December was pretty cool

Here's how it went down!

Swim: 1600y, 1 practice
Bike: 0
Run: 170.2 miles, 18 runs
Strength: 8 times
Yoga: 10 times

Only making it to one swim practice, and not even finishing that workout, means that I paid $45 for the monthly RAM membership for that one mile in the pool. This is particularly disappointing, mostly because I should have been able to swim at least once a week in the evenings. I can even get behind the 0 bike miles. But I should have swam more.

The 170.2 miles of running is absolutely outstanding however! That is a personal distance record and knocks a goal off of my 2015 list. I pulled it out by finishing the last 4 days of the year with runs of 10.1, 12, 11, and 10 miles. Really had to bring it home there.

December also had Kelley's birthday! It was a momentous occasion. We celebrated with overpriced taco sliders (tiny food for a lot of cash is popular right now), then went to the theatre to see the Nutcracker. True love is being a giant college football fan and DVR'ing your alma mater's first bowl game to take your wife to the ballet just because it's her birthday. I'm still proud that my Appalachian State Mountaineers won the first bowl game, even if it was almost 2 am when I finished watching it.

The kids were happy about the presents they picked out

Kelley and Evil Genius getting tacos

Bigun and me - notice we all wore necklaces

All of us at the ballet

Mommy's birthday 2015

It has been a while since we all had our picture taken together, so we visited Kelley's dad after the ballet and got him to take one since we were all dressed up.

Finally in December I ended up trading in my car! Actually I was just going out to look at a few cars I found online. Then I test drove a Porche Boxter, but really felt like the clutch was too heavy for me to work if I had to drive myself home after a marathon, which happens more often than I care to admit. The 2nd car was this slick Audi TT convertible, and the price was right, so I picked it up! My Volvo ended up with a less than desirable trade-in value, so we ended up hanging onto it for a few days. Kelley's mom and dad separately chipped in to split the trade-in offer that I got into thirds, and we ended up gifting the car to my niece Kaileigh! Such an amazing Christmas present for her. She was totally blown away and in tears. And I'm happy that I have a slick, stick shifting, silver convertible. Kelley and the kids love it too.

My new steed. Just needs a trailer hitch to tow my bike to triathlons.

It's tiny and fast and I love it. Such a fun car. I was able to get it because I got a new contract lined up from a new job! I ended up working for a headhunting firm. They can send me out on contracts or contract-to-hire positions, and Kelley said it would be ok for me to replace my car after I got the first contract lined up. I'm not exactly enjoying driving to Durham every day, but this does make it a bit more fun.

Overall December had a lot of highs and a few lows. Overall I was glad to see 2015 come to an end, and this was a fun way to end it.

All the Holidays

Another Christmas has come and gone, and I do have the pictures to prove it. This was an especially good Christmas season for the kids, but we all had a blast.

The Prequel:

Evil Genius's Indian Princess tribe got to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. It was such a great night! We got to sing carols, and hang out with everyone. Such a fun, memorable time.

Me and the EG doing some good

Also, Kelley got to make gingerbread cookies with the kids. They were ready for Santa

First Christmas: The Maness

Christmas Eve we were in Star, NC in the geographic center of the state with Kelley's Dad's side of the family. The highlight (for me, at least) was getting to hang out with cousin Diane. So funny!

Kelley, EG, Ella, Matt, Kaileigh

Me and Diane!

After that, Santa came for 2nd Christmas. It was a late night and an early morning, but the girls were stoked! Neena (Kelley's mom) stayed with us, as did sister Meri, niece Kaileigh, and her boyfriend Matt.  Then Mickey and Eleanor came over for breakfast too, so we had 10 people in our house for Christmas morning! This is what makes the holiday special for me. Spending this much time with family is so meaningful.

the strangest part is that I got no pictures of it. There are some on the big camera, but I haven't pulled those off of the card yet.

Later that day, we headed to Greenville to see my family, while Meri went home, and Neena stayed at our house (prediction coming) with Kaileigh and Matt for the weekend.

Saturday morning we did the Flynn Christmas (3rd Christmas) and it was a blast.

