Week 4

Hello, followers!

First of all, GO MARYLAND!! We beat Duke this past Saturday for the first time in three years. It was exciting enough for me and I pretty much know nothing about basketball and have never been to a basketball game here, so that's saying something. Relevant: http://www.diddukewin.com/

I started my training again last Wednesday. My ankle has felt fine, and the only thing I haven't started up again yet is running. I think it would be fine to run on, but I'm just nervous about landing funny and accidentally hurting my ankle again. I might go on the indoor track later this week. I thought that swimming would be the best workout to do while it's still not 100% better, since it's low impact, but swimming actually felt the worst on it (out of cycling, Body Pump, and swimming). I think because you have to point your toes and kick, and the water provides a lot of resistance. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do the squat track at Body Pump, but I was, and was super happy because squats is my favorite track :) 

Also, it occurred to me that it was a luxury to know that I would recover fully and be my normal self before too long. At no point did I think my ankle would be injured forever or that I'd never be able to go back to my normal life. In contrast, cancer patients usually have no such assurances. Again, that's why it's so important to keep up hope and morale. Go Ulman Fund!!

Due to freezing cold temps and a 60% chance of snow this weekend, we didn't do a long road ride. When I made plans to do a road ride every weekend, I wasn't thinking about the cold, or bad weather :/ So I'm disappointed that those plans haven't been working out. We're still considering buying a bike trainer.

Thursday was Valentine's Day, and I really don't need any more jewelry/flowers/chocolate, so Andrew decided to give me bike accessories :) I got a cool bike computer, an American flag bell, a water bottle cage (carbon fiber so it's super light), a multipurpose bike tool, mini bottles of chain grease (one for good weather and one for rain), and even spare batteries for the bike computer. BTW bike computer aka cyclometer = a little device you put on your handlebars that tells you: current speed, average speed, maximum speed, trip distance, how many miles your bike has traveled total, and cadence (revolutions per minute). Thanks Andrew for always thinking of everything!! I would've found that stuff terribly boring to shop for so I really appreciated him doing it for me. He's also going to show me how to use all the tools. Perks of dating a mechanical engineering major. I already fixed a loose drawer handle in the apartment.. NBD.

American flag bell :)

I still need to get a nice helmet, a bike seat, and cycling shorts. Also a sleeping bag and sleeping pad for the ride, but that's really not urgent. I'm beyond excited to get our training jerseys & duffel bags. They said it will be late March/early April when we get them.

Fundraising -- I am super excited to have reached my $5000 goal!! Thank you to everyone for the support in helping me reach my goal. A special shoutout to the Lees, the parents of my best friend when I was ages 2-5 and lived in Pennsylvania. The last time we saw them was probably 14 years ago, and they gave a donation. Also a shoutout to my friend Patty from New Jersey. She was one of my best friends when I lived there. We played soccer together and had wayyy too much fun together in school. I haven't seen her in about 9 years, but we still keep in touch through Facebook, and I was so happy when I saw that she donated! Thanks Patty!!  Soo, I've raised my goal to $6000. There is still plenty of time to fundraise, so I'm excited to see if I can achieve that. Besides the fact that the more money you raise, the more people you help, the 4K is giving out some incentives for money raised beyond the minimum of $4500, so that's pretty cool.

Over $5000!

Also, I gave up Facebook and Twitter for Lent. It's a good idea because I waste a ton of time on them. So I won't be able to advertise my blog posts on Facebook until Easter... which probably means I'll have no one reading this until then :)

On a completely unrelated note, I have become obsessed with Downton Abbey and in the past approximately 2 weeks I've managed to watch nearly the entirety of the first, second, and third season. I will probably finish the last episode of the third season tomorrow. Any D.A. fans - contact me because I have 2 conspiracy theories that I'd love to discuss with you.

Things we should take from Downton Abbey:
-Perfect posture. Notice that no one is EVER slouching. Backs are always straight and everyone always looks so poised.
-Respect for superiors
-"I beg your pardon"
-"May I have a word"

Also: Maggie Smith. 'Nuff said.

Until next week!

XOXO,
Mary