Friday

Todays ride was superb. 115 miles with no bonk, the last time I did this, I hit the wall HARD at mile 70. Headwind the whole way home though, not a well thought out plan.
Here in Austin, Nnamdi is showing Mark and I a time of our life. Mark and I already laughed so much it hurts. We got in the car, and laughed at a mini van parking in a compact car spot, it hit the truck next to him becuase there was NO way it was going to fit. Mark and I were laughing contagiously, making each other laugh more and more, while Nnamdi was trying to tell us something, but the fever spread to his car as he started laughing at us.
I'm going for the core training right now, and not so much 'on the bike time'.

Realignment

I've been trying to keep the back from going WHACK! Doing little things differently will hopefully help it to not hurt during hard races/rides.
And for all the people that think all I do is ride, I didn't even have a chance today. Yoga, work, and yes, even more work. It's amazing how little people know karate, and then they depend on Winkster to teach them.
So I'm planning on a 5 hour plus deathmarch tomorrow, Huntsville-CollegeStation and Back. Anyone interested?
Take a little recovery time, then head to see Nnamdi and Mark in Austin again. I need to ride Saturday so I'll be making last minute calls Friday night to meet with a groupo.

And just a personal note, get out and Cross it up, it's hard as hell, but the Houston Wed. Night cross races course is Saaaaaweeeeeeeeeet! -wink

I promised!

RHR CX. Maybe that stands for Royally Hott Race! I've never learned the 'proper' way to do this, but this is how Wankster X does it!













This kid was in Greenville, chasing that chicken. All I could think about was Mick in Rocky, "If you catch this chicken then you'll be like greased lightening." "NOW YOU GOT SPEED!"












This is from the cracks in the 'cotton patch' RR, some guy did this to his wheel, also notice the fork broken.

I'll try to get more photos later, it took 33 minutes exactly to get here!

mercy william, mercy

Lordy Lordy Mary! It's just been one of those weekends. I've had SO much fun, and it just goes to show you, that racing is about meeting with friends and getting out in different parts of the country. Austin is home of lots and lots of weirdos. And then you have Nnamdi. Nnamdi is one of the rare people from Huntsville that went to Huntsville School of Karate and graduated with a black belt by the age of 15. Which he goes on to fight at World calibar fights. THEN, not only does he get a 'second' degree, but also beefs up 55 pounds...and that's PURE muscle here.
So Jason, Nnamdi and I all get together in Austin to watch a Chuck Norris feature...the WCL< World Combat League. A full contact, intense fighting show. This was a real FUN night, lot's of fighting and some guys getting knocked the hell out!!! One guy in particular got knocked out so bad, that after 30 seconds on the ground, he got up, only to fall again. So, the trainer is summoned to help, but only to jump on the mat wrong, and break his leg. So not only does the guy who DID the knocking out get his glory taken away, the guy that NEEDS help doesn't get any, and the trainer is getting help first! haha, talk about irony. At midnight the fights ended, and we had to move our car, so it wouldn't get towed, but we somehow ended up going to the famed 6th street, unfortunatly just to walk around, as I forgot my wallet. We really didn't even get on 6th street, it was more like 6 and 1/2 street, and this Drunk as a Sailor on vacation girl came up and asked to walk with us.....we laughed and were able to accomodate her to some more bars. An hour of walking around and watching the scene is plenty for me. We headed home, so I could sleep before Saturday's cross race.
While Nnamdi was in the shower, Jason and I killed a whole bucket of cookies. Then I heard some neighbors and went to meet them. We spent the next 2 hours in the room next door, watching fights and talking. At 3 and heif hours in the morning, I called it a night....er morning and hit the hay.
The next day's cross race, was very hard, it was held at the time I normally took a nap, and since I was sleep deprived already, I was really tired. I think my 7-D last night was gonna cause much pain. Will Black and Cornfed were preped and ready as always, and I hung on to a very hot and hard 3rd place. Thanks to Dave Boyd for the ride...yet again.
Jason did his first cross race, and he too got 3rd.
That night we hit DADDY'S GRILLE, a whole slew of us, the folks(mom AND dad), Jason, Nnamdi, Doctor Dave, and myself. Daddy even remembered us!!! We engulfed the food, and then listened to Dave tell storys about 7 day adventure races. Nnamdi was floored, and made a great comparison....."He has more story's about 7 days than most people have about there whole life!"
The XC race, I lined up in the back, and was just hoping my legs would have some normal power. Once we started racing, I didn't find it too hard, but I just couldn't go any harder...the power wasn't there. So After doing 2 hours, almost getting DQ'd, and having no lube on my chain, I finished in 11th.....worst XC race in Texas EVER!
It wasn't all bad though, I got to see everyone again, and I know what I missed in training...so next time won't be so hellatious!
But I think I'm heading up to Austin again this weekend, to have a little bit MORE FUN!....and I know, I'm gonna post pic's, just give me some time to download them!

