Always Show Up to the Roll Down! The Wife's Vineman Bike

The Wife raced Vineman 2 weeks ago. I wasn't there, but she did great without me due to all the pre race talks, sensitive guidance and instruction and coaching I've been giving her over the past 18 months. Check out her bike above. She's received some great coaching from the coaches at EnduranceNation along with her special cycling coaches at Team Wheelbuilder.

She ran/biked/swam a great race and will be focusing on her nutrition and her running endurance over the next 10 weeks CAUSE SHE IS GOING TO KONA. Hey , don't wake me up for that 3am pre race feeding, as I'll be sleeping off some Mai Tai's and/or Chi Chi's.

Check out the sweet Wheelbuilder Edge wheels and Power Tap combo.! Also, I picked out that seat for her so the Wife's sensitive areas would stay sensitive. You're welcome.

Anyway, in reference to the title of this post, let me just say that this year, the rolldown went way down. All you had to do was show up. They were giving away slots to Clearwater in the parking lot at the nearby Denny's. The Wife showed up, but SINCE SHE IS GOING TO KONA, didn't take a slot. One of our tri club peeps, who has gone the past two years to Clearwater and who would go every year till she dies, didn't show up to the Roll Down. And she wasn't going home till monday, so it's not like she had to be anywhere, "I was so tired and hot from the race that I didn't show up". Its rare that you aren't tired and hot from a 70.3, but show up to the damn awards/roll down ceremony. As the man at WheelBuilder says, "Don't be a Pussy!" WEAK.

Congrat's to the Wife. Rest up, you've got a lot of miles of cycling and running between now and October 10th. Maybe show up to the pool a few times. For me, I'll have a Tahitian Itch--make that a double...and make sure my chair is under the shade of a nice tree.

By the way, stay tuned for live race updates on Twitter. Username GoLongTriathlon.

Water Polo Junior Olympics Wrap Up

Fun day today. Only one game. We played for 11th and won our last game. To put it into perspectie, we lost to the teams that placed 2nd, 4th and 5th, and we lost by one goal to the team that got 5th. Tough for the boys, but they should be proud of playing really well. I had a great time watching our 18U team. Here's a picture of three players who were pretty happy and would agree they had a great year....That's Jack, Max and "Noch" (see prior post).

The ride home from Stanford was looooong. 111 degrees in Coalinga. I like that word. Coa---Linga. This was topped 25 miles later, closer to Bakersfield where it was 115 degrees outside at 5pm. Ridiculously hot. Africa hot. By the way, the Coalinga Canal was bone dry.

One last comment on this summer's water polo season. The parents and some of the coaches--okay two comments. Here is my rating of horrible water polo team parents--
Newport and Stanford (Tie for first)
Diablo (3rd)
By far, the most obnoxious parents of all time. They bring drums to games. They chant like college sophomores at Columbia University football games (circa 1981).

As far as the coaches go, there's an inland empire team and a south southern california team that take the cake. By the way and relevant to cycling, the the inland empire coach is a dead f'ing ringer for Floyd Landis (another whining cheater--in my humble opinion). I wish I would have snapped a pic for this post, but I'll have another opportunity some time. These two coaches bitch, moan, throw tantrums, berate the referrees and demean, criticize and verbally assault their players. One coach actually challenges his players to assault players on the other team. They are an embarrassment to coaching and being men for others. But at least the one of these coaches has a damn good win record :-). Just kidding. Sorry, can't justify the way they coach for any reason--I think they wish they were taller. So do I. I always wanted to be Clint Eastwood tall--ask the wife, she'll tell you she wishes I was Clint Eastwood too.

Heading back to work tomorrow. Will try to make swim workout in the morning and the club brick ride (sans the run) in the evening. I still need to recap The Wife's Vineman Race. Will try to do that tomorrow night. I want to show some pictures of her sick P3C ride.