One Tough Broad

You may or maynot realize just how tough Wifey is. She eats pieces of shit like you for breakfast (she eats shit for breakfast?). No, but really her diet is mostly nails and old tires. it's weight watchers approved! This girl is so tough when she does pushups, her body doesn't raise up, she pushes the earth down. She's so tough she doesn't have to open doors, they actively try to get out of her way.

All jokes aside, it's really amazing the pain threshold she can take sometimes. and this is not of my doing. For instance, she went into labor with Evil Genius and drove herself to the hospital. What? The hospital is 20 minutes away, contractions were 15 minutes apart and she drove herself to the hospital after being in labor for 5 hours already. EG came 4 weeks early so we thought it was brackston/hicks and she was going to be sent home. oops. So this is one tough broad we're talking about here.

But this one even makes me wonder. Monday she was trying to clean up some (first mistake, the kids always destroy a clean room like it's a new challenge) and walked into one of their toys, a wooden sliding board. The same one that Morgan decorated for Christmas. But this time she broke the 4th toe on her left foot. It turned blue pretty quickly, and swelled up pretty good. She did not go see a doctor (or even the chiropractor), but she did stop cleaning. She did not put ice on it even after I suggested it. She did call around some to figure out what to do. There's not much you can do for a broken toe. Ice it, elevate the leg, and stay off the foot for a couple of days. Add a cotton ball and tape it to the next toe for stability. Supposedly, it heals quickly but you just have to let it heal. but there's nothing else you can do.

And now for the amazing part: She hasn't missed a beat. She's also fighting a cold this week and feels pretty drab. Still chasing those kids around. Still cooking every night. I mean she hasn't let a single ball drop. She's even still planning to run the half marathon on saturday? WHAT? Can you run a half marathon with a broken toe? I have no idea. But the truth is that we can't get her entry fee back, and she's going to be really happy having my folks keep the kids friday night. So if she takes 5 steps into the race and goes back to the car it's no loss. But it's the only half we have planned before our full mary next year, so she says she's going to try and run the whole thing! DUDE! that's an iron woman if I've ever seen one. So do you think she can do it? not should she do it, but can she do it?

I have another pain related question for you, gentle interwebbers. Wifey's mom has become inspired to start walking every day. She just got new running shoes to combat some foot pain and it hasn't gone away. But the pain is on the top of her right foot, sort of towards the inside. With new shoes not helping it any, I can't figure out what the source of the pain is, or how to treat it. Any ideas? She's only walking, not jogging or running. So I don't think it's impact related. I'm stumped. And I should be pretty good at figuring out pain by now.

My 19 mile treadmill run Sunday took some time to show the repercussions. But it's wednesday morning, I did some yoga today, and I'm finally starting to feel ok again. I had muscle soreness which was expected, but the left shin pain and right knee pain took until yesterday to appear. I also think they went away overnight. And I can highly recommend a product! Bengay Pain Patches. I picked up a box last night, and one patch totally took care of the knee thing. It's very flexible, and stayed put all night long. very cool.

So I'm glad to be feeling good again after a few tough days. I mean, my tough days are nothing like Wifey's tough days. Even Evil Genius rolled herself over one of Bigun's large balls, and split her bottom lip wide open from faceplanting on the hardwoods. Poor thing, bless her heart. But everyone seems to be ok now.

I should also mention Wifey comes by her pain tolerance honestly. Her step-father walked into the living room one day, told Wifey and her sister that he was having a heart attack and going to the hospital, and for them to find their mother and meet him there. Now that's a tough dude, to drive himself to the hospital while having his first heart attack. Don't mention the safety issues behind that. He's had 2 other heart attacks since then and did not drive himself to the hospital, and is actually pretty healthy today.

Oh, and since it's new years eve, have a great holiday tomorrow! I was assigned a task many weeks ago that I still have not completed, and could use help from any fellow Greenvillians reading today. My task was to find a New Year's Eve party that Wifey could wear a dress to. So something kinda fancy. I haven't found anything yet. So I'm running out of time. I also haven't found a babysitter. So this carolina boy might just be in the doghouse tonight.

I LOVE New Year's day. Moreso than new year's eve, the day is the thing. I'll post some thoughts on new year's tomorrow. I'm actually going to work all day tomorrow and friday, even though the office is mostly closed. I missed too much time last week thanks to all of that holiday travel. And my freakin laptop crashed. The one I work from. A few viruses found me, and the removal of said viruses broke too much of my coding software. So I had to format and reinstall everything. Took all day wednesday, friday, and saturday, and a good chunck of monday. I'm still trying to get a few things back. But this is when it's good to be an IT guy. Physician, heal thyself. And tomorrow I can sit here and write code while the football games are on the tv. I might even drink a beer or two?

Look for the Clemson/Nebraska bowl game tomorrow at 1 eastern. Clemson is only about a 45 minute drive from the house, so it's the local favorite college and I'm a big fan of their football program. So Go Tigers tomorrow!

