Saturday, December 29, 2007

Dr's Checkup

A couple weeks ago I mentioned seeing my sports Doctor to have a full athletic physical done complete with blood work. I had a followup appointment yesterday and I got my blood results back. I'm very pleased!

She said that I'm definitely not anemic as I have a ton of red blood cells for some really oxygen rich blood! Good for my VO2 max and endurance training!

My HDL (good cholesterol) is at 45 and my LDL (bad cholesterol) is at 91, so very good numbers! Doctor's recommendation is to add a glass of red wine at dinner to boost my HDL. I was never a wine guy, but it's really good.

She then reviewed my thyroid numbers and noticed that there is a safe and legal way to make me faster! My numbers are normal but she prescribed me Synthroid, a thyroid supplement to slightly bump my numbers up. The thyroid controls how quickly the body burns energy and makes proteins. So a small increase could make a big difference. In 6 weeks I'll have another blood test to check my thyroid numbers to ensure the supplement is working okay. If the numbers are way off, I'll be off it.

Finally, I had a gait analysis done to check my running form. My arms are a bit high and crossing my body, so I need to keep my elbows behind my torso and forearms at my waist. I'm also a slight heel striker, so I need to really focus on landing on the mid foot. My Doctor gave me a few drills, including barefoot strides after every run, to keep me off my heels. She also recommended the Newton shoe, which I'll probably give a try once I'm due. My current shoes are okay for me and only have about 40 miles on them so it doesn't make sense to get new ones right now.

A very good appointment and I'm really glad that I made myself go to get checked out. I'm feeling more confident getting ready to begin my Ironman training. I'm also looking on some coaching options to help me out and I'll be getting a bike fit with my Christmas money! Tomorrow, I'll be getting a
Polar BodyAge done, which is a system that Kevin has at his work that measures VO2 max, bodyfat, and strength analysis. It will tell you how old your body is compared to your real age. I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Here are a few of the very many Christmas pics, Enjoy!


"Autobots, transform and roll out!" This is the first of many toys that I get to play with. I'm such a kid!

"I like opening presents!"

"Look at my pretty Kitty bank"

"Those kids better stay away from my presents!"

"Look at all the stuff Santa brought!"

The kids loved the Art Easel that Santa brought them

Logan's very first Star Wars figures and Starship! I'm a HUGE fan, so it's cool to see him getting into it!


"If I play football, does that mean I get to hit people? For real?"

Ansley loves her Princess laptop

"I am Darth Vader!"

"lemme check those measurements"

I'm such the kid, that Nikki even got me toys!

Friday, December 21, 2007

A week of firsts

I had a few firsts this week.

  • I ate sushi - LOVED it!
  • Had sake (Japanese alcoholic beverage) - Very good!
  • Ate at P.F. Chang's
  • Saw my first movie in a DLP theater - WOW, AWESOME! I'm a total movie buff and seeing a movie in a DLP theater was outstanding. We saw I am Legend, a very good movie.

Today we got the kid's Christmas presents wrapped. I'm so excited about Christmas this year. Logan is at a good age, I'll get to play with most of his toys with him! I'm such a kid at heart!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Great News!

My brother got engaged! We are so happy for you Brandon! Marissa is a great girl! We look forward to welcoming her into the family.

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas! Nikki and I finished up the kids shopping last night. Never realized how hard it would be to find some of these toys Logan wants. I was able to finish up my shopping for Nikki tonight. And no, I won't tell you all. I did all my shopping for her without solicitation from anyone. She's pretty scared! I love Christmas time and can't wait. I have the whole week off work as well, so I'm stoked!

I planned out and organized a Christmas Secret Santa for my running group this past Sunday. We all had a great time and I thoroughly enjoyed making it happen. Our group spends so much time together throughout the year that it just made sense to do something nice for everyone.

My training has been a little off this week, as I'm in a Capacity Planning Bootcamp class for work. Not being able to workout during lunch is killing me. If I get up any earlier, I'll end up doing more harm than good. I already get up a 5am just to get to work! Oh well, I'm still getting my weekend workouts in, so I'll just take it easy this week and fit them in when I can. After all, I only have a few more weeks where I have the luxury of taking it easy. Better take advantage of it and give myself plenty of rest.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Overdue post...

Wow, what a week.

