The Dude Abides

My Fall Break...

2010-10-14T18:39:00.001-07:00

So the past week was our Fall Break, a whole week off to unwind and take a break from our busy semester. I had plans to rest up and get back into riding instead of running. My body had still been wrecked from the half marathon that was weeks ago. I planned on enjoying the changing of the leaves and the wonderful fall weather. Little did I know that this was going to be one of the most tireing weeks of my life.

The first few days started out on track, getting to sleep in a little more than usual and not having to worry about class. The weather was a little cold and wet, normal for this time, but the wind was kind of annoying. Those are things I can look past though. On my ride however things were not going as planned, my legs had no energy what so ever. Every time I would pedal it seemed that I was going backwards. This running thing seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I see it as sabatoge.

I saw some wild turkey on my ride, that is always interesting to see. It gets me in the mood for Thanksgiving!

Since my legs were not wanting to work, I stopped an took pictures of the fall colors. These are supposed to make the people back home jealous!

Cyclocross season is starting so that means that all or most riding needs to be done off-road. There are a tone of sick gravel roads to ride around here!

One night I was hanging out with Eric in my room, I went out into the hall for a few minutes to work on my bike. Eric stayed behind in my room, munching on some animal crackers that he had brought from his room. Little did I know that he was doing more than munching...
Eric left before I finished my work in the hall and as he left he told me he left "a surprise" in my room. He left more than a surprise, more like 20 of them...

I didn't notice them right away, but he had placed animal crackers all over my room! You have to hand it to Eric, he got me good. I found a good majority of them but he said that I will be finding them for weeks and he's right. Every so often I find a new one in some random spot.

These are just a few of his hiding spots. Believe me, there are many many more!

My good friend Paul has been teaching me how to ride his motorcycle. Something I have been wanting to learn for a LONG time. We figured that since most of the students had gone home, one of the parking lots would be a good place to learn.

This is about my 3rd lesson, it's always good to just stick to a small area. I have no need to be on the open road... yet! Rebecca got to go for a ride on the back once I was done doing laps of the parking lot. Paul took her on some sick roads. Being on the back of a motorcycle is probably one of the most interesting things ever! If you haven't done it I suggest you try!

Rebecca and I went to Virginia and rode on the Creeper Trail. It's a dirt trail that goes along an old railroad grade. It's great for all ages and level of riders.

Luckily the weather was on our side, it was warm and sunny. The colors of the trees were more vibrant than ever because of the sun. The views from the top of the trail were awesome!

Lots of cool little places to stop!

This is when my week turned exhausting. The B&B that I work for needed me to work during the week, which is fine. But I was not counting on the extra work that I ended up doing. Luke, our coach, knew I was on campus for break and asked if I could help work on our cyclocross course. I said sure, I love cross and want to do anything I can to better myself and help out the team.

We met out at the course at about 8:30ish and it was cold and windy. I figured that would be fine because we would get hot from working. For some reason I didn't forsee this as being as hard as it was, my mistake... We hacked through tons of brush and thorns, we raked up all the excess and cleared new paths for riding.

Then we dug up extra dirt to make off-camber mounds to make the course as hard as possible. This is where my body started to hurt, I then realized how out of shape my upper body/core is. Then we started making an new stair/run up section. My arms and back were so tired and we hadn't even really finished half of what we needed to do. But after 6 hours we called it a day...

As soon as I layed down to relax my wholoe body stiffened up! I was too tired to stretch! The next day we went back at it, clearing more trails and taping them off. We then decided to build a little "fly over" out of some wood. We had no real set of plans for how to build it, Luke said to just start and it will come together. Sure enough after some time we had a pretty legit looking ramp built. It was even sturdy enough to ride!
That was another full day of work, which was not any easier seeing as how I was so sore an exhausted from the day before. But we got it done then went out to test our new course! I met Luke and Nate out on the course and we started riding, within a few minutes I was getting dropped. My body did not want to ride! I tried to hang on to them but couldn't. I gave up and rode back to campus to eat and curl up into a ball.
The cold weather mixed with my previous exhausten made me feel totally drained. I had never been so sore and so tired in my life. But I knew that all that work would make me stronger after a few days rest. Also with all that hard work our team has a sick new course to train on a get ready for nationals! Here are some of the awesome new additions!

Some of the sections in action!

Well that in a nutshell was my fall break. I don't know why I was so tired and exhausted, apart from the long days working on the course. I guess not really getting to rest from the weeks before break? Or I'm just extremly weak and a baby, I think that's what most of you were thinking, right? I hope not!

But I did get a few days of rest in and I feel much much better, I need to get ready to start racing cross, my first race will probably be in the coming week. I hope I'll be ready for it! Our team practices are starting up tomorrow, that should be a good indication of how the races should go. Sorry this was a long one, it was a long week...

I'll be posting more when I get it.

My Apologies...

2010-10-03T20:10:00.001-07:00

I know I have said this numerous times, I am sorry for the lack of postings... My excuse is that I was finishing up my wonderful internship, which I miss, and I had RA training and getting the building ready for students to move in. Then classes started and I plan on graduating in May so I've been kind of busy with my Senior year.

The time has come to be reunited with my loyal fans, who I'm sure have been waiting patiently for months for the latest installment of my awesome adventures and stories. Now it has been a while since my last post so bear with me, this post could take some time to read...

So most of you know that I spent the summer working to save up any an all money to get a car. I spent all summer surfing Craigslist, calling and going to see any thing with 4 wheels that was in my price range. Well after all the searching and surfing, I found what I was looking for. This is my Jeep!

Friends of ours were moving out of the country and needed to get rid of their Jeep, they heard that I was in the market and we struck up a deal. The problem was that it was in Ft. Lauderdale and I was already in Banner Elk at school. So I had a rare window of opportunity, the coming up weekend was Labor Day so I had a 3 day weekend. I was able to fly home and spend the day getting the car cleaned and ready then drove back up to school with my dad the next day. We made it back safely, unfortunately I got sick somewhere in between Johnson City Airport and driving back to Banner Elk...

The car drove great the entire 12 hour drive, then it was fine when I took my dad to the airport in the morning. I tried to go to Dollar General that night to get some cold medicine and my battery died... I had to get a new battery after having it for less then 48 hours. Oh well, it was an easy fix!

After I got back an got over my illness Rebecca and I loaded up the Jeep with the bikes and went to Todd to take an easy ride. We had to cross train that day since we were still training for our half marathon. Todd is a great place to ride, it's flat and next to a "lazy river' that looks so inviting after a good ride. It had been a while since we rode there and it's always a good time!

Cross season is getting close! I stripped my road bike and built up my beloved cyclocross bike! My Senior project is going to be a documentary about me racing cyclocross and trying to get a spot on the nationals team, so wish me luck! Cross is one of my favorite cycling disciplines, so rest assured that videos and pictures will be posted from all my races this season!

Like i posted before my hiatus, Rebecca and I had been training for a half marathon. Well the time had come for us to put all that training to the test! Our race was September 26th in Johnson City TN we did the Bluegrass Half Marathon. The night before the race it was sprinkling a little, I figured it would clear up by morning. WRONG! The whole drive down it was pouring and the time that we sat in the car waiting for the race it to start it poured. Then the whole 13.1 miles it was pouring and in the low 60's. Besides the weather we did awesome! My goal, apart from finishing, was to do it under 2 hours. My time was 1:51. Rebecca finished in 2 hours even and got 4th in her age group!

Our numbers!

Our reward for finishing!

After the race, we chowed down on a bunch of free samples that were provided by Earth Fare, who sponsored the race. I think if you do any half marathons or marathon make sure it's catered by a health food store! Rebecca is ready for a full marathon but I think my running days are over for a while, I enjoyed running but I missed riding my bike with my friends. This wont be my last running event, but I need some mental relaxation from running.

There have been many more little stories that have happened, like me learning how to ride a motorcycle as one. I figured these would be enough to get you guys back in the swing of my writing. From this blog forth I will keep you posted on my happenings, with no giant break in between. Thanks for taking me back into your internet surfing world. Till next time...

This Just In...

2010-07-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

So things I've been doing, I'll try and keep it short and sweet.

The tour has been going on and I've been watching it everyday. The first week of it was pretty intense. Lots of crashes, the Yellow jersey has changed hands and spirits and bones have been broken. Things are settling down and the top 10 is basically gonna be the same at the finish, maybe some riders will move up or drop back. But this is the Tour and anything can happen. Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador have already made the tour amazing with two great stages, and they have many to come. Armstrong is out of contention for the win, I think this is a good thing actually. Now the tv will focus on the real race at hand and not just Armstrong. Don't get me wrong, Lance is a legend and an amazing rider. This is another generations tour though and it's time for new names to shine. It would be awesome if he could get a stage win in though!

Here's a pic of Brent being interviewed before the start of a stage. It is so cool to have an LMC alumni in the biggest race in the world. He is the first but I am sure he will not be the last. He is having a great Tour and I'm sure this wont be his last one, he will be there for years to come! Go Brent!!!

I got a pair of Toms shoes. I had been on the fence about getting a pair for a while. I found them in the mall and tried them on many many times, just to make sure I really liked them. The store I tried them on didn't have the style I wanted, plus they were way too expensive there. I found them online like half the price and the style I wanted. I am pretty happy with them ,they are light and it doesn't feel like I'm wearing a shoe. Which is good because I hate shoes. The company also donates a pair of shoes to a kid in need when you purchase a pair, so it's for a good cause too!

Last saturday I worked debark for the Carnival Freedom. If you have ever been on a cruise you know this process. Find your bags and get in a cab or get on the bus to the airport. That's it in a nutshell, sorry I just want to keep it short and sweet. After debark I got to go on board and take a short tour, I'd never been onboard before. It was great to actually see what the ships look like inside. It makes me want to be on the ship when it's not docked haha.

My loyal readers may have seen that Rebecca and I are training for a half marathon. Well my training hit a slight snag. My knee started bothering me about 2 weeks ago. So I took a break from running and did some hard rides to keep my fitness up. I also did some stretching to see if that would clear it up. From doing research online and asking a few people that know a thing or two, I kind of self diagnosed myself. The stretching helped a little bit but when I would get a few mins into my run the pain would come back. So I heard about this magical tape called Kinesio Tape. It's very popular with pro cyclists and other major athletes. I see it all over the Tour, many riders have been taped up due to the multiple crashes. This stuff works wonders, my knee felt great almost instantly. If you ever have any aches or pains I highly recommend it! I will be using this stuff from now on, for anything! I wonder how many uses it has? It could be just like duct tape, except not as sticky...

