Let's kick this off by addressing the sleep issue. I slept great last night. I think it has to do with the following things:
Pants fit just fine. NO BELT NEEDED anymore. One less thing I need to pack after this trip.
Hit up the sucralose machine mid-morning. Sadly they have cut the flavors by about 1/3. Just not the same as it used to be. The erosion from within begins.
I also decided to try and make this week meat-free. Since it is now 10:30pm CST as I sit here and write this, and I have gone the first 2 days without eating meat, I'll make the jump and say that I'm going to try and do it. I don't think this is especially hard under normal circumstances. But given that I am in Texas, which is Texan for "fuck yes, pass the more meat plate," I think it's easier said than done. Just this morning when I ordered my cold brew coffee they asked me if I wanted extra meat with it. The weak link in this is the provided lunch. Today I was lucky they did wraps and there was a veggie option.
They also had brownies & cookies. I may have had 1 or more of these.
I don't want to belabor the work thing but I will say a few things about this. First, this 3-day workshop is a little bit like having a 3-day conversation about how we would run the country if we were given control of it today. It's a neat mental exercise, but on Friday morning we won't run the country. And shit will just be the same as it always is. Second is that at 5:11 the person running the meeting made some statement that she did not think she really understood where we were with everything at a high level and frankly I wanted to rip her hair out. At 5:30 I stood up and said I had to go, and left. I was the 3rd person to leave. It burns me up when a single meeting that is 8.5 hours long runs overtime.
Went to hotel, got bike stuff ready, got Uber. He was parked in the Whole Foods which is literally 300 yards away. It took him 10 minutes to get here. Got to the shop at 6:23.
Was on the bike by 6:45. Picked up a Trek Emonde SL5 carbon frame in a 56 for the next 3 days. I had mapped out a 25 mile ride based on the ridewithgps street colors, an Austin city bike safety map, and the strava heat map. It was a long way to bring the bike from Mellow Johnny's back to the hotel, via the west side of the city. The first 6 miles or so I felt more or less like I was riding uphill on the beach, but eventually I warmed up to the idea of biking.
I then made my way onto route 360, which is a highway on the map, but it's blue on all the sites which means it's generally as safe as it gets without being a bike-specific path. I'm not sure I would say it's 100% but it was just fine. I opened up a bit more on this road and the landscape started to really change out here. I went from Austin downtown to residential to the hill country with a totally different terrain which is like nothing I have ridden through nor really seen in quite some time. Then I saw a scenic overlook on the right, which I rode by. But I looked right and saw this:
On both sides of the road the terrain was just wildly different and it was a much more awesome experience than the first 6 miles of the ride. After about 9 miles of this, I turned off and wound through some other areas that were great for biking, and really quiet & enjoyable. The sun had gone down a bit and the temps were far more comfortable. As I got closer to the hotel the terrain went back to Austin-suburb but even there, bike lanes were pretty much everywhere. While not all roads have them, bikes are obviously very well accepted here. Plenty of lanes & signs about biking. Very pro this idea.
As I was trying to find more pics of it, I realized that this road I was on has a Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Highway_Loop_360
I guess I had some dumb luck today. I will say this ride made this trip at least 10% better. I'm going to try and wake up early tomorrow and ride again before work. I refuse to work before & after this workshop.
Ok next to last tidbit. I had to Uber to the shop which I did in normal clothes and then put them in a drawstring bag which I tossed on my back. Worked out very well and I didn't even think about it being there the whole ride. Got back to the room and dumped the clothes & shoes on the floor, then took a shower. Went to get dressed to grab more Whole Foods Cardboard Box Salad and realized that I had sweat through the bag and my shorts were wet. As it turns out, the only spot they were wet was the crotch. So it looked like I pissed myself when I went to grab dinner.
Finally, I leave you with this, a parting shot from @jmanic as he left KT last week:
- Don't overdo the caffeine after dinner. Generally this is not an issue but I think it's a straw I don't need to add to the camel's back.
- Rip the covers out from under the bed. I hate the way they make the beds. Who sleeps like this? I need to tuck the covers under my feet. Rip them out.
