2010

As 2010 starts up later this week, it's time to think about what happened in 2009...... but I won't be doing that in this post. It would be too hokey. I have been pondering trying to take a camera on more of my rides in 2010. I can't take credit for this idea in any way. Not only do lots of cyclists do this, but two of the blogs that I vicariously follow (through my sister) do a daily photo type thing. I find myself looking forward to those blogs so why not try to emulate and replicate. Since I'm stuck indoors right now I probably won't be posting anything for awhile.

Right now I'm working my way through Platoon while biking. I forgot how horrifying the film is. I do think it's funny seeing a young Charlie Sheen playing an actor with a conscious. He must have used it up between then and now. It also weird to see Dr. Cox from Scrubs in the movie playing a more serious role. Oddly enough, he uses the same whistle in Platoon as is does in the show Scrubs. There are a bunch of actors that I recognize but can't name. Such is the DeYoung tradition (i.e. Kevin Bacon who?)

I biked while I watched my suffer-o-rama dvd that I got for Christmas earlier this week. I didn't bike along to the work out. I just watched it while I sort of rolled along. I did take all the breaks, I just didn't do any of the hard parts. Oddly enough, I was still a bit sore the next day. I can say that the people on the dvd did look like they were suffering. I might give it a try in a few weeks once I get back up to speed following the Christmas black hole of exercise.

Client

I saw a client today and it was by far the best session I have had to date. I felt professional. I let myself have a little more fun than usual. I think I might actually have a positive influence for this client. After a long day, it was a good way to end.

Who would have thought

Saturday morning headaches

For some reason I get pretty bad headaches on Saturday mornings a lot of the time. I don't know if it is because of there is a different level of stress on Saturday or if is because I sleep in a bit later than usual. Maybe it is some other reason that I haven't thought of. The last few weeks have been particularly bad ones involving nausea. I think that if they were happening not on Saturdays I'd go to the doctor, since they are so systematic I'm not as worried. Thankfully, Excedrin takes care of them within a few hours and then I'm good to go.

Liz is usually running or working on Saturday mornings, which is good because I can turn off all the lights (which usually makes my headaches worse). By the time she comes home I'm usually on the up and up and ready to act human again.

The bike club has a new sponsor! SRAM is one of the major producers of bike components. I currently have SHIMANO on my bike, but I'm thinking about taking the plunge and going with only a double ring on the front and a higher performance group set. I don't know though; why tamper with something that seems to work just fine? Maybe I'll save the money and spend it on something more worthwhile.

I haven't gone on my ride today. I'll wait till this afternoon when it is a bit warmer.

Cold and Wet

I got a quick ride in after school toady. It was super windy and then it started raining. I was also going slow because I was tired. It made for a cold wet long ride. Other than that it was great. That's about all from here.

New things

Today was my second day of from break. It was significantly less productive than yesterday, but that is ok I think. I did take my bike to the bike shop today. I was getting some really weird and strong vibrations through the drive train. As the bike mechanic put it "your chain is totally wasted." One shiny new chain later, I was back on the road. As luck would have it, one of the roads I bike on was being repaved. The steam roller pulled off and I was the road's first traffic. The pavement was still steaming and there were no bumps. I think all the construction workers were a bit confused and amused. I was really tired so I probably looked pretty sad.

Penny is currently walking all over Liz on the bed, but she is asleep and doesn't realize what is going on...and now Penny thinks that Liz's cellphone/alarm clock is a toy so I need to go stop her from playing with it.

What I want for Christmas

Not one, but two kegs.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/only-in-portland-beer-keg-carrying-party-bike/

Fall break

Time for a break (sort of). Even though there is a lot to do over the break it isn't nearly as stressful. Plus, I don't have to think about clients for a few days. As expected, I love actually meeting with clients, but the amount of paperwork that goes along with it just sucks the time away. Before you know what is happening, you've spent 4 hrs just checking and updating all your client files. Then you have to see more clients, and then you start over again. This leave lots of time for research, class, and my prelim paper. My father would say "Don't worry, it'll all get done." I expect he's right, but it is still annoying. At a minimum, the break will help me get my feet back under me.

