study hard, bike harder!

Well, the first three weeks of school have flown by. It's super weird that the semester is already 1/4 over... not that I'm complaining! Classes have been pretty cool so far - lots of really (and I mean REALLY hands on stuff) - but I'm still excited to get away from it all come Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Probably the best part about school is the fall "U Cup" race series. I missed the first two races (because of Crank the Shield and then selling my bike) so I was amped to race today! The Queen's team is pretty sick and the races are always fun (and there's free food) so now that I have a bike in my possession, racing was a no-brainer. The race was at Hardwood, so I met up with C Brooks yesterday for some fun trails (even though we got poured on) before the race today. The 3 lap race only took ~55min (man, I felt like a Junior again!!) and had tons of great single track. I managed to take the W, with Swagler a close second. After some post-race slacklining, we devoured some burgers from the BBQ (which was my first bite of meat in a full week... I'll tell you that story in a minute) and then headed back home for some hot tub action. Solid day.

Now about the meat situation... As a second year Kinesiology student at Queen's, I am lucky enough to have the (mandatory) opportunity to work with cadavers as part of my Anatomy class. In case you didn't know, a cadaver is a human body that has been donated to science. I was more than a little apprehensive about this. I'm not squeamish, exactly, but the idea of touching a dead person really creeps me out. Anyways, I'd been fine up until this week because I hadn't had to actually touch the specimen. This week, there was no choice but to touch the cadaver in order to learn what we had to learn. I won't go into detail, but let's just say that human flesh feels exactly like steak. Making beef that night was definitely a mistake... Queue the gag reflex. It'll be a long time before I can appreciate a good steak again.

On another note, I've been loving fall riding in Uxbridge! Durham forest is absolutely perfect right now. I'm thinking there are going to be a few long rides there next weekend (Thanksgiving = 5 day weekend... score!). I've been up to a bunch of other stuff at school... socializing, studying, cooking... but I'll just give you a nice picture recap instead of boring you with more words!

Love the Farmer's Market at school! Raspberries are definitely my favourite

Can't risk bringing my wallet to campus... it would be the end of my biking career haha

 

Nice little crisp morning road ride by the lake

I've NEVER seen the lake this calm... basically a miracle

Saw this guy on a road ride, let me get super close before bolting!

Had a little bit of a hair issue ('twas a touch windy today)

I promise, the guy on the right is actually a girl...

Tricolour is the best colour!

Great group of ladies and gents. Top notch. 

October is going to be a bit of a #$@%^ with 7 midterms, but I'll get through it with the help of some good music, lots of biking, and a bit of a social life on the side. As much as people complain about being a student, it really is the life. Especially when you're a student-cyclist! You just have to remember to play as hard as you study :)