Thursday, October 05, 2006

darcy is so great.

this post is just to say that darcy alexander rocks. i like her a whole lot. so thats about all for now. okay. later.

Friday, September 08, 2006

just noticed

i was reading some news and realized:

number of us citizens killed in the september 11th attacks:

2,973 people died and another 24 remain listed as missing as a result of these attacks. (Wikipedia.org, 9.8.06)

while

The number of U.S. troops killed stands at 2,657 since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (CNN.com, 9.8.06)

I would agree with many that i don't want another soldier to die in Iraq. But it seems doubling the death toll is far enough. WHY CAN'T THIS WAR STOP????? Does Iraq even want us there anymore? Is there an end in sight??

alright. enough for my liberal hippie political opinion. have a good day.

Friday, August 18, 2006

65 miles. 8000 feet of climbing.

so today was a fun day. we left our apartment around 8:30am. up winkler's creek rd. russ cornett pkwy. first big climb of the day. poplar grove rd. shull's mill rd to nc-105. left to clark's creek rd. up and over clark's creek into valle crucis. second big climb of the day. left on nc-194 to banner elk. third big climb of the day. left onto nc-184. we stop for coffee and a paradise bar. mmm. right onto hickory nut gap rd. fourth big climb. left onto some road. left again onto nc-181. right on old nc-181. left on land harbor pkwy. left on us-221. right on linville ave. right onto us-221. fifth big climb. left onto the blue ridge pkwy. we stop at linn cove visitor center. climb the pkwy. sixth big climb. descend the pkwy. take some rad pictures. up holloway mtn rd. left on us-221. blowing rock. left onto us-321. right onto the parkway. left onto flat top rd. seventh big climb. left onto deck hill rd. right onto state farm rd. right into my apartments parking lot. 65 miles. roughly 8000 feet of climbing.

ride time 4:44:27
maximum speed 48.1mph
avg speed 13.8
mileage 65.78
traintime (HRM) 4:48:55
avg HR 149bpm
max HR 180 bpm
kcal burned (approx.) 5627


quite the day. some pictures.





Tuesday, August 08, 2006

better days

so since my last post i've driven to georiga and back. i've gone to the first funeral for someone very close to me. that was very tough. my grandfather was in the military and so they did a 21 gun salute and played taps. the sounds coming from the trumpet were pretty much the beginning of my break-down. i don't think i still realized what was going on until that song started playing. my mother's whole family was there pretty much and seemed to be making the best of everything. at dinner the night before everyone was joyful. i thought they'd forgotten why we were all together. but anyways. that visit was not really the most enjoyable. i cried at various points on the drive down and on the drive home.

but "C'est la vie."

in other news, israel and lebanon are fighting. george W. is continuing to be goofy. alaskan BP shut down an oilfield in one of the greatest moves of all time. they realized they're making a mess and cut the operation. 400,000 barrells of oil a day are produced there. i know most american's are thinking why in the hell did they do that?? now gasoline prices are going up 5 cents per gallon!!!! oh, well. lets see. it currently costs me about $0.128 to drive a mile. so this unbelievable, unpatriotic, inconceivable act of shutting down the BP alaskan field raises my cost to a whopping $.13 to drive a mile. but i guess if you compared this to the fuel efficient SUV's of say, most of the people complaining... i guess it currently costs them $.24 and the increase in gas will take it to a huge increase at $.25 per mile. so basically, the increase in gas costs raises the cost of driving a mile by about a penny. i understand i penny is a big deal though when paying off the monthly payment of say, a Range Rover, or a Hummer, or Ford Excursion. Oh well. Who needs beautiful wildlife and forests and trees anyways. Lets make Oil. Ugh.

Go George!!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

i've seen better days

so i've started riding my bike some recently. so thats a positive in my life. on the other hand. i got a voice mail the other night saying "joseph, your grandfather died at 5:35 this afternoon." that sucked. so anyways. i've seen better days.

jg

Thursday, July 13, 2006

its just one of those days.

i typically don't like limp bizkit at all. but this song reflects my feelings today. i've seem to have temporarily lost interest in riding my bike, so that makes me mad. thus:

It's just one of those days
When ya don't wanna wake up
Everything is ******, everybody sucks.
You don't really know why
But you wanna justify rippin' someone's head off
No human contact
And if you interact your life is on contract
Your best bet is to stay away mother ******!
It's just one of those days!

It's all about the he says she says bull****
I think you better quit lettin' **** slip
Or you'll be leavin with a fat lip
It's all about the he says she says bull****
I think you better quit talkin' that ****

It's just one of those days
Feelin' like a freight train
First one to complain
Leaves with a blood stain
Damn right I'm a maniac
You better watch your back
Cuz I'm ******' up your program
And if you're stuck up
You just lucked up
Next in line to get ****** up
Your best bet is to stay away mother******!
It's just one of those days!

It's all about the he says she says bull****.
I think you better quit lettin **** slip
Or you'll be leavin with a fat lip
It's all about the he says she says bull****
I think you better quit talkin that ****, punk
So come and get it

I feel like ****
My suggestion is to keep your distance
Cuz right now I'm dangerous
We've all felt like ****
And been treated like ****
All those mother*******, that want to step up

I hope ya know
I pack a chainsaw
I'll skin your *** raw
And if my day keeps going this way
I just might break something tonight

I pack a chainsaw
I'll skin your *** raw
And if my day keeps going this way
I just might break something tonight

I pack a chainsaw
I'll skin your *** raw
And if my day keeps going this way
I just might break your ******' face tonight

Give me something to break
Give me somthing to break
Just give me stuff to break
How 'bout your ******' face?

