The Lazy Triathlete

Long Days, Pool Closures, and Riding with Magnum

2012-01-10T18:50:00.001-05:00

Wow!!! What a way to start the New Year. As you all know last week was only a four day week, but I still ended up working 47 hours. It is that time in an engagement when it is time for the deliverables. Friday night ended at 10:30. When am I going to win the lottery—oh yeah, I have to play it first. That has kept me from blogging. However, that hasn’t stopped me from working out.

As I stated in my last post, I am taking my runs easy. I only ran about 14 miles in the last week. I have run running 3 miles a couple of times, and then couple of 4 mile runs with a friend of mine. My feet are feeling good. I am doing stretching before and after. It takes about a mile and half for my feet to loosen up and after that they feel great. I will be upping my morning runs to 3.5 miles and my “longer” runs to about 4.5.

I have tried to get in a swim a couple of times and would you believe that the pool is closed for swim team training. I just don’t time it well and the Rec Center doesn’t post the times very well. So after they got my dues today, I had a couple of words about the poor posting of which days and what times the pool is closed for the training.

Yesterday was my planned ride. So today, I ended up riding the bike also. The good news about riding on the training for 45 minutes is that I get to watched Magnum PI solve another case. This is what it looks like when I ride the trainer and watch TV. Scary huh?

A New Year or I had better get off my ass

2012-01-02T20:39:00.001-05:00

This past year was not a good year for me and just not in the racing and training agenda. I have suffered from plantar fasciitis since my return from Afghanistan last year. I attempted to train through the pain and hoped it would just get better on its own. We know how that typically turns out. Even though I did not train well because of the pain I still did three Olympic Distance races, one sprint, and the Army Ten Miler. How smart is that? I have no done much training since the Army Ten Miler. I have stretched a lot more and I can tell a big difference. Since Christmas I have done 4 short easy runs with lots of stretching, 3 bike rides on the trainer, and a couple of days of swimming. I am starting to feel so much better and more motivated.

I have a lot of plate on right now. Historically, I do much better when I have a full plate. I am forced to focus and get my ass in gear. I have a busy first quarter of work already planned, I have taken command of an Army Reserve Battalion in St. Paul, MN, and I want to do a half-iron distance race this year. All of these challenge me to do my best and stay busy.

Prior to Christmas the Bride and I took our yearly cruise. This year we went to Roatan and Cozumel. When I went to put some of the “cruise” clothes I realized how tight they were. That really shook me. I did not realize I had put on that much weight. During the cruise I turned 41 and that hit me worse than 40 did. After coming home I stepped on the scale for the first time in ages and I was shocked at how much I weighed. I was close to 20lbs more than I want to weigh. I want to lose 20lbs and I have 25lbs as an outside goal. That will make me feel and look better.

We returned from our Christmas trip to Chicago and since then I have been running, short and slow, in order to allow my body and feet to adjust to the stress. I have done some 40 minute bike rides, and a couple of 1600 meter swims. On January 1, 2012 my buddy John and I did our annual Bike and a Movie. We did 90 minutes on the trainer as we watched Army of Darkness. If you have never seen this movie AND you like bad funny movies I highly recommend it. It will make you laugh out loud.

Now I have to determine if I want to do the Patriots Half in Williamsburg, VA or the Augusta 70.3. If anyone has an comments I would love to hear them.

I have also started a Twitter account. My account is @lzytriathlete. I look forward to reading your comments, motivations, and anything else you wish to send my way.

Happy New Year to all.

The Army 10 Miler Race Report

2011-10-12T16:53:00.001-04:00

While I was deployed in 2010 The Bride said she wanted to do the Army 10 Miler together in 2011. Being the dutiful husband I am, I signed us up the day registration opened. That was only the only day it was open, it sold out that fast. Luckily I woke up at 0330 and registered us. She has been in training mode since May. Her longest run prior to today was 7.5 miles, but I knew she could do it.

Saturday morning we overslept. I mean we really overslept and alcohol had not been involved the night before. We woke up about 9am. Neither one of us ever sleep that late. We made it packet pick up about noon and the line outside the DC Armory was not moving. We were finally told by one of the Old Guard they were holding people because it was too crowded inside. No problem. We were in the military line so once it started moving again we were in 5 minutes and 5 minutes later had our packets. This was scene outside when we arrived.

By the time we had perused the vendors it was even worse. Good thing we did not oversleep even more. After purchasing some more Jelly Belly Sport Beans and a new IPod Nano arm holder, we stopped for a sandwich on the way home. The afternoon was spent watching college football. The Bride’s Univeristy of Maryland Terps did not fair well. This is the biggest race the Bride has ever done. So she went to bed early and I stayed up and watched my UGA Dawgs.

The morning started about 5am with some breakfast and we headed to catch the Metro to the race site. I think we were on the first train of the morning and arrived about 0630 at the Pentagon. We linked up with a friend of mine, then did the Porta-John dance and headed to the start line.

I was suppose to be in wave one, but did not get up to the correct area soon enough, so I started at in wave two. I was off at 0810. I ran the first two miles at about 8:30 per mile. This was a little faster than I wanted to run, but I was feeling pretty good. At the first water stop, which was about about mile 2.5 I felt the need to stop at the Porta John again. That was about a 12 minute stop counting the time I had to stand in line. NOT GOOD. Not counting the stop, I hit the 5 mile mark about 22 minutes later. I soon saw some friends of mine at the top of the little hill. They had come had to cheer for me and the Bride. Mira had even made a sign for the Bride. I chatted with them for a minute, thanked them for coming out and making the sign, and then I was off again.

Miles 6 to 8 were slow, but uneventful. About mile 8.5, on the 14th Street Bridge, I started running out of steam and my left foot started to hurt. WTF? It is my right foot that has been giving me problem. I stretched out and ran even slower for the last mile and half. After being herded through the finish line I awaited on the Bride to finish. She came in about 2:30. She had done it. She had never run this far before in her life. I was so proud of her accomplishment.

Our friends gave us a ride from the Pentagon back to a less crowded Metro Stop and we made it home. The Bride was smart enough to have scheduled a massage for the afternoon. I think she may have started something new. She is already talking about doing the George Washington Parkway 10 Miler in April.

Oh, I finished in 2 hours. If you factor out the bathroom stop and the time chatting my friends I would have finished in about 1:45. That is too slow, but for not training much for the event I was satisfied. There is more come…..

Something New Coming

2011-10-08T18:27:00.001-04:00

Sunday is the start of something new. I will hobble through the Army 10 Miler. Then it is time to back in shape.

Columbia Triathlon Race Report

2011-05-24T11:54:00.000-04:00

I completed my first triathlon since 2008 yesterday. Why I chose to start with the Columbia Triathlon in Columbia, MD I have no idea. It is one of the tougher Olympic Distance races around here. I guess because it bills itself as the “Right of Spring” in the Mid Atlantic and I am sucker for marketing.

I told the Bride that I would stay close to home this triathlon season. Other than a late summer trek to Dewey Beach, DE for the Dewey Sprint Tri, Richmond, VA is my farthest trip. The trip to Dewey is a long weekend trip with for us and some friends. So we just rent a house and enjoy the weekend.

I was up early on Sunday morning for the 50 mile drive to Columbia. I arrived just after 0500 and set up my transition area. The weather Sunday morning was just about perfect for a race. This is the first time I have done this race or even a bike ride on the course that it hasn’t rained.

My wave went off at 0718 and would you believe that the men aged 40-44 was the seconded largest wave? Men 35-39 was the largest. What is it with us old guys? The start of the swim was about what you expect. There was plenty of kicking and jockeying for position. After about 5 minute it all settled down and I got in a nice groove. I made the turn at the dam and then made the turn back to the swim exit. I was feeling good, my strokes were strong, I was in a good zone, and started to get a little cocky. As I was sighting on the buoys, I started to hear the announcer getting louder and louder. This wasn’t a surprise since you swim by at a greater distance in front of the start/announcer. Then I realized I had been sighting in on the wrong buoy. So I had to turn to the right to get back on track. I probably wasted 3-4 minutes due to my sighting error. However, I came out of the water at 32:04. Without the sighting problem I am comfortable I would have gone under 30 minutes for the swim which was my goal.

I took my time in transition. This was just a long training day for me. I pushed the bike to the top of the hill outside of transition, mounted up and I was off. The course is a hilly 41k (25.4 miles) that I had two weeks earlier with a friend of mine. I am glad I had done the practice ride, because I had forgotten how tough it was. I warmed up my legs during the first couple of miles and then it was down hill for a little ways. The first 10-12 miles of the race has some downhills, but it is a net uphill. OUCH. The middle part of the bike is more rolling hills. I was cruising a long on the rolling hills and flat land. Very pleased with my progress in just two weeks. Then it was back up the final big hills and the transition to run.

As I started to run I realized how much my shoulders and lower back were hurting from the bike. I have made myself a promise to do more upper body/back workouts and much more core exercises in the coming days. I have to strengthen that part of this old body. As with the bike, the run is hilly. I told myself I would run the flats, downhills, and I would walk up the hills. I did more walking than I wanted. I legs did not cramp like I thought they would, but the shoulder and lower back were just hurting. By about mile 4 I had loosened up enough to get in a good trot. By the time I was crossing the dam, I had a pretty decent pace. But then you have only a half mile to go before the finish, so I am sure that had something to do with it. You have to love triathlons. The announcer is always calling out the names of the finishers (got to wear those numbers). I typically don’t hear my name called, but this time I was directly in front of a speaker when he called out my name. I gave some kids some high fives, low fives, and middle fives as I came down the chute.

It was good to get a hard race out of the way. Made me feel much better, gave me an idea of what I need to work on, and made my muscles that good sore.

Deep in My Head

2011-03-17T13:08:00.002-04:00

So far this has been a good week of workouts. I have gotten in workouts every day and even some two-a-day workouts. This afternoon it is back in the pool. Tomorrow morning I have an easy 4 mile run and I may even try to get in a bike ride when I get home. It is suppose to be in the 70s on Friday. Plus the Bride and I are heading to Philly to do the tourist thing. I haven’t spent much time in Philly and I am looking forward to seeing some of the historic sites that led to the founding of this country. Call me a nerd, but I do enjoy it. Plus I can get a good Philly Cheesesteak!!

Before we head out on Saturday, we have to do our annual phone/computer attempt to get Jimmy Buffett tickets. We do this every year. One of us is on the computer and the other one is speed dialing. One year we actually both got tickets. If you have never been to one of his shows I highly recommend them. The tail gating is awesome!!! It is the only during the year that I get drunk.

When I workout (especially swim), I really get into my own head. I tend to think deep thoughts, things that confuse me, irritate me, or anger me. When I was swimming on Tuesday I started thinking about Fukushima 50. I had read a little about them online during the day and some of us had discussed them at work. A couple of people could not understand why these people would risk their lives, if they are killed outright then they will slowly and painfully die of radiation poisoning. One of the guys shocked me. Call me sexist, call me old fashioned, but I expect men to be willing to sacrifice for the betterment of their world. To me, a man should want to be John Wayne. Do the right thing regardless of the consequences. But more and more males (especially younger ones) are not what I would call a man.

So as I was swimming I started replaying that conversation back in my head and I got more and more angry (my 100 splits also got faster). In the world I grew up in as child, adolescent, and adult just did not tolerate this type of thinking. I have known many firemen, policemen, and soldiers who would (and have) laid down their lives for others. It is just a code of honor that I have come to expect, maybe even demand. We need others who will take the proverbial bullet for the greater good; that man or woman who quietly sacrifices so that others may live. The US Air Force Pararescue Force has the motto – That Others May Live. In my humble opinion, that sums up the type of life we should all lead.

Strange Things afoot in the weight room

2011-03-10T12:53:00.000-05:00

We all have our weird people (Whiskey Foxtrots as DC Rainmaker calls them) at the gym or pool that we frequent. In the last couple of months I have going to one of the Fairfax Co Rec Centers near my house. I have noticed that the men in the locker room are not as fit, nor as friendly as the ones at the YMCA I had been visiting . The Bride and told me about some of the WFs using the weight machines and using the cardio equipment. It was not that I did not believe her, but I had to experience these WFs for myself.

WF #1 was fully dressed and using the weight machines. He is fully dressed in an outdated button down shirt and khaki pants. He is balding, thin (with a little gut), wears wire rimmed glasses, and reads a magazine between sets. He also does not like to share the machine as he rests between sets.

WF#2 was dressed in a dingy old yellow shirt and royal purple running shorts. The Bride informed me that he has used the weight machines in nothing but a Speedo (banana hammock type). So the two “gentlemen” start up a conversation. I am not listening until they start talking about guns. This piqued my interest, so I started to listen a little more. The guns in question were of Civil War vintage which led to a talking about Civil War reenactments and re-enactors. We all have our own hobbies and I am not one to question hobbies. Then dingy yellow shirt guy stated the reason he was opposed to Civil War reenactments is…wait for it….wait for it…wait for it….the people in the 1860s had no fashion sense. I almost lost it.

What a strange bunch of people using the weight machines. I will not even say anything about the lady who could give Tom Selleck lessons on growing a mustache.

I would love to hear about your Whiskey Foxtrots!

Weekend Update

2011-03-07T21:38:00.001-05:00

This weekend was a long weekend and unfortunately it was a not filled with long runs and bike rides. This was more a recovery weekend. I try to schedule my recovery weeks on the weeks that I have my Reserve Weekends. I am up and out of the house before the sun and it usually about 7 when I get home. I could workout after I get home, but I have made a deal with the Bride to do something with her when I get home. It is only fair.

Today, I hit the pool and did 2000 meters in 45:20. It was a strange workout:

4x200 (Swim, Kick, Drill, Swim), 4x150 (Swim, Kick, Drill, Swim), 4x100 (Swim, Kick, Drill, Swim), 4x50 (fast) 100 cool down. I had a good swim. I don’t think I went that hard on a lot of the sets. My time was within 2 minutes or so of my normal time, but I did not feel worn out. Tomorrow is a morning ride with Crockett and Tubbs.

The house is coming along nicely. We are set to received the dining room set on Friday. Today we had first cleaning with a new cleaning service and she did a great job. The

lady who had been cleaning our other house wanted shit load (that is a financial term) of money and when we had her clean the house prior to us moving in, she did not do a very good job. This new lady did a great job. To the left is the front of the house.

The downstairs Den

Another View of the Den. The reason I am only showing the downstairs den is that is the only common room that is finished.

I hope that everyone had a great weekend and keep working hard.

Is it Friday again?

2011-03-04T11:18:00.001-05:00

Once again I am living up to my name. I have been working out, but I haven’t been blogging. In the past week I have had five really good workouts. I can feel the endurance coming back, especially in the swimming and running. Once I get the bike out on the road I will let you know how my trainer workouts have worked.

I have had some contract issues at work. So Tuesday and Wednesday I had to work from home. I did bunch of CPE classes since I don’t have much vacation time since I have returned from military leave. I also dismantled a shed, moved a desk, tried to do some plumbing, and bought a new part for the sink all over at the “old” house. On Tuesday I had a 2000 meter total swim with the main set being 10 x 100. I really hate 10 x anything (especially 100s). However, I was happy with my times. I got slower over the course of the set, but I started at about 1:40 and ended at 1:48s. For a non-swimmer like me I have no complaints.

I swam two days in a row and on Wednesday the main set was 4 x50 (constant pace), 3x300, and 4x50 (finish strong). Again my 300s were in the 1:48 to 1:50/100 pace. I was pretty happy and rather tired. Thursday morning was a run day. After a nice warm Wednesday afternoon (low 60s), it was a blustery 25. Where is spring? As cold as it was, I still had a very good run. I can tell the fitness is coming back. I maintained or was a little faster over miles than I have been and my HR was about 7 bpm less.

On the house front; I started painting the shed, but I still haven’t finished the trim. I got a new Weber Grill which I used for the first time last night. Sorry no photos. Finally, we ordered a new dining room table set. It is suppose to be delivered on Saturday. The house is slowly coming together.

I will be playing soldier this weekend, so no hard training. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Friday Ramblings

2011-02-25T15:03:00.001-05:00

Today is a rest day. I have to swim on Saturday and then a short brick on Sunday. We will be going to a different Church on Sunday—we are looking for a new one since we moved. After that we are going into DC to meet up with a friend of ours who is in town for work. I am hoping that tomorrow gets as warm as advertised, high 40s, so that I can finish painting the new shed. I painted the body a couple of weeks ago, but still haven’t done the trim. Hopefully that will not take more than a couple of hours. I will try to remember to get some pictures of the shed before and after I paint the trim.

Today has been one of those rather brain dead days. When I don’t work up a sweat in the morning I just feel run down most of the day. But I know my legs need a break and tomorrow will be a good day in the pool. I miss my workouts and being in my own thoughts. If I could just remember them or were more technically inclined I bet I could invent something crazy. I am also pretty creative in the writing arena when I don’t have a keyboard or pen and paper in front of me. My last two deployments I have started on a novel and never got very far. But I would lay in bed at night and map the plot. My most current plot is a former Army Special Ops guy, who has become a National Geographic type photographer and is a triathlete living in DC, who gets recruited to “do thing” to keep us safe or to help out friends. It’s a shame I can’t write it during work.

I have finished up some work and I am awaiting it to be reviewed. However, since it is Friday I am going to bet is not reviewed prior to my departure. I am on the 6^th floor of a building on the Virginia side of the Potomac listening to the wind HOWL. I just checked the weather and it the wind is gusting to 53mph. I was looking out the window wondering if some of the plywood being used for construction was going to get airborne. Yuck!! I am glad I am not out running or biking today.

Living in the Past?

2011-02-24T09:18:00.002-05:00

I don’t know about other people, but when I am out running I have all sorts of crazy thoughts. This morning I was jamming to some 80s music and a song I forgot I had on my iPod came on. The song took me back to some more care-free days in college. Then my mind wandered even more and I started thinking about people who seem to live in the past. As I was huffing along in the cold morning air, I broke them down into two categories. The ones who still think they are great because of previous accomplishments and the ones who have bettered themselves but still see themselves as the (fill in the blank) from way back when.

