Winning
JC and JK, 1st and 2nd
JK wins Sunday
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Training down South
I had a pretty frightening experience on my bike yesterday. I guess I need to start by telling you that one of my goals this training season is to find all the dirt roads in Gainesville and ride them. They're a good change of pace, and they make the time go by faster. I went on Google maps, found a road I hadn't been on before, and I decided I would try to find it. I was doing a 3-hour ride that day, so I thought it would be perfect for passing the time.
I rode about 17 miles outside of town and found a road that was approximately in the same place where this road was supposed to be. It was a really rural area with no street signs, so there was no telling if it was the right road or not. I hesitated for a second, but I was feeling adventurous, so I rode off the pavement.
Everything went great for the first couple miles. I was cycling through the beautiful woods, and I didn't have to worry about cars. Then, I turned a bend and the road got really sandy really fast. My bike was fishtailing all over the place. At one point, I almost crashed, but I unclipped and saved myself. I walked my bike for a bit. Before I got back on, I paused for a second and looked around. That's when I realized how ALONE I was. It looked like this in every direction:
Alone in the middle of nowhere Florida. And, of course, that's when all the scary stories about people getting killed in the woods started to come back to me. I remembered this particular one that Jason told me about a serial killer near his house in New England who duct tapped women to trees. An image of the pepper spray I had forgotten, sitting on my desk at home, flashed through my mind. Goshdarnit. Should I turn back or keep going? I checked my cell phone - no service. Was this even the right road? Maybe the it gets better around the next bend. I'm going to die out here.
I frantically got back on my bike and started riding again. I came to a fork in the road that I didn't remember seeing on the map. I took the left fork because it felt like the right one. As I was riding along, I kept saying under my breath "I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die." It set a tempo that kept me going.
I heard several big noises in the woods and pictured a Florida panther tackling me like they do deer on nature shows. Would a panther mistake me as a deer? When I'm on my bike, I'm about the same height/same speed as a deer. When I hit the sandy spots and swerve, I probably look like a sick deer, perfect prey. There was a ditch full of water by the side of the road. What if there was an alligator? Do black mambas live in the Southeast U.S.?
I kept riding and looking over my shoulder, expecting to see a pickup truck full of men with no morals quickly closing the distance between us. I ended up riding down this dirt road for half an hour with no other signs of human life aside from the road itself and a couple 'private property keep out' signs. Eventually, the sand turned to packed dirt, which turned into gravel again, and I popped out somewhere on the Hawthorne trail. I WAS ALIVE! haha. Never been happier to see the trail before.
I really need a training partner.
I rode about 17 miles outside of town and found a road that was approximately in the same place where this road was supposed to be. It was a really rural area with no street signs, so there was no telling if it was the right road or not. I hesitated for a second, but I was feeling adventurous, so I rode off the pavement.
Everything went great for the first couple miles. I was cycling through the beautiful woods, and I didn't have to worry about cars. Then, I turned a bend and the road got really sandy really fast. My bike was fishtailing all over the place. At one point, I almost crashed, but I unclipped and saved myself. I walked my bike for a bit. Before I got back on, I paused for a second and looked around. That's when I realized how ALONE I was. It looked like this in every direction:
Alone in the middle of nowhere Florida. And, of course, that's when all the scary stories about people getting killed in the woods started to come back to me. I remembered this particular one that Jason told me about a serial killer near his house in New England who duct tapped women to trees. An image of the pepper spray I had forgotten, sitting on my desk at home, flashed through my mind. Goshdarnit. Should I turn back or keep going? I checked my cell phone - no service. Was this even the right road? Maybe the it gets better around the next bend. I'm going to die out here.
I frantically got back on my bike and started riding again. I came to a fork in the road that I didn't remember seeing on the map. I took the left fork because it felt like the right one. As I was riding along, I kept saying under my breath "I'm going to die I'm going to die I'm going to die." It set a tempo that kept me going.
I heard several big noises in the woods and pictured a Florida panther tackling me like they do deer on nature shows. Would a panther mistake me as a deer? When I'm on my bike, I'm about the same height/same speed as a deer. When I hit the sandy spots and swerve, I probably look like a sick deer, perfect prey. There was a ditch full of water by the side of the road. What if there was an alligator? Do black mambas live in the Southeast U.S.?
