Baby Rocker

I am guessing these things have a real name but I didn't know what it is so the only thing I can think of to describe it is as a 'baby rocker.' Michelle got this for free from a baby listserv she is on. When Michelle brought it into our apartment, it kind of hit me, "Wow! This is really happening! We are really going to have a baby!" I am sure our apartment will slowly start to get more and more baby stuff as the pregnancy progresses. We will have to start working on making our apartment baby proof (hide all the cords and cables, etc.)

I keep getting more and more excited to be a dad, it's going to be hard to wait another 7 or 8 months!

Fourth Century

Picture I took of myself before I left on my 112 mile bike ride.

I went on my fourth century bike ride yesterday. This was the first century I would be doing on my new road bike which is considerably lighter and better in every way than my old bike, so I was hoping to shave a lot of time off my last century.

I decided to ride 112 miles this time, instead of 100, because that is the distance that you do in an Ironman competition. The extra 12 miles definitely made it significantly harder. I think anything you do after 100 miles is going to be quite difficult.

My time at the 100 mile mark was 5 hours 39 minutes. This is an improvement from last time, alhtough not as much as I would have liked to have seen. Just to give you an idea of how hard those extra 12 miles were, I didn't get to the 112 mile marker until 6 hours 28 minutes. That means I did 12 miles in 49 minutes - not impressive at all, except for the fact that I had already gone 100 miles.

There are several reasons why I think I didn't shave off as much time as I would have liked. First, I got caught in a nasty rainstorm at about 50 miles. This slowed me down no doubt. I was sopping wet and a little distracted because of the heavy rain. Second, the trail I go on ended at 50 miles (where I would normally turn around and travel 50 miles back) so I had to ride on surface streets and other less than desirable roads to get the extra distance in. I wasn't able to keep my pace and rhythm on these types of roads. I will choose a slightly different route the next time I try to do over 100 miles so as to not lose time. Also, it would be nice if it wasn't raining.

Regardless though, I have two things to be happy about: I did beat my 100 mile time record by 6 minutes and I biked 112 miles, the farthest to date that I have ever ridden.

I came, I swam and biked and ran, I conquered

Henry and I Before the race.

On Saturday, I did my very first Triathlon. It was the International or 'Olympic' distance. This consists of a 1500 meter swim (0.9 miles), 40k bike ride (24 miles), and a 10k run (6.2 miles). It was in a small town called Bumpass, VA, which is near Fredericksburg. The swimming portion was in Lake Anna and the biking and running were near the lake as well.

I had SO MUCH fun doing this! All I have been thinking about since I finished was when my next Triathlon will be and that hopefully I can move up to the next step up in distance (the half Ironman or 'Ironman 70.3' as they are often called).

Let me give you a quick break down of each of the three parts and then lots of pictures and videos:

Swimming

The water was cold: 68 degrees. I rented a wetsuit and its a good thing I did. It was also windy, raining, and cloudy. This resulted in choppy lake conditions that were very difficult to swim in. I got disoriented easily in the water, and had to alter my stroke to be able to keep my head above water more than I normally would. I managed to finish the 1500 meters in 36 minutes.

Biking

Biking is definitely my strength in the sport of Triathlon. I did the 24 mile bike ride in 70 minutes. I passed a lot of people that finished the swimming before me. I pushed myself about as hard as I ever have biking, and I pretty much went full speed ahead the entire time without slowing down. It was a fantastic good time, it was pure enjoyment the whole ride.

Running

This was the big question mark going into the Triathlon. The farthest I had run in the last 2 years was 3 miles (since I injured my leg in 2009). I had to run 6.2 miles in this Triathlon and I didn't know if I was going to have to walk most or all of it or what? When I left the transition area my leg felt fine and I just started running and never stopped! It was very encouraging that I was able to run the 10k without stopping and that my legs are fine. This gives me lots of hope and encouragement moving forward to the next step up.

Me getting into the water a few minutes before the race started.

Me waving to Michelle moments before the race started.

And we're off! I am in there somewhere.

Coming around the final buoy, about to finish the swimming leg of the race.

The Transition area where everyone's biking and running equipment are set up and ready for transitioning from swimming to biking and from biking to running.

Me putting my helmet on and getting psyched up to ride!

Almost ready to start biking...

All set to start biking, I just had to walk my bike out of the transition area.

Walking my bike out of the transition area and up a hill. We were allowed to get on the bike at the top of the hill.

Almost at the top of the hill.

This picture is after the 24 mile bike ride. I am walking my bike down the hill now and back into the transition area to get ready to run.

The beginning of the 10k run. You can see the timing chip around my ankle that is used to time each portion of the race.

Me coming down the final stretch, about to finish the Triathlon and become a triathlete!

All in all, I honestly had the time of my life. I cannot wait to do another Triathlon event. The atmosphere is so much fun to be in, and it was a great feeling to have Michelle cheering me on as I started and finished each of the three phases. I feel lucky to have a wife that supports me in this sport, as it requires some traveling and buying lots of gear for the swimming, biking, and running.

