself having to be supportive, as she works out for a few hours a day.
2. Your home decor "style" consists of triathlon memorabilia, posters, medals, and photos.
3. Your dates are always pasta dinners with other triathlete couples.
4. She asks you, do those jeans make my butt look too ripped?
5. Sport-related expense is a not so modest number on your combined budget.
6. You can't TIVO Sunday's football game because your TIVO is full of extreme sports recordings.
7. Your girlfriend always smells like chlorine.
8. Your girlfriend's car smells like chlorine.
9. Your girlfriend's arms are bigger then yours.
10. She's got Lance tattoed on her butt.
11. Your girlfriend belongs to more then one gym.
12. There is a bike rack on your car and it is actually used.
13. She makes you repeat where her insurance information is before leaving the house for a "workout".
14. Her bicycle costs more then your TV and gets used more in net hours.
15. Her favorite web site is ironmanlive.com.
16. Your girlfriend was not home, so you had to sign for the delivery of the 3 pallets of Gatorade.
17. Your living-room table is covered with wet swimsuit, towel, goggles, and helmet.
18. Her bicycle has more add-ons then your car.
19. You are sunburned from waiting at the finish-line
20. You have to designate a "triathlon-free" room in the house.
21. You have to compete for her time with her physical therapist, her personal trainer, her swim coach, her training partners, and her triathlon team.
22. You got engaged, and your wedding registry is full of triathlon gear.
23. You got engaged, and the first thing she asked was, can we go on our honeymoon to Kona, say, some time in mid-October?
24. You are used to calling her beautiful, despite of helmet hair and swim cap hair, and goggle eyes.
25. You find yourself leaving a hotel room in the middle of nowhere at 3 in the morning, carrying about a hundred pounds of "gear" to something called the "transition area".

Some day he'd like to do a triathlon
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
It is quite an experience to go to an away game of your favorite hockey team while wearing their jerseys. It is an even more interesting experience to do that when they kick butt and the home crowd goes crazy. So my favorite team sport happens to be hockey. I'll be one of those moms that forces all the kids to play it. And my favorite team is the St. Louis Blues. They have a unique style, work great as a team, and are awesome skaters. Anyway, my friend got us tickets to the Blues/Blackhawks game, and so we were two of three people in blue in a sea of red. It was awesome to go to a hockey game this year after there was no hockey for a whole year! And seeing the Blues win was an extra bonus.

But here's the funny: I bought the "programme" of the game and in it, of course, there were profiles of all the players. Many of them are so young that they are too young to drink! One was from my home town of Park Ridge! But here's the kicker - one said in his profile that he'd like to do a triathlon some day. Wowy zowy - I have something over an NHL player! Sweet.

Santa's Helper
Topic: pets

let it snow let it snow let it snow
Now Playing: Let it Snow!
Topic: Day to Day
It's snowing golfballs outside! If it stops melting, then I'm hitting the ski area!

snow

The stapler
Topic: Joblog
I kind of interviewed for another job with a friend's company. Interesting opportunity but I am too loyal to my company right now. Plus I want to continue to be able to work from home and take bike rides in the morning forever. (when it's not snowing.)

But while surfing his corporate office in some NW suburban location, I spotted "the stapler" on a desk. This place looked like the scene from office space anyway and driving to the place felt like the first scene in office space anyway. I was even swearing in Hindi... Okay, I can't remember if the guy swears in Hindi or in Enlish actually... And to be honest, I only know like 2 swears in Hindi.

Couldn't resist posting this
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
this is from the last tri.

now in Lebanon, NJ
Topic: On the road
Me be at a client in NJ. Love being near the ocean! Will try and hit that tomorrow morning!!!

the notorious flip turn and the pullup
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
One of my goals for this year was to be able to do a pull-up. Yes, I could not do one for 20 years. And as of this Monday, I can do a pullup. Heck, as of this Friday, I can do 2!!! Little steps.

And, today I took a class on flip turns so that I can turn in the pool and not break my stride. Hopefully by spring I'll be able to show off this new skill in some indoor triathlons. I think about 3 months of practice is what's required to do this without it messing with your breath and streamline.

Little steps. Towards? TBD at the end of the year, when I'll pick some races.

Right now 2006 looks like 3 marathons: New Orleans, Some little one in Michigan, and Chicago.

Triathlons.... Chicago is dangerous. I didn't feel like it's all that safe with that many bikers on LSD. The slow people get in the way as you pass them. They need to teach people to stay on either the outside or the inside if they are slow, and to dock them minutes if they are not passing and are in that lane.

A century? I've yet to do a century. Big shoulders swim?

I don't think I want to do the Lake Geneva Tri again - the course is open to through traffic. While we didn't see many cars, there were some.... And there was one nasty turn where you had to come around a curve downhill only to find out that the curve gets real sharp and that there are cars that are being kept at bay by one guy with a sign. I want to be safe, not dead. Need a closed, safe course that's properly paved. I already took a nosedive when my tire got caught this summer. I don't want to do a race where the surface is not geared for racing. So have to do some research.

Distance-wise... Not sure if I'm ready for the big Ironman just yet, but could probably do the 1/2 if I keep this up.

We'll see, won't we?

what now
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
-i haven't gone to swimming in a month.... besides the saturday classes.

-i only ran once, and that was this week.

After running the marathon and finishing the tri season, I feel blah. I don't know if I can ever do an ironman. So then what's the point? I'll never win a marathon. So it's tough to focus. I think I just needed to take a break from the tri schedule to get the work/life stuff organized. I'll pick back up next week, should be a few more good bike days left.

Stillwater
Topic: On the road
I was in Stillwater, MN for work a week ago. It was in full fall color, I should post my cameraphone picture. It was a perfect fall day, sunny and 65 degrees, and I took a detour before getting to the office to historic downtown to look at the St. Croix river. Woudldn't mind coming back to spend a relaxing day there.

I quote my boss last night "we don't aim to create road warriors"

..riiiight.

Next week I'm in bloomington.
The following week, jersey
then I'm going to sonoma, this is on my own accord
then it's jersey again,
DC
and MN.

no, not a road warrior lifestyle at all. Must unpack everything this weekend... AAAAAAAAAA

OH and my boss got fired/resigned the other day. Yuck. She was good and I liked her. Now I'll have no buffer from the people that run my company.