Maiden Voyage

Michelle and I went on a nice bike ride this morning. It was the 'maiden voyage' for Michelle on her brand new bike that we got her last night. It is a pretty nice bike in my opinion. We bought it at Costco, which is where I bought my first bike and I feel like it was an outstanding entry level bike.

We rode our bike about 3 or 4 miles to the DEA Museum in the Pentagon City area. The museum was very small but what they did have on display was interesting and informative - we both enjoyed it! We didn't bring our camera or my iPod, so we took some pictures of the bike ride and the museum on my phone. To my surprise, the pictures turned out not half bad.

We are looking forward to many more bike rides this summer like the one we went on today!

Getting Crafty and Getting Organized

Chad and I had a graduation party last Friday with a bunch of our friends to celebrate graduating from George Mason University and American University, and finishing Teach for America and our first two years of teaching. These are the graduation cupcakes I made. I'm proud of how well they turned out!

I found this picture online (below) of how to store your curling irons more efficiently and I loved it, so I did it myself. I could not find straight pieces of PVC pipe anywhere at Home Depot, so I ended up changing the design a little bit. Then I spray painted the PVC pipe and hot glued it to the cabinet door (which was only temporary - I need to hang them up with heavy duty velcro. I actually like the way I did better.

above idea from: http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Home-Organization/Bathroom-Storage/diy-bathroom-storage

mine

The next project I have been working on is re-doing a rocking chair I bought at a flea market sale for $7.50. The lady I bought it from said it was her great grandmothers and she was probably a grandma herself, so this chair is old! Here it is below. My mom was in town and we ended up re-doing the chair together. It was a lot of fun and she was really helpful! Thanks mom! It wouldn't have turned out as well without you!

First we ripped off all of the original padding and material.

Then we nailed a piece of board to the bottom of the chair to cover up the springs and make it a little more sturdy.

Next, we added padding to the bottom of the chair and then covered it with brown fabric using a staple gun.

Then we sewed a back cover and seat cover and stuffed them both, added straps to tie the pads to the chair, and re-stained the chair with brown and then black shoe polish to make it darker and cover up the scratches. Here's the finished product.

After I finished the rocking chair, Chad decided he wanted to find a way to make it fit in our front room, so he decided to do some rearranging. He also decided to bring the bookshelf in our bedroom out to the front room. We did some rearranging of furniture and pictures and "decorated" the tall bookshelf. In order to make the rocking chair fit we had to get rid of one of our end tables, which meant we lost a table for our lamp to the right of our couch. Chad decided to just set the lamp on the edge of the couch and nail the shade to the wall. I thought there was no way that would work - the lamp would fall and the shade would just rip out of the wall. It looks like I was wrong because so far it has held perfectly and not even wobbled. Good job Chad! Way to be creative! Sorry for doubting you! Here are some pictures of how our front room looks now:

This is the lamp on the couch nailed to the wall.

Seventh Century

I did my seventh century bike ride (100 miles) today. The past couple times I have actually done 112 miles in preparation for the Ironman in September, but today I just stuck to 100 miles - a good solid round number. I did the 100 miles in 5 hours and 25 minutes, which is a new personal record. I shaved about 5 minutes off of my old record for biking 100 miles. The trail I do my long bike rides on has quite a few stop signs and intersections where the trail crosses a main road and if you are unlucky you could up waiting at the crosswalk for what feels like a couple minutes. This did happen to me a few times today. I guess my point is that if there were a 100 mile trail with no interruptions or obstacles in the way of just biking as fast as I wanted to go the whole time I could do it even faster, but unfortunately such a trail does not exist - that I know of anyway.

Summertime, and The Living Is Easy!

Today Michelle and I went on a fun and exciting bike ride through D.C. We left our apartment here in Alexandria and rode all the way to the African American Civil War Museum, making several stops along the way. We visited several monuments that were on our list of touristy things to do that we still hadn't seen. After crossing the 14th Street bridge we stopped at the George Mason Memorial, then the Albert Einstein Memorial, and finally the African American Civil War Memorial (which was right by the museum that we went inside before turning around).

We had a great time biking around the nation's capital. The weather was perfect - warm and sunny. Also, I am very proud of Michelle for biking 18 miles today. She told me she understood now why I love biking so much, so I am hoping I have converted her into a biker like me. She even wants to go get a bike now (we borrowed someone's for her today) which I am all for!

I am convinced that we live in one of the greatest places on earth to spend a day biking and having fun in the sun. In addition to each of the memorials and museums we stopped to visit, we had the White House, the Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, and many other beautiful landmarks as a backdrop the entire time. If anyone reading this is jealous of what we get to do on a daily basis (well, during the summer at least) you are more than welcome to come visit and stay with us and stay as long as you want!

The following are my favorite pictures from our adventure today. Luckily for me, Michelle didn't get a picture of when I fell on my bum hard trying to bike up a set of stairs (yeah, I won't try that again).

