I quit

"If you hear the sound of a chipmunk, get reeeeaaal still."
"But how will we know the sound of a chipmunk?"
"Oh trust me Joshua, you'll know.......Nft Nft Nft!"
Oh Wink, what have you gotten yourself into?
Today, I challenged a coffee drinker to a challenge. Probably because I want to prove that to stop something isn't hard, you just need to HTFU and do it.
You hear fat people say, "I'm fat, I want to lose weight" But when they get a workout, they want to quit and go home and eat. DUH.
Smokers are similar, "I can't help it, it's an addiction for me", maybe they prefer saying 'a dic on' me.
So to combat the stupidness of the lack of body control of your own body, I went to show that you CAN no matter what.
SO the challenge was for her to stop drinking coffee....in return I would stop something I absolutly LOOOOOVE. Candy. The sweet colors and sugar will be not near my mouth for a while. I'm cutting cold turkey tomorrow morning.
So because I know whats coming, I'm eating my fair share of the sweet goodness that God himself gave to mankind, I've already eaten about 50 starbursts, and 10 nerd packets.

I also want to give a thanks to http://kendausa.com/ . I love small block 8's even more now. That will be the key to beating Armstrong this weekend.

OOOOO weee

Lordy.....swatza tired swatza tired.
I just hit two days in the west texas mountains....well, more like the central Texas hill country. 150 miles, 8h30min, 5850 calories, 192 watt average. I like it, I like it a lot. Weather was superb, a bit chilly, but SUN and good vibes. Jason climbed a heck of a lot beter when he's confident. Magan did the deed too, hitting the descents beter than those in that race in France.... whats the name of it, the France Tour....Tour le France, something like that.
Ah, that brings me to my next topic, the Francey pants Lance seems to want to race mountain bikes this weekend. Well, How convienient! I had just confirmed I'd be there too.....I guess my people weren't on it like Lances, but get the word out, I'm going!
Yeah, and while your promoting my being there, I'll also be doing the 12 hours of Warda, also known as 12 hours of Winding Against Rational Decision Again. Cameron Chambers beter not show up this time.

I'm paper chasing hard this week, so recovery will be easy, but I'll tell you one thing....new carbon shoes, ti pedals, riding style, and a secret weapon will surely have people wondering what drug I'm on. Chigga Chigga Hell Yeah. Now Fogel take off the vest!

Weeeeeeeeee

So the Houston marathon got rolled my Mark and I again. What a blast! 13.1 miles and thousands of people. Although Mark ran with a different name on his nametag "THIRST". Ah, it was so funny when people would cheer for you saying " Go Nathan!!!....GO Thirst???" The hotel we stayed at was Dumb and Dumber worthy. I stayed in a place like that once, not as nice...but you know classy!

So today I give Dave the opportunity to ride Huntsville alone, while I go pick up groceries for the office. In line, I see 6 magazine covers of a fat has been:
Luckily this hefer isn't pregnant yet, or she'd be real fat. I just don't understand why she is getting all this attention to her. She can't sing. She doesn't look good. She dates white trash. And she is the appitamy of what a mom shouldn't do. But here we are putting her fat head on 6 front pages. Blasphamy! This picture looks like she ate a sheep and fell asleep in it's sheepishly soft skin.

A look back at the Excruciation Exam.(pun intended) This was the final bridge to Ric Tinney. Thanks for a great shot Hammid!

And Jason is finally gone, so begins the correct sleep cycle....mixed in with the perfect blend of intervals and a trip to Leaky, and I'll be seeing more pictures like the one above!

I'm We Tall Did.

A simple enough game, Guitar Hero, but amazing difficult. I find the Medium level my challenge point. And when the big riff comes, I find I just hit the first three buttons, and ignore the blue. Three of four is beter than zero of four!
Then while playing Metallica's "One", I find out direct that my failure is quite complete.

It's not even funny at how retarded I feel when playing, you send signals to the hand but they just won't work.

THEN I get on the powercranks:

The monstrosity that is retarded hits your legs as fast as Forest Gump running. Just clipping in is difficult, as you bring your second foot automatically to the top....while the pedal is at the bottom. At least I don't look as retarded as this guy.

So after getting on them and testing them out, I got serious, hit the retard in the head, and focused. In about 2 minutes I could ride them well. My muscles got worked, but I could do it evenly and consitantly. I guess pedaling fast circles isn't my cup of tea, because when I do the retard appears.

