Dec 29 2025 2025-12-29 2025-12-29 by Ross

Ten Things I Like About You (Chicago Edition)

Posted in Chicago

Ten Things I Actually Like About Chicago

After unloading on Chicago the other day, it feels only fair to admit something: there are things I genuinely like about this city. Quite a few, actually. My frustration comes from caring, not indifference. So in the spirit of balance—and maybe sanity—here are Ten Things I Like About Chicago.

1. The Lakefront

The lakefront really is special. Miles of running and biking paths. Beaches that actually feel like beaches. That moment when the skyline rises behind you on one side and open water stretches forever on the other.

You’ve got pickup soccer games, families grilling, twenty-somethings playing volleyball, people swimming, biking, running, walking dogs. It’s alive in the best way. On a good summer day, Chicago feels like a place you’d choose to be.

2. The Sports Teams

I’m a sports guy, and Chicago delivers there.

The Blackhawks, Bears, and Cubs are all top-tier for me. Even in bad years, they matter. Beyond that, we’ve got two basketball teams, two soccer teams (and yes, I do count women’s soccer), and enough sports culture that you’re never far from a game, a bar argument, or a shared heartbreak.

Sports bind people here in a real way.

3. Diversity (The Real Kind)

Not in the buzzword sense. Just… everybody’s here.

Different cultures, backgrounds, languages, traditions—all living on top of each other. It makes the city richer, louder, messier, and more interesting. Which leads directly to…

4. The Food

This is where Chicago punches way above its weight.

Yes, hot dogs. Yes, deep dish. (Also: tavern-style, which I eat far more often than deep dish.) But the real story is that you can get any cuisine you want—and it’s usually cooked by people who actually know what they’re doing because it’s their food.

Years ago, my younger son asked for Chipotle because he wanted Mexican food. I stopped the car and said, “Uh, we live in Chicago.” Then I took him to L’Patron. Lesson learned. Since then, he’s known what’s up.

5. The People

Not the politicians. Not the loudmouths. The regular people.

Midwest sensible. Friendly. Solid neighbors. People who shovel each other’s sidewalks, chat at the bar, help when something goes wrong. For all my issues with the city itself, I genuinely like the people who live here.

6. Public Transportation

I don’t use it as much as I probably should, but it’s there—and it works.

Trains, buses, bikeshares, scooters—you can actually live here without a car if you want. When I think about moving to Utah, this is one of the trade-offs that gives me pause. Out there, you’re driving. Always.

7. Neighborhoods

Chicago is truly a city of neighborhoods.

Some have higher crime, yes. And unlike New York, our neighborhoods tend to be more ethnic and class-segregated, which is a real flaw. But each neighborhood still has its own identity—its festivals, parks, murals, corner bars, and local spots that feel personal.

You don’t just live in Chicago. You live somewhere.

8. Health Care

This is a big one, especially as I get older.

Chicago has outstanding hospitals, many tied directly to medical schools. Top-tier doctors. Top-tier treatment. When something serious happens, you want to be in a city like this.

9. Four Seasons

This one’s mostly here because my wife insists.

I’ll be honest: winter can go pound sand, and August humidity is a crime against humanity. Somehow it feels colder here than in the Wasatch Mountains, which makes no sense. But fine—we get seasons. Snow, spring, summer, fall. Variety counts for something.

10. Colleges

We’re not Boston, but we hold our own.

Between Northwestern, the University of Chicago, UIC, DePaul, Loyola, IIT, and a bunch of others (no offense to the “lesser” ones), the city stays young. You feel it in places like Wrigleyville or Lincoln Park—energy, movement, people figuring things out.

That matters.

So yes, Chicago frustrates the hell out of me. But it also has moments—real ones—where I get why people love it. Maybe the truth is that Chicago, like most complicated things, is hard to live with and hard to leave.

Some days one side wins.
Some days the other does.


Dec 28 2025 2025-12-28 2025-12-28 by Ross

Ten Things I Hate About You (Chicago Edition)

Posted in Chicago

Driving back to Chicago from vacation always triggers me.

You fly down the highway, relaxed, windows cracked, thinking maybe this time will be different. And then you hit the outskirts of the city and – bam – tolls, brake lights, construction barrels, and that familiar sense of doom. The vibe is dead. The spiral begins.

I start seething at the thought that I still have to live here, in a city I actively dislike. Chicagoans (read: my wife and kids) seem to accept this place as “normal,” even though most other cities don’t function like this. So without further ado, here are Ten Things I Hate About You (Chicago Edition).

1. Traffic

According to INRIX’s 2025 Global Traffic Scorecard, Chicago is now the most congested city in the United States, officially surpassing New York. Let me repeat that for those who say, “All big cities are like this.”

No. They are not.

Sitting in traffic for hours every week is not normal. It’s not charming. It’s not “the price you pay.” It’s time stolen from your life. See, wife? The data backs me up.

2. Roads

It’s not just traffic – it’s the surface you’re stuck on. Potholes that could swallow a small sedan. Cracked streets. Stoplights every damn block, timed perfectly so you hit every single red. You can drive two miles in Chicago and feel like you just ran an endurance event.

3. Crime

The mayor can say crime is “down,” but no actual resident believes it. Last week, a co-worker’s son was murdered. I’m going to the service today.

Shootings are background noise here. People lose their minds over a school shooting – and rightly so – but Chicago loses that many people every month and it barely registers. It’s tragic, it’s numbing, and it’s unacceptable.

4. Taxes

Between the city and Cook County, we were already near the top. Thanks to recent changes, we’re sprinting toward number one.

So let’s recap:

  • Worst traffic
  • Worst taxes
  • High crime
  • Bad schools

And we stay here… why exactly? It’s not because we’re getting good roads, safe neighborhoods, or stellar education in return. The City Council just passed another budget raising—what else—more taxes.

5. Politicians

Just awful across the board.

The Chicago Teachers Union openly and unapologetically owns the current mayor. Every solution is more money. Every failure is met with demands for – wait for it -more money. CPS functions like a jobs program first and a school system second. Student outcomes are an afterthought.

The rest of the City Council isn’t much better. No reform, no accountability, just endless spending. It’s no mystery why the city is losing population. Smart people leave.

6. The Malört People

You know exactly who I mean.

Suburban kids who move here after college and suddenly think they’re urban pioneers. They can’t wait for their college buddies to visit so they can force them to take a shot of Malört and film the reaction.

Here’s a secret: no one who actually grew up in Chicago drinks Malört. Ever. In the entire history of Malört. It’s a performative personality trait, not a tradition.

7. The Weather Gaslighting

Nine months of cold, gray misery, but everyone insists it’s “not that bad” because we get three nice weeks in June. Summer is hot and humid, winter is brutal, spring is mud, and fall lasts about eleven minutes.  Why live with that?

8. Housing Prices That Make No Sense

Home prices in Chicago are wildly out of sync with what you actually get. You pay a premium usually reserved for safe streets, strong schools, and functional infrastructure… and receive none of the above.

Want to buy? Prepare to overpay for aging housing stock, high property taxes, and neighborhoods you’re constantly told are “up and coming.”

Prefer to rent? Same problem. Rents keep climbing while buildings stay old, parking is a nightmare, and you’re still dealing with crime, traffic, and underperforming schools.

Chicago somehow manages to be expensive without being excellent, which might be its most impressive trick.

9. The High Cost of Everything

It’s not just taxes and housing – it’s everything. Gas costs more. Groceries cost more. Parking costs more. (Dear God, don’t get me started on parking fees) Tolls, fees, “convenience charges,” and random surcharges pile up until you’re bleeding cash without noticing where it all went.

You pay more at every step, every day, just for the privilege of being here. And again, that would be one thing if the city delivered top-tier services in return – but it doesn’t. You’re paying premium prices for a very non-premium experience.

Chicago has somehow mastered the art of making ordinary life more expensive than it needs to be.

10. The Constant Sense of Friction

Nothing in Chicago is easy. Every routine task – commuting, parking, paying a bill, getting a permit, scheduling anything—comes with unnecessary resistance. There’s always a form, a fee, a delay, or some unofficial workaround everyone just accepts.

