Now Who Do We Root For?

I don't know about you, but the Pandemonium Household caught a minor case of World Cup Fever.  We had a chance to watch the United States play England a couple of weeks ago and then watched them play Ghana yesterday in the first elimination round.   Alas, even after a furious rally in the second period gained the Americans an 'equalizer' to put them into overtime, the good guys couldn't pull out the win. Now they go home, happy for playing respectably on the world's biggest stage, disappointed for not advancing further, and the newly interested American Public is left wondering; Now who do we root for?

I'm A Happy Daddy

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them
 
 - Psalms 127:4-5
 
This year my Father's Day present was a kiss from my wife and hugs from the kids. Kenrick helped me make lunch and I did the dishes afterwards while Andrea attended to Anya. But I didn't mind, on the way home from meeting this afternoon I could look in my rear-view mirror and see four little heads and hear four happy voices from the four little reasons I'm a father, and I could say that I've got all that a man could ever ask for.

Paxton Pandemonium

Today Paxton squirted a toad with weed killer, pooped on the floor, and tried to flush a library book down the toilet. Ah, the life of a two year old!
(Andrea washed off the weed killer and cleaned up the poop; the status of the library book and the toad is unknown.)

Bloomers

The flowers in our yard are in brilliant bloom this time of year...

...and this little flower is blooming brilliantly!

Bare Foots

Today I ran two miles.  Barefoot.

Andrea and I both took a few laps around the high school track this afternoon, sans shoes, while the kids played in the puddles.  It was Andrea's third time out, my first; we stuck to the grass infield because the tootsies are a bit tender yet.

Okay, so... why?  I've got a perfectly good pair of running shoes, I'm not generally known as an dirt-between-the-toes,  Mother-Earth-loving, tree-hugger, so what's up with the barefoot nature-boy act?  Here's the story.

A few weeks ago Andrea checked out a book called "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall, on the second-hand advice from her second cousin's brother-in-law.  It was a good read, but more importantly it got her thinking about a better way to run.  She hates to run, but she started to do some research into some of the things that are talked about in this book, specifically about barefoot running.  She found lots of information, including accounts of track coaches who see fewer injuries when they have their athletes practice barefoot, and research into the bio mechanics of your foot and what happens when you give it support that it doesn't need and then go out and run like a spastic jackhammer.

So she decided to try it.  The barefoot thing I mean, not the jackhammer.  She ran a few laps on the grass.  She ran out of breath because she's in terrible shape, but her joints didn't hurt afterward!  And she felt like she wanted to do it again.  So she did.  And she felt like there was hope after all.

Then she told me I should try.  So I did.  It felt good.  But I can tell I've exercised a whole different set of muscles.  Like all of the ones below my knees.

  

Of course, you can't really just go barefoot everywhere, so Andrea also did a little shopping and found something cool to cover the tender tootsies.  Check them out, genuine Vibram FiveFingers Classics!

I actually saw somebody running in these last summer during one of my off-road triathlons.  They'll make you look twice, but they seem to work - the guy finished ahead of me!  I'm not sold yet on the footwear, but I'll definitely try a few more laps with the grass between my toes.  Come out and join us!

Owwwwwwch!

So, when you are stubborn enough to ride through a crippling double-calf cramp for the last 5 km of the 20 km bike leg of a Saturday sprint triathlon, "Ouch" is what you say on Monday.

For the record, here's the short and sweet of my first tri of the year, the 2010 TriShark Classic:
Swim - started too fast, finished too slow, stopped too many times to catch my breath, and bumped into too many people in between.
Bike - see the above-mentioned cramps. Almost fell off my bike trying to get into my shoes at the start, and had a hard time keeping a race pace ("Boy, a lot of people are passing me.  Maybe I should try to pedal harder.")
Run - calves still a little tight, so started slow, but warmed up enough to run the last mile at a decent pace.

On Sunday I wasn't feeling too bad.  Today I can hardly walk.

Joining in on the fun this weekend were Don and Leann (yes, Leann) and Don's cousin Eric, as well as some guys that Don works with. Don blew us all away with a very impressive showing (7th in his age group!), Leann toughed out her first open-water swim and finished the race, and Eric and I demonstrated the effects of the ever-popular have-a-new-baby-in-the-house training program.

Actually, when I got a chance to compare my times with previous years it looks like I did improve a little, even though I felt slow - so that's encouraging.  My first transition got fouled up a bit because I accidentally pinned by race number through the front and the back of my shirt, but that's another story.  Now, it's time to get ready for the next big event, the Evergreen Tri on July 17 - this time with my siblings as team Fat, Dumb, and Happy!

Wait, I have to swim how far???  Ouch.