K to the J

Call it Heinz

2011-04-07T15:56:00.002-05:00

So I stopped going to Psychology class, thus eliminating my quality blogging time. My test grades have seemed to follow an interesting trend of going up the less I go to class though, so I think I'm going to stick with this plan of attack for the last couple weeks of the semester.

I had planned to make this post about spring break, the two races I've done since the last post, and some other stuff, but that is way too much to talk about with any level of detail... So umm, here's the quick and dirty version with pictures instead of words whenever possible:

Comfort Race: racing a mountain bike with my finger in it's cast thingy was interesting. I wasted a lot of energy because my hand position was different and it made me keep over braking. Still had an ok race though, finished somewhere around 15th.

Spring break: road trip to Missouri to see Rachel! and do fun things!

I look like a fish!

We went here!

I brought my bike and got to ride the one day it wasn't raining. Found some sweet dirt roads. Also, central Missouri is hillier than I thought it would be.

School: normal.

Baylor Road Weekend: Had an okay road race and TTT. I felt pretty strong but am still lacking at short high intensity bursts. Getting better though. Crit was FAST. I hung in the group until halfway through 2 to go, and rolled in for a solid 7th.

Look! People on road bikes!

Rachel comes to visit: We did fun things! Like go to dinner at Uchiko, which was amazing, and hike and have a picnic at the Greenbelt, and go to the School of Architecture Formal!

I think I picked a pretty nice picnic location

Other News: we took a family portrait last night!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Bike Racing and Tacos

2011-03-08T10:25:00.003-06:00

Normally this post would be all about the A+M race weekend that just happened, but nothing too exciting went down, so it will be about other things. Well okay, a little about the race first:
Saturday was the traditional Tunis Rubaix, only this time on a much tamed down course.
I don't feel like finding pictures if the actual courses, so here are some Google Image representations:
Old course

New course

Note that I have absolutely no problem with this. I like not having three wheel changes to finish a 60 mile race. It was cold and windy and rainy though, so don't be thinking I'm a total pussy over here.
I didn't ride all week because I wasn't sure what was going on with my finger and couldn't get in to see the doctor till Friday. Turns out I just have a torn ligament though, so as long as I leave this brace thingy on I can do whatever I want. Anyway, because of said not riding I was expecting a not so great race. And yeah, pretty much. I got dropped right at the end of the fourth out of five laps and rode the last one in with a guy from MSU.
The time trial that afternoon went about as well.

Sunday is crit day. About 3 laps in I saw what appeared to be the move for the day going up the road, and with a couple other guys that felt the same way, worked my way up to it. We caught them, then lapped the pack about half way through the race. The race went MSU attacks, S.Haga or Cody (A+M) chases down the attack, we ride a tad slower for a minute or two, repeat all day. I sat at the back of the leaders and called out attacks so that the A+M boys would be ready for them.
Two laps to go, lead out trains start organized. Baker (an A+M guy we had lapped), Cody, and S.Haga were on the front, followed by five MSU riders, then me. Baker pulled all of two to go, then was done. I know I have no chance in a sprint against those guys, so I moved up and pulled for about half a lap to help out Cody and Shane. Shane ended up getting the win. And rather convincingly. Over a bike length ahead of second!
There are a bunch of pictures by JToka photography here

Hrm. That ended up being longer than I thought it would be. I think there's still time for one other thing though. AND WHAT BETTER THAN TACOS!?
I'd heard of this taco place called Rosita's Al Pastor. I've known where it is. I finally convinced Joseph and Parker to go. We pull up to the truck in the parking lot of a bingo hall, get out, and discover that the menu is in Spanish, and the lady working the truck doesn't know enough English to explain what things are. Perfect!

We know about a third of the menu from other taco places and stick with that. I don't know if it was the meat in the tacos, the homemade flour tortillas, or the fact that I felt like I was in the middle of a drug deal half the time I was there (it was probably a combination), but those were easily the best tacos I've ever had.

UT Weekend 2011

2011-02-28T11:35:00.007-06:00

I finished our road race for the first time ever. With the pack. It felt good. Crashing at the start of the last lap did not feel good. Despite the weather forecast of "sunny and in the 80s" we had overcast with occasional light rain in the 60s. Still not bad, until one of the rain cells hit right before a corner and made the road slick. For the only time all day. Not expecting the road to be slick, or to be sliding when I went into the corner, I instinctively tapped my brakes. Which sent me right down onto the road.
Two other guys did the same thing, so I felt slightly less like an idiot. And the pack slowed down for us to catch back up, so everything was good. We cruised for a bit and were really cautious in the next few corners, but eventually the pace picked up again. There were some attacks. My left hand was pretty sore from hitting the ground and I couldn't put pressure on it to follow the pack surges, but riding at a steady pace I was able to catch up every time the attacker was caught and everyone slowed down and waited for the next one to go off.

My priorities after the race:
1) Get some people to look over my bike and make sure nothing was broken (nothing was)
2)Take pictures of the blood and guts* (not too spectacular, but still...)
3)Get the medic to clean up said blood and guts
*

There was a TTT in the afternoon. I sat it out, figuring the team wouldn't benefit so much from someone who wasn't able to ride in the drops. Instead I got corner marshal duty. I stood here. It was super fun.

Sunday was crit time. I was a little worried about my hand, but I bothered the medic for something to use as padding in my glove, and she had some sticky rubber stuff that was absolutely perfect.
It was a typical Men A crit - S. Haga and some MSU guys got in a break that lapped the field, with some occasional other attacks that MSU covered. When the break caught up MSU continued to attack Shane, but he was riding strong enough to cover all of them himself and still win the field sprint...
I would've liked to help him out some, buuuut I was doing just fine sitting in. Maybe next week.

Right now my hand is pretty much one giant bruise and I think my ring finger might be broken. Awesome.

Getting Ready to Race

2011-02-21T11:52:00.006-06:00

The first collegiate road race of the year is this weekend. One of the things I had to do in getting ready to race was glue some new tires onto my Zipps.
Living in an apartment I didn't exactly have too many options for where to do this, and the floor in my room looked like a pretty good option. I found some scraps of poster board to lay down, got my truing stand out and set up, got ready to go and found out I needed a different type of valve extender than what I already had... A trip to Mellow Johnny's fixed this problem and I got back to it.

Somewhere around this point in time I had the thought that it was too bad I wasn't back in a dorm room doing this. I imagine it would've been ever better than the time I was sitting on the floor with the cranks pulled off my mountain bike to put some new chain rings on. My room mate hadn't been home, but he came in, looked at me, and looking really confused, turned around and walked back out of the room.

The actual gluing of the tires, though:
The first one was absolutely perfect. I didn't even get glue on my hands.
The second one turned out something like this

I was pulling the last section of the tire on when a quarter of it slipped back off. Of course that meant pulling it up the rim again, but this time with glue all over it...

I would like to thank Goo Gone for making a good product.
I'd also like to point out that living somewhere with operable windows is very nice if this task is going to be done inside. ie As much fun as it would be to confuse a dorm room mate, you do not want to glue tires there. Your room would never smell the same again.

Dating Advice

2011-02-16T11:34:00.003-06:00

The problem with writing for this during psychology class is that talking about anything except the stupid professor is really difficult. In an attempt to spare everyone from more of that, here are some lessons to be learned from a first date me and Andrew witnessed while we were at dinner last night:

When on a first date, there are certain things you should say. They do not include:
"I'm really bad at flirting."

"I don't drink a lot. Actually, yeah I do. I just don't get drunk a lot. Actually, yeah I do. [proceed to tell stories about times you've been drunk for 15 minutes]"

"Wait, I wasn't done with that story yet."

"One time I was at a bar with a really really hot girl, and she came with me when I got kicked out..."

There are signs you can look for to see if your date is going well. Again, these do not include:
Your date sitting with [her] arms crossed any time you start talking.

Your date staring at the wall or ceiling after you have been talking for any extended period of time.

Your date communicating in monosyllable grunts or unintelligible sounds any time you ask a direct question.

Your date saying things like "can we leave and get to that other place we were going to go yet?"

Stupid Weather

2011-02-09T11:54:00.007-06:00

The worst thing about being in a freshman class is that the majority of the 300 kids in here use their laptops to take notes. Or, like me, to surf the internet while the professor talks about irrelevant things. What this means is that the server gets all clogged up and the internet either gets really slow or doesn't work at all. There should be a way to call seniority on the on campus internet. Just sayin'.

I was half expecting the class to only be about half full today because the temperature dropped into the 20s again today (read: about 40 degrees colder than Texas has any business being) and there was "ice" last night. But no, the class is about as full as it normally is.
Do these people really find Professor [I'm fat and I can eat 25 chicken wings and I'm going to spend half the class telling you about it because it makes me feel special and possibly less bad about myself because I remember the 80s when I ran a 5k in 30 minutes but when I tell the class about that I'm going to assume no one knows how to convert kilometers to miles and say that that gave me an average rate of 5:25 minutes/miles because that will sound more impressive than what I really did] that interesting?
I know I wouldn't be here except for the fact that I would have to actually study for tests if I did that.

My favorite part of the weather being like this is that it scares away all of the people who normally stand around on the West Mall and try to hand me flyers for clubs that I have no interest in or tell me about Jesus or whatever. Whenever they come back out I feel like I should be weird to them.
"What day does [uninteresting club] meet?"
"Oh Tuesday evenings aren't good for me, that's when I go around and give homeless guys handjobs. I just try to do my part to help out, you know..."
I probably won't though, because someone might think I'm serious (I'm not) and judge me. I need to get over myself because that would be really funny.

My least favorite part of cold weather is listening to everyone complain all the time. This one annoying girl posted on the facebook last week
"Umm, UT, why aren't classes cancelled yet? It's below freezing outside. I don't want to walk to class in this."
BELOW FREEZING!!! OH NO! No one has EVER experienced so much agony before!
Put a coat on and shut the f*ck up.

I do kinda wish I had a scarf though. I could wear it, like, twice a year with a coat and my neck would be warm.

Or I could wear it every day from December to March with a North Face vest and people would think I'm in a frat.

Or I could wear it in the summer with a v-neck shirt and everyone would think I'm a hipster.

How versatile!

Dirty Du

2011-02-07T12:00:00.003-06:00

Another psychology class, another blog post. I see this making me actually keep up with this thing this semester.

The only question, then, is what to write about.
I guess I could do a quick recap of the Dirty Du(athlon) from way back in November.

My dad talked me into racing against him in it, and seeing it as a rematch for the triathlon we did over the summer
(did I ever write about that? I don't remember. Long story short, I double flatted which led to him beating me by one minute...)
I said "why not" and had my mom sign me up.

The format of the race was:
mass start into a 5k off road run*
20k mountain bike race
repeat of the 5k run

The run course was out and back, and pretty much all either uphill or downhill. I knew there were going to be a lot of people that could run faster than me, and there were. I finished to first run in 50th place.
Then we got to get on our bikes. It took me a couple minutes to get my legs warmed up after the run, but it didn't even take that long to start passing all the people who weren't faking the ability to run like I was. 20k later I had posted the 4th fastest bike time of the day and moved into the top 10 in the race.

Too bad I had to run again...
And I had kinda killed my legs riding...

My second run was more of an alternating walk/run/cramp... thing. Luckily I had gotten far enough up front on the bike that not too many people were able to catch up. Even though my second run time was only 63rd overall, I still finished in 18th, or 12th in the men under 40 division.

My goal going into the race had been to finish in under two hours. I came really close at 2:02.
More importantly though, I beat my dad by about 20 minutes!
Ha! What now old man?!

Things that Really Bother Me

2011-02-02T12:34:00.004-06:00

I was at the grocery store a couple days ago and the guy in line in front of me had three young girls. What looked like twins and a third that was born no more than 9 months after them. Of course I found out they were with him when they ran up and threw a bunch of random things on top of all my stuff on the conveyor belt. Then ran off again. Then came back carrying more things and ran out the front of the store with them and waited for their dad who continued to pretend they didn't exist.

This semester I'm in a freshman psychology class. I thought it would be interesting. The professor just spent ten minutes explaining how even though ice cream sales and murder are higher in the summer, there is no correlation between the two. Are freshman really this stupid? Can we actually learn something, please.

Why are old people, when they try to use the internet, incapable of typing a URL into the address bar, and instead have to use the Internet Explorer Google Search Bar to type in 'aol' so they can then go to the website. My psychology professor does this.
Also, chain emails about how horrible Muslims and Obama are.

Fat people think that the way the world works is that everyone gets fat eventually. My psychology professor does this too.

Grad students think the two best places to have a conversation are halfway up staircases and in doorways. Sorry, but no.

Bike Stuffs

2010-11-09T16:55:00.002-06:00

Yester-two days ago was the Cameron Park race. It happens to be one of my favorites and since I was feeling pretty good at the end of the collegiate season, I figured I would give it a go.
I hadn't raced with the pros since, what, March? Something like that. Those guys are still fast. But anyway, I started out around 10th aaaaaand pretty much stayed there... When the pack started to break up I got left in a group of four and it wasn't long before two others caught up to us. We took turns passing each other for the first lap, but more or less stayed together.
On the second lap it split up a little, but I'd say there couldn't've been more than 30 seconds between any of us. I also heard from someone watching that Fawley (who was leading at the time) was less than two minutes ahead! Throughout the rest of the race the gaps opened a little wider, some of the guys behind me got dropped, etc etc. At the finish though, I could see all the way up to 7th place in front of me (I was in 10th, since I only kinda made that clear earlier).

The scoring got messed up so I never got to see actual time gaps, which is a little disappointing - it would be nice to know if I really was that close to the leaders or not...

I planned on talking about the collegiate season some too, but I don't really feel like it now.

The Hugel is on Saturday.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T23:05:00.002-05:00

Oh the irony...

Bay Model

2010-04-13T16:11:00.003-05:00

Since Tuesday I put almost 100 hours and $300 into the most intense model I'm going to have to build the entire time I'm in school. Maybe in my entire architecture career.