Life here feels permanently set to hard mode for no apparent reason. You burn an incredible amount of energy just navigating ordinary days. And you don’t fully realize how draining that is until you leave town and feel how much lighter everything suddenly becomes.  I spend a few weeks each year in Utah and it’s NOTHING like Chicago.  No traffic, wide open spaces, no crime where we stay, life is easy.

That contrast is brutal.

I know. There are good restaurants. There’s culture. There are moments when the lake is perfect, and the skyline looks incredible. I get why people love it.

I don’t.

And every time I crawl back into the city, sitting in traffic, paying a toll to enter my own misery, I’m reminded that accepting something as usual doesn’t make it normal.

It just makes you stuck.


Dec 28 2025 2025-12-28 2026-01-04 by Ross

This Week in Training – Week 14: Holiday Logistics

Posted in Cycling, Running, Swimming, Training, Triathlon

IMWI 2026: The Long Crawl to the Base Phase
(Travel, compromises, and listening to the body… mostly.)

This was a tricky week thanks to Christmas travel. I didn’t have access to a bike or a pool for part of it, which forced some adjustments. I ended up biking less than I should have. I technically still have time today to squeeze something in, but I’m already above last week’s relative effort, and I’m hurting. No sense digging a deeper hole this early.

Swim 🏊

  • Workouts: 2
  • Total Distance: 4,450 yards
  • Total Time: 1 hour 31 minutes
  • Notes: Good swims when I could get them in. Solid volume considering travel, and probably the most consistent part of the week.

Bike 🚴

  • Workouts: 1
  • Total Distance: 9.94 miles
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Notes: Yikes. Just one ride — the bike leg of a bike-run. Not ideal, but that’s travel for you.

Run 🏃

  • Workouts: 3 (including one off the bike)
  • Total Distance: 13.51 miles
  • Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
  • Notes: One of the runs was a 60-minute Peloton run where I forgot to turn on GPS. I counted the mileage based on another 60-minute run from the week. Overall, this was a jump in run distance, and it shows.

Strength / Mobility 💪

  • Workouts: 2
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Notes: Finally did some stretching using the Peloton app. It’s not much, but it’s something — and something is better than nothing.

Relative Effort 📈

  • Total Weekly Effort: 633
  • Notes: Up again, driven mainly through increased run distance. I’m feeling it.

Reflections ✍️

This week was about managing constraints. Travel limited options, and I made the best of what I had. The run volume crept up a bit too much, so I’ll pull back slightly on total distance going forward while adding a third run to maintain frequency rather than load.

I’m off work this coming week, which should help a lot. The plan is to step back slightly for a week or two, but actually hit every planned workout. That feels sustainable — and realistic.

I’m also starting to focus more on weight after some borderline blood numbers at my annual physical. Nothing dramatic, just another reminder that training and health are connected, whether I like it or not.

I feel optimistic, even if my legs, back, and wrists hurt so badly at night that rolling over in bed feels like a competitive sport. That’s part of the process too.

Goals for Next Week 🎯

  • Step back slightly, but hit every planned workout.
  • Balance run volume with frequency.
  • Keep swimming consistently.
  • Lean into recovery and mobility.

Still building. Still learning. Still moving forward — carefully.


Dec 23 2025 2025-12-23 2025-12-23 by Ross

Letting Them Find Their Way…

Posted in Something Good

Now it’s my kids.

Twenty-five. Twenty-three. Twenty-one. All standing at that awkward, unsteady edge of adulthood, trying to figure out who they are and where they’re going. Watching it stresses me out more than I care to admit. I want clarity for them. Stability. Forward momentum. A clean, sensible path.

And yet.

When I look back on my own early twenties, I was an absolute mess.

I was figuring it out in real time, making dumb mistakes, second-guessing everything, and thinking every decision was permanent when none of them were. And somehow, that period—the confusion, the uncertainty, the chaos—is one of the most fondly remembered stretches of my life.

