Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!

Friday Funny 1578: People Who Thought "The Onion" Was Real

>> Friday, March 29, 2019

I feel a little bad posting these. These poor people just don't know. But it still makes me smile.

I'm pretty sure The Onion got a little flack for this too.

I mean... yeah... this *is* nearly gross enough to delete your Twitter account.

More funny things on SportsAndLaughs.tumblr.com.

Semi-Wordless Wednesday: An Unscheduled Haircut

>> Wednesday, March 27, 2019

My wife worked an unusual evening shift this past weekend. On Sunday night, the boys and I got groceries, and then I was putting them away at home as Charlie ran off. He came back with a few chunks of hair missing. He had given himself a haircut with his scissors. So on Monday (before preschool), I had to give him a buzzcut. Here are 4 pics:

Pre-shaved showing the biggest chunk missing right in front. He got it SHORT.

He wasn’t really happy about this.

He smiled when he saw himself in the mirror afterwards. Also, his ears grew.

Training After Two Races

>> Tuesday, March 26, 2019

After a winter of no races (late October through mid February), I recently had 2 back-to-back race weekends: O'Gara's Irish Run 8K 2.5 weeks ago, and the Lake Johanna 4 Mile with the boys in the stroller 1.5 weeks ago. My training totals took a bit of a hit those 2 weeks as I was resting up pre- and post-race and nursing 2 slight injuries. But last week was decently strong again.

Here's what my weekly training totals look like since mid-December:

No bike miles, but all swim and run here.

There's a 2 week dip in mid-January when we were in Mexico, and then a 2 week dip recently around those 2 races. And only 2 weeks with less than 20 miles of running.

Here's total training TIME, which shows strength work (dark blue) and trainer time (red "sports" minutes):

That one shows the bigger dip over these last 2 recent races. And then is shows a LOT of strength work last week as it was my spring break and I got in over 7 hours last week! (Some good upper body, and some RENEWED vigor with my boring PT leg exercises as those help keep me injury-free.)

I'm THINKING about a 10 mile race shortly, and I'm REALLY trying to hit the trainer harder as I'm quite behind in my training for multi-sport season. Maybe this will be a bit more of a "run heavy" year? Too early to tell.

UPDATE: I had to go look 2 more months back. Here's weekly TIME from the start of September (so nearly 7 full months), and it shows dips in October for the TC 10 Mile and for the Halloween 10K, and then many solid weeks from the end of October through these 2 races earlier this month:

A Gross Close-Up from the Lake Johanna 4 Mile

>> Monday, March 25, 2019

Local event management company FrontRunner Events was at the Lake Johanna 4 Mile last weekend. They posted a video from the start, and you can see me go by in about 20th place (before working my way to up 9th place and then settling into 8th place for the last 85% of the race as noted in my race report - I'm ALWAYS sure to line up "too far back" with the stroller as to not impede someone who's faster than me). My friend Leah alerted me to the video by tagging me in a comment on it:

Then a few days later, FrontRunner posted a few random photos from the race. One was of me and the boys!

If I remember right, this was just about 3-5 seconds from the finish line.

I downloaded that photo, and then realized that it had decent resolution! So I (maybe unwisely) zoomed in:

Downright ANGRY!!

There's a mix of spit and sweat running down my chin. There's mud splattered on my forearm from the potholes. And nothing's sexier than a Dad in mittens.

Zooming in on the stroller also showed the wet potholes. That's a lot of spray!

And that white text in the stroller is the back of our portable DVD player as the boys were watching Looney Tunes.

I went back to that photo on Facebook last night, and I spotted a lot of fun comments. Here's all of them:

Andy's right: my 5K PR is 17:11, and all but 2 of my 1-mile races have been sub-5. But I don't think the stroller slows me down by 0:30/mile - maybe 0:15-0:20 at a race like this. And I think I'm being initiated into another stroller running Dad gang by those last comments.

If you missed it, here's my race report, and here's a post with more photos. OH, AS I VISITED THAT "MORE PHOTOS" LINK, I THINK YOU CAN SEE THE FRONTRUNNER PHOTOGRAPHER OVER MY LEFT SHOULDER IN THE PHOTO OF MY BUTT. He's pretty close to the finish line.

Back with a training update tomorrow.

Two Injury Scares, But I Think It's All Good Now

>> Saturday, March 23, 2019

Two weeks ago was the O'Gara's Irish Run where I lightly sprained my ankle. I got some therapy for it (having my chiropractor use Graston Technique on my lower leg which HELPED SO MUCH, and having acupuncture as well), and it got better quickly. I had no worries racing the next weekend at the Lake Johanna 4 Mile with both boys in the stroller:

This photo from my "race photos" post on Wednesday.

I NEVER had to give my ankle a thought in that race, which was great news! ESPECIALLY because the road was really rough in areas, and I could have stepped wrong and turned my ankle. (The stroller helped here - it's easier to take a longer stride and "fly" over a pothole when holding onto the stroller.)

Then the next morning after the race (last Sunday), my right butt cheek started to ache deep inside. I had just been on the trainer an hour before, but not doing anything weird. I stretched it out, but it never really got better. It got worse. Going up stairs hurt. I was bummed. I didn't know what I had done.

I saw my chiro (Dr. Backus) on Monday, and he figured it was a tight (maybe "strained," but not really "hurt") piriformis muscle deep in my butt:

Image via.

He massaged it with his elbows to help loosen it up. I'm supposed to keep stretching. I wonder if really pushing it up those hills at Lake Johanna while pushing a stroller just made something deep in my glute angry.

Then I had acupuncture 2 days later on Wednesday. I basically had to pull down my shorts and let my ass breathe for 45 minutes while being treated. He stuck some needles in it, and even hooked some up to electricity and did some e-stim (similar to what he did to my quad in this video from 2 years ago). It felt a lot better by Thursday.

And then on Friday, I had a massage my wife got me for my birthday, so it got even MORE attention! Jeez, 3 days of work on that butt between Monday and Friday - that's pretty good! ;)

This morning, I went on a long run, and it seems to be OK. It's a little tight right now, but I'll keep stretching it and I think we'll be good! Back with a training update soon!