HNY

Happy New Years everybody!!!!! Hope next year is even better!

3,2,1,....YAY!!!!!!

Only 3 days left in 08. Wow! The year has flown by. Another year of meeting and hanging out with great people, Riding(not as much as I wanted but very few do), the family, work and all the other little bits and pieces that make up what I call my life.

I have a few resolutions for next year. I won't go into them until the 1st. I'm hoping to start using this blog and the 3.5 people who read it to hold myself more accountable for them next year.

I hope everybody had a great year and will have an even better 09.

Later yall.

**&%$@@#@&*!!!!!

Yesterday was sunny, clear and about 67 degrees. A perfect day for a long bike ride.

What was I doing?

I'm glad you asked.

I had to work from 7:30 a.m. til 11:30 p.m.

Bah freaking humbug!!!!!!

The karma payback continues.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, all that stuff from the kids, Amanda, and myself.

The Artic South

A nightitme low of 10. A daytime high in the 30's. Sigh. Seems like winter is here. I'm pretty sure this a karma bitchslap for taunting Brian and Danielle.

Sorry guys.

I'm also sure they are laughing at me and calling me a puss for whining about this. Eh..what can I say..they're tougher than me.

Hope everybody had a great weekend and got all their X-Mas shopping done.

?

Has anybody who might read this drivel ever done the Snake Creek Gap TT? If so, what would I be getting myself into if I signed up?

It's another lovely Monday morning. Raining. Bleh!!!!

I think I need to try out St. Johns wort. My mood seems to be heading more and more southward.

Hope everybody had a great weekend. Later yall.

Still alive...mostly

Yup. It's been awhile. I've had my annual beginning of winter illness, which this year managed to hit on T-giving day. For a guy that really likes to eat that's not a good day to be ill.

Not a whole lot else has been going on. Here's a short run thru....

Work-Slower than usual for this time of the year. With the economy circling the toilet people are not out spending moola.

Riding-Not as much as I'd like. I'm also going through my annual winter blahs. This is pretty normal and I'm used to losing enthusiasm for pretty much anything at this time of year. Anybody who has advice on how to beat this feel free to let me know.

Assorted other notes-I admit it. I'm a huge GnR fan and I bought the new GnR(Axl solo project) album the day it came out. Now...I'll admit. I didn't hold out high hopes but I had to hear. The verdict? Actually..pretty decent. I've read some reviews comparing it to Appetite for Destruction but those people are obviously insane and should be locked up before they hurt themselves or others. It's not bad but is nowhere near as good as that.

Hope everybody is having fun and such. Later folks.

So. I get this Perfect Pushup thingy I keep seeing on TV and hearing about from people. I'm thinking it can't be all that. It's just a gimmick. Wal-mart has a set for 199.99 though so I figure why not? Let me tell you people..this thing makes push ups even harder. The twisting action forces you to use muscles I had no idea push ups even engaged. OUCH!!!! I'm not enjoying the process of raising my arms above my head today. Sheesh, I'm getting old.

It's Obama

Well, I guess now we get to listen to the Republicans bitch for a recount. HA! I think Obama won by a large enough margin that there is no doubt. I don't know if my life is going to be any different with him in office, but I do think that by electing an African-American President that it shows the good old US of A has taken some major steps forward.

Hopefully politics will never have to be mentioned here again.

To celebrate this historic milestone I think I'll go on a ride. Later folks.

WOOHOO......

10 beautiful days off. Vacation is a lovely thing. Going to do Oktoberfest this weekend and then flying down to Mississippi to visit family. Hope everybody is doing well and riding lots. Later folks.

obla dee, obla dah....

...life just keeps going on. I can't believe how fast the year is going by.There's only 2.5 weeks left til the next and last race forthe year. Well the last MTB race of the year anyway. I might try a few CX races this year. WHich means that I need to head out and attempt to develop some mounting/dismounting skills. Bleh. Or, I could just go out and "wing it". That sounds like more fun but much more potential embarassment. Ah well.

