Cedar Point 2014 is on! I’m currently registered and hoping everything works out this time around.

This weekend I returned to a race that began it all. This time three years ago I was nervously getting ready for my first triathlon. This time around it was much different. After dropping the dog off at the kennel, and cramming my race gear along with the baby’s stuff, we were off to the KOA in Oscoda.

I knew we weren’t going to make the packet pick-up Friday night, so I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to get up there. We stopped to eat in Bay City and noticed there was quite a stench in the air (something to do with farmers and sugar beets).

We got to the campground after the office closed, but they had a bag with our name on it and a key to the cabin we reserved. According to some people a cabin isn’t “camping”, but it was great to have running water and power, especially with a three month old baby!

I went to put my trisuit on race morning and was having difficulty getting the zipper up. It looks like it got off track at the bottom and the more I tried, the more it started to tear the fabric. I ended up racing with it all the way zipped down.

Saturday morning was a busy one, we found a spot to park near the finish line and I headed over to packet pick-up. I managed to get my race number and swim cap moments before they shut down and proceeded to set up transition and headed over to body marking.

The swim had been moved to inside the harbor due to a storm producing 3-4 foot whitecaps, it actually worked out quite well. There were a few sprinkles before the sprint race started and it seemed pretty cold until I got in the water.

I had a decent swim, but am pretty bummed that someone managed to grab my Garmin 310XT and rip it off its wrist strap. The swim exit to T1 was a bit of a run and I was struggling to get the top half of my wetsuit down. Once I got into transition, it was around my waist and I somehow managed to blow right past where my bike was racked in.

I quickly had the wetsuit down to my ankles, but struggled a bit to get it off. I put on my wet bike shoes, helmet, and wanted to wear my sunglasses, but they insta-fogged after I put them on and I couldn’t really see anything so I left them behind.

I really wanted to push the bike and try to hang on during the run. I think I accomplished that… I passed a lot of people and was only passed by two people on the bike. The second person that passed me, I was able to catch them in T2.

That leaves us with the run. Without a watch to keep my run two minutes, walk one minute pace… I did A LOT of counting. It seemed to work out pretty well, overall I finished fourteen minutes faster than the last time I did this race!

After I finished and had some much needed bananas and cookies, we headed back to the cabin for a quick shower and change of clothes. We went back to get my gear and I packed up my wet stuff as best I could.

The sun started to come out and the skies turned blue, so we headed out to the state park and took a look at a lighthouse (missing the last tour of the day by 30 minutes :(). After a quick walk out to the fog horn and a glimpse of the beach, we were on our way back to the campground.

The blue skies turned gray and we had a quick down-pouring soon after. Our plan was to have a campfire and cook dinner; unfortunately I had to make a run for food because I couldn’t get the fire going. The air was extremely humid and I was having a hard time even getting the newspaper to stay burning. I also bought a bag of charcoal so I could at least cook some breakfast in the morning.

The bag of charcoal I had bought was a small one that you light on fire. It said no lighter fluid needed, but I wanted to have a camp breakfast, so I gave it a healthy dousing. After breakfast, we packed up, snapped a couple of pictures and were off!

Another year, another candle on the cake. This year has been exciting to say the least. After Henry was born, I’ve been trying to find time to work out like I use to. It’s been tough, but signing up for a race is always a lot of fun. My first triathlon this year was in Otter Lake and it was fun to see how far I could push myself without a lot of training.

For some reason I decided racing the weekend of Henry’s baptism would be a good idea. Although it worked out in the end, it could have gone more smoothly. The Saturday before the race (the day of the baptism) was super busy, I did manage to make my way over to Otter Lake for packet pick-up (which I was glad I did so I could figure out where the best place to park was).

Sunday I was up early to give Henry a bottle and feed and let the dog out. I knew where most of my tri gear was at, but hadn’t packed any of it the night before. I quickly threw everything in my sweet tri bag, loaded up the bike and was off. Having done a couple tris in the past, I was able to set up my transition area quickly and headed down to body marking.

After body marking I figured I might as well get a quick swim warm-up in and headed down to the beach. Everyone was saying the water was like bath water, but it actually felt kind of nice (temperature was measured around 79 degrees I believe), especially compared to the 84 degree pool I swim in at the Y.

When it was my wave’s time to start (after a waiting a long time for the Olympic athletes to finish) I got in and was actually able to find some feet to draft off of. I had a pretty decent swim and managed to run the whole way up to transition. I told myself to stay in the small chain ring on the bike, but a couple of the down hills I “had” to push a bigger gear. I wish I hadn’t messed up pushing buttons on my 310XT to see what speeds I hit, but I was definitely cruising past people on the down hills.

Then I got to the run, for whatever reason I always seem to start out super fast, my watch was showing ~7:00 min miles and I was like whoa… need to slow down. Not having been able to get much running in, I settled in on a run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute plan. It worked pretty well, even though people were trying to get me to run the whole thing… I’m pretty sure I would have had a worse time trying to run the whole way, rather than my plan. All and all it was a good race and I finished with a smile!

