Where Rubber Meets The Road

Criminal at Large....apparently

2007-03-29T10:22:00.000-04:00

Google is great, you know? You can find anything, anywhere, anytime. ... Or atleast you get about a million hits containing any form/combination of the words you typed into the box. Either way it provides ample distraction from class...er 'study breaks' if you will. My favorite search is peoples' names. Sometimes you actually get hits returned from the actual person in mind. Other times you get a hit with some poor unfortunate soul with the same name of the guy you looked up. Anyways, so I'm sitting in class, er, i mean, I studiously paying attention never deviating from what was going on with NO thoughts of open roads my bike and finish lines, and I google my name. interestingly enough, the first hit on the page is from Mugshot.com...so i google it again. ... Same hit. Apparently, among other things, I am a criminal from Idaho or something. Of course my brother Emmett's name returns some environmental hit and only like 3 hits down is something actually about him. Go figure... So this leads me to wonder what Mark returns...and apparently he is a sports photographer.

Well, I guess since class is almost out I should finish this up. Did I say almost over? I TOTALLY meant about to begin, because I am so studious that I found time BETWEEN class to do this and didn't burn precious learning time to...ok, yeah this is a lost cause. Hope you enjoyed my Jazz History class as much as I did!

Downtown ATL

2007-03-15T11:35:00.000-04:00

Due to my recent discovery of fun, I have not posted. There is a lot to do in the ATL I have found, er, been showed really. Amanda and I have been doing a lot of fun stuff that doesn't really require any money...which is good cause she doesn't have a job and I spend all my money on bike stuff. I have come to find that the buildings themselves are way cool. While we were walking to the park the other day we passed by Peachtree corners (this shopping center thing thats under this really cool building) and walked around for a while, just wandered through. When we did finally emerge back into the city we stumbled upon the glass ceiling of Peachtree corners. It had this cool seating area around it and we just chilled for a while, laid back and watched the clouds rush over head. We did eventually meander down to Centennial Park to throw the softball around (she's trying to get back into for intramurals). The ball throwing has actually become a really entertaining, regular activity.

Another Great thing about the city is that it has really fun places to study. It is so much more fun, and productive, to grab your laptop, a book, and go sit outside a little coffee shop, or plaza and study. Its so much more fun to sit outside than in the room. And if you need a study break you can just people watch.

Thanks to both people that read this, I hope that you got something out of it. But I have a paper to write, so until next time...go fly a kite

Who Invented the Dark?

2007-02-19T20:16:00.000-05:00

You never really experience TRUE boredom until you have a paper due, your friends are studying, and you have beat all of your games and have no motivation to replay them. This coupled with the desire to ride, well my friend, thats boredom..and a little aggravation that its dark so you can't simply hop on your bike and ride. Even if i had a light so people could see me, yeah I wouldn't in the ATL. I guess the answer to my question (the title for those of you fortunate enough to not understand my thought process) would be God. So I guess that is the end of that question...
Man, I can't even do a good blog...
This sucks...
I really need something to do...
Oooooook...
Well...
OOH LOOK! something shiny! ... o wait ... thats the computer screen...
Hm, well uh, this is pretty boring....

And now I've shown you TRUE boredom.
(sorry you had to sit through it)

Rule #38: Coolness

2007-02-15T02:10:00.000-05:00

Coolness has myriad connotations, some common connotations are 'hip', 'awesome', or 'rad'. My friend Amanda seems to feel that she fits this definition. Her 'hip, stylish dress' and her seemingly 'overwhelming awesomeness' put her up in this category. While these are not direct quotes from Amanda (though they ae quotes of some of her close friends...well friend...) they do describe her. A direct quote from her, however, is 'hello', a word often overlooked in thejibber jabber of chit chat and small talk but broken down into stallster's english college dictionary describes it as 'the quinessential word to begin any kind of conversation or relationship'. after all, every conversation must be begun and as this is simple even for non native speakers, most everyone opens with some variation of this word. Often, the uneducated use 'Hey', or 'Hi' where as the educated, higher thought people use 'Hello'. There is one more echelon above this however, those that use such greetings as 'salutations' or 'heidy ho'. The uneducated category takes a nasty dive south and continues to spiral on and on and never seems to hit a low, it just keeps getting lower. Her saying 'Hello' automatically puts her in one of the upper echelons simultaneously raising her coolness to new heights.

Another, common definition of coolnessefers to it actully being cold. such as what i experienced while biking in th snow today. Quite cold. I am fairly sure that my posterior is still somewhere out on the road.

Till next time, Think freely and make stupid comments!

