No time for Never

Clean Sweep! 2011 Road Nationals

2011-08-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

I know this is a few weeks late (edit weeks turned into months). But, I’ve been on the road for coming up on 9 weeks now, and things have kind of been crazy to say the least. Road Nationals were held in Augusta Georgia this year, and the city did an AMAZING job putting on what I thought was the best road nationals I’ve been to yet.

Things started off fast paced and a little crazy just getting there. I had the second world cup the week before nationals in Spain and flew home for all of 2 days before heading back out again. I took off Thursday from San Diego to head to Colo

rado Springs to pick up Greta and her sister N

adia. From there it was just a quick short 27 hour drive to Augusta. It rained for 26.5 of the 27 hours, the other 30 minutes the ground was covered with snow. We arrived Saturday night in town with plenty of time before racing began on Thursday. I wanted plenty of time to get settled in, see the courses, and get used to the heat.

TT course was much better in my mind then the last 2 years in Bend. The course started out on the Strom Thurmond Dam and traveled out for 11k along a mostly flat to rolling road then just a cone at an intersection and back in to the starting line. Pretty simple. I got a handful of laps on the course before race day and my legs felt pre

tty good. The weather was looking to be a tad toasty for race day, the days leading up it was in the upper 90s around 3 pm, which was when my start time was. I was hoping for rain, praying, doing the rain dance, anything, I LOVE racing in the rain. Well turns out, I got my wish. It started raining around maybe 12 or 1 that day and kept raining all the way through the race and finished up maybe an hour after I was done. My race itself went pretty well, I’ve spent a ton of time over the last year working on my TT game after last years disaster at nationals and failing to make the road worlds team. As a side note, t

he TT at Road Nationals is the selection event for the Road Worlds Paralympic team. Needless to say, this was the most important race of the year. And I feel I rode the race of the year for me, so far that is. In the end, my time was good enough to win my classification, National Championship number 1 for the week, and give me a spot to the Road Worlds Team to be held in Denmark in September.

The crit was held in downtown Augusta the day af

ter the TT. I am glad we have the crit for para racing, but it has room to grow. The turn out this year was bigger then last year, but still could be bigger. For the crit, we all started together, all the separate classifications, C1-5 men and woman. Things rolled along smoothly for me. Nothing really too exciting, just hid as much as I could and wanted to make it to the line safely. Mission accomplished! Crossed the line first in my classification giving me National Championship number 2 for the week.

Saturday brought the road race and the final day of racing. The race was held on Fort Gordon, the local Army base. I do love when the military lets us race on their bases. It’s nice to get out of the normal streets for racing from time to time. The course was a bit harder then it appeared on paper. No long climbs, but lots of short punchy climbs that would take it’s toll. Me being me, attacked from the gun, literally from the whistle. I didn’t really have enough time to get my legs warmed up and felt a little sluggish in the morning, so f

igured that if I went first, I would get to control the early pace to some extent. My plan worked. Once again, the men and woman C1-5 all started together giving us a larger field to race together. Turned out my attack from the gun pretty much cut the field in half from the start, which was kind of nice in a way. I stayed with the main group for the majority of lap 1 of 2 and towards the end of lap 1 the group was getting smaller and smaller and I was dropped from what was left of the front group. I ended up riding the second lap alone in between groups. Which in the end was enough to stay ahead of anyone in my classification and pick up my third national championship of the weekend.

I know this is rather late in coming, but I started this blog on the road several weeks ago and honestly forgot to finish it. Now I am sitting on an airplane headed to Colorado springs for final prep camp before heading off to Denmark for Road Worlds.

I really can’t say enough to thank everyone that has helped me to get here. 2011 has been a big year for me, first national championships (And 3 to top it off), first time making the worlds team and so much more. Without the help of Travis (N

itro Circus), Brent from Ride Cyclery, Sonja with Zipp and Sram, Dave at Engine Ice, Brett Clare for always yelling at me, Daggs for keeping me from 35 hours a week all year long and everyone else, thank you helping me make it this far.

Solvang TOC TT

2011-05-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

WOW! So, I am trying to be better with this. But WOW! That is all I can say about the Time Trial at Solvang during the Tour of California. Last week, friday may 20, I was able to race the TT thanks to AEG. They do an amateur race in the morning before the pro's take off and this year they were nice enough to let me take part in it.

This is something that I dreamt of last year. I wanted to put something together for myself and some of the other para riders to be able to race there. This turned out to be a much bigger undertaking then I thought in the beginning and in the end, I was only able to get one spot for myself. But, I have to start some where right? Hopefully next year I can pull it off to make it bigger and better. Maybe ride the entire TOC? Hmmmm, maybe.... Anyhow, a HUGE thank you to Bob Kaplin, Ryan Ung, Neil Shirley, Ben Delaney, Alex Jarman, Brent/Ride Cyclery, Sonja, The Breck Family, and everyone else that helped me in this one!

I headed up on Thursday to stay at The Breck's house, nice and close to thestart. Solvang isn't that far? Right? Well, turns out mileage yes, it's not that far. As well all know though, traveling through LA can have its issues. 200 mile drive turned into a 7 hour adventure to get there. But, with basically no issues, other then more sitting time then I wanted, I made it there. Took off for a drive of the course with Benny in the bug to do a little scouting work. Then back to the house for a real home cooked meal! Jiffy Corn Bread muffins!!!!!!! Life really doesn't get much better then that. I was in heaven! What a better way to rest up the night before a race then with some real comfort food?

Morning of the race things went rather smooth, well as smooth as I figured they would for something that big. After wondering around for 20 minutes or so I finally found the area that AEG had set up for all the riders taking part in the amateur TT. Parked the car and lugged my stuff over to set up. Found a nice little spot hiding behind the local bike shop in town there to warm up. With everything set up, checked in, and ready to go. I had a few hours till start time. So off I went on my road bike to ride a lap of the course. Took off in a nice easy pace and ran into the Road Bike Action Group with Neil Shirley in it. Chatted for a bit about the race and how things were going with him. Then finished off riding the course. There were already an amazing amount of people setting up camp along the course to watch the race. *A side note, riding ballard canyon on your road bike with climbing gearing on it doesn't really give you an idea to how it will feel during the TT.

I had little time between getting back from my scouting lap and race time. Changed into my skin suit and got all my aero dorky gear laid out to be ready to race and hoped on the trainer to finish up my warm up. Things went fine during warm up and my legs felt pretty good. Hoped off the trainer a little early to make my way through the crowd to the start house. Now one of the coolest parts of the TT is that they use the same start house for us as the Pro's. Complete with THE Dave Towle doing the announcing! On my way to the start line I ran into an old friend, Todd from Sram, it's nice to see old face (one of my favorite things about racing) and sometimes you get a little extra motivation from them. So thanks Todd for a few good words before I took off. Into the starting area I went. Oddly, I wasn't even the least bit nervous, actually was joking with some of the other guys about who was going to catch who. Turns out I did most of the catching that day.

Now, I am terrible at guessing about how many people are watching a race. But if I had to guess how many were at the starting line screaming when I took off, I'd say about 15,000. Doubtful, but that's what I am going to tell myself. It was probably one of the most amazing moments of my cycling career rolling down the start ramp hearing all those people screaming for me and pounding on the fence! The course itself was a ton of fun, hard, but fun. Probably the hardest TT course I've raced yet. Things start out pretty hard there. About 100 feet in a straight flat line, then a 90 left turn and straight up a wall. The climb out of the box was actually kind of nice. Enough to get the heart rate up and legs flowing, but as long as you paced it right, not enough to kill you. Now, at the top of the hill, I heard a fire truck, but didn't really think anything of it. I just crested the hill, followed my motorcycle down the hill and right when I was up to speed around 40-45 mph that fire truck came ripping past me. I was in the middle of the road in a neighborhood that the speed limit was 25 and the truck past me. And scared the ever loving shit out of me! I think I actually peed a little in my skinsuit. Turns out the 90 right hand turn at the bottom of the hill and the barriers reached up and bit one of the guys that took off in front of me. Hope he's okay.

The rest of the race was rather straight forward, a large amount of suffering, pain, crying and general misery was the call of the day. I guess that means I was doing it right? Ballard canyon was probably the best part of the course. You climb about 700 meters maybe? Not really sure. But for TT course it is pretty steep. At the bottom I saw 3 or 4 riders that I was coming up on pretty quickly. Someone at the bottom knew my name and was screaming they were ahead of me and to crush the hill! Going up the climb was a mess! There 4 riders in front of me, so a motorcycle escort for each of them, plus mine and 2 media cars. I felt like I was really doing a pro race weaving in an out of the cars, riders, moto's and screaming fans! At the top I saw Benny and a few others screaming and jumping up and down! It really was cool having friends out there screaming my name for me! Dropping down the climb was a super fast fun descent. The run into finish over the last 10k or so is pretty fast. Couple S turns that I hit almost too fast and passed my motor, had to scream at him a few times to move out of my way. I think he thought I had a few screws lose, he's probably right?

The last 1k of the race is a blur! I had a rider about 10 seconds in front of me as I crested the last little rise into town and saw the 1k to go. I was way past TT pace at that point. I had the town screaming, people all over the place and wanted to catch the last rider coming into the finish line. Rolling into town I took the last 90 left turn way too fast and thought for sure I was gonna yard sale it into the fence and land on the spectators, but somehow hit the corner fast enough and stayed up right, full sprint onto the line. After crossing the line I had to grab a fence to avoid falling over. I was so cooked I couldn't even manage to get my feet out of the clips. I had a handful of people yell my name and talk to me, but to be honest, I was so cracked I didn't really know where I was for probably 20 minutes.

In the end, my time was actually good enough for 22 out of the 60 amateurs that raced. I was actually surprised I had beat that many people. I was no where near close to even the last place guy in the pro race. But by now I know my place in the cycling world.

I really can't say enough about how amazing this was for me! And a huge thank you again to AEG for letting me take part in this. And everyone else that helped me pull this together. Not just for this event, but just for helping me pull my 2011 season together!

I am getting slightly better at updating my blog. Hopefully I'll keep getting better! I am off to Spain on monday for the second Para Road World Cup. Maybe I'll be motivated enough to put my blog together on the plane back home!

Thanks to Kim Weixel for the photos. Hopefully I'll get some more and can add them later.

Australia World Cup

2011-05-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been back for exactly one week. And it's been, well a heck of a week to say the least. I actually haven't forgotten or been to lazy for once to do this. Rather I wasn't really sure what to say. I am still not 100% sure on how I feel about how things went down under. But, it's about time to stop worrying about how I feel. Onto the race report!

Travel to Australia was something that I had a hard time wrapping my head around. Going there, I left LAX at 11pm on a saturday night, and landed monday at 7 am. Wait, where did sunday go? I lost may 1 on my way there. I am used to losing things, a day was a new one to me though.

Anyhow, flight was fine, bags showed up on time an in order. I did however get taken in the airport! I hadn't reserved a car or anything to get from the airport to the motel. I had figured we'd just get a cab (We being me and Brandon my trusty mechanic). I saw a sign for limo service. Why not? I asked about it, and the lady said it would be cheaper then a cab ride. Why not? $100 ride to the motel in a stretch limo! It was worth it. I later found out that the cab ride was only $45. Oh well, it was worth it!

Nothing really too exciting for the first part of the week. Just got the bike together and did a few easy spins while waiting for race day to approach. I wondered around the area of the olympic park and rode some pretty cool bike paths and rode out to a nature refuge.

