happy inauguration day!

It's hard to overstate the importance of this day - 1/20/2009. We've been waiting so long for it to come, and it is finally here. I hope everyone had the opportunity to see the inauguration live, or to watch it online or rebroadcast on cable. Obama's speeches are always uplifting and resonant, but today's was particularly good - hopefully you all got to see it. One thing that he said really resonated with me:

"For the world has changed, and we must change with it."

Today is the beginning of a new era, the dawn of a new day, and all sorts of other cheesy metaphors. But it's true what the President said: the world has changed. How are you going to change with it? Do you have any new-administration resolutions? What will be the biggest difference in your life, now that Barack Obama is President?

hot girls with road rash

Wow, it's been a bad weekend for fast girls on bikes:

world DH champ Rachel Atherton
lovely ladies of the veloshop team (via molly)
vanderkitten racer liz hatch

All in bad (though thankfully not tragic, unless you count the bikes killed) crashes this weekend. Heal well, ladies, and be careful out there! There was ice on the road in places on the UO ladies' team ride this Sunday, but we managed to keep the rubber down. Ride safe!

friday!

It's the end of the second week of classes, meaning the term is 20% over already. I gotta say, I love the quarter system... there's not enough time to get sick of a class. So the quarter is 1/5 done, and I'm already dreaming of spring break... hoping I can go to the NW Developmental Biology meeting in Friday Harbor, race bikes in Eugene, Corvallis, Seattle and Bellingham, and spend at least a little time in Seattle over the break. I think I'll need to rent a car for the week, if that all is going to happen, but it'll work out.

Last night was Grateful Dead night at the Villard. Nothing could have been more Eugene. The first years all had a huge exam yesterday evening, so we all went out for beers afterwards. I'd been to the Villard before, but never on Dead night... and I have to say, I've never really listened to the Dead. I associate them with old hippies who have smoked too much pot in their lives and say "groovy" a lot. But the music wasn't horrible, and the company was good as well. There are some pretty cool people in my department.

Going snowboarding tomorrow with a bunch of biology folks. It should be really nice up in the mountains - a high pressure inversion (see cliff mass's weather blog for more on current NW weather, if you care) has trapped some cold fog in the valley here, but it'll be sunny and warm up there. Warm is good - since there hasn't been any new snow recently, slushy is better than icy. Should be a good time.

OK, time for a late night trainer session plus a little lifting. And then vegging in front of buffy. I've been slacktastic lately (no morning runs! so lazy), time to put in a little sweat.

snippets

Took this picture over break and wanted to share it here:

Crows dive-bombing a bald eagle at Seward Park in Seattle, taken the day after Thanksgiving 2008. There are some other new ones up on my flickr.

In the past week I have:
- started eating right, thanks to Precision Nutrition (and a bit of willpower)
- ridden every day, including around 70 miles on Saturday, an hour on Sunday, and an hour and a half today, bringing my 3-day total to somewhere around 100 miles
- turned 26 years old
- gotten an Oregon drivers license (goodbye, ever paying sales tax again!)
- assembled some sexy bike parts for a major upgrade to the Serotta
- thrown a pretty kick-ass birthday party
- reached the fundraising minimum for my liveSTRONG challenge participation (thanks to everyone who has contributed!)
- started lifting weights again
- started running (just a little, don't die of shock!)
- and begun my second quarter at grad school.

My schedule this quarter is pretty conducive to being able to ride a lot, provided I get my ass in gear in the morning: all my classes and other responsibilities are after noon, and on Wednesdays, I don't have anything before 4pm. I predict many mornings out on the road resulting in a silly shit-eating grin on my face all day.

I've also discovered that I can run to the top of the hill behind my house and back down in around 10 minutes, giving me a fast workout to do before breakfast, which will almost certainly pay off come 'cross season. Eventually I'll start doing it twice, but for now, I'm just running up and down once. And by "running" I mean jogging and intermittently walking uphill and running downhill... though my goal is to be able to run a bit further before I have to walk each day, and eventually I'll be able to run the whole thing. Ultimately I hope to get to the point where I can just sprint up that fucker like it's nothing... but I'm a long way from that.

Life is good.

Sorry the posting has been light but...

Blogger sucks. You probably already knew that, which is why most of you don't use blogger, but I'm mostly too lazy to switch over to something else and thus keep starting entries, leaving them alone, and coming back to server errors. Sigh.

Better post this quick before the server decides to flake.

A good holiday

I've been in Texas for the last week, cerebrating Xmas, the Solstice,
Saturnalia and Festivus with the family. It's been pretty relaxing and
fun, and as much as I am glad to no longer live here, it has been a
nice visit. For some reason, my relationship with my parents has
improved over the last 5 years - maybe that has something to do with
getting older. Anyway, as I write this, I am sitting out by the pool
in short sleeves, half-amazed and half-amused by the fact that it is
over 70 degrees, whereas the west coast is still trying to thaw from
more than 12 days of snowfall and freezing temps. And as much as I
like a snow day or two, I have to say that this weather here is much
better.

I've been taking it easy over the course of the trip, not exercising
much (by my new standards) but keeping my fitness up by putting in
some time in the elliptical. I haven't been on a bike the whole time I
have been here. (kind of weird.) It's been a great vacation, but I am
starting to itch for a return to normalcy, and a chance to start
working toward some of the goals I have for 2009. It seems like an
opportune time to put some goals into writing here, so here we go:
Kat's 2009 goals.

1. Eat better. More on this later, but I signed up for a nutrition
program for athletes (precisionnutrition.com), which should help me
reach this goal, overcome my fear/hate of cooking, and make me a
stronger rider.

2. Ride more. I want to try to put in 200 mile weeks, but that isn't
terribly realistic given my time commitments, so let's say, 3 hours 4
days a week. More when I can, less when I have lots of other stuff
going on.

3. Join a lab and find a Ph.D advisor. This one shouldn't be too hard
considering I have a very good idea if which lab it'll be, but it's
still significant.

4. Raise a thousand dollars to fight cancer, and ride 70 miles in the
LAF LiveStrong Challenge.

5. Race cyclocross in category B, and finish in the top half of the
field at a Cross Crusade event at least once. Coming from the
Beginners field this will be hard and will require training throughout
the course of the year. But I figure I can use road season as good
training, try to get out on an MTB as much as I can, and look forward
to September and the start of next 'cross season. This is probably my
biggest riding goal of the year and will be refined and enumerated
better in the coming months.

6. Do my best in the collegiate road season. Learn to ride with a
team. Work on team time trials especially. Improve my bike handling,
cornering and descending skills, and become a better climber as well.
(ok, several goals in one, but still.)

7. Continue my weight and cross training. I am, at 25, in the best
shape of my life. Keep being able to say that for 26.

8. Drink less beer. This one shouldn't be too hard, being away from
the Elysian and from Gregg.

9. Work on my verbal communication skills, especially in teaching and
writing.

10. Give thanks to the amazing people around me who make me who I am.
Appreciate more the amazing hand I have been dealt in life and
acknowledge those who have made it possible, starting with my family
and amazing friends. If you are reading this, you are included in
this: thank you.

Happy holidays, and best wishes for a happy 2009!

music for...

this is appropriate: listening Brian Eno's Music for Airports while
waiting to board. I wish every airport would just have this album on
repeat- it's far better than the monitors blaring CNN. People would be
in better moods everywhere.