WOW, What a week of Turn Around!

It is really hard to even think about where to begin on this post? I think in my best interest, I will start with my family!  A big THANK YOU to my wife Mary and my girls for putting up with all my training hours and time away from them.  I appreciate your patience!  Next, I will thank all my training groups, especially all my LIVE UNCOMMON teammates!  You are AWESOME, your words of wisdom and advice is much appreciated.  When my training doesn't give me the results I like, you are always there to let me know, I am on the right track.  Last week, I did not live up to my expectations, but you were there to let me know to train through it and get back at it.  I went from being pretty confident in my training, to a low that I had not expected and now with all your help, I am back with confidence, with the understanding I still have a lot of room to improve!

This past weekend, we traveled to Ogden, Iowa to compete in the Bluff Creek Triathlon.  Live Uncommon teammates Josiah Campbell, Aaron Mauer and Jeff Paul traveled on Saturday to prepare for the race.  We met close friend and training partner Brian Tritt up there as well.  For Josiah, Aaron and myself, this was going to be our first Tri!  Poor Jeff had to endure all of our newbie questions for the weekend.  It was an interesting ride up there to say the least, some drivers need to be examined.  We picked up our packets and went to Pizza Ranch for a good pre-race meal. It was pretty darn good.  Jeff may disagree with me, he can explain that!!!

I stuck to my new motto after last week, Expect Nothing, Gain Everything this past weekend.  I have come to the conclusion, I am training pretty well.  I have not had a past history of failing to train correctly.  I went into Sunday's race knowing, I have trained right, I know what I am capable of, therefore, I CAN do it!  I went with that and had fun.  My first triathlon was an awesome experience. I could not have laid it out any better.

THE SWIM- This was going to be the toughest challenge, just getting out of the water in a decent time. The start was new too, 50 people all running to get the best position possible.  I felt like a Salmon trying to swim up river. It was a bit hectic, but I remember some sound advice I been given the night before, Just keep swimming.  I stuck to my guns and just kept swimming!  Before long I was in the clear, not to many people around.  I was nice and relaxed and sighting was not a big problem.  I was surprised, the first time I truly sighted the turn, I was only about 30 yards away.  At that time I caught on to another swimming and drafted on his feet.  Just like that, I was out of the water.  In previous open water swim, I had a little trouble coming out of the water with a bit of dizziness, this time I had none!  I made it out of the water in 9:57 and was pleased with that.

T1 - This first transition went pretty smooth, considering the long run up the hill.  I didn't have to much trouble getting ready.  I had everything laid out pretty well.  Preparing certainly helps!

THE BIKE - The first part of the bike was a little hectic, trying to calm my heart rate down after the swim and just relaxing into the ride.   Everything was going well.  At about six and half miles, I had the unexpected happen.  I was transitioning from my upright position to  my aero bars.  A gust of wind hit me and blew my right onto the shoulder.  I had a started to panic a little, thinking my tires were going to pop.  As I tried to get back on the road....BAM, I was on my left side skidding across the pavement. Somehow when I came to a stop, I popped right back to my feet.  My right foot never unclipped. Everything seemed to be alright, with the exception of some road rash (pictures below). As I started to pedal, my chain had come about half off, but luckily my crank caught the chain, brought it back over the sprocket and I was off again. One funny thought I had after getting going...I could feel my left cheek and the burn.  I was thinking, I hope my pants are not ripped and my whole butt is not hanging out!  Funny the thoughts you have? Thankfully and luckily only a couple of people I had just passed came by.  I was able to pass them again.  At the turn around, I got a huge boost, the wind was at my back.  My mile pace picked up by over a minute.   I felt like I was just flying.  With about a mile left, my bike started to get a little loose on me.  I thought maybe my speed and the grooves in the road were causing this.  I made it back to the transition  and my time was about two minutes better than I thought.  I finished the 15 mile ride in 43.33.  After the race was over and I checked my bike out, my back tired was flat!  I must have punctured a small hole on my wreck.  I got LUCKY!!!  What is that saying...Got to be lucky to be good sometimes!

