Dad's cap

Dad's cap
Originally uploaded by cherrydg

So my Mom told me that my Dad has been wearing the ornament hat I made him to bed. Turns out his head gets cold at night and keeping it warm seems to help his sinuses. I decided to make him another hat since Christmas is over.

Girlified Ponytail Cap

Remember that ponytail cap I made a few weeks ago? I was looking through Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments book yesterday and decided to "girlify" it by adding an embroidered flower to it:


Girlified Ponytail Cap
Originally uploaded by cherrydg

Meet Thomas Mill

Thomas Mill is one of those routes everyone in our running club knows. It's a stretch of road in Leesburg that seems to kick everyone's butt. The first segment of the road is short, but steep; usually my heart feels like it's gonna jump right up my throat. Here's Steve, Mandy, and Luisa running uphill while I dilly-dally and take pictures.

After that first climb, you think it's over but realize that it's just the beginning. The rest of the road continues up and down like roller coaster. Granted it's no mountain, but for these parts of town Thomas Mill is a runner's arch-nemesis.

I'm f-f-f-reeezing

22 degrees. Windows being replaced. Toes numb.

1st Training Run for 50K

On Saturday, Mandy and I ran our first official training run for the 50K - 12 miles through and around Great Falls Park.

Oh gear!

Technical gear is great for keeping you dry while you run. The only thing is that over half of it needs to be hung dry which tends to take over our guest bathroom.

Frozen Hard-Boiled Egg

In case you ever wondered what one looked like...

What's up?

Yes, I know I’ve been MIA from this blog lately. Here's a quick rundown of what's been goin' on.

* December’s snow screwed up my training for Tokyo a bit, so I’ve been trying to be super-diligent about getting my runs in the last few weeks. This past Saturday’s run was probably one of the hardest runs I’ve ever done. If anyone plans to stroll the W&OD over by Leesburg, the trail detour is a hilly b*tch (16% grades in some areas).

* Speaking of running, here’s a preview of other races I'm running in 2010 so far:
February 28 – Tokyo Marathon
March 20 – National Marathon
April 25 – GW Classic 10-miler
May 8 – Capon 50K
June 5 or 6 – North Face Marathon or Half-Marathon
September 11 – VA Happy Trails Women's Half-Marathon
October 16 – Tussey 50-miler (if Capon goes well)
November – either the Richmond Marathon or Philly Marathon

* I've been doing some research on what we want to see while we're in Japan. We get to Tokyo on a Friday, will run the marathon on Sunday, and then head down to Kyoto on Monday. We'll make Kyoto "home base" for a few days and hope to venture down to Hiroshima and some other surrounding cities. Then, it's back up to Tokyo on Friday to finish off the trip, perhaps with a day trip to Mt. Fuji.

* I decided to sign up for an online travel writing class. Technical writing has been a bit blah lately, so I figured that this class might get the neurons firing.

* Still knitting of course. I've finished a scarf and a few hats which I'll take pics of soon.