Time for another update

I'm struggling keeping the blog up to date... I don't really have much time at the moment and probably won't till after I finish up school next summer. I'm in the midst of an internship at Carmichael training systems (www.trainright.com). This week I got back from a week and a half long training camp for the Leadville 100. I was pretty busy working the camp all day every day, but still got in some good riding at altitude and in some pretty cool scenery. I got to hang out with some pretty accomplished individuals in the business world at these camps. I always enjoy getting some insight into other peoples stories and their successes and failures. After spending that much time up there and seeing much of the Leadville 100 course, I kind of got the itch to race Leadville. I'm tempted to squeeze in this year and suffer through it, but I've got a few logistical issues to work out first... like finding a mountain bike... We'll see what happens...

Sunny King crit report

Sunny King was a smash and grab trip in an attempt to get a little NRC racing in the legs. This was my first go at an NRC race this year. I figured I knew what to expect since I've done enough comparable races in the past. Turned out I was a little too complacent... I intended on using some basic aluminum wheels so I wouldn't be worried about crashing and destroying a several thousand dollar wheelset. Turned out one of my teammates talked me into using his carbon deep dish wheels. I threw those bad boys on and while they looked cool, they squeeled like a stuck pig anytime I touched the brakes since I wasn't running carbon brake pads. I figured I would be fine, the race would be fast and I wouldn't have to brake much... The race was blistering fast, but I should've known that you gotta have good braking to maintain position in these races...

I know I've done races with that guy in the race whose brakes squeel so loud, it can be heard on the other side of the course and nobody ever wants to be behind that guy. There is always jockying for position in these races, but that guy probably always gets it the worst. Well... I was that guy... So, despite my 2nd row start, I was quickly getting elbowed and pushed backwards till I took my place of shame at the back of the pack. I stayed there till it looked like things were gonna hit the fan, then I would move up just enough to get in front of the splits happening on the back till I was once again in my "spot of shame"... So... this is kind of how my race was defined... Did get to bridge up ater getting caught behind a crash and it wasn't too tough to do so... But, the 40 guys who did not go down in the crash getting a free lap and getting let in at the front took another blow to the pride... Making my "spot of shame" all the more painful. With 50 laps behind me and 10 to go, I made a push up towards the front and focused on holding my position squeeling brakes and all. I was doing all kinds of cuddling at 30 mph through 90 degree corners. Still didn't get away with it, I kept inching backwards just at a slower pace than before. That was about it for me on a mental level... I like racing my bike, when I can't do that and I get stuck just riding in circles, I stop having fun... I was hurting from that final push, wasn't having fun, and since I was the only guy from my squad I had no one to work for to keep me pushing... So, I pulled out popped open a beer and watched the finish...

Hopefully I got the stupidity out of the way early and can put it all together for collegiate nationals in May and the NRC calender to follow... Big thanks to Wichita Falls Bike Club, Rouse Bicycles, and Hotter n Hell for getting us to these races. Another thanks to Francis' Soap for keeping my skin smooth and smelling fresh and clean!

