Readin' some Lance

I've been reading Lance Armstrong's autobiographies lately. I've never known exactly what to say when people ask why I run so much. Running is usually 90% miserable, so if I say, "I like it," I feel like I'm lying. I came across this quote yesterday and thought from now on I'll just adopt his words.

"The experience of suffering is like the experience of exploring, of finding something unexpected and revelatory. When you find the outermost thresholds of pain, or fear, or uncertainty, what you experience afterward is an expansive feeling, a widening of your capabilities." -Lance

Spandex cures most things

We had our own little testimony meeting on Sunday before we left AZ to come back to Provo. One of the girls expressed gratitude for being with the Tri Club--she vanquished loneliness by wearing spandex at 5:30 a.m. to train. I feel like we could all use more spandex.

So, let's talk about the swim for a bit. You know when you jump into cold water and you feel your lungs collapsing? Yeah, so do I. So, I couldn't breathe and resorted to breaststroke for 200m or so. Eventually, my lungs began to fully inflate, I caught my freestyle rhythm, and made up some ground. Next time I suppose I'll respect the stremf of arctic hydrogen dioxide before I get rocked. Felt like my lungs were the size of clementines.

Getting out of the water wasn't any easier than getting in. I was DIZZY. I had much trouble getting over to my bike. I really wish this could have been filmed. I was staggering like an MSU student on St. Patty's. I couldn't even kneel upright to get my wetsuit off. I kept toppling over. I just kicked out my last leg, grabbed some stuff, and hopped on my Felt. I checked my inventory, and well... Forgot my shot bloks. I still feel brand new to cycling, so I knew this would be bad. The bike course is rolly with a couple huge hills. I crapped out with ~5 miles left and came in 10 minutes behind my goal. BYU's top two finishers, Grand and Ed, eclipsed 60 mph on the huge downhill pictured below. The catch is if you go down something like that, chances are you also have to go up something like that. The run just felt awesome. I fueled up with shot bloks and collected roadkill.

Chasing geese and such

Delta, UT is home to a 10k that will make your wildest dreams come true. I podiumed for the first, and quite possibly the last, time ever. I came in 2nd overall, but first in my age group. The picture only shows about 100 people running but I'm pretty sure there were scores more that went unphotographed.

As is customary after any athletic event in Delta, UT, the local sociopaths dress for a dip in the lake. This is the "wild" part of the Wild Goose Chase, I guess. That chubby one and the one sporting the red long johns stayed in for like 10 minutes.

1 if by land, 2 if by sea, 3 if by Jimmer

Jimmer played his last game as a cougar last night. We're all coping in different ways. I'm eating more than usual. Some are sleeping with newspaper clippings of Jimmer (or just Jippings, for short). We knew this day would come, however, so it's probably best if we just reminisce on the foggy memories. Plus, now that we don't have to camp out for any more BYU games, I can start showering again. So that'll be nice. We all made sacrifices. First pic here shows the crew (Back: Bekah, Andrea, Dan; Front: Tenli, Tristram).

We call him Jimmer Junior: a white elephant nutcracker-turned-Jimmer-statue.

We crowd-surfed Cosmo. Grabbed his tail.

For the final home game vs. Wyoming the entire student section learned some choreography. Check it out here. You can see us at some parts. We're row 5 for this game, I think. The SDSU game we were victims of unpredictable changes in seating format, and despite being 80th in line we wound up on the 24th row. All other games we were row 11 or closer (row 2 for CSU). Camping out before the Utah game we made a vid for Jimmer. Check it out here.

It may not buy happiness...

But money can sure buy you some strong feet! Just got the new kicks. I thought Asics had secured a permanent place in the running-shoe section of my heart. But, after their performance last Saturday my loyalty was rattled. I've only been able to go about once a week, so I usually make it count. Saturday was 9.5 mi. at 6:45's with no vertical. The last few months I had been feeling the beginnings of a stress fracture in my lateral right foot. I thought it was due to high mileage but after taking some time off decided I might need a shoe change. The Asics lasted a solid 5 months or so. Salem, here's your shoe instruction I was supposed to give you forever ago.

• Weight This shoe is under 8 oz. while most running shoes are around 12 oz. So, obviously this means it's lacking heel cushioning. This is good if you're already a mid- or fore-foot striker, but dangerous if you're trying to convert from heel-striking to another strike pattern.
• Pronation There's no pronation control since I'm a neutral pronator.
  
• Arch Support It has medium arch support since I've built up my longitudinal arches over time. It's not wise to buy a medium or low arch support shoe just because you want to strengthen the arch. This is a huge flaw in Vibrams or brazen barefoot programs. If your arches aren't already strong you'll end up injuring yourself.

Other people will look at the toe box, heel width, etc. I don't really care about that stuff since I think a lot of it just depends on which socks you wear. So, those are the 3 main things I look for. If your pronation is good and you don't care about the weight of the shoe, then just look to make sure the arch support is where you want it. If you're confused about arch support, let me know. Just buy a shoe that makes you the most legit-looking pregnant endurance athlete in this hemisphere. Or just keep captaining 180-mile relay teams.

Bang

And just like that I've started a blog and signed up for my first oly tri. Both within hours of each other. I had no idea when I woke up this morning that I'd be seizing the day like this. Anyway, I'll be making my inaugural oly tri efforts in Lake Havasu in March. I. Can't. Wait.