I hope you know I pack a chainsaw, what? A chainsaw, what?, a muther******' chainsaw, what?
So come and get it

It's all about the he says she says bull****.
I think you better quit lettin **** slip
Or you'll be leavin with a fat lip
It's all about the he says she says bull****
I think you better quit talkin that ****
Punk, so come and get it

Sunday, July 09, 2006

buyala traguitaori

i just made up the words to the title of this post. it could be more appropriately titled super bad ass mountain bike ride. i did the most epic ride ever today. just for you. whoever you is. i'm putting the stats up for my bike ride. in case someone has google earth and wants to see where i rode, you should check out the grandfather district of the pisgah forest. its just south of the us-221 and nc-181 intersection in north carolina. near linville, NC. so anyways.

so anyways. the ride started around 10:30am from the tablerock picnic area. this is basically the beginning of a huge hill. let me re-state that, an F-ing huge hill. we drove a shuttle car down to the bottom of this hill for my buddy, it was probably a 30 minute drive down and back to the top. alright. enough on the size of the hill. we instantly hit singletrack, its good, rolly, some waterbars. it lets out on a gravel road. my two buddies had ridden this area a few weeks ago, they went the "wrong way" and missed a piece of trail. we rode around on every off-shoot of trail and fire road making sure we didn't miss this sweet piece of trail. so we found it. this trail went through this field and we hit more singletrack. this trail was steep as hell. it reminded me of snowshoe mtn. except instead of my 8" travel downhill bike i was on my 4" travel epic. i did everything i could to stay behind the back wheel, basically. imagine your saddle occasionally touching your chest. thats about how far back i was. anyways. the other two guys were on 5" and 6" travel bikes. it was rather challenging. so we get to the bottom of this trail and go across some waterfalls and stuff. it lets out on a gravel road that my two friends had been on before. this was the gravel road they rode down the weeks before. it comes out on hwy nc 181. we cross the street and sit for ten minutes or so. i eat half of my peanut butter sandwich. actually it was only half a sandwich to begin with. so i ate a quarter of a sandwich. we head down greentown trail. it puts us at a ridiculous creek crossing, and since i'd already walked through a couple creeks earlier, i just walked through this one too. we rode for a while, on some relatively flat stuff. it was slightly uphill, but not really steep. so we come to a trail my buddies had ridden, and to the left there's a gravel fire road. i ride up it while they sit. at the top there is a fire road to the left and singletrack to the right. i head back down to get the crew. we go back up and they're like "i dont know. we should stick to the trail we know." of course, we'd ridden mostly new trail to this point. so i just get on my bike and head down the mysterious trail. it was more of the mountains to sea trail. really, really fast stuff here. big ring fast. singletrack. big ring. 44t. are you getting this?

so there is a split. uphill, and really uphill. we opt for uphill. it connects back to the trail that went up the super steep part. so thats all good. moving along. we get to an intersection with two more trails. one is the top of raider camp. to the left is persimmon ridge. i'd ridden both of these a month ago. i tell my buddies i know where we are and i know where the trail lets out on a dirt road. everyone breathes a sigh of relief. so this was the point a month ago where two of the four guys on the ride were like. okay. we're not waiting anymore for you slow guys. referring to me and my boss. anyways. raider camp is this very talked about piece of trail. its amazing. not really steep, but again, very fast big ring for like twenty minutes. yeah. i said twenty minutes. theres another big creek crossing, then a beautiful creek crossing. this one has a bridge made of rocks. but large rocks. like two and three feet wide and tall rocks. must have taken ten guys to build this thing. anyways. more of this trail and we're on a road. nc-90. we take it out of the way from the car to a grocery store in the middle of nowhere. literally. look up mortimer, NC on maps.google.com. see how bad it is. anyways, none of us had any money on us when we got to this store. which was about three miles down the road. so we turn around, ride right past where raider camp let out. continue for oh, three more miles past the trail exit. we knew the dirt road came out on nc-181 and that we'd have to climb a ways to the shuttle car, but on the right there was a forest service road. fs-982 i think. we took it. thinking, this has got to be more direct. climbing now. climbing still. we crest the hill and its 27mph downhill on f.s. road. sweet. at the end of this, it splits. my buddies recognize it. this is where their known trail from earlier would have come out. oh well. we learned something. so we stay on the road to the shuttle car. it was 31.56 miles to this point. my two friends were like you want to ride still or should we take you to your car. i being the tough stupid guy i am was like i'll just ride to my car. there must have been a few thousand feet of climbing in the eight miles remaining back to my car. i rode up 181 for almost 6 miles. then there's a turn on the left at gingercake. rode past some million dollar houses and the road turned to gravel. it crests, downhill back to my car. its over. finally.

so...

my HRM says:
6:33:04 training time
143 avg hr.
176 max hr.
7362 calories burned. (this made my mexican dinner a bit better...)
22% easy zone
32% middle zone
43% hard zone

my computer says:
5:24:40 ride time
7.5mph avg speed
40.67 miles (yes that 40.67 miles)
28.5mph max speed
613.1 miles odometer (since november 2005)

so. today was quite a day. thats all for now. work tomorrow, and a recovery ride. and a very easy week, to get my legs back for the tanasi serc #8 a week from today.

jg

thanks for reading this.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

chalk walk

so i went to columbus this past weekend. it was good to see my parents, my grandparents, and my dog kasco. i got in really late saturday night/sunday morning, raced sunday morning at 11:30 in macon ga. it wasn't a very good race. however i did manage to pass three or four people (in my age class) on the third lap. so i finished 20th out of 29. not very good, but could have been worse.

stats:
1:52:00 ride time
avg HR 179
max HR 205
avg speed approx 8.5 mph.

oh well. i came very close to cracking during the race. my body didn't want to go any harder, so i went slow, recovered a bit. then did a better third lap. it was very very hot too, for the weather i'm used to at least. i've definitely become a mountain resident. its hot if its in the 80's now. oh well. at least i can altitude train...

so i didn't ride monday, i drove though, tuesday i hit my all time fastest speed on a bicycle. it was 51mph coming down baird's creek road near willow valley golf course. there is a long climb into the hill, then the other side is straight down the grade. there is a small right turn a ways down, then straight some more. i had a good ride too. we call it the clark's creek loop. its about 27 miles. i improved by about 6 minutes on my time from the last time i rode it, which was an 8 minute improvement on the previous time i rode it. anyways.

no pictures in this post. although i got a few good ones lately, from the bike race and random rides around boone. well, thats it. i have friday off work, so i'm hoping to go to the forest to ride. later!!!

