LTC's Last Day

Skipped the spin class because I wasn't for sure the instructor would
show up. She's a teacher and today the school was out as part of
spring break. Instead I went down to the trail to run. It was
raining and cool. It took me awhile to get out of the car and get
started. Once I started it felt pretty good. I only ran three miles
even though I had planned to run six. I have that PT test Friday so
went kind of easy to day. Went to the gym afterwards and worked out
with Jimbo.

I have a doctor's appointment today. Hopefully today the doctor will
tell me the results of my thyroid byopise.

Today is the LTC's last day at work. He's a great guy. Hate to see
him go. We really needed someone like him after LTC Dingleberry left.
What a tool he was.

Bird Feeder and Carburated Pipe

This morning me and my Dad go up early. He usually gets up earlier then I do and I get up around 0530. This morning we went to the Oakdale diner and had eggs, biscuts and lot's of coffee. We then went walking on the trail at Oakdale. It was kinda chilly.

We then went home and hung the bird feeder that he brought. I put it up in the back yard. I don't know what the homeowners assocation will say, but I want to see some birds this Spring and Summer. Now I just have to keep Geecko away from them. Gecko is my grey tabbey that we adobted and brought back from Guam. He's a little crazy. He spends most of his time outside killing small animals. He just comes in to eat and sleep. He sleeps on his back with his legs spread open and his privates airing for all the world to see.

We then went to Home Depot and bought a spade and twenty feet of carburated pipe. It seems that I have a low area behind my back deck that collects puddles of water and turns it into a swamp. I put up with it last year but I am not willing to do it this year. We dug a a trench from the metal drain the the yard up my little swamp. It was a very muddy and messy job but we finally got it buried. Hope it works. Dad says it will. Sure hope so.

Mom and Dad's visit and Kids

I went to spin class to day. MB was the intstructor. She's tough. This was the second time I had her as an instructor. She's tough, so you get a good work out with her. Lisa is nice, but not as hard.

Mom and Dad came up today. They will be staying until Sunday. I really enjoy when they come up. Dad brought his homemade pickled eggs and a Deer hindquarter for jerky. I cut it up. You can get quite a lot of meat off of it. I still think it's not worth the trouble though to hunt deer. It far easier just to buy beef. I'm not against hunting and I love the outdoors, it's just that it more trouble then its worth to scout an area, hunt, drag and cut up a deer.

My daughter has been doing really well in school this year. This is different then what has been the norm for the last few years. I'm really proud of her. She's worked hard this year. She's wanting to get her ears pierced in the little inside lobe. Strange place if you ask me, but she really wants it. I'm working on my wife to get it for her.

My son came home recently and said he signed up for Marine Jr ROTC at school. He starts HS next year. I never knew that he was intersted in the military at all. I never influence him one way or another. I'm really proud of him though. I think it was be the greatest thing if I could visit him some day as he graduated from one of the service's boot camp. Doesn't matter which and I'll try not to influence him one way or another. If he does join up, he'll be graduating about the sametime I'll be retiring. I'll have twenty years in the Army come 2008.

I really can't believe as to how quick my kids have grown. Sometimes I wish I could just shrink them down when they was 2 or 4. Sometimes when I look at the old photos I almost cry.

Geocaching with Atlanta Friend

Today I ran two miles of hill repeats on the treadmill at the AFB. I felt really good although I had a slight pain under my left knee cap. It went away after about 5 min. Hope it's not anything major. I'm going to lay off for a little while. My Mom and Dad are coming up tomorrow so this will give me an excuse not to run until they go home on Sunday.

Also, our QC at Atlants SFC Mac came up for a visit. I picked him up at the airport and dropped him off at Embassy Suites. I told him that I would be back to pick him up at 1500 to go hiking at RCSP. I left work at 1400 went home, changed, and picked him up. We parked at the trail head of Forrest trail at the north end of the dam. I had only been on that trail once and that was when I ran the loop a year ago. I forgot how nice of a trail that part is. I indtroduced him to Geocaching. The weather was rainy and cool. Very nice hiking weather. We picked up the first part of the multicache called "The elves tree a racoon". I had found it before but did not follow up on the last part. This time we found it. It was down a road that cut the trail and up a little hollow. The interesting thing about this one was that it was suspended from a tree. It was really cool. I saw it and we managed to get one photo of us in the fading light. MAC had a great time as did I.

Spinning with Mary Beth

This morning I had a great workout. I went to spin class at the gym and afterwards I ran two miles on the treadmill at a pretty good rate. I then worked on my pushups. I have an Army Physical Fitness Test scheduled next week. It is easy to pass. For a 38 year old male, you have to do 34 push-ups in two minutes and 38 sit-ups in two minutes. You have to do the two mile run in 18:18. However, just doing the minimum has never been part of my plan. I always go for the max which is 73 push-ups, 76 sit-ups and run in 13:35. Last time I scored a 298 out of a possible 300. I'm not sure about it this time though. I've been slacking on my push-ups. We'll see.

I'm still really excited about the Trail Run in June and the 50 miler in November. I have to sit down and figure out a workout schedule. I want to start training for the 50 miler, but I know it is way too soon. I'll wait until I come back from my trip to Alaska in June. That should give me enough time. In the meantime, I'll just concentrate on the trail run. I'd like to do it and the bike race following the run, but I've got to get my bike fixed.

Doing Nothing

Well, I did not run or hike today. Even though it is warm outside it
is a rainy dreay day. I think I'll spend this morning on the
computer. Later on we are going to paint my daughter's room. I don't
like the color (a sea color blue), but I'm not in charge. We'll see
how it turns out. My wife is usually right in these matters so it
will probably turn out good.

Where's George?

Well I went running today. I like to get up early in the morning when everone is still asleep and go out. Today I went up to the park and ran the Lake - Forest Trail loop in a counter clockwise direction and then reversed and ran the loop clockwise. Total mileage was almost 8 miles. It took me 1:42. I took my time and enjoyed the almost Spring weather. Very nice out today.

I felt really good and I'm pretty confident that I'll do OK in a 14 mile Trail Race which is scheduled in June in Sarver PA. It is put on by American Adventure Sports and is a great race. I did it last year. It is called the Buffalo Stampede.

I made time to stop by a Geocache right off Forest Trail. I took a "Where's George" $1 bill which had a request to go westward. I have a special trip planed in June and it is going with me. I replaced it with something special to me. I won't say what it is, but it is on the right shoulder of every Soldier in BDU uniform. The cache is part one of a two part cache. I didn't have time to locate the second part but I will for sure go back.

Something New

Well this is a new thing I'm trying. Not really sure how it will turn out. I mainly just want something to record my running and hiking. I'm planning on running a 50 miler in November and need someway to record my running. I also do a lot of hiking and want to record where I go and what I see. I figure this will be a good way to do it.

A little bit about myself:

I'm 38 and presently live in Pittsburgh PA. I'm married a wonderful Turkish woman and have two children who are 14 and 16 and are the best kids anyone could wish for. I joined the Army in 1984 and have been stationed overseas four times. I was in Cakmakli Turkey, Camp Darby Italy, Heidelburg GE, and Guam. I really love to travel and I plan on driving to Alaska this summer with my father and son.

I enjoy running and hiking. I usually go to Racoon Creek State Park on weekends. It's a very nice place to go and I look forward to it every weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to run on the trails there. I plan on running the Lake Trail and loop around the Forrest Trail and probably backtrack back to the start. It'll be about 8 miles. I'll let you know tomorrow how it turns out.