Sunday Morning: Transition Set-up, Part 2 of 7 for 2010 Triathlon Recap

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Post Triathlon Recap Part 2 of 7. I started writing up a recap of my event, and it kept growing and growing and growing. I decided to break it up. The purpose of the recap is give new people the thoughts and ideas they can use to help them prepare for their own future first endurance event!
Chicago Triathlon Swim Start

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP- Transition Time

Transition set-up is early. When you plan on doing a triathlon, no one really tells you that you have to be up at 3:30am even though your start time might not be until 7:52 or even later (9:36am). That’s right.

You have to wake-up and get your bike, your bike/run gear into the transition area and set-up before they lock the transition area off for the event by 5:45am.

Now thinking back on it, I should have expected this. How can you have people setting up a transition area, when racers are motoring through converting from swim mode to bike mode.

So awake I did.  In fact, it was difficult sleeping.  I could have set-up my transition at 2:00am if they let me.

While I was in transition, I’m looking for a spot. Experts say get to set-up early and try to get a spot near the end of your rail.

I couldn’t find my wave number. Finally, I found it. It was hidden under a tree. Yet, I had a sweet spot as I was near the end of the number.  Near me, around the tree, was open running alley that I could use to get near the fence line between the sprint racers and the international distance racers.

Now, that I’ve done one Triathlon.  One suggestion I do is actually practice your transition about a month before your event. What I mean by that is put out your items on the floor. Then, slowly and methodically go through the process of putting on your socks, shoes, etc.  This will help shorten your transition time and prevent you from forgetting anything.

Forget Anything?

One thing I did forget but remembered as I was a couple of steps from my transition area was my Heart Rate Monitor. Since I always trained with it, I felt like it would be a good idea for me to have during my bike and I stopped went back and grabbed it. Had I prepared and practice my transition more often, I’m sure that would have been avoided. Also, I think I will wear my heart rate monitor during the swim to avoid even having to worry about it during the transition. I was little worried it would be uncomfortable under my wet-suit. I don’t think that will be the case.

During the transition set-up, I walked to the bike-out area. I took mental pictures of me jogging out my bike. I also tried to mentally picture jogging my bike-in to converting from bike mode to run mode. I decided the path I was going to take. I’m glad I did that, because I had no decisions to make during the transition about how I was going to find my bike. I just followed the path. I didn’t do any crazy balloon or tape jobs like some people did. I just looked for my unique striped towel. That was a good idea. Bring a one of kind towel to put on the ground. It will re-assure you when you see it during transition that you’re in the right spot. Also, I walked to the swim-out, run-out transition spots. Again, I took mental pictures of the path I was going to take to find my bike. I went back a couple of times to my bike to make sure no one messed with my spot or squeezed it too much. All was fine.

Finally, I walked from the swim-out to the water exit area.  The idea again was to try to get the lay of the land and prepare myself for the actions I would need to take in just a couple of hours.  I walked the length of the swim. I checked out the water. It looked fine.

Despite the early set-up time, I have to say the whole transition set-up was really fun. I mean can you imagine there are 8,000+ triathletes all doing the same thing as you. Chicago and London duke it out for the title of the largest Triathlon in world. All these triathletes are out there pre-dawn focused on the task at hand. It really is very exciting, and the total energy was enormous. So, even though there are butterflies, I was having fun.

I went back to the swim start area. I wanted to watch the first swimmers off. Then, as I’m standing there waiting. The event announcer asked everyone to rise for the National Anthem.

Whoa, I am at a sporting event. That was a cool surprise to hear the national anthem pre-sunrise with bunches of other competitors and spectators.  I was pretty inspired.

BANG!

The first waves got in the water even before the official sun-rise. There were a few clouds at the horizon that was keeping us shaded for a bit. After about 4 waves of swimmers (16 minutes), the sun decided to peak out from the clouds and the rays of sunlight was a beautiful yet powerful foreshadowing for the rest of the day. I decided to lighten my pre-swim gear bag and to do a pre-race restroom break. I walked about 10 minutes to my hotel room. I wasn’t worried about waking my family. Jen is a light sleeper, and I knew she would be up when I got up. I’m glad I went back, because I’m not sure that my bag would have fit in the swim-gear check bags they were handing out.

Tune in next time to see how my swim went.

