What the Chuck?

I was planning on racing tonight at the Sportsplex. Although I can't figure out why the temperature always drops and the winds pick up every Tuesday night.

Anyway, Caitlyn (my daughter) got off the school bus this afternoon excited about going to Chuck-e-Cheese tonight. It was fundraiser night and they had a visit from the giant mouse at school. There are just sometimes you have to say yes. Everyone once in a while family comes before cycling.


Sorry about missing the race. I'll be there next week. The girls had a good time so it was worth them miss.

Ride Safe...Road Rash Hurts. Pay attention when it rains.

During the Tour De France a lot of my non cyclist friends (mainly from the firehouse) say they like to watch bike racing for the same reason a lot of people like to watch NASCAR...for the crashes. But for us cyclist watching crashes hurts just as much as being in one. Its amazing though how some crashes are caught on photographs. So this begins my weekly reminder of ride safe...road rash hurts.

Good thing his umbrella was keeping him dry.

Looking for a Road Race

The Virginia Beach Wheelmen are currently looking for a good road race course to promote a race on for late summer. We found one in Suffolk but I think parking might be an issue. Any ideas? Anywhere in Tidewater is good. We would like to see some road or circuit races start to happen around here. Thanks for any information you might have.

I need immunity

Immunity from the cold, flu, and any viral infections. I got sick back in February and my doctor said that it killed my immune system and made me susceptible to every other infection that goes around during cold and flu season. So here I am again sick. He said as soon as the summer hits I'll be able to build my immune system back, but until then....

I have decided to try and ignore the symptoms as much as I can an try to train. I have not had steady training since January and it is definitely showing. So I will try to ride through these infections, it just may not be at the intensity that I would have wanted.

Anyone else having this chronic sickness problem?

Episode 7

What is policeman versus fireman? Here's the description from the website:

"Policeman Perry and Fireman Jake are best friends who work in competitive industries. Jake enjoys the perks of being a post 9/11 firefighting rock star, while Perry faces the daily struggle of serving and protecting an unappreciative public. Throughout it all they maintain a strong bonded relationship filled with heart and hijynx. Oh, and one other thing, they just happen to be puppets living in the real world."




Check out all of them here.

Todd Stadium Rain Down

The threat of rain didn't keep everyone away from Todd Stadium. JRVS has a great venue here and I usually love racing this course. Today's rain showers convinced me to race just the Master's 30+ and not the Cat 3 also. I went into the Masters race with the idea of helping to make sure John Gray got in the top ten. He is trying to get upgraded to three and we could use him in those races.

The race started with attacks and I was on the first three of them. Then a couple of laps on the front chasing a break that I didn't get into. After that I need a little recovery. Unfortunately the size of the field and how broken up it was gave no protection to rest and I ended up being one of the many split from the field. I still rode hard and on the last lap caught up with the primary field and got 12th. John ended up getting 9th, so mission accomplished.

Here are some pictures I took form my car during the Master's 40+ race.

I love hot moms

I figured with so many kids races today there was bound to be some hot moms.
So I just wanted them to know how much they were appreciated.
I propose for a future race...trike crit.

Thanks to Sally Tempest and Kevin Horvath for the photos. And a special thanks to all hot moms.

Tour De Beach...A family event

It was a warm and sunny day at the Sportsplex in Virginia Beach. I have the sunburns to prove it. I decided to race the Master's race today. I was the only VBWer in that race and ended up taking myself out of the winning break. Yeah, I wasn't paying attention and thought we were caught, but we were only caught by a handful of others and that break ended up working out. I'm not saying for sure that I had the fitness to stay with them, but I would have liked to try.
I did end up with a $5 prime. At least I got my race day fee back. I ended up 12th overall and 6th for Master's 30+ BAR points.
Teammates John Gray and Kyle Obrien raced the Cat 4 race. That race came down to a field sprint.
Kyle scored 4th place and John got 9th. Good job.
The kid's race was a big deal. The City of Virginia Beach spent time and money putting race fliers up in the schools. The question was asked of me if my girl had heard about this race by seeing the flier in her school. Caitlyn said "No, I don't think I saw anything." Maybe next time, give something to the kids to take home. The parents may create more excitement than a 5 year old who just learned to read seeing a race flier would. Just an idea.

Anyway...my girls were excited to race.

You could tell by the smile on the face.And the tears in the eyes. Apparently when they started, the clapping scared Madelyn. But at least her mother was there "encouraging" (or pushing...we need a ruling on that...is that legal).

But the prize is always worth the effort.


Jon Nisbet was going to race the Men's 1/2/3 race. We didn't stay around. We had to get the girls out of the sun. Hope everything went well. Good luck Jon.

Left in the dark

I decided to do the Tuesday night race on Tuesday night (funny how works). As most of you know I have been fighting viruses all winter long. Any base fitness miles I got in January disappeared in February, March and April. But what better way to get back into shape but to race. I don't have much to report. I pretty much sat in, saw the front a couple of times, but it was more about the time on the bike. Good ride. At the end I felt good. Hopefully I will be able to keep the momentum up and get some quality training miles back in.

