Dextro ITU Triathlon in DC

So it was pointed out to me that my blogging regularity has dropped off. Shame on me! No excuse except that it's just too nice to spend much time sitting in my study crafting blog entries. Maybe one day I should try actually keeping a journal and that way I can just transfer interesting thoughts here.

Anyway, latest and greatest is that we spent Sunday downtown watching the only North American stop on the ITU Triathlon World Cup circuit. Originally we were slated to serve as a homestay for one of the foreign athletes and his coach, which had us pretty jazzed. It also meant that we decided not to register to race ourselves, since we'd be focused on being a good host family. Sadly, a few days before he was due to arrive, I got an email saying that he'd injured himself in a training ride and would not be coming to race. Bummer!

Sunday morning Billy and his girlfriend Allison drove out from Annapolis and the four of us hopped on bikes and headed downtown. We missed the start of the men's race and so headed straight for the finish line along Pennsylvania Ave. The bike and run were both multiple loops so we were in a great spot to see the triathletes race by again and again.

Billy, Allison and Stuart

Unbelievable to watch the peloton of draft-legal racing!

Here's Americans Andy Potts and Hunter Kemper headed out on one of the run loops. They were flying!

Andy was solidly in 4th place, so able to give some thumbs-up and ham it up for the crowd as he neared the finish line.

All in all, it was a ton of fun. Billy was jazzed for his second triathlon this coming weekend, and Allison now wants to try one. Once the men's race finished, we biked down to West Potomac Park to watch the start of the women's race. All of downtown DC was shut down, so it was awesome to be tooling along Constitution Avenue on our bikes. If only they shut the Mall down to traffic every weekend!

The current was brutal, the pro women looked so incredibly slow. Of course they weren't, but it was telling that all the spectators were commenting on how hard they were working on the up-river half of the two loop swim.

Afterwards we slowly biked home, but of course had to stop to make friends with even more wildlife! Here's Allison posing with her new pet turtle!

Ensign Vey

Oops, a few weeks late, but still worth it. My wonderful fantabulous cousin Billy survived four years of Annapolis and collegiate swimming and dealing with a cousin living nearby(!) to finally graduate two weeks ago. No one in the family could be any more proud of him than we all are. Congratulations, Billy!!

Bike Riding and Buying

My secret plan to infest the world with cyclists has grabbed another rider! Erin's already signed up to do the Montclair Triathlon with us in a few weeks, but until now she'd been planning on riding her mountain bike. But that changed yesterday...

Saturday we met up with Erin and biked the Mount Vernon trail. It's a fairly technical trail, as well as being crowded that day, so our average speed was actually pretty slow, and she's fit so she was hanging tough. That's Erin with Stuart, still managing a smile. At our turnaround point (which actually turned out NOT to be the halfway point, we paused for a break and made friends with a family of muskrats frolicking on the banks of the Potomac.

Sometimes I think Stuart has a future as a park ranger since he constantly wants to get more dogs, take home the cute furry little things we see on the trail and generally add to our imaginary farm.

On our way back we diverted into a neighborhood to take what we thought was a "slightly" longer route but apparently made a wrong turn. Oops. We ended up on a 2-lane road with cars going 40mph. Poor Erin was not exactly thrilled, but thanks to her iPhone we made it back safely. Needless to say, the 25mi ride for her turned into upwards of 30miles, and nearly 50 for us by the time we biked back home!! The day helped her make a decision, though. Riding a mountain bike in yoga shorts(!) was the tipping point, and Sunday we headed over to Conte's to spend some of her husband Chip's hard-earned combat pay.

Two hours later.....she is the proud owner of a gorgeous full-carbon Cannondale Synapse!!! And happily enough, her brand new ride color coordinates with my beloved Orbea. While Stuart handled more yard duties, we headed out for a 22mile ride late in the day to help her get acclimated. We headed west, and at one point hit 27mph on the open stretch of trail between Vienna and Hunter Mill Road as she unleashed the power of a road bike. We took turns pulling and it was awesome!

Needless to say, I'm a bit sore today. Made it to the pool, only to have the kids swim coach point out that she hadn't seen me there in a month. oops. yeah, Kinetic was May 9th....and I haven't been to the pool since. Guess even the lifeguards have noticed. Time to get back on track with that. But in the meantime, there's the satisfaction of knowing we're converting yet another member of our friend/family circle to an awesome lifetime sport.

Oh yeah, and check out Erin's new blog! Now it's off to bed, I'm running not one but TWO 5Ks tomorrow. More on that later...

Those speedy =PR= ladies

Thursday night -- time for another =PR= run. I originally started attending these runs last fall with the goal of using them as speedworkouts. But the last few months I've spent more and more of my time at the back of the pack, either playing sweeper for new/slower runners or just being the slowest one out there myself.

Last night I knew Heather was coming as usual, and my friend Erin said she was going to join us for the first time. Heather's a Boston finisher, and I know is usually holding back to run with me. And Erin is super speedy (just PR'd a 24min 5k this week). It's been a crazy week with work and Girls on the Run, so mentally I was going into the workout saying to myself that today was going to be the day that I just hung on to Erin and Heather and got some real work in without focusing on the girls bringing up the rear.

Erin ended up not showing, and it was rainy and 60 degrees (hel-LO, it's JUNE!) but I remained positive that this could be a good tough day for me. I had forgotten, but it was also the first run of the month, which means that the local Luna Chix team was out in force supporting the run. This is a really cool group of women triathletes who are part of a nationwide network of amateur and pro Luna-supported athletes raising money for the Breast Cancer Fund. Anyway, Laura is one of the awesome women who is a regular at =PR= and I think was the one who started the relationship between the store and Team Luna Chix. She's the mother of a couple of boys, and has so much positive energy and just loves being out there being social and active. So as the run starts off, I get separated from Heather and start chatting with Laura. Before I know it, Heather's long gone with the front runners, but Laura is hanging with me at her "go easy" pace and my "race until I puke pace".

It was tough, but awesome. We got two quick little breaks at traffic lights totaling less than 90seconds and managed to crank out 4.5miles in 42minutes (43 with those stops). It's been a long time since I was fighting off puking at the end of a workout and I loved it. Many thanks to Laura for helping me push my limits and come off a long day feeling a teeny bit stronger.

A weekend of cycling

Saturday morning I volunteered at the Kids Race at the US Air Force Cycling Classic Clarendon Cup. Ranging from 3 to 10 it was so much fun to see these kids! Some of them teeny tiny on their trikes, but a few of the older ones really committed to racing and doing their best. Afterwards, I stuck around for a bit to watch the pros before meeting fellow board member Stephanie for a smoothie.

Sunday we were scheduled to participate in the Crystal Ride, but woke to thunder and lightening. Um, no thanks. Back to sleep, and woke again at 9am to gorgeous weather. Sorry we missed the 100K event, but I much prefer the pleasant weather. So Stuart and I finally got our acts together and headed out the door a little before noon.

Beautiful day, riding Cristoforo and focusing on a long aerobic ride. I wish I had my camera -- it was the kind of day that makes you wish you could ride forever. We rode through the Herndon Town Festival and all the way out to what smells like potentially the best BBQ north of Carolina. Stuart and I stopped and split a Diet Coke and bag of chips -- nothing like a little caffeine and salt to ward off bonking. Next weekend, though, we may bring money and stop for lunch!

The trail was filled with cyclists, but not in an annoying way. Everyone out there was enjoying the 80 degree weather and for the most part being pretty considerate. Very un-DC like! Steady aerobic pace -- the ride was just shy of 3hrs, and all but about 11min of it were in zone. Well done!