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.