Donation Totals

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Biking with Josh in Northern VA!

Well after Josh has made a number of trips out to my place to go for rides, I finally made the trip out to his place for the start. Got going early, around 7 and headed out on Telegraph road west. The first 9 miles or so were pretty rough, roads in moderate shape at best, pretty heavy traffic, but then we hit Gunston Rd and wow was it worth it. Had next to no traffic, smooth roads and beautiful weather. Traded off on pulling and kept up a pretty nice pace, keeping about an 18 mph avg over the full ride, with sections hitting well over 20 mph. Absolutely wonderful ride. Of course, that was the extent of the fun as I got home and had to start painting Cole's new bedroom. UGH... Just a quick note, I started painting the ceiling, got the first coat completed before the textured coating that was on previously started to peel off... UGH... looks like I am in for a long Honey-doo weekend!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Ever race a turkey?

Wow, what a great ride and just in time to beat the rain... I was originally planning to ride with my buddy Josh and his friend up in Arlington, but the latter wasn't up for starting before 10am, which for me would mean I wouldn't get to see Cole until after his nap, yeah, that wasn't going to fly. Further, it was scheduled to be in the 90's and raining in the afternoon, so starting late did not strike me as the smartest move, so I decided to ride on my own. I was really looking forward to testing my legs out in my aero bars and seeing if I could finally break that 20 mph mark that had been eluding me for a while. So, while I was intending to do the 28 mile Mt. Carmel ride and with the extension out 225 to 210, I quickly realized it would be a great day to shorten the ride and see about doing a time trial. So I skipped Turkey Hill, Mitchell, and the beginning of 225 instead heading straight out to 225 from 227, spending as much time in my aerobars as possible while limiting the hills. Wow, good decision, had 15 straight miles avg > 20 mph, one 5 mile section I avg'd 23.1! Felt ok, not really all that great, but the idea of a breaking the 20.0 mark kept me motivated and I successfully finishied with a 20.3 mph avg! What a great ride. To add to the fun, on the final section up Rt 210, there was a Turkey in the median who apparently I spooked a bit, it immediately started running up the median and the race was on! I actually caught the little guy and kept rolling, hearing him give a loud gobble and frustrated by my amazing speed (hehehehe) took off and flew in the other direction. I continued to press the whole way home, setting the lap upon passing our house and then doing a quick cool down loop before heading back home. Good thing I shortened too, it wasn't another 30 min before the rain started to fall (wasn't expected until 1PM!). Plus I got home in time to hang with the little guy!

Monday, August 2, 2010

First morning in San Diego.

Yesterday was a long day. After having a wonderful morning hanging out with my son, wife, nephews and parents at the pool, I returned to get packed and then nothing went right. Between getting caught behind a school group which kept me from getting checked in in time to have my luggage checked (even though I paid for it the night before!), then had to throw away my toiletries so that I could make it through security, to then have my flight delayed due to a mechanical issue, to then having to be rerouted so that I could make it to San Diego that night, to then having a 30 min delay on the runway, to not getting to my hotel until almost 11:30 PM PST, 2:30 my time! It was a day. So I decided to skip the morning session (plenary talks) so I could get some sleep and get a run in. It was an overcast morning, so I had some trouble getting GPS signal at first, had some delays with lights initially, but once I got going it was a great run. Felt really well, despite my back hurting when I walk (not when I run though... wierd). I headed down around Petco Park, Marina Park, got to see the USS Midway (think I will need to eat on the restaurant there later!) and ran up Harbor drive. This is truly a beautiful city! Overall, I finished just over 5.5 miles in 41:16 for a 7:27 min/mile pace!

2010 Efforts!

This year, like last year, I will be riding for Mary Payton's Miracle - My friend Steve Kogos from Trigators informed me that his friend Joe's daughter, Mary Payton, was diagnosed a number of years back with Late Infantile Batten Disease. This is a disease with no cure, however, there are special experimental (and extremely expensive) treatments which have shown some significant signs of success! In order to assist with the costly treatments and research, Mary Payton's Miracle was created to raise money to find a cure, hopefully in time to save little Mary Payton as well as the many others affected by this terrible disease!

Total Mileage

Current Challenges

Valid 2/1-12/1/2009