A Balance, Redefined

Well I am still alive and kicking. Sunday was a very long day and Monday was just as full. I didn't plan much for the next week that couldn't be moved but the days end up filling up beyond capacity each day anyway... After family time I did a treadmill run. Nothing special.

I just trying to keep it simple. Until I get these grants done and other obligations out of the way I can't prioritize training anymore than getting healthy again. The good news is that the knee pain that was pretty bad on Sat and Sun seems to be clearing up.

The good thing about the low amounts of sleep these last few days is that it is good practice for when the baby comes. Today started out BAD. No need to vent as that's what I've been doing all day. The good news is that unlike other days with a hitch this big I managed to stay somewhat focused and still got some work done. The biggest problem is that every time I think I have things under control I'm given a new responsibility. The great news is it is practice seeing if I will be able to survive as a professor the bad news is that all the obligations feel sometimes like they are just as much keeping me from getting to that step... Oh well you can only do what you can do and keep on plugging away. Same as training for the marathon, you have to get in your Miles of Trials and Trials of Miles... Treadmill run after family time.

Well today was much better than yesterday. The night was rough but not in a bad way. Specifically, Sandra had intermittent latent labor. For her part she tried to let me rest as best she could and I just gave her a few massages to make the worst of it pass. She said she wanted me rested in case things started "turning real". With the lack of continuous sleep we were both still very tired though. I ended up taking the morning off of work to drive Kaitlyn to and from school and during school we ran some more "final" preps... School was good in that they had a half hour Christmas sing, during that they sang a song about the true meaning of Christmas and Jesus' birth and also why we light the Advent candles. I immediately went into work after and then had meetings the whole afternoon. After family time at night I just did the now "routine" treadmill run.  

Longest run since Nov 1st. We actually slept well last night and I didn't want to ruin a good thing so when my alarm went off I re-set it and kept sleeping. Then I spent the morning working on my grant. The most I've gotten done since Sun. I went into lab to do three things and was immediately swamped with people asking me for things and only got one of those three done. I think I should always work from home... The afternoon I went for a run with Kaitlyn. It was nice to run with her and to be outside after all these treadmill runs. We did the SH run stopping to watch the birds and go down the slide. My knee felt pretty good.

Just for an FYI my attempt to "fix" my knee has included the following.

660mg of naproxen (Aleve) twice a day
2 tablets glucosamine/chondroitin twice a day
>48 oz of water a day (plus normal beverages consumption)

I'm on day 15 of a 21 day regime of the following. I'm also stretching twice a day.

More or less the same day as yesterday. However, more errand running than work... Kaitlyn really enjoys watching the birds at the park so we stuck around there a little longer before heading back. My knee was noticeably sorer today than yesterday, tomorrow is a planned day off anyway. Until I'm feeling >80% I think I'll stick with 6 or less days a week.

More or less a good night's sleep. The day was about the same as yesterday, a bit of family time and a bit of grant work...

Back to the grind. In early as I needed to get stuff done before lab meeting. Got done by about 11am and then headed back home to work on the grant and be "on call" in case something happened. In the evening shoveled snow with my daughter's "help" and then did four miles on the treadmill. 

Trying to get it all in. Still on the waiting game for baby two. I've been trying to work from home as much as possible. However, today I had to go in for meetings in the morning and general "other stuff" in the early afternoon. Just did some more treadmill miles after bedtime.

Stayed home to work and got the most done on my grant that I've managed in about a week. Still managed to get distracted by lab issues via e-mail. However, that is my own fault because I could just as easily turn off my e-mail... Knee was a little tight today but not too bad. Only one more day of NSAIDs and then we really get to "see" what is going on. Just a few treadmill miles as I found out yesterday that I'm giving a talk tomorrow at 4pm... Luckily I can just give the talk that I gave at my last meeting but that was only 10 minutes and I have to stretch it to ~30min... We shall see.

Didn't sleep well, not sure if it was prepping for the talk or getting anxious about the arrival of the new baby. In either case I woke up a little before 5am and couldn't get back to sleep so got back to my grant. I spent the morning working from home and playing taxi drive for Kaitlyn. She likes it when her daddy brings her to school. In the afternoon I went into lab to set-up a few final things for my presentation. Overall, I think it went fine. I would have liked to have been a little more prepared but I presented what I had and that is all I could do. I got some good feed back. After bed time I actually met up with Eric and ran from his house. It had been awhile since I'd run with someone else and it was a good change from the treadmill... We comisserated over our grants and discussed potential strategies then wrapped it up for the night. After well over a week of working nights I decided to stop and pick up a movie and a snack for Sandra and I. Overall, a relatively relaxing evening.

Very strange thing. Despite the relaxing evening I still woke up before my alarm. In fact when I looked at the clock it was the exact same time as yesterday 4:40am... Very strange. I just got up and went into lab as I did have some experiments to do this week that I had been putting off thinking the baby would arrive. I managed to have a very full day and left a little early to celebrate an early birthday dinner and we don't know what will be going on next week... When we got home I just did some treadmill miles. It is important to note that today was the first day "drug free" in almost a month. The knee was very tight most of the day but I don't know how much of that was psychological vs actual discomfort. Good news is that the run went fine and it was no worse at the end than at the beginning...

I finally got a little sleep. It was restless but it was a good number of consecutive hours lying down. The day was longer than I thought it was going to be but at least it started out right. There was a fundraiser held at our church for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. So we had a pancake breakfast and Kaitlyn got to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. After though I had to go into lab and what should have been 2hrs stretched into 4hrs… Oh well. Because of the fuller day and the snow storm decided to switch off days with tomorrow.