Third Century

I recently completed my third century bike ride. My goal was to complete it in under 6 hours, and I met this goal and did even a little better! I finished the 100 mile bike ride in 5 hours and 46 minutes.

My long-term goal is to be able to ride a century in 5 hours. Although I am shaving good amounts of time off of each long ride (any ride 50-100 miles long), I don't expect to get my century ride down to 5 hours any time soon. I am sure it will take several more attempts, many more months, and possibbly even a new bike to reach that goal. But for now I am more than happy with just improving my personal record.

Update on What's New: Spring is Back, Life is Insanely Busy, a Waterproof mp3 Player, Audio Books, and More!

Things have been pretty busy lately -- even busier than normal, which at the moment is requiring a concerted deliberate effort from me to not get stressed out. Spring is back, and the weather is slowly getting warmer. It has not been as nice the past week or so, it's been cold and rainy, but other than during this cold spell I haven't had to wear my wind and waterproof outer layers when riding to and from work. I have even been able to wear shorts and a tee shirt a few times! This is not what is occupying my time though, obviously. As I am nearing the end of the second year of teaching and my last semester of grad school at AU, a couple things have been demanding a lot of my time. Mainly it is the fact that I need to make sure I fulfill all the requirements for teacher certification. This in itself has so many separate tasks that require time: I took the final Praxis exam recently, I am taking a day off work next week to get a criminal background check and fingerprints done, and more than anything else I HAVE to finish an exhaustive cumulative project incorporating my experience teaching so far called an Electronic Portfolio. I've got about a month to get this done, but for the past week I have been putting all my free time into it because the requirements are so extensive. I have been uploading all kinds of artifacts from my teaching experience and I haven't even started writing about all of them. On top of this I still have grad school and I also started coaching (as an assistant coach) my school's baseball team. This is actually a ton of fun, but it is yet another thing that takes up time. Luckily, Spring Break is only two (4 day work weeks) away! DCPS give us a very long Spring Break: 11 days straight, if you include weekends, which is the way I like to think about it!

In terms of my Triathlon preparation, I haven't had the time or energy to go on any long bike rides or go swimming as many times a week as I would like to. I did make it to the pool once this week, and I knew I was going to have to make it a good workout. I swam the longest I have ever swam before: 2500 meters! This is over a mile and a half, and over 60% of the distance I will have to swim for an Ironman. The Olympic Triathlon swimming distance, which I am doing later this month, is only 1500 meters. I am hoping to get used to swimming longer distances and be able to swim the shorter distance in my upcoming race easier and quicker. On a side note, I invested in a waterproof mp3 player and headphones. I was skeptical that it could really work, but it does! This is a game changer for swimming. Swimming is cripplingly boring, but being able to listen to music helps a LOT!!! I always notice people looking at me wearing it, I imagine they are wondering "Is he listening to music in the water?" Yesterday someone actually stopped me in the swimming lane and asked me about it. I told him that yes, I am listening to music while I swim, and yes, it is awesome! I have the Speedo Aquabeat in case anyone is wondering. My mile swim time is at about 36 minutes, but now I am focusing on endurance swimming on longer distances, not really how long it takes to swim a mile. It took me about an hour to swim 2500 meters.

I am still biking to and from work everyday. Some people at work thought I was just riding to the Metro and taking my bike on the Metro. This made me laugh, as one of the biggest motivations for me to bike to and from work is so I don't have to take the Metro. So lately I have been biking about 130 miles a week, which all comes from my commute. I would like to be doing more, but there aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week. I also need to start researching road bikes, but that will be an endeavor for a couple months down the road (no pun intended).

One of the things I am loving the most about biking is the amount of books I can get through. Of course, I am talking about audiobooks. The library and Audible.com are two sources I have been using lately to not have to pay for them. I feel very fortunate that I am able to really enjoy books listening to them while I ride. I know many people just can't really get into the book and keep track of what's going on as if they were reading it. I have probably listened to at least 40 unabridged audio books since I started doing this less than a year ago. Recently, I listened to the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy (not nearly as good as everyone hyped it up to be, in my opinion), 4 Stephen King books (The Dead Zone, Pet Sematary, The Shining, and The Shawshank Redemption), and currently I am listening to The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. I am done with Stephen King books for a while, probably forever, so hopefully the legal thriller genre will be a good avenue to pursue. Listening to all these books is just one of the many reasons I LOVE being able to ride my bike to and from work everyday.

I have started listening to General Conference talks every day in the morning and writing down the things that jump out at me. Recently I listened to a talk by President Uchtdorf entitled "Of Things That Matter Most." This talk was all about how busy life can get in these modern times with so many different things. Using a flight analogy, he explained that just as when a pilot hits turbulence, when our lives get overwhelmingly busy the answer is not to try to speed up; instead, it is to slow down. After contemplating this, I was reassured that I would get through all of the duties and obligations I have on my plate right now if I just work slowly but consistently on them a little at a time and not lose the balance in my life. Thank heavens for the words of the inspired prophets and apostles, which always seem to come at the perfect time.