10-letter Word for a Period of Absence

Sabbatical.  That was one of tonight's Jeopardy clues and a pretty good reminder that I haven't blogged in six months.  Alex Trebek gave me that "I'm not mad, just disappointed" look through my 46 inches of Sony Bravia goodness that only a Canadian without a mustache can.  I don't answer to Trebek, luckily, but to you, me and the channels of Al Gore's Intarwebz.  To say that the last six months have been busy would be a serious overstatement, but there have been highs, and oh, there have been lows.

So what?  What do I have to tell?  Where has my life been?  I have been to the same old haunts - Spain, Germany, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait - but I've also had the incredible treat of getting two days off in San Francisco.  As much as I enjoyed my Cafe Steamer in a hotel microwave in Germany for Christmas dinner last year, it has been my distinct pleasure to have every, every, holiday at home.  It's been so great that I even had Valentine's Day with my wonderful bride (right before I ran out the door to San Fran) even though I had to watch her drink wine.  There has been lots of bad TV including Dance Moms (or Abusive Bitches), Teen Mom 2 (or Dumb Bitches) and the entire Colts season and quite a bit of awesome Hoosier basketball.  I've consumed wine, made wine and am always taking donations in the form of empty bottles to fill and dollars to buy my next wine kit.

While that's all well and good, the real reason I'm sure you're all here is to hold me accountable for my triathlon training.  After all, Ironman Lake Placid is only a short five months away from tomorrow.  Even though it might come across as quibbling, I have to start this segment with the back story to try and legitimize my actions, if even simply in my own head.  Rebecca and I decided quite last minute that we should take a vacation right after Thanksgiving.  We got a great deal on an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic and spent 5 nights down there eating and drinking ourselves stupid.  On day three we were exploring and found the fitness room.  I stepped on the scale, and, lo, I weighed 192 pounds.

Now I know I promised 6 months ago that I wouldn't pass 185, or whatever it was, and I really let that one get past me.  So for the next 2 months I went on a crash diet and worked from running 21 miles a week to running 35 miles a week.  Over that time I lost 13 pounds.  Although I wasn't spending any time on the road, but I did miss many L-Trains (lunch) at work in favor of my Slim Fast.  It was the hardest thing I'd ever done.  Then I took three weeks off.  Oops.

So three weeks cold, I jumped into my race specific training today.  1.25 hours ride in at 50 degrees in a pretty stiff breeze made me pay, but karma for those three weeks really struck in the form of a small sliver of glass in my back tire.  I was warm up to that point, but at 20 miles in, I stopped, got cold and never warmed up again.  This is going to be a long 5 months, but the weather this winter has been mild so far, so it should be a pleasant training season.

I've realized that my promises of rapid updates are now empty and the triathlon paragraph is the shortest, but stay tuned, this could get good.  It's winter.  Who wants to focus on that anyway!  And if all else fails, there's at least 25 gallons of wine in the house, I'll get toasted and type away.  And if you want to chat, stop by and we'll split the 25 gallons.