I want that for my kids. Not the suffering, exactly—but the right kind of struggle. The post-college figuring-it-out years. Eating way too much cheap ramen and taking jobs that aren’t great but teach you something anyway—making choices that feel huge but turn out to be stepping stones.

After college, I lived at home and worked a truly crap job while studying for the LSAT. Then I moved into the city, went to law school, watched a lot of Mystery Science Theater 3000, drank martinis, and dated a girl who was all sorts of wrong for me. I hung out with Dave—who went to a different law school but whom I’d met at that awful job—and we stumbled our way through our twenties together.

Then there was the same wrong girl, but also weekends golfing with coworkers, wandering through shops in Wrigleyville, and what I now recognize as one small adventure after another. At the time, it didn’t feel magical. It felt uncertain. Unsettled. But looking back, it feels cinematic—like a live-action Richard Linklater movie where nothing much happens except life itself.

I don’t want to deny my kids that. I don’t want to rush them past the messy middle just because it makes me anxious. I want to be mindful—more mindful than my own parents probably were—that this phase isn’t fun while you’re in it, but it becomes meaningful with time.

So I’m here. To support them. To worry quietly. To trust the process even when it makes me uncomfortable.

And I’m also here to keep making memories of my own.

For most of my life, I’ve been able to look at whatever stage I was in and say, This is the best one yet. Somewhere along the way, I lost that perspective. I don’t want to stay stuck there.

My kids are becoming who they’re meant to be. I’m still becoming who I’m meant to be too.

I need to get back to believing that this—right now—is still the best chapter yet.


Dec 23 2025 2025-12-23 2025-12-23 by Ross

The Mind Reels,,,

Posted in Something Good

The other day, my oldest friend—the one I met in kindergarten, went through primary and secondary school with, and then roomed with in college—turned 60.

That stopped me cold.

It’s blowing my mind, in a good way. I can’t believe we’re that old. (To be fair, I don’t turn 60 for another three months, but let’s not split hairs.) Sixty sounds… ancient. And yet it doesn’t feel ancient at all.

It feels like yesterday we were in high school. Even more so, college. My best friend is still my college roommate, and even though I’ve known him for 41 years—holy cow—it still feels like I met him last week. Time compresses like that when the connection sticks.

Every morning I wake up next to the perfect woman for me. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but absolutely mine. It blows my mind that we’ve been married for 27 years and together for 29 (or something like that—I honestly don’t know the exact math anymore). I remember our first date like it just happened. The details are still there, sharp and clear, while entire decades somehow evaporated.

So much life fits between those moments. Kindergarten with Jim. College with Bob. Law school shenanigans and everything after with Dave. So many good times. Plenty of stressful times too—but somehow, looking back, they’re all remembered with fondness. Even the hard parts have softened.

As I settle into what feels like the last part of the third quarter, I’m trying to appreciate that it’s still the third quarter. It’s not late in the fourth. I know the clock can speed up without warning—any day, some doctor could tell me it’s cancer—but for now, I’m here. Aware. Amazed.

I’m not sure where this post is going, other than to say I’m stunned that I’m 59, don’t feel much older than my mid-20s, and have been incredibly lucky. Blessed, really. With friendships that lasted, love that deepened, and a life that turned out far better than I had any right to expect.

If I died tomorrow, I’d be happy.

I got more than I deserved.

It’s great to be alive.


Dec 22 2025 2025-12-22 2025-12-22 by Ross

Why, Oh Why? (can’t get out of my own way edition)….

Posted in Old Man Yelling at the Sky, Something Good

I had a lovely day.

It was the first day of “break” — which, since I don’t work weekends anyway, just means it was the first day I wasn’t supposed to be at work. Naturally, I still woke up at 5:30 a.m. Old habits die hard. But that meant coffee, the paper, and a quiet start to the day, which is never a bad thing.

I had an eye doctor appointment downtown, and three unusually good things happened in a row:

  1. The train was already sitting on the platform when I arrived.
  2. The eye doctor took me 40 minutes early.
  3. The train home was waiting for me when I got there.

No waiting. Anywhere. A small miracle.

Because I was suddenly ahead of schedule, I squeezed in a 45-minute swim. That alone should have earned me some cosmic bonus.

