Apparently at HQ a few weeks ago, there was a conversation that went down something like this:

“With all the buzz that we’ve gotten over the last few years, I really think we need to up our game and look for new ways to give back.”

“How so? You mean like offering complimentary back waxing to help hairy male athletes swim faster at our races?”

“No. Like doing something big for the Ulman Cancer Fund. We’ve supported them in a lot of ways in the past, but I’m thinking about something BIG.”

“Like what?”

“What if we tried to raise $100,000 for them? That could do a lot of good for people with cancer, right?”

“Heck yeah, but how are we going to do that?”

“Let’s run across the country. And invite others to join us along the route or run with us ‘virtually’ and tally up their own miles.”

“Shiver me timbers! That idea it the cat’s pajamas. Let’s start planning.”

Okay, well I’m pretty sure that no one said the last part. But the rest of it was pretty accurate. Even the back waxing part.

Starting Monday, March 26, a bunch of Rev3 staff and a few members of the AG team will start off running from Oceanside, California and won’t stop for 21 days when they reach Washington D.C. And they will be working on raising $100,000 in donations to the Ulman Cancer Fund all along the way.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to join them in person, but especially since my family had to start battling cancer head on last year with my dad’s lung cancer diagnosis, their mission really hits home for me. Me and the rest of the Rev3 AG team will be tallying up our training miles with hopes of at least matching the Run Across America team’s +3,000 miles over the same 3 weeks.

There will be more details on how you can help support the crew on their journey physically, emotionally and financially over the next few weeks. So stay tuned. Until then, if you have it in your heart to donate anything to help the team, please do. See the link on my blog’s sidebar or go directly to http://rev3tri.com/america/donate/

I’m fortunate enough to be able to plan my triathlon schedule 9 months out from now. Others have doctors telling them that they won’t be around by in 9 months. This is for them.

… but I’m not sorry. Not even a little bit. So I won’t.

I’ve been busy making the best decision I’ve ever made and married my best friend, Sam. It turned out to be the Wedding Of The Year. (Suck on that Prince William! Your horse drawn carriages have got NOTHING on my dance-off with my new Father-in-Law. Plus, your wedding was such a snooze that everyone was paying more attention to your new sister-in-law’s bootay.)

Our wedding was easily the best night of my life, followed by a week in the Caribbean.

I don’t talk about Sam as much as I should on my blog, but she has made it to almost every single race I’ve ever done, does a TON to support me behind the scenes and takes credit for almost every single awesome race photo I ever post here. She rocks my world.

But instead of droning on about stories of everything that has happened in the past three weeks, here are some pictures that tell the story a lot better.

Sometimes, it seems like life only works in extremes. This summer, Poppa B got diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and had to jump through hoops on top of that just to get treatment. Our whole family had to face his mortality head on. Something I’m not awesome at handling and sometimes the littlest things became major emotional battles.

Then last weekend I got to spend the day with my little nephew, who decided to feed me all of his gold fish by putting his whole fist in my mouth. If his arm was long enough to drop them directly into my stomach, he probably would.

As someone who hasn’t worn a single piece of jewelry (other than watches) since high school, I’m anticipating a learning curve in making this whole “ring wearing” thing part of my routine. (I wore hemp shell necklaces in high school to pretend I was some hippie/surfer/skater rather than a kid that lived next to a corn field.)

And the biggest obstacle – What do I do with this thing when I’m training and racing?

I’m was thinking that this was some big “married triathlete” secret that I needed the scoop on, so I polled Twitter to get some help. I don’t want to loose my ring right away or not wear it often enough and set some sort of precedent as being a bad husband. Unfortunately, there was no single answer from all my married triathlon friends and they were all across the board. I guess I’m going to have to come up with my own plan, but I’ll probably end up taking it off and keeping it someplace safe when I’m working out. I just have to figure out where that safe place is.

Here are all the responses I got from Twitter. For any married blogger friends that aren’t on Twitter – What do you do with your ring when training and racing?

Keep It On

• Lisa-Marie Howe - I wear both rings but put them on my ‘fat’ hand.
• Megan Killian - I wear my “engagement” ring (which is actually going to be my wedding ring) all the time, training/etc. Never take it off
• Heidi Henry - I wear mine, but not my engagement ring.Didn’t realize how often I checked for my rings until I tried to swim w/ them off once.
• bikezen - I keep mine on.
• Matt T  - keep it on always.
• Sonja Wieck - wear it.
• George Houston - I keep it on all the time. Rain or Shine.
• Kirstine Roberts - wear it?!!!

