Turtles and Racing

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OK what do turtles and bike racing have in common? Not very much other than location. We heading down Saturday to MD for the Greenbrier race. Ruth and I both planned on doing the marathon race in the morning. I was defiantly out because I had my accident on Thursday. But figured I'd go and hang out and take some pictures. So I got up early Sunday and rode my trainer for a few hours and helped Ruth get ready.


So I went I found what I thought would be a good spot to watch the race from. On the first lap Ruth was the first girl though so I knew she was leading it wasn't much of a lead maybe 20 seconds. Then on the second lap her lead seemed to be gowning and she was still leading on lap five. But then disaster stuck she had a flat and managed to get it changed but had trouble with the CO2 inflator and went from 1st to 5th.

I found out a couple of things first it's allot harder taking pictures of people racing than I thought it was, and second I'm not very good at it. So what about the turtles? When Ruth was looking though all the pictures from the race she wondered why there was about 10 pictures of the turtles and only two of her? It's easy I told her the turtles are slow and she's fast.

Justin

OUCH

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Dateline April 23rd Moraine Mountain Bike trail. On the regular Thursday training ride a Moraine I went over a small log and did an endo. I got up and got back on my bike when I noticed a slight problem. My hand felt funny and I seen that my arm had a strange looking bend in it. Upon further review I came to the conclusion that it was broken. When Joe caught up to me he looked at it and agreed. So I walked and rode what I could to get back the car. I figured that I should go home first take a shower and head to the Hospital. I hate going to the Hospital because it always takes forever and it's filled with a bunch of that I try to avoid at all costs.


So after my long wait the Doctor confirmed what I already knew, that my arm is broken. Something I hate hearing and heard several times before is the Doctor saying "That looks really bad" Finally the Orthopedic Surgeon that was on call made it in. He said that he was going to try and set it. So after some pain numbing shots it was time. Wow that's a very strange sensation you get when they're trying to reposition your bones. After setting it, putting it in a splint and a few more x-rays it was time to leave. Wow and it only took 8 hours.

OK I don't even have any idea where to go from here. All I can say is what a huge disappointment, and keep replaying it over in my head and wonder how the fuck did I do it. I didn't think I was going to fast or landed that hard but I guess I did. As for how fast I was going looking at my Garmin it looks like it was around 18 MPH. So after 4 races my season got put on hold.

J

Mohican Wilderness

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OK it's finally here my first race of the year turned out to be OMBC Mohican Wilderness. Finally I get to see if my training plan will pay off. Ruth decided not to go so I rode out to the race with Joe. I decided to race my single speed for to reasons first I thought it was going to be muddy and second and more importantly this is the only mountain bike I have for now. When we finally got there I was suprized by the number people that were there looked to be well over a 100. I was debating on whether to race Expert or Vet open. I decided to race the Vet open because I figured I was on a SS and it was the first race of the year.

After getting dressed and a short warm up it was time to go. At the start there was a little drizzel coming down and the temp was around 50 I think not really sure. When the whistle went I got a nice hole shot and managed to be first into the woods. Just like I figured it was muddy and wet, but I just tired to have fun with it and not get furstated. I knew that I was in the lead of the group I started with but just kept going at it. The conditions for the first lap weren't to bad but got worse with each lap. This was one of the few races that had a little bit of everything wheather wise. It was raining hard at times, sunny, windy and was even hailing at one point. But finally 2:46 after I started it was over I won the Vet open and came in second overall.
I was very happy with how it turned out, for a couple of reasons. First was that I felt good so I guess some of my training paid off, second I was happy with how I held up to the conditions. Hope the conditions are a little better for next race.

Justin

Season

Something that I've relizied about bike racing is that there's never really an "off season". There's two seasons one is the racing season and the other is the not racing season. For me I've always made my biggest improvements in preformance during not racing season. But it's not from taking time off I actully seem to train better and harder during the non racing season. I think there's several reasons why no wasted time traveling, don't have to save your legs for tomorrow's race, you can work on your weakness just to name a few. So far my none racing season has been going to great can't wait until March to test it out.

Justin

Colors

Everyone has there favorite colors but mine recently changed. Well really it wasn't my favorite colors that changes but colors that I enjoyed and have some fond memories have changed. After 3 plus years of wearing the Dirty Harrys yellow and purple jersey my colors are changing to the Pro Bike colors of Yellow and Black. I first would like to say thanks to Barry and everyone at Dirty Harrys for everything they've done for me. I'm nervous about the change but also very excited. So far Todd, Craig and everyone else at Pro Bikes have been great in every way. So enough said about that, but I'll be sure to keep everyone updated.

J

2008 Season

Ok I know you been waiting for this so here it is 2008's in review. 61 races 1321 miles raced 41 top 5's and only 2 DNF's. It was fairly easy to get that number so high because I raced at the oval once a week. Next year I'm going to try and keep track of miles and time spent going to races. When my season finally ended I was happy-sad. Some of the happy things included not spending the weekends driving, no entry fees, and some more free time on the weekends. Sad because no more racing and winter is finally here.

I made some of my goals but also fell short on a few. Here's the one's I made upgrade to a CAT 3 and PRO mtn. The biggest one I came up short on was not winning the National Champioship race at VT. Really want one of those star and strips jersey. That about all I got to say for now.

Finally

I know that I keep promising to update my blog more often. But finally I think it's going to happen. What makes this attempt different. than the others? The reason for lack of updates was simple we're call it a lack of technology. My PC at home sucks and is very slow, so the little bit of free time I have I hated wasting it on a slow PC. But I finally did it and got a iPhone. So I should be able to update more often when I have some free time.