Things went down hill at classification. I have never had an international classification, a panel of 3 doctors meet and examine you and determine how disabled they think you are. Now, I have some disagreements on some of the stuff the UCI does in regards to this. But, I am not really going to go into that now. With that in mind, last year I raced as a C1, the most disabled of the regular two wheeled bikes. The US doctor and the Canadian doctor both agreed that they felt I was a C1 based on my neuro systems and the way I ride. Well, the panel felt a little different. I meet all the paper criteria for the medical side of things, but for some reason being able to ride a bike in a parking lot moved me up to a C2. Well thats just F'ing great! F ME! They told me that they were going to take video of me in the road race and tt and that I could contest it at spain and ask for a review. Great, so I get to fly myself to spain for that one? Awesome!

Well, there was really nothing to be done about my classification while I was in Sydney. So, it was just try and get my head together for the road race and do what I could.

The road race was on a motor speed way and the near by drag strip with some access roads joining the two together. Nothing too technical, a little more climbing that what the profile showed, but I was happy to see that. For the road race, they combined the C1, 2 and 3 fields. I figured some of the 3's would get away early and I was hoping I would be able to go with them. Things were fine early on the first lap after we started losing a few guys. But, I had a little bit of a brain fart and slid farther back in the group then I should have and had two guys crack in front of me on what was pretty much the only real climb of the course, which happened to be on a narrow section of road. Lesson learned, well relearned. Be near the front AWLAYS! My fault, I screwed up. By the time I got around the two guys, the gap was too much for me to close. I spent the rest of the race in a chase group of 4 or 5 guys. Mostly 2's that sat on my wheel. To be honest, it was pretty silly. I rode pretty hard for a few laps thinking maybe the race would come back together. After realizing no one would work with me, or could? I pulled the plug. No one else would really do anything. I literally slowed down to 8 mph a few times because no one would come around me. On the last lap I tried a few times to get away, but with that huge kick I have, I wasn't able to get enough of a gap. In the end I finished 5th. Two guys were up the road long gone, and two guys got me at the line. Overall, I learned a lot about racing some of the international guys. The front few are strong and know how to race, the rest, well, I'll leave it at that.

The TT on paper had looked really technical and after talking it over with some people, decided against my better judgment to leave the TT bike at home and just take the road bike and a disk. Lesson learned again, always take your TT bike! Unless its a mountain TT, see San Dimas, take the TT bike. I wasn't too sure how I would stack up against the guys in the new classification, but it didn't matter what my classification was, that had no barring on how hard I was going to ride. On paper, I rode one of the better TT's I've ever ridden. Power was good, pacing was good. For once I could have maybe actually gone out a touch harder, did you hear that Brett? I didn't go out too hard for once! In the end, my time was good enough for 5th place again.

Looking back, there are lots to be frustrated with. I came home with two 5th place finishes. In my mind, a failure. Many people have said I should be happy with those. But, that's not really what has gotten me this far. Had I been classed as a 1 like had been thought, I would have won the road race and the TT. Which is what my plan was. But things don't always go as planned. I feel I rode the TT as best I could, had I had my TT bike, I might have finished in 4th at best. The RR, I rode good, but not smart enough.

In the end, I walked away with having learned a lot. I think that is the most I can ask for. I can't say enough about all my new sponsors this year and my old ones that have stood by me no matter what. It really is amazing to have so many people standing behind me and believe in me, even when others don't.

For now, I am headed off to Solvang on thursday of this week to race the TT in the Tour of California. I was lucky enough to talk AEG into letting me race in it this year. So look for some press in the coming week on that one and hopefully a write up next weekend on it.

I am also off to Spain for the second world cup in june to hope to get my classification sorted out.

Lets try a little better

2011-04-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I basically fell off the face of the earth on this blog stuff. But, here's to a new season, that's been going on for a few months now, and a new year, its almost may. Details though.

Lots of new stuff for me this year. I am on a new bike, BH Bikes , a new shop, Ride Cyclery and a list of other changes. I put my own deal together this year with the help of Travis (Nitro Circus), Ride Cyclery, BH, Power Bar, EngineIce, Zipp, Sram, Conti, Fizik, and SockGuy. I'll be going after the Para World Cup series this year as well as Para Road Nationals and hopefully Road Worlds as well. A handful of other stuff in there as well.

I am headed off to Australia tomorrow for the first round of the UCI Para Road World Cup series. Racing starts on thursday with the road race and friday with a TT. I am really looking forward to the races. Weather looks terrible, which I tend to like and am used to after a rough winter for socal. And with around 30 days of racing already in my legs, I am feeling really good going into this.

When I get back from Australia, I managed to talk AEG into giving me a spot to race the Time Trial at the Tour of California on May 20 in Solvang Ca. I am really excited about this and am hoping to get some good press out of it and more exposure for Para Athletes in general.

I know I've said it before and am still slacking, but am going to make an effort to update my blog more often. And have a revamp on my regular site as well in the next week or two.

Been slacking, but I have some big NEWS!

2010-08-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, sorry that I basically completely fell off the face of the earth on my blog. I was doing so good. Then nationals came and went, I had a good road race (Third) and the week went down hill from there. Didn't make the worlds team and had a bit of a rough time swallowing that pill. I headed back to superweek for my summer road trip and had a blast there as usual racing and getting worked on a daily basis. Enough of that. Time for something BIG!

As some of that follow my twitter/facebook have noticed, I've been talking about Germany a bit. Well, I've been following a company called Xcell in germany for about 5 years now. I've been hoping that at some point someone would do enough research in the stem cell area to make me feel okay with allowing them to do some work on me.

Now, I am gonna go ahead and pause for a moment. If you have some "ethically" issue with stem cells, please hold your comments for yourself, email me, or do some research before making any comment about you think its right or wrong, or goes against your "religious" views and get properly educated on the issue.

Anyhow back to what I am doing. I got approval today from the clinic in Cologne that the docs are willing to work on me. Basically its a pretty simple procedure. The docs will take some bone marrow out of my hip, extract the stem cells, do a lumbar puncture, remove some spinal fluid, and mix the spinal fluid and stem cells and replace the fluid back into my spine.

What will this do? Well, thats the million dollar question. No one knows for 100%. I've read lots of patient surveys, research, etc from them. The key thing that makes me feel safe about all this is that no one has gotten worse. I forget the exact numbers, but some where in the 90% range of patients regained some noticeable improvements, which is more then enough of a chance for me.

Why? Well, most of you know some of my issues and some of my story. The short version is that I was paralyzed several years ago, told I'd never walk again. And still have many lingering issues as a result. I still have what I would consider a large amount of nerve pain in both legs/feet. Which, if you've never dealt with nerve pain, you CAN NOT understand it. I assure you, I've broken most of the bones in my body at one point or another, and its something that you simply can not, nor do you want to, understand what it does your mind after years and years of it wearing at you. Another big key thing I am hoping for is that many of the patients have shown improvement in their bowel/bladder control, which is another awesome part of a spinal cord injury. Anyone thats been on a road trip with me knows all about my 10 minute bladder. Hopefully that would be some what better, doubt it can be much worse. There are other areas that I am hoping for improvement. But to be honest, if those 3 things were better, my life would be vastly better.

When? Well, soon. Maybe as soon as the week of September 20 I would be there.

How? Its all pretty simple. I would need to be in the clinic on a monday for some testing. Tuesday would be bone marrow extraction. Wednesday I have the day off. Thursday is lumbar puncture day, the cells would also be implanted same day. I would go back on Friday for follow up. All goes well I can leave saturday to head back to the states. There's a good chance I'll hang around for a few extra days since I am there anyhow.

What do I think of all this? Well, I try and not be a negative person, but not really too much of an upbeat either. I like to try and keep things into a realistic approach. I am trying to not set my hopes up too high on this. If you don't set the bar too high, there's not far to fall if you never hit it. But at the same time, if you never really risk anything, you never get much of a reward. So, in my mind this is my risk. Odds are good from a money stand point this might come close to breaking me, might be time to head back find a job of some degree. But after 7 LONG years, I've come a long way. Both in physical aspects and mental area. And I feel I've done great at putting my head back together and growing as a person. But at the same time I am not really sure how much longer I can hold myself together dealing with the constant pain in my legs.

So, as I've said many times before. There comes a time when you have to put all your cards on the table, be willing to risk it all and lose it all, or you'll never really get any better. I've been told this by a good friend before. "I've never seen anyone thats not afraid to put himself out there like that. You risk it all. I think its your curse though. You see higher highs then anyone will, but see darkness like no one else will." Hopefully this turns into a higher high......

http://www.xcell-center.com/

I'll try and keep everyone updated as to when I am heading over, and once I get there I'll keep everyone in the loop as much as I can as to how things are going! Any questions, comments, concerns, etc, please feel free to either comment or email me!

As always, THANKS EVERYONE!

Where'd the time go?

2010-06-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

WOW! I've been home for 5 weeks now from Defi and not really sure where the time went? It seems like I was just on a plane flying home thinking about how I had so much time till nationals.

Well, the weeks fly by sometimes. After getting home I took a much needed break for a few days. Christina, good long time friend from Florida, came out to see me for a few days. Kinda nice to be away from the bike, all of 3 days, and see how the rest of the world lives again. Sometimes I laugh about how far removed I've become from doing anything besides training, racing, and traveling. I had a great time with her playing tour guide around San Diego, even hit a few places I hadn't been to yet.

As much fun as I had with her being here, it was soon over and time to start putting in some serious time on the bike. Road nationals are fast approaching, June 22-24, and I've done nothing short of put a serious beating down on my TT bike. Coach Rick has held to his word in saying that I would be in the box leading up to the race. Still being a few weeks out I am still pouring on the time and intensity, I have right at one more week and then it'll be rest time and hope I put in enough hard work to get me onto the worlds team.

One other little thing that has come up in the last few weeks. I finally got a mountain bike! I've wanted to get something for almost a year now and after getting a little riding in during the winter, I was hooked. And thanks to the guys at B&L and Specialized, I am now riding carbon 29er hard tail and am nothing short of stoked to be on it! I haven't been able to get much more then two, two hour rides on it. And wont be able to get much more time in it till after worlds, but it sure is nice to at least get a short ride out in the dirt to change things up and look forward to a fun fall season in the dirt!

And one more last thing. www.mattbigos.com is about to undergo a full revamp! Its looking pretty cool and will be sure to have links up when its up and rolling!

2010 Defi

2010-05-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I am not sure where to start. I am sitting on a flight headed back home. I think I haven't updated my blog since before the chula vista/defi prep camp a few weeks back.

Guess I'll start with a quick bit about camp. I had a 8 day camp down at the olympic training center again in the beginning of april. Basically it was race prep. The paralympic team had two groups heading out the end of april to do some international racing. One team was headed to europe to race in Spain and then over to France. Another team, which I was a part of, was headed to montreal the same time to race an event called the Defi Sportiff. I am not even really sure how to explain camp. Basically, it was 8 days of a hammer fest! Everyday was race simulation type stuff. Normally camp is lots and lots of miles, or at least a medium amount of mileage with a far amount of intervals. Not this time. Basically we did a road race everyday. And to say that I wasn't in the box by the end is an understatement. I came into camp not feeling as good as I'd hoped too. My form was "okay" as I said all week, not bad but not really where I'd like to be. The week before camp I finally hit a breaking point. Not really with my training, but rather with my nutrition. I feel that I finally took the eating thing a touch too far. I am not really gonna go into too much detail, as I am sure everyone will want to jump on me and tell me they told me so. But to be honest, I timed it rather well. I went a bit too far and got too lean and lost some muscle and my recovery suffered a bit. But the bottom line is that like most athletes, I have to learn things on my own, and most times, that means the hard way. With that in mind, I seem to have things dialed in and am riding/feeling much better.