Take It Off

• Meredith Trowbridge - I take engage ring off-crashed bike w it once almost impaled myself wed band I wear ride/run in train. None racing/swimin
• Alex Gonzalez -  I leave my ring at home. It can come off to easy and a lake is not a good place for it.
• Kelly Covert -  i take mine off for racing and OWS…especially when the water is cold!
• Jen Small - i stopped wearing mine for fear of losing it (swim) damaging it (weight room) but a mens ring would be different
• Joe Vukson - I’ve got a good fit on mine but I don’t wear it to race. I typically take it off for rides when I’m wearing cycling gloves too.
• Kiersten Henry - Leave mine at home. Spent my entire ows last weekend worrying about it falling off because I forgot.
• Patricia Brownell - I don’t wear mine. It would fall off in the beginning & I wouldn’t be able to get it off at the end (I swell a lot).
• Colleen Lasko - just leave it at home then you don’t have to worry about it. I never wear mine anymore since the diamond is lose anyway.
• Chris - when racing, I give to my wife.I always feel like I will lose my ring on the swim.Had a friend lose his this summer in a sprint
• Andy Rosebrook - I take mine off for the swim and put it on my glasses waiting for me in T1. Had my ring come off in a pool once badday. When I played basketball they would make me take it off so I laced it on my left shoe.
• Stephanie Buckler - don’t wear it that’s my take anyways
• Heidi L - We don’t wear them – leave it at home. Not worth losing. Sometimes I’ll wear my band, but never engagement diamond
• Triathlon Funster -  remove at home or put in wallet if to/from work.
• dan kazup - My wife wears it on a necklace or I hide it in the car.

It Is Complicated

• Jill Poon -  I leave it on for training, I give it to Alex during races (or some poor unsuspecting teammate passing by)
• Barb - I wear mine but my husband takes his off and leaves it in a safe place at home.
• Jan Hawkins - I put it on my watch band
• ransick - I wear it unless I’m wearing tight pearl izumi full fingered gloves. It’s uncomfortable under those.
• Sean Prior - take the ring off for swimming, usually leave it on for anything else.
• Sir IronWorm - training I keep it on. Race I give it to the wife. If she’s not there it goes on my car key chain
• philiplavoie –  on a necklace.

A few months ago, I was at the wedding reception for my friend who will be the best man at my wedding. I walk in with Sam and I head to the bar to get us some drinks. I spark up a conversation with a couple standing next to me and seconds later, we are talking about Team In Training, swimming at Walden and her training for her first sprint triathlon.

Sam comes over to grab her drink, realizes what has happened and just rolls her eyes. Because it happens ALL. THE. TIME.

I could be in the backwoods of Maine or a fancy restaurant in downton Boston, I have an uncanny ability to run into athletes no matter where I am without even trying. I try not to be “that guy” whose life revolves completely about triathlon and have meaningful conversation about anything other than swimbikerun, but somehow I keep falling into these scenarios of meeting fellow triathletes.

I have a couple theories on why this keeps happening, but no research supporting any of them. Everything from the smell of adrenaline and sweat acting as pheromones to our uniquely low heart rates resonating with one another.

QUESTION: Is it just me or does this happen to you too? What random places have you met other triathletes?

Those are all part of the reason why I do what I do, but deep down there is a much bigger motivator.

Fear.

Fear of what would happen if I don’t train my body on a regular basis to get progressively fitter and healthier.

I see obese people every day and get freaked out by all the things that they can’t do because of their size. I freak out about all the things they don’t even bother to dream about because they don’t even realize they are possible. I freak out about the possibility of one day not being healthy enough to watch the kidsI hope to have someday grow up. I freak out about how big the diabetes products section at CVS is and hope I never have to buy anything from there. I freak out about all the  fat smoking chefs I see outside the culinary school near my work. I can’t help but think “How the fuck am I supposed to eat healthy when the next generation of restaurant chefs have a head start on destroying their OWN bodies!? And why are they going to school to become chefs? Do they want to get paid to feed me the same poison that they feed themselves?”

It scares the shit out of me sometimes.

Some people are blessed with genetics that help them become amazing athletes. I, on the other hand, have likely inherited some genetic predisposition for everything from addiction, to cancer, heart disease and a whole mess of other diseases and conditions that may or may not have a genetic link. To balance those out, I have triathlon.

Not that working out working out will control or stop these predispositions from becoming reality, but you better believe I am going to do my best to play an active roll in making sure that they don’t.

I may have found a positive way to act on my fears to manage them and make positive decisions, but that doesn’t make me any less terrified of the idea of “What happens if I don’t?”

Hopefully you have some nice weather wherever you are, you get out for some nice swimbikerun and enjoy some post-workout burgers, beers and fireworks with friends and family.

