A week later

I seemed to have spent most of this week fighting some kind of stomach and intestinal problem, starting on Tuesday. I would be fine and then start to cramp, causing me to hurry to the bathroom. It was bad enough that I took a day and a half off from work. I thought I was pretty much over it by Thursday but when I attempted some intervals on the bike it was definitely a mistake and I had to stop. It seems to pretty much have gone now thank goodness. i don't know what caused it but training has suffered as a result.

Saturday I set up a Hammer display in Sylvania, Ohio during the registration for Elite Endeavor's triathlon. Hammer sponsors the races and I had met the promoter at Iceman last year and he asked if I could get to one of his races. They get about 650 racers for this race and with packet pickup only open for 3.5 hours I figured there would probably be a lot of people showing up in a short time period. I enlisted the help of my friend Chris Werth to hlep me out in the tent. Chris is a confirmed Hammer user and did a superb job handling the crowd and answering questions. I think together we made a pretty good team and hopefully we can do it again.

Since Sylvania is next to Toledo there was only one place to go for dinner, Tony Packo's. I've been there before but Chris had never gone. Those who are familiar with the MASH TV show may remember that the restaurant was mentioned several times on the show by Jamie Faar who played Klinger. Jamie is from Toledo and still comes back to host his golf tournament. In addtion to the great Hungarian food there are about 1500 hot dog buns on the wall, each autographed by a celebrity. I figured the fried pickels, chili, and chili dog would either make my stomach problem worse or cure it. So far there seem to have been no after effects, but I wonder why my wife was sleeping in the other room?

This morning I went over to Maybury to get in a few laps and practice for the race that will be held there in a few weeks. I did three laps of a fairly moderate effort and then two more at a much easier pace. Interestingly the easier laps weren't all that much slower than the harder effort laps. I think it's because the course is so tight that going slower and not using the brakes much is about as effective as racing into each corner only to have to brake and accelerate hard again.