Are We Going...to San...Fran...Cisco??

This summer we finally had the opportunity to visit my aunt and uncle's family in San Luis Obispo CA.  I constantly stalk them and their four "kids" on Facebook but sadly don't have a chance to visit with them very often.  In fact, the last time I saw them was when my dad died about 7 years ago.  This time, my cousin Emily was getting married, and although it was every bit as busy as you'd imagine, it was a much happier occasion.  Even got to see my mom and brother from GA for awhile, which is always a great time that should happen much more frequently. 

 

That's the Lawrence crew above.  You'll never guess which cousin was the one who got married, would you?  She really looked amazing in her wedding dress, too, and everything about the ceremony was exceptional.  The wedding was actually held on a working orchard that grew lemons and avocados.  I'd never seen an avocado tree with actual avocados growing on it until that day.  It was hard not to pick any.

Another cool thing about my uncle's place is that he raises tortoises and has for many years.  We got to see his tortoise pen, and Becca fed some lettuce to them.  The scene looked similar to when we get Bella's food out and how she comes racing towards us and gets all excited and drools everywhere, only the tortoises (tortii?) were moving at about 1/100th speed and never looked you in the eye, they just stared at the lettuce, then did this big yawn looking thing and took a bite out of the lettuce.  After getting a mouthful, the tortoise would chew it up.  For some reason, seeing a tortoise chewing its food made me laugh.  

After the wedding, my family hung out with my mom and brother.  We did a quick hike and went to Avila Beach for an afternoon.  The first night there we went to dinner and then dipped our feet in the unflatteringly cold waters of the Pacific at sunset.  A little chilly for a swim, but a beautiful sunset anyway.

We stayed the weekend in SLO visiting, then Kathy and the kids and I drove up the coast to San Francisco.  It was a several hour long drive next to some of the most beautiful, foggy cloud cover I've ever seen.  Every so often the road would turn so you could see the often jagged cliffs we were driving in, which truly was amazing.  I really like the geography of the west coast...so rocky and "sharp".  But this is fog season, so unfortunately most of the time we couldn't see more than 50 feet in any direction.  We did stop at Montana de Oro state park on our way out of town.  We didn't spend nearly enough time there, but it would have been a great place to explore some of the coast around SLO.

One famous area of this road is where elephant seals like to hang out.  The day we saw them, there were only a couple hundred probably, but I  understand sometimes there can be a thousand at this place.  I believe this was my first wild elephant siting, which combined well with my first native avocado siting the previous day.  

We also spent a few hours at the Monterey Bay aquarium, which was every bit as impressive as we'd been told it was.  That evening, after enjoying our first In and Out Burger (1st #3), we got into SF.  We dropped the car at the airport and took a taxi into the heart of downtown.  

I'll spare you the agony of a detailed report of all the places and things we did in SF, but we did get to see quite a bit in 4 days.  No, we didn't take the Alcatraz tour (everyone always asks me that first, so figured I'd get it out of the way now).  We DID see Alcatraz from many different angles, and it was very cool looking.

This shot came from the deck of the tour boat we rode that gave us a quick tour of SF Bay.  We went around the back side of Alcatraz and also went under the Golden Gate bridge.  

The bridge was spectacular.  There is a large visitors center that tells a lot of the history and stats, along with all of the touristy souvenirs you'd expect.  Every day the bridge was enveloped with fog.  It was very interesting to me that there was a swath that seemed to go right across the bridge that always was a fast moving layer of fog.  The weather at the bridge when we visited was very dreary and windy and chilly, but just a few blocks inland, it was perfectly sunny and pleasant.  Apparently the "micro climates" around SF are well known.

Yes, we did ride the cable cars.  There was always a long line for them, and the cars were always completely packed.   The operators were generally very business like, even gruff sometimes, which surprised me a little.  When one of our rides stopped at Lombard Street, the driver said "OK there's the most crooked street in the US or whatever you want to call it.  OK?" and then he took off.  Not that this was a tour bus we were on, but it struck me funny how this guy must have driven past this street a thousand times and was obviously not so impressed anymore, nor did he understand why anyone else would be impressed either.  This picture shows how steep the streets were around there.

 




That said, we later road a regular bus across town, and the driver of this bus was more than happy to talk with anyone.  He seemed to know some of the regulars that got on during the trip, and after they left he'd give us their history like he was best friends with the person.  Every bus driver should have been like him.  He wasn't just doing his job, he was genuinely being a friendly guy and was more than happy to help all the tourists who had pretty basic questions about where they needed to go.  Awesome guy.

We made a visit to Coit Tower, which is visible from just about anywhere in the city.  It used to be a fire lookout, and there is a lot of history associated with it, but it really was a basic, tall tower with amazing views of the city and the bay.

The second shot is across Fisherman's Wharf, which is the main touristy entertainment/dining district.  Alcatraz is beyond that.  A couple things stand out on our visit to the tower.  First, we had to walk several blocks to get to it, and those were some of the most ridiculously steep roads I've ever seen in my life.

The grade of this hill is just over 30 degrees.  THIRTY.  This picture doesn't do it justice. And people were actually jogging on streets like this.  The other thing that caught my eye was the capacity sign on the completely packed elevator we took to the top of the tower.  2000 lbs.  And there were 15-20 people on all the rides.  Math was never my strong suit (well, actually, yeah it kinda was), but I'm thinking the capacity was exceeded a time or two during the day on that tower.  I'm sure the safety factor was about 10 though, so it was probably fine.  If you are claustrophobic, I would recommend trying to find your view of the city elsewhere though.

