A Weight Off My Shoulders.

Sorry its been so long since I've updated guys. Its been a BUSY week and a half. It doesn't seem like I have had any free time on my hands lately. Soccer just recently started up and it is A LOT tougher than I thought it was going to be juggling soccer and my ironman training schedule, not to mention physically draining. The weather the last couple of days has been pretty nasty so we haven't been able to get outside and workout much. Last week Sam, Dad, and Myself were able to get out on a ride around the Hayden and we hit some good hills. We followed that 22 mile ride up with a 60 minute run right after... needless to say we were all pretty sore the next day. I have to admit though, I have been slacking quite a bit on the riding and running. It seems like the days we are doing big workouts for those are always the day I have soccer. I have noticed the difference when riding and running with Sam and my dad. They are so much stronger and have the endurance to do the workouts without getting to broken down afterwards. I can say that I am keeping up on the swim though, I am feeling like I am getting a little better in the pool every time...granted there is still a lot of work that I need to do in the pool, but I'm getting better. Now for what the headline is all about, for those of you who don't know, I flew down to Salt Lake City last Friday where my brother picked me up. We road tripped down to St. George, UT so that I could go to a soccer camp at Dixie State College of Utah. The camp was awesome and I had a great time and really liked the campus. The camp went great and I played well. It opened the door for me because the coach thought I performed well too. I talked to him Monday night and I decided that I will be going down to St. George, UT next year to play soccer at Dixie State. I couldn't be more happy and it is such a great feeling to have decided what I am going to do next year. I just want to thank all those who have helped me achieve my goal of playing soccer at the college level. My coaches, both past and present for the skills that they have helped me develop. My friends who were always there to congratulate me or cheer me on. My brother and sister who exposed me to the game and helped me along the way by having a goal to reach. And especially to my parents. My parents have been there through every step and have worked extra hard to be able to afford to send me to tournaments all around the country. Once again thanks everyone for checking in on the blog and supporting our journey through the Ironman training process. Also, please be sure to check out Sam's and Brandon's blog which are linked at the top right side of my blog.

"The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle." ~Author Unknown

A tough week

As you may have noticed, last week I didn't update my blog because I was sick and only trained 2 days. Both of those training sessions were just light and easy swims I tried running but just couldn't breathe effectively enough to maintain running for more than about an mile, and it was a very slow mile at that. Basically last week was like taking two steps back after really starting to see some improvement in my training times. This week was started out with a couple of swims that made me pretty sore after from being fatigued from the sickness last week. However, on our long swim wednesday (2500 meters continous) I felt great I swam it in just under 45 minutes. After the swim wednesday I headed straight to our first soccer practice. When I woke up Thursday I thought I was pretty sore. Thursday I had soccer practice after school and then played two indoor soccer games after that. Needless to say, I could barely walk Friday my legs were tight and sore all day, it felt like my muscles were wound up way to tight and they were just going to snap. So Friday afternoon my dad and I went on about a 26 mile bike ride. Basically, he kicked my butt that ride, we rode about two and a half laps around the area we were riding. We rode together about the first lap and a half, but my legs just didn't have anything left in them the last lap. Ill give him that ride, but I live to fight another day. Thanks everyone for checking in on our training!

"Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark."David Ogilvy

A Nice Easy Week

There really isn't to much to report on this week. This week was a recovery week in our training plan, and next week the training is really going to get ramped up. The biggest disappointment is that it is snowing outside right now so that could really make riding not a lot of fun. Hopefully it warms up so we aren't going to have to ride inside all week again. We were able to get out this week and go for about an hour and a half ride which was the highlight of training this week.

The ride was awesome this weekend, I could definitely tell that the spinning classes have helped to build the legs muscles used while riding. Also, the workouts in the pool are really coming along well. I can feel my form getting better every week and I have seen the improvements in my form translate into faster swimming times. I didn't do the long run Friday, but the shorter runs throughout the week all went smooth and I didn't have any problems. I put in about 10 miles running, 3.5 miles swimming, and 25 miles biking plus spinning so it was a pretty light week. I took Friday off because it was a busy day already with Fight For the Fish. We lost the fish, but it was a fun night so I can't complain to much.

Thanks for checking in this week, sorry there wasn't a whole lot of excitement to tell about make sure to check in next week. Hopefully, its a little more eventful.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours." —Henry David Thoreau