Everything else is going pretty well. My second job(Bonefish) helped cater a charity wine tasting last night. We were told to prepare for 350 people. So of course that means that only 150 people showed. The downside..was kind of slow and boring. The upside.....lots of leftover food. All the caterers went around trading food and such. I ended up with a good bit of salmon and several canolis. :-D The 2 girls that went with us to help serve food ended up with a box of wine each. It was definitely a good night. The only downside. I missed the GWAR show. ;-)

Hope everybody had a good weekend. Later folks.

New(sorta) Toys

I got one new toy and another thats not so new but I haven't talked about yet.

First..the not so new. My old Nike shoes which had served me well for 3 years were finally starting to give out. I found this very distressing because they were super comfortable and all that stuff. Since Nike had quit making shoes and these were no longer available I had to go looking.

Enter the Adidas Marathon.

They were on sale and I'd read some pretty good things about them so I figured I'd give them a shot. They took about a month to break in but I have to say..I'm really liking them. Stiff enough and pretty damn comfortable.

The next toy was much more recent. My old helmet was about 4.5 years old. While it hadn't suffered any real nasty impacts the pads and such were shot and I figured it was time for a replacment. I was going to get another Giro Havoc but I found myself being more and more drawn toward the Giro Hex. It's a bit heavier but it seems to ventilate even better and fits my large,round head much better.

Gotta love the Army green color and semi-macho(as macho as any piece of bike clothing can be) styling. I'm loving it.

Hope everybody has a great day and weekend. Later folks.

Sorry for the stupid pic placement but I haven't taken the time to figure out how to move this stuff around on here.

There hasn't been a lot going on lately. No big news to speak of. Just work and trying to get ready for the National Mountainbike Octoberfest. It's a weekend long event and probably the closest thing to a stage race I'll ever do. It's a short track on Friday night, a 8 hour on Saturday, and a time trial on Sunday. Should be fun.

For all you Metallica fans...the new album is really good. It's easily the best thing they've done since the Black Album in 91. It sounds more like Master of Puppets or ..And Justice for All though. As far as I'm concerned this is a good thing.

Hope everybody has a good weekend. Later folks.

The big 4-0

40....4-0....hmmmmmm..just doesn't sound right. There are a lot of people out there who would've lost a lot of money taking bets on me making it this far when I was in my 20's and early 30's. Ah well......to use an old quote and pretty kick ass song. "Life is Beautiful". Time to hit the bike then it's off to the movies for Death Race and then Papa's and Beer for Tex-Mex and sweet tea. Later folks.

Blah,blah,blah

Nothing really going on around here. Work and trying to get ready for Fools Gold. Starting to bounce up and down waiting for that. :-D

Later folks.

Late addition: I won't get to far into it. Let me just say, if you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet....go..now. Freaking incredible. It lives up to every bit of the hype. Even if your not into "comic book" movies. The world lost an amazing talent when Heath Ledger passed.

Ok. A very late ORAMM post. Long story short..I blew it..big time. I had a horrible day both mentally and physically. Nothing felt right all day long. Every little thing just seemed wrong. I really don't know how else to explain it. Everything from the way my wingnut fit to how my ipod headphones fit into my ears bothered me. I didn't start out exactly the way I wanted and I let that put me into a mental funk that lasted the entire time. The only good part of the day was seeing a young bear run across the 1,000,000 mile grassy road right before aid station 2. In other words....I acted like a brat. When everything didn't go exactly like I had it worked out in my head I let it bring me down and screw up the rest of the day. I dropped out at aid station 3 and I've spent the past week kicking myself in the ass about it. A friend told me I should work on trying to "flip" my thoughts..finding something positive(like being able to spend a day riding my bike through some of the most beautiful scenery there is) to focus on and not dwell on the negative. Here's hoping I can pull this off.

Hope everybody had a great weekend.

And we're off...

