It’s hard to believe but we’ve already reached my final week in Lexington! The past few weeks involved more of the same from my last update– lots of work, not much training, and crappy weather– but I did finally finish my thesis!!!!! Well, not fully, but I have a complete draft and now just need to make edits and defend it. I stayed up until 3 AM two Sundays ago just so I could finally say I had a complete draft and it was definitely worth it. I wanted to celebrate with a nice long outdoor ride but the high on Monday was 49º– it’s like Mother Nature is trying to prepare me for New York weather!
Motivation was generally very low the past few weeks. After finishing my thesis draft I spent most of the following week doing… nothing. I didn’t have much to do for school other than some grading. The weather was really nice but I couldn’t drum up the motivation to ride most days. Last summer I would get up at 6 AM to go ride but I just haven’t been able to make that happen recently. I did a few short rides and tried to make the most of them by incorporating some hill training and sprints. I did pack up my apartment, albeit a little prematurely to avoid grading, but now this last week before moving doesn’t feel as stressful as I thought it would be.
I finally guilt-tripped myself into a longish ride last Sunday and it ended up being pretty great. There was a decent headwind heading south but I felt good regardless, and I ended up taking some extra trips through the rolling hills at the very end of the trail to make myself feel better about skipping out on a longer ride. I did that stretch three times (out and back) and felt good enough to do more but sadly did not bring enough water to get me through more than the 10-mile ride home. It was a nice confidence boost though, especially because my Garmin actually complimented me after the ride! If you’ve ever used a fitness tracker you probably know that they can be bullies in terms of underestimating your efforts (for example, I once got a reminder to “stand up and move” a few hours after a century ride, no thanks), so it felt pretty good to have it say I’m “highly improving”, even if it isn’t the most accurate thing in the world.
It also informed me that I am “24% adapted to the heat”. I honestly do not know how it measures this but I’m definitely aiming to get that to 100% before June 5th!
This past week, I had a perfect storm for riding motivation: freshly tuned-up bikes, great weather, and my favorite donut flavor at North Lime! For those of you who didn’t follow me on Strava last summer, I am obsessed with a local donut place called North Lime Coffee and Donuts– I honestly can’t believe I haven’t talked about it yet here. They have some standard daily flavors, a donut of the week, and two or three daily specials as well. Some of them can be kind of wacky (loaded baked potato donuts??) but I’ve never had a bad donut at this place.
The only downside of North Lime is that they close pretty early and once they sell out of a flavor they don’t usually make more. So, when I first started riding here in Lexington I would motivate myself to get up early so I could get the flavors I wanted before they sold out. I’ve been having so much trouble dragging myself out of bed lately but their cold brew filled donuts did the trick!
Back to biking: Andy at Scheller’s Fitness offered to give my bike a tune-up before I left Kentucky, which was incredibly kind of him. Things like shifter cables tend to stretch out on new bikes as you use them and I was definitely starting to feel that on my bike– shifting gears was starting to feel a little clunky. Andy got everything back to feeling brand new in record time (seriously, like an hour and a half!) and I also purchased a new mirror for my bike. I’ll probably have to get one more tune-up before send-off but things shouldn’t stretch out too badly, and unless something is seriously wrong my dad can help me do it myself.
I took my commuter bike in to the free campus bike shop to correct a crooked front wheel. I had a very minor but still very scary run-in with a car a while back (I essentially t-boned the driver but it was his fault) and had been putting off this fix for months. I wasn’t sure how complicated the fix would be but the staff over at Wildcat Wheels had it fixed in no time! I wish I had visited their shop earlier and highly recommend their services if you’re a student at UK.
I took my commuter (nicknamed Apollo) out for one final ride on Saturday morning before selling it. As much as I liked the bike, it’s not the most comfortable and also didn’t always feel 100% safe; I also anticipated not being able to ride it for at least half of the year in New York so I decided it was easier to sell it than move it. I rode to North Lime (very on-brand) and had a beautiful, serene ride as the sun was starting to peek out over the Lexington skyline. I will certainly miss how beautifully quiet the early morning hours are here.
Now, some fundraising updates! My personal total is still sitting around $6,800, but all 4K participants have surpassed the $150,000 mark! Those totals don’t even include the funds and extra donations raised through our t-shirt fundraisers. The team t-shirt campaign I shared in my last post has ended but you can still sign up to be notified if they become available again here.
In my last post I hinted at the possibility of a personal t-shirt design– I can’t believe I haven’t updated since then but my friend Sarah so kindly designed this amazing “Team Lauren” shirt for me! I was a little hesitant to launch my own design because I didn’t think I’d sell enough. Needless to say, I was very surprised to see that I hit my sales goal in just a few days– thank you to everyone who made that happen and will be repping their shirts over the summer! The campaign actually ends tomorrow so be sure to order now if you’d like to receive your gear before send-off! Those orders can be placed here.
Next weekend is going to be a whirlwind so I’m anticipating no new post next Sunday, although it will mark only one month until send-off. Insanity! Thanks again to everyone who has donated, shared words of support, and continues to read these posts each week :)
Until next time!
Lauren
Lauren Bikes America 