End of the Month

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.