cycling « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

cycling

cycling / Friday / photo / Samford — Comments Off
2
Oct 15

I learned a new word

This is called “phubbing.”

(And, yes this is a photo of poor quality. I was trying to be casual about capturing an image of three people at one table all on their phones.)

It means you are snubbing others for your phone. I learned this word from one of our dinner friends. One of them also pointed out that I was doing the same thing by taking this picture.

Phubbing, I think, is one of those words that will be hard to forget, one that will rush right to the top of your mind when you see it happening.

Some of the latest Samford data:

I found that poster on a wall in the administration building while on my way to a meeting. Pretty impressive numbers when you think about it.

Here are a few more numbers, but less impressive. This evening I got in a 21 mile bike ride. It was humid and overcast. It was 65 degrees. Almost chilly in the breeze. There’s probably a few more warm days ahead, and certainly a lot of pleasant ones. But this was the first day when the change of seasons became inevitable.

cycling / football / Friday / memories / podcast — Comments Off
18
Sep 15

When the blacktop sings to you

And, now, scenes from an all-important, utterly inconsequential and I hope never elusive 20-mile bike ride.

I have some history on this road, I realized, as I pedaled down it today. And not just because I’ve made tiny circles with my feet on it before. I’ve raced on it. I have friends that grew up on this road. I re-learned to run on the path that meanders alongside it. I’ve been caught in the rain on this road and failed to outrun hail on this road. I have history on that little ribbon of asphalt, pretty neat.

To be sure, I do spend a lot of my time on this road with this view:

On a different road. Same ride, different light:

What was going on on the other side of the camera at that same moment:

And now, for two podcasts. If you like Arkansas:

And if you prefer your football to be full of Gator bites:

Some other stuff here and there. Mostly, though, that road, and this weekend.

cycling / links / Monday / photo — Comments Off
14
Sep 15

Chasing the Trek

This weekend I chased The Yankee for 42 miles. She started before me and I had to catch her. I knew the route and I knew she had a big head start. That was the game we played. A game we used to play when I could catch her more often. It took me about 31 miles to find her.

I’m not sure which I liked more, the mile where I averaged 22.6 or the earlier mile where I paced 23 miles per hour. I can do that on the right terrain, just long enough, for about two-and-a-half-minutes, to wonder what it would be like to do that over an entire ride, no matter the terrain. Terrain and topography being relative terms for where we ride. My app says I climbed only 1,700 feet during that ride.

I know people at Delta State. That campus had already had a weird and tough enough year before a senseless tragedy such as this. Later in the day we learned those particular people were safe.

A review, something I wrote:

Unless you are a Ricardo Louis or Chris Davis completist, you probably can skip the new “Miracles on the Plains,” which does not fit into the group of excellent documentaries. There are several reasons.

It goes on like that for about 635 more words.

cycling / photo / Samford / Tuesday — Comments Off
8
Sep 15

Back to it, then, short week edition

I love the following sentence. I managed to get in a 31-mile ride before heading off to the office today. The upside to a late night, I suppose, is a slightly later start which today meant I had the opportunity to make a few more tiny circles with my feet.

Also, I got rained on, so I hid under a nearby church’s carport.

I got rained on while driving too, but that provided us with shots like this:

Because of all of those clouds which lingered throughout the rest of the day, we had a marvelous sunset, too:

I know sunset pictures are the standard placeholder around here. And there are people who make capturing that hour of the day their life’s work. You’ll never find mine next to theirs in a sunset photo gallery, I’m sure. But it pays to look up.

We’re also looking down, into computer screens this evening. Tonight our student-journalists are putting to bed their first issue of The Crimson for the school year. I’m eager to see how it looks tomorrow.

cycling / Monday / photo — Comments Off
7
Sep 15

An un-laborious Labor Day ride

I managed to take more wrong turns on my bicycle than you’d think. You’re going slower than cars, usually, but you can still get it wrong. It seems, though, like less of a problem on a bike. More pedaling!

Turning around is different. In the car I find that every place I try to turn around is a bad option, in a blind curve or has a squadron of vehicles following me while there are forever cars coming from the other direction. It can be exasperating, but I think that’s because in the car you’re always going somewhere.

On the bike, I’m trying to find somewhere, or I’m trying to remember where I put myself. Or I’m simply more comfortable with the idea that there, up there, is going to be in the same spot when I finally do make it.

I didn’t mind so much when I missed a turn 22 miles into today’s ride. I got to pass a pickup right after that. First moving vehicle I’ve overtaken in a while. And after a mile-and-a-half of slow climbing, I found myself with this view:

I’d been to this place before. You start to recognize crossroads and signs and ditches, if not the treeline in the distant pasture:

So the one road drops me off into another road with more traffic and less light and I found myself at a gas station, which I’ve visited before. It was the only thing around for miles, except for the sunset:

And there I called it a ride. My missed turn gave me views I hadn’t expected, but would have put about 15 more miles onto my trip and I just ran out of time. It is hard to see it, but even the twilight was giving up fast. I called for a ride and did doughnuts in the parking lot of the gas station, where they have appliances on a side porch:

And I learned what goes on inside old gas pumps:

And, not for the first time, I’ve wanted to tour this old co-op. They still do some work out of there. I’d like to see inside the place.

So my ride ended early, but it went early, and exactly right, at 33.51 miles.