Jason appeared in a video shown at our church last weekend. Check it out here.
It may only be up until the beginning of next week, so make sure to watch it now!
Posted in Misc. | No Comments »
Sorry about not blogging more. Having a 4-month old, working part-time, and entertaining family and friends does not leave much time for blogging. It is scary how time is flying. I’ve been back to work for 6 weeks now! Working part-time has proven to be more difficult than I expected. Our center is busier than ever and I’ve been teaching a lot, which does not leave much time to get my Director work done…especially since I’m only working about 17 hours a week. I’m hanging in there and am hopeful things will be a little less chaotic-feeling soon.
William is growing up so fast. He has recently discovered that he has vocal chords that can make some really fun and loud noises. I’m going to try to get Jason to put a short video up that showcases his new talent. Last week he started eating rice cereal and absolutely loves it. He gets mad if I’m not fast enough with the spoon and is quite a messy eater. I’m not sure if it is the cereal or William just getting older, but the past couple nights have been fantastic…he slept 9 hours on Monday night and almost 8 hours last night. I am praying that he keeps this up! It was amazing getting about 6 1/2 hours of sleep Monday. Too bad Jason and I both woke up at 4:30 because we heard some strange noises over the monitor and went in to check on him, only to wake him. Oh well, it was still the best night’s sleep William has ever had! I am excited that he is finally interested in toys. He can hold onto them and is really good at bringing everything and anything to his mouth. Yesterday he was playing with “Mr. Waddles” the stuffed duck and decided to chew on his beak! Wish I would have had the camera ready for that! Unfortunately, just about every time we get the camera out, he stops whatever cute thing he was doing to stare at the camera. William is also very excited about his future girlfriend. Congratulations Brian and Libby! We are so excited for you to join the “Baby Club”!
On April 27th, Jason and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. (Talk about time flying!!) My sister was in town and graciously offered to watch William overnight so that we could get away to celebrate. As much as we love our little guy, it was so nice to go out and just be a couple and reconnect. Unfortunately, William decided that that was the day he would get his first rash! We ended up rushing him to the doctor’s the next morning after we got a call from my sister that his rash spread and covered him from head to toe! Poor thing…it was really quite a sight and turned out to be nothing! I guess he was just mad at us for leaving him for a night 
Well it has been an eventful few weeks with our family. I promise to try to update everyone more often…but please forgive me if I get busy!
Posted in Current Events, William | 1 Comment »
Yesterday marked the beginning of the last year that I’ll officially be a “twenty something”. That’s right, it was my 29th birthday! It’s hard to beleive that 29 years have passed already! Here’s a quick bullet point review of year 28!
- Kristy and celebrated 5 years of marriage!
- Found out I was going to be a dad shortly after our anniversary!
- Started the Saratoga Triathlon Club from nothing and it has quickly grown to over 40 members!
- Went to a Packers game at Lambeau Field with my good friend Keith!
- Vacationed in Ft Meyers, FL with Keith and Sarah where met Simon the Sea Turtle (otherwise known as “BJ” )
- Officially became a triathlon coach
- Became a production director within the media team at my church! What an awesome way to serve God!
- Built a new house in Moreau, NY
- Became a father when William was born on Jan 5! I love being a dad!
- Found out I’ll be part of the newly formed Oncology division at Abbott Labs starting in May. Exciting stuff!
Overall the last year has been great and full of huge blessings! God has truly been great to me throughout my life, especially in the last year! I can’t wait to see what this next year has to offer!
PS - Huge thanks to our good friends Kevin and Leah for offering to watch William last night so we could go out for a nice birthday dinner! You guys rock!
Posted in Misc. | No Comments »
As I look at the calendar, I wonder where the last 11 weeks have gone. It seemed like 12 weeks of maternity leave was SO long…and here I am in my last week of being a stay-at-home mommy. I have mixed feelings about going back to work. I couldn’t wait to go back to work 5 weeks ago. I almost considered going back early. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had a hard time adjusting to my new role in life. But the last few weeks with William have been so great that I get sad thinking about leaving him…even if it is just for 3 days. He is so much fun to be around now. In the last few weeks, he has changed tremendously and I have figured out a lot about being a mom.
Here are some of the things William is doing…
- SMILING!!! I absolutely love his smile! He even has smiley eyes! (check out our Flickr site to see pictures) Most of my day is spent coming up with ways to get him to smile, which is pretty easy to do! He especially likes smiling at the ceiling fan in our bedroom every morning
- Making eye contact and following us with his eyes.
