End of the Week

     The worst thing about being a hospital pharmacist is having to work weekends.  Being that I work 12 hour shifts, than means that my entire weekend is spent at the hospital except for sleep.  Don’t misunderstand me, I am very thankful to have a job these days, but I do miss seeing some of my kids events and church every 3^rd Sunday.  Today, for instance, B had another swim meet in Lynchburg that I would have loved to go to.  I also missed P’s skating party 3 weeks ago because I had to work.  Life goes on, I guess. Sidenote: (And for all you people in the swim world, this was the Virginia A/BB champs in Lynchburg.  He swam only 2 events to improve his times and won both of them with AA times.  In 2 weeks we have the Virginia Age Group Champs in Christiansburg, then its off to Rock Hill, SC for the season finale and the YMCA regionals.  I am so proud that he and his sister love to swim and it has taught them so much about life in the process.)

     The training continues on.  This past week was a recovery week, so I dropped back to 36 miles for the week with my long run being 13 miles yesterday.  I did the first 9 miles with my wife over to the Monticello Trail, to the top and back down, then back over to our house where I dropped her off and kept on for the final 4.  It was windy to say the least as I am very rarely as worried about being hit by flying debris as I was yesterday.  Will hit the road late tonight when I get home with my headlamp in full force as I finish out the week with a 5 miler.  I did manage to get to the pool once this week for 2000 yds which has been pretty much par for the course the past month or so.  I also spent some time getting my bike tuned back up in hopes that I can get out on the road soon, we shall see.  I am itching to ride.  I have been working on my nutrition on the run a lot lately and am definitely making some headway.  Once you cross over 10 miles (or at least that seems to be my threshold), nutrition begins to play a huge part of how my runs/rides go.  Your body requires water, carbohydrates, and when training/racing longer than about 90 minutes it needs protein.  The trick is to figure out the formula that works for you. Hammer Nutrition does a great job of explaining the science of all this and their products are second to none.  I am partial to them because they sponsor the FCA team we are on, but I have used them since I started this craziness.  Coming from someone who has to be gluten free, Hammer hands down makes the best, most chemical free product out there.  The stories and accounts on their website and in the magazines speak for themselves.  Endurance nutrition products and the act of competing, lend itself to GI issues, but I can honestly say none of the products I have ever used from Hammer have ever given me a problem.  Ok, Ok, enough for the plug.

     Lastly, I was sitting there talking to my wife last night and she ways to me “you need to blog more and try to post more pictures, that is how people stay interested and keep reading it.”  I think to myself, she should probably be blogging and not me.  She understands this whole world of social media and PR way better than I do.  When I stop to think how this relates to me and racing, they go somewhat hand in hand.  Anyone who knows me will tell you the last thing that I would want to do is attract any attention to myself.  I lean towards to introvert world.  I am a member of a group called FCA Endurance where our mantra is “Why do you race?”  Most people would respond and say “I race for my sanity, I race to lose weight, I race to stay in shape, I race to inspire others”.  All very good and valid answers.  I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy running, riding, or swimming each at face value.  I enjoy them all, but I also try to put things in perspective for my life.  If I can spend hours at a time, out on a race course with a shirt on that says something about Christianity and “Competing for Christ” and have just one person read it and decide he/she should look into this Jesus guy, then my work as a Christian is a success.  Planting the seed of faith and offering up the Gospel to people is what we are supposed to do as Christians.  The outcome of these seeds is largely unknown to us, but if you can have a hand in steering one person to an eternal life wouldn’t that all be worth it?  Ultimately, that’s why I race.  The rest is just gravy for me.

     Enough of the heavy stuff.  This week is going to be brutal.  I am back in build mode and this would be one of my peak weeks on the road.  It will not be my longest total, but will be the longest run to date at 20 miles which I will do at the end of the week sometime before I head to WV for the weekend.  In the interest of my wife and my blog I will try to post some more this week and try to get some interesting pics.