Weekend Update

Saturday dawned cool and bright. For those running the National Marathon it was a perfect day. I was sad that my training (or lack of) did not allow me to be ready for the National Half. But it is time to get ready for my PT test in April and then for the GW Parkway 10 miler at the end of April. Running buddy and I did about 5.5 miles in the cool air. Running Buddy’s predecessor was in the neighborhood house sitting and ran with us. The family he was house sitting for has a dog that looks like a big fat sausage with legs and she ran with us. She made it the entire route and was not worn out. I wish I could look like a sausage with legs and be able to run like that.

Saturday night was a night of wine, pasta and Rocky. The Bride made a very tasty dish of baked ziti for some friends of ours. After dinner and basketball we all watched Rocky. One of friends had never seen the movie. How can anyone be over 40 and never have seen Rocky.


Sunday morning after breakfast we headed out the super pet expo at the Dulles Expo Center. We never made it inside because we could not find a parking space. I don’t wait in a line to eat much less see jumping dogs. So we headed over to the Manassas Battlefield Park. My nephew is studying the War of Northern Aggression and he has chosen his historical figure to be Stonewall Jackson. What better place to get him information on BG Thomas J. Jackson than the place where he earned his nickname.

As usual the National Park Service volunteers and Rangers provided great information. The walk we were a part of was the history of the First Battle of Manassas. Below are some photos I took during the afternoon:


As a former Artilleryman, I just love cannons.

Finally, my question for this post. How do you deal with people who (yourself included) who allow emotions to over come logic? Feelings can be based upon false premises and causes you to have invalid emotional responses. Comments.....

Confusion and a Plea for Help

I was up before the alarm this morning. I enjoy waking prior to that incessant beeping as long as it is less than 30 minutes prior to normal wakeup. Today it was about 5 minutes prior, so I was up and moving at 0445. However, I noticed the wife was not in the bed with me. I apparently snored her out and she went in the guest room after failing to wake me. Whoops. I am sorry.

Running Buddy and I started off on what we call the “long loop” and cut it short so that we could stop at the track and do quarter mile repeats. Today was not a day to time our repeats. We just added on 2x400m to our normal route, but still ram them hard. Needless to say after less than pleasurable day of kicking yesterday, my legs were very heavy. That half mile sucked, but it felt good to blow out the engine some too. The total run today was 5.2 miles in about 53 minutes. But that included some walking due to the sprints.

Now I have two pleas for help. Someone please explain The Housewives of NYC to me. They are the most annoying, narcissistic, childish, and over all disgusting women I think I have ever seen on TV. How is this popular? And number two—Help me get some more followers. I am feeling lonely. LOL

Tonight is a walk with the wife and then dinner with some friends and back in the pool on Thursday.

I thought Breasts were Pleasurable

Holy mother of Pearl. This morning was a rather difficult workout for a non-swimmer like myself. It started off normally. 300 kick (no fins) and 100 free to warm up. I don't like kicking that far with out fins, but hey--I need to do it. The next part of the work out was vigorous but not un-enjoyable:
1x250 kick@20 sec
1x250 pull@20 sec
1x250 swim@20 sec

750 yards is not bad at all. I had completed the warm up and this part of the workout in a little over 20 minutes. Damn, this is any easy day. Boy was I wrong. I never knew how much I hate the breast kick. The second set was the same as the first, but it was not free--but breast. It took me over 12 minutes to kick 250 yards doing the breast kick. I went nowhere. The breast pull and the complete stroke were not bad. I need to work those muscles.

Once that portion was complete, it was 100 of breathing drills underwater. For some perverse reason I like that those. Then a 100 cool down.

My complete workout this morning was 2100 yards in 54:34 and I burned about 750 calories.

Weekend Update

I think I have finally gotten my head above water. I have caught up at work as much as I can be caught up and army stuff is moving right along. I luckily have my 1SG on orders for a few weeks so he can assist in over-seeing the day to day running of the unit.


Friday was dawned rather chilly at 37 degrees. Running buddy and I completed a slow 4.25 miles and commented on the fact that the weatherman had predicted snow. However, there was no snow on the ground nor was it falling. Toward the end of the run we had very light rain, that you saw in the headlights rather than felt. I got home, showered and when I walked out the door to go to the car it was actually snowing hard. WTF? None of stuck, but it was rather humorous after our bantering.

Saturday morning I was up early and Running Buddy and I hit the road for our first long run of the year--all 5.25 miles of it. Well, you have to start somewhere. It was a good run that actually felt much better than the day prior. It will start coming back (or so I tell myself). Can I be up to 10 miles in another 45 days?

My mother-in-law came to visit for the weekend. After the run, the rest of the day was pretty lazy. We watched a lot of basketball and then headed out to Del Merei. For those you in the Washington DC area I highly recommend this restaurant. It is not crowded during the week, but if you go on the Friday or Saturday night, please make reservations. Mary, the owner, would love the business during the week.

Sunday we headed in to DC to play tourist. We forgot that the St. Patrick's Day parade was going on so we had to park 15 minutes away from the American History Museum. It has re-opened after a 2 year closure. They have made some of the exhibits more interactive. At the Greensboro Diner an actor takes you through training for a non-violent sit-in. It was VERY well done. There is also an expanded exhibit on Abraham Lincoln.

This is a photo of Abe's actual hat. I thought that was pretty cool.

This was Abe's actual pocket watch. I really would like an opportunity to go in the Museum after hours with a tripod and my my flash and actually get to take some really good shots of the exhibits.

The was Harry Trumans key to the White House. I bet the locks are a little more modern these days.

Your's truly making my only inagural address.

As we were walking back to the car I caught this Corvette with a large Guinness taped to the back. You just can't beat a fast car and pint (just not at the same time).

Finally, this morning I weighed myself for the first time in ages. My weight was 185. I have three weeks to loose 10 lbs to get under my maximum for the Army. Keep my ass honest. If I don't post my weight weekly, call me out on it.

Pop Quiz

Today I was back in the pool for the second time in two weeks and guess what? We had a quiz. I was not ready for today's quiz. I have not been studying much this semester. I have been on a karmic Spicoli trip. Just think of all those "tasty waves and cool buzz".

I arrived at the pool at 0530 and the coach side it was not going to be a long day of swimming. I was relived, but I should have known that it would be hard.

Total yardage was only about 1700 yards. However, we did two 200 yard timed swims (free-style for me). I averaged 3:26 for both them. That actually surprised me. After a short break we did a 10 minute timed swim. I ended up doing about 525 yards in those 10 mins. Not great, but not real bad either.

We did some active recovery swimming and finished up with swimming suicides. I had never done those in the water. However, it is a great way to practice flip turns and stregthen your kick going out of the turn.

Lets job hope there is no test for my morning run on Wednesday.

The Sun Also Rises

Once again I have been away from this blog for over a month. A lot has happened in this past month and not much of it has been related to any sort of workout plan.

The bride, my brother and I all met up in Georgia to have a good weekend with mom. We all figured that it would probably be the last time that we all would be with her. And we were right--Just not like we thought.

We ended up transferring her to Hospice on President’s Day morning. My mother’s nurse at St Mary’s Hospice, Sherry, was just absolutely amazing. The family cannot say enough good things about her. She stayed past her shift and was there with the family until the end. Truly amazing, amazing people there. Their caring and compassion was far beyond what I could have hoped for. I will post more on this later.

I made it back to DC late on the evening of February 25th and I have been trying to get my head above water for the last week. I think I am finally close to getting back up to speed. I will be back in the water tomorrow morning and back on the trail on Wednesday. Now just to get my butt back on the bike.