Off to ORAMM. I'll post a report (good or bad) either tonight or tomorrow morning. Later folks. Gotta love a race where I get to sleep in my own bed. :-D

I give up

I tried. I really did. I've spent the last 11 months telling myself that ORAMM wasn't that big a deal to me anymore. I was wrong. It's 6 days away and has consumed my every waking thought. This was the first endurance race I ever did and I was instantly hooked. The long climb up Kitsumas switchbacks followed by the ripping descent. The mental hell of the neverending grassy road. The long, painful grind up Curtis Creek. The hair raising fun of Heartbreak. All this topped off by another trip(usually pushing more now) up and down Kitsuma. It's all good. I cannot wait.

Don't get me wrong, Fools Gold is still the beast that haunts my dreams but I was nuts when I told myself that ORAMM was just another fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Bring it on.

Ugh. Back to work today. I did get some decent riding in though. A 2 hour day of mostly climbing on the parkway monday and then a little over 4 hours on the dirt tuesday. Yesterday was spent doing chores and hanging out with Amanda and her mom. All in all a pretty good "weekend" off. Only 10 more days til ORAMM which means only a little over 4 weeks til Fools Gold. Sheesh. Where the hell does time go. Seems like summer just started. Hope everybody is having a great week.

aches and pains

We can file this under the category of "Embarassing crashes". Wenesday I headed out toKitsuma for a ride. Parked at the Old Fort picnic area and headed up to the trail. Just as soon as I get onto the trail,the skies opened up big time.Ah well,wet roots and rocks just make it more fun. HA! Got up the switchbacks with only a few dabs(one day....) and headed down. Going down Kitsuma is a blast.It's a narrow ass singletrack descent that requires your full attention. I made it all the way down with only a few small falls.Then as I came out of the woods back into the picnic area I could see my truck and started thinking about dry clothes and dinner. This lapse of attention cost me as my tires hit some wet roots my bike slid out from under me and tossed me down hard. I have assorted bruises and a beat to hell right knee that sort of resembled a softball for a day.The rear deraillur got knocked over hard enough that it required a bit ofadjusting so it wouldn't go into the spokes when I used the granny.That wouldn't have been fun.The lesson learned? The ride isn't over til your off the bike and at your vehicle. This ranks right up there with the 12 hour at Razorbacklast year when I adjusted my glasses and missed the grip with my hand and bit it.Sheesh.

Have a good weekend folks.

papa got a brand new bag

Finally got my WIngnut Assault. I gotta say it's a good pack. I really like the easily gotten to side zippers. No more having to pull the pack off to reach my multi tool, gels and such. It also feels much better on the back.The lo-rider design works as advertised. Plus,it's super light. Definitely worth the wait.

Got in 4 hours (OK 3 hrs 58 minutes) yesterday at Bent Creek. It was my first time there since they did the new work on Greens Lick thats causing such a ruckus in the NC/SC forum on MTBR. I have to say,I don't get it. I liked it. I'm by far not the worlds greatest technical rider and I handled it ok. I think some folks just enjoy raising hell.

Well, I hope everybody is having a great week.Later folks.

Well, I'm back to work. Blech!!!!!! Other than that things are going well. I'm off today so it's a "big" ride day. I think I'm gonna hit up part of the ORAMM route. Kitsuma is always fun and I'm really wanting to lay into that long ass dirt road climb on the new bike.

In other news I hit up the used bookstore again and got stocked up for summer. I picked up Tom Clancy's "Red Rabbit" for cheap. Now I only need "The Hunt for Red October" to complete the collection. I don't really agree with the mans politics but I do like a good political/military thriller and he is pretty much the best (in my humble opinion) at that. Plus, Amandas mom has somehow found every Hiasen book but one in hardcover and I'm planning on raiding those and rereading them.

Hope everybody had a good weekend. Later folks.

Cowbell Challenge

Did the 6 hour option this year. First I want to say thanks to Taylor and the gang for a well run, really fun race. Plus, when I got there to sign in they had put cookies in everybody's goody bag. COOKIES. Pair that with not making us run to start the race off and I'm ready to declare these people saints.

I went into this race with 2 goals.

1. Go out at a pretty hard pace push it for as long as I could

2.DON'T QUIT!!!!!!! I was determined to beat the demons back and shut them up.

3.Ok. This one got added during the race. Clean that freakin uphill logpile.

I can sort of happily report that I accomplished all 3.

