cyclocross time?

so summer ended. i did the fontana SERC race then quit bike riding for a while. after being lazy for a while i built my Specialized CRUX - it's pink - and got back on the bike. i've done a couple stackhouse races but got down to asheville CX in black mountain, NC 10/9/11 and i raced myhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif cyclocross bike sunday - boy that was fun.




after replacing my broken pedal (10mins before the start), starting in the last row (of 70 people), and dealing with my seat sliding down 3cm i was quite happy with 28th out of 66 people. it was a great race and made me feel good about how things are coming together.

i went out early this a.m. for a bike ride. and this helped me get out in the 50deg rain:



so i did some intervals (blah) and checked out the trees and rain and had these thoughts about it:

fall trees colors bright
cross, tabata intervals
leaves don't notice me




MSG cyclocross has races saturday and sunday coming up - we'll see how it goes. AND darcy and i are working on a creeper trail trip this weekend. it will be awesome! thanks for reading. jg

may, june, july. slack

so since i actually wrote a real blog post in may, i:

missed the SERC race in ducktown in favor of a 5hr pisgah ride instead
spectated the burn24 in wilkes (and announced my return in 2012)
kind of got it together for massanuttan HOO-HA! not pro

From summer 2011

From summer 2011

From summer 2011

had a few weeks of inactivity/lack of motivation/rain/etc
rode some prototype tires

From summer 2011

got some landscaping done - thanks matt H & darcy

From summer 2011

got it together for the AMBC magic cycles race at beech mtn

From summer 2011

cheered for darcy - she won. everything she's done this year... teacher of the year, valdese Tri, westside Y tri, sevierville Tri, you get the idea

From summer 2011

then it rained and got muddy and i was slow

From summer 2011

From summer 2011

From summer 2011

From summer 2011

From summer 2011

and had our 3yr anniversary =)
so we kayaked on the new river. thanks Rivergirl

From summer 2011

From summer 2011

then july 4th weekend we camped with friends (and dogs)

From summer 2011

didn't ride bikes. then started again. this week i
did a 4hrs ride previewing ~35mi of the iron MTN 100k course
and a tuesday night ride, no not reid's route
along with an easy rocky knob mtb ride. haiku here:

morning rocky knob
laps. super sweet flow and rocks
together as one.

that brings me to tonight. darcy is away with her girl friends at the beach, and i'm 'watching/listening' to le Tour. looking forward to sunday 'racing' the iron Mtn 100k but more importantly excited about taking darcy to crested butte in one week - hopefully riding the 401 trail:



thanks for reading. jg

rainy day deck hill

repeats on deck hill
mountain bike with single ring
cut short by cold rain

slumming. random photos.

so i haven't been riding/blogging/being cool for a while - the weather has been questionable - a few days when there was NO chance of rain it ended up thunderstorming... thankfully i wrote the columbia, SC Harbison XC race on my calendar with pencil so i could erase it and just ride with the max camp instead. a lack of motivation and carpool partners uninspired me instead. i'm trying to get it together for the SERC race at ducktown, TN a week from today. for the meantime check out rad photos i found on my phone from the last week point five. as usual - thanks for reading. jg

photos from hiking:


jada the dog after climbing a ladder. yes. i thought i was going to have to carry her:





photos from bike ride with stackhouse (he was so fast i couldn't keep up to get photos) on thursday ride/workout after doing 5min intervals on sims pond hill on the blue ridge parkway:



rad hip kool!

tnr + beech mtb

so after a busy weekend traveling and kicking it with darcy, daniel and jada the dog i got out tuesday night for the (in)famous tuesday night ride - also known as TNR, tuesday night world championships, etc.

jacob florence decided to go up flannery fork (which was graded last week) resulting in a few flats. regrouping at sandy flats we roll down 221 to holloway mtn rd then jacob keeps the pace going on holloway. either everyone else couldn't keep up - more likely they didn't see us - but we pushed the pace alone the entirety of holloway mtn rd to the BRP on-ramp. we regrouped there and talked about our various power numbers and the best programs for analyzing the data... trainingPeaks, poweragent, goldencheetah. dorks yes.

rolling BRP north we allowed gene fowler and zion to escape then jacob turned the switch on and we caught, passed, regrouped the break and passing the red barn i had to sit up - my earlier efforts (and racing sunday) proved to crush me. good thing though, i was fortunate to see an amazing crash - i feel okay talking/joking about it because stack and gene were both fine and laughing as it occured. basically gene dropped his chain (campy 11, d/ace srm, and rotor rings must not shift so great) and was off his bike in the lane perpendicular to the flow of the peloton. no trouble though, only two people had to make it by him. well stack was staring at the ground and plowed into gene full speed. thankfully for gene, stack's full speed was only like 12mph, but nonetheless it looked like:



anyways. some poweragent images:




then i got out on thursday with mike anderson to beech mtn for some mountain biking. their trails are great and surprisingly flat/fun for being on a huge mountain.






we got in about 3hrs of riding and now its time for easter weekend hanging out with doug/diane, dana, and marshall. good breakfast at melanie's this morning, now time to work. thanks for reading. jg

(nearly) perfect weekend - asheville + stumpjump XC

so friday 6:00 ended my work week. darcy and i had big plans for the weekend: valdese triathlon (saturday), asheville hanging out (saturday afternoon/evening), and stumpjump XC (sunday). friday night we got our bags packed, then:



we woke up saturday morning - and had not packed the car yet - to torrential downpours. the triathlon sent out an email about the weather, but it hadn't been canceled. load up the car, wet dog, where are our extra towels?? rolling by 6:30am saturday.

get to the venue - unload car - in the rain - darcy goes to registration - wet dog - pumping up tires in the rain. walking towards registration (a second time) - some old man: "its been canceled." ugh. rescheduled for june 25 or so. at least we tried.

driving to asheville we find ourselves at our good friend daniel's house around 10:30am. we decide the best way to move on with the day is with a trip to clingman cafe. yum!!! we walked around and got i took some photos of things we saw:







the afternoon/evening was super fun - included a trip to mamacita's, and soon it was sunday morning. drive to spartanburg, SC. race the stumpjump - debut for the new boone bike kit:



jada the dog hung out with darcy while i warmed up, raced, and rode around aimlessly afterwards. i had a good-ish start, sunk a few spots, and clawed my way back up at least a spot or two during the 2nd and 3rd lap. near the end i caught on of the really fast almost pro cat1 kids that twisted his chain and we fought it out the last 2 miles. granted he was pedaling a non-functioning bike and i was still sucking. it reminded me of:


results:


jealous:


so then we drove back. saw this guy's setup:



we stopped in saluda - i'm not sure i took any photos there. anyways, it was cooool!!! we got back, and now its back to the real world, but on the way home i looked over at darcy, looked to the back seat at jada - and thought to myself: "i'm living the life. i'm on top of the world. i have a house, a great job, a beautiful wife, and a sweet puppy (1.5yrs...). i have a family."



thanks for reading. jg

grandfather mountain with my mom, dad and grandma - AND - jada the dog!!
















and bike riding with darcy in our new awesome boone bike kit: