Riding. Cold, Not so cold.

The weather in boone can be the wierdest thing. Sunday morning I went out for a mountain bike ride in the snow. It was 17 degrees. Monday night I went snowboarding. Wednesday I went for a bike ride and it was between 40 and 50 degrees the whole time!! Nice and warm.

Sunday I was hoping to drive off the mountain and get in a hour and a half in the national forest which is much warmer than in boone. Well, I got to Blowing Rock and none of the roads had been scraped, and I didn't feel like sliding off the road into a 100 feet deep canyon. So I parked in town and settled on riding down, and then back up the steepest gravel road in North Carolina. It's called Globe Rd. Its about 5 miles long and drops roughly 2000 feet. I only descended as long as my feet could handle; its cold at 35 mph in 17 degrees! Turning around and climbing just for a mile and a half, I gained about 950 feet. The average grade climbing was 16%. The maximum was 25%. Needless to say, I just spun in my granny gear and kept the heart rate low, with an average of 139 for my short ride. Some pictures as proof that I went out:





If anyone is interested in more details, check it out here.

Moving onto the much more interesting ride... Wednesday is almost always my day off so when the local weather guy forcasted 51 degrees and sunny, the 30% chance of rain did not bother me a bit. I am trying to get in 8 hours on my bike this week, i got 6 last week (10 next week, 12 the next, restart). So I wanted a big ride. I opted to go for a similar start as my last big road ride, and added a descent into another valley, and followed it with two very incredible climbs. I changed up the beginning of the ride, per the suggestion of Megan Carmody (eat Black Cat!!) and rode out the parkway and Brownwood road to get to the railroad grade rd. Got a refill of water at the friendly Todd Mercantile:

On the way up Three Top Rd. I stopped for this view:








Then i followed a route similar to last week to get to us-421, and climbed it back into North Carolina (from Tennesee)

and descended old 421. This is a very welcome 35 mph coast for the most part, except for the great dane that was waiting half way. Following the usual route, I crossed us-321 and turned and climbed Mast Gap Rd. Crossing Mast Gap and descending into Valle Crucis I took a break and got a Diet Cheerwine (on credit, forgot my wallet!) and chatted it up with the women working. We discussed our mutual distaste for out-of-towners and the Jersey accent. Rolling down Broadstone, riding the worst road in the high country (Hwy 105) and turning onto Old Shull's Mill Rd got me to the best point on my ride: Shull's Mill Rd. It snakes up the side of a hill, all the way from Hwy 105 (elev. 2700) to us-221 and the parkway in Blowing Rock (elev. 3900). I snagged a picture of the twisty road ahead:


Reaching the top of Shull's Mill, I did the dumbest thing for the day (aside from forgetting my wallet) and turned on Flannery Fork Rd. Its an awesome dirt and gravel road that gets you quickly back to Boone, but not the best idea after snow has melted. I cruised down the pavement that follows, and got back to boone bike around 5 o clock. Just about 6 hours after I started. With a ride time of 5:30 that means I only rested 30 minutes during the day. I'm okay with that. Just a couple more pictures, my bike and my Garmin Edge showing numbers and the elevation:

For more details click here.

Well, if anyone actually reads this, I'll be amazed. Thanks, if you are reading it. More next time. Hoping for a big mountain ride sunday, maybe some good pictures.

Joseph

bike riding. brr. cold. yep. mm huh.

so the final short track event in charlotte was yesterday but in lieu of my bike breaking, my legs feeling the 9 hours of riding from just a few days before, and well, general excitement about having a new road bike, i decided to stay in boone and test out the road bike and its sram shifting!!

my new road bike (still gotta pay for it though) is a 07 specialized roubaix expert with sram. its got the rival ie cheaper version, but its supposed to work as well as the force just without the fancy carbon and lighter weight. its got ksryium elite wheels. i would like to do something unique in the wheel department, i just haven't figured out what yet.

so, my route consisted of leaving boone on 321 to deerfield to the steady climb known as wilson ridge road. i turned left on bamboo and then crossed 421 to get on brookshire rd. after navigating the gravelly crossbike friendly section of brookshire i turned right on 194 then right on castleford. this was my first experience with the famous castleford rd and i liked it. nice and rolly, not too hard, but nothing like the road following it. finishing castleford let me out onto railroad grade road and that was a relief, though it was windy. oh yeah, and between 20 and 45 degrees the whole day. it may not have even made it into the 40's. dont know exactly. so railroad grade in the drops moving right along found me stopping at the store across from the floridiot owned todd general store. the lady there was a local and wasn't afraid to have her store open during the colder winter months. i stayed there way too long, but the crackers and diet coke and new supply of reeses and salted peanuts was keeping me there. we talked about possible routes to get back to boone. i was planning on using 194 to get me back into boone at 421, but i realized that would only be about a two hour ride. i wanted four hours.

remembering a ride we'd done in the summer that continued on three top rd and then some highway 88 i verifired with the nice lady, owner of the todd mercantile, that my mental map was correct and headed out on three top rd. after just a short rolly section i crested "the divide" as the lady called it, and it got much colder. i wore my fleecy windproof bib tights, matching jacket, fleecy long sleeve jersey and ridiculous almost snow-worthy cycling gloves. i was still cold on this stretch. once i reached nc-88 i felt much better as i was in and out of the shade, not consistently in it. i stopped and peed in some person's yard on 88 because there were no wooded sections to hide in. this was the scariest point on the ride. second only to descending into tennessee and facing crosswinds from hell. speaking of tennessee, the climb to the state line was only really the second or third climb to deal with. and an easy grade. thanks for 34 teeth. compact wussy. anyways, reaching 421 and turning uphill, i mean left, was the only thing left and i would be home. i marveled in mabel at the view of beech mountain, AND sugar mountain AND sugar top. and grandfather mountain. and the hawks bill down in the linville gorge. seeing things in plain view that are twenty to thirty miles away reminded me why we are so lucky to ride in the high country.

blah blah blah. i sound like a tourist. so 421 wasn't entirely uphill like i thought. i'd never been on the stretch between old 421 and the tater hill area, at one point i was in my 50-11t spinning, i imagine thats around the 40mph mark, for probably a mile. that was a relief. and then into vilas and back to the other end of my gearing. 34-26t back up to the 105 bypass, then left on 105 and left on 321 found me back at boone bike. i forgot to take my camera for pictures, but i did steal and modify a map from Google Maps:


that's all for now. i'm excited about training and getting fit and faster. hopefully i can score some top tens and maybe a top five at a SERC race this year. i'd like to be consistent enough to be forced to upgrade to expert, but if it takes another year for that, well, so be it.

thanks for reading.

jg

updates. me and racing. snow. sports.

alrighty, i'm back to my posting once a month if that often pattern. at the request of someone with no life, i'm putting new stuff.

i've been running a little bit. got a membership to the wellness center aka too fancy gym for the cool people in boone to hang out and for a very few people to work out at. i got a little routine for weights and some running and some work on the abs (currently in hiding). its been frigidly cold outside. yesterday was the coldest day in recent history. we have highs sometimes below 20 deg. and lows in the upper single digits or low teens. snow hasn't really made a showing like in past years, some say its el nino, some say its all the expeditions and tahoe's and escalades and hummers.... but thats debatable, oh wait, no its not. the UN just declared global warming is because of humans... oh well. i should get back to interesting stuff. umm..

things are going well between my girlfriend (darcy) and i. she got a really nice set of skis and boots and the like a few weeks ago. we've only been out together once since she got that stuff. i've gone out once since then with the mechanic from boone bike. andy is pretty much a freak of nature. he hasn't been snowboarding in five years, but he does like two runs and is flawless after that. i'm doing okay with snowboarding. its fun. i'm still not going super fast, but i can put together multiple runs from the top of sugar mountain to the bottom without falling and with a little bit of grace. darcy is better than i am still. although she won't admit it. anyways... we're going on 8 months together in a week or so. its been a very enjoyable 8 months. hopefully there will be many more.

so bicycling... steve murray told me i finished the year very high ranked in men's xc sport 19-24. i don't remember the exact number, but top 10 i think. i just checked usacycling.org. currently i'm ranked #16 in the nation for men's sport xc 19-29. i'm listed #2 for men's sport xc 19-29 in north carolina. i guess thats good. i've done two events this year that haven't shown up yet on usacycling. short track series in charlotte, nc. did january 27th or whatever day that sunday was. 10th out of 15. raced on feb 3rd and got 8th of 10. not super duper results, but its re-assuring knowing i can post em like that without riding or training other than running and gym stuff. i want to get in some spin classes. that should help. but basically all of the people are from the charlotte area or south carolina. yep, they are training year round. i'm looking at snow on the ground.





ASU is doing a cycling study which i'm taking part in. they have been giving us a special gatorade with a supplement called beta glucan. i heard that we're the first group of humans to ever be studied with this supplement. hopefully we won't die. basically, other than drinking that stuff, we have given blood, ridden two days (so far) on the trainer at 57% and 50% of our maximum wattage. tomorrow i'll be back in for another day at 57%. it hurt really bad. but they're paying us, so thats nice.

otherwise, things are great. just working, running, riding a little, racing again this weekend. i'm trying to plan my year as well. i hope to just start doing long slow rides soon, and logging lots of base miles. my next race is probably going to be:
april 1 - tsali (SERC)
april 15 - athens, ga (SERC)
may 6 - ocoee white water center (ducktown, tn) (SERC)
may 19 - 12 hours of tsali (okay, maybe just the 6 hours)
may 27 - dauset (SERC)
june 17 - fontana dam (SERC)
june 24 - good ole columbus, ga. (SERC make-up)
july 1 - clemson, sc (SERC) (maybe)
july 15 - anniston, al (SERC finale) (maybe)
july 28 - banner elk, nc (NORBA nationals)
sept 22 - 12 hours of dauset

alrighty. i don't know what else i might do. i want to fit in a hiking trip in august. then come back and train for the 12 hour race at dauset. thanks for reading if anyone actually does. later!!

snow sports. and me

so i live in boone now and i'm picking up the hobby/sport of snowboarding. i am not super good yet, but i can put together a few fall-free runs. barring wrist injuries and other bodily harm i should be able to use this as a winter time off-season sport, along with running, to keep myself in shape and athletic in general while its snowing outside.

i've been running quite a bit. i don't have all my total totals from www.entryworks.com yet from 2006, but i definitely ran and rode more than i ever have before. updates to come!!

me after snowboarding and a day in the kitchen... drinking through an imaginary straw.

i feel free

i just deleted my facebook and myspace accounts. i don't really know why, but it feels really really, really great. i realized i spent so much time on there and that it was such a waste really. so. i will be back at it on here posting and being more consistent. yep.

proof

pictures from my new years eve 7am bike ride.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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

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!!

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.

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

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.

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.