Recent Happenings! Lots to catch up on!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

**Due to the high amount of information shared in this blog, I’m not proofreading it in entirety.  If it’s grammatically incorrect, deal with it.  J**

Coach Jason sent me an email about a week back correctly pointing out that I haven’t posted anything to my blog in quite some time.  He’s right – I’ve been slacking.  Lots of things have been going on since the last time I posted – so here’s the update!

1. Trip/cycling day in California
2. 3^rd wedding anniversary tomorrow!
3. Training continues; first race of the year creeps ever closer
4. New/expanded job
5. PBL SLC upcoming
6. Forensic Accounting & Auditing course begins soon
7. Nana moves out – off to New York
8. Super Bowl with Dan & Sam
9. Any Given Night finishes winter season, looks forward to Spring!

Trip/Cycling day in California

As many of you know, Kathy and I took a trip to California a few weeks back.  We didn’t know when booking the trip how warm it would be – only that we were sure it’d be warmer than Minnesota.  When we arrived in Los Angeles, it was t-shirts & shorts weather.  The natives informed us it was about 15 degrees above normal and had been colder right before we got there.

We spent the weekend with Sarah (Lundquist) Bader, one of Kathy’s college friends.  It was nice seeing/spending time with Sarah – the only other time I’d previously met Sarah was at our wedding (I think anyway).  We spent lots of time outside and I got a nice, long run in on the beach on Saturday.  This run happened to be my hard run of the week and it was indeed hard.  I’d forgotten how easy it is to get outside (off a regulated treadmill speed) and turn on the jets.  Before my first sprint, I was already getting tired and winded.  Fortunately, I made it back to the ladies in one piece.  J

On Monday, we moved to the hotel in Newport Beach where Kathy had her conference.  Far in advance of this trip, I’d planned this day as a biking day.  It couldn’t have been more perfect weather and the coastline was beautiful!  On Sunday afternoon, I picked up my CAAD9 bike from a shop about 3 miles away and was barely able to sleep that night.  Kathy was up and moving early – I was up and going very shortly thereafter.  As soon as it was light enough to go, I was out on the road.

I spent the morning heading south on the

Coastline Highway

.  With a few brief stops along the way to take in the scenery, I stopped and turned around (not before getting lost though) in San Clemente.  In the town of San Clemente, they have a bike route that snakes through town.  I incorrectly assumed I could follow the signs both into and out of the city – I was very wrong.  J

I got back to the hotel shortly after noon, rested a little and was back out in less than an hour.  I then hit the same highway going north toward Long Beach.  This was a less scenic but fast (flatter) ride than the morning.  I didn’t stop too much – I was trying to get the miles in.  On the way back south, I stopped at what I found out later was a dog beach.  There were hundreds of dogs running around!

All total, I put in just a shade under 100 miles on Monday and really enjoyed myself.  I couldn’t have scripted a better day of riding or better weather conditions.  It was absolutely everything I’d hoped for.  I was pleasantly surprised by the bike friendly roads in California.  The bike lanes were right along major highways, but there were many bikers out there, you felt very safe and people were extremely respectful and courteous.  Way to go CA!

Kathy and I enjoyed the last couple days in California and by Wednesday, it was starting to cool back into the 50’s – more normal for California.  And then we came back to the arctic!

3^rd Wedding Anniversary Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Kathy and I will celebrate 3 years of wedded bliss!  Unfortunately, we won’t see much of each other, as I’ll be tied up until about 9 PM with church commitments.  Happy Anniversary to my wonderful, beautiful wife!  The first three years have flown by!

Training continues; first race of the year creeps ever closer

Coach Jason wanted me to post about my workouts, mostly because I’m “ahead of schedule” according to him.  I’m not entirely sure what that means or how he knows, but I guess I am.  I’m not really the type to brag a lot about speed and so forth.  That said, my workouts, particularly running, have been going really well.  My last speed run was in the upper 5 minute range and didn’t feel especially taxing.  Granted, I’m only doing 400 or 800 meter sprints.  Cycling workouts have been going pretty well too.  I felt great after my 97 mile ride in California, even with a fair amount of climbing.  My legs were a little wasted the next day and part of that week but….

My first duathlon is scheduled for April 30 in Cannon Falls.  It’s approaching 2 months!!  It’s going to be a great racing season!

It sounds as if we will be in Stewartville during the 4^th of July this year.  I’ll get to race my second Stewartville run that day.  Last year my brother-in-law, Seth, took a top 5 place averaging 6:04/mile.  I wouldn’t be surprised to keep pace with him this year (though Kathy thinks I’m crazy for thinking I can)!

New/expanded job

The long awaited Supply Chain reorg was announced last week.  Though there is much to reveal yet, my role is definitely changing.  I’ll be receiving a promotion and taking on the controls/audit functions for Supply Chain (same as now) plus all financial reporting, budgeting, planning, etc.  I’m hoping for a very smooth transition and transfer of knowledge.  The next few months could be pretty crazy!

PBL SLC upcoming

Some of you are aware of my volunteer service to Iowa Phi Beta Lambda (PBL), a national business organization.  This was an organization I belonged to as a student member in high school/college and joined on the State Committee upon graduating from Wartburg.  After being involved for nearly 15 years, I’ve decided to step down from my State Committee position and take some time off.  While this is a tough decision, it’s in my best interest (and in the best interest of the membership).  My final task as State Adviser will be the State Leadership Conference (SLC) on March 25-26.  It will be a bitter/sweet weekend for sure.

Forensic Accounting & Auditing course begins soon

My third annual forensic accounting & auditing course begins on March 8.  Some of you don’t know that I’m an instructor part-time at St. Mary’s.  Forensic Accounting is a class I thoroughly enjoy teaching and is very fun to the students as well.  During the first class, we are planning on a guest speaker coming from the Cities.  He is a former white collar criminal and was in Yankton, SD for over a year serving time. 

After two years of teaching Auditing during the summer, I have decided to hang it up.  Summer is just too hard to teach a course with my crazy training and race schedule and summer is just too darn short.  Hopefully, SMU will find a good replacement for me!

Nana moves out – off to New York

After about 6 months of living in our basement, Kathy’s mom moved to up-state New York a few weeks ago to care for her mother who has progressing Alzheimer’s.  We were sad to see Nana go, but it was nice to recapture our basement again.  Nana will be coming back to Minnesota periodically to visit family and attend events.

The weekend after Nana left, I set up my bike trainer in the basement.  It’s going to take some getting used to, but it’s great having an additional way to work out when I can’t make it into the gym.  I’ve used it a couple times now, learning you can’t stand and crank on it without the bike coming out of the trainer.  I guess the trainer components can’t handle the torque….or I’m just too fat.   J

Super Bowl with Dan & Sam

Dan and Sam Roellinger came over to watch the Super Bowl last weekend.  Sam brought a yummy salad and Kathy did her usual thing in the kitchen, preparing other scrumptious foods.  Dan and I tried to finish the beer in the fridge, but fell just short.  It’s okay though, we felt better on Monday for it!  It was nice to see Dan & Sam!

Any Given Night finishes winter season, looks forward to Spring!

It was a tale of two seasons during winter VB this year.  While we went to the final game of the playoffs for fall, winter was much different.  We finished one game over .500 (14-13 I believe Susan said) and missed the playoffs completely.  While this was disappointing, it did appear we had improved competition this time around.  We’re hoping for a much better spring showing, which begins this Wednesday!  Go Any Given Night!

Footnote:  I’ve learned that just because you may “follow” this blog, doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily get a notification when I post something new.  Sorry about that – I misunderstood completely how it works!