Potty Training, Ironman Training and Parent Training

First and foremost, I apologize for my tardiness in updating my blog.  My goal is to update it once a week which I will continue to shoot for.  The title of my post pretty much sums up the last few weeks.  It's been an adventure to say the least.

First off, Ironman training.  I started out the year going strong knowing that St. George was only a short 4 months away.  St. George came and went and then our big adventure with Kona Inspired came about.  I didn't slow down in my training and have kept at it 6 days a week since January.  I don't remember the last day that I didn't at least swim, bike or run except for Sundays.  Most days I do at least 2 disciplines and some days it's all 3.  This training has been rigorous to say the least.  Last week alone I trained 19 hours with my totals being: swimming 7800 yards, biking 184 miles and running 43 miles.  I've got my routine down pretty well now.  Bedtime is 9:30pm, I wake up at 4:30 and am out the door by 5:00.  It's getting lighter much later now so every morning I get to watch a complete sunrise which is a highlight.  Usually when I get on my bike that early my legs are tired from the previous days workout.  I'm kinda sleepy and wouldn't call myself "chipper" by any means.  I ride for 45 minutes or so with my headlamp then that ever faithful sun creeps over the mountain.  By the time I'm an hour plus into it I'm feeling good.  The endorphins kick in and my pace picks up.  That thought of "what in the heck am I doing this early in the morning" is replaced by "I'm glad I'm doing this, it feels great!"  I like to jump off my bike and go for a little jog.  The air is still crisp and the smell of fall is just around the corner.  My running route takes me through the edge of golden wheat fields and tall corn stalks.  This is soooo much better than running on a treadmill in the winter when theres snow on the ground.  I've grown to love the feeling of pushing myself.  Once my training for the morning is done, I'm meticulous about stretching and using the foam roller to roll out the aches and pains.  I've learned the hard way that you have to take the time to do this every single workout or I will get injured. 

All of this fun in the wee morning hours is something I do alone most of the time.  Not necessarily by choice, but I don't mind getting to go at it alone.  Last Saturday I did get to ride with my good friend Doug.  We left at 4:30am and rode 104 miles.  As I write that I shake my head because I realize how stupid that would have seemed to me a few years ago, but believe it or not, it was a lot of fun.

As I ride and run, I often times think of the kids we are racing for.  I've had Maggie on my mind a lot lately.  We don't know a lot about her except that she's been transferred to an institution.  We don't know how bad her circumstances are or what her health is like right now.  That goal of $15,000 can't come soon enough.  We're nearing $11,000 but still have some work to do.

Now onto the entertaining part, potty training.  We decided to potty train Nash and Ridge this week.  Day 1 started Monday with 30 pairs of "big boy undies".  By the time I got home from work at 5:30 we were down to 5.  I took over for 30 minutes while Andrea ran some errands.  There were 2 accidents.  I don't know how Andrea has the patience to endure this all day.  A full Ironman has nothing on the mental fortitude that she must face each day trying to get these boys to do their business in the potty.

The pinnacle came Tuesday night.  I had to run over to a families house in our neighborhood for a few minutes.  I left at 8:31pm and was back at 9:03.  In the span of 32 minutes all heck broke loose.  Nash had an accident (number 1) right after I left in the kitchen while he was eating some cereal.  He decided he would try and hide it by moving the kitchen stool over the mess.  In doing so he slipped in the wet mess and hit his head on the edge of the kitchen stool cutting open his eye.  Andrea comes in to find a bloody and wet mess of Nash laying on the floor.  It gets better.  Ridge heard the commotion and came running in to investigate.  Andrea had Nash over the sink trying to stop the bleeding so Ridge pulled the kitchen stool over to the sink and was standing on it checking out his bleeding brother.  Andrea looked over at Ridge and saw that he was peeing all over while watching Nash.  Andrea in a surprised voice told him he was peeing.  It surprises Ridge and he jumps off the stool and slips on his own pee, smacking his head on the ground.  So now she has two crying kids and two messes to clean up. 

Hold on, it gets better.  Andrea cleans the boys up and takes them up stairs to watch a show while she cleans up the mess downstairs.  While she's downstairs cleaning the mess she hears Nash say, "Oh no!"  She looks up the stairs to see Nash holding what we later find out is Ridge's pooh in his hand trying to help clean up his brothers recent mess.  I thought that was really cute even if it was kinda gross.  Andrea goes up stairs only to find Ridge did his number 2 business on the carpet in front of the TV and had it all over him.  Nash had it all over him from trying to help his brother out.  She then puts both of them in the tub and gets them all cleaned up.

Right about this time Brynlee and I came strolling through the door happy as clams after our little visit with the neighbors.  I go up stairs only to see the mess at the top of the stairs.  Then I see Nash's eye.  Then, in what seemed like the slow motion you see in the movies when someone doesn't dare turn to look at his sure death, I slowly turned to look at Andrea.  I was sure that she would have a look that would turn me to stone or cause me to go into convulsions or something horrible like that.  We made eye contact and she smiled.  The kind of smile that says, "you are never going to believe what just happened".  Hats off to her.  I honestly don't know how she is so patient.  Had this happened to me I would have called 911 and then crawled into the fetal position hoping the authorities arrived soon. 

So that brings me to my last training I'm experiencing and that is parent training.  The only bad thing about this training is it seems to be a "teach yourself as you go" type of training.  I've learned that there's not a manual because every kid would require their own 12 volume set because they are all different.  The crazy thing is what might work for one is the complete opposite for the other.  Don't let me fool you though, I love it.  I wouldn't trade being a parent to these 3 rug rats for anything and I know Andrea shares the same sentiments. 

We're having a great time watching the Olympics the last few days and we can't wait for the fair coming up.  Brynlee can't wait to see if Harley the Hog has gotten even fatter than last year.  I may need to take a break from counting calories the day we go though.  I'm not sure my "caloric intake" would approve of the 4 corn dogs and bag of cotton candy I'm going to have!