Sweeping for Ice Cream

For one month of the year Nancy is unable to make any "old man" jokes. Since today is her birthday, she is the same age as me until I tick over to the next digit in July. For her birthday, I got her the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel and Jillian Michaels' new Yoga Meltdown DVD. I forewent running this morning and instead tackled some of my outstanding "honey-do" list. I mowed and edged the grass, trimmed the bushes, cleaned the oven and overhauled the vents on the dryer.

So I'm well ahead on points for the day.

While I mowed, I got Gavin to sweep the grass cuttings off the path. An old lady wandered past and was very impressed with his work, especially when the cheeky devil claimed he'd also done all the mowing, and that he was sweeping "to earn ice cream".

I stayed up late last night playing chess with one of Nancy's cousins. It's been a long time since I played chess. I used to play my dad - he was a very sneaky player, and even now we're pretty evenly matched. I taught Nancy a few years ago, but she got mad when I kept beating her so refused to play me any more.

Gavin has that same sneaky streak, so he may be a good opponent in a few years time.

But only if he can learn some patience.

First Steps

Gavin and Dylan - the energizer bunnies

Dylan has been walking with the aid of a push toy for quite a while, but this weekend he took his first independent steps. Granted it was only two steps, and he plopped straight back down onto his butt afterwards but it's a start. And he was so proud of himself. We celebrated by sharing a big bowl of angel food cake with strawberries, whipped cream and dulce de leche ice cream. It was wonderful.

It's been a busy weekend. We have a house full of visitors, but they're not early risers so I still managed to get some good runs in. Yesterday morning I met some friends downtown for the Scenic Drive hillfest. It was a good run, but summer is definitely coming. I probably pushed a little too much on the early hills and definitely felt it in the latter half, but I need those kind of runs as I look to start upping my mileage again. I have a 50k coming up in less than two months in the heat of the Texas summertime, and I need to get some good miles and rhythm going.

This morning I ran by myself on the hills of Jester, Beauford and Courtyard. I didn't push it too hard, and enjoyed the beautiful blood-red sunrise and the wonderful views of the city below.

I was planning on running downtown again tomorrow morning, but I'd forgotten about the Cap Tex triathlon, so I think I'm going to head up to Brushy Creek instead. I haven't run there for a while, and there are some good hills to explore in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Tomorrow night I'm taking Gavin to see the WWE wrestling. He's all excited about it, and it's going to be a late night. I'm looking forward to having our "boys night out".

Barber Shop

I hate getting my hair cut, but when reports of shaggy yeti sightings in Central Texas go through the roof I know it's time to "become presentable" again. I am cursed with curly hair which renders a comb useless at the best of times, and after it grows past a certain length it just kind of explodes in a spectacular display of mop that would make short work of the dirtiest kitchen floor. A token rub with the towel is about the best I can do to subdue it.

So that's why I found myself sitting in the barber's shop this evening waiting for my spring shave, when it suddenly occurred to me what a strange place the hairdressers is. Half way down the room there was a lady who seemed to be having a roll of aluminum foil glued onto her head in an operation of near-surgical precision. And when it was the turn of the guy in front of me, I swear he asked them to "just touch up the mullet and mustache"!!!

The magazine selection was pretty abysmal unless I wanted to "transform my living space in 5 simple steps" (no) or find out what the Twilight stars eat for breakfast (not really), so I found myself thinking about my trips to the barber shop when I was a kid back in Wales.

Back then, we always got dragged to the same barber. He had a shop in the high street with the old fashioned striped pole outside. He lived on the same street as us, and I hung out with his son, so my mum "couldn't look him in the eye if you had your hair cut anywhere else".

Unfortunately, he wasn't much of an advertisement for his trade, with a barnet* like chewed spaghetti (which is kind of like going to a dentist who has two front teeth missing). But he was an old-fashioned barber in the grand Welsh tradition - just as skilled with banter as he was with his scissors.

The place was a "men only" establishment, with a sizable contingent of the flat cap (older) crowd, and I remember he was always in heated arguments with the customers, insults flying like mosquitoes (there were three main topics of debate - rugby, politics, and rugby politics). The waiting room was always packed, and many folks showed up between haircuts just to stand around and have a good argument.

I don't think it mattered what kind of haircut you told him you wanted, since you always seemed to end up with the same one. Most of the time he forgot to ask anyway. And even if he did, chances were he'd already run the razor over you, thus limiting your options.

