Rain, Rain go away ...

So much for my long ride this morning!

The alarm went off at 6am and I jumped out of bed ready to drive down to the country roads and enjoy the solitude of a nice 75-mile Sunday morning ride.  First thought was that it is still very dark outside for 6am? Hmmm.  Then I went upstairs to wake up the pugs for the morning walk.  We stepped outside and it was overcast with that smell that is an indication of rain.  Crap.  Went to weather.com and saw that some nasty thunderstorms were on the way and supposed to be here for most of the day.  I guess my 75 mile outdoor ride is now going to turn into as much as I can tolerate on the trainer.  I did 2.5 hours on the trainer yesterday evening and am not sure how much more I can withstand. We shall see!!!

PUSH UP CHALLENGE UPDATE:  We should all be finishing up Week 4 and getting prepared for Week 5 (almost done everyone).  You are supposed to do another exhaustion test to see where you rank for the Week 5 chart so get to it guys!  Maybe this exhaustion test will uncover a couple of more 100 Push Up members!  I will post up the Week 5 Schedule first thing tomorrow morning so it will be easy to follow for the rest of the week.

Sunday Morning Ramblings:

• All is not lost because I have already put 140 miles on my bike this week.  I'll miss my goal of 200 miles this week but my training plan only called for about 80 miles so I smashed that.

• Speaking of LOST, only 5 hours left until this show ends forever and it is all starting to come together.  Well, not really but it is at the least extremely entertaining and I cannot wait to see how they wrap this sucker up or if it is even possible to wrap this sucker up!

• As most of my readers know I grew up in the Pittsburgh area and am a HUGE fan of Pittsburgh Sports (yes, even the Pirates).  As a Pittsburgher I have always had a huge sense of pride with the way the Steelers represent the spirit and character of the city.  Just like Pittsburgh, the Steelers have always had a blue collar, lunch pail type of image that blends perfectly with the attitude of the area's residents.  I have lived in many different cities and the Pride that is felt from the Steelers by the city of Pittsburgh is like nothing I have seen anywhere else, (Cleveland is close) it actually transcends the game. Ben Roethlisberger is a remarkable football talent and is one of the main reasons the franchise has 6 Lombardi Trophies instead of just 4.  This football team is a Super Bowl contender every year with him under center.  With that being said, I would like to see nothing more then him traded or outright released as soon as possible.  He could throw for 500 yards a week and lead the Steelers to another Super Bowl and I will not cheer for him.  Never again.  His actions are that of an arrogant, entitled, elitist asshole that has no place on this proud franchise.  When you are the face of the most popular sports franchise of the most popular sports league you have certain expectations that are expected of you outside of the football field. Not only has he not lived up anywhere close to these expectations,  his failure as a human being is so epic that many in Steeler Nation feel the same way as I do and we would rather lose with pride than win with Ben. 

• I feel much better getting that off my chest and articulated on the interweb.

• My older Pug, Ernie, is now 10 years old and is starting to have trouble going up and down the steps.  I seem to be carrying him around a lot lately. He seems to like that!

Carry me please!

• Thanks to all of you for your comments on my last post about being a little Tired.  Just to be clear, my body is feeling wonderful and the triathlete lifestyle is incredibly enjoyable and rewarding.  My so called fatigue is more from following a structured training plan every single day and I am mentally exhausted from that aspect.  So when I am done with Saturday's Oly Triathlon my rest is going to be from a training plan and not from working out.  Hence, enter some P90X and Insanity workouts.  I am just going to wake up every day and do whatever physical activity I feel like doing until the HIM Training Plan begins (June 21st).

• I am seriously considering acquiring a CompuTrainer.  I found one on ebay that was a few years old but it got sniped out from under me.  The reason for kicking around the idea of training with a CT is that training with power really intrigues me.  I have read many articles about PowerTaps and training with wattage and think I could really benefit from this type of data.  I am a data junkie and keep stats for everything I do training-wise.  According to many a Pro Triathlete a CT is one of the best training instruments available to us and the results attained from its usage are track-able and quantifiable.  The problems is that I have the money saved but my wife wants a new mattress and bedroom furniture.  Got to figure out a compromise!  Ray over at DC Rainmaker did an excellent review (here) of a CT and also helped me over email with a few questions -- Thanks Ray!

• I spent the last 3 days at a convention in Downtown Houston and am pretty darn worn out from it.  This week of training is a much needed taper week before my race on Saturday and I plan on following it as closely as possible.

Have a great week everyone!

Jeff