Today has been one of those days where you feel like everything is just what you needed enlighten your entire life.

This morning I was sitting on the couch before church trying to fix a clasp on one of Janelle’s necklaces so she could wear it.  As I was diligently trying to fix this very small and delicate piece Kate plopped down next to me to watch.  Just like every 3 year old, and unfortunately probably 4 year old, her favorite question is “Why?”.  So it went a little like this:

Katelyn: Daddy, whatcha doin?

Me: I’m fixing Mommy’s broken necklace.

Katelyn: Why?

Me: Because it’s Daddy’s job to fix broken things.  What are you doin?

Katelyn: Just sittin here.

Me: Why? (Okay, so I do this maybe out of a bit of frustration and it probably doesn’t help her to stop asking the question…)

Katelyn: pause… Because I love you!

Me: silent

Okay, she won!  Not only did she melt my heart with that simple statement and wrap me even a little tighter around her finger, which Janelle would say was impossible, but it got me to thinking.  No matter what we do there is always some motive for our actions. Whether it is fame, fortune, fun, spite or love we have some reason we do what we do, whether we know it or not.  BOOM thought done and moving on with the rest of my day.

Or so I thought… Siting in service at City Church this past Sunday I was once again mowed over.  We have been going through a sermon titled “Walk the Line” and yes it does include a little Johnny Cash to kick it off every Sunday.  Today’s sermon discussed laziness.  This is probably the first time I have heard a biblical approach on this.  The premise of this was a follow up on City Church’s, “Called, not Employed” attitude.  This is the belief that no matter where you work you are there for a reason.  The continuation on this was that you should work in a manner like you are working for Christ not simply an employer.  In other words, as believers, we should be the hardest workers and put forth the greatest effort even if you don’t have the greatest skill set.  Then add on top of that and add that thought process to every aspect of your life and see how big and intimidating it gets.

This has had me thinking all week long of what my motives are for many of my goals, why I do what I do and how I can continue to improve.  Where are you?

Looking to hear this sermon search “City Church Tallahassee” to find the video.  Currently it is not posted.

Happy 2013 everyone!  I hope that this year brings a refreshing start for many of you and a fun look back at everything that occurred last year.  I know around our household it was a whirl wind with births, birthdays, broken arms, hospital visits, travel and racing my bike across the country. I know that I am excited to begin a new year and it has already come at me screaming fast with so many things going on in even the first week!

Last year I came up with a list of 10 items that I wanted to set as my goals, which I must say I feel like I passed with an 80% completion rate… I know a B…what can I say.  Believing in the fact that a resolution is not a great route for me since a great deal of them seem vague, or somewhat dumb I am sticking with goals for 2013.  I have consolidated my list this year though.  In fact I have chopped it drastically down from 10 to 1 single item.  You read it in the title… No Excuses!

Seem a little to broad a little to vague for you?  Well, let me break it down and simplify it then.  What that means is there is no reason great enough other than the fact that I dropped the ball or didn’t do something.  Why did I come up with this one?  Quite frankly I have become very tired of hearing excuses from people.  It drives me crazy!  Your life is busy and you have a lot going on.  I understand that but so is mine and so do I.  If I am unable to get something done, make it to an event, skip a workout or forget something it is for those reasons alone.

Now, I am not saying this is easy.  Just yesterday I had a partner ask if I had gotten a task done. It was hard to tell someone that I admire, respect and that depends on me “No, I haven’t gotten to that yet.” but that is exactly what I ended up saying.  It doesn’t matter that I have had a sinus infection, been working a lot or whatever else might be going on in life I didn’t finish what we had discussed and therefore I had to fess up to it.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is going to be an extremely tough one for the year and will more than likely place me in an uncomfortable situation several times, however, almost out of frustration I feel this is one that I must become better as well.

In my years working at CTS I had the opportunity to meet many amazing people, work with some phenomenal athletes and build some phenomenal relationships with many of my athletes who later became friends.  I can not lie, some of them I was closer with than others, but all of them I felt I had a good relationship.  Today marks a very sad day for me, a great man’s family and I am sure many of his dear friends.  One of my former athletes Mike, who I still spoke with on a monthly basis to chat about life, family, business and whatever else came up, passed away of a heart attack doing one of the things he loved most, riding his trainer.  I found out early this morning from one of our mutual friends and I have not been able to wrap my mind around it ever since I found out.

