Sometimes business just sucks

Well I spent the beginning in Murfreesboro TN to try and expand my business and start a new association management company. I arrived Monday afternoon at the Fairfield Inn in Smyrna TN. I can't say enough about this little Fairfield...always friendly service and clean rooms along with easy access to both Murfreesboro and Nashville. After checking into the hotel, I went back into Nashville to have dinner with Trey. It was great spending time with him and we had a great dinner at Neros in Green Hills. (try the Elk, it was like a great filet mignon) After we got done with dinner Trey talked me into going to the movie theaters next door to try and see Tropic Thunder. Luckily we arrived right when the movie was scheduled to start and walked right in. The movie gets off to a very weird and very funny start. Trey and I both looked at each other and said "What the hell?" at the same time before we realized that the actual movie started (without giving it away, once you see it you will know what I am talking about). The movie was weird and hilarious at the same time. Robert Downing Jr.'s character steals the show if you can figure out what he is saying most of the time. I dropped Trey back off at Vandy and said a sad goodbye since that may be the last time I see him for a LONG time since he's moving back to Louisiana soon.

Tuesday started off great with me finding a local accountant and climate controlled storage facility right away. Since I was ahead of schedule, I went to the local bike shop to see if they had any bike shoes on sale but alas no luck. I then swung by our friends Jeanne and Shaun's house and left a little trophy surprise present for them before picking up Melanie from State Farm for lunch. Unfortunately Matt wasn't able to join us AGAIN. Damn you Matt, if you don't like me just say so LOL. Mel and I had a great lunch at Logans and it was fun catching up with her. We can't wait for the time to come where we can move back to TN to be able to hang out with them and the Hepborns again.

I went back to the hotel to do a little work before one of my business partners arrived Tuesday afternoon. We met up and went to dinner where we caught up on old times and talked some business. My third business partner met up with us Wednesday morning where we met at the Crye Leike Commercial office thanks to a great commercial realtor Paul LaLiberte pliberty@bellsouth.net that has been so helpful throughout this long drawn out process. The three of us met all morning, broke to have a great lunch at Red Robin next door, and into the afternoon. Unfortunately as the afternoon meeting went on it became clear to me that this new business venture was not going to work out for me financially. If we were living in the area already and Jeanne was working full time I may have "gone for it" but at this point in my life I couldn't pull the trigger. Since I had a 6 1/2 hour drive home, we ended about 4pm with the thought to sleep on the information and get back to each other the next day.

I spoke with Jeanne quite a bit on the way home and the more we talked about it, the more clear it became that the money and timing was just too off. Over the next two days, my partners and I discussed more options but in the end I had to say no. The next day I found out that my two partners are going after the business without me. Even though it's a little odd feeling, I encouraged them to go after it if they could get into the bidding process this late. I wish them the best and hope that down the road I won't regret my decision. Sometimes business just sucks.

New bike!!!

I am SO excited to show off my new toy. Jeanne and I had made an agreement when i started training for my triathlon that I couldn't buy a new bike until i finished my first tri. As you all know (by the posting below), i finished that first triathlon and loved it. After getting back from Disney last weekend I started looking around the local bike shops, ebay and craigslist and came across a sale going on from the Javelin manufacturer in the Chicago area. Since the sale started in May I didn't figure they had any bikes left in my size but I called anyway. To my surprise and enjoyment, they had 1 bike left in my size still. So for a VERY low price (compared to other tri bikes), I now have a brand new tri bike. It arrived via FedEx yesterday and my local bike shops said they couldn't get it in to have it assembled and tuned up until next Wednesday. Of course, I couldn't wait THAT long so I put it together myself last night and will take it to my LBS next week to have a fitting and tuneup done.

I still need a name for her though, so if ANY of you reading this have a suggestion, please email it to me or post it in the comments area.

Disney World

So what does every athlete say after doing something for the 1st time when asked "what are you going to do next?" why of course, "Go to Disneyworld" and that's exactly what me and my family did. The day after my triathlon we headed to Indy for a park and fly to Orlando on Monday morning. Grandma drove over with us and we met up with Mimo to get ready for our trip. Monday morning couldn't come early enough and soon after waking we were on our flight to Orlando.

We took the Magical Express bus to our hotel the Yacht Club. The hotel was amazing and we were all greeted by Woody the Captain as we entered which the kids loved. We headed out right away to the Animal Kingdom. The kids loved the African Safari ride which we got to see an rare anteater, turtles and many other animals. After visiting some of the animals, we got to meet some of our favorite characters Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. We stayed late at the park with Uncle Alec, Mimo and Daddy enjoying the Expedition Everest roller coaster which rocked!

