Cold Feet

The hardest part of this mornings workout was the long walk from the door into the garage out to where my cycling shoes were. To say the least, the garage floor was very cold. This morning I did remember to at least leave my shoes somewhat close to the heater (not the one pictured) I keep on a timer, so at least my shoes weren't freezing. Starting out with cold feet is never good and makes for a very long and cold morning.

Right now with the temps being so cold I'm using two heaters. I have an oil filled radiator space heater on a timer that kicks on one hour before I get out into the garage. It doesn't help too much but it does knock some of the chill out of the air. But that's it, it by no means warms up the garage. The second, is the one in the picture. I have no idea what kind of heater it is, only that it looks pretty old. It does a pretty good job of warming you up but I don't trust it on the timer and it has to sit like 2 feet away from my bike to feel anything.

Despite it being so cold, I still have to run a fan on low to get some air moving. Otherwise, you're covered in sweat and it's freezing cold and that's not a good thing. Enough air to keep you somewhat dry is actually a better option as crazy as it sounds.

Most mornings I'll get by with a long sleeve base layer on top, bibs and wool socks. If it's too cold I'll throw on my old school Pearl Izumi long sleeve pullover and slip on some tights. If I'm still cold, then I need to ride faster.

I'd like to invest, a small amount, in a good heater that I can leave on a timer without having to worry about it burning down the house. Maybe an electric convection heater? Any ideas?

As The Wheel Turns

It's 18 degrees out this morning and with the windchill it feels like 2 degrees. It felt almost that cold in the garage this morning. Indoor training really isn't that bad though, once you get used to it. For me the real trick is just getting my body used to getting up so early. I dread several consecutive days off just because of that. More than about three days off in a row and my body starts to reset itself and slowly gets used to getting more sleep. That much time off usually only comes in the "off season" or if I get sick, so it's not often. The crazy thing is, I'm so used to about 6 hours of sleep that when I do get more sleep I feel like I over slept and am pretty cranky. You would think it would be the opposite.

I've successfully completed my "off season" and have transitioned into my base cycle. I'm looking forward to my training this season. It seems like each season is kind of like a science experiment, seeing how little sleep I can get away with and my body still recover enough to be ready for the next day. This year won't be any different except we're going to introduce some cross training throughout the entire season to try and reduce my trainer time, even just slightly, and still get the intensity and duration needed. Most of my training will still be done in the early morning but now maybe I'll be able to do some of it outside of the garage.

Of course as the season progresses we'll make some tweaks and changes as needed but that's the plan for now.
I enjoy the changes and new challenges.

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Dreams for a Dollar

You know who they are, that person that buys a lottery ticket every Wednesday and Saturday. That person that then fantasizes about what they will do with all the money they win. You politely listen to them go on about how everything will be so much better once they take the lump sum payout and the whole time you're thinking to yourself, "do you know you could of bought yourself lunch with that five dollars you wasted on a piece of paper the size of a post it note?"

Yesterday, for the first time since we've had the Oklahoma Lottery, I stopped and bought a ticket. I spent a whopping three dollars on it knowing I had little chance of winning. My odds of actually winning the grand prize were 1 in 195,249,054, so the odds were definitely stacked against me and like I figured, I didn't win. I threw three days worth of my morning 7-11 coffee into the OK Lottery.

I wasn't disappointed with my purchase though. In the short time I had my ticket, after work until I went to bed, I was excited and couldn't help but to dream of what I could do with all the money I'm going to win. It was exciting, it was uplifting and most of all just the thought of the possibilities put a smile on my face. The thought of paying off our car and credit card, vacations, less work and more play. Taking that trip to France like Amie always talks about. Taking my girls to Disney World once a month instead of once every three years. Riding my bike for 6 hours a day. Helping out some friends and family. College funds for my girls. I mean the list goes on and on. There were so many things I would want to do if I had the opportunity.

Maybe, the reason people buy a lottery ticket isn't because they think they will win but just for the chance to dream. To smile on their trip home from a hard days work and imagine the possibilities.