I did not ponder too much on the ones who still think they are great. We all know them. They are the high school or college jock types who never got past being the starting quarterback. A fair number of the people I grew up with are like this. Their lives never got past those accomplishments many years ago. It is sad really that whatever the accomplishment was was the highlight of their lives.

The other group actually makes me sad and in some cases mad. Those individuals who have greatly bettered themselves in terms of education, financial status, and (since this is a workout blog) those who have overcome their lack of athleticism. They have worked hard to be that good runner, biker, swimmer, or whatever; have gotten in shape and lost weight and look good. Why do they still see themselves as the slow or the fat kid?

I was always active growing up. I played organized baseball from age 6 through college. I was a decent player, but never pro material. I ran track a couple of years in middle school, played football in middle and high schools, and even wrestled a couple of seasons. I was fit and skinny. The army kept me in shape and as I have aged the challenge has gotten more difficult. The pounds don’t melt off and I don’t recover as fast I use too. But I don’t really dwell on the past. I try to learn from things that have occurred in the past, but I don’t see myself as that 18 year old athlete.

My question is do you still see yourself as that person you were, or do you embrace the new you? What would your family say?

Swimming Etiquette or I learned to share in Kindergarten

2011-02-23T09:44:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I was back in Georgia cleaning out a storage unit and bring some of the contents back the house. We now have enough space to store the stuff. We departed Friday afternoon and drove as far as Spartanburg, SC and finished off the trip early Saturday morning. It was great to see family and to walk the Bride around my grandmother’s lake. How the land around her property has been developed. You can actually see new construction behind her house now. It used to be out on the middle of nowhere. Sunday morning we were up early and on the road back home. Twenty hours in the car in roughly two days. So no long workouts for me.

Monday was a Federal Holiday, so I worked from home doing some online classes. I started to do a long run, but the ball of my left foot was in a lot of pain. I pulled up after about 2 miles and just walked home. Tuesday was a 40 minute bike ride in the morning followed by a swim in the afternoon. The distances are improving in the pool.

Speaking of the pool, what the hell is up with lane etiquette? Friday morning I did a short swim before departing. I had put my equipment down in an unused lane and went to grab a kickboard. Since all the lanes had at least one swimmer in them, I was not shocked to see a lady putting her equipment next to mine. I greeted her and she gave me one of the DC woman shit eating looks. She then informed me that this was “her” lane and she swam in it every Friday. I told her “no problem”, would you rather swim side to side or circle swim? She then looked at me and told me again this was “her” lane. I responded kindly sarcastically that if she had it rented I would be happy to swim in another lane. Well, to make a long story short—she changed lanes once another lane came open.

I hate to share lanes, especially with people you don’t know. However, these pools are for everyone’s use. I just don’t get the hostility. Yesterday, to show that I am not a jaded person (at least tell myself that), as I was finishing up my swim a gentleman came onto the pool deck looking for a lane. I pulled up and told him I had another 10 minutes or so, but he was welcome to use this lane. He was very much appreciative; we discussed strokes and the use of flippers. As I went to leave he thanked me, saying that he was used to the people who refuse to share. So I guess that lady is the norm…..

Who else has any similar experiences? How did you handle them?

Happy vs Unhappy. Who wins?

2011-02-17T09:49:00.002-05:00

I don’t know if it is that time of the year or what, but so people appear to be unhappy. Why is that? In general we have so much to be happy for. Are we as Americans just an unhappy lot? Do we like to hear ourselves bitch and complain?

I am not talking about the “Damn, I don’t want to get up and work out at 5am”, type of unhappiness. I am talking about the kind that appears to come from somewhere deep in us. I like to think of myself as a half full kind of guy. I am not bubbly or overly charismatic, but I try to look on the bright side of things. There are people that will say I am not always happy. I raise my voice at the news on TV or really stupid calls by officials in my favorite sporting events. I am also a realist and sarcastic at times. But that doesn’t make me unhappy.

Since I am realist I have been told over and over that I am too hard on others, typically people who appear to me to be unhappy. I try to point out the good things in their lives, that sometimes there expectations are unrealistic. Why do people get angry or unhappy that they “only “lost 1.5lbs this week? Or did not PR a race? It is not realistic to be perfect.

Why is it that the individuals who get mad at something are the most likely to do the same type thing? Are they projecting? I have people around me who are convinced that others need to respond to them immediately, but then they like to hold back information or wait until the last minute to pass on information or complete a task. My personal opinion is that they do that for control reasons and think that anyone that doesn’t respond “their way” is trying to control them. Double standard?

Do you that angry or unhappy people sleep less? Worrying about things that they can’t control? Do they try to bring you down to make themselves feel better?

I know this isn’t exactly a happy (no pun intended) post, but it was something I was thinking about this morning on my run. Happiness is not always that flowery feeling. But look around you—is your spouse by your side (even if you don’t always agree?) are your kids healthy, are you trying to improve yourself or make yourself better? I like to play the cards I have been dealt, patiently made my decisions, and make the best of my situation.

What are your thoughts on the situation? Are you the unhappy one? Is the person making you unhappy really doing something wrong? Is it something you can change or should change?

Getting back into the swing of things

2011-02-15T19:20:00.001-05:00

We all know how good we feel after a workout. Especially a hard on. We also know that there are some days it takes all we have to get out the door, or in some cases out of the bed. November and December were difficult months for me to get my ass in gear. I knew I would feel better, but that damn couch was so comfortable. Now that I am back at work getting up in the morning and making the time, both before and after work, to get in my workouts has actually been easier than when I had all the time in the world. I tend to do much better when I have constraints on my time. I have to manage my life better. I actually get more accomplished and don’t feel so overwhelmed.

Sunday morning was my longest ride on the trainer to date. It was 15 miles, which isn’t that far, but I have been doing 30-40 minutes in the morning before work. This was about a 50 min workout. I broke a good sweat and thankfully Jack Bauer was able to make headway during that hour. Monday morning I was up about 0445 and hit the road. I did a little less than 4 miles. I know I am starting to get back in shape when that run starts to feel good. The down side of that was about a mile from the house, I started feeling “that rumbling” down in the belly. I walked for a couple of minutes until it subsided, then I started back off at a faster pace. It then started to me again. Luckily, I made it home just in the nick of time.

Today I was back in the pool. I did 2200 meets in roughly 50-55 minutes. I forgot my watch. Silly me. The main set was a pyramid of 4x50, 2x100, 1x200, 2x100, and 4x50. I was happy that I was able to keep the 50s at about 45 seconds and the 100s at about 1:40.

I have promised some photos of the “Man Room”, so here they are. The TV mounted over the desk is a godsend when I am working out or the bride has taken over the TV in

the den and is watching some crazy Red Carpet Special or those moronic “housewives”. I can retreat to my retreat and watch sports or my military and history channels. Speaking of history on television—if you are folks with a TV in your room I highly recommend “The States” or “The Presidents” from the History channel to help you fall asleep.

I hope everyone has a great week and keep up the hard work.

Sick and Tired of the Cold

2011-02-09T09:01:00.001-05:00

I am just sick and tired of the cold. At least the last two mornings I have been able to watch the sun come up over the Potomac as I drove to work. That means it is not cloudy and the days are getting longer. Spring has to come sooner or later—I am hoping on sooner.

Saturday and Sunday I donned my Army suit for the first time since returning from Afghanistan and it was back to the one weekend a month thing. It has been nice to be off, but I can’t complain about the additional cash. Plus it was good to see all the folks I haven’t seen since we got back. The down side is not really any time to get in a workout.

I did not work out Monday morning. I just did the weigh for our Family and Friends Biggest Loser. I was not pleased, but I had a fair amount of alcohol and really bad food as I watched the game. I was only down half a pound. Whoops. So Monday after work (the weather was fairly nice) I hit the road for a painful 4 miles. The first half of the run I could not get loose nor really work up a good sweat. According to my training plan I was only suppose to run 3 miles. Since I am still learning all the side streets in the new neighborhood (yes I did Map My Run, but..) I took a wrong turn and ended up doing 4 miles. The second half was much better than the first half, so I will categorize it as a good thing.

Tuesday morning I was up and hopped on the trainer for a 10mile spin. In the new house I have my own office/workout room. I love it. I mounted a TV on the wall so I can watch TV, a DVD, or stream Netflix. I will have to get pictures up soon. Tuesday afternoon I did an ab workout. This morning, it was effing cold so I opted to do another ride instead of a run. For entertainment during the ride I streamed an old George Carlin HBO Special, “Doin’ It Again”. I forgot how funny that man is.

This afternoon I am scheduled for some speed work in the pool. I hate sprints.

Now off to earn a living.

How to ruin a marriage and I don’t mean mine!!

2011-02-02T20:21:00.001-05:00

This morning after I was done stretching and doing an ab workout I came across this very interesting article, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703439504576116083514534672.html, and was truly fascinated by it. Initially, I was fascinated by the author’s view point on the Waxmans. My initial though on the article is what is the author’s bias? There appears to be some major gaps in the writing. If he gets up early and works out, so what if she wakes alone. He is the one getting up earlier. Either the author has a bias against endurance athletes or athlete in general (was he the band or a nerd and mocked by the jocks) or was Mr. Waxman really that big of a selfish pig. Then I started reading the reader comments.

I was amazed at how many people think that training for a triathlon, specifically Sprint or Oly, all that crazy. The ones that really stood out to me were the women complaining about their husbands training. What is wrong with someone (male or female) deciding to push themselves and tackling a new challenge? What is wrong with getting off the couch and shedding that belly fat (I know I need to)? As I continued to read the comments I was struck by 1) the number of women (who don’t appear to work out) complaining, 2) the number of men who whined in general (I make the impolite assumption they were just fat and miserable, 3) the number of ladies who praised their husbands for being supportive, and 4) the number of men who complimented their wives/girlfriends for working out and looking good.

Anything in moderation is usually a good thing. Addiction to something, even exercise when it affects your relationships, falls into the Lazy Triathlete’s category of “BAD”. But who decides that it has been become a problem? How much is too much? Seven hours a week? Ten hours? Fifteen? 7-9 hours a week is not really excessive if you do you the math. One hour a day for 4 days a week and then 90 minutes on Saturday and Sunday gives you seven hours of working out. I realize you have prep and travel time which adds another hour or two. However, that appears to me to be a small price to pay to push yourself and accomplish something, make yourself healthier, and to look and feel better.

Please take some time and read the article and let me know what you think.

This afternoon I went for my first run on my training plan. It was suppose to be an easy 30 minute run. Well it was a SLOW one. After riding 30 minutes and swimming 30 minutes the last two days, my legs were rather heavy and the run was slow. But I did about 3 miles in those 30 minutes after work. My resolution is to follow the training plan as best as I can (weekends with Battle Assembly will be difficult) and to work out after work. New house, new habits.

Buying a new house, moving, cold weather, and working out

2011-01-25T21:01:00.001-05:00

Ok, it is not really a reason, more like an excuse. I haven’t been that good on working out over the last 3 weeks. My excuse is that we bought a new house, moved, my wife went out of town for two weeks and I was putting stuff together and cleaning up the place. Did I mention it was cold too? Cold is lame, I admit it. I have been much colder in my life than it has been here lately.

We closed on the house 7 January and had the movers take everything out of the house on the 8th. January 10th was a great day for my supervisory skills. I had the locksmith, the FIOS guy (if you can get it, it beats the hell out of cable), Sears brought the new washer and dryer, the plumber, the yard guys, and the Geek Squad to hang the two TVs. One in the downstairs den and one in my office/workout room. I can now watch TV, a DVD, or stream a movie from Netflix as I ride the bike or work out.

I have lost 2.5 lbs in the last three weeks, so I am eating better. That motivated me to get back to working out this week. I was up at 5am Monday for an easy 30 minute ride on the bike. Then after I got home I started a new ab workout. I have to say that my abs are rather sore today. This morning I got up and did a 30 min run, which is my third run in the last 2 weeks. After work today I hit the new gym (we finally joined this weekend) and I swam about 30 mins. The swim was ok, but an easy 30 min swim should not have been as hard this one felt.

Tomorrow is another day on the bike. Shooting for 35 minutes. I want to get up to 45 mins before work, and then do the Ab workout after I get home. All it takes is 21 days to get in the habit!!!!

Keep working hard everyone!!

Starting back HURTS

2011-01-03T20:48:00.001-05:00

I ate way too much on December 31, but damn it was good. Why can’t steam broccoli taste like a pepperoni pizza? Just a random thought there. The Bride loves WII Fit, especially the scale since it keeps her honest. She has talked me into doing some of the WII Fit games, but mainly the weigh-in on there. Of course she can see my weight, but I can’t see hers. But I digress. I weighed in at 179 lbs (rounding up). Which was about 6lbs less than I thought I weighed. So I am pretty happy that I had not gained as much as I thought I had. My goal is to be at 160 by the end June. I see no reason I can’t do that. Well there is my love of pepperoni pizza.

Saturday afternoon I headed out for my first bike ride of the year. I planned on meeting a buddy of mine and doing about 20 miles, but he bailed at the last minute due to the possibility of rain. So I headed down to Haines Point to do some laps. I ended up biking an hour in some pretty chilly wind. With the wind I was easily doing 18.5-19 mph and against the wind I was working hard to do 16. I don’t remember when a short hour ride hurt so much. But it felt good to be on the new bike for only the second time outside.

This morning I was up at 5am and headed out the door for 3.5 miles. It was a brisk 27 with a cold north wind as I started. I am ashamed of how slow my 3.5 mile run was. I don’t remember the last time I suffered through 10 min miles. The good news is it only gets easier, well it gets faster. Tomorrow, I am off to swim with the masters at the Y. Soon, I will be moving to a new place to swim. That is if we ever close on the new house, but more on that later.

I think I am going to sign up for the Augusta 70.3. If anyone has done that race I would love some info.

Now back to the closing. We wanted to close last Wednesday, but due to a last minute request from the lender to the seller that did not happen. The document was received late on Thursday, but with the holiday nothing was done on Friday. I was not hopeful about today even though the Bride was. If everything was completed today, we should be able to close on Wednesday. Please keep your fingers crossed.

I hope everyone had a great New Years. Lets all get back in gear.

Last Day of Gluttony

2010-12-31T20:06:00.001-05:00

I have been back from Afghanistan now for a little over two months and I have done exactly what I said I was not going to do. I have eaten like it is going out of style. I have not run or swam like I should have. I haven’t biked much either, but I have an excuse for that, which I will discuss in a minute. The last real run I did was a Turkey Trot on a family vacation in the Keys during Thanksgiving. That is how pathetic I have been. After Thanksgiving we went spent 10 days in Puerto Rico and on cruise. During this time I ate and drank WAY too much. Two extra days stuck in Chicago over Christmas did not help either.

My excuse for lack of riding is this—I had to move the bike and trainer out of my house because it is on the market. Our realtor has us keeping things in our house to a minimum. Since the house is rather small I completely agree with her. We were suppose to close on the new house on Wednesday but that did not occur. Now we are shooting for Monday. All I can say about the underwriters is tell us up front what documentation is needed. That allows us and the seller to be prepared. Don’t wait until the last “effing” minute to throw something new at us. So lets hope Monday or Tuesday works out.

The good news is once we get settled in the new house, I have one of the four bedrooms as mine. I am having a flat screen mounted on the wall so during the cold winters I can ride and watch some shoot’em up movies. The new house is over twice the size of our current one and has been completely renovated. I am excited to get in and get settled.

Today is the last day of Gluttony for the bride and I. We have been grazing on appetizer foods as we watch football games. Tomorrow I have a 20 mile bike ride scheduled. I am excited to get out and ride the new bike some more.

So much for 2010. Lets all welcome 2011.

Slowly Working Out

2010-12-03T21:35:00.001-05:00

I had such high hopes for my workout on my return. However, life and laziness (I am not the Lazy Triathlete for nothing) have gotten in the way. I have been swimming the last month. I am back up to about 2000 yards. Most of these workouts are rather slow with lots of drills thrown. I haven’t run in over a week. Most of my runs have been on the short and slow side, especially since the weather has gotten colder. I am going to try and run for about an hour tomorrow.

The other issue that has been tying me up is the process of buying a house and selling a house. We were looking at one that did not have a buyer for a while, dragging our feet hoping that no one was interested. At the last minute we were in a bidding war, unprepared, and ended up losing that one. We have found another house and have a contract on it. Currently there are two issues holding it up. We are still awaiting the mold test and the VA appraisal. I am concerned about the VA appraisal. I am hearing horror stories regarding the this process.

This house has been completely re-done on the inside. It is basically brand spanking new. I will need to enlarge the deck and the backyard needs some TLC, but that is not an overly difficult process—just time consuming. Wish us luck.

We also went to the Keys for Thanksgiving. Myself, the Bride, her mother and father, and her sister and her family. We had a blast. Plenty of sun, fruity drinks and some great scuba diving. In addition to the diving we also did a 5K turkey trot at the resort. I promised the Bride I would run with her. It was a lot of fun if not the fastest race of my life.

Next Friday we head to Puerto Rico for a cruise. So I better work out hard the next six days. I just wish I had the new bike easily accessible so I could do some trainer rides. But we are keeping our house clutter free incase someone comes to look.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Back to Bamiyan

2010-11-10T22:53:00.001-05:00

The last week I have gotten in a few runs, a couple of days on the trainer ( I love the new bike), and a couple of 2000 yard days in the pool. But for the most part I have been working on the doing all the things needed to buy and sell a house. However, not to jinx ourselves I am going to refrain from going into any detail at this time.

This past year was my second trip to Afghanistan. I spent 2002 in Kabul, Bamiyan (home to the big Buddha's that the Taliban destroyed), and the Airbase at Bagram. My favorite place was Bamiyan. I was absolutely a beautiful place. The people there were honest and hard working. The Hazaras were persecuted by the Taliban and had suffered greatly. Bamiyan is the middle of country is very isolated due the terrain. During my 2002 time in Bamiyan I was previledged enough to build numerous schools for both boys and girls, emplace wells, and other activies that benefited the people of this impoverished area. I have enough stories about this place to fill a few hours over numerous beers. During this tour, I was lucky enough to get back up there for a little while. Man how the place has changed.

I escorted some Afghan government leaders and luckily we flew instead of taking the long ass trip in a vehicle. It was a wonderful experience to see all the changes. There was a lot of new construction going on, at least 5k of roads had been paved, the airfield was being used. Most of all I enjoyed seeing the safe house we had lived in 2002 had reverted back to the hotel it has been previously.

