Newfangled Dad

The nice thing about having 3 sports is that there is always at least one you can do indoors. (This is also a negative against triathlon for those of you who have trouble finding motivation for training. You'll feel like a bad person if you don't go.) So when Mother Nature wasn't cooperating last night, I went to the pool for the first time in about a month. Pretty easy workout of 25's and 50's for about 30 minutes. Why does it always seem like no matter how hard or easy I swim, it always comes out to 2:00/100m on the pace clock? Which is nice if I can settle into the "why not just go easy then?" attitude. I'll be honest though, I was just screwing around. It felt good and my form came back...maybe not so much on the endurance end. But with nothing actually "scheduled" and no race to anticipate, it feels to me like just wandering around the lanes of a pool for awhile. I did some off strokes and intervals and called it a night. This has be...

After a long weekend of doing essentially no training, I was eager to get back on schedule. But it's like the weather gods were conspiring against me trying to keep me away from even my INDOOR workout. It was an adventure last night. I made the mistake of going to the library first. I had a book due and should have probably just dropped it off. But I opted to park in the underground garage instead and take a look around the lobby instead. Our main branch does a great job of stacking the front area with a selection of new and interesting books. One display is kids. The next is nonfiction. And, not that I usually read it, there is a fiction display as well. Didn't find anything I was in love with reading (I used to read huge 800 page bios or natural histories before kids), but by the time I got back to the car and headed to the gym the rain had started. I felt especially bad for the Tuesday group riders--I've skipped a couple weeks now--who had been thinking the rain woul...

I don't normally blog on the weekends, but I missed so many days lately that I feel like I owe my blog an extra post or two. Cole is in the bathtub. Kelly is napping. Leda is sitting on the couch playing with my house keys while I watch hockey. We spent the morning at Morton Arboretum and it's an absolutely gorgeous day in Chicago. Warm, sunny, flowers and trees in full bloom, birds chirping. We arrived just at opening and they now offer member's only hours for the Children's Garden before the general public on Saturdays. So we had the area nearly to ourselves. We saw tadpoles, turtles, a robin in her nest, ducks. Had a snack in the Visitor Center before heading out on a walk to see some of the giant bug carvings made of wood that are scattered around Meadow Lake. Think "3 foot long grasshopper." The kids had a blast, were soaking wet from playing in the fountains, and Cole was a very polite little man asking ever-so-nicely for both "special treat"...

Miss me? So much ground to cover since it's been over a week since I've blogged. I originally (before leaving on our trip) had intended to say a little something about the new Ironman Swim Start that ruffled so many feathers at the end of last week. I'm over it. Everybody seems to have had their say for and against. Plus, the two races I would consider doing (Wisconsin/Louisville) haven't had any changes...yet...and I have more immediate matters to handle with a triathlon to tackle next month. On that note, it was a weird week for training. I went five full days with no workouts. But then I went out with the cycle club again on Tuesday night and managed to keep up with the fast group for 22 miles...I was so proud until I fell over while trying to clip back in at a red light. Humbling. Then yesterday it was gorgeous weather some more and I took the kids out in the bike trailer for a slow, casual "recovery" ride. I'm taking today off entirely. Lots of stre...

This week marks about 6 weeks until my first triathlon. A little less when you consider packet pickup is the weekend before. On one hand, I'm feeling prepared. On the other, it's getting down to crunch time. I'm actually fairly confident with where my fitness is currently. Or, should I say, I'm not going to make huge gains over the next month and a half. At this point, it's more about staying healthy, avoiding injury, calming my nerves, being prepared. Going over the day in my head. Kelly wants to bring the kids...which is awesome. But that will also be a long, long day considering I will want to be AT the transition area (that's the "homebase" where you rack your bike and lay out your gear for you non-tri folks) at 4:30am when it opens. Which means leaving the house by 3:30am or so. The race starts at 6:30am and you figure the kids won't be that interested in staring out into a lake to try to find the little swimming people--let alone me specifi...

