Teaching the Next Generation of Gardeners
Don’t ask me why, but I was looking forward to my Monday afternoon gardening project so much so that I woke up several times Sunday night thinking about it. I had promised to help my neighbors with the project – removing the extremely well attached fence from around their empty garden plot – and their young sons excitedly agreed to help. I even got up a little earlier than usual to get my tools together so I’d be ready to start at 2 PM after wrapping up my last client.
Promptly at 2 PM, my doorbell rang. Sujaan and Sahej were eager to get started, and apparently, they were as excited about helping me as I was about helping them. I thought they’d stay interested for about ten minutes, but they hung with me for the entire 3.5 hours until the job was complete. They even commented about how quickly the time was passing because they were having so much fun.
It was a joy teaching them to use wire cutters, pliers, a ratchet, and a variety of garden tools. They learned the difference between Phillips head and flat head screwdrivers, that applying WD40 several minutes before trying to remove rusty bolts and screws is helpful, and to always put tools back in the bucket after using them rather than leaving them laying around in the grass risking getting lost and then hit by the lawn mower.
The plan for the garden plot is to let it grass over since it’s not being used for growing vegetables – I gave up on our garden years ago after watching squirrels and deer eat everything just as it ripened. The boys and I may eventually remove the railroad ties, but first, we need to rest!
Before…
During…
After…
Overview of the Week
Before discussing each day’s workouts, here’s an overview of my workouts from this past week. Scroll beyond the infographic for daily details…
Sunday
Cycling: 24 miles
• Average speed: 12.5 MPH
• Bike: Cannondale Topstone
• Surface: gravel
• Elevation gain: 1,857 feet
• Start time: 9:59 AM
• Location: Middleburg, Virginia
• Weather: 73° and sunny, climbing to 80°
• What I wore: bike bibs, s/s jersey
Gardening: 1.5 hours weed-eating
Monday
Strength training: 1 hour of full body
Gardening: 3.5 hours removing the fence and weed-eating
Tuesday
Cycling: 42 miles
• Average speed: 14.3 MPH
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 1,545 feet
• Start time: 7:32 AM
• Location: W&OD Trail Sterling to Hamilton loop
• Weather: 69° and sunny, climbing to 85°
• What I wore: bike bibs, s/s jersey
I met my friend Chuck halfway between our houses for a ride. We’ve been trying to do this at least once a week this summer, but our work schedules and the weather don’t always make it possible. We ride the W&OD Trail and I’ve introduced him to the wonderful country segment near our turnaround point. I even got to teach him a little bit about farming as we rode along.
Wednesday
Strength training: 1 hour of full body
Walking/Running: 5K
• Average pace: 13:11
• Start time: 7:16 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 69°, sunny, and humid
• What I wore: shorts and s/s shirt
Because I’d spent so much time bent over gardening, I didn’t want to push myself so I opted to walk with running segments. I stayed on our neighborhood circle walking the straightaways and running the curves. It worked out well and I had a great workout without making my back sore.
Thursday
Cycling: 46 miles
• Average speed: 13.8 MPH
• Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp
• Surface: paved
• Elevation gain: 2,343 feet
• Start time: 9:36 AM
• Location: W&OD Trail Hamilton loop with Thomas Mill and Woodburn climbs
• Weather: 78° and sunny, climbing to 86°
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey
This was a ride for the books! I rode solo and just made the ride up as I went along. The only thing I had to do was stop by the bike shop to have sealant added to my front tire that had been going flat since they’d attempted to put on new tires only to realize that the tires they’d sold me weren’t tubeless ready. When they put my old tires back on, the front tire didn’t catch a proper seal. Ends up I could have skipped the stop because I found the right tires at another shop and they replaced them while I waited the following day. Apparently, 700 x 28 tubeless ready are the purple unicorns of the year.
Anyway, back to my ride… I decided I wanted to do hill work so I rode up both Thomas Mill and Woodburn, giving me two great hills for climbing.
Friday
Strength training: 1 hour of full body
Balance and stretching: 45 minutes
After work, Bill and I drove to a bike shop a couple of towns over for my new tires. Next we dropped my road bike off back home before heading to a different bike shop to pick up our new beach cruisers we’d ordered a couple of weeks earlier. We celebrated with margaritas and dinner on the patio of our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant.
Saturday
Cycling: 45 miles
• Average speed: 12.8 MPH
• Bike: Cannondale Topstone
• Surface: gravel
• Elevation gain: 2,582 feet
• Start time: 7:52 AM
• Location: Leesburg to Philomont lollypop
• Weather: 70° and sunny, climbing to 83° and rainy
• What I wore: bike shorts, s/s jersey
It had been a few weeks since we’d ridden with the VeloPigs so we decided to join them for some gravel grinding. The weather was delightfully comfortable, especially for July, and it even rained on us the last six miles, cooling us off as the temperature climbed.
