Tri Tri Tri (and Tri) again..

Today was the 4th Annual Batavia Sprint Triathlon. It was my fourth year competing in this event. Each year it has gotten bigger, and better. I believe that there were about 650 competitors in the Triathlon (swim-bike-run), and another 200 or so in the duathlon (run-bike-run).

The weather cooperated very nicely, sunny warm (bordering on a bit to warm), no rain, and very little wind. It was a far cry from the overcast, drizzle, low 50's, and windy day we had last year.

Supporting Team World Vision (TWV) this year, and helping to raise support for the Ethiopian community TWV is sponsoring is my primary goal this year. Rather than just "doing it for the children", I guess you can say I'm "doing it for the whole community". As described in my "Welcome Message", I am hoping that through my own personal sacrifices, I can bring some good to others.

While supporting TWV is my primary goal, I still wanted to have a new personal record (PR). Last week, I had all but resolved to forgot that goal. I just didn't feel that good, I didn't have the mojo going.

I was relaxed and full of adrenaline this morning. I felt strong for the first 200meters of the swim sprint, but the second two hundred I really struggled to keep going. I don't have the official times and splits yet, I will post them once they are available. I felt my swim-to-bike transition was slow. But I felt very strong the whole bike ride. I had forgotten to start my cycle computer at the start so I can't really be sure on the AVG speed. I know it was 22-25MPH many times I looked down. That's well above my goals of 20MPH. The bike-to-run transition was tough, but normal from years past. That's when it hit me. I wasn't even to mile 1 of the 4.1 mile run sprint, and I felt awful. I cannot recall anytime I raced when I had a stronger urge to walk.

As I glanced at my heart rate monitor, it just kept climbing, 175, 185, 195.. YIKES! Even though I felt that I was slowing down a lot, I still couldn't get the heart rate down. If it were not for my wife yelling "Go Daddy Go" and my son yelling "Yeah Daddy" in a cute way only a 2 year old can do, I wouldn't have made made it much past mile 1. If it wasn't for my Dad at mile 3 cheering me on, just as I was about to hit the proverbial way, I would have surely started to walk. And I cannot forgot to mention my old running buddy Calvin, who made a surprise appearance to root me on with about 1/2 mile to go.

During that last mile, I remembered "Ted its about TWV and the families in Ethiopia you are helping". Cramped legs, exercise induced migraine already beginning, skyrocketing HR, with each step I literally kept praying "Lord let me finish", I lift it all up to to you for those families.

..Smile.. It is only partially evident from the finish line photo my wife took above, but from the comments from my Dad and wife made.. I guess I looked about as bad as I felt. In the end, I made it. I feel pleased with my effort. I certainly put it all out on the table, and left nothing behind. While the official times have not been posted, my unofficial time was 1 hour 20 minutes and 26 seconds. That would be 1 minute and 29 second faster than last years 1 hour, 21 minute and 55 second finish. It appears to be a new PR after all...

Thanks Calvin, Thanks Dad, Thanks J, and Thanks E for cheering me on today. It meant the world. And thanks God for giving me the ability to persevere and accepting my day as an offering for others.

Peace...

(Coming tomorrow, official race results and splits, and words on my good friend Luis who completed his first triathlon today after only learning to swim 2 months ago. Awesome Job!!)

A Veggie Tales kinda day..

If you have children, you've surely heard of the Veggie Tales. Our son is a Veggie Tales-a-holic. Rarely does a car ride (veggie tales audio cd) go by, or TV time pass (Veggie Tales on DVD) without our son crying "Bob..... Bob". For Bob the tomato of course.

Part of my nighttime routine with my son is to read his favorite Veggie Tales Stories. The best part of the stories are always the endings which say...

And Remember Kids, God made you special, and he loves you very much

What a wonderful way to end a day, but what a wonderful thought to keep in mind all the time. Anyways, as I finished reading him the Story of Josh and the Big Wall (about Joshua and the Wall of Jericho), the verse from QWERTY was Proverbs 3: 5

Today's Reading of the Day...

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths.

In the car on the way home from work each day, I spend some time thinking of my family and friends, and the challenges they are facing. As I finishing reading our son that bedtime story, that reading from Proverbs hit the spot. How true, but how difficult. If we could all just put our trust and faith in the load, to rely on him, rather than ourselves. Maybe the challenges that each of us face would be a big easier to handle.

Peace

The hunk of purple metal raises from the ashes

Yes indeed, the people at the bike shop are some sort of miracle workers. If it wasn't for the hideous purple color, I would have thought they gave me the wrong bike! No more clunking, new shifters (that's the technical term right?) and I can hear the sweet sound the tires make on the pavement. I think I am all geared up for "Bike to Work Week" next week.

I have been searching out resources to try and learn a little Amharic (official language of Ethiopia). There are not too many resources out there that I have found. It seems like either the program is only available on 27 cassette tapes (can you say "I don't think so") or I have heard reviews that native Amharic speakers have had difficulty understanding the pronunciation that is used in the lessons, that's a serious problem. One of my friends at work who adopted from Russia suggested intra-library loan or actually contacting the Ethiopian Embassy to see if they have any suggestions. I think those are great suggestions that I would have never thought of. The next step will be finding people to practice with!

A day in a life...

There is less than three days left before the Batavia Triathlon. Am I ready? Sure. Am I peaking? nope. But its a sprint triathlon, so I'll just tough it out. It will be a good tune up for the Spirit of Racine 1/2 Ironman.

What about the adoption? Where do we stand? The agency application is in, I've included a link to it within the "Destination Addis" section on the side of this blog. The same element not only includes the current Weather in Addis, but its got links relevent to Ethiopian adoption.

What's upcoming? After our home study interview last view, we should be getting the updated home study in the coming weeks, along with our DCFS CANTS clearance. Then we wait. Not for long, perhaps another few weeks. Then we'll start our Dossier Blitzkrieg (mad dash to collect all relevant dossier documents).

We'll keep you posted.

Peace

We interrupt this regular blog.....

Hi all - I am very excited my sweet husband is letting me guest blog on his Tri for Hope blog! Who wants to read about all that training stuff all the time anyways??!!?? Anyhoo, as Ted mentioned, we are officially on the road to Ethiopia for our second child. We have been telling everyone we are paper pregnant, and in the spirit of our pregnancy, I have been working hard packing on some pregnancy weight with cheesecake and chocolate while Ted works his hardest training for all these events! In reality, "my" bike is in the shop. Ok, it is really Ted's old bike from college. It is a heavy mountain bike that I have retrofitted with all the doohickeys (is that how you spell that?) I need to commute to work day or night. Ted can't stand it. I must admit, my first experience with the bike was less than favorable when we decided to do a little off roading and crossed a stream, when I attempted to get up the bank, the weight of the bike was too much and I crashed, nearly impaled on a nearby branch, but from that point, it has been a love hate relationship. Sure you can hear me coming about a block away with all the clunking and squeaking it makes, but I never need a bell to signal people to move out of the way, and sure it takes twice the effort of any other bike to pedal, I chalk that up to additional strength training, and granted, one of the shifters went bad a couple years back, who needed those gears anyway? Gosh, I love that big purple hunk of metal!

Back to our Ethiopian adoption journey, we found out this weekend that we aren't criminals and don't have TB! Yah!!! We have most of the paperwork together for our homestudy. With the update interview out of the way, we are just waiting on the DCFS CANTS clearance and the State Police clearance and we are on our way to having our updated homestudy. Word from Adoption Advocates (AAI) is that we might be off the dossier preparation waiting list in July! Though we are itching to get our dossier started, we know once that is finished, it is out of our hands and we will have to settle in for a long wait for a referral. At this time, we feel we are making progress and moving ahead. It is a great feeling!

