I ate way too much turkey yesterday.
Possible even more dessert though.

I'm failing to understand how it's the last week of November when temperature is supposed to be in the mid seventies all day. And it's supposed to warm up all week too?

This one time, in studio today...

For whatever reason, there were several swarms of 3rd-5th graders that kept invading our studio during class today. Most of them asked about stuff, and overall weren't terrible. Also, several of them voted one of my projects as "their favorite" / "the best!" It was pretty nice to hear that.

Today was also studio Thanksgiving party day. Most everyone made lots of yummy food, and it was fun and stuff. On a whim, I bought some blackberries the other day, and last night I managed to turn them into blackberry cobbler, which I found very good. I think everyone else agreed with me, because by about ten minutes after I warmed it up today there wasn't any left. I guess I'm going to have to make more now...

Legs?

I woke up today and was thinking my legs didn't feel nearly as sore as I thought they would. Then I had to go to studio... I went outside and was walking down the stairs when I noticed I could feel my legs more than I had been able to... Then I jumped on my commuter bike and yep, I could barely pedal it downhill...
Later I went out to make an attempt at some sort of recovery ride. I averaged 14. The guy riding his fixie in a thong passed me.

Post-Hugel

I'm pretty sure that the Tour Das Hugel is the hardest thing I've ever done on a bike.

I left my apartment at 6:20, and ten hours later at 4:20 I was walking back inside. The actual ride (107 miles) only took 7.5 hours though, which considering what it is and how windy it was, I would say that isn't too shabby.

Here is the graph from my heart rate monitor, yes it's a little small, but thanks to the wonders of HTML, if you click on the picture, it will open up a bigger version!

What you're looking at:

Light Red line: Heart Rate - ignore this. It seems when the wind it really strong it messes this up for some reason. Take out all of the really tall peaks and it's somewhat accurate.

Dark Red Line: Altitude. Yeah, we went up and down a lot. Sweet.

Blue Line: Speed. Going uphill = low speed. Going downhill = high speed. Wow.

I'm pretty sure some of the climbs are represented fairly accurately by how steep they are on the chart...

There were a bunch of photographers out there - all at the top of steep hills for some reason... I'll put some pictures up whenever I can find them.

Pre-Hugel

I had a sweet shark steak for dinner (don't ask, just know that I did), my alarm clock is set for way too early in the morning, and I'm going to get in bed as soon as I'm done typing.

11,000 feet of climbing. Pshh.
Bring it on.

On Being a Rebel

Today I went through the 20 items or less line at the grocery store. With 21 things!

In other news, my last XC race of the year was on Sunday. It was at Rocky Hill, but wasn't a collegiate race, so I finished without having to throw up at all... I broke my streak of fourths too! There was a split in the trail where you could either go up a steep, barely ridable hill or take a longer route to bypass it. After we got to this the first time and people went both ways, I had no clue where I was sitting in the race. I proceeded to ride along for the next 26 miles only seeing four or five people, only one of which was even in my race. About a mile from the end though, someone from my class passed me, and the race was on! I jumped on his wheel and right at the bottom of the last climb, he slid out and was nice enough to let me by. I went for it and attacked up the hill. Must have worked, because I finished about 30 seconds ahead of him! After he came across the line, he said he thought I got third. And it turns out I did! I squished bowl, and $40 later, I was back in Austin, basking in the glory of finally being on the podium again.

Architecture School

I had a test tonight. I didn't actually have to take it, because I did some optional homework assignment last week that could have counted for the same grade. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try and get a better grade, since the higher of the two would be taken.

Everyone else always complains about having to study for tests all the time, and I've usually thought they were making it into a bigger deal than it was. Tonight though, I realized that most people have a lot more tests than I do. Like, maybe ten a semester not counting finals. Compare that to my three (which in all reality could have been two)...

However, not having very many lecture classes is pretty much made up for by studio classes. So, before anyone starts saying anything about how easy architecture must be, remember that I've probably been up all night working on something for school more times than the average college student. I would say though, that my all nighters in studio are probably more fun than other peoples all nighters spent studying for calculus or something...

I guess, basically what I'm trying to say is I'm quite pleased with my choice to be an architect. And now its back to the drawing board to figure out how to fit an 8000 square foot building into a 4000 square foot hole...

More Halloween

Yeah, this is kinda out of order. Whatever.

It turns out that my Speed Racer costume is still in Dallas. I didn't find this out until about ten minutes before I was due to be at the first party I was going to that night.

Luckily, I have just enough random stuff in my apartment to throw together a decent gangsta/hobo/Shaun White costume.

Here I am with Cinderella and a pimp:

Weekend Bike Fun Time

I'll start out by saying that my Pot Pie is extremely hot. I found this out when I stuck some of it in my mouth and it didn't feel good.

The Sweatin' Burnt Orange Bike Tour was this weekend. If you didn't come out, you should have. And you should next year too, because it's awesome. I've never ridden the course, but from what I hear it's pretty sweet. The AJ said he thought our 75 mile route was harder than the century he did at Lake Tahoe this summer if that says anything. Plus, it's more scenic than a ride in, say, Wichita Falls or something. I'm there at a rest stop too, what more could you want?

Several people described the ride as possibly the hilliest in Texas, but they are not correct. I've been talked into riding the Tour Das Hugel in two weeks. ~100 miles with ~11,000 feet of climbing. Should be a swell time.