Next up: I went with my daughter to her dentist appointment. I wasn’t sure why my presence was required, so I asked. She said, “Because Mom would come back with me.”

I just looked at her.

She knew immediately that wasn’t happening. She’s 21. Nope. Still, it was nice to hang out with her for a bit.

More good news rolled in: the older boy (law school) and my daughter both received their semester grades. Let’s say… they clearly take after their mother.

Another win.

Then the younger son came over and made us dinner. Check.

After that, the boys and I played Rock Band for an hour. Loud, ridiculous, and fun.

All good. A genuinely good day.

And yet…

I’m stressed. Anxious. Heart racing. I feel like my blood is auditioning for a NASCAR pit crew.

Why?

Because I am a moron who drank an energy drink at 4:30 p.m.

I knew better. I know energy drinks make me bonkers. I know I need to cut back on caffeine.

And yet.

So if you see me later tonight lying perfectly still, staring at the ceiling, wondering why my body thinks a bear is chasing it — now you know.


Dec 21 2025 2025-12-21 2026-01-04 by Ross

This Week in Training – Week 13: Decimal Point Rage….

Posted in Cycling, Running, Swimming, Training, Triathlon

IMWI 2026: The Long Crawl to the Base Phase
(Progress, motivation, and numbers that are offensively close to round.)

Solid week. Better motivation, better consistency, and a noticeable jump in workload without feeling broken afterward. Relative effort topped out at a quarter high — if not longer — which I’ll take as a sign things are moving in the right direction.

I wrapped the week with a fantastic recovery smoothie: frozen berries, yogurt, milk, Ballerina Farm protein powder, and a banana. Ridiculously good. Possibly the highlight of the week.

Swim 🏊

  • Workouts: 2
  • Total Distance: 4,000 yards
  • Total Time: 1 hour 19 minutes
  • Notes: Solid swims. And yes, the OCD part of my brain is screaming that I couldn’t just do one more minute to make it a clean number.

Bike 🚴

  • Workouts: 3 (including a brick)
  • Total Distance: 43.98 miles
  • Total Time: 2 hours 25 minutes
  • Notes: A nice jump in volume without injury. Also: 43.98 miles? Come on. I couldn’t tack on another .02? This will haunt me.

Run 🏃

  • Workouts: 3 (including one off the bike)
  • Total Distance: 11.59 miles
  • Total Time: 1 hour 57 minutes
  • Notes: Again with the decimals. Had I known I was going to land at 11.59, I would’ve run a half block more just to restore order to the universe. The six-mile run this morning was sloooooooowwww, but it got done.

Strength/Other 💪

  • Workouts: None
  • Notes: Still pretending this will magically appear in the plan on its own.

Relative Effort 📈

  • Total Weekly Effort: 619
  • Notes: Quarter high and the highest it’s been in a while — but still manageable and injury-free, which is exactly where I want it.

Reflections ✍️

This felt like a real step forward — more volume, better motivation, and no immediate consequences. I’ll take slow runs and ugly decimals if it means consistent progress.

The following two weeks should be solid, though I’ll need to shuffle workouts around because of travel. That’s fine. I’m learning that flexibility matters more than perfection. Even if the numbers occasionally offend me.

Goals for Next Week 🎯

  • Keep the momentum going.
  • Make the math cleaner if possible.
  • Adjust workouts around travel without skipping them entirely.
  • Accept slow runs as part of the process.

All good. Still building. Still moving forward.


Dec 16 2025 2025-12-16 2025-12-16 by Ross

Goals for 2026 (Not Resolutions)…

Posted in Sharpen the Saw

I recently listened to something by Mel Robbins where she said you should tell someone your goals. Apparently saying them out loud makes them more real. Accountability, psychology, magic—whatever. It worked just enough that I’m writing them down here.

These are not resolutions. I don’t do resolutions. Resolutions are made to be broken sometime between January 12th and the first unexpected snowstorm. These are goals. Aspirations. Gentle nudges toward a slightly better version of myself.

So, here we go.

