High School Musical - Caitlyn (OBRATS)

This is one of my twin 6 year old daughters. She loves High School Musical. If you want to sign her to a recording contract you know where to find me.

Officially on Vacation

I know it seems like I have been on vacation all summer with my bad blogging. But today we are leaving for our official vacation. We are headed to Universal Orlando flying out of Atlantic City. Will be coming home Tuesday Aug 19th.

Hope to find my desire in Orlando, because lately I have had no desire to run, or swim (with very little desire to bike).



We will be staying at the Hard Rock Hotel in Universal. Can't wait to hit this pool.

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Happy Anniversary to us.

Yes 11 years ago today Kim and I tied the knot. We will be spending the day in the Poconos at a family party. Hope the weather holds up, they are calling for storms all day in South Jersey but not to sure about up in the Poconos.

Good luck to a few members of my Tri Team who are doing the River to Sea today. They get to run across NJ all day.

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High School Musical - Caitlyn

I am attempting to get into the year 2008 and post a video that we uploaded to youtube. So if this works it is a video from one of my twin 6 year olds (Caitlyn - who you know from this picture).

So if any recording studios want to sign her leave your info on the blog. She is singing part of a High School Musical Song here.

Here are some more.

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Some sad news from the Tri I just did.

Body of missing W. Windsor triathlete found

by Alex Zdan/The Times

Monday July 28, 2008, 11:34 AM

WEST WINDSOR -- The body of a 52-year-old West Windsor man who vanished during a triathlon at Mercer County Park Sunday was found Monday morning by friends and family members, police said.

John Hobgood Jr.

The man, identified as John Hobgood Jr., was feared drowned after failing to exit the waters of Lake Mercer during the swim portion of the New Jersey State Triathlon. A water search by West Windsor police, fire, and EMS crews, along with the dive team from the Trenton Fire Department, was called off at 5 p.m. Sunday.
According to police, friends and family members returned to the lake Sunday night. Sighting a body floating in the water, they called the police and Hobgood's body was recovered about 1:30 a.m.

It is not immediately clear whether the friends and family were holding a vigil for Hobgood, or undertaking a recovery effort of their own.

An autopsy was scheduled for Monday, the Associated Press reported.

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First Oly Tri - in the books

OFFICIAL RESULTS

New Jersey State Triathlon - Olympic Distance

2008-07-27 West Windsor, New Jersey

CGI Racing 80F / 27C Sunny

Triathlon - Olympic Total Time = 3h 25m 50s

Overall Rank = 677/738 3:25:50

Age Group = Clydesdale Age Group Rank = 21/22

Swim Rank = 679/738

Bike Rank = 528/738

Run Rank = 695/738

Pre-race routine:

First Oly distance (4th tri ever). (Posting with out using spell check or proof reading so this may be hard to read).

As usual I am like a kid at Christmas and do not get much sleep before races. I didn't even set the alarm and I was getting up at 4:15 am (way earlier then I usually do). Got up and put the food from the fridge to my cooler, and loaded it in the car. Put the bike on the car, kissed the wife and kids (sleeping) and off I went. Had an hour and 10 minute ride to the race so sipped a gatorade and ate two bagels with peanut butter. Got marked and set up transition.

Event warmup:

I'm not a big warmup type of guy so just talked to people I knew from Team Triumph. This was to be the longest swim ever for me. Also first without a wet suit, so I was nervous (I think I did a good job of not showing it). I was there at a little past 6am and the sprint was starting at 7:30 and I would not be starting my Oly wave until about 8:30. So a lot of time just walking around and getting ready.

Swim Distance 1.5 K Time 42:40

Comments:

Looking at my time it is probably silly that I say my performance was average, but for me this performance was actually good. Surprisingly I had no problem with the distance (as slow as I was). I never panicked in the water. Even when some chick punched me in the goggles (yes I have a black eye to show) I kept on going. I never had to breast stroke, or turn on my back, I just plugged along. I felt good about finishing this swim.

What would you do differently?:

More training. And learn proper swim technique. I am breathing only on one side right now.

T1

Comments:

I am slow and that is that. I ate one uncrustable PB&J sandwich and drank some water. I swam in just my cycling shorts so just had to get Garmin, shirt, socks, shoes, gloves, glasses, and helmet on. Still that somehow takes over 5 minutes for me. I actually ran holding my shoes as it was a long distance to the bike mount.

What would you do differently?:

It will never be great but I do need to be faster.

Bike Distance 23 miles Time 1:15:47

Comments:

The bike is becoming my best event. I looked at my garmin and at one hour I was at 19 miles (put Garmin on when I started the bike). Obviously I slowed for the last 4 miles but I was happy with the performance. The last 10 miles I kept passing one girl and then she would pass me back. We joked to each other and made the 2nd half of the ride go by quicker. I started the race in big ring on front and hardest gear in the back. I wanted to do the whole race like that (I did Parvin that way) but after 12 miles and a little hill I backed off that goal. Kept big ring on the front the whole ride.

What would you do differently?:

Nothing really. Maybe learn proper gearing.

T2

Comments:

Again I am slow and take my time. I drank some more and had a few shoot blocks.

What would you do differently?:

It will get quicker (I hope).

Run Distance 10K Time 1:18:48

Comments:

Coming into this year this was my best part of the tri. Well after 7 months of bad run training it is not so much any more. Don't know if it was the heat or just the lack of training but I could not get it going on the run. I was not hurt, but I think I was mentally exhausted. HR was way too high at the start of the run. I walked after about 1/2 mile to see if I could get it down, when it went down I started running again and it spiked again. It kept happening so I just did a run/walk for the race. Saw Wife and Kids about 1/4 mile from finish line so that pulled me through the finish. Cool think was my name was announced at the finish line and got more cheers.

What would you do differently?:

Get back to last years run shape. Weight has to come back down as well. I am up 25 pounds from my lightest last year (and that was even too high).

Post race

Warm down:

Kissed the family, saw some TT members and ate. Kids played in the park a little but had to head out and drive an hour home.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of training in July and current weight. I had lost 110 pounds, but put about 25 back on. So yes I am happy with my overall weight loss but have to lose about 45 more pounds.

Event comments:

As always CGI does a great job. Can't say enough about Larry and Michele. If you have not done so you have to do a CGI race.

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Medieval Times

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Kim found a great deal on-line for Medieval Times so we decided to pack up the mini van and head up to North Jersey and enjoy the day. I hadn't been to Medieval Times in 22 years (HS senior class trip to Disney). So as much as it was new to the kids it was kind of new to me as well. The deal was that for every adult ticket you buy you get one kid free. So to take full advantage of the deal we talked my in-laws into also going. So since we now had 4 adults and 3 kids we got my sister-in-law to buy one adult so that she could bring her 2 kids (her husband was going to the Yankee vs. Bosox game so he was out anyway).

Long story short the kids as well as the adults had a blast. It was well worth the 1 hour and 45 minute drive each way. We will do it again, but being that the kids didn't eat much of their food (you can read that as I ate all the extra if you choose to) we will probably look for the deal again.

I do want to leave you with a picture that I purchased from there. As you can see two of my kids had no problem helping the executioner by holding the basket that my head was about to be deposited in . Where is Caitlyn you ask?



Caitlyn was showing her Daddy some love by crying her eyes out hiding behind Mom thinking I was really going to have my head cut off. It's nice to know that one of my kids cares about Daddy.

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