Did a long run today followed by an hour and a half in the gym lifting weights. Planned on swimming today but started working on my car and the next thing I know it is 8:15 at night!

My car needed to have a brake job bad! I replaced all the wheel cylinders and the master cylinder and the front brake shoes and hoses. I hope that will take care of any problems I had the brakes. Of course fixing the brakes, I noticed the rear end axles are leaking past the wheel gaskets in the back and I have not a clue on what to do with that. I may actually break down, take it to a shop, and have them fix it and give the beast a much-needed tune-up.

Off to bed!

April 13, 2003

Was not the best training day I ever did. Started good then went down hill fast. I geared up for a 4hr+ bike ride got about 25 mins into it and my HR monitor decides to stop working. I swing back home and get my other strap and head out again. I went to the Gainesville-Hawthorne trail and was going great and after 2hrs noticed, I was “bouncing” a lot. I kept going and the “bouncing” got worse. That is when I noticed that my back tire was going flat!

It is entirely my friend Jed’s fault down in Clermont; he told me I would get a flat if I did not carry a spare tube and some way to pump it up.

Mile 12 is where the flat occurred, and I started walking. Luckily, a couple of college girls stopped and offered me the use of their cell phone so I could call my wife to come rescue me. Of course, I gave horrible directions and she was not familiar with where I was training so ….

Two hours later and a good 8-10 mile walk and I was in my wife’s car heading home.

I went out and bought me 2 tubes, a patch kit and some CO2 cartridge system thingy.

At the same time, I picked up an aero bottle holder and bottle.



April 8, 2003

Had a good training day today, did a 3:30 hour bike ride from my house out to Archer over to Williston back to my house and then out to Micanopy and back. Had a slight head wind at times but all and all it went fine. After the bike went and did 2000 yards in the pool. Longest swim yet and longest bike all in the same day!

April 6, 2003

Did a long run today, 2 hrs went really well and had no problems at all. The only thing I had was a little ache in my right knee. Saturday I did a good 2:30 hour bike ride.

Brrr!! It really did a big temperature drop this weekend.

My friend Jed had come up from Clermont so we could go to Panama City Beach on Sunday and ride the bike route for the ½ Ironman. Jed came down Saturday night and when I got out of work, we had supper and worked on getting my new aerobars on my bike. I love my bike but realize that having large handlebars has its drawbacks. The aerobars clamps did not have screws large enough to connect around the handlebars. We ended up going to Home depot (sucked) and Lowe’s (booyaa!) to get some metric screws to replace the ones that came with the bars.

After that, we prepared for the next days ride so we would not have to mess with it at five in the morning. I was a tired from work and a bit of the flu also, slept like a baby that night.

Sunday morning got up at 4:45 and we took off for the coast around 6ish.

It was cloudy and a bit drizzly as we started and it did not get any better after that!

At the first stop to stretch and do some body functions Jed was trying to tell me how cold it was. HEHE. I did not really feel like telling him that at that time of the day I am still not fully awake and probably numb to the environment! He really was trying to convince me to turn around and head back to my place, but I knew my wife had checked the weather and the weather at Panama City beach was going to be a lot better then the weather in Gainesville.

About an hour later, we stopped to get gas and while he went inside, I filled up the little Hyundai and froze my ass off! We had passed a bank where the temperature on the sign read 48! It has been between the 70’s and 80’s for the pass two weeks and in one day, it drops down to 48? Anyways we asked the woman at the gas station where the closest Wal-mart was so we could get some long sleeve shirts to cut the wind and rain down a bit. Lucky for us it was a short 5 min drive off the main route and we were back on the road in no time with $6 sweatshirts on to keep us warm.

Then we hit Tallahassee. Why they would make a city like this I have no idea, but they really need to put up some signs so when you drive through it you can stay on your route! We lost like 15mins trying to find the road we were looking for, all because they do not have any signs up! Ok that was the end of my rant on Tallahassee.

The closer we got to Panama City the better the weather got. Then the state trooper pulled us over, thanked us for wearing our seatbelts while speeding, and gave me a ticket! It had to be the fastest ticket I have ever received, bang five mins later we were on the road again. It took us about five hrs to get to Panama City beach and then we stopped at a Publix to grab some bagels and set up camp at another Wal-mart.

It was nice and sunny but the temperature was still in the low 50’s and the wind was very strong (we found out later it was 20-25 mph). We donned all our cool looking bike gear and headed out for the bike portion of the day. I started in front first to set the pace and Jed took over after about 4 miles into it, he said I was working to hard (he was right) and wanted to bring the pace down a bit. The head wind was horrendous, I was pushing 17 mph and he slowed us down to 13-15 mph. I was very grateful.

After that, we kept a steady pace that he controlled and I did a lot of drafting! It helped and at the same time the wind was so strong at times that it did not matter. About twelve miles into the bike you hit this bridge, the bridge is really a man made hill, the wind blowing across the top was very strong but we managed a good push up it followed by a very nice downside. At the bottom of the bridge, we made a right hand turn onto a different road portion of the course. The wind was less in our face on this section and it went easy.

I should mention also that this was my first ride with aerobars. I almost fell in the first mile when I tried going aero! After a few miles of going form aero to rode then back to aero again I started to feel a little more confident in myself and really liked the aero position, especially with all the wind we were facing.

