I had to go to the dentist yesterday. My last checkup was great, 0 cavities. But last years checkup wasn't so great. This is about the time I was eating about a pound of candy a day. To say the least, I had 7 cavities filled.
Yesterdays visit was due to the fact that this 'cavity' wasn't fully developed....or to put it plainly, the dentist didn't want to make it 8 cavities, if this little one could make it and possibly go away.
Well it didn't.
So I sit for a short visit, and get the novacaine in the deep back part of my gums. Yeah, it numbed me up, but after 15minutes of letting it set, I was bored. So the dentist came in and drilled a bit.
OWWW.
More novacaine please. So 5 more minutes, and we try it again.
OWWWWWWWW.
MORE NOVACAINE please! Let it settle, and now I have had over 10 different shot sites in my mouth.....I didn't feel the second half, but I could see the needle getting situated....then plundged deep into my mouth.
Something like this is a scary site right over your eyes:
What if he dropped it right on my face?
I think it'd be neat though, to have been going through that ordeal again, but "I wanna be sedated" some on the stereo speakers.
Now I'm just recovering from some bruising where the needle went in so many times. I kinda feel like a fresh fish prisoner that took the wrong shower. But not really. But kinda.

I'm planning a race.

not just any race. a long race. well of course it'd be a long race, since my body has the reserves for such a race. this race will consist of many miles, and many racers. i will no doubt be by myself for some of this race. well i'd have to be by myself in a race against the clock, or an individual time trail. so yeah, fayetteville here i come. jmack better be glad, and don't push me too hard when we get in a break together.....this old body of mine isn't used to the road.
between having a sprint adventure race coming up on march 1 in cameron park with the diety of adventure racing himself. and saint jo the next day. and no lago vista(yay!). i really don't see any pre road races to fayetteville in the horizon. i don't even know the last time i was on my road bike. this could be bad......this could be michael jackson bad.

now to what grinds my gears:
you know what grinds my gears? litterers. however you spell it. people that litter. litterees. what makes someone think they can throw stuff away on someone elses property? but then again, dumpsters have a fine if you put your trash in them.

Today's post will summerize what happened this weekend.
I'd first like to congratulate Tristin Uhl for winning Valley of the Sun. Good job homie.
I'd also like to thank Mom and Magan and Jason for allowing me to complete and compete in the double marathon weekend.

