Race Report: XTERRA Gator Terra

It hurts me to write this. Literally. My hand is still very swollen and painful from my crash on Wednesday afternoon. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off work last week, so I decided to go to Pelham, AL, and do some pre-riding and training on the XTERRA Southeastern Championship course. I wanted to train just as much time as it took me to drive there and back. I didn't quite make it, but 6.5 hours for two days is still not bad. I rode the bike course three times and aced Blood Rock the last. That was pretty exciting. I swam in the lake twice and did more than the course there. The run course I struggled on a bit. I still couldn't find the new course that was supposed to remove some of the terrible hills this course is known for. I also walked most of it. I lost a lot of my steam on the last half mile of the bike course where I came into really sharp corner too hot and the front of my bike flew out from under me. My right hand braced my fall as I watched my fingers bend backwards as I flipped over. My knee got a pretty decent cut too. I can't believe I do all that riding over two days and make it through Blood Rock 3 times and past all the gnarly, rocky downhills and then I crash on the last two minutes of the bike in such an easy section of the trail. Although, I guess that is typical for me. The camping/training trip to Alabama was still a great one. I had a blast and those trails are so much fun to ride. I hope that remains my opinion after I race there next weekend, haha.

So, going into my first race of the season I have a badly damaged hand. I went to the doctor where he thankfully said it was not broken. I knew the only way I was not going to be racing was if he put a cast on it. So, when he said I had sprained my thumb and the rest was a hematoma that made it impossible to clinch my fist and turned my palm blue, I was ready to race as hard as my hand would let me. And I was hoping I could hang onto the handlebars well enough for the 10 mile ride.

I drove down to Ruston, Louisiana on Saturday afternoon with plans of getting there, riding the course, and then camping out. The park looked nothing like I remembered from the race I did there in 2005. Gator Terra 2005 was my first multi sport race I had ever done. It was pretty awesome to go back after 6 years and see how much progress I have made. The trail seemed completely different, but it was an awesome trail. The bike is really fast and fun with tons of different sections including switch backs, 33 mph downhills, fire roads, multiple creek crossing, tight single track, and several water bars to launch over. The pre-ride went well and my hand did as good as I could ask for. So, I packed up my stuff and headed over to the camp sites.

After setting up camp, I headed over to the bathhouse for a shower. The temperature was starting to drop quickly and I could see many people were scouring the forest for fire wood. Instead of trying to find my own wood, build my own fire, be anti-social, and clean it all up, I decided to walk to the neighboring camp site and offer to help break up some wood in exchange for letting me hang out with them by their fire. The guys ended up being some students from LA-Tech and were very nice. They had camped the night before and were getting ready for another long night of roughing it and keeping warm by their huge fire. Most of the guys were aviation students and one was an ME. They even treated me to some homemade, campfire jambalaya. After several hours by the campfire hydrating and fueling up, I headed in for the night. The weather was perfect to snuggle down in my sleeping bag and be perfectly comfortable. I fell asleep pretty quickly watching the moon slowly move over the sky through the trees above my tent. It was a pretty amazing scene.

Right on cue, I started waking up around 6:30, about 25 mins before my alarm was set for. Race prep was going according to plan and I was the first one to set up in transition. Score! Love getting the first spot, but it usually doesn't happen. Sleeping right by the race site and transition helps though. I was set and ready to race my race. I had done everything I could to prepare and all things seemed in order. Then, just like in 2005, the gun went off and we sprinted from the flags on the beach to the lake and began our .5 mile swim. Race morning goes by too quickly to really get nervous. I remember that from 2005. It happens so fast.

