Feels SO good!

As of about five minutes ago, I'm one third of the way done with my MBA program. The term ends in three days, but all my assignments are complete and my course evaluations are turned in. This means a solid WEEK of NO STUDYING!

And what am I going to do with that week? I'm going skiing in Colorado - what else?!?! I've been waiting and saving my pennies for the trip since the fall and I'm SO EXCITED! The funny thing is, I think I'm equally looking forward to the skiing, etc. AND just relaxing without the demands of work and school hanging over my head. When I return, I'll definitely post photos for everyone!

All right, friends, time to finish packing. Enjoy the sunny day!

Yet another reason...

...to look forward to the upcoming race season: Mitch and I have been invited to join a small group of mid-Michigan riders on the new race team for On 2 Wheels, a bike shop in Jackson! We loved the camaraderie we developed with other riders during our first season and anticipate it will be even better as members of the team.

I'm definitely a bit apprehensive about my impending move to the sport category, but I think I've been building a good strength base this winter and am committed to more riding as soon as the snow clears. I hope to get my back all healed up within the next few weeks, too, having resigned myself to the idea that I might just need to take a little time off lifting. While I hate the thought of losing even a little of what I've worked so hard to gain, I'm comforted by the fact that this is a convenient time to back off a bit. Between trips for pleasure and work, I won't really be able to stay consistent anyway. But I'm hoping to take my bike on a business trip in a couple weeks and have already identified some places to ride, provided the weather is decent.

Affirmation

This weekend was particularly nice. As usual, I spent a good chunk of Saturday doing homework. My final paper for O.B. is on the organizational culture and structure at Alma College, and my research involves interviewing some of the members of our executive staff. I have a good shell to work with now, based on speaking with my VP, but on Wednesday I'll get even more viewpoints from the Academic and Advancement sectors. Does the fact that I am REALLY looking forward to putting this together make me a super-nerd? Yes, probably...

Aside from homework, I also managed a stint on the trainer and was pleased to see that my average speed for an hour-long mountain bike workout is increasing. I was also surprised at how tired my legs were, even at the beginning. It seems our lunchtime workouts are becoming harder and harder as we push each other to do more. I will need to remember that, on race weeks, my leg work should probably be limited to some easy riding.

I'm not always very confident when I meet new people; in fact, I'm very self-conscious about whether they'll like me, so I don't always have the best, most relaxed time at first. But on Saturday night, we went to Jon's to drink some wine and had a fantastic time with him and two other couples, whom I had never met before (Mitch knew one of the guys). We stayed way later than we were supposed to, but we all agreed that Jon needed to have another get-together so we could all hang out.

And then there was the MMBA Expo on Sunday (which is why we were supposed to get home at a decent hour on Saturday night!). The best part was getting to see all the folks with whom we share our summer weekends and talking about the upcoming season. I think it made everyone anxious for the races to begin! We didn't even spend too much money: Mitch got a great deal on aerobars for his road bike and on a new pair of shoes, and I bought a gift for Adrienne.

Well, my little work break is over. I have lots of projects to catch up on over the next week, so I better get back at it. Thanks for reading!

A Feel-Good Post

I'm tired, I'm stressed about school, I'm sick of the weather, I need a vacation and my back hurts. BUT, oh dear friends, there is so much that is good in my life. Let's recap:

With as stressed as I am about school and as challenging as I find Applied Quantitative Analysis, I took an exam on Tuesday and only missed one question. And I only missed 4.5 points on the 150 point Organizational Behavior exam I took on Sunday. This term is over in two weeks, and I only have one more test and one more paper. Wahoo!

We were bummed about having to pay in on our taxes this year, but a reexamination (thanks to the fact that I had to file the FAFSA to get more loans for next year) revealed that we get tax credit for my educational expenses so we ARE getting money back this year. Yes!

I may complain about "kids these days" as I work with needy Millennials and their helicopter parents, but I swear to you that we have the nicest students in the world. I am the Ski Team's advisor this year, and as a thank-you for doing the simplest things (like signing reimbursement requests), the team pitched in and bought me a Black Diamond soft-shell jacket with the team name and my name embroidered on it. I get a little teary just thinking about their kindness, and vow to bake them cookies for their races next year.