Usual Sunday. Shoveled snow so we could get out to church. Then after church ate lunch and opted for a treadmill run. Then a little work on the grant. Nothing too noteworthy. Yesterday my knee was pretty sore and this morning wasn't any better but fortunately it loosened up over the day and feels better now. Just a little more grant work and then hopefully a good night's sleep.

Long day in lab. Nothing too note worthy. I just have to remember to think sometimes... Just treadmill miles.

Not in the stars today. Wanted to get in a run but had family to take care of instead. Still trying to figure out when the new arrival will come. Hoping she won't wait all the way to Christmas...

Just took today easy. Did some work in the morning and then walked the mall with Sandra and Kaitlyn trying to "move things along". Did a couple miles on the treadmill before heading out.

Well I'm 31 years old today and I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend the day. After eating breakfast with my family we headed over to the hospital. I spent the next 16hrs with my wife at my side as she brought our second daughter into the world and spent some time with the two of them. Overall, things went smoothly and baby and mom are doing great.

Still on  a rush from last night. Didn't end up falling asleep until well after 3am. Spent the whole day with my daughter as my wife and youngest recovered at the hospital.

Shows you how tired I was. I did run two miles on the treadmill while Kaitlyn watched Strawberry Shortcake.

Another full day at the hospital and they made sure everything was ok for us to go home. Made it home in time for dinner and then I spent most of the night holding my new daughter. I tucked her under my shirt and let her sleep there for almost two hours. I forgot how calming it is to stare into the eyes of an infant. 

Though there are a total of 8 hrs of sleep I don't think any of those hours were in a longer than 60 min stretch. I was able to take an hour nap with each of my girls and though the rest was split up over all I'm not as exhausted as I remember being with the first child. Though obviously no running and no work has been done since Wed... That being said I couldn't have thought of a better way to have spent my birthday and the weekend.

Not sure what the night sleep time means. When you are only sleeping in 1-2 hr spurts. The chronic fatigue would be ok, except that I'm trying to get back into a work mode to hopefully make my grant deadline. I actually had to go into work for a few hours this morning but returned as soon as possible to continue helping Sandra find a new routine.

Managed two 2.5-hr segments of sleep last night. Just woke up during feedings to give Sandra a neck massage while Kristen ate. Little babies are just so amazing. I did end up having two meetings this morning. One was very productive discussing my grant the other was setting up a students project. The afternoon was spent on family and Christmas stuff, I squeezed in a couple treadmill miles while Kaitlyn watched the Sword in the Stone. 

Same intermittent night of sleep but over all a much more positive day. Got up early to put in a few hours before the rest of the family woke up. Then after nap time I did some running around with Kaitlyn. I just did the miles on the treadmill while she slept. The whole family wasn't up for primetime so just Kaitlyn and I went to the carol sign at church. It was nice and after the service Kaitlyn got to play with one of her classmates for awhile. They were loving it. She must have given him 100 hugs...

Merry Christmas.

This was a different Christmas for me. It was the first time I was shuttling between parties. I did miss that aspect of it but it was also nice to lounge around the house all day with the family. My daughter is also finally old enough to start to understand what is going on and that made the whole experience fun as well.

In the afternoon I did a few miles on the treadmill.

More or less the same day as yesterday, except that I spent the morning working on the grant.

Not a good sleep night. Also, though I got a lot of work done in the morning on the grant the afternoon quickly evaporated. The fatigue from the every 1.5 hr wake-up I'm sure had something to do with it. Could have still squeezed in a run but felt that the time keeping my girls out of my wife's hair so that she could rest was more worth it.

No that is not a typo. Kristen decided that she was rough enough on her parents last night and gave us two 4 hr sessions of sleep last night. Other than that not too much going on today. I did run some on the treadmill during nap time and spent some good family time with all three girls. I can't believe we are in the last week of '08. This has by far been the fastest year of my life, both figuratively and literally.

I decided enough was enough with the work deadline. I hadn't made progress (for good reason) the last couple weeks but needed to do something. Not sure if this was the best tactic but stayed up until late to get "something" done. Then I had to get into lab early to take care of some experiments that I had canceled last week. Between the first full day away from home since Kristen's birth and the almost complete lack of sleep I felt a day off was in order...

Well I've kept with the crazy no sleep plan not the best of ideas. (Since I'm writing this entry a day late, I have remedied this). In any case on Tues I woke up early to work on my grant. I had a meeting with my boss. It went well. He is a good mentor and guides without altering. I'm still freaking out about getting everything done but since that doesn't help I'll just keep looking forward. After the meeting I had errands to run. Got back early enough (and the weather was nice enough) that I went for a run OUTSIDE!!! Crazy I know. I was even wearing shorts and half way through rolled up my sleeves. I started with Kaitlyn but she wasn't interested so I turned around and dropped her off after about a mile. The third mile I "pushed" a little and hit a 7:03! I know you should just rename me flash :)... Overall I was not feeling that great (probably the ~9hrs of sleep in two nights) but had a good run and enjoyed being out.

So ends another year and another chapter in my running. This has been by far one of the best years of my life. I did go in like a Lion and out like a Lamb but the overall was great. I more or less ran the fastest at every distance that I ever have. I also ran the most miles in one year and one month. The weekly title didn't fall but you can't have everything... I learned a lot and relearned a lot as well. The last few months have been hard but I've filled it with lots of other good things, a new daughter, incremental but still progress at work... 

What next? Well '09 is planned at this point as a non-year. What I mean by that is that I just want to get and stay healthy. I still have knee pain and though I can run on it I don't want to "train" until it is better. I will focus on health and building back my base to hopefully compete at the "local elite" level again in '10. My plans will be monthly and I'll reassess in that increment until I can do otherwise...

Thank you for all your support!

 After a morning of working on the grant from home I ventrued outside for another run. My knee was fairly tight from yesterday so I didn't do anything special. Just a home loop. Avg. 8:23