Halloween is here

First the bad news. My 5 miler yesterday sucked. Oh, the pain. I only made it 3 miles before giving up. Both ankles were grinding. Shin splints in both legs. And some knee/hip pain in my right leg that today feels like a tight IT band. ouch. So my plan for today is to stretch a ton, and maybe even see if i can find some yoga on TV to follow along with. Tomorrow is supposed to be 12 miles, but it won't happen in this much pain. and that really really sucks. fo really reals, yo.

Wednesday I ended up pulling a 12 hour shift at work so I missed my cross-training day. I think that's part of the problem. Just running with no different muscle stimulus is bound to create patterns in muscle tear/rebuild and bone impact tolerances. That's why every marathon training plan out there has at least one day per week of cross training or active recovery, right? So do you guys think more stretching and cross training will take care of this?

I also ordered The Stick yesterday, a foam roller muscle massager. It was recommended by Marcy and Wes to roll out my legs after a good run. It is supposed to aid with lactic acid soreness and recovery times. So I'm really looking forward to using it.

Halloween:

Tonight for my Atlanta peeps, my brother Michael is playing a show at Eddie's Attic. He doesn't tour very much anymore now that he's married and off the record label, so go see this show if you don't already have plans. Paste Magazine is sponsoring the tour with William Fitsimmons and Caitlin Crosby, and they are going all over the country. Tour details are on the Paste website, and this is a really big deal. William is playing with him as the opening act, and Slow Runner is his band during the headline act. You want to go see this show, it seriously kicks ass. Slow Runner has some songs on MySpace if you want to check out his music.

So last night we took the girls to the Halloween festival at the church where Bigun goes to kindergarten and had to snap a few pics in their costumes:

I'm growing the winter coat again. It really does protect my face when running outside on a windy day. Littleun was a cat, and here's the witch with her cat:

That is so cute! Speaking of what's not so cute, I found this pic the other day and scanned it in. THIS is hysterical. It's me with my high school sweetheart Christie (she's married now) at a prom we went to with a 70's theme. So this was taken in May 93, and is proof that I was thin in high school.

OMG that is too funny. I still have that jacket hanging around somewhere, but it doesn't fit anymore.

Good luck to anyone racing this weekend, I'm still thinking about signing up for a 5k race that benefits lung cancer research next weekend.

Fuel

I've been pondering this post for a while now. It seems I have found a combination of food that promotes running energy and aids weight loss, which is the right combination for me right now. And when I've found something that works, I want to put it out there for public scrutiny. So please comment and tell me where I went wrong or right. And if you can get a few new ideas or perspectives, that's great!

First, the boring stuff. I did my 3 mile run yesterday outside from the house and boy it was cold. I mean nipple freezing cold, lungs itching cold, holy crap I need to get some warmer running gear cold. I didn't time the run, but I did pretty well. It was just a recovery run, so I didn't push it too hard. Knees and ankles feel ok, feet are ok, but those hills around the house just shred my shins. I need to get back to the chiropractor soon. and one day I'll post the story of why I love my chiropractor soooo much.

Today is cross training day, which usually means a bike ride to the gym and back for some weights. Since it's only 45 degress outside today, I'm seriously thinking about driving. Then tomorrow is a 5 mile tempo run.

FUEL:
My food strategy is a big mash up of other plans. Wifey is a lifetime member on Weight Watchers, and she does most of the cooking. So I get tons of WeWa healthy food. I love Men's Health magazine, and after the Greeville Sprint tri I started their Abs Diet, which centers around 12 Power Foods. But neither of those focus on runner's caloric demands, so I had to find some runner's fuel sources and learn a lot about muscular endurance and how the body handles running. I swear I could have been a doctor if I hadn't gone into the IT world, and I am a research junkie. There was even a time when I was basically a Reproductive Endocrinologist without a medical degree, but that's another post for another day. But that whole process made me learn how the body works and all operational aspects of muscles and now endurance.