We also visited the California Academy of Sciences, which was a very well kept science "museum" of sorts with lots of focus on nature and the environment.  It even had an "earthquake simulator".  And then there was the Exploratorium, which was a hands on museum that explained everything from sound waves to inertia to optical illusions to human behavior, with interactive exhibits to help get the point across.  It was also very well maintained, especially given that with any interactive exhibit, kids are going to find ways to interact with it in completely unintended ways.  Needless to say, all the scientists in my family really loved that place.  It was behind this building, the Palace of Fine Arts.  Very cool looking dome and park area.

Chinatown was another unique experience.  We went out that way once looking for dim sum, but every place that was recommended looked like you really had to know what you were doing in order to do it right, so we went back and forth across the area for quite awhile before settling on a place that looked like it was totally made for clueless tourists, but at least we could say we did dim sum in Chinatown.  Many of the markets there were packed, with constant streams of people just picking through the produce and I assume paying someone for what they wanted.  The whole place seemed to be in constant motion with tourists scattered about just gawking or trying to figure out where they were on a map.  The picture below was from the main entrance.

The opposite of this scene was across town at the Japanese Tea Garden, which was a very tranquil place with gardens and ponds and trees that a person could just lose himself in for hours.  For a few bucks, you could even have a geisha perform a tea ceremony for your group.  We opted instead for the more affordable "serve yourself" hot tea and mochi ice cream balls.

Speaking of tourists, there were a lot of us there, and we were from all over the globe.  My favorite were the French tourists.  Almost every French family I saw had sons that looked like they were trying really hard to be in fashion (and maybe they were...I certainly wouldn't know fashion if it bit me on the behind).  The daughters looked remarkably snooty and almost all of them wore scarves.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be judgmental, but it always reminded me of a scene from the movie European Vacation.  I'm sure they were all very cool people, but the stereotypes in play made me laugh.  I did get to see a very young French girl who was being scolded for something by her father, and she just sniffled and whimpered "wi" in the most pathetic voice you can imagine.  So I bought her a pony and told her dad to lay off.  Adorable kid.

I finished the trip over drinks with an elementary school friend of mine from Morris, Charles Lee.  It had probably been about 30 years since we had seen each other, and we were easily able to pick up right where we left off.  If any of my Morris friends' ears were burning a couple weeks ago, I swear all the talk was of good times.  It was great to get caught up again.

So after promising not to go into exhaustive details....there are the exhaustive details.  We had a great time seeing a lot of my family, and the touristy parts of SF that we saw were a lot of fun and made me want to go back and check out more of the outdoorsy stuff there.  I wish my cousin and her new husband a lifetime of happiness, and I hope it doesn't take another major life event to get us all together again.

 

Opening Their Eyes

Today is a difficult day for a lot of people due to the movie theater shooting last night.  This is obviously a very tough subject for anyone to discuss, but as adults, most of us can at least put it in perspective.  We understand to some degree what it does to families and friends.  It tends to make us reflect on our own lives.  But we also know that the chances of something like this happening are (thankfully) exceptionally remote.  For children, I imagine it can be a different story.  This is scary stuff, and not all of them realize that it is a rare occurrence.  There are probably many children (even some adults) who are now freaked out just to be in a theater now.

This got me thinking about how different people raise their kids considering all the "bad stuff" that is out there.  And by bad stuff, I'm not just talking mass shootings.  I'm talking touchy subjects of any degree, like sex, swearing, racism, death, etc.  For awhile, some of us try to shield our children from those things, but obviously they will eventually come in contact with all of it and need to learn how to deal with it responsibly.  My kids are at an age where we're moving (or moved in some cases) more from the protection phase to the understanding phase.  It will be a learning experience for all of us, and I'm sure we'll have some unexpected consequences and conversations.  Our goals now are teaching our kids not to avoid touchy subjects, but how to handle them as children, adolescents, and not terribly far down the road, young adults.

So there is the somber, serious back story.  That leads me to a few things that were said in the car this morning with talk radio playing in the background.  Becca asked me what the deal was with all the talk about shootings, so I explained to her what happened.  She responded "oh", so I don't think she is freaked out about it.  Then there was another story about a couple of guys that were stopped crossing the US border with Kinder Eggs.  That lead to a discussion about how the government sometimes has some really stupid rules and regulations that defy logic.  The radio host made a joke about how someone was able to board a plane with a bomb in his underwear, but thank God the TSA was keeping those Kinder Eggs safely secure. 

Wait, did someone on the radio say....underwear?  Uh oh.  So I explained to Becca, when she asked about it, that someone got on a plane awhile back with a bomb in his underwear.  Both kids thought this was an incredibly stupid idea, which was the correct assessment, and they are only 9 and 12 years old, so I was pleased about that.  Becca was still curious, though.  "Are all bombs those big round things with the rope coming out of them like in the cartoons?  I don't think one of those would fit in someone's pants would it?".  Begin discussion about explosives and putty and how the right materials very well could be put in one's underwear to make a bomb, but it is still a stupid idea that would not end well for the owner of the underwear (assuming they were his own of course). 

