lullabies

up for the 1am feeding and tc is really chowin' down. i usually keep classical music playing in the house, but for some reason tonight, i felt like switching over to the 'retro active' station and listen to some 80's alternative. as i finished burping the little guy and sat there on the couch holding him, i remarked to him, "i sure wish they'd play something i'm familiar with so i can sing for you." and no sooner did i say those words and it happened.

"i wish i was in tijuana eating barbecued iguana. i'd take requests on the telephone, i'm on a wavelength far from home. i feel a hot wind on my shoulder, i dial it in from south of the border. i hear the talking of the dj, can't understand just what does he say?

i'm on a mexican radio
i'm on a mexican whoa-oh radio

and his lids get heavy as he drifts off to slumberland...

sleep deprivation

so, the first couple days? exciting, beyond compare and exhausting. again, like running an 'a' race. the first few nights were your typical, "oh, he made a noise! his he choking? is he still breathing? why is he breathing so fast and then stopping?" and it makes it near impossible to sleep. smsmh and i have been doing tag team feedings, and we've got a pretty solid system down now. solid, in our naive little world.

training the past few weeks has been sorta spotty as we prepped for tc to show up and as i started my new ironman training plan (don't ask me what it is, it's made up...haha) and the workouts ended up wearing me out too much. so, when tc showed up and i was without much sleep for the first few days, training took the ultimate back seat. i tried to do a decent ride on monday since we were invited to a bbq at smsmh's brother's place, but even the short cycle over to his place was taxing on sleep fatigued legs. the ride home was a joke as my legs could barely get me over hills that i was used to crushing.

but, the solid system i mentioned above? it's working now. last night i got a stretch of 5 hours. FIVE HOURS! along with a 2 hour spot prior to the 1am feeding. so when i finished up with the 7am feeding this morning, i changed into the tri gear and went out for a brick workout. i spun high through the laguna canyon loop, tackling some moderate hills and testing out the new profile design aero bars on the bike and rolled back to the house with a decent mph average for street riding. i slipped on the shoes and then proceeded to head out for a really solid 10k run. by the time i got home, after 1:45 of training, i was feeling WONDERFUL. tired, sure, but not the fatigue that i felt after riding on monday. getting in some heart pounding exercise really helped me feel normal again. i'll be trying it again tomorrow and see if i can work it into our 'solid system'.

tc is doing amazing. the little guy is still as perfect and beautiful as the day we brought him home. it's amazing how i never get tired of holding him, watching him, changing his poopy diapers...well, i may be exaggerating on that last one, but you get the point. he has his first pediatrician appointment tomorrow. i'm assuming that they'll tell us that he's the healthiest baby they've ever seen. i mean, come on, LOOK AT HIM! he's adorable!

songs for my son

safe and sound and in once piece...well, three pieces, to be exact. after a night in the hospital, we were finally discharged and headed home about 24 hours after the birth. the birthday started out with smsmh and i heading to corona regional medical facility to meet the birth mother for a short bit before they sent her in for her cesarean procedure. birthmom was sent in and we waited in the room for the nurse to come and get us when tc was finally delivered.

our wait wasn't long, and about 30 minutes later we were following the nurse into the nursery, where the adventure began. to start, as they unwrapped tc from his swaddle, the unwrapping exposed a massive amount of meconium from his chest all the way down to his toes...black, sticky and copious. once the nurses got him all cleaned up, they weighed him, 8lbs 1oz and set him on the warming table where we were able to participate in the measuring (20" long) and the footprinting. tc was completely quiet and just made rooting motions, indicating that he was hungry.

for some reason, "hey jude" came into my head and i started singing it quietly to him as the nurses busied themselves with other paperwork.

Hey Jude don't make it bad Take a sad song and make it better Remember to let her into your heart Then you can start to make it better

before too much longer, a private room was readied for us and we were escorted over and briefed on some of the basics; feeding, changing, burping, swaddlling, etc. it was about 3:30, so we gave him his first feeding and began the marveling process. tc was healthy, beautiful and big. all the nurses continued to comment on the size of his feet and hands and any time the vitals were taken, the doctors would say, "perfect". exactly.

smsmh and i began switching off feedings in 3 hour intervals, but i wasn't able to sleep much in the convertible chair and i ended up holding tc during some of his sleeping. smsmh was able to get a couple hours of sleep. tc was mellow and didn't really fuss at all. the only time he seemed to get loud was when we'd strip him down to change a diaper.

the next morning, smsmh went down to the cafeteria and grabbed us some breakfast. later in the morning, the birthmother requested a visit so she could see tc. she stopped by and we chatted for a bit. she seemed really happy that we were connecting so quickly with tc. i took the opportunity to show off my vocal skills and sang about poop:

