Mesquite

We needed to pick up Bailey from California this week. Ceri and Mark were kind enough to drive her up halfway, and Jenn's parent's were kind enough to get us a few nights at a "resort" in Mesquite for a mini vacation. We had a pretty fun time.

The day before we left, I went out and ran a mile in a thunderstorm in 7:37, which is my best time so far by about 30 seconds. I felt really good for about a half mile, and then hung on for the second half. I could probably go out today and run about 2 minutes slower because I ate a lot of things that I shouldn't have and I didn't exercise at all. I had planned on utilizing the fitness room at the resort, but it belonged to the Oasis casino, which has been closed. There was no fitness room available for us, and I really didn't feel like running around the parking lot in 100 degree weather. It was even hot at night.

On Monday, Mark and I went golfing at the Palmer Course at the Oasis Golf Club. I don't think it was affiliated with the casino that shared the same name, because it was super nice. It was named the Palmer course because it was designed by Arnold Palmer (much easier to type his name than to say it, if I'm not deliberate saying his name, it comes out Alnerd Parmler). Note to self: Courses designed by major tournament champions are probably not suitable for your skill range. We were awed by the beauty of the course for the first few holes, and then amazed at how stupid hard it was. We spent most of the afternoon losing balls.

We went swimming at the little pool that the Oasis "resort" kept open for us, and Bailey and Addie both took great strides in becoming competent swimmers, even dog paddling alone through the deepend. Jenn, Mark, Ceri and I stayed up late each night playing games, which was a lot of fun. It was nice to play some games with some grownups. We hope they had a good time with us.

I'm pretty sure Jenn is going to be posting the swimming pictures on her blog, so I'll just post a few golf ones.



This course had some very narrow fairways. We spent some time hitting into the dirt mounds on both sides.



Just in case you can't tell, right after the tee box, it drops into a ravine for the next 100 yard or so and then there is the green, and then more bushes and desert.



Another of those elevated tees with the narrow fairways below. I think I'd like to come back and play here again after I'm rich and I've had a few years of practice to get better.



Just stupid hard.



This looks nice enough. The tee for this hole was on the other side of that hill. The approach to this green is blind. There were several blind approaches on this course. I hit a few nice shots that I couldn't find because they landed where I couldn't see them. It was pretty frustrating. We had a good time anyways.

Working Out

One of the requirements to graduate from the Border Patrol academy is to be able to run a mile and a half in 13:00. Directly following the run, you need to be able to run through an obstacle course in a certain amount of time, so you can't be completely dead after the run. Back in the old days, a mile and a half would be a drop in the bucket. I got my 3 mile time under 18 minutes in high school, and I ran a mile in less than 5 minutes in college.

I started running again 3 weeks ago. My first run was a mile and a half, just to see how fast I could run it. I did 13:07 and I was pooped. I was also pretty sore the next day. I've been running either a mile or 2 almost everyday now for 3 weeks. I've made hardly any improvement on my time. I have noticed though that I am not getting sore anymore, so I am seeing some minuscule results. I ran 2 miles this afternoon, clocked the first at 8:15, and finished mile 2 at 17:30. My goal was 18 minutes, so I'm happy about that, but it's pretty sad for someone of my athletic background to have to be setting such crappy goals. I'm kind of ticked off that I let myself go for 11 years.

I've also been doing push ups every day, in sets of 15 or 20. I just do them whenever I feel like it, or remember to. I've done anywhere from 20-90 push ups a day.

The Houston Fire Dept. also requires a 13 minute 1.5 mile run. The Oregon State Trooper test requires a 2 mile run, time is dependent upon age and height. I'll be bumping up my daily mileage soon, now that my body is becoming more accustomed to running. My goal is to someday catch up to Brie. :)