2009/2010 Ski Season - 30 ski days!

My ski season goal is 25 days out West. I was fortunate this year and and had 30 ski days almost all at Deer Valley UT though I did hit Park City, Alta and Snowbird. This season I also hit the Nastar race course with 27 runs and 16 race days. On their handicap system I was first in my division and age group for IL skiers. I have to break it down to there to come up with an impressive result. Of course my 11 year old daughter Gia beat me straight up in a head-to-head race.

Why is skiing the best family trip/vacation?

• we usually ski as a family almost every day
• where else can you vacation and stay active all day?
• enjoy the best outdoor scenery anywhere and clean air
• work on a skill and actually improve

How do you improve at skiing living in the Mid-West?

• Take a lesson everytime you ski, even if it is only a half day. The best athletes in the world have coaches. If you don't learn the right techniques, you simply ingrain horrible ones that need to be unlearned before you can progress. The best investment you can make.
• sign up for Nastar. The courses are everywhere, not hard, fun and give you a way to benchmark progress.
• go west every year. You can fly to UT on a Friday evening, ski 2 days and be home Sunday night. You can't do that in Colorado.

Oh and Snowbird will probably be open until mid-June this year.

2nd Thoughts? 2009 Tri Season Recap

I did my first Olympic tri on August 16th - the Pleasant Prairie (WI) Triathlon. My goal was 3 hours - my time 3:03. Not bad but not setting any records either. The best part about the race was my 10 year old daughter Gia did the kids tri the day before my race. She was very excited to finish in about 22 minutes - almost 10 minutes better than last year! I also did the North Shore Century- a 100 (actual 105 according to my GPS) mile ride from Evanston to Kenosha and back. Since it was about 80 miles longer than my longest ride of the year, the last 10 to 15 miles were brutal. It wasn't a race but a good time - I'd recommend it to anyone interested in biking. They have different distances from 25 to 100 miles. It's a great way to end the season. Triathlon training is pretty tough to schedule around a full time job and family. I may reconsider next year or even take up golf. We'll see....

Play Guitar

I originally started this as thoughts on triathlon training but that is starting to get boring and tedious to read so I am now adding some other random thoughts. About a year ago, my wife was buying my 10-year old daughter Gia a guitar to start her lessons. I thought it may be fun to learn something with my daughter. Our schedules are not that compatible, she is much busier that I am, so I started lessons at about the same time at the Old Town School of Folk Music. This summer, the school offered a kid/parent class which we are really enjoying. I never had any desire or intention to learn guitar but I am thoroughly enjoying the experience and certainly appreciate music much more, especially the Beetles and Grateful Dead who I never had any use for prior to this. Surprisingly, it's also a great stress reliever and very fun. I am finding that the activities I enjoy most are ones where I learn or improve at something. Right now they are triathlon, skiing and occasionally golf or guitar. Like any other hobby, especially one you pick up later in life, you have to dedicate a fair amount of time to improve. I am giving it six months to see if it makes the cut.

Results are in. 2 years training = Same time

Unfortunately, I will not make the climb at Mt. Rainier. Fortunately, I am too busy to take the time off. The good news is that I was able to participate in the Harbor Lights Triathlon in Waukegan on the 19th of July. It was my first race of the season and the first Tri I ever raced last year. www.harborlightstriathlon.com/. My time this year was only 1 minute better than last year. Not much of an improvement for all of the training I've done but it is better than having a worse time.

Climb Rainier? Training Detour Alert

My Tri training this year is making progress though very slowly and has taken a very unexpected twist. I have now committed to climbing Mt. Rainier in Washington State this July! It's 14,411 feet which is about 600 feet higher than the last climb I did - the Grand Teton in Jackson Hole, WY. That was a beautiful, fun, two-day climb that included about 9 pitches of technical rock climbing. Mt. Rainier is more of a long hike over snow and glaciers. Should be interesting. An orthopaedic surgeon friend of mine and one of his patients has organized the trip as a fund raiser for Orthopaedic Research at Rush Hospital. One of them is climbing Everest right now! You can check out his progress at http://www.goldenexpedition.org/. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt_Ranier. I will keep you posted on the training progress!

Why Tri is addicting. The 2009 Tri Season

This year is my second triathlon season. I decided to get my training off to an early start but apparently the economy or the Tri-gods are conspiring against me. I started weekly swim training at my club when the pool was promptly closed for indefinite emergency repairs. Of course I could make other arrangements but I will probably just wait until it reopens. Instead I am taking a weekly running class on the track trying to improve my speed. I've found that there is a big difference from jogging, which is apparently what I used to do when I ran, and trying to run faster. The track workouts are extremely difficult but very fun and rewarding. I'd highly recommend a structured program. On the bike I typically do not start to ride until May when the weather is better. So I am trying to fit in a couple of spin classes every week. We'll see if that helps my biking this spring. Otherwise this year my goal is to do an Olympic distance race. I'll still try a few of the shorter sprint distances for training but it is time to kick it up a notch. Once ski season is over I should have enough time to train more this season and hopefully do better in the results. One thing is for sure, the training is a great relief from the current economic climate. Now is a great time to set your goals for the season or the year. But beware. Tri training is a part-time job and fairly addicting.

Why Tri? My 2008 Triathlon Season

For some reason this year I decided to train for and complete a triathlon. The season has gone relatively well since I actually completed 3 this season (all the short format Sprint distance) and have every intention of doing it again next year. It is a great sport and interestingly is for everyone and anyone. Here is why:

• Having a goal makes training more fun. Knowing there is a race coming up makes finding time to exercise much easier and is very motivating.
• You don't have to be a good athlete to enjoy the training or races. The races are filled with people of all levels and abilities and are generally fun, well run events that emphasize safety and enjoyment.
• Your lifestyle becomes more healthy. Training for 3 activities doesn't encourage you to stay out on Thursday night until midnight and makes you reconsider that second or eighth drink.
• Fun for the whole family. My wife has done Tris before and my 9 year old daughter did a Junior Tri this year so I look forward to training and sharing the experiences with them.

Triathlon is a relatively new sport. The races consist of three separate legs: 1) Swim; 2) bike and 3) run in that order. There are different race distances including: Olympic (or International) - 1.5K (.9 miles) Swim, 40K (24 miles) Bike, 10K (6.2 mile) Run. I have only done the shorter Sprint distance events which are half of the international distance and much less daunting for beginners. Then of course there are Ironmans and Half Ironmans but that is for another issue. To get started, I'd highly recommend the group training program at Well-Fit and I know several great personal trainers/triathlon coaches as well.