Confessions Of A Flabby Ironman

I'm looking out on a cold, pallid white front lawn right now and it's kind of depressing because I really need to get back on my bike. The jeans are tighter... and that too is depressing. It's been too much of an extended off season and it's been hard getting back into things. that first week off because of too much stuff to do at work ends up turning to 2 weeks, which moves into a month, and then it's towards the end of February with almost 2 months of an extended vacation. Maybe it's just Minnesota weather. I'm not entirely sure. The one thing I know is that I'm uncomfortable resting on laurels, but that's where I sit right now. I need to sit down and start working on my novel again. It's started, and someday will be finished, but I really haven't worked on sit since November. Why does time go so quickly?

I'm excited that the cable company has just added OLN to it's lineup. Assuming I don't move to Colorado Springs until late July I'll be able to watch quite a bit of Tour coverage. It's got to be better than OLNs coverage.

Dave Mathews 'Where are You Going' is playing in my headphones, and I still find it amazing how vivid memories attached to songs can be. My aunt and uncle were over for my birthday in early February and I played them the highlite video from Ironman Wisconsin, at the end of the tape, they're playing that song as they show shots of people finishing towards the end of the night and it makes me cry everytime. "I am no superman, I have no answers for you. I am no hero that's for sure, but I do know one thing that where you are, that's where I belong." Supernaturally pulled towards the finish. After 16 hours and some odd minutes, I just wanted to be in Angela's arms. I'll never forget the kind of hushed silence that creeped around the streets. Talking subsided as we exited Fort Randall Stadium weighing the enormity of the situation at the end of the day.

The enormity of that is what makes coming out of the off season so difficult. There's a certain lethargy that creeps in with this time off. Seeking out comfort becomes a sort of feedback loop where the seeking just turns into more seeking and less exercise. The strange thing is the rational thought that exercise to me, actually brings more comfort because I feel that I'm working towards looking and feeling better. Maybe there's some sort of hybernation gene. If there is a gene, I wish they'd find it and show me how to turn it off. Although, maybe this coming move to different surroundings will help that turn off. I thank God for a fiance that wants to be active. A fiance who's willing to indulge my flights of fancy within reason like someday riding across the country.

Angela said the most romantic thing the other day that she's since regretted she said. We were talking about triathlon and she mentioned that if she got into it, she might do an Ironman someday. The thought of being able to share with her what I experienced would be the greatest thing in the world. Like I mentioned, she took rephrased it after she said it, but the thought about being out on the course with each other really excites me for some reason. Who knows what the future will bring.

Angela and I have been working on wedding invitations the past couple of days. We're both kind of movie junkies, so we had the idea to take a DVD case, put a parody sleeve on top, and have the invitation itself sitting in the DVD tray, cut into a circular shape so it fits like a DVD would. These are the two we've done so far. We're probably going to make up a couple more and see which one we like best.