Total Miles on my New Bike: 300 miles
Longest Ride to date: 40 miles
Hey again! It is my greatest pleasure to report that we have reached my $7000 fund raising goal, and even surpassed it! What an amazing feat we have achieved, thank you all again for your support!
Unfortunately my training has not been quite as victorious in the last two weeks. Between traveling and a lingering cold, I haven't made it out on my bike as much as I would have liked since my last entry. However, I do not think I will have too much trouble reaching the required 500 miles. I do need to get in some Habitat builds though! It seems like they just have not coordinated with my schedule in the last few weeks.
However, I did finally buy the rest of my bike gear! I have never bought so much stuff that I had no idea how to use. But, I am now tuned up, equipped, and waterproofed for my cross country adventure. Slowly but surely I am also learning more about my bike. I even learned how to tuck going down hills from one of my leaders, Nate! He basically described it as finding a forward balance over your front tire, similar to placing the little red dot over the "speed spot" on the ski jump game on Wii fit. I found this to be a very amusing and somehow extremely appropriate analogy coming from Nate. And though I have not quite mastered getting my bootie on and off the seat for the most effective crouch position over the top tube (i'm learning my bike parts!), I did get up to a speed of 38 mph on one really big hill!!! I was exhilarated by the feeling of speed as I achieved tunnel vision, whizzing past blurred visions of trees. It was incredible.
If you want to learn more bike anatomy along with me, here is a diagram of a typical road bike:
Also, I know several people have asked me about the dates and places I will be traveling this summer. My journey begins May 14th and I will be traveling until July 22nd. Below is an image one of my leaders made of the route we will be taking this summer. It also has the names of all the people who are riding with me on a map over where they are from. I'll be posting a more detailed list of where we will be and when closer to our departure date.
You can also find out more about my ride at the NC2SD website our leaders made!
On a slightly unrelated note, I got a job with AmeriCorps for next year! Yay! I am very excited to announce that I will be living in Washington DC with four other ambitious young adult volunteers as a member of the Westmoreland Volunteer Corps. The Westmoreland United Church of Christ will provide housing and community support for the five of us while we each work with social service agencies in the DC area. I will more than likely be working at the Sasha Bruce House, a safe home for teens. It is all very exciting. If circumstances allow, I hope to keep a blog on my experiences there as well.
Anyway, I had best get back to school work. The traveling and cold have kept me from that for a while as well, so it is time to play catch up. Hope you are all well, and take care!
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