I was listening to Classic Vinyl on SiriusXM radio in the car the other day when they played the original studio version of Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band’s Turn the Page, and it didn’t seem right. It sounded different in my ear, as I was used to the live version of the song. That got me thinking about live versions of rock songs that are much better than the original studio version. Songs that if the radio DJ was going to play that one specific song, he or she would grab the live version over the studio version every time.
Not sure what propelled the popularity of live albums during the 1970’s. You don’t see them being as popular in later decades. Live music and concerts were growing to huge proportions in the 70’s. It may have been a money grab from the record label, but I’m just…
Welcome back to my dumb journey of trying to find a muscle car to own. I say it’s a dumb journey because, well, in all honesty, I’m a dummy and I am in charge of this quest. Once again I find myself sitting in a chair driving a keyboard, instead of feeling the wind blow through what little hair I have left on my head behind the wheel of a classic car.
I’m up to Part V. Let that sink in. I started this search back in October 2018. I came close to owning what I thought was the one, test drove it, and then said I better keep looking. That car is gone now, as well as the second one I had my eye on. After that, I focused on a couple of other cars and had been watching them pretty closely. Both were Mopar B bodies from 1967. Both had been for sale for a couple of months. Now both are gone.
(I had written about both of these cars before, you can read more at the links at the bottom of this post.)
STRIKE ONE!
The first car was a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T for sale at Cruisin Classics in Ohio. It had pretty good provenance, as they say. The owner had been a Vietnam vet and acquired it when he got back home. His name was on the paperwork that was in a posted picture and I researched him and found out he had passed away. The car had been sold a couple of times prior to being bought and offered for sale at Cruisin Classics. Tons of paperwork for the car as well. I studied the pictures thoroughly and the only thing I could see wrong with it was a small paint chip on the front right fender. Not a big deal, but I wondered why they didn’t try to fix it or at least cover it up with photoshop. The trouble for me with this car was that it was in Ohio and I am in Illinois, and I’m pretty busy to take time out to go see it.
I do most of my searching for cars on the Hemmings website. I was checking my list of favorited cars and noticed it was no longer listed on there. I double checked the listings for Dodge Coronet R/T’s and it was nowhere to be found. I pulled up the Cruisin Classics website and sure enough, it was listed as SOLD. To add insult to injury, I follow them on Facebook and they posted the car had been shipped to Phoenix, Arizona and enjoying new ownership along with this picture:
Photo credit: Cruisin Classics / Facebook
It looks like it is sitting next to a 1967 GTX convertible, too. Now we are just pouring salt into my wounds.
STRIKE TWO!
The second car that I lost out on was local, and I had no reason to have not gone and looked at it. Well, that’s not true. The main reason that I hadn’t gone to look at it was that it was priced at almost $60,000.00. This car was being sold by Auto Gallery Chicago and was located in Addison, Illinois. I have followed this one a while as well and the dealer eventually lowered the asking price to $54,900.00. Now I was a lot more interested.
Photo credit: eBay / Auto Gallery Chicago
They offered the car up for sale on eBay several times and I bid on it and won the auction two of the three times, with it going unsold after not reaching the reserve price each time. It was put up for sale again on eBay just yesterday and I put in my max bid again. I also promised to invest my Saturday and go look at the car. I checked my email today and saw a notification from eBay:
Dear eBay Community Member, The bid that you entered for the item has been cancelled. You can view the reason provided for the cancellation by selecting the (bid history) link from the individual item page.
What gives? They canceled my bid? Why? A check of eBay revealed that the auction was no longer active. Ah, now I am starting to see the light. I checked the dealer website and sure enough, the car is no longer listed there. Someone came in and bought it.
TIME TO DIG IN
So it’s time to keep looking. I’m still interested in the 1968 Buick GS and a 1966 Pontiac GTO convertibles that are being sold by Primo Classics Intl., located in Florida. Both cars present themselves nicely but seem below market price for some reason. I will have to look a little closer at them.
I used to tell the kids I coached on my baseball team that you will never hit a pitch if you don’t swing, and I certainly can learn from that. I haven’t been swinging. I’ve taken too many pitches. Time to keep swinging, even if I just foul a few off. Sooner or later I am going to connect.
As I slid into Week 11 I found myself reflecting on being comfortable with where I was in the plan. It has kind of become routine – Monday rest, Tuesday run, Wednesday bike/run brick, Thursday bike, Friday run, Saturday bike, Sunday run – then repeat week after week. But on Saturday I finished my ride, put the bike away and got busy cleaning the swimming pool and mowing the grass and totally didn’t realize that we are now at a stage in training when Saturday’s long ride is followed by a run brick. I had gotten so used to the previous ten-week routine that I didn’t remember that the runs are added to the bike on Saturday. Oops. Oh well, I did have a killer of a Saturday long ride which kind of made up for missing that 15 minute brick run.
