Let's See Here...

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

woops. fell asleep on the h key it looks like.

GNC brand chocolate flavor protein powder makes me gag

I've been quite non-productive these past few days. Unless you count riding. And planting trees at San Felasco. Maybe what I mean is I havn't done shite in the way of school work. Just can't seem to get motivated. I'm pretty burned out on things lately. Maybe I should sail to Mexico or hike the Appalachian trail. But then I'd lose my cycling legs. Friggin' A. I want to do something difernt, but that would mean letting go of a few things. I'm not sure if I want to do that. I know it'd probly be good for me mentally, but I just can't seem to let go of this "blast-forward and try to get ahead and take things seriously in everything I do" mentality (except for driving).

In the way of my cycling obsession, It feels good to be back on the bike after a week of being sick. Road the road bike on Friday and made the awful decision to sprint kyle, subsequently getting dropped by a group going 15mph. Rode the mountain bike Saturday, felt kinda sluggish and that rigid fork is really beating me up. Rode 4 and a half with Beck today, felt like shite the second half of the ride. Pretty much tempo heart rate for the last 2.5 hrs. At least I didn't completely bonk and now I know where Ocala Jai Alai is in case I ever decide to go with Adam. 3 hr naps are nice.

Oh yeah, after my mtb ride Saturday I helped plant trees with Beck and Roots and Shoots. Kind of a pleasant, fulfilling little activity. I like working outside. The big field area in front of the picnic pavilion at San Felasco should be quite shady in about 10 years. Just about when I finish undergrad probably.

I'm still trying to decide whether or not to do sugarloaf this weekend. Typical Florida hill: everyone sprint the shit out of it. I think it'd be a good course for me. We'll see how I feel. Woops. I just remembered what I had planned for Friday night. Prolly won't race.

Wjat else can i babble on about? Ha, wjat a great typo! I love it! I should probly go study some shit. peace.

Oh yeah. Congrats Jackie (4th) and Gutt (8th) at Athens. And sorry Big Phil.

SECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC Championships

So we had the last conference road cycling race of the year this past weekend hosted by Lees McRae College in Banner Elk, NC. It started off with a two hour trailer loading process at a team member's apartment complex. Then we all piled into the van (that said team member's mom rented for us) for the 10+ hour drive. It was 4pm. Yada Yada Yada sleep...eat snacks...try to work on homework...sleep...annoy people that are trying to sleep...and so on for 10 hours. We arrive at hotel at 2:30am and promptly go to bed. The men A's had a team time trial at 9am. I'm glad I'm a B (I think I'm going to try and keep it that way) and could sleep until 11.


Next was the crit from hell. A .5 mile course of which about 1/3 was a steep climb, the other 2/3 of which was muddy downhill with a constant right hand bend. The only good thing was that there weren't any corners. Not to mention it started raining right before my race. The race totally broke up after 2 or 3 laps, and I found myself in a chase group of 5 behind a breakaway of 3 Lees McRae riders. After a little while in this group, I attacked on the uphill and bridged to the front group of 3, only to be dropped on the downhill because I'm a pussy. I road the rest of the race by myself and ended up 9th overall behind 7 Lees McRae riders and an Auburn rider. I'll refrain from saying what I'm feeling at this point.

Sunday was the road race. The course was a 10 mile loop with 1 mile (800 ft.) and 3.5 (1500 ft.) climbs. The first mile or so was pretty flat, followed by the 1 mile climb. The first time up, people totally drilled it, and I dropped about halfway up, thinking I'd save some energy and catch a few riders who would blow up. Well that didn't work. Learned my lesson. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to catch a group of about 7. I finally caught them, sat there for about 10 minutes, when the group all of a sudden broke apart, leaving me and a dude from Clemson alone to chat for the next 1.5 laps. Within the last mile, we agreed to battle it out for the finish, so I attacked him right before the last corner and gloriously road away to 17th place.

The latter 2/3 of the van ride home was pretty much hell for me as well. I began to develop a sore throat around the Charlotte area and by the time we were halfway home I had a fever as well. Trying to study in a van after 6 hours, sick, at 10pm is definitely not fun.

After all the bitching I just did, I will say that all in all, it was a decent race weekend. Team Florida finished 2nd place in the SECCC and is most likely headed to nationals.

This blogging thing is really busting up my grammar confidence.

El Presidante

Elections for Team Florida Cycling were held last night; I grabbed the top spot for this coming academic year. I'm still trying to decide whether it's a good thing or bad. Everyone thinks I wanted it, but the truth is I pretty much felt obligated to do it, not just by my peers, but by myself to fulfill a responsibility to contribute to the sport. So here I am, putting in my hours dealing with bureaucracy at it's finest so we can all enjoy the sport we love so much.

Not to take away from the other officers who contribute equal (and many times, greater) time and effort.

Team Florida Officers 2008-2009

* President - David Reich
* Vice President - Kristin Donahue
* Secretary - Ian Knabe
* Treasurer - Kyle McElhaney
* Road Coordinator - Amanda Tosh/Jackie Crowell
* Mountain Bike Coordinator - Ian Knabe
* Volunteer Coordinator - Kim O'Brien /Alicia Provenzano
* Sponsorship Coordinator - Joel Hackman

Here I Am

Wasting my life away at the computer. I figured facebook and cyclingnews wern't enough, so I got this.