Sharing the Passion

We finally got our basement wall done. We made it a wall of race memories we've done together. We hung a picture stating 'Sharing the Passion' and plan to hang all our race numbers around it. It wonderful to be passionate about the same thing. (Thanks Yndestad's! We got the idea from you.)

Urban Cross Mud Fest

Cycle cross race number 2 of the season. Who would drive 2 1/2 hours in the pouring rain to race? Yep, that's right Geoff and I. Talk about mud. Geoff really wanted to race so we decided to go even in the rain. When we got there I still wasn't sure about racing. I decided to just warm-up and see how I felt and how my IT band was doing. I was really nervous about racing, but how could I go all the way to Charlotsville, VA, be dressed and ready and not race?

Here's me on the race course. Tons of mud!








Here's me after the race. My bike and I were covered in mud but excited as ever as I had won my first race!







Here's Geoff during his race. He had taken a good wipe-out in the mud right before this.

Marine Corps Marathon

Geoff completed his first marathon two weeks ago! Here he is at the start looking all nervous. He did a great job and ran a 3:52. He was shooting for a 3:30 but didn't get any running in the three weeks prior due to a bike crash and also made the typical rookie mistake and went out too fast. He's already talking about what he would do differently, which is a great sign for me since I love running marathons :)



While Geoff ran, I biked around on my Cycle cross bike. I still wasn't up for running due to my IT band injury. Here I am cheering him at mile 23. He headed right for me when he saw me! I also got a chance to help out for an hour at the Clif Shot aid station with friends at 13. Who new giving Shots could be so much fun? I then caught up with him at 22 and followed him all the way to the end.

I really had a fun time given I was suppose to out there racing too. Actually ever since the marathon passed I haven't been as fustrated with being injury, which is nice. Now I really just have Ironman USA to look to.

October News

The news of the last month is I injuried my IT band. Decided since it's now a re-occuring injury I need to not just fix the pain in the knee, but also the source. So I've ben heading to a Chiropractic Sports Physician three times a week and a Kinesiotherapist to look at muscle imbalances in my hips and legs It's been fun learning all about my bodies movement but fustrating to be less active then I would like. I can run and missed my Marine Corps Marathon this last weekend. But I can bike still and swim so that's great.

Cyclocross #1

Biking + sharp turns + hurdles + running + hills + rain = cyclocross racing

Had my first cyclocross race of the season this morning. What a heart burning all out thrill. It was my second one ever. We had done a hilly 60 mile ride the day before so I was feeling pretty worn out but it went great.

RACE REPORT
We left at 6:45am. Suddenly on our trip up to Baltimore, MD the freeway closed. We got there with enough time to register, but sadly not to preview the whole course. Yikes, I'd have to start without knowing what to expect.

At the start 20 girls lined up. I was in the second row. The gun went off I got into 7th position going into the trail. Given my lack of mountain bike type handling skills and no course preview, I was cautious the first two laps while figuring out all the technical sections. Racers were slidding out left and right. By the second lap I started taking the sharp turns faster and began thinking about catching those in front of me. I pasted two girls that lap and held my place for the last two.

Whew, felt great to be done. Talk about tough. I ended up getting fifth place and took home some good swag. Got socks, container of energy drink, training undershirt, and a gift certificate for road id! Pretty sweet for my first race!

September Update

I've been back from Minnesota for about 2 1/2 weeks. And it's already been busy as fall activities start up. Here's a few of the more exciting things.

• Did a 3 hour run on the C&O Canal trail. Wow did that hurt the last 15 minutes.


• I am still meeting with Yumi, my Japanese friend to work on her English. First time out on the town together. We headed to the Farmer's Market. It's amazing how many words there are to learn for a foreigner.


• Applied for the USAT Level I Coaching Certification training. I find out if I'm in next week. It would be 3 days in Florida on the Dec 9-11 weekend.


• Raced in a relay team at the Nation's Triathlon this last weekend. Did a 3k run at 7:13 min/mile pace. Not great, but good for no speed training. We took second overall for relays and first for co-ed relays. Geoff raced the whole thing. He did good. Here are the Results.


• Geoff is out of town for most of the week.


• Took and passed CPR training last night.


• Ran 9.5 miles in 80 minutes yesterday. 8:25 min/mile pace. A good training day for my marathon coming up.

Well I better get back to work. Next week brings lots of fun new stuff. It's the start of my Cyclocross racing, coaching GOTR and my trip to Kiawah Island with Geoff's family!

