My New Family Member (BLOG CONTEST)

I bet you all are thinking that I am announcing another kiddo on the way.  Nope!  Not yet, although I would love to have more kids one day.  Sorry for all of you that are frustrated and don't think my title was funny.  Don't stop reading!

Several months ago, I did get someTHING that is a big part of my life.  I spend a lot of time with it.  We hang out together.  We train together.  We eat and drink together.  Although it sleeps in the other room, we have a close bond as we both look toward finishing an Ironman on August 25 together.

It's my "new" bike!

I searched for what seemed like forever to find just the right one.  Ebay, Craigslist, Slowtwitch...I looked EVERYWHERE!  Finally, I knew exactly what I wanted.  I have had a Felt road bike for a long time, so I was going to go with a Felt.  Their two top models are the DA and the B2.  Both have this really cool Bayonet headset that moves with the front fork.  Of course, that HAS to make you faster, right?  So, after searching for months, I found this sweet ride!  Yay!  The only problem was, it was in Seattle, Washington.  Plus, it was on Craigslist, so I wouldn't be covered by any security from Ebay or anything else.  After emailing the guy selling this bike, we talked on the phone and skyped, and both of us felt a lot better about the transaction.  He had his buddy box it up and ship it off to me.  A week later, it got here!  I was more excited than a kid on his first day of school.  Immediately, I dropped everything to unbox it and put it all together.  Nothing was more important than getting my bike together!

Here are the details:

• 2009 Felt B2 Pro 54cm
• Dura-Ace Components
• Fulcrum Racing 5 Wheels
• Made to go FAST!!!

After some initial questioning if I had gotten a size too small, Tom and Colleen Kingery and Josh Woods helped me dial in the fit so I'm comfortable (well, as comfy as you can get on a TT bike).  I LOVE IT!  It looks good.  It rides good.  It is an incredible machine, and I absolutely enjoy riding it!

There is just one problem...it doesn't have a name!  And that's where I need your help.  Sure, I've got some good name ideas for this bike, but I want to have a bigger pool to choose from, and I thought we could have some fun while we are at it. 

A while back, I contacted YikesID about giving me some of their products to give away in a blog contest.  They make road id's just like Road ID, and they were really cool about it!  Not only did they give me and Jennifer a YikesID for free, but they will give away FOUR more id's to winners of this contest!  They really are a great company that is focused on their customers.

Contest Details

Come up with a name for my new bike and leave it in a comment.  That's it.  You can give me as many names as you want.  The more names I get to choose from, the better!  Now, here's where this contest gets completely subjective.  I will choose the top four names that I like (it's MY bike, right?), and the people that suggested those names will be the winner.  Now, I know that some of you don't participate in contests because you already have the prize and don't want to win it while someone else needs it more.  I respect that, but I want your names, too, so in your comment, just tell me that you don't want to be a part of the contest.  Got it?

So put your creative name minds to work and give me your best shot!

Missing In Action (Emphasis on Action)

Well, I know it seems that I forgot my blog, again, but I haven't.  I just haven't blogged in forever!  And although I've been a little weak on commenting on everyone else's blogs, I HAVE been reading.  Sorry for the lack of comments.

While I might have been M.I.A. on the blog front, I have been keeping up the action of training.  In fact...

I Registered For Ironman Louisville!

Just yesterday, I finally sat down and forked out the dough to be a part of IMLou on August 25.  

It's going to be awesome, and I can hardly wait, although it HAS to wait, because I'm not ready yet!  There's no way I could swim 2.4, bike 112, and run 26.2 at this stage.  It just wouldn't happen!  But I am feeling like I'm getting there quickly.

For some reason, my runs have been REALLY good!  I'm not sure if something is clicking in my head or if my legs are just stronger, but I've actually enjoyed running recently.  Crazy, right?  I bet you never thought you'd hear that from me.  On my longer runs, I've been cranking them out in the low 8-minute range and feeling good the whole time.  It's weird, because I've been getting a second wind at around 7 or 8 miles, and then it's just smooth sailing from there.  I love it!

On the bike, although I still haven't gotten my speed back, I've been feeling really good too!  I've been able to crank out some longer rides with my good buddy Josh, and he always makes the miles fly by.

On a fifty miler

Just last Wednesday, we met up at the Silver Comet (I know...it's flat, and Louisville isn't), and rode 76 miles.  We cut it pretty close as it was absolutely dark when we got back to the cars.  It did feel pretty cool to know that we had been out there for 5 hours and were the LAST people to leave.

