The Life of Pizza John

Since my Half Ironman I have done two sprint triathlons.  The swim was canceled in the first one, so it was a run-bike-run.  In the second race, I improved my run time and my bike time by about a minute each.  They have been good training for Ironman Louisville.  I'm getting a little antsy so I can't wait for this race to be over, but I did decide to sign up for the Half in Miami in late October.  I can't let all this training go to waste with only one big race!  I need to hit sub-5 hours on the Miami Half as well. Now that I have a better idea of my fitness, I am shooting for less than 10:30 in Louisville...it's going to be hard to do!  My running is improving a lot especially on the short runs.  Running with the ACRR has helped a ton!  I love my new running group friends.  I have also been pushed on the bike a lot by Todd Neville and Bill Duggan. One last small race before the big race.  Olympic Tri in Fernandina. ...

In training for Ironman Louisville, about two weeks ago I decided to sign up for the Florida Half Ironman.  I have only been training for about five weeks, but it seemed like a great time...And it was! I was shooting for under 6 hours and I did it in 5:00:41.  So close to the sub-5 hour mark!  It was a great experience.  I felt really good most of the race so this means my training is working.  Here are some of the details. Swim (34:33):  The swim was in Lake Eva and the temperature was about 82 degrees.  The water was so murky you couldn't see the person swimming next to you.  They did wave starts so you constantly ran into people in front of you.  I did like this better than the mass start at Ironman St George.  It was much less violent.  When I swim outside a race I generally breath every third stroke, but for some reason I felt like I could not get enough oxygen on this swim so I breathed every other stroke.  ...

I went to the big island last November and I was surprisingly unimpressed. I didn't have a desire to return to Hawaii until my friend Corey convinced me another island was worth the trip. I am glad he convinced me. I wish I would move to Kauai, it is a magical place. If I didn't have Daria, I would have not come back. Corey and I mainly surfed, but we also did some hiking and exploring. We saw lush terrain, beautiful waterfalls and crazy wildlife. Corey even got 'attached' by a sea turtle (that's another story). The surf was good, but would have been a little bigger. We got to Kauai right after a long storm so a couple days we were there, it was pretty flat, but we enjoyed other parts of the island when there was no surf. I met Adria in LAX waiting to fly to Lihue. Corey and I ended up hanging out with her quite a bit. She get us a bunch of great restaurant recommendations and on our last day took us on a hike to a waterfall where we swam aro...

Daria recently learned to text and this is how our first conversations have gone: The texts started on Dec. 2 2011 Daria:I mis you Me:I miss you too! This is so great you are texting :-) Daria:Is that crazy that im texting Me:Are you having help? Daria:I dont need hap Me:Nice. This is so great! How was school today? Daria:i didin feei good soo i stad home Me:Oh no, I'm sorry. Are you feeling better now? Daria:i em stil cofing Daria:ho bnanus Me:What was that suppose to say? Daria:oh bananas Daria:ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Me:Haha, you are funny Me:This is cool, I just can't get over it! Daria:you are funy too Me:what are you going to do tonight? Daria:if i am feelyn betr we will go rolr skating Daria:this is mi frst time goeen rolr skating Me:That will be exciting! Let me know how it goes Then a couple hours later... Daria:Helo dad Me:Hey Daria. Are you going to skate? Daria: no, my uthr dad will not be home in time too watch oliviu Me:That sucks. We should skate sometime. ...