Hi Bike, My Name is Oscar. What's Your Name?

Cervelo, it's nice to meet you.

Now that track's FINALLY over, I'm back to training.

Before the training, there was the Hershey Youth Track Meet Thursday and Friday. With some GREAT help from my jumping crew, things went very smoothly in the standing long jump area (picture from last year's meet to give you a visual aid).

The only rough spots are when some overzealous parents get very concerned about the measuring judgements of the student volunteers. I'm all for being accurate, but at the same time these are 10-year-olds for crying out loud. Let them compete, have a good time, and go get ice cream. Save the intense competitions for high school when we're going for a section championship.

Now, for the training. Saturday, Beth and I got in an hour run before I drove her in to work. Today, I got in 1900yds in the pool (2nd time in the pool in like a month and it showed!). We came home and the rain FINALLY moved on and we got on our bikes. Due to track and stuff, I hadn't been on my bike since the weekend of my spill.

For the most part, things went without incident, but the legs sure weren't ready for it. Beth dropped me in the first 5 minutes. But, I got in 27 miles and I'm looking forward to getting back into the SBR training. Since I went shorter than Beth I figured I'd turn my bike into a brick and did 4 miles at a little under 7:00 pace. I'm fearing how this whole running thing is going to feel in an actual triathlon off the bike.

Finally, my other adventure for the weekend involved mustaches. When the Pirates returned from their most recent road trip, Bobby Crosby (not to be confused with Sidney) suggested everyone grow mustaches to rally the team.

Well, it was working against Jen Harrison's Cubs. I told Beth that if the Pirates swept the Giants over the weekend, I was going to grow a stache in support of the team. I went to bed Friday night with Zach Duke and company up 4-0 but woke up to a 6-4 loss.

Bummer. So I thought that maybe if they take two of three from the Giants and beat the Cubs Monday I'll still do it. Well, today's comedy of errors took care of that. But, I had to a least go to the stache on the way to going clean-shaven for entertainment purposes. This picture took about 10 minutes to take because Beth and I couldn't stop laughing long enough to snap the shot. So long mustache.

While on the topic of the Pirates, I was recalling my preseason predictions about the season:

My Pirates sleepers this season are Lastings Millege, Charlie Morton, and Akinori Iwamura. The flops I'm worried about are the shortstop position (fill in the blank), Zach Duke, and Jeff Clement. I'm encouraged that the bullpen looks stronger and I'm encouraged that there are legitimate prospects knocking on the door (Alvarez, Tabata, Lincoln) not just because the major league team has holes, but because they are actually good.

Hmmm. Let's break this down--
Millege - still without a homerun in June and plays TERRIBLE defense in left field. Jose Tabata can't get called up soon enough.
Morton - He of the 1-9 record and 9.00+ ERA before some 'shoulder fatigue' landed him in the DL. Brad Lincoln can't get here soon enough.
Iwamura - hitting below .200 and terribly slow due to knee brace and ankle sprain causing him to lose his starting job. Good thing Pine Richland's Neil Walker has come up and provided a spark. And Pedro Alvarez is right around the corner.


I think I should stick to my day job.