Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Interesting sights on today’s run included a few clusters of cherry trees that were in full bloom, a flock of wild turkeys, and some new signage on the trail. The cherry blossoms were notable because most of our cherry blossoms were destroyed after some freak up-and-down temperature variations last month started them blooming too early, then froze them out. So seeing isolated clusters of “late bloomers” was kind of fun. The turkeys were just amazing. They were across the road from me in Anacostia park, just wandering along. Spotted them on the way out, but they were gone by the time I turned around and got back. Right after them I saw some new signage on the trail, this time memorializing the Bonus Army at one of the way stations on the trail (a compass rose with a round bench and a bike rack). I’d seen new way finding signs on the trail for a while, but this was the longest run I’ve done this year, so the first time I’ve been that far on the trail. Now I can’t wait to build up and see what other signs they may have put up further down the trail.

Been mostly following my training plan for the marathon this fall, but I suspect I’m going to need to change some of the weekday workouts. I’m supposed to be doing around 8 miles on Wednesdays and Fridays, and I think it’s just a touch too much most weekday mornings. So I think I’m going to pop them down to 6 miles, with an option to do more if I feel I have the time for it.

One of the things I enjoy about the plan is that it mixes in cycling two days a week, and occasionally substitutes a long bike ride for a long run. Today was the first of those. Most of my bike riding during the week has been at Hains Point these past couple months (i.e., flat, flat, flat), but this morning’s plan called for 50 miles, and Hains Point, while nice, is not where you want to go 50 miles (picture endless loops of either 3.2 miles with less traffic, or 5.5ish but with a lot of traffic as the day gets later). So I headed out on the Custis trail to the Washington & Old Dominion trail, which is pretty much the complete opposite of flat. I think my quads and glutes are going to be paying for that choice tomorrow. On the upside, it was a lovely day, and a nice ride to Herndon and back.

I wish my long runs had been going as well, though. I seem to have a 10 mile problem – up to 10 miles are fine, but over that has had a block of some sort. I can’t figure out if it’s nutrition, heat acclimation, hydration, or what. It’s not been helped by my new acid reflux, which doesn’t seem to like bubbles (which are found in my favorite non-caloried sports drink tabs) or too much in the way of sweet calories (found in pretty much every other portable nutrition product). Trying to dial in the balance has been a chore. I’ll get there (I’d better!), but it’s a tad obnoxious.

Switching between the medications for reflux ain’t all that fun. My body seems to want about a two week adjustment period before it evens out. Given that I’m in the third adjustment period (prescription samples, over-the-counter, now back to the prescription), it seems to be a regular thing. The first week has some unintended side effects (consistent across the three), and then it all kicks in at two weeks. Given that I’m in the middle of week one, life in ye olde gut is interesting.

At work, before we went on vacation I cleaned a large part of my office. My desk is clear for the first time in years (no piles of files/paper/books), and a good chunk of the bookshelf got cleared out and organized. The credenza behind me has the books I use most, and no more excess paper. It’s been illuminating, both in terms of my own work processes, and in terms of the reactions from my office. Everyone has commented on it. I’m loving having space to spread a project out to work on it, then put it all away when it’s done or I have to switch gears. Only drawback to date is there’s no place to hide something easily if someone comes in and they don’t need to see what I was working on (no files to flip over the paper, etc.). But I’ll take the calmer work environment.

That combined with the lack of caffeine (and hence the lack of energy spikes and lows) has, I think, meant a more even-keeled Moose at work. Gut issues aside. I had forgotten about how early I need to get to bed when not depending on a steady caffeine source during the day. Probably better on the whole, but it’s another adjustment.

Training is interesting. I’m trying more things like hill work, tempo runs, etc. this time around. Still too early to tell the effect, but I am looking forward to workouts more when they have more of a purpose, and more of a structure. Still need to lay out strength training in a more organized fashion, but I know where I’m going with that.

We’re headed off to see the boy’s family in another week, and in anticipation of the drive up, and to take care of the check engine light that popped on just before vacation, I dropped the Mini off at the shop to get it all adjusted. A couple thousand later it drove more smoothly on the way home after I picked it up this afternoon. Not exactly what I wanted to drop that amount of money on, but it’s worth keeping the car going. After driving the newer model loner car, I have to say I’m happy with my 12 year old car, so I’m glad I can keep it running well.

Life can be such an interesting experiment. After putting off seeing a specialist for ages, I finally got tired of a consistent belching that I had going on. Turns out the reflux that my mother and her father have/had was passed to me. Yay! Long story short the excess acid production was/is causing me to swallow too much air, so that’s what was/is causing the belching.