After camp I had about 10 days back home in san diego to rest up and get ready for my first international race. The first few days after camp I was excited to be taking it easy as I was trashed from the training like I had never felt before. After about 3-4 days, I was itching and ready to hammer. The problem was that I was still 6 days or so out from racing. Lots of TV and couch time to keep me from going nuts and burning my legs out before race time.

Finally travel day and off I headed to Montreal. I had never been to canada before and to be honest wasn't totally sure what to expect. After a rather easy flight and meeting up in chicago with the rest of the team we all hoped on a flight over to Montreal. The promoter from Defi took amazing care of us while there. They were awaiting us at the airport to take us to the host hotel. We arrived around midnight on thursday and headed to bed right away. Friday morning we awoke to the always fun bike building chore. Now if there's one thing I hate about what I do, it's building/boxing bikes. Anyone that's done it before, lugged a bike box through an airport, hoped it doesn't get crushed, paid a ridicules amount, knows exactly what I am talking about. Things went rather smooth for all of us and we got all the bikes built up rather quickly and without too many problems. By mid afternoon it was time to head out to spin the legs out and check out the race course. We had two days of racing, time trial and a road race, both would take place on the formula 1 race course in montreal. I liked the fact of how clean the course was and the pavement being in great shape. But to be honest, I really like some more elevation in my race courses, seems to suit my riding style/build a bit better. But, I was still stoked to be riding on a formula 1 race course. After a few laps of rolling around the course together as a team, me, wilbur, meg and the OG tandem (Greg and Kevin) we all headed back to the motel to rest up and grab dinner before saturdays time trial.

Saturday morning came and I was itching to race. I did like the fact that the host hotel we stayed in was about 10 k from the race site and we just rode over to get a little bit of the warm up out of the way. The weather on the way over was a tad chilly, but was warming up nicely, however as the time went by and the temps rose, so did the wind. Not terrible wind, nothing like lancaster a few weeks ago. But enough to make it hurt that much more. Now I know not everyone knows how all the paralympic timing and everything works. But the basics is that there are 5 upright bike division's based on disability. Each cat has its own time standard based on former world championship's finishing times. So all racing is compared to the standard and a percentage is figured out to determine the winner. I know thats kinda confusing, email me and I can explain it more if you want. Back to the race. I was one of the last riders to take off, I think only 2 riders started after me, which I actually really like. Took off and felt pretty good. I did freak out a little bit early on when I passed my minute guy about 2k in. Just told myself maybe he was having a bad day and not too worry about it. I passed a handful more riders and felt like I had a pretty good ride. About 2k from the end I was pretty far in the box and in a mix of wanting to cry, die, or puke. Not really sure which, so as usual I puked. Not really puke, but the air was pretty dry and my mouth was pretty much bone dry by this point and I started to dry heave on the bike, always fun in the middle of a tt. I lost a few seconds as I slowed my pedaling down a bit, but not too much time. I crossed the line and was seeing stars and not really sure of much of anything, just that I was done and happy about that. Swung around and grabbed a water bottle from Coach Rick and went to cool down around the course for another lap or two. I made it about 2k into cooling when I lost it and had to get off my bike. I made it to Pit Road on the course, where the F1 cars pit during their race, and leaned against a wall and puked all over the ground. Good thing there wasn't too much in my stomach, but some coke and a ton of acid. Not too much to come out, but it sure hurt like hell, at the time oddly I felt better. By the time I rolled back to the finish line area results were up. I really had no idea how I rode in comparison to the other riders. Turns out I was third on the first results list. Later the results were changed as they combined men and woman, at least Meg was the one to knock me down a spot as she put a clinic on to show all of us how to ride a TT. I was pretty happy with my race. Fourth overall for my first ever international race, top American Male, and more importantly I was first out of the C1's (C1 is my classification). I believe there were 3 or 4 C1's racing making it one of the larger groups. As far as standard went. I was just over what the canadians use for a standard, by about .5%, meaning I went a bit faster, so a good ride for me, as for the US standard, I was about .4 off, meaning a touch slower. I was hoping to break the American standard, but with the wind blowing, puking at the end and all things considered I am pretty happy with where I finished. Its much much more then I ever thought I would be able to do even just a few short years ago.

Sunday rolled around and I was starting to get excited. It was time for the road race!!! Much more my type of racing. While I race a good amount of TT's, I really do enjoy the RR's. Just so much more exciting and more going on. The race was the same course as saturdays TT. Just a longer race, and a mass start, 10 laps for 45k and around 25 riders on the starting line. The RR is combined division's. Men and women C1-5 started all together, with the Men C4-5 racing for a few more laps after we finished up. With me, Meg, and Wilbur all in the race we knew things would be interesting. The odds of any two of us getting away was doubtful. We decided to just watch things early on and see how the race would unfold, at the same time the job of making sure the pace never went to low was up to me. We were all a little worried that with so many canadians in the race if the pace slowed too much someone would make an attack and the rest wouldn't chase. So, I sat on the front pretty early on and just set tempo. I've never sat on the front that long or done that much work in a race. I probably ended up doing around 60-70% of the work in the race, between setting tempo and chasing down a handful of breaks that looked promising that went away. A few solo moves went throughout and we let them go only to watch them come back to the field and go right out the back. Things were looking for all three of us to have a good finish coming into the last lap. I was pretty spent by the bell lap and knew Will had a better sprint then me, so the plan was to lead him out as well as keep meg up near the front and out of trouble. Around 2k to go on the last lap things started to really get rolling and was a few wheels back with Will next to me and meg on the other side. I am not really sure what happened, but next thing I knew someone's bars were slamming into my hip and I heard a ton of carnage behind me. The front group of us kept rolling and hammer really went down at the end. I took a short turn towards the front to make sure will was in good position and did my best in the sprint. As we crossed the line, Will got one of the canadians crossing the to take the win, I held on for 5, Meg however didn't fair so well. She got caught up in the crash, which was really sad, she was riding so well and I am pretty much certain she would have been top woman on the day had it not been for the crash. While it wasn't a win for me, it was a win for the team and a GREAT ride for me. By far my best race ever from a riding, tactics and finish stand point. I rode around for probably 20 minutes before I was even able to get off my bike. I am not really sure I've ever gone that far in the box before and I hurt when I got off the bike. But it was more then worth it. I was amazed after the race at how many people came up to me to tell me what I great race I rode. A handful of the other riders that got dropped during the race came up to me to tell me how impressed they were at how much work I did and at the pace I set. I think the quote of the day that made me feel amazing came from a canadian rider, "I've never seen anyone do that before, I've never watched someone ride on the front that long, that hard and drop me that hard! Good on you! I am more then impressed. I hope I don't have to race you at worlds later this year." Between my good ride in the TT, a good ride in the RR, helping Will get a win and that comment, I was pretty lost after the race. I hadn't felt that good in a long time.

As I write this, I am starting to look forward to what's in the coming weeks for me. First off, its to get off this plane. I think I still have 2 more hours till I land in San Diego, ugh! Up next though is a few local races, Fiesta Island this weekend, and then probably some local crits around socal. And lots of TT work to get ready for Bend. Nationals are in Bend again this year and are fast approaching. I think 6 weeks? Thats kinda scary to think about. Hopefully I ride myself onto the worlds team at nationals this year and get a chance to take what I learned at defi and move myself up a bit farther.

I say it a lot, but I never would have though I'd make it this far. Going from "riding so slow I almost fell over and I still had to wait for him at the top of the hill" to racing at international races and being the guy on the front making everyone else hurt. I really can't say it enough times, but I always have to say thanks to everyone thats helped me get this far, and that continue to help me get even further! Thanks to the entire crew at B&L/Specialized for setting me up on the best bikes out there, Coach Rick for keeping me on the right training plan to get to the top, Brett Clare for always just simply keeping me in line and motivating, Engine Ice Dave for all the help, Sock Guy, PowerBar and everyone else!!!!!!!

Like Jens would say (in heavy German Accent) '"I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel! How great is that?!" And he's right, its pretty great!!!!!!!!!!!

And I do like to add pics, so here's a link to my facebook with a couple of them

One more week, a step closer.....

2010-04-05T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well, its been one heck of a week! Several things going on and I am not sure where to start. But, I'll try and not bounce around too much, I am sure I will though. First off, IamSpecialized has set my blog up on their facebook page on the RSS feed. Super cool stuff for me. I am not really sure I can ever thanks Specialized enough for stepping up so big this year and believing in me. Next up, I am proud to be a part of the PowerBar Elite Team for 2010 and 2011 season. I received my first order the other day in the mail, and I felt like a little kid at christmas! But in April! Doesn't get much better then that.

Next up, another solid week of training put in the books. Not too much new in that department. Other then the fact that on wednesday I decided to do my TT workout on the tr

ainer. What could go wrong? Sounded like a good idea at the time. Well, to be honest, thats a lie. It sounded like a terrible idea

from the get go. After the first two intervals, I hoped off and ran to the kitchen to get the trash can. Never did end up using it. But I was pretty certain that I was going to need it at some point in the near future.

The weekend brought more Time Trials! Saturday was Santiago Canyon, probably my favorite course and Sunday would be up in Lancaster (I do believe that Hell would be a step up from that place). Santiago is always a good time. And this weekend was no different. Had a big group of friends show up. W

ilbur came down on friday night to stay at the house. Tawnee came out to try her hand at this bike racing thing. I am thinking she needs to toss that running and swi

mming stuff and just be a bike racer after showing me how to do things there. As for the race itself, well I went faster then a few weeks ago. Which is a big step, especially considering most everyone that raced last month was around 4

5 seconds slower. (last race was super fast day from the wind). But, as usual I wasn't super happy about it. My legs seem to feel a touch flat lately. I think starting to ramp things up for Defi might have something to do with that. But its all good in the long run. I am pretty sure that coach Rick will have me all set and on the right path to have a good ride there. Another great thing about Santiago was getting to see Aaron Baker come out and join us at the races! It was rad to see him out there on his trike tearing it up! Hopefully we'll get to see him more at the local TT's.

Sunday! Well, I am not really sure how to describe Lancaster. I am not all that sure as to why anyone would want to live there. The worst weather I've ever come across. Its always either blistering hot or freezing cold, and windy. Not just windy, but reminds me of hurricane season in Florida. And this weekend did not disappoint in either department. The temps were in the low 50's when me and Brandon rolled into town around 10 am and never picked up. What did pick up was the wind. Hands down the worst wind I've ever ridden in. I actually took my disk off the TT bike and rolled a set 404's that I tossed in the car at the last second. And those were still almost too much in a few spots. The wind was kicking at a steady 25 mph with gust that I would guess aroun

d 35-40 mph. I literally was rolling 10 mph on the way out and hurting to do that. Now, one would think the ride in would be all cake if it was that much of a head wind on the way out. Well, maybe. But turns out that some of those winds were nice solid cross winds on the way in. I have honestly never been that scared on my TT bike, let alone any bike! I am pretty sure I was trying to break my aero bars off from holding on so tight on the way in. I think the sole highlight of the trip to Lancaster was me and Brandon going into the craziest market I've ever been in. I felt like were transported some where far south of the border once we walked in. I wasn't even able to read most of the labels inside the store. Too bad we had to race, I was tempted to hang out all day in the market and sample all the different foods!

