I'm guessing this is at home and not in the shop, TOm?

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Yup, you are correct Sir. It's in the basement of my house near the store. It was a mess before. Now its an expensive mess.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Sounds a sweet set up, Tom. I wish I could do something permanent for my CT instead of having to set up and take down in the garage everytime I use it, but that is the trade off of apartment living on the coast. Still, I have a damn big swimming pool 100 metres away called the English Channel. But I always lose my stroke count before I get to touch the other side!

What made you chose W.Australia for next year?

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

I decided on Western Australia for the following reasons:

• In November I will pretty fit given the season to prepare.
• November is the quietest month in the store.
• Never been to Australia- hear good things about it.
• Protected salt water swim in beautiful water (see event website) with wetsuits.
• Flat bike course protected from wind.
• Relatively econimical destination- and one worth going to also.
• No chance of running into nasty ex-girlfriend on other side of the world.
• It'll be fun.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

So like all good reasons to me! Only one comment I should pass to you about point 5.

Flat bike course protected from wind.

Jason Shortis and Luke McKenzie both commented on feeling the headwind on the out leg, admittedly they never stated if it was hard or just there but since it seems to rarely deviate on the out and back I'm guessing 56 miles in the heaswind with be a bit of a downer!

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Perhaps the ONLY advantage to living in the Midwest is having a basement where you can set up that sort of thing. I don't own a Computrainer, solely because I have no place to set it up. I guess I could do it in the garage, but I'd have to move the car out and I can't set up a TV or stereo...

Oh well, I guess I'll just go ride Mt Diablo instead!!

---

Cousin Elwood - Team Over-the-hill Racing
Brought to you by the good folks at Metamucil and Geritol...

It appears you have made a classic mistake--you must NEVER let them out of the pit!

Unfortunately on this one I was the one in the pit.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

"Hero wall of trophies and other bullshit: 50% done."

Have you seen "Meet the Fockers"? Classic!! Your wall of trophies remindes me of Gaylord's wall!! LOL!!

sounds nice. I cant wait to build myself a training room. i can only dream of the wall of mirrors my training room is gonna have. Ill be able to watch myself from 5 sides. That is, once i graduate from college and get a hours.

Tom, I was in Busselton a couple of weeks before IMWA last year. Nice area, lots to do, and the course looked great. I don't know if you're a scuba diver, but if so, dive the wreck of the Swan, it's a navy frigate sunk a few years ago as a dive site. there were whales over the wreck when we were down, you could hear them calling. Cool dive all in all.

J.

I did the same thing with my basement, it was well worth the investment. I didn't keep track of how much the building materials cost, but my home gym includes a bike trainer ($200), treadmill ($3000..yikes), olympic weights ($120) with a bench/squat rack ($100 used but in near perfect condition), an old (and perfectly serviceable) nordic trak that I picked up for $50, and a concept 2 rowing ergometer that I won in my former life as a competitive rower. I don't use the nordic trak or rowing machine as much as I used to...but there's also no sense in parting with them since they cost me $50 combined. That stuff is in one half of the basement, the other half is an eventual play room for my kid(s).

Now that my wife and I have a baby, it has made training at a fairly high level still very workable. He goes to bed at 7-7:30 and I head to the basement to watch tv and workout. My wife works out in the mornings..and I fit in a 2nd workout at lunch a few days a week. It's a much more productive way to watch tv, that's for sure.

If I just had the money for an endless pool with a tv screen on the bottom and a way to send the sound into a set of those swimming headphones, I'd never have to leave the house. But, since I work at a university my cost for swimming is only the $30 locker rental for the year. Of course, once the warm weather gets here I'll start bike commuting and try to get outside as much as possible.