"dadadadadada......

..today is my birthday. dadadadadada..gonna have a good time." 39 years young. Got the day off work. Girlfriend has given me a day off chores around the house. Hmmmmmmmmm..whatever should I do? Lay around sloth like and do nothing..or.....go out to Kitsuma and put in some ride time? Decisions,decisions. Riding it is.

Hope everybody has a great day. Later folks.

We'll have fun,fun,fun.....

..till Mother Nature takes the sunshine away. Crap. Getting dark sooner and staying dark longer. Fall and winter are sneaking up. We can pretty much ride year round here but, I'm a sunshine kinda guy. I like getting up early and watching the sun come up while I have my morning coffee. Not while I'm at work. Oh well.

Been having a blast with riding the past few weeks. I took my hrm off the bike and haven't been worried about a "purpose" for my rides and have just been riding. Such fun. My legs have felt like overcooked spaghetti but it has so been worth it.

Hope everybody is having a great week and will have a great weekend. Good luck to Chris at his Thursday crit and this weekend in Michigan.

Later folks.

They're coming to take me away

Going slightly nuts here with no goal ahead. Yes, I do enjoy riding just for the fun of it, but with no real goals or anything my "slightly healthy" diet has turned into a cheese,grease, and sugar diet. Sigh. My lack of discipline is depressing. Ah well.

Good luck to everybody racing this weekend. Dicky and Danielle at the SM100, Namrita and Eddie at Santos, and Jason doin the big solo 24 in PA.

Later folks.

Oh yeah

Good riddance Mike Vick. It's sad to see that much talent wasted but he deserves everything he gets. Sadly, I don't think he'll be the last guy busted for this. From some of the comments I've seen on the net dogifghting is a bigger problem than I thought. Sick and sad at the same time.

I know I'm slow but....

..11 hours to do 50 something miles? When I went in with dreams of doing my first hundie? Not exactly how I pictured the weekend going. I thought I'd prepared pretty well. I was going on longer rides to get ready. I hounded a few different people for tips. (Thanks Dicky, Danielle, and Namrita) I got more sleep. All that sorta stuff.

I got to Dahlonega late friday afternoon. Got signed in and went out to the truck to get stuff together. I had planned on sending out pre-mixed Gator-ade/Carbo plus jugs to the sag stops for refills during the race. Only problem was..I forgot my gator-ade and carbo plus....oops. I quickly scoured my truck for every energy bar and gel that I could find. I came up with 17 gels and 8 bars. It'd have to do. The sag stops were going to have gator ade and power bar products out there so I figured I'd be ok. I finished getting my bike ready,dropped off my drop bags, ate, and then started tryin to kill time before bed. I ended up down by the kegs with Tomato, Dicky, and Chris J. After awhile everybody shuffled off to bed.

Race day started dark and early. Got up, ate breakfast, drank some cold coffee, got suited up, went to the pre-race meeting, discovered one of the lenses had fallen out of my glasses, and 30 seconds later..we were off. The first 1,000 miles were steep forest road climbing. It usually takes me around an hour to warm up so I wasn't to worried about my super slow pace at first. I got worried when the 50 mile racers who started 25 minutes after us started passing me 40 minutes into my race. That's right..they covered the same amount of ground in 15 minutes that it took me 40 to cover. Houston we have a problem. I saw Jonathan go bye and since he seemed to have a good pace going I decided to grit my teeth nd hop on his wheel. I managed to stick with him for maybe 1/4-1/2 a mile before I started getting dizzy. This would be a re-occuring problem all day. Whenever I got my HR up I'd get dizzy and have to either slow way down or pull over til it passed. Not good times. Kept hoping I'd start going better but it wasn't to be. I finally accepted my fate when it took me over 4 hrs to hit the second checkpoint..which was only 20 freakin miles. I decided I was going to at least do 1 lap and set about making my slow progress around it. The course rocked. Not super technical but really hard all the same. Overall I had a blast. Met a lot of really cool people, rode(verrrrrryyyyyy slowly) some very nice trail and in general had a good time. It was the last race of the year for me and was easily the best time I had at a race all year. I don't know how much racing I'll do next year but I'll definitely be back for at least the festival portion of Fool's Gold next year. At least my light's helped Rebecca finish. She came into the last aid station after the cut off time for lights. She was super upset and Jonathan quickly threw my light's on her helmet, got her spirits up and sent her on her way. She ended finishing 3rd in the open womens group. That's the biggest thing I love about mountainbiking. Everybody is willing to help everybody else. It's always awesome to watch and hear about.

As far as the rest of the summer and fall(and let's face it..winter..we really can ride all year around here..aint it great) I'm gonna get one of those nifty map holders for my handlebars and start doing some all day rides in the woods around here. Those are my favorite kind of rides and I'm gonna take advantage of the weather and get a bunch in. Plus lots of long walks with the dog.
Hope everybody has an awesome day. Later.

Aint talkin bout love!!!!

Well now....75% of the original Van Halen are reforming and touring this fall. After over 20 yrs DLR is re-uniting with Eddie and Alex. The original bass player is gone and it looks like Eddie's 16 yr old son is playing bass. They're starting the tour on September 27 in Charlotte,NC. There is no way in hell I'm going to be able to resist this. Thier music brings back to many old, fond memories of junior high and high school.They were one of the first bands I ever really got into and I still crank the radio up whenever a VH song comes on(the original VH..was never a fan of the Hagar years and I prefer to pretend that album with the guy from Extreme never happened). I'm there.

4 more days to Fools Gold. I'm nervous and jittery as hell about it. At the same time, I can't wait.

Later folks. Ya'll have a good one.

Woke up this morning to a coffee free house. No good can come of a day that starts out like this.

I see that BALCO Bonds passed Aaron's HR record last night. I'm sure he never used performance enhancing drugs in his pursuit of the record though...right? I mean, after all, only cyclists cheat..right?

Bud Selig didn't even show up for the big night. He made his bed with this steroids mess, now it's time for him to lay in it. I'm almost willing to bet that a big steroid scandal is coming down the pike for the NFL also. Unless you really want to believe that 300 pd men are running sub 5 second 40 yard dashes naturally.

At least cycling is making an honest effort to clean up.

Yall come back now. Ya hear? ;-)

Blech!!!!

Yesterdays ride sucked. I couldn't get my HR up over 156 and my legs felt dead the entire time. Hills that I usually ride up with no problem had me gasping for breath. I meant to do 5-6 hours but I ended up pulling the plug at 2. I came home and was pretty much a slug the rest of the day Hopefully todays ride goes better. Later folks.

Haven't been around much. Been recovering, working and getting ready for Fools Gold. 2 more weeks!! I'm starting to freak out about this.

bad blogger...bad,bad blogger

OK. I haven't posted a race report or..well...anything for almost a week. ooops. Sorry. Been extra busy. I was thinking that after ORAMM I would actually de-stress about racing for a week. Then it hit me that Fools Gold was only 3 weeks away and that is my first attempt at a hundie. Now I'm stressing about that. I'm guessing it's gonna be a 12-14 hour day. That's alright though. A long day on new trails sounds damn good actually.

As far as ORAMM. Here's the condensed version. It was hard. Real hard. Luckily, unlike every other year I've done it...the trails were dry. WOO..freaking..HOO!!!!!!!! I was happy as hell to see that. The roots and rocks on Kitsuma and Heartbreak are hard enough dry. Wet they're a f'n meanace. Anyway..I suffered..I climbed for what felt like forever on Curtis Creek. Here's the funny part though..unlike past years..I never hated it or wondered what the hell I was doing out there. In fact..I had a damn good time for the whole race. I'm looking at this as a sign of progress.

Oh. I know I've said it a 100 times but Carbo Plus rocks!!!! Never felt hungry the whole race. Used mostly the Carbo Plus/Gator-ade combo along with powerbar gels and 3 snickers marathon bars and that was pretty much it. Well..except for the Dr. Thunder at aid station 3..after the 9 Miles of Curtis Creek. At the time..I thought it was the best soda ever. Anyway hope everybody has a great weekend. Later Yall.


Oh.....good luck to everybody at 24 Nationals.

Finally

63 miles,11,000 feet of up, 9 hours....slow as hell yes. I don't care..I f-----g finished and couldn't be happier. That helped erase a ton of self doubt. Besides...I alwasy knew I was slow. More later.

Off the radar

The big group ride in greensboro was a lot of fun. About 50 people showed up and did the ride. The trails were pretty cool. There wasn't hardly any climbing but my God the roots. By the time we were finished I felt like my teeth had been shaken out of my head. I intended it to be a pretty easy day but that went out the window pretty quick. It ended up being like a series of 45minute -hour long tempo intervals. I felt pretty good at the end though and my legs felt great on yesterdays ride.

Gonna be off the radar here for about a week getting ready for ORAMM. Work is still a bit hectic and by the end of the day I'm usually worn out. I'm gonna try to get an extra hour or so of sleep in the mornings. Hopefully that'll keep me from feeling so damn tired on my rides after work. Hope everybody has a great week and weekend. later folks.

Ugh....

...up at 4:30 in the a.m. and cannot get back to sleep. So..I guess another day has started. That's cool. We're headed out to Amanda's mom's house in Winston Salem today. She's going to hang out w/ her mom and friends and I'm going to meet up with a bunch of folks from the MTBR NC forum for The Unofficial Epic Tour of Greensboro's Trails. It was put together by pinkdirt. A greensboro local I'm guessing. It's going to be a 40 mile ride with the vast majority of it being off-road. Sweet! It'll be my last big ride before ORAMM next weekend. I'm already stressing about that race. I really need to do well to wash the aftertaste left over from my Cowbell meltdown out of my mouth. Of course, by well I mean finish in a respectable amount of time.
Ah well. Hope everybody has a great weekend. Good luck to everyone racing and hill climbing.


WOW. I have VH-1 classic on. Apparently Poison is still together and covering The Romantics "What I Like About You". Huh????? Don't get me wrong...I was as big a hair metal fan as anybody back in the 80's and I still pull those songs out from time to time....BUT...ah...nevermind..if those guys can still put out albums and like to play music together and get paid for it..more power to them. Later folks.

Sucked in again

OK. First things first. God bless coffee!!!!!!!

I tried. I really did. I honestly thought that I'd be able to resist the TdF this year. I've been nothing but disgusted with the constant doping reports. The high and mighty attitudes of the governing bodies. All of it had pretty much turned me off on pro road cycling. I thought.

I managed to not watch the prologue. That's not really much of a feat though. Next thing you know, I'm reading about Robbie McEwen's awesome sprint to win stage 1 and the next thing you know I'm flipping channels to VS. like my life depended on it. Damn, that guy is f----ng fast!!!!!!!!!! Then Cancelleras win in the stage on teusday. WOW!!!!! I'm hooked. I can't help it. I just keep my fingers crossed that no major scandals come from this. Sports and "sports entertainment" have just been way to depressing lately. I'm hoping this years race can stand out as what bike racing can and should be. Plus I want it to shove it in the face of the "journalists" who call for a boycott of bike racing because of the doping scandals then fall all over themselves over Barry Bonds and baseball.

Hope everybody is having a great week and getting a lot of hours in bikewise. later folks.

Finally!!!!!

I got a ride in yesterday after 5 days (5!!!!!) off the bike because of an insane time at work. I've been working 14-15 hour days due to a sudden shortage of manpower. Yesterday I shut my cell phone off and left the house before anybody could call. I got in 3.5 hours at Bent Creek and could definitely feel the layoff. The long days didn't help either I'm sure. I'm going out again today so hopefully the legs feel a little better.

That's all for today. Hope everybody is having a good one.

Happy 4th

Happy 4th of July folks. Hope everybody has a good one.

Still here. nothing new going on. Pretty much just one day blending into the next.

Cowbell

Really cool race. They didn't make us run therefore earning my eternal gratitude. The day was super hot. I think the high was around 94. I actually felt really good before the race. Peppy even.

The race got started at 10 and everything was going well. I was holding back a little. I didn't wanna blow up in the heat. About halfway through the lap I heard a banging noise. I looked down and noticed that my bottle cage was flopping around and that there was a nice big hole where part of it used to be connected to my frame. Uh-Oh. I pulled the bottle out and stuck it in my jersey then tried to reposistion the cage. Thats when the other bolt ripped out. Now I had 2 rather large holes in my frame. Both water bottle mounts had come completely out. I stuck the cage in my camel back and rode the rest of the lap. I'm not any kind of expert on frame integrity whatsoever. All I could think of was all the stories I'd heard of people's frames breaking after they'd drilled holes in them to save weight. I kept thinking I could feel the frame flex while I rode. I got back to my pit madder than hell. I was convinced that my racing and riding where done for a few months at least. I packed up and headed home. Went to the bike shop and asked the mechanic about it. He then informed me that I could just put some electrical tape over the wholes to keep the water out and it would be fine. WHAT????? I then spent the next few days kicking myself in the ass. I'm an idiot. later.

