Easter Weekend

This past weekend was another one of those that just comes together nicely. It’s no secret that I love hanging out at home and I’m frequently homesick; and four months was way too long to go without visiting Greensboro. So with an added day off for the Easter holiday, I rented a car and headed down south to visit the family.

(Home. And no, I have no clue why there is a gray line at the bottom of some of these photos)

My youngest brother, who is actually bigger than me, was back from college for the weekend so when I arrived on Thursday night, they were pleasantly surprised to see me walk through the door (oh yea, it was a surprise).

While I had grand intentions to eat healthy and run a lot, those hopes were quickly dashed when I ate about 20-30 cookies within the first 24 hours of being home. Yes, I know, I have a problem. Fortunately, between a brief run and plenty of yard work on Saturday, I did enough physical activity to warrant another set of 20-30 cookies. Oops.

(whoops, little too much tongue action in this one)


(my Dad with his gross beard he's growing out for some company challenge)

As for the rest of the trip, it was spent reminiscing, playing/watching sports, and looking at old photos. Some of which were too good not to post. Also, these will prove once and for all that I was taught from a young age to always make a face in pictures.

(big pimpin with little bro)


(best outfit ever?)


(me on the right)

To conclude the weekend, I spent Easter Sunday being active in DC and finally getting some normal training in. I managed to squeeze in some interval training on the bike and then I mustered up the courage to test my foot again. Four miles, decent pace, minimal soreness/weakness in my foot. I’ll call that a success. Albeit, my heart rate and lungs were on fire after not running for three-ish months.

(post run = perfect time for more pseudo-cookies)

Stay tuned for more posts this week. I might even find the time to do a whole week of training AND announce some of those secret races I mentioned earlier. Might.

What a day. What a weekend.

This past weekend was my Doctor-approved date to start running again. Which, surprisingly, I actually listened to. Coincidentally, it aligned with the first day of BC alumni soccer season and meant I’d get to test out my ankle on my nemesis – field turf. Fortunately for me though, all signs show that the bone is fully healed and aside from a little weakness in that area, it felt good running around. Even more so, it felt good to be playing again. I’m paying for it today with a bunch of cleat marks and bruises all over my legs but if you ask me, there’s no better feeling. Heck, it’s even better than a runner’s high.

Then, as an added bonus, today was the best day of the year for all those Bostonians out there. Marathon Monday is like Christmas in Boston and while most years I regret not being up there, this year was even worse. A few of my friends were toeing the line for the first time and each of them killed it. Most notably, fellow coworker and speedster Michael (friend who qualified at Marine Corp Marathon in blistering fashion) ran a nasty 2:53:54. If that’s not motivation to chase my own personal BQ speed, then I don’t know what is.

Moral of the story, all signs are pointing forward. Soccer is ramping up, I’m back to hitting the roads and chasing the Boston dream (already signed up for another secret race today), and my first tri of the season is less than a month away.

April Update

Quick little life/training update here:

Foot: I have to be cautious with what I say here because I know my parents will worry if I don’t say I’m 100% but the good news is that I’m almost back to full health. I’ve done a couple (very) short run bursts to test it out and all signs point to go. The only thing stopping me now is my paranoia. Occasionally when I’m rolling my foot around in a chair or in bed, I feel some weakness where the broken bone was and I worry that it isn’t fully healed. The doc said there would still be some soreness but because I don’t feel the sharp pain when running it means that the bone is healing properly. Long story short, I’m going easy until Sunday – first BC soccer game of the season.

Training: Surprisingly, I’ve been keeping up with all my bike and swim training. Just this past weekend I did a monster 5500m swim session (well, monster for me since I haven’t done anything that far) and logged around 90 miles on the bike in two days.

Miscellaneous: Squeezed in between my training and eating schedules (oh, P.S. I quit vegetarianism so I could eat a true Cuban meal with my brother and Uncle), I’ve managed to enjoy quite a bit of time as a DC tourist. It’s no secret I’m a sucker for museums in the city and what better way to strengthen a weak foot than with some low impact slow walking around exhibits. And yes, I realize that sounds incredibly lame, but I swear I’m pretty cool.

Cherry Blossom season...aka 'Tourists Get in the Way of Training Season'




Museums!!!

Biding Time

Updates, updates, updates.

After 5 full days of being sick last week, I’m finally back to my normal self and training again. I still can’t run for another couple weeks (doctors orders) but I’m getting to the pool and doing some low intensity riding whenever I can. Perfect excuse to hit the gym more and log the long hours less.

But seriously, I’ve been good and doing as much as possible. With soccer season (oh, and tri season) coming up, I need to make sure I don’t have any silly little injuries that could keep me from going hard.

The good news with my non-running schedule? I finally took the time to learn how to flip turn. Yes, I recognize how bad it is that I didn’t already know how to do flip turns but come on. I did water polo, not legit swimming. I never needed to know how. Finally though, thanks to some nagging/teasing from friends, I was taught how to effectively do a flip turn and save myself from daily embarrassment in the fast lane at the pool. I still have terrible technique and probably get made fun of for that but at least now I look less like a newbie.

That said, I have some travel plans to visit my long lost sister in Argentina on the horizon as well as a couple destination races that might be in the works. Until then, I’m counting down the days until I can step back on the soccer field.

100 Miles Until DC United

Today = Sneezing + Coughing + Sniffling + Dead Tired. All the result of a long, fun weekend here in DC.

