Pushing through

So this last week or so has been quite busy and due to a single weeknight of fun, I was sick for about 3 days.

Wednesday last week I got a call from my cousin Julie who just so happened to be in Denver on a business trip. So I met up with her and had a few drinks and did not end up returning home until about 3:00 am. Oh wait, I didn't return home because somebody stole my keys off the sideline at my soccer game that day, sweet. So I actually ended up sleeping on Rae's couch. Luckily, the package with my spare car key that my grandparents sent arrived in Denver on Monday. However, it went to my old address. Thus I had to borrow a friend's car, drive to the old pad, get the box with my car key and then head back up to school before I could drive my car anywhere. Thank God that box finally arrived...

The next morning I woke up completely congested and with the worst headache in the world. Needless to say, it was a rough day at work (luckily it was a late start and we had Friday off). So I basically spent Thursday through Saturday watching movies and popping Zinc supplements to kick the cold.

Sunday I felt awesome so I went for a short 6-7 mile run and put in about 30 miles on the bike. I took it up to the shop and got some modifications done on it, so I can really cruise! I also received THREE packages on Saturday (bike equipment from the family, car keys/phone charger from grand parents, and a box of cookies and muffins from Sam)!!! It was like Christmas :)

So things that are happening right now and the upcoming future:

Currently I am trying to get a group together for a trip to France during Spring Break. I have A TON of potentials and I get to go for free as a group leader if I get 6 students (or adults) from anywhere to partake. If I have 10 students sign-up and pay the initial fee by Oct. 1, I get to go to an orientation in Paris for a weekend!!!! So tomorrow I have the big parent meeting, so keep your fingers crossed.

October 10 - I'm flying into Chicago and riding with my friend JP back to Grand Valley to hangout with Sam and go to the homecoming football game. I'm pumped to head back to my Alma mater and see some old friends.

Last week in October - It's been confirmed, the old man is flying out to Denver for a weekend of Skiing and intense bar-hopping (haha just playing). A-Basin and Loveland should be open for the season and I'm just excited to have somebody come out and see me (especially from my family).

Last but not least, everything back at school and life is starting to settle down quite a bit. I'm beginning to find much more free time as I get into a routine at school and have severely cut-down on my training (I took about 1 week completely off). But I'm starting to pick back up on the training and just in a better mood that fall is finally starting to set-in.

New Friends

I was quite happy with the end of last week. Three soccer games and shuffling students to different classes is quite exhausting. However, this weekend help me put all that behind me. Saturday morning I woke up and had to work (professional development at 8am), which was not too big of a deal since I get paid for it. However, Friday night's Edward 40 hands definitely made it quite a challenge to roll out of bed. School is West for me, so every morning I get to enjoy the beautiful view of the mountains as I head to work. As it turned out, early Saturday morning Colorado got its first major dump. The mountains were covered with snow instead of the usual brown dirt. I cannot wait to strap on my snowboard!

The professional development (as I eluded to before) was extremely painful due to my hangover, but extremely useful. I completed majority of my planning for Chapters 2 and 3 of my Algebra class, which occupies about a month of the school year :) Finally, I'm starting to catch up! Afterwards I took a much needed nap then headed over to my friend Ashley's for a little get together.

Sunday afternoon, Jonny, Ryan and I met up with Ashley and some friends (whom I met at Saturday night's party) to play some pick-up soccer. What a blast, I cannot explain enough times how much I miss playing. Ashley's friend Ofer (sp?) also gave me some information on some co-ed leagues around the area. Looks like I'll be putting a team together to help me keep in shape during my off season :) To top it off, a group of people came over after the game and invited to play Ultimate Frisbee with them. I love how everyone out here is so friendly and active. It makes it really easy to make friends and never be bored. Speaking of, I have been meeting quite a lot of people in the Denver area these past weeks (runners and triathletes at Ashley's, more teachers at the PD, friends of friends, etc).

Now that I'm getting caught up with school, I'm starting to find more time to enjoy life.

