Bike, Run, Cupcakes

Another solid weekend is in the books, great weather and great times.  The past few days have been revolving around my littlest daughters 5th birthday, kind of like a long birthday weekend if you will.  It was all a lot of fun and I think she had a great time....but let me digress.

Friday
Holy hot and humidity!  I knew that I had to get in an hour run and I considered getting it done first thing in the morning but I was pretty beat for my one hour ride on the trainer the night before (one hour at 100+ RPMs, while watching "Tropic Thunder").  So when the alarm went off at 4:30AM, I turned it off and went back to sleep for another hour.  So what did my extra hour of sleep earn me?  A noon time run with 90F+ temps and horrendous humidity.  The only benefit that I could think of was that I would have a chance to try out my inhaler which I prayed would eliminate my shortness of breathe when running.  Off I went around 11:45AM and all in all everything went remarkably well.  First off, I think the inhaler is my solution to all of my breathing problems.  When every I felt like it might be tough to take a breathe I didn't have any problems at all.  My run was so much more enjoyable.  I didn't go fast at all during it, I was trying to keep my heart rate under 160 BPM and I was pretty successful.  All in all I think I put in around 7.2 miles in a touch over an hour.  A good day!

Saturday
I was up super early for a weekend (5:30AM) so that I could get out of the house and get my two hour ride in before it got too late (and wouldn't disrupt the ladies in the house too much).  I was out of the house and riding by 6:15AM and it was a perfect time to be our riding.  The weather was ideal and I felt really good.  I made my way down to the river and then over into New Jersey.  I opted to not do any of the hills and instead just rode north all the way to Frenchtown and then north a bit of that (there is a pretty good hill heading out of town.  Once I hit one hour of riding I turned it around and headed back (below are pictures of where I turned around - farm country in NJ and me loving the new Oakley's!)

The ride back I switched over to the Pennsylvania side and cruised along the other side of the river. The NJ side is definitely more geared to cyclists as the road is a lot wide and accommodating, but I do like the shade and views from the PA side a lot better. By the time I got home I had ridden 37 miles in 2:01:17 (18.3 MPH), not stellar average speed, but I'll take it because my HR was in Zone 2 (averaged 140 BPM) and that is what I am more concerned about.


The rest of the day was spend hanging out with my girls (and my niece) at the pool.  This was the second time we've made it there and the weather held out for us.  We had a really good time, pretty much just floating around in the agua from 11:30AM until 4PM.  Of course the highlight for me was when the get all of the kids out of the pool for adult swim and some of the Dad's head to the diving pool for a little splash session.  Basically all of the kids sit on the edge of the diving pool and the Dad's go off the one meter spring board and do cannonballs, can-openers, etc. to try to drench the kids.  It is so much fun.

I did manage to get in a 1,000 yd swim which was awesome.  What a difference there is between a 25M pool and a 25yd pool.  I was able to swim 100yds in around 1:35 compared to 100M where my best is 1:48.  It was such an ego boost for me.

Sunday
My BIL Rick and I headed out around 7:00AM for a run, it was so nice to be out there with someone, instead of by myself like I usually am on the weekends.  We definitely took it easy, thank goodness, because I was a bit sore from the week of training.  We ran 7.06 miles in 1:00:21 (8:33/mile), which was a prefect pace, especially when you consider we ran Burnt House Hill Rd, which is super steep for about a 3/4 of a mile.  It wasn't really hot but I was definitely sweating my ass off.

The remainder of the day was all about getting ready for the my daughter's birthday party, going to the party, being at the party or coming back from the party.  My father did swing by for a couple hours, since he hadn't seen the girls in a few weeks (he had been in Arizona for three weeks or so).  It was great to see him and he seemed to be in great spirits.  I'm glad that he made the trip up.

My wife did a tremendous job with everything!  We had the party at a little shop in town called, "Let Them Eat Cupcakes".  It was different from the standard five year old birthday party at some bounce-around place, which was a good thing for us, the kids and the parents.  My wife is the best when it comes to putting together parties for the girls, she just knows what to do to make everything perfect.  I would say that E-Rock had a great time and the fact that she was able to share it with all of her friends from school was amazing.  Great job honey!!!

Today
I am getting ready to head down to Lakewood, NJ to take part in a golf outing.  I haven't played in about a year, so this should be interesting.  I hope I do embarrass myself too much.  Nothing on tap for today except for rest, although I would like to get over to the pool to swim a few laps, but I don't see that happening.  That is all for now...Peace out!