Had samples of a prescription drug, got it under control, then the samples ran out. Tried the over the counter (OTC) version, which didn’t give the same results (the samples I had were a newer form of the drug, and 4x as high a dose as the OTC stuff). So, saw the doc for a follow up today, got a prescription for the fancier stuff, and now we start the food experimentation portion of the treatment. I already know that coffee sets it off, so I gave that up a couple of weeks ago (the boy’s expression wasn’t quite one of horror when I told him I’d been off coffee for two days when I first started, but it was close – I had trained him well that coffee was the first thing I needed in the morning). Tea eased the withdrawal, but I’m mostly off that now, too. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been caffeine free – did that once before from ’00-’01, but then we had that little airplane event in the fall and I went back to regular coffee drinking.

I already know that pizza is out, as is falafel, sodas, and beer. Spicy foods seem to be a no-no as well. But the experiment will continue as I figure out what does and doesn’t work. It’s a fun process, actually, and I get to eat a lot of different things as I figure this out.

In other catching up, the anniversary trip to the shore with the boy went well. Didn’t get burned at the shore, had a good time relaxing and reading, and just catching up with each other outside the norm. We walked all over the place, which upped the numbers for both of us on the step count on our vivofits. I think it’s been fun to have those together and to have something of a competition going with them. He wins outright on pure walking, but I tend to go over when you factor in my running. And we both beat his sister regularly (got her one for xmas), which is what really counts.

I’m training now for the marine corps marathon this fall. I got in last year, developed runner’s knee, and postponed the race to this year. While not quite where I’d have liked to be in terms of a base, the training is going well. Related to that, I’m going to take a break from the tri club. There’s been a bit of drama with regard to the newbie program I’ve help run for the last decade, and I’m just not willing to put up with it at this point. I’ve never been one that enjoyed training with a large group (I like the meditative aspects of training), and I’m not really drinking at all (see the reflux discussion above) so I don’t get out and see club folks very often, and I think the club has just moved on, as have I. I’ll maintain my membership, but I don’t see myself doing a lot with them in the immediate future.

I didn’t quite make it an entire month, but that’s okay. I’ve done two short (2.4 mile) runs this week, both slow, both careful, and both without pain. The weight routine, though not as much as I was intending to do, has definitely helped, as has the time off from running. No pain after the runs, either, so I seem to have licked this case of runner’s knee. Thank heavens.

So, with this coming back, I’ll be looking at what kinds of training I want to be doing to better build up my fitness base for racing next year. Never did try cycling on the trainer, though I will try it out on the road next week. I finally got my commuting bike fit done, in time to realize that when the bike shop added the rear rack they did in a way that prevents me from easily getting the bolts off the rear wheel. Did get them off, but I think I’m going to have to go ahead and put quick-release skewers on there instead of the screw on bolts. As much as I enjoyed knowing you couldn’t remove my tires without a wrench, it’s not worth the effort now. And it’s not like I don’t lock up the wheels when I lock up the bike if I leave it somewhere. So, another trip to a bike shop this weekend to pick up quick release skewers so I can ride to work again.

While I enjoyed seeing our guests over the weekend, I was also very glad to send them on their way back home this morning. Living with two other people in your apartment, which already feels cramped as it is, even when those two people are related to you, is draining as all fuck. Didn’t help when the 3.5 y/o would get cranky because her uncles wouldn’t put up with as much of her shit as her mother would.

Did get a little bit of sun out in a paddle boat in the Tidal Basin. That was fun, and it showed that the case of runner’s knee I developed back in March/April is finally well on the way to being healed (the boy and I were the paddlers). I’ve been taking it very easy the past few weeks, canceling this race season and letting the knee heal properly. Didn’t want to repeat 2008’s year of the plantar fasciitis goof but continuing to re-injure the knee again and again. While it’s definitely better, I’m still going to take this entire month off from swimming and running. I haven’t tried cycling yet, but I will do so soon on a trainer in the living room, to see how that does. In the meantime I’m doing weights and core strengthening to give myself a good base to come back to when I do start back up with tri training. It’s been annoying as all hell, and my hips are incredibly sore from the strengthening, but the knee’s healing, and that’s the important part.

Got the new tires on the car with no issue. Hadn’t realized how rough the old ones had gotten. Nicest part was just popping in and having it done, and not having to worry about the cost because they’d already been paid for.

Past that, getting back to swimming, and trying consciously to improve my swim stroke and speed this year. Taormina’s Swim Speed Secrets has been pretty good thus far, and I’m seeing a bit of improvement, which is nice after years of steady state mediocrity. But swimming’s been it thus far this season, mostly because of how cold and gross it’s been. I’m unmotivated to sit on the bike in the trainer in the living room, and it’s been just plain ugly outside between snow and cold (and a head cold) so I haven’t wanted to go outside to run in the morning, either. Hopefully today was the last of the cold snaps this spring, and the last of the snow as well, so I can get back to running & biking.

This week is the first set of evaluations for my minions. They’re all doing well, so it’s thankfully been an easy process. New minion #1 started this week (my first hire!), and new minion #2 starts in a week and a half. Haven’t scared off the first guy yet, so I suppose I’m doing okay there. The hardest part of this management thing is learning what to let loose from my own portfolio and give to one of the minions to handle. And after almost 15 years of handling ever more matters, I’m not yet in the comfort spot when it comes to handing things off. But I’m getting there.

As I approach nine months of married life, I find it treats me well. We’re mostly into our routines of living together, with the occasional bump, but for the most part we’re handling living together in a far-too-small-for-two-people-with-all-the-stuff-we-both-have apartment pretty well. Having an external storage unit has helped somewhat with the level of stuff, but there are still regular discussions about how much more we could do with, say, the kitchen if we had a larger place.

Tri training hasn’t been my largest priority, though I am starting to settle back into a routine, with two races scheduled for this summer. I do need to figure out a strength training routine, which isn’t new, but given that I’m starting over with an extra (far too many) pounds, and I’m over 40, I need the extra support and strength that a strength routine would add. It’s more a matter of finding the time to fit it into my daily/weekly routine so that I’ll do it than it is a matter of knowing what I need to do – I know how to train, it’s getting myself motivated to actually do it that’s the difficult part.

Let’s see, what else? The kittens we adopted last summer (Benjamin and Ezri) are doing well. They’re just about a year old this month and next. They’re definitely more attached to me than to the boy, much to the boy’s annoyance, since he was the one who wanted to adopt them. They tolerate him if I’m not in, but they glom onto me if I’m home. I’m the one they like to sleep on, both at night and when sitting still. They’ve grown up nicely, not as large as my previous cats (Boris and Natasha – they were HUGE for house cats), but nice and healthy. It’s been nice having cats again, and I’m glad the cult co-op changed the rules last year to allow them in legally.

Work’s okay. Settling into being a supervisor, still trying to get a handle on the new areas of law I’m in charge of now. I’m finally booked for the mandatory training they require of new supervisors, which will be mostly a repeat of training I took three years ago, but hey, the rules are the rules, and I’d prefer not to get dinged for not doing something so simple. If only learning the new legal areas were as easy. The personalities are relatively easy to deal with, I like all the folks on my team and they do good work, which helps a lot.

So, yeah, not bad for now, and drama free life doesn’t make for the best writing, hence my quiet of late on here.

I’m flattered by the number of friends who think I run fast enough to qualify for the Boston marathon. Not even close here, but I appreciate the sentiment. I’m safe, trust me.

That said, the boy’s sister was running it for charity. His family lives in the greater Boston area, and his parents were expected to be at the VIP seating near the second bomb. Thankfully they stopped, earlier, at another spot on the route where they found a better view, so none of them was hurt. My future sister-in-law was still out on the route, and got pulled before she could finish, based on the security concerns.

My first thoughts, after comforting the boy, was how we’d need to marry early, to make it official, so we could take care of his (soon ‘our’) niece. And while I’m happy we don’t have to do the legal shit earlier than the ceremony in late May, it was still scary as all hell to contemplate that his ENTIRE family would be out at something and be killed. Given his sister’s wishes we’d still have gotten his niece to raise, but the lack of legal protections scares this lawyer.

Also annoying is our utter inability to help with blood donations. Despite having a safe profile, despite testing consistently negative for communicable diseases, I can’t donate, because I’ve “had sex with another man since” the year I turned 5. Not before I was legal, but, y’know, the FDA rules don’t make rational sense, they just fuel prejudice rather than public health purposes. So, yeah, I’m gonna make this political; fuck you, FDA, and your stupid rules, and how dare you prevent me from helping my fellow citizens when they need it.

It’s been hard for me to stay motivated with triathlon stuff. Commuting between my place and the boy’s place had put a definite damper on it, as has his work schedule (he has to go to meetings for work that are well after what I would consider my optimum ‘go to bed’ time). College students suck – if you want to participate in things on campus, do them at normal hours like a real adult, not at 10+ at night, ‘you hosers’. I’d happily smack the lot of them upside the head and welcome them to real life. And naps.

Nonetheless, I need to do more, after straining my mid-back TWICE this past week. Ugh. So there’s been a lot of soul searching re: what do I want to do with my training. And, you know, making my body worth more in the sack. Getting married and all that. Wanting to perform better. Yeah. ‘Nuff said.