First Training Ride and Related Stories.

This is my first real attempt at blogging, but I think considering all of the adventure that I am in for over the next several months, this is the best way to keep my friends and family updated on what is going on with Bike and Build and with my life. Because this blog is all about my experience with Bike and Build, and this is my first blog post, I will catch everyone up on what I have been doing so far to prepare for my trip.

First and foremost I have been fund raising and thinking about fund raising, because to volunteer with Bike and Build I have to have raised $4500, and asking people for money puts me way out of my comfort zone. I have sent countless emails and letters, spammed my facebook, had family members spam their facebooks, and I have plans to make a fund raising video. I am also looking for additional fund raising ideas, so if any of you have ideas please don't be shy about letting me know. Because of the generosity of the 24 people that have donated thus far, I have raised $1530 of the required $4500.

Because I reached the $1000 hurdle a couple of weeks ago, I was allowed to order my new Giant Defy 3 road bike. After many days of waiting and wishing, and after spending the better part of last Thursday refreshing the UPS package tracker website, to my delight my bike finally arrived. I didn't waste any time putting it  together with the extremely helpful and detailed instructions from the nice folks at Bokoo Bikes in Minnesota, however in my excitement I forgot probably the most fundamental rule of knife safety: always cut away from yourself. While cutting the last zip-tie holding the bike's frame together with the front wheel, I cut toward myself to be sure that I wouldn't cut the tire, and instead accidentally stabbed myself in the face just below my right eye when the zip-tie finally broke. After three solid minutes of freaking out with my roommate Aleya about whether my eye was okay and bleeding on the floor, we decided that we should go to the urgent treatment center to get the wound stitched. After two hours of self pity and reminding myself that most of the lessons that I learned when I was seven are still applicable today, I was back home with my wound glued shut. Obviously immediately upon returning home I finished putting the bike together and took it for a short test ride, because it was already too dark to go on a "real" ride.

The cut under my eye; it looked a lot worse on friday, but mostly it was just scary close to my eye.

Finally yesterday, after all of the craziness of the SEC tournament, and visits from some awesome friends, I got on my bike with my clip-in shoes, spandex, and all for my first 'real' bike ride. I was initially pretty worried about using clip-in pedals for the first time, because it seems pretty unsafe to me to be attached to a bike that is traveling up to 25 miles per hour. After a few miles of riding very carefully and making sure I knew how to get un-clipped when I needed to, I got the hang of it. I ended up riding down the levee trail from Orleans Parish into Jefferson Parish and back for a total of 29 miles. Although the levee trail is really the only place in New Orleans to bike, it was breathtakingly beautiful, and full of other cyclists. I ended up having a great ride, and I am really looking forward to continuing training for bike and build, then riding from coast to coast! 

Self-pic in my cycling get up for the first time

 

Video that I took from my bike on the levee trail 

I'm sorry for the ridiculously long post, and I promise that the next ones will be shorter! The primary purpose of this blog is to update friends and family while I am on the trip, but I just wanted to catch everybody up on my pre-trip progress. I have also been doing some 'sweat equity' with the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, however this post has already gotten out of hand, so my next post will be all about that! I guess that I should stop blogging and start getting some real work done! Again if you're able to donate, you can go to my rider page at: http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/5768 and click the "donate" link just below my picture. Keep checking in for more posts!