New Feet!

I caved. I've been wanting these shoes for a long time. They were sold out almost everywhere (of the color I wanted anyway) since June or July. Then the manager at Fleet Feet Rice Village called me and said we got a shipment. And all of a sudden I was walking out of the store in them. haha.

Why? I hate shoes. I don't wear shoes in the house. I love flip flops. I only own shoes for protection from falling objects and the cold. Oh and for looking pretty, but that's a girl thing.

I'm really happy this barefooting phenomenon is taking over. I remember hanging out at my friend's apartment one day and running barefoot on her treadmill. It felt great! I felt like I could run forever. Now I can be practically barefoot everywhere I go. The floor does not have to be devoid of rocks and rough things. I am liberated!

So I've been able to run a little in them and use them for general every day walking. At the end of the day my toes will be tired and my hip will start to hurt, but my knees have been generally fine. I am pleasantly surprised. Maybe my knees will get better in general.

Tour de Pink

This year I decided not to join my team for the Tour de Pink. But then I got an email in Steve Moskowitz's periodical cycling newsletters that the TdP needed SAG wagons.

Side pause. For you non-cyclers out there, a SAG wagon is the support car that drives around helping cyclists that are having mechanical or physical problems.

I figure I do so many rides, but never offer to volunteer that now it was time. And it would be a good change to go to a ride and not ride. I'm always up for a change. I got to get up well before dawn and drive the 1hr trip over to Prairie View A&M. But when that sun came up...man. I tried to get a good shot, but didn't stop my car soon enough to capture the best scene. This is the best I could do.



Anyway it was good because my company hosts a rest stop every year, and so I requested to be on that route and got to hang with some buddies I haven't seen in a while and meet some new folks. My SAG was route was pretty uneventful. I guess cause it was on a route where you would expect to see experienced riders. I was pretty much a traveling tire pump. But that's OK. I heard that other routes had a lot of action, so maybe I will ask for routes that travel the shorter distances? Also I think there were a lot more volunteers than expected, so there might have been one or two extra SAGs that weren't needed. Sometimes you can have too much support. There were plenty of people encroaching on my territory, and I bet that helped with my boredom.

Oh well. Next ride I will definitely be on my bike.

A Little Self Reflection

The other day someone called me "athletic", and I said "what are you talking about? I'm not athletic." He gave me a look and I paused. Wait. I guess I am.

If you had asked me two years ago what my hobbies were, they would include video games, watching tv, and eating. I never imagined that I would be able to ride 25 miles in a day let alone 1.5hrs. I think my fastest mile before 2009 was around 14 mins and I definitely couldn't run the whole thing.

As a child I was always the slowest one in PE. The least adept at volley ball, basket ball, soccer, any sport basically. I tried powder puff in college and that never went well. I have a hospital visit, chest X-ray and a CAT scan to prove it. And my knees always hurt. Lots of motivation to not be athletic.

Turns out I was doing the wrong sport.

It really goes to show that you need to experience a lot of things before you can really say "that's not my thing". And when you find something you really love; it can turn the whole picture around.