Miller Week In Review

Monday Off Tuesday 30 minute run Wednesday 30 minute bike trainer session Thursday 30 minute run Friday Off Saturday Off Sunday 36 minute run Like with all of us, LIFE has made it difficult to post over the past few weeks. When the life plate is full, you have to make choices and other things take priority. That said, I still find much value in taking time to look over the past days and weeks, evaluate them, and share (or not share) as appropriate or needed. Next weekend are both GABRAKY and the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona. I wish I could have been at either of those but unfortunately, work got in the way of one and I'm too slow for the other. Instead, I'll be struggling through 100 miles of bike riding at the annual Outlaw Trail Cycling Tour. This is my third century ride of the year and probably my last organized event of the year. While I may not be physically prepared for the day, I'm looking forward to it. On the life front, all is going well, Gracias a Dios. Wife and kids are thriving and doing well in work and school. Jennifer continues walking nightly and Tristan has created a calendar for his daily exercise routines. Karlie is so active ALL the time, exercise is not necessary. Thankfully, she can actually sit still enough at school to do very well and her recent report card was all A's and B's. For me, work continues going well. As I noted in an earlier blog post, we reached our $53.5 million campaign goal three years early as the first college at UT to do so. This only means we move on to the next fundraising project, which at this time is raising $500,000 for a new college faculty endowment. We raised $150,000 in the first month, so I'm cautiously optimistic we'll reach our goal soon. I did have an important meeting last Thursday that had to be postponed until this week. I will share more about that in due time. I send my best wishes to all readers of the TTT blog and their families. Keep reaching for your BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) and pushing your limits. And if you haven't seen the movie "Limitless", check it out. Then write me with your thoughts about what we might be capable of had we the ability to access more of our brain's power. It's fun to think about, to be sure, and I argue that we all have the ability to access more of our brain's power. It's just that instead of taking a daily pill, it takes a lot of hard work. Kia Kaha!

Miller Weekly Update

Monday Rest Day Tuesday Bike Trainer Tempo Session (2x20 min tempo intervals) Wednesday Base Trainer Ride Thursday Trip to Dallas Friday Rest Day Sat-Sun Day Off I was tired this week, mentally and physically. It was nice to be out of the office for my work trip to Dallas on Wednesday but otherwise, I was in a "hamster wheel fog." I decided to let my body dictate what I would do this weekend and it decided I needed to rest. It was great following @bigschmidtdog and @duanebonifer posting from Dakota Meyer's Congressional Medal of Honor week events. Thanks for giving us a sense of what it was like to see a hero being recognized. Have a great week, all. Kia Kaha!

Photos from Interbike

See some of what's new from Interbike 2011

Ride with GPS

http://ridewithgps.com/ Found this great site and had to share it with TTT. What is Ride With GPS? We created Ride With GPS to help cyclists plan bike rides and find routes in their area. We offer cuesheets, exportable files for turn by turn directions on Garmin GPS units and elevation profiles with grade information. You can upload your ride and see graphs of elevation, heart rate, cadence and power.

