Today's Flickr Friday features... well... me.  I have some pictures up of me at last weekend's Lake Michigan Triathlon, and also at last month's Lake Mills Triathlon.  Special thanks to Fleet Feet Sports in Madison for providing me with the originals from Lake Mills.  As always, click on the images to see a larger version.  And just out of curiosity, do you all enjoy the weekly Flickr Friday?

So Nick, how'd your first triathlon in Lake Michigan go?  You mean... my last triathlon in Lake Michigan?  That just about says it all doesn't it?  I did the Olympic distance this time around, which means I was swimming just shy of a full mile in Lake Michigan, in approximately 50 degree water.  I did the polar bear this year, and I think I can say that this was worse.  At least with the polar bear, you're in and out in a relatively short amount of time, and you're not doing much once you're in the water except swearing and jumping up and down.

When you do a triathlon, you actually have to swim in it.  And the slower you swim, the longer you're in the cold.  There was actually one whack job who was doing the swim in just a Speedo!  I'm not sure he actually finished though.  Several people gave up partway through and got pulled out of the water by lifeguards or the Coast Guard.  At one point, I was almost one of them.

Then something strange happened at the turnaround for the Sprint swim (which was only about a 1/4 of the way through the Olympic distance swim).  I stopped noticing the cold, and a calm came over me.  I was wearing a wetsuit, but it's sleeveless, so my arms were bitter numb (as were my feet).  But suddenly I found myself able to just swim.  I wasn't swimming great mind you, but I was going.  And suddenly it all seemed workable, even as the swells kicked up near a rocky area, and the wind started to blow harder.

And after 45 minutes in the cold, I was out of the water and carrying on with the rest of the race.  This race isn't all that superbly run.  They have about 5 different events all going together, and they intermingle bikers and runners through sections of the course.  Parts of the road were in awful condition too.  But in the end, despite a soar ankle by the end of the 10K, I had cut about 3 minutes off my previous Olympic time in Oshkosh (which only had a 3/4 mile swim instead of 0.9 miles).  Here are my results, and here are the results from the rest of the field.

Me:  So... God.  About that little prayer this morning...
God:  Hey, it was good hearing from you.  It's been a while.
Me:  Well, I've been pretty busy.
God:  Try running the world some day.

...

God:  So how did everything workout with the prayer?
Me:  Well, I wanted to talk to you about that.  I woke up this morning, and it was raining here, and it rained pretty much all the way to Kenosha.  But I do have to say, you kept the rain away from the race just like I asked.
God:  Well, I didn't want to discourage more conversation.
Me:  Right.  But God... what was with the wind?
God:  You never said anything about no wind.
Me:  But was it really necessary?
God:  Exactly how did you expect me to blow the rain clouds out of the area without wind?
Me:  You couldn't just snap your fingers or something?
God:  Come on Nick, you know I don't work that way.

Anyone who has tried to navigate the gigantic PDF files that Milwaukee County considers internet ready access to the Oak Leaf Trail map will tell you that they're behind the times.  So as a public service to county residents, I'm beginning to map out bike trails in Milwaukee County using Google Maps.  I'm starting with the Oak Leaf Trail, and plan on expanding it to include the Hank Aaron and others in the area.

This is not a complete map yet, but I hope to have it all done in the next week or so.  If you're interested, you can look at it here.  I'll post updates as the project moves along.  It is color coded right now with blue lines meaning that the trail section is off road paved, and green meaning on road paved.  I'd like to eventually add extra color coding denoting trail conditions, but that is for version 2.0.

The nice part about doing it this way is that if you have a Google Account (in other words a Gmail address), you can add this to your list of custom maps and have it on hand at all times.

As you might recall, I was seriously thinking about Storming the Bastille tonight.  But, with my mild sprain, I've decided to rest up for Saturday when I'll be in Kenosha doing the Olympic distance triathlon there.  I'm realize I won't be at a hundred percent, and I'll be taping up my leg for good measure, but I'm doing it anyway.  This is only my second Olympic distance race, and it's the first race I've ever done where the swim was in Lake Michigan.  Hopefully it won't bring back memories of polar bears.  The bike leg is also different than any other I've done before since it's more criterium style, meaning I'll be doing 5 loops around the same short course, which makes it a more technical ride.

Cross your fingers for me.

Please don't be an ankle sprain.

Please don't be an ankle sprain.

Please don't be an ankle sprain.

