February 2008 – Ben Collins

Peggy McDC – Kiwi Prep

I received an email from my friend Peggy, the Grand Masters triathlete from Santa Barbara who kicked butt at her seventh Kona Ironman last year. She didn’t send pictures because her kids have yet to teach her how to use a digital camera, but I thought this story was pretty funny.

“hi, from new zealand again. i’m down here getting ready to do the ironman on saturday. as i write this thursday morning, it’s early afternoon wednesday for you on pacific time.
” i got down here sunday and did the usual: got a car, meandered down, came to the same low-key lodging about four blocks up from the race site. all is well.

Jinx

I desperately want to celebrate being home in my own space and the fact that right now my schedule shows no trips until April. The problem is, I have done that same celebration twice now, and every time I do I end up leaving within a week.

I have a new plan: focus on the negatives of being home, and Iâ€™ll get stuck here.

World Shoe Association

It’s Friday afternoon. I’m sitting in the Las Vegas airport waiting to board a flight to LA. Matt Lieto and I arrived Tuesday, which was the first of three sporadic and busy days, tied together only by morning trips to the gym, meals with the K-Swiss marketing staff, and the background noise of slot machines. […]

Frost Bite Time Trial

Because I’m in California, I missed the time trial I was signed up for today. It’s tragedy, but I was able to get my mind off of it with a great trail run in the Santa Monica Mountains. Brian Davis has been largely absent the last few months from the commentary on this site, but […]

The three C’s

Coat, Computer and Camera. That’s what I forgot in the back seat of Ivette’s car when she picked Erik and I up from the airport yesterday. The computer made it hard to publish the post I wrote about Vegas, and the camera would have been nice to have today as I watched the Tour of […]

My detour home

I left my computer in somebody’s car yesterday, and the post I had written about the World Shoe Association trade show is saved on it. My post formatting and image adding software is also in that car, so in the interest of not leaving everyone in the dark I’m going to settle for picture free […]

Vegas

I’m in Las Vegas right now for the World Shoe Association trade show. I’m staying with Matt Lieto, and getting a chance to meet the crew at K-Swiss. I was hoping me and Matt would get a chance to ride up to the red rock national park, but it turns out I’m the only one […]

Beat Up and Loving It!

It’s been a tough week of training. I ran more miles at higher intensity than I ever have, I continued my streak of high volume swim training, and I still managed to spend half my training hours on the bike. I have been looking forward to taking tomorrow off since last Tuesday. I am sore […]

Recovery

I’m sitting in my room watching last night’s episode of Lost with my legs up. This is the best part of morning workouts. What makes today particularly nice is that I am sipping on Clif Shot Recovery Hot Chocolate. It’s awesome for cold weather training. I get to rehydrate with hot cocoa! Yesterday I went […]

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

After learning the drum part of this song, I find myself actually asking the question. I don’t play drums, but Loren just got this great video game called Rock Band. It comes with a fake guitar and fake drums, and is pretty much Dance Dance Revolution for people that don’t actually want to stand up […]