Time One and Time Two

On Wednesday mornings I have the option to "sleep in" until 630AM, if I skip swimming with the Masters group and wait to swim after I coach a squad from 700-800AM.

I make about 70% of these early Wed swims, which means waking up at 530 and getting out of the house by 545 at the latest.

This is a story about yesterday morning, written in the present tense.

Sleep interrupted by the cries of my baby boy.  Logan wakes, it is early, what time?  330, My watch says.  Bri gets to him before I can put on my shoes to hobble to his room (to help keep my injured foot balanced), so I wander into the bathroom and then flop back in to bed.  Here is proof.

Where I sleep when getting up early so Bri can get more sleep

What seems like a few minutes later, my alarm shrieks its dire warning for the 530 Masters swim.  I waffle a bit, groaning in pain and fatigue.  Here is proof.

Thus, I wake.

Ignore the sunlight in the background.  This is the actual alarm.

I cannot bring myself to launch out of bed and face a hard workout and the rest of the day, so reset the alarm to 630 and fall back into a deep cyborg like slumber.  There are no dreams.  There is darkness.

The alarm goes off.  It reads 630.  I have no choice but to rise and get going.  People depend on me to torture them with swim intervals.  I wander downstairs.  I feel awful.  I am exhausted.  My eyes bleed.

I must continue.

Something is amiss.  As I prepare the coffee, I notice that the times on the microwave and oven are wrong.  They read 335.  Was there a power outage?

Pretend these read 335 instead of 1140, I am not resetting the times for you

I. Am. Confused.

That is not sunlight in the background.

My mind spins.  Was there a nuclear blast?  Are aliens messing with me, yet again?  Has all time melted away to meaningless bits and bytes?  What is happening to me?

I turn on the phone.  I cannot post a picture of the phone for it is the lens through which I share these views.  I could take a picture in a mirror, but that is a poor reflection of the phone's reality.  Believe me when I say, the phone lit up, and then also spake, It is 335.

I am released.  It is not 630.  No. It is 330.  For there are two times upon my watch.  There is Time One, and there is Time Two.  Time One is real time.  It is you and I time.  It is get up at 515 for coaching every morning time.  

Time Two is Other.  It is three hours ahead.  It tells the future.  We always need to know when it is four-twenty in Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland.  This is crucial to the future of mankind, for some reason my watch has not yet shared with me.

The watch.  I return it to T1 alarming. 

I am relieved.  The good Inuit people of Greenland are safe.  I can sleep two more hours, and wake up feeling refreshed for the swim.  Everything is in its right place.  I shall go back to sleep. A deep, restful sleep filled with happy dreams.

Yes?

 Answering your silly emails at 345AM

Fini.

Training updates

Training has been going well, with the exception of injuring my foot 9 days ago.  I was experiencing some slight discomfort after racing the local duathlon in my lightweight training shoes (not even flats, just lightweight trainers) but nothing any runner hasn't dealt with.  I did a couple runs during the week with nothing noteworthy.

Then I raced in a 5k and it went from mild discomfort to extreme pain in the course of 1.2 miles.   I had to stop and limp back to my car, couldn't jog or walk normally.  That is the first race I've bagged out of since 1993 when I stopped at mile 12 in a 15 mile swim (I was overheating, had fallen out of contention for a national team spot, and sort of bored with it at that point).  The foot was feeling better through the week, but then I mowed our front lawn, which is on a steep slope, and that aggravated it.  So while biking and swimming are not an issue (staying away from hard hills and hard riding), running is out for the time being. I have seen too many athletes try to get back to running quickly and then stay hurt indefinitely.

Long story short - the first Aquathon is out (I was going to race it), as well as White Lake Sprint.  Hopefully I can be back to running by mid May, which would give the foot a solid 5-6 weeks.

I have been maintaining my svelt figure with mostly good food choices and portion control.  When you go from 12-14 hour type training (mid to late season last year) to 6-8 hours of training, the calories have to adjust downwards or the weight and svelt-lessness will adjust upwards. 

In other news, Bri is feeling better about running and is racing in the Riverwood Triathlon this Saturday.  Logan and I will be in cheering mode.  On Sunday we're joining a bunch of swimmers for USMS short course nationals in Greensboro, which is about 1.5 hours away.  I'm swimming the 50 fly and 100 free.

Casino night at TAC!

Tomorrow night 4.21.12 is Casino night at Triangle Aquatic Center, where our Masters swim team trains.  This is their big annual fundraiser and we are sponsoring a table.

Check it out!

random thoughts 4.17.12

Why you might as well give up on 'investing' and focus on 'saving lots.'

Unless you diversified into 'barbaric relics.'

Hopefully not black gold, though.

Although now might be the time to sell one and buy the other.

I hurt my foot over the weekend, but other than the aggravation of not being able to run for a couple weeks or whatever it might be, am not worried about races since this year is the Year of the Bri.  I am hopeful it is a soft tissue issue.  Poetry in injury. 

Today Bri and I got out for our first ride together in over a year, it was nice, birds were singing, the clouds parted before us, etcetera.

Please sign up for the Old School Aquathon if you intend to race the first event on May 2nd.  It is approaching quickly!

Boy is doing good:

 

Junior and I playing "sit without slouching"

 

Mom and laddie at Masters swim team party

 

Boy coaching Saturday Masters - he prefers sprints

 

Three Generations of Fine Young Men

Cary duathlon 2012

We had a big contingent of OSB athletes at the Cary duathlon this Saturday.  Bri graciously allowed me to jump in this one as it is 15 minutes from our house.  The race went better than I expected - I felt pretty good on everything and raced about as well as possible.  I have not been cycling much (<50/week the past few) so the 17 mile ride was on the far side for me.

Anyway, first 2.5 mile run into about 9th place at 6:37 pace.
Bike course moved up 1 spot to 8th place at about 21.7mph (hilly course with some headwinds)
On the final run I was amazed to pass 4 runners to move up to 4th place at 6:45 pace.

A lot of the really fast/fit athletes raced the long course distance (5 mile - 31 mile - 5 mile) but that would have destroyed me.

OSB athletes had great races, with lots of impressive performances as well as new hardware for the trophy walls.

We had a good time hanging out after.  Here are some pictures.

 

Kari M works the first run on long course (she took 2nd overall)

 

The Royal We heads out for the first run (short course)

Michele and Jaime having too much fun (LC)

 

Working hard on run 2

 

Look at me finish, grr I am a lion roarrr

 

Hanging with Erin, she just finished (2nd OA) and is smiles all the way

 

Baby patrol with random babies

 

Long course ladies with their hardware

 Post-race lunch at Cafe Caturra, beautiful day w great people, que bella!

 

very important conversations

best viewed sideways

 

 

Keeping busy

We have been keeping busy around here.  In recent news:

• Baby boy is feeling good after a nasty cold called RSV
• I have finished our friggin taxes
• Running is going well, swimming is OK, and cycling is down to 1x a week right now.  I won't be setting fire to the bike courses this season!  That is all right though, I enjoy running, it is easy to do, and swimming after I coach a practice works out fine from a time-effectiveness standpoint.  Getting on the bike and out the door is more of a production.
•  Work is keeping me busy, athletes are doing well
• I will be racing the Cary short course duathlon on Saturday morning, it is right down the street from my house.  The start time is 9AM which is awesome.
• Bri got to go see the Hunger Games, which she was super jazzed about.
• My dad visited over the weekend and got to spend some time with his Grandson.