Brick!

With actual running! The hip has been feeling good lately. Thought I would give her a spin. I missed wednesday night's bike ride thanks to work so I bricked it last night. 10 miles on the bike in 29 minutes, then 3 miles on the treadmill in 29 minutes.

I started the run slow to really check my form, then added speed as it felt comfortable. It's been almost a month since I've felt ok running, so I was pretty cautious going in. Got the speed up to 6.2 and held it there. Now a month ago, I did 10 miles at 6.8 speed (1 min/mile faster), so this was pretty conservative. About 2.8 miles in I felt the hip starting to tighten up a bit, and I didn't want to push it. Today I can feel the inflamation in my hip flexor, but I iced it and it's fine. So I still have to do more PT movements, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's good to get some confidence back in my running.

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Work

Today is my last day working full time at this old job. I'm going to stay on board for a while contracting at night going forward as needed. And I still have one trip left to Atlanta to hand over control of my projects to the boss. But overall I am not sad to leave this one behind.

Working from home has been great. You get to somewhat set your schedule, control your hours, and work at your own pace uninterrupted. I typically stay in pajamas until at least noon, then I do actually shower and get dressed every day. No office attire, no shoes needed, and other people can come by if they want to interrupt you. Kelley can leave the baby monitors with me while she does errands during naptime without having to haul the kids with her (that may be the biggest benefit of work-from-home - a happy wife). I get to see the kids whenever I can walk back upstairs. With no daily commute, I don't need a car or cell phone. I never have to go anywhere. Walk downstairs to work, walk upstairs for dinner at the end of the day. Blog and bill my hours back, everything gets tracked and paid up. I keep a tv in my office, and watch soaps and movies and talk shows and sports every day. It is background noise. In an office you hear the phone ring sometimes, and other people talking to each other. I have to reproduce that through tv.

Working from home can suck too. I only have one phone number here, so any client or office person can call me at any time day or night and I'm always here. One client called at 8 pm one saturday, when I had the girls in the bathtub. They were screaming loud and he was trying to talk about an access database project. I told him I was tied up with two naked wet chicks at the moment, and he kept talking. Sometimes work keeps you going well into the night. If I could have left the office and gone home at 5:30 on wednesday I would have, but this web site had to go live so I worked clear through until after 8 pm (started working at 6 that morning) and ate a cold dinner. So when you work from home and you never leave you are always at the office! Some weeks it gets really bad. I will literally go from sunday night until thursday night without stepping through the outside doors of the house. I work until kelley puts dinner on the table (God bless her), then it's time to get the kids in the bath and in bed for the night around 8:30 pm, then I can go to the gym. If I don't have to go back downstairs and finish something before xx comes back into the office the next morning. That's one reason I hit the stationary bike and treadmill/elliptical so often, I have to wait until late at night before I can leave the house. If I am able to get away then and feel up to a workout that late at night. There is no "swing by the gym after work" if there is no commute home from work.

So now I have to buy or borrow a car. I think I can borrow for at least the first few weeks. Monday at the latest I'm going to the verizon store to get a cell phone with a Raleigh (919) phone number. Yesterday I got estimates to replace the broken down furnace ($2500) and hire the movers ($4500) to get all of our stuff up to the new house in Raleigh. We haven't found the new house yet. This weekend will be final prep for listings like landscaping, interior paint touch ups, and start packing up boxes. Monday I might have to do some work for the old job still, but tuesday is travel & paperwork day, and wednesday I start the new job. This is incredibly exciting for me.

My current boss says that he wants to hire someone to replace me. I have my doubts if he actually will, he did my job himself. So if you want to work from home (or in atlanta) as a programmer and write vb.net, classic asp, transact-sql, css, html, javascript, and can work on access and sql server databases, call or email me and i'll put you in touch with the guy.

