Happy 2016

Why hello there stranger...

I write this from the office on the first Monday of the new year.  I have officially been in California for two years now.  It is really unbelievable how quickly time flies, what seems like an eternity looking forward is just a blur looking backwards.

2015 was very good to me, and here is to hoping for a great 2016.  The Stary Family has big plans this year, big changes and big goals.  We look forward to kicking those goals square in the teeth!

I know it's stupid but here are my yearly resolutions... many of which I have failed at many times over, but what is the point of being here if we don't try to get a least a teeny bit better.

1. Lose 35 pounds.  This goal is easier today than it was just this time last month.  Unbeknownst to me, I tried to eat everything over the holidays.  I nearly crapped myself when I got on the scale this morning.   Stepped on at 220.  So hopefully that first 10 pounds is just an undigested Little Debbie or something.  Simple plan... eat right, work out, repeat.

2. Drink water.  Again this would seem to not be a challenging goal, but I fail at this every year and by Jan 7th I am knee deep in Diet Coke cans.  Drink water, this helps financially too.  Double bonus!

3. Be better with money.  I have two real weaknesses food and buying crap we don't need, the latter especially gets me in trouble when my kids as for crap they don't need.  I have to be better.  I will start by cutting out the morning Starbucks (see drink water).  Pay off all those annoying little debts and stash some cash for an upcoming big purchase.

4. Write. I swear to all that is good an holy I mean to do this more.  I plan to be a prolific producer of bloggery, but by Jan 7th I run out of quips and then the Bengals lose and I get too pissed to carry on.  I will try to do better, I will.  I plan to be more open about my goals because I think even the allusion of you mocking my failures might help a little.

5. Grow up.  I know what  you are thinking!  Eric, you are 39, there is no more up.  But I can improve here.  Too much of my life is still driven by kiddie crap.  Listen, I am never going to be the guy sitting by the fireplace reading Hawthorne (had to google that name), but it wouldn't kill me to spend less time on Facebook and more time doing shit that actually matters.  I need to pass on the cookies in favor of a Bourbon, skip the chicken nuggets and have a salad.  And don't hold me to this, but I am gonna try and read a book, no promises on number of pages.

6. Dress like a grown man.  This is basically 1b plus 5b, but judging by my sweatpants collection, it probably needs an upgrade.  I own only 1 suit, and only a few nice items of clothing and none of them fit me properly.  Side Note:  My watch collection is already bona fide! I will try to dress my roly poly arse as grown-upedly as I can while I work on the gut.  But once I reach a size 34 inch waist it is time to go visit a tailor.  This is also a recurring goal for me, I usually throw it out the first time I need to get up an iron a shirt.

7. Be a better husband and father.  This one is really about being present in the moment with my family.  I need to be better at not being distracted.  Play with the kids, talk with the wife.  Put down my GD tablet.

8. I am pretty happy with where I am and where I am heading professionally, but I do plan on taking broader risks.  If I am going to get somewhere, I had better get going on it.  I will be 50 and getting phased out before I know it.

9 and 10. Both real goals, are not yet for public consumption.  But they are big deals and I am really looking forward to them.

Here is to hoping that 2016 is the best year yet.

Thanks,

- Eric

Lessons Learned from my FIRST Triathlon

So I completed the Golden State Triathlon on Sunday.  This was a 0.5 mile swim (in open water), 15 mile bike ride, and 5K run.

1. Swimming:
1. I had "trained for the event", but I was not prepared.  I don't have access to a pool or swimable body of water.
2. I had to rent a wet-suit, now I am not a slender man.  I looked like Chris Farley wearing David Spade's coat, or a sausage that had been cooked a little to long and was starting to burst open at the seams.
3. The wet-suit was too tight, it felt like trying to swim with an elephant on my chest, I could not get enough air.  This tends to be problematic when swimming in a RIVER!
4. Swimming in a river, with a current, is not like swimming in a pool.  If you want to do a triathlon I would highly suggest training in a body of water like you are going to participate in.  By the first 100 meters I knew I was in trouble.  I had to switch to swimming breaststroke which is really slow, but it was that or drown.  I think I chose wisely.
5. I started 10 minutes ahead of the "elite" women, several of them passed me in the river.  I knew it was going to be bad when I showed up and saw the "other" peeps.  But the worst was yet to come.
2. Bicycling:
1. I routinely ride 12 - 15 miles on my bike, so I was not overly worried about this part.  I should have been worried.
2. I was rocking a 100 dollar Schwinn, I bought from Wal-Mart.  The other peeps had better rides.  Sort of like racing a Ferrari in a Ford Fiesta.  I passed NO ONE on the bike, not a single person.  I was pedaling hard the whole time and I was being passed like I was riding backwards.  On my third lap around the course (5 mile course), people were already leaving. They had finished the ride, run a 5K, drank a beer, cleaned up, chatted with friends, probably had a good laugh at Chubbs Peterson in the tight wet-suit all while I was still on the bike course.
3. Running:
1. The 5K was the easy part, except for the fact I was basically all alone at this point.  
2. I did actually start to pass other people here, including a couple of guys.  I bet they felt bad when I jogged past them.
3. I still had energy and my legs still had a little juice, I was able to run most of the 5K without breaks.

I finished last in my heat, and was two or three from the last male, and only finished a few minutes ahead of the last females (some of whom started 15 minutes after me).  OUCH!

It was a great experience, and I would do this again, following some training and a better bike of course!

:)

Training

Over the last year, I have made a hobby into trying to torture myself.  I have completed 2 Tough Mudders, a 10K, and I am signed-up for a mini-Triathlon, and the Men's Health Urbanathlon.  I thought if I scheduled an event once every couple of months, it would give me something to focus on, to keep my diet and exercise habits in check while living here in the Bay Area.

The plan is for at least 6 events in 2016, including my first marathon.

I will admit I was partially correct, in that I do tend to keep an eye on things when I know the next torture test is just around the corner, but I have not done a good enough job, nor taken it seriously enough to drop that bad habit of Sunday Night Oreo's.

But, as I have said a 1000 times, the best part about failing is getting to start over.  So here I am, starting over... again.

It is just over a month till my Triathlon and 90 days till the Urbanathlon.  So here I go... once again... this time, I will get it right ;)