On the move!

Christmas Decorations

We have done a lot of work finishing up loose ends at the house (almost time for before and after photos!) and after we did that we decorated with lots of lights!

The tree in the sunroom

The fireplace

Our wedding Willow Tree

This Week in Training

Monday:
4 miles

Tuesday:
5 miles
2x10 minutes tempo

Wednesday:
4 miles

Thursday:
1 mile warmup
4x400, 4x200
88, 89, 87, 88; 40, 41, 40, 38
800m cooldown

Friday:
5 miles

Saturday and Sunday:
Off

This Week in Training

Well, it's been a long time since I posted one of these. After some unfocused training due to many factors in my life, some pleasant (a wedding and a house) and some unpleasant (a pink slip), I'm back to goal oriented training. Since my fall was so hectic, I didn't think that the timing of indoor track was going to work for me this year- it's hard to believe but the meets have already started! Instead I have decided to tackle some of my softer PR's and hit the roads for some road racing this winter and spring. I've picked out a couple of races and I'll probably add a couple more as I get going. I'm going to do a race on New Year's day for fun but other than that, I probably won't race until I think that I'm ready to PR. Getting into distance running can be a bit of a challenge for me since I've been so sprint oriented, but I'm working on it. It's not a good sign that I missed a day of training the first week of my cycle though! Gotta keep the motivation high! A couple of training breakthroughs should do it for me; if that doesn't work, there's always the treadmill that's arriving tomorrow!

Monday:
4 miles

Tuesday:
1 mile warmup & drills
2x800 (3 min), 2x400 (90s), 2x200 (45s)
3:14.8, 3:11.9, 88.9, 87.6, 40.1, 38.4
800m cooldown

Wednesday:
5 miles

Thursday:
1 mile warmup
1200, mile, 1200 - easy 200/200@mile pace
Cooldown?

Friday:
Off

Saturday:
Off

Sunday:
6 miles

Clearwater 2009

The sandcastle logo

Second weekend in November, must be time for our annual trip to Florida for the 70.3 World Championships. For the past four years this race has been our last dose of summer before the holiday season and winter arrive. Like last year, Janda ended his season early, so he and I really had a chance to enjoy Florida without the usual race stress. Although there was other stress! As were were heading down Route 1 Janda realized that he had forgotten his wallet and license in the car. Our car was parked at Crystal's parents' house in Beverly, so that made it even more challenging! Luckily we had both just gotten new passports, so my mom ran over and got his and then Lisa's boyfriend brought it to the airport. Of course it was rush hour and traffic was starting to get backed up, so we got the passport just in time. We made it through and onto the plane and a few short hours later we were on Clearwater Beach, checking into our hotel.

Our hotel, right on the beach

The next day we met up with some athletes and did a little shake-out jog, as well as checking out transition, getting registered, etc... The clouds cleared up between 9 and 10, but the Gulf of Mexico was pretty choppy. Ultimately the decision was made to move the swim to the intercoastal waterway and to scrap the waves in favor of a time trial start.

Choppy water from Hurricane Ida

After Janda took care of his athletes (and their bikes), we headed out for a walk. The past three years there has been a lot of construction and a lot of it is getting finished, so it was interesting to see the changes. Janda assembled most of the group for a team dinner of sorts at a local restaurant. It was pretty cool b/c we got to meet 5 of his athletes for the first time ever! 3 from CA, 1 from VA and 1 from FLA. Of course, everyone was super nice and we had a great time at dinner. Then the athletes headed off to nervously prepare for the morning and we headed back to the hotel to watch a movie.

Hanging out, hiding out food from the aggressive seagulls

No transition by the pier this year

At about 6 the next morning we headed down to the transition where we managed to see most of Team Janda. Everyone looked NERVOUS, but ready to go. Finally the race started and we settled into spectating with the wives of the two guys from VA. The swim was crazy. We only saw the run out, but there was just a constant stream of people. Come to find out later that due to the time trial start the entire race got off a half an hour early. After we saw everyone go by, we walked around the transition area and then headed to breakfast. Not the usual place, but boy did we have a filling breakfast. I didn't eat again til dinner! After we wolfed our food down, we headed back to the course to see the bike. We just missed the pro men's peloton, oops, I mean race leaders, pull back into transition. We did catch them on the run out and they were hauling!

