2005 The Year in Review

It never fails your celebrating the New Year & before you know it the years over & its time to celebrate the start of another year. 2005 has been a big year for me. It started with me starting a new job, buying a house, getting married, finding out I'm going to be a daddy to a little baby girl, I started back bike racing, going on the greatest road trip, getting a new puppy, made a lot of new friends, winning a state jersey, & the beginning of my blog. Thanks to the blog most of you have already read about all of these but sometimes its good to reflect.


I have to say the best moment of the year is finding out I'm going to be a dad & marrying Amber. I'm also very proud of her for deciding to go back to school, buckling down & making tons of sacrifices & graduating Massage Therapy School with a perfect 4.0!


2005 also saw me start back bike racing after a long hiatus. I was a little leary about coming back in as a Cat 3 but it seems to have worked out. It also saw me finally retire the Beast from daily riding and get on board a Dura Ace equipped uber light ride. This year racing has allowed me to meet a lot of great people. I have a lot of good memories some painful, some funny from all the racing I did this year. One of the coolest moments I had racing I wasn't even on the bike; It was cheering for CMAC & VanFasten at State Cross. The most painful was peeling of @ State Crit & realizing I'd left Super G out to dry; there was pain in my legs because I gave it every thing I had but couldn't quite deliver him to the line. Results weren't so plentiful this year but they weren't really expected. I was just happy to be out there competing. I did get a couple of State medals which was cool. 2 TT medals(1 in theory since I don't live in Arkansas) & one in Cross.



2006 is already shaping up to be a life changer. I'm going to finally have to figure out how to mange my time better because I'm no longer going to have to worry just about me. Hopefully it will make me more disciplined. So to all you out there Best wishes in the New Year, may it be a great one for us all.

ICC Saves the Bonk

The weather changed enough to be considered fair today and unlike yesterday almost no wind. With conditions very favorable I decided to tack on some mileage & ride over to Stokers to meet him & ICC for a few hours. Stoker spent the day chilling in the back in preparation for an attempt @ 300+ miles in 4 days(actually 3 days of riding)! With my hours getting a little high this week I think I'll let him have that to himself & I'll just tag along for 3 or 4 hours of each day. Coming back into town we had a nice little tail wind & was able to pick up the speed enough to get my avg for the ride up over 17 mph. I had to do a quick fly by of the Pettus Mansion to grab a Payday & Snickers Marathon bar to give me enough fuel to get home since I was riding on empty by that time. It would have been a long slow ride back with the tank on empty. Plus I would have had trouble explaining the crater I would have left to the Highway department. I ended up with 3:15 for the day which puts me @ 12 hours for the week.

On the baby front Amber keeps telling me the baby can taste food she's eating. Now I'm a little skeptical about this since taste buds are in our mouths. Since the baby currently feeds through the umbilical cord I'm thinking its unlikely she actually tastes the food just reacts to certain sensations. But its a question we're going to ask @ the next OB appointment because Amber is always trying to prove me wrong.

Windy!

Once again this week the quickly becoming regular Wednesday afternoon ride left from my house. Since it was just Shano & me we did a repeat of last week's loop with the pave' section thrown in. I got to see his new Nano. Holy crap its smaller than my penis after a cold ride! Today was one of those rides if you didn't have someone to motivate you to ride sitting on the couch sounded very good. We braved the 20+mph winds & headed out. Before you know it we'd covered 40 miles for 2.5 hrs QED. That gives me 8.75 for the week. 20+ is becoming more and more a possibility if the weather holds & it looks like it will. The last 3 weeks of solid training should set me up nicely for some quality hours of training in January.

Global Warming

71 degrees on December 27th? Who would have thought it? Believe it or not this only tied the Springfield record for this date previously set in 1971(good year). If you didn't get out & ride today I don't know what kind of weather your waiting for. I rode with Stoker Ace tonight in shorts & a jersey. Only toward the end did I have to put arm warmers on & my vest. We rode out Cherry to 125 & over to Rogersville with a nice little Greeker loop that added 20 min & a very cool little pave' section. Ended up with 2.5 hrs for a running total of 6:15 for the week. Tomorrow the weekly Wednesday afternoon ride is once again leaving from my house hopefully with Shano this time so I can throw in the pave' section. Its starting to look like a big hour week (maybe 20+?) in the saddle which will be a nice way to end the year.

