Author: davecriswell

I’m sitting on a plane at JFK airport waiting to fly back to Boston after a business trip on Long Island. I wanted to update the blog while I was away but the schedule didn’t allow it.

The trip started at 3am on Monday when I had to wake up to get to the airport. This was after watching my previously undefeated Patriots blow a lead in the final 2 minutes of the superbowl the night before.

I haven’t done any traveling for a while and hadn’t been to the NYC area since about a year after 9/11. I was looking forward to the trip except for leaving the family for a few days.

Overall the trip was a good one. From the plane, I was able to see the sunrise on the way out and sunset on the way back. It was a little thing but I felt thankful to see it nonetheless.

The work part of the trip went well and I was able to interact with some new people at the company. They are a good group of people, even if they were all Giants fans and I had to listen to their Superbowl gloating for three days.

I was also able to take the Long Island RR into the city one night. What does someone who only has a few hours do in NYC? I decided to do the traditional tourist thing and go to Times Square. I had never been there at night and was curious to see the spectacle. It was 9 at night and it was as bright as if the sun was in the sky with no clouds. As cool as it was to see the massive video screens and scrolling billboards, I found myself thinking how much frick’in electricity was being used. It must have been the environmentalist in me.

I’m not in a city the size of New York very often so every time I’m able to visit I feel pretty humbled by how many people there are in the world. Seeing so many people in one small section of one large city, it’s incredible to think of how many people there are in the rest of this city and the rest of the world.

I saw plenty of strange (someone dressed in superman costume outside the Toys ‘R Us store which had a full size ferris wheel inside) and cool things(a street performer who was playing plastic pails, the top of a gas grill and several other items).

I had a great dinner at a scottish bar called St. Andrews. I had a scottish waiter with a scottish accent (in a kilt!) and a great scottish beer. It was a fun experience.

On my first morning I was able to get one of my two planned workouts in, a one hour run around and through Eisenhower Park in Westbury, NY. I had brought my cold weather gear and shorts to run in because I wasn’t sure what to expect for weather. I was able to wear the shorts, and, I didn’t need the headlamp I brought. Apparently every street in Westbury has street lights, even going through the park! This is definitely something I was not used to. After getting back from NYC late and having to pack, I couldn’t get my 2nd planned run in. Such is the way it goes with traveling I suppose.

The long range forecast calls for a snowy several days at home. Looks like I’ll be getting some quality time on the trainer…

I wrote last week that I felt like I had turned a corner with regard to my training regimen. And for the most part I still feel that way. However, at our GSTC training today our coach had a workout that made me realize that it’s time to train seriously again!

We started out with a one hour swim which was tough in and of itself. I think I made it harder than it was. After getting my swim form critique from the club coach, Suzan, I was hyperfocused on correcting the things she pointed out. Even though I had better form, I was using some new muscles with my revised stroke which made it more difficult to have that smooth flowing stroke you should have.

Then, we went to run. Our trainings on the seacoast are at UNH and the run we do is either through college woods or on the track. Well, college woods was wet and icy from our recent weather and the track was still snow covered. However, the stadium steps were dry so she had us doing some stair repititions. While I wasn’t all that excited at the prospect of this workout when she told us about it, I found that I had this sense of fulfillment as Iwas in the middle of the repititions. It was reminiscent of the feeling I had when in the middle of the breakthrough workouts I was doing during Ironman training.

I don’t know if it is the oxygen deprivation or the endorphins flowing through the body, but as odd as it sounds, I had an incredible feeling of fulfillment when I was at the hardest part of a tough workout. I think some of it was a feeling of gratitude just to be out there. Though whatever it was, it’s shocked my system into really looking forward to the spring training cycle and racing season.

I’d have to say that over the last week and a half I’ve turned the corner from sporadic winter workouts to regular pre-season training. Even though I’m not starting my official base work until Feburary 1st, I’ve gotten into a nice routine of getting to bed relatively early and up a little before 5 to get a workout in.

After doing the Manchester marathon in November I’ve worked out when I got around to it. But, there were plenty of mornings when hitting the snooze button too many times meant I had to get to work and no time to work out.

I think the first race of the year is going to be the Big Lake 1/2 Marathon in May. There is usually a good contingent from GSTC that does the race which makes it fun. I know of at least one co-worker who is also doing the race. Big Lake will be a good test of fitness before the first Tri of the year, Mooseman in early June

I may do a 5 or 10k prior to that but we’ll have to see how the spring shapes up.

As thrilling as it is crossing the finish line of a triathlon, it almost pales in comparison to your child singing tales of admiration to you as a parent. My almost 10 year old son has crossed a new threshold in how he expresses his admiration.

He bought a new video game yesterday, with his own money, but it wasn’t all he expected and he had a very frustrating afternoon trying to play. I spent a long time with him on google last night looking for some tips that would help the game perform as he originally expected. Today, I exchanged that game for a new one that he like a lot better.

The words he said as I was helping him last night and gave him the new game today were so simple, however, the way he said them made their meaning deeper than almost anything he had told me before. The simple words were “Thank you Dad”. They are words he has told me before but this time it was different. They were more genuine and sincere than almost anything that I had ever heard him say.

It was one of those conflicting moments as a parent. On the one hand you feel so proud of your child growing up and learning to express himself in such meaningful ways, while at the same time, realizing that he is getting older and not the little boy he used to be, even though in a small corner of your brain you wish he wouldn’t get any older.

Excellent day today with the GSTC. We are fortunate to have a great coach, Suzan Ballmer, who filmed all 25 or so of us at the UNH pool both above and below water. After being filmed and doing an extended workout, we then ventured back to my house where my awesome wife had a spread of bagel, lox, coffee, fruit, etc. waiting for us.

Our club president setup a laptop and projector and we were able to get tips from Suzan on each of our techniques as our video clip played. Once I get my clip I’ll make an attempt to post here.

Even though I’ve only been regularly swimming for about 5 years, I felt like I had a pretty good stroke. It was amazing to see how some little things that I was doing in the video were slowing me up significantly.