Weekend in Review! Weekdays are needed to give pause/recovery from Weekends!

I've been working diligently for the past few years to eliminate my monetary debts. Going into the weekend, I was finally DEBT FREE! No mortgage loan. No car loans. No credit card debts. No big machinery loans. Feels GOOD! My mantra has been, "I'm gonna take back my weekends!" Done deal.

So how did I score on taking back my weekends? Let's see: Saturday morning, I drove down to the Buffalo Wallow 6k Race down at Waugh and Memorial Drive. It was a great cross-country event. Further evidence that my anonymity (after relocating back here) is gone, I saw folks I knew at the event. Of course there was Coach Bill, Adrienne, and Gaslight. I hung out and chatted with Gaslight after I was done running. Neat lady, hardcore about her Houston running scene! There were runners EVERYWHERE! Not just my race, but everywhere for miles and miles. Houston's running contingent is stout! Photo credit, Bill D:



Earlier in the week, my good friend, Jeff, suggested that we go mountain biking on the Ho Chi Minh Trails that are within Memorial Park. Well, he opted out so I went anyway! It had probably been 12 years since I'd cycled there. I asked a rider if there were any "technical trails" (challenging). He said, "very technical" and pointed me in the right direction. Having done most of my mountain biking in Government Canyon (Helotes), Crown Ridge (San Antonio), and Hill Country Natural Area (in Bandera), I'm telling you that Ho Chi Minh is not VERY technical. Technical, yes. VERY, no! In all, a really cool place to ride! I had a blast, can't wait to go back!!


A typical picture of what the technical areas look like:


Really COOL sort of chute:



From there, it was off to just "go see people". This is RARE for me! I was in no particular hurry! I went and visited my good friends, L & J, who have put their home up for sale. I'm pretty tough on them. They still have stuff all over the place and I tell them they're NOT moving anytime soon. That's what the prospective buyers will think. My Realtor told me the same thing. I'll be damned if I didn't clear the whole house out after she barked at me! So it's my job to pass it on.


It IS important to be wary of under-arm perspiration whilst riding one's Harley on the 610 loop. This guy figured out the solution:


Next up was a visit to my buddies over at Cee San. Apparently, they TOO have taken back their weekends! Place was a ghost town:


I then went to my MOM's for lunch and fixed their treadmill. Great visit. Later in the day as I was prepping some dirt bikes, my buddy Matt came by. Damn, I've known this guy for 38 years! Hadn't seen him in prolly 25 years. I was gonna say he's a bit freakish, but then noticed the pic of my lovely tie-dye shirt. Oh well:


Then came Sunday! Had a great time at the track! It had been watered a bit much for my liking, but had a super time and passed a couple of riders. Yeah BABY:


I was going to go to my first "Hashing Run", but I got scared and the afternoon was overcast and windy. Next time! These hashers (Click on the link) are just nuts! Go to the "Hashing 101" section. That would indeed make me a 'virgin'!

Squishy Socks...

I read yesterday about Tiny Frog's squishy socks and was thinking, "hey, I've done that"....

Well that's exactly what this morning's run provided. We're talking head to toes in drenching sweat! We ran a pretty brisk 7 miles in the forest with a good group. Great time! I've got a blister on my toe from the squishy socks. I'm NOT complaining, really. I LOVE summertime and I'm basking in it! WooHoo!

Time now to "load up" (dirtbike) because the track opens at 9 am....That's my cross-training, eh?!

***EDIT*** I went to the track and had a GREAT outing! Yesterday, the track was horrible, didn't stay for long at all...today it was rough and odd, but not at all bad. Some days can be really good, some really bad....sometimes it's hard to say why one's good and another day isn't...dunno!

And I've got regular friends at the track. Anonymity GONE. Good times! I'm gonna enter my first race in the novice class on Saturday, August 16th....Night race under the lights! Y'all show up!

Tejas Triathlon Report....

Disorganized! Terribly disorganized. That pretty much sums up my tri outing last Sunday. Somehow, I didn't leave for the event early enough. Having left home at 5:30, I drove to Sugarland. En route, I recalled that the race starts at 7am and the 'transition area' closes at 6:45am. So I'm realizing that I'm going to be late and that I'm about to get shut out of the transition area due to my tardiness. I drove pretty fast and luckily didn't get lost or have a run in with the coppers.

I flew into the parking space, whipped the bike out of the trunk, tossed the wheels on (of COURSE the chain was all wadded up around the front sprockets and required my clean hands to intervene...chain is filthy greasy, needing maintenance). You've never seen anyone pump up tires as quickly as I did....NASCAR teams would scramble to hire me!! I crammed as much of my stuff into my little tri bag as I could and draped other items around my neck and HAULED over there (vagabond triathlete!)....into the transition area with 1 minute 'til closing! It was quite the site! Most people have an organized area beneath their bike that has their gear logically spread out, as you can see in the random tri photo that I swiped from the internet. My stuff was just dumped in a big pile in a very crowded transition area. I lacked safety pins to secure my racing number to my shirt. I scored some and the "transition police" would not allow me to re-enter to pin my number to my shirt... (where's my rolling eyes emoticon?).








There were a LOT of people and I was almost anonymous, but did see my friend Katy and her husband. The lake was nice, the venue was nice. My swim didn't quite go as planned. Of course there was no shortage of me kicking people behind me and being kicked by people in front of me. I inhaled a huge chunk of lake water very early in the swim, not good! That kinda set the stage for the rest of the swim. I again found myself breathing to the left every rotation of the arm, 'single-stroking'. I was just kind of 'clawing along' in the lake. After the turn around at the end of the lake, I began to regain composure. The 600 meter swim took me about 12 1/2 minutes...not too bad, not too good.

The first transition (switching from swimming to biking) had me digging thru the big pile of stuff that I had tossed on the ground. Of course I had to pin my number on my shirt and search out one lost sock....very poor transition time, 3 1/2 minutes, most did it in under 2 minutes.

The bike was good, I thundered pretty well, averaging 19.1 mph for the 11 mile course. The run felt pretty good, although really tough, not for the timid! I don't know if the run course was short, or timing is in error, as I don't think I ran as fast as the results indicate. But I'll take it anyway!! (Bowing to the crowds, "thank you, thank you") Run: 22:36 at a 7:32 min/mile pace. Overall finish, 22nd out of 44 in my age group, 1:08:18.

[BEGIN RANT] One quick RANT, while I'm at it. I'm 44, NOT 45! Apparently, USAT (the triathlon sanctioning body) NOW lists your age that you'll be on December 31st of the year! Good grief, don't be giving me an extra year that I haven't yet earned, or deserve!! AND they drew 45 on my arm and back of my leg! THEN they stuck me in the '45 and older' class. I'm only 44!![END RANT]

Great event, great venue! I'll do this one again!

TOUGH weekend, already! And it's only Saturday morning. I gotta tone it down....

NAH! No way I'll tone it down! Living life!

It's Saturday morning and I went into The Woodlands for the 'David's Dream' 5k race. My friend Karen challenged me to show up, so there! Here I'm doling out advice to Karen and Katy about how they seem to 'go out too fast', running too fast in the first 1/2 to 1 mile (previous races). OK, 'do as I say, not as I do' certainly fits what I did this morning. 7:13 min for the first mile, 14:58 at the second mile, and I think probably 23:30-ish for the final. What was I thinking?? Maybe I figured I was exempt from the humidity? I dunno, just an idiot! Had a great time, saw plenty of people I know (my anonymity is TOAST!). Most seemed pleased to see me, but they asked, "Where's Tessie?" This dog's celebrity is enormous! Photo Credit, Bill Dwyer, thanks! Great pic!

