Category Archives: Biking

I’m already thinking about summer. Sigh.

Posted on 20 December 2010 | Leave a comment

I am trying to plan how my summer is going to go. I think I have decided it will go a little like this:

  1. Get up early, like 5:30 AM early. It’s too hot to run much later, and it’ll be light shortly after 5 AM.
  2. Run 3-5 miles, depending on the day, to get ready for the Towpath Marathon in Peninsula, OH.
  3. Walk the dogs on their summer route.
  4. Eat breakfast and brew some coffee.
  5. Spend from 9 AM until 1030 AM reading good literature, and from 1030 AM to 12 PM on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday writing for pleasure, creative nonfiction and poetry. I might even try to eek out a couple of pieces of fiction while I’m at it. On Thursday and Friday, I will work on house projects, like painting, refinishing the floors, and painting the house.
  6. Eat a good lunch from 12 PM to 1PM.
  7. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 1 PM to 5 PM, I will work on my dissertation. On Thursday and Friday, I will make appointments and spend time with friends and family.
  8. At 5PM walk the dogs.
  9. Saturday will be for long runs (of six or more miles), and Sunday for long bike rides, church, and grocery shopping with that lady I live with.

My goal is to limit the amount of time I spend figuring out what I am supposed to be doing and to spend more time actually doing it. I also want to increase the amount of time I spend considering literature and writing about it. I have found that when I have my student read more before they write, they tend to write better and more effectively Their writing is smarter and more eloquent when they’ve been reading writing that’s difficult for them.

Another goal I have is to eat healthy, whole food, which is the same goal I keep setting for myself. I find myself gravitating toward the unhealthy. In fact, yesterday, I wanted to eat some fish, and instead of ordering the salmon salad I love so much, I got fish and chips. Unhealthy choice #7, 365, 289. I am sure that even baklava is more healthy for me. At least I can name all the ingredients in it. I couldn’t begin to tell you what might have been in my fish and chips. And, I could feel it later.

On that same note, I think I am going to incorporate meat back into my diet (very rarely) because I have been feeling a little protein deprived. I simply can’t get enough protein while also trying to to lose weight, and I need to lose weight to run the marathon. It’s a never-ending cycle. I am too fat. It’s hard to run. I lose weight. It gets easier. I gain weight. I get fat. I need to break the cycle! I feel like Susan Powter. Wasn’t that her catch phrase? Maybe not. At any rate, I simply HAVE to figure out a way to lose weight.

EDIT: I can’t eat meat. I ate fish yesterday, and I just feel guilty today. I just need to figure out how to get more protein and fewer calories. I am sure sticking to eating whole foods would help!

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Posted in Biking, Fat, Goals, Running, School, Summer, Writing

I Wanna Live Here. I Signed Up.

Posted on 16 April 2010 | 2 comments

I was surfing around online yesterday and started fantasizing about living in Door County. More specifically, I imagined moving to Washington Island, though I am not sure what I would do for a job there. Hey, it’s a fantasy. It’s imaginary, so I can do whatever I want. I decided I want to live here. And then I thought, well, since this is a fantasy, I might choose this one. The only drawback is that it only has two bedrooms, so when people came to visit they could only come two at a time. 🙂

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I think I have been consumed by the running bug. I haven’t simply been bitten by it; it’s eating me alive, which isn’t a bad thing. Rather, I would say it is a very good thing. In fact, it’s such a good thing that I can honestly say I feel better than I have ever felt.

Even in high school when I swam all the time, I didn’t feel as healthy or as in tune with the world as I feel now. There is nothing that beats the feeling of running along next to the river, listening to the water slip past the jagged rocks slowly wearing them down, refining them. As I run, I think about how I, too, am being refined, polished.

Tomorrow is a 10 mile training run for the Indy-Mini which is only a few short weeks away on May 8. The 10 mile run is the longest training run on the plan, and I am going to try hard not to think about how it is only half as long as the longest run on the marathon training plan I have chosen. Really, there are twelve runs in the 18 week plan I have chosen that are longer than 10 miles. I just keep telling myself I can do it. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can, said the Little Engine.

Possibly the thing I love the most about running is the solitude of it. There is no way for me to deny that I love some time alone. In fact, I probably require more time alone than most people do, because it takes quite a bit of energy for me to be with people. There are some people I love to be around, who require little to no energy, but then there are others who just leave me feeling like a child’s new Christmas toy that has been played with until it doesn’t move anymore. A little rung out. In order to get over that feeling, sometimes I just need to get away.

