Course Preview

Early this morning, I got the chance to preview the Music City Triathlon bike and run courses. It was a beautiful day. I've never bothered to preview a course before, but I'm really glad I did. There are a couple tricky hills on the bike that will be total momentum killers if they're not approached correctly. Also, I managed to miss a turn. I realized it just as I passed it, but there's a right turn in the middle of a descent. You come up over a not-small hill and you sit down in your drops and you see the bottom of the hill and fly by the turn. I'm sure they'll have people there on race day, but of the people that saw ride by there today, we all missed the turn.

The run is going to be tough. There are some long hills that will be uncomfortable. I felt pretty good today, but I didn't do the whole run and the run wasn't in order. I may pop out to the run site again before the race.

Changes

I'm in the process of making some tweaks to my blog. I've added a "Workouts" column to the left side, but I'm not sure if it's the most practical. I'll see how the list behaves after I reach the limit of the queue. What I'd really like is a rolling Sunday-Saturday gadget with archiving capabilities and a countdown to my next race.

Any smartypants out there got something like this?
Eh?

More Noms

Proud Auntie nomming Texas. Must. Share. Cuteness.
If we aunties do our jobs right, the boy won't have ears or toes left.

Dingbat

I've had a day full of dingbat moments.

1. I heated some water for my tea this morning and started to pour it over my already prepared cold cereal. I could chalk this up to lack of caffeine. I may still do that.
2. Some very poor driving decisions were made, mostly having to do with stop signs (not lights). Fortunately none of these resulted in anything resembling an accident or near-accident. I just realized about three times that I would have yelled and thrown hand gestures at someone who did the same things to me. Again, caffeine could be to blame. High oil prices could also be to blame.
3. While I suppose this dingbat moment happened when I was packing for the week, I just realized today that I left my running shoes behind in TN. I have a race this weekend and thought I had all the things I needed for that. Guess not.

Over my ringing earbuds

I was in an elevator the other day with my Bob Edwards show talking in my ears. I was using my earbuds. A guy got on the elevator and I could hear the music from his earbuds over the stuff I was listening to. I couldn't believe it.

A few floors later, another guy hopped on the elevator. He smelled of the back of the smoking room at the airport, where the glass has yellowed.

Fortunately, these guys weren't going to where I was going.

To complete the trilogy of extremes, the room I sat in for the next hour was frigid. Three out of five senses abused. Sigh.

Beer and Quiet

Why is it so difficult for people in semi-crowded places, such as a mall or an airport, to walk in a straight, predictable line?

I made my first trip (for shopping) to the big outlet mall nearby, Opry Mills. It's giant and obnoxious and right next door to the Grand Ole Opry. So, on your way to see the show, you go shopping and eat at the mall!! What could be more fun and American?

There wasn't an Opry show today but this was tax-free weekend in Tennessee so everyone and their many, many children were out in force, walking random lines through the mall and getting in my way.

I survived the experience, found a few things I needed and as a reward, I decided to have some ice cream. I stood in line at the ice cream place for about a minute before I gave up and went home where my reward was beer. And quiet. I think I chose wisely.