By Proxy Famous?

8:30 am

I'm realizing it's hard to write this post when I'm playing XBox 'Gears of War' with my good friend who's in Hong Kong. Yep the same friend, Bones, who let me drive his car. His brother and I are drinking coffee at 8 am he's havin a beer at 9pm...weird. The next best thing to seeing him in person is digitally killing him, and that's fun. Really fun. Now how do I talk the Mama into xbox 360 budget item?

7:00 pm

Had a slight brush with my own fame last night. Trimama and I are just leaving the store when a guy speaks up behind us,

"Nice Job"

"Excuse me?"

"Nice job on your Ironman!"

Oh that's right, Mama is wearing her finisher coat (which makes her look especially hot). Turns out he's a budding triathlete who's trying to decide between Wisconsin and Florida for doing his first Ironman next year. Great guy, may even join our local tri club! During our conversation we told him to look at the utube video called Tri Geek Dreams Ironman Florida,

"Oh yea...I saw that! It was awesome, I just realized your the girl in the video!"

So Tac Boy has officially been recognized by proxy of Trimama's accomplishments....I'l take it.

That reminds me, any of you Wildflower people that have a video camera, please bring it and shamelessly film everything! I want to put together a movie of the weekend, and need as much material as possible!! I tried to rent a good camera, but quite pricy (450.00) for the weekend.

Went for a delightful 11 mile run today. Got 4000 yards in the morning followed by 3.5 hour ride in the afternoon. Hopefully will ride outside, but it's supposed to be raining and 50, so will see.

Oh, yes and have something very exciting to announce over at Trimama's sight tomorrow. VERY cool.

Tac Out

Yikes

5 weeks to Wildflower.

Ahhhhh.

Tac

For my friend...

I have a close friend who had a really rough day today, so this is for him.

When I counted up my demons
saw there was one for every day
with the good ones on my shoulders
I drove the other ones away.

So if you ever feel neglected
If you think that all is lost
I'll be counting up my demons
Hoping everything's not lost.

Everything's not lost
Come on, yea, everything's not lost...

Everything's not lost-Coldplay


“You will never know how much you believe something until it is a matter of life and death.” “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.” – God in the Dock, C.S Lewis

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
C. S. Lewis

May you find peace brother,

Tac

More Random thoughts...

First off, I have to say that those of you who can blog regularly and with great volume I admire. Not naming anyone, but some of you write so much that I can't believe how quickly the words must fly off your finger tips! I'm not a great writer, nor a lengthy writer. Heck, look at how many YouTube video's I employ! I need to read more. I am definitely making uber literacy my goal this year because I think reading would help me communicate better for both my business and my blog.

Six weeks and counting to Wildflower! Holy Crap. I have no idea if I'm ready. How can you truly know if your ready for a distance that you never done before. I look to Trimama's previous seasons and other bloggers to gauge where I am, but in reality my readiness is my own. I think I'll be fine. Just give me lots of carbo drinks, salt tablets, water and gel packs. :)

Trimama is officially a personal trainer now. She passed her test yesterday. Yea! Man am I glad I married rich. So that P3 looks really good now dear...Oh you had plans for the piles of dough you'll be bringing in...shoot.

Props go out to Spence for her Super hero design of Taconite Boy. If your suspecting that I basically ripped off Kahuna's character and added a cape and hard hat, finger to nose and back, your correct. But Hey were operating on limited budget here. So If I am the tri-blogshere's first and only super hero. I need super powers, I need super gadgets, and I need a super lair/love nest. Oh yea baby I'm needing it all and I need your help. Looking for the basic ideas and then I think there going to a vote (thanks for the vote/website TriDumbster). It's limitless. Spiderman has spidy sense, I have transition sense whereby I always know where the he-- I racked my d--n bike! Looking for the ideas, maybe prizes (really cheap ones) could be awarded ;)


Tac out

P.S. Trimama and I are riding Saturday at 2:00. Meeting at Mtka Community center come join us for a 2-3 hour ride! Whohoo for Spring!

Tri Dummy-Dont read this.

So I mentioned in my last post that our local tri club is a blast. Alot of the Gear West clubsters are also bloggers, these include the likes of Iron Jenny, IronGirlNyhus, Chivalry Chris, Marz Racer, Iron Nick, Trimama and of couse ME :) As a group, we really are blessed with a bunch of welcoming, gracious and adventurous people. I'm quite grateful to be part of this extended tri-family!

Which of couse brings me to poor Tri Dummy, who wrote this in my comment section Friday...

The more stuff your tri-club does together the more I wanna move there.

Tac-Nastee, you're making me COVET your tri-club.

(tri-dummy is now rolling all over the ground kicking and screaming)

I wanna move to the Twin Cities!
I wanna move to the Twin Cities!
I wanna move to the Twin Cities!
I wanna move to the Twin Cities!

So Tri Dumbtastic, you probably don't want to hear about how the 10 of us got together for a 3 hour group spin/run off Saturday morning followed by a delicious egg bake. We watched various rocking Ironman video's (Desiree Ficker-mmmmmm), chatted and generally had a great time.

Kinda like this...



You also probably didn't wanna hear about the Saint Patti's day celebration our tri club had that night that went a little like this...


and this....


and this...


O.K. I won't tell you about it then.


Tac out

Iiiii Lads and Lassies, happy Saint Patti's weekend to ya!

McIlveen. It's my mom's maiden name. Her dad was a firey red haired Irishman who immigrated in the late 1800's. I dont get to act like a Irishman, I am one and that makes me happy.

