Summer Family Fun

As usual, a lot has been happening in the Kohl family since my last post. To be honest, I don't even recall my last post that wasn't tied to a race or event. It has now been a few weeks since my last race, which was the Pleasant Prairie International Distance Triathlon. It's kind of funny, or ironic, but I was thinking a past few days while I was planning this post, that I feel busier this summer than I did last summer while I was in the thick of training for Ironman Wisconsin. Truthfully, when comparing this year to last, a lot has changed. First, we added a 5th member to our family 4 months ago, and just saying that amazes me that Harper is already 4 months old. Second, even though my training volume has decreased significantly (8-9 hours/week this year compared to 14-15+ hours/week last year), I have filled my free time with other activities, mainly family stuff. Thirdly, I have worked more overtime at work compared to what I worked last year, not a significant amount, but I have been much more willing to pick up small 4 hour blocks throughout the weeks.

As I compare this summer to last summer, I feel just as busy, but I can tell you, that I have undoubtedly enjoyed the excess freedom this summer. Last summer, I really didn't have free time per se, as any time left over from work, commuting, sleep, and training, was spent with my family, there just wasn't that much left over. On the other hand this summer, I have much more time left over to spend with my daughters and Sarah. Last year, I made it a point to write a blog post at the end of every training cycle. This year, my training cycles are nothing interesting compared to last year. Last year was an adventure, I was doing things I have never done. Each week was a new distance, a new workout, something was new each training cycle. Regardless of how busy or not busy I am, I figured I would do a short post on what my family and I have been up to since my last post.

Delaney's 3rd Birthday

Immediately after coming home from my triathlon in Pleasant Prairie we took Delaney out to dinner for her birthday. Although it wasn't her true birthday, it was our one chance to spend together as a family before her birthday, as Delaney has the unfortunate luck of her birthday falling on or around Country USA. We went out for Mexican at our local restaurant, El Jaripeo. After dinner we had family and friends over to our house for cake and ice cream and Delaney would be able to open her presents. This day was also the day of Team USA's third game of the World Cup pool play, which we were able to watch during dinner.

The next day, I spent the day with just my daughters. We spent the morning picking strawberries. I used these strawberries to make an all natural jam made from just strawberries, rhubarb, honey, and chia seeds. I got the recipe from Facebook, and you can see the recipe HERE. Country USA started up Tuesday night and is a 5 day country music festival in Winnebago County's jurisdiction. It's a long week of work, as we are scheduled 11 hour shifts all week. It's a bummer being stuck working during my daughters birthday. These feelings are greatly increased when I hear how much Delaney misses me, since I am her favorite person and she is mildly obsessed with me.

Maya's First Year of Tee Ball

We signed Maya up for her first organized team sport activity this summer. She started playing tee ball this year. I'll be honest, watching a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds "play" tee ball is one of the more adorable things you'll watch. It is structured very well, with 15 minutes of instruction to start, followed with a 30 minute "game." The game consists of 3 innings in which every kid hits once during their team's half inning. In the field, every time the ball is hit, the kids swam to the ball like a rugby scrum and who ever comes up with the ball throws it to first base. When the last kid hits, all the kids on base run until the bases are clear. Maya, has fallen in love tee ball and baseball this summer. She is slowly starting to understand the basic concepts of baseball. She can really hit the ball well for her first year. She is still working on her throwing and catching coordination. For the fall, Sarah wasn't able to find a local soccer league for her age that works with our schedule. She was able to find a flag football league through our YMCA, which will be entertaining for sure, considering how fun it is to watch tee ball.  It's funny too, that I always thought that Maya's name was somewhat unique, but it turns out that the only other girl on her team is also named Maya.

The 2 Maya's

Brewer's Game

This past March, my brother promised a ticket to a Brewer game with him for my birthday present from him and his girlfriend. One week after Country USA I took a final week of paternity leave and we were able to get down to Milwaukee for a Brewer's game. We saw the Brewer's against the Phillies on July 8th. Sarah and I went down with just my brother and his girlfriend. It was a nice get away from the kids. We got some fantastic seats for the game. They were easily the best seats I have sat in for a Brewer's game at Miller Park. The Brewer's ended up loosing the game, but we at least got to see Lyle Overbay hit a Grand Slam, so it wasn't a total disappointment.

Camping

After the Brewer's game that Tuesday, Sarah and I spent majority of our Wednesday packing, because after my SWAT training on Thursday we would be heading to Harrington Beach State Park for a long weekend. Harrington Beach is about 20 miles south of Sheboygan, WI, right on the shores of Lake Michigan. We would be leaving on Thursday and Sarah's family would be arriving on Friday afternoon. We opted to try a new State Park for a weekend of camping from our usual rotation of parks. We had the hopes of letting the girls play on the beach and swim all weekend. Unfortunately that wasn't going to happen. First, it was pretty chilly for a summer day in July. Secondly, due to the crazy cold winter we had, Lake Michigan was extra cold. Water temperatures for that area of Lake Michigan were said to be in the 45 degree range....yea, that's damn cold. It was hard to just walk into the water to get your feet wet. Saturday was spent hiking with our family and just relaxing and letting the kids play. The park was definitely different from our normal camping trips to State Parks. Our campsite was not in the woods at all. We were at a grassy site with a couple small trees. It was more of a field than a woods. It didn't bother me, as it was a nice change of pace. The grassy site was sure better than the typical sandy/dirty campsites you usually find in the wooded sites. I doubt, we would return to Harrington Beach State Park as it didn't offer a lot of great options for our kids to do. The lack of swimming, lack of park, and few toilets near our campsite are just a few reasons we didn't think too highly of the park.

My Training

I have continued to find joy in the lower volume training plan. My workouts have been challenging and rewarding all while being shorter in duration. My weekend workouts have been relatively long compared to other workouts this summer. Lately, a typical weekend workout would be a 90-120 minute bike ride consisting of 3x20:00 at race pace with 10:00 recovery, followed with a short 15 minute cool down brick run. My hardest workout this season was my brick workout this past Sunday. For starters, I was coming off my last night of workout out at Rock USA (think Country USA, but Rock and Roll...duh), and was physically and mentally exhausted. Regardless, I forced myself out the door and rode 34 miles which consisted of 2x30:00 at race pace with 10:00 recovery followed by a 10k run, which consisted as 5k easy, 3.5k tempo, 1.5k easy. My swimming is continually improving. I think the change in focus in the pool has been very beneficial to me. My longest swim on this training plan has been 2,000 meters (1.25 miles). Majority of my pool workouts consist of either longer (300m-500m) tempo intervals, or short (25m-100m) sprint sets. I feel more efficient in the pool and as though, I am actually becoming a decent swimmer. As of writing this post, I have 2 triathlon races left before I shift my focus back to marathon training. On July 27th, I will be racing the Ripon Medical Center Sprint Triathlon in Ripon, WI. The RMC Triathlon will be my last tune up race before racing the USA Triathlon Age Group National Sprint Championships in Milwaukee, WI on August 10th.

Between those two final races, I have a quick rotation at work and then we will be going on vacation with our good friends, Pat and Melissa to Rhinelander, WI. Right after vacation, we will be heading straight to Milwaukee to get my bike checked in on Saturday and then racing in the National Championships on the 10th. That is my final triathlon of the season and will be laying it on the line with aspirations of qualifying for Team USA for the right to race at the World Championships in Chicago, IL.

Until next time - Thanks for reading!