okay, so i found something to put up:


jg

Sunday, June 18, 2006

destination hardware

so i haven't posted recently. oops.

the norba nationals were great. i have more pictures from last weekend over at sugar mtn. i'll put up a few.





i have been riding hard trying to train for a string of upcoming mtn bike races. this coming weekend i'm heading to macon, ga for the SERC #7 race. i should also be able to get over to columbus. i'll visit my parents. it will be good to see columbus. partially because i miss it, but partially because it will remind me how much better boone is. yep.

after that weekend, there's the tanasi serc #8 race, then a race down in wilkesboro that is only like 30 minutes from boone. then serc #9 way down in anniston, al. that will be quite a haul from boone. i hope the race starts at 11:30 am on sunday, not 9:30am... i'll be driving until at least 1:00 am i bet. anyways.

oh, so last week i built up some cool wheels. at least i think they're cool. chris king iso disc hubs, wheelsmith 14/16 gauge silver spokes, blue aluminum nipples, dt swiss xr 4.1 d rims. the pictures i have of them do no justice. but it should suffice to say they're 1690 grams. i think i may switch the rims out for stan's ztr in the next few months. who knows. that would take em down to oh, say, 1575 grams or so. blah, gearhead talk.





alright. check out the pictures from todays ride too. ross and i rode about 48 miles. i did a 48 mile ride this past tuesday too. and some really good training rides. intervals, and a great recovery ride. okay, okay, stop typing. picture time.


Monday, June 12, 2006

norba national

so.

this past weekend was the showdown at sugar norba national mountain bike race. yeah. it was cool as it could be. like a cucumber. maybe cooler. the racing started friday. i had a DH race saturday morning, followed by a nap, and a XC race at 3:30 that afternoon. my dh event was fun. i woke at 6:45am to get on the lift and do a practice run. i determined i had the wrong tire on my front wheel, and went to the kenda tent and bought a nevegal 26 x 2.5" tire. i proceeded to use a borrowed multi tool, flimsy tire levers, and my shoe to change my front tire. then repeated all the necessary steps as soon as i realized i installed it the wrong direction. ugh!!! but my DH race went ok. i was hoping to be on the podium. i missed it by two spots. i got 7th, 6 second off the next guy and like 11 seconds off the 5th place finisher. i came off my bike in an awkward way and couldn't easily get started again, and then had a wrong gearing through a creek crossing. if i would have done better in those two spots, i think i could have done it. but it was my first real DH race and i had a blast. i think i may partake in a series at snowshoe mtn in west virginia and possibly a racers edge.com race in pennsylvania. dh racing seems fun.

my xc race was a shortlived experience. my somewhat newly installed cranks came off 10 minutes into the xc event. i installed the crankset a few weeks ago, torqued them to the exact specs, but the bolt managed to back out. i guess i will be checking them more often in the future. i did try to push, i wanted to at least finish, but i developed some nasty blisters on the backs of my ankles, from running in my cycling shoes, and turned around and coasted back to the bottom. oh well.

i did realize i got changed to NC resident for my usa cycling license. i'm ranked top 15 in sport for my age group in NC. thats sort of cool. anyways.

lastly, i must say, i am very glad to have redeveloped friendly ties with my ex-girlfriend. we were on the outs for bits of time, here and there over the past few months, but we're talking now and i'm very glad for it. hopefully we'll visit when i come to georgia for the macon SERC race. i can't wait to see my columbus racing buddies in macon. you guys should all be there since its on your GSC calendar as well. anyways. i will write more later. for now, settle with a picture of me coming over the tabletop at the finish of the DH race course. this photo was expertly taken by glenn kalnins. thanks for reading this, if anyone does. and if not, well, thanks for nothing. hahaha.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

tresemme shampoo

yo to all. stuff is great here in boone. the weather is especially nice. its still chilly at night. and its june. in case somone forgot what month it is... i've been riding a bunch. sorta took last week off, but i'm back at it. getting ready for the NORBA nationals this weekend. i'm racing DH saturday morning at 9:30. then at 3:30pm racing XC. i'll put results up as soon as i have them, if they're decent at least... and hopefully pictures from the podium with special shoes.

oh, a political thing... i can't believe our wonderful president is trying to push the federal marriage amendment again. its so stupid. 1. marriage should not be considered a religious matter. atheists can get married right?? 2. if he does want to consider it religious then it shouldn't be governed right?? separation of church and state?? is that somewhere in that document called the consitution?? 3. are there more important things for our government to worry about right now?? anyways. i'm glad the senate struck down the proposal. at least someone in washington has some sense.

some pictures from a bike ride. in some order... a bonsai tree on the trail, the full view of an ancient ladder jump, the edge, and the view back looking at it. pretty sweet.



Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Louisiana Hot Sauce






Here are some random pictures. The bike ones are from the Fontana SERC race this past sunday. The one of Andy is showing the five stitches he received after a friendly game of bike polo.

Friday, May 26, 2006

1995-2005

i'm listening to phish and les claypool singing gin and juice. its a different version than the one popularly known as "dave matthews and john popper." which i heard is actually phish and the o.a.r. guys. but who knows.

i've been re-arranging my place since matt sand is moving in. i moved my stuff into what was my living room. so i have a couch a bed a dresser a two bike stand a workbench a coffee table and clothes in piles in this room.

well i think you're crazy, or at least gnarls barkley does...

i rode up on sugar mountain the other evening. daniel sapp and i did two shuttle runs on it. we drove up to "3/4" a spot about 3/4 up the mountain, then pushed up to the tip top: 5300 feet elevation. the entire run is about a 1200 foot drop. pretty sweet. from there we rode the newly made DH course that runs parallel to the left side of the ski slope, then at the end, cuts across and lines up for a monster table top jump. i did two runs on it. the second one i just started at the 3/4 height. it was too dark and i was too tired to push up the last bit. i feel like i can maybe podium at the race in a few weeks. i want to get a few more practice runs in, and borrow a set of 26" wheels, and well, see how it goes.