Part 1:  Expo Day
Part 2:  Transition Set-up
Part 3:  The Swim
Part 4:  The Bike
Part 5:  The Run, if you must call it that.
Part 6:  Post Race.  Will I do a triathlon again?
Part 7:  Race Day Gear Thoughts

Bad Habit Relapses happen. What do you do about it?

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I think it must be the post race blues or something.  Now that my race is long gone (one week), Bad habits are returning in droves.

Q: How to break the Bad Habit Relapse?

A: Take Action immediately.  The sooner you can re-focus your actions on good habits, the quicker the bad habit will ride into the sunset.  The longer you let a bad habit fester, the more difficult it will be to remove from your vernacular.

In case you need a reminder, last week, I finished a triathlon in 3.5 hours.  Not bad, and I still have so much to say about it.  Yet, my blogging habits have not yet recovered.  Writing is a habit just as eating and exercise.  With any habit, consistency is the key.  I’ve been nothing but an inconsistent blogger this summer.  I’ve been so focused on my own health, my own fitness, and my triathlon, that I’ve put many other projects on the side including this website: simple weight.  Off that side-track!

Return of my Killer Bad Habits

Late Night Sugar Binges

In one night, I had a bowl of ice cream and a half a bag of Twizzlers.  In another night, I had a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids and a half of bag of Twizzlers.  Now, I’m not talking the friendly snack sized items.  I’m talking more the movie sized candy bags.

Sept 6 was the first day I did any exercise since my Triathlon (Aug 29) (I weight lifted for about 20 minutes).  In addition, one thing I noticed especially earlier in the week, my appetite was just out of whack. I wanted to eat anything and and everything I could find.

My work at home productivity has nose-dived.  I guess after one exerts so much effort and so much focus, its only natural to crash a bit.

The key I think is getting back on the bicycle and re-focusing both literally and figuratively.

3 Steps to Break your habits:

  1. Identify the Bad Habit.
    example:  Eating mindlessly late at night.
  2. Describe the Habit in detail and try to look for root cause.
    example:  When do I eat mindlessly at night?  I use Sugar & Carbs to improve work productivity.  What is causing the lack of productivity?  Energy low & lack of mental focus.  Possibly Lack of plans and/or lack of goals.
  3. Take Steps to replace the Bad Habit with Good Habits.
    example:  Return to an immutable exercise schedule.  Find a race to focus on.  Do a better job of identifying projects and categorizing next actions.

How quickly can one get refocused?

I know for me, having a race really helped me focus. In fact, it focused my action so much that: My next-action task is to find my next race.

In the meantime, I’ve created an off-season workout schedule to do some base-building again.

Sunday:  Weights

Monday:  Treadmill, Bike, or Rest Day

Tuesday:  Weights

Wednesday:  Swim

Thursday:  Weights

Friday:  Treadmill, Bike, or Rest Day

Saturday:  Swim.

This week will be a little altered due to the holiday.  I lifted Weights on Monday instead of Sunday.  So, I’m going to have to adjust the week. In addition, I have to build some flexibility into my schedule due to my changing consulting/freelancer work combined with my runner wife‘s crazy work schedule.  Navigating workout times is always fun.

The single most important thing for me though is to jump back in the pool, on the bike, or pound the pavement consistently!

I’m still trying to figure out a writing schedule.  As I said before, just like my exercise needs to be an immutable force in my life, scheduling consistent writing is required.  Subject to change, I’m thinking Tuesday and Thursdays will be my publishing days for now.

How can I help you break your bad habit today?

Saturday – Expo Day, Part 1 of 7 2010 Triathlon Recap:

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Post Triathlon Recap Part 1 of 7.  I started writing up a recap of my event, and it kept growing and growing and growing.  I decided to break it up.  The purpose of the recap is give new people the thoughts and ideas they can use to help them prepare for their own future first endurance event!

Part 1) Saturday – Expo Day.

On Saturday, I drove downtown Chicago to the Triathlon Expo. If I told you I was not anxious or nervous for Sunday, I would have a pinnochio sized nose. I was short-tempered with everyone. Getting the car unloaded and into my hotel room was a pain in the neck with all the gear. We decided to park our car at a near-by lot to save a few $$ over the hotel lot. I don’t think I’ll do that again. Although, the theory behind that is, we’d have easy in and out privileges without the hassle of valet. Really, it was more a pain dragging bags across the city than the saving in dollars. So, I think I’ll valet next year.