The Big Goals

  • Lose 20 pounds. Ideally be as close to wedding weight as possible by 10/11/26 (180 lbs.). I am realistic enough to know this won’t happen by wishing it into existence.
  • Finish Ironman Wisconsin 2026. Not podium. Just finish. Upright.
  • Learn to drum. By “learn,” I mean keep a steady beat and throw in a fill without derailing the entire song.
  • Continue learning ASL. And actually use it, not just collect signs like trivia.
  • Volunteer at least once a month. Be useful. Show up.

What That Probably Requires

This is the less glamorous part.

  • Fewer martinis (or none)
  • Less junk food (or none)
  • More fruits and vegetables
  • Healthier Blue Apron choices
  • Pizza capped at once a week (and not frozen—standards matter)
  • Fewer processed foods (or not)

Training-wise: actually follow the plan from the Fink book instead of “mostly” following it while convincing myself I’m still disciplined.

Music-wise: practice daily. This assumes a drum kit appears at Christmas. If not, I will continue tapping on desks and steering wheels like a menace.  Play bass/guitar during lunch at work.

ASL-wise: practice daily and set aside one weekend night where my wife and I only communicate in sign. This will either deepen our connection or end in laughter and wildly incorrect grammar. Possibly both.

The Reality Check

Full transparency: tonight I am having a martini and frozen pizza. I’m not pretending otherwise. After that, I’m draining the beer in the fridge and mailing the remaining kits and Pinter to my friend Bob. I don’t need that much beer in my life. Someone else will enjoy it more.

I’ll keep exercising over break. I’ll start tightening up my eating—not because it’s terrible now, but because it could be better. And I’ll keep working on ASL.

I also signed up to volunteer on New Year’s Day. That felt like a good way to start—doing something outward-facing instead of just making inward promises.

The Martini Problem (and Other Substances)

The martini is always going to be a thing. It’s not why I gained weight (that honor belongs mostly to teaching), and one a week isn’t a health crisis. But I am curious what life looks like with less stuff in it—less alcohol, fewer processed foods, less reliance on caffeine and meds.

I want to see what baseline me looks like when I:

  • exercise regularly – sunlight, fresh air, moving my body
  • interact with people intentionally – seek out opportunities to be with others instead of sitting on my couch doom scrolling.
  • feel connected to something bigger than myself

 

No Policing, Just Posting

I’m not asking anyone to hold me accountable. That’s not fair, and it never works anyway. This is just me putting the goals out into the universe… and onto my blog… because saying them out loud feels like a small but meaningful step.

That’s it.
Goals, not resolutions.
Pizza tonight but start intentions tomorrow
Work tomorrow – without complaining but using the “I get to….” motto.


Dec 16 2025 2025-12-16 2025-12-16 by Ross

Blame, But Make It Progress…

Posted in Sharpen the Saw

 

I hate to admit this, but an Instagram reel made me think.

Not a book. Not a sermon. Not years of wisdom distilled by a philosopher who lived in a cave. A reel. White text on a black background. Probably set to some mellow piano music.

The message went something like this:
An ignorant person blames others. A person who is growing blames himself. A wise person doesn’t blame anyone.

And annoyingly… it hit.

For most of my adult life, I’ve skipped right past blaming other people. Traffic, coworkers, the system, my upbringing — none of that really sticks for me. When something goes sideways, my reflex is to look inward.

What did I do wrong?
What should I have done differently?
Why didn’t I see this coming?

That feels mature. Responsible. Enlightened, even.

Except… sometimes it’s just self-flagellation with better branding.

The reel made me realize that while blaming myself is better than blaming everyone else, it’s still blame. It still comes with a quiet background soundtrack of guilt, second-guessing, and replaying conversations in my head like I’m studying game film after a bad loss.

The idea of not blaming anyone — including myself — feels like a whole different level. One I’m not fully at yet, but one I like the sound of.

Not blaming anyone doesn’t mean shrugging and saying, “Oh well, nothing matters.” It doesn’t mean not taking responsibility or refusing to change. It just means I can look at something and say, “That didn’t go the way I wanted,” without immediately turning it into a character indictment.

