Cycling in Graduate School

Good News!!!

2011-07-20T21:50:00.000-05:00

I have been waiting to share some very good news with everyone until now but now I can share with everyone.......

I have a faculty position in Florida. I will be on faculty at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. YEAH!!! After the years in graduate school I am happy that I have finished my Ph.D. and that I have a great job. I feel very luck to have a job given the academic job market. The fact that it is a job that I am very excited about makes it even better.

So now I will be transitioning from the role of graduate student to faculty member. Plus transitions from living in Texas to living in Florida. I am excited about teaching several classes in the fall and starting up my research. Hopefully, I can still find the balance in life to find time to fit some bike rides in around time with my family and work.

Now we are trying to finish up all of the plans to move to Florida. We have found a place to live, rented a moving truck and are packing up. So it will be an interesting couple of weeks but the end result of the work will be great.

Summer Trip

2011-07-13T21:45:00.000-05:00

We just got back from our family summer trip to North Carolina to see our family and friends back in Cary, NC. It was nice to get back to NC and have some time to celebrate finishing my dissertation. While I did not get to see all of my friends, I did get to meet with a lot of them. I was even able to take my bike on the trip and join in four rides while I was there. The Capitol Cycling Club 4th of July ride in Cary holds a special place in my heart since it was the first 100K ride that I ever did. This year I went with the lead group for the first time. I expected that I would be able to stay with them for about 30 miles but that I would be dropped and find a group of folks I know to ride the rest of the ride with. To my surprise I was able to stay with the lead group for the entire ride!!! We ended up averaging only 22.2 miles per hour but the first hour was much faster. I guess getting my rear end kicked by Cat 1,2, and 3 Texas Racers has made me much stronger!

The trip to NC was much nicer since we had my wife's new car. We got a Honda CR-V and I love it. I am pretty jealous of her new car and the drive to NC was very nice.

Dissertation Defense

2011-06-24T20:00:00.002-05:00

Last Friday I defended my dissertation and following the defense I was greeted by my committee with words that I had never heard addressed to me. Before I tell you what they were let me describe the dissertation defense process for those of you who do not know about it.

The first step in the entire dissertation process (after you have a good research idea, examine the literature, and write a proposal) is to have a proposal meeting in which you give your committee a proposal document that reviews the existing literature, describes the research project you want to do, and how you will analyze the data. Assuming that your are able to convince your committee that the project you want to do is well designed and needed, you then start collecting the data (after you have IRB approval), analyze the data, and then write up your findings. Once you have written up the findings and your committee chair (Advisor) thinks that the document is ready to go, you send the manuscript out to your committee schedule the defense meeting (with the committee and notify the department and grad school).

At the start of the defense meeting everyone except the committee members leaves the room and the committee decides if the candidate can proceed with the defense. If they think that the candidate is ready then everyone can come back in the room and the defense starts. During the defense the candidate (student) presents the findings of the dissertation project with probably a good deal of questions. The night before my defense a friend sent me a link about a part of the defense that I was not aware of (the snake fighting portion- http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense They never tell you about the snake fight in the grad school manual but prepare anyway). Thankfully I had time to prepare.

My meeting was scheduled for two hours and given the number of hypotheses I had and number of questions that I received the meeting took the full two hours. Once the presentation and questions are finished, everyone except the committee members leave the room and the committee deliberates regarding whether the candidate has successfully defended the dissertation and earned their Ph.D. I can tell you that waiting in the hall during that time is brutal. Thankfully I had two very nice people waiting with me (THANK YOU SHANA and DANIEL). When I went back into the room I was worried that the committee wanted changes and for me to defend again (I guess it was just a lack of confidence). The committee greeted me with just a few words: Congratulations Dr. Banks.

WOW

For the first time someone was using the words Dr. Banks and not talking about my parents!!!

Following my defense my committee had suggested a new analysis and a handful of changes, which I was able to take care of this week. Today I submitted what should be the final paper work to the graduate school!

So now it is time to celebrate! And there is additional good news that I will share soon regarding what I will be doing in the fall.

So thank you to everyone that has been a part of my success over the last several years.

It all leads up to this

2011-06-16T21:27:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I defend my dissertation and accomplish the last step in graduate school. I started in graduate school in August of 2001 in a developmental psychology program. After several years of classes and research I discovered that developmental psychology was not my main interest and I was much more interested in cognition. Once I finished my masters degree I left the program and worked for several years. The years that I spent working, doing research for a living, changed my focus and interest in research completely. I realized that I loved research and needed to go back to school and earn my PhD. So my very understanding wife willingly moved to North Texas so that I could do so.

After several years of classes and many hours working in the lab collecting data and writing I am almost finished. The last step in the process is to defend my dissertation. Hopefully I will have good news to report tomorrow!

Morning

2011-06-15T21:05:00.000-05:00

It may shock some of the folks that I work with but I am not a morning person. I have always been happier staying up late rather than getting up early. However, once I finished my masters degree and started working I switched to an early schedule. I always like getting to work before many other people. When I started back in school to finish my PhD. I really enjoyed getting in to campus before 8am because it usually meant that I could work for an hour or two before there were a lot of other people in the lab. So I was able to get a lot done!

I still like getting in to work early and getting a lot done when it is quiet but in the last few weeks I have been trying to get up a little earlier and go for a run a few days a week. While I like riding in the afternoon when it is hot I can not run in the heat. Now I do not like running but I know that it is good for me so I am trying to do it more. Maybe it is because I do not like running and maybe it is because it is early in the morning but I have had a very hard time waking up early to run. I am still getting up at my normal time to work but getting up earlier to run has not been working.

I am not trying to run five days a week but twice a week would be nice. I do like the way I feel when the run is over and it is a great start to the day. I put a new playlist on my ipod for the run, hoping to encourage getting up to run but still no luck.

So if anyone has any ideas...I am up for suggestions.

Progress

2011-06-08T21:24:00.000-05:00

The week has resulted in a pretty good amount of progress for both school and riding. In the last week I have finished my dissertation, set it to my committee, and scheduled my dissertation defense. I started at UNT less than 4 years ago but on some days it feels like we have been here for much longer. At the same time I can not believe that my dissertation is less than two weeks away. Hopefully I will have very good news to report in the next few weeks and until then I need to get my powerpoint for my defense meeting ready.

On the riding front I am feeling much stronger on the bike. Maybe fixing the brake that was rubbing and raise my saddle a millimeter or two made a difference but I am also starting to really feel pretty fresh and able to respond to attacks. Yes I got dropped tonight on the King of Wednesday ride (KOW) but I stayed with the group much longer than usual.

Ooppsss

2011-06-07T21:25:00.000-05:00

It pays to keep up with your bike maintenance and I found out one of the issues that I have had on some recent rides my not have just been my legs (or lack of legs). I noticed that my front brake was rubbing on the wheel. Yes that can slow you down with out you noticing if you are not paying attention. The brake was not rubbing so much that I could notice it unless I was really paying attention.

I was able to clean my bike this weekend and fix the brake issue by simply centering the brake. While I was cleaning the bike I wanted to try and fix another issue that I had been having with shifting. A couple of weeks ago I broke a spoke on my rear wheel. I took it to a local shop and had it fixed the same day and did not think any thing about it. The only issue was that after I had the spoke fixed was some shifting issues. Now I need to get a new cassette so I assumed it was just wear in some gears I use more. When I really looked at my cassette once I had removed the wheel I quickly noticed the issue.

The order of cogs on my cassette should be 11-12-13-14-15-16-..... However, the order that the cogs was 11-12-13-15-14-16-17....

No wonder I was have issues with shifting. Hopefully I have fixed the issues and will the riding will be much stronger. The moral of the story keep your bike properly maintained.

Why can't we all get along

2011-06-02T21:18:00.000-05:00

Today I had a experience that shocked me. One of my friends posted something on facebook that I just could not believe. The exact quote was "you know what really grind my gears? People on bicycles holding up busy roads. Or people on bicycles on winding country roads"

Now as a cyclist I feel very strongly about cyclist right to the road and safety on the road. My friend is not a cyclist and I bet just does not understand what it is like to be out on the road on a bike. The comment resulted in a debate that went on most of the day about whether bikes belong on the road or not.

I spent the day thinking about how to show him that not only do bikes belong on the road but that people should stop taunting us thinking that it is funny. My main concern is that if I can not convince a friend of this, how can we possibly change all of the drivers out there that we don't know. I know that I don't have the answer but maybe the place to start is to get more folks on bikes. I know that once I got on a bike I realized a lot more about driving and how to safely pass bikes when I am in my car.

So talk to your friends and get them out on a bike. Even if it is just for 1 ride. You never know....they may decide that they really like riding.

Frustration

2011-06-01T21:16:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I had two rides that were very frustrating. I am used to getting dropped on my Saturday ride since that ride usually has a ton of racers much better than I am. However, this last Saturday there were several races in the DFW area and so most of the racers were not on the ride. Yet I still got dropped. To add insult to getting dropped as I was chasing back I ran into this guy:

I have no idea what kind of snake it was. I did not really want to get that close. It looked a little like a copper head from what I saw. I was happy that I had good brakes and was able to come skidding to a stop before running over it. The delay in stopping for it to finish crossing the road made me miss regrouping with the rest of the pack and I road the rest of the ride by myself. It was especially fun given the 25mph head wind with 30-35 mph gusts.

Sunday was even a little worse since I was getting dropped by a group of strong riders but no Cat 1 or 2 racers. Very frustrating.

What is most frustrating is that I know why I am not strong on the bike and how to fix it. Fixing it has been difficult thought. I need to ride a lot more. I have gained some strength in the last month and I am very hopeful that I will get a lot stronger in the next month. I am scheduling my dissertation defense now and will hopefully be done with that soon!!!!

So time for more intervals and lots of time on the bike.

Dissertating

2011-05-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

Ok so dissertating is probably not a real word but it is a reasonable single word description of what I have been doing. I finished collecting my data during finals week and after finishing posting final grades I have been working on my dissertation full steam! I had my data analysis finished last week until I had a great idea that I thought I could test using some SEM analysis. After spending five days working on cleaning data and trying to find a good fitting model in SEM it was time to give up on the SEM and call my data analysis complete.

So with my results section complete and a first draft of my discussion section finished as well I am feeling pretty good about finishing things up. I am hoping that by the end of the day tomorrow I will have a good draft to send to out. Hopefully I am getting very close to being finished.

Until I the manuscript is done I will press on with dissertating.....and a ride or run when I need to clear my head and regain some focus so I can write.

What a difference a year makes

2011-05-16T22:08:00.000-05:00

So a little over a year ago my son was born. I can not believe that it has been a full year. A year ago it my wife and I were still in awe that we were parents and now (on most days) everything seems pretty routine.

A year ago:

Now:

Yeah he has grown a bit and I could not be more proud of my little guy.

Crazy times

2011-04-19T21:59:00.000-05:00

I wrote this last week but it has been a little crazy lately...

I am writing this from the DFW airport as I wait to catch a flight to a university in the south for a campus interview. I am not disclosing where I am heading right now b/c I will post this later and don't want everyone to know where I am interviewing. By the time you read this I will likely be back home.

The reason I am writing this now is to share a little bit about the interview process for faculty positions. From everything I know about the "real" world (i.e. business) the faculty search/interview process is very different. After sending a ton of information in with my application (teaching statements/research statements/teaching evaluations/letters of recommendation/VITA(academic resume)/ cover letter/transcripts), search committees typically want to do a phone interview. If they like you on the phone interview then they will bring you in for a campus interview. Rather than the campus interview lasting a couple of hours, it can last several days. So right now I am heading down for an afternoon with a lunch, tour, and dinner. Tomorrow I have a breakfast with faculty members, meeting with some faculty members, meetings with deans and a vice president, a teaching demonstration, and a research demonstration and then back on the plane to come home. And then back to campus the next day to teach and check on my data collection.

