Teaching ... myself

 Wonderful, bizarre, heartbreaking, fulfilling, enlivening , beautiful, satisfying, disappointing, peaceful, stressful, unsure, secure, fun, happy... yeah, I think that pretty much sums up the holiday season for me.  It all began with exams...those works of wonder conjured up by the state to give a uniform standard of measure no matter what the cost - emotionally, academically, or financially.  And once again I got to watch students who know the subject well enough fail because they don't read/comprehend multiple choice questions real well.  And by fail, I mean that they pass the class and the exam but they don't score quite high enough on the exam to be given credit.  So they don't fail, but they do.  The system is bizarre and hurtful.  Oh, and did I mention that its kind of a ju - ju as to how the test is graded.  Some questions don't count, but no one knows which ones those are.  Its all a mystery wrapped in an enigma, balled up in a piece of toilet paper.  Its fr

Don't laugh (well, try not to) - we cut the branches from a 3 year old hanging dead black locust tree (perfect wood - still in perfect shape after all that time) - I did it with Adia on my back and Zoe helped me drag the branches back to the house... in snow flurries. We peeled the branches and then "assembled" the tree in the basement. Wrapped it in lights and voila - Christmas spirit jumped into the house without the guilt of buying a pesticide treated tree that is polluting our groundwater. Thank you Jed and Deby for the idea. Ornaments are not on yet... more pics to come. The standing joke now is "who's go nna water the tree?" . . . . . . . . 1 day later. We put on the ornaments and now the Christmas Twig is complete. Pictures included in various formats for your viewing pleasure:) Pappy, Mimi and Morgan came up today we had a really wonderful visit. It was so great to see them again and reconnect. Me, Zoe, and Morgan went up on Bobcat hill and plastered

Its been a great start to winter so far - as long as you like snow days and cold weather. I read today that this is the 3rd coldest November in the past 80 years here. Zoe, Adia and the dogs like it, though. We all went sledding the other day (on the same sled) and had a ball. Hardly anyone got hurt:) You can see Zoe and Riley in the pic with our newly-being-painted-except-for-this-cold-weather barn in the background. In triabetes news, Reid is into the Triabetes thing full bore and even got his triabetes blog up and running. http://trashmantoironman.blogspot.com/ He is trying to outdo Dave to see how far off the couch he can go - but he's got big shoes to fill. Rumor has it that Dave was interviewed for a story...about him...in the New York Times. I talked to him before the interview but I haven't talked to him since. I hear it will be out in early 2009. I'm pretty proud of those 2 jokers. Which reminds me - I am also proud of my chickens. Nice segway, I know. Of th

All right. A lot has happened. And I am just going to give the condensed version or this would take waaay too long. First and foremost for us is that Ashley was diagnosed with a clot in her leg (saphenous from knee to junction with femoral). She worried she had a clot but had a devil of a time convincing doctors of that. After a few weeks of pain - it changed color and she once again called the doc and they said to go to the ER. After a very long time in the ER and very little sleep and an ultrasound, Ashley's worst nightmare had come true. Now I am not just joking about that. It really is her worst fear..and tornadoes. We would always joke about DVT (deep vein thrombosis) whenever anyone had a twinge of anything in their leg. Joke is on us, now. However, after numerous talks with doctors all over the place (we go to Asheville today for another) we have learned a few things. 1) don't joke about DVT - the universe has a sense of humor (2) DVT is not the guaranteed death we used

Ohhh , back to the blog. I read Dave's tonight and it was so dramatic - bears and diabetic coma and all, that I realized that I have to get back into the swing of things again...at least blogstyle , that is. So I will pick something easy - Halloween. It was fun and simple. Zoe was a dinosaur (she insists it was a Iguanodon ...I'll just have to agree - she's the expert) and Adia was a ladybug. I'll put more pictures on the picassa link. Since Ironman I have basically been reveling in and appreciating my family and have been so surprised that I don't seem to have any more time now than I did when I was training. Hmmm . A short list of things going on. Reid is now training for Triabetes 09 in Arizona and will travel out there soon to sign up. I have gotten to run some with him and have had fun reliving the beginning of the journey. I (with an amazing amount of help from Jon) am painting the house - and it looks rather great (or else it used to look rather bad). I