My new job is just building vb.net web sites over sql server databases in a closed envorinment. It's a software company, they build software and sell it to agriculture businesses like farmers and grocery stores. Management loved that I keep the organic garden every summer. About 2/3 of the employees are developers like me. They also need to hire one more developer just like me. They are only considering people who already have a place to live in Raleigh, and they only hire the best developers in the area. My job was open for over a month. There are so many people out of work in Raleigh that most jobs are filled within an hour and they don't have to hire people from out of state. I only got in the door by putting kelley's dad's address on my resume. But since I am going to live with her dad until we buy a house up there, it's a legal move. Still, they interviewed dozens of people, and only offered the job to me. Robert Half technology got me in there, so let me know if you're interested in that and I can put you in touch with my guy at RHI. This is an awesome gig, an incredibly desirable company to work for. They only hire the best, so I will only be working with the best.

Before I had this work from home job, I was self employed. All of my friends went away then, I only socialized with clients and employees, and I worked 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. AAI was a client then, they subcontracted their software development to me. Then 2 years ago I wanted to sell the busienss and become an employee again, and they had a standing offer on the table. We had to negotiate pay and that was it. This was just over 2 years ago. I took a 60% pay cut to work from home. It hasn't been easy only earning 40% of what I used to, but we still got by. And it was worth it. I was able to stop smoking, start running triathlons, and spend time with my kids. But the social depravation has taken its toll. I'm ready to make new friends, set regular hours, learn a new city, and reconnect with all of my old college friends that live there now. The new gig has a significant pay raise to about 75% of my self-employed pay. Leaving my own business went so badly that I have been paralyzed by the thought of change for the last few years. Now that the plan is being executed I am feeling confident that I am making the right change for my family. Of course, nobody else wants to admit that and they are still trying to talk me into staying in Greenville. I hate to upset the balance of my extended family, my mother says to ignore her if she starts crying. But I have to do what's best for my family and my kids.

OK, now this has become a long, honest, emotional post and I'm just rambling. But you probably didn't read this far down, did you Glaven? [he posted the same question earlier in the week] Good luck to Nic, he's trying to break 3 hours in the Twin Cities marathon after missing it by only 7 seconds a few weeks ago! Also sunday is the Milwaukee Marathon that Gazelle and Havs are both running. Good luck to you guys! The SC Half Ironman is also on sunday, but I'm not sure I know anyone running it this year. Coach Katie will be there with her athletes though. Have a great weekend!

Yowza

Well, after I posted on saturday that Evil Genius was actually being well behaved, guess what happened. She took her dinner, dumped it on the floor, stomped on it crushing the crackers that were on there, then walked everywhere else around the house. Guess I should have seen that coming by now. unbelievably huge mess.


The dinner was awesome, it was so good to hang with Anna again and her new BF is really cool. He was blown away by getting together with the small local family. He's going to pass out when he sees the crowd at thanksgiving.


Sunday I got in a 20 mile bike, 8 mile run brick workout. It felt sooooo good to get a brick in! Wow I didn't realize how much I have been missing the really long weekend workouts. I'm getting tired of the single digit long runs, and since I didn't get anything in saturday the brick was welcomed. If I had been able to separate the workouts on different days, I would have done 10 miles on the run. The 20 mile bike was in 60:50, just below my target 20 mph pace. The 8 mile run was in 1:12:something, which is a pretty good pace.


Monday was a rest day, I did some yoga and my tri power workout. I was also pretty stressed at work, but managed to get something actually completed.


Yesterday was a really good day. My software release at work passed testing which is really cool. Then kelley's mom came up to play with the kids for a few days. We knew she was coming. It's the last week of their swim lessons, and she wanted to see the girls in the pool. Bigun jumped in and got her whole head underwater for the first time last night! I'm so proud of her, she really had to conquor a fear there.


I got in a swim too! Got a mile and a half in while Bigun was at the swim lesson. Oh it felt so good to get laps in a 50 meter pool. I had the lane to myself most of the time, and I did laps in sets of 8, since the Greenville Sprint tri has 8 laps in the pool as the swim leg.


What we did not know (but is totally awesome) is that Kelley's mom is taking the kids back home with her for the weekend!!!!! FRRREEEEEEDDDDOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!! Oh yea, it's going to be so nice. Kelley has really been needing a weekend lately. and i'm not complaining at all.


I also got awarded a "featured triathlon blogger" mark on Wellsphere! That's really cool, I've seen the stamp on plenty of other blogs that I read. I think getting invited is quite an honor.

It's only 100 days until the Beach 2 Battleship! I finally made my hotel reservations. Actually, we're staying friday and saturday night at some condo's that are close to the finish line. Let the anxiety begin!