Chicago Multisport Expo

Going to the Expo was cool. There were tons of vendors. Yet, I was so focused on getting my race packet, my body-marked, my free goodie bag, swim-cap, and attending a course-talk. I didn’t really let myself enjoy the Expo as much as I could have. I didn’t feel like mingling and hearing people’s spiels and product pitches. I had the dog-grip Triathlon focus. What did I need to do to finish comfortably, safe, and above average. That was the soul thing on my mind! I will say I’m glad I went a little early, because many of the vendors did sell out of the cool merchandise like race-chip holders and race-bands. There were tons of free samples and food. Next year, I’d love to get there a little earlier to hear an early version of the course-talk. Then that can give me some more time to relax and enjoy the expo. Once I heard the course-talk, I was much more at ease.  I had better expectations for the race.

Saturday evening was fun. My wife and my two kids walked around Chicago and met my brother and his family for dinner at Maggiano’s. It wasn’t quite the rest/recovery day I was expecting. I was so tired after chasing a 2 year old girl and 5 year old boy around downtown. Dinner was good as expected. I’d do that again. Getting pasta the night before was an excellent idea. I was little worried I ate too much, but I don’t think that was the case.

Okay. Skip this section if you get grossed out.

***
One thing that, and I talked to a few other triathletes, was unexpected was the nervousness in the gastro-intenstinal area. Let’s just say I needed to visit the restroom multiple times on Saturday, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning before the race. Just funny how race-day jitters come out fine in the end. (puns are terrible I know.)
***

Puerto Rican Jazz at the Chicago Summer Dance Festival

After dinner, as Jen and I were walking back, the Triathlon Hotel is right across from the Chicago Summer Dance area which happens every Saturday during the Summer in Chicago.  Jen and I had been in the past, Its so fun to hear live music under the stars in the city.  It was super fun watching Miss M and Mstr C dance and run around. However, I was so exhausted from walking all day with the stress of my first Triathlon looming, I just wanted to go to bed. I did allow myself some time to take in the atmosphere and even dance a bit with the kids.

Saturday Night, I barely slept. It didn’t help that my kids were wired from being in a hotel and to them it felt like Vacation. I was hoping the dancing would burn off their little energy, but it was the exact opposite effect.  They were ready to party! As I wrote before, I was all business mentally wise. I just wanted to get ready and go to sleep. I was going through my Triathlon checklist over and over again. I put my wristbands on. I put the stickers on my helmet and my bike. I was making some last minute tweaks to Set-up bags. The drawback of having my kids able to see me swim was the lack of sleep. However, I would want them there again.  The value in having family support was well worth it. Can we get separate room?

If you couple the lack of sleep with natural first-timer nerves, you’d think I was a wreck, but I felt laser-focused, but I was very, very testy and short-tempered. My wife and my kids were very nice to put up with my crankiness. I’m very thankful for their support!  Without them, it would not have been as meaningful.

In Part 2, of my 2010 Triathlon Recap:  I’ll write about transitions. You’ll have to wait until Part 7 to see all the thoughts that were keeping me awake.  (It’ll take me longer to get my gear photos ready.)

Part 1:  Expo Day
Part 2:  Transition Set-up
Part 3:  The Swim
Part 4:  The Bike
Part 5:  The Run, if you must call it that.
Part 6:  Post Race.  Will I do a triathlon again?
Part 7:  Race Day Gear Thoughts

[Updated to Add Links for next Part of the series]

Follow Scott Compete in the 2010 Chicago Triathlon

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How to achieve your Personal Best in a Triathlon?

Step 1) Do it! Boom- you just achieved a personal best.

One of the coolest things about being a beginner for a triathlon, is that your first triathlon is a Personal Best Time! So all I have to do is finish on Sunday. No problem.

The not so cool part about being a beginner is the anxiousness, the jitters, and the doubts that I’m having.

Yes, I did do a ton of training. Yet, I didn’t officially follow a training plan. I made my own. Is that good enough? I won’t actually know until I prove it on Sunday.

A couple of things: If you are free on Saturday, The Chicago Multisport and Fitness Expo takes place downtown.

You can go to this website for details: http://www.chicagotriexpo.com/

As I mentioned in my last post, if you are free on Sunday, it would be great to see you, but I know many of you are not able to make it, but still want to keep score at home.

