May 2007
Amped Up
Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! I just joined the Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club.
It turns out there are actually several people from Stanford on the team. I have ridden three times with them now on their Sunday Social ride (the parts where my heart rate exceeds 180bpm are slightly less "social" for me, as I am trying not to fall off the back, i.e. get left behind). Everyone has been super nice, and better yet, I now have an awesome kit to race in! I had so much fun that I managed to recruit two of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training alumni that I have been riding with, and may possibly bring in a third. I swear LGBRC should give me a commission!
I have my first race in a week and a half--scary! I know I'm not fit enough to really ride my best yet but I hope I place ok anyway. I will be racing Category 4 (aka Cat 4), at the Mount Hamilton Classic. I am going to try to race as much as I can this summer. Bike racing involves a lot of tactics and decision making, based on both experience and knowledge of your competition. Unlike running, in which you are a little more control of the outcome based entirely on your effort, in bike racing the fastest cyclist doesn't necessarily win--rather, it is the one that makes the best decisions, and has the luck not to crash or have mechanical trouble, who wins. Having, oh, ZERO bike race experience under my belt, I really need to get some races in if I am going to get competitive any time soon. I just kick myself that I am 30 and have only just discovered this sport!
I'm hoping I can get some good photos at one of these events to post. I know my blog has really been short on visual appeal, but I'll get some pics on soon!
A long sigh of relief...
I just got back from the Pediatric Academic Societies conference, where I gave my very first presentation.
I was a part of a poster symposium, meaning that I had to bring a poster and answer questions about the research presented on the poster, but I also had to give an oral presentation, limited to *two* minutes with no more than *two* slides (my PI and I ultimately decided that 0 slides was better than two, because really, what can you show in two slides). Wow, was that hard! To describe everything you've done in two minutes--I would argue much more difficult than having 15 minutes or more to speak! Talk about learning how to be succinct (something you may or may not be surprised to hear is very difficult for me)!
After our brief oral presentations, we had to sit up on the stage and take questions from the audience. The room was packed, all chairs filled and standing room only about three or four people deep, maybe 500-600+ people total... The funny thing was that after I got over the butterflies, I quite liked sitting up there. Especially as no one was asking me any questions! That is, until my PI asked me a question about relating my work to someone else's research, to which I gave the answer, followed promptly by that researcher standing up and disagreeing with me about his findings. So that was interesting. Actually it wasn't as bad as it sounds, he sort of disagreed under his breath and then launched into a description about his own work. I quickly discovered that the Q and A sessions are really a chance for others who did not get chosen to present at the meeting to have their own little two minute presentations. Overall the meeting was interesting, and a good experience. Glad it's over and to be back in California, though!
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