My senior project has been such a wonderful experience, and I'm so glad that I was able to choose the topic I chose. I've learned so much about bike racing, time trials, and most importantly, charities. As I'm in the process of making my Senior Project speech, I am able to reflect upon what I've done and I really do believe that I'm lucky that I was able to go through such an experience filled with inspiration and motivation.
I only need two more hours with my mentor, and I need to complete 7 more hours for volunteering, which will be completed by May 28th because of the Shindig! event. Right now the late time frame is my only concern, other than that I can't wait for the Shindig! and I can't wait to present my project and speech!
Showing posts with label Thoughts and Feelings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thoughts and Feelings. Show all posts
Monday, May 16, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
What am I doing again?
I've taken some time to reflect on what I have been doing. Ever since I started the physical portion of the Senior Project, I have met tons of new people, my social skills with adults have improved (I have never talked to so many adults before!), and my overall experience has been great.
My whole senior project is pretty much learning how to ride a bike, all over again. It's like retrofitting it to the demands that racing demands. But, I'm not doing this for glory or fame, or even prize money, I'm doing this to improve my overall fitness, making me a better person, to improve my social skills, also making me a better person, and to be exposed to the many charity events that is cycling related.
Obviously, someone who "just rides their bike" can't just complete a 100-Mile bike ride for Cancer Awareness, they need to go through steps and get better and better each time. Like my mentor says, the body has to adapt slowly or else it will be confused if you go too hard at some point, that it is not used to.
My focus for the non-profit organization is the BTC TT team, which goes directly to the Livestrong foundation, Lance Armstrong's foundation for raising money and awareness for cancer. (He won the Tour de France, a popular bike race in Europe, 7 times AFTER surviving cancer.)
By learning how to race on a bike, I will develop multiple skills that will aid me in the future when I participate in multiple charity rides. For now, I'm focusing on one event to see how it all works and to experience the inspiration around it.
My whole senior project is pretty much learning how to ride a bike, all over again. It's like retrofitting it to the demands that racing demands. But, I'm not doing this for glory or fame, or even prize money, I'm doing this to improve my overall fitness, making me a better person, to improve my social skills, also making me a better person, and to be exposed to the many charity events that is cycling related.
Obviously, someone who "just rides their bike" can't just complete a 100-Mile bike ride for Cancer Awareness, they need to go through steps and get better and better each time. Like my mentor says, the body has to adapt slowly or else it will be confused if you go too hard at some point, that it is not used to.
My focus for the non-profit organization is the BTC TT team, which goes directly to the Livestrong foundation, Lance Armstrong's foundation for raising money and awareness for cancer. (He won the Tour de France, a popular bike race in Europe, 7 times AFTER surviving cancer.)
By learning how to race on a bike, I will develop multiple skills that will aid me in the future when I participate in multiple charity rides. For now, I'm focusing on one event to see how it all works and to experience the inspiration around it.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Mentoring #2
It has just been announced that Peninsula Velo will have an official Junior Racing team. The Kickoff meeting was yesterday night, about 7 of us were present there to discuss the plans and some aspects of training. One thing we discussed was how we could manage our times to center around training so that we keep our days efficient and balanced. It was a great experience to see how other people who are my age balance cycling into their schedules. As a result, those can fit cycling in tend to have a greater fitness. Ray, who is the head coach of the Junior team (and my Senior Project Mentor) quoted that the definition of fitness was not really how well you can do in a sport, but specifically how well you can recover after hard workouts and efforts.
This definition truly made me rethink about MY personal fitness. Ray kept throwing in advice about recovery, which is when an athlete still exercises but at an extremely low intensity. We also discussed future plans of meeting again and how we will integrate the whole group into our individual training plans which we will make.
The meeting started around 7:15PM and ended about 9:45PM.
Total Mentoring Time Today: 2:30:00 hours
Total Mentoring Time TOTAL: 3:30:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Today: 0:00:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Total: 3:00:00 hours
Anticipated Hours: 3/19/11, 4/16/11, 5/28/11
This definition truly made me rethink about MY personal fitness. Ray kept throwing in advice about recovery, which is when an athlete still exercises but at an extremely low intensity. We also discussed future plans of meeting again and how we will integrate the whole group into our individual training plans which we will make.
The meeting started around 7:15PM and ended about 9:45PM.
Total Mentoring Time Today: 2:30:00 hours
Total Mentoring Time TOTAL: 3:30:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Today: 0:00:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Total: 3:00:00 hours
Anticipated Hours: 3/19/11, 4/16/11, 5/28/11
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Confirmed Mentor and Project
After numerous back and forth emails, someone has finally volunteered to become my mentor and guide me through the Senior Project. Ray Gildea who is a board member of the Peninsula Velo Cycling Club, is also a USA Cycling Level 3 Certified Cycling coach. He has offered to teach me about the demands of cycling, specifically those in Time Trialing, so that it complements my volunteering efforts at the Beat The Clock To Help Beat Cancer time trials. I'm excited to get that started!
So today we met for about an hour. I was with Kenneth and another Peninsula Velo member, who also turns out to be a Junior (under 18) rider. What we did was we discussed that successful cyclists need a structured training regime. In other words, cyclists can't do what ever they want and need to hold themselves back in the beginning of the year, the winter season, so that they peak their fitness during Spring and Summer. He really stressed on about that, but I've actually been doing that since December after reading "The Cyclist's Training Bible" by Joe Friel. Then we did a practice paceline to learn how to conserve energy during a race. We summed it up by talking more about what we will plan to do, discussed the importance of a bike fit, and again the importance of structuring training. We ended with him signing our mentor agreement forms!
