You call this snow?

Well, it did indeed snow. It is nothing compared to a snow storm in northern Michigan, but hey I'll take it. I ran in the trails this morning and saw maybe 3 people. I guess a few others ran from Final Kick, but started a bit earlier. It was really a beautiful morning to be out running the trails. Footing wasn't the best, but other than that it was a blast.

Got home and Rachel and I headed to the little diner down the road...Waffletown USA! It's actually a really good little place.

Next up was my weekly session at Range of Motions with Nick. He kicked my butt today as usual, but I am really starting to see the benefits of me working with him. I am strengthening sport specific muscles and becoming more flexible, while at the same time adding in some cardiovascular benefit.

Speaking of Range of Motions...this is where Joel and I's 2nd 8 week cycling workshop will be taking place. We still have some room left so if you're interested just let me know. We're also allowing people to try out a session and see if they like what we're doing before they pay. Nick is also willing to work with the group for a bit before or after each workout. This is a great opportunity for people to not only work on their cycling, but now work with Nick to get stronger, more flexible, and be injury resistant.

Lastly, I am always keeping up on my track and field. Last night was the Wanamaker Mile. Lagat won as usual. Here is a video of the race...talk about speed!

Movie night with Rachel tonight...life is good.

Time is Flying

It's hard to believe it's already going to be February. I guess that's what happens when you are having fun right? Training has gone very well this first month of 2010. I'm not quite sure exactly what it is, but I've felt great all month. I feel like I've been able to step my training up to a new level. I think taking a good rest after last season has allowed my body to fully absorb all the hard work I did last year. I have also added some things to my repertoire, such as weekly sessions at Range of Motions and massages at Balance. I have changed up the training a bit this winter as I've been doing more intensity on the run front and it seems to be working wonders. Best thing about it is that my cycling hasn't took a hit because of it. Shoot, I've actually improved a bit...at least my high end. Swimming has been coming along. Changing your stroke a bit is tough, but I'm starting to see the benefits. I'm anxious to for the season to get here so I can put all this hard work to use.

February is going to be a busy month. Rachel and I are heading up to Michigan for a long Valentine's Day weekend. The real reason we're going is it marks the 10th anniversary since Rachel's Dad has been in Heaven. She is getting together with her sisters, Mom, and Grandma to celebrate this. I am excited to finally get an opportunity to watch my little sister, Christina, play basketball. She has been dominating all season and I haven't had a chance to see her in high school action yet.

I'm heading to the USAT clinic in Charlotte the following weekend. That should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to learning some things.

The last weekend of February I race for the first time this season.

We're actually supposed to get some snow this weekend...up to a foot they say. I'll believe it when I see it. It's been 4 years and it hasn't snowed more than an inch once.

Rachel and I are headed to the Kecoughtan/Phoebus high school basketball game in Hampton this evening. A guy I teach with coaches Kecoughtan and these are the two schools my middle schoolers feed into so I will be able to see a lot of former students out on the court. Kecoughtan is ranked top 10 in Virginia and both teams have a few Division 1 athletes. Should be a great game.

Drunk Goggles

I haven't really shared much about what I actually do for a living so I thought I'd shed a little light on what my life is like as a middle school health and p.e. teacher. What can I say, I am one of the lucky ones that really enjoys what they do for a living. What I like most is that I am able to constantly practice what I preach...that is living a healthy/active lifestyle, and that is more than just about triathlon.

There are many different areas of wellness...not just physical health. Some of these other areas are mental/emotional health, social health, spiritual, financial, and so on. The one's we focus on for teaching are the first 3. I teach 2 blocks of p.e. a day and 1 of health. For health right now I have my 8th graders. This is probably one of the most challenging years a person goes through in their life. The social aspect is so important...to the point where kids will do whatever is necessary in order to fit in and have friends. I try my best to make things like being respectful and working hard the cool things that I reward in my class. I don't like the days when I have to get right into a kids "grill" (yes I tend to use a fair amount of the kids' silly language now since it's all I hear every day). That is one benefit of being pretty young, yet having complete authority of my classes. If I challenge a student in class the reaction tends to be positive the next time around because I'm still considered "cool."