I met mike in May of 2007 at a Cycling Camp and began coaching him then and their on the spot.  He was one of my first “official” athletes, if not the first, and because of that I feel there was always a different connection with him.  Plus he was a Kansas boy too so we had Wildcat football to talk about as well as the KS mentality.  Over the years Mike pushed and pushed on the bike and the more we worked together the closer we became.  I knew that before I slotted a phone call with Mike I needed a minimum of 30 minutes solely because it was easy to talk and there never seemed to be too few things to talk about.  Over the years Mike and I spent a great deal of time riding together, especially seeing as how we lived nearly 500 miles apart.  He was a frequent attendee of many camps and soon became a “surrogate coach.” Since he had attended so many camps he knew the routine and the protocol.  Mike never became the greatest bike racer, or the fastest sprinter but he loved riding his bike and learned to descend with the best of them (sometimes scaring me).  His family may never read this, heck for that matter no one may ever read this, but I will miss my monthly phone call with Mike!  If you are family and reading this we never had the opportunity to meet or even talk but I hope you know that Mike’s reach was far greater than Hutchinson, KS.  Thanks for the laughs, frustrations, and listening Mike and I hope you are in a better place and that we can one day log some miles together again.

This summer/fall has been INSANE!  I have obviously not updated my blog since June 9th so here is an overview of what all has gone on since then.

• Raced my bike across America – We had a 4 man team that raced from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland in 6 days 2 hours and 8 minutes.  We took fourth over all and had a good time doing it!  I never intend on doing it again though and consider it one of my bucket list events
• Kate’s 2nd birthday- Oh my dear baby Jesus!  The time has flown so fast and the number of words she is speaking now is amazing.  Janelle and I often look at each other and wonder where she learned some of the words.  She is a ball full of energy and I can’t help but laugh thinking about her and how much I love her.
• Kiya went into anaphylactic shock- She had an allergic reaction to her kennel cough vaccination and I took her to the emergency vet at 10:30pm. This was not her first trip to an emergency clinic but it was significantly cheaper than the last!
• We moved- Not half way across the country this summer… just across town.  I am tired of moving and Janelle and I both agree, “No more moving until we buy a house”
• A new member to the family- Grayson Douglas Irwin was born, August 31st at 11:51am and weight 8lbs 8oz and was 21 inches long.  He is a handsome little guy and has stolen his mothers heart to say the very least.
• Janelle went to the Dr. and was admitted to the hospital- Post delivery complications lead to some surgery.  Everything is now okay and I think the hardest thing for her was being away from her newborn son.
• Grayson went to the Dr. and then was admitted-  The little guy stopped eating for 18hr or so and got really dehydrated.  He was given an IV and diagnosed with severe acid reflux.  The Russian hospitalist is a JERK!
• I crashed my bike- This was the DUMBEST crash that has ever happened to me.  My water bottle fell into my front wheel after it got hung up int he bottle cage.  I went over the bars and fractured the olecranon process of my humerus.  3 weeks post crash the fracture is healing and I am working on getting range of motion back.  I am going to be getting back on the bike shortly too.
• Kiya goes in for surgery- yea… we thought she had an “ear flap hematoma,” boy were we wrong. Turns out it’s cancer on her ear.  Little does she know she is going in tomorrow for surgery.

Obviously with the arrival of G we have had lots of visitors and amazing support from friends with meals to help with the stress of a second kid and all of the hospital stays.  We couldn’t have done it without you all!  If I forgot anything, which I am sure I did, I am sorry.  Have a great weekend!

Team HTHH kits for RAAM

Well, I am officially packed for Race Across America.  At least I think I am… 🙂  I worked tonight for 4 hours to get everything from bikes, spare wheelsets, tools, clothes and even my on the bike nutrition product in line.

This week has been a trying week for me.  On Sunday my seat post slid down and I did not realize it and I ended up having to limp in the rest of the way home.  12 miles in 1hr 15min and lots of pain was enough to leave me a broken man.  I have been icing that knee like crazy and last night took some ibuprofen to help reduce some of the swelling.  With less than two weeks to go it had me very nervous that everything I had done in the last 12 months was going to be a loss.  Today I hoped on the bike for a very short ride to test things out a little.  The first few minutes were uncomfortable and then my knee popped (it happens a lot when I ride) and my knee miraculously felt perfect.  Trying to play it safe I cut it short and will hop on in the morning for another test ride before both of my bikes will head west for the race.

