Somehow it's the end of September…

Wow. It's been a while. Quick recap.

June brought us to St. Maarten!! What a great trip!! It truly was paradise!


July brought a family vacation to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. And Moka learned to swim!

August brought Hurricane Irene and a washed out friend vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We went, instead, back to Deep Creek Lake. All dogs had a great time. So did their humans.

September brought a very quiet house. DD went off to college after a year at Northern VA Community College last year. She is now a sophomore at VCU in Richmond, a Sorority girl and loving every minute. Her brother is a "Super Senior" also at VCU. We are hoping he will graduate in May. (5 years is our max for tuition payments!)

SO it's just us and the dog… and cats.

September 24th, I went with 7 friends to ride the Rappahanock River Ride yet again. In the rain, yet again! It was a blast! We rode in a double paceline for the entire 63 miles and finished in just over 4 hours. Fastest Metric Century I have ever done! Lots of great food, great laughs and great views!

O.M.G.

I am just back from my mountain climbing expedition!

No, really! I rode my bike in the hills/mountains around Blacksburg, VA for the first two days of Bike Virginia. It was epic. I have ridden in a LOT of organized rides. From the really flat - Seagull Century - to Lake Tahoe and Solvang, California. But this was unlike anything I have done before! All I could think of while climbing those hills was "builds character, right?"


The gorgeous views almost made up for the pain of the climbs!

Here I am at the lunch stop, after almost 40 miles on day one.

To paraphrase Mary, "This is the New River. The name of the Bike Va ride this year was The New River - Roll Through Time. It really should have been The New River - CLIMB Through Time, and don't die while you are trying."

Or from Suzanne, "Dicky named it the "5/30" ride; you're either riding 5mph up a hill or 30 mph down the hill!" Very appropriate too.

W5R3

OMG!! A twenty minute run this morning! It was good, and now I'm on to week 6. With a two day Bike Virginia Ride in between. I hope the hills are manageable. :)

Where Did Week 4 Go?

I'm almost through week 4 - with a 42 mile bike ride to Bethesda thrown in on Sunday. Week 4 has two reps of run 3 min, walk 90 sec, run 5 min, walk 2.5 min. No shin pain and no IT band pain. I'm feeling good about this program! The ride was great! Even though I had not been on my bike in well over a month! And it is a 7 mile climb to Bethesda. Week 5 will get a little more challenging, and my schedule will be off, so I'm thinking I might stay with week 4 a little longer.

I have acquired 3 more balls of Noro Silk Garden for the Blanket. This makes for great travel knitting, and I needed more colorways anyway…

W4R1 and it Didn't Kill Me!

I was really a teeny bit apprehensive about the 5 minute runs, but it turns out, they weren't that bad! I wish I had gotten out a little earlier in the day, though. I went out at noon and the temp was over 80. So much for Spring.

There was rhubarb in my box from the Green Grocer. So I made a Rhubarb Raspberry Crostata. It's in the oven and smells yummy!

3 Down

Finished week three! The three minute runs were ok! I think I may have a little bit of shin splints in my left shin. Ice tonight.

Back on the horse…

Okay, yesterday I ran week-2-run-3 over again. I felt good. Not strained. No soreness to speak of. I had anticipated a bit, since I had taken 10 days off with the everlasting migraine. And I ran in the new shoes! Tomorrow I will start week 3.