60 F'ing Degrees on the day after XMAS!

That's right its warm out there. ICC, JJ, & I got out & put in over 3 hrs. I got a little more since I rode over & back; ended up with 3:45 for 63ish miles. A great day. We rode the Wednesday Night/Clever loop which has a boat load of climbing. Staying seated with just the 23 is becoming a challenge. But I'm starting to notice some gains already. Hopefully with a few 10+ hr weeks I'll have some beginning to work with. Just wanted to keep the riding side of the blog updated. Now I'm off to watch Kong with my lovely wife. Later.

Happy Boxing Day

No its not Ultimate Fighting's National Holiday, its the day after Christmas. Santa was good to me this year. I got to spend time with all my family & a vast, vast majority of Amber's family. My sister gave me the hook up with DVD's of American Flyers & Breaking Away. Plus my nieces got me an ATARI.
My In-laws went all out & got me a Cyclops Fluid Trainer. Amber says its so I can spend more time @ home. Really its to help my warm up routine which sucks to put it lightly. One of my areas of focus for 06.

On the riding front took 2 days off after Fridays marathon. 5.5 hrs put me @ 12hours for the week. I'm getting ready to meet ICC & JJ for 3 ish today so that will be a good start to the day. Hopefully everybody had a safe & snowy(if yourSDJ) Christmas.

Cycling Skip the next Pandemic?

Nope the point of this entry is not to bag on Ryan, though I was tempted. Shano has caught the pandemic sweeping the cycling community this time of year. You guessed it the Cycling Skip Pandemic! Its tragic folks he waited to the last moment to call & bail on this weeks Wed afternoon cycling host ride. I was heart broken since it was my week to host the ride. I came up with a relatively flat 40 miler just for him. He waited till Sophia awoke from her nap then poked her with a spoke to get her to cry in the background of his bag out call. Really his little one is teething so I'll give him a hall pass on this one since next year I'll probably be making the same call.


SVA, El Prez, & ICC did show for a ride on a relatively nice afternoon. I ended up with an almost even 40 for a total of 2:25 so that's 6:25 for the week with 6 straight days in the saddle. Tomorrows forecast is really tempting me to go against my best judgment & ride anyway. I really need a rest but good weather is hard to come by this time of year, but it would be nice not to be a blathering idiot @ the end of Fridays 100. SO perhaps I'll have to go to Patton Alley instead and drink a few Bellhavens to Carbo load.

Tuesday Night ride

Last night was an easy ride in semi warming temps, almost balmy for this time of year with the temp hovering around the freezing mark. I went a new route with my feet. Thin wool socks, fleece socks, & 2 pair of booties. Feet stayed fairly warm. But we only rode 1:45 so not sure how the new "system" will work out for longer winter rides. The 1:45 puts me @ 4 hours for the week. Not a bad start to the week since I'm now 5 straight days in the saddle today making six with a planned 2.5 hrish ride planned. Will have to Ryan Thursday since talk of a 6+ hour ride is in the works for Friday.

I'm going to work on getting my little girl's ultrasound pics scanned & posted sometime today to get my mom off my back. We don't have a name picked out yet(had a boys name of course). Shane your idea got vetoed pretty quick by the wife, sorry. I think Ryan is a cute girls name but its already taken.


The true meaning of why we get out & freeze our feet off in the winter time!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a mad dash to get in my hours before XMas I decided to ride the usual 4pm jaunt with Stoker & ICC. I bundled up grabbed the blinky & headlamp(no need for the Jet with ICC's new light WOW is it bright!!!) There was talk of only doing an hour and a half but somehow we ended up rolling along for 2 hours 16 min(the last 45 min @ a mad dash in an attempt to stay warm). We got back to Stokers house @ 6:30 well after dark. Once the Sun went down it got cold in a hurry & my feet turned to frozen lumps. By 8pm feeling had returned to them enough I could recognize that I was standing on them when I walked around. In all my years of winter riding I have yet to figure out a good way of keeping them warm but no matter how cold its still better than turning miles on the trainer.

Sunday

After driving more miles to go ride than I actually rode this week decided to take a spin from the house. So I loaded up the MP3 player with plenty of tunes & bundled up to head out nice & early. Ended up with a good 2 hour ride(that makes 8 for the week). I did manage to freeze my toes solid again. I'm thinking one of these days my feet are just going to drop off.

Finally got all my lights up heres a quick vid of it.

Toys for Tots...... The Chumps tackle like girls!!!!!