19 Down

We should start from the very beginning, it's a very good place to start. We had 6 different Christmas celebrations with this huge family thing. Tuesday saw me running the girls to charlotte to drop them off with her dad (1) then I met them the next day in Biscoe NC (2) which is sort of in the dead center of the state. That was all of Wifey's dad's side of the family. Charlotte's about a 2 hour drive for us, and Biscoe is about 3.5 hours. so that's 11 hours in the car so far, round trip. We got back home with kids at about 1 am christmas eve, and quickly got them in the bed. Santa came overnight (3) and Bigun got her first bike. Evil Genius got a dollhouse. The bike is the same brand (Javis) as my racing bike, and was on sale at the bike store christmas eve while Wifey was out of town. Wifey and Bigun were both surprised that Santa brought a bike!

And just as the kids were starting to really play with the new toys, we had to pack them up to have breakfast with my folks (4). Luckily, they are here in Greenville. My folks always go overboard on Christmas stuff for the girls. You can't blame my mom, though. After having 3 sons, now she has 2 grand-daughters to get girly stuff for. Christmas night found us at Wifey's mom's place (5) about 1.5 hours from Greenville in a really really small town in the middle of SC. We had to come back here on friday. so that totalled the car time up to 14 hours. Saturday was the final Christmas with all of my mom's side of the family (6) at my parent's house. My dad is an only child, so mom get's the whole family together with all of her sisters (and brother) and all of their kids. it was a big old time. the kids were worn out by the time it was all over. we all slept really well. I haven't pulled the pics off of the camera yet, but i'll post some later this week.

Wifey finally got to clean up some yesterday, so when Bigun woke up this morning, she came in crying that all of her new toys were gone. Why would santa take them back, daddy? just breaks your heart. And proves that we should never clean the house again.

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Long Run

So sunday (yesterday) Wifey's mom & stepdad & our neice came up to keep the kids while we ran for the first time since tuesday.

19 miles

on the treadmill

yep, i thought i was going to die too.

the gym is only open from 12 - 6 on sundays (stupid blue laws) so we were there from 12 - 5 getting the run and accompanying travel/shower/recovery time. it was raining pretty good, and pretty cold too. so I didn't want to try running that far outside in those conditions. And it was the final week of the NFL that I didn't want to miss. At my gym, they have big TV's for all the cardio people to share, and small tv's on the individual machines. The small tv's don't get fox or espn2, that sucks. But the big TV had the Panther's game on Fox. I was 18.4 miles in when Casey kicked that game winning field goal with :01 left. That was so exciting I didn't even realize I was 18.4 miles into the run. And I got to watch the entire Patriots/Bills game on CBS. it wasn't nearly as exciting, but did keep me going through the entire run.

With Wifey's mom watching the kids, we both went in there together. She got started about 10 mins before I did. I don't think she had quite enough hydration, so she still had 1/2 mile left when I finished. Here's my splits:

Miles * Calories * Time
5 * 780 * 52:15
5 * 760 * 54:43
5 * 764 * 54:20
4 * 600 * 46:36

Totals
19 * 2904 * 207:26 ** 3:27:26

Now an actual 10 minute pace would have been 190 minutes instead of 207, but I think that pace will still break 5 hours over the marathon. I felt strong the whole way, no knee pain, no leg pain, and I stayed hydrated. I drank 5 20 oz bottles of liquid (2 gatorade, 3 water), 1 gel, some PowerShots, 2 granola bars. it added up to about 700 calories, which is where I wanted to be. that's 200 calories per hour. I still didn't have to pee when I was done, so maybe I could have used another bottle of water. But it's amazing how much better you feel during a long run when you actually follow a hydration and nutrition plan.

We've only got 2 more long runs before the marathon, 20 and 22 miles. I mean long like over 15 miles. Next saturday Jan 3 is the Traveler's Rest Half Marathon race, and that counts as our "long run" next weekend. I still can't believe that 2009 is here.

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ONE YEAR

It was December 28, 2007 when I stopped smoking. So yesterday was one year exactly since I put down the cigs. I couldn't have kept it up without my training replacement addiction. Running keeps the demons at bay, and I really thought I was going to start again last week. The holiday's make it tough to get all the work done, get some training in, keep the family happy, and over the entire year I have yet to WANT to start smoking again like I did last week. Boy, that was tough. But crossing the one year line is a really big deal for me. I've only made it past the one year mark once before. I really got into heavy weightlifting and we were trying to have a baby.

So that is really cool! Beating down an addiction is certainly one of the most difficult things I've ever tried to do.

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New Video

Michael put a new video up on YouTube. I saw it sunday and he's now off of the babysitting list. Basically, they take one of Bigun's baby dolls and work it over mafia style. Here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHLTLZmA3rs

You can search YouTube for "Baby Doll Gets WORKED" if the link doesn't work. My abs were sore from laughing so hard. You have been warned.

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Boy, I think that's it for now. Hope all of you had as good of a holiday as we did. I'll put some pics up soon of the christmas stuff. Today I'm sitting a lot. My legs are really sore. I can't walk downstairs normally, I'm having to turn around and walk down backwards. crazy. so sore! and i've got a ton of work to catch up on. Have fun this week, it's about time to start losing those holiday pounds.....

The weekend that wasn't

Or at least wasn't anything special to report on. Wifey wimped out on our run saturday. Her mom was watching the kids, so we decided to run together outside rather than go to the gym. I planned the same 13 mile route that I ran last saturday, only we agreed to slow down, monitor the pace a little better, and for me not to run away from her.

