Bling Bling Bada Bam!

Absolutely beautiful day in Houston--started out with a light frost on the grass this morning, warmed up nicely with a light breeze so that by the early afternoon I was ready to try out my bling bling. Got all duded up in my new biker shorts, shirt, gloves, and flashing light on a beltpack, and headed out for the local streets and walk/bike path. Had a lot of fun, managed to up my average speed, and went 10 miles. My legs had a lot of energy. The shorts helped prevent butt soreness, so they were great to have. The bling bling was a hit!

So far I've avoided riding on busy streets. I stick to the sidewalks unless I am in a calm neighborhood. Now that I am getting some distance to my rides, I'll probably try riding the city streets in the next few days. Not looking forward to getting run off the road by various vehicular traffic. Don't know how bikers get up and ride again after that. Will probably find out.

Time to start signing up for the warm-up races, taking a look at those on the web, trying to decide which ones to participate in.

Watch out for me,
Dustin

Biker Bling Bling

The Christmas holidays have thrown my training schedule off course. I have not riden since Christmas Eve. We were up late that night since I was ushering at the Candlelight Service at church. Afterwards, we did our Santa thing, so I didn't get to bed until 1:45 a.m. Christmas Day was filled with family fun opening presents, an afternoon nap, shrimp boil and chow down, and watching "Pirates of the Caribbean".

On Boxing Day we drove up to Waco to stay with in-laws for a couple of days and celebrate there, then came back through Austin to eat lunch at Matt's with my sister's family and a long-time Austin friend. We returned to Houston in the rain last night.

So, I have good excuses not to have riden my bike for four days (yikes, that's a long time!).

I did receive lots of biker bling bling as Christmas gifts from my wife and kids; bike shorts and easy-dry shirt; bike gloves; a bike U-lock (our son's bike was stolen from the Rice campus last semester because he used a cable lock that was apparently easily cut); a flashing light to wear; reflective leg bands; and a lightweight pancho for those rainy days (I'm not looking forward to wearing that). I am all set up to get to the next level of training. Time to get on that bike!

(but maybe not today since we are expecting a guest at any minute).

Resting,
Dustin

'Twas the Day Before Christmas

I managed to put another 6 miles in today, riding my bike in a loop around the park and back to the house. It was a beautiful day, with little or no wind, and perfectly clear blue sky.

When riding, I am struck by the short views I get of people's backyards through the slats of the fences. In our neighborhoods, almost everyone has a six or eight foot tall wooden fence around their backyard (our house backs onto commercial property, so we have an eight foot tall fake brick fence). The fences and the brick houses with muted earth tone accents add to the homogeneity of the neighborhoods. Which is OK, since we moved to this area southwest of Houston to avoid the chances of living next to a junkyard or liquor store. But the glimpses of backyards, a pool here, chairs there, toys in some, trees and flowers in others, causes me to feel like a voyeur. Of course, there's never anyone in the backyards, so there's nothing to voyeur. The spaces are invariably empty (at least in the glimpses I have), devoid of human activity. Just like the front yards I pass by. If I didn't see people pulling into driveways in their cars I would never see most of them. They get out, go into their houses, and never emerge again until they get in their cars and drive away.

Thinking about people and their lives leads me to remember, probably because it is Christmas Eve, that it's not about the biker (to bastardize the title from Lance Armstrong's book). The real reason I am doing this ride in April is to raise money to help people with a debilitating disease, MS. When I was comteplating riding the MS 150, I whined to Kim (the spinning instructor) about the Saturdays and other training time it would consume, getting ready for the ride. I guard my time jealously, and hate to be committed to events on weekends that take me away from home. Naturally, being the great person she is, she brought me back to reality and said that I should remember the people who could not ride bicycles, who could not train, who could not commit their Saturdays, because they had MS. That she kept people like that in mind when she was training for benefit rides.

So that's really why I train for the ride. To help people with MS.

