The past few days

So I've been up to a few things lately. I've been running a lot. Riding here and there, weather permitting. I also plan on running a marathon in the near future, so that's why all the running. Don't ask why I am, I just am... I've also been laying mulch for the past few days at The Azalea Inn. I am getting pretty ripped from all the shoveling and pushing the wheel barrel around. Who needs a personal trainer? Just do some yard work and it'll whip you into shape in no time.
This is one of the two piles I worked with, the other looks pretty identical so I felt no need for a picture.


Rebecca and I made eggs benedict! It was really good!


Went on a fun ride yesterday! My good friend Randy is in town for a while. He is an LMC grad and all around badass. Me him and Ben went on a wonderful ride on some sweet gravel roads. Randy was using cross tires and got a flat. Ben and I had road tires and we didn't get any, luckily! We rode on this wicked gnarly jeep trail that had giant rocks and holes. I got dropped there cause my bike handling skills aren't anything like Ben an Randy. I would've taken a pic but I didn't want to keep em waiting any longer.


Today Eric, Jake Bob and myself went on a fun lil ride over the Nut and back. It was sunny and warm, we had lots of fun. Eric almost pushed Jake off the mountain and I almost crashed into Jake at one point. Good solid training...
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While we were riding we ran into Big Nate and his lady friend. Lil Joe zoomed by us once or twice than decided to finish the ride with us. We also ran into K-Dubz he was dressed like it was 30 degrees out... We think he has a mental problem...


All in all it's been a good week. This weekend is gonna be a lot of fun but I don't wanna give away any secrets. So tune in next time! All I can say is there will be more running and some margaritas! Adios!

Mountain Day

So today was mountain day at Lees-McRae. It is when the whole school skips class and goes out and does service projects for the school and for the community. Today the team went out and worked on the mountain bike trails and a few of us worked on cleaning up the trailer, after a long season the trailer has gotten a little messy.

Nic, Brad and myself worked on the trailer. We took off a bunch of unnecessary stickers that were on the trailer. We figured some of the stickers needed to be reused so we put some on Nics car...

Nic now makes deliveries for Food Lion...


K-Dubz and a the boys from The Cottage showed up to give us a hand. We really needed it cause those stickers were did not want to come off.


Eric showing off some more of Nic's new artwork.


After we got the trailer taken care off we got a quick bite to eat and then it was off to do a big group ride. If some people don't know, Lees-McRae is getting a new President. His name is Dr. Barry Buxton, he is a really nice guy and avid cyclist. He wanted to get to know and ride with the team. So we all met at the gym parking lot and went out for a group ride. Pictures were taken and Dr. Buxton talked about how he has great faith in the team, which he should because we rock...

It was great to meet him and get a ride in. It was also awesome to have the entire team out on the road at once. I don't think some of the town was too happy but it's all good. I think the whole team needs to do a ride like that at least once a month. Just a big hammerfest, that would be awesome!



Well I am pretty tired and am gonna go to bed. Sorry I didn't post for a while, I was kind of busy. That wont happen again, promise!

Racing in Alabama

So school has been in full swing again, it was great being on break and being home with the family. It was tuff to get back to doing work but now I'm back on the school schedule. The weather has been great up here, which is great because it was getting kind of depressing. I guess spring is here!

So we had to leave early friday afternoon to get to Alabama for a race. Google maps said it was about a 7 hour drive but with our stops it was a little over 8. It was gnarly to say the least... The bus ride was the usual, jokes all around and a bunch of sleeping. The occasional mini-dance party when a good tune came on the radio. Our first stop was at a Sam's club somewhere around Knoxville TN. Luckily they let us in to use the bathroom but we couldn't buy anything, which sucked cause buying in bulk is the only way to go...

Eric and I were ripping it up on the shopping carts until we left. I didn't notice the sweet winnebago in the back until I loaded this on my computer.


So we got to the hotel and all I wanted to do was sleep cause we had to get up really early. So we get in the elevator and it smells like smoke. Then we get to our floor and a wall of smoke just shoots into the elevator, this room right next to the elevator was having a major party. I'm pretty sure there was a dog fight going on it that room, it was insane... So we got in our room and the whole place reeked of smoke. So we called the front desk and asked for a new room, luckily they had one left! So we moved down to the 1st floor, it was like going to a new hotel. The room smelled good, the beds were bigger and there was a flat screen! Totally got the VIP sweet. We got settled and went to bed.

The road race started at 8 a.m. which in my opinion was way too early. Of course the start was delayed a bit because a few teams got lost. The course was really flat and fast, it was pretty flat except for a little kicker in the middle of it but it wasn't anything our guys couldn't handle. It did get really hot later on in the race so I guess that's why they tried to start at 8. I felt really good at the start and felt myself getting tired throughout the race. Every time I went to get a bottle I only got water, so I was not getting as much energy from drinking as I should have. So the last lap I kind of popped off the back but me and this huge guy from Georgia worked together and caught a few people towards the finish.

So the finish was an entire race in itself. It wasn't in the rest of the race so it was kind of a shock. It was a 2 mile climb that was as if not a little steeper than Beech, with some crazy switchbacks. I credit this to me catching back up at the finish, I don't think most people were ready for it. I heard some people actually walked it! It was nuts. Jake won our race and Lucas got like 4th or 5th. Me an Iron Mike made it in the top 20 which is good seeing as how about 30 or more started the race. Or A men did awesome with Eric getting 2nd and Peter 3rd and I think the rest were someplace in the top 10. The girls dominated as usual.

So remember how I was talking about I only got water in the feeds? Well I think I got a minor case of heat exhaustion because I was freezing cold the rest of the day. I ended not doing the TT that evening because I didn't want to die.. We pretty much dominated that too.

