The Best Time of Year

The weather here these past few weeks here has been clear and beautiful. The leaves on the trees are in full color and the temperatures are chilly at night, but warm during the day. October and November are my favorite months, and in spite of my working a lot of weekend hours, Wifeunit and I have been able to enjoy a couple road trips to the Gulf Coast.

We made our annual trip to Jamie & Bethany's in Wiggins for Jamie and me to defend our "Paddle - Pant - Pedal" Triathlon First Place Open Team title. (This was easy since all the other teams were in the relay or mixed categories.). We spent a lazy afternoon at the farm and at the creek, and that night sat around the fire with our favorite beverages.

The next weekend was our return to Ocean Springs and the Peter Anderson Festival. Another beautiful day and visit with ML and Harry. We took a boat ride late in the day and enjoyed a nice sunset on the Pascagoula River marsh. And I did not neglect my marathon training - I drove to Gulf Islands National Seashore - Davis Bayou Park for an early morning run.

Long Time No Post

I've been really busy at work, and that means working weekends. But I've managed to squeeze in some fun here and there.

The Wellsfest 5K was bigger than ever, had a new course, and the weather was almost perfect.
I'm in the crowd somewhere and was pleased that I'm running better every week without any pain in my knee or back.








Credit Wifeunit for this wonderful picture of the kids beginning the Wellsfest 1 Mile Fun Run. This photo really looks great in a larger size.

Wellsfest is an all-day event with food and family entertainment, including a dog parade.....
















.....and yoga demonstrations, which Wifeunit joined.








I wanted to save some photos of our plants before the winter comes. These are basil, oregano, parsley and thyme - great for snipping and adding to the recipe instead of shaking out of a bottle.

One of our new plantings this year was Coleus we grew from seeds. It took a little while to get going, but we had several large plants with these wonderful colors.











This weekend I decided I'd had enough work and got in the canoe for a while. One of the islands was covered with wildflowers.











The white pelicans are back from Canada and the Great Lakes. They are a beautiful sight in the winter when they gather in big flocks and slowly circle catching the sunlight. I believe they fly this way just for fun.

Weather and the Weekend - Part 2

After a post-race shower and a short rest, we headed south toward home. On the way, we stopped at Indianola, Mississippi, birthplace of the blues legend B.B. King, and Wifeunit's childhood summer home. By coincidence, this day was also the opening of the B.B. King Museum.

We found the little town full of visitors and the downtown section closed to traffic. The streets were lined with food stands, crafts for sale, and musicians. The new museum was a bit too crowded for us, so we didn't go inside. We make it to Indianola several times a year, so we'll be checking out the museum on another trip. My sister ML later told us that there were probably some high profile entertainers there like Eric Clapton, but we didn't notice anything special but 3 large customized busses from the Gibson Guitar company.

Wifeunit had to sign the big birthday card, ending our adventure for this day.

Weather and the Weekend - Part 1

The weather here lately has been influenced by a couple of hurricanes. Not unusual for this time of year, but more creepy than in my memory since Hurricane Katrina changed so much of our world in the Gulf States. I read an email at work that mentioned an Ohio city was experiencing power failures and school closings from Hurricane Ike this week.

Ike was a factor at the Delta State University Triathlon this past Saturday. It was windy and humid. I had a great swim - it was a 500 yd pool swim - and I was one of the first out of the water. I even had to get spectators out of the path to the transition area. The bike ride was really strange, with a 25 mph wind from the hurricane blowing from the southeast. The ride was an out and back zig zag route, so half the time the wind was helping, but boy when it didn't it was a struggle. One of the guys who finishes in the top 5 every year said his bike leg was 6 minutes slower than his worst. I ran poorly in the high temps and humidity, but enjoyed the race. Everyone involved in this race seems to have great fun, even though they seem to have trouble with the timing and awards. This is not an official USAT race, just a fun thing put on by the DSU Swim and Dive Team.

