Grocery Shoppin' Biker

Today my lab mate cut his finger while we were changing a water filter and his blood dripped down onto my hand.  Like, a lot of it.  Those of you who know me at all in real life will know that it is a miracle that I did not shriek with horror, sob bitterly, or pass out.  Even more impressive than that was what happened this evening.

I rode my bike to the grocery store.

This is how the bike ride materialized in my mind:  "I'm such a dummy.  Five blades doesn't mean five replacement cartridges, it means five blades on EACH razor...  I need to take this razor kit back and exchange it for just refills and never go grocery shopping with Brittainy again.  Hey, I also forgot sandwich meat...  Those things are small enough to fit in my bike basket."  That's when the little lightbulb lit up.

Brittainy flipped it back off and said that it might rain, but then offered to pick me up if it rained and I didn't want to ride back in it (for that, she wins the good roommate award, and partially makes up for being a distracting shopping buddy).  I thought that it would be more likely that she'd have to pick me up because I would get exhausted and be stranded on the side of the road with jelly legs.

On the way home, I listened to the podcast of the Young Women's general meeting from General Conference this weekend, and by the time I even started to get tired, I realized I was only a block or two away from home, so I just stood up on the pedals and got myself up that last incline.  As I pulled up the driveway and kicked out the kickstand to unlock the door, I did a private victory dance.

Today was truly a red-letter day.  I feel so strong!

Achilles Ankles

I tried to start again on C25K last week.  I have a lot to say about this but not a lot of time to say it, so I'll save it for another entry.  I trained for my first 5K mostly OTP (off the program), running when I felt like it and walking when I needed a rest.  I ran my 5K that same way.  After I ran the 5K I started back on the C25K program.  With that reasoning, and the idea that anything is better than blatant inactivity, I am going to

Problem:  My ankles KILL me when I try to run on the program.  I guess it's all the hills here, and the unnatural pace that the program forces.  My method now is to run on all the flat parts, half the down-hills,  and the last little bit of the uphills.  I'm going to keep doing this until it feels comfortable and easy, and then I will gradually increase.  When I can run for several minutes without ankle pain, I'm going to start on the structured program again and train for a 5K.

In the meantime, genius athletes out there, what do you think I should do about my poor ankles to help them along?