So that's the short and sweet version of what I've been up too. I will have a new post in the next few days, now that I can run again and will be doing a good amount of long rides. It's raining now so that is a good time to hit the sack, relaxing sounds of rain and thunder. That wont keep me from riding in the morning though, I've been praying for rain when I ride. It is so hot otherwise, you need it to stay the slightest bit cool. Well until next time...

Motorpacing...

2010-07-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

So I think in an earlier post I said that I was borrowing a friends scooter while I'm home, if I didn't tell you I am now... So ya, I talked my dad into doing some pacing for me. For those of you who don't know what that is here's the skinny, a scooter or motorcycle or even a car sets the pace and you, being on a bike, draft off of them. It's good to build up leg speed and to simulate race speed.

So I head out to warm up and I told my dad to meet me on A1A. Well yesterday on my ride I got a flat and pulled out this long, thick thorn. So I had a decent hole in my tire from that, and something got in there 2 mins into todays ride. Flat again... I used my last CO2 yesterday and had to wait for my dad. I made him bring a pump because I knew something like this would happen... Here is a video of that.

So we fixed it and got on our way. It was a little tuff at first because getting through the traffic lights was annoying. But once we got a little north it was a straight shot. My legs felt good and I was able to get a good draft off my dad, I thought I wasn't going to be able too cause it's just so windy on the beach. We didn't go very long, we just wanted to get a feel for it and be able to read each others body language so we could be able to do it for longer sessions. Plus I'm gonna start filming some of this stuff for my omega, but that will be once we get down a solid feel for how each of us rides together. We don't want any crashes!

We did about 25 to 30 miles of a solid pace, we were going about 25 mph steady, I had him bump it up to 30 mph for a few minutes, just to test my legs. I was pretty tired from yesterdays ride. So it was a solid workout and experiment. I hope to be able to do this at least once a week from now on. It's a lot of fun and a great workout!

On another note the Tour de France starts saturday! I'm pumped, this is gonna be an awesome tour. So many big names are gonna be battling it out, and everyone is on such great form. My ex-teammate/ex-bobcat Brent Bookwalters is racing for Team BMC, he is gonna have a BIG job working for Cadel Evans. It was awesome watching Brent race the Giro, but the Tour is the mother of all races. Good luck!

Also my good friend and ex-teammate/ex-bobcat Andrew Talansky is going to the big show! Last week he won the U23 National Time Trial and has now signed a contract with Garmin-Transitions! I always knew he would make it and I'm sure we will see him in the Tour in the next two years! Way to go Andrew!

Well that's it for now, I hope everyone has a Happy 4th and I'll have a new post soon. Later...

Here and there...

2010-06-30T08:04:00.001-07:00

So not much has changed, been working and training and trying not to die from the heat. I broke down and ordered a Road ID, the drivers here make riding and running a little dangerous so I figured it would be good to get. Also when I train back up at school on those back roads it would be good to have.
It's pretty cool, it feels like I am wearing a watch. I got green to match my LMC kit. It was kind of pulling the hair around my wrist, so I... well I shaved the are where it sits... I know, very strange. Here is a pic of it, I think you can see the area where I shaved it...

So I told you I was staying with friends when I go work in West Palm right? Well they had this cereal I have never heard of. It's called Weetabix and from what the box says it is from England. The cereal comes in brick form and you break it up and add fruit an milk. It has become my favorite cereal! This stuff is so good!!! I add some fruit, if I have it, and a little bit of honey. It is good with just honey if you don't have fruit. I found it at Publix and can't get over how good it is! Rebecca said Food Lion didn't have it so I'm hoping Lowes does. I'm sure Earthfare does but it's way too expensive there... If you can find it I suggest you try it!

So I had been doing some reading on running since I am fairly new to it. I saw a few articles talking about running barefoot and this interested me. I looked into it and there a good amount of people who run barefoot, they say it is healthy than running with shoes. Some say that the shoes ruin your natural foot form and causes damage to your heel since you tend to land on your heel when you run with shoes. It also shortens your strides so you don't waste as much energy.
So I decided to try it out, it wasn't half bad. They say not to do your normal long runs barefoot at first. So I did my normal run but held off the last half mile and ran that part barefoot, just to try it. They say you need to build your feet up a little before doing it as a normal thing. My feet felt good and I didn't get any cuts from glass or rocks, beginners luck haha. So I will try it again for a week and see how I like it. An article on it.

I took this on a evening run on the beach. The sun was going down behind all the charter boats, it was pretty nice! Then my phone died, there was a really great view from the top of the 17th ST bridge but I couldn't get it. Maybe next time...

Oh I also registered for the half marathon! So there is no turning back, it's official! Sunday September 26th in Johnson City is the big day! Check it out! Well that's it for now, I'm sure I will have something interesting again soon...

Been Very Busy...

2010-06-21T16:25:00.001-07:00

Ok so sorry to my 10's of readers, I have been pretty busy with both my internships and other things. So here is an update...
I started my 2nd internship last week, I am working with 1600 AM WHTY in West Palm Beach, FL. The frequency used to be owned by Radio Disney but they went off the air. We now broadcast a mostly Haitian show and they are currently playing a good majority of the World Cup, since soccer is the national sport for Haiti.
The station is in West Palm which is more than an hour north of me, so I drive up here the night before and spend the night with some friends. They live about 25 mins. from the station so it works out great! I stay in west palm monday night and tuesday night and drive home wednesday afternoon when I get done with work.
It's a fun job, sadly i don't work were they broadcast from, the station is at another building, but that is soon to change. I work in the offices and we have a small studio that is not yet up and running, but it will be and they will broadcast out of here.

I have been running a lot lately, training for a half marathon. I just haven't really had time to ride either, I have to be at work early so that means I would have to get on the road by like 5 am if I wanted to ride. I can't really ride after work because then it is 100 degrees and I would die. But come hell or high water I will be riding my bike again, I will ride no matter how early or hot. I miss my bike and I need to get back to it.

Here is a picture to show how hot it is when I've been running. Sorry if it's kind of gross... This is the back of my shorts after a run. This is how bad I sweat when I run at 6 am, imagine what it's like if I did it in the middle of the day!?!?

These are some pics from the golf course my friends in West Palm live on. They live right off the 11th green and at night after dinner we go on the course and play with Leo, their basset hound. We toss a ball around and he will chase that thing for an hour or so. He's pretty funny!

This is from the 17th ST bridge in Ft. Lauderdale. I took this on an early am run, the sun had just started to come up. The bridge is my only form of a challenge when I run down here. It's hard to do hill work here when you are at sea level... But the bridge will do for now, it's actually pretty steep and long.

So apart from my two interenships and running and the occasional ride not much has been going on. I applied for a third job at William-Sonoma in the mall. It's a high end cooking store. They haven't called me back yet but as soon as I get done with work I am gonna head over there and see what the deal is. If most of you know me, you know it would be my dream to work there! I hope it works out.

Well I'm sorry for the lack of updates but I will get back on track, I couldn't blog while I was in West Palm because my friends do not have wifi. But I will make sure to post regularly now that I have my travel schedule all figured out. Well that's all for now, until something else...

Major Day

2010-06-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

So Sunday I woke up at about 5 am to go meet my friend Chris. He told me about a group ride that was out in Weston, he said it can get pretty fast. I wanted to do some fast paced group rides to work on pack riding and such. So I got in the car and set off. It was 85 degrees at 6 am...

I get to Chris's house and follow him to the place where the group meets. We met at a starbucks out in Weston. The group ranged from me being the youngest to some middle age dudes to one older guy on a recumbent bike. They were nice and were all wondering how to prounounce the name of Lees-McRae on my kit.

Most of the guys were rockin tri bikes but that was cool. They were training for triathlons and such. Chris told me to watch out for the guy on the recumbent. He said well be cruising at like 23-25 mph and this dude will come flying by!

Apart from it being 100 degrees the ride was good. It started out slow but we eventually got the pace up. We still only ended up going about 23 mph. I ramped it up a little faster when it was my turn at the front but I ended up blowing most of the group. But the stronger guys stuck with me. I ended up blowing at the end because I thought the end was closer than it was so I was going pretty hard for longer than intended. I didn't know the roads since I had never been out west to ride.

Chris wasn't kidding though, that dude on the recumbent came flying by me when I was going about 25! I had no clue those things could go that fast! He was joking about getting a disc wheel for it, that would be nuts! He was wearing shimano sandles that had cleats on the bottom and you could clip in with them, nuts! We eneded up doing a little over 30 miles. So it was a good work out. I was glad with how I felt riding with a group and think I am ready for a race series I found here.

This was the temp when I got home at about 10 am...

I got home, showered, ate and put my compression socks on. I needed to recover for a 5k I was going to be doing in a few hours.

The 5k was in Miami and I hadn't registered yet so we had to boogie down there early. Traffic wasn't bad cause it was the weekend. We got there and I registered, my parents where gonna do the walking portion of it but we figured it would be way too expensive so they kind of snuck in and didn't pay, don't tell anyone...

My race number.

This race was chipped, meaning that they kept score with a chip. High tech!!!

I ran into a family friend and he has been running marathons for a few years so I figured if I stuck with him I'd be money. He told us to start on the 1st line, so I followed him.
This was part of the crowd behind me. Big group! I think there was close to 2,000 people.

The race started and my friend Bob almost trampled this 8 year old kid that was in the front, he kind of had no business being there, Bob picked him up and threw him back, it was pretty scary but funny at the same time. I had my headphones in cause I needed some rockin beats to help get me through it. I was rockin out to the BeeGees, Barry White, LCD Soundsystem, Patsy Cline and one or two other artists.

The race was hot, it had been in the high 90's all day. It then started raining, most of you would think that's good but no. The rain here makes the heat so much worse. The steam from the pavement makes the air so thick, you could cut it with a knife. I was dying! I went in to the first mile and saw my pace time was 6:30, way to fast for mile 1! So I slowed down and that was good cause it was hard to breathe. I didn't notice my other times cause I was so hot and only focused on seeing the finish line.
Coming into the last turn i was taking the inside line, coming close to a parked car, cause the inside is always shorter. Some d-bag tried to squeeze into the space that was between me and the car, all two inches that was there... He tripped me up but I didn't go down, lost a few seconds though... That was about 100 yards from the finish, the last 50 or so I just flat out sprinted. My legs were so cooked but I wanted to finish strong. It seemed like it was never going to end.

My time was 22:06 and I had an avg. pace of 7:07. I placed 5th in my age group, 20-24, and got 62nd overall! I had no clue I had done any sort of place worthy run. I wonder if I could have broken 20 min if I hadn't done that ride in the am? My goal next 5k is to break 20 min.

I wasn't hungry after the run, my stomach usually doesn't want food after I run. I was in much need of fluids though, luckily gatorade was passing out free samples of their new organic flavors. It was really good, not as sugary as the old gatorade! I also found the beer tent. I figured there weren't going to be any medals cause there were thousands of people, so beer was my medal! Except it was budweiser...

Well it was a busy day to say the least. Sorry this was such a long post, thanks for the two of you for finishing it! I plan on doing much more running since it seems that I am semi-good at it. Hopefully I can start doing this race series on weds. nights. I want to upgrade and possibly win some much need cash. Running should be good cross training for the bike and the bike should be good training for running.

Well these are two videos, one from the group ride and one post 5k one. Enjoy! Till another adventure, adios!

2010-06-04T13:51:00.004-07:00

So I started my internship with Holland America Cruise Lines yesterday. So far it has gone really well, this is only day 2 but I feel comfortable enough to say that I am doing a good job. I mean I haven't gotten fired yet so that's a plus. I know most of the people there having already worked for them two years ago.

Yesterday I got briefed on what I will be doing and got to do some work. Today I got to go to the Port Everglades Association meeting and got to sit in on a very important meeting. The meeting was great and my boss introduced me to the board. I had never been to a meeting of that level and it was so interesting to see how it operated, it was a great experience. After the meeting there was a lunch in and I met a ton of people that have been working with Port Everglades for years, these people are the cream of the crop so to speak.

Since I have to be at work semi early I have been riding or running at the wee hours of the morning. This morning I went for a short ride. I woke up at about 5:20 a.m. this morning to go for a short ride. Got on the road a little before 6 and did about an hour and a half.

This is funny because the house next door is being fumigated, and the first time Rebecca saw a house like that she didn't know why it had a tarp around it. I told her that it was a small circus, little funny story...

This was supposed to be my overnight oatmeal. I hear that people are putting oats and milk in a jar over night and letting the oats absorb the milk and then they eat it without having to cook it. So I tried it out. I'm gonna have to try it again cause I used Irish oats because that was all I had and I don't think they work the same as regular ones, but it was still pretty good! I recommend trying it!

So now that I am a working man I feel like I should find a bar that I go to every night after work, like Cheers. Order the same drink and sit at the same stool and get to know the bar tender and the bar flies. I just always envisioned that is what you do when you get a 9-5 job. I'm gonna keep my eye out for a real dodgy looking dive bar or pub that is close to my house. Make a few friends and here some good stories. I'll let you know how/if that pans out.

I have no real plans this weekend, thank god! I might do a group ride that my friend Chris told me about. He said it can be fast. I need to do some fast rides and do some pack riding. It's always good practice. There is a 5k sunday evening that I might be doing as well! Rebecca is doing a 5k tomorrow morning in Johnson City. She has been running everyday and is gonna blow them away. I'm really proud of her, she runs more than I do!

I'll post pics of the office I work in and of my workspace. In case the 3-5 of you who read this are interested... Stay tuned, there is lots more to come.

These are just a few pictures of my early am rides.

Back in South Florida

2010-05-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

I am back home for the summer. I'm sad that I had to leave Rebecca and the babies, but I got a paid internship with a company that could be a potential job when I graduate. I also was able to score a second internship, so I will get twice the experience while I'm home. So hopefully I will have a better chance at getting jobs with twice the experience!

The drive was long, but we decided to stay at a friends house in Canton GA, just outside of the ATL. It was nice to be able to sleep in a bed and have a decent meal, instead of fast food and sleeping all cramped in a car. We hit rain most of the way and the traffic was nuts, thanks a lot memorial day... Cops were everywhere! It seemed like someone was pulled over every 5 miles!

I had a ton of crap, I decided to bring everything home so I can reorganize and leave stuff that I don't really need. This is just a little of what I had.

It's strange being home, it kind of feels like I never left, if that makes sense. Things have changed though, my street is totally different. There are a bunch of ugly condos and everyone on my block seems to have a small yappy rat dog... I guess it's the cool thing to do.
Figaro was happy to see me! The vet is mad because Fig won't lose any weight, he is 24 lbs, he has been on a strict diet for years but just won't loose any weight! We've been snuggling a lot and I plan to get him to lose at least 4 lbs. this summer.

I went for a ride the past 2 days, the flat is nice since I haven't ridden for a while. The wind is a little annoying but I'll get used to it. It is so hot though! I'm dying, I used to be able to stand the heat but I guess after this winter my body has accepted a colder climate. I am no longer wearing shirts, unless I have to, otherwise I would not be able to handle it. This isn't even the hottest months yet, June and July are gonna suck!

On my first ride out I saw the new love of my life! I named her Bertha, it looked like it suited her. This magnificent creature came riding by me on her bike and my heart stopped, I knew this was love at first sight. From the various tattoos to the short spiked hair. The bike was pretty rad too!

This morning I went for a ride with my friend Chris. He's a lawyer that used to work in the same office as my dad a few years ago. He has been riding for a while and is now doing triathlons and likes to ride with me when I come visit. We were only like 10 miles into our ride this morning when he went to shift and his chain broke! I thought he was kidding at first but sure enough the chain was broken. We stopped at a kwiki-mart and checked out the damage. Neither of us had a chain tool, well I did but it was broken... A big group of 30+ riders came by so I got on my bike and chased em down. I went from the very back to the front asking every person if they had a tool. Not one person had one, there were a few tools in the group ;-) but no chain tools... We waited a little longer and another big group went by and it was the same story...

I called my dad and he was gonna have to come get us. Then some guy rode by and we asked again, figuring to get the same answer, but he said "oh yea, I got one" success! He was a really nice guy. Thank you nice guy who rides a cervelo, you rock! So we fixed the chain and got on our way.

On the way home I got a flat, go figure. Then we hit the bridge and ran into one of the big groups of d-bags who didnt want to help us. The bridge had been broken and been up for like 10 mins. so we waited and talked to a few people, the non-tools. This one dude had been riding a fixie for their whole ride, it was like a 50+ mile ride they had been doing, he also had flat pedals... He was either a retard or a beast, couldn't figure it out. So this morning was pretty eventful.

I'm not gonna ride tomorrow, I go into the office to meet with my boss and find out my schedule for internship numero uno, I want to be fresh. I may run in the morning but that is TBD. This summer is going to be interesting with all my work and training. It'll make for good blogging I can tell you that much! So get ready for some interesting stories about the cruise industry, working for a radio station and attempting to race in Florida. I plan to do some races to cat up and try and make some money. Stay tuned!

Back in Business.

2010-05-24T06:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, but now I have a little time off so I figured I would update my fans. School is done, we moved Rebecca to her new place , graduation happened, and we went to a friends wedding. All that was just last week! Like I said, I've been pretty busy.

I started getting a cold the other day... Who gets sick in May? So I've been taking it easy and drinking a ton of water. I feel a lot better today! Rebecca and I have been training for a half marathon but I've been slacking lately. We went for a 5 mile run yesterday in Boone, we ran the Greenway Trail. It was pretty nice, except I was hurting big time. I was still sick and felt horrible, also since I've been busy I haven't been eating very well. I've turned to the fried food bbq cake and ice cream diet... Ya not good! Rebecca did awesome but me... not so much.

I was supposed to be going home today but my parents had to do something important at work so I wont be leaving till Friday. Now that I feel better I plan on riding everyday until I go home. I need to get some Mountain time in before I go to the wonderful world of flat lands, Florida. Hopefully my legs have some power in them, I haven't ridden in a few weeks, so I hope I don't get passed by the swarm of Fred's that are invading the High Country. Maybe I wont wear an LMC kit if that's the case.

Oh!!! I forgot, sorry. I got a new phone! My trusty iPhone took a tumble of someone's balcony and finally broke. I have had that phone since before I came to LMC. I was planning on getting a new one this summer but I had planned on retiring it properly. But my phone had a long good life, we had gone many places and seen strange things. He will be missed. So I got the new iPhone 3GS, it is so awesome! It has a video camera, one of the main reasons I got it. It is so much faster than my old phone, it doesn't lag when I try to load something and it is voice operated! It also has new GPS so I downloaded a running application that maps out your speed an time, it even shows where you ran on google maps! I also got one for when I ride, it does the same thing as the running one.

So ya that's what I've been up too. I'll post on a regular basis now that I'm done with school. Again I apologize for the lack of blogging but I was busy.

Run for the Fiesta!

2010-05-03T11:27:00.001-07:00

So this saturday was the Run for the Fiesta! The run was about 2 miles and finished at Los Arcoiris. Rebecca and I had been training for this all year, well not really, but we have been really pumped for the past few weeks. We also talked Hannah, Rebecca's younger sister, to do it. She was done with school and we thought it would be fun if we all did it. So we picked her up Friday night and relaxed until the run started on Saturday.

We got there early to warm up and scope out the competition. Hannah went off and did a 15 min. warm up, which I probably should have done as well. It was a good sized field, I think there were about 20 or so.

Me stretching. Not really...

Rebecca and Hannah

More stretching. I decided to take off my shirt cause it was getting pretty warm.

Sean Condron went off right from the gun and I figured if people got away you wouldn't see them again. So me and a few others stuck together at the front. It was Sean, some lacrosse kid, Sammie K, some little guy with his shorts up really high and his shirt tucked in and myself out in front.

