Learning to let go of control
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I woke at 4:30am on Sunday – Father’s Day. I climbed on my bike at 5:15 and rode 43 miles. Mostly moderate-to-hard miles, feeling like the extra effort… Read More
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Trifatherhood Coaching
There is a lot of coaching advice on the internet and at your local bookstore, but making sense of the clutter is a struggle, especially in the midst of actually trying to train,… Read More
Suffering,chocolate donuts and greatness
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, I came across this old picture a few weeks ago at Nana and Papaw’s house. It’s from a cold evening in February 1993: McClellan Gymnasium on the University… Read More
Run with me
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, My biggest fear isn’t losing everything; it’s wasting this rare opportunity to change the direction of our life. I may never get the chance again to work with a… Read More
Newton running Terra Momentum review
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, My first experience with Newton running shoes was with the “Motion”. It’s a shoe that I’ve come to love. It’s light. It’s fast! And I look a little… Read More
200 years too late
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, This morning I didn’t want to run. I woke up and turned off my alarm that had yet to sound. I’m preprogrammed to wake up between 4:30-5:00am now.… Read More
Time to swim ashore
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, As the sun set into the Gulf I sat and considered the future. How one path leads to another and what’s behind you becomes overgrown sometimes and you… Read More
Life in the mixing bowl
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, Sometimes you have to go at the mixing bowl with reckless abandon. No time for keeping things clean. Making sure the time is right. The oven is the right temperature.… Read More
Team SP 5k for Oklahoma
Dear Izzy, Max, and Kate, In response to the tornado in Oklahoma I wanted to do something to help. It’s a strange feeling being on vacation while so many are suffering. Mommy and… Read More
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
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
