The End of Project225

Well my foray into weight lifting has been fun, but it's time to get back to actual endurance training now. After recovering from the Umstead 100, the next goal became bench pressing 225 lbs. I'm calling it failed, with my current max bench at 200 lbs. I did add 15 lbs to my max bench in only 6 weeks, so that's really good. But I feel like my progress has stalled, it's not doing good things to this 40 year old body, and it's making it harder to run again.

I went out for a long run a few saturdays ago, and ended up cutting it short. 10 miles turned into 6, and my shoulders were in so much pain even that 6 wasn't fun. The shoulder is made up of 3 muscles, and the front one is used in the arm swing motion while running. That was the first thing to fatigue, and when that muscle went it seriously hurt. I decided then that it was time to just stop running until this project225 was over.

I know that over age 40 (well, really age 30) testosterone production begins to decline. That makes it harder to add muscle. Yet somehow I found it easy to put on weight. Regular strength training left me very hungry all the time, something I'm kind of used to in heavy swim, run, or triathlon training times. But this time instead of fueling my workouts, I just kept on adding bodyfat. Came in at 187.8 lbs this week, which is dangerously close to my breaking point. Usually by this point I'm down around 175 and ready for some hot summertime endurance training.

There were some good points about Project 225. I am really enjoying the extra strength. My leg press got up to 400 lbs. My dumbbell flat press got up to 60 lbs in each arm. I still hit some milestones that I've never been able to reach before. I love the extra muscle mass that is currently showing in my chest and shoulders. I was able to add a lot of weight to my bicep curl and the guns are ready for the beach. I am a very heavy sweater, and lifting doesn't make me sweat as much as running does, so that was really nice.

But overall, the belly fat and the way my pants are fitting just doesn't make this worth it. There is some extra stress that is also contributing to the increased waistline. My work contract has just wrapped up at the end of May, and I landed a contract-to-perm job that is kind of a dream. The new office is very close to the house, and I had a 4 day weekend of funemployment between the end of that contract and the start of the new job. Well then there was a timing problem with a background check so my 4 day weekend got extended. Every day after that was a 2 hour call-and-check to see if I can start the next day. I ended up missing 6 more days of work just waiting on the stupid background check and THAT was very stressful.

This time of year the heat has also made my summer depression kick in, so normally I throw myself into my work since I'm really good at what I do. That makes being unemployed really depressing. Not knowing if the dream job will disappear while we're waiting on the background check or not. ugh. so frustrating.

I also found some free marathon training plans available at PR Racer and loaded one into my spreadsheet. So it's time for marathon training to start again. My first triathlon of the year is on Saturday and I feel like I'm ready for a little sprint. Onward and upward folks! One door is closing, but you won't believe the door that's starting to open. If I can actually pull off my plans (to be revealed later) this is going to be really fun.

The Mechanics

First let me say thank you. My 2015 year in review post got so many encouraging comments. You guys obviously recognized that I've been a bit blue this year, and your kind words really helped. I've been in a downward spiral for a while, and whenever this work thing settles down it will start to stabilize.

The consistent beer intake doesn't help depression. I'm not out getting hammered, just one or two beers when something else gets annoying. But then Kelley pointed out that it's happening about 6 days a week. And then I'm over 190 lbs for the first time in 5 years. And I'm feeling all of that weight (and age) when I'm running, and I'm running a lot more than ever before to get ready for the Umstead 100. So my hips, and knees, and feet are all feeling the effects of all of that; it's not pleasant at all.

On a trail run last weekend, the car said 48* but I did 17 miles comfortably in shorts and no sleeves because I do what I want. It was a fantastic time in Umstead.

Last week I had a unique opportunity. A local physical therapist was giving a clinic on running mechanics and case studies of his 3D gait analysis system. This guy is a runner and helps runners in addition to kids and others recovering from surgery. He can watch you on a treadmill (2D analysis) and make the pains go away. The service is not as pricey as I was expecting, so I may bite down and get a session.

Of course Jim knew all of the medical terminology for the bones, muscles, and movements involved in running. The presentation was very smooth and informative. He talked a lot about what we, as runners, can look for in other runners to spot imbalances and sometimes provided advice to correct them. It really made me think about my own running form and how I keep getting these same problems (left hip flexor, right knee, both feet/ankles) every year.