- Sucking on his hands. This is his newest trick and he goes to town making all sorts of slurping noises. It sure keeps him occupied!
- Kicking-he has strong little legs that are constantly in motion. I think it means he is going to be a runner or cyclist (or both) just like his Daddy.
- Sleeping a little more. We have now established a 7pm(ish) bedtime, which has made things so much better. He had been so cranky in the evenings and so hard to get to sleep, but since we have been putting him to bed earlier, he is a much happier boy. And we are much happier parents! Most nights he will sleep between 5 and 7 hours before waking up to eat and then will go back to sleep for 2-5 hours. Unfortunately, about once a week he decides that he wants to see us every 2 hours!
Since he is changing so much on almost a daily basis, I will try to write updates weekly to keep everyone up-to-date.
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I hate that I have to write this post or even come close to approaching this topic but it has become necessary to do so. Kristy and I started this blog page over a year ago to keep our family and friends updated on our lives out here in upstate NY. With the addition of William to the family it has been a great way to share photos and updates of his development over the past several weeks.
One of the fun things about having your own website is checking how many hits it gets on a daily or weekly basis. One of the programs built in to the WordPress program is a tracker that will tell you what type of searches have pointed people to the website. For example I have had a ton of hits from people doing Google searches for “Newton running shoe product reviews”. Basically it takes key words from our posts and matches them to key words within a given search and up comes our website on the search results page. Being fairly analytical people, both Kristy and I like to check our “results” on a daily basis.
Two days ago while looking at what searches led people to our site I came across something that made me both want to throw up and strangle the person who conducted this search. It was so disturbing that I won’t even quote the search topic for fear of leading more of these sick freaks to our website.
Being a new parent with some very protective instincts I immediately wanted to lash back and post a blog making all sorts of threats to whoever did this search but fortunately held back and gave myself a couple of days to cool off. Bottom line… we will no longer be posting any sort of picture of us or William on the website anytime soon. We will, however, keep a link to our Flickr website but all of the pictures are now marked “private” and you will be required to be on our contact list to view our pictures. This can be done by creating your own Flickr account and adding us to your contact list. If you have any questions please feel free to email me or post a comment and I’ll try to help.
Posted in Misc., thoughts | 10 Comments »
If you were to ask anyone that I work with they’d be quick to say that I can be pretty analytical at times. I am by no means a total numbers geek but I do like to analyze trends, look for patterns, seek opportunity, etc. This is especially true when it comes to gaining more business from my competitors at work but can spill over into other areas of my life from time to time, especially triathlon.
For a couple of seasons now I have been using a GPS watch to assist my runs and rides during my training and racing. My gear of choice was the Garmin 301 which gives an overload of information including but not limited to: heart rate, current pace, avg pace, speed, elevation, distance covered, and calories burned. This of course is only the tip of the iceberg because it also comes equipped with a computer program that helps you track and analyze all of this data. You can also sync it up with several different websites and compare your info to that of other Garmin bearing athletes from around the globe.
Cool? Absolutely! Necessary? I am starting to question that one. See, a couple of weeks ago we had an abnormally warm late winter day and I was able to escape treadmill prison and go for a nice 10 mile run near my house. Before leaving I frantically looked for my precious Garmin because I “had to have it” or the run just wouldn’t be the same. Of course I never did find it (until after I was done running) and my run was anything but the same.
How was this run different? For starters it was just that, a simple LSD (long slow distance) run. There was no checking my current pace, obsessing over my current heart rate, getting frustrated that my watch lost satellite signal, etc. I just ran. I ran 40 minutes out and 40 minutes back stopping every 10 minutes for 30 seconds or so to check my heart rate just to ensure that I wasn’t going too hard. That’s it! Bottom line, it was one of the most enjoyable runs that I’ve had in months!
Fast forward two weeks to another unusually warm day which proved perfectly conducive to taking in another long run. This time I had no trouble finding my fully charged Garmin. After suiting up and strapping on my running buddy I was off for a 12 miler to help me unwind from the days stresses.
Only this run wasn’t to be as relaxing and pure as two weeks ago. The obsessive checking of pace and distance started almost as soon as I turned right out of my driveway. Quickly realizing that I was running the risk of ruining a perfect opportunity to clear my head I tried to keep things in check but I struggled. After a couple of miles my trusted pace tracker started having a difficult time keeping a signal which proved to be really frustrating.
