Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas!!!! Yay! And, it's a white one too! Which I guess is OK if it gets really warm really quickly. This snow hanging around isn't so great.

I got to go for a ride this morning as it started snowing with my bro, which was pretty awesome since it had just barely started snowing and it was like riding in a lite version of a winter wonderland! The drive back wasn't so awesome since, 100 yards from my house, I slid out of a turn and into a bridge. I was pretty sure I'd messed something up pretty good, but when I got home, there was no damage to the body. Nice, but the steering/tire alignment is all messed up now. Oh well.

Hope you all had a good Christmas. It's been one to remember. Whiteness like this doesn't come often on the baby Jesus's birthday!

2011

Alright people...I know what you're thinking, "two blogs in two days? What is going on here?"

Right. Well, one of my goals for 2011 is to write about my life. Not so much for your benefit (although I appreciate the few of you who check in from time to time), but to keep myself on track.

I do have some new goals and new experiences for this next year. Other than hoping I can get a real job shortly after the year starts, I also will be moving out of my house the first week of January. Both of these things are signs that I'm growing up, and shouldn't be taken lightly.

I also have goals. Which I am going to post here so that I can't hide them if they don't go well.

First, I am going to win the SERC overall. I don't expect this goal to be terribly hard, since really all it takes to complete it is to show up to all or most of the races. It does, however, lead me to my next two goals...

I want to win some races. It's been a while since I've done this, and being consistently fast over the course of the year is probably the best way to pull it off.

I want to move up to pro after the season is finished. Again, I've been an expert/cat 1 for a very long time, and I know that I'm capable of racing at a higher level. Will I ever be a top pro? Not a chance. But I can be faster than I am.

To reach these goals, I have a couple of things that I know I need to do...

1. train consistently, recover properly, and do the work that I get assigned.

2. lose some weight. At the moment, I am about 10-15lb over weight, and this needs to change, and quickly.

3. improve my mental game. I've kinda tended to be a mental basket case when it comes to racing, which has led to a lot of DNFs, bad races, and self-defeat. No more. My mental improvements and increased ability to focus are going to be some of the biggest things to take me where I want to go.

Anyway, just letting you know.

Also, it snowed today. That kinda sucks. because I have a new bike on the way and won't be able to ride it.

Goodbye College

Hi guys and girls. I'm just letting everyone know that I'm done with school. Like done for good with Brevard College. I've been there since fall of '07, and have done 7 semesters, 6 race seasons, 6 national championship appearances, 2 national championship victories, and probably (just a guess) 60 or 70 race starts. Awesome. Its been a good time BC...thanks for the experience, and for the degree. Hopefully the people next season will be able to keep up the awesome, and maybe spread a bit of success to the road side of things.

For real though, the college racing experience was easily one of the best times I've had in life so far. Thanks Thad for getting me to come and for all the support! Good friends, lots of free racing, and an awesome purpose to my training and effort. I loved the feeling that my race results actually mattered, and having other people depending on me doing my job. I definitely didn't see as much improvement as I would have liked, and was nowhere near as fast as a lot of other really talented people that I raced with, but I had a blast.

So then, what now? I was briefly tempted to stop racing, and just ride my bike for the fun of it, since I know how much I'm gonna miss having the team thing going on. At the same time, I know how competitive I am, and how much I need a competitive outlet. Racing fits that nicely. At this point, I know I'm gonna race, and am working on figuring out what my goals for 2011 and beyond will be. I don't want to pull a T Cowie, but I may be looking at something big and new, just not ready to spill the beans yet.

Also, since I don't have school to worry about any more, I'm gonna try to blog. Yep.

ORAMM and After

Well, I raced ORAMM about a week and a half ago, and despite how I felt for the last 2 hours of the race, I actually enjoyed myself. I mean, there were a lot of gravel road miles, and it got really hot, but still, there was something very satisfying about actually finishing. I felt awesome for the first 3 or so hours, and then faded pretty hard after that: over heating worse than I ever have before. I ended up 26th out of 400 starters, which I'm totally pumped with. Even if Old Man Balls did beat me. I was rocking some BALLER white shoes though...