Sean cracked and Sam moved up and I tried to follow him but the little dude would not get out of my way. So i had to fight to pass him and eventually did, Sam was pretty much gone after that. I was 4th the rest of the way but than Hannah came up behind me and caught me towards the end, so I got 5th. Which was still really good and I had fun so that is all that matters.

Rebecca post race

Rebecca did well too! Most of the people cut the course and one guy even got in a car... So she's not sure how she placed but she did beat all those cheaters.

Kerry and a few other guys on the team rode as the lead car and made sure to stop traffic so we were safe.

We celebrated with tons of chips, salsa, queso and free tacos! We also got discount margaritas! They were so good after a hard effort in the hot sun. There was also a raffle for all those who participated in the run. Hannah got a free entry to a 5 mile race up on Beech. It is over the summer and she really wanted to run it so now she can for free! Rebecca got a water bottle an t-shirt! I got a $20 gift certificate to Los Arcoiris! So we are going back to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! It's gonna be fun!

All in all we had a good weekend. The weather was great and that makes everything that much better. Now that I am getting into running Rebecca and I are looking to do a half marathon in September. I may do a full one in January but we shall see. Don't think this means the end for biking, oh no! I will stil be riding and racing. I am looking forward to racing when I go home over the summer. I hear races in Florida are fast!

Until next time.
Cheers!

The past few days

2010-04-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-04-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

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

Yoga and a Great Ride

2010-03-31T19:32:00.000-07:00

So this morning Rebecca, my sister and myself went to a yoga class. Not just any yoga though, this was Bikram yoga. What's that you ask? Well Bikram yoga is yoga that is done in a room that is around 100 degrees and you sweat, you sweat a lot. I don't think I have ever sweated more in my entire life then I did for this hour and a half. My sister has been doing it for a few years and she assured us that it's safe and you feel amazing afterwards. This was my first yoga class ever so I'm glad it was a special one. It was full of a bunch of middle aged women and then one other dude... We got through it without passing out or anything. Robin was right, I felt great afterwards! The theory is that you sweat out all the toxins and then the heat allows you to stretch farther than you normal would. They were right, I had no clue I could move like that. I still was really stiff but I did things I probably couldn't do without the heat. We are gonna try and go again on friday, the one dude in there kept telling me that you have to keep coming back to get the full benefits... He told me all this while he was bareass, a little strange... Needless to say I did not break eye contact.

After that we came back and had a nice lunch, I was starving after yoga. Me my mom and Rebecca went to get a few things while my dad and Robin and the girls went to the pool. My nieces seem to only want to swim and play monopoly, they are a lot of fun! We are gonna dye Easter eggs tomorrow night I think but that's a post of its own. So I had to get new running shoes because mine seem to want to kill my feet. My left foot feels like someone took a hammer and broke my foot in half, it hurts to walk sit or do anything really... So I got some sweet New Balances, they are so freakin comfortable! Then we went to Target which is always awesome! I had to get back because me and a friend were gonna go for a ride at 3:30.

So we got home and I got a quick snack and Chris showed up. Chris has been doing triathlons so we had a pretty decent ride. The weather could not have been better, super sunny but fairly cool, a light breeze but no strong wind to speak of. I think we had a tail wind both ways, score! We got a good 3 hours in and kind of hammered most of the way. My legs are fully reefed!

Tomorrow should be relaxing, until the evening. We are gonna do a 5k, mine and Rebecca's first! So that will be a good blog for you guys to read. Well I'm beat and am going to bed. Later.

Fig has been doing this a lot.

Riding with Chris.

A park we stopped at to get water.

The progression of my tan, not great but it's a start.

Riding and such

2010-03-30T19:11:00.001-07:00

Big Nate brought my bike down and I picked it up yesterday. So I got out for my first ride since being home, It was really nice and sunny but mega windy. Major Fredfest but that's what riding in South Florida. I almost got knocked over a few times cause of the wind but it was nice to have a big tail wind on the way home. I got out for 2 hours or so.

My tan has slowly been fading away since I was down here over Christmas... I shall be posting updates of my tanning progress throughout the rest of break. As we all know, major tan lines are a must for a fast cyclist...

These are pre-riding lines. I'll post the after ones when they are a little darker...

Rode with Big Nate a bit...

Joining the ranks of the Apple employees, I wish!

Saw this Guinnes mini-fridge at the beer store. Totally want it for my room, too bad it doesn't come loaded with Guinnes...

Well more photos and stories to come. Later!

Kennedy Space Center

2010-03-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

So since we spent the night in Orlando we decided to go to Kennedy Space Center before heading home. It was cool, I haven't been there since I was little and this was Rebecca's first time. It was really warm and sunny, it was great! Looking at all the original rockets from the early days of the space programs are all lined up. It's great to see how far we've come, from the astronauts being squeezed in a small capsule no bigger than a bathtub to a living in space for weeks on the International Space Station. It was pretty cool, here are some pictures. Well we have a a fun filled day ahead of us, going to Costco!!! So pumped! Well more pics and stories to come!

So it begins...

2010-03-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we left Banner Elk for our trip to Florida, spring break has started! We got on the plane and ordered a drink to start off this wonderful trip. Rebecca stayed classy and got wine, I got some Jack and coke, totally both tasty choices.

My parents met us at baggage claim and we went to our hotel. We decided to spend the night in orlando instead of driving all the way home and get home late. So we got to the hotel and went to find some food. I got a steak and it was amazing! My body was craving a steak for so long. We walked around a bit and then got back to the hotel and went to bed.

So stay tuned because the blog will be boomin'. Lots of family fun, sun and training! My sister and her kids will be joining us on monday and I can't wait. Totally looking forward to a great spring break. Oh by the way, I shall be wearing shorts and a t-shirt today, totally awesome!

This is our wonderful view of the engine, best seat in the house!

Rebecca keeping it classy!

The aftermath!

Ripley's Believe it or Not building near our hotel. If you can't tell it's sinking into the ground. Pretty cool.

WTF??

2010-03-23T10:27:00.001-07:00

Warmth!

2010-03-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

So Saturday had to have been the best day we've had since October probably. It was probably 62 maybe 64... I went for a sweet 3 hour ride, Shulls Mill, probably my fav ride. The weather was awesome and the views were great! I had great tunes on the iPod and the climbs seemed like nothing, it was probably the best ride I've had in a while. The parkway was great, except for one little section right at the end. It was closed off but I decided to go ahead cause I didn't want to go on the main road. A bunch of branches and trees were down all over, it was fun weaving in between the trees. I had to pull one or two cyclocross moves and carry my bike over a tree. When I was getting off the parkway I ran into Doug, Matty Light, Pastor Joe, Kathryn, and Steph. I guess they had come up from Jonas Ridge, another decent ride.

Today the weather was kind of crappy, it's been raining all day. I welcome the rain though, I want all the salt and gravel washed off the roads. I'm tired of inhaling salt when a car goes by. The weather is going to pick back up by the middle of the week though so I'm pumped. I will also be going home Friday for spring break, I can't wait to be able to ride in really warm weather and work on my tan. Not sure that I got one yesterday... Well these are some pics from Saturdays ride, enjoy!

I wore only shorts! Haven't been able to do that for a while!

My phone makes it really difficult to take a good picture of yourself. Plus if I moved it any further away it would rip my headphones out... So instead I look like a retard.

I love Shulls Mill, such a great road.

View from the parkway.

Obstacles!

Sorry for the delay...

2010-03-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't have a post from our last race. The race was hosted by Georgia Tech, we had two road races. The drive down was really long, like 5 hours. It rained the whole time and we got stuck in traffic someplace near Asheville. This race blew last year because it was pouring rain the entire time and it was about 30 degrees... This year the weather was a little better, kind of sunny but still fairly cold, but at least no rain. However it did rain and hail on the backside of the course and only for like 10 mins... My phone died on Saturday so I didn't really get any pictures. The races were long and everyone was pretty banched afterwards. The team did really well. The girls dominated both days and our guys did great pretty well saturday but we won on sunday. I again did not do so hot... I'm not gonna let that get me down though, next race I vow to destroy the field. I have been stepping it up and training hard this week.

The weather has been getting way better in B.E. this week. It was like 62 today! I got to ride with knee warmers yesterday! It was really great, tomorrow is supposed to be even better! I plan to ride on the parkway tomorrow so I will try and take some sweet pics(fingers crossed). Well here are a few pics from GT weekend. I hope I can ride and get some sweet picks tomorrow. Till then, later...

The men domination on sunday.

Eric getting a recovery ride in at the hotel.

The beautiful red clay of Georgia... More like the ugliest damn thing ever (I hate GA)

Eric fueling up before the race.

The traffic we sat in for a good 20 min. They had to glue a reflector back on the road...

GA Southern and other stuff

2010-03-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

So we the first race of road season was last weekend, hosted by Georgia Southern. It was a fun weekend, it's always great to travel with the team. Race wise this weekend was not great for me, however the team did great! The weekend started off with an early TTT. It was cold and windy but we are used to that... However it has been almost 2 weeks since I've gotten to ride on an actual road. Eric helped me build my road bike earlier the week before and it was the first time that I rode that bike outside this year.

So the TTT was ruff since I did not get a good warm up in and like I said earlier hadn't ridden on the road much let alone in a pace line. Jake and Lucas had to do most of the work, sorry guys. I figured that the TTT would open my legs up for the crit later on that night. The crit was flat and in a parking lot but it had 8 turns... Ya, I know right? The evening was very windy but I fellt good on the line even though I was in a horrible starting position. The line basically went straight for 50 feet or so then there was a sharp left, I was at the back into the turn and went to shift into my big ring, well the chain jumped the ring and went around my foot... by the time I got it on I was off the back and the field was a good ways ahead. This all happened in a matter of 6 secs. The wind was so strong that once you were alone you stayed alone... I spent 3-4 laps trying best I could to catch them but with no luck and was pulled. I felt like a retard and went and rode around some since I only got to race a grand total of 15 mins.

The women dominated as Rachel lapped the field like 10 times or something and they got like 1,2,3,4,5. The A men did really well. Zac beat Chris Butler who now races for BMC, he totally kicked butt. The RR was a little better fitness wise, but organizational wise the race was a mess. The C riders caught us then merged. We would get up to speed then stop, then get back up and stop. Then our pace car missed a turn, the whole field had to turn around. The women got totally lost and kind of rode around for a while. Carla and Rachel were on like a 50 minute breakaway.

