Race day

Not for me. Darcy ran the Kids' Dash of the local running shop's race series. She had done one in the spring of 2007, but it was frigid out and hardly felt like running weather. Tonight's 'race' was far more enjoyable.

There were huge crowds, but the organizers did a good job of keeping things on time and getting people to the right spot, especially when it was in a brand new location from other years and events.

Her race didn't consist of more than running around two sets of pylons and into the finish area, about 100m. Sue was going to run with her, but about 5 minutes before the race she announced that she wanted to run the race alone, with the other big kids. So she did. After a bit of a slow start, she took off and even though I could only see her back, I could tell she was smiling from ear to ear. When she came around the bend for the 'back stretch' her grin was ear to ear. She saw me and said, "I can't catch them!" But I told her to run hard and get to the finish line. Which is where she got her medal.

She seemed to take pleasure in the fact that this was HER race. Last time I ran with her and then did my own race, but today she was the only one running. So this is HER medal and she's very proud about earning it.

Me too.

Oh, pictures are here.

Slowly, but surely

It seems like my year off has slowed me down. That's fine, I'm in no rush. I'm just happy to be running again. I looked back in my log to see how I started back in April 05. I'm pretty much using the same sort of program, run/walk slowly building until you take out the walk (some people leave it in with great success).

Even after a few short, slow runs, I've noticed how much I feel better after running. It's not just the 'runner's high' it's that I'm more focused, I can concentrate better, I breath better, I have more energy. Sue and I have even been able to figure out a decent schedule for getting runs in. But we still have to work one out for her to run too...

You know, I really missed how great a good sweat feels. I just don't get the same sweat on a bike, whether on the road or stationary. After running somewhere, I just feel like I've earned the right to be soaked.

In other news: My sister and her dragon-boat team won a competition in Boston recently and are being sent to NYC for other one! Pretty cool.

Time goes by too quickly

Somehow I have a four year old daughter. I don't really know how that happened. Seriously, how is Darcy four?

She was so excited all day. Right from the first thing out of her mouth this morning, "Is it my birthday now? Am I four now?" So we did everything in 'fours' today. Four more bites, four more minutes at the park, four stories for bedtime. And depending on who's team you're on four minutes for time-out. And despite all the excitement of the day she did manage to go through the whole day without getting one. Miracles do still happen.

In other news, please note that my running total has begun to increase in the right hand column. After I wrote my post the other day I was inspired and went for a run. It wasn't anything special. My legs felt the burn and I was pretty tired after TWO WHOLE MILES, but I ran (well it was run/walk of 4 minutes & 1 minutes, repeated four times) and I enjoyed a runner's high afterward, so it was worth it. The next morning my legs felt like they'd run ten miles instead of two, but I've got to (re)start somewhere. I went again tonight and am committing to find the time to run three times a week. I'm not planning on any races, but I need to be ready when the urge hits.

First post of the year

Does anyone read this anymore? Oh well, that's my own doing.

So why post now? Why not wait six more months and make it a whole year? It wouldn't have been hard, believe me.

I realized today that it's now been a year since I broke my leg and stopped running. My last run was on June 3rd 2007 and could barely get through it. I did try again in September, but the pain returned and I gave up.

To me running was therapy. It was time to burn off steam, to see things clearly, to test myself. Without running I would say there is definitely been a bit of a void in my life. Don't me wrong, I have a great life; I have the most amazing wife, wonderful kids and an exciting job. But over the last three years running had become my identity and without it I feel somewhat goalless. At the same time, I have absolutely no time to run. I need to start from scratch and I don't know when I'll actually do that. The best time is after the kids are in bed, after 8pm, and that's taking away from time alone with Sue.

Getting the stress fracture when I did was a blessing in disguise. It forced me off the road shortly before Sue was put into hospital for six weeks. Even if I had been healthy, I wouldn't have been able to run during that time. Then the WesMan was born and it took us four-six weeks to feel like humans again. I couldn't put together a regular schedule then and when I tried to run, the pain returned. Now I'm still working rotating shifts (one week days, then afternoons, then nights, etc...), which kills the structure of regular training.

So here I am a year out from having a severe stress fracture. Probably 20 lbs. heavier, lacking energy and without a fitness goal (although I tempted by this P90X program, anyone heard of it?). It hasn't been all bad though. I've lifted weights more than before (more than zero that is), I'm still biking to work as much as possible (I did it all winter through ice, snow, rain, sleet, slush, wind and cold) and I still WANT to run.

Maybe tonight I'll lace them up again and start from scratch. Better late than never, right?

A Year in Recap

Let's all get sentimental on the last day of the year, time wasted or time well spent?

A little of both for me, but I won't complain.