I got to go for a 2 hr bike ride today so that was nice. It is certainly getting colder out. I wore long sleeves, but even with those I was a bit cold. I think I might invest in some knee warmers since there are still two more Time Trials to go over the next month. This is the time of year when you can't wear your winter gear because it is still to warm, but you still need more than just what you wear in the summer. It was a good ride, but a bit slow because of the wind. I got stopped by a long train and felt like I was back at Hope. I saw this ridiculous looking old electric red car that was in the middle of nowhere. I guess if ran out of batteries. It had those huge headlights from the seventies so the front of the car looked a lot like a face. It was very small and angular.

I passed some nice looking horses and two cats.I really wanted to see a cute stray dog. Liz says if I pray hard enough God will send one into my path and then we can keep him. I'll be keeping my eyes open.

Tonight I get to do lots of grading. Hurray.

Getting Ready for Church

The past week was long. It had a fair number of ups and downs. Some of the ups included making some progress with a few of my clients, going to the Purdue game, and not upsetting any professors (that I know of). Downs included, having a killer headache this morning, losing a stack of quizzes, and having to pay big money for new breaks and sway bars on the ford. All in all I call the week a wash.

I've been getting a few rides in here and there, but now that I'm seeing clients it has gotten harder. Typically therapy happens in the late afternoon to early evening which is my typical ride time. Once it is to cold to ride out side I'll be better about riding inside at night. The time trial series is going well. The third race is this week. I'm 12 overall out of some 45 people, so if I have a good race I could move into the top 10. My training schedule would also suggest that this may not happen...

Well time for church and then afternoon assessments. Woohoo... and if anyone sees a stack of quiz sevens around, let me know!!!!!!

Prayer request

I've had a really tough start to the semester. I'm really frustrated with my progress in the program and the program itself. I've been praying a lot, but maybe a few more prayers would help.

So for those of you who read this, would you please pray that

1) I keep my anger, anxiety, and frustration under control (at a minimum that I remain professional)

2) I am kind and forgiving to everyone without allowing myself to taken advatage of

3) That I stop feeling guilt for things I can't control

4) That I remember that Liz is on my side and God is in control

Thanks

(5) and if you have spare prayer time left over maybe ask God to help me find time to bike once or twice a week.

Cramp

It is the time of the year where club rides are starting again. I tend to enjoy these since they help me keep up my mileage during the busy weeks. It looks like I'll be able to get to two rides a week if I am able to keep on top of my work. I'd be happy with that.

Rides start and end at the coRec. This means that following the ride I get to ride another 4.1 miles home. During this stretch there is one moderate hill and one small hill. Following the club rides they both feel much harder. I usually end up slogging up them with much form.

Yesterday I was at the top of the medium hill, following a club ride, and I had a calf cramp. I can't remember the last time my leg has cramped up like this. For a minute or two I thought I was going to have to call Liz to pick me up. It would have been an interesting conversation.

Me: I can't make it home. Will you come pick me up?

Liz: Where are you?

Me: about 2 blocks away

Liz: no

Me: Why not?

Liz: You're just being a baby

I light of my hypothetical conversation I figured I'd skip the call and just bike home. Indeed, I made it home just fine. It was by far the worst leg cramp I've ever had. It is still sore now more than 12 hours later. CRAZY!

Later that night I discovered that my phone doesn't work anymore so I may not have been able to call her anyway. The buttons are possessed on my phone. Buttons work, but who knows what they will actually do. I may have accidentally called two or three people last night while trying to check my voice mail.

Zionsville pictures

Here are pictures from my Zionsville race. This is the race where I crashed. The first one is before I crashed, and the rest are after I crashed and lost contact with the main field.

Feeling good here.... 2nd place

Nasty turns on the cobblestones made me nervous (but weren't part of the crash)

Approaching turn 2 where I crashed.

Gazing down the main stretch knowing that I won't catch up.

New tire

My back tire was getting tired. Enough chuncks of rubber had been gouged out that a flat was becoming inevitable. Thankfully, it happed all of a sudden while I was sleeping in bed. Woke up in the morning and it was competely flat. The odd thing was that it held pressure when I pumped it up. I didn't ride it though, it would have been risky.

