Minivans

So I had a very interesting but unfortunately unpleasant experience with a driver while biking yesterday. It ends up with an older woman in a minivan chasing me down. But I’m getting ahead of myself and should probably start from the beginning. Well I’m riding down the back roads, enjoying myself, singing a little song, and just taking in the scenery. Out of nowhere this women, who looks to be in mid 50’s, drives toward me but won’t move to the left or right(it’s a narrow road). There’s nowhere for me to go but somehow I narrowly miss her. It was one of my closest calls. So as she’s driving away I turn around and do the whole hand motion that involves shrugging your shoulders and moving your hands upward as if to say “hey what is that all about”. I continue riding and brewing about the incident but about a minute later I see the infamous minivan coming up on my side. This lady is yelling something out of her window looking pretty mad. She continues in this aggressive manner until I realize what she’s saying. She’s like “hey did you just flip me off?” Um nope I didn’t. I just give her a confused look until she drives off. So apparently shrugging your shoulders and raising your hands up isn’t something you should do because it looks as if you’re giving someone the bird. I guess next time I won’t do that. What’s so funny about the whole situation is that it’s an older lady in a minivan chasing me down. A minivan! I always thought that it would be like some big muscled up dude on a Harley that would tend to be aggressive toward cyclists. I’m just not used to dealing with aggressive drivers. It’s just weird to me that this would happen because in the small southern towns that I ride in everyone is really friendly. I wave, they wave. It’s generally a great area to ride. The only thing I worry about are the dogs chasing me and trying to bite. But sometimes…….

Goal!!!

Holy cow doesn’t even cover it this time. I met my fundraising goal! I can’t believe it! To say that the generosity of so many friends and family is overwhelming would be an understatement. I can’t say thank ya’ll enough. You have made this trip possible for me as well as contributed to the affordable housing cause. Thank you!!!!

This trip is getting closer and closer. And the fact that I’m biking across the country is becoming more real. It’s finally beginning to dawn on me. A few months ago biking across the country seemed so far away and almost like a dream. But this is actually happening and I can’t be more excited (although a little bit more nervous as I get closer). Honestly, I’m going to miss my bed w/ electric blanket, hot showers, transportation involving gas, and my running shoes. But all of this is going to be replaced with amazing things, all to be experienced with the company of amazing people, who I haven’t even met yet. In less than two months I’ll be dipping my back wheel into the Atlantic Ocean only to dip my front wheel into the Pacific a few months after that (its a Bike and Build custom).

Yesterday I did a 60 mile bike ride just to make sure that I could. It’s the most I’ve ever done in my life! I got a little lost at the end and actually missed one of my classes but at least I now know that I can do it now. And the weird thing about it is that today I didn’t feel sore at all (although the ride itself was pretty difficult) and actually got in a 5 mile run today. This is a very good sign since we’ll be biking more than that every day. It was a great ride all in all, no wind and very good scenery. But I did learn lesson # 5: do not hide your camelback (only source of water) on the side of the road at the beginning of the ride to lighten the load. I thought I would just take it off for a second and come back to get it after I finished checking how far a certain road will go. This is incredibly dumb. The road ending up being way longer than I ever thought, my exploring side wanted to check it out, and long story short I didn’t come back for it until mile 55. Needless to say I was very dehydrated but the lesson learned was worth it: stupidity makes one awfully thirsty.

Cows aren’t really holy but......

Holy Cow! I just opened my Bike and Build account to check for any new donations and boy was I surprised! I just had an influx of so many generous donations from friends and family. I just wanted to say thanks so much to everyone. You all have helped out tremendously and I’m well over half way to my $4,000 mark. I consider myself blessed to even be presented with this unusual opportunity and even more so for the encouragement and support of friends and family. Ya’ll have turned a bad, study filled day, to a super fantastic day and I am grateful.
As far as training goes, I’ve gotten in a few 50 mile rides over the course of spring break. So I think it’s going pretty good and I’m thankful that the weather has cooperated. I honestly don’t see me doing too many rides of that distance as I try finish up the semester. My goal is just to do a little riding or running everyday to keep in shape. Paper and project deadlines are getting closer and the workload isn’t getting any lighter. College, you gotta love it.

