You Cannot Shake Hands with a Clenched Fist

My friend Pain was here to stay. I tried everything to get rid of him. After a while, he was becoming, well, kind of a pain. So, the lightbulb went off in my cranium Friday afternoon, as there is a LOT of space in there. I will entice Pain with an incentive to leave. You see, Pain is a sucker for a cold beer. So, Friday afternoon, I told Pain that I had a coupon for two free drafts at the local watering hole, Erma & Joe's. It's a pretty seedy place, with 8 oz. drafts for 50 cents, free peanuts and all of the second hand smoke two lungs can handle per hour.

So I gave him the coupon, and off he went. What he didn't realize is that I made the coupons up, on my computer, but he bought it anyway, and I waved him goodbye. When he came back later that evening, he saw that there was NO Vacancy at the Turtle's aquarium. He sent me a text message later on, saying it was cold outside, and he was hungry, and all he had with him was his ho-bo bag etc. I ignored it, and went off on my own. Pain, Pain go away, and don't come back another day. Although I know he will, I have a soft spot in my heart for him.......We have become good friends, like peanut butter & jelly.

Back to the great indoors w/ VQ. Saturday, tough indoor workout, lots of VO2's and strength building stuff on the bike. Two hours later, I was cooked, well-done, filleted and broiled.The Badger, Coach Stan-O & Sweetie were all part of the game. Sweetie, although a newbie to our group is doing quite well. He is a solid talent, and now I know why he can compete in the "Big Race in Hawaii". He grinds away on the bike, maxing out the wattage's, and doesn't even sweat. He has caught on quick though, that we are a WEIRD bunch of guys, training, having fun, and poking fun at each other. I think he also realizes that we love to see each other do 110% in our training. We are the best, because we are winners!

This am, we went to the Badger Den. We had a surprise visitor, Dr. Larry who has been in hibernation for the past several months. He used to be part of our group, but between a wife, 19 kids, performing 8 surgeries per day, 9 days per week, and sleeping the third Sunday of every other month, something had to give. So, he got rid of 16 of the kids, and now only does 7 surgeries per day. (OK, kidding, about the surgeries, that's a little far fetched, don't you think?)

I had a double workout to do, as I have to be off tomorrow. So, I did 2 sets of plyo's and 6 maximum sprints, then spent an additional 1.5 hours riding on the compu-trainer w/ The Badger & Dr. Larry. It was a blast. Even though we were riding a computer simulated course, and I had already done a complete days workout before I even got on the bike, I STILL beat The Badger for every "Stop Ahead" sign sprint! He gave me some lame excuse that he could not see them, because he didn't have his reading glasses on, and his dog was barking, and he didnt brush his teeth, and his fur was not combed in the right way. Whatever.