Polar Bears and Wind Vests

2007-02-01T23:57:00.000-05:00

Man, it's been awhile...I guess the rigors of school kind of overtook me and distracted me due to my involvement and studious behavior.
...
HAHA! Ok, seriously, I just haven't gotten around to it.

So apparently my school has a polar bear club. I know this because everyday that I go into the gym to work out I see a big sign that says 'JOIN THE POLAR BEAR CLUB AND GET A FREE TSHIRT IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE FIRST 100'. It looks pretty fun, considering me and my cousin do that stuff anyways. You know, break the layer of ice on a pool so that you can jump in, or have a breath holding contest i a bucket of ice filled water. Real intelligent stuff. Everytime I see it I consider doing it cause I think It'd be cool to have a Polar Bear Club T-shirt. It's long sleeve too. But then I go workout and totally forget about the club.

I have way to much time to think on my bike. Seriously. I think about any and everything and its not always productive. Most of the time it's thoughts of road rage induced by the high traffic volume of downtown Atlanta, but sometimes they are thoughts of comparison. I realized the other day, that the only sports that willingly and happily train in subfreezing temperatures are the runners, cyclists, and the polar bear club. That immediately made me want the tshirt, until I realized that when I ride in the rain on cold days...I am participating in the Polar Plunge, only my jersey is way cooler.

Obviously out of practice of writing myself, I hope you are not dumber for having read this.

Rule # 52 Broken is Normal

2006-10-30T20:12:00.000-05:00

So I got back outside on my bike friday. Yes, the friday that it was like 50 degreees, pouring rain that had began very early the night before, I was outside mountain biking through the sludge, muck, wet, and cold. I then realized the beauty of rain coats...because eberyone knows you appreciate things more when you are without them. It was great fun. I felt like a caged beast finally let free to roam a slow moving, well fed field of wildebeast...or zebra, whichever you prefer. It was most wonderful. I couldn't help but enjoy every single second of finally feeling wind on my face. Of course, the ride ended when the rain picked up a whole lot and i realized I was frozen. The best part was that when I got done I looked at my reflection in the car and realized I was literally covered in mud from head to toe.

I got some new tires in on saturday that I ordered off the internet. They are some tires for cyclocross for the mountain bike so that I dont have to deal with the rolling resistance of the mountain bike tires during the races. Naturally I had to try them out. So sunday I wake up, hang out, kinda get ready to go then head out the door to go up to Auburn, Georgia to a cyclocross course to try out the tires. Anyways, its about 30-45 minutes away and I was just chillin, listenin to music on the way up so i wouldnt get my heart rate up cause I had a really tough workout to do. I'm about up there, realize I forgot my biking shoes and have to turn around and go back. So when I finally get home and get my shoes I just decide to ride on some mtn bike trails near the house. Im ridin' along, in the middle of an interval and I hear something. So I stop and look at my back wheel and boom...rule 52. I'd broke a spoke. It seems that I cant get on a bike without breaking something atleast once a week...maybe its my superhuman strength...O well. It's fun.

Till next time, wear tights and break things!

Bikes, Tykes, and Treadmills

2006-10-26T15:37:00.000-04:00

In every man's life comes a time when he must 'take one for the team' and sit out a week. I've already done that so hopefully I won't be out of action like that again. I recently was in the gnarliest bike wreck. I got 14 stitches, a possible concussion, road rash, the works. Of course I also got one of the most painful weeks of bed rest, and the locals before the stitches didn't feel too great either...well neither does it feel good when they have to did through scabs to pull out the stitches. None the less, I got some cool scars and a fun story...for the strong stomached. Though, with the addition of scars and disfigurement came my nieces skepticism toward me...again. Everytime I change something (dual blue mohawks, stitches, etc) my niece is never quite certain whether I'm safe. She'll be all happy and giggly...then her eyes settle on me. That pretty much ends the happy giggly Kensley. O well, it's actually kind of funny. I recently was cleared to get back on the bike after having not officially riding one for nearly 2 weeks. I thought hey this is great, I'll get to get back out and ride again, something I was itching to do. Little did I know I would spend all of my time on the treadmill for bikes. the stationary trainer. On top of that, I wasn't allowed to watch tv or anything while I was on the trainer because I was supposed to focu on my cadence. Thats been real funny, let me tell you. hopefully with this ride with my coach I'll be able to get back outside. As always, thanks for reading and wasting the last 45 seconds of your life!

WHAT! ..is your favorite color??