Lilly "Pad" told me to put ice between my legs, armpits and the back of my neck to cool down. That made me feel way better! Only got a picture of it in between my legs though...

So I got some pedialyte that night and that stuff just works wonders. If you are ever feeling dehydrated I highly recommend it! I woke up feeling like a million bucks!

So the crit was a little later in the morning so we got to sleep in some. Our race was first and most of our A women sat in the race. I got a semi-decent warmup in and felt ok, then the race started. I felt so bad the first few laps. It was so fast right from the line. Halfway through i was almost getting popped off the back but then all of a sudden, it was like a light was turned on, I felt really great! So I moved up and sat towards the front.
Lucas kept trying to get away and I was sitting at the front to let him get away. I was bringing back attacks and slowing the field down more. It was awesome, a lot of the other teams were getting really pissed cause the gap was getting bigger but that's how you race... We would be going 28 and I would get to the front and boom down to like 15. It was so funny, people were not happy. Lucas ended up getting 2nd which was good and Jake got 4th. I think that was the most fun I've had racing my bike, it was awesome!

The A men did really well, Zac won and I we had some people in the top 10. The women dominated as well! So we got a good amount of points this weekend. It was a great weekend of racing!

Eric trying to get away.


Peter trying too.


On the way home we got a blowout on the trailer. But we got it fixed in a matter of minutes.



Then we ate dinner at Panera which ruled, Moe's is good but getting a little old.


So I took a long nap on the bus and did some reading for school, it was 8 hours what else am I gonna do? Got home kind of late, showered and went straight to bed. This was a long weekend but an amazing one. So much fun, too bad this is probably my last collegiate race of the year. I can't do conference finals next weekend because I am on duty. At least this weekend rocked so I'm happy with that.

Sorry this was such a long post... If you finished it, thanks for bearing with me. So much happened I just didn't want to leave anything out. Next ones will be shorter, promise!

Wings, Eggs and Kids...

We kind of slept in yesterday, had a relaxing breakfast and just hung out. Robin went to Bikram yoga again, I don't have the energy to do it again. So we hung out and played with the girls until their momma got home. I wanted to get chicken wings from my favourite wing place. So we hoped on the Vespa scooter we are borrowing from a friend and rode to get them.

I love these wings. I could eat these everyday, I probably will when I'm home over the summer. There is something about the sauce that is amazing.

We also rode by my high school so I could show it to Rebecca, no pics though... So when we got home Robin and the girls started dying Easter eggs. I think they did about a dozen or a little more, so they will have fun finding those on Easter.

Anna rocking the sweat band, dying eggs is hard work!



Grandma did some too!


Then our friend Ileana brought her two kids Arden and Junior to come play with Robins girls. She also brought me some really good beer! The kids had a blast running around by the pool. We all played tag and lots of hid-n-seek. Then the kids got hot and decided to cool off by dipping their feet in the pool.

Ileana and her kids left and we went to go have dinner at an Indian restaurant out in Plantation. It was so good! My lamb was wicked spicy but so good! Sorry no pics...
Well that was our day yesterday, sorry the post was late but I was so tired after dinner that I came home and went to bed. Had to wake up early. Bye.

Beach and 5k

So the girls have been dying to go to the beach since they have been down here. So while my parents went to work we loaded them up and headed to the beach. It wasn't as crowded as I thought and it wasn't crazy hot, double score. The girls had a blast in the water, the water was a little cold but they didn't care. Then they started playing in the sand, they loved that as well. So we had to leave cause we had to get ready for the 5k in a few hours. It was crazy leaving, I only live about 2 miles from the beach and it took about 45 mins to get home... I'm happy people are putting money into the local economy but damn, please leave and go back up north!
These are some beach pics.


Anna got buried!



So we got home, had a quick bite, downed some water since we had been in the sun all day and took a quick shower to wash off all the sunscreen and sand, yuck. The 5k was 2 blocks from dads office so we parked there and walked to warm up. The event was for corporate sponsored companies, so in order to enter you the rules stated that each person entered had to be an employe for at least 3 months... So my dad sponsored us hahaha. All these companies had huge tents and all this catered food and coolers full of crazy vitamin drinks. Rebecca and I had plain t-shirts and a gatorade bottle, totally hardcore. Like I said yesterday I had to get new shoes because my left foot was about to fall off.

These are them, New Balance if you couldn't tell. They are probably the most comfortable shoes I've had. If you have the means I highly recommend picking some up.


When my dad went to pick up our numbers and t-shirts for doing the race he was informed that there were like 4000 people doing this. It was a run/walk so many people did not run. So we stood around waiting for this thing to start and they had a group stretch/warm up thing going on. It was kind of like those videos you see of an entire city square doing aerobics like in south korea or some place like that...

So we got to the line and the gun went off, the people who were doing it as a walk all seemed to be at the front so we had to run around a bunch of n00bs... My foot still kind of hurt but nothing like it did before, thanks shoes! I ran with my phone so I could listen to sweet tunes to keep me going. Then when we got into a steady rhythm I decided to take a few pics.

Rebecca was all smiles the whole time.

Some n00b we ended up passing right after taking this pic.


So we finished holding hands the last few yards of the race and the announcer dude made some comment about it, so that was pretty cool. Our time was 28:48 I think that is really good seeing as how we have never done a 5k and plus we had to weave through a bunch of old and rather large people before we could actually get to running. All in all we had tons of fun and got sweet shirts and some free snacks afterwards. Afterwards we got some pizza to bring home and I had a beer to recover and Rebecca had some wine. Now it's time for bed. More stuff to do tomorrow. Later