Between Saturday morning and today the only times I went outside* were to walk to the art store, places to get food, or if I was going home to take a nap and change clothes**. I had no concept of what day it was, or even what time it was. I pretty much based my schedule around going home for a nap while it was still dark outside, and going back whenever 3 hours later was. The result was worth it though, if I do say so myself.

*Save an hour break for the Girl Talk concert ON CAMPUS!

**Yeah, I didn't take a shower between Friday night and Tuesday morning. Yeah, that's gross, I'm quite aware, thanks.

First pieces

Starting to go together

Doesn't count until you bleed on it

Wood floor

Hallway

...

I got columns, yo.

Comin' together

More beams

For the suspended walkway

Finished!

And a song to finish off the day:
'There are Some Remedies Worse Than the Disease' This Will Destroy You

Oh yeah, I have this thing, don't I...

2010-04-08T13:54:00.003-05:00

I'll make the "I've been busy ...for the last month..." excuse. But as much as blogs are falling out of fashion, I really do need to be better about keeping on top of this.

Before I delve into every facet of my life for the last quite a while, here's a summary as a list of things that seemed to dominate everything that went on:
-Bikes
-Architecture
-ROAD TRIP
Well, that wasn't quite as helpful as I imagined it would be...
(Hey, at least I included something besides bikes and architecture, I almost didn't, but then I would've been lying or something, so, yeah.)

I'll also throw in the first Google Image result for "everything that's happened in the last month." To, you know, help clarify some more.

Right.

Moving right along...
In the world of architecture everything is coming along pretty good. My project completely changed three times before spring break, but now it's settled into a good steady position. We're starting on our 'Bay Model' this week - a giant section cut through our building. Mine is on the smaller side, at 12" x 30" x 14". So that is pretty much going to be dominating my life until Monday. There will be pictures! For seriously!

The bike part of life has seen my first two races with the Pro/Elite class. And that is a whole new world for sure.
Comfort was a stage race again, and my goal going in was a top 10 overall. I was close after Saturday with a 12 in the short track and 11th in the time trial, but Sunday was a different story... 17th in cross country... I was only 9 minutes off the winning time though, so I was still alright with that.

Two weeks ago was a new race - the Pace Bend mountain bike trail. I couldn't tell how the race would go just riding the course, so I went into it without much of a game plan.
The start was really short, so pretty much the entire group rode together for the first 4 miles or so before we hit a technical section and it got split up. I was still with around 6 people for the rest of the first lap, but eventually I followed an attack and got away from that group. The rest of the race wasn't anything special, just pass someone here, try not to get passed there, you know how it goes. I ended up 9th though! Got some sweet money! AND A RIBBON OMG!!!

There was a race in Oklahoma I was going to do as part of my spring break road trip - first place singlespeed payed $500 and I was already going to be in that general direction. It ended up getting cancelled because of snow though...

But yeah, that road trip!
Since, umm, June, I think, I had been planning on using my spring break to drive up to Missouri to hang out with my BFF ~~Jill~~ Rachel. We did all sorts of awesome things! Like, watch a guy punch a cop in the face, then quickly get tazed, all while we were eating ice cream. And I went to a class at a school that I'm not even a student at. And we hung out in a tree.
And we went to her friends parents house where there was a cave. I don't know about anyone else, but I was expecting something along the lines of a big entry room, then maybe a 20 foot tunnel to another room that we would have to kinda crawl through.
Nope.
We're talkin' straight up hands and knees for an hour and a half each way, without actually getting to the end. We only turned around there because one of the girls had a dance to go to that evening and we were going to be pushing getting her back in time as it was...

Whew, this is getting long. (That's what she said.)

Anyway, continuing in not at all chronological order, last weekend was Rachel's spring break, so she returned the awesome and came down to the ATX for a couple days!
And we did more awesome things! Like take a good chunk out of the list of awesome places to eat here.
And go to a concert (Copeland's last tour ever).

And hang out at the Cathedral of Junk!

And at Mt. Bonnell.

And we did a lot of other cool stuff too, and we're officially dating now, and we... Sorry, kinda lost my train of thought there on that last one... Anyone that's known us for the past, like, eight months will probably be saying "well finally." But you know what, deal with it. We do what we waaant. That's a reference to something. I think. Don't worry about it, I don't.
Sooo yeah, theres that.

Umm, a song or two. Lets see...
'Lazy Eye' Silversun Pickups
'I Remember' Deadmau5 and Kaskade

Following my Usual Habits

2010-03-05T10:35:00.002-06:00

I have a test in 25 minutes, so I once again declare it blog time.

Last weekend was the first XC race of the year at Warda. Following a rough week in studio* I decided to race singlespeed so I could have a shorter race and hopefully get back to the ATX a little earlier to get some more work done. Nothing too special, I got 4th. Might have been able to do 3rd if I had slept any the week before. I won a sweet yellow ribbon and flaschenoeffner though!
*Two all-nighters and two most-of-the-night-ers

The A+M "road" race is this weekend. I kind of want to do it, but at the same time I've heard too many stories of people breaking carbon frames on the course (and I could really use the extra day in studio), so I'm skipping out on Saturday and just driving up for the crit on Sunday. Should be good.

Studio is going good now. Last week my project completely changed twice, result in the longer than normal studio hours, but it's mostly figured out now, and mid-semester review is Wednesday, so I think I'm looking good for that.
SPRING BREAK NEEDS TO HURRY UP AND GET HERE!

Pace Bend

2010-02-23T16:53:00.002-06:00

I have a test in two hours and a bunch of design work due tomorrow - time to write a blog. (Note that this means I'll have pictures of architecture stuff to put up soon!)

Last weekend was Walburg/Pace Bend.
After 6 years in a row of not finishing Walburg, I decided that there was no reason to continue the streak. As per usual (and despite the opposing forecast) Walburg was rainy and cold and after talking to everyone that went I decided that skipping out was definitely a good call.
Sunday rolled around and once again Barry Lee managed to get the Gods on his side and the temperature was up in the mid 70s by time I got to the park. (It's snowing today for comparison of how crazy out of place that weather was.)

(Cue some more people coming over and asking me how to do things on the test.)
(Cue me using some more parenthesis.)

Anyway.
I rolled up to the park, got my number, scrounged up some pins, aired up the Zipps, put my kit on at some point in time, filled my bottles, warmed up a little and headed off to staging to sit around and completely negate the half hour warm up I had just done. Talked to a bunch of people I haven't seen in forever, laughed at the people that still pin their numbers on upside down, and then the race started and I did some more of the same.
We had 62 miles to race, and for most of it I just chilled in the pack and either caught up with the people I don't see in the off season or made fun of the sketchy riders, Alberto Contador wannabe, guy with only one rear brake pad, guy that kept talking to himself, guy riding a TT frame, etc etc etc. Not to say we weren't going fast or anything, I was just feeling really good (it's easy to tell when people weren't talking back to me). I did bridge up to a break one time because it looked like it might be going somewhere, but it wasn't.
When we hit two laps to go (they're 6.2 miles each) (that's ten laps total, before you have to go and do the math yourself) (parenthesis) I headed up to the front of the pack where everyone was trying to get someone else to go chase down the guy who off the front by himself. I guess the general consensus was that he would get tired and come back on his own, because no one did anything resembling chasing him down.
We got down to the last two or three miles and he was only maybe 100 feet in front of us, and after some yelling at each other to go catch him, Will finally decided to take care of the problem and bridged up. So then it was the two of them maybe 100 feet in front of us. And they stayed there.
We got down to the last mile of the race or so and finally broke into the part where everyone gets all sketchy and close to each other trying to be at the front. I had memories of last year when half the pack went down in the last corner and decided that I was going to avoid that this year, since it would probably happen again. With about (sudden unit change OMG) 300 meters to go, right before the final bend, I got a chance and jumped off the front of the pack.
I was closing the gap on Will and the other guy fast and knew I would beat them to the finish easy enough, and about that time Shane (Chad's little brother) came flying by me. There was no way I was going to be able to do anything about that, so I just kept going and hoped no one else was coming that fast. There was some noise behind me, but it was only one guy (although looking at pictures everyone else was a lot closer than I thought at the time) and he didn't have quite enough to get by me before the finish (I'm very happy the race wasn't ten feet longer).
Yes, you read that right, no one else came by me - yes, that does mean I got 2nd place! No, I still have never won a road race... Yes, I'm more than happy with 2nd, I really wasn't expecting that out of myself.

Play by play of the last 100 meters. Courtesy of Joseph's dad.

Also, it was Brandon's first ever weekend of road racing. He did pretty good. And he better write something about it.
Also, someone I know did her first ever duathlon this weekend. She did pretty good. (And she better write something about it, too.)
Also, (parenthesis).

#352

2010-02-17T17:59:00.002-06:00

I felt really good riding last weekend, which motivated me to sign up for the Pace Bend race on Sunday. I've done alright at this one in the past, so, I'm feelin' it. Besides, I need a reason to take the Zipps out of the closet again... I don't think they've seen the light of day since I was in Colorado. The finish line better not be somewhere stupid again this year, like 100 meters after a corner or on a downhill. Come on guys, you had it right three years ago.

In studio-land we're getting into the beginning of actual designing for the semester. Short of a piece of paper with some criss-crossy lines on it though, I don't really have anything worth posting pictures of. Maybe next week. I think there's some stuff of some sort due sometime around then.
Oh, and I checked out a book from the library about parking garages. It was published in the 50s. Meaning 1) all the cars in the pictures are also from the 50s, and thus awesome and 2) theres some goofy designing going on, but it's so cool at the same time! Like a parking garage completely enclosed in glass! I can't come up with any reason for that other than "well, I suppose it was built in '57..." Seems like the type of thing they'd do back then.

As for general life, there's not too much going on. Not having anything else to do Sunday, I went to a concert at Emo's Inside (meaning it was really small) for the first time in a while. Saw Jeff the Brotherhood and Screaming Females. It was pretty good.
Killswitch Engage is coming to Stubb's next week, but I can't decide if I want to drop $30 for the ticket or not...
I'm about to find an envelope for the purposes of this. I'm kinda excited to see how that turns out.

Dirty Dozen

2010-02-10T12:12:00.003-06:00

I haven't done this race in a long time. Since I was 16, I think. For a while there me and Andrew would do it every year, and considering our combined age was about half that of the teams we were racing against, we did alright. Got second on a team with our Dads once...

This year I got invited to be on a 4 person co-ed team, with Kim, one of the ladies that races in my mom's class and two other guys about my age, Ricky and Daniel. Our team was aptly named 'Three Cubs and a Cougar.'
All last week was rainy and nasty, I think Lance said something about the Seattle weather in Austin on his Twitter, but I heard Warda didn't get hit as bad, so there was hope.

Somehow Friday afternoon I managed to talk my mom into coming down and racing the 6 hour version. (I'm sure she'll post something about it.) So waaaaay too early Saturday morning we got up and headed out to the race. There was mud around and places out in the parking field were kind of mushy, but other places were completely dry, so I was still holding out hope the course would be in good shape.

The team had decided I was starting, since I would probably have the fastest lap times and could get us a nice early lead, hopefully. Which meant I got to do the run too! My favorite... Wooooo... It wasn't terrible though, no one was in any big hurry, so I got to the bikes around 15th and passed all the way up to 3rd before we even hit singletrack. Right before diving into the trees, Kevin Koen and some other guy I recognized, but couldn't put a name with, came by me, making them the only people to pass me the entire day! I followed them around for a while, but eventually they got away and I didn't see anyone else until the end of my second lap (we were doing two at a time - they were short) when I started catching people still finishing their first lap.

I tagged Daniel to head out and sat down for a nice two hour nap before it was my turn again. Repeat for a total of 12 hours. Well, almost. I had our first two 'night' laps - it didn't really start getting dark until half way through the second one, and before Daniel went out, he apparently asked everyone to talk me into doing an extra so he would only have to do one lap in the dark. I was already dressed and muddy, so I acquiesced and sat around and watched other people put better lights on my bike and helmet until he came back through.

At this point we were far enough in the lead that 2nd place couldn't catch us as long as we did the last lap, so I took it as more or less a victory stroll, although looking at the results it was only 5 minutes slower than my average lap time, and it was at night, so I must've been going faster than I thought...

In the end the team got 20 laps, putting us in a three-way tie for 2nd most laps of any team! (And we were only 5 minutes away from being able to do 21, which would've tied for the most, but I don't think we'd have gone out again.) We won the 4 person coed, and would've gotten 2nd in 4 person open! If that doesn't say enough, the team was great, I'd race with them again any time!

Here's some picture links:
I need to start wearing these socks more.
Nope, not muddy at all...

MTB Adventures

2010-01-24T18:24:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I decided I was going to load up my mountain bike and go for an adventure looking for some of Austin's top-secret trails. I vaguely knew where a couple of them started, and figured I could just ride around and get lost or something. But luckily, I ran into a guy Dave I kinda know, and he knew the trails and offered to show me around. It was a lot better than I would've been able to do by myself. And there are some awesome trails out there!
I went back today and rode the same stuff again and found a few things we didn't ride... I think I'm going back a time or two during the week... The Greenbelt is going to start having Kyle withdrawals...

I had a song stuck in my head all day today too, so it'll serve as song of the day or whatever this here thing that I do is called:
'Okie Dokie' Dan Deacon

That School Thing

2010-01-20T22:18:00.003-06:00

I just got back home a couple minutes ago from my last class of the day, which means I've now been to every class I have this semester. The first day is always kind of hard to judge by, since we don't really do anything more than get an introduction to what the class is going to be about and how despite the rumors we don't really need to buy air mattresses to go under our studio desks. Turns out they don't expect us to have time to sleep, so that would be a wasted purchase...
Anyway, I think I'm going to be happy with all of my classes this semester, especially compared to the fall - as awesome as Jack's design class was, everything else I took more or less sucked.
I have two lecture classes: Construction, which is never my favorite, but I always do fine in it, and this time around the professor seems pretty cool, and Environmental Controls, which was HORRIBLE in the fall, but from class intro day, I feel like I'm really going to enjoy this semester of it. Then I have design as per usual. This semester we're designing a [smaller] events center, and for the first time we really have to consider all the elements of the building - how it stands up, HVAC, you name it... Finally, I have a class called Alternative Real Estate Actions - Experimental Research. I signed up for it with no idea what it was about, only knowing that Steve, the guy teaching it is awesome. The first day we watched a film called 'One Peace at a Time,' about how much the world sucks and how we can work to make it better. All I know is that it somehow relates to the class and we were told that we are going to be going out and building things. So, I'd say it's going to be a good class.

In other news, I've been back on the bike for a couple weeks now after the foot incident (which I don't even remember if I talked about on here - I broke my foot in a car wreck, no big deal) and I'm starting to feel pretty good again, so we'll see how busy I am with school, but it could potentially be another pretty good racing year. I might try out the new singlespeed in some races too!

Now that winter break is over and I'm doing things besides hangin' around with my people, I'm going to try to keep up with this thing a little better, but if you'd like even more frequent updates about my life, don't forget the Twitter.

To finish up, here's a couple songs:
'Gangsta Luv' Snoop Dogg
'Fever (The Toxic Avenger Remix)' Family Force 5

New Things

2009-12-25T20:03:00.002-06:00

No pictures of the New Car

2009-12-01T17:37:00.002-06:00

Because I keep going places where the sun isn't out...

Instead, today's reason why I love architecture school:

And:
'Wolf Like Me' TV on the Radio

Thanksgiving Day Check List

2009-11-27T23:48:00.002-06:00

[x]sleep in
[x]see family
[x]eat turkey
[x]eat sweet potatoes
[x]eat fruit salad
[x]eat more turkey
[x]Scrabble
[x]Cowboys win
[x]blow up can of match heads
[x]nap on staircase
[x]Longhorns win
[ ]ride... oh well, soon enough.

Pictures of the new car will be up tomorrow, hopefully.
Have a song:
'Clouds Over California' DevilDriver

Mellow Johnny's Classic

2009-11-23T00:36:00.003-06:00

For the first time in I can't remember how long, I was at a race without a bike or any intention of racing. Instead, I was there to hang out, get a break from studio, and maybe take a couple pictures.
As much as I would've preferred to be racing, just chillin' was actually pretty nice. Got to see some people I haven't seen in a long time, and heckling the people I usually race against was good times too.

Photo dump:

Out on the trail

Pro Class on the line
Sager, Rick, JHK, Fawley, Lance

Fawley on his way to 2nd place

Keith, Wheel, and Dave Wiens

JHK heading to victory

News

2009-11-17T13:25:00.003-06:00

A.D.D. STYLE!

Two Thursdays ago
Driving home from Attack Attack!
That was a really good show.

Some lady driving other direction
Turns left right in front of me
Without looking
(LOL 'left right').

Car is totaled
Three broken bones
In my right foot
VICODIN!

Insurance companies
Like to screw you over
Makes shopping for a new car
Harder than it should be
I WANT A KOENIGSEGG! Please?

That's the majority of it... Let's see... Anything else...

Studio
Baseball
Chicken and Waffles
Thanksgiving
Mail
Tests
Coffee
End of the semester
Tacos
Ice cream
Hot chocolate

And some...
RANDOM QUOTE[s] OF THE [last couple] DAY[s]!!
(With absolutely no context
Because it's just so much more fun that way.)

"Well Frank Lloyd Wright says you're wrong."

"They're so PG... But their eyes are rated R!"

There's my world since the last post.
Songs:
'Ain't no Rest for the Wicked' Cage the Elephant
'The New Shit' Marylin Manson

Collegiate MTB Nationals (Part Three)

2009-11-02T02:09:00.005-06:00

Saturday. Short Track. I opted out of watching the womens race this time, so I could eat and warm up up and everything. We got down there in time to see their finish though, before warming up some. Then we headed over to call up, which had apparently been fixed. Nope. Just as bad as last time.

Then some guy on the front row crashed at the start of the race. So me, and everyone around me, got to stand there while everyone else went around first. Ten seconds into the race I was third from last. In a field of almost 70.

For whatever reason though, people decided to get out of my way again on the gravel climb (same one as the xc, we started at the bottom of it), and I was able to move up pretty quickly. It used up energy I didn't want to waste that early in the race, but, there wasn't really anything else I could do...

We turned onto a flatter jeep road section, and I went by some more people before we hit the big bottleneck section going into a singletrack section to head back down hill. There wasn't any passing through that, the last short downhill jeep road (it was too fast), or the downhill switchbacks back into the village. I got some more people on the short loop through the village around the gondola building, and then we headed up the hill again for another lap.

I passed some people, some people passed me, and then with four laps to go I go pulled. That might sound bad, but they pulled all but about the top ten before the end of the race. I ended up 31st, and was the top Texas finisher again. Chad flatted though, so its hard to say how how that would've turned out otherwise.

Now: picture time!

Cross country

Short Track Staging

Awesome start... At least I'm on my bike

Short Track

Short Track

Its kinda like a commercial

2009-10-26T14:00:00.002-05:00

Before the next (final?) installment of the Nationals saga, heres a quick update from the weekend:

Me and Joseph had pretty much nothing to do, so we took up a good chunk of both days going around and piecing together our costumes for the forthcoming event known as Halloween. What they are, I'm not allowed to say, but they will be awesome. Well worth the little under a week wait until I post pictures.

And we decided it was time to get more junk for the walls in our apartment. This time we went the 'high art' route though. More specifically, the home-made high art route.

My contribution:

Josephs aren't quite finished yet:

Collegiate MTB Nationals (Part Two)

2009-10-25T16:00:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning we got up early and headed down to the village to watch the start of the girls races. We stuck around to watch them come through one of the most technical spots on the course and then headed back to the condo for some breakfast. And sitting around. And eventually getting ready to go race ourselves.

A little warm up, and we got into the staging area and waited for call up. Which they managed to really f... screw up. They called up all of the conference champions to the front row. But then, instead of going through all of the schools in order of national rankings and having them send one person up and repeating until everyone was on the line, they just picked all the big name schools and went through them. Then called everyone else up. So, instead of getting a second row spot, I got a 6th row spot.

Somehow though, everyone got out of my way both on the start through the village and up the first gravel road climb. By time we hit the singletrack I was already top 30 or at least really close to it. And then I passed some more people. Suddenly, I saw Chad in front of me, and I was gaining pretty fast. On a climb. Don't ask me.

I went by Chad, but pretty soon he passed me back, and we settled into a little group that was going about the right pace. For the rest of the first lap and the second lap I went back and forth with Chad a few times, but we were always close to each other.

Starting the third lap though, two of the guys in our little group started picking up the pace. I was feeling good and went with them. It wasn't long before we couldn't see anyone else we had been with. Then they started slowing down, so I went around and started looking for more guys in front of me. But I couldn't find any of them. The whole fourth lap I might have seen three other people. But, I was still passing [most*] them, so, I'll take it.

*One of the maybe five people that passed me the whole race came by about two miles from the end...

I wasn't exactly sure of where I was sitting in the race, but I knew I was doing pretty good. My goal had been top 20, and I ended up 22nd. Not quite, but I'll take that too. Especially when we realized I was the first finisher from a school not located in a mountainous area!

Part 3: Short Track, pictures, and more coming soon!

Collegiate MTB Nationals (Part One)

2009-10-23T10:45:00.004-05:00

About this time last year, I got an [unexpected] invitation to the 2008 collegiate mountain bike national championships. It was too short notice to put together travel plans to North Carolina for a weekend. So I decided I would just go this year.

So, the day after I got back from Marfa, I packed a different bag and drove to Dallas. The next morning I met up with the A+M team, loaded my bag and bike into their van and tried to forget that I was going to be stuck in it for the next 34 hours as well...

Way too long of a car drive later, we made it to the Northstar at Tahoe resort in Truckee, California.

We unpacked into the condo, and after deciding we all wanted to ride, sat/laid down and took naps. Then we got some sandwiches. Then we went out for a ride. The course wasn't completely marked yet, so we rode the first couple miles before we couldn't figure out where to go, and then just explored some of the various trails. They were all pretty much awesome.

We got back to the condo and had some homemade chili and watched freeride videos and all decided we wanted to ride around 10:00 the next morning before passing out again.

Thursday we all woke up and were riding by about 1:00 in the afternoon...
The course was completely marked this time, so we got to see the whole thing. We started pretty much straight uphill, and climbed 800 feet. Broken up by a 3 second downhill section. It was a mix of wide singletrack and jeep road, with a few technical spots. There were very few spots where passing wouldn't be possible. At the top of the climb, we made a corner and started heading back down. The first section of descent was really flow-y with bermed corners and a few tabletop jumps. There was a short flat to slightly uphill section, then more of the same descent before we dumped out onto a ~40 mile an hour straight down dirt road with a right hand corner covered in loose gravel at the bottom to transition into the last short (read: maybe 100 vertical feet) climb on the course. Then it was downhill to the finish! This time though, there was some pretty technical rocky sections mixed in.

We headed back to the condo, showered, went through registration, and headed to the racers meeting, where they told us the trail was in such good condition they were bumping us up from 3 laps (22.5 miles) to 4 laps (30 miles) for the cross country the next day...

El Cosmico

2009-10-21T15:34:00.003-05:00

The Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love.

Pictures will say more than words about this one. Taken by me unless otherwise noted.

Driving to marfa

Architecture in progress

Finished project

@Siobhan Ray

@Siobhan Ray

@Melissa Berry

Ben Kweller

Other projects

@Melissa Berry

@Melissa Berry

@Vicky Ho

Went for a ride

Dan Deacon

Heartless Bastards

Chinati

@Melissa Berry

@Melissa Berry

@Sam Turner

Livin the Life

2009-10-07T22:25:00.004-05:00

Even with having to get studio stuff finalized for Marfa this weekend, which is going to be awesome, by the way, the last few days have been pretty awesome.
If you recall my last post, the Collegiate Conference championships were last weekend at Bar H. Saturday the weather was awesome for the time trial and short track, both of which I got 2nd to Chad in.

(race pics courtesy of Mr. Haga)

Nothing much to say about the TT, but the STXC was kind of interesting. After riding a lap of the course, I decided that I was going to race it on my singlespeed, which I had brought with the intention of using if the course was muddy. Surprisingly, racing it turned out to be a pretty good idea. I was following Chad around pretty easily, and and not having the option of an easier gear, I forced myself to not be able to slow down. Except when I slid out in some sand and hit the ground. That slowed me down quite a bit. Shane and Steve got by me, and Chad used the opportunity to take off. I got back by the other two, but Chad was gone...
(Notice the sweet socks)

Then it started raining.

And it didn't stop raining.
Sunday morning, we all gathered up and looked at the conference points, and came to the conclusion that whether no one raced or everyone raced, nothing could change in the points. But if any one person in the top 5 raced, they would pass the person ahead of them, making it an all or nothing kind of deal. Me, Drew, Shane, and Chad were all fine with not racing. Steve on the other hand...
Anyway, I think a picture says more than I could write (Steve is the one smiling, go figure):

I will say that the race was actually kinda fun, as much as I wouldn't have minded not doing it, it was pretty good. Helps that I won (!), but you know, haven't had a real mud race in a while either...

Then I drove back to Austin, through lots of traffic, including I35 being completely closed down once... For a broken down semi... On the shoulder...

And got back in time to take a shower and make it down to Stubb's for Ghostland Obsvervatory!

Monday and Tuesday were a lot of getting everything finalized for Marfa, and besides packing up the cars, we're good to go (throw in little hand gesture from that Taco Bell commercial here)!
Then Tuesday night I hit up a Trivium concert with JT and Logan!

Added to the collection too!

And... tomorrow is the start of my week long vacation to Marfa and then Lake Tahoe!

Livin the life

'Handlebars' Flobots

2009-10-02T15:22:00.002-05:00

Heres a rundown of my next (little more than) two weeks:

Tonight: Drive to Dallas
Tomorrow: Drive to Bar H; time trial and short track; SCCCC meeting
Sunday: Cross Country; Drive back to Austin; Ghostland Observatory concert
Monday: Project for construction; project for studio
Tuesday: See Monday; class; (maybe) Dirt Derby; (maybe) Trivium Concert
Wednesday: Studio project
Thursday: Studio Project
Friday: Drive to Marfa; assemble project for studio; El Cosmico
Saturday: El Cosmico
Sunday: Disassemble studio project; drive back to Austin
Monday: Pack for the next week; (maybe) drive to College Station
Tuesday: Start driving to Lake Tahoe with A+M Cycling Team
Wednesday: Finish drive to Lake Tahoe
Thursday: Preride collegiate National Championship cross country course
Friday: (Maybe) Collegiate National Championship short track; enjoy the ambiance
Saturday: COLLEGIATE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP CROSS COUNTRY!!!
Sunday: Enjoy the ambiance
Monday: Start driving back to Texas
Tuesday: Finish drive to Austin

Then I get to catch up on all of the class and studio I'll have missed, but theres a good chance this is the only chance I'll get to go, so it'll be worth it. I'm excited.

In other news, after Marfa, I never want to have anything to do with plastic bags ever again.

'Run Chicken Run' The Felice Brothers

Comfort

2009-09-30T11:01:00.002-05:00

So I got to play race promoter last weekend.
Being in charge of UTs mountain bike department means I have to organize our race in the fall too, so a couple months ago I emailed Jimmy at Flat Rock Ranch and was all like,
"Say foo'! UT be needin' a place ta throw down wit' some o' dat biiiike racin', ya dig?"
And he was like,
"yeah thats cool."

So, I filled out some paperwork with USAC and headed down a day early to drive around in the little four wheeler thing with Jimmy and put up some signs and ribbon and stuff. Then, being as collegiate racing is so cool, I got to go race too!

