Sick

Sometimes it sucks being a parent. Waking up at 4 AM to the sound of a little boy retching at the side of my bed, shaking the cloud of sleep away just in time to watch my wife catch the second bright red expulsion in her hands, me rushing to the closet to grab a towel and catch the third round in my favorite triathlon transition towel, bigger than a hand towel, and smaller than a bath towel, the perfect size for a transition area, also the perfect size to catch the undigested chicken, avocado, tortillas, blackberries, and one stick of a Kit Kat that he brought to me the night before, telling me it was easy to share because there was already a line down the middle where I could break it, sharing his first Kit Kat with me, one stick for me, one stick for him. This all combined to make red, and then just clearyellow bile because there was nothing left, just the small voice in bed next to me saying I think I'm going to be sick again. Looking at my watch each time, 4:00, 4:25, 4:56, a quick shower, 5:13, then turning off my alarm at 5:45. My wife looking over the top of our little boy, finally sleeping, you're not going running are you? Might as well, I'm already up.

All of that sucked, especially for him, but the worst is not being able to take the pain away, just watching, helpless. That is what sucks about being a parent.

The run felt great, cloud covered hills, fog rolling out and the sunrise through the haze. The training is paying off, running through my own sickness. I woke up with a sinus infection, sore throat and my own vomit session on Saturday morning, the morning of the Warrior Dash, my brother Zak's first race, a mud run 5k with some fun obstacles including a mud pit, real barbed wire, a rope ladder, and a fire jump. I ran it with my wife, my brother and my brother in law. The race was the best I felt all day. My wife killed it, coming in 9th out of nearly 300 women in her age group. Zak did great as well, and I hope we have the opportunity to run some more races together.

Not sure if these photos are copyrighted

My shoes came off in the mud pit, so I had to slide them over the timing mat

My wife, car hurdler

Sunday I woke up for a long run. I was supposed to run easy, so I went down to the coast, parked at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, ran past Swami's, then headed inland on one of my favorite trails, the San Elijo Lagoon trail. This trail heads inland for about 4 miles and at the turnaround I noticed a guy getting out of his car wearing a Noble Canyon 50K Bad Rats t-shirt. It was Ricardo, a friend who used to live near me and helped train me for that 50K a couple of years ago. Ricardo is fast, and smart, a great coach who preaches the gospel of efficiency. He recently ran a hilly half marathon in 1:16, a PR at 40 years old, on one run per week. Granted, the guy is gifted, an elite level triathlete who does a ton of swimming and biking, but that's still damn impressive. He credits his performance to core work and efficiency of motion. I love running with Ricardo because he always teaches me something about running. Sunday, it was to focus on tightness, wherever you are feeling it during the run, and to focus on relaxing that area. It's common sense, but I rarely remember to scan for tightness or discomfort, and it was nice to be reminded of this technique.

Yesterday, my sickness turned the corner, and I was able to do a great session on the bike trainer. It consisted of a series of hard, 3 minute, low cadence, big gear intervals with 1 minute recoveries. The fun part was between 3 sets of these intervals I was supposed to jump off the bike and do 30 seconds of crunches, lunges, push-ups, planks, phlegm drainage, and repeat for 3 minutes. Rinse and repeat (actually, there was no rinsing involved). One of the best workouts ever. Sweat puddles on the trainer mat, a damp carpet, two soaked through towels, and clear sinuses.