Football, soccer, cross country and volleyball teams all arrive early in the day for a gauntlet of check-in stations. Those stops include securing housing, checking out equipment, meeting with coaches, having their photographs taken for the sports info guy, filling out NCAA paperwork, shopping the Nike and AQx equipment stores, and on and on. It's enough to wear anyone out before they even get dressed down for the first practice.

Teams settle into their regular practice routines on Friday with the first competitions coming Aug. 29 when the volleyball and cross country programs make their season debuts. For those squads, time is precious. There's not much time to get to know new teammates, learn the team philosophy and show their coaches they deserve playing time.

This much we know: Every coach is competitive and expects their teams to raise their levels of performance from the previous season. Which ones live up to expectations (and which ones don't) will be determined in the weeks and months to come.

It definitely pays to have am early start. I had to make a lot of miles today and I was going to meet a friend tonight, so I didn't want to show up too late. A close friend of my girlfriend's is a student at Kansas University so I had planned to meet up with her on my way to California.

I went all the way through Illinois on route 40 today, and it was better than yesterday (even though my map book didn't mark it that way). There were more cornfields (and what were probably plenty if accompanying ethanol plants...), more curves in the road, less towns, and because I left early, less cars on the road.

Eventually the road joined up with I-70 and went through St. Louis. I had never been and there was a great view of the iconic arch famous in St. Louis from the highway as we approached. The road also went right by Busch Stadium.

After going through all of Missouri and Kansas City, I made it to the university in great time, by about 5:30. I met up with my friend Johana and a friend of hers for dinner, wings! Then I cleaned up a bit, changed, and got a tour of Kansas University, home of the Jayhawks! I got to see a bit of the orientation week festivities before having to head to bed early... got an even longer day tomorrow when I meet my brother in Boulder, Colorado.

L'appuntamento è per le 3.00 ora italiana (9.00 ora di Pechino) di mercoledì 20 agosto per le qualificazioni e per la stessa ora del 21 per le finali.
La mountain bike olimpica vedrà le due gare di cross country venerdì 22 e sabato 23, in mattinata.

When I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2005, there were people known to us hikers as trail angels. Trail angels were people who went completely out of their way to do something nice for a thru-hiker. People gave money, gave snacks, fed entire meals, gave rides, left coolers of beer and soda on the trail, and some even opened up their homes for us hikers to clean and sleep. Well turns out that there are trail angels for bikers too!

This morning after I took a shower at the campground, I was walking back to the site when I was offered a cup of coffee by a kid and his grandfather. So I walked over to their camper, sat down, and before I knew it I had coffee, cereal, and breakfast cake placed in front of me. So I stayed eating, drinking, and chatting with this man and his daughter's family for a bit. They were all very nice and were from the area just out on a weekend camping trip.

I was finally packed up and gone by 11 (another late start, gonna have to work on that), and had a very enjoyable, but long, ride through Ohio and Indiana. It was nice to have a break from the big superhighways I'd stuck to yesterday. Rt. 127 south through Ohio was a very straight but nice road that went by lots of cornfields. 40 west across Indiana was pretty similar just not quite as monotonously straight. Both went through their fair share of towns which slowed things down quite a bit, but looking back probably helped to relax the ride a bit.

I decided a few months ago that when I was done with summer classes that I was going to take my sportster for a ride across the country to see some friends in San Diego. I'm going to be keeping a daily journal, trying to keep the blog as up to date as possible. Pictures and maps will be posted hopefully in the middle and end of the trip.

Well of course my adventure had to start out with a little excitement I was maybe a couple hours outside of Toronto on the 403, nothing of significance happening other then some traffic, when I saw far down the road a very dark rain cloud. This wasn't just an average ominous rain cloud because underneath it was also almost completely black, a splotch of blueish-black on an otherwise relatively peaceful sky.

The darkness underneath was clearly all the rain that was being dropped by the cloud on whatever and whoever was below. As the highway kept leading me towards it, sometimes turning away as if we'd avoid it sometimes curving straight towards the center of the cloud, I started to see bolts of lightening. That was my signal to start to keep an eye out for an overhang or service station to put on raingear or wait out the storm.

Then all of a sudden I had met up with the cloud. It was so sudden and so intense that it was like hitting a wall. Within 30 seconds I had slowed down by 30 mph and the rain was so thick that I could only make out the headlights and the back window of the car that was at most two car lengths ahead of me.

Finally after about 5 minutes with my feet already swimming in my boots, I found an exit with a gas station and coffee shop. So I pulled in, parked, and as soon as I was in the entrance and sheltered of course the rain died down to a drizzle. I decided then to go back outside where I literally dumped the water out of my boots and wrang out my shoes.

After having a coffee while I waited for the sun to come back out, I went outside and gave my socks another thorough wringing. A couple ladies had seen all the water that i got out and seemed to be pretty impressed as they didn't even know it had rained! Then they got their sons to take a look at how much I got out of the other sock (they weren't as interested) and told me they wished they had some spare socks to give me. I laughed, told them thanks but I'd be fine, and headed towards the border.

It was relatively smooth sailing from there. Other than the characteristically long wait to cross the American border, where I kept myself entertained by watching the drug sniffing dog hop into a couple trunks (both false alarms), I went not too much farther south and pulled into a state park campground for the night. Now I'm hoping to get an early start tomorrow and put some more miles behind me.

