Ironman USA

For those of you who care, Ironman USA was held Sunday. If you don't know, it's a 2.4 mile (4.8km) swim, 112 mile (180km) bike and then a full marathon. That's another 26.2 miles (42.2km) by foot, for a grand total of 140.6 miles in less than 17 hours. Frightening.

Two of the bloggers that I frequent were among the finishers.
Shelley completed her seventh Ironman. Seriously, who can do seven of these things?
Cliff completed his first. And this three weeks after tearing a muscle in his shoulder in a bike wreck.

Outstanding. One day I hope to join the club.

"Routine"

So having your spouse in the hospital, working full-time, decorating the 'big sister room' and trying not to ignore your three year old really changes things. Thankfully we've had help so far with Sue's mom and then my mom. The guard will change again Wednesday morning back to Sue's mom. But how do you keep things 'normal' for Darcy? That's been my biggest struggle. She still needs to be a three year old and there's not always time for me to do that with her.

One definite for her is that we've visited the hospital every night after supper. She enjoys that and runs around the 'zagebo' (gazebo), chasing squirrels and sea gulls. Of course, that will change now that I'm going to afternoons for a few shifts. Ugh, this poor kid.

The 'big sister room' is shaping up. I got the priming and the two end walls (different colours) done today. The two long walls will be done tomorrow. Darcy really likes the colours and her excitement for getting the room to herself seems to be growing. She did ask a pretty smart question today. "Daddy, where's the bed?" Once I explained that her big girl bed would be switching rooms, she was alright with that.

I go for my bone scan follow up tomorrow morning. I haven't touched my bike since Sue went into the hospital. Strangely I feel like I've been working harder since then, maybe it's all the trying to be in three places at once that's wearing me out.

Only four weeks to go!

Family health updates

The waiting continues.

Sue had an ultrasound yesterday and the fluid was lower than before. We don't know what the cut off point is where the doc will say, "Alright, the baby is coming out." So hopefully it doesn't get much lower. She's got another ultra-sound tomorrow and should be able to see her doctor to answer some questions.

Darcy is doing fine. She's happy to have Grandmaman here and has enjoyed her visits to see mom. There's a little park on the grounds where she can run around, chase birds and squirrels and just be herself. I also took her for a follow up about her echo test and the doctor said that everything is fine. She has a "benign murmur". I supposed that's the best kind of murmur to get?

I should be following up with my doc about the bone scan some time this week. But I actually have to work all week. Crazy, I know. Then I've got to get "the big sister room" painted and set up before Titcombe #2 arrives. I'm off a few days next week, so I'll make sure to see my doc in between coats of paint.

Also in the good news column, one of Sue's roommates is moving out tomorrow for good. She's having her scheduled section. The 'hick' factor in the room should fall dramatically now.

Long day ahead. Bye.

Aug 5-18: Help needed.

So, day 4 already.

We're in good shape for the next little while. Sue is taking it all one day at a time. Having to face a possibility of six weeks is too overwhelming for anyone.

Her parents have been here since Thursday afternoon and her mom is staying until Tuesday evening. At about which time my mom should be arriving. She'll stay for a week (25th), so I can go back to work. Then it looks like Sue's mom should be able to come back for a few days, until the 31st. I've got a bunch of days off lined up, so we're covered until Aug 5th. I'm hoping work can move my schedule around so that I get arrange some day-care for D for a couple of weeks. Then Uncle Brian comes the week of the 18th and then Auntie Stef comes from the 26th-Sept something. All I know is that we'd better freaking have another baby by that point.

So if anyone wants to spend some time here, it looks like we need help Aug 5-18. We'll see what work can do for me, but regardless, we'll need another body around.

You know how to reach me.

No real news

There's been no real change in the situation. Sue is resting and there's been minor improvement in some areas, but no where enough to warrant her going home. The possibility of her being in the hospital for six weeks or longer is very real.

That thought makes it pretty agonizing for everyone. She is going to lose her mind in that room, Darcy doesn't understand why Mom can't come home and I'm stretched pretty thin between being at home with Darcy, visiting Sue and having to go back to work. It reminds a lot of the time that I was away for job training for 13 weeks. Pretty brutal.