I pushed it(for me) the whole race, when my nagging, wussy voice started telling me I was never going to win one of these and that I should just drop out and take up model airplane building I tied it to my seatpost and drug it into submission. I cleared the uphill logpile twice. Of course neither time was when Bruce was there with his bullhorn.

I finished with 5 laps. Would've been more but I flatted the last lap and made it back after the 3 p.m. cutoff. I'm still slow but I'm faster than I was last year.

Hope everybody had a good weekend. Yall come back now.

Due to the insane number of people(ok 1) asking me to post ride impressions of the Bandersnatch I'm doing 1 more Vassago love fest. Here we go. I'm going to try and break it down into a few different categories.

Climbing-Does very well. I got rid of the spacers and got the front end a bit lower and it does much better now. The front end stays down on the shorter steeper stuff. On longer climbs it seems to do better with seated climbing. That might just be my impression though.

Descending-Excellent. Basically just point and shoot. Really stable and fast as hell.

Handling-Great. Handles the tight, twisty stuff like a champ.

Overall I can't say enough about it.I think it's an awesome bike. The frames is plenty stiff but doesn't beat the hell out of you the way an aluminum frame might. I also use a Reba fork which from what I've read is the worst fork geometry wise for the frame. Can't wait to see how it does with a Fox.

Hells to the yeah!!!!!!!!!!

As of 4p.m. today I am on vacation. 9 glorious days off!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even begin to figure out where to ride first. Decisions,decisions.

OK. This will be my last post gushing over the new bike. Well, probably not, but I'll try anyway. The more I ride it the more I like it. In fact, I like it so much it's got me considering picking up a SS Jabberwocky this winter. I'm not sure I'm ready for that brand of Kool_ade yet but..why the hell not?

In other news. Things are going better on the home front. My head seems to be clearing up and I'm not sliding into the deep funks that I'm capable of. Work still blows, but hell..that's why they call it work I guess. In other words....things are going pretty damn well these days. For the first time in a while I don't feel like I'm taking aim at my foot and pulling the trigger.

*WARNING* Age alert here. Seems as though Motley Crue has put together a "hair metal" version of Lollapalooza for the summer. Crue Fest. I realize the Crue doesn't have the alternative cool aura of some bands but I don't care. They provided the soundtrack for my high school years(GnR didn't come out til after I graduated..yes I'm that old..and they promptly teamed up with Motley to get me through my military years) and I still enjoy the discs. Anyway, the big festival is coming to Charlotte and has me jonesing to go. I doubt I do..it's hard for me to justify $95 for a ticket to sit all day in the Charlotte sun in July, but I can dream. HA!!!! ah well....rant over.

Hope everybody has a good day. Later folks.

Random stuff

Resting and getting ready for tomorrow.

Ok. A quick ride report on the new bike. It rocks!!!! When I first got the frame I would stick it up next to my old frame just to compare how it looks. I was always wondering about the geometry. Vassago uses what they call "Wet Cat" geometry and it's a tad different than most of what you see out there. To make a short story shorter..they seem to have nailed it. It climbs as well as can be expected with me doing the pedaling....it's stable as hell when descending and corners awesome. It handles switchbacks with ease. The only thing I still need to tinker with is the height of the front end. It get's sorta light and comes up a bit on the short really steep climbs. Flipping my stem and tossing all the spacers should handle that.








June is here and the next race is a little less than 3 weeks away. The Cowbell Challenge. I'll be doing the 6 hour this year. After that it's 5 short weeks til ORAMM. This has always been the race I thought of every year when the words "bike race" were mentioned. Not anymore. This year it's a way to help prepare for the new monster that haunts my dreams....Fools Gold..aka the race that handed my ass to me on a platter last year..aka the most fun time ever. After that I'm hoping to do my initail attempt at the SM 100 and then the schedule is pretty open. We'll just have to see what happens.





Later folks.

Finally.....

.....proof that it does exist. Hands down the best bike I've ever had.

quick Burn notes

1. Didn't go exactly how I wanted but since I wasn't expecting a lot I'm sorta ok with it. Between work and other life stuff I really didn't get to train like I wanted. 24's are much to hard to just "tough it out".

