cycling


26
Feb 14

Something like the usual

In my class today I invited in a guest speaker today. And I also invited in another class to hear from him.

Nathan

Nathan Troost is a Samford graduate. Within about two years of leaving he started his own film production company and now travels the world producing video packages for non-profit organizations. He showed us some of his stirring work.

Neverthirst in India: Iron Tribe Update from Lantern Vision on Vimeo.

The Pygmy People: An e3 Church Planting Movement from Lantern Vision on Vimeo.

So, you see, I bring in great speakers for my students.

Things to read … because I bring good reading material, too.

Samford JMC to Create Sports-Media Program:

“Sports media will complement the department’s exceptional print journalism, broadcast journalism, public relations and advertising tracks. We want to show our support for Samford athletics and prepare our students for the rapidly expanding employment opportunities in the sports-media field. The hands-on experience students will get in the Athletics Department will be invaluable.”

The new partnership is announced as Samford JMC students and faculty complete work on the pilot episode for a reality television series that follows nine athletes from various sports as they navigate life at Samford. “The Student Athlete” is expected to be complete in May.

Fun times in our program.

After not walking for seven years, Hoover girl inspires others with first steps and inner strength :

It takes 113 steps for 8-year-old Jian Jackson to walk from the hallway of her school outside to her mother’s car. She made that walk Monday afternoon, something she couldn’t do for the first 7 years of her life in China.

“That’s been the goal from the beginning,” said Stacie Jackson, Jian’s adoptive mother. “We’ve been working on that everyday.”

When she was 5 months old, Jian developed a high fever that lasted for four days. Afterward, the orphanage workers noticed she could no longer move her legs. Doctors in the United States believe Jian was stricken with polio at the time. It was assumed she would never walk.

Last June, a woman set herself on fire about every three days in Herat, Afghanistan:

Last June, a woman set herself on fire about every three days in Herat, Afghanistan. That’s an improvement – in June 2012, the city’s main hospital received a self-immolator about every two days, and in 2010, Afghanistan’s presidential advisor on health affairs estimated that 2,400 women were burning themselves alive nationwide, every year. The cause, he said, was depression.

Lee Rigby murderers sentenced to life in prison:

The Islamist killers of Drummer Lee Rigby erupted into violence in an Old Bailey courtroom as they were sentenced for murder.

Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, had to be manhandled out of court by security guards after being told by Mr Justice Sweeney that their crime was a “betrayal of Islam”.

Adebolajo screamed at the judge as he was manhandled down the dock stairs in the historic Court No 2 but, in scenes lasting several minutes, his co-defendant was held to the floor and cuffed before being carried downstairs head first.

Relatives of Drummer Rigby, who were sitting just three feet away from the dock, stood up and cowered away from the violence.

Mr. Justice Sweeney. That’s way to use a title. And justice was almost done.

And now a cycling video:


11
Feb 14

I’d really rather not talk about the weather

Another day closer to the weather and we’re coming to the realization that it’ll hit us but good.

There are some things we have to keep in mind about winter in the South. First, it is hard to forecast. This is a dynamic region and the one-two punch we’re getting this week has major elements coming from the west, down from the north and up from the Gulf of Mexico. The forecast models change almost by the hour.

Meteorologists are more than happy to share those long-range models and, I’m half-convinced, they just confuse people who really shouldn’t be confused about winter weather.

Also, it isn’t the snow that’s the problem. Except when it is. Our snow is usually wet. And what often happens is the snow melts, the temperature drops and then we have great sheets of ice over everything. You drive on that.

You drive on that, because I’m staying inside.

And all of that may happen again this week. Most of the worst of it, right now, seems to be aiming for Georgia and the Carolinas. But we’ll have plenty, thanks.

Already the weather has canceled the student newspaper this week. It is due out tomorrow, but the printer is to our north, and they are expecting to get walloped. So on and on the fun goes.

To take our minds off that fun, here’s a shot of Allie, The Black Cat, sunbathing on Sunday:

Allie

That afternoon we decided, hey, it is a beautiful day, let’s run a sprint triathlon.

So we went to the pool. I had my new goggles and we swam our 650 yards. I started out too fast, which was a paradoxical decision as I am slow in the pool. And so I suffered with that for a while. I figured I would redeem myself on the bicycle, where I thought I would be able to hammer it a bit. So down the big hill and up the smaller, other side. Around part of the bypass, up another hill through campus. I got stopped at a red light, turned around and there was The Yankee. I was sure she would be nowhere to be found, but she was having a great ride.

