Zack's Tiger Style is no match for his cousin's Lobster-Fu:

  ¶ 10:41 PM

 

My legs are starting to feel a little better, but they're still somewhat sore. I didn't run today, but I'll be back into it by next week.

I worked a delivery flight this afternoon. There were passengers and flight attendants, so it was a bit chaotic. Since delivery flights haven't been fully prepared for revenue service, some emergency equipment is missing. This tends to bother the flight attendants, but passengers—in this case, ticket agents on familiarization tour—don't seem to care. Also missing is the horrible airplane bathroom smell. Today's flight attendants all took turns smelling the odor-free lav. I guess it's the small pleasure that matter.  ¶ 6:44 PM

 

Last week, I finally managed to put in a solid training effort. On Sunday, I ran a race, the Dawg Dash. Angie pushed Zack in the stroller, so he's now officially a road racer too. (And kudos to Angie for getting out there only six weeks post-partum.) After the race, I met up with some friends to play touch football. That was a mistake. Since then, I've been so sore I can barely walk. I'm just not used to moving laterally and jumping. I almost skipped work on Monday because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to drive. I was barely able to, and it was painful to shift my feet between the pedals. If I owned a manual transmission, I never would have made it, as I wouldn't have been able to push the clutch. Needless to say, all of last week's training effort has gone to waste. Luckily, I'm so out of shape I hadn't really gained any ground, so there wasn't much to lose.

The Dawg Dash starts and finishes on the track in the University of Washington's Husky Stadium. Here's a photo of Zack reclining after his all-out effort in the 5k.

  ¶ 9:06 PM

 
Course: Down by the River
Distance: 4 Miles
Time: 34:48

Comments: I managed to squeeze in another training run today. The weather was nasty: cold, wet, and gloomily gray. Training in conditions like that builds mental toughness, something I've found myself lacking recently. The reason I didn't ride my bike to work for the previous two weeks was because I didn't want to deal with a little bit of chill. I need to have a better attitude than that. I always feel great once I get warmed up, and a little mist and cold beats heat and humidity any day.  ¶ 10:36 PM

 
Course: Post to Post
Distance: 3 Miles
Time: 28:59

Comments: Looking back over my running log, I realized today was my first training run since mid-July. I've done a couple of Street Scrambles, an orienteering meet or two, and some biking, but nothing that I'd consider training. That's a three-month hiatus. No wonder I felt so slow.  ¶ 7:33 PM

 

I went on a delivery flight today. I got to sit in the jumpseat during landing, which was extremely cool. The weather was great, and I had excellent views of Adams, Rainier, St. Helens, Olympus, and Baker. And since I was on the flight deck, I didn't even have to crane my neck to see out the window.  ¶ 11:13 PM

 

I'm turning into a lazy slug. I'm using Zack as an excuse to skip my workouts, but the fact is my time management is poor. My only real talent in life seems to be wasting time—I'm a master at it. I want to be a good role model for my son, though, so I need to buckle down. Anyhow, this is a long-winded way of me saying I didn't run or ride my bike today. (And I haven't in a while.)  ¶ 10:28 PM

 

My little boy is a month old today. I can barely believe how fast this is going.

  ¶ 10:31 PM

 
Course: None

Comments: I intended to go for a jog after work today, but Angie got a call from Mrs. Cap'n inviting us over for dinner. I agreed to go, but it left no time for a run. It was nice to have some adult contact though, and the food was delicious (it was my recipe.) Originally, I had planned to bike to work today, but I really want to log some jogging miles. I'm kind of glad I didn't ride, however, as it started raining on the drive home. Biking in the rain can be miserable, especially if you're not wearing the right clothes for it.  ¶ 10:39 PM

 
Course: None

Comments: I intended to go for a short jog after work this evening, but I wimped out. I felt a bit sore from Sunday's orienteering meet, where I slipped off a log and nearly did the splits. That nasty bit of business tweaked my hips and back, and I spent all day today limping around.

I've found that I've slipped into something of a vicious cycle. I go to a race even though I haven't been training, then the race leaves me feeling too sore to train, then I go to a race even though I haven't been training, then the race leaves me . . . you get the picture. I have been biking to work three days a week, which I hope that is doing something for my cardiovascular fitness. I really do need to start running again, though.  ¶ 9:55 PM

 
Course: Lake Sammamish Orienteering
Distance: 4 Miles
Time: 70:20

Comments: I went orienteering this morning. Angie and Zack came along, so it was a family outing. I did rather poorly. I had a lot of trouble moving from control 7 to control 8—besides getting lost in woods trying to find a trail, I used a bench for navigational purposes. Alas, I think the bench was in the wrong place. I should have used the vegetation boundaries instead, because once I did, I went straight to the marker. Benches tend to move, trees and thickets don't.

I had a little bit of trouble finding the last control. Luckily, Zack was on hand to help point out where it was:

  ¶ 8:20 PM