Hills

I've found that taking half a day off during the week leading up to a race and heading downstate to hit some trails really helps me out on race day. Since I'm fortunate to have a boss who doesn't mind my last-minute vacation requests - which are always dependent on the weather - I got to make a trip down to Poto yesterday afternoon to ride with Mitch, Nichole and Aaron.

I was totally intimidated by the Potawatomi. In my mind, it's always been this unattainable, killer trail. A couple summers ago, I rode it and struggled miserably through the whole thing. The second time I attempted it, I broke my chain three miles in and had to walk out. Mitch loves it; I fear it!

But Nichole rides it all the time and convinced me that it should be my race-week training run. So the four of us met up yesterday and to my surprise, I had a great time! Sure, the first four miles we're pretty rough. But after than, my legs remembered how to work and I started to enjoy the trail. Some of the hills were still pretty challenging but I made it up most of them!

Of course, my legs are nice and tired this morning. I'd like to get down to the Rec and work out over lunch, but a few friends and I are going out to bid farewell to a coworker who's moving on. I might get some good stretching in this evening, but I have lots of homework and a neglected apartment to tend to. Since Mitch has been staying with my parents and working with Bobby all week, basic housecleaning is falling by the wayside!

Speaking on Mitch and jobs, I don't have any real updates. He's done a couple more apps this week, but his schedule with Bobby has kept him pretty busy. It's so nice that he can go down there and actually work, because he hated sitting around the apartment...still, I miss him terribly and hope he can find something permanent soon.

The Cat and the Computer

I really like how Chip keeps me company while I sit on the couch and write papers. He curls up next to me and snoozes while I type, and sometimes I reach over to scratch his soft ears or kiss his furry little head. It's a nice little presence to have.

Often, though, the cat is not content to simply sit near me and accept scraps of my attention. More than likely, he'll end up on my lap, pushing my computer from my thighs to my knees and causing my arms to jut out at odd angles in order to reach the keyboard. If I rest my hand on the mouse touchpad, he'll nose at my hand until I relent and scratch his head. Then he'll purr louder and louder, until his little motor gets s squeak in it. By the time I stop, he's lying half on the computer and obscuring the touchpad that steals my attention away from him. Eventually, he makes it so difficult to work - stretching his paws out on the keyboard - that I either have to kick him off or take a break from typing...which is the stage I'm at right now...if there are typos in this post, blame the cat!

Again, they ache!

Had another great ride with the On 2 Wheels team today! We went to Fort Custer in preparation for the next race and did both the red and green loops. Green was all new to me, and such a blast! Unfortunately, we got caught in a thunderstorm at the end of our ride...but that didn't put a damper on our after-ride festivities: grilling! Instead of hanging out at the trailhead, we just found a picnic shelter.

But oh, after our harrowing motorcycle ride to Lansing last night (I was clinging to Mitch for dear life!), the ride was tough on my legs. Right now, they're pretty sore. I need to drink water to flush 'em out, and then get back on the bike ASAP. Or I could go eat homemade popcorn and drink Captain and Coke for dinner. Sounds like a plan to me!

Joy and Happiness

I am not happy. Mitch lost his job earlier this month...yet another casualty of the economy. He has some temporary work lined up for the summer and potentially into the fall, but of course he's diligently applying for permanent positions. We've made the appropriate budget cuts and have essentially limited our recreation to mountain bike racing, but even that will have to be cut down from what we initially planned. These are difficult circumstances.

Yet I am joyful. What? Joy, at a time like this? Joy, when there's so much uncertainty? Joy, though so many of my plans are on hold?

From a sermon at our church last winter: "Joy is a state of happiness, a state of delight, a state of gladness that is not based upon my current circumstances, where happiness is based on my circumstances."

I am joyful. I felt like the world was caving in on me the day Mitch came home from work with the news. The floor spun, but quickly righted itself. And we prayed together, right away. Before we update the resume, before we adjusted the budget, before we started scouring the Internet for job postings, we prayed. And I can't even tell you what we prayed about: maybe strength, maybe for an opportunity to present itself soon, maybe just for God's presence. And though we had our moments of fear over the next few days, we both felt God's presence and his comfort.

Sometimes I want to slip into that initial despair. When something is going wrong in our lives, we tend to think that everything is going wrong. But when I feel that little twinge, I remember that I have this amazing personal relationship with the God of the entire universe. He loves me and cares for me; how could that realization not make me joyful? It does. It fills me with joy, and that joy keeps me from wallowing in my circumstances. And I can be happy, too: hugging Mitch makes me happy, riding my bike makes me happy, being with friends makes me happy. But I am able to experience that happiness despite our current unfortunate circumstances only because I first let God into my life and let him make me joyful.

For awhile, I've been trying to figure out how to write about our circumstances. I don't feel the need to wallow in them; at the same time, I feel like people think you're trying to get them to believe everything is rosy-perfect in your world if you don't acknowledge the struggles. So here I am: I acknowledge our struggles and our need for love and support (and possible job leads!) from our friends and family. I'm not trying to sugar-coat it and make you think we live this perfect, charmed life, nor am I trying hide from the circumstances by not dwelling on them. But my life is joyful and I am blessed, not because of my situation at any one time but because of my Lord's love.

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jer. 29:11

Yankee Springs Time Trial

Race season has officially begun! This past Sunday, Mitch and I joined six of our On 2 Wheels teammates at the Yankee Springs Time Trial. It was a huge race...something like 400 racers were registered. The weather was not ideal, but you could barely feel the sprinkly-misty rain out on the course. I think it even made some of the hills easier for me, because they weren't dry and gravelly.