I came to the following conclusions after the discussion:

• My right hip must be dropping
• My right shoe scrapes my left calf during the recovery portion of the motion, indicating that my left hip is having a problem stabilizing during that part of the movement
• Heel/toe/midfoot strike is not as important as the angle of the shinbone to the knee at ground impact
• Keep the cadence at 180 for short strides. Efficiency is what's going to make me last 100 miles, not speed
• Stand tall - my forward lean might actually be hurting my hip stabilizers

 This clinic was last wednesday night. Thursday I had to go to the gym to hit the treadmill for 10 miles to see if I could make some corrections. I ended up actually having a very surreal experience. The headphones stayed home (by accident) so all I had was the ambient noise around the gym. My mind actually went into a very calm, zen-like state after a few minutes and I was able to be completely still on the inside, even though my body was in constant motion.

When I tried to "run taller" I could actually feel my hips staying balanced more. No more scraping my left calf. I checked my cadence often and at different speeds, and every time it came in right at 180.

To calculate my cadence, I wait for the treadmill timer to hit an even number. Then I count my right (or left) footfalls until I get to 30. The timer should have advanced by exactly 20 seconds. 30 right steps in 20 seconds, multiplied by 3 means 90 right footsteps in a minute. Hopefully, my left foot also got in 90 steps in the same minute, thus giving me exactly a 180 cadence. If my 30 right footfalls took 22 seconds, then my cadence is a bit slow and I need to try and shorten my stride. I've never seen my cadence go over 180, so I don't know how to deal with that. But 180 is a widely used standard for men and women runners, so feel free to use my method the next time you're out and want to check yourself.

Overstriding is when your knee is extended too far before footstrike. Typically this generates a heel strike, but you can still hit toes first. Not letting your shins go past vertical is only a mental adjustment. Think of your knees like a loose hinge so your shins can hang freely like windchimes. This is how you want to land. I don't think I was overstriding too badly, but once I got the cadence in line, and ran taller, I knew my shins were at the proper angle as well.

Really the whole thing came together. I ran 10 miles at a 9 minute pace or faster. I wasn't bored, fatigued, or aerobically challenged. Heart rate never got above 142. The whole thing was just amazing. I really needed that.

brief training update

But at least it's an actual training update. We wrapped up all of the holiday stuff yesterday with great fanfare and returned home to Raleigh. The highlight was after stopping for dinner at Cracker Barrel on the drive home, Ella finished her meal with the announcement that "I'm full" and threw a biscuit randomly. Then in the car, before we even got back on the highway, she asked for a snack! You just finished dinner 30 seconds ago child. I don't think so.

I had today off of work as well though, so it was really nice to have the day to regroup, clean up some, and get in a nice run. Umstead 100 training is going pretty well. I took some rest time this month but I'm still getting plenty of miles in. My left hip and right knee are still inflamed and problematic, this is the same problem that sidelined me in the spring so I think I need to seek some help with my running mechanics to fix that. Got any recommendations? I think I also need a referral for a nutritionist. Carrying way too much body fat, even for the offseason.

Today I got out on the roads for an easy 10 miler to the Capital and back. It was smooth, felt great, and had pretty good conditions. It was raining all morning so I needed to stick to the roads. There was some construction going on downtown so traffic was problematic and I had to go a few blocks out of the way. So the graphic above isn't quite accurate, it was coffee run beer. But overall this was a quality day of training and I feel ready to go for it again tomorrow.

The Dance

The third year of the Indian Princess program starts off with the Daddy/Daughter dance and this was Evil Genius's time to shine. She absolutely loves the fancy stuff, and there was no shortage of that. The dance was this past Sunday night, and it was amazing.

First on Saturday I got to have some fun. I had planned a long run of 19 miles and lined up some swimming fun too. My route was planned to go down to the Capital building, then cut over to Umstead, and that's about what I ended up doing. I twisted in a few extra miles at the beginning, so I didn't end up making it all the way to Umstead before I needed to turn around. But I got all 19 miles done in 2:54 and felt great at the end. After that I was giving a swim lesson to the couple that I swam Ironman Raleigh with this year, she's doing her first triathlon in a couple of months. It went really well, and I got in another 2000 yards after the lesson. What a fun day!

Sunday night's dance started with your typical banquet rubber chicken dinner. It was pretty tasty, and the formal atmosphere really suited the evening. After that we moved down the red carpet into the ballroom, where the DJ set the tone and everyone danced the night away.