This weekend, we have the MMBA Expo/Annual Meeting. It's supposed to be just awesome, with lots of cool mountain biking-related vendors, advocacy speakers and just a general good time with other crazy people who love our sport. Mitch is going along for the pre-Expo ride (brrr!) while I help out with vendor check-in, nice and early in the A.M. I just love that we've gotten involved in such a fun activity and met really great people through it. Bring on the race season! (Well, not yet...I need a little more trainer time, though strength training workouts are going strong.)

In just a couple weeks, I'm heading out to Colorado to ski with Adrienne, a good friend from high school. Because I will be between terms for school, I won't have any homework to worry about. Other than calling home, I'm going to be OFF THE GRID and I cannot wait! I know we'll have some memorable adventures...

Alma-Ecuador

Since my life is excruciatingly boring right now (at least, it probably appears so from the outside because I'm not gifted like writer Joshilyn Jackson, who has a talent for making the mundane entertaining), let me try to inject a little excitement into this blog by highlighting a new initiative at Alma College:

Alma, Equatorialis Sign Articulation Agreement

This is a HUGE deal that has been in the works for a very long time. Alumni reading this should be very excited and extraordinarily proud of the College for embracing this innovative initiative! In ten years, I truly believe we'll look back on last Friday and consider it an historical event.

My Foray into Physical Therapy

After establishing that muscle relaxants and massage were not improving my back, my doctor sent me off to physical therapy. I had my evaluation and first session yesterday; here are the results:

• I did something to the part of my spine that experiences a lot of rotation. Not sure really what, but now I have exercises to do with a Thera-band.

• E-stim is pretty awesome...like a little mini-massage.

• My activity level is only mildly restricted. I can't do exercises like the plank because of the strain it puts on my spine, and I also need to avoid anything that hyper-extends my back. Other than that, I can do everything else.

Riding is most definitely not affected unless it starts aggravating the area. Since I still have quite awhile before conditions allow for anything but trainer and road rides, I don't see this being a problem even when I get out on the trail.

Other than dealing with that, I've been trying to stay on top of my coursework. I've been so bogged down for the past three weeks that, after last weekend's residency, I was ready for a little break. So I coasted for a couple days but now realize I need to get back on the wagon. Over the next two days, I need to learn two chapters from the-class-formerly-referred-to-as-stats-but-now-called-management-science, write a paper for organizational behavior, and do some serious studying for OB. Over the weekend, I have to take tests in both subjects. But after that, I just have one more management science test and one more OB paper, and I'm officially DONE with my second term of graduate school. Two down, four to go!

Freaking Awesome Ride

On most days, I would not classify my typical road route as any sort of awesome, much less freaking. But in February, any time I (as one particularly opposed to winter riding due to my inability to manufacture my own body heat) get out on my bike, it is usually freaking awesome. So yesterday's ride, despite the headwind, was FREAKING awesome. And FURTHER, my typical road rides range somewhere from 12-17 miles, but I willingly rode 20 miles! This gives me hope that, when the weather really breaks and the sun stays awake until the late evening, I WILL be able to ride my lovely little Scott home from the office. She is excited already.

Let me share something else riding-related, while I'm on the subject: I had my first real racing dream a few weeks ago. Now, it was pretty weird because there was a climbing wall in the middle of the course. Think about the big starting hill at Pando. Now make it super steep but pretty short. Now add both a climbing wall and a chairlift. In my dream, you dismounted your bike at the chairlift and some nice volunteer took it up the hill for you. In the meantime, you scaled the climbing wall (maybe 25-30 feet with NO ROPE) and topped it out, then got back on your bike and continued the race. In my dream, I was also racing with one of my friends who rides in real life but doesn't race. She broke her bike and our "resuce crew" assumed I would not be finishing the race, either, and dismantled my bike. I was TICKED and made them put it back together, but then I couldn't find my shoes. Thinking I would get reprimanded for not having my shoes, I grabbed my slip-on Teva fli-flops and quickly pedaled away into the darkness (because we had been on the trail FOREVER). Sometime shortly thereafter, Chip's efforts to expel a hairball woke me up.

