|
What’s Going On |
|
January 1, 2010 Happy New Year It is 2010 now and I am excited. This is the year we will be buying a house. It will be sweet to not be renting. And to officially make Bend my home. Here’s to a great year. Cheers December 20 An Update for Longo I received a phone call the other day from Truman with a message that Larry wanted me to update the website. So here. I have been busy. Cross nats came and went and in the end came at a bad time for me. I am glad its over. Shelley and I have been looking for a house. After putting in a bunch of offers we finally got to get one to the next step. Now it is in escrow and we have had it inspected and appraised and we are waiting for the finial word on financing. We re hoping to close around the 20th of next month. We still have to tell our landlord we are moving but we will get to that soon, we do want to have both houses for a few days so we have a few more days and can still give 30 days notice. We are pretty excited. I have been working as much as possible too. With a down payment hanging over my head and a whole new set of bills just waiting I need to make as much money as possible. So I have been picking up a few extra shifts. Bike riding has been a second thought. The last real ride I went on was 10 days before cross nats, and it was a sweet ride. I chased around AC on his rigid single speed 69er and chasing was about what I was doing. He is pretty darn fast and let me know my place quickly. But it was a bunch of fun. So much that I wouldn’t mind putting it in the books as my last mtb ride of the year and remembering it fondly. Then cross nats came. Right in the middle of our offer getting accepted. We were pretty stressed out the few days coming into the event. Adding a house full of people did not help. By the time it came to actually thinking about racing I was over it. I did ride the course, one lap early in the week when it was 10 out and I wore a ski jacket and a bunch of other heavy clothes. Then another lap on Friday during my lunch break, but I broke my rear mech and bent my derailleur hanger very badly. Then I did a lap before the race on Sunday. Actually after my mechanical before the race I stopped thinking I was going to race. The hanger was twisted and the threaded hole was ovalized so that when I installed a new derailleur it was not secure in the frame. But I raced on it anyway. But saying that I raced is pushing it a bit far. I missed my call up and lined up a few rows further back. Then I was scared of crashing on the first straight away like I did in Vegas. Then there was just never enough places for me to give it any gas. I was always stuck behind a bunch of guys who were slower. The few times I could get past guys I moved up but it was far too little. In the end I didn’t really try that hard and I didn’t really go that hard so I basically did not go very fast. But I am really glad it is over. I am looking forward to getting back on the bike early next year and riding. I have not really ridden much on the road in a few months, back to the injury. I am getting a new road bike and it will be light again, I miss a light bike. Right now the focus will be getting into the house then getting unpacked then life will be good. Planning on going to Idaho for Christmas, it should be good as long as the weather is on our side. Merry Christmas
November 11 I am not dead but my website may as well be It has been months since I even looked at this site. I even got a new computer and it does not even have the program I use to design the site. So I am back on the old machine to update today, not that upgrading computers is my only excuse for lack of updates. Where to start. Since May allot has happened. Teva Games was the first race since my last post. It went as well as can be expected for not being acclimated to that elevation. I flew out to Denver and spent a few days with my good buddy Sammy J and we did a couple rides in the Springs then drove to Vail, we camped the night before the race at 9,000 feet, which is really high for someone who lives at 3,500 ft. I was having a tough time breathing while brushing my teeth. Back to the race, everything went just fine. I never dug too deep because I knew if I did I would never come back and I just rode as fast as I thought I could hold the whole time. I spent the majority of the race in the top 10 and was up to like 7th or 8th at one point, I think. But finished 10 or so after Max passed me on the last downhill. I was pretty pleased with myself. Sammy and I camped for a few more days and did some riding in mountains, or more appropriately hiking through the snow at really high elevations. Then we went to pre ride the nationals course in Granby and they had not built it yet so we rode some trails there then drove back to the Springs. The next round of the ProXTC was there so we got some riding in on the course. The day before the short track I was doing a lap and my got dizzy and had to walk back the car and that sucked. I was feeling better for the short track but it was a mess and I didn’t do that well but I never really got the chance to go that hard either, I was pissed. The XC went a bit better but not great. I got screwed at the start the had a bad start and fought my way up the field the rest of the day. I kept moving up all the way until the last downhill and finish decent but not near what I was capable of. After the racing I said goodbye to Colorado and headed back to Bend. I don’t remember much about the next few weeks other than I rode allot and worked when ever I was not riding. But I did prerode all the stages of Cascade and did all I could do get ready for nationals. Nationals then came. I raced well for most of the race. For the first time I tried to race with a 1x9 setup, it worked pretty well. I had a great first few laps but the last lap I just came apart. I went from top 10 to 20th and it was all I could do to get to the line so that I could get off my bike. I really hoped that I could hold that good position as it has been a few years since I had a good showing at the one day. But no, my streak continues. The short track did not go well either. Then my bike racing just got worse. I started Cascade and hung in there the first day and the second day I was foolishly riding at the back, mainly because I did not want to be racing, and got popped off in a feed zone. I then quit racing and just leisurely rode the next long ways alone and frustrated. Someone who had flatted earlier in the day caught me and motivated me to continue, he needed someone to show him where the course went. We even picked up a couple more guys. We full on stopped in the last feed zone and filled up with water and food. Then we continued. I pulled the guys to the climb and at then dropped 2 of them right before it got tough. Then I pushed the other guy to the top and missed the time cut by about 2 minutes, not that I was really wanting to race the next day anyway. Elite nats was a few days later. It went about the same. The TT was a touch better and I was about 20th. This was the last race I had planned for about a month so I took every shift I could get at work. Cross season was getting around the corner so I did the local Bend series. After the first 3 races I was leading the series, although I never won a race. During that time I did a cross race outside of Portland and was second and then did Star Crossed, I sucked, then Rad Racing, where I was top 20. Then came Vegas. I had high hopes for Vegas. But it was the shortest race I have ever, hopefully will ever do, even counting the slalom races I did at Lindsey Wilson. I was in a starting line crash and cracked a couple rips and I just barely got myself and my bike even with assistance off the course before the guys finished their parade lap. It sucked. I was unable to do any workouts for 6 weeks. In that time I did work a bunch. So here I am about a month to go to cross nationals in the town I live in and I have very little fitness and have not raced in 2 months. I have spent a few days on the bike in the past couple weeks and I have even ran a bit. But I am out of shape, like never before. I feel worse off than last fall after tearing my ACL. I will do a small local race this weekend just to see if I should even bother with the rest of the season. That about sums up what I have been doing. If I come up with any more stories I will post them. I might even update the site here as well but don’t hold your breath.
|