So note this, if you ride with me while I ride powercranks, get ready for a faster ride!

Happy New Year!

So much went on, and not one computer to blog it!

I'll recap what the big holiday beheld for me:

I started off with a week of dogsitting in Houston. Three huge beasts that tested the very fortitude that I own. Omletes were eaten whole, and if you messed up in a video game, you ate meat until you puke!

Christmas was good, I got my very own Dumb and Dumber tuxedo. I put out the vibe to say the least.

Then a trip to a Ranch house with Magan, and a new experience too. I waited. Yeah, and it was fun! Well, most people call it hunting, but I'll be correct in what happened. I sat in a cold ass deer stand, and waited. It looked as if I was a chain smoker, as the air from my warm lungs made clouds from my mouth. And as the deer ate the free food from the feeder, I dialed in the gun and shot it in the heart. So awesome. Then as I ate dinner at a restaraunt on the way home, I thought....what if someone is about to shoot me right now, while I'm eating. That would surely suck.

Something about getting the cross bike out with Jason seemed so right. He had my old scalpel, dialed in for the Torture Test. And 4 miles in the State Park, Jason yells that his bike is breaking. I figure the seat is lose, but the fork is 4 inches off. Then a sudden thud,and Jason is on the ground with a front wheel and bike seperated.

Nothing big happened on New Years, except I already broke my resolution. It took a good three hours though. I was going to try to go all year without farting.

The rest of the time was spent with Mark, beating "Hunter:The Reckoning" video game, yelling "DIIIIIIIEEEEE" to the zombies and those even rats. Jason concluded the festivities by joining Mark and I last night to fulfill our derlicting destiny!

Bikes make life easy

So while picking up 10 pounds of sugary goodness that I call Candy at Wal-Mart, I found out why I really ride bikes. I had the cross bike on the roof rack. I come out after the purchase and see ONE bike towering above the other cars. Easy.
Pedal a circle. Do that over and over. Easy.
Run errands on the bike, save time by doing so instead of using a car. Easy.
I'm getting lazy in the thinking department because of things like this.

What I laugh at is how easy some stuff is to do, but people don't do them anyway. I don't get mad at having to do the said task, but the fact that the person delegating the task to you to do because it is so easy is what erks me.
Instead of taking the trash out, a task that takes less than 1 minute. WHY would you get a pen, pad, and write down a note for ME to take out the trash. Something that would take about a minute to do??? Parents hold the key though, to instant slavery. Go Slavery!

Feed the Warrior!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zHtFixj0cWk

It just happens to be another Lance vid. I liked the part where he said "I just wanna get into some light cardio"....the look on Lance's face was priceless.

Now here is my question... Why is it, everything happens to you at one time? For instance, you NEVER get phone calls. But you go out on a ride, and BOOM, like 4 people call and want to talk or tell you something. I only ride 3 hours a week people, call me when I'm NOT riding!
Then, besides races, I only do something like ONCE a year that I make plans for. Then BOOM, get invited to go training with some guys in the Leaky area. Come on, you kidding!
So today, I have a little ride planned to do with Jason and Magan. Not much, but something to have fun with and call training. Then BOOM, get called up to teach Karate. Maybe I should just turn pro so I have to tell people I have to work. OR I could just sell some things, like some baseball cards.....a sack of marbles.....ugh'Petey.

HTFU

Through the years I've heard some very motivating things while racing. Some from friends, others from people I'll never know, and others.
Here is a list of(not limited to me) BEST MOTIVATORS.---Go ahead and yell one the next time you see me suffering.

~Dig in your suitcase of courage!
~Come on NATE!!!!(Mom does that one well)
~Venga, Venga, Venga
~(the drums at Virginia, or wherever that damn race is)
~You're in second place, you have to try harder.
~A chant of something good(my name, my race number, etc)
~Come on - your warm up ride's over - pick up the pace man - you got it - you got it - you got it - GO - GO - GO - GO!!!
~(it'd be cool if Jason could muster this one): pointed first at me, and then up the hill, and commanded to me, "SOLDIER, TAKE THAT HILL!"
~Yeah, Brian, Will, Scott....WINK!!!! YEAH WINK, and on a SINGLE SPEED!!!!!

I guess the only thing beter than a rose on the piano, is tulips on an organ ;)

Comment and say what you like, and/or what you'd yell to me.

