Home and on to 2013!

You know the interesting thing about coming home after being gone for over 7 months? You feel like you've been held in a time capsule the whole time and then *BOOM*! You get pulled out of it and are thrust back into normal life again; and that world you once knew never stopped to wait for you. It kept chugging right along, and you feel like your life suddenly got fast fowarded almost a year in just a couple seconds.

This is exactly how I felt when I stepped off the plane. But that wasn't the only thing I felt.

Relief. Incredible amounts of relief.

Being gone for a long time reminds you of the things that really matter in life. My soul and my relationship with God. It was the only thing that kept me going as strong as I was while gone. My family. My two beautiful girls; waiting for me, anxiously. Both in dresses, and made up so pretty. I can't explain what it meant to be back with them again; what it has ALWAYS meant whenever I've had to be away for an extended period of time. But this time... was different - for reasons I can't explain. I was so relieved to be with them again. To have them under my wing. My protection. A husband and father can never be completely ok with someone else taking care of his family for him. It's his job; no one else's.

I must remember that this blog, my dream for triathlon, my training, my fitness, the joy of racing, is all secondary to what God has called me to do: Love Him, and be a husband and a Father. If anyone reading this ever thinks I'm putting those thing behind my triathlon dreams, I beg you to tell me.

While I am a Husband and Father at home; on this blog, I am a triathlete. So I guess I'd better write about triathlon stuff....

What I've done recently... While I was away:

- I ran a "5k" in 17:40. Ok ok... it wasn't a true 5k – I’m pretty sure it was slightly short. Dog-gone it. It can be so hard to get the military to host full-length 5k's sometimes... But yeah. I managed to get a race in while I was gone, and I WON it!! WOOT! $25 in cash. That's like... just under $100 an hour! Pretty good earnings for a morning run, and I even had to race against some pretty tenacious Mongolian runners to earn it!

- I’ve gained around 7 or 8 pounds in muscle: A guy I know well and respect, suggested that building a little bit of muscle would really help my power in all three disciplines. I took his advice while I was gone, and we incorporated some weights into my training. I'm now a little heavier, but stronger, and we're going to see how it pays off.

- I've spent almost two of the last 6 months being sick... I haven't told many people about because didn’t want to be a wimp about it, but... It's really been hard! Now that I’m home and in a more stable environment, I hope to maintain some steadier blocks of training.

The next big piece of news is that the Air Force is moving us to Ohio for the next couple years. We'll be going in July/August. I'm super excited about increase in races that we'll experience while we're over there. Idaho has been difficult because we live in the middle of nowhere and thus, races take FOR-EVER to drive to; and there are not many races to go around either. Not the greatest to drag your family along - with a tired wife and 15 month old baby.

But looking to this next race season - I've got some lofty goals:

1) Finish an Olympic Race in less than 2:15 Bike less than 1:10 (40k), run less than 40 minutes (10k), and swim less than 21 minutes (1500m)

2) Finish the Mountain Home AFB Triathlon in less than 54 minutes (55:23 is my PR on that course)

Because of how busy we're going to be with normal life - not to mention moving across the country - the important races will be in September. I still plan to race some events in Idaho, but I will not be able to focus as much on them because of everything else. I'm just going to have fun with them, and use them to build my racing experience for September.

Here's DA PLAN:

15 June - Mountain Home AFB Triathlon - 2x defending champ... this isn't a big turnout race. But it’s fun, and the course is flat and fast; and hey, I still have the bragging rights thus far.

29 June - Quest for the Capitol - Olympic (Boise, Idaho) – a slightly shortened bike; but for good reason. It’s one of the hilliest Olympic triathlons in all of Idaho.

***MOVE TO OHIO***

1 September - HFP Great Buckeye Challenge - Olympic (Springfield, Ohio) – my “adjust to the humidity” race.

21 September – Air Force Half Marathon – Dayton Ohio

29 September - HFP Deer Creek Fall Challenge - Olympic (Sterling, Ohio) – this will be my “all in” A- race. Shooting for a sub 2:15 time on this one.

So that's it for now! I'll end with this picture of me getting out of the water in the top-10 at Onion Man Triathlon Last year. Here's to hoping for a lot of progress and adventure this year!