3am. September 7, 2008. Breakfast. I was 170 and took 4 units and ate the old boiled eggs that I had made for Bill Carlson as well as some cold leftover maccaroni and cheese. Breakfast of champions. I had slept 7 hours at that point and was really doing well mentally. I decided awhile back to enjoy this experience because it would in all likelihood be the only time I ever do Ironman. I was not really nervous...well, at least I wasn't scared. I was even able to sleep another hour. 5am. Michelle and Stacy stop by and pick me up and take me to Ironman. I need to take a moment to thank Michelle for dreaming up this whole project in a coffeeshop and then making it happen - and for supporting me this entire year with advice and smack talk - and for giving up her spot in Ironman to make sure that the documentary gets done right - and for giving up her house to me and my family for a whole week. The lady is amazing. Ok, back to the story. I go to drop my special needs bags off and who do I

OK - its 2:3oam and I am up for breakfast and I checked my email and what do you know, but Michelle sent a link for everyone to follow the Twitter updates. http://search.twitter.com/search?q=triabetes As for me - I have slept well and hope to get another hour or so in. The weather looks good - maybe some T-showers this evening... I was worried about rain during the bike and ended up packing all sorts of junk into the transition bags. My watch has been counting down the days until Ironman and it always seemed so far out. I remember when it fell below 100 days and it seemed like it was just around the corner. Now it says "Ironman Today" and I am actually looking forward to it. It has been such an honor to be a part of this project and to meet all the amazing people involved. Thank you John Moore for moving in next door and playing soccer with me and for finally giving me the running hat that pushed me over the edge to do this thing. As the song on Golden Girls said "thank

We had a great reception this afternoon but I really must get to bed. I am in good spirits and not too nervous. Got my alarm set for 3am to have a breakfast - and then from then on it should all go well. As for tracking athletes - you can go to www.ironman.com and go to "track an athlete" from there - you can type in my bib number or name (my bib is 778). Michelle has set up a twitter account and it should have updates as they come in from Triabetes spotters - the problem is that you need to somehow log in on your phone or something. It is way past my understanding - but you can see her contribution at her blog http://triabetesdocumentary.blogspot.com/ and you can email her at curejesse@gmail.com if you want directions on how to do this. Sorry I am not more help on this - she explained it to me, but it was too much. I will update everything after the race - just been kind of hectic - however, Russ and Reid (talking into Triabetes 09) and Benjamin got here today after

OK, so I finally caved and shaved my legs. The car is packed and ready to go. I just have to remember to put mine and Dave's bike on before we take off tomorrow after school. It seems like a festival like atmosphere this whole week of Ironman - so it should be fun. Its almost sad to be coming to the end because the journey has been so worthwhile.... never thought I'd say that. Thanks to those of you who have supported me and the Triabetes effort - I might finish on Sunday (hopefully before midnight) but the cause that is Triabetes is continual and permanent. I think that we already have a Boonie signing up for Triabetes 09 in Arizona.... I will leak his name as soon as I am sure he is in. I shall try to keep my nerves at bay and to put the whole thing into the proper perspective and just enjoy the marrow out of this experience. Michelle was telling me about a 14 year old kid (snowboarder) who died recently from a diabetic/asthmatic attack and it really reminded me that

Want to join the millions of people in their crazed frenzy over the Triabetes project?? OK - it may not be millions....yet! Michelle is printing up these T-shirts for friends and family and fans - $10 each and you can get them from her blog - http://www.triabetesdocumentary.blogspot.com/ . If that doesn't work, just let me know ( hikeahn@gmail.com ) and I'll get one to you. Also - if anyone wants to follow any Triabetic's race on Sept 7, you can go to http://www.ironmanlive.com/ and type in your athlete's bib number to see how the day is going for them. We won't have our bib numbers until just before the race - but I will update the blog when we get them. If you follow me, just be prepared to stay up late!

A friend once told me the difference between Grace and Mercy. Mercy is when you don't get what you do deserve and Grace is when you do get what you don't deserve. Well, I was the full recipient of ironman grace this weekend. Dave and I had planned on a 7 hour ride-run on sunday and it turned out that Jon and Carole were going to their house in Damascus. So we arranged to ride to Damascus and do a run on the creeper trail - which was flat and soft. I had told myself that this would be my last long day in prep for the race...that after this, it would be all downhill. Well I had some concerns - mainly with my knee. Its been hurting whenever I try to run even though I have hardly been trying to run for quite awhile now. In fact on Thursday I had an issue (not so much pain as just something there) after just jogging slow (and having my HR go crazy) with the stroller for 3 miles. Well, I figured that I would do this last long thing and suffer. But after an absolutely glorious Sund

