First bike trip with my son!

Today, I took my son for his first official bike ride with daddy!  Granted, he is still rocking the training wheels, but it is still a bike and he was wearing his new biking gloves (like daddy's)!  We rode the Olentangy bike trail, which if you haven't ridden, you might want to.  Very scenic ride, with lots of different things to do along the way.  The trail itself is about 18 miles long, although we only hit probably 2 miles (he is 4).   We did get to play in a couple play grounds, and we even took the bikes out on to the skateboard park and had a little fun!  Just keep in mind, that the turn around point is key, although it is relatively flat, you will have to ride back to vehicle!  All in, great day, that ended with stop at Skyline Chili!

We found a play set on our ride!

Olentangy River

Admiring the wawa!

Throw rocks in wawa?

Hill climbing

Resting under the bridge

Bridge to bridge

Swim anyone?

Skyline chili time!  

My goal!

Yes, I am just beginning my biking experience, but this is my goal. I want to ride this race!


 
2011 Whiskey Off-Road endurance mountain bike event & festival from Epic Rides on Vimeo.

Warrior Dash-Round 2

This week I start my training for round two of my Warrior Dash events for 2011. I will be running in Carrolton Ohio in September. What is possessing me to do this again, I do not know. I do know, that something is pulling me towards this event and I am dedicated to beating my last time from my June run. Will it be possible, I do not know, but my goal is to shave 3 minutes of my last time. Basically, I am looking to shave 1 minute of each mile. Now that I know what to expect, and have all some to actually train for this beast, I have no doubt I will make it happen. What I need, however, is someone to run with...... Any takers!

Crash Videos

Don't know these people, but thought there were some awesome crashes. I especially like the drop off the skinny into the mud!

First Pitch

Barack and Michelle are at the White Sox game. Sitting in the first row with the Secret Service people.
Directly behind them, one of the Secret Service guys leans forward and says something to the president.

Barack stares at the guy, looks at Michelle, looks back at the agent, and shakes his head violently.

The agent then says, "Mr. President, it was a unanimous request, from the owner of the team down to the bat boy. And...the fans would love it!"

So, Barack shrugs his shoulders and says, "If that's what the people want."

He gets up, grabs Michelle by her collar and the seat of her pants, and drops her right over the wall into the field. She gets up kicking, swearing, and screaming -- and the crowd goes wild, cheering, applauding, and high-fiving.

Barack is bowing and smiling, and leans over to the agent and says, "You were right, I would have never believed that!"

Then noticing the agent has gone totally pale, Barack asks what is wrong.

The agent replies, "Sir, I said, they want you to throw out the first PITCH!"

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's that time of year again, time to grow another year older! Yesterday was my turn, and I celebrated in style. We generally don't have parties for my birthday, but yesterday my wife put together a little last minute gathering for all of the neighbors to celebrate the big 41! Let me just say, the neighbor peeps are awesome. Although I may piss them off every now and then with my futile attempt at wit, they still came over to celebrate with me! Wifey put together a nice Thai dinner, neighbors brought me over some Cold Miller Lites, kids played in the pool, watched Lebron get his ass kicked and we had a good time! IT WAS A GOOD DAY!

More Warrior Dash Pictures- Sickness

Warrior Dash- Ohio

All I can say is wow! What a freaking unbelievable day! My first Warrior Dash is now complete! Believe it or not, I didn't actually do to bad. Although I didn't set any records for time, I did finish in what appears to be the top 10% of all participants. There are still people on the course today with heats running until 4, but it probably safe to assume time rank will stay consistent!

Me and the boy

The race it self was 3.1 miles long. Not long for most runners, but the real difficulty was the obstacles and the hills. Right out of the gate, tings got difficult. A brutal hill basically separated people quickly and there were many walkers. After what seemed like a mile climb through the woods, there was a slight downhill to our first obstacle, dangling tires. After dodging the swinging tires, we ran some more level ground than another brutal hill. A couple hurdles were up next, followed by some crawl unders. Ran some more, than had to cross a waist high body of water and navigate across floating logs. Out of the water and then on to the junk cars and tire. Up and over the first car, and ride down into the tire maze. This wasn't too bad, bud it did slow people down a bit.

Me and Man Mountain

Balance beam that almost got me!

This guy refused to get hosed down

Scaring little kids!

Cargo Net Climb

The next obstacle was the dark tunnel, crawling on hands and knees in total darkness. Not bad, I made up a lot of time here. Another obstacle we faced was to walk/run/crawl through a series of bungee bands stretched across the trail at various heights and angles. Not difficult, but caused us to slow down. I chose to roll under these a bit, it seemed to go quicker. Next hand to climb a wall with a rope then down other side (easiest obstacle) then crawl over a crossover made by netted rope. This was tough for me to do, I just wasn't sure of the best method. Next big obstacle to climb over was a high cargo net wall (tough and high), followed by balance beam. Almost fell of the balance beam, but regained balance and soldiered on. We ran some more than had to run down a stream about thigh high. Not to bad, but had to watch out for hidden rocks in the water. Out of the creek and a hew hundred feet, then we had to jump over two fire hurdles. The bark was definitely worse than the bite on this one.

I better get down

Got a little tough

At the finish

After all of this, including 3.1 miles of actual running, the big finish presented itself in the form of a mud pit about 75 feet long, and about 2 feet deep! Oh, by the way they had barbed wire strung across so you had to make sure you stayed down in the crawl. Not only was it disgusting, but it was tough. After getting out of the mud, there was a brief sprint to the finish, basically holding up my mud soaked pants. A nice glass of water and a banana were waiting for me at the finish, along with a medal for completing the race! Many beers followed, by an awesome turkey leg!

Little Turkey Leg for the misses

The people were awesome and there were some great costumes! Can't wait for the next one! Who is going to join me?

One Friggin Crazy day- Warrior Dash Ohio

The big day has finally arrived. I am now within 12 hours of my start time for my heat tomorrow morning for this race. I have been training for months since I saw this advertised last winter and decided it was a good thing to. In case you were wondering, my training workout consists of some very aggressive routines.

• -Drink beer. Over and over again. 
• -Occasional bike ride, followed by more beer 
• -I ran 2 miles once, followed by a couple beers 
• -I ran the steps one night, you guessed it, more beer 
• -Chased my son through mud puddles,most likely I was drinking beer 
•  -I fell down my steps once, probably because of too much beer
I have to tell you, I could be the best conditioned beer drinker there tomorrow!