Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Side Lighting Contest Submission on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

So I found this group on FlickR while looking around on the site, and I discovered a weekly "themed" photo contest!

I thought that this sounded like a lot of fun and I submitted my first entry. Voting began yesterday and I'm pretty much out of the running already. But I did not know much about "SIDE LIGHTING" the theme for last week, and I now have learned a lot thanks to the contest!
Every week is a theme, and I'll attempt to participate in as many contests as I can!

This was my submitted "SIDE LIGHTING" Photo:

Side Lighting Contest Submission on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nikond40challenge/discuss/72157620064056065/

Monday, June 29, 2009

The Weekend-

I caught up on some much needed Rest and Relaxation, I got out to the bike path a lot and then just come general exploring around Chicago.

This past Sunday was pretty crazy out by the beach since the weather was so beautiful out.  There were people everywhere and it's hard to stay indoors when it's like that!

Here are some more pics that I took yesterday while walking around my neighborhood.
Any picture can be clicked and taken to the Flickr site:

sun star


butt head


Chicago Bike Culture

Across the street there is a huge chess set up, it draws a pretty decent crowd, there is a lot of hustling going on out there, so be careful with your money!

Speed Chess

Game Over

Here are some building shots:

Chicago House

Chicago Buildings

Chicago Arcitecture

Chicago is known for the old school look!

Pattern Building Chicago

I really liked the last picture.  Click on it to view it larger.
I will post the rest tomorrow plus some more news !  :)

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Back on the Bike?

So I have obviously been MIA from the bike scene for the last several years, well at least me physically riding, because I've seen the Tour De France, and the Tour of California plus made a lot of new friends in the industry.
 JF2R
With my bike in Chicago now, on the Lake Shore Path, and Summer, I really don't have a reason NOT to ride again.  Although I do not want to neglect running!

Here are just a few creative shots that I took a couple of days ago.
Felt B2 Dura Ace Shifters
Felt B2 Rock Racing Water Bottle
Felt B2 Cassette
GIro atmos helmet glow
The last one I used a flashlight haha :)

Saturday, June 27, 2009

No Peddling -

This sign confuses me when I am cycling ;)  haha
no peddling

Thursday, June 25, 2009

On Your Left...

So I went out for a nice bike stroll with my fiance this morning, I told her that it would be a causal ride, and since my bottom was sore from LACK of riding to begin with this was NOT a problem!

Chicago is very big city, and the path IS 22 miles long, you will see a lot of people out riding, running, swimming, walking, and roller blading, pretty much trying to take advantage of the perfect weather right now!
On Your Left
Anyway, I've gone off path,
As we are riding home I hear a small voice behind me yell out loud to me, "ON YOUR LEFT" as he 'barely' passes us, I laughed at his comment.

1.) Real Cyclists know never to say on your left for several reasons, the first being that you could scare the runner or other cyclists and they almost always end up vearing into your lane.  and the second .  . .

2.) Reason is that we all know how much of a weak attempt it is to make yourself feel stronger. 

I in my mind maybe feel like since he was on a commuter bike, and he saw me in full gear on a Tri / TT bike, that maybe it made him feel better about himself.  If that's the case, then by all means say "ON YOUR LEFT" to me more often !  :)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Chicago Views-

Here is a picture that I took from my Apartment Roof Top, I pretty much get to see this every night and I am just a block under the streets to get to the Lake Shore Path to ride my bike or go for long runs.
Auto - from my Apartment View
The Lake Shore Path has 22 miles of paved path spooning the Lake...
Lake Shore Drive 
as I now FINALLY have access to my new bike
Chicago Trip 013
I do not have an excuse to not ride around Chicago.
But as I walk around Chicago, it seems as if Bike, is the fastest way to get around here anyway!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Chicago , Chicago

It's been a long several days, if you are friend of mine on Facebook, you have then probably seen my random rants with text messages from my phone and or photos of just random stuff of how long and what it took to make it up here.
From some special help that I recieved in Chicago, it only took about 45 minutes to unload the U-Haul.
The nice part is that we really did not have too much to carry from Texas to Chicago!  I am not saying that I do not have a lot of "stuff" but the reality of all of that fitting in a Chicago apartment is very slim!
I will be posting pictures later down the road, but it was cool to watch fireworks off on the Navy Pier for the first time from the apartment tonight.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

July 4th

July 4th is right around the corner!!!



