The parable of the bike ride.

This week was nothing out of the ordinary; research, learn, sleep, eat, and bike. Therefore, I feel no need to rehash school related activities; I’ve done plenty of that in this blog. Rather, I’ll focus on the activity that I am growing to love more day-by-day, cycling. I put 100 miles on my bike this week alone.

LOTOJA took place on Saturday (the longest single-day US Cycling Federation sanctioned race) starting in Logan, UT and ending in Jackson, WY covering a grueling 206 miles. It’s hard to believe that it was a whole three years since I completed it tandem with Bryan Bornholdt. I am getting into biking so much now that I am considering attempting LOTOJA again in 2011, this time on my own bicycle. I feel I should share with you an experience I had on my ride Saturday.

In commemoration of LOTOJA I decided to cover 1/4 the distance of the real race, 51.5 miles. Considering the condition I was in I felt this was within what I could do but knew that it would push me. As I have yet to go such a distance here in North Carolina I needed to come up with a route that would take me that distance. Luckily, I found, what I will refer to as, ‘dairyland.’ Indeed, there is a road out there with the name ‘Dairyland.’ This wondrous mass of land is relatively close to my house (a sort 15-mile ride). Dairyland is to cyclists as Disneyland is to children. This is because dairyland is rural, thus there is no shortage of paved road with little to no traffic. What more can a cyclist ask for??

The commemoration ride had to be planned because, as previously stated, I had yet covered the said distance, but also I had not yet experienced the joys of dairyland and thus was unfamiliar with the roads there. Google maps too the rescue (I love Google maps). I used the directions tool within Google maps to set out my course and measure the distance. After trying several alternate routes I found the one that would put me at my desired distance of 50+ miles. I typed up the directions on my iPod so that I could have directions on the road if so needed. As I was in bed that night I gave my best friend a call, I call him dad, and I told him my plans for my ride. Since he was on the computer I had him bring up Google Earth and I took him though my route from memory with no major problems. I was pretty proud that I knew this brand new route from memory!

I woke up early; oddly reluctantly and excitedly simultaneously. Reluctant because it was 5:30 AM on a Saturday and excited because I was going to go on an awesome ride. In the words of Freddie Mercury; ‘ I love to ride my bicycle, I love to ride my bike!’ I knew the route to dairyland fairly well as most the route followed one of my usual loops. However, once I crossed into dairyland proper I was in new territory with nothing save my memory and directions on my iPod to guide me. I was fairly confident in the first 8 miles in the new riding country but then the road I was traveling on, supposedly Dairyland Road, started to turn in a way that I thought it shouldn’t. Did I miss a turn? Was I even on the right road anymore? I stopped to get a drink and look at my directions. Unfortunately, the directions were only text; I had no map. Thus the directions were of no assistance in identifying what road I was actually on. Luckily I was in dairyland, with cyclists aplenty, one of whom was slowing down for a stop sign near by where I had stopped and I took the opportunity to ask him if the road I was on was Dairyland. He told me it was and, although the road was turning in a direction that I thought was not right I had confidence to keep going.

I was back riding, confident with where I was headed as I had confirmed that I was on the right road and just reviewed my directions. As I continued for the next few miles I was looking for my next turn: however, it was not coming. I got really quite nervous as Dairyland Road ended in a ‘T’. When I saw the name of the road that Dairyland ran into I was relieved for I recognized the road, but it was not the road that I had been looking for. This was due to my mistake while writing the directions; I had left out Orange Grove Road. As I turned on the road I was confident that I was on the right road and knew the way back to familiar territory. But wait, wasn’t I just as confident a few miles back just to be surprised that I was looking for the wrong road? However, this time my confidence was true and I found my way back to familiar country and on to my house with exactly 51.5 miles under my wheels.

So, why do I tell you this long-winded story of a bike ride? As I do with a lot of life experiences, I found profound parallels with the Gospel. Are these parallels simply coincidences’? I think not. This experience taught the importance of reading the scriptures and the words of modern-day apostles and prophets. Not only reading, but actually knowing the Word. This experience also taught that here in mortality there are plenty of people to help you but you need to take the initiative and ask, as I asked help from my fellow cyclist. Also, our perspectives may not be correct thus consistent reading of the Word, or map in this mortal experience, is requisite to find our way home. Not only was Dairyland Road turning in an unexpected direction, I was looking for the wrong road! A map here would have cleared everything up. All-in-all I take away from this parable, if you will, that consistent sincere study of the Word is required for us to find our way home.

My route!

View 50 Mile Loop Durham NC in a larger map

School & Cycling

This last week was the official start of classes. As indicated in my last post, this means almost nothing for me; I’ll simply continue what’ve been doing all summer, research. However, I do have a tutorial class on macromolecular x-ray crystallography, which I started on Thursday. It was great; it was me and another student in the lab sitting and being taught in my PI’s (primary investigator) office for about two hours. This will occur weekly throughout the semester.

I found something exciting on campus this week and that is a shower near my lab! Why so exciting you ask? This means that I can take my rides (cycling) in the early morning and go straight into lab. My road bike has become an integral part of my routine, as it is practically the only real exercise I get, not to mention the only exercise that I can stand when there are no mountains to climb. On Tuesday and Thursday I took a ride in the country that lies between Durham and Chapel Hill. A lot of the land is owned by Duke and is known as the Duke Forest, none of which is developed. The rest of the land is made up of estates, horse property and sparkly spaced modest homes. Being in the middle of North Carolina, the land is thick with trees. In other words is gorgeous. (When I tell locals I miss the mountains they retort, ‘I bet its nice to have trees though.’ While it is nice to have trees, to compare having trees to having mountains is like comparing having a salad to having steak and potatoes; sure, salad is substance but surly not as rewarding and satisfying as steak and potatoes.) I also took a ride on Saturday in the same area but made a bigger loop. In all, I put 75 miles on my bike this week; I’m slowly getting back into shape.

I went on a date Friday. I was a half hour late though as I put the wrong address into my GPS. But she was cool about it. We ordered Italian food to go and had a picnic on the lawn of a LDS church. Afterwards I helped her set up for a YSA dance that she was in charge of. I met a lot of new people as most of the participants were from the Raleigh singles ward. It was a great time.

Below are a few pictures that I took with my phone as I was riding out in the country.