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

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.

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!

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!!!

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

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!

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

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

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

2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, just letting you know.

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

Goodbye College

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

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

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

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

ORAMM and After

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

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

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

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

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

126 Days!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spring? Maybe? Hopefully?

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

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

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

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

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

Racing Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time to get serious

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

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

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

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

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

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

51

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

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

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

Stay spicy America. Time for some Quesadillas!

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

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

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)

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...

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

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.