Backhoes, bulldozers, and plywood...oh my

Basically wanted to delete all that I put about the State RR. It was an interesting course and a difficult and frustrating day for many with regards to the construction. I felt like that last post was a bunch of complaining...yes I was frustrated, but I do not know the complete story of the event. Overall it was great to see those amount of numbers out there and we had beautiful weather.

Plus the weekend was still a success even though I double flatted out on the first lap. I got to see Coldplay at Verizon the night before. My gf Casey scored some awesome tickets where we were like 25 feet away in the pit (what an amazing girl!). It was an incredible show and awesome to share it with her! I'll never forget that one for sure!!!

Also, just wanted to give a shout out to Casey. She does so much behind the scenes to help me not just on race days...I'm blessed to have such amazing support!

Hope everyone out there is doing well...keep on keepin' on!

HE'S ALIVE...haha

Wow, that was some hiatus. No I was not captured by Bigfoot, but man that would some amazing story if I did (on that note I did get my pic taken with a guy dressed up in a "movie quality" chewbaca outfit...more to come on that in the next post). My apologizes to my 2.5 followers for the suffering they must have endured...checking my page daily to see only to be disappointed day after day after day.

Well no fear...the blog is back and going to get a re haul soon. I realized a few things about my blog:

1) Picture-less posts are not really my thing...I guess I am more of a visual kinda guy

2) I need a new banner pic...seriously, how long ago did I graduate???

3) ...keep it updated

Anyway, I'll share some new stuff soon. State RR Champs are this weekend and we should have a pretty full squad there. I'm looking forward to being a super domestique and just getting back to racing...plus Coldplay on Friday...in the front pit!!!! I'm pumped!!! Pics to come.

I'll leave you guys with this pretty cool pic of the sunset from my vaca in FL

Gettin' Brown in the County

Oh the 'ol Brown County State Park Road Race was this past weekend. Yes I had planned to target this race and no it did not go as planned. Here is the ever perplexing thing about bike racing. Training can be going great, sensations can be right on point, power numbers can be signaling good things...and you can still have a complete shit day on the bike. This day on the bike was a complete crap shoot...I don't know why things were as bad as they were. I don't know what was wrong. Numbers in training were great...legs on the race warm up ride the day before were really solid. But I just flat out sucked...by lap 2 I was feeling the pain. Was hanging on to the lead group when some was having trouble with skipping gears on the switch back climb only to slow to a crawl forcing me to dip off the road, back on the road, and do one of those fun but completely scary inadvertent wheelies...haha. Had to unclip, fix the chain, and luckily got a push to start back up. This didn't cause my poor result...I was already hanging onto the pack, but it sure didn't help since I was out of gas to chase.

My buddy Cody climbing like a champ...glad to have him back!

Oh well, I'm really not all that bummed. Legs don't feel sore at all (which is weird considering how much I suffered yesterday) and I'm confident my form is coming along great right now. It is just a brutal course...in my opinion the hardest in the state. I gave it a go but just maybe syked myself out too much. I needed to just enjoy the day and not put so much pressure on the race...geeze it's just bike racing anyway. Guess I have some mental hurdles to work on.

Overall though...a super weekend. Casey and I got to fly kites Friday and Saturday. What a blast...even though we were fed up with tangled string by the end of it. We even nearly disrupted a plane since we tied 3 kites together to obtain maximum vertical sweetness. Weather was great, and I was stoked to catch up with the guys. We are destined to get that elusive Indiana win soon enough...Winona this upcoming weekend...maybe then? See everyone there!

Happy B-Day Momma Earth

Yup it is Earth Day...a special holiday of sorts for me and our team especially. It is sometimes confusing to see so much "pro-green" talk in the media today, then forgotten tomorrow. Well I guess our team will just need to work to keep the message strong, and hey at least today everyone is very pumped about making a difference...that's never a bad thing. Hopefully the team can organize an event sometime soon, i'm really itching to get my hands dirty and give back...grassroots style.

In other news:Blog Week sucked. I will try again sometime and make it much more uber sweet.

Since that is out of the way let's move on to new stuff like...Ceraland.