Weekly Recap

Monday Day Off Tuesday 1 hour bike trainer tempo intervals (3x15 min intervals) Wednesday 1 hour bike trainer tempo session Thursday 1 hour bike trainer tempo intervals (2x20 min, 10 min at threshold) Friday Day Off Saturday 65'ish mile ride with The Ride Group Started training the bike legs again three weeks ago in order to be in shape to keep up with my new riding group. The last two weekends, I did some medium (30-35 mile) rides with my neighbor. This weekend, I invited my neighbor to join me for a 65-miler with TRG. This weekend, thanks to Hurricane Irene, we had a north wind (the prevailing wind here is a southern wind). The cooler morning temps were a welcome touch to a summer that's been the hottest and driest in Austin/Round Rock history and one of the hottest and driest in Texas history. Not sure if it was the temperature or just the joy of being out with good cycling friends, but we started pushing a fast pace from the beginning. My neighbor was pretty amazed at the pace we were pushing so early in the ride. We did 25 miles to a country store in Liberty Hill to refill our bottles. Another 15 miles and we arrived at the country store in Andice. Bottles refilled again, we began the 25'ish miles back to the start...leaving the long climbs for the end. At this point, I have to tell you about the greatest sport drink on the market today, Eload. A friend of mine is a business development/social media manager for Eload and as a way to support him, I recently reposted and retweeted some posts he made about Eload. Next thing I know, Eload is sending me a box full of free Eload formulas to try. I used two of their powders (the heat and endurance formulas) during my ride last weekend and noticed that my legs were not burning during the long climbs as they normally did. I was able to hold the big ring even during some of our longest climbs. I thought perhaps it was just a coincidence and then I did today's ride. After three hours on the road holding a fast pace in the big ring all day, I was one of the top three up every climb on the way home. I did this on a heavier bike with training tires and regular wheels riding with folks using racing tires and wheels on their full carbon bikes. Some of our folks were thrashed from the day and yet I felt as strong as I had all day. It was incredible! Yes, I've been putting in a few hours of training over the past few weeks, but these folks have been riding all year long. Eload was the difference! And with no artificial sweeteners, no acidic levels, no lactose, no gluten, and more, it doesn't upset my stomach. Needless to say, I'm a fan. This stuff is the best fuel I've ever tried...and I've tried them all. This is rocket fuel! I know this sounds like a commercial and I only wish they were paying me to be their community manager. I just believe in its results and highly recommend you try it. Last night, Tristan and I did the Austin Ghost Tours investigation tour. It was a little outside my comfort zone, but Tristan loves those ghost investigation shows on TV and he really enjoyed it. It's always fun supporting our kids' interests, even when they aren't necessarily our own. He had a blast, so I was a happy dad. Today is probably a day of house cleaning and hanging out with family. With any luck, I'll be able to sneak away to get some new bike tires for next week's ride! Have a super week! Kia Kaha!

Bacon Weekly- Maggie's 1st Mile

Forget my workouts, this photo is Maggie's first mile with me on Sunday August 29th, 2011. We ran a 11:59 mile to include on shoe-tie stop and one side-stich stop. She also asked me to wear my fuel belt so she could get a drink on the run. We discussed some basics of running during the warm up stretch; particularly running safety on the road.

The Power of Positive Peer Pressure

We were aware of the POSITIVE power of peer pressure long ago. Accountability and support is what TTT has been about from the beginning. It has been a life-changer for me. Thank you for helping me improve myself. You are life coaches. You make a difference in other people's lives by making changes in yours and sharing your triumphs and struggles along the way. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for making a difference.

Back to Training

After about a month off including a wonderful two weeks in Puerto Rico, I am scheduled to begin training again tomorrow. This time I'm not training for any race. I'm training to stay in shape and in order to be able to keep up with my cycling group on the weekends. These guys and gals don't know anything but hammering for distances of no less than 50 to 100 miles, and I won't be able to keep up if I don't get back in racing shape. I did a 35-mile ride last Sunday and had to stop on the way home in fear I was going into heat stroke.
I downloaded a new cycling program that begins on Tuesday. It schedules a day off on Monday and Friday, so I'm using those days to keep some minimal running shape.
The kids and I accompanied Jennifer today when she went shopping for new walking shoes. In true Claude Bacon fashion, I checked the discount rack and found a pair of size 13 Saucony Grid Flex

for an additional 40% off. I got these $70 shoes for under $40. I'm pumped about taking them out in the morning for their first run around the neighborhood. They are super light and minimal. And I love the black. Not ideal for hot day running, but I run in the morning darkness. :-)
Found out this week that my college reached its capital campaign goal of $53.5 million THREE years early! We are the FIRST and ONLY college on the UT-Austin campus to reach its goal. And we did it during one of the worst economic times in our nation's history. As you can imagine, this takes a huge burden off my shoulders. Now that we have the number goal out of the way, we can get back to concentrating on achieving some of the funding priorities we have yet to meet. IT's a great place to be and I feel blessed to be in it.
Best wishes to you all on the week ahead. Best wishes to your kids going back to school. Tell them to make it their best year yet!
Kia Kaha!

