Today I took the early flight out of Los Angeles to South Beach Miami for the Nautica race this weekend in Florida. Emma and Tahlia were up at 4:30am to drop me at the airport in Los Angeles. Sienna was fast asleep so we left her at home with Paul Ambrose (my training partner), while Emma and Tahlia dropped me off. We picked up Scott Fairchild my agent at Manhatten Beach on the way and were at the airport at 5:00am. Ouch - I needed that coffee. I really miss my family on these trips. My girls are growing up so fast and my heart aches when we are apart. I have a great life in the sense that I get to spend a lot of my time with my children as I work a lot from home because of training.

The problem is however these trips away to races are really hard as I miss my interaction with my family. Anyway I have this picture we took last week in Santa Monica when we all went out to dinner. I had the waitress snap a happy shot of us all. I just spoke to my girls before posting this entry and looking at this photo made me smile. I will be back home on Monday afternoon and can’t wait to see everyone. I hope to have a race win up from this event here in Miami. It should be a fast little event but a good one for the speed early season. It will be a great test of my early season training as I begin my build into my key events in May, June and July. This will make my time away from my family, constructive.

To win this race would be nice, so that is the sole focus of the next 3 days. South Beach is a great place for party, but for me it is just sleep, train and get the job done on race day. I will celebrate with my girls over a nice dinner in Los Angeles on Monday evening.