Inspiration

I'll be honest, Saturday afternoon my thoughts weren't the most positive. Not only had I missed a couple big swim workouts with tightness in my shoulder and been riding through pain with what seems to be a more serious lingering problem with my wrist, but yesterday I had the bright idea of doing my warmup for a track session on some crappy trails around the track...and I rolled my ankle and had to limp back to my car then put it on ice rather than banging out km reps. I was not impressed. So I'm sitting at home with 3 injuries - you guessed it, a swimming, biking and a running injury. I needed some inspiration.

While sitting around moping and contemplating how much I really enjoy what I do, I realized that the men's race at the Des Moines world cup was on. Million dollar prize purses usually bring out some pretty special racing, and the guys didn't disappoint. What an incredible race from start to finish with U-23 Canadian Andrew McCartney leading out of the water, a couple breaks on the bike, and a 6 man group of the best runners (and probably the best sprinters) in the sport coming to the front. There have been some pretty incredible finishes on the ITU circuit this year, and this may have been the best with a 6-way sprint for $200 000...and Whitfield won!! Revenge on Frodeno who outsprinted him for gold in Beijing (Frodeno finished 3rd), and Brad Floppy Mcflopperton Kahlefeldt did his usual dramatic flail to get 2nd. I can always count on Simon for inspiration, what an unbelievable athlete. And I shouldn't forget Lauren Groves running her way up from the chase pack to get 3rd in the women's race, well done.

Shoulder is feeling better today, hoping that I'll be good to go tomorrow and looking forward to working hard in the pool again. Ankle seems to be ok, just a little bruised but I'll be fine to get back at it tomorrow. And I'm going to have to get my wrist looked at but its nothing that will stop me from continuing to work my ass off on the bike in search of some much needed fitness.

Connor Hammond is competing in Des Moines today at the Team World Champs, which should be just as exciting as yesterday's event. I'm proud to say that I routinely get kicked in the face by that guy in our swim workouts. He is also a significantly better xbox player that I am. But I'll catch you on the track one day...maybe...probably not.