We settled in to the usual area to watch the bikes come in and then the runners go by. It was hard to see everyone on the bike. Since everyone took off in about 35 minutes, everyone was even more bunched up than usual, at least that's how it seemed to me. We saw 2 of Janda's guys go by pulling pack of 20-30 riders. One guy had another racer glued to his wheel! It was disappointing. It didn't seem to us spectators on the stretch back to transition that they were even attempting to not draft. The group next to us was videoing the groups and yelling out "Cheaters!" as they sped by. It wasn't pretty.

Tour de Clearwater

Then we crossed the road to cheer on the runners. I love 2 loop courses b/c you have way better opportunities to see your racer(s) and this one is no exception. We saw most everybody 3 times, although a couple people snuck by us when we weren't looking. After we saw the last couple of people go out on the 2nd loop we headed back to the finish line. It was hard to catch up with people after the race- it seemed more crowded than ever, but we did see Crystal and talk to a couple other guys on the phone. We knew that Crystal was 4th in her age-group and 8th amateur overall at the time of her finish, so it was time to wait! We headed back to the hotel and used the computer to figure out how everyone did, etc... The good news was that, as far as Janda knew, everyone PR'd (that's 8 people!) and the great news was that Crystal held her podium finish and was actually the 20th woman overall.

Here's the runners I managed to get pictures of:

Allegra

Dave

Crystal

Joel

At the beach in November!

We went to the beach after finding everyone's splits and talking to everyone. The water was "only" 69 degrees, but it felt awfully warm to me. Those Floridians are spoiled with water temperature. That was probably our high for the summer! We went for a quick swim and then got ready for the banquet. That was the same old-same old, but it wasn't bad. We had dinner, Crystal got her award and then we met up with a few of the other guys and their wives at Shepard's. It was crazy, there was live music, lots of dancing and tons of athletes. We hung out for a while and then went home early b/c we had to leave at 5 the next morning.

Janda and Crystal at the banquet

We, of course, had one last glitch. When we were ready to hit the road the next morning our rental car wouldn't start. After 25 minutes on the phone, a tow truck was on the way and we were waiting out front for a cab. We made it on the plane just in time again! Luckily though, we did make it and we were home mid-afternoon, ready to get back to reality!

Congratulations to everyone who raced and especially on those new PR's.

The Turkeys are coming!

We haven't seen them lately, but a couple of weeks ago we were having a lot of turkey foot traffic on our street. Personally I thought it was cute, but I did feed them only when the neighbors were inside!

Here they come.

Closer...

and closer...

then passing right by our front steps.

Many Hands Make Light Work

There are so many people to thank for their help and support during the whole wedding process.

First of all, thanks to both of our families for being there for us (since birth) and letting us do this our way. Having watched a fair amount of reality wedding shows, I realize that not everyone gets to do it their way!

Thanks to my mom for all the help: shopping, cleaning and advice, etc...

Thanks to Janda's mom for all the help: shopping, finding pictures, advice, etc...

Thanks to our amazing set-up crew: My mom, Janda's mom, Janda's dad, Uncle Mike, Meme, Lisa, Kansas, Rob.

Thanks to my mom, Janda's mom and Meme for contributing desserts to our dessert buffet.

Thanks to Nathaniel for help with the sound system.

Thanks to all of the people who arrived a little early and saw the panic on my face and started to help put out appetizers: Linda, Pam, Mariellen, etc... Plus all of the guys who helped to stock the bar: Peter, Sinan, Kansas, etc... Almost everyone who came in offered to help- we have the best friends and family!

Thanks to Rob for graciously agreeing to MC our laidback event- probably not the easiest event to MC without a typical, specific wedding schedule.

Thanks to Corey and Lisa, the designated speech-givers of the evening. Each speech was special to us and very touching. Corey made us laugh, then Lisa made us cry!

Thanks to the tear-down crew- it happened so fast they were almost done before I changed! Everyone who was left at the end basically helped with something!

Thanks to all of the people who took pictures, especially Sarah and Michael with their professional cameras, thus professional looking photos. If anyone else has digital pictures, I'd LOVE to see them, so if you upload them to a photo site let me know!

