We’ve agreed to compete in the Dirty Duathlon. We haven’t yet agreed to what’s at stake, but it’ll be awesome for the winner and painful for the loser. I have to say, it took too long to get to this point, and it feels good to have some motivation to get off my duff. Hopefully I’ll be a few pounds lighter (and faster) within the next couple of months. Training starts tomorrow. Game on.

Just now I was looking up the stats and noticed this banner ad for the NBA playoffs on the side of the screen.

Do you think Kobe and Shaq are mad about having their faces lined up?

That was in New Orleans. Tonight we have the home court advantage. We gotta pull it out and win. I have a ton of stuff to get done tonight, so I’m not sure how much of the game I’ll get to watch, but I’ll be thinking Spurs By 4 all night long. Go Spurs Go!

I was in a hurry as I filled mine out, I was about to leave the house when I started, but decided to get through it quickly. It took me longer than anticipated, and I had to meet with my girlfriend. I went through the 3rd and 4th screens pretty quickly.

When I got to the final four screen, I didn’t like any of the teams that were listed there, but I didn’t have time to go back and correct it. I thought to myself “just pick something to close it out for now, and go back and change it later.” By the time “later” arrived it was too late to change anything.

I gotta stick with what I picked. Lenwood says the Aggies go further than the Longhorns (!?!?) and UNLV wins it all.

Run Rebels Run.

Swim: man is this hard. I can’t breathe, which makes endurance really difficult. When I rotate to breathe, one of two things happens. Either I don’t rotate properly, and I get a mouthful of water, or I do get my mouth out, and I take a big gasp like I’m going to be submerged for 20 minutes, which leads to hyperventilation. How on earth do swimmers do it? I just don’t get it.

Fortunately, UT is going to save me. I’m planning to sign up for a swim class later this month. That should help.

Bike: My body was built with bicycles in mind, I’m loving saddle time. I haven’t ridden my road bike in a few weeks now. I have, however, gotten some great mountain bike rides in. If I make it through the swim, I’m going to smoke some people on the bike.

Run: I’ve gotten a couple of good runs in, but I still don’t have the endurance. To date I have focused on running the least. I’ll pick that up towards the end of this month.

I have been attending Jack & Adam’s core strength training group for the past couple of weeks. I really hurt when I leave, but I can already tell a difference. Its good to be getting in shape.

My girlfriend competed in the CapTexTri this past Memorial day, so I went out to support her. She won her category! It was fun to be there and experience all of the excitement. And it was encouraging for me. The oldest person I saw was in his 70′s, and he was competing in the olympic distance tri. I hope I’m competing in triathlons when I’m 70. Wait, I take that back, I hope I’m still riding my bike when I’m 70.

Saturday I woke up early, went for a run with BK, then packed for camping. That afternoon my girl and I went to Enchanted Rock and camped in one of their primitive camping areas. We got a nice hike in, which helped a lot when I was trying to sleep that night.

Sunday we hiked to the top of the rock. There was an older couple that hiked all the way to the top and back. We guessed that they’re both in their 70′s, and it really was awesome to visit with them as they hiked up & back. Its no small feat to get to the top of that rock, and it really was encouraging that they completed the hike!

On the way back we stopped in Llano for some Cooper’s BBQ. Mmmmm. When we got back to Austin, we showered and went to her folk’s for dinner. Her Mom is a great cook. We had steak with garden fresh veggies, followed by home made key lime pie and home made vanilla ice cream. Sound good? It was. You should be jealous.

This morning it was back to work. But, after work, I went to Jack & Adams for core strength training. I’m now in training mode. And I feel it. I’m sore.

Was majorly bummed to watch my Spurs lose to the Mavericks tonight. I had hope in the 4th quarter because most of the Mav’s starters had fouled out. But they dominated us in OT, and we didn’t recover. I’m bummed that my team lost, but the Mavs totally earned it.

As I write this game 7 of the Suns-Clippers series is on, and the Suns are up in the 2nd quarter. I say crush the Clippers.

Its kind of a cool time for Texas right now, with two of our NBA teams going head to head for the finals. It sounds like the Spurs were ragged last night, but I’m not giving up on them. Go Spurs Go!

Oh, and thanks to Phoenix for ending the Lakers’ season. I guess its also kind of crazy that both Los Angeles teams made it to the finals this year. I pick Phoenix.

So, between now and August BK & I will be training for a 300 yard swim, 14 mile bike and 2.9 mile run. I think that makes this a dash class triathlon, but I may be mixing up terms. Either way, that swim sounds intimidating to me.

• Cycling: I’m ready. I love being on my bike. Bring it on.
• Running: Blech. I don’t like running. But, I’ve run enough that I know this won’t be a problem.
• Swimming: Gulp (no pun intended). I’m scared. I know how to swim, but it would be a vast overstatement to say that I’m a swimmer.

Still, taking in the whole of it, I’m looking forward to the event, and getting in shape will be a nice side benefit.

Here’s an interesting side note, every time I type the word triathlon I add an extra letter and enter “triathlong” then have to backspace. Could that be a Freudian slip?