So I have been sick for the last week. I think I just have a common cold, although I have been telling everyone that I have the swine flu so that they will think Im that hard core. The worst part about being sick is probably blowing my nose in class. I can't help it. It's a necessity if I don't want a respiratory infection, but the professors just don't understand. I went to office hours the other day and my prof. said, "Oh yeah, you're the guy that blows his nose all the time. What do YOU want?"
And also I can't ride my bike. Ally will tell you that my bike and I have a semi-platonic connection: when I can't ride, I tend to be cranky and irritable. So for the last week I have been sick, cranky, irritable, and blow my nose a lot. Let's just say I'm not the greatest person to be around.
Yesterday was the first time that I have felt good enough to get on the bike. Today, I rode with Michael Carey. We had a nice ride out east even though it was windy. Michael has been playing a lot of tennis, and it seemed the strokes weren't helping his fitness. I made him hurt even though he is a stronger rider than me. On the way back, I ran into Lance Armstrong. I said hey to him and we talked a little about the UT cycling team. I was riding next to him not paying attention, and all of a sudden, he says, "Well, this is my house, so...uh.... see ya i guess." I said, "Oh okay cool, well.... I have no idea where I am...." He asked me whether I would be able to get back, and I assured him that I could, even though I had no idea where I was. After wandering around for about 45 min, (after a 3 hr ride) I called Stark and had him come pick me up. I don't know that getting lost was worth it to talk to Lance, but whatever, I guess there are a lot of people that would kill to get to talk to him. Now, TEXAS FIGHT!!!! Time for the football game!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Texas OU Weekend
Last weekend was Texas Ou weekend, and so I was in Dallas and Garland to watch the game. We drove up Friday evening and had dinner with my parents. Mom cooked grandmother's stew and had lots of good fruit as well. Erik, Stark, Ryan and I gorged ourselves until we couldn't eat anymore. Ryan wasn't planning on eating because he had already had two dinners that day, but indulged anyways. Afterward, we went over to my grandma's old house, where we would spend the night.
After changing, we met up with Ingrid, Erik's sister. She was having a house party, and was very nice, a great hostess! After much merriment, we crashed early back at grandma's house.
The next morning, I made waffles for everyone, and we left about 9:30 am for the 11 am game. I thought it would be a great idea to take the DART light rail. It is fast and efficient, and would take us straight to the fair. The only problem was, that half the people going to the game thought the exact same thing. Train after train was completely packed! There were people crammed so tightly, that none of us could find a spot! It took almost 2 hours before we got the game. By that time, it had already started, so we missed kick-off.
Texas won! Way to go! I think the offense did not play outstanding, but the defense definitely wrecked.
After the game, we were famished and decided to get a famous Fletcher's corn dog. Everyone else seemed to want one too..... The line was enormous and everyone seemed to be okay with cutting to the front. I almost had to pull two old men apart because they were fight about who was and who wasn't in line for corn dogs. They were fighting over corn dogs! They were good though after 45 minutes of waiting. After eating, we went to the car show, which, in my opinion, is the only good reason to stay at the fair.
When were getting ready to leave, we saw this huge line of people waiting for something. I asked a guy what they were waiting on and he said the train. You have got to be kidding me. Our only way back to the cars was a two hour line for the train. We decided to take a cab. So did everybody else at the fair. A cab was impossible to find. We walked out of the fair and into one of the shadiest parts of Dallas. I called my mom and asked her to come pick us up. A cop stopped and asked why we were sitting around. He said this is a pretty bad neighborhood and should probably go back to the fair if it got dark before our ride got here. I guess he thought that someone was going to jump us!
We finally got home safely to our cars and back to grandma's house. We showered and went to Emily Snow's house, where everyone except Nick and I were staying for the night. Nick and I had to be back for church in Sunday morning, so we drove back home and got to Austin about 12:30 am or so.
All in all, a fun weekend, but waaaaay too many people! If I ever go again, I think I'll have a helicopter drop me from a rope to my seat and then come rescue me out of the stadium after the game.
After changing, we met up with Ingrid, Erik's sister. She was having a house party, and was very nice, a great hostess! After much merriment, we crashed early back at grandma's house.
The next morning, I made waffles for everyone, and we left about 9:30 am for the 11 am game. I thought it would be a great idea to take the DART light rail. It is fast and efficient, and would take us straight to the fair. The only problem was, that half the people going to the game thought the exact same thing. Train after train was completely packed! There were people crammed so tightly, that none of us could find a spot! It took almost 2 hours before we got the game. By that time, it had already started, so we missed kick-off.
Texas won! Way to go! I think the offense did not play outstanding, but the defense definitely wrecked.
After the game, we were famished and decided to get a famous Fletcher's corn dog. Everyone else seemed to want one too..... The line was enormous and everyone seemed to be okay with cutting to the front. I almost had to pull two old men apart because they were fight about who was and who wasn't in line for corn dogs. They were fighting over corn dogs! They were good though after 45 minutes of waiting. After eating, we went to the car show, which, in my opinion, is the only good reason to stay at the fair.
When were getting ready to leave, we saw this huge line of people waiting for something. I asked a guy what they were waiting on and he said the train. You have got to be kidding me. Our only way back to the cars was a two hour line for the train. We decided to take a cab. So did everybody else at the fair. A cab was impossible to find. We walked out of the fair and into one of the shadiest parts of Dallas. I called my mom and asked her to come pick us up. A cop stopped and asked why we were sitting around. He said this is a pretty bad neighborhood and should probably go back to the fair if it got dark before our ride got here. I guess he thought that someone was going to jump us!
We finally got home safely to our cars and back to grandma's house. We showered and went to Emily Snow's house, where everyone except Nick and I were staying for the night. Nick and I had to be back for church in Sunday morning, so we drove back home and got to Austin about 12:30 am or so.