so since i've last written anything on here, i've ridden a bunch. i am mostly riding road, but did a great 4 hour ride in the pisgah forest this past sunday. i took a tough fall right at the start, none of the damn log crossings have anything piled on the far side, and i keep digging chainrings into the logs and eating dirt. oh well.

i'm still loving work. its really easy going with my boss. he rode on the four hour ride in the forest the other day. and last week he took me on a semi- mountain bike ride in town. showed me some neat-o singletrack. and he still makes us leave early on days that we ride. oh, and our shop is really into bike polo: www.boonebike.com/gallery check out the carnage!! the world champion bicycle polo player is coming to town on monday, they want me to play but i have retired. my wrists hurt all week after playing. okay, i admit, i'm a softie. oh well.

so its a friday night at 10:00pm. i'm sitting on my couch. well, at least i have a couch. i would like to be out somewhere, but going alone seems to suck more than sitting at home. so at home i sit. i am talking to my dad on AIM. that's sort of cool. i'm glad they got online so we can keep in touch. yep. i have a friend coming up next week. i guess she'll be coming to town saturday sometime. then leaving late sunday or early monday. it will be good to see someone from home. yep.

going to fontana village tomorrow after work. the SERC #6 event. it should be fun. i raced there back in february at the icycle race. it was raining and snowing on us though. i thought i had frostbite after we finished. i got 18th of like 35 people or so, maybe i can get top ten. that is sort of a goal of mine i guess. my real goal for every serc is to finish in the top half of the field. i pulled it off at dauset. and hopefully can this weekend. i should be able to partake in all the following serc races, and maybe finish top 20 or so for the series. i'd like to do better next year, but for my first year racing, i'm okay with it. plus i'm getting faster and fitter is that a word every day up here in the high country. i'm hoping to kick some columbus ass in august at the flat rock race. it would be cool to do well at a course i helped build. i can't wait for the race to come to town and people see that mountain biking and cycling in general is such a good thing. at least hopefully a few people will see that.

so i've been back and forth on asking this girl out, like to dinner. i've hinted at maybe hanging out after a bike ride sometime or something, and we did the other day with a group of five or so. it was fun. i just don't want to get completely turned down or laughed at or anything. i feel like i did in high school. hahaha. what a loser!!! i was thinking about going to her work, a coffee shop/bakery that i go to every day anyways, and getting my usual coffee and bread, and leaving a rose or something for her. i dont know if i should be so direct though. oh well. any suggestions??

give up?? yeah thats what i was thinking.

alright, i'll stop typing in case anyone is reading this and is tired of reading it but continued because you thought at some point it might get interesting or good or both but well no nope youre wrong it was boring the whole time so thats it for now email me if you want to know more or less even if you want to know less then just tell me i'm up for suggestions. later!!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

packing list enclosed

so whats it going to be then eh?

i've detemined the road to becoming a great cyclist is moving to a town where you have no friends. and once you get there, managing to not make friends is also key. this way you can continue to ride your bike after work. when you don't have anything to look forward to except sitting in your apartment or the occassional rented dvd from grapevine, you can really push yourself on the bike, staying out longer and doing tougher routes. its pretty easy to go do a two hour ride, go home shower, eat something, and then think about how much better of a cyclist you are since you don't have anything to do.

i also believe the key involves not meeting girls. and as good as i am at not meeting girls, i should become a great cyclist very soon.

i'm loving boone.

in case you didnt notice, that rhymed.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

tabletop charcoal grill

so i've been a slacker and not posted anything. oh well.

i have gotten much more used to boone and the people here. i'm definitely glad i moved, i'm just wishing i would have gotten here earlier in the year, when people were still around. all the students (pretty much) have gone home so i'm left to sit at a random bar on my own, or the coffee shop, which is currently closing early since everyone is gone, or sit at home and well, stare at the wall. or ceiling. or tabletop charcoal grill. but its all good. i'm riding a lot now. i've been putting in 8-12 hours weeks each week on the bike. i'm feeling fit, i'm climbing a little bit better, and i did better at my most recent race.

i went down to georgia to visit friday night, raced sunday and came home sunday night. i really enjoyed seeing my parents. and i got in a short ride at flat rock park. and hung out with frank and jimbo. it was a good time. sunday i raced at the dauset trails near macon, ga. i am currently racing sport category, and got 14th of 34 sunday. i was happy with that. my goal for this season is to finish in the top half of the field. i've had a couple events that i liked. a few more though i was unhappy with. but its not too bad.

so since my last post... the following sunday i rode 86 miles around boone. we went down the parkway (blue ridge), then up a really flat road (at about 25mph, dual pace line...), then the group split. about 20 people went the 11 miles back to boone. 6 of us went for another 40 miles. it was a long day, much colder than the week before, but a very good long ride. it was probably another 7000 feet of climbing type of day.

the following sunday i rode my mountain bike for 4 hours in wilkesboro. its just off the mountain. i got close to 30 miles in. i was going for a long ride with that one, and it fit the bill. i was sort of slow, but my heart rate was good. so thats all that matters to me. although it did sound good the following week when people asked "what'd you do sunday?" they'd say "oh we rode 30 or 40 miles. how bout you?" i'd say "oh, well i only rode 30 miles... on my mountain bike." that felt good to say.

then the following weekend was the georgia race. other than the weekends, i've been riding tuesday nights, some wednesdays, and most thursdays. i've ridden a little bit on fridays (my day off) but not every week. monday night is bike polo night. that is a blast. we're ordering custom bike polo mallets soon, from the world champion bike polo guys at brookwood bicycle polo company. check them out!!

aside from the riding... i've been meeting more people, they're all cyclists though, i'm still trying to get out of the bubble. there are a few cute ones though, but they're super fast. we have a few national champions living in boone. the college team is at nationals right now!! but i think i'm going to try bouldering, like rock climbing but lower, for a crossover sport. i think it looks fun, and i am certain i can meet some different people through it. plus i can get some stronger arms. should be nice.