By the way, can you tell I'm making up for the fact that I haven't really blogged much over the past few weeks? Grad school has been kicking my behind, but I'm now in the home stretch of this term. Just over one more year and I'll have my MBA! And no, depsite his fantasies, I will probably NOT be landing a big, fancy job and providing Mitch with the means to pursue life as a professional mountain bike racer (or even as a bike bum). Sorry, honey. :)

Hungry

I've been waiting for my church to post this sermon for a week, and it's finally up. We're doing a series on the beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12, and the one I've really liked so far was on Matthew 5:6:

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

If you want to listen to it and have the time (it's over 40 minutes), here's the link:

Are You Satisfied?

Basically, he talks about how some people see this verse as an admonishment and think they are not hungry enough for a relationship with God because of the things they fail to do. They don't go to church all the time, they don't read their Bibles all the time, they don't pray for hours and hours. They think that doing those things shows hunger for a relationship with God, and if they're not doing them, they're not really hungering and thirsting for God.

Instead, he says, we all have this hunger inside. Somewhere, sometime, we've all felt this aching for something that maybe we couldn't define. We need to be satisfied, so we go searching for satisfaction in life in all sorts of ways. It could be by pursuing a challenging career, having a family, engaging in hobbies, traveling or all sorts of other really positive things. We could also try to fill it with negative things like unhealthy relationships, alcohol, gambling and other destructive behaviors. It stands to reason that these negative things won't ever really satisfy us; they'll fill us up for awhile but still leave us feeling empty, sometimes even more so than before.

But, he says, even the positive things won't really satisfy us permanently. Only a relationship with God will truly satisfy that hunger, will finally fill us up. And when we realize that we need that relationship with God, then we are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We shouldn't feel as though we need to fulfill certain obligations, to do certain things, to meet the criteria of hungering and thirsting for righteousness; realizing that we need the relationship with God and truly hungering after it is enough. And yes, when you experience that realization, chances are you'll want to spend more time in prayer, to explore his Word and do other things that bring you closer to him. But it's not the actions you take - it's the realization that nothing but a relationship with God will satisfy you that means you are hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

At least, that's what I got out of it. And I do remember times, before I really knew what it meant to be a Christian, when this longing would just hit. I've always had everything going for me: I have an amazing family (including a wonderful husband), my friends are the best, and I generally achieve what I set out to do. There have been bumps and poor decisions along the way, of course - and I know there are more to come - but by mainstream standards, I should have been satisfied a long time ago. But I remember being in high school, driving my trusty Ford Probe, and getting this urge to just go. There's something else there, I'd think. And maybe if I just drive fast enough and long enough, I'll find it. And in college, I made a choice that I thought would make me happy. It was a popular enough choice and I thought it was a fine one, but in the midst of all of it, I found myself knee deep in Lake Michigan, on a cloudy, windy day, with that same urge to just go. There's something out there, I thought. And if I could, I'd swim far enough and long enough to find it.

To sum it all up, I guess, all my advantages and achievements made me happy but not satisfied, not filled. When I finally realized I needed and could have a relationship with God, I felt like I was just brimming over. Like the song I've Always Known You by Ten Shekel Shirt says, "Maybe I've always known You, I just didn't know it."

I want more days like today.

I slept 'til I felt like getting out of bed. I got up and around, talked to my mom and started doing homework. Mitch went for a ride outside and returned in 45 minutes, exclaiming, "It's cold as BALLS out there!" We ate lunch and I hopped on the trainer for an hour-long climbing session with Chris Carmichael & Co. My legs felt great! While I stretched and messed around on iTunes, Mitch rode the trainer while playing Wii. Yes, he's multi-talented. After a nice hot shower, I put heat on my back and Mitch massaged my healing muscles. I finished up my homework for the day, and then we went to Outback to use our Christmas gift cards. Now we're back at home and as soon as I put my PJs on, we'll curl up on the couch and finish watching Prince Caspien.

