September 2016 may have been the best month of my life

I had a bunch of stuff scheduled for this month. I did not know how much was really going on though. Around the middle of the month I was like 'Damn'. I decided I should write this all down and make a blog post about it. I tried to put everything that I could recall happening here.

• Got tattooed
• Hung out with Danimus
• House related
• Met with builder
• Scheduled lot evaluation
• Got loan preapproval
• Got an ultrasound on my neck due to weird, scary pains
• They say they found nothing
• Went to Danny's 3rd birthday party
• Saw WEIRD AL at the Benedum
• New Weird Al cartoon, Milo Murphy's Law, came out
• Went to the PT Fall Festival parade
• Pax's first parade
• Boys got their picture in the paper
• I biked a bunch
• I ran even more
• Steelers 5K
• Best time ever!
• Greensburg 5K
• Even better time!
• Post race after party with free beer!
• Gabby 5K
• She's not dead!
• Went to my first BEERFEST!!
• I drank a ton of new beers (not only at this event but all month in general)
• Went to the eye doctor
• Took Pax to his 18 month doctor appt
• We paid our school taxes for the year
• Finally paid off the loan for our property
• Went to a ton of new restaurants
• Michael's Neighborhood Griddle
• Ricks
• Abruzzi
• Hugos
• Checked out the new bike shop in Greensburg, Flat Tire
• Watched the first presidential debate
• Steelers season started!
• Bought tickets to go to Joe Louis arena
• Started bingeing Luke Cage
• Got a new credit card with the fancy, secure chip in it
• Got myself the new iPhone 7

The best thing didn't happen until Oct 1st so I will write that into it's own post. 

TRIATHLON (For real this time)

JANNEY AND THE Y TRIATHLON @ NORTH PARK
2016/08/07

RESULTS

I tried to do a triathlon before when I was not as in shape as I am now and it was not the greatest experience. I did it though. What sucked was they had to cut the swimming part out because the pool at the PTHS was under construction. In the end it kind of really didn't count as a triathlon. I had to do another one to actually be able to say I did one. One day I looked online and found this one.
I was super anxious about doing this. I wanted to but my stupid brain kept coming up with things to be nervous about. I almost didn't sign up but Ale encouraged me so I decided I was going to give it a shot. I can't tell you how happy I was when we finally pulled in and they waved us into a parking spot. We were here.

I signed in and the lady gave me a little gift bag and an entire pack of swim caps. If anyone needs one I got em. I found my racing number in the transition area and set up then went to the pool and waited for my heat.

SWIMMING 700M
The few people that I talked to all hated the swimming part. I know this was going to be my worst event. I can't tell you the last time I went swimming. Luckily it was not over open water. I could always touch bottom if I got tired so that's something to keep in mind going forward if I do this kind of event again.
The pool itself was magnificent. I don't think I've ever seen a pool this grand. It is 50m across so 14 times down and back ugh
I tried to think of it as 7 up and backs
I was raising my hand and counting out loud for the 7 "laps" so I could stay on track

1. I was fine
2. Started stopping already
3. Powered through thinking if I can get to 4 I'm over half done
4. Would take a few strokes then run out of breath, I could tell I probably wasn't doing so great at this point
5. Followed guy who passed me. I was close behind him the whole time, He made some more distance but it wasn't a ton, I was keeping up so it made me feel not too bad.
6. Next to last one. Same pattern: 2 strokes, run out of breath, start hopping on one foot forward as I took a few breathes, repeat
7. Last one, I can still see others swimming, I'm not last

I got right out when I was done and asked the girl what time she wrote for me and I saw 45:31
I started the 2nd heat which was 25 min in. 1st heat went at 7:30am, I went at 7:55am so really I did 20:31.
Results say I took 25:34 for the first leg so I estimate it took me 5:03 to run out of the pool, around a cone at the back by the announcer lady then out to the transition area and then me getting dressed. I guess that sounds right, I did take a long time to make sure my feet were good.

BIKING 12M
I had to stop right away to put on my gloves because I just carried them with me. I think I went slow the first lap because I did not know where I was or how much I needed to pay attention to turns.
My first lap around I was following someone who was finishing and I wrongly started following them off the main course luckily I realized it and cut right back over. After that I was good.
The uphills really felt like they slowed me down and I was dragging. It seemed like the first half of the course was uphill. A lot of people passed me which I am not used to riding the bike trails by myself. There were some people with some all-pro bikes I tell you. I wish I had an extra $5K to buy one of those.
I made up good time on the down hills. That's where I passed the most people. It seemed like the back half of the course was downhill.
There was a marker thing to run over which I made sure to do every lap. I thought I saw people missing it so that threw me off but I keep doing it. That was good because there is a page on the results that show that information.
I also got confused with the exact distance and amount of laps. I knew we did 4 but I was trying to figure it with my GPS as I went and it didn't seem like it was going to add up. I ended up just figuring when I pass the end and I have a close miles ridden that's the time I should go in. (It was 5 laps)
It was also weird with the staggered starts because I could already see people running and people I saw when riding I couldn't tell how good I was doing at all.
I was looking for Ale when I got to the crowds but I never saw her which made me kind of sad.
I think I rolled in at 11.93m and back to my stall. I didn't need to change this time. Just take off my helmet and gloves.
Results say I took 52:21 for this leg.