well, i don't have much else to say, well, actually one more thing... NORBA NATIONALS. my boss told me today i can have that saturday off work... so i'll be racing sport DH and sport XC at the NORBA NATIONALS. did i mention NORBA NATIONALS??? sorry, i'm just actually excited about something and well, there it is. NORBA NATIONALS!! okay, thats all.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

my first real ride

so today we rode at 10:00am. we did what the locals call the lake loop. it started off with about a four mile long hill, then a screaming downhill, another three mile long hill, a screaming downhill, and then started rolling. after fifteen miles they were like okay most of the hills are done. but to them hills are what we call mountains. they call hills "rollers." the hill into ft. benning would be called a bump. yeah, its insane. i heard some estimate of elevation gain per 10 miles. i think they said the average here is about a thousand feet for 10 miles. not sure if that's right or not, but its something ridiculous nonetheless.

so back to the actual ride... my ride data shows:
total time (total time gone) 4:53:26
actual saddle time 4:39:28
average speed 15.4 mph
total distance 71.90 miles
maximum speed 47.8 mph
avg. HR 150 bpm
max HR 186 bpm
cal. burned 4578 kcal

basically all that translates into pain. not to mention i only applied sunscreen to my arms and not the tops of my legs... i came home and took a nap and well, woke up with great pain in the top of my legs. then i noticed they were as red as could be. oh well. i was proud of myself for stepping up and doing the ride. i didn't mind being off the back of the group all day. i was the guy that'd roll up to the group at the stop sign and then they'd end their break. i guess that sorta translates into the closeness of the total time and actual ride time. haha. it was a great day though. i figure a few more like today and i'll be ready for clemson. i'm excited about seeing some of the columbus race team crowd at clemson and then the following weekend at dauset trails in jackson, ga. okay, with all that said... time for a movie. i hope all is well for my friends and family in columbus. i miss you all.

jg

Friday, April 07, 2006

blah

okay i think it happened today. i realized i moved. far away from columbus. i started to doubt my finances, found a $100 error in my checkbook. and in general started to miss some of my friends and family from c-town. not many people, but a few for sure.

on the flipside. i had a good time today. rode my mountain bike down in wilkes county with Kent and his neighbor Greg. its about a 30 minute drive from Boone. worth every minute and every penny in gas. the trail was like a combo of pleasant hill trail, tsali, and phenix city. yep. i put those together. ssschweeeet. and there was a DH course. it only dropped a few hundred feet for sure, but it switched back and forth very mountain cross-y down this good hill and had a bunch of log jumps and rollers and what-not. i decided i'm going down there next sunday with my DH bike.

we came back to the bike shop and i finished running cables and stuff on my newly improved road bike. andy helped my tape up the bars with some white bar tape. why does this bike look so PIMP?!? okay. thats the phrase up here. why is... so pimp?!?

i'll put a picture of it up soon.

going to tsali sunday morning to race SERC #3. hopefully it will be fun and i'll do well. my goal is going to be finish in the top half of the field. all season. if there's ten riders, i want to finish top five. if there's a hundred riders, i want to finish top fifty. i think thats a fair goal. alrighty then. going to eat some ramen noodles...

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

settling in. missing home. sort of.

so boone is really growing on me. or i'm growing on it. one or the other.

i've been to work three days now, and i'm enjoying it. it's not super busy yet here, as it's cold, windy and still snowy. i had snow on my car monday morning. wow!! the first day in my life i wake up to actual snow on my car.

i'm meeting people really quickly. the shop has a close knit group, of which i know a few so far. but they all ride road. gosh. mountains like this and they ride road. although the roads are cool here too. we went for a ride tuesday for just over an hour and climbed almost two thousand feet. yes, almost two thousand feet. the climbs go for miles. its neat-o.

i rode my mountain bike today. it was great. the trail here they refer to as a joke or whatever is really great. it's comprised of some fire road climb, and then super tech singletrack and a few high speed sections. i liked it, and the few mtb-ers here think its a joke. can't wait to go to the forest as the call it. thats pisgah forest. oh, and tsali this weekend. i'm going to race the serc #3 event and hang out with barry and glenn.

i'm really excited about the supermarket in town. its called earthshare "the healty supermarket." its the size of publix, but everything is the quality food you'd get at country life natural food store in columbus. sweeeeet!!!! oh and people here are into recycling and that is super cool.

me and bobby at my going away festival okay party okay dramafest, whatever you want to call it. it was cool having my friends come together to send me off.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

new home

so we drove up to boone north carolina today. it was a really long drive. i came up a few weeks ago for my interview and it took 5.5 hours. today took more like 7.5 hours. ugh. the past few weeks at home were pretty good. i just worked and rode my bike a little. i've re-developed an interest in my road bike which will surely help my speed/intensity on the mountain bike. speaking of which... i found a climb tonight that is probably at least a few miles long and few hundred feet elevation. its on campus, so i don't know if i can get in trouble or not, but it should be fun. there is no real way back down though, just grabbing the brakes. anyways.

the commute to work will be a non-stop downhill. but well then, clearly, the ride home will not be fun. although, i can detour around and it will be less of a climb. anyways. still no idea about the in-town mountain biking. i've read some reviews, but none were very definitive. and speaking of all this riding... i should mention i'll be headed down to tsali this coming weekend to stay with some of the CBR team. barry, glen and ursula are coming up on friday i think. i'll be headed down saturday evening. then race on sunday. i need to ride some this week or tsali is going to be a joke. i mean, it is going to be for me anyways, i haven't gotten to ride much. packing stuff away, working extra hours last week, and eating too much fast food all sort of screwed up the progress i'd made on my bike. oh well.

i will post some pictures when i get a chance. until then. arve wah. or however the french say it.