On November 6, I am going to get away for about 5.5 or 6 hours while I run my first marathon. I know, I am a little obsessed with this topic right now, but I have to exult about the fact that I just registered for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I spent $60 of my hard-earned money in order to run for a ridiculously long time. I suppose this will give me a measure of my ability to go the long haul. I think relying on my friends, like Molly and Nagelkirk, will be my biggest asset in this long, arduous process. I have to say that I am torn between wanting to rejoice and wanting to throw up.

Twenty-six point two miles.

26.2.

20+6+0.2

2 x 13.1

A really long way.

Here’s the course map: Marathon_Map_full_perspectiveWEB It should open quite nicely for you.

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Haphephobia: A morbid fear of being touched.

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I spent about two hours today working on my dissertation, and I plan to spend a couple more tonight. I think once I go through it one more time, it will be ready to send out to the committee. Excitement: I will send it out tonight.

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I am thankful for too many things to list today!

Food: banana, juice, short bread, iced coffee, bean/rice/veggie/cheese quesadilla, pasta, M&Ms

Exercise: walked the dogs two miles, eleven-mile bike ride

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Posted in Biking, Dissertation, Food, Just for Fun, Relationships, Running

Humbling Experiences All Around

Posted on 14 February 2010 | 1 comment

Have you ever simply looked around and realized that when you open up and let God have [Their] way with you, you see humbling experiences all around?

That experience could be a friend who loses a child, a students’ mother who has cancer, a friend who is honest about her theological struggles, or a significant other who works hard even in the face of adversity. And somehow, they all seem to handle it with so much more grace than you think you ever could. They seem to dance and swirl in and around these adversities while you plod and thud and generally make a mess of navigating the obstacle course. You trip; they glide. And that’s just how it is. But you recognize it and are humbled by the grace of it all.

Maybe the experience comes in the quirky voice of a young pastor who encourages you to figure out who you really are, and who equates the story of our lives to writing, reminding us that it’s character that drives the story. “Plot grows out of character,” says Anne Lamott. If you have no character, you have a bad plot. What is your character? How is it shaping your plot? Our plot?

Maybe the experience comes in a class in which you feel you don’t belong, but the professor reminds you that you, too, are a teller of truth. You still feel desperately inadequate, and you hope, beyond hope, that you might actually write something that makes you feel less so.

Maybe the experience comes when you learn that people don’t perceive your actions the way you intend for them to perceive them, that they don’t get who you are and what you are about. They don’t understand that more than anything else you respect all of humanity, trying each day to see Jesus inside each body, each heart, each mind.

Maybe that experience comes when you have such an intense respect for others you have a physiological response to homelessness that isn’t pity, but something deeper that you can’t name. Your heart doesn’t break, but you wish that instead of learning from them, you could find something inside yourself to teach.

Maybe these experiences happen all around you, all the time, but you just can’t see them unfolding. Maybe you are so caught up in making your story work that you can’t see the things God is trying to make work for you. That is who I am most of the time, but I am trying to see God’s hand in it, and I am working to let God write my story, and I am seeking to be the character I think I am meant to be. And it’s humbling.

This isn’t the most exciting video, but I think the words go well with how I am feeling right now.

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I am thankful for finishing another draft.

Food: banana, juice, oatmeal, chocolate milk, cookies, rice noodle soup, granola bar, diet 7-Up, rice crackers, two pieces of pizza and bread sticks, Taddy Porter

Exercise: walked the dogs, walked home from church, ran 3 miles, rode bike from RB to church

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Seeing the crowd, Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for their is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for the they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

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Posted in Beer, Biking, Dissertation, Food, Grace, Homelessness, Relationships, Religion, Running, Vegetarian or Vegan

