Hello Everyone! – I haven’t posted anything in quite awhile so I thought I’d just throw up a whole bunch of photos up.

First off was XXX Racing-Athletico’s cyclocross race in Jackson Park.

Dana showed up to cheer me & the rest of Team Pegasus on. She also took a bunch of pictures.

The next week we went to Kathryn & Chris’ amazing wedding. Here’s a picture of us at the wedding from the photographer.

Soon after I found myself with a little bit of a extra time which I used to go on a short trip. I decided to go to see the Grand Canyon and then visit my sister & her husband.
As part of preparations I got myself a new point & shoot camera that I could conveniently carry on my trip without the bulk & weight of my digital SLR. Here’s the first picture from my new Canon Powershot SD970 IS.

Here’s all the gear I brought on my trip.

Next time I’ll start posting photos from my actual trip. Thanks for reading!

I will be backpacking in the Grand Canyon for a few days and then hanging out with my sister in LA. My next ‘cross race will be the Halloween race in Washington Park, WI.

Chicago lost in the first round of voting

In 3 days the IOC will announce whether Chicago will be the host of the 2016 Olympic Games and man oh man do I really want us to get the bid.

To all of you people who don’t want the games: I understand how you feel. It’ll be a giant hassle not only during the Games, but also before & after. It may bankrupt the city. And yes I get that the money could be used for better things.

But still I want us to get the Olympics.

Update: According to this article in the NYTimes Chicago is the odds on favorite for the bid. However, don’t read past the 1st paragraph. Really. It just get’s depressing

and if you haven’t already check out Aleem’s blog from the Beijing Games

As a kid whenever my family would go on road trips we would only listen to a handful of artists. Simon & Garfunkel, Billy Joel, and Peter, Paul, & Mary were the ones that I really remember. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that quite a few of their songs like “Blowin in the Wind” were written by Bob Dylan and that “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane” was written by John Denver. Still so many of their songs are pretty much engraved into my brain and in fact Peter, Paul, & Mary were my first concert. Anyways, Mary Travers passed away today which is sad news.

This is my favorite song of theirs. I, literally, jumped out of my seat when I heard Colin Hanks play it on Mad Men last season.

Hey look its Emily & Charlie!

Sunday Sarah, Alyssa & I raced the Chicago Triathlon as a relay team. It took us 2 hours, 44 minutes, and 12 seconds for us to swim 1.5k, bike 40k, and run 10k. Out of 174 teams we placed 45th which meant we were in the top 25th percentile. Fantastic!

The day started with getting my bike into the transition area at 5am. Alyssa wasn’t due to enter the water until 9:56am so we had about 4 hours to kill. The course was on the inner two lanes of Lake Shore Drive starting at Randolph and ending at Foster Ave. With a total gain of 509 feet it was an extremely flat course so I stayed in my big ring the whole time. The north wind was a bit tough starting out, but then heading south was spectacular.

My goal for the triathlon was to average 20 mph for the race. I was averaging 21 when on the fourth leg my left calf started cramp up. I probably didn’t have enough salt in me or I was really not used to riding with aero bars. Either way I had to slow way down to stretch out my calf muscle. You can actually see it when you look at my heart rate graph above.

It was very cool seeing Amy & Chris during the event and thanks to BenVC for loaning me his aerobars.

In the end I averaged 19.5 mph over a time of 1:17:55. I’m not sure if I really want do a triathlon on my own or not. On one had it would be fun to train with Dana and an accomplishment in its own right. On the other hand I am a terrible swimmer & I tend to dislike running. We’ll see.

When I was a kid my parents made me take piano lessons. I hated every single minute of it. Mrs. Scott was my saint of a teacher who rightfully scolded me for not practicing and for my poor posture. The parents recently moved and I inherited the old Baldwin they bought back in 1978. That was two years before I was even born.

I plan on finding a teacher in the winter after cyclocross season ends and the cold keeps me inside more. In the meantime I’ve been fooling around on my own playing a little bit everyday. Mostly I’ve been teaching myself songs I already knew on guitar and banging away using chords. A lot of “Both Left Right Left..” and “Right Left Right Right Left…” My poor neighbors.