And now Chip is on my lap, purring contentedly. Life truly does not get any better than this.

Back Pain

While I think the strength training routine I adopted back in October has a lot of benefits, it also came with a side of back pain. For the past few months, I've had nagging muscle soreness is my mid- to upper-back, and it finally started curtailing my activity a bit. I can't, for example, do "supermans" without big-time pain (they used to feel good), not can I do "V-ups" and similar exercises that require me to lift my shoulders and legs at the same time.

At the suggestion of a friend who is a physical therapist, I went to the doctor on Tuesday and was disappointed that her solution was a prescription for muscle relaxants. I asked her about alternative therapies but she insisted I take two of these per day for the next two weeks, then see her again.

So now I've added something new to my days: Laurie-brand back rehab. One muscle relaxant, followed by a series of yoga-like stretches; a hot, wet towel on the back; and a focused massage, all right before bed time. That way, I don't really feel any drowsiness that could go along with the medicine and I'm not relying on drugs to fix what I don't really think they can fix.

Worst Cyclist Ever

At least, that's what I've been for the past two weeks. It started so strong around Christmas, with better dedication to the trainer...but for the past two weeks, I've been buried in grad school work. I still get down to the rec for strength training three days a week and we're pushing ourselves harder, but I haven't done a good trainer workout in way too long.

I want to have a successful race season, and I think I can. But I realize that the priority has to be my degree - for which I'm paying $760 per credit hour - so some weeks, I'm just not going to be able to work as hard as I'd like. It's frustrating, though! When the weather turns, I'll probably cut down on the strength workouts and ride at lunch...that should help.

And speaking of bikes, there's a cop outside my office window trying to load a bike into the trunk of his police car, without success. Should I go out and offer to give him a hand? Dressed in high heels and a suit, that could be pretty funny! He's still sitting there, puzzled...

Photos from Searchmont

Here's the gang getting ready to hit the slopes. It was so cold in the morning that this was the only photo I took before lunch!


Like last time, we brought all our own food so we didn't have to pay ridiculous resort prices for lunch. Here's Jon and his enormous sandwich.


I think I might have the weirdest husband in the world...


Me and Kristy are not messing around as we venture back out into the cold. We will stay warm!


The girls are ready to go!


Jon is cool, even though he's on a snowboard. Since he can keep up, we'll forgive him this transgression.


Matt had some spectacular crashes in the morning, but fared much better in the afternoon. The man loves to ski and never gives up!


And who is this sexy snowbunny? That would be Ray...make the pic big and look at the bottoms of his skis, and tell me what you see!


Back in the woods, we visited out favorite little cliff. Jon landed in a puff of powder.




The most essential part of the night: drinks in the hot tub!

Yummy, Yummy Treat

I've recently gotten into the habit of eating frozen dark chocolate. I buy a Hershey's bar, break it up and put it in a plastic sandwich bag, then toss it in the freezer. When I need a little something sweet, I grab one and bite into its frozen semi-sweet goodness. It makes a delightful, dull little crunch and doesn't even have time to melt. Mmm mmm mmm. Frozen Andes mints are extra good, too!

What I'm Reading

I'm not quite sure why I decided to list the book I'm currently reading on my blog, but I supposed if they're going to be up there, I should make a practice on commenting on them once I've finished. So, let's play catch-up:

The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein was a pretty good read. It's a memoir told supposedly from the view of a 4-8 year old boy, but it definitely didn't have the voice of a young child. While reading a narrative that mimics the thought process of a kid can take some getting used to, I think using that tool and then showing development as the character ages makes a book more authentic. Aside from that, I found the relationships between the Jews and the Christians in this World War I-era book fascinating. Most of the time, you think about prejudice going only one way; but in this book, the Jewish families (especially the adults) held just as many negative stereotypes about Christians as the Christians held about Jews. Almost everyone was equally unyielding in their beliefs that the two groups should not mix, up until the end of the book.