Now she did her 18 miles last saturday on the treadmill. I still don't know how. But it was determined that she is not an outside runner. at all. So while she absolutely kicks my tail when running without going anywhere, she prefers walking outside. Actually, the first hill threw off her breathing pattern, and we slowed to walk to reestablish the pattern. and then almost never made it back to a jog. I guess I run with blinders on. I watch the traffic, sure, but I know the landmarks well enough not to be distracted by them. And wifey, as it turns out, likes to stare down the landscapes and discuss the businesses and such.

So our 13 mile route was supposed to be two loops to refill hydration in between. During one of the loops, we circle the high school twice to make the milage even out.

We made it one loop, 5.4 miles, in an hour and 16 minutes. that's pretty slow for a walking pace. I'm not trying to say anything negative here. She had a side stitch that would ramp up every time we tried to pick up the pace. That got pretty limiting. It was also raining. If it wasn't raining, it would have at least been a fun morning outside.

So we went to Atlanta, the holiday party was fine. The food was great, we got to converse with the other drunkards I work with. I had about 6 or 7 glasses of Scotch, and got me a nice little buzz going for the first time in too long. Everyone at the office was amazed at my gravitas for taking on the upcoming b2b half next year, and even more amazed that I got Stu to swim the thing too. His wife is a part owner of the company, and she is taking out more life insurance for him now. Oh, and more people than I thought were expecting me to show up with the mustache and mutton chops still intact. We did have a pretty good laugh about that.

Turns out I was too hungover sunday afternoon for my hopeful bike ride. So I got in a gym workout instead. 4 miles on the elliptical and some weights, about an hour total.

This week I've got to slam those hours out. The holiday travels are going to be crazy, all over freakin south and north carolina. So I've got to bill 5 days worth of work into the 2.5 days i will actually be able to work this week. It's going to be nuts!

Off to holiday

It's a bright saturday morning here in Greenville, SC. It is currently 59 deg outside and sunny, although there was fog here earlier that is slowly wearing off. It's supposed to get into the high 60's today, and I'm about to have a really cool weekend.

I've actually got Wifey talked into running outside this morning. Her folks are here to keep the kids for the weekend. We're going to run 13 miles in about an hour using the same route I used last weekend.

Then it's off to Atlanta for the AAI Holiday party. Should be a good time. They are putting us up at a really fancy hotel. Us and one other guy from Floriday are the only ones coming from out of town. We've got 4 guys in New Orleans, one in Texas, and 4 other guys in Floriday that bailed. slackers. i'm looking forward to drinking heavily and talking shit with Coach Stu about swimming.

Coach Stu is going to be swimming the B2B Half on a relay team with Sarah! How AWESOME is that? toeing the starting line for my first half iron with one of my closest friends is going to be amazing. And since he's only doing the swim, and he's also a semi-pro photographer, he's going to bring his shiny new super expensive Nikon c300 and snap pics of me and sarah for the rest of the time.

I call him Coach Stu because he's my coach. But he makes a living as a web designer for the same company I work for. He's been coaching swimming, basketball, and baseball off and on for the last 20 years. And he's been getting paid to take pictures for longer than that. Stu's a really interesting cat, and if you get the chance to hang out with him around atlanta, tell him I said Hi.

So tomorrow we get to drive back from Atlanta hopefully not too hungover, and Mendy and I are meeting up with some other friends of hers for a bike ride around Donaldson center, a local small airport here. I've never ridden donaldson, but it's really flat and has one long road that is the most popular bike route in town. It's basically a big cirlcle. we're staring down a 1.5 hr ride.

So that's going to be a fun weekend, right? whoot! see you monday. I'll have some party pics to post, and stats from the run & ride.

Feeling Better

My go-live deadline got pushed back to Jan 5 by the client, so there's a lot of pressure off of my back right now. That's a huge relief. And the Christmas concert with Bigun was SOOOOOO CUTE! it instantly put me in a better mood. We all got dressed up for it, and took a family picture before leaving.

Then went to the concert. They put it on like a play with some of the older kids singing first, then bringing in the 3 year olds. Here's one of Bigun in the dead center staring at me and clapping:

Man, that's a lot of kids. I can't believe that many kids were that well behaved for that long. of course we got video of the whole thing too. And we were fighting the Evil Genius to get up there. She wanted to sing with the other kids.

I iced the knee yesterday and did some yoga this morning. Supposed to run 8 miles today. The knee feels better, but not completely healed. I might do more yoga over lunch and get the 8 in tomorrow. And I'm going to ice it more today too. And I'm having some very specific shin pain too. It's just a spot about the width of my finger on the inside of the shin bone. A little too specific to be shin splints, but I'm thinking some more rolling will help.

Also, I remembered that these knee/leg pains started creeping up when I ran out of Calcium supplements last week. I have also been meaining to give the old Glucosamine another try. I already take a multi-vitamin and Vitamin C every day. So I think that's going to take care of it. I still need some new kicks, but couldn't make it to the store yesterday. I'll get out there soon.

Tomorrow is Wifey's birthday! Some of her family is coming into town, it's going to be a blast. She's older than I am so I can't mention her new age. I have learned something in 10 years of marriage. The family is going to keep the kids while we go to Atlanta saturday for the company holiday party saturday night. It's at some hotel, and the company got us a room for the night. So that's going to be a blast. I'm already not looking forward to the hangover sunday morning. nothing like a 2.5 hour drive when you should be sleeping off the scotch. But last year's party was a blast and we had Evil Genius with us. This year with no kids, we should be in rare form. Oh, and we're supposed to run 13 miles before driving down there on saturday. Whew!

