Home sweet home! Its fun to travel, but its nice to be back home. Own bed. Back in the grove of things. And yes, back to cycling! How I missed you Trek!

Spent a good deal of the morning catching up on porjects, deadlines and writing. Then it was time to show some love to my bike. How I missed thee!

Wanted to ride 50 miles, but had to settle for 25 instead. Back to the hills. It was humid out. But it felt great to ride again!

I can’t believe that in 2 weeks I will be on a plane heading to South Dakota. Yikes. But I know I have trained hard. I am ready. 100 miles here I come!

Photo by Moriza

A very quick post on my monthly mile totals. I think I need a “frequent mile club” program or something!

Between running AND cycling (and some swimming) I “did” drum roll please…..

858.57 miles. Whoa.

With the few hours of weights, yoga, Pilates, etc, I trained for 99.36 hours. Thank god that next month is taper month!  :)

Photo by visualpanic

WHOA! I won! Well, Meghan (my web/graphic designer) and I won the show down. That’s always great news on a Thursday morning! Thank you for voting!

To celebrate, I did a nice hilly, sweaty ride. Last ride for a WHOLE week. Yikes. So, I enjoyed the ride. Well, as much as I could. I got to thinking about Ironman. I MUST get faster. Rode 50 miles in 3:10. Ick!

I also got in an hour of weights. Last weight workout for a while. Sigh. I like my iron power! But, what is my goal? August 22 baby!

Goodbye Trek 5000. Will miss you the next week. I will be back. Don’t miss me too much!

Thought for the day: winning may be the icing on cake. But don’t forget all the ingredients it took you to bake that cake!

Photo by BingBing

Another wicked humid day out. So much in fact, that I felt like I was riding in a sauna the whole 45 miles! It has been a REALLY busy day. Just managed to fit in a quick ride between appointments, interviews and projects.

I felt a little stiff heading out. Hills quickly took care of that. Rode downtown through Georgetown, by Regan Airport (figured it missed me) then finally to Mt. Vernon. Then home again. On the way back the humid rose from 88% to 100% and the hot steam shower began. It was strange to see the steam rise from the blacktop. It did NOT feel good.

After my sauna shower, I was home to take a real shower. Now, that felt great.

Rode 45 miles in 2: 52. Slow. But I will take it.

Photo by Niffty

72 hours aways. 24  of those spent flying. Got in at 1 am. Thank god I had a ride to take me home. Barely got into bed, only to get up again to make early morning talk. Was still getting the sleep out of my eyes as I rushed over to the coffee. What time is it again? I am not really sure. The last 72 hours have been a whirlwind.

Welcome home. To humidity. All 88% of it! Stalled with training today. I was still trying to figure out what time it was. Poor body. I did finally drag my butt onto my Trek 5000. Remember what I said Sunday? Well, I still mean it. But it was wicked hot. And where did the hills come from? And hello to the sun! Rode 25 miles in  1:35. Felt GREAT to unwind from traveling & jet lag.

Wanted to get a brick workout in, but legs said no way girl! And you know what? I went with that thought. My race is in x days. Time to start taking it easy. Laugh out loud. Yeah right. ME?! Well, I am going to try. Wanted to run 6 miles. Settled for a 4.3 mile walk in just under an hour. I’ll take it. Legs, you got a break tonight. Remember that.

Photo by lapiaf.geo

Thursday! Off day from running. Double ride day. Legs get ready!

Went out for a quick spin. Well, let me rephrase that. I thought it would be a quick spin. It was not. Legs wanted to spend more time sleeping I think. They missed the memo that they had to ride. It was quite warm out and it only got hotter as the ride wore on. The cars had very grouchy drivers this morning. I became so close to being road kill, I almost re-thought the whole riding thing. Even the deer were afraid. Didn’t see one! The hills seemed hiller then usual. Is that possible? So much for another PR.

I rode 25 miles in 1:38. Must. Do. Better. Next. Time.

Now on to some iron love (aka weight lifting). That always lifts my spirits. Not that my upper football body needs it, but it feels oh so good to lift!

The day was indeed HOT. The last thing I wanted to do was to go on another ride. But that was the plan! So, back on the saddle I went. I did pick a semi flat route. Didn’t want to totally melt on hills at the start ya know! So, I did hills at the start and end. Still melted.

Rode 32 miles in 2:03 (15.6mph)

Goodbye bike. I will miss you. I leave tomorrow for CA. You will be in my thoughts!

Photo by Eleaf

As I was riding Sunday, I was reminded that how we as people have become so detached. What do I mean? Well, I am so glad you asked!

Whenever I am running or riding I always try to say “hello”, “good morning” or “hi” to the people that pass me. At least smile. Okay, I will admit that when I am gasping for air doing sprints, it is much harder to speak, but you get the idea.

So, as I was saying hello to people on my ride I was once again **surprised** at how many people said nothing or fell over in shock that a “girl on bike” actually said something. How sad!

Needless to say, I had a few hours to reflect on this sad trend. And also, how to change it. I don’t have any answers. But I do have some thoughts (well, even you knew that). What if we started viewing other people has REAL life? We live such a fake world.

A world that is run by iPods, Blackberry’s, virtual assistants, virtual this & virtual that. While technology is great (trust me, I love social media), it is also easy to turn a great thing into a bad thing. Don’t let this happen to you! Have a love for other people. Don’t limit your contact to people only via computer. Leave your iPod at home and let your “music” be saying hello to the people around you.

Make AND take a few minutes to actually talk! Novel idea I know. When you start to view people as LIFE, your life will be real. And maybe, just maybe the detached nation will be a friendly & REAL nation.

Photo by Oskay