The first of the year dawned cold and windy.  It was 17 degrees, but that didn’t stop my friend Larry and I from doing our annual 1^st day of the year run.  We had a pleasant two loops of Prospect Park to ourselves as it appeared that the cold, previous evening’s festivities or combination thereof kept almost everyone out of the park.  I don’t think we passed more than 5 other runners. 

After the run we went home to get ready for the annual Coney Island Polar Bear Dip into the Atlantic Ocean.  This was without a doubt the highlight of my day, specifically because my 8 year old son decided to come with me and take a dip into the ocean as well.  I can’t express how proud I am of my little man.  It was 17 degrees outside and the water temperature was in the low 40’s and the kid tore off his clothes and dragged me into the water.  He was excited, laughing and had eyes shining bright with excitement.

The place was a mob scene and it was difficult to make our way through the crowd into the water.  We ran in holding hands and with adrenaline flowing.  I looked at my son and asked if he was ready to dunk himself.  He shook his head yes and then on the count of 3 we dunked our heads below the surface of the water.  It was bone chilling cold, so we didn’t hang around and started to run back to our blankets.

The crowd was even thicker at this point and we had a tough time finding our blanket.  To make matters worse, I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so I could see hardly anything.  I felt bad as I could tell my son was really cold and wanted his towel.  We probably found it within a minute, but it certainly felt longer.  Both our hands and feet were really cold and it was a struggle to get him dressed.  I had hand and toe warmers and I put them in his gloves and shoes to help warm him up.

Fortunately, while at the beach I met up with @brujitalinda.  She was there with a friend who wasn’t doing the dup and was kind enough to take pictures of me and my son on the beach.    @brujitalinda looked stunning in her bikini and was adorned with her New Year’s resolutions written on her body.  Perhaps next year I will do the same.

 On the way home from the beach, my son rested in the back seat, laying down across it with his cold feet pressed against the bare flesh of my stomach.  They were nice and cold and he found it infinitely amusing as I complained about his cold feet pressing against me.  When we got home, we both took warm baths and then went back out to Larry’s house for post Dip festivities.  We drank his wife’s delicious Hot Toddies and equally delicious Chili.  All totaled it was a great start for the New Year.

So 2008 was not one of my best years.  It started out well training wise, but by March I was completely hobbled with stress fractures in both legs.  I missed most of my races (what a waste of money) and gained a lot of weight and lost almost all of my fitness.  I came as close to the edge of giving up training completely as one could get, but somehow pulled myself back from this precipice.  Major credit for me not giving up completely goes to my friend Larry.  He serves as an inspiration and trained with me all through the fall.  Without his influence and training companionship I wouldn’t have been able to prepare myself for the NYC Marathon and the JFK 50 Miler.  By the end of 2008 I ran over 1000 miles and set my focus on doing the Vermont 100 miler in 2009.

This year should be better.   To start the year off right, I am going to make some resolutions…

In no particular order my 2009 New Year’s Resolutions are:

1.       Do 100 Pushups and Sit Ups every day.

2.       Keep better track of my finances.

3.       Be a better father.

4.       Stretch regularly.

5.       Read with my children every day.

6.       Stay injury free

I’ve been training well in the month since the JFK 50 miler.  I’ve been feeling well and looking forward to getting in a workout.  I’ve only taken one day off since I restarted training after the 50M and I felt awful for doing so.  I probably needed the rest, but mentally I prefer to train instead of resting.  I guess those are two good signs; I’m eager to train, but taking a rest when I should.

Over the past few weeks I did two races with my son.  One was a 3M cross country race through Prospect Park last weekend and another was a 3.4 mile loop around Prospect Park today.  My son was eager to do both races.  In fact he was over eager as he went out too hard in both and got a bad cramp.  He fought through the cramp though and finished each race.  He was very proud of himself for doing so and so was I.  My son even said that he would start coming out with me to train now and then.  Hopefully I could get him to come out regularly and get him in shape.