This was our safehouse 2002. 20 Americans living by your wits

This was our outhouse. We had carpeted and even magazine holders for reading material.

The Lazy Triathlete over looking one of the Buddha holes in March 2010.

This what the hotel looks like now.

Enough reminiscing, it is time to get some sleep and get in a few miles in the morning.

I AM BACK

2010-10-27T16:55:00.001-04:00

I am back from a tour in the great state of chaos called Afghanistan. I have been back for about a week and have been sort of relaxing. However, I have started working again. Which is pretty good. Sleep is still not as solid as I would like. But when your body gets use to only 5-6 hours a night and you through jet lag in on top of it, it is no wonder I am waking up at 0300 or so every day.

None of my workouts have been anything earth shattering. I have been running about 5K this past week. It is getting easier. Tuesday was my first day on my new bike (more to follow on that), and today I swam for about 30 minutes. I lost track of the laps, but I guess it was 1200 yards or so. Nothing hard, just some lazy swimming and basic drills

Now back to the bike. Before I left I worked out a deal with the Bride, that if I saved so much money for a new house that I could get a new bike. So after much research, etc etc, I ended up with a Trek 6.2 Madone. I took possesion from my LBS on Monday but due to the weather there was no riding. Tuesday morning I headed out for what was suppose to be an hour ride. Just to get my feet back under me and see how she handled. A little over half way through the ride (I stopped at my local running store to get new socks) and when I returned to the bike the rear tire was flat. I did not have a spare tube, so Dumbass (that is me) walked 2 miles back home pushing the bike. Not very smart.

The good news the tube is changed and if it is not raining on Thursday I plan on getting in that hour or so ride.

I will be posting pictures and stuff from the year in Afghanistan from time to time. So if you are interested stay tuned to this channel.

I am glad to be home and I hope my readers are still there.

Hanging out Karzblacastan

2010-01-18T11:06:00.001-05:00

Things here in Karzblacastan (I will tell you where we really are after we depart) are actually pretty decent—other than the fact we are still here. Sunday we had a pretty intense snow storm here. It was reported at over 9inches which is supposed to be a record for here. There is still snow everywhere. Luckily, today the sun came out and when the wind was not blowing it was actually very pleasant. If the roads had not still been icy I would have gone for a run. There was suppose to be a good abs class at the gym this afternoon, but I napped through it.

Before you think that I am being overly lazy napping the afternoon away I was up most of the night thanks to the Bulgarians. Their flight was cancelled and they all came back to the tent. They are not the quietest of peoples. They also had one guy who had that penetrating voice that even made it through the songs of my iPod.

The food is pretty good. The chow hall is open 24 hours a day so food is not a problem. What is very interesting is that the sun does not come up until after 0830. This morning about 0745 I was leaving the chow hall and it looked like the middle of the night. There were very few people out and it was dark and dreary. It looked like it was midnight. If we don’t get out on Tuesday we have a little “cultural excursion” planned for about 10 people. I am not scheduled to go on the trip but it will be nice to have some of the younger soldiers get out and see another country. Especially one that they probably never see again. If you are permanent party at this location you get to avail yourself of these trips. It took our Bde Commander to get this approved for us.

We are all in good spirits and ready to get on with the mission. However, I would like one more day here to assist in the resetting of my internal clock.

Getting Ready to Head Out

2010-01-03T20:26:00.001-05:00

As usual I have been very crappy in writing but this time I am going to blame it on poor internet at Fort Dix. That is only part of the problem. The other issue is the fact that I was very busy as the commander of the unit getting all the parts in the right places, herding cats, and all the other great things that commanders get to do. However, that time is just about over. We will be leaving within the week. I will be sending out an address after we arrive if anyone is interesting in sending mail.

I did get out of Fort Dix for the Holidays. The Bride and I made to Chicago to spend time with the family. It is so much fun to spend time with my niece and nephew, especially at Christmas. The youthful joy of the Holidays is so much fun to watch and be a part of. In addition to the exuberance of the youth, we older kids got to enjoy lots of good drink and food. My sister-in-law made their family secret recipe stuffing with contains all sorts of Italian meats. I just love this stuff and ate way to much of it. We enjoyed some Wii bowling and ping-pong competitions. I enjoyed the Wii so much I bought one for the house. However, I will not get to use until late fall. What was I thinking? On the return trip we were luckily only delayed about hour in Chicago thanks to mother nature. But with all the cancellations the day after Christmas we were very lucky.

When I returned I went to BWI to see some of the people from the unit off as the departed early to Afghanistan to pave the way us. It was great to see everyone is such high spirits and ready to get on the mission. It makes me very proud to be serving with people such as this. They had to leave their families early to get overseas and do what needed to be done for the unit and help ensure success.

The Bride and I wonderful meal and fellowship with some of the most incredible people I know. Laura, whom I work for, and her husband and a former co-worker who left our Firm to go back and work in his native country. He is back now in the US and is starting his own company. These are some of the smartest people that I have ever been associated with and I happy to have them take time out their busy schedules to spend a couple of hours with us prior to my departure. As usual it was a stimulating evening that left me happy to be working where I do.

Finally, the Bride and I enjoyed great company with a long time friend who no longer leaves in the DC and his girlfriend. We had a great dinner at fantastic local restaurant on New Years Eve. Great food, great wine, and great friends. What more could anyone ask for.

This will be last missive before heading out sometime in the next few days. I am sorry to be leaving the Bride, my friends, and everything else at home. However, this is mission is important to to country and I am ready to get over there and accomplish what I can accomplish and influence things in my little sphere of influence.

The location I am to be posted at should be good for running and I hope they have some stationary bikes. I have a work out plan in mind and I hope to get up to some good long runs and garner some mileage on the stationary bike. I have book of work outs for triathletes and I will be making time to get my butt back in shape.

A Sad Week

2009-11-07T16:15:00.001-05:00

Since I returned from my little trip to Afghanistan and Kuwait it has been a slow week. I luckily got to spend 3 days at home, see the Bride, take a few hot baths and even get a massage to help my poor aching back. And those that know me know that I don’t enjoy massages. They are completely therapeutic and not done from enjoyment.

Since I returned to Fort Dix on Wednesday it has been days of organization and small decision making. It has been rather boring. Today we are starting to get in the rest of our people. The formal part of the mobilization is starting this week. It will be interesting to see how this compares to the rest of the training we have completed.

This was taken on our first day of training in early October. We were learning combatives, which is more or less Army sanctioned “Tap Out”. The idea is to be more prepared to take down an opponent if you are attacked. As you can see here see here the instructor did a fine job of taking me down. What you can’t see is that my left hand is tapping him so that I can be allowed to breathe.

This photo was taken as I was waiting in line to shoot the 50 cal. I love to shoot that gun. It makes the best sound as you fire it.

Finally, lets keep the soldiers and their families who were injured or killed at Fort Hood in our prayers. It is shameful that an anti-American piece of crap was serving in uniform. He ended or changed the lives of all these people and their families. There will be no 72 virgins for him.

Catching Up

2009-11-03T22:28:00.001-05:00

I really am still around. I just have not been training or blogging. I finished up my civilian work the end of August and spent the month of September starting Army work and cleaning out my mother’s house in Georgia. I have a great house for a great price if any one in the North GA area is looking.

The first three weeks of training we did at Fort Dix, NJ were some of the best I received as an Army reservist. It was all very professional and of the highest quality. I was much impressed. One of my soldiers has taken a lot of pictures and once I get copies of them I will post them and go into more detail of the type training we conducted.

After we completed this first phase of training the leadership left for Afghanistan and Iraq. I just completed a whirlwind tour of Kabul with stops in Bagram and Kuwait. This was my first time back in Afghanistan since 2002 and it has really changed. Bagram has about three times as many people as it did then and the streets of Kabul have much better cars than before. The most amazing thing was that I only saw three burqas on women. Based on the media reports and the Taliban violence I expected many more.

Here is a photo of Bagram from the air. As you can see it is pretty good sized.

This is a sad little tree we decided reminded us of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

Finally just a quick photo of me in front of the Pat Tillman USO in Bagram.

I will work to get a new post out every couple of days. I think we have the connectivity issue fixed.

I am NOT Dead

2009-07-30T20:28:00.001-04:00

I am not been around for a while due to a busy schedule and lack of time management. As deployment gets closer and closer my free time gets scarcer and scarcer. Plus my time management skills have gone out the window along with any semblance of training. The last time I ran was 2 weeks ago in Chicago when I went to visit my sister and brother-in-law and see the Billy Joel and Elton John concert at Wrigley.

This week I am off of work taking a class on Integrating Information Operations into the Middle East. It has been very interesting. The instructor is very good, having lived in the Middle East for a long time.

Tomorrow, I plan on running and getting my fat soft self back into some shape other than round. More tomorrow I hope.

Cleaning Up

2009-07-05T17:34:00.001-04:00

As the frequent reader of this blog knows my mother passed away in February. I have been back to Georgia a few times since then in order to clean out the house and deal with the other issues. Luckily, my mother was a organized and did not want to leave a huge mess for the kids. When I talk with other families who have gone through the same situation I am amazed and shocked at the selfishness of the children and the parents total lack of concern the mess that the children have to deal with. I count my brother and I very lucky in this regard. It is also a huge help that the house was paid off years ago. I am not in any rush to sell it.

This weekend I was back in Georgia with the Bride for a few days to clean, pack, sell, dispose items and to see relatives. As I was digging around in the basement I found an envelope with newspaper clipping of things that I accomplished growing up. I was a relatively big fish in a little pond growing up. Which is very different than now—I am a tiny minnow in an ocean. I am not really sure which is better, but I would not trade my life for anything.

I ran into a number of people I haven’t seen in years and the question was always the same, “Gonna sell the house?” “Nope,” I would reply. “We would love to have you back here. How can you like living in that big city?” How can I answer that question? I love small towns and if there was a decent job for people like the bride and I would not mind moving back. But I can’t make the money or have the standard of living I do here. However, I would have a bigger house. But explaining to people that life is what you make of it can be difficult.

Back to the envelope I found. It was fun and some what scary reliving the life that once was. Back in high school and then realizing that your 20th Reunion is next month. Where the hell did the time all go. Since leaving that small world I have lived in 3 different countries (been shot at in all of them LOL), visited in excess of 20 countries, spent 2 years of my life in a combat zone, resided in numerous states, owned 3 houses, and been married twice. Life has been fast and furious for me.

The photo I have opted to share today is when I was selected for the All Area Academic Football team for 1988. I wasn’t a great football players, being 5-8 and weighing about 140. Plus we were not a passing team and since I was a receiver it was hard to rack up huge numbers. I was actually a much better baseball player. But I will share those photos later.

I hope everyone had a great a Independence Day Weekend and got in some good mileage. I am off again on Monday and I plan on getting in a long brick.

You know it’s close to Independence Day in DC when…..

2009-06-30T21:31:00.001-04:00

I had jury duty today and the trial goes into tomorrow which really messes up things at work. However, I did want to get picked. So many people complain about jury duty, but hell I would rather intelligent people on the jury (especially if my ass is on trial) than Judge Judy watching whiners who think the system is out to get them or they think the $30 a day is a lot of money.

This morning I was up and at the pool. I arrived a little late, but I was still able to get in 2200 yards. I started out with a 350 warm up and the rest went like this:

5 x 100 odds hard, even easy
1 x 500 free
3 x 100 kick
8 x 25 sprint
5 x 100 free odds hard, even easy
4 x 25 sprint
150 cool down

I felt good in the water and I am always glad when we work sprints into some longer swims. I need to work some 1000 yard plus sets in soon.

After we left the court today, I picked up the bike and headed out for an hour ride. I got out to Hains Point to some loops and the gates where locked. Then it dawned on me that the 4th of July is Saturday. They store can secure the fireworks at Hains Point. No one can get to them and if they did, then the explosion would not really effect anything.

On the way back I stopped to watched the planes landing at Reagan National. I love it when the planes land from the north. They flight right over your head. As you can see from this photo the plane is following the Potomac and is on final to land. The planes come in at about 70 or 100 feet and you can feel the wind from them.

It really is a sight to behold. If you ever get to the DC Area make sure you stop at Gravelly Point to watch them land. Then I looked over and got a view of the Capitol Dome. One clear days like today it reminds that I am lucky enough to live in a pretty cool place.

Tomorrow is back to court and then heading to Georgia to do some more work on my mother’s house. I hope everyone has a great Independence Day and remember the real meaning. The beer, burgers and fireworks are just a way to celebrate, they aren’t the meaning.

Crossing the Wilson Bridge

2009-06-27T17:11:00.001-04:00

The Woodrow Wilson crosses the Potomac River on I-95/495 as the southern point of the Washington DC beltway. We here in the DC area have been dealing with the congestion that goes with constructing a new bridge for years now. The old bridge was completed in 1961 and was designed to handle 75,000 cars a day and by the end of the 90’s was handing something like 200K a day. Needless to say there was one of hell of a bottle neck. The new bridge which was completed this year has a bike/pedestrian lane which I have been dying to traverse.

So this morning as I started my 2 hour ride, I headed down to Old Town Alexandria and across the bridge into Maryland. The bike lane is at least 8 ft wide and handles the flow of traffic for walkers, runners, and riders very nicely. At the apex of the bridge are a couple of stations for looking back into DC and the Alexandria waterfront. You can watch planes lining up to land at Reagan National Airport, view the Washington Monument, and the see the dome of the US Capitol.

After I crossed the bridge I rode over to National Harbor which a new and very large convention area. The bride and I have been been over there for a food and wine tasting in the past and it a very impressive facitilty. Disney is even going to be opening a hotel there sometime in the future.

When you are coming from the Maryland side you get a very good idea of just how massive this bridge is. The grade is not too steep but for those us who bike in the flat lands around here, it is nice to have a something to climb. I then biked through Old Town and headed over to Hains Point to complete the two hour ride. I was rather disappointed in my overall mileage. I only did 30 or so miles in the two hours. But riding on through Old Town with all the stop signs and then fighting with “social walkers/riders” on the Mount Vernon trail on a Saturday morning can be a real pain in the ass. I was very happy with my hard 8 miles at Hains Point. I was able to average close to 18mph for the 8 miles of limited traffic that makes Hains Point just a good place to ride.

After the ride, the Bride and I headed over to the Alexandria Pool and I got in an easy 1000m of swimming. This evening we are heading out to one of favorite restaurants and tomorrow is an hour run with running buddy. I hope everyone had as good a Saturday as I did.

You Clean-up Well

2009-06-23T21:19:00.001-04:00

This morning I was back in the pool for the first time in ages. I have been having early morning meetings that preclude me from swimming in the mornings. Today’s work out was 2100 yards with both some distance and speed work thrown in. As much as I hate those workouts I like them too. It is what I need. This work out took me 49:17:

250 warm up of swim, kick, and pull
5 x 100 odd hard, even easy
8 x 25 sprint
5 x 100 free odd, choice even
1 x 500 free
150 cool down

After the workout, I was talking with the Aquatics Director in my suit with a towel wrapped around my waist when one of the other lifeguards came in to work. I finished my conversation and changed into my work clothes (I wear a suit and tie every day). As I walking out the same lifeguard who had seen me soaking wet did a double take and then said to me, “Wow, you look different.” I jokingly responded that I clean up well. She agreed just a little vigorously.

After work today I hit the road on my bike for a little over an hour and I did about 17.5 miles. I was pretty happy with the main set as I averaged about 19 miles an hour for it. I slowed down a little to take these photos:

If you look closely you can see I was doing 18.9 mph.

This is not a “cleaned up” photo of me. Don’t you love how my helmet is all crooked.

Tomorrow is a run day.

Dextro ITU Triathlon Weekend

2009-06-22T08:31:00.001-04:00

One of the great things about living in the Washington DC area are thing the things that you get be part of that for most people are out of the ordinary. As a kid travelling the 50 some thing miles to Atlanta to watch a Braves game was the height of adventure. Now I just catch a cab or hop the Metro to Nationals Park to watch a game. Friday night the Bride, some friends, and I headed over to watch them take on the Blue Jays—and they actually won.

Saturday evening I had been invited to a VIP dinner and drinks function for the Dextro ITU Triathlon. Now don’t get any wrong ideas here, I am no VIP. However, I do know the VIPs and luckily I get invited to certain events. The best part of this event was the free food and beer. I met up with Running Buddy and some other friends for the festivities.

Sunday the Bride and I rode our bikes in to watch the pro races. For those of you who are unfamiliar with ITU races the men and the women typically race separately and their are no age groupers on the course.

We started a little late and got the men’s race in the middle of the bike course. In ITU racing you can actually draft and the race course is typically a smaller loop where spectators get to the see the participants many times. The course here in DC was an 8 loop course and the pack of riders were typically flying by. The cool part was the chance to see the people you only typically read about up close and personal. I was able to see Hunter Kemper, Andy Potts, and Matt Reed. In addition to these stellar American triathletes, Tim Donn from Great Britian is also a short course favorite.

After the men, we headed down to the Potomac and watched the start of the Women’s Race. Have the chance to get this close to some many Olympians was a great experience. It is not every Sunday you get to see Emma Snowsill, Sarah Haskins, or Laura Bennett.

While we were awaiting the start I also got talk with DC Rainmaker for a few. It is always good to catch up with your bloggy pals. Then the Bride and I continued our ride back to the house in order to complete those mundane tasks that have to be accomplished prior to a new work week.

Another one of those interesting things that occur in the Great DC area is the President had ice cream with his kids in my neighborhood this weekend. As the Bride pointed out, it is a great business model to have President Obama come to your establishment. It has to greatly increase your business.

How to look like a Bone Head

2009-06-15T06:18:00.001-04:00

This weekend was another weekend of Battle Assembly. Because of that, I did not get in a workout at all. When you only see everyone two days a month there is a lot to do, especially when you are the commander. Everyone wants a minute of your time, so this weekend was merely mental exercise.

