Taking my own medicine

This past week was pretty fun filled, I had to do a 12 mile run on one of the days to get ready for the weekend.  I put it off as long as possible but on Friday it was time to put on the shoes.  As a note, my current shoes, Asics Nimbus’s, combined with my double layer socks are just great, no blisters, no hot spots, they feel cushy.  I started early, accompanied by training partner Robert, I had all my nutrition planed out and picked a nice comfy pace. Things were going well and around mile 9 we ran past this gentleman on the  running path and casually said “Hi” and didn’t give it much thought.  We turned around to do our final loop about a quarter of a mile later and as we came up to the older guy, he flagged us down,  I was easily persuaded to stop at that point .  So picture this, here’s a guy wearing some old Dickie overalls, over a plaid shirt, looking a little scruffy, in hunting boots  and making me look skinny. I chugged to a stop and he says to me “I bet yo’ left butt cheek hurts when your run” you know you drag yo’ left foot and you need a lift in dat’ shoe around the heel an’ just to tha’ arch a little…..saddly, all of this was true. Except that I’m breathing hard and still had 3 miles to go, that was real interesting. So I said something like ” your right about the pain in the butt”  but I was pointing at Robert  and said thanks and went back to running.  My plan was to search this fellow out on my return trip and speak with him more but I never saw him again. For some of you who I have fit on the bike, you know some of this story. For years I have been watching people walk and ride and I can adjust you and build widgets that generally fix all types of problems. very often, people will just be dumbfounded as I tell them about issues that they have and how that effects their performance. Having it done to me, out of the blue by a total stranger was very interesting indeed. I hope to run into this fellow again, I’ll take the time for a long chat next time.

  Sunday, we were going to ride 60 miles over some very hilly terrain to help get ready for the Kansas 70.3. A good plan except that it was raining and 53 degrees, the good news was that sunburn wasn’t an issue. I’m not sure who is the bigger fool but Robert and I started out on the ride, days like this are when having a training partner is fairly essential,  pancakes would have easily won out on this morning if it had been up to me. We did good though, it was a pretty tough course and we finished in 3 1/2 hrs including a couple of quick refuel breaks.

My ride went so well that I decided to go race my slot cars on Sunday afternoon.   We were racing on the local “dirt track”, a wood oval with 6 lanes painted to resemble dirt. It’s usually fun and I usually do pretty good but today it seems that the bike ride took a little toll on me. When they found me with my head buried in my toolbox… asleep,  I think that gave it away that I was tired. My car/finger skills were non exsistant so after embarrasing myself  in the stock car class I went home.

  I have a couple of days at the A&M windtunnel scheduled this week.  I’ll be testing several riders and maybe be doing a frame test with 8-10 top tri frames, that should be interesting.

~ by johncobbresearch on May 17, 2009.