Thanks to all of our guests for coming and celebrating the joyous event with us. We were so happy to be surrounded by our friends and family.

I hope that I didn't forget anybody who did anything, but if I did, know that we appreciated every ounce of help that we received and that we couldn't have done it without all of you.

The Wedding

We headed back to the golf club a little after 2:30. Janda was ready to go and I had my hair done but needed to get dressed and put on make-up, etc. I estimated that that would take 15 minutes and then it would be on to photos. Somehow it took a little longer (or maybe we got started later?) and then when I was done Janda had disappeared for a few moments.

Getting ready

We finally got started a little after 3:30 and then to my utter panic, as we were getting ready for the first pictures, the guests started arriving! I was unaware that everyone comes early to a wedding and we had barely started taking pictures, let alone finished setting up! My one and only meltdown of the entire experience came as I realized this! Being a perfectionist I was very upset that everything wasn't perfect when the guests arrived. All of our guests, however, are awesome people and started to pitch in and help! Within about 15 minutes everything was done! Thanks guests!

The wedding party

Me and Emma before the ceremony.

I had scheduled about 30 minutes between the (expected) arrival of the guests and the ceremony so that a) people could find their seats and put their stuff down, b)they could have a drink and a snack (those were the things not ready!!!) and I assumed some people would be running late. I actually loved that half an hour because everyone was up and mingling, just how I had hoped.

Excited

Then, came the ceremony. First Janda headed down the aisle.

Then our little flower girl. More apt would be a leaf girl!

Next came Lisa and Corey.

Then Kansas and Emma. My dad and I peaked around the corner for this one! Everyone was oohing as they made their way down the aisle!

Finally my dad and me.

The ceremony was short but very meaningful to us.

Our first walk , hand in hand, as a married couple.

Then onto mingling with guests and a couple of bites of dinner.

Guests to the left:

Guests to the right:

After dinner it was time for the presentation of the wedding party and the first dance.

Wedding party( minus Emma who was napping)

First dance

Then Corey and Lisa gave their speeches. Corey's was hysterical! Lisa's was touching.

In the spotlight

Couldn't stop laughing

Then the rest of the night was dancing, eating dessert, and fun!

My most frequent dance partner, flower girl Fiona

OK, who started the Congo line???

What a great night! Best ever!

Setup

Saturday morning was crazy. Janda and I got up before 8 to get started. I cut and sharpened pencils while Janda worked on the sound system some more. Once the pencils were done, I finished sewing my sash and cutting my veil. We loaded the cars up full and headed out a little before 10. I got to the golf club and had a few minutes to myself to look things over before the helpers started arriving.

The rustic ballroom and fireplace

The foyer and bar area

Once we had amassed a few people we got to work. Number 1, figure out where to put the tables. After a few disagreements, we finally settled on a layout and then it was time to set the tables. Our amazing friends and family got out chairs, tablecloths, centerpieces, napkins, silverware, glasses and programs in the blink of an eye. We also set up the guestbook table and buffet tables while Meme was cutting up the desserts in the kitchen. After that we set up the bar and hung up the more Christmas lights and paper lanterns, which was a four man job! Janda spent the morning getting the sound system set up and ready to go. We were a little worried about it working right b/c we had just bought it on Thursday!

Arranging tables (Meme and Janda's mom)

Setting tables (Lisa, Mike

Arranging the buffet and bar area (Mom, me, Rob and Janda's mom)

Setting up the sound system (Janda and Kansas)

In the kitchen (Janda's mom, Mike and Meme)

Centering the plate table and menu (Me, Rob and Janda's dad)

Hanging the lanterns (Janda's dad, Rob, Kansas, me and Mike)

All in all, I'd say that the set up went pretty smoothly and the place looked great when we left. Without (uncle) Mike, Janda's parents, my mom and grandmother, Kansas, Lisa and Rob, it would have been impossible to get it all done!

Finished Product (more or less!)

The whole room


To the right of the fireplace (Lisa, me, Janda's dad and Rob)


To the left of the fireplace (Lisa, me, Janda's dad and Rob)


The bar area and the picture wall (Janda's dad and Mike)


A set table


A centerpiece


The head table


The guestbook table