Anyways, I am teaching substance abuse right now. For 8th grade I mostly focus on drugs, but spend a couple days on tobacco and alcohol. This is a tough unit to teach because of the varying knowledge/maturity levels. Some kids know way too much whereas some know nothing at all. Facilitating the questions is always interesting. Is it bad I find out about new street names for different drugs every year? So the last couple of days we have used the drunk goggles . These goggles impair your vision so that it seems as if you were drunk. I had 3 different levels of goggles...basically mild, strong, and very strong. I would put the students through various tasks and it was quite funny. I did the basic try to walk on a straight line and then turn around and come back. I threw them a soft ball and probably 2 out of 60 caught it. I had them try to shoot a basketball into the hoop...only one made it. I had them try to hit a wiffle ball...hilarious. It's been a lot of fun, but I think the students really realized how much alcohol can alter their body/mind so mission accomplished.

On a bit of a sad note, it is true that kids pretty much everywhere are getting lazier and lazier. There are a lot of people responsible for this. We do our part about exercising the students and teaching them why living a healthy lifestyle is so important, but parents really need to start taking a bigger role. It is clear which students have a strong support network at home and which ones don't. So please...if you're a parent out there...don't ever underestimate the importance of teaching your kids about healthy habits. They will thank you later and enjoy life more.

So that's a little glimpse about what I actually do for a living. My job fits in about as well as any for training/racing...you would have thought I had planned that, but when I gradated from college I had no idea triathlon would be such a passion of mine. I guess it was kind of meant to be.

Okay enough of that...gotta go punish myself on the trainer for a bit. Bring on the pain!

Thanks for reading.

Visualization, Focus, and Belief

Last weekend, I listened to Jim Millhouse speak for a couple of hours on different topics related to sports psychology. Two main things I took away from his talk were the importance of both focus and visualization for athletes...really this is applicable to any facet of life. These are two things that almost all people who are great at something possess. I have always thought that I am a pretty focused person, but he kind of talks about focus in a little different way...focus in that you are 100% concentrating on the task at hand and not the outcome. This is certainly something I'm going to be working on this year. This is not an easy thing to do, but if mastered it will raise a person's game to a very high level.

I have tried to visualize before races and think it definitely helps. Now, I have a couple cues to refer to that should help thanks to Dr. Millhouse. In training and in racing I often times try to visualize myself in key races, but I also try to emulate athletes who are masters of their sport. For the swim I tend to imagine Ian Thorpe, for the bike I go with none other than LA, and finally for running Bekele . These 3 are top athletes of all time in their sport.

Something that goes along with all of this is belief in yourself. This is related to all aspects of one's life...not just sports. Really, nothing is unachievable if you truly put 100% of yourself into something. Sure, you'll make mistakes and fail...that's part of life. I know I'm where I'm at today because of a lot of failures. Yet, I don't regret a single one of them. Often times it takes a bit of failure in order to kick yourself into gear. Hopefully, as you start this new year you don't doubt yourself...because if you don't believe in you who else will?

Been a little while since I've last posted. Everything is going quite well. Finding out about the Zoot team last week has been and will be a great source of motivation for the year. I have been happy with my training as of late...pretty surprised how good I have been feeling really. Janda had us do our first VO2 max test on the bike this past weekend. I haven't really done any specific VO2 max work since last season and haven't really ridden a whole lot. I felt awesome though and ripped the test. I was hoping to raise my VO2 max on the bike to the number I achieved on Sunday by the end of the base period...so to reach it before we have really even done any work was a huge bonus. Here is the song I listened to during the test haha. We filmed the test so hopefully we will have that up soon. Needless to say, the split we are using right now is working. Master coach, Janda, is a genius what can I say.

This past weekend I attended a seminar put on by Range of Motions. It was great and I learned a ton about various fields of exercise science and nutrition. The speakers were awesome. Thanks to Nick for allowing me to attend. Speaking of Nick, my weekly sessions with him have been helping a lot. We are really targeting some different parts of my body where I am either a little inflexible or weak. I am already feeling it making a difference.

I'd like to give a little shout out as well to Balance Massage here in Virginia Beach. All of the therapists are very good at what they do and having them as part of my "team" this year is going to go a long way in keeping my body healthy and ready to roll week in and week out.