It all started on Friday when the weather was supposed to hit 75 degrees. Work had been fairly hectic most of the week but as 3:00 rolled around, I had wrapped up most of my tasks and the staff was getting rowdy around the TV thanks to the drama of March Madness. After yelling nonsense about a couple games, a few staffers took off for the Waterfront to enjoy the last few hours of sunlight. For those not from DC, the Waterfront is the go-to yuppie spot when spring time rolls around. And of course, $2 Coronas with a view is enough to get me anywhere.

Initially, I only intended to have a few of these guys and get to bed early for my planned 100 miler on Saturday, but I’m terrible with peer pressure and 2-3 beers turned into… well… more than 2 or 3. Not good news for that whole long ride thing.

Before I knew it, it was Saturday morning and I was up early. After 30 minutes of questioning and an hour of convincing, I was out the door with minimal supplies and a new cycling route to try out. Originally, I was supposed to start with the DC Tri crew and continue farther once they turned around at mile 25 but my late start meant I was riding solo and on a time crunch. I was headed for Sugarloaf Mountain – a baby mountain in DC that provided plenty of elevation. Honestly, within 30 miles I was already cursing this foolish idea. I wasn’t training for anything this long and a ride with a nonstop headwind was not how I wanted to spend my Saturday. But thanks to a little Powerbar gel (with caffeine), I sucked it up and handled my business. I got lost. I made a new route. I passed gorgeous farms. And I bonked like crazy.

This is what happens when I’m not in IM training and I just do things without planning. I didn’t pack enough food to last me the whole ride and sugar became my enemy during the final hour. The only thing that got me through it was my schedule. I needed to get home for….

DC United!!! Saturday night was the home opener and I was heading to the game with a few Boston College alums in honor of Charlie Davies’ first game back. Our seats were insane (9 rows up behind the bench) and Charlie gave us a little shout out when he was our BC shirts. DC United started this season off right with a big win and Charlie scored two goals in his comeback.

Sunday was another busy day from the get-go. Brunch in the morning, matinee movie (Limitless, which I enjoyed), National Gallery of Art (they rearranged their galleries, not cool), then back home. Once I was home, I knew I was in trouble because after 6 miles of walking and my poor planning on Saturday, my immune system was shutting down fast. I spent the rest of the day watching basketball and popping Vitamin C tablets.

Which brings me to today – I’m sick. Not a fun feeling at all but it was worth it because of the highlights from the weekend:

Century ride with 4500 ft. of climbing
DC United (seemingly) returning to MLS glory
Walking around DC in shorts
Crappy beer with good company

Short Break from Running

For once in my brief training life, I did something smart. That’s right, kudos to me. This past weekend, I was planning on tackling a quick little duathlon to wet my palette for the upcoming tri season. Instead, I decided it would be too much of a risk to put in a couple fast 5Ks so I sucked it up and opted out.

Rewind two weeks. I was back to running and feeling healthy after attempting to nurse my 2010 aches and pains back to 100%. After 6 weeks of no road work, I stepped back outside and slowly picked up my training. 4 miles here, 6 miles there, 9 miles one time, and a couple speed days. No big deal. Then I tried to go out and put in 14 and that’s where things went wrong. Honestly, I have no clue how or why but for some reason my foot felt like a bunch of tiny little bones were cracked all over. Putting pressure on it hurt and walking to bars that night felt terrible.

So now, after a couple weeks in the pool and on the bike, I’m trying to do the right thing and let myself heal. This might mean I have to cancel a couple of secret road races I had planned but I’m going to try this patience thing out and see if it sticks. If not, oh well. It was a solid effort.

But seriously, I’m enjoying my time back in the pool and on the saddle. For now…

Long Rides and Stolen Rides

So this weekend was a fairly eventful, uneventful weekend. After two days of working at home (did I mention I absolutely despise working from home) because we are moving offices, I woke up Saturday morning well-rested and with no plans. Naturally, I decided that I had two options – lie in bed for another hour and think about all the things I could be doing, or get outside and go for a bike ride. Surprisingly, Option #2 won.

I threw on some gear, packed my bike for a longer ride, and wandered around the apartment a bit thinking I forgot to pack something. Then, baby bro informed me that my road/commuter bike was gone. Assuming I just forgot it somewhere or he was confused, I dismissed the thought but double checked just to make sure. Nope, he was right – gone. This was weird. Yes, I probably should have expected this to happen at some point because I’m way too trustworthy/lazy when it comes to this particular bike, but I keep it out of sight from the street so it would take a clever or familiar thief to get his or her hands on it.

To paint a picture – we have a basement apartment with a little cove before entering. You can’t see the bike from the sidewalk so unless you’re trying to break into the apartment, you would have no reason to be down there if you didn’t already know a bike was around the corner.

Anyway, long story short, my bike is gone and I’m just annoyed because now it’s more of a hassle to make those quick trips to friends’ houses and random museums. Fear not though. There are two conveniently placed Craigslist ads that (actually) could be my bike. I’ll keep you all posted on whether they turn out to be the thieves.

Back to the ride. After I realized my bike was stolen and noticed the first of the two shady Craiglist ads, I knew I needed to get out and put in some serious work to forget about the news. So I headed straight for the 75 mile ride I used to do for Ironman training. Here are a few images to give you an idea of what I was blessed to look at for a few hours. Farms, orchards, vineyards, and more farms….all in the winter.







When I got home, I spent a little time sleuthing on the computer and then darted straight for the grocery store. I wish I could tell you I made some lovely sweet potato, spinach, and [insert another healthy item] meal but let’s be real, that’s crazy talk. Of course I went straight for my favorite junk items. Coke, check. Pizza, check. Cookies, check. Beer, check. All four of my food groups, check.