I had a great time

last weekend going up to visit Lauren after a good ride on Saturday morning. The ride was definitely good, I hadn't been to sure about how the power training was working but I set five new personal bests and still felt pretty good after the ride. Then I headed up to College Station to hit up Spoons, er I mean Lauren! Lauren was studying up for some tests she has this week. Then we headed out to her professor's house for some bitchin' fajitas and sweet tea. This was only after the Longhorns sucked it up against UCLA.

Sunday I travelled down to Rocky Hill to ride with Dave and Joshua. Joshua helped to get me started mountain biking and training and Dave is a crazy randonneur. Definitely some good and fast riding. The riding was good prep for the upcoming 24-hour race out there on the 23rd and 24th of October, I love that race. On the way home I found out that the Kolache place no serves some great bacon cheeseburgers. Apparently I dropped an onion in my car though because it smelled richly of cheeseburger Monday morning.

I'm not sure I approve of the earlier and earlier nights, makes for some interesting riding. Fun night mountain biking though.

A week home

Ryan's bike is sweet so I got out and rode as much as I could to take advantage of the elevation in Wisconsin. A couple of good hill climbing days was definitely good.

While I was home I also went arrowhead hunting a couple of times. The first time I went I didn't really find anything but the second time I went was much more spectacular. At the undisclosed location I went to I first found a Durst style point, pretty characteristic of the area. Then I decided to look one other place quick and found the best point I have ever found. The point I found is a Clovis point, one of the oldest styles of arrowhead in the US. Mine wasn't quite as big as the one in the photo and was made out of chert. There are no visible imperfections on the point I found and I'll likely never find anything that nice again. Phillipe, the local artifact expert, was pretty excited about the point and I thank him for the display case!! Check out Wollersheim Winery if you are in the South-Central Wisconsin.

It was a great early Birthday present since my birthday was the next day!!

Since my Dad and I and a good friend of ours all have the same birthday we decided to go out for dinner since we all were home for once. It was a great time, I got to see a bunch of friends and family so it was definitely a good trip home.

During this time Lauren was out in Colorado for her Brother's (Buddy) graduation.

I am definitely planning a trip back home for sometime this summer to escape the intense heat of Houston during the summer.

Last week or so

In preparation for the Rocky Hill race Lauren and I went out to Rocky Hill a couple of weeks ago. I was excited just to get out to Rocky Hill. I love that place!! We met up with Alan and Kathy and Scott and Paul and Chris and went out to pre-ride the loop. It was nice to be able to ride nice and easy with some good friends. Unfortunately I forgot to wear my sweatband and I was stuck in my glasses due to an eye infection. The ride was great though. I learned stuff too:

Alan is really good at rocketing off jumps in downhill sections

Alan tends to pick pretty good lines through technical sections

I can keep up with Alan better than I think I used to would have been able to

Alan occasionally picks really bad lines around things

I had a lot of fun riding with them and look forward to more riding in the near future. After the ride we headed into Smithville for some good food at a restaurant with a name that I can't remember right now. Sure was good. Then Lauren and I went and rode the horses for a while.

I didn't actually end up racing Rocky Hill because my Dad has some health issues going on so I went home to spend some time with him and help him get some stuff done. It was a cold and rainy first two and a half days in Wisconsin. Some good thunderstorms rolled through the second night I was home successfully taking out the phones. I also didn't get any cell phone reception so the contact information I left for my co-workers wasn't too useful. Eventually the weather turned nice around Thursday (May 13th for reference) and I met up with Ryan for a pre-race ride. I was on his extra, sweet mountain bike so I tried my best to keep up with him. The wind definitely was a bitch too.

I'll write more later, time to finish weed whackin' the yard.

Series Wrap-up and all

Last weekend was the last of the TMBRA races at Rocky Hill. The race was one 21 mile loop that everyone had to do. Since I had the series locked up I decided not to race but Lauren still did.

I got out to pre-ride the course on Saturday and it was pretty good. Lots of trail I hadn't ridden before and it was fun.

Since I wasn't racing on Sunday I decided to volunteer and go out and hand out water bottles for the racers about 13 miles into the race. Lot's of people that were glad to see us. Some injured people and some fast looking people. Lauren came through toward the end of the time we were out there and I was glad I was out there for her. I wasn't sure she'd finish but she's tough like that.

About the time we got back to the finish line and since it was a TMBRA race it had to start raining. Then I encouraged Lauren to the finish and then went down for awards. After some heckling about not racing from the guys in my class I took the podium:

Lauren ended up fourth in her class, CONGRATS!!
It came at some cost though:
After the race quote from Lauren, "I need to learn to fall on my right side!"

Now a little off time before training for Spring racing. I'll be going back to Wisconsin for some exciting deer hunting next weekend and all of next week. Probably have to shop for Christmas sometime soon and plan a wedding. Please give tips for the wedding part!!

Lauren and I hope Kyle is doing well!! Speedy recovery!!

24 hours, whew!

It was a fast weekend and a hard fought battle. We stayed in La Grange on Friday night so we were closer to the race on Saturday. The race started at noon on Saturday so we had to be out there around 10 for the pre-race meeting and to get set-up for the race. I also had to meet the rest of the team since it was a last minute team that got put together. The three guys on the team are all from San Antonio: Steve, Simon, and Micah.

Steve was the team captain

Simon is a professional trainer, triathlete, and nutritionist

Micah was the first time racer who had never ridden Rocky Hill Ranch

Simon was the first rider out for us and he did well. Steve was out number 2, I rode number 3, and Micah was number 4. We ran a lap schedule of 1,2,1,2,3,4,3,4. I think this gives more rest than running 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4.

Like last year, I thought I pushed it too hard on my first lap and wasn't feeling too great but I put down a 58 minute lap, fastest lap for the whole team. Second lap was good (1:01:32). My second lap was at dusk so I got to see a sweet view of a really good, orange sunset as I was cresting the last sorta big climb on the course, sweet. Night laps of 1:03 and 1:06 were pretty good night laps I thought. Since there were no overall standings we didn't really know how we were doing beyond knowing that we were in the top three. I figured we were in third due to some slow night laps. Thinking it was my last lap of the race I pushed it as hard as I could and threw down a 1:00 lap. Simon went out and was going to take the last lap but when he came in he told me to go. Great . . .

Thinking we were close to the team in front of us I hammered it as hard as I could to try to catch him but I couldn't, even with a 1:03 lap.

Turns out we weren't very close to the first place team but we did end up in second, not bad for a last minute team, especially with a first-time racer.

I felt pretty sick the rest of the day and really tired. At least this year there wasn't anyone yelling "Go Racer!" all night.

Here's some pics:

Going out on the second lap . . .

20 hours later,

Coming in at the finish, sorry, no mid-race photos

Not feeling so well, little cramping going on

Looking good with the team

MMMMMM! Pickle Juice!!

The team, our team name was 'The Justice League'. From left, Steve, Micah, Simon, Me.

The massage last night felt really good and definitely helped with the recovery.

Thanks to Lauren for sort of being support and getting off the cot so I could try to sleep a little.

Thanks also to Teresa and Cecilia for making the trip out so the doggies could play and y'all could hang out a little.

Update

We did hit up bingo again last night, no luck though...

After some ups and downs I've found a team for the 24 Hours of Rocky Hill! First I started off on a four-person expert team then one of the dude's was having a baby. He was out. Then someone wanted to race solo. He's out. Then I was going to race as a Duo with my buddy Joshua but then he got the flu and we both decided the race after the flu. So I was teamless about a week ago then a guy contacted me about doing the race on his team. RIGHT ON!! So now I'm racing on a 4-man senior sport team. Woohoo! 24 hour race!

It starts tomorrow by the way, hopefully Rocky Hill has dried out a little and the weather is looking perfect.

Sunday

It's hot again in Houston, that made the ride this morning tough. I got out for four hours with Lauren joining me for the last hour or so. It was a pretty good ride, traffic wasn't bad, didn't have to stop much, and it wore me out. There's a race next weekend in Bryan, TX and hopefully I can pull out a win.

Since I haven't written in a while, a brief recap of last week:

Last week was the restart of Yetti cross which is good, new route looks tough, can't wait to get out there and race again.

Went to Wisconsin last weekend for a good friend's wedding and got to see some of the family.

Lauren took the GRE, that test you have to take to get into grad school, tough test.

Seu is getting a little better at rolling over.

Lawnmower broke.

Went to training for work.

Went to the Astros game on Friday with some sweet fireworks afterwards.

Figured out I'm doing the 24 hours of Rocky Hill as a duo team, should be interesting.

Prediction of this week:
Will get my new mountain biking shoes!!!! I'm excited!!!!

Do Yetti cross sometime around Wednesday.

Race at Bryan on Sunday.

Ride horses sometime.