Yeah it is a long day and a half but hopefully it will end with a positive outcome. If you are lucky in the application process you end up with several of these campus visits so you are "jet setting" across the country. Which means that you have to have people to cover classes and things of that nature.

So I want to say thank you to everyone who has covered my classes and campus responsibilities while I have been out of town.

Hopefully this will all end with a good announcement and I will be able to tell everyone where Nici, Connor, and I will be moving in August

Junk miles are good (sometimes)

2011-04-17T20:36:00.002-05:00

Every training book that I have ever read and any coach that I have ever talked to has always warned against junk miles. Now junk mile are what many of us end up riding a lot of. These are miles that are too hard to be considered endurance or recovery miles but too easy to provide the effort we need to really get stronger. So we end up hurting ourselves but not quite enough for a really benefit. (I am sure you can find better descriptions of junk miles but that one works for me). Now many of us ride these miles despite the fact that we know better but it is fun to ride with friends that may push us to ride these types of miles so that we can keep up with them.

But I was out on my bike over the winter and fall and realized that I was riding a ton of junk miles. When I got home and looked at my computer my heart rate was too high for base but not high enough to really help me increase my VO2 max or other high end thresholds. The odd thing was that I felt great. I started to wonder why I was feeling so good while I knew that the training that I was doing was not the type that would make me stronger for this season. It finally hit me on one warmer fall ride. I was having fun with my friends. Sometimes we can get so locked into a training plan and making sure that we are going hard enough or slow enough to work on a specific area that we forget why we ride. I don't ride for glory or for wins (lets face it I am simply not fast enough) but I ride b/c I love the feeling of being on my bike. And that is why I miss it so much when I am not able to ride. I don't miss the intervals or crawling into a headwind. I miss riding with friends.

Junk miles may be bad for a training plan that can be absolutely amazing for the soul. So, if you have not had a FUN ride lately go call some friends and get in some junk miles for the soul.

I promise you won't regret it.

My 1 dollar Table

2011-03-28T21:01:00.000-05:00

My Sophomore year at NCSU I purchased my first piece of furniture for a new place that I was moving into my Junior year. After a spring semester camp out (camping out for basketball tickets was an experience that no NCSU student could miss) one of the guys in my dorm left a outdoor table at the location we were "camping out" for tickets. A mutual friend grabbed the table and took it back to his dorm room. For almost 2 months that friend kept reminding the owner of the table to come and pick up the table. After 2 months my friend decided he would sell the table to the highest bidder. Now this was a brand new outdoor plastic table. At the time the "origional" owner of the table had paid about $50 for the table. My friend gave the owner every possible chance to come and pick it up but he never did.

I knew that I was going to be getting an apartment and wanted an outdoor table. So i made sure that I was present when the "bidding" for the table started. Since my friend simply wanted the table out of his room he started the biding at 25 cents. After just a couple of bids, my "high" bid of 1 dollar won!

So I have had the table since the spring of 1999. I have had many many BBQ's with friends and this table has served as a perfect place for so many of my friends to gather around and enjoy hanging out. A couple of years ago my wife an I purchased a very nice metal table for our patio. We actually now have a true patio set (Yes I feel old just typing that). Since then my 1 dollar table has spent it's time collapsed in the garage.

So my wife and I were cleaning out the garage this last weekend and decided that it was time to get rid of the 1 dollar table. Tonight I put the table out for the trash folks to pick up tomorrow. It is now a rather old table and no longer looks as bright and shiny as it did my Sophomore year. But it is still kind of sad to see it go. It was such a cool thing when I got it. Especially since I love sitting out with friends and grilling. To me the best time hanging out with friends (other than on the bike) is always hanging out in the back yard by the grill.

I am secretly hoping that someone spots it tonight and grabs it for themselves.

Thanks $1 table for all of the memories!

Table with snow:

Training

2011-03-22T21:41:00.000-05:00

Over spring break I was able to resume training. I had planned a long endurance training block. Four back to back days of 4 to 5 hour rides. I have done this training block before and experienced some wonderful results. The first time that I tried this was in NC and I had a few friends who joined me on some of the rides (Thanks Sandra). They were the only reason I was able to complete all of the rides! This year I had planned to complete the training block early during my spring break week (Sunday-Wednesday) but the cold on Monday and Tuesday encouraged me to delay the block to later in the week (Thursday - Sunday). I was able to push through the Thursday (4 hours) and Friday (5 hours) rides without much of an issue. We had some really nice weather, lows in the 60's and high's in the 80's, but spring in Texas also means WIND. 25 mile an hour winds gusting to 35 is nice as a tail wind but brutal as a head wind. I kept saying "I love the wind, I love the wind, I love the wind". Somehow that kept me moving forward. I will take hills any day over wind. But hopefully it will make me stronger!

Well at least I am back to training and have a plan to keep it up so that get back to the front of the group rather than hanging off the back.

Denton Crit Report

2011-03-15T21:30:00.000-05:00

My first race back after an almost 4 year break from racing went about we well as I could expect or even ask for. As I have said before my winter training did not go as planned and I am still pretty far behind in terms of my fitness (still a few pounds to lose and a ton of miles needed in the legs).

The important results from the race were pretty simply: 1. I did not crash, 2. I kept racing despite being lapped, and 3. I LOVED IT! For those of you who don't know my last race did not really go as planned. Less than 15 miles into my last road race I ended up on the ground with a cracked helmet and a cracked frame. Since I was headed back to grad school I decided I would not race again for a while (way too expensive to replace the frame), but I got tired of waiting. So the fact that I made it through the crit with no crash and feeling good about it was a great boost to my confidence.

The race was a pretty standard crit course in a parking lot around a football stadium. It was not a perfect rectangle but it had a nice curvy stretch on the backside of the stadium. The only downside was the wind. It was very breezy and so we had a nasty head wind section at the finish and some fun cross wind sections that left everyone guttered. Otherwise it was a very fast and non-technical course. I only had to touch my brakes twice during the entire 40 minute race!

I was able to stay with the main pack for the first 5 laps of so. I even put in a nice pull on the front for about 1/2 a lap. I had a teammate and I wanted to work for him as much as I could before I was done. I was really hoping that there was a photographer there who got a picture of me when I was on the front with a teammate on my wheel but no-such luck. After I got dropped I attempted to chase back on but the wind was not going to make that possible. I kept a steady pace and then jumped back in when the pack came back around.

The cat 5 races in Texas have a tactics discussion before the race starts and sometimes a experienced racer (Cat 1) will jump in and race with the cat 5 folks to give advice and help teach folks how to race safely. I really enjoyed this and was able to sit on one of their wheels after I was lapped and watch how the raced (Thanks Kurt Bickel).

So I finished 20th place and stayed upright. The only issue now is that I want to jump back into racing full force now. So I have to find a way to build up my Casati frame, buy a racing license, and afford racing fees. Any one want to buy my mountain bike??? Or sponsor me? I have room on my helmet for ads!

Ok, now it's time to seriously train!!!

Nerves

2011-03-11T20:58:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I take a step back into bike racing. I have not competed in a bike race in almost 4 years. I had said that I would not get back into racing until I 1. had built the Casati frame and 2. was fit enough to ride away from a cat 5 field. Well.....neither of those are true right now but I am doing it anyway. I am tired of waiting and tomorrow I line up for a crit.

I am a little nervous. Ok to be honest I am pretty nervous. The crit is at 8am so from the time I get up until I start I won't have a ton of time to worry about it (hopefully).

Well since it is an early start I am keeping this short and heading to bed. Hopefully I will have good news to report tomorrow. At this point good news would be not getting completely dropped and being able to hang in the group with out any issues.

Here goes...

Up and down

2011-03-08T20:31:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I had put together a great training plan and was ready to get serious about training for the season (Yeah I am a little late). Of course at that point my son got a nasty stomach bug. While we typically encourage sharing we are working on keeping somethings to ourselves. Specifically illness. We would like to be able to keep him from sharing any illness with us but he really likes to share. So both Nici and I ended up coming down with the stomach bug. I don't know if either Nici or I have been that sick in a couple of decades. It was BAD! It actually knocked us out for three days or so. I managed to make it to campus to teach but that was about it. While there was a lot less walking around the lecture hall I teach in and a lot more using the podium to stay upright class went pretty well.

The oddest thing about that week was that while we were all feeling so horrible I kept getting really good news. Had we not been sick it might have been one of the best weeks in a while. My IRB approval for my dissertation was approved and I was able to start collecting data full force (thanks to some great undergraduate RA's). I got some good news on the job front and Connor got over his illness pretty quickly.

It was a very odd week with the extreme positive and negative emotions but the positive certainly outweighed the negatives.

Now to get my data collected quickly and get back to training. My first race of the year is this weekend. WOW how did that get here so quickly????

Back to Racing

2011-02-19T17:52:00.000-06:00

I have been wanting to get back to racing since the last race that I was in. Ok maybe not right after my last race but shortly after. I have not raced since May or June of 2007. My last race did not end well and since I am in grad school I knew that I could not afford a new frame if something happened to the one I have. Well about a year ago a very nice guy took that excuse away from me. Peter Erdoes gave me a frame that I have been trying to build up.

The build has been slow. To be fair it has pretty much stalled. But I really want to get back to racing. So I made a decision today to just do it. I have signed up for a race 3 weeks from today. YIKES! Yeah my training is probably 2 months behind schedule but in order to push myself to train at 5:30 am I needed the pressure of knowing that the opportunity to race was real.

While I am taking the risk that something happens to my Madone I have a plan in case it does. I will have to sell my Santa Cruz Superlight mountain bike so that I can a)repair my Madone and b)build the frame that Peter game me. I have been holding off on selling my mountain bike b/c I do really like riding it but I have not been on it for over a year now. Hopefully it won't come to this but I am prepared.

So now I just have to make sure I don't look like an idiot and my legs can actually keep me in the race for more than 10 minutes!

Hoops

2011-02-08T21:05:00.000-06:00

So on a cycling related blog you would assume that anything entitled hoops probably has to do with wheels. While I do need a set of wheels to build up the frame I am still working on building...this post has nothing to do with wheels.

The hoops I am referring to are the important ones that you have to step through as a graduate student to earn your Ph.D.
They start far before you enter the program. Earn good grades, good GRE score, letters of recommendation, apply to school. Once you are in you have a whole new set of hoops to jump through. Take classes, do research, thesis proposal, thesis defense, written comprehensive exams, oral comprehensive exams, dissertation proposal, dissertation defense.

Well today I successfully proposed my dissertation so I only have one hoop left to jump through--dissertation defense.

Now on to the data collection and defense!

Remembering what matters

2011-01-15T11:51:00.000-06:00

Often ours best plans simply don't work out. Missed rides or runs when we have a training plan, having to work late when we want to stop at 5 to relax and spend time doing something fun, ect. We all have had it happen and it can be very frustrating. When life gets in the way of my plans I tend to get very frustrated. Especially when I have been trying very hard to make all of the plans work out. Sometimes it can feel as if I will never be able to get all of the work done, spend time with my family, and ride. I can usually get two of the three in but not all three. Hence my continuing focus on getting the balance right.

But the last few weeks have reminded me of what is really important and no matter how discouraging it can be when things don't go according to plan I am very lucky. In the last few weeks several people close to me have lost someone close to them. My good friend lost his mother a week or so ago and my sister lost her dog after many amazing years. These losses have left me thinking about how lucky I am to have an amazing wife, son, sister, brother-in-law, parents, friends (2 and 4 legged). So when life gets crazy and you get frustrated trying to fit everything in take a moment to think about all of the people in your life that matter to you. Maybe a missed ride or run is not such a big thing.