Marathon 1: Terlingua Mountain Bike Race. Tons of guys preregistered. Tons of guys toed the line. One guy hit my bars while lining up, and took down himself and another guy, and a bike. I made it clear of my intention there, and I haven't even begun riding. I was gonna wreck shop.
We start the easy roll out, and I'm sucking dust. I make some suave passes, to get good position, but the race hasn't even begun. We cross the road, and I'm comfortable in 15th postition or so. We are CRUISING down the first section, and dust is everywhere. I run over anything in my path, bumps, rocks, sand....and I think a homeless guys cardboard home...I think. In the singletrack, guys are in a line. I'm comfortable, so I'm content. Then as the first creek bed area comes, guys let huge gaps open and I pass about 5 guys and bridge a gap to the end of the lead group.
Everything is dandy.
The Superfly rig is Flying Superbly over all the whoops, and doops. I am settling in a very doable 4 hour pace, right behind strongman Scott Henry. The pace got a little hot, and he is gapped, I can still see the group, but Scott is still motoring, and instead of passing and riding what I should have done....I waited. A little turned into a lot.
Then out of nowhere, the guy who gets 2nd, pulls past us. Scott doesn't hang on his wheel either. He must be out of form, because he's one of the strongest guys in TX. I pull around and get on the wheel.
Now the pace this guy is pulling is rough. I can hang, but it's definitly not something I would like to do on the first lap. Nonetheless, I make it to the climb, where the lead group is only 30 seconds up. I start the climb and hit my pace. I'm doing fine, actually making a little time...very slowly.
But here is where race strategy goes to crap.
My rear tire is hooking up great. Better than normal. But I notice that on some bigger rocks I am just gliding over....but also hitting the rim.
Half way up, I see a cameraman, and ask him if my wheel is flat. "Boy is it ever!"
I pull up to where the rough stuff starts, and decide to pull out the big air. As I started out with 28 pounds of pressure....I aired it up, to what I found out was a 55 PSI.
So I start back, after losing 30 seconds or so.
About 3 minutes after that, my chain goes inbetween my spokes, and my cassette. I catch it pretty fast, and jump off to pull it out and get the chain back on the correct cassette. Dangit, 20 more seconds elapse.
I climb the rest, now out of sight of the leaders. I get passed by the guy who got 4th, and decide to ride with him after the descent.
So as I'm pulling through the start area, the only part I didn't preride. I end up having to make a U turn to go get my feed. Baahhhh.
Half way done and I'm feeling it, that guy that I was riding with was motoring! So I start the second lap, and can now see a guy 35 seconds or so ahead. So I start chasing. Loren Dodson is only 30 seconds or so behind me now too. But I wasn't gonna wait on anyone. 20 minutes of riding and I close the gap ahead. The pace feels easy. Legs are feeling queezy. My stomach is growling and the wind was howling. The race was starting!
I make the long pull to the climb, into the headwind. With a guy in tow, and sitting 6th and 7th. I see Ray Hall ahead. 5th place. My place. Who knows who was ahead of him.
I start the climb and again hit my pace. A bit slower than previous, but the guy I was with was only putting a minute tops on the climb. And I was saving myself for a nasty descent!!!
I was bouncing this time around, as the rear tire hadn't deflated at all. But Ray was literitly 10 seconds ahead. Nat Ross was coming from below and was about a minute down. I can hold him off...pass Ray...and catch the guy I rode with. PERFECT!
Then as I'm hitting a switchback....a loose one, with a steeper incline, I must've downshifted. But not into a gear. Straight in between the cassette and spokes. I immediately shift to get it to realign, but I just made is worse, as when I pedaled it got deeper in.
Some choice words were spoken at this time.
I jump off, and start working on pulling it out. More words are flying, with an even more temperment to them.
Nat appears around the corner. "good job Nat, keep it up" I say, and he cooly passes me.
OK, so now I just need to take time and stop manhandling this thing, and think my way out of it. My hand is bloody, and I'm not really wanting to break something by forcing it.
This way doesn't work, and that way doesn't work. Finally, it sets. I jump on and hit the climb. Nat is way up the road.
I am climbing faster though. And I'm ready to descend.
I see him ahead, and I'm hitting the 44-11 regular. I'm flying down the caution arrrows. I bridge the gap, and Nat looked a bit suprised. Instead of resting after a long intense effort, I go ahead and make the pass, and keep pushing. Being the smart pro he is, he sits on and as I see this I go pretty hard. Then I see a small climb ahead. POOF. Nat is around me, and goes away again. Nothing much I could do, as my legs start feeling it.
So instead of finishing a doable top 5. I end up 8th. Which is good. But it looks as though racing the Smithville course instead of an adventure race is in my midst. My time was respectable though, with 4:15:25. 10 minutes off Sagers.

Marathon 2: After driving 9 hours after the Terlingua race, we find ourselfs in Austin for the half marathon. Magan was running her first one, and I told her I'd do it too.
We show up with 90 seconds to start. PERFECT timing!
BOOM, gun goes off and we start the 13.1 mile trek. Magan said she wanted about a 10 minute pace, but I kept it around 9:40ish for the most part.
I love doing these because so many supporters are cheering and so many running styles you can look at and often laugh at. Elf was even there running!
At mile 7, I turned to Magan, who has been sick as a dog leading up to this, and said "this is as far as you've ran huh?" Turns out, 5 miles was as far as she's ever ran.
Mile 10 and we were almost there. Haven't seen Jason riding his bike yet.
Mile 11, and here is a nice steep hill ahead of us. Jason is riding and somehow spots us out of 1000's of people. He starts singing and cheering so loud, and other runners were actually getting pumped. Some girls were getting hot and bothered with him around too!
The hill was tough, the only part that Magan wanted to walk, but a couple of motivating words kept her going.
The last mile she tried picking it up. Was trying so hard, and couldn't go any faster. We ended up with a 2:05:25.

