Chuck’s World

I am taking the summer off. I want to concentrate on me and my family. We need some downtime. I am thinking I will be back when school starts, though I am still trying to decide if I want to keep this site as it is currently.

Hope you all have a great summer!

-Chuck

I am blessed to have a wonderful mother, mother-in-law and a wife who is a wonderful mother to my two children. I couldn’t ask for a better trio of ladies. They each have made a wonderful impact on my life and the lives of my son and daughter.

Thank you all for for your commitment, sacrifice and love. All three of you have brought great joy to our lives.

Well, I have another couple of days of training down. I did 2 miles Wednesday night and then last night we did 5 miles of speed intervals, where we would run at maximum heart rate for a mile, then slow down to 75% and repeat. I don’t have a heart rate monitor, but I can tell you without a doubt I was up to my maximum heart rate!

For the first time since I started this, I triggered something that caused full body inflammation, like I was beginning to have another flare up with my Psoriatic Arthritis. Basically, every muscle and joint hurt. It hit about an hour after I got home. I am not sure if it was just the shock of last night or if it was just a coincidence of my body just not liking me again. This training program is not fully endorsed by my Rheumatologist. I have decided to do it anyway. I can either gradually let this stuff overcome me (I almost did) or I can fight back. I have 16 months of fighting back under my belt. I want to keep going and take it to the next level. I have learned that I am actually going to have to bring my fitness beyond where it was, before I got sick. to reach my goals. Fortunately, all of the inflammation was gone this morning. It was just normal muscle soreness.

Both of our children made it to the state soccer tournament, so we will be doing that all weekend. My legs could use a rest, so even though I will miss a long run, I think it will be good for them to recover a bit. I may try to run a couple of miles Saturday night, if possible and we haven’t all passed out from the day. I don’t need to take too many days off or I will be back to trying to catch up again.

I guess that’s all for this update. We had another good day. I am gradually starting to relax at our training sessions and just let it happen. The more I do that, the better. Our 8K run is on May 31. That’s only 4 weeks away!

p.s. Another thanks goes out to Debbie. She took care of getting both the kids to soccer practice. Fortunately, they were scheduled in the same place. They weren’t at the exact time though. She and Hunter both had to wait for Brittany to finish. I couldn’t do this without her and the kids help and support.

I have been meaning to post this for awhile, but for some reason neglected to do so. Hunter’s and Brittany’s soccer teams made it to the district tournament a couple of weeks ago. They both did very well and qualified for the state championship this weekend.

To put that in perspective, only 16 teams out of hundreds, all over the state, in their age group made qualified. So, regardless of the outcome this weekend we are so proud of them both with their game play, but most of all their sportsmanship and how they and the rest of their team members have handled themselves on and off the field. It is amazing some of the things you see in children’s sports, both from the kids and the parents. Fortunately, we have been blessed to have coaches, who want to win. However, they also understand the importance of playing with respect, dignity and as a team.

Great job Hunter and Brittany! We are so proud of you both, as we always are!