For most of the country, the new year begins on the first of January. For triathletes, the new year often starts in September or October as they begin preparing for their next race season. For those considering an Ironman, the new year starts as much as 365 days prior to race day as they sign up at the current year's race.
Next year will be slightly more relaxed as the longest triathlon in my sights will be a half-IM. In fact, I have already registered for my A-race, the Spirit of Racine half distance event. This year, the goal will be to break the 5-hour mark, which will require shaving 31 minutes off my previous PR, set on the very same course.
Ten minutes of that should be easy, as I won't be stopping to help any "damsels in distress," this coming year. The balance will be picked up through self-improvement. My swim and bike times have plenty of room for improvement, and I always strive to pick up the run pace.
2008 might be just around the corner, but planning is well under way for the year's race season. Coming soon...
A mid-winter 15K, an early season 10K, and a full marathon with a Boston qualifying time in the sights.
Have you ever had one of those days?
I did.
Today.
On my desk at work, I have two pictures of my kids. The first is a picture of my children near the boardwalk in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It is one of those rare pictures I feel really captures a moment. Siblings at peace, sharing and having fun. As an added bonus, it's in focus and has decent lighting.
In time, it is one of those pictures that will become a treasured image. And I am sure my kids will become very familiar with, if not sick of the picture as it shows up time and again in presentations.
The other picture is from the same day. And it ranks among the best pictures I have ever taken. The image of my son walking on the beach barefoot with his grandfather in his suit is classic. The moment I saw the picture on the computer, I made several copies to ensure it would never be lost.
It is the kind of picture my son will be able to look at in the future and remember the wonderful man who is his grandfather. And my prayer is that my kids will have many years to develop even deeper bonds with all their grandparents.
My only memories of grandparents are vague pictures of my mom's dad and my dad's mom. My other grandparents passed away before I could know them. Even so, both grandparents made an impression upon me. To this day, I have jewelry items my grandfather made. Though they are items I will likely never wear, they are a connection to a man I saw less of than I might have wanted.
Rules that existed in my grandmother's house are used in our house, today. While modified for use with toddlers, some of her wisdom guides me in my parenting. And where distance kept me from knowing my grandfather better, my grandmother passed away shortly after we moved back to my dad's hometown.
There's just something about grandparents. Obviously, we all know that becoming a grandparent changes people. After all, most parents have faced the situation where they have to ask what happened to the people who raised them. Watching my dad with my kids shows the great impact grandkids have had in his life. He will jump through some pretty amazing hoops for his grandkids. One day, I'll have my daughter ask him to go swimming with her. I've always wanted to see him in a swimsuit.
The value of family is amazing. Sadly, it usually requires the prism of history to allow people to see that. That's why I am glad for moments like the ones shown in these pictures. They are opportunities for my children to see just how much they are loved. Armed with that knowledge, they will be much better equipped for anything the world throws their way.
Those adventurous enough to venture to the Training Partners tab may have noticed the recent addition of Midwest Sports Events. With over twenty years of directing endurance events, they produce some of the largest triathlons in Wisconsin, as well as offering many duathlons, 5-15Ks, and half marathons. And when a local youth organization joined forces with my triathlon club to start a youth triathlon program, MWSE was right there to offer their assistance.
In addition to providing numerous race opportunities, the company's executive director offered to help with training. She arranged opportunities for the kids to practice open water swimming and volunteered to provide swim lessons when possible. When it came time to register for the season's big race, MWSE went out of their way to minimize the program's cost and ensure the kids had a successful day. Most importantly, they showed great flexibility in meeting the needs of the group.
So, if you are in the upper midwest and looking for some great events, take a swing by Midwest Sports Events and see what they have going. I have personally raced in the Valentine's Day 15K, the High Cliff Triathlon, and the Oshkosh Area Triathlon. And I know specific people who have completed the Paper Discovery Duathlon, the Green Bay Triathlon, the Chisago (MN) Triathlon, and the Green Bay Duathlon. If the race websites leave you with any questions, let me know. If I can't answer the question, I happen to know the race director.
Today, I received an e-mail from Ironman. It seems they are missing my timing chip from IMKY and would like me to send it to them, or let them know I lost it.
I responded in the same manner I imagine a great many others did. "My chip was removed by volunteers at the finish line. I do have the empty band they gave back to me. I am unsure of what was done with the chip after it was removed."
A quick review of the addresses on the message show I'm in pretty good company. Heather Gollnick, the winner of the women's race, will have to turn her chip in at Kona. She apparently walked off with it. Nina Kraft, who led the women's race for much of the day, may have to work out other arrangements, as I'm unsure if she is going to race in Hawaii.
Lt. Andrew Baldwin shouldn't be too hard to find. Between service in the US Navy, "The Bachelor" fame, and racing in the Ironman World Championships, they should be able to track him down.
Several members of the Tri Blog Community might want to offer me some cold hard cash. I saw your names there, too. (Names withheld until I see if they want to pay up).
The part I find most interesting is the failure to do a simple "dummy" check. Using an average of addresses per line and lines per screen, there are an estimated 1700 names on the e-mail sent out. That is roughly 80-90 percent of all starters. That seems a bit high. I told them as much in my e-mail response.
It will be interesting to see what comes of this. Are there dozens of volunteers running around with hundreds of chips? Did 90% of the participants decide to keep the standard black chip as a souvenir? Who REALLY shot JR?
I guess it's a good thing it's my "off" season. My time off since completing Ironman has been busy. Mostly busy with things that were neglected during the challenging summer of training. You know, little things like yardwork, house work, and other similar tasks.
One of those "responsibilities" falls into the IS category. At my church, mostly because of past efforts, the job of caring for the churches computer equipment has fallen on my shoulders. It's usually no big deal, as we only have a few computers, and only one of them has a connection to the Internet. The past week, that has been the concern.
When our pastor's computer was first purchased, I took charge of it for a few days, installed some top-tier anti-virus software, explained how to ensure it was updated, and set it up to update and scan automatically. Unfortunately, I overlooked one small detail. The computer spends most of its time disconnected from the Internet and shut down.
So, it was no surprise when, after hearing about pop-up and speed issues, that I discovered the last update to the anti-virus was some 34 months ago. That was roughly the time it was installed.
This weekend has been dedicated to undoing the damage that has been done over the past several weeks. The numbers I've been dealing with sound something like Ironman training and racing. Numbers like 135. That's the number of spyware programs identified on the first check. Or 3:57. That's how long the first deep anti-virus scan took to complete.
Currently, I'm going through what might be called a brick. I have a series of four programs I'm running to try and root out the last of the errant files and programs. Each takes several hours to run, and I try to minimize the transition between each stage. Because let's face it, I'd like to get at least SOME sleep, this weekend.
And I have to get this resolved in the very near future. It is only a few short days until I go into the winter training mode. October is going to be "get back into the swing of things" month. And November will be the second annual "Swim every day for a month" program. December through April will be a series of six to eight week programs aimed at greatly improving my aerobic base while helping improve my run pace.
That will be difficult to do if I'm lugging a laptop around. So, a word of warning. Keep your anti-virus up to date. It takes a REALLY long time to undo a few short hours of unprotected surfing.
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