I think I dodged a bullet there with the underwear, however the next story took the proverbial gun back out of its holster, in a manner of speaking.  This story was about a man who was stopped by the TSA in San Francisco for having a "large bulge" in his pants.  This bulge was, in fact, not a Smith & Wesson, but the more traditional love gun carried legally and concealed (usually) by roughly half the world population.  I don't think my kids fully understood 99% of the penis jokes and innuendos that they heard for the next five minutes, but on a more primal level, just hearing someone on the radio say PENIS over and over again is all kinds of funny.

And then as we are driving, we just happen to drive by Hooters.  We were looking for lunch, and Becca was very thoughtful.  "We could go to Hooters, so that way I could get wings and you can all have shrimp".  I told her that Hooters didn't have very good wings.  She said "Then why do they call it Hooters?  Aren't "hooters" owls, and owls have wings, so they must have good wings?".  I considered briefly about explaining how Hooters is not so much famous for the quality of its food but for the lack of clothing that the waitresses wear, and that "hooters" didn't refer to owls in this case but rather was a somewhat derogatory reference to large breasts, but I chickened out and just said "no, I don't think they the wings are made of owl.  Ohhh, is that a MacDonalds over there?!!"  I probably missed a good opportunity for more education, but the young sponges seemed to be about saturated at this point, so I'd wait till they dried out before showing them first hand just how truly bad Hooters wings really are.

So today my kids' minds were, I don't know if "expanded" is the right word, but I'll go with it for now.  What they choose to do with this newly acquired information has yet to be seen, but if any of my kids' friends suddenly start talking about underwear bombs and large penises, I apologize in advance.  And that reminds me...I'll be traveling through San Francisco in the near future.  Thankfully Johnah Falcon has already gone through security to break them in, so hopefully I won't have any problems. 

Redline 13.1 Half Marathon, 2012

This week was an anniversary of sorts.  About a year ago, I ran my first half marathon, the Redline 13.1 in Longmont.  At that time, I had about 10 good miles before I hit a major wall and essentially hobbled through the last 3 miles to a finish of 2 hrs and 14 mins.  It was brutal.

Fast forward about a year.  We didn't have as many people from Fox Creek Fitness participating as we did last year (last year, at least a half dozen of us were doing our first halves), but the four of us plus Kathy still ran well and supported each other.  I had a couple goals for my race this year.  First, I wanted to break a 10 minute mile pace.  Now, in all of my training runs, this is never a problem.  In fact, I tend to be in the mid 8 minute range for runs under 5 miles.  But for last year's half, my average pace was about 10:15, so under 10 seemed like a good goal.   Second, I wanted to run the whole thing this year.  Last year, after hitting the wall, I had to walk the final .2 mile uphill climb to the finish.  I was determined not to have to do that this year.  Seemed simple enough.

One thing I tried to do better this year is to eat.  I stopped eating half way through the race last year, and I'm convinced that is why I died so badly at the end.  I researched a bit and came up with a plan:
1 - Drink more water the day before the race.
2 - Eat a decent amount of carbs the day before the race.  This is as opposed to stuffing myself full as I tend to do, particularly when the meal is good.
3 - 2 hours before the race, drink about 20 oz of water, then eat more low GI carbs.  I had a banana and some oatmeal, and was pretty full.
4 - GU chomps at 5 miles into the race and every couple of miles after that.
5 - Sports drink on odd miles when I didn't eat GU chomps.

After researching, I came to the conclusion that everyone has a different strategy, and what works for one person may not for another.  My plan seemed logical and not too radical, though, so that was what I would do.

The conditions at the start could not have been better.  Probably upper 50s, overcast, even some light misting.  My stomach felt fine, as did the rest of my internal functions, and it was time to roll.  The beginning was pretty narrow, so I was happy to just hang out with the pack and get carried along.  The first half mile was well over a 10 minute pace, but I figured it would open up soon enough and I'd make that up.  It did, and I was very comfortably running around 9:30s for the first few miles.  Stomach, legs, knees, lungs...everything felt fine.  Saw my friend Julie at one of the crossovers ringing her cow bell and shouting words of encouragement, exactly where she was last year.  Her laugh is a hell of a motivator.

Around 5 miles I had my first GU chomps and chased it with a cup of water.  Still no problems at all, and splits were still far enough under 10 to keep me feeling comfortable.  As I turned onto the bike path that would wind its way through Longmont to the finish, there was Julie again.  She told me "no wall this time", and I would find myself repeating those words toward the end of the race when the wall was in sight.

At mile 8, I was still feeling pretty good and had been running near a small group for several miles.  One mentioned that she liked hearing the frequent stats from my RunKeeper (it WAS nice to have that, and I really think I would struggle to run without that information).  This is also where several friends had made a water station next to the Alpha Martial Arts studio.  Seeing and hearing them cheer me on definitely gave me a kick, and Ashley ran about a quarter mile with me as well to see how things were going.  I was still feeling pretty good, but my legs were getting more tired, as I expected.

