So Kirsten usually has an unspoken rule, more of a standard I guess, that around 9pm she starts saying "can we go to be now?" Then at 9:30 she says "Are you ready for bed?"...then 10pm rolls around and she says "I am going to bed..." Every night it is like clock work and is pretty funny since it has become routine for her (even during the olympics!), but this night she was so tired from work and all the activities the past week she was out at 8pm or so on the couch. She wasn't awakened by anything either. Around 10pm she finally woke up.
We had planned on going doing the Shorefire century up in Delaware on Saturday morning as a training simulation for Ironman Arizona, but the more the day came upon us, the more we didn't really want to drive all the way up there and waste a day. I was prepping for the ride while Kirsten was asleep and when she woke up at 10 the first thing she said was "Do we really have to go tomorrow?" I said "Nope not really...I really don't want to wake up at 5am to drive 2+ hours..." to which she replied "Good...I don't want to either". So it was settled that easily!
We woke up around 6:30am or so and decided to do our usual 100 miler out to Sugarloaf and back. It was just the two of us and I wasn't motivated to go similar to our run this past Wednesday. After some cooing and cawing from me we finally got going about 15 minutes later than we wanted and were on our way. Kirsten accused me of sandbagging again as I always say "I feel terrible" but the am hammering away later on in the ride. So we got out onto MacArthur Blvd. which is flat and fast and Kirsten was hanging on my wheel when she hit a pothole that was slightly to my left. I didn't call it out assuming she was directly behind me but she was taking a drink and hit the hole full on dropping her water bottle and hitting her arm on her bike pretty hard. She was miffed for about 20 minutes but soon got over it when I tried to replace a bottle she lost at that point with one my own...I tried to put it in her bottle cages while we were riding up a hill...which was risky...I figured either I was going to drop it...or I was going to push it in and push myself over at the same time! Well it fell out and that brought her back a little ;)
The rest of the ride was great as the temps were pretty cool but it was pretty humid. That ride gets seemingly shorter every time we do it but I guess it is because I am getting used to it! Kirsten was riding strong and I was waiting for my bonk to come as I was only using a concentrated bottle of Infinit to feed myself on the ride. I had a couple times when I didn't feel good but kept drinking water and sipping the infinit and eventually came around each time. When we hit MacArthur Blvd. on the way back Kirsten was blowing the doors off as she was pulling me along at 23mph INTO A HEADWIND! She is getting extremely strong with her riding and was right there with me the entire day. I was impressed and offered some encouraging words as we pulled into Georgetown (where the junk miles of stop and go start up back to the house).
We were on record pace for that route and were at 4 hours 45 minutes as we pulled into Georgetown. That meant that we were easily going to have a ride time of 5:30, but when we pulled into the house it was 5:13 and change!!! That was a full 45 minutes faster than we had done that route....EVER! What is even more impressive (to us anyway) it was just the two of us and we kept a consistent effort the entire way out and back. Kirsten was a little beat up from the pace though (as was I) at the end to the point where we were about a mile from home and she says "CAN YOU SLOW THE 'F' DOWN A LITTLE!"...haha we both got a good laugh out of that one and I obliged of course. When we got back I compared this ride to the two rides I had on record and indeed it was 45 minutes faster and about 2mph faster than the other two rides...definitely a new world record for Kirsten and I!
Afterwards we headed down to 8th street for an early dinner and to get some gifts for Nic and Suzanne's baby shower that night. We went to Cafe 8 and sat outside people watching and enjoying each other's company. It was a great afternoon especially after the hard ride and the weather was perfect...Kirsten said it best..."If we went to Delaware, we wouldn't even be home yet!" Indeed! After that it was a quick walk home to change and vaccum (at least for me since I had been putting it off for over a week), and head over to Eric and Christal's.
The baby shower was more of an adult gathering and didn't have any silly baby games or anything of the like. The only formality was the opening of some gifts that some of us had brought. All of the guys ended up congregating in the kitchen and exchanging stories and pouring each other drinks...until 1am!!! Wow...the latest I had stayed out in a long time. Kirsten left a little while before I did since she was exhausted and I got home ready to sleep from a long day.
I woke up the next morning exhausted as well not intending to do anything even though we had some workouts on the schedule. I wasn't feeling up to anything and Kirsten got ready to go for a short run but ended up getting outside and walking over to Safeway...grabbing some groceries and then coming straight back home...good to know she wasn't feeling up to working out either!
By the time we both started coming around it was too late to do anything and we had to go to the Baltimore Oriole's Game. My company a couple times a year gets a box at the games and provides free food and drinks. It is a good time and nice to relax in luxury at a baseball game and the food is one step up from typical baseball fare, but definitely not gourmet by any means! The game itself was painstaking as within 3 hours they had only played 4.5 innings! It was the slowest game I had ever went to. Although it was relatively exciting for baseball (as I say 30 minutes of action packed into 3 hours) it was just too slow for us so we decided to head home and avoid the traffic, running into many others that had the same idea on the way out. Here are a couple pictures from the game:
The view from the corporate suite
Kirsten making sure I am not falling asleep
After that it was home for some more olympics and a quick nap before we headed over to Laura and Dave's to have our Endure24 meeting. We unfortunately had to postpone the race until next year as result of just being too far behind with the permitting process and not providing enough time for racers to fundraise and for us to properly promote the event. We apparently are already getting some notoriety as come of the cycling list serves were accusing us of being a pirate organization and some going so far as to calling the permit offices of the local county and city governments to see if we had permits approved. We had gotten tentative approval from the parks people contingent upon a certificate of insurance (which we had gotten) but were still working through the hurdles of the local government (which was convoluted since we didn't have the proper information and ended up missing the submission deadline) to get approval to use the school. Needless to say, the list serve people we felt were entirely over reacting but it just goes to show that people like to research the facts that support their point of view rather than examining both sides of the issue and getting the total information rather than bits and pieces; kind of like students writing papers based on Wikipedia entries that aren't entirely true rather that citing primary source material! So they contacted every one but us and Autism Speaks...well that is going your homework isn't it? Anyway, not that I am bitter about all these cyberspace lynch-mob types that seek to discredit anything new and different that encroaches on their comfort or control...but let me step down from my soapbox for the rest of the day.
Needless to say it is a slight relief to have more time to do the race the way we want and put on a first rate race that will "endure" for years to come (pun intended). The meeting overall was productive but Kirsten and I were ready for bed before we even go there. The week ahead looks to be pretty low key with Kirsten's birthday being the only thing going on this week. Oh and she finds out if/when she gets to go to Sudan. She found out there is a stadium with a track near their work compound so at least she can run while she is there. More updates as the week goes on.
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