Yesterday was the 2nd annual OCC Toys for Tots ride. Pretty good turn out 8 or so people. All week long I'd been anxiously waiting the return to the saddle of Stevie I. But I bought the hype on the web & got suckered in to waiting & what happened? He showed up in street digs sans bike. WOW! & I had planned on a super easy ride & I even broke out the AR tow. But he did have an excuse honey does & a BDAY party for a fellow December baby. So we'll let it slide this time. Did get out for 2.5 hrs which makes 6 for the week.

Spent the rest of the day bbqing brats & watching the Chumps tackle like cheerleaders with my in-laws. If I owned the Chumps I'd refuse to pay them for that game. PATHETIC! The cheerleaders could have done better. ARRGGHH!

Friday Night Lights 2 MTB Style(a little style lots of dabbing)

Since I've slept about 3 hours in the last 24 or so I'll go ahead and post now so my Mom doesn't wig out again about lack of posts. This makes 2 today one being video. Yeah me! Now on to the happenings. After work this AM Amber & I spent 2 hours in the Greene County Courthouse & The DMV getting our personal property tax stuff updated now we're no longer living in sin so we could get tags on our vehicular objects. After that I caught my second wind so had to drink a few beers before my daily nap.

Anyway on to the point of the blog. Friday Night Light Ride. MacANutt, Sponges dad, & I dug out & blew the dust of the MTB's for a little ride. I forgot my headlamp so being a little hungover & a lot sleep deprived I rode like poo. Some how I was the only one to end up without a red badge of courage. I think Shane felt bad for me riding bad so deliberately threw himself to the ground a couple of times. MacANutt tried to impale himself on a stick. After the 60 minuteish ride(thats 3.5 hrs for the week) in the FRIGID Temps we broke out the grill. Shane did up some brats & got a nice pallet fire going. Now my belly's full & I have a nice rebuzz so off to bed. Hopefully there will be a big turnout for the Toys for Tot ride.

VIDYAH

Not biking but it is me unlike Skips Video blog

Tour De Canine

First I have to apologize for going the way of Skip & missing a few days. My mom was quick to let me know she was unhappy with my lack of posts. So to bring everyone up on the week. Monday no riding. Did go to the Baby Doc but he was delivering so we saw the Baby Nurse Practitioner instead. Same old same old, except Amber had to have some blood work done to determine the cause of her ongoing daily headaches. Seems her enzymes are a bit elevated so she'll get a little more attention from the Baby Doc for awhile, plus miss a few days work to lay in bed. Tuesday saw me do nothing but sleep & again no riding. Was awoken to almost my entire family stopping by for dinner(Mother, Sister, Brother-in-law, & twin nieces) so that was pretty cool.

Wednesday was the Tour De Canine from Sponges house(Shane's but I saw who runs the roost there). From the second I pulled up the precedent was set. Sponge immediately crawled in the Scooby for an inspection. He spent about 5 minutes sniffing before I let him in on my dogs stash of treats. Then I got to watch Shane chase around the neighborhood in full kit looking for Sponge who was hiding just out of site. Finally all were accounted for: VanFasten, El Prez, Shane, FrozeToes, & Dr. Doggie.

Shane had picked out a very cool loop around the country roads of Ozark & Highlandville. This route included more dogs than I've ever seen on a ride. I'm guessing it was the Vet but I could be wrong. We even got to witness the Rasta Dogg in all his Dreaded glory. Froze Toes had to bail early to preempt a case of Frostbite on his meekly gloved hands Dr. Doggie followed him back In case of needed medical attention. While the 4 of us explored some more backroads including the 2nd gravel road of the day. I would have guessed that a guy the size of Shane would have picked a route with few hills. I have to hand it to him, lots & lots of climbing included the finish up the dreaded Alpe De Sponge(had to finish with a dog reference). Shane has come onboard with the idea of all early season hills should be rode in the saddle which both of us managed with some struggle with a 23 being the smallest gear(might have to rethink that). Ended up with a good 2:37. The plan is to add a few more hours this week & next in a build up to J1's base miles.

Nice winter day

Today being not as cold as yesterday I couldn't pass up a chance for an easy spin. I drove over to ICC's to head out South of town. Not having to put every piece of winter gear on was nice. The 2 of us leisurely covered 2 hours avg 16 mph. That gives me a whopping 4 hrs for the week. Actually that's 4 more hours than I had intended for the week but oh well they were easy miles. I have begun my old training ways of not climbing out of the saddle till I have a thousand miles in my legs. Since the odo resets Dec 31 I guess I'll have to start the thousand over so more time sitting & spinning. We were treated to piping hot chili thanks to Julie after the ride. I'm now missing part of my tongue due to severe burns, but it was tasty after working up a hunger.

