I'm famous! Well not really, but I was on the news!

This week sure has been busy. Not much time to ride, but plenty of other things have been going on.

First, I was on KLTV this week! KLTV did a special on me, and there's a link to the right if you'd like to check the video out.

We went to Dallas on Friday, picked up Dad at the airport, and did some last minute shopping for the trip. I'm pretty sure I'm ready to roll gear wise.

Some of the grandparents came into town Saturday and Sunday to hang out since it's the last time for a while they'll get to see Dad or me.

Dad and I leave early tomorrow to head to El Paso. We're taking my car, and I'll be there until I fly out on the 3rd.


Also, I'm making my last final push for donations. I've already raised over $3,300, but still need about $700 to reach my $4,000 goal. If you'd like to help out, you can click here to make a credit card donation. Just select my name from the list (Rowell, Eric). Any donations, no matter how big or small would be greatly appreciated.

Bike & Build is just a week away!

-Eric

2 Weeks Away

With the spring quarter in full swing and the weather being as nice as it has been, I've neglected writing here for quite sometime... my bad.

Well the quarter ended Friday (I had a 4.0 this quarter), I packed my stuff and said goodbye to Ruston for a while, and I made it back to Longview last night. Summer is here, and Bike & Build starts in two weeks! I'll be in Longview this week, El Paso the next, and then fly from El Paso to Providence on June 3rd for orientation the 4th.

The bike riding has been going pretty well this spring. I've made sure to get in at least one 50 mile ride a week, and a couple of those have been 70+ miles. In Ruston on Saturday I rode 52 total (about 35 with the Ruston Cyclists) and it was probably the hilliest ride I've done this year. We rode "the old race course" which was way hillier than any part of Ruston I'd ridden before. I was pretty happy with the way I rode. I stayed near the front the whole way, and it felt good overall.

Speaking of uphills, I'll hopefully get some good mountain climbing next week while I'm in El Paso. They say the transmountain highway has a bike lane the whole way, so it'll be nice to get some real uphill training in before the trip. More on that next week when I'm there.

I finished off the checklist for gear I need last night. Now I'm just waiting for the last few things to come in.

I've gotten some great donations recently, and I'd like to thank everybody who has given so far! I'm still trying to finish up my fundraising, so if you are interested in donating, please CLICK HERE and select my name (Rowell, Eric).

I'll do better at keeping this up to date over the next few weeks. I promise.

Interval Training

Spring is here. The weather the last few weeks has been great (except for the tornado-like weather last weekend), and I've gotten the chance to go on a couple really nice rides.

With the time change and the sun staying out later, we've started back up interval training on Tuesday nights. Its the interval training that causes me to both love and hate Tuesdays. Basically, its a ten mile stretch of road and our group (there were 14 tonight) ride out going 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy (or easier) to the stop sign. Then we turn around, form a paceline and try to catch a couple of guys who rabbit out ahead of the pack. All together, its a 20 mile ride that goes by really fast. I think because there were so many people tonight, things got crazy, and we were flying.

Joseph and I got dropped by the group during the 2nd hard interval going out. We were going 31 mph up a pretty nice climb, and the pack was pulling away from us. Crazy fast... We sat up and cruised the rest of the wa out between 19-20, and waited for them to turn around.

On the way back in I was feeling a little better, but the group splintered when there was some confusion up front, and we all got spread out. I ended up riding back in at a decent pace with a couple guys, but all together it was a rough ride. Not to mention the wind seemed to blowing us sideways at times.

Anyways, I ended up riding 35 miles total tonight since I rode out there and back home once we were done. It was a good solid ride, and if the weather stays nice, hopefully a few of us can get a really long ride or two in this weekend.

San Diego and a 5k

It's been almost two months since I updated last time. Sorry about that, I'll try and do better.

For spring break we went to San Diego with our college department. We did a lot of construction, and helped out a local start up church. It was a great trip. There were a lot of cyclists in San Diego, and I was very jealous I didn't have my bike.

Speaking of bikes, I've been riding a little bit lately. Its plenty warm now, and with the time change hopefully I'll be able to get out even more.

