Its november already

And I just realized I haven't posted anything since July. I'm a lazy bum when it come to writing so tough titties. I haven't hit the road much at all, but have been hitting the dirt pretty regular. both geared and single speed. Its showed in the racing. Im a little pudgy, even though I haven't been putting the road miles in I have been eating like I was. so there's that. I got 13th place in the first race of the season, missed the second race due to a slight drug overdose/oversleeping incident. got my ass handed to me in the third race for another 13th. but this time I was DFL. Got a 12th this past Sunday out of 25. not terrible in the single speed class, but I should do better.

Ragweed and Mt cedar have been very high. So my allergies have been pretty bad for a couple months now, making it hard to breath deep and ride like I really should. Other than that, I have no excuses to be a back/ mid packer.

the new Gary Fisher frame has not turned out as great as I had hoped. the seat tube is reamed a couple of thousandths big allowing the seat post to slip down during the ride. Sometimes as much as 1/2 an inch a lap. so I have it rigged with double clamp setup. This is temporary though because I ordered a new custom frame.YEAH MAN!!!! A sweet hand built, brazed steel single speed frame. It coming to me raw so I can paint it myself ( its been a while..10 years) with the team colors. Black and white, some scallops, a name panel, and some hand pinstripes. I hope it turns out as good in real life as it looks in my head. may even have it by Christmas, just in time for my birthday.OH YEAH!!

Thats all I gots....... later

fianally

I got the new replacement frame from trek/fisher. A nice white frame. as opposed to the black one I had. Oh well. One think I dont like about it is it can be run geared, so it has cable stops on it that I will never use. It also has new geometry that going to take some getting used to. I had to buy a new zero stack headset for it, which sucked. I cant run the Chris King I was using in the old frame. Again, Oh well. It rides good and thats all that really matters anyway.
the dating previously mentioned came to an unexplained screeching halt while I was at the race at Lances ranch, dont know why, dont want to know why. SO I set my attention to someone new only to find I move so damn slow that I was beat to the punch by a metro guy I really thought might be gay. damn. She's still fun to hang out and ride with though. SO my sight are sorta without a target right now. Thats not really true. There is someone, but she's a bit out of my league, and runs a bit faster than me, but is really fun to hang out with. damn the luck.
Oh, I have moved. My previous housemate bought a house moved without me. I now live in a great place( my sisters house) closer to my family and alot less stress here. so far so good. My bikes hang out in a garage now instead of a climate controlled room, but again, oh well. most peoples bikes hang out in the garage.
I now sleep in a brand new room, with my new bedroom furniture, in a new queen sized bed alone. kinda sad. I know. I find, the thing I miss the most in a big bed is having someone else in it with me.And I mean just having someone there. I need to work on that a little more.
Until then I guess its alot of riding. The fall MTB series starts the end of august, hottern' hells pretty soon too. lots of riding to be done...........

Ok, Ive been busy

So summer came in early for Texas. Its been lows in the high 70's and the highs in the low hundreds. Heat index's suck, mid 100's. Kinda hard on the riding and its really picked up at work which makes riding even harder. The last thing I want to do after being hot at work is go ride in the heat. But I do it anyway. A couple of times here lately Ive had some inspiration to ride. New blood to ride with is always good, even better when its a girl. Not expecting anything, just a good riding partner as far as I can tell. Anyway, she's fun to ride with, doesnt bitch at all, not afraid of anything on the trail and jumps right up after a tumble. Just refreshing i guess.
A few weeks back i did the regular shop Tuesday road ride and made a slight tactical error at some rail road tracks and burped the rear tubeless tire. Waived off everyone, thinking that I would just air it right up. wrong! got it seated, then took off on the way back to the shop. it went flat again. Since i didnt have anymore CO2 or a phone, I just road it in flat. got back to the shop and realized I did more damage than I had hoped. new rim is being laced up as I type(not by me) so should be back on the road soon. Dumbass move I know. live and learn.
on a side note, Trek has the pictures of my broken frame,but with all the madone 6.0 fork problems and absorbing Gary Fisher into Trek bicycles, they haven't got to my warranty yet. as long as I get it back before the middle of august I'm fine. Until then I'm riding the geared bike.
Thats all I got for now. Not really a WTF random post but its what you get

weekend recap

So I headed down to dripping springs Texas to race at Lance Armstrong's ranch. Got there Friday afternoon to sign in and hit the trail for the pre-ride. the trial might be one of the best,read hardest cross country trails Ive ever ridden.Including Moab,Colorado and New Mexico. loose chalky soil, gnarly rocky drop offs and lips and some pretty good climbs.Especially for someone racing single speed.
Saturday was the cat 3 racers and the pro tour men and women races. got there in time to catch the finish of the cat 3's and the start of the pro womens. by the time we parked and got on course they pros had already done one lap. They had a UCI/Olympic course of about 5K so it didnt take them long. Made it over to the 1K to go climb just in time to catch the leaders fly up the climb and see Heather Irmiger walking her bike. She cut a tire, tried to air it up to no avail and walked it in for a DNF, we walked in with her, chatting a bit and then once at the top and on the road she hopped on and rode in on the flat.
The pro men, man those guys were flying, they made it look so easy. Gliding over the rocks, airing it over the lips and drops and making the climbs look flat. At least they looked gassed at the end and complained a bit about the "oppressive" heat. but then they got to go over to Lances house for a dip in the pool once it was all over, so they got over it pretty quick.
So, Sunday was my race day, got there with some time to spare, kitted up, did some warm up spinning, rode down to Lances gate a couple of times then off to stage for the start. It was a pretty big group nearly 40 guys in the single speed class. I was pretty wound up and got a decent start, mid pack. the first few K's are pretty crappy, tight twisty loose switchbacks down then back up. then it opens up for some passing and then back to tech stuff. Lots of flats and attrition so I was making up places and then passed a few guys, then got passed on a climb but got right back on them and stayed there in the top 20 until they pulled off and I got by just in time for the end of the first lap. 8K down, 8K to go. Kept up my pace even though I was redline in the heat and was standing on the gas on the first hard climb and kept getting tire rub in the rear. then a few creaks and squeaks so I looked down to find a big crack in the frame. Shit! I stopped, pondered finshing out the last 5K standing up until the coarse marshal looked at it and said the pending failure would definitely cause bodily harm,SO, I walked it up to the road and pedaled over to cap carter and DNF'd. IT sucked to pull out in first race as a Big Pig, but it seemed like the smart thing to do.
I did get to cheer on Charity a little though. And was pretty impressed at the reputation that the jersey has, lots of people holler'n for the Big Pig to push it harder. The one consolation was the free beer in the expo area courtesy of Michelob.
Next year Im going back to kick that trails ass, or break another frame trying, whatever it takes.

road ride today

35 mile road tonight. dinged the rim on some RR tracks and flatted. to my dismay i only had enough CO2 to barely re-seat the tire(tubeless) so I had to winnie the poo myself back to the shop. 2 miles out flat again.So much for thinking thin? rode it in anyway. result.... new rear rim and tire needed, but Dang-it, i was going to finish my ride..

At least I have another bike to ride for the next few days, I still need a few more road rides before the mellow johnny race.

got little trail work and trail in

so, did another 3 hrs trail work saturday. the trails in much better shape and is just about ready to be down to nothing but mowing now. Dang I was wore out when I was done. got home, got cleaned up, took a little nap, then I got ready for a night out with a beautiful girl and had a great time. looking forward to repeat.
today, got in a good 3 hr ride on the northshore trail. had some great company and other than a slight altercation with an oncoming rider and the trail was uneventful but needed.
looking forward to the mellow johnnies classic the weekend, a little nervous because its a big national event, But looking at it as a paid "fun" ride with a bunch people I dont really know. I hope to do the Big Pig racing proud.

road miles today

Did my road route from the house. 36 miles, then hopped on the single speed for a few more miles of urban riding. ended up right at 50 miles total. felt pretty good. kinda shredded the legs a bit, but was a good ride.
The ride of silence is tomorrow, so no real mileage to be had. As long as the weathers decent, thursday will be another 36 mile road ride.

thats it.
Ahhh, the saturday plans are back on.

mondays suck

That is all.

the latest

So I joined a great new race team, not all about racing, but all about the riding. Right up my ally. My very first race as a Pig is going to be the Mellow Johnnies spring classic at Lance Armstrongs ranch. Racing the single speed class, looks to be around 35 or 40 guys. Should be fun since Ive never been there so I will be making a full weekend of it. looking forward to seeing the pro's racing. Especially a couple of the women. Willow Koerber is going to be there and she's a badass and easy on the eyes too.

wow. been a really long time

lets see whats gone on since sept of 09. not much really. won the local dorba fall series on the single speed. pretty much stopped riding serious after that. did some night rides between all the rain. it rained some more. got some snow. rode a little bit more. got 12 inches of snow in one day. thats a big deal in central Texas. did some trailwork. got back to riding, some road,but mostly dirt. got my ass handed to me at the last race.21st out of 22 in the single speed class. slight mechanical issue, but still sucked. losing some weight and riding more.
Its been so dang windy I just dont want to ride road, but need to. sorta seeing someone, but not sure where it will go,her divorce will have to final first.

thats it. next is the mellow johnny race in austin, then the smurfboy 6 hr.

buh by.

HHH

The hotter'n hell turned out to not be all that hot. The low was 61 the night before with 41% humidity. the high was only 82 with about the same humidity. only had 14,209 people there and it pretty much overwhelmed the mobile phone services. the ride itself wasnt bad either. We did the 100k and it took 3 hrs 11 minutes. not too bad. could have been better had I actually been training on the road bike more than a couple times a month. Every oone did good, fast Tony did the 100 miler in less than 5 hours, nuts.
saw some bad get offs, lots of water bottles on the road, more newbies than I could keep track of and lots off people I knew from around home and people who recognized me from the bike and my tats on the calves.
overall it was once again a good time. the good thing about it is it got me back on the road bike so it will help me out on the dirt for the races, even though so far it doesnt look like im going to have much trouble placing well in the series.

thats all,

goings on?

not much really. lots of working, some riding and whatnot. so I get this letter in the mail. Its from the hotter'n hell people reminding me that I had pre-registered. SO... I guess im going after all. cleaned up the Tarmac, re-stanned the tubeless tires and did a shakedown ride. its ready. The Garmin is still on the blink so I threw on a computer to keep up with my pace and time when Im driving the line. luckily its just 100k this year or I'd be screwed.100k is doable without much road training when in a paceline. going up around noon friday, checkout the MTB race. root for some friends and get ready for saturday. bust out the 100k as quickly as possible, drink beer, check out the expo, drink more beer. then go eat a steak dinner. good nights sleep. drive home on sunday.

decent weekend plan. I should have signed up for the MTB race too, but the weather forcast is calling for some rain. screw that.

Later,

I raced.........................and

I won. my class at least. wasn't my best time on the coarse, but it was way hot and humid, So I cant complain too much. So there were supposed to be 12 in my flite, but only 4 showed up at the line. I was the only serious contender with a geared bike. SO,,,, on the start, I pointed to the guys to get on my wheel for the 3/4 mile paved start loop and draft me to the trail entrance, they did. then I held the lead until I went over the bars on a creek crossing, that ended up bending my derailleur hanger. I fought the shifting all the way to the timing line and into the second lap. then on a slight uphill I shifted and the chain jumped into the spokes and I had to stop and fix it. that's when I notices the hanger. I gently massaged it back into place,looked up and saw a 13 go by( my flite #) and awe shit, it was on. got back by him on a climb and never looked back, just kept trying to push myself to the end. caught up to a guy I couldn't get by so I sat on his wheel for the last mile and kept telling him to push it, he did. we ended up sprinting out to the finish even though I knew we weren't in the same class. everyone should sprint out the finish.
I guess I will be racing the single speed at the next one, depends on who shows up, might take both bikes just in case.

that all folks,

well, i rode

last night. got a couple of laps in. not an ass kickin pace, but a pretty good pace, missing so much saddle time is showing. Im ready for all these 100+ degree/90% humidity summer days to end. I have no interest in riding after being in it all day long.
First race is this weekend, guess I'll see how bad I really am this season. different age group and class this season, so should be a top of the pile finisher, but you never know until you line up. I Dont even have a clue how many are my class, but should be smaller than last year.

that is all.

Work,work, work.

pretty much all Ive been doing. I just noticed that I haven't said anything since June 28th. Thats because I haven't ridden but once since then. Its been so hot that all I have has time for is work.I need some ride time soon, or I might flip out.......


later.

aint done shiiii....

T. Last week was a hot, humid shitty week. worked late several days and came home tired and worn out on all of them. did not even touch a bike since the FNR the week before. "I am jacks lazy ass". did make it to Als to eat though.

Spend saturday with my dad and grandmother. still no riding.

got up and went to work on the jet ski today. got alot done and should be ready to hit the water again, as soon as the new steering cable gets in. had some lunch, then got a new cut and color for the summer. a red tipped, blonde mohawk. suweettttttt! still no riding though.

bu-by

Why and what?

Why would I facebook message a person I dated 20 years ago. And what IF she responds?
I dated this girl around graduation time, she was a soph and went to martin, really way too cute for me. But hey, there was something about me she seemed to like. technically she broke up with me out of the blue, but being a senior/grad I assumed that the grass was greener on the other side and pretty much blew her off in bad form. turns out the grass wasnt AS green and since I burned the bridge in such a big way, had no way to return.
a few years later( she had graduated) was looking up a friend that had the same last name and found her. out of curiousity I called and damn if she didnt answer. We ended up meeting up, and talked a bit and that was it.
UNTIL face book.
I looked her up for giggles and actually found her. still going by her maiden name, debated for a few days about sending her a message, then today I did. "I am a kick in Jacks balls". Now I just waite and see i guess.
What The F was I thinking?

Oh and I still havent ridden since the FNR. I really feel like riding, but after work, the heat and humidity, I just pretty much veg out. maybe tomorrow. for tomorrow is another day.

What have I been doing?

not much really. I only rode 1 day this week and it was a weak ride at that. Since it finally got hot (high 90's with 70% humidity or more) work has been buy as hell. lots of heat and long hours makes me lazy, sort of. I just really don't want to ride after work. on the plus side, Wednesday after work, Randy did the cover-up and lower part of the dragon koi short sleeve tattoo. so I had that going for me. Made the FN ride, hot and unbelievably humid. Got up at the dawn of crack saturday and hauled ass to the home depot for some stuff to mark the trail for the Judgement day guys/girls.saw some really big rat/water snakes and 1 really good sized copperhead. then got back to the trailhead and awaited the competators. had to leave arounf 11 or so for work and then did a call for the elusive Megan. fixed up some bad ductwork and called it a day.Until, the dinner message came in. a little mexican food and 'ritas on the rocks was sweeetttt. Hit the right spot for sure. followed up with some Ice cream.

Sunday... Fathers day.
slept in. met the parental units and the sis for some lunch. then head over to Dallas for an inpromptu "L" family reunion. really one of my cousins from afar was in town and wanted everyone to get together.Its a shame we're related. beautiful, dark hair, fair skin. dang related hot girls. We had a good time,got caught up about the past 6 years, and bs'd.
For some reason, chinese food sounds good right now..

C Ya

here we go, some results

Jordan Chaney	7	4:30:00
Mike Norman	7	5:22:47
Carl Hentschel	6	3:11:39
John Larson	6	4:33:32
Paul Larson	6	5:00:40
Lin Waters	6	5:09:25
Mike D'Aurelio	6	5:10:35
Arthur Larson	6	5:12:40
John R McCauley	5	4:59:21
Randy Hancock	4	3:40:46
Francois Lafontaine	4	3:41:43
Tony LaQuey	4	3:59:38
Tom Harris	4	4:16:40
Kirk Cooper	4	4:53:30
Brendan Cooper	4	5:36:02
Curtis Box	3	3:56:55
Drew Tucker	2	4:16:17

Ohh,,,,,,,,

I haven't had much happening, I did the smurfboy 6 hr race. it was about a bazillion degree's when it started and humid at shit. I did a recon lap since I had never been there, man. It started out with a start lap then right into some rocky climbing. I walked the first two steeps since this was going to go on for 6 hours. Oh did I mention that I ended up doing it solo? My "partner in climb" ended up bailing because his wife had a nasty get off on a road ride. She ended up in the hospital and he had to go be a the good husband, so solo it was for me.
So anyway,, hot as hell, a shitload of climbing, the veiw from the top of the ridge kinda made the climbing worth it, but really it was the downhills that followed that rocked. I coulda done some great stuff on 6 inches of travel or more, but I dialed em' in pretty good for a hardtail 29er. I felt like a snickers bar in the sun after the first lap, I thought about bailing then, but cooled down for a bit remounted and hit it again. walked the steepest part on the climb again and rocked the rest of the trail. checked in, again thought about bailing, clouds came in and was acompanied by a nice little breeze.So I downed some water, a PB and J some goo and hit it again. this time I rocked it all. including the climb. aquired some cramps in the right thigh about six miles into this lap, SUCK! pounded out the rest of the lap with some cramping. but still was feeling pretty good with the weather change. so out I went again, after some time in the pit stretching and hydrating, still had the cramps. this time in both legs, but were tollerable as long as I didnt mash too hard in the climbs and hills.
At this point, the weather turned a little nasty. thank god, I was wiped out. The lightning was pretty big and moving closer, So I showered( yes this place had showers) packed everything up and got ready to hit the road before the rain came in. turs out I left prematurely because it didnt get too bad.Oh well, it was nice to get home early and sleep in my own bed.
Not sure where I placed yet, The results arent up yet. will let you know when I know.
Oh, anyway, I did 4 laps total, still had about 1 and 1/2 hours left. not sure about the mileage since my garmin did the battery disconnect BS. the race got called early due to the weather, so there you have it.

tittysprinkles