an actual swim race!

My friends are a bad influence. I haven't swam on the RAM team for a year. Literally, it was last May when the arthritis got so bad that I couldn't finish a practice and decided to drop the team. Well, this may they came around again and talked me into signing up for the Jordan Lake Open Water Challenge at the last minute. This is the first race in the local swim series here and I've done this race several times. It's usually early enough in the year to require a wetsuit, but this year the water temp was around 72* so I opted to go only speedo.

Really this was a social event for me. Yes I came and I swam and I totally expected to spend the rest of the day in the fetal position on the couch crying in pain. But the cool part was getting to see some friends that I hadn't been able to to hang out with for a while.

Beautiful day to be in the water

It wasn't a huge crowd this year! Daniel is a coworker and in my age group, this was his first open water swim race. The course was a bit short this year, which worked to my advantage. I've taken age group awards at this race before, but it's really hard. Daniel took 2nd place in his first race! Those RAM practices are really paying off for him.

My only hope was to get out there and not end up with horrible pain. I was able to hold my stroke for the entire course, didn't really end up with any joint pain, and finished the 1 mile course (for a 1.2 mile race - hey it was short) in 38 minutes. My previous slowest time was around 34 minutes when it was 1.2 or 1.3 miles, so that was hard to accept. I finished 6/7 in my age group, Daniel took 2nd

Me, Lisa, Rebecca (Kristen's sister), Jennifer, Tom, and Kristen the RAM coach

The whole RAM crew L-R - Tom, Amy, me, Jennifer (coworker), Daniel (coworker), Rebecca, Jen, Coach Kristen, Chris, Lisa, and Barker

This was a large crew of friends from the RAM team. It felt amazing just to be out there competing again, and having fun with old friends. I also ran into some other surprising friends, one of whom had recently lost 45 lbs and it took me a minute to recognize him. For a social event, this was wonderful. For a race, my performance was disappointing, but I was glad to just be out there again.

Umstead 2019

So I've been a bit lazy in blogging lately. My good friend Tammy Massie talked me into pacing Umstead 100 again, and I actually did it this year. After only 1 lap, I was in a lot of pain and ready to get home.

Showing up at Umstead is always a good time. I got there about an hour before Tammy finished the lap with our friend Susan. I ran into so many friends, including an old coworker who actually finished the 100 last year! Now Merrit is training for Western States - insane.

Me and Merrit

Me and Tammy before we got out there

Susan also convinced another runner to go out with us, so I got to meet a new friend. Kim turned out to be a blast to run through the woods with. The 3 of us hit the trail about 10:30 pm, and finished the lap around 3 am. I was pretty good for about 10 miles then the arthritis really kicked in and my hands swole up pretty bad. Once again, spending time with friends in the woods is the best part of this race, the running part was pretty unpleasant.

Now here's some other random pics that I've been holding on to

Kelley in the kitchen. Really I was just testing out the camera on a new phone

selfie at work

selfie at home

The kids were surprised that I got a skull phone case. I'm surprised my belly has gotten to this size

selfie in the car. My hair is getting longer!

So yeah, I'm still carrying around this big belly and a lot of pain when I run. Fun times. But I did get into a swim race (next post)

Back on the horse

Wow, I haven't posted anything here since January! That feels wrong, but I also haven't been doing much training recently either. That's the good news, marathon training has begun again in earnest already. This years' marathons are on consecutive weekends in September, the Boring Marathon in Oregon and a 12 hour race outside of Knoxville. So one training cycle should be good for both states.

September is still a long ways off, so I'm starting with some base building. For the first 6 weeks, the long run is only 5 miles. I've got to build some kind of base for weekly/monthly miles before trying to ramp up the distance. In February I had 32.5 miles total, which does exceed the 30 mile month streak I had been putting up.

and yet those 170 mile months don't seem like so long ago....

it will come back. it has to come back. Right now it all hurts. and I really do love base building.

Some recent family updates too - Morgan's wife is pregnant with their first kid and we are all very excited for them. It's a boy and will be the next John Flynn after Michael and I had nothing but girls. I got to chaperone my first field trip. Ella and I with about 100 other 8th graders got to go up to Boone to visit Grandfather Mountain and Linville Cavern. It was a trip. And I finished the masonry on my front porch recently. Woodworking should wind down when it's time for marathon training to really ramp up. And grad school is going well - I got an A in corporate finance, supposedly the hardest course in the entire program.

Framing the roof rim - this is totally safe

The last brick column is as tall as I am!

Nice sunset

Ella is insane

Outside of Linville Cavern

On the swinging bridge at Grandfather

the bridge

Here's a little practice roof I built over the driveway

Front porch is coming along really well too

2019 is here!

So how did 2018 turn out?

Swim: 65,926 yards (37.45 miles)
Bike: 57.5 miles
Run: 471.3 miles, 2 marathons, 1 5k
Strength training: 6 times
Yoga: 6 times

Overall, 2018 was not a bad year. I got promoted at work, started grad school at UNC-W, finished 2 marathons in 2 new states, and had surgery to repair a umbilical hernia. The kids got good grades, they are both in middle school now, and happy wife, happy life.

But the disappointing parts. Arthritis forced me out of the RAM swim team in May, so I stopped adding to that swim total on 5/25. Arthritis also kept me off of the yoga mat, every time I tried it ended in tears after less than a minute. Joint pain sucks. My weight maxed out at 220.4 lbs, low point was 202 lbs. So I was over 200 lbs for the entire year, compared to the 177 lb average from 2015. I spent most of my Ironman training days around 170 lbs. So to be over 200 for the entire year is still shocking. It also meant what little running I was able to accomplish was slow and cumbersome, usually painful.

wrong on a whole lot of levels?

My goals for 2018:
1. Run 800 miles - fail
This wasn't really because of an injury. The arthritis sucks, but I also had surgery, and tons of stress related problems. I took care of the marathons in the spring so I didn't have anything to train for during the fall. Plus grad school takes up a TON of time. So I just didn't get in as many miles as I wanted. 471 is just over halfway there.

2. Delaware - Success!
Ran the marathon at Trap Pond, fun race, fun trip with my sweetheart.

3. Colorado - Success!
This was an amazing trip, beautiful race, and I can't imagine a better way to knock CO from the state list. And now I can't wait to go back.

4. Get under 200 lbs - fail
yeah. above. I came close, 202. After the surgery I really tried the weight loss phase setup that I used to do before starting ironman training. But I couldn't put in the time for workouts, and after a few weeks the stress really got to me so I started gaining again.

So I was 2-2, and that's not good enough. 2018 was still on the positive side of the arch, but I can do better than that.

Halfway there!

2019 Goals
Since 2018 was racked with stress and change, without actually changing much. I need to channel that into some actual change in my approach to the year.

1. Grad school - pass my classes
Setting this as the first goal because I'm not going to graduate until 2020 and it is the most important non-work activity going on right now.

2. Oregon - I'm registered for the Boring Marathon outside of Portland

3. Tennessee - I've been holding out on marathoning in TN just in case I wanted to do another Ironman (Chattanooga). That's never going to happen, so I've registered for a 12 hour race outside of Knoxville the weekend after I get back from Oregon. I like the 12 hour option to *either* get really slow laps to finish marathon distance or get in my first ultra in a few years if I'm feeling good.

4. Run 800 miles on the year

5. Finish the front porch
I'm in the middle of a project to rebuild the front porch. Finish it safely. After that, I will be able to get in more mileage and should be able to hit 800 or 1000 (super secret goal) for the year. Here's the current progress on the project:

The front porch

That's most of the brickwork on the left side. Still have a couple of stairs to go, 2 more courses on the left wall, then the entire right half of the front, a 3rd column, and the right side of the brickwork. Then stand up a rim and build a gable roof over the whole dang thing. Should be done in the spring, just in time to landscape the front yard.

I'm putting every spare minute into the porch, especially until grad school starts back up on MLK day.

6 De-stress some
Running injuries got me back into some major woodworking projects in 2017, now obviously I'm still really deep into projects and loving it. Work stress rose pretty good last year, especially the 2nd half of the year. Combine that with starting the MBA program (which is never stressful, right?) and that means I'm not setting a weight goal for this year. Just try to manage the stress. Running really helps. Hitting milestones on the porch project really helps. Hitting milestones on the work project really helps. I'm waiting for my next work project to kick in as well, likely that will spin up over the summer and lead into work over the fall.

Stress and workload both have a dramatic effect on bodyweight. I can eat better and move more, sure, but keeping stress at bay is really going to be the key to maintaining some decent weight.

Cheers to a happy and light 2019!

