rest day zzzz's; watching seeds grow...

hi all!  I found out we have another reader!  She might just get the shout-out next week    ;-)  

So today is Monday, my rest day.  I'm not going to say that I will ALWAYS rest on Monday, but lately my legs have been so sore by Friday that I think it is a good idea to rest them completely for a day.  But I am going to backtrack...  Saturday I rode the trainer and it was boring.  (Imagine?)  Sunday gifted us melting snow, sunshine, and 40 degree weather, so I went out with Wildcard.  We took it slow at first because there were still some icy patches, but then we got up to a good pace.  We did about 50 miles, which was good for the first day of February, and it sure beat the trainer blues.  I felt great yesterday actually; yay endurance.  So now sweet & sour Monday...  it's so boring !  My friends are in school, I live so far away from everything, and I've run out of stuff to sell on ebay.  My life is fairly solitary--I ride alone a lot, lift alone, go to class alone.. so the last thing I want to do for fun is sit and read alone or work on projects alone...  ugh   I need SPRING!  I need to get out of this town!  

My project lately has been sprouting seeds/grains/beans to eat.  Sprouts are so healthy (lots of enzymes and more nutrient dense than their "dead" counterparts) and they taste delicious.  Today I bought some mesh for the tops of my sprouting jars.  I'm now experimenting with almonds, quinoa, garbanzo beans, lentils, and fenugreek.  For breakfast this morning I made muesli with sprouted rye and sprouted millet, sunflower and pumpkin seeds (unsprouted), almonds (unsprouted), raisins, blueberries, flaxseed, honey, and hemp milk.  So delicious.  Hemp milk is usually more than $5.00, so I never bought it.  But yesterday it was on sale half-off at IGA ! It tastes a little bitter and nutty--perfect for everything except cappuccinos, which I think taste better with soy or almond milk.  Another project I've started is making my own soymilk.  It looks so easy to do, and it's a lot cheaper and saves packaging!  Now I am in the soaking stage.  After the process is over there are leftover soybean particles that get strained out, which can be used to make other foods (veggie burgers) or for making....baby clothes.

So tomorrow it is back to lifting, riding, and cutting my steer tube and shortening my brake/shift cables.  Monday's are good.  Mondays are when I ask myself "what the hell are you doing"...  what am I doing?  I graduated from college; I deliver for Jimmy John's twice a week, I take one class at Parkland as a pre-requisite for a degree I'll do someday, I live with my boyfriend...  My plan is to ride across the country at the end of the summer and move to Portland.  But really..I'm trying to train; I want to be good.  It's a big experiment.  It's just a new life I am trying out, but it makes me pretty happy.