So thanks for letting me vent yesterday. It's better than venting with Coors Light (or is it?) One thing that I really hate to see is when your stress reliever becomes stressful. I got that way with golf when I owned the business. When business was small and slow, I could play once a week. I got to be decent, I could go out to any course and shoot in the mid 80's. Then business picked up, and I needed to play golf as my stress outlet. No golf = no relief. Just like how now no running = no nicotine relief = really crabby John. But then I started stressing about how I hadn't been able to play golf for 3 weeks in a row. Not playing had become a source of stress. Once I realized that and mentally made the change to not place the expectation on myself, golf went from a stress source to nothing. And I felt better. When work pressures build, we all mentally displace that stress onto something personal, like snapping at the wife for putting too much salt in the soup or something stupid like that. I'm fairly self perspective, so I will blame a lack of running for why I feel so stressed at work. It's the same personality pattern that makes me try to blame myself for everything, and I have a hard time believing it could be someone else's fault even when it really is. That also means I have a hard time standing up for myself even when I know I'm right and someone else is wrong, like accepting blame for a car wreck that was not my fault. but that's another story for another day.

So don't let your stress reliever become a source of stress! Now I only play golf a couple of times a year if I'm lucky. And I can manage my time still to get in my workouts. I'm going to bike/stretch/yoga/elliptical for as much as I can until the knee/shin feels better. And maybe only run for the long runs over the weekend. RICE and some new shoes I think will help too. Christmas is next week? Then on Jan 3 we're both running our first half marathon. That's only 3 saturday's from now. So that's the most immediate target. Thanks, c ya!

Oh BPD, I Loathe You

I'm generally pissed off at the world today. So my Bipolar Posting Disorder (BPD) is creeping back in. Well there has to be an upside to that. But here's what's bringing me down today:

• It has rained for 12 out of the last 10 days here. The organic gardener in me loves this much rain, and I wish I had my beds better prepared for it. So I'm pissed at the yard for not being finished yet.
• Actually, out of the last 17 days, it has rained for 15 of them. This is why Seattle has such a high suicide rate? I can believe it. One of the sunny days was last saturday when I got the 13 mile run in. More on that later. All this rain, no time on the bike, no easy time outside at all (we don't have a covered porch or any way to sit outside and listen to the rain in this house) is slowly sucking my soul away. I love anything "outside", so no "outside time" doesn't make this John a happy fella.
• I hate deadlines. You might be able to tell, but I'm really a laid back guy. I work hard, and get everything done right. But putting pressure on your time creates stress and makes things go much worse. Mentally, it's a whole different perspective. I mean I'm really, really laid back. I've been known to tell people: "fuck it, dude. it's only cancer. you come, you go, whatever. let's go play golf." And that kind of attitude has worked for me so far. But now I'm so sick of deadlines and time pressure and being forced to work on the weekends that I'm going to throw something heavy in the general direction of the office. Not having the time to complete anything ANYTHING is really starting to get under my skin.
• I hate software testing. I know it's a necessary process, but there's nothing like spending 2 weeks having other people find your mistakes. I test the software to make sure that the objectives are met, I didn't misspell something in the code, text a appears in the database and on the web site where it's supposed to, that kind of thing. Then the software testers get it and find 25 other ways to break the same thing. Better the testers break it than the customers, but try convincing yourself that letting a team of other people point out your flaws directly to your boss is a good thing. You can't do it.
• Did I mention the steady, depressing rain?
• I'm sick of having one day to complete a three day task. Then on day two, you get another three day task dumped on you. Then on day three (when task 1 and task 2 are nowhere close to complete) here comes another three day task and they all have to be done tomorrow before it goes in front of the client. I was actually told a few weeks ago that I needed to have something done by the following monday. I responsded that it would not be done before february. Expectations, anyone?
• I want to finish something! anything. Multiple spreadsheets with different task lists where everyone is expecting the entire list to be finished. Can I just finish one list please!
• Sorry for dumping all of the work crap in here. I guess the pressure is starting to get to me. Truly, I don't believe in pressure. I define stress as a manifestation of fear. And fears are meant to be conquered. So if you can conquer your fears the stress will dissapear. Therefore, I don't feel the pressure even though other people are actively trying to create it on me. That makes you question your competency and how the office folks in Atlanta view this little coder 2.5 hours north up I-85. And THAT will stress you more than the actual pressure they are trying to create.
• Not only are the pressure and deadlines affecting my psyche, they are creating an environment that is not good for health and family. I've been missing workouts, getting them in when i'm really too worn down to make it effective, stress eating..... and missing family time. I work at home so I can spend more time with the kids. Now I have to work the same 8 (or 12) hours a day that you do, I just do it from home. So I go upstairs for dinner and get to play with the kids until bedtime. Then crash with the wife and watch some tv or whatever relaxing we get to do. Eating dinner with the family and then going back downstairs to write more code defeats this purpose. Leaving the kids with grandma for one night (saturday night) so I can drive back home (1.5 hours) to work a full day on a sunday over thanksgiving weekend really really defeats this purpose. and then that deadline got pushed back anyway.

I really appreciate all of the advice from the last post about my knee pain. I've never considered Advil the enemy, I thought it was more of a necessary aid like running socks. I've always taken it before running, well always since I started the marathon training plan back in October. One of the benefits of working from home is a flexible schedule. So I usually get some things done in the morning, then go workout about 10:30 or 11 am. yesterday, my workout was a 4 mile run. I hit the gym about 8:30 pm. So I was mostly pissed, having a huge nicotine craving that started about 2:30, and ready for a good run to make everything feel better. Running makes the stress go away, right? that's how we keep ourselves healthy?

It was not a good run. I really wanted to post today that I ran without advil, and everything was fine, no knee pain and my form was great. But I can't do it. The knee pain kicked in about 3 steps into the run, and didn't let up. I had to stop and walk twice. during only 4 miles! Only 3 weeks ago I ran 12.2 miles without walking. So this is not cool. And it's not an aerobic capacity thing. it's a pain thing.

The source: I'm trying to narrow it down.

• Since I'm pissed at the world, is the world getting pissed right back at me?
• I weighed in before the run at 202. oh boy, that's not cool. Stress eating/weight gain. I'm frustrated with my nutrition right now. I've run out of interesting healthy things to eat. The week after thanksgiving I was weighing in at 196. 6 lbs makes a huge difference on knee pain.
• The extra weight puts extra pressure on the impact points. This could be it.
• It's been more than a few months since I went to see my chiropractor. I miss him.
• The marathon training plan is 539 miles, I started with new shoes. We're over halfway through now, and I do well to get 300 miles from a pair of shoes. They say when you get a new pain, blame the shoes and buy a new pair. this knee thing is definitley new and definitely pain.

So now I'm in uncharted territory. I have no idea what to do about this. Here's what I'm thinking, and I'm COUNTING on you to tell me what's right or wrong here.

• New shoes? I haven't been tracking my milage on these shoes as I am just that lazy. I am going to take Marcy's advice and keep my next pair of shoes in the box and write the miles on the box as I use them. I hate shoes (stop laughing Gazelle) that wear out this fast.
• Watch the diet? Wait and see if getting back under 200 will help the pain? I've been eating pretty bad lately thanks to outside influences. Non-healthy pizzas, even (gasp!) der ultimate evil McDonalds once for only the second time this year. I was sweating McD's grease out on the treadmill last night. I was disgusted and that's hard to do.
• Make a chiro appointment. the toughest part about this is getting the time away from the desk to get out there. And paying for it.
• I hate HATE hate HATE hate HATE western medical doctors. Need proof? I will always choose the organic alternative. But I might need some kind of a bone scan or MRI. Both knees? that's weird. My left shin is showing some pain, and I've had shin splint problems through the whole plan. Maybe a stress fracture? Heavy runners like me have more impact problems than you thin folks. And you have to fuel up so much for the long runs that it's not easy to lose significant weight during a marathon training plan.
• Stop skipping workouts. I think this might be a biggie. With work pressures, the cross training days have become web coding days. Yoga time has become coding time. So only running, and missing some runs thanks to the work pressure is taking its toll. I think this may be the biggest culprit.
• More stretching. See yoga note above. I was the most comfortable running when I was the most flexible.
• RICE? I haven't been icing the knees, but I do keep them elevated while at my desk downstairs. And I'm always at my desk. So maybe adding some ice during the day, before & after workouts, or whenever will help. i've got the rest and elevation. What do you do about compression?

Please add anything else you can think of to this list. THIS is frustrating. Everything is frustrating.

And because BPD must have an upside, this one is short but really cool. Bigun's kindergarten class is putting on their Christmas show at the church today. A bunch of 3, 4, and 5 year olds on stage singing carols has got to be one of the cutest things you've ever seen. I'll be sure and get some pics. It's Bigun's first time performing on stage and she's super excited. We already picked up some flowers to give her after the show.

I hope your day is at least better than mine!

What a Weekend

It was a busy and fun weekend here around the Flynn house. Wifey's dad came down from Raleigh to visit, and brought our niece from Rock Hill as well. It's fantastic to have in-laws that you get along well with. They kept the kids occupied while we got to go do stuff.

Saturday I got in the long run. It was supposed to be 18 miles. I took Wes's advice and used a route that MapMyRun said was 6.1 miles, so I could loop through it 3 times and fill up the CamelBak between laps. It is a cool route. I grew up here in Greenville. The route is basically one road and a small kick out loop. The 6 mile part even avoids any major intersections so there's no traffic problems, and it's one of the few roads in Greenville with sidewalks the whole way so it gets a lot of runners. The route starts at a grocery store which is a common starting place for group bike rides too. It goes down where I went to elementary school first. And now that the leaves are gone, I can see through a wooded lot to the backyard of the house I grew up in (1978 - 1992) and the backside of that house. I've driven past that house a few times since we moved out, but it's been a really, really long time since I've seen the backside of the house and the backyard. That was really cool. Then the route makes it's one turn and goes down to Eastside High School (class of '93), loops back up to E. North St and back to the grocery store.

