Hello Again

It's been nearly an eternity since I've posted (or two months, whichever is shorter).  Much is happening and the time just slips away.  Not uncommon I'm sure!

I've been hot and heavy training for my first triathlon of the season.  The Memphis in May Olympic tri is in about 5 weeks.  I'm really looking forward to it to see what I can do.  As I've mentioned before I'm attempting to qualify for the USAT Age Group Nationals held in September.  To qualify you have to be in the top 33% of your age group.  In order to do that, based on past years results in my age group, I'll have to PR.  It's do-able and it's really giving me something to shoot for.  

I'm approaching this event like you would a class where there are no grades but you merely receive a 'pass/fail'.  I will either qualify or I won't.  There's no middle of the road.  I've never approached a race like this before so it'll be a new experience.  What makes it different for me is I'm going with an all-out effort.  Right now, that's how I'm training.  It's kind of scary.  I've typically taken a somewhat conservative approach during a race, trying to leave a little in the tank throughout.  I've never put the pedal to the medal, so to speak.  I may totally bonk!  Hope not.


One thing is certain, I will learn something either way.


I do know this,

my new tri top is going to make me super-fast!  So I got that going for me, which is kinda nice!


Oh, and the other nice thing about my new super-fast tri top is that I got it for $15 (including shipping!).  Heck of a deal.  It's regularly $55.  

Number 1

 

Pretty excited and proud of my youngest.  He went to Russellville for a Valentine's Day kids run today....and finished top spot on the podium!  He won the race!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner...Great job Will.

I think we have a budding runner on our hands.

Will and Mom Pre-Race

Pre-Race stretching oh, so important

On your mark...

...go

  

First to the line

The winner's medal!

2010 = The Year of Smiling Minimally

OK, this is me smiling normally...that was yesterday.  Well, not really yesterday that was taken a couple of years ago, so, it was me, ya know, metaphorically yesterday.

This is more like me today....and not metaphorically today....but just today!

And this is what I'm going to feel like tomorrow when I put on my suit and go try to be a professional calling on doctors with what feels like what's in the above photo in my mouth...

...now I recognize that I'm not a cross-dresser nor do I have moobs, nevertheless the feeling, and the look will be similar, at least in my mind.

I did it.  Pulled the trigger.  Did the deed.  Went out on a limb...and got braces for the first time in my life.  It's an incredibly weird feeling.  A feeling I'm not sure I'm friends with.  But I guess we better learn to co-exist.  At least for 12 months.

So lay 'em on me.  These are the ones I know: Zipper lips, Brace Face, Metal Mouth, Tinsel Teeth, Train Tracks and Wire World.  

I'm hoping at the end of those 12 months this will be my look....

...of course without the supple lips of a female....or the lipstick!

Now if I could just break out with a horrific case of acne and some raging hormones.....

'Tis the Season

...Why the Tri season, of course!

OK, I'm just going to reveal it now...I'm a big fan of The Lion King...watched it over the holidays.  That opening scene where the sun breaks over the horizon and they belt out the tune - "Nants ingonyama bagithi baba!" (it's true, those are the actual words spoken, I looked it up.  kinda ruins it in a way because all this time I've enjoyed just throwing out these random sounds and not having a clue what they were.) anyway, that opening scene is awesome.

I say all that as a backdrop to be able to reference one line from the monkey Rafiki as he acknowledges that Simba is about to take charge - "It is time".

It is time to gear up for the 2010 tri season.  It is time to begin to shed that comfortable layer of cushion that accumulated over the holidays.  It is time to get back in the routine of a training schedule.  I'm ready.

I have a specific focus for this year which is to increase my speed in all three disciplines.  I want to become a faster, more efficient swimmer.  I want to get faster on the bike and I want to be able to run a sub-:50 10k during an Olympic distance event.

My ultimate goal for this season is to again qualify for the USAT Age Group Nationals held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama the end of September.  I qualified in 2009 but wasn't able to participate.  That was fine because my 'A' race last year was Ironman Florida and that's where my focus was as well.

I'm not doing an Ironman distance race this year for the sole purpose of focusing on increasing my speed and participating in the Nationals.

To that end my first race of the season is a big one, Memphis in May Oly the 4th Sunday of the month.  It's a special qualifier for the Nationals so I want to do well.  It's not the only opportunity to qualify, but it's the first.

I have a 16-week program I use and week 1 is this week.  I'm excited.....and motivated. 

From Bowl Madness to Poll Madness...with March Madness Soon to Follow

30-some-odd bowl games up....30-some-odd bowl games down.  The college football season is complete with the Alabama Crimson Tide begin crowned national champions.  A perfect 14 - 0 season.  BTW, has Nick Saban smiled yet?  Just wondering.

With completion of the season comes the final rankings.  The polls.  Those random rankings based on people's opinions....educated or otherwise.  I wonder if some of those pollsters think, "Hey, they're the Chippewas....that's kind of cool....ok, number 23...there."

The polls are a funny thing....

I look up and down the poll and I see Central Michigan at 23 (speaking of the Chippewas). I think to myself, is C. Michigan better then Oklahoma. I also think to myself, if I asked pollsters face-to-face to pick one: Oklahoma or Central Michigan, I wonder how many with a straight face would pick Central Michigan.

Now C. Mich. had a good year. 12 - 2 by most standards is great, especially when you take into consideration the power schedule C. Mich. played. Seriously. Taking the field against perennial powers such as Alcorn St., Akron, Toledo, Ball St. and No. Illinois would bolster anyones ranking. That's a freakin' murderers row! I'm not sure how they survived! Now on the other hand, anyone who would schedule Texas, BYU, Nebraska, Miami & Texas Tech is just looking for an easy way out.

OK, I realize, when you're Oklahoma there's really not much difference between 23, 24, 25...or 26 and above for that matter. When you're Oklahoma and in those spots it represents you didn't have the kind of season to which you're accustomed. But having said that and taking into consideration the kind of adversity this team faced this year I would've liked to have seen them crack the top 25.....for their own morale purposes.

I realize the polls are incredibly imperfect...

...but this poll is saying that C. Mich. is the 23rd best team in the country....better than Oklahoma, OSU, Auburn, Georgia, Arkansas and so on and so forth. I'm pretty sure you put anyone of these teams in that schedule and...well, you get the idea...

 

So with the wrap on the college football season and poll madness it's on to March Madness....a sport that actually crowns it's champion on the court rather than in the polls!

2010

So what's it going to be?

How are you going to say it?

Is it 2-thousand-10 or 20-10?

Think back more than a decade ago...did you ever say 1-thousand-9-hundred-95?  Of course not!  That takes entirely too long.  You'd be weird.  It was 19-95...for that matter it was 19-64, 19-75 and so on and so forth.

Not that I was alive and can recall but listening to people who make reference to the years more than 100 ago describe them as 'aught-8'...you know, "back in 'aught-8'"...it was 19-aught-8.  It wasn't 1-thousand-9-hundred and 8.  Heck it was even 19-08 before it was that long, drawn out version.


But for some reason most of us described the past decade as '2-thousand-1,2,3,4...and so on....not 20-01, 02, 03...etc, etc.  I wonder why.

If for no other reason it's nice to be in another decade.  It takes entirely too long to say '2-thousand-10' as opposed to '20-10'.  

I'm happy about that....I wonder what I'll do with all that extra time?

Merry Christmas!

He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.  He was born to be a man and became like a servant. ~Philippians 2:7