Here’s how: Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/scottstawarz

On Race day, I will tweet out a runkeeper link that you can use to follow along via GPS. Technology is so cool!

Also, you can try to follow along via the Official Chicago Triathlon Results for Scott

Here’s my bib number:
SCOTT STAWARZ #3722
Start Time is 7:52am

Chicago 2010 Triathlon

Here is the official link for everyone’s Results for the 2010 Chicago Triathlon
Stay tuned for some more Triathlon 101 posts where I will detail my decisions I took good and bad to prepare myself for the Triathlon. I haven’t even started my first yet, and I am already thinking about where my second tri will be.

My year of action continues.

Choosing To Do A Triathlon

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Triathlon 101

As I  approach my first triathlon this Sunday.  I am walking through the decisions I made in training for the swim, the bike and the run.

First Step:  Deciding to do a triathlon.

What’s a triathlon like?

Electric Crowd cheering on Triathletes in Chicago

Last year, my brother was doing his first ever international (olympic distance) triathlon.  He’d done two sprint triathlons the previous two years. Both times, I was not able to see him compete.

Now, when I played my trombone in a local jazz big band, I was always excited when my family or friends came out to support me.  I seemed to have more energy.  I played better.  I had more fun.  For those times, when no one could come, I always felt a little sad.  When you have a passion, you want to share it.

Knowing how I felt, I decided that I would make sure to see my brother compete in the 2009 Chicago Triathlon.  I was so happy I did.  It was so energizing.  You see all these people (big guys, little girls, big girls, little guys, some fit people, some not so fit people) all smiling as they cross the finish line.  There is this constant hum of the crowd cheering on everyone even if you don’t know them.  Doing a triathlon has always been on my to do list.  After having seen a triathlon in person, I resolved to be out there in 2010.  It was super inspirational just being part of the energy.

At big events, there is usually a pre-event expo, that is open to the public.  At the expo, you can check out the latest gear and vendors pushing their wares.  Many of the big events will have festivities celebrating the competition such as Bands, DJ’s, and food boths.  So, Its definitely an event you can take your kids to and enjoy as a family.

If you have any interest in doing a triathlon, marathon, 10k, 5k, or any event at all,  Here’s your assignment:

Go to active.com or trifind.com, find your nearest Triathlon event, and attend as a fan.  Be there to cheer on the participants or better yet friends.  They love it, and you’ll be inspired.  If you have the time, volunteer to help out.  Without the volunteers, the events won’t take place.

Next post, I’ll talk about choosing a Triathlon Distance.  Why did I skip the sprint and jump right to the Olympic (International) distance?

Triathlon coming soon…

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If you’ve been following along, I labeled 2010, my year of action. I was going to take action to achieve my goals rather than just talk about it.

One of my major goals for 2010 was to lose weight and complete an olympic triathlon. I’m only 10 days away.  (Any normal person would be freaking out right now. — I’m in that category.)

Freak out?

I am cautiously confident that I’ll be able to finish. I’m still darn nervous. I am not a fan of cold water. Lake Michigan water temps these days are between 65 and 70. Contrast that with my backyard pool which averages around 92 degrees, and my local lap pool is about 83 degrees. So, the cold water will be a shock. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to do an open water swim. I haven’t had a chance to try on my wetsuit (that’s a story for another day – hopefully a story with a happy ending).  Also, running after biking has been slow for me.

Triathlon Goal!

Yes, my goal is to finish, but of course I want more than that.  I want to beat last year’s average time of 3 hours.  I am not sure I’ll make that.  All of my workout times have been dramatically slower than the 3 hour pace.

Current workout times:

  • SWIM:  my (0.93 mile) swim time is about 40 minutes
  • BIKE: my (24.8 mile) bike time is 90 minutes
  • RUN: my (6.2 mile) run time is closer to 60 minutes.

If your keeping score at home, that’s 3 hours 10 minutes and that doesn’t even include transition times.  So, unless adrenaline kicks in, or wetsuits speed up swimming, or the bike trails I’m riding now are technically more complex and thus slower than the main triathlon course, or a miracle happens, I’m going to miss that secondary goal.  I’m still shooting for 3 hours.  Its good to push ourselves.  After all, trying is better than not trying at all.