I finally got around to getting a new tire and changing both the tube and tire tonight. Here is the big surprise, the spare tube that I carry around in my saddle bag ended up being the right size but the valve stem is too short!!!! I specifically asked them what size I needed when I got the bike and they handed me that box. If I had ever had a flat on the open road, I would have gone through all the motions only to realize at the very end that I couldn't inflate the thing. Gah. Makes my stomach contract.

Anyway, I now have a stock of spare tubes that all have the wrong size valve, a tire with no tube, and a half assembled bike. blah. I guess I'll force myself to go back to the bike shop tomorrow and exchange them because spending time in the shop is such a chore for me.

The shorts that were

The shorts that were

They should look like this (Right leg):

but now look like this (left leg):

Single tear

Pictures of scrapes

I took pictures of my road rash tonight. I decided that they were finally healed enough to post some pictures. It's been 9 days. However, I understand that some people aren't into seeing road rash or any portion of my behind (no matter how healed it is) so I posted them to a post from a long time ago. If you want you can see them, you can click right here.

On the picture of the calf, if you look close you can see all the pink skin that has already grown back underneath the little bit that still looks gross. On my hip, you can see the red vertical lines underneath the gross part that tell you which way I was sliding on the ground.

For everyone that doesn't want to look at my gross legs, you can enjoy this picture:

I'm sorry if it makes you think of Walmart. I don't really endorse them, but I do shop there so I can't bash them too much.

note... yes, I do own and wear "red fish, blue fish" Dr. Seuss boxers as evidenced in the pictures. All the real men do it.

all bandaged up

shower

I took a shower today and it was the single most painful shower I have ever taken. How can little scratches sting so much?

anyway, cudos to liz for helping bandage me every few hours.

Race one

I finally took the plunge and participated in a Criterium race! The Tour de Champaign, once the stomping grounds of Amanda and Ben, was a nice small starter race. There were about 25-30 riders in the CAT5 race (beginners level). Here are the highlights.

-Averaging 24.1 mph over the 35 minutes.

-not crashing (but coming close twice.. both times around a corner. the first I just was nervous, and the second time an outside bike got close to me and my front wheel rubbed up against the back wheel of the person in front of me.)

-Staying in the main chase pack the whole time

- At the end, I managed to beat a few people in the final sprint. (12th place overall)

- It rained AFTER our race finished. It wouldn't have been fun doing this first one in the rain.

Training will now be changed to involve more sprinting. Lots of it. After every turn, there was a sprint for a few seconds as everyone grouped up. I need about 15 minutes more of sprints in my legs to do better.

It's amazing how close people are together during these things. Sometimes we were single file but lots of the time I had bikes on all sides of me in very close proximity.

Overall, it was pretty fun and I made my goal of staying in the pack. Liz posted all the pictures and video of the event at http://accidentalboilermaker.blogspot.com/

Ride this morning

I rode this morning with a new person. Riding with new people is always a little awkward because you don't know who they are, how much they ride, how fast they are, how much they like the color of your bike, and so forth. This person was incredibly friendly and I have nothing but good things to report about him.

This is how the actual ride went... We meet at the corner at 6:30am sharp. He says lets do a bit of a warm up before the sprint sets (this was discussed earlier and all part of the plan). He starts pedaling with ease while I'm sucking wind trying just to keep up. I kept up and even pretended not to be out of breath.

For the sprint set we were planning on doing 30second sprints followed by 30seconds of rest. All I can say is that every time we started a sprint he dropped the hammer and rode like a bat out of hell. Here is my favorite quote from him after the 6th sprint "Yeah, the first ones are hard because you aren't warmed up enough so you can't really put a full effort into it." I translated it in my head as... We have have two to more sets of sprints after we finish this set so I'm planning on going faster on the next set of 10. I think he assumed I was holding back too. Reality was I was trying not to choke on my own spit from breathing so hard.

So it went on like this for awhile. By the end, I was using the 30 second rest to catch up to him. Let me tell you it stinks when you catch up just in time to have another sprint.

