I'd been playing around with making this blog for a while now. Its practical use, as a means of keeping in touch with everyone while I'm otherwise incommunicado during the trip, was the most obvious draw. I'll be biking from Providence to Seattle this summer, spanning nearly four thousand miles, give or take three hundred or so, and building houses along the way. If memory serves, we'd be able to bring our cell phones, but who wants to deal with those roaming fees. So here I am, with a blog. Until the trip, it'll pretty much serve as a space for me to ramble, occasionally discuss fundraising and training, and post lurid photographs of myself in biking spandex. First for the ramble.

I was lucky enough to score a lot of what I need for the trip, gear anyway, from family and friends over the holidays. Sadly, you can't box and wrap triathlete stamina and a butt that won't chafe after seventy miles in the saddle. What I did get were several pairs of biking shorts, a few jerseys, a water-backpack (doesn't sound as cool as camelbak), an ergonomic saddle, and several hundreds of dollars in funds. As of right now I'm looking square at the halfway mark in terms of fundraising. Ohh yeah, I need to raise four thousand dollars before the trip in order to participate in the ride, so if you haven't already, donate at: http://www.bikeandbuild.org/cms/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,118/
It's tax deductible and cool, just don't forget to make it in my name, Mark Smiley.

I periodically check the roster of my route to see if anyone else has joined the trip, mostly to get a feel for the people I'll be spending ten weeks of my summer getting to know. For a while I'd been enjoying seeing the number steadily climb until we were at a healthy twenty one strong. Today, however, I was bummed out to find that there were two fewer names on the list than there were before. Hopefully they just changed routes and haven't dropped out of the trip altogether. Ramble/fundraising bit over, now for the training.

I've been riding a Raleigh road bike that my friend Dan, a B&B alum and current trip leader, lent me. I don't know too much about its specs, honestly, except that the wheelset is about three hundred dollars. I know this solely because I already had to replace the back wheel after a nasty run in with a mountain of a speedbump I hit too fast on campus. Thankfully it's a hell of a lot lighter and responsive than any other bike I've ever ridden. I'm lucky enough to have a roommate who is an avid cyclist, which has scored me some free gear like my saddle and SPD pedals, as well as providing me invaluable advice and a regular riding partner. The rides I've done with him have been great, but I'll admit that I've felt a little out of my depth when he leaves me in the dust or while I'm gasping for breath after a tough climb.

The break was so-so in terms of my time on the bike. On the positive end, I spent almost every day (I missed one) in the saddle, even on a day well below freezing without the windchill. On the negative end, I felt I never really pushed myself very hard physically, sticking mostly to bike trails I've frequented for years and spending very little time on actual roads. I averaged about fifteen miles a day, with a few moderate climbs. Nothing abysmal, but nothing particularly noteworthy either. All in all, it was invaluable time though, and made me a lot more comfortable on my bike. It was also nice knowing I wasn't going to die racing down a hill at sixty miles an hour on a road with moderate traffic like I could back in Harrisonburg trying to keep up with my roommate Chris.

I got back to school tonight, bike in tow , and I'm psyched not only to be back, but to push my training to a new level. Tommorrow's going to be in the mid sixties, which should give me the opportunity to do just that. And with that, I'll leave you. Cheers!