WeWa is basically low fat high fiber. Fiber acts like a toothbrush for your large intestines/colon. So all of these body cleansers/home colonics/bacteria cleaning plans can actually be outdone by some fiber in your diet every day. Here's Wifey's daily breakfast and why it works. I use it as a mid-morning snack sometimes:

• 1/2 cup Fiber One cereal
• 1 cup Dannon Lite Vanilla Yogurt
• 1 cup Cherios
• 2 Tbls ground Flaxseed

The Fiber One is your colon toothbrush, Cherios and flaxseed are great cholesterol fighters, and the Yogurt instead of milk adds active cultures/bacteria and tons of great protein. So it's only 2 WeWa points and has tons of good whole carbs for runner's fuel.

The Abs Diet is based around 12 Power Foods that are supposed to provide enough carbs for energy and protein to build muscle. Big weightlifters & bodybuilders eat as much as 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight daily. This means I used to eat 6 eggs and 4 chicken breasts every day, plus 2 turkey sandwiches.... I used to be really into heavy weighlifting, so I packed on this many pounds on purpose. More on that later. To get six pack abs in six weeks, you have to combine at least 2 power foods in each of 6 meals a day. Some of their power foods are high in fat (like almonds and peanut butter) and not WeWa compatible. They also actively push whey protein powder (a synthetic) which I won't use anymore.

As an aside, it's worth noting that when I was into heavy weighlifting I took creatine and whey protein powders twice a day on all lifting days. These made me fart like you wouldn't believe. I mean I could really clear the room. Wifey was not exactly "on board" with me taking those things. But they did get the job done. The muscles were stoked for growth and strength building.

I did the Abs Diet for 6 weeks, lost 2 lbs and 2 inches from my waist. So no 6 pack abs, but it was nice to have the pants fit again. They push weighlifting as a calorie burn medium instead of cardio so I knew I would have to adapt it for runner's fuel. So I've found some of my own runner's power foods.

• 1/2 cup Oatmeal (power food)
• 1/2 cup Milk (power food)
• 1/2 cup Water (power food)
• a handful of rasins
• 1 whole bannana cut up
• 1 Tbls brown sugar

This has become my breakfast every day (thanks again Caitlin). When I changed from a big ol' Jethro bowl of cold cereal (~500 calories) to this oatmeal mix (~180 calories and tons of fiber) is when I finally broke through the 200 lbs barrier a couple of weeks ago. The oats have good whole carbs and is a main source of glycogen replenishment for muscle development. Milk is a key source for low calorie protien (fat free skim milk of course), and the rasins/bannana give me great fiber scrubbing power and good whole carbs too. You really can't eat too many natural fruits, I think. The brown sugar is in there just for flavor and some carbs. Recent studies have shown that there's no difference (health-wise) between brown sugar and plain white sugar. But the brown sugar just doesn't taste quite as sweet to me.

So the basic outline is to eat six smaller meals a day, supplement when necessary and use whole foods (not bars or shakes) for each of your six meals. Try to incorporate some power foods into each meal, and be sure to have some runners fuel OR fiber in there too. It's tough to get both runners fuel and fiber in the same dish.

So after that great breakfast I typically snack (meal #2) sometime between 9 am and 11 am, or about an hour before that day's workout. Sometimes I'll have Wifey's breakfast meal for a snack, I've also been really into these:

• 3 Whole graham crackers broken up into 12 pieces
• spread Peanut Butter on each piece
• sprinkle the whole thing with rasins

Peanut butter is a Power Food, just don't get the Jif crap. Go all natural or organic, as regular Jif is full of HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) and partially hydrogenated oils. But PB has a beneficial fat, tons of good carbs for runner's fuel, the graham crackers are low calorie and full of good carbs, and rasins have tons of fiber. Use celery instead of graham crackers (called Ants on a Log) for more fiber less carbs if you want. This is also great Kid's fuel. My girls love it for breakfast.

I work out mid morning, and the harder workouts (5 miles or more, or weight lifting workouts) are usually followed by a protein bar. I don't count this as a meal or snack because the protein/calories are being absorbed within 10 mins of consumption for muscle recovery, and I am usually hungry for lunch by the time I get home from the gym.