2011 Goals

2011-01-10T22:07:00.000-06:00

Ok so I have a pretty big list of goals for this year. Of course they are in several different areas of my life. While I do plan on going into more detail (basically so I am held accountable for each of them) later I want to get the gist of them down now.

Professional Goals:
-Collect dissertation data
-Defend dissertation
-Graduate
-Get a faculty position or post-doc
-Rewrite a number of articles and resubmit them to journals

Family:
-Spend more time with my wife and Connor
-Be the best dad and husband possible

Personal (non-family):
-Get back into racing shape
-Lose the weight I gained in the last 8 months (back down to 140lbs)
-Race ???

Ok so basically in order to accomplish all of these goals (this spring) I need to find the perfect balance in my life. Either that or stop sleeping and I am pretty sure that there is not enough caffeine in the world for that.

So more details later on how I will accomplish all of this and still enjoy life. Yes I know that some of these goals are a little vague and I will be making them more specific soon.

New Year - New Start

2011-01-09T21:05:00.000-06:00

So it clearly has been a while since I last posted something here. The last seven months or so have been pretty crazy. Getting into a balance with family, work, and riding it seems that I can usually manage two of the three but not all three. Especially with trying to finish school and apply for a ton of faculty positions.

The last few weeks have been wonderful. A trip back to NC to see our family and travel with Connor for the first time was amazing. The only thing that did not go smoothly was the snow storm the day after Christmas. We had arranged to have Connor baptized the day after Christmas and the snow ended up closing everything in town. I guess it just gives us another reason to get back to NC soon!

I have been working on figuring out a way to get the balance in my life so that I can get my work done, graduate, find a faculty position, spend tons of time with my family, ride, and maybe even race. My plans are coming together in my head and once I put them down on paper then I will share them here!

BBQ and the 4th

2010-07-04T20:53:00.001-05:00

First....Happy 4th of July!

Since we did not go back to NC for the 4th we decided to bring a little NC here. Since I can not get either of my favorite NC beers (Duck Rabbit or Highland) we decided to try and make some pulled pork. Anyone who knows my BBQ preferences is probably shocked right now but yes we did a pulled pork today. All I can say is WOW!

The first attempt at brisket did not go so well but my first attempt at pulled pork was a huge success. I smoked a 5 lbs pork shoulder for 6 hours and it stayed moist and was falling off the bone.

Here it is before I shredded it:

Here it is after...read to eat:

My pictures do not do it justice. It was amazing. Since it is just my wife and I here tonight we have enough left for sandwiches in a day or two and some to share with folks on campus.
While it is not up to Wilbers status (http://www.wilbersbarbecue.com/) it was amazing and just what I needed after a 67 mile day on the bike.

To top it all off my wife made some amazing hush puppies and home made peach ice cream. I am letting dinner settle and getting ready for a big bowl of ice cream!

Now back to watching the Star Wars Marathon on TV and waiting to try and see some fireworks from our house while Connor is asleep.

July 4th (When I became a cyclist)

2010-07-03T13:02:00.000-05:00

Happy 4th of July (a day early) to everyone out there.

This 4th of July is a little different for my wife and I (and Connor) because it is the 1st one that we have not spent with our family in North Carolina. Since Connor arrived in May we realized that our typical drive from TX to NC was going to be too much for us this year. So we are going to try and make the best of it and make some NC BBQ tomorrow and try and find some fireworks. But today I wanted to take a minute and write about our 4th of July traditions.

The 4th of July for us always has two important parts. 1. Spin Cycle -CCC- 4th of July ride in Cary NC. 2. Spending time with family grilling, hanging out, and watching fireworks from either Regency Park in Cary or more recently Shallotte NC.

The Spin Cycle 4th of July ride was my first group road ride and when I became a true cyclist. I rode this for the 1st time on 7/4/2003. I had been mountain biking for a year and a half and had some hard rides but nothing that compared to my first experience on this ride. I had ridden a total distance of 25 miles at one time and then decide that I could jump into a 100K ride and do well. Big mistake. Not only did I not use any sunscreen (DUMB), but I did not drink enough water at the start, rode too hard starting out, and basically made every mistake possible. I had to get off my bike and sit down on the side of the road following up the "climb" up High House road a mere 3 miles from the finish. Following several minutes of recovering a friend came back for me and we limped in (including a stop a gas station 2 miles from the finish for more water).

I finished the ride, drove home, and collapsed at the foot of the stairs for 45 minutes in my riding cloths. I bonked and it hurt! Many folks may experience this and never go back for more or at least never that much but I knew I wanted more. Yes it hurt and yes I was off the bike for a few days but I realized that I loved it! I became a CYCLIST!

I have not missed that ride since then. Even moving to TX did not keep me from making it to that ride. Well this year will be my first time to not do that since that crazy first year. So if you are in NC and looking for something to do go out and ride the Capital Cycling Club (Spin Cycle) 4th of July Ride and pedal a mile for me. http://www.capcycling.org/events-fireCracker.php

I will be out on the road tomorrow morning thinking about all of my NC friends riding those beautiful roads.

Just as important as the 4th of July ride is the time with my family is even more important. I have been very lucky that they have been able to come out and visit us here in TX this summer. I will be thinking about them tomorrow and would love to be sitting back in Shallotte tomorrow relaxing after the ride, grilling, playing corn hole, drinking a Duck Rabbit or Highland Brewing beer, and heading to the beach to watch fire works.

Well until later, enjoy the tour and have a happy (and safe) 4th of July

Father's Day

2010-06-22T20:39:00.000-05:00

Yes it has been two days since Father's Day. I just wanted to quickly say happy belated father's day to all of the father's out there. It is an odd feeling to go from celebrating father's day for your father to other people doing nice things for you as well. It has only been a month and a half since Connor was born so I am just getting a taste of fatherhood. What I have experienced has made me even more greatful for having such a great father. Hopefully I can be as good a father as he is!

Thank you to my parents, sister and brother in-law, and especially my wife and Connor for an amazing 1st Father's Day! I am a very very lucky man.

Late starts, trains, and junk miles

2010-06-12T15:04:00.000-05:00

For the second Saturday in a row I got to do the Mad Duck ride. Thanks to my wonderful wife I got to go out for a few hours and enjoy riding. Not only was she ok with me riding while she took care of Connor but she is the only reason I woke up in time to make it. I had set my alarm for 6am but apparently turned it off with out actually waking up. She woke me up at 6:30 and ask me if I was skipping the ride due to being up longer last night with Connor. Once I woke up enough to realize that I could still make it to the ride if I hurried I got up had breakfast, espresso, and was out the door.

I had a great ride but given my lack of fitness got dropped from the group twice (It is always nice to find short cuts). When I was trying to chase back on to a group I got caught by a train. Sure a train is nice when it stops the group you are trying to chase but not so nice when the group gets through and you don't. While I was sitting and waiting for the train to pass I started thinking about how I had been riding between times I was with the group.

When I am with the group I don't mind riding as hard or easy as the group is riding and so I don't really pay much attention to staying within a certain heart rate zone. At least that is true with my Saturday ride. Other rides I do a better job staying where I need to be for training. However, when I was taking short cuts to get back with the group I was riding hard but not super hard. I was in a "comfortable" zone 3. Standard junk miles. It worked to let me get back to the group but I started wondering about the impact/ effectiveness of the ride on my overall fitness. Now I am not racing now but I do want to make some progress regarding my form and being able to stay with the groups. I rationalized that I was doing what I needed to so that I could get back to the group and stay with them a little longer. However I did ride like that for 45 minutes or so before I was with them again.

So I guess I want some advice/opinions/critiques. Once you are dropped from a group like that is it better to do what you need to so you can rejoin the group OR is it better to go to either base ride mode or do intervals? Granted I am just trying to regain some fitness but if I can get into racing shape I would be very happy.

So if anyone has any thoughts let me know.

Connor William Banks

2010-06-11T17:19:00.000-05:00

Connor was born about 4 weeks ago. After 16 hours of labor and a c-section Connor made his entry into the world. Nici and I are both very happy to have him here and we are slowly figuring things out. I think that he wishes that we would figure things out a little faster.

My parents were able to come out for a week after Connor was born to help us take care of him and get a little more sleep than we would otherwise. We are so glad that they came and were able to give us a hand. It was a huge help! Thanks Mom and Dad!
My sister and brother-n-law were able to make it out here over the memorial day weekend to meet Connor. My sister was worried that she would break him but she and David did a very good job. Naturals!

Connor is healthy and doing very well. He is growing nicely and taking it pretty easy on us. We are only getting up twice a night on average to feed him and he gets back to sleep pretty quickly. He is already starting to grow out of some of his newborn cloths (scary!) but fortunately we have more 0-3 months items of clothing that newborn cloths.

Thanks to my wonderful wife I did get 2 rides in last weekend and I am pretty sure I will get at least one in this weekend. I need to get my trainer out and spend some time on it inside when Connor is sleeping during the afternoon (Thanks for the tip Donald!). Hopefully I can get back to some passable form by July.

Unfortunately, the three of us will not be making our usual trip to North Carolina this summer but we all have our fingers crossed that we will be moving back to NC in December. Until then we are enjoying NC folks coming to see us. It has been great seeing my family over the last few weeks and we are looking forward to my parents coming back in August for a conference!

Well I can not have this post without including a good picture of Connor

Here are my sister and brother in-law doing a great job with Connor:

Well I will be updating this much more frequently with school, cycling and Connor news!

I am back!

2010-06-11T17:01:00.000-05:00

So I have not posted anything for a very long time. I did not mean to be gone so long but this spring has been a little crazy. I have been doing a lot of writing (just not here). This spring I wrote a grant to fund a post-doc position at a university in North Carolina with a researcher I greatly respect. I have also spent a lot of time writing several papers and sending them off to journals. So while I have not written anything here I really have been busy.

I should find out about the scores on my grant proposal in about a month. Both my wife and I are really excited about the possibility of getting back to NC so we can be closer to friends, family, and the area of the country that we love.

I have been able to get some time in on my bike. I am not in the form that I want to be right now but hopefully I can get there soon. I have been slowly working on building up the bike that I mentioned in my last post. Unfortunately it is a very slow build but I may have some one willing to sell a 9spd ultegra groupo to me. If that is the case then I will just need wheels. If not then I am still looking for a cheap groupo.

Then there is the really big news. For anyone who has not already heard.....my wife and I now are parents. I do think that is worth a separate post (with pictures) so that will be up very soon.

So I will be doing a better job keeping this updated....as long as Connor lets us get some sleep!

Busy week but a very nice end to the week

2010-02-26T21:13:00.000-06:00

This week has been a pretty busy week. In fact the last two have been a little crazy. Between teaching, writing up papers, and keeping up with general life stuff I have not had a ton of time to sit down and take a deep breath.

Despite all of the craziness, stress, and less sleep I did have a very nice thing happen this week. On Tuesday I was working at home on a paper and took a short break for lunch and checked the Texas bicycle racing association website/forum and saw that someone had just posted that they had two frames that were free to a good home. Luckly they were my size and so I emailed him. But in the time that had passed both frames had been claimed. I received an email from the guy giving away the frames the next day asking what I was going to do with them and if raced. I explained that I wanted to build it up so that I could use it to race and he responded by saying that he actually had another frame (a nicer one) that he would give me! My lucky day! So today I met him and picked up the frame and fork and now I have some parts to look for. So if anyone has a spare handle bar and stem, set of wheels, and oh yea a entire groupo let me know. So I have quite a few parts that I will be looking for but hopefully over the next 6-12 months I can find good deals on all of the parts that I need.

So without further delay here are a few pictures. It is a very nice Italian frame. Which probably means that most will say that putting Shimano components on it would be a no no.