The next day we started off early by hitting the pinnacle of the Disneyworld, the Magic Kingdom. JD was a little hesitant to ride any rides but after finally convincing him to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride he started to enjoy it, especially after Stitch was waiting to see him after his first ride. Paige was a trooper and rode every ride that she was able to. I think Grandma and Mimo enjoyed seeing the kids faces more than Jeanne and I did. It was so hot outside we decided to go back to the hotel and enjoy the amazing sandbottom swimming pool that also had a lazy river and water slides. We had been so busy that day that we decided to stay close to the hotel and went to the Boardwalk area for dinner at ESPN where Uncle Alec won a trivia contest and the kids got a baseball and football beach ball. After dinner, everyone except Alec and I went back to the hotel while he and I went to Jellyrolls, a dueling piano bar. We had a great time there coming up with some off the wall requests for the entertainers to play.

Wednesday started off with Breafast at Chef Mickeys in the Contemporary Resort. The buffett was great and the kids got to meet all of the stars of the show like Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald. After breakfast we headed to Epcot for some fun. The Nemo ride was great and we ran into Chip from Chip & Dale but most of the rest of the park was a bust for young kids so we called it a day again and went back to our hotel and enjoyed the pool again and some ice cream in the afternoon.

Thursday we went back to the Magic Kingdom and enjoyed the early morning hours for resort guests where Paige decided to morph into a kitty and JD tried to turn into his new favorite character Stitch before the park opened. We met up with Jeanne's family from Florida to hang out with them for the morning where we went to Mickey and Minnies house to meet the cute couple again. After enjoying some "It's a small world" again for the 3rd time, we all headed back to our hotel again so Danielle could enjoy playing in the sand with Paige while JD challenged Daddy to a mean game of PingPong. While Danielle went down for her nap, Mimo, Mommy, Paige and JD went to the kid's sandcastle club to enjoy some pottery painting before heading back to the Magic Kingdom again to enjoy some more rides (Pirates of the Carribean - JD's favorite/Thunder Mountain Roller Coaster - Paige's favorite) and enjoy the nighttime parade and fireworks from Main Street.

Friday was all about the Hollywood Studios where we got there early and enjoy the Little Mermaid and Disney's Playhouse shows and even got to meet our favorite stars from Toy Story including Buzz Lightyear and Woody before it started to pour down rain on us. Back at the hotel, everyone was getting tired and just wanted to go out for dinner except Paige and Daddy. We headed back to Hollywood Studios to enjoy our fastpasses for the new Toy Story ride which was very cool and then enjoyed the Hollywood Hotel House of Terror which ended up being Paige's favorite ride of the week.

Saturday ended our vacation and we loaded up in the Magic Express bus back to the airport to fly back to Indy. It was a great vacaction but we are all exhausted and still recovering. Time to start planning our next family vacation....

I am a Triathlete!!!

Hey everyone, I finally did it. I am officially a triathlete as of this morning. I raced in the Champaign Park District MiniTriathlon and it was great. My journey went like this....

Prerace
Ate powerbar at 6am, setup transition, forgot racebelt and had to run home to get it. Right before start of race at 7:30 ate powerbar gel and washed down with water

Swim
The first 200 yards of the race were in a lazy river which sucked. I couldn't find a rhythm swimming it and ended up doing dolphin dives and running in the water. This took up a lot of energy and i was tired already after coming out of the lazy river. After lazy river you had to run around the pool deck and jump in the lap pool for another 200 yards. I was out of rhythm and flustered after the lazy river but calmed myself down after the first 2 lengths. I found my stroke, slowed the heartrate down and even end up passing a couple people. The lap pool was over before i knew it. I was a little dizzy getting to my bike but focused on getting my socks and running shoes on (gotta love them Yankz). Ran bike to mount line, jumped on and off i went.

Bike
The first lap of the bike my legs were tight due to the lazy river run but they loosened up by the beginning of lap 2. On the uphill side of the course i kept around a 15-16mph pace and on the downside kept a 19-21mph pace. Overall the bike felt pretty good. I got passed by some fast people and I managed to pass a few people myself. I will be glad when i get a new bike and not ride the mountain bike anymore though. T2 was easy. Racked bike, took another quick drink and I was off since I already had my running shoes on.

Run
I drank a little too much water during the tail end of the bike and my stomach was all wishy washy for the 1st 1/4 mile. My legs were feeling tight and I was getting tired. I ended up walking for about 15-30 seconds four times which I was not happy with. I don't think I really NEEDED to walk but my mind was telling me to and I listened to the little voices in my head instead of ignoring them. I need to concentrate on running more and playing the mental game with myself. I think this is just going to take time though since I have never been a strong runner. Jeanne, Paige and JD were waiting for me at the finish line and JD even ran across the finish line with me.

Finish
Since the race doesn't use a timing system, I kept time on my watch. Unfortunately since I was so nervous, I forgot to hit the lap button after swimming and didn't realize it until the 2nd bike lap that I just let it go so I am not sure of my time splits. My goal was to finish in 1 hour and my final time was 54:29 so I was happy with my time for my first "tri" at this sport.

Still Triing

Obviously I am not very good an keeping this updated but does it really matter since i am the only one reading it?