The highlight for me was us getting picked as a finalist in the twist contest! It ended up being decided by shouting, so whomever had the largest tribe there won. But for the dancing, I was all in. EG followed right along with me too. The coolest part was actually after the dancing was over when they judged by crowd noise. I decided at the last minute to strike a particular pose when it was our turn. EG - without coordinating it first - struck the mirror image of the exact same pose. That's my girl.

Actually most of the time she wouldn't stop laughing at me while I was dancing. There was plenty of sweet slow songs and she did dance a lot. but I don't think she expected Daddy to have moves like that.

Perfect!

Makeup and hair are on point

Ella had to get in on the photo action too

cute bow on the back of the dress

the Teen Titans seem to like her moves

Practicing the moves. Love this one!

helping Daddy get dressed

Suit up!

in the parking garage

Some tribes shelled out for a limo

This is how she felt about her dinner

The only tribe members we could find for this group shot

Group shot of the girls. The dresses were outstanding!

taking a break from the dancing

Hello again Recovery Week!

Last week was actually the biggest volume week of the year. Build 2, Week 3 did not disappoint! I knew this was going to be my highest volume week, planned the workouts based on the work I did in Build 1 Week 3, and nailed almost everything.

The technical concept for the last couple of weeks of the build period is called Critical Volume.  Jesse Kropelnicki explained it best in a XTri article, but I'll give you the highlights. In one week, you try and hit the rule of thirds in each sport.  So you want to do 9/3 of the swim distance, 8/3 of the bike, and 7/3 of the run distance all in one week at race intensity.  Remember the focus at the end of the build phase is to get closer to race like conditions, and it will leave you most prepared for race day. For Ironman training, that means keeping the heart rate low and knocking down mile after mile. How many miles for Critical Volume? Swimming 11,576 meters, bike 300 miles, and run 60 miles.

Now, it is very difficult for most age groupers to hit critical volume. Practically impossible really. At professional ironman athlete speeds, that takes about 27 hours. So if you still have a job or a family, forget about it. Since I have both, my CV plan was set for 9000 meters of swimming, 240 miles of biking, and 55 miles of running.  Here's how it played out:

Monday: AM 90 minute (30 mile) ride, PM 2500 m swim - After the half ironman last Saturday, this was really an easy recovery day
Tuesday: AM 11 mile run, PM 3000 m swim
Wednesday: AM 90 minute bike (30 miles), PM 3500 m swim
Thursday: AM 11 mile run, PM 90 minute (30 mile) bike
Friday: AM 11 mile run, hey it was a rest day
Saturday: 120 mile bike (6 hours)
Sunday: AM 11 mile run, afternoon brick 45 minute ride, 9 mile run

I nailed everything until the very last workout. The Sunday Brick was supposed to be a 90 minute ride and an 11 mile run, I cut it down to 45 minutes on the bike and ran as far as I could make it.  9 miles on the afternoon gave me 20 for the day, that's really all it took. And I still got 9000 m of swimming, 225 miles on the bike, and 53 miles of running adding up to about 22 hours. That is still a high volume by any standard.  Plus I still worked 40 hours and our niece Kaileigh was in town for a few nights! Sunday night also saw the first dad's meeting with Evil Genius's Indian Princess tribe, we started setting up the year. I celebrated the end of Big Week with extra hot wings and 2 beers. It was fantastic.

So what did you do last week?

First big week done!

Guess what happens when the training plan calls for a big week? Swim, bike, and run and lots of it. Guess what else happens?  Absolutely nothing. I worked, played with the kids, and s/b/r. No yoga, no blogging, we did manage to swing a little hanging with friends on Saturday and Sunday night, but that was it.

Monday was my birthday, I turned 39 for the first time. I really wanted to run my age this year, but forgot and ran 18 miles on Sunday. So Monday had a 90 minute ride before work, then went to dinner for my birthday with the family and got some great presents before heading to swim practice for 3000 meters.  Still a helluva good way to celebrate my birthday!

39 is kind of messing with my head a little bit. I may just be delusional from heavy training, but something just doesn't feel right up there. While the volume is certainly there, I'm training a lot slower than I was last year. Time will tell how that will affect me on Ironman race day, but I think the old age is messing me up.