Saturday we had a time trial and short track.
The time trial went quite good, Chad beat me, but I got second in front of Rick Wetherald, who I wouldn't describe as slow.
The short track was another story though... Don't know why, but after the first 10 minutes or so, I just did not feel good. I had been with Chad and Rick up to that point, but they quickly shelled me, and next thing I know mini-Chad is passing me too... I tried to hold on to him, but that didn't last too long either. Luckily no one else caught me and I pulled off 4th (hey! 4th! Just like the good old days!).

There was a little more driving around and putting up ribbon that evening, and after dinner with the team and sleep, it was Sunday, and time for the cross country.
Somehow, almost none of us A racers managed to warm up at all, so we took off at a nice 'easy' pace, and didn't really pick the pace up for the first 15 minutes of the race or so. But as soon as we hit the first technical sections, some of the Aggies bobbled and me and Rick were able to get around and open a bit of a gap. I bobbled next, and Rick got away from me too. About half way through the race, in a really fast open section, Chad caught back up to me, and I held on for a while, but he eventually got away too...
Even with 3rd, I was happy with the results. Rick beat me by about 4 minutes, and Chad by a little over 1. I also got 3rd overall, which means I got one of the awesome prizes I picked - SCRATCH OFF TICKETS! Of course I didn't win anything though...

'The New Year' Death Cab For Cutie
'Feed The Animals' Girl Talk

Football

2009-09-20T23:22:00.002-05:00

Went to the Tech game yesterday. Despite a slow first half and a never ending string of random penalties (sideline violation? what?) to start the 4th quarter, the game was really good. AND WE GOT OUR REVENGE FOR LAST YEAR WOO! Afterward me and Joseph hosted a celebration gathering for a few people, and some friends from Tech that I haven't seen in a while stopped by for a bit. It was pretty cool.
Fast forward to this afternoon and I woke up in just enough time to squeeze in a 45 minute easy ride before heading to studio to work on our groups project for Marfa. We're starting to get some pretty cool stuff done. T-3 weeks till we're going out to build it! (I'm kinda excited)

'Roses for the Dead' Funeral for a Friend
'Orion' Metallica

(not bike racing)

2009-09-17T15:34:00.002-05:00

Lately, I've started questioning what I want to do with architecture. I know I want to keep going with it, that isn't a question, but beyond that, I'm still not sure.
This morning though, I read a quote that is helping me make sense of where I think I want to head:

"Architecture isn't important, the world is important, and we have to change it. It's a shitty world." -Oscar Neimeyer

Take that for whatever you will, and have some songs:
'Pepper' Butthole Surfers
'Last Summer' Lost Prophets

Huntsville and Some Other Things

2009-09-16T00:43:00.003-05:00

First off, I'm going to start posting more than just race reports again. Those get boring.
And of course, with that being said, here is the Dave Boyd Huntsville Classic (get ready for it) RACE REPORT!

This was this years second collegiate race, and the field was a lot more stacked than it had been at Camp Eagle. Chad from A+M finally got his hand healed enough to race. I convinced Joseph to come out and play. And UT newcomer (I'm glad he showed up on one of our rides, because I would've had no idea he was here...) Matt Stottlemeyer, who I race with in TMBRA also came out. Plus all the usual suspects.
Anywho, I hadn't preridden the course as it had rained most of the week since Camp Eagle. Well, actually I hadn't ridden much at all since Camp Eagle, since it had rained most of the week... But, I've ridden Huntsville enough over the past, what, 10 years to have a pretty good idea what to expect. The start was fast. But I wanted to stay with the front. I did. Until Chad jumped about a mile into the race. I chased him for a bit, but realized I was pushing a little too hard and backed off.
Of course, next thing I know I'm going too easy and people start catching me... At least it was just Matt and Joseph (go figure we would all end up together starting the third lap).
Pretty soon into third lap, I (we) got a report that Chad was about five minutes up. I realized I felt better than I should at that point, and knew that if I was going to catch him, I better hurry up and get started on it. Joseph hung on for a bit, but by halfway through the lap I was back by myself. And Chad wasn't there. He ended up beating me by a couple minutes, though I had at least closed the gap a little. Joseph rolled in not too far behind me, and then Matt and Chad's brother had a sprint for fourth. Of course the Aggie had to go and win it... But still, three out of the top five for UT - not bad.

Oh, and, the race was harder than I remember it ever being before. Dunno whats up with that.

I've already decided I look like a doofus when I race without my Racing Jackets, so I don't want to hear it.

In other news, me and Joseph went to the record store at midnight last night to pick up the new Muse CD as soon as it was released. So. Good. Go buy it now if you for some reason haven't already.
Also, since I'm going to start posting more, I'm going to be really original and make an attempt at some sort of song of the ~~day~~ post type thing! (GET EXCITED I LISTEN TO COOL MUSIC LIKE YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW)
And now! for the inaugural song(s)-of-the-~~day~~-post-type-thing!! I present...
'Padmasana' Buckethead
'Let Go' Frou Frou

Camp Eagle 09

2009-09-09T12:20:00.002-05:00

I never thought I would say that I enjoyed a Camp Eagle race. Particularly a muddy Camp Eagle race, but this year for the first time, CAMP EAGLE WAS AWESOME!

Saturday morning was the Super D, and I had a good start and was right up there with the front of the group. Then I got boxed in at the finish... By that point there were only three of us though, so I wasn't too bothered by having to sit there and watch the sprint for first and second. The three of us had the fastest times out of anyone who did the race though! So, thats something.

There was supposed to be a short track that evening, but after an afternoon of torrential rain, it was cancelled/we all opted out of racing it. Whatever.

By Sunday the course had actually started drying out, but the rocks were still SLIIIICKK. I had a good start again and was sitting third until the leader slid out on some rocks and me and second got around him. We started getting to the technical stuff, and I went with playing it safe through the rocks. The new leader got away from me, and for a while I was worried that I would never see him again.
Starting the second lap though, I was finally able to see him, maybe a minute or two in front of me, and he looked slower than I was feeling! I picked up the pace ~~some~~ quite a bit and reeled him in about the time we were getting to the rockiest part again. I decided that I was just going to go for it, and laid the hammer down. Then I started catching sport racers. In the technical stuff. Most of them were off their bikes or fumbling around and about to be off, so it wasn't hard to get around them, and listening to them all being like "WOAH how are you doing that?!?!" was some great motivation to just. Go. Faster!
I started feeling my legs about a mile or two from the end, and lets just say it would have been bad if anyone I was racing against had caught me...
I kept going as much as I could, and the finish line actually came up quicker than I was expecting it too. I zipped up the jersey, threw up my arms, and it felt good.
Then I went and laid down in the dirt and that felt good too.

I had no idea what to expect when they put the results up. Well, I knew I had won, but not how much I had won by.
NINE.
MINUTES.

The guy who had won the Super D got 3rd also, which put us in a tie for the overall results for the weekend. Luckily, the Cross Country ranks higher, so I got the tie breaker and won the overall too!

It was a great weekend overall, and its always nice to race against the other collegiate guys. Looking forward to doing it again this weekend at Huntsville!

Return of the Dirt Derby

2009-09-02T09:35:00.002-05:00

Last night was the first time I'd been out to the big city of Del Valle in quite a while. What on earth happens in Del Valle? The Dirt Derby of course!
I still hadn't gotten my rear wheel fixed from City Park (since it took a bit longer for the spokes to come in then it was supposed to...) but hey, thats why I have a singlespeed right?! Let's just say that I thought the race was hard on a geared bike.
I finally talked Joseph into coming out (to the race) so I just tried to stick with him as long as I could. He ended up beating my by a couple places. But with gears. We'll see what happens next week when the playing field is a little more level.

Camp Eagle this weekend. I need to hurry up and get that wheel fixed.

Class Day #1

2009-08-26T16:26:00.002-05:00

Today was the first day of classes, and all I had on my schedule was design. The typical first day for that involves the professors introducing themselves followed by us writing down the order we would prefer to have them in. Then we go get coffee while they figure out who has which professor. Then they put the lists up and we go introduce ourselves to them, hear a little about what we're going to be doing through the semester, and then we're done.

Anyway, I got my first choice professor, and it is going to be a great semester! The first couple weeks we're working on some projects that we are going to take out and put on display at a festival in Marfa! After that no one knows. But Jack (my professor) said that "as long as we can go there with this [field trip release form] signed and not go to jail, [he's] up for [anything we come up with]."

What've I been up to?

2009-08-25T21:30:00.004-05:00

You may ask. You may not. But I'm going to tell you either way. Deal with it.
Riding wise, I went out to City Park a couple times last week to get ready for the Emma's Revenge race last weekend. I hadn't ever been out to that trail before, and while it was as technical as everyone says, it was pretty fun too. Something different.

The race itself was kinda different too... Unlike most trails there were a lot of places that you just can't go fast on, and blah blah blah it made staying focused on the race one of the hardest things. I was going back and forth with one guy for the first half of the race or so, but unfortunately he ripped his derailure off and had to drop out. I ended up winning the under 30 class, and got 8th overall. (I wash I had known all the big boys had signed up for 30-39... Oh well.)
I have some pictures on my phone, but it isn't letting them leave at the moment...

Other than that, I had to wipe out Windows on my computer and when I put it back on the 'theme' I had been using wasn't there. It turned out I just hadn't reinstalled my video driver yet, but before I figured that out I decided that I might as well just use a custom theme. You know, how hard could that be?
Well, after the third Windows re-install I figured out what I had been doing wrong and now it is pretty simple. Four days later I think I'm done with it!

Back to Austin

2009-08-15T16:53:00.003-05:00

But before we get to that, I raced the Singlespeed class at the first DORBA race last weekend!
I had no idea what to expect, so I started off just following the leaders. I went into the woods in third, and after a couple miles me and second passed the leader. That was the last time I saw anyone on bike until I flatted with 4ish miles to go and didn't have everything I needed to fix it...
But, I can say I most likely would have gotten second by looking at the time splits, and I missed out on a ribbon (OMG), so it isn't that big of a deal. I really need to quit getting flats though...

I like this picture:

Courtesy of Mom

Then a couple days later, I'm back in the ATX. Me and Joseph and my Dad built our bike rack, and it's awesome. But I'm not going to post any pictures so you have to come visit if you want to see it. DO IT. (You know you want to!)

Other than that, I went and rode yesterday and today (and dragged Joseph along today) and it is hot. Wait, I don't think you caught that...
IT.
IS.
HOT.
Much better.

More to come soonish. I promise!

Post #325

2009-08-06T09:58:00.002-05:00

Or, a little bit of everything.

I haven't been riding too much since nationals, but it's starting to pick up again. There is a DORBA race this weekend before I head back to Austin for the fall semester and I'm going to give racing singlespeed a shot. I rode the course yesterday and it seemed pretty good. At a pretty easy pace anyway. We'll see how the race goes, might be interesting.

A week or two ago I took a trip to Austin to help Joseph move into our apartment. It took a couple trips to get his junk over, and then we made a Home Depot / IKEA run, and on top of our 55" TV from Craigslist, have just about everything we're going to need:

Living room set up

Better shot of the rug

Table #1

Table #2 (we still need red/white checkerboard tablecloths...)

Trash can of awesome

Me and the AJ have been putting some more work into the '57 too, and the front end is starting to come along:

Maybe it'll be finished sometime in the next couple years...

Sol Vista: MTB Nationals '09

2009-07-24T12:18:00.002-05:00

Last night I figured out what I was going to write about the race, and then made the mistake of gong to bed instead of actually writing it. Thus, I don't remember, so I'll just make it up as I go. Sound good? Good.

Going into the race I felt more confident than I had the last couple years; I had a (much) better Texas season, and had been training pretty hard. I actually lined up on the front row instead of at the back, and was sitting mid pack-ish off up the start hill. When the race finally got to singletrack for the first time, like 3.5 miles in, I was around 10th, and could see all the way up to 3rd (turns out 1st and 2nd got DQd for cutting the course...).
Everyone spreadd out over time, but I was still top 10 starting the second lap. This time it got harder to tell where I was as the leaders from other classes started coming by, but I stayed around the same, maybe passing some people in my class and maybe getting passed by others.
Then the third lap hit. Maybe I didn't drink enough early in the race, maybe I didn't eat enough breakfast, who knows, but I did not have anything to finish off the race. The third lap was about two miles shorter than the first two, and my lap time was almost the same... I felt so bad that I didn't even care who passed me, I just wanted to make it to the finish.

I ended up 14th, less than 5 minutes out of 9th...
I felt bad for losing four or more spots so late in the race, but I had given it everything I had (my legs are still sore almost a week later) and I'm still happy with the way the first 2/3 of the race went down. I know a little more about what I need to work on for training, and learned some more about nutrition. We'll see what next year brings.

Filler

2009-07-21T18:05:00.002-05:00

Nationals recap coming soon.

Have a teaser picture:

Back to Granby

2009-07-12T19:29:00.002-05:00

We made it up to Granby earlier today. We were a little early to check into the hotel, so even though we weren't riding a trip up to the resort ensued. We watched the downhillers hit some jumps and talked to everyone we knew that had already ridden the course. I still don't know what to expect when we ride tomorrow. Well, except that the start goes up an annoying steep hill. Perfect.

Yup

2009-07-08T17:52:00.002-05:00

Got some good riding in in Austin. And I think Wheel is ready to move to Austin and go to UT... Anywho, we hit up two kinda hilly, really hot days. My legs were feeling it at first, but by the end I guess they had gotten used to the short steep Austin climbs again because I was feeling good by time we left on Tuesday.
We hit up the snow cone place right by my apartment too. Somehow I had never been there before, but I will be back. Pretty much the best snow cone I've ever had!

Anywho, I'm just about finished packing to head back to Colorado in the morning. It'll be nice to get back to somewhere where it less than 100 degrees again. I'm also ready to get back and see the course, which they completely changed since the first time I was there. From the sounds of it, I think it'll suit me more than the original course. We will see.

