10 weeks to go and it is beautiful outside

Right now I am sitting in my corner window office wondering why I am inside when it is 80 degrees outside. I have had a pretty good week, 3 runs and a swim and I am planning on a 3-4 hour ride in the morning. Hope the weather is gorgeous for everyone else and you get outside this weekend. Cory, I know that you always get what we get a day later so be ready for incredible weather tomorrow and sunday. Good luck at Cherry Blossom.

Since I can't just bring him along to meet everyone outside the pool at 5:30 a.m.

or to 1/2 price burger night at Whitlow's, I guess I'll have to settle for introducing y'all to my boy, Alden, through the wonderful world of the internet. Apologies to Cory and Nate as they already know some of this, but here we go:

Alden is a swimmer & biker and a general adventurous guy who I met through my Masters swim team out here. We spent some time together this fall riding, running and kayaking, but didn't start dating until after the holidays. It's been a fabulous couple of months and, if you couldn't tell already, I'm totally smitten! :-)


What else should I share? He is a graphic designer who works for a gaming company called Valve over in Bellevue. He also owns his own company with a couple of buddies from school. He's a native Seattlite who has taught me most all of what I know about biking routes around here.

We complement each other well in many ways: he uses his front brake more than his rear, is super early in arrival time (one of the minor axes, Nate!), quotes lines from The Blues Brothers, makes me do sprints when we go on long rides and is always up for an adventure! His activity level frankly makes me look like I sit around and eat bon bons all day which has been fabulous for helping me remember the importance of good, physical activity especially during all the stress of last quarter. In fact, I'd say that my desire to keep up with him has been a major factor in the intensity of my Eagleman training of late!


Did I mention that he's kind, thoughtful, smart & beautiful to boot? I've never felt this way about anyone before and if you weren't already convinced that I've totally gone over the edge, read on! Maybe part of that is how much we already had in common in terms of shared interests, interaction style and activity level pre-dating. Maybe getting to know each other this fall helped, too. It just feels right, like we fit together and this is how its supposed to be. So it is that I spend a fairly good hunk of my time smiling and staring off into space! There- I'm done gushing. I think you all would enjoy his company both on and off the bike and I'll look forward to introducing you all to him in person someday soon!

please help my blogging skills

OK so I did not mean to have a post that had nothing to do with us but I cannot figure out some blogging issues. first issue is that on my home computer I logged into this and other blogs as 35anddry.blogspot.com without the www at the beginning. If I post or comment, you can only see that comment if you log in that way. If you log in with www, then it looks like I have stopped posting!!! Then this morning, I made a comment on meghan's post about the surprise visit but even though the comment is there, it says zero comments on the front page!!@ What am I doing wrong?? Am I crazy?? SHould I be working instead of blogging?? SHould I be swimming instead of working??

a surprise 35 and dry reunion!

Imagine my shock when I walked into Logan airport last Saturday morning under the auspices of picking up my sister's boyfriend's luggage and found instead Ms. Cory Churches with a half of dozen donuts! It took a few minutes for me to figure out that Molly was in on it and that Cory flew in to see me! Once I did, we headed down the Cape for a fabulous weekend.



We drank good coffee, shopped 'til we dropped, rode the ferry to Martha's Vineyard, partook of fabulous local seafood served by the best waiter ever and even managed a 9-mile run to prep Cory for the Cherry Blossom run next weekend! Kudos to both Cory and Molly for their coordination and for keeping such a big secret from me! The surprise was complete and a wonderful beginning to my spring break.

all hail the prez

OK so C really has been the prez all along, now she justs gets credit for it. I als think it should give her a 10 minute bonus at Eagleman. Congrats C although being prez does not mean you have to do all the work, now you tell EVERYONE else what to do.

Training for me has gotten a little better. After 10 days of pseudo rest with an ear infection, I ran two days in a row (tues and wed), took today off and will run tomorrow. I have found a group to ride with although I am not sure what they are like. The buyer over the cube wall is a cyclist so he invited me. we will see on saturday. I am a little wary about getting back in the pool but I will do that tomorrow after my run.

13 weeks and counting

I've done two major things today:

1. decided to sell my trusty LeMond now that I have a spiffy new Roubaix. Check it out here. To me its like selling my first born but it wasn't until I realized that (a) its taking up space in my small house, (b) I could use the $$ to defray the cost of the new one and (c) someone else new to the sport could be getting some use from it and the realistic chance of me putting my butt back on the seat anytime soon is just silly.

2. charted out the lesser task of the "13 Weeks to 1/2 Ironman" from Gail Bernhardt's "Training plans for Multisport Athletes". You might remember that I attempted [and failed] to get on the 25 weeks to 1/2 Ironman in October where she had us [me?] doing double 2x per week...in the off season that's just silly.

Still trying to get back on track for normal life; I'm three days back from the Bahamas where I quickly adopted "Island Time"...get up sometime after 9, shower, put on bathing suit, sarong, tank top, go find breakfast and then hang out on the beach until further notice; during beach time, order fruffu rum drinks and occasionally get off your lazy butt and get into the crystal clear blue salt water [makes you more bouant]...marvel at the huge cruise ships that pull into port.

It was bliss:



Trip was fun, and I'm sunburned in March!! not that I enjoy being sunburned but I've never had a tan this early in the year...I'll get skin cancer any way I can...

So I'm geared up for the warmer weather but still expecting cold. I like this light earlier and staying light later business. I might even resurect the Tues/Thurs biking group but at 6 a.m. rather than 5:30 for the time being...

Meagan, thanks for the 4 week Alex phots..he's getting so big!!

I'll check in later to let you know if I'm able to stick to the plan or not!!

Cory