Seaside Half Marathon 2020

Perhaps one of the more interesting changes in my training routine since Fall of 2019 has been the willful addition of a strange practice apparently known as the “rest day”. And, with a Monday of training rest and 3/4 kids tucked quietly in bed and 1/4 inconsolably refusing to allow the rest of us to sleep, I turn again to the keyboard to recount a race. “How,” you ask, “could you possibly write (again) about a race in which you run in a straight line one direction, then turn around and run straight back?” Read on and find out!

The great body composition experiment

Well its been quite some time since last I wrote a post. I have spent the off-season primarily returning focus to all the areas of life that matter more than hobbies. With our latest addition to the family tree now fully settled in and the responsibilities of family life settling down, I’ve finally found a free moment to consider the last few months of self experimentation.

Recovered!

It has been some time since adding to what is surely a shortage of random online writing.  It’s now been ten months since Hurricane Michael cut a path right through our literal backyard.  The longer it has been, the more we come to realize how fortunate we as a family have been in the relatively limited damage we sustained considering that the western eyewall of the storm was directly over our house.  I’m not going to lie, I miss the old oak trees and shady roads that characterized our neighborhood and, even now, it seems hard to adjust to the idea that no amount of recovery work is going to make things the way they once were.  Nevertheless, instead of dwelling on what used to be, we’re happy to look ahead now that we have mostly finished restoring our home.

Race Report: Ironman Texas

Following the chaos of last fall and an unexpected deferral from Ironman Florida to Ironman Texas, I found myself once again eating extra bananas at 3:30 AM in a hotel bathroom… It was truly a race morning.  After sixteen long weeks of building up fitness I was excited and so happy to be in Houston uninjured, uninhibited by weather, and unconcerned about what the remainder of the day would bring. This was it, everything the training was meant for!

Race Report: SSHM 2019

For the third consecutive year, I was blessed to lace up for the Seaside School Half Marathon. I’ve related before why I love this particular race but if you didn’t read last year’s Race Report, I’ll happily repeat myself! This has to be one of the most beautiful areas to run and I’m fortunate to be able to train in this area often.

Bikeeee!

The build is in full swing! I’ve just finished a 15+hour training week that left me a bit worn out but honestly feeling good before the end. It was a busy week of work with a couple days spent working out of town. While I miss being with my family, I try to take as much advantage of being on the road as possible to log extra hours. Thanks to a dearth of storage space in my V8 Transition Pack, I typically bring everything but the kitchen sink with me on the road. And with the roadie on the back of the car, I’m usually all set for some random adventure time.

Well that got busy…

Well its been an interesting few weeks since last I blathered to the internet about the state of life. We made a family trip to Disney World and really had a blast 🙂 I can safely say that now that we’re through the trip. There’s nothing easy about taking three young kids to the world’s busiest park for a few days but the further removed you are from the desperate chaos, the more you remember the fun. Of course every trip is not without its consequences. While driving back, Cade started showing a 102°F fever… which was happily passed around the family the next few days. It’s probably impossible to go to a melting pot like Disney and walk away without some interesting germs and this make two trips in a row where we brought the souvenir of sickness home with us…

Rebuilding

Greetings from week T-14 to Ironman Texas!  The timing for this event has worked out really nicely with the changing of the year and the theme of 2019 is definitely: rebuild. While my fitness level at the end of 2018 plummeted rather sharply, I’m happily building it back up to “happy” levels and am pleased that my overall fitness graph looks like a smiley face again 🙂  It’s worth pointing out that you can’t make a smiley face unless one side goes down… Thankfully, the other side goes back up!

The end of the year as we know it

Good-bye, 2018!  At the beginning of the year, I set out with some specific goals in mind.  I won’t rehash them except to say that I did at least hit one 🙂  Typically, I think of myself as being fairly focused on hitting goals but, as you can see, I clearly prioritize what I think is fun… And since I don’t foresee myself running a marathon tomorrow (maybe…) we’ll say I missed the running one just barely.

Fiddy

The best adventures seem to have happened when, in hindsight, you can look back and say, “That was a dumb idea.”  And that’s exactly what running a 50k on basically no specific training was… a very dumb but very fun adventure!  How does someone even get to this point?  A strange combination of events for sure…