Fireworks and Stuff

2009-07-05T19:48:00.002-05:00

The last few days haven't been too eventful, just working in the morning, riding in the afternoon, and chillin' with my people at night.
Yesterday though, for the Fourth we continued tradition and went up to Lake Lavon to blow stuff up again! As per always, it was a good time.
Tomorrow me and Wheel are going to make a trip to Austin to get some (hilly) riding in to finish out the low altitude hard part of training. Take a couple days off after that, and then I'll be back in Colorado by the weekend!

Texas is hot

2009-06-27T11:50:00.002-05:00

Well, the day after the last post we ended up spending closer to 5 hours on the bike. It was some of the best riding on the trip though. The Rim Trail is always fun, and after that we hit the road to Lanedo, which is paved for about 5 miles, dirt for about 6, and all slightly uphill. That was followed by about another 45 minutes of singletrack climbing up to "four corners" and from there it was rolling jeep road to Sunnyside. Sunnyside started out as rolling bench cut in the side of a probably 60 degree or more hill, then turned into fast singletrack down the side of a less steep section, and finally into very technical switchbacks the rest of the way into Aspen. I'll just say I'm glad I had disc brakes.

We gladly took Monday off, did an easy ride across Cross Mountain and Government Tuesday, and hit up one last Aspen Cycling Club road race Wednesday evening before heading home.

The race was from Basalt up past Ruedi Reservoir and back, a total trip of just under 50 miles. My legs were still dead from the weekend, and I got shelled off the back after a couple attacks on the biggest climb of the race. Eventually I fell into a group of about 8 and we stuck together until the biggest hill on the return trip where we lost a few people. At one point we saw another group up the road, but we were never able to catch up. I ended up 16th, which wasn't great, but considering the riding we had done the couple days before the race, I'll take it.

Thursday we took the bikes to be shipped to Dallas and then jumped on a plane ourselves. A few hours later we made it home. Now I just have to get used to this whole thing where the temperature is like 3000 degrees. Although, the presence of Oxygen in the air is making up for it a little.
I'm taking a few days off right now, while the bikes get here here and whatnot, then it'll be right back to it until the 7th, when me and the parentals are heading back up to Granby for the race!

Whew

2009-06-20T21:45:00.002-05:00

The last couple days have been hard. Lots of good riding though. We took Tuesday off after the trip to Colorado Springs and Granby, but since then...

Wednesday was another Aspen Cycling Club race, this time a circuit race on Buttermilk Mountain (where the winter X-Games are). The course was about 15 minutes, 12 of which was uphill at about 15%. Four laps later my legs were quite sore and I finished in 12th. Could have been a little better, but I didn't know the downhill section and kept getting gapped through it. Oh well.
Thursday, Will's dad (John/Snow White) got into town, and we rode up and back down Independence pass. My time from the first gate to the summit was right at 1 hour 26 minutes. Back down was 28 minutes. We ran into Ride the Rockies - they were coming over the pass, so we got caught up in some of their traffic on the way down... That made it interesting though, passing a few hundred people down a mountain... SWEET!
Yesterday the three of us headed back to Red Hill along with fellow Texan Steven Hardy who is up here training for the 100 miles of Leadville in a few weeks. As per usual that trail was good.
Today John skipped out, but the rest of us rode the Government trail, which just opened today after Elk Calving Season, into Aspen then went up Smuggler mountain, down into Hunter Valley, and so on. Ended up with about 3.5 hours total!
Tomorrow should be about as long - we're riding the Rim trail, up into Lanedo, then down into Aspen. My legs are already tired enough, so that'll be good fun.

Picture fun time!

Independence Ghost Town, on the way up the pass

View from the top

Perfect helmet for long road rides...

Maroon Creek from the ride today

Here and there

2009-06-16T12:11:00.002-05:00

This weekend we took a trip to Colorado Springs for a UCI race and Granby to preride the course for Nationals.

The Colorado Springs course was interesting - most of it was on a wider than singletrack but not jeep-road gravel path type thing, but then there would be big piles of rocks that it was impossibly to take a good line through. Then on the start line, they decided that all of the Experts were going to have a mass start!
Luckily I was on the front row, but that didn't stop about 10 people from other classes who could ride slightly uphill open stuff but had to stop and walk as soon as there was a rock more than an inch tall from getting in front of me before all of the rocks...
Eventually I got back around most of them, but still had no idea who was in my class and who wasn't. Basically the rest of the race was me trying to pass anyone who I could, and I guess it kinda worked, because I ended up 5th in 19-29 and 2nd in 19-24.

At Granby they didn't have the entire course cut yet, so we got to ride up the mountaian, then take 3the easier downhill courses back down. Unfortunately, our legs were tired for some reason, so we only felt like going up two or three times, which meant we only got to go down a couple times (which was pretty cool - the course we took had ~70 jumps and berms!)

Anywho, we're back in Snowmass now, just in time for some waiter to think he was sneaky enough to pocket a $20 and put some extra on my card... Then try to guilt-trip me when I caught him and and left a sup-standard tip...

Another Good Ride

2009-06-08T19:40:00.002-05:00

After yesterday, I wasn't sure how I would feel on a long ride today but decided to go for it anyway! And... Good choice! Not only did I actually feel pretty good, it was no doubt the best I've been able to breathe at altitude so far, but the scenery was also quite nice!

Well, most of it, anyway...

Red Hill

2009-06-07T20:27:00.003-05:00

A new trail got added to my top five favorites today, making the list (in no certain order):
-Oak Mountain State Park, Birmingham, Alabama
-Schwietzer Mountain, Sandpoint, Idaho
-Red Hill, Carbondale, Colorado
-Lincoln Parish Park, Ruston, Louisiana
-Cameron Park, Waco, Texas

Mo' CO

2009-06-05T21:50:00.002-05:00

The last couple days haven't been much different than what I talked about in the last post, just riding and chilling and whatnot.
Except for Wednesday, when we had our first race of the trip - a Hill Climb Time Trial up Smuggler Mountain. The course was a 3 mile jeep road with about 800 feet of elevation gain. The course record set in 1999 is 10' 53" and as much as I would have liked to break it, I wasn't (and still haven't quite gotten) used to the higher altitude. I made it up in 15' 10" without being able to breathe for most of the time I was riding, so that can't be too terrible. That put me in 17th out of 23. After I get used to this whole riding in the mountains thing, I think I'll go try again to see if I can do any better!

I haven't taken the real camera with me on any rides yet (will for sure on Sunday, it looks like there will be some pretty sweet scenery), so here's a ~~crappy~~ AWESOME cell phone picture from Tuesday's ride:

This is kinda like Austin

2009-06-01T15:53:00.002-05:00

Only the hills are longer and not as steep.
Too bad they're at 8,000 feet too. Although the altitude isn't as bad as I remember from last time I was in part of the world.

Me and Will rode for about 1.5 hours this morning trying to avoid the storms that won't go away. Hopefully after something similar tomorrow we'll be ready to race Lance (maybe) on Wednesday.

We're probably going to go see Star Trek later, and that'll be about it for the day.

X-Bar + Summer Plans

2009-05-28T11:10:00.003-05:00

After almost two weeks...

I originally hadn't planned on racing X-Bar, but when I ended up doing good in the series, those plans got all messed up. I had to drive out to the race Saturday night, because I had an awesome final earlier that day, but it had rained that day, so I probably wouldn't have gotten a pre-ride in anyway.
Because of the rain the course was shortened too, but they upped the laps, making the race about the same distance. For whatever reason though, it was nice to have the shorter course.
By Sunday the trail was mostly dry, but there were a couple places where water was still seeping out the side of hills that made for some interesting climbs. Still wasn't bad though. My class was small, and between the conditions and everyone being a little tired from the long season (I assume / I know I was at least) we actually stayed mostly together for the entire first (of four) laps. It started to split up a little after that though, and by half way through the race, me and Matthew had a couple minutes on everyone else. I followed him around for the third lap, and on the last lap started planning out where to get in front to hopefully get one last W for the season.
I went to make my move towards the end of a long jeep road section with about 2.5 miles of mostly singletrack to the finish. I stood up, and my rear tire went flat...
I grabbed my CO2, hoping that I wouldn't have to change a tube and would be able to catch back up. And of course, my inflater didn't work. I started hiking down the trail, hoping I was far enough of the other guys to somehow still finish in the money, but that didn't work out so good either. Oh well, it was a good race while it lasted.

Luckily, I had my overall result for the season locked up before the race, so flatting out didn't make any difference there. I had no intention of it happening going into the season, but somehow I ended up winning the series! Thanks to Chris, Eric, Matthew, and everyone else for a great race season, I hadn't had that much fun racing in quite a while!

Pics or it didn't happen!

___________________________

Anywho, now that the season is over, and I've taken 1.5ish weeks off, it's time to start getting ready for the National Championships in July!

I got back on the bike for the Tuesday Night Crits this week, and considering the time off I had a pretty good race. Followed that up with a singlespeed ride yesterday... But this weekend is when the real fun starts:
On Sunday, I'm flying to Colorado with Will and family to train at altitude and in the same area Nationals will be for the entire month of June. It'll mostly be riding, but we will be hitting up a few races while we're up there, mostly the local Aspen Cycling Club series and the National Series race at Sand Creek. I've heard rumors that I'll get to race against Lance in a couple weeks!

Well, that seems like more than enough writing for now, I'll make an attempt at updating pretty often while I'm up in the 970! Check the Twitter as well, I'll actually be making use of it too!

Yeah So...

2009-05-24T02:27:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted anything about X Bar yet. I will sometime next week. Fo' reelz.

As for now, I'm taking an off-week after the TMBRA season and before heading off to Colorado for some training for the National Championships in July. More about that next time too.

Good luck to everyone racing the State Crit this weekend! I may come out to watch - see what comes up.

Dinner Time

2009-05-14T20:18:00.002-05:00

Since I blogged about the time I made shark steak, I figured the salmon steak I had a bit ago deserved a post as well!

It was good!

In other news, I'm almost completely not sick any more! Still coughing on occasion, but that's it. I've gotten a little riding in this week, and so far I haven't felt 100% yet, but I'm getting closer. Hopefully by time X-Bar rolls around on Sunday I'll be good. I am ready to take my end of the season break though... I'm ready to be done with school for the semester too. Only a couple more days!

Camera Phone Fun Time

2009-05-10T15:00:00.003-05:00

So, I keep taking pictures on my phone of (usually) things that make me laugh, with the intention of posting them so everyone else can laugh too. Somewhere along the way though, that ends up not happening.
However, with nothing else to do, I finally managed to get all the pictures to my computer, and now they are making it to a blog post! Enjoy! (Click on them and a bigger version will open up, if you're having problems seeing the details.)

Tired of the same old, boring, beige car? Nothing some bright-colored circle-shaped magnets can't fix! Your car won't look stupid at all!

Parking like a pro.

You know you're in the middle of nowhere when:

Can we get some of these for our apartment next year?!? PLEASE!!!

Parking like a pro, take two.

"Yeah, mom, I got my helmet."
"I'm 35, mom, you don't tell me when to be home for dinner."

I want that!

...

Life with No Classes (And a Cold)

2009-05-09T22:00:00.002-05:00

Save "class" yesterday, I've pretty much spent the last two days sitting around at home, and while it has been kind of boring, I'm getting so much stuff done it isn't even funny. And I'm not talking "clean the kitchen" stuff either, although I actually did that. Then left Jeff a note telling him not to get it dirty.

No, I'm doing things like listening to the Fratellis EP that I've had for 18 months without ever listening to, figuring out how to solve my new 4x4 Rubik's Cube, talking to people that aren't in the School of Architecture! It's so awesome!

Currently, I'm actually drinking coffee that was actually brewed in the coffee maker in my kitchen! I can't even remember the last time that happened! Don't ask me why I'm drinking coffee at 10:00 at night though, because I don't even know. It just sounded good. It's some random brand that I bought because it was in a cool bag (and because it was a little more expensive than most of the others, which obviously means its higher quality). Judging by the way this post is going, it is good stuff.

I was on The Facebook earlier, well, I'm pretty much always on, but you know what I mean, and I saw something saying "stay close to Mom - connect with Mom this Mother's Day by inviting her to [The] Facebook." My Mom already has The Facebook, which means she's seeing this too. Does this mean my Grandma is going to be on The Facebook by the end of the weekend?

I recommend this video. It is pretty much the best thing since fried chicken skin.

Alright, that's it for the day. I have a sweet post planned for tomorrow, so be sure to keep refreshing the page all day so you can see it as soon as it's up! Peace Outside!

Lake Lake

2009-05-07T19:12:00.003-05:00

I actually remember when this race was! Last weekend I made the trip to the booming metropolis of Coldspring, Texas - they have a stoplight now! - for some mountain bike racing action.

After the broken frame incident at Comfort, it was taken back to Bike Mart, and (thanks Jim!) they got all my parts-s and pieces moved over to a non-broken bike. Basically everything was exactly the same as it was before, save the color of the frame. You'll get to see it in a minute.

I prerode on Saturday an felt pretty good, especially considering this has been my worst race of every season since it was added to the schedule however many years ago. Then it was off to visit the Grandparents, who just so happen to live in Coldspring, and later get some sleep.

Sunday morning came along with some not friendly looking black clouds, and when they finally let loose some time after breakfast, the day suddenly got a bit more interesting. Luckily it stopped raining before the start of my race, so I didn't have to stand around in the rain waiting to go. Unfortunately, it didn't rain any more after that, so by the end of the first lap the mud was already starting to thicken up an make riding through it more and more tiring...

Back from the slight topic detour, this race was also a stop for the GT Golden Bike Series, and the winner from Sea Otter had signed up for my class.

Pretty much everyone thought he didn't stand a chance on the course that would be so different than what he was used to, and had narrowed the contenders down to about five other people, one of which was, of course, Mr. Sandbag Johnson...

