Arizona and New Zealand entries are due....

and at the moment I only have enough dinero for one. Upon the advice of friends and other athletes...Tempe has beaten out Taupo for the time being..most likely for 09... I mean I can hope they have open slots in January, but by that point booking a hotel is a hassle. So this has become triage in a way, Tempe sells out faster than IMNZ it's 12 months out, it doesn't require me freezing my ass off to prep for it... If by some miracle NZ doesn't sell out I'll go but The barren desert is looking like my most viable path to Kona..which is probably a good thing...after all in NZ I tended to get a little ADD ...people new surroundings..screaming fans...maybe some solititude, pissed off drivers and nothing but caucti to look at will get my ass moving a little faster on that damned bike leg...after all we americans are pissed off by nature that's just how we roll. I hated I tried to defend going to NZ for so long and now it most likely will not happen..but if it's meant to happen it will. all I know is my second(possibly 3rd) Ironman will be markedly differnet than my first. This time around I'm not going to sightsee and make friends I'm going for the sole purpose of kicking ass and may God help the poor son of a bitch that's in my way. Tempe, Arizona next November I'm going to crush you Barack Obama* style.
I have just awoken from a delerious dream...and now I have to settle down and look at the goals at hand...no relationships, no life..school, degree, work, train...BA by June 09 better job by December 09, Kona slot for October 2010..everything else doesn't matter. This is life, hopped up on ambition and fueled by rage..may god have mercy because I sure as hell won't!

Focused and driven
RD.



*President Barack Obama has not approved of this message.

Hell Week T- minus 48 hours.

Well last night I had hoped to get 4000 yards in at the pool, but I settled for 3500. My main set wasn't too impressive 5x100 on 1:25, 4x50 IM order on 1:00, 200 pull on 3:00, followed by 5x200 on 2:50. I managed to hold about 2:35-2:40 on the 200's and under 1:20 on the 100's . also a few of my Wednesday night workout crew showed up , we were pretty unorganized, and we all sort of did our own things and socialized between sets...hopefully the workouts will get a little more structured as the year progresses. Next week I begin my self imposed training camp or I guess you could call it " The Almighty Plan" I'm hoping to be entered into Ironman New Zealand on Wednesday, and figure that this week is the best time to increase the training mileage. I figure If I can get at least 2 century rides in before the showdown in Taupo this time around I'll be golden, and hopefully punching a golden ticket to Kona. I mean if I did an 11 hour Ironman on little training last year, maybe with a little bit more work, especially on the bike, I could be in the 9-10 hour range. So the plan for next week is as follows

Saturday:
Ride 50-60 miles
Date night woohoo!

Sunday:
Ride 50-60 miles
possibly a 10-15 mile run.

Monday:
AM lift and swim 3500 yds.
PM Swim 3500-4000 yds.

Tuesday :
Ride 50-60 miles (more if class is canceled for Veterans day which I think it is)
Run 6-8 miles.

Wednesday:
AM Lift
PM Swim 4000 yds.
Enter IM New Zealand.

Thursday:
Ride 60-70 miles
Run 6-8 miles.

Friday
Run 8-10 miles.
PM Swim 3500-4000 yds.

Saturday:
Ride 100+ miles

Sunday:
Recover swim 3000 yds.

So there's the plan.

Total mileage Goals:

Swim: 18,500 yds. (11.2 miles

Bike 366 miles

Run: 41 miles

So those are the objectives, whether I meet them all or not remains to be seen.

Also this Saturday I have a date with Newport girl once again, figure we'll meet for a movie in New London after my Saturday ride. That's all from me for right now...I really miss my Angry life coach.

Continuing the flogging until morale improves.
R.D.

a 6 miler, a black president, and a long distance relationship?

Well yesterday I skipped class to do some work and get in a much needed 6 mile run. The end of Daylight savings time now means anything done after 3pm requires a head lamp. It wasn't my traditional loop but it had some challenging hills nonetheless.also I had to dodge some traffic running through Waterbury, but it's not a bad little route. I brought out the head lamp although I managed to finish before dark, total time 54:19.

Also for those of you that don't aleady know ( which you'd have to be stuck in a cave that only broadcasts Fox news.) Barack Obama won the U.S. Presidential elections, and by won I mean clobbered poor John McCain...for the title of world's highest paid janitor..and sadly Obama will have to carry on the dreaded Democrat tradition of raising taxes...one of the reasons I was ticked at both his and McCain's convention speeches, promising tax cuts and social reform... you can't fund social programs without revenue and guess what tax cuts take away from revenue and you can't keep borrowing money from China. Some honesty or a Churchill-esque blood, sweat, toil, and tears speech would have been appropriate. Needless to say I might not need to ask Catherine to help me get a New Zealand Greencard, at least not yet....because unlike John "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran!"Mc Cain, Obama is for diplomacy which means at least for right now my butt will not be in camo unless I so choose. Ok political rant done until next year.