Not the biggest race by any means on the racing calendar, but a key race since we are a Columbus based team. We lined up 7 in a mighty large field...61 strong. The team was active all day long at it was great to see us making the race tough. Our leadout got a little disorganized in the last lap and we missed catching a little group that snuck away in the last couple laps by 25 meters. I rolled in 4th...ok, but not super.Overall it was one of the best days for the team as a whole. Everyone was active and playing a key role. Still it was a little tough to stomach watching someone else raise their hands right in front of you. Oh well, bike racing is funny like that...sometimes the cards just don't fall your way. And I am sure we will iron out our leadout even more as the season progresses.

Next weekend is Brown County Road Race. Tough course...hope the form is there this year.

BLOG WEEK...Day 3

Well it's hump week here for BLOG WEEK...and I'm kinda feeling it. Not like this is hard or anything (gosh, I'm just typing thoughts) it' just that this is a super busy week for me. Not so much actual 9-5 work-wise but it is a big time training week plus I am organizing a team presentation for this upcoming Friday.

So there it is...I cracked. Maybe I can try and bring BLOG WEEK back to life, but for now I have focus like a crazy skillful powerpoint ninja to get the presentation for Friday done. I'll be back in blog world soon...so don't miss me!

BLOG WEEK...Day 2

Welcome to day 2 of the event that's taking the country by storm (haha, I wish)...BLOG WEEK!!!

Blog Week Post 2: The "Real" World...

Life can get expensive...and to fund said "life", I have choosen to sell my soul to corporate america (for the time being...haha). Anyway, I thought I'd give you a little insight into what I do from 9-5...MY "Real" World.

So living in Columbus working in corporate america means you work at one company and one company only: Cummins. I started their in August of '08 working in the marketing communications dept. for all On-Highway applications (basically big ass trucks and anything that avoids the dirt)...oh yeah for all you non-Columbus people, Cummins is one of the world's leading diesel manufacturers...I know this job sounds uber sexy...haha.

So anyway, I reside in my own little cube world
(pictured below...sorry phone picture quality is pretty bad)


So, I don't want to bore you with all the duties (or lack thereof ) associated with my job so I will just share with you a pretty neat trade show I got to work. It's called the Mid America Truck Show and I guess it is the biggest truck show in the states. You know what that means...hill billy, country bumpkin central. I literally talked with one guy who stopped in the booth for 15 min and probably understood all of 5 words...two of which were Cummins and engine. Oh the characters that came out for this show...they were one of a kind. Here are some pics from the show cause I know everyone loves pictures.





Some sweet murdered out truck I saw


The show was in Louisville so Casey came down to keep me company when I wasn't working the show. We found a cool little area called 4th Street Live just a couple of blocks from our hotel. Great restaurants and what looked like some cool bars...a generally cool street atmosphere that I recommend to anyone in the area.





So overall, I guess I really didn't accomplish much with this post. I do marketing...'nuff said. It's not glamorous, but it's a job that provides the skrilla.

P.S. This may or may have not been brainstormed at work...haha

Tomorrow's post...sneak peak...my own "green" team

BLOG WEEK...

Definitely not as badass as Shark Week...I know...but...

Starting today I am going to try and make 1 post a day over the next 7 days...even if it is lame or I have to make up some super sweet elaborate story. Think of it as my reverse lent...not giving something up, but doing more of it??? (ok that makes pretty much no sense but it works in my head...maybe?).

I've been wanting to write alot of stuff 'bout bike racing, training, work, and life in general...so get ready fans(or maybe just my 2.5 blog followers...haha), you're sitting shotty as I take you through my adventures over the last couple of weeks.

Blog Week Post 1: "A finished bike...finally...I think..."

Well...it is that time. I am officially declaring that I have finished my bike build. I know that no cyclist is ever truly finished with his/her bike...but for now, enough is enough. I'll keep entry 1 short and just provide you with some pics of la mia bicicletta!

This little surprise arrived at my door...


...And look what was hiding inside!


View from the upgraded cockpit


Finito!!!



Tomorrow's post...sneak peek: the "real" world...