All in all, a fun weekend, but waaaaay too many people! If I ever go again, I think I'll have a helicopter drop me from a rope to my seat and then come rescue me out of the stadium after the game.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Blog for Texas Cycling
I wrote a blog recently for Texas Cycling. It can be found here.
This week starts the start of my fall/winter training. Lots and lots of riding. For now, I will be riding at pretty low intensities and racking on the miles. The only problem is it won't stop raining. We'll see how this goes!
This week starts the start of my fall/winter training. Lots and lots of riding. For now, I will be riding at pretty low intensities and racking on the miles. The only problem is it won't stop raining. We'll see how this goes!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Ride with Lance Armstrong
Thursday night I was getting ready to go to bed and thinking about where I would ride on Friday morning. I decided to log on to my twitter account, which I rarely do, to see what all the cycling stars were up to. I saw a post by Lance Armstrong that said. "He Austin, let's go ride. 8:15 am MelllowJohnny's. " Uh, okay. I'm there.
Friday I got up and put on my Texas kit and headed to Mellow Johnny's bike shop. I brought along some flyers for the Sweatin' Burnt Orange bike tour that UT is putting on to hand out to other people that showed up to ride with Lance. There were about 200 people standing around. Most were in riding gear. Some were in street clothes, just there to take pictures. I handed out all of my flyers and got some people that seemed interested in the ride. You can get a lot of riders that want to sign up when you say "3 kegs of RealAle beer at the end of the ride" as your hook line.
About 8:30 am, there he was. Lance Armstrong. In the flesh. It was a little surreal for me, considering that he is the main reason why I was standing there with shaved legs and in a Lycra cycling kit. He stood there for a minute or two as some big-whig supporters of Livestrong took some pictures with him, and then we started to ride. So many people! Because I had been handing out flyers, I was in the back, so I slowly started to move up. I knew that I would soon get dropped because of street lights. It was such a big group that we were having to run a lot of lights and people in their cars looked quite confused.
Once we got out of downtown, it was smoother sailing. I got up to the front and all of a sudden, I was riding next to Lance! He looked over at me, took a look at my Texas kit, and said "Howdy." Then he put his horns up. I smiled and gave him the horns as well. It is probably a little embarrassing how excited this made me. I fell back into the pack, and was smiling the whole time.
It's funny how small Lance is. He is actually only 5'9". When you see pro football players in real life, you are always amazed at how much bigger they look in real life instead of on TV. But cyclists seem bigger on TV, smaller in real life. That coupled with the fact that the greatest cyclist maybe ever is willing to ride with normal people, that's pretty cool. It made him seem like a person instead of a demigod.
At one point, I was up near the front, and we got on to a really nice stretch of road. A pro guy from Team Six was riding next to me and said, " What an awesome road. I'm gone." And just like that, he attacked out of the pack. He got a gap, and then Lance decided we should reel him back in. Lance took a monster pull and then some other people took pulls at the front, trying to catch. We slowly rotated through until it was my time to pull. I took a short pull and then Lance came around me to bridge the last 20 ft or so. Pretty cool experience.
We slowed down a bit to finish off the ride. Then Lance said he had to go to the airport and turned right to go toward the airport. His car followed him, and left us to ride home together. Altogether, a successful ride. I got to get some training in, and got to talk to the biggest American name in cycling. Cool.
Friday I got up and put on my Texas kit and headed to Mellow Johnny's bike shop. I brought along some flyers for the Sweatin' Burnt Orange bike tour that UT is putting on to hand out to other people that showed up to ride with Lance. There were about 200 people standing around. Most were in riding gear. Some were in street clothes, just there to take pictures. I handed out all of my flyers and got some people that seemed interested in the ride. You can get a lot of riders that want to sign up when you say "3 kegs of RealAle beer at the end of the ride" as your hook line.
About 8:30 am, there he was. Lance Armstrong. In the flesh. It was a little surreal for me, considering that he is the main reason why I was standing there with shaved legs and in a Lycra cycling kit. He stood there for a minute or two as some big-whig supporters of Livestrong took some pictures with him, and then we started to ride. So many people! Because I had been handing out flyers, I was in the back, so I slowly started to move up. I knew that I would soon get dropped because of street lights. It was such a big group that we were having to run a lot of lights and people in their cars looked quite confused.
Once we got out of downtown, it was smoother sailing. I got up to the front and all of a sudden, I was riding next to Lance! He looked over at me, took a look at my Texas kit, and said "Howdy." Then he put his horns up. I smiled and gave him the horns as well. It is probably a little embarrassing how excited this made me. I fell back into the pack, and was smiling the whole time.
It's funny how small Lance is. He is actually only 5'9". When you see pro football players in real life, you are always amazed at how much bigger they look in real life instead of on TV. But cyclists seem bigger on TV, smaller in real life. That coupled with the fact that the greatest cyclist maybe ever is willing to ride with normal people, that's pretty cool. It made him seem like a person instead of a demigod.
At one point, I was up near the front, and we got on to a really nice stretch of road. A pro guy from Team Six was riding next to me and said, " What an awesome road. I'm gone." And just like that, he attacked out of the pack. He got a gap, and then Lance decided we should reel him back in. Lance took a monster pull and then some other people took pulls at the front, trying to catch. We slowly rotated through until it was my time to pull. I took a short pull and then Lance came around me to bridge the last 20 ft or so. Pretty cool experience.
We slowed down a bit to finish off the ride. Then Lance said he had to go to the airport and turned right to go toward the airport. His car followed him, and left us to ride home together. Altogether, a successful ride. I got to get some training in, and got to talk to the biggest American name in cycling. Cool.
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