I started training for triathlons in August of 2004 after signing up for Ironman Wisconsin for September of 2005. Since that first month I've been continually setting tough goals and working hard to achieve them. After three years of training I qualified for my pro card and during the past two years was racing in the pro field with mixed results. Some good races and some terrible races. My notable accomplishments as a triathlete were:
* 2005: Finishing my first Ironman @ IM Wisconsin (11:47)
* 2006: Set a new Half Ironman PR at White Lake going 4:14 with a PB of 4:51
* 2006: Qualified for Kona at Lake Placid (10:01) and was 5th place in my AG
* 2006: Finished in Kona on a tough day for me (10:08)
* 2007: Training ride of 240 miles from Charlotte, NC to Charleston, SC in 11:47
* 2007: Set the M30-34 AG course record at IM Florida (8:49)
* 2007: Qualified for pro card with IM Florida performance
* 2007: Self taught IM swim from 1:03 to 53 mins in 2 years
* 2008: First year racing pro......injured and didn't finish many races
* 2009: Finished 3 day cycling weekend with 105 mi & 18.5k+ ft climbing daily
* 2009: 6th place pro at Eagleman 70.3 (4:02) and 5th place pro at RI 70.3 (4:03)
* 2009: Qualified for and raced at Ironman 70.3 World Championships as a pro
* 2009: Decided to discontinue the triathlon lifestyle to pursue other life goals
I'm proud of all of these accomplishments and the recent decision to drop all of my future triathlon ambitions was not an easy one. After taking my three week end of season break I realized just how much time I have available to me when I'm not in training mode. I've also realized that I'm not really enjoying the process as much as I used to. Since I have a wife and full time job I always feel like I'm rushing from one thing to the other and don't really have time to just hang out and relax. I've put activities that I thoroughly enjoy doing on the backburner because they would tire me out or make me sore for my training. Along with that, most of our vacation time was spent at races and the money spent throughout the years on triathlon are quite impressive when added together. All of these things along with our baby girl coming in March have led me to decide that it's no longer worth it for me to chase my goals with triathlon at the cost of the sum of these things combined. Some people have asked why I can't just do it for fun. Maybe I'll come back to doing it for fun when I'm in my late 40s or early 50s. For now, I've got a list of things that I want to learn and accomplish. Here is my initial list of things that I want to focus my time on over the next 5 years:
* Be the kind of husband and father that I aspire to be
* Hang out with friends more often :: play poker, cornhole, etc.
* Spend vacations with family or friends in badass locations
* Become more handy with tools and building things
* Mountain Biking .... backflip is on my list of ToDos
* Football
* Basketball
* Learn to speak fluent Spanish
* Water skiing and wake boarding in the summer
* Take salsa dancing lessons with Jen ...... for our vacations
* Become a good cook
* Become a certified skydiver
I think that list should keep me occupied from now until I'm around 38 years old. My goal is to get good enough at all of them to be about two notches below expert level.....so somewhere in the low advanced level. I think once you become an expert at something it gets boring.....at least it does for me. That's when I'll move on to my next list for my low to mid 40s. This blog is going to switch directions from being mainly about triathlon to living life after triathlon with the focus on overall happiness and balance.