RUNNING 5K
Again I was off kilter at the beginning because I wasn't sure where the trail was or anything. I wasn't that bad though. There seems like a nature trail winds all around the grounds of the park and that's where we were running. There were lots of white arrows painted on the ground and there were lots of girl folk pointing and cheering as you went by. The only thing that sucked about this trail was there were plenty of sections where there were nothing but big rocks and tree parts. It was not very conducive to running in my opinion. Mountain running maybe. I actually kicked a rock and bit it at one point. The next day I had a nice bump on it. I got right up but someone was behind me and saw it.
I think I stopped a few times when I started running but I think when I got over half way my last wind must have kicked in and I even went faster and finished good. Either the new socks were the bomb or the blister things worked because I had no trouble whatsoever with my feet. The last 3/4ths of a mile finally went on to the road and I motored pretty well. I passed one more guy and finished! Yay! There were ladies right at the finish line ripping your chip off immediately which was pretty funny. They really wanted them back.

I also must say in addition to the pool, the bath house is amazing too. It's huge and the showers were nice and hot.
This is one high quality park that I feel bad it's so far away because I would definitely take my family here again for a picnic or holiday.

Well I did it. It was hard but I did it anyway. Maybe I'll come back next year.

Trail Extension

I went to ride the other day and I took the PT Cruiser using the brand new bike rack my dad found in his garage. It uses ancient strap and buckle technology which can be confusing but if you mess with it long enough it does actually work.

When I got to the trail I saw something new right at the start. There was a picnic table and a new sign. My goodness what was the news?!?

Future - Trafford thru Murrysville to Export

Oooh What does that mean?! I knew they'd be extending the trail sometime in the future. When I first started riding this was pretty much immediately after the part that took it to Delmont opened so I've never know the trail any different than how it is now.

They're coming FROM Trafford TO Export? That seems confusing. Where the heck is there currently a trail in Trafford to come from? How long will this take until we can ride on it? Most importantly, where will the Penn Trafford connector section be? There is no way they cannot have at least an extension that hooks us in to the main trail if it the main trail can't actually go that way. Now I don't want so many people on it that a person can't reasonably ride their bike in safety but I feel everyone would enjoy it and it would get lots of traffic from PT people if we had access. I'm probably going to have to give them money and join so I can somehow have a say in this. I'm sure there have to be PT people already trying to sway someone. There were also some maps and brochures on the post so I just need to mail that in now.

I thought about how cool that will be when it happens for a large stretch of my bike ride and that was nice.

That was until I found someone's phone. It was on the ground in the tunnel right before the mile 4 marker. I wasn't even planning on going that long but I was feeling good. Plus I devised a plan for next week to finally ride the entire length of the West Penn Trail. I'm going to park at the parking lot I found at the 5 mile marker and go to the end and back however long it takes me. So I figured if I"m going to start at the 5 I should ride the other half of the trail up to the 5 so over the 2 weeks I hit every part of it.

Anyway so I go through the tunnel and I see a snazzy electric portable phone. I don't know if my first thought was 'Screw it' because I did ride by but something stopped me and I turned around and grabbed it. It wasn't broke or anything so I put it in my pocket and kept going. So then I started thinking about what I was going to do and how. I figured when I got done riding I could just find a likely contact and call it to see if they could get a hold of whoever this was but then I thought 'No'. I don't want to go through dudes phone. I'm sure its nothing but what if hes a weirdo or a closet cheating freak or mafia or who the hell knows what. I yelled out at a few people I passed asking if they lost a phone but no luck.  By the end I was decided to just drop it off with the cops.

Of course that was an affair. How stupid am I to go walking right up to police and give them me to beat up or whatever? They were right on the way home though (after my GPS took me in the stupidest circle I ever took) in the basement of an old brick building with this locked steel door and camera and stuff. I rang the bell and just as I thought no one was coming and 'Should I just leave it here on the ground' some (obviously) big, bald cop opens the door and I'm pretty sure he just said 'What?' gruffly and not "How can I help you?'. I just said Lost and Found and handed it to him. I said I found it on the bike trail and he took it and I bolted. Hopefully whoever lost it got it back.