Since then, I've been working and riding a lot, which is pretty much what I do during the summer. There has been a lot more going on than I've ever had before, working at the shop, interning at CTS in Asheville, riding as much as I can, and hanging out with the GF whenever possible.

I'm now sitting at a house where I am dog-sitting 3 cute dogs, one of them a super cute puppy (although an EXTREMELY mischievous one. Seriously, she is like a magician of getting in trouble.) I'm attempting to watch a movie, but the DVD player is the weak link in an otherwise very nice home entertainment center (52in LCD TV, HD everything, XBox, etc). The DVD player straight up doesn't work worth anything though.

Also, I seem to have hurt myself once again riding my bicycle thingy. My shoulder is moving in places that it really shouldn't, and doesn't seem to be connected as tightly as usual. So yeah, we'll see how that plays out here in the next few days.

Hopefully I'll still be able to race this weekend, but it seems doubtful at this point. If racing doesn't work out, it looks like I'll be hanging out with the Hoo since neither of us are working on Sunday. Looking forward to the possible day off...

126 Days!

Well guys, it's been 126 days since my last post. That's pretty sweet. Or not depending on how much you like/hate my blog. I'm not gonna promise to even try to blog more, cause I'm not sure I'm going to (seriously, more than once I've almost decided to delete this whole thing along with my Facebook), but hey, I can at least give you an update on what's happened in my life, can't I?

I think my last post was something about getting ready for road racing...I did a little of that for a couple of months, got slower throughout the season, raced a very cold nationals, and then gave up the whole thing.

After that, I had a couple of terrible attempts at XC racing, and put the kabosh on the first part of my season. Up to that point, I had planned on doing a whole load of big races and going really really fast, so after my legs fell apart, I had a pretty wide-open summer. Since I wasn't going to race XC, I started doing some work on my gravity skills, and did a few races here and there.

I've been having a pretty good time with that, so we'll have to see what happens with it in the future.

Finally, in addition to working on my skills, I've been trying to get back on it training for XC. Since BC is going to have some crazy fast new rippers on the XC side of things, I figure I should at least try to be able to hang with them.

Starting ORAMM tomorrow. Should be interesting. I've never ridden up there, or for that long actually. Goal time is under 6 hours, but we'll see. Supposed to be hot, so that may slow things down a bit.

Spring? Maybe? Hopefully?

It's about 70 outside...it was the same yesterday. Methinks that it means spring is coming. Oh wait, it turned to spring about 30 minutes ago! Yay! Happy spring everybody! Maybe now it will get warm again, and maybe the almanac will be wrong for the first time this year and we will dodge another snow. Maybe. Hopefully.

Also, this is my 100th post! Sweet! I think that calls for a celebration! Someone tell me how to celebrate...

In spite of the amazing weather this week, I have only ridden once on Tuesday. I rode Bennett on my Enduro (pushing my man-sized 36t chainring up the climb. Take that shuttlers.) and was having an awesome time coming back down when I tried to roll the rock drop a little too slowly. I ended up Endoing, shattered my Garmin, and apparently landed pretty hard on my knee. I'm hoping that it will get better pretty soon, but as for now, it's kinda swollen and sore, and riding is out of the question. Maybe by early next week...

It's actually been OK that I haven't been able to ride, since I've been working the CTS camp in Brevard. The weather is much nicer than last year, and making massive amounts of money has distracted me from my lack of riding (almost) .

Hopefully I'll be making my first racing post of the year after the Furman race next weekend...

Racing Time

Almost anyway...I know it's been a good long while since I've posted anything, and I am also aware that many of my blogs start out with the same apology about not posting anything. Moving on.

