Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Hobbies


I have a few hobbies in my spare time. The first is that I love bicycling. I ride mostly on rail trails. During the summer I ride most every day. I try to ride between 20 and 25 miles a day weather and schedule permitting. So far this year I've ridden over 1,000 miles. I have a logging program where I keep track of my mileage, average speed, top speed, heart rate and calories burned off during each ride. I am the bicycle team captain for the community cup. It is a local competition sponsored by the YMCA for companys and organizations to compete against each other. The bike race is a time prediction race. One person rides 2 miles, one four, one 6 and one 8 miles making for a four person team. I have two teams competiting. You have to predict how long it will take your team to ride through the course. You can't wear watches, use a speedometer, listen to music, or anything else that will help you pace yourself during the race. Last year my team got first place in our division.


The longest standing hobby I have is reading. I have been an avid reader since I was in elementary school. I mostly read novels but I like alot of non-fiction too. So far this summer I've read several books. I had a sixth grade student last year who loves to read also. He and I are both going to read the Chronicles of Narnia over summer vacation and then discuss the books when school resumes in September. I plan on starting "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" later today. After I finish it I'm going to read the rest of the series.


Another hobby that I've had since elementary school is knitting. I love to knit. It relaxes me. I've made all kinds of things: purses, socks, afghans, ipod socks, purses, sweaters, dishcloths, wallets, shrugs, belts, shawls, hats, mittens, gloves, scarves, tank tops and probably some other things too. Right now my favorite things to knit are socks, dishcloths and purses. I like to try new patterns out on dishcloths. They are small and don't take long to make. The picture that you see at the top of this post is of an afghan that I'm working on. It has trees and flowers on it. Right now it's about twice the length of this picture. There is second set of trees and about half the flower pattern is done.

2 comments:

Beth said...

I love riding bikes too. My husband and I joined another couple for a ride from Brecksville to Peninsula for food and drinks at the Winking Lizard a few weeks ago. We then rode back up the Towpath to Brecksville again. It was a nice, relaxing journey.

Professor Keener said...

I take my children for rides on the towpath all the time! We love riding! The path near Peninsula is especially beautiful, my kids like to swim and explore in the river!