I continued my eating plan.  I remembered how at mile 10, three weeks ago in a training run, I had to pull off to take care of some urgent business and never really recovered the rest of my run.  This time, though, there was no such problem, and I kept chugging along.  I also remembered that at mile 12 of that same recent training run, I had to stop running, as I just had nothing left.  And I remembered that last year at the 10ish mile mark, I hit the wall and completely fell apart on my pace.  Here I was back at those same points, and although my legs were feeling rubbery, I did not donk like I did last year.  One of the people I had been running with the entire race started talking to me a 10 miles.  It wasn't an annoying "how can you still be talking" chat, more like "only 3 to go, right?  we can do this, right?"  Her pace was perfect, and I think we both helped pull each other through the last 3 miles at a consistent pace.  About half a mile from the end, Ashley met up with me again, and shortly after that, Kathy was there as well after finishing under two hours.  Felt pretty awesome to have a posse pulling me in at the end of the race, that's for sure.

Finally, I hit the 13 mile mark, and the biggest test of my "no walk" goal was about to start.  There is a very nasty hill at the very end of this race, and it did me in last year.  This year, I set out to run this hill 100 times before the race, so that when I raced it, it would be no problem.  I managed to run it about 10 times, the last being a couple months ago.  Oops.  When I hit the hill, I slowed considerably and just tried to stretch out my stride, as Ashley (who was running right next to me) was recommending.  One stride at a time, and I would get up the hill.  Or so I thought.  Halfway up, I thought I'd had it again, but the thought of that pissed me off just enough to keep pushing.  Although I only ran this hill 10 times to train, those times helped, and I was able to get to the top without breaking stride.  I crossed the finished line in 2 hours 8 minutes 1 sec (a 9:50 pace).  Both of my goals had been accomplished.

As usual, the support from the Fox Creek crew was exceptional.  Erika ran her second half marathon and cut 10 minutes off of her best time.  Jenny ran her first and hung with Erika to push her along.  Leah, after suffering from an incredibly busy summer watching lots of spare kids and having very little time to actually run, still completed her second half marathon.  They were all there when I finished my face and cheered me over the hill to the finish line.

Ashley was the perfect support crew for us, and she resupplied everyone at the Alpha watering station.  Her running with me and encouragement at the 8 and 12.5 mile marks were extremely helpful in keeping my mental state good throughout the tough parts of the race.  And the crew at Alpha giving out water (John, Carey, Sid, Jacob, Lucas and Debbie) were cheering us on as well and helped take my mind off my rubbery legs, if only for a minute.

My time was exactly where I hoped it would be this year.  Sure, I'd love to get under two hours, but I know from my training runs and exertion levels that this goal was not going to happen this year.  But that was fine with me, and I'm not sure if the level of effort it would take to even get close to that time would be worth it to me.  I've said it before, I'm a sprinter and that is just how my muscles work.  While I love the camaraderie of the longer races like the half, I really hate running this distance, and for my age and gender, I'm truly not that great at it.  Would I like to do a marathon?  No, I really have no desire to ever do one.  Will I do this half again next year?  Oh, probably, but I'll fight myself when the time is getting closer.  I don't have anything more to prove, and the chances of conditions ever being as good as they were today will be slim.  But I suspect I'd go in again, especially if there is a group around for support. 

Thanks to everyone who supported me today, both by being there or through their encouraging words.  And special thanks to my wife, who is a truly amazing and understated athlete.  Watching her train and perform so consistently while she deals with everything life has thrown at her is truly inspiring and pushed me often while I was training, particularly on those days I didn't want to get out of bed and do my run.  I'm lucky to be in the company of such amazing people. 

How I Spent My Father's Day

(Insert obligatory "It has been awhile since I posted" post here).  Honestly, though, I haven't felt all that inspired to write more than a one or two sentence update on Facebook in quite awhile.  However, today is Father's day, and the inspiration has hit hard.  If you'd like to see why it is great to be the dad in my household, keep reading.

As I'm training for a half marathon in July, I needed to do a long run this morning, so a little after 6:00 am I was out on the course trying to do 13.1 miles.  I didn't quite make the full 13, but got in 12 before I walked in the last mile.  As I crossed the last bridge before arriving at Sandstone Ranch, there was my daughter waving her arms at me, encouraging me to keep going.  And trust me, I needed the encouragement.

Kathy was just up the hill with water waiting, which was also much needed.  Drove home, and hosed off the two pounds of sweat that my scale informed me I had lost since my last weigh-in just before I ran.  Got dressed, layed on the bed and crashed.  Meanwhile, Kathy comes in, grabs some laundry, starts it, then comes back upstairs to keep me company and rub my back.  (As a guy, I knew this was the universal sign that I would be obligated to put out, but I was too tired, so hopefully she'd understand).

It was almost 11, and the discussion turned to lunch.  I asked Becca if she would be interested in Pump House, which she said she was as long as she could share some wings with me.  (Did I mention that I love this girl?)  Had a good lunch, complete with wings and a buffalo burger to put back some of those 1600 calories I supposedly had burned off today, then went to the seafood store to get some walleye fillets for dinner, then to Menchies for a little frozen yogurt dessert.  Things certainly couldn't get much better, could they??

We got home and I layed down on the couch, which proceeded to swallow me and force me to take a nap.  Kathy was fantastic today at letting me be super lazy, even though she had actually run further than the 12 miles I ran this morning.  3:30 rolls around, it is off for a massage.  Life is still good.

When I got home, the walleye was marinating, the mushrooms were sauteing, the wild rice was boiling, and the cuke salad was chilling.  I grilled the fish and had probably one of the best dinners I've had all year.  Could it POSSIBLY get any better?

