Monday, June 15, 2009

To Everything There is a Season

Boy, I don't even know where to start with this one! I've had another rather long hiatus from blogland that was not precisely intentional.

This is going to be the quick and dirty Cliffsnotes version of the last month and a half or so.

Things got interesting around the Sweet household at the end of April when Jonah was playing wtih his mom on the bed and managed to roll off the side. He fell onto padded carpet and didn't hit anything, but still managed to break his leg. It doesn't take much of an imagination to realize this is a bad situation for a year and a half old to be in. Jonah was put into a hip spica cast that immobilized both legs for about 6.5 weeks. Since he needed round the clock attention (entertaining essentially) he couldn't go to daycare. That meant we called on the grandparents for reinforcement and burned through our sick days at work. Good news is that as of last Tuesday Jonah is out of his cast and is all healed up. If there is a silver lining to the whole ordeal, it seems to be that he got to spend a lot of time with family and his language skills went through the roof. A few weeks back Cara started tallying the words he knew and he was at 100+. I'm sure he knows 200 by now. I think his favorite is "bike". He loves to point out bikes, but mainly he loves to go for a ride in the bike seat or bike trailer. This past Saturday he went on three seperate bike rides!



Coaching has been going so well that we've been turning away potential clients in the last few months. To create truly custom training programs is very time intensive so we are topping out at 8 athletes. As racing season has picked up I have also been doing a lot more bike fits. I like doing fits because it is instant gratification of sorts. It takes months to see improvements from training, but in a two hour fit session I can make someone with a poor position both faster and more comfortable. I've done a couple swim analysis sessions and am really wanting to figure out the best way to do underwater taping. I know I can get an underwater camera attachment form my camcorder, or get a waterproof case. Something to think about....

The other big news on the coaching front is that I attended the USAT Level I Certification Course in Chicago. This course greatly exceeded my expectations and we were able to hear from some of the best minds in exercise physiology, sports nutrition, sports psychology, etc. I have posted a list of things that I made notes about during the course below. I'm not sure if I will pursue my Level II or another cert. I would like to get F.I.S.T. (Fit Institute Slowtwitch) certified for bike fitting and possibly USA Cycling Coach certified.


Somewhere directly before Jonah's cast adventure started, I also got a new job. My day job is a librarian at Heartland Community College. Early this year I had a phone interview then a 2-day on-campus interview at Illinois Wesleyan University. IWU is a small, private, liberal arts institution here in Bloomington. I had a great series of interviews and met all of their requirements. Still this is a big move up for me from the community college and I was thrilled when I got the job offer. Their library is relatively new and absolutely gorgeous. This is a similar environment to where I went for undergrad (Augustana College). My brother actually graduated from IWU. I am really looking forward to this new position where I will be tenure-track faculty (I do not have faculty status in my current position). This means more writing and publishing, but that is something I look forward to. From the triathlon side of things, IWU has an awesome indoor pool and track, so I am hoping to be able to do some swimming over my lunch hour and maybe some evening workouts with the cross country and swim teams! I will be starting at IWU the first week of August.



I had to miss the Xterra Midwest Regional race while Jonah was hurt. This caused a serious re-consideration of racing goals for this year. There were no other Xterra regional qualifiers nearby, so I made the hard decision to put pursuing the Xterra World Championships on hold for another season. Instead, I have decided to try and get in qualifying condition for Steelhead 70.3 in August and try to get a slot for the 70.3 World Champs in Clearwater. This race isn't as appealing to me as Kona or Maui (Xterra Worlds) but it is much cheaper to travel to.


I recently did my first race this season since New Orleans and had a pretty lackluster performance. The race was our local Tri-Shark sprint, which to be fair, does bring in some pretty good competition. I was 9th in the elite wave after a terrible swim/run and ok bike. Mostly this just reflects my inability to get in any consistent training, but I also tried to hang with the lead pack in the swim and ended up hyperventilating myself (turns out this is detrimental to your overall time!). Mostly the race was a good kick in the butt to remind me that I cannot coast through even a sprint without more regular training. Good news is that I am healthy and motivated. Jonah is out of his cast and Cara has the summer off. Training is starting to come around. I should be able to get into decent shape by August and then if everything goes right top condition by November.

My most recent fun side project is restoring a vintage Huffy Daisy Tandem. I have had a saved ebay search set up for one of these for literally years. They are too expensive to ship, so I had to wait to find something within driving distance. Finally a couple weeks back I found a PAIR of these tandems about 1.5 hours south of here. This is far and away the coolest tandem frame I have ever seen. It is very swoopy and curvy and when restored will have lots of chrome bling. A friend of ours is going to help me with the paint job on the frame since it has been about 15 years since I have painted a car! Below is a picture of the tandem with Jonah in the bike trailer behind. Getting a single speed tandem up a hill pulling a trailer is an interesting endeavor! Coordinating a coaster brake is fun too!


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