Low fat is the key for lunch, I think. I love a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with mustard, texas pete (yes, I'll put hot sauce on anything), dill, and 2% milkfat american cheese. Turkey is a power food for the low fat, low sodium, high protein content. And the lowfat cheese and good carbs in the bread are also very beneficial. Add a side of Baked Lay's potato chips and the whole thing is only about 400 calories, low fat, high protein. Great diet food.

I'm also really into omlette's. Mix 3 eggs with some milk, texas pete, salt, pepper, dill and put into a hot pan. Top it with 2 slices of turkey, lowfat shredded cheese, and spinach (and maybe basil if I've got some in the garden). Slide it off of the pan onto a plate and fold in half, top with more cheese. Add a side of whole wheat toast and that's a great lunch. High protein, about 200 calories, low fat. Power Foods are spinach, ww toast, turkey and eggs. But there's not a lot of runner's fuel in there.

I tend to eat the afternoon snack at my desk while I'm writing code. All afternoon. So my surprise power food is pretzel sticks. Yes, pretzel sticks. I also love baby carrots. I've been known to eat almost a pound of carrots at a time, and I like to eat a few carrots then some almonds. I ran out of almonds and switched to pretzels about the time I switched my breakfast to the oatmeal. And that's when the pounds really started falling off.

So for about 3 hours every day I keep a small pile of pretzels on my desk and between lines of code I'll grab a carrot. Every 2 or 3 carrots I'll throw in a few pretzels. The combination of salty and sweet is unreal. The carrots are high fiber & have almost no calories. The pretzels have tons of good carbs and are great runners fuel. WeWa lets you eat all of the raw veg you can stuff down, so I don't limit my carrot intake. The combo ends up being about 200 calories for 3 hours worth of food. wow. And sometimes, I'm so full I end up eating a smaller dinner as a result. Since I work out in the mornings, the carbs go directly into my now depleted glycogen stores. You couldn't design a synthetic supplement to perform any better than that.

Wifey cook's dinner, we eat vegetarian at least one night a week. It's usually 7 WeWa points or less, and I've got so many recipes I can't post them all here. Last night it was meatball subs and onion rings. 5 points. yea, that is amazing. Email me if you want the recipe, I'll have to get Wifey to write it down.

Finally after we get the kids to bed we both have a snack. She likes lowfat popcorn, I usually go back to my jethro bowl (just freakin huge) of cold cereal. Not all cereals are bad. I like cherios, corn flakes, special k, which are all low calorie and good carbs. I admit I still blow the portion size here. But sleeping with carbs on your stomach will fuel the muscles for the next day's workout, and I usually need to get another serving of milk in.

Final Thoughts:

The basic plan is low fat high fiber high/good carbs. Get at least 3 half cup servings of milk every day, more is better. Get some power foods at each meal. Be sure to get plenty of runners fuel the day before a workout (any workout) and the afternoon after a workout. Which really means plenty of runners fuel every day. Stay all natural or organic wherever you can. No HFCS or partially hydrogenated oils. ever. Get some protein within 10 mins of finishing your workout, I take the bar before getting a shower. I also drink at least 12 glasses of water a day. And Jethro is a reference to the Beverly Hillbillies.

Final power food:

Gummy worms. Yep. 12 gummy worms (Publix brand) is only 1 WeWa point. They are addictive, and will satisfy any sweet tooth if you like the texture. I love the texture.

So that's how I fuel. I've been making good speed and endurance gains on my runs, and losing weight like crazy on this plan. And I love it. I'm never hungry. Hunger means there is a caloric imbalance (you need some) which leads to a swing in the other direction (eat too much). So by eating when you aren't hungry, you stay much more balanced. I loved the Abs Diet for men, there's also an Abs Diet for Women if you are intersted, pick up a copy. It gives a very solid explanation of how active people process food.

I also want to throw out there that the office wants me in Atlanta next tuesday and wednesday. Stu at the office is also my long distance swimming coach, so we're going to get in the pool. But if any of you ATL folks want to get together for lunch, drinks after work, or other horseplay like a workout, please let me know. I'd love to meet up with anyone, and it's only the second time in 15 months of employment there that I've had to spend the night in atlanta. So it's a rare thing that I have after work time to meet up. See you soon!