Riding against the wind is like swimming up stream

It’s times like this when I wish I weighed more than I actually do. I’ve never ridden in wind like I did today and the whole time I had to fight to keep from being pushed over. It was a constant 17mph with gusts at 27mph. I’m not too sure how that compares to the winds on the plains that I’ll be riding through but I hope it won’t be that bad. But something tells me it will and that I better just get used to it. The good thing is that I got in a 50 mile (the most I’ve done so far) ride facing the wind for the majority of the time and I felt pretty good. Though I must admit there were those times when I just wanted to throw my bike on the ground out of frustration and say a few choice words. But I didn’t. Other than that I’m just enjoying my spring break by doing nothing. It's great

Can't wait

So I finally did it. I finally fell off my bike! I guess fell off isn’t the right word to use since my bike was still attached to me by the clipless pedals. I’m not exactly too sure what happened but my chain did this weird thing in the middle of changing gears. It basically got stuck and the pedals wouldn’t turn. I was going up a steep hill, lost momentum, and fell. I didn’t suffer a severe injury, just a few scratches. I’m just glad I got it over with and now know it’s not so bad. I’m also thankful for this amazing weather here. It’s been sunny and 70 for the past few days so I’ve gotten in some great rides. I feel bad for my fellow Bike and Builders up north who probably can’t get out to ride because of the cold. I’m so ready to do Bike and Build this summer! There will be no research papers, neuroscience tests, sitting in class rooms, studying until odd hours of the night or figuring out what to wear the next day (highly fashionable bike shorts every day!) Although I’m not going to lie, I will miss my comfy bed w/ my electric blanket. It will just be me, a bunch of other crazy people, and the open road. We’ll be doing our best to lend a hand to those in need and pedaling like crazy every day while sweating bullets. Can’t wait

Hey. It's been a while

Well I’ve been really busy here lately. Classes are getting more demanding as the semester wears on and I’ve been doing my best to prepare for this upcoming summer. I got in a 40 mile bike ride the other day. It’s the most I’ve ever done by far and actually went really well. I felt like I could do more and I wasn’t sore the next day (it was still difficult though) On top of that I didn’t fall of my bike once! My goal is to do one really long ride once a week and increase the distance by five or ten each time until I get my mileage up there. Then the rest of the week I plan to run or bike some more. The only problem I foresee in this is finding the time. But I’m sure if I practice better time management (less facebook!) then I can get it done.

There is also a possibility that I’ll be able to go back to New Orleans during spring break and help build houses again. It was a good experience when I went a few months ago and I thought I’d learn even more going back again. The only problem is getting the money to do it because right now most the cash I get goes to my Bike and Build fundraising goal of $4,000.

I just got through running my 3rd half marathon. I’ve been training for that so now since that’s over I can really start training on my bike more. This half marathon was my worst and slowest one yet (maybe b/c of the heat) but I’ll leave out the gory details (just look at the before and after pictures on facebook) I’ll just say that at this moment walking down the stairs right now is barely manageable and a jog around the block is unthinkable. But I’m sure I’ll experience soreness like this countless times as I bike across the country so I need to adopt a suck it up type attitude and go for a run or a ride tomorrow.

My cool new bike

So I finally got my new bike a few days ago. It’s a specialized Allez triple and I’m sure that means nothing to most of ya’ll. I didn’t know what one was a month ago either. And let me tell you I was missing out.. Before getting the bike I had never sat my butt down on a real road bike. I just rode around on hybrids and thought that was fun. But I just took the Allez on a test drive and it was amazing! I didn’t realize what a huge difference a road bike makes. It’s so much faster, easier, and just simply more fun. I went on a 28 mile ride and that felt much easier than if I did a 15 mile ride on my hybrid. This bike most defiantly gives me more confidence about riding cross America. I have to admit though it’s going to take some getting used to. The bent over riding position of a road bike will probably make me a hunch back for life (hey we’re riding 4-8 hours a day). Due to my substantial lack of coordination, the clip-on pedals will probably cause me to fall over a few times while trying to get on (but that’s what helmets are for!). But all in the entire bike is amazingly amazing :) and I can’t wait to ride it this summer! So I better leave you with that thought before I sound too much like a bike commercial.