My next race was a first ever triathlon in Frankenmuth. I managed to have my car packed and ready to go race morning, but I still managed to get there later then I wanted. I was able to get my transition set-up a few minutes before they closed it to racers.

Although the reports say the Cass River was safe to swim in, I wasn’t able to see more than a few inches in front of me. I also realized I should really move up to the Olympic distance so I didn’t have to stand around waiting for the race to start. It was pretty neat though, as we got to launch off a ferry boat and swim to the start line under the covered bridge. Once I finally gotten into the water I was able to drain my pre-race hydration, man that was such a relief!

The swim went pretty good, I was able to sight well for not having practiced much (and I wasn’t able to draft off anyone at this race). After getting out of the water and jogging up to transition, I realized it was a VERY long transition run. This was the first time I got to my spot and almost fell over (due to lack of oxygen and my heart racing).

I finally managed to un-rack my bike and headed out to the maze of cones. Luckily no one was coming at me, as I wasn’t sure which path to follow on bike out. I actually managed to stay in my small chain ring for the whole race, even though I was tempted to get in the larger one…

I should really start running every day, but I did do the same approach as last time. I even managed to pass a few people using my run/walk plan. Another fun race, I’m looking forward to doing this one next year, and maybe we’ll actually be able to go to the after party!

Taking a deviation from triathlons, I decided I could do another mountain bike race on no training (last time I was on my mountain bike was two days before Henry was born… two months before the race). I had signed up for the Ore to Shore 28 mile race in the UP (they have a longer one, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have finished it). We left Friday after noon and got to Susan’s folks’ place around 11:30ish.

I got to the race start early to pick up my race number and managed to get a small warm-up in. I was planning on using pop-tarts for race nutrition, but Susan’s dad decided I needed a huge breakfast and I didn’t touch either pop-tart. The start was pretty neat, there were 1200 racers rearing to go. Riding the roads we were able to spread out pretty good, but once we got to the single track in the woods, it was a major congestion. Walking the bike was way faster than trying to ride < 3 mph. Once we got to the first hill, the crowd started thinning and I was able to get going on the bike once again. There was quite a bit of sand during the race and I’m glad I decided on a lower tire pressure… usually I run 35 PSI off-road and 50 PSI on-road. At the start of the race, I was wishing I had gone with my on-road pressure, but once I hit the sand, I was glad I didn’t. I didn’t have much troubles at all navigating the sketchy sandy down hills, I just had to watch out for other people as they would jack-knife unexpectedly. There were a couple brutal climbs and I had thought I had seen the worst of it at mile 16. Then I realized that hill paled in comparison to the one at mile 22. It was at this point, pushing my bike up the hill that my legs started to cramp pretty bad. I was pretty much dragging my right leg up the hill to prevent it from locking up. As you can see in the finish line photo, I was trying to stay upright and muscling through the pain in my legs. It was a fun race and hoping it will work out that I can do it again next year (after some actual training!)

So I was “that guy” last night, brought the Home Depot rental truck over to Lowe’s to pick up the tub and surround. A couple months ago, we had picked out what we wanted to put in our bathroom on Home Depot’s website. I added the surround and tub to my wishlist (in case someone changed their minds and I could get exactly what we wanted). A couple weeks ago I decided it was time to get things ordered and I went to put the tub, surround, and a bathroom fan in my cart… only to find out the tub was no longer available through Home Depot… really?

I went to Sterling’s website and found out Lowe’s is also a distributor and had what we needed. So I ordered the fan from Home Depot and the tub and surround from Lowe’s. When ordering online, Lowe’s gave me an estimated delivery date of 3/29/2013. They also had me fill out delivery directions and pay a delivery fee (which I totally forgot about when I went in to pick it up). I get a call from Lowe’s saying my order was in and I could pick it up anytime…

After a little internet searching, I found out that some Lowe’s have rental trucks available; I called this Lowe’s and apparently they do not. I thought, alright, Home Depot is across the street, I’ll grab their truck and head over. After signing the rental agreement I head in to Lowe’s…

Apparently when the guy who called me said I could pick it up anytime… didn’t really mean anytime… I guess everyone that could bring my order up front was on lunch break. I must have waited 20-30 minutes before it was ready to be loaded on the truck. In the meantime I was asked to sign a ticket when I realized I had paid for a delivery and gave delivery instructions. The person behind the counter was like, whoa you did pay for delivery… -.-

After getting refunded the delivery charges (which was a lot more than the truck rental), I pulled over to the lumber area and they loaded everything on to the truck with a forklift. The tub was standing straight up and the surround was packaged next to it… both secured in a wooden crate. After they put it on the truck, the guys from Lowe’s said “thanks” and took off. Not sure if they thought since it was so heavy it wouldn’t be a problem, but I decided I better run in to get a strap to tie it down… glad I did as it did move around a bit on the bumpy Michigan roads!

