go play outside

"biologist tim clark says at the heart of good biology is a central core of imagination. it is the basis for responsible science. and it has everything to do with intimacy, spending time outside.

but we forget because we spend so much time inside--inside offices, inside boardrooms, inside universities, inside hearings, inside eating power breakfasts, power lunches, dinners and drinks.

to protect what we love outside, we are inside scheming, talking, telephoning, writing, granting, faxing memos, memos, memos, memos to them, to us; inside to protect what we love outside.

there is no defense against an open heart and a supple body in dialogue with wildness. internal strength is an absorption of the external landscape. we are informed by beauty, raw and sensual. through an erotics of place our sensitivity becomes our sensibility."

~from an unspoken hunger by terry tempest williams


the guiding thought in my life recently: go play outside. i have been plagued with an inability to sit still. i'm supposed to be taking time "off" to let my knee fully heal. i suppose its been a couple weeks, which is good, but i'm itching to get going again. using a car to do errands is driving me nuts (no pun intended), and i can only read so many books before i start thinking i should be doing stuff instead of reading about it (i read mostly non-fiction lately). i'm excited for tahoe and spending all day outside. less than 2 days to go!

sf update

i have all of this time on my hands being on vacation and all, yet i seem to be posting less frequently. the past week or so has gone by pretty quickly. my youngest brother and his fiancee arrived with their dog. it was great to hang out with them though it was only for a few days. they brought their dog with them, and it was just nice to have a dog around again.

i picked up my other brother at the airport at midnight on christmas day, which means my whole (immediate) family was actually together for christmas this year--for the first time in about three years. my mom had been discussing pre-making part of the traditional christmas morning apple strudel. my brother and i wanted none of that and promptly told my mother so...and then we went on to kick her out of the kitchen the next morning so we could make it. evidently she trained us well because the strudel turned out perfectly. the rest of the day was pretty low key, which was nice.

the day after christmas, i pulled out my skis in preparation for the tahoe trip. now, the last time i went skiing was my senior year in college when john and i got season passes to a couple resorts in new hampshire and would just go on the weekends. since then my skis have just been sitting unused in the garages in ohio and (after my parents moved) in california while i have been off galavanting in the tropics. i had been debating just renting skis, but after doing some homework realized that that could be expensive...so i decided to risk it. i took my skis to a local ski shop, silently praying that the people who worked there wouldn't laugh at me and tell me to throw them out and rent. much to my delight, the guy at the shop looked at them and said the base wax layer was in great condition and that the skis only needed a minor tuneup. yes! so it cost me $35 to fix my skis. i have to pick them up on monday.

this brings me up to today. today, i woke up with sun coming through my window, so i laced up my shoes and went out for a quick 4-miler to assess the weather. it was gorgeous--a little cold, but otherwise clear skies and nothing but sun. i decided it was time for another cycling adventure. i have been wanting to explore the routes to ride over the mountains from my parents house into oakland and berkeley. in studying maps recently i found a redwood park at the top of the mountain above oakland...and that there was a road from the east side of the mountains going up it. so i made it my ride.

the first 10 miles or so were relatively uneventful. i avoided the streets for the most part by jumping on the regional bikepaths. when the bike path ended i think i made a wrong turn, but fortunately a very nice young man about my age rode up next to me on a very nice carbon bike. i decided to pick his brain. he pointed me in the right direction and then we stood there talking for a bit about good routes in the area, so now i have a few more ideas up my sleeve! i got back on the road and it wasn't too much further until i was out of town and heading uphill.

after wandering through a couple different hills and past the redwood park entrance, i found myself on skyline blvd in oakland. skyline, as the name would suggest, runs along (near) the top of the mountains, so as soon as i got on the road, i had a fantastic view of the bay area. i continued along skyline until it turned joaquim miller (?) and it started heading downhill. after a nice 11% grade downhill, i found myself in front of the lds oakland temple (if you've ever flown into oakland, you can see this when you're landing...its near the top of the hill/mountain), so i stopped to check it out. from there it was about six miles or so to berkeley and mostly downhill. i met my parents and one of my brothers for lunch at jupiter and then drove back to danville with them. in total i think i rode about 30 miles (maybe more?) with some nice long hills.