I got home and then decided to take the bus into school rather than ride my bike. ha.

But it was fun going fast, and it always helps to ride with stronger people than yourself. I hope we can ride together enough times for me to feel comfortable keeping up with him.

oh.... and school is like a stinky pig face. How's that for a simile. There's nothing like spending tons of time ( a whole year) doing a project for an advisor who suddenly decides the original idea isn't worth a grain of salt. ughhh. Grad school is like a grumpy toilet that smells odd. I'm glad I switched advisers ...... end rant

Wed night is always long

I have a weekly meeting with my advisor and lab mate every Thursday. This is itself is great given the involvement level of my last advisor. It feels great to actually be making progress on multiple manuscripts and projects(we are up to 5 in progress now).

The only problem is that our weekly lab meeting is 4 hours long. Yup, we start at 11:00 and go to 3:30 (he lets us break for lunch and bathroom). That is a lot of time to fill for just one weeks worth of progress. Anyway, it means that on Wed nights I have to stay up late working because losing a little sleep is better than having to sit there in silence. I do believe it will all pay off in the end though.

Other than that, my bike ride was good today. It didn't rain on me which was a distinct possibility. I did a hill workout, and boy can my legs feel it now. I am hungry all the time now. I had a huge dinner at a Mexican restaurant, then three hours later I'm starving again. I had a bag of popcorn, and now I'm on my forth sloppy joe. I better go to bed before I eat all the food in the house. Liz wouldn't be happy if that happened.

July 11

I entered a bike race. I don't expect to do very well since it will be my first race, but I'm still pretty pumped. I've been training pretty hard, but I still have a long way to go yet.

Hot Hot Hot

It sure is easy taking days off when it is so hot outside. Today and yesterday have been simply sweltering. I had a long day at work so I thought I would go out for just a short ride to clear my mind. I don't know if it is the heat or if r-ball took the spring out of my legs or if I'm just out of shape, but my last few rides have been so slow. Hopefully, someday I'll be "fast" again. The ride wasn't horrible, but it sure wasn't great either. The worst part was that my rest times at all the stoplights really were just periods of dead sweats. Maybe I'll learn to get out of bed in the morning again.


Thanks about all from here.

Day Off

In lieu of yesterday's bad ride, I didn't ride today. Instead, I lifted with Liz and picked weeds in the garden. I also stretched to try and loosen all of my leg/butt muscles.

yay

Bonked

Today's ride was going to be a flat easy 25 miles on a route that I do all the time. The first 12 miles went just fine, but the last 13 were not good. I just ran out of juice. It was warmer than usual, but I had more than enough water. It took every ounce of effort just to crawl along at half the speed I usually go. Now that I'm back home, I would be happy not to move for the rest of the day.

ugh.

Morning Ride

Last week I played Racquetball with some friends. It was a lot of fun, but having not played for a year or two I payed the price in the following days. On Friday I could barely move. Liz had ample opportunity to make old man jokes at me. Anyway, it kept me off the bike for a few days. This morning I finally got back on and rode an easy 16 miles. It was fairly cool, but very humid. My glasses kept fogging up which is annoying.

Red Wings in Game Seven

Three things happened tonight in the hockey arena. Lady luck was not on the Red Wings side tonight, the Penguins played out of their minds, and the Red Wings slacked off in the 1st period. All this combined allowed the Penguins to squeak out a win...barely. Game Seven is no contest (at least in my world).

I rode my bike for 5 miles on the trainer just to stretch the legs out a bit since they are a bit tender from a hard ride yesterday.

I might try putting in some r-ball into my workout routine for cross training purposes. I doubt it will help cycling at all, but I like r-ball. I figure that should be enough.

Back to doing homework now.

Day off

No riding today with work and school. I'm not upset, my legs are really sore from riding hard the last few days. They need the rest.

summer schedule

I'm still not completely in my summer swing yet. Possibly part of that is due to Liz not starting work until last week. I've found that if I don't have a pretty riding structured plan for the week, I "forget" to get out and ride. I'm hoping that following this week, I'll get into a routine. 

