two week recap

I can't believe it's fall already. It seems like 10 minutes ago that I was reluctantly taking the ski box off the top of my car and putting the bike racks on. Last night I left work and it was dark outside (granted I did stay late, but still, a sign that headlamp season is basically here).

Over the last two weeks I've had four bike races (none of which went particularly well), one 127 mile charity ride (which was great) and one RIT alumni baseball game (much better than expected)...mixed in around that was work (going a thousand miles an hour) and as much roller skiing and running as possible. Needless to say, I'm worn down right now, but getting worn down from doing too many great things isn't anything to complain about.

The charity ride mentioned above was the Highlander Cycle Tour. The event coordinator is a co-worker and also a lunch-time running partner of mine. This was the 11th year they've held this great event in the Southerntier south of Rochester. There are several options of routes that people choose based on ability, but the route I did was 127 miles with over 14,000 feet of climbing, which is comparable to a mountain stage of the Tour de France. Many people that live in Rochester forget that, just south of Rochester, the Finger Lakes region has some very steep hills and beautiful scenery. This years ride included going up and down the hills around Bristol, Canandaigua, Keuka and Naples. It was over eight hours of riding for me, and took some people over 12 hours to complete the ride. I had a good group of guys that I rode the majority of the time with. The weather couldn't have been better and, as always, the event was very well run and raised a lot of money for charity!

This past weekend was our annual RIT baseball alumni weekend. The weekend includes a golf outing, a baseball game at Frontier Field and a barbecue following the game. This year most of my college teammates were able to make it back, so it was great to see everyone. It does turn into a pretty exhausting weekend, but this year was a big success as usual. One highlight for me was catching for my good buddies Joey and Lucas. Lucas still throws really hard and has control issues, which made catching a little exciting, but it was fun to be out there with everyone again. I caught four innings total, which was ok at the time, but I was more sore the day after the game than I was the day after the 127 mile ride described above. I guess I'm not exactly built for catching these days!

The bike races mentioned above - let's just say I'm ready for ski season. Although it is great to see the team doing well and this has been a great summer on the biking front overall, and I'm already looking forward to next season.

Changing seasons...

I can declare that fall has arrived for all of the following reasons:

- I had to grill using a headlamp this week.

- There have been three days in the last week where the sun hasn't come out and the temperature didn't get above 60F. There have also been two days in the last week where the temperature topped 90F...so, it's all over the map, which is pretty much how Spring and Fall go in Rochester.

- I had my first roller ski in long sleeves last weekend, and last night, I rollerskied in the cold rain and was excited about it.

- I've been receiving a massive amount of e-mails from my college buddies about alumni weekend (3rd weekend in September every year).

- Sam Adams Summer Ale has been replaced by Oktoberfest at most local bars by now.

- The NFL season starts tonight. Might be unrelated, but I also had a massive craving for chili yesterday.

So, I have bike races tonight and tomorrow night and then I'm riding the Highlander on Saturday, which is a great charity ride in the hills south of Rochester. After that, I'm not sure how often my bike will be coming out. I've already started mixing in a lot of roller skiing and some trail running. Within two weeks it'll be headlamp workouts-only on weeknights. So, I'm already looking forward to the snow flying, but I do love fall in this area.