This past week was my first collegiate track nationals (and real set of track racing for that matter).  We left  early Tuesday morning to make the 12hr drive to St. Louis where we would stay the night.  The next day we finished up the 4 more hours of driving to Indianapolis.  We checked in and threw together some quick lunch before heading to the track for some practice runs.  I was also anxious to try out my newly rigged up track bike that used my road TT frame. My events were mainly focused on my time trialing ability.  My confidence in my current TT ability was in the dumps as I hadn't ridden the TT bike in several months and had done a TT the weekend before we left only to have it be the worst TT I had all year.  My first event was the 4 kilometer pursuit on Friday morning.  Teammate Danny "team sprinter" Robertson, was the first from MSU to go and posted the fastest time until a CSU rider beat him by about 6 seconds.  I was up shortly after to do my first 4k pursuit in competition and second one ever.  Somewhere around the halfway point I was leading but I dropped off a little at the end to put me in 2nd behind the CSU rider by about half a second.  By the time the pursuits were over, enough fast times had been posted to bump me down to 7th. In the coed team sprint, the team consisted of Claire, Natalie, Danny, Matt, Josh, and myself.  The point was for each rider to go as hard as they could for one lap before pulling off and letting the next rider repeat till the last rider would come in for the finish. Josh was the last rider, being he is the fastest sprinter out of all of us.  I would be the last guy to pull Josh into his final lap.  The girls took the first pulls and once they pulled off, Danny hit the front and hit it hard with Matt and myself to follow. I pulled as hard as I could and pulled off for Josh to launch his final sprint.  When he crossed the line, we had posted the fastest time thus far.  Marian ended up beating us by 3 seconds, knocking us down to 2nd.  Still wasn't bad considering Marian is across the street from the track and practices regularly while we live 2.5hrs away from a track and had one practice session.  What was most impressive was the girls rode to a 2nd place in the team pursuit against Marian with the little practice and very minimal aero equipment as well.   The mens pursuit didn't go as well.  We thought we for sure had 2nd at least, but I think our confidence turned out to be our demise... I had the slowest start out of the pursuit team mainly comprised of guys that go fast for short distances.  So, I got to start at the front... It was a tough start for me as I'm used to going fast once I get up to speed, not from a stop, and in the same gear I need to go fast once up to speed.  Once I pulled off, Danny hit the front and did all he knows how to do... Go as hard as he can.  This made my swing up track too high since they came by much faster than I anticipated.  By the time I dropped back down to try to tag on the back, I had a bike and half lengths gap between me and Josh who was sitting last in the paceline.  I managed to get on as Danny slowed down a bit from his initial surge and just as he was getting ready to pull off.  I had about a lap to try to regain some composure before my next pull, which didn't turn out to be near enough.  After my pull, I made sure I didn't go as high on the track when I pulled off.  I was able to make contact with Josh's draft but lost it as Danny's surge persisted again...  I started to inch back on as Danny did his token slow down from the initial surge, but couldn't get back in the draft before Danny pulled off and Matt took his pull to pick the pace back up.  The guys slowed down considerably as that fast start caught up with them, landing us a 6th or 7th place in the mens team pursuit.  I wasn't completely sure what happened until after the pursuits were done and found that our first kilometer was over 5 seconds faster than anyone else... Hopefully next year we can learn a little self control & discipline coupled with a bit more practice so we can ride a smart, efficient, and fast team pursuit...  The other events went well though with Jen winning the match sprints and individual womans omnium, giving her 2 stars and stripes jerseys to take home. The team ended up finishing 2nd in the team omnium.  All in all a good weekend and it certainly got me excited about track racing...

Collegiate track nationals update coming soon...

Got to go for a nice little spin this morning in porsche's new 4 door sedan... Very nice! 0-60 in 4 seconds...

5:30 am ride...

yup, getting out early tomorrow before my 8am class. Got class till 12:30 then back home to grab a quick bite and of to the HHH convention show to work Richardson's Bikemart booth. Then MSU team dinner/semester greet & meet... Think a good way to start the day would be with a sweet roll and a good cup of coffee... yea, I'm already planning my breakfast....

Bag of Mexican sweet rolls for a buck at the little panderia attached to my apartments... These things destroyed me for a bit back in spring... Gotta be careful about how many I eat...

First art assignment in years... The first go around was a fail, had the perspective all off... This is a bit better... My big weakness is doing contour lines... Found that out today... If I can shade, I can patch things up a bit, but if I do just a contour drawing it looks pretty rough...

Man cave...

It's in the works... pictures to come... Lalla is working on a man shanty, but I've got the man cave... well not yet, a man cave is not a man cave with the absence of a television... and beer...