I have until Tuesday before I leave and will enjoy the weekend as much as I can before what appears to be a grueling 2 weeks of final preparation and bike riding.  If any of you would like to follow us you can see updates on http://www.facebook.com/TeamHTHH as well as the RAAM Webite and Facebook Pages.  If you are interested in helping support our cause of raising money to help battle childhood cancer please donate to CureSearch and help us reach our $25,000 goal.

As many of you already know Janelle and I are expecting another little Irwin child in August! This is a very exciting/scary time for both of us but we are both getting more and more excited about the arrival of our new child. We find out in several weeks what the sex of our little one will be but we can pray for a boy, right? 🙂 Either way, I have told Janelle that it is a “Two and through” deal. If it is another girl we will be happy with what the lord will bless us with.

Coincidentally our Church just wrapped up a series today called “The Birds and The Bees,” which covered marriage and sex(insert christian taboo shock here) and also it went into parenting a little bit in relation to what the bible says about all of it. I would like to be able to say that I am a perfect Husband and father but as many of you might find hard to believe that is far from the truth sometimes(stunned silence, I am sure). This sermon series was great for me and opened my eyes to a great deal about what being a husband/father should look like. This is certainly a never ending goal and work but It is something to strive for. I think the most important part for me is the “Husbands, it is on you!” quote. I think too often it is very easy to come home after a long day of work and forget what your responsibilities are as a husband and father and with one more on the way this series was a great reminder to me.  If any of you are interested in watching you can go here to see the sermons.

RAAM training weekend two was a great one.  It was trying both physically and mentally this go around.  Thanks to some BEAUTIFUL weather, some locals considered cold, we were able to get a lot of miles in without sweating to death.  The weekend consisted of a 40k time trial, 125miles of saddle time and 100miles on the TT bikes totaling over 250 miles by the time it was to be all said and done.

Friday afternoon three of us were able to meet up for the TT, Halsey had his daughter’s birthday, so it was up to the three of us to knock out the TT and each other!  We switched the order from the last go around with Austin starting us off, me going second wheel and Jamey bringing up the rear.  The weather was perfect and for January I couldn’t complain about being in my riding kit and arm warmers.  I got up to speed quickly and settled in fast tapping out a steady rhythm on the pedals with the main goal of pushing throughout the whole ride and staying in the TT position that I had only spent a total of 2 hours in up until this point.  After 10K I had pulled in Austin and continued to put the power to the pedals.  I hit the turn around point at 20k and was expecting the relief of a tailwind… boy was I wrong!   What I thought was a headwind must have simply been the “wind” that I was generating as I was rolling down the road.  I turned around to find a headwind again which was a little more defeating than I hoped for.  I passed Austin going the other direction about a minute later and Jamey was hot on his heels in pursuit.  I crossed the finish line at 1:00:10 and was pleased with that since the last 20K was over 30min.  Doubling the distance and decreasing the time is always a great way to do it!  What made me even happier was that it was the fastest time on the day.

The early morning light casting some long shadows

Saturday was a whole different story… I learned the hard way the importance of nutrition and hydration.  The morning started off cold at 27 degrees and on our 1+hour ride to the group ride I did not drink more than 1/4 of a bottle of drink.  I tried forcing down more fluids while we waited but the slushy that was in my bottle was not very appealing with it still being below 30deg.  I sucked down a gel quickly and we hit the road. The first hour was high intensity and again I forgot to focus on the necessities.  We got to the final turn of the day with less than 15 minutes in the group ride and I dropped.  With no fuel in the tank there was no way I could hold and I sat up and focused on getting as many calories in as possible.  I polished off the first bottle and got halfway through the next before I sucked down 2 more gels and met up with the guys again to plug along.  At this point it was too late and I was in the hurt locker.  3+ hours down and I had not had nearly enough to eat and still was barely halfway through the ride.  We plodded along and thanks to Jamey we kept the pace high enough.  He did the lions share of the work that day and kept me moving throughout.  After one stop and picking up 2 monstrous Rice Krispy treats I felt a bit of a revival.  The final hour I was able to go back up to the front and put in a little bit more work to help get everyone through the 125 mile day.  We wrapped up quickly and headed home to kick our feet up for the next day.  I was cooked to say the least.  My legs were roached, I was mentally beat and I wanted to be done for the weekend… so much so that I considered calling and saying I was sick. 🙂

