Comfort, cow hugging, and what's all this for?

Quitting my job, packing up my cozy apartment, saying goodbye to multiple folks, and otherwise ripping the rug from underneath my feet creates an alarming clash of loss and freedom for me.  It is strange to realize the extent to which the chosen, comfortable life is one that is enclosed by structures that obstruct the open choice of alternatives.   Nice, fulfilled constructs such as "home," "work," and "my social circle" all give me a comfortable place to rest and operate in.  Tearing away these can feel a little bit like tearing away that comfortable construct "ground" as you jump out of an airplane.  You are then fully unshackled, but you are also groping for anything solid to hang on to as you fall, so freely.

(I realize though, real worldly freedom is loss of structure + ability to have choice = money....)

That's where Temple Grandin's cow hugging machine comes in.  Imagine, you are on the way to be slaughtered, but then you follow the cow in front of you into this hugging machine that restricts your movements and holds you close (super structure, right?), until... sigh... you fill at ease again.  Think that will work for me?  I am all ready to wrap myself up in some pillows and heavy blankets, at least until I have to say goodbye to my pillows and blankets to go to slaughter <ahem> the airport for 48 hours.  

In the end it'll all be worth it though.  This is only the temporary discomfort of leaving the familiar behind.  I usually have a bit of anxiety about leaving, but when I arrive, I find I could travel endlessly.

 I'll leave you with a quote that sums up some of motivations for all this, and for traveling the Silk Road specifically:

" A hundred reasons clamour for your going.  You go to touch on human identities, to people an empty map.  You have a notion that this is the world's heart.  You go to encounter protean shapes of faith.  You go because you are young and crave excitement, the crunch of your boots inthe dust; you go because you are old and need to understand something before it's too late. You go to see what will happen.  Yet to follow the Silk Road is to follow a ghost.  It flows through the heart of Asia, but it has officially vanished, leaving behind it the pattern of its restlessness: counterfeit borders, unmapped peoples.  The road forks and wanders wherever you are.  It is not a single way, but many: a web of choices.  Mine stretches more than 7000 miles, and is occasionally dangerous."  -Colin Thubron

Shadow of the Silk Road

Why this is more than just a 3 month trip

Yesterday, I announced my resignation from the company of my employment for 11 years (minus 8 months of travel in the middle).  I immediately enjoyed the satisfaction of ripping up the old life.  Not because I was  unhappy with my work – on the contrary, I was quite enjoying the host of projects I was working on and the fine folks I was working with – but, because I'm excited about where this will lead.   (Plus, I sort of like the 15 seconds of attention.)

How to write this resignation letter?

At the same time, I recognize that I will definitely miss this thing called Work (and Income!  And Co-worker friends!) when it's gone.

This is also the first irrevocable step towards taking my trip.  Up until now, I've been biking a lot, acquiring gear, obtaining visas and immunizations - all things that can be done from a place of comfort... But Employment Termination provides a very real nudge towards the future.  The dominoes are toppling now: disassembling my cozy basement apartment and ending my lease, finding a summer perch for my car, looking for post-employment health insurance, etc.  Oh, and on the last day of work, I have to give back my primary computer and all of its software.  Gulp!

Clam chowder my landlord made and left for me on my late night return from my Maine bike trip.  Tough to lose a nice landlord like this.

Visas... done!

The good news is that I am all set on many of those Comfortable trip prep items.  My final visa from the Uzbekistan embassy in New York returned a week earlier than I expected, finalizing the logistical requirements for travel.  

Here's a Tajikistan visa... I also have a GBAO permit stamped in my passport to allow me to travel on the Silk Route road. ($75)  The embassy turned this around in about 3 or so days.

An Uzbek visa.  ($160!)  The advertised processing time was 10 days, but they processed it in about 5.

China Visa.  I went through a Visa processing service for this one (my 1st) and paid too much.  The Visa service provided step-by-step feedback on the visa application, but I think they added a couple days to the processing of it.

All other visas are acquired en route or online.

The plans are coming together... Now I mostly just have to sweep up my home life into boxes, and I'm outta here!

