The Favorite Day

What is your favorite day of the year? Top 5? They could be very obvious, that's acceptable. Your birthday. Christmas day. Thanksgiving day with all of that turkey and football, yes. absolutely.  Here's my top 5 favorite days of the year.

1. The first day of College Football - it's usually right around labor day. A lot of the games are blowouts. I don't care. Real football is back and I love it.

2. Umstead 100 Day - it's coming up this weekend! The Umstead 100 mile footrace through Umstead State Park. Once again I am in the pacer pool, and seriously looking forward to it. The competitors run 8 laps at 12.5 miles each to make 100 miles. This year I'm on the hook to pace 4 laps with 3 different friends. First up is a co-workers husband for 2 laps, then a professor from my alma mater and my old blogger friend Tammie. I can't wait! and yes, that means I'm supposed to run 50 miles.

3. Any day I cross a marathon finish line. To be more specific, I would have to say the Myrtle Beach Marathon day every year. Even if I'm not running the marathon that year, there are always plenty of friends down there turning in solid results.

4. Baseball's opening day - by the time it rolls around winter is over and I'm ready for some spring and bike rides.

5. The day I accomplish my big goal for any given year - if it's 300 days of yoga or running 1200 miles that always rocks.

I'm looking forward to the Umstead 100 this weekend! One of my favorite days of the year. Goal is 50 miles, let's see how that goes.

2014 Goal Review

This is always one of my favorite posts to write. Looking back at all of the accomplishments of a year gone by with all of the promises of advancing into a new year with new goals to chase down. First, let's close out December:

Swim: 18,150y, 6 swims
Bike: goose egg
Run: 126.18 miles, 15 runs
Stretch: 5 times
Yoga: 18 times

Kinda hoping to top 20k in the pool, but the 126 miles of running is pretty nice. Really nice actually. With all of the holiday hoopla those numbers are pretty solid.

And the fun totals for all of 2014:

Swim: 231,500 yards, 131.53 miles, 5 races
Bike: 2170 miles, 4 races
Run: 1227.33 miles, 8 races
Strength: 73 times
Yoga: 184 times

Compared to 2013:
Swim: 210,220 meters, 119.44 miles
Bike: 3,869.25 miles
Run: 847.8 miles
Strength: 81 times
Yoga: 90 times

So 2013 had tons and tons of time on the bike and 2014 had a lot more fun. This was my highest running year ever! By a long shot. Plenty of swimming and plenty of running and a nice even balanced time on the yoga mat.

I finished 11 races in 2014, including setting a marathon PR and knocking down my first two 50k's. 5 marathon or longer races, 3 triathlons including my last Ironman, and 2 open water swim races including my first 5 miler made for a solid race schedule. I also took the overall podium for the first time, finishing 3rd male in a 5k in SC. That's a helluva year by any standards.

2014 Goals:

Mantra: Long and lean in 2014. Success!
I'd say with all of those long races and an average weight of 180.88 lbs this is a winner. My scale was actually stuck with a dead battery for most of the Ironman training plan and that's when I was at my leanest. We'll just call this one a win.

Short term goals:
4 hour revenge: Finish Myrtle Beach Marathon under 4 hours - Success!
Finished in 3:46 for a nice shiny PR
11 hour Ironman: Finish Rev3 Cedar Point in 11:xx - Fail!
Finished in 13:52 with personal worst times in all 3 sports
Maniac Streak: Get another Marathon Maniac star - Success!
Did the Myrtle Beach Marathon and Umstead Trail Marathon only 14 days apart - 1 star
Pick an alternative race - Fail!
Nothing but regular swim/bike/run stuff for me. No obstacle courses or warrior dash for me last year.
A Single 5k swim - Success!
The 5 mile race at the Lowcountry Splash in Charleston took care of this one.
A single 50 mile run week - Success!
I ended up with several 50 mile + weeks, topping out at 56 miles in Ironman training

Long term goals:

Financial: Pay off the rest of our debts and sell this last rental property - Success!
We finished paying off $152k in debts when we sold the last rental property in March 2014. Dave Ramsey's methods worked for us and it has totally changed our lifestyle. Amazing stuff.
Travel: Visit friends in Ohio and make a social trip to Atlanta - Partial Success!
We did get to visit some special people in Ohio but I did not make it down to the dirrrty Atl for a social visit. Maybe next year.
Run 1200 miles: Success!
Averaging 100 miles per month is a seriously huge target. So glad I was actually able to get there!
Run 4 marathons, 6 would be better, knock 2 more states off of the 50 state list: Success!
I ran 5 marathon or longer races, and knocked Ohio and Virginia off of the 50 state list.
Volunteer at more races: Success!
I was a timer at local swim meets and volunteered at the Umstead 100 aide station 2 and in the pacer pool.

Overall, 2014 was an amazing year. The kids kept growing, the family is stronger than ever, and I felt accomplished athletically. The low point of the year was losing Gene before thanksgiving - that was really tough. High points were the MB marathon and being able to spend so much time with so many good friends and fun family members.

I hope your 2014 was amazing too!

Hello Feb & Taper! 1 goal down

First, here's how Jan 2014 played out:

Swim: 6500 m, 2 swims
Bike: 45 miles, 3 rides
Run: 122 miles, 14 runs
Strength: 13 times
Yoga: 25 times

No racing in Jan, but I was going Long and Lean in 2014. 122 miles of running is a great way to start off the year. I'm running 3-5 days a week. There was some unexpected rest days thanks to all of the snow that we've had. I should be swimming and biking once a week at least but we had a lot of swim practices cancelled this month. The strength work and yoga are dead on target.

Also, I knocked off my first goal for the year!! This last week was my first ever 50 mile running week. Saturday was Feb 1, so it's not in Jan's totals. But I put up three separate 10 mile runs during the week, and finished off the 50 with a 20 miler on Saturday.  One of my stated goals for 2014 was to knock off a 50 mile week. Even in ultramarathon training back in 2012 I never got over 40 miles a week. So checking that off was really cool.

I could totally get used to the 10 mile runs. Now it seems like the first 5 miles just fly by without even breaking a sweat. Overloading distance really builds muscular endurance, and I can totally see why fast people use 70 to 100 mile weeks to build speed. I was just posting about making progress in yoga last week, I hope that this will bring some progress on my speedwork as well. I've been stuck at a basic 8 minute mile for a few years now and hoping that's not a peak.