Monday, March 27, 2006

counting the days down...

so the days are going by quick. and i'm realizing i'm about to embrace a new life. or at least "add a chapter" to it, or some other stupid cliche. moving from my hometown of columbus, ga to a new job in boone, nc should be fun. i keep telling myself that, everybody does really, but i am worried about it. what if i hate it there? what if i'm not cool enough and just sit at home and work, and don't make any new friends?? what if i have to start working the streets to make ends meet?? what if... okay the picture has been displayed, if you don't get it, well...

i can tell its going to be a rather enduring process, moving my stuff, with my parent's help. i mean, i'm grateful for it. but i know my mom wants to take a zillion pieces of furniture and pots and pans and stuff. but really, i need two plates, two bowls, a few forks, spoons, and knives, and a couple of plastic cups and i'll be good. i don't forsee having anyone over for dinner anytime soon, and by having two of each, i can have one in the sink for washing while using the other. and i got my microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. all i need is a pan to do stir-fry and stuff in, and a spatula. i mean, what else is there?!?

going to work then ride tomorrow. looking forward to it. peace

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

riding, racing, random other stuff

so since my last post, we did a race in athens. the we being tony valenzano and paul hein. and me too. we had a blast. made some friends, paul told some girl there "my buddy would like to call you sometime." and well, somehow or another, i now have her phone number.

so some random pictures...






yep. going to the race team meeting tonight. later!!

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

race #2 of the year

so i went to reddick saturday, rode, then proceeded to go to orlando to meet up with jd and mandy. we went to a restaraunt called kahuna's. the first thing i could think about was i wonder if they have a big kahuna burger. like from pulp fiction. and then i saw it on the menu and asked the bartender "is this where they got the idea for big kahuna burger?" and he laughed.

so i raced sunday. it was fun. fast. duh. but fun. i finished a little lower than i would have liked. but i'm racing up a category. its like if you raced cat 4 on the road instead of cat 5, when you should be racing cat 5. sort of.

i came in 15th out of 18 in sport senior men. 19-29. years that is. it was a pretty stacked class, if you saw the top five or so guys, you'd wonder why they weren't racing expert. although, i think a lot of people tried to race down because it was so hot, and each lap was almost 10 miles. so a report... i did 19.20 miles. in two hours and some change. not much change though. like 2:05:00 or so. my HRM read 2:10:00 after my 5 minute recovery period. as far as HRM goes... my avg was 177, my max was 200. i was in my 40-60% zone for 0% of the time. was in 60-70% zone for 4% of the time, and in my 70-80% zone for 94% of the time. so at least i was pushing myself. i hurt really bad right off the bat, which reminds me i gotta learn to start off sprinting for two minutes. and learn how to warm up better. alrighty then. i dropped a gu on the first lap. by the second lap, i stopped to pick it up. still unopened, un-run-over. man it was good. i was running on two 32 oz. nalgene bottles of cytomax, a 24 oz bottle of water, 100oz of camelback water, and a 20oz cytomax on the bike. early into the second lap i started feeling better, it could have had something to do with the 2 gu's, 4 enervit chews, and 3 hammer endurolyte pills. i pushed a bit harder through the second half of the second lap than i think i did the first time around, but my second lap time was longer still. oh well. if anyone wishes to see the results they're at http://www.goneriding.com/2006/SERC/1-Reddick/results/06-SERC-1-YELLOW.htm

thanks for reading this!! unless of course, no one reads this... then thanks for nothing. hahaha. pictures will be posted soon.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

rollin rollin rollin

rolling down to reddick florida for SERC #1. this will be my second race of the year. i'm hoping for a top ten finish, but with the lack of riding i've been doing, i just want to have fun. results will be posted when i get back. have fun at the wheels o fire ride. see you monday at the space science center 6:00.

jg

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

drumroll please!!!

okay, its official. i'm leaving the wonderful town of columbus at the end of the month. i found a job, and an apartment in boone, NC. its so cool there!!! i've never moved before (cities i mean), but i guess i will be soon. the bike shop is cool, they sell trek specialized cannondale, and occasionally indy fab!!! thats independent fabrications for those who don't know... and mountains. oh my gosh, there are so many mountains. its just super pretty and the people were all nice but very culturally diverse. people with tattoos and purple hair, people with dreads, people in hippy-esque outfits, "regular people" and more. i went to a coffee shop in their downtown. it was a really cool place, right next to an outfitter store and a rock climbing wall. and there are two ski slopes or three. three i guess. within ten miles. sugar mountain is hosting a NORBA event this summer. and two of my xc buddies are going to come up for that. isn't that right guys!!!! plus, ski lifts open soon on the weekends for downhill bikes... sjfgkldjhgkwejhjekgj wow!!!

thats all for now.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

lately.

so i have been riding. working. sleeping. riding. sleeping. looking for new jobs. sleeping. riding. you get the idea. or if you don't well... in the words of carlos mencia. duh-tuh-ta. if you haven't seen the show, you wont get that either. if you have. well. yeah.

and the one wildebeast is like ::nods its head to the back:: and then in the back of the herd...

we rode in auburn on sunday instead of athens. the trail in athens was closed. but we wanted to get out of town. we rode roughly 19 mi. i haven't ridden my DH bike since last friday morning, with mike greathouse at phenix city. i decided that is the back-burner bike for now. i want to ride road and SS. then after the SS race start riding long road rides. trying to do a 100 miler on april 22. yeah i dont know why either.

on the job front... i'm hoping to go up to boone, NC soon to meet the owner of a bike shop. i've been reading about the town and it looks super cool. Appalachian state is there. the average age is like 20 or 21. rent for 1 bedroom places is right around $400. and there is a ski resort about 10 miles away. can we say shuttle runs?!? or better yet. ski lifts!!!

okay. thats it for now. peace.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

anonymous

in response to whoever posted as anonymous, and started their comment with "dude" and said blame myself... i work six days a week. thats six. monday through saturday. they used to close on mondays, but started opening a year or so ago from 12-5. and i don't mind the amount of hours at all, i just don't like the fact i have one day off.

in other news... i rode my road bike today. it was interesting, time off of it and it feels rather twitchy, compared to the mountain bikes at least. we only rode like 22 miles or so, but it was fun. had a decent average nearly 17mph, considering we had so many slow spots to "walk" through the construction. anyways, it was a good day overall.

so clarifying the work situation, and talking about a road ride. that's enough of a post for me. later.