 My left leg, left cheek, left elbow!


THE RUN - The run started a little shaky, it took my legs a little bit to get going.  The first part of the run was slightly uphill.  Once I go to the flat, I had got my heart rate calmed and was moving pretty decent.  The entire course had a few more hills than expected but was not to bad.  I just settled into a nice rhythm and cruised in.  The run was much better than I thought it would be, I actually enjoyed the run.  I think I could push a little harder on that next time.  But this was a learning experience and I enjoyed every bit of it.  I finished the run in 22:18.

After seeing my finish time, I was pretty happy.  I finished with a time of 1:17.40.  I am not sure on my overall place, but this put me in first in the Sprint Clydesdale division.  I was very happy with my time, I was hoping I could finish under 1:30 so this is good. During the awards ceremony, the Live Uncommon team members of Josiah, Jeff, Aaron and myself lit up the awards stands!  Aaron won the Olympic Clydesdale, Josiah took 3rd in the Sprint Clydesdale, and Jeff won the overall Olympic Race.   What a great feeling coming out of the weekend with all these people who have worked their tails off  and earning their hardware.  Great job to you guys, way to finish!

I would be lying if I did not say I am pretty excited about the Quad City Tri...however, I have a lot more training to do.  I want to improve in a few areas.  Their are some differences in distance so again, I will go into the race not expecting much but having fun.

Some of the Live Uncommon member sporting some of their bling! (Sorry Jeff, they did not give him a medal, I did not get  a picture of him!)

 After last weekend, I was not sure where I stood with my training.  A week ago, I was down in the dumps having a little pity party for myself.  Actually the pity party was kind of the heeling process for me.  With the good people I have surrounded myself with, they helped pick up the pieces, got me fired back up.  I am very happy I made the choice to get back at it and so quickly!  I can't thank my friends and family enough.  I do know I CAN conquer fears and disappointments by getting out there and getting after it.  My first triathlon was a super experience for me.  Not just for my time or earning a medal (although it helps), but for the experience.  Many people out there trying to fit and make a difference in our world.  Not to mention spending the weekend with some good people.  I think I have rambled enough!

Get out their and see what you CAN do today, that you thought you couldn't do yesterday!

CRAZY Week!

This has been one crazy week!  I kind of knew this would happen going into the week.  I had a lot of events going and just needed to keep rolling and keeping it positive.  This was FUN week this week as I had mentioned in my previous post.  My objective is to get our school "moving/active" this week and keep it going.  We did a number of things to get the students engaged this week. We had former UFC Champ Pat Miletich come in and get almost 1100 students at BMS moving with some push ups, jump squats, burpees and crunches.  It was a pretty cool to see that many students getting active.  We also had students take a pledge to live a healthy active lifestyle to go with our theme of "BMS Gettin' Fit".  Here is an after picture of one I posted last time.  Those are little shoes on the wall that each student has filled out to make the healthy pledge.  We have teamed up with Live Uncommon and have a goal of getting as many people as we can to join the Torch Light Parade.  The Torch Light Parade is a fun event to run, walk, skip, hop, dance, do whatever you can to complete the three miles.  It will cross the Mississippi River twice and end with an awesome concert.  Our hope is to get as many students involved along with staff, but more importantly, get the students and their family and friends involved too.  We want this to be a community event, for all to enjoy.  We would like to have a thousand runners join our team.  If you are interested, sign up and liveuncommon.org and join TEAM BMS.  I know it will be a blast!  We had the awesome Live Uncommon team come in a present to the students.  We had some technical difficulties for the first couple of days but all in all it ended on a positive note.  My goal for each week is to keep reminding students of our goal to get to the TorchLight Parade and present them with activities that will help them achieve the goal.  Keeping in ming, that we want to change the world, one person at a time.  We ended the week with assemblies that included a dodgeball championship and a teacher student dodgeball game.  It was a lot of fun, but I am sure that some teachers, including myself, have some sore shoulders this morning!

As far as workouts go, this did not get any easier.  On Monday and Wednesday, I was able to pull off the trifecta workout.  his meant I rose from bed about 3:55 a.m. and jumped on my bike to get 20 miles in doing various workouts ( Speed, Interval, High Cadence).  Then off the bike to swim at the Y for 30 minutes, trying to squeeze in at least 1600 yards.  Then off to get the weight workouts in, mainly focusing on core workouts.  I had planned on doing this Friday as well, but I just could not do it, I had to listen to the body.  On Thursday nights, I usually play soccer in a league.  This past Thursday, I had the tournament and we ended up playing two games.  Upon waking up Friday, I just felt like my legs needed a little rest.  Not to mention I had ran 7 miles earlier in the morning.  So, I did, I slept in till 4:45 and went on to get the swim and lift in.  I was glad I got that done.  On Tuesday and Thursday, I was able to get in seven miles with my group of CRAZIES!  These runs were both really good and I am feeling like the running is really getting better and will be able to hit some PR's this year.  I ended the running week with a miserably cold run this morning at 4:30 a.m.  Thank goodness for my running group; John B., Rick F., Katie G, Aaron M., and Lindsey.  If I did not have to meet them, I probably would have crawled back in bed.  It was 19 degrees this morning, but felt like 3 degrees with wind at 24 mph.  Most of this run was not as chatty as I normally am.  All I could think about was getting done and getting warm.  The sweat on my coat and underclothes was turning to ice, my face was cold.  I felt really good otherwise, I just wanted to be done for some reason.  Thank you to those runners who helped me DIG DEEP and GET IT DONE

I am also contemplating(95% sure) joining the Live Uncommon Race team for the summer.  This is a great opportunity for me to give back to the community while also holding myself accountable for my own health.  This is a big undertaking as it will require some fund raising but I also think it is something I need to do to support the community we live in.  There are a lot of good people out there and a lot of people that need that extra help.  I am looking forward to getting going on this, I just need to get signed up!  One of the team Road Coaches is Aaron Maurer, who is also kicking butt in his training!  I am hoping we can get fellow runner Katie G.  on the team.  If we can get all this going, I think this is going to be a summer to remember.  I also will turn 40 this year, I AM going to do this with a bang!

Now, off to enjoy the weekend and my family that I have missed during this busy week!  Get out there and enjoy what YOU CAN do!

Joining the RevoLUtion!

Well, tomorrow is the kick off to the RevoLUtion for Bettendorf Middle School.  We are kicking off our FUN week, Fitness Uniting w/ Nutrition!  In the past we have done this week and we concentrate on fitness and nutrition for one week.  Then it kind of goes by the wayside and we move on.  This year I am determined to not let that happen.  I have teamed up with Live Uncommon.  They are awesomely uncommon people!  I am trying to get as many students, family and staff to join the Revolution Torch Run on June 2.  We will be kicking it off tomorrow with a lot of kids exercising in the gymnasium and followed up by the Live Uncommon team coming into the school and getting things kicked off!   We will end the week with some friendly games of dodgeball.

My belief, is that all people CAN do what ever they want to, if you put your mind to it.  I tend to amaze myself everyday with things I find myself doing.  If I can make a difference in a few lives this year by getting them to live uncommon and change, I will succeed.  I believe, that with the help of many people, I can make a huge difference in the upcoming youth.  I WILL lead by example and continue my efforts in my own goals and prove that YOU CAN, if YOU TRY!

I spent most of my day off at school getting the halls ready.  See my decorating below.  I am in hopes that I can make a difference in our youth.  It will only take ONE person to change our world!  BMS, welcome to the RevoLUtion!  Lets make every day count and make it count for our future!