My original plan was either to do the Kenosha Triathlon on July 14th, or the Pewaukee Triathlon on the 15th.  Kenosha is an Olympic distance, while Pewaukee is a sprint.  I'm pretty sure that I'm going down to Kenosha.  The problem is that I also want to Storm the Bastille which is the Thursday Night before.  Those are too close together dammit!

Now what do I do?!

My quads are officially revolting against me today.  It all started Saturday when I went for a 32 mile ride from the War Memorial up to Mequon and back.  I averaged 19 miles an hour, and was feeling pretty good by the time I was back.  I was feeling so good, that I made sure to do one last climb up the hill from Bradford Beach to the North Point Water Tower.  That felt great.  It was energizing, and I was simply amazed that I could do the climb seemingly without effort even after that long of a ride.

Then Sunday rolled around, and I was at the lakefront again, but this time doing my 6.5 mile running route.  I maintained about an 8 minute mile pace, and by the time I was done, I was still feeling great.  I was feeling so great, that I went back to that hill, and this time ran up and down it a few times.  Not on the sidewalk mind you, but right on the grassy part of the hill.  I felt like Rocky running up the steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (or maybe when he runs up that mountain in Rocky IV... OK... maybe that's exaggerating a bit).

Monday is normally my rest day.  After a weekend of more intensive training, I really need to take a day off.  But those climbs felt way too good.  So Monday night I drove back down to the lake and did some more intervals up and down that hill.  It was hot... it was muggy... but it still felt good.  My legs were burning by the time I was done, but hey... no pain, no gain.

Yesterday I was back on the bike.  OK... so now I'm feeling my legs.  My Tuesday ride normally isn't all that taxing, so when I got off my bike at the end and was feeling pretty stiff, I was pissed at myself for the day before.

This morning... my quads went on strike.  In fact, I can feel the picket signs sticking out of my legs at this very moment.  Yet for some reason I'm still thinking I'm going to do my evening run.

I saw this sign yesterday on my way back from Mequon, while cutting through Bayside on my 32 mile training ride from the War Memorial by the lake.

So does this mean that any stop signs without "Bicycles Also" don't apply to bikers?  Cause if so, that's pretty cool.  I just assumed that all stop signs applied to bikers at all times.  Maybe I was wrong.

Not to steal Phel's thunder, but this one had to go up...

"The most disciplined area of my training is rationalization."

First the really cool news from Lake Mills.  I cut a minute and half off my previous personal best and set a brand new personal record.  Compared to a lot of other people, that's still not fantastic, but for me I'm thrilled.  You can see my splits here, and the rest of the field's times here.

Of course, mother nature conspired to try to ruin the race.  About a half an hour before the first wave took off, we got a really nice downpour that lasted about 20 minutes.  Just enough to soak anything you didn't have covered, and wet down the roads to make them a little more slick.  In fact, there was one pretty spectacular crash coming into the transition from the bike leg when someone lost it going too fast and breaking too hard.

But despite the rain, I had a good race overall.  This is one of the best run events I do, and it's always a blast, this year being no exception.  I also had a little bit of fun with this cool license plate generator.  Do you think the DMV would let me get away with this one?

Sunday is my first race of the season, at Lake Mills.  And this year it's going to be big!  We're going to be on The Ocho!

OK... not really... but it's conceivable.  After all, if I'm participating, you can hardly count it as a sport.

Lake Mills is always a great time.  The swim is usually damn cold (which is why I own a wetsuit), but the bike leg is great, and the run is super fast.  And despite the fact that I never have my own personal cheering section, there is always a great crowd there making a lot of noise, so it doesn't seem to matter that much.  So while the rest of you are sleeping in on Sunday, I'll be busting my butt.

So two weekends in a row I've gone for 2+ hour bike rides, and now two weekends in a row I have a farmer tan.  Except mine is caused by my bike jersey.  Right up my arm it's getting tan, and a little red, right up to where my jersey cuts off, and above that it's... well... white.

Is it a biker tan now?

There's nothing quite like getting into the full swing of training again to remind you of how important your meal selection is.  Saturday was one of those days when I forgot this basic tenant.

Summer Sausage, Cheese and Crackers + 35 miles of Full Exertion Biking != Fun.

That story did not end well for our intrepid hero.  And in honor of that, today's word of the day is... vurp.

So you're biking hard at 20 odd miles an hour and a bug suddenly flies into your mouth as you're taking a deep breath... what do you do?

I'm a spitter myself...

What about the rest of you?