Bill and Cathy McArthur Spring/Summer/Fall 2011: 4

  Monday, June 20, Bill awoke around 5:00 AM. It was clear from the weather radar that it would rain all morning, so Bill worked on catching up on his journal, colorizing the dark spots in the shower, and doing crossword puzzles. Cathy went to her two classes at the gym. Bill did some research in the Thrive Diet book to see what would work for adding some good protein to his diet. He found that hemp seed was a good choice. He also discovered that flaxseed can supply omega-3 and pumpkin seed can supply iron. Bill went to Kitchen & Company to buy some K-cups, then he looked in vain for Garden Mart, which was supposed to be in the Midway shopping plaza. He drove to Rehoboth Beach and visited Rainbow Earth Natural Foods at 220 Rehoboth Avenue. He was able to get the three seed varieties and also some red quinoa. On the way back home, Bill stopped back at Kitchen & Company to buy a Cuisenart Smart Stick hand blender. When he got back home, he blended a 6 ounce pack of Dannon Light & Fit, 1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds (Iron), 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds (protein), and 3 tablespoons of flaxseeds (omega-3 fatty acids), blended. He discovered that he should have added 1/4 cup of water to the mixture, but it was OK as is. At lunch time, Bill put the "Seedful Yogurt" on top of his bowl of fruit. After lunch, Bill mixed some Revcoverite and headed to the Trail for a run. He walked for 2 miles and ran for 5 miles. He wore a heart rate monitor for the first time in a couple of years. When Bill got home, he took a shower and a 40 minute nap. Later, he began to use his blog to report on his workouts and nutrition and sent an email to Coach Nicki explaining how he would be reporting. We had quinoa and a frozen meal for dinner. We viewed "Constantine's Sword" - a great documentary, reinforcing what Bill believes about organized religion. Bill discovered that TiVo wasn't delivering streaming NetFlix.

  Tuesday morning again threatened to rain, an empty threat as it turned out. Bill decided that his legs didn't want to ride the bike, so he decided to wait until noon to launch on a kayak paddle. Cathy went to her two classes at her gym. Bill ate an early lunch and drove to Anglers Marina to launch by noon. The tide was right to head south on the canal. Bill paddled to the Rusty Rudder on Rehoboth Bay in Dewey Beach. He landed on the beach for a couple of minutes to drink a G2 and stretch and then paddled away. The wind was gusting from the south on Rehoboth Bay causing 2 to 4 foot waves. Bill paddled for 18 miles at 3.9 mph. We had tortellini for dinner and viewed the last half of "The Edge of Darkness" - a very good thriller with a good acting job done by Mel Gibson.

  Wednesday morning, we were awakened around 3:00 AM by a 30 minute long T-storm. We both got up around 6:00 AM. Cathy went to her two gym classes. Bill did a duathlon training set: 2M run @ 9:16 min/mi, 20M bike @ 17 mph, 5K run @ 8:54 min/mi. It was very sweaty, but a good workout. Bill drank his Recoverite and two 10 ounce glasses of water when he was done. After a long stretching session, Bill got a shower. After lunch, Bill took a short nap. We went out to do a bit of shopping at Kitchen & Company for a knife sharpener, WaWa for gas, Starbucks, WalMart for a bottle drying rack, the Nike outlet for four water bottles, and the Running company for a new pair of tri-shorts ($75). We went to dinner at Cafe Azafran on Baltimore Avenue in Rehoboth Beach. We had a good tapas meal amidst a horde of flies on the back patio. We watched an episode of "30 Rock" when we returned home.

