Gettin' Wet an Dirty!

We have had some wet weather around here lately but that does not stop a triathlete from getting in a key workout a week out from the first race of the season. I met an old friend, Matt Napier, and we rode a fast 30 miles and did a brick after. I was able to take a picture on the way to meet with Matt and then again when I was finished at home. There are no pictures from the ride because I was having a hard enough time holding a conversation and holding onto his wheel. All you would have gotten is a picture of his backside. Matt is a great guy and I know he is fast as he has qualified for Kona a perfect 2 times out of 2 tries. This last November at Ironman Florida, Matt was the third overall US amateur finisher! He is a former All-American XC runner and always has some good advice for myself and the XC team. Thanks for the ride Matt, sorry about the mud, and I'll see you in Show Low.

Happy Mother's Day! Steven and I are very thankful for our moms and the time we get to spend with them. Mom, you are the most amazing woman I have ever met. You are so strong and courageous, I really look up to you. I love you.

CC, I would not have the opportunity to have such a wonderful husband and family to share my life with if it had not have been for you, thank you. Thank you for taking good care of Emma, we love you and happy Mother's Day.

Cooling off in the sprinklers

A milestone has been reached, Em can ride a bike without training wheels! She really hasn't cared to try but I asked her if she wanted to today and she agreed to it. We took off the training wheels and cleaned her bike together and went around the block with me holding on. We made our way to a large concrete basketball court and I slowly let her go on her own more and more and then before I knew she had it!

By the way, this was after she put on her running shoes, stretched a little and ran from the house to the tech field without stopping. We played there and ran home and made smoothies for the effort! She's awesome!

Here is Lindsey's triathlon bike

She's not using it much right now so it sits and I clean it and put new things on it. I just got it back from the bike shop yesterday and it has new bars, brakes, and wheels. It really is pretty and I'm sort of jealous and think it is cooler than my bike.

Goodbye to coaching......for a little while!

I started coaching a sport last year in August. That sport was cross country and it was the first year Socorro has ever had a full-fledged varsity team. I had expressed interest in starting a CC team but I honestly knew nothing about it besides that it was running, plus I had not been met with much support from the administrative powers that be. In the meantime, I committed to coaching middle school basketball and track & field like I did the previous year.

Well, CC did happen and that meant I would start coaching duties in August instead of November. Looking back, CC has been the very best team I have ever been involved with as a player or coach. The kids that came out were awesome and I truly enjoyed watching them get better and better as the season went along. We were able to qualify our only 2 girls and 1 of our boys for the state championships and I know making it there as 2 teams this season will be our goal. We are not losing any of our boys and I am counting on even more kids coming out this summer and I can start to see that Socorro CC will be a successful program.

Cross ended on a Saturday and basketball tryouts were that Monday. I grew up playing basketball and although I was not the best at it, I really did give the most effort to this sport. That being said, I didn't touch a basketball for many years after graduation because I was left with some ill feelings about team sports in general. I didn't start playing again until I was teaching in Las Cruces and some teachers would get together every Thursday and "play" in the school gym and it was a lot of fun. This past season however, reminded me more of my high school team than it did playing with friends. Needless to say, I turned in my resignation as basketball coach. Basketball kids and CC kids are 2 different breeds.

There was a 2 or 3 week break between basketball and track but it was gone in a flash. I even started it a week early because so many kids were looking forward to it. We began in February and just finished this past Thursday. We had a very successful year and our 8th grade girls finished a perfect season, beating much larger schools in the process. Our 8th grade boys placed first twice, second and third. They too could have had a perfect season had it not been for some poor choices and behavior that kept kids from joining us on meets. You can read about the team here

I guess my triathlon training can be more consistent now.  I have had great weekends and the early part of the week but I wasn't getting too much done on Thursdays and Fridays because of track meets.  Yesterday I even started my season "officially" by entering some races.  The races I plan on racing are listed on the right over there ---->

All training and no racing is no fun so it was about time I drop some money and get into a race.