Drained Daddy!

by Dathan Ritzenhein | Nov 21, 2009 | 1,119 views

So since I love my wife and wanted to give her a special present, I got her a trip to NYC with her Mom and gave her a stack of cash to go on a three day shopping spree. I figured she works hard and supports me so much that she needed a little vacation away. I also thought that it would be good for me and my two year old daughter Addy to get some good Addy-Daddy time.  Believe it or not this is the first time I have ever had her by myself overnight, let alone four days.

I walk away from this experience with a new appreciation for my wife and all that she does. I don’t even know why I am writing this blog because I am so tired. I think the hardest thing was that I still had to train, lift, Dr. appointments and all that. I would not have been able to train at all if it weren’t for my good friends Kendall (Kara Goucher’s sister and Kalin’s best friend) and our massage therapist Al who watched her while a trained. I thought it was really clever of me to get this whole trip booked and not tell Kalin until last minute, but I think I should have ran it by her because she could have let me know what I was in for. In the future if I do something like this I need to just fly my Mom out here as well because I feel like I have been run over. It is really a very difficult job that stay at home parents have. I think trying to constantly keep the kids happy, fed, safe and entertained doesn’t leave much time for anything else. At the end of the day it looks like a bomb went off in the house; I have a lot of cleaning up to do before Kalin gets back. I have to admit though that it gave me a lot of parenting confidence to do this, but I can’t wait until she gets home and I go back to “the office”.

I need sleep, one more day, Kalin come home please! Until next time…


10 Comments for this entry

  • Steve Piccolo
    November 22nd, 2009 on 8:48 pm

    Thanks for sharing. I’m grateful that my wife stays home with our little girl. I think it makes a huge difference in our girl’s life. And sometimes maybe I don’t realize how hard of a job it is.

  • Jon Karczmarek
    November 22nd, 2009 on 9:36 pm

    its good to hear that you got to spend time with your daughter. any advice on how to spend more time with a girlfriend while still training?

  • Dathan Ritzenhein
    November 23rd, 2009 on 12:50 am

    Hey Jon. Not sure if your girlfriend is a runner as well, but maybe try to see if she wants to go for a run, or ride her bike with your on a long run. I always found that if my wife came out to ride or give me drinks that it made it a lot more fun for both of us. Good Luck

  • Neal
    November 23rd, 2009 on 5:58 pm

    I chuckled the other day as was reading your blog and holding my four month old daughter – trying to figure out how to get the 45 minutes of pt, core exercises, and hour of cross training, made me really appreciate how wonderful my wife is, and what a blessing my daughter is. By the way I have my first “full day” with her Friday. Thanks for your post.

  • Jon Karczmarek
    November 23rd, 2009 on 8:24 pm

    thanks for the advice. she does like to go out and run. and she’s constantly wanting to go out and do something so it might work out.

  • gebre
    November 24th, 2009 on 1:31 pm

    Hi Dathan!

    How is your training?I would love to see you GAlan and Webb running a hard interval together!Can you please post one of your interval training here?

    Thanks

  • Erin Hudson
    December 5th, 2009 on 9:00 pm

    Hi Dathan! I’m a huge fan of yours and was wondering if there is any place which I could find a poster of you!? I have been searching FOREVER for one but have been extremely unsuccessful in my attempts. If Nike started producing posters of their runners I swear they’d make a ton of money!

    Thanks so much for your time!
    Erin

  • Duncan
    December 6th, 2009 on 10:30 am

    Oh Dathan
    I had to laugh while reading your blog as I remember it so well . The bad news is that you will look back on it as the easiest time in the future , so try and enjoy it .
    Have a great Christmas and New Year.

    Good luck for 2010.

  • Dathan Ritzenhein
    December 7th, 2009 on 1:43 am

    Hey Erin. Thanks. If you go to a local running store, as for a RUN09 Nike Pamphlet. There is a poster from Zurich in there.

  • matt
    December 23rd, 2009 on 10:54 am

    Dathan,

    First of all-congrats on a great year. I’m a middle school teacher @ in a small northern michigan town (East Jordan). I writing you in hopes that you’d be willing to help us out with a club we’ve started-the “shoe” club. Basically, we write letters to inspirational people and try and collect a shoe they’ve worn and display it in a classroom in our middle school. For example, Arnold Palmer sent us one of the golf shoes he wore in one of the Master’s golf tournaments. We have a collection of 50 or so shoes so far! Usually, a letter or note accompanies the shoe explaining where and when the shoe was worn and a note about hard work, commitment etc… The idea is for students to think about others and what they’ve accomplished through hard work and dedication.

    I coached for 17 yrs. and watched you compete many times @ the Benzie Central Invite.

    Thanks for your time and please email me @ mpeterson@ejps.org if you have you’d be so kind to support this cause.

    Matt Peterson

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