Obligatory " more cowbell" refernce here

Off to Charlotte. Good luck to TD, Danielle, Jason the soiled chammy, and everybody else who is racing this weekend.

zzzzzzz

After much heated internal debate I decided against another long monster ride this close to Cowbell. I went out for a 2 hour spin this mornin with a few hard intervals thrown in just to wake the legs up a little. I'll do a few more easy rides this week and then Friday it's off to Charlotte for pre-ride and all that fun stuff. I'm thinking about turning the AC off and the heat up just to get used to the heat. J/K..the girlfriend would kill me.

Later yall.

Trashed and scattered...

..but not in a bad day. Legs are full of that good tired feeling that means yesterdays ride was a good one. Got in a little over 7 hours. Only 8 more days until Cowbell so I should probably start resting a little. Problem is...I'm off Monday also. I'm going to honestly try not to go out and ride all day but no promises. BAH!!!! Who am I kidding? I will and I know it. Oh well.....tis the season. :-)

Checklist

Bike-check
6 bottles of carbo plus/gator ade mix-check
Camelback-check
Helmet,shoes and sweet glasses-check
Tools and other needed items-check
ipod fully charged-check
rain jacket-check
assorted clif bars and clif shots-check
Day off-check
Off the charts level of giddyness about spending the next 6-8 hours riding my bike in the woods-CHECK!!!!!

later folks

Approaching liftoff....

..for the next race of the year. All signs are pointing towards it being really,really hot. I honestly don't mind the heat. When I lived in florida I used to actually enjoy riding in the midday heat. Of course, since moving here I've become a bit more of a hot weather wimp. As long as I stay hydrated and take my freaking electrolyte pills I should be ok though. I'm looking forward to this race for a few different reasons.

1. It's for a really good cause. It benefits The Lance Armstrong Foundation. Anything that helps raise money to cure cancer needs to be supported big time.

2. Lets me put some hard race miles in my legs before ORAMM.

3. I've never ridden the trails at the National Whitewater Center before. Any chance to ride new trails is a good thing to me

4. A chance to put the "lessons" learned from Burn to use.

Good luck to Bonnie and Danielle at Lumberjack this weekend. Also good luck to everybody else who is racing this weekend. Later yall.

P.S. Anybody who feels the urge to give me some hints about what the trails are like for Cowbell feel free.

I need to win the lottery

Work is killing me. We've had 3 people quit over the last week and the workload has almost doubled for everybody. I try not to let this kind of stuff get to me and just accept it as part of life but every now and then I want to scream. OK...maybe not scream but at least throw stuff and curse.

Anyway. Only 12 more days to Cowbell and only 41 more days to ORAMM. ORAMM is my "big race" every year. It's the race that got me on this endurance biking kick and well..it's just a blast. Todd(the promoter) makes it super fun and really,really hard. It's about 65 miles long with around 11,000 feet of vertical gain. If any of you guys and gals happen to be in the WNC area on July 22nd I highly reccomend you sign up and go for it.

Well, time to get to the grind. Hope everybody has a great day.

Still here

Sorry. It's been awhile since the last post. I haven't been feeling well and have been dealing with some bike issues. It's an older bike and it seems that whenever I get one thing fixed something else goes. Ah well. I've still been able to get some good rides in getting ready for Cowbell. I've been focusing on doing tempo intervals. Trying to up my sustainable power.

Other than that it's been work,work,work. Thank God for long summer days.

Hope everybody is having a great week and doing well. Later folks.

No crying in mountainbiking

OK. I'm done whining and beating myself up about Burn. The Cowbell Challenge is only 3.5 weeks away. Time to get back to work.

Burnt

Like I said before. The Burn is an awesome race. Eddie does an awesome job and the course is fun as hell. Depending on how things go at my next 2 races I definitely will plan on doing it next year. I do, however, have to do way better at my next few races. Meaning, I have to pull my head out of my ass and mentally get into the game. I went into this race with the goal of 16-20 laps. I did 6. That's right...6. Not a misprint. I rode my ass off getting ready for this and a few(o.k. ....several) stupid mental mistakes undid everything.

1. Hauling a couple hundred pounds of dumbell plates I was given from my truck to the upstairs spare bedroom and pulling whatever that muscle/tendon is under my right calf.

2.Forgetting to put chamois butter on my shorts and deciding to go ahead and ride the first few hours like that cuz I didn't feel like pulling them off and doing it.

3. Forgetting electrolyte tablets.

4. Not eating during the first few laps.

The first one wasn't to bad. It only bothered me during the run and whenever I had to get off the bike which was only a few times. The second one is another story. I rode 4 hours like that and by the end of that time it felt like my chamois was made of sandpaper. I'm still paying for that one. The 3rd and fourth are the biggies. I'm pretty sure they're why I ended up curled up in my tent with massive cramps and throwing up into a bucket. What's driving me nuts is that they're all stupid mistakes. I knew it was gonna be hot so how the hell did I forget to buy Endurolytes? I know I need to be shoving calories into my mouth pretty much constantly during a race like this so why didn't I? I don't know. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this stuff. We'll see.

Anyway, Mark Hendershot(34 laps) and Namrita (22 laps..I think) won the solo categories. They both looked super strong doing it to.

Hope everybody had/is havinga good weekend. Later.

Blah!!!!!

Horrible weekend. Details to follow.

Oh....my horrible weekend is all on me. Eddie puts on an awesome race.

Edit.....I meant to say details coming soon.

The Final Countdown

Yes it was a horrible 80's song. The title fits though. Only a few more days til the race starts. I'm starting to get the pre-race jitters already and doing my usual second guessing of everything I've done leading up to it. I'm also chomping at the bit to get started.

I got to meet Danielle this past weekend at the 12 Hours of Tsali. Her and her crew are super nice people and I learned a lot just watching them. She also brought me a super cool pair of Optic Nerve glasses. Now I have 2 which means I can set up a pair with clear lenses and I don't have to fumble around with swapping out lenses when I'm tired as hell. Thanks Danielle!!! Also, thanks to Ted,Scott, and Jason for patiently answering my zillion questions about stuff.

Hope everybody has a great day. Later yall.

Some pics....(bad ones)

A train tunnel that is visible off of Old 70.(Part of the ORAMM route)



Old faithful. Trying to make it through her last season.




Self portrait. Yes my head and face really are shaped like a Moon Pie.



The hands down best grips I've ever used.



Yup. I'm lucky to live here.





BUSTED!!!!!


Sorry for the very low quality of the pics. I suck at photography.

zzzzzzzzzzz

I so wish I was still asleep. I've been riding a LOT these past few weeks to get ready for Burn and it's wearing me out. This is the last week or so of large amounts of riding though. I'll start cutting it down some towards the end of next week so I don't go in completely fried. I guess with the extra free time I'll watch 24 Solo about 5 more times for motivation.

Anyway, working and riding has pretty much been all I'm doing lately so not much to talk about.

Hope everybody has a good day. Later.

It just....

...keeps getting worse. http://http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/12213.0.html

ORAMM practice

Ever have one of those days when you know you'll be dragging ass all day? Today is gonna be one of those days for me. I went out yesterday and rode a big chunk of the ORAMM route. I started out from the Old Fort picnic area. Then climbed up old 70 and Kitsuma, came back down Kitsuma and hit Star Gap and climbed Curtis Creek road. At that point I had to turn around because I had to help my sister finish moving. I screwed up and only ate a clif bar and some mini rice cakes after I rode. it was about 4 hours before I ate a real meal and I'm paying the price today. Oh well..the ride was totally worth it. Hopefully I'll have a few pics up from it in a few days.

Really can't say enough about the Carbo Pro/Gatorade powder mix. That stuff is rocket fuel. Also the Ergon Enduro grips. I'm still not used to my hands not being numb during the ride and then hurting for hours after. They rock.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Later.

Ugh......

...I hate not being able to sleep. I'm normally an early riser but still....waking up at 4 a.m. and not being able to fall asleep on a day off sucks. Aren't people supposed to sleep in on days off?

Anyway, today is going to be some nice riding in Bent Creek. (I hope) They're calling for a chance of thunderstorms. That should make things intresting. Ah well. It'll still be better than being stuck inside all day. Though I won't lie. If I start seeing bad lightning I will delay the ride. I kind of enjoy riding in the rain but I have no desire to be broiled and fused to my bike.

So...hope everybody has a wonderful day and get's some riding in. Later.

P.S.-Oh, I saw yesterday that Lynda W. is now selling a pre-built 12 week training plan for ORAMM.(Off Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell) That's pretty sweet. Who woulda thought it'd be getting enough attention to get it's own plan. I used one of her plans last year(the basic hundie one) and they work well. I was doing really well at ORAMM last year til I wrecked and broke my frame. Anybody whose never done this race should think seriously about giving it a shot. It's a blast.

New stuff sorta reviewed.

In my last post I mentioned a few new things I'd gotten. Here is my quick review of them.

The glasses work really well. They don't fog up and stay on my oddly shaped nose really well. In fact, I forget they're there which is the best praise I can give them.

The Carbo Pro/Gatorade mixture works really well also. I actually like the taste of it thanks to the gatorade. The carbo pro powder manages to pack 55 grams of carbs and 220 calories into a bottle and since none of it is sugar calories it provides a nice,even, long lasting energy level. Combine that with the gatorades carbs and calories and each bottle is like rocket fuel. Combine that with the fact that the huge tub of gatorade costs $9 at Sams and that I got about 9 pds of carbo pro for $32 including shipping from this place(http://http://www.a1nutritionproducts.com/buy/universal_nutrition/carbo_plus/2lb) and I consider it a bargain. That's about 3 times as much stuff as the large canister of Accelerade for the same price.

This coming Satuday starts the 4 week countdown to Burn. WOOHOO!!!! Can't wait. After that, it's a race a month until at least August.

Hope everybody has a great day. Later folks.

New stuff

Got my new glasses in yesterday. Finally!!!!! It sucked riding w/o eyewear for the past 2.5 weeks. Felt really strange. Not to mention I hated my eyes feeling vulnerable like that. I was going to get Tifosi's but then I found some Optic Nerve Scorches on sale at Nashbar and went with them. They have interchangeable lenses and the lenses have vents so hopefully they work out. Oh yeah, they were also marked down to 19.99. That's always a big help with me. Plus they sponsor one of my heroes(Danielle) or should that be shero?

Now, I'm just waiting for my package of Universal Carbo Pro to come in. I read some stuff on MTBR by Namrita and Eddie O about how they mix it with gatorade and it works for them and doesn't cause them any stomach problems. I've been using Accelerade with no stomach issues but I can get this stuff for about 1/4 of the price so if it works for me as well that's more savings for race fees cuz let's face it..these things aint cheap.

Hope everybody has a great weekend. Later yall.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Was a great day outside yesterday. I got a good ride in. Managed to complete 3 sets of power intervals. That's a good thing for me since I was never able to do more than 2 sets before. I think I might finally be approaching the outside fringes of this thing called fitness. I need to do a few more really hard rides this week because the way it's looking right now I'm only going to be able to do one "long" ride this week. My sister is closing on her new house Friday so I'll be spending my Saturday off helping her move. Damn family obligations infringing on my play time.

Other than riding and work not much has been going on. Talked Amanda into going to see 300 over the weekend. Excellent flick. If your into that type of movie then definitely go see it. Will be putting new cables and such on the bike next week. Starting the long,slow process of getting it "race ready". Odds are it'll be more ready to go for Burn than me. Ah well.

Hope everybody has a great day. Good luck to everyone doing Cohutta and TT's in Michigan. Also to people doing any other races elsewhere.

Blah!!!!!!

60mph wind gusts+152 pd biker= 1 hell ride!!!! I don't know what got my heart rate up more..the intervals or almost getting blown off the side of the mountain several times. The weather has sucked the last few days. Woke up yesterday to sunny skies. Thinking it was gonna be a great day I headed out. The wind quickly put an end to the good mood. Oh well....a crappy day outside beats a good day inside or at a work.

Hope everybody has a great day. later.

Correction

I read my entry for Thursday and wanted to clarify 1 thing. When I said I just wanted them to "get it overwith" I was referring to USADA. It seems that they have totally ignored the whole "right to a speedy trial" thing. This thing has been drug out for so long that even if Floyd is found innocent his 200z season is lost and that is ridiculous. I admire the goals of USADA and WADA, but the way they go about trying to achieve them makes me think of them as a total joke.

Not a whole lot going on here. Work,ride,eat,sleep. Repeat. Hope everybody is having a great weekend. Later folks.

Just get it over with.

Found this (http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/columns/story?id=2834353) today. I really,really wish they would get on with this. I really wanted to believe that Floyd is innocent but now I just want them to get it done. One way or the other. USADA has decided they want to test the B samples of Floyd's tests that came back negative at the tour. Of course, Landis and his people are raising hell about it. They say it's against the doping code to test B samples when the A sample has already been tested negative. Some arbitrators in Canada ruled in favor of USADA. So they're going to be tested at the same lab in France that has already been in the center of a shitstorm because they supposedly dont follow the proper protocols. If USADA and WADA are so sure that they will find something in these samples then why the hell don't they have them tested at another lab to remove that particular point of dissension? Landis and his people wanted them tested at a lab on the UCLA campus but the ruling said that the samples are the property of USADA and they can have them tested wherever they want. Anyway, it's all in the article.

