random post #99

I had a fantastic week of pseudo-vacation. Five days of training on the BlueCoat web proxy/cache appliance, conveniently located in the Crossroads neighborhood of KC. Let's see what was so cool about it -

1 - NO DRIVING on 435. In fact, I drove one day out of five. I rode my bike three days and took the MAX once. And I only drove Friday because I had the course books and did not want to tote them around all over First Friday and Beer-a-rama.
2 - No beige cubicle land.
3 - Five days of lunches, from local places: Bulldog, JackStack, Cigar Box, Lidia's and the Hereford House. Can't beat that with a stick. No strip malls!
4 - A chance to remember that, really it's cool to work in IT. Now let's hope that will stick past tomorrow ...

So I got a nice, easy 12 mile ride three days. It was unseasonably warm most of last week, but still cool enough in the morning to not have to worry about a change of clothes or excessive sweating.

Other random thoughts:

I finished the next-to-last week of my 'swim a mile' program. By sometime the week after next, theoretically, I will be able to swim a mile (1650 yards, which actually is a metric mile 1500m, and not a true mile, which is 1760 yards) without 'stopping.'

Why is it that the minute I am done swimming and stand up, I have to pee like a racehorse?

A good 30 miler on the bike this morning. That may be it for the season, with the darkness in the early mornings and the questionable weather. I doubt I will ride much next weekend since I need to get in a 10 mile run, probably Thursday, which will leave my legs dead for a few days.

And two weeks from today is the half-mary. Which I may be running as if I'm 31 all over again. Hmmmm.... I do believe I'm faster now, what up with that? Nevertheless, I still hope to break two hours. If I can do nines the whole way, that's 1:55. My PR is 1:47 but really that doesn't much count, it was the Georgetown-Idaho Springs half, which loses 1000 ft in elevation over the course. Not happening on these hills here ....

I've run two KC half courses in 2:02-ish. The good thing about this year's course is the relatively long, flat stretch from 8 or 9 in. At Hospital Hill 2003, I wanted to cry as I hit mile 10 going up effin' JC Nichols Pkway from the Plaza. And as I recall, climbing out of River Market at the Humana 2002 Half towards the finish was equally painful.