This morning a group of 4 of us left at 6:45 to go on a 20 mile ride. We finished about 7:45, and then Justin and I ran in the Kappa Delta 5k at 8. We got in a good brick (bike-run) workout this morning, but my legs were paying for it half way through the very hilly 5k. I finished at a decent time considering the ride before hand.

I tried to ford the river, but my oxen died

Sometimes you do things that people think you're crazy for. Kind of like riding your bike across the country. This past weekend was one of those times.

See, awhile back, a group of us decided to go backpacking on the Eagle Rock Loop in Arkansas this weekend. We did not, however, realize it would be the coldest weekend of the winter thus far.

Boy were we in for a treat...

Four of us out of the seven left Ruston early Friday morning, drove up, and hiked in to set up camp. As soon we hit the trail we started the longest, steepest ascent of the weekend. We were all reconsidering our motives by the time we got to the top, but luckily that was the hardest part of the hike. We made it about 7 miles in, and set up camp early enough to collect firewood and not make the rest of the group hike too far in the dark. That didn't really go quite as planned.

See , the other group had class, got held up a little, and didn't get to the trailhead until 8 o'clock. Needless to say it had been dark for a while before they got there. They hiked until 1:30 am before they finally got to us. We had figured they'd just stop and set up camp themselves, but they toughed it out and made it. Oh, and the low that night was 20 degrees.

We got up the next morning, and spent it playing around in the mountains. Dustin and I climbed a huge bluff that looked out over the mountains. Words can't explain how amazing the view was there. You really felt like you could reach out and touch the sky.

Since the other guys hiked so late, we took our time packing up camp and decided just to go a couple miles and spend the day relaxing.

We had to ford the river a few times, and it didn't up so well for a few of the guys. After a few really wet river crossings we reached one of the trailheads and decided to set up camp not far from there. The guys who got wet tried to dry their clothes, and Dustin and I decided to hike up towards Albert Pike.

We were able to move pretty quickly since we didn't have our packs on, and made it most of the way. When we went back to camp, the guys were still trying to let all of their stuff dry out. The temperature hadn't gotten above freezing all day, and with the fire not cooperating things weren't going as planned.

With low going to be in the mid-teen's and a chance of snow, we decided it was best to go ahead and head out that night.

Casey, Dustin, and I made the 3 or 4 mile hike back to the cars, and got there right as the sun was going down. We drove back, packed up, and headed out.

On our way home we stopped in Arkadelphia, AR and ate like kings at Western Sizzler.

We had a lot fun, and have already made plans to do it again in the spring when its a little warmer.

This last picture is the whole group, from left to right:

Dustin, me, Cody, Chris, Casey, Josh, and John.

It may not have anything to do with biking or building, but we sure had a lot of fun.

I spent the last two days with eight 8th graders as I led a Disciple Now at our church this weekend. We didn't get much sleep, but it was awesome weekend.

We spent Saturday afternoon at a Habitat house that we've been working on as a church. I was impressed that a group of junior high kids was able to insulate the entire house in just a matter of hours (with the leaders only having to follow up with minor corrections). It really got me excited about the construction we'll get to do this summer on the road.

I've also included a few pictures from my duathlon last weekend...

The first one is me running my bike in after I the flat.

This second one is of me coming in at the end of the race.

Flat Tires

Last week I was pulling out of my parents driveway to head back to school and realized I had a flat tire on my car. I put the spare on had it changed, and it put me back a couple of hours.

A few days later I had a duathlon (run-bike-run) that I did in Shreveport. Not being much of a runner, the first run (2.5 kilometers) went fine, and I got on the bike ready for the 12 miles. It was really flat, and after a couple of miles into a head wind, I was able to hold a solid pace around 23 mph. My bike split was definitely making up for my limited running ability until about 10.5 miles in. I took the last turn on the ride, went down the only hill on the course, and my front tire popped. With 1.5 miles left to go, I decided to run it in to the transition area instead of quitting and waiting on the sag-wagon. I had to do this barefoot since I was wearing bike shoes, and they're not really designed for anything but pedaling. I got passed back by just about everyone I'd passed plus more, but got a lot of laughs as I made it back to the transition. The second run was slow since I'd already done all the running I cared to do, but I made through fine.

I'm glad I'll carry a spare tire with me this summer. And I'm really glad I decided to bike across America instead of running it.

This summer I'll defintely