Other than that the weather has been horrible, it has snowed everyday since Feb. and wont stop. We had a weekend of sunshine and 40-50 degree weather which was amazing! Most of the roads were clear and it was a big morale booster. I have watched about 100 movies since riding the trainer everyday for almost 2 months.
Well that's what has been happening lately. No race this weekend but we are supposed to have decent weather so I plan to ride outside both days as long as possible to enjoy the sun cause who know when it will be back. Here are some recent pics. Later!

So I need to keep my promise...

2010-02-16T17:01:00.001-08:00

Sorry to my loyal fans, I know I keep promising that I will keep posting adventures and then don't, I apologize. Now that I am in a journalism class I figured this would be good practice for my wealthy future as a journalist... not!
So It's been snowing like crazy here, it wasn't so bad during J-term but February has been the month of blizzards... I haven't got to ride outside for like 2 weeks! I have been watching movies on netflix and riding the rollers, I'm running out of movies to watch! Other than that I am just getting settled into this semester and getting ready for road season to start, hopefully I have a good season.
Well now that school has started back up I will be posting and I plan to post from races and such. Here are so pictures of some recent stuff. Later...

Engaged???

2009-11-11T07:06:00.001-08:00

Yes it is true, we are engaged, as of around 6 p.m. last night. So this is how the events unfolded... A while back I told Rebecca that I had gotten her a present. I know how much she loves reading, she's a nerd, and that I found a rare book finder and they were tracking down a rare 1st edition manuscript of some great love story. Well when I told her that I had gone to the jewelers and picked out the ring and placed my order, they said it would take 2-3 weeks for it to be ready for me to see and for it to be set and such. So 2-3 weeks passes and no word from them, so I call and they have been backed up because their son plays soccer for Avery High and they keep winning and keep going to more playoff games. I was fine with that since they are friends and I know that this is their sons last year and it's great that Avery got as far as they did. So like I said I didn't have a problem. So I made up some story that the rare book finders where Agoraphobics and operated out of their house and only through phone or email, but they didn't have a phone because they didn't believe in them. So they used the phone at the gas station when the wife goes out to by her can of dip. Yes I know, it was a great cover. I am actually very proud of this one seeing as how it's so outrageous and I pulled it off so well.

So the ring was finished and I went to go pick it up and it looked great! If you ever need a jeweler go to Mountain Jewelers in Newland, they are the best! So my plan on giving it to her was to get a really skanky love novel that you get at the grocery store. The one with the Fabio type dude on the cover, with his shirt ripped open and his hair flowing in the wind, all while he drives a pirate ship or rides some horse, you know the kind. So all I could find was a book called "Heart Dance" It had a bare male chest on the front so it fit the general description of what I wanted. So I went to cut out a little nook for where the ring would go and I started to read the book. This was a book that was made to cut up is all I can say about the content... If you ever see it I suggest checking it out for a good laugh.

So I cut out the nook and put the ring in it and wrapped the book with construction paper, it was all I had. I figured it would add to the beauty of the book. So we get to her place after picking up some stuff for dinner and I go "I have your present!" and I hand her the construction paper cover book, Needless to say the look on her face was not one you would think of someone who was about to get engaged, but she didn't know that was happening. So she rips off the paper, which wasn't hard, and looks at the bare chest of the man fairy on the cover and goes "What is this?". She flips it over and reads the back and is like "What is this?". She was about to throw it at me when I told her to read it. She flips it open right to the ring and then out of shock she slams it closed. Then I tell her to read it again and she opens it and I take the ring out and pop the question! She said yes of course and the rest is history as they'd say. We then proceeded to make our calzone and eat the whole thing and half a pumpkin pie. It was a good night!

So that is the story of how we got engaged! I hope you all like it and thanks for all the congratulations, we are happy to have great friends and family! I will post more shinanagins, since I'm engaged I think I could have fun with this in pulling some great shinanagins. Well until we have more, later...

Cross Weekend!!!

2009-11-03T19:02:00.000-08:00

So I finally got my cross bike built up and race ready! This was my first race back, I missed last weeks cause I was sick/had to work. I didn't do anything special result wise except finish, but I had a lot of fun! The weather resembled that of euro cross races, conditions that you see of races on youtube. The fog was thick and the mud was thicker! It was really cold but once you got racing it wasn't that bad. Rebecca came to support and take pictures, she said it wasn't that horribly cold.
Eric destroyed the Pro 1/2 race, he had like a 3 min gap, maybe more! Nic got 3rd which was awesome! I can't race this weekend cause I am on duty :( But I plan on riding and training hard so I can DOMINATE the next weekends race!

Great riding and a pumpkin...

2009-10-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

So on Thursday it was mine and Rebecca's 2 year anniversary. We had a great day, well she had to work during the day, but our evening events where great. I got her a massage, which she really needed, we went and got sushi, watched the new Office, and ate the wonderful pumpkin pie that she made. It was so good, no pics because we ate it too fast...
Since she was working during the day I figured I would go out and ride, it was too nice not to. I did the blueberry loop but the edited version since I was on a road bike and didn't feel like getting stranded... I ended up getting some great pictures, but they don't do the colors or view justice. You had to be up there to get the full affect, I tried to bring back proof to prove that my story was true...

Fizik the Woolly Worm.

I found this little guy on the road, he was looking for his friends but sadly they have all been run over or eaten by birds. So I picked him up and put him on my bars to see how long he would stay with me. He hung in there for a good while, I named him Fizik. But sadly a big gust of wind took him from me. It was like in "Cast Away" when Tom Hanks lost Wilson, I grew so attached to that little worm, we spent a whole 5 minutes of climbing together, we really bonded, he will be greatly missed. NOT!!!

I was surprised that there where so many leaves out still, we have had some really windy, rainy days. Plus I don't think 2 days of snow helped either. But they are still here and beautiful.

This is the pumpkin we carved!

We got this guy yesterday and carved him up. We also baked the seeds, they are so good. I forgot how nasty the inside of a pumpkin is, and the guts where soo cold. Hopefully pumpkins last more that 2 days in the mountains. In Florida they last for like 2-3 days before they rot, because it is so hot and nasty. I think since it's nice an col that this little guy will last for a while, I think we will sacrifice him when we have our bond fire this weekend or next. It shall be epic, more info on that to come later... Till then, stay groovy...

Once again it is long time no post...

2009-10-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry to my loyal fans, I have been busy and have not updated in a while, I apologize. So here is what has been happening lately... School has started, I am RA for 3rd floor Tennessee. Rebecca has been enjoying her new job in admissions, except the traveling does get old after a while. Nimbus has gotten very big, and is still growing! I am still working for the B&B which is great! I am pretty busy with class work and being on duty a lot. It seems like I am on duty every night of the week... I love my classes, lots of work, but fun none the less.
One of my fun classes is printmaking, we take slabs of linoleum and carve out designs or pictures on it and then roll ink on the carving and then print it on paper from there. It takes a while to make sure the carving is right but it is really cool! Here are a few examples of what I've done so far. They might not be the best but I'm learning...

I also am taking web design, we got new macs in the mac lab now! They are so sweet, we now have Adobe CS4 and we can burn cd/dvds on the computers, were as before none of them worked... Eric is in that class with me and we have some fun. Cept he isn't very smart and doesn't know how to turn on the computer or use a mouse... It's ok, he's kind of... special...

Like I said Nimbus is getting much bigger! He is so cute and sweet and will be getting even bigger as time goes on! I can't wait till he is all big and fat.
Well that's pretty much a small recap, I don't really have anything funny to report but I am sure I will in the future. When I do I will post it ASAP. I will be better at my postings and will update weekly, at the least. Thanks and get ready for some stories!

Kitty

2009-07-24T11:19:00.001-07:00

So Rebecca got a kitten! He is a scottish fold and we got him from Kristi's mom. His name is Nimbus, but I call him turd. He is a little turd, always running around and jumping on my computer when I use it. He tries to eat my food when I am and he is always under my feet when I walk. But he is sweet and cute! Now I am packing to go home, it has been a while since I've been there, it will be nice to see a few old friends and see what new stupid people have moved to Florida... I will post pics and stories from home when I get a chance!

Off to camp...

2009-06-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

I am off to camp and wont be back for a week or so. I don't think I will have internet or service there so no updates from me :( sorry to my devoted fan(s). I will take plenty of pics and will upload them when I get back.

Rain rain go away...

2009-06-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

So today I woke up to a butt load of rain, it was so loud it woke me up, which is hard to do. I was pissed because I planed on ridding like 4 hours today but that will have to wait... Instead I watched a movie or two this morning and moved all my stuff from my room on 2nd floor TN to 3rd floor. Moving on up as the Jefferson's would say.
I got that done and went to Rebecca's place to cook dinner and hang out. There is this girl that lives next to them and she has 3 cats. She just lets them roam free and two of them look like small dogs because they are giant balls of fur. One of them is named Samson but I don't call him that. I call him Smush Face or Smushy, because he has... well... a smushy face. He is really sweet and super cute! Him and I hang on her porch and read or just hang.
Other than that I just plan on riding and start running, yes running :( I hate running but I need to do it since I am going to Camp for a week and can't ride. I plan on doing the Grizzly during the Highland Games and need to stay in shape. It is really gonna suck! Well until I have something else to talk about I will go for now...

Here we go again...