I kept riding and looking over my shoulder, expecting to see a pickup truck full of men with no morals quickly closing the distance between us. I ended up riding down this dirt road for half an hour with no other signs of human life aside from the road itself and a couple 'private property keep out' signs. Eventually, the sand turned to packed dirt, which turned into gravel again, and I popped out somewhere on the Hawthorne trail. I WAS ALIVE! haha. Never been happier to see the trail before.
I really need a training partner.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
School, Cycling, Other Things
I'm reading The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett. Now I want a pet rabbit. I've been thinking a lot about how superior rabbits are to other pets, especially when I'm sitting in my Fluid Mechanics class and the professor starts talking about conservation of mass, and I begin wondering about magicians making things appear out of black top hats... that brings me to the rabbit. The rabbit's name is Rabbit. It would be all white and fluffy, and it would hop around all cute-like, and it wouldn't smell or scratch me. A lot more satisfying than a fish.
Then I picture fish swimming through the pipes that the professor is drawing on the board. I stare at the pipes for a second before I realize I'm supposed to be paying attention.
This semester, I'm taking Circuits, Fluid Mechanics, Mechanics of Materials, Intermediate Engineering Analysis (IEA), and Circuits lab. 14 credits. I've decided that I'm going to be super efficient this semester, pay attention in class, get everything done a week early, and never be stressed out. haha...I make myself laugh.
After the group ride on Tuesday, I came home, ate, showered, and the propped my legs up against the wall with the Fluids book on my chest, all proud of the fact that I was, technically speaking, "multi-tasking." But here I am, a couple days later, sitting at my computer desk, writing in my blog because I don't have the motivation to do the circuits homework sitting in front of me.
Also, I decided I'm going to train for the 2012 Olympics. After spending time at the Olympic Training Center this summer, meeting some Olympic athletes, and watching the Olympics on TV, I can't deny they've been on my mind. Still, it was never really a goal of mine to go until now.
I was standing outside my IEA class Tuesday, when one of my friends asked me to the football game on Saturday. I said, as I almost always say, "No, I don't think I can go."
"Aw, why not? It'll be fun."
"I think I've got a lot of training."
"You can still train, the game doesn't last all day."
"Yeah, but it throws me off schedule"
"What are you training for, anyway?"
It's the end of the season, so I'm not really training for anything, just trying to keep my fitness up. I didn't know what to say because this guy didn't know much about cycling, and I didn't want to delve into the extensive explanation of the road season, and base training, and time off. So I squirmed there for a second, contemplating what to say, until this came out:
"The Olympics."
hahahhaahaha....can't back down now. And I discovered something: who's going to question your decision to train when you tell them you're training for the Olympics?
Then I picture fish swimming through the pipes that the professor is drawing on the board. I stare at the pipes for a second before I realize I'm supposed to be paying attention.
This semester, I'm taking Circuits, Fluid Mechanics, Mechanics of Materials, Intermediate Engineering Analysis (IEA), and Circuits lab. 14 credits. I've decided that I'm going to be super efficient this semester, pay attention in class, get everything done a week early, and never be stressed out. haha...I make myself laugh.
After the group ride on Tuesday, I came home, ate, showered, and the propped my legs up against the wall with the Fluids book on my chest, all proud of the fact that I was, technically speaking, "multi-tasking." But here I am, a couple days later, sitting at my computer desk, writing in my blog because I don't have the motivation to do the circuits homework sitting in front of me.
Also, I decided I'm going to train for the 2012 Olympics. After spending time at the Olympic Training Center this summer, meeting some Olympic athletes, and watching the Olympics on TV, I can't deny they've been on my mind. Still, it was never really a goal of mine to go until now.
I was standing outside my IEA class Tuesday, when one of my friends asked me to the football game on Saturday. I said, as I almost always say, "No, I don't think I can go."
"Aw, why not? It'll be fun."
"I think I've got a lot of training."
"You can still train, the game doesn't last all day."
"Yeah, but it throws me off schedule"
"What are you training for, anyway?"
It's the end of the season, so I'm not really training for anything, just trying to keep my fitness up. I didn't know what to say because this guy didn't know much about cycling, and I didn't want to delve into the extensive explanation of the road season, and base training, and time off. So I squirmed there for a second, contemplating what to say, until this came out:
"The Olympics."
hahahhaahaha....can't back down now. And I discovered something: who's going to question your decision to train when you tell them you're training for the Olympics?
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