Instead of letting it ruin my run I decided to limit the amount I looked at my pace and distance. The rest of my run went pretty well and I was able to sink into a nice rhythm. I even kicked the pace over the last two miles to test my reserves and it felt awesome! My overall feel from the days run was that it was nowhere near as relaxing and fulfilling as it was two weeks ago.
The only conclusion that I can draw from this experience is that sometimes too much information is just that. There is a place and time to be analytical and even obsessive about numbers but sometimes it is good to step back and simplify. For me, my long runs are time to unwind and get away from crunching numbers. Don’t get me wrong, I like my Garmin (most of the time) but will most likely be leaving it at home for my next long slow run.
Posted in Running, Training, Triathlon, thoughts | No Comments »
So the day that most of us Cheeseheads have long been expecting but hardly looking forward to has finally arrived. After 17 seasons, two Superbowls, one Superbowl championship, 3 league MVP awards, 442 touchdown passes, and numerous other records, Brett Favre is finally hanging up the cleats. While I definitely look forward to seeing Aaron Rodgers develop as the Packers lead man I will greatly miss watching #4 work his magic on the field. Thank you Brett for all the memories and we look forward to seeing you in Canton!
Posted in Current Events | No Comments »
Today was William’s 2 month doctor appointment. He was all smiles — flirting with the nurse and doctor and making eyes at the objects hanging on the walls…. if only he knew what was in store for him at the end of his appointment! My little boy got 3 shots today. At his last appointment the doctor told us that it is often more difficult for the parents to witness, then it is for the baby. I had no idea what she meant until today. We had to lay him on the exam table with the doctor on one side of him and the nurse on the other. I was right next to him holding one of his tiny hands, looking into his unsuspecting eyes. The doctor and nurse each had a little thigh in their hand and at the count of three administered the vaccines simultaneously. Just as the needles pierced his skin, he looked at me with this look that almost broke my heart. It was a combination of confusion, sheer panic, and then pain. I just wanted to scoop him up and make him feel better, but then they had to give him his third shot. This time…he just screamed and screamed and what an awful scream it was! If I could have taken the pain away, I would have. Today was definitely one of the most difficult days of being a parent.
Posted in William | 3 Comments »
For about the last 10 months I have been wearing a different kind of running shoe. Traditional shoes and shoe companies promote a heel to toe foot strike as the most natural and efficient way to run. It is safe to say that a majority of runners (at least American runners) tend to buy into this because it is the way we were taught from a very young age.
I was on the “heel to toe” bandwagon until about a year ago when I attended a lecture by Bobby McGee where I was introduced to the concept of fore-foot or mid-foot strike for distance running. Having been a somewhat decent high school and collegiate sprinter the concept of the fore-foot strike was not totally foreign for short distance sprinting but the thought initially made me a bit uncomfortable for distance running.
Nonetheless I decided to give it a shot but needed some outside assistance since my shoes at the time were so padded in the heel that it made it nearly impossible to strike with the fore-foot or mid-foot without first skidding my heel on the pavement. Enter the Newton Running Shoes. After several years of development these shoes were finally released last spring and I was one of the first to order them on-line.
My first opinion was that the lugs on the forefoot were too prominent and actually caused a bit of discomfort in the form of “hot spots” after a few miles of steady running. After a month or so of breaking myself into my new shoes the “hot spots” occurred with less frequency and as my calves strengthened I was able to run longer without becoming too sore the next day.
Long story short… after settling on more of a mid-foot strike, shortening my stride, increasing my tempo, and strengthening my lower leg muscles I grew to really like my new shoes. My only current complaint? Way too expensive! The original price for my Newtons was $175 and after a quick check of the website that price remains the same. I know that the typical triathlete has some money to burn but this is a little ridiculous in my opinion.
That said, am I willing to invest in another pair of Newtons? Nope. Yes, they did revolutionize how I run but the price tag is a little too high for me right now. My plan this spring is to explore some other shoes (such as the Zoot Sports Ultra Footwear) on the market that are now catching up with the forefoot strike movement. If Newton decides to drop the price of their shoe to compete with the more “traditional” running shoe companies then sign me up but until then my search for the perfect running shoe rolls on.
Posted in Product Review, Races, Running, Training, Triathlon | 1 Comment »
