153 Days (Love Has a Way of Invigorating my Soul)

Christmas is my favorite holiday.  My birthday is and always has been on the 17th of December and, as most Christmas babies will attest, this proximity to such a national holiday can either leave a bitter or a sweet taste in the mouth of the birthday experiencer.  I am happy to report that my parents have always been hyper-vigilant around the holiday season to ensure that my birthday does not get forgotten during such a big holiday season, and because of this I have always loved Christmas.  Maybe it's the double presents that I have always received within a week of each other, maybe it's the fact that James' and my first date was the day before my birthday so he has always lavished gifts on me during a week-and-a-half period, or maybe it's just the smell of pine in every home.  I love Christmas, I love the relaxation, and I am so pleased to be able to spend these past two weeks relaxing with loved ones.

Just like last week, I have been having a hard time getting motivated to hop on my bike and train for the ride.  Within minutes of my last post being published, I received a text from a 2011 Texas 4000 alumnus with suggestions for people that I could ride with during the week.  While I did not end up contacting any of them, his support and quick reaction gave me a much-needed boost to ride around the city.  My first ride was a dud; I filled up my water bottles but forgot them at home.  I had asked James to bring his bicycle to Houston, though, so I had a companion for my second ride that break!  We rode a glorious 30 miles together and, although it wasn't the farthest I've ever gone, it was one of my favorite rides so far.  Something about being around the man that I love has that effect on me; he turns normal situations into my favorite, he's able to motivate me beyond my abilities, and I'm just happier whenever I'm around him.

I'm keeping James company this week in Iraan, TX because he is on call this weekend and we wanted to spend time together while I'm not in school.  It's cold here, and there's not a whole lot to do, but I can't help but be excited that next year we will be having our own Christmas together, in this house, in Iraan.  He was able to get me on the bike to go for a short ride this afternoon, and I have a feeling that we will be doing many more rides together in the coming months and years.

165 Days (Motivation can be Hard)

Earlier this year I promised that I would write at least one blog entry per week, but sometimes life gets too busy even for this.  Every few days I would sit at my computer and think to myself, “I need to write today,” and yet each day some other task took priority over this one.  I had three exams and a paper the first week in December, and last week was the beginning of finals week (which, as most people are aware, can be fairly stressful.)  While final exams at the University of Texas don’t officially end until today, I was fortunate enough to have my last exam this past Saturday at 9AM.

Texas 4000 knows how busy students get, and understand the priority that our education takes in our lives.  To encourage us to spend more time studying and to not worry so much about our organizational commitments, they decided that our last required official team training ride would be on December 1, and our last meeting on the 6^th.  I was thinking about this fact yesterday, and I realized that I had not been on a training ride since that official one two weeks ago.  That’s two weeks that my bicycle has sat in my living room gathering dust, two weeks for my muscles to degenerate from lack of use, and two weeks to feel lost without a cause.  I brought my bicycle to Houston so that I could train on it here, but it’s incredibly difficult to find motivation to go on a 20 mile solo ride around the city.  I thrive on companionship and have been unable to wake up at a reasonable hour knowing that my ride will be alone.  It’s something that I need to work on, I know, but I don’t think that humans were designed to go on long bicycle rides alone!