Friday I did something funny and stupid. I think it was because I had my Army Battle Assembly this weekend, I was not thinking that Friday was Friday. I thought it was Thursday when I got up. (Yes I know it is better to think it is a day behind instead of a day ahead). So I cussed myself for not putting out my work clothes and headed to swim. Since there actually is a swim class on Friday I still did not realize that this was not my normal Thursday class. Now keep in mind that Running Buddy is awaiting my presence at the running link up point. I am blissfully unaware that Running Buddy was wondering where in the hell I was and probably cussing me like a whore in church. I finished and headed to work. It was not until I got to work that I realized it was Friday. She got a big chuckle out my boneheaded play.

I just finished some core work and stretching. Now off to work.

Final Trip Report to Hawaii or How I finally made to Robin’s Nest

2009-06-04T20:02:00.001-04:00

And we come to the close of our Hawaiian adventure. This is my last post on this wondrous trip. In addition to the adventures I have previously mentioned we did just a lot of regular exploring around the hotel and going to see some of the sights from our favorite TV shows (Lost for the Bride and Magnum PI for me). It even worked out better when the site we visited was featured on both shows.

Our stay in Honolulu was at the Hilton Hawaiian village. The place is effing huge. It was not overly crowded when we were there, but it was still too many people for my taste. To put it in to perspective, it was like staying a very large hotel in Vegas with out the casinos. The room was very nice and we had a wonderful view of the tower next to us. Luckily, being on the 25^th floor allows you to see a long way and watch the surfers on Waikiki. This freaking hotel even had penguins. These are black-footed penguins native to South Africa. The Bride even had her picture taken with the Fire Guy. I think he lit more than just the tiki torches.

The primary reason we spent anytime in Honolulu was to be able to visit the Arizona Memorial. For those of you without a historical reference, the Arizona was the “Ground Zero” for World War II. In addition to being a Memorial, the still submerged ship, is also a tomb for over 1000 of the sailors who were unable to escape the bowels of this great battleship when the Japanese attacked. It was a very humbling experience for both of us. The Navy does a first rate job with the transportation from the visitors center to the actual memorial. Kudos boys (and girls).

Finally we did a long drive around the perimeter of the island. The one place I wanted to visit was Robin’s Nest of Magnum PI fame. Those of you familiar with the show may be shocked to learn that the lay out of the property in the series is much different than reality. However, I did make it my 1980s Mecca. In addition we visited the Temple of the Gods. The funny part was that the Bride did not know what place I was talking about. She was very happy to see that this was a location from Lost

This has been a rather busy week back in the Nation’s Capital. I have been able to get in about 3000 yard of swimming, a track workout, and tomorrow is a nice run with the Running Buddy. On Tuesday we were invited to a screening of Bedford, The Town the Left Behind. This was held by Senator Mark Warner at the New Capitol Visitors Center. It was very humbling to watch the movie and see what the member of the community and of the the unit form Bedford, VA went through.

Weekend Workouts and a Few Things That Piss Me Off

2009-06-01T19:26:00.002-04:00

This weekend was best workout weekend I have had in months. Friday morning was slow and painful run in 100% humidity. Running buddy and I were both feeling the effects of lacking of working out and then it being 70 degrees and 100% humidity. As hard as it was to get out of the bed, the outcome of the workout was needed.

Saturday morning I was up for a bike ride with another group of friends at Hains Point. Other than a few short spins on the trainer I haven’t been on my bike in months. I needed to get out , sweat, and get my legs moving again. We met up at the gentlemanly hour of 9:30 and I planned on riding for 90 minutes to get a decent gage of where I was on my cycling, but not over do it. After getting a slightly later start than exp

acted I did about 20 miles in 80 minutes. I was not expecting to hit any land speed record, just to get my ass use to the saddle and my legs use to pumping. The only real issue I had with the ride were the morons cruising the route or the people trying to park along the road in order to play their softball games. However, more on that later. Sunday was another relatively short run. Running Buddy and I headed out for a 4.5 mile run since we had both biked the day prior and are not ready for a long run after biking. It was a beautiful morning and it really made me feel good.

During the ride I was very frustrated with people can’t drive. Hains Point is a semi-closed recreation area in DC along the Potomac. The route is not closed to traffic and I don’t think it should be. However, on Saturday mornings there are scores of walkers, runners, and cyclists. There are certain people who like to cruise the loop. They are more interested in talking on their cell phones or hollering inappropriate comments at the ladies as they exercise. The other group is completely unable to parallel park and will stop suddenly nearing causing accidents.

After my ride I had to go to Whole Foods and get some meat for a cook out. I hate going Whole Foods. In my opinion a lot of self important and mean women go there. I was about hit twice in the parking garage just walking into the store. Once I got in the store it was not much better. On a positive not about Whole Foods, the employees are absolutely wonderful and professional. So as I was dodging mini-vans to get back I started thinking about all the things I really hate in the People Republic of Alexandria. Here is a short list:

Hypocrites in Hybrids who throw their cigarette butts out the window
A lot of the shoppers in higher end grocery stores who are “have to buy” organic because it is the hip thing to do, but their children are out of control
Che bumper stickers
People who don’t understand that blinky left means turning left and blinky right means turning right.
People with Peace Signs on the bumpers, but honk incessantly and/or yell expletives at cyclists or runners

I could go on and on, but I will stop here. Any thoughts or your pet peeves.

The Road to Hana

2009-05-28T16:25:00.001-04:00

The Road to Hana is a journey and not destination. The trip along this winding road is more like leaving Maui and entering a different world. The road is 52 miles long and it follows the old King’s Trail that had been the main path before the Highway showed up. However, we only did about 36 of the miles on our trip. We turned around in Hana (population 709) instead of going all the way to Lindbergh’s grave. We started our trip with a breakfast at Charlie’s in the Historical Plantation Town of Paia. The Bride knew of this restaurant because of her devotion to Rachel Ray. I will admit the macadamia nut pancakes and coconut syrup were delicious.

After filling our bellies we started the trek in our rented Jeep. I had always heard the road was very dangerous (which appealed to me) and very beautiful (which appealed to the Bride). However, the legend of being unpaved, with rickety bridges, and no guard rails is false. Since the 1980s the road has been paved and the bridges in very good repair. You still have to be very careful while driving due to the road having over 600 turns and 54 different bridges in less than 40 miles.

Our first stop was Twin Falls around mile marker 7. We chatted with the lady at the Twin Falls Fruit Stand, got directions to the first waterfall and started our trek. This was not a long trek to the falls, but it was slippery as we climbed down the creek bank and followed to the falls. We stopped long enough for me to take some photos. Even though this is called Twin Falls we only saw the bottom water fall, because we did not want to take the hour round trip to the upper falls and get behind a lot of traffic.

A few miles down the road we turned off the main road and found the most wonderful deserted beach. We were the only two people there for most the time and only one other car bothered to “get off the beaten path” and enjoy this secluded area. Since this was May the waves where not rolling in and it was actually hard to believe that in the winter months you can get 30-60 waves. The Bride commented after we had returned to the hotel that this beach was her favorite part of the trip.

The next location that was memorable with the old Hawaiian Village of Keanae. The village stands out against the blue water like a place time forgot. Based on the guide book we were using this is one of the last coastal enclaves of native Hawaiian people. They still grow taro in patches and make their own poi. We drove to where the road ends to enjoy the view of the waves of the Pacific breaking over the lava rocks. Other than the cars and buses, primarily from tourists, you would have thought that you had gone back in time. It would have been very peaceful but another bus of tourists showed so we beat a hasty departure.

The rest of the trip was one more astonishing sight after another. We turned around in Hana after discussing driving further, but our bellies were talking. And we wanted to beat the traffic back to “civilization”. Once we returned around 3pm, we stopped at Mama’s Fish House and I enjoyed a magnificent meal of freshly caught mahi-mahi. MMMMMM.

Cruising The Big Island at 500 feet AGL

2009-05-27T20:58:00.003-04:00

We have covered the bike ride and the scuba diving. The other really cool thing we did was take the Big Island Spectacular with Blue Hawaii Helicopters. This was a great two hour trip up and over Kilauea which is still active. Here is a photo of the Bride and I after returning from the flight. The Bride did not look as relaxed prior to the trip. She had never been in a helo before.

Our pilot was a Vietnam era pilot who had also flow for NBC in Los Angeles. He was the pilot of the chopper that followed OJ during the infamous Low Speed Chase.

We started up a valley and it was rainy and foggy and it did not appear we got more than 500 ft above the ground, but I looked at the altimeter and realized we had climbed up to over 6500 ft. We cruised around the smoking top of the volcano and then headed back down toward the sea, so we could see where the lava was flowing into the Pacific.

Then we flew the coast over to Hilo and explained how the Big Island is of one of the few islands with an active volcano and valleys. It has to do with the age of the island and the Big Island is actually big enough to have both. We circled a bridge next to what use to be an old Sugar Plantation. There use to be a railroad bridge next to the road bridge, but it was not rebuilt after a tsunami.

We continued our flight along the coast and it really was the picture you imagine when you hear about the cliffs of Hawaii. These cliffs were steep and high, with the blue water of the Pacific rolling in them. You can see the white surf crashing into the coast line. It was so absolutely beautiful. At this point another helo passed us (if you look closely you can see the dark speck—that gives you a good idea of the magnitude we are dealing with here).

We continued down the side of the Big Island and saw some amazing water falls. These sights were truly something out of a book. It was so amazing to see them for real.

Finally we headed up into the valleys where there were giant water falls.

We went up and down the different valleys looking at different water falls.

Finally we headed back to the heliport and have many fond memories of a great 2 hours in the air over the Big Island.

The next report is the Road to Hanna.

And so you don’t think I haven’t been working out—Tuesday I did 2300 yard in the pool and about 30 minutes of drills on the bike. This morning I did an easy 40 min run before work.

Why My Ears are Ringing or Diving Hawaii

2009-05-25T18:15:00.005-04:00

Friday May 8th I planned on diving the Molokini Crater. However, when I got to the dive boat, the planned had changed to dive the back wall of Molokini. A group of people who were diving all week with this organization had already dove the crater and were looking to dive the back side. This turned out to be a really bad idea. First of all, getting near the backside is tough. The waves crash on the back side, so you have to get in the water a fair distance away and then swim over there. There is a strong current from the wave action which really messes with your equilibrium. In addition this is 90+ foot dive and I haven't dove since August of last year. I was the first one in the water and it took me a while to equalize. What really blows about this dive is that there was nothing to really see. I am normally an airhog anyway, but after 19 minutes I was running low on air and went back to the surface. Since this dive my right ear has been ringing.

The second dive of the day was much more to my liking. This was a 50 foot dive on a sunken shrimp boat, The Saint Anthony. During the surface interval the Bride got to snorkel the inside of the crater and said it was absolutely amazing. The St Anthony was great and my ear felt better was in the water. I was not going to continue if I felt any pain. I actually had hope that a good equalization would solve the problem. Needless to say it did not.

The dive site has a large abundance of fish and turtles. The photo below is of the dive master clapping and bringing the yellow tang in. He started clapping and I looked behind and all I could see was this huge school of fish coming my way. It was very cool.

The boat also had a couple of sea turtles who lived on it. I took a bunch of photos of the turtles but unfortuately, not many turned out. This was the best of the lot.

The second day of diving I did was Tuesday May 11 on the Big Island. We went out and did a night dive with the Manta Rays. I don't have any photos because it was a night dive and the flash reflected off all the plankton in the water. However, I do have a professional video of the dive and when I figure out how to get it cut down in length I will post it.

My last day of diving was also on the Big Island and we left from the hotel. This was the best dive of them all. We dove the reefs on the west side of the Big Island. We also explored some lava tubes. This was a very easy and fun morning of diving. It was just me and another diver on the boat.

The Bride did some snorkling while we dove. This is a white tipped reef shark that I was able to photograph in one of the lava tubes. It was actually very difficult to see the shark due to the lack of light and my eyes not having adjusted. I am not sure how big this one was. But looking at the other fish, he could not have been more than 4 feet long.

I also was able to get a good photo of me swimming with a turtle. The dive master on the boat was a marine biology student at the University of Hawaii and was a very informative man. I wish I had a job like that when getting my masters.

And finally I have the obligatory photo of me diving. You can't go diving with out it.

And if anyone is worried about my ear, I have been to the doctor and she did not see any damage, just a little swelling and has put me on Claritin-D to drain the fluid off. We will see how that works the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow I am back in the pool.

First Hawaii Report

2009-05-21T05:05:00.003-04:00

We are back from Hawaii. Actually we have been back since last Saturday afternoon. However, I deemed it more important to do laundry, organize the photos, cut the grass (it is not good to let your yard grow for over 3 weeks), actually get back work, and have the ringinging in my ears looked at (more on that in following reports).

We departed Reagan National at about 7am on 7 May for 13 glorious hours of air travel. But before you feel too sorry for us, we did have 1st Class seats. The bride is a frequent traveler and has amassed an ass-load (in airline jargon) of miles. Her status does make traveling with her very nice. Up front with the free drinks--not in the back with the sheeple. We make it to Phoenix, changed planes and started the long over-water leg of our trip. All total from take-off to landing was about 13 hours. The beauty was we landed at 2pm Hawaii time. (Bree I don't know how you make those long hauls).

We rented our Jeep and took off for the hotel. We arrived at the hotel, had a celebratory drink, gawked at the beauty, and settled into our room. I know we ate dinner, but to be honest I can't remember where. All I know is we were in bed very early because we had to be up early so we could catch get to the Haleakala Bike Company for to catch the van to the top of Mount Haleakala for the glorious sunrise and the ensuing bike ride down the mountain.

We checked in about 3am and were fitted with our helmets, wind top and pants, and of course the much needed helmet (they all had face guards--is this a message). One of the ladies on the trip was from the Boston area (sorry if I can't remember your name) who had competed in the Tri Nationals last year (if you do read this, please say hello and I do apologize for not remembering your name). The trip up the mountain took about an hour and it was full of plenty of switch backs.

We arrived at the top about 520, put on all of our snivel gear, took a potty break, and arranged our selves to see a very glorious sunrise. I did not take a tripod with me due to the bike trip back down the mountain. It was a pain in the ass to shoot in low-light handheld. Most of these photos were at either 1600 or 3200 iso.

This is the bride and I (in all our snivel gear) right after sunrise. It was about 35 degrees with a pretty strong wind.

The sun is just breaking over the clouds at over 10 feet. It really was spectacular.

The sun is trying very hard to get up. The clouds over the lower peaks were truly amazing. The bride coudn't have had a better big number birthday.

After the sunrise, we loaded back in the van and headed out of the park (you can't start organized bike rides in the park) and saddled up. The first part of the ride was rather windy and chilly. I was riding a well used Gary Fisher Soft tail mountain bike. I was not use to a bike that was the so loose. It took a few miles to get where I was comfortable on it. The ride down the volcano was exhilirating and took about 2.5 hours. That does include a stop for a very yummy breakfast of pancakes with coconut syrup.

The next post--Why my ears are ringing.

Weekend up or Why I prefer Waffle House to IHOP

2009-05-04T08:27:00.003-04:00

Last week I was able to actually swim and run more than I have in a while. Wednesday, Running Buddy and I were able to get in a moderate 5 miles in the morning. It was rather on the humid side, but thankfully it did not rain during our run. I do think this was the first weekend morning run that I have been able to complete in just shorts and t-shirt.

Thursday morning was back in the pool. I swam about 2200 yards in about 50 minutes. I am still a little slow, but it is coming back. This workout was a combination of medium distance at a moderate pace and finishing up with a longer slower set.

Friday was a non-run day due to having 3 days of playing Army with my Reserve Unit. It was a pretty decent weekend. The range went smoother than I expected and we qualified about 2/3 of the shooters. And for the Reserves that is pretty damn good. We just don't have the opportunity to shoot as much as we like due to travel to and from ranges and ammo constraints. But then I love to shoot and I would be happy to 30K rounds a year just for myself. It rained some on Saturday, but it was not enough to make the time shooting uncomfortable. Below are a couple of photos from Saturday.

Sunday was a trying day for everyone. The Bride came to the Unit to get an ID card made, but the machine ending up being broken after she drove up in the rain and then had to wait on the ID guy. So much for me being proactive. :) After I returned home she wanted Ice Cream for dinner (she is almost to turn the big 4-0) so who am I to critize. We drove to Baskin and Robins, but I commented on wanting a waffle. We sat down at the IHOP next to BR and I had the worst waffle of my life. I guess that is what I get for having a waffle at IHOP. Then off to BR for icecream. The coffee ice cream the we wanted had freezer fungus on it--so that was a no go. Then off to another icecream shop in the neighborhood and it was closed!!! The Bride was not happy.

However, I reminded her that in 72 hours (from the ice cream and waffle fiasco) we would be landing in Maui!!! Less than 48 hours from now we will be departing from Washington. Other than the long flight (first class baby) I am ready to get there.

I don't know how blogging will go while we are there. However, I do plan on trying some of the mobile blogging.

Well time to get to work.

A Perfect Storm

2009-04-29T09:22:00.005-04:00

I have been so unmotivated the last few months which has led me to blog less. Between work, work, and family situations I have been less than inclined to workout and blog. I know, I know working out reduces stress, makes you feel better, and even gives you a clean shiny coat. However, I was just in a funk. I thought about working out--I laid my workout clothes out at night, I set my alarm clock, and then I looked for excuses.

I did get a few runs and few swims; and I felt so much better on those days. However, it did not last. I set myself back in vicious circle. I ate poorly, I gained weight and planned on working out tomorrow. "What's one more day?" I would ask myself.

This weekend I had the perfect storm to motivate me. First of all, I did not do the 10 mile race on Sunday. I wimped out. Not running the race was not the wimpy thing. The wimpy thing was not preparing for the race. I ran from the challenge. I did not stay strong and do what I needed in order to keep myself healthy and prepare for the race.

The second thing that occurred was watching the news on Monday and watching the panic in the streets of NYC because of the Airforce One flyover. My first thought was "what a bunch of wimps and losers." How can anyone panic to that extent over this? Are Americans really that weak? Then it hit me!!!! I have been weak. I haven't overcome my hesitation (fear?) of working out. I have allowed emotions to over come good sense. I don't deal well in emotion; I prefer facts and logic because emotion tends to get me in trouble. I make bad decisions. This situation just reinforces that fact.

And as a disclaimer, I do think it was dumb to do a fly-by in downtown NYC without informing the population.