Joel and I's cycling workshop is going very well. There are going to be some nice power jumps when we test the group next week. There is still some room left for the 2nd 8 week session if anyone is looking to take their cycling to the next level.

I have officially started working under Janda as an "assistant" coach if you will. I am very thankful for this opportunity as I can't think of anyone better who I'd rather learn from and be associated with. It's already been a blast working with a few athletes. I can't wait to help more and more people have fun reaching their goals.

Lastly, registration is now live for the triathlon my father, brothers, and I are putting on this summer in my hometown of Gaylord, MI. You can check it out here. This is the oldest triathlon in Michigan and we are resurecting it to be better than ever.

Zoot Ultra Triathlon Team

Just a quick blog letting you know I've been selected for the 2010 Zoot Ultra Triathlon Team. I am honored to have been given an opportunity to represent Zoot and some of the other leading triathlon companies in the world. More on this to come in the future.

Hope everyone is enjoying their first week of the new year.

2009 Triathlon Season in Review

Final Kick group at Eagleman

Running into 3rd at Patriot's Olympic

About to take the win at Sandman

2nd lap at 70.3 World Championship

Here are some pictures from the 2009 triathlon season. I thought I'd do a little wrap up of the year now that '09 is done and we are into the new year. 2009 was definitely another step in the right direction. I really didn't have any major goals besides just continuing to improve in each of the 3 disciplines and whatever came of that was good with me. Sure doing well at different races was important to me, but usually if I take care of the main goal, constant improvement, doing pretty well follows close behind. I started off the year with some really good training. We took a bit of a different approach in the winter, as training was really the focus and I didn't race at all until the end of March. I did the Virginia Duathlon and took 5th against 4 guys who have placed in their age groups at Duathlon Worlds. The first race of the year is always kind of tough, but it was nice getting the race cobwebs out.

Next was Duathlon Nationals the end of April. I was looking to have a good showing here as last year I was in the top 20. Well, the result was my first ever and hopefully last ever DNF in a race. It was a very hot day for April (90+) and I just had one of those days where you feel awful from the first step. I got through the first run and bike, but called it a day in t2. Talk about a wake up call. That race did a lot for me as I took a step back and thought about what went wrong and why I love multisport. I placed a lot of pressure on myself for this race, and for what? I kind of took a different perspective after that and sure I was going to give every race my very best effort, but at the end of the day even though triathlon is very important to me and my life often times revolves around it, it's only a sport and is meant to be FUN.

I jumped right into a sprint tri the next weekend to get my head right and I was feeling back to normal. I took 3rd at the Kinetic Sprint at Lake Anna. After that it was right into some specific training for Eagleman. I was training the best I had in my life and two weeks before Eagleman I raced a local sprint...Breezy Point. It's always a great time racing alongside so many of your friends and local competitors. I was able to take 4th place, but was a bit disappointed as I was right there and lost to all 3 that finished ahead of me by less than a minute. Oh well, I had just finished a big block of training for Eagleman and that was the first big race of the year so I quickly turned my focus towards that.

Eagleman is a great race and one that is a must for any triathlete to compete in at least once. I was very much looking forward to this race and thought I could possibly grab a Kona slot if I had a good day. Well, I did have a pretty good day...but was beat by one guy in my age group by a couple of minutes. I hadn't really planned on going to Kona, but if I had gotten the slot I would not have been turning it down. This will be the goal for 2010 and I am already excited for June 13th to get here. A lot of people from Hampton Roads always do this race and it kind of feels like a local race because of it.

Next up was Colonial Beach. I really haven't done many olympic distance tri's so I was anxious to see what I could do. In years past this race had been a 1k swim, 24 mile bike, and 6 mile run and I was able to take 2nd here last year. In '09 it was a full Olympic distance. I felt decent...considering the day before I was in bed until about 2PM as one of my good friends had their bachelor party the night before and drank a bit too much...haha. I ended up 4th overall in 2:02, but the competition was very good and I beat the guy who beat me in '08 so I was pleased with that. This is one I like to do every year as well. The race takes place in a small town and has that grassroots triathlon feel.

Steelhead 70.3 takes place along Lake Michigan. I love this race as it's not very often my family gets to come watch me race. That weekend was crazy as I drove to Michigan, did the race, drove straight to Chicago for a wedding that night, and then the next day drove with Rachel up to northern Michigan where we are from. I was very close to knocking this race out of the park. Had I run what I thought I could I would have been right there for the overall age group win. My bike split matched quite a few of the pros on a day that got a lot windier as the morning went on and my wave started last. I ended up 3rd in my age group and missed 2nd by a lousy few seconds b/c the guy started in the wave before me and I never saw him. This race is a lot of fun and you won't find a much better swim anywhere. Bike and run are both nice and challenging. Perfect temps up there that time of year.

When we got back from Michigan I started a block of a lot of intensity to get ready for Sandman and Patriot's Olympic. We also did this as we've found it works pretty well to go into a 70.3 specific period after doing a period of a lot of intensity. It tends to make that half ironman pace seem a lot more tolerable. Both races went well. I took 3rd at Patriot's and really enjoyed their new course. Sandman was the next weekend and during the week I knew something good was coming. The engine was hot and I was able to rip off a couple of nasty workouts that week. Sandman was a race I had looked forward to all year after coming 2nd last year...not to mention it's our only triathlon in Virginia Beach. The ocean was pretty rough and I knew it was going to be a challenging day when I first get in to warm up and get annihilated by a huge wave. The swim actually went pretty well as I took a wide path outside the buoys as it tends to calm down out there a bit. I steadily made my way back to shore as I approached the last couple of buoys and I was surprised to come out right behind the leader. A quick transition and I had the motorcycle with me from the start of the bike. This is the first time I have been in this position and it was a blast. I can't wait to hopefully experience this again in 2010. I rode very well...probably my best power file to date and came off the bike with a couple minute cushion. I ran hard until the turn around and then put it on cruise control a bit as I wanted to enjoy it. It was great seeing my friend and training partner Joel right there in the mix too as he was close behind.

Clearwater was the last multisport event of the year and I was looking forward to getting down there and improving upon my race from the previous year. Rachel and I had a lot of fun traveling with Joel and Stephanie and we were ready to roll come race morning. Janda was there to watch us and his other small army of athletes so that was a bit of extra motivation. I won't go into detail much here as I think I already posted a bit of a race report , but after dragging a group of 10+ athletes around for over half the bike I was pretty worn out by the time I got to the run. I was disappointed in my run, but they can't all go to plan and a PR is a PR (although on that course it's tough for many to claim it as so).

So that's about it...the 2009 multisport year in a nutshell. I took a lot of positives away from the year...I really do love to train and race, I was able to stay healthy pretty much the entire season, I improved in all 3 disciplines, I learned a ton, and met a lot of good people. I have a lot to work on this off season, but cannot wait for racing to start up again as I am confident this year will be another good one.

God continues to bless us a ton and has is hands on everything we do. I know that's a tough concept for some to grasp, but being that it's a start to a new year and you find yourself unhappy or searching for contentment...I challenge you to seek out this relationship.

Thanks for reading...the couple who do...haha.

The Holiday Season

Here are some pictures from Christmas. The first one is of my entire family- my five brothers and sisters, parents, and the significant others. The 2nd one is 2 of my brothers, my father, and I at our local hockey rink. It's amazing how quick it comes back...I guess that's what happens when you start something at 5 like we all did and my youngest brother is following suit. Finally, the 3rd picture is of Rach and I. Really, I just wanted to show of my beautiful wife:) You can go here to see more.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with family and friends while we were home. We ate a ton of good food as all my family seems to have the good cooking gene. We opened way too many gifts as my folks continue to be the most generous people alive. Last, but certainly not least, my sister Jen and her husband Matt surprised us all Christmas morning with the news that she is pregnant! It was a pretty special moment and we're all very excited. She's due 2 days before my brother's wedding so that ought to be interesting.

With all the partying we did back home in Michigan we are just laying pretty low this New Year's Eve. We are looking to make 2010 the best year yet. In the next day or two I'm going to do a little recap of the 2009 triathlon season so stay tuned.

Be safe tonight!