July 2013 racing updates

July has been a good month for racing here at OSB headquarters.

Early on July 20 one of our super babysitters got to the house at 5AM so we could head up to the Burlington area to race in the Mission Man triathlon.  We'd heard great things about it but never had the chance to go for various reasons.  It is a great venue and race.

Neither of us were feeling particularly well rested after something of a strenuous week, but we enjoyed our Saturday morning date.

 Bri and the FS Series contingent

Bri and Your Humble Narrator, The Royal We

I have not had the time or desire to train like I did in the old days, and have been gracefully adjusting my expectations and goals.  It can be a little hard at times to confront the reality of not being as quick or spry as We used to be, but with some slices of humble pie and a little bit of grace, We make do.  Focus on the fun and fitness!

Bri did great as usual, taking 2nd OA to some fast young Yankee from up north.  

I also did well, finishing 10th OA (also behind the fast girl) with a good race across the board.  I Powerstroked (shameless plug) my way to first place on the swim then went backwards from there. :P

We finished the morning with a breakfast date at Denny's on the way home.

Sunday July 21 we hosted the Little Uno and Big Deuce open water swims.  Had a great turnout with 200+ swimmers.  Our major concern with these is swimmer safety, everything else is secondary.  We always buy 50-75% extra t-shirts and almost always come up short as a ton of folks sign up late.   Anyway, the swims went well, you can see a bunch of pictures on the Triangle Open Water Series Facebook page.

 Start of the 2 mile Big Deuce swim

Onto this weekend, we signed up for the Cary Roundabout 5k here in our adopted hometown.  It was close enough for us to jog to the start, which we did.  Bri did great again, taking another 2nd OA in 19:04 which is jamming.  Junior Awesome and I also had a solid run, hitting 20:46 and scoring 3rd in our age group.  Afterwards we hung out and cheered on other runners.

Go go go!

On the way home we had a tire blowout on the stroller which scared everyone but Junior, who was like, "whatever dude, keep running!"

Next weekend we're off for a quick trip to the Asheville area to race at the Lake Logan Multisport Festival.  Bri will do the olympic distance race and I've opted for the Aquathon on Sunday, which is the USAT Aquathon National Championship.  The past couple years have seen a low turnout so I was hoping to poach some dubious bragging rights with an age group placing at 'Nationals'.  But, there are 100 or so people signed up so it's not a total cakewalk this year.

That's what we've been up to.  Keeping it real, D!

14 reasons to think in lists

1.  lists grab your attention and imply that we can fix the issues with just several simple steps

2. #lists are trending on twitter

3. any imbecile can put some numbers before some random sentences, you see what i mean?

4. it gives the writer both a goal and an end point which is awesome, because writing is hard work

5. there were ten commandments and seven deadly sins, so there is precedent

6. lists are easy to write

7. they really are.  see?

8. we are doing the mission man sprint triathlon tomorrow morning.  it will be fun.  we're both exhausted from a long week but looking forward to it.  neither of us have done it before.

9. lists make you think in an orderly process.  re: step 1 is getting out of bed, step 2 is putting on shoes so my feet don't cramp going down the stairs and i don't break my neck crashing into the wall, step 3 is making the coffee, step 4 is chugging the coffee and then pouring another cup.

10. if you have just 4 reasons you're not successful or 7 steps to success, it's an easier pill to swallow then telling you you've got 1900 variables that really make you one big clusterfudge of screwed up ed ness.

11. so sick of this list

12. make it stop

13. oh yeah lucky 13 thank you baby

14.  right. the end.  14 reasons list rock. #lists

Work in progress

A lot of my days speed by like a boulder rolling down a long and steep hill. We wake up at 5 or 6 and before We know it, is is 8PM and We only got 50% of what We had planned done.  We find it amazing and frustrating.  Amazing because many of our days our spent with people we enjoy hanging around with; frustrating because there is always just a little too much to do. 

Anyway, I could blog about personal organization habits or choosing your tasks successfully or Nine Traits that Every Leader should have; but this is not a self help or self-improvement blog.  This is an eat-my-screaming-and-ranting-thoughts-blog.  Or worship-my-awesome-junior-awesome-blog.  And a Goddess-Bri-blog. With some coaching ideas thrown in.

The past month has been busy.  We did lots.  Top of the list would be Boone Blue Ridge Mountain camp.  This was our fourth year hosting.  We put it on for our athletes, many of whom are now also good friends of ours, at essentially break-even since they already pay us for coaching.  This also frees us from the "put on a show and dance for me clown" I have previously experienced at camps where we charged a premium, and I am no dancing clown, thank you very much.  Bri has a great write up about Boone camp here.

We raced the 3 little pigs triathlon in Smithfield.  Bri won.  I flatted but changed it and had a good race notwithstanding.

Junior Awesome turned 18 months old.  He is growing stronger, faster, smarter, better, taller, quicker, more awesomer, every day.

We hosted two open water swim clinics in the past 4 weeks, one on our own in this area and one for the Fayetteville Tri-Warriors down south.  Happy to get to know some of the fine folks that serve and protect our nation.

Bri and I snuck away for a date day today and saw "This is the End."  Very funny, light-hearted entertainment.

I have not been doing great with my promise to get enough sleep recently and am about to declare a moratorium on swim lessons, getting burned out.

The Old School aquathon is this Thursday, July 4 (we co-host) and after that we'll be doing all sorts of July fourthie things with Junior, who totally comprehends the no taxation without representation argument.