"everything comes down to poop, from the top of your head to the soul of your shoes, we can figure out what's wrong with you by lookin' at your poo. do you have a hemeroid or is it rectal cancer, when you flush that dookie down you flush away the anwser"

and one of the old songs passed down from my grandfather:

the poor old slave has gone to rest beneath the willow tree, tree, tree his bones now rest beneath the sky way down in tennessee

the p-poor old s-slave has g-gone to r-rest beneath the w-willow tree, tree, tree
his b-bones now r-rest beneath the s-sky way d-down in t-tennessee

the pickity poor old slickity slave has gickity gone to rickity rest beneath the wickity willow tree, tree, tree
his bickity bones now ricktiy rest beneath the sickity sky way dickity down in tickity tennessee

the discharge came quickly afterward and we were headed home from the hospital by 2pm and home by about 3pm. now that we're home, we're able to figure out how to get a schedule set up, where to put what to make it most efficient and all the other fun logistical things. i don't know what else to say at this point except that he's beautiful. he's amazing. and he's home.

thanks to everyone for your well wishes. i'll keep you posted and get some more pictures up soon.

announcing the birth of...

...thunderclap newman smith*. born may 25th at 1:35. a healthy 8lbs 1oz and 20" long. he's beautiful, huge and healthy!

we'll be staying the night and will most likely be home later tomorrow afternoon. lots of pictures will follow!

*actual name may vary

little orphan annie

the question has been the same all morning and the response has me feeling a bit like that curly redhead.

"tomorrow, tomorrow..."

it's a weird sensation, not unlike the day before running my first marathon. you've read about it, prepared the best you knew how with the information you had available, but in reality, ANYTHING can happen on race day. so, that same feeling of staring into an unknown void is present with me when i sing my little tune.

the caesarean is scheduled for friday at noon and really, that's all we know at this point. we're not sure how long they'll want to keep tc in the hospital, we're not sure if we get to stay the night with him, we're not sure what colour race singlet to dress him in for the ride home. all we know is the same thing that annie knew...

"tomorrow, tomorrow, it's only a day away"

future triathlete

as the days wind down and the date of tc's birth comes closer, smsmh and i continue to try to hammer through the list of things that need to be accomplished before the little guy shows up. one of the things on my list was to 'embellish' the room with some decorations. we had already painted the room blue about a year ago, so all i needed to do was...'embellish'. i had a crew of guys show up on sunday to give me a hand and within a couple hours we had knocked out the following result:

next, i'm going to frame a bunch of race bibs for the wall and make a finisher's medal mobile. we're not giving any subtle hints. honest.

thanks guys (tim, rich and wade - and their wives) for helping out. the room is looking great! oh, and thanks again to everyone that has given to tc's gear fund so far. we've received donations from three different nations so far (us, canada and south africa), i wonder if i have any readers from other nations that would be willing to pitch in. i want to sew little flags on the jogger and the trailer along with everyone's names!

bizarro world - wildflower 2007

wildflower. what is there to say about this race other than it was completely not what i expected. from the moment i pulled into the park to the moment i crossed the finish line, not anything was as i expected to be. it was, as in adventure comics, a bizarro world.

my htrae experience began when i pulled into the campgrounds at the event. i had purchased prepaid camping, to save some money and also to 'reserve' myself a place. silly me, i thought that meant that i'd have an ACTUAL campsite. turns out, you have to show up by tuesday to ensure that can get an ACTUAL site. when i pulled in on saturday, it was an exercise in creative camping. pull off the road, find a space to squeeze your car into and hope that you have some flat land to pitch your tent. i finally found a place to put the car and was immediately in culture shock with the sheer volume of people and the madhouse array of campsites.

i quickly headed down to the festival to pick up my race packet and find out where the pasta dinner was being served. the walk down to the expo was long and included a huge hill (downhill) that quickly gave me an idea of what sort of climbing i was in store for during the race. the expo was a sea of people, not unlike the mass of humanity that we experience at the boston expo this year. i was by myself, without a tri-club or crew and i felt small and alone. the last place i wanted to be at that point was at the race.

i tried wandering the expo but couldn't take the crowds, so i tried to track down the pasta dinner. eventually, i located a trailer with a small sign that said, "pasta" on it. i gave them my name and they handed me a plate. bizarro occurrence number two was the dish that i'd been handed to 'carbo-load'. there was a handful (seriously, enough to fill my hand) of penne pasta, an iceberg lettuce salad, a half banana, a slice of bread and two chocolate chip cookies. meager, to say the least. i plopped down at one of the tables and began eating, and actually ended up chatting with a group of four athletes from ottawa. this turned out to be a fortuitous event, as chad, one of the long course racers, was in my age group and would turn up later. i asked if they knew warren, because, hey, if you're from canada, you know everyone there, right? they let me know that canada was a big place...who knew?

