No Sleep.

Why no sleep? Not because I have been training too hard, or even working to hard (well maybe the second one), but my children won't let me sleep. Madelyn (age 3) got her tonsils and adenoids taken out last Thursday. I have never had this done but I hear it is very unpleasant. Since then, she has not slept longer than 2 hours at a time. I think her pain is gone, but she got use to us babying her for the 5 days she had pain, and now she just wakes up and whines 5 times a night. Its like having a newborn again. Maybe I'll start taking naps at work.

Smackdown

Online registration is now open. Click the BikeReg logo.
VBW SMACKDOWN

BY: Virginia Beach Wheelmen Held under USA Cycling Permit

Location: Sleepy Hole, Suffolk, VA Saturday, March 15, 2008

Top 15 finishers in each race will be scored VA BAR Points

Category	Time	Field limit	Distance	Place/Awards	Fee
Juniors 10-14	8:00	40	15 min.	All receive ribbons	$10
Juniors 15-18	8:30	40	30 min.	Trophies 1/2/3	$15
Cat 5	9:15	40	30 min.	Trophies 1/2/3	$20
Women Cat 1-2-3,40+, 4	10:00	50	30 min.	3 places* $50,$50,$50	$20
Masters 50+ (No Cat 5)	10:45	50	45 min	$50/3*	$25
Masters 40+ ( No Cat 5)	11:45	50	45 min.	$50/3*	$25
Masters 30+ (No Cat 5)	12:45	50	45 min.	$50/3*	$25
Cat 4 Men	1:45	50	45 min.	$100/5	$25
Cat 3 Men	2:45	60	60 min.	$150/5	$25
Men (Pro/1, 2, 3 )**	4:00	60	90 min.	$400/5	$25

*Cash prizes may increase based on field size. **CAT 1/2 BAR only

Entry Fees include $2.00 USCF insurance fee. All entrants must have a current USCF license or MUST purchase a One-Day License at registration. Riders under 18 require a parent’s signature to race. All USCF rules apply. $5 late fee for registration day except for junior races. Online registration available at Bikereg.com . Helmets are required for all races; no aero bars. Promoter reserves the right to combine fields if the minimum field size of 15 racers is not met. Women's race has a combined limit of 50 riders. Course Description: A Blast from the Past. Those racers from the early 90's will remember this one! Course is a fast and flat circuit with two 90 degree bends and two nice left sweepers. Bring the family. Plenty of room to run and right on the water for a spectacular view.

Directions: . From Virginia Beach: 64 West to 664 South Exit 9 James River Bridge RT 17

Left turn at Stop light onto Benntts Pasture Rd

Right turn onto Sleepy Hole Rd

Right turn onto Sleepy Hole Park Rd

From Richmond/Williamsburg: Take 64 East to 664 South in Hampton. Travel on 664 South through the Monitor Merrimac Tunnel, and take the first exit after exit the tunnel (College Drive).

For additional info contact: Joshua Goyet at (757)515-5940 Email:vbwheelmen@cox.net

Virginia Beach Wheelmen is sponsored by: All About Bikes, Velocity Sports Performance, Premier Fitness Golds Gym, Ramone Photography, STIHL, Outdoor Impressions, Gam Jams, Ken Rapp from Rose and Womble Reality and SleepyHead Primitives. Please support businesses that support local cycling.

Who said all motorist hate cyclist?

Virginia Beach Wheelmen met at Premier Fitness (a cycling supporter) in Harbor View for a Saturday afternoon team ride. The idea was to get some good hard efforts (lead outs, pursuits, and sprints), then just ride and rack up some miles. With the addition of John Gray to the team, this was the first time all 6 of us have ridden together. Mike is getting back on the bike after taking time off for the fire academy. Overall it was a good ride.

I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the residents of Harbor View, or maybe it was the fact that six guys, all dressed exactly alike were out on bikes. But we got friendly honks, waves, patients and just overall very friendly attitudes while we were training. And most of the time we were two or three people wide.