Before the Ride

We've got a 128 mile ride scheduled for his annual birthday ride coming up in a few weeks.  That's going to be awesome!  I also got to ride with Mr. Tom Kingery!  It's great living so close to friends that you can train with.  

I'll be honest that I haven't been to the pool in awhile.  I know, I know.  I'll go back soon.  It is the least part of IMLou that I'm worried about.  I enjoy swimming and plan on relaxing for that part.  :)  Sound like a plan?

So that's a quick update on the training.  I've got some more blogs marinating, so I'll be cranking them out soon including some reviews on some cool products that I've had the privilege to try.  Plus, there's a contest coming up to help me name my new ride!

Thanks for reading, and good luck to all those that are racing this weekend.  I hope the rain holds off!

Improvements (Another Pic Dump)

Recently, Jenn and I have been taking every spare minute of time we've had to make some home improvements around our place.  We've been "rearranging" all the bushes out front and cutting down the enormous ones that needed to be excavated so normal bushes could replace them.  Here is the before and after...

BEFORE

AFTER

Obviously, we still need some mulch, but it is such a big change from that massive bush that was in front of my office window.  I can finally see outside!!!  I'm working on getting the yard in shape, but it's going to be rough!  Any pointers?

Another improvement that has been a process for a long time has been the kitchen.  We ripped out the nasty countertops from the previous owners and poured concrete countertops.  With the help of a friend, we set them into place.  Since then, we put up a tile backsplash, and last night, I put on 15 coats of sealer.  Think that will be enough?  I couldn't stop as it just got shinier and deeper.  Here's what they look like.

Shiney!!! 

Then, thanks to this awesome blogger and her husband's generosity in giving us most of the materials, Maglee, our boxer, has a new fence to run around in!  Trevor, Jenn's brother, and Josh Woods helped me so much in actually installing it.  We've been doing our best to still take Maglee on walks!

Early this morning, while being on Daddy Duty, I had enough time to hang our new fixture over our kitchen table.  Out with the brass, please!!!

In addition to all the improvements, we've been having a lot of fun too!  On Saturday, Jenn, Caffrey and I went to Stone Mountain for an afternoon of hiking and fun.  I was a proud papa to be hiking up the mountain with Caff strapped to my chest as I listened to everyone make comments like, "Oh, look at those cute feet sticking out!"  It was so breezy on top that we just snapped a pick and headed down.

Of course, every beautiful day has to have a picnic!

Last week, I was able to squeeze a round of golf in with a fellow pastor as we talked ministry and enjoyed the sun.  He got a really cool shot of me.

Last night, Jenn and I went over to Tom and Colleen Kingery's house for an evening of fun!  We brought a couple of pizzas and simply had a blast.  We can't wait to meet their little girl here in a few weeks.  Caffrey really likes them both, but it was especially fun watching him talk and stare up at Tom. They're gonna be buds for sure!  (He'd better get to know him as he could be his father-in-law one of these days)

And lastly, Caffrey got his 3-month pictures a couple weeks ago.  I chose my favorite to share with you.

Reality Check

Sometimes, it's good to have a perception check on how your fitness really is.  Sometimes, a perception check just turns into a reality check as you realize that you've got a long way to go before you can conquer 140.6 miles in a day.  Yesterday was my reality check!  The good thing is that I still have 166 days till go time!

It's really hard to find some decent riding where I live.  The roads are awesome, but the traffic is really tough!  I guess I'm a little scared, but I think that's an ok fear to have.  Usually, I just go out and ride anyway, but for longer rides, I've decided that I'll go ride The Silver Comet trail.

The Silver Comet is a rails-to-trails project that goes from the east side of Atlanta (45 minutes from my house) all the way to Alabama and connects with the Cheif Ladiga trail for an additional 30-some miles.  All in total, it's about 95 miles long!  I plan on riding the entire trail one day, staying the night in Alabama, and then riding back the next day.  That'll be some good training.  Here's a visual of how long the trail is...

I've been pretty faithful about logging some solid trainer rides, but with incredible weather and a free Sunday, I decided to go for a long ride.  After hanging out with Caffrey while Jenn got some extra sleep, I loaded up my bike and headed for the Silver Comet.  I unloaded everything and took off.  Wowee!  I was flying!  I knew that my legs were in for a longer day, so I tried to spin as much as possible.  There were a ton of people on the trail, but it is wide enough that it's no big deal to pass.  Here's what it looks like with one of the many tunnels that you go through.