So I'm feeling great at the pool last night (even without a rest day after my first fairly intense bike ride of the season). I'm in the middle of a ladder set, good rhythm going, feeling effortless...when who should walk up but my swim instructor who had just finished up a class. And she was willing to give me a few laps worth of free coaching so who am I to complain? So we talked for probably 10 min...she walked alongside me as I swam a couple lengths, noticed a few things, and tried to give some feedback for improvement. Apparently, I'm doing a weird flipper-thing with (only) my left arm where I'm pulling too far back. Good to know. As always, she yells "high elbows" at me to remind me to, well, keep my elbows high. But other than that, I look good. And by "good" I mean like someone who could possibly pass for a triathlete. The bigger question that moves to the forefront now--even before my little chat with Lora--is bringing running back into t...

I'm both a science geek and a religion geek. And both help me in the world of endurance sports. I appreciate both the "nuts and bolts," nutrition and muscle fatigue component of it. But I also appreciate the more esoteric, mental game where you're battling something more than physics and biology. So some of my recent gains in the pool have been the kind that make me turn my head and give the "confused dog" look while I stare at the pace clock. Unexpected gains are pleasant...but they can also be confusing. There are several levels going on...and I could write this post about stroke and technique and finding the most energy-efficient way to get across the pool as it relates to the way muscles burn fuel, hydrodynamics, perceived effort, lactate threshold, heart rate levels, blah blah. In the end, the reason I'm in the sport is--unlike others, but if it's your thing that's cool--the more mystical side. The nuts and bolts of science tell me how.....

One of the perils of showing your children classic television is that the black and white and fuzzy picture quality make for interesting opinions. Leda thinks I'm a cowboy. More specifically, a Texas Ranger. For some reason, this morning she took a dvd out of the drawer with 3 episodes of the The Lone Ranger  on it. Why I have that particular dvd we won't go into. Cole didn't want to watch it on the big tv, so I put it on my computer. Soon, I had two kids in my lap watching postwar heroes and villains melodrama with full attention. Leda kept pointing at the screen to the man on the horse with the cowboy hat, rifle, and horrible 1950's "western" shirt: "Dada." No, sweetie, Daddy isn't a cowboy. To her credit, the actor did have facial hair. All Cole wanted was the theme song played over and over. You know, the cheesy run-along shot beside the horse while the Lone Ranger shoots a revolver again and again...straight ahead, at nobody in parti...

If you want a slice of what being a SAHD is like...my son has been up since 4am. Three hours of that was him laying in bed playing with me occasionally walking in to tell him to "go back to sleep" but at 7am I finally gave up. I figured he needed breakfast and it was mean to confine him to one space if he really couldn't sleep. He was obviously tired by the look on his face, but no luck. Leda, on the other hand, has been up since 4:30am...I think...Kelly got up with her. Tried to put her back in her crib, no go. So Kelly brought her in to me eventually in our bedroom because Kelly needed to get to the gym before work. Then, we've been watching Thomas Christmas since Thanksgiving so why not add a little A Charlie Brown Christmas to the mix? I tried to get Cole interested back in December and he wanted none of it. Now, suddenly, like a lightbulb went off he's demanding "more Charlie Brown." Both kids are now wandering the house like zombies and ready f...

As I write, we're in the middle of our largest snowfall of the year in Chicago. Some parts of the area will get 10 inches--though we're never the most because we live too close to the city. * * * Yesterday, Cole was playing in the dining-room-turned-playroom...which was covered in toys...and he turned to me and said, "this place is a mess." Ok then. After I got done laughing in my head, I said, "should we clean up a little?" His response was to grab the toy vacuum we got Leda for Christmas and pretend clean while saying over and over, "it's a mess!" in delighted tone. No clue where he got this from though I think is speaks volumes about how our household works. lol * * * My first night of my first ever triathlon training plan was a little bit of a letdown...because, basically, it was the same workout I've been doing for weeks. A short swim. But tonight's workout will finally be something a little different. A bike! Thank g...