Bacon weekly and updates

MOn- off
Tues- .75 mile swim
Wed- 3 mile run
Thurs-3 mile run
Fri- .75 mile FS swim
SAt-off
Sun- 4 miles in brutal heat


Took a few week off previous during a pleasure trip to Destin, FL...spent time with the metal detector, the family, ocean, and large quantities of food and treats. Got back in the swing this week with some workouts. My final triathlon of the season is the Bowling Green race in a few weeks so trying to get back in shape after a week off...struggling to find time for the bike as I can fit the running and swimming in my schedule easier....I'll get back on her soon....got some new tires too... The heat has really made it tough to stay motivated...school starts this week so the house schedule will be normal again...earlier bed times for the kids mean earlier bed times for me which mean early morning workouts become a reality again. Life is good.

Running with Skeletoes,Teenagers, Laser Tag, and Puerto Rico

Took a few days off two weeks ago so the kids and I could accompany Jennifer to Houston while she did a training for work. Karlie, Tristan, and I visited the Battleship Texas, the San Jacinto Monument (where Texas gained its independence from Mexico), and the Children's Museum of Houston (voted #1 in the US by Parent's Magazine). We had a great time and because we were so busy, I did not make time to report last week.
It was back to a full week of work this past week, but I'm very pleased to report that thanks to a wonderful year of foundation support, the College of Education is forecast to have its greatest fundraising year ever. Our previous best year was my second year here (over $12 million) and this year we look to finish somewhere over $15 million. Not bad for an office of 2.5 people. May be the best per capita performance of any college on the UT campus. Looks like it's time for me to finally take my summer vacation. More on that in a minute.
This past week was Tristan's thirteenth birthday. We now have a teenager in our house. Considering the boy has facial hair, is as tall as his mom, his voice has changed to where people confuse him for me on the phone, and he has a girlfriend that could be the cutest girl in his entire middle school, I should not have been too affected by it. I should have been prepared. I have to admit, it hit me pretty hard. The little boy I knew is now a young man and he needs different things from me than he did before. I'll miss the little boy but I'm very proud of the young man and look forward to this new stage in our evolving relationship. We celebrated his birthday weekend by inviting his best friend for some laser tag. Tristan came in first out of all the participants on three teams in our second and final battle. We then went to the movies to watch Captain America. It was a really nice day.

Did my third run in Skeletoes this morning. I've really grown to like them. The first run in them three weeks ago left me with blisters and calves that were sore for nearly a week. After using BodyGlide all over my feet for run #2 two weeks last week, things went much better. I had little if any blistering. My soreness was much less after some good stretching afterwards. You will run a more natural movement than you do in shoes and the muscles you emphasize will be different than those you might emphasize in running shoes. I hear people say the same soreness happens when using Newtons due to the way they put you more on the forefoot than the midfoot or heel. Today's run was pure pleasure. It was a 45 minute out and back. I negative split by 1.5 minutes and it felt so smooth and fairly easy. Considering I've only made time to run once a week, I was really pleased with how good the run felt. I followed it with a nice core and push ups session while I watched the final day of the Tour de France on Versus Cycling.
The family and I leave on Tuesday for Puerto Rico. This will be our kids first time to the birthplace of their father, the first time Jenn and I have been back together in some 19 years, and the first time I've been back in nearly 10 years. We will start in Isla Verde where my mom lives, visit Viejo San Juan, Carolina, where I lived with my grandparents, and work our way west to San Sebastian, where the Lugo family hails from, and end up in Rincon, known as Puerto Rico's surfing town. On our way back to San Juan, we will spend a few days at El Conquistador Resort and go for some hiking at El Yunque National Forest, the only rainforest in the US National Park system. It's going to be special to take my family to the place of my birth, introduce them firsthand to the culture they've only experienced through my stories, and see them meet many of their family members for the first time, including my father and uncle. Peripheral to that will be a chance to relax and have some fun in the sand and sun. I'm in dire need of a vacation and I cannot wait!
Spending my day today editing a friend's script for a TV show. That should be a fun, new experience. I also need to get a haircut and work on a website I'm helping build.
Have a super week, one and all. Kia Kaha!

Bacon Weeks (many of them) Quaker State 400 Endurance Challenge

Ive done the Team Topper Tri blog no justice this summer....Bacon has been covered up with training, travel, racing, fun, and work. Schmidt dog has already posted the great time we had at the 2011 Lakewood Valley Triathlon in Owensboro... This race was my second of the season and I lead out with the Get Fit Triathlon in Morganfield Kentucky and again seeing a decent effort and performance at this race. I have continued my focus on training and adding 4 or 5 workouts per week varying...haven't been on the bike as much as I have been running and swimming. Remaing plans for teh summer are a few more tri's and running races...more to come..

Last weekend was quite an endurance experience and worth sharing on this blog.

I was fortunate to have a friend, who has a friend that's a jackman for the Aflac Carl Edwards NASCAR team and he invited us to the inagural Kentucky Speedway Quaker State 400 Sprint NASCAR Race and provided us with pit access. Im a fan enough to know when an rare experience is placed in front of me so I readily accepted. We left Owensboro at 11:30 cst in order to make a 7:30 race time and the tracl is about 2.5 hours from my house. Taking i-71 we hit traffic about 15 miles out and we quickly decided to abandon i-71 and find a 2 lane road that gave us a better chance at no line. To our disppapointment a few hours later we were in yet another line of cars some 9 miles from the track...we moved 1/4 of a mile in an hour, so time was on us to make a decision..leave OR .... I asked Greg if he was up to a blisterting hot, 8 mile run to reach the track. He quickly agreed and we parked the car and prepared for the run...luckily we both wore running shoes!!! 2 miles into the run we passed Leroy's Knick-Knack shop and saw 2 bikes out front of his shop embraced by many vines. Ray was out front watching the traffic so we hollered and asked if the bikes were for sale...he said and we hurried over...he help us attempt to pump the tires but time had taken toll on my chariot so no way she was moving..Greg's bike took some air and he jumped on, cranked twice, and POP!! the chain broke and sent him flygin over the bars...he popped up, and a steady stream of blood was coming from just below his knee...he had a significant puncture wound. Leroy offered Gregs a dirty moo-moo from an old box to wrap his knee, we declined and use Greg's shirt as a bandage to stop the blood...I asked Greg to turn around and abandon the adventure, he declined and we pushed on! Several miles later, a lady jumped out of her car as we approached stating she was an EMT and asked if we needed help as she noticed the bloody shirt used to clean up the leg..we assured her we were ok and hardcore and we pushed on!!!! Extreme heat, BIG hills, Ray's, and 8 miles later we reached the NASCAR tent to get our passes just 20 minutes before race time...we covered the distance and advetnure in 1:55.. a respectful time for what we had endured. The race was very cool, the pit expereince was second to none.. Race over and now the dread of an 8 mile journey back with many drunken fans at midnight and past had me concerned...2 miles into the return home and we heard "hey, it's the bike guys!! Get over here!!" It was the EMT lady and her Marine husband who had offered help earlier...she was our NASCAR angel who swooped us up in the dark of night and delivered us back to our car!! You cant imagine my relief!! What a day!!! I had skipped a local 10k running race to attend this event...who knew I would end up with this endurance challenge...I will never forget the expereince and plan to tell the story often...it wwill get longer in miles each time I tell it:)