Now MapMyRun said that route was 6.1 miles. So I strategically place the car on the side of the parking lot where I thought it would be closer to 6. Then I ran the first lap and the Garmin said it was only 5.4 miles? What's up with that? The 5.4 mile split time was ok, but I didn't record the time. I figured the second lap I would loop around by the high school twice and that should give me enough milage to make up for the dissapearing half mile.

That's what I did, but the second lap had considerably more pain. I rembered then that I had missed my Advil dosage before the long run started. That always leads to a more painful run than I had imagined. Boy it caught up to me on saturday. By the time I made it back up E North st towards the car, I was having some hip pain (not as bad as I've seen before) and some pretty bad knee pain. I would have been fine if I had remebered the Advil, I think. But that meant the end of lap 2 was the end of the run. The garmin said 13.01 miles, 2:27:55 time. not too bad.

With no football on tv, it felt great to get back outside. It is a different approach than having a place to store all the water bottles and nutrition, and a nearby bathroom. The preparation you have to do for an outside long run is really daunting. I'm going to have to come up with a checklist that I can reuse. If you have a long run checklist, please email it to me. That would be a big help.

Wifey was a little under the weather saturday. So after I got back, we did some christmas shopping without the kids. Then sunday, she got her 18 in on the treadmill. She also let her nutrition slack off a bit and paid the price towards the end. Looks like she needs a checklist too.

This part of the training plan is great, we're finally on the downhill side of it towards the marathon. 20 long runs on the plan (a 20 week plan) and we've got 11 done, 9 to go. But now they are getting long enough to not have back to back increases anymore. Last week was 17 miles, this week 18. Now it starts to stagger. 13 next saturday before the office christmas party, then 19 the next week after christmas stuff. Then our TR half marathon race the following saturday, followed by 20 the week after that. It is so going to help with recovery time. The long runs don't get any shorter than 13 until taper, but this alternating week thing is fantastic.

And OMG I am swamped with other shiz to do! I know it's a full moon, but dang i'm ready to get some of this little stuff knocked off the to-do list. Does your to-do list fill up with a full moon? Mail this, fax that, print these pics for my aunt, go to the computer store for a new usb keyboard, gaaaaaaa the list doubles every day and nothing gets done. e.v.e.r. I even overslept this morning. that doesn't help. Git 'r' done!

Nice and Clean

(to be sung like a B.B. King song)

The 'stache is gone! Baby the 'stache is gone!

It feels good to be clean again. I'm sure I'll have a pic soon, couldn't get one this morning. But last night I did get to hang out with Morgan some and fix his PC, we did have a good laugh. And then I shaved the face clean. The sideburns had to go too. Sometimes, I'll have longish sideburns, but today they just felt dirty.

The mustache actually made me FEEL like a pervert. It affected my psyche in strange and twisted ways. I was craving tank tops and chewing tobacco. I wanted to put a hatchet in my belt and go ask the school down the road if they needed any substitute teachers. I was searching cars.com for an El Camino. I mean, that's just not right.

Do you guys skype? it's the main way I communicate with the office in atlanta and the clients that are all over the country. It's such an easy way to video call people, it's just like having a face to face conversation. Too cool. Yesterday, I had my boss and a few others on a skype call in the conference room at the office, and I actually saw how hard they were laughing. The boss was doubled over slapping the table. In the CR, they use an overhead projector as the computer monitor, so there was my smiling mug with 'stache on an 8' screen feeding them some of the lines from your comments. Needless to say, the goal was accomplished.

How could I (eye) yes I forget about Gay Porn Star?!? Something about that mustache had me channelling gay porn stars from 30 years ago. Gaaaa~!

The best laughs came from Marcy and Viper, so they are the contest winners. The prize is the last two Slow Runner CD's. I will mail them if you want to provide a shipping address, or I'll email you a link to download the MP3's. Of course, Slow Runner has a few songs up on their MySpace page if you want to check them out. Yes, I'm shamelessly promoting my brother's band again. Mermaids and Shiv had a limited distribution, but the album before those (No Dissasemble) had a large scale nationwide release by a major record label. You can buy their stuff on iTunes, there's a Slow Runner channel on Pandora, and the whole thing is kind of a big deal. I'm just a little proud.

I liked Sarah's comment too, it made me laugh, but the office folks not so much, so she get's the mp3's too. I'm surprised nobody threw in on the movie names. The first block came from Office Space - Diedrich Bader's character. The next few about Mister Zero were from When Harry Met Sally. Those were pretty obvious. The "who wants to go for a mustache ride" quote is from Super Troopers, a small time cop flick from Broken Lizard. It's one of the funniest things to watch if you're not sober. I love me some movies, and am always dropping obscure quotes into normal conversation. Wifey scares me sometimes with her obscure movie knowledge.

My www.securedentalforms.com software was actually installed at the first client's office yesterday, and they actually liked it! Whoot! Needless to say, that was a HUGE deadline that had me coding and testing until midnight too often this week. That's why I still have no fitness news to report.

I do need some assitance from the Greenville folks, though. I'm supposed to run 18 miles for the long run on saturday, and there is no college football this weekend. That makes the treadmill deadly boring. So I need a route. I've got a 9 mile route that I could run twice, but I'd rather find a loop to run once. Although the 9 mile route would let me refill the Camelback halfway through. hmmm. So I'm not sure what to do there. I'm also not sure that I can run 18 miles on saturday when I haven't run since last saturday's 17 mile long run. Just some cross training and Yoga. Wifey has to do it too. And her dad's coming into town for a visit this weekend. So it's going to be fun.