After today’s race, I called up my usual running partner and we set out for what we called the Parkway to Expressway run.  It consisted of running down through Prospect Park, out onto Ocean Parkway, down Bay Parkway to the bay and then along Shore Parkway to where it exits near the Gowanus Expressway.  We then ran down 2^nd Avenue to head back towards home.  It was along this section that Larry might have even saved me as I tripped over something embedded in the road and almost took a really nasty spill into oncoming traffic.  At the last second before I feel, Larry caught my arm and kept me from going down.  The roadbed consisted of cobblestones which had old railroad tracks embedded in it.  If I went down it would have been very ugly.

We made it home without incident after that.  We ran a total of 14.3 miles in an elapsed time of 2:20.  A little slow, but that counted all the time we were stopped for traffic lights, etc. 

I checked my training log after today’s run and I saw that I need 52 more miles to break 1000 for this year.  Fortunately, I still have time to make that milestone.  It will suck to miss breaking 1000 miles by so short of a distance.

With the conclusion of this weekend I am on a streak of 13 straight days of training.  All of them have been pretty good.  Not one session did I want to back off or did I have to struggle to complete the workout.  If anything I wanted more.  Mentally, I am ready for more; I just hope my shins are up to the task.

Today I worked out twice.  The first session was an easy 3.4 mile cross country race that I did with my son.  This was the second year in a row that my son came out to do this race with me.  He was a trooper today.   It was very cold and windy outside, but that didn’t deter him.  He also kept on going after he developed a bad cramp in his side.  It looks as though it hurt so bad at times that he wanted to cry.  I asked him if he wanted to stop, but he refused to quit the race.  He was insistent on not being the last person to finish.  He must have felt very good when he finished, because he kept talking about doing another race that is coming up next weekend.  I am hoping he will still want to do it when the day arrives.

Later today I went out with my friend Chris for a loop around Prospect Park.  It was much colder and windier by the time we met in the park and it was also dark.  Chris hasn’t been working out much, so we kept a very slow pace.  That was fine with me, since I was just happy for the company.  We bullshitted through the loop and talked about how we were getting fucked by the state of the current economy.  I counted my blessings though as he has it a lot worse than I do.

Chris was only out to do one loop of the park, so after we completed a loop we said goodbye and I continued on.  I picked up the pace a bit and completed a second loop, several minutes faster than the first.  We these two loops and the race from earlier in the day, my total mileage for the day was around 10.5 miles and 33 miles for the week.  Not a lot of miles, but I am just building back up to a decent base and still taking it somewhat easy after the JFK 50.

In other news, I’ve been officially accepted into the Vermont 100 Miler for 2009.  I am going to try to be a bit more careful this year so that my shins don’t break down on me.  I want to make sure I get to the starting line this year.  My other concern for 2009 is getting into the NYC Marathon.  I don’t have guaranteed entry and this bothers me.  I have a streak going and I would hate to see it end.  I’ll have to figure something out.

Another year goes by and another race is completed.  Not all years are the same though.  Sometimes you are in better shape and sometimes the weather is very cold.  Both were the case with this year’s JFK 50 Miler.  My coach recommended that I skip this race due to lack of training, but I really didn’t care.  I am tired of missing races because of lack of training of injury.  I figured with enough will power I’d be able to get through it.

Besides my lack of training, the first sign that this year would be different was the weather.  We ran into several snow showers on the way out to the race and the temperatures were in the low 20’s.  I had no idea what I would wear for the race.  Being outside for 10 plus hours in 19 degree temps is a long time.  I had various layers, but I didn’t know what combination to wear.  I finally settled for wearing shorts, tights and 4 layers on top, complete with 3 pairs of gloves and a hat.  The clothes worked out for the most part and I only had to take off one layer due to getting too hot.  My only mistake was not packing my mittens.  That would have been the best.