Sue's been in a ward room, with two other girls. And I mean girls. One girl is not playing with a full deck and the other, against the wish of her husband, parents, in-laws and doctor, checked herself out and went home to rest. But that benefited Sue because she was able to take over the empty spot and know has a window view, instead of a hallway view. The girl who's missing a few marbles has been in the hospital over a month and has a section scheduled for next week, so she won't be around for much longer. And, I guess because she's been there so long, so gets 'day passes' every now and again. She's out on one now, so Sue has the room to herself for a day or so.

As for me, I had a bone scan on my leg this past Monday. I should see my doctor to talk about the results in a week. I could see something on the scan, so I know there's definitely something wrong. Coupled with the current situation, any momentum I had built on the bike, waiting for my leg to heal is dead. My 'season' is over having completed one measly 5km race. Probably a pretty good time to have a stress fracture!

Sue - update

Here's the latest.

She's been seen by two docs today. They both think that the lack of fluid is a sign that the placenta is not doing it's job properly. Which means the baby is probably not being nourished properly. Which means that the baby will probably be better off on the outside than the inside. The baby has developed fine, but is small.

They have not given any dates or time frames. Just that it looks like it'll most likely be a long hospital stay. Possibly until the baby is born.

Sue is fine, other than SERIOUS boredom. She's only allowed out of bed to use the washroom, so the days are going to be long ones.

That's all for now.

Things Change

I was at work today and got a phone call from Sue, it went a little like this.

"Hi, they're admitting me for a week."
"What? When?"
"Right now."
"I'm on my way."

So after a good report from her OB yesterday, she went for her scheduled checkup at the hospital today. Her fluid was too low and they called her doctor, the doctor spoke to Sue and had her admitted.

Right now, I don't know anything more than that. Stay tuned.

We've got help on the way, so we'll be covered for the next few days. I was going to take parental leave anyway, I may just have to take it early.

Back Home

I'm back home from my trip. No sunburn this time. Too much time spent sitting listening to lectures that don't apply to my job. But it beat working for a living, so I won't complain.

So far I have two takers on the run portion of the Windsor Tri, but no swimmers. Do I feel 'rock, paper, scissors' coming on to make the decision?

The race is Sunday, August 12th. It starts about 9 am, I think. The swim portion is the easiest 800m you'll ever have to swim. It's so shallow you could walk the entire way, in fact many people do. It's such an easy swim that somehow I was first in my age group last year. Seriously, if I can do that, then it can't be that hard. Consider it more of a water run.

Internet Cafe: Ottawa

I've got 16 minutes left of my $2/30 minutes.

I'm Ottawa until Thursday on a mandatory training course that I don't exactly see the point of. Well, it's not just me, I can't think of many people who enjoyed sitting through an entire day of lectures and group building exercises. But this counts as my work for the week and I don't go back until July 3rd, so it's not all bad (Yes Jake, more time off).

Quick update on my leg. Now three full weeks since I last ran and it's about 70% better. But still not good enough to run on. I had my second x-ray last week and have an appointment for a bone scan on July 9th, still to rule out stress fracture. Sometimes it's still really painful, sometimes it feels like the muscle is seizing, sometimes it feels like the muscle might be pulled or torn. The doctors has suggested that I keep the biking up, because it's not an impact related sport. So I won't lose all my fitness, but it is frustrating.

My motivation has been a little low and I've come to the realization that I will probably have to skip the triathlon this year. Unless I can put a relay team together. I'll take care of the bike, anyone want to swim 800m or run 6km? If we register before July 1st it's a bit cheaper, so let me know if you're serious.

9 minutes left.

update

So I'm back from vacation, had a great time, blah, blah, blah.

But I'm injured. Before Bermuda I had a twinge in my left shin. Before going to Montreal it was getting worse. In Montreal I "ran" 5 km in barely 28 minutes. This is lethargically slow for me and I could not have gone any faster. The rest of the day and most of the week I limped around. From what I read on the internet, I have a really good shin splint. But to be prudent, I got it x-rayed when I got back home, to rule out a stress fracture. The doc said at least two weeks off and that I need to get it another x-ray in a week's time. Possibly a bone-scan.

So my running legs are on the shelf. That pretty much rules out two races for me. But allows me to crank up some bike miles.

