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.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
My frustration is coming to an end
My favorite sport of the 3, by far, is running. For a lot of triathletes, this is their least favorite, but not for me. Swimming numerous, mindless, laps in the pool is my least favorite. I like cycling, but mostly in the summer. During this cold weather, when I'm forced to stay inside on the trainer, I often debate whether or not being poked by a sharp, red-hot poker would be worse than 1 hr on the trainer. Then I realize that the sharp poker doesn't make me faster, so I choose the trainer. And even during the summer, I often dread my 5-6 hour rides because they just get so old week in and week out. The one thing that keeps me motivated on the bike is that I know the more I ride, the faster I get.
But running! Ahhh, now that is different. I love running, and always have. To me, it's a time to relax (even when working hard) and collect my thoughts. I do some of my best thinking while running. When I'm stressed, with impending deadlines (which is always), I like to go on my run and put that stuff behind me for a little bit, think about what I need to do to stay organized, then when I'm done, I'm mentally refreshed to tackle my work head-on. And unlike the bike, I don't mind running in the cold. Running is important to me both mentally and physically.
So imagine my frustration when about 3 weeks ago, I started getting a nagging dull pain in one of the tarsal bones of my foot! At this early point in the season, the last thing I want is to be sidelined for several months with a stress fracture. I wasn't too worried though, because stress fractures typically occur on either the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th tarsal bones, and my pain was on my 5th tarsal. So it was possible it was developing into a stress fracture, but I thought it was unlikely to be one given its location. I kept an eye on it, continued light running, but it was getting worse. I decided to take some time off from running. This has been great for my biking abilities, as I've really hit the bike hard the last few weeks. Well, after taking 11 days off with no running, I decided that I would try it again yesterday because I no longer felt any pain in the bone when walking around the house. I was nervous and anxious to see how my foot responded, but I'm happy to report that it wasn't sore this morning. Phew! I have my running back!
For right now, I'm going to keep each run short (~3 miles) and only run 3x per week. If I go a week with no pain, I'll increase to 4x per week, then from there I'll start increasing mileage again, and get back to running 5-6x per week, until I'm back to 30-40 miles per week. I'm still not out of the woods yet, but I think it's going to be okay. As long as I feel good by early January, I should still be fine to race at Frost Yer Fanny in Austin, TX. If I start feeling bad again, I may have to cancel my race, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. Now the really frustrating part...I want to go run again today so badly, but I know I shouldn't. Oh well, I'm off to go get stuck by a red-hot poker...errrr...I mean, ride the trainer.
But running! Ahhh, now that is different. I love running, and always have. To me, it's a time to relax (even when working hard) and collect my thoughts. I do some of my best thinking while running. When I'm stressed, with impending deadlines (which is always), I like to go on my run and put that stuff behind me for a little bit, think about what I need to do to stay organized, then when I'm done, I'm mentally refreshed to tackle my work head-on. And unlike the bike, I don't mind running in the cold. Running is important to me both mentally and physically.
So imagine my frustration when about 3 weeks ago, I started getting a nagging dull pain in one of the tarsal bones of my foot! At this early point in the season, the last thing I want is to be sidelined for several months with a stress fracture. I wasn't too worried though, because stress fractures typically occur on either the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th tarsal bones, and my pain was on my 5th tarsal. So it was possible it was developing into a stress fracture, but I thought it was unlikely to be one given its location. I kept an eye on it, continued light running, but it was getting worse. I decided to take some time off from running. This has been great for my biking abilities, as I've really hit the bike hard the last few weeks. Well, after taking 11 days off with no running, I decided that I would try it again yesterday because I no longer felt any pain in the bone when walking around the house. I was nervous and anxious to see how my foot responded, but I'm happy to report that it wasn't sore this morning. Phew! I have my running back!