2. When doing the lemans start, make sure your lined up with the RUNNERS not the first lap riders..this will save you the shame of watching the start go off 50 yards in front of you and then having to run all alone like an idiot. Trust me...not fun.

3.Make sure your cleat screws are set right. That way you don't end up with feet that feel like they had nails stuck in them.

4. Nam and Eddie do an excellent job.Even with all my screw ups I still had a great time. There races are easily the most fun out of any I've done.

Hope everybody had a great weekend. Later.

I'm off

See you folks after the Burn. Hope everybody has an awesome holiday weekend.

What do you know? All the folks that said the big wheels rock were right.The new bike rides better than anything I've tossed a leg over. Sweet.

At last normalcy...

..sorta..work hours are back down to normal. Good thing to cuz the new bike is awesome and I feel the need to be riding it constantly. It took a few rides to get used to the bigger wheels and the fact that it's a hardtailand the truth is I'm still not completely used to it but I'm pretty sure I'll be putting in enough hours on it this week so that we're more than just passing acquaintences before Burn this weekend. I know I should be "tapering" but to sorta quote Dicky.."I'm a mountainbike rider way more than a mountainbike racer" so there is no way I'm wasting a sunny day off.Besides I need to get the new bike out to satisfy my new addiction. Hmmmmmmm...maybe I should name it Mr.Brownstone. HA!!!!!!

Bonus points to anybody who can name this song and artist..."If mornings a bitch with open arms then nights a girl whose gone to far"

Hope everybody had a great weekend. Later folks.

Thank God for bikes

The long hours continue atwork for at least 3 more days but I've figured out the best way to cope with it. It was annoying the hell out of me that I couldn't ride as much as I wanted to. Well...the solution to that was easy enough. Give up an hour of sleep, strap on the lights and hit the neighborhood loop before work.Yeah,yeah..I know I should've thought of this before but my brain doesn't always fire correctly. Anyway, I've been in a much better mood the past few days. I'm pretty sure not feeling like a bloated,lazy slug has something to do with that.

Hope everybody has a great weekend folks.

Much,much needed.....

..day off. My brain feels back to normal and a hard 2.5 hour ride with four 20 minute threshhold intervals managed to blow out all the negative feelings bought on from work. I have today off also so I'm planning on a much longer ride. Hope everybody had a good weekend. Later yall.

Soooooooo...doesworking 15-16 hours a day count as endurance training? Nite folks.

34*....

.....that's what the temp was as of 7 a.m. So much for not needing the cooler weather stuff anymore. Sigh. Just when I put the arm and knee warmers up.I jinxed myself. Should've known. Ah well..no time for downtime. Burn is going to hurt enough as is.

Hope everybody had a great weekend and is getting a lot of saddle time in. Later yall.

@#$&%%***&!!!!!!

I took a bunch of "before" pics of the new bike stuff before I take it to the lbs so it can become a bike. Of course, my temporary computer won't load the pics. F'in hell!!!!!!!! Anyway , for anybody that's intrested, here's the final build.

Frame-Vassago Bandersnatch
Seatpost-Thomson Elite
Saddle-Selle Itaila Flite
Stem-FSA OS 140 110mm
Handlebar-FSA Flat Aluminum 31.8mm
Grips-Ergon
Brakes-Hayes Hydro stolen from old bike
Shifters-SRAM X-7
Wheels-Slasa Delgado 29er Race with WTB Laserdisc Lite hubs
Crankset-Truvativ Stylo 3.3(BB intergrated)
FD-Shimano XT
RD-Sram X-9
Pedals-Crankbrothers Eggbeaters
Tires-Maxxis Ignitor(Front), Maxxis Crosmark(rear)

Some parts(brakes and saddle for sure, possibly the stem) will be swapped out as $ allow.

Goodluck to Eddie and Nam O in Cali.

You all have a good weekend. Later folks.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only 5 weeks til Burn.How in the hell did that happen? Where the f--k did April go? AH well. Everything seems to be on track bikewise and mewise. We'll see soon I guess.

