Northstar At Tahoe

Well, just finished the XC race at nationals, and I am proud to say that I have maintained my record of blowing every big race I've ever done. I had a pretty good start, was riding in the top 10, and thought that I was going pretty easy, but then suddenly I wasn't. I faded a little on the rest of the first lap, then blew up super hard on the 2nd of 4 laps. The course had a long 20 minute climb out of the gate, then a long rolling descent back to the finish. I was in my easiest gear for the ENTIRE climb on the last two laps, struggling worse than I ever have before. I couldn't even hit the downhills right... Just being super sketchy on everything. Awesome. I'm hoping to be able to throw down tomorrow in the short track.

The chicks did AMAZING though... huge props to Julia for her 3rd, and Joh for a 5th, and Alexis for a super solid 10th, and Sarah for destroying some souls for 11th. The guys weren't so hot... T Cowie pulled of a podium, but Cory and I were way OTB for 19th and 21st. I think we are still looking good for the overall, so more updates to follow.

On another note, Tahoe is AMAZING! It is so nice out here, I don't even know how to describe it. The house we are staying at is at another level of niceness than anything I've ever seen before. This resort is legit too, not like those goofy ones back home. I see why people come out here to ski...

I'm gonna go beat myself with a stick now. Later.

PS.

In addition (and speaking of procrastination), the South Park online player sucks. Every time I minimize it to pretend like I'm doing something worthwhile, it freezes up and I have to restart it. This actually wastes more of my time than if I just stopped procrastinating my viewing of the show and did it all in one chunk rather than pretending to be doing something meaningful. Then I could go and do my school afterwards without it freezing up. Or just watch another episode...

PIE!!!

Well, after a super fun ride yesterday followed by some super amazing Mexican food (cheesy bean dip is the JAM), today has been really wet and somewhat busy. Bent Creek was awesome, I had a great time hitting up a really chill ride with some of the most talented collegiate cyclists in the country. T-Cowie and Real Tall showed us how it is done on the downhills, and Julia killed it on the climb while maintaining her feminine vibe. Super cool. Just as I was bonking hardcore, we called it a day and headed to Papa's and Beer for the best Mexican around. After that, it was time to pack our babies up in the team trailer for the long haul out west.

Today has been a story in procrastination. I still need to get the last of my things together, still have to write the rest of my lab report, and still need to read some stuff for Ex Phys. Good times. I don't know why I can't seem to stop putting things off... it sucks.

On top of all that, I seem to have developed a speech impediment, which has gotten many laughs from my family tonight, and has somehow translated into my typing as well. Seriously, be glad that I am taking the time to fix all the errors I'm making writing this... you wouldn't be able to read it otherwise.

I also spent several hours today looking for my Garmin... I can't find it anywhere. It's been missing for a week now, and I am starting to think I may never find it. I really wanted to be able to take it out to Cali with me. Since that's kinda why I got it and all...

I'm going to go eat some apple pie and ice cream now. I may also write the rest of my report. You just never know with me. Except for the apple pie thing... you can generally predict that I will be eating sugar of some kind at any given moment (in addition to the title of this very blog).

Nationals - Prep Phase

I've got a lot to do before nats... and I'm leaving in a week. I'm pumped to get to go, and I think it should be a good time for all. BC Cycling is awesome, by the way. Anyway, my list for the week is:

-Get bike "national championship ready" (I already did the hard stuff earlier today)

-Get girlfriend's bike "national championship ready" (I need a rear SRAM shifter to do this... if anyone has a non-clapped out one laying around)

-Get packed up by Sunday to send my stuff out there

-Get pit bike ready for travel... Thad wants something to ride around/steal parts from

-Catch up on school... I've been horribly procrastinating all semester (including writing this blog right now), and I need to get caught up since there isn't any way anything is happening on the trip

-Write article for the T-Times. Apparently there is a demand for this from 3 people, so I guess I should appease them

-Eat copious amounts of bakery product to make up for not being around for a week

-Get project bike done... I can't say too many specifics about this cause it's not for sure yet, but let's just say that I was challenged to turn a bike with a checkered past into a national championship caliber whip with the stock parts in a matter of days. And not have it be sketchy. It's going to happen.

So you see, there is a lot to do. Most of it could be done in an afternoon except for the whole procrastination thing. For instance, a lot of my time is spent watching videos and looking at pictures. I'm pretty sure those will be around for quite a while, but still, they demand my attention RIGHT NOW.

I'm out to watch something about good ass bbq and foot massage.

Later

Clemson

Well, the regular season of collegiate mountain biking wrapped up this weekend in Clemson with the conference championships. I went into the weekend hoping for a couple of good results, and while I didn't really get what I was looking for, it wasn't a complete loss.

I started Saturday out right by sleeping through my alarm and missing the van by an hour and a half. I barely made my short track start (seriously, I got there at 8:56, and was on the line by 9 ready to start. We didn't actually start on time, but I was ready anyway), but the lack of warmup and a crash at the start relegated me to 14th place. Pretty crappy on a course that suits me pretty well. After the short track, I got some food and went to practice the downhill. I got pretty confident on it, and threw down what I thought was a really solid race run. At the finish, I was told that I had put down a 1:32, which would have put me solidly in the top 10, 1 second behind Real Tall. I was really stoked with that, since I had been trying hard in the gravity stuff all season and was sucking pretty badly. I found out today that I had only run a 1:42, which put me in the 30s somewhere, 13 seconds off the win. That pretty much sucked. There isn't much to report for slalom since I DQed my qualifying run by missing a gate (there were about 15 out of 40 riders who did that too, so I was in good company). Big thanks to Dan for letting me use his bike, that thing is sick, sorry I didn't put it to better use.

Sunday's XC went a lot better. I didn't get a great start, but worked my way up to finish 8th. I was feeling really good all day, very smooth and consistent, better than I've felt all season. That course really suits me, and is a lot of fun to boot. I was one place behind the second Union guy, so I think we matched them pretty well. Rimmer was 10th after I passed him about halfway around the last lap with some chain issues. Tristan crashed on the last lap and finished 2nd to the first Union rider. Julia held it down for the first 3 laps, but then faded on the last one to finish 3rd. I'm pretty sure that could have been avoided with some better eating and drinking, right? Its cool though, she won yesterday and sealed up the endurance omnium.

I'm not sure how the results are going to stack up, but it's going to be tight. Warren Wilson wasn't super consistent, but they had some good races yesterday, and as usual, flooded the hell out of the women's fields. Union was strong, but I think their lack of girls will come back to bite them. I'll let you guys know how the points end up once they get them posted. We are reasonably sure that all of our top riders will be making the trip to Cali, which means I need to start thinking about getting a little bit ahead on some school work. I think I'll actually go do that now...

Later.