For right now, I'm going to keep each run short (~3 miles) and only run 3x per week. If I go a week with no pain, I'll increase to 4x per week, then from there I'll start increasing mileage again, and get back to running 5-6x per week, until I'm back to 30-40 miles per week. I'm still not out of the woods yet, but I think it's going to be okay. As long as I feel good by early January, I should still be fine to race at Frost Yer Fanny in Austin, TX. If I start feeling bad again, I may have to cancel my race, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. Now the really frustrating part...I want to go run again today so badly, but I know I shouldn't. Oh well, I'm off to go get stuck by a red-hot poker...errrr...I mean, ride the trainer.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Well, now I've joined the masses...
With the 80 billion blogs out there to choose from, why should I start one? Good question. But we'll get to that in a second.
First order of business was to come up with a title. To answer that, I asked myself why I was even doing this. In a nutshell, there are three things that make me about the happiest I could possibly imagine in life: my family, my career, and triathlon. Balancing those things is tough with a limited time budget. Most people may think, "well, I need to make some sacrifices somewhere in order to juggle all this." I don't like that idea. That's not in my nature. I'm a perfectionist, and I'm usually (and sometimes ignorantly) under the impression that if I really want it, I can somehow find a way to make it work. I want it all, and anything less that that isn't as fulfilling to me. In my opinion, I do a good job of juggling these things. I DO have it all. I love how my life has panned out so far, mostly because of those three central themes. So, in my opinion, I have it all. There's my title.
Now I have a title, but what content to include? It will basically be a mix of all three of the important things in my life. But information about my family and job will only appeal to a small number of people, namely my immediate family and my fellow science geeks. However, triathlon information will probably appeal to a lot of people interested, both newbies and veterans. Thus, the majority of content will likely be biased toward this latter aspect...triathlon. That's not indicitive of where it stands on my priority list, it just means that is what will likely have the most readers.
Now back to that original question: why should I start one? I hope to gain 3 things from this experience. First, it's a therapeutic exercise for me. I think collecting my thoughts, despite the insane and constant hectic hassles, will be mentally refreshing. It will also be nice to look back and see how I've changed over time, and hopefully, improve myself as an individual because of it. The second task I hope to accomplish is to have something that family and friends can check (if they want) to keep up on what's going on in my life. And the third thing is that I know tri-geeks tend to search online about training and racing information almost as much as they spend in the pool and on the road. So hopefully I can share some ideas I have regarding triathlon, and maybe gain insight from others to see where I can improve my training and racing.
First order of business was to come up with a title. To answer that, I asked myself why I was even doing this. In a nutshell, there are three things that make me about the happiest I could possibly imagine in life: my family, my career, and triathlon. Balancing those things is tough with a limited time budget. Most people may think, "well, I need to make some sacrifices somewhere in order to juggle all this." I don't like that idea. That's not in my nature. I'm a perfectionist, and I'm usually (and sometimes ignorantly) under the impression that if I really want it, I can somehow find a way to make it work. I want it all, and anything less that that isn't as fulfilling to me. In my opinion, I do a good job of juggling these things. I DO have it all. I love how my life has panned out so far, mostly because of those three central themes. So, in my opinion, I have it all. There's my title.
Now I have a title, but what content to include? It will basically be a mix of all three of the important things in my life. But information about my family and job will only appeal to a small number of people, namely my immediate family and my fellow science geeks. However, triathlon information will probably appeal to a lot of people interested, both newbies and veterans. Thus, the majority of content will likely be biased toward this latter aspect...triathlon. That's not indicitive of where it stands on my priority list, it just means that is what will likely have the most readers.
Now back to that original question: why should I start one? I hope to gain 3 things from this experience. First, it's a therapeutic exercise for me. I think collecting my thoughts, despite the insane and constant hectic hassles, will be mentally refreshing. It will also be nice to look back and see how I've changed over time, and hopefully, improve myself as an individual because of it. The second task I hope to accomplish is to have something that family and friends can check (if they want) to keep up on what's going on in my life. And the third thing is that I know tri-geeks tend to search online about training and racing information almost as much as they spend in the pool and on the road. So hopefully I can share some ideas I have regarding triathlon, and maybe gain insight from others to see where I can improve my training and racing.
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