Our tri club goes on rides every wednesday night in the summer and we always end up at Kip's Irish Pub. Good hard ride finished off with a pint of Guiness, Iiiii..nothing better. So enjoy the weekend and raise a pint for your favorite Irishman/woman!

I love that photo. This is the split rock lighthouse about 45 min. north of Duluth. Hypen-Girl (oops) and I spent the afternoon hiking around the park area exploring. It was fun, except the whole stepping on snow that would randomly hold you up, then for fun would let you sink on various steps. Let's just say my legs did'nt need the work out!

GOT TO RIDE OUTSIDE! Trust me, for the Minnesotans, mid-March rides are quite the event. The mama and I went for about 45 minutes last night, it was awesome to just not be on the trainer. I have a big ride this weekend, so if any of my Minne-so-cold bloggers wanna adventure out with me on Saturday/Sunday afternoon, just let me know.

Commencing in a sorta Tri Whine...

I'm freaking tired. Napping everyday now. Work has been physically really demanding recently, combined with the workouts, I just seem to lack both physical and emotional energy. These are the weeks when I really have to be careful that the training is not supplanting my role as dad and husband. Trimama seems to indicate that the family barometer is good, but she and I both know there have been some rough spots lately. I need to relax from how closely I follow my plan, and make sure I take into account the kind of physical days work is presenting me. The journey continues to Iron, but the path always seems a little hazy.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of bad tri priorities, but Chopper is sitting across from me right now, counting his money again. He has a big pile of quarters,dimes and nickel's that he has been earning over that past 4-5 months. I think were working toward a certain lego set. Anyhow, Chopper counts it about once a day. Oh boy, might have a Silas Marner on my hands. Well if an orphan shows up at our doorstep, Chop can share his room with him/her.

Thanks for the comments on the nutrition problems. I think I going to try some different nutrition for my long bike this weekend. HEED is probably going to be the new energy fuel of choice for me. We'll see.

Tac Out!

Greetings from Gitche Gumme!

Hypen-girl and I traversed north to Duluth this weekend. Reason? Daughter/Father relational interface time...and we both like Jars of Clay, whom we watched play last night! This was my 5th time seeing them. They are a wonderfully poetic alternative/pop band whose music always speaks to my soul.

Hypen-girl enjoyed the warm-up band even more. I know it was because of their multi-talented music skills and word-smith like lyrics....or because they were "hawt". Yes, that was a quote. (Aside, notice how I quote the word "hawt" whereas Kahuna acutally writes and uses the term when speaking...just a husband of the OC observation) They were really good entertainers though, I think we may be adding them to the Itunes library soon.

Big training week. Lots o swimming and running. I had my first 4 hour spin, followed by a run off the bike. Followed that the next day with a swim and 1 hr. run. I am wondering if any one experiences sick stomach symptoms when moving into more endurance length work outs? My stomach has been consistently feeling really odd after these larger workouts. If you do respond, please hold back intimate details :)

More pics and I gotta get around to super hero discussion time soon! I'm thinking if wonder woman had this...





Then the tac-mobile has to have invisible features for drafting...draft legal races only of course)

Tac out!

Nice

I just got up and it's 4:00 am. Going to the pool for, according to my plan, a "key" swim/run brick. Trimama walks in to the kitchen and I ask her some quick work questions.

"can we talk about this later...I'm already an Ironman...I'm going back to bed."

Ouch....and Nice

Starting to feel it.

Wow, I've not posted in awhile. Just enjoyed Trimama's synopsis of her road to Ironman over at Tri-Dummy's sight. I was surprised by how many events that I'd forgotten about regarding her tri-career. You know... waaayyy back when-23 months ago.

Starting to feel it. Starting to feel the strength that comes form 7-14 hours of training a week. I had the unique experience of using a friends Compu-Trainer this Saturday(Thanks Steve!). Saaawwweeet. I was able to bike the Wildflower course for almost 3 hours and I started to feel it. The similar feeling that Iron Kahuna was talking about. That sense your legs can maintain the cadence you want, or that on the 3400 yard swim I did today, my 100 splits are starting to drop. It's comforting, but not reassuring. Wildflower is traditionally hot and Wildflower is hilly. Neither of these things are easy to replicate in Minnesota, in early March. In fact if you live here long enough, I swear you develop a mental disorder. I've been watching the 3 foot snow drifts melt today, counting the days until I get that bike outside. I'm just glad I'm starting to feel the strength that is the benefit of all this training.

Speaking of disorder...




Yep. That's two of my kids and some neighbor boy (it must be his influence) who have pasted barbie to the tree and are 'snow torturing' her. Like I said, the weather tends to promote psychological disorders and deviance. Oh well...spring cometh.


Took the red Felt machine into the bike shop on Saturday and asked if I need to have a tune up done. When the mechanic checked my chain with some 'chain checking du=hickey', he looked at me and just asked, "how many miles are on this chain".

As the total lunk head regarding bike maintenance that I am, I sheepishly stated,"Too many?" Followed by nervous laughter. By me, not him.

Yep needed a new chain, she was looser then a Florida Hooters waitress around the Kahuna. In fact, so distraught was my chain that she took it out on my cassette as well. Now with my new training wheels, flashpoint wheels (yes, that I stole from Trimama) new cassette and a thorough tune up, rookie red is startin to feel it too.

Upcoming post.

Superhero discussion time.

Tac out...and feelin it.