Oui Oui Mon Ainee

It's been awhile since I posted, so here's what's been going on lately.

To start things off, I took a trip to South Bend, Indiana to be with Alison as she graduates from Notre Dame with a Masters Degree in French Crap. One might ask themselves, (as I have asked for many years) what do you do with a degree in French Crap? Well, undoubtably, you teach other unsuspecting kids French Crap in high school. Yes, six years of college and she is now taking a job at St Benedict High School in Chicago to pass on her wealth of knowledge in the French language.

Now, I kid Alison all the time about French, the language, the people, the country, but obviously, I am extremely proud of her accomplishments. She has worked very hard throughout her educational years, carrying a 4.0 everywhere she went. The logical question becomes, "Where did she get the brains, sure wasn't from my wife or myself?" Maybe I should research the mailman, the milkman (yes, I actually remember having a milkman that delivered to our house when I was a kid in Detroit) - anyone that may have taken responsibility as the father. But apparently, dumb genes + dumb genes can equal a smart kid.

Teaching high school wasn't her ultimate goal, she did apply to a number of grad schools to enter a PHD program, however, at this time was not accepted. Well, sorry to say, but those schools missed the boat; she would have made their programs proud. Not to lose sleep though, she'll try again next year with a bit more on her resume. I'm sure she won't rest until I have to call her Dr Stiner!

3 Generations of Polocks

Broncia, Sue, Alison
Now, it's time to talk about training and what's next on my schedule. Next up is the Topeka Tinman Triathlon. I've cut back on the running lately in order to get in more swimming and biking miles. Here's what the last two weeks looked like:

I'm trying to add more bike miles, but let's be honest, I don't really enjoy it, so I'm not doing so well there. I'm hoping the marathon legs can pull me through the 20 miles I need to bike in the race. Frankly, I'm doing this triathlon just to see how well I can handle the challenge, I don't care anything about how long it takes. I'll be totally satisfied just to finish.

I have also added a new marathon to my schedule, The University of Okoboji Marathon on July 19th in northern Iowa. This is a smaller race that coincides with a triathlon. I'm a bit apprehensive about a marathon in July because of the heat, but plan to just take this one easy, using it more as a training run for the 50K I plan this fall. This area of Iowa has a number of lakes and is allegedly a summer hotspot for vacationers. The wife and I plan to camp at the State Park for 3 nights while in town for the race. There is just something very primitive, very spiritual about sleeping outdoors in a tent, then arising in the morning for a long, long jog in Mother Nature's splendor. I am really looking forward to this run.

And by the way, GO RED WINGS!!!