A Day in the life of a Leg Leader, W&OD 50-miler, and Annapolis 70-miler

Hi followers :)

I'm sorry that I have been neglecting my blog for the past couple of weeks. It has been pretty busy. I'll focus on the main things that have been going on - being a leg leader, and a couple of long training rides :)

So, what's it like to be a leg leader? Well, think sitting outside the chemistry building making a list of phone calls to Utah during your 15-minute break from class. Apologizing to your chem lab group for having to step out of lab to answer a call from Imperial, Nebraska. Giving your name and number to up to ten random strangers across the nation in a day. Brainstorming new ways to convince said random strangers that hosting 27 unknown college students in their building for free is a good idea. 

Rough route of Leg 2 of our ride :)

Since my last post I have been focusing on finding us hosts for Leg 2 of our ride. At times it has seemed like a piece of cake, and at other times it has been extremely frustrating. Basically what it means to secure hosts is that if we have been to the city before, I first contact the host we had last year, assuming we had a good experience with them. I simply introduce myself and ask if they'd be interested in hosting us again. If we have not been to the city before, I come up with a list of possible hosts (churches, schools, or universities), and then call and give them my "sales pitch." The main problem is that I don't like talking on the phone, I don't like asking for things, and I don't like talking to strangers....all of which I have to do to secure each host. For this reason I procrastinated beginning this for a while. What got me to make the first call was finding something I wanted to do even less, which was studying for my chemistry exam that was the next day. So that's what got me to start, and I began with repeat hosts, which was a good idea. After the first call it wasn't so intimidating anymore. People are generally nice, and I've gotten pretty good at giving my "sales pitch."

Call history. You can't make this stuff up.

Securing our hosts for Nebraska was very easy. All of them are repeat hosts who seem to really love us and are all looking forward to us coming. Seriously, a couple of them kept me on the phone for 15+ minutes talking about the great times they had with the 4K team last year and how excited their whole community was going to be to find out we are coming through again. All of these host will be providing us with community dinners (which I heard from last year's team are delicious - Nebraska cuisine is apparently quite noteworthy) and some will be providing homestays. The first host I secured was Arapahoe, Nebraska, where we will be on the fourth of July and where we will take a rest day. So excited for this! This is the 12th year Arapahoe will be hosting us. In last year's trip journal, where they typically wrote a paragraph about the day, this is what they said about Arapahoe:

So descriptive. So excited for this.

Finding hosts for the new cities, on the other hand, has been not as easy of a job. It's a lot to ask of someone, calling them out of the blue, to host 27 sweaty college students, during a season when many of the tourist destinations (relevant for Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming) are very busy. For that reason it's important to emphasize that we are a charity, and to downplay the needs that we have - starting from the most basic and working up. Plus, if a host doesn't have everything we need, we can piece together a couple of different arrangements, like sleeping at one place and showering at another. I've had people interrupt me mid-sentence and say they're not interested in giving money (when that's not what I was going to ask for), and I've also been angrily hung up on once. That wasn't fun! The main problem I've encountered is when I can't get a hold of a live person, I leave a message, and my message doesn't get returned. Almost none of the messages I've left for potential new hosts have actually been returned, and I have to wait a couple of days before I can acceptably call back and try again. There are also a couple of cities in which Chelsea and I are really striking out on finding hosts. They are cities so small that they don't have very many places that are even large enough to host us. This week Chelsea and I will be working hard to secure all of our remaining hosts before finals start!!

W&OD 50-miler
A couple weeks ago, I did a 50-mile ride on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail in Virginia, with one of my mom's work friends, Shani, who is a great cyclist. It was awesome! We started from Herndon, Virginia and rode to Purcellville and back on the trail. The trail was very nice. Paved, scenic, and not too crowded with people but not too sparse either, and the weather was great. In addition to Shani, there were also 3 men from Shani's work, all of whom were experienced cyclists that were training to do the Face of America 2-day ride (fundraiser for disabled veterans) which actually took place this past weekend. They were very willing to give me all sorts of cycling advice. The first thing one of them said to me: "I'm Chris. Ok, let's talk contact points." He proceeded to explain how to minimize problems relating to the contact points your body has with the bike: your handlebars, your saddle, and your shoes. 

Purcellville, VA: Halfway point! This picture reminds me that I still need to name my bike..

Me, Shani, and George after the 50-mile bike ride.