No villain. No idiot. No internal scolding.

Just… information.

Around the same time, I saw another post that stuck with me:
Everything in life happens for me, not to me.

I know. That sentence alone probably made some people roll their eyes so hard they pulled a muscle. It sounds like something printed on a mug next to a candle that smells like eucalyptus and optimism.

But still — I liked it.

Not because I think every bad thing is secretly a gift wrapped in misery, but because it reframes the question. Instead of “Why is this happening to me?” it becomes “What am I supposed to do with this?”

That’s a subtle shift, but it matters.

This all ties into a mantra I’ve been working on most of this year: swapping “I have to” with “I get to.”

I don’t have to work out. I get to run today.
I don’t have to run errands. I get to hang out with my wife while we do them.
I don’t have to deal with responsibilities. I get to — because having them means I’m still very much in the game.

Some days this works better than others. Some days my inner voice still wakes up grumpy and skeptical, arms crossed, muttering, “Let’s not get carried away here.”

I don’t think I’ll ever be Mr. Upbeat. That’s not my brand. I’m not going to start greeting life with jazz hands and unsolicited positivity.

But I can aim to not be Daddy Downer.

I can notice when I’m blaming myself for things that are just… part of being human. I can stop acting like every misstep needs a lesson plan and a penalty box. I can keep working to change what needs changing without beating myself up for not having already changed it.

So yes, an Instagram reel made me think.
I’m not thrilled about it.
But if wisdom shows up where it shows up, I guess I’ll take it — without blaming anyone.


Dec 14 2025 2025-12-14 2026-01-04 by Ross

This Week in Training – Week 12: A Planned Step Back

Posted in Cycling, Running, Swimming, Training, Triathlon

IMWI 2026: The Long Crawl to the Base Phase
(Not base. Not even pre-base. More like “setting the maintenance floor.” It’s a process.)

I stepped back a wee bit this week, and that was mostly planned. I’m modifying what will eventually become my first actual base week. It’s still way too early to start base, but I want that starting point to reflect my real maintenance level — something I can actually hold while working, living, and not burning out.

On paper, the plan called for eight workouts. I made five. Not ideal, but also not catastrophic. I’m still building up, and I still have a job. Next week I should be able to hit at least five again, maybe all eight. After that, I’m off work for two weeks, which should make things much easier.

Swim 🏊

  • Workouts: 1
  • Total Distance: 2,225 yards
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Notes: This is where I missed a workout, and I felt it. I just couldn’t get to the pool after work on Friday. Today wasn’t easy either – the windchill was negative – but I got up and got it done. Felt good once I was in, and kind of wished I hadn’t skipped the earlier one.

Bike 🚴

  • Workouts: 2
  • Total Distance: 27.32 miles
  • Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
  • Notes: Most of this was a one-hour Power Zone Peloton ride. The other was a more leisurely 30-minute ride as part of a brick – first brick workout in probably a decade, which feels both exciting and vaguely irresponsible.

Run 🏃

  • Workouts: 3 (including a run off the bike)
  • Total Distance: 9.13 miles
  • Total Time: 1 hour 32 minutes
  • Notes: Slightly shorter than the ~10 miles I’ve been running lately, and that’s fine. It’s also why I don’t mind missing one of the scheduled runs – the overall load is still there.

Strength/Other 💪

  • Workouts: None
  • Notes: Still theoretical at this point.

Relative Effort 📈

  • Total Weekly Effort: 478
  • Notes: Down from recent weeks. One more swim probably would’ve pushed it close to two of my last three weeks. All three missed workouts would’ve blown past that – and possibly into overuse or injury territory. So this worked out.

Reflections ✍️

I missed one run, one bike, and one swim. Sigh. But there’s room for growth, and that’s the point right now. This felt like a reasonable, controlled step back – not a derailment. The goal is durability, not hero weeks.

Goals for Next Week 🎯

  • Hit at least five workouts, ideally all eight.
  • Get both swims in.
  • Keep brick work in the mix.
  • Build consistency without forcing it.

All told, this was fine. Not perfect, but solid. The floor is getting higher, and that’s what matters.