Those were the good times

I look back on my life as of now, and see that sometimes I spent too much time riding. Sometimes I spent too much time with friends. Sometimes I spent too much time eating....more like most times. And as this year wraps up, I've been fortunate enough to have ensight to what has worked.

That picture was from 24 hour AR Nat's. Yeah we didn't win, but I was there, had a blast and learned a crap load more about more important stuff, like my brother, and how much my body can take.
I owe it to running.
Since I started running, I've not only not had to ride as much, but I've had more opportunities to race. Now I race Road, MTB, Duathlons, Triathlons, and Adventure races. The fittness gained from each sport seems to transfer to my other sports. So running helps me ride faster. And I only get to ride 2 times a week....thats it. Instead of 'training' those 2 times, I am out enjoying the bike, wanting to ride, going harder for periods of time, and getting the training in whilest not even knowing it.
Could I be faster on the bike...no doubt. I think I could probably turn pro.
Do I want to be faster....definitly.
But I'll tell you one thing, I've never had more balance of life, love, and family. Run on!

Super-Bad

So I finally got around to seeing SuperBad. And although it was French oriented in the language department, I found it rather entertaining! The cop's are probably some of the funniest characters, Seth Rogan and Bill Hader do a fine job of acting as the law. Below and behind the call of duty.
I'd like to have a go with a cop, no guns though, to see what they have under the hood. Could they really catch me if I was running from them?
I can see it going down like this:
I take something from someone, then the cops get all angry and chase me. So I run a bit through some neighborhoods, keeping them in sight, not dropping the hammer yet. Then wham, I hope on the bike, and start riding through the woods, hoping downed trees and cutting through streams. I'd come out of the woods and eat some skittles and let the heart rate slow, to find the cops dragging ass. So an easy jog back to wear I took the stuff, and give the baby his candy back. Then disappear from the scene with a ninja smokescreen to be never seen again.
-Poof!

I saw today that Texas' own Andrew Yates wrote in to VeloNews. He wrote about his story of booting a tire with a dollar bill. Pretty cool that he made it, but is it worth putting in another dollar for a tire that is trashed?
The weather isn't very favorable today, I guess around 70 degrees, and a little moist outside. I think I'm gonna watch this and get pumped up! http://youtube.com/watch?v=HjcZNR6MiRE

If Lance can do it with half of what I got, then there is not one reason to get out there and Just Do It. I'll be on the cross rig though, getting ready for the long dirt roads on the Torture Test. And although it might be cold going 20mph on the road, I'll cheat and go 15mph on some dirt road....maybe 12mph if it's muddy. Twice as slow, with the same workload. Thats winkology for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY8jaGs7xJ0

It's a catchy song, with funny lyrics, so I had to share it. Thats how you rhyme Lewd, food, nude, and dude together!

So, right now I'm wearing a Shirt, shorts, and sandals....and it's the middle of December. I am not complaining one bit, I'm actually loving saving the extra 10 minutes of a daily grind to find and put on winter clothes. I know some people like to think that Alpine Shop and Dynamic Earth will be a good subsitute team, but I look at it like this: Team Two Tired started off on the bottom rung, racing two person events, primarily because there was no other teammates equal enough to race with them. In the events that followed the next year, Two Tired was upgraded to a fully functional team, as backups or a subsitute second team. So even though Two Tired was together, and opperational, given the new team parameters of actually doing a race as big as Primal Quest, it wasn't deemed ok to keep the name. Especially since the TWO was now Four or three, and the tired part was more 1/4 of it.

So with all the doing of what I do, I want to do something good, and wish the fellow Texans heading out for Cross Nat's to Go Fast! Good luck guys

MOAT ain't no slow poke

My first race with the current National Adventure Race Champions, team MOAT, was everything I hoped it could be. Besides getting off track 10 minutes here or there, the race was smooth and steady. We seemed to take the normal approach to the race, as Shaun was on time at being late. Carlos was flying on the run. Leslie was complaining all the time, more of a ritual than actually hurting. Even Dr. Dave was out in support, riding a bling bling single speed.

The bike and run went very good, a steady base tempo was all that we needed. The canoe was cool in a 4 person boat, but the hurt left chest muscle made it hard to paddle correctly on the left side. And then my weakest event was even pretty good. The 400 foot zipline of doom..... it started just below the stratusphere where the platform stood, and the view was incredible, I could see my house from where I was. And you gotta keep in mind that we were over 60 miles from the house, that is how high up we were. I got attached to the zipline, and the guy who was helping me was telling me, I got you blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda.....anyhow, I tell him to get out of the way, my nerve was up and I needed to jump now. And so I did. It surely wasn't as bad as last years, crying and shaking at the top.