I flew outta Richmond at 6:45pm last Tuesday for Addison, TX, 15 miles north of Dallas. I was heading down for a 2 day Bootcamp style class for McAfee EPO upgrade training. (EPO is a McAfee product for centrally managing all the McAfee VirusScan installations in the environment. One of the duties that my team is responsible for is McAfee VirusScan across roughly 1200 servers.) The class was great. I really learned a lot about tweaking our current installation of EPO and some great info on the new version. Our instructor was really good and even took us out and showed us around Addison and Dallas both Wednesday and Thursday nights. Nothing like having your instructor buy you drinks and shots all night! He took us to a restaurant in Dallas on Thursday evening,
Cuba Libre, which had some of the best food I've eaten in a long time! The bartender made the best Mojito that I've ever had! Being half Cuban, that restaurant was my kind of place! With all this learning and partying, I did manage to squeeze in a 4 mile run on Thursday afternoon. Kinda cool to strap on the Garmin and run around a city that you have never been to! 7:01 pace for 4.14 miles. So, I'm still fast even after two nights of drinking! The weather was really nice, mid 60s with zero humidity. Almost cold, but very comfortable for a run!

I got back to Richmond about 1pm on Friday and headed to work to get my expense report turned in and get through some email. My new position comes with a TON of email! In hindsight, I probably should have spent less time drinking and more time checking email during my evenings in Dallas. I now have close to 500 emails in my Inbox! I left with about 100! Oh well, hard to stay in a hotel room in a city you've never been to.

Friday evening Nikki had her work Christmas party which was fun. They chartered a bus to drive us to the party, which was about 30 minutes from Richmond, so that we could partake in some beverages along the ride. We had a great time and it was really good to see Nikki after 4 days. The only downside was that Nikki had taken the kids to my Mom's house earlier Friday morning, so I didn't get to see them when I got back into town. Going on 4 days without seeing them. : (

Saturday morning Nikki's Dad and Brother, Kevin, met us at our house to leave for Morgantown, WV. About a 5 and a half hour drive. Kelly, the younger Brother, was graduating from WVU on Sunday. Before we left, Nikki and I realize that we need to have someone come over and water our Christmas Tree. Yes, we needed a Sitter for our Christmas Tree! I got in touch with my good friend and neighbor, Mark, who agreed to come over and keep our Children's Christmas dreams alive!

In Morgantown, we got lucky and had cloudy, foggy, and rainy (heavy at times) weather all weekend! It was nasty and cold up there. Had a few more drinks at a party for Kelly and his friends that evening. I resisted wearing all my VT Hokie stuff up there, since they are pretty big rivals of ours and I didn't want to take anything away from Kelly's weekend by trying to make a scene.

The Graduation on Sunday was really nice, in WVU's Basketball Coliseum. Pretty big place. Very nice ceremony. I even nudged Kevin to holler Kelly's name right before they started announcing Graduates. When he yelled, it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Kelly's name echoed throughout the whole Coliseum and we could see Kelly raise his hands in acknowledgement! It was good to see Kelly again and be there for his Graduation. Congrats Kelly, we love you!

On Sunday evening we all take it pretty easy, knowing that we are getting up early Monday morning to head back to Richmond. Just a nice dinner with Kelly's girlfriend, Jess, and her family.

After a stop at Kelly's place to pack up and take home some of his stuff, we hit the road back home. We get back to town and I head over to pick up my dog, Allie, who was very happy to see me. Then Nikki gets home after picking up the kids from my Mom's house. Boy were they happy to see me, as was I! : ) I hadn't seen them in almost a week and really missed them. It was good to be back home with my family! I love them all so much!

Now that my drinking binge and sleep deprived nights are behind me, for now, I'm glad to be back home and back into my routine. I'll be better about updating my blog, especially as I flesh out my 2008 Race Schedule. I'll also have some pictures up from this past weekend, so look for those.

On an Ironman training note, I went to see my Sports Doctor today, Dr. Stadler, to get a physical done with some blood work. Nothing wrong, just want to make sure I'm in good working order before my Ironman training really gets started. Haven't had a full physical in almost 10 years. I'll have a Gait Analysis done in a couple weeks to check out my running form, which I think feels good, but we'll see.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

ACC CHAMPS!!


The Virginia Tech Hokies have won the ACC Championship! Getting sweet revenge for that fateful night in Blacksburg! We are headed to the Orange Bowl!

In training news, I got back on my bike for the first time since the
Odyssey Half Ironman in early September. Felt pretty good and at almost the same level. I'm beginning to realize that the Ironman is getting close!