Since my last post, I have been very busy doing the following...

- Research on my senior thesis. I started out looking at the effects lactic acid has on exercise fatigue at anaerobic levels, and since the generally accepted answer is not a whole lot of anything, have since moved on to looking at what actually causes fatigue. I'm leaning towards 02 availability and CO2 Clearance.

- Training. I think that the last blog that I posted said something about needing to step it up with some intensity, and I have successfully done that. I've not felt super good in training, but I seem to be going pretty good when I need to. I just can't wait for racing to start next weekend...even if it is road.

- Looking at grad school. As much as I don't enjoy a lot of the parts of school, there are other parts that are sick, and I am hoping grad school will allow me to continue those parts for the next 2 years. Currently, I am looking at Cal Poly, University of Texas, or possibly App. Europe would also be cool, but I don't see it happening.

- Working on my bike skilz. Seriously. This is fun.

- Wasting mass amounts of time in other ways. This obviously doesn't include updating people on the mundane details of my life. Cause that would be lame. Oh wait...

My schedule until school lets out consists primarily of road racing, but I'm looking for some mountain bike racing to do too...On that note, I'm pumped that they moved the ETSU World Champs, cause that means now I can throw down up there the weekend before road nats! I'm hoping my XC skills will carry me through, but we shall see.

Time to get serious

Alrighty then. I did my first field test of the year using my trusty gerbil wheel, and discovered that I've got some work to do. Unlike Lance-in-My-Pants, I am currently behind schedule on my fitness and my weight. Like Mr. Armstrong (and every other tour pro out there) I will keep my actual numbers close to my chest so as not to alert my competitors of my exact fitness status.

I am not actually THAT far off of what I was last year, but I am WAY off of what I was hoping for after putting in a lot of effort and time on my last block. So far I've not stepped it up as much as I'd hoped. The Tellman girl is close to beating me by the numbers, which is good for her, not so great for me.

So, here is what I need to do...

1. Lose a little more weight. I'm not heavy, but I seem to be having trouble getting rid of the last few pounds of slow; in spite of attempting to limit myself on rare occasions. I guess this means I will have to get more hardcore on ignoring some BMB pastries for a while.

2. Do tempo like a mad man. Apparently this type of workout is good for improving all kinds of fitness parameters, so it seems like a good idea to do a lot of them to improve my gerbil rending abilities. I think the greatest area for improvement is actually doing as much work as I am supposed to do and not letting myself run out of time. Also, I may have to start riding by myself more...sorry Julia.

I know that most people don't actually care anything about training, and I normally try to avoid posting blogs like this, but I just was kinda feeling the need to make myself accountable to the 2 people who are following me on the interwebz. Really though, it's time to get moving. I had some good fitness last year, and I should be past where I was then, not playing catch-up.

51

51. That's how many hours I spent on the bike over the past 3 weeks. Most of that time was spent riding in sub freezing temperatures, which I know isn't a big deal to many people anywhere north of me, but for me, it was amazingly hardcore. I mean really, most of my riding partners didn't even ride during that 3 weeks. Weak. Anyway, other than feeling much more hardcore at this point, I am now experiencing an expectation of fitness gains. We shall see if that expectation is met in the next couple of weeks.

Also, I am about to be 22. On the 22nd. Weird. And not as big of a deal as 21. I am, however, going to go to the Gray Eagle to watch Justin open for the Enemy Lovers. Should be sweet.

But yeah, school is going swimmingly. Except that I couldn't really swim at the school since the pool is filled with either gravel or lawn equipment. I can't remember which. My schedule is easy, my classmates are cool, and my subjects are fun. I have noticed that during the first 2-3 weeks of class, when we are covering remedial info (basic cell biology, aerobic and anaerobic energy systems, etc...) I tend to get very lost. Not sure why. It's only when things get more complicated and building on things before do I get caught up.

Stay spicy America. Time for some Quesadillas!