Smart Idea or Just a Wimp?

2009-04-27T10:06:00.002-04:00

Bottom Line Up Front -- Did not run the GW Parkway 10 miler on Sunday.

My overall training this year has been less than ideal and my body was not really ready for a hot 10 mile run. However, I knew I could suffer through it--IF I did everything right the day prior to the run. So Saturday I was up early, eating properly, hydrating and doing the right things to suffer.

Saturday was also a birthday party for the bride. We surprised her by her sister flying in from Chicago and I presented her with a Dell Mini Computer. Both of which were big hits.

Saturday night we had dinner for her at a friend's house and that devolved into more alchohol and more food than I had intented. I also stayed up much later than orginally planned. Dinner was not served until after 9pm (which is late for me--so go ahead and laugh).

I woke up at 5 am to get ready for the race and I felt the red wine hitting me (one glass). I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then stick my head outside. It was humid and 70 (Friday mornings run was high 30s). At this point I made the decision to go back to bed and put off the race. With my physical state, the state of my training, and not having run in any hot/humid conditions I decided that I would hurt myself more by attempting this race. About 930 I did get out and ran for 35 minutes. This short run HURT, but I did sweat out the toxins.

So my question is -- Did I wimp out or was this a smart move?

Woefully Un-Prepared

2009-04-24T13:33:00.001-04:00

Have you ever felt unprepared for a race? I don’t mean the normal “I tapered too long or did I train enough” that we all subject ourselves too. I mean, I haven’t run more than 5 miles at any one time in months and I am signed up for a 10 miler on Sunday. I am just hoping to finish the race and be able to walk on Monday.

Things the last month have just been so busy, but productive at work. We completed release 1.0 of our system for the Army on time and on budget. We are currently working on some minor enhancements for release 1.1 and working hard on release 2.0. It is great to be working on a project that is well run, fun, and meaningful.
In my other job, the unit is preparing to head to the rifle range next weekend for our yearly marksmanship training. For those of us deploying overseas this will be the crawl phase of the typical crawl, walk, run method the Army uses in training. I am looking forward to it—I like to shoot.

For the rest of the summer I just need better time management and motivation. I have not had the motivation to get my lazy butt out of bed and workout. Those first 3 minutes after the alarm goes off is just torture. However, at the completion of my workout I feel so good and energized. As I was changing channels last night I did catch two Ironman races on Universal Sports. That was very motivational. Maybe I just need to DVR everyone that comes on for my motivation.

Finally, we are having the Bride’s birthday party this weekend at a friend’s house. I have a couple of good surprises for her, that I will not share here just in case she reads this. The big present for her big four-oh bday is going to Hawaii in a couple of weeks. I wonder what I am going to get when I turn 40?

To everyone racing this weekend. Good luck!!!! I hope you are better prepared than I am.

Weekend Update

2009-03-23T09:13:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-18T12:38:00.000-04:00

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

2009-03-17T12:18:00.003-04:00

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

2009-03-16T18:17:00.004-04:00

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

2009-03-10T12:30:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-09T15:20:00.001-04:00

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.

Life in Color

2009-02-12T10:15:00.002-05:00

This morning's swim workout was a good one. It really got the blood moving and working the muscles--especially my lungs. Nothing like a day of sprinting and kicking with fins to work the muscles (the good news it makes me feel fast).

Warm up: 200 free

600 free at 80%
100 free sprint with fins (1:09) whoohoo
5 minutes rest
100 free sprint with fins (1:09 again)
200 easy
2x200 hard
200 easy
2x100 hard
200 easy kick
100 cool down.

Total Yards 2100.

As I was driving to the pool this morning I actually paid attention to the lyrics of song by Jamey Johnson called "In Color" One verse really hit home with me:

This one here was taken overseasI
n the middle of hell in nineteen forty-three
In the winter time you can almost see my breath
That was my tail gunner ole’ Johnny McGeeHe was a high school teacher from New Orleans
And he had my back right through the day we left

And if it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should have seen it in color
A picture’s worth a thousand words
But you can’t see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should have seen it in color

The reason this hit home was for two reasons. 1) Many years ago I was in a grocery store were the older gentleman bagging my groceries was a Navy vet from WWII who had survived Pearl Harbor and other battles in the Pacific. There was some dumbass teenager in there mocking him because the older man was so slow. That man lived a more full life than that pimply kid every will. So I had to have a few polite (well not so polite) words with the little punk. Don't disparage anyone as old, or crippled, etc because you just never know what kind of life they have lived. 2) As my unit prepares to deploy again to the middle east, it dawned on my how my memories of my two years over there have somewhat faded. They are still with me, but it more like looking at a black and white photography than the HD Picture that I had lived.

Just something to think about!!

Catching up

2009-02-11T10:15:00.003-05:00

This morning was the first day in a while I have been able to get out and run. I just do not have the time (make the time) when things are so busy to get in a work out. I really should be better about working out in the evenings when I get home from work. However, I am a morning person and if I do not get my workout completed prior to 7am during the week, it probably is not going to be completed. However, my running buddy and I did about 4 miles this morning. It was in the low 50s and I broke a good sweat. Great way to start off hump day.

I had my army commitment this past weekend and even though the weather was good, I did not get in a workout. When you are the commander, everyone wants a minute of time for something. Saturday night the bride and I attended one of her friend’s 40th birthday party. You have to love a wine tasting birthday. Too bad I could not drink more than two glasses (I was driving and I had to get up very early on Sunday).

Tomorrow is back in the pool.

Friday Funny

2009-02-06T10:30:00.002-05:00

Thursday Ramblings

2009-02-05T15:47:00.003-05:00

It has been too cold for me to run the last couple of days. I have a rule that I don't run when it is colder than 20 degrees outside.
I did yoga for the first time yesterday. I can't say that I am any more centered or at peace with myself, but it was a really good stretch.
There was an issue at the pool this morning so there was no swimming. I did do some ab work and pushups. I should get smart enough to take workout clothes with me so when this happens I can do some weight training.
I wish my blog was for sale. But then I am not as interesting as DC Rainmaker.
I am continuing my "politeness study" and the results are very interesting. Over 50% of the women are not as happy when you hold the door open for them, but about 75% of the men are very appreciative. I still don't understand it.
James Bond movies always entertaining. Especially the ones with Sean Connery.
I am torn over the controversy regarding Michael Phelps. I have never done drugs and I don't understand them at all. When an athlete accomplishes the feats he has he becomes a role model whether he wants too or not. However, all the work that has gone into his accomplishments have kept him from being a normal person. He did not grow up like the rest of us. Let's hope that he has learned from this episode and become the role model he should be.

Being Boorish and Forgetting the Proper Equipment

2009-02-03T07:14:00.004-05:00

I just want to reassure all the ladies who commented, I will not stop being polite and holding the door open. My intent was to try to determine the “WHY” that appears to be offensive. I have my own opinions as to why, but they are not politically correct and people seem to be find my comments both offensive and boorish. I hate to be boorish.

Last night I decided I head out and do some night photography along the Jefferson Memorial. I have not really used my Canon 10-22mm lens in ages and was itching to see what I could create. But of course, I did not have the lock-plate assembly on my tripod (I should have checked it prior to leaving the house), so all of these photos are handheld. I had to turn the ISO up to 1600 and in some cases 3200. Next time out I will have the correct equipment. Let me know how you like the photos.

I had a meeting this morning at 0630 and did not make it to the pool. I hope to get in 1500-2000 yards this evening.

Weekend Workouts and Trip to the Willard Hotel

2009-02-01T07:09:00.009-05:00

This has been my first full week of working out in AGES. Saturday morning I did an aerobic spin on the trainer for about an hour. I was pleased with the ride. I was able to do 16.8 miles over that hour, and after my warm up of 10 minutes I was able to hold about 17mph the entire time. In my slow, lazy world 17 mph is my grail. If I can hold anything over 17mph for a race I am very pleased. And btw, Magnum did get off on the murder charges.

Today My running buddy and I are planning on doing an easy 4 or 4.5 miles. Both of use need to get back into the swing of running. Plus my legs are sore from doing more than sitting on my ass.

Yesterday, I took a Washington DC Photosafari to the Willard Hotel. The Willard is a very old prestigious hotel near the White House. This is one of the hotels that dignitaries stay when they come to DC. Lincoln stayed here prior to his inaguration. I have been to the Willard twice and both times I have see a former secretary of state. Yesterday I passed Henry Kissinger and the first time I saw Madeleine Albright. Unfortunately, I was in the revolving door and could not get my camera out fast enough to get his photo.

In such partisan charged times, this is one of my favorite signs that was put up for the inaguration. Whichever view you have the world, this sign was very respectful and I thank the company that did it.

This photo is from the Jenny Lind suite on the 12th floor. Can you imagine that view, especially at night as you are bathing? It is hard to see in the photo, but you can also see the Jefferson Memorial.

This photo was taken in the Willard Room (the main dining room). I was shoot handheld at about 1/15 so it is not as clear as I wish. The ceiling was not the right color to bounce the flash.

This table was set up for afternoon tea. The hallway was full of people enjoying their tea, but I tried not to take their photo.

One of the many alcoves in the lobby. I was practicing with my white balance and flash. This photo turned out to be the most natural of the lot. The intent of the class was learn to shoot as you would for a brochure of the hotel (and to get see places in the hotel not normally available to the public.
Another photo from the lobby. This one turned out to be very good also. If you are ever in the DC area I recommend you take a DC Photo Safari. They have plenty of tours of the monuments and you will come away with some great pics.

Running and Rudeness at the Elevator

2009-01-30T08:37:00.001-05:00

I am feeling so good to get back into my workout routine. I am in bed by 930 or so and I am up at 445 for a good sweat. I have completed two bike rides, one swim and a run so far this week. I am way off my volume, but it I am over the hump in getting my butt in gear. This morning it was a brisk 25 degrees outside and the sidewalks were still icy in spots. However, at 0530 there is not much traffic on the roads, so the sidewalks are not a necessity. My run buddy (who has not run much in the last month and had minor surgery on her legs) was ready for a nice easy run. We did a very easy 3.5 miles in a little over 30 minutes. It felt good to sweat and even the sting of the cold on my face was pleasant.

Now for a Friday complaint—What is it with women in big cities (and it may be Yankee women(lets see who I piss off with that comment)) that makes them appear to think that a polite man is after something? This morning I was in the elevator in my parking garage and just as the door was shutting (these elevators are slow), I saw a woman with her hands full come into in the elevator lobby, so I help the door so that she would not have to put everything down and wait on a lift. She mumbled a half hearted thank you and looked at me like I was some creep at a bar who used a bad line on her.

This attitude is fairly prevalent. My wife, who is from NYC, has told me that bigger city women are not used to anyone actually being polite. It is viewed as a method of either manipulation, an attempt to get something, or that some women view it as they are being seen as weak. If that is true, that is very sad. I was raised to be a polite and to be a gentleman. But then politeness doesn’t really exist anymore. So I would welcome any comments or experiences. I am craving enlightenment on this topic.

Where does the time go?

2009-01-29T10:02:00.000-05:00

I finally have a minute to sit down and do a catch up post. Trying to get caught up after being off work for 10 days can be daunting.

I spent about 10 days back in Georgia with my mother. We had a really good week. Her second round of chemo went very well and she did not suffer many of the side effects that she suffered during her first round. The difference in her from my departure in December to seeing her again on January 9th was like night day. She was very alert, upbeat, and having a good time. Seeing her in such a good frame of mind really lifted a heavy weight off of my shoulders.

With the assistance of my aunt, we were able to locate a lady to live with her. Having someone in the house with her almost 24 hours a day makes it easier for her to stay at home and keep the dog. She really loves the dog and the dog loves her. It will be a sad day for all involved when she can no longer have the dog around. I think that will be more detrimental to her than the illness. The wife and I plan on heading back to Georgia over Presidents’ Day Weekend. My brother is going to join us, so it should be complete visit for her.

Last week, it was more catch up at work than getting in any workouts. This week was been much better. Monday I was able to get in a 30 minute ride on the trainer. My plan was to ease my butt back into the saddle. I haven’t ridden much in a while and I knew it would hurt.
Wednesday we had a snow/ice day here in the Nation’s Capital. I did an hour on the trainer watching Magnum and Jessica Fletcher try to solve a murder. Unfortunately, it is a two part episode and I will have to finish it on Saturday morning.

This morning, it was finally back in the pool. We only did 1850 yard of form work. However, they were short high intensity sets. After this long lay off and my poor technique in general these are the type work outs I really need.

Today's Workout

2009-01-08T11:46:00.000-05:00

It feels so good to be getting back in shape—even when it hurts. Today’s work out should not have been that hard, but it was and it felt good to suffer. This was not a long workout, but it was a workout to focus on form and some speed. Right now I need to focus more of form than anything, especially when I get tired.
Today’s workout consisted of the following:

Warmup 500 broken down into 125 kick, 125 pull, 125 swim, and 125 choice
Pyramid 1200—100, 75, 50, 25 (last lap of each was a sprint), 50 active recovery x 4
Stationary kicking drills
Cool down 100 choice
Total 1800

This should not have been as hard it was, but when you have been lazy for months you pay for your lack of activity.

Swimming Like a Brick

2009-01-06T08:50:00.000-05:00

Ahhh!! Finally a good day back in the water. There was nothing overly difficult about today’s workout other than I haven’t swan since around Thanksgiving and that was not a long nor difficult swim. Luckily, today was a rather short (1700 meters) swim, which focused on the basics and establishing a baseline to gauge our fitness going forward.

500 Warm up (250 kick/250 pull)

4 x 4 minutes: Swim 225
Pull 200
Kick w/fins 300
Swim w/fins 225
Breast Stroke Drills 200
Cool down 50

Marine Corps Museum

2009-01-04T18:10:00.004-05:00

One of the really cool thing about living in the DC area is all the museums and other things to see and do. We had been talking about heading down to the Marine Corps Museum for the last couple of years, but for one reason or another just never made it. So today we headed down I95 to the museum and then to go furniture shopping for the living room (don't ask).

The Marine Corps Museum is very well done and tells the great story of the Marine Corps. The other two service related museums I highly recommend are the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL and my favorite, the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, NC.

The picture above is from the Tarawa exhibit. I did a black and white version of this picture and it looks almost real.

This exhibit is in the main lobby of the museum.

This marine is talking to the crew of an M4 Sherman Tank.

Here is another marine fighting his way on to Tarawa.

Finally, we have a this marine engaging Japanese aircraft on Guadalcanal.

After our trip to the museum we made it Haverty's to look for some new furniture for the living room. We have been re-doing the house for the past year. Last winter, it was new windows, this past summer we had the entire house painted, in November we came into the 21st century with a flat screen HD television, and now it is time for new living room furniture. Tomorrow is back to work. I hope that everyone had a great Holiday Season and are ready to return to the grind.

First Day back on Bike

2009-01-03T13:33:00.002-05:00

I was back on the bike this morning for the first time in months. I did an easy 14 miles in a little over 52 minutes. This was way slower than I usually bike, but I am just getting started again. I decided to start with season 7 of Magnum and the episode entitled Missing Melody.

The bigger news was that the bride and I went to 5 Guys for lunch and I only had one little hamburger. My problem is not so much what I eat, but how much I eat. So I got my hamburger fix and kept it reasonable.

Now the rest of the day is working around the house and working on workpapers for work.

Charting a Course

2009-01-02T19:05:00.003-05:00

So I have wished everyone a Happy New Year and more of less got caught up at work today--even though it was a day off. Now I have to figure out what races I want to do and how to get my fat ass back in shape. I have been rather sloth like since the end of the summer and the last few weeks have not helped much. I know that exercise is a great stress relief and it does make me feel so much better once my work out is complete. It is just getting started when I am stressed that sucks.

I stepped on the scale this morning I it went TILT. I weighed in at a whopping 180lbs. Please keep in mind that I am only 5-8. It is time to get serious and work off this fat and stress. Tomorrow is the beginning. At least one hour on the trainer. The question is which season of Magnum to start with?

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T21:23:00.003-05:00

Can you believe that is the start of a New Year? Where has the time gone? It has been almost 2 months since my last post and so much has happened. It is time to begin anew, but before I do that here is what is going on.

During Thanksgiving the Bride and I hosted my mother and brother at a beach house out on the Delaware coast. My mother was a little slower than the last time I had seen her, but it had been almost a year and she is pushing 70. She slept a lot more than normal and was having a little trouble breathing. When I questioned her about this, she said that she had been cleaning some silver and the fumes had effected her. She had a doctors appointment to have it looked at on her return to Georgia.

On December 6th she called me and told me that she had lung cancer. The week of 8 December she underwent a series of tests to determine what kind of cancer she had and how bad it was. By the end of the week we knew it was small cell cancer in the lungs which had already spread to the liver and to the brain. I was shocked and changed my plans to drive home on 15 December.

I arrived at her house on the evening of her first chemo treatment and was saddened by her condition. I had prepared myself for the worse, so this did not shock me too much. She was asleep on the couch in the living room and was listless. In addition she was on oxygen. I carried to two more chemo treatments and did the other things trying to make her more comfortable. It was very difficult to see your mother in this shape--having to walk her to the bathroom, seeing that she could not walk from the bed to the couch without assistance. Luckily, I had a friend who is a nurse stop by and do the actual baths.

By Sunday she was a little stronger and my brother arrived from the Seattle area. Over the past two weeks she has gotten stronger and we have home health care organized for her. The bride and I arrived back to the DC area this past Tuesday. My brother is staying an extra week to carry her through her next chemo treatments. I will be flying back to Georgia on the 9 January and spend another week with her.

In case you did not read the informational link on small cell cancer, it is terminal and the chemo is merely to make her more comfortable. My brother and I were actually suprised she wanted to undergo another treatment, but as she said, "I am not ready to kick off yet."

Now the intent of this post is not to be a downer. From the moment we are born we are all terminal. The greatest thing about this entire situation is seeing how many people she has touched. The phone did not stop ringing and we had more food than we could possibly eat. Seeing all these people who she has touched has been nothing but awesome. I am so proud of her. I am nothing but motivated to true to do more in my life.