Sometimes even taking up the entire road. Of course this road is brand new and not yet used my many people.
Very good team training. Looking forward to the race season.

Made For Each Other

Some people may know from the second they find out each other's names if they are made for each other. All they have to do is visualize their newspaper wedding announcement. If their names make people laugh, they need to get married...but probably should avoid hyphenating their names. Here are a few examples.

The Sick Ones Were the Lucky Ones

A handful of my Velocity training friends were sick or out of town this week. We had half the showing as normal for our Monday night session. Those that were absent were lucky. Usually after Velocity, I am tired. Last night I was sore by the time I got home. That's not supposed to happen for like 24 hours. I even had a hard time sleeping I was aching so much. It was a very good workout. The season is quickly approaching. Workouts like these will be the difference come April.

The Fighting 40

My good friend, teammate and now brother firefighter graduated from his fire academy last night. Mike Tamayo started this journey with me when we went through TRFA #58 volunteer fire academy with Virginia Beach. A few years later I got hired by Franklin Fire and Rescue then in 2002 got hired with Virginia Beach. Mike had gone with a different career, but had always regretted a little not pursuing the fire career. Over the last couple of years he has worked hard and gone through a long hiring process to fulfill this dream. On June 19th he became a recruit fire fighter with the City of Chesapeake. The Fighting 40 is what they called themselves. The 40 is their class number. This class started with 65 and ended with 57. This is an extremely large class of fire recruits. I have had the honor to be associated with everyone of them during some of their training they did at Virginia Beach. I was impressed, especially since a large class has a chance to have members "slip though the cracks".


So last night Jenni and I got to get dressed up and watch our friend Mike graduate. Here's Jenni looking pretty as usual.


Mike's girlfriend (the program said girlfriend but maybe it was printed before she became fiancee--hopefully thats not a secret that I just let out), Lori Ann was there and had the distinct honor of being able to pin his badge on him. She should be given just as much credit as he is. I know how much of a change he had to go through, personally and at home to make this work.

On another note, Mike was the Salutatorian (did I spell that right?) of the class. Second place out of 57 with 8 DNF's...not to shabby. Good job. Of course he is apparently one of those nerds who can't do sit-ups because he wasn't given any physical fitness honors. Maybe we need to rethink his place on our team...team manager sounds like a good position for a smart guy with no athletic ability. Of course I'm kidding. Mike was 2 sit-ups away from a perfect PT score.

Two friends, two cities, one brotherhood. Welcome to the club.

Another notable who graduated from the Fighting 40 was Russell Deaton. Russell is the brother of Jimmy Deaton aka superdork.

Check your jersey at the door.

"Check you jersey at the door" is a quote I pulled from K-dawg's blog. He was talking about our training sessions at Velocity. Riders from 3 teams meet on Monday nights and get specialized off-the-bike training that leaves us sore for the next two days that follow. This type of interteam training has allowed me to become real friends with more riders this past year and has grown some good team alliances. I still fully believe in the team only rides in which invites only go to team members. But riding, and actually training with these other teams brings us all together in a way I haven't experienced before. Sure, I have always done group rides, but thats not training together, thats riding together.

For me this type of training began in the fall when I took up cyclocross. The more experienced guys and gals from Tripower set up practice sessions and invited everyone in the 757. They were not stingy on their advice either. I learned a lot. Most of these same people are the ones who have joined me and my team with the Velocity training.

So why am I talking about this now? I was thinking about this on the ride this morning. Ten of us met and went for a 2.5 hour ride. The ride consisted of 7 Tripower riders and 3 Virginia Beach Wheelmen riders (that's me). The ride was a Tripower ride but the invitation was also sent to those of us who we part of the cyclocross training during the fall. I was just thankful to be included in all these invites from other teams. Thanks guys.

Here are some back of the paceline camera phone pictures from todays ride:



Don't get me wrong. Come racing season we are rivals once again. Well rivals that meet for beer and pizza after the races.