It's been hard to keep a steady training schedule with my job, working rotating shifts doesn't help. This lack of training caught up to me in June with a pretty severe stress fracture of my left tibia. When I've tried running, the pain returned after about three weeks of light running. My left calf is still going through wierd perma-cramps, so I haven't been able run since June. It's been frustrating.

However, this year has seen some highlights for me. Trips to Bermuda and Ottawa, vacations to Montreal and Niagara. A new van. Oh there was something else...

Wesley. With his arrival I took parental leave from work and spent 14 weeks at home with Sue and the kids. It was the best time ever. Last year I had to be away from the family for 13 weeks of work training. That time away let me be at home this year.

I'll leave you his video to watch and wish you all a Happy New Year. Hopefully it ends on the same high note as Darcy does!

Happy Birthday to me

Welcome back to all my readers. There must be tens of you by now...

Today is my birthday, my daughter even figured it out without too much prompting this morning.

I'm lucky enough to not have to work over Christmas, but not lucky enough to go to Switzerland with the rest of the family. I'll just have to 'settle' for a big turkey dinner at one of Sue's aunt's. Yeah, that'll be a real chore.

Stay tuned for more posts, but don't hold your breath.

The Energizer Bunny

Even though Darcy went out as a Chicken this year, she could have been the Energizer Bunny. One of the local mall had stores doing trick or treating for little ones from 4-7pm today, so we met Alisa and her parents there and did a lap of the mall, filling the bag up so that Darcy was forced to drag it towards the end.

We were going to hit half a dozen houses on our street, but since it was such a nice night, we ended up doing almost the whole block. Again filling up her bucket to over flowing and she needed Dad to carry it at the end, it probably didn't help that someone put a full sized can of pop in there!


She was a trooper and didn't complain about anything, walked up all the stairs and said thank you to everyone. A few people she even struck up conversations with about their decorations. Not too surprisingly, A LOT of people commented on how cute she is and apparently that translates into A LOT of candy. We kept track of the candy we gave out (106 pieces) and I did a count of what she brought in (124 pieces, not counting what she ate at our neighbour while she was his 'helper'). Clearly she is good at this, too bad it only comes once a year. But fortunately for her, her father will try to get this loot to stretch out of the next 124 days, then we'll almost be half way to next year!

Flickr

Lots of new pics on the Flickr page.

Auntie-Stef or Anti-Stef

Last night Darcy was playing with Alisa and they were talking about going to swimming lessons. The question was asked, "What do you wear?"

Darcy answered, "I wear my bathing suit. But sometimes grown ups don't wear clothes."
A concerned parent asked, "What do they wear then?"
Darcy calmly answered, "They go nudey."
The follow up question was asked, "Who told you that?"
"Auntie-Stef."

So.

A few questions need to be answered.

Is there any truth to this?
What is Auntie-Stef teaching my THREE year old?
Should her teachings, which include pudding bathes and the introduction to the word "CRAP", get her "Auntie" title changed to an "Anti" title?

Vote now.

GO GLENN GO!!!

UPDATE:

Glenn finished the marathon in 3:31 and change. Another PR for him, by about 8-10 minutes. I'm very impressed and envious. Conditions were pretty much perfect, cool to start and then a good breeze when the sun got warm.

Awesome job.

----------

Yes it's been a while.

Last time I posted about Jake running the Chicago marathon. If you didn't hear, it was a brutal experience for all of the 45,000 people who choose to run. Jake did finish in 3:59, quite amazing considering the circumstances.

Sunday is the Detroit Marathon. Sue's cousin Glenn is running it. It will be his fourth and he's really just looking to have a good time, nothing wrong with that. In January Glenn will be doing the "Goofy Challenge". That is where you run a half marathon (21.1km) on Saturday and then a full marathon (42.2km) on Sunday. It all takes place in Disney World, hence Goofy.

Anyway, good luck Glenn. Darcy was practicing her cheers tonight with some pretty enthusiastic flag waving to boot.

GO JAKE GO!!!!

There are four exclamation points in my title because this Sunday Jake is running his forth marathon, the Chicago Marathon. It's his goal to qualify for the prestigious Boston Marathon by running a 3:14:59 or better. He came close last year at Detroit, staying on pace until mile 20 or 21, when the wheels feel off and he came in at a 'measly' 3:34. It was still a 15 minute PR for him.

This year he has put in some H U G E miles (on week being over 60 miles) and has stayed healthy (not like me...), so I'm confident that he'll get there the time he needs.

GO JAKE!!!!

Bigger Than Jesus

A long time ago D & I were in the car together and out of the blue she started singing "Hello, hello. I don't know why you say good-bye I say hello," over and over again. Then while Stef was here after Wesman was born I introduced her to "Yellow Submarine." That was a mistake on my part and we were serenaded with an unending chorus of "We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine. We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine," for the next six days

The other night I'm reading D a story from kids Bible and it was about the disciples. The story listed a few of their names; Peter, James, John, Timothy and Andrew. At the end of the story there are always a few questions to recap. One question was, can you name some of the disciples?