Just a normal couple of days.

Tuesday...yoga...ride...sleep...work...then hang out with friends. Andy didn't want to come play FIFA on the PS2, but we had 6 guys all playing on the same team. But playing on a 12" tv screen is kind of difficult, the colors get mixed up, and while I yell at Cesar for not passing, Chris would start laughing at him because he didn't pass. It was a great night that ended rather late....or early. Wednesday is always difficult for me, because I have to 'wait' to ride. It's all worth it though, the drive down to Houston at 5 o'clock is a haul. I would estimate, 100% of the Houston population was driving to the exact point I was. I showed up with just enough time to, put on clothes, air up the tires, pay entry fee, and preride just one lap. I've raced enough races to determine that I shouldn't go out balls to the walls if I haven't had a good warm up. So I decided to ride into the race, with a bit slower start, and the laps being AWESOME, and long, I could warm up easy in 10 minutes or so. BikeLane had 5 guys out and the return of Dave Boyd is prominate. It's really good to see a bunch of nice guys after a long summer. It just goes to show, that mountian biking(and some roadies) IS the reason to show up to some races.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I'll try to upload some and post them for the last couple of blogs.-wink

Texas Road Racing

So it was a plan of mine, two or three years ago, to start road racing to help bennifit my mountain biking. I always said, and continue to say I'm a mountain biker. I just so happen to be able to do pretty well at the road as well. Although, for some reason I've never really 'liked' it, and I always determine reasons why, but either it's too boring, or too gay.

I don't mean to offend anyone in anyway, but in Texas, we have tons of fast guys, some real strong guys. The only problem is, every one of those guys can win the race. Therefore, they WANT to win the race, ergo the problem ensues. When your able to win a road race, there is no reason to sit at the front and pull back the break that WILL win the race. And you get a few guys that try hard to work, and others sitting in to 'win'.

I'll always try as hard as I can, because in the back of my mind, it's all a game...training if you will. And if I happen to do well, which I WANT to do, then I just beat guys at their own game....very few will come play with me in the dirt.

This past weekend, the cotton patch in Greenville, was well, tough. The begining, I felt great...the roads were rather dangerous with 2 foot cracks wanting to eat wheels. I did lot's of work, and probably shouldn't have since I slept 2 hours the night before. By the time we got to the end 20 miles, with the ONE feed zone, it was attrition, the last bit was ALL head winds. It was a super tough 85 mile race, and ended up 6th....should've been 7th, but some guy thinks winning by holding on to a motorcycle is ligit.

The next day was a crit is Denton, I was already signed up but woke up to HEAVY rains and scary thunderstorms. I was mentally OUT of this race. I would line, up just to say I did, but wasn't looking for more. It just so happens, that the 'winner' of the RR, who was DQ'd, was in line right ahead of me. And I hear him talking to a teammate, talking sh!t about me....then about my mom. Any red blooded Texan whose met my mom knows how good a person she is. So when you talk about her like that, it's your life at risk. Of course I asked them if they had anything personal against 'Nathan', as they called me(only real folks call me Wink). "OH, no, we know him"....what a wussy way to back out. This fired me up, and I decided to do something in the race.

The race was a 3 by 1 rectangle. A slight hill, and my legs felt GREAT. I hardly saw my HR over 170. I was in a break that I thought would stick until Seagrave and mates pulled it back. The problem though was when we got caught, the 'real' attacks went, and I knew this, and wanted to go....the problem was the 3's integrated in our feild....one gets in the way and you have to wait until after the next two turns that were taking people down left and right. Then it was too late. So as not only ONE break gets away, a second grows, and the work I do on the front is to bring it back, but the Texas racing applys and all the winners behind me find themselves losing yet ANOTHER race. I ended up 9th....in a crit....in the rain. Is road racing supposed to be this easy? HA!

My philosophy...or WAF(Winks Awesome Filosofy)....winning is all that matters, you better bust your balls to do so.

Some funny things to show I still got it.

Random, creative Wink.













You have to check out this video of a fat kid....well, watch how the mother reacts!:http://ebaumsworld.com/2006/09/fatty-fall-out-of-ride.html

I guess this shows that I'm not cut out for being an operator:http://ebaumsworld.com/2006/08/911-call.html

WIN!

