went to sleep in dallas and woke up in colorado

So went to sleep last night with it been snowing all day, just to make up and see that apparently it kept on snowing for some time.

yip.12.5" of snow. the worst snow fall dallas has had in the 111 years of data collection. I know for sure, i have been here for 5 years and the worst / best ive seen here is like 2 inches before today.

Other than that, its been a slow training week. Ive been pretty busy with work and baby. Kiera has kinda wanted more attention this week. we are looking into a mommy's day out that some of the churches offer in the area. They take them from 9-2 two days a week which would give me some much needed work time.

I am thinking about changing my 70.3 race date from june 27 to may 16th. ( lubbock, buffalo springs lake ) to IM 70.3 florida which is at disney world. My wife has no interest in going to lubbock texas for a weekend and we have a few friends in orlando and surrounding areas so we could turn that into a week long family trip.

I am pretty comfortable with the swim and bike distance, i just need to get my run going. I am up to 5 miles and am pushing it up slowly, going to 5.5 this sunday. i know i can run further than that but need to look after the knee, you know.

REALLY TOUGH WEEKEND

super tough weekend. friday was my rest day, that was pretty easy as it was also my birthday. But saturday was showtime as i had been telling people i was doing my b fit birthday challenge. if you don't know as i was turning 33 and i was brave, i was doing the gold challenge. That meant i would be doing a 3000 yard swim, 30 mile bike ride and then a 3 mile run. As my longest race distance prior to this weekend was a sprint triathlon ( 800m swim, 25 mile bike & 3.1 mile run ) i was well aware that this challenge was going to push me to my limits. But as i am training for a 70.3 i felt that it would be a good benchmark as to where i was currently in my fitness.

I had also managed to rope in a few friends who are also training for their own 70.3 events this year.  One of the major problems for the day was that it was only 40 degrees outside ( Training Payne is saying in his head, what 40 degrees, thats a day at the beach for us canadians ) with a wind chill that was brining it closer to freezing. This was always meant to be a casual event but when you get a few guys together there is a lot of testosterone flying around and we had a great time.

So anyway, 9:30 came around and we met at the local gym and started swimming. we were swimming in a 25 yard pool so i decided to do 6x500's as it would be easier to keep count of the laps. Daryl decided to do 3x1000's as he is an ironman canada finisher and a seasoned swimmer. ( he was doing flip turns and everything in his swim ) jim, who is pretty new to triathlons, just like me just tried to keep up with me, but as he doesnt have a history of swimming like me, fell behind and i would overtake him once or twice in every 500 yards. i averaged about 7:50 for every 500 i did.

we were in the water for about 55 minutes including breaks. jumped out, got dressed and headed to our cars to get changed again and head out on our freezing cold ride. It took us 1hr:42mins to get the bike ride done, which i felt on a hilly course and with traffic lights was a pretty good effort. We also waited at the top of a few hills for Daryl as he is 203 lbs and it takes him a while to get up hills. I drafted him down the hills as he could go faster than i could.

Daryl bailed on us for the run but a tired jim and i soldiered on and did the 3 miles at a pace of 8 mins to finish in 25 mins.

It was a really tough run and with a combined time of a little over 3 hours was by far the longest combined event i had ever attempted and i think it was a good eye opener into my 70.3 in june. One thing i did realize is that the 7 hours a week i am currently training might not be enough and i might have to bump it up a bit.

so with that in mind sunday came a long and i went out for my long run. i did 5 miles in 38:52 which is a bout a 7:45 pace and i was really happy with that as well.

My knee was taking a bit of strain this morning as i might of overdone it a little so i decided to take the day off today as well just as a precaution and i will make it up over the rest of the week.

Oh, i almost forgot, so i tried an ice bath for the first time on saturday afternoon after my 3 hours challenge and it was freeeeeeeezing. i am very sad to say though, that i think it worked as my legs felt pretty good on sunday during my long run which means i will probably have to keep on jumping in the cold bath in the future. for those who are planning on doing it, i have one line of advice, cup your balls. its the only way man.

Multimedia message

Takes his hat off to all the woman of the world that have been taking care of the kids at home for centuries, on top of that trying to run a business, tough stuff

World cup soccer 2010, i miss my hometown

Got my first sale

So some of you might know ive become a big fan of Rocktape Kinesiology tape. So big a fan in fact i have started selling the stuff to make some extra money so that one day i can maybe send my daughter to daycare.

The big news is that i have already signed my first customer and yesterday they put in an order for 30 rolls. The customer just happens to be a little bike store called Bike Mart, or also known as Richardson bike mart. I have added a history of events of RBM and you might notice a name or two in their list of achievements like someone called LANCE, yip lance armstrong started his career at Bike Mart. its a pretty big deal.

Richardson Bike Mart History

• 1962 Founder Mike Hall starts Bike Mart while in school.
• 1962-1974 Ray Burkett manages the Bike Mart in Dal-Rich Shopping Center.
  
  
• 1966 Richardson Bicycle Touring club started, later to become Greater Dallas Bicyclists.
  
• 1974 Bike sales boom in the United States; 15 million bicycles sold across country.
  
• 1974-1980 Ray Burkett manages the Bike Mart location on LBJ Freeway.
• 1975 RBM has five stores in the Metroplex. 
• 1979 Bad year for the bike industry, but Bike Mart survives. 
• 1980 Jim Hoyt purchases Bike Mart and changes name to Richardson Bike Mart. 
• 1981 "A few good men and a can-do spirit" is adopted as the new slogan; all that has changed is that we now have a few good women as well. 
• 1981 RBM starts sponsoring bicycle rallies and continues to do so year after year
• 1982 RBM puts 50 percent of marketing budget into the bicycle community and continues to do so. 
• 1983 Matrix race team is started. 
• 1983 RBM supports BMX with its first team. 
• 1984 Matrix Team is turned into a club. 
• 1985 SABAR Triathlon club is started.
• 1986 RBM sponsors Mirage Cycling Club. 
• 1987 RBM sponsors Dallas' Triple Crown series. 
• 1987 Lance Armstrong starts bike racing career with RBM.
• 1987 RBM expands and opens a 2nd location in Dallas on July 4.
• 1989 Double Dates tandem club is started. 
• 1990 RBM sponsors the Texas Bicycle Coalition in Austin. 
• 1994 RBM sponsors "Dirt Project" mountain team. 
• 1997 RBM sponsors MH Factory National BMX Team. 
• 1997 United States bicycle sales drop to only 3.5 million annually. 
• 1997 Sponsorship of RBM BMX Team begins. 
• 1998 Move into new location takes place after 36 years. 
• 1999 Former Matrix team member, Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France. 
• 2000 Lance Armstrong wins 2nd Tour de France. Team Dirt Project dominates Texas Mountain bike racing.
• 2001 Lance Armstrong wins 3rd consecutive Tour de France.
• 2002 Lance Armstrong wins 4th consecutive Tour de France. Team RBM/Trek/VW Regional Elite Road Team dominates Texas-area racing.
• 2003 Team BikeMart.com was the top fund raiser for the MS 150 Red River Challenge. RBM has been participating in the MS 150 since 1982.
• 2003 Lance Armstrong wins 5th consecutive Tour de France.
• 2004 January 28, RBM opens its third location in Frisco, TX.
• 2004 Lance Armstrong wins a record 6th consecutive Tour de France.
• 2005 Lance Armstrong's U. S. Postal Team becomes Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.
• 2005 The owners of RBM, Jim and Rhonda Hoyt, will attend the Tour de France for the 7th consecutive year and ride portions of every stage of the tour route.
• 2005 Lance Armstrong wins a record 7 Tours and announces his retirement.
• 2005 The Richardson store adds 8,500 square feet for clothing, shoes and accessories.
• 2005 Lance Armstrong set a record. So did we. RBM had record sales in 2005.
• 2005 Another local rider comes through RBM and gets on a professional cycling team. 23 year old Patrick McCartey is on Team Phonak (Switzerland) for the 2006 season.
• 2006 A record sales year for RBM.
• 2007 With support from RBM, McKinney Velo Club (MVC) is started.
• 2008 Although many parts of the country are in a recession, business at the Bike Mart remains strong.
• 2008 A record year for Team Bike Mart(TBM) at the MS 150. TBM is now known as "The Million Team."

Check out my website at http://www.cricketstoreonline.com/categories/ROCKTAPE/ and see if Rocktape could help you out in your triathlon, cycling and running endeavours. If you have 70.3 , marathon or 140.6 coming up this year, i would really have a look.