Why yes it could.  Our A/C decided to die on us this afternoon (that isn't the "better" part), so Becca has been putting damp towels and hats in the freezer and letting us wrap them around our heads to stay cool.   And lucky for me, Becca has been reviewing a "spa book" that she got awhile ago.  She found the page that said grapes can help smooth and repair damaged skin, so she offered to rub a half a grape on each of the bottoms of my feet, because, you know, they are a little cracked and damaged.  My grape foot rub was followed by a back lotioning, and then a back rub.

My family made my life remarkably nice today, even much much more so than I deserve.  I'm one of the lucky ones, that's for sure.

The Burpee Challenge

101 days ago, I was in my basement preparing to do a workout.  I was feeling pretty good that day, so I decided I would do 100 burpees just to see if I could do them.  I did them (at least an easier version of them), and thought it was certainly not easy, but a great, fairly quick workout.  (They were actually easier than the 1000 jumping jacks I did after them, but that's another story and another challenge).

Anyway, later that day I was on Facebook and saw a post from an elementary school friend (who also happens to be a fitness instructor) that was announcing a "burpee challenge", where you start with 1 burpee on day one, 2 burpees on day two, and so on up to 100 on day 100.  It sounded like something that could be, well not fun, but at least a good challenge, as I don't think I've ever completed a 100 day challenge of anything in my life.  But alas, I had a dilemma...I had just done 100 burpees.  I figured I had two choices.  I could just respond to the Facebook page and say "I just skipped all the way up to 100, so sorry all you suckers who have to work your way up, but I'm done", or I could just start the challenge from 100 and work it up to 200.  Now THAT would be stupid.

So of course, I was stupid.  I did 101 the next day.  Then 102.  Then 103.  For the first few days, I was not going flat...just extending my legs into a plank and back before I jumped.  After doing some research, I decided that a true "legal" burpee involved going flat, and while that really made things a lot more difficult, it seemed only right to try to be correct with my form.  I made sure I always jumped, though not always 6 inches I'm sure.

As I started the challenge, my goal was to generally get to 100 somewhat quickly, then top it off with the handful I had left.  I almost always broke them up into chunks of 20 or 30 or 40, just depending on how I felt, with a few mins rest between the chunks.  They weren't fun, but I was getting through them.

Eventually, the "handful" after 100 was turning into an entire new chunk, and it was becoming more difficult to complete the whole sets.  Not a dramatic increase in difficulty, but it was definitely getting progressively harder.  A few times I'd time myself for 100 and finish the rest later.  I think my fastest time through 100 was about 6:30, and that usually destroyed me to get to that point.  But I could definitely feel a difference from when I had started in my ability just to do them...they were slowly but steadily getting easier.

One of my kickboxing students, Lisa, also decided to do this challenge the "sane" way (if there really is such a thing).  What was really cool about this was that she despised burpees.  She often asked ahead of time if there were any burpees in today's workout, and you could just see her cringe anytime I told her "yes".  Her agreeing to a burpee challenge would be like a cat agreeing to swim across Lake Michigan.  But she is not one to back down from a challenge, and soon she was there every day doing them too.  (Fortunately, she kept count on her Facebook page, because there were many days I needed to use her info to figure out how many I had to do that day).

Today was our final day, when Lisa did her 100 and I did my 200.  We got things setup where we had a rope hanging 6 inches above our overhead reach (a "legal" burpee includes a 6 inch jump), started a stopwatch, and we were off.  I did 100 in 8:06.  In ten minutes, I had done 114.  Lisa finished hers in maybe 14 minutes (we didn't see the exact time), and then waited so we could do the last one at the same time.  And 100 days, 10 hours, and 18:27 mins/secs after we started, we were done with our challenge.  Total burpees -  15,150.

So what did I learn through this experience?  Many things.  First, there aren't many people who can find that balance between "dedicated to working out" and "obnoxious about working out".  Lisa is one of those people who takes her dedication to the perfect level, and it was nice having someone else doing this challenge that I knew would not accept it if I backed out.  Second, I no longer fear burpees.  They are still not fun, and I still get winded after doing a set of 25, but I know I can do a lot of them now.  Third, I'm a little scared to say that burpees may be the perfect exercise.  In one rep, you are hitting arms, chest, core, legs, cardio, and explosive power.  Doing these over the course of 100 days, doing at least 100 reps a day, made a HUGE difference for me in all of those areas (and I lost about 5 lbs to boot). 

And finally, I learned that sometimes, "not feeling like it" is complete crap.  There were many days I wanted nothing to do with any burpees, but I knew I would have to force myself to do them or I'd be up all night trying to squeeze them in at the last minute.  Little bits done here and there always added up, but I had to put in the effort to do the little bits.  Motivation was hard to come by during the middle of the challenge when I knew I had many more weeks to go, and the end always seemed far away.  But persistence paid off, and I can look back now and appreciate what was hard to see sometimes during the challenge.  Would I do it again?  Geez, I doubt it.  I'm so thankful that right now, 9:30 at night, I can look at the rug in my family room that has my sweat stains permanently sunk into it from the thousands of burpees I've done on it over the last 3 months, and I know I don't have to do any more.  But then, I've been known to change my mind before.  ;)

Alpha Martial Arts Trounament

Today, Alpha Martial Arts, where my kids and I are Tae Kwon Do students, hosted an in house tournament, and Aaron and Becca each participated.  Both did a traditional form, and Aaron also sparred. 