Sunday morning I woke up and my legs were sore to the touch.  I had no desire to get on the bike and I was wishing I had some way out of it.  I pulled out of the driveway and headed for our meeting point.  It was cold that morning and as we rolled out of the parking lot I was chilled to the bone.  We were joined with a fifth rider, Steve Barraco, and were glad to have the extra body.  We rolled along slowly for a few minutes and Jamey went to the front again to pick up the pace and also our core temperatures.  The first 30 minutes were brisk at a minimum with the garmin reading 24degrees.  We rolled along through the shadows of the tall pine trees through  the marshy land and could tell as soon as we got to some dryer surroundings and the temperature started to increase.  Jamey was a hause for the first part of the day and again did a great deal of work.  I was perfectly content sitting in as I warm up and tried to talk myself into riding a bike.  After several hours we made our first stop of the morning and I was feeling good and ready to ride.  From this point on Jamey and I took turns rotating through on the front and kept the pace fairly high.  As I was pulling on the front I hit a rock and led to a front flat tire.  The group kept rolling and thanks to JJ, who graciously spent his day staring at our butts, I was back rolling with a spare front wheel  and chasing down the group at 35-40mph.  I rejoined and we finished out the day strong with the pace continuing to elevate for the last 10 miles.  All said and done it was a great weekend and the effort was nothing less than stellar.  Great work guys and keep it up!

Well to say the least the RAAM training weekend was a great success!  All four riders finished the mileage, no one was injured and fitness is at the level we were expecting for each rider or slightly above where it was expected.  Leading into this weekend, to make things a little more interesting, we put a little wager on Friday and Saturday’s ride.  The two man winning team from the weekend has the privilege of receiving a bike cleaning from the 2 losing riders.  So with something on the line we were off for 3 days of riding.

Friday night consisted of a 20k TT.  We fell into line randomly and left in one minute intervals.  With a little bit of peer pressure(mostly from Halsey, persuasive bastard! :)) I ended up on a TT bike that I had never ridden and only had about 10 minutes to setup.  In the end it was not that big of a deal and I still ended up with the second fastest time of the four of us.  Jamey put down a blistering second half of his TT and made it evident that he was the strong man for the weekend.  Austin and Halsey both had very strong rides and were not to far off the pace.  With the TT over we calculated up that Jamey and Austin would have a minute head start on Saturday and then we went to hang out talk logistics and eat some great dinner with our crew and families.  Calling it a short night we headed home and began to prepare for the next day.

Saturday morning came earlier than I had hoped for.  The sky was still pitch black as I loaded up the truck and headed to our starting point for the morning.  This day was set up to mimic what RAAM will be like.  Each two man team had a follow vehicle and each rider did 30 minute rotations.  I chose to stay on the road bike all day long, since I had not put in miles on it before, and Halsey decided to take his aerobars off of his bike.  I think in the end that was the downfall to our day.  As we approached the gulf towards the end of the day there was a constant wind funneling through the trees and battering us and I believe that being in a more aerodynamic position.  Either way… at the end of the day Halsey and I lost a great deal of ground and ended up the losers on the day.  So, that means that the guys will be receiving bike cleanings very shortly.  With Fatigued legs we all headed to Jamey’s house, where Heidi (his wife) made us an amazing meal!  After an hour of story telling and trying to stay awake we departed too get some rest and spend some time with family.  Driving home I was struggling to keep my eyes open after a long day of riding but I came home to a quiet house, since Janelle and Katelyn were out, and had my second dinner of the evening and rested and relaxed until it was time to go too sleep.

Sunday morning was tough getting out of bed at 5am but I was amazed at how fresh the legs still felt.  Our ride Sunday consisted of a group effort over 100miles under gray cloudy skies and damp chilly conditions.  Steve B. joined us on the bike that day after graciously sitting in the follow vehicle all day on Saturday and none of us were complaining to have an extra rider to do some work.  It took me 15-20minutes to get the legs loosened up but once they were warmed up I felt like I was firing on all cylinders.  The group hung tough through the 80mile mark and then riders began to come apart at the seams.  Jamey went to the front with a monster pull and the groans in the group were audible to say the least.  Steve’s fresh legs continued the high tempo effort on the climbs and we finished off a great day and an awesome weekend of riding!

This weekend would not have been possible without our wonderful crew of drivers and I thank you all: Jeff Johnson, Lance Hart & Steve Barraco.  You guys were Rock Stars and we appreciate you not running us over more than anything!