Must. Take. Pictures.

Last Saturday, Kevin and I survived our longest and hilliest tandem ride to date--56 miles on the Lake Placid Ironman course (it's a 2-loop course in the real race, so we just biked it once). We'd thought about trying to do the whole thing, and about 40 miles in that seemed totally possible, but the end of the loop is terrible. You start in Lake Placid (which is almost the highest point on the course) then zip down to the lowest point, cruise along happily for a while, then have to climb back up to the start again. Which drains your will to live. We aren't really training to ride this far, or on such hilly hills (the longest race Kevin is signed up for this year is a half IM), and after getting back up to LP, we decided we'd had enough.

Wanna see how hilly it was? This site lets you display the elevation changes of the North American triathlons. Click on USA for Lake Placid (but remember that we only did the first 56 miles)--and compare it to Florida, the one Kevin did in November!

On Sunday, Kevin and the others swam a (slightly long) version of half of the swim course, and ran a (slightly longer) version of half of the run course. I swam laps next to a dock during the swimming portion, and helped out with water and snacks during the run.

Then we went on to my parents' Ithaca--I stayed there till yesterday, while Kevin went on to Niagara Falls to see his parents. (Moppet stayed in Ithaca with me.)

Naturally, there was lots of knitting, but very little picture-taking. I finished the Lenore socks from earlier (pair #4), and started 2 other pairs. Monkey Socks (pair #5)for Sunflowerfairy, using yarn she gave me (we're trading knitting, since she hates socks but really wants some Monkeys, and I am knitting hardly anything but socks), as well as a basic stockinette pair (#6) for myself, using scraps, plus some Jitterbug I bought on Tuesday... because of course using up a scraps requires the purchase of new yarn!

I'm trying to knit the second pair 2-at-a-time, and I must say I'm not a fan, so far. It's working fine (I was especially proud of myself for casting on both pairs, then knitting 2-at-a-time starting from the very first row), but it feels like the socks aren't getting longer (each sock grows half as fast, since my knitting time is divided between them). Plus, maneuvering the needles into position seems to take forever each time I finish a section. I don't usually have any trouble finishing the second of a pair, so there's no particular benefit to me of knitting them both at once. I'm thinking about switching back to regular, 1-at-a-time magic loop, although on the other hand I want to give this technique a fair shot, so maybe I'll wait a little longer.

And I've made great progress on the afghans for Afghans wrap--I've used up the main yarn (deep turquoise from Peru), and the first accent yarn (Miss Priss), and have just started the second (Cascade 220--newly purchased for the occasion when it was still too short after accent #1). The colors are gorgeous, and I think it'll be warm and appropriately covering but still drape-y.

Wouldn't it be great to see what all of this knitting looks like?