To celebrate, here is my latest mankini design.

Now I’m off to watch the Tour de France, jump into Walden for a swim and head out to spend the day with the (soon to be) in-laws.

WEAR SUNSCREEN

Granted, you could completely disregard this entire post because I spent my teenage years as a lifeguard, and never touched sunscreen once. I had one nasty burn every June, and was a dark mocha by August. So apparently this is one of those “do as I say, not as I do” scenarios. Even as I’ve gotten older, I haven’t gotten any smarter. Every spring, I usually end up looking like this.

Or like this…

But this year I’ve decided NO CRAZY SUNBURNS.

LEARN TO LOVE THE SUNCREEN.

With all the time that we all spend out in the sun, we are at increased risk of skin cancer, so protect yourself and check frequently. If anything looks suspicious, get it checked out.

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Watch this video, and share it on your blog, Facebook or Twitter.

This weekend’s “fun stuff” was a warehouse full of interconnected trampolines! Sam has been wanting to go to Sky Zone since they opened a few months ago, so I took her and a bunch of our friends for her birthday this weekend.

Nothing makes you feel as and out of shape as getting tired after three minutes on a trampoline next to a swarm of 18 year olds with endless energy.

Enjoy come bouncing footage.

Sam practicing bouncing off the walls:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sam calling me out for acting like a five year old:

Click here to view the embedded video.

My legs felt fine after, but my back was REALLY sore. Probably a sign I need to do more core work and attack those weak links.

Originally, the plan was to work on qualifying for USAT Age Group Nationals, but that  isn’t going to happen. I know that I don’t have enough mental energy to fully devote myself to both wedding planning and hardcore triathlon training at the same time. Maybe I’ll revisit that goal in 2012…

Instead, here is my goal for the 2011 triathlon season: Give back to the triathlon community as much as I can and in as many ways as I can.

The triathlon world could not have treated me any better over the last six years. I’ve met some amazing people through this blog, Wheelworks Multisport and Team Trakkers. I’ve built relationships with some amazing sponsors who have helped get me to the finish line and not have a single DNS or DNF on my race resume. Heck, even one of my old Wheelworks teammates helped hook me up with an awesome new job. (I start on Tuesday!)

I am well past due for devoting some serious effort to giving back.

I know that that is a really general goal, but here are some of the ways that I’m thinking about giving back this year.

• Organize more group training sessions with local tri friends
• Volunteer at more races
• Wear ridiculous outfits while volunteering to get laughs out of the racers
• Donate old training gear that I don’t use anymore to newbie triathletes on a tight budget
• Mentor more athletes and share whatever knowledge I’ve collected over the years
• Take a tip from Carole’s playbook and be the default last athlete at some races. Turn around before the finish line and head backwards to cheer on the rest of the athletes to finish DFL so that no one else has to take that distinction.

Any other suggestions of ways to give back to the triathlon community?

Let’s be honest. Even when we are at our very best as endurance athletes, we are still completely fallible and can stumble on some of the simplest of obstacles. One of the biggest of those is simply just getting out the door for a run, jumping on the bike trainer or packing the swim bag to head to the pool. Sometimes it comes for me in the middle of December, sometimes in the middle of June, but I know that slumps (emotional and physical) are inevitable. Just like anything else, it is always a good idea to spot it early and deal with it right away.

To be perfectly honest, this post is more intended to be therapy for myself than anything else, but if it helps anyone else out then I’ll be even happier. I’ve been in a major slump lately traithlon-wise. I haven’t ridden on my bike since September and my running shoes and swimsuits are collecting dust. That was okay for a while since I’ve been so busy with job searching, the holidays and wedding planning, but I need to get back into the game for my own mental heath.

• CLEAN YOUR FRIDGE – You can’t up the performance of your training if you are feeding your engine left over christmas cookies and sugar covered cereal. Throw out all the junk and head to the grocery store. Stock up on lots of fruits, veggies and unprocessed foods with lots of nature-made nutrition. I almost cried when I had to throw out a friend’s caramel and chocolate covered pretzels a few weeks ago, but it was easier than having to buy a new belt.

• SET SMALL SPECIFIC GOALS – I could tell myself “I’m going to work out tomorrow” day after day with no success. The easiest way to reach success is to redefine what success is, and make it specific. My chances of getting a workout in will be much higher if I tell myself that “I’ll get a 2k swim in before breakfast tomorrow.” Give your goals a deadline during the day. Sure, things can change, but it helps get you out of the endless procrastination cycle.

