Anchor Splash Sprint

Today I got the pleasure in racing in what is probably my last sprint race of the season. Its been 5 weeks since I got to really be in a training schedule, so I didn't expect greatness, my time was eh alright, and my placing was eh alright. Going into the race I didn't really care for either. I just really enjoy doing it, and when you get to race for freeee what do you have to loose. In fact I don't even really care to give a detailed race review...The swim was great..didn't use too much energy, I did 300yards in 4:45 unfortunately thats the only stat I know. My bike was poor as usual, next season I really need to step this up. And my run, I ran into the same issue with my Lactate Thresold and I just felt terrible coming off the bike. As usual though once I got going and brought my LT down I picked up the pace and finished strong.

The New Race Day Events is great! I got the chance to help volunteer with them and I just really enjoyed working with everybody, I even got a part time job offer going to conferences and selling The Stick. Martin was right in his email...the new RDE is very relaxed and enjoyable. I'm excited to work with them again. This was a great event to get to know the TriVols, when you work with a group you really get to bond with them well and I made tons of new friends and training partners. It makes me really upset to know I'm graduating soon :(. Is it bad I want to do grad school just so I can race with TriVols? One of the best parts of the day was the fact Kelly came to watch the race, I get really excited when people come watch me. They could seriously be doing something so much more useful than waking up early; then they sit , wait, cheer (repeat x3). Just a great feeling. I think thats why I loved Panther Prowl so much and did so well.

As for whats next for races...I don't know I'm finding life to be super busy at least til October 30th. Its probably not wise for me to Tri train for Hickory Knob, but then whats the point of doing TriVols... however I'm called to be a student first and thats what I need to focus on. I am doing a Half Marathon in November...just found that out the conversation went like this Abby "Hey Andy want to do a half marathon, I need somebody to do it with, Paul's not doing it." Andy - "Yeah Sure"... yep thats how it went. So I'll change to more of a running work out probably which takes up less time. I really just want to finish, in the Spring I'll train more for that goal of mine to get sub 2 hour half. At the same time though I would like to do some training for the off season, I don't want to go hard though maybe a swim a week and a bike a week or even every other week. As for 2010 I think I'm calling it quits for this season, I felt overall it was a great season 5 races, 1 being Olympic!!! I still will post blogs, but more about life hopefully. In 2011 The only race I am going for right now is Rev3 which will be AWESOME, don't know if I'm going for the half or olympic yet though...we'll see.





Kelly and Me after the race

Things Are Changing

Its been a long time since I've posted something...honestly things have been crazy, but in a good way. The summer wrapped up great in terms of Triathlons, I finished 27th out of 250 in the Springbrook Sprint and got 3rd in my age group. The following weekend I raced in my goal race of the summer, my first Olympic Distance at Fall Creek Falls. It was so much fun, one of the best days of the summer. In fact that week following despite school starting was the best week of my summer just cause of a number of things going on in my life. Again the race was a blast, I destroyed my goal I had set. I told people I wanted to beat 3 hours, but secretly I wanted to get under 2:50:00...I ended up at 2:37:00...man what a great feeling. After reflecting on that race I realized I had truely had one of the best summers ever. God taught me so much through this training, working full time and having a community of believers.

The past month has been busy, I got to train somewhat but not Tri training specifically, mostly just running with Cross Country...New fun fact - I help coach a Cross Country team for Norwood Middle School - I have to say at first I was scared to death of middle schoolers for some weird reason, but I've grown to love working with them. Mallory has told me some conversations she has had in school with the students and how much the look up to me and enjoy me running with them, just hearing words like that makes me really excited and happy to be pouring out my new love for running.

My weeks are packed right up until October 30th, I'm counting down the days till then. That day is the day I take my Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. This test is BIG I have to review everything I studied the past four years...drain. It hit me hard yesterday that I really need to get going on studying so now I'm trying to set an hour aside each day. I don't want to be the 2 out of 30 students in my class that will fail. After school I'm still not sure what I'll be doing, most likely it will be Grad School or find a Geotech Job. I'm hoping the latter because I'm tired of school. Of Course although I'm tired of school I'm having a blast not having to work from 8 - 5.

Well this is enough for now, I just read somebody else's blog this morning and realized I'd forgot about updating mine. I should get back to studying FE stuff like Statistics. Caio