after my 'meal' i headed back to my 'campsite', grabbed my box of left over pizza from lunch and began eating as i headed over to 21st century's camp with the fmrc folks. we chatted for a bit, tried to get some cell reception and then i decided it was time for me to turn in and attempt to get some sleep. this led to bizarro number three. i had never slept in my car before, but i had no desire to try to put up the tent on the meager plot of land that i'd staked out. so, i dropped both of the seats in the xterra, kicked the front seats all the way forward and stretched out my thermarest and bag and ended up with just enough room to extend fully. lucky me, i'm a short guy. i slept surprisingly well, despite the loud antics of the cal poly students off in the distance.

up bright and early, i fired up the stove, cooked my oatmeal, ate and headed off to the transition area by 6:15. i was all set up and ready to go by 6:45, so i hung around, watched the other athletes start to file in and chatted with some of the folks around my transition area. by 7:15, donald rolled in and it turned out he was one rack up and a couple spots over. bizarro number four, for some reason, i expected donald to be this crazy intense, competitive guy and instead, he's this humble, soft spoken and very calm guy. just the type of person i needed to be around before the start of the race. we chatted for a bit and then i let him get to the task of setting up his gear. right next to donald, though, was chad from ottawa. i asked donald if he happened to have any sunscreen, to which he replied with a negative, but chad did. two bottles, in fact, and he actually gave me one of them.

eventually, time came for the start and i put on the wetsuit and headed over to the ramp to group up with my wave. my last experience with the swim start was somewhat of a nightmare that ended up with me nearly quitting the race before 10 minutes had even gone by. and that had me spooked about the start. as i stood there waiting for the call for my wave, i closed my eyes, blocked out everything around me, said a quick prayer and began focusing on exactly what i needed to do to have a successful swim. stroke mechanics, face in the water, look for feet and bubbles while underwater and don't look up, and most important of all, swim MY pace. when i opened my eyes, a complete calm was upon me and i was really ready to get started.

our horn sounded and i waited for most of wave to dive in before i started. immediately i got my face in the water and started swimming my pace. sure i got kicked and bumped, but i didn't let it phase me, i just kept swimming, watching for feet, breathing normal, arm over arm, kicking, breathing, stretching and before i knew it i was past the first turn and well on my way down the long stretch before the turn around. about a third of the way into the swim, i realized that i was through the part of the race that had spooked me the most, i was swimming strong and my heart rate was quite comfortable. at that moment, a mere 10+ minutes into the race, i knew that IT WAS ON. bizarro world? meet jeff. the rest of the swim went off without a hitch and i felt relaxed and pumped as i neared the shore. about 100 yards out, i started kicking the legs hard, but another swimmer stopped dead in front of me and i had to do a weird maneuver to get around him. just as i kicked away from him, my left calf tightened up. i continued swimming and kicking, trying to work out the knot. when i hit shore, it had loosened up enough to run again, but it was still somewhat painful.

i executed the exit from the water flawlessly, goggles on the head, unzip to the waist as i ran, then goggles off and into the cap and before i knew it, i was at t1. i took my time here to make sure i did everything i needed to. i slopped a ton of sunscreen onto my arms, neck and back (or so i thought), took a gu, and i was off on the bike leg.

oh...did i not mention already that there was a stiff wind blowing and that the lake happened to be quite choppy with a heavy current? oh, well, there was a stiff wind blowing. and while i had noticed the chop in the water, it didn't really make itself apparent until i was on the bike. the two miles before the first big hill were quite sheltered and i didn't notice it at first, but it would make itself known shortly. i hit the first major climb up from the lake and watch the line of cyclists ahead of me slow to a crawl up the hill while guys on expensive bikes began standing in the pedals. me, i just kept sitting, spinning as fast as i could and slowly began passing people. easily. the hill just didn't seem to be phasing me. maybe i was being stupid by taking it so quickly, but i felt good and just kept pushing quickly over the top. as we wound out of the park and onto the main road, the wind began pushing us all over the place. headwind, crosswind, cross-headwind, it never seemed to be coming from behind and even downhill seemed to be a challenge.

the bike, while a little bit slow with the wind, seemed to be going really well. i was passed by quite a few guys on the nice tri-bikes, but i'd always gobble them back up as we hit the hills. i constantly yo-yo'ed with them, being passed on the downhill and the flats, only to catch and pass them again on the hills. hills which had been described to me as brutal. hills which i seemed to be just cruising up and over. finally, we came to what was called 'the nasty grade'. 2 miles of constant climbing over 1000'. i remember reading somewhere that there was a false summit at some point, so every time it looked like it was going to level off, i told myself there was more and just kept spinning high. no one passed me on this hill, but i can't count the number of cyclists i gobbled up on that grade. before i knew it, we were on a monster descent and i knew that this couldn't be another false summit, but that we were actually over the top. and i had just been witness to more bizarro world. the nasty grade hadn't really challenged me.