Fortunately the guy that gave it to me even included a Selle Italia SLR saddle with the frame (exactly the kind that I have on my Madone.

So Thank you Peter!!!

Snow/Icey roads=Indoor trainer

2010-02-13T15:53:00.000-06:00

In case you have not seen any news this week, we got a lot of snow in the Dallas TX area. The DFW airport got 12.5 inches of snow (yes that is a record). So despite several hours above freezing yesterday the roads this morning looked at little too nasty for me. With out a cross bike I was not so interested in riding in the slush. Since the NCSU-UNC game is no now I wanted to be home to watch the game so that ruled out riding in the afternoon. All that was left was some time of the trainer.

This mornings trainer ride was the first for the year and my lack of riding in the last few weeks really showed. If nothing else the time I spent on the trainer helped to remind me that I really need to get my training plan set and stick to it. So after the game I plan on spending some time finishing the plan.

Until then it is time to watch the NCSU game. I am really really hoping to see a wolfpack victory. Beating UNC would be really nice.

Birthday Present

2010-02-12T20:15:00.000-06:00

So my birthday was last week and I got some great presents. I have to point out one that my wife gave me and include a picture. So just in case there was any confusion:

Yes I am not Ted King. In case you don't know who Ted King is then you really should catch up on your up and coming professional cyclists. Ted has a great blog: http://www.iamtedking.missingsaddle.com/
If you are new to cycling then you have some things to learn.
1. How to ride in a group (safely)
2. How to ride fast.
And just as important as riding fast...
3. How to look good doing it.
Ted King has a great alter ego (The King of Style-KOS) who dispenses some great style advice. So if you sock height is not right or you are lacking any white riding cloths you should check it out.

I like the blog so much I wanted to get the shirt. Plus 1/2 of the profits go to a brain injury foundation. Always a good thing.

So check out the blog and remember that I am not Ted King.

Busy Start

2010-02-09T09:03:00.000-06:00

I was able to write the first post for the year a couple of days ago while sitting in the airport in Raleigh, NC. So here is it is:

What a crazy month it has been. I have not had a chance to update this blog since Christmas because I have been a little busy with work and family. I am writing this while sitting in the RDU airport waiting for the flight back to Texas. My wife and I flew to NC for a few reasons and despite the weather forcing some changes to our plan we had a great trip. We had planned for me to give a talk at UNC-G on Friday and talk to someone about the possibility of submitting a post-doc grant and then Saturday doing the Krispy Kreme challenge and then my wife was going to a baby shower her best friend was hosting for her. Mother nature decided to throw a wrench in the plans and dumped a decent amount of snow on Greensboro Thursday night and Friday morning and in doing so closed UNC-G for Friday. Fortunately, I was able to go to Greensboro on Saturday and talk with the faculty member I am wanting to work with and my wife was able to have the baby shower so we now have a lot more baby stuff coming back to Texas with us. I will write more later about all of the other things that have gone on in the last month but I will say that since I did not get to do the Krispy Kreme Challenge this year my dad has already agreed that if we are in NC next year and I have a post-doc in the area then he and I will be doing the run together!! That is a promise I plan on making sure is kept. So now to get the post-doc!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T21:11:00.002-06:00

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Christmas in North Carolina

2009-12-20T19:22:00.000-06:00

I am so happy to be back in NC for a little bit to see my family and friends and get some rides in while I am here. We will see if the riding in the wind in TX still translates to decent climbing.

Thankfully the NCDOT did a nice job keeping the roads clear so the drive here was not too bad.

Now I have to see if I can get all of my Christmas shopping done pretty quickly!

The Flamme Rouge/ The Sprint to the Finish

2009-12-16T13:32:00.002-06:00

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!

The Importance of Understanding Science: Why we all have to do it.

2009-11-19T09:43:00.000-06:00

Today I will take a short break from talking about school, life, or biking to talk about something that is important to me. Science. (sorry about the length of this. It is really important to me.)

Science is important for everyone but sadly most folks do not properly understand scientific methods, conclusions, or why it matters to them. As I tell my research methods class it is important for everyone to be a good consumer of research and understand how to evaluate scientific claims for themselves. I wanted to share this will everyone in light of two studies that have been released in the past few weeks. One of these studies has received a great deal of attention this week but sadly even the "experts" in the field are not responding in way that suggests that they are really following the science. The second study I will discuss really just shows folks that even people who should understand and follow scientific research typically ignore it and do what they think is best.

The first study and the one that has received the most attention were released just this week. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, made up of a very large group of highly respected scientists at primer medical institutions across the country has released new guidelines for schedules of breast cancer screening. These guidelines have met with an extremely large amount of resistance from individuals and groups both within and outside of the medical community. One part of the new guidelines that has been most controversial is the finding that mammograms for women below the age of 50 is no longer recommended unless you have a family history to put you at a higher risk. This new recommendation comes from a very impressive study that found that mammograms were not as effective for women below the age of 50 and actually carried higher risks (false positives and increased radiation) than they had benefits. Now let me stop to say that I care greatly about this issue. As someone whose mother is a breast cancer survivor increased screening should be good thing. I personally would do anything to make sure that my wife, mom, and sister are around and health for as long as possible. This issue matter to me and has impacted my family.

However, as a scientist I cannot ignore the result of this study. So much has been made about the results of this study increasing the likelihood of cancer detection not occurring early enough. But what struck me was that the results of this study suggest that standard mammograms do not work as effectively for women under 50. This should be a wake up call for researcher to develop better techniques for detecting cancer in women under 50.

What really bugs me is the number of health experts across the country, including our current Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius does not even seem to understand the results of this current study. She has stated that women should "Keep doing what you have been doing for years: talk to your doctor about your individual history, ask questions and make the decision that is right for you." So it appears that even someone who should be careful to understand the science behind this panels report has decided to dismiss the results because they are either not politically desirable or they are not what they wanted them to be.

Medical science is not alone in dismissing sound research because they disagree with the findings. At least they listen to the science. Clinical Psychology is largely guilty of not even bothering to listen to the science. Of course, this does not mean that all of clinical Psychology ignores scientific research but rather than a large part of it does. If I were the only one saying this then I could be ignored. However I am not the only one or the first to say this.

The second study that came out recently was published in the Association of Psychological Science's journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest. The article has received a great deal of mass media attention from Newsweek (http://www.newsweek.com/id/216506) to the Washington Post (http://ow.ly/CKUN ). The article suggests that there is a widening gap between scientific research and the clinical practice of Psychology. It is critical that individuals believe that their doctor (medical or psychological) is up to date on the latest research and understands and USES the most effective treatment. Sadly this is not the case. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has received a great deal of attention recently given the number of combat troops who are experiencing traumas as a result of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. PTSD has a relatively effective treatment (exposure therapy) however clinicians not always or even typically use this type of treatment. The medical analogy to this would be patients with a bacteria infection being treated with Aspirin rather than antibiotics. This is a direct result of a lack of understanding of Science.

If we ignore scientific findings and we simply go with what we think is right then we might as well be back in the stone ages. We cannot only take the scientific findings that we like and ignore the ones that are counter to our beliefs. Science should take the emotions out of the situations and look at the facts. As Joe Friday from Dragnet used to say "Just the facts". Sometimes results of studies are controversial and go against our personal beliefs but if we ignore them then we might as well never do the research.

Exciting News

2009-11-15T18:27:00.000-06:00

Well my life has officially changed forever. My wife and I are now expecting our first child in May! We are both super excited about this news and can't wait for may. From talking to friends who are either pregnant right now or have had kids recently I feel good in knowing that we are feeling the same things that other folks are feeling. It is odd to go back and forth from really excited to terrified all in the same 10 minute span. Fortunately, I have been told that this is perfectly normal and probably a good sign since we are actually thinking about everything enough to think about the scary stuff!

So now I have even more reasons to finish school ASAP and to get as many miles in on the bike as I can before may so I am super fit and can take a good chunk of time off without starting back at a zero level of fitness. All of that said, I guess I had better get back to writing a paper so I can send to to a journal and get out of school!

Midday ride

2009-11-10T20:45:00.000-06:00

One of the few perks to being a graduate student who works from home a couple of days a week is the ability to sneak out for a midday ride. I have not been taking advantage of this perk for the first couple months of the semester but in the last few weeks I have been able to meet up with a friend for some nice miles. The ability to go out during the middle of the day, when the temperature has warmed up, is very nice. So I should not gloat about being able to get miles in during the day. There is a trade off for the time taken off during the day. It means more hours working late into the evening. All well worth it!

Ok so back to work. Still getting work done at 9pm, but then I did get 42 miles in this morning!

Fall 2009- Here goes nothing

2009-11-03T19:25:00.000-06:00

The next few months are going to be very busy and it's not like things up to this point have been calm and slow. This semester I still have a lot to get done and if I want to graduate in May or August deadlines are fast approaching. So I could simply bury myself in work and make things a little easier but then I would miss out on all of the wonderful things that life has to offer. I figure that having a plate full of work, life, and family stuff will make life a little crazy but worth all of the trouble! So what am I doing over the next few months? I figured that I would be better off if I share my plans and goals with everyone and update folks along the way so that I can get harassed by everyone if I start to not meet all of them. I will break my goals up into school (work), riding, and family goals to keep it clear.

School goals

- Finish at least 3 studies

- Finish and submit 3 papers to journals (for my remaining coursework)

- Comps???

Riding

- Actually get on my bike and ride

- Ramp up my mileage and follow a training plan (get in some 100 mile rides on the weekends)

- Be in shape by the time spring riding season starts so that I am keeping up with all of my racing friends.

-Finally lose the weight that I have been working to lose for the last 2 years

Family

- Spend time with my wife, dogs, and cats!

- Actually update this blog a few times a week rather than once a month!

Yes I am trying to take a page out of the fatcyclist.com book but it seems to have worked for him. By the way if you have not visited the fatcyclist blog it is a must for all cyclists out there.

Wish me luck, harass me, but hopefully I can get it all done asap!

Balance

2009-10-13T19:40:00.000-05:00

It is amazing how a few things can change everything very quickly. At the end of August I crashed and started the Fall semester. That plus a week of rain lead to a very low number of miles ridden in September. 257.2 miles low! There were weeks this summer that I put in more miles than what I did in all of September.

Cycling seems to be a great metaphor for life sometimes. Keeping the wheels rubber side down and not losing your balance. Keeping the pedals turning and moving you forward in the direction you choose. The basics of cycling are learned pretty quickly otherwise you stop riding. But if you keep it up and you keep trying you master how to not fall and to keep moving forward. As time goes on and the riding becomes more compitative you learn how to push through the pain and pedal harder. As life gets more complicated sometimes keeping our balance and pushing to get where you want gets harder. It is easy to let work or other things get in the way and make you loose your balance.

This semester is going to be a very important one for me if I can get everything done. This semester I have 3 more independent research projects to finish (and submit to journals), comps to study for and pass, a dissertation proposal to work on, and a post-doc to line up. All so I can still graduate in May or August.

So I have a lot to do but I have to keep the rest of my life in balance to make it all worth while.
I have a list of goals and plans to get those goals accomplished which I will share shortly but for now the first thing that I will commit to is posting more often and more consistently. So hopefully once a week or so.

Thats all for now but more to come soon.

Hotter'n Hell take 2

2009-09-07T14:42:00.000-05:00

I completed my second hotter'n hell last Saturday and while I did complete it faster and with fewer stops than last year but I did not enjoy it nearly as much. About 15 miles into the ride I was in a line of riders that shifted to the left and I had no choice but to shift with them which put me off of the road in the dirt. While my transition to the dirt went relatively the transition back to the pavement did not. A gap between the pavement and the dirt appeared and grabbed my rear wheel sending my down. I am told that I was out for a little bit but I got up angry so my friends were not too concerned about me. I did finish the ride with out another stop but the crash tore my bib shorts, scuffed the edge of my saddle and cracked my helmet. Not to mention the road rash on my hip.