when i have not been running or riding my bike this vacation, i've been doing a lot of reading. lately i have received several good book recommendations. several days ago, i finished the china study. if you haven't read that and are interested in the science of nutrition, i'd highly recommend it. be aware, however, that it will make you think twice about the food guide pyramid and how much animal product you're consuming (regardless of whether or not you're a vegetarian). yesterday i finished kitchen confidential by anthony bourdain, and i'd recommend it. it will definitely make you think twice about opening you're own restaurant, ordering the fish special on monday or asking for anything "well done." i'm currently working on another one of bourdain's books and another book by terry tempest williams--she wrote refuge, which i mentioned on my blog several months ago.

live from sf

i arrived safely in san francisco last night. my bike also appears to have arrived safely, but i'd like to put out a word of warning. if you're flying out of austin with your bike and you see two women at the "oversized baggage" drop off (who may or may not be looking at golf clubs like they're weapons of mass destruction), i recommend you stick around and watch them open your stuff...so that you can make sure they put it back properly.

when i got my bike box back in sf, one of my wheels was partly out of the box...i looked at it confused because i'm generally pretty anal about making sure something like that doesn't happen. i opened my bike box to discover a flier from the tsa saying that they had done an inspection. i was annoyed to put it politely. if you're going to open people's stuff, for goodness sakes, at least try to put it back properly so it doesn't get damaged. my rear wheel is fairly untrued at the moment though not unrideable. before you think i improperly packed my bike in the first place, i should say that i travel with my bikes in an ironcase, a special, reusable plastic box made for travelling with your bike that has lots of padding so nothing moves or gets scratched or bent. i've lost track of how many times i've taken the thing on flights interisland, to the mainland and on the mainland. nothing has ever gotten damaged. grrr.

anywho, onto happier things, my bike is together and i rode down to the bike shop to pick up a few more spare tubes and co2 cartridges. i have my t4k bike with me, the one i rode to alaska, and because i was missing a skewer for the front wheel until last week, i hadn't ridden it since getting to anchorage. it was nice to be back on it today, although it reminded me how stretched out on it i am. thank goodness for long arms!

it was a little overcast and rainy today, but the sun eventually peeked out. i am hoping that it does the same only stays out a little longer tomorrow. we decided to go north instead of south, so tomorrow we'll be heading out over the golden gate bridge and then hoping on route 1 to start riding up the coast. we'll be staying at the point reyes hostel in point reyes national seashore, so we'll be getting two days of nothing but saltwater (insert huge smile here). from what the guy in the bike shop told me today, the last 10 miles or so out to the hostel make you feel like you're riding into nothing before the hostel pops up out of the nothingness. he also said the (cross)wind is ridiculous on the stretch. having experienced some pretty brutal winds this summer, i'm looking forward to seeing what california has to offer. hopefully i'm regretting that statement tomorrow afternoon!

statistics

at the risk of being morbid, apparently the american heart association says there is 1 in 50,000 chance of having a heart problem during an endurance race. there was a triathlete from austin who died during the dallas marathon on sunday. i didn't know her, but apparently some friends of a friend did, which was how i heard about it. before my parents start freaking out and attempt to make me stop all things endurance (i won't, sorry), the chance of dying in a car accident is 1 in 18,585 or from dying of a fall of any kind is 1 in 20,666 (other odds/chances, maybe not the most scientific reference, but i digress). when i hear about young people, who clearly are trained for the event, it makes me wonder what exactly is (or is not) happening in the human body that goes awry. how can we monitor stuff like that? is it predictable? can we prevent it from happening?

i am starting to plan my next adventure. this weekend, a friend from college (mark) and i are going to explore the northern california coast by bike. we're either going from san francisco north to point reyes or south to santa cruz. if you have any experience taking either of these routes (both are mostly along pch--route 1) and have a preference for which is nicer let me know. there are hostels near the ocean in both places. however, going north would put is in a national park (seashore) and going south would put us in a city (i've heard something about a hottub on a cliff overlooking the ocean). i'm excited about the ocean, but am a little concerned about how cold it might be given the generally cold tempteratures around the country at present. yesterday, i don't know that it go above 35 degrees F in austin! i live in texas for crying out loud!