Lance Armstrong - Cycling Legend
YouTube - Lance Armstrong - Cycling Legend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF3vHjnXCe8

Monday, June 08, 2009

True Cyclists Shave their Legs!

True Cyclists Shave their legs!

Stuff That Makes Me Chuckle

You know you're a triathlete when....

You know you're a triathlete when....

When asked, how old you are you answer 20-24.

When asked how long your training was today you answer: three to four hours.

Your traning is more limited by available time then how far you can run.

Your first thought when you wake up is how high your rest HR is.

You go for a run eventhough there's a thunderstorm and you enjoy being wet and dirty.

You think it's natural to do your 'business' behind a tree in the woods.

You take part in the corporate challenge to improve your base speed.

You go for a 5 km cooldown run after a 5 km race just so that you can call it a training session.

You consider work, regeneration time between training sessions.

That something hard between your legs is usually a pull buoy

You have a water bottle when you drive your car.

You've forgotten how to drink out of cups.

You spend your 2 weeks annual vacation at a training camp.

You know inside out how much Protein each energy bar has.

You seriously consider applying for citizenship in Tonga, Jemen or Tschad so that you can participate in the olympic games.

When people praising you for being able to run 15 miles you're feeling insulted.

In the summer your legs are smoother than your girlfriend's.

In the winter your legs are still smoother than your girlfriend’s

You need a picture for a job application and you only have race pictures.

You use running T-shirts to clean your bike.

That charming "cologne" you wear to work is chlorine

You take more showers in a locker room than at home

6:30 am is sleeping in

the dog runs and hides when you get the leash!

You think there are only two seasons during the year, racing and off.

You shave way too many body parts for a guy.

You can't change the oil in your car but you can completly rebuild your bike in 45 mins

You spend more £ on training and racing clothes then work clothes

You spend 7 days going to 8 stores in 4 towns before buying a pair of running shoes but you take 1 afternoon to go to 1 car dealership and walk out with a new car 4 hours later.

when you see some lady watering her flowers and ask her if you can borrow the hose for a minute so you can fill up your water bottles.

You clean your bike more often than your car

You've been stung be a wasp or bee in your mouth but carried on running or cycling because "your split times won’t go down by themselves"

Your car smells like a locker room.

You have everything needed in your car to be Swimming, Biking or Running with 5 minutes notice.

When asked to mow the lawn in 90 degree heat, you say that its too hot to do that (and you mean it) and then an hour later you go on a century ride because its so nice out.

You tell your co-workers that you are going to "do a long brick" on saturday and just expect that they know what you are talking about.

When a co-worker asks if you are racing this weekend, you say "yeah, but I'm just running a 10k, so that is not REALLY a race".

You consider you bike saddle your "couch"

You consider Clif Bars as one of the four food groups

you are sick to your stomach at 2:00 in the morning and check the back of the Pepto Bismol bottle for caloric content and grams of carbohydrates, fat and protein.

you have plenty of water bottles, safety pins, and t-shirts.

You like going swimming the day after a race with the permenant penned number still visible on your legs and arms because the feel like a medal.

you have trouble keeping lunch under 2000 calories.

you usually wake up at 4:00 in the morning but do not get to work until way after 9:00.

you have a £4000 bike strapped on top of your £2000 car.

you have no trouble pushing a day's caloric intake to over 8000 calories.

you're always wet! Either sweat water, pool water, sea water, shower water, bath water or its p*****g down outside!

Instead of Marie Clare, People and Cosmo, you have piles of Runner's World in your bathroom.

your car has at least one Power Bar wrapper and two sets of work out clothes!
your kids idea of playing is a bike and run race followed by power bars, water bottles and awards ceremony.

your laundry continually smells like someone locked the cat in overnight...

you leave your apartment or house in the morning with your swim bag on one arm, bike on one shoulder, a change of clothes in another bag, and your running stuff in another bag in case you can get away at lunch for a workout.

you wave at other cyclists, because all triathletes are friendly and if they are not, they are probably purist cyclists trying to get into triathlons and they do not know that triathletes are friendly.

You have not one, not two, but three permanent chain ring scars on your right calf.

You are walking along a street and you signal left.

you can't decide what tee shirt to wear to your next race.

you have far more pairs of shoes in your closet than your non-tri wife does in hers

the one "suit" you own has orca written on the chest.

You wear your heart rate monitor during sex....


...and you keep within the right HR zone

you hear T2 and don't think of the film....

when "foreplay" is 15 minutes on a turbo trainer

your living room has the "swim pile" and the "bike pile" and the "run pile" and the "weight room pile" and you pick and choose kind of like a cafeteria on your way out the door.

your kitchen cupboards are organized into "protein", "carbs" and "etc"

you bring bottled water to a party so that you're properly hydrated for the next morning's long run, everyone else at the party also brought their own bottled water because you don't have a social life outside of triathlon. Oh yeah, and they all showed up by 7pm and left by 10pm.

your company announces mandatory unpaid shutdown days - every other Friday thoughout the summer - in order to cut costs and stay in business, and your response is "Great - now I can do two long workouts on the weekends and still have an easy day."

......but you dont!

your 8 year old comes home with the school record for the mile and says, he took it out in a nice pace he could hold.....everyone else died.

you fill your kids' water bottles with Cytomax instead of blue gatorade.

you can ask your mom and your sister and all other girlfriends for shaving advice.

no wait, they ask you for advice!

you say that you went to a race last weekend...and somebody responds "running or biking" and you are again forced to explain....


you wear your bathing suit under your work clothes to make a fast transition from work to swim on your lunch hour.

you show up at the neighborhood pool on your bike in a speedo and embarrass your teenage daughters.

Your idea of fast food is a power bar and SIS Go

somebody hands you a cup of water and you have to restrain yourself from pouring it on your head.

You catch yourself about to blow a snot rocket while walking around the office.

you forget that talking about daily LSD [Long Slow Distance] and speed weirds some people out.

you have no FRIGGIN idea what to do with yourself on your off day.

You feel like you took the day off because all you did was swim 3000 meters then go for a short run.

At any given moment you know exactly where your heart rate monitor and your swim googles are, but cannot remember where you left you car keys. (turns out 90% of the time they are in your bike bag)

Ice baths!

When non-racer friends tell you they ran/rode you automatically calculate their pace to see if you're still in better shape.

Cars pass you on the road when you're driving and you either drop back to get out of draft zone or speed up to attack!

You have no trouble converting mph into kmph

You've stopped buying high-heels because your feet are too swollen from long runs to fit in them anyways.

While your less athletically-inclined girlfriends are gorging themselves on plates of lettuce, you're occupying yourself with a plate of pasta and chicken (white meat, of course.)

Having a period has become less of a nuisance since menstrual cramps don't feel that bad when you're hunched over a bike.

You've stopped wearing dangly earrings because they just get in the way when you're ripping off your clothes to squeeze "just one more" workout into your already cramped schedule.

Your girlfriends are insanely jealous of your tan legs. Until they realize that the tan stops at your bike shorts.

You've given up trying to go on training runs/rides with your boyfriends because they don't take it too well when you kick their butt.

Your best girl friend gets a new bike and tells you that it's a really pretty shade of blue. You get a new bike and can tell her the chain ring ratios.

When checking out guys on the street/at the mall your friends notice eyes, hair, build. You notice if they have shaved legs, if they have runners/bikers legs, and if they're wearing a race t-shirt.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

I have finally finished this book!
I have had this book for several months and it has followed me around from Europe and back, which I never finished until now.
I don't know what took me so long, as I have been pretty busy traveling a lot plus my job, running, and moving into Chicago took up a lot of my time. I have STILL had this before BEFORE all of that chaos!

Either way, the book is complete.
Now for the review:

At first the book started off kind of too dry for my taste or likes, but I had just come from reading several amazing reads and this book had A LOT of competition to be compared to!
So only into the last 25 percent of the book for "me" again, did I find it to be worth it. The ending is very sad, and pretty much the entire book is very sad. It makes you realize what we take for granted, and the resources that we have in America vs Africa.
The book called "When a Crocodile Eats the Sun" means, that when there is a Solar Eclipse, that the Gods are mad and that's why a crocodile eats the sun at this time.

What I did really enjoy was the way that the writer described things in his books, whether it be a persons hand, face, their town, cars, or cities, I really liked his examples to make you feel like you were part of the book!

I have made several more book purchases while I was in Phoenix, AZ. I will let you know when I start my next read soon ! ;)

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun on Flickr - Photo Sharing!