Tuesday saw a 10 mile run AM, and another RAM Masters practice 3000 meters long course PM.  Great, solid day, still feeling good.

Wednesday I got back on the bike for 90 minutes before work, then had choir practice at church in the evening, followed by my 3rd and final RAM practice. Got 3100 meters this time! 9100 m (6+ miles) in the water.

Thursday took another 10 mile run in the morning, and I only did an hour on the bike in the evening. This was nice, since by this point I'm getting pretty tired.

Friday is normally my rest day, so all I did was a 10 mile run in the morning.

Saturday got long, going 5 hours on the bike. That last hour I was really feeling fatigued. It's been inhospitable outside here, so I've done all of these hours on the stationary bike at the gym. Saturday morning I was looking around thinking that these were all the people that were going to laugh when I started crying.

A couple of the RAM swimmers also have birthdays this week, so they put together a party at a brewery in downtown Raleigh, so we did get out there for a bit. It is always fun to see swim friends socially, and in a brewery like Crank Arm you know some trouble is going to unfold!

Sunday I got in a nice 10 mile run before church, then sang in the choir. It was a rollicking service indeed! Then I got out after lunch for another hour on the bike and another 10 mile run. 

So my totals on the week:
Swim 6+ miles
Bike 200 miles
Run 50 miles
21+ hours total time
and nothing else.

That makes this week a recovery week thank God.  After this week, I have 3 more weeks of build, and the last week of that will actually be a bit bigger than this. But after that it's another recovery week, then the taper.  8 weeks to go until Ironman! And this kind of big week is what gives me the confidence that I'll be able to go up to Ohio and turn in something decent.  This big week is in the books!

Cray Cray May May

Wow, May was totally insane. April was as well. I'm going to explain it all, but first we should start with the numbers.

Swim: 30,050 m, 7 swims, 1 race
Bike: 181 miles, 9 rides
Run: 86 miles, 12 runs
Strength: only once
Yoga: 13 sessions

So there was a lot of swimming, but most of that is logged in the 5 mile race. 181 miles is not bad, but I know that will eventually go to the 200 mile weeks (well, eventually is like next month). and 86 miles of running is a bit of a surprise. I thought for sure that was going to come in about 110 miles. It sure felt like I got to run a lot.

So why, in the middle of Ironman training, and the summer heat blazing down, are the numbers so low? Well let me tell you why. It's been totally insane up in here.

It really started April 12 weekend with a visit to the parents in SC
Then Easter Weekend
Boy's Weekend up in Boone NC
Morgan's Wedding weekend was May 3
Next weekend Evil Genius Goes To Camp
The first work trip up to Virginia on May 14
Then Ella's Epic Mountain Adventure May 17
Another work trip to Cincinnati May 19
Memorial Day had the Lowcountry Splash 5 mile swim race in Charleston SC with Kelley
Then the final work trip - Florida
Then Evil Genius had a great birthday party

I haven't had a 5 day work week since March. All of these long weekend workouts? Not happening. I have been going and going and going and going. The midweek stuff has been carrying me through so far, but I can only get by on 2 a days for so long.  I have to get my weekends back now!

May saw the end of Base 2. Base 3, week 9, started 5/26. I don't think this overload plan is actually working so I'm going back to the steady pattern of increasing times. It was really nice to only have to bike heavy mileage one out of every 4 weeks, but the speed wasn't coming and the muscular endurance wasn't there. Running overload weeks were great fun, but I wasn't getting the monthly mileage in to generate any speed. And the swim overload week of Base 3 had me in Florida for 3 days, so I didn't actually get to swim at all.

I still have one more thing. Today (Friday) my wonderful niece is graduating from high school. So we're going down for the graduation ceremony but coming back to Raleigh this afternoon. My weekends come back to my long workouts now. Saturday and Sunday will be in Raleigh with no other plans but long workouts. June, July, August - all with no plans. Settling in for a hot summer with time on the bike trainer & treadmill when the weather doesn't cooperate.

Memorial Day held the only long workout so far. I got 2 hours on the bike and a 10 mile run all bricked up. It felt great, but I could really tell that the bike endurance wasn't there. My legs could just barely hold up for 2 hours. This is not how I need to prepare for a 7 hour bike split in Rev3 Cedar Point! Running after that bike ride felt great, so I do have confidence in my running off of the bike. But I have to do something about this bike endurance, and 1 hour rides before work are not going to cut it. Time to get steady.

