______ in Black

OK, I’m back. Now, where to start.
I think I’ll give you a brief report of my race: one, because it was boring. And two, I’d rather not remember the race very much. I raced on Thursday which was way ahead of all the other people on my team and everyone else there. Well, I guess the other U23 riders were there too. Speaking of nobody being there, the most bummer thing about racing on Thursday was the fact that there were no spectators. Since I race on super long laps I don’t usually have many spectators but there are usually a good number on super sketchy parts on the descents. This time, however, there were hardly any. But once again, I’m nitpicking.
Anyway, I got a good start and tried to hang on up the first climb and watch Sammy J crash his brains out on the first decent and slowly slipped back to mid pack. They changed most of the climbs, probably to help with the weather (last year, for those who do not know was a terrible running race) but did not help out with me. I can never seem to get comfortable on super steep climbs and I figured the best way would be to ride at my own pace. My own comfortable pace was quite a bit slower than everybody else is so I ended up off the pace in 16th.

I was happy because now that my race was out of the way, I could help out the other people racing. We are a bunch of friends that hang out at every race and we scratch each other’s backs. Not literally however. After my race was over, I sat down and washed everybody’s bike and over the next few days feed people, carried clothing for them, cheered them on. And everybody thanked me, that was nice but you guys have done the same for me so I needed to pay you back. So, this goes out to all my bros: Thank you for helping me out even though I didn’t have such a great race.

In the spare time that I wasn’t being assistant team manager I was trying to recruit new riders for our college team. I talked to a bunch of dudes but none of them were real excited about Brevard. Oh well. Thad on the other hand was stoked about the number of riders he talked to.

I wasn’t able to take many pictures but there are quite a few on facebook and such. I’ll try to post some other links later on.

In other news, I’d would defintly watch out during collegiate season. Tristan Cowie is going to be doing something very different. If it turns out good then he might be doing it more often. Stay in touch.

P. S.
Matt St. Marie is the winner of the question. Finally. He will get a clapped out Small Block Eight and a certificate for being a true UH-merican.
Late,
T

Tuesday, no wait...

Tuesday. Actually, no it’s Friday but who’s checking. I always race on Sunday in my mind so today is Tuesday but it’s really Friday but you guys don’t really care. Last night was interesting, I slept on a chair. I wasn’t able to go to my “room” so I just sat down and went to sleep on a fold out chair. Not very comfortable and it feels like I gained ten years just in my back. Why didn’t I go to my bed when my mothers left, you ask? Well, turns out that although I woke up during the night I was beyond caring at that point so I just stayed in my chair.

What’s up for today? Uh…not sure, I need to find internet some place so I can post this post. Then at about 2ish I’m going for a ride with the Saint. What will I be doing in between then? Um…not really figured that out either. I thought if I could decide when my ride is I can structure my day around that. Because riding my bike is more important than everything else right? Ha! Try telling my mother that during exams. Or right now, when I should be spending time with my relatives. Oh well, I’ll figure out something to do.

These are very involved blogs, but I really don’t have anything else to do (because I don’t have any internet). I could set up mom’s mother’s cable, but that’s really not what I picture as a good time.
Anyway, I need to start figuring out things to figure out. So I’ll be back soon.

Lame Post Sorry

Not as bad as I expected. But I’m not feeling like I gained ten more years on my life. I think the most stressful parts of planning and putting together the trip are almost over with. That could all change in a day though.

For those of you who don’t know, the trip I’m talking about is the trip to the national mountain bike championships in Vermont. To be more precise, the ski resort, Mount Snow. Great course, great place, good times. It looks like we are planning to leave on Monday and drive to Timmy’s place in Virginia and finish the drive on Tuesday. I race on Thursday and I have the rest of the week to sit back and relax and of course, cheer on my bros.

But you guys don’t really want to know our travel plans. I’m finally back in my adopted home town of Brevard and playing catch up on all the gossip going around the shop. I staying and writing this blog at my grandmother’s house who now lives in Hendersonville, which is about half an hour from Brevard. My aunt and uncle also moved there and we just got back from visiting them and a great dinner. I’m trying to figure out what to do tomorrow. It seems like there’s so many trails to ride I just can’t decided what to ride.

Hopefully there will be internet at our condo in VT, last year there wasn’t. I’m going to attempt to post daily updates on the race. Not only our racer from my team but I’ll try to do everybody. I’ll probably forget most of them though. I actually can’t wait until the race because after Thursday all the pressure will be off me so I can just hang out and help other people with their races. I’m probably not going to do the short track on Sunday so I’ll be out of all racing after Thursday. I can actually watch the races instead of watching for five minutes and going back to the condo to rest.

My mother and my mother’s mother are researching stuff on the computer in my “bed room” so I’m trying to find stuff to do to chew up time. We’ll be in touch.

Definition of "On Crack"

The Infamous Professor

Professor Chaos.



Which is what is about to happen. The next two days are going to be reasonably chill; but starting Monday: pure, utter, chaos is going consume my life. I'm trying to enjoy my next few days at the house before I leave for nationals. I just love the fact that my sister leaves all (well I will give her some credit, most but not all) responsibility of packing and making sure we have everything together up to me.


Anyway, I'm starting a new trend with my blog. I will not complain as much, hopefully. Most of my spare time is spent complaining so I'll stay off of it for a while. I'm trying.

So, there has been a ton of stuff happening during the past weeks, but at the same time there hasn't really been anything happening either. I've been trying to find something else to write about other than racing but most of the other stuff usually follows the lines of complaining so I'll skip that too.

I've written about three paragraphs already but I still haven't said anything yet. I guess I can start with the latest race report for the SERC in Chattanooga. Great course, a little long but still fun. The trails at the top of Raccoon Mtn. are great to ride, but maybe not the best to race. They are tight and twisty so the passing is not very good. We had a pretty good turnout and a very top heavy field. It all stayed together once we got in the woods. To make a long story short, I was second first lap and missed my feed so I ran out of food the next lap and pulled the plug on the start of the third. Although, I hate DNF'ing a race I thought this was the best circumstance. I was using this race as a tune up for nats and I wanted to get in about two hours of hard riding. When I packed it, I was right at two hours and I still had about 45 minuets to finish the race. That's a little long for a cross country race. Thomas Turner won with a time of two and a half hours and that's pushing it.


There I go again, complaining. Sorry folks.


I'll add a picture, that might make it better. Courtesy of Gone Riding, thanks guys.

This was one was on the first lap when I was still in contention.

So, what have I been doing other than racing?

Good question, let me think.

Sitting at house, stripping the stain off and then re staining a deck, riding my bike a lot, making some sick coffee from my new french press, and as usual wasting time on facebook.

The pen is not flowing the ink this morning so I think I'll pack it up and try again later.

T