Happy Holidays

Today, 12/28, marks 11 years since I stopped smoking. I totally missed the 10 year anniversary of the blog back in August, but I certainly don't miss lighting up anymore. Although I do still get cravings sometimes. It's never easy. I ran 4 miles today to celebrate the accomplishment.

And since we're just on the other side of Christmas I wanted to share some pictures from the holidays.

Lena's gotten a bit peckish

Evil Genius didn't want to pose for the family picture in front of our Christmas tree, so we had to use a skeleton stand-in. The skeleton ended up being buried under our new front porch.

It is a pretty tree

Here's a couple of interesting pictures. I was working on the porch in shorts & a t-shirt on Dec 7, then we got a rare snowfall on Dec 8, about 4"!

pouring concrete on a sunny day

And tons of snow the next day

Kids walked with me to get Chinese food in the snow

And we got to go to a Hurricanes hockey game

Work gave me a really nice thank-you gift for taking on an extra project - 4 tickets to a Carolina Hurricanes and a VIP parking pass. We got a suite, all the food was included, plenty of drinks, the kids had a blast. and the Canes won big!

So for Christmas this year we had a wild ride. We started with Kelley's dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve. I didn't get any pictures, but it was a big crowd. My kids were the youngest people there, which has never happened before, and the family who has been hosting since I started going to this thing 20 years ago said this was the last year they were hosting. So next year our Christmas Eve plans might open up.

Santa came to visit the kids, and left way too many toys & clothes. Kelley's mom and sister came home with us from Biscoe and stayed for all of the festivities. Then Kelley's dad and his wife came by, eventually also our niece Kailiegh and her boyfriend came over as well and stayed for breakfast (or brunch? it was around noon).

Girls in their new pajamas

Playing with the new loot

Kelley handing out presents sitting down

Then around 3:30 we got on the road to go see my parents in SC. They had a pretty chill Christmas day, but the day after was quite hectic. My brothers came over for our big breakfast and opened presents. The big reveal was that my youngest brother Morgan and his wife Martha are finally pregnant, after 5 years of infertility treatments! We are all so happy for them.

And to finish the holidays we had to take family pictures

The four of us in our Ugly Christmas Sweaters

My parents and the grandkids

I'm on the right, with my parents and brothers

Then all of my mom's family came over later for our big family Christmas. It was fantastic getting to see everyone again, most of those folks I haven't visited with since last Christmas. Again, I didn't get pictures.

Thursday my God-parents came up from Atlanta to visit with us and a few others who came to the house, with my brother who lives in Los Angeles, his wife, and I got to get my hands on his baby for the first time! Cute little guy was great.

Then the weather forced our hand a bit so we came on back to Raleigh. Overall we had a wonderful holiday filled with fun times, lots of family togetherness, and love. Hope you had as much fun as we did!

The Teen Cave

It's like a man-cave, if man-caves were built for teenage girls. We got this couch that forced a piece of furniture upstairs, which forced us to turn the guest room into something else. Enter the teenager. I had to completely remodel the bathroom up there, she called it "working on her suite". She originally picked the orange color when we moved in 8 years ago, now she wanted it purple. We had to replace the carpet, move the furniture up, and hang a huge TV on the wall.

We had a recent family vacation in Pigeon Forge, TN, so I took pictures of the teen-cave to show off to the bigger family that doesn't come visit us in Raleigh. Enjoy the tour and some pictures from the vacation.

These stairs used to have carpet on them. I still need to paint the risers, and the treads could use some refinishing too.

The landing was hardwood under carpet! Such a pleasant surprise.

 

 

 

The remodeled bathroom.

On my woodworking blog, I did a whole category for this bathroom remodel. We found that sink on a clearance sale at Lowe's, same with the engineered flooring ($30 and $40, respectively). I also blew open a closet, made those shelves, flushed up the wall, redid the electrical, added the medicine cabinet and 2 lights, made my own shiplap and did the accent wall back there, hung the rest of the drywall... it was quite a mess. But the finished product is really cool. The tiny bathroom up there came out great!

New carpet, and we moved all of her furniture up there

The double recliner that spurred the whole thing

The big TV mounted with the playstaion and VR

The whole big family on the train at Dollywood

And out on the deck at the cabin we rented

the cabin was really nice

It was a really fun vacation in TN. Morgan made it with his wife, and my parents of course, but Michael had to stay home with a sick kid. I thought the room turned out great, everyone else agreed. This was a great way to setup the holidays.