Last Week’s Blog Posts
In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…
- • Sunday – Weekly RunDown: July 3 – 9 / First Run in a Month
- • Tuesday – Brag Time: Remembering the Good Ole Days of Marathoning
Questions:
- • Do you enjoy gardening? ~ I find it extremely therapeutic, especially when problem solving as I had to do in determining how best to remove the wire and the fence posts. Teaching the boys and having them so interesting in learning was just icing on the cake!
- • What was your favorite workout of the week?
- • Did you run in a race this weekend?
And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!
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I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!
I commented but it didn’t got through so here it is again:
I love to garden but the deer this year have destroyed my efforts… sigh
No race this week…shocker.
Best this week was ice cream with running friends… several times lol
Glad to see that you are enjoying biking… even solo rides,.
Hmmm, I checked my spam folder and trash and don’t see your other comment. Sorry that it didn’t post properly.
I am waiting for the deer to find our Hostas as they do every year at this time.
An ice cream run with friends sounds fun!
Sounds like you had a really good week, Debbie!
I used to garden some, not like a lot of you bloggers! This year — nada. I notice we have some tiny tomato plants that reseeded themselves with tiny little cherry tomatoes started. DH doesn’t think they’ll amount to anything. Probably not but it was exciting to see them, LOL!
It would be cool to hear about farming from you!
My mom had cherry tomato plants reseed last year in a pot and she actually got a few little tomatoes. She was so excited, especially since she used to put out a huge garden and hasn’t been able to do it the last few years.
All of the intense gardening! I know how that goes, LOL (#GardeningDOMS, LOL). Which reminds me, I have another round of major garden squats and “CrossFit” awaiting my attention. We had a bunch of rain, earlier before wake-up, so the ground is perfect for such work. Now, if I can just motivate myself to get it started….
I hope you got a chance (and the energy) to do your garden squats this afternoon. 😉
making a route up as I go is one of my favorite things about running.
I love the gardening story. Mom mostly gave up on hers when deer and a bunny found her yard but is trying a container garden with some tomatoes so we’ll see. Luckily they don’t eat her figs.
Exploring while running and cycling is definitely one of the great things about both sports – probably a little easier to do on foot, though.
I have a container garden of herbs and a bunny, groundhog, or deer devoured the cilantro, but left the basal and mint alone.
I envy your gardening skills I am such a black thumb. Looks like another successful week of cycling for you both
Growing up on a farm certainly didn’t hurt in helping me develop gardening skills. 😉
I have enjoyed gardening in the past but have not done it in a while- it’s just so frickin’ hot out there. I should plant something this winter (which is our growing time down here.) We’ll see- it’s definitely a lot of hard work! Obviously you’re well aware of your back while you’re doing it and are making sure not to aggravate anything. I see a lot of clients these days who are sore from gardening.
You had some nice bike rides this week! I guess this is the time of year to make the most of it.
I have aggravated my back in the past while gardening and paid the price. I’ve learned what I should and shouldn’t do and try to be smart about it – lots of kneeling and very little bending over.
So I’m going to have to admit that I do not like gardening. I like growing things and harvesting them but I don’t like all the maintenance (ie weeding). I do put in some tomatoes and basil ( in pots) and i always have annuals on hand. But oh do we have weeds!
Nice week of bike rides and where is that sweet beach ride you got this week?
There’s nothing wrong with no liking to garden. Container gardening sounds like a great compromise!
And doh, I realized I hadn’t included a picture of my new beach cruiser after I’d hit publish. I’ll have to include it in my next coffee chat.
Aww, I love that the neighbor kids stayed interested and you taught them so much! So nice.
Great week of such a nice variety of activities!
It was a fun afternoon for all of us!
I love that you can just cycle everywhere.
I am not a gardener. My mom is, but I seem to lack the gene. I love that you had such devoted assistants! What a great activity!
My favorite workout this week was hiking on the Profile Trail and Grandfather Mountain. So cool.
Jenn recently posted…weeks 80 + 81: this runner travels
Hiking Grandfather Mountain sounds beautiful and challenging!
Awesome week of activity for you!
The very few times I have tried gardening have always felt like a workout to me, lol. I definitely wasn’t blessed with a green thumb, so I don’t garden often.
Thanks, Kim! And yes, most gardening projects provide a great workout.
All your cycling is really inspiring to me!
It’s great cross-training for running and my husband really enjoys it.
I think I know what we’ll be doing this weekend!
Awesome, hope you have fun!