Day 3, 4, 5

Busy week.

Day 3:
Swim 1 mile. Run 25 minutes. Ride 45 miles with tempo intervals. Swim 1 mile.

Day 4:
Ride 60 miles. Swim 4,500.

Day 5:
Run 15k race. Swim 1.5 miles open water.

We have had a nice patch of weather and everyone is enjoying the vacation. Bri did great at the Gasparilla 5k this morning, with a 4th in 19:04.

training camp day 2

Day 2 -

Run 10 miles.
Swim 5,000.
ride 30 miles.

Lots of food.

St Pete Beach

Day 1 of OSB winter camp:

We're here in St Pete Beach at Trader's Haven, a 5 bedroom apartment on 8th Avenue in Pass-a-Grille. Pass-a-Grille is a quiet beachy, mostly residential area. Today we started off with a 40 minute run, then cooked breakfast, then went for a 3.5 hour ride through St Pete. In a bit we're off to Northshore Pool for a 2k or so swim. After that it's dinner and then light's out for Tuesday.

capitulation?

Have we seen the point of maximum fear and capitulation in the market? Will we get back to SP900? Will any of us be able to retire one day, or is that a dream of the past?

Have a nice weekend.

Economizing 101

Bri and I have been waffling back and forth on looking for some new digs, since there are a lot of houses for sale, the prices are good, and rates are low. But yesterday on our 10 mile run we decided that neither of us wants the stress of upping our mortgage amount when we're still paying off some revolving cc debt that I can't seem to shake. I will hope that mortgage rates don't skyrocket between now and Spring 2010, but if they do, so be it. There will still be houses for sale.


To combat this feeling of helplessness, we're going to pay $125 more per month towards mortgage principal reduction. The argument that you can make more in the stock market is not holding much water these days and this will lock up some extra cash when the time comes.

We're off to St Pete for the 5th annual OSB winter training camp next week. The turnout is smaller than in years past but we plan to have a jammin' good time regardless.

I am still trying to talk Bri into figuring out how to get to the beach for a few weeks in the summer, she is all worried about "job" and "money" and "what will they think of me at work," but I counter with things like "fun" and "don't worry, be happy," and "you don't wake up next to them in the morning so don't sweat it."

This week I will wind up running 33 miles which is a yearly best. Going to run the Coach Bubba 4 miler on Saturday and then follow it up with a 3 hour bike ride. Good times.

weekend update

Swim: 3 hours
Run: 4 hours
Bike: 6.5 hours
Kung fu: 2 hours
total: 15.5 hours
beers: 22
pizzas: 2
burgers: 2

Kung fu fighting

Tonight in Kung fu class, Master Chen had me spar with Stephen (Age: 8. Weight: 70 lbs. Height: 4'3", reach 16") and Leland (Age: 7, Weight: 64 lbs. Height: 4'0", reach 13"). He figured that between the two of them I was in trouble. So I picked up Leland and threw him into Stephen. That was the end of the fight.


I am kidding, of course, but that is what I told Bri when I got home.

Poker night

Poker last night didn't go well. I lost my almost my entire investment. Am 80% loss. Fortunately we play for relatively small stakes. Went into a big bet with a 10-A straight, but got beat by not one, but 2 full houses. Ouch. Then I hit an Ace high flush on the river and didn't think my opponent had any of the 4-4-6-6 on the board. I was wrong about that one as well. (Full house beats a flush). Held onto a small stack for the rest of the game so I wouldn't have to go home early. Bah.

In stock market news, weep. Just kidding. I am enjoying FAS (3x financial bull) in particular at the moment. It is basically hovering at all time lows then bouncing up 10-20%. I am in and out a couple times already. You might also want to look at ERX (3x energy), which hits 32 or less every couple weeks then shoots to 37+.

I found a free template and was able to spruce up the Triangle Open Water Mile Swim Series website quite a bit. You should visit the site and sign up for all of the races. Yessss, sign up you willl.

I write just to hear myself write

Each week for the last few weeks I've been able to get out and do a good track or run workout. Today we did 3 x 1 mile, I made the last one on 6:13.

The stock market dropped like a rock today. I had a couple automatic buy orders (limit orders) in. Luckily I was at the computer and put stop-loss orders in after the buys went through. These particular stocks went through my stops in short order. So I repurchased them at a lower price later in the day. (FAS and UCO if you are interested). God knows if the market will continue to plummet tomorrow or rebound a bit as people 'cover their shorts.' That is opposed to 'shitting your shorts,' which is what most people did when they looked at their 401k statements in December.


I missed both Kung Fu practices last week, I was tired and that practice is friggin' hard. But I'm back at it tonight.

I won $4.00 in an online poker tournament last night. It only took 4 hours, but it was a 300% return on investment.

what's new, random thoughts, random pics

Here are a couple nice pics from our short trip to the OBX (Outer Banks of NC for you non NC folks) summer last year, I just found them on our camera:





Here is one of Tassie and I about to share a beer at Shana/Scott's engagement party. Notice that I can actually get dressed up when the occasion calls for it.



Here is another one of poop.



Just kidding, that is me falling off the top of Grandfather Mountain in western NC.

Random thoughts:
Bri and I put away 16% of our pre-tax income last year. Our return on that was about -30%. If we save -12% this year will our return be +20%?

I am sending in an application for Wake County substitute teaching. OSB Coaching will survive the economic apocalypse, but Team Gaal needs to supplement our income and I have no fear of random jobs to make due. Poker night doesn't pay that well on a per-hour basis.

Inside Out Sports is fixing up the Endless Pool, which is going to be a huge boost to the swim DVD. A stationary underwater camera right next to swimmers in a flume is going to be killer for technique analysis. Our other option was to attempt carting along next to the swimmer in a 25 yard pool but the flooring would create a lot of vibration.

weekend update

swim 10,000 (3 hours 15 minute)
ride 6 hours 40 minutes (who knows how far)
run 3 hours 20 min
30 minute core/strength
total: ~14 hours

The clinic at Inside Out Sports went well today, I helped some new folks with training info and wading through a lot of the gear questions.

What up with dat?

This weekend we will ride our bikes. It will be nice out. Then we will have an engagement party for Shana and Scott. Yay. Party! I cleaned the floors and did the dishes today, since I am Bri's house-stud. The market is up today. Yay! Market! I am going stir crazy. Bwa ha ha ha ha.

Had another good week of training so far, swam 8k, ran 17m, biked 40m, and lifted one million pounds.

Taxes

Downloaded Turbotax this year. My accountant is an old friend but we can cut about 60% of the cost by doing it ourselves and I'm savvy enough to get it mostly right. If I get it wrong I'll tell them it was an honest mistake, honestly. If they don't notice then no harm no foul. Right?

I'll run for Congress next, and hopefully get put in charge of the Appropriations Committee. Or something else with lots of funny money.

upcoming events

I will be giving a beginner triathlon workshop this Sunday at 11 AM at Inside-Out Sports in Cary. This is a free clinic and will last about 2 hours. You can sign up here.

If you are debating the St Pete Beach training camp from Feb 24 to March 1, we have a bedroom open in the house.

The White Lake camps are officially open. These are 2-day camps being offered through Set Up Events and hosted by us (One Step Beyond) the week of May 4-8. You can read all the info and sign up here.

Weekly numbers

Last week's tally:

Bike 6 hours
Run 4 hours
Swim 3 hours
Kung Fu 2 hours
15 hours total