Newbz' group is FULL (Page 10)

Dirk - I empathize with you. Your emotions are genuine and legitimate. Be there for your daughter and take the frustration out on the track. This is the anger you are feeling – the helplessness of the situation. You must be the example for your daughter to follow.

Yeah I know, "I'm the adult" but right now I don't particularly care for that mode of thinking.  Yeah I am actually fairly reasonable about this right now.  I have spent some time talking to her about it and she seems to be okay, I guess.  The hard part for her she said was that she was on the third floor of the school and could hear the victim screaming "don't kill me" while being chased by the perp.  It seems the perp was laughing as he chased the victim down the hall which is what really gets my adrenaline surging.  Currently the perp is being held on a preliminary charge of battery and possesion of a knife at school but the charges had better be moving to some more serious charges.  In my opinion, he should be charged with attempted 1st degree murder because it was premeditated.  I also think he should be tried as an adult so it's not exsponged from his record as an adult.  I actually (since I am unable at this point to have any symapthy)would not be hurt by a death penalty case but since he is 14 yrs old it wouldn't happen.  I also know that in a few weeks I would not support a 14 year old getting a death sentance but right now I am angry enough to be ok with it.  I feel very poorly for the perps parents and siblings too.  I cannot imagine what they must be dealing with.  It would be incredibly horrible.

The victim seems to be in stable condition today and from what I understand should be okay. 

On a much lighter note.  I got a veeerrrryyy short swim (half my short recovery week swim) in tonight before getting kicked out of the pool.  It seems I read the schedule wrong and public swim time was over an hour before I thought.  So I got a 1200 yd. swim in with a warm up and no cool down.  I was rather upset because my workouts this week are virtually nonexistent.  1 run on Tuesday, an easy 3 miles, and now a 1200 yd. swim.

I thin I am going to hit I hard tomorrow because know Saturday is going to be almost impossible to get anything in with an early morning basketball game and a "rest of the day" swim meet for my daughter.  There always next week I guess.



One last thing, I will not put anymore personal stuff such as the knifing incident on here anymore.  I will try to keep this stuff in a more appropriate forum.  I thought it might be best to vent where fewer people might see it and still be able to get it off my chest.  Thanks for allowing it.





Edited by DirkP 2010-01-14 9:20 PM

Wow Dirk, I just saw your posts re. the slashing at your daughter's HS.  Sorry to hear that, it's very upsetting.

Without knowing more, I'd have to say I'm with you on the severe penalty side of things. 

Thanks for hearing (reading) and I will move past the vindictive stage in a little while because I don't want to see a 14yr old in the chair but life in prison.....yeah that's okay.

on the school side of things, assuming no one else is offended i think its ok to put up personal stuff in here, if they are/would rather just have this stick to triathlon topics shoot me a PM and i can put up a post so no names come out/fingers are pointing.
I'm glad it looks like hte other kid is going to be ok, i've lost WAY too many friends at a young age and its never something anyone wants to or is ready to deal with. We always think it wont happen to us but then you see something like this and it becomes a LOT more real very quickly.

on the training front. don't worry about the past workouts you missed, you cannot do a thing about it. jump back into training and go from there. life likes to get in the way but it happens, best to just move on rather than try and jam in a bunch to make up for it (this is how people get hurt)

I think I am slowly adjusting to the fact that not every week is going to work out for training and to be honest it is probably a good thing if it doesnt all the time, it might help me remember how much I enjoy training.  I am going to try to get a decent couple of workouts in today and get up early for my long run tomorrow morning because it's going to be a long day of games and meets with no chance for workouts anytime else.

Thanks for the comment about the school incident.  I am sure the closeness to home has a lot to do with my anger. 

Oh, wow Dirk.  I'd be fuming too.  Is this an isolated incident, or have there been other incidents at this particular school?  As for feeling sorry for the parents; I can only wonder what kind of parents they are to have a child do this in the first place.  However, I realize that even wonderful parents can have issues with children.  I think this is a safe place for you to post.  What goes on in our personal lives effects our Tri lives, and our goal here is to support each other however that may be.

Life is about changes and adapting on a daily basis. I have two younger daughters and would be feeling the same as you. Get in the workouts you can and make them count! I am limited with my time as well and I treat every workout as if I might miss the next one. I don't worry about the ones I missed or the ones I may miss in the future. Fitting the training in to our busy lives is important, but not as important as our family. Good luck to your daughter and don't forget to enjoy the fun stuff. Have a good day.

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Thanks for the comments everyone, they are appreciated!  This was the first incident ever at this school.  It is  Lutheran HS that has been around for a long time.  This may be adding to my anger because it is supposed to be a Christian school and "it's not supposed to happen at a Christian school" is kind of in the forefront of my mind. 

I also recognize, because I have a "past" (although not criminal), that we are all human beings and poor choices are made by each of us many times but this was more than that.  I have learned that most people are capable of some wicked things if we don't hold ourselves in check.  Discipline is learned from a young age if it is taught correctly will have a very positive influence on our lives.  Consider your Tri training, if you lacked the discipline to train......DNF.  As a parent I am responsible to teach my kids the right ways, abide by the law even when you disagree with it or there WILL be consequences, don't take something from someone and expect dissimilar treatment yourself.  Basically.......Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  If each person did this can you imagine what a different world we would live in.

I would guess the parents are probably "decent" parents but this kid could have been the problematic one of all of them.  Most of the parents I have met that send their kids to this HS have been pretty good but I am sure there are many who simply send their kids there because the education is better than the public schools in the area.  The pain these parents are dealing with would be unbearable.

I have another "daughter" (just a very close friend of the family that calls me dad) who's real dad died on Dec. 29 after a long illness (MS and a recent massive heart attack) that goes to the same school and I have been talking to her too, trying to figure out how shes doing with her additional stress now.  So a fair amount of my time is devoted to listening and counseling.  Both of my "real" girls and my kind of adopted other girl mean the world to me and they do need me and I want to be there for all of them.  WHENEVER they need me.

Thanks again for the sounding board you are allowing me have right now.  It is helping me deal with the anger and frustration of it all.

This is a SOUNDING BOARD. Everything is fair game to me.

Thursday, I did the bike trainer in the morning and I prepared for a tough run workout during lunch. I had arrived at work early so that I could take a little longer at lunch. My training plan called for a short warm up with a tough 10 mile tempo run. Working the FIRST training plan all of the workouts are challenging. The pace in that the plan called for was at a 7:26 minute / mile pace. This is for the 3:15 marathon training plan. This pace seemed too easy. I flipped to the 3:10 marathon training plan and it demanded a 7:15 minute / mile pace. This was also not as challenging. I was perplexed as to my pace.

I decided to go out at a 7:10 minute / mile pace. This seemed comfortable – almost conversational. Heading out from the university is very slightly uphill. I tried to stay at the designated pace but it quickened at the turn around. It was hard turning around. I was about an eighth of a mile from my house. The pace topped out at 6:50 minutes / mile – the pace that I ran Sunday’s half. I finished the run with an average pace of 7:02. It did get hard. This was a solid run for the middle of the week.

I am reevaluating my pacing for the marathon. I can play it safe or hug the edge.

have you run a marathon before (sorry am forgetting if you had). if not there is a HUGE diff between a full and a half in that the real race in a full starts at mile 20. That is where most people slam into the wall and the tiny little pacing/fueling issues catch up.

That sounds like a solid run regardless!! I'm just getting back to the point where my longer runs are in the 10-14 mi range. Got in a 12.5 mile run last night on some hilly rocky trails and was under 8 min pace so i was thrilled with that. Either an easy run or first speed workout of the year today depending on how i feel. Either way i am very happy with how the running is going seeing my easy and long run pace (for flat ground) creeping into the low 7 min/high 6 min range is a good sign. Looking for the next 5k to be down around 17 flat.

I just finished a short 4 mile run at 34:36.  Not fast by the past 2 posts but I was trying to run slow because I am planning an 8 miler tomorrow morning.  The run was pretty easy, I could come in under the 8 minute pace if it were a race but nothing compared to the fast guys ˆˆˆˆ up there ˆˆˆˆ  I just decided it should be an easy fun run with the lack of training this week. 

I also got a good swim in this morning and that was pretty good too.  I am learning to really enjoy the water now and some of the hard training there.  I was able to hold 36 and 37 sec 50's for 10 sets after a good warm up.  I think it is pretty quick for a guy that has only been swimming for about 4 months.  My HR surged to 172 at the end of the sets and I was dong some serious wind sucking too.  The last of swim was a 500 that I wasn't really trying to do fast but just to challenge me a bit and it came in at 7:42.  That is a PR for me. 

I think today was a good workout day and the first day this week I have been feeling real good.

dirk,

first nice job on the 50s, it took me over a year to even see 37 for one of them.

on the running, you have the right mindset. a bulk of your runs should just be in the cruising pace range. Up to a point running harder wont get you faster any quicker, and just beats you up.If you keep running at a semi-comfortable pace (or one that allows you to keep repeating workouts), the speed you are moving at that easy pace will gradually come down. When i first started running, a comfortable pace was 9:30 or just above. for that same effort i can now easily run in the 6:50 range. it takes some time and patience but it iwll come down. you throw in the occasional harder run and fun things start to happen.

