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Yesterday we went down to Jaqua’s Flag City Trap Shoot to watch the last few rounds of Grandpa Berlet and Uncle Dirk’s competition. Sorry, no photos of Cora holding or shooting any firearms…maybe next time, but we did get some good photos…and a video of Cora’s fun new sound…

If you use Twitter, you know about #followfriday, but I’m officially instituting “High-Five Friday – Give one, Get one”. Is there anything better than giving/receiving a high-five? It makes everybody feel good. What’s more, I have created a logo that can be purchased on many fine products including the pink onesie from the folks over at Cafepress. If you want to download the fine artwork I have painstakingly created (in about 5 mins) click the logo to enlarge and then download from there…

Ok, Take your tiny little baby, blow in his/her face, then dunk said tiny little baby under the water. What sort of reaction do you think you’ll receive for your efforts…Wonder no longer, just watch this video of Cora’s first swim.

Here’s a pic from the water fun.

and here’s the best of shot of Cora’s Hair so far…

Caesar Creek is the one race Tiff and I really enjoy. The bike course has some rolling hills and one awesome curvy ascent (see course profile to right)that always proves challenging. For me (jeremy) this was the location of my first Triathlon & Half-Iron Triathlon. This year was for Tiff, her 2nd comeback race, and she did great (3rd in her age group, 1:18:20) and I came in top 10 in mine (2:30:26). All said, it was a good race, we’ll be back next year. Full Results here…Check the race photos below:

Yesterday was a special race for a number of reasons. First, It was Father’s Day! My first Father’s Day since becoming…a Father. Secondly, it was Tiffany’s first race since Cora was born. Finally, it was Cora’s first Triathlon spectating experience. Quite a day indeed!

Let’s start the reporting off in reverse order of importance…Me first…

Being my second race of the year, and my first olympic distance, I felt as prepared as I could be given the lower training levels compared to last year. My wave was well after Tiffany’s as she is doing sprint distance this year, so I get to wait around a while until getting my piece of the melee that is triathlon beach starts. I can’t really say much about this race other than that I felt strong the whole way and didn’t overdo any one part. I was excited, however, that my average bike speed for the 24mi was 22.1 mph! The other exciting thing about the race is the photo above, where I actually look like I am running!

Now on to Tiffany’s comeback race!

She will probably say that she didn’t train nearly enough, which is possible, but given the outcome, I’d say she is doing just fine. With a 20.4 mph bike average and a 22:06 5K she took 1st place in her age group by a whopping 6 minutes and 3 seconds!

As far as Cora’s first spectating experience, I’d say that too was a success. Tiffany’s mom, [read: grandma] came with us and the two of them and friend Mike W. hung out together while watching us. Sadly, we have no photos of this as I forgot to pack a camera…I guess she will just have to start racing to get photos at these things…

Cora has now received her very own pair of sea legs during the first trip out on my parent’s boat. Not surprisingly, she was very content and even slept while the boat was moving (bumping and jostling is her favorite pastime). A side note: baby sunblock is very thick, it kinda turned her skin white for the next 30 mins or so…I guess you know it’s working if you can see it…On to the pictures…

There’s one toy that I’ve always loved for little kids, I have fond memories of this myself, and have spent hours watching little cousins and other tiny little people enjoy the simple yet thrilling device…”Johnny Jump Up” How could you not just love this thing and jealously want one for people way, way outside the 30lb. max weight…say like 180lbs. Well, I finally decided that it was time to assemble and test our very own johnny jump up with Cora. She is so small that we had to wrap a blanket around her so she could stay somewhat upright in it. Even still she is dwarfed by the size of it and barely keeps her head above the top…but she loved it! Spinning around, kicking her legs to almost represent a jumping movement…Remember she is only 2 1/2 mos. old. We tried to get some video of this momentous occasion, but alas, that didn’t turn out nearly as well as we had hoped. Here are some pretty decent photos of our fun time.