Here I was getting all excited to say I'm halfway through my social media diet--proud to say Facebook has been bumped off my most-visited website panel on Chrome--then I realized I've been counting chronologically. And that's not how Lent works. I won't bother you with the specifics, but it turns out Sundays and Holy Week doesn't count so really Lent is longer than you'd expect. It confuses me. Like all the fish commercials this time of year. Fish is meat, in my opinion. And I'm skeptical that Lent-eaters make up that large of a buying public...but, hey, every dollar counts. * * * Forgot to mention yesterday that we've signed Leda up for swim lessons. These are the same parent-tot lessons that Cole was a freaked-out drop-out in last summer. Looking back, I'm not surprised. He may be adventurous, full of energy, and love the water, but he's not great with structure, transitions from activity to activity, and actually scares quite easily. L...

I was on a fairly steady daily blog there for awhile, but fell off the wagon the last couple days. We've been busy...some of which is parenting related, but I'm not ready to write about yet...and some of it has been just odds and ends piling up.    Yesterday was a little home improvement. Borrowed a drill from a neighbor and finally got around to hanging the curtains around Leda's crib. They've been sitting in the corner waiting, but necessity has motivated us. Leda has horrible sleep habits. Partially our fault, partially hers. She still requires us holding her to fall asleep and has somehow gained a love of absolute dark and quiet before she'll give in. And we love Cole's 7:30pm bedtime, but are lucky to get Leda down by 10pm frequently.  Lately, Leda has taken to going down for a morning nap just fine--usually after I get Cole down for his--then refuses to nap in the late afternoon waiting until early evening. So it's a couple hours of horrible whi...

Video: Meet Percy, the cheerful but accident-prone engine. And everybody's favorite hero, Thomas! Me: That sounds like you, Cole! You're accident-prone. Are you Percy?  Cole: No. Me: Are you James? Cole: No.  Me: Are you Thomas?  Cole: No.  Me: You don't want to be any of the engines?  Cole: I am none of them!  That gave me the biggest laugh yesterday afternoon.  * * * After a week off, I finally got back in the pool last night...and it felt great! Which was not what I expected after being sick. I had perhaps the best swim workout so far. Worked on a little speed. Found a good distance rhythm at one point. Got some sore muscles, but wasn't having any endurance issues--was reaching a nice threshold that I could maintain with minor breaks.  I'd limited myself to 20 min given my health and energy levels, but I found I wanted to go even more. I had to force myself to stop while things were going well. I d...

Last night marked the 3rd straight night in the pool for me. Unintentionally. Schedules were shifted and even though I feel like I definitely need TONS of practice, I have no intention of making swimming an obsession. It just worked out that way this week and I'm now ready for some time away from thinking about my stroke. In fact, if anything, last night I learned that I need to quit beating myself up about it. My instructor's advice is less about picking apart my stroke--it's not all that bad. My problem is mostly putting it all together, but she said she has no doubt that I'll be ready in March to start my training program and she's confident I have the athletic capacity to finish an open water swim. In short, I'm a perfectionist. Which, apparently, others fully understand though maybe not me. I don't think of myself that way. Maybe I don't challenge myself enough with things that are difficult? Maybe I'm naturally talented at too many things? ...

Silly me, I thought I was there to fix my breathing. Turns out, what I thought was my problem wasn't really my problem and what I really have difficulty with I didn't even know I was doing wrong! So there you go. That's why you need a swim coach. She's great. Although I think she was a bit thrown off because we seemed to be having some sort of weird communication problem. Mostly because I was trying to absorb and think of questions as she was trying to come up with ways to help me. I believe she was prepared for far worse than I turned out to be. I know it's her job to offer positive encouragement, but I also think she genuinely thinks I'm better than I'm giving myself credit for. My troubles are the ability to keep everything together and I think it was tricky for her to decide what small adjustments would be the most helpful. Not that everything looks perfect. Just everything looks decent. I'm relaxed--which I didn't think would be the case b...

