What a busy weekend! Unfortunately, little was done in and around the house. My little bro graduated with his Master's degree Saturday, so we drove out to the boondocks to have a family celebratory dinner. That was fun, but it pretty much shot Saturday in the foot.
Today was also shot mostly in the foot, in that, I decided it was high time to get back on the bike and do what I once did semi-regularly for a couple years back in high school and college. And that is ride my bike on long, organized event-type rides.
Today, I rode 25 miles on my new bike in the Prairie Pedal event up in Grayslake, Ill., sponsored by the Liberty Prairie Conservatory. My friends live up there in the "subdivision" that hosts the event, and it was really nice. Obviously, though, my legs and rear-end are not used to all that work. It was chilly, but nice bike-riding weather, except for the ever-present wind, of course.
I was happy with how I rode -- I rarely felt truly winded, which made me feel really good. My legs just didn't have the stamina in them to keep up the pace beyond the 25 miles we did.
Of course, my friends are big-time gardeners in the same mold as me -- buy something, preferably native, regional or perennial, stick it in the ground and see what happens. So, we went to a couple of Lake County's finest garden centers. I was impressed, more or less...though they didn't have a ton of what I was looking for (which I didn't even know what I was "looking for" either anyway), I came away with some good ideas. And, my friends gave me a FANTASTIC idea for one of my tall shrubs out front. Now, if I can just find it to buy it, we'll be good to go!
Hope all your weekends went well...
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2 years ago
5 comments:
This weekend was shot for us with strep throat - made its rounds through the family... but then we went to Pump it Up on Sunday night (not sure if they have those in chicago, but essentially think of giant in door moon bounces for kids in a warehouse setting).. kids and adults loved it.
Kim and sister are working on the plan for the garden, which is way outside my area of expertise. I'm excited to see what they come up with... you have a real talent, it seems.
P.S. I'm jealous of your biking stamina. I rode for a while in HS/College... NEVER more than 25 miles.. and you can simply hop on a bike and go 25 no sweat. people like you make me sick!!! haha
Well, wait a second. ;)
I didn't just hop on and ride 25 miles. I've been on the treadmill at the gym since about November, as well as hitting the stationary bike there a few times.
The most I ever rode was a metric century (100 km, or 62.5 miles) back in the day. I'd like to work myself up to that and maybe do a real century ride at some point. But I'm still a bit of a ways off of that yet.
In terms of the gardening, thanks for the kind words...really, it's about sticking the plant in the ground and seeing if it makes you look like a talented genius or if you have to replace a dead plant with something that will. :)
Hope all are feeling well...we don't have Pump It Up here in Chicago, that I'm aware of, but it sounds fun. :)
We have a pump it up here! I've never been to it, but I think it's a pretty busy spot.
There's a pump it up here, too. Big for birthday parties and such.
A best friend and I attempted to ride 100 miles for a Diabetes fundraiser in high school... we actually made it 67 miles on NO training before we decided to hitch a ride back with her parents, as we had just hit their "rest stop" and they were packing up. Of course, I was a cross country/track runner, so it's not like we were out of shape...
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