Less than a week...

to the Beaver Freezer! Taper time. OK, maybe not. It is a sprint, after all. Should be a pretty normal week, workout-wise. I might throw a extra swim in there, maybe take out one run. Of course, it's the first week of the quarter this week, which means Dixon Rec Center will be packed to the gills. Ah well.

Just got two new tubes in the Softride as well, so I'm set there. I snapped the stem off one of them trying to pump it up the other day, so that was sort of a necessity.

Hmmm, that's it, I guess. Color me ready.

RACES FOR WEEK OF APRIL 6th TO APRIL 12th

April 10th / Snake River Sprint Triathlon / Lewiston, ID (second week in a row that Idaho has had a Tri with the swim on Friday night and the bike and run on Saturday...just seems wrong somehow)

April 11th / Spring Classic Duathlon / Portland, OR

April 11th / Wild Rockies Barking Spider Bash 10 mile trail run / Boise, ID

April 11th / Pear Blossom Run 10 mile and 5k / Medford, OR

April 11th / MEJOR Communities 5k / Portland, OR

April 11th / Spring Rush 10k and Spring Burst 5k / Tigard, OR

April 11th / Rage in the Sage Duathlon / Benton City, WA

April 11th / Skagit Valley Tulip Run 5 mile and 2 mile / Burlington, WA

April 11th / NW Trail Runs Squak Mountain Half-Marathon and 10k / Issaquah, WA

Freezer photo from this normal, father dude-guy right here. Thanks.

Now that's a milestone...

That's right, I finally made it to four digits on my Nike+. The average pace isn't that great, but hey, who cares - I hit one thousand!

The Big 1000!

Um, a little sun...please? Pretty please?

We're coming up to about eight days until the Beaver Freezer and I think I've finally figured out why it's called the "Freezer". Man, it's going to be cold. We haven't had a truly warm day in a number of weeks. At least I start at 10:00. The folks starting at 8:00 might have icicles hanging off their noses.

Let's race.


RACES FOR WEEK OF MARCH 30th TO APRIL 5th

April 3rd / YMCA Spring Sprint Triathlon / Boise, ID

April 4th / Beaver Freezer Sprint Triathlon / Corvallis, OR

April 4th / Yakima River Canyon Marathon / Yakima, WA

April 4th / ORRC Vernonia Half-Marathon / Vernonia, OR

April 4th / Birch Bay Road Race 30k, 15k, and 5k / Birch Bay, WA

April 4th / Liz Duncan Memorial Run 10k and 5k / Richland, WA

April 5th / Race for the Roses Half-Marathon and 5k / Portland, OR

April 5th / Peterson Ridge Rumble 60k and 30k / Sisters, OR

April 5th / FPPOA iCare for Kids 5k / Seattle, WA

One Practice Freezer in the Books...

Three weeks away from the Beaver Freezer Tri, so I took in a late night visit to Dixon and ran through an entire practice Freezer - well, pool, stationary bike and treadmill. I mean, it was like ten at night, I'm not going to be out on the roads - you want me to get killed? Anyhoo, it went pretty well. The legs were a little tired during the run, but not too bad.

They announced the starting times for the heats at the Beaver Freezer and I'm in the next to last heat, starting at 10:00am. Which is all well and good, except that they start you off solely by your swim time, and while I'm fast in the pool, I'm just as slow on the bike. It could be ugly with people flying by me. Ah well.

Springtime races are a comin'. Get out there and race.

RACES FOR WEEK OF MARCH 23rd TO MARCH 29th

March 28th / Tri-State Outfitters Duathlon 2m run, 12 mile bike, 2 mile run / Lewiston, ID

March 28th / Shotgun Trail Blast 25k, 15k, and 10k / Marcola, OR

March 28th / William Owens Bush Run 5k / Tri-Cities, WA (Holy Cheese! It's a free race! Go sign up before they change their minds.)

March 28th / Running of the Fools 10k / Bellingham, WA

March 28th / Wenatchee Valley Duathlon 3 mile run, 17 mile bike, 3 mile run / Wenatchee, WA

March 29th / The Fort Vancouver Run 10k and 5k / Vancouver, WA

March 29th / FootZone Horse Butte 10 miler / Bend, OR

March 29th / Can Do 5k / Bothell, WA

March 29th / Whidbey Island Marathon and Half-Marathon / Whidbey Island, WA

The great photo is from the Can Do 5k - go and sign up now!

Best Running Song Ever?

Got your iPod strapped on? Ready to go for a long run? Got the Nike+ hooked up so your Nike+ mini-me can do the Smurf, the Popeye, and the Jerry Lewis?

Yes, yes, and yes?

Well, then get onto iTunes and grab this oldie, but very goodie. It's my current favorite to run to...from about 2500 songs on the ol' MacBook...and it never fails to deliver.

"I Confess" from The English Beat. Medium-fast Ska beat with horns and piano backing and absolutely awesome Dave Wakeling vocals. It just doesn't get any better than that. Ah, the '80's, bad in so, so many ways, but the absolute high point for Ska music.

Enjoy your run.

Holy Cheese! You can see The English Beat for free at Del Mar...sort of like the time we saw the Romantics after the Mariners game...no, actually it's nothing like that - the English Beat are actually good...and it wouldn't be in the Kingdome!

They're all laps to me...

I'm wondering if it's just me - there seems to be nothing harder than trying to explain how far you're swimming in a workout or a race (if you're swimming in a lake or ocean, it's pretty easy, "you swim until you get to the big, inflatable buoy, then you turn around and come back."). But in a pool, it's inevitable that the conversation will go like this:

"We're swimming 500 yards."
"How many laps is that?"
"Twenty laps. It's a 25-yard pool."
"So it's twenty lengths? Ten laps."
"Twenty laps!"