2009-06-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

Ok so I know I said that I was back... Sorry it has taken me a while to get on this, it was just really crazy the last few weeks of school. It is now summer and school is on the back burner until next semester. I am taking summer classes but they aren't as crazy as a full schedule.
I am working at a B&B in Banner Elk, The Azalea Inn. I really like that place, my parents always stay there and we got be good friends with the owners Frank and Karen. They have a sweet boxer named Dexter, he's about 8 months old and is gonna get HUGE! I do mostly grounds work there like mulching, weeding, lawn etc... True story, I mowed a lawn for the first time EVER this week. Sorry to say but I don't have a yard at home so I never got the chance to do it. I also turn down rooms every so often.
I am getting back into riding a lot now, I didn't have time towards the end of school but now I have some more free time I try to spend it on the road. I don't have the best luck with my bike though, anything that can break will break right before I am going to ride and right after I just got something else fixed... I need to get all new components because all these little repairs are putting me into the hole. A new group is rather expensive and I don't have the money because I keep having to fix my bike regularly... PARADOX!!!
Rebecca graduated!!! She had the best student career out of her class or anyone else at LMC I think :) She did such a great job that the school didn't want her to leave, so the hired her to work there! She works with the admissions office and decides the future of LMC alum. The down side is that she will be traveling a lot :( But she is not far and only a short walk from school!
Our summer has comprised of much needed down time and riding. We have been making sun tea almost every day and cooking every meal, which rocks since we get to pick what we eat instead of the surprise of the cafe. We are also eagerly awaiting the newest edition to our family... Ya that's right, a bouncing baby........................... kitten! Gotcha ha! Rebecca is getting a kitten from Kristi's mom and we are waiting for him to arrive. He's not ready to leave his mommy so we are waiting and I will post pics when we get him!
Well until I get some new pics of new adventures here are some from graduation and I will post more now that my life is not soo crazy! Also can someone comment and let me know my blog is being read? It's kind of weird to write to nobody... Later!

I'm Back!!!

2009-04-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

So long time no post huh? Ya, sorry about that, I didn't have a computer for a while. Well I did... but it was a PC and I have no clue how to use them and I couldn't load any pics and I don't like posting without pics. After years of good use, my trusty iBook died in a freak accident involving Rebecca and some soda, total accident by the way. I was borrowing a computer from a friend since I would never buy a PC, Macs all the way! I or my family still have yet to ever put money into a PC. Anyway...

UPDATE!!! I am RA for 2nd floor TN, pretty cool huh? It's a good gig, being on duty gives me the excuse to do work and clean my room. Road season has been pretty good this year, I def. did better than last year which is always good news! I didn't get to do many races since being on duty for weekends and such. Rebecca raced this year as well! She was sick for her first race but the trooper that she was still raced! Horrible conditions for her first race but thats racing... She got 2nd at our home race! Very awesome!

Other than that things are pretty normal, other than the B.E. weather... Snow, rain, beautiful, snow, snow, beautiful, snow, rain etc... Spring might be here after this week though, fingers crossed. So now that I can post pics and know how to use the computer I have (MacBook Pro) I will be back to my regular updates! Here are some pics to tide you over till then! Later!

2009-04-15T14:47:00.001-07:00

Blogging from texts?

My First Day of Work

2008-12-27T18:11:00.000-08:00

Today was my first day of work. If you did not know I am working for Holland America Cruise Lines. I got to the port at 8 a.m. Nobody realized that I was supposed to be working... good sign huh? Well the morning was spent helping people find their bags. They have a great system worked out, dump all the bags in one room, in no order, and let everyone in and have them find their bag. The great thing is that the workers, me, are not allowed to help the passengers carry their bags! Which is great because I am very lazy... I couldn't take pictures of that because due to customs and such no phones or cameras are not allowed in that area, plus I'm not allowed to be on a phone during work.
After that it was time for lunch, I wasn't told to bring a lunch so I had to go to the cart across the street and got a hot dog. It was really good though! After that it was time to check in new guests for the cruise leaving that evening. I was really scared that I would really screw up loging people in. It was scary the first few times, I was really nervous! I got the hang out it a few times around, pretty soon I had a pretty good groove going! Except with huge familys of like 10 or so I kind of was nervouse getting everyone in.
I didn't get done until about 3:30, and I was soo tired. But it was worth it for making that sweet cash money! I go in again tomorrow, same time same deal. I realized today that the people that take cruises are a very interesting group. They are either extremely old, from northern states, canadian, fat, rude new yorkers, and extremely ugly! These are a few pictures of some ships, basically my office... Also me in my uniform. Well until something interesting happens...

Christmas and My 1st ride

2008-12-25T21:18:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas all. It was a warm one today in Ft. Lauderdale, it was around 80 maybe high 70's... The day started late, as usual with my family, we opened presents at around 12... I made out ok, I didn't really want anything. I got new shades! I'm pretty happy about that. I need new riding glasses since the ones I have, for those who know of my Rudy Projects, they are not very practicle. The new ones are Oakley Radars. I might trade em in for a different color, I don't know if I like all black, I'll shop around.

My brother Craig got an iPhone! Brat, I had to pay for mine... Oh well. He gets to pick it out tomorrow. He was very happy with this present, let me tell you.

My dad got socks!

Well he got a little more than that, but that was the only pic I had of him. He got a new watch and some goodies from the Scottish Shop, which he loved, thanks Rebecca! My mom got him our family crest to put on his wall in his office!
I put a red bow on Figaro, needless to say he did not enjoy it. I thought it was cute and he should dress up a little. It took forever to get on him, but I could tell he was not enjoying it and took it off after a quick picture, sorry it's a little blurry. He later bit Craig, but for good reaseon, he wouldn't stop poking his tummy.

After presents we where going to dinner at a friends house. I decided to ride there and meet my family. I figured it would be a good chance to get out and make room for dinner. I also got to rock my Christmas present from Rebecca's mom, a Scottish Cycling Jersey, it is so sweet!
I figured nobody would be out driving on Christmas Day... wrong! It took forever to get past Ft. Lauderdale Beech. So many dumb people just walking in the road/bike lane. Just standing there... watching me come from about 40 feet down the road, not moving at all... I hate Florida soo much. I just wanted to unclipp and kick there fat asses onto the sidewalk... Other than that the ride was great, a little windy, but that's Florida. My legs felt good after not riding for 3 weeks, with traveling and finals. On my way up to our friends for dinner I missed the turn and went a few miles past it...opps... but it was not my fault. The street that I was supposed to turn on had no sign. I had my eye out the entire time, oh well extra miles! I mapped it out in case people want to take a look. http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/fl/fort-lauderdale/453178610341
All in all it was a great day! I am going to try and ride tomorrow as well, see how my legs feel after round two! I did miss being with Rebecca, it does really suck being so far away for so long :( I hope this passes by fast. Until I have more stuff, take her easy...

Birthday/Being Home

2008-12-23T17:10:00.000-08:00

So I am home from school :( which really sucks. I don't mind visiting for about a week or two, but 6 weeks??? To get through being away from my gal I plan on riding all day everyday, except the days that I work. I will work and then ride the rest of the day. If you haven't heard i shall be working for Holland America Cruise Lines! Ya pretty bad ass! I will be doing computer check in! So if your mean to me I will send your bags to the wrong ship... I don't have a picture of me and my uniform yet but when I do I will post that asap. This is a pic of me going to my interview.

I also got my hair cut, I really needed one, it was getting too long. For my birthday my mom took me shopping. I needed nicer clothes, I am getting tired of t-shirts. I like dressing up now and looking good. This was my birthday outfit, It was all under $60. My mom is the queen of complaining and she said that the sweater had a defect and we got 40% on top of the 30% already marked down. Everything else was on sale too!
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This is the cake my mom made me for my birthday! It's pomegranate with lime, it has a lime glaze and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and mint! It was damn good!

That is what I have been up to so far since being home, not much. I haven't started riding yet, a number of set backs have stopped me. My fingers are crossed for tomorrow though. I just want to get break over with so I can get back to my special lady friend. I don't see how I can do this 6 weeks thing. I want to get back so we can get "hitched" as she so lovingly put it! I will update everyone with pictures of sunny south florida and

Bristol Cross

2008-12-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

Today the team went down to Bristol, TN to indulge in a little bit of cyclocross. It was freaking cold, the ground was frozen solid and all the ruts were like hitting big tree roots. I did alright, I got 9th. Nate got 1st in the 4 race, which is great since it was his first cross race. He raced on his brand new Salsa 29er that he got yesterday. I think I broke my pedal but I need a second opinion. I also flatted but that was after, luckily, I hit a big ass rock on the way back to the trailer after cooling down and flatted. Later during the 1-2 race it started snowing hard core. It was pretty intense! Rebecca came out to watch and cheer! This was her first time seeing a cross race, she had a great time. Apart from the fact that it was colder than hell.
Tonight we went and saw the School's Christmas Concert, it was great! Now were just gonna relax and snuggle and watch tv and go to bed. We have a big day at Everything Scottish tomorrow! Can't wait! Here are pics from the race!

Hickory Nut Gap-Roubaix and Christmas Party

2008-12-04T20:53:00.000-08:00

Today I went riding out side, something I haven't done in a while. So the town decided to tear up a good part of Hickory Nut Gap to repave it. The funny thing is that they tore it up about a month ago, so the road is pretty tore up. Then once you get past the really crappy construction you hit the part of the road that should be torn up to be repaved, which is the the entire road to the top... Plus the ice, salt, gravel, rain run-off did not help.
So I rode to the top and came back to the gym and did 4-5 laps of the cross course to get ready for the upcoming race on saturday. Well that was extremely fun seeing as how it was muddier than hell. I was going sideways the entire time, but that is good practice since my handling needs to be improved by a hell of a lot. It got cold fast and was threatening to rain so I peaced out cause I had to get to class anyway.
After class Rebecca and I had to set up for the Cycling Team Christmas Party. It was a lot of fun setting up. Ronin was there helping out and we helped put up her tree that she bought. She decided to give it a test run in the bike room before taking it home. Rebecca and I made streamers the night before and hung those up in various places and also hung up lights that we bought, which are now hanging up in the apartment! All in all it was a great party.
The DeFeet rep. for this area came out to the party and was selling socks and such for $5 each! Holly cow, that's such a great deal. I got like 4 pairs of Woolie Boolie's my fave socks ever. I got Rebecca 2 pairs of arm warmers and 2 pairs of socks! Kristi gave up a pair of Hot Pink arm warmers that Rebecca really wanted. Thank you Kristi!!! The pics are up so enjoy! Later!