There were runners, walkers, riders on road bikes, riders on mountain bikes, rollerbladers, and a bunch of triathletes training.  About 10 miles in, a guy on a sweet TT bike caught me, and we started to talk.  He is a multi-Ironman and has done Louisville twice.  We had a blast talking about everything from triathlon to religion, and the miles ticked by.  At 25 miles, I turned around, and I had averaged 18.3mph on the way out.  When I turned around, I realized that it was going to be a long ride home.  Not only were my legs aching, but I realized that there was a definite headwind coming my way.  Now, I HATE it when people blame poor rides on headwinds, SO, I won't.  But, I will say that I didn't plan my nutrition very well, which made the return 25 miles really tough.  Since I've lost about 20 pounds recently, my body doesn't have too much to "eat" off of, and I didn't give it more to eat!  Well, I ate two granola bars when I turned around, but it was a little late in the game to recover.  I really struggled on the way back.  Another triathlete (girl) rode up next to me, and we talked for 10 or so miles.  Finally, I just told her to go on as I struggled to keep going.  I got dropped by a girl!!!

In the end, I rode 50 miles (first of the year) and averaged right at 17mph.  I'll take it as a solid training day, although it was a rude awakening of where I am as far as fitness goes.  My motivation is high, and I'm still excited about training.  August 25 is coming, and I'll be ready!!!

Thanks for reading

Slow Down! (Pic Dump)

Oh my word!  Life has been so ridiculously busy recently, and I think I've made it through the toughest part.  For awhile there, it was hard to even take a breath without feeling guilty that I had more things to accomplish and get done.  So here is a list of some of the highlights.

Training
 I finally have gotten motivated to get into some serious training.  The last couple months have been so crazy that I haven't felt the motivation to prioritize triathlon.  That being said, I have been putting in some decent workouts that have left me feeling like I have a really decent base to go off of when my training schedule really ramps up into some serious mileage.  I have found a really nice 7.5 mile loop near my house that is my favorite route right now.  I've also discovered how much harder it is to run while pushing a stroller.

Caffrey usually goes right to sleep.  It was cold that day!!!

Weight Watchers
When Jennifer got pregnant, she said that she wanted to do Weight Watchers after the baby was born.  She had incredible success before, and we both knew that she would have great success after.  I told her that I'd do it with her, so as of now, we've done it for 8 weeks, and I'm down 17 pounds!  Woohoo!  I'm a whole lot like Matty O...we both put on some winter weight and then use it as motivation when the season starts again.  I hear he's dropping a ton of weight too!  Jenn is having great success too, and it's actually really fun to do it together.

New Brooks Stuff
I ordered a bunch of Brooks stuff (THANKS, BROOKS!) so that I can "run happy."  They really hooked me up with the Brooks ID program.  It's awesome!  I got a hat, some tights, some compression shorts, but my favorite is my new jacket.  What do you think?

It's super warm and really comfortable!

I think I'll be placing another order soon.  What an awesome company to be so generous.  Go buy some Brooks stuff!  :)

New Bike
Some of you know that I bought a tri bike.  Why has there not been a special post about it yet?  Well, I'm still trying to figure it out.  I bought a 54cm, and I like it, but I feel a little crammed.  Then, a couple days after I bought it, I saw the same bike, only a year newer, basically brand new and a 56cm for $1000 less.  So, needless to say, I bought that one too!  It'll be arriving shortly, and I'll have to do a comparison.  I'll be selling the one I don't need, so anybody need a TT bike?  I'll do a special post about it, AND

There'll be a NAME CONTEST to follow!

Caffrey
Little Caffrey has been getting so big!  He weighed in at 12 pounds a couple weeks ago when he went to get his shots.  Poor guy...he didn't know what was about to happen.

He's really starting to move around alot.  We even think he might roll over this week.  He almost had it a couple nights ago.

He's been enjoying seeing all of his family including Grandy (Jenn's Step-dad):

and Great-Grandpa & Grandma Smith:

and Grandpa and Grammie (My Parents):

4 Generations of Smiths

and Nana (Jenn's Grandma):

This weekend, Grandy and Mimi (Jenn's mom) will be staying at our house for some Caffrey time.

Special Event Speaker:
I got the opportunity to preach for the Public High School Retreat that our Conference puts on for any Seventh-day Adventist that is in public school.  It was a fun weekend with about 100 kids that showed up.  Here's one of the times that I preached.

