My favorite time of day
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate We’re having a blast on vacation. Each day is filled with hours on the beach, trips to the pool, sandcastles, boogie boarding, and holes dug to “all the… Read More
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No ones keeping score
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, This morning I walked down to the beach alone. I sat in the sand, digging my toes in, feeling the coolness of it’s depth – before the heat… Read More
3 Bugs in a Rug
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I woke up at 4:30 this morning and went for a swim. I’m starting what my coach calls a “transition week,” meaning I’m shifting from a week of… Read More
Meet Liz Lyles: mother of two, wife, and Ironman champion
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I want to introduce you to some awesome Moms and Dads as I write these letters to you. I’m doing my best to balance being a husband to… Read More
Rev3 Knoxville 70.3 race report
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, We had such a great time at Rev3 Knoxville last year we decided to go back again this year. I trained hard, through the ebbs and flows of a… Read More
Race week mantra: Chop wood, carry water
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I wake up thinking about it. I try to put it out of my mind – focus on the tasks of the day, being present in the moment,… Read More
Joe Kapacziewski: Husband, Father, Triathlete, and Soldier
Dear Izzy Max, and Kate, I have met and talked to a lot of interesting people over the years of my involvement in triathlon. Some of them were and are athletic heroes of… Read More
Spring Training products for triathletes
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, We’re beginning to see lasting signs that spring is here. After another long winter of slogging through miles in the cold and wet Tennessee winter, warm afternoon walks… Read More
The Last Long Run
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, As I approach the end of my 20 week training cycle I’ve been reflecting on the journey. Here’s a post I wrote for Rev3′s blog called “The Last… Read More
Tales from the dinner table: Simple prayers
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, It’s been awhile since I’ve shared one of our dinner conversations with you. We put a lot of importance on family dinner time. Mommy has been teaching swimming… Read More
Altra triathlon specific running shoe review
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Triathletes are an adventurous bunch. That’s stating the obvious, I suppose. That sense of adventure often leads to early adoption of new technology in gear and gadgets related… Read More
Handprints: how time passes
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Yesterday I held you, tired from fighting frail after the struggle a crackling of machines. Warm from your mother’s womb Softness of God nestling against my chest and… Read More
Ahead of What?
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate I worked my way through it. The first big overdistance training weekend of my 20 week training cycle. I’ve done a few rides in excess of race distance… Read More
Clarity and Trust in the Texas hill country: Part II
PART II OF TRUST AND CLARITY IN THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY. READ PART I HERE. Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, We drove straight to Salt Lick BBQ when we arrived. It didn’t disappoint.… Read More
Clarity and Trust in the Texas hill country: part 1
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Carolyn Horton handed me a pistol. “It’s scatter shot,” she said. “So you don’t need to have good aim, just point and shoot.” She walked back up the… Read More
Rudy Project Gozen sunglasses review
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I now own 3 pair of Rudy Project sunglasses. Yes, they’re that good. Along with my Zyon sailing and Noyz glasses I was lucky to also get my… Read More
Daddy, here’s a dollar
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, People don’t slow down often. I saw a guy cut across a median on the off ramp and slide 3 lanes over. That move motivated, I presume, because… Read More
Life is just a tire swing: Easter photos and potlucks
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, We had a great weekend! The sort of weekend that you hope for during the other five days of the week….filled with fun, love, and photo opps. It… Read More
Peaceful Easy Feeling
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Grandfather sent us this picture of you fishing beside the Pedernales River in Texas, Izzy. I stared at it for a long time. Different emotions overcame me as… Read More
Hoka One One Bondi Speed running shoe review
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I get to try out a lot of different shoes. Lately that’s meant a number of minimalist shoes. It’s rare that I find something “completely different” on the… Read More
Karen, she’s the silver sun
Dear Karen, Happy 14th anniversary. Last year I wrote this for you. It’s been another crazy year. Some people only remember the good in their lives. Some people only dwell on the bad.… Read More
8 of my triathlon training essentials
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, It’s becoming more and more popular, but triathlon is still a “fringe sport.” For that reason I’m asked often what sorts of products I use regularly in training.… Read More
Sunshine on a cloudy day
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, The breezes helped me relax as I lay motionless, eyes closed, drifting back in time: a beach in Hawaii, a beach in South Carolina, Mexico, Duval Street, Bourbon… Read More
Quiet beautiful pictures in our hearts and minds