This was also my last 20 mile run before the marathons. The next few weeks look like this:

Recovery week
Taper/Myrtle Beach Marathon
Recovery week
Taper/Umstead Trail Marathon

So that's going to be fun.  Here's to a great February!

And on the flip side of that coin, Philip Seymore Hoffman died today. He was always one of my favorite actors.  If this is what 2014 has in store, let's just sell off everything now, clench every dime you can get in your cold fists, and hold up in the woods. Somebody call me when it's 2015.

November is gone!

Wha ha happened? Just like that, November is gone and December is here. Turkey day has come and passed and Christmastime is near. This was a recovery month for me, so the expectations were very low. Not true, exactly. the expectations were to recover from the Ironman, which is a pretty high bar to set.

Swim: 2200 m, 1 RAM practice
Bike: 0, perfect
Run: 51.1 miles, 1 race
Strength: 10 workouts
Yoga: 14 times

The single 5k race I did in November I haven't even finished the race report on yet. dang, it's going to be mostly pictures anyway. I pulled a 22:15 trying to run with a 6th grade daughter of some friends of ours. The rest of it was mostly easy stuff with a couple of tempo runs thrown in there, and one set of treadmill intervals.

I did get to really work on some core strength and get back on the yoga mat consistently, and that felt great! Found a new core routine someone tweeted that seems pretty strong, and the yoga is keeping me calm. This past week was the Thanksgiving holiday, so I took the entire week off from everything and ended up travelling for the holiday weekend. It was nice to have to go places without having to bring my running shoes or other gear, but I was able to eat a lot more turkey after a mile swim or hour long run in year's past.

For the Cast Iron Club - 30 Iron distances in swim bike and run - all I have left is 10.3 miles of running. So one more good long run will polish things off. I feel confident about finishing those last few miles in December.

It's going to be a great month too! I've got an epic vacation coming up around the Christmas/new year holidays, the kids are tracking out in a few days, and we're looking to wrap up the year in style.

5 Things Friday

1. October is Over!

Swim: 12,800 m, 5 swims, 1 Ironman
Bike: 287 miles, 9 rides, 1 Ironman
Run: 106.4 miles, 12 runs, 1 Ironman
Strength: 2 times
Yoga: 5 times

Can you tell what the important part of October was? Those totals are pretty good even with the taper time & 1 race.

2. Last one of these now that Ironman training is over

and that sweet sweet race on the end. Best 13 hours of the month right there. This is week 39 of the training plan, Race Week. 16 hours total.

3. Spike got a new home!

We got an aquarium from some friends while we were in Wilmington. So cool, he's growing really fast!

4. More Ironman Pics!

This was taken by a AAA Carolinas teammate! Thanks Scott! me exiting the swim.

Bike pics show the suffering

Remember, when I came out of the water it was still 36* and I had to take a shit. real bad.

I'm going to end up buying one of these. Real big print, too. Me and Evil Genius crossing the finish line.

5. Halloween!

EG changed her mind at the last minute, wanted to be a mummy

and Bigun wanted to be a princess, my mom made her costume

Parents still get a 40% cut, right?  Walking fee? Protection fee?

This is how you know you did Halloween right.

They were totally worn out by the end. We only went one block over what we normally do on Halloween, they were loving it at first and totally wiped out by the end.  Insane night. EG left small bits of torn toilet paper in most of the yards as she ran through, because, well, she's part Evil and part Genius. By the end, she told Kelley "carry this" and handed her the bag of candy, then told me "carry this" and pointed to herself. Too cute!

5 Things Friday

1. This:

Evil Genius got me with some kind of moth wing head costume thing. Her imagination is boundless.

2. and this:

Only in South Carolina? Maybe only in Myrtle Beach? The license plate says "elected official".

Now when I cast a vote, in my head the person I'm electing might drive a Cadillac, or maybe some kind of sensible sedan, if not a luxury car. The Mustang GT above is all redneck'd out with a spoiler and all.  gimme a break.

3. Meanwhile in Myrtle Beach:

Mr Fish is our favorite restaurant in Myrtle Beach. Turns out they moved to a new larger location on the same road and added sushi to the menu. We didn't order the sushi, but it just didn't seem as good as it normally does. Still the best seafood place in MB, but not the same.

4. Meanwhile back in Raleigh:

Evil Genius is now an Indian Princess! I really like the other dads in her tribe, and she seems to get along with all of the girls. I couldn't believe how well behaved she was at the first tribe meeting Monday night. She didn't cry, or fight over the markers, or anything! And she kept telling me how much fun she was having. It was pretty awesome.

5.  This weekend I'm taking EG camping with her tribe. Expect tons of pics next week, it's going to be adorable. Of course, she might also ruin camping for me. She has to eat the right stuff, and not be too scared to be out in the woods, and not fight or try to run away in the middle of the night, etc. So many chances to have it go horribly wrong. and I have so much prep work to do, and so much training still to do, and I need about 4 days worth of weekend in only 2 days time to get everything done. 15 days to Ironman!

Eleventy-million

There are about eleventymillion things going on right now, some of which are old but I just got photos about, and others are pretty recent.  I'll try to explain what I can, and come back later for the rest.

• This morning I ran 5 miles in 36:54, breaking 37 minutes for the first time.  it was awesome.
• Had another marathon weekend last weekend, running 10 miles saturday morning in 1:17:36, I think that's around a 7:38 pace.  It felt great to get that much speed running Hillsborough street.
• The other 16.2 came sunday afternoon.  I overslept and missed church, then got out and ran from the house to Umstead, got a few miles on the trails and came back.  It was pretty painful after such a fast run saturday, but these back to back long runs are what prep me for the ultra.  So, whatever, bring it on.
• This Tuesday I also ran 5 miles, untimed and sluggish. less awesome.
• This weekend's long runs are 10 miles and 20 miles.  Hopefully this will lead to some epic metabolism for Thanksgiving.  Epic!
• That means last week's total mileage was 36.2, which may be a distance record for me.  I haven't done the spreadsheet work to figure it out because
• if this weekend's long runs actually materialize like they should, it would be a 40 mile week.  First time ever hitting 40 in one week.  Got to love ultra training.
• Yesterday was our 14th wedding anniversary.  That's a long time, y'all.  And it's been a lot of fun.

