Getting Older

I hate to be a whiner about my physical ailments, but my body has been letting me down lately. I know I've asked a lot from it in the last 3 years since I've been doing triathlons. After the two half-marathons this past winter, I was excited about improving my running times at the summer triathlons. Thanks to a knee that would not cooperate, I had to take 3 weeks off from my running and the half-marathon endurance gains evaporated. My knee problem also caused me to miss the Memorial Day Weekend Annual Red Creek trip with ML and the river gang. Next, I had a blood pressure problem the week before the Heatwave Triathlon and worried that I wouldn't be able to participate, but my doctor changed my prescription and said, "if you've been training all this time and have that lifestyle, doing that event is where you need to be." Well, Heatwave was pretty tough for me this year with the knee not back to 100%, but I was happy just to be there.

Here's a success story: Fellow swim team member KE did her first complete tri, the Soak Up the Sun Triathlon and won her age group and beat the times in the age groups above and below. She did the bike leg on ML's 20 year old Peugeot, only having ridden about 30 miles on the bike before the race. (I will add that she can hang with anyone in our advanced spin class). The following weekend she does the swim leg on a relay team at Heatwave and her team wins the mixed relay. That was her second Heatwave relay victory. Her triathlon career stats - 4 races - 3 1st place finishes. Note the eager participants checking the results posted behind me.

Above is the complete Flounder team with Paul's daughter, who cruised through the swim leg at an amazing 10 minutes, 20 seconds , a top 30 finish in a field of over 300. KE was in the top 50 at 11:13, and I made the top 100 at 12:35. Paul rode the bike leg this time.

My next injury, a sciatic nerve flare-up has caused me to miss 2 weeks of workouts. I've had bouts with sciatica before but one morning the pain had me crawling back to the bed. Wifeunit built me a pallet in the back of my 4Runner, and I crawled in and laid out for the trip to the ER. They gave me a shot and some drugs and I'm almost 100% again. I'll see a Physical Therapist Tuesday and go from there.

One thing I did while resting was take another field trip with the Jackson Audubon guys to Harrell Prairie, a big open area in Bienville National Forest with some unique plants and good birding opportunities. The trip gave me a chance to practice with my new digital SLR. Now I don't have to tolerate the inconvenience of getting film processed at Walgreen's.

Also, several cyclists helped support a local Half Marathon yesterday. We just rode along with the runners, helping them be seen on the lonelier stretches of road and ready to call in medcal support on cell phones if needed.