Midlothian Ride

Been a while since Ive blogged on here. Been doing a lot of riding, and yesterday decided to see how far I could go during the inaugural Midothian ride. Not a bad day, went 48 miles in under three and half hours of riding time. LOTS of hills! This was the first time for this ride, and the people in charge did a great job. Lots of staff at the beginning of the ride for check in, food and drink to start off with, good staffs at the rest stops, and Chick Fil A lunch at the end. There were a couple of snafus with directions (followed the wrong arrows at the beginning of the ride), but other than that everything went off without a hitch. Going to check out the Goatneck ride next week, I haven't done that one in a while, and keep on working toward the Hotter than Hell ride. I really want to go to that, but need to find a place to stay up there. 100 miles in one day. Haven't ever done that, but I think I can on flats with no problem.

Getting into the groove

After you've taken a long time off from working out it often takes quite a while to get back into the groove of things. I think after close to a month now I am getting there. Took a ride out of the neighborhood for the first time in months today (normally I do the .7 mile loop and just do laps and listen to music). Did 22 miles in right at a hour and a half, which is not too bad since I was by myself and the roads were still terrible. It is so hard to find a good place to ride around here without packing up the bike and driving somewhere, which cuts into your time. Lots of chip and seal and close quarters with cars and trucks, which keeps you from zoning out when riding but is really hard on the hands and the bike.
Had a chance to ride with a triathlon training team last night out at White Rock lake. Didn't think we were going to get the ride in, there were lots of storms around, but things cleared out just in time for the ride. I love riding around White Rock, smooth as glass, not a lot of hills, and you can go really fast if you want to. The tri team was a very interesting group. Triathlons sound like they would be a lot of fun and its something that I think I would like to get into, but I am not sure that I have the time do the training properly. When school starts back, I am going to have a full load of classes with over 150 students, and I'm teaching an extra class to do Academic Decathlon. So while last year was pretty smooth, this year is going to be extremely busy.
I might into this after Decathlon state competition is done in the spring. I could start up then and work toward a first tri in the summer. After teaching one class of AP Physics, two of preAP, and three of regular physics and coaching decathlon, I need something that doesn't require the mental focus. Or maybe its just a different kind of mental focus, but it would be nice to have a break from the heavy stuff to get out and relax if that makes sense. We'll see!

Cruising with the Storm

Last year I took a new job that required me to commute about 40 minutes each morning. Not a bad drive either way really, and it allows me to wake up in the morning and decompress in the afternoon. I love to listen to music while I drive, and anyone who has ever passed me or I pass them on the highway can pretty much be guaranteed to see me singing along to whatever I have on the ipod. There are many mornings though that I just have to have on my favorite Irish band Gaelic Storm. If you go back to the movie Titanic, they were the Irish band in third class that was playing when Jack and Rose were dancing. They have made several lineup changes since then, and their music just seems to get better and better with every new album. They have a new one coming out next month (no Texas dates on the tour, argh!), and I will be sure to get it to sing along to when school gets going again in August. They are a great live band as well, Ive seen them several times. If you have a chance to go see them, be sure to do it, you will have a blast. They are all great musicians, and the songs are very catchy and make you feel really good. Check them out!
www.gaelicstorm.com

1500

Turned over 1500 miles on the bike odometer this morning. Not a bad milestone, but I still have a ways to go before this bike reaches my last one. I put over 5K on that bike. Lots of riding! I think I will keep this bike until I reach 10K on it, the reward myself with a new bike. I like the one I have (a 2005 Lemond Buenos Aires that I picked up off of Craigslist for a really good price) but I would love to have an all carbon fiber bike.

Running is a lot harder than it looks

When I got back on this health kick, I decided to re-up my gym membership as well because you get tired of just cycling all the time and want to do different things. In order to really try and get the weight off, I decided to get on the treadmill and start working on running, which when I was younger worked really well (several hours of basketball will do wonders for keeping you thin!). I had forgotten how hard it is to really try and run for a long distance. It is going to take quite a while to get up to any type of distance that is substantial. It is amazing that I can bike for 20 miles nonstop at an average of 16mph with no problem, but running 2 miles at 4.5mph wears me out quick!

This Blog Serves No Purpose Really!

Like the title says, this blog really serves no purpose really. By that I mean I haven't set this up with any specific ideas in mind. Basically I just wanted to get this going again as a spot to write down my thoughts whenever the mood strikes me to do so.

I set this up years ago when I got into cycling, but I fell off the cycle (pun intended there) for quite a while and have just recently decided to start riding again. I've been riding for about three weeks now and am feeling a LOT better than I was feeling at the beginning of the summer. Why did I start riding again? I went to a two week workshop on the high tech industry here in the DFW area, and one of the assignments we had to do was to make a video of a science concept. I did (its on teachertube somewhere, I'll find the link to it and post it here later), and after watching it I couldn't believe how much weight I had gained. I know the camera is supposed to add some pounds, but come on!! So, I decided to hit the bike again, and the weight has immediately started to come off. That picture of me at the top of this blog is from a couple of years ago, and I hope to look much better than that a year from now.

So that is basically it. Later on I will posting all kinds of random thoughts on things. I wrote several articles for the Dallas Morning News a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, so I will use this spot to continue to do that.

Ok first thing then, my title at the top, texasnightrider. I chose that a long time ago for the reason that's listed, but I could change it to texasmorningrider now (but that doesn't sound as cool). Somehow I morphed into a morning person! I don't know when this happened, but my wife and I switched rolls for sure. When we first got married, she would talk my ear off at the breakfast table and I wouldn't hear half of what she said. Now I am up at 5 am sometimes and out the door by 5:30 and riding, and come home to wake her up! Must be because I am getting older (ugh!) and need less sleep. Weird how that has happened. Now I rarely ride at night, but will probably have to do that when the school year rolls around again. I get the feeling I am going to be so busy this next school year I may not get to ride until 9 pm sometimes.