I'm the lucky one

• Evil Genius is learning to read for reals now.  Kelley tried to get her to read the number 19, and she read it ninety-one.  When instructed to reverse it, she said it was one-dy nine.
• The CSA is pretty cool, but the volume is a touch low, and we're not finding enough stuff to do with some of the food that we're getting.  It's still a good thing, and we're going to do the summer CSA too.
• Did you know blogger won't let you put a pic inline with a bulleted list?

smallest butternut squash ever

• strange.
• There is an office supply store near the house that occaisionally puts used furniture out for free pickup.  Bigun needs a desk to do homework on, and a really decent one showed up last weekend.  I saw it on my run Saturday, and we went back in the station wagon to pick it up. 
• The craziest part about that is that Kelley and I actually got it, loaded it into the wagon, rearranged the kids bedroom and got the desk inside the house, then inside the bedroom all by ourselves.  That desk is really heavy.  Now another attempt at funny pictures.

Like a boss!

• I was recently contacted by Nairn's to sample some of their cookies.  Now I'm not known as a man who turns down free cookies.  They sent me two boxes.  They were fabulous.

• You can buy your own at Whole Foods, I will be buying more later.  These are tasty and pretty healthy.  With all of the vegan and high carb & fiber stuff I've been posting about these cookies fit right in.  I know they come in a box, but they are so tasty I don't care.  I'm on a real ginger kick to prevent inflamation during recovery and these guys deliver.  Go get some Nairn's!
• and now I will be the last person on the face of 'Merica to post Halloween pics about their kids.

All four kids.  Harry Potter and his Owl, Evil Genius was Cinderella, and Bigun was a mremaid

During trick or treating

Pumpkin carving with Kelley's dad

Hanging in there!  that's a lot of pumpkins y'all.

• Seriously, go find some of those cookies.  Nairn's FTW!

July is here, bring the heat

and you'll find me hiding in the shaded end of the pool.  Here's what happened in June:

Swim: 21,900 yards, 10 swims, 2 races
Bike: 223 miles, 12 rides
Run: 38.6 miles, 10 runs, 1 race
Strength: 13 workouts
Yoga: 24 workouts

Yes finally!  I got over 20,000 yards in the pool.  That's some pretty serious volume, and volume is the key to fast swims.  Bike and run mileage is pretty low, but I was really trying to push the volume on the swim time, and get the fruit thing working in my favor.  That translated into lower than normal bike milage, even though I really did stay on schedule very well.  A couple of weekends "life" caught up and I didn't get in the normal weekend long bricks, but that's supposed to happen sometimes. 

So through the end of June I'm at 146 times getting on the yoga mat.  That is behind the pace of 150 that I needed to hit to ensure I was on track to get 300 yoga sessions on the year, but the deficit is not so bad that I can't make that up, mathematically speaking.  The goal has not been eliminated yet. The next target is 200 yoga sessions by the end of August (2/3 of the goal by 2/3 of the year gone) even though that would mean 64 sessions in a maximum of 62 days.  I can tell a big difference in my running and cycling speeds thanks to all of the strength and yoga training all this year. 

This past weekend was one of those times where I got to enjoy non-athletic pursuits.  We went back to Greenville to visit my parents for the weekend and had an absolutely fantastic time down there.  Saturday we got in a great swim before lunch, then got to visit with my grandmother after lunch before another afternoon swim and a big birthday party dinner.  It was a ton of fun and we have no pictures.  We even got to see my cousin Ben and meet his new baby boy for the first time, and still got no pictures of the boy.  Unbelievable.  With Bigun's birthday last weekend and my birthday next weekend there was plenty of reason to get down there and celebrate.  And luckily the pool in my parents backyard is mostly shaded.  Once you got out of the water you could feel the 105* air temp down there, but in the shade and in the water it was fantastic.

Driving home Sunday the car said it got up to 110* outside, which is pretty insane.  Raleigh was more hot than Greenville all weekend, so we picked the right path.  We had the insane hot temps, but avoided a lot of the power outages like DC and other parts of the country had.  Could have been much worse.

Still Sore

• This is getting stupid.  My quads are still sore from the half marathon on Sunday. 
• I'm really loving Ashtanga Yoga right now.  I'm starting to move into the rest of the standing poses in the Primary Series and it's getting much more difficult.
• This strange pain in my left foot has turned into something similar to what I had in my right foot after the Charleston Marathon.  That took 10 days of no running to heal up, as I still think it was a torn or bruised tendon.  So that's the plan with this foot as well.
• That means lots of biking and swimming in the meantime.
• I'm digging on the bike right now anyway, and the weather is becoming favorable for some nice rides.  Can't wait to get out there this weekend!
• One of my favorite coaches on the RAM team had to leave this week as they have ramped up her duties at NC State.  Total downer but I'm happy for her.
• I won an award at work last week.  Twice a year the regional managers select a technician for "outstanding service achievements" which includes verifying everything through the corporate office in Detroit and the clients for their satisfaction level.  This year they picked me.for my technical expertise and leadership skills; which are both things that my last employer constantly complained about saying that I was severely deficient in both.  My last employer was severely deficient in retaining good employees.  It's nice to be appreciated again.
• Kelley has a 5k on saturday that's a part of the Grand Prix series.  I'm skipping that one to stay home with the kids while she runs.

Young and Old

It happened again.  I got tagged by KDub and JoyRuN with an "11 things about me" meme.  And since I rarely get tired of talking about myself I'll throw it out there.  I still think that the last "10 things about me" post is one of the funniest things I've ever written so I doubt I can top that one.  So you should really be prepared for disappointment now.  Here are the rules:

1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!

11 Random things about myself: (I'm going young and old with these, so nothing random about right now.  all stuff when I was younger and people that are older than me)

1. Freshman year of high school I was on the wrestling team for three days trying to compete in the 120 lb weigh class.  I was already almost six feet tall.  That is anorexic kind of skinny.  Not a good look at all, and I was really self conscious about it.