Yeah, so maybe it's just me. See, I grew up in a small town called Wapato in Washington. About 3000 people. And it had a 50 meter pool. Yes, a FIFTY METER pool. Don't ask me how, because I don't know, but it's still there - you can go to Wapato and check it out yourself, although the town can barely afford to open it up in the summer now.

Anyhoo, I grew up swimming in a 50 meter pool. When you said you were going to swim a lap, you swam from one end to the other and got out. That was a lap. I don't think I've ever said "I'm going to swim 10 lengths" in my entire life. It's 10 laps!

And now that I'm swimming regularly in a 25-yard pool? Yeah, they're still laps...I don't care what you say.

RACES FOR WEEK OF MARCH 16th TO MARCH 22nd

March 21st / Lucky Clover 10k and 5k / Springfield, OR

March 21st / Scot Trot 5k / Shoreline, WA

March 21st / Chuckanut Mountain 50k / Bellingham, WA

March 22nd / Mercer Island Rotary Half-Marathon, 10k and 5k / Mercer Island, WA

March 22nd / Big Climb - 69 flights up the Columbia Center / Seattle, WA

March 22nd / Vancouver Marine Park 5 mile / Vancouver, WA

Hey, if you need a sign, go see Bill!

Pedal faster! I see the light!

Yes, OSU and the Dixon Recreation Center have hit the big time.

See here.

Or here.

Here.

And here.

Oh, and right here.

Yep, now you can pedal "green" at OSU. It was only a matter of time, really. I just wish they'd put them on the treadmills, so I could do my part!

Photo by Casey Campbell of the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Thanks for the photo and yes, I already subscribe...please don't put me on the call list!

I SEE A CROCUS!!!

Yes, my friends, it is (almost) Spring again. A time when a young man's thoughts turn to, well...it ain't flowers, I know that. But anyhoo, Spring also means that the ol' race schedule starts to get a little longer. More choices on the race scene: long races, short races, Ultras, Winter Triathlons! It's time to get serious - just take a look at my Nike+ mini-me...yes, nearly five miles, but who's counting!?!

Get out there and race. Now!

RACES FOR WEEK OF MARCH 2nd TO MARCH 8th

March 7th / Spring Fever 10k and 5k / Corvallis, OR

March 7th / Run for the Honeywagon Half-Marathon and 4 miler / Everson, WA

March 7th / Snake River Canyon Half-Marathon / Pullman, WA

March 7th / Run for Luck 10k and 5k / Lacey, WA

March 7th / Spring Forward Against Autism 5k / Tacoma, WA

March 7th / Methow Winter Triathon (Mt. Bike, Ski, Run) / Winthrop, WA

March 7th / Centennial 37 Mile Trail Run / Spokane, WA

March 8th / Chapel Hill Run for Relief for Burma 5k / Gig Harbor, WA

March 8th / KCBA YLD 5k Run (can't figure it out? Sorry - hit the link) / Seattle, WA

Thanks to the teachers in the UK that run this site. Sites that actually come right out and say "please use these photos" are OK with The Two R's.

Where's Spell-Check When I Need It?

So I'm looking up the Osbourne Aquatic Center in Corvallis, right? I head over to Google and punch it in...Hey, look at that! My Two R's post on the Osbourne Aquatic Center is number 4 on the list! Holy Schmo, I'm even more huge than I thought. As Mojo Jojo would say, "I rock so hard!". But then I noticed that the actual Aquatic Center didn't have a listing on there...hmmmm. Is it possible that the Aquatic Center doesn't know how to spell Osbourne? Yep, it's possible. I punch in "Osborne" and hey, there it is.

So, needless to say, The Two R's will be huge with idiots that can't spell. Hey, those are my people!

Thanks to these guys for the photo. Apparently, they built the Osborne/Osbourne Aquatic Center...nice work!

Tomato-Tomahto, Walnut-Martin Luther King Jr...

So I took the Kona out on the Beaver Freezer bike course today - the Softride is still in storage. Since I've never done the Freezer before, I printed out a handy little map and took it with me. So 26th, Campus Way, 35th, Harrison, Walnut, yada, yada...so far, so good. OK, now we turn around at "Walnut Park". Says so right here. Right here. Hmmm, I don't remember any Walnut Park on Walnut...I remember a park on Walnut, but I sure don't remember a Walnut Park on Walnut. Don't see one either. There's Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Yep, that's the one I remember. Don't remember a Walnut Park. But then, I've only lived here six months...what do I know from Walnut Park?

Five minutes and a good mile later, I knew I wasn't finding any Walnut Park and turned it around.

So anyway, I'm pretty sure the good people at the Beaver Freezer meant the turnaround is at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, not Walnut Park.

The course, you ask? Not bad. A little up and down on the two out and back spokes, but nothing serious. Of course, I've honed my hate of the bike leg by participating numerous times in the Lake Padden Sprint Tri in Bellingham, and Padden has what is perhaps the steepest hill in all of the sprint tri world, so anything besides that feels pretty nice. Probably will ride the course four or five more times just to get a nice feel for it before race day.

But first!

RACES FOR WEEK OF FEBRUARY 23rd TO MARCH 1st

February 28th / Fall Lake Run Around 20 mile, 15k and 5k / Lowell, OR

February 28th / Heart N Sole 10k and 5k / Longview, WA

February 28th / Skagit Symphony's Smelt Run 10k and 5k / LaConner, WA

March 1st / Red Lizard Five Miler / Lake Oswego, OR


Thanks to the OSU Triathlon Club for the map.