The race starts off for 15.5 miles on the Appalachian Trail.  It’s over 3.5 hours of climbs and descents over very rocky terrain.  You can’t spend any time looking at the scenery because all of your concentration is focused on looking at the ground below you.  It really seemed like every rock wanted to reach up and grab your shoe to trip you up.  I fell once on the trail, but came out unscathed; I only lightly banged my knee.  While on the trail I was surprised to hear my cell phone ring.  It was my wife calling to find out where my son’s soccer game was.  I don’t know why she called me and not the coach.  In a way I was perhaps lucky for the call.  I felt like I was going a bit too hard on the trail and since I had to slow down to answer the phone, it reminded me that I should be not be so aggressive this early in the race.

When I got off the AT, my legs were feeling tired, but that was nothing new.  I felt that was the last time I did the JFK 50 and went on to have a great race after the AT.  The AT really hits all of the muscles in your legs, but is nothing like the C&O Canal Path that you run on after you get off the trail.  At the end of the AT and before the C&O, there is a major aid station.  I was so looking forward to getting a PB&J, but unfortunately they ran out.  I was so disappointed as I was really hungry and wanted something solid to eat.  Instead I ate a couple of Hammer Gels.

The C&O portion of the race consist of 26 miles of flat, dirt packed ground that is along a canal that used to have barges pulled by horse power.  It is very flat and can be very fast and could be very monotonous.  I enjoy the tow path though and think it is the easiest section of the course.  There are plenty of aid stations which are separated by only 2.4 – 4 miles.  Mentally, you always know you could just make it to the next aid station.  The only real problem I had during this portion was keeping my hands warm.  They were especially cold every time I took my gloves off at aid stations or had to fuss with something in my pack or my phone.  I received 3 phone calls while I was running.  I should have left the phone at home, especially when I saw one of the calls was from my boss at work.  I answered that call thinking that something was wrong in the office, only to find out it was my boss telling me that she was laid off.  Another call was from my wife, who called to ask for the location of my son’s soccer game.  I really should have turned the damn thing off.

I did very little walking during the race.  I was afraid that if I start walking that I wouldn’t start running again.  Also, when I slowed to a walk I would begin to get cold.  I didn’t want to get hypothermic as that is a sure way to get taken out of a race.  And lastly we had a 12 hour time limit and I didn’t want to be pulled off the course because I didn’t make a cutoff point.

During the race, I was mentally ok and felt it manageable as long as the times it was taking me to reach the next aid station was predictable.   If I thought that the next aid station would take me 48 minutes to reach and I met or beat that time then I knew I would be ok.  However, if I started to slow down without realizing it and it was taking me much longer than I thought it would I knew that I was going to be in trouble.  It didn’t matter how slow I went as long as I could predict a time and see that prediction come true when I reach the next aid station.  Fortunately, I was correct or better than my predictions so I had some measure of comfort throughout the later portions of the race.

When I got off the C&O Canal path, and onto the last 8 miles of asphalt roads, I noticed a scraping sound coming from the bottom of my sneaker like I had something stuck to it.  It turns out that I wore my sneakers down so bad during the race during the first 42 miles that the sole started to peel away from the heel.  I was able to scrape it off though and the sound went away.

By the time I got to the 6 miles remaining mark, it really started to get dark.  There were no lights on the road and I ran in total darkness for the last several miles.  Only the occasional passing car would light up the road.  I started to hope that I didn’t run into any potholes.  I made it though without incident and crossed the finish line in 10:44:26 which equates to a 12:51 pace.  I was almost an hour slower than the last time I did it, but I had a lot more training then.  I was extremely pleased and happy to have crossed the finish line.

The race ends at a high school and my friends that I did the race with were already inside waiting for me.  My friend Larry helped me sit down and get up a couple of times as I got something to eat and went to retrieve my bags.  We traded war stories with people we knew and just met and just relaxed for a while.  Afterwards, when everyone showered and gathered their belongings, we said goodbye to the other runners we knew and made our way back to our hotel.  We stopped to buy chocolate syrup (chocolate milk is a great recovery drink) and some roasted chickens.   At the hotel we had a bunch of beer which we began to drink and ripped into the chickens.  We were still hungry after that so we ordered out for anchovy, mushroom and black olive pizza and a couple of dozen chicken wings.  We ate, drank and talked the night away and eventually went to sleep sometime after midnight.