2. I also ran the mile on the track team that year.  I ran in every meet, one time I beat one other kid.  Every other meet (like 8 of 9 meets) I finished dead last, usually by a lot.  My times ranged from 5:55 to 6:10, not bad by most standards.  But my team also had a Feduric on there, and she won the state championship in the mile 6 years in a row (from 7th through 12th grade) with average times around 4:15.  And I wonder sometimes where my competetive nature comes from?

3. Sophomore year I didn't feel like getting my butt kicked in the mile anymore, so I threw shotput and discus instead.  Because anorexia runs rampant through the shotput community.  WTF?  I was throwing around 17 feet before the offensive lineman put out his 40 foot throws.  I don't know why I thought I belonged in there, but again I competed in every meet.  That was my last year on the track team (spring 1991), and the last time I tried to play sports at all until I found triathlon in 2008.

A crop from the team photo sophomore year track.  Bushy head, skinny, with a mullet.  oy.

4.  I graduated high school in 1993 at 6 feet tall and only 135 lbs.  Mom still complains that I used to eat an entire box of cereal every night before bed. And I still couldn't put on weight.  Oh the metabolism of teenagers. 

5. A few weeks ago I advised someone that naturalized social and leadership skills would only develop properly when you were in an appropriate comfort zone.  I never really felt accepted on any athletic team, and didn't have any kind of star qualities.  I found my comfort zone in music, specifically chorus.  And that's when I started to shine.  Senior year I was the president of my school's Concert Choir, and my chorus teacher is retiring this year.  I was the first student to make the SC Honors All-State choir all three years I was eligible to audition.  I was accepted into every choir I auditioned for, and usually put into leadership roles like President, Jr Conductor, or Lead Choreographer.  I even had one of the lead roles in Bye Bye Birdie the only year we did a school play.

6. Those leadership roles also gave me a lot of confidence and popularity. I did a lot of countywide and statewide music programs.  My advise to single people?  Confidence is all you really need to be attractive to others.  Most people dated a handful of others in high school.  I loved dating, and I like to think I was pretty good at it.  I took over 200 different girls on dates back then.  Greenville county had 14 high schools, I dated girls from 12 of them as well as from 3 other neighboring counties.  Over 90% of these girls I met through a music program so we always had something in common.  I found there was such a small percentage of people at my own school that I liked, it was easier to find the same small percentage at other schools and just keep dating than to tolerate other people I didn't like.

7. Finally senior year one girl snared me into a serious relationship.  We actually stayed together for about 3 months and broke up after prom because she was valedictorian at her school and wasn't interested in going to Appalachian State like I was.  So really she was too smart to stay with me.  As much as I would love to reconnect with her on facebook or something, she's married with a couple of kids now and I haven't heard from her for almost 20 years.  Still, you never forget that first love.

Before my senior prom

Before a 70's theme event.  Yes we did 70's stuff the way you young people do 90's stuff today.  It makes me feel old.

8.  I never put on the freshman 15 at college.  I may have found beer and lost my virginity, took five years to graduate, and changed majors once, but I never did gain much weight.  Graduated in 1998 with a degree in radio and tv production at 6' 1" tall and 145 lbs.  I only looked borderline anorexic then, with a BMI of 19.1, and anything below 18.5 is considered underweight. So I was right on the border of unhealthy and could do absolutely nothing to gain weight.

I tried to gain weight by adding hair.

9. The internet was just starting to gain popularity my senior year of college.  We had email the whole time, which was kind of rare then.  But I found a web site for the Dukes of Hazzard tv show, and that was the only site I read in college.  once.  Yes, I am that old.

10.  Proof that North Carolina women are smarter than South Carolina women:  I was only unattached for about 4 months in college.  It was hard freshman year going from being king of the social castle to, well, being a freshman.  Nobody dates a freshman.  At the start of my sophomore year I started dating this crazy chick for about a year and half.  So around new year's eve my third year in college I got rid of her and was blissfully dating again until April of that year (1996) when I met Kelley.  Of course I wouldn't trade my sweet boo for any youthful freedom in the world, but damn.  If I had known those would be my only 4 months of dating freedom I wouldn't have wasted any time grieving the loss of the crazy chick.  Now I refer to those four months as "the fun times".  Maybe that's just proof that NC women are more manipulative than SC women?  I want to eat dinner tonight so we'll go with smarter.

11.  Five months after I graduated college we got married.  I was up to 180 lbs at that point.  It was not a muscular 180 like I am today, but a flabby 180.  So at 23, all of the metabolism powers I had dried up and blew away and I finally started gaining weight.  Really skinny arms and legs, no shoulders, but a giant belly.  That was 1998.  I really think that 23 was waaaaaay too young to get married.  but that's another post.  The older I get the more I have to fight genetics and keep my weight in check now.  It seems odd to be body conscious now, but I deal with getting old the best way I can.  Stay active, know the difference between healthy and unhealthy, and make smart choices today.

11 random questions from the two people that tagged me:

1. Favorite vacation of all time (Karen)?  Kelley and I drove in circles one weekend.  Literally, we left Greenville on friday afternoon and went to Atlanta for dinner that night.  Saturday drove up to Chatanooga TN and visited the Tennessee Aquarium, then on to Knoxville for saturday night.  Sunday we drove across the mountains to Asheville and saw the Biltmore House before heading home to Greenville.  A wonderful circle indeed.

2. Favorite Running workout (Joy)?  Treadmill intervals.  I can ladder the speed and hold a consistent duration.  My absolute fav is to use half mile sets, where I run 0.3 miles fast and recover for 0.2 miles slow jog or walking.  Increase the speed by 0.2 mph each set, start with half a mile warm up and half a mile cool down and you end up with a 4-5 mile total workout where you ran 0.3 miles at a blazing fast speed.  My fastest is a 10.5 mph on the treadmill.

3. Do you track your dietary intake (Joy)?  Not anymore.  When I was losing weight to get fast last year I used training peaks to track everything, intake and workouts, and I absolutely love that software.  Read my How I Got Fast Part 1 post for all the details.

