I took Sheldon for his first run yesterday morning! It was a short one, but he did a fine job keeping up. I had him on a retractable leash too, so that helped give him a little freedom and made the run more fluid for both of us. I was really happy that he could run with me because he’s got so much energy to expend. He really needs solid exercise every day, and our daily hiking wasn’t sucking his energy quite as much as it used to (even if I increased the hiking distance and we hiked long day, after day, after day).

He ran again with me this morning and is definitely a happier dog. He’s not completely zonked the rest of the day after our runs either… so he’s recovering nicely (just like his mom! hehe!).

Symba is also happy to be able to get his rest throughout the day because Sheldon isn’t quite as hyper. When I go to Umstead to run, I will take both of them out. But for now, I can only handle one dog at a time when I’m around the neighborhood due to cars and other people out walking their dogs.

An awful thing happened on my ride this morning. I was passing by Lake Jordan, and I saw the Athens Drive cross country team at the trail crossing… the coach was in the road stopping traffic. As I got closer, I could see something was laying in the road.

My heart stopped. I knew instantly what I was coming up on… but I didn’t want to believe it all at the same time.

A girl was out jogging with her dog this morning on the trails at Lake Johnson when her dog took off unexpectedly. He wasn’t on a leash, and had gotten so far ahead of her that when he crossed the road, a car came through and hit him.

The dog was laying in the road as the cross country coach was standing over him, keeping other cars from hitting him again.

I rolled up just as the girl was coming to the trail crossing… seeing her dog in the middle of the road. I watched in horror as I saw her run over to him and pick him up, craddling him in her arms, willing him not to die.

I offered my phone to let her call someone… but who do you call? She immediately drove him off to the vet. I felt so helpless, and all I could think about, selfishly, was “god, what would I do if that happened to one of my dogs?” All I can say is, I’d be beside myself.

Often I take my dogs walking over at Lake Johnson, so this really hit close to home. I will think twice before letting them wander free close to the road crossings… better yet, I am going to avoid them all together!

I sure hope that the girl and her dog is okay. I’m sending them well wishes… and so is Symba and Sheldon!

*ORAMM is a 63 mile mountain bike race with 11,000ft of climbing around the Mt Mitchell area of NC*

What can I say? I already can’t wait to do this ride again next year. I had so much fun! And I saw a lot of people that I knew out on the course… I bumped into several people from Raleigh, and a few people from the mountain area that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

I did this ride with my friend, Deb, and we had a great time together. She whopped me on the single track… but she was really nice and waited for me (the good friend she is!). I was really cautious on all the downhills because I’ve only done part of these trails ONE time before. The trails are very technical and tight, and a lot of times you are riding on the edge of the mountain (the trail being about 2 feet wide). There’s just not a whole lot of room for error, let’s say. And me, just wanting to survive this ride and live to see another day, I didn’t really feel like pushing ANY of that stuff… maybe next year when I get a chance to ride those trails a little more.

Our husbands SAG’ed for us the entire route… which was AWESOME. We saw them at pretty much all the rest stops. It was cool to see them so many times, especially the first time up Kitzuma.

The course itself is absolutely brutal, but also some of the prettiest and wild country you’ll ever see.

What more can I say? I really enjoyed the entire day… it was a long one. I just rode and had a good time out there, not really caring when I finished… just making sure I had fun along the way.

I’ll definitely be doing the ride next year, and maybe then I’ll try for an actual time.

**Pictures from the day**

View Larger Map

It’s almost time! I am really looking forward to the long day on Sunday. The weather looks like it’s going to be great too… just hope that the thunder showers hold off until we’re done!

I went in to work yesterday and met with my behavior specialist administrator from central office. It was awesome discussing ideas with her about my new classroom. We came up with a basic daily structure and looked at the way my room is arranged.

I did have all my stuff settled pretty much, but after we started talking and completely changed the look and feel of the room. My desk is now the focal point of the room, and my assistant principal is going to pick up some tables, shelves, and other odds and ends to make the room uniform and effective. The space is very small, so we’ll have to switch out a few peices of furniture to make it work.

After all the work yesterday, I made some new forms to use in class today while at home. I can’t wait until Monday when I get to finish off the room with my colleague and assistant principal’s help. I’ll be sure to take the camera to get pictures of it.

The dogs are exhausted right now. I took them out for a pretty long hike yesterday and today (between 3-4 miles), and they are both sleeping. That’s a good thing because we are getting ready to get in the car to drive to Morganton to stay with my parents before ORAMM.

Have a great weekend!

Yes, that’s right. Three showers in ONE day. I get up, run. Shower. Then I eat, bike. Shower. Then I eat again, hang out, answer emails, do odds-n-ends around the house, and take the dogs out for a walk. When it’s as hot and humid as it has been, I’m a sweaty mess when I finish hiking with the dogs. Shower AGAIN.

Today it’s not nearly as hot as it has been the last few days, so I’ll be going out with the dogs again. But I have a feeling I’ll be hopping in the shower for a quick cool-off when I get home.

I can’t wait for it to be fall around here. It’ll be nice to have some cool, crisp mornings again. However, I can deal with the heat and humidity as long as it’s around. That’s definitely not going to keep me indoors!

Yesterday I took the dogs out walking on the Loblolly trail at Umstead, and normally I don’t let them get in the water when we walk because then I have dirty and wet dogs to take home. But, yesterday it was so hot that I couldn’t help but let them stop and have swim breaks at every creek we crossed.

It was really funny seeing Sheldon swim the first time. For a while he was trying to just walk across the water, even when it got really deep. Then, when he figured out how to swim around, his eyes lit up and got real big. He didn’t quit swimming around. It was really cute. Then he looked like a wet rate when he got out. HA!

I am going to take the camera with me today and hopefully get some pictures or video of him swimming.

This past weekend I spent a lot of time putting in some endurance miles on the bike. I did two long rides, one with the Lineberry Group on Saturday, and then on Sunday I rode the NCBC Summer Rally.

It was hot and humid both days. I was drenched after the rides. But, I actually enjoyed myself, which is a nice change to what I usually experience on my road bike. I saw several people that I haven’t seen in a while, and it was great talking and catching up with people after not being out on group rides for so long.

I’m pretty choosy now about the group rides I decide to go on because I like to dictate my own pace. These two groups were perfect. Saturday was a small group of only six riders, so we rotated and rode a double pace line the entire ride. On Sunday I was looking to ride a little bit harder, but then back off on some of the climbs late in the ride. And that ended up being no problem. I had a couple of the best rides I’ve had in a looong time.

ORAMM is coming up this Sunday… I can’t wait!

Many of you may have already seen Cary Magazine’s July/August issue. I am now writing the heath and fitness section called, “Shape up with Alisha.” Here is what it looks like in the magazine…

Shape Up With Alisha Preview

I was really excited when Danielle approached me about contributing to the magazine. I enjoyed writing the short peices used in the section, and look forward to writing more!

e traveled up to Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland this past weekend where I raced the Xterra EX2 Triathlon. The race was a 1000m swim, 14 mile mountain bike, and 5 mile trail run. This was my second Xterra triathlon race.

I was really nervous, but excited, for the race. One big change this weekend was my bike. I picked up my new Titus Racer-X at Appalachian Mountain Sports in Glen Alpine, NC on the Friday before the race, rode it for 30 minutes on Saturday, and then raced it on Sunday. All I can say is, “I LOVE MY NEW TITUS MOUNTAIN BIKE.” Oh. My. God. What an awesome bike!

So… about the race…

The Swim:
We had a two loop swim with a 200m or so run across the beach between each loop. There were two waves for the race: the men in one wave, and the women and all relays in another. I latched on to a couple of the fast relay swimmers in our wave, and soon we picked through some of the men that started in the wave before us. Entering for the second loop, I decided to take my own line and sight close to the buoys, picking through the men to get a draft. I ended up coming out of the water first and heading out on to the bike in the lead.

The Bike:
Okay, I’ve already said how awesome my mountain bike is… but, I’ll just go ahead and say it again anyways… MY MOUNTAIN BIKE IS AWESOME! Alright, alright… obviously, the bike at this race was a completely different story from Richmond. I was riding through the toughest, technical rocky sections of the course with no problems, even when men were walking them. The course was very rocky… hints the name, “Rocky Gap State Park.” There was a lot of steep climbing with huge, loose rocks, several rock gardens, a section of stairs to run up, some double track, and tight, smooth single track. All-in-all, a really nice mixture of everything was in this bike course. It was an awesome ride! I just had fun out there and kept plugging away every mile.


The Run:
So, I got to the run and I had conserved a little for it because Joe had told me how challenging the run course was from his experience racing last year. I haven’t been running very much to let some of my imbalances heal, so the run definitely felt like a “slog” more than anything else. I just kept one foot in front of the other and kept looking forward. We followed the toughest part of the bike course all the way up the steepest climb (of course), and then hit some single track hiking trails. Oh just when I thought the race couldn’t be any crueler, two miles from the finish I come up to a ROCK WALL. Yes, literally, a rock wall. Like Boulders. So I stare at it, flinch, blink, and only did I realize that, “yes, Alisha, you go UP that,” when I heard someone cheering up at the top of the wall. I could only see the top of their head a little. Hmm… so this was what Joe was talking about. So, I scale up the rock wall using my rusty rock climbing skills from years ago (time to start bouldering with my brother up at Appalachian). After the climb it was pretty much smooth sailing to the finish. I ran with some of the guys and crossed the line just over 2.5 hours to take the overall female win. Yay! Yippee!

The race was especially fun because Joe and I camped with our dogs at the state park, which made for a lot of excitement for all of us. We met a really nice family who watched our dogs while we rode a little of the course on Saturday. And we had s’mores at our campsite after dinner while the dogs laid at our feet.

I met several really nice people at the race, and EX2 Adventures did a fantastic job putting on this event. Everything was clearly marked, it was a beautiful venue, and the volunteers were wonderful.

I’d like to especially thank my coach, Sonni, after this win. I was really surprised by this win. I definitely did not expect it since I am so new to all the off road stuff. But Sonni has stood by me and believed in me every step of the way.

Another thank you to my chiropractor, Dr. Swank of Swank Chiropractic, for keeping me straight… quite literally. I couldn’t keep plugging away at all the training I do without his diligent work to keep me at my best.

Thanks to Splish for providing me with the cutest suits and stylish goggles to wear at the pool for all my swim training. The swim helped set me up for a strong race.

Thanks to Be Present for my comfortable yoga clothing that I wore all weekend camping, pre and post race.

Thanks to Inside Out Sports for providing all my race needs… trail shoes, nutrition products, and training equipment.

Thank you to Darlene of Nutrilite and XS Energy products for providing my daily vitamins and nutrition products that help keep me going strong.

And of course… a big thank you to my biggest fan… my husband, Joe.

To all of my sponsors who have supported me into Xterra racing: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Here’s Photos From the Weekend