Not racing

I started this as a single post, but it is getting huge-ish, so I am splitting it up a bit.  My posting schedule is not what anyone would call consistent, or timely for that matter.  If I ever get readers I'll do my best to remedy that, but since all of these posts will be in the archives before I get around to reading them it doesn't matter how much time passes between posts.  The reason for the gap this time is that I actually didn't race for a couple weeks.  I did get some pretty good bike riding in over the course of the two weekends, something I have been missing this summer it feels like.  I went from not riding Sogn the whole season to doing it twice in 3 days, and I got in a ride to the cities and back, also a first for this year I believe.  I also got in a good day at the state fair where I rocked my blood pressure test, and perhaps most exciting of all I got a boat! 
I don't have pictures of the boat just yet, they will be forthcoming at some future time now that I have a camera, but it is a 36 lb 18' beauty of a canoe.  It is a Wenona Jensen 18' ultralight Kevlar canoe with bucket seats.  It currently has wooden gunwales that have quite a bit of dry rot, so I'm planning to replace them with aluminum gunwales, if I can manage to get some ordered.  Hoigaards has so far not been all that responsive to my requests for pricing and delivery.  There is also a 6" crack in the Kevlar that I need to get some parts for and patch up, a project I'm actually kind of excited to take on.  The boat is as old as I am, and considering the damage my body, which can heal itself, has sustained it is no surprised that a boat will pick up a few bruises along the way.  The price was right however, and the advantage of buying a boat with a few dings is that I won't be super protective of it and will get better use of it because of it.  It is a bit short to be a competitive racing boat, but should help give me a good boost for Chippewa and the Tri loppet compared to the fiberglass 18' Jensen I have been using (for sure it will help for the Chippewa portages) and it should make a good BWCA boat as well.  I don't know if I'll get it in the water before the cold sets in this year, it was 28F last night, but for sure by next spring it will be ready to hit the lakes.  Emily also got a boat on the same day, so I will now have 3 boats to store in the garage for this winter.  So that was the weekends off, back to a bit more racing.