Busy week but a very nice end to the week

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas in North Carolina

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

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!