The Idiot Gardener

Huh? Yeah, somehow I've started a vegetable garden. I figured I'd try to do it with as little effort as possible, and be happy if anything green at all came out of the ground, nevermind the vegetables. Since I have little grass in the backyard, I figured a minimal effort try would be just to dig a few holes, throw in a few seeds, and see what happens.

I ended up putting in a little more effort, but not a whole lot. I cleared whatever was on top of a patch of my backyard (dead grass I think), and ended up digging somewhere between 6 inches and a foot to loosen up the soil. I found both my old phone line and my cable line while I was doing this (good thing I use neither and I know where my U-verse line is buried). I picked seed types that didn't have to be "started indoors" (too much work!) and planted three rows of watermelon, carrots, and cucumbers. After two weeks, I've got a ton of cucumbers coming up (middle of picture), a few watermelon plants (bottom of picture), and no carrots:


But then I really wanted peppers and started seeds indoors anyways. With way too many seeds for the starter thing that I bought, I ended up putting too many seeds per pot. Being pessimistic about the whole process, I didn't expect anything to happen, but now I have pots with up to eight plants sprouting. I know I need to cut back all the extras and just keep one or they'll all die, but I'm tempted to just keep the whole bunch and see what happens. I don't want to kill any of them yet! Besides, I do have some pots with just one or two sprouts and those should survive if the others die off. How many do I really need anyway? These plants are bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes:



I also bought one pepper plant from Home Depot and planted it. It hasn't died in the week or two since I got it, so I'm happy about that.


I really won't be disappointed with how this turns out. I'm seeing green stuff everywhere so this has already exceeded my expectations.

Hot to Trot 5K

The Hot to Trot 5K was a week and a half ago, and was the last race of the series. That Saturday was miserable, similar to the Round-Up 10K: humid. I expected as much and the only goal I set was just not to walk. I was able to do so, but i had my doubts during the race. Since I'd been sick, I hadn't ran much the week before the race, though I did run pretty hard at the full moon hash the night before. I ran the Hot to Trot a few years ago when it started at the Hula Hut, but this one was held at the Chuy's near William Cannon (one I didn't even know existed). I liked the course which is partly why I was able to run the whole way. It didn't have much change in elevation, but I could handle the gradual uphill the first mile and needed the gradual downhill the second mile. I maintained an astonishingly steady pace at 7:49/M +/- 4 sec, with a little kick the last 0.1 mile, finishing in 24:29.

I'm happy with how I did. Like I said, I just didn't want to stop, and I can't handle that kind of weather. It was good to finish at a faster than training run pace and I wasn't shocked or disappointed that I couldn't match my previous 5Ks. Unfortunately I haven't been running or back to the gym since, though it will happen soon.

The finisher party is in another week or two and it should be fun talking to others about the various races in this series. I'll be getting a finisher t-shirt, but no word yet if beer will be available!

Texas Round-Up 10K

I've been doing a lot of blog composing in my head but nothing ever makes it online. It appears one person is curious with how I did at the Texas Round-Up 10K. Well, it sucked. It really sucked. It was the weather. It wasn't too hot, but it was plenty humid which just kills my running ability. I kept things at a good pace the first two miles, somewhere in the 7-8 min/mile pace I imagine, but then I had to stop and walked a bit. After that, it was walk/run/water stop the rest of the race. My 5K time was at 26:20, so about what I'd been doing for my training runs. The second 5K was a lot slower and I ended up finishing in 58:05. To add insult to injury, the Governor beat me by just 22 seconds! I liked the course. Some of it was very familiar (the drag, Dean Keaton, Capitol/DT area), but it was nice change of pace to run through the east side.

My Garmin was dead, which seems to happen sometimes when I leave it on the charger too long. This might be a blessing in disguise because at least now I can't go back and review how much walking I did. The two guys right behind me in the ARC sprint series rankings moved ahead of me. Now I am over two minutes behind the next guy, and the guy after me is 20+ minutes behind me. So, while I don't have to worry about falling down in the rankings again, with only one 5K left to go I don't think I'll be improving my ranking either.

Overall the sprint series has been good for me. I mean, I wouldn't have run any of these races except the Capitol 10K otherwise. I'm glad the first three races went so well, and I'm not going to beat myself up too bad over this last 10K or the next race. Running in the humidity is just something I can't do very fast. I doubt I'll do well at the next 5K this Saturday, not just because the weather, but I was sick for most of last week and haven't recovered any exercise routine yet. Hopefully I will run a little bit today and tomorrow in preparation. After that comes the sprint series party, where I'll get a free gift and hopefully some free beer too (wishful thinking)!