50-miler and my trip to Chi-Town

Hello, all!

I just got back from a week in Chicago where I was doing a service trip focused on hunger and homelessness. The trip was a part of the UMD Alternative Breaks program, which sends out about 25 substance-free, service-learning trips per year both within the US and internationally during spring/summer/winter breaks. In this post I'll fill you in on my training and fundraising progress, briefly mention my trip to Chicago and talk about some of what I learned that can be applied to the 4K.

This is how to work out, right?? Playing with Chelsea's Iron Gym :)

First, the day before spring break, Friday, I headed home after my morning class (afternoon class was cancelled) and took a casual detour of biking 55 miles. You know, something most people would do. I drove to the BWI trail we were at the previous weekend, which is right on my way home to Bel Air and no detour at all, parked there and biked 5 loops of the trail, which was 55 miles. This ride was more difficult than the previous week's because I was introduced to what a headwind is. It's not fun and makes a huge difference when riding. The wind is something you don't really notice when driving around but on a bike it really makes a big difference. It felt like the wind was against us the whole time which didn't make sense since the ride is a loop so it should be behind us for half the time. The temperature was also much colder, and it was cloudy. So the ride was definitely harder and less carefree and fun. It made me realize that this is exactly what the 4K will be like. Some days will be easy breezy beautiful, and some days will be more difficult whether that's due to the terrain, the many possible weather fluctuations or just rider exhaustion. There are tons of factors that will influence how the ride will go each day and it definitely won't be all fun and games.

An app on my phone that tracks my location history, showing my bike ride.
The blue dots are my locations :)

Anyway, I rode 3 laps by myself and then Chelsea joined me for my last 2, then did 3 of her own after I left. So we each did 5 laps but kind of at different times. My brother also drove up with Chelsea and ran one loop of the trail while he was waiting for me to finish. I was really happy with doing 55 miles as it's the first time we have ridden over 50 miles! :) Our shortest days on the 4K will be in the range of 55-60 miles and it's great to know that we can do that 3 months out from the start of the trip. I was also thrilled with my bike computer and loved being able to see my speed!! This way I'll be able to track my progress and try to improve my average speed.

My bike computer showing my total trip distance!

Oh, another thing...I'm just going to mention this because I want to brag about my pi-shaped chocolates. My roommates and I had a Pi Day party the night before this - 3/14. We made pi-shaped ice cubes and chocolates and also 5 pies (my mom made the pies - did I mention she's the best?) and 8 homemade pizzas. Our friend Ian also brought a chocolate mousse pie which was delicious. It was pretty nerdy but fun!

Pi-shaped chocolates :)

Fundraising -- I'm up to $6,168 and I've raised my goal to $7000 :) Thank you so much to everyone who has donated!! This money will be able to do some great things.

Fundraising as of 3/24/13

So, Chicago was pretty great. I had a lot of fun and we were able to do some good service. It was a group of 14 UMD students of all ages and majors. Among us were 2 trip leaders and 1 staff advisor. 

We drove in two big vans - a 12 hour drive including stops. What's crazy is that the route we drove is pretty much exactly the route the Portland 4K team will be taking to Chicago for the first leg of the trip. It was crazy to be driving by at 70-80 miles an hour thinking that I am going to be biking all this distance in just a couple of months. Baltimore-Chicago is going to take us 23 days. I also took note of the terrain and found that it was pretty much as I expected - western MD into PA is very hilly (should be fun as we'll just be starting out), Ohio goes from rolling hills to flat, Indiana is largely completely flat and the same scenery for the entire state, and getting into Chicago is very, very urban. Not sure what our plans are for getting into Chicago but whenever we arrive in a big city we have to be very careful to take the bike trails and avoid traffic. Obviously the roads we will be taking will not be the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes which we drove on, but the general route will be pretty much exactly the same, so that was interesting.

During the week we did service at the Salvation Army, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, a food pantry called the Marillac House, a homeless women's shelter called Deborah's Place, and then a transitional housing facility called Cornerstone Community Outreach. We did basically whatever they needed, from packaging food, to cleaning their basement, to unloading trucks, to directly serving the homeless. We got to interact with several homeless people and it was very eye-opening. Every evening we had Reflection as a team which was a no-cell-phone zone where we reflected on the day's service and talked about the issues of hunger and homelessness. We also did team-building activities, watched a documentary called 30 Days on Minimum Wage, and had a debate on whether or not minimum wage should be increased. We stayed at the Chicago Getaway Hostel, which was great and I strongly recommend it if anyone goes to Chicago!! I don't have that many pictures of service since I was, well, doing service, but I'll come back and add a few when they get put up on Facebook!

