I know, I know

So it has officially been about 4 months since my last post, but nothing super exciting has really happened in that time. I have only raced once since that time and it was a smaller Half Marathon located in Bowling Green, KY. My training has been really spotty, but now that the weather has changed, it is starting to look better. But here is my last 4 months in review:

After my really successful 2008 season, I was really excited about my 2009 season, and my first year racing as a professional. I started training for the '09 season in December of 2008 after only taking 1 - 2 weeks of down time after Clearwater. I put in a large amount of training during the winter months and was ready to go in April of 2009. After a disappointing St. Anthony's, I began to question whether I was up to the challenge of racing as a Professional. I doubted my fitness and lost a lot of confidence at that race. I raced for the rest of the season with a little chip on my shoulder. I was stepping on the start line of every race analyzing the field and telling myself who I could beat, and who was just out of my league. When you step on the starting line for the first time against guys like Matt Reed, Andy Potts, and Tim O'Donnell, its hard to tell yourself that you can beat these guys when I had looked up to them for the previous few years as the icons of the sport. Races like Chattanooga and Tri for Sight were fun little races for me to compete in, but still it seemed like I had a lot of pressure on me. I was racing as if everyone in the sport would notice if I didn't race "fast." I did end the season with my best race of the year. I went into Augusta 70.3 with a different attitude. I was to stay relaxed in the swim as opposed to freaking out because I was swimming with "faster" swimmers. I came out of the water not to far behind the main guys and had a pretty solid race overall.

Once the season was over, I took some time off, and when I starting working out again, I wanted to focus on what I really wanted to improve. I felt that I needed to improve my swim and my run so that is all I did leading into December. But once it got really cold, I lost a little motivation and started working out less and less. I finally realized that I needed a break since I had been "training" for almost 2 years straight.

I have had a lot of fun this winter with coaching and training. I would go out for a run, swim, or bike when I wanted to, instead of sticking to a plan. This has helped my mind set for the year and gotten me back to my roots. The first few years I raced, I was a runner that did triathlons. So that is what I've been doing. I have been running more than usual, while also swimming 5 - 6 times a week, and the occasional bike ride. And now that the weather is nice, I have enjoyed going for bike rides. Instead of training because I HAD to, I have been training because I have WANTED to. This makes a world of difference.

I have also started a new job since my last post. I am the Assistant Manager at "Swim Bike Run of KY." I am now finished with my assistant coaching position with Wildcat Aquatics and am solely working at the new tri shop that has opened here in Lexington, KY. This training/retail center is an awesome place. We have a computrainer studio, an endless pool, and a few tready's in the training half of the shop. On the retail side we carry just about anything and everything you would need to do a triathlon. I am grateful for the swim coaching position that Ben Davis gave me, and I developed many life long relationships with him as well as with the swimmers that I coached.

My training is coming around and I am excited about the upcoming season even if I may not be in near as good shape as I was at this point last year. I'm swimming in our home Master's swim meet this weekend and then I'm racing the Heart and Sole Triathlon in Versailles, KY on the 17th of April.

That's it for now. I'll probably watch "The Master's" today and see if Tiger can shoot another amazing round. Then I'll head to the UK baseball game this evening if the weather warms up a little.

Tony

Christmas Time

I know it's been a long time since I posted last, but there isn't a lot going on these days. My training is going and the weather has been extreme lately. I ran last Thursday when the high for the day was 23 degrees. I about froze to death. And then I ran yesterday when it got up to 60 degrees which was really, really nice.

I spent the weekend in Louisville at the Cardinal Christmas Classic where our swim team competed. All of the kids swam really well, and it was fun to watch them swim. And I also got to catch up with my aunt Francie and Carol who I hadn't seen in a few months. They were gracious enough to house me over the weekend.

The Cats are now ranked 3rd in the nation which is awesome. I was blessed enough to get a ticket to the UNC game thanks to my girlfriend. And a few days later we watched the UConn game which was another extremely exciting game. We defeated IU this past weekend which always makes UK fans happy. The football team is headed to the Music City Bowl (again!!!). And I'm headed down there with them. The game is the 27th of December and should be a lot of fun.

I'm really excited about the holidays. I get to travel home and spend time with the family which I love to do. And I just love to watch Christmas movies. Elf, Christmas Vacation, and The Christmas Story are 3 of my favorites. I think I watch The Christmas Story about 6 times a year, all of which are during the 24 hr. marathon on TBS on Christmas Eve and day. I also like to watch the Christmas Carol and Home Alone 1 & 2 (I refuse to watch the third and fourth).

In preparation for the holidays, Casey and I have been doing little things to decorate around the house. We helped Beth put up the Christmas tree and ornaments. The following night we made a bunch of homemade ornaments which was a lot of fun. I haven't made the applesauce and cinnamon ornaments since I was about 8 years old. I forgot how good they smell, and how horrible they taste, haha.

Tony

What a week

Another Thanksgiving Day has come and gone. And just like past years, I'm sure that I'm about 5 pounds heavier than I was about a week ago. I decided to take a few days off to let a little lingering injury heal, and I also ate an abnormally large amount of food since it was Thanksgiving. I went home Wednesday and had an amazing dinner in Corbin on Thursday. I traveled to Bowling Green on Friday and had another Thanksgiving meal on Saturday. I have not worked out in a week and I'm ready to get going. My off season officially starts tomorrow. I'm cutting my "sweets" intake down A LOT considering I ate enough in the last 4 days to feed a small family for a week.

And I don't have any exciting "CATS" info to post this week as we suffered yet another Heartbreaking loss to UT. I hate the Vols more and more every year because of these losses we keep suffering. I would almost rather lose by 20+ points than to lose in OT. However, the Cats bball team did bring home the big W from the "Cancun Challenge." The playing conditions weren't ideal considering we played in a ballroom with chandeliers hanging from the low ceiling. There were large cracks in the hardwood court, and a buffet was only feet from the baseline. But we still managed to play alright. A friend of mine made a joke saying "of course we were playing in the Cancun Challenge. Billy Gillespie scheduled that tourny because the bar was 5 feet from the court."

I thought that was funny. But the big game is next Saturday: UK vs. UNC here in Lexington. I can't wait.

Tony

C A T S... Cats, Cats, Cats

We have had a wonderful weekend in athletics here at UK and I couldn't be happier. Casey and the rest of the UK swim team traveled down to Knoxville to compete at the UT invitational. The team swam really well all weekend and the girls' team managed to bring home the victory. The defeated UT, and Virginia Tech (both who defeated them earlier in the year) along with Alabama. The guys weren't as fortunate. They were out scored by UT by only 4 points. But all in all, the team had their best meet of the year by far. Casey swam season best times in all of her events including the 200 IM, 200 free, 100 free, and 200 fly.

UK basketball defeated Rider yesterday here in Lexington by almost 30 points, and we looked the best we have all year. I get more and more excited about every game that we play. John Wall and company are really fun to watch. They are headed down to Cancun to finish up the tournament this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. And UK football defeated the Georgia bulldogs in Athens for the first time since 1977. We are now 7 - 4. This has been an up and down year for us in football. We should not have lost to MSU or USC, but we pulled out some big wins against UGA, and Auburn. I just really hope we can beat UT this coming weekend. I'm tired of losing to them.

I'm sure there were some other exciting things going on in other sports as well, but these were the top 3 in my book. And now its 1pm on a Sunday which can only mean 1 thing: it's Fantasy football time.

And on some sad news, I will be missing my first NCAA xc meet in over 6 years. Me, and several other buddies have traveled to watch the NCAA meet the past 6 years in a row. We all delayed in making plans this year, and now we aren't going. I guess I'll just watch the meet on tv tomorrow.


Tony

Pain

I read an article about pain in the new "Running Times" and it's a pretty good article. It discusses how the top runners in the sport deal with pain during a race and their different perspectives are pretty interesting. The Japanese runners use gaman which is the Japanese concept of enduring pain with dignity and grace. I know that most people don't like to deal with that amount of pain, but I guess the Japanese like to see how much they can endure. Other runners talk about breaking the race into segments so you just have to deal with the pain in shorter amounts of time thus making the race go by faster. The African runners talk about relying on their strength that they get from religion. Haile Gebrselassie (WR holder in the marathon) talks about accepting the pain rather than fighting it.

