Day Three: Destination Suffolk
Today was our first real day of riding. Our scheduled trip was around 45 miles of traveling, and we accomplished the first 30 miles of it before lunch after getting the van packed and ready to go. I lost my queue sheet with the directions on it in the first three minutes, but I didn’t think much of it because of the numerous other riders I was following. We made some good time cruising along the shaded patches of Virginian woodland and we decided to make our first detour and visit a fresh farmer’s market. We picked up some peaches that were delicious. After a quick pit stop, one of the other riders, Alicia, and I found ourselves as the only two bikers at the market so we decided to saddle on up and head on out. Alicia took point due to my earlier blunder of losing the directions, and she set a pretty quick pace. I have been getting the hang of the clipping in and out of my bike now as we have to do it for most of the red lights we run into. It gives me some time to readjust my seating position and make sure that blood is flowing to all the parts that it needs to visit. When we hit our first lunch break I noticed riders doing some stretches so I inquired further and found out that we have a pretty good foundation for healthy body maitanence. I was provided with a few stretches to try and loosen muscles in my lower back, which is really the only area of my body that was sore. I think it either must be due to my inflexibility, or simply to the way in which I sit upon the bike. I am not 100% sure which one it is, but hopefully I will be able to figure it out before we get too much further on in the trip.
We took quite a circuitous route book after checking out some of the scenic sights on our way to Suffolk, like the small airport, the garbage dump landfill, and then almost getting on a highway heading back to Virginia Beach! Needless to say everyone was a bit confused and it wa a great relief when we were finally able to roll into the Westminster Church, and hit up showers at the YMCA. After our showers there was a hot dinner waiting for us prepared for by the talented cooks of the Homeward Bound group. After our stomachs were satiated I fulfilled my end of the bargain of organizing a binder of dates t satisfy the 8 hours of sweat equity requirement for the trip. I spent some time while I was collating talking to another rider, David, and we kicked some ideas around about why we are on the trip and what part of our lives we are at. Turns out that although we taught it two very different parts of the world, our experiences were pretty similar. I can’t wait to learn more about other people’s stories, I think lately I have been doing too much of the talking about Alaska and I think I want to try to engage some of the other riders and learn more about them personally.
I have another ride tomorrow this one around 40 miles, going to Waverly, VA. I am going to call it a night for tonight and catch some shuteye. Hopefully I will kick this cold which has degenerated into a cough. I am drinking some warm liquids, but I ma y have to pick up something a little stronger in Waverly tomorrow. Til then all!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Day 2 Virgingia Beach
Day 2 5/20/09 Virginia Beach
What level of nakedness are we okay with on this trip?- David Day 2
Well ladies and gentleman we found out the answer to that question today. When you have thirty people needing to change clothes, use showers, and try to just get through the day and limited bathroom space. You find yourself just dropping your drawers and hitting the YMCA with the best of them. I really didn’t have too much of a problem with it, all the steams in Alaska kind of prepped me for this trip. This coupled with prevention techiniques against chafing kind of opened the group up to discuss things not generally discussed in your normal everyday company. We ended the day with a couple of “Butt’erfly” creations and I believe we have achieved a new level of comfort with each other.
Well today we had a rather packed schedule, I seemed to be in the throes of jet lag, and woke up around 5 in the morning. Although this gives me ample time to write, I would kind of like to get on a normal sleeping schedule so I will be able to function as the rides become more strenuous. Today we had our first shake-down ride to see how our bikes handled and to try and get comfortable riding around in a group. This was my first ride with the bike and I had to get used to these new type of pedals that you actually clip your shoes and become attached to the bicycle. This helps increase your pedaling power, however it poses a problem, you have to a special move to get out of your pedals by twisiting your ankles, and if you fail to do so you can lose your balance and fall slowmotion-like with your bike onto the pavement. It hasn’t happened to me yet, however I feel my time will come, one slip up is all you need to fall. The ride was completed wqith a few detours and wrong turns but everyone made it back goodhumored and excited for what the trip will hold for us. Prior to riding I was quite anxious, it seems a little absurd, but I was thinking in my head, “Man alive how am I going to complete this ride” I kind of psyched myself out and there turned out to be little reason for it. We got to go through the scenic military base, and I have never heard so many fighter jets in my life. They are loud and almos tall conversation ceases when they fly overhead.
I am learning a bunch of things about bike maintenance and also one of our leaders, Brian, is really serious about photography, and he is kind of showing me the ropes on my camera. Which is kind of neat I was thinking I might have to sign up for a class to properly learn how to use it but he was able to provide me with a pretty informative rundown on how things like shutters, apertures, and ISO’s work. As well as some of the functions on my camera. Thanks to him I should have some snazzier photos coming on the way.