…and I was the only one to show up. Oh well, managed to get in seven miles on my hybrid. Some how I was able to average ten mph going into the 25 mph wind, with gusts up to 38 mph. I was pretty toasty this ride with my new gloves, skull cap, and shoe covers. Even though it was in the mid-twenties, I was still sweating, guess I didn’t need the skull cap after all. 😛

…and I was dropped in the first couple miles. It was a cold and windy day and I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I showed up for my first group ride. A couple guys set out on their mountain bikes while I waited for the other group to get set (apparently the “A” group). Once everyone was ready, we were off and at a blistering pace. I held on at 20+ MPH for a little over two miles and finally fell off the back. Luckily I was able to catch up to the mountain bike duo (after missing a turn and turning around) and had a nice 18 mile ride at a decent pace. By the time we got back, my hands were cold and my feet where numb, but it was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for next weeks ride (unless its snowing again!)

The house remodeling project is coming along. The walls are framed and electrical is slowing getting in place. Monday night I ordered the doors and picked up a few dry wall tools. Since I was heading to Home Depot to order the doors, I figured I would order the tools online and they would be ready to be picked up when I got there (or so I thought). The door ordering process took a lot longer than I thought, being a software guy I saw how inefficient the ordering process was and how I would’ve changed it to make it a smoother, faster process. Once the doors were ordered, I headed over to the customer service desk to get my tools. Apparently the e-mail indicating the tools were ready to be picked up was not really true. The lady at the desk called someone over who went to go get what I ordered. I paid for the doors, updated my home address, and waited for the guy to return.

I waited a few minutes and then a few more, I got an e-mail asking to fill out a survey for how the order pick-up process was. Five minutes later I decided to fill it out and give some pretty poor scores. Ten minutes later I got up and started pacing, wondering what was taking so long. I heard the customer service lady call the guy on the phone and she said he should be coming along soon. After another ten minutes I decided to give him a few more minutes and I would be returning my items. Finally, I saw him coming out of an aisle, with a shopping cart with the four items I ordered in it. What is the point of having an in-store pick-up if I could get the items five times faster than the guy who got them?

Susan and I spent this past weekend at a bed and breakfast in Allegan. It was a little tricky getting there as the GPSs didn’t quite get us to the right location, but we eventually found it and had a really good time. It was a little cold, but we made our way over to downtown Holland to have a look around. The breakfast was good, and I wouldn’t mind going back for a nice, relaxing weekend. We even made it back in time so I could put a new garage door opener in…

A couple months back my garage door opener wasn’t working and I determined the drive gear needed replacing. I headed over to an over head garage door place and picked up a kit and had it installed in less than an hour. Everything was working again! Last week, the other opener was doing the same thing. Figuring it was the drive gear, I picked up a new one, installed it, and… the opener decided to shear it in a matter of minutes. That opener wasn’t much to speak of and apparently openers only have a life expectancy of ten years…

I had read it takes on average five hours for a novice to install an opener. I managed to get it installed in less time then that and with out too much trouble. I was hoping to re-use the safety eyes and wall push button of the old one, but eventually ended up replacing them. Unfortunately we didn’t get the extender brackets for the safety eyes, so I used the old ones… It works, but the lights are facing the bracket and it was a bit tricky to see if the beam was making it across. Everything seems to be in good working condition, hopefully I won’t have to replace the mine anytime soon!

With everything that is going on this year, I opted to withdrawal from the Rev3 Cedar Point Half Revolution. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a 100% credit for next years event.

This weekend I ran my first 5K of the year, the Montrose Frozen Blueberry race. Normally there’s a foot of snow on the ground and windchill temperatures in the low teens, but this year it was in the mid-fifties and a prefect day for a 5K! After the race I managed to catch half a play-off game before we headed out for date night.

For Christmas I had gotten Susan a couple tickets to Cinderella the Ballet. Before heading to The Whiting in Flint, we decided to eat out, apparently a lot of other people had the same idea. Our first choice, Italia Gardens was packed and had at least a 20 minute wait. We opted to go to Senior Lucky’s that was also pretty busy. We hadn’t been there before, but the people at work said it was pretty good… it sure was! Although it wasn’t Susan’s favorite ballet, I think she had a good time.

After church on Sunday, I tried to catch some of the play-off action and in between games I started working on getting another wall framed in. I learned an important lesson, if you need a sledgehammer to get the wall in place, it’s probably not the right size. After trying to “nudge” the wall, I managed to split the top plate. A little more sledgehammer action and the wall was down and in pieces. I rebuilt the wall (a little shorter this time) and got it in place. Just need to run to the hardware store to pick up some more 2×4’s and I can start working on another wall.

Was only able to get through 1/2 of the 90 day regime created by Mr. Tony Horton. It was a good effort, but things came up and I missed one work-out after another. I may try to complete a P90 series in the fall next year, but I have now re-adjusted my goals leading into my first half-ironman race. I’ve decided to build some base on my bike and will be setting up my rollers/bike in the basement. With a TV set up down there with XMBC I’ll be able to sweat out some serious miles!

Really fell off the wagon this week, missed a sculpting routine, but had an awesome Thanksgiving with my sister’s family!