And finally, some pics. I haven't put up any pictures lately, and nothing funny has happened to me lately. Soon I'm sure I will have something funny to report. But for now I will just have to embarass my neice and show off my version of a biker chick.

Wild times ahead

Last night was a crappy brick. I was in a crappy mood all day long, and it transferred into the workout which is a real bummer. I workout to erase a bad mood, not to extend it. So the hope was to do some kind of 10/10 brick. 10 miles on the bike followed by either a 10 mile run or a 10 k run. I left the resistance turned up on the bike to increase the difficulty, and it was great. I've been missing hill work on the bike lately, which scares me. Then I made it to the run with a strange new pain in my right hip. Not a pain really as much as an irritation. Once I got into a rhythm it kind of eased up a bit but never really went away. So I only went 2 miles on the mill. I was already kind of hungry and in a bad mood anyway, so I went home to eat and catch up on TiVo.



Big Weekend



This weekend is going to be a blast. On sunday, Evil Genius turns 2 years old. We're having a party on saturday because lots of people are coming into town for it. Kelley's mom is already here helping us get ready. Tonight, her sister and our neice are coming in from their charlotte suburb, and I think her dad is coming into town tonight from Raleigh. He might wait until tomorrow morning to leave out, you never know. But 4 people staying overnight with us is going to be challenging and fun.



Plus my cousin Ben and his wife and new baby are coming, I haven't seen the new baby since he left the hospital 12 weeks ago. So that's going to be great. And of course the rest of my in-town family will be here. As a 2 year old, she will barely know what is going on. And I'm sure bigun is going to want to horn in like it's her birthday party too. But EG said she wanted cupcakes (yep, that's my daughter), and we doing some other sandwich things for a lunch party. I don't know what kind of games you can really play with only 3 kids there but I am sure we will all have lots of fun.



So this weekend is the birthday party, and next weekend is the Festival of Flowers oly tri. then the weekend after that is the hillbilly marathon. Boy, it's all coming up so quickly!



My training this weekend has to include a 13 mile run. I also want to get in some time on Jenny riding the hills around my house. It has rained for 9 days straight here, and always in the evening if not all day long. So I'm really missing my Jenny time. And I think it's gotten warm enough now to get in the backyard pool at my parent's house. So I might even get in a swim.



Friday's Leftovers



wherein i tell you about all the other random crap i forgot to mention before



Something funny happened on my 20 mile run last weekend. I was looking around the tv for something interesting to watch, I stumbled across a vh1 countdown of the 100 greated 80's tunes. I hate 80's music but chose to watch it because I knew the damn countdown would be on that treadmill longer than I would. you know, those thing go on for like 5 hours. I saw it from song 100 and counted down to song 32. It was almost like running to music. and i did finish first.



After the 20 mile run I had some Recoverite and a protein bar. Then once I got back home I made a monkey shake with frozen berries, a banana, peanut butter, and some milk. Chris from 1010 Wellness found the blog and sent me some monkey shake! This stuff was awesome. It really got me feeling better fast. You can buy it from his site if you want to give it a try. I'm hooked on this stuff.



Have a great weekend! Good luck if you're racing. I know the San Diego marathon is this weekend, and Alisa is running that one. I'll be sure and post plenty of pics from the birthday party on monday!

Thank GOD for a long weekend

Everything is good or bad today. Certainly hectic. Here goes nothing:

• Last Night's Brick was supposed to be race distance, but again the clock caught up with me. I made it 24 miles on the bike in 1:15 and change, which is decent but not great. Then moved back to the treadmill for the 6.2 mile run. I hit 4 miles 15 minutes before the gym closed and had to abandon to grab a quick shower and get out of there. I had the energy and hydration to easily make it the final 6.2 miles, everything was going really strong on the run. Usually when these workouts fail, it's either thanks to time or the bowels. this time it was time that got me. Still, a 24/4 brick is still a great workout. So we'll call that one good and bad.


• Good: Yesterday at work we took several components live that I've been working on for a few months. XML is very cool.


• Bad: My grandmother (dad's mom) had to be checked into a nursing home yesterday. She may or may not be able to go back to the assisted living facility she enjoyed before. We just had dinner with her earlier in the month, so it's a fairly rapid decline in her health.
  