Dad's Double Surprise 60th B-Day Party

While I was in Minnesota we had a double surprise birthday party for my dad. The first surprise came when my relatives from California and Chicago were hiding in the house. We came home from the cabin and they all surprised him. He had no idea! We all congratulated my mom for pulling off such a great surprise, of course knowing that more was to come. Here's a family photo.

Then around 6:30pm someone rang the doorbell. It was for my Dad. So he got up, opened the door and surpise! There were 80 or so people standing in the front yard!! He was completely surprised. People started streaming into the house one after another. It was cool and a great time.

Family Fun Triathlon Relay '06

The last day up at the cabin in Minnesota my mom, sister and I did a first ever family triathlon relay! My sister swam, my mom biked and I ran. It was my sister's comeback after 10 years off from swimming and my mom's first ever competitive bike event. It was great to be out there as a family! We all had so much fun. We might just have to do another one next summer.

LAKES COUNTRY TRIATHLON
Baxter, Minnesota - August 27, 2006
1/2 Mile Swim - 17 Mile Bike - 4 Mile Run
Results


My sister speeding out of the water in a great time of 17:12 minutes. Boy were we impressed! She swam great. And it was her first open water swim race ever.






My mom heading out of transition to the bike course. She finished a whole 15 minutes sooner then we expected her! She was flying at 17 mph in a time of 59:58 minutes. She gave it everything.






Me bringing in the last leg with an decent run of 29:27 minutes which was a 7:33 min/mile pace. With all this marathon training it was really hard to run fast!

MN Cabin Trip

I headed to Minnesota almost three weeks ago for a 10 day trip. Wow time flys. For 1/2 of the trip I was up north with my family at a cabin in Baxter, MN. Here's some of my favorite pics.

Me with Andrew, my nephew on the front porch hanging out. Isn't he adorable?









My nephew, Nathaniel hanging out between the bikes. For some reason he decided this was a great seat to play his game in.










Me, Geoff, my sister Tana, my cousin Kerri on the way to the bowling alley on a rainy evening.









Geoff goofing off at bowling. He did really good too! My brother-in-law and nephew are sitting in the background.








Here we are after the first 9 holes of golf. It's my mom, sister, me and cousin. The day went fast as we rented a cart for once. They highly suggested it given the really long holes.







The girls (Kerri, Tana & myself) triple salom waterskiing just like the good old days. Here we are being pulled out of the water by the boat.

Josh & Sybil's Wedding

Here are some pictures from Josh and Sybil's (Geoff's sister) wedding. It was here in Northern Virginia at a local Arboretum. We had a great time. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception a blast. We danced the night away.

The ceremony









Geoff, me and his parents having cocktails before the reception.









And of course my favorite picture. Geoff singing to me at the dance. I also have one of his mom but I'll save her the embarrassment.

Home Again

It's been a busy few weeks and I have slacked in my blogging. Somehow three whole weeks slipped by! But I must say there were fun weeks, filled with a wedding and a long trip to Minnesota. I'm back home now. I've got lots of pictures from the last few weeks so I'll post some over the next few days.

I love going to Minnesota, but it's hard to say goodbye. I cried after leaving my sister's place. I just wish I could be more involved as my nephews grow-up. And see my family more then once every few months. I've been sad for a few days now being back in D.C., but I'm getting back into the swing of things.

Here's some of the latest good news:

• My marathon training is going good and I am still injury free.
• Gina and Colin said yes to being in our wedding!
• I am going to take the USAT Level I coaching course in Flordia this December.
• We are close to finishing making my wedding 'Save the Date' cards for mailing.
• Geoff is the most wonderful man in the whole world (but that's nothing new).

Leesburg 20k Race Report

I'm a bit slow posting right now. Trying to get ready to fly to Minnesota this afternoon!! I'm sure I'll forget something.

Lask Sunday, the 13th of August, Geoff and I ran the Leesburg 20k (12.4 miles). Leesburg 10k/20k We decided to do a long race instead of our usual long slow runs. We have gotten up to 2:15 hrs running and wanted a change of pace. Also this would be a good measurement of where we are at in our Marine Corps marathon training. The plan was to run the race at the same pace as our marathon goal times. In doing this we could see how trained we were and if we could keep it up for another 14 miles!

Goals:
Me - Under a 1:40 hr time
Geoff - Under a 1:30 hr time.