Long Time No Blog

2008-12-01T19:04:00.001-08:00

So long time no blog right? I just have kind of been busy and plus I have not uploaded photos onto my computer because I don't think it can handle it. It has been snowing like every other day, so I have made friends with the rollers.
So Rebecca works at the Scottish Shop in Lineville and I enjoy going to work with her because the Shop is always interesting. They have food and candy from Scottland. They have a condiment called Marmite. Marmite is a yeast extract that is collected from breweries. It's the extra stuff left over from beer brewing. It is very interesting and has an unusual taste. Actually it taste exactly like soy sauce, it is actually good on buttered toast. It ain't Nutella but I saw Graeme Obree eat it in The Flying Scotsman so it apparently makes you fast. Sorry the pictures are backwards but blogger was being gay...

Rebecca and I made a trip to Nashville the other weekend to pick up her younger sister at Vanderbilt. It was a really cool place, a lot more to see than Banner Elk, but driving around there is a lot harder.

I spent Thanksgiving in Mountain City! It was awesome, I got my cat and dog fix for a while. Since I can't go home and play with Fig for a while I get to play with Rebecca's 5 cats and 2 Cocker Spaniels, it was a blast! On Thanksgiving Day we started " The Tour de Mtn. City" That way we didn't feel bad about stuffing our faces at dinner.
Well that is that for a while. I should have more soon. Sorry for not writing for a while but please check daily for posts!
Laterz!

The Airport and A Pumpkin

2008-10-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

So we got up at 5 a.m. to get to the airport by 7:30 a.m. to make our 8:30 flight. So we get there a little before 7:30 and we think great nobody is here so we will def make this flight, since we are flying standby. We get to the desk and the guy is like "What flight are ya'll on???"
"The 8:30 to Atlanta..."
"Naw, that left at 7:15! The next flight out isn't until 11:30"
So we waited at the Tri-Cities airport until 11:30 and got on that flight to Atlanta. We had a long wait and it was very boring, but we were tired from getting up so early that we just slept. Than Rebecca found some coloring materials that the airport has for its "lil flyers". We passed the time coloring and people watching. We thought we saw Cher! This lady had HUGE Black curly hair. It looked just like Cher from behind, and she kept flipping it and twirling it around like she was someone special. After that we started watching Cher music videos on my iPhone.

Rebecca thinks that I look just like the Unibomber... What do you think?

We just hung out for our first day in Florida, went for a little run/walk in my hood. It was hot as shit and we were sweating like crazy. We went to my friend Anthony's house for dinner, it was his mom's Birthday. Played some Rock Band 2, which has a great selection of new songs! Than we went Bowling which was a blast! Haven't done that in a while. Anthony started bowling in a league with a few of his friends and is doing very well at it, cept he wasn't on his A game that day. We also got a pumpkin and carved it and made roasted the pumpkin seeds, very tasty!

Today we had to help my parents clean out their storage unit so that they can move crap out of their office so when/if they have to move their office it wont be as bad a move. That was kind of hard because it was a lot of heavy lifting but it wasn't bad. We got to go through all my stuff that my mom saves, than she complains about how my dad never throws anything away...

My neighbors let me and Rebecca borrow their Vespa Scooters! These things are badass! We went cruisin the beach and riding around my neighborhood on these bad boys! I will add pictures of that later. Until we have another adventure...

Fall Break Starts in 3...2...1... NOW!

2008-10-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

So it is now Fall Break! I have to go back to Ft. Lauderdale which is kind of lame, but Rebecca is coming with me, Big Perk! We plan to hang out with Andrew for a little while before he heads out to California. Classes are out and I really don't have any work to do! I dont have any pictures to post because we really haven't done anything interesting...
On a happy not... I now have a cyclocross bike! I am soo pumped, but this means I willl be broke for the next 2-3 months. I got a Bianchi Cross Concept... once again, I am super pumped! It sucks that I won't have it until we get back from fall break, but I am happy all the same! I only got the frame but I will transfer my components from my road bike over to the cross bike. I Just need breaks, pedals, shoes, and a shorter stem. So that might put me in the hole another month or two...
Until I have some good pics of Fall Break in Sunny South Florida...

Home Coming Weekend

2008-10-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

So it's Home Coming weekend here at LMC. This week was really busy for some reason but this weekend turned out great! On Friday Rebecca and I were challenged by Went and Kristi to a pizza cook off. Of course we won, we watch The Food Network enough to beat anyone at a cook off, so watch out! This is our winning pizza!

Rebecca and Went were chosen to be on the Homecoming Court! I was so happy for my woman to be on the court! I was equally happy for Went! They got to ride in the back of a truck in the parade! Kristi and I rode in the parade to rep. the team and followed Rebecca and Went.

Unfortunately she did not win :( , but isn't she great? Went is our King but I really wanted my woman to be Queen. We went to the dance last night at the Best Western, that was pretty fun.

All in all it was a pretty fun weekend and this week seems like it well hopefully be a lot easier and next week we have fall break and Rebecca and I have to go to FLA to help my parents with stuff. So that should be fun... At least Rebecca and I will be together and have some fun in FLA.

I should have some good stuff from this week so until then...

UPDATE 2

2008-09-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

So like I promised I am updating my blog. I apologise to those loyal fans that have been waiting for an update for quite some time. Things have been going great! I am back at school and enjoying class, as much as anyone who is as lazy as me can. I have been trying to ride as much as I can but some invisible forces of nature have been trying to stop this ever since I have been back.
Were to begin with the bike probloms... The first day I got back I was so excited to get out and ride, so I did and 5 min into the ride I noticed that my tire was rubbing up against my frame. My wheel was true so I could not figure out what the hell was going on. So I turned around to head back and my wheel rubbing against the frame the entire time. I stopped and took the wheel off and put it back on but it only made it worse. By the time I got back the entire one side of my tire was worn all the way down, practicly to the tube, and my frame wass also worn from the tire rubbing. I took the bike to Dane who also had no idea what was going on, he played with it for 15 minutes and then poof.... it was fixed. So I had to get a new tire before I could ride, and Boone was way to busy since all the dirty App. Hippie kids moved back on that day. So I had to wait for a few days to go.
After a week or so of ther new tire my front tire developed a huge cut and my tube was pooping out. So i needed to go to Boone yet again to get another tire... Soon after that we had about 2 solid weeks of rain, than my derailure hanger broke off my frame(picture above), than my shifter broke and I had to wait to get enough money for the reapirs on that and for the shop to order a new part and install it. Than I became sick and was unable to ride, and now it seems that I have something to do every night and do not have enough time between classes and very important things to get any time on the bike. Well thats that story.
On a brighter note, I kind of started to get into mountain biking! It is really fun, its a total blast! I do not have a mtb of my own and am currently in the market for one. I have been riding lobsters Trek hardtail, that also has a rigid fork on it, but is super fun all the same. I did my very first mtb race as well and did fairly well for only riding a mtb for 2 days prior. I was 3rd for most of the race but Lobsters seat slides down and this made me not do as well as I could of. I had to stop several times to raise my seat, but I finished and did not get pulled so I was extremly happy!
I know that this was a lot to post, but guess what, that wasn't even half of it. I have so much to tell and so many pictures to post. I will add those from time to time but I am going to try and keep up with the current since that is so much easier than revisiting the past. So once again I am sorry for not posting but I am back in action! Happy reading!

UPDATE!!!

2008-09-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

YES! I am still alive, sorry for not blogging for a while. I have just been really into being back at school and away from that hell hole that is called South Florida. I have had many adventures since being back at school and I add pictures and stories as soon as I get back to my computer, right now I am at Everything Scottish in Linville with my wonderful woman at her work. So I'll post more when I get back to school!

Work Sucks...

2008-07-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

I guess some people really think that working sucks. I would not know since I have no job, I have been looking for about a week now and still can't find a job. It's the same story, "well someone is thinking about quiting, but they aren't sure yet, they don't know if they really want to... um they prob will, then again they might not... uhhhh... ya were not hiring..." WTF is peoples deals? It seems like by the time I do find a job it will be time to go back to school, so i'll work like 2 whole weeks or some bullshit like that, lame.
In other news I went for a ride a t 6:45 a.m. this morning, its the only safe time to ride in Ft. Lauderdale. Seriously it seems that Florida drivers are out to get bikers, for most part there is a bike lane, sometimes the bike lane ends and you have to ride on the regular street, no big. There are no cars in the lane next to you the whole time your in the bike lane, the second the bike lane ends someone is up your ass honking and yelling, shooting the finger and what not. It seems like they must sit in their car and think " Hmmmm...mhmmmmm... no body is in that lane, I don't think I want to drive in that lane either... O man there's a biker on the road...I gonna go get up his ass and honk and shoot him the finger!!!" What else are these ass holes thinking???
I figured the florida cyclists would be nice but whenever I pass someone going in the other direction I always give em a little wave to be nice, they look so pissed to see another person riding on the road. You get the worst "eat shit, go to hell" look in your life. So tomorrow when I ride in just gonna ride the whole time without one hand, that hand will be used giving the finger to every pedestrian, motorist, and cyclist on the road. I might as well call Genis and see if it will be some kind of record.
On a happier note I am planning on starting to ride track this week or the beginning of next week! I can't wait, it's gonna be so fucking sweet. I think track is gonna be so mush sweeter than training on the road here. By the way chloe im gonna be kicking your ass at track camp, not the other way around... and what!!!
Till a better day...
-Sean

Ft. Laudederdale...

2008-07-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

So I'm back in home, we rolled in at like 3 am, went to sleep, then woke up late and started rearranging the room. I brought a lot of shit home so I can leave it. We then picked up Fig at the vets, I missed him a lot. Now I'm at the mall and I just got my hair cut. Now I need to go to the mac store and get a new cover for my phone and new headphones. Until I have my first fla adventure I'll post more later.

Camping

2008-06-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

So I am off for another adventure, I am going camping with the Boy Scouts. I know sounds kind of lame but here is the deal... I am basically going to sleep in a chair all day, then at night sit next to a camp fire then sleep more at night, and of course I will be eating the whole time, so it works out great. I might get my lazy ass up and go to an activity like basketry or something, or go to the shooting range and bust a gap in some loud mouth little kid, only the future will know.
It's gonna be nice with no phone, tv, loud annoying P.A. kids tap dancing over our heads at 3 in the morning. Im taking a book and I might end up reading it. So you wont here from me until saturday, I'm taking the iPhone but I probably wont have service, but if I do I'll post a blog or something. Well lets hope I don't fall down the mountain or get eaten by a bear, but I should be fine, this ain't my first rodeo. See ya saturday.