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Moments like this make life worth the struggles we sometimes face. The quiet beautiful pictures we slow down to capture in our hearts and minds (and sometimes on… Read More
Seek and you will find
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, We wandered through unfamiliar streets. Bordered by thick green, heat waves, and banana trees. All of it felt like it might close in on us at once. I… Read More
Rites of Passage: Rev3 Blog
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Rev3 ran my second installment on their Rev Blog yesterday. It’s called “Rites of Passage”. When I wrote it I was really thinking about your papaw and about… Read More
It feels so good feeling good again
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I wrote to you a few days ago about some of the struggles I’ve been having with my health. At first the doctors called it an ulcer. When… Read More
Skin Strong skin equipment review
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I have enough to think about on long training days and race days without thinking about raw, chaffed, or sun burned skin. But I’ve been there. The middle… Read More
How Triathletes raise their children
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I fear you’ve seen me riding my bike trainer too often… You discovered a hole in the front yard, placed your rear wheel in the hole, steadied the… Read More
Changes in Attitude
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, The first 20 passed effortlessly. The first signs of spring allowed me to ride in bib shorts and a jersey rather than the layers I’ve been wrapping myself… Read More
Amy Grant and Lady Gaga
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, You kids couldn’t be more different. You’re each unique and special in your own way. You two girls have started playing together more lately as you’re getting older,… Read More
Mizuno Wave Evo Cursoris Review
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, The dinosaur stampede in the most recent version of King Cong; what’s so terrifying isn’t the lumbering big dinos, it’s the smaller FASTER, MORE VICIOUS little guys who… Read More
Saturday Ride: Pressing into the still life
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Another silent morning. Layered. Pressing into the still life. Sunrise held captive by the heaviness drifting across the horizon. Snow fell, mixed with thicker, less beautiful, ice. Into… Read More
The Way I Take: One Twelve Media
Dear Izzy, Max ,and Kate, I heard a guy speak yesterday on the book of Job. As he made light of the Job’s trials I considered the path I’ve been following. My life… Read More
Loneliness and the journey
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I started to feel it this weekend. That empty feeling I get. The loneliness that sets in as the miles build. I’ve written to you about how miles… Read More
How to scare the bajeebers out of your kids
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I’m a bad daddy. I scare my kids. But only at their request. Here you two little ones are a few nights ago after “seeing a monster” downstairs… Read More
Send me on my way
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I heard a song this morning that brought back a flood of memories. Rushing waters tumbling over submerged boulders, following the path carved by my experiences since then.… Read More
Perspective in the dark
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, It was dark when I walked in. The oddity threw me off balance for a moment. I stopped, rubbed the morning stubble still on my face, as if… Read More
Peeking into the cave
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I had a rare Saturday with no training yesterday. Thanks to a quirk in my schedule I managed to get my workouts accomplished during the week, leaving me… Read More
Meet off-road triathlon pro, mother of two, and PhD: Danelle Kabush
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, It sounds impossible for someone to break into the triathlon world and finish 3rd in the world, among pros, in just their 2nd triathlon ever. But Canadian off-road… Read More
Attitude is Everything
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I found this note in your “Izzy – Tall and Proud” envelope at home. It’s one of the many places you store your self-affirmations and life lessons that… Read More
It will come: Belief in the face of fear, doubt, and uncertainty
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, The deep ache set in somewhere around 30 miles. I ate another gel and began to slow. I’ve been on my bike diligently through the winter, but for… Read More
Swiftwick SUSTAIN sock review
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I wrote to you about Swiftwick a while back. Someone commented on the letter to the effect of “how can you write about socks?” It’s easy. My socks… Read More
Healthy Life
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, We don’t need a life coach at our house. We have you, Izzy. I’m constantly finding your notes around the house ranging from “how to save the planet”… Read More
How Revolution Changes Everything
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I’ve changed. Sometimes you’ll hear that people don’t change; It’s just the circumstances around them. I’m not sure I believe that. Perhaps a little backstory is necessary if… Read More
Across the Threshold: 140.6
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Last night I found myself on my bike trainer at 9:30pm in our living room, listening to music, watching a basketball game, spinning my legs, my mind racing.… Read More
Monster Trucks, ear plugs, and the voice of God
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, When it started we were stunned. I wondered how loud it might really be, assuming that from our vantage point the noise would be manageable. It rattled our… Read More
