The end of the triathlon season for me is less than four weeks out, with one prep race, Savageman, this coming weekend.  For those that have not heard of Savageman, it’s pretty frickin’ sick.  Feel free to google Savageman bike or Westport Wall.  You will see videos of people attempting the steepest portion of the bike.  It should be interesting with Bjorn winning last year in 4:41 (2:36 on bike), 2:45 is a SOLID bike split.  I doubt I will see below 4:30 on this course, but look forward to the challenge of a good hard day in prep for Kona.  This race is relatively low key, but the race director and I have about a dozen mutual acquaintances and he is rolling out the red carpet for myself, as well as the few pros showing up, it’s a classy move in my opinion.  Feel free to check out things over the weekend as the RD is tweeting at

Tweets by savagemantri

This weekend is gonna start out awesomely when I arrive in the DC/Maryland area and spend my first night in Annapolis since January.  I can’t wait for these weeks when I get to hangout on the yard to coach and train with the mids. The year for the mids has officially begun and they have already done some serious damage.   At Nations Triathlon (www.nationstriatlon.com for results) this past weekend, they placed three men in the top 12 and three women in the top 30, not bad considering there were around 2400 men and 1400 women.  Most importantly, they won in a weirdly scored competition against the other service academies.  Actually, I can’t tell how they scored it.  However, when your team puts three men and three women across the finish line before any other service academy, the Navy calls that domination.   The year is young, and there are eight newbies to add to the roster and get spun up and ready for Collegiate Nationals in April.  I won’t say Navy is going to repeat as champs, but they have the talent coming into this coming year to do pretty darn well.

I would be remiss to note, the wife is on the rampage.  Two weeks ago she conquered her fifth ironman at Louisville and went 11:24, consistency is her calling card.  She had a decent day, considering all the craziness that has gone with our year (our wedding, friends’ weddings, dealing with my racing and coaching travel), she put together a solid day.  However, the rampage is ongoing as she went to Harvest Moon Halfiron and did the aqua bike (23 min swim- me think the swim was short! and about a 2:42 bike).  Her rampage will continue in two weeks when she teams up with some other Boulder ladies and does 24 hours of triathlon.  Yes, Lara is a glutton for punishment, but I would not have married a woman who would do any less.

For those concerned about Bogart he is up to frickin’ 60 lbs!  He enjoyed the end of the summer swimming around Boulder’s outdoor 50m pool.  He has also made a new best friend, actual his cousin or foster brother- same breeder different litter, lives near JZ.  So now, I think Bogart truly enjoys visiting Auntie JZ, more than being at home, where he learns new tricks (JZ, is an excellent dog trainer) and  seeing his friend Bennette.

I will post more, after Savageman and before Kona.

Enjoy some recent photos.

later,

billy

 My two bestest friends: Meg, since 1st grade, and Shawn  the groom, since 2nd grade.  All married now, Meg, time to plan where we are taking ourselves and our other halves next year!

Seriously, I think she is going to leave me for Bogart.

At Shawn’s wedding, as a groomsman… I hate to brag, but look at my woman!

Lara doing her thing, a 4:04 marathon in Louisville, Steady Eddy!

 At Cracker Barrel, as their skinniest customer, I am pretty sure I am the only one that ever fit in one of these rockers.