So have a great weekend! Evil Genius has been into some seriously evil stuff lately. Yesterday she threw popcorn on the floor, then yanked my sweater off of my back and drug it through the popcorn. Pure evil. She is, however, underweight. At 19 months old she only weighs just over 17 lbs. The ped is getting really concerned, and it's starting to bother me too. So without introducing Evil to true evil (McDonald's) how can we pack some pounds on that kid? How do you get your kids to eat? She's a grazer, so she's always stuffing something into her mouth. Typically, she'll throw her dinner on the floor, then get Bigun distracted and go eat Bigun's plate. Then later come back to eat her original dinner off of the floor. And she's still underweight. I'm running out of ideas here. And yes, we're just that lazy.

Caption Contest

Yea, I'm doing the drywall down at the new McDonald's

Watchout for your cornhole, dude.

Two chicks at the same time. I reckon if I had a million bucks I could make that happen

Don't F*ck with Mister Zero

Mister Zero knew you were getting a divorce before you did? Mister Zero knew.

Who wants to go for a mustache ride?

Monday night I decided to shave the beard. With all the running this year, it seems to be in the way more and harder to maintain. While I normally stay covered throughout the winter, I decided to cut back this year just for fun. Then Wifey talked me into this silly mustache for a few days. This is only a joke, Morgan and I are going to have a good laugh about it whenever I can get over to his house to fix his computer, then it's gone. In the meantime, we are having a good laugh about it. Some folks from the office want me to keep it until the company holiday party in a few weeks, but I'm not sure I can hold out that long. In the meantime, I think it's pretty funny.

Most of the time, a mustache makes a guy look like a pedophile. But you can't tell him that unless you preface it with "no offense, but" because then you won't get your ass kicked. But with the magic of "no offense" you are kind of safe. I dare you, find someone who is not a cop but still has a mustache, and tell him "no offense, but that mustache really makes you look like a pedophile". That guy will want to kick your ass, but is contractually obligated not to thanks to the No Offense Code. It's kind of like the Bro Code.

So I need a better caption for that picture. All I can come up with is the movie quotes listed below the pic. I have no idea what the prize will be, but I'll pick the best caption you come up with and send you something. There is also a second place prize for the first person to name all three movies that those quotes came from. The first two movies should be obvious, but the mustache ride thing is a little more obscure. But I have to go back to the office people with something better than just those movie quotes to see if I can stretch out the laughs for another day or two. Here's another one, just in case you need more inspiration:

Strangers have the best candy

Anything? This guy drives a dirty work van with no windows like the janitor from Scrubs. He lost a strange battle with fried cheese last year. gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme!

I promise the prizes will be cool. I'll come up with something decent. Maybe even an autographed print of one of these pics!

A Decent 17

Boy 17 miles is a long dang way. We both made it, though. here are my splits:

Miles Calories Time (mins)
5 750 54
4.5 670 50
4 620 43
3.5 520 38
_________________
17 2560 185 (3 hrs 5 mins)

Looks like a fun way to spend a saturday, huh? I followed this with some dinner, lots of medication and 12 solid hours of sleep. Me and the kids all slept in until about 10:30 sunday morning. Wifey was the early bird.

Of course then last night I got like no sleep at all. So I'm running on fumes today. and getting crushed at work.

I'm pretty pleased with those split times. I'd rather see closer to 170 minutes, a 10 min/mile pace. But I can live with 185. That pace will still break 5 hours in the marathon.

More fun and games later. Congrats to everyone who ran a race this weekend. anyone heard David's time yet at kiawah?

Holidays are here

Well, the holiday decorations are up. It's great to see the house come alive during the christmas season. And I've got it in pictures! This one is the whole fam around the tree. This was at 10:30 am, so you can tell which side of the family is dressed :) and that lopsided Charlie Brown star just cracks me up.

The girls with the stockings -- our fireplace is downstairs for santa's visit, so we hung the stockings on the hall tree this year. I think there's something humorous there. Plus those poses make them look like rap stars. Don't call it a comeback, they been there for years, rockin the peers and puttin suckers in fears. watchin the tears come down like a monsoon, listen to the bass go boom! (mama said knock you out?)

Morgan came by to help out, and his employment prospects are looking up! He's got a second interview this week for a great accounting job. Here he has just helped Bigun decorate her sliding board with colored lights. She gives it the big thumbs up! If you haven't seen Morgan's YouTube video contribution to the crumbling standards of american cluture you should give it a watch. Dippin and Cussin is a riot! He made it with Michael in Charleston.

Then Evil Genius decided to put on a strip show during dinner. I still can't figure out how the veg got on her chest with her arms tied up like that. But you have to admit it's a creative way to get out of eating your vegetables. And it's both evil (no veg) and genius. Bwahahaha.....

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I've been leaving home to workout extremely late this week. like 8:30 pm after getting the younguns to bed. but wednesday I got in a fantastic weightlifting session. I am so sore for the first time in months! It was a really, really bad day at work. I had a huge, uncontrollable nicotine craving start about 2 pm. by 4:30 I was hitting the scotch trying to make it through the workday. Then after dinner, bathtime for the girls, and getting them down for the night I made it to the gym. About halfway through the weightlifting, the craving went away and I was able to act like a human again.