Lets all be thankful for our health and what all we can do. There is nothing to feel sorry about and lets all get out there do the most we can to be an inspiration to others. Happy New Year--Lets all get out there to take care of ourselves and be an inspiration.

Anniversity Weekend

2008-11-17T09:10:00.003-05:00

This weekend the bride and I went to Williamsburg, VA for our wedding anniversary. This is the second year in a row that we have gone to Williamsburg for our anniversary. We try to get out and visit some of the historic areas near our area. I highly recommend that everyone get out and visit the historic areas in your local areas. It is very enlightening for yourself and especially for your children. History has been giving a bad rap and so many people see history as boring. Just remember, if you do not know and understand history you are bound to repeat it.

We departed the DC area about noon and headed south about noon on Friday. We stopped at Bass Pro Shop just north of Richmond. If you have never been to a Bass Pro Shop it is, a man’s playground. Everything from rods and reels, to boats, to out door clothing, and camping equipment. We wandered around the store. The bride was fixated on the little pink four-wheeler. It is amazing how woman flock to things that are pink.

We checked in to the hotel, rested and then headed over to a great restaurant, which we eat at every time we are in the area. Food for Thought has very good food at a reasonable price. I recommend the Steak Salad. Friday night was rainy and dreary, so we just headed back to the hotel to watch some TV and turn in.

Saturday morning we had our free breakfast (you have to love all the perks you get with travel) and then we headed off the Yorktown Battlefield. The drive down the Colonial Parkway was absolutely breath taking. The trees were changing colors and just an incredible orange and yellows. I will not rehash the battle, but the Park Ranger that led the discussion of the battle was absolutely incredible. Just by his words and actions, he made the battle come alive. If you make it to Yorktown ask for Ranger Mac. He was incredible.

Saturday night we saw the new Bond movie. If you have seen Casino Royale, then you can follow the movie and it is pretty good. However, the movie does not stand-alone. The rest of the weekend was great and we headed back home to prepare for this week. I hope everyone else had as a good as weekend as I did.

Veterans Day

2008-11-11T14:51:00.003-05:00

I would like to take this opportunity to the members of my two teams during one year in Afghanistan and then another year in Iraq. These guys are my heroes and it was my honor to lead these guys during some tough times.

MAJ Fireman
SSG Manwhore
SSG Super Dave
SSG Erik
SGT Radar
SGT Lurch
SPC Flashbang

There are others, but guys made my life easier and were all calm, cool, and collected when the chips were down.

THANK YOU

Aquaman Hits the Pool

2008-11-11T10:20:00.002-05:00

450 am came very early this morning. However, after my poor performance in the pool this past weekend (hence the Aquaman moniker), I am forcing my ass to the pool and out the door to run even when it is cold out.

Today should have been an easy workout, but it smoked me. I am glad I started back on a easy day. It took me over 50 minutes (would you believe I forgot my stopwatch) to do 2000 yards.
The workout looked something like:

200 easy kick
150 pull
100 Breast
500 Free
5x50 Sprint
200 easy kick
100 breast
400 free
100 easy kick

Tomorrow morning will be cold and I am sure my lingering cold will not be happy with the frigid air, but exercise is needed. I am so much more energized this morning.

Tomorrow will also be my 3 year anniversary. I have to run in the morning to make room for dinner at Ruth Chris.

Weekend Update--How I become Aquaman

2008-11-10T20:33:00.004-05:00

This weekend was my monthly "Army Weekend". Since I have become the commander of the company there is no truth to the one weekend a month, two weeks a year. Its more like one weekend a month and 2 hours a day. There is just a lot to get done which takes a lot of extra time. This weekend was busy and it was a productive weekend all the way around.

Saturday we took the company to the Fort Meade Pool for "drown proofing" or basic water survival. This includes swimming 50 meters with all of your uniform equipment on (boots get heavy); jumping into the water with your rifle, ammo vest and helmet, and then getting them off so you can more easily get to safety; swimming 25 meters while keeping your rifle out of the water; learning how to make floation devices out of your pants; and finally I included getting out of the 45 lbs of body armor that we wear. We only took volunteers for the final challenge since not everyone is a strong swimmer.

I am not the strongest swimmer when it comes to triathlons. I can maybe average a 30-32 min 1500 swim during a race However, this weekend I was out swimming everyone. I did the events and acted as a safety swimming all over the pool. I doubt I did more than 1000 meters for the entire 90 minutes we were in the water. It is nice to have the compliments that I looked like Aquaman in the pool. What a change of perspective makes.

The rest of the weekend was a bunch of administrative chores and classes the Army requires for all of us to be "trained". However, my Dawgs did squeek by over Kentucky and the LSU/Alabama was a nail biter. All in all it was a great weekend and btw I think fall has offically made it to the DC area.

Why Customer Service Isn't or How many different ways can you say Dumb-Ass

2008-11-07T13:10:00.002-05:00

I have really come to detest stupid people. I am not exactly the most laid back guy, but I do try to under that the world does not revolve around me. However, a few things that happened this week concerning Verizon and Comcast have just made my blood boil and my cold heart even colder. Customer Service does not exist and the people who work for these organizations in the Mid-Atlantic Area are both stupid and rude. I can deal with stupid, but it costs nothing to be polite. However, rudeness today appears to be a way of showing how “cool you are”.

As I stated in an earlier post I have finally come into the 21st Century with an HDTV. After dealing with people on the phone that did not talk English well enough for my public school educated mind to understand, I went to the local Comcast Office and dealt with a friendly lady who set me with an appoint for Tuesday to have the new cable boxes installed. The appointment was scheduled between 6-9pm so that someone would be at home. The gentleman showed up about 9:05 pm to install the HD/DVR box and the digital box for the other TV. Guess what? The HD/DVR was broke. He was very apologetic about the situation and even left me his cell phone number in case I needed some assistance when I went to re-install the box the next day.

I awoke on Wednesday and took the wife to the airport and headed over to Comcast to the new box. I explained to the moronic individual behind the counter my issue and I was not going to pay for the installation charges. She appeared to be very confused as to why I wanted a credit—the man had shown up. She did not have the brain cells necessary to understand that I was installing the box because it the original did not work. I finally received a $20 credit for my troubles.

I arrived back at the homestead, hooked up the box and the damn remote did not work. I tried the one from upstairs and it did work. So I called Comcast to report the in-op equipment and the idiotic woman who took my call said they could bring me another on Sunday. WTF? Another trip to the Comcast store for a new remote the system is working. Could customer service by an more crappy? Yes—Hold on for more.

The wife and I noticed that our house phone was not working on Sunday night. I called Verizon to set up an appoint and the next available was Thursday from 8 am to 6 pm. Again, WTF? Since I have been suffering from a bad cold I opted to work from home yesterday and await the repair guy incase the problem was actually in the house and not outside. Around 2:30 yesterday afternoon I received a robo-call informing me that the repair guy would not make it and I would need to reschedule. So I called to find out the story and raise a little hell. I initially informed the dimwitted human that this was intolerable and what I needed to do to have Verizon credit me for my lost time at work. She told me she could issue me a $20 credit and so politely informed this slack-jawed scum sucker that I bill at 7 times that an hour. To make a long story short, I was on the phone for over 90 minutes and never talked with a supervisor or anyone who could assist me in my efforts to make up my lost wages. Finally at 7:25 last night someone knocked on my neighbors door and it was the Verizon repair man. His work order had the wrong addressed listed. If I had not been in the kitchen and unsure whose door had been knocked on he would have looked at my neighbors phone line and seen nothing wrong. Finally close to 9pm he had the problem repaired and my phone was working again.

If any of my readers work for either Comcast or Verizon and can provide me contact information someone in a leadership position in the Virginia area I would greatly appreciate it.

Living Life

2008-11-03T05:43:00.003-05:00

I have now come into the 21st century. The bride and I finally bought the 40 inch HDTV we had been looking at. Actually the hang up the last 6 months had been trying to locate a corner TV stand that we could agree on. My only requirement was that we actually see it and not just order it off line. Right now we have very limited HDTV but Tuesday we get all the boxes installed and get our 90 plus HD channels.

However, that's not the point of this post. One of my favorite movies is Second Hand Lions I highly recommend this movie. I will not go into all the details of the movie, but there is a line at the end of the movie that actually makes me tear up. After the two crazy uncles have died trying to fly their biplane through the barn, one of the characters says, "So...they lived." and the nephew that they old guys raised waits a minute and then says "Yes, They lived."

I think those two short lines get to me because so many people today don't live. People live in a video game, parents say it is too dangerous for kids to get out and play, and our coworkers (and sometimes family) think we are crazy for doing the things we do. I know I have been accused of being crazy from learning to fly to doing triathlons, to scuba diving. I just don't understand living a life of boring repetition.

I recommend that everyone get this movie (put it on ur Netflix list) and watch it with your kids. It is a wonderful family movie. If you don't have kids, so what. Still get it and watch it. We were all put on this earth to do something. Get out and there live. And to you parents, let your kids live too. As my neighbor said when a someone in the neighborhood fell and the mothers freaked out, "Don't worry about it, kids bounce."

This is an inspiring movie. You will enjoy it. I promise.

Doctors and Placebos

2008-10-25T07:48:00.002-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/health/23placebo.html

The above article discusses a recent survey that says that over half of American doctors prescribe placebos to their patients. These placebos vary from headache medicine to vitamin pills to antibiotics and sedatives. I am not sure I would call a sedative or an antibiotic a placebo. However, the point is they are giving their patient something.

The article goes on to, in my opinion, castigate the doctors. I see it differently. We should know our bodies, but we are a "microwave nation", always wanting the quick fix. I have absolutely no issue with a doctor giving a person a vitamin in order to help them help themselve. I am more disgusted that the individual thinks they need a pill to get well.

So what are your opinions? Is the doctor at fault for giving them something or is the patient at fault for wanting a pill to get better.

Weekend update

2008-10-19T19:24:00.002-04:00

The only problem with beautiful fall weekends is that it means winter is coming. This weekend was one of those beautiful fall weekends that just make me happy. I started off the weekend by making my chili. The first cool Saturday of the fall I make my chili and watch college football. I was a total bum yesterday, but it felt good and the chili was delicious. Oh, and my Dawgs beat Vandy too.

Today was much more productive. I started the day off with a nice 5.5 mile run with my running buddy. It was still pretty cool and the wind was blowing about 15 mph out of the north, but it was crisp and the hills and miles passed quickly. When I got home the bride was laying on the couch with a funny look on her face. It turned out she had started the selfing cleaning function on the stove and a fire had developed in the oven. I had just missed the firemen. :) I had never really given it much thought, but the reason that an oven door locks during the self cleaning function is that if a fire develops then it starve it's self of oxygen. Good to know.

We then went to Pentagon City to update our cell phones. We saw a sale on glasses and we each got new glasses. I typically just my glasses at night after I take my contacts out. I haven't seen this good through glasses in years. The rest of the day was taken up with cleaning the house, grocery shopping and finally catching up on email. I am ready for bed.

Friday Funny--Udderly Funny

2008-10-17T18:09:00.001-04:00

This is funny AND true.

WATERBURY, VT. — Mooove over, Holsteins. PETA wants world-famous Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to tap nursing moms, rather than cows, for the milk used in its ice cream.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow's milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.

The idea got a cool reception Thursday from Ben & Jerry's officials, the company's customers and even La Leche League International, the world's oldest breast-feeding support organization, which promotes the practice — for babies, anyway.

PETA wrote a letter to company founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield on Tuesday, telling them cow's milk is hazardous and that milking them is cruel.
"If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers — and cows — would reap the benefits," wrote Tracy Reiman, executive vice president of the animal rights advocacy group.

She said dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies and obesity.
Ashley Byrne, a campaign coordinator for PETA, acknowledged the implausibility of substituting breast milk for cow's milk, but said it's no stranger than humans consuming the milk of another species.

"We're aware this idea is somewhat absurd, and that putting it into practice is a stretch. At the time same, it's pretty absurd for us to be drinking the milk of cows," she said.
It takes about 12 pounds — or 1 1/2 gallons of milk — to make a gallon of ice cream.
Ben & Jerry's, which gets its milk exclusively from Vermont cows, won't say how much milk it uses or how much ice cream it sells.

As a standardized product under federal regulations, ice cream must be made with milk from healthy cows. Ice cream made from goat's milk, for example, would have to be labeled as such.
Presumably, so would mother's milk ice cream.

To Ben & Jerry's, the idea is udderly ridiculous.
"We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child," spokesman Sean Greenwood said in an e-mail. He didn't respond to requests for an interview.

Leon Berthiaume, general manager of the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery, which provides milk products to Ben & Jerry's, called the dairy products "among the safest in the world."
Cow's milk and mother's milk aren't interchangeable, according to La Leche spokeswoman Jane Crouse, who says breast milk is a dynamic substance that's different with each woman and each child and might have difficulty being processed into ice cream.

Then there's the question of who would provide the milk, and whether they'd be paid.

Motivation

2008-10-16T12:13:00.003-04:00

What motivates someone? Is it fame, fear, family, money, challenge? Something else?

I was reading some posts earlier today, Ironmakeover, and one of her posts was concerning motivation prior to and during a race. I have a different type of motivation that interests me. What causes us to do triathlons, or jump from airplanes, or rock climb, etc. So here is my story.

First of all if you can't tell I am a male. Young males tend to do things that border on dangerous, but we considerate that to be fun (for you moms and dads under 40ish--let your kids get hurt. They will learn important lessons about pushing the limit--not to mention first aid). The freedom to roam and explore as a kid is probably what motivated me to push myself--that and I was scared. I don't like to be scared. When something scares me I tend to gravitate toward it. Once you learn about it, it is not as scary.

I was never a big kid but I was the first one to be able to jump my bike over whatever objects we could find. I tried to make a parachute out of a sheet and jump off the storage building. I used a hollow aluminum tube and a piece of rope to make a "slide for life" off my parents balcony (that did not work too well, the stake pulled out of the ground and went crashing 15 feet to the stone patio).

As I got older, I did other crazy stuff. I joined the army, jumped out of planes, climbed mountains--life was a big rush. Then it ended. I came back from living live on the edge and settled into a more 9-5 routine. I got BORED and FAT. So I decided to take up triathlons.

I did my first triathlon at age 17 or so when I was lifeguard, but I don't really count that one. I did not do another one until age 35. So to sum up my motivation for triathlons--boredom and body fat!!! Seriously, the drive to stay fit and live a healthy lifestyle is very important. The excitement of the unknown in each race fuels that need for adreline.

So what is your story!!!

Odds and Ends

2008-10-15T14:02:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who feels better when I get in a good workout prior to heading off to work? JB and I did about 5.5 miles this morning. It was a hot and sticky morning today not at all like the prelude to fall we have been experiencing. The only problem with fall is that it means winter is right around the corner. Give me hot weather any day of the week.

I started a new project at work. I am back at an organization that I left about a year ago. This project is in a totally different capacity with a different client. So far it the work is interesting, the client is reasonable, and I don't have to pay for parking. The down side is that I am currently using an aircard to connect to the net. It is SLOW and I keep losing my VPN connection to my company's network.

The wife is making lemon chicken for dinner this evening. This is one of my favorite dinners. Luckily, we started a bottle of wine last night and we need to use it up tonight. :)

I really wondered how people with somewhat of an education and over 22 years of age could have messed up with their mortages. I figured they were just looking for a excuse, so as not to blame themselves for the mess they made. I was sitting at my desk this morning when a I overhead a conversation by two women. One was explaining the benefits of an adjustable rate mortage, but at the same time complaining about how much her payments where now. I really had to control myself and not laugh out loud at her stupidity. That would be like me complaining about how hot the bath water is, but all I have flowing into the tub is hot water--DUH!! Here's your sign.

I just three lemon creme sandwich cookies. Make that four.

Learning New Things

2008-10-13T09:37:00.002-04:00

This past week I was at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin for the Army's Pre Command Course (even though I took command in June). I was not exactly looking forward to a week of death by powerpoint, but the change of scenery and getting out of the office for a week was nice.

The class overall was very professionally run and with the exception of a couple of blocks of instruction it turned out to be an informative week. I was not able to get in the work outs that I had wanted to due to the length of the class day and/or the rainy weather. After you have been in the military for a few years, you typically learn more from your classmates than you do from the course of instruction. This week was no exception.

The Saturday prior to departure, I took the Army Physical Fitness Test and I was rather disappointed in my run. I did 70 pushups and 70 situps (I could have done more, but I wanted to save something for the run and I was WAY over the minimun). My two mile run was 15:18 which worked out to be a 7:39 mile. I was really hoping to run the two miles in about 14 minutes. However, that did not work out.

This past weekend I was able to get in two different runs. My running partner and I did about 4.5 miles both yesterday morning and again today. Tomorrow it is back in the pool and then Wednesday we are shooting for the hill work out. I am glad to be back and getting my ass back in gear. I will try to catch up with my reading and comments through out the week.

Off to the Mid West

2008-10-04T20:54:00.003-04:00

I am off tomorrow morning for La Crosse, WI. I have a week long commanders' course at beautiful Fort McCoy. I hope to get in some runs and I will keep you posted.

Memory

2008-10-02T19:12:00.002-04:00

The last two mornings as I was working out I had all these great thoughts as to what my post would be. However, I can't remember a damn one of them. I have come to the conclusion that good ideas while working out are a lot like good ideas you have in your dreams. They are brilliant, amazing, world changing ideas that never see the light of day. WTF!!!

So my charge to my loyal readers is simple:
1. Does this ever happen to you.
2. Other than carry a note pad with you or next to the bed what do you do to remember.
3 If you have ever remember any of your brilliant, amazing, world changing ideas what were they?

Feeling better

2008-09-30T08:54:00.003-04:00

I was back in the pool for only the second time in about six weeks. I did swim last Tueday, but I laid my bike down in some gravel on last Wednesday and had some serious road rash on my right shin. My pool is big on not having open wounds seeping while you are actually in the water. I can't figure that out.

Today we started off with a 300 warm up and then went straight into a 1650 yd main set. This main set was broken down into 11 laps, 10 laps, 9, 8, 7, etc. Between each set of laps, we had 10 seconds rest. I completed the 1650 in 33:38 and minus the 1:40 of breaks I came in at 31:58, which is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I finished off with a 100 cool down, then 200 of hard kicking, and another 100 cool down. Finishing 2350 yds in about 54 minutes lifted my spirits. I just need to get my endurance back and then focus on form.

