Monday, January 14, 2008

What a busy 3+ weeks

Been a while since I updated, so no better time than the present. What a whirlwind the last 3 weeks have been. A short summary: driving 1560 miles visiting family, driving 960 miles for meetings, and working endless hours trying to get work done. I'm beat.

Started off the weekend before Christmas. Drove to southern Missouri to visit family, then Kansas City, MO for more family, then northern Missouri for more family, then back to KC, then back home to Oklahoma. Rested for a few days, then down to Dallas to visit more family and wrap up our holiday season. I am amazed (and lucky!) at how well my 3 yr old and 7 month old travel. I probably wouldn't have survived if they weren't so good on trips. So, nearly 1600 miles and a week and a half later, I finally get back to my own bed. Only bad thing is that I have to get up early the next morning to head to San Antonio for some meetings (more driving!).

The meetings in San Antonio were great. They were for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. I gave a talk that went fairly well, and met some new, really great, fun people while I was there. As tired and stressed as I was, it was both very productive and very fun. After getting back, I had several manuscripts to put the finishing touches on (4 of them) and also send in an application package for a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Massachusetts. It's highly competitive, so I don't have my hopes up, but it certainly would be nice to get the postdoc and not have to worry about what my next job is going to be.

As for triathlon, well...haven't been able to train too much. Went on maybe 2 runs and 1 trainer ride. Because of that, and the fact that I'm just dead-tired, I've decided to cancel my race at the Frost Yer Fanny Duathlon in Austin, TX. It's only 5 days away and I'm out of shape, tired, and haven't been able to spend much time with my wife and kids. I'm not that bummed about it, other than the fact I was really looking forward to seeing my old "training partners", Chris and Justin Wolfe. I use that term in quotes because getting smoked by them on the bike all the time isn't exactly training with someone...it was more of we started our workouts together and I held on for as long as possible. From what I can tell, they are happy as can be in Austin and even faster than they already were. I'm hoping to get down there some time in spring to ride with them again.

This last Saturday was great. Brady (my 3 yr old for anyone who doesn't know me well) has been obsessed with triathlon for the last few months. I swear I don't force it on him! He watches Ironman races on the DVR constantly, as much as he watches movies and cartoons. His favorite is Kona. He keeps saying he wants to race in a triathlon. I have to admit, it certainly puts a smile on my face. So we decided to sign him up for swim lessons; something we've planned on doing for a while now. His first lesson was Sat. While he did that, I did water babies with Alex, who, even for a 7 month old, takes to water like a fish. I certainly hope they become faster swimmers than I am! They both did great and Melanie and I had a blast watching them. As soon as we got home, Brady begged and pleaded to go ride his bike. How funny is that? Just like Dad, he wants to go ride after his swim. Too cute.

Well, enough rambling. Still have a lot of work to do on my 4th (and last!) dissertation chapter and I need to start getting back into the swing of training. I've gained 17 lbs since I raced at Redman, so I need to get going again.