-Sean

The iPhone Show

2008-06-17T08:27:00.000-07:00

So the internet at school is down, lame. It won't be up till like Thursday, the IT nerds are probably messing around with nerd things. So know I explore the wonderful world wide web on my wonderful iPhone. Its no big deal, I just miss a keyboard, or a full size screen or aim and basically a whole computer. Still the iPhone rocks more than other phones. So Im only posting important things since I am somewhat limited. Ohh and Went, your charger is on the way.
-S

Friday The Fucking 13th, and Black Cats

2008-06-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

So today I head out for my ride and this black cat runs out in front of me. I was wondering if this meant that I was gonna have bad luck now. So as Im riding I kept thinking about bad luck and all that superstition crap. I decided to check out some gravel called upper crab orchard, turns out its doesn't lead anywhere. So halfway on the gravel road I get a flat, lame, so I get off to fix it. As Im fixing it a big wasp starts gettin' all up in my shit and trying to sting me. He gave up and flew away after bothering me for 5 min. As I am fixing my flat a house starts moving up the road towards me, Yes, a house! I guess they were moving a house to its new lot or something. So I basically have no place to move, Im already in a ditch basically, so the dude driving the house squeezed by without making me go smush. So i fix the flat and I decide to go home since my tire was pretty low. Then as I'm going down Valle Cruisis back towards school these two skank ass ho's are walking in the middle of the raod, swingin' their bags and shit. So I'm going like 35+ and just buzz right by em. They jump and start screaming, that made my day. O and also, when we were riding down to Wily's to eat I almost crashed... don't ask why I almost did, I have no clue.

I don't have a meal plan for the summer because they don't offer one, lame. Rebecca gets free food for being a summer R.A. and what not, so we go to Wily's and she pretends like she is getting all this food but we really split it. Ms. Jenny hooks us up like that. But the dude that runs the cafe and Wily's was there tonight so Ms. Jenny couldn't hook us up, mondo lame. So we had to spend money, again, which is extremly scarce. So thanks again Friday the 13th and you damn black cat.

Tonight Rebecca and I went to a Contra dance, if you don't know what that is I shall explain. It takes place in a Barn and some fat old sweaty guy yells commands at you, you dance with your partner and a "neighbor" and you swing people around to the commands. It's really fun, cept when you end up dancing with someone that has no clue what they are doing and they end up screwing everything. It's also fun to see the old people that have been doing it since the first Ice Age and they get really pissed at people that screw around. All in all it is a real sweet deal, check em out next time your in B.E.

So other than that nothing much to report. Rebecca and I are going to Hampton Trails to check out some new jersey's and stuff for her. I've only been there once but I heard the dude gives killer deals, which rocks since I have $30 to my name. Which reminds me, if you want to contribute to the Feed Sean fun, my P.O. Box is 3307 if you want to make a small donation. I don't know the schools address but you can look it up.

Till the next time.

Todd Nation!!!

2008-06-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

In between stints of studying we went down the rail road grade and got an amazing ride in. we parked at some little rinky dink park that had a river right next to it- in fact the entire ride had a river next to it.

We saw this winner on the way through boone.

there was a pre ride wading session and after ride swim sesh as well. the views were amazing- i swear to god we had a tail wind both ways. there were wildflowers everywhere, cows and shit, it was just some straight up old fashioned feel good ridin'

WELL! seeeeeeeeeeee ya later!

-s

WTF

2008-06-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

This makes me sad to be Mexican. I just don't understand this.

More pictures

2008-06-04T11:07:00.001-07:00

More pictures from today...

The Cascade Falls

2008-06-04T11:00:00.001-07:00

These are pictures from our little hike today. We went to the Cascade Falls just outside of Boone. It was a nice little walk to the Falls and there were a lot of flowers. Here are a few pics.

... More

2008-06-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Even more.

More Pictures

2008-06-03T11:16:00.001-07:00

Some more pictures from class.

First Day of Class

2008-06-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was the first day of my summer class, Photography and Feature Writing. Dr. Joslin hikes our asses up these mountains and we have take pictures and write articles about them, it's pretty sweet except its from 8 am to 5 pm, we hiked up Roan MTN today and im pretty tired. Im excited though because I have never used a real camera and this is my first photography class. We walked around campus yesterday and took pictures of random things. I'm going to take a nap now cause the hike was rather long/hard. I uploaded some of my favorite pictures and more are to come, enjoy!

Pork and Beans

2008-05-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

New Weezer. Its pretty good.

Memorial Day

2008-05-26T20:47:00.001-07:00

Why do I love Memorial Day? Easy, AMERICA CAKE!!!

  This Patriotic Pastry was discovered at Lowe's and was thoroughly enjoyed!
  It was Grrreat, just wonderful. It was finger lickin' good, as you can tell.
  You may notice that it is a Red Velvet cake, an added bonus.
  Today was a good day for cake eating, and hamburger eating. Hamburgers that are so good that the Banner Elk Fire Department are called in to investigate...
Thats right the Fire Department came because Rebecca set off the fire alarms in Bentley. She was in there cookin up the burgers and they started smokin up good and next thing you know... the fire alarms are ringing. I was in McAlister doing the french fries so I was not there for this.

Before this we had a fun filled day. Riley, Rebecca's Cocker Spaniel, came for a visit. Rebecca asked her mom to bring him on her way to work and we played with him through out the day. We walked and played with him, he tried to pick a fight with a random dog that was 3 times his size. We also gave Riley a bath, I had never given a dog a bath so I was excited. Riley really needed it, he smelled like a giant hamster! Next time Im gonna shave him, I've never shaved a dog before, should be fun...

Then we went into the bike room because we were trying to look for Went's camera charger, but we don't know where to look. We noticed that Conk left her LeMond and after a facebook message Conk gave Rebecca the O.K. to use the LeMond until she figures out what to do with it. So Rebecca is officially a roadie now! IM gonna take her up the Nut Sack tomorrow, see how she likes it. She still is having trouble clipping in and out, but everyone does, or at least I did. She's a fast leaner and should have it down this week.

So we had a pretty delicious and eventful day. Bathed a dog, got my woman a road bike, got the Banner Elk FD called in, and o ya...ate a fucking awesome cake! Till next time... Take her easy!

New Coldplay

2008-05-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

Just saw this, I liked it... http:/www.coldplay.com/video.php

Indiana Jones and A Few New Things...

2008-05-22T20:28:00.000-07:00

So Rebecca and I went to go see the new Indiana Jones movie at 12 a.m. Yes I know, we're nerds, but you got to love him. I really liked the movie... except for a few parts, but all in all it was pretty ok. We ran into Lee Lee and Aaron and we all shared a 45oz. bag of M&M's. But before we got to see the movie we were roaming around Boone. But Boone is such a lame town, everything closed at like 9. So we tried to find something to do until 11:45, that something was Wal-Mart (ja'gay). I finally learned how to use one of those "rip-sticks". You know those weird skateboard type things that have two wheels, little annoying children ride them all over the place.
A few days ago we were at Wal-Mart again, I got some fly new kicks. They are all white wannabe Vans Slip-Ons, $10 son!!! I can't wait to find a nice muddy puddle and just jump all in it and get em nice a broken in.

The other day Rebecca and I were at the Boone Mall(lame). We went to Game Stop and looked at some fun games to play. We know nothing can be as great as RockBand but we thought that we would look anyway. We found a few games, Kingdom Hearts, Rebecca likes it because it deals with all Disney movies. She likes Disney, we're trying to save up money to go to Disney because she has never been. Hopefully we can make it one day. I picked out a game called Katamari, this game is pretty awesome. You are this little person and you pu

sh around this little ball and run over things and pick them up, the more you pick up the bigger the ball gets. Eventually you will be able to pick up people, cars, whales, cruise ships etc... We haven't gotten to far but we are working on it. http://katamari.namco.com/

All in all we are having a pretty good summer. I know its been a few days since I posted a blog but I have been having a lot of fun. Well, more to come... when we have more adventures. Well, see ya later...

By the way, I learned how to ride the "Onion" on rollers. It took a few tries but I toughed it out and got it. Rebecca says that she is gonna try it but I think she's scared. Well adios!

So I'm Back...

2008-05-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Banner Elk, we've been on the road for some time. Instead of staying at hotels Doug and Brian decided to drive all night. Which was great for the team, sucks for Doug and Brian who were up driving. I didn't have a chance to put up new posts because I left my computer charger on my desk in Banner Elk. So overall view of the trip, it was great apart from waking up at 5 a.m. everyday. Besides waking up at the ass crack of dawn, I couldn't of had more fun helping and supporting my team to victory. Plus Colorado is a fun state, beautiful weather. I can never seem to upload any damn pictures to this damn blog. Which sucks because I want to put pictures, but you can't ride two horses with one ass. So until I figure out how to post my pictures you wont be able to see them. Sorry...

FIRE FIRE FIRE!!!

2008-05-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

So there was a fire in the hotel that we were staying at. A fire that LMC Cycling's very own Sean Condron started, someone did not watch the toaster very well and just like that, fire in the kitchen. No damage, cept black toast, to anyone or the hotel. The fire dept. did come out and we scared all of the senior citizens that are staying in the hotel, which is like the entire hotel minus the team and like 3 other people. Other than that nothing else is happening.

Suck it!

Ft. Collins

2008-05-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well we made it to Ft. Collins, it's pretty sweet here. Not too many places to ride, we got pulled over by the cops and our team has officially been "warned", next time its jail time for us. We did get a pretty good hour in though. The team is gonna have a lot of shit to do tomorrow to get ready, we have a fun next few days ahead of us. Hopefully all this hard work will pay off with some national titles. Well thats all I really have, I would be posting pictures of stuff but this blog is sucking dick and not letting me upload shit. Till next time, take her easy.

Long Drive

2008-05-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally got to our hotel, about fucking time. Jen's and I were rockin' out to some badass tunes in the car, but after a while music can only waste so much time. I plan on sleeping in and then driving a hell of a lot more tomorrow. Colorado isn't that close to Banner Elk. Well until the next hotel, see ya later.

So

2008-05-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

I got a blog, Eat A D!