It's a pretty good article. Maybe I'll start thinking about Gaman instead of getting nervous and dreading a hard workout before I even start it. I have witnessed several swimmers on my team phych them selves out before a hard workout just because the set "looks hard." And I know that I've done this myself. I tell myself that it's going to hurt, and I give in to the pain and end up not having a good workout. If I could just not think about the workout, and do it, then I would be much better off, along with a few other people that I know.

Anyways, training has been going pretty good. My running feels really good as of lately. I have had a few faster paced runs which were unplanned. I would just feel good and pick up the pace for no reason, and finish the run feeling like I didn't try that hard. I did a 5 mile fartlek yesterday which was unplanned and I ended up running the 5 miles in 28:10 which I feel is pretty good for the time of year. My swimming has been hit and miss, but my bad days I'm still holding a decent pace that I couldn't have held in past years, so I know that I'm getting faster in the water, I just really dislike those slow days.

I hit just under 50 miles last week and will be around 55 miles for this week. My swimming yardage has been higher than usual, but it'll probably take a little hit over the next 2 weeks with a big swim meet at our pool this weekend, and Thanksgiving next weekend. But with these breaks in swimming, I'm going to start biking.

My first swim meet as a coach starts tomorrow. We are hosting our annual Autumn Classic this weekend and the kids are swimming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm looking forward to watching them swim. And several of them found my blog this week and wanted shout outs. Kelsey Mclaughlin, Caroline Jacobs, and Casey Ren are three of the girls that I'll be watching swim this weekend. Good luck girls.

T-Bird

Wednesday Update

After a great weekend with the family in Bowling Green, I'm back in Lexington for the usual stuff. I got to have dinner with the family at my grandparents Friday night, do a few workouts with my bro, see my sister as a cheerleader for WKU for the first time, and just have a great weekend in general. I am now enjoying all of the apples and apple cider that I can handle thanks to my grandparents who own "Jackson's Orchard" in Bowling Green, KY. And I know that Eric, Beth, and Casey have enjoyed them as well.

I have really been working hard in the water, and also been putting in the work on the road. I'm still 2 days behind on my running challenge, but that isn't bad for over 30 days of running. And I don't have a workout for today but I did get a suggestion of a video to post on here. This is just a little time trial for fun at the University of Texas. One guy does a 100 backstroke for time (with no 15 meter rule, so it's pretty much all under water) and another is a 150 breaststroke for time. The most impressive thing is the 100 underwater.


http://www.floswimming.org/videos/play/80787-friday-afternoon-texas

and here is another video that is just funning.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/failblog/videos/326/

Tony

November already?

Sorry for the lack of posting in the past few weeks but I haven't really had much to blog about now since the season is over but I'll give you a quick update.

Training has been going pretty good. I still have yet to touch my bike since my last race, but I have been slowly upping my mileage in running, and trying to hit some big numbers in swimming as well. I did swim a PR for yardage a few weeks ago by swimming over 37,000 yards, but I proceeded to catch a little cold the following Monday so I took 2 days off from the water, and then took a few days really easy so I was around 15,000 for that week. I managed to hit over 30,000 last week and I felt like I didn't swim a ton either, so that is a good sign. My last three weeks of running has been 40, 47, and 50 miles. This week is going to be a down week before I keep going up the ladder. My running challenge is going really good too. It is over 3 weeks into the challenge and I have run 22 times in 24 days. I have a 2-a-day planned later this week so I'll only be down by one run at the end of 4 weeks.

Coaching is going great. The kids had their first meet a few weeks ago and they all swam pretty well considering it was an early season meet. They have a pretty hard set planned for today with 6 x 200 FAST!!! And tomorrow they have a 5,000 straight swim. Good thing I'm not swimming with them right now, ha.

Fantasy Football is as exciting as ever and I'm in first place in my division. I am playing the guy that I'm tied with in my division this weekend so there is a lot on the line.

I may have a new favorite show that is called "White Collar" which comes on USA on Friday night. It's pretty good.

And having an American win the NYC marathon this past weekend was also awesome. Congrats to Meb for the big W.

Tony