• I was running out of tea in the office, so we went to this israeli restaurant and grocery store last night for dinner. It's my favorite place to get tea, they have the kind of stuff you can't find in grocery stores with no english on the label. My favorite is a chinese Gunpowder tea. Good.
  
• I found out the hard way that hummos, pitas, gyro, fallafels, and other israeli food is not good pre-brick fuel. Bad.


• Last Monday was the Assault on Mount Mitchell. Mount Mitchell is the highest elevation point east of the mississippi, and the assault ride is well known as the most challenging bike ride in these here parts. I don't know how well known the assault is nationally, though. It's a 102 mile ride from downtown spartanburg to the top of the mountain. 80 miles into the ride you start climbing in Marion, NC with a couple of descents and tons of switchbacks. Total climbing is 8100 ft. The last 22 miles are basically straight uphill with a few relief points built in. JD is a local rider and fellow Greenville Spinners member who did the assault monday, and wrote maybe the best report I have ever read about the ride. It takes 8 - 12 hours to complete this ride, and is one of those post-ironman type of goals for me. and since my ironman dreams are far-fetched, this is one of those rides that seems out of reach.


• Long Holiday: Getting through that work deadline and goLive date has been incredibly stressful. I had to work all of last weekend and plenty of late nights to get through it. So a day off for the holiday is going to be GREAT! I can't wait. My honey-do list is getting long.


• Saturday is the only 20 mile run on this marathon cycle. I'm going to head out to the lake at Furman if the weather and time cooperates. Bigun has a birthday party for a friend to go to on saturday as well, so I have to be sure that the timing and recovery allows. there's an 80% chance of rain sunday and monday, and maybe 40% chance on saturday. So I really want to get the run in then. Call it good or bad.


• Sunday is going to be backyard prep day and honey-do list time. Evil Genius will be turning 2 years old may 31st, and we're planning her birthday party for next saturday the 30th. So I've got to get everything prepped for a backyard kids party. Finish planting and mulching the garden, grass cut, everything watered and looking clean.


• Monday is the glory day of no working. If you add the days I work on the weekends and subtract the weekdays I take off for holidays and vacation I still would end up working less if I worked every single week monday through friday. So I cherish these long weekends or just having a weekday off. I've got several options what to do here. I'm seriously considering repeating last nights failed race distance brick, but doing it outside on the hills around my house. That will be hard core prep for the upcoming tri. There are several spinners rides going on around Greenville, including a 25 mile and metric century ride benefitting the Ronald McDonald House of Greenville that provides free housing near the hospital for family members that don't want to leave their loved ones at the hospital. Still, the main goal for monday will be to get some time riding Jenny outside. weather permitting.


• Memorial day weekend is also when most of the outdoor pools open up around here. So maybe I can actually get some swimming done too.


• Veterans? This weekend is also one of those times when we say "Thank You" to those who have served in the armed forces. I don't have the mental or physical fortitude to survive in the military, so I have a real admiration for those who can and do. I have no problem being one of the people who are too afraid to do what you have done; so thank you for protecting us.



• Finally, some pics. Some of these are mine, some came from a hilarious blog site Stuff that makes me Chuckle

These are not my kids

That is my kid. Coach Stu in his photographic wisdom really brought out the cool factor in that pic. it's tough to tell at this size, but the strawberry is in focus, and Bigun is out of focus a little bit. The table and background stuff is really out of focus. Having the out of focus stuff in black and white adds a tremendous amount of depth to the shot.



Yes I am that much of a nerd. and I like waffles.

Both girls on Bigun's last day of 3 yr old kindergarten. She's loving her summer break so far. I can't believe she's through her first year of school already.


Bigun on her first day of 3 yr old kindergarten from last september. It's amazing how much she's grown in a year, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.


Evil Genius playing in the horsetail rush we grow on the front porch. I tell her not to play with it because every time she breaks a couple of them off, but it does make for a cute picture.

These are the strawberries we pulled from the garden last weekend. There are at least that many, maybe more that need to be picked this weekend. And we've got to pick some peas too. Go enjoy some local produce this weekend.

