Summer Is Officially Here!

I went on my usual 45 minute bicycle ride yesterday and the day before that I did a 35 minute run on the treadmill. Both felt pretty good, even the run! The only interesting thing that happened was running into a flock of 20 Canadian geese on my bike ride near Lake of the Isles. Groups of them were gathered on either sides of the path, and I had to cycle through the gamut. I fully expected one of them to snake its head around and snap at my legs, but luckily rider and birds kept to themselves. One would think that this much exercise would be enough for me, and I would spend the rest of the time eating chips and watching Law & Order re-runs, but I have been surprisingly active otherwise.


As promised, here is a picture of the Greenway, my route to school. Riding to work two days a
week gives me an additional 24 miles of road time and time to improve upon my RPMs (revolutions per minute). I have been able to maintain 80 RPMs pretty easily, but getting closer to 90 has been a little difficult. I'm supposed to be between 80 and 100 RPMs, so 80 is by no means a failure, but with a higher RPM I would obviously increase my speed as well.




Today's activities involved a canoe trip to Lake Nokomis with Erin, Caleb, Sogn (the golden retriever) and Jihone. The lake was pretty empty and we found ourselves a nice secluded spot on the beach. At one point, Jihone and I took the canoe out on a little adventure to explore the other areas of the lake. Long story short, after jumping out to swim, he attempted to get back in the canoe...and we flipped. Ha! The canoe filled partially with water, and on our attempt to get back in, the canoe flipped again and filled COMPLETELY with water. Onlookers from the shore began to gather and watch as Jihone and I laughed our heads off and wondered whether this canoe was going to sink to the bottom of the lake. After getting a good laugh in, Erin came to our rescue and helped us swim the canoe to the shore so we could dump it and paddle back to our original location. All's well that ends well right?

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was packed full of activities, but between studying and some socializing, I also managed to get in some great workouts.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 7:30 to go to the gym. In doing so, I conceded to myself that I was totally insane, because no sane person would wake up that early on a Saturday to work out. Or so I thought until I got to the gym. The parking lot was PACKED. Who are these people? I had a nice 2 mile run, watched some of The Hills re-runs, and then wrapped it up with some weights. After swimming the other day, I thought I should probably lift some weights to build muscle in my arms because they were dragging by the end of my laps. I wish there was a girls only weights section though, so I didn't feel like such a dweeb with my 15 pound weights next to the guy on 'roids throwing down his barbell yelling "rarrr!" Again, at 8 am. Chill, dude. Roid rage is so 2001.

Today, I first spent an hour on my own attempting to install my bicycle computer that I bought a year ago to track my speed and cadence. After numerous failed attempts, I remembered why I had put off installing the computer so many times. I called my friend, Lee, bicycle extraordinaire, who came over and helped me finish the job. A dozen zip-ties later, I had all the sensors hooked up to my bike and was off on a 20 mile bike ride to Hopkins, MN and back. The bike computer definitely made me work harder on the ride as I struggled to maintain a constant RPM (revolutions per minute) on flat surfaces and inclines alike. It was a chilly day, but the ride was great, and I'm looking forward to more long bike rides as my training progresses.

p.s. Kerri Strug got married this weekend! Childhood flashback right here!