Week 18: Sunday Bike Ride with the Vertical Swimmer

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SUNDAY BIKE RIDE WITH THE VERTICAL SWIMMER
Star Date:  Week 18
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Hello Children of Satan,

Do you know what's better than reading this blog?  Reading it while on the company's dime.  Unfortunately for you all this week is the last week that you'll be able to engage in this fireable offense.  Starting next week you will need to find another creative outlet to cheat your company on the billable hours front.

Some of you will return back to the rice paddies and brag about this once in a lifetime opportunity to hang with the Freshest Prince of Saigon.  You will tell them how much your lives have been enriched for the experience.  You will tell them how cool it was to rub elbows with royalty, but they won't believe you.  They'll just judge you and quote an old Vietnamese adage to you ... "he who sniff a water buffalo's ass is stupid."  You'll just simply reply, "you must have mistaken me for my cousin Quang."

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SPECIAL THANKS
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Special thanks to Kevin D'Amanda for once again pulling Vertical Nation for the entire ride last Sunday.  That's about the 15th time this summer that he has pulled the group for pretty much the entire ride.  The man is just a beast on the bike ... and his 2:5x marathon time ain't too shabby either.

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CUE SHEET
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We are going old school Vietnamese this week by not posting the cue sheet.  We will ride with the wind and let fate takes us where it will take us ... assuming of course fate takes us either to the BP gas station or the T.  If fate takes us elsewhere then fate is either wrong or is a chick or both.  As we all know, women and sometimes fate can't be trusted.  I would tell this straight up to a woman, but my desire to be bitch slap isn't as strong as their desires to bitch slap me.

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LAST RIDE
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In all seriousness, this week's ride is the last ride that I will support with newsletters, emails, and cue sheets.  After this week, it's every man and woman for himself/herself.  My IM is the following week.  I will still head out on the Sunday ride at the same time and location occasionally for the rest of the summer.  I won't be as diligent.  I'll be switching to standalone marathon mode after my IM.  I'll make the decision on whether to go riding on Sunday ... on Sunday when I wake up.

If you want to continue the ride or find folks to ride with, just post it on the Sunday Bike Ride with the Vertical Swimmer thread in the DCTri forum.  There are still plenty of folks left who are training for  IMs and HIMs.  You'll won't be alone.

I may still update this blog on a weekly basis with the stuff that I write for my running club, DSG.  It's the same flavor but more geared toward running than biking.  Or, I may not update this on a weekly basis.  Only the 20 followers of this blog will be able to tell :)

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2012 IM
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I'm thinking of either doing IM Germany - Frankfurt again or perhaps Challenge Copenhagen.  I'm also open to other Euro IMs.  If you are thinking of doing one over there, drop me a note and perhaps and I can be convinced to do the one that you are doing.  You do an IM with me, you are guaranteed to have the Sunday bike ride throughout your training :)

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SILVER SPRING EXPRESS TRAIN
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The Silver Spring Express Train will be back to its normal 6:25 AM departure.  This is the last week that we will entertain the Squirrel Nation of Rock Creek with our presence.  It's sad, but it's time to move into something more delicious ... like deer.

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LAST BUT NOT LEAST
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I spent a couple of hours yesterday writing the below poem just for you all as a farewell message.  It's been a pleasure riding with many of you this year.  Some of you will miss pulling me, but there is always next year.

Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.

I am a dreamer and when I wake,
You can't break my spirit - it's my dreams you take.
And as you move on, remember me,
Remember us and all we used to be

Man, that's good shit I just wrote.

See you on the road,
Tuan