A funny thing happened today. My goggles disappeared before my very eyes. One moment they were there and the next minute they were gone. I found a lap lane and set my stuff down so that I could put on my swimcap and when I went to put my goggles on, they were gone. Even if they had fallen in the water, they couldn't have gone anywhere that quickly. Thank goodness I have a crappy pair that hurts my nos in my swimbag or else I wouldn't have been able to do many laps. This just means that I will have to shell out some more bucks for a pair of goggles… sigh… working out can be expensive.

I got run yesterday with Beer Boy. We decided since he is recovering from poison ivy, that we would run the Lakeshore Greenway despite the heat. Turned out to be a good run. We ended up running the 2.1 mile loop twice with negative splits on the two laps. I am sore today from the run, since it had been 2 weeks since my last run. Listed below is it the time splits.

As if we marathon runners aren't goofy enough…

See what the Disney Marathon now offers

Unfortuantely, it would be hard to PR in either race… unless it was your first time.

I made it back into the pool today at lunch. I can't say that I had an easy time being back in the water as I had a number of things not go very well for me.

The biggest thing during this swim was that my goggles were taking on water whether or not I tightened or loosened them. I think most of the laps that I did, I had water in one goggle or the other. So it was a pain in the eye for the most part.

Another problem was that since I had not done any exercise for the past 10 days, swimming 800 meters wasn't difficult, but wasn't as easy as before. I know that by weeks end, I will be back into the regular routine and perhaps try for 1600 meters again. I figured that I should keep it relaxed today and not to wear myself out. After all, I do have a 10 day old at the house.

I didn't have a chance to preregister for the Fireball 5k this Sunday, so I am not sure if I am going to do it. It would be the full $20 at this point and that 1/4 of a pair of running shoes. I might not deplete my running budget, so that I can have new shoes for Knoxville next spring, especially if I do Big South Fork and maybe Chickamauga (Nov). So we will see, Pete had offered to pay for the race, but I was slack and didn't register… I'll blame it on the kid until he is big enough to whoop me.

I may try to get a trail run in tomorrow. I'll have to call Beer Boy and see if he is ready to get in trouble again.

Ryan Matthew was born at 1:21 on June 17th. Here is the link to the family blog with a little more detail.

Since Ryan has been under the bilirubin lights to combat his jaundice, I have been staying up late to watch him, so there has been no exercise these past few days, not even weights. I'm too tired. Saturday we are getting help for a week, so that should lighten my load a bit, that is if Ryan is done with his bililights.

I did it, I broke the 1 mile marker in the pool. Seems so short compared to running, but a milestone nonetheless! And the cool thing was that it wasn't that hard to do. I think remembering lap counts is the hardest thing to do. At least in running the scenery changes, but in the pool it's blue sky, bottom of pool, blue sky, bottom of pool, blue sky, bottom of pool, blue sky, bottom of pool, blue sky, bottom of pool and so on. The do make Aqua MP3 player specifically for swimming… having a pair of those would be cool!

So, I'll be taking the next 10 days off from swimming and running with the new baby. I may try to lift weights at home, if I'm not too tired. So we will see. I won't even go running tonight. I think that I have a good enough base that taking the time off won't affect any training up to this point.

I may consider doing the Fireball 5k on July 3rd since Pete and Janet will be here to watch Eric and help jen with the baby. Plus it is at night, so Eric would be asleep anyway. Not 100% on that race yet either… it costs money.

But that is at the end of the entry.

Despite helping a friend with his car, I was able to meet up with Beer Boy (Marty) at Concord Park for a short run even though the temperature was at 89 degrees. Since I got there about 15 minutes early, I decided to run the wide loop (about a mile) and bring my camera to take a few pictures to show how nice it is. I realize now that I should have gotten a few pictures of the single track…duh!

Anyway, the main track was a little wet from previous rain and there was one tree downed that was in the way but still runnable. I made it back to the car and Beer Boy had shown up and was getting ready. I found a pile of keys that had been left probably accidentally on the ground in the lot. It just so happened that one of the County's Finest was sitting in the parking lot underneath the shade, doing what… I don't know. Anyway, I approached him to let him know that I found some keys and that I would leave them on the fence just in case someone showed up while I was running. He wasn't exactly the friendliest of people, I must caught him in his me-time. Well, I hooked the keys up and then met Beer Boy and told him about the course conditions. I wonder now if the officer heard me talking about the course.

Math Boy: “I went around on the course, there is a downed tree in Sector 2 and some slippery spots in Sectors 4,5 and 6″
Beer Boy: “Huh, oh, okay”

So we went off and ran 3.6 miles on the trail. It was a very easy run for me. I felt good for the first half of the run. I started to get a little thirsty and slowed down some. We definitely made better than a 10 minute pace in some parts of the course. I had stashed some water on the course for us since I knew it would be hot, but at least there was plenty of shade. We voted and decided in a unanimous 2-0 decision to cut it early today and get back home instead of running the East Inner Loop.

So we made it back to the car. Muddy and yucky and thirsty. Beer Boy breaks out two bottle of his stuff from work and we start to wind down from the run. Beer Boy is wiping down his poison ivy from gardening last week with rubbing alcohol (I didn't get it). But as we were talking we noticed a police car (the previously mentioned police car was gone) drive up to the new restaurant. Not 2 minutes later, another squad car comes in and combat parks were the previously mentioned police car had parked. When that car pulled up, we discretely concealed our beverages and broke out the water bottle. Then the car from the restaurant pulls in and parks alongside the other police car so that they could conference, I guess.

Beer boy and I talk for another 7-10 minutes, I had to take off my muddy shoes. I stretched a bit. Marty finished wiping off. I pulled out some maps of Concord Park that I had made for him. All things that shady individuals might do. We decided to go ahead and call it a day since we discussed that some law enforcement people might get a little uptight that we had some beverages on property and we also had other things to do. We decided to run again on Thursday, provided that Baby Incognito had not made an appearance yet and we were off.

Now here is where the title comes into play. As SOON as I left the parking lot, one the cops was on my tail. So I played little model citizen and used my turn signals and never really followed the speed limit. I figured that NOBODY follows the speed limit on Northshore or Concord road and that if I did drive THAT cautiously, that it would raise his suspension even more. Right when I turned onto Concord, Marty calls me to find out if the cop had followed me. I said “yep” and he informed me that his partner was behind him as well. So, Beer Boy and Math Boy were under police surveillance!!!! Jen said that when Marty and I get hang around together we do act like we are on drugs…

Here are the pictures of Concord Park

Main Entrance to the Trail

Downed Tree on the wide trail

Yesterday, despite having semi-sunny weather it was pleasant swimming in the pool. The past few weeks… my swimming sessions have been increasing in distance. The first week of June it was a 900m and then a 1000m session. Last week, it was a 900m and a 1100m session. Well, yesterday, it was a 1463m session! That is just at 0.8 miles and is just one lap short of the Olympic Swim Distance for a triathlon. And the best thing is that I wasn't all that exhausted afterwards. I do know that I slowed down after my 20th lap since it was taking me 45 sec for a lap, after 20 I was closer to a minute.

The exciting part of it was that since swimming this distance wasn't all that bad. I started to think to myself… hmmm 2000m (1.2 mile) is the Half Ironman distance. I could probably do that. I would have to suffer through the bike, but I could finish. I know I would never be close to the age division awards unless there were 3 of us! It just so happens that Oak Ridge has the Atomic Half-Ironman near my birthday in September. Hmmm… that would be ideal. Train all summer (oh wait… the baby) and be ready for race.

More realistically, I should do an Olympic distance this fall… skip the Atomic H-I this fall, but do something like Chickamauga Marathon in the fall, Knoxville Marathon in spring, trideltathon, then the triathlon circuit in the summer to gear up for Atomic Half Ironman Sept 2006. Unfortunately, I would need some new equipment… wetsuit, triathlon shorts, shoes that I just can't afford… too bad I can't get sponsored.

During the week, it is my goal to wake up at 5am no matter what time that I wake up. This way, I can wake up on my own accord and get things done before Eric and Jen are up. For the past 4-5 weeks, this has been the case. In fact, the last 2 weeks, I have been cognitive enough before 6am to do mundane things such as pay bills, cook, clean the house, etc. I gave myself Sundays to sleep in an extra 2 hours.

Well, saturday was that day. I slept in until 7 (when Eric wakes up). So that meant NO Saturday morning long run… Crap! My intention was to go 8 or 10 miles to have some mileage under my belt before the baby. Oh well. There was still Sunday. With Jen's parents and sister coming into town on Saturday night, Sunday morning was shot too. We stayed up late and I slept in late as well. So no running in the AM on the weekend. I had wanted to run in the evening after dinner but Jen's Mom made some delicious ribs that I ate too much and so I didn't feel like working out.

Also, less than 2 days with Filipinos here at the house and already I have put on over 3 pounds. I am now knocking on the door of 171. So, if I can get maybe 30 minutes of running in today, that will help stoke the furnace in my belly because I know that plates of calories are awaiting me back home tonight.

I was able to crank out 3.1 miles on the treadmill in 27 minutes last night. I thought that I could go for four, but no-could-do. I did do specific negative splits on the miles with a quick catch my breath in between the miles. I ended up feeling pretty strong after the run and I smelled pretty strong too.

Since I was able to get 3 speedy miles (instead of 5 Trail miles) I designated Friday as my rest day. So that meant no swimming at lunch.

Looks like we only have one more week for the baby. 6am Friday morning unless the baby comes early. So that means that I should be able to have a “normal” workout week next week barring any scheduling conflict with our babysitters. Actually, Jen's mom will be here, so that should work in my favor. Woo-Hoo!

As for tomorrow, I think I am going to pencil in 10 miles tomorrow. I think because I won't be able to run next week and then some… so if I can get some mileage in to “carry me” over those days when there is limited running or working out… mainly because of lack of sleep! We will see.

On another running topic. Sunday is our Adopt-a-Road day for the Knoxville Track Club and am going to try to do that and help volunteer. I think it would be fun and would only take two hours. THe nice thing about the KTC is that if you volunteer at most events you get a coupon good towards having your entry fee waived. 3 coupons covers most of the races. I have 2 now, but did not get one for Expo, so maybe I can get that coupon as well.

Seems like this week we are without babysitters and therefore Terry is without outside running. Sigh. Well, last night due to some communication problems we were forced to find alternate babysitting since this was a special occasion. Today, I found out that our regular Thursday person can't be there tonight, so I don't get to run outside. I will just have to wait until Saturday Morning to run. Of course, if there is no baby yet.