The next time we will meet will probably be in a few weeks where he will go over workouts, and next month I will attend the first BTCTHBC TT to meet Patt Baenen Tapscott, the cancer survivor who promotes the events, and to help volunteer for awareness.
Total Mentoring Time Today: 1:00:00 hours
Total Mentoring Time TOTAL: 1:00:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Today: 0:00:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Total: 0:00:00 hours
Anticipated Hours: 2/19/11, 3/19/11, 4/16/11, 5/28/11
So today we met for about an hour. I was with Kenneth and another Peninsula Velo member, who also turns out to be a Junior (under 18) rider. What we did was we discussed that successful cyclists need a structured training regime. In other words, cyclists can't do what ever they want and need to hold themselves back in the beginning of the year, the winter season, so that they peak their fitness during Spring and Summer. He really stressed on about that, but I've actually been doing that since December after reading "The Cyclist's Training Bible" by Joe Friel. Then we did a practice paceline to learn how to conserve energy during a race. We summed it up by talking more about what we will plan to do, discussed the importance of a bike fit, and again the importance of structuring training. We ended with him signing our mentor agreement forms!
The next time we will meet will probably be in a few weeks where he will go over workouts, and next month I will attend the first BTCTHBC TT to meet Patt Baenen Tapscott, the cancer survivor who promotes the events, and to help volunteer for awareness.
Total Mentoring Time Today: 1:00:00 hours
Total Mentoring Time TOTAL: 1:00:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Today: 0:00:00 hours
Total Volunteering Time Total: 0:00:00 hours
Anticipated Hours: 2/19/11, 3/19/11, 4/16/11, 5/28/11
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Finding A Mentor
I recently massed-email a message to the Peninsula Velo Group concerning my senior project help. To my surprise, over 10 guys replied. I also attended their monthly meeting on Tuesday (1-11-11), and I met the head coach who was a national cyclocross champion for a five times, and he's also the head coach for the Peninsula Velo racing team. I asked him if he could help me and my classmate, Kenneth (who is doing a related project to mine), by being our mentor and helping us get connected to the charity/ community service aspect of cycling. With all the coaching going on and everything, it seems he was a bit busy.
However another member emailed me about a local charity event called the Beat the Clock to help beat cancer Time Trials, and said that he can really help me out since he knows the host, who is a Cancer survivor, personally. It sounded really exciting to me, especially since I have no idea how to do a Time Trial.
I think if this member gets back to me, I will proceed with this, since I've always wanted to do a Time Trial (especially since this is a good cause). I also want to meet the cancer survivor and hopefully get my volunteer hours by helping out at the events.
However another member emailed me about a local charity event called the Beat the Clock to help beat cancer Time Trials, and said that he can really help me out since he knows the host, who is a Cancer survivor, personally. It sounded really exciting to me, especially since I have no idea how to do a Time Trial.
I think if this member gets back to me, I will proceed with this, since I've always wanted to do a Time Trial (especially since this is a good cause). I also want to meet the cancer survivor and hopefully get my volunteer hours by helping out at the events.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Initiating the Senior Project!
After a two-week winter break full of eventful occasions, my final High-School winter break has come to an end. Thus begins the most significant portion of senior year; the infamous Senior Project. Fortunately, I've already decided that I will base the Senior Project off of bicycling because it's solely the one thing I'm particularly interested in. I've been cycling for a year and a half, and I'm ready to take it to the next level of exploring what cycling has to offer, that is, bike racing, bike training, and cycling charity events. For the physical portion of Senior Project, I'm looking forward to volunteering and participating in cycling events in Northern California. However to do that, I will need to be taught the basics of bicycling, and learning how to apply the different skills and abilities that cycling has to offer.
So how it is a learning stretch? Well, there are just so many aspects of cycling that one person just can't learn everything. In general, everyone learns something everyday. We never stop learning. In this case, for the past year ever since I first got my bike I've just gone out and rode however I felt like. Sure I've done a few races and even won one two days ago. But I know that somehow there is a way to get better. There is some sort of formula which I need to learn, which I can then apply someday to raise money and awareness for a cause.
I recently joined Peninsula Velo, which is a cycling group that has recreational riders and avid racers. In a week or two, I plan on attending their monthly meeting, and look for ideas and also find a mentor. They're email list is great so I think I will contact someone from there.
See? Already, just by joining Peninsula Velo, I have access to so many resources and I'm about to meet tons of new people. I'm excited for the Senior Project because I can't wait to get out there and help raise awareness for a cause, by riding my bike and helping out at events. I'm hoping that I can find everything I need to get this done, and overall have fun!
So how it is a learning stretch? Well, there are just so many aspects of cycling that one person just can't learn everything. In general, everyone learns something everyday. We never stop learning. In this case, for the past year ever since I first got my bike I've just gone out and rode however I felt like. Sure I've done a few races and even won one two days ago. But I know that somehow there is a way to get better. There is some sort of formula which I need to learn, which I can then apply someday to raise money and awareness for a cause.
I recently joined Peninsula Velo, which is a cycling group that has recreational riders and avid racers. In a week or two, I plan on attending their monthly meeting, and look for ideas and also find a mentor. They're email list is great so I think I will contact someone from there.
See? Already, just by joining Peninsula Velo, I have access to so many resources and I'm about to meet tons of new people. I'm excited for the Senior Project because I can't wait to get out there and help raise awareness for a cause, by riding my bike and helping out at events. I'm hoping that I can find everything I need to get this done, and overall have fun!
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