random thoughts 4.17.12

Why you might as well give up on 'investing' and focus on 'saving lots.'

Unless you diversified into 'barbaric relics.'

Hopefully not black gold, though.

Although now might be the time to sell one and buy the other.

I hurt my foot over the weekend, but other than the aggravation of not being able to run for a couple weeks or whatever it might be, am not worried about races since this year is the Year of the Bri.  I am hopeful it is a soft tissue issue.  Poetry in injury. 

Today Bri and I got out for our first ride together in over a year, it was nice, birds were singing, the clouds parted before us, etcetera.

Please sign up for the Old School Aquathon if you intend to race the first event on May 2nd.  It is approaching quickly!

Boy is doing good:

 

Junior and I playing "sit without slouching"

 

Mom and laddie at Masters swim team party

 

Boy coaching Saturday Masters - he prefers sprints

 

Three Generations of Fine Young Men

Everybody must get sick!

We dropped our boy off at Daycare for the first time last Monday.  By Thursday night, Mom and Dad were puking and pooping like their was no tomorrow, while our little angel gurgled and cooed.  By Saturday, he, too, processed a different or same bug, and was stuffy and all out of sorts.   He is doing fine, it is just a cold, but for first time parents it is a stressful time.  Anyway, things We missed over the weekend:

• Hosting a cookout at our house on Friday (at a cookout you cook burgers + chicken + other stuff, whereas at a North Carolina BBQ you would slaughter a pig, drink the blood, and then roast the carcass on a spit)
• Coaching swim practice on Friday morning
• A swim on Saturday morning
• Any sort of St Patrick's Day celebration, which as a guy married to a 25% Irish chick, and a 100% Amer-Ican, we celebrate like it's Our holiday
• The Tobacco Road Half-Marathon

We are feeling back to normal but tired and weak.  This does not mean you can take advantage of Us, for We are still mentally strong. 

Now back to your usual programming.

Weekend update

Sending in tax forms to the gubmint.

Tassie ran hill repeats with the gang and I on Thursday morning.

Today we did a 4 hour brick.

Logan is doing well and sleeping more.

I am working lots and preparing for the winter camp next week.

Managed to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy this week while conducting evening-daddy -watches-the-baby-time.

Have a nice day. :)

updates and upcoming events

I am not updating much right now just from time constraints and lack of anything interesting to report.  Marathon recovery is going well but my right IT band is giving me some issues, so I am taking it easy on the run until that is gone.  Cycling and swimming no problem. 

We are competing in the NC State Short Course Masters champs this weekend in Hillsborough.  I believe it's my 3rd Masters meet.  I am on pace for one per decade at the moment, the last one being in 2000.  Open water is more my bag as you might have figured.

Upcoming events:
April 16 - Powerstroke Freestyle Technique in Cary
April 30 - Open Water Clinic at Jordan Lake
May 22 - 5280 Swim at Beaverdam (Falls Lake)

My next triathlon is Tri Orthopeadic Centennial Campus Sprint on April 23.  The bike will be in better shape than Azalea, I am shooting for 200+ per week for the next few weeks.

weekend update Jan 15-16

This past Saturday I strapped on my big boy shoes and headed out for a long run.  I wore my Yaktrax and stomped through 17 miles of icy bridle trails and single track in Umstead State Park.  It was awesome.  I felt good and the Yax gripped the ice like a greasy Goldman Sachs bankster grips his wad of bills.  People swore jealously at me.

I was signed up for the Little River 10 mile trail run, but decided to be a super clean green machine and not even go. The race promotes carpooling and carbon offsets and other funky energy conservation things like that.  I frankly had a lot to do and didn't feel like driving up there to run icy trails with 500 other peoples.

Later that day I rode 30+ miles with one of my local athletes. 

On Sunday Bri dragged me out for a 2.725 hour ride.  My legs were sore but I struggled heroically through the endeavor.

On Monday morning I joined the TAF racing team for some intervals since it is a holiday.  I was psyched for this daylight morning workout all weekend.  I coached swim practice, then headed to our meeting place and discovered I forgot my running shoes. Fortunately one of the fellas loaned me his spikes so I didn't have to run barefoot like that crazy Mexican tribe. 

I had a good workout and then took an ibuprofen and a nap. 

holiday update

We had a nice weekend here in NC consisting of multiple holiday parties, cold sleeting rain, and capped it off with a great long run on the American Tobacco Trail today. A recap:

Tequila shots bestowed upon me at the FS Series Holiday party on Thursday night
Fun Secret Santa gifting at Nas' party
12.5 mile run Sunday morning while Bri covered 14.1 (I am slower than her if you haven't figured that out)

This week brings Christmas and some quality time with our family in Virginia. They have an Xbox, which I plan to comandeer in order to wipe out entire militias on one of them shoot-em-up games. We might also open presents.

I have posted all the 2009 OSB Newsletters on the newsletter page if you want to kill some time reading short training articles and athlete updates.

There is not a whole lot else going on. We're going to go see the Kill The Smurfs movie sometime soon, and I am going to buy some Edward the Vampire stuff for Bri, who is a driving force behind the Team Edward movement.

Bank stress tests delayed while government makes up results

Bah.

I am feeling decidedly fluish and less and less inclined to race in a half ironman tomorrow morning. I'm torn between doing the swim only, the swim-bike only, or if feeling OK then giving the whole thing a shot and seeing what happens. My issue is that if I start I almost always finish the race, sick or not. We are going out there to set up a table as part of our sponsorship so will be on site either way. Bummer.

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.

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.