Speaking of the Saturday bike, I decided to join a local riding group that is primarily made up of people from the local running group that I have become familiar with. It was supposed to be a 2-2.5 hour bike ride averaging 17 mph. I was comfortable with that pace and length of ride, but I have certain expectations when riding as a group and as we rode a little I started figuring out who was on the same page as me and who wasn’t. I started to get a little uneasy and moved to the front of the group to avoid any issues. There was one stop in which a rider fell over. Not sure how he accomplished that as it didn’t appear that he was clipped in and was wearing running shoes. It has happened to all of us and I felt bad for the guy, but I made a mental note to stay clear of him. It wasn’t long until this group of cyclists and aero riding triathletes were on each others wheel. While training for Ironman, I usually avoid riding on the wheel of another rider because you aren’t allowed to draft at all during the race, but here we were. I was definitely getting out of my comfort zone.
My “Z2” ride was mostly spent in Z4! WTH?
We made it out to Elwood and the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery and stopped for a quick restroom break and to refuel a little. I had some good conversations and then we were headed back. That’s when I got dropped. I was fighting like mad to keep up, but I was starting to wonder why I was killing myself. The group did eventually rejoin and I put myself ahead again to help control the pace a little. I was able to keep with them the rest of the ride. But this “easy” pace group ride was killing me!
When we turned around I noticed something was not quite right with my rear wheel. It was making a slight sound and I was sensing a little bit of vibration. I had ridden the bike on the trainer on Thursday and when I switched out the skewer I must not have had the wheel exactly straight. I stopped about 20 minutes from home and reset it the best I could and I didn’t feel the vibration anymore. When I got home I inspected the wheel and found that the tire sidewall was getting pretty worn, had started to bulge a little and it wouldn’t have been long before it failed completely on me. I was way too comfortable in letting that little warning sign of vibration and sound go on for too long. I should have dealt with it as soon as I noticed it. Stop being so comfortable! But I wasn’t the only one who should have been paying close attention to their bike. I noticed one strong lady rider who was about my age whose water bottle cage was wobbling so loosely that I thought it was going to fall off any minute. How do you not notice that?
All in all, I had a pleasant ride, learned that the cemetery has a restroom, learned a new route out to Elwood that bypasses a busy road, met some new people, had some good conversations and made it home in one piece. I will definitely join the group again but will not let the group’s ride influence my training plan for the day.
Next week I promise not to be so comfortable. I need to make sure I am executing the plan in the way I need to.
Week 11 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 4 total / 88 miles > Runs: 4 total / 25 miles
HOORAY! One-third of my Ironman 30-week training plan is in the books! It’s nice to hit that benchmark and put the base phase of training behind me. As I enter the 10-week build phase of the plan it is comforting to know that I did a pretty decent job getting prepared for it. The only issue that can come back and bite me is the fact that I did no swim training in that first ten weeks! But even though I stink at swimming, I am not really all that worried. I learned what I am capable of back in 2017 while training for Ironman Louisville, and I’m sure that the remaining twenty weeks will prepare me adequately. The weather has been the real issue this spring, being cold and miserable so far, and it has kept me from opening my pool so I can swim. Next week looks to have a gradual warm-up and I will plan on starting the process of getting the pool ready for summer. I may not like swimming that much, but I do enjoy a post long run/long bike cannonball to cool off.
FEAR: PART I – Fear… Of Missing Out
Friday I took a day off from work so I could be at home to welcome carpet installers and new carpet throughout our house. The original appointment was for Friday and Saturday and I wasn’t really sure how long they would be here either day. So I got up and got dressed and hoped that they would leave me a sliver of the late afternoon so I could squeeze in my planned hour-long run. It didn’t happen. As I watched them progress I realized that they were going to shoot to get it all done in one day. They finished up sometime around 6 pm, and then it was time for dinner and get busy with putting everything back that we had to move. Fun times (not), but I didn’t get my run in.
So I spent the day worrying about missing my Friday run, an hour long 7-miler that I can do in my sleep. I spent a lot of time on Facebook while babysitting the carpet guys and saw that several of my local friends and acquaintances were complaining about their local pool being unavailable again. It seems like the maintenance at the pool has been neglected or poorly maintained, or that some kid left a “Baby Ruth” (Caddyshack reference, in case you didn’t know) at the bottom of it. Whatever the reason, they are paying for the use of the pool and have not been able to use it. They have a right to be a little upset about that. But I also think they are like me and fear that they might get behind on their training. I totally get that. A few of these friends are doing their first Ironmans this fall, and I can remember how I felt about missing a week training for my first Ironman in 2013 when I volunteered at my daughter Ashley’s marching band camp. In the end, though, missing a swim/bike/run workout or two, or in my case, a whole week doesn’t really matter in the massive amount of training that is done in thirty weeks. No need to fear missing a workout.
The other thing I have been thinking that I fear I have been missing out on is group rides with a local group of riders, riders mostly who are also involved with the local running club. They post rides all the time but I usually skip them because they don’t fit in with what my plan calls for. Saturday was such a ride, and judging from the photo posted to Facebook, it was a big group and it looked like they were having fun. I’m going to have to join them soon. A group ride might be an asset, as you will see below.