Life is completely "off the charts" right now with both my personal and professional life. I have still been training hard for my first tri which is THIS SATURDAY! All 3 disciplines are feeling pretty good. Running is still my weakness but that is just going to take time and I can see a HUGE difference from when i started a few months ago. My first run around our neighborhood took me around 24 minutes to run 1.5 miles and last night I ran very easy and had to even stop twice with Paige riding her bike next to me and we finished in 18 minutes so obviously it's getting better. I am still trying to find a new gym to belong to. Now it's between the UofI rec center or the YMCA. Both have their pros and cons and i have to make a decision this week.

I volunteered at the Evergreen triathlon 2 weekends ago and it was very inspiring. I was placed at the bike exit/entrance from the park to the country roads and got to watch everyone go out and back on their bikes in the pouring rain! The weather was horrible that morning with rain coming down in buckets but at least the air was somewhat cooler. I felt really bad for the athletes as they came back in from their 24 mile ride. Between the high winds and pouring rain, it had to be a very challenging race.

On the personal side of life....we are getting ready to go to Disneyworld for the first time with the kids this Sunday (the day after my first tri..what was I thinking?). I have been busy planning the trip along with getting some goodies like custom tshirts and other stuff to have at the parks. Paige and JD are so excited to get going and I know they have NO IDEA what they are about to see.

We took them to Six Flags in Louisville a few weeks ago and met our friends Shaun, Jeanne, Jarrod and Nathan from Tennessee and spent a couple days at the waterpark and riding the rides. We had such a fun time hanging out with the Hepborns and the kids were great. Paige and JD couldnt believe how cool the rides were and loved riding the kids rides. They even rode their first roller coaster. IF they thought Six Flags was great, I can't wait to see their faces at Disneyworld.

On the professional side of life....I don't usually post much about my business here but things have been crazy lately. One of my client's day-to-day operations is going out to bid with an RFP process and my company is one of the companies that is vying after the business. This process has been a long, drawn out process that has been in the works for almost a year. I am supposed to get the RFP around August 4th (while I am at Disney). My business partner and I have been working on some of our arrangments lately and will be getting together in August to respond to the the RFP. I hope we have a very good shot at getting this business. I know that we will do a great job in managing this client for many years to come and look forward to setting up the business back in Tennessee.

Still Going

Hey everyone (anyone?),

I havent been very good at keeping this updated but my training is going well right now. The swimming in getting better each time and the biking and running are coming along. The race is only a couple weeks away and I am starting to get excited and nervous. It's been hot lately making the running harder for me since I am such a fair weather runner. I had my triathlon training class today with a timed 1 mile after warming up and did the mile in 9:10 which is pretty fast for me and we immediately went to the pool afterward to work on swimming drills.

I used a kickboard today and realized my legs do not know how to kick while swimming so that gives me something more to work on before and after the race.

Speaking of after the race, i have to find a new place to workout. Last week i went at worked out at my gym and had a good workout and the place was busy. On Tuesday, i pulled into the parking lot and my gym had closed and the windows were covered up. It seems that they weren't paying their landlord and were evicted after racking up $31k in back rent. I can't say i am surprise since the membership was only $10/month or if you agreed to pay for a full year the fee was only $75. I definitely got my $75 dollars worth out of my membership and I will miss the gym since the equipment was nice, parking was easy and it was never "packed" when i was there in the morning. I also have a membership at the UofI rec center but parking around there just sucks most of the time and costs about $.75 at the meter each time. Since I will need a swimming pool though, it's pretty much UofI or the YMCA. I am not sure which i will choose yet. UofI is $10/month cheaper before the parking fiasco and fees but has much nice facilities while the Y is closer to home and no parking problems making it easier to get in and out faster.

Also, we only have a couple weeks until our Disneyworld trip. We recently upgraded to the Yacht Club resort and it looks great and has a great pool/beach area to relax at each afternoon.
I am getting just as excited as the kids and the event planner in me has already laid out our itinerary for each day and the exact routes we will take at each park.

Until next posting....

Swimming Problem Identified (Maybe)

So i started my group triathlon training this week and i am the only male in the class with 8 other ladies. It's a good group though since it seems most of us are in the same class fitness wise with running and swimming. Biking is definitely my strongest leg and the first ride with the group was a little too slow for me but i don't mind that since at least i have other people to work out with and I can make up the speed times on my own bike workouts.

Today was our first swim session and our coach watched me swim to help tell me what i am doing wrong. She said my form looked really good so it must be my cardio or breathing. So i concentrated on my breathing for the next couple laps and realized I have NO BREATHING PATTERN!! No wonder i am getting out of breath. I was breathing at just random intervals and NOT breathing out enough underwater. I am going to do some swimming this weekend and concentrate on breathing out hard underwater and breathing in every 2 strokes. Our coach seems to think that may help me a lot. I hope so!

I also found out that the swim for our tri is very weird. We are swimming the lazy river of our pool first (200 yards) and then have to get out, run over to the lap pool and swim 4 laps (200 yards) before running to the bike transition. Should be interesting...