The Training Crucible

This weekend I'll be heading home to Franklin, TN for a family reunion and the opportunity to see my grandfather after his recent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from outside of his colon. I should be a great time to see a few cousins, visit with my aunt, but most importantly, to see him.
To get the point, my grandfather is my hero, the reason that I do so much of what I do. He embodies gentle strength.  Prior to college he served in Army, stationed in South Carolina.  After getting out he became a coach (for baseball and football, although he also served as a track coach when needed and started the wrestling program at Franklin High School, for which is was honored with induction into their sports Hall of Fame earlier this year). Coaches and drill sergeants tend to give full vent to their anger, but I have NEVER seen my grandfather yell at anyone. He has always seemed to lead by example.
I lived at my grandparents' house for about 2 years when I was 13-14. During that time I learned a lot, simply by watching him live.  Through middle school and high school my grandparents attended almost every sporting event I was ever involved in.  In middle school I ran track, and he came out to teach me and a friend how to do the high jump and run hurdles. I came to almost every school soccer game I ever played (from middle school-high school) even though he probably still can't explain offsides or many of the other rules.  He even traveled to cross-country meets, some that were a couple of hours from home. Why, to watch the number 5 or 6 runner from BGA make his way through the 3.1 mile course.
It's dedication, its love, its pride. It's what makes me a runner. I hope I have what it takes to chase after him.

There are certain blessings and curses that come from being the father of 3 girls.
Blessings:
1. My girls are beautiful.
2. They are the biggest daddy's girls in the world.
3. Each of them has proven to be athletic.
4. They can truly be the sweetest kids in the world.
5. When I'm old I know they'll take care of me and their mom.

Curses:
1.My girls are the chattiest creatures on the face of the globe. I've heard howler monkeys that make less noise that my girls.
2.I am an only child. While I now have 2 step brothers, I never lived with them growing up. In fact I only have one first cousin and she is twelve years younger than me. Having 3 girls ages 5, 3, and 2 really changes the social dynamic in our house in way that I am really not use to at times.
3. Clothes. Girls have tons of clothes! And EVERY clothing decision is very important.

This morning the war of clothes entered into the world of training.

Meg went out for her run this morning while I stayed at home to do my P90X Core Synergistics (tonight I'll also do my 3 mile run). It was only 6 AM, so I figured I had time before the girls got up, but as soon as I started the video Gabie (our oldest) came in. Being the oldest, she is your typical type A personality, the leader of The Sisters.  Gabie quickly informed me that one of the girls in the workout video was not wearing appropriate clothing. This is our own fault really because we have talked with Gabie for a long time about what is appropriate to wear in public. (The offending attire by the way was a girl whose midriff was showing.) Anyway, Gabie let me know that since there were boys in the video with the girl that we needed to change it. Apparently its okay for Meg to watch if the video doesn't contain any boys, but my video was offensive.
At first I resisted. This was my workout. I'm busy doing the workout, not worrying about what the girls are wearing. Those are workout clothes (by the way, the same rule applied to weigh-ins on Biggest Loser). Anyway, I sat there for a second with the video paused wondering what I was going to do.
In the end I turned the video off, grabbed the P90X book and flipped over the the World Cup game between Argentina and South Korea. It ended up being a great decision. Gabie and watched as Argentina scored their first two goals and Gabie's sensibilities remained intact.
I think I am may have also taught her something about priorities.
Caring more about my girls, than myself is what makes me a dad, not just a father.

Also, you have had a chance, check out the Father's Day Contest.

Okay, so the official Disney Marathon is not until January 2011, but this past week my family was there for vacation, and believe me, we logged the miles! Before left I wrote a post about how to train while on vacation, now that I'm back I wanted to share the results.
Over the course of 5 days at Disney we walked over 33 miles.  I used the pedometer feature built into the my Timex watch to track the miles.  I did have a couple of issues with the pedometer not always tracking my steps, especially as we stood in line for rides and did more of shuffle than a walk, but overall, I think it kept a pretty accurate count of what we did.  Each day also offered extra workouts:
1. Pushing the stroller (at times with 100 lbs worth of kids aboard)
2. Swimming
We same every night at the pool for about an hour.  This was great because it gave me an opportunity to get off my feet and still get a good workout in.
My one regret is that I didn't get my ab work in like I planned, but after having 10 hours days while on vacation, I felt like I deserved the break.
This week as I am a bachelor with the rest of the family in Florida for a wedding I plan to hit the road every day, once I catch up on some sleep!
Tomorrow, I be posting about my plan for the next 12 weeks: Speedwork!

Last weekend several members of the Cloverdale Running Club participated in the 5K and 10K events at Toad Suck Daze in Conway, AR.  At the start of the race you could tell the storm clouds were moving in and about 10 minutes into the race the rain came down.