Vacation planned to Santa Fe with a stop in ABQ

Tickets are purchased, so Igda and I will flying into Albuquerque on Monday, Oct. 17. Our plan is to catch up with the Johnston cousins and see Grandmother. We're going to drive up to Santa Fe on Tuesday where we are going to spend time with our good friends, JB & Kristi Leamer from San Francisco. Really looking forward to the trip!

IMFL training weekend

I took Friday off of work to head out for a 3 day training Ironman crunch training weekend. After arriving on Friday, the group realized that the Chesapeake was crawling with jelly fish...so the 1 hr. swim was cancelled. We got some great coaching tips from Eric & Gail (our coaches) for racing IMFL. They covered topics such as, what to expect during the swim/bike/run portions of the race, how transitions work in Ironman, & nutrition (which after training is about 70% of the secret to a successful race. Lots of good info. gathered.

In the afternoon, we rode for about 45 miles at a pretty hard pace and polished it off with a 6.5 mile run. Ordered some pizza and went over therapy, stretching excercises & watched the IMFL race video from 2003. Starting to get excited!

Saturday morning we headed out for our 112 mile bike ride. Legs were tired from the workout the day before, but overall the ride went pretty well. The ride consisted of 2 - 56 mile loops on a very flat isolated piece of marsh land in Maryland. The wind wasn't too bad, but man it's boring to ride 6 hours in the aero position all by yourself! It got hot on the second loop and I ran out of water with 12 miles to go. Needless to say, I was really pooped after the ride. I think dehydration set in because I felt pretty nauseaus. Lesson: carry Tums with me.

We decided to cut the trip short and do our long run Sunday in DC which was fine by me. I needed to sleep in my own bed, and as always, Igda massaged my legs so I could regain some strength in my legs. I never realized how important massages are to endurance training and what it can do to help you recover.

Thankfully, Igda dragged me out of bed about 7:00 a.m. and we headed to the C&O canal in Georgetown. The trail I run is part of the old canal used to transport boats up the Potomac river. I run by many old manual lock and keys. It's a nice scenic run with some shade and losse dirt and gravel. My Iron Sherpa rode the next 18 miles either ahead of me or behind offering some encouragement along the way and more importantly carrying some extra H20.

After the run, we walked into Georgetown and had a great brunch at J Paul's. Not a bad way to start a Sunday.

Reston Triathlon 2005

This was my first time racing in the Reston Tri. It's the only race around that I can actually sleep in my own bed and wake up race day morning to be at the race site in about 20 minutes. I lucked into gaining entrance into the race because it usually sells out with an hour of opening. I wasn't sure how I would fair with the huge volume of training I've been doing for IMFL. The weekend before I completed a 90 mile bike ride with a 12 mile run on Sunday. Pretty much zero taper for this race.

Race Goals:
1. Finish in the top 10 of Age Group
2. Finish with a time under 2:20:00
3. Don't kill myself...Ironman Florida the big race

Results:
1. 7th out of 76 in my AG
2. Finishing time of 2:19:29
Swim (1 mile): 00:27:52
Bike (22.5 mile): 01:01:44
Run (6.5 mile): 00:48:07

Well as you can see I managed to hit my goals, somewhat to my surprise. The swim was rather uneventful. We started in smaller waves, so the roughness usually present at the swim start was non-existent. My swim coach was actually in my wave, so I felt pretty good that I managed to catch up to her in T1...she beat me by about 45 seconds out of the water. I did get a nasty little side stitch just under my right ribcage that persisted almost the entire race. I tried to take in long slow breaths, but nothing seemed to work so I just tried not to think about it.

The bike went fairly well. I felt like I was just getting warmed up when it was over. I definitely could have ridden harder, but who knows...I may have paid for it on the run. I still haven't figured out just the right amount of excertion to expend on the bike and still manage to have a solid run. Work in progress.

The run was tough as always. The course steadily goes up to about the 4 mile mark where you turn around and head home at a slight downhill. The course winds through a neighborhood trail and it's almost entirely in the shade...very cool! I really tried to push it as hard as I could without redlining too much. I've got to figure out how to take in water while running. I usually end up spilling it all over myself, generally, I just stop for a few seconds and drink. There's one nasty little hill about 1/4 mile from the finish where I almost vomited...I think I was getting a little dehydrated. The finish ends with one lap on the track. Maybe a blessing in disguise, but 2 guys in the 40-44 AG passed me at the entrance to the track, this made me pick up pace and I just hung behind them about 15 yards to the finish. They definitely helped me finish strong.