Posing with a loaf of bread while checking bread for freshness at the Greater Chicago Food Depository

Other than service, we also got to tour Chicago. We saw the Bean, the Chicago River dyed green on St. Patrick's Day, and went to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower and apparently all Chicagoans still call it the Sears Tower).

"The Bean"

Chicago River dyed green for St. Patrick's Day!!

Me chilling in a glass box at the top of the Willis Tower - 103 floors up :O

We also got to get deep dish pizza - twice! - once due to a generous UMD alum who lives in Chicago and treated us all to dinner, and the second time at what is apparently the most famous Chicago deep dish pizza place - Lou Malnati's. 

Deep dish cheese pizza at Lou Malnati's

We also got Chicago Dogs while touring Navy Pier, and Garrett's Popcorn while in the city. Garrett's Popcorn is apparently famous and WOW.. now we know why... it was amazing!! I got the Chicago Mix which consists of cheese corn and caramel corn.

Chicago dog! Sport peppers, mustard, tomatoes, onions, and relish.
I don't really like any of those toppings... but I tried it anyway so I can say I have tried a Chicago dog.

The team at Navy Pier attempting a jumping picture.

Trying to train while in Chicago was interesting. I didn't have access to a gym or a bike, so I basically just went running every day. The only problem was that I wasn't allowed to go alone and the weather was between 14 and 18 degrees every morning (yes, it was freezing the entire week). Luckily, I made a new friend, Susan, who was equally crazy as me, and she joined me for early morning runs before our service days began. Our staff advisor Nicole and our friend Meenu also joined us for some of the days. Our hostel was in a very safe area and was located half a mile away from Lincoln Park and a really nice running trail that runs right along Lake Michigan, so that's where we ran every day. We dressed in layers and survived the cold temperatures... and there was only one day (Friday) that I couldn't go because wake-up time for running was 6:20 and no one wanted to go with me! I also did core workouts on the floor of the hostel a couple of the days. I'm pretty sure most of our team thought we were crazy for waking up early and going out in the cold to run but that's ok.

My new friend Susan and I enjoying frappuccinos in scorching 30-degree weather

Also, our staff advisor, who works for Campus Recreation Services at UMD, was actually able to get the whole team free passes to the DePaul University gym which was really close to our hostel, and we went as a team one afternoon. Their gym was actually amazing... they have awesome facilities!! A 1/8-mile indoor BANKED track, at least 3 times the cardio equipment at UMD's gym, racquetball courts, an indoor moving rock climbing wall, and several gigantic basketball courts, to name a few. A gym that makes UMD students jealous (The ERC at UMD is awesome) is very, very rare. On this day I was able to ride the stationary bike to hopefully keep my biking fitness up.

The trip to Chicago also left me with a lot of things to think about relating to group dynamics. Pretty much everything related to traveling was inefficient with a group of 14. Everyone wants to eat/rest/use the bathroom at different times, and have you ever tried making sure 14 people get in and out of the same metro car at the right stops? It's basically a nightmare. Well, on the 4K, our group is going to be 30 people! It takes a LOT of food to feed 14 people (we cooked dinner for ourselves 3 of the nights and made lunches each day) and it will take more than twice that to feed 30 people on the ride. I say more than twice because we will probably be eating more. That's a LOT of food, and it's a lot to ask for a donation. I'm very nervous about asking for food donations while we're on the ride. I don't like asking for things in general and like I said, it will be a lot to ask for. Also, getting 30 people up and ready in the mornings will be interesting, as will getting 30 people showered and ready for bed at nights. I'm sure we will learn to work well together, but it's intimidating to think about. I was definitely frustrated at times on the trip with how slow everyone was being, so I expect that my patience will be tested on the 4K, especially since the trip will be 10 times as long... I'll have no choice but to become more flexible, which will be a good thing.

Well, that's all for now. Spring Break ends today and it's back to normal life tomorrow!! Luckily, my family is going to Florida for Easter so I'm leaving for that on Thursday! Have a great week, everyone!!