Off the start, I jumped in behind Chris, since he usually maintains a pace that works good for me, but this time (maybe because he had a pretty well chance at the Gold Bike too), he was going a tad faster than I wanted to, so I backed off some. Next thing I know, Gold Bike passes me. Again, I figure that if I keep my slightly slower steady pace, I'll catch him again later, and let him chase down Chris.
The rest of that lap was pretty uneventful, with the two leaders only getting about 20 seconds up on me. The second lap (of four this time) started off pretty good too, but somewhere near the end, I very suddenly felt really not good. I backed off some and waited for a second wind, but it never came.
A lot of people passed me on the third lap, but I stayed close enough that I did have a chance at getting them again. Except that I kept feeling worse and worse the further I went. I managed to finish the race (in last yay!), but it was not very pretty at all.

Turns out I had a bunch of sand / mud stuck in my brake lever and it wouldn't release all the way... So, that sounds like a pretty good excuse if nothing else. I didn't have my Racing Jackets on either, and everyone tells me they are what make me fast, so I guess I'll throw that into the circle of excuses too.

Gold Bike did manage to surprise everyone and win again!

And uhh, oh yeah! Even though my race was very not bueno, finishing did lock up 1st overall in the series for me! Yay! Now I have no reason to not move up in the fall! Yay?

I have some sort of sinus infection going on now too, so this is is pretty much going to be an off week for me. Next week would be too, but since I'll be going to X-Bar for the overall awards, I might as well race while I'm there. Then some more time off, then training for nationals starts!

You can tell how awesome I'm feeling in this one...

This is a little better... Must have been earlier in the race.

Pretty good view of the new bike:

Pictures courtesy of Karmabiker

UT Race Weekend

2009-05-06T21:06:00.002-05:00

Studio is "done" for the semester, only minor things here and there to do, like taking pictures of all my work, and then finding somewhere to put it for the summer. (The review went good, thanks for asking.) Thus, I have pretty much nothing to do for the next week, so I can finally get this thing caught up!

Anywho, some number of weekends ago (I lost count in the end of the semester rush - I didn't even realize it was a new month until today...) was the final collegiate road race of the year. Seeing ass this was the home race, and I had kind of skipped out on most of the other collegiate racing this season, and that there wasn't a mountain bike race to attend, I figured I owed it to the team to actually participate in all of the events.

Early-ish Saturday was a road race that was supposed to be ~65 miles. Except someone can't seem to do math and it ended up really being around 75. For the four out of sixteen people that finished it, anyway. Yes, I was one of the quitters... I rode two out of six laps and decided fighting the 35 mile an hour winds by myself was just not quite as much fun as it seems like it would be...

After that great success, we had to ~~sit around~~ eat lunch for a couple hours, and "get ready" for the Team Time Trial. After some discussion and math, we concluded that it didn't matter what place we finished, and none of us were that interested in trying to win anyway, but as long as we were there, we might as well participate. Pictures will probably say more than words about this one... Compare:

UT

MSU

Yeah. We had the slowest time. Our C team almost caught us.

And then, there was a crit on Sunday!
It wasn't anything special. I got pulled like half way through.

Thats it for this one. I'll type up a Lake Lake report sometime tomorrow-ish.

Alright

2009-05-01T22:01:00.002-05:00

Final review is Wednesday morning, meaning other than racing this weekend, I will not have time to do anything except studio. Primarily since I am racing this weekend.
The UT race post is going to have to wait until after that. So is the post from this weekend coming up. Sometime after Wednesday morning. Hopefully you can wait.

Until then, here's a new and improved look at my project:

Be back in a couple days! (With a Gold Bike?)

Hi

2009-04-29T10:37:00.001-05:00

There's going to be something about the UT race weekend here eventually.
That is all.

Comfort Pictures

2009-04-23T14:52:00.001-05:00

And for your viewing pleasure:

Me digging tree bark out of my knee!
But you have to click... Because, you never know, but there might be someone out there who doesn't want to see it...

Thanks to KarmaBiker for the photos!

MJ Special

2009-04-22T09:05:00.002-05:00

I just went to the $starbucks before class, and ordered my new usual, a Zebra Mocha. If it isn't obvious, that's a mocha made with regular and white chocolate.
The guy called back "got a grande Micheal Jackson Special!"

Comfort Weekend

2009-04-20T17:44:00.002-05:00

How to start...
Like that, I guess.

Unlike the typical TMBRA race, Comfort also had a short track and time trial on Saturday. These didn't count for series points, but race payout was based on all three. Not being one to pass up a chance at making some money, ~~I signed up for the omnium~~ my mom signed me up for the omnium.

I couldn't tell how I felt warming up for the short track, but knowing how those races go, I took off from the start with one other guy, and after a couple laps we had a bit of a gap. The pace started to die down though, and Eric caught up to us. The three of us rode around for the next few laps just fast enough that no one else could start to close the gap. With 3 to go, Eric attacked, and we chased him down about half way through the 2 to go lap.
Next thing I know, it's just me and Eric. (After the race, the other told us he blew up, hard.) Eric attacked again right at the start of the last lap and got a little ahead. With some helpful jeering from the side of the trail, I reeled him back in, and even though we made an agreement not to get in any more sprints after Warda, we were looking at a sprint finish. This time I just edged him out though and got the win!

After a couple hours of sitting around, watching other races, etc etc, it was TT time. My previous time trial experiences have all left me having conserved too much energy for the end of the race, so this time I made an effort to take off a bit harder than I normally would. There were a couple times I started to think I had gone off too fast and was starting to slow down, but I just kept telling myself that it was only a ~15 minute race, and I was fine.
Eric had started 30 seconds in front of me, and towards the end I started to see him on the trail. I would look where he was and try to count how many seconds it took me to get there. When I kept coming out with 10-15, I knew I was in good shape. I never actually caught him, but even after hitting some rough rocks about 100 meters from the finish line that made me drop my chain and threw both my feet out of the pedals (right in front of everyone, of course) I finished with the gap smaller than the start split. No one else beat Eric, giving me a second win for the day.

Jump ahead to Sunday morning, and it's Get Ready for the XC Time! I warmed up with Wheel, and after a little my legs actually started feeling not too bad. I headed to the start line, and did the usual routine of sit around and wait for them to get ready to start us. We took off and I didn't go too hard, but stayed with the group.
I got into the single track in 5th, and after maybe four miles had passed up to 2nd. Eric was up the trail nowhere to be seen, so the rest of the race was categorized as chase him down time. Nothing too exciting happened for the next about 15 miles, then I started to see Eric up ahead of me.
I got close enough that he was only one switchback ahead of me. Of course that meant he knew I was there, and picked it up again... I caught up to Wheel (who was having a bad race in PSE) and drafted off him through a headwind section and the gap to Eric was starting to close, until I ran into a tree.

My shoulder hit the tree so hard that I couldn't lift my arm for the rest of the day, but after I picked up my sunglasses (which kept traveling forward when I abruptly stopped) I manned up got back to the chase.
Will had slowed down when he saw I wasn't on him any more, but when he saw I wasn't hurt (too bad) we took off again! Unfortunately, the tree took enough time out of me that I was never able to catch Eric for a sprint finish... And he ended up taking the race by about 10 seconds. Though, after nearly winning both races the day before, he did kind of have it coming.

2nd was good enough to give me the omnium though, so I got to take home a cowbell and some sweet money!
Bad news though: After the race, when I had already sat down and started to ice my shoulder, someone came up and asked about the weird scratch on my bike. I didn't know what they were talking about, so I got up to look. There wasn't actually a scratch, but there was a crack about 3/4 of the way around my top tube...

Pictures as soon as I have access to them, both of the race and the bike. Maybe even some bonus shots of me digging tree bark out of my knee with a pocket knife!

Adventures in Upper Middle Class Austin

2009-04-10T20:26:00.002-05:00

In lieu of my original riding plans for the day getting getting canceled, I decided to go mountain biking, and not really feeling like going to any of the regular choices, I thought I would go on an adventure and try out a trail that I had heard of, but never been to before.
This trail is located, crazily enough, in the middle of a neighborhood, and there are some unwritten rules that if you know where it is, you aren't supposed to tell other people, because eventually the riff-raff will get the information, and the HOA will get tired of them and close the trails... Soooooo, if you know what trail I'm talking about, you either already know where it is, or you want me to take you there (I might, just ask). If you don't know what trail it is, don't worry about it, you probably don't want to ride there anyway.

I got to a parking area, which probably wasn't the optimal place to park, but I knew the neighborhood was off limits, so it was good enough for a first visit.

Then I had a mile or so road ride to the actual trail head, which took me a bit of time to find. The road itself was already not a very easy ride.

The picture doesn't look like much, but on the way back to my car later, I snagged a picture of this sign at the top. Yeah.

After I actually found the trail, it wasn't too hard to follow, but it was quite difficult in all other aspects...
There were a lot of rocks, but not unlike the greenbelt, there were only three or so spots that weren't easily ridable. Such as this type of stuff:

The hardest thing though was the climbing. If you weren't going uphill on this trail, you were going downhill and getting ready to go right back up again. And while this did make for some sweet places on the trail:

It also made the trail REALLY HARD.
Overall rating though, on a scale of 13 to Q, with the square root of 6 being the highest, I give it an I'll definitely be back.
Possibly the coolest spot on the trail:

Architecture-y Update

2009-04-08T19:26:00.002-05:00

The bridge that I mentioned las week ended holding roughly 210 pounds. It weighed about 2, so I would say that it did okay. I do have pictures. They'll be up as soon as I actually have my laptop, camera, and camera cable all in the same place at the same time. Which will hopefully be soon.

In other (studio) news, my project is starting to turn into something! Take a look see for yourself!

"Like a Real Sandbagger"

2009-04-06T13:55:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the 2nd annual race at Reimer's Ranch, about an hour west of Austin. Unless you count the time it takes to get through the entry gate, then its about an hour fifteen away... Luckily, I had finagled my VIP parking pass out of the park rangers on Saturday (which is a whole story by itself. Maybe I'll write about it later this week.) and only had to wait for the people in front of me to convince the rangers that they were there for the race. Unlike like year, they believed that the VIP pass was real, and let me continue through without any incident.

Blah blah blah, getting dressed, warm up, etc.

The race started, and I jumped on Chris' (the guy who's winning the series) wheel, and was feeling just as good as I do at the start of any race. About ten minutes in though, I realized my legs were feeling a lot more sluggish than normal. I assumed I just hadn't gotten a good enough warm up and backed off a little, thinking as soon as I started feeling better I would just bridge back up to Chris.
The only problem was that my legs never got going. About half way through the first lap, Eric and some guy none of us had ever seen before caught up to me, and I started riding with them. At the beginning of the second lap, the random guy attacked, but eventually we caught back up.
We were coming up on a big headwind section, and I was in the lead. Thinking I would be smart I pulled over and let them get in front of me so I could draft. Then I got a cedar branch stuck between my crank and frame and I went down. Of course,I couldn't catch back up and had to ride into the headwind by myself anyway...
The whole third lap was a chase to see if I could catch those two, but the gap never got any smaller. Then I crashed again. In the same spot.
I rode to the finish with the leaders of the 30-39 group, who caught me not too long after the second crash, and came in 4th, a solid 4.5 minutes ahead of 5th (Wilder; who in all reality would have caught me if he hadn't flatted half way through the third lap).

All we could figure my "bad race" with a "pretty good result" could mean is that I raced like a real sandbagger. Since (I guess) you aren't supposed to do good/decent if you don't feel good.
Don't worry guys, I'll move up in the fall!

Oh yeah, I won a trackstand competition too! Got a sweet floor pump!

Ze Bridge

2009-04-02T09:29:00.003-05:00

In Construction we've been learning about various bridge type things, and got assigned an assignment to design a bridge. We're limited to material choices of wood, chipboard, string and glue.
It's due today, so me and the guy I'm working working with met last night to start. We talked about it for a while, and decided on an approach that will probably make them rewrite the assignment for next year - instead of using glue as a means of holding pieces together, we decided to cast some trusses out of epoxy.

I forgot to bring my camera with me for the process of building everything last night, and I don;t have it with me now either to get one of the finished project. I will, however, bring it with me tonight when we test it out (and hopefully it will be one of the ones thats strong enough that people have to start standing on it before it breaks), and get some pictures then!

While you're waiting, here is a pretty sweet song to keep you entertained! LINK

Tx. State, Warda, and Other General Stuff

2009-03-31T09:22:00.003-05:00

You can tell I was busy last week because I only posted on this thing twice...
But that doesn't really matter, because the number of hours I spent in studio doesn't make good blog material. Neither does talking about a ride on the rollers. Or maybe I'm just assuming that... I don't know that I've ever read a blog about riding on the rollers, it might be the best thing since sliced bread.
Going off on another tangent, I sure am glad nothing better than sliced bread has ever been thought of, because I can't imagine how confusing it would be if we ever had to change that saying.

It's the best thing since apple sauce!
It's the best thing since pre-cooked lasagna!
It's the best thing since non dairy coffee creamer!
It's the best thing since deep fried chicken skin!

See, just not the same thing...

And now, lets jump back to the original topic...

...

Since I did write about the little bit of interesting stuff that happened last week, and nothing else worth writing about (or so I seem to think) happened since then, I'll write about my weekend! (You're going to thank me for limiting what I'm putting in here, its long enough as it is...)

Friday night Joseph called me and told me not to wait for him if he didn't call me by 6:00 the next morning to tell me he was on his way to get me. I said I would call him instead. He put the limit at 5 times.
Surprisingly, the first time I called he was already awake and actually ended up having to wait for me while I carried all my crap down to his car.
That doesn't really have to so with anything, but I figured I would throw it in since it was completely opposite of how those phone calls typically go...

The first race of the morning was a short ~1.5k time trial.
Up an 18% grade hill.

Along with JT, Michael, and Sean (the other UT As) I went and ride around a bit ans called it a warm up. Then we had some pre race donuts* and went to the start line. I went a little too hard up to the hill, and I think it caught up to at the top, but I still had the second fastest time of any UT rider (one of the guys racing Cs beat me!) and ended up placing 8th.

*Clearly we were trying to win the P12 state championship road race. Or maybe we're just cooler than the other teams and don't mind having a little side of fun along with our racing.

