Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Catching Up

Aside from yesterdays extremely brief post, I haven't really put anything up here in a week. It isn't that things haven't been happening, it is more about my lack of time to post anything. The past week has actually been a pretty good week, I'll do my best to recap it now while attempting to keep it somewhat interesting.

I finished up last week with a day off from running on Thursday and then a relatively quick run on Friday. Friday was also the day that the crap hit the fan with some financial issues that caused utter chaos in our household. To state it simply, numbers were not correct, things were said and no one was happy. I ended up working late and thus didn't get home until 6:30PM. Not a fun day. On a positive note, everyone was happy prior to bedtime and I was able to catch up on Thursday night TV that I DVR'd, so I had that going for me.

The next morning the family was up early and in the car bound for NYC for my nieces 4th birthday party. We piled into my wife's rental car....oh, BTW, she committed deer homicide about two weeks prior and we are now driving a Suzuki Forenza until hers is fixed. Yes, it is a sweet ride that has absolutely no redeeming value aside from it will take you from point A to point B (translation - no DVD player, no reclining second row seats, no fun for the kids and thus no fun for the parents). This made for a long and whiny ride into the city as both or our girls were constantly asking if we were almost there (just like in the movies, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"). We did eventually make it in successfully and the girls had a great time at the princess tea party. All in all, we all had a good time, caught up with my wife's family and probably left for home around 4PM.

When we got home, I did have all of the best intentions of either getting out for a quick run or going to the basement and spinning for an hour or so, but it just didn't happen. Instead I made my wife and I hamburgers topped with pork roll and fried eggs. They were awesome and mostly definitely added a few extra points to our cholesterol levels.

Sunday was a beautiful day. My lovely wife had to run some errands so I was on Mr. Mom duty until she got back. I don't really recall what me and the girls did, but it probably revolved around playing in the basement. Once she got home, I cut the lawn real quick and then headed out for a run. I really didn't have any plans on how far I was going to go. I just popped outside and started going. It was so nice out, sunny, ~55F, and no real wind. I felt pretty good so I kept my pace a decent level. Even when climbing a pretty good sized hill near me I was chugging up it at such a solid pace that cyclist came rode up next to me and commented on how fast I was going....he soon pulled off before hitting the really steep part (pansy!). It ended up being a seven mile run, and I enjoyed ever minute of it.


Yesterday I took the day off to spend with my oldest daughter (DD1) who is off from school. So after dropping my little one off at Pre-K, I surprised DD1 with a day of ice skating, something she has never done before. We headed to the closest rink, rented her some skates and headed out on to the ice. As is the case for anyone trying to skate for the first time, it was a bit, well, slippery for her. She did a bit of wall grabbing, she did some "walking" and she did some slipping and flailing. After about 15 minutes she started to pull on some roller skating experience and started to much more confident. After 30 minutes she was laughing and having fun, joking around with me. After an hour she decided to "sneak" on to the ice by herself and do a lap around the rink without holding on to the side boards (she made it all the way around with out falling or holding on to anything). She couldn't have been more proud and I was proud of her as well. Our day of skating came to an end when she took a pretty hard fall on her tushy and promptly told me that she wanted to go home, "I want to go home, I want to go home right now!" Despite the fall that hurt her pride more than anything else, she (and I) had a great time.

[Time for me to be a corny proud father] The entire time that were were at the rink, and as here skating improved with each lap around the ice, I couldn't stop just watching her. Here I was with my little, big girl, just she and I doing something for first time. She was having so much fun learning to skate and being her funny/goofy self, while I just stared at her with a big ole grin on my face. She is fearless, she is brave, she is daring, she is happy, she is funny, she is perfect. I have said it before in a previous post, but I don't think it can be said too much. It is important to cherish the special days you spend with your children. They don't happen too often and they shouldn't be taken for granted. I am doing my best to take advantage of these days because I know at some point in time they will happen much less often.

That about sums up my week...oh yeah, and I friggin' signed up for Ironman Arizona!!!! Here is what my training looked like:

Friday: 4.5 mile run, 34:26 (7:40/mile), 163 BPM - Ran with Chris and for whatever reason my heart rate was through the roof. We had a good run and as usual, Chris pushed me pretty hard for the last mile or two so that we could get our pace under 7:40.

Saturday: Off....but really should have done something since I pigged out on bagels, pizza and a big ass awesome hamburger!

Sunday: 7 mile run, 54:57 (7:51/mile), 164 BPM - Awesome day, awesome run, felt great! This run included a pretty solid hill where my pace dropped to 8:20 for a mile, but I still managed to keep my pace down. Probably ran faster than I should have, but I didn't want to waste how I felt.

Monday: 9.17 mile bike, 30:37 (18.0 MPH), 139 BPM, 87.1 RPMs - My legs were tired and sore from Sunday, but based on my food intake from the day (and days prior...McDonald's for lunch), I really needed to ride for a bit to burn off some calories. I was on the trainer and ended up watching Ironman Monaco 70.3. Good ride, could have gone longer but dinner was ready.
Today: 4.33 mile run, 33:21 (7:42/mile), 162 BPM - I had all intentions to take it easy today but my legs just started going and off I went. I slowed a bit by mile three but then picked it up for the last 1.33 miles. My heartrate is too high, I should probably slow down a bit.

That is it for now. Aloha!

No comments: