Where is Chad?

Kind of like "Where's Waldo" huh?  All the postings have been Kirsten and Africa eh?  Well, I have been here, although lonely and somewhat lost without my true love by my side.  We have been able to talk every day since she has been gone via Instant Message.  Without that I would be really lost!  I got to talk to her once on he phone, which definitely shortened the distance she seemed away from home, and only wished I could have talked to her on the phone more!  She has been having a once in a lifetime experience in Sudan and while is immensely positive (one the traits I love most about her!) she has definitely had some frustrating experiences as well.  But anyway, I will let her tell you about those and for now tell you about how I have been holding up ;)

While it seems like I should have been hanging out on the couch watching TV the entire time she has been gone, nothing could be further from the truth!   The past 2.5 weeks have been chaotic to say the least.  I mean when you are training for an Ironman...nothing is simple, easy, or takes just 5 minutes!  Pretty much every day (aside from this past Saturday when Hurricane Hanna rolled through DC) was full of workout after workout, or house chores after house chores.  While last week was a little bit of a blur, and one split run of 9 miles at lunch and 10 miles after work, I only remember getting home from workouts late and eating leftovers and doing mundane things around the house.  But the most stark memory is the feeling of loneliness I felt without Kirsten there.  It was so quiet in the house and so cold without here there.  Going to bed in silence and waking up to nothing and no one was definitely odd.  Pretty much since she and I started dating we have spent EVERY night together (aside from short travel trips for work) so not having her there for so long was/is very strange.  

But at the same time it has made me realize what an integral part of my life she is and how much fun she is to be around, but then again...I am married to her and obviously married her for these among a multitude of other reasons!  But I trudged on through the week thinking about her pretty much non stop even through all the yards in the pool, miles on the run, and turns of the pedal on the bike.

Last week was a sort of getting back into the swing of things week since the week she left was wrought with missed workouts and days off.  The long run last week didn't happen since I was totally unmotivated to run and I had no one to run with or force me out the door at 5am for a 2.5 hour run!  So I ended up splitting the run as noted above.  Although not ideal...still tough mentally and I actually liked it better than running straight through...but I guess I can't quite do that at Ironman!

Sunday (saturday was just a swim...yes literally...due to Hurricane Hanna) I did a century with some friends out in Indian Head, MD.  It was a beautiful ride with low traffic and some great views of the Potomac and the bay.  I had a little bit of a goal in mind for the ride since the course profile looked pretty flat (biggest climb of 200 feet!) but after the ride realized I was WAY off base with my estimate of "flat".  The goal was to either do the 100 miles in 4 hours and 45 minutes, and/or average 21mph...I achieved the latter and just barely missed the former by about 5 minutes, which I attribute to not drinking enough water on such a humid day (temps were great though) since I was pretty much white with salt on my black shorts even though I was popping salt tablets all day long.  I was pretty cooked with 5 miles left and every hill was a struggle...good thing it was flat right?  NOT!  In total my computer said it was around 4600+ feet of climbing...not exactly flat as it were.  But in the end I felt pretty good about the overall effort...102 miles at 21mph is pretty good!

I decided to take Monday off since Sunday was a pretty hard effort and it was a good thing I did...I didn't feel great all day and had a headache pretty much the entire day.  I worked a bit late since a project was due on Wednesday and went to the grocery store to grab stuff to make Baked Ziti and Jumbalaya for the weeks dinners.  Tuesday morning I ended up sleeping in too late and had a project due anyway so went straight into work.  I ended up working through lunch and got home well after 6:30 as a result of the proposal which pretty much scrapped any plans to workout so I decided to make the dinners for the week (plus do some other house chores)...well it took SO LONG To make just one dinner by myself that i hadn't even eaten yet and it was 9:30 when I got the sauce cooking for the ziti!!!  

Ate some of the Jumbalaya and then went to work on recaulking the bathtub (a 6 month work in progress!).  Needless to say I am pretty handy...but I just can't get a handle on how to do the caulking very well, there were gobs everywhere and the finishing tool wasn't working too well (due to the tile grout being improperly applied when the did the bathtub in the first place, i.e. grout on the tile and tub resulting in a not smooth surface).  At one point I was running around looking for an old towel or SOMETHING to wipe away the literally baseball sized gob in my hand!  It would have been pretty funny if someone else was there...ahhh Kirsten where were you!  I got to bed pretty close to midnight that night after writing Kirsten a Love note for her morning email check!

I tried to wake up early to get a ride in but about 4 blocks from my house it started sprinkling and the clouds in the distance looked pretty ominous...so I turned around and headed home...well I guess I had time to vacuum the house now!  So that is what I did.  Swam at lunch and felt pretty awful until about 1500 yards in, then went home after work and ran 10 miles (supposed to be 1.5 hours..but...) in 1 hour and 10 minutes...which is SMOKING fast considering that my Cherry Blossom 10 miler time 2 years ago was 1:12 and my average heart rate was 10 beats higher than the run yesterday!  I felt strong on the run (probably since I hadn't run since Friday) and definitely felt good the entire time and negative split the run by a long shot.  Considering the pace I was going and that Nation's Triathlon is this weekend I figured missing the 20 minutes wouldn't kill me anyway!

Got home and it was time to finish up the Baked Ziti...well...that took FOREVER and all I had to do was bake the eggplant and mix everything up (after cooking the pasta of course) but that still took me an hour!!!!  I was definitely missing Kirsten at that point!   Things are so much easier when you have someone to split the daily grind with.  Luckily all the house stuff was already done so all I had to do was change the sheets for Paul's visit today.  Still though...by the time the ziti was done and I was finished mulling around the house it was once again 11:30!!! 

So, I pretty much cooked all night Tuesday and all night Wednesday to get TWO things made...I guess when you make the sauce from scratch it adds some significant prep time in there eh?  Oh well...it will be worth it once I FINALLY get to enjoy the Ziti!!!  But I have found it nearly impossible to get to bed before 11 this past week for whatever reason...it is a bit frustrating as the residual fatigue of lack of sleep is catching up with me (even though I don't feel that tired...I can tell!)

It was up early to get my lonely bike ride in and did so begrudgingly only to find out Paul was going straight into work instead of meeting me at the house and that we would meet up later.  All by text message at 20mph around Hains Point!  Today at work has been pretty relaxing as it is my boss's birthday and we went for a long lunch, came back and had cake, and he is leaving early...and so am I!  

This weekend should be interesting with the race on Sunday (my first time racing in literally OVER a year!!!, but then again I needed the break) and my recent found speed and low effort levels...more to come on that...but before that is posted...KIRSTEN WILL BE HOME! 

Looking more forward to having her back than any silly race for sure!!!