The Life of Pizza John

I like to start the year off with the same race to judge where my fitness is. I was curious to see how much fitness I had lost due to taking time off while in Hawaii and while I did lose some fitness I didn't lose as much as I thought I would.  I've been working my butt off to get back in shape and it shows.  Alia and I were originally going to drive down to Clermont the morning of the race, but our friend Sue offered for us to stay at her place in Ocala so it would cut the morning drive time in half.  It was wonderful! I raced well for the level of my fitness and I finished 1st in my age group and 5th overall.  I made a mistake that I never have before which ended up costing me about 5 minutes and a much better overall placement.  I made a wrong turn on the bike!!!  I know this course so well so I have no idea what I was thinking.  Wrong turn or not, my bike and run were both slower than last year, but not by a whole lot.  I did swim faster th...

I've been really enjoying biscuits in the morning and I have gone through all kinds of recipes and this is the one I enjoy the most. I usually half the recipe which makes about 6 small biscuits. 2 Cups Flour 1 TBS Baking Powder (not expired) 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 Cup butter 3/4 Cup milk (higher percentage = better biscuits) Mix flour, baking powder and salt.  Then cut the butter into small pieces and mash it into the dry ingredients.  Once the mix is evenly chunky, add the milk and just mix until combined. Put a little flour on the counter and smash the mixture until it's about 1/2 inch thick. Fold in half and use a flour coated cup to shape/cut the biscuits. Mush the leftovers together and repeat until you have no dough left. Bake at 450 for about 10 minutes. Yum, Yum!

Lots of excitement this year in Hawaii including Kalalau, heavy surf, Secrets and lots of tasty food.  Already savoring a trip back next winter.  My Hawaii posts don't get a lot of detail for numerous reasons, but mostly because Hawaii sucks...stay away! Our Crew! Classy drinking at the food trucks New Wax! Corey's favorite toilet Winter? Why not!?! I only partially gave up running Christmas Treats Pouring one out for Toni We matched... Handstand contests...I won! Don't tell Alex this is here. 'Next Year' we will surf those waves Our campsite Hippy New Years bonfire! View from our home

Each year I create goals and sometimes I accomplish them and sometimes I don't.  This was one of those years when I did not accomplish most of my goals, yet it was also the best year I have ever had in terms of happiness.  The one goal that I did accomplish this year was to get my PMP certification and I am super happy about this since it has been weighing on me for a while.  A few of the goals I didn't accomplish were: -Break 1:30 in Half Ironman run (I got really close on this one and ran a 1:30:13) -Break 55 minutes in Olympic bike (I also got really close on this one with a 55:09) -Podium finish in AG at IM event (At Florida 70.3 I finished 7th in AG and 14th overall) -Qualify for 70.3 Worlds (I never stuck around for rolldowns so I'm not really sure about this one) -Qualify for Kona (this has been a goal for a long time, but I'm either not cut out for long distance racing or I would need a few more years to work towards it.  Training for Ironman distance ...

I decided it was finally time to do a 5k and what a better time than Thanksgiving morning.  Shut up and Run is a small, fun race put on by a friend Sally and it goes all around the road and trails in Treaty Park.  I was pretty impressed they could get 3.1 miles out of the park, but with a little creativity, they did it well!  Plus, it was mostly run on trails which is at lot more entertaining than the road. At the start of the race, I took off with the lead pack and hung on to them until the last mile 3/4 of a mile.  I finished 5th overall with an 18:50 which isn't super fast, but based on lots of turns on a trail I was semi-satisfied.  One fun part about this race is there is a Pie Guy and if you beat him, you get to take home a pie. Needless to say, I got a pie.  Lots of my favorite OFC people also volunteer at this race so it was great to hang out with all of them on Thanksgiving morning. Now....off to Hawaii for a couple months!!! Don't mind the...