It turned out to be a perfect running morning. Cool and dry. Unusual for a August morning here, which has lately been hot and sticky by 8am. So everyone seems happy and ready to set some course records. We started out in the middle of the pack since. Here's a pic of the start. At about a 1/2 mile Geoff ran ahead weaving through people. He didn't wait for me like he normally does?? For a second it seemed odd. Why wouldn't he wait? Then I remembered, that's right, we're running our own races today. So off I watched him go... with no effort.

I decided to take it easier on the way out and monitor my heart rate, then pick it up if I could on the way back. Plus it was uphill going out. So I average around 8 min/miles. At the turn around at 8 miles I decided to get serious and pick it up. A girl passed me, so I decided to stay on her. I ran the rest of the race at a much faster tempo. I was doing around 7:20 min/miles now. By the finish line I was exhausted and happy to be done. I didn't have much left in me. Notice how my heart rate kept going up! Guess I'm not keeping that up for another 14 miles! But I got my goal. 1:36 hr :) I could keep up a min/mile for a marathon. Geoff finihed with a great time of 1:28 hr. Here's a picture taken of him close to the finish.

Here's some stats for me:

Miles-- HeartRate-- MileTimes
1---none---7:49.51
2---144---7:51.12
3---146---7:57.36
4---150---7:00.52
5---149---8:10.65
6---147---8:33.63
7---149---7:31.58
8---152---7:31.64
9---150---7:33.52
10---152---7:16.70
11---155---7:18.15
12---154---7:23.33
.4---157---3:11.19

The Core Sweat Group

A pic of the crew Geoff and I bike with. What a fun group! Thanks for letting us tag along. :) I had to do a little photoshop doctoring to include Liza, who was taking the picture and Damian who was at a race that morning.

Exercise
Friday 8/11/06
40min run easy
Thursday 8/10/06
off
Wednesday 8/09/06
4x200@10k pace,2x400@5k pace,1x800@mile pace,2x400@5k pace, 4x200@10k pace
Tuesday 8/08/06
40min walk, 1 hr bike - hills & speed
Monday 8/07/06
25min run

The Haircut II

Haircut time again. It's so warm out I decided to cut if off and be cool. I have 9 months after this to still grow it out for the wedding. She cut it three times. I kept telling her shorter. I think I was warm from my walk over and wanted it off my neck. Who knows? It ended up really short. But I didn't cry. Here's a before and after. Of course not an exact comparision. The before is make-up free, the after I have make-up on.

New Friends

Well we've have a great week of hanging out with new friends in between working and exercising. It's been so wonderful to get to know people around here and feel more connected to the area. Here's the highlights of the week.

• Monday night we went to the 'Fiona Apple' concert at the Wolf Trap outdoor stage. We meet up with Jen and Michael with our picnic dinners and sat on the lawn to eat and watch the concert. Thanks for a fun time! I really didn't know what to expect from the Concert. I had listened to her CD a few times. That girl is strange. Fiona has some major pent up anger, but what a voice!


• Tuesday equaled a night to relax at home.


• Wednesday night consisted of the usual track workout. This time in 102 degree heat! A heat advisory was out and a bad air quality advisory. But we ran anyways. We took it easy by doubling the rest between our 400 repeats. I was surprised, it actually didn't feel so bad. We actually stayed after and talked to Cindy, a coach, about coaching up for the Lake Placid Ironman.


• Thursday night we had Libby and Jason over for dinner. We made food together and then sat around chatting and getting to know each other until late at night. Finally at 10pm it was time to say goodbye and get ourselves to bed before the early weekend. They are a fun couple.


• Friday night was a pool party for the Reston Runners. Great group of people but I think the average age there was somewhere around 45. At least it made us feel really young!


• Saturday was a early training day with the 'core group' of crazy cycling friends from the TriCats (Capital Area Triathlon Club). Another 5:30am morning to get up and bike before the heat. Then a great church service at night. A perfectly timed reminder of the grace God has given us.


• Sunday was a early morning too, but this time a long run with the Reston Runners. Wow, were we tired Sunday. 2:15 hr run. But no nap until after we had lunch with Becky and David from church and a bunch of their friends.
  

I'm tired just typing about it all. But looking back it was a wonderful week filled with new friends. Too bad I didn't take any pictures.

Exercise
Sunday 8/06/06
2.15 hr run
Saturday 8/05/06
56 mile group ride
Friday 8/04/06
5 mile tempo run
Thursday 8/03/06
20min swim - water way too warm
Wednesday 8/02/06
20min warm-up, 10x400's, 5min cool-down