Pictures to come…

I haven’t written much lately, because in truth there hasn’t been much to write about.  I haven’t done much running, but today that has finally changed.  I did my 5^th (4^th consecutive) NYC Marathon and I am feeling great.  I did this race completely on experience and not on preparation.  I had maybe 100 miles of training for it between the months of August through October, with my longest run being an 11 miler only the weekend before.  I had no idea if I would be able to finish it.

Marathon day started out much like any other.  Once you have done the NYC Marathon a few times, each one just bleeds into the next.  You take the same bus to the same start and freeze your ass off for the same amount of time before the race finally begins.  As per usual over the last 4 years I traveled to the start with my friend Larry.  I really need to give him credit for helping me to get through the race as it was with him that I trained with over the last few weeks before the run and it was by listening to his sage advice that I was able to run a nice and easy and consistent race.

The Athlete village was crowded as always.  This year we managed to find space inside a tent to shield ourselves from the wind that was blowing that morning.  We laid down some blankets and made camp for the next 3 hours.  The hours before the start are always the toughest for me.  I get so cold waiting for the race to begin.  I occupied my time by snapping pictures, eating and tweeting.  Eventually time gave way and it was time to store our belongings in the baggage cars.  It was during this walk to the baggage cars that I noticed one significant change.  The urinal trough that spanned about 50 yards was gone to be replaced by a line of port-o-sans; it seems as though some traditions are bound to die out.

 Another change to this race was the wave start.  Instead of everyone going off at once, there would be separate waves of runners with 20 minutes in between them.  I was in the first wave with the faster runners.  When I signed up for the race, I thought I would run close to a 3 hour marathon.  I had no chance of that now, so I lined up towards the back of the pack of the first wave.  I didn’t want to be caught up in the mad dash across the Verrazano Bridge and start out running too hard.  I just took it easy and ran a comfortable pace.  I even stopped to take a picture of the fireboats spraying water in the harbor. 

I’ll just get into the highlights of the race at this point.

·         I remember stopping around the 6 mile mark where my family was waiting for me.  I kissed my kids and told them I loved them.  My brother-in-law asked me how I thought I would do and I replied I had no idea.  Part of me just wanted to walk home from there.  I was only about a half mile away from home.  I kept going though and concentrated on maintaining my pace and running an even race.

·         I had to stop to pee like a million times.  I was luckily able to find port-o-sans without problems.  My bladder was definitely hyperactive.  It seemed like every other mile I had to stop.

·         I remember feeling good as I got to the 13 mile mark, which is good since this is one of my least favorite points of the NYC Marathon course.  I also knew though that it wouldn’t be much longer until I headed to the 59^th Street Bridge and made it into Manhattan.  I knew if I could get to Manhattan still feeling good I would be able to finish the race.

·         My friend Larry who was in the second wave caught up to me on the 59^th Street Bridge.   I thought of increasing my pace to keep up with him, but knew that would be foolish. 

·         I dreaded reaching the 17 mile mark of the race, because I knew the road would turn from asphalt into concrete.  This is always so much harder on my legs.

·         I t felt great to get in and out of the Bronx.

·         I really knew I had the race once I started running down 5^th Avenue.  I also knew I was running a properly executed race as I was able to begin increasing my pace as I headed south into Central Park.

·         With about two miles to go I really had to pee again, but I couldn’t get to the port-a-sans.  I decided to just tough it out.

·         I had a nice finishing kick as I reentered Central Park at Columbus Circle and was extremely pleased with another NYC Marathon Finish.

It took forever to get my bags after crossing the finish line.  Then again it always does so this was no surprise.  I call it the post marathon death march.  Everyone is just walking around with all these mylar blankets and are all quiet.  Plus it is quiet in general as the crowds that lined the avenues aren’t present.  Every now and then you see someone off to the side of the road waiting for medical assistance.   I finally got my bags, and changed into warm clothes and headed for the Subway.  As I was exiting Central Park I ran into my friend Larry again.  He was just about to start running back to Brooklyn.  I wish I had a backpack with me so I could have joined him.  I had too much stuff to carry so it would have been impractical.

