The Flamme Rouge (the red kite) is the marker for 1KM left in a bike race. It is the sign for the racers that they only have 1 K left. If you are off the front you may be praying to hold on and not let anyone catch you and beat you to the line. If you are chasing you know you only have a short amount of time and road left to close the gap. If you are simply in the pack and just ready for the pain to end you know that the pain will end soon.
The last week or two of the semester tends to feel a lot like the end of a race for me. If I am ahead of where I want to be then it is a matter of getting to the finish quickly before something else creeps up that I have to do. If I am keeping up and just holding on waiting for the semester to be over then I just want to finish. This semester however, I still have things that I want to finish but I am quickly running out of time. Fortunately I am finished with everything that I have to do, but it feels like the winner of the race is up the road and I need to catch him/her before the finish line approaches.
This semester has been productive for me and I have been able to accomplish most of the goals that I set out at the start. As far as school is concerned, I have run several research studies (4 to be exact), submitted one for publication, and have drafts of all of the others in some stage of revision. I have had fun teaching this semester and I have my fingers crossed that I get good reviews.
As far as riding and my personal goals go I have done ok. I have been able to make sure that I spent more time with Nici and did not stress about school the whole time that we spent time together. I did not do a great job getting the miles in on the bike in September or October but November was much better and December has not been too bad. I have been able to lose a lot of the weight that I wanted to lose. I went from 154 at the start of the semester to 141 at the end! Now I just have to make sure I still have power on the bike rather than just being able to ride for hours.
I have not been as good about updating this blog as I would like but it is always nice to have something to work on.
Now to grade a final, submit grades, and head to North Carolina. I am really looking forward to seeing my family and friends and getting some rides in while we are there. Let's hope I can still keep up on the hills!
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2 comments:
As a student/teacher it's amazing you're able to fit in as much ride time. Good job on the weight loss. The power to weight ratio will be much improved. It's all a great balancing act... family... work... cycling. But we do need them all to make it run smoothly. Sounds like you did pretty well.
By the way... where in NC is your family?
Thanks. Getting the balance right has taken some time but I am getting there. My family is in Cary. I actually went to middle school and high school in Cary and then went to NCSU for my undergrad and masters.
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