100.4 miles -- I did it!

This is a map of where I rode yesterday (50 miles out plus 50 miles back, 100 miles total). I started where the red line starts in the bottom right of the map, near DC. I think that seeing how small the DC city limits are in comparison to how long the red line is (indicating where I went) gives some perspective of how far I rode.





Yesterday I went on a 100 mile bike ride (100.4 to be exact - I know this thanks to my GPS watch). Whenever I have a day off work I like to go on a long bike ride, as opposed to the normal commute I do to and from work on most work day. Speaking of commuting in to work, I never wrote about it but I have finally moved up to riding in to work every day. I have been able to ride in every day for the last two weeks. Back to yesterday though: my 100 mile bike ride. I woke up pretty early for having the day off, and I was out the door by 8:00. I went on a really nice trail called the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, or the WOD (pronounced wad). It starts just a couple miles from where we live, and goes through several cities and counties. It is one of the longer and nicest trails (in my experience so far) in the DC area. My only complaint might be that it all looks pretty much the same as opposed to Rock Creek Park which has a variety of streams and even the occasional deer. At any rate, the WOD starts out here in Alexandria and passes through Falls Church, Vienna, Herndon, Ashburn, Loudon County (at some point...I can't remember which city was in Loudon County), Leesburg, and finally Purcelleville. The trail is only 45 miles long so if I turned around at that point I would have only had a 90 mile round trip. Thus, I kept on going down some road in a city I had never been to until I would up in a nice residential neighborhood and was 50 miles away from home. Being at the halfway point, I lied down in the grass and ate my little lunch I prepared and called Michelle to check in. When I started the 50 mile trek back home I still felt pretty good, but after 20 miles (70 miles total trip) I really started to feel it in my legs and even my back from leaning forward for so many hours (my total time biking was about 7 hours). I just kept thinking of how much I wanted to be home, and the miles started to go by pretty slowly the more I want to get home. In some ways it might be better to not be able to see EXACTLY how far you have gone, maybe I won't take the watch next time. Anyways, nnedless to say I made it home and Michelle was eagerly waiting to make sure I was ok. She got me a hot towel to put on my feet, which had been numb for about the last 4 hours of the trip (it was at or below freezing for most of the time I beleive). I have the right stuff for riding in the winter but I don't think it is good enough for spending as long as I did in the winter freezing. I was talking to a friend who also bikes and he says I might have had hypothermia because normally you are really hot after riding 100 miles, not frozen like I was. The winter riding gear I have is excellent for keeping warm on my daily commutes but I think spending 7+ hours in the freezing cold requires more, it is just too many hours to spend in that cold of weather. So I can tell you one thing, I will not do a bike ride that long until it warms up significantly, maybe not even until the Spring or Summer. I did enjoy the ride though and do look forward to riding a century (100 miles) again and trying to improve my time - I definitely didn't set any new world records for 1oo mile bike rides but I had a great time doing it. I found this picture on line of a part of the trail. Even though there is more variation in the scenery than what you can see in this picture, this is what a great deal of it looks like (and how it looked while I was on the trail). It should be gorgeous once things start warming up and the plants all come back.

Meeting Famous People!

Last weekend Chad and I had the chance to meet several famous people - politicians, movie starts, and singers, at an event in D.C. (on of the perks of living in such a big city). Here are some pictures:







We actually met all these famous people at the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum in D.C. - they were on display. Yep, all of the pictures above (and below) are of us with wax figurines. Chad and I couldn't believe how real they looked! It was a little creepy. Chad had to poke one in the eye just to make sure he wasn't real and wasn't going to start talking to him. The museum lets you touch and take pictures of everything, which made it a lot of fun. In some of the areas they have jackets you can put on to make you look more like the figurines (a fur coat near the Kennedy family and a generals jacket in the war section). They had wax figurines of politicians, athletes, movie stars, signers, politicians, war generals, news anchors, etc.