A lesson learned is to make sure your aerobars are nice and tight! I hit a bump and my aerobars tipped forward on me! It was not a very pleasant feeling when going around 15 mph on a bike!

We really focused on eating right and getting plenty of fluids, although with the weather the way it was we needed a lot less fluid then we had planned. I had my Camel Pac and two water bottles while Jed had his aero bottle and three water bottles. I still had some left in one bottle and the Camel Pac when I was done.

Overall, the entire bike ride took us around three hrs to finish. Then we did a 50-minute run at Jed’s pace to finish the day out.

Oh, I should mention that at the intersection just before we finished the bike portion of the day (we could see the car in the Wal-mart parking lot) we wiped out in the intersection in front of 50 people! I will honestly say it was all Jed’s fault! Hehe.

Jed drove on the way home and we made decent time but it still took us 5 hours+ to get to Gainesville and then poor Jed still had to drive to Clermont.

Some quick observations on the day:

1. It is a long ways to Panama City Beach from Gainesville!
2. Hyundai’s are not good for long drives if you are over 6 ft tall!
3. Gas station clerks are always helpful.
4. Wal-mart rules!
5. The state troopers should be impressed a Hyundai can get over 50!
6. Spring break is nice in Panama City Beach!
7. When on the highway on a bike and a trailer goes by you at 70 mph, you have the right to be scared!
8. Falling at 2 mph in a busy intersection is just plain embarrassing!
9. Training with your bud is a good thing.

Yesterday I worked late so skipped going to the gym and pool. Today I have a swim planned and also a bike and run to stretch out those muscles from Sunday.

Out of here!

Just a quick note this morning.

I hit the pool last night and put in a good hour in it pulling out my longest workout to date of 1800yds.

Felt good and I can only hope my pool workouts will keep improving.

Tonight I will hit the gym and do my weight training then do a run around the block at home for about 40 mins.

Tomorrow is the big day hopefully the weather holds and we can get in a great bike ride in Panama Beach.

Out of here!

I am just getting ready to hit the sack, had a good training day again today. Woke up a t 6:30 and went on a 60 min run then to work.

After work went to the pool and did a 1400 yd workout! The swimming is coming along nicely. Doing a lot better then I thought I would. I am looking into getting into the masters swim program at the university, which should help my swimming tremendously. It only cost 45 bucks and I have heard nothing but good things about the program.

After the swim, I hit the gym and worked out for 1hr and 15 mins.

All in all not a bad day and now I am off to bed before I fall asleep on the keyboard.

Out of here!

Wow what a great day yesterday!

I did 1hr 15mins on the bike followed by 30 mins in the pool.

I took a little catnap in the afternoon then hit the road again for 50 mins for a nice run at night.

Today all I have is a quick 30min bike then tonight a 45 min pool workout if I get out of work on time.

I finally got a pair of bike shorts, which should make a difference on comfort on the bike on those long hauls.

Speaking of long hauls, my friend Jed is coming up from Clermont this weekend and we are heading over to Panama City where the Ironman is. He is in the ½ Ironman that is going on in May. We will do the half Ironman bike and run this Sunday. He thinks we are doing a 9 mile run but if we are doing 56 on the bike we should also finish killing ourselves with the 13 mile run!

Out of here!

Wow what a good day! Sundays are always a big training days simply because I have time to do some training. Last night I went with my wife to an 80’s party, good music, good people, and bad flashbacks of high school lol. I did not get home until 1:30am and then when I did I promptly feel asleep.

I did not get up at six to go do my 2hr 20 min run. Probably a good thing also as it was a drizzly morning. I did get started around 10:30ish and had a good run.

Went down SW Archer rd, hung a left onto some street, and went down all the dead end streets off from that street. The sun stayed behind the clouds and there was a steady drizzle while I was running.

I saw a house that had a few old cars out around it and recognized at least one old mopar. I will have to swing by again and check it out.

After I got back from the run, I took a 20 min break, then headed to the gym (I was going to skip the gym but I said, “What bob would do?” and did the opposite!), and then to the Florida pool on campus.

I usually swim in the O’Connell Center which has a 50 yard pool split in half so you do 25 yard laps, the Florida pool is a full length 50 yard pool no split. It was good for me as I had to do 50-yard laps before I could take a break. I managed to do 1000yds in 30 mins not to bad for me.

Beth is making some of her world famous lasagna and Mike and Lisa are swinging by, so the rest of the day will be a nice relaxing one. Which I really need after 4hrs of training!

Out of here!

Got up at 5:45 this morning and hit the road for an hour and 30 mins on the bike, I was suppose to do 2 ½ hours but I started late and had to be in work at 8:30.

This time I headed towards Williston, not a bad ride at all once you get pass I-75 the traffic lets up and you have a very nice breakdown lane to ride in. Lots of cows and even heard a rooster going off as I rode through an area.

Getting ready to head out to do a 40 min run then going to an eighties party tonight! Women in really sexy clothes is a good thing!!

Tomorrow I have a 2hr and 20 min run, with a swim workout and a gym workout. Busy day tomorrow, as Mike M. will be coming over also for supper and taxes. Hope to get in a few hours of PS2 action also.

Really starting to warm up here in Florida, almost time to start heading to the springs for some free diving fun!

Out of here for now!