Vacation Preperations

Things have been going well, despite the fact I have been a no show on the blog world lately. Last Saturday I went for a run with a faster friend of mine who pushed me during a 6 miler. We started out at a 9:30 pace, which is my normal speed for this distance and by mile 5 he was pushing me at 8:45. I was having a hard time keeping up, but glad I did. When I downloaded my Garmin, I realized that I had run at an average pace of 9:13 for the six miles. I was happy with my progress and albeit out of breath thanked him for pushing me.

The rest of Saturday, I helped him finish installing/building a screen porch on his deck. I figured he had a few hours of work left but found myself still there 8 hours later. I was late to dinner at party my wife and son were already at. I showed up late, apologized and they were kind enough to keep everything out for me. I was glad to help my friend finish and look forward to breaking the porch in some time in the future.

Sunday I didn’t run but played tennis with my son. I got him 2 rackets for his birthday a few weeks ago and had not had the opportunity to play. We just tried to volley the ball back and forth, as neither of us are very good. It was nice to spend some time together and I did manage to get a little exercise in chasing the tennis ball all over the court. I was just reading they have different size tennis balls that have different compression to bounce slower and faster for practice. I need to investigate and find some that have a slower bounce so we can practice a bit.

I am looking forward to the upcoming holiday weekend, especially since I will be on vacation and away from work for 11 days starting this Thursday. We are heading to Wisconsin for the week and a few other families we know will be up there vacationing at the same time. We are trying to coordinate a few activities such as tubing down the Wisconsin River past Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin, a Brewers game, the Madison zoo and just hanging out at the lake and pool. I am planning on taking a day trip to New Glarus, Wisconsin, home of the New Glarus brewery. New Glarus is only sold in Wisconsin and I can’t get it anywhere in Illinois. I am planning to stock up on my trip to the brewery. I do plan on keeping up with my training. That is why I signed up for another ½ marathon in August to keep me accountable and on track.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth of July celebration!