Here is Becca doing her traditional form, Dan Gun:
Becca's Form

And Aaron's form, Won Hyo:
Aaron's Form

And finally, Aaron's sparring round:
Aaron Sparring

Becca ended up taking 2nd place out of about 9 kids in the beginner youth division.  I had worked with her on a couple of tweaks yesterday, and she brought everything together really nicely I thought when it counted.  She is not quite as gung ho about TKD as she was during the honeymoon period when she first started, but she still enjoys it, and she continues to improve quickly.  We just got her some sparring gear, so very soon we'll see if that side of her does as well as the forms side.  Needless to say, I'm very proud of my daughter and am looking forward to seeing her as a black belt some day.

Aaron didn't place in the top 3 of either of his events.  In his division are a handful of very talented kids who are all on Alpha's demo team and are very dedicated to being being great martial artists, and they literally work on it daily.  Aaron certainly wants to improve, and he's done a great job in the time he's been in TKD, but he's still learning how to use that lanky body of his.  Just a year ago, just the thought of him doing the form he competed with today would have been crazy to me, but he did learn it, and he performed it in front of a crowd.  He's well ahead of where I would have figured he'd be at this point.  And as for sparring...he really enjoys it.  I was worried when he started that he wouldn't be able to take a hit very well, but so far he's not backed out of anything because he was hit hard.  He is pretty good at dodging those feet flying at his face, though, and that's certainly a good skill to have when sparring.  With more practice, he'll be able to do more than stand and wait for an attack, then counter it with a roundhouse kick.  I'm also looking forward to seeing where he ends up in a few years, not because I expect that he is going to be an incredibly sharp martial artist, but because he has already surprised me many times, and it is entirely possible that he will take out his old man with a roundhouse to the teeth one day while sparring.  That will be a fun torch to pass.

As always, I'm very proud of both of my kids and am glad they are participating in TKD with me for many reasons.  Today was a good day.

Aaron's Trumpet Solo

Today, I got to see Aaron play a solo on his trumpet at a local middle school.  I don't know the logistics of who was there, but there were several area middle schools represented.  Aaron played his piece in front of a "judge" who then gave him some helpful feedback on his playing, as well as a handful of other people waiting for their kids' turns.  The piece he played was "Serenade from Don Giovanni".  Here is a link to his performance:

Aaron's solo

Two things went through my mind today.  Actually, many more thoughts went through my mind today, but I will address two of them.  First, I couldn't help but picture the scene from "The Music Man" where the band gets together and does their concert for the parents, all of whom think their kids sound like the best ever to play their instruments.  I, of course thought Aaron rocked.

But the second thought that crossed my mind was...is this the same kid that, just a few short months ago, could only make sounds on that trumpet that were probably comparable to that of an African elephant that also was not yet very experienced at playing a trumpet?  Today, he was playing music, and he looked like he knew what he was doing!  He wasn't nervous at all...he just matter of factly got up there, did his thing, received his feedback, and then sat back down.  I'm excited that he's actually not too bad at playing the trumpet now.  I'll be curious to see if chooses to keep at it, and if so, I'll look forward to hearing what he will be able to play after he's had some time to practice.  Should be some good stuff because today, he rocked.

Picture of the Day - The Winter Sprinter

 (DISCLAIMER - I normally make the picture of the day one I took with my own ultra high quality phone camera, but since I didn't get any good shots of the meet with it today, I'm borrowing one from a friend. :) ).

Today was the day I competed in Longmont's Winter Sprinter swim meet.  I missed it last year but swam the previous two years and had a lot of fun, so I wasn't going to miss out this year.  I swam the 50 free, fly, back and breast, and 100 IM.  Two 2nds, a 3rd, and two 4ths.  Not bad for 40 and probably two total miles in the pool in the last two years.  The 50s felt good, even though my times were a little off from two years ago, and the 100 IM completely destroyed me (or maybe it was the 100 IM followed by a 50 back 3 heats later).  Endurance has never been my strong suit, and continues to not be lol.

But still, I competed, and it felt good to be back in my element.  I swam competitively for about 11 years, through high school and college, and it opened a lot of doors for me.  I wish I had kept track of the number of laps I have swum since my first day on the team...it would easily be a quarter million I bet, and honestly I'm not even exaggerating.  I was lucky to have parents who endured frequent weekend trips to Atlanta, 2 1/2 hours away, so I (and my brother) could bounce back and forth between two walls 25 or 50 meters apart a few times.  But in the end, swimming helped me meet some lifelong friends, helped get me through college, and helped get me my first job.  I really don't miss the training (I'm far to social an exerciser to really be able to enjoy keeping my head and mouth underwater while I work out), but I'll still do the Winter Sprinter every year just to remind me of the good ol' days.

At the meet today I had an AWESOME cheering section that consisted of Kathy and the kids, plus a crew from my kickboxing class.  There are really some truly amazing people in my life, and it is so cliche, but I really am lucky to have crossed paths with so many great souls.  Thank you to all who came, and thank you to everyone else who wished me luck and was there in spirit.