As always, Igda was awesome race support. We're working on getting our high fives down when I typically see her after a transition. The only problem is that my hands are usually covered with GU. I'm also working on her vocal support during the race...I need a firm "get your ass going!" speech every now and then.

Meal after 7 hour training day in 100 degree weather!

I have the best wife in the whole world! Igda makes a mean breakfast. She's been a life saver with keeping me fed during my long weekend workouts.

It's official- Igda can leave the country!

After 6 years of procastrination, Igda finally has her Greencard! We're totally pumped. No more waiting for the white bus to pick her up and ship her off! I guess that means I can't joke anymore about deporting her if she's mean to me. Now really, this is a long time in coming and it's such a relief to have this behind us. The next step, U.S. Citizenship. I'll have to start quizzing her on US History!

Six Flags Maryland

We had a blast at Six Flags. I took a day off from work and totally Punked Emi. Igda had an 8 a.m. appt. at the INS for her final fingerprints in order to get her Greencard in Alexandria, and afterward, we pretended to be driving to go do something for work. We got within a half-mile when Emi saw the Six Flag sign and went nutso. We surprised him pretty good.

You have to click on the roller coaster (The Roar) picture to really see the terror on Emi's face. It was our first ride and just happened to Emi & Igda's last roller coaster ride of the day. What a blast! We all survived and I think we rode every ride there. We even splurged on some Funnel Cakes....yummy! Just like old times as a kid myself!

Trip to NYC

We headed out Thursday morning to spend 4 days in NYC. I found a great deal on priceline.com for 3 nights at the Hudson Hotel right off of Central Park at Columbus Circle. We were trying something this trip. There's a bus that runs from DC to NYC that only costs $35/roundtrip. Wow, what a deal! The tolls cost more than that.

So we showed up to catch the bus Thursday morning and to our amazement the bus was actually pretty nice. We arrived at Penn Station about 5 hours later and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. We dropped the bags off and went to eat some lunch. OK, I've been to NYC twice and it reminds a lot of San Francisco for one special reason. The restaurants and food are amazing! I gained 5 pounds in 4 days.

We stumble upon a kids carnival in Central Park where Emi rode some of the rides. I managed to jump on one for fun as well. Emi smoked me throwing at the lions faces (you know, knock 2 down, win a prize). He won a stuffed dog we've affectionately named "Astro".

Friday was our BIG day. We took the Subway down to Battery Park and stood in line to purchase tickets to go over to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Needless to say, we did a lot of standing!!!! We caught the ferry and we were on our way. Words can't express the how truly amazing it is to actually be at the foot of Lady Liberty. I guess it's something you always take for granted, but once you're actually there, it's almost surreal. The view of NYC from the island is breathtaking. We didn't get off the boat at Ellis Island because we had places to go.

We walked over the World Trade Center Site so Igda and Emi could see the 911 memorial. Well, it's really not a memorial just yet. Probably one of the most moving things you can do is to stand on the sidewalk and see all of the "heroes" names who lost their lives and see the pictures of devastation. One very touching moment for us occured as we were leaving Emi looked over at Igda & I and said he felt very sad. This came from an 8 year old boy! I'm telling you, it's an ominous feeling of death and destruction of so many innocent, ordinary citizens going about their daily lives. Next, we walked over to Little Italy and had a dynamite meal at great little Italian restaurant. We were cooked by the end of dinner and we grabbed the subway back to the hotel.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed for the Empire State Building. Oh boy, another line...wait a minute we can jump ahead if we pay double and get the full tour. We jump on the opportunity. It was pretty cool. There is a simulator you get into and it takes you on a helicopter tour of NYC...almost like the real thing. We waited in line some more and then finally we made it to the top. WOW! What an incredible view. I would put it up there with the view of LA from the Griffith Park Observatory. Absolutely breathtaking.

Our next trek took us back to Central Park where we rented a johnboat and paddled around the pond. You know, the one at the Boathouse where all the movies are filmed. We wrapped up the evening at a nice little Italian Restaurant, Serrifina.

Check out the photos!