Iron-Dad

Erin here!

I just want to add a little something to Jake's post.  We are all quite impressed that a guy who 8 months ago drug his feet along the bottom of the pool while flailing his arms wildly and who exhausted himself before getting one length completed has learned to swim well enough to not only complete but COMPETE in a half-ironman distance swim.  We are not surprised at all that he made up so much time on the bike and the run.  I, for one, am incredibly proud of how hard he worked towards this goal, the many many hours spent in training, and the sacrifices he had to make.  I am selfishly enjoying the benefits of having such a buff husband and quite pleased that I'll have a little more of his attention and time now that he is "only" training for a sub-3-hour marathon in Boston. 

But what I'm most impressed with is the way that Jake has continued to balance, life, work, and family.  Jake is such an amazing father for Xander and always makes time for him, even when he is exhausted.  After the Tri, I needed to do schoolwork with my team, which meant Jake really didn't have any time to rest after getting home.  The poor guy didn't even get a shower before I told him he was in charge of not just Xander, but Jack Fossum as well.  He put his game face on, told me not to worry about it, and played with the boys until I could take over again.

So, I am taking this opportunity to name Jake an official "Iron-Dad" and tell him how much I appreciate him every day!

Exceeding Expectations

I completed my first triathlon on Sunday.  It was the Harvest Moon Half Ironman here in Aurora, CO.  I decided to start with a half ironman distance because I needed a triathlon that was long enough for me to make up time on the bike and run for my poor swimming.  In the end, I think that this strategy worked out pretty well.  My goal was to finish the race in 6 hours.  My stretch goal was to finish in 5:30.  When I started the race I thought that I'd probably finish in 5:40 or so, if everything went really well.  My actual finish time was 5:09:48.  I was 13th out of 35 competitors in my age group and 99th out of about 400 compeitors total in the triathlon.

For you tri folks out there, here's the stats:
1.2 mile Swim: 48:30 (375th place)  Yuck, but what I expected.
T1: 2:27
56 mile Bike: 2:43:14 (124th place) This is a 20.5 mph average.  Not bad for a very hilly course.
T2: 1:16
13.1 mile Run: 1:34:23 (31st place) This is a 7:13 min/mile pace.

I couldn't be happier with how I performed.  I trained a lot for this and the race really went well.  My swim time was pretty poor, but I finished it, which was my goal, and even after biking 56 miles hard I was able to run a boston marathon qualifing pace for the half marathon in very hot conditions.

I can't help thinking about how much better I could do though.  If I could shave 15 minutes off my swim time and bring my bike speed up 2 miles per hour, I could have finished in 6th place for my age group with a time of 4:40.  Of course, the winner in my age group finished in 4:12 with a swim of 29 minutes, bike speed of 24.8 mph and run pace of 6:34 min/mile.  I just don't see myself ever getting that fast.  Oh well.

Next goal, sub 3 hour boston marathon in April 2011 and then maybe another half ironman in the summer.  After that, maybe, just maybe, a full ironman in 2012.  We'll see.  It is a lot of training, but after this I feel pretty confident that I could do it.

-Jake

Sleepover!!

Jack came for a sleepover this weekend while the Fossum's had a chance to enjoy an anniversary get away.  Xander and Jack had lots of fun playing together.  They took turns on the slide and sat at the picnic table to eat together.  They played a duet on the piano and sometimes liked to just sit on the step with me and enjoy a cup of milk.  They even hung out in Xander's crib for a while.  Lots of fun!

-Jake

Gran Jen Comes to Visit

Gran Jen came to visit last week.  We all had a fun filled week together.  The week started off on a rough note though when I went up on the roof to repair a shingle that had blown off in the wind.  That repair went easily enough, but when I was inspecting the rest of the roof, I found a 2'X2' rotted spot at the corner of the garage right below a down spout from the upper roof.  Needless to say it needed to be fixed before winter, and so Mom and I spent Sunday morning fixing the roof.  The project actually went very smoothly, other than being REALLY hot up there.  I pulled off the bad shingles and cut out the rotted section of board, then Mom cut new shingles while I replaced the board and installed the new shingles.  I was glad to have found it when I did, before any more damage was done.

On labor day, we got out of the house to have some fun, and give Erin some quiet time to do homework.  We headed back up to the St Mary's Glacier area where we had gotten lost a few months earlier in the Jeep.  This time I came much more prepared with the forest service MVUM maps.  Karen and Tucker accompanied us, and we had a really nice ride.  We started in Rollinsville and headed up over Kingston Peak, where we saw the beginnings of the Four Mile Canyon fire in the distance, down into Alice, back up across Yankee Hill and then back to Rollinsville.  It was a nice ride and Mom and Xander enjoyed it.  I think that we found some decent camp sites as well for the future.

