Back Up The Spiral

A more true axiom than Lennon's "life is what happens while you are busy making other plans" could not be spoken. My training of late, as a result of the confluence of significant events in people lives that are close to me has been getting in the way of any reasonable semblance of training or racing. While Solobreak was out making a goal of riding 500K over three days, and Chronoman was contesting the fitchburg stage race to the best of his abilities, I was mired in the morass of jobwifehomecarkids life. We all have to accept the effects on our lives of the decisions we make, and mine are the fact that training and racing are going to suffer if I don't want my house or marriage to.

Saturday morning I was recruited into taking a relative to the airport for a 9:30 flight, so she had to be there by 8:30. That blew any plans of local running races out since they both started at 8:30. The rest of the day was eaten up by yard work - nothing had been done in weeks because of the weather. Still, Saturday Night was eventful and fun, with a rogue firework show in my backyard, a nice fire in the stone pit, and a HeiniKeg on ice.

I had hoped to at least get down to the BRC Wells Ave training crit this sunday, but yard maintenance at the apartment building in manchester ruined those plans as well. Still, I managed to get almost two hours in at the FOMBA land in Auburn. (funny, their website says the trails are closed as of _today_ because of rain. I thought they were in great shape yesterday). If you're ever in the area with a few hours to spare, it is without a doubt some of the best single-track in the country. They have over 15 miles of rocky, rooty, windy, twisty technical single track now. I got in about 10 miles of it. The rain has left standing water on some of the trails, but it was just the right amount in my opinion. The significant majority of the trails were dry, with the occasional puddle here and there. Not enough to make the rocks and roots slippery, but enough to pop out of the trail with significant coatings and clumps of mud all over me and my bike.

uhhh huhuh huh huhuh...cool

Not great pictures, but you get the idea.

I haven't ridden FOMBA since thier 'turkey burner' last fall, but I felt a good groove for most of the trip. The epic 3.1 mile "Fire Line" trail gave me the most trouble, and I severely lost the groove and ended up dismounting half a dozen times, including a front wheel wash out as I rounded a muddy corner and ended up in the bushes. The last trail I rode was the one mile 'fox tail', and I got into a good groove with no dabs at all. A moderately skilled rider can easily tick off a 6 mph pace when on the trails. I managed just about that, with "fire line" being the slowest pace at about 5.9.

I capped it off doing a bunch of yard work in manchester, and de-upholstering and dis-assembling a couch left in the yard by the previous tenant. The city won't take couches left at the curb, so I removed all the upholstery and stuffed it into contractor bags which they'll take, then brought the wood home for my fire pit.

So this weekend I'm scheduled to do the Powwow Triathlon in Amesbury Ma. I'm not so worried about the run or the bike obviously, but I don't swim, and the weather hasn't exactly been conducive to swimming. I've probably gotten about 30 minutes of swimming in since we opened our pool at the end of april, just enough to remember how to do a crawl stroke without taking on mouthfuls of water.

It's a 1/2 mile swim, what's a good time for a 1/2 mile swim? Last years results look like 15 miles is pretty average. Anyone who was anyone seemed to do around 12, the winners under 11. Truth is, I don't fucking know. If I get out in 15 or under, I think I'll be pretty happy. I know all the roads the bike course is on, so I should do pretty well there, but I've _never_ tried to ride a bike after a long swim, let alone treat it like a time trial.

Strategy? Don't drown.