Things are starting to pick up for me it seems. I had a little cut back for a few weeks in the training volume with racing so much. But, now its time to start a nice solid build for the first big race of the season. To be honest, I love the big weeks. I have a big week this week, then off to the OTC down at chula vista for about 10 days I think. Then a few more days at home and its off to Montreal for Defi. And after that, well I am not really sure yet where the rest of the year is going to lead me. Hopefully there will be some news in the next few weeks for me as to how the rest of my season will shack out. But I am just taking it step by step for now and working on going to Defi and coming home with a few good results.

Isn't it still March?

2010-03-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

So this was my first weekend at home in 8 weeks. Now, I thought it was still March, but I just realized I've already raced for 8 weeks in a row. Most weekends, were at least both days, with 2 stage races, and several race weekend with 3 races over two days. No wonder why I was excited to have a little break. And to think, things just start picking up from here. Soon its off to april camp at the OTC, then to Montreal for Defi. After that, well not really sure. About all I know about this summer is that I'll be at Elite Nationals in Bend end of June, SuperWeek again, and hopefully Worlds in August. The rest between now and then are just minor details, right?

This week was nothing too exciting. Much of the same, riding my bike, laying on the couch, hanging out at B&L, just the usual. I have been putting in a bit more time on the TT bike then usual. I've decided that if I am going to try and go after the TT at worlds, perhaps I should ride my TT bike more then just on race day? What a concept?

Just a few points from the week, "things that make you go hmmmm?"

-Triathletes are an interesting breed. I stopped by and watched the Oceanside 70.3 for a bit.

-While waiting for Daggs to show today, I saw a middle aged man driving with his top down singing and dancing to Taylor Swift. Good for him for not caring what anyone thinks?

-What does how windy it is, have to do with your ride? I mean really, just ride your bike.

-New blog layout, hate it? Love it?

Hmmm, umm well about that.....

2010-03-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

So, I am not really sure where to begin on this. San Dimas was this weekend. And went, well shitty. Not really any other way to put it then that. I hadn't planned on racing it till a few weeks ago and barely got in in time. I had planned on going to florida and seeing the family and doing some racing there. But, money and life got in the way. San Dimas is probably one of, if not the, hardest race on the schedule for me. Lots and lots of climbing and super fast field. Usually I am one to like the climbing/harder races. But not this weekend. I guess I'll start from the beginning......

Friday things kick off with a 3.75 hill climb TT. I got up around 6 am to pick up Josh so we could split a motel room and gas. He had a rather early start time. Got to the race site and he started warming up, I took a nap in the back of the car gypsy style. After a few more hours I decided it was time to start getting motivated. Rolled around for about 75 minutes with Andrew and a few others to get the legs warmed up. Finally 1:30 rolled around it was time to go. By far the hottest race of the year with temps around 85 when I took off. I was a little worried about going out too hard as most everyone I know says they've gone out too hard there and blow up at least one year. So, with that in mind and Greta's tip of using some tape to not lose my flash light, I headed on into the pain cave. Things are dark and lonely there. As long as I have myself and the voices inside my head, the pain cave isn't such a bad place. Okay, thats a lie. Its a miserable place. But, after enough races, you just learn to sit there and hate yourself and beat your body to death. "To be time trialist, you must be how they say "maschoist" have no love for oneself." My legs felt pretty good and I had what for me was a rather solid time with some good numbers. As a side note, I am not big on posting power numbers or times for the world to see, if you wanna know, email me. However good I rode, it doesn't really compare that well to able bodied guys I am racing. But, the big picture is just that, BIG! And none of the guys I'll be racing internationally were there, and none of them are racing stuff that hard for the most part, so I am okay with it. Headed off to the motel and tracked down some dinner and called it an early night.

Saturday got to sleep in a little longer, drove out to the road race course and dropped off Josh. Headed back to the motel and took a little nap and relaxed since I didn't start till later in the afternoon. Finally headed back to the race site to start getting ready. Rolled around for a bit to try and find my legs after shredding them the day before. Things were feeling pretty good for me. I was excited to get rolling and put some hard miles in today. The race got started about 25 minutes late, for some reason the officials thought it was a good idea to tell us to line in one area and then start yelling at us that it was our fault the race was late since we were in the wrong area. I am usually not one to blame race personal, as I am glad they are putting the event on. But if you're going to tell us to line up in an area, that says "staging area" and then yell at us that we're in the wrong area, even though the same guy told us 5 minutes earlier to stay there, well to be honest it just doesn't make sense.

Back to the race....... Things took off fine, I found a good place to be early on about 1/3 of the way back in the pack and was just hiding and trying to be smart. Well, less then 2 miles in, I ran into what is probably the hardest part of dealing with my spinal cord injury. Now, I jokingly use the excuse all the time that I am "crippled". But this is what I have the hardest time dealing with, and thats my bladder issues. I had pee'd right before the start of the race and around 2 miles in my bladder decided to start screaming at me. Well you might ask yourself, why not just go ahead and pee on the bike? And a little warning, maybe you don't want to read about me peeing, if thats the case, go ahead and stop reading now.

In order for this to make sense I need to explain a few things I think to shed some light on why this is such a problem for me. One of the things that no one realizes is that when you have a sci is that your bowel/bladder control goes out the window. And like all things neuro related, they are very different from one person to the next. From day 1 of my injury one of the biggest problems for me has been issues with my bladder. I had a catheter placed right after my injury that was in place for several weeks. Then onto a straight cath for several months, and on and on. Well all that combined with a pretty severe neuro deficit leaves some issues to say the least. When I have to go, I HAVE TO GO. There is really no holding it for me. If I do try and hold it, well then trouble starts. Due to my injury being at a high level, above T-5, if I try and hold my bladder for too long I become dsyreflexic. Autonomic Dysreflexia to be exact, you can read more there.

Here's what it means for me. I have very little sensation or feeling from my chest down. When I get the urge to go, its different from what most people know as that same urge. My body tells me something is up and I need to fix it. If I go too long without doing anything to relive it, then things go south, and fast. If your body realizes something is wrong is when you can become dysreflexic. Its your body telling you that somethings is wrong and you need to fix it. Its a little different fro everyone, but heres what happens to me, and what happened today. My blood pressure will spike, along with my hear rate. Really high, really really high. To the point where my eyes feel like their gonna burst, even if I am doing little to no effort. Then it can drop almost instantly along with my heart rate. To the point where sometimes I feel like I am gonna pass out. Then once I finally to get to relieve myself, it often takes me a good hour or more till I feel better again.

Now, back to today. Like I said about 2 miles in my body decided it was time to go. So, I thought about it for a second and decided I was going to just pee on the bike. Well, easier said then done. Another issue is for me, its not as simple as just going. I have a hard time relaxing the muscle that controls my bladder. Finally I was able to slid to the back of the group and go while pedaling. I was rather impressed with myself that I was able to pee on the bike and still stay in the group. At this point though my blood pressure had spiked and dropped enough times that it took a big hit on me. I felt like I had already done a 2 hour road race and was only 10 minutes in. But me being too dumb to just call it a day, I got back in the group and tried to move my way back up into the group and maybe try and recover for a few minutes and hope I would be able to tough it out. Well, that lasted till we hit the long climb towards the end of the lap. I made it in the field about half way up it, someone flatted right in front of me and took a big hit into my speed. Somehow I was able to get around them and still stay in for another few seconds. By that time I had burned pretty much all my matches I had left. So, off the back it was for me. Right at the end of lap 1. I called it a day a that point.

After I pulled out I spun my legs out for 1o minutes or so and packed it in and headed for the motel. I feeling a bit frustrated at this point. My legs are starting to come around and feel pretty good. I am not saying I have any thoughts that I would have been top 10 or anything crazy. But I kinda feel like today was a day that I would have made the length of the race in the main field. It its not one thing its another I guess? But, in the end, I had a good TT on friday, set some good numbers, learned how to pee on the bike and catch back on and learned a little more.

TdM

2010-03-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

So, I know I am a little late on this one. But, stage races tend to have a way of working me over. Which left me spending the majority of this week sleeping, riding and doing well as little as possible. Last weekend I raced the Tour De Murrieta. A great race, but no where near as glamours as it would sound. 3 day stage race, with day 1 in san diego and the next 2 days in murrieta.

Day 1 went rather well for me. 20k TT at fiesta island. Things went much better then just a few days earlier on sunday. I actually got a good solid warm up in for once, was super motivated, and not crying in the car because it was too cold to get out on the road. My time compared to the rest of the guys in the 3's was a bit off as I am learning is normal for me. I am not a big fan of getting my ass kicked on a regular basis. But, I've come to deal with the fact that for the time being I have a bit of work to do as far as able bodied racing goes. But, on the upside, I was right at a minute faster then the week before, and looking at times compared to some comparable stuff I'll be racing, lets just say that things look on the up and up for me!

Day 2, well I wish I could say that things went as good as day 1. Crits are a rough spot for me. The constant surging gets me and wrecks my legs pretty quick. Add in the fact that my right leg decided to take a vacation on the line and I managed to miss my pedal on 3 tries to get clipped in. I stayed in the main field for about 35 of the 60 minute race. Which to be honest was enough for me. Good solid workout, stayed up right and was worked yet again at the end of the day.

Day 3 started out rough! Time change, meant an even earlier wake up call. Brandon was racing all weekend as well and doing a damn fine job of that. His race started at 7:30, which meant a 5:30, but really 4:30, am wake up call. People really get up that early? I was wondering why there were so many people on the road? Who really functions that early? Not me thats for sure. I took a nap gypsy style in the back of the yukon while brandon put a clinic on to show the 5's how a road race should be done. After waking up and getting a little motivated I took for a spin to try and find my legs. Got about 90 minutes of wandering around the hills around the road race course. Legs were feeling pretty good and I was a little more motivated. The course there tends to suit me a little better then most of the stuff I've been racing this year. Well things took off pretty hard from the gun. But, I was never in any real danger. Pace was solid for me. Then on lap 3 or 4, at the top of one of the rollers someone hit the breaks a bit hard and down like dominos we went. I think probably 10 or so of us hit the ground. I was lucky enough to land in the dirt and not really hit the ground that hard. But, by the time I got back rolling again, the group was still rolling at full tilt, I was probably 2 minutes down. Took off with a few others and rode pretty hard for a lap to see if we had any chance. We all called it pretty quick realizing a chase wasn't gonna get us anywhere.

Couple big things, stage racing is hard. Even if its short 3 day races. My legs do feel like their coming around pretty good. I forget how "disabled" I am, I hate saying that, but I guess I have to be honest with myself. Overall I have to say I am pretty stoked on how this year is shaping up and things are rolling along nice and steadily, just how I like to have them.

Big News!

2010-03-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got "official" word on friday of last week that I am in. I am headed to Montreal April 28 for my first international race with the U.S. Paralympic team! The race is Defi Sportif. All the details aren't finalized as of yet. But, there's a TT that will be run on the F1 road course there, and a road/circuit race, and possibly a crit.