I'm thinking about racing in Fort Wayne on July 11. I've never done that before and find it oddly scary. I'll probably see how my training goes over the next few weeks before making a firm decision. 

My bike was i the shop last week and I think they solved the clicking noise in the headset. It only took two times taking to them, but they are very friendly and helpful. The shop really does earn the loyalty of its customers. 

I really like Tony Kanaan, and they always have tv commercials of him doing these crazy pushups on tv. To cut to the point, when I try to do push ups Tony Kanaan style I pull some weird hip muscle which is annoying. I can still bike just fine, but it is annoying.

That's all to today

Here is a picture of Tony.

Bright Red

Liz and I spent a few hours tilling and planting our garden this afternoon. We are halfway done. All of the seedlings are in the ground. The other half of the garden will happen once the ground drys out from the rain showers we got today. 

While in the garden I got hot and took off my shirt. I thought that because it was already 3:00pm, partly cloudy, and raining at times there wouldn't be any problems. I was dreadfully wrong. My back is tomato red (minus where my overalls were covering my back).  Every time Liz looks at me she makes weird noises, so I guess I look pretty bad from behind. We got Aloe at Walmart, so hopefully it will do wonders. 

Stored KiloCalories

Liz and I went to visit her grandparents in Decatur yesterday and today. We ate a lot of food. I'm not sure I'll need to eat any time in the next few days. Food ranged from pies (rhubarb and coconut cream), baby back ribs, blackberry pancakes, bacon, eggs, potatoes, Burgers, Hot dogs, and more. It was all so tasty that I couldn't help but have second on everything (to be polite of course). I decided that this was really part of my bike training. If I'm going to ride lots of miles, I'll need to be able to consume hundreds of thousands of calories per day. 

I guess now that I'm back home, I'll have to start biking them off.

Saturday I went for a 45 mile ride in the morning. It went ok. I pulled a butt muscle (on the right side) of some kind at mile 17 so that slowed me down and made it a bit uncomfortable. It's feeling a little better today. I might go for an easier ride tomorrow and see how it feels. 

I have to take my bike into the shop again next week. My headset makes an annoying clicking sound that I hope they can fix. It's a little annoying since I already took it in once to have them look at it and give a a 6 month check up, and I think they didn't remember to look at the clicking problem. I'm also going to look a buying a fancy new seat with some of my birthday money that people gave me. The shop said that if I brought in my bike they would like me try it out before buying it. 

I've started riding early in the mornings to avoid the heat of the day. If I get out of the door by 6:30, I can be home by 8:00 ish which is just right for working at mfri. The regular cows, horses, and other far animals that I pass are more active in the morning than in the heat of the afternoon. It's more fun to watch them when they are walking around.

That's all from here tonight.

Paid in pain

I was so tired that I didn't go for my bike ride after work today, but I paid for it dearly when I had to use my spinerval dvd later on in the night. It is a solid workout, that really makes my legs scream. Liz supported my effort by napping on the couch. She would wake up once in awhile to ask if i was dying, and then encourage me after I promised her that I wasn't biking towards the bright light. 

I guess this shows that cycling indoors even trumps working on writing up my masters for publication. haha (but not really because it has to get done quickly and I'll only pay for my slacking nature later)

Just about bed time

Wow. It is summer time, and I still have been working full tilt on research stuff. At least I don't have to go to class for the next few months. Work at mfri has been stressful since there have been a series of deadlines that my team has had to meet. I think after next week it will get a bit better. 

The nice thing about summer is that there is certainly more time for riding. Contrary to popular perception, my lack of blogging does not mean I have stopped biking. Two days ago I went out for a 50mile ride. I ended up cutting 10 miles off because of a nasty wind, but I was still pretty happy with the ride. Yesterday I did a short but fast ride of about 16 miles. The Wabash river is very high so it is fun to bike along it and see what is flooded and what isn't. 

I took today off, but Liz and I went to play tennis. Liz has also been making me go lift with her in the mornings. Not exactly my cup of tea, but maybe it will help me somehow. I don't think it can hurt. 

