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cycling

Auburn / baseball / cycling / Friday / photo — Comments Off
14
Mar 14

This season the bridge is out and the creek is in

What a lovely evening for a bike ride. I have a ride scheduled for triathlon training — a schedule I am poor at keeping, but here’s a chance to ride — and this is a beautiful day and we’re just that much closer to spring:

But those aren’t the only signs we’ll see:

No problem. This is probably a bridge. There’s one down there. And I’ve gotten over bridges on closed roads before. Besides, going around means another five or 10 miles. While I’m not concerned about the miles, I am on a schedule, and the sun is growing weary in the western sky, so press on …

OK then, they’ve adequately sealed off the road with heavy machinery, as is the style here. This particular piece of awesome construction power fills the entire road. I’ll just walk my bike around on the shoulder, then, and ease over the old (or new) creek bridge. This is going to be a problem. There’s no road there:

How big of a problem? Can’t jump that distance:

Let’s be honest. I’m not jumping any distance.

The problem became that I had to get from this side to that side. And while getting down to the creek bed from myside wasn’t difficult, getting back up to the road was a challenge. On one side the opposite back was vertical, and covered in underbrush. On the other side it was almost vertical, and covered in pumpkin-sized erosion rocks.

The thing is I usually, for better or worse, come to a conclusion about things very quickly. I sat there on the side of the road for a long few minutes trying to figure this out. I had to get down, over and back up, carrying my bike. I’m as much a cyclocross rider as I am a jumper, which is to say not at all. Ultimately I went up the near-vertical side with large rocks, pulling myself and 17 pounds of aluminum and carbon with me. Suddenly, spandex didn’t seem that cool and cycling shoes didn’t seem that practical.

But I made it. Didn’t hurt myself. Managed to get scratched by a tree limb and got a dusty knee. Slowed me down enough that I ended up racing the sun home, which was not my intention. And I missed the start of the baseball game. But I got in 30 miles. And Auburn beat Texas A&M 4-0 to start SEC play.

Even when the roads are closed you can have a good day.

Alabama / baseball / cycling / I do not know what is happening. / photo / running / video / weekend — Comments Off
9
Mar 14

A lovely day to be outdoors

Sometimes life is so hard to figure out when you’re a big kid:

There was a red-tailed hawk floating over the baseball stadium for a few seconds this afternoon. I’d never noticed how the underside of their wingspan is camouflaged against the right kind of sky.

Another one of those shots is going to be one of the new rotating banners on the blog.

Oh, the game itself? Auburn took a 5-2 lead into the top of the ninth, but Mercer rallied to tie the score in the top of the ninth. So, at 5-5, Jordan Ebert led off for Auburn in the bottom of the ninth. He singled to left and then stole second. A one-out sacrifice bunt moved him to third. Two more runners got on to load the bases and that brought Ryan Tella to the plate:

On the eighth pitch of the at bat Tella pushed a ball just beyond the shortstop. The ball went into left and Ebert slid home uncontested to celebrate:

Tigers win, 6-5. The highlights:

After the game I completed a training brick. They’re called that because of how your legs feel, right? I did a quick 17 mile ride and a slower three mile run. Nothing like 90 minutes of taxing your cardio to give you perspective, or lack of perspective. I find I can’t think of much of anything but the next breath.

I did ponder on how my bike got so slow. You take a few days off and the thing forgets how to move at a respectably medium speed. And I also managed to notice and marvel and wonder why my hip hurt for the first half-mile. But I could not figure out, for the next mile, why the stretching I was doing didn’t help my calves. Turns out I was flexing the wrong way, so …

I do not know what is happening.

cycling / iPhone / journalism / links / Samford / things to read / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
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 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:

cycling / I do not know what is happening. / journalism / links / photo / running / swimming / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off
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:

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?

cycling / I do not know what is happening. / running / swimming — Comments Off
1
Feb 14

The month’s 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.