This afternoon I finally got around to putting up the XMas lights. I also got to watch A Christmas Story for the first time this holiday season. This week should hopefully see the return to the weight room & climbing wall. Mon is another Baby Doc appointment.

OCC XMAS Party 2005

Last night a vast majority of the who's who of Springtown cycling showed up @ Mr. & Mrs. ICC's new house to celebrate the holidays. Notably absent was Skip. Guess he still hasn't got unglued from his saddle. I did hear a vicious rumor from Super G that he did get out & ride yesterday. We can only hope the burnout is on the mend.

Yesterday AM 8 of the hardy came out to spin a few miles to make room for the evenings libations. VanFasten, El Prez, Stoker Ace, ICC, Coach Norton, Jason, Judge Dredd all bundled up to brave the sub freezing temps. It actually wasn't too bad once you got going. VanFasten, Prez, & the Coach struck off on the long loop for their mandatory 3+ daily hours, while the rest of us mere mortals pulled off @ the Boaz loop.

The audio post right after this is a cross over post from SVA. Since he's a no frills blogger I got him to guest blog on mine. That makes 2 guest blogs in 2 days. Though now there seems to be a challenge match forming up between the 2's Super G & VanFasten.

December 8, 1971

That's right on this day 34 years ago my mom was giving birth to a 10+lb baby boy named Scott. Its crazy that such a fat ass baby grew up to be a skinny ass dirtbag. Life is full of Y's in the road. Go this way, one thing happens, go that way you get run over by a Mack Truck.

About 4 years ago BDays pretty much stopped having much meaning & excitement for me. Growing up BDays are great unless your born in Dec. You can pretty much can count on snow canceling your BDay party. I was lucky enough in 1980 for it not to snow so I could have a party. Guess what? Some wacko walked up & shot John Lennon dead. Put a real damper on the night once my mom found out & started crying.

But growing up you can't wait to get older. You want to be 13 to be a teenager. You want to be 16 so you can drive. You want to be 18 so you can vote(really buy porn). 21 so you can drink legally(or drink so much you pass out & wake up 3 hrs away from where you started, wow was that a BDAY!). At 25 BDays take on new meaning. Now your getting old. 25 means your a 1/4 century. 30 well its just another decade. This year I starting racing again so thanks to the USCF I've been referring to myself as 34 all year so its grown on me already. But now I get to race as a 35 year old. I'm finally a MASTER!

CDC

Last night when I got up to go to the OCC monthly meeting I was greeted by 2 messages; 1 from the CDC in Atlanta & 1 from the State Health Dept. It turns out AR Nationals has had a few confirmed cases of Leptospirosis. So they are tracking down all participants to check on their health. I've actually been getting emails from them for a week or so, but since I wasn't sick I forwarded them on like asked & ignored them. This AM I got interviewed by a nice lady from the State Health Department about cuts, scrapes, my time spent in water, what I drank, ate, if I wore pants, specific sections of the course & how long we spent on them, If we walked through pig shit. It was a scary 10 min interview to find out I was ok because I'm past the incubation period. Not really the kind of call I'd like to have again anytime soon.

Springfield Crosstown Missouri

Kansas City may have taken the right to host State Cross from Springfield, but we brought back most of the jerseys to Springfield. Count em Three (3)! We ended up with 3 firsts, 2 seconds, a 4th, & a 6th. Not too shabby.

My State day started off bright & early @ 4:30 with Amber's new found inability to sleep. She can no longer toss & turn. She now gets to roll to a side struggle to sit up, flop to her other side, then lay back down. I managed to sleep through 10-13 turns but the last one woke me from the dead & it was go time. So I got ready to go, checking & rechecking gear & the Weather Channel(believe it or not they never changed the forecast to mid 60's for me). Amber decided that little sleep & standing in an Antartic simulator was a recipe for disaster so she decided to sit state out. She did inform me that sure as s@#$ if she stayed home I'd win State. ICC called me soon after to let me know the protruding rib was killing him so his job as cheerleader would have to be filled by others. So into the car solo I went to speed North to catch the C's race.