Grandma Rosie Comes to Texas

Started back on my hundred push-up and 200 sit-up programs this week. My son is doing the program with me and we are one week in. I didn't get any other workouts in other than a nice 30-minute run on Saturday. It was my first run in a month and it was nice to be back on the road and trail. I wore my new Fila skele-toes and despite a few blisters (expected when using new running shoes that require no socks), I had a really nice run. I negative split by 2:30 minutes and felt really fast and strong coming home. I have to admit, however, to having major soreness in my calves last night and today. I think I went out a bit too fast considering I hadn't run in over four weeks. The skele-toes make you run in a natural forefoot position and that activates those calf muscles. Look forward to more running in them and strengthening my form.
My grandmother is visiting with us this week. It's been really nice to have her with us and I love watching our kids interact with their great-grandmother. It also enabled Jenn and me to have a date night last night. Our second date night in as many weeks. We are getting spoiled.
Have been enjoying watching the Tour de France. I tape the morning edition each day and watch it in the evenings. Find myself learning a lot about racing and learning the racer and team names. Grandma Rose, Jenn, and the kids have been enjoying it with me. We are all TDF fans.
Watching the Tour has me itching to ride but unfortunately, both my TT and road bike need some mechanical work and I've just not had time to take them in for servicing. We travel to Houston starting Wednesday through the weekend, so it will probably be another week before I get them in for servicing. Wish I knew a little more about bike mechanics.
Claude and I have unveiled the Travelete brand in beta. We have our Facebook page up, our blog is up and running, and our Twitter page is tweeting daily. Please connect with us on all these pages and be on the lookout for our website and forum coming soon. We'd be honored if you'd share these pages with your friends and family. Building our following is important in this early beta stage. The more feedback we get in these early stages, the stronger our product will be in the end.
I hear Schmidt Dog is in England before traveling to France for the TDF. Dennis is dancing Euro Rican music in Louisville. Jeremy continues traveling all over the US. Claude is new pit man with AFLAC NASCAR. And Ashley is considering a job transition into car sales. Lots of exciting stuff going in your lives.
Make it a great week! Kia Kaha!

Men's Health Sexiest Female Athletes List

Tour de France and Travelete

Took the entire week off training/exercising. As the final week of the month at work, I caught up on my June activity reports and finalizing my numbers for the month. Our fiscal year runs Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, so unlike many of my colleagues around the country, we still have two months until the close of our fiscal year. I am pleased to report that at the end of May, the college's development numbers were 28% ahead of last year. I'm optimistic to end the year with one of our best fundraising years of the past few.
The next few weeks are full of activities and promise to make July pass like a flash. My grandmother visits from California this coming week, our family is taking a few days in Houston the following week, we celebrate Tristan's 13th birthday the third week, and we leave for Puerto Rico the final week of July. Being a month since my participation in the CapTex tri, it is also my intent to get back to training starting this coming week. I won't be training for any particular race but instead to keep up with my cycling partners. That's all the motivation I need right now.
This weekend is the beginning of the Tour de France. It has me itching to ride. We had a weekend full of family activities this weekend that kept me from riding, but I plan to get some rides in over the next few weeks.
This week is also the unveiling of Travelete, a web concept Claude and I have been visioning for several months, perhaps a year or more. The idea is to provide the traveling athlete a place to share their training locations and thus providing a crowdsourced resource for people to find the best (and worst) places to train, race, and exercise from around the world. With Claude's hotel background, this also provides hotels a place to brag about the ways they cater to the traveling athlete.
We hope you will visit our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/travelete) and LIKE it; follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/travelete_); and check out our Tumblr (http://travelete.tumblr.com). In true startup fashion, we are doing this on a shoestring and are putting this out there so we can "fail early and fail often." Only in this way will we build the concept people want. Please post your own training location photos, comments, and advice on Facebook, Twitter, and/or the Tumblr. Send us your recommendations/suggestions. We are in the early stages and we covet your involvement and advice and critiques.
Happy 4th of July! Make it a great week, All! Kia Kaha!

