tiger basketball

All of us Mizzou basketball fans are happy to see this. I've never seen Tyrek Coger play in person, so I'm trusting the stats on this one. But it's a relief because we need a forward after the leaving of our senior Justin Safford. The fact that his main downpoint is conditioning is a welcome relief, because conditioning is significantly easier to improve than anything else. Hopefully he is good from the 3-point line, because it's safe to say that 3 point shots aren't exactly the tigers strong point....at all. Word is that the new head coach Frank Haith is a good recruiter, so lets see what he brings here next year.

new Cards addition

Lance Berkman is a great new addition to the Cardinals lineup, and evidently I'm not the only one who thinks so. Though he's potentially injury prone, given his past injuries, he's definitely worth keeping. I'm sure I speak for most of the Cards fans in saying that we're excited to see how he progresses through the season. I mainly want to know if this strong streak will last up to and through the all star break.

trizou results

Today was trizou triathlon day. It was so much fun, and I'll definitely be doing it in future years. My stats were:

Division place (Female 20-24): 11th out of 29

swim (400 meters)/run to bike/transition 1: 11:04

Bike (14miles)/transition 2: 1:04:05

Bike rate: 14mph

Run (3 miles): 27:42

run pace: 9:14

finish: 1:42:51

I realize these aren't spectacular stats. But I wanted to finish in 2 hours, so finishing 17 minutes quicker than that makes me happy. Next year I'm aiming to get in the top 10 if not the top 5 of my division. This race wasn't for time or perfect form, it was just to figure out how the world of triathlons work. Next year I'll focus on time a little more. The only thing that was a problem was the swim start. Because it was in a pool, people started one at a time, according to how fast they could swim. So given that I'm a super slow swimmer I was literally one of last people to start (there were probably only 50 people behind me in line). So with 700ish people starting I had to wait almost two hours to start. By the time I ran out to my bike some people were already done.

But, enough of the bad and let me tell you about how amazing it was. The thing about races is that training is about 1000x worse than the race itself. When we got there at 6:10 am this morning people were already there and things were in full swing. It's such a cool atmosphere at races (specifically this tri). There's people riding their fancy road bikes down the street, others in their one piece body suits, and some setting shoes and bike helmets in their transition area. Plus during the race there's other people there doing the same thing you are so it makes it seem so much better. I can't even tell you how appreciative I am of encouraging volunteers on the course. It's just clapping and general encouragement that they give to everybody, but it's always helpful.

The whole thing was actually easier than I thought it would be. But, it helps that it was 55 degrees and cloudy, which I thought would be horrible but it's perfect weather because it's warm enough not to freeze from the pool, but cool enough to not feel like you want to collapse. The running part was easier than I thought it would be. I'm thinking it's because my legs were already so tired from biking, that I couldn't feel the pain. Usually I'm a 9:30 mile, and I'm confounded as to how I was able to run faster after biking 14 miles and swimming 400 meters than just running 3 miles straight up. Or maybe it's because I was thinking about pacing myself the whole time.

But, probably my favorite thing about races is the people. It's like races make it completely normal to become good friends with that stranger standing next to you. When you're sitting/standing there for two hours you find a lot of things to talk about with these complete strangers. Secondly I was amazed at the age range. I figured the ages would be from 18-50 and oh was I completely wrong. There was a group of 8-12 year olds, I only wish I was kidding. They could just zip through the course because they had no body weight to carry, plus they have a never ending supply of energy. Than there's the really old people, that was even more surprising. There was actually a guys age group from 75-90.....yeah. I think I passed that guy during the run and of course had to tell him how amazing he was for doing it and his response was "quitters never win, winners never quit" Wow, I hope I've got that mentality at 80 years old when running a triathlon.

Moral of the story: it was awesome and if you ever get the chance to do a sprint triathlon than do it.

trizou update

the TriZou triathlon is one week from now. They've been sending out emails about the race for the past week. One described the bike/run course and the bike course is gonna be extremely hard. It's a big circle with two huge hills, but the real kicker is that it's a two lap course. So we get to go up a grand total of 4 giant hills.

The biking has been the hardest to train for. Because Columbia doesn't have a whole lot of open roads that aren't filled with traffic lights. Any good biking is on really busy roads and I'm not willing to take that risk. But, on race day the roads will have cones on them so I'm assuming it'll be safer than normal days. So I still haven't gotten the chance to ride 14 miles than run 3.

I'm really excited about the whole thing. Since it's my first tri, I'm just looking to finish even if that

means finishing last. Maybe next year I'll look for a decent time.

NHL post season

I wasn't able to watch the Canadiens v. Bruins live but the highlights made it seem like a great game. Carey Price did amazing with 31 saves. I've always had a lot of respect for outstanding goalies. Because it seems like such a difficult position, and to be great at it is impressive.

big ben's big wedding

Just a little personal background here. Ben Roethlisberger is getting married this summer to my cousin-in-law's (I don't know if that's actually a title) sister. So by marriage I'll be sort of, but not really be related to Big Ben. My cousins were invited to the wedding because they live in Pennsylvania and have actually had Ben over to their house. It's safe to say that my Steelers loving brothers and myself are extremely jealous

opening day

Is there any better day than opening day? There's nothing like the start of baseball season, especially in St. Louis. Stl is the epitome of a baseball town where at least 60% of the population wears cardinals gear or red on opening day (that's not an over exaggeration).

Players love playing for the Cards because the fans are awesome. The fans will cheer for players on the other team if they use to play for the red birds. People clapped for good ole' Ryan Ludwick when he stepped up to the plate yesterday. Last year I went to a game against the Reds (the only other central league team who could/did challenge the cards for the pennant) and everyone clapped for Scott Rolen. You don't see that kind of a fan base from the cubs.

We're all looking forward to a new season of baseball. Despite losing what seems like half our pitching staff and Holliday being out for a little while having an appendectomy.