Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas folks!!!! Hope everybody had a great day and had a chance to hit up the traffic free roads.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate everybody. Hope everyone has an awesome holidays. Now be honest.....who is going to take advantage of virtually traffic free roads tomorrow?

almost over

Well, the holidays are almost over. what am I gonna do without a bunch of people sharing their "holiday spirit" with me at work. I swear, people get more irritable every year.

Good news is that our mild winter continues. I'm being spoiled by all of this. I know freezing temps are coming and I'm gonna be hating it.

Finally got all my X-mas shopping done. I never woulda thought the nieces would be so hard to shop for. 6 and 2 yr old girls that have pretty much everything are though. Oh well, I'm hoping they like what i got them. We'll see.

What a day!!!!!

Got a good ride in at Bent Creek today. I meant to hook up with Dicky and his band of merry riders but got held up taking care of some minor crap at work and missed them. I went ahed and did two laps of what I term the Boundary/Greenslick loop. I got in a little over 4 hours and had a blast. The weather was great with temps in the 60's. After that I did a little X-mas shopping then hit the recliner for some book time. That was around 8. The next time I opened my eyes it was 2 a.m. I guess the X-mas shopping wore me out. Hope everybody is having a great holiday season. Later folks.

F'n cold!!!!

Well...Ashevilles mild December is over..at least for today. It is friggin cold outside. However, Weather Channel is saying we should have temps back up in the 50's next week. WOOHOO!!!!! We had some light snow and some really bad winds yesterday afternoont. I accept all blame for that. I'm almost certain that if I hadn't rode to work it never woulda happened. I love hitting the Parkway in the early morning hours though so it was worth it. Hardly any cars are on it and something about riding on it in the dark really gets me going. Maybe it's all the pink eyes my lights reflect off of that does it. I dunno. Definitely a lot of fun though. Well, I hope everybody has a great weekend. To all the mtn. bikers in much,much colder areas of the country..plz don't laugh to hard at me. I know I'm a wimp.

Had a pretty mellow day yesterday. It was a short,easy day at work. I even managed to avoid eating bacon. Yay me!!! After that did an easy 2 hour ride. Kept it in zones 1 and 2. Mostly 1. Followed that up with some stretching and a nap. Anya(my dog) woke me up and we went out and tossed the ball for a bit. Had a lite dinner and then back to bed. Yup, I need more exciting stuff to talk about on here. Ah well, today isn't gonna be nearly as much fun. I've already done the strength training and now it's off to work. Hope everybody has a great weekend. Later yall.

Whining

Got in my strength training this morning. That felt so good that I decided to go on a ride after work. Since Razorback is coming up in 80 short days I decided to do some sorta specific training for it. Since any climbing there is of the short and steep variety I decided to ride around my neighborhood which is full of short,steep climbs. I warmed up for about half an hour then started hitting the worst of the climbs around here. It's only about a half mile long but it's steeper than hell. I would stand up and push the whole way up and then recover by riding around the block back to the bottom. I did this 10 times before my legs finally said enough. I'm thinking that tomorrow is going to be a pretty easy ride. That hurt. A lot. Anyway, hope everybody is having a great week. Take care.

Got a good ride in today. Got about 3.5 hours in up at Bent Creek. Legs felt heavy as hell from the strength training yesterday. Hopefully that means it's all working. Had a close call on Greens Lick when I lost my grip on the handlebars. I think my HR doubled when I did that. All in all a good day. Loving this weather. To bad it's going away soon.

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Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. Let the X-mas madness begin.

Still here

I'm a really bad blogger person. Sorry I haven't updated. It's that time of year. I wake up, crawl to the coffee maker,walk the dog, and then do my strngth training. Then it's off to work. After that I come home, play with the dog a bit, strap on the lights and a few extra layers and go out for 2-4 hours. After I get home from that, I can barely eat and shower before bed.
Plus, I've been upset since the evil commie s.o.b,'s from Auburn beat my beloved Crimson Tide...again!!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Ah well. I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving. Also, please wish me luck in my eforts to only have 1 piece of pie on thursday.
Oh yeah. There's a pic of what my ugly mug looks like. Yall have a great holiday. Later.

Be kind to your LBS

Thank God for Liberty Bikes. I put my new stem on my bike and noticed that it had a shorter stack height than the old one. I went and bought a new spacer. While I was removing the stem cap to put it on Amanda asked me a question and I (not being all that bright at times) turned the hex wrench the wrong way while answering. Uh-oh. Well, now I had a bolt that was way over tight. Soooo...as I was tryin to loosen it I felt the hex wrench twist freely. Knowing there was no way this could be a good thing I looked at the bolt. Yup, what used to be a hexagon shape was now round. Crap. Anyway, after I made a few comments regarding my intelligence and such I took the bike over to Liberty. They had to drill and hammer to finally get the EZ out around the bolt but they finally got it out and got everything right. They didn't even laugh straight at my face. Yeah, I'm rambling this morning. Sorry. Ah well. off to work. Later folks.