That's why I've signed up for a warm-up benefit, the Houston Press Walk/Run 5K on January 18th. Any money I raise will benefit the Lupus Foundation of American, specifically the Gulf Coast Chapter. I have personal experience with Lupus (no, I don't have the disease, but someone very close to my heart does). I don't jog or run, it hurts my knees too much. So I plan to walk the 5K. But I'll be around thousands of people who are running the Houston Marathon that day. I expect that will provide inspiration to train for the MS 150.

I've never been good at journaling. It's strange that I would subject myself to having my words read by anyone in the world who cares to read them. This blogging is a means to an end, to raise money for Lupus and MS.

As in most things done to benefit other people, I expect that I will benefit personally, from getting leaner and losing weight, to controlling my blood pressure and decreasing my chances of developing diabetes, to extending myself physically and emotionally.

May God pour His healing Blessings on You and make His light shine wherever you go,
Dustin

The Wind at My Back (and Front, and Side, and Top, and Bottom)

During my Christmas vacation I am trying to train every day. Yesterday I did Kim's spinning class at 24 Hr Fitness, so that counted as a training session.

Last night a cold front came through Houston, with some much-needed rain, and it brought the wind with it. Boy, is it windy today. I put off taking my training ride as long as I could. I mowed the yard to warm up. Then I bit the bullet and got out there on my bike, facing into the wind. It was everywhere, seemingly in my face no matter where I turned. It was a tough ride, through the park and neighborhoods near by. Still only about 6 miles, and my average speed was probably 6 mph. Training day number 2!

whoosh,
Dustin

A Speedometer/Odometer Helps!

One morning after spinning class I asked Kim about how far we had gone, if we had actually been going anywhere. She said "about 15 miles, if you stay with me at the same pace I go." Of course I thought "WOW, I'm in really good shape. 15 miles already!" The problem was that I did not have a speedometer/odometer on my bike at home, so I didn't really know how far I was going.

For my birthday in November I bought myself a speedometer/odometer and put it on my bike. I took it out for a serious ride, the first time in months (maybe years). It was all I could do to put 6 miles on it before I got tired. My butt was sore and my legs were aching. Everyone tells me that it's not the miles but the seat time that is important in training for the MS 150. They say that your butt gets really tired sitting in that seat for 8-10 hr or however long it takes you to get to LaGrange. I believe them now.

Sore,
Dustin

God's Seed Begins to Germinate

So there I was, lighter and spinning away on Monday mornings. But something was missing. The wheel was turning but I was not going anywhere. I had done great on the diet, but had reached a plateau. I needed a goal. I had signed up to walk the 5K in the Houston Press Walk/Run in January, raising money to find a cure for Lupus. You can go to this link http://www.doitsports.com/donations/view-pledges.tcl?txn=1862301&id=12462 to make donations in my name. So, God's seed began emerging, and I began to think about experiencing the MS 150. I started talking to different people about it. A graduate student at Rice who had participated in previous rides; a close personal friend with MS who volunteers in the race (she has agreed to be my pedal partner for the event in 2004); a consultant who works with our group at Rice and had also participated in the ride in the past; our spinning instructor Kim; and others. My dental hygenist, who is a marathon runner, said that I needed to got ahead and sign up for the ride since everyone I had talked to would expect me to do it, and would keep asking me about it until I did. Therefore I did. You can make donations at this page: http://www.ms150.org/MS150/donate/donate.cfm?id=79393.

Here I go,
Dustin

South Beach Diet Junkie

You've probably heard of the South Beach Diet. My wife bought the book in August, read it, and thought it would be a good thing for us to do together. She suggested that I take the book on my trip to New York in September for the American Chemical Society meeting. This time I was not sitting by someone excited about buying their "Lance Armstrong" bicycle, so I had plenty of time to read the book. By the time the plane landed, I was convinced that the South Beach Diet was right for me. That day, September 6th, was the last time I drank a "real" Coke. When I got back home, my wife and I decided to go on the diet together. We've done very well.