Now, I am not gonna bore everyone with all the details of paralympic racing, as I don't fully understand all of it, and think I would need more then one blog post to do it. But, Defi is what is considered a P1 event. Think something along the lines of a UCI 2.1 road event. As of this year, there is a new world cup schedule set in place for para racing, as well as World Championships, and a handful of P1 events. These events will be used to determine an international ranking of nations in each disability division based on points earned at all the above events. This ranking is what will be used to determine how many riders each country gets to take to London in 2012 for the games. So, every point counts!

I am pretty excited to get to go to Defi to do some racing and see how I stack up to the international riders and hopefully earn myself a spot on the national team and get to head to a few more bigger races this summer. All this in mind, I have a pretty busy schedule shaping up for the next two months. I have the tour de murrieta starting this week on friday, another 3 day stage race starting next friday (San Dimas). A handful of other smaller local races in the socal area, all before heading off to Montreal.

To switch gears just ever so slightly, I had a great weekend! Super busy and tons of fun. Back to back TT's, dinner with friends, movies (Wait, was I pretending to do something besides ride my bike?), destroying my tt bike, rebuilding tt bike and sleeping.

Saturday started out pretty early for me and brandon, who gets up before 7 am? Took off to Santiago Canyon for the Time Trial. The weather looked questionable at best on the way up. Wind was kicking and the clouds looked dark. But the rain held off and things went off okay. I felt pretty rough the first 5k or so of the race. Finally stopped convinced I had a rear flat to check my wheel. Just my luck, tire was fine, legs not so much. Took back off after losing about 45 seconds. In a way, I guess maybe it was a good thing to stop? Kind of fired me up and pissed me off a bit. In the end, I stopped the clock 62 seconds faster then the last time I was there back in the fall. I was pretty happy with that considering the stop, and how much I've been riding the last two months.

Saturday night hit up one of my favorite local places for diner, Rimels! Meet up with Tatiana and finally got to meet Tawnee! Great dinner as usual there and good fun talking training for a few hours. I also ended up going out sunday night to see Alice in Wonderland with Tati. I am pretty sure I'll end up seeing that at least once more in theaters. Great flick! Who knew there was things to do besides ride a bike on the weekends?

Sunday morning I awoke yet again at a god awful hour. Really, why do TT's have to start so early in the morning?! Weather was yet again threating to make things no fun today. Well, this time around the weather man got it right. On the way down to Fiesta Island, the clouds opened up and dumbed some rain on us. The rain itself wouldn't have been so bad if the temperature was a bit warmer. Well, either way, I was there and might as well race. I spent way too much time complaining and doing nothing really before getting on the trainer to warm up. So with little warmup, cold temps, rain, wind, and a hard race in the legs from the day before. I headed to the start line. All I am gonna say about the race is it wasn't anything exciting. I guess the highlight of Fiesta was the usual, heading to Potato Shack with Brandon after the race! The downside, besides crawling into the pain cave, was the rain and mud sure did a number on my tt bike. Me and Brandon headed to B&L and basically had to completely rebuilt our TT bikes.

Oh yea, one last thing. I am pretty sure the only thing that got me out of the car and onto the trainer sunday morning, was watching Jens Voigt on my iphone. In my search for motivation, I figured why not listen to the best interview EVER! "Shut up body! Do what I tell you!"

Slight change of plans....

2010-03-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I had planned on heading to florida the weekend of March 20-21 to do two day road race. I was really stoked for it. 100k on day one and 100 mile point to point on day two. And I was really excited to see Kristin for her birthday. But, I guess Spring Break in florida can cause plane tickets to be outrageous, who knew? Apparently not me. So, with that said I started thinking about what would be a better option then going to florida just for the weekend and spending a ton of money and stress from flying back and forth in a 3 day time frame. Well, then with a quick decision, as usual with me, I decided on San Dimas. Why not go back and do the lone race I've ever done that pissed me off so bad I packed up and left after stage one and drove home. So, with all that said. I signed up for San Dimas and will be there ready to try and redeem myself on that TT and see how much time I can knock off from last year.

Ouch!

2010-03-02T21:44:00.001-08:00

So, I was going to try and do this yesterday. But, I was pretty wrecked and feeling lazy. So, onto tuesday it got pushed, now its tuesday night and I am getting around to it. Last week was much the same as the last, oh I guess 15 weeks or so? Lots of training, wednesday ride, more riding, little bit of eating, and ended the week off with another race.

Sunday was the first Ontario Crit of the season. I tend to like the course there. 1.2 miles with 7 turns I think. I'd like to pretend to be a crit guy, but alas, I guess I am just much more crippled then I like to think. According to IPC and UCI, I am really crippled, I just like to forget about it. But that doesn't help to give me much of a kick in races. But, I guess my legs are starting to come around a bit. Race took off and things went rather smoothly. I sat in and slid to the back for, well no good reason. After about half the race sitting in the back and riding around riders as they got dropped, it dawned on me, maybe I should move up a bit? Finally moved up and rode in the middle of the group to save a little bit of energy. Spent most of the rest of the race just sitting in and getting a good work out. Nothing really special for the rest of the day. I have zero kick for a sprint, and just sit up if I am not in any good position at the end. A few hours later I tried my hand at the 1-3 again. Lets just say maybe I should have tried to save a good bit more energy during the 3 race. I didn't have too much left in the tank and rode a few laps and called it a day.

Yesterday, monday I got the best call in a long time! My new toy was in and ready for me to go pick it up. I ordered an SRM for my TT bike. I really hated to spend that kind of money on a power meter. But, for me, racing with power for TT's really seems to help. I run into a bit of a problem pacing myself when racing. The limited amount of feeling in my legs makes it hard to tell the difference between 200 and 250 watts. Between the new srm, a new set of wheels thanks to Zipp, my TT bike is like a new machine! Gotta say a huge thanks to Specialized, B&L Bikes and everyone there for helping me get it all set up.

I'd like to add more to this and do a long write up on how great the new srm is. But as usual, Rick has me beating myself down this week again. And with a big weekend, and big next few months planned. I am going to get some rest and get ready for tomorrow's slugfest.

2010 Season kick off!

2010-02-22T12:49:00.000-08:00

Well, where to begin. I've been off this blog thing for sometime now. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I am going to make an attempt to be better at this. I have a pretty busy race schedule for the next few months, so for the most part that means rest/easy days on mondays, so I'll try and make monday a blog day.

The 2010 racing season actually started a few weeks ago on February 7 at Fiesta Island for me. Things went ummm, well okay for me there. I guess thats the best way to put it. I went around 45 seco

nds faster then last time I raced there. Which considering the wind, and times were on average 90 seconds slower. I should be happy with it. But, as usual with me, I wasn't too thrilled. I did several things wrong. I didn't warm up long enough and the big key was I didn't go out anywhere near hard enough. But, it was a good learning day for me. Thanks to Specialized, B&L Bikes, Dano and BG fit I have a few new bikes, new fit and new things going that all seem to be flowing in the right direction. It was my first race on my new 2010 Specialized Transition with a new position that Dano helped set me up on after coming back from a BG fit clinic and it was key in dropping some time. Email me if you want more info about the fit stuff, it would take too long to type it all out in here.

This past weekend, February 20 and 21 marked the start of the road season for me. Saturday morning I headed out to the Imperial Classic for my first crit of the season. Weather looked a big sketchy when I left the coast and it looked worse as I drove farther and further east. Up in the mountains I was wondering if the rain was going to turn to snow as it was raining and around 40 outside. But once I dropped out of the mountains and down into the desert, the clouds cleared and the sun came out. Temps were great for a race, but the wind not so much. Turned out to be some of the worst wind I've ever raced in. For me, this race was a first for several things. First race as a Cat 3, first race in my new team kit (B&L Bikes is now a team), and first race on my 2010 SL3. First up was the Cat 3 race, the race itself wasn't too bad. I had zero expectations and went to just simply test my legs and get some race miles in. Turns out I was riding okay. I sat in till about 5 to go and was a little too far back in the group, when the rider in front of me missed an acceleration and couldn't close the gap, the race was over for me and about 5 others. We chased for most of a lap, but after quickly realizing the gap was growing, I pulled the plug. Few hours rest and I was back up again. This time for the Pro 1-3 race. Turned out my legs needed a few more gears to go from the 3's to the 1-3 and my race lasted all of 4 laps. Things were really hard from the gun and the 80 rider field was pretty much single file strung out from the gun. I am okay with not lasting that long as about half the field had dropped out by 30 minutes in.

Sunday morning I woke up to much better weather and grabbed a cup of coffee and relaxed for a little bit before heading north to Dominguez Hills for my third race of the weekend. The course there seems to suit me much better, less sharp turns and accelerations, more about shear speed. Things in the 3's were pretty smooth for the most part. Nothing too exciting. Just sat in and got a good workout in. I have a lot of fun racing crits, but for the most part they are just a good workout for me. Maybe one day I'll learn how to be a sprinter and mix it up in the end for a result?

Like I said earlier, lots of new stuff going on early in the season. Specialized and B&L Bikes stepped up big time in the offseason to help put together an awesome program to help me race this year. And a big part of that is my SL3. Now last year I rode and Sl2. And when I heard there was a new bike coming out, I was a bit skeptical at first. I had no intentions on getting rid of my Sl2. I figured how could you make the best bike I've ever ridden any better? Well, turns out I was wrong. After getting my new bike just before christmas, I've got around 1500 miles on it already and love it more each time I ride it. The bike is light, like crazy light. With race wheels and ready to roll its under 14 lbs. Which just blows my mind. Its amazing to me that they were able to take the SL2 and make it better in all the right places without making it worse anywhere else. The new bike is overall a tad bit stiffer, but the ride quality hasn't suffered. I think my back qualifies as about as destroyed as you'll find, and I tend to run more drop on my road bike then most, and I've already put down a few 5+ hour rides on the bike and gotten off feeling fine. And not that I am a big power sprinter by any stretch, but the bike sprints like it wants to be beat on, which is fine in my mind! I am still just in awe that Specialized was able to take the best bike I've ridden and make it better. Not really sure what else to say about it other then WOW!

Yes, yes I know...

2009-06-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

So, yes I know I said I was going to be better about not slacking on this one. But alas, I haven't kept up on it. I started a twitter account which seems to be a little easier for to keep up with. I've also started working on some ideas on redoing www.mattbigos.com that should be up and running in the near future.

The big thing that I do have in the works is my donation stuff is set up finally. While I have the best sponsors anyone could ask for. Life is still expensive and I don't make enough money racing yet to always cover the bills. So I am hoping that some people out there will be willing to help me out. Any can make a donation to me either from a personal account or a business and it will all be a tax deductible charity donation. I am set up with one of the local teams and they are helping me with this, I will be able to give anyone a receipt with a 501(3)c number to give to your accountant, I know you have to keep them happy. Feel free to shoot me an email, mattbigos@earthlink.net with any questions or if you know anyone that might be able to help out.

Oh, and last thing real quick. twiiter account if you want to follow me there....

http://twitter.com/mattbigos

Slacking, yes I know...