Me and Nichole, before the race.

My lap started pretty well, but I quickly got passed by the faster sport women and my teammate, Nichole. Throughout the course, I battled back and forth with two other racers; in a time trial, you're just racing the clock so your position with regard to the other racers doesn't matter. In this race, I also didn't know which racers were in my age bracket since they grouped all the sport women together for the start. So even though I had no idea where my time stood in relation to my competitors, I used the racers who were close to me as motivation to go faster. As I said, the uphills weren't too bad and the downhills were a ton of fun! I was shooting for a time of 1 hour, 20 minutes (because that would have been a top-three time in my class last year) but I finished just under 1 hour, 13 minutes. That was fast enough to earn me a second place out of four racers. Nichole smoked us all, finishing in 1 hour, 6 minutes.


Podium finishes for the sport ladies!

The rest of the team did really well, too:

Sport Men 19-29:
Mitch - 4th place (53:45)
Brad Potter - 6th place (54:13)

Sport Men 30-39:
Jake Pangle - 8th place (59:56)

Single Speed Sport/Beginner:
Aaron Osburn - 9th place (57:27)

Expert Men 40-49:
Karl Grieve - 10th place (1:44:28-two laps)

Beginner Women 30+:
Andrea Davis - 7th place (1:27:51)

Mitch was hoping for a faster time but he lost precious minutes getting stuck behind large groups of riders. That was a common complaint for most of the guys, and it's one of the downfalls of time trial races. But Andrea gets some special kudos for finishing 20 minutes faster this year than last year!

Next up: a cross country race at Fort Custer. So excited!

Should...but I'm not!

I took the afternoon off work today.

What I should be doing:
Studying for my two midterm exams
Working on problems for Operations Management
Researching for my Business and Society paper

What I'm really doing:
Mountain biking
Riding the motorcycle
Having dinner with my parents

It's all about priorities, right? Like I keep saying on Facebook, I think this year's race season is going to adversely affect my spring and summer grades...

Behold, my burning quads!

Well, they've stopped burning by now, but they were certainly on fire Saturday afternoon when Mitch and I joined our team at Yankee Springs for a pre-ride. Unless you count our Friday attempt at riding a kind of wet Anderson Park, Saturday's adventure was my first trail ride of the spring. It really was a blast; the weather was perfect, the trail was in great shape, and our teammates seem like really fun people.

My personal takeaways from the ride: I'm glad I spent so much time this winter strengthening my whole body. My bike handling skills seem just as solid as they were at the end of the season last year, and I attribute at least some of that to having a good, strong upper body and core. I remain confident in technical sections and need to continue refining those skills. Climbing will still be my biggest challenge, however. I need to spend some time riding challenging singletrack hills to build up endurance in my leg muscles and get better at choosing my lines amidst roots, rocks and gravel. One of my teammates, Nichole, suggested a grueling weekend at the Potowatami. With dread, I will probably take her up on that sooner rather than later. As the Yankee race is next weekend, though, and there's quite a bit of climbing, I'm just going to have to grit my teeth and grind through it as best I can, making up precious time by going balls-out on the downhills. Wheeeeeee!

(I also learned, much to my relief, that the back problems I've been having shouldn't hinder my riding. I've been seeing a chiropractor and it appears to be paying off. I also gave myself a good dose of ibuprofen before the Yankee ride and was feeling no pain! That was one of my greatest fears regarding the upcoming race season, and I'm glad it shouldn't be an issue.)

Mitch had a phenomenal ride at Yankee. This was one of his first trail rides with his new bike, and that combined with all his training helped him improve his previous Yankee time by 8-9 minutes. Now, he rode the trail backwards last time but he said it's still probably comparable. After the first lap, he and the rest of the guys went out for round two and Mitch was still well ahead of last year's race time. I think he's going to have a great season...he sure has worked hard!

As this weekend was Easter, we didn't spend the whole time riding. On Sunday morning, we went to Mitch's family's church for an 8 am breakfast, followed by worship service. Then we hung out at his parents' place, eating and talking, until about 3 pm. Somewhere in there, I almost dozed off in the warm sunlight streaming through the front windows! But no time for napping when we got home: I had a case analysis to finalize and submit for Operations Management. These things are supposed to be team assignments, but only two of us have made real contributions to the efforts so far. If we get a good grade on this one, though, we only have to turn in one more. Here's hoping...

In other news, the weather is just about nice enough for us to get the motorcycle out of storage and start riding! I'm thinking of taking a half day off this week so we could get the bike from my parents' and maybe go for one more mountain bike ride at Brighton or Island Lake before Sunday's race at Yankee. Maybe I'll go ask the boss right now!

I know what you're doing, Mother Nature.

And it's not going to work. You're using this little blast of cold weather to distract me while you sneak spring in the back door. I'm on to your game...you did it this fall, giving us sunshiny days while ripping the leaves from the trees and paving the way for winter. I didn't see it 'til it was too late and I missed the whole transition. Now I'm paying attention. I'm going to catch that sweet moment when green brushes over the brown grass, when buds appear on the tree outside my window. I'm going to hear that first morning when the birds start their chorus, not belatedly realize they've been singing for weeks already. Spring flowers won't be in full bloom before I run my fingers lightly along their petals; no, I'll watch them slowly open. I'll take it all in, Mother Nature, moment by moment, despite your best efforts to hoodwink me.