Yippeeee

Well, registration for razorback is complete. I know I'm a real newbie at this endurance thing but I still felt a wave of actual happiness and giddyness sweep over me when I hit the send key on Active.com. I really can't express how much I'm looking forward to next year. It's giving me a serious goal to work towards and helping me keep my mind off the total suckiness of my beloved Raiders and Crimson Tide football teams. Now, if I can avoid my usual "holiday expansion" I'll be doin alright.

Making my NRS faster,lighter,better than before has started.My new stem arrived yesterday and I'm now just waiting for the matching handlebar to get here to install it. Normally it would already be on but it's set up for those big, fat, 31.8 diameter handlebars. The handlebars are the FSA low rise K-Force carbon bars. I've never used a riser bar before but my back has been letting me know that it might be a good idea to give it a try. The next step is a visit to the I9 factory. I know that's a serious chunk of change but everything I've heard says they are well worth it.Unfortunately, new parts alone don't make you faster. I've also been doing a lot more riding. This has also helped with my annual emotional funk which occurs when the daylight starts going away. I do love the fall colors but I can never get past the fact that soon everything looks barren and dead. That always messes with my head a little. Just me though. I know a lot of people who love the winter months. Ah well. Only several short month til spring and I do have the 12 Hours of razorback to look forward to. Good luck to everybody at The Swank. I have to work that day or I'd be there yelling and screaming.

New toys

Got some new bike goodies coming in the mail. Also finally left the stone age and got a digital camera. As soon as i figure out how to use it I'll post some pics here. The downside of that is now everyone I know will start pushing for me to get a cell phone. Ugh. I hate those things. I don't like having a phone at home. Much less anywhere else. Anyway, enough of my luddite ramblings. Nothing real new going on here. I'll try and be a better blogger and post on a more regular basis.

OUCH!!!

What evil, sadistic God decided that one needs upper body and abdominal strength for mtn. biking.This lifting weights and working your core crap hurts. I hate doing this stuff, that's why i decided to ride bikes. LOL. Anyway,pulled out some of my old riding pics from Razorback just to remind myself of what it's like. It's been about 5 years since I've ridden there. If you've never been there it's a network of trails build inside an old sandstone quarry. There's no big climbs(it is Florida after all) but there are a lot of short steep nasty little hills.I'd like to do well here since I've talked 2 of my friends from down there to crew for me. They're the 2 guys who got me into biking to start with. So,anyway, I'm guessing I've got about 4months before this race soooooooooo...the off-season has officially ended. WOOHOOOOOO. Was bored outta my mind. Especially since I've quit drinking and discovered that if "my" team isn't playing football is sorta boring while sober. Later yall.

Reallyloving this jersey from Primal Wear.Debating on whether I should fully embrace my redneck heritage and get one of the Skynyrd jerseys as well. So many choices....Maiden, AC/DC,Kiss....sigh.

http://www.primalwear.com/catalog/index.cfm?catid=1&secID=1

More races

Well damn. Don't know how this one got by me when I was figuring out ways to spend money. I completely forgot about the Icycle. I have to do this one. Fun race, cool venue,snow,rain. All kinds of fun stuff. Wow. My race list is getting long.Well, long for me anyway.

Well now. I was wanting to add one more early race to next years schedule and guess what I found. A 12 Hour race at Razorback near Ocala, FL. Luckily I was planning on being in Orlando at around that time visiting some friends. I've ridden there several times before and it's a fun place. Ask and ye shall recieve. WOOHOO!!!!!!

OK. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what I wanted to try next year and have come up with tentative list. I think I'm going to scrap my new bike goals and get some work done on the NRS and try and get one more year out of it. Anyway, here is a tentative list of what I want to do next year. This list is subject to drastic change depending on money and several other things.

Cohutt 100-April TBA
12 Hours of Tsali-May 19
Burn 24 Hour Challenge-May TBA
Cowbell 12 Hour Challenge-June TBA
Off Road Assault on Mt.Mitchell-July TBA
24 Hours of Pisgah-Sep TBA
Swank 65-Nov TBA

All of the TBA's are just guesses based on when they were held this year. Lookin like 07 is going to be a fun year.

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Nothing new going on on this front. I've been working a lot in an attempt to save enough moola for a new bike along with entry fees for races next year.I've also actually started following a structured off-season program instead of my usual ride when I feel like it and maybe do a few push ups and sit ups. Since I'm allergic to the gym I went out and made the local Dick's Sporting Goods day. I bought dumbells,fit balls, resistance bands and all that crap. I"m using a book called Core Performance plan and over the past 2 weeks it'sdone a pretty good job of whuppin my butt. Hopefully, that means it's working. Anyway,all this means nothing without some bike training. Right now,I'm just enjoying the fall weather and doing some long mountainbike rides.There'sno real structure to them at the moment.I'll be starting that in November. Everybody have a great weekend.I gotta et to work so I can get home and glue myself to the computer for Worlds updates.Later yall.

