First Race of the Year - Life Time Fitness Indoor Triathlon

Well I did my first race of the year Sunday morning. It was an "Indoor Triathlon" so it was a little different than your typical outdoor race and something that I had never done before. An indoor triathlon is based on time rather than distance ‐ meaning you receive points for going further in a specific period of time, not going faster over a fixed distance. Participants are graded on a curve. The furthest distance in each category gets the most points (actual number is based on total participants), the shortest receives 1 point, and your "score" for the discipline is based on the points you achieve. All three disciplines count equally toward your final score.

The total event was 75 minutes: 10 minutes in the pool, a 10‐minute transition, 30 minutes on a spin bike, a 5‐minute transition and then 20 minutes on a treadmill. Transition times are fixed between events and do not count toward scores.

After 12 weeks of training I was ready to get a race under my belt. I wanted to treat this as a training session, since the times were short, but also wanted to see how I measured up against others in competition. Well I did 16.5 laps in the pool, biked for 15.9 miles and then ran 2.65 miles on the treadmill. That was good for 8th place out of 31 men. Not too bad. Before I get to congratulating myself on a top ten finish though, I only actually placed 12th out of 64 entries. There were four women who actually finished 3,4,8, and 9 overall. Wow!!!

Overall it was a great experience and a great way to get the season started. I've still got lots of room to improve. Shantel and Macen didn't make the trip since it was in a gym and we didn't know how we could keep Macen occupied and out of the pool and off the machines while I was racing. So no pictures this time.

Next up is the Brew to Brew 44 mile relay run from Kansas City, KS to Lawrence, this weekend with 5 other guys from my class. Right now they are calling for snow here on that day and I'm scheduled to run 2 legs for a total of 10 miles. Should be fun.

Triathlon Update/Operation Rebound

OK all of you know that I've signed up to do Ironman Kansas 70.3 and what my goals are. Well I've added another goal for the race. I'm going to be racing on behalf of the Challenged Athletes Foundation Operation Rebound. My goal is to raise a $1000 for Operation Rebound.

Here's some background:

Since the beginning of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 27,000 U.S. military personnel have been wounded, any suffering traumatic, permanent injuries. In 2004, the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), an organization with 15 years of experience supporting the athletic endeavors of physically challenged athletes, launched Operation Rebound. This program, which has touched hundreds of wounded veterans provides the training, specialized equipment and mentoring permanently injured military personnel need to get back into sports whether their goal is to simply finish a local 5K or make it to the Paralympic games.


But the money I’m raising – and the funds I'm asking you to donate – will support those athletes, who can’t always get to the starting line: swimmers missing limbs, paraplegics who use handcycles to bike and runners who race using artificial limbs. Just like me, these challenged athletes want to participate in athletics and feel the rush of competition, but they face a major obstacle. They don’t lack fitness, desire or skill. It is only a lack of funding that stands in the way of their dreams.

High-tech running prosthetics are very expensive. Learning to swim when you lack a limb (or limbs) requires special coaching. And handcycles can cost upwards of $2,500. But with our help, challenged athletes can bridge the financial gap and overcome funding obstacles blocking their path to athletic achievement. That is why I am challenging myself to make a difference in their lives. Please partner with me by making a donation through my web site link below. Join me in making dreams come true for challenged athletes. Give the gift of sports and help get challenged athletes off the sidelines – and into the game.


Basically Operation Rebound is one of the organizations that I would have to turn to if something were to happen while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and I wanted to regain the lifestyle that I currently enjoy. Operation Rebound helps those who haven't been as fortunate as I have and didn't make it back from their deployments with all of their God issued equipment. The men and women they help are those who don't want to sit around and feel sorry for themselves, they are the ones that tell the doctors, "I could run two miles before I came into the military, and I'm going to be able to run two miles when I get out of the military!"


By clicking on the below link you can go to my fundraising site. Thank you for your support.

http://orkansas09.kintera.org/james

St. Patrick's Day

I was thinking I would take Macen to the local St Patty's Day parade but he hasn't been cooperating with naptime so he ended up sleeping too late. So since it was a gorgeous day, we headed to the park. He insisted on wearing his cap the whole time. And apparently he likes to wear it really low so that he has to look up to even see straight in front of him. I guess it works for him since we escaped the park without any injuries and he only missed a step one time.

And James requested corned beef and cabbage for dinner. My first time making it and it was a success! James was also having a rough day so we threw in some green beer with dinner to complete the meal.

