I am sitting here in my Normatec MVP in our rental apartment doing therapy for the last push to the ING NYC Marathon on November 7.  We have gone to New Mexico for altitude training and I am very excited for the extra fitness I will gain from being here. (continue reading…)

It has been a while since I have put up a new blog post, but I forgot how chaotic life can be with a new baby.  Our son Jude was born on July 23rd and thank God he was healthy.   (continue reading…)

As many already know, we have our second child on the way.  We found out about two weeks ago that we will be having a baby boy.  We were a little shocked when we heard the news.  There is some crazy statistic that male distance runners and cyclists have mostly girls.  Aside from that, my Dad’s family has seven girls and only two boys, and my Mom’s family was four girls and no boys.  On my wife’s side it is similar as well, so we were thrilled when we broke the odds.   (continue reading…)

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. (continue reading…)

So much for a relaxing and peaceful break. The last week has been spent packing and moving. We have our apartment up in Portland and almost all of our things are out of our house in Eugene. I have only one more trip to make tomorrow and we will be all set up here. The only thing now is to sell our house! Not much interest in it so far, so if you want a house great house in Eugene, you can have it. (continue reading…)

So I am sitting here with all the lights turned off because Kalin and Addy are dead asleep. It was so great to see them. It had only been 10 days, but they are really my whole world, so it was great to swing by the train station and pick them up. What a great wife I have. She has hauled that kid all over the world just so that I can follow my dreams. It is hard to explain, but when they are around everything goes more smoothly for me. Workouts are better, I sleep better, my mood is better. When you have those little breaks away, that is when you really realize how much they mean to you. (continue reading…)

Sad day, I took my girls and Muenster our pug to the airport this morning. I always hate when they all go at once. I watch them walking away and think “there goes my whole life!” The only thing that left me in a good mood was watching my wife try to navigate security with a dog and a toddler. She has it down though. Both Addy and Muenster had to be out of the stroller and carrying bag and so she put all her stuff on the security belt and then had Addy in one arm and Muen in the other. (continue reading…)

I want to begin this post by saying that my thoughts and prayers are with Jorge and Ed Torres and there families. On Sunday morning their Mother, Ed’s wife and their long time friend and youth coach were in a very serious accident traveling back to Chicago from Colorado. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
I was already going to write this post about something out side of running but this recent accident has made me think even more about how often we lose track of the important things in life. (continue reading…)

Well I am up here in VAil CO for Jorge Torres’ wedding. We are staying at an awesome resort and it is like a mini vacation. It is kind of difficult because I am in the middle of some serious training for the World Championships in Berlin but I have always been able to stay disciplined enough to keep focused. We flew in from Eugene on Wed. night and then we stopped over in Boulder for the night. I wanted to be able to do my track workout on thursday morning there in Boulder because I am so familiar with it after living there for six years. (continue reading…)

So this is my first post on my new blog.  Thanks for checking it out.  I will try to keep it updated a few times a week.  If you want to check out what I’m doing you can also look me up on Twitter @ djritzenhein.

It has been a busy and crazy last couple of months. (continue reading…)