Turned the corner

I'd have to say that over the last week and a half I've turned the corner from sporadic winter workouts to regular pre-season training. Even though I'm not starting my official base work until Feburary 1st, I've gotten into a nice routine of getting to bed relatively early and up a little before 5 to get a workout in.

After doing the Manchester marathon in November I've worked out when I got around to it. But, there were plenty of mornings when hitting the snooze button too many times meant I had to get to work and no time to work out.

I think the first race of the year is going to be the Big Lake 1/2 Marathon in May. There is usually a good contingent from GSTC that does the race which makes it fun. I know of at least one co-worker who is also doing the race. Big Lake will be a good test of fitness before the first Tri of the year, Mooseman in early June

I may do a 5 or 10k prior to that but we'll have to see how the spring shapes up.

"Thank you Dad"

As thrilling as it is crossing the finish line of a triathlon, it almost pales in comparison to your child singing tales of admiration to you as a parent. My almost 10 year old son has crossed a new threshold in how he expresses his admiration.

He bought a new video game yesterday, with his own money, but it wasn't all he expected and he had a very frustrating afternoon trying to play. I spent a long time with him on google last night looking for some tips that would help the game perform as he originally expected. Today, I exchanged that game for a new one that he like a lot better.

The words he said as I was helping him last night and gave him the new game today were so simple, however, the way he said them made their meaning deeper than almost anything he had told me before. The simple words were "Thank you Dad". They are words he has told me before but this time it was different. They were more genuine and sincere than almost anything that I had ever heard him say.

It was one of those conflicting moments as a parent. On the one hand you feel so proud of your child growing up and learning to express himself in such meaningful ways, while at the same time, realizing that he is getting older and not the little boy he used to be, even though in a small corner of your brain you wish he wouldn't get any older.

Sunday team swim

Excellent day today with the GSTC. We are fortunate to have a great coach, Suzan Ballmer, who filmed all 25 or so of us at the UNH pool both above and below water. After being filmed and doing an extended workout, we then ventured back to my house where my awesome wife had a spread of bagel, lox, coffee, fruit, etc. waiting for us.

Our club president setup a laptop and projector and we were able to get tips from Suzan on each of our techniques as our video clip played. Once I get my clip I'll make an attempt to post here.

Even though I've only been regularly swimming for about 5 years, I felt like I had a pretty good stroke. It was amazing to see how some little things that I was doing in the video were slowing me up significantly.

1-26-08

I did a little over a six mile run today. While I usually run in the morning, I had a late night on Thursday and got up to ride the trainer early on Friday. So I was pretty wiped out this morning and decided to run in the afternoon.

Running in the afternoon has never been all that great for me. I usually don't feel like I have the energy like I do in the morning. Most of the time I'll skip lunch so I don't eat too close to an afternoon run. But, I don't know why I bother, because it seems like almost any afternoon run I do doesn't feel great.

Today I felt gassy for the whole run and stopped several times to, well, you know.

I'm excited for the GSTC training tomorrow. On the schedule is a 2-hour swim session that will include an underwater video analysis, very cool. The club is then coming over to our house to watch the videos and have a little breakfast. It will be good times.

Old to new blog

While preparing for Ironman Lake Placid 2006 I kept a blog on my experience with training and all the ups and downs that go along with it. With what I hope is an easier forum to post here on Blogspot, I hope to continue this blog to cover my ongoing tri-life, along with just life.