Long But Good Week

It seems like it was Sunday afternoon just yesterday, not a week ago! This week was jam packed with school, workouts, and great riding. Sea Otter is only 3.5 weeks away, and it feels like things are finally coming together for it with my training and riding. I'm pretty psyched (and proud of myself), I haven't missed a scheduled workout for 3.5 weeks now. Considering I lift at the gym three mornings a week and I am NOT a morning person, this is a pretty big accomplishment for me. I am seeing the benefits of spending time in the gym over the winter, though. It's definitely made my riding better!

Last Sunday, I started hitting one of the bigger lines at the Fix, A-. I've always only hit Knee Cap there (well and One Hit Wonder, R.I.P.). :) I'd been feeling pretty good riding that day, and then I looked up and saw my roommate Kevin on the roll-in, so I decided to give it a look. Kevin did the first jump in the line (his first time, too) and came back up and informed me that I was up. He is a really good motivator for me, so I went for it. It wasn't pretty, but I did it, and I've hit it almost every day since then. I'm getting more confident and hitting it smoother and smoother! I've definitely had a dirt jumping breakthrough in the past 3 weeks or so. It's awesome!

School has been crazy, too! I'm finally done writing grant proposals and teaching outreach workshops, so I finally got to start an experiment! I did my first "real" experiment with my stem cells and my polymer gels in our loading apparatus last week. I got some preliminary results that look good, but I have a bunch of work to do to see exactly what the results of the experiment are. It's pretty exciting. I am starting a big study on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, so we'll see how it goes. It's so hard to want to be at school when it's 70º out!! It seems like I always get stuck working way too late on Friday evenings, but luckily there is a very cute guy who has the misfortune of having to stay late on Fridays, too, so it's not so bad! ;)