Root Canals, Master's Swim, Feb Challenge, Science Fairs and Stanky Creek!

Root canal!  How many people does that phrase scare? Well, I have the mother of all root canal stories to tell because this thing was a 2 part adventure! Last Thursday I went to my dentist to get the root canal done. Now my dentist does not do a lot of root canals, but he thought he could get mine done in the office. It was to be performed on the very back bottom tooth of my left side (#18 for any teeth weirdos). Long story short, he could not get it all cleaned out so on Monday, I got to go back to another dentist  who specializes in root canals and get it finished. Then after that appointment, I got to go back to my dentist while I was still numb and get a temporary crown! My mouth was numb for hours all the way up to my ear! All in all, both dentists did a really great job because it was not painful at all, it was just tough being in a dentist chair all morning. Thankfully they both had some really good nitro oxide for me, very relaxing!

MASTER"S SWIM!

Let me say this, just because I go to a master's swim class, it does not make me a master at swimming. It has been a long time since I attended one of these classes and I was anxious to go. It started out well, then we went into our kick set. I have a horrible kick to my swim. I went form being one of the first ones done to the back of the pack when we focused on our kicking. The coach on deck came over and told me "most triathletes have a horrible kick, so if you work on it some, you will be that much more quicker in the water". My take from that remark was this:

I SWIM LIKE A TRIATHLETE! BOOM!

I think the Master's class will definitely help my swim, since I am only swimming twice a week for the Olympic race in May, I think I will hit the class a few time a month and then work on my endurance. I was able to swim a 1:35 to 1:40 100.

February Challenge:

I am still going full steam ahead with my challenge in February. I am looking forward to it actually and I have challenged my Brad D to post my before and after pictures on the blog, because he says he is doing the same. (I will give people fair warning on that post, don't worry).

Science Fair

These are the two words that scare me the most, not root canal! I was never very good at science in school and I do not remember ever building a science fair project, but middle 6th grader and I are attempting to build a simple electric generator out of cardboard, a nail, some magnets and copper wiring. Please pray it works!

Stanky Creek 8K

Sunday was the 3rd race in a series of trail runs I have been doing. An 8K race through the trails of Stanky Creek, and yes, the creek was a factor in this one. Luckily for us, it was pretty low, and by pretty low, I mean my shoes did not get wet. The race was going great for me until I took a tumble about 1.4 miles into it. I was passing a guy and just tripped over a root and went flying! It scared me a little and really threw me off my vibe. Trail runs are hard to race. You can never see what is coming up due to the person right in front of you, and this was a narrow trail which made it difficult to pass people. i also twisted my ankle on something at about mile 4 which freaked me out also. Only thing I ever worry about on a trail run is twisting an ankle, and I thought my season was over. Luckily it was just sore for a day, and is feeling better. I finished the race in 45:31, which was good enough for 14/45 AG, 98/433 OA and left me in 13th place for the series in my AG. One more race to go in that series in two weeks!

Missed Workout, Science Fair, and "Sick " Moves

One thing I was really wanting to complete this year was to stay on course with my training plan, which I basically mean, I did not want to miss any of the planned workouts. When I cross the finish line and I am celebrating my newest PR, I wanted to say "I trusted my plan and I hit every workout!" But that is not going to happen and I feel like crap about it.

I have to remember that this is a hobby for me and that I have other responsibilities I have to take care of, so there will be some days when I do not make a workout. Whether it is being in court all day or meetings that go long, sometimes it can;t be helped. Sometimes it is just a matter of running out of time. It happens and is going to happen so I might as well get over it.

I did however make up one of the workouts I was suppose to do yesterday, but it still bothers me. The reason for me missing was I got out of a meeting really late, and I had to coach my sons basketball team that night. So if I was going to hit the gym, then coach, I would not get home till after 8:30 PM and my wife does not like that, and neither do I. We have both had a tough week and it is all because of three of the most vile words ever known to parents:

SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS!!!

I hate science, much less science projects. My son worked on Galvanic cells for his project. I would explain more about this, but I do not even understand it. His first pick was that he wanted to clone cabbage! Cabbage?  Out of everything in this world to clone, he picked cabbage???? We shot that down pretty quick. Last year we did the whole Mento in a 2 liter and watch the show project so the jump to Galvanic cells was epic major!

Which leads me to another topic. Jon, over at swicyclorun did a whole post on how the word epic "has jumped the sharktank" and should be retired. Not everything is "epic" and I agree with Jon. I would also like to add a word to be retired. The word sick being used as meaning "awesome". Do not say anything is sick unless they are actually sick. None of this ,"that run was sick" or the water was sick this morning on my swim". No more unless you are on the Jersey Shore. it really bugs me.



I hate cats, but it is all I could find, and my post gots to have pics!


I have a 5k trail run this Sunday. It will be my first run outside and not on a dreadmill in weeks, so we will see if all the dreadmill work has helped me in anyway. I am hoping to beat last years time and go 2 for 2 on PR'ing races this year!  Wouldn't that be cool, to be able to say I PR'd everything???  It could happen...