When Julie signed up to teach English in Korea, little did she think that she would have to come to Chicago to finalize paperwork. Nor did she realize she'd be in for a 6am bike ride and a several hour long hike around the urban jungle that is Chicago.
It was partly for selfish reasons, honestly. I didn't really want to skip out on the morning ride, Julie mentioned that she had tried riding a couple times on her healing wrist and felt fine, and the real clincher is that I had a spare functional bike. Why would she say no? I always love being able to take friends on the Lakefront Path. It's not a hills challenge, nor does it boast mountains, but it does have the skyline and the sun rising over the watery horizon.
Some dude overheard her craving reubens in line at Corner Bakery, and he recommended a Jewish deli called Ada's. Excellent reubens, and breakfast all day: Belgian waffle with fresh strawberries and whip cream. Mmm.
We walked all over Chicago. In Millenium Park we saw a whole herd of Chicago Police, and it turns out several tens of Olympics athletes were hosted in Chicago today by Oprah. There was also the Puppet Bike on the corner of Randolf and Michigan dancing to "Potato Chips." We may or may not have had a run in with Jeff Hunt's chams that happened to be in Chicago somehow. We got to talk all about the culture shock of normal everyday life as well as rehash little Bike and Build sayings ... it was, so good? I love it!
In terms of real life, I'm starting to get serious about this portfolio. At times I feel as if I'm still in school with the amount of work I've been doing on it. I'm getting a little more sleep, and the food I eat is healthier, but that's about the only difference.
The other day, the Tati team and I went out to work on some bike drills. It was really nice to work on actual drills on bike handling for the first time ever. J first had us practice track standing to improve balance and confidence on the bike, riding around in tight circles in a single parking space to corner, riding past a water bottle to pick it up also for balance, bumping each other like jousting, and intervals for speed. Katie and I couldn't stop laughing while we were practicing bumping each other: not only were we riding towards each other on purpose, but also we were on bumpy grass so it was hard to keep balance as it was. It's important though: I've already been in a race where someone was ramming their handlebars into mine to get my place in the pack. What was really great was being able to practice pacelining with other women teamates. I wonder how well the Illini Cycling women's B's team could have done if we'd done even 2 such practices before our races.
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2 comments:
SJL>"I wonder how well the Illini Cycling women's B's team could have done if we'd done even 2 such practices before our races."
Didn't you guys (gals) sweep the podium at regionals???
Yes...yes we did sweep the podium at the regionals crit, and also took home 2nd and 5th at the RR. Though we may have done better if we had practiced together, you can't refute results!
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