its been awhile, let me explain.....

I would start off with an "I can explain!" but I will spare y'all this time. Since the last time I posted, I attempted two races. I use the word "attempt" because that is the most fitting word I could find for the havoc and destruction that ensued upon me. I know I make it sound really bad, but... to me it kinda is. I guess it was a week or two after the first Georgia state race in Macon, when I decided to try my luck at the Red Trail Racing "Urban Crit". I was pretty pumped up about it, and had a very strong week of training building up to it, but then it suddenly became my turn to be sick and get a bad cold. I tried to resist with lots of sleep, Vitamin C, Zinc, and Vitamin A, but to no avail. I was in pretty bad shape. Come Saturday morning though I was feeling pretty good, my head was clearing up, I didn't think I had too much mucus left in my head, so what do you think I did? Yep you guessed it! I drove down and entered the race! What happened during the race was terrible and embarrassing, but dog gone it I was gonna race! Starting the race I got a bad start, and struggled to move up. Mike Viertel and gang were at the front motoring away as I was trying to play catch up. well for the first lap I thought "I think I can pull up to em!" .....BOY WAS I WRONG! I hit a wall the size of the Hoover dam, and it just wasn't budging! I then realized that for one: I couldn't breath if I try to go any faster, and for two: it just aint happenin and I need to ride smart around the people I was with. and thats exactly what I did. starve my self of oxygen and then cough my lungs, starve my self of oxygen and then... well you get the point. I basically went the speed of smell and rode to a 7th or 8th place finish I believe. Alright so I got part one over with, now for the rest.



After getting well again I really started to pick up my training, and could see major improvements in power. But about 3 weeks ago, my body decided to let me down. I developed a problem in my right knee which some people are calling tendinitis, but I don't have a clue what it is. I evidentially over worked a tendon and it started to hurt... pretty bad and became inflamed. So my genius common sense told me "ok take a day or two off, and then hit it just as hard, oh its getting worse?" " What pain??" "I doesn't hurt!" Yeah, basically I was stupid and pushed harder and thought "oh it will go away".....but it didn't, in fact it got worse. Preriding for the 3rd Serc race in Winder Georgia, it wasn't very sore, and only started to hurt a little by the end of the lap. The next morning when I go to warm up, I can barely push up the hills, due to the pain. So I decide to take 4 ibuprofen (800 mg) and race anyway. Well it didn't hurt too bad during the race, I think the Ibuprofen had me in a daze the whole time, but I was definitely not in form for this race after taking so much time off. On top of that my rear brake decided to quit working on the first lap... and I kinda needed it on the downhills, but I still bombed em faster than I should have, and said "uh oh" when I went to stop. I rode in 4th most of the day, but blew up at the end and finished 6th. now a week and a half later. I have ridden once on the road bike for about 45 minutes trying to rehab my knee. It seems that all the inflammation is gone, but I started to feel a touch of soreness towards the end of the road ride, so I am taking a few more days. This weekend I plan on riding my mountain bike for quite a ways and apologizing to her for neglecting her so much.

Until next time...

GSC #1....not my time...

I will keep this one short becuase there just isn't much to talk about. Drew, Martin, Kevin, and my self all headed up to macon, on friday evening. We didn't get in til about 1am due to alot of traffic on the interstate. Saturday we woke up around 11 and went to Cracker Barrel for a hardy breakfast, and then casually got ready and headed to the race course. We pre rode 2 laps, and I felt pretty confident with the layout of the course. oh yeah, I endoed preriding from being stupid on a downhill.... needless to say I won't try to get air again on an off cambered dip with trees right next to you. The next morning we woke up at 6:15 to a cold damp breeze outside. I turned on the TV and it said "49 degrees, supposed to rain, and wouldn't get over 55 all day." sounds like fun! good thing I brought my arm warmers and a few layers. getting dressed and ready in the cold wasn't fun, but once I was warming up on the bike I was feeling good. My power still wasn't feeling like I wanted it to but definetly felt better than at Gainesville. Getting to the starting line I was really surprised with the turnout we had. 17 experts and pro's! The whistle blew and I got in my pedal quick and got a good start. Too bad it didn't matter, because we climbed the wall of death to get to a flowing downhill to recover on with plenty of passing. But it was that darned downhill not but 3 minutes into the race that decided to end my race. I caught a root wrong and endoed, burped my tire, and cut the sidewall. from then on it was a game of stop, inflate, rocket up the climbs, catch a few, endo on downhills, and repeat until I ran out of air. I finished 3 laps before I ran out of air in my Co2's and my tire.... I know I am a quitter, I should of run the last two, but I was too bummed to keep going and be out of contention. Well that was pretty much my weekend!

