Rocketts Landing Tri

Very impressed with Melissa Mckendry's race yesterday. She raced very well coming in 1st in her age group and 9th overall. The conditions down here have been crazy hot and she held it together yesterday in less than optimal conditions. She is coming along very nicely and is going to be ready to rip Duathlon Worlds and Age Group Nationals in September. Way to go Melissa!

Mental Conditioning Part 2 and back to MI

Blog number 2 in the mental conditioning series.

On another note...Rachel and I have decided it's time to head back to Michigan. We both have recently been offered jobs in northern MI and everything is pointing us back there. We have enjoyed our time in VA Beach, but it's just not the place we'd ultimately like to be. For our careers I think we are jumping into better opportunities. It's certainly going to be better for raising a family, which we aren't necessarily starting any time soon, but down the road for sure. For triathlon, things will be a bit different, but really it's just going to be a different approach with the winters being longer. My season will start a bit later, but there are a ton of great triathletes from the northeast, midwest, and Colorado...all places with a lot of snow. The training environment up there is as good as anywhere I've seen with endless miles of cycling without having to deal with traffic or stoplights. There are tons of hills for both cycling and running. Running trails are everywhere. I'll have access to two good pools and probably a hundred different fresh water lakes in the summer. Training partners will be a little hard to come by, but I've always done the majority of my stuff solo anyways. I'll be picking back up the winter sports scene with both downhill and xc skiing...talk about good exercise. Coaching wise this won't change anything since everything we do is online and over the phone. There's a good chance I'll be getting into some coaching at the varsity high school level as well.

All in all, we are very excited about getting back. So few good jobs become available up there and for both of us to get a job in the same area is too hard to pass up. We know that's where we wanted to end up...we just didn't know when exactly it would happen. I'll tell ya though...the good Lord has had a big hand in this and has opened one door after another for us. One example is how I got my job. I was going to be up in Michigan for 4 days last weekend for my brother's bachelor party and to enjoy our hometown festival and hang out with friends and family. I got called early last week about scheduling an interview and it just happened to be I was going to be coming there and we did the interview on Friday. The interview was in the morning and they called me back before the day was over to let me know the job was mine if I wanted. There was a real sense of peace about it all.

So that's about it...we'll be moving in less than 2 weeks. It's a little bittersweet, but we're excited to get back closer to family and a more quiet life. If anyone is looking for a good place to do a summer training camp...come on up...you'll love it up there.

Mental Conditioning

Newest blog up on the Landice site.

Finally!

This probably doesn't really warrant a blog, but I'm pumped! After 5 weeks of no running I was finally able to get out this morning for a short run...no watch, didn't care how far I went...just got out and ran for a bit. I thought for sure it would feel awkward and I'd have a little pain...nope! Things are definitely starting to come back around. People keep telling me I've recovered so fast because I'm young...this is probably true, but at the same time when you're as diligent with your recovery plan as you are your normal training I think you can really come back a lot quicker. I took my 2 weeks of doing nothing, but even then I was making sure I rested a ton and iced my shoulder area often. The last 2 weeks I've seen a huge improvement. I've been on the trainer/spin bike/elliptical every day and then also doing some core/lower body work and hitting the pool to aqua jog and do whatever swimming I could (mostly kicking and balance drills). Range of motion in my shoulder area is getting back to normal...but once again it isn't just by chance. I've been doing little exercises to increase the range and get the strength back.

Now I just need to figure out some races for the fall. It's going to be another 4 weeks probably before I feel like I'm actually in some good shape again. So hopefully by the middle/end of August I can be back out there racing.

I know for a lot of people it's probably not all that big of a deal to be out for 5 weeks, but when something is such a big part of your life that's a long time.

See you out there on the roads, trails, or pool soon.

4 Years Already?

It's crazy how quick these last 4 years have gone. Today is Rachel and I's 4th anniversary. It's funny how it seems like our wedding was forever ago, but at the same time these years have flown by. From the day I met Rachel my life has been on an upward swing...it really has. There is something so special about my wife...positive things just attract to her. Her attitude about, well, everything is almost always good. It's exciting to think about what the big guy upstairs has in store for us next. I must share kind of an embarrasing coincidence...so Rachel gets up this morning about 6 and because I'm kind of a slacker in the summer I tend to lay there in bed for a little while longer. Well, as Rachel was getting ready I thought I'd go ahead and give her a card...kind of set the tone for the day right? She loved the card, but she loved it so much...it was the same one she had gotten me...haha. I always think of us as being on the same page on almost everything, but this was a bit much. Between you and I, I think she went snooping around and found my card and then went out and bought the same one to try and be funny:)

Last little note...we were very fortunate to have an uncle of Rachel film almost our entire wedding day and we went through our stuff and found it last night. It brought back a lot of memories and I have still to this day not been to a more fun party. Every dance had a minimum of 50 people dancing. It was intense!

Thanks for being a great wife Rach. This is only the beginning...

How to Enhance Recovery from an Injury

Here is a follow up to last week's blog on Landice.

Macca and the Raelerts

Awesome write up!

Injuries: They're part of the game

I am now going to be writing weekly articles for Landice Fitness. Landice has awesome treadmills and elliptical machines. They're treadmills are ranked #1 in the world. This week's article can be found here . You can also see it here (on the Zoot blog) if you want to see some pics. It has to do with sports injuries being part of the game and what athletes likely go through and ways to come out the other end better than ever. I'll be following it up next week with the steps you should take once you are cleared to begin exercising again.