FEAR: PART II – Fear… Of GETTING MURDERED!
I was a little concerned about my Saturday 3-hour training ride. First off, the weather stunk once again, 48 degrees and a forecast of rain. After breakfast, I checked the radar and could see that there was a small window of opportunity to get my ride in, and so I layered up and got out there.
“I don’t think the heavy stuff is going to come down for quite a while.” (Another Caddyshack reference/quote)
I had a little trouble with my Fly12 bike flasher/camera again today. I had trouble with it last week and it didn’t record anything. I put it on my bike after charging it and it fired right up and started flashing. After about 20 minutes into the ride, I realized it wasn’t flashing anymore and I was not happy about it. I tried pushing the on/off button while riding but was having no success with getting it to turn on. I decided to stop at the next road crossing and fiddle with it. That’s when things got interesting.
I stopped at Ridgeland Road and took my gloves off and started fiddling with the dumb light. I got my phone out and opened the app for the device and manually hit record and figured if anything I would get it to video the rest of the ride. That’s when a guy walks across the street toward me and says “Sure is a nice bike you got there.” It wasn’t really what he said that gave me pause, but more of the way he said it like he was about to add “It’d be a shame if something were to happen to it.” I replied with “Thank you,” and watched him walk a little past the trail and kneel down and pull out a vape-type device and start puffing away. He was bearded, unkempt and kind of dirty looking, wearing a soiled Florida Gators sweatshirt, and I automatically started profiling the guy. That’s what you do when the only jobs you have ever had were in law enforcement and are pretty much skeptical of everyone you meet anyway. That’s when I silently said to myself “GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE NOW!” Thankfully my rear camera was working and caught the exchange:
Now, I don’t get spooked too easily, but this guy was sending me some big time warning signs. I put my phone back into my jersey pocket, pushed my bike to the shoulder of the road and started pedaling. It was at that point I went from riding a 3-hour Zone 2 ride to an immediate Zone 4 time trial. As I sped up the hill I kept looking over my shoulder to see if he got back into his truck. I thought that maybe I should have stayed on the bike trail, where he couldn’t have followed me. I also thought about where I might find some refuge up ahead if he did actually try to follow me.
I had gone to Bass Pro Shop last week to look at boats and found myself looking at handguns too. I don’t own any firearms (my three jobs in law enforcement have all been non-sworn), but I thought I would take a look at them. I often find myself thinking about how I would defend myself if I ever encountered a nut job. I haven’t ever really encountered a nut job, but in all seriousness, I FELT LIKE I HAD JUST ENCOUNTERED ONE. I was kind of wishing I had a handgun right now. Matter of fact, I wish I had like ten of the damn things. Our team name is GUNNERS for goodness sake! But instead, I would just have to pedal my ass off.
Although I spent the next 30 minutes riding damn hard and constantly looking over my shoulder, I never saw him again. Two hours into the ride my mind was totally focused on why I continually fail to remember to ride into the wind going out and with it at my back on the way home. That mistake cost me an extra 8 minutes. And by the time I got back home I wasn’t thinking about that dude or even thinking about buying a gun anymore. I’d probably accidentally shoot myself in the butt with it anyway. Now that would make for an interesting video.
Week 10 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 86 miles > Runs: 3 total / 18 miles
Nothing to fear from here on out. Happy Mother’s Day!
Not much of note for the week as far as training. The miserable wet weather we have been having in much of the midwest forced me inside to do a couple of my ride and run workouts, but I can’t complain about having that option. Overall, the week went well and I’m starting to build a little speed on the bike again.
Speaking of the bike, for Christmas last year I asked for a flashing light/video camera device for my bike. I had heard several people talking about Cycliq and the Fly6 rear and Fly12 front cameras, so I put them on my wishlist and Santa delivered.
Since I hadn’t really had an opportunity to ride outside with them during winter and most of the early spring, I realized that the time to add them to my bike was ideal now that the weather is trying to get better. First and foremost, they are hi-viz flashers so that you are seen, and they certainly do that job well. But the most recent camera updates to the devices produce a pretty decent video of your ride. I guess the idea is to have proof of the offender should you be driven off the road or driven into, but I don’t really want to think about that.
The issue I had was finding space on my very crowded aerobars to mount the device. I finally was able to attach it so that it wasn’t in the way and I could easily access it. The rear device mounted very easily to my seat post.
Fly12 Front Camera
Fly6 Rear Camera
After working out some bugs with my son’s help and figuring out how to use them I gave them a try. I tried using them both for Saturday’s long 2-hour 45-minute ride but had a couple of issues. First, the Fly12 (front camera) gave me a notice that the battery was low about 1.5 hours into the ride and it didn’t produce any video for some reason. Had to be operator error of some sort. Secondly, the mount bracket came loose and the camera was just bouncing around on my aerobars. Minor issues that I can easily resolve. The rear camera produced some great shots though. Here is an example of the footage it will capture (Note: Turn the volume down):
The wind noise is horrible. I’m trying to figure out if that is just a fact of life with the Fly6/12 or there is some feature that I can turn on to make it record sound better. Interestingly enough it does not pick up the crazy conversations that I carry on with myself, which is a good thing, because they are usually profane laden rants.