Relationship the current object of my affections (name released when anything official happens like we decide we're a thing.) goes to school in Newport, RI, she wants to see a movie this weekend, I can't drive out to Newport again this weekend, she might not be able to drive all the way out to me so we might meet in the middle, granted it will most likely be later at night because I need to get a 50-60 mile ride in. Part of me is really thinking that a relationship at this point in my life isn't in my best interest, while another part of me feels like something long dead has been awakened, irregardless, training and school must come first.
So that's all that has happended in the life of Bob.

Viva Obama! until he does something stupid.

R.D.

Bobby's gotta a girl?

Well, long story short this weekend was a waste of sorts, instead of diligently studying or training, I ended up going to Newport, going on a date and might have ended up with a ( gasp) girlfriend (I know pretty soon we'll hear reports of Hell freezing over.) I know what most people are going to say " Awww that's so sweet." and other mushy gunk like that , no offense, I really can't read. Sorry gals and semi-emotional dudes out there, my dentist told me sweet stuff can give me cavities so I'd better follow his advice.

Alright so Bob-o's finally gotten himself a girl, why is that a bad thing? Well it's not in a sense but now it means I need to revamp the way I train. Read my post from the other blog here. Normally I live like a freaking monk, work, train, class, study, sleep,repeat. Now I've got to throw some time into a relationship, because sadly I don't have the baller lifestyle of most guys my age, and this girl is too sweet to be a "hit an quit" damn it I quoted Hitch, now I have to do at least 100 crunches or tack an extra mile on to Today's run...that and also I'm kinda of into her, plus she's my sister best friend and she's tight with my sister's guy pal so needless to say if I do anything stupid my ass is quite literally grass. She's looking at doing elementary education, not sure if she's trying to stay in New England long term or if things "hit it off" if she'd be willing to relocate with me to the Left Coast if that's what I choose to do...but that's for later down the road, right now we're still trying to work out the whole dating thing...and it might never get past that so I really have nothing to worry about, except how I'm going to cram in some dates around training and school work. Alright all that aside today I skipping class to get some training and work done, I figure I go pretty damn religiously so one night off isn't going to kill me, I figure I'll email what's due and hand deliver a hard copy tomorrow, but I just need to devote some time to the books tonight as well as get a run in because it was too damn gorgeous to be chained to my desk all freaking day. So that's what's been going on here.

R.D.

IM New Zealand Update and other 2009 tri ramblings.

Well I was not able to put my entry in to Ironman New Zealand Thursday morning, since a majority of my pay went to bills. ( Somewhere in North of Boston, my destiny is probably shouting..."see, see it's a sign! you're not supposed to go!" ) So I'll try again on Nov. 13 hopefully there will still be slots, also that week will be host to Bob's Hardcore sufferfest culminating with a century bike ride that Sunday.. ( wooooo..oooooo,Claire come down and ride with Bob that weekend this is your destiny calling...wooo..oooo.) crap did someone hear something...man it sure is drafty here in Newport...Yes Angry Newport be jealous... Today doesn't have much going on I'm down visiting my sister and some friends so we'll go out for breakfast and then I'll probably tack on some run mileage before driving back to the C-O -double N. Yesterday I did a 20 miler on the stomper, I wish I could have gotten a little more in but, 20 is a good start, figure next weekend will be back to back 60 milers. I figure even if IM New Zealand falls through ( ie sells out in the next two weeks.) the long distance base mileage done this winter will pay off, because absolute worst case scenario I'll replace NZ with Rev3 in Middlebury and just begin training for Arizona. Also I want to try to earn some prize money at the Patriot this year but because it's been moved up to June 20, so there might be a larger pro field, but I'll play that by ear, besides I like having clear water on the swim ..and after beating the winner of my age group by about a half an hour I don't want to go in a slaughter a bunch of Half-iron virgins...also on the same light if he drops the same amount of time I did over the course of a year he might be riding along side me saying " how do you like me now ...bitch!" So yeah Patriot 09 is going to be interesting, as I try to keep my streak of finishing everysingle one of them alive...( my streak at Nutmegman died with my derailleur malfunction.) Whatever Ironman or Ironmans I do in 2009 I'm feeling that it could be a great season. 2008 was over ambitious but I've learned some more important lessons ( and I know somepeople are like "you didn't learn anything if you're going back to NZ.") Hence my domestic schedule is a little less ambitious No Eagleman and $400 expenses for hotel food and gas, RI 70.3 is up for debate, depends on where it fits in and if I've done Rev3 or not. The Griskus Olympic is probably off the schedule unless it's CT club championships if I do Rev3,
so that's $70 in the bank, the Griskus sprint is a guarantee. So in essence except for the Griskus and the Patriot and IM Arizona my schedule is clear. So I have my plans set, my backup plans set, and my backup plan for my backup plan developing.

So close yet so far.
R.D.