North Shore Beach

This morning I overslept so I missed the HACC North Shore ride. Instead, I settled for 40 miles of intervals on Hickam. Not a great trade off but pretty good training. After I got home, I woke Courtney up for some homemade Blueberry Banana Pancakes. This weekend and next, it is just the two of us as the rest of the family are in Iowa watching Heather Play softball and enjoying that fine Midwest Spring weather, temps in the 50's and thunderstorms. After we finished our Brunch we took the cans and bottles to the recycle place then I drove to the bike shop on Dillingham. The shop catered mainly to the beach cruiser and singlespeed crowd but it did have 3 tandem bikes that were very reasonable.
When I finished at the shop, Courtney and I headed up to Wiamea Bay. It was kind of late when we got there but the parking lot was still full so I had to park at the botanical garden on the other side of the Kam. The park closed at 5 pm so we had to cut our time at the beach a little short. The water was not to bad but the air temp was starting to cool so you got pretty cold quickly after getting out of the water.

After we finished at the beach we headed to Halewa for shaved ice and ice cream.

We stopped and picked up an order Chris made from JC Pennys that had a new dress for Courtney. She really looked nice in it.

Catching up the Blog

I have been real bad about keeping the Blog up to date. Sometimes you get so busy it is hard to find time to post.

One Weekend, Two Tired Legs and Three Race Numbers

Two weekends ago, I had the crazy Idea that I could do a 10K run/race on Saturday, a time trial up Tantalus Sunday morning and finish it off with a crit Sunday afternoon. I mentioned it to Bryant and he was game for doing the same so I was locked in. Saturday morning Chris and I got up to head to Ford Island for the run. We were running a little late so I went straight to the start line failing to pick up my chip. I guess I should have read the flier so I would have known they were using chip timing. Oh well I was able to keep time on my my trusty Timex Ironman. Chris's Cousin Paul and His wife Mel were supposed to do the run. Unfortunately they were runing late as well and werent able to find a parking spot so they gave up and headed home.
I made some gateraid before the race to help with my hydration and energy. Unfortunately it didn't settle too well and my stomach bothered me most of the race. I started out with a couple of sub 7 min miles but slowed down each mile after the first. My final time was 45:19 pace 7:31, about 10 seconds off my Aloha run time.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to tantlus. I could already feel the fatigue in my legs before i got on the bike. All the way up I kept telling myself, "why did you do the run". My time was in the mid 23 min range, the say as my training ride the week before and still 2 min faster than last year. I wonder how I would have done with fresh legs.
The afternoon crit was my best race. My goal was to avoid getting dropped. I finished with the 3rd chase group in 10th place. I am glad I took on all three races even though I probably would have done better in each had I not tried to do them all in one weekend.

Holy Week

Our family tradition has always been to attend all the Holy Week Services culminationg with Easter Vigil. This year was special because good friends of ours were completing thier faith journey and asked us to be sponcers. Courtney served at the massWe had the luck this year to have the Bishop visit us during Holy Week so the Confirmation Mass was Easter Sunday. We finished the weekend by having dinner at our Friend's house. It was a very nice time.

Around the Island Ride

Chris flew to Iowa on Wednesday so she could spend some time with Heather before she graduates and see some of her Softball games. I was going to try to do a 10 K run at Kbay on Saturday and follow it up with some mtn biking but then Shannon emailed about plans to do a alternate route around the Island Ride so I changed my plans. We met at the Shoppette at 6:15 and headed to the Pali. I had my first and our only flat heading down the Kailua side at about 40 mph. Luckily it was a slow leak and didn't give completely out until i got to the stoplight at the bottom. It is an eary feeling riding on a low rear tire. The weather was perfect and we kept a nice pace only stopping a couple of times to refill our water bottles and empty our bladders. Shannon showed me a great route from Kunia to the bike path avoiding much of the traffic and stoplights that area is known for. I hope I can figure it out next time I head that way.

After we finished up the 86 mile ride, the girls and I grabbed a pizza and headed for the Kam beach with Ginger. She really enjoys it out there running around and playing with the other dogs.

Well I caught up on the blog finally. There are probably a ton of spelling and grammer errors because Chris isn't hear to proof my posts. Hopefully I will do better at keeping it up todate.

Three Busy Weekends

Things didn't slow down for us after we returned from the Big Island. Courtney's school hosted the last practice for the Honor band on Friday and hosted the honor band concert on Saturday. As president of the booster club, I was pretty busy helping out. The Sunday after I returned, I competed in the Momentum Crit. This time I decided to try my luck with the big boys and race in the expert class. Luckily a couple of the strongest riders were not racing. I managed to stay with the front group and was in pretty good shape for the final sprint. I finished 7th.

The next weekend I competed in the State Championship Team Time Trial with Bryant, Steve C. and Shannon. I knew we would have a pretty strong team. The race went very well, we worked together and came across the line fast enough to win the overall Mixed title and were the 6th fastest team.

There weren't any races the next weekend so I was able to spend some quality time with Chris. Friday night we went to JR Rockers and listened to the band. The band was very good and played a nice mix of classic rock and more modern stuff.

Saturday morning we ran some errands and decided to stop and test drive a couple of cars. I have been getting the hankering for a sports car. I have always loved Corvettes and told myself that if I make chief next fall I am going to get one. However, a couple of other cars have caught my eye since, the saturn sky and nissan 350z, so we decided to check them out. Both were fun to drive. The z had more power but the sky was a convertable. Chris had me stop so she could take my pic.

What do you think?

Saturday night we decided to check out the Country Bar on Pearl Harbor. Stephanie decided to join us. It was nice not being the oldest or the youngest people in the club. It had been a long time since Chris and I attempted to 2 step and attempt we did. We still haven't mastered it but I was able to do the electric slide with Stephanie. My only complaint about the club was the lack of Draft beer. I thought it was kind of silly since they brewed their own beer on the other side of the building. I guess they figured folks at a country bar would prefer longnecks of Bud Light or MDG not a tall glass of a micro brew.

Sunday was very relaxing. We took Ginger out to the Beach by the old Kam housing and let her run on the sand bar. She seemed to have a good time and got some much needed exercise. However, she ended up hurting one of her front paws and was limping for the next couple of days. She is fine now but we were quite concerned for awhile.

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