Terrific!

It's a BEAUTY of a day out there. Lower humidity. Lower temps. Nice breeze. A great day to join Team R.E.D. at the Bear's Dean at 6 PM for a run or walk. I'll be there, with cookies.It's always a highlight of my week to run and laugh and laugh and laugh ... with friends. :-)

Morning workout: 4 mile run, 1 hour swim.

I've decided to run the Douglas 11 mile on Saturday. I'm hoping that oppressive heat and humidity will not present themselves that morning. I just looked through past race results and my 11 mile PR is 1:20:48 on 7/31/04. I'm hoping I can beat that. Weather permitting. That's the clincher. I'm going to try to get a post-race breakfast arranged. Stay tuned. I know there is at least some interest already.

Here's Tom O's photo from our Wednesday AM Progressive Run. BTW: We run on the roads, and by Byron standards, it's a FLAT course.

As you notice in the photo above, we're losing daylight. Pictured are Joe, Paul, Tod, me. Here's one of mine ...

Tom O' and Tod enjoying a post-run oatmeal raisin cookie. As you can see, we were all dripping wet, and literally leaving puddles on the driveway. :-)

The new bridge over highway 14 west is going to open Thursday August 19 at 6 pm with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the north side of the bridge.

I stopped by the fair today. Here's the cookie scoop: Blue ribbon for my oatmeal cookies,

white ribbon for my peanut butter cookies,

no ribbon for my m&m chocolate chip cookies. So there you go ...

Yesterday I was invited to accompany some friends to do some sight-seeing along the Mississippi River. It was just a beautiful day for such an outing. We started out on the paddle wheeler Pearl of the Lake in Lake City.

Pictured are Randy and colleagues from IBM China Peter, Chen Lei and Fenny. It was such a relaxing way to spend part of the afternoon, enjoying the peace and quiet on the river.

We stopped in Wabasha and walked along the river ...

near the National Eagle Center.

We also saw an empty barge making its way up-river.

Next was a stop at Lark Toys, where I'd never been. It was a walk down toy memory lane.

And of course the carousel, for which Lark Toys is most famous. It's really gorgeous.

Soon it was time to eat. Joining us were Tom and Shirley Woo and Jim Li. It was a perfect summer night for a cookout.

The menu was All-American ... burgers, corn on the cob, ...

calico beans, apple pie, and S'mores.

I think it is fair to say that a good time was had by all. A lovely, lovely day. :-)

From Chris Koch:

Fall Time Trials

Thinking of du'ing the Treadman Duathlon this year and want to do some training on the course? Maybe you just want to hammer out some late summer miles on a challenging route? Here's your chance. We will be running a series of 4 Time Trials (TT's) starting next week, Tuesday, August 10, and running thru August 31. The first three Tuesdays will run on virtually the same course as the Treadman Duathlon, but these will start and end in Douglas, MN (with no in-and-out of Pine Island as in the T-Man). The first three are on the 18.9 mile, clockwise, loop. The final TT is a challenging, but short TT from Douglas to the top of Genoa Hill where 75th crosses CR 105. The Hill TT is 3.39 miles in length.
LONG COURSE DATES: Aug 10, Aug 17, and Aug 24

HILL TT: August 31

Each TT will be individually timed, but if you complete 2 of the 3 long course TT's, and the Hill TT, you'll get a combined time as well. So for a combined time and ranking, you must complete two long course TT's plus the Hill TT.

Start time will be 6pm--participant will go off in 30 second intervals. Vehicle parking is in Douglas at the Douglas Trail lot on 75th. There is no fee for the time trials, but you must be a member of one of the following to participate: RASC, TriRochester, WOW, VeloRochester or RTC.

DIVISIONS Men Aero* Men Stock Women Open** * Any aero modifications (clip-on TT bars, disc or > 50 mm wheels, etc) to a stock bike or the addition of an aero helmet put you in the aero category ** For the women, we will record your time as aero (as above) or stock, but this is an Open division. However, if at the end of the series we have at least 3 women that road stock in two long course and the Hill TT, and 3 that road aero in two long course and the Hill TT, we will split this Open category into Women Aero and Women Stock.

I think I'm fresh out of news. Until after Team R.E.D. of course. Later!!