I also had the privilege of flying out to Loveland, CO to be the Week of Prayer speaker at Campion Academy.  I preached twice a day and then once on Saturday for church (11 times in 6 days!!!!!).  It was CRAZY but fun at the same time.  Here's what it looked like going down.

The Chaplain of Campion is our good friend Nick Clark and his wife Taryn.  We got to spend a whole week with them, which was awesome!  He's a fantastic pastor/chaplain, and it was fun to see him in action.

It was also the first time they got to see Caffrey.

You may be wondering how the plane rides went with Caff.  They were GREAT!  Jenn fed him going up and coming down, so he did terrific!

Ordination
The past too days, I have been at Cohutta Springs Youth Camp, which is our church's summer camp.  Jenn, Caffrey and I went there for an Ordination Review.  I had to put a massive portfolio of my ministry this far together for them to check out and interview us.  This morning, they unanimously affirmed my ministry and I will be ordained this summer.  Pretty cool!  Here's what my portfolio looked like.

Well, now you are all caught up on what's been going on in the Smith home.  I hope you enjoyed the pics.  Don't forget to be thinking of bike names (Hint: it's red) and have them ready for the upcoming contest.  I think I've got some pretty cool prizes that you'll like if you're into sports at all.

Thanks for reading!

Tornado Alley!

Last week, I was working in in my home office while Jennifer was in the living room doing what she seems to constantly be doing...feeding Baby C.  She was watching the weather, and I overheard the weatherman talking about the craziness that was brewing.  He said that there was a possibility of tornados, and they were heading straight for Calhoun, which is the town my parents, grandparents and uncle/aunt live in.  That made my ears perk up, and I quickly went out to see what the weatherman was saying.  He zoomed in the on the map to see the little communities that were in its path, and I knew that was exactly where my parents lived!  I quickly texted them to make sure they knew it was coming, and they did.  They had been watching the weather too.  They had seen it go through Adairsville, a town just to the south, and here's what it looked like as it crossed I-75.

Yikes!  That sucker was huge!!!  I kept watching as the twister went through their community and kept going and then called my mom.  She said that they heard it coming and had already cleared out a spot under their stairs to hide in.  Once it was on them, they both got in there and just prayed.  She said it sounded "just like a freight train," but 30 seconds later, it was gone.  My dad said that he opened the door and could see debris all over everything outside.  The Lord sure protected them as it is obvious that the tornado went right by their house!  The only damage to their actual house was some bumps and bruises to the gutters, a cracked outer pane of a tiny window, a 2x4 that spiked through their roof and let water drip onto the ceiling making a large brown spot, and LOTS of their trees down.  They were totally fine!!

You can see the tornado's path as it ripped through neighborhoods.  This is the neighborhood in front of my parent's.  Their house is right next to that lake.

The middle of the three houses closest to the lake is my parents.  There USED to be a nice thick tree line.

This is the street right before my parent's street.  I can't tell you how often I've walked this street

My dad said that he was going to be doing some chainsaw action on Sunday, so I went up to help him. As I drove in his subdivision, there wasn't much damage until I actually got onto THEIR street.  Then, all of a sudden, there were piles and piles and piles of trees that had ben piled by the curb.  There were people everywhere helping other people.  There were houses missing windows and siding and their roof.  I pulled into my parent's driveway and just lost it!  I just started crying...probably because of a little shock/fear, but also because my parents went right through a tornado and were still with us.  I got out of the car and just hugged and hugged my dad!

Just a few minutes after I got there, a whole crew of church members showed up with chainsaws and man power to clear all the snapped trees.  It was AWESOME!

There USED to be an awesome row of Cyprus trees between the houses.  The poor neighbor obviously had some damage as well as completely losing his detached garage.

We had fun even if it was hard work

Soon after we started work, my sister and brother-in-law showed up to help.  We stacked a little firewood, wouldn't you say?

One of the coolest parts of the day was when four teenagers, sophomores in high school, came over to me and said, "Sir, can we help you?"  They jumped right in and helped us pick up all the trash, shingles, busted siding and large sticks that littered the yard.  It's pretty cool to have complete strangers show kindness.  Cool kids!

Left to Right:  Braxton, Allie, Haley, Brandon
P.S.  Braxton lost half of his house but was over here helping us

It's hard to see how big those piles are, but they are HUGE! 

Some newspaper took this picture which is the house next to my parent's house.

It really is a sobering experience to see the raw power of nature.  But at the same time, it really is a faith-building sight to know that my God is so big and powerful that there is nothing He cannot do.  I praise Him for keeping my parents safe through the storm.

Thanks for reading!