We had a good meeting with the church members in Virginia Beach and I got to learn a little bit more about how the building part of our bike and buil trip works. I think I could really get into talking to people and just finding out about them.
We are going to try and get up early tomorrow to catch the sunrise on the Atlantic, I may just stay up. This jet lag things has to work its way out of my system, I think it will eventually, happen. We have a forty-five mile ride into Suffolk, facing us tomorrow and I am pretty excited. Today we just got a taste, tomorrow will probably be more of a light lunch in terms of riding distances. Til next time guys and gals!
What level of nakedness are we okay with on this trip?- David Day 2
Well ladies and gentleman we found out the answer to that question today. When you have thirty people needing to change clothes, use showers, and try to just get through the day and limited bathroom space. You find yourself just dropping your drawers and hitting the YMCA with the best of them. I really didn’t have too much of a problem with it, all the steams in Alaska kind of prepped me for this trip. This coupled with prevention techiniques against chafing kind of opened the group up to discuss things not generally discussed in your normal everyday company. We ended the day with a couple of “Butt’erfly” creations and I believe we have achieved a new level of comfort with each other.
Well today we had a rather packed schedule, I seemed to be in the throes of jet lag, and woke up around 5 in the morning. Although this gives me ample time to write, I would kind of like to get on a normal sleeping schedule so I will be able to function as the rides become more strenuous. Today we had our first shake-down ride to see how our bikes handled and to try and get comfortable riding around in a group. This was my first ride with the bike and I had to get used to these new type of pedals that you actually clip your shoes and become attached to the bicycle. This helps increase your pedaling power, however it poses a problem, you have to a special move to get out of your pedals by twisiting your ankles, and if you fail to do so you can lose your balance and fall slowmotion-like with your bike onto the pavement. It hasn’t happened to me yet, however I feel my time will come, one slip up is all you need to fall. The ride was completed wqith a few detours and wrong turns but everyone made it back goodhumored and excited for what the trip will hold for us. Prior to riding I was quite anxious, it seems a little absurd, but I was thinking in my head, “Man alive how am I going to complete this ride” I kind of psyched myself out and there turned out to be little reason for it. We got to go through the scenic military base, and I have never heard so many fighter jets in my life. They are loud and almos tall conversation ceases when they fly overhead.
I am learning a bunch of things about bike maintenance and also one of our leaders, Brian, is really serious about photography, and he is kind of showing me the ropes on my camera. Which is kind of neat I was thinking I might have to sign up for a class to properly learn how to use it but he was able to provide me with a pretty informative rundown on how things like shutters, apertures, and ISO’s work. As well as some of the functions on my camera. Thanks to him I should have some snazzier photos coming on the way.
We had a good meeting with the church members in Virginia Beach and I got to learn a little bit more about how the building part of our bike and buil trip works. I think I could really get into talking to people and just finding out about them.
We are going to try and get up early tomorrow to catch the sunrise on the Atlantic, I may just stay up. This jet lag things has to work its way out of my system, I think it will eventually, happen. We have a forty-five mile ride into Suffolk, facing us tomorrow and I am pretty excited. Today we just got a taste, tomorrow will probably be more of a light lunch in terms of riding distances. Til next time guys and gals!
Virginia Beach Day one...
Day One:
Well we all ended up meeting each other yesterday. There were a couple faces who I memorized on the home website, but for one reason or another were not able to make it all the out here. Overall it started pretty well, met my first two bike and builders in the airport, Julie and Justin, they are friends from Nashville, and after seeing them claiming two bags from the oversized luggage department, I took an educated guess that we were heading the same way. Sure enough we were, but bikes due tend to take up a lot of room and when I met up with Aaron and Alicia we had a hard enough time trying to pack our bikes into the station wagon, (partly due to the monstrosity I purchased online that disguised itself as a bike box.) After meeting with the group I realized that I had brought way too much equipment down and would have to send some of it back. It is just one of the realities one faces when trying to organize and plan something from the bush.
After getting my stuff situated we ended up schmoozing with the rest of the riders and ended up playing some “icebreakers.” Now in all honesty these were some of the weirdest icebreakers I have ever played, we started off with the basic name and interesting fact, then changed over to what we had in common with each other, and finally it escalated to a game where we definitely invaded each others personal space, but we were all laughing while we did it. Overall it was one of the most effective icebreakers I have ever played because although it was awkward, after going through the motions of either dancing up on someone, holding them up bride and groom style, and then airplaning on them as they lay on the ground, we found that the ice was literally broken. We all had a good laugh and everyone was ready for our next activity of learning the rules and procedures.