Tour de France TV Schedule, Versus and NBC Sports

Training Center: This month, train like you’re racing the Tour

Metro Plus Ride with The Ride Group

Monday-Friday Work. No travel this week, which was nice. Gave me a chance to catch up on office work and connect with some folks around campus.
Took my kids to the pool three evenings during the week. Karlie is taking swimming lessons and has been eager to show us what she's learning each day. Just this week alone she learned to put her head under water and can now doggie paddle the width of our community pool. Really proud of her and she's so proud herself. You can see a video of her putting her head under water here.
On Thursday, Tristan participated in a UT research study on the cognitive benefits of exercise. He did his preliminary workup which included a blood draw; a relaxation session where they took his baseline numbers in heart rate, blood pressure, and more; and a VO2 Max test. Here is a photo of him preparing for the test:

Yesterday, I joined The Ride Group, a local cycling group made up of cyclists, triathletes, and endurance athletics enthusiasts, for their Metro Plus Ride.
We called a couple of audibles to what you see on this map, but 99% of it is correct. We had at least one Cat 5 climb and several Cat 4/Cat 3 climbs. It was a challenging ride. I lost my chain on one of the biggest climbs and had to dismount (almost fell over) and run in my cycling cleats to the top. I was not planning a bike/run brick session, but I got one in.
They say riding with good riders will make you better and I definitely did that yesterday. I was bringing up the rear of the pack most of the way back. While humbling, it was a great time and I look forward to riding with The Ride Group again.
Sunday Relaxing today. May take the kids to the pool or perhaps catch a movie at the discount cinema. May get the kids out for an easy spin ride around the neighborhood to shake the legs out a bit. The possibilities are endless.
The heat has set in and afternoons are not an ideal time for workouts. We've had 18 days of 100 + degrees so far and we are expected to break the record of 68 100+ plus days which we set last summer. With the humidity, it makes for some miserable afternoons.
The next few weeks continue to be busy ones at work and we have several plans over the next few weekends. Tomorrow I travel to San Antonio for work and the rest of the week includes meetings and preparing for the last two months of our fiscal year. Karlie's 8th birthday is Thursday. Next weekend, our family is taking a train ride to Bertram and Jennifer and I are going downtown Saturday night for the Tito Puente, Jr. show. The development associate in my office at work has been invited to play the piano with Tito's band. Should be a fun night.
More to come on our other weekend and July events when we talk next week. Hope you are enjoying a wonderful summer so far.
Make it a great week! Kia Kaha!

Week In Review- Karl

Monday Off
Tuesday-Wednesday El Paso work trip
Thursday-Friday Off
Saturday 40 mile Bee Caves/360 ride; over 1200 ft of CAT 5 climbs. Had a good day. Rode the small ring for most of the first half and took the big ring home. Felt strong and could have gone longer despite the heat and 30+ mph winds.
Sunday Father's Day; family got me a new pair of Sugoi bike shorts. Add those to the new Specialized gel gloves and Halo sweatband I bought myself yesterday, and I'm ready for some cycling. The sweat band is a must in this heat. We are having the third worst drought in Texas history, have had 15 days of temperatures of 100 and above (106 yesterday), and we have broken the all-time high temperature on 9 days already this year. You get some of my salty sweat in your eyes and it burns something awful. I couldn't see for a few seconds on my last two rides. Definitely not safe!
We watched the movie Super 8 this afternoon and I just finished watching Rory McIlroy smash the all-time US Open Golf record book. Watching the final stage of the Tour de Suisse on Versus as I write this. It's the time trial finishing stage and Levi Leipheimer is taking these boys to school.
No travel this week for the first time in a month. Looking forward to having a week in the home office and at home.
Hope you dads had a great Father's Day and that those of you lucky enough to spend the day with your own fathers were able to do that.
Make it a great week! Kia Kaha!