- Set 3 alarms - good call @2Julianas
- Turn the AC to "Northern Alaska"
- Realize that no matter how many small light sources there are, they go away when you close your eyes. I think the light thing is more in my head that not
Pants fit just fine. NO BELT NEEDED anymore. One less thing I need to pack after this trip.
Hit up the sucralose machine mid-morning. Sadly they have cut the flavors by about 1/3. Just not the same as it used to be. The erosion from within begins.
I also decided to try and make this week meat-free. Since it is now 10:30pm CST as I sit here and write this, and I have gone the first 2 days without eating meat, I'll make the jump and say that I'm going to try and do it. I don't think this is especially hard under normal circumstances. But given that I am in Texas, which is Texan for "fuck yes, pass the more meat plate," I think it's easier said than done. Just this morning when I ordered my cold brew coffee they asked me if I wanted extra meat with it. The weak link in this is the provided lunch. Today I was lucky they did wraps and there was a veggie option.
They also had brownies & cookies. I may have had 1 or more of these.
I don't want to belabor the work thing but I will say a few things about this. First, this 3-day workshop is a little bit like having a 3-day conversation about how we would run the country if we were given control of it today. It's a neat mental exercise, but on Friday morning we won't run the country. And shit will just be the same as it always is. Second is that at 5:11 the person running the meeting made some statement that she did not think she really understood where we were with everything at a high level and frankly I wanted to rip her hair out. At 5:30 I stood up and said I had to go, and left. I was the 3rd person to leave. It burns me up when a single meeting that is 8.5 hours long runs overtime.
Went to hotel, got bike stuff ready, got Uber. He was parked in the Whole Foods which is literally 300 yards away. It took him 10 minutes to get here. Got to the shop at 6:23.
Was on the bike by 6:45. Picked up a Trek Emonde SL5 carbon frame in a 56 for the next 3 days. I had mapped out a 25 mile ride based on the ridewithgps street colors, an Austin city bike safety map, and the strava heat map. It was a long way to bring the bike from Mellow Johnny's back to the hotel, via the west side of the city. The first 6 miles or so I felt more or less like I was riding uphill on the beach, but eventually I warmed up to the idea of biking.
I then made my way onto route 360, which is a highway on the map, but it's blue on all the sites which means it's generally as safe as it gets without being a bike-specific path. I'm not sure I would say it's 100% but it was just fine. I opened up a bit more on this road and the landscape started to really change out here. I went from Austin downtown to residential to the hill country with a totally different terrain which is like nothing I have ridden through nor really seen in quite some time. Then I saw a scenic overlook on the right, which I rode by. But I looked right and saw this:
On both sides of the road the terrain was just wildly different and it was a much more awesome experience than the first 6 miles of the ride. After about 9 miles of this, I turned off and wound through some other areas that were great for biking, and really quiet & enjoyable. The sun had gone down a bit and the temps were far more comfortable. As I got closer to the hotel the terrain went back to Austin-suburb but even there, bike lanes were pretty much everywhere. While not all roads have them, bikes are obviously very well accepted here. Plenty of lanes & signs about biking. Very pro this idea.
As I was trying to find more pics of it, I realized that this road I was on has a Wikipedia entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Highway_Loop_360
I guess I had some dumb luck today. I will say this ride made this trip at least 10% better. I'm going to try and wake up early tomorrow and ride again before work. I refuse to work before & after this workshop.
Ok next to last tidbit. I had to Uber to the shop which I did in normal clothes and then put them in a drawstring bag which I tossed on my back. Worked out very well and I didn't even think about it being there the whole ride. Got back to the room and dumped the clothes & shoes on the floor, then took a shower. Went to get dressed to grab more Whole Foods Cardboard Box Salad and realized that I had sweat through the bag and my shorts were wet. As it turns out, the only spot they were wet was the crotch. So it looked like I pissed myself when I went to grab dinner.
Finally, I leave you with this, a parting shot from @jmanic as he left KT last week: