I haven't blogged in a while. I guess that's what the quarter system does to you.. I have spent a good time the last two months going to school, riding my bike, and enjoying what little free time I have left with my girlfriend. I've managed to see Ashley more than I anticipated, at the cost of possibly less studying here on the weekends and "adjusting" to the Davis life.. But, I do not regret that at all. And to be quite honest, I'm adjusting well so far. It was the off season for a while, and as for studying goes, I'm catching on to how it works down here. It's been a good quarter, lots that I've picked up on. The little things, things like how to organize your time and notes in such a way that when you do decide to go back you're not wasting time due to disorganization.
As for cycling, I could go on for paragraphs about cycling. Once we got our training plan the beginning of this month, I've been riding daily, more riding than I've done in quite some time. This whole training plan is going to be a huge help in my season. I'm in the same "race" shape that I was in most of last season, aside from my peak during the big stage races in March/April. Just knowing that makes me very excited for what's in store for this season. As my room mate has pointed out, it doesn't really matter who's plan I'm on, just that I follow it religiously. And that I've done!
To add to this cycling excitement, I decided to buy a Garmin, due to various recommendations. I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into. It's like someone who wanted a car to get around and ended up buying a Ferrari that's got a crazy awesome engine, fancy interior and a sound system and various state of the art electronics inside. Oh, and a sweet set of rims. My point is, I wanted something to track my training as well as help me with my workouts, preferrably with a heart rate monitor. Yes, I could have gone with the classic perceived effort and time method, but no I really wanted to get something "good". Sure enough, the Garmin Edge 500 would be just that, and more! This thing seriously does EVERYTHING. I won't go into detail (to spare you the time), but it records more then enough info for my rides.
The next thing that I will talk about is the new time waster.. It's the Facebook for cyclists. I'll admit, with the recent purchase of the Garmin, I've been spending a bit too much time on Strava. It is a social site where you can post your rides and track your results to others. It will rank your times with others, declaring you the King of the Mountain, if you're the fastest on whatever designated climb. It is ADDICTING!!!
Let's see.. Anything else to mention. Well, School's going well. And I want to address something that's tied to a recent Facebook post about the awkward silence in the room before a mid week evening ARE 115A discussion. I was the only one in the room that was white, among-st Asians that were spread out in the room silently on their phones or listening to music. It is not that I'm uninterested in being their friends, it's that there is a similarity between the type of students who want to do well and the time they show up before discussion. That awkward ten minutes when no one is talking, but minding your own business. And yes, it may be eight weeks in, but there isn't a lot of "social" time to be Chatty Cathy before classes and discussions. People don't show up to discussion to talk to their bff.. I am going to meet friends, whatever race they may be. It's slightly intimidating to meet new friends, especially when you have absolutely nothing to go off of other than being the same class because you all are on the same path towards whatever goal or major that you've got your eyes set on. Sure, breaking the ice before or after class, with a "jeez, how about that lecture. Or, how's the homework going? Or, hey what did professor say about such and such?" Most people leave class the instant it's over, they literally pack up before the teacher's done talking. When you're in a room full of three hundred people, you don't "meet" a lot of people when you end up sitting in different places every time. If you meet someone, they're at most an acquaintance. Nothing special, and if anything, I've found that I have a lot of cycling friends in my classes, and yes I sit next to them and we have something in common!
My point is, it's not the easiest thing to meet people when you are there strictly for an education and there's not a lot of time to make friends. I don't spend a lot of time on campus, and I'm in two clubs which are two main sources of meeting quality people. That's the cycling team and my Young Life Club.
I'll see people on campus that I remember from a class or something, but it's definitely not something where they know my name or I know theirs, so a lot of the time when I'm riding around campus it's just a blurr of people, people I will hardly ever get to know. It's not like Butte college where you can walk across the quad and see people left and right that you went to high school together, you played little league baseball with or you knew from some community event. It's just straight up different here. So, I will make friends on my own time, and I am doing quite fine with balancing my "social" time with cycling, studying, and classes.
Now that it's my "weekend", I will go out to the other room and watch the Shark's game with my room mates who are sharks fans.
