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!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Fall 2009- Here goes nothing
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!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Balance
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.
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.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Hotter'n Hell take 2
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????
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????
Friday, August 14, 2009
2nd half of summer
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!
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!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
A tale of two rides
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.
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.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Back for 2nd half of the summer
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!
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!
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