Off-season posts (or, Why I Have Not Updated My Blog)

My intrepid readers (both of them) have been demanding an update!  So, here goes.

I realized that I was really writing the blog to keep everybody up to date on what was going on.  First, it was just with racing, then I decided to put a little of my personal life into it, since it was getting a little repetitive.  I actually had close, personal friends admit to me that they enjoyed reading Gabe’s blog more than mine (of course, that could be because she has some wickedly awesome stories and is an english major who can write, imho, very well).  Unfotunately, I kinda try not to dish out too much of my personal life, so that didn’t work too well.  I just figured that the people who were really close to me would hear all my stories anyway, so I did not worry too much about updating.

Turns out, there are a few people that are really interested but I just can’t get in touch with often (sorry, I still like you all!), or when I can we talk about other things (hi bro!).  So here goes, this one is for you guys!

As always, three big things in my life: work, school, workout.  Work is wonderful, if you know me, you know where I work, and you know why.  If you know me well enough to have my phone number and don’t know where I work, you should probably call more!  Serously.  No, I’m kidding!  But really; call.  I have heard the horror stories about people’s bosses finding their blogs, I will not talk about my work on the inter-wubs.

School is, as always, kicking my butt!  I really just have one class which has me worried, and it is not really the material, but the grade.  The downside of having a good idea of what I want to do with my career is that it makes me have selective memory.  I am remembering the things that are going to be useful, but I am only really learning the rest for the test.  I don’t want to be that way, since it is all important, but there is just so much material I think it would be impossible to have any semblance of a normal life (or sanity) and truly remember it all.

Which leads to the rest of the post, the rest of my life.  Puppy has been doing great!  He is still cute, but now in a bit more of a dignified, dog kind of way.  Krieger has an interesting personality, too.  I will probably write a whole post on him soon.  The end of my triathlon season went well, I had a good race in Greenville, where the competition is always really stiff.  I went on to have a couple of really nasty races after that, though.  The Hartsville Olympic distance was the mentally toughest event I have raced yet; I went out and blew people away on the swim and bike but hit the wall hard halfway through the run.  I run-walked with cramps for the last three miles, getting dropped out of a top-three finish and feeling pretty down after running a 9:17 mile pace.  I hooked up with Anthony “The Beast” Buzetti for some long bike rides, threw a century out there, and then did something a little crazy.  I stopped riding outside, I focused on the trainer and riding hard.  I mean hard like riding my sprint pace for a solid hour, turning my biggest gear for like five minutes, just blasting my quads to kingdom come.

Then I had a solid improvement in Greenwood.  I swam and rode better than last year, and had enough left over, despite short training sessions, to run the whole half-marathon steadily.  I was actually having a lot of fun with these short, intense training sessions, so I kept them up for the next few weeks.

Then I had the race of my life thus far!  I went into the last race of the year secure in third place.  I was not moving up or down, guaranteed.  I wanted one thing, a great race, and I had one single chance to get it this year.  I swam like normal, passing people in the two waves ahead of me, then I got on the bike.  I rocketed past people on the steep hills and chased them down on the flats.  I stepped off the bike and across the timing mat to a 1:01:37 mile ride on that course for an average pace of 27.3 mph if their mileage is on.  I felt good and shoulder pressed the bike a few times in transition just to show off for Katie Malone!  Then I decided to run 6.2 miles in 51:14, an 8:16 mile pace!  I could go on and on describing how that race felt, but it really can’t be put into words.  Everything clicked.  I was laughing as I ran through the finish chute, it was great!  I got third in my age group that race, and third overall for the state age group.

I plan on writing some more soon, I have a lot of stuff to post on.  For now, I am in the middle of a workout; this was my break!