In happier news...Amanda's mom is coming over to do a belated Easter dinner today since we both had to work on Easter. Thisis mostly a good thing. I say mostly because last night Amanda made some caramel apple cheesecake that she saw on Paula Deen's Home Cooking show on Food Network. I swear I gained 5 pds just looking at it.

Ah well..hope everybody has a great day. Later folks.

Movie review

I have nothing else to write about today so you lucky people get my opinion on Grindhouse. Amanda and I went to see it yesterday. For those who don't know, it's a sorta double-feature done by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. It even comes with fake movie trailers between the films to make it seem more authentic. The first feature,Planet terror, is done by Robert Rodriguez and is, in my opinion, the better of the two. It's a B movies style horror film about flesh eating zombies. It comes complete with one legged girls who have machine guns/greneade launchers where there leg used to be and all the cheesy dialog you could ever want. In short...it rocks!!!! Granted, this is coming from a person who loves these kinds of films so your opinion may vary. Heck..I liked Snakes on a Plane too. It's also really,really graphic so be warned.

The next feature, done by Quentin Tarantino, is called Death Proof. It's plot revolves around a former stuntman(Kurt Russel) who uses his car to kill women. The first half of the film shows him stalking and killing a group of women in Austin, Tx. The film is ok. Tarantino is known for his dialog and he packs plenty into his portion of the movie. Too much in fact. At some point you will be thinking,Enough already. Do something. When the action gets going later in the movie it's really good. It's one of the better car chase scenes I've seen. I will also never be playing "Ships Mast" either. In the second half of the movie he goes after the wrong group of ladies and gets whats coming to him.

So, there you have it. My worthless 2 cents on Grindhouse. Oh...it's about 3 hours long. If your anything like me that means your going a little stir crazy being stuck in a theatre for that long. 3 hour long movies are why they made dvd's and pause buttons. Hopefully next week i can convince Amanda to go see 300. People fighting for a doomed cause. Sounds sorta like my racing.

Hope everybody has a great day. Later yall.

Has anybody.....

A few years back, before I was even thinking of attempting a 24 Hour solo, I remember reading an article in some magazine that recommended getting up at odd hours and going for rides to train your body to ride a bike at different hours. At the time I kind of thought it was a bunch of crap, but now I'm wondering if maybe I was wrong. I don't have to be at work until 9:30 tomorrow and I'm thinking that maybe I'll wake up at 3 and head out around 4-4:30 and put some miles in on the Parkway before work. I figure that if nothing else it'll at least make my day better at work. So...has anybody ever tried anything like this?



Very late edit: It was 20 degrees at 4 a.m. You can call me a wimp if you like but I chickened out and got back into bed. It'll be my normal commute today. It's supposed to be getting back into the high 60's later this week. WOOHOO!!!!! Watch, it'll be 100 degrees at Burn and I'll be dying, but I'll be loving every minute of it.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter folks. Hope everybody is having a great holiday. It's looking like our little cold snap might slowly be coming to an end here. I hope so anyway. It's April. I'm ready for shorts,short sleeves and funky tan lines.

I went out for a ride yesterday morning when there was still snow on the ground. I had my tires pumped up to about 65 psi. I was maybe a mile into the ride when I came around a corner and hit an icy patch in the road. Next thing I know I was sliding off the road into a ditch. It was a good thing I didn't go sliding out into the middle of the road. There wasn't any traffic but still, I'd prefer not to slide across pavement period. Ended up with just a few scratches and some holes in my leg warmers.

Ah well, not a lot going on today. Wasting time before work. Hope everybody has a good one. Later.

Mother nature Strikes Back

Damn. After a few weeks of very warm, almost hot, weather it looks like Mother Nature has a little trick up her sleeve. Some precints (Kerkove,Danielle, and Brian) are reporting snow and very low temps. This has served two purposes. 1. It reinforces my desire to make sure that NC is as far north as I ever live. 2. I will now stop whining about how it's "freezing" outside here.

Looks like we're going to be having temps in the high 40's during the day and getting into the low 30's and high 20's at night. I had been expecting one more little cold snap this spring but I was lulled to sleep by warm, sunny days for the past few weeks. Ah well..what are you gonna do. Guess I'll break out the cold weather crap again.

Hope everybody has a great day. later.

The Gathering

Put this guy on a mountainbike and it's pretty close to what I looked like Saturday afternoon.



It's been a little bit since I posted here. Oops. The weather has been awesome the past few days and I've been riding. A lot. I've also been working a lot, so there hasn't been much time. Anyway, enough excuses. This past Friday I packed up and headed out to Cove Creek Campground in the PNF for The Pisgah Gathering. A weekend of riding,camping,fire and debauchery. I had read about other gatherings in the MTBR NC forum and they always sounded like a blast. I figured that it'd be a good chance to meet up with some like minded folks,hang out and do some riding. Got there early friday afternoon and set up camp. I met Jody, who was also setting up and we went out on a short ride. Got back to the campsite and ate a PB&J and started mingling. I met Brado,M-U-M,Dave, Darren,The Tomato(who makes a fine fire) and several other people whose names escape me. Woke up the next morning and got ready and headed out for a ride with Peter. He wanted to check out some of the stuff that he was thinking might be on this years PMBAR route. After 3.5 hours of what felt like 95% uphill , I was cooked. My right leg was cramping really bad and I couldn't hold down any food or drink. I told Peter that I was headed back to camp and reallllyyyyy slowly headed back. It ended up being about a 5 hour day. Except for the throwing up and cramping it was a blast. I do need to work on some stuff before Burn though. I DO NOT need to be cramping up there and it'll be way warmer for that.


After I was back in camp for about an hour I managed to get some food and water down and felt a lot better. I had to work the next morning so I decided to go ahead and head home. The weekend was most definitely a blast. The riding out there is awesome and I need to stop being so lazy and do the extra driving to ride out there instead of going to Bent Creek all the time.

So, thanks to Brado and everybody that put this thing on. I will definitely do my best to be at the fall Gathering.

Later yall.

OK. That hurt!!!

Feeling wasted tonight. Legs are beat and are in for another tough day tomorrow. I rode for about 1.75 hours yesterday with 1 hr and 10 minutes of that being tempo. That doesn't sound to bad, but then my stupid butt went to work and did a 9 hour shift on my feet. Got home at 12:30 and promptly showered and went to bed. Woke up at 7, had breakfast and coffee, dropped Amanda off at work and hit the trails and roads at Bent Creek for 5 hours of Zones 1 and 2 endurance work. I'm off tomorrow also so I'm going to head out to Old Fort and ride up old 50 and hit Kitsuma. If there's anything left in my legs after that I' m planning on going over to Curtis Creek Rd.(aka..soul sucking climb from hell) and heading up it til they cry uncle. Sounds like a fun day doesn't it?