Today I rest. But I leave you one thing to ponder. How do you think a woman, working at a sperm bank, can embezle without getting pregnate?

Ah, my back hurts. And it feels like those commercials where the red light flashes. I wish I could remember the name of that medicine that went and made the red light a green light. It kinda looks like this:
Hopefully that will clear up and just be from sleeping wrong. And so my preperation for Terilingua is thrown off again by my throat starting to feel the twing. Quick thinking by popping some Emergen-C in some water, orange juice and a thought of listening to Michael Jackson's "beat it", to get rid of it.
Top 5 this weekend and I'm cutting my hair. I do like the helmet hair I have afterwards though. But with 27 registered riders so far, it looks like my chances of cutting it are slim to none.....hmmm, maybe I should tell the barber that.
"Hello, what kind of haircut do you want today?"
"Lets go with slim to none, and take it easy on the sideburns pal!"

Paper Chaser

So, can anybody tell me how to make this picture my new slogan? I want some of what Nike is getting, but in a beter package. Just do it sounds kind of abrubt, and not very fun. But:"Shhhhh, JUST GO!". Now that can hit on all kinds of levels!

So I might finally be getting paid to ride bikes....I'm actually cooking up a deal to get paid to ride! I normally don't cook too well, so we'll have to spice it up with some salt maybe. That'll be nice, since I'll be sweating a lot more salt! What a perfect world.

Amy Winehouse happened to win a grammy.....don't the drug test those people? If Landis lost his Tour title for a little HGH or whatever, Amy should lose her grammy for a little Cocaine. As well as all the football, soccer, and baseball stars. Fair but equal. Equal and fair.

Speaking of sweating. How many mexican channels do we need? While driving home from Jason's the other night, I had no IPOD, or CD. I was seeking through the channels, and often landed on mariachie music. Which is cool, but not my cup of tea. And yes, I don't even like tea!

But besides the music, one thing has been getting on my nerves a lot recently. And I'm sure I'm not the only guy to do this....I'll probably be the only one to say I do publicly...but it's funny because it's true. Well, when you're forced to use a urinal, but rather a standard toilet, I normally get these great shots in the bowl. I mean, shots that deer hunters dream of. Shots that hockey goalies can't even fathom of stopping. Shots that professional athletes take. Then as I am peaking from my pitstop, that one little squirt pops out and lands on the seat. One little dribble. I clean it up of course. But this not only happens indoors. I've been plaqued with doing the business outside, pulling down my bibshorts for a quick go. It's good, it's good, almost done....dribble, and I have a drop on my shoe.....ahhhh, almost had it!

And I'll leave it at that....Shhhhh, just go.

Why? tell me why!

Ok, heres something I bet you had happen to you.
Why is it, when you're cruising down the road on the bike(or running in Corpus Christi), on a two lane road, with light traffic. That the car passing you, instead of going into the opposite lane to get around you, stays in your lane? Is it laziness? Too tired to turn on the blinker? I guess they think Cannondale's are very replaceable since they see them in Wal-Mart nowadays.
Ok, so now tell me why is it, when you are eating a baked potato, for example, that you eat all of the goodness it has, but on the last bite, you eat the foil. THE LAST BITE! I've had this happend with popcorn, the last bite was the kernal of a fully popped bucket. Or an apple, the last bite was the rotten part of a garden of edan apple.
I'm just glad you don't have that with women. Everything is great until the last....not bite, but instert a more postive, non sexist word....and then it is sour.

Riding was great yesterday, the cranks weren't faster, but then again, I didn't really try to hard. About a 7 on the precieved excertion scale. Normally I'm at 8.5. And I still went under a minute faster than what is a fast time.

