I had my bike from college all ready, but he still needed one. We have a teeny tiny pink bike, a small purple bike, an ancient blue bike, and a regular white mountain bike, so we opted for the white one. It was quite the adventure getting it down, since it was hanging off the garage ceiling over my college stuff, but after we cleared a pathway, we did manage to get it down. However, there were 3 wasp nests attached to it: 2 on the wheels and 1 on the spokes. We chiseled them off eventually. I presumed they were old ones from last summer (bike hasn't seen the road in awhile) but after crushing them a little more, a giant queen wasp croaked her way out and scared the bajeebers out of me. It was likewise with the other 2 nests, though none of us got stung thankfully. The emerging wasps seemed to be worse for wear, so I was able to step on them before they caused me any harm. After de-wasping the bike, it was evident that the tires were uselessly flat. We got out the bike pump and blew them up, and THEN we were finally ready to go.
We set out on a decent route, though was surprised how slowly the mileage was adding up. Every time I checked to see how we were doing, I thought we had gone at least a half mile or more farther than we had. We were doing well until we charted the northwest side of my neighborhood. We got lost. It's the one quadrant I don't know very well. Eventually, after coming upon the same streets a few times, we were spit out in some area I knew, so we made it back alright, at 4.06 miles. However, I knew there was no chance I would be able to successfully recreate the route from memory. When we got back, I found this site: http://www.runningmap.com/, which could prove to be quite helpful. I tried to map a route that was very similar to the one we biked, and it looked very similar to what I imagine a gerrymandering map would like like. It's quite unconventional and convoluted, and to be honest, I had to carry a sticky note with me that had turn by turn directions for the middle section because there was no way I was going to remember it. But nonetheless, today I tried out my 4 mile route on foot.
Today was hot. I tried to push fluids all day and ran in the evening so it would be a little cooler, but I was still hot and my mouth still dried out pretty fast. However, I actually enjoyed it a little. I did 4.0 miles in 47:15 and didn't walk a step. I must confess, though, this route starts out by going *gasp* south. While it feels unnatural to start out south, it feels more unnatural to return by going west, so starting by going south and returning east was the option I vied for. I'm a fan of the route. It has a variety of scenery and explores some parts of the neighborhood that I don't see much. "The hill," did make it's way into this route as well, but I take half of it diagonally, which makes it better somehow. And the rest isn't too hilly, so it's a nice little route, though I'm gonna have to take my sticky note with me the first few times I take it.
Oh! Also, my calves/shins were 100% better today! Josh gave me a few stretches to try and also told me, oddly enough, that using a rolling pin on your calves helps because it squeezes out the lactic acid or something like that. So about 30 minutes before I started running, I rolling pinned my calves, then I stretched them well, and they behaved themselves much better. Also, the couple times they started to threaten to hurt, I focused on trying to land more on the middle of my feet rather than my toes, like this article that Stacey showed me advised, and that seemed to fight off the threat. So, thanks to Josh and Stacey, my calves behaved :) Which made the 4 miles MUCH more bearable.
Well, here lies the end of week 2 : ) Still feeling good. 11.5 miles total this week. Sweet. 10 weeks to go.
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