Hope everybody had a great weekend. Later.

Easy boring days.

Took an easy day yesterday. No bike ride after work or anything. It felt a little weird. Usually at this time of year I'm riding everyday just to make up for all the trainer "rides" during the winter. Instead I took Anya out for a walk on the mountains to sea trail for an hour. Came home and made dinner and watched V for Vendetta again. I love that movie. By then it was 10 and after looking around and finding nothing to do. I went to bed. Like I said an easy, boring day. Except for work, but no talking about that here. i try to keep things positive on this blog.

Later yall.

Went out to Bent Creek again yesterday for another long ride. It wasn awesome day. It was a little cloudy but that seemed to help actually. it was my first ride of the year without at least arm and knee warmers. It felt great. The first day of spring definitely delivered. The kind of day that reminds me that any cuts in pay and stuff like that were definitely worth it to be living here. I love this place. I still have to pinch myself to be reminded that I actually live here.

Anyway,enough about my love affair with the Asheville area. Woke up this morning with pretty much every muscle and tendon in my body feeling sore. It's weird thing about pain. Most people I know think that all pain is the same. But I really believe that there's a difference between causing real damage to yourself and the pain you feel during and after pushing your body past it's limits. Maybe I'm wrong but all I know is I wouldn't trade the way I feel this morning for anything.

Hope everybody has a great day. Yall come back now. Ya hear.

zzzzzzzzzzz

Oh such a lovely day. Bright,sunny, warm..a beautiful day. Went out to Bent Creek and got about 6 hours of riding in. Now I'm feeling like a slacker because it's daylight and I'm seriously considering falling asleep.

Oh, in my earlier post about stuff I love, I forgot a few things.

My crock-pot: put food in it in the morning,set it on low. Go work or bike ride and come back home to food. It's great.


My i-pod: Have only used it once in a race and I'm not sure about that yet but it definitely rocks for long training rides. Intervals seem to hurt less when you have a little GnR or Metallica in the background.


Hope everybody had a great weekend. Later.

rain,rain go away......

Rained most of the day yesterday and is still coming down this morning. Looks like it'll be road miles this weekend. Hopefully all the trails will dry out enough for me to get on them Monday and Teusday. Those are my days off. My weekend so to speak. Hope everybody has a great weekend. later folks.

Stuff I like

I've nothing else to talk about so I'm going to write about the stuff I like to use during rides and the few races i've done. Fell free to doze off when the inevitable urge strikes.

Hutchison UST Spyders-Love these tires. They shed mud well. Roll pretty quickly on hardpack. They're not real light but I don't think "real light" exists in the world of UST.

Cateye Doubleshot-Plenty of light. Low,low weight. Long run time. Short charge time.

Accelerade-Lemon/Lime and Lemonade flavors. Can't really tell any difference in performance with this than other stuff. Just know that it doesn't make me wanna gag when I drink it. I figure that's a good thing.

Clif Shot Bloks-Gummi bears for active people!!!!!!! Yum.

Hammer Gel- I know they say not to mix it with other products that contain simple sugars but I've never had any issues with it. I also seem to be the only person I know who likes the tropical fruit flavor. That works out well for me since it means the LBS always has it.

Smart Balance PB and honey sandwhiches-I used to be a Jif guy but this stuff is natural and is really good. Plus honey is just awesome. Strawberry preserves are also a suitable sub for the honey.

Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies-I know..I know..loaded with sugar and all kinds of other bad stuff. Yet, for some reason I crave them during and after long rides.

Barleys Pizza-The usual stop after long rides. The Jerk Chicken Pizza is awesome. Plus, for all those who enjoy an after ride brew, they have about 50 beers on tap. Pretty much all good ones. Not the usual bar stuff.

Oh Yeah......Starbucks Yukon Blend coffee. The breakfast of champions and bottom five finishers like myself.

Oh and a big shout out to Nyquil for helping me lay the smackdown on this roody-poo candy ass virus that's been keeping me inside for the past few days. I feel tons better this morning and it's supposed to be in the 70's today. WOOHOO!!!

Hope everybody has a great day. later yall.

Fools Gold

Looks like Namrita and Eddie O have gone all out with the new hundie. Sounds like it's going to be a blast. I'm planning on being there for the whole shebang. I can't wait.

Ugh

OK. Maybe I should've heeded the warning signs a little better. My sore throat and stuffy head have become full on sickness. Fever,can't keep food down,.....the works. This blows. 70 degree days and I'm laid up and can't even imagine riding.

WOOHOO!!!!!!!

An extra hour of daylight!!! I still believe this should be a holiday!

Figures....

I go pretty much all winter w/o getting sick and then once we start getting warmer temps and longer days...I wake up with a sore throat,stuffy head and a slight fever. Luckily, I don't feel so bad that I can't ride. I just keep myself from pushing it or going to long. I'm hoping I feel better tomorrow though. I don't work until 6 tomorrow night so I'd like to get 5 or 6 hours in at Bent Creek. Keeping my fingers crossed. Hope everybody has a great weekend.

Good luck to everybody doing the Georgia SS Championships. GO TD!!!! GO THE BOY(Drew)!!!!

I love bikes!!!!

First of all....Happy Birthday Amanda!! Careful, your catching upto me. Especially since I've decided I'm not having anymore.

It hit me last night how much of a bike geek I've become. I was installing a new chain and cassette on my bike. After I was done I must've sat there for 10-15 minutes just staring at how shiny they were. It got me to thinking about how much cycling has changed me. It's helped me stop drinking. I wouldn't say I was an alcoholic but I would say that I had a problem and was well on my way to alcoholism. Cycling gave me something to do whenever I wanted a drink.
It gives me goals to work towards in the form of races. I'm more than certain that I'm not going to win any of these races but that's o.k. It's not why I race. I do it because it gives me a chance to push myself and to hang out with like minded people. It's also help me get over a pretty high level of shyness. Around my friends and family I won't shut up. Put me around people I don't know and I clam up like the sphinx. Unless that is I'm around other cyclists. I'll sit there and talk bikes and ask a million questions without any problems.

That's just a few of the benefits. When people ask me how much something costs as far as bikes are concerned they usually look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them, but as far as I'm concerned I've gotten way more back from riding than I've put into it financially.

Sorry for the cheesy post. Yall have a great day and have fun.

Up next: Burn

Well. I'm thinking my race schedule is pretty much set in stone for the year. (Maybe)I'll put it in a sidebar here soon. Right now it's looking sorta like this:

Burn 24 Hour Challenge
Cowbell Challenge
ORAMM
Rumored new hundie in Ga.(hopefully)
Shenandoah 100
24 Hours of Conyers(Adrenalin-not the most popular guy I know-but I wanna do this course and May is already set aside for Burn)
Swank 65

Hmmmmmmmmmm....that seemed like a lot more when it was all in my head.