I have to admit, to me, it was three dollars well spent. Don't worry, I won't be investing a whole pay check into this any time soon.

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The Heat Is On

This morning it was back on the trainer. After my nice little siesta it was time to get motivated and get to spinning. It was nice and cold this morning and since it was below freezing outside I had both my heaters on...for a little bit anyway. Trainer time kind of sucks right now because my resistance unit is jacked up. I've already contacted my POC at Kinetic and they are sending me another one. That will make my third resistance unit. It's like half way siezed up and the wheel doesn't freely spin. It still works but is like ten times the normal resistance. So, this mornings ride, with an average cadence of 101 my average speed was 15.2 mph and my average wattage was 211. That sucks. I can't wait until my new one gets here. This mornings workout was more like a strength workout than anything. The people at Kinetic are great. Never any fuss or questions. I send them some photos of what's going on and a description and they get right back with me and within a day or so a replacement unit is on it's way.

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Give Thanks

In ten minutes it will be 8 o'clock which means that Diego is almost over, it's about time to brush Addi's teeth and say her prayers and my long Thanksgiving weekend has almost come to an end. It's been a great weekend. I finally got some quality time with all three of my girls, something that's been lacking over the last few weeks. We also got to spend some time with each of our families. I'm already looking forward to Christmas weekend so we can do it all again.

Somehow on Friday I manages to start feeling like I was coming down with a cold. It amazes me, I've worked 80+ hour weeks the last three weeks, taken time off my bike just so I could be rested enough to work and not fall asleep as soon as I get home and manage to stay healthy. But as soon as a long weekend hits I get sick and in four days only manage to get two hours in on the road. Now I'm sick and when I really need to rest I can't because I've already taken too much time off. So, tomorrow it's back on the trainer bright and early.

Tomorrow I also start back tracking every calorie of every piece of food I even think about eating. I stopped doing that when I took my little break off the bike. I know, that was the wrong time to stop watching what I was eating and I should of been watching it more closely. It's kind of a package deal to me though I guess. It's been kind of a rough month or so for me and I guess I just didn't want to bother with it.

Tomorrow morning I hit the trainer, track calories, get a little closer to closing this job out and the whole time I'll be missing my girls. It's always hard for me to go back to work after a long weekend or vacation because I get attached to my girls and look forward to seeing them each morning. Back to the 5:30-8:30 daddy, I guess. That's another topic though.

Time to say our prayers.

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Have A Little Heart

It seems like I get in these phases where I have time to blog and I make several entries and then things get busy again. I look forward to blogging and hope things start to get a little more balanced in the near future.

If my life were like a bike race, we'd be hitting about the 500 meter mark. Meaning, everyone is starting to fight for position, you're rubbing shoulders with the guys around you hoping everyone can hold a line and you don't lock handlebars and the rubber stays on the road. It's a very hectic and exciting time, it's a time when you make friends and you lose them just as fast.

One of my current projects, the OK Heart Hospital-South Campus is five days away from final punch. We have been working 60 hour weeks and last week I had over 80. For the most part this has been a great experience for me. I've learned a lot of lessons, some good and some bad. I feel like this job, at this point, consumes my life. There isn't a moment of the day that I'm not in some way thinking about this project. Whether be who to put where, how to layout the days schedule, what materials to order, who isn't carrying their load, the list goes on and on. From the time I wake up, to the time I go to bed. It's all part of the job, I guess, and will be wrapping up shortly and once completed it will all be worth it.

I'm already looking forward to my next project and the opportunity to use what I've learned here there. But I'm also looking forward to a little less stress, spending some time with my girls and not saying, "sweetie daddy's too tired for a piggy back ride", and riding my bike.

Lunch is over now, so back to work I go.

