Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

Hi, How are you? Or better yet, who are you? Or maybe I'm the only one who constantly asks myself that. Whatever. Things are going. Going indeed. Of course, they could definitely be better, but often the case is such. And, of course, things could indeed be much, much worse. I, however, choose to focus on the negatives for whatever reason. But, as Sir Paul taught us all, life goes on. And go on it will, hopefully soon. But until then, I suppose I will write and bike for lack of a better solution. Perhaps that's not a bad solution after all though.

Anyway, I'm sitting here, waiting for my next class, and I figured I might as well update this with my Texas 4000 progress:


Last weekend was our Texas 4000 Training Camp in Fayetteville, TX. Needless to say, it was awesome. Bill Edwards, a professional cycling coach taught in part by Chris Carmichael (Lance Armstrong's coach), along with seven other cycling coaches mostly from the Southern Elite cycling team gave us a free weekend of coaching and lodging, plus two meals at the Bed and Breakfast in Fayetteville and a couple other smaller houses. It was so much fun, and very helpful as well. The sign in front of the Fayetteville Bed and Breakfast calls Fayetteville "The Most Bike Friendly Town in Texas", and from my very limited experience, I would have to agree. It is a small town East of Austin, about an hour outside of Houston, of population 261 in 2000. Bill Edwards owns the Bed and Breakfast and does a training program for anyone who would like where they stay at the B&B and receive coaching from him for a weekend. One of the coolest things about the weekend is that all these guys passed on their years of valuable knowledge and experience that would normally cost several hundred dollars for us to receive, as well as a place to stay and two meals, at no cost to us. They gave us an entire weekend out of the kindness of their hearts, which was so amazing of them to do. I continue to be amazed at how grateful people have been in helping us reach our goals with the Texas 4000. When the weekend concluded, the coaches unanimously said that if next year's team told them a weekend that worked best for them, they would all be back and do it again for free. Amazing.

Stretching and preparing to ride in front of the Fayetteville Courthouse

Prepping the bikes

Nervous about our first big ride

"Wait, our feet will be attached to the pedals?!!"

Receiving instructions from the coaches

Chattin' it up with the coaches

On Saturday, we rode 40 miles on the country roads around Fayetteville. There was minimal traffic, a couple dogs, and a slight wind, but the conditions were about as perfect as you could ask for. The weather was gorgeous: sunny and about 70 degrees or so. Like I said, the wind picked up a couple times, but that just makes you stronger, haha. It was my first time to ride clipless pedals, so that was an experience, but I have now been converted. They are awesome, I love the power you can get by pulling up on the pedal. Probably the most valuable advice I got all weekend was to pull up as you climb. It takes a lot of pressure off the ball of your foot and also uses different muscles so your quads aren't screaming on every climb. They broke us up into four groups based on experience and at first I thought I was going to have to go with the slowest group from how they described the group. But, I was in the group just under the most experienced riders, and I was able to keep up just fine. The coaches actually got on me several times when I was leading the paceline for keeping too quick of a pace. Oops. I thought maybe I should have gone with the top group. So it was reassuring to know that I can consider myself in the more experienced half of the group, or at least able to keep up with the more experienced riders, especially since I've only been riding a road bike for less than a month now.

Alas, I have run out of time and motivation. Stay tuned...