Have a great weekend! good luck if you're racing, I know there are a ton of races going on here this weekend. Get outside, fire up the grill and have some fun! cold beers all around.

10 miles and 10k?

Well, I missed the bike time trial last night. Working from home I get flexible hours. Yesterday I started early so I could knock off about 4:30 to make it to the bike race on time. But it was one of "those" days where task x had to be finished. I didn't end up finishing until 6:15. Sometimes that's just how it goes in programming, you have to make it work right today or else. The good news it I got it working, and I've been banging my head against this wall for 3 weeks now. Thank you, javascript.

Needless to say, I was pissed at having to miss the race but grateful to still have a job. So after we got the kids to bed I went on to the gym for my normal thursday night brick. But this time I had anger and speed on my side.

And it freaking worked!!!! I still can't believe it. My target for the bike race was 10 miles in under 30 minutes. On the stationary bike at the gym, I did 10 miles in 29:38 FINALLY!!!! I busted through that 20 mph wall I've been fighting at for the last couple of months. HAHA, TAKE THAT SPEED! yea baby, I was pretty thrilled with that.

And since it wouldn't be a bike/run brick without the running, now it was time to head to the treadmill. The training plan called for 6 miles tempo. So I walked for the first minute while I found the Cleveland basketball game on the tv, then turned it up to a 6.3 speed. I was working on finding a mid-foot strike and shorter stride, not easy for someone with my long legs. Now everyone out there everywhere who runs wants to clear a 10k in under an hour. Some people are fast and do this easily, others have to speed up to it. I held the 6.3 speed through 5.5 miles, then this 10k goal crept into the brain. I've never done a 10k race, just 5k's in triathlons and half marathon races. And here was Wes in the brain too, commenting yesterday that I could always push hard for 25 minutes on the bike. So I started inching the speed up, and I ended up at 7.0 for the last couple of minutes. BAM! 10k done, 6.2 miles in 59:22!!!!! A completely unexpected goal was proven and shattered. Nice.

Also today marks one month (June 7th) until my first olympic distance triathlon. That's a 1500m swim, 24 miles on the bike, and a 10k run. I'm working up to a 24/6.2 brick in a couple of weeks, and I don't have any more races until that one. Yesterday I finally got around to making travel plans. Turns out, one of Kelley's cousins (Leigh) lives about 15 minutes from the race site! Who knew? The race is in Greenwood, SC about an hour and a half from where we are. Leigh lives in Saluda, SC with a husband and 3 kids. I knew the towns were kind of close. But she pulls a camper out there all the time. And Leigh is shooting a rodeo (she's a photographer) in GA that weekend so we get to stay in her empty house. And here I was ready for a hotel room.

Then a scant 6 days later I have this little hillbilly marathon coming up. In a small town in Kentucky, there aren't that many hotels. In fact, the entire town was booked up already. Every single room was already taken from every hotel. I finally found a room for about $40 a night in the next town over, about 30 minutes away. That's going to be a comfortable night's sleep before the marathon starts at 7 am. My last hope is a hotel that's still under construction in the same town as the marathon. they put my name on a list, and will be calling everyone on the list once the reservation system comes online june 1st. marathon is june 13th. Cutting it close I know, but that's all there is now. I should not have waited so long.

Today I have to make reservations for the B2B in november. Not waiting again!

Have a great weekend! happy mothers day to all you moms. My mom was in a car accident last friday, and today she's having a little surgery to repair a broken nose from the accident. She's really ok, and will be fine after the surgery. And saturday my grandmother is moving from her physical therapy/nursing home back to the assisted living apartment a month after breaking her hip. So I am incredibly glad that my mom and her mom are getting well again. But it also means they won't be up for a big mother's day lunch or anything. I've got to get in an 18 mile long run on saturday, and we're going for a visit to kelley's mom. Have a great weekend!

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Update:

the results from the bike race last night is up on the spinner's web site, and there were 11 guys in my age group. My time would have put me ahead of 2 of them. And overall, just head of the guy who finished 69th out of 75 dudes. So I would have actually beaten people if I could have made the race and my goal. dang.

