we become the things we do

Lately I have been thinking about how and why I do what I do. There is something inside me that makes me (over) commit to any and all activities I get my mind set on. It's kind of funny...I don't think I am really that talented at any of the sports I have taken on. BUT I become so obsessed that I think about it all the time, and with that level of commitment it's hard not to improve. At only :) 28 years I have done (and become) many things. Here's a brief recap:

Age "earlier than I can remember" to 18: baseball. When I was 11-years old, my baseball coach had my parents convinced that I was going to be an awesome baseball player (yes, at 11 years old!). This got into my head, too, and the obsession began. After a year of adjusting to life in a new town, I was committed to baseball. Is it unhealthy for a 12-year old to obsess about sports 24-7? I think maybe... At 12 I was 5'11" and 150 pounds. YES, I was a big kid. So, of course at this age I was on top of my game. As a pitcher I was one of the hardest-throwing (and wildest) in Arizona. And I could swing a bat. I could not sleep at night because I visualized when I closed my eyes. I could "feel" myself swinging a bat and making perfect contact. At 14 I convinced my parents to let me play baseball year-round. This meant weekend trips to Phoenix EVERY WEEK to play a double-header. I started lifting weights daily. My dad installed a net to catch balls in the garage, and I would hit a minimum of several hundred balls per day...with weighted bats. Well, I got older and there was suddenly a problem. I hadn't grown and everyone had caught up. Sure I had gotten stronger, but at 17 I was still 5'11''. My dad had been convinced that I would take a baseball scholarship for college. Oops... Lucky for me (and surprise to all :) ) I was actually somewhat intelligent, and was able to get a full ride based on academics. Phew! I tried to walk on at the U of A as a freshman, but couldn't quite make it. Despite years of devotion and training, the talent simply wasn't there.




















Age 13-20: wakeboarding. Yes, my mistress to baseball. Enemy of my parents (i.e. distraction from baseball). I learned to waterski at 6 years old, and started wakeboarding soon after they came out. I'm talking directional wakeboards with bungee straps. I was hooked from my first ride (which was actually in January three weeks after Christmas--like I said, I'm kind of a nut like that). Riding was an outlet for me. No pressure from family--it was just for me. But, as happens for me, my competitive spirit took over. When I wasn't visualizing baseball I was dreaming of wakeboarding. I practiced handle-passes before bed. I strapped shoes onto a skateboard, attached a rope to a post, and practiced wakeboarding on my girlfriend's trampoline. Every weekend I rode until I couldn't stand up. Fall after fall I rode until I nailed whatever trick I was learning. It got to the point where my dad and I would fight over how to drive the boat...seriously. I entered one competition in Phoenix. Not quite the talent to take it to the next level (not that I saw a future with wakeboarding...but whatever). Parents sold the boat and river place (unrelated to wakeboarding), and that was the end of the story. I haven't ridden in over five years, and I finally sold my board last year. ALTHOUGH...parents just got a new river place. We might see a resurrection of this wakeboarding thing before long.














20-21: bowling. Don't laugh...too much. So what "sport" can you possibly get into as a college student. Hmmmmm...hanging out with friends, drinking, late nights? BOWLING!!! Not too much to say here. Started going to late-night specials at Golden Pins for all-you-can-bowl. Before you know it, I have my own shoes, my own ball, and a PB of 265. Okay, this sport is not for me...time to move on.

21-24: running. Let me start by saying I was NOT a runner (see above). In fact I hated running. My PR for the mile in high school was 7:45. I was so excited when I finished because I had made it four laps without walking. Hey, you've got to take the small victories, right? Like many freshmen, I gained a bunch of weight. Suddenly there was no sport. Pizza was everywhere! Good food was cheap food...and I ate a lot of it. Sophomore year I decided to change that. I started running 1-2 miles a day. It still wasn't fun, but it grew on me. I still remember the first time I finished two miles and felt like I could keep going without dying. As for many new runners I was plagued by minor injuries. I got shin splints all the time. I was too heavy to run, but couldn't lose weight until I ran (sounds like "I eat because I'm unhappy, and I'm unhappy because I eat". ohhhh, fat bastard I once felt your pain!). Then I had a breakthrough. During an internship in NC I started trail running. Soft trails, lots of nature, and I was hooked! I signed up for my first running race. Ever. The Tucson Marathon. Seriously, this is me... I kept with running off and on, but couldn't stay hooked. There wasn't enough variety for me, and I knew I would never be competitive as a runner.















26-???. Triathlon. Don't need to say much here. Bought a bike and some speedos, and got to work! Something new. Something different. Something I could do for the rest of my life. Something I might be somewhat competitive at? Awesome. Two years later I'm putting in 15 hours/week and raising my goals on a monthly basis. It is so much fun to enter events and take the family. Last week I raced. Shannon raced. Rylie raced the under-4 division (he he). I am excited to see where this goes!

salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt

It has been a busy couple weeks! THE race I have been waiting for has come and gone. I can't believe it! Around a year ago there was a rumor that TriCats was going to have a separate elite-type group that would consist of the five or so fastest guys and girls on the team. I made my goal for last summer to get to the point where I was confident that I could not be left out of that group. That meant training a LOT, whenever I had the chance. See, this was also an important time for other (important) parts of my life. My second daughter was born on June 3, 2008 via C-section. This meant that Shannon was down and out for several weeks in the heart of the Tucson summer. Because we already had one daughter, there was no way for me to be able to leave the girls home alone, except when Rylie was napping. Yeah, that's right, as in afternoon naps. So for around 8 weeks in June and July of last year, I was putting in 10-17 hours of training per week, with almost all of it coming between 12 and 4 pm. To put it lightly I would say that I was driven.

Anyway, lots of time mileage, sweat, and blood have been laid out and I made it to collegiate nationals. The trip went something like this: on Thursday, leave Tucson around 10 am, arrive in Lubbock, Texas at 1 am...yep, that's a 12-hour drive. Of course we HAD to get up for the free breakfast, so around 6 hours of sleep. Friday was a tune-up brick in the morning followed by a visit to the racecourse. Not exactly the most exciting terrain. Mostly flat with grass and farmland. I think I saw about 8 trees in Lubbock. Drove to transition and hopped in the water for a quick swim. It was pretty chilly, somewhere in the low 50's. Also there was a ton of debris in the water; took a couple sticks in the ear...

Then took a drive of the entire bike course with our navigator/fearless leader Brian Grasky. It was AWESOME to talk through the whole course: take it easy here, push for this section, this is the smoothest part of the road, etc. Just awesome. Rest of Friday was pretty mellow. Packet pick-up followed by a LOOOOOOOONG wait at Olive Garden for dinner. Then finished putting on race numbers, packed bags, and ready to go!

Race Day:

Woke up around 4:45, oatmeal in the microwave, and COFFEE!! I had "caffeine-tapered" for four days, which essentially meant I had been dealing with a headache the ENTIRE time. Double-check my transition bag, and out the door. Arrived at transition with plenty of time to spare. It was COLD!! I didn't realize it at the time, but the air temp was in the 30s! Went through typical pre-race stuff, mostly taking it easy and trying not to psych myself out too much.

The swim went pretty well! It was cold, but I found my groove fairly early and just hung in there. I got stuck in a later wave, so I got out in front of my wave...which meant no drafting :(. Anyway, hung in there and made it out. GET ME TO MY BIKE!

So around 200 yards out of transition there was a killer little hill. I was following my expert coach's advice (spin up easy!), but suddenly had a BAD cramp in my left hamstring. I tried not to panic, but some part of me thought my day was over. I have never cramped during a race, and for it to happen that early really scared me. I told myself to keep going and spin it out, and it finally worked after around 20 minutes. YAY! The rest of the bike was fairly uneventful. Paseed a TON of people and was passed by maybe 5, but I definitely held my own. I finally started to feel really good on the bike...when it was time to head back into transition :( I did not want to get off my bike.

T2 went smoothly as usual, and I was off! I was nervous to get my butt kicked on the run, as lately running has been my weakness. I was happy to see that I passed more people than passed me! I think that is the first time it has happened. I felt okay overall on the run, but felt like I couldn't push myself as hard as I wanted to.

So, my race panned out like this: 2:24 and change. It turns out that the swim was marked VERY long (like over 300 m long). Also, the bike course turned out to be harder than most of us had anticipated, with some small but strategically-placed hills, and a headwind on the second half. This added up to a non-PR day (I was hoping for sub 2:10). BUT I was 124th out of the men, which beat the heck out of my original goal of top 200. Also, my bike was in the top 100, so that was a reason to walk away with a smile.

When you put that much emphasis on one event it can never live up to your expectations. Worse yet, something can go wrong (flat tire, GI distress or whatever) and you feel like it was all a waste. For me, I was WAY off my PR goal, but I beat my placement goal, which is really what matters I guess.

So, what's next? I basically consider this the end of my collegiate triathlon career, but NOT my triathlon career. I am going to take what I learned and run with it to see what I can achieve over the rest of 2009. In the short-term I'll be focusing on running and swimming. Coach Grasky's advice was to enter every running race I can find, go out too hard, and try to hang on as long as possible. Sound scary? It is to me. However, I had my first 5k last Saturday, and it worked (PR of over 1:00!). Yeah, that's right. I took a grand total of two days off after nationals :) I have a three or four races in May and June, then Vineman 70.3 in July. Bring it on!

It hurts because it should

Well, the time is finally here. Collegiate nationals in 6 days! Now that taper time is here I actually have time to get another post up...

The last month of training has been crazy. Hard rides, hard bricks, ridiculous swims. During many of the workouts I have caught myself wondering if I would be able to finish my swimming sets or hold my race pace even when I'm on the verge of donating my last meal to the roadside.

I have also had the chance to get my first two tris in for 2009. The first was the Havasu Triathlon. The venue is awesome--my hometown, low-key event, and this year the weather was awesome! No white caps and 20+ MPH headwinds on the bike. The result? Ridiculous PRs for everyone. Mine was something like 18 minutes better than last year. I'll attribute something like 10 minutes to the better conditions, meaning something like an "actual" PR of 8 minutes. I'll take it!

The next week was the Tucson Tri (a sprint on the UA campus). It wasn't a spectacular race for me, but still a PR of over a minute. As long as I keep improving I'll be happy.

Besides that, lots of training... Suddenly my swim workouts are regularly over 400o yards, which to me is pretty crazy. Before last month I had never swam more than 3500 in a workout. Last Sunday was 4800! I might become a fish after all. Bikes and runs are getting shorter but more painful. It will be nice to enjoy some base training again after this week.

On other fronts--still plowing through school. Looks like I am going to take a class over summer and hopefully (!!!!) defend before August--August 2009. As in 11 years after I started at the U. Now that is craziness. Family has been a ton of fun. We no longer have an infant. A terrible two (who's not so terrible :) ) and the youngest is ready to walk any day. Sleep is actually occurring on a regular basis. HOWEVER, there is no sleeping in. 10 minutes before the sun is up, the girls are up. Alarm clocks are no longer effective for me. Screaming babies on the other hand are EXTREMELY effective.

The only other real news is that I am finding it hard to resist signing up for 140.6. St. George looks like an awesome venue. We'll see. Maybe if I think about it for a few more weeks the race will fill up and I won't be tempted anymore...

Alrighty. Off to enjoy the rest of my Easter Sunday, watch some golf, and absorb this taper. Until next time.