Today I got my hair cut quickly and efficiently. The wait wasn't long, I ended up with exactly what I asked for, and I flirted shamelessly with the girl who cut it (and who always remembers me as "the boy with the cute accent").

I do miss the character and old Welsh-style banter though.


* Cockney rhyming slang - Barnet Fair = hair

Bruce Bogtrotter

Bruce Bogtrotter is a classic underdog hero. For those of you who don't know, he's the kid who stole a slice of cake belonging to the mighty Trunchbull in Roald Dahl's Matilda. As punishment, Trunchbull forces him to eat an entire enormous chocolate cake in front of the whole school, which he does, thus elevating him to hero status amongst the other kids (as well as making her so mad she smashes the platter over his head).

I read that chapter to Gavin tonight and we laughed our heads off - definitely a kid's classic. I hammed it up at all the right bits, and he was right there in the story with me. Nancy said she could hear us hooting from the other end of the house.

Good times.

Of course, the consequences of eating an entire chocolate cake should by rights be something entirely different, and coincidentally that's exactly how I finished my weekend. It is every dad's right of passage to receive the baptism of puke from his offspring, and both my boys have honored me with this ritual, from slight eruptions to Exorcist-like gushing (Dylan memorably performed the latter in the middle of a busy restaurant once - you can bet all his future girlfriends will be hearing that story). Tonight it was Dylan's turn, and it never ceases to amaze me that after he's successfully identified and hit the target (usually me), he always grins.

But I think I got off easy. As the "tainted" parent, I got to take a shower with him while Nancy got stuck with cleanup. Hahaha.

And I got to rock him to sleep.

There was no running for me today as I've been in work since early this morning, so I got my weekend run in yesterday. I met Steve and Wesley down at Town Lake for some Scenic, and added on a circuit of Stratford by myself at the end. You can tell summer is coming because the mornings have suddenly become heavy and humid. But I felt strong, ran easily within myself, and enjoyed the satisfaction of finishing the run looking like I'd just stepped out of a swimming pool. That's a good sign.

Some more Bull Creek is on the cards for tomorrow evening, and I'm going to try and get 10 miles early Tuesday morning with some pace intervals thrown in for good measure.

Have a great week everyone.

Great Run

Your heart is hammering out of your chest and you sync your rhythm to the beat of blood in your brain. Sweat soaks through your shirt as you pour water over your head to cool the flames and keep hammering the trail. Surely these uphills can't last much longer, and then suddenly you've crested the top ridge and open it up on the downside. Above you, lightning illuminates the sky and thunder rolls across the heavens as you play speed chess in your head, picking out foot placings several moves in advance and enjoying the breeze rushing through your hair.

And as exhaustion takes over, that's when you feel the most alive. How can you not love that feeling.

Great run at Bull Creek tonight and it's been a long time since I've run Ken's loop that fast. Thanks Dan.

Weekend

My weekend started with a flash of lightning that greeted my 5am alarm clock on Saturday morning. My still half-asleep brain registered the claps of thunder and the sound of the rain and concluded that the run we'd planned would be a non-starter. When I opened my eyes again, time had marched on and the storms had passed. Whoops. Heaping helpings of humble pie and apologies to the friends I was supposed to meet - hope you had a great run and didn't wait too long for me. I'm not usually that unreliable!!!

In an attempt to atone for my laziness I decided to do some weights instead, and I did 2 hours of circuits - an hour with weights and then an hour of plyometrics. By the end I was soaked with sweat and had learned my lesson - next time I won't be so lazy and will actually go run!!!

This morning I vowed not to repeat my mistake and jumped out of bed with the alarm for 10 miles of hills around Ladera Norte. I met a couple of friends and enjoyed a beautiful morning of good running and great company.

A large part of the rest of the weekend was taken up with my continuing adventures in baking. My uber-expensive baking stone arrived on Thursday, and I was keen to try it out so I made these wonderful Italian sourdough subs from the excellent wildyeast blog. I filled them with homemade baked meatballs (made with extra lean sirloin) topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. They were a big hit, and even Dylan joined in - he devoured a whole meatball by himself.

Today I'm experimenting with hamburger buns (which will be used to house some garlic pork tenderloin), and calzones (made with one of my pizza dough recipes - just another excuse to toss pizza dough really).

On Friday night I broke my spaghetti cutter in the middle of hand-cranking some pasta for supper (luckily I also have a fettuccine cutter so supper was a mix of the two). I took the thing apart and I don't think it's fixable, so I ended up ordering a new cutter online.

I love my fresh pasta (dried is nowhere near as good), and hope it doesn't take too long to arrive.

