Heat, Humidity, Hills, and Abe Lincoln

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay but I have been sooo busy training that I haven't had time to post. Just kidding. Really have been enjoying my summer and promise to update more frequently.

So for some reason I thought it would be fun to try and bike a century, 100 miles on a bicycle (no motor) in a single day. This was poor decision making on my part. On very little sleep, I showed up to Reston Town Center at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 12th to participate in the Tour de Cure 100 mile ride across the rolling hills of Virginia to support the American Diabetes Association. Rolling hills my ass. We went 10 miles out flat on the W & OD trail and then up and down several dozen mountains for 70 miles before 20 miles back in on the W & OD trail. The temperature was pleasant in the low 90's and the humidity was in the comfortable range of damn near 100%. I thought I was suffering from heat stroke by mile 40 and I am not sure what you call how I felt from mile 80-95 but it was a happy experience when I crossed the finish line at 3:30 p.m. after 7 and 1/2 hours of excruciating fun. Unfortunately, I got lost 3 times on the ride (yeah that's fun when you have to backtrack over a mountain!), one of which must have been a shortcut because when I crossed the finish line, my odometer read only 96 miles for the day. I was going to do circles in the parking lot for 4 miles but I thought that might have led to many more circles by wheels on the ambulance taking me to the hospital if I would have had to pedal any further so I decided to consume 4 gallons of Gatoraid and chill in the air conditioning instead. Fun stuff! Who wants to do it with me next year???

As for the running, this whole marathon thing is starting to make me a little nervous. I ran my first sub 19 minute 5K a few weeks ago (on a treadmill). I have since quit running on treadmills and have started running outside. It is so hot during the day I have been running at night. A couple nights ago I took off from my house in Georgetown around midnight and ran down to the WWII Memorial, dunked my head in the fountain, trekked over to the Lincoln Memorial for a moment with big Abe, and then looped home. It was a good 5-6 miles and I think I am going to start running this loop more often. Gotta keep running, gotta keep running.

And Chad Russell, I miss you! I'll be in San Francisco soon...

Take care for now,

D.