Anything worth doing is worth overdoing

Today was supposed to be 4 miles. Ellen and I are planning on doing our long Sunday walks together so I tried to plan something somewhat interesting. We started from my house and headed up in the foothills. Ole came along too.

I call this picture, "Ole in the fields" or "The happiest dog in the world"



We hiked all the way to NCAR (where we planned to get some water, but it was unfortunately closed).



It was very pretty, although a bit warm. Poor Ellen didn't think it would be so serious and she didn't have any water.

On the way home, we stopped off at Cafe Sole for some much needed iced soy mochas.

And I underestimated this walk, it was 6 miles and took about 2 1/2 hours. Whoops.

Mileage: 13 miles, 413 to go
Pledges: $45

Not so chilly evening

Another evening walk for me. Jeremy was at a bike race all weekend (where he placed 6th!) and somehow my mom flatted my stroller tire this morning when I was on a shoot and I didn't feel like fixing it. And it was also 80 deg today, which is a refreshing change, but a bit warm for midday walks with kids.

Anyway, another neighborhood 3 mile loop. I finished listening to Shopaholic and Baby. And nothing else interesting happened.

And I must say, I am very intrigued by Ellen's training program. Maybe her carefree attitude will rub off on me :) (uh, just joking)

Mileage: 9 miles, 417 to go
Pledges: $20

X-training

Today I biked for 45 minutes instead of walking (I did walk about a mile or so, but not on purpose, just coming home from the park). The bike ride was TOUGH. Our neighborhood is sooo hilly. I was so excited to try out my new squishy bike shorts that I just had to ride today. It was really fun and I think it will be a nice way to cross-train. Since Sundays are the long walk days, I will try to bike on Saturdays. As Jon said, just call me Lance. Heh. I'm a little worried about tomorrow...I think Wendy has some vertical hike in store for us. This is a pretty active weekend for me, aka the slug!!

Chilly Evening

The problem with waiting to walk until the evening is that I never know what the weather will be like. At 4:30 it looked like it could get pretty nasty, but by the time I left at 6:30 it was cool but not stormy. I had my new MP3 player, I'm currently listening to Shopaholic and Baby (which I wouldn't really recommend, but it is slightly entertaining). I walked up the hill and down in my standard 3 mile loop.

Here's my turn around point (I love long walks when this is where I really get started):



And I saw two ducks right by my house:



We always see ducks in the spring, but not for long. Either they are just passing through, or they quickly figure out that a creek by a bike path populated by dogs is not the best spot for raising a family.

Mileage: 6 miles, 423 to go
Pledges: $20

Welcome

Today was WALK #2. While it was cut short by half a mile because I had to race back to preschool to take Ted home, I think I've found a good walk. There is a small playground about half a mile from the start, so I can do my walk and reward Mae's patience with a romp in the park. After a flat in the jogger's rear tire, I had both rear tires replaced and we are good to go!

And so it begins

Ellen very generously took Alex home with her so I could go walk at the mall with Adam and Ariel. Because, guess what? Today was the first day of training for the MS walk. And luck would have it that it was pouring buckets ALL day long. And since I'm a bit OCD, I can't miss a training day, let alone the first one.

Anyway, I went to the mall and walked and it wasn't bad. Ariel wasn't impressed, but when is she ever?

I was going to take this picture on the outside of the mall but it was so cold and windy and wet that I chickened out. But I'm not complaining, we really need the rain:



The mall. For 7 1/2 laps (4 downstairs, 3 1/2 upstairs)



And I promised Adam a treat since he didn't get to go to Ted's house so they got cookies. Ariel took one bite before crumbling hers up all over the place. She didn't even eat the M&Ms: