So Let It Be Said, So Let It Be Done

Alright, I'm gonna get the training part of this blog out of the way because we have a side story to concentrate on...Monday, I decided to get some mileage on my road bike since I haven't been on it for a while, and I could feel it. I was actually struggling to keep my speed over 20mph consistently...I did sprints of up to 24mph, but my legs were weak. I need to get back to my bike training--I've been doing a lot of running as of late. Went for 12 miles and then called it a day. It was cold that day and it was just me and that Southern Elite guy I always see there, with the Subary WRX. I remember him from a training ride where we blew up the field and then he just kept on accelerating and took care of the rest of us. That was just wrong. He is obviously Cat 1 or 2. Someday I will be that ass destroying the paceline by going 30mph.





Tuesday was HART training and it was a tough one. It was a strength session where we ran to the pullup bars and started with 3 sets of 10. Again, I could barely do 2 in a row a year ago. Then we did sprints, planks, and pushups in circuits. We finished up the session with drills on the horizontal bars, the usual going over, then under, then over and going across without touching the ground. My arms are still sore from that day. My speed conditioning is also faltering as I was struggling to keep up a fast clip on the runs. Either that or my legs are still a little mush from the 18mi run on Saturday...man, I can't believe its already been a week! I'm not ready for my next long run of 20mi...not even sure if I'll be able to get it in since I'll be heading to the Spoke this weekend.





Wednesday I took the day off and did some work on Xmas stuff. I did drive to the Fruit loop with my road bike, but Jaunda called me just as I was about to hop on my bike. I had to pick up part of Caroline's gift from her that night. So I packed everything back up and jetted downtown to Sake Lounge for the drop. It was funny because I just did a drive by and Jaunda ran out of the restaurant with this bag that dwarfed her...apparently she can fit in it. Scary.





Thursday, I went to the park early and knocked out an hour of trail riding. Man, its either the bike or I just forgot how it feels to ride fast...there were times where I really felt like the bike was going fast on its own...like it wants to go fast! I pretty much did all the trails except for the triangle--I just ran out of time and daylight. About 10mi. I said hi to the strong few people who came to practice and then headed to Caroline's party down in Clear Lake...





Which leads me to the main subject of this blog. So, we went through with it. In the 11th hour, Ross was starting to toss up smoke screens and was seriously doubting that he would go through with it. Even when we were at the tattoo place and he was in the chair, he had to make the final decision. It was a go. We went right after Caroline opened her gifts, which were mostly for her new pup, Lulu (it was partly a "dog shower"). To help out with our confidence, Andrea went first with her daisy. It was cute. Then I was the last one since it took the longest--about an hour while theirs took about 10mins each. Man, that hurt, but the pain was managable. Actually, getting my teeth cleaned hurt more than that. I'm really pumped about it right now--it turned out great! Jaunda and Cynthia accompanied us for moral support. Afterwards, we came back to Caroline's party to show off our new ink and then we finally ended up at a Waffle House because, apparently, getting a tattoo or watching someone get a tattoo makes you really hungry. It was a really fun night. The Tattoo Crew--in a nice coincidence, the ones who got the tats that night also raced together at USARA sprint championships last year. Too funny. I'll post a few pics from last night--any of the Tattoo Crew can let me know if they rather me take the photos down. Unfortunately Nick was on the boat, so he couldn't participate. But we did update him throughout the night and we even pix messaged him.

Well, that's all I got. Until my next tattoo....