The Official Swim Team photo

Here’s Izzy’s first official swim team picture. The little fish swam 500 yards this morning during their swim-a-thon. That’s a long way for a 5 year old!

Father’s Day weekend

I realized on Monday morning what a great father’s day weekend I had. I spent Friday night at Daniel Tardy’s house, because we had to get up at 5:00am on Sat. morning to drive to Bell Buckle, TN for the RC Cola and Moonpie 10 mile run. We met Bill Hampton down there and enjoyed the run – keeping the pace nice and easy instead of racing it like I’ve done in the past.

Saturday when I got home Karen gave me my Father’s Day present; an old fashioned wooden homemade ice cream maker. I’ve been wanting one for years, but have always been too cheap to buy it. That night we had her mom and dad, brother, and two nephews over for a cookout. The first batch of homemade ice cream turned out great! Afterwards we enjoyed watching Izzy, Max, Kate, Thomas, and Alan all splash in the little pool in the backyard.

Sunday after church we went up to Hendersonville to have Father’s Day with my parents. Same deal…cookout…icecream…kids playing. Another great day to wrap up the holiday weekend.  Here’s a pic of “Papaw” with Izzy and Kate:

It’s race week this week. I have the Old Hickory Triathlon coming up on Saturday. As some of you know, that’s my top priority race of every season. It’s normally early in September, but this year they moved up to late June. That prospect makes me a little nervous as it usually takes me until mid August to get in top shape. Last year, I finally won my age group out of 40 something guys despite a challenging year (to say the least). The crowd is fast this year, so I’m hoping for a top 3 finish this go around.

I have lots of motivators these days: the strength of my wife who endured so much more pain and suffering than anyone will ever realize – she took 3 solid months of Magnesium straight to the vein. Research that – you’ll find out that most women can’t bear it for longer than 24 hours. I have Max and Kate who have both been through so much in 8 months of life. We almost lost them multiple times, but they have shown the strenght of God and are now strong and healthy. I have my mom – who just had breast cancer surgery last month and beat it! And as always I have my angel, Izzy. She found some of my old race medals last night and asked if she could wear them. Later we found her like this:

Karen has always said that I’m Izzy’s hero. I know it’s true, but the truth is she doesn’t really know when I win and when I lose. She’s just proud that I’m out there. She does know that my medals mean something. Glad she likes them. I want to win more for her.

My results will be a bit of mystery this Saturday. I haven’t raced since last September. so I don’t know where my lungs are. My legs are leaning out though, because they are starting to look gross:

The next Taylor Swift

Izzy wins!

Izzy won her first race yesterday at her 2nd swim meet of the season. She won the 1st heat of the 6 and under girls 25 yard freestyle. Here she is looking cute with her heat winners ribbon:

I’m still keeping up my training. I got in an early morning bike ride yesterday. This morning I ran 4.5 miles and included a mile of lactate threshold work. I have another indoor bike session on tap for lunchtime today. Tomorrow is a rest day…a short swim on Friday…and the RC and Moonpie Festival 10 mile run on Saturday morning.

Some new pics

Izzy and daddy at Tardy’s cookout

Daddy and little Kate

Mommy and big Max

Decent workout this morning. I swam a mile and then immediately headed for an easy 3 mile run. On the heels of yesterday’s lactate threshold workout today’s swim and easy run felt great.

Map My Ride is offering a cool program during this year’s Tour De France that I’m going to participate in. I’ll ride every day along with the Tour riders, while Map My Ride’s GPS tracks me through my iphone. Somehow they’ll compare my results to the tour riders and show me where I’m placed each day among the peloton. Sounds interesting. For more click HERE

 

Weekend training and the finish of the Dauphine Libere

I squeezed in a 1:40 ride yesterday morning with Tardy and the Verner brothers before the final day of the June Counselor Training. We climbed the front side of Lynewood Way (the mountain) on the way out and the backside on the way back. My heart rate hit 179 on the front side and 185 on the back as Stewart Verner drug me up the climb – and eventually dropped me. Been awhile since that’s happened on a big climb. The guy can climb.

I did a 40 minute run this morning that included a 20 minute lactate threshold field test inbetween  a 10 minute warmup up (156hr) and a 10 minute cooldown (158hr). I ran the 20 minute segment at a 6:55 pace that yielded an average HR of 179. For now, I’ll use that number as my lactate/anaerobic threshold. That means I can train up to that number and remain aerobic. I’ve tested my LT as high as 183, so I have some room for improvement this summer.

The Dauphine Libere ended today. Spaniard Alejandro Valverde defended his title. Cadel Evans was second and tour de france favorite Alberto Contador was 3rd. I’m still counting on a Lance to win the tour though. Just a few more weeks of waiting.

Dauphine Libere update

Valverde in yellow with Evans on his wheel at a last years Dauphine

The final Tour de France tuneup, the Criterium du Dauphine Libere, is in full swing after 5 stages. Last year’s winner Alejandro Valverde of Spain took command today on the climb of le Mont Ventuox – a climb that Lance Armstrong called the hardest climb in France. Valverde, currently under suspicion in the same doping scandal that earned Ivan Basso a suspension, flexed his climbing prowess on the lunar landscape to the summitt finishing right behind Sylvester Szmyd. Valverde won’t participate in the Tour de France this year, so the Dauphine Libere is his chance to show the cycling world what he’s got. He attacked the leaders, namely Cadel Evans (2nd at the 08 TDF) and Alberto Contador (1st at the 07 TDF and 09 favorite). Neither had an answer for the Spaniards acceleration to the summitt. Those men now sit 1,2, and 3 on the general classification.

Evans, who is a capable but not a pure climber, could not respond to Valverde finishing 6th on the stage. Contador, who is a superb climber, seemed content to hold onto Evans wheel for dear life and finished 8th. Perhaps both spent too much on yesterday’s time trial. There are still plenty of big climbs to go though, so at :18 seconds ahead its far from over.

First Swim Meet

Izzy had her first official swim meet this morning. She’s swimming for the Spring Hill Sea Dragons! She had a blast. Check her out:

Max and Kate really enjoyed it too:

Yep, that’s my girl.

Back in the swing of things…

I had a nice training weekend. Daniel Tardy, Branden Verner, and I rode 25 miles at a decent clip covering a few big climbs on Saturday morning.  I’m trying to push the pace a little to prep for race season. We did a 2.5 mile BRICK run immediately following the ride. It was Branden’s first experience running right off of the bike. He did great, but asked “is it normal for your feet to tingle?”. Yes, it is.

Sunday morning I ran 9 miles at a very easy pace keeping my heart rate under 160. It’s amazing how easy running can seem when you keep your heart rate in check. My average HR for the run was 155. I’m thinking I’ll run the RC Cola and Moonpie 10 miler aerobic as well. My PR there is 1:14, but considering the year I’ve had I don’t think this is the time to go for a new “personal record”. I’ll probably just run with Tardy and Hampton nice and easy and consider it a training run. I got another 2 mile run in late yesterday afternoon making the daily total 11 miles. Been awhile since I’ve logged that many miles in a day.

Still thinking about the San Antonio Marathon in mid November.

Izzy’s first swim meet is tomorrow! I can’t wait! She’s so excited. She’ll swim 25 freestyle, 25 backstroke, and the freestyle relay.

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

I promise I’ll start posting again soon! For now, I’ll just give you a quick update on the album that’s getting the most play in the car and on the ipod these days. I’m loving the new one from Grizzly Bear “Veckatimest”. It reminds a great deal of Midlakes “The Trials of Van Occupanther” album. There’s something 60’s about the sound…an AM Gold feel. Open the car windows and soak it in.