I already have a new helmet, I have retaped my handle bars, and I am looking to see if I can get a new saddle cheap on ebay. My only real issue at this point is that my team has no extra bibs or jerseys. So I am somewhat stuck. I may be able to get a jersey from last year but no bibs. So the delema is this....do I just go with a jersey from last year and some black bibs, find a kit from a non-local team that is not too expensive to last until March, or option C go back to my last team kit for 6 months.

Ideas, suggestions, team offers????

2nd half of summer

2009-08-14T23:26:00.000-05:00

My summer has really been divided into two halves plus a little at the end. The first half was spent writing a few papers and getting ready to teach. The second half was very busy and spent finishing a paper and sending it to a journal and teaching. Tomorrow I am heading to NC to get Nici and head back to TX with her. It has been a long summer with her working in NC and me working in TX. It is amazing to think that we just had our 4th anniversary on Thursday. It seems like yesterday that we got married.

While I am not looking forward to summer being over I am looking forward to Nici being back in TX with me. I will still have 2 weeks until I have to start teaching in the fall and about a week until I will have to be back in the lab full time.

I had hoped to get 1000 miles in on the bike and a tt and a MTB race but I settled for 800 miles and no racing. It is odd that about the times that the races came around my legs were feeling pretty weak but afterwards they were feeling better. This last week I was able to make it to the KOW ride (race) and I stayed on the lead group much longer than usual. I was able to stay at the front and watch a bunch of cat 1 and cat 2 racers play out team tatics. Amazingly I am a member of one of the two teams that was controling the ride. When I saw a teammate being pulled back to the group form a break away, I came very close to attacking and trying to form a break of my own. I quickly realized that I was doing everything that I could to simply stay with the group so attacking was out of the question. At least my head knew what the right thing to do was, even if my legs could not do it.

Hotter than Hell is coming up and despite my plans to not do it this year I am ready for another shot. Hopefully I can finish in under 4 hours this year. I was very close last year so maybe with my legs starting to come around I can do it.

Well I am off to North Carolina in the morning and I can't wait to see my wife and not have to just talk on the phone.
North Cakallacky here I come!

A tale of two rides

2009-08-09T21:14:00.000-05:00

It is amazing how different two rides in the same week can be. A few weeks ago I was planning on doing my first time trial as a way to get back into racing in a way that would be very unlikely to result in a crash. The weekend before I had done some very good hard rides and my legs were feeling good. I was unable to do my usual Monday night recovery ride because I got stuck on campus later than I should have been. By Wednesday I went out on my usual KOW (king of Wednesday) ride (race) and my legs felt horrible. I got dropped much earlier than I had wanted. After a slow ride home I decided that it was not worth the $40 and getting up at 4am on Saturday to drive 2 hours to go to a 40K time trial just to come in dead last.

That Saturday I got up to do my usual ride and felt much stronger than I expected. In fact I stayed on to the lead pack about 10 miles longer that usual. My best Saturday ride the year!

I was disappointed with not racing that day until I looked at the time for the cat 5 racers and the winning time was around 1 hour. I know that I could not have finished in 1 hour so I felt ok with my decision. Hopefully some consistent training over the next couple of months will put me in good shape for a possible TT in the fall.

I have decided to give the Hotter than Hell another shot. After last years ride I figured that I had checked it off my list and was not planning on going back but I am getting than itch to go again. Plus a number of my friends are planning on going so I can't pass it up.

One of my riding friends is planning on making his racing come back (to a cat 3) next year and will be training to do so. I am going to try and put a training schedule together for us and get my self in back in racing shape so when I can start racing again I will be able to get to a cat 3 in a season.

Enough for now, time to go to sleep and attack the last week of being in TX without Nici.

Back for 2nd half of the summer

2009-07-10T20:42:00.000-05:00

I had a very very nice trip back to NC last week. It is amazing to think that the summer (atleast the way I am breaking it up) is half over. The plus side is that I have made it half way through the summer and am closer to having Nici back in TX with me.

My trip to NC was great. I was able to get in two nice rides with friends. Thank you Terry for letting me borrow your Madone! After my usual 4th of July ride Nici and I made a short trip down to the beach to see my sister and brother in law. We had a very nice time at the beach, grilling out, playing cornhole, and playing Mario kart on the Wii. It is a good thing that I am a better bike handler ( and driver) than I am at Mario Kart. It was pretty ugly. Other than a rainy few minutes at the beach after taking the time to get our stuff out to the beach we had a lot of fun.

I am back in TX and prepairing for teaching during the second summer session. I am still working on a few papers and have several undergrads collecting data for other studies but I will need even more focus during the second half of the summer to get the papers out, teaching done, and miles logged. While I came pretty close to hitting my 1,000 mile goal during the first half I am even more determined to hit it this go around. Fortunatly I have an extra week to get it done so I should be ok. I do have 1 race ( Time trial) planned and so we will see how it goes.

Well enough for now. I am heading back to have a slice of pizza and watch the end of todays tour stage!

End of the Month

2009-06-29T22:59:00.000-05:00

While I have not done as good a job updating my blog as I would like I have been very busy here. In the last month (since I have been back from NC) I have ridden 896.4 miles, Written 1st drafts of two paper (which should be sent to journals soon) and I have stopped drinking as much Dr. Pepper as I had been. While I had been drinking 2 per day I am not down to 3 per week. Not bad. So I have gotten a good number of miles in, only 100 short of my goal for the month, and I have gotten a good amount of work done on papers. I have plenty of new goals for the second half of the summer as well as my first race in a year and a half coming up soon but for now I am focusing on my trip to NC. I leave tomorrow and I will be in NC seeing my wife, family, and friends and I can't wait! If any of my NC friends want to catch up for a ride or coffee let me know and I will see you soon.

So while I am really really excited about going to NC tomorrow everything seemed to go very badly today. I had one of those days that makes you question everything about what you are doing. I was in a really bad mood and not trusting any choices that I had made (except getting married to my amazing wife). Maybe it was being in TX with my wife in NC for 4.5 weeks and not having her here to talk to but today was headed to being one of the worst days I have had for a few years. Until I decided to go for the recovery ride that I really did not feel like going on. I was ready to take a nap on the couch and then pack for my flight tomorrow. I decided that getting on my bike had never been a bad decision and so I would go. As usual riding today turned today into a pretty good day. The time on the bike simply chatting with friends about my NC trip or the up coming Tour or just stuff made me feel so much better. It is amazing that a few hours on the bike talking with people who you know about anything is great. I don't know if it is the rhythm of the motion, or talking with people that you spend early morning weekend hours with, or hot days or freezing in the winter, or maybe it is because you learn to trust these people riding so close at such high speeds but sometimes the folks that you ride with who may not know what you do for a living seem to know you better than anyone else. Riding friends have become some of my closest friends both in TX and in NC. That is one reason why I miss my NC riding friends and why I look forward to spending time with them when I am back in NC.

Well it is late and I need to finish packing and getting ready to leave. I have to get up early tomorrow and the beer is tasty but probably not helping but at least it is tasty. Well I hope to see some of you in NC over the next week and at the Spin Cycle 4th of July Ride. I have been going to that ride since I started road biking and I am so excited that I get to make it again this year! My first 4th of July Spin Cycle ride was July 4th 2003 so this will be my 6th time of the ride. I am really glad that they are keeping the ride going.

Ok time to go to sleep. See y'all in NC tomorrow!!!

Crazy Week

2009-06-12T20:34:00.000-05:00

This week has been a very odd week. I have gotten a good amount of work done in the lab and have a new study started. I have almost finished a 1st draft of a paper on stress and executive functioning/working memory. I have started getting more miles in the legs but I did miss a couple of rides this week because of the weather. Now a little rain during the summer is no big deal but around here we don't just get a little rain. The storms that came through Wednesday night and Thursday morning did quite a bit of damage. I was lucky in that we are only missing a few shingles and our fence is leaning a little. Many of my neighbors did not fair as well. A ton of trees came down. Many of them either came out of the ground or were torn apart. Here is a pretty good example:

So I feel very lucky that nothing like that fell into my place or on my car. Huddling in the bathroom with the dog and cats was not a ton of fun but with 70-80mph wind and a tornado confirmed 3 miles away I was not about to take any chances.

Now that the storms have passed the heat is here. The highs for the next several days are forecast to be 96,97,98,98...... Basically the same until it goes over 100 and then cools down sometime in say...October. At least the humidity is low!

The sunsets have been absolutely amazing for the last few days, at least what I can see in the city. Last night the sky was all purple and tonight looking outside it looks orangish. Crazy.

Well, I am cheering the Pittsburgh Penguins on and then heading to bed for some good rest before tomorrow mornings ride. Several of the Metro VW elite guys are coming to the Mad Duck group ride tomorrow. Should be lots of fun and very painful.

Summer adventure

2009-06-03T21:54:00.000-05:00

With the summer starting, even if the temperatures have not really gone up yet, I am excited about the possibilities that are ahead. I am not really looking forward to my wife being in NC all summer for work but I am trying to make the best of it and get a lot of work done and a lot of miles on the bike this summer. I am spending the 1st summer session working on a few papers and the second summer session I will be teaching and finishing the papers that I have not finished during 1st summer session. Teaching for the first time this summer will be fun and I am looking forward to it.

My goals:
4-5 papers written and submitted to journals
1000 miles before July 1 and another 1000 between 7/7 and 8/13
Do a great job teaching

And all of this by 8/14.

We will see how things go.

Semester Done!

2009-05-14T22:08:00.000-05:00

I have actually finished the semester. There have been days this semester that I did not know if I would make it to today. It is here and now it is time to head to NC for a few weeks. Then back here for riding and lots of writing papers for publications. It is now summer time and I and going to be very happy to get a little time to relax and get some miles in with friends back in NC.

Finishing strong

2009-05-12T09:16:00.000-05:00

At the end of last week I finished two more studies that did not have the best results from a quick analysis. I still have a lot more analysis to do and there is a hint that I might have something significant to write about but as usual nothing is clear and easy to see. Atleast I have been able to get two new IRB proposals and hopefully the process with the IRB will go quickly and we will have everything taken care of that they need and I will have two more studies to run this summer which should be even more likely to produce significant results.

I have finished everything this semester with the exception of 1 final that I have on Thursday. After that it is time to head back to NC and see some friends and family for a few weeks before I have to head back and get back to work. Atleast this summer I will have to main things to focus on: Riding and Writing!

Now to study for the final and get everything taken care of so that we can leave.

Light at the end of the tunnel

2009-04-29T12:40:00.000-05:00

So on the first Wednesday in many weeks I had time to ride today but of course the forcast was for some nasty storms so I figured that staying in and finishing up some stuff from the semester was the best bet and of course no rain has come and I would have had time to ride. I guess from now on when debating the answer is always to ride. Rain or Shine.

Atleast the semester is almost over and the number of things that I have to do are much lower. In fact at this point the majority of my big tasks are at the point that I just need to put some finishing touches on three projects and I will only have two finals left! 7 classes left for me to attend until I am only on the other side of the class (teaching that is) and getting paid to be in a classroom!

In addition to the end of the semester coming soon I only have a week and 2 days until two studies that I am running are complete. If things work out then the last two years of work will all pay off. If not then we will see. Maybe some exploratory work will provide some publishable material when standard analyses have not.