Back to Reality

Well I was definitely on a runner's high for about two or three days and was rudely awakened several days later to the stress and lack of support I'm feeling at work. I'm not going to go into much detail (since everyone can read this), but these last few weeks have been quite challenging and be elevating my levels of anxiety.

However, I do have another race coming up at the end of September to close out the triathlon season and soccer coaching to keep myself grounded. The JV team is 0-3 right now but with a lot of potential. Many of these guys have never REALLY played soccer before and need to learn basic skills (shooting, passing, trapping, etc..). I feel if our guys learn to finish and control the ball more, we will be take down the majority of the teams we play. All of the guys work hard and are respectful (minus a few which sat almost all of yesterday's game to make my point clear). And they're awesome. I love just hanging out with them and helping them grow as athletes. It helps me forget any of the stress that dampens my day.

As far as the race goes, it's a 750m pool swim, 14.3 mi on the bike and a 5k run. I've been really working on my transitions and have somehow managed to squeeze decent training into my life. I feel for all of you that wake up at 5am now. Below are the elevation maps of the bike followed by the run - quite intense!!!

But other than that, the harsh reality is... sometimes people forget to appreciate things that other people do for them. That pretty much explains everything.

Officially a Triathlete

September 6, 2008

17th place

4th age group

http://www.myentryfee.com/results/RaceList.aspx?target=84

My first Triathlon was awesome and a really good learning experience. So let me break it down.

The Swim - This was definitely the most insane and intense part of the race. The swim was in a reservoir and began at 8am; it was 49 degrees.

However, the wetsuit made it feel warmer in the water than out and provided a lot of buoyancy (and made me look sweet as you can see below).

So everyone in my wave (50 or so people) get in the water about waist deep and take off at the sound of the gun. Then for the next 5 minutes the water is complete calamity. Basically you're swimming blind towards bright pink buoys with at least 5 or 6 people frantically splashing around you. I just remember feeling a body go underneath me, feeling someones hands repetitively hit my feet and being pincered by two other bodies. It was awesome but very different. Every couple of minutes it's imperative to peak out of the water and redirect yourself towards the buoy. I felt like I only diverted off course a few times during the swim and posted a half mile swim split of 12:26!!!! That's almost 3 minutes faster than my best 1/2 mile time.

(This is where the swim took place)

Rank for the swim: 48th

The Bike - The bike was definitely the most difficult part for me. I did fine during the transition (had no problem getting the wetsuit off) but it took about 4 miles of biking (1/3 of the leg) to loosen up. The bike was set-up as a 4 mile loop on the road that we had to complete 3 times. During that horrendous first lap, I was passed by a pack of 4 or 5 people. I tried to hang with them but couldn't do it (I think my tires were a little deflated as well). During the next two laps I loosened up and really started to regain what I had lost. I think I caught about 3 people during the next few laps but only one of them being from the initial pack.

Rank for the bike: 23rd

The Run - I had no problems during the run transition but felt really sluggish for the first mile of the of the 5k (as I expected). I did end up passing the intial group of riders that blew by me during the first lap of the bike. After I picked off those runners, my legs really loosened up and I made my way to the 2 mile mark. Since the run was an out and back, I had a good idea of where the rest of my competition was and knew that I could definitely pick them off before the end. However, the finish came way too quick (i'm not used to running such a short race and I actually felt way too good as I finished) and I only ended up passing a few people as I turned at the halfway point. However, I did end up posting an 18:05 (5:50 pace per mile) during the run which wasn't too bad, but definitely slower than I was capable of.

Rank for the run: 8th

So my overall time was a 1:08:27 which was 2 minutes under what I projected myself. The most frustrating part was, I could've easily cut a minute and half off my transition times and placed second for my age group. However, I'm still very content with my results and had a blast racing. I can't wait to do my next one and really take my training to the next level after ski season.

All in all it was a great learning experience. Things that I will/could've done differently:

1.) Learn how to transition to and from the bike by leaving my shoes attached

(This is the transition area)

2.) Make sure bike tires are pumped properly

3.) Run harder during short distances

4.) Not change into bike clothing (ie bike shirt) from swim.