So, I'm back in Wichita Falls and gearing up for school to start tomorrow. I moved out of the cycling team dorm and have my own little man cave. It's a little studio with a few big closets and a simple kitchen and bathroom. I'm digging it... Just need to work on getting some more counter space in the kitchen. That's important to me, because I like to cook. The next big space saver idea is to find a TV with a VGA hookup so I can hook up a computer to it... I already have a wireless keyboard and mouse and a sound system. I have to look at what TV's are available with the VGA port then find a good computer to use on it... Anyone familiar with this setup? I've seen people with a similar setup before...

This is Great!

Todays near boxing match...

So this was an interesting one... Those that know me, know I put more emphasis on wit than braun... So to be close to a boxing match is a little out of character...

Decided to cruise three canyons again today... The third canyon has a nice little switchback descent that takes you into Green Valley which is a great place to refill bottles and get a little ice... I'm coming off the steep downhill and cruising into town, the roads are still somewhat winding but no more switchbacks... I'm coming down the road at about 40 mph and see this little Toyota pickup pull up to a cross road... He looks left then right (right at me) then proceeds to turn left right in front of me... Well, he was actually pulling into the oncoming traffic lane despite the fact that there was a blind corner 100 meters down the road... I noticed he had his windows down, so I gave a quick "HEY" to let him know I was there... Well, I forgot I was in California and apparently that "HEY" insulted his intelligence... He pulls up along side me pissed as a hornet after I barely squeezed by him. We're rolling up to the gas station where I usually refill bottles and this is how the conversation went:

Dude: *Pulls up along side me yelling:* "Why you getting on my s@#t, I saw you coming."

Me: "What? You saw me coming? That makes it even worse dude!"

Dude: "I was in the oncoming lane you little s@#t, I knew what I was doing"

Me: "Well, seeing as there was a blind corner 100 meters in front of you, obviously you didn't" "Where were you gonna go if a car came around the corner? right into me right?"

Dude: "Why you getting on my s@#t? You little s@#t, I'm gonna kick your a$#!"

At this point we're rolling into the gas station where there is a group of cyclists just sitting there watching the show come down the road and roll into the gas station...

Dude: *Swerves his truck into the gas station, blocking any cars at the gas pump. He jumps out of his truck as I roll up to the entrance to the gas station and casually dismount my bike. I lean it up against the window and turn around expecting to see this guy charging me... Instead, he is in the process of flipping around to go chase his truck down as it starts rolling down the hill... He clumsily jumps in the window of his truck and grabs the E Brake...*

Me: *Standing there holding my bottle taking it all in with amusement*

Dude: *Stomps up towards me*

Me: *I'm bracing myself for this guy to try something, making sure I had a good footing in case I had to defend myself* (all those who have walked in bike cleats know how difficult that is)

Dude: "What's your problem? Why you jumping my s@#t? "

Me: "Dude, I have more to lose than you do... You'll end up with a dent in your truck, I can end up dead... I would rather yell HEY instead of counting on the fact that you may know what you're doing"

Dude: *Proceeds to walk towards me the whole time like he's going to charge, but walks right past me into the store yelling obscenities the whole time...*

Me: *Walk in the store and refill my bottles, trying the whole time not to burst into laughter...*
*Give my normal greeting to the girl at the cash register, who is also trying not to laugh and get back on my merry way*

What a day...

Back in the saddle again...

Last two days have been good... Neck doesn't hurt too bad after a short ride. Every day it gets a little better. I hope to be able to actually get back to training by next week. My big obstacle now is getting a new road bike frame... May be out of racing for a bit till I can get that sorted out...

Healing up ever so slowly...

Tried doing a little riding, didn't work real well... It's tough to tilt the head up for long periods of time to look up the road, I'm good as long as I stare at my handlebars for the whole ride... It gets a little better every day though, so hopefully in a few days I'll be back on the bike for some steady training...

This picture about sums up my season so far... Was completely beat at the end of collegiate nationals for a mediocre result due to not being able to train for the months leading up to it due to medical junk...