Travelling and brooding about missing my long runs aren't the only things that have been going on. There is this stuff too:

EG FINALLY wanted to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels!

Big sis was so sweet giving her tips and demonstrations of her bike skills

Peer pressure works! Evil Genius came home from Indian Princess camp and wanted to take the training wheels off of her Barbie Bling-it bike. It takes several sessions to really get the hang of it, but she will eventually get her balance up there. We've had a few sessions with more to come. She was scared of falling down until I told stories of me falling down when I couldn't unclip from my pedals in time. Then when she did fall down and didn't get hurt, it all made more sense.  She'll get it soon enough. This is very exciting for me.

Last day of 3rd grade!

 School is out! We are done with first and third grade, and ready to have a great summer trackout. They start back sometime in July. Of course, EG refused to pose for a "last day" picture.

Facing towards downtown - aide station

Facing away from downtown - Mile 3 marker sign

This past weekend was Ironman Raleigh 70.3 on Sunday morning. Since Kelley's mom was in town for the birthday party, they occupied themselves for a while and I walked down to spectate the run course for a bit after church. This was my view. I saw several friends run by, a few people on the RAM swim team, and it was a beautiful day to be racing. It was about 20* cooler than it was last year so it was nice to spectate as well.  I haven't done a triathlon yet this year, so being in that environment was really exciting. I was determined to sign up for at least 3 races after that, but only got in a couple.

Me and Ashley after the ride

My dirty little secret is that Sunday afternoon I finally put my bike on the road for the first time since Beach 2 Battleship last October. Being pretty paranoid about safety, weather, and pooping availability means that I use the trainer or stationary bike at the gym almost exclusively. Ashley is one of my AAA Triathlon Team teammates, and she was in Raleigh for a work thing on Monday. Sunday afternoon she wanted to meetup for a brick workout, so we met at the White Oak parking lot for the American Tobacco Trail. First we rode about 18 miles on the roads around Jordan Lake, coming very close to the Ironman Raleigh bike course. Then after taking a quick selfie, we ran 4 miles on the trail at about a 9 minute pace. It was a great workout, and a great day to be training outside. She hasn't trained much around Raleigh (lives about 2 hours west), and I think she really enjoyed the roads, the lake, and the trail. I had a blast too, and I hope we get to brick it again sometime.

My final rant about May is about getting it all in. Yes I have a full time job, a loving wife and two great kids - and I still get to train and race Ironman and marathons. If you've ever wanted to know how I make it all work this is it. I train before the kids get up for school and again after they go to bed at night. Next week the RAM team switches evening practices to long course (50 meter pool) and they move to 8 pm. This will make things a lot easier for me. I hope to be done with work travel for a while. I've been at this job for 1 year (on June 10) and these 3 work trips in May are the only time I've had to travel for business since 2012 - 2 jobs ago. I like having events and things lined up that I can look forward to, so I planned a few things and then had a few other things skip in there. I have the word Balance tattoo'd on my chest for a reason - I have to balance everything that comes my way and still do whatever I can to accomplish my goals. I don't fall asleep at my desk at work or ignore the kids. I don't spend every waking moment working out. I get it all done.  And now, I'm just glad that May is done.

Monday's Dumps

Brain dump, that is. Here's how last week went down: busy. it was jam packed. The workouts were regular and steady, the nutrition was constant and mostly vegan, and I had no time to blog. I actually did have some good content to write about, but then promptly forgot it all so you get this instead.

Horse derp selfie - not as easy as it looks

Evil Genius trying on the unicorn mask for the first time

At the hockey game last week!

Only my kids would rake a zen garden pathway into the leaves when we're supposed to be raking them up

Bigun says we carved a 70 into the yard trying to outline the beds

Those pics were supposed to be a 5 things Friday post.

That's week 1 of the garden. We're adding a second raised bed this year which I am incredibly excited about. I got a seed order placed from High Mowing Seed Company, they sponsor the NorthWest Edible Life blog, I read her, and I like to support companies that like to support bloggers. Hopefully we'll have a good time gardening this year! The kids sure are looking forward to it.

Workouts were really good too, all week long. Tuesday I had a good swim with the RAM team. Ran 38 miles on the week. 7 monday, 5 wednesday, 6 thursday and 20 on Saturday. Did yoga 6 days, and hit the strength training 3 days. Solid week all around. This 20 miler kicked off the cycle. 20, then a recovery week. Another 20, then a taper week. Then Myrtle Beach Marathon, then taper week, then Umstead Trail marathon. Game on people! Here we go!

My weight is spot on right now too. We're still doing mostly paradigm meals, and it still rocks. I started the week at 178 and got down to 175 pretty quick. That's racing weight, so it's where I want to be. Everything feels good and looks pretty good too. Now if I could just get these dang kids to clean up their room every now and then.....

Have a great MLK day!

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!

The Easy Part

Two weekends ago I took the Evil Genius camping, then we went up to Camp Kanata for the Fall Outing Sunday afternoon. This weekend I took Bigun camping with her Indian Princess tribe Saturday night, and since EG and I didn't get to do any of the real camp-y stuff, I took both of them up to Kanata again for all of the camp fun.

I never thought Ironman would be the least exhausting of these three weekends.

This is week 38 of the 39 week Ironman training plan.  Only race week is left. This is quite a relief. The second week of taper is supposed to be easy. Nice and slow workouts, about an hour each. Still do something long on Saturday.  Total time was about 7 hours. I got plenty of rest. It was pretty glorious.  This is also the kind of week where every little nagging pain starts to flare up and finally maybe heal. This is supposed to be the easy part.

After I did the long workout it was a much more relaxed approach to getting ready for the camping trip. I still had all the gear pulled out from the previous trip, and we had plenty of time to get all the veggies cut and ready. I had to pick up Bigun from a friend's birthday party and we got right out to Jordan Lake to get the tent setup and started camping.

We really did have a blast. I was starting out completely exhausted and hungry. Then it started raining as soon as I got the potatoes on the campfire.  She lost two hot dogs just by walking around looking for a dry place to eat, poor thing. But then the rains cleared and we had some huge s'mores and everything ended up ok.  Bigun was the last kid standing, she hung out with me and the other dads around the campfire until about 11:30, which was really fun. I think that's her favorite part.

About 4 am I woke up and really had to pee. Found a headlight and stumbled into the woods behind the tent. I thought it was morning already, there was a full moon that was as bright as the sun out there. All of the clouds had moved on and there was more stars than I've ever seen over the Raleigh sky.  It was about 40*, so cold and beautiful. I don't know why I enjoy peeing outside so much but it really is better than peeing inside. I also took a moment to soak in the night sky before crashing out again.

After breakfast Bigun went with her friends into the mud and water for a bit on Sunday morning. We needed to get out of there without dallying. Instead, I went down there to get her, grabbed a few pics and then we got lost in the woods trying to get back to the car. I don't know how you get lost on one trail that goes for 300 yards, but I did it.  The important part was that I convinced her that we weren't lost, we just needed to turn around and go back.

Our Giant S'mores

Sunday morning in the tent

Yes she went in the water in pajamas

After we got home I laid down on the bed and told Kelley I thought I had lyme disease.  Even got her to check my head for ticks. She thought it was just a hangover. She might have been right, but unimaginative. I had to pull it together for another round at Camp Kanata.

Last sunday EG and I got up to Kanata around 4 pm, just in time to meet up for the hike, dinner, and ceremony. She was really upset that we didn't get to do any of the other camp activities, and Bigun was pretty upset that 3rd years don't really have a fall outing where her tribe went up to the camp. So I piled them both in the car and we went up there just to crash this weekend's first and second year fall outing. We got to do all of the fun camp stuff.  Archery, the climbing wall, a ropes course, play some tetherball and cornhole, it was a blast. They were worn out.  Bigun really wanted to get in the canoe, but EG wouldn't do it so we had to pass. That was the only strife.  It was pretty perfect, and we were out of there around 4 pm.

On the climbing wall

Daddy got inverted!

Ropes course! Balancing on a wire

EG on a wire

I got one pic like this of just Bigun during her first year fall outing

The archer and the ham

Bigun is ready!

teaching EG to shoot!

Me and my little Archers of Loaf!

It was a blast. We had a really good time up there. it was a great way to end the week. Yes I was tired and again didn't get to see any of my beloved fall college football, but the way Clemson played against FSU was disturbing anyway. These are the kind of things we just do for our kids. This is how we fit it all in and make those memories. Great week!