On the Ragged Edge of Retardation

2011-04-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

Stumpjump tomorrow...

I would summarize my current condition as:

Motivation: low

Confidence: low

Fitness: poor

Desire to race: low

Determination to kick ass: high

For realz though, I have been working a training camp for the past 3 days, which means that I am heavily sleep deprived, poorly hydrated, starved for good nutrition, and haven't been on the bike much at all. All this adds up to some awesome feelings in the legs when riding. Kind of a square pedal stroke, dragging cement blocks feeling. We shall see how I fare tomorrow. Hopefully I won't die.

2011 Racing

2011-02-22T20:04:00.001-08:00

Well, my season will be starting in a little under 4 weeks, which, depending on how you look at it, is either really soon or not-really-all that soon. Perspective! So yeah...

Race Schedule:

March 20th – Hobby Park

April 3rd – SERC Tsali

April 9th – Assault on the Carolinas

April 17th – SERC Stumpjump

May 1st – SERC Ft. Yargo

May 15th – SERC Ducktown

May 29th – SERC Jackson OR 24 H/O Burn

June 5th – Bump & Grind

June 12th – SERC Chattanooga

June 26th – SERC Clemson

July 10th – SERC Huntsville

July 24th - ORAMM

August 8th – SERC Fontana

September 25th – DH National Champs

November 6th – Swank 65 (for the first time ever? We'll see...)

Cross? (I keep talking about racing a full cross season, but collegiate has so far gotten in the way. What will this year bring? Who knows?)

A couple of those are not for sure, and then if there is a really cool event that I want to do, I might just add that in when the time comes. But for now, as you can see, my focus is on the SERC series. The last time that I went for a series overall was my first year of racing in the Cane Creek Cup as a 16 year old junior. Times have definitely changed. I think I got 2nd overall that year, and am one of the few that I raced against still racing today.

Anyway, my season is just about dialed. I'm feeling good on the bike, I have an awesome race bike waiting for me to build it, and an actual season beginning and ending in sight. Also, it looks like I might actually have money to go to races this year, which is good considering how many I'm planning on going to on my own dime.

Finally, I found THIS ARTICLE amusing, and a much needed outside view of our sport...I always forget that we're not as normal as we can convince ourselves we are when we just hang out with other cyclists.

I'm Pumped on Racing Again. For Realz.

2011-02-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

I done the Icycle this weekend. It was real fun. It was also real painful. I guess that's to be expected with racing though. This race hurts more than most though, because your system is never even close to prepared.

Anywho, did 3 laps, 1 of which was fast, 1 of which was kinda chill, and 1 of which was riding with Julia as she stormed to victory in a stacked women's field. Also, between laps 2 and 3 I might have ridden up to our cabin to get a snack. Maybe might have done that.

I'm gonna go ahead and steal an idea from another blog here, so stay with me. See, I have a new, very fast racer bike coming in. It's radically different from anything I've owned before, and I'm really excited. BUT, I don't have any races until the 20th of March when I have a little tune up before the real racing begins. So, since I don't have any races coming up, and I still need to lose some weight, I'm gonna use the promise of a new bike as motivation.

Race weight (about 10lb higher this year than ever before thanks to some heavy time in the gym): 181.

Current weight: 186.5

1.5 months to do it.

Not gonna even open the race bike box until then.

It's the crap, crappiest season of all!

2011-01-25T13:19:00.001-08:00

Happy Christmas jingles notwithstanding, I've really had a hard time with winter this year. There has been snow on the ground pretty much non-stop for the past 6 weeks, and it's been pretty cold too (although not quite as cold as it was last year). Anyway, here is a little update regarding my thoughts on the season...

First, as a disclaimer, I HATE WINTER. Pretty much everything that I have to say in this post is tainted by that fact.

Second, I am well aware that people in other parts of the country have it much worse than me (even my friends in the Boone area). While I feel bad for them, they really don't have much relevance to my situation. It's their own faults for living there. I just don't expect Brevard to be one of those places.

Sliding around on snow isn't normal, but on meth (winter) it is.

Anyway, like I said, there has been snow on the ground for the past 6 weeks. There has been a little bit of mountain biking during that time, but not at all for the past 2.5 weeks. For the first week the most recent snow was on the ground, Julia and I tried our hands (or leg/feet areas) at XC skiing. Fun stuff. Kinda threw me off coming off of DH skis, since turning and stopping is pretty much impossible on them. Still, it's a good workout.

Julia demonstrating proper technique

Today, I had the idea to go out early in the AM to ride my MTB before the ground thawed and got all slickery. Good plan. Except for this stuff...

The slippery, icy result of hundreds of hikers making tracks

It was really slow going on North Slope, which I suppose is my own fault for riding a trail that I knew would be bad. Thrift and Sycamore were both totally ridable, and despite a bit of sleet starting to come down, remained grippy.

Finally, I want to review a couple of products. First, my new gloves. Julia got these for me for my birthday, and I have to say, they are AWESOME. If anyone has hands that get cold, these are worth the money, I'm sure. Way warmer than the Specialized gloves, the only fault I have found with them is that they are too warm for most riding (25 degrees this morning, and my hands were still sweating). Good stuff.

Descente something-or-other gloves

And finally, my bike. I've never owned a stumpy before, and I have to say, it's baller. I'm gonna do a bit of a more detailed review sometime in the future, but for now, suffice it to say, I've got it dialed, and it just keeps asking for more speed. Every time I got off the snow today, I got to remember how much fun Pisgah is. I'm looking forward to a riding filled spring and summer...

Also, I had a video for you of Michael and I building a bridge, but I can't seem to get it off of my Lucifer-possessed phone (Droid Incredible stupidphone). I'm gonna keep working it, cause it was an epic day. It's not often that you get to cut down trees in the rain when it's below freezing to build a bridge with your bare hands. Man things.

Hendo!!!

2011-01-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

I'm working at the Hendersonville Sycamore Cycles today, all by myself, and so far am having a blast. (As a side note, if you haven't been down here, it's definitely worth coming to visit; the shop is awesome.) Anyway, I don't have any repairs to do, have no bikes to build, and no one else working to keep me company. Don't let that make you think that I'm bored though. Not in the least. So far today, I have learned many, many things. Such as:

I'm pretty sure the people in Hendersonville are crazier and/or more country than the people in Brevard. Granted, I'm basing this on the 3 people who have come in today so far, but I feel like a 100% incidence of Lady Gaga levels of crazy is a pretty good predictor.

The first guy to come in was a crazy, homeless-looking dude, who talked to me for an hour about being hit by a car, his awesome giant comfort bike with all kinds of racks and finders, and visiting his 380lb estranged wife and kicking her current boyfriend out of the house while leaving his girlfriend at home. This man had no teeth, and was swearing up and down that he would be getting $40,000 in a settlement for getting hit by a car. He also wanted 2.5in DH tires on his townie bike.

He looked shockingly like this, sans amphibian hell-bent on death

The next awesome customer interaction was when a pair ofguys (who in fairness, I've seen in the Brevard store before) came in looking for some bikes. From them, I found out that, if you have an automatic defibrillator implanted in your chest, you aren't supposed to rock climb or mountain bike for fear that landing on your chest would cause lethal loads of electricity to accidentally go coursing through your body, killing you instantly. This gentlemen's theory (mind you, completely untested except in the recesses of his mind) was that, by wearing some form of chest protection, this risk could be greatly reduced and mountain biking would be OK.

An additional bit of information gathered from these two fine customers included the fact that a "gravity" bike is apparently a normal bike that you buy off the floor, take home, cut in half with a hacksaw before riding it, and then "stretch," making it at least 2 feet longer. I'm not sure what is gravity related about this, but I'm definitely trying it with my DH bike.

Finally, at least 7 times during the 30 minutes they were in here, one of them would look at a road bike, cross bike, or anything with the bars lower than the saddle, and say, "I would ride this, but, the belly" while patting the belly affectionately.

I'll also mention that neither of these two had teeth either.

Finally, Old Man Marshal came in for a visit. He stormed in the door, hair brushed and going crazy, talking before he even had the door open. He was also eating a handful of nuts, talking with his mouth wide open, and doing his best food sprinkler impression. Not to be graphic or anything, but the nuts seriously made him look like he had a mouthful of powdered doughnuts. I had to wipe the counter off when he left.

Off for more fun in Hendo.

Hi

2011-01-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

The picture in the header of my blog is annoying me...I like the picture itself, but I can't figure out how to make it smaller. At the moment, it's kinda like, "BAM! I'M IN YOUR FACE WITH A HUGE FACE." Also, I feel that the title represents the lifestyle that most amature athletes lead...no real reason for putting massive numbers of hours in on the bike, just kinda doing it because there's something not quite right in the head.

Anyhoo, riding is good, gym time is good, and even though I haven't done it much recently, running is good. I've pushed myself harder than ever in the gym, and ended up with about an extra 10lb of muscle. We'll have to see if that's a good thing or not...hopefully I'll avoid hurting my shoulder so much.

There is a threat of snow on Monday, so I'm gonna get out on the MTB as much as possible this weekend to store up some awesome.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-11T14:41:00.000-08:00

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

2010-08-05T18:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-07-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-03-20T11:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-08T07:40:00.001-08:00

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

2010-01-25T17:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-19T17:31:00.000-08:00

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!

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T15:24:00.001-08:00

Man, Christmas is come and past, and it was awesome. I got to ride (I was going to blog about it, but didn't, I'll include some pictures in this one) which was cool because it was snowy and I rode my cross bike up 215 and off some little side roads. It was pretty sweet. I also got a shiny new helmet too from the girlfriend, which is super awesome.

Since then, I've gotten to ride my road bike a lot, as well as going down to Clemson for some XC and DH action since there is still way too much snow for mountain biking here. I felt much more comfortable on the Clemson DH than I did during the collegiate race, but I'm not any faster, so I guess I still have some work to do on my skillz. Sweet.

(you don't see Tally look like this very often)

Tomorrow is the annual Carolina Crusher road ride, where people who got a bit rowdy the night before get to ride off their hangovers and get their blood pumping pure again. This year will feature a somewhat altered course to avoid all the snow that is still lingering around. Should be fun.

Oh yeah. Merry Christmas to me...

Snow Day

2009-12-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

Well, like you may have noticed in my last post, it snowed last week. Unfortunately for those of us who like to ride our bikes, the snow is still here. I think that one of the main reasons that this area is awesome is because of the fact that one can ride year-round without too much trouble, and since for the last 10 years there hasn't been any significant snowfall, we have gotten really spoiled in thinking this. I mean, most places where there are mountains have to deal with large amounts of snow during the winter, and I guess we are fortunate here to have the elevation but not the real winter. That being said, it isn't actually all that bad of a deal to have 10 years of riding and only 2 weeks of snow preventing rides.

Anyway, the snow has meant that the 1:45 minutes that I've spent on the bike in the past 4 days has been on the trainer. Part of the blame for that lies with a large amount of work the week before Christmas, but still, I was hoping for some night riding to work on my ninja skills. Instead I worked on my ballet-footing skills on a run this morning with the Hoo (or the Who if you are thinking Christmasy thoughts about Whoville).

Being at the shop has only been so stimulating, and I have found myself thinking a lot about this next year, the races I'm going to do, my goals for the year, and what bike I'm going to ride. I am waiting on the Epic to become available, but the thought of a 29er HT has crossed my mind more than once... I don't think I want the 29er Epic (it's pretty heavy), but I'm not sure if I want a HT either. Actually, I can't believe that I'm even thinking about this at all. It's almost like I WANT to go join the circus. Weird. I should go read my own review of the 29er I rode a while back and see what I said then.

Later.

A New Year! (almost)

2009-12-19T15:29:00.000-08:00

I am well aware of how long it's been since I've blogged...and I'm sorry about that. I kinda got tired of the whole thing after collegiate nationals, and haven't really had anything to write about since then. Since nationals (where I once again failed to live up to my expectations and big words, despite having a great season up to that point) I have done 1/2 of a cross race, and a whole bunch of mountain biking. I'm loving my Enduro, and have been trying all kinds of stuff that I never would have done on my Epic. It's pretty sweet. I'm sure I'll talk about that in a later post.

It snowed significantly all day yesterday, and combined with getting my wisdom teeth out the day before, meant that I hadn't ridden in 2 days and was going slightly stir crazy. So I kitted up in my super warm clothes (all pretty good looking, if I do say so myself), and went out in the snow. After riding through town and getting wet on all the stupid roads (not to mention getting splashed by tons of cars with slush) I made it up to the forest where there was significantly less traffic.

I passed a group of rednecks attempting to get their truck out of the ditch, and rode on past the horse stables, where I saw Will to the Murr drive over a rather large downed tree and slid

around a bit coming past me. I kept riding past the tree that turned him around, and finally made it up to Looking glass. It was pretty sweet going somewhere that no one else could go for the day, and I felt very explorerish.

A comment on riding in the snow...it's very hard. Kinda like riding in mud during an earthquake on a bike that doesn't like you very much. Seriously though, its way less predictable than mud, not to mention colder.

I'm getting my next season together at the moment, so be looking for the outline for that. I'm hoping to mix it up a bit, and redefine some goals that I've had for a while. Hopefully should be good.

A Request...

2009-12-02T20:50:00.000-08:00

I know it's been forever since I've blogged, and I'm sorry for that. I know there are 6 of you who are sometimes vaguely interested in what I have to say, but I haven't been keeping you in touch with my life at all. I do promise to come back at some point (probably when I have something interesting to say).

For now, I am breaking my silence to make a request on them world wide internets... I really want Bracken Mountain to come out with their special edition brownies again for this weekend. That would be amazing, and I feel totally fitting with my winter regimen of eating way too much sugar. Baker Bill, I will even come pick out the special M&Ms for the top if you need me to...

So yeah, peppermint brownies. They're the jam. That is all. For now.

Northstar At Tahoe

2009-10-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-10-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T18:28:00.001-07:00

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.

A 29er

2009-09-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

So, today I saw something… I saw pigs flying and people wearing jackets and skating in hell. I know I swore I would never do it, but today my curiosity got the better of me and (insert collective gasp *here*) RODE A 29er!!! And what’s more, I actually liked it. Trust me, that takes a lot of pride-swallowing to say. The shop got in a Stumpjumper Comp 29er hardtail, and of course, everyone wants to ride it (and when I say everyone, I mean the 3 of us who ride that size and are mildly curious about it). Anyway, I was the first one to ride it, and I went into it with as open a mind as possible.

First, let me explain some of my biases and factors affecting my perceptions about the bike. Normally, I ride a Specialized carbon Epic, which weighs just under 23#s with my race kit on it. That race kit (and what I’ve been riding for about 2 months straight now) involves some really light and stiff wheels which obviously is what I am used to. This bike is about 2 pounds heavier than mine, and the wheels are decidedly not race level wheels. I’m also pretty happy riding a full suspension bike, and I struggle a lot going downhill when I’m on a 26er hardtail. In addition, I raced this past weekend, so my legs are still pretty tired. Just keep that in mind when I talk about how the bike rode.

OK, so, what did I think of the bike? Well, rolling out of the parking lot, I noticed a good bit slower acceleration. Not a huge deal, but noticeable. I dropped into lower Sycamore, and liked the bike pretty much from the first hundred yards. Not only does it roll over stuff like everyone says it does, it also has loads more traction than a 26er when climbing on rooty terrain. That made me pretty happy right there, as I was able to clean stuff even after messing up some lines that would have stopped my Epic in its tracks. So, climbing on technical stuff? Check.

Going up Black Mountain, I did notice a lot of sluggishness. Trying to stand up pedaling was a bit harder, and I felt like I was wrestling the bike the whole time. I was able to sit down a good bit more than I would have been able to riding a 26er, but was definitely still on a hardtail. Again, what I am seeing as sluggishness is likely largely the responsibility of tired legs and a difference in equipment quality levels, but it was still there. I also noticed that the front wheel seemed to wander a good bit on the slower parts of Black. However, I felt like the bike really shone once I got it up to speed on the flatter parts. It definitely felt like there was some momentum behind me.

How about going downhill? Well, all of the stuff that I rode was fairly straight, without any of the tight turns that are usually found on a race course in the area. Going down Thrift, I noticed that I had more traction on the looser turns, and I didn’t really have a problem switching sides on an s-berm section. On Sycamore, the big wheels didn’t really shine as much on the really rooty sections. It was definitely better than a 26er hardtail, but not anywhere near as smooth as a fully. This made me realize something though… I had been comparing the bike to a full suspension, when I really needed to be comparing it to a 26in hardtail. This realization changed a lot. Instead of expecting plush, I began expecting fast. And the bike actually was.

All of that looks pretty positive, doesn’t it? It is. So will I be getting one for next year? No. In spite of all of the good things that I have mentioned here, I still don’t think it is a good race bike. It rolls over Pisgah stuff really well, and if you are looking for the simplicity of a hardtail without the punishment, a 29er could be a good option. However, as much as I think they would be OK for a fun riding bike, I really don’t see it as a race bike, particularly not around here. It is just too sluggish accelerating and climbing. Maybe out west where you have courses without a lot of turns, but on the east coast, there is just too much turning and changing directions to have the bigger wheels make sense. I am going to ride it a few more times to see if I get a different feel for it, but for now, I will be sticking with 26 inch wheels…

Also, as an aside, Julia is awesome.

Needed: Dry Weather.

2009-09-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure what the deal with Brevard College Cycling is (or actually the SECCC in general), but we always seem to end up racing in the rain. The past two weekends have been mudfests of the highest degree, destroying many a bike in a very short period of time. I’m actually over it.

Since I’ve not written in a very long time, I’ll give you a really brief recap of my races and life. Two weeks ago, the team traveled to Lees McRae for the second weekend in a row, and after a dry and very successful weekend (for me personally and for the team) the week before, we hit some really gnarly conditions. The races were still fairly successful, but the gnarly factor made everyone feel a little less excited about the racing. I had a terrible day in the XC, and then didn’t race DH because of the weather. Short track went just as badly, as I got dropped out of the gate and then spent the rest of the race trying to see and stay on my bike.

This weekend was the Brevard home race, which, once again, was totally awesome. The team cleaned up (as usual) and in spite of the torrential rains on Saturday, kept it together to sweep all but one of the day’s events. I had some really bad luck during the short track, but eventually made my way back up from the very back of the field to finish 10^th. XC on Sunday was amazingly dry considering how wet it was the day before. I managed a season best 7^th on a course that really didn’t suit me at all. I think that was mostly due to the insane cheering section on the most technical section of the course. The local Brevard people are awesome.

Other than racing, I’ve been trying to keep up with school. And unlike Julia, I haven’t really had much to stay ahead of. It got a little crazy for a couple of days last week when I had two tests that needed doing, but other than that, it’s been a really easy semester. Hopefully after racing gets done it will remain easy so I have lots of time to go out and just ride. I really want to get out on my mountain bike and hit up some seasonal trails… I’ve been looking forward to that all year.

Stay dry Brevard!

My Line of Thought...

2009-09-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this weekend... it was fun. I love that course. I think I do well on it. Most of the time anyway. Except when I think about it a lot and need to do well and don't. Then it kinda sucks. I did have fun this weekend though. I was killing it on the climbs. And although I have descended better in my life, I definitely was going pretty good. I do need some new brakes though… mine weren’t hooking up so well. I should probably get those before next weekend on the same course.Yeah. I got 7^th using non-functioning brakes though, so that’s pretty good. 9^th in the short track too, which is good, but not really dependent on brakes. Definitely a good weekend.

Except for the slalom thing. Just for future reference, if you are in the start gate of a ghetto dual slalom race where the race official is talking to the incompetent timer through a radio about when to start the clock, don’t stop his countdown at the end. The timer at the bottom may start the timer anyway and then forget that you aren’t going yet and just give you the time from when he started the first time. That sucks. Cause I really wanted to qualify. Oh well. Same course next weekend.

I will say though that the massive talent vacuum I left when my time got messed up was covered nicely by the rest of our gravity team holding it down all weekend. There are some major players wearing the Brevard kit this season. And that Tristan Cowie? The boy is a beast. 6^th qualifier in slalom?Winning the XC after breaking his chain? I think he turns into a monster when he has a mechanical and goes even faster than he usually would (and that’s pretty fast to begin with). Way to go Brevard.Awesomeness.

Hmm, I want some food… I should go get some. I got some awesome stuff this morning thanks to Baker Bill… those special edition apple thingies were off the hook. I was so happy.

Julia’s birthday is tomorrow… I can’t wait for the madness that is sure to ensue. Bike riding?Pescado’s? Bike meetings? Bar hopping? I hope she’s satisfied… I think that she has more planned for her birthday than anyone else in the history of the world. Get ready Brevard. It is going to be straight insane tomorrow night… Julia turns 21.

The Good, The Bad, and uhh...

2009-09-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged, but there really hasn't been much going on to speak of. I started school back up, which is cool, although I still haven't really gotten back into the swing of things. It usually takes me a good while to get back up to speed, but after two weeks, I'm still just waiting to figure out what's going on.

As a result of my confusion in school, I haven't been riding very much at all. Even in the two weeks that I had not racing, I haven't ridden more than like 7 hours. It's freaking weak. And the worst part is, I don't know where all of my time is going. I'm really not in class all that much, and I'm not working hardly at all, and that's about it. There aren't all that many demands on my time, I just don't know where it is all going.

And I'll also go ahead and say, people really don't want to buy stuff right now... I've been trying hard to sell a hardtail (haha), but haven't had any success. Ebay isn't working out so well, and all of the classified ads sites are pretty much just full of scammers. No one wants to buy anything. I was really hoping to have something a little more trail/gravity worthy than a hardtail race bike, but no dice. Oh well.

And now for the good news... I just got a new phone. Again. And it's way better than my old one that kept messing up every week or so. Sweet. Also, I get to race again this weekend, and hopefully I will have a little bit better time than I did last weekend.

Now I have to go look for something for Julia Goolia's birthday. It's her 21st, and while I'm pretty sure that one is overrated, she is pretty excited. I think I have some ideas, but I guess I'd better come through with something good.

Stormtroopers

2009-09-02T06:44:00.001-07:00

http://wildammo.com/2009/08/09/what-stormtroopers-do-on-their-day-off/

Good stuff.

School vs. Summer

2009-08-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

It seems the summer is finally over... school starts tomorrow, and I have to say, I'm pumped. I am actually looking forward to being in class. Weird, especially considering 3 months ago I never wanted anything to do with school again. But I've got a good schedule this year, and most of my classes should be fairly interesting.

I also start racing this weekend, which is also awesome. I've been waiting for so long to get back to collegiate mountain biking, I almost can't believe it's here. It really doesn't seem like that long ago when we were standing on the podium at nationals for 4th place... not this year. I like to think that we've stepped up our game quite a bit from the last time anyone saw us. I can't wait to see what happens this season.

This summer has been pretty good though, up until the last couple of weeks. I've had fun chillin, and pretty much everything was working out for me. I got to ride a lot, and worked a lot too. Actually, that's pretty much all my summer consisted of. Other than a rough patch right at the beginning, its been smooth sailing. Unfortunately, instead of going into school completely happy though, there are a couple of things that aren't so great right now. I think that summer was just too good, and now I'm paying for using up all the goodness. I don't know how that even works, it just seems like a few things have kinda fallen apart. I guess we shall see how things progress going into school.

Anyway, other than that little aside, racing starts this weekend, as I've said. I should be keeping this updated more often, and hopefully will post something from ETSU this weekend.

Later

Fall is Coming

2009-08-18T07:03:00.000-07:00

There comes a time every summer when, quite suddenly, I am ready for fall. This year it was a little longer coming on than usual, but all the same, I have a desire for cooler weather. This time around it was triggered by a visit to a very cool and windy parkway. Something about that was like, "hey, I need a sweatshirt. I am ready for cool." I would like to make the distinciton between "cool" and "cold." Cold is what happens after New Years. Up until then, you are either in fall (which is awesome), or early winter (which still has racing, and looking forward to Christmas, and the end of the semester). After New Years, there is nothing to look forward to except spring, meaning that you very quickly lose your interest in cool and it very quickly just becomes a miserable, bone chilling, mood-killing weather pattern.

I think that cool weather is fairly tied together with this, but I am also ready for school to start. I want to see all of my friends, and I want to learn, and most of all, I want to race. I don't know why I am looking forward so much to getting back in class, I think that I just want structure in my life. I also want the Bracken Mountain Hang Out time to start up again.

I've been going out to Adventure Village a lot here recently with Julia, working on my mad skilz. Last night we went out and saw Dan, Danny, Chaput, Herndon, and Sarah, and rode with them for a bit. I am feeling pretty good on the Slalom track, and except for Danny and Dan showing me up pretty badly, am looking forward to some racing. The only problem is, our track is very much unlike anything else we will race, so I'm not sure how prepared I'll be for normal racing. Julia has improved greatly though, and should be able to hold her own pretty well this season.

And now I have to go eat some Cinnamon Raisin Bread from Bracken Mountain. It's going to be awesome.

Chicken Salad?

2009-08-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

I don't understand why people feel like celery in chicken salad is an improvement. I mean, there really isn't a flavor from it, and all that you really get is a terrible overly crunchy texture. If you already have apples in there, then honestly, how much more crunch do you need? Do people put it in there just to take up space to make it look like there is more than there is? Or just to feel better about themselves? If you want crunchy, go buy a Heath Bar. They are tastier and better for you.

On another note, if you are ever considering buying a Santa Cruz Blur, don't. Trust me, there will be a mechanic somewhere someday who thanks you. I know this because I just spent 2 hours trying to change the bearings in a siezed up bike, and I believe that it was the most frustrating repair that I have ever done. All of the trouble with the bearings was compounded by unrelated issues with the bottom bracket, a flat tire, and cable and housing, but still, the bearings go bad way too often for them to be that hard to change.

Also, I will be looking into finding a company who is looking to pay me to advertise for them with my car. I have heard that these programs exist, but that the hard part is finding a company looking for people to advertise on. So if you know of anyone, let me know.

Finally, and I'm really pumped about this one, I have decided to race gravity as well as endurance stuff this coming season. While I will still be focusing on my strengths, I also want to broaden my horizons to include some other disiplines. This means that I will be spending a good amount of time practicing my skills and honing my ninja reflexes and balance. So yeah, I'm pumped about it. Like I said. I can't wait to see what I can do at something I never thought I would be any good at.

Fontana

2009-08-02T19:07:00.000-07:00

Man, I've not raced in the mud in a long time... I've forgotten how much fun it is. Well, if you are prepared that is. I showed up to Fontana thinking that it might be muddy, and I was honestly just looking for a chance to use my spikes. After driving through the rain the entire way out there, I decided to switch out the tires before the start.

We had a 20 yard road start followed by a steep climb that everyone was saying was unridable. I even had someone tell me that it was impossible. I kinda took that as a personal challenge, and started as hard as I could to get ahead of everyone else. I cleaned the whole thing, and ended up gapping everyone by a good 30 seconds within the first mile. I rode at the front for a while until one of those damn Cycle Youth boys caught me right at the top of the climb. I started rolling down on his wheel when I cut my sidewall bad. Usually I wouldn't panic, but for some reason, it took me a solid 5 minutes to get it changed (sad, I know). By the time I got rolling again, I had been passed by my entire field, as well as the whole field behind me. Good stuff.

I killed it for the next 2.5 laps, passing almost everyone who went by while I was fixing my flat, and pulled it back for 2nd. I think I made up some time on Cory, but that was probably due to a lot more motivation on my part. The mud spikes hooked up, and I don't think I've ever ridden the mud that well. All of the downhills were completely awesome too. I love being faster on stuff like that than anyone else around me. I also seem to be coming along pretty well with my fitness. I'm looking forward to getting really fast in about a month and a half.

Oh yeah, mad props to Geoff B. for winning the SS race on a borrowed bike with the wrong size wheels. I think it was Talent's picture on the front that did it for him.

Now it's time to head out to Adventure Village to finish the trails out there for our race this fall. Should be fun. And painful. Dan is hitting the DH course for some new lines, and I think that we are going to put some new stuff in for the XC too. As long as it's not raining, it should be a good race.

Top Speed

2009-07-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R9qmX6FmwQ

This is my aspiration in life... to be a bike rider featured on a car show.

Also, I'm racing at Fontana this weekend. I don't think that it will be muddy like it used to be, but hey, I would be cool with it if it was. Although I won't be racing a car.

On the Road Again

2009-07-20T12:29:00.001-07:00

So this past weekend, I did another road race. Voluntarily. I know what you must be thinking... "didn't you get enough of that during the collegiate season?" Well, apparently I hadn't, because I found myself signed up for 3 events in the French Broad Cycling Classic. My expectations were low, since my only experience with road racing had been against people who were significantly stronger than me when I had no idea what I was doing.

So I lined up for the TT on Friday night in full speed demon getup. I had borrowed a TT bike from Josh S. and had his sperm helmet to complement my skinsuit. After hearing from everyone that I shouldn't go too hard from the start, I went out conservitively, and ended up feeling pretty good. I averaged 28.14 mph for 26.5 minutes, and walked away with a 2nd place finish. I was pretty happy with that.

On Saturday I did the road race, which was apparently unlike any other event in the country. It was a 40 mile point to point race that finished up a 2 mile steepish climb. I managed to make the main selection in the race halfway through up the first big climb, and then managed 3rd out of the main group, and 8th overall behind an early break. I was actually pretty happy with that, since I didn't expect to do much on the climb, but really felt good and passed a bunch of people late in the game.

I went into the Sunday crit trailing by one point in the omnium standings, so I was thinking that I would have a pretty good shot at the omnium, since I was sure I would be able to best the climbers that had beaten me the day before. I knew I was in over my head though when before the race I got accosted by one of the rival teams who, once they found out who I was, told me that they would be marking me and not letting me win, but that I shouldn't take it personally. Whatever.

That got me a little worked up, so I was like, "fine. You want to play that way, lets go." Only cooler and in a more dramatic fashion. I got the hole shot at the start, and proceeded to do some work at the front. I pretty much single handedly chased down every attack and made pace for most of the race. At one point, after being stupid at the front for 3 laps, I was hurting a little bit and decided to sit in and recover for half a lap. Then I went again. After I pretty much destroyed the team that told me to watch out, I was right where I needed to be on the final lap, 2 wheels back. On the flat before turn 3 I attacked the group and blitzed into the corner just a little too hard. I ended up overcooking the turn and doing a little mountain biking trying to get back on course. By the time I got back on track I was well in the back and held on for 26th place.

I still ended up 3rd in the omnium, which was pretty cool since I went into the weekend unsure of what to expect. I feel good about it since I was stronger than I thought I would be. Cat 3 is definitely where I belong for the time being, and since I don't expect to be upgrading any time soon, that's a good thing. At the moment, I'm just looking forward to racing some more.

The Next Level

2009-07-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a long while since I've blogged. Here is a summary of my life since then: ride lots, work some, shower, eat, sleep. Pretty much it. Good times.

So yeah, I've been working really hard trying to get ready for the next part of my season. Unlike most people, my season is just getting started. I've got a full collegiate mountain bike season, followed by (hopefully) a full cross season. That means that I'll be racing until mid december. Since I've already been going since january, its going to be fun. I know I need to not only get ready for the long haul, but I also need to step up my game so that I'm no longer, as someone recently told me, "mediocre." I'm not promising anything great, but I do want to go to the next level.

For some people, the next level is a lot cooler than is it for me, but I'm just hoping to get to where I can either dominate the cat 1 field next year or move to pro. I'm also looking to hit this collegiate season hard, with a solid result at nationals.

Speaking of which, I've never had a good race at any national level event. Ever. I've had bad days, terrible days, race ending mechanicals, and crashes. But never an event that I was happy with. My goal this year is a top 7 in either the XC or STXC, and I'm going all out to make that happen. I'm done with racing like crap in my biggest races.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I'm sitting next to Thad right now as he sets up a training program for me. Hopefully it will push me to where I need to be.

Rain much?

2009-06-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a 3 hour road ride in the rain. It was awesome. I started out under sunny skies, and the weather was perfect for about 45 minutes. Then it started to sprinkle. "No big deal," I thought. I can handle a little drizzle. I had planned a ride that was pretty much up and down the entire time, and was looking forward to some of the climbs on the route. After about an hour of drizzling, the rain stopped and it looked like it was clearing up. Not so much. I started hearing some serious thunder and then about 2 hours into my ride, the bottom fell out. Now, I have ridden in a lot of heavy rain, and I won't say that this was even close to some of what I've been through weather wise, but it was pretty heavy all the same. I managed to finish the 3 hours, and with about 15 minutes to go, the rain stopped and the sun came out in full force.

The best part is, I feel like I accomplished something today. Such as:

1. I made the weather my bitch. That's right. My bitch.

2. I gained a little bit of toughness both mentally and physically.

3. I found a new way to keep a cell phone dry in an unexpected rain. The first way that I have used for years is the empty water bottle method. However, since it started raining at the beginning of my ride, and I didn't want to dump all my liquids, I had to get creative. While I was thinking, I noticed that people litter a lot. I also realized that a lot of what they throw out could be useful in keeping something dry. So I kept my eyes open for a couple of seconds, and found a discarded ziplock bag. Problem solved.

4. I peed off the bike for the first time today. It was awesome. I felt very pro... peeing off the bike while riding in the rain. Good times. The only issue is, it is very hard to find a stretch of road that is either flat or slightly downhill for long enough to do this properly. You also have to watch out for houses...

5. I was reminded of how excruciating going downhill at 45mph in the pouring rain is.

6. I found a new species of frog. Well, probably not actually, but I was riding by the river, and looked at the road, and there were hundreds of tiny frogs, all slightly smaller than a cheerio, hopping across the road. Hundreds.

7. I had a blast riding my road bike in the rain, by myself, for 3 hours. I don't know why.

Bummer

2009-05-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well, the biggest event of the season is behind me, and now I don't know what to do. I think I might try to go to Alabama for the Bump and Grind national, but at the moment I am lacking any kind of motivation, particularly after last year's debacle. We shall see. The logistics are proving to be harder than I thought they would be.

12 Hours of Tsali was a blast. This is the first year that I have been decently happy with my laps, and while I wasn't having a GREAT day on the bike, I was having a blast during the day. We pretty much got our butts kicked from lap one, and ended up being not even in the same playing field as the other teams, but who cares. I was only 25 seconds off of Wes D for one of my laps, and who could complain about that??? (I suppose someone REALLY fast, like Sauser or Tristan, could, cause then they would obviously be having a bad day)

The Sycamore team was out in force, and it seemed like a good time was had by all, and that's what mattered. Our sport team won, our women's team won, and our solo man won. It was a good day.

On a different note, I am trying to figure out what I want to do this summer... what I thought I would be doing kinda fell through, and other than some odd bike camps here and there, I really don't know what will be going on. I'm guessing I will be trying to get fast on the bike, which seems like a pretty good idea, but still, it won't fill a summer completely.

Anyone want to hang out?

blahh

2009-05-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

I've kinda been not very motivated to blog. Like at all. I went to nationals in Colorado, drove all the way there too, and you didn't hear a peep out of me on the blog. Had some good times, didn't talk about them at all. I'm done with school now, but didn't feel like talking about it online. Had fun hanging out, went on some good rides, had some funny stories, but none of them were enough to spur me to writing.

At the moment, I am hanging out in a kick ass hotel in downtown Winston-Salem, chillin and living the high life, but that's not why I'm writing my blog. I mean, I'm having fun, its good times, but nothing to write the web about.

I just wanted to let you know that I'm not dead. I really did plan to write some stuff during nationals, but kinda got bored and lost my motivation. I think after school let out, I no longer had the drive to do anything. Maybe someday I'll get it back, and maybe someday I'll have something interesting to say too.

Driving anyone?

2009-05-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

I've never posted a blog from a car before... I've written one while driving across California and then posted it during a Starbucks stop, but never posted while driving 85 down the interstate. Good times. Speaking of which, Thad is pinned.

I just finished driving from 9:53am to 2:12pm, which seems like it should be about 4 hours and 19 minutes, but actually ended up being 5 hours and 19 minutes due to a time warp somewhere between starting and stopping that leg of the trip.

In that period of time, I figured out the difference between my driving and Thad's...

I plan out my driving at least 2 moves in advance. When I come up on someone, I look around and see what the best option is for getting around them but also what that will mean 10 seconds down the road and then what happens after that. I never go into a corner without a way to get back out. That means that I tend to be a little smoother and less erratic; using the brakes and gas less. It also means that I sometimes miss moves because I think too long, and I rarely am overly aggressive.

Thad is all about the short game. He takes a move based on what he sees first, reacting without always thinking about what is going to happen next. This means that he is good with making snap decisions and sometimes gets places quicker, but also means that he tends to be very jerky and come into stuff too hot.

Anyway, this is a long drive. And I'm trying to decide between watching a movie, writing a paper, and reading a book...

I think I'm gonna read.

The Devil Went Down to Georgia

2009-04-27T17:10:00.001-07:00

Related video worth checking out...

The team went down to Georgia, we were looking for a race to win. We was in a bind 'cause we were out of time: and we was tryin’ to grab a meal.
When we came across a late night race around the block where all the racers were hot.
And the Hoo jumped up on a great big fence and said: "Boys let me tell you what: "I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a bike racer too."
And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
"Now you ride a pretty hot lap, boys, but give our team their due: I bet a night’s sleep against your watts, 'cause I think we’re better than you."
Skeletor said: "My face is creepy and it might just be a sin, But I'll take your bet, your gonna regret, 'cause I'm the sketchiest that's ever been."

Racers pump up your tires and rip your bike real hard.
'Cause hells broke loose in Georgia and the Manimal deals the cards.
And if you win you get this shiny bike here made of gold.
But if you lose, the monster mile gets your soul.

T Cowie opened up his whoop ass case and said: "I'll start this show."
And fire flew from his shaven legs as he sprinted hard to go.
And he pulled the train across the trail and skeletor made an evil hiss.
Then a band of pros joined in the chase and it sounded something like this.
(insert BRAAAP)
When the race had finished, Tristan said: "Well you're pretty good ol' sons.
But when I get back from Germany I'll have to show ya’ll how it’s done."

And we played fire on the mountain, ride boys, ride.
828’s in the house of the risin' sun.
We up in the bakery pickin' out dough.
"Granny gear off, it’s a big dog show!"
"Go, team, go!."

The Kenda boys bowed their heads because they knew that they'd been beat.
They laid that golden bike on the ground at Tristan’s feet.
Tristan said: "Ya’ll just come on back if you ever want to try again.
I told you once, you sons of a bitches, we're the best that's ever been."

And we played fire on the mountain, ride boys, ride.
828’s in the house of the risin' sun.
We up in the bakery pickin' out dough.
"Granny gear off, it’s a big dog show!"
"Go, team, go!"

2009-04-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

I just woke up... ish. I've not been able to sleep past 7 for the past couple of weeks, so I'm pumped to get some more sleep. Particularly with this weekend coming. We're going to go down to Georgia and watch Twilight, and then drive back up to Winder to race some mountain bikes. It's gonna be fun. Good times, cool people, not much sleep, lots of bikes. Awesome.

Also, I've been reading Todd Wells' blog, and it's a pretty cool view into the world cup racing stuff. It's also cool since he always trains with Susi and Burry. Anyway, if you're bored, check it out here.

And school is finally close to being done. I've got a week and a half of classes left, and a whole bunch of stuff to do before I can be done. Yep. I really should be doing that now, but hey, I'm apparently a slacker.

I just found out an interesting statistic about Twitter, just in case anyone is thinking of opening an account... 35% of all Twitter posters have only 5 people following their posts. That's kinda depressing and not really worth it.

Kinda like blogging.

Later.

Hey

2009-04-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I reckon it's been a while since my last post... I reckon this because Julia tells me every day that it's been a while since my last post. The thing is though, not all that much has happened since then.

BC hosted our very own road race, and I'll go ahead and say that it was awesome and was probably better put on than collegiate nats will be thanks to a certain Squirrel and his posse. The A men sucked it up in the road race, with me sucking the hardest (wind that is) after getting dropped on Walnut Hollow on the last lap. I don't think any of us scored any points. Julia held on for 6th in the A women, which was pretty good considering who she was up against. Other props to Jami and Joh for their double win this weekend.

The crit went a little bit better for all involved... Apparently it was an awesome course as far as crits go, but since I've never done another crit, I just thought it was an awesome crit in general. Tristan was on the gas for the first couple of laps, and just about dropped me doing it. After he got off the front, a group of 6 went off the front, and the following chase led to me being popped off the back. I was able to chase back on to the main group, and sat in until the break lapped us. As they were coming by, Tristan and I jumped into the train during the confusion, and rode with them for the last 10 minutes. Captain America jumped hard with a lap to go, and I figured that I would give it a shot with him. I was catching back on when he did a little bit of showing off and railed a turn faster than I thought was possible and put a couple of bike lengths into me. After that I just rode as hard as I could so that the group behind me wouldn't catch back on and ended up finishing just ahead of the chase for 9th place. I mean, it's not great, but I'm happy.
And yeah, Julia was awesome, taking her fury out on some stupid fast people on the last lap and taking a very impressive 3rd place. I think it bodes well for her national's experience.

In other, non-bike related things, I am pinned with school right now. The trip to nationals is up in the air (ooh, look... bike related) and so I'm having to plan to have everything done a week and a half early as if we were actually going. Moving exams sucks. And I'm tired of cramming knowledge in my head in mass quantities. And I was going to do some work on a paper, but my fingers apparently aren't working, and I keep making stupid typing mistakes, and Capitalizing things That don'T need To be, and can't seem to get it together, so I don't think I will.

Also, it has come to my attention that I have a follower. That's right... one follower. I'm not sure what that means, but I looked to see who it was, and I would like to thank Liz for caring about me and my blog. Even if no one else does.

Group Rides and Hangouts

2009-04-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

First off, I would like to say that the BMB hangout this morning was totally awesome. Totally. I got to hang out with some awesome people for a couple of hours while eating some totally awesome food and drinking an awesome drink (that no one else respects the deliciousness of except for me). Thank you Tellman family (and Julia for the drink). If you haven't been to a hangout, you should come. They're the jam.

Second, I went on the Sycamore Cycles group ride last night. It was super fun. There were 20 people who headed out with us, and I would say the general vibe was pretty much just people lovnig to ride their bikes. We rode Twin Falls, which usually isn't my favorite ride, but last night it was hooking up. The usual group pinned it up the climb, which was alright, and then chilled going down the singletrack. Props to Julia for being a badass and keeping up with the fast guys on the climb, and then killing it on the road back (I'm pretty sure she took a flyer near the sprint just to see if she could sneak away with it). And props to Wes D for winning the most important sprint of the week over some really tough competition. Anyway, good ride. Good times. The only thing that I'm bummed about is the fact that Julia and I had to skip out on Chapala to go to class that only ended up lasting for about 20 minutes and didn't require us to be there. That sucked.

And now it's raining. And not just raining, but full on storming. Like with lightning and stuff. And I have to walk to class shortly. It's a good thing this campus is so small, or I would be soaked walking to the other side.

And my wrist hurts. So I think I'm gonna stop typing now. Yeah.

Pancakes

2009-03-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

I had pancakes, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I always am slightly excited when pancakes are mentioned or offered for breakfast, and so I always go into eating them with a good mindset. However, I always seem to be let down at the end. I always feel terrible after eating them, and I don't actually remember ever actually enjoying them all that much. It is definitely one of those experiences that I probably should try to avoid, but always forget until too late.

And at the moment, I am still working this camp. I've washed and tuned more bikes than I care to recall. Today there is a 100% chance of rain and heavy thunderstorms. Awesome. I feel sorry for the people riding at the camp and "racing" in the AOTC. They are going to have good times. Hopefully this afternoon's ride will be cancelled.

It's been raining so much, that the ground has been significantly wet, which means 2 things. First, mountain biking isn't going to happen for a while, and second, the sides of the roads are soft enough to get a car stuck, a fact that I proved yesterday when I got the rental van stuck on the side of the road. We had to get some help from dirty Wes D and his truck to get it out (thanks Wes).

I got to hang out with the girlfriend last night for a bit, right up until I totally crashed at 10. That is the only social interaction I've had outside of camp since I've been here. I'm looking forward to some hangout time when I get done here.

Pinned

2009-03-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

I'm working a CTS camp right now as a mechanic. It's awesome. It's also very very exhausting. I washed 30 bikes last night, then tuned them all up. Nice. I didn't finish until 11:00, and got back to the hotel this morning at 6:30. And then I get to repeat it all again for the next 3 days. Good stuff. I've not done anything but bikes for the last 3 days.

The side effect of all of this is that I am totally disconnected from the rest of the world. As far as I am concerned, the rest of the world seems to not exist. I did get to ride the trainer yesterday for 45 minutes. Got some power intervals done. Suffered badly. That's about it.

And I'm really glad that I'm not doing the Assault. There is a bad weather vibe hanging around here recently, and it looks like it's going to stay around for a bit longer. I'm kinda glad I've not been able to ride. Although if I get a chance to ride this afternoon, I'm doing it rain or shine.

Hobby Park

2009-03-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

I did my first mountain bike race of the season this weekend... I did OK, but the point is, I DID MY FIRST MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE OF THE SEASON!!!! It made me happy. I felt OK which was good, since I was a little concerned about where I was with my fitness. But the season is looking like it should be a good one. I don't actually have any idea where I finished, but I didn't blow up and felt strong and finished, so it seems to be all good.

It's also warm. Which is good. And I'm about to go earn some money with a CTS camp. Which is also good. Particularly since I've spent the whole winter without any funds. That was not good.

Finally, it is way too early for me to be overly eager for the semester to end. However, spring fever has hit me. Not cool. As of now, I have 29 days of classes left (not counting weekends). That's 696 hours, or 41,760 minutes, or 2,505,600 seconds. And that second count is less now than when I wrote it. Sweet. I can feel the end coming soon.

Road Racing = School

2009-03-18T19:46:00.001-07:00

There is a simple reason for this statement...

I've noticed that with school, there are definite periods when you have nothing to do as far as studying. These periods are followed by periods of intense work and catch up that you didn't see coming and that you frantically try to hold onto life until it calms down.

Road racing has the same surge-rest pattern.

Anyone else think that this is a grand plan by the man trying to hold you down???

Roadie?

2009-03-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

The race went OK this weekend, I got like 10th in the field sprint, which was totally weak, and I don't really have any excuse. It was a totally interesting/not interesting in the least race. But yeah, training and racing is going well... I'm not feeling great in the races, but I think I might be possibly coming around. Maybe.

And I've decided that I'm not a roadie. I just don't get the whole thing. They are just too long, and there isn't anything really decisive in most of the races. As an example of this, I was riding with a guy who is SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than anyone else in the field, and certainly a whole lot stronger than me. If it came down to just raw power and speed, he would beat me every time by a mile. However, I finished on his wheel in one race this weekend, and beat him in the other race, entirely because there was nothing to separate us. If it had been a mountain bike race, he would have ridden away from everyone and beat me by 20 minutes.

The point of all of that is, it really doesn't matter THAT much how strong you are, it's all about getting lucky. I enjoy riding my road bike most of the time, but I always enjoy riding my mountain bike. As far as racing goes, mountain biking is a whole lot more fun. Mostly because you don't have to worry about crossing wheels with people every second of every race. And finally, it's because in mountain biking, you go as fast as you (personally) can for the whole time. In collegiate road racing at least, you go as hard as you can for 10 seconds, then sit up for 10 seconds, then repeat over and over until the race is over. Awesome.

OK, I'm going mountain biking.

GT Roadie Race

2009-03-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

The Brevard boys and girls just finished the first of 2 road races at Georgia Tech for the weekend, and let me tell you, it was off the hook. I didn't feel great, so I pretty much just sat on the back for the whole race. I got a shot at the field sprint, and felt pretty good about taking it, but just as I was making my pass, a LMC rider sat up from his pull and came over on me hard core. I ended up getting pushed off the road onto the shoulder, and by the time I got back on it, I was pretty much at the back of the pack. It was awesome. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to pick it up just a little bit. Actually, I guess I had better pick it up since Squirrel got on me for sitting on the back too much today.

Tristan and Marshal held it down, doing a lot more work than I did and still beating me in the sprint. Good job guys. The girlfriend held it down, and after bridging back up to the break, ended up 3rd in the sprint. Although I guess she could have told you that.

It was good times. Now I get to do it all again tomorrow. Sweet. And then I get to go to class on Monday. I LOVE being a collegiate athlete...

Shredding the Cabbage.

2009-03-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

I went and hit up some Caney Bottom and Long Branch today with Julia, Joh, Dan, and a new recruit for some sick single track action. We left from Bracken Mountain after some pastry eating, and headed down to the shop to grab my shoes. The trails were hooking up like they were made of duct tape, and there wasn't a puddle in sight. It started raining just as we got back to the parking lot, and I would say that we timed the ride pretty much perfectly. Today was the first time that I have really felt super comfortable on my bike, and trust me, it's a really good feeling.

I just put a new, wider bar on my bike, and finally got my new double crank, which is pretty much off the chain. Except not really. It's attached to the chain, and so far I haven't had any problems with dropping the chain either. So it's pretty much just awesome. Yeah.

And I was thinking about something, and because this is an area of my life that I catch a lot of flak for, I guess I best explain myself. I like nice bikes. I do. I have 3 of them. 2 of them are each worth more than my car. They both are very very close to the top of the line everything. I have them set up exactly how I want them, and I can't really think of anything that I would change on either of them.

All of that being said, they certainly don't make me any faster than I was on my last 3 or 4 bikes, and I don't think that the half a pound that I was so happy to lose from bike to bike is going to make a bit of difference on the trail. I think that people often convince themselves that having a nicer part, or nicer wheels, or even a nicer complete bike will make them faster than they were on the last, slightly less nice bike that they had. The reality is, though, if you started on a decent bike, the minor changes that you make when moving to a higher level of component really don't make all that much of a difference.

vs.

So why do I have such sick machines? Simple. I love nice bikes. I like the way they work like they are supposed to. I like the way the look. I like the ride that you get from them. I like the X factor of a really nicely riding bike. I'm pretty much just a bike geek, and having really nice bikes is just something that gets me excited. I think that nice bikes are just more fun to ride, and since I have the opportunity to have a couple, why not go for it?

Spring

2009-03-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm really enjoying the weather right now. I started spring break during the first real warm wave that we've had, and let me tell you what, it's awesome. I'm pretty sure that all of the bad feelings I was having towards the world were heavily related to the cold. And I know that the coldness will come back (at the end of the week, apparently), but it is just the promise of spring that makes it all OK.

Anyway, we raced down in Clemson this weekend, which was awesome, largely because of the weather that I've been talking about. I got a bad case of cyclists sunburn, which kinda lets you know how good the weather was. I got mid pack somewhere in both the RR and the Crit, but can't tell you exactly how I did because they still don't have results posted. Good stuff. They aren't up from a week and a half ago either.

After some heavy training this week, I am going to be racing in southish Georgia this weekend. Unfortunately they are having 2 road races and no crits, so my "crit legs" aren't going to be able to come out and play. Not that they are all that good right now anyway, but whatever.

Enjoying spring break, but already bored. Awesome.

Later nerds.

Road Racing Makes You Sick (RRMYS)

2009-03-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

Yep, you heard me right... SICK. Again. Freaking road racing. I hate being sick, it really sucks.

I raced in N. GA on Sunday for my first road race this year (and incidentally my second road race ever), and the rain was hating on some riders from the beginning. We knew that it was going to be bad, but I don't think anyone expected the conditions to be as bad as they ended up being. In fact, I think that out of a 30ish rider starting A field, only the 4 or 5 who were in the leading break finished the race. Only 2 riders from BC finished, both of them the least experienced in road racing. The rest of us are weak.

Apparently though, dropping out before I completely froze wasn't enough to keep me from getting sick again. This makes 2 times in a year, and even worse, 2 times in a month. I don't actually ever get sick, so this is pretty frustrating. Hopefully I'll be back on it for this weekend so that I can help BC bring the pain. Maybe. I've noticed that neither Wells or I (or probably Tristan) are really ready for high end LT stuff like covering attacks and sprinting up the hills. There are a lot of guys out there who have been doing that for a while already this year, and it is definitely hurting so far.

Also, it has come to my attention that my lunch is cold. I probably should go heat that up so that I don't end up with some cold food disease. I also have several tests this week that I need to be studying for. Peace.

Dahlonega

2009-02-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

So, I'm down here at the Cowie house rocking out on some road bikes in the rain. This morning was awesome, we had a TTT at 9. We started in the rain. We finished in the rain. We got 3rd. We raced 2 other teams. We were done and headed back to the house by 10:30, and have been hanging out ever since. We've had a really good time.

There has been some killer food thanks to the Cowie mom and dad, and I think I might puke if I eat another of their awesome cookies. Tristan, squirrel, Julia and I played Halo for a while today, that was sweet. Julia killed us all. I took a nap for a while, and then came back to playing Halo. It's been full on all day. We were finally forced to play some kind of salad game by the girls, and even though we were getting manhandled by the overwhelming girl factor going on, we stuck it out to the end. Not sure why I told you all of that. Maybe just to give you an idea of how pinned we have been today.

Tomorrow is going to be another awesome rainy day, maybe even snowy. I'm looking forward to it immensely. Really.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Three

2009-02-25T20:54:00.000-08:00

Thanks to some cleverness by coach squirrel, I am now a cat 3 road racer, despite only having done 1 road race (in cat 5). I am also an A collegiate racer. Although I remain a cat 5 in track... I guess that is the next thing I should work on. Anyway, look for a new member of the Jeff Parker lead out train coming to a race near you. Maybe I can take the KOP's spot since he has sworn off all road racing from here on.

Speaking of the KOP, he was told by a certain someone that he could get a certain placing in the pro field at a certain race because his power numbers were at a certain level. Well, looking strictly at my power numbers vs. the KOP's power numbers (watts per kg in a LT test), we are pretty closely matched at that level. So, if you look at just the numbers, I should be able to get the same placing at said race. However, I'm pretty sure that isn't the case. While I don't really doubt his chances at getting that finish, I know that I couldn't come near it. He is a good bit faster than me.

That just shows a weakness of a power meter. They aren't the end all be all. There is a lot more that needs to come together to produce a good race. Keep that in mind all you power meter'ers out there. Power is only one aspect of bike racing. Don't get too carried away with it.
(I really hope that made some sort of sense... I'm not sure that it came out right, but it was fine in my head.)

Anyway, I'm heading to GA on Friday to compete in my first TTT. It should be fun riding in the cold and the rain. Yeah.

Mountain biking first though.

2009-02-23T20:35:00.001-08:00

Have you ever had the feeling that you were missing something, that it was close but just out of reach? Yeah, I have. This weekend actually. Julia and I went down to Greenville to race at the Donaldson Center, which apparently is super easy to find, although not if you follow Google's (totally wrong and completely made up) directions. We ended up getting lost and driving around in circles for about an hour and a half before heading home. Awesome.

It turned out OK, since we got back to Brevard at a decent hour (since we got up and left at an ungodly hour, we had plenty of time for our driving around) and then went mountain biking with Old Man Balls. It was good times. We hit up some Avery Creek followed by Pinnett. AWESOME! After getting shown up by The Hoo on a couple of climbs, and destroyed by the KOP on all the descents, I am confident in my middle range abilities. Although I was just good enough to avoid dying on anything, which is always a good thing.

I love mountain biking. Road riding can be cool too, if you do it right.

Later.

2009 Racing

2009-02-21T06:55:00.001-08:00

Well, the 2009 racing season is upon me, and as usual, I don't feel at all prepared. I've done a good amount of training, in spite of missing a lot of riding in the off season because of injury. I don't expect to be on top form until around the beginning of May, and am doing a lot of collegiate road racing to race myself into shape.

Here is my 2009 planned races list...
NGCSU collegiate road race
Clemson collegiate road race
Georgia Tech collegiate road race
Hobby Park
The Assault on the Carolinas
Lees McRae collegiate road race
Brevard collegiate road race conference championships
Winder SERC
Ducktown SERC
Collegiate Road National Championships (if I qualify, Stumpjump if I don't)
12 Hours of Tsali
Bump and Grind
Clemson SERC
Cowbell Challenge
French Broad Cycling Classic
Fontana SERC
All followed up with a full season of 6 collegiate mountain bike races, then nationals.
Finally, there is talk of a possible 'cross season and 'cross nationals. That would either be fun or kill me.

If I do all of these races, it will give me a total of 23 race weekends, not including cross, which is a lot more than I have ever done before. Hopefully I'll be able to learn how to race, and stop with the inconsistent results stuff that I posted last year.
As far as I know, my goals for the season are...
~Top 5 at collegiate mountain bike nats in the ST or the XC
~Top 3 in one of the national races that I do (Ducktown, Bump and Grind, or Cowbell)
~Upgrade to Pro by the end of the season

Finally, my sponsor list is pretty much finalized, and since I don't have all that many (I'm not that bad ass) I'll give you the long list...
I'd like to thank:
Sycamore Cycles and Wes D for helping me out in pretty much everything bike related
Brevard College Cycling
Specialized Bicycles (for their bikes AND tires, the Fast Track LK is going to hook up this year)Industry Nine
Tifosi Optics
Bracken Mountain Bakery (for their awesome baked goods, even though I have gotten in trouble from eating too much of the goodness)

I'm looking forward to a great year...

Training

2009-02-19T06:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I've had a good 3 week block of training so far, and am looking forward to my upcoming rest week. I've got one last set of tempo to do today (courtesy of coach squirrel), and then a nothing cat 5 race this weekend. Yeah, super boring.

You know, I mostly just get tired of riding the same section of road for weeks on end. When I was doing muscle tension intervals, I pretty much just went up to the parkway. With tempo, I have just gone on the Rosman loop and on Island Ford. It gets boring after a while. Yeah.

Tonight I'm going to play trivia at Square Root. I'm looking forward to some domination, and hopefully, maybe, with some luck, my team can finally get away from being the "Banana Bears" or whatever ridiculous banana combination we come up with at the moment. I'm going for "The Trivia Domination Squad", or TTDS for short. I feel like if we do that, talk all kinds of trash, and get on a serious training plan and have a selection committee for our final spots, we can't lose.

Speaking of not being able to lose, guess what is coming up in less than 2 weeks... BREVARD COLLEGE ROAD CYCLING!!! It is going to be off the chain. We get to stay with the Cowies and Chaputs for the first race, and I'll go ahead and say it, it is going to be full on! What happens when you mix a bunch of dumb mountain bikers in with some road racing? We'll find out in Ga...

Later.

2009-02-09T14:20:00.000-08:00

I got some killer riding in this week end... a (almost) 3 hour ride with Julia and then a killer Lake Logan loop on the "community" ride. Good stuff. I kinda forgot to drink anything on the roadie ride, so I came very close to bonking on the 215 climb, but after guzzling some Powerbar Endurance (courtesy of Powerbar and Brevard College Cycling) and eating some Powerbar Bar (also courtesy of the same), I was back on track.
We ended up riding for just under 5 hours, and then hit up some Mexican't for lunch.