11 down, 12 to go

Why do I always forget about nipple chafing until it's too late? OUCH!

So there's tons of good news to report on today. We had a garage sale saturday and took in some extra spending cash, more than I was expecting! Then I took off for my 11 mile run. Wifey did hers friday, and just reported that it was a heck of a long way. So I was ready to roll.

I split it up into 2 segments. It was raining until the football games were on, so I went to the gym to use the treadmill and watch football. We've got to set some priorities here, there's only 3 or 4 games left in the college football season for most teams. The treadmills only let you program for one hour, so I figured I would do 5.5 miles, reset the counters and do another 5.5 miles. The first block went by pretty good. I hit 3.1 miles (5k) in under 30 mins which I've never done before. So now I'm looking for a 5k race to PR at. I hit the 5 mile mark at just over the time for the Ache Around the Lake race, and finished the 5.5 mile block in just over 53 minutes. Not too bad! I burned 790 calories during that one, and most of the time my speed was set at 6.5. I slowed it down to a 3.8 walking pace only twice.

While I was waiting for the machine to reset the counters I did a little bit of stretching just to stay warm. Then it was back on that horse for another 5.5. This one took 59 minutes and 810 calories. I stretched the speed up to 6.7 for quite a while, but had to walk more too. Still, I ran the entire last 2.5 miles at a 6.7 so I wouldn't have to reset the counters again when they hit 60 mins. That means I did most of my walking early in the segment, so I had energy to finish strong. Not exactly a negative split, but I'm ok with that.

Still, 11 miles in 112 minutes is just over a 10 minute pace and I burned 1600 calories. Holy crap, that's not bad. And while some nipple chafing crept in towards the end, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was during the 8 mile and 9 mile runs from a couple of weeks ago. Still, I have got to remember the band-aids for next week's 12 miler. This stuff doesn't play.

Then yesterday we had to go to a family reunion in Charlotte that took all day. Why do they always plan these things during Pather's home football games? So the drive was a bitch, the girls were screaming most of the time, but we all had a great time while we were there. Wifey's dad always drools over the girls which is wonderful. This time he actually told us that we couldn't leave as long as he was holding Littleun. Like she was ransom or something. He's nuts and so much fun. Everybody was glad to see us, and it was great to hang out with those folks for a bit. But I was standing for way too long after an 11 mile run the day before.

So today the lactic acid has really set in. My quads are really sore, hams and glutes are feeling some age. My feet were killing me by the end of the reunion and they still hurt some. Ankles and knees are ok, calf muscles are pretty sore. Most of the family was blown away that we were training for a marathon, so they excused the picky food choices and constant need to sit down.

Work is busting chops today. But the next post has fuel updates & an anniversary question. no time left today! I weighed in at 196 at the gym saturday, 2 lbs down from tuesday's weigh in! How exciting! I think I've found a food pattern that works pretty well. More details to come.

Tag, you're it

Thanks to Girl On Top for tagging me. I love these lists (making them and reading others) and this is kind of a cool one to start with.

Rules: Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve answered the questions on your blog.

10 Years Ago (1998):
1. I graduated from Appalachain State University
2. Moved from Boone, NC to Greensboro NC
3. I was a truck driver. Actually, I was in the management trainee program for Wilson Trucking. I started out by pulling a pallet jack on the loading dock floor from 6 pm - 4 am, then I moved up to driving a forklift, then a large u-haul, then finally (by october 1998) to 18 wheelers. That's a fantastic use for a degree in Communications, Radio and TV Production!
4. Wifey was still Girlfriendey, but we had been living together for 2+ years by then.
5. I was completely miserable. Greensboro can be a dirty filthy place. Most of my coworkers were heroin addicts. I was the only one with a college degree. And I decided I didn't go to college to end up working as manual labor.
5a - z. Most importantly at the time, I was still smoking well over a pack a day! stupid, stupid, stupid

5 Things on Today’s “To Do” List:
1. Teach Advanced Crystal Reports to my one student at Spartanburg Community College - Done
2. We're having a garage sale tomorrow, so go through the books and put out ones to sell
3. Clean the desk in my office - desparate!
4. Fix a web site for a client in S'burg, and debug a program for a client in Florida
5. It's a rest day. Wifey did her 11 mile long run this morning, mine is up tomorrow. Eat smart to prepare for the long run.

5 Things that I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. People want to be a millionaire because of the percieved lifestyle. It's not about the money itself, its about the freedom that the money brings. Read the 4 hour work week for more info. But if I got Tommy Bowden's $2.3 million severance pay check, I wouldn't look for another job.
2. Pay off the mortgages (I have 5 of them right now, including rental property)
3. Max out the 527 College Savings plan contributions for the girl's college funds
4. Buy a nicer bike and ALL the accessories
5. Spend more time with the kids, join the PTA when they get in school, coach their soccer teams (or softball, whatever they want)

That should really be 5 things I would do if I didn't have to work or pay bills.

5 Places I have lived:
1. Greenville, SC
2. Boone, NC
3. Greensboro, NC
4. Oconee County, SC
5. Pumpkintown, SC (Pickens County)
then back to Greenville. That's it, everywhere I've ever lived. Wifey grew up in Raleigh, NC then we met in Boone.

5 Jobs I have had:
1. I've been an IT guy for 10 years now. Software developer for Advanced Automation currently. Before that I owned my own firm(s), first as Flynn Technology Consultants, then rebranding as Structured IT. As the owner I had to do everything. Sales, fix pc's, pull cable inside of walls, setup server and pc's, and write code for databases and web sites.
2. Teacher - actually, a technical instructor for New Horizons Computer Learning Center. This was the same school I went to after leaving Wilson Trucking to get all of my IT certifications. I taught programming, database design, pc repair, network engineering; both here and in Columbia SC
3. 18 Wheeler driver - I hated driving a truck so much that I got married. But that's another post for another day
4. General Self Employment - I've owned 11 businesses besides the consulting firms listed above. I had a live DJ service, owned a retail store, owned a recording studio, a carpentry service/home rehab business, and I used to build furniture and sell it in the store. plus a few others
5. Customer Service - this gives you a whole new perspective on why that soup came to you cold. I was a restaurant cook, dishwasher, small store retail clerk & stock manager, and warehouse worker for a grocery store chain. That stuff teaches you how to work really hard for very little money and become very nice about it. I think it affects your entire attitude.

Now I’m tagging:
crap, I don't know anybody
1. Leigh
2. Katie
3. Wes
4. Hot Thick Chick
5. Frayed Laces

Wow, that was fun and made me think. The two don't usually go together. Some of those things in the list can be posts by themselves. So many stories to tell.

On the running front, I missed the cross training workout on wednesday. I hate this, because it's the only day I don't have to just run. Part of the multi-sport lifestyle is enjoying to do more than one sport. But I smiled and did my 5 miles on the treadmill yesterday in 51 minutes and burned 751 calories. Today is a rest day, and then tomorrow is the big 11 mile long run for the week. Wifey did her 11 today, and she said it was "a really long way to run". So I'm looking forward to it. But the BEST part:

I weighed in yesterday at the gym at 198 lbs!!!!! WOW, I've been trying to break through 200 for how many weeks now? like 5 weeks I've been trying to get from 203 to under 200, and you guys kept all commenting, hang in there. stick with your cardio. make small diet changes and it will pay off. I'm not going to really believe the hype until I see a second weigh in sub-200. I've been known to take a 3 lb swing from thursday to tuesday in either direction. But ah, just knowing that there is finally progress makes my knees feel so much better. So thank you for all the encouragement, and let's hope it is a trend, not an anomaly.

I also want to say thanks to Displaced, who swung by the blog the other day. She didn't leave an email address for me to reply to. She has a neat blog about the family, and they are fellow Greenvillians who moved in here from someplace else. I like seeing outsiders come to SC, it creates a little diversity in the gene pool. We've been inbred with a red state conservitism for so many generations now that most people are scared to live here. With good reason, it scares me sometimes. But anytime you want to go for a run, or just let the kids play together we're always here in Taylors.

