Sunday, January 31, 2010

Powder Hound Triathlon

Sister Bonding Time


Chloe has taken to her new baby sister like glue. She grew up dramatically the day we took Cale home. Cale continues to sleep and eat well...gaining little pudgy cheeks like Jay had when he was a baby! She loves to go for walks with mom in the baby bjorn.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Baby Cale comes home!



Saturday evening, Jay and Chloe returned from skiing to pick me and Cale up from the hospital. What a wonderful occasion! We arrived safely home to lots of hugs and smiles. Chloe was ecstatic! Even baby Cale had a nice night sleeping in her borrowed bassinet!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

New family member --Cale!

This morning at 8am Sarah and I( mostly sarah) brought a new little girl into the world, Her name is Cale, born at St V's by C-section. She came out 6lbs 4 oz and is 19 inches tall, almost the exact same stats as our first born(chloe)Both baby and mom are doing great! we are very excited to have our new family member and chloe is supper excited to have a baby sister! check out the first pictures

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Sunday, January 3, 2010

happy 2010

Thank the lord 2009 is over! And Happy 2010 to you all. I often would tell my friends how great our life was in Montana, and this is still true, but now I may not gloat as much out loud since this past year was riddled with a horrible illness and other issues that made life a bit troubling this past year. But now we are in 2010, and with the birth of our second child in just a couple of weeks, we cannot imagine what could be a better start to the new year!

Just last month, I decided to race for the first time in over a year (more than 8 mo. longer than anytime in the past 22 years). My first race, the Thanksgiving Day Huffing for Stuffing 10k in Bozeman, was a bit of a disaster as I completely blew after 3 miles. The next event was a low key 5k in Billings and this was just a bit better -- blowing up a little less and averaging 6:25 per mile after going out at 6:05 for the first mile. Then, later in December, I took a trip to Atlanta to work with some clients and ran the Carpet Capital 10-miler in Dalton, Ga. At the event, I was determined not to try to run like I was 35 years old. (I ran 58 min. in Dalton in 1997) but I did want to do what I am capable of doing now. I stuck to my plan (going out at 6:39) and actually beat my goal of running 6:45 per mile and ran 1:06 (6:40 per mile) placing 2nd in my age group. I was very pleased with the result since in the past 3 months, even though I had been training pretty diligently, I had seen very few results and I had gotten pretty frustrated. Ray Brown had a solid run too, meeting his goal of 8:30 per mile and Sarah Heaton also had a fine run, placing 2nd in her age group with a 1:21. And then there was Saul Raisin who was the crowd favorite (hometown boy) who did an impressive 1:27. Sarah, Saul and I went to breakfast in Dalton for lots of stories and laughs.



coachjay at the Dalton 10 miler

The day following the race I had a night out with the ”Dude” (Bruce Erskine) and after a late night out in Vinings, I was determined to go mountain biking the next day. Even though it was wet, I finally found a guy to play with — Jervey — the first guy who sponsored me at Vinings Schwinn in Atlanta - who has a place up in Suches, GA. Thanks to Clay Rucker, for getting me a rig to ride, I went up and thoroughly got worked by Jervey on his slippery, leaf ridden, log strewn terrain. I was not used to that kind of mountain bike riding for sure. It was a great day. Thanks to Tammy and Ray Brown for all their hospitality.



sunset from the cabin's porch

So, this past week, we have spent nearly 10 days up at the Bozeman cabin. I had planned on hitting the snow for workouts every day for at least 2 hrs. The weather was perfect with 25-30 degree highs, a bit of new snow, perfect for Nordic skiing all week. But 2009 gave me on more hit. Only 2 days after we arrived, I went for a skate ski at Bohart Ranch and blew through my normal 10k loop in a good time of 56 min when, at the end of my run, I spaced out coming down the hill and in the flat light hit the classic tracks and did a Bang/Bang fall burying my elbow in my side damaging my ribs in a bad way. It knocked the wind out of me and I knew it would not be good for the rest of the week. Seeing as I set a goal -- I would trudge forward with my plan for training.
. The Kosners came up (Steve, Margaret, and Eileen) and I managed a classic/skate ski and a 1 hr run with Steve the next day (even though the hike at the end of the run to the top of the mountain I had to do on the snowmobile).



getting some help to the top of Nixon peak

The girls had a blast playing tons of games, doing arts and crafts and of course sledding on the many hills at the cabin.



Chloe and Eileen having fun at the cabin

But during all the training since my fall, I was in serious pain and as Dr. Margaret Kosnar said, [you can do anything as long as] “it doesn’t make it worse.” But of course it did. And on the next day, I tried to run with Nikki Kimball (4-time Western States 100 winner) and after 30 min I was unable to continue. So I took 4 days off and worked on programs and watched movies, I have to admit, I was getting a bit of cabin fever for sure.

Yesterday I snowshoed to the top of Nixon peak which is always epic!



Snow shoe summit of Nixon and look toward the Crazy mountains

Today I skated and without using my arms (poling) much, I was good for 1.5 hrs which was quite a relief. I am writing this blog at Bridger Bowl as Chloe is taking her first ski school class here (Mogul Mites).

Chloe has been the best and is a dare devil when it comes to sledding! She goes full blast! She loves the snow.

Sarah is always amazing me with being 9 mo. pregnant and walking the dogs up to 700 vertical ft. to Nixon every morning. Only 2 weeks away and most don’t even know she is pregnant! She has gained only a little more than the last one -- 12 pounds. The baby looks good and we can't wait for the surprise to see if it is a brother or sister for Chloe.

I thought you guys would like to see a pic of one of my new clients Major Clay Taulman. Clay is on tour in Ramadi, Iraq and is training for Ironman AZ this year. He sent this picture of his new tri bike!



Clay and his Tri-bike

On the Billing front -- this year's Windtraining class has 25 folks registered so far and I will only accept another 5-8 folks. So if you want to be in this year's class, you had better get your application to me ASAP. The forms are on this blog and class starts Jan 19th. Also look for some exciting Gym Jay news as well as a coachjay training camp in Bozeman some time in June -- details to follow. Also, don't forget to join me for the powerder Hound triathlon on Jan 31st at Homestake Lodge in Butte, MT. check out the details at: http://bozemantritons.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/2010-powder-hound-winter-triathlon/

look forward to seeing you this coming year

coachjay