First real summer weekend....

mileage: 6/25 4.1 miles; 6/27 8.2 miles

total June mileage: 67.2

I'm proud to say that I finally had my first real summer weekend (yeah I know it's already practically July but whatever), where Steve and I went out together to explore Alaska and have fun.

Friday I just rode to and from REI for an interview that went really well. I should hear back from them before Wednesday, so for now it's just a waiting game. If I got the job I would be working in the cycling dept in the summer and the nordic/downhill ski and snowboard dept in the winter which would be perfect. Obviously I'm really excited and am hopeful that I'll get the job. I'll be sure to include some news in a post when I know more.

Saturday Steve and I headed to Seward to meet up with his brother and sister in law.

We stopped on the side of the road like tourists to take this picture of a cow and her twin calves, but it was a sight we don't even often see - and it seemed so perfect and tranquil. We got there about 45 minutes ahead of them, so we ate and then headed down in the beach to let the dogs out and enjoy the typical rainy Seward weather.
(It was beautiful. I am always taken aback by how breathtaking the green hills surrounding Seward are, every time I come here. I think the rainy/misty weather is my favorite.)

We headed down to the beach in the light rain and let Pepper run around a bit. She needed it after being stuck in the Jeep for so long. After Ben and Mercedes got there, we kept walking on the beach for 40 minutes or so.
It was good to see the brothers together enjoying a chance to just talk and not work on a project together, ect. Whenever we get together Mercedes and I usually branch off and go our seperate way while the " boys" (they aren't really boys I guess but we always call them that when they are together). Mercedes and I drove out to Millers Landing and parked at the Lowell Point trail head. We hiked about 5-6 miles and it felt great.
(About a mile into the hike, we came to spot where a spring flood had inundated the trail with huge boulders, branches, and other debris. It was amazing to see the aftermath of what had obviously been a raging summer flood.)

We spent about two hours talking about everything and anything that came to mind and it was thereputic. Mercedes is 30 weeks pregnant and I don't get to see her often enough. It's funny because when I actually lived in Homer, she and I weren't actually friends. We were "family" and therefore saw each other pretty often but nothing ever really went beyond the "fam" label. Over the last four years, we've actually become close friends and I think of her now interchangeably as family and great friend. I am so excited for their baby to come, and wish that we lived closer.
The trail was great, wide and rocky with the feeling of a leafy "ceiling" caused by the overhanging trees. I think we gained only 600 of the 900ft of elevation before we turned back, but two hours of steady uphill is a lot of ask of a pregnant lady! :) We then met up with the boys for a delicious din din at Rays. Steve and I actually ordered too much food, so we brought half of my burger on the drive home with us.
(the glacial lakes and rivers visible on the drive home are always so awe-inspiring. They looked even better to me in the subdued light of a rainy day.)

We got back to reality around 10pm, and the whole trip already felt like a distant memory. That's the worst part about summer activities, you always have to get back to reality at some point, whether at the the end of the day or week.

We woke up Sunday to the cozy sound of the pouring rain outside our window. We went to church in the morning. After a pretty eventful hour in the nursery (lots of vomit and subsequent cleaning while trying to watch four other mobile boys under 2) we rented a bunch of movies and headed home for lunch.

I felt sluggish and completely unmotivated to do much of anything. After sitting on my bed for 20 minutes staring at the wall, I finally decided to go for a bike ride. I could barely muster the energy to pull on my biking clothes let alone climb on my bike, but my attitude perked up considerably as I flew down the hill past the lagoon and realized that the weather had kept the usual Coastal Trail crowd home. I didn't go for too long (Ride time: 30 minutes. Actual time in the saddle: about 25 minutes) but I rode as hard as I could the whole time. I figured as lazy as I had been feeling I couldn't pass up the opportunity to enjoy the empty trail.

(I stopped at the ridge just above Pt. Woronzoff, where I always seem to stop. The rain had started to come down a little harder at this point, and there was no distant horizon to be found.)
I managed to hover around 20 mph the entire ride and it felt amazing. I returned home covered in mud and with burning muscles/lungs and a huge smile on my face. I actually felt energized enough to lift weights for a bit and then settled in to watch an old western with Steve. Pretty good Sunday if you ask me...

blah

(Me super excited about the state of my kitchen. and it only got worse)
I woke up at 5:30 this morning and slept fitfully after that until I finally got up at 7:15am. I was groggy and felt like I could have slept for hours and hours, but it wasn't to be. I let the dogs out and said good morning to my parents before sitting down to enjoy a bowl (or two) of lucky charms. Sugary cereals are a weakness for me, but I try to convince myself that it's better to indulge in them in the morning than to stuff my face with pints of Hagen daaz or a full package of raspberry licorice later in the day.

After sluggishly getting dressed and throwing my hair in a ponytail, I hopped into the car with my mom and little sis and headed off to my day. After spending the morning sitting on my futon reading all of Jill's (my all time favorite blog and inspiration) 2006 blog posts while the plumbers labored away in my kitchen, I went on to pick up Rebekah from work and headed back to my parents, looking foreword to hopping on my cannondale and riding for hours in the overcast, windy Alaskan afternoon. Unfortunately, once I got there and sat down, I couldn't get up again. And now I'm sitting here typing away instead of getting out logging some miles. It's strange, I spent all day looking foreword to biking, and now I can't find the motivation to do it. Now I've been invited to the dog park, and I feel like I can't pass that up, so I guess it might not be a biking day after all.

Maybe this lack of motivation has something to do with the fact that I dropped off my touring bike, a Novara Randonee, at REI yesterday for a total tune up, which is exciting and I can't wait to get it back all spic and span and working great. But at the same time, I just added batteries to my bike computer and only got to log one day with all the specific info before I dropped her off, so I'm missing that on my cannondale. I also just cannot wait to add some accessories to my Randonee to make her more comfortable and rideable for longer distances. But I always have plenty of elaborate plans that never seem to always come true exactly how I imagined them. I guess that's life, as they say. Fortunately, one thing I am pretty good at is making things work regardless of whether or not I have the perfect set up.

From Yesterday 6/17/1 0
Miles: 7
Average MPH: 16.2
Fastest MPH: 19.8
Slowest MPH: 2.3 (I was riding in the stop/start traffic of Anchorage's busiest streets)

peas and carrots

So I know it has been too long since I last blogged, so here I am. I have been busy the last two and a half weeks, doing pretty much nothing. The week after finals, I went to Homer to see my family there and to hang out with Steve while he worked there. It was pretty fun and relaxing. The weather was clear blue sky and bright warm sun and I even acquired some freckles while sleeping on the porch during the sunniest part of the day. Then we headed back home for a week of graduation festivities for Beka, my little sister. We got to spend a lot of time with my Grandpa, who was here visiting from Michigan for Beka's graduation. Steve and I also bought a newer car, a Jeep Cherokee, which we are pretty excited about.

Sunday was the Gold Nugget Triathalon, and it turned out to be very hard but overall a great experience. The race included a 500 meter swim, a 13 mile bike and a 3.1 mile run, in that order. The bike was definitely the easiest part for me, I really enjoyed that portion of the race. I got to use my new road bike, which made it even more fun. It was exciting to see how hard I could push myself. I had planned on training for the swimming and running portions of the event, but that just never happened. So I went into it having not been in a swimming pool for over a year and not having run more than 100 yards for over 6 months. I was still pretty happy with the results. The woman who won the event, Shannon Donely, finished with an overall time of 1:05:19 - One hour, five minutes, and nineteen seconds. My overall time was 1:44:56 and I placed 569 out of 1500. So that's pretty good in my book for not training AT ALL. In fact I have been really encouraged to train hard for next year to see how well I really can do. Here are the split times of the Donley first, then me:

Swim Bike Run

06:35 35:55 20:29

13:39 50:33 34:29

That leaves me with plenty of room for improvement, especially in the transition times, which I haven't shown above, but are added into our overall times.

This week I have been recovering from the triathlon and getting serious about my small produce garden. I planted my flowers on Monday, and built a little raised bed for my strawberry plants, peppers, peas, and carrots. I planted the strawberry plants, and transplanted my little pea and carrot seedlings from inside as well, but it will be a while before the peppers go out there, if ever. I'm hoping these strawberry plants do okay; my last bunch grew like crazy and were overall very productive - until the lawn maintenance people thought they were weeds and WEEDWACKED THEM. They were COMPLETELY OBLITERATED. As you can probably tell, this was not a pleasant experience, and I'm still recovering. I'll update pics as the "garden" (if you can call it that) grows. Now off for a nice bike ride with my boo to Kincaid.