Training is monotonous.
In high school and college I ran on the track and field team. I enjoyed it, but the problem was that in order to train yourself to run, you run...and run...and run. I was glad when I would have time off to practice high jump. My last year of track I suggested to my coach that I would like to do the decathlon; half because I had a bunch of talents that weren't being utilized and the other half because practice would be different every day.
After graduation I needed to find a way to stay in shape, but running seemed to be the only easy way to do it. Just what I wanted to do, run more.
It was at that time that I read an article in the paper about an upcoming race. It was called a 24-hour relay. Teams of up to 10 would take turns running a mile at a time and then pass the baton. You had to stay in the same order and if anyone dropped out the team would have to continue on without him/her. This race was just what I was looking for, it was running but there was a twist. You weren't just constantly plodding along like a marathon (I don't think I'll ever buckle down and do one of those), you were running for a team. We finished in second place by running 209.6 miles, just about 21 miles per person.
The idea of seeing how how far you could go in a given time period was interesting to me, it wasn't just about speed, it was more about endurance and out thinking your competition. Last summer I did two 24-hour races on my bike (individually). I did 221 and 191 miles respectively. In the first one I only spent 13 of the 24 hours on the bike but I learned so much from that race about cycling that I fell in love with it.
With the Sea to Sea looming this coming summer I am starting to get a little bored riding all the time and there aren't too many other types of races to get my mind off of cycling in the winter, but just when I was about to take some time off a new race crossed my path.
Growing up in Chicago, I had always heard about stair climbing events on the news, and thought that I would love to do that. Last year I looked up Hustle up the Hancock and signed up. I had no idea how to run a race like this or train for it. The Hancock is 94 floors tall. I did some training, but was wary going into it. I surprised myself by finishing 104th out of 2700 participants, definitely encouraging. So this year I decided to do another one called Tackle the Tower. The format is slightly different because the Oakbrook Terrace is only 31 floors tall, but I decided to do the option of going up it 3 times and taking the elevator down in between. That is coming up February 10 so it will get my mind off cycling for just enough time.
I've never liked specializing in one thing, I like to have my abilities be perfectly fluid from one aspect of life to another. I'm hoping this will someday land me a spot on the TV show Survivor.
January 29, 2008
January 19, 2008
Love God with your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Bike
There has been something on my mind lately that I just can't seem to get past. Some of you who may be reading this may not be aware that there is a forum which all of the riders on the Sea to Sea tour have access to in order to trade training tips, encouragement, and just generally get to know each other a little better before we meet at the end of June. The thing on my mind has to do with what was seemingly a throw away comment made by one rider, I don't even know who it was and I think figuring it out would create unnecessary tension. The comment touched on the irony that the tour is raising money to reduce poverty by having nearly two hundred cyclists ride expensive bikes across the country.
I see the irony in this, but at the same time I felt it was trying to implicate us for owning a high quality product. I confess that my bike is the second most expensive thing that I own behind my car. However, my bike is not a trophy, it is a tool.
Since my junior year of college I have been trying to shape my life to match my ideology. It was at this time that I discovered conflicts of interest in my world view. Gas prices had just started getting to a level where we realized that they would never be going back down to the level they had been my entire life and everyone was complaining about it. China had entered the oil purchasing market in a big way and production couldn't keep up. We blame it on China, but who are we to say that we need or deserve oil more than anyone else? It's like when a new neighbor moves in and they neglect their lawn more than anyone else, we complain that they are ruining our neighborhood as if the whole thing belongs to us because we lived there longer. I love taking road trips. They cost more now and you can't blame anyone for it, you just need to adapt.
This is, naturally, the same time at which global warming/climate change became a major issue. As gas consumption increases, so does pollution from carbon emmisions which leads to more heat being trapped in the atmosphere. With the very convincing case that was presented by Al Gore in 'An Inconvenient Truth' and with evidence from many other scientists spread across a variety of branches of science, I began to see how human activity was effecting earth, and I was a part of it. I have tracked my gas milage for the last few years because I like messing around with numbers, but I never thought to look for how much gas I was actually using. In the last two years I have used 1000 gallons!
I have always thought of the cultural mandate (Gen 1:28) as God reinforcing man as his chosen among creation, but recently I have questioned what the meaning of the statement "Fill the earth, and subdue it" means and if man might have either forgetten this commandment or misinterpretted the word subdue.
Because of these factors I decided that I needed to reduce the amount of time I spend driving from one place to another without cutting myself off from the communities I am a member of. It was at this point I decided I needed to ride my bike more. It allows me to travel at a good rate of speed while not costing the environment or my wallet anything. It even benefits my health.