South Carolina people tend to think that there is nothing better than living in South Carolina. It's not a bad place to be, but that doesn't mean it's the best place to be. For instance, when you ask a "South Carolina person" if they knew that our public school system ranked 49th in the nation, the most likely response is "out of how many states?" Good grief. Then they normally tell me how there is nothing wrong with our public schools because I graduated from them and I turned out ok, so why would you really want to live anywhere else? Plus the overwhelming, crushing conservative environment. Oh, the judgement that gets passed on the outcasts and lepers... I mean anyone who has a dissenting opinion or doesn't go to church every sunday. forget about it.

So wish me luck on the 11 miles tomorrow. and good luck to anyone who's racing this weekend, I know there are a bunch going on.

It feels good to be a Gangsta

So apparently the last post not too much was funny? THAT was funny? Come on now, people. Ok, I'll admit that was a pretty good one. But I was boldly reminded by several friends what was left off of the "what makes me gay" list. So I have to add these amendments:

• Favorite Movie = When Harry Met Sally. Even our home email address is babyfishmouth at worldnet dot att dot net, we've had it since 1998 and it is a reference to that movie. Name that scene, anyone?
• Working from home allows me to watch "The View" and several soap operas daily. Days was already in the middle of a big murder whodunnit when they killed off the town mayor? are you kidding me? Fantastic stuff for a gay man. We also TiVo All My Children. I feel like a housewife with a job.
• The Biggest Loser makes me cry. Every episode, every time. even last night (did you see it? holy crap, Colleen!)
• From Stu at the office: I know youre gay because when I asked if you played an instrument you offered to give me the rusty trombone

That boy's not right in the head. Web designers, I swear. Neither is Wes. He and I are both IT consultants, so I kind of expected that. But he really takes the "man" parts out of "gay man" because he has a "soft soul" and can't fix up his own house. Of course, in a couple of days he's going to replace "gay" with "iron" when he steps up on Ironman Florida. So I'll help you out with the house if you can help me train for ironman in 2010. At least with some motivation. I'll be behind you the whole way out there (insert gay chuckle here).

The final verdict is that I love boobies too much to really be gay. Ah......... Boobies......... and, you, know, the wife and kids. they are all girls too. Even the dalmation and stray cat that won't leave our house are both girls. So I'm surrounded by estrogen all day, every day.

And eventually I'm going to have to write a "100 things about me" segment you see on so many blogs. You can bet some of these will be on there.

And I'm now a Gangsta of Code. My boss is back from the trade show in Texas with at least one closed sale! This is very exciting yeah! but it has to integrate with some other software that I haven't written yet boo. So I've got thousands of lines of code to write for multiple projects for multiple clients that are all waiting on something to get finished. By halloween -- next friday. Oh crap. Looks like it's nose to the grindstone time.

Nah, I'm not going to do that. BPD (Bipolar Posting Disorder) is creeping back in. For the upswing, I did make it for a workout yesterday (trumpets blaring)! After 5 rest days in a row to let the shins heal up and catch up on work, I jumped back onto the marathon training plan with an hour on the elliptical at the gym. This was supposed to be a 6 mile long run on saturday. But I figured for my normal 10 min pace that an hour of solid cardio would accomplish the same task with no impact on the knees, ankles or shins. Tha stats: 7.2 miles, 723 calories, 62 minutes including cooldown. I didn't get a good heartrate reading from the machine. I'm not really "feeling" elliptical today. It just doesn't make me sweat as much as running outside or on the treadmill do.

Today is cross training, I think I will bike it to/from the gym and lift weights for about 30 mins while i'm there. Then tomorrow is a 5 mile run to warm up for Saturday's 11 mile long run. That will be my first foray into double digit milage, and any advice or memories you can share will be greatly appreciated.

Instead of 11 miles on saturday, I was hoping to do either the Leaf Tour Ride or maybe the Spinx Run Fest half marathon. But I can't decide between those two, so I'll just run my 11 and be happy with that. The leaf tour should be fantastic if any of you are in the area and want to try it. It's a free ride from the Greenville Spinners Bike Club. I think I will join the spinners once the marathon is over and I'm back into tri mode. And when I ran the Greenville Tri in august I was talking smack to some new friends about running the Spinx Half. Watch, they are going to show up and I backed out. At least I haven't seen them since the tri. But I don't want to push the milage past what my plan has laid out, that's how people get injured.