I have to work at Alpine all day tomorrow so I hope I have time fit in a ride before dark. We shall see. Liz has gone to bed, and I think I'll follow suit.

Weekend ride

I got to go for a ride outside today. It was super windy. Going with the wind I hit 32 mph, but then I had to come back into the wind and I was struggling to go 12 mph. It was still a good ride though. I was glad that I went.

I have to take my bike into the shop. I think some of the bolts in my headset loosened up, so not I get some nasty creaking when I ride around. I was going to do it myself, but I'm not exactly sure what the problem is, and I guess the bolts all need to be loosened and tightened in a specific order. I'd rather just have someone at the shop help me. 

Now I'm doing homework and watching LOTR.

Two months later

Bwahaha.. I haven't posted for a more than a month, so here is the run down

I was training hard until I got sick over break (Thanks Liz....I'm not bitter..really). It may be in the top 10 colds I've ever had in all time. That set me back for a a few weeks. Then, this thing called school and a my masters came along. Oh... and it rained a lot. I was tired. The earth was spinning in the wrong direction, and flames were falling from the sky. Obviously, it was just impossible to ride. 

Anyway, I'm back on the bike now. I had a nice ride this morning. I didn't go far or very fast, but it went and that is all that counts sometime. 

Thunder and rain

Doesn't exactly make you want to get out of bed and go to school.  I'm pretty sure I won't be biking outside today. At least I was able to get out with the team yesterday for a good ride. Liz and I are off for some before school errands now.

drool

Liz doesn't love me enough to buy one :0

Rain

Thunderstorms equals nap, spinveral, and homework.   In that order? Yep. 

Good luck on the TTT today to all the Purdue riders that apparently read this.

Able to keep up

I went on the club ride today. I kept up on the one sprint and the one 4 minute sustained effort. They weren't trying hard because the team is racing tomorrow, but it's nice to know that my all out effort matches their pre-race effort. 

I wish I could go race with them but I have to give an IQ test tomorrow morning, so I can't. Plus there is the ever present master waiting to be written......

weather

In the past month a lot of stuff has happened. Not enough of it was biking, but I've gotten through a lot of class projects. I now have just over a month to defend my masters. aghhhh. 

The weather has turned nice and that makes it easier to steal an hour of the day to bike outside.

1000 miles

I was really hoping to hit 1000 miles on an outdoor ride, but the odometer clicked over while I did an hour on the trainer tonight. Now the countdown to 2000 miles can start. While it was warm enough to ride outside the heavy rain and 50+mph winds kept me inside. It was by far my best feeling bike ride since being sick.

I celebrated by spending some of my Christmas money (Thanks Aunt Irene) on a new pair of arm warmers. I'm hoping that the arm warmers let me bike in slightly colder weather. As of now, I head inside around 37 degrees.  I'd like to be able to still be comfortable biking in the low 30's. I might use the rest of the money to join the Purdue Club, but I'm not sure yet. 

That's all for tonight.

Nathan

60 min

I biked outside today. It was amazing. What is even more amazing is that I did it right after church, so now I can make homemade biscuits and sausage gravy for lunch while I watch the Purdue game. 

One of the baby horses that was born last summer on one of the farms I ride past was out to pasture. It was a lot bigger and more horse looking than last summer. That's about all that was exciting

45min

I got on the bike for 45 minutes today. I can't believe how painful it is after just a one week break from the bike. It might have also had something to do with those three chocolate chip cookies I scarfed down right before getting on the bike. 

It was warm enough to bike outside today, but it was super windy and the roads are still a bit wet. There were at least 5 different club rides going on today, but I didn't think I would be up to them quite yet. Hopefully next week I'll catch one or two. I think tomorrow there is a good chance of getting outside for a ride though.

Stay tuned.....

30 min

I got back on the bike today. I've been feeling better each day, but today was the first day without coughing. It was a little rough, but I hope I didn't lose to much of my fitness level. I can't believe that I didn't bike for over a week. Shameful.

Still sick

My cold has moved to various locations throughout my body over the last few days. Currently, it is clogging up my forehead. I haven't gotten on the bike since last week, but I think that tomorrow there is a decent chance of getting in a small test ride. 

