Indianapolis: Day 2

Today was an exhausting day… but fun!  I had another laid back morning, eating breakfast in the hotel and also doing a little Jillian Ripped in 30 (in the hotel room – lol).  I decided to attempt the 3rd week on the DVD and man, it was a butt-kicker.  My legs felt dead which was not my intention at all when doing the DVD because I was supposed to have my bike ride this afternoon that I needed my legs for… I swear the other weeks I’ve tried are more tiring to your upper body…

Crunchy Flax Cereal + banana + banana bread + almond butter

I had to shoo the housekeeping staff away mid DVD so when I was done, I decided to let them get in the room and go for a little walk.  I didn’t end up walking too far but ended up just chilling in the park for a few minutes.  By the time I got back, they were done with the room though so it worked!  I showered quick and ate lunch and then wandered towards my afternoon biking tour starting point.  I left quite early but it ended up working out fine and I think we got to leave early since I ended up being the only tour-ey.

Lunch – Lettuce + turkey + almonds + sweet potato chips + Mary’s Gone Crackers Pretzels + applesauce (actually consumed this part today!)

DESSERT!

I found Active Indy kind of randomly by just looking on the Indy tourism site but it ended up being a very good find!  They offer bike, walking and running tours all around Indianapolis.  I chose to do the Automobile Heritage tour because I wanted the chance to get to the Indy Speedway Museum without having to drive there.  I suppose driving would have been a lot less work but it was pretty cool to bike this tour instead.

Time to bike!

We started out in Downtown Indy and took a tour of their awesome urban trail system.  I am seriously so jealous of this path system!  It’s so nice to be able to walk and bike downtown without the fear of traffic (which for me is very intense…).  Our first stop was the Stutz building which used to be a car manufacturing plant.  Now it’s being repurposed as a rental space for small manufacturers, artists, etc.  The building is really massive, a whole city block + four floors.

Some of the oldies.

After that is was a longer trip on the bike path and then we got to Marian University which happened to have acquired the mansions of the 4 men who founded the Motor Speedway. Their houses were incredibly ornate… don’t think I will be taking any decorating advice from these fellas…

Top left – outside of the Wheeler Mansion; top right – inside the Allison Mansion, a creepy large aviary room; bottom left, Wheeler mansion walkway to what used to be a heated 7 car garage; bottom right – inside Allison mansion

A few miles of biking later, we came upon the back side of the Speedway and biked up one of the straightaways.  It apparently took us about 4ish minutes to do that small .6ish of a mile portion of the track when the race cars can do the full 2.5 mile loop in about 40 or so seconds.   And here I though bikes were as fast as race cars Kidding!

 

Then it was a brief walk through the Motor Speedway Museum.  They have many of the winning cars from all years since it first began in 1911.  One thing I found kind of funny is that the first year’s winner averaged about 75ish mph and now that speed limit can be found on regular highways (or close to it!).  Now if only we could figure out how to get rid of traffic, I would say we are really making technological progress  We also watched a short video on the history of the area which was kind of a summary of what I’d been learning all day.

1911 winner + 2011 winner; row of cars

After that it was a quick trip back to the starting point to drop off the bike.  This tour was really an awesome way to see the city and I would highly recommend it if you are ever in Indianapolis.  I am trying to figure out how to possibly fit in their running tour in my week!

By the time I got back to the hotel, I was tired + hungry.  I had a bowl of cereal to tide me over until Sister got back which ended up being a really good thing because Sister and I wasted way too much time trying to figure out what to do for dinner so we didn’t have time to eat before she had to leave again which put me on my own for dinner again.

Snack time! Chocolate Chex + almond butter <3

Dining alone is annoying, dining alone + dealing with food allergies when you are trying to eat it is so depressing and overwhelming.  Sometimes the thought of not eating sounds much more appealing…

I did end up finally coming up with a good option!  Weber Grill Restaurant!  I got carry out and they had a gluten free menu which is awesome!  I am pretty sure they take food allergies pretty seriously at this location because the manager type worker ended up bringing me my food and assured me it was gluten free.  It’s also so nice to get that kind of respect when you know all it takes is someone at a restaurant picking croutons off your salad to make for a very sick couple of days…

So good! Chicken Chop Salad + Whipped Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon Maple Butter

After that, it was just chilling in the hotel room because I am incredibly exhausted and a little headachey likely from dehydration + lots of sun today.  Not sure what I will do tomorrow but I am thinking it’s going to be a little more low key than today!

Total steps for the day = 14,500 + 20(+/-) miles on a bike!

 

 

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