Everything Must Go!

It's sort of like a store closing, everything must go, fire sale. Except it's much easier to pack.

While I'll still be keeping the details up to date, you'll find the day to day excitement has moved.

You can now find me...

HERE!

Geeking Out!

With the limited exception of running with Iron Wil on part of the IMWI marathon course, I've been taking the "off season" following my own Ironman pretty seriously. My wetsuit and The Pol-R Express have remained at the house, and my running shoes are sitting under the bed. I've been enjoying some of the foods that I passed on during the height of training. And I've been trying to tackle a few tasks that have been sitting and waiting for "the right time."

Today, I resolved a couple of big hitters, and they fall squarely into the "geek" category. And that got me thinking. And I figured it was high time I had a post that was unrelated to triathlon. It's good for the soul (and the sole). So, here are a few sure signs you are an uber-computer geek.

1. You happen to know exactly what a Dell PowerEdge Server does. Bonus points if you are sitting anywhere within 10 feet of one or more.

2. The term RAID array means something besides an arsenal of bug spray.

3. Scuzzy (SCSI) isn't used to refer to a person.

4. Your friends call you to fix their computer after three years of not updating it. Bonus points if you consider that a "boring" day.

5. You can rattle off the IP addresses of computers and/or servers in your home, as well as your friends' homes.

6. You actually have a server in your home (see item 1).

7. Any piece of computer equipment in your possession has a "hot-swappable" anything.

8. You have more than one computer sitting in your garage because it's "obsolete" but you figure it might come in handy, some day.

9. Challenging new software (say Adobe Photoshop and ImageReady) is a weekend learning opportunity.

10. You have more than two office suites on your computer. Bonus points if you have the trifecta (all three major suites, Corel, Microsoft Office, and Lotus).

11. You have more servers/storage capacity at home than at work.

12. You consider it a reasonable swap to give up phone service (or small children) to pay for ultra high speed Internet service.

13. Your storage devices come in terabytes.

I spent most the day getting one of my servers back on-line. Yes, I said ONE of my servers. The other is at my feet just begging for the same attention. I have to get it straightened out quickly, as Mrs. Pol has a paper to write, and she will be less accomodating than I to the rather large computer sitting in front of our desk.

I also need to get them all running as it is almost time for training to come back on line. I figure October will be dedicated to fairly light training to get back into the swing of things. November, like last year, will be a swim focused month, and I will once again focus my efforts on daily swims. That turned out so well for this season that it is worth another shot.

I also have some major blog related irons in the fire, and there will be some huge announcements coming in the near future. In the hopes of major traffic numbers in the next few weeks, I'll leave it at that.

Congratulations!

Yesterday was an amazing day for raceAthlete and other bloggers at Ironman Wisconsin. Throughout the day, we tracked more than 25 different athletes. There were even several people is raceAthlete gear with whom I was completely unfamiliar. Regardless, they all received the same cheering and we got pictures of everyone we could. I'll post those, later.

In no particular order, CONGRATULATIONS to the following:

TriBoomer - 14:40 - He looked awesome in his raceAthlete tri-suit.

George Schweitzer - 10:36 - Amazing job, 126th overall.

Andy Sweet - 11:34 - Proving that Chris isn't the only fast one in the family.

Brent Buckner - 14:18 - I saw a lot of Orca outfits, one of them was probably him.

Walchka - 14:56 - I didn't get to meet him, but look at that awesome time.

Tri Dummy - 14:38 - I saw Jay on the swim, and he proved he's no dummy on this course.

Taconite Boy - 13:59 - Our blog hero rocked the course, and always had a smile on his face.

Rural Girl - 12:33 - Our paths crossed several times as she rocked the course, and beat my IMKY time by nearly 45 minutes.

Jetpack - 13:08 - Jetpack proved his strength on the run with a 4 1/2 hour marathon after the tough hills on the bike.

Roland - 15:04 - Try as I did, I never found the USCG outfit, and failed to get any pictures of Roland as he ran what I believe was an IM PR.

Micampers - 13:16 - Another one I missed all day long. He did an awesome job on that bike course.

Gavnunns - 10:22 - I don't know if this made the Kona qualifier time, but it was good enough for 88th overall, and he looked great doing it.

