I really can’t, not, try to at least catch the blog up on some milestones. I’ll try to hit on much of what I wish I’d written a full post about. Meaning I’ll try not to write every single second of Bennetts life.
June – Star Course 12 miler with an awesome group of guys. I felt strong most of the day. About went black on water around mile 9. Rucked through one of the most intense severe thunder storms I’ve seen. Got the smiles and patch to prove it.
July – The highlight to beat all highlights. Bennett Jack Hill was born weighing 6 lb / 40z. The world has changed. The way things used to be aren’t anymore, and maybe exercise has suffered, but I wouldn’t change that little boy for anything in the entire world.
August – I’m sure something great happened. But Bennett being in our lives as a newborn seemed to take most of the time.
September – The Bike MS New Bern event was cancelled due to a Hurricane which actually opened the door for me to maybe try the 9/11 Tough in Charlotte. I decided against it b/c my training hadn’t been as strong as I’d have liked. I did the light, which was great. Cadre Bellman and Whisky Mike were phenomenal. I felt strong during that event, was under the sandbags a ton and was pumped with how it went. Also met Alicia there. She’s a stud and was beginning her run of 3 HTL’s in 3 months. I felt so good at the end of that event I had to reach out to a few people and ask if the light was pretty normal or if they were easy on us. Turns out it was normal and I just performed well.
October – Mog Mile Light in Charlotte with Bellman & Cleve. Another person who was at the battle, Aaron Hand was there doing the light so we got first hand information from 2 veterans of that battle. It was awesome. Good light class. Enjoyed the event. Felt strong again. Jeremy came down to do that one. Unfortunately he’s back on his bike more than he is rucking, but I hope he ends up doing more events.
November – attempted and completed my first Tough event. I participated in the Hard Hitter tough in Greenville, SC. There was an amazing group of people that I admire, respect and look up to at that event. I’d reached out to Alicia and asked her to make sure I got through the event. No matter what, don’t let me quit. I didn’t need her to pull me off the ledge but knowing she would if I needed it was great. In this class there was Alicia, Shannon Bass, Jennifer Lee, Joe Baker and stud after stud of other amazing GRTs.
To be honest, we only covered 7-10 miles but all of those miles were with ALL of Fagans coupons, and when we finally got away from those we had some big logs to get back to the start. It was a very heavy tough, but wasn’t super long. Awesome cadre, but there were times when the ones who were team leaders got a lot of detail and instruction and the rest of us didn’t get much. Other times, the knowledge was more spread out. I’m so proud of that patch. Getting through the longest event I’ve done, was cool. I was worried about the overnight part that was fine too.
Check out Shannon’s blog post for a most excellent AAR of the HTL and this event.
https://smcbass.blogspot.com/2019/12/hard-hitter-htl-2019-aar.html?m=1
The group photo holding the logs is pretty cool.
December – being a parent at Christmas is the best. Even though Bennett was just 6 months old, he loved it. The fun, pulling on the paper. It was all so wondeful. As was being surrounded by Friends and Family.
January – Great Raid light with Cadre Dan, Cadre Fagan and Cadre Hand.
Cool event. Decent miles.
February – I can’t tell if it’s because it’s late at night or really because everything runs together when you don’t get to it right away.
Other –
Bennett got tubes on 4/1 and I was a nervous wreck about that. I knew going it was a simple procedure, but still, it’s scary. Hopefully that help him sleep better and if he gets the ear infections again that we an use ear drops and not have to do oral medication.
Covid-19 is the topic that’s on everyone’s mind.
I bought a Kickr Core to ride my bike on at night after Bennett goes to sleep. In early March I was hitting the rides / workouts hard but the last week i’ve slacked. With work being slammed looking at revenue risk assessments and expense contingencies, it’s been exhausting. I haven’t worked out as much. March I started strong, then Bennett got another ear infection and the flu, then I got the flu. Then i got back on it hard for a week, then this week, well today is the 3rd of 4 days where I haven’t done anything. That makes me feel lazy, but also exhausted. I’m starting back tomorrow and will try to prioritize working out, even if it means a 10pm workout.
With Covid and Tara and Bennett home, it’s hard to just take the time to go outside for 20-30 min in the middle of the day but maybe I’ll get that done a few times a week, and do later evening workouts the others.
When we found out we were pregnant I was determined to lose some weight. I gained 3 pounds while she was pregnant and 8 in the first 8 weeks after he was born. Then a few more. Topping out at 228. I’ve lost a few and gained a few a lot since then and this morning I was at 226. I need to focus on 2 pounds at a time. Even 2 pounds a month consistently would make a big difference in 6 months and 12 months down the road. I’ve been way bigger than this but this is much bigger than I want to be. Future writings may be weekly or monthly AAR’s to how I performed to my goals. Maybe it won’t be 10 months until I write again.
I hope that anyone reading this is doing well with the pandemic. It’s a challenging time.
Hilled It 