Was completely drained mentally and physically... Was happy to be in the lead group at the base of the final climb, but frustrated that I didn't have the form to do anything about it... I was finally getting some good form back underneath me following recovering from all the medical stuff and was ready to try to salvage some of the season and try for a good result at elite nationals. I knew I had it in me for a good result in the road race last year (but was again put out due to some bad luck) and figured I could rectify that this year... Didn't even get a chance and now I am back in the same boat I was in prior to collegiate nationals and can't even train and expand on the form I struggled to get back... I've been telling myself it the darkest before the dawn for the last two years now, so I'm wondering when comes the dawn? I'll always be racing, I love it too much... It's just frustrating sometimes... as is life...

Broke the frame in the same place as the last one... Kind of ironic... Time for a new saddle...

Nationals Flop...

Had the Elite Nationals crit last night and went out in pretty awesome fashion... Not the kind of awesome I was hoping for though.

The race was probably the sketchiest race I have ever done... Not sure if I will ever do it again, there is just enough experience by some of the riders that they think they know what they are doing but not enough to know when certain risks shouldn't be taken... I would get chopped by about 5 guys EVERY corner EVERY lap from lap 1 on... Then one guy gets the gaul to yell at me as I am sinking back into the single file field behind Strange when I came to the side of him coming out of corner because I had a little more speed through the corner but I didn't want to chop him so I sank back to my spot... Well, this guy had chopped me muiltiple times and as I'm sinking back he tries to come around me and take Strange's wheel and asks me why I;m fighting so hard for the wheel. My reply was "Why are you fighting so hard for the wheel? I'm just sinking back to where I was..." I don't feel like I should need to get into some big diatribe in the middle of a race when some nimrod wants to tell me how to race my bike when clearly the dude doesn't know how to race his when he's chopping 1 lap into the race... Anyways, stepping off my soap box...

This brings me to my first crash... On the top part of the 4 corner course there was a slight uphill before turn 3 causing things to bunch up and allowing people to carry speed through the inside to chop the corner. Then a slight downhill on a short straightaway and narrow road into turn 4. Well, I got chopped by some dude in turn 3 and he clipped his pedal right in front of me in turn 4. I had nowhere to go but right into him, flipping me over the handle bars, breaking my frame, destroying my saddle, and putting a nice gaping hole in the butt of my shorts... Shimano put me on one of their Orbeas and sent me back on my way. Two laps after re-entering the race, Accelerating out of one of the corners the pedal came off the spindle on the spare bike and nearly sent me back to the ground. Made it back to the pit and they took my pedal off my bike and sent me back on my way again. At that point I was seriously considering packing it in and saving it for the road race with all the sketchiness going on, but seemed like a long way to travel to pack it in so quickly... With about 6 laps to go there was a massive pile up on the back stretch that brought down a bunch of guys in front of me. The crash happened at the front and rippled back bringing a bunch of guys to the ground. I was too close to stop in time and aimed right at the center of it so I couldn't maneuver around it. Went over the handle bars again and this time landed on my head and started to roll over onto my back when someone landed on top of me hyper extending my neck. I jumped up to get out of the road but quickly dropped back down to the road when I realized I couldn't hold my head up. After a few seconds I managed to crawl to the side of the road while dragging my bike behind me. Turned out I broke the neutral bike too... There were a lot of guys that would move into you before they had passed you, it seemed like they were basically giving you the option of crashing or slamming on your brakes to let them in which is dangerous for anyone behind you... After talking to some of the guys who went down it sounds like that is probably what happened. After spending some time at the first aid tent, they decided I wasn't stable enough to make my own way to the hospital and called and ambulance... I hung out in the ER till about 1am waiting for some news that I hadn't done any damage to any vertabrae... Everything looked good and it looks like I just hyperextended my neck straining all the muscles in the back of my neck. Basically, I have little use of the muscles in the back of my neck and will probably be in a neck brace for the next week... The good news is I should be able to race again in a few weeks, just not getting my chance at the nationals road race...

