It is true!  I'm going to Germany tomorrow to help out with the child-minding of Sam and Jack.  Instead of clothes, I am filling my suitcase with DVD's, formula, items from Gap kids, goldfish, and other essentials that seem to have gotten left behind.  

More on that later.  Going for my once a week swim!

Another day of traipsing around the city with this bum foot.  First the upper way east side by subway and long walk for a doctor's appointment, then a walk back to the subway and a trip down to Scott's at 23rd and Park, then over to Christopher Street to meet my training partners for lunch (instead of a workout--it's the offseason), then a walk up to the meatpacking district for a few hours of work, then back to PT to run on the alter G treadmill.  All this is going to take several hours, so I'm resting up for it now. 

Weekend Recap

It was great to see the 'rents for 4 short hours on saturday night...the highlight of the weekend!  They were in town to visit and take advantage of staying in leezie's empty apartment.  They picked a great weekend to come up because it was warm and sunny.  We hung out at the Flynn/Wassner household all evening, ordered pizza and ran around playing with E.  

We took advantage of the great weather on Sunday to go out for a long bike ride.  We lasted 2 hours before I got really thirsty and decided to turn our planned route into a 2.5 hour ride instead of a longer one.  We also went out really hard and pushed the pace for the first hour...not such a good idea when you are "out of shape" and when you just came from a swim workout.  It was fun though.  

A trip to Germany might be in the works...better start travel challenging.  

NYC Marathon Photos

Joanie!! A legend.
Paula about to run over our Fight! chalk. Sorry about my head taking up half of the photo.
The women's chase pack. Go Des!
The men.

NYC Marathon

Paula!!

Cow Bells!
Bloomberg, looking right at our sign???
Chalking up 4th Ave.

Fall Mountain Biking

Here are some photos from a few weeks ago. The first picture is at Duck Pond and the others are from the west side of the mountain house looking out to the Catskills. Of course, the hill going up to this spot was the best part of the ride!

Last night SJ and I had a fun, only in NYC night. It started with a drive up to 59th & 1st for a doctor's appt. We've been making the rounds to various doctors with this foot injury. The basically under the 59th St. bridge, which was kind of interesting because that whole cable car thing still seems weird to me. Also, since no one seems to go to this part of town, there was parking right in front of the building. After that, we drove downtown to the East Village to have tacos right around the corner from Amy & Rodney's old apartment on Ave. B. Really good fish tacos, guac and homemade chips. Can't wait to go back!!! Driving is key. As we know, walking "all the way" to the east village in the cold is never fun. Next stop, lower east side for liquid nitrogen ice cream, made to order. They basically take a measuring cup of cream, add the flavor you choose, and pour it into a kitchen aid mixer. With the mixer going, next goes in a measuring cup full of liquid nitrogen. A few seconds later, you have the smoothest ice cream ever. On the way home, we drove by the end of the Canyon of Heroes!! Set up had already started for today's parade.

I'd repeat that night again next time anyone's in town visiting!

Update

This is the start of week #5 since I injured my foot. It is healing, but not as fast as I'd like it to. I saw the doctor on Monday and he reminded me that this is a "big" injury, not as big as my pelvis thing, but still something big. An ultra sound showed that the tendon is still partially torn. That's no surprise because pretty much every step I take reminds me of that! The good thing is that it is the off season which means that the main focus is resting up for next season. I still have to do light workouts like spinning on the trainer/exercise bike, running on the alter-g treadmill and doing the elliptical--to keep the blood flowing to my foot. I've also started doing some stenghening exercises, lifting weights and pilates.

Watching the marathon on Sunday was a huge inspiration to do everything I can to make this thing better. We went out to Brooklyn (mile 7.5) before the race started and chalked up a few blocks with authentic Livestrong Tour de France yellow chalk (that we got at the stages art opening the night before!). We watched about 30,000 people go by and then ducked into an Aussie Bar/Restaurant to catch the pro finishes on TV. When Meb crossed the finish line, bars all over the city erupted, just like they did last night when the Yankees won.

Champions!!

I walked into work this morning to find this display. This bread was probably baked shorty after the last out. The bakers are some serious Yankee fans!!

Off-Season Activities

Anna got it right last night when she turned to me as said, "are you on your off-season or something?" as we were watching the Yankee game at a bar, well past my normal bedtime. Now that it is officially the off-season, I've been trying to do things each day that I wouldn't normally do during the season. This week that involves going out 4 nights in a row, going to the dentist, going shopping, working at Amy's, etc. Tonight SJ and I are going to the annual US Skiing Association Ball, which we went to last year as well. Some of the top skiers in the county will be there and are going to be honored. To bad there isn't such a thing for triathlon!