Birthday Challenge completed!

Wow! What a day! I knew it was going to be tough. As Amy said to one of our friends who questioned the mountain biking distance: "It's called a 'challenge' for a reason!" Truth be told, I had my doubts about being able to do the riding portion myself...along with everything else. As you can see there wasn't much that was flat...

The ride turned out to be roughly two laps of Desert Classic to Telegraph to National to Javelina... After the first lap, I joined the family for lunch at our favorite hole-in-the-wall burrito place...
The kids made sure I didn't tighten up...
All fueled up, I was ready for Lap 2.
I set out again with 2 thoughts on my mind. Since I had never ridden this far on dirt my 1st thought was if I would bonk and how I'd manage that. My second thought was that I needed to stay alert and avoid fatigue-induced crashes. Being tired has a way of making you make mistakes and National Trail is not one where you want that to happen...I started to feel pretty good as I finished the last big climb. I had a hard downhill to go but at least it was mostly down. After that downhill I was disappointed that I was still short a couple of miles so back out on Desert Classic I went to make up the difference. It was funny to see only my car left in the parking lot...I got home and started the next part of the challenge - the underwater swimming. When I decided to do the Challenge in July I forgot about the pool getting cold in October/November! The water was chilly but it felt good on my tired legs. I had a good coach/ lap counter that made sure I did all 42! Now it was time to shoot my free throws. We headed over to the park.As the sun was setting I got the free throws in.My helpers wanted in on the challenge by this time...so I helped Giana with her first regulation height dunk!My helpers were wonderful! But it was time for them to have dinner and go to bed. Nothing is better than being able to do the Challenge and also spend time with the family and read a book to the kids and tuck them in too!

Now it was time to go out and finish my final challenge - the 4.2 mile run. I originally wanted to do a trail run but the street would have to do. This is where I hit the wall - at the 2.5 mile mark. It was a good thing I was almost 2 miles from home :) I limped in at a snail's pace of 12:02 per mile but I finished!

So here are the final stats for my personal challenge of 2008!:

42.33 miles of mountain biking with 6,349 feet of climbing!
4.27 miles of running
42 free throws made
42 lengths of underwater swimming in our pool
42 kisses for EACH MEMBER of the family
42 songs on my iPod listened to at least (actually more like 120 songs total)
42 minutes of Texas Aggie football (Ags 24-Colorado 17! I listened to the web archive - Yeah I listened to it live too on Saturday. Whoop!)
42 ounces of Diet Dr. Pepper consumed- at least! (I'm sure it was WAY more)

Some "sort of" coincidental stats - that is stats that became stats as I realized they were close to "42" during the Challenge:

242 ounces of water consumed.
42 ounces of Gatorade consumed.

And finally a TOTAL coincidence that I only realized after uploading my run info. The Birthday Challenge was completed at 10:23:37PM. My ACTUAL birthday happens to be Oct 23rd - 10/23!

It was an amazing day! It's definitely a nice feeling to accomplish something that I really had doubts about being able to do - and finish it with a smile on my face. It's also a great feeling to have such a loving and supportive family there by my side too. Thanks guys. I love you!

1 Shiner was consumed also! After the run, the cold pool felt very, very good!

Now...what am I going to do NEXT year? Who knows... I'm still enjoying this victory lap!

PS: It was Amy's idea that I make it 42 kisses for EACH family member (so she wouldn't get gypped) BRILLIANT MOVE!!! :)

Happy Halloween!

We had a great pumpkin carving night on Wednesday. The kids really got into it. We let them draw faces with markers and then Amy & I helped them cut them out (and fixed them up a little bit). They really did well though.


Amy carved the middle pumpkin and the kids carved the ones next to them (with a little help)....

They were excited to go trick-or-treating tonight! Giana decided she wanted to be a princess...and a lovely princess she was...



Aran was his favorite Superhero - Spiderman!



Halloween was a big success! (Now, how to hide the candy??? - no better place than in my belly!)

Tour de Tempe 2008

It's that time of year again! Aran & Giana were excited to ride and gave each other a big hug before the start. Aran would be riding in his 4th Tour de Tempe but it would be his first time actually pedaling. It sure was nice having him contribute to our movement.


Amy got to tow Giana in the trailer this year. Giana was pretty happy to have the trailer all to herself. We left our trailer at the cabin in Flagstaff and haven't had an opportunity to retrieve it so we borrowed one from a friend. Thanks Art!


Aran really liked the 2 bridge crossings - on College Avenue & Country Club Way.


It was a perfect day for a ride. The Tour was just a little over 10 miles. Giana says she wants to ride her bike next year!

The light is coming on....

After getting his feet wet in his first game, Aran is starting to "get it" and started going after the ball this week. He tracked the ball well with his eyes and played a bit more aggressively.


The boy wasn't afraid to mix it up with the older (& bigger) kids either.



He's almost ready to take on his little sister - Giana :)

Birthday Challenge is postponed due to....my birthday!

D'oh! Well actually it's a bit more complicated but I'll keep the long-story short. Amy's brother had his birthday yesterday and with her Uncle in town from Minnesota the family wanted us to celebrate our "joint birthdays" on Saturday. Aran has a soccer game at 8AM and well the day is just too full of things to pull off the challenge. So, now it's been bumped to next Sunday, Nov 2nd. Stay tuned...

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah....zip-a-dee-ay

My, oh my what a wonderful day!

And so it begins...

Our little boy is now officially on a team. Aran went to his first soccer practice today. It was supposed to be last week but he was sick. No more mountain bike rides for Mom & Dad on saturdays. They are now Soccer Saturdays!


The whole family went to practice. They started by doing some stretching. Giana wasn't about to let Aran have all the fun so she joined in too. Then they chased Coach Ryan around the field dribbling their ball...


Then it was time to try and score a goal on the assistant coaches...


After all that work it was time to get their uniforms! Aran got his favorite number - 1 - just like Thomas!!! He even got his name on his jersey too.


Now that is one happy boy!


His first game is this saturday. I'm looking forward to watching the little huddle of humanity going up and down the field...as the Blue Lightning strike fear into other Tempe Youth Sports teams!

Sedona camping trip

With a week before Aran started soccer we decided this was our last chance to get out of town for a while. Our local RideAZ mountain biking group had a camping trip planned to Sedona, AZ and we decided to go. We've been to Sedona many times but had never actually camped there. The Chavez Crossing Campground is right in the heart of Red Rock Country and easy riding distance to the trail system. We set up camp and Aran was ready to go for a ride! I hooked up the Trail-a-bike and we were off. The campground is right by Oak Creek and the road out is a steady climb. Aran wasn't much help pedaling up, but he sure kicked it in on the ride down! The boy likes to go fast.... I know he's out of focus in this picture but the look on his face says it all...



The kids had a blast camping and hanging out with their friend Robin - even if it was a bit cold.



Amy & I enjoyed a great group ride on Saturday too.



We rode the usual loop (about 20 miles) that included Submarine Rock!


The kids were having a great time and didn't want to leave but we had to pack up early Sunday morning so that I could get back and go watch my Dallas Cowboys get beat by the Arizona Cardinals in person! We should've stayed in Sedona....

Trail-a-bike meet trail!

Aran was excited to take his new ride out on the dirt. We decided to take a family spin in the woods behind the cabin. Aran & I made the maiden voyage and Amy pulled Giana in the bike trailer. We headed out not knowing what to expect. We packed a lunch "just in case". Well we managed to ride a good 6+miles and had a great time.

We did stop for lunch. Aran enjoyed his plain cheese sandwich...

...and Giana loved her PB&J...

Giana decided pants were not necessary in her trailer.

Maybe next time we'll ride down this hill...


Maybe...

1st ride back!

I was finally cleared by my doctor to ride on Wednesday! He said just no weight-lifting or boxing and I'm good. I thought about the amount of force exerted on my hands by the handlebars when I'm flying downhill on the bike and have to simultaneously brake hard and maneuver up/over/around an obstacle.... I said NOTHING but thank you Doc! :)

I had thought A LOT about where my 1st trail ride would be. South Mountain? Hawes? Phoenix has a lot of good options but most are fairly rocky and technical and I thought I should do something a little smoother that would have a lower probability of possible crashes. (haha)

Well Amy & I made a last minute decision to head to Flagstaff for the weekend and that made the decision easy. The 1st ride would be on my favorite Flagstaff trails - Mount Elden. Since it was just Amy, the kids & me, I'd have to go solo on the ride while she watched the kids. Rarely do I ride solo but this seemed appropriate since I really wanted to go at my own pace and reacquaint myself with the trails, the bike and gauge my bike "fitness".


The trails were in perfect shape, the weather was fantastic and the ride was incredible. It was nice to be back on the bike and even nicer to be riding in Flagstaff! I happily enjoyed the miles of suffering - climbing above 8,000 ft after the 3-month hiatus. I've got a long way to go to get ready for the Birthday Challenge, but this was a great start.