Pancakes

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

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

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

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?

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

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.

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

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)

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.