So I will be interested in doing a group ride someday and capture some of my teammates riding together. That would be more interesting footage to watch than seeing the truck that runs me over.
The last thing of note is that I am trying to find another company to make team triathlon racing kits for our small group. The trouble is we are somewhat of a small group and most of these custom companies have minimum order numbers that we can’t reach. The company we last used upped their minimums by a few and also declared that the order all has to be of one sex, which stinks because we have added Gunner Jan to our group. I looked into another company that initially looked promising. They had promised to work on our project in April, and when I hadn’t heard from them I started emailing them with no response. I figured the guy was swamped or something, but it turned out that his company got bought out by another company from Mexico. No wonder I wasn’t getting any response from him. So I went back to the internet and found another company called Jakroo, which might be our best choice. They have basically no minimums, will assist with kit design, and you can order in both male or female sizes with no penalty, and I can add cycling jerseys, bike shorts, and other items, not just tri suits. They had a semi-custom design it yourself feature and I played around with it. Here are a couple of designs I came up with:
I ordered a kit that I made and will ride in it a few times to see if the quality meets what we need. I’m starting to get excited about having some new team kits!
Week 9 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 76 miles > Runs: 4 total / 24 miles
Getting close to being done with the base phase of training!
Ironman makes announcements all the time and I usually don’t give them much more than a quick glance. But this was shared on a couple Facebook group pages and it caught my eye:
The reason I didn’t pay much attention to it at first is that it looks like your standard “Register Now” announcement for Ironman, and I’m already signed up for it. But then I read a few comments and realized this was for a relay. Say what? An Ironman relay? NO!!!
Immediately I made up my mind that I hated this idea. A relay for Ironman? C’mon man, this shouldn’t be. Triathletes that do Ironman do them for the challenge of doing three tough events in one day, 17 hours typically. To do just one part doesn’t make any sense to me. The whole purpose of Ironman was to prove an argument as to who was the toughest athlete of three disciplines, the swimmer doing a 2.4-mile swim, the cyclist racing a century or more, or the runner running a marathon. Do all three events in one day and find out! – was the reason behind creating Ironman. (Note: It’s the runner if you are wondering. The strongest swimmer never wins the race. And if you followed Ironman Texas this weekend you witnessed Andrew Starykowicz destroy the bike course only to be caught on the run. And Daniela Ryf made up a significant time gap on the run to win the women’s title. Always bet on the runner. Unless the runner is me, then bet on my buddy Dave. Actually, always bet on Dave, he’s 3-0 in our Ironman racing.) But seriously, what are you proving by just doing one segment of the race? After the swim leg, what do you do while the rest of us are still busting our butts? I better not hear you call yourself an Ironman.
As I read through the many comments I was seeing a lot of similar reactions to this announcement and I was hitting the “like” button for every comment that I agreed with.
“Give me a break. It’s an Ironman! This cheapens it. The last thing I want is some fresh-legged relay athlete zip past me as I’m actually enduring an Ironman. Save the relays for the Olympic distance. I’m not ripping on the athletes, but the Ironman has been the one true test for individuals in triathlons. That’s the beauty of it. The individual challenge mentally and physically.”
“It’s called Ironman, not Ironmen.”
“It’s about that adversity. I’m signing up for the relay as “me” doing the swim, “myself” on the bike, and “I” for the run!”
But as I sorted through those comments others started making valid points.
“Embrace it. It is good for the preservation of the sport or these races go away. Those who do the relay many times will do the full.”
“This opens the door to people who have injuries or are thinking of working up to doing a full one day to experience it. The more people outside doing something, the better! Run your race, meet your goals and let others do the same!”
“Sad that people rip on the relay! I’ve done two full Ironmans and now knee injury. This is a great idea. And for all those who knock it, I hope you always stay injury free and continue being able to do fulls. Not everyone is that lucky!”
So now I am conflicted. I definitely will defend the tradition of the race and what it means to be an Ironman. But if we can get more people involved, I’m all for that too. I don’t really know what to expect when I will be racing Chattanooga in late September. If I see a faster cyclist fly by will I assume he’s doing the relay? When I’m gassed on the run and someone trots by like they haven’t done the previous 2.4-mile swim and the 116-mile bike ride, will that make me angry? I’m not sure. A few commenters mentioned that everyone should do the race their way and not worry about the other group. I guess I will need to focus on myself like I usually do. This is why I would make a horrible judge. If both sides made valid arguments, I wouldn’t be able to make a decision on a winner.
TRAINING FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS
Last week was Easter and we had out of town plans, so I did some creative moving of my workouts and got the job done. And since I was out of town last weekend I didn’t have time to write my weekly wrap-up of training. So here are the details from the last two weeks.