Notable finishes were Kent Lofton finishing 3rd in 40+ expert, Kevin Hoffman finishing 6th in expert/pro on a single speed! and big props to Drew Edsall with his first XC win ever! and beating second place by almost 4 minutes!(who is a Pro)

Serc #1 the big day...

The day I had been waiting for was almost here, we pulled in to the track at around 4:00ish on saturday to preride. We stopped at Publix just before we got there to pick up some stuff to eat, So I had tuna salad and wheat thins about 5 minutes before we rode. Lets just say thats not a good combination... I got dropped on the pre ride witch is never good. Needless to say I made it back and got somethin else to eat, and sat the next lap out while Ryan and Luke went and rode. shortly after they took off, Kent Lofton pulled up and got ready to ride. We went out for my second lap(and Ryan's 3rd) and I felt alot better! maybe pushed a lil harder than we should have, but it was worth it! We finally packed up and headed back south for some grub and sleep. Next morning, I couldn't wait to get to the track. I had to replace my middle chainring that morning, do to some bad skipping. After fixing that problem, I felt almost invincible....until I started to warm up. Getting out on the road warming up I just didn't feel any good power in my legs... well lets just say I felt like a diesel engine. once I got up to speed, I could roll out! But for short quick power, I just didn't seem to have any. Unfortunately this was a course that I really needed it.


Alright, moving on to the race. we line up and I had a decent start, going into the woods third, with quite a few position changes throughout the first lap, but finished that lap in 3rd. from then on my race was a long lonesome one, knowing that Seth Kemp and Craig Evans(I believe thats his name) were slowly pulling away. But no one was catching me. Basically I finished 3rd, learned some things from that race, and can't wait for my next serc appearance....

2 days til the day of truth

Its friday the 14th. two days before the 2008 round 1 of the South eastern Regional Championships. Everytime I think of it my heart rate goes up, and I ask myself. "Did I really train as hard as I could?" "Am I gonna be fast enough?" "Or am I gonna fall short of what I have been dreaming about and losing sleep over for the last 3 months?" I guess none of us will know until about 1:30 on Sunday afternoon when we see who comes through the finish line on top in one of the most anticipated races of the year. All the classes will be stacked, and this is the first time this year to see who has what, and who has been riding there butt off in the off season. Looking at the Pro field we have here in the south, and hearing who is supposed to be here, it looks like it is gonna one heck of a showdown at hailes trails...

12 hours of santos

Sorry for how long its been since I posted. I don't really have a good excuse this time.

As far as Racing goes, it has finally started back up for me this year. 2 weeks ago was the 12 hours of santos, which was of course at the santos trails. But instead of being on the normal parking lot side Goneriding had the event over on the vortex side down in the pit, which made for an awesome location! from one spot you could see 4 or 5 trail crossings, and being down in the pit with rock walls and rugged terrain surrounding you, you really didn't feel like you were in florida.

Ryan and I teamed up with Bob Mccarty, and Trent Maddox to have what was the perfect cast for winning the race. our lead slowly grew to just over 20 minutes by the end of the race. It was definetly an honor getting to race on the same team with those three, and having a trophy that says "1st place expert/pro team" is really sweet!

wishing I was racing...

As some of you know, I was down at the six hours of carter road this last weekend. But I didn't race. I was spectating, which was really hard to do because I always want to race! But I was down there to support my brother by feeding him and getting water bottles, and trying to be his camera man which.....didn't really work so good(evidentially my camera skills aren't too good). I won't drag out the race because its his story to tell, and he has it on his blog, here. What I will tell you though, is that he crushed it! beat everybody by a lap, including the teams! It was a cool day, and a good way to start off the new racing season.

almost a century....

As you can see from the title of this one, I almost did my first century today.....but not quite. I think the exact mileage was 92 miles. I guess I should of just ridden around the block a few times.... I guess I didn't think of that one.

Anyway, Ryan, Luke, and I went out for a nice long road ride down past lake weir, all the way to Umatilla which I guess is a small town in between Orlando and belleview. Pretty much the whole way down we had a head wind and weren't going too fast, but on the way back with a tail wind we were able to go a lot faster. As far as the terrain, we did go on a dirt road for a few miles which was pretty fun. It got pretty loose in some areas so you had to be careful and not make any sharp turns. and umm....yes I did eat it once, right when we started down it. fell over on my side and some how got chainring marks on my left leg....funny cuz the chainring is on the right side.

After the ride we had our usual dinner at Moe's for some good ole burritos! nothin like some moe's after riding. Well I guess I should head to bed, so I can wake up and go ride tomorrow before work. until next time....