Trail Fest 2015

Apparently I have evolved into a cyclist. My goals is to ride 500 miles this year.

Here are some links to some of the places I go. Hopefully I'll come back and clean this up a bit.



http://www.post-gazette.com/life/recreation/2015/04/04/Cyclists-look-north-to-progress-on-the-Erie-to-Pittsburgh-Trail/stories/201504040012

http://friendsoftheriverfront.org/trails/three-rivers-heritage-trail/three-rivers-heritage-trail-status/

5 STAR TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1007

WESTMORELAND HERITAGE TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1010

GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1008
http://www.atatrail.org/

RTC
http://www.regionaltrailcorp.com/

Mentoring Field Trip and More

It is the time of year that we take our field trip for my mentoring group from work. We meet like every other month and one of the last meetings of the year we do something fun out of the office. I do not know who picked it or how it got approved but I honestly am standing here applauding right now for the people who did make where we went this year happen. Last year we did a tour of the other MSA facilities at Evergreen and Rockpointe. A nice field trip no doubt but still a bit too tied to the work environment. This year we went to Wigle Whiskey in Pittsburgh and then across the street to Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle for some food. Now that is something to get excited about!

I had to find a way to get down there as I was not driving in the downtown area in my car. No way. I thought at first it was only 2 miles away for some reason but it was actually 4. That is a bit too far out for walking. I was told to email some people to try and get a seat in one of their cars but I had a better idea. I'll just ride my bike. I was in the tour the other week. I have a better idea of the streets around here now. It should be no problem. It would actually work out really well as I had to take another trip to the Apple store because when I woke up that morning it turns out my 1 month old iPhone 6 took a dive off my nightstand and was now smashed.

Luckily it was only a half hour job (but cost $116) to get the screen fixed and I was good to go. I was able to get that handled during lunch.

Now I just relax until a little after 1pm and I'll ride down to the distillery. I was able to stay on the sidewalks for the most part and it wasn't bad. I did get to see that they have a section of Penn Ave ripped the hell up down to one lane and everything was dirt. They must be fixing some serious sewer pipe issues or something. Since it was only 4 miles the trip was over soon and I didn't have to wait long for others to show up.


They gave us a free cocktail to start which was delicious. No whiskey burn at all. It was smooth and awesome. The guy led us into the back and showed us all the equipment used to make the whiskeys and even gave us history on Pittsburgh and Prohibition and stuff. It was all pretty cool. We then sat down at these tasting tables and we had 5 different kinds of whiskey to sample from. Also very awesome! Unfortunately I didn't think ahead far enough I guess. I was unable to purchase any as I had no way of taking it back with me on my bike.















I also found out about this Festival coming up that some of my favorite local companies are involved in. Hopefully I can make it to that.

Even though it was only Thursday this seemed like the unofficial start to my weekend this week. On Friday we had to quickly cram in a stop at Sam's Club in Monroeville so we had some food to cook for when my dad got here. Since the boy had friends over the weekend of his birthday, my dad rescheduled his trip to come over to this weekend. We made it home and got the groceries put away before he got here. He actually walked in right during Freedom Friday which was really just Taco Tuesday but on Friday. We didn't get too crazy that night. Ale was even working on the boy's costume. 

Saturday we started early though. My dad took the boy to get donuts and found out the Jeannette Bakery no longer exists then we burned the trash and made our plans for the day. We would show my dad the property in Claridge that we now own, visit Aunt Dee and then go out to Ligonier for food. I read an article recently that the people who now own the old Hollow restaurant (used to be Sleepy Hollow) have reopened and now call it the Steel Wheel Grille at the Hollow. I wanted to take Ale and sit out on the back where you are overseeing the creek. She would probably like that. 

So when we ready we set out. The property was first because it was the closest. We parked on the road and walked up. It looks the same as it did last time I was here, very woodsy. This time however I tried to go as far up as I could. I never went on the back acre this far and I was impressed. Sure lots of trees were falling down but I bet when I moved in and started cleaning this up things would grow again. I had a ton of firewood if I wanted it. I could landscape this to be whatever I wanted. The boy asked if he could build a fort back here. Obviously you can. Have at it boy. 

When we got ao Aunt Dee's she was already outside with Billy. She says she has glaucoma now so that sucks but besides that she seemed to be doing okay. Jed is currently living in the trailer court in Penn but apparently Zippy was still here. We stayed and chatted for about an hour then headed out.