Week 7 was jumbled around a little. I had the opportunity to run with the local running club F’NRC in a group run on Wednesday, which meant I ran twice that day. It was fun running with the group on a nice weeknight. I ended up skipping the long bike ride up north in Minocqua on Saturday, as they still had snow and ice on the bike path up there. Instead, I opted for doing the Sunday run on Saturday as I had a long drive home on Sunday with an additional trip to Valpo to take Ashley back to school.
Week 8 was looking to be a normal follow the plan training week. But the forecast for the weekend weather was terrible. A record-breaking late April snowstorm was predicted for Saturday, so I moved my Saturday 2-hour long bike ride to Friday and made it a bike/run brick, keeping my 1-hour run that was scheduled for Friday. That reminded me how tough brick workouts can be. I was pretty low on energy after that. My Gunner teammate Jeff asked this week as to when we start using gels on our weekend rides. I laughed at him because he’s a two-time Ironman and should know the answer by now, but I now found myself bonking because I didn’t remember that I should probably be adding more energy replacement into my workouts. Jeff’s not the dumb one, it’s me. At least he’s trying to be prepared for it. Although Saturday’s weather was crappy, we didn’t get anything more than a few ice pellets/sleet type stuff. I took Saturday off and had a great 1-hour run on a beautiful Sunday morning. So in all, the week ended well.
Week 7 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 2 total / 29 miles > Runs: 3 total / 22 miles
Week 8 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 65 miles > Runs: 4 total / 23 miles
Getting closer to being done with the base part of the plan.
PART IV – This Is Way Harder Than I Thought It Would Be
Time for another update in my search to add a classic car to my garage that I will probably only drive twice a week! It’s been almost two months since my last update, but it isn’t because I have slowed or stopped my search, it is just taking much longer than I thought it would. First off, winter is a tough time to buy a collector car. You don’t want it outside in the snow, and definitely shouldn’t be driven on salty roads. Buying a car in winter would mean I would have to store it inside, which means that I would have to park my regular driver outside. I don’t want to do that either. Also, it’s easy to get excited about a car you find for sale, but after the experience of looking at that Oldsmobile back in November and almost rushing into a purchase that I might have regretted, I learned to slow my roll, so to speak. Lastly, it seems like the “pickin’s” are kind of slim, especially since I have limited myself to just a few makes and models.
Speaking of that 1967 Olds 442 convertible that I passed on, I found it for sale at a classic car dealership in Ohio, with a new sticker price of about $8000 more than when I almost wrote a check for it.
Here’s the same 442 I drove with Kari back in November, looking shiny in Ohio instead of my garage.
THE DANGERS OF EBAY AND AUTO AUCTIONS
I should just rename this quest as “My Search For a 1967 Plymouth/Dodge B-body Convertible” because that is kind of what it has become. When the search began I was mostly looking for a 1970 Chevelle SS or an Olds 442 from 1967-68. I found that I really like the 1967 cars in general, they are probably my favorite muscle car year. But after looking at the cars from that era, the Plymouth GTX and the Dodge Coronet R/T just get my motor running (pun intended) for some reason. A couple of cars that I mentioned last time are still out there and I like them, but I’m still looking for one that isn’t that far away and would allow me to take a quick drive to go look at it. I have recently found a couple GTX’s that fit that need.
Car #1
First up is this 1967 GTX convertible located about 25 miles from me:
I first found this car by searching on eBay, where the starting bid was around $35,000. Now I like it a lot! So I bid on it, with my max bid at $44,000. I think it is worth more than that, I was just being conservative with my bid. I was the only bidder and I didn’t hit the reserve auction price when it ended. The dealer rep sent me a message through eBay informing me that the car had its original window sticker and build sheet. That’s great and pretty rare to have the window sticker, but I’m not buying it for the window sticker. So I went to their website and looked for more info. There they had the car listed at $59,990. Now I had sticker shock. No wonder I didn’t hit his auction reserve price. Most of the non-Hemi 1967 B-body cars I have looked into have sold for around $50,000 or under on average. He was asking way too much.
It hits all my wants: GTX with a 440, a convertible, and it is local. I should buy it. But it has some cons too, mainly that it is all blue, which is a lot of blue. I bet that dark-colored interior heats up pretty hot in the sun with the top down. The driver side armrest on the door has a crack in it. You would think that a car that is sporting a decent restoration would have had that issue addressed. I also noticed that the tail lights were mismatched. The 1967 Belvedere had two styles of tail lights, one with a chrome strip and one without. This car had one of each version. The dealer also adds that it has “Protect-o-Plate” which is wrong. Protect-o-Plate was GM’s warranty plan, Plymouth had a similar version called “Certicard.” All of this makes me think he hasn’t done his research on this car.
You can see the mismatched tail lights above. The left one doesn’t have the same chrome strip next to the trunk lid that the right one has.
The blue interior with the cracked armrest.
