Getting My Chaos Back!

If you’ve been along for the ride here lately, you know I’ve been home alone for close to two weeks and I’m LOSING MY MIND! I’m so bored and lonely and pretty much miserable. My wife and kids are in California visiting our family and having a bit of a summer vacation. I have that “work” think, so I’m here in Colorado. But tonight! I’m going to the airport! I’m getting my chaos back! Oh, and I have an update on Jack and a running update. Jack ended up having a good week. I did too and I’m surprised my legs didn’t fall off.

Bachelor No More!

So tonight at 8:25, my wife and two of my kids, Jack and Ava, are getting back to Colorado! (Benjamin is hanging out with my parents and in-laws for another week) But I guess I’m still kind of a bachelor until tonight. Yesterday I had to make my lunch for today. I had to make the coffee and my breakfast this morning. I don’t have to ask for permission to go to the gym after work tonight. I didn’t need to tiptoe around while getting ready for my run this morning. I set out the last of the 12 frozen meals Tiff made for me before going to California so that it would thaw by dinner time tonight.

It kind of sounds like a dream for a guy — no wife nagging, no kids fighting, nobody preventing a nap. But I hate being alone and I get lonely and depressed so I’m looking forward to getting back into my chaotic routine. If I didn’t want all the commotion and surprises that come with getting married and having kids, I wouldn’t have gotten married or had kids!

I did my best getting the house ready before it gets the white-glove inspection tonight. Actually, it would fail the white-glove inspection. But I emptied the trash, did my laundry, did the dishes, cleaned off the island in the kitchen (well, not totally, but kind of), went through the mail … I think she’ll let me live another day when we get back from the airport and she inspects the house. Oh, and I’m getting an oil change in her Suburban today. The dog didn’t die, I made the bed this morning (first time in two weeks, of course) … I think I did well enough. We’ll see!

Quick pic: Here’s my princess Ava having fun at Farrell’s last night, her last night in California until probably next summer.

Jack Update

Jack had a rough start to his week, but a great finish. Just in case you’ve never been here before and you don’t know who Jack is, he’s my son, he’s coming up on 9, and he’s severely autistic. Check here and see what Operation Jack is. It’s my attempt to do what I can to make lemonade out of the lemons he was given.

He had one bite of an ice cream cone last weekend, maybe Saturday or so (nine days ago, not this past Saturday). That one little bite of the ice cream cone put enough gluten into his system to make him a wreck for a few days. It’s like he’s on drugs. He woke up at about 3 a.m. Sunday morning and was laughing hysterically watching the same scene from a movie over and over again. Sometimes, we’re happy when he’s at least happy, even if he’s not playing appropriately. 3 a.m. is not one of those times, though.

We get a charcoal supplement in his system as quick as possible to try to flush the badness out, because the gluten can really make him turn for the worse. Once he gets that bite, there’s no un-doing it — we can only minimize the potential catastrophe. Oh, and when I say “we” in this case, I mean Tiff, because she was with him in California and I’m in Colorado.

Anyways, after a day or so, he did take a turn for the worse. He had major intestinal pain. He can’t communicate that to us and he gets frustrated. When he does that, he hits himself in the head. And then he bruises and gets headaches. It’s a vicious cycle that he doesn’t deserve, all from one bite of an ice cream cone. Poor little man didn’t even get any ice cream!

You hate seeing your kids suffer, you really hate seeing your kids suffer when they don’t understand you can’t help them and you really, really hate seeing your kids suffer when they’re only suffering because they were dealt a crappy hand and all they did was eat a bite of an ice cream cone.

But he recovered after a few days. He’s been doing really well with his therapy lately and is showing progress. Ultimately, we want to have a conversation with him someday. That’s not too much to ask after nearly nine years of raising a child, right? But if he needs to get to the 10th floor, and he’s only on the 2nd floor, we need to worry about the 3rd floor. We can’t only focus on the 10th floor. So, baby steps it is.

On Saturday, he did something he hadn’t done before. He’s moderately good at asking for what he wants with some prompting.

“What do you want, Jack?”

In his muffled voice, he’ll say, “I … want … chip” or “I … want … drink” … well, on Saturday, he told Tiff, “I want … hungry.” In theory, that sentence is incorrect, but we were happy about that. He was telling her a feeling/emotion and communicating that to her in hopes of getting what he wanted in return (and he got what he wanted — In-N-Out fries!). It’s never been an emotion before — it’s always just been an object. One of these days, he’s going to figure out that he gets what he wants when he talks and have a major breakthrough. Right now, we’re still praying for that day and doing everything we can for him.

I Like To Run. A Lot.

Good thing I like to run because I did a whole heck of a lot of it last week. I actually set a new personal best with 130 miles. I’m training for a marathon that I’m running on September 1 and my miles have been lower than normal the past year or so. Life has gotten in the way, which is fine. I’d rather neglect my running than my life. But I’ve settled into a groove in Colorado and I knew that this month and this week I’d be running high mileage. In the 12 weeks I’m using to get ready for this race, I knew I had to go through a big endurance-building phase to get back to where I was. I typically like to run 70+ miles a week and I seem to thrive on 90+. But for a year, it seemed like it was only in the 40s or 50s.

So I decided to step it up and get my groove back. I want to qualify for the Boston Marathon and go run it for the sixth straight year next April, and Sept. 1 is my final chance to qualify. So I’ve been focused. I’ve lost a dozen pounds and am now 10 pounds lighter than I’ve ever been for a marathon. I’m feeling good. And like I said, I’m running high mileage. I’ve averaged 99 a week for the past six weeks.

Anyways, here’s how I got to 130:

Monday: 14 easy AM, 6 progressive on the treadmill after work
Tuesday: 12 easy AM, 4 progressive on the treadmill after work
Wednesday: 14 moderate AM, 6 progressive on the treadmill after work
Thursday: 15 moderate AM, 5 progressive on the treadmill after work
Friday: 14 easy AM, 4 progressive on the treadmill after work
Saturday: 30 AM (kind of controlled effort, not too hard)
Sunday: 6 recovery AM

I think my average pace for the week was somewhere in the low 8:20s. I’m pretty happy about that, especially considering I’m up at 5,400 feet and 105 of those miles were run on trails. Long week. But I’m better for it and feeling strong. Starting to get some confidence in my running again. Speed is getting better and heart rate is getting lower. Now I just need to start working in some higher intensity stuff to get the turnover going and I should be set for a good day with a good taper.

Anyways, that’s it for today. Tell me something awesome! Have a great Monday!