After labor day it was back to work for me, but Mom, Erin, and Xander were able to enjoy the rest of the week together.  They went to the children's museum, spent some time shopping at the mall, and had lots of fun playing in the yard around the house.

-Jake

Baby Painting and Pot-luck BBQ

I've been wanting to throw this party ever since my sister, Kate, had a similar one for friends back east.  Xander is finally old enough to enjoy it... and he wasn't the only one!

The Process

The Results!

The Aftermath/Bath Pool Party

The kids really worked up an appetite!

A boy and his dog

University of Michigan MBA

There is no doubt that my MBA is costing a lot, but I do feel confident that I'm getting my money's worth. The professors and students are really top notch, and I have to admit that the help from the staff, the "dorms," the dedicated classrooms, and the food are all way above par. Here is just a little photo montage to help you picture my 10 days at Michigan... 

 

We have one of the youngest classes U of M has ever had... and by far the most women!  9 women in a class of 43 is pretty exceptional amongst EMBA classes.

Dedicated classroom facilities and breakout rooms

My "dorm room"

We took one day "off" to spend 8 hours or so volunteering with "Focus Hope"      http://www.focushope.edu/

We were rewarded at the end of the residency with a special meal, but all the meals and snacks (every 70 minutes) were delicious...  Average weight gained is reported to be around 8 lbs.  I got away with only 5.  Keep in mind, this is only a 10-day long residency!

Playing with the Boy

Xander and I have been doing pretty well on our own, although we both miss Mommy.  One thing that has really changed is that Erin is no longer around to do all the cooking.  Erin is a wonderful cook and I am a pretty uninspred cook, so she has taken this on in the Lewis houshold.  I have to admit to being a little apprehensive about having to cook for Xander.  I haven't really had a good understanding of what he eats all day, since I'm usually only around for dinner.  I'm happy to report that I seem to be a quick study.  I've fed him breakfasts and packed him his lunch for daycare and all seems to be going well.  Dinners have generally gone pretty well too, with only one exception.  A couple of nights ago we had flank steak over a bed of spinach, green beans and rolls.  Xander didn't get the spinach, since he doesn't really like it, but I figured the rest would go over well.  He really likes green beans and is usualy a fan of steak.  Dinner was a total flop.  He wouldn't touch any of it.  He isn't usually a very picky eater, but apparently this was just unacceptable.  Oh well.  All of the other meals so far have gone over great.  Tonight we had pasta wheels with meat sauce and he had 4 servings, it was a hit.

We have had lots of play time.  Xander has gotten really good at throwing/bouncing the ball so we have played lots of games of "catch" (he throws, I chase the ball and give it back to him).  We have played with blocks and built towers, played on the slides, gone up and down the patio steps a hundred times, mowed the lawn with his toy mower, and of course pushed his wagon all over.  Today we even got to go swimming.  I swam a few laps first while he played in daycare and then we swam together for a while.  Xander loves to drink water from both his bath and the pool, so it was no surprise to me when he picked up the watering can and started drinking from it.  It was a big day for him and after a while he curled up on my shoulder.  I asked him if it was nap time and he nodded yes.  We headed for home and before I had even turned out of the parking lot he was asleep in his carseat.

After nap we headed to the airshow at the local airport.  Xander adores planes and is always excited when he hears one and sees it fly overhead so I figured that he would love it.  I was both right and terribly wrong.  There were a number of planes on display, and I think that Xander understood that these were airplanes that he likes seeing in the sky.  It was a little hard to get him to focus on the planes on the ground though because there were so many planes flying around, he was always looking up to see them.  We headed over to the runway to watch some of the aerial acrobatics, and they really were amazing.  It is incredible to see planes flip and tunble through the air, yaw sideways while buzzing the run way, and fly straight up until they stall and come sliding back down on their tail.

After the acrobatics shows, out came the military aircraft.  First an F/A-18 Hornet showed off its stuff.  This plane was really loud and Xander didn't care for it at all.  The pilot was impressive and made ample use of his afterburners as he buzzed the crowd, creating a stupendous roar.  Poor Xander was terrifed.  The plane made a number of passes, but I figured we could tough it out for alittle while.

Unfortunately next up was an F-16.  He started his show out right with the afterburners blazing all the way down the runway.  This plane was deafeningly loud.  After his first pass, I realized that we were done, I packed Xander up in his stroller and we ran for it, with the poor guy wailing the whole way back to the car.