2009-04-22T23:33:00.000-07:00

So, I've been off here for far too long. Truth is. My coach is trying to kill me. I feel confident that deep down Rick is trying to kill me. But its a good thing. I've been training a lot. And feeling great doing it. I've been pretty healthy as of late, which is a big step for me. Seems things are finally falling into place in a rather good order. Gonna make it short and sweet tonight. Just kinda wanted to remind everyone I am not gone. Just been really busy. I have a big camp starting friday at the olympic training center. I think its 8 days or so? I forget. Maybe looking at the schedule would be an idea? I figure that as long as I know what day I am supposed to show up is all that really matters, right? Just show, ride my butt off and let my legs do the talking. They don't talk nearly as loud as my mouth though. I am working on that one though. Like I said, short and sweet. I'll add some stuff next week throughout camp if I am not in a coma from being tired.

Tour, make that the Blood Bath of Murrieta!

2009-03-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend I went out to the "Tour De Murrieta". Nothing against Cal Pools for putting the race on, they did a great job. But I think they need to change the name to either "The Blood Bath of Murrieta" or maybe "Murrieta Massacre" something along those lines I am thinking would be best.

After a 5 am wake up time on saturday I was headed to oceanside to pick up Jason to and off to pretend I should be racing crits. As usual, I found a nice handicap spot right next to everyone else to park in. I love doing that by the way! I get the best looks warming up on my trainer sitting in the handicap spot. Not too much exciting to say about the race really. Som

ewhere around the half way point and I went into a pretty tight corner and the rider in front of me slid a bit and locked up his breaks. Well, who knew I could hit him hard enough to give him a little momentum to keep going? I basically did a track stand in the corner to keep from falling over. That was pretty much the end of my day. I didn't have enough in me to stay in the group after that. Good thing, about two turns later there was a crash that someone said took out 18 bikes. I want to say there was right at 100, just over or under, that started in the 4's, and 52 showed on the sheet that finished. Scary stuff. I ended up sticking around and watching the rest of the races on and off. Went out and rode the circuit course for sundays race, watch

ed Brett beat up on a bunch of old guys, watched Julia look awesome in some really bitching pink oakley's. And sat in amazement while I watched the pro 1/2 string out 150 guys around a 1 mile course.

Sunday was another early day. I haven't seen 4:30 am from either end in a LONG time. I don't really want to see it anytime soon again either. Off to hit up the circuit race. Which was basically a 40 mile crit. Great! I started out doing my warm up on the trainer, but I can't stand my trainer. So I took off an rode the course instead. It started raining a little on me during warm up. Awesome! Rain went away just before the start of the race. Pace was pretty mellow for the first lap or two before thing picked up a bit. I was feeling pretty good early on and sat towards the front for the first 4 or 5 laps. I think on lap 5, I got tangled up in a crash. The guy in front of me overlapped wheels and went down. Somehow in the mess, I got hit with e

ither an arm, head, bar or something and my arm came flying off the bars. I managed to stay up right. But ran into another bike on the ground and had to unclip and stop to keep from hitting the ground. I got going again pretty quick and grabbed back on to the group. Well that didn't last too lo

ng. Right after I grabbed back on there was a pretty big jump and I was toast at the point. Out the back I went and headed in for my car.

At least I came home with all my skin and my bike in one piece. Which is a lot more then a lot of people there this weekend can say.

I've had a pretty busy week with training and getting some new bike stuff set up for this weekend, so I've slacked off on here a bit again. But, I am off to San Dimas stage race tomorrow morning and hopefully sunday I'll be back again. And I am sure as usual I'll have a story or two from the weekend.

Oh, one last thing. I guess Aaron is going to be staying with me for a few weeks, may

be 6? This summer before track nats. Now Gordon is going to have two

crippled's to pick on. I am not so sure he's gonna know what to do with himself.

What would you do?

2009-03-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

This is something I wrote last year and have kinda forgotten about. I like to save things and go back and read them from time to time to kind of keep me in check.

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? What if everyone in your life would support what you wanted to do, no matter what? No matter how far fetched it seemed, how unrealistic? Everyone and anyone would support you in your endeavors?

I know this is a rather common phrase that we've all heard a time or two. But I want you to really think about it. I think about it all the time. Its basically how I try and live my life. I really do not concern myself so much with what others think of my goals in life. With that in mind, I don't really share many of my goals with anyone. Why? Because its not worth my time to hear someone tell me I won't reach them.

Often times when you share your goals with others, they smash them. I do not think others do this intentionally, or with a hurtful interest. But, often it is out of fear. Most people are afraid of failure. Afraid to look like a fool. People fear that if they set goals and don't reach them, others will mock them. But, in the end what is worse? Looking a fool that tried and failed, or not trying and never achieving anything? As long as when you fail, you get back up and keep trying what's the harm in it?

I hear all the time that I shouldn't do this or I shouldn't try this. "Its too hard" or "Are you sure your body can do that?". I hear things like that on almost a daily basis. And you know what? I really don't care. Not one bit. More then anything it helps me. It pushes me to show others what I really can do. To me, I KNOW I can not fail. Its simply not an option to me. Many people will say that. But few will go forward and do what it takes to really make it happen. It is only a failure if you do not get back up and try again.

What I want from everyone out there. I want to know, What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? What would you do? And then think about it, really think about it, and ask yourself why you wont try? Is it because your afraid of others? What they will say if you fail? Why let others influence your life? Its your life, your the only one that lives it, and you only get one chance. Its okay to fail, as long as you get back up and try again.

Yes, I've been slacking on this...

2009-03-09T12:20:00.001-07:00

So, I know I've been slacking over the last two weeks or so about updates on here. I've been sick, and not feeling all that great. But, I am starting to feel pretty good and thinking I'll be back to updating more often.

After fighting a nasty sinus infection that has left me full of antibotics and not breathing so great. I was about to go nuts not being able to ride. I was basically off the bike for around a week. Yes, I still rode pretty much everyday, but it was for an hour with basically no effort. On wednesday I went out and rode and tried to put out a small effort and started wheezing right away and my chest was pretty tight. I was pissed off and had enough. I didn't e

ven bother to stop riding, just went home and as I was still on my way home called my doc. Made an appointment to go in and see him first thing thursday morning. Since moving out to california around 2 years ago, I've been having more and more problems with my breathing and sinuses. Well, I've finally had enough and the doctor gave me an inhaler. We've talked about it a few times over the last 6 months or so. But, I've always been a little hesitant to go down that road. Little worried I'll be come to dependent on it. Well, turns out its worth it ev

en if I do rely on it.

After leaving his office thursday morning, I went and got my inhalers from the store and off on the bike I went. I was meeting up with Jason and his friend Lauren. I kept hearing from Lauren about how fast she is, so I had to see for myself. Meet up with the them and another friend of Lauren's, Megan, at the real estate office on the coast and headed out to San Elijo for a few laps. I guess I need to back track for just a moment. As soon as I hoped on the bike and put out any effort at all, I already felt better. I was thinking maybe I just was having wishful thinking. But, I sure felt pretty good. Once we got out to San Elijo, I figured what the heck. Lets test out the legs and lungs and see how I felt. Well, the doc was spot on! I felt great. I couldn't believe it. No more wheezing, no more tight chest. Just ride till my legs don't work. Side note, thats a great thing about my spinal cord injury and no

t having much feeling. My legs never really "burn" they just stop producing any power if I push too hard. Ended up having a pretty good 3 hour ride. Not a bad way to come back.

Friday was nothing too exciting. Just a super mellow spin along the coast. I did have soup night at the Matt's house with the crew from B&L as well as a few others. Ju

lia came over and Sonja was in rare form all night! Haha!

Sunday morning came far too early. With the time change saturday night, that meant a hour loss of sleep. Which was awesome since I had to get up at 5:30 to make it to fiesta island in time for the Time Trial. As usual it was nice and cold when I got to the race. I think we all struggled to get motivated and get on the trainers to warm up. But, I some how managed to get going and get a good warm up in. Nothing really all that exciting from the race itself. I went 33:10 for 20K. Which still isn't as fast as I need to go. But, its early in the year, I guess like my doc says "You were really sick, you know that right?", and its still 46 seconds faster then just 4 weeks ago. And thats with a week off the bike.

Something I did realize this weekend. Nothing profound, but note worthy. I always thought for some reason that as I got faster, this would hurt less. How naive can I really be? The faster I go, the worse it hurts. I guess you just learn to deal with the pain more?

Rest of the day was pretty mellow. Super easy spin with Marc up the coast. I saw a pretty cool old Ford Model T. I think thats what it was? Me and Marc rode next to the guy for a few miles. He said it was wide open, which was around 25 mph. Pretty neat seeing it out on the road.

I ended up actually going to the movies for once. Shock I know, me going out and doing anything that doesn't involve food or a bicycle? I've been looking forward to seeing Watchmen and since it came out friday, why not? Well, I convinced Julia to go with me. Good movie, but I wish I would have known it was 3 hours. Sitting for 3 hours after racing a TT in the morning really isn't the greatest thing to do.

I know this isn't as exciting as my usual entries, but amazingly enough. There hasn't been too much going on lately. I think being sick and a little down and out over that has kept me calm and low key for the last week or two. But, don't worry. I am feeling good, ready to rage this weekend at Murrieta and on a big week of training. So I am sure there will be something exciting this week or coming weekend!

New kit an race time!

2009-03-01T19:42:00.001-08:00

Well, coming off a big week of camp and being sick as all anything would make for a great weekend to race, right? Not really. I was pretty run down from camp and being sick. Went to the doc's on thursday after my last ride of camp and got some crazy antibotics to try and knock down my sinus infection. The upside, my face doesn't hurt anymore. The down side, I still can't breathe and my heart rate goes through the roof when I put much of an effort.

So, with all this in mind, I decided sometime on friday no racing either day this weekend. Then Jason called and said the new kits were in and to pick them up on saturday after the celo ride. Headed up saturday morning to pick up my kit, well I happened to see the celo group heading up the coast as I was going up to meet them. Good timing for Jason since he flatted right when I was coming up on them. Its good that I never take my bike out of my car. Switched out one of my wheels for him, and motor paced him on the back of the yukon back up to the group. I think he liked that one. Got to the deli to pick up kits and it went down hill from there. Everyone started talking me into racing. I figured what the heck. Go for an easy spin that afternoon and see how I felt. Took off for an hour or so in the afternoon and felt pretty good.

Decided to get up at 5:30 to make it to Long Beach in time to race. I have to get upgraded to a Cat 3 so I can race later in the afternoon. Anyhow, picked up Jason and Jason on the way and headed north. Nothing too exciting that I can think of from the drive up. Parking was in big demand when we got there, so out came the handicap sticker. Got a nice spot with plenty of room for the trainers. You get some funny looks sitting on a trainer in a handicap spot. Oh well, I earned my sticker and have it for life, why not use it.

It was a pretty exciting day from a spectator stand point, and scary as anything for a racer. I took off pretty easy and just sat in for a while. My legs felt pretty good, but my breathing is still way off. My heart rate was through the roof for a pretty light effort. I sat in for about 20 minutes or so, and finally called it a day. I just really wanted to test my legs, and they passed. Right after I pulled out, I was glad I did. I think there was 5 crashes in the Cat 4 race alone, 3 on the bell lap. That wasn't the only race full of crashes, the 30+ 3/4 had 3-4 crashes. The best must have been two Cat 5 guys going at it after the race. Some how I missed it, but the story was that two guys touched wheels sprinting for 25th place, and then they started yelling at each other and threw a few punches before it got broken up. Really? Sprinting for 25th place? And without a doubt funniest thing heard all day over the P.A. system, "racers, take a look to the rider to your left make sure their number is attached properly. now look at their bars and make sure they don't have aero bars on their bike" Hahaha! Really? I guess someone showed up to the line with aero bars on.

Not really sure where I am headed now. I am guessing a light week of training. I need to let my body heal itself for once. Guessing my infection is a little worse then I thought. Gonna give it a few more days and give the doc another call if I am still not feeling 100%. Kinda bored not training much and freaking out that I am gonna get fat. Oh well, I guess thats enough for tonight. I am pretty spent, which I am guessing is a sign that I am sick since I didn't do much today.

LONG WEEK

2009-02-26T20:35:00.000-08:00

So, its been a rather long week for me. I was tagging along with the national team down at the olympic training center most of the week. Got some great (really HARD) riding in, learned a little, got to listen to Craig pick on me and everyone else. Had a good time. But I ended up sick. I have a really nasty sinus infection going on right now. So, I am skipping out on the last day of camp, honey springs TT. As well as skipping both races this weekend. Looks like I'll be holding the couch down for the next few days. So if anyone wants to grab coffee, watch a movie or come up with anything constructive that doesn't require much in the way of energy or money, I am all ears. I'll post a little more later, for now I am spent and thinking my bed is calling my name.

Newport Beach? I mean couser canyon, err make that cole...

2009-02-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

Ha, so today started off with the idea of getting in around 2:30 on the bike with about an hour of hard climbing. Well, at first Jason said lets go up to Newport and ride with Lauren. Great lets do that, some where new to ride is always good. Got a call from Gordon saying my rebuilt power tap wheel was ready, thanks Zipp/Sonja for that one and a big thanks to Matt Jaberg. So off to B&L to get that all put back together. Bike built and ready to rage with my zipps back on finally.

Off to oceanside to pick up Jason. Everything goin

g great, we get north of San Clemente. He decides, "Hey, maybe I should call Lauren to tell her we're almost there?" Great idea. Well turns out she can't ride today. Hmm, well why ke

ep going then? So we turn around and head back s

outh

. Get off at the 76 and then we'll figure out later where to ride. How about couser canyon? Maybe. Oh wait, there's a donut shop, lets stop off and grab something to eat. Grab two donuts each and off we go. "With a donut in each hand anything is possible" That was the theme of the day I think.

Keep driving and finally decide, ahh, lets just park by the casino and

climb cole grade and then over to lake wolford. Jason had a vote for Palomar, but I vetoed that one. Coach Rick said hard shorter climbing, not long medium sufferfest, short big sufferfest was on deck for the day.

Got out of the car and realized something, it was windy, like really windy. Jason's bike was moving all on its on. This should be fun. Finally after leaving my house at 9:30, I was on the bike at 1:00 pm. Ha! Oh well, off towards cole grade for the first climb of the day. Have I ever mentione

d I hate that climb? Actually, in a weird way I kinda

like it, but it hurts pretty frigging bad. Had a good ride up to the top and down a long gradual decent. I think we rode at 30 mph for 3-4 miles which is always fun.

Rode through valley center and over to Lake Wolford road and up wolford pass. Nice short steep climb. Past the lake and down into Rincon Valley. Couple really strong wind gust made things fun dropping down into the valley going 40 mph. Back to the car in under 2 hours. Not bad for 37 miles and around 4k of climbing. Le

gs were spent, but not completely trashed considereding three straight hard days.

After the time trial up in Lancaster this past weekend I realized I need to start riding harder. Which I know sounds a bit odd. But, I've realized that there really is just simply more power in my legs then what I've been working with. I always worry about that if I ride too hard I'll blow up and not be able to get home. I've had that in my mind all week on my three hard days this week. Well, turns out I was right. Tuesday I rode the water towers and went faster then I've ever gone up there. Wednesday I rode better on the wednesday ride then ever before, and today I went faster then ever before. Common

theme there right? Well one other thing. I hurt more then ever before. The last three days on my bike have hurt unbelievably bad, but in the end. Its all worth it. It only hurts for a while on the bike, then it goes away. But its a good hurt. I enjoy making friends with the pain. It will be there for a long time to come, so I just feel we shoul

d try and come to some sort of terms with each other. Either way, its working.

Tomorrow s

hould be a great day. Gonna head up early to Solvang to watch the Time Trial of the Tour of California. Jason is gonna ride with me and pick up his buddy joseph somewhere along the way. 6 am is gonna come WAY too early. Then saturday its off to the OTC for day 1 of camp that I am tagging along at.

And going with the idea of making myself go faster by hurting more, we come to todays quote.....

"Do you think my muscles have anything to do with my being faster and stronger?"

Stickers finally match!

2009-02-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

So what a weekend! Things started off on saturday by me attempting to apply my new stickers to my 808 front. Well, that didn't go so well. At least Sonja got a good laugh out of it. I tried to put the first sticker on and managed to screw things up real bad. So, after destroying my first sticker and watching Sonja about fall off the couch laughing at me I threw in the towel. I promptly gave Jason a call to see if he would be nice enough to put them on for me. Off to B&L to give my TT bike a once over before going home to try and get some sleep before my race on sunday.

Things started sliding down hill once I got home. Since I was going to this TT to get a time standard to turn into Craig, I needed to print out a form to have the race officials sign off on. Well, there's nothing like waiting till the last minute to do everything right? So saturday night at 8 I pulled out my printer that has been sitting in my closet for two months since I moved. And did it work? Of course not. After about 10 minutes of trying to not lose it, I gave up. And went to Staples to get new ink cartridges. Well, the website says they are open till 9, I would expect them to be open till 9, right? Wrong, so off to Best Buy to get ink. Now, wouldn't you think that ink for a $80 printer be pretty cheap? How is it that the printer cost $80, and ink is $75? Well, I said what the hell and bought it anyhow. Got home and got my stuff printed and went to bed.

Sunday was a nice and early wake up call at 6 am. Took off to pick Jason up and head north. Race didn't start till 12, so I had enough time to make the 3 hour drive to Lancaster. Drive was pretty smooth. I was not liking all the snow I could see on the mountains and watching the temperature drop as we drove higher into the high desert. Not cool! Well, I guess it was cool? Not sold though. After we got there Jason started putting my stickers on my 808 so my wheels would match once again (yes, I know I am a dork, whatever). We got there nice and early and watched the collegiate team time trial stuff finish up. Bike prepped and looking great, it was time to get on the ever so exciting trainer. Got a nice long, around 65 minutes, warm up on the trainer then hoped on the road and got about another 10 minutes out on the road before race took off.

Time trial was not what I was wanting. Course was 20K out and back course. I thought it was FLAT! I guess it was somewhat flat. But, it was not fiesta island flat. I'd guess around 300 feet or so climbing on the way out, and maybe 50-100 on the way in. But I know that I had a heck of a negative split. 21 minutes on the way out and 14:50 on the way in. Total time was 35:41. Not what I wanted. But, I am okay with my time. Not happy. But not that angry. My body doesn't really work all that well from a neruological stand point when its 40 outside. So, I am gonna chalk a good bit of it up to the cold. Jason did get some great photo's, so it wasn't a total loss.

I learned a few things today though. My legs do not like the cold, I knew that but got reminded of it. TT's hurt really bad, knew that also. I think I really need to make myself suffer more when I race. I am okay with that. I just worry about blowing up. I rode the last 3k or so really well. And I literally had tears in my eyes as I crossed the line because I was hurting so bad. I need to learn how to race for 30 minutes like that. And I need to up my power output. also knew that. So, I really didn't learn anything. Just got reminded of several key things.

The fun began after that race was over. I was sitting in my driver seat and sending an email from my phone when my car started doing all kinds of weird stuff. All kinds of alarms and what not started going off, and then it all just died. It was dead. Turned the key and nothing happened. Click click. Awesome sound. Great, now what?! Well, new friend Will happened to come up right about then, so good, at least I have someone to borrow a hand from. He tracked down a pair of jumper cables and got a car to jump mine with. It started right up, but I was pretty nervous the rest of the trip home. Got my form signed off, even though my time wasn't that great, and took off. Hit BJ's for a pizza on the way home, and it was a long moment as I turned off my car and then tried to see if it would restart. Good luck, it did. Good dinner and finished the long drive home.

Glad to be home after a long day, and my lungs actually hurt! I guess I did it right then?

Quote for the day.....

"There are only two tragedies in life, not getting what you want, and getting what you want"

Free money, howard and rain....

2009-02-12T19:33:00.000-08:00

I got approved for google adsense! I am not really sure what that means. I am hoping it means free money. So, I need to P.I.M.P. my blog out to everyone and anyone, so folks, feel free to post a link to this thing anywhere and everywhere you want.

Not sure if I mentioned this the other day or not. But I heard from the welsh man that I was mentioned on Howard Stern the other day. Thats kick ass to me. I am sure my dad still says Howard's an asshole, but he's funny. I guess knoxville was on there talking about Nitro Circus tv and someone called in. Favorite quote, "So, that kid in 199 Lives that Pastrana paralyzed, so did he sue him or what?" Hahaha. I love it. Anyhow, I shot them an email tonight. Maybe I'll here back, probably not. Would be cool if I got on the show and got to judge a hot dog catching contest or something?

I wish this damn rain would go away. What the hell? It rained last night, the sun was out this morning, then it started raining while I was on the track. Oh and while at the track today. I had a funny moment. I don't always like naming names. But, lets just say there was fellow there from "another wheel" company (Not zipp those are the good wheel guys). And all I can say is that he was very proud of himself and his employers wheels. I got a chuckle out of all of it. And its supposed to rain this weekend for my TT up in Lancaster. Should be awesome to race in 50 degree weather, rain and a 15 mph wind. Hopefully Chuckles will roll up there with me.

Tomorrow should be a good day. I have a turkey to smoke. Still undecided on how I am gonna do it. It should be good either way. And those of you that are out of town are gonna miss out, thats all I am gonna say for now.

One last thing. I was hanging out at B&L tonight, oh yea, two last things. The funny one first. A pingeon flew into the shop while I was there. I ended up being the one to chase it out of the shop. The poor thing flew into the windows a few too many times. I felt bad for the little guy. I think he was okay. And the only other thing I can think of at the moment is I built a kick ass rack for my car today. I set up a rack that uses two thule clamps to hold two bikes by the forks. Might not make much sense. But, I'll snap some pictures tomorrow of it. Its a work in progress and I have some ideas already on how to improve it.

Quote of the day...

"Are you sure that specialized can hold up your fat ass?"

An up and down day......

2009-02-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

Well, today is February 10, which is exactly 62 months to the day since my accident. Today also marks the passing of Jeremy Lusk I've had a long list of bad things happen on the tenth since my injury, but who's keeping track. Not that I was great friends with him or anything. But anytime anyone in the moto world dies, especially during an event, its a sad day for all of us. Motocross is much like bicycle racing. Its a very small close group of people. We're all really just one big family. And when someone dies, it affects all of us. I woke up to getting text messages asking me if I had heard. Then it was emails, more texts and phone calls pretty much all day. To say the least its been an odd day. I have a few other big things that came up today. I am not going to mention them until I have more solid info. I'll update everyone as soon as I can let it out in the open, but things are looking very good for this year and the future as far as racing goes.

