Food

Too much food and not enough riding. I vow to be better in 2009. My goal is to lose 15 lbs in January and ride 100 miles during the month. I recently started a group with my friends to work at losing together. I am trying to get them to start riding as well. Small steps. I want my wife to start riding with me. It would be so much more fun if we could do it together. I mean riding together, we have no problems in the other area. Have a happy new year.

Sick

I cannot get over this freaking cold. It keeps hanging on no matter what I do. I have not ridden in quite a while. It has either been too cold or I have been sick. Now I have a hard time wanting to ride. I need to go somewhere to ride where it is cool other than my old rides. I want to go to Wichita and ride around the river on the trails or maybe go to quivera heights and ride the trails up the hill. I hear it is pretty cool. El dorado lake trails are really cool I hear also. I will go tomorrow if the weather is good. I will try tomorrow.

Stress

I have been unable or unmotivated to ride my bike outside over the past days. Mainly due to the snow, ice and freaking cold weather. I did take my bike with us on our trip to OK, and rode then. I did about 15 miles of trail/cross country riding. I got 1 flat and a big thorn in my other tire but my slime stopped that leak, but my rear tire did not have enough slime in it. So my wife came to pick me up as we were about 3 miles from home. I could have patched it on the road but needed something to pull the thorn out of my tire. It was tiny would have just punctured my tube again in another place. Weather in OK was great. 70's and almost no wind. 50 degrees at 8 am is pretty nice at the end of November no matter where you live.

I am stressed about debate related things. We host NFL in less than 2 weeks and we are struggling to get judges. Following NFL is the regional tournament. I wonder how much my debaters want to succeed? I see some of them working like mad but on what I am not sure. Some of them work but only for personal gain. They do not see this as a team activity. Selfish would accurately describe both of these debaters. If it does not effect them directly, they do not care. They do not expect help and no one is willing to give it because it is not reciprocal. I am stressed and with the weather starting to turn foul, I am not sure but wonder if I am getting depressed a little. I rode the indoor bike today and it was a good workout. I think doing that when I am depressed will help since I cannot ride outside. Riding outside really perks me up, provided it is not 20 degrees with 20 MPH wind out of the north.

The indoor bike I ride sucks. The seat is super large and really uncomfortable. I want to get an indoor trainer for my bike. I like that seat.
This Friday we have 3 tournaments and a debate demo at the middle school. Can't wait.

School Bike Ride

So tomorrow Newton High School Bike Club. I am the sponsor of the NHS bike club, and I have a group of about 25 kids who are currently in the club. Right now, we are just doing short 40 minute rides during the during school club time. We have a mix of kids who are solid cyclist who commute on bikes by choice, kids who ride occasionally, and special needs kids who are riding in a group for the first time ever. It is quite a challenge to keep all the kids happy with what the club is doing. We are going to have elections for officers the next club when the weather sucks. Tomorrow the weather is going to be high 60's and sunny. Tomorrow is the teachers meeting after school where we have to do some sort of school improvement activity. One of our goals is to be a healthier school. I have been losing weight pretty steady since last October (07). I am at 97 lbs lost at this time as Monday at my weight watcher meeting. So the school is offering many different options for tomorrow's meetings dealing with wellness. I asked for an option for us to do a group bike ride instead of the lame choices they were giving us. I know I have about 5 people who are going to ride. It is only an hour but it is an hour riding when I would have to be inside doing something lame. That makes about 100 minutes of riding and depending on who shows up it could be a rocking 100 minutes or at worst a slow mellow time to ride and visit with my friends. I like cycling so much. It is hard to describe how cool it is. I rode this morning in the freaking cold for 40 minutes on the way to school and it was amazing even in the cold. It makes me feel awesome whenever I ride. The more I ride the better I feel.

On the Debate side of my life. Freaking stress starts now. I think I will ride more, it helps with stress.

Debate Tournament

Newton is hosting the 10th annual Newton HS Alma "Momma" Moore invitational debate tournament. This tournament is Kansas Debate Coaches Invitational qualifier in the Varsity division. One bid at quarters and 2 bids for finals. We are looking for judges. Experience is not required but preferred. We are short Friday night rounds.
dwilliam@newton.k12.ks.us
Email me if you are in the Wichita/Newton ,KS area and want some free eats and to watch some good policy debate.
On the bike front. I rode 30 miles (2 hours 35 minutes) this past weekend. Weather was sunny and cool Saturday with a little wind, but Sunday was terrific with very little wind and even warmer. Ray and I did 30 miles total about 15 each day. I woke up Monday morning to rain and cold, so I did not bike to work. I also woke up to an incredible pain in my hip/lower back. If I overdid the ride, I never noticed being tired or an injury of any kind. It sucked yesterday as I hobbled around in pain all day. I got some heat on it and some aleeve and feel much better now but still rainy. I also had weigh in on Monday and lost another pound.
I am now at 227. Down from 365 (spring of 2003) and down 94 lbs since last October. I am trying to get down to 220 before Thanksgiving, but with the hip issue, it may be impossible.

Election

The election is satisfying to say the least. I stayed up watching the results, and I really enjoyed how most everyone knew what was about to happen. I think even the republicans knew. Weather they will admit it or not, many REP. are excited about the historical significance involved with election 2008.
I really like John McCain. In a another situation, he would have been my choice.

We are heading out to Valley Center and Moundridge for Debate this weekend. I have many students wanting to attend tournaments now. It is good problem to have, but several kids have waited too long to attend their tournaments. Now I have kids who have attended who want to keep going. I told kids to get out and travel with the team early as I reserve later tournaments for those kids who want to travel more extensively. Should I let some debater who will never be in debate again take the spot of kids who want to get better for the years to come.

Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.
- E. B. White

Election Day Eve

I am really excited about the election tomorrow. For the longest time, I thought that McCain would have been an awesome president when he first started running. Of all the Republicans running, I knew he was the only one I could vote for. As a democrat in the world of Red state central of Kansas, I feel like my vote may be wasted no matter what I do. Let me finish. McCain changed so much since he started running for president. I liked how stood out in the sea of republican hopefuls.
Unfortunately, what made me like him, made many republicans dislike him. In comes the great republican election machine to mold him into someone the great conservative base could live with.
Now I cannot vote for him. I am not sure who he is. I like Obama. I always have. I like his message and his stance on Education. As a teacher, I just hope he can do something about this No Child Left Behind fiasco given to us by the Bush administration. So tomorrow morning I will cast vote for Obama and be a part of History. It is time for this change. I hope whoever wins, can turn around this crazy economy and put us all back to work. I will be commuting on my bike to go vote as well as to work tomorrow. Now for the really important stuff....I can't forget that it is trash day.