A Mixed Bag

Posted on 6 February 2010 | 2 comments

1) It’s no secret that I greatly dislike snow. This morning my hatred for it was slightly alleviated because while I was outside, Bec made me some tea and I drank it with a nice bowl of oatmeal after I shoveled for about an hour in order to get the car out to go grocery shopping. I needed things like juice and milk that couldn’t wait until next week when the snow thaws. I am not stupid enough to think that my shoveling for an hour, possibly moving a half-ton of snow, is anything nearly as traumatic as other people all over Appalachia losing power. I have been in a situation with no power before. It wasn’t pretty. We cooked and heated with our fireplace which we were lucky enough to have. In the house we live in now, we would just starve and freeze. Or walk, if the car was snowed in, over to Ed and Abbie’s and starve and freeze with them. Snow is so pretty when you don’t have to be out in it, and it’s a great blessing when your power isn’t out because of it. This is our street.2) For this second point, I am going to do something tricky. I am going to combine my failure at running my four-mile endurance run with my success at going to the nasty gym. I am sure some of you remember from last winter how much I despise the gym. I don’t like to sweat in the middle of winter like it’s summer. I sweat enough when I run outside in the cold air; I don’t want to be chained to a conglomeration of metal and plastic sweating like a whore in church. Besides all that, those machines make you repeat unnatural motions. I tried an arc trainer today, thinking that it would be more like running. Wrong! It was more like going up steps while falling backward off a ledge on a tall building like bad guys do when they’re being chased by cops in the movies. I kept thinking I might seriously fall off the damn machine, so I switched to an exercise bike. Just one time I would like for someone to invent an exercise bike that positions the rider in the same position as a regular bike positions the rider. Instead, you get to sit like someone has shoved a pole up from your tuchas through the top of your head, and better yet, you are sitting on a padded stool instead of a bicycle seat. My hips/legs are sorer from this worthless gym workout (1 mile on the arc and 6 miles on the bike) than they would have been from running the four miles I was supposed to run. And, I would have felt like I had accomplished something. As it is, I ache and feel like I should have just walked to and from school to do my work. Walking in eight to ten inches of snow would have been a good workout. This is the horrible machine I had to ride for 15 minutes before I just couldn’t take it anymore.

3) I am giving up most of my vow. I am breaking down and having a couple of beers, and since I already cut my hair, there isn’t much left to hold onto except the vegetarian thing, which is still in full force. I don’t take this decision lightly, but I think I need the stabilizing force of beer in my life. I am not saying this to be trite or funny, but beer is a depressant and it seems to help me sleep (which I haven’t been doing well lately). It has also been proven in several studies to fend off the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s, and it seems to make me be able to focus more on a specific task. I haven’t been doing so well with focus. Two different people from two totally different walks of life, in two different conversations at two different locations and times, have suggested to me that I am much more spastic and not nearly as jovial or easy to get along with when I don’t have my beer. One of them told me that in the past six months, I have not appeared to be myself and that I always seem distracted. I have read that beer helps people who have problems focusing to focus. So, I think I am returning to the land of the beer-drinkers. At least I have six beers sitting in the fridge at home waiting to be consumed. This is the beer I am going to drink when I get home.4) I was just thinking about our trip to the liquor store today. I got carded and since I didn’t have my ID, Bec had to buy the beer while I waited in the car. Magic. I’m 35 and still can’t buy. This is me at 35.

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I am thankful for flexibility in life. I am also thankful that I was able to free my bicycle from her snowy abode in the bike rack.

Food: juice, chocolate milk, oatmeal, tea, burrito, chips and salsa, ginger ale, peanut butter granola bar, porter, veggie burger, broccoli

Exercise: shoveling snow, dog walking, arc trainer, stationary bike

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Posted in Beer, Biking, Food, Gym, Insomnia, Running, Winter Weather

Drinks. Bicycles. And Chai Tea Baristas.

Posted on 11 January 2010 | 1 comment

Have you ever gone out for drinks with people and only ordered a water? With a lime? When everyone else is drinking alcohol, drinking limed water is a bit awkward. It isn’t like having your pants unzipped while you are teaching awkward, but it is more like forgetting the punchline of a joke awkward because you become the awkwardness instead of your action being awkward. For some reason, for me, being awkward is much less awkward than performing awkward actions. It’s almost as if I can own own my awkwardness, but performing awkward actions makes me feel as if everyone notices the action and then judges me for it. Whereas, when I embody awkwardness, no one notices how odd I am or they just accept it as part of who I am, thereby they don’t judge. What do you think? Which is worse, an awkward action or simply living awkwardly?

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I rode my bicycle to school today, but it was to cold and slippy to ride home. I got a ride home in a car that was all warm and cozy and not slippy.

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When you go to the MTCup, don’t bother asking the barista if the chai tea is decaf. Chances are she won’t know.

“Well, there isn’t any coffee, no shots of espresso, in it if that’s what you mean. It’s just powered chai mix and milk.” She blinks and chews her gum.

“Chai has tea in it, usually black tea, which contains caffeine. Do you know if you have any decaf chai?”

“Well, I know it has tea, but I am not sure if it has caffeine.” Blink. Blink.

“Okay, I will just have a decaf soy vanilla latte,” I concede as I resist explaining that I don’t mean literally decaffeinated soy milk, but that I want the decaffeinated espresso in my latte, which will be made with soy milk and fake vanilla syrup. On top of it all my wheat bagel has a funk and is hard on one side like chewing baseball card bubble-gum.

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I am thankful for new friendships.

Exercise: dog walking, bike transporting

Food: Clif bar, apple, muffin, milk, juice, sloppy jane with cheese, salad, leftover cake, decaf soy vanilla latte

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Posted in Beer, Biking, Coffee, Food, Relationships