Iron Dave - Another I was unable to locate in person, Dave crossed the finish in 14:47.

Running2Far - 13:18 - I believe I saw Running2Far and didn't even know it. Looking back at the day, I kept seeing Hayes, which I figured was a last name. I'm betting it was him.

Chris Sweet - I spent the whole day going, "Hey, I think that was... Too late, he's gone," whenever Chris was anywhere near me. Chris lit the course on fire, finishing in 9:55. I truly hope that qualifies him for Kona, because he was awesome out there.

Simply Stu - 12:47 - Stu did an awesome job, and looked to be taking the day in and enjoying it as HIS day.

Roman - 13:47 - Roman balanced racing with time with friends with ensuring everyone had what they needed (including your's truly and everyone in blogland, as he made sure raceAthlete would get updated). In the process, he ran an awesome race, and every time I saw him he was thanking volunteers on the course.

Bold - 12:56 - I saw Bold on his way to T1, and a couple of times on the run. On his way to a great finish, it was confirmed that Wisconsin hills can, in fact, be a challenge. He never let them stand in his way.

Texafornia - 12:59 - Using all his zen tricks, Texafornia squeaked out a victory in his competition with Jetpack (it should be noted that Jetpack carved Texafornia's one hour lead off the bike to 9 minutes by the finish). There were signs all over the run course taunting Jetpack (in good fun).

TriGreyhound - 14:42 - Grey proved his triathlon/blogger fame as people on the run course called out to him. By his blog name! He made a plan and stuck to it. And he looked very stylish with his blinky lights.

Iron Wil - 16:20 - Title earned. Dragons slain. Wil came out of the water after a tough swim day with a smile on her face. She came off the bike after a long ride with a smile on her face. And she ran a marathon. She wasn't ALWAYS smiling there, but she kept plugging along. She took joy in little things, like crossing timing mats, walk breaks, and passing the final cut-off way ahead of the time limits.

And it would be remiss to leave out the people I didn't even know were on the course (mostly because I didn't even know them).

Chris - 12:54 - I kept seeing a raceAthlete jersey attaced to bib 954. Each time, I would take a picture and check my list. Though Chris wasn't on that list, we got some good photos and it was great to see him supporting the team.

John - 14:47 - Somewhere around mile 15 of the run, I saw a raceAthlete jersey and bib 1922. Another I hadn't seen prior to that. I snapped a picture, cheered him on, and later checked on John.

Finally, IM-Able ran into some issues on the swim. I'm unsure if she was injured or faced other challenges. She has a swim time of 1:44, and nothing for T1. She toed the line and put in a good effort on the swim. As more information becomes available, we'll see what she chooses as her next steps.

*Update - IM-Able DID finish the swim (another great job, Athlete Tracker). She made it through transition in about 13 minutes. Stomach issues forced her off the bike somewhere during the second half of the bike. And anyone who might want to question her "iron" level, she apparently got physically sick DURING the swim, and still finished. Me, I'd have drowned on the spot.

There you have it. Twenty-four team mates all pursuing their Ironman dreams. And I'm sure I've missed a few others. If you know of a blogger missing from the list, please let me know. They deserve all the recognition they can get.

A Little Help

Okay, I'm looking for one or more Widget gurus who can help me sort out the XML on this page. Namely, I'm trying to figure out how to add links to my "Training Partners" graphics. The Blogger Widgets are fine for adding a link list OR a picture. So far, I've been unable to figure out how to add a link TO the picture.

So, anyone who has a bit more knowledge and skill than I, your help would be appreciated. Oddly enough, I have the custom Widget for the raceAthlete sponsors, which happen to be linked graphics, but the HTML page on blogger doesn't show the details of how it is structured.

I will greatly appreciate any help that can be provided.

Heading Out

Well, it's WAY past my bedtime, but there were things to do. The Pol-R Express now looks presentable and race ready. Most of the stuff is packed and ready for the car. And the house is ready for us to be gone for a few days.

I'm off to bed, and up early for a short stint at work in the morning. We pick up the rental car at 8 a.m. and will head out as soon as it is packed.