Life Happens: Part 1 - Takoma Educational Center 3 Alarm Fire and 150+ Firefighters

Three-Alarm Fire Causes Extensive Damage to DC School, Takoma Educational Center : MyFoxDC.com

In case you weren't able to make sense of the lengthy and highly punctuated title of this blog post, this post will be the first in a 3 part series about the things that happen in life. Today, in Part 1, I will be writing about the tragic 3 alarm fire that destroyed much of Takoma Educational Center -- the school I work at. Although this fire was a tragedy and we are all very nervous about what the repercussions are going to be (they have already said we will not be reporting back to Takoma after the break but instead they will be trying to determine where we can go instead) what is most important is that NOBODY was hurt. This is a blessing; thank heavens school was not in session, things really could have been much worse.

Yesterday afternoon I noticed I had one missed call and a voice message from my school. I thought it was strange that they would be calling staff over the two week winter break. I listened to the message from my principal and learned that there was a major fire at our school. Throughout the day, I learned more from the news and updates on the Washington Post website, and by making a couple phone calls to other teachers that were in D.C. and watched the action in person.

To sum it all up, there was major fire damage on the third floor of the school (where my classroom and teacher preparation room is) and the second floor was destroyed. As luck would have it, the fire on the third floor happened to be right where my classroom is - or used to be. Although everything that was in my classroom is gone, it is not yet certain if everything in my cabinet in my teacher prep room is destroyed. The head custodian at my school said that whatever the fire didn't get, the water from the 'over 150 firefighters' did...so I am keeping my hopes in check but I am clinging to the hope that I can salvage some of my stuff. Since I bike in to work, I keep an entire warbdrobe at school, not to mention my own personal LCD projector and lots of other possessions. In the case that everything is gone, I have started to make a list of everything that I had at svchool for insurance purposes and I was surprised at how much I had there.

Crazy how you only usually read about these things and then the universe lines up and points at you and suddenly it is your school you are watching on the news! What is most important, by far, is that nobody was hurt. No kids were even in the building, thank goodness! Anyways, life happens.

These are links to news articles about the fire at my school and video and pictures of it all:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/dc/fire-reported-at-takoma-ed-cen.html

http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/fire--damages-to-dc-school-takoma-educational-center-122210

Couple Inches of Snow But Still Going Strong

We got some snow here in D.C. today. It was the first real snow of the season (it snowed a tiny bit already but it never stuck until today). It hadn't snowed when I rode in to work this morning but starting at around 10:00 am the snow started coming down and it didn't stop for several hours. So that means I got to ride home in a couple inches of snow. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I rode in this morning, and I was actually really looking forward to seeing what it would be like. So, the verdict on biking in the snow is that it is beautiful and challenging, but not more than I can handle. It took me about an extra 25 minutes I think to get home so I would probably expect to need an extra 40 minutes to get there. This makes for a pretty long commute! Luckily, there should be less days with real snow on the trail than days without it. Winters in D.C. do not typically get all that many inches of snow (except for when there is a Snowpocalypse). So anyways, here are some pictures of the beautiful winter wonderland in D.C's Rock Creek Park where I get to bike through to and from work.

Celebrating Success

Being a teacher is a very challenging job for so many reasons, and sometimes it seems like I'm not making a big enough difference. Luckily, there are always those days when I see the difference I am making, even if only for a few students. Today was one of those days. I have a student in my class who started the year not knowing how to recognize, write, or say the sounds of any letters of the alphabet (he should have learned all of this last year in kindergarten). When he would write stories at the beginning of the year, he could only draw pictures and occasionally put a letter or two on his paper, often not corresponding with any sounds he was trying to write. Today during writing he wrote a whole story about superman going to a store, getting some candy, and taking some money out of his pocket to give a the lady at the store before flying away. He spelled all the words the best he could by sounding them out and didn't get discouraged when he didn't know how to spell something (previously a big road block and still a big road block for many students). For example, his story started like this: "Frst subrmn wnt to the str. Vn he gt cand..." (First, superman went to the store. Then he got candy...) I was so proud of his progress. Another girl in my class started the year as a good writer. She was writing stories that were 3-4 sentences long, but didn't have very much detail. Today she wrote a chapter book. It is 8 pages so far and she told me she still needs to write chapter 3. Awesome! I hope I can help the rest of my students make this much progress as well.

Me and Andrew

Yesterday I went out with the missionaries for a few hours, one of them happened to be my brother Andrew. It is always a lot of fun to spend time with the missionaries, but it was especially fun to get to spend time with my brother! This is a picture of us with a lady we visited.

Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad

I can't believe Thanksgiving already came and went! Michelle and I were fortunate enough to have my parents come out and stay with us for a week and a half. We had an amazing time with my parents. We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner, thanks mostly to Michelle and my mom and dad, and had a lot of fun visiting sites around DC. This picture is of us behind George Washington's mansion at Mount Vernon. This is me doing the one and only thing that I did to help make Thanksgiving dinner: mash the potatoes.
Michelle made the biggest, most delicious rolls ever!
Mom prepared the Turkey.
Michelle and Mom made these delicious little turkeys.
Us crossing the bridge to get to Theodore Roosevelt Island.
Me and my parents on the bridge.
Michelle and I walking to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial.

Mom and Dad looking at the 9/11 exhibit at the Newseum. The Newseum is one of the most amazing places to visit in DC, we all highly recommend it. This is what remains of a 360 feet antenna that was on top of the North Tower.
After seeing everything in the Newseum, I couldn't wait to test my skills as a news anchor.

Mom and Michelle on the balcony of the Newseum. The US Capitol and the Canadian embassy are behind them.
Michelle and I at the Ne.





My mom went to Michelle's class with her one day and helped her out in her classroom the entire day. They both had a great time and my mom said she can't wait to volunteer in the classroom the next time she is here. The kids all really enjoyed having two Mrs. Wallaces in the classroom.
Michelle reading to her first grade class.
We went to a Wizards game at the Verizon Center. The Wizards pulled off an inredible comeback and won in overtime, we picked a good game.
Michelle and I from near our seats.
Michelle and my parents outside of George and Martha Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon.
The amazing view of the Potomac River behind George Washington's Mount Vernon.
Me and my parents.

Major Milestone: 50 miles

Yesterday morning I went on a bike ride with two guys. I had taken a couple days off to rest since biking in to work three days straight at the beginning of the week, so I felt that I had an opportunity to really push myself and find out where I was at (in terms of physical fitness). So we went for a 50 mile bike ride, and it was a much more challenging route than anything I had ever done before. There was about 10 miles of hills (essentially all up-hill, until we turned around of course). The two guys I went with were able to do it so much easier than I was, it just showed me that this sport is an amazing sport where - like running - you can always be motivated to improve, get stronger, and increase your endurance because your main competitor is yourself! Cycling is a lot like running in how mental it is.

Anyways, I am proud to say I went on a 50 mile bike ride (with lots of hills, lots of wind, and in the freezing cold...so under more ideal circumstances the effort I expended could equate to a longer ride possibly). The picture is from my GPS watch which tells you EXACTLY how far you have gone, how fast you are going (MPH), how many calories you've burned, and since it is GPS it even shows a map of where you have gone. The bottom right shows 50.12, that is how many miles I went. My total miles biked this week was 134.72.

Go Kart Racing

My Elder's Quorum from church had an awesome activity today: go kart racing. These go karts were really hard-core, it was not like the go karts that I used to ride at the family fun center growing up. Before they let you race, you have to change in to a racing jumpsuit and this guy from a foreign country gives you a pretty long explanation of the course and how to race. These go karts seriously went really fast. The course was really fun too, and I must admit that racing in go karts that actually went really fast and racing on a course that was a bit longer and more complex made it significantly more challenging than the go karts at the family fun centers growing up. It was really a lot of fun.

Grand Slam: 113 Miles

As I mentioned last week, I was going to try to complete the 'grand slam' and ride into work 4 times this week. I didn't have work on Thursday (Veteran's Day), so in order to ride in 4 times a week I would have to ride in three days in a row (Mon, Tue, Wed) and then finish it up on Friday. I had never ridden in three times consecutively before, and the ideal way to ride in 4 times a week would be to do it Mon and Tue, rest on Wed, and then ride in on Thu and Fri, but that wouldn't work this week. I really wanted to go for the Grand Slam though this week so I decided to just go for it, I would never know if I could do it if I didn't try!

