I put in 13 miles running today, then took a nap and met Gabe and his girlfriend on my bike at the park. The park was full of Dogwood Festival doings, though, and they weren’t allowing bikes in, so we had to ride through neighborhoods to get to Fat Matt’s.

And Fat Matt’s was packed, so we rode down the hill to Smith’s and I ate a burger and fries.

Then I rode over to Park Tavern and got made fun of for wearing cycling gear. It was good to see everyone and wish Clapper a happy birthday though.

Now I’m home and going to sleep because I have volunteered to help during a triathlon clinic tomorrow.

So, I’m getting up at 6am. Bleh.

All of my underwear has holes in it. It’s because my mom used to buy me new underpants every Christmas, and she passed away in 2006. I just haven’t got the hang of buying it for myself yet.

I guess I am harboring the latent hope that someone else will pick up the underwear-buying slack as I go about the other facets of my life, but the outlook isn’t good on that front. In terms of good news, I did find a brand of Hanes that are comfortable on my unmentionables.

I got them from Amazon and they were shipped here, thus perpetuating the illusion that other people actually handled the business.

I’m glad I’ve signed up for these epic races this year just because I want to be able to say I did them, but I’m not sure I’m going to keep doing them in the future. I think I’d rather be doing local series races so I could race more and enjoy it more.

My half Ironman is one month away. I think I’m pretty much ready.

I’m watching a show on Hulu about the origins of life and getting into bed. Sleep is going to be really, really nice.

I’m going to run 13 or so tomorrow I think. Hopefully my hamstrings will play nice or else my race next month is going to suck a lot.

I got in from my swim yesterday and had a rest and got some work done. After a bit I noticed an email saying my buddy Chris intended to ride to the velodrome and see some of our boys ride fast and turn left.

I was pretty zonked, but I decided it sounded like fun, so I rode along.

It turned into a somewhat weird and cold evening, but the ride was really cool. I’m glad I went down and hung out at the velodrome finally and saw people getting it on.

We hit a flat section near the Lakewood MARTA station with a pretty sweet tailwind that allowed us to sail along in the low twenties with minimal effort. It was really nice.

I thought that must be what it’s like to ride in Texas. All cruise all the time. I communicated as much to some Texans today, though, and they’re not so sure.

On the way back we had the city’s taller buildings peeking above the extremely sketch empty lots and empty warehouses to lure us back to town. It was cold, and I had chose to ride in jeans and a mountain bike style chamois rather than a road kit as my kits were all dirty, and my ass was hurty due to lack of padding.

Still, it was a really nice 20 miles, ten out and ten back, and it was cool to watch the velodrome races.

I’ll reserve judgement until I actually try it, but I’m not sure that track racing is going to entice me.

I’ve been wrong before, though.

I swam down the lane tonight, kicked off the far wall, and my left leg turned into a stick. It wouldn’t move.

Tighten every muscle in your left leg as hard as you can and then try to swim with it that way and you’ll have some idea of where I was at. Sort of like trying to sing with a mouth full of chili.

Or ride a bike with a flat tire. Looking at you, George Hincapie.

Now, granted, this was after about an hour of swimming at moderate to fast pace (for me) because I was trying to shoehorn the entire 2900m “A” workout into the hour our tri club gets at the pool, but still. I’d hoped those cramps were a thing of the past.

I’ve heard anecdotal tales of people doing shots of pickle juice to combat cramps. I might give that a swing. I like pickles!

When my whole body cramps up and I sink to the bottom of the pool like a retarded seal pup, necessitating a rescue by a Georgia Tech aquatic center lifeguard, he or she will get to resuscitate me with the pleasing taste of pickles on my breath.

You’re welcome, lifeguards!

I didn’t end up making it. I did the 300 warm up, the 4x50m 25kick/25drills, the 3x 500m moderates, and the 2x 200m swims, but that took me about an hour and my leg mutinied. So I got out and hobbled around a while.

On my way into the locker room a dude with a huge beard came out. I wondered if it was anything like swimming with a cat on your face.