Afterwards, we had fun talking about the race, poking fun at what we did, and eating some of mom's chicken tortilla soup(which was the hit of the day!), and Leslie downed about half of the cookie tin again.

Horrrray

So I recieved the powercranks, but I need to get them to a shop to be instaled. While I'm at it I'll try to fix a pedal I somehow trashed.
I like the message portrayed in SNL's Digital Short with Andy Samberg: http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/10/15/andy-sambergs-people-getting-punched-in-the-face-just-before-eating

PUNCHED!

I wonder if the people that Bruce Lee fights are stupid, or if Bruce is that good. It makes you wonder when a whole school can't beat one guy. Then you wonder why, if 5 other guys couldn't get him, do you have a beter chance of doing so? I guess it's like a punter in the NFL...the whole team missed, but he'll try anyways to get the runback.

I liked how new his stuff is and will be. I've yet to see any other movie attack someones feet with nunchuckas....Jackie Chan, can you do that?

I'd only walk into another dojo like Bruce did, if it were a bunch of kids....or Woody's. HI YA!



Bring it on!!!

Welcome to Texas

I've yet to recieve my powercranks. The anticipation is tingling my legs.

TEXAS DARE PRE-RACE NOTES:
MEET MEMBERS OF TEAM MOAT. THE 2007 USARA ADVENTURE RACING'S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM FRIDAY DECEMBER 7TH, FROM 5PM TIL 7PM, TEAM MOAT MEMBERS WILL BE ON HAND TO TALK ABOUT WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A CHAMPION AND ALSO ANSWER QUESTIONS THAT WILL HELP GET BEGINNERS THROUGH THEIR FIRST RACE. MOAT HAS WON THE TEXAS DARE FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS AND WILL HAVE SOME TIPS FOR RACING THIS YEARS TEXAS DARE.

That is the hype I'll have to live up to this weekend. I won't be there to meet, I'm sure people would love to meet a guy that didn't win the national championship, and has only races a handful of times. Oh and yes, I'm very skeerd of heights, so the 40 foot zipline, which had me pale white and crying last year, will be my biggest obsticle.....oy vey.

I got kicked out of church last night, and it wasn't for throwing the frisbee in it....

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Yaaaaa! Chirstmas time is hear! I made a promise to Magan to not be a scruge this year, so this is my attempt to not ruin Christmas. I'm getting the shopping out of the way, only one more person to finish up and I'm done. It's weird how you spend so much time with your friends, but when it comes to getting them a gift, you space out. I did manage to ride in our wagon for the local Christmas parade....throwing candy to all the little kids and making there day. But some kids just don't need candy(see above)

On a side note, I'm getting ready for the next race season, and the first long race is the Torture Test, Excruciation Exam, Irrate Investigation, Suffering Quiz, Persecution Essay, or the Affliction Against Agony And Anguishing Ache Assesment Approval.....whatever they call it. So I took 3 mile at the Hunstillve State Park on the Cross bike to feel it out. I found a sweet little section going backwards, that was super fun. Unfortunatly I hit a turn with a wet root at mountain bike speed, and found myself on the ground, direct!

Ah Snap

Remember this post, next year I'll be flying! (barring any injuries or slackoffeniss)

My run seems so easy right now, and although I'm not riding much, when I do ride it seems with greater ease. I'll try a group ride tomorrow just for good measure.
But speed has a price to pay, I've got two black eyes from fighting on Monday. I need to work on reflexes, hmm?

nathanwink.com=10.5 courics

"And so he said upon to thee, go....GO FAST. And I did. "

I've never really had a ghost....er, any God figure appear to me. But I have had a dream where someone stood next to my bed.

It's freaky, no doubt. I don't know what I'd do, but before my mind could wake up, I'd probably hit the guy, as I do in my dreams. So sorry God, in advance.

PowerCranks

Yes, the return of the training bug has hit me, and I intend to keep folks informed. This is were, you, the reader come in.
I just got a set of powercranks ordered, I found a cheap price from a triathlete and couldn't pass up. Whats digging in the savings for a supreme year next year?
I'll keep you informed if they work, and I'll also keep you informed of anything else this boy is up to.....maybe doing an adventure race soon!