Lakewood Valley Triathlon

Simply a spectacular weekend at the Lakewood Valley Triathlon in every sense of the word. Perfect weather, perfect racing, and perfect fellowship! My TTT brother Claude hosted my entire family as Rebecca, Cole and I headed down to Owensborro on Friday for the Tri. We were treated to a nights stay at the new Courtyard Marriott. After checking in Claude shuttled us over to pic up our race packages at the YMCA, and then we headed of to the Bacon ranch for a wonderful pasta meal prepared by Samantha. We were greeted by Claude's mom Libby, and of course Hadley and Maggie Beth. It was a wonderful night of great food, laughter, telling old stories, and all around great fellowship. The highlight of the evening was Hadley singing an entire Juster Bieber song for all of us. For the rest of the weekend all I could sing was...... "Baby, baby, baby......".

Claude met us early Saturday morning and we headed to the event site. The Tri thing is new for me so I had to adjust to the body markings, timing chips and the pre race set up for transitions. No offense but Tri folks are different then road racing folks. Different vibe. My leg was still giving me some problems in the morning but I kept stretching and massaging it. At race time Rebecca, Claude and I headed down to the water for the start. Claude and I were in the second wave and Rebecca in the third. I must admit I had the butterfly stomach thing going on since this was my first experience at this kind of racing. For the half mile swim I just paced myself and I felt really relaxed and comfortable in the water. I never tried to push it, I just wanted to be relaxed. Somewhere in the middle of the lake I was trying to think happy thoughts and started singing "baby, baby, baby", so thank you to Hadley for that lasting memory.

I completed the swim in 22:44 and transitioned to the bike. My pre race plan was to absolutely empty the tank on the bike and see if I had anything left for the run. It was a challenging technical and hilly course. I just kept my head down and powered up and down the hills for the duration of the 15 miles. When I got done I stopped the bike clock at 41:58.4. I transitioned over to the run and mentally planned on taking it slow to keep my left leg from having the terrible pains I have been suffering with. Thankfully all was well and I completed the run in 31:35. My total time was 1:41:31. I was very satisfied.

I finished 10th in my age division, and 60/126 finishers. The coolest part is that I posted the 6th fastest bike time overall, averaging 21.4 mph over the course. I was happy to be pain free for the race and to finish with a smile. I will definitely be back for some more. What made it most enjoyable was sharing it with our cheering families, and competing with my wife and best friend. Claude and Becca were terrific! Becca has been a stud for back to back weekends of racing. Cole, Hadley, Maggie Beth, Libby, and Samantha were cheering so loud it was just wonderful. It was nothing but smiles at the end of the race for everyone.

Next up is a road race in Waddy, KY on fathers day.

L3: Live, Learn, and Lead.

Schmidty

What's Next?

Mon-Friday Work, Dallas trip
Saturday 44 mile ride to Andice General Store
Sunday Off; taking kids to the pool
Now that CapTex is behind me, I'm unsure what comes next. If I'm being honest with myself, I've lost the commitment and dedication it takes to fit in workouts for three disciplines during the week. I just can't sustain 4am workouts before an hour-long commute only to arrive back home at 6pm to get in yet another workout before going to bed at 8pm to do it all over again. That's beyond a healthy lifestyle...mentally or physically. Training for the CapTex was more sustainable but I had no motivation to make the time for drives to the pool.
I share all that to say I'm leaning to becoming a training duathlete and a full-time cyclist. What I mean by that is that I want to keep my fitness levels in cycling and running while concentrating on weekend group rides. Being able to jump on the bike trainer or treadmill or throwing on the running/cyling shoes and heading out the door when I have a few minutes for a run/ride is both much more likely to happen and more fun for me at this stage in my endurance athletics progression.
Heck, who knows. I may do a 5k or 10k now and then and even a sprint triathlon is not out of the question. The day may even come (within a decade) that another Ironman becomes part of my near future.
Make it a great week! Kia Kaha!