I AM HARDCORE!!!!!!!

Ok I'll tone down the adrenaline a tad. Last night I decided to cram in a couple of campus loops at Central before my 7:00PM Computer Science course with Moscow's version of Bill Gates. as usual I was clad in long sleeves, beanie, gloves and shorts. ( wind pants are for wimps...or temps under 35 degrees.) Well according to my Subaru's handy dandy thermometer it was 40 degrees about 35 with wind chill, now most sane, smart, ...insert adjective here ...runners would pack it in and do laps of the indoor track, or hit the treadmill , but not me unless there's a solid sheet of ice on the ground I'm running on natural surfaces, or concrete, or asphalt, or vulcanized rubber....anyhow I did the first of my two 2 mile-ish loops around the fairly well lit campus. As I ran down the hill past the Orthodox Cemetery ( seriously is God trying to tell me to become Orthodox..granted I'm Catholic which is Orthodox light) and some moron took the turn to merge on to Route 9 to tight and flipped his Grand Cherokee on to its side, attracting a crowd of sympathetic collegiate by-standers....( you know the guys that are utterly wasted or going to get utterly wasted ..walking by going "dude, that guy flipped over.") As I ran past I tried to ask what happened but as I saw the driver climb out and start to talk with someone who had ran into the back of the jeep, I realized he was alright(at least physically), and my first aid skills would not be needed as I continued on my way. Other than the car flipping there was really nothing else of note from my run. the campus was fairly well lit ( so I was visible to traffic and anyone planning on mugging or " having their way" with me was in sight.) So I felt fairly safe. Once again physical exertion kept my legs warm against the biting cold. Serveral students watched amazed as I ran up "the Hill" with little effort. Also the looks of "Is this guy nuts?" epecially from the ladies, who were checking out my sexy defined calves and shit....well goto go the 5-o's in the office.
R.D.

Night Ride.....kind sorta

well for the first time since friday, I manned up and decided to ride The Bitch Stomper on its true domain: The open road. Braving Temps hovering in the low 40's high 30's I walked out layered well on my upper half ( Wool beanie, those stretchy running gloves, base layer tank top, dri release t- shirt, Holy Cross track long sleeve, Louis Garneau long sleeve jersey ( reflective yellow)) but was wearing only bike shorts and two pairs of socks covering the lower half, the logic was the constant climbing of the hills in the burbs would warm my legs. I managed to eek in 12 miles before it got too dark for me to be seen by speeding rush hour traffic, yet surprisingly most motorists gave me room (You guys who gave me room rock!) I descended down Lyman road at the wuss-esque 24 miles per hour ( stupid potholes.) climbed into Waterbury and road past Montoe Park then on to North main, past the Russian Orthodox Church and began the big climb back into Wolcott, as I approached the top I ran my hand over my head and felt only the soft wool of the beanie....I had done the first and most dangerous six miles of my ride sans helmet, two thoughts ran through my head as I pedaled back home to grab my blue plastic second skull, the first : I was bad ass like those guys who did the tour in the 80's . Nothing like descending the Calibier with your mullet blowing wildly knowing one wrong move and it's be au revior, Bernard* ( shameless reference to the 5 time tour champ.) the second was the primal fear of if I got hit I would be an instant organ donor. (I told my parents if I ever crashed hard and they were picking up grey matter off the road, then you might as well give my organs away because I most likely won't recover from that.) Any way I made it home got the helmet and desecnded the other side of Lyman rd. to Route 69 for my second 6. As I crossed 69 during a luck lull in the traffic, I made my way toward Scovil's dam. The cross wind kicked up and unlike in other rides where I slowed my pace , I kicked it up a knotch, with a "bring it bitch" attitude. I got around the lake then started the big climbs up Boundline rd. ( those of you wondering why I was able to climb geer mountain with out dismounting this climb is why.) The hill starts gradual with one quick burner then a nice false flat and a major burner that curves to the top. Well I kicked it into "lance armstrong mode" spinning as much as the gears would allow to the top, occasionally getting out of the saddle to push. I rode past the cemetery , high school and library descending down route 322 past Pat's IGA. I climbed up Beach Rd. a long gradual climb past the nursing home and then took it through my "old hood" before riding home. 12 miles wasn't bad for about 45 minutes. my legs held up well but my feet were blocks of ice so a set of toe covers is a purchase coming in the near future. All in all it wa a good day of training i went to class but the run never matetrialized although my bio professor and I talked for about 50 min. on training, treatment for shin splints, and other running topics so I guess that counts right. Well back to Work,
The Tell-Tale Teller
R.D.