Xander settled down as soon as we got the car and got the doors closed so it was quiet.  All in all it was a lot of fun until it got too loud.  When and if we do it again, I will bring ear muffs for Xander, I tried ear plugs but it was hard to get them in his ears well enough to be effective, and he kept pulling them out anyway.

-Jake

Back to the student life, sort-of

Well, it is midnight my time, and I've been working hard since 7 am with classwork, reading, assignments, 7 hours of actual classes, team meetings, going out for drinks with friends, etc.  I must be a student!

Only, times have changed me a little...  today I didn't give myself a large enough window to "warm up" before our first team meeting at 7 am, and needed to excuse myself to get sick (darn pregnancy, I thought I was past that).  And before lunch, I had a free hour while others were reviewing Excel skills, and I headed straight to bed for a nap instead of out for a run or to a quiet place to study.   And while I did go out "for drinks," mine was a sip of sangria and a tall glass of water.... and after an hour, I said good-bye to my party-hopping fellows and came back for some studying, and what was supposed to be an on-time bedtime.

I am really liking school, and I'm finding that the students are fun and interesting and much more laid back than at many other schools I could have chosen.  The faculty seem to be genuinely top-notch and actually darn funny!  They really know how to relate things to the "real world" and don't waste our time with a lot of unnecessary number-crunching or detail, concentrating instead on making sure we really understand the concepts and the reasoning behind the details. (Which is not to say there aren't plenty of folks worried about all the math!)

I am halfway through my first residency now, and was doing really really well with being away from Xander (Jake too, but he's left for work several times, whereas I've never been away for more than a night from Xander).  We've barely left our building in 5 days, and have been busy from morning 'til night, so I've really been too busy to be too homesick. That is, until last night, after seeing Xander on Skype, and today when all the family rolled in for the family orientation and fun-afternoon tomorrow.  So many really cute kids, and proud parents, and I got a little teary and lonely, I'll admit!

Tomorrow will be a little bit of an easy day, since I don't have family to show off or show around.  I've taken a few pictures, which I'll post tomorrow.  After morning classes, I hope to finally get a run in and counter-act the long hours and 6 meals a day that they feed us here, and get ahead again on the workload- or, maybe I'll take another quick nap...

-Erin

Finding Too Much

In two weeks, I will be competing in the Harvest Moon Half Ironman Triathlon.  This will be my first ever triathlon, it is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run for a total of 70.3 miles.  As a kid, I never learned to freestyle swim properly and so I started really learning to swim at the beginning of this year.  It has been a real challenge, and I still don't feel as comfortable as I'd like, but it is coming along okay.  My goal was to be able to finish the 1.2 mile swim.  I can do that.  I am going to be last (no, really), but I can finish.  I started training for this triathlon in earnest in the beginnig of June.  My training schedule has me doing each sport 4 times a week.  That is 12 workouts a week.  I train every day, and on most days twice a day.  Training takes between 2 and 3 hours each day.  It has been a lot.  Last weekend I biked the Tour de Cure (62 miles) and then hopped off my bike and ran for an hour  (A super speical thank you to everyone who supported both Erin and I in the Tour de Cure !!!!!).  The next day I ran 11 miles and then swam 1000 yards.  That is a pretty typical weekend for me, but everything had finally added up I think.  My workouts monday and tuesday were pathetic.  I tried to swim 2500 yards on Tuesday and finally called it quits after 1000.  I was exhausted.  I decided that my body had finally had too much.  I took the rest of this week off.  It was wonderful, and frankly, with Erin out of town, probably necessary.  Erin has been incredibly supportive of all of this training (I think she just likes the new swimming muscles...) which has meant the world to me.  I couldn't do it without all of her support.  After a couple of days rest, I ran 11 miles and swam 1000 yards today.  I feel a lot better.  There is still some deep down muscle fatigue, but I think the time has come that I can start working out again.  Anyway, after this weekend I start to taper for the race.  I am excited and feel ready.  My swim time really is horrid at about 50 minutes for 1.2 miles, and will probably put me dead last getting out of the water, but from then on I expect to make up lots of time on other folks.  I'm hoping for a 6 hour finish time, which will put me right about the bottom third.  Not where I'm used to finishing, my last marathon I was in the top 10% of finishers, but I am really excited none the less.  There is so much room for improvement!!  Once the race is done, I think that I will spend some time working on my swimming.  I know that I can do better, I'm fit enough, I just need a lot of work on the technique.  I would also like to run the Boston Marathon again next year.  I'd like to break 3 hours in the marathon, and I'd like to do it in Boston.  That is going to take a lot of work, I have a long way to go from where I am, but I feel like I have a great base to get started from.  We'll see how everything goes, but hey, you have to have a plan right?

-Jake