Week number two with no running. I don’t think it’s a good sign but I haven’t really missed the running. Last week I stepped up the swimming a little bit and went four practices instead of the usual three. On Wednesday I swam in the morning and went a 4000 and then I came in for a lunch workout and did another 2300. For the week I went 13000 yards.

Jen was giving me a hard time last week that I haven’t been posting any updates on how her training program has been going. I suggested that she should post an update herself but she wasn’t too interested in doing that. Jen has been running very well. She has been following the training program really closely and doing all the runs. For the runs doing the week she has to wait until I get home from work which means she doesn’t get to start until almost six o’clock which means she is usually running into the dark. She has been running a number of the same routes through the neighbourhood and each time she gets a little faster. (Heck I better watch out, if I don’t start running again soon she might be passing me up.)

Alex is still into his dinosaurs. Jen took him to the library the other day and they got out a bunch of new dinosaur books. His favourite dinosaur is definitely the T. Rex but he still likes to tell us all about Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Seismosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Giganotosaurus, and Compsognatus just to name a few. I work up the other day still singing dinosaur songs.

I haven’t had a chance to make any updates to the web site in a while. I have a bunch of random pictures we’ve taken over the last couple of weeks that I need to sift through and post but I just haven’t had enough time. Maybe this weekend I’ll make some time and make some updates.

Like we don’t already eh!!

I’m a huge fan of worth1000.com, a site devoted to photoshopping. They just completed a contest on if Canadians Ruled the World. Some fantastic entries.

Alex has started what I will call the Dinosaur phase. I think every kid on the planet goes through a phase where they are interested in learning about Dinosaurs, playing with Dinosaurs, and generally talking non stop about Dinosaurs. It all started in music class at school where they started singing about Dinosaurs. Jen dug out all the old Dinosaur stuff we had in the garage much of it Ryan’s stuff from when he was a kid. We even had a record of Dinosaur music but since we don’t own a record player there isn’t much we can do with it.

You don’t have to feel bad for very long since Jen bought him a CD with Dino music which he loves. I think we’ve listened to it about five, six, a million times just yesterday. It’s got about fifteen songs about various different types of Dinosaurs and by the sounds of it every species got their own musically themed song. One is set to gypsy folk music and another particularly catchy tune about the Ornithomimus is set to the Mexian Hat Dance song. It’s one of those songs that just totally gets stuck in your head and I woke up this morning still singing it. Ahh..

(You think I could use the word Dinosaur any more times in a single post?)

We’re all pretty excited that the Olympics have finally started. Alex is especially excited about Bobsled, Luge, Skeleton, and Hockey but to be honest I don’t think there will be any sport he doesn’t want to watch. Actually right now we are sitting in front of the TV and watching the first runs of the Luge.

With eight weeks to go this was the first full week without any running at all. I know, kind of an unorthodox training program for a running race but hey, what can I say. Since there’s no running I swam three times and managed to go just over 11 000 yards for the week and they were all good workouts too. Monday morning I went 4000 yards which is pretty good since I typically only have about an hour and twenty minutes or so to get it all in.

My ankle is starting to feel a little better. I’ve been wearing the insoles since last Friday and I’ve been wearing my shoes around the house as much as I can and I have to say I can’t stand wearing shoes around the house. It makes me feel like I’m just about to head out the door or I have someplace to go at any minute.

Hopefully my ankle will continue to get better and a I’ll have to see what the doctor says in a week and a half. Until then it’s going to be more swim workouts.

After a visit to the wrong office, don’t ask, I finally managed to get to see the doctor. The official diagnosis for my ankle pain is “Retrocalcaneal bursitis” which this web site does much better job describing then I would be able to do so you can read it for all the details.

I have to take two weeks off running, which by the time I go back to the doctor will actually be three weeks since I’ve already taken this week off, and he prescribed some anti-inflammatory medication. I also had to go and get some special heel insoles for my shoes that I’m supposed to wear all the time. In two weeks I go back and he is going to take a look and see how things are progressing.

I’m not sure what this is going to do for the half marathon but I figure three weeks off isn’t going to be the end of it. Once I start back running I’ll see how it feels before deciding what to do about the race.