Lighter,
Dustin

Spinnin' Class

What happened next to point me in this direction? God's plan unfolds in interesting ways. I've done aerobics at 6:00 a.m. weekday mornings since we lived in Wichita. I started going to the Wichita Racquet Club (now a Genesis Health Club), where I joined a group of 6 am'ers who had all moved over from another club. Everyone knew everyone else, and they accepted me quickly as I moved up from the back of the class to the front. That was a great experience. No one worried if your hair was fluffy or your outfit wasn't perfectly matched because everyone was in the same shape. There is a special type of bonding that happens in a place like that. We had great instructors. Our double step class was so "with it" that we all shared the second step with the next person. Our step classes ended up looking like a chorus line of the Radio City Rockettes, only in exercise regalia.

When we moved to Houston in 1997, about 8 months later I started going to 6 a.m. classes at the Q Club, now a 24 Hour Fitness. I really enjoyed the energy put forth by one instructor, Kris. Her classes were my favorite and often the only reason I could get out of bed at 5:00 a.m. in the morning was the knowledge that Kris would be leading the class. I knew I would feel better if I went. At first she taught on both Monday and Wednesday mornings. Then she cut back to Monday mornings due to her other job. So I was disappointed in August when Chris could no longer teach due to circumstances beyond her control.

I had done spinning at the Racquet Club. I had found that my heart rate soared after about 10 minutes, and that's about as long as I could manage. But with nothing else to do on Monday morning, I decided I should try spinning class at 24 Hour Fitness.

Rotating,
Dustin

Crazy Cyclist Chick

So how did I get to this point, of riding my bike 150 miles (I think it's more like 180 miles) from Houston to Austin? God plants seeds, and they take a while to sprout. In my case, I was returning from a DARPA conference in Virginia last summer (our research at Rice is funded in part by DARPA). I happened to sit next to a very enthusiactic young lady who was returning to Houston with her new bicycle. She had bought one "just like Lance" rode at one time or another, and she was very happy to talk about it. One of the last things she told me as we were getting off the plane was "you ought to ride in the MS 150 next year" and I replied with something like "no way am I ever going to do that."

Famous last words,
Dustin

PS: Since I had tried to convince this young lady she would be a good student at Rice, she e-mailed me the next day for more information; the subject line of her e-mail was "Crazy Cyclist Chick" so I would remember that it was coming from a person who was so enthusiactic about riding bicycles that she flew up to Baltimore to see the bike she was buying in person. I almost deleted it. God Works in Mysterious Ways.

Learnin' to Bike

Here I am, 47 years old, and never been much of an athlete. And now I've signed up to ride my bicycle from Houston to Austin over two days in April, 2004. Sure, I've known how to ride since I taught myself in my early teens on my Aunt Pat's bicycle one summer. I used to ride in circles around our house and neighborhood, listening to the Astros on my transistor radio ear bud all summer long. But this is RIDING, like Lance Armstrong does. At least as much like Lance Armstrong as I'll get (I don't think I want to go through a bout with testicular cancer to get where Lance is now).

I've had my present bike since 1999, when I purchased it because my wife, son, and daughter all bought bicycles. I thought I deserved one too, not exactly the best reason. It's a Diamondback touring bike, with the shock-absorber padded seat and straight handlebars that allow you to sit up comfortably and ride, rather than bend over a set of handlebars that look like Ram's horns. 18 speeds, with a rack on back to hold stuff.

So after spending about $400 on that bike, I've riden it about 5 times in the ensuring years. I kept airing up the tires, wiping off the dust, and spraying WD-40 on the rust spots, thinking "I should ride my bike tomorrow" and never doing it. But now I've committed my registration money and I've announced as publically as I can that I'll be riding the MS 150. So I have to do it, don't you think?

See you,
Dustin