The weather is getting warmer for a bit. I'm hoping for a few good warm day so that all the snow melts off the roads and the salt will disappear. 

For now, I must resign to commenting on other cyclists and cycling news.

First, there was a flurry of Purdue Cycling emails today. I think riders are coming out of hibernation a bit prematurely, but like seeing the first robin, it must be a sign of an upcoming spring.

(Yes... I am aware that Robins can be spotted all winter, but I'll ask you to assume that I'm referring to spring oriented robin behaviors such as signing in the rain, and rummaging for worms in the front lawn.)

In pro cycling news, Garmin-Slipstream won the team time trial in the Tour of Qatar. I'm sure that Will Frischkorn (my favorite pro American Garmin-Slipstream rider) was a leading force in their outstanding effort. Their entire day of work lasted a whole 6 minutes and 34 seconds (over 6 kilometers). They beat team Quick-Step (not quite quick enough....hardy..har.. har) by 0.64 seconds.  Good for them.

They look so happy.

Note that classy 2009 style argyle. 

sick

I was going to reach 1000 miles this week, but I got sick. Good thing it's the weekend. 

boohoo.

Odometer watch

Odometer reads: 927.9 miles

It was a busy weekend so I didn't ride as much as I had hoped, but I think my knee still needed the break. Tonight was the first time where I really didn't feel like my knees were bothering me. I would say that they are operating at about 98 percent. I'll try the spinerval dvd again tomorrow since that allows for an intense but shorter workout. 

I went to the cycling club call out. It was weird seeing cyclists in street cloths. I only recognized three people that I had ridden with in the fall, but I'm sure there were more of them there. I might give racing a try but it is still very much up in the air. 

At a dinner party last night I said next to a person that was a professional triathlete. I knew he biked, but I didn't realize that he was quiet that good. It was both nice to talk a little bike, but a little weird when he talked about all the athletes he had coached that turned pro or went to the Olympics. He was quite a nice guy.

On a school note, my this is going to be a long semester. I didn't get much done this weekend (my own fault) so I have to work hard to get back on top this week. Yuck. There is a stack of grading with my name on it. It's nice mind numbingly boring work that I can do till bed. 

The Last Templar mini-movie on tv was (is?) a huge let down. Not good at all. It was just a National Treasure rehash with out the star cast or the intelligent dialogue. I'm willing to bet that the book is better though.

900 miles

I made it to 900 miles on the bike last night. Just a hundred to go to reach 1000. Liz and I are off to watch her sister swim today. It's early, and I've just been told it's time to go.

Almost there

The odemeter read 897 after my ride today. I didn't want to go the extra 3 miles. I thought it would be nice way to look foward to the next ride. My knee is feeling better. I'm taking it a little easy, but I was able to do 50 min of moderate effort today. Liz took my pulse twice to see how hard I was working. I asked her to do it, and she was kind enough to play along. 

Happy MLK day

While biking today, my odometer read 869 miles. I'm slowly inching towards 1000 miles. I bailed out of my bike ride after 45 minutes today because my knee started to hurt.  I must have twisted it somewhere today.

I think that it is going to be a long semester. I'm already tired of staying up late to do homework. Next year I will take fewer classes, and that will be good. 

I doubt anyone else is excited about the Tour Down Under, but Lance is going to stage his comeback. I'm not actually rooting for him becuase I'm a firm supporter of the Garmin-Slipstream team. 

By the way... here is the new 2009 Garmin-Slipstream jersey prototype. It's ok to drool just a little bit. 

Well, I need to read an article or two and hit the sack.

I'm at school

but I'd rather be at home biking.

 

Odometer watch

My odometer read 819 miles after I finished biking tonight. I did my spinerval dvd again (not really newsworthy at this point). I am happy to report that I got all the way through it without feeling like death. Maybe that means I wasn't trying hard enough, but I felt like I gave it a pretty good go considering it was a long day. I wish that netflix had some spinervals just for a little variety, but they don't so I have to try and make up my own workouts when I don't use the dvd. 

