Triathalon training

Jason showed on time and a parking spot was secured for him. Glenn is a former neighbor who now lives in the country and collects huskies.
While waiting for J to show the story was told about the a pit bull who pulled away from his owner , jumped the wall and attacked what he though was one huskie. The result to the pit was not pretty. But it survived.



J shows up, is ready to go, and I have to retrieve my bike after hearing the dog fight story. Notice how they begin to spread out, always watching the baited trap?
Knowing my only chance is to become Alpha I took charge of the situation. SIT!!! DOWN!! ALL OF YOU, DOWN, NOWWWWW!! Works every time. Sometimes.






After I got Jason to reverse his helmet, we were off to the starting point of the nine mile sprint at the transition area of the triathlon course. A ten year old double chain ring Bianci that has never been serviced in a bike shop is his choice for the race. On the ride down, I noticed that his seat was much too low and I adjusted it. Took a look at his chain and told him it would be a good idea to put a new one on soon. When he started talking about work, I said, "you ready?, Lets ride." "20 seconds", he said looking at his watch, "I want to time this". I started riding.

The initial part of the "sprint" is a pretty steep, but not too long, hill. Maybe 300 yards. After that the "sprint" is relatively flat. A couple of mild rollers, but no granny gear stuff. Another 100 yard, a right turn and we are really off. "Draft me for a bit", I said. "Can you hear me? J? Jason??" When I turned to look he was 40 yards back spinning at a brisk cadence of oh........30 RPMs. I got behind him, watched his spinning and gearing and explained a little about those techniques. He started to catch on.

Then I saw the kayak'ers and the ocean. "I'll catch up", I yelled to J, stopped and took a couple of photos.








As I resume riding, I heard, "go ahead". Someone I had cut in front was giving me the right of way. You can just see her approaching in the kayak photo above. (click it to enlarge). I looked back, apologized and said, "Sorry, taking pictures", I gotta catch up to my buddy". The wheels of my brain got their traction as I began sprinting away. When the smoke cleared, I slowed, let her catch up and asked if she was on a club ride. (There were lots of bikers about). Nope, she was from out of town just on a country ride.





Her name is Erin. She is a competitive swimmer, a decent runner and is practicing biking, to do triathlons, cute as a button, and younger than my son. We were chatting up the area, races, touring and other stuff. Just bopping along. As we are chatting and bopping, we pass Jason. I look at him and shrug, he understands. She is not familiar with the area so I offer to ride with her back to her starting point. We agreed to wait for Jason at the last turn. He says, "I think we missed a turn, because my time is 45 minutes for 9 miles". I just look over the top of my sun glasses and say, "with practice it will improve". But you know, when your training for a race and your partner stops to take pictures and has to wait for you a mile before the finish line.......? Then this group rode by us. Talk about a sign.



I really think Jason thrive on being last. He really loves telling the stories and alway mentions that he never did anything athletic growing up. He just likes to participate, and I guess as long as he is having his fun, staying out of the way of all the competitive people, his standing is meaningless. I enjoyed my time with Jason. Especially when I realized he was a chick magnet.


Epilogue.
I never got the nerve to ask Erin if I could take her photo. I just seemed weird. You know? Jason got back in his car and I rode the 10 miles home. A thirty mile Sunday morning ride was the cat's meow. Two days of rain may squash the commute, but thats OK.