I took an ice bath when I got home and had a small snack.  Then I rode my bike to a post marathon party about 2 miles from my house.  It was fun to recount the war stories about the marathon and of races past and to plan for races in the future.  I drank too much (4 beers) and ate a lot and just chilled out for a few hours.  I didn’t stay that late since I still had to get home and deal with the trash and I wanted to tuck my kids into bed.

Later that night when I got into bed with my wife, I was still feeling energetic so I smiled at her and said “How about some Victory sex?”  I was feeling real good and satisfied with my accomplishment and was up for a little more endurance activity.  Unfortunately, she was too tired to oblige me so I just took an Ambien to force myself to sleep.  I was working the next day and needed to get my rest.

I need a kick in the ass.  I am having a lot of trouble getting myself back into training mode after my long layoff to recover from my stress fractures.  I’ve been running intermittently, but it is just not feeling good.  Most likely it’s because I’ve lost all of my cardiovascular fitness.  However, a major part of my lack of desire to train is just plain mental.  Something inside me is telling me to forget about it and just relax for a while.

I think I’ve finally reached the tipping point where after a long period of intense physical activity my mind and body just want to quit on me.  However another something in me doesn’t want to let that happen.  I am getting too old to keep going from in shape to out of shape and back again.  As happened in the past, I would let myself get out of shape, have several years go by and then something would happen, that would inspire me to get back in shape.  Usually this something was a comment that was said to me.  One time the kick in the ass came from the form of my girlfriend telling me that should couldn’t stand the feel of my stomach resting on her while I had sex with her.  I need a good kick in the ass like that right now.

This weekend I am feeling particularly depressed.  Ironman Lake Placid is tomorrow and several of my friends are up there to participate in it.  This will be the first time in 5 years that I won’t be going.  My friend Todd sent me a nice email, telling me that he is missing me and that I should send him good thoughts as he competes.  I will do so and wish him nothing but the best.  I replied that I expect him to break 11 hours and to qualify for Kona.

Instead of competing this weekend I decided that if I can’t be an athlete, I may as well help another one by volunteering.  Sunday is also the NYC Triathlon and I signed up to assist a challenged athlete compete.  This means I will most likely be helping someone who is missing an arm or a leg through all of their transitions.  It should be interesting even though this means I have to be on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at 5am in the morning come Sunday.

I think my reasons for volunteering are mostly selfish.  I don’t have any particular desire to volunteer and the whole thing will be highly inconvenient.  I figure that by doing this I will earn some good karma points and perhaps in the future it will come back to me.  If this is my motivation then are my reasons for volunteering pure?  Do I get these karma points since my motivation is that I hope it comes back to me in the future?  Do you only get good karma when you help someone else without any expectation in return?  I am not expecting anything from the athlete I am helping mind you, I am just talking about a return in general. 

My mother once told me how offered to get something from the store for someone even though she had no particular desire to do so.  She knew it was the right thing to do.  So maybe you just do things for others just because it is right, not because you want to.  Anyway, I am due to pay some back as many a volunteer has helped me compete and I remember how grateful I was for their assistance.  I am especially grateful to those volunteers in Lake Placid who rubbed suntan lotion all over my sweating and grimy skin while I was getting ready to go out and do the marathon.

So after all of this is said and done, I still need my kick in the ass.  I don’t know what form this will be in or where it will come from.  I just hope that it arrives soon.  I am unhappy with the way I’ve been feeling about myself, but I am helpless to do something about it.  Maybe helping tomorrow will be the kick in the ass I need.

Perhaps there is no such thing as Karma. I used to believe that everyone gets what they deserve eventually, but lately I just do not see that happening. I keep seeing bad people getting away with wicked stuff and there never seems to be any consequences. Something is wrong with the world and I don’t know what it is going to take to get it back on track. Perhaps having the Yankees win the World Series will put the normal order back in the universe. However that does not seem to be happening anytime soon. I am just going to have to take things into my own hands and right the things that are going wrong in my world.