Well its 32 days until Ironman . I am 35 years old. My blood sugar at lunch was 39 yesterday. I swam 32 laps at lunch to make a mile yesterday. When I got out of the pool my blood sugar was 39 again. Holy cow, everything is happening fast. Last week I did the Making a Difference camp at the High School and had a good time at that but realized that I was now on work schedule and summer was officially over. This week school starts and all the stress that goes with that. Dave and I did a swim brick this weekend out in Hampton, TN. We swam for an hour and rode for 3. The wind was decent and we got to feel what roughish conditions were like. All went well, though and it was good to not be in a pool. We just hugged the shoreline because there were a lot of boats out. Monday I had to get in a 4 hour ride (I only did 3.5) - I rode for 2 hours on the trainer from 4:30 to 6:30am (which really isn't much fun) and then I hit the road when it got light and went to our first school workday. I s

I found a relatively flat course to ride - I mean its a loop and its got plenty of elevation change - but for around here it is really flat and nice. I was able to ride the 55 mi at an avg of 16.2mph - that is nice and gives me some wiggle room on the run if I can keep it up. Right now I am a bit out of commission due to my IT band problem in my knee. I tried to run a 7 mile trail the other day and really had some more issues. So no running for awhile. That is a hard thing to do because I really start to freak out about not being able to do the run. I emailed John to talk me down a bit and he did so like it was nothing. It will be good to see that guy in a little over a month. So anyway I've been biking more and coming up with excuses not to swim...which is getting to be a problem. Well, yesterday morning I was going to do the 55 mile route again early - I woke up at 3 to eat breakfast so I could take a full bolus - but then Zoe woke up right away with me (cosleeping). I though

I am continually amazed at how much work it is taking to barely finish this Ironman . I have 2:20 for the swim (I can do that), 8 hours for the bike (its going to be tight), and then 6.5 hours for the marathon (also tight). However, any time I save on any part goes to the next part - the times I gave are for the cutoffs. Yesterday I went and rode 100 miles - I did 2 loops of the Blood, Sweat, and Gears 50 (and had to add on a couple of miles because the BSG is more like 48 miles) - its a pretty mountainous route from the center of the universe (Valle Crucis School - Dave's school, my old school) up to the gate to Grandfather Mountain and back around. I did it in 7:00 (minus a 15 min stop half way in to call Ash and redo water, etc) - which makes for 14.3 mph average. To make the cutoff, I have to keep 14mph. On the plus side - I kept my average heartrate to 128 (69%max) - Rick said to shoot for 70% - and I felt absolutely great. I kept the water/salt intake good and I was

The term "Brick" has had a lot of influence on my life. Billy used to call me that. My car was named the brick-mobile (thanks again Bill). My dad (and I in the summers) worked for a Brick plant. Now it means "a way to be uncomfortable for long periods of time". I took a day off after the marathon and then did a 50 mile ride with Dave. My knee still bothered me some, so I took 2 days off and then did the long brick with dave . Supposedly in the athletic world lingo, "brick" means "bike-run"? We did the 5 hour bike followed by the 2 hour run. I got up at 3am and ate breakfast then went back to sleep. Got up at 5:00 and was out at Moses Cone Park (on the Blue Ridge parkway) by 6 and we were off. We did loops up to Grandfather mountain and back, stopping each time to weigh ourselves (yes, we brought a scale) to try to figure out sweat rates. It was cool that day so it was easy to stay hydrated... but it still took more than I would hav

Here's the lowdown on my Grandfather Mountain Marathon. I cut my lantus down to 8 units the night before and didn't take anything in the morning. I woke up and ate breakfast at 3am so I could take a full bolus. My blood sugars that day were between 140 and 100 the whole day until the night when they rose a bit. So success on the glucose front. I then woke up at 5:30 and headed over to the marathon. It was a bit unnerving as everyone I talked to seemed to be pretty experienced and when I mentioned that this was my first one, the comment was always a variation of "well, you sure picked a hard one to start with" or "well, this is the hardest road marathon in North America"... I mean, come on - that is a little discouraging. So we go down through town and pass the mall - and there is Dave. I didn't know whether he would be there but suddenly there was company. So we went along and headed uphill. Somewhere in the first 5 miles, Dave says (in typical Dave fas