After lunch it was time to head to the Tx. State campus for our crit. Sometime during the day, the wind had decided to pick up, and was probably up to about 25mph by time we were racing. We did another group warm up, had some more donuts, and headed off to the start line again.
The course was hard. The way the wind was blowing made a downhill the slowest part of the course (yeah, it was blowing that hard...) and for the rest of it, my average speed was probably around 23mph. Including the corner with a ditch running through it.
I felt alright, but still got dropped pretty early, and rode around by myself for about 30 minutes before getting pulled. I beat people though, so I do suppose everything is good.

I headed back home, had some dinner, went to studio, slept, and got up again pretty early to drive out to ~~the middle of nowhere~~ Warda for some mountain bike racing action!
After racing the day before, I had no idea what to expect. During my warm up though, I actually felt surprisingly ~~good~~ well, and that just confused me even more about how I should approach the race.
I started off pretty easy, and by about half way through the first lap got to the front of the pack and started working on the bridge up to the four or so guys already up the trail. I could tell I wasn't quite all there, because I just wasn't catching up as easily as I thought I should be able to. But by about the same point on the third lap, I was ahead of everyone but Chris (the guy who beat me at Bar H).
Unfortunately, I think I worked a bit too hard getting there, and on the fourth lap my race changed from trying to catch Chris into a struggle to stay ahead of everyone else. It was going good until the last couple miles (where the only hills on the course are). I had nothing left for the climbs, and Eric caught up to me. He was barely going faster than me (I think), and didn't come by.
It was going to be sprint finish. And it was. After we were done, no one could tell us who had won, and I'm still not sure how the officials decided, but they gave it to him... By 1/100 of a second.

That put me in third. Chris beat us by about 4.5 minutes! (He must've been mad at me for beating him at Waco.) Overall though, I was very happy with the race. I don't think I'll be doing any more multiple-race race-weekends this spring though.

Go go pictures!

Crit

Warda

I need to go buy some paper.

2009-03-26T16:55:00.002-05:00

I rode my mountain bike yesterday.
Currently I am bored and not doing the work I should be.
I took a test this morning.
It rained on me on my way to studio last night.

5 points to whoever gets those in the right order.

This weekend will be an interesting test of how I'm riding right now. After hearing that my name is now "Sandbag Johnson" from a more than a few people, which apparently is a name you get after you do good in two races; at least the "Sandbag" part, I think. If your last name is, say, "Smith," (go go commas!) you probably won't get the "Johnson" part. Of course, there is no science behind this, so I may be mistaken.

And...Back on topic...
Saturday I'll be doing the first day of the Texas State collegiate road race, and Sunday I'll be doing the Warda mountain bike race.
With two races the day before, who knows what I'll be able to do at Warda. Hopefully I can live up to my new name!

Spring Break, vol. 3

2009-03-22T19:47:00.002-05:00

Well, I had been planning on going to an Explosions in the Sky concert Saturday night, and was quite excited about it, but then it had to go and be all rainy in ~~Waco~~ Texas two weeks ago, and the Cameron Park race got bumped back to this weekend.
As bummed as I was about missing my show, I had been uber excited about this race, and really wanted to do good at it, so I changed my plans and went to Waco for the weekend.

It was a good choice.

I got an alright start (better than I normally do) and went into the singletrack around 8th place. About two miles in, the trail opened up into jeep road and I got around a few people, and kept the higher pace when the trail changed back to singletrack. About half way through the lap I caught up to first and second (Will), and sat on them for a while. Eventually the guy in first started to pull away, and after a quick discussion of "strategy," Will let me by to go chase him down.
I caught up right at the start of lap 2 and followed his wheel for a couple miles before deciding it was a good time to try and make something happen. I went around, but was never able to open up a very big gap, maybe 50 feet or so at the most. Near the end of the lap, he caught back up, and I was starting to think I was in some serious trouble...
Coming through the start finish for lap 3, I offered the lead back, but he was content sitting on my wheel, so I just kept cruising at a pretty good pace. Little gaps would open here or there, but he was generally right on me. Then, I suddenly felt really good.
I took an opportunity to pick the pace up again while making a pass, and while at first I thought he was covering me pretty good, it didn't take too long for the gap to open back up. Next thing I know, I pass about 6 more lapped riders, and my competition is nowhere to be seen! I actually started thinking that I had it in the bag, but then came to the conclusion that the race wasn't over yet, and thinking like might end up costing... me... it. (Yay, awesome grammar!
I kept the pace pretty steady, but made sure to ride the descents a little more cautious than I had been (which was probably good seeing as how I had scared myself a few times on the earlier laps).
The finish came soon enough, and basking in all the glory, I rode right past the people taking the timing chips, and got yelled at for not stopping and giving it to them.

It's been quite a while since my last win, hopefully this is a sign of something good.

Oh, funny story, for about 5 minutes on the second lap, I had "Jizz in my Pants" stuck in my head...

Pictures to come as soon as they're on the interwebz.

Spring break 2.5

2009-03-20T22:07:00.003-05:00

I just got back from The ARC Angels. They were good. I didn't realize it, but their drummer and bassist used to play with Stevie Ray Vaughn!

I'm getting up in the morning and heading to Waco for the Cameron Park race (which got pushed back from last weekend). While I am really looking forward to this race, I am also disappointed that I'm going to have to miss tomorrow's concert, Explosions in the Sky...

If you happen to be in Austin at 8:00 tomorrow night, go see them. If not, drive to Austin and go see them. Then tell me about it. k thnkx.

Spring Break Part 2 (The Zoo and SXSW)

2009-03-19T21:55:00.005-05:00

So, nothing else too exciting happened in Dallas, except for a random trip to the zoo! I (we) hadn't been there in as long as we could remember, and upon seeing it was only $10, decided it was time to go again.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me into the crocodile pit to wrestle them so I had to settle for the statue instead...

I was going to head back to Austin yesterday and see a Valient Thorr concert, but the AJ said something about cooking steak and potatoes, and I decided to stay home for one more day.
That left me with driving back this morning, and I got here with enough time to go for a pretty good ride with Brandon before the concert on todays schedule, Cold War Kids. They were quite good. (Heres some ~~crappy~~ AWESOME cell phone video to prove it!)

I just realized DEVO is actually playing a concert tomorrow, but its a 21+ show... I'll settle for ARC Angel instead.

Spring Break So Far

2009-03-16T09:54:00.002-05:00

I got some good riding in over the weekend, about 50 miles Saturday and about 30 miles yesterday. Mix that with going to see Watchmen (finally) and a little staying out late with people most nights and Spring Break is going pretty good. I think I'm going to see Last House on the Left tonight. Yep.

Sooo...

2009-03-13T00:55:00.002-05:00

Spring break pretty much started tonight for me. I had a class this morning that I really contemplated skipping, but after meeting Chris for donuts this morning, I was already awake and couldn't think of anything better to do between 9:30 and 11:00. After that I hung out and made cookies. Then I (boo) had another class from 7-8:00 at night. It was pretty clear that no one wanted to be there (which is why we got out at 8:30... Its supposed to go to 10:00). After that I met Joseph and Sophia and we went to the Austinbikes Rainy Thursday Night Month-Late 3rd Birthday Party Awesomefest. It was good fun.

Anyway, the point of all that is that I don't have class tomorrow.

Which means as of a while ago...
IT! IS! SPRING! BREAK! WOOOOOOOO!!!

Architecture Project Sneak Preview

2009-03-10T09:18:00.003-05:00

Tunis (Play by Play)

2009-03-08T18:40:00.007-05:00

I think I may have made an intelligent decision skipping the road race - out of everyone I talked to, I only heard of one person who didn't get a flat. Assuming it doesn't violate some random rule, I'm really thinking about putting a rear derailleur and road cassette on the singlespeed and racing on it next year.
The crit was a different story though... It was on real pavement!
Going into this, I was a little worried about how I would fare. It was my "first" A race in a collegiate road event, and even though the field was small, it was pretty stacked. From the start everything was going good. Real early (second or third lap, maybe) a break of four went, with two MSU riders, one A+M rider, and Jordan from UT. With all the big schools represented, and only TCEH

without a rider up the road, we had no problem letting them go and sitting on the TCEH guys that tried to bridge up. At least until the break was about to lap us... With that added motivation, we all picked it up a bit, but they caught us anyway and the pace slowed back down a little.
Not wanting any part of this, Michael Carey performed the (patent pending) Scott Veggeberg Pack Splitting Maneuver and suddenly the largest group on the road had 3 people in it.
Heres a diagram of proper SVPSM technique:

I jumped into a group with Chad and Jordan (both up a lap) and an MSU guy. After a lap or so, Jordan signaled for me to attack, and figuring that there was a pretty well chance that he would be getting a better finish than me, I heeded the command. Soon after that he jumped as well, and upon catching me, I aided as much as I could in his (successful) effort to bridge to the next group up the road.
That took pretty much everything out of me, and I rolled around by myself for another 15 minutes or so, blocking non-UT people here and there. With five minutes/about 4 laps to go, I got pulled. Jordan ended up second though, so in the end, it was a good race for the team.
On the way back, me and Jacob stopped at Dairy Queen, and upon realizing we could have gotten "Spooner" action figures, we regretted not ordering kids meals...

Cliff Notes version:
Teamwork = Jordan gets 2nd place. I got pulled right at the end.

I did something!!

2009-03-06T22:14:00.002-06:00

I spent pretty much all day in studio yesterday. Like, 2pm-2am. But I got mucho stuff done. So much that Judy told me I didn't have to stay for class today and could go home and sleep! I ended up staying and doing more work.
Anywho, after class today, I actually got a chance to go home and do something there besides go to bed for the first time in almost two weeks!
Then I went for a short ride. Then I went to Chris' Lasagna Party.
Only thing on the schedule today that didn't happen was going to see Watchmen. I hear its good, so I'll try to fit it in the schedule for tomorrow.

In other news, check out the new kit I've been piecing together!
(Donations of gloves and/or knee/leg warmers to finish this off would be awesome!!)

Good luck to everyone doing the Tunis Roubaix road race tomorrow! See you at the crit.
(I hear the whole course is supposed to be ridable by race time.)

Thinking (scary, huh)

2009-03-05T13:29:00.004-06:00

The following post is going to be complete stream of consciousness. I'll try to stay on topic and not be too confusing. No promises though.

Know what I miss? Being able to decided when I want to go on a bike ride based on the weather. Oh, today is cold? I'm going to stay inside. No thanks, I don't care to ride the trainer. Today is warm, pleasant, sunny, I think I'm going to go for a ride. I have work to do tonight, I guess it will be a short ride. But now, I need to do a long ride today, too bad its like 30 degrees outside. Or its raining or whatever. Unfortunately? I enjoy the results of basing my riding on the day of the week or when I'm racing and whatnot. Guess I'll stick with it.
(And breathe)
Is it weird that I can pretty much not study for tests ever, save for like a 30 minute freak out study session right before it, and still do good in almost all cases? I think it is, and I think everyone that knows about my study habits thinks so too, because they all study all the time and I think thats weird but whatever.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be

And, end stream of consciousness. (Because my train of thought just got to the final stop of the day a little ahead of schedule.) Thank you for listening.

Bar H

2009-03-02T15:46:00.002-06:00

I had heard it was going to be cold for the race this weekend, but I wasn't expecting 23 degrees...
Anywho, with it being that cold outside, I decided to call my warm up the ride to the start line. I spent a little too much time sitting in the car before heading over too, and ended up on the back row of people. That isn't too bad in itself, but coupled with the guy in front of me missing his peddle, I ended up with a pretty not good start. I was sitting towards the back for the first ten minutes or so (which is mostly jeep road), but when we got to the first climb and the people in front of me started jumping off of their bikes to push up it, I decided it was time to do something about where I was sitting in the group.
I cut some people off going up the first hill, and noticed there were still a bunch of people in front of me, so I started working on passing them too. And who would have guessed it, there were more people in front of them.
I had no idea what place I was riding in, but I was feeling good, so I just kept looking for more people to pass. All the way up until about three miles to go, I had a pretty steady flow of people going from in front of me to behind me. At that point though, I caught a friend who wasn't in my race, although I thought he was at the time, and spent the last couple miles trying to chase him down.
All in all, I ended up second (woo!), only 13 seconds out of first... I don't know if I could have made that up if I had known there was only one more guy to catch, but whatever, nothing I can do about it now. Hopefully I can have a slightly better repeat of this in two weeks at Cameron Park.

24(ish) hours of bad luck

2009-02-26T12:32:00.003-06:00

What could be causing this?

Thank you, O mystical Google Image Search.

Here is a list of everything that happened on my not bueno "day":
4:00pm Tuesday - Flat at the Greenbelt, you know about this already

9:30am Wednesday - Middle of a review, middle of a sentence, my reviewer announces "break time!" We come back and after I re-talk about my project, they pretty much ignore me and talk about the project next to mine. Eventually they did say a little about mine...

1:00pm Wednesday - Group decides we need to change our approach to a project and it will now require me canceling all of my afternoon plans.

1:45pm Wednesday - Riding back to studio to meet with the group, the strap on my computer bag slips and it falls onto my back wheel and makes me "crash." (It was slow enough that nothing happened besides my pants getting dirty, but still...

2:15pm Wednesday - The group decides not to inform me of any decisions that have been made without me. Then they leave to do who knows what without inviting me. They come back like 20 minutes later and continue to not inform me about what is going on.

3:45pm Wednesday - I tell the group I'm leaving. They still hadn't included me in anything that was happening.

7:00pm Wednesday - Eating dinner (sitting on my bed) I knock over my water. I jump up to avoid it, forgetting that my plate is on my lap...

8:30 am Thursday - I'm getting ready to go to class, and can't find my keys.

9:00 am Thursday - Found my keys. I think that ended the bad luck, because I've been good since then.

@$*%

2009-02-25T13:27:00.003-06:00

Its 80 degrees outside and sunny.
I just got out of class.
I've been excited to go ride since I woke up this morning.
My group for Construction decided we needed to change our approach to a project to one that involves working all afternoon today...
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate group work?

Its only flat on the bottom...

2009-02-24T22:12:00.004-06:00

I really think someone is trying to tell me to stop training. The last three times I've ridden (excluding races) I've gotten a flat. twice on my road bike, and today on the singlespeed. And of course today was also the day when about the time I got down the stairs I realized I hadn't grabbed a tube and I said (read: thought) "Eh, I never get flats, I don't need to go back up..."

And the story goes: I rode down to the Greenbelt, and about three miles in notice that the back end seems a little squishy. A quick stop revealed that it was indeed low, and I turned around to make it as far as I could before riding wasn't an option anymore. I got about a mile.

Thirty minutes of walking later I was back at the trailhead. I weighed my options, and decided that before I walked to Austinbikes and tried to get a new tube on the promise I would come back and pay tomorrow, I would make some calls and see if anyone could come pick me up. Luckily, Chris rates me higher than homework, and took a break to come get me. Thanks man!

I got home, took a shower, and decided to take advantage of the first night I haven't spent in studio in a week or so by changing the tubes on my road bike and singlespeed (it had like 7 thorns in it...) and watching some TV. Dodgeball was on. Lance's cameo in that still makes me laugh.

7:49

2009-02-23T21:05:00.002-06:00

So funny story, this morning I had my alarm clock set to go off at 8:00 so I would have plenty of time to get to studio by 9:00. It went off, I got up, took a shower, and (since I've been out of food for a week and a half and haven't had tome to go to the grocery store) made a stop by Einstein's to get a bagel and some coffee. The clock tower rang the x:45 about the time I got to studio, so I was thinking I timed it out pretty good.
I sat down, opened up my laptop, and looked at the clock. 7:49. Thinking it was somehow an hour off, I checked my phone. 7:49. My alarm clock is set to the right time (I checked), the alarm is set to 8:00 (this too), yet somehow it went off an hour early. Normally I would be fine with that, but on the day after I race and then stay in studio until 3:00 am to finish a project...
Needless to say, I've been tired all day. As much as I would like to go to bed now though, it's finally grocery store time!

Walburg and Pace Bend Weekend

2009-02-22T20:43:00.002-06:00

Both races were as typical as they could be -
Walburg was cold, rainy, and windy.
Pace Bend had perfect weather.

As per usual, I made the first lap of Walburg without too much difficulty, but soon after it started to seem like I was going slower than the little chase group I was with. (The pack had already splintered into several groups of about 10.) Then they were further up the road than I was. This was soon repeated with the next group back. about that time I realized that if I turned around it would be a tailwind all the way to my car. That sounded way too good to pass up. All but about 25 people in the group must have made similar decisions because they were all hanging out in the parking lot before the race was over too.

Today I faired much better. I spent the first half of the race chilling around midpack, then decided that it was probably about time to get up to the front. After moving up, I thought about trying to get a break going, but realized it would be futile, because we were bringing anyone that tried back with no problem. I ended up chilling some more and waiting for the sprint. The finish was on an uphill right after a descent with a slight corner between the two. Judging by every other lap, I figured everyone would try to cut to the inside, and pretty much assumed that someone would be incapable of going around a corner and make everyone crash. I lined up to go to the outside of the corner and avoid all of that nonsense. It was a good call. I avoided all of the nonsense (both times) and even though I had to jump off the road for a second, Will was nice enough to let me back in, and I was able to sprint in for a 19th.

Shout out to Joseph who raced for the first time in like 18 months today! He beat all of our expectations too - good to have you back man!!

WTF, mate?

2009-02-20T00:41:00.000-06:00

Supplementary Picture Post

2009-02-19T08:29:00.004-06:00

I actually had a few pictures to post last night, but just like a title, I guess I forgot about them. So here they are now!

First off, this new sandwich place opened down the street, so some of us went and checked it out for lunch:

You probably can't tell because of the ~~crappy~~ AWESOME cell phone picture, but the ingredients are Cheesesteak, bacon, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, french fries, and barbecue sauce. I think it was one of the more conservative choices.

I originally hadn't planned on riding yesterday, but after eating that I felt like I really didn't have any other choice. It was a good ride too, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

Also, just for the record, the first 3/4 of it was pretty good, but after that it started getting old pretty quick. I'll go back, but it may be a while.

Since this was supposed to be a picture post, I'll get back to those now...

I bought a bag of those heart candy things. I remember back in the day they said things like "BE MINE" or "YOU RULE." I guess times change, but seriously?!?

Finally, check out the sweet architecture-y "Sailboat on Rough Seas"

Captained by none other than Captain President George Washington!!

2009-02-18T20:06:00.002-06:00

I got some good riding in the today and yesterday. With an off day tomorrow and an easy ride Friday, I think I'll be ready for Walburg and Pace Bend this weekend.

On todays ride, I got a flat literally two minutes after we (Me, Joseph, and Brandon) pulled out of the parking lot. I opted for the giving Joseph my keys and having him take my wheel back to my place and bringing me a different one approach to changing the flat. Of course he brought me a Zipp so I could look cool on the ride. Thanks bud, glad you look out for me like that!

In other news, I made a Twitter account today, so go check it out and hear about my life on yet another website. You know you want to! Link here

Eating Out

2009-02-16T21:23:00.003-06:00

I have compiled a list of every Austin restaurant that has either at some time been recommended to me or I've seen and said "I need to go there sometime..."
Current count:
10 down
21 to go
Stay tuned for further updates.

Another Midnight Post!

2009-02-15T23:46:00.003-06:00

Today on my "not going to Terlingua" schedule was "epic Cameron Park ride day."
Joseph called me yesterday and said he wanted to go, but then I called him this morning to tell him I was on my way and got a "efhbibefwfSTILL ASLEEPbbebveGO WITHOUT MEjkbkvjk." So I went by myself.

3 laps
lunch
2 laps

I wanted to get six in, but my legs said no mas after 4.5, so I finished up the fifth and headed back home and to studio.
Speaking of, I need to go up early tomorrow to get some last minute work in... Goodnight!

P.S.
Cancel out part three of the last post. k thnx bai

I ate too much Pie

2009-02-14T00:07:00.002-06:00

Pie party was earlier tonight. It was good. I had EIGHT slices of various types of pie. All were good.

Unrelated, good luck to everyone at Terlingua! Wish I could be there! You guys all better see this before your races!!

On yet another unrelated note, pardon me,
oerevilregviuwerbh3ipugi2e4i9pgug3f4vh43u43wiguerihvwfep;ivhesihihv 2e4ougjougowefihvvewefjh[8
I feel a little better now.

Changing Plans

2009-02-12T09:33:00.004-06:00

I'm hoping someone randomly calls me in the next five hours or so and says "yo! I be needin' some foo's ta jump up in ma slab an' roll down ta Terlingua! At 1:00. On Friday." Of course I don't think the odds of anyone I know talking like that are very high, and I'm not willing to accept anything else. So I'll most likely be going with plan B for the weekend.

And as much as I like Terlingua and as excited as I was for that race, I have to say that I won't mind not having to spend 16 hours in a car this weekend. While the trade off is worth it, that's still a really long drive.

In case you're wondering, plan B:
Pie Party Friday Night
Sleep in on Saturday
Take care of any studio work
Ride 5+ laps at Cameron Park on Sunday

I think I could handle that as an alternative.

In other news, I bought a new strap for my watch this morning. It's coming from Canada, but in 10-14 days I can start wearing my watch again! Without having to worry about the strap falling apart!

I feel like I don't put enough pictures in my posts. Lets see...
Here is a sweet ride I saw on the trip to Dallas. Maybe they'll call later and offer me a ride to Terlingua.

Taking a Long Time to get a Short Ride

2009-02-11T21:42:00.002-06:00

Me and Brandon went on a ride today. Neither of us felt like getting on the road bikes, and the rain yesterday put mountain biking out of the question, so we ended up going with Door 3 and taking the mountain bikes on a road ride.
We started off without any destination in mind and after wandering around for an hour and riding down some embankments and stuff we ended up hanging out at Austinbikes for a while.
After we were done there we started heading somewhat in the direction of campus, but ran into Stack pretty much as soon as we left. Some interesting riding maneuvers took place and we ended up at Stacks house hanging out and chatting with him and Rosie for an hour or so before finally heading home just in time to beat the sunset.
Long story short, I left my casa at 3:15, got back at 6:15, and got a grand total of one and a half hours of ride time in.
It was a good ride for before the Mas O Menos, but now there have been some complications and I don't have anyone to ride down with anymore, so there is a chance I'm not going anymore... At least I have an awesome back up plan if it does end up falling through!

It's not about the money...

2009-02-10T12:31:00.003-06:00

My weekend was pretty busy. Friday we had to go to Dallas for architecture. And of course, being the School of Architecture, they didn't feel like organizing transportation for us, and we ended up driving ourselves there.
Coincidentally, I had other business in Dallas on Saturday, so having to make the drive wasn't as big of a hassle as it could have been.
Anywho, the part of Dallas we went to is one that I have only been to one other time. (For a concert, long time readers may remember the time I got the time I got a beer poured on my head. That show.) And isn't a part of Dallas I care to go to too often. Nevertheless it will be an interesting place to work with in studio this semester.

(There was a long boring part here about the weather or something. I took it out because it was so uninteresting...)

We got some crazy rain about an hour ago:

Hopefully the roads won't be too wet tomorrow... I cleaned all of my bikes instead of riding today.

I forgot to put a title here...

2009-02-05T23:33:00.003-06:00

I got another pretty good ride in today, but by myself this time. Besides that and going to some classes, nothing else really happened. Well, actually I did get a new CD in the mail, which was pretty exciting. Mainly because I'm one of those people who thinks I'm cool because I listen to bands that no one else has ever heard of, and this CD is by one of those bands. Note how that also explains why I got it in the mail - its going to make me so cool that you can't even buy it at a store.

Related to the above, go check out Liquid Tension Experiment. If you like them, you can mail order a CD, and be cool like me!

A Little Bit of Everything

2009-02-04T23:36:00.006-06:00

I was going to post a conversation that resulted in great amounts of laughter earlier today, but just in time I realized it was one of those things that wouldn't be funny at all anymore. Instead, heres a picture of MLK in a platypus costume:

I haven't really done much the last few days, seeing as how it's been recovery time from the race, though I did go on a good ride today with Brandon, and studio is kind of in a transition between projects. Speaking of studio, I never posted pictures of what was going on with all of those wooden blocks:

You can probably see around 2/12 of them in that picture, if that helps with the idea of how many we made.

In other news, if anyone offers to let you pay them to coach you, don't accept... They're probably just looking to steal your bikes.

ToNB Part 2

2009-02-01T17:01:00.002-06:00

Today wasn't as good as yesterday, unfortunately. Looking at the other people that had a bad day today too makes me feel better about it though. So did the fact that the biggest group I saw come through the finish only had ten people in it. Not that I (and other people) wasn't riding good, it was just really windy, which usually leads to me having a bad race. Think Walburg. Oh well, it was still good training I guess.

In other new, the new Woolly Mammoth skinsuits are awesome.

Tour of New Braunfels Day One

2009-02-01T09:45:00.002-06:00

Going into my first race of the year, I (and I assume anyone else as well) never know what to expect, so this was more of a race to judge how I'm doing this year than anything else. I was fairly happy with how it went. I never struggled to stay in the pack, and it was usually pretty easy to move up whenever I found myself chatting with Matt Sauls and slowly moving backwards.
I wasn't expecting a win or anything, but I held a pretty good position on the last lap (around 15th or so), until in typical Omloop fashion someone in front of me went down about 500 meters from the finish and I had to bust out my mountain bike skills and do a little off-roading to go around him. But all in all, it was a good race. 60 mile road race today, lets see what happens.

Also, important notes from the weekend, part 1:
There is a big difference between making oatmeal with 1/2 cup of water and making oatmeal with 1 1/2 cups of water.

Monday

2009-01-26T21:46:00.002-06:00

If you want a better recap of my ride yesterday, check out Joseph's blog.

I had my final first class of the semester this evening, ARCHITECTURE OF MODERN ITALY. It was hard to tell, since all we did was get a syllabus and look at some slides of buildings leading up to the time period we're studying, but I think it'll be another good class. Other than that, I had studio today, where we played with blocks... My group was also told that while we did do a good job making them, there needed to be more. So after class I headed down to the wood shop with a couple other guys, and we cut another 3240 of them. Hopefully that will be enough for Wednesday.

Out of curiosity, I went back to Google, and asked again what a good picture for my blog today would be. I'm pleased with the results:

Sunday

2009-01-25T20:14:00.003-06:00

I don't feel like putting a lot of thought into what to blog about tonight. However, that doesn't make for very good content. Thus, a solution:
Go to Google Images, type in "Good picture to put on my blog today," post whatever the first image in the results is.

Thats exciting.

In other news (and since I still don't feel like putting thought into my content for the day), here is some copypasta from an email I sent about what I did today:
Today after I finished my work I went with Joseph to the Greenbelt on the singlespeed. We rode down there, rode the trail from one end to the other, then ended gong to far and getting on some goofy side trail that we ended up having to walk alot of. For whatever reason we kept following it, and eventually ended up behind a bunch of houses. Some guy was in his backyard, and he let us cut through to the street, and we rode back to campus from there. It was a good 2.5 hour or more ride total, not counting the time we spent walking.

In studio we're doing this big class project where we're representing a city using a bunch of pieces that can be moved around to show different conditions and what changes and stuff...
Anyway, my group was in charge of making houses and offices, which were basically inch thick peices of 2x4 for houses, and inch thick 2x4s cut in half for offices.
Remember we're making a city. There are a lot of houses and offices in a city. We started with 60 2x4s and ended up with somewhere around 5,000 peices!
Thats exciting too.

If you said "OH NOES ITALICS IT'S LONG I'M GONNA SKIP THAT PART!!" Here is a shorter version (warning: may not contain as much excitement):
I went riding.
In studio, we cut wood into lots of pieces.