In other news: Cora rolled over from her back to her tummy 3 or 4 times last evening, and even ended up on her elbows in a pseudo crawling posture! Again, one of those moments that happened so fast we hadn’t even thought of getting the video cam out…

What’s the Goomba reference you ask? Well, for those that remember, a goomba is a small mushroom like character from Mario Bros. My first thought when I saw Cora in the Johnny Jump Up was that she looked just like a Goomba…large combination head/body and legs. It may be a bit of a stretch, but, I liked it and have started occasionally calling her “My Little Goomba” Click here for Goomba wikipedia article and here for a photo of a Goomba.

In my last post, like running through molasses, I detailed how sluggish and off my game I’ve felt ever since the GCM. I also mentioned a possibility of racing the Flag City Sprint Tri…Well, I did, and it turned out very well in a number of ways.

I realized my slowness was at least partially, in my head. From the start, I decided to compete strong but not go all out. This worked out well for me as I felt strong the whole race and felt I still had a little left at the finish line.

The race started off decently enough with a swim around the Findlay reservoir, which by the way is very clear, crisp water. After a little foot slip up the boat launch ramp, I found my bike and off I went. Shortly into the bike, after passing the fast swimmers, I found myself pacing near one other guy. Every turn, he would pass me and then the next one I would pass him back. As we approached the turn around, I started counting the bikes coming back at me. When i got to 2, we turned hit the turn around! Remember now that the races are all wave starts so people who are faster than me may still be behind, but still, my spirits were high.

Off the bike and into my running shoes, i felt strong and ready to race the 5K. I paced with my bike friend for the first bit until he pulled ahead, sadly for good. A strong kick at the finish completed this first triathlon of the year, and I felt good.

Results: I waited around long enough to find that I had come in 2nd place in my age group (behind my bike friend) and 7th overall, I love smaller races!

This race was just what I needed…I don’t feel so slow!

My official time for the race was: 1:12:41

Click here for the rest of the results, links to photos are also there…

Ever feel like every workout is like running/pedaling/swimming through some thick viscous liquid? Yep, that’s how I’ve felt these past few weeks. My legs constantly feel soft, like I got nothin’ left…sort of like the days after a long race. This morning Mark (run partner) and I agreed that we both have been feeling this way for a while. Ever since the Glass City Marathon, which didn’t go so well, my legs have felt just completely drained. I’m hoping this is just a mental thing (our pace this morning wasn’t slower than normal) that will go away with continued training. I can’t help feel a bit of concern that this is happening right at the beginning of what will hopefully be a good yet sparse racing season.

My first race was going to be the Maumee Bay Tri on June 21st, but I’m seriously considering doing the Flag City Tri the weekend before, just to see if I’m really slow right now or if it really is just mental on my part…It’ll be especially interesting as I plan to do the sprint distance if I go, which I haven’t done that distance since the ’07 season. From what I remember it’s just a pedal-to-the-metal, fast and furious, go as hard as you can for 1 1/2 hrs kinda distance. It may be just what I need.

Last night Tiffany and I decided to try out the jog stroller with Cora. We picked a time that gave us the best odds of having a good run, and packed everything into the stroller, locked the car seat in and took off for the city park. Our thought was that we could run the 1/2 mile loop around the park and if we ran into any issues or crying we could run home quickly. Best laid plans, huh?

The first 10 minutes were well enough, Cora just looked back at us from her seat, so I snapped some pictures. Tiff took a turn pushing and I got some photos of her running along. Then came the first cries…followed by more cries which turned into a full-blown scream. We stopped and Tiff held her for a while until we thought she was asleep and continued on. She fussed until we got out of the park and onto a bumpy sidewalk…She fell fast asleep and we decided to go over to my folks house and back. All in all I call it a success, and we found that the key to success is bumpiness…Here’s some photos and a video of Tiff pushing the stroller and Cora’s face…