I came out of the water shoulder to shoulder with Kyle, he had won the Epic race the day before in a blazing 4:08. I knew he was going to be good. I got out of T1 first though because he had some trouble getting his bike shoes on. I was storming off on my Air 9 Carbon. I quickly passed some people that were on the course for the du and then got stuck behind some slower riders. This gave Kyle the chance to catch up to me. We passed this group and the race was on. I was riding his tail, too close. I didn't see the line as we went over some drops and roots and came unclipped and dropped my chain. He took off. I had to hammer to catch back up, but I was determined. As soon as I made his back wheel again, I made another mistake. I was focused on him instead of the trail and underestimated a descending curve in the trail. I went over the bars as I heard air hiss out of my front tire. I thought I was done. Thankfully, either the stan's sealed the hole or I just burped air out. Either way, after assessing things on the side of the trail, I decided the tire had enough air in it to finish the ride, maybe 15 pounds? I wasn't going to be able to push it any more. Now I was far behind. I figured he was going to be gone by now, but come mile 7 I could start catching glimpses of him through the trees. I was closing in. I finally caught him again at mile 9, at which point I nicked a tree with my bars and off again he went. My opinion of me being a good rider is starting to get questioned at this point. A few downhills and a huge water bar later and we were standing in T2 together. He headed out before I did and was gone! I looked back at transition as I was heading out and realized only our two bikes were in transition. We were leading the race neck and neck. Unfortunately, I just didn't have it on the run. The first mile was hard and it took me a bit to settle in. He established his lead in about that first mile and held it the rest of the race. I knew I was locked into position when I was running on the paved trail around the lake towards the finish line. I could see two guys a good way back that were going to be battling for 3rd, but my 2nd place was secure. All in all, it was a good race and a lot of fun. Props to Kyle Grieser for a great race, two days in a row. My hand is definitely hurting more today, but hopefully it will be better by this Sunday at Southeastern's. That course requires a serious grip on the bars to maintain control of the bike.

Stubborn Man Work

Well I finally finished it. Friday morning I went to Uhaul to pick up my hitch receiver for my new car. After four days of working on installing it, I have finally completed the mission. I knew I didn't need to pay them that $50 to install it in 30 minutes. I realized I had misjudged my car's situation when I found out I didn't have threaded holes in the frame and I would have to drill 1 inch access holes into the frame to get bolts and spacers inside of it. This was a very hard task. Drilling into the frame was hard work. My shoulder is still sore and aggravated from pushing on it. My eyes and face have endured many metal shavings. Digging them out of my eyes has become a common thing, even after the drilling stopped. During the drilling the metal was very hot and burned my arms several times. I had to cover my whole upper body in aprons to try to keep them off. It didn't always work. When I was done drilling and I had the bolts in place, I thought I was home free. Then, I realized that some metal was still in the way of putting the hitch up in its place. Luckily, the cable cutters I have snipped through this pretty easily. After bending this out of the way I figured it would go up in there smoothly. Wrong. When I took the nuts off the bolts to place the hitch onto them, two of them fell inside the frame as I only got one on. Failing to fish them out of the frame, I gave up and went over to the other side of the hitch to see what I could do there. I wrapped some rubber bands around the bolts after I took the nuts off in hopes that this would hold them in place while I placed the hitch over it. It worked. Awesome! Score one. Now back over to the other side. I had to dig around in the house to find a strong magnet to fish the bolts and spacers out of the frame so I could re-fish them through the frame with the metal spring. Re-doing work I thought I was already done with. I love doing that. I'm just glad I remembered to put on some locktite when I did the final threading of the nuts. A few twist of the socket wrench and I was done.

Now I have to find a bolt or locking hitch pin that will fit the 1 1/4" adapter that I have to run to accommodate my 2 inch bike rack. The receiver is nicely hidden under the car and would probably look really pro if I had a 1 1/4 inch bike carrier. Instead it has to stick out an additional 6 inches and I'm praying for clearance on elevation changes like driveways and dips in the road.

Since writing the first part of this post, I went and rode my bike, utilizing the new hitch. It works. Not going to lie, I was staring the bike and hitch down the whole time I drove to Shelby Farms. I was pretty paranoid about putting my brand new Air 9 Carbon mtb bike on the rack for its first test. The rack worked well and the ride was awesome. I love the new bike. It is incredible stiff and the 2x10 X.O group is rocking. Now that I have this task completed, I'm going to trek down to Birmingham tomorrow to do a very intense 2 day training camp. I'm hoping to get about 4 hours of training on Tuesday and at least 3 hours on Wednesday. I'll do all three sports both days and do the complete race course several times. Hopefully, this will really help me do better at the race in two weeks. Knowing the course will definitely help.

This is my digital footprint. This is me

So the races this past weekend got cancelled. I emailed the race director Tuesday after we were starting to get hit with all the storms and asked about the condition they were in there. I didn't hear back from him until Wednesday right before my karate final. The Xterra race was cancelled, but at the time he told me the road tri was still on. That gave me some solace. However, later that day when I got home and checked my email everything was cancelled. Me not having a race to do is small and petty to get worked up about when so many people lost there lives and homes both there in Arkadelphia and all around the South. Still, it sucks to work for many months training for the race and to get it taken away from me two days beforehand. It won't all go to waste. I have another race in two weeks and then Southeastern Championships the week after that. I wanted to get an idea of how my training had been going and see what other things I should practice and focus on before Southeastern's. That is judgement day. The day I am determined to bring home the jersey.