Higher miles

I ran 8 miles tonight, 13km. Jake and I had been looking for a time to run together for a while and this was the first chance we had. It is so nice to have someone to run with. It takes your mind off the fact that you're running for over an hour. At the end we both had a bit of the jell-o legs, but felt good.

I feel 100% better then I did two weeks ago when I struggled through 6 miles.

A few shorter runs this week, plus I need to get my cross-training going again. Next weeks long run is 10 miles.

---------

UPDATE (05/30/07 21:10)

Not that you care, but I realized today that I misread my schedule and this weeks long run was only supposed to be 6 miles, not the 8 miler that I did. But that's ok, because this will give me the option now of building my long runs to be longer than the half-marathon race distance.

Oh, and I'm going for a nice long bike ride tomorrow morning.

Suffering for Jesus

The reason for the trip to Bermuda was a trip for the Youth Band that I help organize for our division of the Salvation Army. It's always fun to travel and if we're going to play for people it might as well be tropical! Yeah, some real suffering was done over THAT decision.

We flew out of Buffalo at 9:50am on Thursday, but with checking in, travelling in a group of 30 with over sized instruments, it meant being at the airport by 7:30am. Now is a good time to mention that Buffalo is a solid 4+ hour drive from where I live. Do the math and you can see that it was an early morning.

So the Windsor crew (9 of us) went to London the night before to sleep (although I didn't sleep a wink) and then we all took a coach bus from there to Buff. Other than the insane departure time from London (4am), things went great. Flying into Newark for our connection was cool, because I didn't realize how close it is to NYC, which I had never seen before, and we got a good view of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty from our side of the plane. Side-note: Newark airport has stuff well priced. I bought a bagel w/cream cheese for $1.49, in an airport!

The next flight to Bermuda was great, although coming in for a landing and not seeing ANY land is a little freaky. By the time we got to our billets, had something to eat, drove around a few of the sights, I had been up for almost thirty hours. When I hit the pillow that night I didn't even move until my alarm went off 9 hours later.

Friday was a busy day, we played in a few schools, did an hour or so on street corners and then had some free time. I convinced the rest of the leaders to take a ferry with me across the island. We didn't have much time to do it, but it ended up timing itself perfectly. Plus, this gave us 40 minutes to sit on a boat in the Bermudian sun. The sacrifices of leadership, I know...

We had a sound check for our concert Saturday morning, then spent the early part of the afternoon at the beach, Horseshoe Bay. At first the water was cool, but it didn't matter it was the ocean and it warmed up nicely. A few hours in the sun and water and most of us looked fairly pink. It was pretty evident when someone had missed a spot on their backs with sunblock. I got burned a bit, but only in the spots I missed. It's a little itchy, but it was worth it.

Saturday night we shared a concert with their Divisional Bands and then we did the church service Sunday morning. A quick, and wonderful, lunch was provided to us after church and we bolted for the airport. It was over too quickly.

But us Windsor folk still had about 14 hours of travelling to do. We had a four hour layover in Newark, then our flight was delayed an hour because of weather, after we had boarded. We got back to London around 3:15am Monday and I was home by 5:20. Fortunately shift work has taught me how to handle being up all night and I just treated it like a midnight shift. Once Sue and Darcy were on their way in the morning, I went to bed.

I feels like a dream. A very vivid and detailed dream. I'll have to go back to make sure it was real...

Back Burned

"There's a double meaning in that" - Benedict, Much Ado About Nothing

I'm back from Bermuda. A full update will follow. Just a quick note to say how great it was. It was so beautiful and went so quickly that it felt like a dream. Even though we were there for a band trip, I did managed to find time to get a little sunburn.

Other than that and getting burned with horrible flight times, no complaints.

10k a ok

So I did another long run today and was much stronger mentally than last week. I even ran it a minute faster.

I thought that the fact that it was the hottest day might have had something to do with last weeks struggles, but today was plenty hot and I was fine.

I just need to suck it up and run.

The sacrifices we have to make

When I started my new job in November I figured that being at the bottom of to totem-pole, I would get stuck with working all the crappy shifts, holidays and have trouble getting time off when I needed it. Boy, was I wrong.