Win's spawn other win's. After the hard race Sunday, I had some real good naps and rest days. Tuesday I woke up for Yoga, tired and groggy, I would try and ride after I yoga'd it up. The only reason I get up so early is to yoga, normally I'd be sleeping in. But this day was different, I was trying a new radio station, and if you don't know, I really like music, like lyrics and knowing the name of the song. Well it just so happens the radio station gave me this lyric: "How can a person like you bring me joy. Under the pale moon, Where I see a lot of stars". The guy said it, and it took me a minute to put into context to sing it, but I thought to myself, I KNOW THIS! The guy on the radio that called in was like, Uh, I don't know, what a retard, I was yelling the answer to him. Well, it just so happened that the DJ gave me a number and I called in.....they picked up, I won a free CD, and got entered in a grand prize drawing! It made my day, I was happy to have gotten something for free...by winning it.
The ride on Tuesday was lull at best, the legs were still tired, even after all the rest, and only got in 2 hours. It seems as though my heart is begining to get like Sager's, riding at 140 beats going 22-25 mph. But you still feel the legs.
Wednesday was going to be my first cross race of the year. I headed down to Houston for a weekely cross series, more of a fun race in my perspective. The course was pretty rad, really made a choice between a hardtail or CX bike difficult. Some sections were tough on the CX bike, while some were wide open flats....CX advantage. Young gun Bennet Brown got the whole shot, but was riding a XC rig, I bridged up to him on lap 3 and eventually got past him. Taking my 'win' on Tuesday a bit further to spawn another W.

So how many people can tell me the name of that tune above???--no googleing.

Green party

Old San Jose got the best of me today....let me re-phrase that, they got the best of the whole P12 field today, sweeping 7 or 8 of the top 10. I myself went on to try to fight the odds and rode with every break that went. The good thing is, 100% of my team was there the whole time, supporting me, and riding "together"-as if we were one. I seemed to have had difficulty the past week with stomach problems, and eating only one honeystinger bar in an 86 mile race probably didn't help much either. I just couldn't see myself outriding 10 guys from the same team, playing great tactics non the less. I was SURE that the first break was sticking, an early attack, two San hosers, two Velossimmissmmmooo's, and two brains and a spine's. (and me). Half way through the race, Robbinette told me Willis wasn't feeling too hot, and he looked GONE! Adam 'Ozzy Osbourne' G.-was also giving lots of energy, while his new cat 2 teammate and a guy feared in the 3's, Tha Professor Eric Benz wasn't pulling too much for the groups taste. The BS guys were really helping me drive this break, Sol the most aggressive rider on the day, and his teammate Nathan helped get the break up to 2:20...or thats what we heard. A couple of miles later, some group, I don't know if it was the peleton or a break overtook us and I had to dig to make ANOTHER break stick. This break was SURE to go to the end, Sol, Robbinette and myself from the first break made it again, with a THSJ guy, Minturn and Annuutttteeeee. Riding hard got Anut dropped and we were going up the last climb's home, 10 miles or so, when Carlos Vargas(THSJ) and Scotty Vegeberg bridged up, we also heard the pack was over a minute back. Little did I know, that would be the beggining of the end, I was fine at that point with not winning b/c Vargas is pretty strong, esspecially when your uber tired. But after Robbie and Vargas went, and the chase was begining to look grime, a whole heard of San Jose guys bridged up out of nowhere, each one looked to be fresh and ready to attack. While I got stuck with guys that wanted me to pull as much as them....yes I know, even AFTER all the miles I spent off the front. But hey, I wouldn't have Texas racing any other way. Winding up for the sprint, all I had to do was beat ONE guy I was with to get 10th....that is until a flying Zach Fioca took 9th...and a black truck impeeded a would be sprint to the end. By the way, who lets a pack of 5 guys draft off of you in the last mile anyway??? I ended up 12th....a secure 4th...to a possible 6th....a hopefull 10th to a hard 12th.

After a hard ride like that, I found that my lower back gets "stuck" in the hunched over position. Causing various amounts of pain trying to do the simplest of things, such as walking, bending over to pick up things, or riding a shopping kart with one wheel wobbling down a Wal-Mart isle.

NICE....REAL NICE!

So on the way to his Championship run, Jason said he had some "mishaps", and it just so happens that Freeze was there to capture the moment. NICE!!!















I was just planning on doing some training this weekend...but it looks like there is a race close by...Good ol' Chappel Hill Road Race. I think I might try to make an appearance on Sunday, Shake and Bake!

