Summer Scooter Ride

    Here's a short video I recently put together from a ride I did back last summer. Shannon accompanied me on the scooter. She paced me a little, encouraged me some and taunted me a few times. It was a good way for her to check out some of the harder roads in the area and be able to do longer distances. I enjoyed her being there to push me.

     The video is posted on below. You can look it up on YouTube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p8qca8D_6o

Video: Road ride with scooter and helmet cam

     You can hear the exhaust pipe break in the middle of the ride on a rough bridge crossing. The scooter sounded like a hot rod the rest of the ride, but had little power. We were glad to just make it home!

Still shot of me climbing one of my favorite hills

Polar Plunge II

    We continued our practice races at home on New Years Eve with an evening short track race at my parents' house. It was an all-field course, as the woods were too muddy to ride in. We have done quite a bit of riding on the trail and the laps have thinned the leaves dramatically. There's little left covering the dirt now. That's the first time I have ever had this problem. We never ride enough to flatten the leaves, let alone crush them up.

     We are lame when it comes to New Year's celebrations, at least compared to "normal" people. We did our short track, had dinner and went to bed. Then we got up early the next morning and brought in the New Year with an XC race on the trail. I got out there very early while the dirt was frozen and was able to knock out the first three laps before it began to thaw.

     After the ride, it was time to gather everyone for the polar plunge. We jumped into the pond behind the house last year. It was so much fun that it was decided that it had to become a tradition. My Dad was sick so he could not come this time, but Dina and Tavis from work committed. We were to jump at 2pm. The time came and only the crowd showed up. Dina was a complete no-show and after many angry calls we found out that Tavis was taking a nap. So I jumped in by myself. It had been really cold in the days leading up to this, but today was warmer and that made the water feel that much colder! There was ice at the edge of the water, so I know it was cold. Air temp was 54 degrees so as soon as you got out you began to warm back up. I decided to jump in two more times for each of the people that bailed out on me. Losers!

Reaching down for a piece of ice from the edge before the first jump

It's about to get cold

     A few minutes after I jumped Tavis called. He thought we were jumping at 3. So he came at 3 and we did it again. I let him jump first so I could watch his reaction. He got out of the water so fast! I don't think his knees even touched the dock as he came out. I did two more jumps just for good measure. It was a fun way to start off the year. Cold water is so refreshing! You should try it some time...

     You can watch our video of the jumps below.

Polar Plunge video

New Year's Day sunset

     I have been having some of those oh-so-fun car issues lately. The weather has been really cold for Tennessee and my car has been freezing up. I got a few tanks of bad gas and water built up in my fuel tank. We have had many nights in the single digits and that has caused my fuel lines and fuel pump to freeze up a few times. I missed church one day and almost missed work if it had not been for my Mom taking me to work. That was a good time. I'm 27 years old and my Mom took me to work. After getting a new fuel filter and running several bottles of HEET through my tank I finally got it cured. Got to love car issues! But The Bull (that's my car's name) lives on and is ready for another season of traveling.

2013 Year In Review In Pictures

     For a final look at 2013, here's the year in pictures.

The inaugural polar plunge held in my own backyard.

Winter training with my family

Cyclocross Worlds in Louisville, KY

Snowy riding in Gatlinburg

First race of the year at the Union City Mayor's Race in Georgia.

Motorpacing behind the car

Lots of gravel this year

First good race of the year at the Cedar Hill Criterium

The horror that was the Sunny King Criterium. Miserable drive down, no warm-up and a flat early led to getting pulled before the halfway mark. Very disappointing for my first target race of the year.

Made it into the Amateur Finals at Athens Twilight for the fourth year in a row.

Pro Women in action at Athens Twilight

Tour de Grove in St. Louis

Hanging out with Snoop while fishing on the dock

Dodging Spring thunderstorms

Getting sealed to Shannon at the Chicago Temple

It was fun keeping up with Scott McConnell this year as he raced the Tour Divide

Finding gravel in Muncie, IN

My best race of the year, the Indy Criterium

I gained a new fan at Indy, Bell Man

Our best garden yet

Visiting Hendrick Motorsports while racing the Crossroads Classic in NASCAR country

Racing in Salisbury, NC as part of the Crossroads Classic

Getting torn up for the first time in a while. This crash cost me a frame and a wheel.

Rainy days at Tour de Paris Landing

Longer morning greenway rides with Shannon while racing the Gateway Cup this year

My first ever road ride in Utah...one of the toughest rides of my life.

Watching the XTERRA USA Championship

Eating good-tasting, not-so-healthy food in Utah

Park City trails are some of the best I have ever ridden.

Taking the KOM on my favorite trail Webster

Mixing in dirt and pavement on Butterfield Canyon

Beautiful views in Utah

Finally getting to do some freeriding at Deer Valley

Payroll is quickly becoming one of my most favorite trails

Throwin' down at DGD

Lots of trail time this Fall with my favorite D-O-G

Ending the year with a new bike

My first occurrence of beardcicles...and surely not my last.

     So that's a wrap for 2013. Now it's time to go work hard for a better 2014!

2013 Stats

     It's become a tradition now to report my stats for each year. So, here are the totals for 2013.

    I raced 33 times this year, down from 42 last season and 56 the season before. I still feel like I did a long, hard season. We just started later this year and ended earlier. Most of the races were on the road. I did only two mountain bike races and one run. Also this year, I did no triathlons and no cyclocross.


Total Number of Races: 33

XC - 2
Short Track - 0
Super D - 0
Road Race - 6
Criterium - 24
Time Trial - 0
Triathlon - 0
Cyclocross - 0
Running Race - 1




     As far as results go, there is not much to write home about. I had only one win, and that came at Dirt, Guts & Donuts which I do not consider to be a real win. Most of my finishes were outside the top 20 due to the high-quality fields I raced with. That's the bad thing about doing the bigger races with the faster people. You get your butt handed to you the first few years and the results do not show it when you had a good day. Good thing is that I had just one of the dreaded DNFs this season. That one came from a broken bike after crashing at the Crossroads Cycling Classic. The thing that bothers me more than the DNF is the fact that I got pulled 10 times this year. My main goal was to eliminate getting pulled from crits and I did not do a very good job in that area.


Wins: 1
Top 3s: 1
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 3
Top 20s: 7
DNFs: 1

Full 2013 Race Results


    Like last year, we visited many states. We still raced more in my home state of Tennessee than anywhere else. Missouri is catching up though. Here's some traveling stats.

Number of States Raced In: 6

Races By State:
Alabama - 2
Georgia - 5
Indiana - 4
Missouri - 7
North Carolina - 6
Tennessee - 8


   More of a 2013 summary coming soon with a picture recap.

Christmas

     December was a good month for riding. The weather was cold, but mostly dry. I got in many rides on the trail. Shannon rode quite a bit as well. We are still loving the resurrection of the backyard trail. It is so nice to have a trail just 5 minutes from our house.

    I upped my run pace in preparation for the Rudolph's Red Nose Run 5K in Nashville. It's always a fast and fun run. I still have a goal to do a sub-20 minute 5K one of these days. The threat of some winter weather forced the postponement of the race, which was nice because it gave me an extra week to push my speed work. The course in Nashville is tough. Doing a sub-20 there would be quite a feat. But the postponement brought a new course. The city did not allow us to shut down all the streets in Nashville, so the course was changed, adding more flat roads to the beginning of the race. The first big hill came halfway through the race. It was followed by a steep descent, another climb and descent, followed by a very steep third climb in the last half mile with a descent to the finish.

     I got off work early so we could get there with time for a warm-up. We had no difficulty getting there and I got in a great warm-up. I lined up early to get a good start spot, but still managed to be behind Keith and Shannon, who lined up at the last second. Figures. I had a great run, busting through the flat road and over the first two hills. The last climb hurt me, but I knew I was on pace for a good time, so I gutted it out. I got outsprinted to the line and nearly cramped up in both hamstrings as I crossed the finish line. My time was 21:32. I was happy with that on this course. I finished 6th in the 25-29 class and 39th overall out of 706 runners. Not bad for a bike rider.

Start of Rudolph's Red Nose Run 5K

     Christmas snuck up on us this year. It was cold, but still it did not feel like Christmas outside. I rode as much as possible, trying to take advantage of off time from work. We spent the few days before Christmas in Indiana with Shannon's family. It was a great time despite the cold temps. We went to Chicago one day to pick up Amber from the airport. While there we were able to visit the temple and grab some deep-dish Chicago pizza at Gino's East. It was a wild trip. We discovered Shannon's Dad's car has a hole under the backseat and whoever sits on the the passenger side gets a wet bum on a rainy drive. And that happened to be me. I looked like I peed myself all day. The water was our enemy today. While we were in Gino's the trunk of the car accidentally opened. We don't know how long it was open, but it was raining so everything in the trunk was wet. But by some miracle it was all still there. Who would've thought that a wide-open trunk in Chicago could go without being touched?

     I got in just one outside ride and one outside run while we were in Indiana. It was freaking cold for both of them. I ran a 10K one day and then went road riding. It was in the mid-20s for the ride. It was the first time I have ever finished a ride with ice in my beard. Most of my rides were performed on the trainer. I actually lost weight over Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

A little snow on the roadside during my ride

Beardcicles

     There were many other blunders that happened over the holiday, like Brooke breaking a new shower Jake had just bought, us breaking a window while trying to move a couch into the house, and Jared and Emily sliding off into the ditch on their drive up then getting covered up by the snow plow. It was just one of those weeks. Nobody got hurt so it's all quite funny now looking back at it. Actually, the worst part of the week was having to leave on Christmas Day to go home. Christmas was on a Wednesday, so we had to be back for work on Thursday. At least we got a little bit of snow for a white Christmas.