Last night was also late. I made it to the gym about 9 pm, and ran 7 miles on the treadmill. Just took it easy, walked whenever I felt like it. but it did work a lot of the lactic acid out of the muscles from the weightlifting. So it was a good run. But I like to be in bed by about 10 pm, not getting home from the gym at 10:45 like last night. ouch.

Weightlifting isn't as important (I don't think) until I really get back into tri training mode next year. But it sure felt good to take out some agression after a really bad day at the office. And I really wanted to get some ab work in to start trying to bring out the 6 pack again. I've been keeping it well insulated in the fridge for to many years now. And I guessed with my steadily declining waistline it should be making a return appearance this summer.

So are there any races this weekend? Good luck if you've got one. I've got a 17 mile long run planned for saturday. I don't know if there will be (or if there will ever be) enough football on tv to run 17 miles on the treadmill. Gotta figure that one out today.

2009 is almost here

Yep. 2009 is almost here. one more month to go. I'm lining up my schedule now. wanted to put these out there so you can tell me if I'm crazy or not. This is only a starting point, i'm sure the gaps will fill in with smaller 5k's or something.

1/3 - half marathon in Travelers Rest - real near the house

2/14 – myrtle beach marathon - Our first marathon ever

4/4 - cooper river bridge run 10k - This is in Charleston, SC on the coast. My middle brother lives there, and he wants me to run this one with him. It's a real destination race. You should consider it if you've never done it. The bridge is amazing, and there's going to be 50,000 people running this thing!

4/25 – Langley Pond international distance tri – I really want to get an international distance tri done in the spring, this one’s in aiken, which is about an hour and a half drive southeast from me. Also, the course looks appropriate for my first Oly. Boy it's going to be great to get back into tri season again!

5/3 – Lake Murray sprint – near Wifey's mom’s place at the lake. This is sort of in the middle of South Carolina, at a large and fairly warm lake.

6/27 – maybe a triathlon here in Greenville running as a team with stu from the office swimming, I do the bike and Wifey does the run part

7/12 – Raleigh Sprint tri goes near Wifey's dad's house - one other note: My birthday is 7/7, and Wifey has a sister whose birthday is 7/12 (but she's way older than me). So it might not be the best time to go to her dad's house to blow off my birthday and crash her sister's. This one might get dropped.

8/16 – Greenville Sprint tri – this is the one I did 2008 and you should do it with me 2009

11/7 – Beach 2 Battleship half iron - The big boy. My first half. 70.3 miles of sweat, sand, and sheer determination. I have no dreams of turning iron one day. Just trying to avoid the Iron Lung. So I think I'm going to get a 70.3 tattoo on my right calf if I can finish this bad boy.

So I'm staring down a half mary, full mary, 10k, 3 sprint tri's, 1 oly, and the b2b half iron. Did I mention this is only my second year racing? 3 tri's in SC, 2 in NC. Everything is fairly flat. Only the Greenville sprint is listed as a moderate course. nothing too difficult. And 3 running only races. I still have to come up with a century or half century bike ride for the summer or fall. But I think I'm going to join the local cycling club the Greenville Spinners in the spring. And maybe the Greenville Track Club. Supposedly there is a Greenville Triathlon club too, but I can't find anything about it. If they are that disorganized, I'll just stick with the Spinners and GTC.


Setup Events is the largest and most organized triathlon organization here in south carolina, north carolina and virginia. You will not find a better group of race leaders. They just announced the 2009 schedule December 1st, so I was finally able to get a plan together. I'm sure I'll throw in some more running races, I really want to do the Ache Around the Lake again. But seriously, if you want to come down south for a race, check the setup events calendar. They are the best.

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And since I have to throw in something girlish to break up this manly, testosterone filled charade, something really cool happened last night!

I tried on my "skinny" jeans, and they fit like a glove! Who does that the week after thanksgiving? What kind of man seriously has a pile of skinny jeans lying around? How did he eat that much cake and then get into the skinny jeans? All valid questions. the answers: nobody smart, a very gay man, and it must have been the running that did it. But the belt has been holding on at the smallest notch for like a week now, so I thought I would give the skinny jeans another shot. I'm still filled with surprise. 3 of the 5 pairs fit well. They will be a little more comfy in another week or two, I'm sure. But I'm still quite happy.

Also, we got our christmas tree last night. The girls are ecstatic. They are ready to decorate the bottom 3 feet this morning. My youngest brother Morgan is coming over, and I'm sure I'll have some pics to share soon. It's going to be bad ass christmas tree decorating in action. Working from home has its benefits sometimes. This kind of makes the social depravation worth it.

ON LIKE DONKEY KONG

Oh shiz it happened

Payment Status: Completed
Registration type: Individual
Registrant: John Flynn
Event: Beach2Battleship Half 2009
Event Category: Age Group

Yep, I signed up.

Today is the first day of online registration for this bad boy from setup events. I am actually going to freaking do a half iron? www.beach2battleship.com has the event details. This page here has the registration and their standard stuff.

So who's with me? any other takers on this bad boy? it's november 7th 2009, very late in the season. But that gives me enough time for me to prepare.

IT"S MY FIRST HALF IRON after all.

Holy crap, i might be crazy. I can't believe I just did that! wow.