'Til friday, see you on the road!

not too much

So my kidless weekend was almost fantastic. A nice dinner out friday night just me and Wifey, we stayed up way too late watching the Sex and the City movie. I might be the only guy out there who loves sex and the city like I was a girl, but damnit it's true. My wife thinks I'm gay.

Saturday we slept in and I jumped on the outside work. I love woodworking and carpentry, so I started my power-tool-fest with a shelving unit for the bathroom. I used dadoes on the side pieces for a really clean, finished look. It turned out beautiful. After a few coats of paint, it was time to get up on the roof. I had to add fire caulking to reseal the flashing around the chimney, and the concrete cap had worn off of the top so I had to mix up some concrete and the trowels and rebuild that sucker. I did a few other roof repairs while I was up there. I ripped down all of the gutters last weekend and had to fix some shingle problems. While I was on the deck mixing up the concrete before carrying it up onto the roof, my boss called wanting an update on the software project I was working on. oh, busted! He was on the floor of the trade show in San Antonio, and I told him I was mixing concrete for a chimney repair. Nothing like swinging a trowel 40 ft over the concrete patio when you don't really know what you're doing.

Then to the next extreme, I finally got down to pull some weeds in the garden. I cleared out what was my corn patch this year, and planted garlic there instead. I had a bush cherry arrive last week as well (ordered online in January) that was a surprise, and I still haven't figured out where to put it. The plan was to cut the grass and use the clippings to mulch in the garlic, but the dang lawmower wouldn't start! I've had that thing for 4 years and it's never not started. So it's off to the repair shop today. I took that as a sign, so I went in to work on the dental software and watch some football.

Made some good progress on the software, and the Appalachian State game was on TV. They beat Georgia Southern by 1 pt, that's a huge rivalry for those of you that don't keep up with southern conference or FCS football. Then I crashed hard after dinner. Fell asleep in the chair.

Sunday we were late picking up the girls. But I still got a few things done. And after we got them back I worked for another 4 hours on the dental software. So why almost fantastic? What was missing?

RUNNING. I didn't get in the 6 mile long run (Wifey did) on saturday. I didn't get in the 3 mile recovery run on sunday. I didn't get in the makeup crosstraining day on Friday. I did bill 7 hours over the weekend, when I'm not supposed to be working. So the nicotine levels are pretty high today.

So 6 things you didn't know about me before today:

1. I'm really handy around the house. I own rental property here in SC and flipped several houses a few years ago right when the real estate market started to fall apart. you know, just in time to lose a ton of money. But I can fix anything and making home repairs, building decks, that kind of stuff is something I learned many years ago and still enjoy.

2. I am a plant junkie. I spent summers in college working landscape construction, so building retaining walls, landscape design, all lead into the organic garden fetish I'm currently cultivating.

3. I love to build furniture. Fine woodworking is something I have to struggle to contain. Now that we have kids I can't just run the power tools anytime of day, even though I have a whole 'nother medium (kid's toys) to build on.

4. Outside is better than inside. Maybe I've been a software developer for too long now, but riding the desk staring out of a window is getting old. Anything that can be done outside should be.

5. I work from home. Wifey is a stay-at-home mom, so besides having Bigun in 3 yr old kindergarten nobody ever has anyplace to be. We never leave, but sometimes get visitors. So I stare out of the window at the backyard all day, wondering when I'm going to get the backyard in better shape. The company I work for is a small company in Atlanta, so I go down there periodically to meet with clients, etc. Otherwise, I sit in the basement and write code all day. That's why I love your comments so much, some days it's the only social interaction I get. And some days I miss going into an office with other people in it. Then I play with my kids over lunch and am glad I work from home again.

6. My wife thinks I'm gay. Just because I like broadway musicals, sex and the city, a preference for chick flicks, most of my friends are girls, and I like female-typical things like expressing emotion and shoes, that doesn't mean I'm gay. but it's not a far stretch, I'll admit. If it were socially acceptable to be gay without having sex with dudes, then maybe.

