Chik-fil-a-Part Deux and Other Items

Chik-fil-a Part Deux
Last night was family night at Chik-fil-a.  We decided to go with the girls after getting a facebook post from Connor's Mom saying that he asked if our girls were going to be there... after that we figured we should go (plus we like chatting with Connor's parents).  When I told the girls at daycare that we would meet Mr. Darcy at chik-fil-a, the first words out of Ladybug's mouth were "I'm going to be a good listener for you and eat my dinner and I'm not going to run away in the restaurant so we can stay and have ice cream."  At least the child learns.

And thankfully, the evening went well.  Both girls were good listeners and we had a fun time with Connor and his parents.  It turned out it was the Chik-fil-a cow's birthday, so there were balloon animals, face painting, a live musician, and the playground.  To say the least, the girls had a blast... and the place was a complete and utter zoo.  One that normally would work as extremely good birth control for anyone who did not already have children.  Yet it was a fun time.

The entire time though, I was thinking about my friend Doug.  There was a surprise party for this wonderful human being that we did not go to primarily because the girls and I have had runny noses for the past week. It may be allergies, but as Doug is having a bone marrow transplant this week (in fact he's in the hospital today) and will be completely immunocompromised, I didn't want to take chances in introducing a cold (or any other random germs that my kids have at the moment because they're germy little kids) into his system right before that.  He's started a blog about his journey through bone marrow transplant which you can access at: http://dougstransplantjourney.webs.com/apps/blog/ if you're interested.  Doug is honestly one of the nicest people I have ever met... he's kind and funny and has a way about him that you just can't help but have a good time when he is around.  He's an inspiration too.  After being diagnosed with CML and going into remission with the help of Gleevec, he not only has done a hike, a triathlon, and a century ride for TNT but also trained for a 1/2 marathon with them too.  All the while raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and acting as someone who spoke with newly diagnosed CML patients.  Not to mention being a wonderful husband and father and running a business.  So my thoughts are were with him last night and today... and I have a feeling he'll be lingering there for a good while.

Swimming, Without a Hitch
This morning we woke and the girls decided they wanted to get ready "all by myself." So once I actually got them out of bed, they did a great job and were ready to go!  That let me get to the pool relatively on time, which was great.  I had a 45 minute continuous swim, and the pool was a popular place this morning.  I had to take the farthest lane, which I hate doing because all those years ago that's where the slow people get sent for races - the outside lanes.  But I did pretty well this morning.

Monday I had a bit of a hitch in my stroke when I swam, I wasn't quite sure where it was from and I was doing my best not to have it, but it was staying with me.  Today, when I stretched my back out, it clicked just once and my back muscles seemed to loosen up a bit.  And when I swam today, the hitch was gone.

It was a nice relaxing swim that cleared my head.  I thought a little bit about St. Anthony goals, although not fully resting on anything 100% just yet.  The rest of the time, I just thought about counting the length I was on and that was it.  Counting all the way down the length of the pool and then going up to the next number is a nice little mantra for relaxation.  Of course, I only count sets of 8... so 1st 8, 2nd 8 and so on.  I decided to stop momentarily at 1600m to see my time and also figure out how much more I needed to do.  36:32 for 1600m.  I was pretty happy with that and finished out the 45 minutes with another 800m, half of which I did the backstroke for as a sort of cooldown.  It was a great swim!

Funny about Lunch
Today I also set out to have lunch with Mr. Darcy.  This is a somewhat rare occurrence, despite our efforts to do it once a week.  The last 2 weeks Mr. Darcy was able to bring lunch home for us, but this week he had meetings so we met at a restaurant.  Wouldn't you know that this time was the only time  I get an email from my boss asking me to do something... which led to several emails about who would lead the call if I couldn't lead the call.  All in the stretch of 15 minutes.  I guess they're used to my responding right away to everything.  But I'm supposed to get a lunch!  Anyway, it kind of made me laugh from the sheer irony.  I'm literally at my desk 99.9% of the day - the 0.1% is literally for potty breaks and a quick grab of food - on 99.9% of my work days.  One of the few times I actually leave my desk and go to lunch, email central!  But all is right again - I said I'd be happy to lead the call and that I was just at lunch.  No rest for the wicked (or is it weary) as the saying goes...

On Tap
This afternoon after work and before I pick up the little ladies, I plan to do the initial test for the 100 Push Up Challenge.  I figured I could at least be set to start the week after St. Anthony's and it would give me plenty of time to recover before race day.  (My guess is 12 for my initial test...15 at the most.  We'll have to see.)

On tap for tomorrow is a 20 mile bike ride at 16-18 mph, nice steady pace.  I plan to go to the closed road for this one, folks.  No gauntlet of death for me!

So until then, happy training and please send positive thoughts to my buddy Doug for his bone marrow transplant!!