The coolest thing has to be a quilt that my mom made from 20 of my race t-shirts. I brought her the shirts back in the summer, so I know how much work this took to complete - a ton! I absolutely love it and this will be something I treasure for years to come. Some of the shirts had either gotten too old or to worn out to wear anymore, or just have special meaning for me. There is my first Ironman finishers shirt, first marathon, first half iron, and first triathlon (or any race) ever shirts on there. Plus some local favorites, swim races, the krispy kreme challenge shirt, I got a little bit of everything in there. Mom added drop shadows and special quilting patterns, and the fabric for the backing was some that Kelley found when cleaning out her grandmothers house. It's all very cool and was made with love.

It's as wide as a king bed. So comfortable!

4th Christmas was sunday afternoon with Mom's side of the family. This year was the first Christmas since her mom passed away, and everyone missed her and prayed for her. My Aunt Angie was also there, this was the first time in a few years she was able to make it thanks to cancer. She looked very different, but her unmistakable personality was still there! So nice to get to spend time with her and my Uncle Dean.

Mom taking pictures

hanging with my sweetheart

Dad, Morgan, and Martha

Uncle Butch playing with his grandson

It was a wonderful holiday season. We're all glad to see home again after such a fun trip, and glad to see New Years come too. Really felt the love this Christmas, and I think we gave it just as much as we got.

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.

Holidays Approacheth

Believe it or not, I do still have some actual health/nutrition/training content rolling around in my head. Eventually it will make it out of there. But until then it's only pictures of my family and our strange and holiday activities.

First came thanksgiving! That's how far behind I am, haven't even posted thanksgiving pictures yet. We had a fun but whirlwind road trip, first to Neena's house at the lake then to Saluda for turkey with Kelley's family. Then off to Greenville for a few nights with my folks, and I didn't get any pictures there. Then we made it back to Raleigh in time to get together for more turkey with Kelley's dad's family on that Sunday afternoon.  Roll 'em!

The rare Kaileigh and Matt sighting

K photobombing us

Shirley said she hates seeing her picture show up online, so....

We also had the Holiday Express again this year already at Pullen Park. This time, it was quite obvious that our kids were the oldest ones there. They still had a good time, and we got some good shots, but I thought it was hilarious that nobody else was even close to their age.

Evil Genius meets Reindeer

So glad to have a beard again, it was cold out there

On the trail with Ella

All four of us riding the train

love this one

they are my idiots

So with all of that holiday fun, how could we not be ready for a great exciting Christmas season? We're ready. This is going to be great.

November Rain

Actually November was a lot of fun this year! Here's the breakdown

Swim: 4400 yards, 2 swims
Bike: nada, goose egg
Run: 162.2 miles, 18 runs, 1 Marathon
Strength: 4 times
Yoga: 10 times

Actually, I thought I swam more than twice. Hard swim or triathlon training is not as important right now, as the 100 miler training plan is in full swing. In fact, I think 162 miles is a new record for me! One of my goals for the year is to get in a 170 mile month, and it looks like that's going to be December. So close this time! I did enjoy a great week in the hot yoga studio as well as plenty of time on the mat at home, but I could always use more yoga time.

I really stuck with the 100 training plan very closely until the weekend before thanksgiving. A cold hit my sinuses pretty hard, and the planned 14 miler that sunday turned into only 2 miles. Then over the holiday I missed two more runs. But overall the plan is working out really well, I feel great now, and knocking down the plan feels like I'm really actually going to be prepared for the Umstead 100.

The one marathon I did in November was the Lower Potomac River Run in Maryland. Great race, tons of fun, nice trail. Lots of other good stuff going on too. The kids took a karate class and loved it, we got to visit my family in SC and had a wonderful time (Thanksgiving post still to come).

The bad is still with my weight. I'm still about 10 lbs heavier than I should be for this much training and it is going to catch up to me eventually. But after turning 40 the pounds just don't shake off like they used to. ugh.  I'll figure it out eventually.

Spike playing video games on Ella's head

silly bearded dragon

Ready to chop stuff

Family picture with Santa

They got balloon animals! A princess crown and a pirate sword that looks like a brown penis

And for the record, we did get a ton of rain this November in NC.