Now, the speedo is going back into hibernation for probably about a year...or maybe until triathlon season. ;)

Picture of the Day - The Speedo

Knocked the cobwebs off this thing today, so I can race in it tomorrow.  Not quite the same as the roller derby skates, or running shoes, or bikes, or guns, or anything else some of my friends post pictures of.  It's a speedo.  I practically lived in one of these from the age of 9-21 (and I even swam competitively too), only it was MUCH smaller back then.  Nowadays they just look like biker shorts.  I can even fit in it without using a shoehorn for my love handles.  Just so happens I do have one of my old time racing suits as well...still fits, just don't ask me to breathe in it.  I will be wearing the larger one when I race, luckily for all of us.

Picture of the Day - The Dog Ate My....

....bed.

There used to be a big purple beanbag on this spot pictured above that Bella loved to lay down on and take a nap.  Today while I was folding clothes upstairs and suddenly realizing "hmmm Bella is being awfully quiet", I looked downstairs to realize Bella had eaten a hole in the beanbag, and the stuffing was all over her face and on the floor.  Needless to say, Bella no longer has a beanbag bed.

Picture of the Day - Scrabble

My mom visited us from Georgia a couple weekends ago, and while she was here she introduced me to Words With Friends on Facebook (which is essentially scrabble).  It has a lot of potential to be a major time suck, but so far I haven't given up the rest of my life completely so I can play it.

I really didn't have much else to say about this other than...this was my 110 point word I played in a game today (sorry mom).  Anyone else want to play???

Help with Homework

While Aaron was doing his homework this afternoon, he had a little feline help.  Of course, Ninja's answer to every math question was "meow", but at least he tried to be helpful.

Oh, and we just found out today that Aaron made the honor roll at his school.  Apparently he got some of his mamma's brain genes.  We're proud of you, Aaron!

Picture of the Day - Girl Scout Cookies

It is girl scout cookie season again.  I suppose as a fitness instructor, this is good news for me, because I'd imagine the calorie intake of the cookie eating public increases substantially during this time, which means many people will feel guilty about consuming these extra calories, which means some people will decide they need to start working out (maybe working out again), which means a couple people will actually go through the trouble of trying to find somewhere to workout, which means a new person may come walking into my class, throw her hands up in the air and say "I can't stop eating these cookies!!!  Please...PLEASE help me atone for my sweet toothed sins by making me sweat for an hour until I can't feel my arms anymore!!"

I will, of course, be happy to help.  You see the picture above?  Both of those containers are empty.  I opened one of them about 10 minutes before I took this picture.  My blood alcohol level is 0.00.  To say I can sympathize with the person who wants to sweat away her tag-a-long flavored gluttony is like saying water is wet, as I myself cannot stop eating those things.  Combine that with my desire to support a good cause, and it means there is going to be a lot more working out in my immediate future.

By the way, did anyone notice that those heavy bags we use look just like sleeves of thin mints?  Ummm, me either..... 

Oh, Nicole.

This is Nicole.  By day, she owns and works at a local salon, but by night (and many mornings), she is in the studio making punching bags regret the day they were assembled.  Nicole has been kickboxing with me for a couple of years now, and today she passed her test for her high brown kickboxing belt (which is one step below the "black belt" for our program).  To see how far Nicole has come since she started is truly amazing.  She is doing things now that amaze everyone who knows her, including running races and climbing mountains.  And her dedication to kickboxing has been more than any of her instructors could ask for, and that dedication has been contagious.  Many students who don't usually come to evening class came tonight just because they knew Nicole was testing, and they wanted to see that and support her in that challenge.  Nicole didn't disappoint.

Congratulations to you, Nicole.  You are a big reason for the success this program has had, and we can't thank you enough for your help publicizing our business and getting the word out.  Proud isn't a strong enough word to describe how we feel about you.  Can't wait to see your black belt test. :)

Picture of the Day - Bloody Fast

Anyone who knows us knows that my wife is an avid runner.  She is training for her first marathon in May, and today she did a 12 mile run.  Apparently while running, the nail of the second toe on her right foot started rubbing against her middle toe and cut it open.  You can kind of see the blood on her right foot middle toe, and that one sock is going to need a good bleaching I'd imagine.  Still, she managed to run 12 miles in this condition.  Oh, and her average pace was 8:35.  Apparently a bloody toe was not enough of a handicap to keep her back at my pace.

I am in perpetual awe of her running ability.  Can't wait to see her marathon.

Picture of the Day - Lazy Cat

Sometimes in the afternoon, I feel like this too. 

Picture of the Day - The Greyhound

Today I took Bella to the dog park to play with a dog friend of hers.  While we were there, a couple brought their rescued greyhound "Bongo", who is pictured above.  Awesome colors.  Pretty shy dog at first, but got into it more with the other pups after a few minutes.  And when he ran...just, wow.

In college, I used to go to the dog track with some friends of mine every so often.  I can't remember the exact details, but once when we were there, one of the dogs that was racing was named "Clever Chole".  I initially misread the first name as "cleaver", and from that point on, I had earned (earned may be too strong of a word...perhaps stumbled into) the nickname "Cleaver Chole", or just "Cleaver" for short.  It's grown on me...I mean, how awesome is it to have your friends greet you by saying "Cleaver!", like they would say "Norm!" in Cheers, only much cooler?  We even got a door knocker that says "The Choles" from that same group of friends.  Our other favorite dog was simply named "Big Red Dog".  Another friend in that same group grabbed that nickname for some reason, but I can't remember why exactly.  That friend actually runs dogs in Alaska now, living his dream.  Good stuff.