School started today. I had one class that was enjoyable, and I worked at mfri. It took me three hours at mfri to draft a flyer for an upcoming study, but I was happy with the end result. 

I slept horrible last night. Tonight has to be better.

Christmas present alert!!!!!

I brewed it. I drank it. I liked it. I did not add any wiskey to it. Thanks Liz!

I would give anything to bike outside at least once this week, but the 10 day forecast painted a grisly picture. I'll just try not to think about it, and maybe I can dissociate my way to spring.

biking and pie

I did an easy 13 miles today. I wanted to both bike and pay attention to the football game so I didn't push myself. 

Liz and I had some left over pie dough in the fridge so I convinced her to make a pumpkin pie with me. Now that I've biked today, I feel like I can justify having an extra large piece once it is cooled.

School starts tomorrow. Stink.

Start the circus

School stuff is gearing up again. I got some solid work done in the office this morning while Liz worked out at the gym. Slowly but surely, I'm getting all of my data organized. Teaching Assistant duties are always hectic at the beginning of the semester, but it will settle down once the semester is underway. 

Once home, I got a nice ride in while I watch some college basketball. I didn't really care about any of the teams I watched, but it was something to fill the hour. I hope I'll be able to keep up my training schedule once classes start. I kind of doubt it, but I'll try anyway.

Yup....I'm a DeYoung

This may be a little weird, but I really feel that biking has confirmed (in my mind) that I am a true DeYoung. First, I believe that it is a Deyoung trait to have have a runny nose at the onset of any kind of physical activity. Actually now that I think about it, my nose just runs all the time. It just runs extra when exercising. A DeYoung runny nose a polite way of describing what really would be better described as snot fountain or Niagara de snot. Secondly, I've decided that the best way to deal with this is using a hankie. Yup. that's right, I blow my nose into a disgusting cloth that fills up with snot. It's just the best way I've found so far when biking. (I don't use them during normal daily life). No matter how gross it is, a clear nose is the best thing in the world. There is nothing like suddenly being able to breath again.



Liz says I seem to sweat more than usual. I don't know if this is a DeYoung thing, but we'll just pretend that it is. After all, I must have gotten it from somewhere.





Getting it? A runny nose. Hahahaha

New Year Resolution

This is the time of year when people state their new year resolutions. I usually follow the crowd and pick some huge thing which I promptly forget and fail to complete, but NOT this year! This year I resolved complete the cycling workout that I got for Christmas. I'm proud to announce that as of tonight I did complete all 45 minutes of the Muscle Breakdown workout. It wasn't pretty, but I did it. Resolution for 2009 complete.

Now I know that some people are out there thinking...wait a minute that's cheating! I don't care if it is. I'd rather complete an easy resolution then fail to complete a huge impossible one.


The next step is to get through the dvd without feeling like hell on wheels.

 fyi..My copy is dvd not vhs

Beneath that charming grin is a ruthless coach.

Ride report

I went outside today. Not to much to report. It was about 35 degrees and I got a little cold especially in the chin and knee areas. I would have been fine expect for the wind. I went for about 20 miles and saw that my odometer clicked past 700 miles. Random fact... most pro riders ride between 20,000 and 25,000 miles every year. Makes my 700 so far seem pretty small.

I also saw a hawk, a fisherman, and some dogs. There were four children sitting on a trampoline who saw me and yelled "hey biker dude" I felt pretty good about that.

Tomorrow should be a bit warmer so I hope that I'll be able to get out again.

Oh boy... the Colts just lost. Liz and I are both convinced tat it is due to the Lucas Oil stadium curse. All those penalties make my head spin.





That's right Payton Manning. You lost.

Regarding the previous post

I believe that a person (aka...my wife) decided to post for me. I'm not exactly sure what a sea kitten even is. I know they look silly, but I hear they fry up nicely in a pan with a little olive oil and lemon zest. Although with a names like Vin Diesel, you may want to take some extra precautions when fishing for them. I suggest a bullet proof vest and a few sticks of dynamite.

Nate's sea kitten

Create Your Own Sea Kitten at peta.org!