So I did it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and I am really glad I went for it. It makes me think that it won't be that hard to eventually move up to riding in 5 times a week (that would be everyday). I decided to wear my GPS watch that I used to use when I was training for long-distance running and I measured exactly how far my round trip commute is. My round trip (that I ride each day) is 28.23 miles, thus making the grand total of miles that I rode this week 112.92 miles. Next week I will do Mon Tue and then Thu Fri. After a few weeks of riding in 4 times a week and my body gets accustomed to the increased mileage (its a jump of 28.23 miles), I think I will be able to go for the 'clean sweep' and ride in every day. I am not sure why I use sports metaphors to refer to the number of days I ride in to work....I think its just fun.

These are pictures from my ride in yesterday morning. It was the lowest temperature yet that I have ridden in to work in. It was low 30's, but with my new winter gear and the fact that I was working pretty hard, it really didn't even feel that bad. There was frost on the grass....wow...didn't think I would be seeing that so soon! I am really not planning on letting the cold weather slow me down. I have gotten the proper winter gear and I am ready for whatever the winter can throw at me.

Another Lengthy - But Exciting - 'Catch-Up' Post

One of our goals is to blog more frequently, because then we wouldn't have to write such long blog posts and write about so many different things at the same time. So, in other words, this will be another 'catch-up' post like the last one.

October 19th was our 3 year anniversary. We celebrated by going out to our favorite restaurant. Shortly after we got married Michelle made a book for me with 101 reasons why she loves me. Ever since then, making a list of reasons why I love her has been something I've been meaning to do so on our anniversary I finally gave her a list of 101 reasons why I love her. I also included a quote by Dr. Seuss that I stumbled upon that accurately describes how happy I have been since meeting Michelle: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

Shortly after our anniversary was Halloween. The very first time Michelle and I saw each other was on Halloween, 2006, in a preparation class for the Washington Seminar program we were about to embark on. That makes it very convenient to calculate how long ago we saw each other for the first time (4 years ago on Halloween). We had a very fun Halloween here in DC. The weekend before Halloween we went on a walking haunted ghost tour through Old Town Alexandria with another couple we are friends with. Our guide was very much an enthusiast of ghost stories and made the tour very interesting. His firm belief in the stories he was telling us made it fun, but Michelle and I were a little skeptical of some of the stories. Nevertheless, it was very informative and educational (there is a lot of Revolutionary War and Civil War history in Alexandria) and a great thing to do for Halloween. This is a picture of us in front of one of the buildings that one of the ghost stories was about. Thanks again Mike and Chelsea for inviting us to go with you guys on the haunted ghost tour!

On the weekend of Halloween, we helped setup and run the ward chili cook-off and trunk-or-treat. We had a great time manning the ring toss table and giving out prizes to all the kids who played the game. We also tried several different home-made chilis and of course ate lots of candy. This photo is courtesy of Chance, who you can always count on to take a great picture when you really want one. Having visited Peru over the summer, we decided to dress up as Peruvians for Halloween.

In other news, I am still biking my commute to work three times a week. Since each day's commute is 30 miles, it takes a long time to get fully accustomed to the additional day's worth of mileage. In other words, it was difficult to go from two to three days a week and it is taking me longer than I expected to move up from three to four days a week. Currently, I am biking about 90 miles a week (15 miles each way=30 mile round trip, three times a week). Since moving up to four times a week would thus be going from 90 to 120 miles a week and is quite a big jump, last week I bike in 3.5 times a week. Basically, I rode to and from work 3 times and and I also rode in an additional day but took my bike on the Metro home. This was a good stepping stone to increase my weekly mileage to a little over 100 miles; and now I think I am ready to try riding in 4 times this week. I will let you know how it goes. Also, I am not planning on letting the winter season slow me down. I have bought some really good winter gear and so far, I haven’t let the cold or precipitation prevent me from even missing one day of riding. I have ridden in in the high 30’s once, and it wasn’t much of a problem at all, so I am optimistic that I will be able to ride in through the entire winter (except for when there is ice or snow).

All this biking I've been doing has helped me get to a new milestone in my quest to eat healthier and lose weight. Since I started to improve me eating habits and exercise more, I have now lost 50 pounds! I am at a weight that I never even thought would be possible when I started all of this a year and a half ago. I think I am actually at my old high school weight, which is pretty cool considering how much weight I had gained. The following is a picture of me from last summer, right before I started dieting and exercising (on the left with Honest Abe), followed by a recent picture of me celebrating Michelle's birthday at Six Flags: