Moutain Biking Palomar Mountain

Ian and I rode the Nate Harrison grade road this past saturday. It took us 2.5 hours to make it to the top and only 40 minutes to come back down. We had gone to the top of Palomar Mountain with mom and dad over thanksgiving, but it was all socked in with fog. Saturday was really clear, so we took some pictures. It was about 72 on the Valley floor when we started but was mid 30s by the top. Yes that is ice that Ian is riding by in one of the photos. Our ride was only 22 miles. The tour of california, a pro bike race will ascend the same peak, but up a fully paved road, we plan on being on the climb to see how a fast real cyclist will ascend. There are some links below.


Pictures

Map

Nate Harrison Grade story

Stage 8 - TOC

Airband Video

Alyssa and her friends just took part in the Bernardo Heights Middle School Airband competition. They did really well and we posted the video of the event. They performed to the Beach Boy's "Surfing USA". Surfing USA video. The kids designed the whole routine and did their own rehearsing. Congratulations to the girls.

Ian's First 10K

Ian ran hist first ever 10K on Saturday 3/17 down at Mission Bay. The event was the Domino's Saint Patrick's Day 10K. He finished the race in 47:57 which is a 7:43 min/mile pace. He was 8/14 for his age group (10-17). Finishers 3-7 in the age group all ran a 7:XX something pace, so it was pretty close overall. He ended up 292 out of 1561. The course started by the 5 and ran around Fiesta Island. It stayed nice and overcast and cool during the entire event. There was a 2 mile and 5K fun run/walk taking place at the same time. Interestingly, the organizers of the race saw fit to start the slower events first, so that the lead runners were passing the walkers from the other events while they were finishing. There were quite a few walkers and some runners decked out for the occasion. Overall, Ian had a good experience and it was fun to see him do so well for his first ever 10K.

We have a JO swimmer

Alyssa did really well in the JO max meet, held this past weekend at Palomar College (3/9-3/11). She came into the meet with zero, Junior Olympic (JO) qualifying times, and left with 3, from her six events! She swam the 100 yd Breast and dropped over 2 seconds from her qualifying time to achieve a second place finish and a 1:21.86. She got her second JO time in the 50yd Butterfly (pictured to the right) with a 3rd place finish. She ended up with her third JO time on Sunday with a 1st place finish in the 50yd Breaststroke with a 36.35. Not only is this a JO time, but a national AA time. Overall, she ended up with a 1st, 2 -2nds, a 3rd, a 4th, and 7th and an 8th place finish. The 8th place finish was for the 50 yd Backstroke, which she will tell you is her weakest stroke. So to end up with such a high finish at her weakest event is really a great accomplishment. So in the end, one needs three JO times, to be considered a JO swimmer, and she got them all in one weekend!

Arizona Winter Break

We went back to Arizona for our second annual Lost Dutchman Marathon. Actually, Judy is the one that runs the marathon, and the rest of us do something else. Last year, we went to breakfast and showed up in time to watch Judy finish the race. This year, I was the lone spectator, and the kids both ran the 8K trail run. Of course, they have official photographers on the course to document the event. You can see the pictures here. Order one, if you would like. You can even get a $65 poster shot. I took photographs of the events, and some of the other things that we did along the way.

Arizona is a great place to visit in the winter. We found a house to rent at the base of the Superstition mountains, which is where the marathon starts. The course runs from the Peralta trailhead and down to US60. There are fires at the start to keep the runners warm. I was looking forward to watching the runners go by at mile 5, but the kids decided they wanted to try the 8K trail run, so as soon as I dropped Judy off to get the bus to the start, off we went for the kids race. The weather was really nice for running, cool and overcast for most of the day. Everyone had a good run, and Ian ended up with a third place in his age division. The top three boys 10-14 finished as a group of three within 8 seconds of each other.

After recovering from the race in the morning, we started our actual vacation which included hiking in the Superstition Mountains. We made it up to Freemont Saddle with a spectacular view of Weaver's needle. We did quite a bit of running and made our second annual mountain biking loop around the Pemberton Trail in the McDowell Mountain Regional Park. There was snow on the peaks in the background.

We also made a trip to Sedona on our relaxing day for the vacation. The scenery was gorgeous. We had a wonderful meal at the Oak Creek Brewery and Grill. We visited some of the fine art shops and saw some really interesting (and expensive) art. Our favorite place was the El Prado Gallery which had a great variety of kinetic art and the most comfortable stone chairs that we had ever seen. We went for a drive up the mountain to see some of the snow and check out the trails. What a great place. Next time, we spend some more time on the trails and less time in the galleries, just not our thing.

Overall, we had a great trip and had many things left that we would have liked to accomplish, but they will have to wait for the third annual LDM trip. One of the kids homework assignments for winter break was to track their physical activity during the week. Needless to say, they both did really well with that assignment.

Racing Season in So Cal

Its racing season in southern california. The first and biggest race of the year so far was the Calico 50K. Judy, Liz, and Joella went together and ran the race. It ended up being far colder than anyone had previously anticipated. It eventually go above freezing at some point during the race. Calico is an abandoned mining town, that is now a tourist destination. The racing went well and Liz took the first place in the masters women and Judy took 3rd place in her age group and was the 6th woman overall to finish. There are some pictures of the race and the awards here. Judy ran the Carlsbad half-marathon the next week, as is tradition. She did well and used it as a training run for the upcoming races. We will keep updating the information as the results come in.

Alyssa is also racing in the pool. Its not near as cold in the water as it was for Judy. The first meet of the year was the FAST meet on Feb 2-4. It was a meet for swimmers 12 and under. The young kids got to swim in the morning and the older kids got to swim in the afternoon. It is really a nice format for a meet, rather than spending the whole day at the pool. Alyssa wanted to swim the 500 yard event on friday night. She had only done this event one other time in Poway. She dropped 40 seconds off her original time and came in first in her division. She also placed first in the 100 yard breast stroke dropping almost 6 seconds off her previous time. She is within one second of qualifying for the Junior Olympics in two events and within a couple of seconds for a third event. This is the next step to take for swimmers. She has gotten quite a bit of motivation from the excellent results at the meet. Its quite exciting to see how fast she has gotten.

2006 Year in Review - Christmas blog

We have had an eventful 2006 for the Cable Family. If you found this link from the Christmas card, we thank you for your interest in our family. We are currently in the middle of the only year when we will have two middle-schoolers. Next year, Ian is off to High School. The picture was of Ian in one of Ed's suits. He doesn't normally dress this way.

We have discovered the blog and the picasaweb sites and have found that these new tools are excellent ways to share information with others who are interested in what we are doing. Family photos can be found here. Below is a paragraph from each family member.

Ed: I continue to work at Metabasis Therapeutics. This year I had a compound that was discovered under a project I was leading put into people for the first time. The press release can be read here. It was quite an interesting experience going through the drug discovery process and seeing a compound get put into people. I continue to play Ultimate as much as I possibly can to try and stay in good physical shape. You do enough research on obesity and diabetes, and you realize that physical activity and good diet are so important. I also go mountain biking when I can. I played Bob Villa and remodeled the kitchen, which was quite an endeavor, but it looks really good now. Our vacation this year was to San Francisco where we were able to visit most of the famous tourist sites: Lombard street, Fishermans wharf, riding the cable cars, and Alcatraz. Alcatraz was the best and most unexpected event of the trip. We left on the ferry to go to the island expecting to do the normal tourist events and when we got to the island, we found there was going to be a nature walk to show the wildlife that currently lives on the island. The tour guide was excellent and took us all around for about 30 minutes, showing us the plants and the birds. Of course, Judy and I asked many questions about the plants and animals. The gulls were my favorite since the gull kids will make themselves look smaller by hunching down in front of their parents, so the parents will continue to feed them. We have a picture of this behavior occurring. I told Ian that I think humans also do the same thing because he quits picking on me when he is hungry. Anyhow, becuase of our interest in wildlife, she offered to take us around the facility, particularly to places that are not currently open to the public. We got to see the prison from the guard towers, the infirmary, and stand in the Birdman's of Alcatraz final cell. You can see a picture of the cell here. Very interesting. We were quite excited that our guide asked us to come around the facility like that. There are some pictures here. We also got to walk the Dipsea stairs home of the famous Dipsea race, and double and quad dipsea races. We are looking forward to 2007.

Judy: I currently have a part-time job at Pomerado Elementary School working with grades K-3 kids that are having mild to moderate adjustment issues. Which means I get to be their best friend and play with them and get paid for it. It is an enjoyable job. I continue to run (it keeps me out of trouble). I have run several races this year: one 5K (3.1 miles), one 15K (9.3 miles), 5 half-marathons (13.1 miles), 2 marathons (26.2 miles), one 50K (31 miles) and one 50 miler. The two final races are ultramarathons, which is any distance longer than a marathon. The 50K was the lake hodges 50K, right up the road from the house. The 50 miler was the PCT50, out in the east county. You know your an utrarunner if.... It may sound like a lot of races, but the shorter runs were training runs for the two big races. I have several more planned this year, starting January 13th with the Calico 50K.

Ian: I got to be a soccer referee this year. I mostly run lines and get to call offsides and when the ball goes out of bounds. Sometimes I get to ref people that I know. It is a good part time job. I got to run with the middle school cross country club and we had several meets. The best one was the Mt Sac Invitational. We traveled on a charter bus to the meet, which is the largest cross country meet in the world. I got 95th place in my heat. You can find the results here. I also just got my legs run off at the West Coast Road Runners distance camp with Coach Dan and Steve Scott. Steve Scott is the current American mile record holder. He ran a 3:47 back in the '80s and no American has run faster. I ran a 6:20 as my fastest mile.

Alyssa: My favorite activity is swimming. I practice swimming 5 times a week and I currently swim with Pacific Swim. My favorite stroke is the breast stroke. If you want to see my times you can search for them here. I am currently playing trombone with the band and I was invited to be part of the 6th grade wind ensemble.