I'm starting to feel a little better on the bike... I think that the muscle tension workouts did some good, and losing some weight has moved me back towards fighting shape. It's still base, but with road stuff coming up at the end of the month, I feel like I'm in a good place for the coming season.

Now if I could just get my computer to stop being clapped out, I would be happy.

Awesome.

2009-02-07T09:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a while. I'm not all that worried about it. I know of only one person who is.

It is almost 70 today. I'm going on a nice long mountain bike ride. You don't get many days like this during the winter, and after 2 months of cold, it is nice to have a nice day. And tomorrow is supposed to be just as awesome.

So stay awesome America... I'm going to ride my bike.

Oh yeah, Contra Dancing. Good stuff. The whole bike team was out last night, and some of them even danced. It was awesome.

50!!!!

2009-01-25T18:01:00.000-08:00

This is a momentous occasion... This is my 50th post! I think I should celebrate. I'm just not sure how.

At the moment, I'm watching The Fugitive, which, incidentally, was filmed (at least partially) at Fontana Dam. Since I'm going there next week, I figure that it will be good to catch up on the local history and exciting events. Not only that, but it's a fairly decent movie, and I needed something to distract me from homework.

Speaking of homework, I have way more to do right now than I ever have had before. It seems like I just got in 4 classes that all are big load/heavy study types. It sucks. This is coming up on the 2nd week of school, and I'm slated for my 2nd test, 4th and 5th quizzes, and 4th and 5th extensive homework turn-in assignments. And I've got a lot of reading to catch up on. The biggest problem with all of that is that I just haven't found my grove for studying yet. Come to think of it, I never found it last semester.

AND.... I rode today. For the first time in almost a week. I felt terrible. I don't think that I've ever felt so bad on the bike. I couldn't have kept up with one of my normal rest days. It sucks being slow. I can't believe it. Hopefully I'll get some legs under me before next weekend.

Later guys.

Sick

2009-01-21T14:23:00.001-08:00

Being sick SUCKS! I am all kinds of sore in pretty much every area of my body. Even my scalp hurts. I keep alternating between being absolutely freezing and sweating from being so hot. I keep ALMOST coughing too. It's kinda a "IreallyfeellikecoughingbutI'mnottotallyneedingtosoI'mjustgoingtoexhaleforcefully." So yeah, stay away from being sick.

The worst part is that I can't ride my bike. My beautiful new S-Works is sitting unridden, wishing for some trail time.

Enjoy your riding children.

2009-01-17T13:06:00.000-08:00

I don't actually have anything to write about right now... but I'm gonna post anyway.

New bikes are awesome. I just got mine, and although I've only gotten to ride it once, I am totally pumped. The new bike, combined with some new sponsors and a bad ass training plan, are all coming together to form what is looking like a killer year of racing.

I'm gonna be trying out some road racing this spring with the school, and hopefully will get to travel to CO to try my hand at the national championships. People keep trying to convince me that I'm a roadie, and while I definitely don't think so, I'm willing to put out some effort and see what I can do with some slicks. I think that the first mountain bike race that I'm gonna get to do is 12 hours of Tsali which I'm pumped about already.

But yeah, training is going well, I've been doing muscle tension intervals, which are new to me, but seem like a good idea for building up some leg power. Hopefully. I'm totally ready to be done with them though...

And finally, it's been pretty stupidly cold here recently. I mean, I know it doesn't have anything on people who are dumb enough to live where it gets really cold, but it's cold for me. Yeah. And I think I'm gonna be riding something totally new tomorrow, which I am stoked about. Or maybe we'll go down to Clemson, which would be cool too...

Later

2009-01-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

Welp, I've been hanging out a lot recently. Riding a lot too. Did a little group ride today, went up Twin Falls over to Pinnett and down black. It was good times. I don't remember the last time I chilled that much on a group ride... I got hardcore dropped on every climb. Good times.

Speaking of good times, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new baby. I ordered him/her/it earlier this week, and there is a slight chance that it will be here tomorrow and I will get to build it. Although probably not. It's gonna be sick when I do get it though. Once I get it built, I should have some idea of its gender, and then will be able to name it based on that.

And oh yeah, baker Bill just bought a new used stumpy. Now he's big time. I can't wait to hear about this one.

So yeah, now I have to go watch the Gators beat the Sooners. They just scored. It's about time. Go Tim. We seem to be getting some momentum.

Finally, the team is having a fund raiser in a couple of days... its a party style thing, $10 cover, good fun, come check it out. I don't actually have any details, mostly because it hasn't been set up yet, but stay tuned for updates.

2009-01-05T18:59:00.001-08:00

I've had some demand recently for a new blog entry (and by "some demand" I mean that I was having a conversation with a couple of people about blogs and I said that I hadn't blogged in a while and they agreed with me), so here goes.

I rode a lot last week. It was cool. Now I have a legit training plan and will be riding even more. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

I've also been enjoying break a whole lot. I've missed just being able to waste time during the day not doing anything. I've even been playing some video games, so you know that's something.

The one downside to break is that the bakery is also closed for a couple of weeks. I was bummed out about that since I like their food and their company. I mean, I guess I can still have pretty much the same company (except for the successive liberal/conservative cliques that share the same tables at the bakery at separate times) while the bakery is closed, so mostly I am just missing the food.

I guess missing the food is a good thing since I am trying to lose some poundage, and the bakery is not conducive to doing so. In fact, I largely blame the bakery for getting me into this predicament.

In order to do even more work than I would while riding, the team is doing team workouts. Like in the gym. It's a very funny sight watching a bunch of cyclists trying to lift some weights and pretend that we are all strong and whatnot. You can tell that we are not all that by looking at the weight rack and seeing all of the lightest dumbbells constantly in use while the heavier ones go unused.

And my final note for the day is... I just got something awesome. It should be here soon... I'm pumped.

New bike again?

2008-12-19T20:14:00.001-08:00

I'm getting a new bike soon. It's gonna be nice. Super pimped out white with a powertap. Sram Red. A whole lot of carbon. In fact, it is going to look almost exactly like the last bike that I had for about 2 weeks that a clever thief is now riding around. Good stuff.

Yeah, I had my bike stolen from outside the shop. It sucked, but my insurance was cool about it and got a check in the mail really quickly. I was impressed. So I should end up with a new bike early next week.

Since I've not had a road bike, I've been mountain biking a lot more than usual. And while most of my rides have been pretty short and in the wet, its been nice to get back in the woods after such a long time out. Julia and I went up to Dupont to ride yesterday, and that was a blast. A little wet, but still, a whole lot of fun.

I've been riding my old hardtail (it's now a 2x national champion, thanks to T Cowie), and that thing hooks up. It is so fast coming out of corners it's crazy. I'm a little slower going downhill, but still, it's a kick ass training bike. Hopefully my new bike will be available soon.

And school is done. Which is awesome since it pretty much coincides perfectly with my needing to get out on the bike more. It's time to get back on the training and get fast again. Yeah. Gotta make that 12 hours of Tsali team.

I also have gotten my Christmas shopping done in record time this year. Which is surprising since I haven't had any money in months. So yeah, go get your shopping done and support the struggling economy. America will thank you.

2008-12-09T08:37:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm back to riding. I'm happy. My knee just kinda quickly got better and stopped being painful and stiff. I'll probably start doing workouts on the bike starting here soon. I guess I'm gonna have to be in pretty good form for road season starting in FEBUARY! I've never started racing quite that early. It's gonna be good though, I'm looking forward to it.

The BC team started our gym workouts this week (well, actually, we started last week, I started this week). It's cool. We're almost like a real team now.

And I'm super pumped... Today is the last day of classes. I'm actually writing this during my last class of the semester. It's good too, because I only have like 2 real exams, so I'm pretty much just finishing up homework stuff. This break is going to be great, pretty much just riding and hanging out. I need to be strong coming into the next semester. yeah, do work.

Also, Bracken Mountain Bakery is awesome. I highly recommend stopping in there to get a delicious treat to brighten up your day. Not to mention that they sponsor my cycling team, so that's pretty cool too.

Later.

Go Gators!!!!

Rain

2008-11-29T12:11:00.001-08:00

I'm sitting here at the shop watching the rain with nothing to do but blog and ponder my life, and I've realized that I'm glad I'm not in the rain racing at the Gobbler. It would be way too muddy and gross and cold for me to do that, although I could probably win some good money. Good times. I feel sorry for Wes and Chris and all of the other volunteers who are out there making it happen but having to suffer through some really crappy conditions. Good job guys.

I watched Hancock last night... It was good. I like. Now I have to go see bond.

And oh yeah, apparently I am waaaay tougher than I thought I was. I tore my ACL playing youth football about 10 years ago, didn't realize what was up, and kept on practicing. I guess that has finally caught up with me, and I think it is what allowed my crash a couple of weeks ago turn nasty. It looks like I am going to inevitably have to have surgery to repair it, it's just a matter of when. I'm crossing my fingers that I can put it off until the end of next season so that I miss the least amount of time riding as possible. I've already missed almost a month of riding, and if I have the surgery now, it will be another 6 weeks before I can hope to get back on the bike. That would suck.

Anyway, I've got an appointment on Monday to see if I'll be able to start riding again, and hopefully I can get back on before too long.

Also, let me tell you a story... It is a story of karma or sowing and reaping or something like that. Or maybe just bad luck. Either way, Julia has been giving me a hard time for being a cripple over the past couple of weeks. She sprained her LEFT ankle on Thursday at the beginning of a group ride and now can't walk on it. So yeah, watch out y'all, your words will come back to bite you.

Peace.

Riding? What's that?

2008-11-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything, which is mostly because I haven't had anything to post in quite a while. But, here is a summary of the past few weeks for me.

In my last post I mentioned that I'd hurt my knee in a crash at my first cross race of the year. Well, that swelling never did really go down, and I ended up hobbling around for a week before I went to the doctor to get it checked out. He put me in a "knee immobilizer" and some crutches and then scheduled a MRI to get it checked out. That was a week ago, meaning that I haven't ridden in 2 weeks now. This is the longest that I have gone without riding in years, and I am already starting to freak out. I'm not someone who can sit around for very long at all. The worst part is, I still don't really know what is wrong with my knee. I have an appointment to find out what is up tomorrow, and I'm really hoping that I'm not out of the game for much more time. There is only so much that you can do in the gym with only one leg.

Here is the x-ray...

You can see the tibia is clearly jacked up. Now granted, this isn't MY x-ray... It is a broken bone though, and I feel for the person who had to deal with it. Mine isn't quite as severe. I'm not even sure yet if it is broken. It may just be a bruised bone. I'll let you know.

Anyway, I am getting my leg checked out today to find out what is wrong with it... I'm really hoping that I can get back on my bike soon.

I also think that I sold my mountain bike. Which means that I can get a new one as soon as Specialized gets their act together and gets them on the market. Although I did just get a bad ass new road bike that has yet to be ridden (thanks to a certain leg injury), but is, like I said, totally bad ass.

And I have to give a big shout out to Julia, who won her second cross race this weekend. She claims that this is the first big win that she has had, but I would say that Tsali was slightly bigger. Anyway, whatever, good job girlfriend. I feel like I report more about your life on here than you ever do, making this blog almost as much about you as it is me. Yeah.

Until next time, have fun riding. There are people out there who can't.

'Cross

2008-11-10T07:33:00.000-08:00

So I completed my second cross race yesterday... That gives me a 50% completion rate, which is really exceptionally low for an event as short as cross. This was my first Pro 1/2 race, and yeah, it sucked.

I crashed hard on the second lap after leaning my bike a little too far into a corner and clipping a pedal. I wasn't at the front or anything, but that pretty much ended my race, mostly because when I crashed, I hit my right shifter pretty hard on the ground and ended up with a whole lot of dirt jammed in there. I finished the race with a barely functioning rear shifter and a not really functioning at all rear brake. Good times.

When I upgraded, I expected to be able to ride with at least some of those guys, and I think that earlier in the year, I would have been able to. But I think that my snap is gone for the year, so I don't expect to be able to do a whole lot more racing this year. It's cool though... I am really excited about being able to just go and ride my bike. I want to get out in the woods before all of the leaves fall and it starts getting too bitterly cold.

And apparently when I crashed, I hurt my knee pretty badly. Bear in mind that this isn't the same knee that I was nursing before the race and trying to decide if I wanted to race on it. No no, this is my other, previously totally healthy knee. I didn't really notice it yesterday while I was racing, but sometime on the way home, my knee developed a baseball sized amount of swelling over the patella, making it pretty hard to bend it a lot at all. It's still just as swollen this morning. I need to stop crashing and just start riding.

Oh, so yeah. Julia did awesome in her first real 1/2/3 race with the chicks. She got a solid 8th after a bit of confusion about the number of laps caused her to misjudge how long she had still to race. But still, she killed it representing for SYCR. Jenna Bales Walker also held it down in the women's 4's, getting a solid 3rd place finish. Baker Bill went for the double on the day, killing it in both the masters and the men's 4's. Good stuff.

2008-11-04T21:10:00.000-08:00

I just got screwed over by UPS. Make sure you actually give an inflated figure for your package's weight, length, height, and width. Otherwise they are likely to tag you with an enormous fee in addition to the original shipping price that was actually more than what it would have cost to ship a box significantly over the large package threshold. Yeah.

I voted today, and I didn't know who most of the people on the ballot were.

I also went titleless.

Sup?

2008-11-03T16:44:00.000-08:00

So, I'm wondering what happens if you don't give your blog post a title... Would it work, or would it just be doomed to be forever in title-less existence, not really sure what it is, stuck online without an identity. Whatever the case, I'm kinda scared to find out. But I'm also tired of having to come up with a meaningless title that is, well, meaningless. Yep. Next time, I'm going title less. I wonder if people will be excited...

I've realized that I have been really really bad about posting blogs. First I ditch out on my Clemson report, then I pass on doing a post about our national championship bid. LAME! Well, lets just say that I got owned in both of my races at nationals. I totally fell apart after a really bad start in the XC, finishing 25th I think. The short track was slightly better with a 13th place finish. I just wasn't as fit as I should have been. Next year it's on though.

I've only ridden once since nats, and have pretty much been enjoying the time off. I've spent a lot of time with Julia and bike people, and we had a killer Halloween party at the Tellman/Cowie house. It was awesome... everybody on the team dressed up as someone else on the team, that's how lame and inbred we are. Good stuff.

I've pretty much not done much for quite a while. School. Not much work. I did go on a run. That was fun. And slow. And painful. I don't think that I am all that suited for running. I think I know how it feels to be totally owned by someone though... Julia destroyed me on the downhill, and I was powerless to stop it. I don't think that I like that feeling.

I'm kinda pumped about racing cross this next weekend. Even if it is going to hurt waaay too much. We've got a good group going down though, and hopefully I can hold it down in the 3's. Maybe I'll even let you know how it goes... or maybe not.

Julia... you need a blog. You could make all kinds of witty comments on life in general and the state of the world at the moment, kinda like bikesnob without quite as much fixed gear snobbery. I would read it with great interest. Get on it.