Plus at the end of the semester I get to head to NC and see some old friends. With the little amount of riding I have done lately I have a feeling my friends are going to make me pay for it.

my day on 4/16

2009-04-19T12:09:00.000-05:00

What a difference a few weeks can make. Just two weekends ago I felt like a real person. I got to ride on Saturday and Sunday, my wife and I spent time together on Satruday and Sunday afternoon and we got to sit outside and grill on Saturday night. However, since that time I have done nothing but work work work. Now I don't mind working hard. I like to work hard. It lets me feel good about playing hard when I get to but what I don't like so much is working hard 7 days a week all day and never getting time to spend relaxing with my wife. This semester should be over within a matter of weeks and the list of things that I have to do just keeps getting longer. Many of the things on the list I don't mind and I am looking forward to doing because I know that they are important to my career and they are the reason I am here any way. I really want to work on this journal article that I have been needing to get to for the last month. But instead I am spinning my wheels doing pointless work that will not benefit me professionally. At least this is the last semester of classes that I have and from now on the work that I will be doing (research and teaching) will be the reason that I am here.

This morning I am fighting with the computer in the lab that I use. It is on it is way out and not starting for me. On top of that my laptop won't connect to the internet thanks to this schools weak wireless network so I can't even use my laptop to get the work done that I need to do! So I figured that taking a minute and writing this so I could post it when I get home would be the best way to try and restart the day.

Crashing

2009-03-20T19:36:00.000-05:00

I hate crashing! Today I crashed on the road for the second time since I have been riding seriously. I should feel luck that in 6 years I have only crashed twice but the first time cost me the frame on the bike my wife got me for Christmas. This time the only thing that it cost me was a new saddle and a new team kit. I had been looking at replacing my saddle for a while and luckly I just found the saddle that I wanted on sale and got it pretty cheap (75 bucks). Now I have a sweet looking selle italia SLR! The thing that kills me is the loss of my brand new team kit. I am hoping that I can get a another one since these were the most comfortable shorts and jersey I have ever worn!

I am still working on figuring out exactly why I crashed. I was taking a corner quickly but no faster than normal and suddenly my tires lost their grip and I was skidding across the pavement. I either leaned to far into the turn, hit some gravel, or a bump. Either way the result was the same. Hopefully getting back on tomorrow will not feel to bad. In fact sitting on a saddle will probably feel better than sitting anywhere else considering where the road rash is. Now if my pinkey finger will return to its normal color rather than the blueish color it is now!

I guess crashing is part of the game and the pro way is to get back on.

NEW TEAM--FCS/Metro Volkswagen

2009-03-18T20:42:00.001-05:00

My new team kit is finally in and I can't wait to put it on and go for a ride. The new team has a club level team (the one that I am on) and an elite team (the big boys and girls). The elite team women are all working for a shot to go to Europe this summer and race over there. It is nice being on a team with an elite squad of young folks who may make it to the big leagues one day! Just trying to keep up with them provides all of the challenge I need.

Go Metro!

Austin Pictures

2009-03-18T20:17:00.000-05:00

While we were down in Austin/San Marcos we made it down to the Alamo and Nici was not really all that impressed. She was so unimpressed that the only pictures that she wanted was a 140 year old live oak tree outside the Alamo:

On Sunday we managed to make it to Gruene and the we had a great lunch at the Grist Mill. It was a little cool but sitting out on the patio looking over the river was very nice.
Here is downtown Gruene:

After lunch at the Grist Mill we drove out to Wimberly and got to see some more of the Hill Country.

So hopefully it is obvious why Nici and I are ready to leave North Texas and either head to NC or down to Austin if we can't get back to NC

Austin, TX

2009-03-18T09:09:00.000-05:00

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio. I am already missing the hill country and wish that we lived there. While the weather was a little cold on the first few days it got better the last day. We made it to the Alamo and Nici was only somewhat impressed. Really more interested in the cool live oak that was outside.

We got to see an old friend of mine, do some shopping at the outlet mall and get some lunch at the Gristmill in Gruene. I will post some pictures when I get a chance. The hill country is beautiful. Nici was ready to move down there after only seeing a little of the area.

SPRING BREAK

2009-03-12T22:19:00.000-05:00

After tomorrow morning I will officially be on spring break. Or atleast what passes for spring break for a grad student. My wife and I are taking a much needed long weekend and heading south to Austin and San Antonio and taking in the hills and nice weather. Hopefully I will be able to convince her that there are atleast some nice parts in the state.

While I did not like watching NCSU lose tonight, hopefully the NCAA tourney will be fun to watch.

So for spring break, aside from the usual work that I want to get done I have a short solo training camp to get myself back into shape. To make things even better I found out today that my some of my new team kit is in. Hopefully the bibs and jersey will be in and I can wait for the arm warmers! I will post some pics of the new kit when I get it!

Non-significant results

2009-03-03T21:28:00.000-06:00

In the research world putting a lot of effort into planning a study, collecting the data, and then scoring it and doing the analysis is what we do. Research takes a lot of work and a lot of time if you want to do it right. When you have a lot of effort tied up into this process and the theory that you have built around the hypothesis that you are testing then non-significant results are not what you want to find after all that work. Out of all of the lines of research that I am working on the one that is most important to me involves working memory and executive functioning. Three studies that I have conducted in the last almost 2 years have taken between a month to collect and a year and a half depending on the project. In the last 3 months they have all wrapped up and repeatedly the analysis has come back with findings that I am not happy about. No significant difference!

Then again all data tells us something, even if it not what we want to hear. Atleast for now I have a alternative hypothesis that might just have a decent impact on the field.

Last Blast of winter???

2009-03-01T20:10:00.000-06:00

Well after a very nice week of warm and slightly windy weather the cold front hit us. When I woke up to ride on Saturday morning it was 33 and we had a 30 mph wind. I had gone to sleep the night before thinking that it was only going to be in the low 40's and I had prepared myself to be ready for knee warmers and a jacket but 33 degrees and a 30 mph wind would take much more than knee warmers and a jacket. So with the wind and cold I decided to work and free up sometime on Wednesday to get a few extra miles in. Little did I know that waking up on Sunday it would be 29!

I can't really complain after looking at the weather back in NC. In fact the whole east coast seems to be a little on the cold and snowy side.

Today may have been cold but for the next week it is going to warm up nicely.

I am keeping my fingers cross that this is the last blast of winter.

2 More weeks of classes and then spring break! It is always nice to have spring break at the same time at the ACC tourney and the start of March Madness.

lots of work, a nice ride, and great weather

2009-02-25T20:28:00.000-06:00

Even with having a really busy week and skipping both rides this weekend to get all of my work done I was able to get to a good point today and get out for a 2 hour ride. Not super long but just enough to get the legs moving again. I was able to get out and ride with a friend which made it even better.

For the first 5 miles of my ride I was sure that I had forgotten something at the house. I went through my usual checklist: helmet, yes, keys, yes, phone and cash, yes, inhaler, yes, tools, yes, water and gel, yes. So what am I missing? Then it finally dawned on me, my jacket, arm warmers, hat, knee warmers. It was such a nice day (minus the wind). It was in the mid 70's and sunny. One big plus to living in Texas, nice warm weather at the end of February. One minus, 15-20 mph wind. I guess you can't get it all.

Now back to work. I should be done collecting data on another study by Friday and I am really hoping that this one will work out! I am getting really tired of non-significant results and little to publish.

So much to drink

2009-02-24T21:47:00.000-06:00

Getting ready to leave for campus this morning I heard on the news that new research has shown that drinking green and black tea (hot tea) has important health benefits. Specifically, if I remember what I heard prior to my morning coffee, it may help in the prevention of strokes or reducing the damage from them (like I said I heard it prior to my morning coffee). I do remember that the recommended daily intake was three cups.

So adding up the beverages that I should drink on a daily basis I now have:
-lots of water
-3 cups of tea
- glass of red or white wine (good for heart and lungs respectively)
- a little coffee (I am sure that I remember it being good for something).

I have to pee just thinking about all of that.

Tour of California/ Rock Racing

2009-02-20T21:09:00.000-06:00

My wife and I were watching the Tour of California this last week and listening to the commentary as Rock Racing was working on the front of the field to save Mancebo's leader's jersey. Good ole Phil Ligget made a very sound comment about all of the duty being on Rock Racing's shoulders. My wife looked up to watch the race and her reaction was priceless.

"They sure do, they have a doodie all over that kit"

I would agree with her:
Great Job Tyler in doing some good work on the front but Micheal Ball needs to realize that cycling kits need to look nice not crappy like modern tattoo fashion.

What a crazy last month and a half

2009-02-15T20:29:00.000-06:00

The last month and a half have been abusolutly crazy and busy. The weather has gone from nice in the 70's with little wind to mid-40's with rain and wind and back and forth every few days. Atleast it seems that way lately. In the last 6 weeks I have gone from having a good amount of time to train and get some work done to being back in school and having no time what so ever. I made a trip down to Austin for the first time in about 15 years and had a great time at a conference down there, had some good BBQ at Stubb's and made it to Mellow Johnny's bike shop (Lance's shop).

Mellow Johnny's is a really sweet shop with several very nice bikes on display from Lance, Popovich, and Hincapie. The folks were really nice and while I did not get a chance to try any coffee it smelled great!

Now that I am back in school I am taking three stats/reseach methods classes one of which has a lab and I have several studies going on. I am really looking forward to having a few studies finished and if all goes as planned several more papers to work on! The training is coming along and my legs are begining to feel a little better. I was able to put in some good efforts on my own this last week and I was able to stay with the Saturday group a lot longer last Saturday than I have been lately. With all of the work that I had to do this weekend I ended up not riding at all this weekend but I have done enough work in advance now so I should be able to get some real training in this week.

So what I am training for? Well I am not doing any more road races or crits until I can get a used bike that I don't worry about crashing and not having a bike to ride until I get my PhD. So the alternative is finding a free bike to race or...the Time Trial! Fortunatly with all of the racing that goes on in the state there are several TT's that I can do within a short drive. The first TT of the year is the Horse Country Time Trial Series on March 7th. We will see how it goes. Fortunatly it is only 20K and still early in the season so when the 2nd and 3rd race of the series come around in May and July I should be much faster and able to really do well.

So hopefully I can make sure to schedule everything a little better so that I can do well in school, train so that I am flying on the bike, and find time to do a better job posting on here.

Things to look forward to.....my new team kit. Hopefully it will be here soon.

80 degrees and riding with the big boys and girls

2009-01-05T10:19:00.000-06:00

For my first group ride back in Texas I was excited because the weather was really nice for January (high of 80) and while the wind was crazy (25mph) at least I was betting that the warm temps would bring out a big group so I was not fighting the wind by myself once I got dropped. Yes, I assumed that I was going to get dropped. Saturday was the last day of the Metro VW elite team camp and all of the new team members were there for the group ride so I was pretty sure that it was going to be a pretty fast ride. My assumptions were met pretty quickly once we got out of town a little. I was able to hold on for longer than I thought that I would and after taking a short cut to get back with the group I still was not able to hold on and simply watched the big boys blow by me. I had a little more luck when the girls past me and I was able to hold on for a little longer but not much longer and soon I was by myself again. In total it was not a bad day on the bike and getting to ride with some folks who are far more talented than I will ever be was a blast.

The great weather Saturday does seem to come at a price considering that it is 31 outside with freezing rain. I guess that means that I get to take care of stuff around the house today so I can spend more time on the bike later this week.

A New Year

2009-01-01T20:37:00.001-06:00

So looking back at this last year and thinking about this next year I am excited about all of the things that I hope to do this next year. Between finishing classes and being close to graduating, joining a new road team and getting stronger on the bike I am really looking forward to the new year.