I went in to B&L to do some work on getting some wheels straightened out so I could do some riding today. I am getting far too good at destroying stuff. My power tap wheel is MIA for the next week or so. I guess I can only beat up on something for so long. Sonja is my hero for the week for taking care of that one. After I got done working on my wheels, I grabbed some new arm and knee warmers that I've been needing. I had a big realization today. Everyone tells me that I am either one of two things. "Wow, you look great, your so lean you look good" or "Wow, your really skinny, are you sick?" Well, my arm and knee warmers have been sliding off lately, and I thought they were just worn out. Guess not, I grabbed some mediums off the shelf at first and tried them on. Well, guess I am skinny. Small it was for me. What the hell? I am 6'1, I shouldn't own anything small. Kind of an eye opener.

After leaving the shop I tossed my TT bike together for a few hours and some tempo work. Meet up with Jason and Ben, both Celo guys, and did some riding. Had a good ride, it was freezing all day today though. Okay, like 50, but thats cold enough for me.

TT's, welsh man and non matching stickers!

2009-02-09T09:48:00.000-08:00

What a weekend! Raced the first Fiesta Island of the year, saw elliott, and my disk finally arrived. I had a pretty good race all things considered. I am afraid to add it all up, but I think I have literally some where around 100 hours on the bike in the last 4 weeks. Maybe thats why my legs were dead? Just a thought. Luckily this is a rest week.

Fiesta was fun, well as fun as 30 minutes of pain can be. Got there nice and early for once. Dano already had the B&L tent set up and a place for me to warm up. Weather was looking a little sketchy. Little bit of light rain and it was around 45 when I got on the trainer. Started my warm up with Bob and Jim (?) next to me, they had early start times so they were almost done when I started. Elliott (everyone's favorite Welsh man) and his buddy Greg drove down from Morgan hill to race this weekend. The three of us had a good warm up going when the "excitement" of the morning showed up. I am going to leave names out of this. But lets say someone had a little too much coffee or something and had entirely too much energy for that early in the morning. How can you be that wired at 7 am when its cold out? Anyhow, race was pretty good, official time said 33:56. I had 32:10 on my watch and after a long discussion I decided I am just gonna stick with my watch time. Phil from Fly V/Successfull Living was there FLYING! 24:50, which is only 13 seconds off the course record, and on a slow day, pretty damn fast.

One last note on Fiesta. Damn it where are my stickers? How can I expect to go fast when my wheels don't match?

Headed home after the race and took a little nap before heading out to Red Trolly. I really wanted to do this race as its really close to the house and I like the course. But gotta listen to the coach, right? So I made it out in time to watch the pro 1/2. Sweet Jesus those guys were flying. Good racing to watch and cold weather. And to top off my great day, I got someone to go to dinner with me that I have been chasing after for a week or two. Which pretty much topped off my day and ended it on a very high note.

And for a quote of the day, since it was a time trial day.....

"the only pace is suicide pace, and today is a good day to die."

2009-02-07T18:46:00.000-08:00

Okay this rain thing is a little out of hand. So thursday I spent a few hours in the rain and then prepped my bike on Friday to race this weekend. Well I listened to it rain all night long and this morning the sun was out. I figured great, I'll hurry up and get my ride in before it rains again. WRONG! I drove up to oceanside and planned on riding with the celo group for part of my ride. I meet up with everyone at the gate leading into the base. We took off at a pretty easy pace, nice since I was supposed to ride pretty easy. Around Las Pulgas I pulled out to do my own tempo workout. Well somewhere around the half way point going through the base the rain started, then it got worse and worse. Till finally around Pulgas it was pouring, which was awesome to go with the 50 degree temperature. I did my tempos and rejoined the celo guys as they were heading back south. Oh and one awesome side note for today, I left my leg warmers at home. Which made for a fun ride, good thing I can't feel my legs that good.

After getting home and giving my bike a quick bath with garden hose it was time for some food. I've been on a cooking lately, and its not showing any signs of slowing down either. I picked up some "breakfast steaks" from seaside the other day, along with some fresh white bread left over from last night and some potatoes I was in business. Any time anyone wants to come over for breakfast, or brunch or whatever the hell this meal is, your welcome too, just let me know.

Swung by B&L to give my bike a little more loving to get ready for tomorrow and ran into the goofy welsh man (Elliott). He's in town to race Fiesta tomorrow. And the start list looks pretty rough by the way. Got word that the entire successfull living as well as the majority of the OUCH team were racing out at boulevard today. I feel bad for anyone out there, I heard it was snowing.

Rest days and rain

2009-02-06T21:29:00.000-08:00

It rains all of what 10 days a year in San Diego? Well I guess its a good thing it happened on my rest day. I slept in today for some much needed rest after another pretty big 3 day block of training. Got up to see Brandon pretty sick and Marc still under the weather. Well with that in mind I decided to call off dinner at our place. I was pretty stoked to smoke a turkey for the first time and have everyone over. But felt that it would be better to not get everyone sick. With that in mind, now what do I do on my day off? I ended up running some errands with fluffy and then spending some quality time at my favorite place, B&L. After spending a few too many hours in the rain on my TT bike yesterday I felt I need to give her so much needed loving to get her up to race standards for this weekend. When I walked in the door Matt had a nice surprise for me. My shinny new doubly paid for zipp 900 disk was finally in. Dano stretched up a new tire for me and got it all ready to go for this weekend.

Nothing really all that exciting the rest of the day. Made pasta for the 300 straight day and watched a movie. I was kinda bummed to not be able to find my copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Ended up watching Boondock Saints, which is always a good flick.

And since I like good quotes, I think I'll try and have one a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. Today's comes from tonight's movie.

"The question is not how far. The question is, do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far as is needed?"

Water towers are ummmm, fun?

2009-02-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

So today me and Jason (celo teammate) did some riding. Well he went with me on my first ride of the day. His mangina was flaring up a bit to go on a second ride as usual. Today was supposed to be a painful day, and it didn't let me down.

I took off with

intentions of getting a few hard hours of riding with some good climbing in. Well I pulled that off. Jason and I have been climbing san elijo for a few months now a

fter Brett t

old me to go beat myself up there. Well, I've heard a few people talk about climbing to the water towers before. But never made it up there myself. Figured what the hell lets give it a shot. We both made it up with no issue. Damn did that hurt. I am thinking thats the steepest climb I've ever done. I think it makes soledad seem easy. But the best part, the view. It was crazy, you could see all of north county and way into the mountains from up there. We started to drop down and the wind had already been blowing all day and was picking up. At one point I actually stopped because I was getting blown around so bad. Never had that happen before. Down to the bottom and back home to make a nice big breakfast, or rather lunch.

After lunch Heather swung by and dropped stew off. So it was an afternoon of dog sitting. Trixie and stew spent a few hours chasing each other around while I spent some quality time keeping the sofa from flying away. Those damn couches will just fly away if you don't hold them down, thats a true story by the way.

Well, who would have thought that just one 2 hour ride was enough? Appartenly not my coach. So, off again I went. Little time trial workout later on in the afternoon. It was an awesome ride. Can you sense my sarcasm in that one? Took off looking at the sky thinking nothing good would come. Well, sometimes I hate being right. About 30 minutes into my 2 hour ride, it started raining. At first it was just a light rain, enough that I was wet, but not soaked, yet. By the end of the ride I was able to wring water out of socks. Nothing like riding around in 60 degree rain with the wind kicking.

Quote of the day comes from Marc.......

"If you put enough drops into a bucket, at some point it will be full"

Little track day...

2009-02-03T20:45:00.001-08:00

Had another fun day on the track today. Its nice to get down there when its just me and Becky. Had a few others today, but still a good day. John has had me just doing a bunch of starts lately. Today we started moving forward though. Did several sets behind the motor working on my cadence and speed. Who knew that my legs could spin that fast? Things get a little lose around 100 rpm on the track for me. Its weird, I can spin around 115 or 120 on the road, but on the track 100 is my magic number.

No matter how many times I watch her, Becky still scares me. We were both running the same gearing today, but where I was running around 26-30 mph, she was running somewhere around 36-40 mph. I am not sure how her little legs go that fast. But, I guess there's a reason she's headed to copenhagen this weekend to race world cup?

Nothing too exciting the rest of the day, just a nice easy spin along the coast on my Transition. Weather is friggin awesome here right now! It was 80 at the track today.

Destruction is a pattern of mine!

2009-02-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

For some odd reason I am great at destroying things. I am pretty sure if given the right time line, I could break a rock.

This weekend didn't fall short of that. I had a great weekend of riding handed down from coach Rick. Saturday was around 4 hours of riding from two different rides. Well I took off with swamis A from B&L and was planning to just head up san elijo instead of going on with them. Well, that only last till flying across La Costa. And then I heard the awesome sound of metal on carbon. My power tap wheel let lose a spoke. With that nice and out of true and wobbling all over the place, I limped back home. Not wanting to give up on my ride for the day, I went home grabbed a spare wheel and headed to B&L to switch cassettes out. You get some really funny looks when your riding down the coast on a Tarmac carrying a wheel in your hand. Got everything switched over fine and headed off to get my climbing ride in, an hour or two late. Changed my plan and headed south and did Torrey Pines and then down past the aquarium in La Jolla and back up. Just before dropping down Torrey I ran into Jens, who was having a worse day then me. He had trashed his rear derailleur and chain after picking up a stick in his wheel. I hung out with him on the side of the road for a few while he was waiting for a ride. I headed home after he got picked up and was coming down hill in Del Mar when I shredded my back tire. I figured that trashing one wheel for the day simply wasn't enough. I ended up having to use a gu wrapper to get home. Back to B&L to steal the tire off my PT wheel and back home I went. I almost skipped my second ride of the day in the afternoon after the awesome morning I had, but figured what's the worst that could happen? Believe it or not, nothing happened. Crazy I know?

Sunday was another some what exciting day, I guess you could call it that. 5:00 am came way too early for me. Meet up with Dano and the rest of his pursuit team to head to ADT so we could all get certified to ride there. We spent about an hour listening to the instructor read off a sheet of rules and what not about the track and it was time to ride. Now I am not gonna lie. That place is pretty intimidating to me. I was a little nervous about riding there, as was a few of the others. But, as I always like to say, "What's the worst that could happen? Its only skin" Well, I think I figured that one out quickly. I didn't make it too far before hitting the ground. And to be honest, I am not even really sure what I did wrong. But, I was on the ground sliding and let me reassure anyone that thinks wood doesn't hurt that bad. I think that hitting the ground there was worse then hitting pavement. But, in a weird way I think I am actually some what happy I crashed there. I hadn't crashed on the track yet and I feel I needed to get it out of the way. Its better to happen now and be done and over with it. So that was my one and done for the year. I managed to stay up right the rest of the day and get in about another 45 minutes or so of time playing around on the track. And no I never did make it all the way to the top, I was a little sketched out to good much above the blue line.

And one last little note. Super Bowl was awesome! What little bit I did get to watch. I was riding during the first half and went over and hung out at Sonja's to watch the second half.

I guess thats enough for now, I have a few things to switch out on my bikes and get ready for the week of riding.

Starting off this thing....

2009-02-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

So, I've had my website up for sometime now. And, well I've been less then good at updating my blog. This is going to be my attempt at keeping a more update blog then using my site. For those of you that know me, know that if nothing else my stories will always make you feel better about yourself. More often then not, if you had a bad weekend, something worse happened to me. This will also give my parents a way to keep track of my exciting life seeing as I am 3,000 miles away. So, I am off to start with this new blogging thing.