I am so glad that the election is going to be over tomorrow. I am totally sick of hearing about political crap and people bashing. We're all Americans you idiots!!! Stop hating!

What is this?

2008-10-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

I'm in a very not good mood. I don't know why.

At the risk of sounding angst filled and emo, I really just want to go to bed and have this day end.

I don't know what's going on, I had a pretty good day, I just got bummed out when I got home. But this is a sucky way to spend fall break...

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I get to ride and hang out.

Uuunghgh

2008-10-16T13:08:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here in the bakery talking to Julia, and they are all out of food. I'm super bummed. Although I did get part of a special edition treat...

I think that I've got a lot of homework to do, but I can't for the life of me think of what it is.

I'm also trying to decide if I want to go for a ride. I really want to, but then I kinda don't. I'm also trying to figure out the whole, monday is saturday thing since I'm racing on friday of next week. Good stuff. Tristan would be proud.

I want to ride North Slope. And eat candy.

Nationals. Round 2.

2008-10-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

BC is going to nationals. Awesome.

Yep, that about sums it up. Not much more to say.

Thanks to everyone on the team for giving it a killer effort. I can't wait to rock out with all of you at Banner Elk. Home of the Bobcat. And colllegiate nationals.

Also, Dan P Ennis has a cool sign off (Dano out). I think I need one of these. I'll think about it for a bit while I go write a set of poems for class tomorrow. One of them is about my death. Sweet.

BC!!!

2008-10-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Dude. BC Cycling is cleaning up this year...
We're 1st in the D2 overall, leading W. Wilson by a narrow 12 points. Awesome.
I'm sitting in a lackluster tie for 18th place with Wells, but big shout outs to:

Julia "Girlfriend" Tellman for leading the entire conference in the endurance omnium (D1 & D2) and holding second in the gravity omnium despite not being a gravity racer;

Jo "I like beating guys when I'm going downhill" Tuttle for leading the gravity omnium and being 2nd in the endurance one;

Tristan "Captain America" for leading the endurance omnium over all of the Less McRae train;

and to Dan "P" Ennis and Danny "real tall" Cesare for killing it in the gravity stuff.

Go team.
I think this is why we race bikes.
Aren't you happy now to be at this little tiny college in the middle of nowhere, Julia???

GT

2008-10-06T19:31:00.001-07:00

Well, apparently this week (and next I think) is the time for midterms. I wasn't really aware of this until earlier today, and I was shocked by the amount of studying that I have to do. It pretty much all came up later in the day today. I really think that school would be a whole lot more fun if you didn't have to study for tests. I don't even mind going to classes (when I want to), it's just the forced learning and required conformist behavior that gets to me. Anyway, the biggest reason that I am at Brevard for my collegiate career is to race bikes, and getting to travel over the weekend and have some serious non-academic pressure put on me makes it all worth it.

We traveled to Conyers, GA this past weekend to race at the Horse Park where the 1996 Olympic Mountain Bike race was held. It was pretty cool to be racing on the same course as that race, and even though we didn't get to do the granite section, it was a blast. The weekend started out with a TT fairly early in the morning. I'm usually not a fan of starting stuff out like this, since I'm usually not firing on all cylinders for the first event and it is a whole lot easier to get it opened up when you are pushing to keep up with other people rather than a solo effort. It turned out OK in this case though, as I felt pretty good and had decent legs. For once the biggest problem didn't lie with me, but rather in the course marking. The people from GT had to figure out how to put on an event with fairly short notice, so I kinda understand some of the organizational issues, but course marking is really something that needs to be taken care of. I missed a turn in the race, and ended up losing about 2 minutes because of it. I finished out 10th, which was OK, but not really good for the amount of effort that I put out.

After the TT we had a short track race over a pretty fun course. It had a grass flat to DH followed by a very fast sweeping turn onto a single track climb with some fun sections and then finished out with a fast twisty descent. I got a pretty good start, and managed to get onto the lead group of 4 for the first part of the race. I held on for about 15 minutes, and then the attacks started coming. I knew that I wouldn't be able to hang on to the finish by about minute 2, so I was pretty prepared to fight to keep the leaders in sight. After I got dropped off the lead, I pushed it to keep away from any chasers. Unfortunately there was a Cumberland rider that came on strong and managed to get a gap on me on the final lap. I felt really good for the whole race though, and 5th place is a whole lot better than I have been doing.

The XC was pretty insane. We were informed that the course was significantly shorter than we were expecting, and so the race went from 2:30 to about 1:30. This was fine with me since I like the shorter style stuff anyway. I once again got a good start and ended up on the front group with little difficulty. There were about 5 of us including Tristan and myself with a very early gap when suddenly Tristan pulled off of the front and started messing with his bike. I figured that he would be back on shortly so I kept on the pace without a second thought. The front group ended up staying together for the first lap and a half despite constant attacks from Cumberland and LMC. The LMC guy finally got clear, and everyone else spent the rest of the race chasing hard. I could see 2nd place right ahead of me for the rest of the race, but never could quite bring him back. Tristan stormed back onto the front with a lap to go, and brought a chasing 4th back with him. I eventually got passed for 5th place and was good for the finish, or so I thought. I had about a mile of easy, very fast road left, when the one rock on the trail somehow caught my tire. I heard the leak, but was really hoping that my sealant would fix it up before I lost all my air, but apparently the tear was a little too big. I ended up having to run the final mile to the finish, allowing 2 other guys to pass me, placing me in 7th. Kinda disappointing, but still, not bad and I felt great.

Next week is conference championships, so I'm trying my best to rest up for that. Hopefully the team will have a strong race, and we will get that nationals spot that we have been chasing all year.

Late as usual

2008-10-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

Dude, I'm sitting here, watching Tristan update his blog, and I figured that I would go ahead and do the same. I'm only a week late for updating about the last race, so its all good. This week has been crazy, I've been pretty much pinned the entire time. Last saturday and sunday we raced at the home of the Cowies in north Georga, which was totally awesome. We stayed with the Cowie parents, and let me tell you, they were straight pinned. Saturday we had the short track and TT. I had a really good start in the ST and ended up moving up to 3rd, passing Tristan and yelling a little bit of friendly encouragement at him when I passed. I think that I put out a little too much effort trying that stunt, and ended up fading back to finish 12th. I was super bummed about that since I know I should have finished better than that, and a lot of the other guys who beat me I'm usually ahead of. The TT was interesting. There was a horse incident that put the Brevard team back about 30 seconds, but didn't affect anyone else. That sucked. I crashed near the end of my otherwise clean run, putting me back about another 30 seconds. The XC was interesting to say the least. I started warming up on what was supposed to be about a 10 minute loop, but it ended up being a whole lot longer than that. Because of this, I missed my start, which was a first for me. I got to the start line 16 minutes late and pretty much had no pressure except to just finish. I ended up getting 13th out of close to 30, so I was pretty pumped. I've just got to figure out how to get on the gas and stop going slow. Yeah.

Time

2008-09-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

It seems to me that my life, and school in particular, has a definite pattern. I always seem to have a period of time when I don't have anything to do, and I feel bad about not doing anything. This is inevitably followed by a sudden overload of work that has to be done, and often it doesn't seem that I will be able to fulfill my obligations. This is then followed by another period of rest. These cycles can be fairly short or rather extended, but rarely more than a week. Both are stressful in their own way, but when you add a collegiate cycling race weekend to the mix, it gets really hectic. Can you guess what period of time I happen to be in right now??? (I'll give you a hint... I'm not worrying about not doing anything)

Brevard Race

2008-09-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

I've noticed something about school... It pretty much takes away all of your free time, and then what free time you do have, you really don't want to spend it typing something up. Hopefully this somewhat explains the week long gap between my event and my blog post, but unlike Fat Cyclist or BikeSnob, I have way too much to do to post everyday. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

Anyway, after an enormous amount of work on the Adventure Village race course, we finally got it done to the point that we were able to have a race of our own. It was pretty good times, long days out on the trails in the heat, and often in the rain, struggling to get done so that we could put on a top level event. We got Wes D and Chris H to come and help the organization, which I really don't think that we could have happened without them. Thad did an amazing amount of work, and really made the entire event come together.

Race day came, and despite the rain from the weeks prior, the course was mostly dry, and faster and harder packed than I was expecting. I hadn't actually ridden the course before saturday, so it was just as new to me as it was to everyone else. I just knew what had gone into it better than our guests. The downhill was first on the agenda, and after dragging a large generator up an impossibly steep dirt road (really, Chris's big-ass truck couldn't make it up it was so steep) with Chaput and Julia, I walked down the course with the aforementioned female. This was the first time that I had seen the course, and I hadn't even come close to imagining how steep it was. It dropped straight down the mountain, and I really was somewhat scared for everyone riding it. Apparently it was steep and slick enough that very few people made it down without crashing, and those that did pretty much won their events. It was intense.

Next up was the short track. Usually this is my event, but after a very poor performance last week, I wasn't sure how today would go. The course pretty much just headed up an impossibly steep climb, followed by a slick and steep descent, followed by a flat through the finish. I got a pretty bad start, as one of the slow idiots from one of the not really competitive schools elbowed and shoved his way to the front to take advantage of the "one rider from every school on the front line rule" and then somehow managed to get a quick first pedal stroke in, then cut hard into my line, and then stop accelerating all together forcing me to the back. That was a long sentence, but I feel that my frustration is justified and now well spelled out. Anyway, I moved up quickly, was close to the top 5, and was riding strong. I was pushing it a little to hard coming through a downhill corner, and lost my front wheel on a root. I didn't go down hard, but it was enough to lose about 10 spots before I knew what was happening. I got back on, started pushing again, picking off riders one by one, but it wasn't long before I lost it again. I was making a hard pass on the climb, when someone came over on me, pushing me into the bushes, knocking me off my bike. After that, I pretty much just gave up and got pulled the next time through. I think I ended up in 17th or something.

The final event of the day was the Dual Slalom. Since I didn't race in this, I will keep my account brief. Dan and Danny had to race each other in the round of 8, and Danny knocked Dan out before going on to advance to the finals. In the finals, he lost the maximum differential to Ben from LMC, but then managed to win the next run by more than that, breaking a tie and winning the race. Nice. While all of this was going on, I was nervously watching Julia racing her second DS race. Jo was pretty much destroying her competitors, and I was hoping that Julia would be able to do the same. She ended up walking all over everyone, including a WW chick in full DH gear, which was pretty sweet. They ended up in the finals together, and gave BC a very solid 1 2 finish.

The XC was on perhaps the hardest course I have ever been on. It was a very short lap, but had some climbs that no one should have ever put into a course. It was insane. I started out chasing a WW guy and Dan, suffering up all of the steep climbs, and then making up time on the flats and DH's. I finally was able to pass them, and then fought to keep the two Cumberland guys off my wheel. I had a strong series of middle laps, but then totally blew up on my 6th lap, when both of them caught me. I think that I ended up 11th, which was pretty disappointing. Overall though, the school did really well. We were able to earn enough points to (virtually) be leading the conference. Good times. We have an off week, and then 3 race weekends in a row, which is totally going to suck.

ETSU

2008-09-09T17:06:00.001-07:00

Well, collegiate racing has begun, and I'll go ahead and say, it wasn't the best opening week for me. The rest of the team did pretty well, and we got a lot of good points towards nationals. Dan and Joh did some amazing riding, and held it down better than anyone expected. In spite of being primarily gravity riders, they both were the high finishers for the team in the XC event, with a 3rd for Joh and an 8th for Dan. Julia had her first race for Brevard, and held up her end of the bargain pretty well too. She worked over most of the competition in the short track, and then killed it in the XC too. Good job guys. Tristan did his usual battle with the LMC hordes of death, and ended up not being able to defeat all of them in the short track, but was on track to win the XC when he lost quite a bit of the air in his front tire leading to a spectacular crash. I ended up beating him, which is probably the only time that will happen all season.

So yeah, moving on to my races, neither of them went as well as I wanted them to. I ended up getting worked over in the short track, which is usually my event. It was the first time that I had been lapped in a regular season ST, and it sucked big time. I got a terrible start, and ended up trying to chase Jockey down for most of the race, and ended up right behind him at the end. We beat all of the D2 guys though, so that was something good, and I think that I ended up in 10th place. The XC wasn’t much better, I think that I got 9th, which I suppose wasn’t bad for a terrible race. After a pretty good start, I quickly lost all of the power that I thought that I had, and spent the rest of the race struggling up every little hill on the course. It felt like someone was dragging my brakes the whole time. I finished behind 3 D2 guys not counting Dan, and am pretty bummed out that I haven’t been feeling better on the bike. I’m hoping that my form and legs will come back around soon since I haven’t felt good since Greenbrier. More to come about our course later…

Semi-Pro!

2008-09-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Matt St Marie,
The following request to change your NORBA category has been approved and processed by USA Cycling: 2008-09-02 11:19
Member: Matt St Marie
License: Cross Country Racer
Request to change category from Expert to Semipro

All I can say is AWESOME! Yep.

And I'm racing this weekend. Which is also awesome. Granted, I'm not racing Semi-Pro, but still, I'm ready to (hopefully) go fast. Collegiate racing and the SECCC had better be ready to handle the domination that BC is going to be handing out this season...

The calm before the storm

2008-08-31T08:28:00.001-07:00

Well, I have started school. I started a while ago actually. And in spite of what I was expecting, I think that it is going to be OK. I am going to have a whole lot of work to do, particularly in Anatomy and Physiology, but hey, that's what I'm going to school for. Regardless of my workload, I am looking forward to having some form of routine in my day. This summer was a lot of fun, but I pretty much just floated around not doing much. As a result, I didn't ride as much as I wanted to, didn't work all that much, and pretty much just wasted time. Once school starts, things change though. I'm sitting at work at the moment, watching cars with bikes attached to them in a wide variety of ways driving by, wishing that I could be out riding. I probably should go work on my bike, but I don't think that I have all the stuff that I need to do so, and I just don't feel like it. I've been riding a lot for the past few days, trying to get the spider webs out of my legs so that I don't die in the short track that opens the collegiate season. Doing a lot of rides has made me realize how much I haven't ridden... I'm not sure what I was doing. Bikes are fun though, so I'm happy to be hurting getting back on the horse. (That was my required equine insert... you're welcome). Sorry that this was boring post that was reaching for something to say, but I promise that once collegiate starts up, I will have much more to write about...