I know I always feel so much better when I get up in the morning and work out. Time management can be a problem for me when I am feeling overwhelmed. My charge to myself is to keep this up. I go to bed earlier, sleep better, and feel more motivated all day. But damn, that bed feels good this time year. :)

My Summer in 1000 words or so

2008-09-28T18:07:00.012-04:00

Not that my dear readers really care what I have been up too, but I will tell you anyway. As I stated in my last blog post that I have not been working out much and I was humbled in a race today.

I took command of an army reserve unit in June and I have been on a very painful project at work. The work was interesting but it was not managed in the best way possible by client and it took a lot of long hours. Between my job and my respsonsibilities with the Army, I have been working 12-14 hours a day. Something had to give and it was my training. I kept thinking that my base could carry me through. However, it did not. I did the New Jersey State Triathlon in late July and that was my last race.

In August the bride and I headed down island for a week in the Cayman Islands. It was a great vacation where I did diving. If you head down to the Cayman's I highly recommend Divers Down. They run a great operation that has reasonable prices and no more than 8 divers per boat.

A couple of weeks ago we went White Water Rafting in Western Maryland. The night prior we camped at Rocky Gap State Park. It was a great night for camping, about 50 degrees. We got up, had a great breakfast, watched a little of a Mountain Bike Race and then headed off to the rafting site. This particular run was suppose to be Class II to III+. It was fun but I was disappointed in the rapids on the North Branch of Potomac.

So now I am back and if anyone is still reading this, please keep me honest.

Humiliation

2008-09-28T11:21:00.003-04:00

This blog use to keep me honest. This blog use to motivate me to get off my ass and work out. Well, I stopped blogging and I have not been working out much. Or is it that I stopped working out much and therefore I stopped blogging? Interesting question don't you think?

This morning I did a small local 10K called the Dash for Dad and I was absolutely humiliated. I have been doing some 4-5 mile runs once a week or so, but nothing you could call serious training. I have ridden my bike twice since the New Jeresy State Triathlon and I even backed out of the Nation's Triathlon due work and lack of training.

When you run alone or even with a buddy and you are slow, you can blame it on chatting while you run or you don't want to leave the person because you are typically faster than they are. You can always find an excuse. However, in a race it is just you against the clock. Today the clock won!!! I did a flat 10K in 1:00:57. I am never really fast at the 10K distance, but I am a typical 50 minute guy. Today just flat out sucked. Today is the day I start training again. I can't lie to myself any more. The clock will not let me. I will beat the clock again.

The New Jersey State Triathlon Race Report

2008-07-29T14:53:00.000-04:00

I finally believe in having a strong base of fitness. I know that I have not in very good shape for the New Jersey State Triathlon on Sunday. But what the hell, I can suffer through most any thing. Plus this was the race chosen for the DC Triathlon Clubs New Triathlete Program (NTP) and it was the USAT Mid Atlantic Club Championship Race. That’s a lot of stuff all rolled up into a weekend.

The bride and I left home around 9:30 on Saturday and picked up a friend who was riding to the race with us. We had a very uneventful ride to Mercer County Park in Princeton, and isn’t that the best kind of trip prior to a race? Packet pick-up went quickly as we listened to the Mandatory Prerace speech. After the race director said his piece the head USAT official started to speak. I have to say that her attitude turn a lot of people off. I realize that rules need to be reiterated and followed but there is no reason to come across as a bitch.

After we checked in at the hotel it was time to hit the Pasta Fest that the club put on. It was truly amazing to see over 200 DC Tri Club Members with all getting ready for a race. A large percentage of them were doing their first race. The energy was truly amazing. Plus the food wasn’t bad either.

We all got the race location about 0615 and I easily got set up. My wave did not go off until 8:24, but we had to be out of transition by 0715. The Head USAT official saw a guy on my rack warming up on his trainer and I thought she was going to have heart attack because he did not have his helmet on. I understand the importance of following rules, but I would not have thought to put my helmet on either. There was no need to be an ass about it. However, she seemed to get off on her status of Head Bitch.

I love swimming in warmer water. It is always much easier on my body. It took me about 250 meters to find some open water, but after that the swim was very peaceful for the most part. There was one guy, who kept was all over the place. He would bump into me and I would go to adjust and he would move the same direction I was. He just seemed to be a “messy swimmer”. I got out of the water in 33:31 which is a pretty normal time for me. However, I felt really good on the run into T1.

T1 was painless. I was in and out in 3:11 and out on the bike. I haven’t ridden much in the past month, so I was hoping to be able to average over 17 mph. The bike was a nice flat course with one big loop and two smaller loops through a college campus. Since I love the flat courses, I enjoyed this ride. I came back into the park and looked at my time, 1:18:27, for an aveage of 17.7 mph. I was pretty happy with that. Then it was into T2. My time in transition was 2:30.

Now the fun began. I started the run and felt like ass. I ducked into the first porta-john I found. I did a #1 thinking I would feel better, but alas that did not happen. I ran to the first aid station and then started walking. I was trying to burp or puke, but nothing would happen. About mile 1 my running partner joined me and she pushed me a long to about mile 2. After mile 2 I found a real bathroom and ducked in there for about five minutes of bliss. I felt so much better. I was gaining time from mile 2.5 to about mile 4.5 and then the pain came back. I walked with another member of the board for about a .25 of a mile and at mile 5 we picked it up and were able to finish strong.

I highly recommend the NJ State Triathlon. It is in a lovely setting and well run. Now just to get faster prior to the Nation’s Triathlon in September.

Availability of Time

2008-07-28T16:07:00.000-04:00

Wow!!! Where has the last month gone. I wonder if I have any loyal readers any more? In the past month things have been going 100 mph, I wish I could average a 1/5th of that on bike.
After the Philly triathlon I started doing some more serious training and was hoping to drop 7-10lbs before the NJ State Triathlon. I joined the a gym at work and started working out. Then things got very busy with most of my life.

The project I am on at work is demanding with a fairly tight schedule and we have been short people due to vacations, marriages, new kids, etc. We have an evaluation going up the first of August which is a big deal and we have been working to ensure that everything is ready for that.
My second job as company commander takes up another 15-20 hours a week. I do find this job very rewarding and I am glad I did it. However, there is always something that needs to be done.

With everything thing going on, something had to take a back seat and it was my tri training and blogging. I have not been able to get in my second ride a week like I had planned, nor as much gym time during lunch. I made a promise to myself that I would try not to cut into time with the bride, so there went the rides in the evening. So trying to be a good employee, husband, and commander is making a bad blogger. LOL.

I did the NJ State Triathlon on Sunday and I hope to get a race report out in the next day or two. I look forward to catching up with everyone.

Philly Race Report

2008-06-26T12:54:00.004-04:00

What a great weekend to be out doing something you enjoy. The bride and I drove up to Philly on Saturday afternoon. I-95 was actually pleasant without much traffic. The only traffic issue we had was at the Harbor Tunnel in Baltimore. However, that did not add much time to the trip. We arrived at our friend’s (The Organizer and her boyfriend the Drug Pusher) house a little after 3.

We all went to packet pickup, which was very well organized. The Organizer saw some of her friends and they chatted for while. The Drug Pusher took us on a trip around the racecourse for about an hour. It is always good to do a recon of the course. However, most of the west side of the course was not assessable by car.

After the abbreviated recon, it was back to the Casa while the girls and the Pusher had some drinks. I organized my stuff and finally had a beer. The Organizer made a great pasta meal and I finally turned in about 9pm.

I was up at 0430 on race day. The Pusher was nice enough to drive me to the race site, even though it was less than two miles away. Setting up transition was easy—plenty of room for the bike and my gear. I hopped on a bus about 0545 for the trip to St. Joe’s Boat House. After arrival, I did a few minutes of warm up swimming in the river and then it was back on land to wait. The announced water temperature was 75 degree, but I opted swim with a wetsuit.
My wave went off at 0725. The first 250-300 meters were fairly physical, but nothing out of the ordinary. The swim was point to point from St Joe’s Boathouse to a small beach at the transition area. After finding open water, I settled into a nice rhythm and was very comfortable. After I swam under the bridge, I started looking for the swim exit. I could see the balloon arch off to my right and what I thought was the final buoy. I started swimming at an angle to hit the buoy and make a hard right to the exit. Guess what—it wasn’t the last buoy. I started hearing some yelling and slapping, so I looked up. A kind volunteer was telling me that I was going the wrong way. I swam back out and finally made the turn at the correct buoy. I exited the water, looked at my watch and saw 31:09. Damn!!! I would have broken 30 minutes if I had stayed on course.

I took my time in T1 to get my HR down. Then I was out on the bike. The first mile or so was nice and flat. I looked down and realized I was doing around 19.5mph. Heart rate was good and I did not feel like I was pushing to hard. It was up a ramp on the road, up a small hill, down a small hill and then started up a longer harder hill. I have done harder hills and longer hills but this hill sucked. Must have something to do with having ridden only about 100miles in the last month. I think I average about 3.5 mph going up the hill. Then back on flat ground, around an old mansion, which looked like it is now a hostel. Then came the fun part, a nice fast down hill. Zooooooooooom!!! I am smoking now. Back on flat ground and I am averaging around 20 mph. Feeling good, not breathing hard, and enjoying the overcast morning. Across a bridge and through a construction site on the road, up a longer hill, but it did not hurt me as much as the previous hill. Again the down hill was a lot of fun. I had been dreading Lemon Hill, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had been anticipating. Another down hill and around the Museum of Art where I waved at the bride. The second lap was very similar to the first, with the exception of throwing my chain on the big hill. I put the chain back on and then just walked my bike to the top. There was no way, that I was going to start peddling again on that hill.

I came off the bike, into transition, and was off again on the run. I don’t remember much about the first 4 miles of the run. I cramped a couple of times, but around mile 4 I just ran out of juice. I do remember the Drug Pusher running out on the course and asking me if I needed anything. I thought he was a volunteer and started to ask myself if I really looked that bad. Another mile and I was across the finish line.

The coup de grace was going to Pats for a cheesesteak following the race—Provolone, Whiz, Wit. If you have to ask, then you don’t know. LOL

Photo Courtesy of DC Rainmaker

Philly Prep

2008-06-20T08:51:00.002-04:00

The last couple of weeks I have been preparing for my race in Philly. I have been focusing more on my swimming. The new swim coach has been worked wonders with the group of swimmers we have. Yesterday was my last hard workout and he had me swim time trials:
400 -- 7:10
400 -- 7:25
200 -- 3:41
200 -- 3:45
100-- 1:50
100 -- 1:51
100 -- 1:50
100 -- 1:43

I know for you speed demons out there that is not fast at all, but I am damn happy with times.

Finding time to run has not been a problem either. I have been averaging about 20 miles a week over three run days. My problem has been biking. I have been averaging one bike ride a week and it has typically been for 2 hours or less. I know that my biking will not be that good this weekend. The good news is that the course is more of less flat with some small hills.

We will be departing Saturday morning and staying with a friend of the Bride who lives near the race site. She has been planning a big a weekend for her and the Bride. After the race, the only thing I am really looking forward to is going to eat at Pat's.

...and here I am

2008-06-16T20:52:00.004-04:00

This past couple of weeks have been non-stop action. The first week in June I was doing my change of command inventories and getting ready for my new Army job. Even as a "weekend" warrior, this job is full time. However, before the ceremony, I had a wedding to attend in Reading, PA. It was a very nice wedding and the reception was even better. The food was actually good. I even discovered a new drink--Malibu rum and pineapple juice. It is great for those hot days.

Sunday we were up early and heading back to College Park, MD for the ceremony. We arrived a couple of hours early, introduced the bride and her parents to some of my new soldiers and conducted a rehearsal of the ceremony. To make it official here is my "command" photo:

Last week it was back to work and back to steady workouts. I was able to swim about 5000 yards, run 12 miles, and actually got in a 25 mile bike ride before I left for another wedding on Saturday. Friday was an interesting day. I had to go to the DC jail to deal with one of my soldiers. Lets just say that is a very interesting place.

One of the Bride's cousin was getting married near Princeton, NJ. This wedding was nice, but the food wasn't as good as the week before. Plus it rained like hell and the roof at the reception location leaked. Then we had breakfast with some family members and headed back to the homestead.

Today was back at work, but we had all sorts of connectivity issues. Then to top everything off, we had a short, but strong storm that knocked the power out for about 6 hours. But it is back on, so I can sleep coolly in air conditioned bliss.

This weekend it is off to Philly for the Philly Tri. More on that later.

The Joys of Command

2008-06-03T19:16:00.002-04:00

This morning I was back in the pool for the first time in almost three weeks. We have a new swim coach who has a very different approach to coaching that the our previous one. I think it will be a very good change. We did a bunch of breast and back today. I don't really care for either stroke (read-I am not that good at them) but the breast stroke does work other muscle groups. Even with my slow ass breast and back stroke thrown in there I managed 2400 yards in about 51 minutes. I was pretty happy.

The bigger news is that I have been conducting change of command inventories for my new adventure in the Army. I was chosen last month to be the Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC) Commander for the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade. For those of you that don't know much about the Army, all the equipment has to be accounted for and signed by the new commander. The missing stuff has to be found or the old commander may end up paying for it. So this week I have been counting all sorts of things. Weapons, sleeping bags, Hummers, computers, you name it and I probably counted it.

I am very excited about this opportunity for the simple fact that I have a lot of respect for the the commander. He is definitely one of the good ones. On Sunday, we are having the official ceremony where the guidon is passed from the outgoing commander to the incoming commander (me). I have a number of friends and some family coming to ceremony. My wife and her mother really know nothing about the military. So it will be an eye opening experience, especially for my wife. LOL.

Here is a video I found of the unit the last time they were deployed.

Man Bra???

2008-05-31T20:13:00.005-04:00

I was heading home on the Mount Vernon Trail today when I say what I thought was a rather unattractive woman running toward me. This individual's hair was cut like a man would cut it and had a rather masculine build. However, this individual was wearing what appeared to be a woman's running top. It looked something like this

As I passed the individual I realized it was a man with rather large man boobs, hence the need for a the top. However, he was out exercising and I do applaud that. The choice of running attaire was just rather strange.

I saw a doctor last week and there was no real damage to my knee. I merely had bruised the the side of it, but nothing was torn or seriously injuried. I took last week. However, Wednesday I was back out running. I ran Wednesday and Friday. Today I got in about 22 miles on the bike. I keep it easy just work myself back into it. I have not biked in over 3 weeks, so I did not want to over do it. This is what I look like after a bug splattered ride

I am on another new project at work. Due to additional funding issues, I have had to move to another project. This one is not as exciting to me as the previous couple. However, it is very high profile and rather interesting. Some of my loyal readers have wondered what I actually look like in work clothes. Here is a picture of me dressed for work as I was talking to my team.

Ouch that Hurts

2008-05-20T09:07:00.004-04:00

Wow!!!! Where has the time gone? These last three weeks have just been crazy. Time has been a precious commodity. At work, I was finally getting in the groove on my new project….and here came the rain. First, we had something like 8 inches of rain in 36 hours, which caused me to stay up all night stemming the tide in the basement. Actually, it was a good challenge and I must say that I did one hell of job keeping the water confined to a very small area. No major damage was done other than I ruined a couple of towels.

On Thursday of last week, I receive a call from one of the Partners. The new project I am on is having funding issues. This is nothing new as this is the same client I have been supporting for the last 6 months and I am well aware of the half-assed way they go about funding their projects. However, there is a very high profile project that I am needed or wanted on. It is always nice to be wanted, but I liked it where I was. LOL So I close up shop at one office and start to move my stuff to my new location. As I was walking down the stairs with a box—boom I feel and my knee is a little sore. Damn, Columbia is Sunday and I think I bruised my knee.
In addition to all the changes at work, I am taking command of a Civil Affair Company in two weeks. I haven’t started the hard work yet, but laying the ground work. You would be surprised on much trouble it can be just sending out invitations.

On Saturday, my knee was feeling better, so I did packet pickup and bike turn in. We also went to Wine in the Woods. You know how wife’s love dates. Especially when they do not consider a triathlon a date.

I arrived at the park and set up my transition area. I puttered around and talked with some friends and then I went over to the Club Tent and Bus’s for a while. I watched the pros go off at 6:45 and then I got on my wetsuit. I was in the water about 10 minutes prior to start and it was effing cold. I swam around to warm up and chatted with some of the other swimmers.
At 7:15, the horn sounded and true combat swimming was on. Men 35-39 was the biggest wave of the race and it was pretty violent. I was actually having fun working around people and trying to get way. It was a little game that took my mind off the cold. Then all of a sudden I took a foot right in my sore knee. I tried to swim a little further and then I just swam for shallow water and removed myself from the race.

Having torn a rotator cuff and banged up my knee in the past, I don’t play with either shoulders or knees. I would rather be safe than sorry. Triathlon is not my living, nor do I have to participate to keep myself alive. I told the marshal I was out of the race and then I turned in my chip. I limped back to the tent and then back into transition to get some dry clothes.

When given lemons—make lemonade. I took out my camera and I was able to get some good pictures of the triathletes near the bike-in and bike-out areas. I have a couple of really good photos of Chris McCormack finishing the bike, however I can't get them to upload. I will post those later.

Battle of the Boulevard 10K

2008-05-10T12:38:00.003-04:00

This morning was the Battle of the Boulevard 10K sponsored by my favorite running store, Pacers. The race was in the Clarenton section of Arlington County in VA. The race starts at on the high ground and you run down Wilson Blvd, to highway 110, by Arlington Cemetary and the turn around is near the Pentagon. It is a very challenging and fun course. This was my last hard run prior to Columbia, next weekend.

We have been having lots of rain here in the DC area. Thursday night and Friday we had over 4 inches and this morning it was still drizzling. I got up around 7 (the race did not start until 9, how nice is that), ate some cereal and dreaded running the rain. I got to the start about 830, hooked up with my running partner Janelle and we both received our chips.

A little after 9 the gun went off and it was down the hill. I stayed with her for a about the first half mile and then we were seperated. Since it was cool and rainy it took me a while to get settled and warmed up. The first mile was 7:54.

