New Orleans 5150

Last weekend the tri thing took me to New Orleans (pronounced Naw lens).  Crawfish ya'll

I was lucky to be able to stay with the same homestay as last year Brian who lives right next to Tulane and Loyola just off of St. Charles st.  To be honest, last year (when I was in NO for this race) I was not that impressed with the city.  It's kinda dirty and pretty much everything related to infrastructure is literally crumbling.  (I still wonder how people think it is safe to live below the level of the mississippi river.  I took these pictures while biking on the levee and as you can see the river is pretty high but what I didnt show is that the road is like 10-20ft lower than the level of the river...that seems unsafe)

Anyway, I think this year I took the time to see some of the older architecture and fixed up victorian houses which make for a charming atmosphere.  It might also be that the longer I stay away from the humid climate of the east coast, the more I miss it.  Spring smells so good out there.  The air is so thick and rich.  Here is a picture of St Charles from my bike ride and a panorama of Loyola from St Charles st.

I got in Friday night to NO and my brother Augie texted me from VA saying that our friends the Kings were in NO for Memorial Day weekend!  Now, the King family tends to party hard so I was on my guard knowing I had to race Sunday.  I skipped dinner with them at a restaurant my homestay called "a deep fried heart attack" (basically all new orleans food) but was able to meet up with them later at a jazz bar on Frenchman st--

This is Mrs King with a run of beer...need I say more?

Me with the Kings--Carter to my right was my brother Augie's roommate at UVA this past year.

I cant say I participated in the debauchery (surprise) but it was fun to see a bit more of the city.  Sidenote: I always wonder why I dont see spinners on cars anymore, but being down south I realized its because the city of New Orleans probably bought out the entire market (and also possibly because I live in WASP central aka. Boulder) --> if you dont know what spinners are, watch the video...the lyrics do a good explanation... "I'm ridin spinners, they dont stop"--> I saw a LOT of them this weekend and not gonna lie they look pretty cool in real life (before you realize how ridiculous they are).

After last week's cancelled swim and all around disaster, the weather in NO looked pretty good.  I didnt feel so great on the swim for some reason...kinda flat...which stinks since I have been working so hard on it, but I still swam pretty well and I know I am gonna get a super breakout swim somewhere in here.

The bike and run went great really, I cant complain.  I came out of the water with David Thompson (DT) and Jordan Jones, both great bikers and we rode pretty much the whole way together slowly catching and passing the field.  I thought about passing DT a couple times but I thought, nah, I know he is a good biker so if I stay with him I will have a good ride and should be able to run well.  Sidenote: it was also the first race I had a red bull in my water bottle diluted 50:50 with water and I actually really liked it!  Delicious.  Whoda thought.  And inspiring too....if only I were as cool as these guys maybe I could get sponsored by them...

Usually in races I honestly dont expect to do that well and hitting the run I was thinking meh, I hope I can just hold steady at my pace.  The last mile was pretty tough--it was starting to enter death breathing mode and was feeling like I might black out at any second (typical for me on the run) but I managed to hold on and finish 4th again!

Besides the red bull, I think one of the reasons I raced well was that I had this song stuck in my head the entire weekend and literally non-stop throughout the race.  I wish I were as suave as JT.  Plus he married Jessica Biel.  Smokin hot.

Anyway I think thats all I got.  This weekend is Dallas.  3x weekends in a row of racing, whew!  Then straight from Dallas to a catalysis conference in Louisville KY for the week.  Whoohoo, nerd central.

Rudy

A wonderful weekend in Kansas

Just kidding, it was pretty miserable.

I drove with some friends to Lawrence KS for the 5150 last Sunday.  Everything seemed to be going well; I had some chocolate cheerios and Veronica (girl I rode with) had made some freakin awesome chocolate chip banana bread.   Well then about an hour out of Lawrence we got caught in a huge wreck on I70 that backed up traffic in both directions--and when we finally got through that...the car broke down...literally right next to the wreck.  So here we are on the side of the road on Friday evening.  Any tow trucks still on duty are picking up the pieces of this big ass car wreck next to us, not to mention the fact that their '3 hour estimate' doesnt take into account the fact that traffic is backed up each way.

After nearly sweating to death on the side of the road, running out of water, and contemplating drinking my own urine (or worse, that can of coconut water), I was rescued by Michelle and Jeanni who were driving to the race too and were behind us.  Will and Veronica voted me off the island so I got the free ride to Lawrence...but Will and V got the last laugh... we got stuck in more traffic (another accident) and they got to a hotel in Tulsa (where the car got fixed) long before we got in.