If anyone is ever in H-ville, PLEASE call me up so I can ride with someone! I started Yoga to be around people...I've already increased my lung capacity 42%, and my flexibility 87%! Not only that but the new karate school opens tonight....and I have a personal invitation to go work out. I think that's a must, seeing that Jason isn't here to break my nose before a race.

Jason show's what Winkelmann's are made of. A certain expression was said like this, "Mexicans eat chips and quesso...Winkelmann's eat bread and BBQ sause!"
It's true, it goes with EVERYTHING. I highly recomend it.











The costume crit was done by these two critters. Somehow, Spider-Man is doing the 'racing' part, WITH that cover over his mouth! -notice the cycling shorts under the suit....I'm not CRAZY!

Jason's costume is SpongeBOB...for the layperson, it's a kid show, and I'm telling you from 5 hours of work, that it is AWESOME!












How do you sprint on pedals like this? Apparently the pedal can't handle the 2500 watts I throw down during my warm up....that number above was pulled out of the air and have no corrilation to my real power.

Camp Eagle and what not....

Didn't go quite as well as the 'plan'...thats one reason why I never make plans, you have no expectations that way and don't get let down when something doesn't go your way. Friday was more or less, a travel day, no preride, no ride, no nothing. No biggy, I'd just get up and do the preride in the morning.

RaceDay1. Super D, the course was pretty cool, short, but better than Sonoma! Started off with a real open jeep road that had a few pedaling spots...then "BOMB" down this huge hill, hit some single track and then pedal it home. Now when I say BOMB down the hill, I say this with no sarcasim, the descent was rocky, and uber fast, easily hitting 30 mph...and I wouldn't be surprised if we hit 40.
So on the start line, they call us up...and we're facing this jeep road...ON the bike. No lemans style start, or a run to the bike. The start was crazy and I found myself in the position that I was in, in many of the NORBA XC races....2nd from last. By the time I got around everyone, the race was over. I did have a pretty cool excuse though, my eggbeater pedal broke at the top, giving me only half the clip in surface...ergo when I unclipped inadvertatly I had major problems getting back on track...or sprinting out of the pedal itself. A 2nd place finish.
Jason had a bad ass race, finishing 1st, in his 1st ever super D. And he wonders why I call him CHAMP!

RaceDay1.2. Costume Crit. Spider man returned. Jason was there again, and being the fun guy he is, he took my advice and while at the Dollar Store for some last minute costume ideas, I thought....DUDE, be SpongeBob Square Pants!!!! And so it was concieved in my mind what the costume would look like....and the uneventful Friday night was spent making a costume with tons of sponges...Using my creative side of me is time consuming, as it has to look like what my mind see's, and it actually turned out pretty sweet if I don't say so myself( 5 hours later ). I ended up getting the fastest time, after a hard breathing effort trying to catch 'banana man'. Jason's costume hit it with the kiddo's and won the costume part.....SWEET!!!! Jason...thats 2 1sts!

RaceDay2. XC. The course again was pretty rad, some technical sections, long climbs, and a river bed section that was as bumpy as a fat woman eating curds and drinking marmalade.
The start was good, hit the climb and was caught out by a couple of guys that didn't want to go the pace of Fawley. By the bottom of the first downhill he had 30 seconds, and the chase began. I easily kept the gap to 30, but after the first creek crossing my left grip started 'motoing' on me. Brap turned into CRAP. Every downhill was slowed because of a non-stable steering device, and I soon found that climbing was hindered too. Everytime I turned the grip to go back to it's original spot, I would hit the shifter....concordinly I would shift OUT of my big ring, slowing momentum, which being a 'heavyweight' doesn't work out very good. Freddy Moore was rocking and caught me and had a go or two at it, before I finally got the best of him. Another 2nd place. I'm fixing the problems, and next time I think I'll try and avoid anymore....I seem to race better that way. -wink

Camp Eagle or bust.

We leave today to get to the race, I have to preride in the afternoon...I much rather like riding in the morning, when I have tons of energy to do stuff. Riding in the afternoon for me is "forcing" myself to ride. Oh, but I'm sure I can coax myself to do it just this one time, I mean Jason will be riding with me and he motivates me to just go do stuff and have fun.
Hopefully the Super D will go my way, with a good showing in the XC race....after the mishap I did at the Wed. Night Crit, I will be mentally prepared to hurt people! I know the legs are there.

I've been working on a 'dirty' little secret, and hopefully will get to reveal it later. Oh and if you get to watch a new release...The Benchwarmers is a funny flick! C y'all a the race-wink