Brick - End of April - Race Preview

First the brick. I really wanted to end April with a bang. And it was time for a thursday night brick anyway, so I figured I would make it a long one. You know I always have a goal to keep 20 mph on the bike, weather stationary or road bike. Well last night I came SO CLOSE!!! When that clock rolled to 60 minutes, I was sitting on 19.75 miles, a stupid quarter mile away! Man, that is close. I ended up getting 20 miles in 61 minutes, and my legs felt pretty strong.

Then I refilled the water bottles, and moved back to the treadmill. Now this is what really amazes me. I would love for someone else to try this just to know that it doesn't only happen to me. Typically, when I just walk onto the treadmill I keep the speed around 6.0 - 6.2, and I'll slow down to a walk when I need to which is usually every 2 or 3 miles. I also walk a warm up for a minute or three. But when I'm coming off of a hard bike session like that, the run always seems easier.

Last night I walked for just over a minute, and did the entire first mile at a 6.4 speed, then did 4 more miles at 6.3 with no walking. Total was 5 miles in 48:24, which is considerably longer and faster than the rest of my recent runs. So strange. So somebody else try going hard on the bike for about 20 minutes, then go for a run. Let me know if it feels easier than just starting out for a run cold.

Now a 20/5 bike/run brick is no joke. Think I'm ready for the oly tri (24 mile bike/6.2 mile run) coming up in a month? I think I'm going to be just fine. The bike burned 678 calories, and the run burned 793 calories. That's 1471 total. And to kick off the night, I weighed in and I was down 3 pounds. I've been trying to be more careful about what I ate during the pollen fiasco, and it's really nice to see it pay off. I also did some yoga yesterday morning.

So what does that mean for April?

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April Totals

1 race (TOA Triathlon, Pics)
750meters swimming
62.5 miles on the bike
43.9 miles running
5 hours strength training
2.5 hours yoga

Considering I lost a couple of weeks to pollen, I am pretty pleased with the month. I need more swimming, duh. But the bike and run totals are ok. I sure could use more running, marathon is only 6 weeks away. But I can live with those totals. It's time to do the Tri Power assessments again, and I just didn't get around to it on wednesday.

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Race Preview

Tomorrow is the Mud Run. This is a 4 mile course with military obstacles. Michael is coming up from Charleston to run it with us, and we recruited our friend Deb to join in too. I don't know what the obstacles are, but I do know there's a 10 ft high wall we have to climb. And I know we're going to get dirty.

Our start time is 3:59 PM? WTF? Who starts a race at 4 pm? They are staggering the starts to let the faster teams through the obstacles first so there will hopefully be less waiting to get through an obstacle. We're in the C group which is supposed to be the fun, slow, fat people. So we should be in good company. If you watch the Biggest Liar, Phil and Amy from last season are running this race too, but I'm sure they will be in an earlier group. And there's a rumor floating around the neighborhood that Tara from this season is in Greenville waiting and working with Phil and Amy for the finale in a couple of weeks. She's been spotted walking around the mall and in a few local gyms according to my neighbors. So I'm hoping she's roped into doing this race tomorrow too.

In other race news, there are only 34 spots left for the Beach 2 Battleship half iron distance race that I'm doing in november. There are already tons of bloggers signed up, but if you're on the fence about a half I would suggest you get in on this one while you still can. Come and hang out with your friends! The full iron distance has a few more open spots, but get in while you can. They are both going to sell out pretty soon.

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Have a great weekend! I know the Eugene Marathon is this weekend in Oregon, and Sarah Bowen Shea (a Runner's World writer and blogger) is running it. Good luck SBS! Who else is running this one? joyRuN is gunning a marathon this weekend too. Good luck girl! And Amber is doing her first half marathon on sunday in vancouver. rock it out, Amber. You're going to love it.

Thursday night meat punch

Actually, I meat punched a brick last night. It. Was. Awe. Some! I've fallen into a pattern that I'm really enjoying (shouldn't that pattern be defined by the training plan? whatever). Monday and Tuesday has a bike and a run. Wednesday is strength training, and a brick on Thursday. Friday is a rest day, then a long run on Saturday and a long ride on Sunday. I've also been regularly doing the Tri Power strength workouts 5 days a week, and yoga 2 or 3 days. And this pattern really seems to be getting the job done. Feeling fit and really healthy, I've taken another inch or so off of the waist in the last month(ish) and everything is feeling good. So what's missing? swimming. haven't quite figured that one out yet. and with the first tri of the year coming up in less than a month with a 750 meter lake swim, I need to figure something out fast.