Monster hauling bikes and a trip to Maine

Who's up in the middle of the night, envisioning train wrecks involving 3 days of hastily packed gear strapped to a bike, to cover a 50+ mile spiderweb of undefinable streets (50+ turns) across who-knows-where, to get to Salisbury Beach campground by nightfall and rainfall, to set up a tent, rinse, repeat for 2 more days, with just 2 pair of clothes, a mini-toothbrush, and a frame bike pump? Why, this girl, yes, is up, with a racing mind and pulse at 2am. Here goes the 3-day bike trip to Portland, Maine.

No smiling allowed

Sharia-compliant visa photos: check!  Ok, Iran, let me in.

(Thanks, photographer Mom!)

Diplomas, visas, and riding in circles

This week I graduated from Bentley!  The degree name is a mouthful: Masters of Science in Human Factors in Information Design.  Which basically amounts to MS in UX (User Experience).  

Me, in front of Bentley library on the last day of school!

Visas

1 visa done (China), 2 to go!  I boomeranged my passport out with paperwork for a Tajikistan visa.  

By the way, who knew that if you show up to Fedex with your papers, that you won't be able to send a package until you go back home, set up an account online, and print shipping labels?  Fortunately, USPS was next door, and they did send my package to the Embassy of Tajikistan with little ado.

Fun Tajikistan paper work

Rides

Another solid weekend of training.  32 miles of hills, 40 miles around Cape Ann.

One of the biggest differences between riding in Massachusetts vs riding in Arizona is that MA rides are all loops with 50,000 turns.  Typically, I have no idea where I am, which direction I am facing, or how much farther I have to go.  (I guess I should set up my cycle computer to help with that...)  During the Hills, hill, hills ride on Sat, a driver asked another cyclist and I which town we were in –– at that point I couldn't have told her what state we were in (either MA or New Hampshire!).  It is only by following markings on the pavement which denote the turns that we are able to follow the route.  

Typical cue sheet for a MA ride.  55 turns on a 40 mile ride.  Note the specified Route mark, which is painted on the pavement before and after every turn.

Arizona, on the hand, might have a cue sheet for a 50 mile ride with 1 line on it:

• Mi 25....  turn around.  

On an Arizona ride, you can often see the mountain in the distance that you will pass 6 miles later, giving you a very visible indicator of progress.

Hills, hills, hills ride evidence:

Robin and Laurie who I did most of the 32 miles with

Sunday took me back to Cape Ann with the North Shore cyclists -- and it was a beautiful day, riding mostly along the water.

Beware riders mowing down children!!

Stay tuned for more fun cycling / prep adventures...!

Of coastal rides and bonking

Weekend success!  I completed my first 1-2 punch training plan for the weekend.  The next <2 months will be much like this: commute to work 3-4x / wk (10 miles round trip), with two progressively longer training rides on the weekend.  (And crossfit in the mornings, ~4x/wk)

This was my first ride joining roadies, and I wasn't sure how my new bike would hold up to the road riders' carbon fiber bikes and skinny tires.  The verdict: pretty good.

I joined the Charles River Wheelmen for their recurring South Shore Coastal Loop ride around Scituate, MA.  What a cool ride! Awesome views of the ocean, massive New England coastal homes, and at least half of the ride smelled like mulch, fruity ocean, pine forest, or swamp.  Super.  Strong winds off the water.  I got dropped by the fast group around mile 18 when I stopped to take this picture:



After I was dropped, I stopped to take more pictures, until the slower group showed up.

Fly fisherman:



This is probably near Musquatchcut Pond:

By the time I met up with the slower group, I was realizing I hadn't had enough for breakfast.  As we took off and started climbing some hills, I started feeling some pretty sugar-craving-induced despair.  ("4000 miles of this!?")  Surefire early signs of bonk-age.   The things you forget... Bring food on a ride!

More views from the ride.  Bottom right - return to Boston.

39 miles done!  (See the map for the first 27 miles of it here.)

First training ride: Minute Man Trail and some dirt road riding

Welcome to May!  Spring is finally showing up here in Boston, and I finally took my Salsa Vaya out for a nice ride.  The goal of this ride was to putz along for the fun of it.  I left the cycle computer at home and meandered down the Minute Man Bikeway – the very same trail that Paul Revere rode his bicycle on at midnight to warn the people of Lexington that the Red Coats were coming.  This is one of the few semi-straight routes in Boston, so it definitely is the quickest way to get to Lexington.


