Lighten up on the negative hockey talk.   What else is there?  Baseball? Golf?  Sports where almost nothing happens for long stretches of time.  Or maybe NASCAR where 40 people drive around in circles for hours?   If I watch to watch utter futility I can go into the office and work.

Ok, let it be known that I'm hardly negative on hockey. That and basketball are my favorite spectator sports. And soccer when my kids were playing. But I'm like really, it's almost June! Hockey as a kid was purely a winter sport. Here, we're done already (college hockey) so I'm done. Never really got into NHL, but hey, I'm not into much any TV sports. So relax, hockey is cool. It's our biggest "cash" sport here.

Ran 10.1 miles after work and finished just as the wind was picking up and the dark clouds were rolling in. We've had some strong winds and some rain since then, but it looks like it's letting up a bit. I hear we're in for a couple of cold days with frost warnings tomorrow night. Good thing I haven't planted my annuals yet... debating bringing them into the garage or just covering them with plastic (and having it blow off) tomorrow night. A good reminder why they always say, even if we have a warm spring, don't plant till June 1! I push that date most of the time, but this year it's looking like a good guideline.

I've been a decent competitive runner since about 1978 and my husband as well.  H is also a strong cyclist.  We did triathlon in the 80s back before the big series even existed.  I was an ok swimmer and have resorted to swimming over the years when injured.  I belonged to a great master's team in Dallas.  With a demanding job (and then 2 kids) it was too hard to train for 3 sports.  Cycling scares me, although I have done a fair amount- also usually when injured.

Son (now 30) was a top youth runner in Texas (set some age records)  and was a college recruit.  He, unfortunately, went to Penn injured and never ran for them.  Various setbacks, but he got serious about triathlon in 2012 and quickly rose through the ranks.  He won amateur in fall of 2012 in his first Ironman 70.3.   He qualified for Kona in May 2013 at St. Croix 70.3 (which was then a qualifier) and did Kona very injured (surgery soon after) in 2013 but had to walk a lot of the marathon.  Still finished in 10:15 (I think).  He hasn't run a marathon outside of Kona.  He was on pace to win age group at Tremblant last August and passed out 9 miles into the run.  It was a cold, rainy day and he had been training in the heat.  He just shut down.  He's pretty done with fulls and seems to be better at 70.3.    He's pretty well known in the sport partly because he's very caustic on the Slowtwitch message board and a technical expert as far as bike set up and aero position etc.  He's difficult in many ways, to say the least.   He lives and trains in Philadelphia/Poconos.     (Our very wonderful daughter decided she could be an athlete, too, and does tris and marathons.  She isn't at the level of her brother, but she's gotten so much out of it.  She's here on RA (kmays). )

I

RK - any parental DNA or tri-history behind tri-son’s interest and excellence in the longer distances? Has he always been so highly competitive?  What’re his usual half and marathon times? Any parent/son tri’s yet? Any IM’s planned? Good luck, especially if he can still be doing them in 2057 for 40 years from now as in our running too.

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You tri too.

Having done the same since 1978, I’m in perpetual awe at the lead swimmers (usually when they lap me) churning through the water like eggbeaters for arms and keeping up the same cadences on the bike and run.

However, growing up southeast of erika-land in the days of no swimming pools (or non-heated ones, if any) and being the worst swimmer often barely beating the swim cut-offs in the IM distances with the pathetically-struggling sidestoke I need for the longer distances, I am even sorrier that more runners don’t take advantage of the cross-training opportunity provided by triathlons and, at least, get into neighborhood and local ones with no swim cut-off time and then enjoy cycling on already-strong quads and running shape to power past hundreds of less-experienced runners worn out by the first two lets just when we’re getting rejuvenated.

 

For example, especially with well-managed swim-bike/bike-run transitions, even being the slowest swimmer in the quarter-mile swim of super-sprint tri’s (about three blocks long) and sidestroking 6-10 minutes or backstroking/dog-paddling 15 minutes behind the super-swimmers’ six-,minute sprints, provides plenty of time to revel in passing hundreds, sometimes, more than a thousand, of the faster swimmer elites.

 

ps henry - during a recent check-up, the doc said that, unless a person is extremely healthy, they do not recommend a colonoscopy after age 75 or 80. good job!