Little man in da house....yo.

Hell yeah! My son, ahem.....MY SON was born on June 14 th, Saturday. Before I make this post all about him or me, I've got to give huge props out to my wife, who put in the performance of a lifetime. Talking about hitting it out of the park. She had the baby completely natural, denying the epidural and meds late in the game. I was there for the whole thing and it was rad. Raw/ Primal stuff to see. You think you know someone pretty good and they just come out of left field with some all time performance. I knew she could do it but we didn't even take those classes or anything. It all happened so fast and she just said, "I'm going for it". (Another "Hell yeah"). If you remember that cheezy simile to racing last post, I saw with my own eyes, more determination and willingness to suffer than ever before..by anybody, anytime. My hats off to her.

Here's the graph:

All Z1 aerobic HR for my boy. HR avg 138. J did the hills(contractions)

He weighed in at 8lbs 3 oz and is super healthy.

Well we're all safe back at the house and stoked to be out of the hospital, where anything can happen. I just got back from a run but it's too early to tell if I'm going to be able to balance this equation. Taking a month off of work should help to keep my priorities straight. I'm super lucky to have that option. Give thanks!

"Race Week"

" I can't beleive I ate the whole thing"

All the preparation is done. well into the taper for the big "race". J is feeling awesome and surprisingly agile for being so close to go-time. I've been spending most of my time catering to her needs lately, but have been getting in a pretty consistent schedule of workouts for the past four weeks. It's like medicine that takes the edge off my anxiety. Anxious of course, like the last at bat for a retiring baller. (the ole snip snip y'all) You want to knock it out of the park for a standing ovation. But alas it is all about her and "him". It's amazing how parallel the birth process is to an "A" race, granted the race of your life, except you have no idea where the starting line is or what time it starts. GOD just says GO! Nine months of preparation, cutting out the beer and maximizing nutrition, comes down to just a few hours of execution. Nobody knows how it will turn out and a lot will be a lot of drama out there on course. Just her doing work with me helplessly encouraging the effort. So any day now, I'm guessing early tomorrow morning, Saturday, we'll cross the finish line. Pretty weak metaphor but it's the only way I can grip my hands around such a mysterious and awesome event while trying to put myself in her shoes. We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers.


As for the training, I've never had so much fun with such informal sessions. Each run sees out of control heart rate at moderate pace. It's a relief to not worry about it. I've been averaging 1500-1750 in the pool of mostly "sprint" 100s, weak side breathing, and plenty of 60-90 minute trainer workouts (lots of standing) out of necessity of proximity. I have to say the emphasis is getting and staying stronger not necessarily fitter, that will come. Once things get settled I'll be heading into some more aerobic training but for now I want to get prepared for that phase by being as strong as possible. So, the weight room has been in full effect. Supersets on the sled are:


18 rep light warm up
90% max to failure
50% of previous weight to failure
box jumps to failure
all on no rest x 3

RI is time of one set.


I'm really digging the split cable lat pulldowns with "high elbows" for the swim strength. This will hopefully even out my weak leftside pull. (this really reveals itself during fist drills).


Have you checked out the ab-wheel for functional core strength? What appears to be a hokey infomercial product produces some insane stability and good end range resistance. It is about as close to swim pull movement as I have done for the core. (the guy in the link makes it look easy, it's not)


I've been looking for a good commuter bike. One I can lock up at the Y and work but won't make me go "(f)yuck" on the way. This would do fine.




debadge and camo paint...incognito but technically solid. sweeet!


Oh that's right the baby.
(cold sweat)