Ag Museum

I began this beautiful Sunday with some canoe paddling to a spot at least a half mile from any houses, at the east end of Pelahatchie Bay in the middle of the huge expanse of lotus pads. The weather had the first touch of Fall about it, and the forecast promised low 80's for the day. This spot in the pads was so quiet. There were very few boats out. I think the high-tech fishermen with their obnoxious bass boats must have gotten interested in college football or dove hunting. Or maybe they knew the water was a little muddy from Hurricance Gustav last week. The only sounds were an occasional flock of geese honking by or the sound of a far off truck with obnoxious loud tail pipes. Must have been the fishermen heading for the dove field.


Later, Wifeunit suggested we go to the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum, where this weekend the Celtic Fest was going on. We paid the surprising $24 for two of us to get in and found the fest pretty weak. There were some interesting people playing unusual instruments but not much else, so we decided we'd seen enough.

We were headed back to the truckster when Wifeunit picked up the scent of a horse, her favorite animal. I picked up the scent of what the horse leaves on the ground. Anyway we had to investigate........

Here she's getting some of that horse smell on her, and she may not wash her hands for days.

Another irresistible critter gets as much massage as possible through a fence.

Wifeunit got a sloppy kiss from this guy, but I missed it. You can still appreciate his good looks and charm.










A goat. No less important, loved and admired.














This was the only farm animal Wifeunit didn't notice or spend time with. I could only think of my chocolate milk.



Best of all, the family had a great day!

One Year Totals

I've been recording my workouts on the Buckeye Outdoors site since September 1, 2007. Results....

450 miles of running

120 miles swimming

770 miles biking

1340 miles total

I know some of you readers may have done twice that distance. Actually two of you for sure, but I'm still pretty proud of myself. Blogs are all about bragging sometimes.

I'm about to check the radar again and decide whether to run in these remnants of Hurricane Gustav.

The Fun of Triathlon

The Cotton States Triathlon in Lake Providence, Louisiana has survived for a 23rd year. The 24th is in question. The down home friendly nature of this little race is what makes it dear to me. It's perfect for beginners and comfortable for those of us who have no high ambitions to qualify for Kona, or even spend the grueling hours to train for an Ironman. The race is a major fund raiser for the small farm town of Lake Providence and deserves to survive.

The swim and transition area are across the 2 lane highway from the host Lakeside Motel where room rates are $30 regular and $35 for deluxe. Signs in some read, "Please Don't Clean Fish in Room".

The phenomenal fellow Flowood Fighting Flounder, KE, in her second full official triathlon without being on a relay team, won Top Masters Women. She was awarded one of the coveted Cotton Bale trophies pictured above.

Fish Fear Me

On my rest days, I love to get out on the water in the canoe and paddle silently around Pelahatchie Bay, early in the morning before many boats have messed up the glassy surface and the wind is calm. This old canoe has been in the family for over 40 years, and paddling it around remembering its long life is part of the pleasure. It's aluminum and makes a little noise when the water is choppy, but it's like driving an old classic car or swinging an old golf club, maybe like using an old baseball glove that's been put away for years.



This day was a bit overcast but calm, and there was hardly a ripple as far as I could see. I remember being taught canoeing skills in Boy Scouts, and the importance of being very quiet, not banging the paddle against the gunwale. My uncle and brother and I would sometimes paddle out at night with a bright light and sneak up on beavers. We could get within just a few feet of them if you kept the light in their eyes, then the tail would slap on the water and they'd be gone. That was a thrill for a 10 year old boy.





Approaching my favorite fishing spot, I don't see the alligator on this day. It's only about a 5 or 6 foot gator, and keeps a good distance from me. It will disappear under the water when you get too close. I always take my camera and fishing stuff, since you never know which you'll have the most luck with.







Here's proof that I do actually catch fish while I'm out. I mostly fish with a fly rod since it's the most fun and you don't have bait to hassle with. I rarely keep any fish, mostly since they're too small, or I only catch a few on each trip.

I'm out for a couple hours at the most, since the wind will pick up to a point that makes handling the canoe a bit of a challenge.