How would I stack it up in a Triathlon is the big question. Triathletes are jack's of all trades. Well, I'd lose the swim. Do well on the bike. And try to hold on the run. So triathletes are beter than me. But take the same guy, throw him into an obsticle course style race, and I'd Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Dave Boyd, American Gladiator, Ninja Warrior, DMX, Ja Rule, Diesel all in one, flip, flop, fly, frog hop and whatever else I needed, to get through it faster. Now I just Jacked there trade!

Is New York having good riding weather? It doesn't matter, they're still Superbowl champs.

Argyle

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/plaid

I think this was Jonathan Vaughters idea for getting argyle on the team kits for Slipstream/Chipolte. And getting the brit, David Millar....that was from the line, "you spell honor like a brit!"

Finally good weather will permit me to go out and test a new secret crankset on my TT bike. Results will hopefully give me at least 2 minutes on a 40 km course!

Should've been the Cowboys

Damn. Had I forseen the cowboys getting unlucky, whilest the Giants got lucky, I'd've predicted this outcome. I knew the Patriots were gonna lose the Superbowl. I was sure it was gonna be by the boys, but along come the lucky ass Giants to win 3 should be loses.
Eli Manning is so horrible. He made the worst mistakes in the game, and Brady out threw him for yards, yet he still got the MVP. That was stupid, a definsive player DESERVED that. Like the guy that sacked Brady, what like 3 times, and striped the ball from him.
Anyways, I'm glad the Pat's didn't win, Cheaters never win!

So far this year has been good. I've raced solid, in all the races I've done, and I've yet to be close to any kind of peak. I did the 12 hour race at Warda.
I can't stand a 12 minute race at Warda, so I don't know what I was thinking.
It started off horrible. Jason was supposed to be behind me with Mom. So I paid for the car behind me, two in my car, two in theres.....$24 total. That ranch gets so freaking rich off of nothing. Over 200 racers, at 8 bucks each is like: 1,600 bucks! Minimum.
Then as I'm paying the $85.00 registration fee, Jason comes to me and gets mad becuase I left him. Well, hell, it wasn't him behind me afterall. Some guy got in for free, so I wasted 16 bucks on that. I WASTED that money on a place I really don't care about, a boring loop, that shouldn't be raced anymore. I will certinly be happy when the TMBRA comes along and I'm doing the Ouchita challenge in Arkansas with MOAT!
So after that, I get lined up, with running shoes on. I was gonna half ass try to win the sprint, but some track start gets a head start and I can't close the gap. And my plan worked perfectly afterwards.
The switching back to my cycling shoes, allowed for about half of the racers to be in front of me. So I would be forced to ride a slower pace, and settle in for 12 hours.
A 2X1 on the SS was a bit much for such a slow pace, I ended up swapping bikes after 4 laps, and got it switched to a 32X17. Perfect!
The early laps were slow going. I wasn't going to 'race' until hour 6. Then it was on the gas a lap, then off for the next.
In bike terms, the new Gary Fisher SuPerFly was the fastest feeling. Followed by the SingleSpeed. Then the Mamacita. But who knows, all those 'tests' were done after 12 laps and each got within 2 minutes of the fastest lap(I think technically the SuPerFly got the fastest lap by pulling a 32 min lap, but sitting around a few minutes cost that....and night was setting in)
So after all the time of riding the same loop 16 times I stop. At 10:30. I wait. At 11:15ish, Justin comes in and says he's going out again. Argh. I was so bored of this, I didn't want to go.
I procrastinated enough to go out at 11:25ish, and did the 17th. At 12:01 I finished. YIPPEE.
I think if I was 'racing' this race for real, 20 laps, maybe 21 would be within reach. I felt fine, the legs had plenty of juice....but I'd have to really dig in the mental bank to do another Warda lap. I just do as much as needed to get the "W".
Terilinqua is my next stop. I hope the superfly will be available to ride!!!!