4. What were you doing around this time 10 years ago (Karen)?  In 2002 I was in my crazy weightlifting phase.  I was reading Muscle & Fitness magazine, training like a bodybuilder and trying to add as much mass as possible.  Really I was trying to take the rapid weight gain I found after we got married and turn it into something positive.  I got over 200 lbs that year by chugging whey protien and creatine like they were going out of style.  I was working for a consulting firm as the head of their software development department in my first professional management role (and I sucked at it).  I got up to about 215 lbs, got laid off in 2003 and the rest is history.

I was very excited to get my first convertible in 2002, no matter how it looked.

5. What's your favorite cheat meal (Joy)?  Five guys cheeseburger and fries.  I know it's loaded, but I don't care.  It's my reward meal after a big race or a comfort meal when I'm feeling blue.  A close second is the cajun chicken sandwich, fries and a corn dog from the Cook Out here in Raleigh.  So good, cheap, and I do that one about once a week.

6.  What was your favorite memory of 2011 (Karen)?  The ironman trip.  Not just the race, or the finish line, but the whole thing was so special to me.

7.  Have you ever been hospitalized and how were your nurses (Joy, she's a nurse)?  In 2003 I had sinus surgery and a double vericocele removal surgery for male pattern infertility treatment.  The nurses were great both times.  Before the fertility surgery I remember calmly laying on the operating table and seeing how big the room was and was surprised at how many nurses there were for the operation.  The bad part was that the nurses were all really hot (come on, you've had that fantasy too), so here I was getting a little chub on when they were about to operate on my sack!  awkward!

8.  Do you prefer to train alone or in groups (Karen)?  Alone, for sure.  It's just about timing.  I'm not ready to workout until I'm ready to workout, so meeting someone else is usually impossible.  Setting a specific time to meetup is useless, I'm going to be late.  And I hate trying to match speeds with other people.  Either they can't hang with me or I get dropped from the group ride.

9.  What's a more appealing look, designer clothes or fit, workout clothes (Joy)?  I love 'em all.  If spandex makes your ass look good hop on that bike.  My favorite part about a race is usually finding a hot chick running in a sports bra and bun huggers and just hanging behind her for a few miles.  Casual office wear can be really attractive as well. But the clothes don't make the woman.  Being nice, funny, and confident is what really makes you attractive.

10. What's your resting heart rate (Joy)?  I don't really know, but the doctors usually tell me it's around 68?  It's really unfair to compare resting heart rates or thighs with non-runners, so I try to avoid it.

11. What accomplishment makes you the most proud (Karen)?  Last week Evil Genius was talking to Kelley about having her boyfriend over (she's only 4) while he stays with his dad for a week at a time.  Normally we only get to see him when he's at his mom's. As Kelley was explaining this to her, she asked if we could have him over at least while his dad was out "to run, or bike, or even to swim"?  My work here is done.  She thinks every dad trains like I do.  She thinks regular exercise is a part of how normal people live their lives.  She will never know the fat chain smoking dad she used to have.  I have affected her expectation of normal, and set her up for a healthy, confident, active lifestyle.  That is my biggest accomplishment to date. You were expecting Ironman, weren't you?

Tag 11 more people and generate 11 questions for them?  I don't think 11 people actually still read this, so I can't do it.  I would love for Sophie and Caratunk Girl to give it a whirl.  But I can't come up with 11 questions either, so steal the questions I answered.  I know "total cop-out" isn't usually my style, but I've got to get back to work today.

2012 Goals & Races

Yes, I'm late jumping on the bandwagon.  I've had my thumb up my butt been refining the list for several weeks now to be sure I want to put that out there.  I've also been planning the races, some I want to do again and some new ones to try.  The 2012 Races gadget on the left will always have an up to date race list with the ones that are definitely on the schedule.

Goals:
1. Time Goals:

• 5k under 20 minutes
• 10k under 42 minutes
• 13.1 under 1:40
• 26.2 under 3:30
• Oly under 2:15
• 70.3 under 5:30

2. Qualifiers

• USAT Age Group Nationals Short Course Qualify
• Race is in Burlington Vermont on August 18.  Qualifiers should be announced mid-January.  This one is qualify and race, which will likely take a sub-2:15 oly to make the cut.
• USAT Long Course National Championship Qualify Only.  The race is in Oklahoma City OK, and I have no desire to race there.

3. Places

• Top 3 age group in a triathlon
• Top 3 age group in a running event
• Top 3 age group in an open water swim
• Race in a new market, preferably Washington DC

I would love an overall win/place, but living in Raleigh and working in Washington, DC this year means I'll be in two very competitive markets.   I've seen others take an overall win with a 22 minute 5k time.  Around here you've got to be in the 15:xx or 16:xx time frame to get an overall win.  A good friend posted a 17:30 at my last 5k and still came in 4th overall. 

4. Join a sponsored triathlon team.  I joined the Delta Team last year just to get discounts at my local tri store and discounted race registrations.  I got nothing else out of it, never made it to any of the group runs or rides, only went to one social event.  I did make some new friends who were also on the team, but I don't think I'll be signing up for that one again.   There has been an application already submitted for the EvoTri team, but they had a fair number of applicants so it's going to be pretty competitive.  There are some other teams out there, but I'm not going to make any predictions yet.  I just hope I end up on the right team with good people.

5. Yoga - Going along with this years themes of speed and dealing with other people, I'm seriously considering starting an Ashtanga Yoga practice.  Ashtanga has very specific guidelines for a practice, namely "get on the mat" six days a week.  There's a lot more to it than that, and I'll be posting more about it as I learn and start my practice.  It takes at least 5 years of 6 days a week to be called a "beginner", so this is a long term thing.  There's also an intermediate and two series of advanced poses.

This year's commitment is for 300 days of yoga.  In Ashtanga, you are supposed to rest every saturday, and every new moon and full moon (and for women, rest during the "monthly women's holiday" as they call it).  Last night I finished reading 21 Things to Know Before Starting an Ashtanga Yoga Practice, and will be writing a review soon.

300 days of yoga.  Flexibility = speed, yoga also gives me an inner peace that is otherwise hard to find.

6. Professional - Learn mobile development.  I'm getting into some more sales and leadership roles at work, and might soon be managing product development on a mobile platform.  I need to learn how to code iPhone and Droid apps and have some emulation platforms setup to be able to do this.  I haven't set a career goal in a long time so this is a biggie.

