I'm taking a mental break and having fun

William Jenks

I'm not doing any more HIM/IM/marathons this year and I'm not feeling guilty.  :-)

I had a great HIM and a great marathon two weeks later in June.  Set a course PR and then a real PR.  Although I wasn't sore for very long, it did take me about 4 weeks to get back to the point where I could (or wanted to) run or ride hard at all.  When that was over, there was a terrible heat wave, and then two solid weeks of kid-centric events that involved out of town travel.  And you know what, that meant that I'm in a bit of a fitness hole and would have to work my ass off to race a HIM again in 6 weeks and do any good.

So, I've decided to take an entirely different tack.  I'm entering every sprint I can in the next 6 weeks and I'm going to race myself at least kind of back into shape.  I am going to just have fun.  It started last weekend when my son Timothy (age 12) beat me by a minute.  OK, now it's on. I made him learn how to do flying mounts with his shoes banded...and now he beats me by a minute with 40 seconds of it from transition?  (and probably about 3 minutes on the damn swim...)  I'm going to cook his ass next weekend!!!!

Last weekend's race was a blast even though I'm not very fit.  I got to race for about an hour. The bike course was up and down and left and right and up and down and more up and down and left and right, and I sucked at it! And I ran like a duck after swimming like a football player, but the next day I didn't feel like crap.  :-)  It was this really cool local race benefiting the Wounded Warrior fund with everybody in an awesome mood and they gave everyone a little flag to finish the race holding.  And despite my mediocrity, I got my first AG win in a tri ever! (1st of something like 15 in the AG...so not that big a deal)

OK, I'm done ranting.

I'm back from "vacation" and I'll be more present on the forums than I have been the last couple weeks, but there won't be any 4 hour rides for me for a while.  Unless I feel like it. :-)

tgarson

Sounds like a blast and a great way to both get lots of practice at transitions and remember a bit of why we all thought tri was so much fun in the first place.

I'm considering a major shift back to short course next year as well. Not because I have anything particularly I have to prove, but I literally could race short course every weekend down here if I wanted to and honestly all that variety is starting to sound like a lot of fun compared to 4-5 hour rides every weekend... at least for a little while.

cgres123

Yep I'm digging my SC season too with a 1st and 2nd win myself, albeit a small field but a win is a win and you can take a nap by noon.

Al Truscott

Be proud, as a dad and a winner! First among 15 others IS a big deal, and a hell of a lot better than second place. (I spent my teenage years getting an endless series of red ribbons in local summer swim meets, and would frankly rather be third or 4th than 2nd.)

Joe Matchette

Good on ya'! I would say that you are definitely 'having fun with your fitness.'

Now go figure out how to beat Timothy

morpheus

William, great ideas & even better perspective. Like TG, I'm doing something similar next year.

Steve West

WIlliam, like many it seems, I am headed for an unstructured SC season too. Only your's looks like it will be a lot more fun trying to kick some butt and show your kids you're not THAT old!

Best of luck trying to keep up....

William Jenks

All along, I was planning for another "big" fall event. However, the way things broke with the heat and travel, the compactness of the remainder of the season meant that getting ready would be a lot more work and a lot less fun. Because of the academic year and the kids, my "long" season really has to tail off in September. I could still do an October marathon, but instead, I'm going to take this fun race tack and save the marathon for Boston 2014.

Joe's got it 90% right; it was time to just have some fun...but it will be getting some fitness back more than having fun with what I've got. :-) This way, I think, is better preservation for a good 2014 than drilling myself for just another long race. Had I qualified for LV 2013, that would be a different story.

kimmydct

Way to go WJ. I love this quote "And I ran like a duck after swimming like a football player". There is something to be said for Short Course years! I'm enjoying mine but am looking forward to being able to run and ride how much and however fast I feel like after last race. Go luck beating the youngster... Guess U taught him TOO well! (I'm having the same "issue" with my wife.... Training her for 5k and she knocks like :30 off her mile split times every other week. Took me years to do what she's done in 8 weeks!)

Bill McKee

Congrats on your AG win William!!

With all 3 of your kids being good athletes you will have a few years of fun competing against them. I have gotten a kick out of several of your previous posts as you begin to hear footsteps hahahaha

I am having a blast training and just having fun with my 2 teenage daughters... May do a HIM with the younger one next summer as she will finally be able to enter a WTC event. She did her first Olympic this summer...

Good luck in all the rest of the events! Iowa is definitely not flat!!!

William Jenks

Bill -

We found an "off brand" HIM that my son Chris could enter the summer he was 16. They are out there (and entry was only around $100)...but it sounds like that is water under the bridge for you right now. If not, look at the ones in Minnesota...maybe not too far from you, and there are several.

This past weekend's race was near Kansas City, but it was a lot like a lot of the hilly parts of Iowa. The thing we Iowan's note is that the Lord invented Nebraska so that Iowans would have a place to recognize as flatter and more boring. :-)

I'm clearly the worst swimmer of the four of us now... the next ego shift will come when the (now now-12-year-old) twins become faster swimmers than Chris, my 18 year old. Within a year, Olivia will probably eclipse his best 500 time, and Timothy may not be too far behind if he grows. (Chris was a reasonably good high school swimmer, but not a serious club-level swimmer). I think I can still take them all on the bike. Chris is clearly the fastest runner, but if he doesn't train well for Boston, I might be able to give him a tiny, little scare. But you are SO right that it is huge fun to watch them get better than me. :-)

William Jenks

Week two went well. The three of us (my twin 12-year olds and I) did a local sprint tri with a 15 mile pretty easy bike course. I was in a little better shape (every week helps) and the water was wet-suit legal, so I didn't lose quite so much time to the kids in the water. :-) Timothy had tummy issues, so Dad ended up taking the family championship this time.



Out of about 175 entrants:

• Dad finished 9th overall and 1st AG (though I figured out later that one of the top guys way out of my league was 45...but pulled out of the AG for the prizes). 
• OJ finished as the 2nd woman and 17th overall. 
• T finished as 2nd in the AG despite a nasty tummy and getting his goggles kicked off his face...so I thought this was a really pretty brave performance despite being a little slower than he might go on a different day. 
• Cynthia (mom) was given the unofficial award for best cowbells. :-) 

The kids are off for a couple weeks but starting up heavy cross country. They are 8th graders, but they are allowed to run with the high school kids until the season officially starts. Their next race is IK nats, which is conveniently in Des Moines on Labor Day weekend. I'm probably going to take the next couple weeks off racing and do the adult non-qualifying Olympic race associated with the Hy Vee, which is at more or less the same venue and weekend.