Been a rough season with obstacle after obstacle, each one getting a little harder than the last... Hopefully I can keep this up and continue racing long enough to get through this bad patch... I really need a little silver lining about now...

J signing off...

Some vids from Tulsa...

Day 1 of Tulsa Tough... race started at 9:30pm featuring a cool fireworks show... This is what this whole series is all about for those who have never been...


Day 3 of Tulsa Tough featuring "Cry Baby Hill"... Got a little T.V. time in the break with Cody... Pretty painful air time at that...

Tonights race = epic fail for me... was a little too cavalier about lining up at the front even though I got there 15 minutes before the race started. started at the back and got caught behind a crash in the first corner... Stayed tagged on the very back and slowly moved up but not nearly soon enough as my teammate, Pat, was on the front shredding the race apart before I could get in front of the gaps. Managed to claw my way into the second split, soon to be the third when Pat would go off the front with another group. My group got pulled 30 minutes in which stunk as I didn't really even get to race my bike or get any training in during that half hour... So... epic fail...

A few more shots from riding around white rock lake... I though I got these the other day but apparently they didn't get saved. At 9:30 tonight we start our race in McKinney on a mix of brick and asphalt road. I have to say I am glad just to be healthy enough to race my bike and train. My health was one thing I took for granted before this season... After months of not being able to ride due to poor health beyond my control and the scare of hearing the doctor mutter the word Lymphoma and finally breaking through it, I have a new lease on life and racing. Through the whole struggle, I was trying to be a good teammate and continue racing for the collegiate conference title which all the guys on the MSU team worked tirelessly to make sure I maintained.  Those races during that time were the least fun and hardest I had ever done.  There was too much going on in my head about what was wrong with me and how it might change or end my life.  I am not one to panic, but that stuff still enters the mind especially when you have a month to sit on it before hearing any results. Now I appear to be able to train properly and while I am not real strong in the races yet, hopefully that will come back soon. No matter though now, like I said, I am happy just to be out there racing my bike and enjoying every minute of it...

Rainy Day Ride'n...

The Iphone stayed at home today... Definitely got my parade rained on today... Five minutes in, the heavens opened up and unleashed twenty minutes of a hanus downpour with lightening and thunder. I kept riding between the tall trees and by the other riders hiding for shelter under the bridges (probably wondering if this idiot thought he was immune to a lightning strike)... I began to get a little worried when I passed my third group of hiding cyclists and started to wonder if I got hit how bad it would be... After all, the only thing touching the ground was the rubber on my tires and I don't think rubber is conductive... right? So... After giving that a couple hours of thought, I pretty much decided I was screwed if I got hit by the billion volts in a bolt of lightning... By that time, the worst of the storm had passed and I just had a steady rain to deal with, my soggy sandwiches in my back pocket, and the crunching and grinding of my overtightened and dried up bearings in my powertap wheel... Three hours later I rolled into my teammates luxury apartment complex soggy and muddy... Jumped in the shower and no sooner than when I got out the rain stopped... Go figure!

Now, looking forward to this weekend... Got some more good crit racing this weekend with Bike the Bricks in McKinney on Friday night which is kind of a hometown race for Richardson's Bike Mart (our BIG sponsor if you haven't gathered that). Then we're off to Oklahoma City Saturday for some more big money crit racing Saturday and Sunday. Last weekends racing in Tulsa was more for training for me. I've been off form since mid March and only able to start training consistently for the past 3 weeks. Tulsa was a good kick in the butt for me to help me get some racing legs back under me. Hopefully, this weekend things will go better than last weekend for me and the team. We should have some of our top riders there as well, from the sounds of it. Pat just came off a stage win at Mt. Hood last weekend, so he's definitely on his A game (even his B game is pretty dang impressive, guess that's the difference between real pros and us mere mortals). I think that about wraps it up... I may have time for a recap of the weekend, but probably not since I get back in the car on Monday to start my drive back to California...

J signing off...