Race List:

• 5k's - In Raleigh, there is the Second Empire Grand Prix series of races.  To earn series points, you just have to compete in 6 of the 10 races listed.  I already have date conflicts with some of them, but I really want to run as many as I can in the series and see if I can win an age group series award.  I'm already signed up for the Run For Young and the NC State Torch Run.  There will be many more.  Well, at least four more.
• Marathons - All of the marathons for this year are coming up.  Kelley and I are both going to try and qualify for the Marathon Maniacs by running the Charleston Marathon in January, Myrtle Beach full marathon in February, and the Tobacco Road Marathon in March.  I can't believe Charleston is only 8 days away.  I'm going to attempt to go under 3:30 in Charleston, and I'm feeling strong for it.  If I make it easy enough, I may try to BQ at Myrtle Beach (3:10 for my age group), but it's highly unlikely that I would actually make it.  The local one here in Raleigh I'll just do for fun.  Maybe break four hours, but just get out there and enjoy the environment.
• Triathlons
• Battle at Buckhorn - last year if I hadn't missed the turnaround I would have come in 6th place overall.  Loved this race, can't wait to do it again.
• Spring oly qualifier - USAT hasn't announced the races for the age group nationals yet, but I will run at least one of these in the spring.  Last year the Lake Logan international was also a special qualifier, and I missed qualifying by 2 minutes.  I wouldn't mind doing lake logan again anyway.  And the Nations Triathlon in Washington DC has been a qualifier in the past as well.
• Kure Beach Double Sprint - this one is in June, it's a new format for me and it's supposed to be a fantastic race.  Really looking forward to this one.
• Spring half?  The White Lake Half has been a USAT regional long course qualifier for the last few years.  If it makes the list again I will certainly run it this year.  Got a lot of friends doing this one too.
• Fall half?  I would love to do either the Patriots Half again, or the OBX half again.  Patriot's has been a long course qualifier in previous years.  I could also be talked into doing the Rev3 half in Anderson SC since it is basically a hometown race and I'll get to hang with plenty of people on the Rev3 team!
• Open Water Swims - I really want to do the Jordan Lake Open Water Challenge again, as well as either the Big Duece or the Little Uno, depending on what kind of distance shape I'm feeling come registration time.  There are two other races in the series that I would love to jump into if the dates don't conflict, and they've added a championship race that you have to qualify for, so that's also an option for September.
• Aquathons - I'm already signed up for the Old School Aquathon Series again.  These were fantastic races last year, really hard to run in, and very competitive.  They are just swim/run races, local to Raleigh, on wednesday nights, just swim, run, and eat. 

Nothing out of the ordinary here.  Keep an eye on the race list in the left nav on the blog, and come on out to any of the races I end up doing!  I'm really screwed until the USAT announces the regional championships and special qualifiers race list.   I'm going to end up doing a ton of races this year.  No Ironman.  Just speed, flexibility, and teamwork.  Come on out and join me!  I'd love to see you out there.

New Years Redux

If New Year's Day is supposed to predict how the rest of the year goes, then 2012 is going to be a real whopper.  This is so ridiculously insane I have to document it.

New year's eve was great.  Our friend Kayte came over to watch the ball drop, we had a few beers but not too many, Kelley made some cookies, we had a fire going in the firepit outside, Evil Genius went to sleep at a reasonable time but the Bigun stayed up until midnight to see the ball drop on TV for the first time.  I went to bed about 12:30 and read some before turning out the light and trying to sleep.  That's where the fun starts. 

1. Insomnia - I could not get to sleep.  I am an old man here people.  Anything up past 11 pm is going to leave my knuckles dragging the ground the next day, I just can't do that anymore.  About 3:30 am I decided to go into the living room to watch tv for a bit.
2. Actual Death - I find 8 cop cars and 2 fire trucks outside my front yard with the lights flashing.  We live on a busy four lane road, and someone was trying to walk (or I bet stumble) across the road when they were hit and killed by a car.  No other details were released about the victim or the car.  There are large skid marks in the road.  I timed 19 seconds that you can see a car coming on that road from that direction, the intersection is well lit and it's not like the car was cresting a hill or coming around a curve.  The victim didn't look, might have been drunk, the driver might have been drunk or didn't have his headlights on.  Something funky had to be going on there.  It's really quite obvious when there is a car coming or a person standing in the road.
3. Hangover - The hit happened about 2:45 am.  I got up about 3:30 am, got something to eat, posted the accident on facebook, watched some tv and went back to bed about 5 am.  The cops were still cleaning up when I went back to bed.  I felt fine when I went to bed.  Got up about 10:30 with a horrible headache.  Actually, I was woken up at 10:30 by a reporter from the local news asking if we saw or knew anything about the accident.  I answered the door in my boxers thankful that there was no cameras on me at the time.  As I was describing what I saw when I got up, I realized I had a terrible headache and was dehydrated consistent with over-intoxication from the night before.  I only had maybe 3 or 4 beers and one glass of wine.  That's not nearly enough to induce that kind of headache.
4. Superstitions - After re-hydrating some, I ran out to grab some lunch from the Cook-Out.  Kelley's family has always practiced an old superstition about New Year's, and it was apparently on the news this year too.  If the first visitor to your front door is a tall man (I'm 6'1") you will have good luck throughout the year.  If the first visitor is a woman with a unibrow, you will have bad luck throughout the year.  The reporter that came to our front door was a woman, did not cross the threshold into our house, and did not have a unibrow, but that's still too close for comfort.  So I stopped on the way to grab lunch at Kayte's house and went to Kelley's dad's house, being the first visitor to both.  I think maybe the superstition was just a way to get people to socialize, but should still be taken seriously.
5. Lack of Football - my lunch was great, but I didn't get to eat it until about 3:30 pm.  Since NYD fell on a sunday this year, there were no bowl games on what is supposed to be the best day in college football.  I had enough other stuff to take care of to not get involved in any of the NFL games, and I have a tough time getting into the NFL anyway.  I was finally starting to feel better when it got too dark to get in my planned 12 mile run on the day, so I did some strength work and yoga instead.  Then the kids wanted to go to Waffle House for dinner.
6. Bad Food - Going to WH can be an adventure by itself.  We used to go to one in SC, order the same thing every time just to see what we actually got.  It was always different, and rarely what we ordered.  Of course, Evil Genius ordered eggs and only actually ate Kelley's toast. Then she was hungry for the rest of the night.  Imagine that!
7. Bad Movies - we ended up watching a movie called Warrior after we put the kids to bed.  I had really been looking forward to this one quite a bit thinking it was a boxing movie, and it turned out to be an incredibly predictable MMA  movie.  It was well produced, but so much of the flick was hokie and predictable.  An irish schoolteacher with an italian brother that's twice his size?  please.