The second mile is down a half mile hill which is rather step. I cruised down that hill, maintaining a decent pace, but I did not want to run too fast and wear myself out. There were a fair amount of spectators out in the rain they were very vocal and brought some good energy. I did see one lady arguing with the cops who would not let her turn where she wanted to due to the race. Its not like there were not plenty of signs posted warming people of the race. I reached the second mile in 7:44.

The third and fourth miles were all on route 110 near Arlington Cemetary, with the turn around near the entrace to North Parking at the Pentagon. The only thing worth noting during this part of the course was I was about about mile 2.5 and here come the leaders. They passed me at about the 18 minute mark. Time for miles 3 and 4: 8:29 and 9:01.

From mile four to mile five it was back up the big ass hill. I just tried to plod along. Near the top of the hill, I decided to walk for 30 seconds in order to rest my legs so that I could pick up the pace on the flat ground. Hell, I knew i wasn't running much faster than I could walk anyway. Mile 5 was by far my slowest mile at at 9:58.

The final hill is between mile 5 and mile 6. This is not a long hill but rather short and step. I actually cruised up it easier than I thought I would after listening to others bitch about it. I know I was slowing down, but I was on pace to run about 54 min 10K. Mile 6: 9:10. I did the final .2 (or as my Garmin told me .3) in 1:48.

All in all I was very happy with the results. My last 5 miler back in Dec I ran over 9 min miles on a pretty easy course. Today based on Garmin results I ran 6.3 miles in 54:08 or a 8:36 ppm average.

To give you an idea of the course here is my elevation read out.

A quick update

2008-05-08T11:52:00.001-04:00

Where have the last couple of weeks gone? Things on the world of the Lazy Triathlete have been nuts. After the wet n wild weekend of the Lake Anna Sprint, I was able to get in some decent runs and swims. However, the bike riding has been lacking.

I have been working to get a billable project at work. All of April, I was doing some training, proposals, and misc crap around the office. It was all the things that make a business work, but don’t make any money. So I was working my butt off doing all those fun things.

Then there I had attack of the ALLERGIES II. This time was not sniffling and sneezing and blowing my nose, it was serious pressure on the right side of my head. I took it easy for a couple of days trying to allow the body to heal itself. The body is an amazing organism. Give it the right rest and nutrients and you will get better.

As I stated my workouts have not been that numerous. In the past 2.5 weeks, I have only swam 8700 yards, biked 23 miles and run 27.5. Can we say that Columbia is going to suck next weekend?

On the positive front—I don’t have to go to UT for work. I am a great project now, which utilizes my experience in the Army, my work with my company, and the rest of my charm and good looks. I was also selected to command a company this past weekend. The new Commander of the 354th Civil Affairs BDE is a great guy and he asked me to be his HHC Commander. I am pumped up the opportunity.

Let me get back to work, but I felt I needed to conduct some kind of update.

Kinetic Sprint

2008-04-20T19:27:00.002-04:00

I found on Tuesday evening that I won a lottery entry for the Kinetic Sprint at Lake Anna, VA on Sunday April 20th. Since I waiting too long to sign up the race was already full, so the lottery slot was great news. I wanted a decent sprint to see where I was in regard to my fitness (slow and fat) and to have a good training day. Plus Lake Anna is a beautiful area.

Yesterday (Saturday) was a beautiful day for the Half that was part of the Kinetic Race Weekend, but today was dreary. I was up at 0545 to get some coffee and cereal in my system before John and Mira arrived to pick me up. I looked out the window and it was effing pouring down rain. AHHHHHHHHHH. I got on line to look at the weather and guess what? More rain out of the south ALL day. Oh well, it effects everyone the same way.

John and Mira arrive a little early, we get my bike loaded, coffee them up, and hit the road--in the rain. The trip was uneventful as it was wet. We arrive, parked in the mud, and slugged over to the packet pick-up. John and Mira were wearing trashbag ponchos, but I just decided to get wet. It was about 60 degrees and the rain was still falling. I saw no reason to try and stay dry. After packet pick up, I got my transition bag and bike and hiked through the rain to set up my spot.

I got on my wetsuit and headed down to the swim start to warm up. The water temp and the air temp were very similar, so there was no real shock getting in the water. I swam around for 10 minutes or so and then went tooking for friends. Then guess what happened? It stopped raining. WOW!!!! Its not raining and I am getting ready to swim.

My wave went off at 10:12. I make pretty good time to the first turn buoy and I got tied up with the wave in front of me. Or more specifically the stragglers who where holding on to the buoy for dear life. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful, except for the second turn buoy, where more people were hanging on for dear life. It was not a bad swim, there were just a lot of newbies swimming and cold water does cause people to panic at times. Swim time for the 750 meters was about 17:20, about two minutes slower than I had hoped for.

I ran into T1 got changed and slogged through the mud with my bike to the mount point and guess what? It started to rain again. It rained the entire BIKE ride. The only time it did not rain was when I was swimming. Who says God does not have a sense of humor? It took me a while to get my HR down on the bike, but then that is not unusual for me. It was a nice rolling course which made it interesting, but not impossibly hard. I think I average about 17 mph for the 18 mile course. I came in a little over an hour.

Muddy run through T2, kept on my wet socks and was soon on the run course. I was feeling really good on the run for the first 200 meters then I had to run up a short steep hill. I got myself back under control and continued to a nice steady run through the rain. During the rain, it just poured. It was nice loop course along park roads, through the camp ground, and then a nice 1/4 mile down hill to the finish. I think my run time was about 27 minutes for the 5K run.

This is not an attractive picture, but if gives you an idea of how wet and miserable this race was.

After a little post race chow, it was back in the car for the trip back home. John and Mira stay over where the spousal unit prepared a great feast at the house. I am really stuffed and about ready to go to bed.

Wet Again

2008-04-15T15:27:00.004-04:00

It was good to get back in the pool after a week off. Today's work out was a lot of speed of work. The main set was 10 x 50 with 15 second rest, followed by 2 x 100 of active recovery, and finished off with 8 x 25 sprint with 20 second rest. It was hard to get the body moving this morning, but once we hit the main set, I was feeling pretty good. I was happy to be doing 45-50 second 50s (with out flip turns). Another 5 weeks until Columbia.

Tonight is the Tri Club Monthly Board meeting. These are typically entertaining with lots of strong personalities.

Spring is slowly arriving

2008-04-14T19:21:00.002-04:00

Sunday morning dawned bright and cool, but still with a hint of spring in the air. My thermometer said 48 degrees, but with no wind and the bright blue sky it felt great. My running buddy and I met up at the normal spot and her first comment was, "This place looks different with all these people here." My response was, "Yeah, and the sun is up too." We typically start our weekday runs at 0530 and are finished by 0630.

I was hoping to push out to 8 miles on Sunday just to see how the body would deal with it. However, Runner J felt like 5 miles would be more than enough for her. So we compromised on 5 (see how flexible I am) and I would do another mile to and from my house equally out to 6 miles. That actually was a lot smarter since I haven't done over 5 miles in a while and how shitty I felt last week.

It was a gorgeous run down by National Airport, along the Potomac, and back into toward the local coffee shop.

View Larger Map

Then later in the day it turned cold and rainy. At least today was very spring like. Spring is ON the way!!

Slow Going

2008-04-12T12:35:00.002-04:00

Wow!! I did not realize how hard my hay fever had really hit me. I was able to get in 4.25 mile run on Friday morning. It was about 15 seconds per mile slower than normal and it HURT. However, I did feel much better the rest of the day.

I got out on the bike this morning. I did an what I thought was an easy 20 miles this morning. Based on my time it should have been real easy-- 1:17:22. However, my HR was up over 160. Damn thats not good.

Tomorrow me and my running buddy are going to do an hour or so running. Isn't it sad, when your long run is only an hour? Lets see how I feel tomorrow. Hopefully, everything will start to come back.

Ray was that you I passed at the airport? If it wasn't you have a twin.

Ramblings

2008-04-10T11:29:00.001-04:00

This has been a really crappy week overall. I have been suffering from a either a spring cold or some type of allergy. I am betting on an allergy sense I get the same type symptoms every year about this time. Runny nose, sore throat, head that weighs 80lbs and a very blurry view of the world are some of the symptoms. Illness and a slow period of at work right now are not a good combination for me. Why can’t slow periods at work coincide with good health and good weather? Because of this I have not been able to work off my frustration at some of the things going on in the world. So here are some of my random thoughts and ramblings:

The Olympic Torch:
Don’t you find it rather ironic that the people most opposed to the brutality of the Chinese in Tibet are using violence to stop the torch? Did the world just realize that China has been using violence in this region for years? How stupid are these people? Let the Games go on and let these great athletes compete in the smog choked country of China. Then these athletes will go back to their own countries and will be able to tell about their own country how dirty of a place China is. Allowing the Games to go on will make a bigger joke out of China, in the long run, than using violence to snuff out the torch. Dennis Miller had the best idea I have heard. During the opening ceremony all the athletes come out in those Tibetan Monk Robes. Now that would be a sight to see.

Christian Bashers:
Lately, I have been hearing more and more bashing of Christians. (Full disclosure—I consider myself a Christian and at the same time I have issues with organized religion) This morning on my way to work I was listening to an interview about a show airing this weekend called Bible Boot Camp. Apparently, there is a camp in Florida that spends two weeks in the summer preparing teenagers and young adults to serve as missionaries overseas by using boot camp techniques and teaches them how to conduct public works in the developing countries they will soon visit. WOW!!! I see nothing really wrong with this premise. We are pretty soft as a country anyway and these young people are going to do something that’s important to them and help others. The movie maker appeared to be rather shocked that these kids would “suffer” through these two hard weeks to get themselves in shape and better prepare them for their journey. I guess this bothers me because people act the same way about my serving in the military and pushing myself in triathlons. I think we would be better off if people were more selfless and stopped caring about whether Brittnay is wearing panties or not.

The Atlanta Braves:
Can’t they win some games?

50 Items of Wisdom

2008-04-07T12:00:00.000-04:00

These 50 things are not exactly just about me. Some are about me and others are bits of wisdom I have learned on the years.

51. I love the state of Texas. Especially the hill country.
52. Austin is one of the greatest party cities around.
53. I was disappointed the first time I saw the Alamo
54. Girls should be kissed
55. and often
56. There is are few things cooler than shooting artillery canons
57. Beer should be dark and cold
58. When single, don’t date a woman who likes married men
59. Trust your buddies when it comes to the people you date
60. Keep your house clean
61. Make your bed
62. Learn to cook
63. Chicks dig it
64. After they wonder if you are gay
65. We all have a vice or two—enjoy them
66. Don’t over indulge in anything
67. Well that’s not always true
68. I love Hemingway—Read the classics after you grow up.
69. Learn about the authors you enjoy
70. Find a creative hobby
71. I have jumped from airplanes
72. Piloted boats
73. Scuba dove
74. Taken up photography
75. Done Triathlons
76. War is not pretty
77. Losing is even worse
78. Some things are worth dying for
79. Some things are not
80. Stand for what you believe
81. Facts are more important than emotions
82. Facts are not personal
83. Emotions are personal
84. Emotions cause you do stupid things and cloud your judgment
85. Differing opinions are valid when the facts are agreed upon
86. Visit as many states as you can
87. Why do Yankees move to the south and then complain its not like the north?
88. Washington DC is NOT the south
89. Tea should be sweet and cold
90. Treat everyone with respect and fairness until they prove they don’t deserve it
91. Every female is a lady and every male is gentleman, until proven otherwise
92. Ladies—ma’am is a sign of respect. Get over your insecurities
93. High School is over. You are not the same person you were then.
94. Most of us are better
95. Some still relive our “glory years”
96. Shoot me if high school is the best years of my life
97. Hug your spouse
98. and your kids
99. and your parents
100. You don’t know how long you will have them

The First 50 things about me

2008-03-30T20:35:00.001-04:00

In honor of my 100th Post I thought I would do 100 things about me. I am not sure I will make it 100, but what the hell.

1. I grew up in a small town in Georgia near Athens
2. I am HUGE University of Georgia Football Fan
3. I haven’t been in Sanford Stadium in 10 years
4. I use to think I was Evil Knievel
5. I even had a red, white and blue bike
6. I broke my arm at age 6 when I fell on my ass
7. I learned first aid to stay out of trouble when I did something I wasn’t suppose to do
8. I once got a spanking for pulling up all the onions in my parent’s garden
9. I thought Bigfoot lived in the woods behind me
10. I watched the local police blow up a beaver dam in the cruise by my house and thought it was the coolest thing
11. My friend Scott and I use to make dams in the ditch near our house, then we moved on to the creek behind his house
12. I use to slide down the slippery rock behind my friend Brian’s house and get all kinds of slime in the cuts.
13. I use to think a 5:45 mile was slow
14. I never won the spelling bee in my elementary school. My brother did.
15. I did a citizen ship essay contest
16. I bought a Minolta 35mm camera with the proceeds
17. I had a 10:30 curfew when I was 15
18. I had a 11:00 curfew when I was 16
19. I kissed my first girl at 15
20. My neighbor and I would sneak out of the house the summer we were 16 to visit our girlfriends
21. I worked in a lumber yard that summer
22. I made it work every morning by 730
23. I almost got fired from that job for working too hard and making the boss look bad
24. I was a lifeguard for three years
25. I worked in a drug store
26. I had crush on a girl that broke my heart over and over
27. She now has 2 kids by two different men, been married 4 times, weighs 300 lbs, and lives in a trailer
28. I was on the varsity baseball team all four years of high school
29. I was one of the leading hitters in the state my junior year
30. I was drafted in 20, 348th round
31. I never played baseball after high school
32. I started out as a quarterback and ended up a receiver
33. Our team did not pass much
34. So I blocked a lot
35. I was an honor graduate of my high school
36. I was accepted to West Point
37. I had an ROTC scholarship
38. I decided to go to a “real” school
39. I was rejected admission by Georgetown for “not meeting their high academic standards” even though Patrick Ewing could not write his name
40. I really enjoyed college—I mean I “enjoyed” it
41. I did not lose my scholarship
42. I was a field artillery officer
43. I spent a year in Korea
44. I have walked the DMZ
45. I dated a DoD school teacher while I was in Korea
46. She had a clown tattoo
47. She had a house on “Hooker Hill” in the Itaewon area of Seoul
48. She was not a “hooker”
49. Soujou will make you black out
50. I think all Americans need to live over seas in a developing country at some time in their life. It makes you appreciate what we have.

Now to make you wait on the next 50!!!!

Good Workout Day and Bad Television

2008-03-27T12:38:00.002-04:00

Today is a dreary rainy day here in the Nation's Capital, but that did not stop me from getting in a good morning of working out. I was at the pool at 0530 this morning for my adult league swim. We started off with some kicking drills and then went into a long boring workout. I needed the long, but not the boring. We did one set of the following:
50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 200, 250, 200, 150, 100, 50. That was followed by some more light kicking to cool down.

When I got home I opted to get in a 30 ride on the trainer. I was able to do 8 miles in those 30 minutes and watch half an episode of Miami Vice. Then it was off to work.

The episode of my Miami Vice is not the bad TV I am refering too the title. It is a really bad show on TLC called Jon and Kate plus 8. My wife for some reason is a BIG fan of reality TV. It actually makes my stomach crawl. The only two that I give the time of day are American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. However, I would never watch those on my own.

Last night she was watching Jon and Kate and the wife (Kate) was bitching at her husband about the way he was trying to put pinecones in a box. I have no idea why anyone would put pinecones in a box and then story them in the garage (Christmas?). I try to be a pretty good hubby, but the one thing that irritates the hell out of me being told how to do something. Just tell me what you want done and let me do it. Just because it is not "your" way doesn't make it wrong. The poor man was on national cable TV being ridiculed by his wife on how he was putting pinecones in a box. I was really truly amazed at how nutless this man was. I have seen bits and pieces of this show when my wife is watching in the past and I have always come to the same conclusion. However, my wife sees nothing wrong with it. It just pisses me off. LOL

Swimming and Strange People

2008-03-25T12:17:00.001-04:00

I was back in the pool today. We I swam 2100 yards but I really did not like the workout. I really can’t put my finger on it. Maybe it was the 250 of breast stroke that we did. However, I think I have determined a method of keeping track of how far I have swam on distances over 250 yards. Instead of keeping track of my actually yards which confuses me after a 250 or so. I kept track of how many 50s I did. Every time I touched the wall, I counted and I kept that number in my head until I touch the wall again. So for the 500 set, I counted 1, 2, 3, etc. It seemed to work this time. Let’s see if it works again the future.

Our Adult League swims start at 0530 and go until 0630. At 0630, the pool opens for general swim. In the last couple of weeks attendance has been down so if people show up early the coach and the lifeguard have been allowing others to use the unused lanes. Today we were back up to a more normal crowd, but we still had one individual show up at 6 and want to swim, but all the lanes were in use. This guy stood at the end of my lane and just stared at the all of swimming for about 15 minutes. I have to assume that he was hoping for an invite into the pool. Hell, I pay an extra $50 a month for these classes. I am not going to let someone in who is getting it for free. As one of the more obnoxious members of the Adult League, I really wanted to say something to this guy. However, cooler heads prevailed and we all had a good laugh at the moron. Based on the way he was watching I really thought he may a great swimmer and irritated at some of us slow people. However, once he started swimming it was plain to see his ego was much greater than is ability.

The ReBirth

2008-03-24T06:04:00.004-04:00

I awoke at 0330 this morning from one of those dreams you don't want to leave. Usually, I can tie my dreams to something that has occurred, or someone I talked to, or something I read. However, I still can't figure this one out.

Lately, I have been waking up early (0330 or so) very hot and sweaty, and awake. 0330 is a shitty time to be awake. Its too early to get up and if I go back to sleep I am just at REM before my alarm goes off at 0450. However, this morning I did it up.

I made some coffee and drank some water as I read the news and some of my favorite blogs. Finally about 0500 I hopped on the trainer for the first time in weeks and did about an hour. I have busted my bike computer so I am not sure how far I rode. I kept my HR under 140 (138 average) for the hour. So based on my lack of riding, I probably did about 16 miles. It was great to work up a good morning sweat and get the heart working and clear the mind. It is now time for the serious training to begin.