As far as the new bike goes. One Shimano part made it. The front deraileur will be an XT model.The shop was out of x-9's. There will be pics someday. Hopefully. If anybody wants to imagine it..think lots of silver and black.

Anyways...good luck to everybody racing this weekend.Later folks.Yall be good now.

Ears back to normal

Well..it took almost 2 days but my ears have finally stopped ringing. As mellow as DBT can be on record, live and in concert they are 100% rock band. Loud, testosterone driven(even the lady bass player was a bad ass:-D) and freakin awesome. Luckily for me my boss is also a huge fan and caters the shows whenever they play here. I got to be part of the crew and got to watch soundcheck an get into the show later that night. All for a grand total of 30-45 minutes of very easy work. Sweet. They played for about 2 hours and did all the songs I hoped they would.I'm still grinning.

On other subjects.Spring is finally here!!!! It's sunny and 70 here today andwhile it's been raining a good bit the weather is a LOT warmer.

Hope everybody had a great weekend and that things are going good. Later folks.

Car free(sort of) for a month

Yesterday started my car free experiment. For the next month I plan on using a bike to go anywhere I don't absolutely have to drive to. For trips to the grocery store, Sam's, and stuff like that I'll have drive. All other trips(work, sisters,and such) I'll be riding. With gas prices the way they are and Asheville being as ummmmm..compact as it is.it just makes more sense to commute. Amanda and I are aslo gonna try and not eat out for the month as well. Hopefully by the end of the month we'll see a pretty signifigant savings increase. I know I will as far as gas goes. Hell, I'll probably save enough to finance a race with.

On the new bike front..I've decided to see if I can go Shimano free with it. The only thing I'm waffling on is the crankset. Anybody have any experience with FSA,Truvativ, or Race Face cranks? Shimano makes great stuff and I have no problem with it.I'm just doing this for shits and grins basically. Hell.....I don't know why..just seemed like a good idea at the time.:-)

Hope everybody had a good weekend.Later folks.

I'm back!!!!!

Sort of. I finally broke down and pulled out our old computer.It's slow and seeing how it uses Windows 98 as it's OS the internet connection sometimes overwhelms it, but hey, it lets me do what I need to do...sorta.Anyway,things are pretty much back to normal here. I'm finally completely over the flu and back on track riding wise. The one good thing about being sick is that it took 6 pds off me.Though with my luck that was 6 pds I needed.

Hope everybody is getting a lot of saddle time in. Yall have a good one.

Nothing new

Still no computer. Still using the library. Looks as though the Cohutta filled up before I got off my lazy ass and signed up soooooooooo..seems as though Burn will be the 1st race of the year. Cool. Anyways, nothing going on. Later folks.

HMMMMMMMMMMM......

...I vaguely remember this thing. It's been awhile. A nasty case of the flu that kept me pretty much flat on my back for a week and my computer crashing combined to keep me away from here. The flu is history(Thank God) but the comp issues remain. I'm using the library's internet to type this. The sad thing is...not a lot has gone on in the past few weeks. Work,sick,work, try to ride..the usual. I did get to see Henry Rollins a little over a week ago. He did his spoken word thing and it was a blast. Laughed a lot, learned a few new things and had a great time. Hopefully the computer will be up and running in the next few days and I can catch up a little better. Hope everybody is having a great week. Later folks.

Oh..got some new pics to post but can't do it here.

Everybody's working for the weekend.

WOOHOO!!!!! It's the weekend. Well..sorta...I have to work the weekend. My "weekend" actually falls on Monday and Tuesday. Still....Friday always puts me in a better mood. Maybe it's the collective "Ah.It's the weekend." vibe from everybody else. Who cares? It works.

Thinking about hitting up a big ride on Monday. Not sure where.If anybody has sometime off and wants to head out, let me know. Then again...most folks might be recovering from that little "The Most HORRIBLE Thing Ever" race. Good luck to everybody doing that.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and gets some good ride time in.Later folks.

Pics anyone?