However, the rains haven't stopped. We are still getting hit with storms and the river is continuing to rise. The Mississippi is set to crest in the next few days within a foot of its record high and maybe even more with the continual rains. The Memphis in May BBQ festival has been moved. Something that has never happened before. I have never seen the Wolf River flood like it did. The trail system that I ride most often was under multiple feet of water and one section of it is bound to be washed away for good. These trails will probably not be rideable until June; that's if the storms stop any time soon...and the Wolf River doesn't start flowing backwards as the Mississippi crests. Last week, the United States (the South) saw more tornadoes in a single day than it has ever seen, 312 in a 24 hour period. That beats the old record by over 160 tornadoes! It also killed over 340 people, another record. The tornadoes devastated 6 Southern states, hitting Alabama the hardest.

The world is getting scary. All these terrible things happening and finishing school has made me think more deeply about my life and what purpose I am living for, who I am sharing my life with that makes it worthwhile. The world definitely could come to an end in my life and it makes me think about what I am really focusing on. If that is the case, then my bikes worth several, several thousands of dollars won't matter at all. (I just got a $5,800 bike and I don't know when I will ever be able to ride it. The rains have destroyed the trails.) Neither will any race victories, the car I just bought myself, graduation diplomas, or future careers. What am I working towards; what goals; what is motivating me? The only thing that will matter is right now. Will I have any regrets? Will I look back and wish I had done it differently. I have regrets in my life right now. Several. The only way not to, is to not ever look back. I don't think I could ever fully commit to doing that. I just have to take it one day at a time I guess and keep pushing on. Hopefully the rain will stop soon and things will begin to dry out. Hopefully the overseas situation will improve now that Osama is dead. Hopefully my Dad will stay safe and finish his contracts in Kuwait, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Iraq and get to return to a Memphis that he still recognizes.

Anyway, congrats to the Grizzlies for not only winning their first playoff game in franchise history, but winning the whole series! And winning game one of the second series. Another hats off to the Predators who are still playing for the Stanley Cup. I'll be watching both of those games tomorrow night. The greatest congrats and thanks goes out to the CIA operatives and Navy SEALS that have done years of work that ended with Osama Bin Laden being killed last night (may you be tormented in Hell). It's been a long 9 years, 7 months, but Justice has finally been served. The world is now a better place without him. Thanks to all those people that will never make the news and will never get any recognition for what they did in this special ops mission. Damn good speech by Obama too. Nicely done.

First Race Week

It's race week and I'm ready. I've been itching to get out there and see what I've got; see how good my training has been going and see what I can do. I took the TT bike out on Sunday for a brick workout as part of race prep. Before the ride, it fell down by the garage and scraped the clear coat on the top tube. Crap, haven't even ridden 100 miles on it and already scratched it up. The ride didn't seem to be going that great, but I still gave it what I had. I did the local tt road, C.D. Smith in 4:10 which is fast; I think. I didn't look at the distance, but I think the road is supposed to be like 2.25 to 2.5 miles long, which would mean I was hauling. Let's hope I can do that next Sunday. I didn't realize I averaged 21.2 mph for the 40 mile ride until I looked at the computer the next morning. Dang, this bike is fast! Didn't even fell good about it, yet still managed to ride fast. I'll take that. The run didn't go quite as well, so be it.

Monday I struggled through another swim workout and then headed to the gym to prove something to myself. I was going to try to lift a lot. A lot more than I ever had. I started squatting 245 back in February as part of my strength training. From there I moved up to 265 for a while and then 275. Last week I tried 295 and then 3 sets of 20 reps of 315 last Wednesday. Success. So why not push it, right? I started out with a warm-up set of 20 reps of 315. Then I put on 355 and did 15 reps of that. I asked a guy I've met at the gym this past semester to come watch me while I tried this next one because I had no idea how it was going to feel. I put on 405 and got out 6 reps before I dropped it. I was pretty happy with that. I then backed off and did another 20 reps of 315 and called it a day. You could say I've been feeling it in my legs and back today, haha.