The one thing about the race at the sportsplex is that by the time it ended it was pretty dark. Check out Horvath's site for a couple of pictures of the finish.

My Team, Your Team

This is a game developed by my brother that we have played for about a year. We even have rules for it and an association. Its like picking teams for dodge ball, but you also get a chance to pick members for your friends teams. Here's how it works:

Let's say you and a friend were a party and you spot this:

You would say "My team." That would be a positive point for you. Let's say a few minutes later you spot this:

You would say "Your Team." That would probably be a negative point for your friend.

Get the general idea?

Okay, here's another addition to it. You don't have to be around the person you are competing with. If you can manage to get a picture on your camera phone, it can be sent and you can be given credit for "my team." This is actually where the challenge comes in.

So here's my story:

Picture this...Newark airport getting ready to board my connecting flight to Indianapolis. In front of me is a girl that I had called "my team" on. I thought I would take a picture and send to my brother for the points. So I turned the flash off and took the picture. As soon as I pushed the button I realized my camera was not on silent and made the very distinct sound that a camera phone does. She immediately turned around and I immediately brought the phone to me ear and started talking like I had a call. The picture was ruined because it was nothing but a blur. She then picked up her bags and moved behind us. SNAGGED!

Well me and my friends all had seats scattered throughout the plane. I told Bill that maybe the gods were looking over me and I would be seated next to a hot chick during the flight. The gods were not looking over me. On one side was a 90 year old Indian women who smelled bad and on the other side was a 400 lb dude who smelled like sweat and smoke. When the flight was ready to take off I noticed Bill had three seats to himself, so I moved. I told him that the gods were obviously teaching me a lesson for taking a picture of that girls butt. I continued to say that I know she knew that I took the picture because of the way she turned around as soon as the camera clicked. The entire time I was saying this, his eyes got big and he pointed to the seat directly in front of me...It was her. SNAGGED AGAIN!

I know what some of you might be thinking and yes its true:
All men are pigs...deal with it.

If anyone is interested in the complete listing of rules for "My team, Your team" please email me. My brother has electronic copies available.

Had a good time in at the Fire Department Instructor Conference (FDIC). Too busy to take pictures (most of the stuff was lectures). Glad to be back and I am finally ready to ride again.

Off to Indy!

I will be leaving for Indy to go to the FDIC in a couple of hours. The FDIC is the countries (maybe the worlds) largest fire department conference held every year. There will be a lot of cool FD stuff there to see, but more importantly are the class and lectures available. Since being assigned at the training center, I have greatly expanded myself as a firefighter. This is part of that expansion. Seeing and learning how others do things, makes you better fit to do and to lead. I should have a good time. I have tried to convince my wife that this is job related, but she knows it is a week of hanging out with friends, talking about stuff we enjoy doing and drinking...a lot. But then again if you take the drinking out, that is what I do everyday when I go to work.

When I return I will get a good nights sleep and wake up in time for the Conquer the Canal TT. Then I will head to Langley the next day for two races (maybe). Here's my problem. I have not been on the bike since the last weekend of racing I did (Smackdown, Dismal Dash). The cycling gods have not been kind to me. I trained hard in January, got sick in February and never really recovered. I have been fighting a cough for 2 weeks (maybe longer). Last night was the first night I was able to sleep in my own bed and not worry about waking Jenni up with constant coughing. I had decided to hang the bikes up and take it easy until I recover. I feel recovered, but I won't be bringing my stuff with me to Indy. So this weekend of racing will be just the restart of my training. We'll see how it goes.

On the upside, school is nearly over for the semester (yes I am attempting to finish my 12 year long BS degree in exercise science). That will free up my Mondays and Wednesdays. Actually, Jenni will change her work schedule to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She works at Gold's Gym in the playroom and takes the kids with her. That means there is no one at home when I get home on those days. It makes it real easy to get on the bike. So Tuesday night training races and I'm thinking Thursday night team rides (what do you think team, maybe motor pacing)?

I'll try and take and post pictures from Indy...especially if we go to a strip club. I mean its work related, Jenni, we wouldn't go to a strip club.

For Rent

Jenni and I went to Chrysler Hall last night to see Rent. It was good, very hot inside which made it a little uncomfortable, but we had a good time. It was nice to be out just the two of us for a change.

Some other stuff that has been going on: Got a sick tree removed from my back yard and clean up another one. We now have a whole lot more sunshine in the yard. We still have good shaded areas but the added sunshine will probably mean more grass cutting.

Played some GH3 with Madelyn. Its not easy trying to play Aerosmith on the Guitar Hero while Part of Your World from the Little Mermaid is rocking out whammy style on the guitar next to you.

Also I am still sick. Went to the doctors today for this cough that I have had for over 2 weeks. Got some meds and should be feeling a lot better soon. I am leaving for Indy for the FDIC (fire department international conference) on Tuesday and return Friday. It looks like I will have a weekend filled with racing on my return and hopefully be able to get back in the training mode after that. As long as my health is back...I am over being sick this winter.