I decided to keep an eye on this car and saw that he listed it again on eBay. I found myself bidding on it again, this time with a max bid of $46,500. I was bidding on it against another bidder, but he was a bigger cheapskate than I was and the auction ended somewhere in the upper $30,000’s with me being the max bidder. Then I noticed that on the dealer website they had dropped the for sale price from $59,990 to $54,990! They came down $5000! I was starting to believe my patience was paying off.
It was listed again on eBay again this past week with the usual $36,000 opening bid. I bid again but pushed my max bid to $48,000 just to see if I was getting close to the reserve price. This time I had some serious competition in the bidding wars. I quickly got outbid until the auction ended with me losing to a max bid of $48,300, which didn’t meet the reserve, and the car didn’t sell. It’s now listed again on eBay with a “Buy It Now” price of $59,990! Did we piss this guy off with our low bidding? Their website still lists it at $54,990. I guess I might have to find some time to actually go up there and talk with them about the car and actually see it and maybe even drive it. Heck, I may find out that I’m not in love with it, just like I did with the 442.
One thing I need to be cognizant of is that whether buying a car through eBay or at an auction like Mecum or Barrett-Jackson is that without seeing it, I’m not sure what I am really getting. That is what is making this quest so difficult. Some of these cars are too far away for me to go see easily, even though I’m drooling at the photos on the auction and dealership sites.
Car #2
I went back to the old Google machine and found a newly listed GTX for sale online located coincidently enough about 10 miles from the one above, so again it’s really close to me and might warrant a trip to go see it. The downside is that it is a hardtop, not a convertible. The positive – 4 SPEED BABY!
An actual outdoor photo of the car superimposed on a dumb display background. Not sure if this color is the same Dark Metallic Blue as the other car. It looks to be a lighter shade blue, but that could just be because the picture was taken outdoors.
Another blue interior that looks to be in great shape, but with 4 on the floor.
I like it, but again my eye is catching things to be leary of. There’s a photo of the engine bay that shows that the radiator at some point in its life had a leak and has a bluish copper oxidation type material on it. Not sure if it is still leaking or not, but that could be a red flag. My coworker and fellow car nut Carl thinks that may be a sign of the engine running hot, and might have a good point. I think it may just be an old car showing its age. The thing is though, my brother was the mechanic in the family, I am “handy enough to be dangerous” with tools. I wish my brother was still alive, this search would be much easier and probably would have been over with by now.
The website does not list a price for this car. Even though it’s not a convertible, I may have to inquire about the price and go take a look see.
Car #3
The surfing the interwebs for cars is something I spend my evenings doing, and I still look at the offering from all of the big three. Although I am not much of a Ford guy, the most recent issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines magazine featured a 1967 Ford Fairlane GTA, which looks pretty cool. I may have to look at those a little closer too.
But this 1968 Buick GS convertible definitely caught my eye. The first impression is that the photos jump off the page. The sky blue color really pops. I must have a thing for blue. Another thing that caught my eye was the price – $34,900! Now we are talking! But the car is in Florida. And closer inspection of the photos show some little things here and there that give me pause, mainly the door and trunk gaps, but cars built in the 1960s weren’t really that high on that type of quality. My inlaws live in Florida, maybe I could get my father-in-law to go take a look at it. I can hear him now: “It’s very nice. It’s blue. It has four wheels.” That would be the assessment I would probably get out of him.
Pretty sweet! 400 cubes. Very sexy curves!
So that wraps it up for this edition. What it is coming down to I guess is that I am going to have to get off my butt and actually interact with these sellers to make a decision one way or another. I need to get on it – summer is coming quick!
I’m on a few Facebook group pages devoted to running, triathlon and some of the races I’ve done, and I have seen people post training and racing results that others will compare themselves to. I have done that in the past as well, but I learned that when you have a large group of athletes, there are going to be some that are really fast and some that are at the other end of the spectrum. I usually warn people, especially beginners to avoid comparing their times to those of others who may have been high school or college athletes, or who are twenty years younger than they are, or just simply more gifted athletically. But this week I kind of fell into that trap as well.
There was a guy who posted on a local cycling page that I was recently added to who claimed that he was going to ride on Saturday and asked if anyone wanted to join him for the two-hour ride. I was tempted to join in until I saw that he intended to ride at 18-20 mph. Really? Is your name Lance? Last week I rode very hard and out of my planned Z2 heart rate zone and could only barely manage 16 mph. Then others were commenting on his post like they would join him if they hadn’t already ridden earlier. I was taken aback by these people and their apparent ability to ride fast. I commented, “You all can go that pace?!” I really had trouble believing that some of these people could average that pace this early in the spring. I’m a 3-time Ironman dang it! Why can’t I do that too? So I got on my bike again and tried to see what I could do on a pretty windy day. My results were pretty much as I expected, 33 miles in 2 hours, averaging right around 16 mph, and way out of my Z2 training zone.