For those paying attention last weeks Half Marathon Training update was also title “9 Weeks to Go”. Apparently I’m an idiot and have problems reading a calendar but this week is actually 9 weeks to go until April 2nd. (I did mention this in my first training update with 10/11 weeks to go but no one corrected me so you all can share the blame.)

Anyway, the week was good and bad depending on how you look at it. I ran 6 and a half miles on Wednesday morning and it went pretty well. I took it easy compared to how I normally go and still managed to average about 7:50 per mile. Monday and Thursday morning I swam and Thursday’s swim was particular a really good workout. I took Friday and Saturday off and on Sunday I went out for a nice long easy 8 mile run. I didn’t set out planning to go 8 miles it just kind of happened. I picked my route out and I was feeling so good that I decided to just keep going. It was one of those runs where it just feel effortless and I hit my stride really early on.

Now for the bad part. My heel has been bothering me on and off for a while but after that long Sunday run it went from just being a low grade nuisance to I can barely walk. It got progressively got worse all day on Sunday and Monday I was kind of hobbling along. It got bad enough that I’ve made an appointment with an orthopedic specialist on Friday to see if there isn’t something else going on. Hopefully it’s nothing and I’ll be back running again soon but until I see him I’m going to stop running and just swim.

I was putting Alex down to the bed last night and he said to me,

“Dad, what are we going to play tomorrow?”

Well tomorrows a Satruday and I work on a Saturday so I said,

“Well son, I have to go to work tomorrow”

“Oh, Ok, just don’t forget your lunch box then.”

Yikes, even Alex knows how often I forget my stuff. And, yes, I did remember to bring my lunch today.

I’m a little late on last weeks training update but that’s just about how the running went.  The plan at the start of the week was to swim on Monday and Thursday and run on Wednesday and either Saturday or Sunday  Well my Wednesday running didn’t go quite as planned.  After getting to work on Wednesday I was unloading my stuff from the car and realized I had forgot my running shoes.  I have no brain at five am so this happens at a couple times a month.  (I’ll only say a couple to be generous to myself.)  It’s either some critical piece of workout equipment like shoes or running gloves on days when it’s 36 degrees or most commonly, it’s lunch.  I’ve lost track of the number of times Jen has called me on her way to work “Do you want me to stop by and bring you your lunch.”

It wasn’t a complete waste because I did have my swimming stuff with me so I ended up swimming instead which meant I got in three swims last week instead of two.  I was feeling pretty good in the water so that was a plus.  I only managed one run and I had to go to the club and do it on the treadmill since it was raining.  Go figure, we haven’t had a drop of rain in this state for about two months and on my only running day it’s pouring. I never seem to be able to run quite as fast on a treadmill as I do just running outside but I got in 6 miles at just under and 8:20 pace.

This weeks running is starting out a little better.  Same plan as last week but I didn’t forget my shoes this morning.

Jen and Alex went out this afternoon to look in the antique stores and Alex hit the mother load. He found a Fisher Price Bobsled.

What are the odds of that eh?

The last couple of weekends Jen has found Bobsledding on TV and it turns out that Alex is a big fan. I’m not sure what sparked his initial interest but he is really excited about watching the sport. As an aside, I always called the sport was called Bobsledding but it seems that the governing body of the sport, Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobaganning, uses Bobsleigh. It doesn’t really sound right to me though.

Anyway, at the start of the broadcast they were showing the Skeleton and then they went into Bobsledding and Alex was all excited and wanted Jen to build him his own Bobsled. Jen got some used diaper boxes and fashioned a pretty good Bobsled if you ask me. Alex would push his sled with the contestants and then hop in and drive down the course. He even wanted a helmet just like the guys on TV.

	This side of his sled had a USA sign and the other side had a Canada sign. On the front there is a “#1 Alex” sign.

Today we also gave Andrew his first finger food as well some Gerber Zwieback. In these pictures he looks a lot more excited then Alex did the first time we tried “real” food with him but he was still a little suspicious of what we were giving him. He seemed to enjoy it and kept munching at it but he didn’t quite have the hang of the hole chewing thing down yet. (I guess that’s to be expected since this was his first piece of food that needed chewing.)

Update: Just in case anyone was worried, we haven’t yet abonded the Polar Express in favour of Bobsled. We are currently halfway through the movie now.