Today, I threw the Cannondale Slice back in the trainer and did some adjustments to it. I wasn't quite happy with the fit I was riding on Sunday. I also mounted my Profile Design aero bottle and made it race ready. I started out doing some easy spin work to loosen up, then tested out the new aero position. Then I started practicing putting my shoes on and off while on the bike with them clipped in. Not quite as smooth as I was hoping it would be. The real test came when I took the bike out on the road. It's fast. Easily hit 36 mph while I was cruising around the neighborhood making sure I was comfortable on it and practicing taking my shoes on and off. I probably looked really weird wearing a Giro Advantage 2 helmet, 2" inseam swim speedo, and no shirt. Oh well, practice how you race.

Even better news is that my Niner finally came. I now have all my parts for my new mountain bike.....almost. Sram is still falling behind and failing to send out all my items. Who knows what's going on over there? Anyway, off to the bikeshop to put together what I have and hope that somehow I can scrounge together a complete bike to race on this weekend. Either way, I'm ready to let it rip and give it all I got. Hope it's not a complete swamp over there after these storms.

Looks better than my Ironman position. Man if I'd had this bike.....

Ceramic Bearing Press Fit 30. It's legit

Okay, maybe the bar isn't on right yet. Give me a break; there was a tornado.

Just another "Day Off"

Tuesdays are the one day of the week I don't have school or work. Work that I get paid for at least. On today's day off I managed to track down my Mavic shoe order, track down my Sram order, track down my Niner order to the point of it's in port and waiting to go through customs (so I probably won't get it in time to race on it next weekend), cut the grass, weed-eat around the garden, water my seedlings, replace a board in the fence, and mountain bike 30 miles. Great rest from school and work.

The mountain bike ride was a little different. It is definitely Spring time now here in West Tennessee. The trails are starting to get overgrown and reach out and grab you. My arms were all cut up and itching 4 miles into the ride. The mosquitoes are out and so are the snakes. I saw three snakes today on the trail. I took a picture of all three. The first one was stretched out across the trail and I rode past it. Of course I stopped and turned around to go mess with it. Its head was off the trail and in the undergrowth. When I grabbed his tail he shook his tail at me like he was a rattle snake. After hissing a bit, I decided to leave him alone and get moving again so the mosquitoes would stop biting. The second time I saw a snake, they came in a pair. I rode past a blob that looked like a snake that had gotten hit and was curled up nursing his wound. As I walked up to it I could see two different colors of scales. I figured maybe his tail was just another color. However, when I started poking him with a stick he uncoiled and revealed another smaller brown snake inside. The larger black snake quickly left the trail while the smaller one started to come at me with his mouth open. He snapped at the stick a few times. I want to say he was a cottonmouth, but my friend Brandon isn't sure. I almost rode over a big one in Arkansas a few years back while we were on a biking/camping trip together. After I skidded to a stop and somehow avoided being bitten out in the middle of nowhere Mountain View Arkansas, we began messing with it and ended up picking it up. We are very bright children.

After I finished my ride and cleaned up so I would stop itching so much, I headed out to do some yard work. Taking notes from a wise friend of mine named Burt Colbert, I decided to walk around barefoot and rejuvenate my energy. I ended up cutting the grass barefoot. I know, Mom, that we were always told we have to wear shoes when we use the mower, but how much protection is that mesh and synthetic leather upper really going to give me when those blades are spinning so fast it mulches pine cones and sticks? You weren't home and I did it. The fresh cut grass under my bare feet felt great.

I'm growing up. My days off are full of all the chores and "to do" lists. Welcome to the world I guess. Now I need to write a final paper and get ready for another hard day of training tomorrow.

Almost May

It was a struggle to get on the bike this morning. After my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I managed to play with the dog, drink coffee, fall back asleep, watch TV and finally get around to my workout I had planned at 9:15. Once I did get to it, it was a good one though. I had taken the past two days off and I guess gotten out of my routine a bit. I didn't plan on taking Saturday off, but after I got up and took the dog out, I fell back asleep in the recliner with him until it was time to go to work. I did an hour and twenty minutes on the bike and then got off and did a 46 minute 10k. Better time than I was expecting. Hopefully that's how Southeastern's will go in a few weeks. I have one more big week before a little recovery and then racing starts. This next week is going to be rough and tough. I'm stepping my running game up a bunch with speed workouts on the track Monday and Wednesday on top of my normal swim, lift, cycling, yoga routine. Tuesday I plan on doing another endurance brick workout and who knows how the weekend will go. I'm also going to increase weights this week to do one last push for strength before I back off to just maintaining while racing in May and June. Training is coming along and going as planned. Now, I have to hope that my bike and all the parts for it arrive before next Thursday when I leave for my first two races. The shipments have been on order since late March, but I've yet to get a definite answer on when it will actually be here. I'm hoping for the best. Sure would be nice to race on an Air 9 Carbon by Niner with a full X.O group by Sram and some hand built wheels by yours truly.

