Had my best time going home last night…

0:52:52sec, 16.37mi, 18.5 mph avg

AND my worst time coming to work this morning…

1:05:32sec, 16.38mi, 14.9 mph avg

It was a cold strong headwind! And of course the hot water was broken at work… brrrrr!

All the biking I’m doing gave me some good numbers from the ABB health screening yesterday (good even for a vegan :> ):

98/60 mmHg bp
137 mg/dL cholesterol
57/76/49 mg/dL tri/ldl/hdl
84 mg/dL glucose
24 kg/m^2 bmi
20.6% body fat

I got my semi-annual CT scan on Friday, and Dr. Levine reported that a mucinous layer had expanded from 5mm in the previous scan to 9mm. On the previous scan, he had said I was clean, so it sounds like you have to see some change to really tell what’s going on.

I am sure I looked crestfallen as he delivered the news. His immediate response was “You’re too worried!” He recommended to stick with the schedule, and get another scan in 6 months. Even so, it took me right from “cancer-free” back to “living with cancer”. Fortunately, it’s slow-growing, and over time, there is progress in fighting the disease. For example, when I had my IPHC, there was a Stage I trial to use a newer drug instead of the older standard drug. I opted out, because they didn’t even have a good knowledge of the dosage to use at that time. But now, clinical trials like this Stage II one are using newer drugs for IPHC. There are options for the future. But for now – the battle is back ON! Time to eat right and exercise my butt off. :> And do some more research…

Soccer practice was canceled for Reiley and Wren due to a light rain, but we decided we were going to sneak onto the wet fields and have some fun anyway. I rounded up Bella, Reiley, Wren, Olivia and Chloe for some impromptu play. When we got to Reiley’s practice field, Conner was there – Parks and Rec were very late getting out the cancellation info (as usual) – so he joined in, too. Reiley and I alternated playing goalie for a while, while everyone pummeled us. Then we worked on our give-and-go’s with a laaaarge-field scrimmage of 3-v-4. Wren recruited everyone into agreeing to run a “suicide” – everyone runs races, repeatedly, but each time the first place winner drops out, until the last few are exhausted. Whew! We finished up with some more shots on goal. We were pretty dirty and tired by the end. Good fun.

I’m going to try to keep a list of soccer drills that have worked well for the girls’ teams. I was the only coach in town for both Reiley and Wren’s teams this week, so I had to bone up! I have crummy old websites for Reiley’s Sirens team and Wren’s Waves team, both now defunct – I’m falling behind! Reiley is on the Courage U12 team, and Wren is on the Spirit U10 team.

It’s good to have a solid list of drills, but bad to use too many unfamiliar ones too rapidly (like I did during Reiley’s last practice – I smartened up for Wren’s). Balance, grasshopper.

The drills (sorted from most advanced to simplest)… Continue reading “Soccer Drills” →