Freedom !!!!!!! For at least a couple days.

Ding dong, the cholera paper is as dead as the 40,000 Londoners it took to an early grave in 1854 ( to qoute stalin, " One death is a tragedy, 1000 is a statistic"). So now after being repremanded for only using five sources (I thought they were pretty good, but I guess I need to spend more time looking at articles that say the same damn thing..boring yes tedious, yes but necessary. My next paper the bibliography will be as long as the paper itself.) So I have a slight reprieve from the paper writing for the moment giving me a couple of free days to train, before I hit the library and ransack the sheleves of medical journals, discussing the unsanitary conditions of Gulags, refugee camps, and the dreaded Nazi concentration camps as breeding grounds of un-holy plauges. Yes, another real upper of a paper. Ok getting out of my acadamea fueled rage Tonight holds on tap a swim, of hopefully 4000 yards. Tomorrow a 5am wakeup call awaits me followed by my first double session in almost 4 days. It will most likely be a swim and a late afternoon run followed by a night searching the web for research materials. ( hopefully 5 articles ) I will most likely hit the trainner on Thursday followed by a post work, pre-class run. Friday, Masters, library, register for next semester, research till I can't research no more...seriously it is like some law of medicine that you must quote 50 guys saying the same crap. alright rage done...hitting the coffee shop then the pool.
The Repressed Researcher.
R.D.

Fifa, Long Runs, Steve McQueen and cholera,

These four almost non related items are what made up my weekend.
Fifa World Cup 06 for my xbox took the boredom out of procrastination as I struggled to get 3 pages ( at post time I'm currnetly on 5 ) of my 8 page cholera paper done. Surprisingly I have made the U.S. a power in World FOOTBALL! ( yes I said it it's football.football football football you wankers.) the highlight of this video game football mania was me beating Germany 2-1 for the world cup..so yeah I was sitting around on the good black box of laziness for way too long.

On Saturday, after my plans for a long ride were dashed by a phone call from the boss lady. I went for a long Zen out/ hallucinogenic 13 mile run in the lovely cross winds. no for anyone who's read my comment on Angry's site, yes I am crazy I was running clad in my blue wind pants a long sleeve bike/ running jacket, with my fuel belt 4 bottle endurance clasped around my waist running my loop of the town. the start and the finish weren't so bad but the middle 3 miles where I was running past Scovils's dam were brutal. Wind kicked up off the water blowing me around with tremendous force and I gritted my teeth and plowed through it. About mile 6 or 7 I started seeing a vision of some buddist monk, whether he was encouraging me of taunting i'm not sure, all I know is if I'm seeing shit it probably means I'm not hydrated enough. After taking a few swigs of gatorade the Dali Lama disappeared and even more random shit starting going through my head, first I was envisioning Willie Nelson's whiny manager's interview slot on the Kona 2006 dvd. then I got scenes from the Rocky VI training video stuck in my head, by the time I finished my 13 mile run I had been through a whirl wind of visions, training montages, and tracks from my i-pod that I some how committed to memory. My head ...well it's a scary place to visit....and no to answer everyone's question I was not on drugs....

The cholera...or slim fast gone wrong as I like to call it, has already been mentioned. It's my medical Anthropology paper which is due tomorrow. and for the sake of all my readers who are not in the medical field I will not go into details all I will say is this if you've got cholera you should grab about 6 IV's of Saline, some, minocycline, the last six issues of triathlete , inside triathlon, and runner's world , a gallon sized jug of Pepto and barricade yourself in the bathroom....if that hasn't given away the effects of the disease nothing will.

So where does Steve Mc Queen feature in all of this random garbage. Yesterday, as I was procrastinating, I mean researching and working diligently on my paper I happened across one of my favorite you tube videos and quotes of all time. The video was from the movie Le Mans ( yes I have a thing for sports car racing especially the endurance shit, nothing like watching a group of 3 guys bitch stomp the hell out of a 911 for 24 hours, while about 70 other psychos are doing the same shit to other exotic marquees.) the most philospophical item I was able to pull from this 7 minute clip of Rock music, and automotive carnage came in the last two minutes of the clip. when he describes racing, it's similar to my view on triathlon. To qoute Mc Queen:

" Racing is important to those who do it well. Anything you did before or after is ..well...just waiting."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORa-y0TkFA

R.D.

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.