We broke up into groups for chores and my group consists of Kate, Nick, Julie, John, and myself. It sounds like we are a pretty solid group interested in helping each other, Nick has been a chef prior to this, so our days for dinner should be particularly tasty. (Which I’ll add is pretty good because my diet is so bland in the bush I doubt anyone would appreciate my meals of plan oatmeal, mixed with the odd combo of crystal light chicken, but we will see what happens.) Julie and Kate were worried about the large proportion of boys in their group for cleaning, so I guess the onus will fall on us to make sure we exceed expectations.
We received a dinner donated to us from Chipotle and it was pretty tasty, I personally cant get enough restaurant food after being out of the bush. Any food that I don’t have to do the dishes for and is tasty is fine by me. We wound up the day having a meeting with some alumni riders who sang praises about the summer we are going to have which I am pretty sure spread the excitement from rider to rider as we listened to tales from trips past. Afterwards we broke out a game of Apples to Apples and had some fun shooting the breeze while we made our matches. After completing the whole deck of cards we ended up claiming spots of the floor for snoozing. I succumbed to the jetlag and was out like a light. Man alive what a day!
Well we all ended up meeting each other yesterday. There were a couple faces who I memorized on the home website, but for one reason or another were not able to make it all the out here. Overall it started pretty well, met my first two bike and builders in the airport, Julie and Justin, they are friends from Nashville, and after seeing them claiming two bags from the oversized luggage department, I took an educated guess that we were heading the same way. Sure enough we were, but bikes due tend to take up a lot of room and when I met up with Aaron and Alicia we had a hard enough time trying to pack our bikes into the station wagon, (partly due to the monstrosity I purchased online that disguised itself as a bike box.) After meeting with the group I realized that I had brought way too much equipment down and would have to send some of it back. It is just one of the realities one faces when trying to organize and plan something from the bush.
After getting my stuff situated we ended up schmoozing with the rest of the riders and ended up playing some “icebreakers.” Now in all honesty these were some of the weirdest icebreakers I have ever played, we started off with the basic name and interesting fact, then changed over to what we had in common with each other, and finally it escalated to a game where we definitely invaded each others personal space, but we were all laughing while we did it. Overall it was one of the most effective icebreakers I have ever played because although it was awkward, after going through the motions of either dancing up on someone, holding them up bride and groom style, and then airplaning on them as they lay on the ground, we found that the ice was literally broken. We all had a good laugh and everyone was ready for our next activity of learning the rules and procedures.
We broke up into groups for chores and my group consists of Kate, Nick, Julie, John, and myself. It sounds like we are a pretty solid group interested in helping each other, Nick has been a chef prior to this, so our days for dinner should be particularly tasty. (Which I’ll add is pretty good because my diet is so bland in the bush I doubt anyone would appreciate my meals of plan oatmeal, mixed with the odd combo of crystal light chicken, but we will see what happens.) Julie and Kate were worried about the large proportion of boys in their group for cleaning, so I guess the onus will fall on us to make sure we exceed expectations.
We received a dinner donated to us from Chipotle and it was pretty tasty, I personally cant get enough restaurant food after being out of the bush. Any food that I don’t have to do the dishes for and is tasty is fine by me. We wound up the day having a meeting with some alumni riders who sang praises about the summer we are going to have which I am pretty sure spread the excitement from rider to rider as we listened to tales from trips past. Afterwards we broke out a game of Apples to Apples and had some fun shooting the breeze while we made our matches. After completing the whole deck of cards we ended up claiming spots of the floor for snoozing. I succumbed to the jetlag and was out like a light. Man alive what a day!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Ballin...
Alright Ladies and gentlemen, an unusual opportunity to workout popped up today. I was a little bummed when i heard tha tthe gym was going to be occupied for a bal tournament tonight and it was going to crunch into my workout time. However I got a call at 6:00 asking me if I would enjoy playing around with the 35 and older guys in a game. I thought why not and I went up to the school. I actually had a pretty good game. I had been practicing quite abit during the season when i was coaching my boys and I feel a bit more confident on the floor. I had a fun time and surprisingly I wasnt as winded as I imagined I would be. These games last forty minutes and I remeber when I played at Thanksgiving I was dying at half time. Tonight I was able to play the first game and I think I might have been able to play another after if need be. I am improving fitnesswise I just need to hit the bike harder. We are getting down to the final wire now only six and half more weeks man everything seems to be quickly approaching. I got to check in wiith my family and it looks like I might be able to squeeze in one day with them before I head out to the east coast. Time always seems to be so tight, I never seem to know where it all goes...
Friday, March 27, 2009
The little engine that could...
