Back to Reality.....

At 6:55am with visions of a long ride that was to begin within the hour in my head I recieved the " Oh Shit" Call from work asking me to sacrifice my last day of vacation and come into the office. Now I know I desperately needed the long ride and I was not going to let myself be talked into going in, I was going to stand firm, I was not going to let money lust run my life and wreck my perfectly planned trainning day, " I'll see you at 8:30?" the boss asked...." Yep I'll be in 8:30" I said as I goggily awoke. So yes I have "sold out" Yes I am an "overtime Whore" Ironman races don't pay for themseleves ( unless of course I get super nasty and go pro.) and any dinero I can get is always a help....hey a guy's gotta to eat.

The office slave
R.D.

The week so far......

That's right it's been my vacation week /was supposed to be a hard core training week/paper-writng palooza. Mon. I handed in my 12 pages of "grade A American Bullshit" for my Modern mid-East course ( Saddam was almost as fucked up as the current government.) My cholera paper will ne the focus of my life this Friday, Saturday and sunday with ample training time being factored in around it. Tuesday I managed get in a 7-8 mile run in an hour and a lesisurely 2000 yard swim. Yesterday I spent most of the day working the CCSU tri club's bake sale and tracking down advisors. I managed to get in a noon time swim of about 3,000 hard fought yards, got my advising pin and raised $105 in cookie cash ( just enough to pay for some of the club's new equipment.) Today so far I have been a lazy bum. i took my sister to school at 7 and then retired to the confines of my nice warm bed until noon...( hey I was up until 3am on Mon. night making cookies give me a break.) Today marks my next to last day of vacation before I make my triumphant return to the rat race on Monday and continue the difficult balance of Work, training, school, and sleep until Winter break at the end of December. On the plus side this week has yielded a couple of good things. 1) I managed to get myself a box of gu and a nice fleece long sleeve jersey so I can actually ride out doors ...and not have to rely solely on the trainner for simulations. 2)My Antropology professor is not as demanding as my History prof. and our class meeting at Tony's pizza resturant stimulated both mind and gut.
3) My history professor is a fassinating character who lived the life of a semi-secret agent in the 80's conducting correspondence between the State department and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) but the amount of work he assigns still sucks! So all in all it's been a good week not as productive as I would like but hey time to crash is equally important. Today hold for me another run/ maybe a ride or trainer session. push ups, situps and crunches, checking how much pay I have left before bills completely devour it, and oh yes class and flirting with my co -worker....I mean lifeguarding. So today may not be extremely fruitfull but it will be productive enough. Friday I'll run or ride with Masters and paper writng taking care of the evening. Saturday I'm hoping to get a long ride in maybe some pool time, we'll see. and sunday depends on the weather on whether or not I will do a ride run brick/ or a pool long run combo and as always working will be done on the paper.

My Red Sox fan family members ( cue dad and grandpa chiming in so how about dem Yankees)/friends/co-workers have been un-merciful to me this week ( I think I really need to go out and buy a Boston still sucks shirt.) but that's ok the Sox won a lot at the begining of last century too....I 'm just waiting until the next up coming Yankee dynasties of the 2020's afterall history has a habit of repeating itself...and also if all the fair weather fans defect to fenway, that means more leg room at the stadium for me. ...which hey, I'm not complaining..

R.D.

It's atumn in New England......which means I need to throw down for cold weather gear...

Yes that's right the cold weather along with soaking wet leaves and 8 pages of depressing Arab-Israeli and Iraqi Ntion building gone wrong nonsense has cut my plans of getting a long ride/run brick in. Yesterday I managed to eek out a 12 mile run in the pouring rain as Angry, and No wet suit girl engaged in epic battle in dresses. Also today Claire tackled the Marathon and it will be interesting to see her post tomorrow morning. Mr. Mortgage broker is supposedly coming up with the figures tomorrow and we should close on Tuesday...if not He's got a Louisville slugger with his kneecap's name on it becuase I'm broke as a joke and lending out the little I have to try to support the fam. So yesterday was me stress release zen run. tomorrow I'll finsh up my paper and lifeguard and start on my other downer paper, on Cholera and the social stigma this one little wait loss plan gone wrong creates. Now all my ranting aside I seriously need cold weather cycling gear. I went to get milk and eggs this morning and was shivering looking at my car's thermometer...it was 47 degrees at noon! So yes I need to get me a long sleeve quick Step Jersey and some Louis Garneau tights so I can ride when my papers aren't shackling me to my desk and the roads are not covered with rain slickened foilage. My Ironman traing and funding plans are not going according to plan at the moment but I am confident that my swim will be stellar as always and my run will bitch smack my time from the Country Music Marathon..It's just that damn bike that is the perverbal question mark. I've been tallying stats and and looking at run splits and bike splits and have determined that if I want to make Kona I NEED TO FLY! 10:39 was the slowest guy to make it from my age group last year...that means I need to at least top 5 to have a shot. Now I know I have a pure fire swim split and I should probably beat the elites out of the water...( Take that Cameron Brown) after that it's just survive the bike and run like Hell until I blow up and have to crawl or cross that finish line with my ticket to the big island punched. Maybe I'm just a little obsessed with this whole tri thing but seriously if I win this sucker outright I might just consider going pro. Now I doubt that I might be able to out ride or Run Cameron Brown, Luke Bell, or Macca if he shows up for an Early Season bitch stomping session, but beating the IM world champion out of the water would definately be an ego boost...and hey who knows weird shit happens when you least expect it.
R.D.

Also if you haven't do so or considered doing so please donate to the War on ALS, like I said even a dollar helps, and this disease is cruel.
DO IT FOR BLAZEMAN! DO IT FOR GEHRIG! DO IT FOR ALL THOSE SUFFERING NOW! and for anyone suffering from ALS or those that know someone suffering from ALS do not give up hope, because one day we will find a cure, and we will make this disease a thing of the past.
May God bless!
RD.