It is that time again... Time to take the BRT over to the early season races in Cali.  Merced... Central Valley... Sequoia...  All great events!  Nothing like seeing the best of the best duke it out three weekends in a row.  Health Net and Toyota United put on quite a show last year...as did Victory brewing for the ladies side. Cant wait to see Nicole Evans in her new TEAm Lipton kit going at it with the big girls.  Props to her for coming so far so fast!

My all time favorite from last years Cali swing was a cat 3 at the Central Valley Crit trying to tell me he was 5th when he was closer to 15th.  Nothing out of the ordinary exept this clown was wearing a long sleeve leopard print skin suit (I kid you not).  I showed him the pics of him crossing the line and counted back from the leader to him... I gave him my stand by line... "The eye in the sky doesnt lie"  He looked me dead in the eyes and said "thats not me"!  Keep in mind I am shooting pics at 2500 frames per second... so not only could you see the spots on his hag bag, you could see his red goatee and the rubber bands that tied it in a point.  Oh and the sparkly red diadora shoes were clear as day as well.  Even with all of that... yes we are having this go round while he is still in his kitty shammy and wizard of OZ shoes... he still swears its not him?!  So I zoom in and point out the tighty whitey under wear lines he is rocking in the picture and I ask the announcer Dave Toll what he thinks.  Dave says into the mic with this kid standing on stage " Dude in that outfit anything less than an arms in the air, 30 second beat down WIN and I would be hiding under this stage"  I swear all 10,000 spectators stopped pointed a laughed!  Needless to say the leopard slinked away...presumably under the stage as Dave had recommmended.

yes... goin back to cali...to cali....to cali

Day 6
179lbs
2 day old pork chop for breakfast...lots o water
ride time??? Heat of the moment, ASIA. Hazey Shade of Winter, Bangles. song from 8mile sound track, Em. God Will Cut You Down, Mr Cash. Rock U Like a Hurricane, Scorpions. I Alone, Live. Charma Techno, ????. Beautiful Day, U2. Red Skies at Night, Fixx. Terminator X, Public Enemy... However long it takes to play those 10 songs was the ride time.

I was thinking about this while turning over the pedals today....but I wonder when it went from a ride to training?  I went on my first ride at age 4...tried a friends bike.  Pushed off the curb and started pedaling for all I was worth.  Right before I crashed into a parked car was when I decided that riding a bike was why I was here on earth.  Did my first BMX race at age 5...webco was the bike...astrabula forks weighed as much as I did.  I won because I had to pedal the entire time...I couldnt coast because my free wheel was bound up.  I had to jump off after the finish because the handbrake didnt work.

I rode/raced all through high school...I could not get enough!  I rode to school and then when school was over I rode until I had to go home.  There were a bunch of us always out messing around...launching of the hood/winshield of feiros...making jumps and trails in the park...we rode everywhere!

In college when all my BMX buddies decided to start mountain biking I took to the road.  The road bikes felt faster and less...well...stupid...more refined!  I road off and on but just about veryday I could... There was no reason behind it...just fun.  Then I showed up at a crit in the parking lot of BYU...I was dropped the first lap....then the international center...same thing happened.  Sometime between getting dropped those two days and now everyride became a training ride/race.  How did that happen???

Disclaimer:  Al references to “fat”, “being fat” or how fat appears are in no way referenced to the reader.  All mentions of such or like phrases including but not limited to “fat arsse” are directed to the writer himself.  The reader is in no way encouraged to apply these statements both factual and non to themselves or someone they know.  Any names, events, house plants, mentioned in the content of this blog have been changed to protect the identity of the innocent.  By reading the content of this posting the reader understands and agrees to the above message.

So I went to lunch with two friends yesterday…Two guys that I have raced with over the years and have enjoyed their friendship and competitive nature.  As we were eating I noticed that the combined weight of both of the gentlemen with me may very well not equal the weight of myself.  I also noticed them dining on some form of salad while I was eating a very tasty Italian Sausage Grinder with extra Steak Fries!  It was at that point I asked myself…..could I be fat?

When I arrived home I decided to put my notion to the test.  So I grabbed a handful of mini éclairs and went down to step on the scale….. 181 pounds!? (Yes I set the last éclair down before getting on)  Now I am prone to something my doctor calls “sympathy weight”  My wife gets pregnant and starts to put on a few pounds and in support of this grand cause so do I.  The problem is… here it is 3 month after the birth of our second kid and my wife is somehow her svelte toned beautiful self and I am…well…not!  In fact I am 50 pounds heavier than my go uphill fast race weight and 40 pounds over my good crit/TT weight.  In short I am FAT! 

I look like someone you once knew…but..wait that can’t be him…there is no way he is that big.  In the realm of field sports I have gone from all other positions available to goalie.  I am not yet big enough to be nuisance to the person sitting next to me on the plane but definitely occupying the ENTIRE seat.  It is not a pretty sight!

After spending some time wondering what to do I came up with a plan…I am taking my fat to the streets…I am going public…you are reading the diary of a fat man!  I am going to blog my way back to race weight…well…bloging and riding.

So here it goes…

Day 1 weight: 181LBS

Goal weight: 145 LBS

Exercise: 40 min on the trainer

Now what to eat???

 Two things I love about cycling...The people and the competition

Two things I hate about cycling…The politics

That said I am going to go sit on the couch near my bike and read about Dave Z in Velonews….yes it is a rest month!

Like the words to that old song...." I am back in the saddle again".  18mo off does takes its toll to the tune of 35lbs.  It is much harder to ride when you are fat...except cornering.  Having a little extra weight to toss onto the crank when in a high speed corner is pretty cool.  My normal race weight is 134lbs if you are doing the math that puts me at 169!?!?   Plan is to shed the extra hip doughnut by march of 2007 and then single handedly dismantle the world domination of the Seiena Development team.

Sorry for all the spelling errors...it is tough to type and eat my jelly cruller.

It has been raining for less than 24 hours and I am already tired of winter.  I am back on the bike as of tomorrow 10/29/05 and I know it will rain the entire ride.  I used to  like riding in the rain/snow but I was young and stupid then.  Thats it the day after the UCA meeting I am moving to Yuma AZ...it aint cold and rainny there.