2006-09-21T11:45:00.000-04:00

Fall swiftly approaches bringing with it the chilly, breath seeing mornings; the yellow to orange to brown shift of the leaves; the frosty car windows (although without a car I don't have to deal with that aspect as much); and the light jackets and hoodies of college life. Yes my friend, it is arriving. I particularly noticed this most interesting fact when I went for a ride a day or two ago and the sun was fully up yet I couldn't help but wish for arm warmers when I passed through the shade or went flying down a hill. The second time this came to my senses was when I heard on the news while watching the tv on MARTA that the fall equinox is saturday.

Fall is always nice as a rider, you get to experience crisp, clean air in Atlnata (yes, a rarety i know), and the scenary is great (even blurred into a multitude of colorful streaks as I zip buy). Of course with the crisp air comes a chill that requires more material on your body than just one thin layer of lycra. Yes, this means I cover myself in the fabric. Well, I'm generaly covered, but I mean the bottom half of my legs and my arms. None-the-less fall is a most exhilerating time to ride.

Trees...

2006-09-05T17:08:00.000-04:00

My road season ended today with a call from my coach. I found out he wants me to focus on cyclocross now because it is coming up quick fast and in a hurry and he thinks i have a real shot at winning the whole thing (which I must say is pretty darn sweet). It has sort of givin me some time to reflect on my season though and some of the "exotic" (if only I could actually claim that) places that I've been. In all actuality, there was probably immense beauty in some of the places I've raced. Let's face it, I've raced in Tennessee two or three times and I've been all over Georgia. There had to be some beautiful scenery. In thinking about this I tried to recall some of what I had seen. I noticed a definate trend in what I remebered...it was all green and sort of blurred together with occasional splotches of color here and there. In racing, you never get to really experience the beauty of where you are riding. However, I can recall scenary on training rides very easily. For instance, I went mountain biking for the first time yesterday (yeah, it was fun but I am no world class mountain biker by any stretch of the words) and I remember all 5 or so trees that I nearly clipped. I can picture them in my head clear as day.

Even though I had marked success this season, every race that favored me even a little (races with GOOD uphill finishes where a strong pull up it would demolish the field giving me an undisputable win) I got jipped out of. In Dahlonega I missed a turn due to a) my concentration on the road in front of me and b) poor markings and a lack of volunteers to say 'turn here' like they have in tennessee and by the time i realized it i had gone 15 minutes in the wrong direction which put me out of that race. In a race in Rome my cassette came unscrewed from my wheel (i didnt know that was the problem at the time, otherwise I would have swapped wheels) so I had to ride the wheel truck in to the finish. And then Finally, the last race to favor me (Murphy, NC) got cancelled.

O well, I'll get 'em all next year. I know what I can do to thwart any attempt by my bike or the race directors to eliminate me from the race...

Rule #1 Superheros Wear Tights

2006-08-30T21:25:00.000-04:00

Cycling, it seems, is often looked down upon by many. Perhaps because we shave our legs (yes, I admit it...I shave my legs regularly), or perhaps because we wear spandex when we ride, or maybe its the fact that the drivers INSIST upon having that extra 12 inches of a lane that is plenty big enough for the both of us. Maybe it's really none of these things; maybe what people really hate is that we enjoy our meager existence and thrive off the competition. This really hit me as a thing today as I was nearing the end of my ride. I had mistakenly missed my turn, and being in downtown, quickly ended up in the ghetto. I didn't much notice at first because I was lost in the pure enjoyment I get from riding (or I was really tired and my mind had done a trademark wander at a particularly crucial moment...either option is completely viable) none-the-less, I began to notice when I almost got run off the road by a police car; then I noticed 2 police cars at the corner of a seemingly inocuous intersection; and finally I noticed that even the 2 foot tall black children walking by themselves were giving me dirty looks. I suddenly came to the realization that I had missed my turn and ended up in about the worst possible place. Needless to say I pulled a quick U-ey and sprinted back to the street I meant to turn onto.

So really the question is, what is to hate about a finely tuned athletic machine? Perhaps people are uneducated about the sport. Quite possibly, it is the old 'we are afraid of what we don't know'. There is a good chance that the sport would be more respected if the masses knew to what extent we push our bodies.

Also, these negative feelings towards the sport could just have easily stemmed from the media. The only Time America hears about cycling is when 56 cyclist get ejected from the tour the night before because of blood doping, or when the american stud that just won the race gets disqualified because he used artificially created testosterone. What gets me most though is that even when an american who has reached the highest achievement, even further than what the greats of the sport dreamed ever possible, and does it without ever failing a drug test, gets accused by the french press (of course they would, an american is dominating their race) of using EPO (a performance enhancing drug) the american public believes it.

Anyways, thank you to whomever read this feeble attempt to sound somewhat intelligent. I appreciate the gesture.