  Thursday, Bill officially quit drinking G2. He drank a bottle of Heed with breakfast, because this was a workout day. He planned to drink water with breakfast on rest days. Bill decided that he would just spend a couple of hours kayaking, but do some hard intervals during the workout. He launched at about 8:30 AM and spent the first 30 minutes paddling hard out Roosevelt Inlet and south down Breakwater Harbor. He did another hard 15 minutes after 30 minutes of regular effort. Soon after, Bill had to paddle strong to beat the outgoing current in Roosevelt Inlet. He landed after 1:45. Cathy did two classes at her gym. When Bill got home, he did a weights workout downstairs. Then he got on the CoSports website to try to buy tickets for the 2012 London Olympics. Because we didn't get any tickets the first round, we were able to use Cathy's account to shop for tickets at noon on Thursday. Katie had been informed that she could shop on Friday. The general public was able to shop on the following Tuesday. Once noon arrived, Bill could no longer access the website. He called Katie during her lunch hour and they tried to work together, but couldn't get anywhere. When Cathy got home, we ate lunch. Then we both tried to nap, but didn't sleep much. We had quinoa and a frozen meal for dinner. We viewed "The International", a great movie with a good cast and wonderful locations. We had seen the movie before, but with such a complex plot it was like the first time for us. Katie called around 9:20 PM, ready for another go at Olympics tickets. Bill and Katie stayed on the phone for quite a while while Katie searched for available tickets. She discovered that there were plenty of badminton, judo, and weightlifting tickets available, but not so much of anything else. We talked about a few events that seemed promising before Katie hung up to give it a try. Bill went to bed.

  Friday, we both slept-in until after 6:00 AM. Bill added 2 tablespoons of Hemp Seeds to his oatmeal to get the protein up to 20 grams as Coach Nicki had recommended. He drank two glasses of water with breakfast. When Bill checked his email, he found that Katie was successful in buying some Olympics tickets after hours of hard work. She thought that she deserved a medal and so did we. Bill was taking a rest day in preparation for the duathlon on Saturday. Cathy did her exercise classes. Bill spent a while getting his gear ready. Alex and the kids arrived around 5:00 PM for the weekend. We ordered a large Margarita and a medium cheese pizzas, which Bill picked up on foot. Bill removed the cheese from his pieces (and so did Brigette). Everybody but Bill went to the pool after dinner. Bill chilled out and watched "Reservoir Dogs" for the nth time - always good. Bill headed to bed before anyone else in the house.

  Saturday, Bill got up at 3:50 AM. He got his breakfast and took his time getting himself ready for the morning's race. He had decided to wear his old bike shoes because of uncertainty about the running performance of his new ones. He left in a sprinkling rain at 5:20 AM and drove to Smyrna. Although he arrive when the Transition Area opened, he wasn't able to position himself near the bike in/out because the bike locations were premarked on the racks. Bill was in the furtherest rack from the Bike in/out. In addition, the Transition Area's surface was soft sand. Dave Moses, Bill's bike guy, was already there when Bill arrived. The coverage of the race is best described here. Bill was the 4th male out of 7, so he didn't win any award. It took about an hour and a half to get back home because of shore traffic. Everybody was at the pool when Bill returned, but they soon came back for lunch. Don and Bern Ernakovich and grandson Alex were also visiting for the pool and for lunch. Our family group went to Rehoboth Beach via the Dart bus for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We strolled on Rehoboth Avenue and visited many shops. On the way back, we went to the Fish House for shrimp and filet mignons. We had a great dinner of steak and shrimp kabobs with rice pilaf.

  Sunday, Bill slept-in until almost 6:00 AM. When Alex arose, she headed to the basement to do a P90X workout. Bill got ready and went down to do a 37 minute workout on the bike trainer. When we were all ready, we drove to Lewes and parked at the Overfalls lightship. We walked to the Sea Glass Festival and browsed it for a while. We saw John and Diane Hartnett there as we did last year. Later, we returned to the Canal park. We let the kids use the playground for a while and then we ate lunch at a nearby picnic table. Bill had packed a smoothie made with 2 packs of yogurt, hemp seeds, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, a banana, blueberries, and a small amount of water. He ate it with a spoon and it was very good. We took a tour of the lightship and found it very interesting. Then, we walked around a small fishing and kayaking demonstration area. We headed into Lewes for some ice cream for the kids. Bill discovered a great new used book store and bought a book on Venice. When we returned home, we helped Alex pack the car. They left around 3:30 PM. We tore into house cleanup. Bill did the bathrooms, Cathy did the rest. We were pretty tired by dinner time. We ate leftover quiche and rice pilaf while we viewed "Phoebe in Wonderland", a very touching movie about a special needs child.

        Bill and Cathy