Top: one of the train cars that belonged to the rail trail (in Bedford); bottom left: downtown Lexington; bottom right: many inline skaters, bikers, runners out and about today.

From the end of the Minute Man, I continued along the Reformatory Branch Rail Trail.  This is a dirt path – and a true experiment for me.  As a skinny-tire road rider, I usually have steered clear of anything remotely off-road.  But since I now have fat-tires on my Vaya, and since I'll be dealing with at least a couple weeks of dirt road riding in Tajikistan, I reckon I ought to get accustomed to riding in less than ideal scenarios.

Truly, at the beginning of the 4-mile path, I was quite nervous and cautious.  Rocks, mud - what to do!  By the end, I was feeling pretty steady and actually quite enjoying myself.  Although I could still use some tips on how to ride through mud...

Saw this critter along the way:

Enjoying the trail.

A fortuitous cafe at the end of the trail, called the Trail's End Cafe.  A quesadilla and some coffee before my return trip.

Some 32 miles, and a very pleasant day.  Fun ride: check!

Twin lights part 2

(time of day before the race, not my time!)  

pledge of allegiance

along mile 1 or so.

spirited water stop

my face: grimace; her face: mirth.

Had a blast on the course today ( in little bit of a painful way). Speed walked with a hardcore 60 year old walker ("hat lady"). She dragged my carcass through 12 miles, then dropped me at the end to go chase down a jogger ahead of us. After crossing, she was dancing a jig, while I sat and groaned in true Ouch. Tough mama.

Twin Lights halfie

Here at Good Harbor Beach up in Gloucester - "one of the prettiest beaches in New England," said the parking attendant. Up next - walking a half marathon course along the coast line.  I'd usually run this kind of course, but I'm hoping to allow my hamstring to rehab by giving it a nice walk instead.

The best bike in the rack

Is mine. Oof, getting it up there in the vertical rack!

Gearing up

I guess those bike shoes and helmet from 10 years ago just aren't going to cut it.

Midnight Marathon Bike Ride

Last year I did the informal Midnight Marathon Bike Ride.  Up til that point, my road bike had been sitting in a box, still packed up from my move out to Boston from Arizona.  But my friend Sam from Texas convinced me to ride out to his place near Lexington, where a friend of ours would drive us out to the marathon start at Hoptinkon, to join a bunch of crazies with bicycle lights in freezing weather to ride the Boston Marathon course in carnival-style in the middle of the night.

Why not?

Did I mention? - it was freezing.  And this was the first 36 miles I was riding in about a year.  (10 miles to Sam's, 26 miles for the marathon route.)  But hey, the festivities!  The yahoos.  Great stuff.  We rode across the marathon finish around 3am – Copley Square was ghostly and still just hours before the race.

Only 6 hours later, I was bemoaning the fact that I wouldn't get to watch the marathon.  The finish line is less than 2 blocks from my work building, and I had never watched a Boston marathon.  Turned out my colleague and I had a business meeting in Alabama to get to that day.  After meeting up at work that morning, we shuffled off to the airport, around 10am or so.  When our flight landed at a layover airport, we were horrified to watch the news about the bombing.

I could have done the Marathon Ride again this year.  There was talk about canceling it, but the ride's original organizer told the officials he had no control to stop the ride from happening.  (After all, all the roads are open to traffic!)

But I am being responsible right now: I worked all day finishing up my last big paper / project for grad school!  (Whoop!)  I have class from 5pm-10pm tomorrow, and there is no way I can handle getting home at 3:30am, and stay focused for class.

Instead, I offered my bike to a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend from Arizona.  My best training buddy Kim, the hot air balloonist and triathlete from AZ, is in town with her husband who's running the race tomorrow.  Their friend's husband jumped on the idea of doing the midnight ride, and he's about my height.  I hauled him and my bike (the Vaya) to the start.  He bought a watermelon bike helmet and some arm warmers, and I reckon he's having a blast right now.

Porter stairs

Riding the 5 min escalator of shame while I wait for knee to heal. Can walk up stairs, but not down! And hey, I can walk! Go, Team Hamstring!

Ouch

Kinda hard to bike when you can't bend your knee.

I'm going to be my physical therapist's best student.

Committed!

Sent my money through to Tour D'Afrique!   I reckon I'm going on this trip!