whats up.

I haven't ridden my bike to often yet this season. I took a 5-week Calculus class, but half the occasions I have ridden my bike I have had good rides as for the other half I have broken my bikes. anyone want to lend me about $1500 so I can fix my bikes??? well it really won't be lending cuz I don't plan on returning it. oh well. altleast the clac class is going well 97 and 93 so far. didn't realize I liked or was good at math.

it is november

school that is all I really have to say. oh yeah I woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground. the first of this winter season

whatever.

so last night I come home to write a report. its about 10:30pm I study, write, eat and all the time I'm looking at the clock on the stove. I finally decide to go to bed about midnight. i brush my teeth and go in my room, I look at my phone and it says 1:30am the look at the clock on the wall it says 1:30am too. I thinking WTF!? I gotta get up at 6am this sucks!

so its 6:30 am and I hatein' life. I put some soy milk in my raisin bran, well I took a bit and it wasn't soymilk it was OJ, so I'm like fuck-it added the soy milk to it and ate it anyways. it wasn't bad. the rest of the day went well. got to spend some time with lisa and took the 2nd of the 4 tests for the week. oh yeah 2-quizes too. WTF....

it has bee 3 weeks since I have ridden my bike. sucks.

School.

Ugh School... Yesterday, my Biology Instructor told me that I was on my way to get my PhD.
cellular organization - the cell is the smallest living thing with characteristics of life, not true.

does anyone know what is smaller than the cellular lever and does have characteristics of life??

Shenandoah-100

It was a foggy and humid day. It was in the 80’s and lots of areas with mud from the previous days rain.

The Shenandoah Race went well for me well I crashed on the 96th mile but I was determined to finish the race, so I did. I picked my self up and was going to walk the last 4-miles if I had to!

How did I crash? Well the last 20 miles I felt great and was determined to catch the guy in front of me and I did on the last long climb, but he was on a FS bike and rode the rocky stuff a little better than me and would always pull away. So I caught him on the climb and he pulled away on the decent, I was trying to take it a little less than “balls-out” on the previous descents but on this one I was trying to keep-up. I came over a water check-dam in the air and the front tire landed on a rock the size of a mini-basketball, my tire blew-out, I went over the bars, slid and rolled, it hurt, I’m sure I was doing 25-30mph at the time. So I fixed the tire, took out the loose spoke spun the wobbly wheel and decided to walk the rest of the course, after a few mins I was ready to finish riding. And I did. I hurt today. My arm in is a sling, I have A/C joint damage, sore, bruise, scrapped ribs, my hands hurt and I have a scratch on my head.

But I finished!

Over all I’m happy with the race I finished 15mins faster this year despite the time from the crash and everything that went along with it. Oh yeah, broken helmet and glasses. I ate and drank in a timely manner and didn’t bonk, I spent only about 2-mins at 4 aid stations. I road most of the course alone, not on anyone’s wheel, not in a pace line and not pulling anyone.

It was a good day.

9:45:00
58th place

Shenandoah 100

Cleaning and lubing the bike, drinking lemonade and packing. Yup that is what I have been doing for the last 5-hours and still a couple more to go. Greg, Chris, Liz, Nicole and I are leaving for Virginia in the morning, 10-hours in the truck and long mountain downhill single track dreams the fun stuff! Oh yeah don’t forget the hours climbing up the mountains! Personally I can’t wait! I loved this race last year and can’t wait until Sunday, well Sunday after the race is over and we are chillin in the pool drinking a cold one and telling our race stories!

Wish me luck!


hint hint...commentsm anyone can do it!

its thursday

Classes started yesterday, today is the second full day of classes, what else can I say. today its has been raining since I woke up at 6:45am hopefully it isn't muddy and or training at the Shenadoah-100

a book to a movie

I read this book maybe a year ago. And now they are making it a movie.
The book was written by Chuck Palahniuk the books name is “Choke”


http://www.foxsearchlight.com/choke/

I thought the book was fkin crazy! and loved it!

I'm sleepy

School starts in 8 days.
My allergies since today are in full force, which means I can’t sleep at night, have a hard time breathing, my nose is raw from wiping and blowing, my eyes itch and I need to go buy books for school.

Oh yeah Friday is my 30th birthday.

Party at Hatchy’s in downtown Utica, Friday night.

Shenandoah 100.

Well the Shenandoah is fast approaching once again. I just registered today, finally I was laying in bed this morning and decided its time to do it. I’m not really sure why I have been putting it off, but the fact of the matter is I’m a procrastinator, well not until the recent 8 or 9 months have I become this way but it is kind of annoying, to me and I’m sure those close to me too. Oh well.

S100 last year. 9:52:29 good for 61st. hopefully I’m not slower this year.

The course profile including the 6 mountains to climb.

it's Tuesday

Riding just hasn't been the same lately. a few weeks ago I fell pretty good, well hard and since then I haven't felt really strong on the bike. Shanandoah is only a few weeks away. I hope the riding gets better for me really soon. Last year at the S100 I was on the last of some antibiotics, I was feeling drained, weak and just not so good. My allergies were really really bad too. hope this year is better. now that I have a benchmark from last years race I'm kind of nervious and hope I'm not slower.

ride miles this week, 119.
average speed, I'll just say it was slow.

The Weekend

It was a long Weekend. Friday Lisa and I went to her friends Sara and Joe's Wedding, which was held at the beautiful Twin Lakes golf course. It was a very fun and exciting evening, Lisa had the filet mignon with redskin potatoes, red peppers and artichokes and I had the stuffed chicken with asparagus, artichokes and red peppers but of course because I not a red meat kind of guy.

I look ripped in this photo, but lisa looks beautiful so...

So the evening went on with this and that just as the other 20 weddings I have attended, but the cake, Lisa and I kind of feel like we got the shit-end-of-the-stick, because our table along with a few others didn’t get wedding cake, but instead we got some dry brownie with raspberries in the middle. Well at least it wasn’t a cash bar.

so beside all that we danced and a wonderful time.

Saturday and Sunday I worked at the Olive Garden. I have nothing good to say about waiting tables except that I make money doing it. Well, it is motivation to do well in school.

The Movies

Went to See the Movie "Step Brother"

As said Erin Cullin “As I left the theater, shaking my head in disgust, I tried to unravel whether I am simply becoming humorless in my old age, or whether Hollywood’s comedic writers are devolving into a group of potty-mouthed vulgarians who no longer know what is funny or in good taste.”

Erin you are getting old! But he holds just one persons opinion.

I found the Movie very Funny, I love the vulgarness, the Dirty humor and fact that they are Toys-R-Us kids, and never wanna grow up, but the movie has a serious turn and becomes a little depressing for a couple minutes, but picks back up again. I was laughing me ass watching this movie! I would pay full price to see it again. If you liked Blades of Glory you will also like this movie.

Trip to the Detroit Zoo.

Lisa and I went to the Zoo on Monday, it was a beautiful day for the long 4.5 hour walk, but didn’t seem to all that long, we saw every animal exhibit. Once we were leaving walking to the car we both thought it was 2.5 hours. As soon as we got back to my house Lisa was passed out in my bed and I was soon to follow.

Since it the temperature was in the 70’s the animals were very active, probably more active than I have ever seen before. We got close up looks of the Tigers running around and playing, the Rhinos walking around which is Lisa’s favorite, we heard a Lemur fight as we were walking away from the exhibit, some turtle were playing leap frog or leap turtle would be more appropriate. Smug Peacocks wondering around, Zebras were eating carrots and sweet potatoes, the Polar Bears and the Butterfly Garden.

It was a fun day at the Zoo.

More Pictures of the Zoo animals

Stony Creek Time Trial and Team Fraser After Party

Finally good trail conditions. Stony Creek Time Trial was dry and fast. I didn’t have the bearings I needed to race in the geared class, so single speed it was. I lined up for the start behind about 20 other single speeders and took off at 12:22:30. I was full force off the line for the first mile riding on the grass, during that time I just kept looking at the computer, watching my speed keeping it over 20mph until the first turn. Once I was in the single track I was having lots of problems trying to make fast clean passes around the kids and beginners. On a sandy single track down hill a guy fell in front of me, I had to stop and after asking of he was ok I had to run up the next hill. The next issue was the rear bake lever dropped to the bars. It’s hard riding without a rear brake. Finally I was back on the grass on the way to the finish and with a tailwind I was able to keep the speed over 21mph for the final mile. I ended up finishing 2nd 0:02:14 behind Eric Tompkin.
I decided that 58 gear inches is to small of a gear for the Stony TT, maybe to small for me these days…period.



After the Stony Creek TT, we, Team Fraser had a party at Joe lee’s house. The turnout was great, about 50 people showed. Lisa came out and lots of new faces, which is always welcome.

Here is a link to some pictures half of which I took and the other half Rick Smith took. Thanks again Rick!

Team Fraser Party Pictures

It was a good day and fun was had by all! Thanks everyone for coming out to the party and celebrating mountain biking with us.

Ruby Campground XC Race

Sunday July, 20th

At about 6:30am on sunday morning my good buddy and teammate called me he asked,
“what are you doing?”
I said, “sitting on the couch drinking OJ and watching the huge rain cloud that is covering half the state move toward Port Huron.”
Greg said, “ man its not going to be bad it hardly rained yesterday and the forcast today is the same as yesterday”
I said, “ok I’ll be at your house in 30-mins”
So greg Nicole and I are all loaded up and in my car about a mile away from home.
Greg said, “dude it going to be fuckin bad!”
I said “I know”
Then Greg said, “I knew you needed just a little talking into going”

Greg was right. I need some convincing that things were going to be ok.

So we’re at Ruby unloading at about 8:45am and it started sprinkling, I was thinking that the Kenda Small Block tires were the wrong choice., oh well that is what I have on the bike. We registered, start warming-up and the rain fall is picking up a little. I’m thinking oh well, no turning back now. So here we are lined-up for the start. Robert Linden warns us about all the wet bridges, one of which I had just fallen on. The gun or whistle whatever it was goes off, I really don’t remember. The start wasn’t to hard, Greg lead it off seemed like nobody else wanted it to bad. I was sitting in 6th up the first hill with my teammate Chris Goddard right behind me. Mark Parmelee was in front of me, but soon Mark and I were battling for position up a rooty climb, Mark was to my left and we were rubbing shoulders and elbows up the climb trying to stay on our bikes. soon I was in front of him and we were in the tight single track. Thankfully it stopped raining about the end of the first lap.

Throughout the first 3-laps Mark the CYCLETHERAPY guy and a CYCLE FIT and I were stitching back in forth passing each other as we made minor mistakes on the muddy trail. Soon up the climb called Lance I was alone, I had chain suck really bad and the rear derailleur was ripped around the cassette and opposite original position it was supposed to be. So not being able to ride like that I has forced to stop in the middle of the steep muddy climb, I thought I was done, but I tried and fix my bike. I had to take off the back wheel, taking me about 6 or 7 mins I was able to free the derailleur the spring was tight that sprung back and smashed my finger against the chainstay, it hurt like hell, I didn’t bother to look at it, but just ran up the remaining hill. Once I was at the top one of the Cycle fit guys in front of he was having a problem too. I rode past telling him I was having problems too. So after that chain suck I vowed to ride the big ring the rest of the race avoiding sucky chain suck. I soon looked down at my throbbing fingers and noticed that blood was dripping off one finger and covered in blood, the derailleur ripped off a big portion of skin at the top of my nail. On well, I though. For the remainder of the 3-lap I fell a few times, slid out falling in a raspberry thorn bush hurting my bloody hand again, I was a little tired from trying not to fall and ended-up falling over in the river trying to run across the knee deep water, later slid-out after passing this guy named Will.

Will said, “ go ahead and pass”
I said, “I’m trying”

but it was muddy and dangerous, but I got around and about 10 feet in front of him managed to slide head first into the blunt-end of 1-foot diameter log, I was thankful for helmets! but I got up quick, Will asked me if I was ok, I guess he had a really bad fall riding a road bike ending in a coma for a couple days.

So the race was back on, but it’s now half way thought the 4th lap and my hand grip starts to loosen, but about 1/3 was still bonded to the bars. The trail was changing at this point, it was drying a little and I felt like I was getting a little faster, I didn’t have anymore trouble sliding out,. I was riding up a climb and looked down to see if anyone was behind me and Chris Goddard was getting closer compared to the previous lap, about 30-seconds away. so once I was up the hills I started to hammer hopping he wouldn’t catch-up, I didn’t want to sprint to the finish with Chris, because I don’t think I could beat him. Once I was coming around to the start and there were people lined up in the transition area, so I had to ride around the field in the camping sites to get the finish line, I was confused, disoriented and had no idea where the finish line was located, but I was able to get there without anyone challenging 5th place. I was happy I didn’t get seriously hurt and finished the race.

Elite Men Pro/Semi-Pro Top-10

1 TANGUY, CHRISTIAN WOLVERINE AMERICAN CYCLE & FIT

2 LAPRAIRIE, RANDY
3 KUHN, GREG TEAM FRASER
4 PARMELEE, MARK CYCLETHERAPY RACING
5 SYPNIEWSKI, DAN TEAM FRASER

6 137 GODDARD, CHRIS 44 TEAM FRASER
7 YORK, ADAM TRAILS EDGE CYCLERY
8 ANTONUK, ALAN TRAILS EDGE CYCLERY

9 STANGE, KYLE CYCLE FIT
10 VEGA, ARMANDO PAINT CREEK BICYCLES

I give props to everyone that came out, raced in the mud and finished their race, it was a tough day for racing in the mud on one of the most challenging courses in Michigan. Thanks Team SandBag for the trail, the Beer and the Food!

its thursday.

Today I took the day off after riding two days at Ruby I was feeling it the second day so though it would be a good idea to just clean-up the bike and rest, so I doing some stuff, secret stuff for Lisa’s birthday which is on the 22nd, cleaned up the bike and then got home from her trip so I spent some time with her. We got this “No Stress Chess” game that teaches you how to play, because neither of us knows how to play, which is kind of weird, but checkers…we are masters!!!

so its what I do, learn new things.

Some Sweet Videos

checkout these Videos from Mashers Media

Bloomer
http://revver.com/video/851959/expert-elite-classes-bloomer/

this Bloomer video has crashes!
http://revver.com/video/852753/the-2nd-bloomer-video/

Brighton Stage Race
http://revver.com/video/965085/the-brighton-stage-race-sat-6708/
at 9 mins is the STXC race

Ruby Race
http://revver.com/video/898009/ruby-campground-july-20th-2008/