Naturally it was graduation weekend in Lawrence (University of Kansas) so every hotel was booked to the max and we were in the circa 1946 Rodeway Inn.  I had to switch rooms twice (because in one the carpet was soaked and the second the tv didnt work); I was worried about the roof collapsing, but when I saw they had a Disney channel I was quickly distracted by Madagascar3 which is flippin incredible! btw.

Ok, so anyway, got some sleep and biked all over town with friend and fellow pro Jeanni and met up with the others for some pre-race swimming in the lake.  (Unfortunately, not nude).

Chilled out and watched Shark Tale on that disney channel (also awesome) and my roommates finally made it with a fixed car!

They were tired so we went to pick up some pizza (to keep it easy) and whoda thought, there was Rudy's pizza shop!  Unfortunately the pizza wasnt that good but I still packed down a whole large one.

So race day basically sucked.  It was like a Kansas hurricane/tornado/disaster.  Lightning was forking out of the sky and it was raining sideways and freezing cold. The race was delayed 30minutes and the swim was cancelled (which ok this was about the most annoying thing that cold have happened; I mean I have been working on my swim all winter and I just wanted to see if I could make the front pack. Denied.)  The bike was a TT start and I got a flat like a minute before we were supposed to start.  The bike support guys had peaced out about 30min before because of the weather and I was about ready to just accept the weekend as a total failure, but friend Michelle had just decided to not start and she loaned me her wheel just in the nick of time!  Back in business I went off.  There were only 15second gaps between the pros (way too small)...blah blah blah...groups formed pretty quickly, but I was towards the front and was able to hold off the main group of guys until the run (hilly tough course btw).  I ran fine (it got hot and sunny towards the end actually) and finished 4th.  Meh, cant complain; the race was 'fine' but nothing special.  Here is the guys podium.  Pretty nice day by the end, right?

After that I ate a loaf of bread and a 16oz container of cottage cheese (the rudy special) and we drove back to Boulder without the car breaking down (thank you baby jesus).

I am really excited to finally swim in a race!  Maybe this weekend at 5150 New Orleans?  Didnt have too wait long...

Rudy

Warm weather is "just around the corner"

Flatirons Athletic Club, the year-round outdoor pool that I swim at, there is this stupid sign that says "Warm weather is just around the corner," but it has literally snowed 14 inches every Tuesday for the last month.  Tomorrow is Tuesday and it is the first time since March that there isnt a forecast of snow.  I'm not holding my breath though.

To make things worse, the pool heater has been "breaking" like 2x a week for the last month.  I say "breaking" because after about 2 weeks of this nonsense (showing up to the pool almost every other day and hearing that the water is 72) makes me think that the heater didnt just "break" again, in fact it has just been straight up "broken" for about the last 6 weeks and somebody keeps putting band aids on the heater.

The reason I am getting tired of this (apart from having to swim in my wetsuit 2-3times per week) is that there is this awful sign on the way out to the pool that says "warm weather is just around the corner."  If they had put it up last week that would be one thing, but its been there since February and I am about ready to burn it down.

I suppose one thing I cant complain about is that the snow melts in about 2 days and the weekends have been relatively beautiful.  Nice enough even to ride out through Estes Park CO with some friends each of the last two weekends.

My training has been going well, and now that summer is upon us, its only going to get better!  I took my environmental law final last Monday (it was nuts; I was at such an advantage having only to take one law class as compared to my law classmates; there is just so much information to know and read) but anyway, thats over, so I can subtract 6+ hrs a week of reading from my schedule. ALSO, I passed my comprehensive exam (whew) about 2 weeks ago; its a major milestone in the PhD which most students complete about 6months to a year before defending their PhD.  Now that exam was brutal.  Its a 30minute presentation on research to date (which went really well) but then 90 minutes of questions where you just get grilled by the committee.  Its something of a rite of passage and although I thought I was well-prepared, they sure made it tough.  I dont ever need to do that again.

So, now that those things are over, I am cruising into the summer.  All the undergrads are finishing finals and moving out; soon Boulder will be a nice quite town.  My next race is in 2x weeks; the KC5150 followed by the New Orleans 5150 and Dallas.  Its gonna get real, real soon.

In the mean time, I got some new music to keep me occupied.  Cant wait to start riding the dirt roads up in the mountains again!  I KNOW spring has to be "just around the corner."  I cant wait for the trees and plants to start blooming.

Rudy