The track we used to come to, Cloverleaf in Loveland, is long gone and looks completely dilapidated now, but back in the day, we had some good times and good memories there.  Might have to adopt a greyhound named "Cleaver" in the future to keep Bella company.  Hmmmmm......

Picture of the Day - The IT Guy

Kathy is working on a project for work that involves a putting together a slide show for an upcoming sales meeting.  My 11 year old son is probably the best qualified person in our house to help with that task, so he helped Kathy tonight.  It was awesome to see them working together on this project.  My son will probably take over the world with his computer some day, so make sure you're on his good side (or I can put in a good word for you).

Picture of the Day - C is for Cookie

Pictured above is quite possibly the best cookie ever made.  Anytime I'm in Estes Park, we HAVE to stop into Grandma's Mountain Cookies and get a dozen of various kinds...chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter, mixtures of everything.  They are huge.  And they are amazingly good and addicting.  As soon as I finish doing my daily burpee requirement, this bad boy will be gone.  (Yeah, right...like I can really wait that long)

Picture of the Day - Oh Christmas Tree

Today I had to run by Centennial Pool to sign up for a swim meet, and when I left, I saw this sad little ornament up in a barren tree.  First thing that crossed my mind...this looks like one of the trees in Whoville after the grinch stripped it of its ornaments.  Maybe this was just the tree that couldn't let go.  It's still kinda cool, though.

Picture of the Day - Golden

We spent the afternoon out and about today, and on the way home we drove through Golden.  Golden is where Kathy and I went to school, and it is always fun to come back through it and see all the changes since the early 90s (though it seems we only ever make it back maybe once a year, if that).  We saw our old apartments, old hangouts, old places to eat (anyone remember Moose Hill??)  They've done some amazing things on campus, and I really wish they would have done them 20 years ago so I could enjoy them.  But it is a nice town, and there is always some familiarity amongst all the newness that feels good to be around. 

Picture of the Day - Ice Castles

Today, we went to the ice festival in Estes Park.  This is a shot of the ice castle that was in one of the covered areas of the festival, complete with ice slides.  I have no idea who this girl is in the foreground, or who the kid is in the doorway, but that's ok, the castle still looked pretty cool.

This festival had a chili contest (free samples), and wine and beer tasting if you chose to shell out some bucks for it (we didn't).  Typical small town fair type of atmosphere.  Great day to hang out there with friends and family.  And the kicker was visiting the cookie store in downtown Estes and loading up on all sorts of the best cookies I've ever tasted (short of my wife's of course).

Picture of the Day - Fight Night

The martial arts studio I belong to hosts a fight night once a month with another school in the area.  Generally we all just get together and spar in continuous rounds for as long as we want to (or are able to) do it.  I haven't been in awhile, but a lot of people planned to be there tonight, so I participated as well.  The picture above is about half of the people out on the floor.  No one died.  It was a good night.

Picture of the Day - Heart Attack Burger

We eat at a local sports bar called Red Zone several times a month, and tonight we took my mom (who is in town for a long weekend) there for dinner.  For quite awhile, a menu item known as the "heart attack burger" has taunted me.  Two 1/2 lb patties.  4 slices of bacon.  6 slices of cheese.  I've never ordered it...until tonight.  This is a picture that still doesn't really do it justice, but you CAN see clearly that it is easily the size of my 8 year old daughter's head.  The server told me that a 13 year old girl finished one the other day, so from that point, it was on.  And yes, I ate the whole thing.  No 13 year old girl is going to upstage me in a heart attack burger eating contest. <burp>

Picture of the Day - Doggy Daycare

Once a week, we take Bella to a local kennel to spend the day playing with a bunch of other pups.  She really seems to enjoy going, and it always wipes her out the rest of the evening, which is nice.  I snapped this picture about 5 seconds too late, after a mad rush of dogs came streaming into the play room from the outside.  Still, the black dog on the right either looks really happy or like he is going to eat the other dogs.  And look at all of those waggy tails.  Good times.

Picture of the Day - Soup for Me!!!!

I have awesome friends.

Sometimes they bring turkey soup.

This will be gone soon.

Picture of the Day - The Moon

One of my friends announced on Facebook this evening "Stop what you're doing.  Go out and look at the moon.  Now".  Since I was between martial arts classes, I did stop what I was doing and went out to look.  It was at least very close to full, if not full, and looked really cool.  My phone camera apparently sucks at taking pictures of the moon, so what you see above is what the moon would probably look like if you were staring at it from beneath a pool covered with plastic wrap.  So take my word for it...it looked cool tonight.  When you bump up the quantity of pictures posted to "one a day", the quality will sometimes be very lacking.  Like today. :)

Picture of the Day - The Scenery

I was out and about this morning and happened to catch the new snow on the taller mountain peaks to the west.  This shot is only a couple of miles from my house and is Longs Peak over a large sheet of ice known as Union Resevoir.  Lots of birds in this area, and very often one can see a bald eagle or two flying around.  This is one of the many things I love about living in Colorado...the scenery never gets old.  My phone camera doesn't do it any justice, but it really is amazing.