Monday, February 20, 2006

no purpose

days go by and i wonder what am i doing. i know thats a profound statement, but i dont really think about it all that often. i work at a bike shop, and a bar, and have one day off per week, and not really even a whole day. i dont want to be in this town anymore, but somehow i'm stuck here. i apply for jobs elsewhere and nothing. i dont want to leave without a place to go, but that seems like a better option. im scared to leave and not know anyone, but i dont really have too many good friends here. but i know people. at least i could (probably) meet people through mountain biking wherever i went, but some mountain bikers are wierd. i've never moved anywhere before, except different parts of town, but that doesnt count. and i dont really even know how to. but i want to get out.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

boring one day off.

so i've been thinking a lot about how working six days a week affects my life. i'm almost positive its a bad thing to continue with. but seeing the guys at the bike shop want me to keep working six days a week, i figure i'd better move along. they told me the other day they'd heard a rumor that i was leaving and they wanted 90 days notice. i tried not to laugh. i think i'll give them like a month notice. but there is no way in hell i'm waiting around three months so they can find someone to replace me, something they should have started doing a while ago. anyways. on the possible job front, my top two picks are King Cycle Group, the guys that make Chris King headsets and hubs, or the Hawley Co. A parts distributor in South Carolina. KCG is in Portland Oregon, which while being far away, is most definitely a cool possible place to live.

i'm excited about racing this year. i got the results from icycle. the race i did last week. i got 18th out of 33 in sport class. at first i was disappointed. but for my third xc race, especially racing sport, i didn't mind it. the next event i'm planning on going to is in athens, ga. its the ga singlespeed championship. march 19th. we put a suspension fork on my surly saturday, so thats cool. it won't kick my ass as much as before. anyways. thats all i really have to say for now. not that i really ever SAY anything.

jg

Monday, February 06, 2006

2006 icycle race and frozen toes.

for the first time in my life, i thought i would have to have some toes on my left foot amputated. that is a scary thought.

it was raining when i woke up saturday morning. i drove to the inn at the top of the hill and had breakfast. went to the fontana bike shop and changed my tires. kenda nevegal 2.1's. i liked them. they hooked up really well in super nasty stuff. so i changed and for some reason went out for a pre-ride. brr. it was raining still. the race starts, my parents roll up. i say hi and toss my keys to my mom, sweet, lost another 75 grams or so. ha. there is a lemans start, we run for our bikes. and ride up an incredibly steep muddy hill. i walk the second half. we ride through the parking lot, turn onto some dirt, the pile-up begins. people are all walking. we turn the first switchback and people start riding. more switchbacks. then i notice, its stopped raining. yeah, now its snowing. great. ride some. ride some. then we get to the fun stuff. a long downhill. people are pulling their bikes off the trail as they hear me coming. ha. so i'm a downhiller at heart. i pass like 6 people. they pass me shortly after on the next climb. some mucky stuff. through the softball field. second lap. i push up the hill again, eating a gu this time. ride everything, wishing i had a camera to take pictures. the snow is settling on both sides of the singletrack. lots of white now. long downhill again. okay, so i went a little slower, for some reason my front brake stopped working. but i still passed people. some climbing, but this time i passed people. sweet. through the mucky stuff, pass a girl, she stays on my wheel. our times don't really matter to each other, but we were still racing each other. through the softball field. pedaling hard. lactic acid. burn. super low gear. tires spinning. not really moving. start the final climb. i made it. the girl didn't. hahaha. i have no idea what place i got. but i finished. quite unlike half the field, and this guy, with a broken fork.








so that was my experience at the first race of the year. results should be up soon at: www.jandwevents.com
thanks for looking.
jg

Thursday, February 02, 2006

bikes races latex etc

so things have been good lately. i ordered the demo 8 yesterday. it's predicted arrival date is monday. believe there will be a picture up as soon as i get it. schweet!!!! i got the 2005 demo 8 pro. there were only 7 left nationwide. its got a manitou 4way with a ti spring. heck yeah.


and i rode a couple weeks ago at phenix city then buddy's land with some friends. john and taylor came down from tuscaloosa and we met randomly up with patrick and ben near the log rides. we went up to the road gap and little gap, hit a good rock drop, then headed out. we ate taco bell, then headed to buddy's land. i re-grew my balls and decided to jump some stuff. got a pretty sweet pic of me doing the creek gap, and one of taylor off the specialized banner drop. enjoy.

i put latex tubes in my epic too. they weigh roughly an ounce less a piece than regular butyl tubes. and they are supposed to be more flat resistant. we'll see. they better do something, they cost about 10 times a regular tube. and i put crank bros. egg beater sl pedals on the bike. it lost about 5 ounces in the past couple days. i'll pull the waterbottle cage soon too. that's another two ounces. and i am losing some myself too, which is nice.

i'm going tomorrow to fontana dam north carolina to race saturday. it should be fun. weather.com is currently predicting snow. hahahaha. we'll see. so pics...




Sunday, January 29, 2006

ugh its late

howdy folks.

just got done working. i rode my bike friday morning. it was fun. and i signed up today for icycle. its coming up this weekend. i think i'll leave c-town around 1 o clock. yep and beat atlanta traffic. or try to. anyways. i am tired. i had an okay week. this night was better at the big city than last week. i made 58 last week and like 76 this time. sweet. and i am tired. worked 10 to 6 tdoay. and 9 to 4:30am at big city. i fell asleep just now. its 11am now. thats it for me.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

new bike

so i don't remember anything really interesting happening lately. just had coffee the other night. and trying to figure out my taxes. hmm. i think i messed up cause it only had me getting back like 1/3 of what i paid. anyways. thats all. i tutored a girl tonight in calculus 3. $30. sweet. i have some stuff coming in soon to lighten my bike up.

i'm also considering selling my bigHit. and replacing it with either a sx trail, a chapparel or a demo 8. i'm currently leaning towards a demo 8. anyways.

thats all for now.