Well Ladies and Gentlemen, 3miles done in one session is better than 2miles done in a morning and 2mi in an evening session right??? Actually I I think I am slowly getting the conveyor belt worked out, and my balance is improving. I took a day of rest yesterday, and I was sweating like a fiend today, (almost as much when I steam), it was crazy but it was feeling good. I am increasing my average speed, which is not going to sound impressive but right now all I am training on is a mountain bike with some fatty boombulatty tires on it so my friction is pretty high. I am working on getting my bike ordered, just had some sizing questions with the company that I am working out via email. I have to ride tomorrow morning because in the evening I have to fly to Bethel for some meetings, hopefully I will came back early enough on Sunday so I can squeeze in some workout time before hitting the sack. I steamed again tonight and it just takes all the juice out of your muscles. It feels incredible, but you feel like oyu can barely make a fist afterwards. Even typing this blog out is only with the aid of gravity helping my fingers fall down:)
If you guys would like to donate to my cause please go here: (Every little bit helps)
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,118/
Just choose my name Mark Broz, and donate as much as you want. I would appreciate a billion or so, but I'll settle for just a measly million...)
If you guys would like to donate to my cause please go here: (Every little bit helps)
http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,118/
Just choose my name Mark Broz, and donate as much as you want. I would appreciate a billion or so, but I'll settle for just a measly million...)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Exercises in humilitation...
Well Ladies and Gentlemen lets recap
Workout day 1 I worked out in the morning and in the evening morning session for an hour, evening session for a half hour, although I was able to bike the same amount of distance in each session. I swear this contraption I am riding on has to be harder than riding on the road. It is basically a conveyor belt I rest my bike on top of. However, I logged in four more miles today, bringing my total up to...5 miles. Kind of anticlimatic I know but you have to start somewhere, what happened to my college days of doing 70 mi rides...either I am really out of shape or this conveyor contrivance is simply wasting my energy. That which does not kill us makes us stronger, and I think it would be pretty hard for me to meet my end while basically biking in one spot. One nice thing though as I went over to "steam" after my evening workout session I got to see the last bit of the sunset at 9:20PM. Then after having a hot one, all of my muscles were completely relaxed. I wish I could pack a steamhouse with me and take it out to end my day. It is blissful. Then coming out and into the tundra evening air, was so crisp, and drinking a potful of melted snow...this is going to be something to miss. I have to get to bed now folks tomorrow I want to be at school by 6AM to work out, and still give me seven hours to sleep.
Workout day 1 I worked out in the morning and in the evening morning session for an hour, evening session for a half hour, although I was able to bike the same amount of distance in each session. I swear this contraption I am riding on has to be harder than riding on the road. It is basically a conveyor belt I rest my bike on top of. However, I logged in four more miles today, bringing my total up to...5 miles. Kind of anticlimatic I know but you have to start somewhere, what happened to my college days of doing 70 mi rides...either I am really out of shape or this conveyor contrivance is simply wasting my energy. That which does not kill us makes us stronger, and I think it would be pretty hard for me to meet my end while basically biking in one spot. One nice thing though as I went over to "steam" after my evening workout session I got to see the last bit of the sunset at 9:20PM. Then after having a hot one, all of my muscles were completely relaxed. I wish I could pack a steamhouse with me and take it out to end my day. It is blissful. Then coming out and into the tundra evening air, was so crisp, and drinking a potful of melted snow...this is going to be something to miss. I have to get to bed now folks tomorrow I want to be at school by 6AM to work out, and still give me seven hours to sleep.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Biking is on!!!!
Ladies and Gentlemen I have been given the go ahead. My summer bike tour is on. That means between now and then I have to do a seriuos bout of training. I have to be ready May 19th, four days after the end of the school year. This si pretty intense and it looks like it is going to suck up a majority of my summer. But I think it is going to be worth it, getting to see America so intimately, I don't know if I could have passed this up. In two years I will sadly be too old. I am pretty pumped I have checked out the other riders profiles and they seem to be a good group of people, they have decided to put a big portion of this past year to devoting their time to others. I have to admit that I missing out seeing my family and friends this summer. A lot of my plans got pushed to the wayside, but I am appreciative that everyone still supports me to follow my wild fancies. I have 64 days left to prepare for this and Ihave my training bike all set up with a bike computer. So far mileage logged >1mi. Ok I know it is small, but I am getting up at 5:30 tomorrow to log some serious time in before school and see if I get these numbers up. I am going to attempt to keep a daily posting of how many days left and how far I have ridden total. Guys this sounds like it is going to be a trip of a lifetime. Once I am given a donation link I will post here and I hope you guys will help out the affordable housing cause. What this trip is going to entail is that I am going to start out in Virginia Beach, Virginia, dip my bike into the Atlantic Ocean, then bike to Canon Beach, Oregon and dip my wheels into the Pacific. Stopping along the way nine times to build houses in various locations along the way. I am a member of a group of 30 people, and following the philosophy of many hands make light work we should be able to provide a good surge of manpower to these sites. This trip will take me to the 29th of July, and I have to be back in AK on the 11th of August for meetings. Alright guys, here's to having some new starts...
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