So last night's brick was insane! It's been raining here steadily since wednesday, so I hit the gym. I started out with 15 miles on the bike in 45 minutes. I think that's the fastest I've ever gone on a stationary bike. Which is also funny because stationary bikes don't actually go anywhere. But the rpm stayed around 112 the whole time. Then I refilled the water bottle, took a gel, and hopped on the treadmill. I was supposed to do an easy 6 miles at a slower pace. But the pace ended up being faster than I normally can sustain for that distance, so I cut out at 4.5 miles. Still, I ended up pulling an 8:40 pace? What? those are Glaven speeds. I've never been able to keep that pace for that long before, especially after going that far on the bike. The interval workouts and all that time on the bike must be really getting the job done. It felt great, and I wanted to keep going but I didn't want to wear down my legs for the weekend.

Plus, yesterday was a really long day. I got up about 5:15 because I knew there was tons of work to get done. Did some yoga, core work, and the Tri Power workout early while Kelley was at the gym. Then I finished off some major projects at work, which everyone in Atlanta is currently amazed at. It's good, because I haven't done anything at work recently that deserved an 'attaboy', but there were plenty of failures. So to pull off what I did yesterday was a good thing that turned a lot of heads. The technical details, however, are quite boring. then I had dinner, got the kids to bed, and hit the gym for that brick. Finished the workout exactly at 10:30 pm, grabbed a quick shower and made it home just after 11. Then I slept in this morning.

So what does the weekend hold? could be tons of rain. Tomorrow is the Assault On The Carolinas bike ride. I'm doing the 60k distance (about 37 miles), but there are also 100k and 30k rides going on. It will be the longest bike ride I've done so far, and my first paid for organized ride that wasn't in the middle of a triathlon. Here's the ride details from their web site:

The 60K riders will get to test their climbing abilities on Walnut Hollow, which is a local favorite. Walnut hollow is a steep challenging climb that is sure to get everyone's heart pumping. The climb is 1.1 mile with grades reaching 15%. After climbing Walnut Hollow riders will enjoy a nice rolling ride home through the French Broad River Valley. The 60k has 2 fully stocked rest stops.

Packet pickup is tonight at a coffee house in Brevard, NC that is also supposed to be a social event. Coach Katie is also doing this ride, so I'm looking forward to seeing her as always. It's going to be challenging and fun. And since the small camera is working again, I'm looking forward to taking pictures and will share on monday.

The local tv says it's supposed to have strong thunderstorms all day saturday. As much as I'm looking forward to this ride, I'm not going out in a thunderstorm.

My folks are keeping the kids tonight so Kelley can come with me out to the ride site. We are both looking forward to a night of peace.

Sunday if it's not raining, Kelley and I are both going to Furman for a trail run. We know bad things happen when Kelley tries to run outside, like very little running actually occurs. But we're going to take the little camera and snap some photos. I haven't been out there for a run in several weeks, so I can't wait. The hope is to get 12 miles in, but Kelley hasn't been pulling those kind of numbers recently, so we'll see how it goes.

Have a great weekend! Good luck if you're racing. TFH is running her first marathon this weekend, good luch Sharmidi! MikeG also has a 5k tomorrow, that boy is fast. Have fun brother!

End of the Week

Apparently I owe you an explanation about the length of the last post. Being a software developer, all I've done for the last 10 years is sit at a desk and write code. Well, that's not exactly true, I used to do pc repair, network setup, cabling, etc too. This has left me able to type around 120 words a minute. I can actually type faster than I can write, so a pen/paper thing has become very frustrating. That also explains any misspeelllings. So a quick post like that one was quick for me to type out (about 20 minutes total) and embarrasingly stream-of-consciousness. I've been all over the place mentally this week with so many ups and downs. I guess that just kind of vomited in bullet points yesterday.

