I wish I had more time to add to this blog, but it's just not possible with all that I have going on these days. Between teaching, coaching, being athletic director, training, and still trying to be a good father and husband it just doesn't leave time for much else. I am going to try to do a better job in 2013.
Above are some pictures. Rachel always does a nice job with our Christmas card and those pictures really highlight the past year. Looking back on 2013 I couldn't have scripted it any better. I feel blessed more and more.
Some highlights for me this past year in somewhat chronological order were: being inducted into the Otsego County Sports Hall of Fame (the youngest member to have been inducted), finishing my masters degree in Educational Leadership, coaching our boys basketball team to a 2nd place league finish-will be first place this year, coaching our boys track and field team to a 2nd straight conference title, the birth of our second daughter Zoe, a PR at the half marathon distance 2 days later, a PR at the Mark Mellon Triathlon, our 7th wedding anniversary, completing my first Ironman in a respectable 10:06 and 5th place age group finish, starting my new position as the athletic director for Mancelona Public Schools, shooting a nice looking buck on opening day, and going to a Lions, Pistons, U of M football, and U of M basketball game all within 2 months of each other. It's going to be tough topping that every year!
I don't tell you that stuff to boast, I tell you that because it shows what can be accomplished through hard work and dedication. It's not all about accomplishing things, but it sure is fun to succeed and the best way I know how to honor the big man upstairs is to use the talents that he has given me.
Obviously, life is lived at 100 mph in the Smith family. I wouldn't have it any other way. Rachel continues to amaze me. She becomes a better wife and mother every day. She tells me I hold things together, when in reality it's her that acts as the glue. Nothing that we do would be possible if it weren't for her. Our daughters resembke her so much already in that they are both so happy and pleasant to be around. The older they get the more fun it is!
On the triathlon front I have been back to work for 3 weeks now. I took a nice 3 month "break" this fall where I did something about every day, but it was all very unstructured. I don't normally take more than about a month to do that each year, but with all of the above going on this past year I needed some reprieve.
I haven't swam since September, and I won't be until March. Without having a pool closer than 30 min. away it is not the best use of my time. That being said, I think March 1 is the latest I can afford to start swimming and be ready to roll come early June for USAT Long Course Nationals in Grand Rapids. Last year I didn't swim until January and swam 59 minutes for Ironman off less than 10k of swimming a week. In the elite age group race even at all the big races I'm not behind because of my swim...it tends to always be from the run. Therefore, a big focus for the winter is to improve my bike (because in triathlon your bike fitness has everything to do with how well one runs off the bike) and to lay down a very solid run base. I'll also be doing a xc ski session or two each week as that really helps get your entire body in shape while probably being some of the best "core" exercise out there.
I decided to work with my old coach Janda Ricci-Munn again this year. I just don't have the same time to plan as I used to and being able to just put my trust in Janda and get the work done has been nice. I enjoyed going at it myself the past couple of years, but in order to make any more improvement I needed to go at things a bit differently. Janda gives me a lot of variety in training where I tend to repeat a lot of sessions when planning my own schedules. I was also getting a bit stale and by simply doing some different things I think that will have me seeing some nice improvement again. There's also that sense of accountability and I see myself working a bit harder knowing I have to check in and be honest with how the fitness is coming. That, and it's always nice learning new things from Janda as he is a wealth of knowledge and continues to learn about the sport. It doesn't hurt that Janda has some big names professionals on his roster now and to see them benefitting from his coaching is very reassuring.
I'll be representing the Zoot team again this year. You can see the updated sponsors on the right hand side of the blog. I wouldn't want to represent any other company and I really do believe it is the best triathlon specific company in the world. They have gone out of their way several times to help me out with gear and a ton of my family and friends have gotten to experience the generosity of such an awesome company and Zoot is definitely well known now in northern and central Michigan.
So far, my race schedule is looking like an early season duathlon, Bayshore half marathon, USAT Long Course Nationals in GR, Mark Mellon, East Jordan Tri, a 70.3 in July and/or early August, a couple other local tris, and hopefully ending the year crushing 70.3 Worlds in Mt. Tremblant. Maybe I'll end the year with a marathon and/or Iceman.
I'll end with a link to this speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTFnmsCnr6g . It's worth the 15 minutes! If I'm ever second guessing myself, I watch this video and instantly the passion comes back.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