I also finished The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb last week, and loved the first half of the book. It dealt with the challenges faced by a fictional survivor of the Columbine shootings, but did so from her husband's point of view. Unfortunately, the character development stalled about halfway through and the author introduced all these crazy, distracting plot lines. I've heard that his other books were amazing, so I'd be willing to give them a shot sometime.

Now I'm rereading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, because I received his newest book for my birthday and I understand that, while it's not a sequel, the two are related. I do reread books multiple times; I can't even tell you how many times I've poured over Gone with the Wind or some of my other favorites, but even when I don't like a book, I usually give it another chance. Maybe it will mean something different to me at a later time, or maybe I just wasn't ready to understand what the author intended.

Someday, when I have a house, I will have a room designated as the library. There will be no TV and no computer - just expansive bookcases, comfortable chairs and soft lighting. And it will be my home sanctuary.

Mad Dash

That's what last week felt like: a mad dash to the weekend. On Sunday, I smacked myself upside the head and finally realized that I had a ton of homework to do and not nearly enough time in which to do it. After lounging away my Saturday and a good deal of Sunday, I had until 7 pm on Friday to learn two chapters for stats and turn in a set of corresponding homework problems; find, read and summarize about fifteen journal articles on job training; and outline the group paper on job training. This doesn't sound like all that much, but with work all day and two celebratory dinners inducting me into my late twenties, I was pretty strapped for time. So I took the day off work on Wednesday and spent it camped out at the kitchen table. I slogged through confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and analysis of variance (we'll see how well I've mastered the material when I take my exam tonight) and learned all about behavior modeling training, the impact of age on the effectiveness of training and that there is something known as Pygmalion management. By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, I was able to shove all that out of my mind and focus instead on my long-anticipated weekend plans: skiing in Searchmont!

As always, we had a grand time. Six of us stayed in a cottage about half an hour from the resort and skied all day on Saturday. It was cold, but the snow was great. I'll post some photos when I have them uploaded! We learned a very important lesson, though:

The best place to buy alcohol in Canada is Michigan.

Suffice to say, we ran out of booze at 8:30 pm on Saturday night. So we went to bed at 11:00 pm. So much for an all-night party!

And unfortunately, all of the above is another way of saying that I did not get on the trainer all week. I did strength training (excessive lunges before a day of skiing is not advised) but it's hard to do power intervals when your nose is stuck in a book! This week will be better...

Learning from the Girls

Amanda is a perky, put-together gal who loves to cook and wants to look great on the beaches of Mexico this spring. Melissa is a slim, pretty bride-to-be who wants to look her best on her summer wedding day. Dena is a no-nonsense, efficient mom trying to get fit and healthy.

These girls are my team. The four of us work out together three days a week in the Rec Center's multi-purpose room. We grab weights, steps, fit balls and mats, blast some music and take turns concocting exercises for the various muscle groups. It's not focused. It's not systematic. But we work our butts off for almost an hour, offering encouraging words and commiserating when someone brings a particularly torturous exercise to our workouts.

I never would have chosen this team, and I've never worked out like this. As a high school and college athlete, my workouts were not about feeling good or looking good: they were about performance, and everyone doing the rills or running the ladders was intense. We were focused, determined and not in need of encouragingpats on the back. The reward was the place, the medal, the personal best, the trip to States. I did any outside-of-practice training with either guys or other intensely competitive girls.

So I was a loner in the weight room last year, when I started getting ready for my first season of mountain bike racing. I'd ask coworkers if they wanted to come down to the Rec with me, but if anyone had taken me up on it, I'd do my thing and they'd do theirs. My training didn't carry the gravity it did in high school but I was still focused. Needing both internal and external motivation, however, my best intentions didn't always pan out. Then I started going to a strength training class in the Rec with Amanda and Melissa. I'll admit, I did it more to build friendships than get a good workout, but it turned out to be a really good class that often made just the process of getting out of bed a bit tricky.

