Triathlon Time

So Jamie and I are doing the St. George Triathlon May 10th, just over a week away, and we are nervous and excited. We did our first sprint triathlon at Camp Pendleton last year and had fun so we decided to do a longer distance one this year. This involves a lot of training compared to last time when I made it to the pool once and ran a little and called it good. This time is much different, mile long swims and 35 mile bike rides to train. Friends from here are competing along with a brother from Utah, two other brothers are coming to hang out and cheer us on, it should be tons of fun.


Things I've learned from training for this triathlon:
1. My wife is competitive and it feels like I'm already racing her each time we swim.
2. I've learned to swim, that is a huge accomplishment on my part, not well but I've learned.
3. Padding sewn into bike shorts can never be too thick.
4. Bike shorts cost way too much.
5. Bike shorts are way too ugly.
5. Bike maintenance is very important. I learned the hard way from a tire blow out and a few rolls on asphalt at 20 mph. I should have taken pictures of the damage.

6. A thin layer of polyester is no match for asphalt.
7. Amazing how you worry about how many people see you crash versus worrying about bodily harm.
8. Water drains from my nose for hours after swimming, is that normal? (thats more of an observation)
9. Pizza is never a good meal before a long swim.
10. New shoes feel so much newer if your old ones were nearing their third birthday.
11. Guzzling propel during a long ride always makes me want to puke.
12. You can buy a carbon fiber seat post for $130....?!?! $130 for 12 inches of PIPE!
13. Polarized sunglasses are nice.
14. The farther your mouth is opened while riding, the further the bugs make it down your throat.

At least this time I'll be on a real bike (pictured above) my favorite christmas present from my in-laws. This is a ride coming back from my Laguna Beach route. PCH has some great views for biking. I hope training at sea level doesn't kill us.

For better or for worse.

In the past week I've been told that I look like the following three gentleman, I'd like to take that as a compliment-just because they are famous, but my ego was quickly trimmed down to size when a family friend and his wife told me I looked like the third guy and immediately Jamie started laughing. So do you know who they are? Name all three to win.

What I've been up to this week!

I've been in at my sister's house visiting since Tuesday and I'm loving it! We've shopped a ton, eaten PLENTY, played rock band, went shooting (it's the Midwest), watched movies and basically just have hung out everyday. I'm here until Thursday and I'll be sad when the time comes for me to leave (although it will be nice to be back in warmer weather). Above are two of my favorite pictures (bummer the top one isn't in focus tho). I'll post more pictures of my trip when I get home.

Do Not Feed The Animals

A Collage of recently snapped animals. Wish I could get a shot of the owl outside my window at night, or the roadrunners I see around here on occasion.

Canon Photo Stitch is a cinch.

I've taken multiple panoramic shots before and stitched them manually in photoshop, sometimes its easy, other times it is a long process. I finally decided to get out my Canon Photo Stitch software and give it a try. As you can see the results of 7 photos I took while at the top of the St. Louis arch turned out pretty good. I still did some color matching afterwards in photoshop, but it was much faster than me doing it manually. (I couldn't get a correct curve on in the sky doing it manually) If you look close "I" can find imperfections cause I know where to look, but overall its something I will be using again.

Which one is more white trash?

My sister has finally sent the super nasty shots of my beard. Vote for the worst. I got a hair cut that day and went shopping in Rocklin with the mustache on the right, it was awesome to see how people looked at me. I looked like a fool.





Here is another shot my sister took of us while I looked like a mountain man. It could be a wedding announcement photo, even though that was three years ago. These are the only shots, other than our wedding, that we could say were taken by someone that knew what they were doing, I guess that statement is debatable for our wedding photographer though.