This still doesn't explain why I needed an expensive bike, however.
I have always been an athlete. I love to compete. In college I ran track and cross country, so when I graduated I needed to find a way to keep exercising. Cycling was one of those things I never had time to get really into because I was training for other things, now I finally did have time. So when I went to get a bike to ride instead of my car I wanted one that I could use for races as well. I could have bought one for each activity, but I see that as wasteful. That route would mean I would be be consuming twice as many resources and one half would always be sitting around since I couldn't use both at once. So I went for the one that I would get the most use out of.
I believe the person who was making the comment that set me off a bit was referencing how much our society wastes money on frivolous extras while other societies are trying to make something out of nothing to survive. I am aware that I belong to this society geographically, I just don't like being lumped into it undiscerningly.
I see the irony in this, but at the same time I felt it was trying to implicate us for owning a high quality product. I confess that my bike is the second most expensive thing that I own behind my car. However, my bike is not a trophy, it is a tool.
Since my junior year of college I have been trying to shape my life to match my ideology. It was at this time that I discovered conflicts of interest in my world view. Gas prices had just started getting to a level where we realized that they would never be going back down to the level they had been my entire life and everyone was complaining about it. China had entered the oil purchasing market in a big way and production couldn't keep up. We blame it on China, but who are we to say that we need or deserve oil more than anyone else? It's like when a new neighbor moves in and they neglect their lawn more than anyone else, we complain that they are ruining our neighborhood as if the whole thing belongs to us because we lived there longer. I love taking road trips. They cost more now and you can't blame anyone for it, you just need to adapt.
This is, naturally, the same time at which global warming/climate change became a major issue. As gas consumption increases, so does pollution from carbon emmisions which leads to more heat being trapped in the atmosphere. With the very convincing case that was presented by Al Gore in 'An Inconvenient Truth' and with evidence from many other scientists spread across a variety of branches of science, I began to see how human activity was effecting earth, and I was a part of it. I have tracked my gas milage for the last few years because I like messing around with numbers, but I never thought to look for how much gas I was actually using. In the last two years I have used 1000 gallons!
I have always thought of the cultural mandate (Gen 1:28) as God reinforcing man as his chosen among creation, but recently I have questioned what the meaning of the statement "Fill the earth, and subdue it" means and if man might have either forgetten this commandment or misinterpretted the word subdue.
Because of these factors I decided that I needed to reduce the amount of time I spend driving from one place to another without cutting myself off from the communities I am a member of. It was at this point I decided I needed to ride my bike more. It allows me to travel at a good rate of speed while not costing the environment or my wallet anything. It even benefits my health.
This still doesn't explain why I needed an expensive bike, however.
I have always been an athlete. I love to compete. In college I ran track and cross country, so when I graduated I needed to find a way to keep exercising. Cycling was one of those things I never had time to get really into because I was training for other things, now I finally did have time. So when I went to get a bike to ride instead of my car I wanted one that I could use for races as well. I could have bought one for each activity, but I see that as wasteful. That route would mean I would be be consuming twice as many resources and one half would always be sitting around since I couldn't use both at once. So I went for the one that I would get the most use out of.
I believe the person who was making the comment that set me off a bit was referencing how much our society wastes money on frivolous extras while other societies are trying to make something out of nothing to survive. I am aware that I belong to this society geographically, I just don't like being lumped into it undiscerningly.
January 2, 2008
Mele Kalikimaka and Happy New Year
It hasn't been my typical December, so I haven't been able to blog as much as I would like, but January should put me back into a good routine.
For as long as I can remember, my family has done the same thing every Chrismas season. We exchange gifts at the same time, eat the same food on Christmas eve, Christmas morning, and for Christmas dinner and often go to see a movie at night. I've never felt like I was going through the motions, there always seemed to be the same anticipation. So you can imagine the bittersweet feeling when while last year's procedings were winding down my parents told the kids that for next Chirstmas they weren't going to be buying any gifts, but instead we were going to be going on a family vacation...to Hawaii.
There are few ways I can imagine to more completely break with tradition than this. No douglass fir, no lake effect snow, no wadded up wrapping paper fights. Instead there were palm trees, occasional clouds, and snorkeling. It was odd to say the least, but refreshing.