School

2008-08-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

So. School starts soon. Really soon. Really too soon. I hardly noticed that summer was going by at all, and now, before I even realized it, it has reached it's end. I mean sure, there are still a lot of warm days left, and a lot of good times to be had before the cold weather sets in, but there is one thing that always and without fail signals the end of the freedom of summer. Any boy or girl can tell you, once school starts, fall is on its way.
This isn't all bad. I mean, I am very excited about collegiate race season, and then cross season after that, and then some rest, and then hitting the base miles again. There are some good qualities about winter itself, none that I enjoy as much as summer, but I kinda like having to bundle up to fight off the cold. That usually lasts for about 3 weeks of cold.
Collegiate season is going to be awesome though. We've got a really solid team this year, some new freshmen and some transfers, including an addition to our women's team that I am VERY excited about. Our goal is to first qualify for nationals and then to possibly end up on the nationals podium. That would be good times.
My final thought for the night is this... You can really tell how much you love something by a couple of indicating factors. First, if you find yourself wanting to spend an exorbitant amount of time in close contact with this love interest. Second, if after doing so, you find yourself wanting more and never getting tired of that contact. Finally, if your thoughts have an unbalanced proportion of time spent directed towards this interest. - Those are my criterion. Do with them as you will. Peace.

Bike anyone?

2008-08-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

I have a dilemma...

I have a cross bike that isn't really mine, doesn't fit me at all, and has really crap components on it. Almost ride-able, but definitely not race-able.

I need a cross bike.

I have no money. At all.

So either I need a large sum of cash or a free bike.

On the bright side, I've got a really nice mountain bike, really nice road bike, and I'm about to build up a fully queered out short track bike. Life isn't all bad.

Question

2008-07-31T13:35:00.001-07:00

I've got a question for all 3 of you who read this blog...

Does drinking or not drinking coffee have any bearing on one's sexual orientation or tendencies?

I’ve heard different things from different people, but no real answers. Let me know what you think and perhaps I will come back with some well thought out arguments.

Notice that they are both gay AND drinking coffee...

On a different note, I am about to go on the Sycamore Cycles mountain bike group ride, and it is now thundering. I hope it doesn’t rain…

Stupid long Mount Snow

2008-07-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

So, I pretty much slacked off a whole lot on the whole blogging thing, and I’m sorry about that. I missed the last like, 4 days of the trip, and unfortunately, that was pretty much when all of the action happened. I guess that also explains why I didn’t keep up with my stuff though… And now I've got nothing to do, so you get a very very long report of the last few days.
So yeah, Friday. I tried to chill as much as possible, and other than pre-riding the course once again, I accomplished this nicely. The course was just as hard as I remembered from the day before, only this time I felt a whole lot better on the downhills. I was hitting my lines really well, and felt smooth and fast. I wasn’t all that happy with my climbing, but I felt like I could keep it together. I’m honestly having a hard time remembering what happened on Friday, so I’m just going to skip over this day and move onto Saturday.
I was supposed to wake up at 5 to get my breakfast, but my phone died in the middle of the night. Yeah, we didn’t really have a whole lot of cell phone service and I kept having to keep my phone plugged in cause it died so fast. But whatever. The end result of this was my not getting woken up on time, and having to eat a smaller breakfast so that I didn’t hurl on the day’s first climb. So after we all got ready to go, we headed over to the course for a nice warm up and preparation session. Good times. I felt pretty good during warm ups, and got to the line nice and hot. I was standing on the line, listening to the announcer drone on about some unimportant details of the race, when I heard a slightly frustrated voice calling my name. It kinda sounded like “St. Marie” with an, uhh, slightly frustrated tone to it. I looked around to find Julia standing at the fence trying to wish me good luck. I was in the process of getting called up to the line, managed a hurried good luck back at her, and rolled up to the start. (Julia, sorry about almost missing that). I had a really good start, and ended up at the front of the race. I got passed by a couple of people, and rolled off the prologue loop in 3rd. I got passed by some more people on the next climb, but was still riding where I needed to be when my derailleur hanger suddenly and inexplicably ripped off. I stood there for a minute trying to grasp what had happened, and for a second couldn’t figure out what to do. I guess lactic acid poisoning of the brain can screw up anyone in a flash. Once I decided that there wasn’t anything I could do to fix my problem and that my race was over, I had to figure out how to get back down the mountain. I briefly considered riding straight back down, but I figured, “hey, I worked to get up here, I’m almost to the top, I’m in no rush to get anywhere, I think that I’ll walk the rest of the climb and hit the downhill.” So, that’s what I did. It was a lot farther to climb than I thought, and the fun part wasn’t as fun as I was hoping, but hey, I eventually got back and that’s what matters. I watched Julia and Pinnitt and Wells during their races, was impressed with a few results, and then watched Tasha during hers. Good stuff. The pro women were faster than the winners of my category. Let’s just leave it at that.
The next day was Sunday. Obviously. I was racing short track today along with Julia and Pinnett. Julia’s race was in the morning, and we drove over to support her in her efforts. She was doing super, riding strongly in a podium spot, when she had a massive catastrophic mechanical that knocked her out of the race. I guess that’s what she gets for riding a clapped out pro’s, ex Jockey, ex Old Man Balls bike. We went back to the house and I had to rebuild my bike from the day before. I got it done, had to lower my standards on perfection a little, and hoped that everything would work out for me during the race. After all, it’s only a 20 minute race, what could go wrong? Well, I started, felt really really really good, was on the second wheel and starting to settle in when something did. I was coming around for what I think was my 4th lap, sitting in, not even trying hard (that’s what I get for dropping out of my earlier race. Fresh legs.) when my chain dropped off and got tangled up somehow in the derailleur. I got it fixed, but by the time I got everything straightened out, I was so far off the back that it really didn’t matter any more. So, yet another DNF in that race. I’m pretty sure I could have won too. But hey, live and learn, eh? Monday was pretty much just driving. It is now a suppressed memory for me, so I am going to not talk about it. Yeah. My next race is this weekend at Fontana. I’m going to race short track, and I’m trying to decide if I want to race XC, SS, or nothing at all for the longer race. I’ll let you know how that goes. I’ve got pictures from the weekend on my facebook…

Mount Snow, Day 3

2008-07-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Mount Snow. You’d think that someplace with SNOW in the name would be pretty cool, but no, it’s actually rather toasty. After waiting around through the morning for the hottest part of the day, we went over to the race venue to help Tristan with his racing. Coach was responsible for the feed, and my bike was being parted out for the tech zone. I ended up watching the race from the feed/tech zone, and let me tell you, there are some intense people there. Much to the consternation of the racers, the people handing out the free small cups of water couldn’t throw their water on people, but rather taunted them with the promise of the impossible. Anyway, since my job was only required if something really bad happened for Tristan, I spent my time taking pictures. I got a lot of good ones, but can’t really upload them because our internet sucks. Pretty much entirely. But yeah, the race was exciting, I’ll let Tristan tell you about his race, but the winners had some good attacks and counter attacks going on. Good stuff. After the race, I came back to the house to get some rest and put my feet up. Lame. I’m amazed at how much laziness is required to be a bike racer. I mean, as a whole, the cycling community is pretty fit, but as you get higher up in the ranks, life has to slow down to the pace equivalent of someone fat and out of shape. So yeah, hanging out. Good times. I get to ride tomorrow…

Mount Snow, Day 2

2008-07-16T15:16:00.001-07:00

Last year, the Mount Snow course was really hard. This year, it’s even harder. There were a lot of sections that were really hard when muddy, actually pretty unridable, and so the USA Cycling course designers were kind enough to replace them with even harder sections. Instead of riding on single track climbs, we now get to go straight up some insane walls. Good times. The descent is still really fun, although they cut out some good stuff on that too. It’s a 5 mile loop; with an amazing 1500 feet of vertical climb each lap. And half of that mileage is going down…
Anyway, I slept in to the amazing hour of 8:30, got some Lucky Charms, and proceeded to veg out in front of the TV. In spite of not having any good channels, I have a feeling that there will be a lot of vegging going on this week. Once we were done frying our brain cells, we went out to ride for a bit. We are supposed to be 3 miles from the course, but really are closer to 8, meaning that riding to the course is pretty much not going to happen. So yeah, not much to say about the pre ride other than describing the course, which I’ve already done, so I’ll just go ahead and stop talking about it. So yeah, at the moment, I’m watching some more TV, while Julia, Tasha (Jessica?), and Wells are at the store, Squirrel is out working on the computer, and Capitan America is getting ready for his race tomorrow. I’ve already sticked myself and stretched today, so I really have nothing to do until tomorrow. Good times.

Mount Snow, Day 1

2008-07-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I wasted about 3 hours of my life today, even more so than if I had just ridden in the car for the 7 hours that I was supposed to. But no, the wasted 3 hours came in the form of it taking us 10 hours to make it the 7 hours from start to finish. But yeah, in any case, we spent a long time in the car. I think that we hit about 4 hardcore traffic jams, and that slowed us down a lot. During one of these, we tried to make a detour around the section of road that was jammed, but ended up just hitting another traffic jam one road over. That sucked. We ended up meeting up with the other car about 2 hours up the road in this airport-esque travel center after getting dropped big time for the second time on the trip.
After a very long time in the car, we finally made it to Mount Snow. It is pretty much just as cool as I remember it. We drove up to the course, but didn’t really see anything since we had to meet the other car at the store. After doing our shopping at the local Shaw’s grocery super center, we went up to the house… not bad. It’s a little out of the way, but it’s nice, and apparently there is a shortcut over to the course. Anyway, I made dinner while everyone was out riding, and now we are watching “I Survived a Japanese Game Show” after seeing a rousing episode of “Wipeout.” I highly recommend the Wipeout show, but the verdict is still out on the game show. So yeah, there obviously wasn’t much to write about today. We are going to ride the course tomorrow, and I’m pretty much looking forward to getting on the bike on some super fun stuff. Later.

Finally.

2008-07-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Pretty much my entire training year has been leading up to this week. National Championships in West Dover, VT. I went last year totally unprepared, and without a clue. This year, I know what to expect (mostly), and I have been preparing all year. That being said, I have very little confidence in my fitness level, and am pretty much hoping to pull off something unexpected.

Today was my final day of preparation, and I still feel like I have a lot to do. I worked on Julia's and my bikes for a couple of hours today, trying to dial everything in. I even put a granny gear on, just in case. Julia is running some awesome ADvantages, and I'm on Monorails. I do have my trusty Medusa's in case it's muddy, but I'm hoping that they won't be necessary. I've got all of my stuff packed up, and even got a custom kit done... let's just say that my non-physical self is ready.

I still have to ride tomorrow morning after breakfast with the fam, and hopefully I won't forget anything that I need. I'm stretching now, thinking through all that I've packed and what I still need to.

Anyway, It's time to stop rambling and start sleeping. I'm pumped, and totally ready to end the speculation. Let's get it started...

What my life is made of...

2008-07-12T08:22:00.001-07:00

My life has a few things that I consider essential to the definition of it. These being (in no order other than as I thought of them...
Bikes
Racing
Fitness
Female company
Work
Sleep
Dr. Pepper
Subway
Battle between the sweet and the healthy
Driving
School
Knowing the plan
Sun
Summer
Music
Looking forward to the next great thing

That pretty much sums up my life at the moment. What also sums up my life at the moment is my extreme excitement about going to nationals. And although I am not overly confident in my current fitness level, I am looking forward to being able to get to travel and have fun with some racing thrown on top of it all. It is going to be a great trip. We are leaving on Monday, and I am going to try to write a blog about every day that I am gone, but I guess that will depend on my Internet connection capabilities.

What defines your life?

Work

2008-07-06T07:54:00.001-07:00

So. I'm at work. And bored. No one has really come in today, and with the exception of Wes being here for a little bit earlier, I have been alone.
It was raining earlier, but it has turned into a really nice day, so I'm looking forward to getting out on a ride after work. That being said, I have a long time to wait. I'm hoping someone will come and hang out with me at the coolest shop on earth...

Anyone? Hello?

I guess I will go work on my bike some more, then get around to Punky Brewster's clapped out fork.

Wait, a stupid tourist is coming in. Great. Not who I was looking for, but I guess I should go help them...

Later.

Hey! Back at Clemson!

2008-06-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

For once, I am actually going to blog about a race right after the race itself. Pretty amazing, huh? Julia and I went down to Clemson to do the SERC race there. I seem to race this course a whole lot during the year, and I get kinda tired of it. However, since it is only an hour from my house, it is hard to miss out on doing any of these races. So, once again, we packed up for the day, and drove down to the heat.
I was glad that our races were early in the day so as to avoid much of the heat, but even starting at 9:30, it still was already 80 degrees. I just about missed the start, lined up against about 15 other riders, and set off into the woods. I didn’t get the best start in the world, and ended up going into the singletrack 8th or 9th wheel. “No problem,” I thought, “my goal is to start slow and be consistent today, so I’ll just work my way up through the field.” Yeah, I was still pushing pretty hard, and lost sight of the leaders WAY too quickly. After passing 2 of the riders directly in front of me, I didn’t see anybody else until the end of the lap.
I finally caught up to the rider directly in front of me, and after playing tag for a little while, I was finally able to drop him. After that, it was just about surviving. My legs weren’t responding the way that I wanted them to, and I was suffering up the climbs. I had just installed a granny gear on my bike, and I actually was pretty glad that I had it on the steeper climbs. My descending was OK, but I still was lacking the smoothness and flow that I had the last time I raced here. By the final lap, I was suffering pretty good, and had a hint of cramping in both legs.
I ended up getting 5th, only 15 seconds of the guy in front of me. I was pushing on the last lap trying to catch him, but he just had too big of a gap, and I couldn’t pull it off. The winner was something like 13 minutes ahead of me, but since he beat 2nd by almost 9, and has been dominating all year, I feel pretty good about my race for the condition that I was in. I’m hoping that I am on track for nationals, and should be able to get in some good training between now and then. I don’t actually have any more races to do before Nats, so I’ll have to find something else to write about until then.
The rest of the Sycamore Team had some good results and good times. Julia got 7th in her first real expert race, which is a really good result considering her approach and general disdain for “training.” Tasha, the newest addition to our team, won the Women’s Pro/Expert race, beating out second by about a minute. Capitan America came and gave everyone a killer feed and photo shoot. I’m pretty sure that it takes a experienced racer to give a good feed, and the one we had was straight PRO. After we were done with awards, we headed over to Ruby Tuesday’s for some post-race burgers. Yeah, we seem to do that a lot. Not that I’m complaining at all. I realized that one of the very nice things about racing Clemson is that it is only an hour away. Pretty much every other race is over 2, so when you can be back home, relaxing on the couch within an hour, that is something pretty cool. So yeah, I’m pretty much chilling today, so I’m gonna go get back to that. Until next time, keep the rubber side down.

Boredom anyone???

2008-06-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

So, uhh, it's been a while since I've posted anything. Yeah. Not a whole lot has happened since my last post, and in all honesty, I just haven't really had the time or desire to write anything at all. I went to Alabama to race at the Bump and Grind, and in spite of some good results from teammates, my race was far from enjoyable, and I ended up pulling out before the finish. It was God awful hot down there, and I can't understand why people (myself included) would ever live down there. Unless you have a morbid fascination with fire ants, there really isn't all that much worth the heat.
Anyway, life outside of racing has been pretty good. I've either been training hard, working, or hanging out with my totally-pumped-about-cycling girlfriend. Yeah. Actually, it's been unusually hot up here in the mountains too. I guess that is what generally happens in summer, but still, you don't expect it to get that hot up here this early in the hot season.
I pretty much don't have much to write about right now... I'm going to Clemson this weekend, and I promise a race report from that. Yeah. Right.

A late 12 hour report.

2008-05-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been more than a week since this race, but I've been kinda preoccupied, so my apologies for not getting the post up sooner. Enjoy...
At some point in your life (specifically related to cycling in this case), you have to be able to separate your performance from the quality of your day. It’s a good thing that I have already been able to do that, since I’ve had 2 not so good races in a row now. Along with what was possibly the largest Sycamore Cycles contingent ever assembled in one place, I went to Tsali to be on a 12 hour team. I always look forward to this race because of how much fun it is, and this year was no exception. We had 16 people racing for us, on a total of 4 teams. If you want to hear about those races, go check out the Sycamore race page for all the gory details. (http://www.sycamorecycles.com/bicycleracing.php)
I had gotten talked into doing the running start on the first lap, which I thought was OK at the time, but in retrospect, probably wasn’t all that good of an idea. I warmed up on the bike, and then went to the line about a quarter mile from where my bike was laying on the side of the trail. I’m not sure who came up with the idea to start a bike race out with running, but I’m sure that it had something to do with the hilarity of watching a bunch of people in lycra and uber stiff soled shoes doing something completely out of their element and suffering immensely. I’m sure that watching that spectacle was the reason. Anyway, I got to my bike with the leaders, and then tried to recover as we sped up the gravel road climb. I passed the guy I knew to be the fastest in the race as he was fixing a low tire, and proceeded to lead for about half a lap until he caught back on. I was riding in the lead group of 3 and feeling pretty good about myself when I hit a root wrong and burped all the air out of my tire. Being the super mechanic that I am, I managed to get it inflated again with my trusty CO2 inflate and got back to riding. I held the gap fairly close, and came in for the hand off to Tristan. After cooling down and having my first of many post-lap Dr. Peppers, I settled in for some good, old fashioned heckling. The problem with this race is the extremely short amount of time that you have between your laps. You never get enough time to just chill. Anyway, I got back on the trail and was feeling pretty good, and having a great time on the fast sections of the course. The good times quickly ended when I came back to the transition area and saw that my lap had gotten about 2 minutes slower. I rode cooling down, utterly dejected and crushed that my efforts were to no avail in maintaining speed. Just as I was feeling my lowest, the Skeletor galloped by on his Steed of Pestilence, clutching a scythe in one rotting hand, and shot a wretched grimace over his shoulder at me. I felt all my remaining traces of happiness and speed leach away into the dusty ground and I trembled, my skin suddenly cold as a sepulcher. I was hoping that my soul wasn’t about to be taken by the devil, when I realized that the cold skin was probably just from the person emptying their water bottle on me, and that my sudden fatigue was from the efforts of the previous 45 minutes. Time for another DP. The next two laps were similar… My legs got weaker and weaker, and my thoughts drifted more and more to the good points on the trail, rather than on the suffering that I was enduring for the team. I greatly enjoyed the day, and the first Sycamore team ended up in 2nd place… Not bad for 2 mechanicals and a horse that blew out his engine. I was super happy to have this girl with some crazy shoes there to support... She always makes races more fun. One of my favorite parts of the race experience is when we stop at the Huddle House for our traditional post-race dinner/breakfast, and I get to relive the day with the people who were there to experience it with me. By the time that we get done with eating, we ususally don't get back until around 2 or 3. By that time, I am suffering hardcore, and rarely can stay awake for more than 10 minutes out of the HH. Having Punky Brewster in the car with me really helped me out in that respect. Inspite of having raced super strong all day long, and having layed it down way better than I did (really, only a couple of minutes behind me every lap... and she didn't fade towards the end), she was strong enough to stay awake and keep me company so that we didn't die in the middle of the night. Thanks.
I am looking forward to getting in some really hard training this next month, and hopefully my next race will be better than my last two have been.

A dead Duck. Town.

2008-05-10T14:22:00.001-07:00

So, I forgot to update my blog after this past weekend, but it was fairly uneventful anyway, so whatever. Julia and I went over to Ducktown Tennessee for the SERC race that they were holding at the Olympic whitewater center. This was Julia’s first race after she had gotten back, and was forced (without much effort) to race a rental bike since hers was out of commission. We were driving over to meet Tristan and his sister at the course and then planned to drive over to the house where we were staying. We ended up getting a later start than we had anticipated, and a mid-trip Subway stop ensured that we would miss riding with everyone else. After driving for what seemed like forever on narrow curvy roads, and then on larger straight roads that didn’t seem to go anywhere and took forever, we finally got to the race. It was being held at the Olympic Whitewater Center, where, I presume, they held the Whitewater Olympic events. The flags and rings and torch helped my reach that conclusion, but it’s still just a guess.
The course was one that was super fun to ride, but not so much fun to race. It had a steep and long climb right out of the gate, and then eventually headed downhill on a tight, twisty, smooth singletrack trail. After rolling up and down for several miles, you got dumped out onto a false flat road about a mile from the finish. It was fun, but not really my style of racecourse. We rode on Saturday, had a great time, got some dinner, and went to bed for our pre-race beauty sleep.
Race day dawned, and I was not feeling my best. My stomach was all not happy, and I had a whole lot of trouble keeping food down at all. Needless to say, I wasn’t really looking forward to the race at all. We got there and started warm up, and went to the line. There were 9 riders in my field, and I was pretty confident that I would be able to beat all but 2 of them. I got about 1.2 hard pedal strokes in off the line, and realized that this was not going to be a good day. I quickly had a 10ft gap open up in the first 10 yards, and was giving it all that my legs had to latch back on. We hit the climb, and I was able to get the last wheel, but didn’t have the legs to move up. I managed to keep the leaders in sight for the first climb, and I was hoping that everything would magically start working after the descent. No such luck. I quickly lost sight of everyone, and couldn’t seem to keep my bike going in the direction that I was pointing it. This was definitely one of those days that NOTHING was working even remotely right for me, and I couldn’t seem to pull it together. I figured that since I was entirely sucking, I would work on mental toughness in the face of utter breakdown. That worked for a little while… until I hit a little climb that I normally wouldn’t have had any trouble making in the big dog, but today had to shift down to my granny and had a lot of trouble turning the pedals over. At that point, mental toughness went out the window, and I started laughing at how bad I was sucking.
I rolled up to the start/finish, and saw Tristan moving at a walking pace. He had totally flatted, and had already dropped out. We stopped and talked to his parents for a while, watched everyone come by, and then went out for a slow person’s lap. My only goal was to be back before Julia finished, and I was pretty sure that she was moving faster than we were. We ended up seeing her on the road section before the finish, and I decided to ride with her to the line. I struggled to keep her wheel as she was easily putting down more power than I could match. She ended up dominating the competition (no surprise there), and having a great time in the process. I guess her result made it worth the trip, but it sucks to go that far and, well, suck.
I’m just about done with exams, which means that summer is about here, and I can devote myself to riding my bike and getting ready for nationals.
12 Hours of Tsali is up next, and I am really excited to get to race with the super Sycamore team. I’m pretty sure that the shop is sending 4 teams out to do the event, and we should come up with at least one win. Stay posted!

Gotta love the mud

2008-04-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

You know what I hate the most about racing in the mud? The clean up. I mean really, the racing isn’t all that bad, you just kinda get used to it. But the clean up is never easy. Even after you scrub yourself clean, you keep finding mud hidden on your body for days. And mud is almost impossible to get completely out of your shoes. Yeah, it’s stupid.
We rode the course yesterday, and it was muddy, but not all that bad. However, it rained over an inch and a half last night, and yeah, that doesn’t really do good things to race courses.
I started warming up, and my legs were feeling pretty good. There were a lot of people there though, and I started freaking out because of all the competition. I got to the line, and there were about 30 people in my class alone. The pro, semi-pro, pro women, jr expert men AND women, all started in front of us on a very short course. I got a pretty good start, and ended up going into the woods in 3rd position. I passed two guys, got passed by another, noticed that he was sketchy on pretty much everything, and then passed him right before a gnarly rock downhill section. I put about 10 seconds on the field on that one section alone, and knew that it was going to be a good day. One guy, who I had been talking to on the line, came around me, and straight took off up a stupid steep climb. I tried to keep him in sight while also keeping my heart rate down, but that didn’t work out so well. The 3rd place rider ended up catching me on the second lap, and we rode together for the next lap. I could just barely see the leader every once in a while, and the two of us were working together to bring him back. There was a moment that I was straight struggling to keep up with him, and almost dropped off, but decided to put in a little more effort to keep on his wheel. I ended up dropping the guy I was riding with on the third lap without any effort, which made my job a whole lot easier. I rode that lap chasing the leader, and pulling him ever closer as we hit some serious lap traffic. I finally caught up to 1st on the first climb of the final lap, and settled in behind him to recover from the chase.
I noticed that I was riding the descents a little faster than him, so I figured that I would use that to my advantage on the final downhill. I attacked with 3k to go (usually I would measure in miles, but there was a sign right there that said 3k, so that’s all I know), right at the top of the mountain. I pushed the descent for all it was worth, passed a whole bunch of riders, and had a clean run down the rooted out downhill just before the flat to the finish. The final section of the course ran around a lake, which was fine yesterday, but today was covered in water from the rain. It was run on a little walking path, and there were people fishing and picnicking right in the middle of the course. It was awesome. Anyway, I pretty much sprinted for the final mile, and ended up winning my first expert race by around 10 seconds. I was pretty stoked. We were driving back to Brevard that night, and as it was, we weren’t going to get back to town until around 2 Monday morning. To add to the insult of the late night, it started pouring about an hour into the trip. We ended up stopping at a hotel for the night, which, when coupled with pizza and Family Guy, was a really good call. So yeah, back to class tomorrow for the final week of classes. I am really really really really looking forward to this next weekend, and then the end of classes after that. Stay tuned! Oh, you should go look at my Facebook to see the pictures from this weekend…

Riders with an eating problem

2008-04-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

So guys, I am up in Maryland with the BC team with the intent of racing at Greenbrier State Park. It’s my first UCI race, and so far, it’s been pretty sick. We got up here late last night, and hung out a bit before going to bed. We are staying at Tim’s house, about an hour from the course, and his parents have been really cool, feeding us and putting us up and all. The one issue that we had with the house was the jungle that they apparently have growing outside their house at night. I mean, during the day, everything seems cool. Other than some slightly longer-than-usual grass in the backyard, nothing was really out of the ordinary. But man, once the sun goes down, something crazy happens. First, the house doesn’t get any cooler, and it starts out really hot to begin with. Second, there are some massively noisy birds that start going off. There was a woodpecker (not really a jungle type bird, but still, it was there. It must have been a mutant or something) who insisted on banging on the window, and a chorus of his friends screaming at the top of their lungs. And if that wasn’t enough, there was a wild fire truck that decided to start his mating calls at around 4. Man, when those guys start sounding off, it gets crazy loud.
Anyway, Wells, Tristan, and myself ended up waking really early, which after going to bed late, kinda defeated the idea of getting a long night of sleep on the most important night to get a good night of sleep. We headed to the grocery store for some Luck Charms and Doughnuts, and then came back to the house to get ready to go ride. Some people may be under the impression that as serious athletes, cyclists are good about their diet. Let me assure you, THIS IS NOT TRUE. Tristan is addicted to candy, Wells eats more than a horse, Ethan eats pretty much anything you put in front of him, edible or not, and I pretty much eat way too much sugar. It’s a good thing that we ride bikes a whole lot, because if we didn’t, we would be some fat bastards.
Moving on to this actual riding, we got to the course, and it was about 900 degrees out. We got into our superhero kits, and headed out for some pre-race laps. The course is really intense, and pretty much the most full suspension friendly thing that I have ever ridden. There is not a single section that isn’t covered by rocks, climb or descent. You have to pick your lines really well going uphill, or you aren’t going to make it up these super steep climbs. The descents are fast and rocky, and there is one fairly substantial rock garden that will mix things up right at the start of the race. All in all, it is just over a 5 mile lap, and I’m hoping to end up with about 25 minute laps.
After we rode, I went to the amazingly convenient lake that the race goes around, and cleaned myself off. I talked bikes with this chick while I was cleaning up, which slowed the process down a little, but hey, it’s cool. I got to go to a Chipotle Burrito place for the first time ever, and let me tell you, it was amazing. Although I don’t think that it was as good as Moe’s or Pescado’s, so I’m not too beat up about us not having one near our house. It’s pouring right now, so I’m not sure what the course will be like tomorrow. It will certainly be interesting, and I’m hoping to do pretty well. So yeah. I’ll let you know. Looking back over this post, I can’t help but notice that it has been really long. Sorry about that, but hey, I had to make sure that you know all the details of my life. So yeah, now you know. Peace!

Tiger Rad

2008-04-26T07:12:00.001-07:00

So, I started this blog earlier in the week, and I was almost done with it, and then it got deleted, and I was mad, and so I haven’t started it again. Until now. So anyway, Tiger Rag. It's rad. It’s a bike race. That I went to. And raced.
I wasn’t all that excited about racing, cause I didn’t really think that my legs would be all that good, but hey, I went anyway. I was kinda happy about some changes that they had made to the course, taking out the long climb and sketchy sections by the lake. I’ve never like those parts, and was glad not to have to race them. The course ended up being about a 25 minute 5 mile loop that was super spectator friendly and fun to race. Anyway, after having a super fun drive down the mountain, I got registered, got a timing chip, and found some ear muffs on the ground. Since it was about 80 degrees outside, I decided that I didn’t want them, but since I didn’t want to put them to waste, I gave them to Tim instead. He didn’t want them either. Bummer. I then noticed that I had a new voicemail, and being the phone junkie that I am, I had to listen to it, despite being ready to start warming up. Sometimes all it takes is just a tiny little thing to push you over the edge of wanting to race, and this voicemail did it for me. I got some encouragement, a couple of laughs, and then was ready to get it on.
The start was going to be super important, but since I was trying to start slower, I didn’t really care. I gave Tristan the front spot on the line that I had been saving, mostly because I knew that I couldn’t run with those guys anyway, and started in the middle of the pack. I ended up going into the woods somewhere around 10th position, and settled in behind a sketchy guy that I know from back in Brevard. I was feeling pretty good, so I passed a bunch of guys on the first climb, and then didn’t see anyone else from my class for the rest of the race. The leader of the older age group caught up to me on the third lap, and I rode with him for most of the rest of the race, so I at least had some company, even if it was an old dude. I tried to keep it slow and consistant, and managed to keep my lap times to within 30 seconds of each other for all 5 laps. I managed a 5th place finish on the day, about 2 minutes off of 2nd. Of course, Tristan destroyed the field by like 4 minutes, so I wasn’t super close to him, but still, for a combined Pro/Expert field, I’m pretty happy.
I’m up in Maryland this weekend writing this now, and we are about to go ride the course. I’ll tell you all about my day later on…