Christmas morning. 16 degrees and snowing

You know it's a good trip when you have a load of wheels to fit into the car during packing.

    My Mom got a new mountain bike for Christmas. She will be riding a new Jamis Dakar soon. I think she will love it when she finally gets to ride it. The weather has not been good enough for her to test it yet. I got some sweet gifts too including a speaker for my laptop and a full Craftsman tool set. No more bumming tools from my Dad!

Tour de Turkey

     Fall is now over. The leaves are coating the trail. We have had several storms recently that have kept all of us busy cleaning the trail. There were so many sticks down that we have had to walk the trail three times in the past few weeks just to remove sticks. There were so many down that the trail was not rideable. It's a lot of work, but it is more than worth it. My renewed excitement for mountain biking is still growing. I'm having a good time riding the trail and being in the woods. I have been running again, both road and trail, to help with staying in shape during the colder months. I have my eye on doing the Cedars Frostbite Half Marathon again in February.

Lots of sunsets on rides this time of year

     Halloween has passed now. At work we did a Prostate Cancer Awareness campaign in November. The theme was mustaches, since that seems to be the cool thing nowadays. We got a head start on No-Shave-November with some Halloween mustaches...made from tasty whipped creme. We even relived the old owling video in the last picture.

Me

Tavis

Pat. She kind of looks like Hulk Hogan with that 'stache.

     Shannon and I love our current rental house on the Clark Farm, but we are ready to find a place of our own. We have looked at a few houses, including one on the same street I grew up on. You can almost see the trail from the back porch. But the inside of the house had a weird layout that we didn't like. And the price was way too high. The owner gave us a tour and repeatedly mentioned the wood floors were "hand-beaten by prisoners using chains." Weird. Sounds like a good way to get haunted. The searching continues as we have not found the right house yet. We have our eye on one, but I don't want to talk about it yet for fear we may miss out on it. It would be our dream house for sure.

     The Jamis Xenith SL is built now. I had some issues finding an adapter for the PressFit bottom bracket, but that is all straight now. I've ridden the bike a few times. The cockpit feels exactly like my old Sette Forza, and the bike handles similarly. It's a bit twitchy in standing, but I have not decided if that's a good or bad thing yet. I like the new Easton EC 90 Aero wheels. They are stiff with acceleration and feel very fast. They are also a bit more forgiving on the bumps than the Mavic Cosmics I had on the Sette Forza. They also produce a totally different sound. You can hear me coming from far, far away. I'm doing my training on a new set of Easton EA 70 wheels. Here's the bike with both wheel set-ups.

Training set-up

Stealthy race set-up

     One thing I used to do as a Junior was to do race-simulations all the time. It helped me get in better shape and built up my confidence. If I could do the race in training then there was no doubt I could make the distance and hold the pace on race day. I got out of the habit when I got out of college the first time at Austin Peay. I got busy and changed my training to do more base miles. I felt like I knew how to race now, I just needed saddle time. I believe making that assumption was a mistake. When you train alone, it is hard to stay motivated when you just ride. Intensity keeps me interested. Fake race scenarios and beating my own times keeps me pushing hard and I end up with a much, much better workout each day. Shannon and I decided to make up our own race series for the winter, starting on Halloween weekend with an XC race and continuing on Thanksgiving weekend with the "Tour de Turkey."

     Tour de Turkey was four days long. Four days of mountain biking on our trail. I did a four-lap XC on Thanksgiving Day to start things off. I had to start early in the morning to get done before we had to go to Thanksgiving Dinner at my grandma's house. It was the first bitter-cold morning of the year too. I had to do a warm-up on the trainer inside before going out. When I started the ride, it was a brisk 16 degrees. The trail was frozen, which helped add speed. The leaves are deep now and not ridden down yet, so that really slows down lap times. Instead of my normal 23-25 minute laps, I was turning 30-32 minute laps. Shannon even braved the cold for a one lap XC effort, as did my parents.

     Stage 2 was a night short track in the backyard using the yard and a piece of singletrack. I had to work on Black Friday, so we could not ride until after dark. It was cold again with the temp hanging around 22 when we were riding. It was really fun to hammer at night. All four of us rode again, so we were sort of racing each other even though we were all going at different speeds. I did a 30 minute effort.

    Stage 3 was back to XC, this time riding the loop backwards. I again did four laps with lap times being slightly faster in this direction. The temp was again cold, but a little bit better at 30 degrees. We wrapped up things on Sunday with another XC, this time on a short 0.8-mile loop that I laid out to test my skills as much as my fitness. I raced for about 90 minutes on the loop, completing 18 laps. The course beat me down. It had several short, steep climbs with root ledges to make me push hard, and a few dry creek crossings full of big rocks kept me focused. It was another fun day. And the weather was much nicer at nearly 50 degrees! The four days were sort of a mini training camp to get us ready for the tough winter ahead. More practice races are in my future as I really think they are helping keep motivation high and give me more quality workouts.