I found the venue(unlike Mr. & Mrs. Uballez-Magellan-GPS) in time to catch the last 1/2 of the race. It was a balmy 18 degrees with a windchill of 6. I hit the tent in time to see Pornstar Emory go though the barriers to announce he was in first with a big gap. Soon behind was El Prez chasing in 4th. With the mixed format I wasn't sure who was from where. It turns out Missouri swept first 4 or 5 spots in C's! It was cold enough to turn the Merms porn beard into ice.

2005 Missouri State Cyclocross C's Champ The Merm!

After putting on every piece of gear I brought I attempted to "warm" up. It turns out the course was only open before I raced an hour before my race so I was forced into a full hour warm up, way more than my normal. The call up was a TOTAL JOKE FOLKS! If you didn't live in the greater metro KC area you were relegated to the back. So much for fair. It was the same for all the races. The USCF official basically shrugged it off. Nice! I had to do a double take to make sure Sandra from Arkansas wasn't helping officiate. I guess AR & KS have special homefield rules. Anyway I got a crappy start in the Master's race(oh yeah I raced Master's after much anguish about which is better to sweep the B's podium or maybe bring home a State title? Took me 2 weeks to decide). So I'm stuck in about 12 out of 35 after the transition to grass. Basically I had to sprint my ass off to get to 6th by the start of the 2nd lap. I paid for this effort later. I got into a good group of 4 working pretty well together for about 3 laps. Then at the railroad ties Tilfords brother decide to fall into me. So I pushed his big ass into the ground & started chasing back to the other 2. They got a big enough gap that I never could chase back on. So now I had to ride not knowing my state position just that I was 8th overall & a huge chase pack was behind. I hit the bell lap & have to start mentally telling myself "7 minutes to go, 5 minutes to go, 3 to go, out of the saddle, sprint!". It was a very onesided conversation. But somehow I managed to cross 8th overall in a very fast Master's field & win the 30-34 Missouri State Title. Double J came oh so close to a jersey in 35-39 but a super fast
wheel change by pit gurus Super G & CMAC could only get him back into 2nd.

Not racing the B's gave me a chance to become the average deranged Belgium Cyclocross fan. I took one for the team here. I rang my cowbell so much I put a blister on my finger. I had more fun spectating than I had racing on this extremely fun course. I got to cheer for VanFasten CMAC, Nate the Prof of Pain, UBallez the Navigator, & Cyclophobia aka Skip. I went from freezing after my race to sweating my ass off running around yelling & screaming. Now I have to admit I cheered more for CMAC than Vanfasten but he had it wrapped up & CMAC needed the mental push to keep the gap to the chase group of 4 & he actually opened it up. Nate caused me to hit the pits to fix my bell. Uballez rode a strong B's race since he missed the start of the C's circumnavigating KC. Cyclophobia seemed to have applied super glue to his saddle & insisted on never getting off it. Skip I looked there is no rule against getting out of the saddle. VanFasten won once again, Cale put the greatest mean on look I've ever seen to finish 2nd. Great job boys! The guy who finished 3 rd overall is the guy who took me to the line last week in St. Louis so it looks like we could have swept the podium, sorry guys.

What a 4 day AR race does to your knee. Thus the reason my left knee now bothers me so much. Oh the things we do for fun! 

Track 2005 goes off gently into the stadium lights

Wed was the final track session fro cross season 2005. That morning I had to stay @ work till 11am taking a refresher CPR/First Aid/O2 administration refresher for my first responder responsibilities @ work. So I didn't get to bed till noon so a quick 4.5 hrs of sleep later I wasn't too interested in getting out of bed let alone go run circles. But the desire to complete all but one of the track sessions overwhelmed me(I missed one for AR Nationals). I ponied up, got dressed & went to the track. I was relieved to hear the workout was "only" 6 x 400 in 1:30 for me. YEAH! 1:28, 1:28, 1:26, 1:28, 1:21, 1:24. The last 2 required running @ 90% from the 200m to 300m mark. 1:30 to follow everyone else's view point did feel "easy". I'm now tempted to try my form out @ one or 2 of the holiday 5k's around town. I hate not to break 18min this year & 2 years ago I won one of these outright.

Yesterday I paid for the makeup sleep over the holiday weekend. Too much sleep meant insomnia this week. So I ended up sleeping 10 hrs yesterday. 10 hours you say? For those of you who follow my sleep deprivation you know that is 2 "nights" sleep for me.

State is this weekend so the season comes to an end. A quick 3 weeks of active rest & holidays & its back at it in a build up to the start of next season. Stay tuned for my season in review highlight blog: The highs & lows. I've also decided we need to rename Skips blog to Cyclophobia