really done

the marathon went pretty well yesterday. my final time was 3:33:50, which is an 8:10/mile pace. at the half, i was on pace to run a pr...and then we turned and started heading south. there was a fairly ridiculous headwind, which was so strong people were actually drafting off of each other. i would like to take a moment to remind the ready that we were RUNNING. if there were cyclists, they probably would not have been cycling much faster than we were running. anywho, i felt like i was dragging pretty much the entire second half of the race, so that wasn't much fun. however, i'm qualified for boston 2010, which is good. my knee didn't bother me at all during the race, and its feeling fine now, which is also good. my legs aren't as sore as they have been in the past after a hard marathon either...yeah!

in dallas i stayed with becca, a friend from the ride this summer, and it was great to be able to catch up. then today i had lunch with todd, another friend from the ride. its funny because i spent such a huge amount of time with all these people last year and over the summer, and have seen very few of them in the months since returning to austin. it leaves me with a feeling sometimes of, did that even happen? was it all a dream? but catching up with them is like seeing a friend i haven't seen in a long time (as opposed to just a few months). its fun.

my roommates and i were planning to ride the trail of lights in zilker park this evening...however its been in the 30s all day and now its starting to rain. so let's suffice it say the plan has gotten nixed. if its below 40 and raining, none of us want to be riding. the tacky christmas sweater party we through on friday was a success...although i've decided its more fun to go to end-of-the-term parties when you don't have to go to bed early to get up to race or drive to a race and you can stay up talking to people.

done!!

i'm done with finals! yeah!

on a completely unrelated note, it snowed here last night, and when i woke up this morning there was still snow on the roof of the building just outside my window! brrr....despite this, weather.com is predicting mid-70s for this weekend with lows in the low 60s...perfect marathon weather!

the studyfest continues with just over 24 hours to go before my final. i'm antsy as all get out. this is the first year in six years that i haven't had a marathon to run BEFORE my final(s). generally at this time of year, i start tapering during the last week of classes, which is convenient because there are lots of deadlines and i need more time to work. then, i get to race and recovering from the race makes me want to sit and study. the late thanksgiving holiday this year messed with the schedule, although as i'm able to sleep 9 hours a night right now, i can't complain too much.

i saw the doctor today and got cleared to run on sunday with the understanding that i was to recover properly afterwards for the sake of my knee. she seems to think the bump is going to go away and that the irritation is due to having moved everything a tad out of place when i fell. she said i can ski...as long as i don't fall. i'm looking forward to sunday, but i can tell i'm still in the midst of a taper because my legs feel heavy when i run.

for the anatomy nerds, here was the interesting thing from that visit that i hadn't noticed. your muscles can start to atrophy (shrink) after 72 hours if not used. my muscles have been shrinking all fall just because i've been running so much (some people have fat and skinny jeans...i have cycling and running jeans because my legs are different sizes depending on which i'm doing more of). well, dr. merket and i sat and looked at my vastus medialis and vastus lateralis (two sections of your quad located on the "inside" and "outside" of your thigh, respectively). though you have to look closely and know what your'e looking for to see it, my right side is visably smaller than my left now. despite not taking time off to recover from falling, the muscle on the injured side still atrophied. i must have been using it differently than i was before. spending time in the gym and on my bike will fix the problem in no time, but i was pretty shocked to see that my muscle could change that much in a month despite not decreasing my activity level.

happy finals week to all! and now back to studying...

don't worry be happy

we'll i figured out why being around my roommates makes me happy. happiness is apparently contagious. apparently the researchers in the article are also doing an experiment on facebook too looking at who smiles in their profile pictures. within my own network of friends the trend is quite interesting--the people i hang out with the most all have smiling pictures, which is what they predict.

its been nothing but studying the last couple days and i'm still going strong. i finally bought my plane tickets for winter break. i'll be in sf 12/18-1/6, so if you're there during those times, let me know. i'll be bringing a bike with me so if you're in town and want to ride, that would be swell.