As a tradition I went for a ride today and it was great to be back on my bike riding. The 20mph wind could have been a little weaker but it showed me exactly where my form is and where I need to be over the next few months to be able to be fast this spring. I am looking forward to the next few weeks and the time that I will have to get in those much needed miles before classes start and my riding time during the week goes down and I have to hit the trainer.

I hope that everyone had a great New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and has been able to get some time on the bike and enjoy some good football games.

Trip to NC

2008-12-31T15:50:00.000-06:00

Sitting in a car for 19 hours alternating driving and napping all the way from North Carolina to Texas makes you pretty stiff and tired. The trip out to NC was not too bad b/c we were excited to get back and see family, friends, and the weather was great. The trip back was not as much fun b/c the weather was not as nice and we were tired before the trip started. We got home to a very nice surprise. The two folks that we had taking care of our place while we were gone did an amazing job and when we walked in it was as if we had never left.

It was great to see our family and get to ride with my friends. I was quite happy not to get dropped on the hills and be able to put in some decent pulls. Getting dropped coming across the lake after the hills was not as much fun but then what did I expect after not riding as much as I should prior to the trip. Getting to see most everyone, either on a ride or over coffee, was wonderful. It is always good to be able to catch up with friends and be able to talk about what has gone on since we last talked and then fall back into our normal routine (John sneaking up on me for a sprint sign--You think that I would remember to watch for him).

Having gotten back to TX and getting things back to normal (catching up on sleep, getting back on the bike, reading the bike magazines that have stacked up in the last two months), I am looking forward to the new year and the time that I still have between now and the start of classes to get some stuff done around the house, get some really good base miles in, and prep for the next semester.

Hope that everyone has a happy and safe New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-22T12:03:00.000-06:00

I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas

Here are a few Christmas lights that I had to get a picture of and share. Besides what Texas Christmas display is any good without Santa's Sleigh being pulled by some longhorns.

back in the swing/over dressed

2008-12-12T10:39:00.001-06:00

Hi I am .......and I am an overdresser.

No I am not talking about wearing a tux to dinner, or wearing a nice pair of Khaki's to play football in the mud but rather freaking out because it is 45 degrees and I have forgotten how to dress for riding in the winter.

So one of the side effects of not riding much over the last month as it has gotten a little colder is that I have not slowly added clothing to my ride attire as the temps have fallen. So yesterday when I left to ride it was about 47 and the temperature was rising but rather than being smart and putting on some knee warmers, arm warmers, and a vest, I had on thermal tights, wool socks, wind jacket and some other things. So as the temp started rising my legs started baking. Now I am more than happy to make sure to keep my knees covered as soon as the temps fall below 60 and maybe even sooner but full tights probably are not needed in the 50's. Some embrocation would probably do the trick and not bake my legs. At least I did not have a fleece jersey on so the arms warmers and short sleeve jersey did the trick.

Maybe I will figure out the proper winter attire before I go for a ride in NC with my friends there and show up wearing all of the riding cloths that I own and get laughed at.

At least I was able to get back on the bike yesterday and back in the swing on things.

When does winter end again? I miss the 106 degree days.

End of the Semester

2008-12-11T09:33:00.000-06:00

So I have reached that time of the year again. Finished with exams, waiting to get the grades, now turning my attention to the fact that Christmas is coming up very soon and I have not shopped for many presents yet! My wife is happy that I am not totally focused on finals and end of the semester stuff and I can focus on Christmas and getting to see family that I have not seen since July.

I am looking forward to seeing my family and riding with some friends that I have not seen in a long time, both in NC and TX. I have been off my bike, except for Thanksgiving day, since the beginning of November so as you would expect I can't wait to get back on! I am hoping for 400 miles or so before classes start back again in January. This should not be too hard since classes don't start again until mid January.

Now after finishing my last exam yesterday my wife and I engaged in one of our favorite holiday traditions, driving around looking at lights. So back in NC the light displays always were nice. In North Texas the displays are crazy. So you have your standard light displays with some lights on the roof and maybe an inflatable Mickey Mouse Santa in the yard but then you have your professionally installed displays that border on a National Lampoon's Christmas style display. Looking at some of these displays I can almost see the power meter spinning in the back. While I would not want to be their neighbors I did appreciate being able to drive by and admire their work (and payment of the electric bill). The house with the red lighted arrow on the roof pointing to the chimney may take the top spot for creativity for the year, unless I see one that tops it soon!

Well since it is starting to warm up outside (37 degrees) I may see if I still have any warm riding cloths and go and get the first ride of the break in. I am probably going to freeze when I am back in NC riding.

Manuscript submitted

2008-12-02T21:52:00.001-06:00

So today I submitted my first manuscript to a journal in which I am the first author! So now I play the waiting game and see if it gets accepted, revise and resubmit, or rejected. We will wait and see.

On other news I am trying to decide between a Selle Italia SLR and a Selle Italia SLR XP, or wait and get something else with some extra money that I earned this summer.

Do the 30grams of extra padding really make a difference??

Any opinions??

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T20:41:00.000-06:00

I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. Right now I am sitting on the couch watching a movie and the fire in the fire place, sitting beside our very good smelling Christmas tree. We just had a great dinner of the left overs from yesterday and they were just as good today as yesterday.
After a good afternoon of doing a little black Friday shopping it is nice to come home and relax.

No to get up tomorrow and hopefully put in a few more miles to take care of the extra turkey that I ate yesterday. And then of course enjoy the great football on tomorrow.

Endurance Racing

2008-11-23T20:02:00.000-06:00

So with my weekend cyclocross race chances at an end I was happy to see today that DORBA ( Dallas mountain biking group) has decided to grow their frozen four hour series to three six hour races. I have not done any 6 hour races since I moved from North Carolina and to be honest I have only ridden my mountain bike twice since I have moved to Texas. I am really excited about the series and the first race is scheduled for 12/13 so I guess it is time to hop back on the bike and try to find some form. Hopefully the last three weeks of time off the bike will have been a nice "rest" and allow me to still have some legs so that I can actually do the first race in the series.

I may have missed the big cross races but endurance mountain bike races will be a nice way to start back with some winter base miles for this next season.

Cyclocross weekends

2008-11-21T20:15:00.000-06:00

OK so wouldn't you know it. Last weekend 2 cross races in Dallas. This weekend 2 cross races in Ft. Worth. All part of the Texas cyclocross race series that has stops in Austin and Huston. So it would make sense that I would get sick last weekend and not be able to race and now on Friday I am starting to feel better but after two weeks of not riding my registration fee would simply be a nice donation to the cause. While I don't mind not winning a race I at least like to go into a race knowing that I have a chance to not finish last. Given my lack of a true cyclocross bike (have to use my hardtail mountain bike for now) and the probable lack of legs it looks like I will be leaving the cross racing for me to just some weekday training races that I can catch once classes are over in a week or so. That and the good Belgium beer I have waiting in the fridge. MMMM Delirium Nocturnum......MMMMMM.

Maybe next cross season will be better. Now accepting cyclocross bike sponsorship (ie. bike donations). :)

It is nice to have my wife back in town after a long 10 days of being out of town for work. We all missed her (me and the four legged crew).

Swimming

2008-11-03T20:45:00.000-06:00

So I recently started doing some serious (or at least pretty serious) swimming. I actually got a real swimming suit (nike jammers) and goggles and set a weekly swimming time.

At first I could only make it to the end of the pool before I had to take a break. Then I could do a full lap without stopping.

Well last week I hit a new mark. I swam a full mile without stopping at all. I was pretty tired at the end but very happy that I had made it!

So what is the next mark- 1.5 miles, 2 miles? or just faster?

VOTE

2008-10-30T20:49:00.000-05:00

So in case there is any one reading this who has done gone out and voted yet or have no plans to do so on election day, let me just say this------GO VOTE!

Our ability to go out and vote and make our beliefs known is one of our greatest freedoms. If you do not use your freedom then it does not seem like such a big deal when you lose them. Who cares if the government can tap our phones, as long as it prevents terrorism. Somethings we must stand up and scream about so that we do not lose. Sometimes the cost is not worth the gain. Losing our privacy so that we are "safer" is not as easy a trade. Nor should it be one we have to make.

Sometimes we must stand up and say ENOUGH!

So go out and make your voice heard. GO VOTE!

Balance (or what I learned about life from cycling)

2008-10-30T20:07:00.000-05:00

Balance- It is a pretty simple word that means so much. Staying up right on a bike, Not falling over, keeping the rubber on the pavement....It seems so simple but it is not. Think back to when you were a kid and you were learning how to ride for the first time and you did not want to remove the training wheels. Maybe think back to the first time that you rode with clipless pedals and did not want to fall and do something like break your arm.

Once you get past the training wheels and the clipless pedals the training comes. Pushing yourself on hard intervals and trainer workouts until you are ready to puke. Or riding so hard that you can taste the blood in your mouth and feel the searing in your lungs just trying to stay on the wheel of the guy in front of you so that you don't get dropped in the middle of nowhere in a 20 mph wind.

And we all do it so that we can get faster, stronger, more able to attack at just the right time. Then again if all we do is go hard then we just end up tired and not able to even hold a 10mph pace, so we have to balance the hard rides with the recovery rides.

And then there is life...............
Balance is just as important in life as it is on the bike. Balancing demands of work/school, family, training and everything else can sometimes not go as smoothly as we and other folks would like. Sometimes work can be all consuming and you end up not spending any time on the bike and just enough time with family so that they remember your name. But then all of those other things and people start to remind you that you need to spend sometime with them. The family (wife) starts to make sure to schedule time with you for dinner and a movie and every time that you walk by your bike your legs start to ache, reminding you of all of the hours that you have spent on the bike building the form that you are losing.

So sometimes you spend a few more hours on work one week as long as the next you make sure to spend a few more hours doing those things that you neglected the week before. But then again with just the right balance.............then maybe everything will continue to work out and everyone will stay happy.

So just like on the bike rather than wobbling to one side just to wobble to the other next, staying up right and keeping "the rubber side down" is not as easy as we make it look sometimes.

Obviously since my last post was back in August I have not done the best job with balance in the last month or so but life seems to be coming back into balance and keeping it that way seems a little more manageable.

Here's to keeping life a little more balanced.

Hotter'n Hell-WOW

2008-08-24T19:11:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I did Hotter'n Hell and all I can say is wow. The distance, the crowd, the temperature, the effort all of it was bigger than what I had done before. Ok so it was not so hot and the wind was not too bad but it was still crazy.

We left Lewisville at 3:30am to get to Wichta Falls by 5:30am and eat and get ready for a 7:09 start time. We made it there in plenty of time and picked up our packet and shirts (Good thing that we pre-registered b/c the line was long). As we were getting ready the sun had still not started and folks were already gathering at the start by 6am. The races left at 6:40 (still no sun). We lined up by 6:45 and the crowd was already very very large. We moved up as close as we could to the start but we were still aways back. The crowd of riders stretched for 11 blocks. After a jet fly over and a cannon blast we started walking our bikes for a little while before we could get to the point that we could get one and ride. Shortly after we started I saw 4 pairs of spare tires on the ground and I would have stopped to get them if I would not have been run over! When we finally got started I spent most of the first 20 miles in the oncoming lanes of traffic (thankfully there was no oncoming traffic) passing folks who had started prior to us. I would have hated to start any further than the half a block back that we did start.

I guess that is what happens when you have 11,000+ riders!

After about 60 miles we actually stopped for more water and gatorade. We made it to the 62 mile "Hell's Gate" several hours before the 12:30 cut off. They stop letting people pass and do the 100 mile route at 12:30 for heath safety concerns. After the 60 mile rest stop we powered on and kept up a great pace. Other than stopping for a flat and a lose crank (neither on my bike) we did not stop except for the 60 mile rest stop. At mile 80 the only thought that I had was what Todd had told me about never having a good ride over 80 miles. I kept topped off on water and gel and other than the hot spots on my feet I felt great. I took some really good pulls from mile 90 to the end and kept the pace over 20mph. We finished in 5 hours and 7 minutes and had 4 hours and 44 minutes of total ride time. An average of 21.3mph for the whole ride goes to show how flat the ride was. The roads were either flat or a false flat. Many of the roads were very well paved but the rest were typical harsh chipseal. The number of polar water bottles that I saw on the ground was astounding. I stopped counting after 20 bottles.

