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.

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.

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.

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

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

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

today

today ultimately sucked. :(

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.

tired.

::yawns:: thats all for now.

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.