After a quick lunch we headed to the beach for the afternoon. It had been about 3 months since Kevin had been to the beach and it took him about 5 minutes to remember how much he enjoyed playing in the sand.

In addition to fun at the beach, we enjoyed strolling Ocean Avenue after dinner. Kevin made a point of checking the door of every store and trying to figure out how to unlock them. At one point a family walked by with two girls about Kevin’s age.  He immediately took notice and attempted to flirt using the only pickup line he knows…..”Ravioli!” …he proceeded to yell in their direction, ravioli numerous times….his grandpa was so proud of him…and a little jealous that he never thought to use his Italian heritage as a pickup line when he was young.

The next morning we had breakfast…but first, Kevin volunteered to help the maintenance guy blow the sidewalks clean outside the restaurant.

After working for his breakfast he enjoyed a huge pancake and even demonstrated his dexterity using a fork.

Probably the biggest news in the last month is that I’ve been practicing my walking.  It’s obvious when my parents are encouraging me to walk…so at those times I revert back to crawling just to annoy them.  My Dad did capture me once last week with the video camera doing some of my best walking. See the video clip below.

I’ve also been busy with lots of activities. I ran in my second race a few weeks ago. The Jungle Run 10K. Mom utilized her Ironman shape to push me in the baby jogger.   Dad was in front of us and even made the local Los Gatos newspaper (a picture about 1/2 way down the page). Below is a picture of us at the finish line.

Last week was a busy one. I had several play dates over at our house with some of my Mom’s friends.  I enjoyed showing them all my toys. It was also nice to have some new friends to play with. My Mom and Dad are great…but I see them A LOT!!

It was also my 11 month birthday last week, according to my parents. They made a big deal over it even though I have no idea what they are talking about. They dressed me up in a nice outfit and spent about 45 minutes in the front yard making me pose in all sorts of places. To the right is my favorite. What my parents won’t tell you is that I fell off that stool about 5 times into the dirt and they kept picking me up and brushing me off for another attempt.

This past weekend we took a trip to the beach in Santa Cruz. I had been to the beach back in April when my Mom was training for her Ironman, but to be honest I don’t remember much about that trip.  This time I really enjoyed the sand. My parents put me on a blanket when we got there but I thought that was boring and made a mad dash into the sand and dug my hands (and face) right into that stuff.

My Mom decided to work more hours at her job at Motorola. I can’t imagine why, but I guess she likes what she’s doing there. So, there’s this new woman that comes and plays with me two days a week. It’s awesome! She is really nice and gives me lots of attention (which is just what I need). I think Mom and Dad were very lucky to find her.

Other than that I’ve just been enjoying time with my parents around the house and learning new tricks. I’ve just started pointing in the past week, I’m not really sure what it’s supposed to mean…but I point at everything and make my parents tell me what it is I’m pointing at.  I’ve also learned to imitate answering the phone. I pick it up and put it to my ear..but I never seem to hear anyone.  I’ve also been enjoying our newly landscaped backyard. Dad and I race on our hands and knees across the grass. I usually let Dad win, I don’t want to make him feel too old…yet.

That’s it for now, I’m due for a diaper change and it’s nap time!!

This weekend was a big EEW! Epic Exercise Weekend. This was my second weekend of epic exercise. I was too tired to blog about the first one, so I’ve included a summary of both weekends here.

Ironman Coeur d’Alene is 64 days away. My training has been going quite well. Other than some creaky knees now and again, I’ve managed to stay injury free (for which I was rather pessimistic). I’ll just give you some highlights from my first EEW and then tell you about this weekend.

My first EEW was March 21 – 23^rd. On Friday, my parents and brother and his family went to Natural Bridges Beach. They took Kevin with them and I rode my bike, the long way, to meet them that afternoon. I headed north to Portola Valley and went up and over Old La Honda. Then I rode out toward the coast on highway 84 to San Gregorio. That is one of the most beautiful stretches of road. I turned left on highway 1 and rode down the coast. I hit Davenport at mile 70 and was at a real low point. I called Dave to whine a little. But I had perfect weather, a view of the ocean, and was out riding my bike on a Friday. Dave was in his cubicle, staring at his computer. He wasn’t terribly sympathetic. J I turned left on Bonny Doon Rd and rode some steep sections on Smith and Empire Grades. I saw a few signs like this one:

Finally, I got to go downhill and meet my family at the beach. It was a total of 85 miles with over 6000 feet of climbing. I was pleased with how good I felt at the end.

The next day, Saturday, Laura and my brother and I went for a 65 mile ride in the east bay. We did a bit of climbing and rode by Calaveras Reservoir – another very beautiful stretch of California road. We got lost for a while in Milpitas and added an unnecessary 6 miles onto our route, including a lot of crappy roads and city traffic.

Finally, I ended my epic weekend on Easter Sunday with a 10 mile run. The tiredness really set in about halfway through and it was everything I could do to keep from walking. I averaged a 9:00/mile pace, but was going pretty slow by the end.

A nice easy swim on Monday was about all I could muster.

My second EEW was this weekend. My brother and I did the Tierra Bella Century ride, starting at Gavilan College in Gilroy. It was unbelievably cold at the start, with pretty brisk winds. It was hard to get motivated, since riding the bike only causes more cold winds in your face!