six more days until dallas.

congrats to julia and chris!

my little brother and his girlfriend got engaged today! i'm very excited for them!

before that excitement today, there was other completely unrelated fun to be had. brooke, jason and i went on a bike ride down to buda. on the way back we stopped at the cathedral of junk, a fortress made of, well, junk, in south austin. vince, the creator and owner, was home at the time too, so we got to talk to him for awhile about his creation. basically, it started as a shrine, of sorts, and then it got bigger. now people bring him stuff to use. the structure itself is multi-level and has just about everything you can imagine it--from old skiis and car fenders to cds, computers and bottles. its impressive. the next time i go, i'll try to bring a camera.

ut winter graduation was also today, so now i'm off for graduation celebrations. i would like to be able to say 'go mizzou!' but i was reading the paper this morning and discovered that if ou wins, it would likely mean texas went to the fiest bowl...to play ohio state. that is a game i have been wanting to see for the last year and a half. i think i will have to do some pretty deep soul searching about where my alliances lie though. i grew up in buckeye country, but never went to ohio state and now i'm in school at texas, but not from here. maybe i should cut two shirts in half and sew them together...blend my worlds.

final stretch

all i have left is to print out and turn in a paper tomorrow and one final next week. yeah! tomorrow is basically holiday parties and master's presentations. funny how that works.

i made an appointment to see the doctor again about my knee. let's suffice it say that it hasn't gotten better and i think its becoming more sore. as someone who studies walking, this is sending chills through my spine and thoughts of not being able to run 50 years from now. not good. the bump hasn't gone away, and i think it might be starting to rub my femur (thigh bone) the wrong way. so i'm going to try and get them to x-ray and mri the heck out of it and tell me exactly what's happening. all i can feel is that something is wrong. hopefully this doesn't me i can't run the marathon in a week and half, but i suppose that would be small price to pay.

anyone interested in roadtripping from austin to sf in december? or the reverse in january? i was doing a cost-benefit analysis and with gas prices as they are right now, it costs about as much to drive as to fly. however, i've been thinking about taking one of the bikes i have here to sf with me and i would want to bring both it and my skiis back in january...which would get rather expensive. i suppose i'll worry more about this next week though when i'm actually done with the term.

party in the moonlight, dance until the sunrise

unfortunately that's not what i've been doing lately. its the last week of classes and i'm trying to finish my two term projects. this should be easy, yeah? well, i was sitting in the airport sunday night waiting for my flight back to texas and working on one of my papers. my power adaptor fell off the arm rest of the chair i was sitting in and all of a sudden, both the adaptor and my computer went black...and my computer wouldn't turn back on. i almost had a heart attack. i let my computer rest for about 15 minutes, at which point it still wouldn't turn on, so i started calling people i knew who might have some idea of what happened. while on the phone with my brother i decided to just take the battery out and put it back in (i didn't blow on it though). whatever was wrong was solved by this remove and return to previous position technique.

last night, i got home from class and am all set to work and then my adaptor stops working. less than 45 minutes later, at 8:45p, my laptop battery runs out. i sigh, hoping i can fix my adaptor, but it doesn't start working again until sometime this morning. in the interim, i realized that i hadn't emailed myself the most recent version of the paper, and thus, all my work was on a computer that couldn't turn on. well, the adaptor magically worked today during class when i needed it too. whew!

last weekend was both a good and a bad thing. it was nice to see friends from college; however, it also made me grateful for something i had been not liking for the last couple months. i had wanted time (if only a few days) to chill out before school had started but i didn't get it. well, being away from here made me realize what that would have been like. i'd have had time to think. not good. i brood over things, which is a terrible habit, and going non-stop with school and being constantly doing something with my roommates has actually been really good for me.

i did a brief cost-benefit analysis of plane tickets for winter break the other day. the result was that i think i should just drive to california. that way i can take a bike with me and bring both the bike and my skiis back with me in january. it might take a bit longer to drive, but i could stop a couple places along the way and maybe actually get to see zion national park...or stop in colorado and ski too! the mainland made me restless again. go figure.

i'm focusing. really, i am.