Up through an old neighborhood, hang a left and then a right. I took a road I don’t think I’ve ever pedaled on before, but a road where we once looked at two houses. I finished the 14-mile route just a minute or two before she did, but she also caught a light I did not.

So I guess I’ll have to win in the run. We ran the first half of our 5K together, because it wasn’t a race. It was a beautiful, glorious, day for an hour and change outside, in shorts and t-shirts, in the sunshine.

We ran a sprint triathlon on a whim, making us those people. Last summer I did three of them, suffering and struggling and dreading them and only enjoying them after they were over — enjoying the knowledge that I’d completed them. (For this I get to thank Bud Frankenthaler, who two years ago I watched finishing a triathlon at the age of 79. If he could do it, the rest of us don’t have a lot of excuses, right? Thanks Mr. Frankenthaler. He will probably outpace me somewhere this year, too.) Today there were no bib numbers, no massage table, no timing chips. We did it for fun. Had a great time, too. I want to do it again. Let’s go next weekend.

I do not know what is happening.

Tomorrow we’ll have snow.

Things to read … because links will keep us all warm.

These are just the links, enjoy clicking through the ones that interest you.

Writing headlines that get clicks

IndyStar staffers read your mean comments

Drone use highlights questions for journalists

First Listen: St. Paul And The Broken Bones, ‘Half The City’ — This is a good band, a local group, that’s about to make it big. Some of the musicians are from Samford, too.

And now I’m going to go buy things on the Internet. Who delivers milk and bread?


1
Feb 14

The month’s workouts

workouts

This is all I did in January. It was not a lot, and the lack of red is depressing. Red is the bike. Darker blue is running. Lighter blue is swimming.

Next month I’ll just have do more.


26
Jan 14

Out for a Sunday ride

Worked in a fun little 26 mile route this afternoon. It was a crisp, sunny and beautiful day for a ride. These are base miles or reacquainting myself with the saddle miles. Probably more of the latter, sadly. But great fun anyway!

Ren

(I should take more photos while I’m riding. I see other people’s shots — a guy who works for Apple and a newspaper editor I know are big culprits — and wonder how they do this, ride for as long and as hard as they want to, and then stop and take some incredible shots. Those are from Angelo Calilap, the guy who works for Apple, who is also a bike racer. And then he finds someone else’s beautiful cycling shots and says inspires him “to want to bring another camera other than my iPhone during a bike ride.” Like I’m carrying a real camera on my bike. Like I’m going to actually build up some momentum approaching respectable, see some nice view and then stop. I need my momentum! But I see those pictures and I want to go ride again. How’s right now for you?)

We worked our way through the back of the neighborhood, down one half of the time trial route and then past the city limit sign. We went by all of the shopping, through a sleepy little stretch of road that really lets you work out your legs and then down, down to a creek bed.

Ren

Which only means you have to come back up. And it feels like a long way up. It isn’t, really, numerically speaking. But I’m not a climber. And so when you crack on the first hill, know you have to still turn right and go up another one … well … I should be a better climber.

Ren

Thing I learned on the bike today: A few doughnuts and a banana are not good fuel.

I knew this already, but it is good to reinforce the basics.

Other thing I reinforced on the bike today: I enjoy riding my bike with her, especially on days when I can actually keep up. I even passed her a few times today, hence the pictures.

We were almost home and she said she had a craving for broccoli and brussel sprouts. She also remembered the rule about doughnuts and a banana. So we had vegetables for dinner. Is that something else worth learning? Eat what you crave on the bike?

May have to test that idea.


20
Jan 14

A photo week – Monday

Took this shot while out riding yesterday.

riding

It was my first ride of the new year. There’s been cold and things to do and waiting until we had everything just right and so on.

So we found the flattest 20 mile route we could think of nearby and then added an extra leg on that plan, all of which seemed uphill, which was brilliant in retrospect. We ended up doing just under 23 miles, which was great fun. Then The Yankee got a flat just before we were done. I was behind her, watching it go down before she noticed it, so when she stopped I was already throwing a leg over the top tube and reaching for my pump.

The crisis was no crisis. In a moment we were going over the last hill before home, where I took that picture, the scenery marked the end of a nice ride.

Today was meant to be a rest day. So late in the evening I was feeling antsy and went for a three-mile jog. I’m turning into one of those people, apparently.