We rode north past the Uvas and Calero Reservoirs. Then we headed east. Around mile 40, we started up a 10 mile climb to Henry Coe State Park. There were some tough, steep sections and the climb seemed to last forever. But for the first time on the ride, I was finally warm enough to take off my jacket! We turned around at the top and came back down and headed south, then east again to the Gilroy Hot Springs. I started whining at mile 70, but then got a second wind 10 miles later. My brother was waning around mile 76. But we saw lots of different people all day, and it was fun to ride alongside for a bit to catch up, hear stories, and get motivated again. The bike lanes were lacking for most of the ride, so we rode single file almost 100% of the time. There were even police cars requesting that riders go single file – the safest option anyway. Other than the 10 mile climb, the ride was pretty flat. Florida flat. Long, straight stretches where you could hunker down in the aerobars and just go like a hamster.

After the ride was over, we switched to our running shoes and caps and went for a 15 minute jog/run. The first 5 minutes felt awful, but after that, our legs forgot that we had been biking for the last 6.5 hours and it felt easier.

The support for this ride was fantastic. They had over 200 volunteers directing traffic, parking, and helping out at aid stations. The aid stations had plenty of food, with quite a variety – hot soup, salted red potatoes, pretzels, fruit, and all the common sugary stuff like cookies, brownies, etc. At the finish line, several Mexican food buffets served enchiladas, rice, beans, and salad. I was “practicing” my Ironman nutrition – seeing if I could drink 350 calories per hour, so I skipped most of the rest stop food. My brother said his PB&J sandwich tasted really good!

After a very, very long day, I got home and made two egg casseroles in preparation for our second annual Great Race brunch. The final stage of my 2^nd EEW was a 12 mile run (on Sunday). Seven of us met at our house at 8am and ran to downtown Saratoga for the start of the Great Race run. The race was 4 miles one direction to downtown Los Gatos. At the finish line, I turned around and ran 6 miles home. Stephanie joined me and we gossiped all the way home – which turned out to be mostly uphill!

John was the top finisher of our group with 9^th place overall (out of 1454). Fred got 10^th. Eduard was the first finisher of our “Dads on Parade” (the fathers running with baby joggers) with a 5:55/mile (!!) and ended 26^th overall. Derek, another baby jogger pusher, is “featured” in the Los Gatos online paper for his 45^th place finish. Dave finished 56th, giving Kevin his first blue finisher’s ribbon. Stephanie ran sub-8 minute miles, and I was happy with my sub-9:00/mile pace (which I held for all 12 miles).

We had 20+ people for brunch after. Our newly landscaped backyard was perfect for the party – lots of patio space, BBQ counter space, and hot tub space! Everyone rehashed the day, ate lots of food, and was entertained by all the kids. We are lucky to have such great friends with which to spend time!

We set up our tent, took a quick rest, and then headed out for a hike. We hiked 5.5 miles round trip on the Old Coast Ridge Highway. It was pretty warm, so we really didn’t need our sweatshirts. We saw a Monterey Ring-Necked snake.
I was surprised at how quickly I got out of breath doing any kind of exercise. Carrying around this extra baby weight slows me down a bit!

After the hike, we started on dinner. We received some great gifts for our wedding, and we got to use them all – lantern, coffee pot, titanium cooking pots, coleman stove, dishes, and even sleeping bags! We made spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and garlic bread. The bread didn’t turn out so well – the wood we had didn’t burn very well, so the fire was a bit unpredictable (i.e., the bread burned and tasted pretty lousy).

The bathroom was about 1/4 mile away and on one of my treks, I saw bats flying around. I thought I was hallucinating, because I could never track a bat for more than a second or two. But Dave admitted he saw them too. Maybe we’re both crazy. We read books until it was time to go to sleep.

The next morning, Dave went out for a run while I did some more reading. Then we made blueberry pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Other than turning our new titanium pots black, the breakfast was successful (and tasty!). We headed out of the campgrounds and went to Pfeiffer State Beach, just a few miles away. It was a nice beach (although we had lots of complaints about all the flies). There were cool looking rock formations that made for some good photos.

All in all, it was a good trip. We made a mental list of things to bring next time – plastic tablecloth, Scrabble, wine for dinner, and cutting board. Of course, next time, we’ll have diapers, bottles, blankets, and a baby!

We spent a relaxing Saturday evening in Santa Cruz visiting our friend Gregg. Early Sunday morning we headed over the the Santa Cruz pier for the race.
I had absolutely no expectations since my season had been completely disrupted by a back flare up. I just wanted to do a race this year.

The swim: cold, but not as cold as last year. Just before our wave was supposed to start a sea lion swam in front of the starting line, about 50ft from the beach and seemed to be saying “what are all you people doing in my swimming pool”. The swim itself was “non confrontational”. Most people took a wider line around the pier, while I headed strait for the edge of the pier. It must have helped because I didn’t feel like I was in great swimming shape, but my time was pretty decent.

The bike: The bike course is up the Pacific Coast Highway and back. It’s a great rolling course except for a tiny side road section towards the end which is extremely bumpy. I’m hoping it will get paved one of these years. On the way out to the turnaround I started being surrounded by a group of riders. Every time they would pass I would back off and give them distance so I wasn’t drafting. It turns out they weren’t doing the same. After the race, Steve Chavez told me they were drafting off me the entire way out. Lucklily on the way back into town they were drafting off of Steve and the officials were right beside them on the motorcyle the entire time. I was happy to see that all the folks drafting were penalized in the final results.

The run: I really hadn’t done much running in preparation for the race except for the famous “Thursday night smackdown run”. My run was slower than last year, but partly because somehow the officials managed to make the run a 1/2 mile long….hard to figure out how that’s possible when the race is the same year after year!!!

All in all it was a great day and it was definitely great to be out there. We saw lots of friends throughout the race and Heather had fun taking pictures and cheering.

Of course I have to plug my new triathlon website. Below is a graph of my age group progress through the race. The entire summary of my race can be found here