Update

While we're renting this body, the least we can do is maintain it

I've been doing really well since I shifted back into training mode this month. I'm not putting in anywhere near the number of miles I did last year, but I feel I'm working out smarter. I've been doing yoga, plyometrics and weights, and I've been working out with Nancy after the boys go to bed. That's been a big boost for me because I really enjoy working out with her - we have a lot of fun and are both competitive with each other (plus I have a tendency to want to show off for her) which means I push myself harder than I otherwise would.

That also means I haven't had much time to update the blog, but I must be doing something right because I'm down to 148lbs, and still eating like a pig.

Last Saturday I met some friends I haven't seen in a while for a hilly run around Stratford and Scenic. I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to keep up since I hadn't been running too much distance, but I felt great and really enjoyed the run (and yes, if the girls hadn't pointed it out I really wouldn't have noticed that the cyclist who passed us on Scenic was a certain Lance Armstrong).

Monday night I had a super run up at Bull Creek with some other friends, and ran faster than I have for a while (even faster after I'd vaulted a couple of snakes). I set a steady pace running up the switchbacks, and then opened it up along the top ridge before finishing off with a fast loop around the flats.

Tonight I went up to Walnut Creek and did a combination of speed and hill intervals on a series of short enclosed loops. It was a great workout, but to my surprise I noticed they'd put up a bunch of "no entry/no trespass" signs all around one of the main trail intersections. WTF? Is Walnut Creek about to go the same way as the old Ken's Loop?

I hope not.

The Beast Below

A horse and a Man, above, below.
One has a plan but both must go.
Mile after Mile, above, beneath
One has a smile and one has teeth.

Though the man above might say hello
Expect no love from the Beast Below

This great little poem is from an episode of the new series of Doctor Who - probably the best show on tv. While I'm still getting used to Matt Smith as the new Doctor (I'm afraid David Tennant was a pretty hard act to follow), this episode was a good one.

And the poem really speaks to me as a runner - it speaks of the grit and determination that lurks beneath the surface. When you run long distances you have to have some steel inside. Call it your "inner wolf" or your "beast below", it's what carries you through the low points and keeps you moving when you're tired and miles from home. At some point in a marathon or an ultra you will need to dig deep, and when that happens you need something to fall back on.

Over the past few years I have collected a formidable bag of mental tricks, and I think I'll add this poem to it.

It's been a good week for working out, even though I'm still not getting many miles in. On Sunday I did yoga and circuits which left me sore for days. But I hit the hills of Bull Creek hard on Monday afternoon (with temperatures in the 90s). Wednesday I did another round of weights and this evening I did hill repeats on the Endo Valley loop in Walnut Creek with temps once again in the 90s.

I think summer's on the way.

I very nearly got up early on Tuesday morning to go run, but "the beast below" must have been asleep because bed won out (helped by the "I'm really sore" excuse). I know that I only have to make the breakthrough once to get back in the groove, so it's got to happen sooner or later.

Who knows, maybe it'll happen tomorrow.

Lazy Bones

Ryan from "Distorted Veracity" recently blogged about his struggles with a lack of focus and motivation, and I know exactly where he's coming from. While I enjoy running, and get a lot of satisfaction out of it, from time to time I feel the need to back off and regain my enthusiasm and motivation, and this is one of those times. For the last two weekends, I haven't run a step - instead I've enjoyed lying in and playing with Gavin and Dylan. It's been a nice change.

But it's time to close the book on my lazy season. May is the month when I was planning on kicking my training back up with the goal of running the 100 at Cactus Rose again. Due to some scheduling conflicts that may not happen now (and if I don't run Cactus I probably won't run Bandera or Rocky either), but I do want to run the Frankenthon marathon in October, and need to start putting some miles in for my next race - the El Scorcho 50k in July.

To that end, I got the ball rolling again this afternoon with an hour of circuits. Tonight I'm going to do some yoga or cycling. I find that the more weights, tabata and circuits I do, the easier running becomes. I don't do heavy weights, mostly concentrate on high reps for aerobic and muscular endurance. It makes a big difference.

In other news, Nancy had a healthy eating expo at work this week and asked me to rustle up something for her to take. I love quinoa and avocado so I used Ashlee's yummy Lemon Cumin Quinoa with Avocado, Raisins and Apricots recipe. Well the dish won first place (apparently by quite a margin), and Nancy got a free massage out of it.

Yes, she won a massage for my cooking - something doesn't seem right about that!!!