Good and Bad

I have an injury. I banged up my ribs pretty good while coaching wrestling on Saturday. It's a frustrating injury. You don't realize how often you use the muscles in and around your ribs.

Breathing in.
Exhaling.
Sitting up.
Using a screw driver.
Buckling the seat belt.
Lots of day to day activities have been affected.

It's been bad. I'm not able to practice with the wrestlers as well or as much as I'd like. Also, I've not been able to train for the Ironman as I'd like.

I tried swimming yesterday evening. I didn't even make it one length of the pool. I don't know why I thought I'd be able to swim...

But therein lies the good. I think this is the first time in my life that I actually wanted to swim and wasn't able to! That was a good thing. I feel I've hurtled a mental block.

I'm anxious to swim and anxious to improve my swim.

So, yes. I'm hoping my ribs heal in the next day or two. I'm, surprisingly enough, ready to get in the pool!!!

Good News!

I'm happy to report that my upgrade request for a Category 3 cyclist was approved!

Cycling is split up into Categories.

You begin as a Category 5, or Cat 5, Cyclist. After you've gotten some experience, I think 10 or so races, you upgrade to a Cat 4 cyclist.

The Categories are 5-1. After 1 is Pro level.

To move between categories a cyclist must prove that he or she is ready for a higher level of competition. This is accomplished by placing high in races. Podiums are great (top three), but top tens are also respected.

I had a slowish start to the racing season. I didn't do so great in the Spring Series.

However, I really turned on the training in the late Spring and Summer. Finishing in the top Ten in almost all of the races I entered.

My highlights were a 3rd place at the Team Dayton Criterium and a 2nd place at the Kentucky Road Race championships.

It was a great year. The training and hard work paid off as I finally was able to "Cat-up" to a 3! I've been racing 4s for two seasons now.

I look forward to the higher level of competition the 3s will offer.

It will be tough because I am focusing my efforts on Ironman.

Let the training begin!

All right, here is a picture. I've been a bit lax in posting on my blog... I apologize to my faithful reader(s) :)

I've been training for about two weeks now. Mostly swimming and cycling with a run or two thrown in the mix.

So this is what I look like at the beginning of my training. it will be interesting to see if there will be any noticeable changes in my build.