Ignore that last week...

You know, the one where I didn't post for a week? Shame on me.

I didn't do anything overly exciting last week. Had my VO2 Max test done, and thats about it.

Over the weekend, I went to Deep Creek Lake, MD to compete in a relay for the Savageman Half Iron. I drove over on Friday evening, arriving around 8:30. Since our team has close connections with Kyle Yost (Sadist himself who created this monster of a course), I went over to his house and had some dinner, made smores, and generally just relaxed. Saturday a group of us rode the Oly course. Brennimen road is tough, to say the least. .4 miles or so, around a 23% grade in spots. I'm not a magnificent hill climber as it is, and this one hurt. There are some very fun descents along the course, however some are a bit technical. One particular decent ended with a 90 degree turn (I was riding the brakes going around 35), which then goes into a 15-20% pitch back up hill. There were 4 of my teammates ahead of me. Frank, who had taken the lead down the hill, forgot to close his front brakes. He knew he wouldn't make the turn, so he picks the woods on the other side of the road, flips over a rock, and lands soundly on the ground. I didn't see him go over; however Kerry (next down the hill) and another girl ran into the woods to see if he was okay. Damon, who was infront of me, yells back "Was that Kerry?" I hear "Is that a bear?", look up, and see a bunch of rustling in the wood. I turn the corner, go 20 feet up the hill, and unclip to see why we were stopping if there's a bear in the woods. As I look down the hill, I see Kerry and Kitty running out of the woods like crazy people, waving their arms frantically. Then Frank comes running out, doing much of the same dance, only with his bike strewn over his shoulder. I come to find out, Frank landed directly below a hornets nest in the woods. Apparently, hornets do NOT like to have a 200# guy slam into their tree at high rates of speed. Kerry and Frank ended up with stings, and frank a few scratches, flat tire, and untrue front wheel. Things could have been much worse (there could have been a bear...). We continued our ride, headed back to the houses and went to packet pickup. Enjoyed a nice dinner out, and hung out for a while before heading to bed.

Deep Creek has become notorious for its fog. The race was delayed for 30 minutes to allow some more fog to burn off, but it wasn't happening. Unfortunatly, there was a misdirected kayaker on the course, who told the pro's to turn when they still had one more buoy left to go. Shattered my hopes of beating a pro in the swim. I finished my swim around 37 min, which was about 5 minutes over what I expected. Not sure if I was having an off day due to sighting, or if the course was long. A few others felt that the course was long too. I ran up the steep hill and steps to transition, and passed off my chip to Will, who smoked the bike course. Meanwhile, my teammate Es and I dressed up like angels (to compliment the devils on top of Savage Mountain) and headed up to Killer Miller. With a bottle of rum. Needless to say, 1/3 bottle of rum after not really drinking much anymore is not good. Nor is going back to the team tents and shotgunning a few beers (classy, I know). Ended up being quite a mess, and called it a day around 7pm when I went to bed. Lessons learned, and I'm going back to not drinking anymore. I'm sure I'll have a glass of wine at christmas, a glass of champagne at new years, and maybe a post-marathon drink in February, but that is most likely it. Sunday ranks as not one of my proudest moments.

The next two weeks will be short recovery runs and rides, maybe a few swims. I'm going on vacation next week, which I am looking forward. I need to get some things straightened out in life, and so far I have not had the time.

I'll try to find some pictures from Deep Creek to post later.