EDIT: It turns out that I came in 3rd in my age group with a 23:23! Sheesh, I'll take it!! WooHoo.....they left my name out of the results! There are many races that I wish would omit my results, but not this one....Sweet!

It was really grim in the last mile. I shoulda carried my cell phone so I could call 911 WHILE racing! I crack myself up sometimes! I can hear it now, "Mr. Guy, where are you"? Me: "Lake Woodlands at Panther Creek....No wait, I turned, I'm on Research Forest approaching Gosling ..." You get the idea, a moving request for medical help! Bwahahaha!

After just about dying in the 5k , I headed straight to the MOTOCROSS TRACK (hey, it's on the way home, gotta consolidate trips, eh?!) and had a GREAT RIDE! Some days don't go well, some are fantastic! Today was top-shelf! I'm getting much better and I get competitive when I encounter someone as slow as me! Yes, there are a few, no make that a couple, who are so slow!

And I've been "consolidating trips" a LOT! It seems I've been going to the motocross track every day! Yesterday was Conroe for machine tooling, roofing supplies, motorcycle shop, lunch...well whaddya know, the MX track is 1/8 mile from my exit at 1488. Wink. Speaking of anonymity gone, the companies I dealt with in Conroe, and the motocross track personnel know me by name and a handful of riders, too...Yeah, it's cool, trade one for the other...total anonymity upon moving, to having a base of friends now that I'm here....shucks, I'll take it!....:):)

So I was totally hammered by about 10:30!! WooHoo, I can rest after I die! Great seeing Coach Bill, Katy, Karen, and many others! Holden was nowhere to be found. I'm ALIVE (waving arms, all animated and jumping around)! Good times, y'all!!

Well, I did my first Triathlon in Houston....

While I've done a bunch of tri's in years past, last Saturday I did my first one in the Houston area, the CB&I triathlon in The Woodlands. Triathlons are great! Such FUN! I think it's fun because of the variety and the "Chinese Fire Drill" that IS the transition! The transition is where you have your own little plot of land that's about 2 feet wide and 5 feet long. It's your own little "pit stop". You finish the swim and pull into the transition area to gather the requisite stuff for your cycling adventure. After the bike race, you again come scrambling in here to equip for the running race.

Admittedly, I was REALLY not prepared for this event! (My good running buddies just roll their eyes and say, "what's new") Since moving here in late November 2007, the only running I've done is the "Run The Woodlands" 5k race that's put on twice a month. So my running has been 6.2 miles per month. I did cycle 20 miles to my brother's house, 2 weeks ago. Swimming training consisted of a 10 minute swim last Tuesday. That was just to confirm that I wasn't ready!

All told, I had a GREAT TIME! There were 1000 competitors and it was a well organized event! In the swim, I caught myself "single stroking", breathing to the left every revolution of my arm. The swim was kinda 'limping along' in the lake. The bike was tough! The strong head-wind never seemed to go away, not even after turning corners...hmmm. My hamstrings were burning when I got off of the bike, so the run was tough. I held together and am pleased with my performance, considering I forgot to train for this. Old photo, but you'll get the idea:

Evan Guy #384

Magnolia, TX

Age: 44 Gender: M

Clock Time	1:28:30
Chip Time	1:28:30
Overall Place	378 / 836
Gender Place	288 / 505
Division Place	31 / 50
500Swim Rank	301
500Swim Time	11:14
500Swim Pace	2:15/M
T1 Time	03:11
15M Bike Rank	410
15M Bike Time	47:45
15M Bike Pace	18.8MPH
T2 Time	01:20
5K Run Rank	299
5K Run Time	24:58
5K Run Pace	8:00/M

I've really enjoyed my anonymity since moving here! I can go to Home Depot looking pretty scruffy with no chance of knowing anyone! But it's now apparent that my anonymity is dissolving! I probably saw more than 10 people that I've made friends with, and had good conversation. Oh well, so much for anonymity!

Great time!! Even though this was a really short tri, I was HAMMERED the rest of the day!

Evan ;)