Date Night

What a weekend in several ways and all of them good, even with the bad weather that rolled in on Sunday.  In a nutshell, Jen and I had a great road ride, outdoor training with Islay, date night, 14 mile long run, and finished it all off with peppermint stick custard accompanied by Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music. 

With the warm temps that rolled in last week, on Saturday morning Jen and I decided to skip the 2 1/2 hour spin on the trainer and took the road bikes out for a spin across the Woodrow Wilson bridge and into Maryland.  This was our first experience riding across the bridge and thanks to garmin connect we found a decent 30 mile route through the Oxon Hill neighborhood of PG County.  I did get the sense the locals are not used to seeing a couple of road bikers when we were asked at a stoplight if we were lost.  We will definitely do this loop again but probably better if done early in the morning to avoid some of the traffic.

After the ride and a quick sandwich from our favorite deli in Del Ray we met our dog trainer Sandy at the dog park for a training session with Islay.  (It seems like someone in the house is always in training for something).  This was the first time we did a session outdoors and Islay impressed us as usual.  She mastered "come" and did an excellent job with the "join ups", all due to the power of cheese.  The best thing about the training was the girl was tired after all of that play time which meant Jen and I could focus on date night. 



My beautiful date and I waiting for our train

Since Jen and I have been going steady, we usually try and reserve a night of the week as "date night" if our schedules allow.  It can be as simple as sitting in front of the fire enjoying music and a cocktail or as in the case of Saturday night it was dressing up for dinner at a fancy new restaurant in DC.  Jen made us reservations at a place called the Irongate in downtown DC.  The restaurant is actually the re-opening of the oldest restaurant in DC and the owners did a great job with the place.  We arrived early so our first stop was at the bar to enjoy a craft cocktail, I chose the Hang on St Christopher made up of rye, averna, and maraschino liqueur while Jen tried the Andiamo made up of genever, benedictine, dolin blanc, and bitters.  Jen and I both like to try new things so we ordered two drinks that we each wanted to try and in a rare turn of events I actually enjoyed mine more than the drink Jen ordered.  With the cocktail portion of date night in the books we transitioned into the beautiful old dining room, filled with the scent of the woodburning fireplace.  We went with the four course tasting and wine pairing with no thought whatsoever of the 14 mile run on our plate the next day.  Our meal was excellent with the highlights being the squash tortelloni and alysian farm lamb.  (The wine pairing were not too shabby either, especially the Greek red that came with the lamb, good thing we asked our waitress to write down the names of all the wines).  Dinner portion of the evening over, transition into the trip home and the metro gods were smiling on us as we caught the yellow line home just as it was pulling into the station.  Time to rest up and get ready for the big run in the morning.

We were both feeling a little dusty when we woke up on Sunday and the weather was not looking ideal.  I think we were both regretting not getting the run done on Saturday but like I told Jen, it could be raining on race day, just need to deal with it.  We waited for a break in the rain and heading out for the W&OD and our 14 mile run.  Coach gave us a twist to this workout, with the last four miles of the run getting progressively faster.  The first five miles of the run seemed to drag for me and I was feeling the effects of dehydration.  Good thing for both of us there was a bathroom at mile 7 to refuel the water and show solidarity with Islay.  Jen and I were feeling recharged and set the course for home and the weather continuted to cooperate with us.  We hit mile 10 and picked up the pace, just three miles to go and must get faster.  Mile 11, had to hold back a bit but feeling good.  Now we now this is in the bag, just two miles from home and we are cruising after mile 13 and getting faster.  One more mile through our hood, my mind focused on that burger and tots we planned to treat ourselves with later in the day.  Jen and I finished the last mile in a sub 9 minute pace, tired legs but happy to get it done.  Really proud of Jen today and how strong she ran especially on the heels of a "Telluridesque" date night.

Finished the day with a burger and fries (tots were sold out, really the only thing that went wrong all weekend) at Del Ray Pizzeria along with a powerful imperial stout from Laughing Dog Brewery called the Dogfather weighing in at 11% alcohol, the perfect recovery brew.  One more stop for Peppermint Stick custard at the Dairy Godmother and fortnately for us they were serving chocolate pudding cake, there is no way you can turn down that stuff no matter how full you are feeling, besides, we ran 14 miles today.

Merry Christmas from the heart of Del Ray

It Must Be Winter -- Here Come the Long Runs

Greg and I must have really short memories.  For the second year in a row, we are doing an early spring Marathon.  Last year, it was Austin.  We chose this because we figured winter is a good time to get your long runs in since you can't really bike.  While this logic may be accurate, it ignores the fact that running for hours in the freezing cold and wind and sometimes precipitation, while possible, is pretty miserable. This year, the spring marathon is a big check mark in getting us ready for Zurich, so not much could be done about the timing.

Greg: "Hey, Jen, you ready to run?"

We started our long weekend runs two weeks ago.  First ten miles, then twelve.  Tomorrow it is 14, the last four miles of which are to be run faster than the last.  Fortunately, December has been pretty mild, so the temps have actually been quite good.  Tomorrow, the forecast is 70 degrees...yahoo!

Training is officially back on.  Since Thanksgiving, we've had a few solid weeks of workouts.  Swims, spins, strength sets, tempo runs, hill repeats, interval training, and bricks.  The only thing we've neglected is our foam rollers.  This needs to change, stat.

In other training news, Mulligan has been on a boxing training program and has found a reluctant sparring partner.

Islay is on her own training plan and is performing like a rock star.  Unlike our training, which is designed to keep us in motion, Islay's training is designed to keep her sitting still.  Since she naturally wants to run, jump and hop around, this is effort for her.  So far, we are a big fan of this training routine.  It is structured and easy to execute (for us) and Islay continues to develop into a sweet, loveable puppy.  We'd recommend for any doggie owners.

Turkey Trot

I am only about a month behind but give me a break, it is the holiday season and I have been bouncing from one party to the next. 

Thanksgiving week and the first time Jen and I had overnight guests.  We were fortunate to have my mom, Ruby and Jen's mom, Lynda and her husband Lee join us for the holiday.  Lee pretty much guaranteed the invite when he offered to smoke the bird for us. 

We decided to get in the local swing of things and entered the local turkey trot that runs through our hood.  Jen dressed as a pilgrim and received plenty of cheers and advice from other runners and spectators, mostly aimed at her need to get back in the kitchen and prepare the feast.  The race also gave me some insight into where Jen's gets her competitve nature.  Lynda took the race a little more serious than the rest of us and ended up finishing second in her age group, pretty impressive but of course she was not hindered by a pilgrim costume either.

After the race we hosted some friends who ran in the race with us.  Nothing says happy turkey day like a post-race bloody mary and some mulled wine.  Islay turned out to be the highlight and lowlight of the party.  Our dog trainer stopped by with her dog, who instantly found our girl very attractive and decided to show his affection to her in front of all us on the living room rug.  I thought for a moment I would either have to get a hose or go "Ray Donovan" on the dog.  All of that turned out to be a bit too much excitement for our little girl so she decided the best way to end the festivities was to lose her bowels on the hardwood floor.  Everyone seemed to be in a rush to get home after that but it made for some good laughs later in the day.

With the guests and mulled wine gone, it was time for Lee and I to get busy preparing the turkey, meaning I was drinking beer while he tended to the smoker every half hour. 

Amish smoked turkey, should have used more sunscreen

Pre-feast

Jen came up with an excellent menu for the side dishes along with some home made pies courtesy of Lynda. 

More pie for everyone!

Great day all around for us, except mayby Islay, and a perfect way to celebrate Thanksgiving in our new house.

Most embarrassing day ever, in my happy place.