A tree is grown from a tiny sprout;   A tower is built from a modest mound,   A far-reaching journey is begun from a small step.   --Tao Te Ching A 2.4 mile swim begins with a single lesson? Lora's got her work cut out for her tonight. I don't expect her to turn me into Michael Phelps. But, at the very least, I'll feel better about starting to do some of my swim workouts knowing I'm not simply building on horrible habits. She may want to start by practicing blowing bubbles though. Give me the third grader version! lol Swimming is definitely my entry problem into the sport. As one of my heroes, Matt Fitzgerald says, it's the reason there aren't more triathletes...and yet, triathlon is more popular than duathlon. There's something simultaneously pulling us towards and pushing us away from swimming. I think I've been trying too hard to think of swimming as the water companion to running and cycling with the focus on long runs, long rides, and bu...

I had chosen a swim workout for last night's first official entry into the pool for training. It was recommended as a good beginner one...4 x 25 meters warmup, then a ladder of 25m, 50m, 50m, 25m. I did it. And then some...but it was ugly. Really ugly. Hence the reason for the "and then some." Me trying to fix my form. I wasn't wheezing and struggling and barely able to make it across the pool like you sometimes hear. That's not the problem. In fact, if anything, my fitness is working against me. Because I know what it feels like to run 26.2 miles. Or bike for 30 miles. So, being a swim newbie, the outcome isn't exactly matching my non-level of technical skill. So I have the endurance and the confidence to, literally, hack my way through that above workout--totally frustrated. By the time I finished and had gotten out of the pool to shower, I was ready to stop by the desk and ask about private lessons with a swim instructor. I'd been pricing a few swim...

I'm sure some of my endurance sports readers are wondering, "hey, didn't that guy sign up for a triathlon? He's been oddly quiet about his training." Well, dear readers, I can confirm that our gym membership is being started tomorrow. Of course, with Kelly out of town next week, it will probably be the end of the month before I can really start to hit the pool, but I'm getting myself mentally prepared. I've literally done almost no exercise since setting a PR in the Chicago Marathon in October. So it's going to be a bit of a climb back to decent condition. But I'm fully ready to having my old gym bag packed to go and I've been itching to get back on the bike...though I will confess to being the typical outdoors-lover who doesn't relish the thought of being in the basement on the trainer. And, you know, I'll have to start eating well...says the man currently still working on the big bag of famous Chicago caramel corn Kelly brought home...

A few weeks back--before the holiday chaos and illnesses--we had taken a tour of a new fitness center we're considering. It's not as nearby as our old gym that is literally 4 blocks up the street...but it's almost certainly cheaper, less crowded, and so far seems to have less gym-head mentality where overly fit people go to get more overly fit. This one, ironically, is at the hospital where we delivered Leda and she lived for a month in the NICU. (See, no bad feelings!) The director who gave us the tour gave us each a guest pass to come back and try out the facility so last night I went to take it for a test drive. And I really enjoyed myself. Though I was left with some perplexing questions...like why people use the treadmill still when there is an indoor running track. Something about running in circles, Kelly says. I think people just want to watch tv. The place is clean and bright and user-friendly for the most part. Despite there strangely being only one water foun...

No, I'm not talking about the NHL lockout, NFL touchdown dances, or NBA antics. This is a rant about the technique-obsessed everyday exerciser. Forgive the Romper Room reference, but maybe I'm just more of a Do-Bee than Mr. Don't Bee. I can talk much more extensively about my background in running, but I'm finding that one of the first hurdles to triathlon training is the off-putting way that the sport is filled with drill, schedule, and good form dictators. Oh, it's present in the running community don't get me wrong. But one of the beautiful things--there are many negatives--about the spread and popularity of running has become the lack of attitude about back of the packers mixing with elites. There are still many who insist that the folks completing a 6.5 hour marathon aren't really "racing." But the snob factor is the minority. And a newbie will find far more training programs geared to completing than qualifying for Boston these days. Chal...