Monday, January 23, 2006

lately.

i haven't posted anything in a bit. i haven't been riding. i haven't been doing much. just working and hanging out downtown a bit. i went to scruffy's wednesday night, then the loft and the tap thursday night, then a friends house and then the tap and picasso's then home at 4:00am then work on saturday from 10 to 6 then a 30 minute nap then worked at the big city club from 9 until 4:15. then woke up to go ride. i rode in phenix city and jumped off some stuff, then went to buddy's land. two guys came down from tuscaloosa and we showed them all the new stuff at buddy's. i did the creek gap. its big, like 20 feet across. so i'm done writing now. time for wine.

random pics.

Monday, January 16, 2006

clarification

just in case there was any doubt about my last post, i was talking about a bike i got rid of recently. i don't know if there was any confusion. now that thats out of the way.

i can't believe how bad its been lately.

i had those flats last week at blankets creek, and i had a crappy weekend. i had another flat at "flat" rock park. whose idea was it to name it that? haha. first time i ever noticed it. so yeah i was all psyched up about riding three laps out there and then it got cold and i had my flat. so i just rode back to the car. ugh.

today was okay. work flew by. i left my keys at home though, so when i got to work i just stood around waiting for brian. yep.

and then i went to picasso's. and we watched "team america: world police." it was funny. that was about the extent of my evening.

"goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend..." -james blunt.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

today

today ultimately sucked. :(

Monday, January 09, 2006

monday

so i started the day off at trail x. to those of you who don't know, trail x is a secret. and gee is it fun. one 'lap' seems to be about 1.6 miles or so. but doing repeated laps can wear you out. fo sho. i'm trying to get some good riding in as the first race on my calendar is in a month. icycle. its at fontana, nc. the xc race is on saturday. day. then there's time for DH practice, then at dark the DH race starts. i am not sure if i'll do the DH race or not, i did it last year. it was fun. and its at night. if you didn't figure that out yet. a couple pics from this morning.




then i went grocery shopping. i got some cool veggie stir fry stuff. i hope its good.

then work. blah. it went by quick, then some guy came in at 4:55pm and i had to put on a computer and put cleats on his shoes. then at 5:55pm (we close at 5pm on mondays) i left. went over to picasso's pizza. ate with abby and some teacher named adam. then home briefly.

oh yeah, how could i forget!!!!!! my timbuk2 bag came in today. its green. and big. and green. and light green and lime green. sweet! i'll put a picture of it up soon. peace homies.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

tired.


::yawns:: thats all for now.

Friday, January 06, 2006

okay, so, whatever, umm

so, the day was cold in columbus georgia. brrrr. brrr. it was a chilly ride to and from work. and i was able to ride three times so far this week. i think i'll stay off the bike tomorrow. and we're talking about riding phenix city on sunday. hmm. but i'm tired soo... a few pictures from flat rock monday. gosh it was muddy. muddy. muddy. did i mention the mud. i'm getting my "base miles." i'm gonna do this for a few weeks, then start really "training."

that will be good. i'll have an HRM by then. anyways. a few random pictures.



whatever, ya know?

so i recovered from new year's eve and went back to work. it was nice having two days off in a row, but now i have to face the fact that i am back to working 6 days a week. it sucks. i've said something before only to be told we'll do that later. not, oh sure, you're mentally burned out from working 6 day weeks for 6 months straight? yeah. whatever ya know?

i've been sending my resume to a few bike shops in the asheville area. i don't know if they're really even interested. same thing goes for specialized. i sent it off, recently got a postcard saying "thanks for applying." but nothing else.

apathy.

life in columbus has been sorta slow the past few days. i have managed to fit in some good riding. i went monday to flat rock park with mike greathouse. we rode for an hour together, then i added in about thirty minutes of quicker riding. wednesday i went with paul hein and jose mendez. we did a two hour night ride. with lots of random sprints. i kept up for the most part. but i can tell i'm in need of serious training. which is what i plan on doing. i'm gonna ride for a few weeks of "base miles." thats just riding at an easy medium intensity. i want a heart rate monitor but we'll see when that happens.

i'm tired of typing knowing nobody reads this.

Monday, January 02, 2006

happy stuff. new year. january.

so, jimbo and i left town around 5 on saturday. while we were driving near pine mountain we saw reynolds bickerstaff. his wife was making faces at us, so i was like, peace out. and dropped it into 4th and we hit 115mph and were like maybe we should slow down. so like, ten minutes later we were in lawrenceville. ha. and we picked up two of my friends. john zarley and raiford storey. we drove to athens.

we started at ryan lingo's house. 2 rum/cokes. then to caroline's house. whiskey sour. rum/coke. then to some girl named veggie c's house. 2 shots of jager. plastic cup of keg beer. then to downtown. walking from the parking deck to the bars. jack and coke. watching the ball drop, not having anyone to kiss. then getting our shots for midnight at like 12:07. shot of "liquid cocaine." (jager, goldschlager, something else.) then a grateful dead. then a beer. jack/coke. walk to some other bar. there's like two million people at this bar. no drinks there. just a scandelous photo. (see below) we leave there and walk back to veggie c's. in the process leaving sean's truck at the parking deck. bad move. bad. move.

back at veggie c's. what a wierd name. 4 glasses of cham-pag-ne. two plasic cups of beer. that put the total for the night at...

17. yep, 17 drinks in about four hours. the next morning. i officially thought i was gonna die. and at one point i would have preferred it to what i was going through. throwing up bile (stomach fluid) is not fun. and it bleaches the sidewalk. yep. the spot previously covered with mildewy sidewalk stuff was bright white a few minutes later. gross

so back in ctown. this morning i bled my brakes and finally got a huge air bubble to come out. sweet. that means i have braking power. so i ate lunch with my dad, then went over to mike greathouse's to watch, well, wait for a football game to finish so we could go ride. we went to flat rock. it was muddy. muddy. did i mention muddy. i will have a picture up soon of my bike post ride and my face and my legs post ride. all covered in. you guessed it. mud. but my brakes worked. really well. it was so nice to have brakes for once. i don't know how the vbrakers of the world ride with vrbakes. at least in mud. vbrakes + mud = 0 * fun. my math for the day.

so then i hung out with my buddies and we went to loco's to watch the georgia game. after it got to be 28-0 in the first hour we decided to leave. and here i am. typing. have a good night.