The class ended right before Christmas, but the three of us felt we could keep going on our own. Dena joined after the New Year and, even with the varying levels of athleticism, coordination, fitness and strength, we're all seeing some tangible benefits. We're even signing up for a team-based weight-loss competition; only two girls have real weight-loss goals, but part of the battle is motivation and, as a team, we can provide a healthy dose of that!

Because of these girls, I've learned that I don't have to be so intense to get results; that you can train effectively even when everyone's out there for different reasons; and that challenge and competition isn't the only way to interact in training. Maybe it's more realistic, at this stage in my life and athletic career, to find this kind of camaraderie rather than the "push it" mentality of my former teammates and friends.

These girls are my team. I might not of picked them but I sure wouldn't trade them. They'll never ride with me - except maybe on the rail trail - but their friendship and support motivates me. We usually attribute parts of our success to effective coaches or strong teammates who are striving for the same goals as we pursue. As for me, I'll give a good deal of credit for any success I have on the trail to an aspiring chef, a former cheerleader and a Wii Fit devotee.

Three Fun Things I Did This Weekend

1. Spent quite a few lazy hours reading in my parents' living room, with a roaring fire and my favorite man.

2. Went on a short, snowy hike at Island Lake with Mitch, Mom, Dad, Bobby and Roxi the Amazing Trail Dog.

3. Stuffed myself with potato pancakes - a childhood favorite - for my almost-birthday dinner.

Lazy Cat

Get on the trainer. Start spinning. See cat on the couch. Think how nice it is to have company, even the passive type.

Keep spinning. Increase intensity and cadence. Realize all those lunges and squats did tire the legs, after all. Recover. It's only the warm-up.

Grind through power intervals. Glance jealously at cat sleeping on the couch. Say his name to wake him up. Take that, lazy cat. Oh, now you're sleeping again.

Keep doing power intervals. Finish water bottle before cool down. Throw empty bottle into kitchen. Cat doesn't move. Wish he could get more water. Will him to grow opposable thumbs and some motivation. Fail. Swear to exact vengeance on cat species later.

Detroit

My dad grew up in downtown Detroit. When he was a kid, he and his friends rode their bikes through their neighborhood with an abandon not present in even today's most safe communities. Fast forward a generation: my dad's childhood home is a crack house, smoldering on the evening news after a fire destroys it.

I definitely grew up in the suburbs but I've got some great memories of Detroit. We'd attend church with my grandparents; hit up a Wings game; go to Cobo Hall for the boat show; stuff ourselves with goat cheese in Greek Town; get dressed up for a performance at the Fox Theatre; pack a picnic and spend hours in Hart Plaza, waiting for the fireworks to blaze over the Detroit River. Every time we went, my dad navigated the streets like he belonged there, just as he once had.

So I think you should read The Courage of Detroit by Mitch Albom. The column romanticizes a lot of things and parts of it grate on me politically because the very citizens of Detroit who love the city so much have a hand in its downfall. But it also conjured up some memories and, dare I say, feelings of pride?

Returning to Reality

Having such a nice break for the holidays sure was nice, but it's strangely nice to get back to work and have some more routine. I learned that, if I were to ever work from home, I would have to be very disciplined and stick to schedules. I thought I'd be much more productive between Christmas and New Year's, but I really just finished some good books. OK, that's not strictly true: I did a bit of homework, housework, reorganizing and training. Two workouts on the trainer, to be exact. It's nothing like Andrea's level of commitment (You rock!) but it's better than last year at this time.

Now that I'm back to work, life looks like this: no lunch break, just training (MWF) or studying (TTh); after work, more studying and at least two trainer rides a week (three, ideally); some time for Bible study (the goal is to not have to cram the day before small group anymore!); and regular efforts to keep the apartment neat and tidy. Oh, and Mitch is starting a class at LCC this term! He wants to earn an engineering degree (this is a long-term goal) but has to start with some math and science basics, since he did business at Alma. I'm helping him navigate requirements and processes, since it's kinda what I do all day, anyway. As I told a friend, this means we will be even more boring than before!

And with that, it's time to go home. Stats test tonight...wish me luck!