I'm Back!

First off, welcome to the new blog! Since I am with a new team this year, the awesome guys down at Pathfinder of WV, I decided it was time to do something else new and start writing my own blog. For those confused by the title and may not have known me before a year or two ago, let me explain. Back what seems like several centuries ago in my junior year of high school I topped out at a whopping 215 pounds according to my doctors scales. At that point I realized that it was time to make some changes. I knew at that age and weight it was hard to tell where I would end up in 10 years. By the end of my senior year of high school I was down to 190 but still not satisfied. Skip forward to August of 2009 when I came to WVU. Through current Pathfinder of WV teammate Betsy Shogren, I was introduced to the WVU Cycling club. I began riding and then racing with the team that Fall but really got into it come the Spring of 2010. By the Fall of 2010 I was down to 147 pounds and feeling great. Granted, that proved to be a little too light for a 6’1” dude but the point is I lost a ton of weight, look and feel 100% better, and have a much healthier lifestyle now all because of cycling. Because of all of these changes, I am now the 150 pound cycling nerd that many people know me as today. It’s kind of funny in a way that I came to cycling primarily for the health benefits and a little fun and then ended up falling in love with the sport to a degree I never thought was possible.
Ok, so enough with all of the background. It seems like it has been forever since I last wrote a post on any blog so there is much to update. First off, it is winter here in WV or at least the time of year when that season is supposed to occur. We have been blessed this year with some pretty awesome warm weather, at least for WV, so the outside riding has been in abundance lately. What normally are 1.5 hour trips outside trudging through snow and coming back with numb fingers and toes are, this year, 3.5 hour adventures on the cross bike all over the mountains and valleys in North Central WV. Granted, some of the adventures to higher elevation let winter show its ugly self but that’s when the bike just gets pointed back down the hill toward the 45 degree temps in the valley.
Training in itself has been going good and I am definitely fully recovered from last season. I am really getting excited for mountain bike racing again. The fact that I get to start even earlier this year with the ABRA Mountain Bike Series starting in the Spring is just fantastic. Basically, it now means I get to race a mountain bike almost every weekend from April until October when I head to Angel Fire, NM for Collegiate Nationals.
The biggest thing of the 2012 season so far to update everyone on is my new team alliance! Thanks to Andy Brozik and Gabe Fitzwater at Pathfinder of WV, I am now a member of the Pathfinder of WV cycling team p/b Cannondale. I am pretty stoked for this season especially considering thats I will be rocking the 2012 Cannondale Flash Ultimate. Incase everyone didn’t hear, The Flash 29er was ranked the best hardtail 29er of 2011. I mean, it’s really not a surprise to me but just a little FYI. It is by and far the best bike I have ever ridden. It is so responsive it is ridiculous but it has this feel about it that makes it just flow right through even the gnarliest of trails. After hoping on the Flash 2 last year, I never looked back and with a sub 19 pound Flash this year I am sure to be flying up the climbs.
I did skip out on cross season this year primarily due the fact that I was just plain tired. With public races starting in April and Collegiate Nationals wrapping up on the last day of October, I pretty much see a race every weekend for seven months straight. Not to say that racing all the time isn’t fun but asking that much of your body for that long can take a toll sometimes. With Collegiate Nationals being the first national level event I had ever raced I was more than exhausted from not only the intensity of the race itself and the metal strain of having to deal with the conditions we raced in but also simply from the stress and nervousness leading up the it. So the hiatus from cyclocross this year proved to be a good decision in the end even though I did miss out some awesome fun. Now I am fully recovered and hungry for some more racing.
That seems to be about it for me right now. It is still sort of the off season as far a training goes so there is a little time left to squeeze in a season or two more of “Mad Men” on Netflix and maybe another date or two with the g/f before things get going in full swing again. Is it too early to start counting down the days until the first race?