My favorite fall ride

Can you see Hight Point Monument up there? Love this loop de loop hill too!



Actually I love this loop de loop road better! Wahoooooo
Tomorrow I'm going on a reunion ride w/ the very first Advil-ChapStick team...well most of them. :) Can't wait.

A Wise Woman Once Wrote:

Get up.
It sucks.
Then it doesn't.
Go train.
It sucks.
Then it doesn't.
Always.
In that order.

http://www.throughth3wall.com/

Some photos.....

My new friend at the NJ fair....oh yeah I got my haircut...didn't you notice ME!!

Hiking on the AT

Maddie can hike to the top!

Rock Band!

Rock Band up at the lake house!

Quick update for the family members that still check! We had a great family reunion in Westchester, NY last weekend. Nice to see my Mom's side of the family. This weekend we sadly have my grandmother's memorial here at the Chateau Hawthorne in Warwick, NY. I am excited to see my Dad's side of the family! Have not seen some of them in a LONG time.

Trying to adjust to becoming full full time teacher (up at 4:00 AM most mornings), Maddie's full full schedule of school, soccer, CCD, social events, etc. and trying to get some sort of consistent exercise in. Running seems to be the fastest/easiest. I am swimming again about once a week too!

Following the race season via www.cyclingnews.com and rooting for the US at Worlds

5k race

We had Maddie's birthday bbq on Saturday, went to a friend's bbq on Sunday and got up to run in my first race on Monday. I had NO expectations b/c I don't really run...seriously anyway. I made Bill do it with me. He moaned and groaned all the way to the start line. We started in the wayyyyy back. So far back that when the starter shot the gun we just stood ther for like :15 waiting to actually move. We were back by the the guy being pushed in the wheel chair, the moms w/ strollers and the blind guy ( who Bill says I cut-off and that's why I dropped him!!) I don't remember that one! Anyhow. We had fun. I ran the 5k in 23 minutes, but at the first split they were off by about :30 (the difference from me waiting and finally starting my watch when I crossed the start line...I guess :30 after the start!~ so I ran under 23 minutes. Bill did awesome. He was like a minute behind me.

I by no means won any trophies for the day. I think I came in 170th overall...men and women. But next time......I'm pushing my way to the front! I did learn that I can do 5k without my knee really hurting too much. That's a good thing.

Bill's cousin, Diane cheered us on w/Maddie. She got one photo of me so maybe I'll post that when I get it.
Finished the day up at John and Diane's lake house for an awesome day of kayaking, swimming, filets, shrimp and MORE birthday cakes. Ahhhh.

OFF to work tomorrow! Time to hit the ground running every morning. Wish me luck.

One Step Forward....Two Steps Backwards

This is Maddie putting on her OWN pedals to her new Fuji Mountain bike! Don't mind the messy garage...yikes!

I've been going into my school all week to get my classroom ready for my second graders. OMG there is so much work to do! This was not the first that I've been in the school mind you! I had gone in 3 days before. I seemed to take one step forward and two backwards all week! The
following ordeals slowed me down:

1. Jammed the copier and stuck pencils, scissors and protractors inside of it to solve the jam for 45 minutes...didn't work!
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2. Trying to laminate some posters, etc. when my letter "O" went into the piping hot laminator twisted...it knocked into some medal bar and the medal bar got sucked into the hot melting plastic! I quickly pushed stop and reverse only to double the plastic wrapping around my "O" and the medal bar.....oh no! I got help from the librarian but we had to cut and run! Cut out the objects, leave a sign "Broken" and run! Oh jeeze.

3. I hung my word wall to the closet doors (5 posters hand-made taking hours to make and hang) for them ALL to slowly peel off and fall to the ground AS my new principal was in my room talking with me. She was very friendly and brought me to a senior teacher's room to show me another way to do the "word wall." I chucked my old ones!

4. I had to call ALL of my students on the phone b/c I sent them each a postcard telling them how much I looked forward to our new year together and that I looked forward to seeing them on the 4th......one day later than the ACTUAL first day of school. YUP, wrong day!

OK, there's more, but I do feel that I'm boring you now.

Bill and I have been running 5 days a week. It's awesome b/c Maddie rides her kick-butt Fuji mountain bike around this HILLY (short 12% grade hill on it) 1.2 mile path w/ us running after her. She is getting the hang of using gears and hand brakes. She's a stud. She actually ran one lap today and rode 3 laps on her bike. It's fun to get the exercise together.

Still Digging Deep...Just Moving On!

The blog probably won't last much longer. I'm officially completely done w/ professional cycling. I'll be teaching full-time this fall. I will be doing some cross and I've been running 3x a week to see if the reconstructed knee will hold up for a triathlon! We'll see. I'll tell you this, running 6 miles 3x a week destroys my cycling legs. I was pedaling squares the other day on an "easy" group ride. 50 miles never felt so miserable!!! What's that about? Any tri people want to give me tips? It's only natural for me to try. I swam in college and ran in high school....add that to my cycling and well, it's worth a try right????? The bum knee is my only fear. Maybe I'll have to speed-walk my way to the finish line..ha!