Dirk –
Those are great swim times. Very respectable. That is right about where I was this past summer and it took me a lot of work to get there. I think that I am going to have to join the Y and attend Master’s Swim if I want improvement. Lap swimming is the most boring for me – I think the camaraderie of the master’s swim would help me. I just don’t want to have to drive across town. All of my exercise is right out the front door or on campus. I hate the thought of driving to work out.

Running –
I have shaved 8 minutes off of my ½ marathon PR in the last 6 weeks (1:29:28 – 6:50 pace). Right now I am trying to increase my endurance while maintaining my pace. I respect the distance immensely having never run a standalone marathon (I did a run / walk marathon at the end of my ironman in August in 4:01). Not to sound arrogant but I believe that I will achieve my primary goal of a sub 3:15 to Boston Qualify. However, right now I am trying to determine just exactly what pace I should run the marathon. I realize that the wheels can and do fall off around the 20 mile mark.

So, to help with the endurance I am racing a 25K (15.5 miles) this Sunday and then in 2 weeks a 30K (18.6 miles). These races will determine at what pace I race the marathon.

I am excited.

assuming you pace it correctly and things keep going well in training i see no reason why you cant hit that time goal. what;s the course look like?

Hey all, just checking in.  Had a great run this morning - made it 11.5 miles, my longest since IMKY.

BTW - nice swimming/running times Dirk and James! 

Wilky - It seemed like it took me forever to recover from IMKY - congrats on the run.

and Quintan - I will definitely watch the videos - it is not just how fast you are in the swim but how efficient.

The Mardi Gras Marathon should be flat and fast (below sea level in fact - not many hills).

Thanks for the encouragement on the swim.  I actually am feeling better about the swim than I used to because I was at a HS swim meet for 4-5 hours today watching my daughter swim.  I could actually compete with some of the middle of the road swimmers at the distances but def not the better ones.  I'd be crushed by those guys.  They're swimming the 500 Free in about 5.30-5.45, a full 2 minutes faster than this old man.  I have one thing those punk kids though......the bike and run. (As long as they use a 1972 schwinn mountain bike and some old Chuck Taylor's to run in.)

I finished my long run for the week too.  I ran 8 miles early this morning in the dark.  I usually don't do this because my Saturdays are normally not filled with a lot of extra scheduled activities but today was ridiculous so it was a 6:15 wake up call for me.  I felt sluggish for most of the run and never established any rhythm either.  I was NOT in the zone at all.  All in all I am glad I did it because there was going to be no chance for anything else getting done.

Quintan,
Glad to hear about your swimming, stick with it and the conditioning gets better for some faster times.  One thing to consider before you ditch the idea of getting faster in one discipline for the other, if you are succeeding in the swim maybe keep working it at the same intensity and add intensity to your runs too.  Make sure you get the rest you need but just add some more intensity.  I have been doing some intense stuff in all three and seem to be making strides in all of them.  Just be careful not to injure yourself.  I am reading a book called "Swim Bike Run" and it gives some pretty detailed information about intensity that applies to me as a new triathlete, it might help you too.  I picked it up at the LBS for $15-$20.  Keep working hard and watch the payoffs this season.

Hmmm?  Below sea level does that mean scuba gear is required?  If so I am not seeing a PR for this one buddy!  JK.

I was down in the bayou (not the bowl) for Katrina a few years ago and know what you mean.  Oh yeah don't get the bends below sea level either.

looking like everyone is making some great progress!

On the swim: its a good idea to get the basics down from the start, and get used to swimming with good form. from there though its all about swimming fast. spend the time you need to get the form down and ingrained, and then start pushing out of your comfort zone. there will come a point where no matter what your form looks like, you'll need hard swimming to get it faster.

good news is that is where the fun starts!! Swim sets are wildly more fun than just getting in and swimming, and its nice because its one of the few sports where intervals are the bulk of training vs just cruising so it mixes things up.

greeting newbz!
it's been a great training week. got in all of my planned workouts but i won't bore you with all of that. gearing up for the start of a new week and making positive headway.

quintan-thanks for posting the total immersion video links. that's exactly what i needed to hear...gotta focus on the drills not just junk mileage. i knew that but i needed to hear it again. next week's focus on swimming is to sprinkle in more drills.

did a nice 12 mile run this morning in prep for the gasparilla half mary coming up feb 28th. time was 1:30:34 or 7:33/mi. not bad considering it was kinda hot. the weather here can't make up its mind lately. but i'll take the heat anyday...muscles feel more fluid than when it's cold.

have a great week everyone!