Monthly Archives: September 2005

So I decided to take the bike out this afternoon; probably the hottest time of the day. My initial idea was to take it over to the Mount Bonnel area of Austin and give a through testing in the hills. The current conditions on weather.com said it was 107°. So I thought to myself, “what the hell; 107° isn’t that bad”; got suited up in my high-tech anti-heat stroke clothing, filled up my water bottles, mapped out my route, and headed off. Five minutes into the ride and I’m pumped; bring on the heat!!! I’m flying down Guadalupe; tailgating cars, sprinting through yellow lights, the usual… As I turn on 38th I’m still feeling pretty good; but it sure is getting warm… By this time I’m covered in sweat and the water in my water bottles is actually hotter than the air around me; an odd occurrence brought on by the radiating heat from the pavement. But 38th/35th is a really fun road to go down; almost all downhill when you’re heading west. When I hit the overpass over the Mopac Expressway the heat finally starts to get to me. I guess I’m not too aware of what my body tells me sometimes (in more ways than you could ever imagine); so I drink some more water, shift gears, and press on. The road begins to get some elevation now; and I’m really working hard. I turn off on a side street and go up hill some more. My ego won’t allow me to shift into the hard-core granny gear on my triple crank-set; so I’m maintaining a pretty strong average speed up this hill. I think I could have done intervals up this hill all day in 70° weather; but this heat is really kicking my ass. I finally decide that enough is enough and turn around for the fast descent. It was a nice break, but the heat was still killing me. Coming back wasn’t too bad though. I decided to take Lamar back on the home journey; just so I could get one last up hill effort as I turn on 24th. Bad idea… But, I finally made it back in one piece. Moral of the story: 107° really is bad weather to go riding in… I think I might get up early tomorrow morning and do the same route over again in the milder weather; I really dig the hills…

More to come,
Daniel Kietzer

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I’ve last updated this thing… For my less observant readers, I’m now back in Austin and I’m about to start the 5th week of the Fall 05 semester at the University of Texas.

I absolutely love this year so far. My classes are going really well; almost too easy at times, but I guess I can’t complain. I’m learning Portuguese, which I think is really cool; I’m actually considering that as a new minor, or possibly a double major. The rest of my classes leave something to be desired from the intellectual stand point; it’s either material that I already know, or material that I really don’t want or need to know. But oh well; like I said, I can’t complain; easy classes just give me time to have fun in this awesome city. I’m shooting for the big 4.0 this semester too; if I don’t get completely bored with my coursework that should be fairly easy to do…

In addition to my classes, there are a lot of other things that I’m doing to keep me busy. Two days ago I purchased a new road bike, a ‘03 Fuji Newest; and I absolutely love it. I’ve put about forty miles on it in the past two days; not too bad considering that I haven’t rode in about a month, and especially since the temperature outside is about 30 degrees hotter than the weather I last rode in. I can’t wait for things to actually cool off around here; 105 is just too much… Austin is a blast to ride a bike in too; lots of hills to climb, lots of traffic to swerve in and out of, and a bunch of opportunities to go fast.

Most of my friends are doing great too. I usually play Ultimate Frisbee on a nightly basis with some close friends of mine; that’s always a lot of fun. It’d be awesome if I could get some of them on a bike, but we’ll see about that one later… I’m still lacking in the opposite sex department though; maybe one of these days I’ll crash bikes with a hot girl, we’ll pick each other up off the pavement and “BAM!”, love at first sight…how romantic… Nah, I’m just joking… But it really would be great to find someone who enjoys doing the same things as I do. Hopes and dreams…hopes and dreams…

I’ll try to keep this website more up to date…

Much love,
Daniel Kietzer