I looked up Mr. 18-20 MPH on Athlinks, a website that basically will show the results of races for anyone who has signed up and raced. Although he didn’t have any cycling results on Athlinks, he did have some running results. Those results were what I expected; a couple two hour half marathons and a nearly 5.5-hour marathon. I now doubted his ability a little more. But I know another guy on that page that struggles with running but can definitely kick butt on the bike. I reminded myself that generally cycling doesn’t make you a better runner, and running doesn’t make you a good cyclist. However, it did make me wonder what I am doing wrong that I can’t do that tempo as well. Then I realized that I fell into that comparison trap where I am comparing myself to someone I really have no idea of how fit he really is on the bike. I need to just worry about myself and progress slowly for 30 weeks to complete my goal. His goal isn’t mine, and I just need to remember that.
I took a road I never use and ended up getting turned around a little. I took a quick moment to document my dumb self.
Best I could do on a windy day.
The weather this week was crazy. Some of the days were very spring-like and yet old man Winter would remind us that he’s not done yet and dump snow on us again. My Sunday run was forced indoors due to a crazy mid-April snow storm. Summer needs to get here fast!
Week 6 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 61.6 miles > Runs: 4 total / 23 miles
One of my favorite running quotes: “Comparing our performances to the performances of other runners is not nearly as constructive as comparing our performances to our own potentials.” – Jack Nelson
When it comes to training sometimes I get too competitive with it. What starts out as a simple training workout, straight from the training plan, it often goes right out the door when I actually start the workout. I’m like a dog out for a simple walk until I see a squirrel, then the chase is on and I’m no longer interested in the simple walk.
Case in point for me this week was my Friday easy run. When I say easy I mean that it was a Zone 2 out of 4 heart rate based run, for 60 minutes. Essentially, this is a run that is done at a conversational pace, meaning that you should be able to easily carry on a conversation while running, rather than a Zone 4 race pace. That’s what the plan called for, but I had other plans. It was a nice day, and I had realized that the marathon that I had already decided to forego was coming up next weekend. I had planned on skipping the race due to a couple of injuries that prevented me from training sufficiently and the fact that I had decided to do Ironman Choo with my buddies instead. But I was curious about how far off my conditioning was, or if I was even capable of holding my 8 minutes per mile marathon race pace. So I headed out the door and started running comfortably hard, essentially Zone 3 on the heart rate scale to see if I was even anywhere near the ability to race a marathon. This is essentially a bad idea and I probably should have known better.
I was feeling pretty good. My continually sore legs weren’t really bothering me, and I felt no soreness in the upper thigh area where I had just recovered from the second of two muscle strains. About 1.75 miles into the run the squirrel appeared in the form of the local high school boys track team running hill repeats on the trail ahead of me.
Now, I’m not shy about challenging myself on this hill. Someone made it a Strava segment, and I currently sit at a tie for 10th place on this segment. My brain can typically shut down my urges, especially when I’m 1.75 miles into an 8-mile run, but this time there was a squirrel, several of them.
They were standing on the other side of the bridge at the bottom of the hill and as I hit the bridge they could hear me coming and turned to look with a surprised (who the hell is this guy?) look on their faces. I had already decided to race them up the hill, but that wasn’t enough. I shouted, “DON’T LET AN OLD GUY BEAT YOU UP THIS HILL!” And with that one kid yelled “NO WAY!” and the race was on.
I guess that there were about a dozen of shirtless boys that I started with. By comparison, I was wearing a long sleeve tech shirt and long sleeve windbreaker over that. Plus I had the disadvantage of being 40 years older than them. I overheard a kid tell the coach at the bottom of the hill that this was his 7th and last hill repeat, so I guess it was kind of an unfair fight, but that equates to about the same distance I had run to get there, and I hadn’t taken it easy either.
I started picking off kids, which I found easier than I thought it would be. A few could hear me coming and kept looking behind to see how close I was getting, but they would get caught. About halfway up the hill, my heart felt like it was about to leap out of my chest. The kids I was slowly passing seemed like it wasn’t even bothering them that much, but their effort said otherwise. As I got to the top of the hill there was another coach there waiting for the group. “I just outran half your team up that hill, coach!” I told him between heavy panting. He smiled and laughed. I continued on to the nearby intersection and was glad to see that I would have to wait for the light to cross the street so I could get a much-needed rest. To my surprise, I was able to continue most of the remainder of the hour-long run around my marathon pace without much difficulty, but I knew that continuing on for a full 26.2 miles would have been a challenge.
Although this run could have easily sabotaged my week, it didn’t, but I never seem to learn from these dumb challenges. My Saturday long bike ride resulted in me pushing myself again. This was my first effort outside after spending my winter bike training on a spin bike indoors. Those indoor rides would make me sweat, but never really tire me out. I was essentially doing high spin rides and conditioning my butt to a saddle more than working my legs hard. But I wanted to prove that they were equal to my outdoor rides, so I tried to ride the same speed outside that I was doing inside. Big mistake. It was a challenge for me to keep my average speed above 16 mph, whereas indoors it was my typical easy ride. That just goes to show that riding indoors, whether it be a bike on a trainer or a spin bike, is not on the same level as being outside dealing with wind and a variety of rolling terrain. It’s still better than not riding at all.
I finish these efforts and often reflect as to how close I was to the actual workout, and often times I am shooting myself in the foot. Even with my constant achy legs and what seems like quickly diminishing ability to go fast at 55, I can’t seem to remember sometimes that the goal is to pace myself throughout the 30 weeks of training so I can adequately pace myself through 140.6 miles, or at Chattanooga 144.6 miles. I gotta stop being my own worst enemy.
No Drake! No steps back!!!
Week 5 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 51.6 miles > Runs: 4 total / 21 miles
I had a wonderful time touring colleges with my wife and our high school daughter Rebecca over spring break. She claims she’s “so ready for college,” but I’m not sure mom and dad are. She’s only a junior for goodness sake. Since Becca has a preference for a college that is located in the eastern or southern part of the US, i.e. far away from home, we headed toward the South to check off a couple that are high on her list. Along the way, we did some great sightseeing too!
First up was Nashville, Tennessee, home to Vanderbilt University. My introduction to Nashville wasn’t too positive, as I couldn’t figure out how to get into the hotel parking lot with the swarming millions of people walking around. Is Nashville this crazy popular?! It was insane. I made a comment that it was almost like Las Vegas, and later on, my sister made a comment on Facebook referring to Nashville as “Nashvegas.” I’m not a fan of crazy crowded and loud places, but as we got settled in I got more comfortable. Here are some photos from our tour of Nashville:
We took a walk on the walking bridge over the Cumberland River.
Panoramic photo of our hotel in Nashville. The Nashville Predators play hockey in the building on the left.
The Country Music Hall of Fame was a block from our hotel, so we went there and they pitched a group package of tours, including the hall, as well as Studio B where Elvis and many greats recorded their hits and a historic letterpress print shop that produced many of the great concert posters from the early country music days in Nashville. I was amazed at how much I knew about country music, even though I don’t like it much. After seeing some of the sights and listening to some of the live music going on, I realized maybe I don’t hate it as much as I thought.
Standing next to the piano that many of the great country stars used on their recordings in Studio B. The studio is pretty much the same as it was in the 1950’s when Elvis was recording there.
We took a tour of the Ryman Auditorium, home to the Grand Ole Opry back in the early days of Country Music. The whole time there I was thinking about my father who loved this stuff.
Next up on the agenda was our first college visit, Vanderbilt University. We learned a little about the Commodore and the history of the school. Beautiful campus. This school is high on Becca’s list.
I had a desire to go to the American Pickers shop, Antique Archeology to see some cool stuff. My favorite was this Evel Knievel jacket that Evel had worn. Ol’ Evel and I share a birthday, and he was an idol of mine as a kid. No Mike or Frankie sightings.
Our trip to Nashville coincided with my sister-in-law Wendy and her family and we all took in a live music show starring some great young women singer-songwriters. They were very talented. I found the girl in the middle to stand out somewhat from the others, but they were all good. They would take turns singing and tell a little about the song and how they came to write it. The girl on the far left added some percussion to each of the songs and did a great job. We were shocked to hear that she was only 14 years old. She was just as professional as the others.
I’m glad I took the time to tour the Johnny Cash exhibit. The one artist that my father really liked was The Man in Black. He had one 8-track tape, Live at San Quentin, and played it in the car over and over again. That 8-track was on display at the museum. I know his copy has to be around somewhere, I took it to college and my roommate Dave and I listened to it occasionally.
Not far from Nashville was a place called the Hermitage, home to President Andrew Jackson. I was surprised at how much I didn’t know about Jackson, for instance, he detested the US Bank at the time and ironically his picture appears on our $20, which he probably would be ticked off about. He’s buried at the Hermitage in the garden, next to his wife with his stone labeled as General Andrew Jackson. He apparently was more proud of his army legacy than his presidency.
After an awesome stay in Nashville, we got in the car and headed to Columbia, South Carolina. We broke the trip up with an overnight stay in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and did some hiking and some sightseeing of this very touristy area.
Pancakes are Becca’s favorite, and these set a new standard! This was a place called Crockett’s in Gatlinburg.
After loading up on pancakes, we went for a hike on some nearby hiking trails in the Great Smoky Mountains. Lots of beautiful things to see on this hike, especially this waterfall.
After the hike, we drove the rest of the way to Columbia to tour the campus of U of SC. I was expecting the campus to be a boring tour of buildings, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a very nice campus situated in downtown Columbia, next to the Statehouse.
South Carolina Statehouse. I like how the flowers pop in this picture and the flags poke out at the top. The exterior walls bear some stars that indicate where General Sherman’s artillery shells had hit the statehouse during the Civil War.
Becca and Cocky. She liked U of SC.
After spending a night in Lexington, Kentucky, we pushed toward home and stopped in West Lafayette, Indiana to see Purdue University. Big school and quite different than the previous two schools we just toured.
So glad we had the opportunity to take some time to see some really cool things and expose Becca to some college campuses. This was a fun vacation.
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an amazing run 