Ah well. Hope everybody has a great day and weekend. later yall.



Very late edit: TD pointed out to me that I forgot to put ORAMM in the schedule. My bad. That race is a definite every year.

R.I.P. 24 Hours of Pisgah

Got a bummer of an email last night. Seems that Ken and Vicky have decided to suspend the promotion of 24 Hours of Pisgah this year. They want to have more time to do the stuff they enjoy and hang out with family. I wish them the best and hope that maybe next year or sometime in the near future they'll get the race going again. The race was a kick ass event. It was my first solo 24 hour event and while I didn't do well it got me totally hooked.

Now it looks like I've got a HUGE whole in my schedule for September. Looks like Shenandoah!!!!Maybe, if I've got the money, I'll give the 24Hours of Conyers a shot in October. We'll have to see.

frustrated but don't know why

OK. I don't know why this bothers me but it does. They have the results from Razorback up and I am conspicuosly absent from the list. Granted I didn't do much but still, I'd like to see how I compared to some of the others. Oh well, guess it's not a big deal and I'll get over it. I think I will call them though and make sure I wasn't DQed unknowingly.

12 Hours of Razorback

Did the Razorback this past Saturday. The race was fun as hell. The course was awesome. Having said that I need to admit that it was also waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy harder than I imagined it would be going in. Anybody(me) who was thinking that it was going to be a flat Florida course was going to be sadly mistaken. I had ridden it when I lived In Orlando but I think that over the 6 or 7 years since I'd been there I started believing it was easier than it is. It's a course that is perfect for power riders. There isn't any substained climbs to get a rhythym on. It's mostly big steep drop offs that are quickly followed by a steep short climb. By steep I mean straight the hell up. I perfected my spiderman ablities to climb vertical walls with my bike over my shoulder this weekend.

Anyway,I got there Friday afternoon. Got my camp set up and went out on a pre-ride. Quckly figured out that the race was going to be harder than I thought. Which was cool because like I said the course was also really fun. After I got back in I made a few pb&j's,lubed up my bike and walked around the area for a bit. That's when I noticed "Camp Solo" set up right off the course. Damn. I was set up a little bit off the course. Not a huge amount but I was going to have to come off the course to get new bottles and stuff. I made a mental note to check for that kind of stuff at future races. While I'm talking about mistakes, another one was not having any support crew for the race. I tried to set one up but everybody had other commitments. My friends in Orlando all had to work and the gf was back in Asheville. It wasnt huge deal because lets face it, I'm slow and not going to be winning any of these but it does make life much easier. Oh yeah. Sunny Florida my ass!!!! Yes it was warmer than Asheville. No, it was nowhere near as cold as the Northern states. That said..cold is cold!!! It got down into the 30's that night. I was wrapped up in 3 sleeping bags in my tent. I woke up to frost on my car. It did warm up a good bit though and I ended up doing the whole race with nothing more weather gear wise than arm and knee warmers and a vest.

Race day started bright and early. I woke up set up my bottles and stuff. Got my gel flasks ready. Went over to the start/finish area where they had coffee,instant oatmeal,bagels,fruit and donuts. I think it's telling that the fruit lasted longer than the donuts. Went back to my tent area and did some warm up excercises and sretched. There was a ton of people signing up for the race still so it got started a few minutes late. Went and racked my bike and attended the riders meeting. fter that it was time to head to the field for the torture..oops I meant run. The start of the run was about 10 miles from the gbikes. OK..maybe a 1/4 of a mile but it felt like 10. Whoever decided the racers should run before racing for 6/12/24 hours is an evil individual. The race gt started and away we went. I was back towards the back of the pack because well....I don't run...I hate it..it kills my knees. What I do cn barely be called jogging. Got on the course and started riding. Had a blast. I got passed. A lot. But overall the race was fun as hell. I was shooting for 5 laps and got 4. I know that isn't a lot but like i said..I'm slow. Plus, I'm still figuring out the pacing and nutrition of these things. I could've pushed myself harder than i did. I went out without a hrm and was always worried about burning myself out. I think I worried to much and didn't go hard enough. I think in the future i'll go ahead and wear the hrm so I know.
I will go back next year. It was to mch fun to miss. Goneriding puts on good events and the course is way fun. All the steep drop offs and walls plus a good bit of tight,twisty singletrack. Anyway, I really reccomend the race to people looking for a fun early season event. It definitely helped me in my quest to get the hang of these things. Next up: Burn. I sent them my money yesterday. Hope everybody had a great weekend. Later yall.

T-Minus 2 Days

OK. Heading down to Orlando today. I'm starting to get a little nervous about the race. I don't know why. I've trained well, I'm down to 156 pds which means I'm pretty much right where I want to be weight wise. My goal is to be 145 pds by the end of May for Burn. My long rides are going well. So, I really don't know why I'm nervous. Maybe cuz it's the 1st race of the season. I'm sure it'll go away when I hit the first few pedal strokes. We'll see. Gotta get going. I need some more coffee before that drive. Hopefully, I'll be able to update and give a race report while in Orlando. Later yall.

T-Minus 4 days

WOOHOO! Last day of work before the start of vacation. I'll be hearing that damn Go-Go's song in my head all day now. Yesterday was my last hard day on the bike before this weekend. I did some more hillclimb intervals, tryin to get my legs used to powering up short,steep climbs. Today is going to be an easy ride followed by laundry and packing. I've decided to put off leaving until Thursday so tomorrow I'll be able to get out and do a long,easy ride in bent creek. I should probaby be resting but this race is more about getting ready for the ORAMM century with Peter and training for Burn than anything else. Oh, and fun. Ah well, hpe everybody has a great day.

T-Minus 5 Days

Alrighty. I'm back to post about that ride from 2 weeks ago. LOL. It was long and cold. That's what I remember anyway. Spent last night getting stuff together for Saturday. I'm heading out on Wednesday for orlando and I don't want to forget anything so I'm already obsessing. Amanda and I are going out on the 13th for Valentines. That way we skip the crowds and I get to head out a day early. I'm super excited for the race and for the trip in general. I haven't seen one of my best friends in over a year and it's been about 6 months since I've seen the other one. Plus the fact that it's supposed to be in the 70's down there had me a little giddy as well. Hope everybody had a great weekend. I'll try and be better about posting. Later folks.

WOOHOO!!!