This was also the first time I used my clip-in pedals, and surprisingly, I did pretty well! I didn't fall, but came very close a couple of times! It's not hard at all if you remember to clip out one foot a little bit before you come to a stop. However, if you try to stop short, you're in trouble. This happened to me a couple of times when I was coming up to a small intersection, thought there were no cars coming, then saw a car coming and decided not to cross at the last minute. I definitely almost fell about 3 times in this way, and plenty of people saw.. luckily no one laughed at me and I didn't get hurt :)

Freshman year roomie Emily and I, after running a 5K for Teach for America - April 7th

Random 11.5 mile run
Two weekends ago, I was considering going back to the W&OD and doing another 50-miler by myself, but decided not to go, since no one could go with me. Instead I went out and decided to run as far as I could. It turned out to be 11.5 miles, which was a little less than I had hoped- I wanted to try for 13.1, a half marathon. But I was still happy with 11.5, and realized I needed new running shoes because my knees killing me was the reason I had to stop. So, I ordered those (from Amazon of course) a couple days later, and here are the beautiful new babies:

New running shoes - Asics Gel Kayano 19s; been wearing Gel Kayanos for 5 years

I ran through the Anacostia Tributary Trail system, towards DC, and then back. The first 8 miles were a piece of cake, and the last 4 were a struggle as my knees started to hurt and got worse. Also, it was unfortunate that it was the middle of the day on a Saturday and there were parts during which I didn't feel perfectly safe. Just the parts that were in the woods and no one was around.. that's College Park for you! But for the most part, I did feel totally safe. The other problem was that the trail has NO water fountains, which was a very unpleasant surprise. I don't carry water with me when I run but if I do a long run like that again, I may have to. I was soooo thirsty towards the end and felt like I was about 2 minutes away from drinking out of the Anacostia River (the nastiest thing ever). I stopped at the Kim building on the way back (my home as a bioengineering student) and drank easily a half gallon of water from the water fountain. Other than those difficulties, though, it was a great run and a nice substitute for a long bike ride. My legs were the most sore I can remember them being since high school.. so bad that I took two rest days after that!

Lake Artemesia during my run

Annapolis 70-miler
Last weekend, some 4Kers and some members of the UMD Triathlon team took on a 70-mile round trip ride to Annapolis and back. There were 11 of us in total! This was actually my first road cycling experience, and we took back roads all the way there and back. Not going to lie, it was scary! Riding next to cars is quite nerve-racking, though I did get more used to it as the day went on. 

About 20 miles in, Chelsea and I both got flat tires at the same time... we didn't know how to fix flat tires. We were discouraged and thinking we might have to get someone to pick us up but we waited for one of the MD Tri kids to pass by and he helped us change them and also taught us how to do it ourselves!

Learning how to fix a flat...

It was a good thing he taught us because I managed to get ANOTHER flat tire later in the ride, and another rider also got a flat later. Fellow Team Portland rider Meredith also had a wipeout on the way there, but got back up and still completed the whole ride. We made it to Annapolis a bit later than everyone else, took a group photo, ate lunch, and then headed back. The last 20 miles were a struggle as we were just very tired, and discouraged from having so much bike trouble. 

The crew having arrived in Annapolis!

Me, Chelsea, Meredith

Also, a lot of the other riders were very fast! It was a challenge to keep up-- that is, up until the flat tires, after which we had no chance of catching them. My legs actually weren't sore the next day, which tells me that I'm okay riding those long distances, and maybe I should work on my speed. Not exactly sure how to do that, though. I've always been more of an endurance person rather than speed. It was nice to be able to meet some other 4K riders and get to know Meredith and Zach.

Eating lunch  Devouring burritos in Annapolis with Meredith, Zach, and Chelsea

The group's 4th and final flat of the day....

Confession: It was actually 69 miles as I pulled into my apartment complex, so I rode around in circles just to get it to 70 just to get this picture.

Other than these long rides, I do have some other exciting training news to report: I've definitely noticed an improvement in all aspects of my athletic abilities! For one, biking around campus has become considerably easier. I get to class a lot quicker in the morning -- and with a lot less effort. Also, I used to absolutely dread the ride from the Kim building up to CSPAC for orchestra (only UMD people will know what I'm talking about), but now it's no trouble at all. For swimming- I can do my swimming workout in under 40 minutes now, whereas it used to take me about 45. Running has definitely improved because I don't think I'd have been able to run 11.5 miles before I started this training. And at body pump, I've upped the weight I lift on every exercise. It makes me happy when I'm lifting more than all the girls in the class, and that's usually the case lately!

Other than training, I have been really busy with school. Exams, projects, and a wonderful 10-page paper for Technical Writing, which I have conveniently decided to write on a safe biking route in Nebraska and Iowa. Amazingly enough we somehow only have two weeks of classes left, one week of finals, and then two weeks before leaving for the 4K. CRAZY!! I am ridiculously excited.

5 weeks left!!!

I will post again this week about some other exciting stuff: whitewater rafting, which I did this past weekend, my 4K mentor, and my new gear!

Until then, XOXO,
Mary