i cruised the rest of the ride, pushing hills and relaxing on the downhill and before i knew it, i was back in the transition area about 25 minutes before i'd planned on being done with the bike. i looked at the clock and realized that i was four hours into the race. that gave me a full two hours to finish the run and still break six hours for the whole course! i was elated! i took some more time to slop on more sunscreen and headed out to do the leg that i consider "my sport". watch out, folks, runner coming through!

my next bizarro experience was the shock that was the run course. i'd looked at the elevation profile on the run and had dismissed it as nothing to be concerned over. what i didn't realize, though, was that while there were only a couple long hills, the rest of the course was steep uphill and downhill, mostly on singletrack. what i had hoped to be able to burn through in 1:35-1:40 in reality was going to be much slower. i gave myself a couple miles to shake the legs out and at about mile two decided it was time to turn up the volume, but mile two had lots of hills. and so did three, and four, and five and so on. only a couple times was i able to get into a solid, quick pace and before i knew it, i was looking at my watch and realizing that i needed to be really focused and dig deep if i was going to roll in under six hours.

the run actually went much better than i'm making it sound. the majority of people were walking the hills, which i always ran. nothing crushes your competition like being passed on a hill except for waving, laughing and giving the thumbs up to folks cheering at the top of the hill. teehee! i was only passed by four people on the entire run. two really fast guys with 40+ on their calves, one guy running a relay and the number six girl. i take that back. i was passed by five people. at mile 12, the number seven girl passed me up. as we wound our way down the steep drop back to the finish, i began my kick at a quarter mile out. i stretched out the stride, determined to come across the mats looking strong and fast and in the process, i blew past number seven. i was moving much to fast for her to match pace and she wasn't able to overtake me again. i cruised down the finishing chute as the announcer called out my name, trotted across the mats and stopped my watch with a pleasing 5:52. sub six. my gold medal goal.

everything about the race was backwards. up was down, left was right, the swim and hills posed no challenge, but the run was tough; bizarro. today, i'm ecstatic about my performance. very sore, very stiff, very tired, but extremely ecstatic. i think, at this point, the best bizarro thing i could do would be to eat a big burger and have a donut from tim horton's. sounds like a plan to me.

tip of the hat, wag of the finger

i made a major gear purchase on saturday in preparation for this year's tri season and im training. my first wetsuit. the groovy folks over at fleet feet helped me get fitted and set with a nice, shiny new blueseventy energie. in addition, scott, the owner, had sent out a letter, congratulating me on the recent boston finish and offering some free promotional items and discount on shoes. so, i also ended up with a free fleet feet hat and a boston technical shirt. woohoo! tip of the hat!

sunday, i headed out to lake mission viejo to give the wetsuit a run-through. i suited up, dove in and two things happened. first, the suit kicked in and i was immediately buoyant and it felt wonderful. second, the goggles i was wearing, an older pair of blue tinted speedo goggles, leaked some water and were also immediately fogged up. that, coupled with the choppy water, made the visibility almost nill. theres something about open water swimming where ya just really like to be able to see, ya know? so, for the rest of the swim i was fighting with the stupid goggles and dealing with limited visibility. boo! wag of the finger!

monday i popped over to a local sports shop and picked up a new pair of goggles. after some decent research, i found out that i shouldn't have been using blue tinted goggles outside in the first place. so, i got a nice pair of tyr goggles with a smoke finish. during wednesday's swim, i sized up the goggles, hopped in the water and set off on an easy 1000y lap swim. and immediately i noticed something strange. i couldn't tell i had goggles on. no noticeable colour, no fog, no water, no pressure, just a crystal clear view of everything around. and when i say everything, i'm talking about amazing peripheral vision, too. oh, sweet heavenly goggles. i could see again! yay for the new tyr goggles! tip of the hat!

so, tomorrow morning, crack of dawn, i'm headed up to the lake to set up camp and get mentally prepared for the race this weekend. if i've got coverage of any sort out there, i'll blog from the race, otherwise, i'll have something up as soon as i get back.

wildflower or bust!

*** oh, and on an administrative note, i had to back out some funds that were donated to the tc gear chip in, but it doesn't let me reset the totals, so there's a new tc's gear doohickey with the remaining balance that we're looking for. thanks to everyone who has contributed so far! tip of the hat! ***