It's a Girls Weekend

The great thing about being close to home is getting to help high school friends celebrate their birthdays. A couple of friends and I headed out of town for a girls night. We played a whole lot of pool, had even more laughs, enjoyed a Thin Mint shot (pictured above) and got to eat Taco Johns not once but twice. It was a great time and one we'll be repeating. Happy Birthday Melissa!

Boys Weekend

Yea, that's right Mom's gone, break out the cigars and beer. OK seriously, I couldn't resist.

Shantel had a weekend out with her girlfriends this weekend and it was a good chance for Macen and I to spend some quality time together.

The first thing we did was do some lunch. That took us a little while, because after I got Macen up from his morning nap, something that Shantel normally does, he wandered the house crying and looking for Shantel. The only thing I could do to stop it was turn on "Wow Wow Wubbzy" from the DVR, man I didn't want to have to go to my ace in the hole first thing.

That got us through lunch and right up to the time that we had to go to the pool with Mariah to work on her training for the triathlon. Macen did great at the pool and was really adventurous starting to throw his water balls further away and then acting like he was swimming towards them to get them as I held him out. He even got dunked a couple of times accidently as I was backstroking with him on my chest and he would roll off. Unfortunately in my worry to make sure that I had swim diapers, a onsie, a sippy, snacks, towel, diaper bag. I forgot my camera, so you are stuck with pictures from my camera phone.

We were going to go watch a bird dog field trial that they had on post after we got done swimming but Macen didn't want to stop swimming so we kind of had another mini meltdown so I decided to head back to the house and get him a snack and another short nap.

Of course we had to watch the Big 12 title game and as you can see Macen was properly attired thanks to Grandma Wayman. Since Mariah had been over for a little while we had to rub it in that Mizzou was still playing and KU had gone home to wait for the NCAA tournament and that Macen was wearing his Black and Gold without throwing any fits.

We also had McDonalds Saturday night. Macen really likes his french fries, although he's not as sure about the chicken nuggets. Where's the toy? He knows it's in there somewhere.

Saturday night ended with Macen's new favorite game; playing fetch with Maggie and a stuffed animal. I tried to video tape this since it is hilarous they way they both get wound up over it and Macen telling Maggie to Sit and Give, unfortunately when I got the video camera out Maggie did her usual anti camera routine and slipped away. That didn't mean the game was over though Macen just thought that Dad should take Maggie's place.

Bed time was a little late Saturday night as Dad wanted to watch the finish of the MU-Baylor game before starting Macen's bath.

The fun began again on Sunday as Dad let Macen bounce on the spare bed. I'll probably regret this in the next few years won't I?

Snow showers

We did take Macen swimming on post at the indoor pool. He loved it as long as I was holding him and kept him against me. We did have some water balls that he kept a firm hold on until the last 15-20 mins we were there. I would toss them a foot or two in front of us and kinda throw him out to get them but still held onto him. He was okay with that. Once we got dressed and were heading out of the locker room, we walked by the door to the pool and he lost it. He wanted to go back in. But no pics of swimming just playing in the snow.

Snow showers is what we were told we'd be getting. So when we woke up to several inches, we were a little surprised. But we were up for some fun in the snow. We got out our sand bucket and snow/sand block shaper to build castles that Macen gladly knocked down.

We also have a decent size hill in the front yard that is perfect for sledding. After we were done sledding down it Macen decided he was going to slide down it on his bottom by himself. He had trouble getting back up on his own but he kept trying and falling. He cried when we made him come inside but enjoyed getting warm later on.

Signing please and thank you

signing please

signing thank you

James has really worked with Macen on signing please and thank you in the last 2 months. And its paid off and then some. He now signs and sometimes even says please and thank you when we ask him to and even on his own at times. But he has outsmarted us with it. Now if he wants something and we say no, he will sign please hoping to convince us. And we were suckers, we'd give in. Now he is doing it when it comes to wanting a snack right before dinner or something a little more important that wanting the tv turned on. So we are now trying to teach him just because he said please, doesn't mean he will get whatever it is he wants. James did manage to get him to sign more, please and thank you for asking, getting and receiving more snacks the other night. They were on a roll with that one.

Tools

My camera has refused to upload pics for the last 4 days but I managed to outsmart it. I love my camera but this is the 3rd or 4th time I have had to outsmart the software to get my pics to load. Enough of that and this is the beginning of several posts.

Macen LOVES tools. He is always right there when James has his out and trying to help in any way. Often he will be in the basement with the tools and "working" on James bike and the stationary stand. He now has a hammer and screwdriver of his own. The first few days of having both he had to take naps with them and cried when I wouldn't let him play with them at lunchtimes.