5.) Get better on the swim

I think if I do these things, I will see drastic improvements.

On another note, I came back from my Tri and found a letter in the mail from Cullen (gas money from GLR), and this was also included.

Thank you very much David Cullen. You crack me up.

Race Jitters

Wow, I'm so excited for the race tomorrow. Somehow I've managed to stay fairly focused at school and come up with some pretty good lesson plans for the students. However, I can't stop thinking about my first Tri tomorrow.

However, my training has been nothing close to stellar this week. With soccer games, meeting, practice, teaching, etc.. I've logged in a total of 14 miles running, 2k swimming and 12 miles on the bike. Earlier this week I've definitely felt like I've been coming down with a cold, so I sacrificed training for sleep and relaxation to successively (so far) fend it off. And on top of that, the weather broke. It is officially Fall. I swear to God I actually saw some snow flurries during lunch today....great! That swim at 8am tomorrow is going be like stepping into an ice bath. Thus, I'm going to have to break down and buy a horribly expensive wetsuit to thwart off hypothermia and pulled muscles.

But...I have so much adrenalin right now that none of that even matters. I've decided to cut practice down to one hour today so I can get my race packet early and prep for the big day. I know there's a million other things to write about right now, but this is all that's on my mind.

Well, the snow flurries definitely got me pumped for ski season. I can't wait to take out the new board and tear up some fresh Fall powder.

ONLY A MATTER OF WEEKS BEFORE THOSE MOUNTAINS TURN FROM BROWN TO WHITE!!!

Enjoying a little R and R

So this weekend has actually been pretty phenomenal thus far.  After practice on Friday, I headed home to drop off the LOADS of papers I had to grade, then headed over to Rae's house to play some Texas Hold Em'.  This was exactly what I needed, just a chill night - drinking some wine and rocking out to Alice in Chains.  And to top it off, I ended up getting some really good cards on the river and won!  Normally this would be awesome, except I've given up "partying" until after my race next weekend and won free drinks from everyone at the table.  But we just ended up going down the street to the Park Tavern and I behaved.

Saturday morning I woke up early, cleaned my apartment and headed over to Sniagrab ("Bargains" spelled backwards).  This is one of the many things that is so amazing about this state.  Every year sports authority has this enormous sale where they sell all the left over ski/snowboard equipment from the previous season.  THERE IS SO MUCH LEFTOVER GEAR, more than I could've fathomed.  It opened at 8am on Saturday and was packed with people.  All the radio stations in the area were there and all the Colorado ski resorts had reps giving away lift tickets and promo items.  It was pretty awesome, besides all the amazing deals (everything is 50-70% off) it was just cool to hangout with all the skiers and riders that were already getting anxious for the upcoming season.

So my purpose for going up here was to get some boots and bindings for my new board I bought last season.  I ended up getting some sweet Flo bindings and some Burton boots (pictures below) and of course I bought another beeny (you can never have enough).  Check out the pictures below.  As I walked out, one of the bag checkers notified me that I spent enough money to receive a free lift ticket to Loveland (one of the first resorts to open) and a shit ton of coupons to A-Basin (the other resort that opens very early into the season).  So my first experience at Sniagrab was pretty epic.

Later on I met up with Andy Duemling (one of my buddies from GV) who had been hanging out with some family up in the mountains.  So we went and checked out The Taste of Denver and bar-hopped until about 2 a.m. with Ashley.  It was pretty awesome catching up with Andy and just talking about our future in the next couple years.  It's exciting to hear about so many people thinking of moving out here in the next few years (Goat, Carly, Duemling, Sam). I like the idea of my friends having the same experiences I have in the move to God's country :)

Sunday was a pretty low key day for me.  I just chilled and got all my papers graded, watched a couple of movies, cleaned and prepped for the following week.  I took took a couple of breaks: ran back up to Sniagrab and picked up some sick bindings for Samantha, went running and found a stray puppy and did a little grocery shopping.

So that about sums up my exciting weekend.  I'm heading over to a party later on tonight and just found The Sword in the Stone.  Can't get much better than that eh?