Riding in Austin...YA!

Had to go to A-Town for a meeting last weekend and as usual I won't go without my bike. Woke Sunday to Sunny and 40 degrees. After a stolen bowl of oatmeal at the house I was staying I headed out to one of my favorite training grounds. Its off of Bee Caves rd and its called River Road I think. Its about 2 miles down to the bottom of the ???Valley, Canyon??? Hills?? what ever Austin has. Either way you go down hard and then come back up hard. Great climbing all the way back up. Did a few repeats there and then headed back into town over into Westlake where the hills are steep as hell and fun to mess around on. Overall I prolly didn't ride more than 35-40 miles, but I went up to Jupiter with all the climbing. F'ing FANTASTIC riding. Why do I live here? Anyways, got my first race on Feb 7th. Stage race down in South Tejas. I'm not ready but I need to race myself into shape so here it goes. Still waiting on my kit so I might not be racing at all if my team dosen't hurry up and get me a kit.

All for now.

j

Late Night Hill Repeats

Neal and I headed out in the 38 degree dark last night looking for something that will pay big. We decided on 10 laps of hill repeats, sitting down, into gail force winds, and frostbitten toes. It was cold. No one else was around. We passed homes full of familys settling down to a nice warm meal. Maybe they had soup or something to ease the day. I don't know. All I do know is we suffered.....and it Freaking ROCKED!

Best,

j

It's that time again...RACE SEASON

I've been doing what most of us do all winter. Riding long boring miles and enjoying the scenery. I gave up on coming home after every ride and being trashed from suffering all day. I'm on a new plan and I hope it works. I don't mind trashing myself, but everytime you ride can't be good for you. There is a place for that I know, but recovery has to take place. Now I'm riding and enjoying myself. Coming home feeling pretty good and not fucked. Once a week I give it a big effort and drool on the couch at night, but lately just riding at about 75% seems to be paying off. We'll see at my first few races. On a new team this year, www.dallasracing.org and I couldn't be more excited. Major sponsor is Park Place so we roll Benz style. Well, when I'm sleeping at night thats how I get dropped off at races. Now just waiting for the kits to arrive, the calender to fill up with races and me to be tired...again. Gonna be a fun year for racing. I got my work cut out for me to get my 3. It'll happen. For the VERY few who read this, I will update allot more often. Congrats to Fawley who just won his state stripes last weekend at the State Cross Championships. He won again for like the 100th year in a row. Bad MF! Hope I can learn a few things from him this year since we are on the same team. But on those training rides I will most likely get dropped at mile 5.

Till next time,

j

Long time...no post

Ya. Been awhile. I've been busy dealing with life stuff and since racing season is basically over for me, its not a bad time for it to happen. New job, and now I have had to step it up and man up a bit. So much for 1:00 4 hour rides with all the slackers. Damn I miss those days. Not its 100 f'ing degrees and I have to either ride at 5:00am or 8:00 pm which really cuts into me drinking wine at night. Ha. I feel somewhat fit even if my time on the bike has dropped a bit. I'm still getting in 4 good rides a week with 2 hard ones and 2 "just rides". Either way I feel ok. I do miss the days of mandatory riding. I might have needed to join the army as i really like structure. But I hate it when I don't have a reason. I'll be ready for this winter and next spring. I got allot to prove next year to myself and I am going to have to step it up. Other then thinking ahead 6 months I just have been living in the day. Tour is nice to have on. I live Ricco getting popped. Come on man, don't ride super human and expect to get away with it. That stage was f'ing stupid. He rode like superman on Epo. At least make it look hard. I do.

Thats it..Try to post more often if I can get my shit togeather.

j

UPGRADE...Looking for a Team

Ya, thats right. I'm a 4 now and I am pretty happy about it. Not a huge deal in most cycling arenas but it was a stride for me and I am ready to keep moving forward. Adveraged a top 15 all season with a couple of top 10's so I hope to be very competitive next season. Time to train and build the engine.

Thats all. Just riding as much as possible and looking for a team to get on with. There are some cool ones in town but I don't know the guys so that won't work. Then there are some teams I can be on tomorrow but they have allot of freds on them so that doesen't seem appealing either.

Delimas,

j

Wine and the Bike....Racing and Upgrading

I haven't been on the bike in 2 days. I will be tomorrow though racing. I also like wine and have made it my business for the last 4 years. Its cool. I was reading a post on Belgium Knee warmers site that talk'd about the love of cycling and wine. Its weird that my life has the same parrellels as do others. Wine is so much like cycling its fucking crazy. Maybe not to the typical person, but to people who know, well, they understand. I don't love wine cause it gives you a nice buzz, although its a plus sometimes. No, I love wine because it enhances my life, as does training and racing. You don't get that from everything. Really, what the F do you do daily or every 2 days that really enhances your life outside of making $$ (which actually gives me a headache more than too much wine). If you don't know wine then learn more about it. Read about it and ask people who know about it. Its so important in life that its crazy. Europeans have known this for a long time and thank God passed it on to us Americans. Oddly enough, most of the racers I look up to are Europeans. Go fucking figure. I can't help where I was born so I won't bitch.

Anyways, just a rant while I wait to go pick up the wife at the airport. I should be in REM sleep but she is getting in at 11:55 pm..Sucks for me but she's the bomb so whateva....

Wish me luck tomorrow night. Its a big night for me....UPGRADE!!!!!

John

P.S. Wine of the week. Mibal Perfil 2003. You prolly can't find it but if you do get 5 bottles or all they have if you can afford it.

Flanders.....Again

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1438501764/bclid1406165222/bctid1473768260

I know I will never be here, but once you understand it all makes sence. Real racing at its truest form. I have had passion in my life on allot of levels, but now I uderstand what its like to live and breathe it, day in and day out. I just want to go ride it.

j