Feeling Good in August

All my injuries have finallly healed and I'm happy to be back to my modest weekly workout schedule - run two mornings 3 or 4 miles, swim 2 mornings 2000 + yards each day, a Friday high paced spin class, and a bike ride on the weekend. I should be in plenty good shape to drive over to Lake Providencc next Saturday for the Cotton States Triathlon. Depending on who shows up in my age group, I might even win one of those miniature trophy cotton bales. I wrote about this tri last year, and this year I hope to get some pictures so you readers eagerly awaiting more exciting news can fully appreciate the awesome wonder of this event.

Fun T-Shirts (4)

I guess since I'm better at swimming than biking or running, it is, by far, my favorite of the three triathlon sports. Most of my childhood summers were spent in and around a pool or lake. We lived across the street from a park with a swimming pool, and later spent lots of days at our lakeside trailer fishing, canoeing and swimming. My sister, ML has made a career of swimming. She's taught swim teams, led water aerobics and arthritis therapy, and has been an aquatics director at several venues. Swimming is fun, and you don't get too hot, (although I have been known to sweat during some of our Flounder swim team workouts).



Here's our Flowood Fighting Flounders Masters Swim Team uniform T-Shirt. This is what we wear to intimidate the other teams at swim meets.

Our team is registered with US Masters Swimming, and we compete in the Southern Masters Swimming Dixie Zone. We got a nice warmup jacket at the meet in New Orleans last December.





We're participating in the USMS 2008 Check-off Challenge, wherein you complete 18 different events using each of the four strokes - freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly - at various distances. Some are routine for most swimmers and quite easy. Others are a bit more challenging, such as the one remaining event we haven't completed, the 200 yard butterfly. Last Thursday we checked off the 400 individual medley, a feat I wouldn't have dreamed possible a year ago.



A fun thing our local YMCA sponsors is the English Channel Challenge. You simply record your swim distance each day on a big chart, and if you complete the English Channel distance within a specified time frame, you get a free T-Shirt!

Fun T-Shirts (3)

Here's the T-shirt design of our local big bike ride. Paul and I do the metric century - around 66 miles. On my first ride I was very new to cycling and had just bought my bike a few months earlier. I had a flat tire nearly every time I rode. So on the 06 Century ride a had my usual luck and more, changing a probable record 6 flat tires. Now, you may be thinking "wasn't there something obvioius that was causing the flats?" Well, we had a SAG group from a major bike shop patrolling the route, and the guys just kept giving me new tubes and eventually a new tire. They even did the fix a couple times themselves. As it turned out, the lining around the rim was plastic and very old, and had cracked unnoticeably. After only a short while under pressure, the liner would cause a split in the tube, and POW!! - another flat. Soon after the ride I purchased new liners and another new tire to match my freebie.

Fun T-Shirts (2)

The Heatwave is our hometown race. Three years ago, the week after I did my first "beginner" tri, I volunteered to help at the Heatwave to get an up-close feel for what it was like. Finishing the next year's Heatwave was my goal, and I began training, a routine I continue today. Since then I've done the race 3 times.

It's an Olympic distance race (sort of). I think the bike leg is a mile or two short.

There have been problems with the routing of the bike and run legs and with the local traffic, and a buoy even broke loose once on the swim leg, causing swimmers to chase the buoy some extra distance as it drifted wider from the original course. I would love to say it gets better every year, but there always seems to be some problem that goofs something up. This year everyone had vastly improved swim times because the course was not laid out accurately.

Fun T-Shirts (1)

All my triathlete friends rave about the health benefits of our sport and look forward to the thrill of competition, but don't be fooled - we all do it primarily for the cool T-shirts! I thought it might be fun (at least for me) to post pics of most of the recent shirts Wifeunit and I have collected.


This one was from my very first tri, a short beginner race created by the Jackson Triathlon Association. The race got me hooked, of course, but I realized it would take lots more training to move up to a longer distance.

I trained for a year and did the second SUTS without much problem.

Now I help out at the race as a volunteer, and it's almost as much fun as being out there with them. And we all know you've got to give something back.

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.