Corn Chronicles + Updates

First – the corn! Because I know Carrie checks here over & over on Thursdays until she finds out how her little Carrie Corn is doing.

Needless to say, we definitely achieved ‘knee-high  by the 4th of July.’

James Corn is 31″ tall. That is only a 2″ growth. My father has now resorted to threatening his little corn namesake with violence & divine retribution, which is exactly what he did to me when I was young, and you can see how well that worked (I am 5’2″ but at least I do have two ears).

Carrie Corn is 68″ tall. That is an 8″ growth from last week. She is tasseling nicely. However, she has been surpassed. She is still the second tallest, but Ullyses has finally out-grown her. It’s a close race – he is 70″ tall, so there’s no telling who will be the tallest at the end (Amy corn might still get there – she’s been neck & neck with Carrie Corn since the beginning).

Many of the corns are tasseling, and most of them have the beginnings of ears showing. They are at their most vulnerable now, so we are taking very good care of them. We have a pretty high level of nitrogen in the soil, so I don’t need to add extra fertilizer, but we are watering them. They’re all ready to get their drivers’ licenses now, which as you can imagine, it’s a little nerve-wracking for me!

The rest of the garden is doing well. We’re beginning to enjoy the fruits of our labor – summer squashes & zucchinis & potatoes. The broccoli is very nearly finished – we pulled up half the plants last night, and our last bean crop needs to be picked, too. I’m finally seeing cucumbers in there, and my pumpkins are getting pretty big!

The flowers are so beautiful right now – wish I’d remember to photograph them for you. Maybe next week!

And, for the rest of my week:

Tuesday I didn’t work. I did a 3-mile recovery run, my first run since the half. I meant to go at a slow pace & just work out the kinks & last bits of muscle soreness.

I looked down at mile 1 – 10:02. “Slow it down, Amy,” I thought to myself. “That is not a recovery pace.” (I was thinking more like 10:40 or so.

Mile 2 – 9:44. “Hmmm….that is not what I was aiming for, but I feel good. Not sore or winded or like I’m working really hard. But still, I should slow it down for my last mile.”

Mile 3 – 9:36

Yeah…..that slowing it down thing isn’t quite working for me, is it? But, I felt great after. No stiffness or soreness, and I wasn’t even too winded. I feel like I’m finally getting somewhere! All this running & hills & speedwork – it actually works! And the cross-training & weight-lifting? Seems to be helping! Who knew? (Oh wait – everyone knew that? Dammit! I thought I was on to something revolutionary.)

All that being said, this has been a pretty wussy week. I took Monday off because my quads were very, very angry, as was my whole body. I had weird feelings all day Sunday & Monday. I kept getting leg cramps & feeling like I was seriously deficient nutritionally.

Tuesday I did run. And then I ate at Taco Bell. And then, I may have gone to a concert.

Although my friend & I were ridiculously disappointed in our lack of hangovers Wednesday morning, we had no one to blame but the $9 drinks at the arena (that you couldn’t even drink at your seat! And for $9, they really should have been served in crystal & come with a shirtless masseuse named Enrique or something.)

I still didn’t get my bike & swim in yesterday because I am lazy! Home by noon. Nothing to do. Didn’t over indulge the night before. Just lazy. The architect & I did go for a walk last night, though. That was nice.

And today, I skipped my planned am run, because I suddenly realized that I have a planned trail run tomorrow and a long run on Saturday, and I have rules about running three days in a row (rules handed down from my physical therapist). So tonight is yoga (yay! I missed yoga) and then swim/run tomorrow. Run Saturday & swim/bike on Sunday. I’m volunteering at a trail race on Sunday, which is something I’ve never done, so I’m pretty excited!

I think that I always schedule too much the week after a race, and then up not being able to do it all, and then feel like a lazy slacker. I don’t often schedule more than 1 day of recovery, and I’m finding that I need 2-3 days for a half, and will probably need 2-3 TIMES that for the full.  How long do you allow for recovery after a half?

The architect & I will be headed out for some camping either the weekend of the 17th or the weekend of the 24th, so whichever weekend we’re home will see the next Brew Review and my first open water swim. SCARY! (the swim, not the beer.)

Also, grad school is a lot of work! Also one of those who knew situations!

So – what about you? What have you been up to?

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