Today starts my weekend. I work in the food service industry so my days off are kind of whacked. Wheneve I get 2 full days off in a row I'm stoked. Have big, long rides planned for both days. It's snowy and really cold today but thanks to coffee and a blog style kick in the pants from Danielle...I'm ready and raring to go. I'll be back to post about the ride later. I hope everybody has a great day.

God bless coffee

What did people do before coffee? I cannot even imagine life without it. Yeah, I know. I have a problem.

In the good news that intrests only me....I'm down to 159 pds. I know that's still heavy but I haven't seen a weight south of 160 since my 20's. I'm excited..Hell..I'm giddy even.

While, I'm doing a pointless ramble today, let me shout out the virtues of emer-gen-c. I felt a cold coming on and used this stuff for a few days and it nipped it right in the bud. The stuff really works.

Ah well..as you can see..I've got nothing to talk about today. Here's a random picture of my nieces.I'm hoping to get them into mtn. biking soon. Although the oldest hates getting dirty. I'm hoping she'll grow out of that.

Everybody have a great weekend. Have fun.

ouch

Not a whole lot to report today. Did my core workout yesterday and upped the intesity some so I'm hurting a little today. Did standing hill climb intervals yesterday and my legs are feeling it today. Spent the rest of the night setting up a playlist for Razorback. I've got it up to about 10.5 hours so I only need to get a few more songs on it. Though, I am thinking about sticking some of Henry Rollins spoken word stuff on it to. See how that works out. All of this is just trying stuff before Burn. I plan on putting the ipod through it's paces during the night hours at Burn and 24 HOP this year. Hopefully it'll make it easier. Well, it's off to work. Hope everybody has a good day.

Alrighty!!!! Got the dates and prices for Burn. I'll be sending them money soon. That'll be one more race off the checklist.The season is starting to slowly come together. I know it'll only be 6 or 7 races at the mostand to most people that isn't much of a season but I'm old and poor and by my standards this will be big.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=263657Been reading this thread this morning and I've decided that I should stop. I see everybody elses week and think I should try and follow that. I need to stick with my training and believe it'll work. I'm way to easily led astray by fancy workouts. Well. except maybe for Dicky's. Sounds fun. Except I quit drinking and the beer part seems to be the big selling point. Sigh.Ah well. off to pay the bills. Yall have fun

ugh

Did a good bit of riding this weekend. It was a pretty good day on Saturday so I hit the parkway and got some climbing intervals in. Felt pretty good doing those. That is, if by pretty good you mean feeling like my eyeballs were bleeding and that I was going to throw up an intestine. Yesterday, the plan was a long mountainbike ride up in Bent Creek. We had rain and REALLY cold temps so I only managed to get about 3 hours in and I was an ice cube. I really need to invest in some better cold weather gear. After that I came home and managed to get 2 more hours on the trainer. That almost bored me to sleep. I think the only thing that kept me going was doing "commercial intervals" during the football games. Ah well...least I got all my workouts in. I even avoided the cake at my sisters B-day. Happy 36th sis!!!!!

No more whining

OK. After reading Danielle's latest post I've decided I won't be whinig about Asheville's "cold" weather anymore. Actually, I'm just happy that we didn't get all the ice and snow that some nearby areas got. I'm slowly starting to get the hang of this blog thing. I've figured out how to post pics. I think I've finally figured out how to put up links. We'll see. I seriously need to take some kind of computer class.

Only 4 more weeks to 12 Hours of Razorback. I'm starting to get really anxious for it. How I do there is going to be the main factor in whether or not I do Cohutta. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Here is a random picture of my sometime training partner and full time doggy. Her name is Anya and she is a parking lot rescue puppy. We found her in the parking lot of my old apartment. Some asshole had abandoned her when she was only 6 weeks old. She's 2 now. The glowing eyes are because she's the devil. Just kidding.

Well, hope everybody has a great weekend.

To good to last

Well, looks like winter is here for at least the next few days anyway. Bah humbug!!!!

so tired

The one big drawback to dieting and cutting out processed sugar? I am always tired. I know it's worth it and that my body will adjust but this takes some getting used to.

I finally saw the trailer for 24-solo. I can't wait to see this movie. I was ready to go out and do night laps around my neighborhood after that.

Was wondering if it's worth it to try and do a 6 hour race at tsali the weekend before Burn. Anybody have any experience with this? Feel free to chime in if you do.

Hope everybody has a great weekend. I'm off to Durham for Amandas sisters wedding reception. Later.

Hooray for ipods

Got an ipod for Xmas from my dad. I had mentioned in passing how I thought they would be neat to have during the night laps of 24 hour races and lo and behold he hooked me up. After a few mtnbike rides with it I have no idea how I made it without one. It goes with me on all my strength workouts also and to work. My boss is loving it cuz it means he doesn't have to hear Slipknot and Metallica over the speakers at work. If I can ever figure out how to put my playlists on here like Jason does I will. My computer ignorance is really starting to tick me off. The dieting andworking out are going well. I've dropped 4 pds in the past few weeks and definitely feel stronger on the bike. The 12 Hours of razorback is in 5 weeks so we'll see where I stand there. I'm not expecting great things there but I'm hoping it'll give me a clear idea of what to work on before Burn. Hope everybody has a great day and weekend.

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.

blah,blah,blah

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.

blah,blah,blah

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.

tired and hungry

Alright!!!!!! I got an early Christmas present. A GPS unit for my mountainbike. I cannot wait to go out and try to get lost this weekend.

woohooo!!!!!!! a saturday off

My first saturday off in forever. Went on a decent bike ride this morning. Rode up Town Mtn. road. That is one steep mother of a road. Sweated my ass off going up then almost froze to death coming back down. Great time. Then come home and find 3 hrs of Married with Children on FX. :-) I know, I know. I'm a shallow man. After that there is apparently football on today. Seeing as how I usually watch the Raiders it might be fun to watch a team that actually knows what it's doing. Oh yeah, got my first comment on my last post. OH YEAH!!!!!

Trying again.

OK. Let's try this blog thing again. Maybe this time I'll even keep up with it. Anyway, my name is Allan. Obviously. Yes, I know the title of this thing is cheesy. I don't care. I moved here 4 yrs. ago and I love this place. After 3 yrs of doing biking vacations here, I took the leap and moved. So, yes, I'm one of those tourists that moved. Anyway, it cracks me up to here people talk about this city losing it's soul or whatever. Try living in a city that lets a freaking rodent(Mickey Mouse World) run it. You'll be begging to move back here in a yr. And yes, Disney does run Orlando. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. Anyway, what's not to love about Asheville. Awesome biking of all kinds. Great places to eat. A really varied population. it's great. Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Oh yeah. I wanna thank the fat cyclist for hours of enjoyment when I was laid up sick for the past few days.