Workout challenges:

At some point, we just have to decide.  Change your priorities.  It has not been easy for me.  I battle the workout blahs all the time.  I have to force myself to workout.  I feel good afterwards, but just starting its a challenge.  Exercise isn’t a habit yet.  Having a triathlon race scheduled and paid for since January has really made it easier for me to motivate my workouts.

I struggle mightily with the food still.  I love good food.

More Triathlon observations to come.  I’m finalizing a blogging posting schedule now that my triathlon training will slow down.  I am going to make an effort to continue the exercise habit and stabilize my writing habit.

I wanted to check in with you all. Of course, my question still stands:  How can I help you achieve your fitness goals?  What do you need to be accountable to make your year of action?  I want to help.

Knock some posts out of me.

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“…Man this feels good. …fast, smooth, smile… Come on pops, Keep going… You can do it!… Fast, smooth, smile… I’m cruising today.  FAST, smooth,smi–Oooowwww – Thunk!”

Thoughts of Scott while cycling Tuesday, Aug 10

Wow, It took a nice nasty crash to knock a blog post out of me. Yes, after owning a bicycle since March 2010, I finally crashed. I have a hybrid bicycle that’s more of a road bike with skinny tires. Those skinny tires sure do not like to take packed gravel turns too fast. I came up on some loose gravel while trying to fly/ride home to get to my son’s T-ball game on time. I was riding what felt fast for me on these types of trails, but I felt in control. Then my wheels just slid out. I felt my legs scrape, man hands braced the fall. I’m kind of glad I chose not to buy cycling shoes this year. I think it could have been much worse.Broken Bicycle Helmet

I’m also terribly glad I had my helmet on. My head hit the ground really solid. In fact, I broke my helmet. (Do these things have warranties?) Right now, I’m trying to keep my computer clean from my scraped up hands.

I’ve neglected blog posting this summer a lot. I’ve been active on twitter and I still read tons of blogs through google reader and instapaper.  While reading, It seems like I’m not the only one in a funk:

I saw that Sean is having the summer malaise.  I’m right there with you with summer burgers and ice cream.

I see that Steve said he was struggling, but looks like he’s about to get his workout on!

I see that Andrew is having the issues.

Even Mac hasn’t been his steady blogging self. Although, he’s having a banner year when it comes to goal achievements!  Excellent Work Mac!

About the only dude fitness blogger not going through this summer funk is: Ryan.  He’s been a blogging / twittering machine. Yet, he reminds us not to compare which is exactly what I’m doing right now.

Why is it that the women fitness bloggers seem so prolific in their sharing of food and activities, but us guys just seem to be going through funks?  Does it have anything to do with the female fitness and food bloggers are more a community?  I don’t see guys chatting and hanging out much on twitter talking about fitness.  Is fitness really a female type topic?  Or, am I just not following and interacting properly on twitter?  Then again, if you look at who I am following on twitter, many of them are tech guys who may or may not be writing code as we speak.

For me, this has been a year of action.  I’ve been working out a ton.  I’m two and half weeks away from my Olympic Distance Triathlon.  I feel good.  I feel rather nervous especially since I haven’t really followed a specific workout plan.  My plan has been and is to swim, run, bike as far and as fast as I can as often as I can while throwing in some weight workouts on those rainy days.  Of course, I listen to my body and take breaks when I feel I need it.  I’ve been good for a minimum of 3 days a week.  Many weeks have been 6 workouts a week.  Recently, its been more like 4 days a week.  Running is just not my strong suit these days.  I can do it.  I run about 5.5 miles consistently at 8:40 minutes/mile.  I’d just rather be biking or swimming.  Swimming is fun, but I am probably about average speed.  I know next year (Doh! – did I just commit to doing Triathlons next year too), I’m going to have to work on my speed interval workouts.

While I have been very active, I have to admit, my eating habits have not improved.  All my exercising just gives me more freedom to eat what I want when I want it. Of course, with all the exercise I’ve been doing, I have lost a little bit of weight.  I’m averaging about 176 pounds a day.  Which is great considering at the beginning of the year, I was over 192 pounds a day.  I feel my waist is thinner since my jeans are too big, and my belt needs to be as tight as I can make it, but I still have some belly fat that many of the experts say is so detrimental to our health even if you exercise.  I know it is directly related to my eating habits.  I’d like to lose about 16 more pounds.  We’ll see if I can reign in my eating habits.

So, I’m still in a blogger’s hide out for a while.  I will write more.  I’ll definitely do some follow-up after I do my triathlon. I have some thoughts on triathlon preparation.  I just want to stay active, get sleep, and be action focused!

4 lessons learned from a triathlete in training

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I know in my last post, I promised an article on smiling. I still plan on publishing that article, but I decided to postpone it for a bit due to the heavy research lifting required.

This post is short and sweet. I’m still training for my Triathlon in August. It is fun. Lessons I have learned so far:

  1. Rigid training schedules do not mix with full-time work schedules, work at home dad duties, wet and cold spring weather. I just can not bring myself to swim, bike, or run on the exact days the rigid training schedules require. I’m going to require a more flexible training schedule pronto. The rigid schedules make it difficult to plan a life. While I search for a more flexible schedule, I continue to workout, but I just don’t do it on the exact days the schedule requires. Here’s my average workouts for the past couple of months:
    • two 40 to 60 minute swim sessions a week, (Wed & Sat)
    • one 60 to 75 minute bike ride a week, (Thursday but not always)
    • two 35 to 60 minute runs a week. (Tuesday and Friday, but not always. It depends on the biking days.)
    • two to three 20 minute circuit strength training a week. (Mon, Wed, Fri?)
  2. Exercise alone will not generate weight loss, but it might change your body structure. I’ve been exercising regularly now since Groundhog day. Since the beginning of the year, I have lost 10 pounds. When many of my fellow weight loss bloggers are losing 2 to 3 pounds a week, I’m totally not losing that much. However, I have noticed my belt needs to be tighter than normal, my shirts feel a little bigger, and my pants are starting to fall down without a belt. I think my body is gaining muscle. Yet, why am I not losing weight? My eating habits have not changed. I still eat food I know is not good for me such as fast food hamburgers, french fries, ice creams, chocolate candies, and all sorts of other no-no’s on any diet. I guess I’m just happy I’m not gaining weight.
  3. The more I exercise, the better I feel about exercise. When I first start running, swimming, biking, or weight lifting, I think of all the other things I could be doing with that time. I think do I really need to be doing this exercise. I think isn’t there another way to get physically fit? Then, after I go for a little while I settle in and exercise is tolerable rather than unbearable. Then when I’m finished, I feel good. Still, there are often times, I complain about my muscles being sore. I whine to my wife asking her if running ever actually feels good, because now I don’t feel it. Give me a mountain or a trail to hike, and I go for hours, but running not so much (yet).
  4. I salivate over gear. There are so many triathlon, running, swimming, and biking gear that I could spend all sorts of money. I try to resist the urges. I don’t want to be that guy with the billion dollar golf clubs shooting 130 on the golf course. So, I resist the urge to buy new gear for now as I try to identify if I’m into triathlons for the long haul.

So, as you can see with all my exercise, combined with my busy technology consulting and training business and my fatherly duties, blogging and side projects take a back seat. I’ll keep posting when I can, and I’ll make some progress on a new design for Simpleweight sooner or later, but my physical fitness comes first these days. Its my priority action.

What have you learned from your habit of exercise and diet?

Smiling… Part 1 of 2. Happy Opening Day of Baseball.

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Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd…

A short post for tonight.  Tomorrow is opening day of baseball.  If you read this early enough, you can catch the WFMT 98.7 in Chicago (or steaming live over the internet).  WFMT is a classical music station in Chicago.  I never much was a classical music listener.  I do have eclectic listening tastes.  I’m an avid Jazz listener, Flamenco, all sorts of Pop, Rock, even Hip-Hop, Country, Blues, and R & B.  I’ve played a bunch of classical music in symphonic and concert bands, but I never was much a listener.  That changed when I moved to Chicago.  I stumbled across 98.7 WFMT while commuting, and it offered a reprieve from the traffic.

Now, every year I make sure to listen to WFMT on Baseball’s opening day.  They play all sorts of baseball themed classical music and stories.  Its so fun.  I know this is not fitness related, but listening to WFMT makes me smile.  I love when they play James Earl Jones narration of Casey’s at the Bat.  Smile.

Smiling is important!

It is late, and I have some early work to do tomorrow.  So,  I’ll save the rest of the post for later this week.

In the meantime, tune in Monday 6:00 AM – 9:00 AM CST, listen in to WFMT to hear some baseball classical music.  I sure hope they do not change the schedule on me, and don’t play it.