My Tour de France Training is a Work in Progress
I have done a lot of in the past 24 hours.This list is numerous so I will not get into everything, only the top few that include a seminar/social gathering, negotiating on a awesome real estate transaction and stepping up my training in case Lance Armstrong needs me.
Ok, to start, last night I attended the Kansas City's Online Community March event. My Facebook friend Jerry Smith did a 10 minute presentation on your "30 Second Presentation". If you missed it, don't worry, I'll be offering a workshop that Jerry is hosting in April at this weeks Kansas City Networking Group. Fellow Kansas City Network Group member James Tuttle attended and agreed it was a great event. Kudos to the host Jason Guerrero and Chris Gould. I met some great people. It was loud at points, but I'm sure it was the networking of the huge room of people at the Fox and the Hound.
Congratulations to Amy! Now the fun starts, Martin is ready to find that special home.
Now, In case you haven't heard, I have agreed to a backup position in the Tour de France, that is if Lance can't race. That is what kind of guy I am. I figure my 6 millionth position may get called up and I'll need to be prepared. It's my dream ad it is well over millions. I have started rigorous training schedule. To start, I wrote down my strengths and weaknesses this past weekend.
Strengths: I have competitively raced in the past and know what it takes. I know, it was back in the 80's, but what has changed. Cyclist still use a two wheeled bike. Second, I'm great at reviewing tape to find myopponents weaknesses. Matter a fact, I have watched previous tapes and have discovered an important fact. Taking off the pumps is a disadvantage. I remember in the old days cyclist would use the pumps to swipe flies and accidentally not the competitors off of the road. I'm going to bring back the bike pumps.
Weaknesses: Some may say that being 130 lbs over my 80's racing weight may be a disadvantage. I say I'm going to use that to my advantage. I know that I'm good at going down hill so that is what I'm going to work on most. Another weakness may be I'm a little slower. Ok, don't rub it in ex-teammates. I'm a lot slower. I'm confident that I'll lower my 20 minute mile with the right training. Monday night when I talked to my ex-cycling coach he was laughing pretty hard when I told him what I was going to do. I asked him, " have you heard of the tortoise and the hare?" Who won? Yeah that is right, the slooooow tortoise clobbered the speedy hare. I reminded him that the Tour de France is an endurance race. When the other cyclist go to sleep at night, I'm going to still be on the course racing. I have mapped this years course off and I'll make it to the last stage 1 day and 17 hours before the other cyclist.
I hope the doctors can put Lance back together again. And in case they don't, I'm confident that I can get my 270 lb frame down to a lean and mean 210 by race time. Some people may say it is a work in progress. If the worst part is that my 270 lb 43 year old body doesn't make it to the tour hopefully I'll kick diabetes. I'll call kicking diabetes a victory. Getting poked by needles 7 times a day is no fun.
Lance, you have taught me a valuable lesson in which I instill in my kids daily. The mind is very powerful. You proved me and all of us other cyclist wrong when you switched from a triathlete to a cyclist. See you on Twitter and I'll keep everyone posted about my training on my blog. Comeback for some laughs!