I think g-d tests you from time to time to check your resolve and to force you to make it through various trials and tribulations. If so, I am going through some sort of big test right now. My job has been a pain in the ass and I am still not able to run. So I am making it official. I am not doing the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run this year. My right leg is still injured and I don’t have a chance of healing and getting back in shape in time for the race. So it looks like my racing schedule will be very light this year. Perhaps I’ll heal enough in time to do the NYC Marathon and the JFK 50 miler. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Fortunately things at home have been pretty good. With my inability to run, I’ve been taking it very easy training wise. I am spending most of my new found free time with my kids going to baseball games, to the beach and practicing a lot of baseball with my son and even sometimes with my daughter. I am missing his game this weekend because I am going TweetupLA this weekend. I am staying with my friend @gregbarnett and helping him to get ready for the party. However, my father went to my son’s game and he was able to give me the play by play over the phone. I understand that my son made a diving catch at first base on a line drive ball headed out to right field. Everyone erupted and cheered for him and even the coaches from the other team came over to congratulate him. I do wish I was able to see it. I am so proud of him and I feel very lucky to have him for a son.

It’s been several weeks since I last posted a blog entry and for that I am most remiss. I guess I have been preoccupied and feeling a bit sorry for myself due to the fact that my exercise routine has been completely thrown off. In fact I have no reason to feel this way as I’ve had a couple of good weeks, if I don’t let the crap that floats around my mind spoil it for me. This will be a quick attempt to catch up from where I last left off to my current day status.

I went on vacation to Costa Rica with my family. We spent 8 days away from home, but discounting the two days worth of travel to get to and from our destination we has a total of 6 days to enjoy the country. Costa Rica is a very pleasant country and the people are very nice. Things are inexpensive, unrushed and everyone has a mellow pace about them.

The first place we went to was the Arenal Observatory Hotel. This is a hotel that overlooks the Arenal volcano, one of Costa Rica’s two active volcanos. We were lucky enough on one night to see the volcano partially erupt and spew molten chunks of lava down the side of it. We also went on several tours of the rain forest in this area and saw a beautiful waterfall and wild life of all sorts. We also went to a place called Baldi Hot Springs resort, which had a bunch of pools that were naturally heated from hot springs below the surface. We spent two nights in Arenal and on the third day left for Monteverdi, but not before stopping by the hanging bridges in Arenal. These are a series of suspension bridges, the type that swing and sway as you make your way across. It was scary but exciting to cross these bridges.

As we were driving to Monteverdi, we discovered the meaning of a Costa Rican massage. The roads in Costa Rica are largely unpaved and driving across the country can be considered a bit arduous at best. It was very hard to make good time due to the slow speeds you had to maintain of the rocky and rut filled roads. I will say that the smartest thing I did during the trip was to get the GPS option with my rental car as the roads were very poorly marked and you really had no idea how far away you were from place to place without it.

When we got to Monteverdi we took a tour of the rainforest at night. We were hoping to see a Sloth, but that was not to be, but did see plenty of tarantulas, birds, bats, moths and even an armadillo. The next day we went to the cloud forest where we saw lots of various birds and finally did see a Sloth. Sloths are such interesting creatures.

We didn’t stay in Monteverdi for long and headed the next day to a resort hotel in Quepos. We stayed in a beautiful hotel that overlooked Manuel Antonio National Park. On our first day in Quepos, we took a tour of the park and saw several sloths as well as many monkeys. We even came upon a deer that was friendlier than any pet dog you are likely to meet. After the tour through the park, we hung out on the beach and just played in the sand and surf until the sun started to set, whereupon we went back to our hotel to have a few drinks on the veranda bar and await for the daily arrival of the monkeys that are known to visit. By this time our children were very tired and they both fell asleep by around 6:30pm at night, so my wife and I just stayed in and brought in dinner from the hotel restaurant. This was just as well, since we got up early once again to go back to Manuel Antonio Park to take a day of relaxing on the beach. We relaxed on the sand and watched as dozens of monkeys and lizards scurried about amusing all of the tourists.

On our last full day in Quepos, we went on a Canopy Tour. This is where you ride along zip lines through the trees, swing on a Tarzan Swing a Rappel down from the top of tall trees. We all had a blast doing this and since it was just the four of us, plus just one other New Yorker, got through the canopy tour in about an hour. We were back at our hotel around noon, found a place to have lunch and then discovered a small, but beautiful beach outside of Quepos that only the locals visit. We spent out last several hours there playing in the sand and riding the waves until the sun set.

This is a very abbreviated version of our trip to Costa Rica, but I must say we had a good time. I would definitely recommend that you visit it at some point in your life, especially before it becomes all built up, thereby losing some of its rustic charm.

This weekend I spent being a dad, rather than being an athlete. It was in the back of my head the entire weekend that I needed to do some workouts, but I really didn’t have the time to fit them in. The fact that I wasn’t going to be able to get in acceptable workouts only bothered me in the most primal level. I knew deep down I really needed to exercise, but my duties as a father really came first.

Truth though, in the past I would have woken up very early in the morning to fit my workouts in when I had family obligations during the day. As my kids have gotten older, this has become harder to do. Perhaps my own aging has something to do with that fact as well. Maybe I am just burnt out. Maybe I just really want to run and don’t feel like biking or swimming anymore.

On Saturday, my son had a baseball game at 11am. My wife had a field trip from school, so I was home alone with the kids in the morning and on pancake patrol. I suppose I could have woken up around 6am and rode in my basement for a couple of hours, but after the long week, all I felt like doing was sleeping a little late. A perfectly normal feeling I know, but not the feeling of an athlete. No matter though, what’s done is done and I made the most of it.

After the pancakes, I got my kids dressed to go to my son’s baseball game. I am happy to report that my son led off for the season and got the team’s first hit (a double) and scored the first run. My son went on to go 3 for 3, with 3 runs scored and made a nice play at second base during the middle innings and his team won the first game of the year. I was very proud of him and we were both very happy. Even his sister was smiling for him.

He wanted to hang around after the game to practice some more, but I had to take my kids to their to his cousin’s birthday party across town. We made it there a few minutes late, but I didn’t want to take my son out of his game early. The party was at an ice cream shop and I am afraid to say I partook in some of the ice cream eating even though I hadn’t yet gotten in a workout and it didn’t look like I was going to this day. After the party we went back to their cousins’ house and I was able to leave them there, while I went to the Time Warner Cable Service Center to switch out my cable modem for a faster device and my cable box for the DVR kind. I made it back from the Cable place just a few minutes after my in-laws brought my children home and then it was out to dinner with my parents.

When we finally got home, I connected the new cable equipment. I am happy to report that my Internet connection is faster than ever, but the Cable Box was a big disappointment. It is not working properly and I need a service technician to come by this week to repair/replace it. By now I was too tired for a workout, but unable to fall asleep, so I vegged out in front of the TV trying to get the cable box to work and being completely unsuccessful.

I finally fell asleep around 3am, but had to wake up early on Sunday to take my daughter to her soccer game. I thought I would be able to sit down, relax and watch the game, but her coach tagged me to be the line judge. I couldn’t really say no, so I spent the game running up and down the side line trying to keep my eye on the ball and the last player it touched before it went out of bounds. It was a big struggle to remember to point the flag in the opposite direction of the team that kicked the ball out of bounds. At least I really concentrated on the game, which turned out to be a very good contest, with my daughter’s team winning 3-0. While being the line judge I did have to run up and down the sideline, which technically is the first running I’ve done in a month. Fortunately, my legs felt ok. I am hoping this is a good sign or running to come when I begin again in May.

After the game and a quick trip to the playground it was back to home for lunch. I also arranged to take my son out to the ball fields for some practice with one of his friends. We spent an hour or so hitting and fielding, but for a change my son wasn’t so into playing. Turns out when we got home he started to feel very sick and started to run a fever. I took a nap while he rested and then finally roused myself to get up and spend an hour on my bike in the basement. My heart wasn’t into it, but I knew I had to do something. I just couldn’t bare to sit in the saddle spinning away indoors. I think it is time I took my bike outside.