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We dropped Amber and Jillian off at the airport yesterday. And aside from a bumpy start it went pretty well. Wesley was sad and cried a bit, but we talked on the way home and he calmed down by the time we got off airport grounds. Five minutes later he was asleep.

I don’t really think he gets that Amber and Jillian are in Florida and that Florida is a long way off. Every time their is a noise outside he runs to the door and says “Mommy home?”. We’ve talked to her a few times on the phone, but still I don’t think he really understands. He isn’t too upset, but did ask a few times today when Amber would be home.

We have been having a pretty good time together. We went to the park, fed the geese and dug in the dirt. We’ve played soccer and filled up the bird feeder. Tomorrow we’ll go to Whataburger for dinner and get a milkshake then we’ll stop at the playground and play. I’m trying to keep him busy, but also keep him on a more or less normal routine.

I’ve really had a good time with him. I haven’t gotten to spend so much time with him in just about forever. It is amazing how much easier it is with just one kid. Somehow one kid and one parent is easier than two kids and two parents. I’m not sure why, but it is. And it is exponentially easier than one parent and two kids. I don’t know how Amber does it.

While on my run today I saw for the first time a 2008 Volvo C30.  All in all it is an okay looking car and being a Volvo I’m sure it is a fine car.  But what immediately caught my eye was the rear hatch and glass.  It reminded me of something, but what?  Oh that is right.  An AMC Gremlin.  That is a good choice.  Let’s build a car that looks like the ugliest car ever designed.

On the other hand the rear hatch does kind of remind me of a Ford Pinto too.  Another good car to model after.

Maybe it’s just me.

I completed my longest training run before the marathon today.  I managed 20.25 miles at 9:41 minutes per mile.  Slower than I’d like to run in the marathon, but faster than I had planned today and that included a large number of interruptions.  Traffic lights, crosswalks, traffic and even a train slowed me down a bit.  The weather was cool (verging on cold actually), but it felt good after 5 miles or so.

Using the McMillan Running Calculator this time gives me an estimated marathon time of 4 hours, 17 minutes, 43 seconds.  I’d really like my time to be under four hours even if it is 3 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds and 99/100s.  I think I can do it.  A number of factors should help me out.  First is I won’t have to stop at any lights or wait for any traffic (or trains).  Second, I’ll have plenty of water.  Today I ran with just one bottle holding 3 cups of water.  This is just about 1/3 of what I’d like to be drinking.  Third, my new shoes arrived along with new insoles.  They are exactly the same model I have now.  I’ll break them in over the next couple of weeks.  It will be nice to have shoes with some padding again.  I’ve literally put hundreds of miles on my current pair and they don’t really have the same level of cushion they once did.  Fourth, I’m planning on trying out some of those little gel packs.  It is supposed to help provide some energy and electrolytes while you run.  Lastly, and maybe as important as anything else is that it will be a race.  I’ll have adrenaline pumping and I always get a boost running near other runners.  Hopefully it will all add up.

Nearing 20 miles runners talk about “the wall”.  Basically “the wall” is the point at which your body has used up its glycogen stores.  Without available glycogen the body has to burn fat which it doesn’t do very efficiently and can only do aerobically.  Your body starts to give out.  You lose the will to keep going and your basically in bad shape.  In a marathon you still have 6 miles to go, more or less.  I was supposed to hit it today.  I’m not sure if I did or not.  I was certainly tired and I was definitely hurting, but I’m not sure I really hit the wall.  My muscles hurt in a different way than they did after my 18 mile run.  More deep down and at the bone, but I’m not sure that was “the wall”.  I guess I’ll find out for sure during the marathon.  Hopefully things like the energy gels, plenty of water, and ample sports drink will minimize the effects.

From here until the marathon I enter the taper.  I run less and less until the week before the marathon where I only run nine miles.  My longest run is only 12 miles and I don’t do anything for several days before the race.  My plan is to stretch religiously, eat lots of carbs and try not to overdo it.  After the race I plan to do something like what I did today.  Drink a lot, eat a lot, shower (very important) and then go take a short nap.  After that I plan to get up and eat a lot of bbq.  After all 26 miles should burn roughly 3100 calories so I can pretty much eat anything and as much of it as I like.

Along with the tiling project we’ve had a few other projects mostly electrical.  First we put in a new thermostat (thanks to my dad).  It has about a million options, but is frankly darn cool with it’s touch screen and all.  A couple of hours of fiddling through the settings and we once again had heat.  The best part is that it switches from heating to cooling and back automatically.  We have had a couple days in the last month that we’ve needed both A/C and heat within a few hours of each other.

Then a couple of days ago I was turning on the dining room light when I got a shock.  Not one of those little shocks you get when you have a nifty static buildup.  No, this was a shock that made me glad I wasn’t holding Jillian or Wesley at the time.  So in one of my many trips to Home Depot for tile supplies I picked up a new dimmer switch.  I started flipping breakers in the garage and then testing the circuit with my multimeter.  After doing all of them I got a bit concerned.  All breakers off, 110v coming across the switch.  Hmmm…  So I went outside.  Yes here in Texas they put individual breakers on the outside of house.  I thought it might just be my house.  After all a builder who glues tiles to the wall might just be a bit lazy with other things too.  But I talked to Chris who told me his house has the exact same thing.  He has a NICE house.

So to turn off the breaker for our lights I have to go outside, around the side of the house and flip it there.  Why?  I have no idea.  I’ve never seen anything like that in Washington.  Maybe it’s common other places, but it still makes zero sense.