All Clear

So the mole thing on Friday.... I get there to have this giant hole cut in my back. The dermatologist comes out and tells me now that she doesn't have to cut me! There were some non-problematic abnormal marginal cells in the biopsy so the conservative approach was to take out the rest of the mole. But when I told her my insurance from work didn't kick in until June 1st, she agreed that it was fine to put off cutting me for a while. When the nurse originally called to schedule the surgery there was no way to opt out of it. So this was quite a relief.

So I'm feeling good about that. Kelley will have to watch my back and if the mole starts to come back before the next annual check then it will have to be removed completely. Now I just had to muscle through a mother's day weekend in Greenville.

We had so much fun hanging with my family. The kids didn't want to leave. There were lots of pictures taken, but I don't have any of them yet. Saturday we got to hang out with Morgan some. He's handling his 30th birthday really well. Then that night we had dinner with my grandmothers. It was wonderful to see everyone. I know it's only been a couple of months since I have been to greenville, but it feels like a year. Getting to spend time with my whole family like that was wonderful.

Sunday I made it back to my father-in-laws house with a car full of moving stuff. Only two more weeks until we move into the new place! The smoking cravings really peaked on the drive. Charlotte will do that to you though. Side note: Did you know that the NASCAR hall of fame is opening tomorrow? It's in downtown Charlotte. I am decidedly not a nascar fan, so this is one more reason to avoid Charlotte.

So traffic got really bad in places, and I was almost resigned to just pick up a pack of Camels. I think I would have done it if you could buy just one. I stayed strong, which is tougher than you might think, and went back to my normal nicotine deferment methods today.

Today I hit the triple. Tri Power workout before work was tough, it's been a while since I've been through the circuit. My abs were feeling the effects throughout the day.

Over lunch I put a mile in the pool. I have recently been watching through the Outside The Box - total immersion swimming for open water dvd. Specifically I've been working on the slow skating stroke, making wide tracks, and using the mail slot entry method in the pool. It's made me swim faster for longer with less effort and today was the proof. I can only count to five. So normally every time I touch 'that other wall' five times I call it a set. 10 laps, 250 yds per set, and I'll do normally 4 or 5 sets on mondays. 76 laps is a mile. I always have to stop between sets. Today I just jumped in and knocked out 80 laps without stopping, slowing down, taking a rest break, anything. Just knocked down those laps. It was amazing.

Then after work I went back for a 5 mile tempo run. I was trying to hold steady around 9 minute miles. I finished the 5 in 45:03 and felt fantastic. So tonight, for the first time in 10 days, the nicotine cravings have gone away. I'm so glad I didn't stop yesterday. And I couldn't have made it two more weeks if that doc had cut me. Running always gets the job done. Always.

I am now registered for those two open water swims. Both in Jordan Lake, the one mile is June 13th and the Big Deuce two mile swim is 7/24. After nailing the swim today, I feel certain I can train up for the two miler. I'm actually getting really excited about it.

It's going to be a fun week!