25 Mile Bike Ride

Actually, it was 28.7 miles. I had some time this afternoon, so I decided to go for a ride. I thought I'd try for the 25 miles, since my last ride (aside from to my garden plot) was over 17 miles. I biked down to Manayunk, up to Valley Forge, then back to Conshy. The headwind head to Valley Forge was killer. I've had headwinds before, but not like this. I had to downshift to keep biking. It was awful, but I made it. Then, I got to spend two miles riding through some bug swarm. I'm not even kidding. Every time I looked up, I got more bugs in my face. I had to stand outside and clean off my jacket and shirt when I got back so I didn't bring bugs into the house. It was pretty gross. In two weeks, I'll be biking with my parents. Hopefully, that'll be another 25+ mile bike ride, but I'll leave that up to Mom & Dad. If you ever want to ride with me, just let me know. I'll do shorter rides, if you like. I don't ride fast, but I am getting faster than I used to be, and I'm totally willing to go slower, take breaks, pack a lunch, go out for food. Just let me know.

Broad Street and Garden Update

First, Broad Street Run. I had been keeping my goal somewhat secret (I had told a few people early on, and more as I got more confident I'd make it) so that fewer people would know if I didn't make it. I'm going to finally state my goal for the whole internet to see, followed up a caveat that I may not make it, and that's ok, and you'll see why.

My goal for the 10 mile Broad Street Run is 1 hour 30 minutes. So, 9 minute miles. Last week, I did 10.3 miles in 1:33, which worked out to a 9:05 pace. And you always figure you'll run faster in a race than you do in training (except the third leg a Ragnar Relay when you have to run 9.1 miles, no shade, 3 hours of sleep, and you've already run a total of 9.1 miles over 2 runs in the past 24 hours; then you run slower), so you'd think I'd be fine. However, 8.5 miles into the run, my knee started really bothering me and I think I have and IT band problem. I bought a foam roller, iced my knee, and took some ibuprofin. My knee felt much better the next day, and I ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill on Monday with no real issue. Then, on Tuesday, I got an ear infection. It really hurt, was making me miserable, and I couldn't even fit my earphones in my ear (actually, the nurse practitioner couldn't get the ear looking at thingy in my ear). So, no running until Saturday, when I decided music or no (no music), knees hurting or no (pain), I had to run. I did four miles this morning, and my knee hurt around .25 miles in. On the plus side, I'm pretty sure I could've made it 10 miles. The pain wasn't too bad. Also, my knee didn't hurt nearly as bad after the run (last week, I limped until I finally got the foam roller, this week, I could walk properly and my knee was just uncomfortable, not painful). So, my current goal for Broad Street is back to 10 minute miles. My run today was faster than that (9:23 pace), and I didn't feel like I was pushing myself, but I'm not sure how much I'll be pushing myself if my knee hurts for 97% of my race and I don't know if I'll have to slow down more as I run farther. Maybe we should say my goal is 1:35 (9:30 pace). We'll go with that. Thanks, internet, for the confidence boost!

Onto the garden. I was finally given the OK to plant this week, so I loaded up everything in my backpack (aside from the watering can and markers for what I was planting [oops]), and biked out to the plot (holding the watering can in my hand while I biked). I planted cherry tomatoes, purple tomatillos (what do you call purple salsa verde?), green beans, sugar peas, brussel sprouts, green beans, lettuce, and zucchini. I still have a bit of space left, so I'm going to look for more seeds, and probably plant some flowers. I really enjoyed bringing home flowers for my dining room table earlier this year, and I think I want to continue that.

April Mail- take 2

In case you don't know, my little sister ran the Boston Marathon earlier this week. Yes, the one where it was 90 degrees on race day and she was used to running in the snow. You can read about her experience here. (I particularly like the post for her run after the marathon, but the link is to her marathon post.) Anyway, she is raising money to go volunteer in Tanzania, and has pledged to run a mile for every $10 someone gives. The rest of my siblings and I decided to to sponsor her marathon. She is also taking demands about what to wear/listen to/do on the run. We demanded she yell "Liquid Schwartz!" every time she had water/gatorade/goo as well as after when she had beers. This is a shout out to our Ragnar Relay team, Ludicrous Speed. If you don't get it, rent Spaceballs. Or come to my house and watch it on Blue-Ray. It's the only Blue-Ray I own. If you haven't seen Spaceballs in HD, you should probably visit me. Maybe I should just throw a Spaceball-themed party... Though I don't know what kind of food I'd serve... Raspberry jam?

Back to the mail part of this story: To make everyone's life easy, my older sister made the donation and the rest of us paid her back. Despite seeing her twice and bringing the check once, I never remembered to actually give her the check, so I dropped it in the mail about a week ago. And then was properly chastised earlier this week for not blogging about.

Podcast Challenge 6

In theory, I should've loved Death Comes to Pemberly. I'm currently obsessed with Downton Abbey, and while early 19th century Britain was different from early 20th century, I think the flavor should've been good. I also love a good mystery, and this mystery was quite interesting. Despite this, I couldn't get into Death Comes to Pemberly. My first problem was the way it was written. The tone was so forced to sound like it was written in 1805. Throughout the whole story, too, not just in dialogue. The story jumped around a lot to give background, but this was after it spent the beginning giving background, so I didn't understand why all of the background wasn't given upfront. Then, once the true story behind the murder came out, the details were given several times by several people, with a lot of the facts being repeated in each retelling. I found this rather ironic, since the judge the case was in front of was known for disliking hearing the same evidence more than once.

April Volunteering

I was supposed to help beautify my church this morning, then head to the community garden to help spread compost and till. So, I went to church and got assigned cleaning windows. Very exciting. I banged my elbow really hard and it still hurts, hours laster. Then, I helped set up for the Bishop's Tea tomorrow and volunteered to make scones for it. When we wrapped up there, I drove to the garden, but they appeared to get everything done in the morning (as there was no one there when I got there). So just one volunteer thing today. Unless you count the scones I'll be making after I go grocery shopping...

April Mail

I was surprised to learn this month that it was possible to send mail before the 20th of the month.  Who knew? Anyway, I had collected a few box tops for education and sent them off to a teacher friend. Maybe I'll send two pieces of mail this month.