THE FAMILY BUSINESS

Hampton Inn, Chantilly, VA
77 degrees

This morning I awoke to a 5AM wakeup call and put my running shoes on for the first time in about 3 weeks. It was high time I got back on my feet. I took a hot shower to loosen up my muscles and did an extra long stretch routine. I wasn't sure how long of a workout I could stand after being away for a while so I set the timer at 65 minutes and began with a 3MPH warm up walk. After 5 minutes I moved up to 3.5MPH and continued this for 1.1 miles; much longer than I normally warm up. I pushed the speed up to 4.2MPH and left it there for the duration, doing a light jog for the remainder of 4 miles total. According to the machine, I burned 703 calories. I was pretty pleased with that endurance for my first day back. I ended with another 10 minutes of stretching and another hot shower.

I taught in Fredericksburg today then drove 60 miles north to Chantilly. I will spend the rest of my week in this Hampton Inn as I teach Wed-Fri at our branch around the block from here. For the first time I will have branches drive to me instead of vice-versa.

My oldest son, Ryan, has joined the ranks of my company. He will start in a couple of weeks at our Phoenix branch. He recently obtained a State chemical spray license and has had a class A CDL for a while. He's a really bright young man and I'm sure he will join the ranks of management within a couple of years. Welcome to the Big Red Machine, son. He joins my brother and I as the third family member in "the business."