Congratulations to everyone who got in a run over the weekend, and really if you got in a race! See you soon.

I Love October

Does anyone else have BPD (Bipolar Posting Disease)? I've noticed that the more of these I write, they get postitive for a while, then really really positive, then negative. Oh the pain. then pain heals and the postings get positive again. What a roller coaster! LOL. But I guess that's how life is, sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you (name that movie).

October has always been my favorite month of the year. We're mountain people who have to live in the foothills to find work. That means we only visit the beach every 4 or 5 years usually during the winter but head to the hills about once a month. We even have a vacation house http://www.booneinv.com/ in Banner Elk NC that we're trying to sell right now. So when the temperature gets over 80 degrees it's just another excuse to stay inside where it's air conditioned. Once last year I was working on the siding of the mountain house in a short sleeve t-shirt when it was only 26 degress outside and was completely comfortable. it's a dry cold up there sometimes. So screw the heat, you beach people can have it. it's also why I don't like to race in the summertime.

But the Glory of October sweeps in and the heat is gone, finally. Baseball moves to the postseason (and my Mets blew it again). College Football gets into full swing. NHL hockey starts the regular season again finally. And the NBA starts towards the end of the month. I'm not a huge basketball guy though. Halloween is awesome, moreso now that we have young kids to dress up. Bigun has really gotten into the decorations this year too. Pumpkins everywhere. And the high temps are usually in the mid 70's. We can leave the windows open most days, and the fresh air does this desk jockey good. Plus it cuts down the heating and a/c bills (which i had to pay this morning... ugh. so glad we're not in a recession? wtf?) which is always nice. Especially when you have to pay utilities on two houses. And it's finally comfortable enough to run and bike outside more often. Being a cold weather person, I sweat a ton in the heat. Seriously, I've had sweat show through my shirt walking from the parked car into the grocery store in our summer 96 deg heat. Then last saturday's long run sweat didn't show through until I was over 3 miles in. Awesome, I Love October.

So that's the high part of BPD. Now for the mood swings (haha, wait, what do you mean mood swings? screw that). Ah, the pain. Work caught up with me wednesday so I didn't get my cross training in. Actually, I was solid coding until about 6:30 that evening. No lunch or anything. It was crazy. But my boss made the first sale of SDF yesterday, so it was worth it. I"m hoping he comes back from the show with 10 contracts. I did get my 5 miler in yesterday, but it was fairly painful. My usual 10 minute pace was down to almost 13 minute miles. This is all leftover pain from monday's recovery run in the old shoes. There was a fairly sharp pain in my left knee, severity 2 (of 10). and the big boy is in the shins. Bone(?) pain on the interior part of the shin, and muscle pain on the outside part. on both legs. severity 6 or 7, enough to add 3 mins to each mile on my normal course running from my house. any idea where that's coming from? Recovery suggestions? any help here is appreciated, this has been building for a while. I should also mention that nicotine levels were about a 9 of 10 severity, so i was already pissed off at the entire world and nobody could do anything right on that run. Cars passing by were painted the wrong color, the sidewalks were full of leaves and acorns ripe for slipping... but at least that shitty run made the cigarrette demons go away.

Today's supposed to be a rest day, but I think I will make up the missed cross training instead. Being a tri guy, I like the cross training better than running alone. But no impact! The dude abides. Saturday's long run is only supposed to be six miles, so I don't think it will be a problem. Still looking for a route though. If I can find a route with minimal hills (tough here in Greenville), I might try to break one hour.

and the best part: MY FOLKS ARE KEEPING THE KIDS FOR THE WEEKEND! Ah, this is going to be fun. I've mentioned before that I love organic gardening. I spent my summers in college working for a landscape construction company, which might be why I hate the heat so much (I went to Appalachian State University, average summertime high temp 82 deg) but worked for a landscaper here in Greenville (average summer high 96 deg) during the summers. So without having to worry about my chainsaw or lawnmower or tiller or power saws waking up the babies, I am going to rig up a TV outside for football and spend the entire weekend working on the yard and house. Except for the 6 miler on saturday and 3 miler on sunday. I can even set up a tent and camp in the backyard if I want to. Oh, I love October!