If that pattern holds true there will be nothing but death and disappointment for us in 2012.  Of course, being the eternal optimist I don't want that to hold true.  All I can do is stick to my training plan, work my heart out, and keep my head held high.   How insane was that?

Monday Jan2 was much better.  The kids did the calisthenics and yoga with me, I ran 10 miles, the football games held some insane delayed gratification.  Oregon won, Stanford lost, USC won big, and we found a place with all you can eat tacos on monday nights for $5, so I was able to feed the whole family at a restaurant for only $18 plus tip.  Then we got the new season of The Batchelor, with more trashy crazy women than I dream about.  It was incredible.  And I had the day off from work.  So let's hope 2012 has more Mondays than days like Sunday.  And that starts the list of things I never thought I would say this year.

2011 in Review

Another great year of training and racing has come and gone, and 2011 was pretty special.  First, let's take a quick check on December:

Swim: 5 swims, 12,100 yards
Bike: 3 rides, 43 miles
Run: 13 runs, 90.76 miles
Strength: 4 workouts
Yoga: 1 class

Can you tell I'm not loving the bike over the winter?  Marathon training is still in full effect with over 90 miles running, and the Charleston Marathon is in 12 days.  My only race in December was a single 5k that gave me a nice PR.  The swimming was pretty consistent, but I really wanted to see two swims a week over the winter.  The biggest gain has to be a return to regular strength training and yoga.  After completely abandoning the practice during Ironman training it feels so good to start getting strong again.  I know next years speed gains aren't going to come from form improvements, as my form in all three sports is pretty solid.  So it's time to start working on some strength gains.

Overall numbers for 2011:

Swim: 62 swims, 143,585 yards, 81.58 miles
Bike: 130 rides, 3135.5 miles
Run: 173 runs, 1100.01 miles, average 6.4 miles
Strength: 29 workouts
Yoga: 23 workouts

There's a concept put on by a local triathlon store called the Cast Iron Club that looks really cool.  If I was going to do another Ironman in 2012 I would probably sign up for it.  The theory is that you train and race (and log your miles) for the equivalent of 30 Ironmans in a single calendar year.  This turns out to be 72 miles of swimming, 3360 miles of biking, and 786 miles of running.  I didn't sign up for 2011 because that sounded like way to much work.  But turns out I only missed it by about 200 miles of cycling that easily could have been accomplished in December.  This is pretty nuts.  Swimming 81 miles? Biking over 3000?  Those are unheard of numbers. 

Recently I've seen a picture floating around facebook that says "140.6.... Don't ever question my commitment".  Seeing numbers like that and knowing that I did finish my first Ironman makes me truly appreciate the type of commitment I made to my health this year.  That's insane.

Friday I ran 9.56 miles over lunch to wrap the annual total to 1100.01, just to mess with anyone who has OCD and thinks I should have capped it at an even 1100.  This includes my wife and father-in-law.  The nerd in me now thinks I should have thrown the extra few feet in there to stretch it to 4 decimal places and look at the binary conversion. 

As it stands, 00110001 in binary = 49, and I had 173 runs which is 10101101.  If you add those binaries together you get 10011100, which is 156 numeric.  So 49 + 173 = 156.  4 + 9 + 1 + 7 + 3 = 24 and 2 + 4 = 6.  If you add the numeric 49 + 173, you get 222, and 2 + 2 + 2 also = 6.  Which has to lead you to the ultimate conclusion that I am really a gigantic nerd.  But I'm sure you already knew that.

At the beginning of the year I outlined my 2011 goals.  How did I do?

1.  Ironman on November 5th at IMFL = Success!  I did indeed turn Iron at IMFL, finishing in 13:06.  It was a glorious trip.

2. Single digit body fat % and maintaining a healthy weight throughout the year.  = partial success.  I did get the BF% down to about 16%, which is very good.  So the problem was in the goal there.  I never should have shot for single digit.  The real goal was 11% anyway.  I did, however, complete my weight loss target by the time Ironman training started and hit my ideal racing weight for the big day, getting down to 165 lbs just before the race. 

3. Age group placement in something - Fail.  I never did any better than 4th in anything.  So close!  Next year.  I even finished 13th overall at one race, a 5k in April and was still 5th in my age group (I think).

4. Time goals:

• 5k under 22 minutes:  Success!
• 10k uner 50 minutes: Success!
• 5 mile under 40:  Success! no races, but plenty of training runs in 36:xx.
• 13.1 under 1:55: Success! I actually ran 7 halfs under 1:55 in 2011.
• 26.2 under 4:00: Fail, but the only marathon I ran was in the Ironman at 4:25, which was still a PR
• Century Ride under 6 hours: fail, the one century ride was just over 6 hours and unofficially timed.

5. Have a garden:  Partial success here.  I had a garden, it was small, and nothing actually grew there.

6. Live in a way that makes others proud:  Success!  I completed a heavy workload for Ironman training without abandoning family or friends, became much closer with some local friends.  I changed jobs, started working from home again, and was truly able to put my family first. 

Here's some highlights in pictures from the year. 

The year I turned Iron has turned out to be pretty incredible.  I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store!

I Love Riding those Fat Bastards

Yesterday's MMNW:

Last week: 181.4 lbs, 19.8% body fat, 35.9 lbs of body fat

This week: 180.8 lbs, 19.6%, 35.4 lbs of body fat

So it was a total of 0.6 lbs (small) but it was all body fat. I like that. Especially after the race this weekend.

Krispy Kreme Challenge:

I'm glad I did this race, but I'm not going to do it again. It was 35 degrees and raining hard at the start. We got there 30 minutes before the gun went off so we were soaked. The race was supposed to be run 2 miles to the krispy kreme, eat a dozen doughnuts, and run 2 miles back, in under an hour.

The gun went off, and there was a timing split at the start line so the crowds at the start were ok. Once I cleared, the 2.4 miles (yes they lied about the distance) to the KK went by fast. Not as fast as I wanted, the roads were very crowded. I passed at least 300 people getting there. I got started behind some slow people.

The hardest part was actually eating the dozen doughnuts. I smushed down 3 at a time, and started chewing. Take big bites, swallow fast. Got the first three down.

The doughnut area was starting to get a few more people in it now. Hog down 3 more of those things, and now it's really getting crowded. Halfway done. Now there's a bunch of people in there, it's getting crowded. I've stopped breathing hard after the run, stopped sweating. I know I was crushing a 7:xx pace for the 2.4 miles to get in there.

Now I was just standing in the rain in the middle of a road in downtown Raleigh freezing my balls off trying to stuff down the last 3 doughnuts. The race had 7500 people in it, so they cooked 7500 dozen nuts. That meant mine were cold and stale to begin with. I got in early enough to grab from the first table. So this was pretty miserable.

I had to show the empty box to the guy guarding the Challenger chute, got cleared and got a timing split. 33 minutes. That means it took just as long to eat the doughnuts as it did to run the 2.4 miles to get there! The non-challengers could just grab the box and run, but most people would stop to eat one doughnut at least. That means that the 300 people I passed out of the starting gate? Guess how many of them didn't eat the dozen?

I'm guessing all of them. I didn't want to push the pace too fast going back to the finish line. After taking in 2400 calories and 120 g of fat in 15ish minutes, I didn't feel like puking on the way back. I still passed those dang 300 people again. Running slow and carrying a box of nuts? Get out of my way!

My original plan was to hit the 2 miles around 7 minutes each, down the nuts in 5 minutes or less, and hit 8 minute miles on the way back, you know taking it easier. Should put me finishing within around 35 minutes. Breaking 35 minutes would have put me in 12th place overall. Instead, I finished in 680th place in 52:27 out of 2262 finishers in the Challenger division. Puts me just inside the top 30% of all the finishers. The challenge was to eat the whole dozen and finish inside of an hour, so I did complete the challenge. Also (not that the non-eaters should count in the challenger standings) I finished 930th out of 3385 male finishers, which is still inside of 30%. I can dig it. But the weather was horrible, the course was long (by .8 miles? really?), crowded and slow, the eating was tough. Overall, I'm glad I did it once but it was pretty miserable.

Really, that afternoon I got to find out what it feels like to eat a dozen doughnuts for breakfast, and that was pretty miserable too.

New Pet:

Then, we picked up this guy from the pound....

He is a male orange middle-hair cat. About 12 pounds, he's a hefty sucker. The kids named him Blossom. Yes it's a girls name for a boy cat. I'm just glad I'm not the only guy in the house anymore.

Generally, I choose the path of least responsibility. So adding a pet is a new set of responsibilities. That's a bad thing. But this cat is really chilled. He keeps to himself unless you want him sitting in your lap and isn't very needy. I can get along with that.

Why the titles?

I had enough people asking about the post title from the last post Transvestites Have the Best Cupcakes, so I wanted to explain my theory. I'm trying to comment on more blogs now, and more of them are showing up like this:

So I thought if I used funny titles that had absolutely nothing to do with the post itself, they would show up as my last post when I was commenting. That makes me laugh. So it's completely obscure, and completely selfish. I just think it's funny to be random like that.

Finally, a meme:

Amanda tagged me with a Stylish Blogger award. Visit her if you don't regularly read, she's quite awesome. The task is to link back to the person who tagged you, share 7 things about yourself, tag 7 more bloggers, and tell them about it. It's stylish, so here goes nothing.

1. I claim to be quite stylish. I know most of the pics on here I'm either shirtless (now hawt!) or in workout clothes (also hawt!). But, in terms of the regular street clothes that don't show up very often here, I know and love my designers. The all time fav has to be Kenneth Cole. His shirts are usually very slim cut, so I'm looking forward to being able to wear more of them this summer. I totally queen out over a KC store.

2. I rock the workplace. My supervisor's boss pulled me into a side room the other day and told me I was absolutely the fucking rock star on our team (his words!). I was very excited about this. My job is just as a software developer; I sit in a cube and write code every day.

3. I hate long sleeve t-shirts. Really, what's the point? The office is very casual, so most days I wear t-shirts and race shirts with jeans into the office. In the summertime it's shorts and flip-flops. Yes, that directly violates thing #1, but being comfortable is worth it. You get used to it, and you would make the same choice if you could. But you can't put anything like a sweater or overshirt on top of a long sleeve t-shirt, so they suck.

4. I curse like a sailor. My college summers were spent working in landscaping, with real salt-of-the-earth people. I loved it. But I also picked up those habits, and have to be very careful about my public presentation. Sometimes people laugh the first time they hear me curse because it's such a surprise. I say fuck that.

5. When I was very young, my dad's parents took me and (I think) my brother Michael to the circus. I remember he (the Original John Flynn) bought some cotton candy and convinced me that his tounge was at least a foot long so he could lick the very bottom of the tube the cotton candy came in. I totally believed him, and thought my tounge would be really long when I grew up too. Before I turned six years old, he died of a heart attack. It's the only memory I have of him, really. Well, there was one other time when we cut the grass at his office. so two memories. But he's been on my mind a lot lately.

6. My mom's dad bought a farm after he retired. He grew several vegetable and flower gardens, had three fishing ponds, and hunted some on his 22 acres. He also grew muscadines. That farm plus my landscaping jobs in college is why I love to keep a good garden and vineyard going today. My mother still has a good garden too (bigger than mine!), and we love to garden together.

7. I'm 35 years old and still have both of my grandmothers. I know this is rare, they are 86 and 90 years old now, and they both know their great-grandkids. I know that I am blessed to still have them as a part of my life, and they won't be here forever.

Ok, that might not be the most stylish list, but it's heartfelt. Consider yourself tagged if you haven't been tagged already. I got to call it a night. have a great week!