WOW, Where does time go???

It has been a while since I have been able to post, mostly life has just got in the way.  Every time I had intentions of writing, something seemed to come up that needed tended to ASAP!  Seems that is the way life has turned for me here recently.
Probably the biggest events are both my daughters birthdays.  Olivia's was last week and Kennedy's is today.  At first this was great having their birthday's within a week of each other.  However, I am slowly finding out that I am just going to call April, Birthday Month!  I hope later in life they don't figure out that it is also "Diamond" month.  I will leave that for some one else!  Anyway, Olivia has decided that she does not want to celebrate birthdays together.   I can't say as I blame her, but it just makes the days spread out a little more.  I think all of Olivia's friends have birthday's during this month too.  Seems like all we have done is host a birthday and go to birthday's.  Oh, did I mention, I have made three birthday cakes in a weeks span as well.  Yes, I am, Betty Crocker!  Oh well, as much work as it is, and running around town going crazy, I would not have it any other way.  I love my girls and their births were so special.  I will keep and just suck it up in April.  Pretty much have no choice as I am the only male in the house!

I have also been working on something I used to love.  That is my new fish aquarium.  I love having fish tanks, they are very tranquil to me.  I had to convince Mary a little to get this rolling but I finally have it going.  I have two Blood Parrot Cichlids, Flowerhorn Cichlid and an Electric Blue Jack Dempsey.  They all are pretty impressive fish.  Very young now, but will grow and be beautiful in color.  Now my challenge will keep it looking like it does now.  Clean and sparkly!

Back to my training...I have had some really awesome weeks of training, well, running anyway.  My biking and swimming have been lacking to say the least.  As of right now, I am just trying to keep my base with the bike and swim while I focus on the half marathon.  Once that is over, I will put more miles on the bike and in the pool.  Since I last posted I have added some Yasso 800's to the regimen.  To my surprise, I am really enjoying the 800's.  Last week, I was able to complete 6 of these and keep them consistent.  This week will bring 8 of them, we will see if I still like them as much.  I feel pretty strong right now as my running is progressing.  Last weekend, I set out to simulate a half marathon race.  Katie G. needed to run this for her training and I thought maybe it would be good for me too.  Aaron M. and Curt S. joined us as well.  We let Katie kind of set the pace for us.  She wanted to run between 7:30 and 7:45 pace for the half.  I would be lying if I did not tell you I got a little nervous the night before.  I wanted to do well and see if I had improved on last years half.  Last year I was able to complete the half in 1:45.46 which I was very pleased with.  If I was going to go at Katie's pace, I would be improving my pace time by about a half minute or so.
On Saturday we set out and got after it.  We actually had a large group, but many people were in different stages of their running so we did not get to chat as a group as we normally do.  Hopefully that will return this weekend!  We had set up a course to run with not many hills.  Most of the course was on the river bike path.  After all was said and done, we were able to keep a 7:36 pace.  I finished in 1:39.53 for the simulated half, setting a pr for me.  I was super happy, knowing I still have four weeks before I have to run this again and I think I will make some more strides!  Great job by Katie, Aaron and Curt this weekend too, I am lucky to have these talented runners at my side and pushing me!
Another shout out to all the runners that show up early on Saturday morning to set out and run!  To accomplish things they have never done, train for races they fear, run farther than they have ever run before, running for the fun, all of you have done such a fantastic job, week after week, trying to attain those goals!  Keep pushing, YOU CAN  be the best at whatever you want.
Good Luck to the Live Uncommon Race Team this weekend at the Run for Renewal in Davenport!  It will be nice to see us all decked out in our awesome gear and tear up the streets of Davenport!
Do tomorrow what you did not get done today, because YOU CAN accomplish whatever you put your mind too!

My First Blog Post

Well, here goes nothing!  This is my first attempt at blogging.  I have read many blogs and decided the world needed one more.  Whether it will be worth anything or if I can keep up with it, is yet to be determined.  The first and foremost item is that I am not a very good/grammatical/creative writer.  As you have already probably figured out!  Anyway, I am going to blog because of many different reasons, but most importantly, because I want to keep account of what I am doing in life and what I am learning.  The main reason being what "I CAN" do in life.
I am a 39 year old middle school science teacher in Bettendorf, Iowa.  I am surrounding by many people who I consider awesome!  The first being my family.  It would be hard to imagine what life would be like without them.  Mary, my wife, is awesome.  She is an outstanding mother in so many ways.  She is also very supportive of me and my determinations (This is what I call, she may call them crazy ideas).  Then I have my two daughters, seven and four,  they are the center of my life.  I can't imagine a day without them.  Even though they make life hectic, it is worth every second to watch them learn and grow.
Second, I have my exercise community.  Over the last couple of years, I have be introduced to many people in the realm of exercise.  I have found that surrounding myself with people of the same goals, it makes my goals much easier to achieve.  Those people range from heavy lifting partners to running marathons and other crazy races.  I will mention these people much more as I talk about my journey on achieving things I CAN do.
So the main reason I am on here is to focus on the positive side of life.  I am always ready to jump on new aspects of life and blogging is one of them.  One of my biggest adversaries in life is getting down on life itself and letting little things bother me.  So, instead of being negative and getting grouchy, I want to remain with one focus, stay positive, no matter what is thrown at me.  I am hoping by blogging and getting my thoughts on paper (or digitally), I will be able to keep this focus straight ahead of me.  I will focus on what "I CAN" do instead of the other side.
For example, for many years, I have said I am not a runner.  In the past years, with help of many other people, I have found "I CAN" run.  I completed a few 5k's last year and the peak of my year last year was a 1/2 marathon that I feel I ran quite well, but could do better.  This year I have a few other goals such as completing a sprint triathlon and completing a few more running races...another half for sure and I am thinking "I CAN" do a marathon.
I think another aspect of me, that is important to know, is that I am a ex-football player and wrestler (just high school) that had great aspirations to play football in college until my knees decided to go on the fritz.  Since being a junior in high school, I have had four knee surgeries, most being scopes.  I wish I would have had the "I CAN"  attitude in high school and persevered in football.  That is behind me now and I will take on these new challenges in life.
Now that I have entered the blogging life, this is also a new challenge.  As I mentioned before, I am not a writer but I have decided "I CAN" put my thoughts on paper.  So this will be another challenge in 2012.
I will probably be posting a lot from http://www.dailymile.com as well, this is where I post a lot of my workouts.  Daily mile serves as an accountability piece for me, so sorry if you get annoyed by it, but it helps me.
I also started my "I CAN" bulletin board at home so I can remind myself everyday that "I CAN" do ANYTHING I set my mind out to do.

There is one thing that I did not add to my board yet, due to need to print pictures, is my joining of the Backwater Gamblers Water Ski Show Team.  My daughter and I did this in 2010 and so far it has been one of the best things a father/daughter could do.  We were able to ski in shows together last year and it was awesome.  This year my other daughter and wife will join and I am looking forward to that.  Last was our first year and I was able to accomplish quite a few things.  One of the biggest being able to deepwater barefoot.  I love bare footing, although it came with a few injuries, it was one of the best experiences I have had.  Cruising 42 mph, across the top of the water, on nothing but your god given feet, AWESOME!  I will keep posts on here about BWG as well.

Now you know a little bit about me and I will try and keep this blog going and keep you  up to date on what I CAN do and hopefully motivate you on what YOU CAN do!  Hopefully you will have an GREAT weekend!