Its Africa hot, well almost anyway

I was not able to make my normal Wednesday morning run. Instead, I ended up going out at lunch time. Boy was that a mistake. Not just because I was not fully over my exercise induced migraine from yesterday, but because it was much hotter out than I had thought. Despite running slower, drinking my entire water bottle, and walking quite a bit. I was still not able to stay cool, nor keep my heart rate down. That was a grueling 8 miles. Hopefully it will not trigger the migraine to come back.

As I was thinking during this miserable run, about how far it was out of my comfort zone temperature wise.. I thought, dang this feels like "Africa hot". We almost. As I got back to my
desk I decided to check the temperature in Addis Ababa today, its 90 degrees. So our 87 or so is quite close.

And just to have a little fun, I added a widget to the side of the blog to display the temperature in Addis. In in with the "Destination Addis" countdown.

Enjoy!

Destination Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

As a crow flies, it is approximately 7563 miles from Chicago to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the destination for my family, God willing, within the next year. You see, my wife and I have recently began the process to adopt a child from Ethiopia.

To help pass the time, To help feel that progress is continuing when the process seems to grind to a halt, to help make the 'adoption' journey more tangible to us, my wife and I have decided to log all our fitness miles. Every mile we walk, swim, bike, or run counts. Our goal is to reach 7563 miles. The distance to Addis.

7563 miles is a considerably larger sum than the 1888 miles to Guatemala City, Guatemala. Guatemala City was the location of our first "Destination" journey. Given that we have hopefully less than 1 year, it is going to be a giant challenge. Although everything in life is a challenge.

With your prayers and support, we will take it one mile at a time...

Peace

11 days to go.. its time to get serious

With Memorial Day now behind us, and the obligatory BBQ's and other holiday fare past, it is time to get focused. Lately training has been, unstructured, and if I'm honest, that is probably putting it politely. I need to get focused. I think the body sculpt classes on Tuesdays are keeping the muscles toned. And the 1 to 1.5 miles sprints once or twice a week are helping to increase my foot speed. Nothing substitutes for race day. This Saturday might be the last hard day before tapering.

11 days until the Batavia tri. Is a new (PR) personal record in site? In 2006, I finished in 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 55 seconds. In 2005, 1 hour, 24 minutes, and 11 seconds. In 2004, 1 hour, 33 minutes, 03 seconds. We will find out. It only takes 1 second to come up with a new PR.

I have a sneaking suspicions my swimming is not were I need to be, but I might be quicker on the bike and run. June 10th will be the first Triathlon of the season, and a decent tuneup for the 1/2 ironman in July.

Meters and Yards

Following an extra 15 miles today from riding to Church and to our favorite coffee shop, it was time to hit the pool again.

What fun, the bulkheads were at the end of the pool. So it was a full 50meters in length. Just as with a few weeks again, I did two 1000 time trials. I was shocked at how slow I was, but thankfully, it was 1000meter rather than 1000 years. 1000m is equal to 1093 yards. Thus the majority of the time was for the extra 93 yards (almost an extra 100).

In the end I was still slower. Just about 2 minutes per 100 yards (once converted). It was nice to get 3200 meters in. So I know that I can swim 2 miles.

Only two short weeks before the Batavia tri. Time to get serious...

Trip down memory lane...

Well sort of. With 21days left before the 5th Annual Batavia Sprint Triathlon, it was time to hit the course.

Encouraged by the desire of a friend of mine that I talked into doing his first triathlon, I road with him through the Batavia road course today. The weather was good, not to hot, not to cold, and best of all, not very windy (which this road course can be).

It was a great ride. I like to think that I worked him pretty well, by keeping close to a 20mph pace while he was used to 17-18mph. All told, with mileage to/from the start of the course, I notched another 20 miles.

I think for both of us, we realized that we still have some progress that needs to be made before race day. Still, any day with a nice outdoor ride is a good day.

Peace