No.Not my pics.I'm doing a shameless plug fmy dad here. Anybody who is interested in pics and the taking of them..check this site out. www.oldsilverphotos.com

In other news....well..there really isn't any..train(rehearse,practice?..thanksto Dicky I now have new things to call it),work,eat,sleep..repeat. Less than 2 months to Cohutta. :-D

Ramblings

Not much going on in Allan world lately. Work and the usual stuff. Got my new wheels picked out for the Bandersnatch. I'm going with the Stan's Arches. I know that Stans has lighter rims but I'd prefer to feel confident that my wheels will hold up to my less than graceful riding style than save a little weight. I'll be using the WTB Laserdisc hubs. Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade to some I9's at some point.

I'm seriously considering putting out a want ad for a PMBAR partner. I've only heard really great things about this race and it is practically in my backyard. If anybody knows somone let me know.

Hope everybody had a great weekend. Later folks.

Cujo and new pieces of the puzzle

I can only assume that her toys were talking smack and had to be taken out in the most violent way possible.

Another piece of the puzzle. Thing are looking good for a finished bike to be here soon. Finally!!!!(Fingers crossed)

The rest of the tribe

I figured I needed to show a little love for the other furry family members. I'm always going on about the dog, and, to be honest I'm definitely more of a dog person but these 2 are pretty cool also.

Poop Storm

Seems to be a lotta shit flying about Floyd deciding to toss his hat into the NUE series this year. There's almost an entire 4 pages devoted to it in MTBR's Endurance racing forum. Some think it's cool and others think it's the work of Satan. Personally, I don't think it's such a bad thing. At the very least, it gets some attention for these races. I would love to see a race like Fool's Gold get a big write up in one of the big cycling mags, and even though it might mean more work I'm betting that Namrita and Eddie would also. I don't know for sure whether the guy doped or not. I hope he didn't because his comeback on that one stage is one of those "spine tingling" moments that make people love sports.

Let the guy race. If he wins a few, I seriously doubt he was doping to win the payout for these things.

Fingers crossed

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/slipstream

I really,really hope they make it.

Finally

Never learn the first time.....

That'sme.Always the hard way. After seeing just how hard all these races are last year, I swore to myself I was gonna wuss out and just ride from then on. I suckedto put it kindly and decided I was really nor cut out for that stuff. Amazing howtime makes it all a little fuzzier and more fun looking back. Anyway...here I go again. This year with more of an idea what I'm in for and much,much better prepared. Plus, with the counseling I'm becoming less of a stressed out emotional wreck. Amazing how much easier life is when your not actively looking for something to stress about and creating stress when there is none. ok..here'san extremely tentative schedule.

April-Cohutta 100 0rEpic 35....not totally sure which yet. Part of me says.."Fuck it.Dive in the deep end and go." The other part syas todo something I know I can finish and build a little confidence.

May-Burn 24

June-Lumberjack-I get 1 big bike trip this year and thisone worksout the best schedulewise.

July-ORAMM-Every year til either the race or I pass away or get to old to do it.

August-Back to Georgia for Fools Gold paradise.

September.Shenandoah-if I'm still alive

October-DSG 12 hour in Conyers-I've never ridden this course and i really,really want to.

November-Clear Springs 24-this one depends on if my pops got tocome to any races. If he did..it'sonly a 50-50 shot. If he didn't..I'm there.

How the hell did I go from not "racing" to this? I'm an idiot?Yeah..maybe so....but I'm an idiot that loves this kinda stuff.

Later folks.

Trickling in

The parts for the new frame are slowly coming in.Ergon grips and Maxxis tires are in transit as I type. The fork will be delivered soon.Hopefully I can manage to do X-mas with my father before the month is over so I can post pics of the build as it progresses. Hell, I wanna post some pics so I can prove the damn frame actually exists.

In other news.....well....nothing much is going on. Work,ride or lift, sleep,eat,repeat. Not that I'm complaining..I actually kind of prefer a simple routine. It helps keep the voices quite. ;-)

Hope everybody had a great weekend and has a great week. Time for me to head out and enjoy the freakishly warm weather. Later yall.