I still can't believe that I finished my first 100 mile ride in about 5 hours and I still felt fresh enough this morning to do strong ride ( I just could not hold back on the hills and sprint points- my legs were screaming but I had to go for them).

It was pretty nice to do something big like this the weekend before classes start up and the grind begins again.

We will see if I decide to do Hotter'n Hell again but I am very glad that I did it and it was, as they say, "An Experience Fundamentally Texas!"

Hotter than Hell

2008-08-17T21:05:00.000-05:00

So Hotter than Hell is a big and I mean big ride here in Texas in August. Last year they had over 11,000 riders. We will have to see what this year is like. I have never done a ride with that many riders, it will be an experience. I figure that I have to do it at least once while I am here. I have never actually ridden a 100 miles so it will be interesting.

While the heat of the last few weeks has been killer it does seem like it has cooled off a little thanks to a front that is coming through. This weekend has been nice, with highs in the upper 80's and low 90's and Monday-Thursday of this week are going to be rainy with a high around 87! Hopefully hotter than hell on Saturday will actually not be that hot.

I will let everyone know how hotter than hell goes this weekend.

WHAT have I gotten myself into! 100 miles in August in Texas with 11,000+ other riders.

Back from NC and it is HOT

2008-08-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

Nici and I got back from North Carolina almost a month ago and it has been a crazy time since then. I have spent a good amount of time back in the lab collecting data as well as working on a paper. I have been able to spend more time on my bike and am finally in decent shape.

I was great seeing everyone back in NC and getting to ride with everyone. Thanks to Terry for letting me borrow his bike and to his daughter for meeting me at his place to let me pick it up!

It was great getting do the old rides and new ones (great job on the new ride Sandra) as well as being able to ride to Chapel Hill and back, something that I had oddly enough never done.

Of course getting to see my family was wonderful! Nici and I got to go down to Jenn and David's new house at the beach and relax down there and see their place.

So after getting back to Texas the heat is on. Last Monday when I left my house to go ride it was 105 outside and the highs this weekend were 106 and 107! wow it is hot here. Hopefully it will cool off but at least with taking three big bottles of ice and water you can cool off a little by drinking a lot and pouring a lot over your head! I guess this is why the ride in two weeks is called hotter than hell.

Stay safe!

Late Spring makeover

2008-06-17T19:41:00.000-05:00

So every spring a addition of new parts to replace the old parts that have worn out is called for. Maybe in most sports gear is not as technical and does not require as much maintenance but this is cycling and we have to replace parts prior to them getting too old. New chain and cassette (so that they don't wear out the cranks), new tires (so they don't wear through and you get a bad flat), new handlebar tape (b/c the old stuff looks worn out). Same old drill as usual. I had been acquiring parts since Christmas and I was waiting to put them on.

New parts:

My bike prior to the changes:

It was the first time that I had tried to change my own cassette but I had seen it done and it was supposed to be easy. Well it would have been had my cassette not dug into the cassette body!!! Fortuatly thanks to Bluebonnet bikes for telling me what was going on and making me feel like I was not an idiot and then a trip to Bicycles Plus to pull off the cassette and put the new one on I was in business. Plus I got to drool on the wheels that I would love to have. After getting home and getting some real work done ( I am writing a paper) I was able to do a really good job cleaning my bike and getting the new stuff on.

The completed makeover:

So I had to get the grey/black tires b/c Performance was out of the red ones that look so much better with the bike but they were cheaper and I decided that for this year I could go with the grey/black ones!

Now the last of the makeover was completed by Sunday. Thanks to new hair clippers my hair is much shorter and the legs are back to looking like a real cyclist.

We did make it down to Dallas this last weekend to watch a few races at the Matrix crit. The races were very good and despite the heat the shaded sidewalks made watching the races a lot of fun. It did make me want to be out on the course racing myself! So now to work on getting back into racing shape and doing some real races!

Back on Track

2008-06-08T19:40:00.000-05:00

So I had a great weekend back on the bike. I rode much stronger this weekend on both the Saturday and Sunday ride and ended up getting a little over 100 miles in. I even beat everyone up the last climb of the day today despite a good amount of work that I had done into the wind.

Speaking of the wind. WTF. The wind has been pretty strong around here all week. When I say strong I mean 35+mph. Some how I managed to do ok today and yesterday in the 20-25mph wind, even taking a few strong pulls into the wind. I am looking forward to this week. I plan on commuting to campus a few days and then doing atleast the Wednesday KOW ride as well as maybe the Thursday night ride. I also have to do the work on my bike to put on all of the new parts!

Well we will see how the week goes.

Resuming a normal schedule

2008-06-06T15:21:00.000-05:00

Well I am happy to say that I successfully completed my first training block of the year and I feel like I am in better shape and won't be horribly embarrassed on tomorrow's group ride. I will see if I am in better shape tomorrow since I have not done any fast group rides since the training block finished. I have been spending a lot of time on campus this week running participants for one of my studies. Now for those of you who may not be familiar with the process I will explain a little. We have undergrads sign up to take part in our studies at specific times and then we sit and wait in the lab for them to show up. Now most of the time during the semester this goes pretty smoothly. We have some that don't show but the majority do. The last few days I have had very few participants show up so I have been spending time reading journal articles and trying to put together an outline for a paper that I will be writing. Now if only more of those participants would show up I might have another paper to write!!!

So I am getting back to a regular schedule of riding, writing a paper, and running a study or two. Hopefully the rest of the summer will be relatively calm, but with a trip to NC, a two week job doing data collection, and probably moving I can only hope for the best.

At least the riding will help cure some of the stress.

First ride back

2008-05-28T19:49:00.000-05:00

So today I went out and had my first ride in the 5 day training plan. Today was actually a free day that was added on thanks to the rain that came in a day early! So we will see how the next few days go. I have been off the bike way too much this spring and I am about 1000 miles behind where I need to be. Well hopefully the next few days go well and I will be able to catch up a bit. I do know I am going to be a little tired by the end of it but then again that is a good thing.

I saw a ton of riders out on the road today. I was not expecting to see anyone at all but I saw atleast 15 riders and I could not believe it. It was great to see so many folks out on a week day. Hopefully I will see as many tomorrow morning since I am going earlier and longer.

See you on the road.

Chicago

2008-05-26T13:13:00.000-05:00

So I after the trip to NC to see my little sister graduate from vet school I had a little down time back in TX and got to do a little riding but not as much as I wanted to. It was nice to be able to get out and just ride. I did a few rides by myself and the rest were with a group and I was not too slow. On my last ride I was out in the country and saw something that I have never seen while riding before. When I moved to TX I quickly got used to seeing longhorn cattle, horses, goats, roadrunners, and even buffalo. Now during the last ride I actually stopped on the side of the road to see if what I was seeing was true. I had just done a short interval and it was getting pretty hot and I was starting to get low on water so I was worried that what I was seeing was a hallucination. Sure enough standing there was a ZEBRA!!! I took a few pictures with my phone so that my wife would believe me and then kept riding.

So right now I am sitting in my hotel room in Chicago at a Psychology conference, APS. I don’t have Internet access so I will have to post this on Sunday when I get back to TX. Last night we all went out and drank a bunch and stayed out really late. WOW, I can’t do that much any more. I know that with all of the food and drinks I am going to pay for it when I get back on the bike on Monday morning. At least I should be able to put in a lot of miles this next week and a lot of hours in the saddle. I am very disappointed with the number of miles that I have ridden this year so far and I plan on fixing that in the next month. I only have about 680 miles so far this year. My goal is to be at 2,000 by the end of July. If I can do that I will be very happy. 1,500 miles may be a more reasonable goal but we will see. We will see how the research goes this summer and how the job goes. If I can find the right job that does not require a bunch of odd hours then I should be able to do research and get the miles in.

One thing about being in Chicago is the number of bikes that are on the street. Some are old beaters but a lot are pretty sweet fixed gear bikes. Although I really don’t think that I would do well riding in the city. The traffic is bad enough walking and plus it is cold here while it is nice and warm back home in TX.

See you on the road.

The Plan

2008-05-07T10:39:00.000-05:00

So with the spring semester over I have created the plan:

The plan will focus on three major things: research (ie. publications!!!!), a job, and RIDING! The part that I will focus on here is the riding.

I am way behind on miles so far this year and in a few weeks I expect to put in more miles than I have all year. With the right recovery in between the long rides I should be back to a decent shape within a month with the right training rides. Aerobically the running that I did this winter and spring has kept me in pretty good shape but the riding muscles are not what they should be so I will bring those back ASAP. As part of this large increase in miles I also want to finally get rid of the weight that I have been working on getting rid of for a while now. A light and strong rider is a better climber! As the first part of this plan my bike gets a make over next week. The new tires are on their way and the new handlebar tape will be purchased when I get back from NC. The new cassette and new chain have been waiting since Christmas thanks to are ready to be put on thanks to my wife! Once I get a few miles in the saddle and I am back with the faster rides the leg hair must go to fit in with the big boys.

So the Plan:
1. Clean and give my bike the spring cleaning treatment
2. Miles,miles, miles, and more miles.
3. Fewer sodas so that the miles result in a faster, more powerful rider
4. Clean legs so the racers won't realize that I am clinging to their wheels for dear life (At least until they see my face.
5. Hill repeats and sprint intervals so I can keep up when we go back to NC and I can show folks around here what a NC rider is like.

Well after I get back from NC the plan starts and I will keep the blog up to date with my progress.

See you on the road.

The end of the first year

2008-05-06T16:25:00.000-05:00

So I took my one and only final today and now I am done with my first year of classes. Now I get to spend the summer doing research and writing papers hopefully. Along with a bunch of riding. I am very close to having a plan put together for training and the summer. The sole goal is to be in better shape by the end of the summer than I was when I left North Carolina. If I can do that I will not only be able to keep up with the groups that I ride with now but hopefully I will be able to take my share of pulls with the A group as well.

My wife and I get to see our friends and family this weekend! My little sister graduates from vet school this weekend. I can't believe that she will be a vet in a couple of days. GO JENN!!!

But for now....the semester is over and I am off to get some papa johns pizza, enjoy a Duck-Rabbit milk stout( man I wish they sold Duck-rabbit in Texas), and watch the primary results from NC tonight! The plan will start tomorrow!

End of the Semester

2008-04-28T19:35:00.000-05:00

So the semester is finally winding down. I am finished with two of the three classes that I am taking this semester and only have a little more work to do with the other one. To celebrate I am getting up tomorrow morning and going for a run. The real celebration starts Wednesday when I get to go for a ride during the week.

Look out road here I come!

why a blog

2008-04-27T18:44:00.001-05:00

So I started this blog to provide a peek into the life of a graduate student in psychology who is also a active cyclist. I just started back in grad school after a two and a half year break from school. I got my masters and then got a job and got married. After several years of a good job and money to buy a nice bikes and time to train and become competitive I decided to give up the job and free time and go back to school and get my PhD. Would would someone do this? Well who knows.

Hopefully by writing this blog about school and the new riding adventures I am having here in North Texas I can share my experiences with my riding friends back in NC as well as my family and anyone else who happens to stubble along.

As the Spring semester is winding down now I will hopefully have a lot more time to ride and get back into better form. I will try to share any worth while experiences along the way.

See you on the road.