My Summer Job: Swimming, Biking, and Running

I took this picture of myself with my iPod while running today...I guess I needed to find something to help pass the time

Michelle and I are finally enjoying summer break. DCPS goes really late into the year before summer break begins, and to make matters worse we had to make up a snow day this summer as well. Nevertheless, we are finally reaping one of the benefits of being teachers: paid summers off! Michelle, being totally awesome like she always is, is working part time as a nanny for a really cool family she met. They negotiated a really awesome schedule and Michelle is still going to have a nice summer, but it is also great that she is earning some money for us as well. I accepted an offer to be a substitute summer school teacher. I thought this was a perfect summer job because I can choose whether or not I will go into work. The reason I wanted this flexibility is because my main focus for this summer, which I call my real summer job, is to get as prepared as possible for my Ironman distance Triathlon in September. This means doing a whole lot of swimming, running, and biking!

I usually train for two sports in one workout. For example, yesterday I rode my bike 12 miles to an aquatic center, swam 3,000 meters, and then rode the 12 miles back home. Today, I rode my bike about 15 miles up Rock Creek Park, locked my bike to park bench and ran 5 miles, than rode my bike home about 15 miles. Based off of the results of my Half Ironman Triathlon, I have decided that I need to focus on running as much as I can this summer and make it a strength instead of a weakness. I am going to have to focus a lot on running over the next few months to meet my goal of running the entire 26.2 miles (a marathon) at the end of the Ironman in September without having to walk or stop and rest; and I can't forget that I will have to swim 2.4 miles and bike 112 miles before I even get that chance. So far, I have been extremely pleased with how much I have been able to run. I have gone on a couple 5 mile runs over the past few days and so far so good! Also, I was able to run the half marathon in my Half Ironman without stopping, so I am confident that my leg injury I got nearly two years ago that prevented me from running is nearly gone. The biggest key to overcoming the injury (IT Band Syndrome) has been doing lots and lots of stretching after I bike and run.

The following is a video I took of myself while running on a trail today in Rock Creek Park. I am lucky to have such a great place to do all my training and that D.C. is such a biker friendly area.

We've All Run Amuck!

This morning Chad and I and a bunch of our good friends ran the 2011 Marine Corps Run Amuck 3.5 mile race. It wasn't just a normal 3.5 miles; it was full of obstacles and mud pits and a few physical fitness stations (10 jumping jacks and 10 flutter kicks at different parts of the trail). The race was Bonnie's idea. I normally hate running and haven't done it much at all since I had knee surgery 6 years ago. Usually races are the last thing I'm interested in, but playing in the mud - I'm interested in! I thought the course would be a lot of fun with all of the obstacles and mud pits and that since it was designed as more of a fun and silly race it would be one that I could do slowly (because of my knees), but still enjoy. I have never done a race before, so I was really excited to do this one - especially since Chad has been doing triathlons, half ironmans, and is signed up for an ironman in September. I'm feeling a little lazy and out of shape compared to him! I have also enjoyed the excitement of being at his races and wanted to do one of my own. Last night as I was setting my alarm for 4:30 in the morning I started to doubt my sanity when I signed up for this race. I hate running and I hate getting up early, and I had just paid to do both. I really enjoyed the race though and am 100% glad I did it! It was so much fun, especially to do with so many of our good friends! Luckily Chad convinced me to actually let him bring the camera on the run and we got some awesome pictures. I was worried the camera would get ruined in the water and mud, but we kept it safe!

Starting the Race

"Tough tire dash" and "heartless hay bale maze"

Jogging on the trail and mud pit #1

"Strenuous spider web" (not very strenuous - all you had to do was run under the string), and mud pit #2. Chad's shoe got stuck in this mud pit and he had to go back for it. By the time he got his shoe back on, his sock was so muddy he just threw it away.















This is just a big puddle on one side of the trail (and an example of the many others like it). Most people ran around it, but Bonnie and I made a point to run through them. The more mud, the better!

"Tiring 20-foot pipe slither"
This is the "elaborate A-frame climb"

After the second mud pit, we decided that when we got to the last one our goal would be to have fun getting as muddy as possibly - hopefully completely covered. So the first thing we did when we got to the pit was dive in face and stomach first. Then were repeated this several times. Chad's entire head and most of his body are under the mud in the bottom right picture (below in the group of 4) - you can just see his leg sticking out. The picture on the top left is the three of us girls just coming out of the mud after our first dive, and the right is us diving. I think we all accomplished our goal. :) I got a ton of mud in my contact while playing in this pit (including mud chunks) and my contact almost came out. That would have made for a rough finish! After the mud pit, there was a "cruel clamber up a cargo net" It was really a steep hill that had so much slippery mud on it you did have to crawl to get up.

The four of us after the third mud put.

Chad rinsing off at the "forceful fire truck spray".

Bonnie and I crossing the finish line!

Chad and I at the finish line

Here's Chad and I before the race and then very near the end (after the 3rd mud pit and before the fire truck spray.














This is our group before the race - clean, dry, and excited! The picture on the right is after the race - still excited, but VERY dirty and soaking wet! Unfortunately, we took this picture after we had all been sprayed off by the fire truck so we didn't look as dirty as we did before, but our clothes and faces are still caked in mud.