Now to the point before someone decides to make a trip to Chicago to break my legs. Hawaii is one of the poorest states in our country. There is a striking duality that many people overlook. A gallon of milk at the supermarket there is $4.50 after the discount for being a rewards member. The eyes of all the people from the mainland bug out when they see the prices and feel like they are being ripped off. But, they are only thinking of themselves, imagine the islanders who have to pay that much everytime because there are no other options. Nearly everything you get at a store must be literally shipped over, adding huge costs. The islands are great for growing fruit, but growing grain there would be difficult, so they even have to import bread. The tourists come and see how simple most people are living and can't understand why. The cost of renting an apartment with a kitchen, bathroom and small bedroom (not on the ocean) will cost $600 or more. Most island jobs don't pay exceptionally well either. A job with the same salary on the island has way less buying power than one on the mainland. Tourists come to the island to enjoy the weather and have a good time. They use up a good portion of the resources that are shipped over, thus making them more scarce, and thus raising the price. Think about taking a shower at your own house versus taking one at a hotel. At your own house you most likely will take a shorter shower because you are paying for it, if you take one at a hotel you might take a longer one because you either think you aren't paying for it or you think that the cost of it is included in the price so you want to get more for your money. It all comes down to caring for the place you are from more than you care about anywhere else in the world. But isn't this what Jesus' second commandment was all about?
The difficult issue in dealing with Hawaii's poverty is that tourism is vitally important for them to succeed. The islanders might not like some of the things that tourists do, but they accept it because they need these tourists to spend their money there so they can pay the shipping costs to get things they can't produce on island. In order to follow the commandment it means that we need to be good stewards both at home and on vacation. We can't just try to be stingy and get the most for ourselves. Whenever I went shopping on the island I looked for shops that were not chain stores and actually made their products locally in Hawaii. The reason for this is that every dollar I was spending was going to their economy (not taking a portion out for the corporate office) and so they weren't paying extra to ship something to the island so I could immediately take it off the island. I was trying to 'Do the Most Good' just like the Salvation Army. And just like every Christmas at home there were people ringing bells next to red kettles. It just goes to show that no matter how differant a Christmas it was the theme was still the same.
For as long as I can remember, my family has done the same thing every Chrismas season. We exchange gifts at the same time, eat the same food on Christmas eve, Christmas morning, and for Christmas dinner and often go to see a movie at night. I've never felt like I was going through the motions, there always seemed to be the same anticipation. So you can imagine the bittersweet feeling when while last year's procedings were winding down my parents told the kids that for next Chirstmas they weren't going to be buying any gifts, but instead we were going to be going on a family vacation...to Hawaii.
There are few ways I can imagine to more completely break with tradition than this. No douglass fir, no lake effect snow, no wadded up wrapping paper fights. Instead there were palm trees, occasional clouds, and snorkeling. It was odd to say the least, but refreshing.
Now to the point before someone decides to make a trip to Chicago to break my legs. Hawaii is one of the poorest states in our country. There is a striking duality that many people overlook. A gallon of milk at the supermarket there is $4.50 after the discount for being a rewards member. The eyes of all the people from the mainland bug out when they see the prices and feel like they are being ripped off. But, they are only thinking of themselves, imagine the islanders who have to pay that much everytime because there are no other options. Nearly everything you get at a store must be literally shipped over, adding huge costs. The islands are great for growing fruit, but growing grain there would be difficult, so they even have to import bread. The tourists come and see how simple most people are living and can't understand why. The cost of renting an apartment with a kitchen, bathroom and small bedroom (not on the ocean) will cost $600 or more. Most island jobs don't pay exceptionally well either. A job with the same salary on the island has way less buying power than one on the mainland. Tourists come to the island to enjoy the weather and have a good time. They use up a good portion of the resources that are shipped over, thus making them more scarce, and thus raising the price. Think about taking a shower at your own house versus taking one at a hotel. At your own house you most likely will take a shorter shower because you are paying for it, if you take one at a hotel you might take a longer one because you either think you aren't paying for it or you think that the cost of it is included in the price so you want to get more for your money. It all comes down to caring for the place you are from more than you care about anywhere else in the world. But isn't this what Jesus' second commandment was all about?
The difficult issue in dealing with Hawaii's poverty is that tourism is vitally important for them to succeed. The islanders might not like some of the things that tourists do, but they accept it because they need these tourists to spend their money there so they can pay the shipping costs to get things they can't produce on island. In order to follow the commandment it means that we need to be good stewards both at home and on vacation. We can't just try to be stingy and get the most for ourselves. Whenever I went shopping on the island I looked for shops that were not chain stores and actually made their products locally in Hawaii. The reason for this is that every dollar I was spending was going to their economy (not taking a portion out for the corporate office) and so they weren't paying extra to ship something to the island so I could immediately take it off the island. I was trying to 'Do the Most Good' just like the Salvation Army. And just like every Christmas at home there were people ringing bells next to red kettles. It just goes to show that no matter how differant a Christmas it was the theme was still the same.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