Pulling the plug

I've decided to pull the plug on my season. I was planning on doing the Swank 65, but after what, I feel, was a disappointing showing at the 24 Hours of Pisgah I've changed my mind. The Swank is only open to 100 riders and I feel like if do it I'll be taking a spot from somebody who has a chance of doing a better race than me. Which means that I get to start planning next year. Most(pretty much all) the races I'm planning on doing don't have a set date yet but I'm gonna start planning anyway. Next year will be my most ambitious year yet.I've only done ORAMM 3 yimes and 24 HOP once. Everybody I read here in internet world does more than that in the first few months of the season. I feel like a poser when I read and post comments on thier blogs and in the mtbr forums so next year I going to fix that. Goodluckto everybody doing worlds.

24 HOP

OK. A quick race report. This was my first attempt at a 24 Hour race.Me being me,I decided to try it solo. I read all kinds of training guides and really worked my ass off. I got to the race the day before and set my stuff up. I had already gone out for a ride that morning so I decided to chillout for the rest of the day. I figured since I'd already ridden the course during training I would be set. Mistake number 1. I got up the next morning feeling good and ready to go. Once the race started I was quickly reminded of how much I hate running. My strategy was to take it easy the first few laps and cruise. Well, the fact that it had rained every day for a week had made the course a little muddy.What had abeen a pretty technical course before was now a super technical course. I hit the ground 3 times that first lap.The first lap was also the only time I rode up Puke Hill. By the end of my fourth lap I wasfeeling like I had been in a long fight and had lost. Slippery roots,sections that were so slick that I even busted my butt walking all added upto many bumps and bruises. I was also having a hard time with any solid food. I decided to take a short break to eat and change my shorts and jersey and throw on some arm and knee warmers. Second mistake.I never shoulda stopped for that long.I got some food in me and felt better. Got changed and went back out. About 1 mile into the lap my lower back cramped and seized up hard. It took me over an hour to push my bike back to my pit. My father had to help me lift it over the tape. I spent the next few hours laid up trying to get it to loosen up.I finally just tried to get a little sleep figuring I'd see how it felt in the morning.I woke up feeling a little better but still not good. I rode 2 more laps so I could say that I finished since solo riders had to have a minimum of 6 laps. My biggest mistake was not working on my core strength and not having a better nutrition plan. I will definitely be doing a few of these races next year and I'll probably purchase one of Lynda Wallenfells pre-built 24 Hour training plans. I'm also going to do a few 12 Hour races as well. I should've done that this year.Maybe then I woulda had a better idea of what I was getting into. The race was a blast. Ken and the gang put on great event. The course,while hard,was really fun. Anyway,the point is, I'll be better prepared next year. I'll see yall at the 24 Hours of Burn for sure.I have to give big props out to people who actually race these vents competively. You guys are incredible.

Ouch!!!

OK. While I firmly believe that cycling is the greatest sport in the universe, it is widely known that it's not a total body workout. Since I'm starting to creep into middle age I've been confronted with the depressing knowledge that I'm not as fast as I used to be nd the only way I can even stay close is through core training and (shudder) strength training. I hate lifting weights. I cannot even begin to describe how much I hate lifting weights. Mon-Sat, I drag my lazy butt out of bed at 5 in the morning for either core or strength workouts. My dog loves this, it means an extra walk, not to mention me layng in the middle of the florr which is prime posistion for her to jump me. Anyway, I have mentioned how much I hate lifting weights right? Well, I hate to admit this, this stuff does work. I feel so much stronger on the bike. Maybe I should've done this earlier(well, I definitely should've) and I would've done better at my first few attempts in the world of ultramtb races, Better late than never. Also, I have to give major kudos to power yoga and pilates. This stuff is also amazing. Also, as long as I'm giving props...if you haven't tried FRS Plus yet..give it a try if you can amazing stuff. Works great. Anyway, thats enough for the day. Yall have fun today.

WOOHOOO!!!! Spring is here.

Alright!!!!!! 2 straight days of warm weather and sunshine. I can definitely get used to this. Did 2 long bike rides yesterday and today and I'm officially cooked. My legs are seriously hurtin. Took Anya to Bent Creek today and let her run wild a little. She had a blast so it was well worth the extra strain on the legs. Well, It's time for dinner and then bed. Ever since my sister moved here I got all my old vhs tapes back. That means recorded coverage of the 99, 00, and 01 tdf's. WOOHOO!!!!! Perfect for falling asleep and getting subconciously motivated. Later folks.

One More Time

Alrighty. Lets try this blog thingy once more. LOL. Anya and I just got in from our morning walk/run. Got in an hour of ball chasing intervals for her. In a few minutes it'll be time for "daddy" to go work out. I must say I will never understand people who say they don't like dogs. How anyone could deprive themselves of the friendship and love they give is beyond me. anyway, I'm off today(woohoo) so I'm scheduled to do a 5 hr mtn. bike ride today. The weather is supposed to warm up some from the weekend. The 12 Hours of Tsali are coming up quick. Oh and as a reference to my last post that I did long,long ago. If you can..definitely invest in a Garmin Edge and a subscription to Motion based.com. Wonderful stuff. I can spend half an hour playing with the data that place gives you. it's great. Oh well. Time to get going. Hope everybody has a great day.