Somehow my schedule gave me almost all of the stat. holidays off. I had to work this Monday, but that wasn't so bad because it was preceded with four days off anyway! Plus, I go into work tonight and then I'm done until June 9th. Tomorrow I leave for five days on a trip to Bermuda with the Salvation Army Youth Band that I help organize, then I come back for three days of rest before leaving again for a week in Montreal for a family vacation.

When I finally have to go back to work, I only have 10 days in June where I'm actually AT work because I'm being sent to Ottawa for some training for four days. Score. I also had the shifts I was working changed recently, from 8 hours to 10.5 hours. The extended hours means I get more time off. Previously I was working 40 of 56 days (the length of our schedule). Now I work 30 of 56 days. This is going to be great once Sue is done work at the end of June.

The mind game

It's been said that running is 20% physical and 90% mental. Lately I've been finding that to be true.

Working shifts makes biking to and from work harder than in previous years, so my cycling numbers are way down. But I'm getting out there for more runs then usual, so while my fitness isn't great, it's still good. The thing is, every time I go out for a long run I have to battle my mind to make it through.

Today was no exception. I did a 10 k, my goal was to do it nice and easy, keeping my heart rate low'ish' and just getting to the end of it. I did two 3 mile loops, picking up a bottle of Gatorade at the half way point, so physically I was fine. I've been building my distance again slowly, so I have no concerns there. But mentally it was a slugfest. I don't understand why I beat myself up so badly. "The next mile is with the wind, there'll be no breeze." "There's not enough shade." "Am I dehydrating?" "The bottle is getting heavy." "Don't drink too much." and my favorite "My feet are too hot."

I've run that distance countless times. I've run longer than 10 k many times and have even run twice that far. So why the mental weakness? WHY? Over the next 10 weeks or so I plan on increasing my long run by about 2 miles a week, so in 4 weeks a 6 mile run will seem like a day off. Why the battle?

10,000

For no important reason I have a site metre at the bottom of this blog. I guess the real reason is so that I can know how many people are reading this and where they come from. Also, it's boosts my ego.

At 2:34 pm, May 13, 2007, I received my 10,000 th visitor. And it's not like I was visiting the site myself to inflate the numbers, this was a legitimate visitor all the way from Harare, Zimbabwe! I imagine it was one of two people that I know in Harare.

Thanks for visiting John or Rochelle!

Facebook

This is not an authorized plug for Facebook.com, but it is still a plug.

If you don't know what it is, basically you can look up people from your past, that you've lost touch with and reconnect (if they use facebook too, but right now it seems almost everyone does). There are other services like this (classmates, gradfinder), but facebook it miles better then those two combined. And it's free. My wife started using it about a week ago and commented how addicting it is. I used her account to look around for a day or two before getting my own account.

I refuse to use the word 'addicted', but I certainly am committed. I cannot believe how easy it to find people. People from every part of your own personal history. Grade school, high school, college, family, extended family, lost friends, long lost friends, co-workers, former co-workers, even ex's. Not that I have many of those...

For example: The day I signed up, I found my childhood best friend. A guy who I spent everyday with from kindergarten until the end of high school when we went to different colleges. I haven't seen or heard from him in at least 13 years and we've chatted for the last couple of days. If you played a lot of Tim Horton's Roll-up-the-rim and doubt that anyone ever wins big, well some people do. He won a Toyota Hybrid, but he doesn't drive so he sold it!

I give two thumbs up to facebook.

24 C - nice. Take two

So the last time I wrote about how nice the weather was, it turned cold again and snowed for about two weeks. Well, I'm going to risk saying that the weather is warm for good now. At least it better be. The three of us went down to the river this afternoon and then played on the sidewalk with Darcy's chalk. She loves being outside.

I'm getting my bike back from the shop tomorrow, so I can hardly wait to get out there again. I've been doing my best to run every second day, it's tough with shift work, but it gives me something to aim for.

Wow

My buddy Jake has been running marathons for the last three years. He started off with a respectable time of just under 4 hours and has lowered his personal best each time he's raced. He's done it the old fashioned way, hard work and a lot of miles.

Last Sunday he ran the Martian Half Marathon, with a goal of 1:30, 5 minutes better than his previous best. He ran a 1:30:39, finishing 50-something out of 1000-odd people, or in the top 5% of all finishers. You can read his account here.