January Update

Wow so a lot has happened since the last post. Lets see if I can give a quick run down...

Training is going well. I did a good week of training last week. A lot of hours on the bike. It was good to feel how quickly my bike legs got under me. It's taken some time to get adjusted to being on the saddle for 3 hours a day, day after day.

Monday my dad left Iraq. Crazy. It's one of those things that you knew was coming but is almost surprising when it really does happen. The strange thing is that nothing at home is different. It just feels like another Air Force trip. The only difference is he's in a war zone now. There's a bunch of emotions running around but I think the overwhelming one for me is one of pride. When people hear that my dad is there so often their like "oh I'm sorry." What the heck are you freakin sorry for?!?!?! I mean come one! He's fighting to defend the freedoms that our forefathers fought to establish over 200 years ago. This stuff being taught in my history class is ALLOWED to be taught because my dad serves in our nation's armed forces and isn't afraid to fight for his beliefs, liberty, family, and country. That's pretty cool if you ask me.

In other news our family did manage to acquire a wii in the last week. Yes I mean the popular Nintendo game console that has somewhat revolutionized the video game industry. After staying up until 2 am playing it Saturday night my arms were SORE Sunday! I'm going to have to watch myself to make sure I can control this new passion.

School started this week as well and that has limited the training somewhat. In addition I'm working 2 nights a week at the Landry Center front desk until 10 pm. That doesn't sound bad but when you realize that I then don't get to bed until almost 11 and have to wake up at 5 am for swim practice BACK down at the Landry center... well maybe you can feel my pain a little more. I can get by on 6 hrs of sleep for one night, or maybe two. The problem isn't that I'm just a little tired during the day it's that my training performance then suffers and my body is not recovering like it needs to be. That's definitely going to be tough to balance this semester.

Yesterday I got some testing done by a local triathlete and coach, Ahmed. Big thanks to him. The weather took a turn for the worst and I ended up hopping off the trainer in his warm garage to bust out into the 32 degree weather outside running 6 mpm. My calves ALMOST seized on me. It was one of those where you can feel them tremoring and I'm praying "Please don't cramp. Please don't cramp." Luckily they didn't' but the 3k time trial was not very fast.

In a little bit the family and I are heading down to Austin for the Frost Yer Fanny regional awards banquet and duathlon. As the winner of the Junior developmental points series I get some award and then I'm doing the duathlon on Sunday. Should be fun. And hopefully not too cold.