After getting the good news yesterday that my liver was ok, I stopped work a little early to get in a workout. So naturally we all went and hit Moe's for dinner instead, then Target. I was going to take Jenny out for a ride after we got back, but it started raining. I'm so excited she's back and in fine form. no more strange noises, everything is clean and pretty. I also got her some bling bling. Two fresh new water bottles and cages installed, a bag for below the seat to carry stuff with the bike store logo on it, and I had to order a bike computer for it, he's going to call me when it gets here. I also picked up some chamois cream. I love this bike store, Gusto Cycles. It's only about 2 miles from the house and every bike you buy comes with lifetime free maintenance. The service is unbelievable too.

So after we got back from the running around, we put the kids to bed and I hit the gym since it was raining. I bricked 9 miles on the stationary bike in 30 minutes, and 6 miles on the elliptical in 51 minutes. It was a great workout, and I got to watch the tourney games the whole time. It was really nice to get a good sweat on, but I hate that it ran that late into the evening. I got up around 4 am yesterday, and finished the workout and made it home at like 10:15 last night. That's a long day. And my left leg was killing me. The shin thing hurt pretty bad when I was on the elliptical, but my left hip was hurting some too. So I'm ready to be done with this whole pain thing. Gotta call the doc today and schedule that bone scan.

I have to give props to Sarah the Sun Runner. Her Michigan Wolverines sort of stuck it to my Clemson Tigers last night. We gave away a large part of the game, it got really physical with tons of injuries, and one of our best shooters got frustrated, threw an elbow and got tossed. But UM built up and held onto a lead and walked away with the rights to lose to Oklahoma on saturday.

I went 13 - 3 in my bracket yesterday. President Obama went 11 - 5 with his picks. That's all I'm saying. Today I picked Tennesee to beat Oklahoma St and Arizona to beat Utah as my only upsets.

This is my last weekend that is not already planned for a while. The next 6 weekends are booked up! it's nuts. So this weekend I've got to get out in the garden, and get on the bike for some good long rides. This is the last weekend I've got to prep for the Assault on the Carolinas, so I need to get in a good 20 or 30 miles.

I have got a ton of gardening to do. The peppers are germinating nicely in the seed flat. Nothing warms the room like seeing a couple dozen 1" high seedlings. I've got to mulch the berry beds, wire the grape trellis, clear sod from the expanded veg bed, and plant the potatoes. The potatoes really should have been in the ground about 2 weeks ago. There's always weeds to pull, and I need to put some straw or grass clippings over the asparagus patch. I've also got to get the lawnmower into the shop for the spring maintenance.

And if THAT sounds like a busy weekend, you have no idea what's coming up next! Good luck if you're racing. I know Jess has a half marathon, good luck girl! Christine has a 5k... who else is racing?

Finally, a Brick!

Now that Glaven has purchased, or rather stolen or just laid claim to, my soul, I felt compelled to get on a recumbent bike this morning. But I was able to resist because he apparently only skimmed my last post. I was FINALLY able to get in my first brick of the year. I've only been trying to get this workout in for 3 days now, so it's about time. I got on an upright bike like any man with a full-grown penis would do and cranked out 14 miles in about 40 minutes. It was a good ride, but my hamstrings are kind of sore from the Tri Power workouts of late, so I didn't quite spin like I did on Sunday. Still, it was a good ride.

If you don't read Glaven's blog, he bought a recumbent stationary bike a few weeks ago, and we've been voraciously making fun of him for it. Also, he has a legendarily small dick that I like to point and laugh at. and even though he will comment that the last sentence implies that I like his dick, I promise it's only for the humor value. Somebody needs to meat punch him again.

Anyroad, my brick. After finishing the bike I refilled the water bottle and got on the treadmill for a tempo run. I covered 2 miles at a 6.2 speed, then another mile at 6.6. Felt pretty good, but I was definitely underfueled. I'm still trying to figure out the right fuel for these really early morning workouts. Today I was up at 5:30 and in the gym by 6 am. Unfortunately, the morning constitutions kicked in at 3 miles here so I had to call it a workout. I wanted to get in another mile, but time and nature were against me. So I was underfueled and full of shit. Isn't that normally the case?

Still, that was a great workout. And now I've had breakfast and made it down to work on time. The day is coming together nicely. Tomorrow is the end of the week, may it be a blessing to us all. This weekend is going to be great, i'll tell you why tomorrow.