One week of hard training left and one week of lent left. I gave up drinking for lent because I figured it would be a good challenge and it would be good for me to focus on training and not have anything distract me or keep me from getting up early every morning to work out. Now that I'm almost there I'm considering prolonging the drought until after my first race. Make sure I'm on my game and racing strong before I start any celebrating.

Waning Attitudes

School is such a drag. I dread going everyday...the whole two days a week I have class.....and when I actually go to all my classes. I am just completely over it. My classes are stupid easy and completely pointless. Honestly, I would probably go even less if it wasn't for the workouts I do before class. I swim and lift weights Monday and Wednesday and these workouts fit perfectly into my schedule right before classes start.

I think back to how I started college, and then back to how I started high school. Freshmen year of high school I was reluctant to play sports because I didn't think I'd have enough time left to do all my homework. I did sports and it along with all the homework pretty much became my life. I read every book, the unabridged versions (and I read very slowly). I did all my homework on time and did every problem, even if they weren't graded. I aced all of my test and had a 4.0. As high school went on, I slacked some, but I still took all the hardest classes. I did the homework and class work I needed to get by and do well on the test. I didn't sit at the kitchen table doing homework every night. I went out more often and was hardly bothered down by school. I still kept a 4.0 throughout high school and graduated with 30 hours of college credit from the AP classes I had taken. I still worked hard, I had just learned to play harder. I would skip out on lunch and my break period sometimes to go run through Germantown and lift weights: showering in the locker rooms before heading to 5th period. Becraft and I skipped some calculus classes when we had to run home and get stuff or do other errands. I also left sixth period early sometimes when we weren't doing anything in English so I could go to Prairie Life and lift weights or swim before going to work at 3:30 at Carrabba's. My die hard attitude of being perfect in school had died.

I recall as I went off to Colorado for Freshmen year of college, I was back to working hard. I was doing all my homework and trying my best to get a 4.0 in these college classes. I wasn't going out or drinking in the beginning, but that was mostly because I was focusing on Xterra Nationals that I had coming up shortly. I still stayed on top of my game after that and the few days I had left out there I enjoyed the mountains and landscape, rather than partying on Market Street or the frat houses. Changing over to UT was a little different. I was pledging a fraternity, but I still stayed hardcore about school. I made a 4.0 while taking 3 math classes one of which was on the junior level and got me qualified for a scholarship. Sophomore year I partied. Sophomore year was probably the year I partied the most. And looking back on it now if I could do it again......I'd party even more, go to more mixers/date parties, more booze fest with the brothers, and more weeknights out at the bars. It was an AWESOME time. It was fleeting though. The next year the fraternity house shut down and we all moved our separate ways. We still got together and partied, but it just wasn't the same. Junior year I started to not care as much about my grades. I was no longer set on maintaining a 4.0 GPA. I just wanted to get B's in my math classes and be done with my major. (Upper level math classes were the only classes I didn't make A's in and I still finished with an overall GPA of 3.79. One tenth off from Summa Cum Laude.) I skipped a lot of classes, sometimes just to sleep. Other times were to go play in the park or eat sushi buffet. Now that I'm in senior year, it's a complete joke. I hardly ever do any homework outside of school and give little thought to classes. Like I said I go more for the gym membership than the education. Overall, it is really easy to see how my attitude and behaviors change and decline as school progresses. They usually pick back up with the start of a new term or year or level of school, such as college and hopefully graduate school. But still by the end, I am just over it. Get us out and let us move on to the next thing.

I'm moving on to the next thing this August as I start physical therapy school at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. This should be fun. I finally get to take classes and learn about stuff I really care about and am interested in. I think my attitude and interest in studies will pick back up just like it did at the beginning of college. And maybe by the time it's sliding off, it will be my third year of school and we won't be having any more classes, just clinical internships. Either way three years is a shorter time and it always goes by fast.

Today I skipped out on three classes. I should be in econ right now where I have homework due. I just slipped it under his door at 11:30 before I left campus. I only have 5 more days of undergraduate schooling left. I can make it, but I sure don't want to go. I'd rather be working at the bike shop or training for my upcoming races. That's where my heart really is right now.