I have been meaning to write this for a couple of weeks now, my year in review and what's in store for 2010. Unfortunately I ended up in the hospital with a ruptured appendix and a minor complication that kept me there for 8 days.
Year in Review
2009 was a pretty good year for me. I started competing in the sport of Triathlon, finishing well in 2 half iron distance and 2 Olympic distance events.
My 2009 race schedule was to get some experience before attempting Ironman Wisconsin in 2010. I am pretty set on gear, with all my major purchases completed last year, and the last big one (Power meter) I just took care of. I picked up a used Argon 18 E-114, Kurt Kinetic Indoor trainer, Nineteen Frequency Wetsuit, Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS and just ordered a Powertap SL+ system. I gained a lot of valuable experience during my 09 races, and I am excited to see how much I can improve over last year. The biggest thing I learned was that my bike volume was not high enough to support the bike effort I was attempting on race day.
On the professional side of things, I finally got off the side lines and presented at the Madison .Net User group on Sharepoint 2010. For my first presentation, I think I did an ok job and the feedback I got was mainly positive. I still need to get my free copy of resharper so I can give it one more try. Also on the professional side, I accepted a new position as a Software Engineer with a new startup called Madison Research Technologies (MRT). MRT is working on developing a technical solution to a costly problem in the health care industry. I'll be able to talk about it more once we launch the product. I can tell you that I’m using a Microsoft Stack (what else would I be using) consisting of Asp.Net MVC and SQL Server.
To end my year right, and to get me psyched for Ironman training, my body thought it would fun to put me in the hospital for a week with a ruptured appendix and a pretty serious case of Ileus. I got the NG tube passed up the nose (while awake) and didn’t get any food for almost a week. By the time I got home, I had lost 7 pounds, and no it wasn’t water weight, seeing as I was on an IV continuously.
2010
The biggest thing I have going in 2010 is my first Ironman, Ironman Wisconsin, on September 12th. I just had my first full week of training the last week in January. Since that was an “off” week, it was a good week to start back up after my little appendix issue. My FTP is down 25-30 watts, running speed is down 1 mph, swim speed is down, heart rate is up, and endurance is shot. The good news is, I know what I need to do to get back into shape. I know what I’m capable of with the mediocre training schedule i had last year, so with all the hours I’m scheduled to put in this year, I should be back on track in no time. Be sure to keep an eye on my fitness category if you want to know how I’m doing.
My new job at MRT is going very well. It’s nice to be doing a little more programming, especially with Asp.Net MVC on the web side of things. It’s a bit of a change from Terso, what with averaging 1 e-mail/day over the last 3 weeks, and I think I was the first person to schedule a meeting in Outlook. If Terso was small with 20 people, MRT is really small with only 6. Speaking of Terso, if you check out the front page of the Terso Corporate Website, you can see my wife demoing the new Terso TS032 Intelligent Cabinet. I always wanted to be married to a Model ;)
I wanted to put more effort into this post, but since it’s February already, it’s outdated already before I even post it. I hope to make up for this with some additional posts in the near future.