Her answer: Paul (not sure how she knows about him. I'll give her part points), John, (pause) George ...

I stopped her before she could get to Ringo.

New Van

We've been driving a Neon for the last 5 years. Not a big deal with just the two of us, a little tight with three of us and virtually impossible with four. So I started looking a little while back for used cars. The top three contenders were the Jetta Wagon TDI, the Honda CR-V & the Honda Odyssey. I found one of each that were close in price and mileage. The Jetta was the highest mileage, but being TDI was really just broken in. The CR-V was the most expensive, but a really great model with tons of features. The Odyssey was the oldest, but offered tons more room then either of the other two. So it came down to numbers and the Odyssey won.

We are paying $120/month LESS than the Neon and $200/year LESS in insurance. That's a savings of around $1600/year. The Odyssey is listed as using about $1400/year in gas, which is a lot and is certainly more than the Neon. But with the lower payments and lower insurance, we still come out ahead of the Neon, because the Neon used about $980/year in gas. So based on these estimates, we $1200 ahead of ourselves.

What also couldn't be overlooked was the enormous amount of room the Odyssey offered. It seats seven while the Jetta and CR-V each seat five (like the Neon). While the Jetta and CR-V would solve our storage issues for travel, neither would help us get more people into the vehicle. So although we have more room, both the Jetta and CR-V would be full. The Odyssey will comfortably take another two adults in the back bench. I'm sure Stef will be among the first to thank us for that...

Stoopid Leg

So I had been running every second day. Starting slowly, not in a rush, running easy, building gradually. Following all the rules for not getting injured (again in my case). Then Friday I started out and got a whole 48 seconds before an all to familiar feeling came in to my lower left leg. Pain.

So I stopped and walked home. Freaked Sue out coming home so quickly, but I won't risk going through another stress fracture. That being said, if running lightly brings back the pain, what kind of running won't? My answer is none. I'm not running anymore for a long time. I may take it with my doc, but that was a big waste last time. I'll continue to wait until the leg feels 100% again. In the meantime, I'm breaking out the old rowing machine for my cardio.

Twenty-five solid minutes of rowing gets me nicely into my fat burning zone and gives me some decent resistance training as well. I've also thrown in an intense ab work out for after the cardio. Hopefully this will burn off the ten pounds that creeped back on during the summer.

Wobbly

Warning this is a little more risque than usual.

So I'm putting Darcy down for her nap today and she comes out with this bit of advice for me.

D: I don't have a wobbly thing on my bum. My boy friends at Betty-Ann's do, Justin and Branden. And Wes has a wobbly thing. I don't have a wobbly thing. They have wobbly things, to tickle them. But I don't.
N: That's right, boys are different than girls.

I didn't laugh once while I was in the room. But I haven't stopped since.

Family of Four

Well today was the first day we spent as a family of four. No guests, no visitors, no extra help. It will be yet another adjustment for us to make, but I'm sure eventually we'll get our own laundry done again.

My sister, Stef, had been here for the last two weeks. Where did those days go? She was an enormous help and I'm not sure who's saddest to see her go, me & Sue or Darcy. She is definitely my best sister. But Marc might be a close second, if you ask her.

THANKS STEF!!!

Flickr Pro

Thank you Stef for getting us hooked up with a Flickr Pro account. Now we can (and will) upload all our Darcy and Wesley pictures to Flickr for easy viewing.

You can find our picture here.

Or click the link I've added on the sidebar.

Running again

I ran today! Only 88 days off. My sister is here for two weeks and wanted to see how running would go for her. So since I wanted to get back into it, starting back up with someone who doesn't run much is a good way to keep myself in check.

We did four 5 minute run, 1 minute walk sets. The distance ended up being 3.9km, not as important as actually getting out there and doing it again. Not going to lie, my legs felt beat a couple of hours later. But I'm back and on the way to going long again.

More of "Wes-man"

Darcy has taken to calling Wesley, "Wes-man" or Happy dude. More pics:

Can't keep up

I am overwhelmed at how many people have sent their best wishes these last six weeks. It is impossible to thank everyone, I've tried and I can't keep up. Most of it is thanks to facebook, but my hits on this blog have been through the roof since Sue went into hospital. What some people won't do for ratings, I know.

Sue and Wesley are home. He's sleeping on my lap as I type. Sue is sleeping in her own bed and Darcy is supposed to be taking a nap, but is too excited about having her brother home. She is really being a good sister and sings to him when he's crying. So far it's worked to calm him down a couple of times.

Now what you've all been waiting for, more pictures.