It seems like just yesterday that my two brothers came home from college and dumped their belongings in our garage. "Excuse the mess, it's Trevor and Jordan's college supplies," the excuse I used when I led my friends through our messy garage is no longer usable. Today, we dumped Trevor off at SUNY Fredonia, and helped my eldest brother Jordan move into his new townhouse at St. Bonaventure University where he will begin his senior year of college. Yet another sign that summer is dwindling.

Tomorrow begins my 2008 Cross Country season. Tomorrow morning at approximately eight o'clock, I will roll out of bed in order to get ready and be at the school by nine o'clock. No, I don't take a million years to get ready like most girls out there do, I just need some time to actually get going on eating breakfast and waking up. Usually I just lay and listen to my iPod for half an hour, and then glance at the clock only to find that I needed to be out of bed thirty minutes earlier.

In previous years, I have dreaded the start of Cross Country. I definitely prefer Track, but I have a feeling that this year is going to be my year. I am planning on using practices and meets for letting out stress instead of creating more. I will have a hectic schedule once school starts on September third, and I am going to have to learn to balance all of my activities. Once school begins, I will be waking up at 5:30, getting to school by 7:30, getting let out of school at 2:07, proceeding on to Cross Country practice from 2:30 to 4:30, and then going home for an hour to prepare for getting back down to the school by six o'clock for musical rehearsal. Last year I handled it, but this year I feel like I am more prepared for it. I am still in great shape from Track last June (I have not stopped running), so I will not be sore from CC practices. Schoolwork will probably be the most challenging for I know that there will be more coming my way, along with writing weekly articles for NeXt.

Yes, summer is reaching the end. Yesterday summer began, and tomorrow it is over. It has been a nice two months of doing absolutely nothing other than running every few days and attending a theater workshop for a week. I have enjoyed discovering the wonders of having a bicycle and with it, the ability to go anywhere I want. I have visited the local library on numerous occasions and have devoured over twenty books so far this vacation. My summer reading book for Honors English has yet to be read, but I know that I will not have any problems getting into it once I get my hands on a copy. Though the fiery leaves that have scattered over my lawn make me angry, I am also accepting and looking forward to the upcoming change. Once school starts I won't ever have a chance to be bored. For these next two weeks, I am going to be enjoying the feeling of having nothing to do.

At 7:00PM the coach gathered all the participants and explained the course again, then told us that although this was a casual race series with no T-shirts (I didn't expect one for my $5 entry fee), there would be ribbons for the top ten male and top ten female finishers.  The sole female grinned and the rest of us quickly counted the small field - Whew! only nine guys - everyone gets a ribbon!  We lined up and the gun sounded.  The small field took off.   The high school aged kids sprinted toward the first hill while Greg, me and the two other apparent 40+ year-old guys fell in behind them.

I quickly realized that cross country is much different than running on flat pavement.  This new Concordia course is a mixture of steep ups and downs and rolling, deceiving hills.  I tried to keep a steady pace but could feel myself laboring up each hill.  Eventually I crossed the finish and received a nice purple ribbon for 7th place.  Not bad, I thought, no one needs to know there were only nine males running.

So, I need to add some trails, grass and hill training to my schedule. Or stick to pavement road races.

Cross-Country Warm-Up

Originally uploaded by Psaryce

Well this week's biggest news has to be Hoovy's competition day at the end of her riding holiday. She looked after Bold all week long and they certainly developed a great bond. They looked good riding around for their warm-up shown in this photo captured on a mobile phone.

The real surprise was when they began their round. I have never ever seen her ride so beautifully. Unfortunately they had a hiccup so only managed 4th place but her posture, confidence, fluidity and focus was amazing to watch.

Later in the showjumping round, they had another hiccup as Bold seemed determined to return to his fellow horse friends before he'd finished but again they rode so smoothly. I even heard other parents commenting on her style and how beautifully she sat.

This has lead us to begin discussions on where to go with her next. Her local stable is no longer what she needs to continue to develop her skills. We know there are many routes she could take but have to discuss it further amongst ourselves, with her and her instructors before making a decision.

This is a little girl who at the age of 3 first sat on on a horse and wanted the adults to let go of the reins and that she wanted to jump! And she was being very serious at the time. Over the past 6 years we have had the pleasure of watching her grow as a rider and her determination to be a very competitive rider is still there. As parents we always had a niggling concern that she would 'go off' horses but we are now convinced that she is one of the lucky people who know exactly what they want to do in life at a very early age.

I visited the Shepherd Girl's and Boy's Cross Country teams up north at Young State Park by Boyne City on Wednesday (August 14).  This was the sixth year in a row for such camp.  Rick Cahoon (Boy's Varsity Coach) has made arrangements with several other schools and they basically spend the week working out and playing together.  It's an opportunity for team building and for our athletes to meet some of the other people they will be competing with throughout there 4 years in high school.  If you haven't had the opportunity to visit this park before, it has a very large camping facility, with a beautiful beach along the east shore of Lake Charlevoix.  Besides running in the morning and evening every day, the team enjoys the beach, volleyball, card games, Bocce ball, Basketball and whatever else they can dream up.