The next post you read here will be from the road or from the guest blogger. I'm still not telling who it is.

Play By Play

In a few days I'm going to be horribly busy. First, there will be the drive to Louisville. A 10-hour trip in the best of conditions, we'll be doing it with two toddlers. They're troopers, so it should be a good trip, but we're planning on the trip taking longer than it might otherwise take.

Once we get to Louisville, there is check-in, gear bag packing, bike check, tri-blogger dinners, practice swims, and a general mess of other things to handle. FYI, the tri-blogger group looks to be pretty major. There should be upwards of 20-30 people between participants, sherpas, family, volunteers, and other cheerleaders somehow associated with the Tri Blog Community. Getting to meet everyone without breaking the coach's designated curfew will prove interesting.

On Sunday, there's this little race thing I'll be tackling. Since that promises to take most of the day, and blogging probably won't be high on my "to do" list when I'm through, I've made other arrangements.

Starting as early as tomorrow, a guest blogger will have access to the controls here at Iron Pol central. Now, I won't ruin the surprise by telling you who he is, let's just suffice it to say he has the experience to know what might be happening throughout the day. I imagine he'll post soon enough so you can find out just who will be filling this post. Between his blogging skill and Mrs. Pol's phone updates, you'll have all the scary details on race day.

And now, there is a young lady that needs to find her way to bed, and daddy has the honors.

Training Partners

Triathlon is designed to be an individual sport. By its very nature, it tends to be so. The training required to complete a triathlon, particularly longer races, lends itself to solo workouts. With the exception of specific races, drafting is prohibited on the bike, forcing us to ride our own race. And even when we run next to hundreds of others, we must go the distance alone.

Due to my schedule, I tend to do a lot of my training alone, as well. While there are others in the pool when I swim, it's difficult to be social with my face in the water. I can occassionally find others with whom I can ride bike, but those options become more limited as the distances increase. And I've always been a solitary runner. (Unless I'm helping someone through their first marathon, then I'm all about running together).

This doesn't mean that I don't have training partners. Much of my sidebar is filled with the raceAthlete sponsors. Some of them I actively use. Others are there for me to consider. My tri club is full of people I will meet up with during races. And I participated in WIBA 2007 with dozens of other tri bloggers.

Now, I'm adding a new group to my sidebar for actual training partners. It will be dedicated to those things outside of raceAthlete that have contributed to my training. They have provided some product, tool, or service (sometimes free of cost) that has greatly aided in my journey.

The first two companies that I am adding are Accelerade and SwimSmooth. I agreed to try Accelerade and provide some feedback. I've used it for several weeks, now, and it was the fuel source for my recent half-IM PR. I'll be posting more on it as time allows, and I have several articles on their Accelerade Edge web forum. I have been quite pleased with the benefits of the product, and suggest you check out their site.

Months ago, I posted a short clip from Paul Newsome's SwimSmooth video series. The specific clip focused on visualization and showed Olympic gold-medal swimmer Bill Kirby in the pool. Paul contacted me, provided a few articles he thought might also benefit my training. His short video clip was beneficial, and the video series is amazing. A couple minor adjustments made after watching the DVDs already improved my stroke. And I plan on spending a great deal of time in the off season (a few short weeks away) going through all the drills on the videos to see how much more improvement is possible. Whether you are a total novice or highly experienced swimmer, the SwimSmooth series is worth checking out. We spend so many dollars trying to eek a few seconds out of our bikes, and a few dollars will go a long way toward improving our swim times, often saving far more time than we gain by shaving a few ounces off our bikes.

So, keep an eye out for other Training Partners in the sidebar. While we might train and race on our own, we always have those training partners who help us along.

WIBA Gobing Tuba Madison-ba

There are few things I recall about the cartoon Fat Albert. I do, however, recall one of the characters speaking in a very memorable, if difficult to follow manner. He was prone to throwing b's into various portions of words. I guess if something sticks this long, it was either truly remarkable or truly horrific. And Fat Albert was certainly not horrific.

The above comments do little except offer a unique lead in to...

Iron Pol hasn't gone fishing!

Iron Pol hasn't gone crazy! (Not legally, at least)

Iron Pol is at