When we got to the restaurant it was not what I expected. Apparently the huge restaurant part is not yet fixed up enough from when it burned down to be open. Instead they had a little outdoor part open on the side and that was the way it was for now. We sat outside and ordered some food. It was good. There were lots of lady bugs flying around and the boy met a friend who was working on his Minecraft costume. I asked the lady before we left what was going on and she told me they just got the permits approved and now they can go in and first thing they want to do is fix up the bathrooms (currently they have 2 port-a-potties and a sink in the parking lot, Ale was not fond of that) and then they'll go from there. I figure give them the winter to take care of whatever they have to do and maybe by the time next summer rolls around we can come back and see the whole thing. 

On the way I also made us stop at All Saints Brewing to fill up the growlers. They were out of Oktoberfest so that sucked but the 2 beers I did get were awesome anyway. 

We watched the Pens win that night against Neal and the Predators. Fleury got his 29th career shutout. My dad woke me up at 7 in the morning the next day as he was leaving. I thought he'd stick around but whatever that's usually when I try to get us out of there when we visit. He seemed very happy for us, his family, and was glad he visited. I was glad too. 

Too bad he didn't stay. Big Ben set a bunch of records and had one of the greatest days in Steelers quarterback history as he won his 100th game in 150 chances (only the 4th QB to do so) and we beat the Colts 51-34. Recap here.

All in all a great weekend. I made sure to note aloud to Ale several times how happy I was. I love my wife and family!

Trilogy - Part X of 3 - Tim's Tour

I took my biking TO THE NEXT LEVEL this weekend. I signed up to do a 3-2-1 Ride that was held in Pittsburgh on 2014/10/12.

There were 3 options:

1. Rita's Tour - Only 7 miles, not what I was looking for.
2. Metric Century - 62 miles. Maybe a bit much for me yet.
3. Tim's Tour - 25 miles. Seems just about right.

So I signed up for Tim's Tour. I almost didn't. I was nervous. I couldn't get Joel to commit to go with me. I had my co-worker Neil interested but he had plans to go camping that weekend so he couldn't go either. It wasn't like I couldn't do it myself but it'd be nice to have someone to ride with. My main concern was knowing where to go in riding the streets of Pittsburgh. I've never done it before. I don't know where anything is. I wasn't tired of my regular trails but I definitely wanted to go check out something new, the trails down Pittsburgh. This was my chance. I figured they would have to mark it well enough. When I emailed the lady she assured me that 'No one would be left behind'. That was what I needed to hear. I paid my $25 and filled out the form. I found out later that this was a fundraising thing and I had to commit to another $10 but that was okay. They even had scheduled early packet pick-up at the bike shop right by my work, the one I bought my bike at. So I was able to make it to that and acquire my free shirt, water bottle, stickers, race bib, etc. 

I woke up on Sunday and got ready to go. I was a bit nervous as I hate driving down Pittsburgh but with no home Steelers game today there were no problems. I paid for a spot in the lot rather than park on the road and the stupid toll guy tried to give the wrong change but whatever. Since I was early I got to ride around Heinz Field by myself and it was awesome!! This was fun as all hell. It was a little cold in the shadows of big buildings when the wind blew hard but I'm sure my body would heat up once I started riding in earnest and things would be okay. I was already drinking water and had to pee so there was another pre-race situation where I had to find a place to go. I saw other people searching for restrooms and eventually did find an unofficial place to relieve myself. Now it was ride around until we were ready to start. 

I lined up on the road where it looked like everyone else was lining up. Some lady started talking but I couldn't hear her so I went the whole way to the front so I could. I hoped I was in the right place. And WE WERE OFF!!

I can't describe how much fun it was. It was really fun. I tried to stay in a pack but then I saw people moving up. Eventually I figured I better make a move too or I'll get left behind. We rode on bridges and trails and roads. There were easily visible signs where changes in course were required. I slowed down a bit going up some hills but I never stopped or had to get off my bike. I skipped the halfway rest stop. There was no reason for me to stop. I was able to stay in a pack until the last straightaway and I arrived back at Heinz Field in 2 hours and 23 minutes. People were taking our picture and I felt great. I could keep going. I rode around and saw they had some stuff laid out for us but I wasn't socializing. The whole ride was perfectly documented in my RunKeeper app and that made me happy. I couldn't wait to go home and analyze it and tell Ale all about it. I was surprised that it turned out it wasn't even my longest ride at that point. It was a few tenths of a mile short. 

I loaded up the car and drove home, calling the 6 pack shop to have a sandwich ready for me when I got there to grab some beer for the Steelers game. I made it back just in time. What a wonderful experience. I would absolutely do this again. I'd do it again next week if I could. 

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