Memorial Weekend Madness

So isn't Memorial Day weekend suppose to be nice and relaxing. You even have a extra day to sit around in the sun? This weekend turned out to be a busy. So lots to write since I haven't posted lately.

Geoff and I headed up to Baltimore, MD for the Kelly Cup Bike Jam 2006 on Saturday. Our friend Chuck from Mpls was going to be there and had gotten us passes to the VIP tent to watch the pro's. I had the option to race as am amateur with the women cat 3 and 4, but opted for a mornig 5 mile run instead. I know it would have been great speed training, but the whole women's bike scene of strategy and opting for positioning with Cat 3's isn't my thing. At least that was my excuse driving up there. (The real reason was fear of getting dropped) When we got there Geoff ran off to get registered for his race and I watched the race I could have been in. It looking like fun! I was beginning to wish I had signed up. I wouldn't have bene dropped, well at least not right away. I'll have to put it on next year's list. Geoff raced well (pic of the start of his race), then we stood hung around getting lots of sun, burgers and bike race watching in. By the evening we were exhausted and ready to head home, as we had another full day tomorrow.

Sunday was the morning of the 2 mile Jim McDonnell Lake Swim in Lake Audubon see in the pic. Luckily we didn't have to be there until 8:30 am. Wow, tons of swimmers and triathletes swarming the place. After registering we wandered over to the CAT'S (That's our new triathlon club!! CATS= Capital Area Triathlon Club) tent, chatted some to the few people we knew, and started the time consuming event of putting on a wetsuit. Once squeezed into the tight, warm black rubber thing, it was time to go. Here we come lake, ready or not. The swim wasn't much shorter then the Ironman swim distance of 2.4 miles. So I took the first lap easy as planned, then having plenty of energy left I picked it up. By the last fourth I thought to myself, I don't have to bike or run after this so what am I saving my legs for? Time to kick it into gear! Finished in 59 min & 51 seconds. Just under an hour! Pace of 1:41 min/yrds. Fourth in my age group. Actually only 1 & 1/2 minutes off of first in my age group! Way better then I expected. Could that be, I haven't swam but four times this year? :)

Ah but we aren't done with Sunday yet. Right after the swim we rushed home and got ready to go the the Reston Bible Church picnic. We had decided to volunteer at the event which turned out to be a great way to meet people. Lots of food, fun, music and fellowship. By the time we got home at 7 pm we were exhausted and ready for air conditioning.

Monday morning was time for the Memorial Day Madness run with the Reston Runners. What a crazy group of people! Here's some of us getting ready for the team event. We had a great time. Lots of running around and water balloons. If the run wasn't enough exercise in the morning, Geoff wanted to head out for a bike ride, at my pace. So 1 pm at Monday we headed out into the 90 degree and very H O T day for a 3 hour ride. I'd call this the biggest training weekend I've had in a while and I was happy to be heading back to work on Tuesday.

Exercise

Sunday 5/28/06
2 mile lake swim
Saturday 5/27/06
5 mile run
Friday 5/26/06
? can't remember ?
Thursday 5/25/06
3500m swim practice, 30 min walk
Wednesday 5/24/06
75 min run
Tuesday 5/23/06
30 mile bike - sprints
Monday 5/22/06
off
Sunday 5/21/06
1 mile lake swim