• MAKE YOUR PLAN VISIBLE - The easiest way to ignore your training plan is to leave it online or in an Excel spreadsheet on your computer desktop. At the start of every week, print out your training plan and hang it on your refrigerator or the door of your triathlon cave, wherever you’d see it most often. The more you see it, the more likely you’ll actually put that plan into action.

• CONNECT YOUR CALENDARS – Nothing puts a damper in your triathlon training like suddenly realizing that you have work or personal commitment that you can’t reschedule. Sometimes the boss surprises you with a last minute project that has you working late, but in a lot of cases these scenarios can be avoided. Use a shared calendar like Google Calendar to collect all of your  work, training and personal commitments to help you juggle it all without dropping anything.

• REGISTER FOR A RACE – Sometimes the easiest way to give your training a kick-start is to have a big race hanging over your head. You know how bad it is going to hurt if you show up unprepared, so you have no choice to put the time in now. Unless  you are looking at an Ironman or ultra marathon, signing up 10-12 months in advance may not be enough motivation. Pick something as early as possible, but still gives you enough time to be fully prepared to tear it up on race day. That time frame will vary completely based on the fitness level that you are starting from, so trust your own judgement. This weekend I registered for Rev3 Quassy. I couldn’t be more excited to make my return there.

• SLEEP IN YOUR WORKOUT CLOTHES – If you are planning an early morning workout, sometimes just getting the motivation to throw on your workout clothes can be a struggle. I’ve found success with sleeping in my running tights or shorts. When I wake up, all I have to do is thrown on socks and shoes and I’m out the door. Surprisingly, my running shorts and tights make really comfortable pajamas. I’m not sure if sleeping in a speedo or bike shorts would be as comfortable, but maybe that is why I usually save those workouts for the afternoon.

• RENT A MOVIE – I’m not just talking about any movie. Most athletes have one movie that really gets them amped. Maybe it is an old Ironman Hawaii DVD or a race that is saved on your DVR. Use that as a little adrenaline boost to get your butt out the door. Better yet, watch it whilel on the bike trainer or on the treadmill. For me, that movie is and will always be Without Limits. I’m a Cross Country freak at heart.

• PLAN A WORKOUT WITH A FRIEND – If you aren’t paying attention, triathlon can become a very lonely and boring sport. Long training rides by yourself and early morning swims before the world wakes up aren’t uncommon. I love some “alone time” way more than the average bear, but need some social interaction to get me going. That is one of the main reasons why I spend so much time blogging, tweeting and facebooking. It keeps me connected to people that love the same stuff I do. And when you get to hang out in person and enjoy the stuff that I do with those people, even better. I need to get better at planning “workout dates” with some local triathlon friends, especially in the winter.

• BUY NEW GEAR – This one is easy. While this sport is already expensive enough, sometimes a new piece of gear makes all the difference. A new swimsuit, pair of shoes or sunglasses can make you feel like a brand new athlete. Today I’m amped to try out my new carbon Sidi bike shoes that I got from Santa. Sometimes something as cheap as getting some new flavors of nutrition stuff to try is enough to get me excited to work up a sweat. But that doesn’t mean I’m above just sitting on my couch and sucking down some gels for the hell of it. Not that I’ve ever done that before…

So that is my list, but I’m sure there is more. I’m leaving this post open for editing. If you have your own ideas for what helps you get out of a training slump, leave a comment and I’ll add them to this list with your name and a link to your site.

Seriously, I felt like I could walk through walls, rip up trees from their roots and stomp straight through man hole covers. Hell, I even had to buy jeans in a smaller size than I wore in High School! (I’m sure some ladies will appreciate that one). And remember how small I was back in High School?!

Now, I feel more like this guy.

Needless to say, I’m not posting any shirtless pictures of myself online this month…

My total time spent workout out since Thanksgiving has totaled about 4 hours. And that is being generous. In August, 4 hours of working out was done on any given Friday, not over a month and a half! And my body looks like it, but more importantly I feel like it. I’ve hit that number on the scale where I realize “Damn, I’ve gotta stop this rapid weight acceleration before this mess gets out of control.”

And I don’t like that feeling.

Nothing feels as good as being ridiculously freaking fit.

Nothing.

But now I’m on the down slope of the fittest point in my life and it sucks. I know that that level of fitness isn’t sustainable, but I miss it. I at least need to start heading back in that general direction because deep down I know that my emotional health is not just tied tightly to my physical fitness, the two are wrapped up together in duct tape and covered in crazy glue and dropped into a concrete tomb.

So, as much as I hate being another one of the New Years Resolution masses heading back towards physical fitness, I am doing just that. Onward and upward! (Or downward if we are talking about the numbers on the scale….)

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