Thanks to you all, I'm at the half-way mark in my fundraising. I really appreciate your generosity and commitment to this endeavor. If you know of anyone who would be interested in donating to this fantastic cause, let me know.
This past week was not the best for training - cold, wet, and yucky. Most of my weekly training took place indoors where I worked out on the elliptical and in spinning classes, plus I got to do some pilates with an instructor I really like.
Thankfully, the weekend came around and brought with it fabulous weather. I had a baby shower to go to Saturday afternoon, but took an early morning spin - about 30 miles around the Mt. Vernon trail to Rosslyn, cut through Georgetown, hopped on the Capital Crescent and took it all the way to Bethesda and then back home. It was absolutely beautiful out!
Saturday night, two friends of mine who are also doing the ride had a fundraising party. It was a lot of fun - they held a raffle of photographs they took from various trips around the world. The best part - they managed to raise the $5,000 they needed to participate. (Yeah Mark & Tria!)
Sunday I woke up early and got on my bike again for a ride on the Capital Crescent. I was pacing with some random guy on the trail but, unfortunately, had to turn around before we had a chance to actually introduce ourselves. BTW, pacing is when someone leads for awhile and you can follow in their wake, taking up less of your energy. Then you switch off.
So I turned around and at a stop sign, realized that something was really wrong with my bike - the stem wasn't tightened. This means that when I went to turn the handlebars, the wheels didn't follow - as you might guess, that's a big problem! So I walked the 2 miles to the bike shop that wasn't open. Luckily, there were some techs there anyway who know me and let me in and fixed it for me. I was on my way.
I met Paul around 11:30a and we went for a really great ride around his neighborhood. It was sunny, windy, and hilly, but it all felt good. Enough downhills to offset the uphills and the wind. All told, I rode about 43 miles on Sunday.
This week is supposed to be gorgeous so I'm excited about being outside. Yesterday I ran home after class, jumped on my bike and pushed for a really hard 16 miles. I managed to do it in under an hour and again some random guy was pacing me. How much do I kick butt that a guy was following me, while I set the pace? We were going about 19-20 mph into a head wind! It rocked.
So that's this week's news. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend and I'll see you soon.
Rachael
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