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Changes

It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes - TuPac

You might have noticed a few changes on my blog, most notably for now would be the sponsors listed on the right hand side of the page. It's that time of the year again, time to start recruiting sponsorships for next season. We have got some great new sponsors on board for next season and few devoted current sponsors that have decided to stick around. I'm excited to get to represent both new and old sponsors next season. I plan on keeping everyone up to date on what each of our sponsors offer and also if they might be offering any type of specials throughout the year. It's the least I can do for the support they bring to the team. So, please check out my sponsor list and if you see anything of interest to you there, give them or me a shout. I'd be happy to put a call in for you to any of them. Look for additional sponsors within the next few weeks.

Within the next few days you'll also notice some other huge changes. I've got a new team name to unveil along with all kinds of other juicy stuff.

Time Life

A few days back this quote popped up on my facebook, "growing old is natural, growing up is optional." This quote totally tied into what had been on my mind the last few weeks and I knew it was something that I wouldn't soon forget.

Everyone knows that they grow older each day, each month and each year. You realize that from the first birthday you celebrate to the last. For me personally, I've never really felt like I was getting older. I don't feel thirty one, heck I don't even think I look thirty one and most of the time I don't act thirty one. Time just slowly passed and I got older, despite it happening right before my eyes I never really noticed or paid much attention to it. I like to think that I'm young at heart, look at the world and still see the good in it, and can relate to my baby girls and still to someone three times my age. Age really isn't anything more than a number and life is only what you make of it whether you're 5, 25, or 50.

What really made me realize that I am getting older is watching my girls grow up right before my eyes. It is amazing. Addi is fast approaching four years old and it seems like just yesterday that we brought her home. Em will be 8 months tomorrow and it really was yesterday that we brought her home. They grow and learn so fast. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I was looking at Addi and how big she is and how smart she is when I realized that at the same time she has gotten older, so have I. The physical or mental changes weren't as drastic but I was getting older also. I know it's common sense but for some reason it just never really occurred to me as much as it did that day. Time seems so precious when you look at it from that perspective. In less than a year, Addi will be in Pre-K, then kindergarten and it's going to go by so fast and we have absolutely no control over it.

I do agree 100% with the quote above. When the situation calls for the grown up me, I'll be that person, but the rest of the time I'll be where a kid can be a kid.

1 of 12

Here's a little write up on my boy Ryan Lenhart. On top of being a kick tale racer he is also one of the top bicycle fitters in the country.

Oklahoma Bicycle Fit Specialist Receives International Invitation

Bicycle Alley is a small shop in downtown OKC with big ambition.
By Connie Franklin

Ryan Lenhart of Bicycle Alley has been personally invited to join Specialized in Spain to assist with the fitting of the SAXO BANK Cycling Team to their 2010 Specialized bikes!

“His impressive skill has earned him this recognition.”
-Terry Enos, Owner of Bicycle Alley

In addition to being the store manager and a member of Bicycle Alley Racing, 28-year old Ryan Lenhart of Norman is a certified Body Geometry FIT Technician. He enjoys helping people and after earning his first two certifications he knew he wanted to follow the progression of bike fitting. “Bicycle fitting is my favorite part of working in the cycling industry. I feel I gain a lot from this as far as advancing my career and the sense of general satisfaction you get from meeting and helping individuals. It is truly a neat process that allows me to use cutting edge procedures to help people have the best time they possibly can on a bicycle. Although I enjoy other aspects of my job, doing the BG fits is by far the most fulfilling.”

He earned his third fitting certification and is one of twelve in the world (referred to as “The Dirty Dozen”) to have the industry's highest level certificate. According to Specialized and the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, he is now the authority for bicycle fitting in our region. The science behind fitting is making progress and everyone from professional racers to hobby cyclists are reaping the benefits. Every small adjustment can relieve pain or discomfort for a rider and enable them to ride longer. Ryan has the education and skill to determine those adjustments. The pro’s rely on the perfect fit to get them through strenuous events such as the Tour de France, a 21 day stage race covering 2,200 miles. In December when Ryan goes to Spain he will be using his expert knowledge to assist in fitting the likes of Andy Schleck, who got 2nd place at The Tour de France and Fabian Cancellara who won the Time Trial stage on day 3.
YOU too can ride longer and more comfortably. Call today to make an appointment!

“It’s exciting for a small Oklahoma business to draw this kind of attention and obtain such a unique opportunity. We are lucky that Ryan has the drive and dedication to what he loves. “
-Terry Enos, Owner of Bicycle Alley

You can click the pic to link to the actual article.

Streamers

Like father like daughter. Look at her go. We've been practicing and she's getting really good and having a lot of fun. Check out those streamers, she's really scooting.
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Excellence - by Joe Friel

Here's a little article I thought was pretty interesting by Joe Friel. He's spent years coaching athletes and these are some of his guidelines as to what makes an athlete successful. This doesn't just apply to athletics, it applies to life as well. Try it, you might like it.

Excellence -

Excellence is not for everyone. It’s far too difficult for the great majority of those who participate in sport. In fact, those who seek excellence are often ridiculed because they are different from their peers. And so it isn’t easy to seek excellence either. Humans are social animals; we don’t like being outcasts. It’s much easier to go along with the crowd than to stand out in a crowd. But there are athletes who pull it off, and with great aplomb. Have you ever noticed how young, pro athletes often try to give the impression that nothing about their training or dedication to the sport is unusual? They’ve learned to give the appearance of being “just like everyone else,” even though their performance in competition tells us otherwise. Going out of their way to be laid-back is how they cope with the dilemma and help prevent others from branding them as strange. And that’s a good strategy which I would recommend to anyone who truly seeks excellence: Try not to give the air of someone who is seeking excellence. Appear ordinary in every way you can.

What brought all of this up was a question someone asked me over dinner tonight. We were at a surprise party for an athlete I coach who had just won his age category at his state’s time trial championship. It was clear to my dinner-table neighbor that this state champ had altered his course in the past year and was becoming excellent at cycling. So my new friend wanted to know what I looked for in a person who wanted to hire me as a coach. How would I know if a person could be successful? I started to tell him all of what follows but we were interrupted by party goings-on. Here’s the long list of what I think are the best predictors of excellence in sport, in their order of importance, in case he gets a chance to read this post.

• Motivation. This one is more important than all of the others combined. If the athlete isn’t motivated excellence is highly unlikely. In fact, the other predictors won’t even exist without motivation. This goes well beyond giving lip service to goals. The truly motivated athlete is on a mission and has a hard time keeping himself or herself in check. This person really needs a coach to pull on the reins to prevent overtraining, injury, illness and burnout. If the coach has to use a whip then it’s a losing cause no matter how talented the athlete is. The coach will never give the athlete motivation. It must come from within. When I’m interviewing athletes I ask lots of questions to find out how truly motivated they are. For example, I ask how often they train with other athletes versus alone. The low-motivation athlete will need companionship frequently. If you are motivated then all of the following predictors of excellence will fall into place eventually.

• Discipline. This is very simple. The disciplined athlete will make daily sacrifices and make due with hardships in order to excel. This person doesn’t miss workouts short of a disaster. Weather is an insignificant factor. The disciplined athlete knows that the small stuff is important. He or she doesn’t get sloppy with diet, recovery, equipment or anything else that has to do with goals. Discipline is not easy. Others can accept motivation, but they have a hard time dealing with people who are disciplined. You’ve got to make light of or even hide your discipline is you want to be accepted by your peers. Good luck here.

• Confidence. Some people seem to live life completely with an unwavering belief in themselves and their actions. These folks are indeed rare. I’ve met very few athletes who didn’t have some concerns about how well suited they were for whatever the task at hand may be. There’s a sliding scale of confidence. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. To move closer to the high-confidence end all we typically need is some success. Success breeds confidence. While it’s hard to come by you can create your own. For the athletes I’ve coached whose confidence was decidedly on the low end I’ve suggested a daily confidence-booster. When they go to bed and after the lights are out, I tell them to go back in their memories and find anything in their day’s workout or related activities that was successful at any level. This could be a very small success such as feeling strong going up a certain hill during the workout today, or eating fruit instead of a cookie for a snack. I tell them to then relive that small success over and over until they fall asleep. Occasionally there are big successes. These become “anchors” which they relive often and store away in a vault to be pulled out whenever they feel low confidence coming on, like at the starting line of a race. Thinking of one’s successes breeds success. Success breeds confidence.

• Focus. This could also be called purpose; the athlete knows where he or she wants to go in the sport. Daily training is a purposeful activity that will lead to excellence. Each workout (and accompanying recovery) is a small building block that eventually results in excellence. But you have to take it one step at a time, which brings us to the last predictor, patience.

• Patience. According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Outliers it takes about 10,000 hours for a person to become a master of anything. I had never tried to quantify it in terms of hours, but experience told me that performing at the highest level in sport takes something on the order of 10 years of serious training regardless of when you started in life. So I think Gladwell is probably right. There are certainly exceptions, or at least it appears that way on the surface. But when an athlete comes along who seems to go to the top right away we often find on closer examination that he or she had been developing outside of the recognized success pathways. Patience also has another level that goes beyond this long-term approach to success. This is a more immediate, daily component associated with the ability to pace appropriately early in workouts and races. Athletes who seem unable to learn this skill are less likely to be successful than those who master it.

Notice that I didn’t say anything about innate talent, physiology, skills, or even experience in the sport. All of these things can be developed and learned if the other predictors are there. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t have the capacity to develop each of these mental abilities. As mentioned earlier, the challenge for most of us in seeking excellence is learning how to do it without appearing to be doing so. Watch how most of the pros do it and try to emulate their apparently laissez-faire attitude. Good examples are Chrissie Wellington in triathlon and David Zabriskie in road cycling. In their own unique ways they give the impression of being unconcerned about excellence. But no one achieves their levels of accomplishment without being highly motivated, disciplined, focused and patient.

Defeat

Right now I'm driving home from the Cotton Patch Classic Omnium in Greenville, TX and unfortunately I have a lot to think about. Maybe think isn't the right word maybe it's more like dwell on.

This weekend didn't go anything close to how I hoped it would go. In fact it went almost the exact opposite. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

In Saturday mornings road race despite racing a killer race for 66.8 miles i got screwed in the finish by a very poorly laid out finish. Kudos to the promoters for putting on such a great weekend of racing, unfortunately all that is going to be talked about is how bad that finish was laid out. As we made the last right hand turn I was on my teammate, Mark's, wheel and ready for a leadout. Then all of a sudden the pack starts scrambling and scattering about. The promoters decided to bottle kneck our finish. The finish that was to be full open road was now bottle knecked to to just one lane. Might not sound like a big deal but when you take 50 guys going 40 miles an hour and then all of a sudden close off the road it's got a pretty big impact on the outcome. What was even worse is how they decided to bottle kneck the road, by lining up police cars on the left side of the road and that's right where Mark and I were. He was able to jump across to the right
side but I had to break quite a bit to avoid being taken out by the cop car and by the time I could try to move to the right I was totally boxed in and rubbing wheels and pumping shoulders with riders all around me. It was mass confusion and I should actually just feel lucky I was able to keep the rubber side down but I don't and I feel like I got screwed and had almost no control of my result. If you tell everyone you will have the full road at the finish, then make sure we have the full road. But wait it gets better, there were no meter markings so we never actually knew where the finish was. That's awesome. I didn't drive 191 miles and race 66.8 miles to get screwed at the finish and not even really have a chance at the win because of poor planning by the promoter. On a positive note Mark's move to the right paid off and he got the win. Then he got clipped and went crashing to the ground, spent the afternoon at the hospital and won't be back on the
bike for at least a week. I am proud of Mark and I. We raced that race to win and did a great job of working together. We never let anyone get too far up the road and took it in our own hands to bring back a majority of the breaks. We were active up front, raced a good clean race and for there only being two of us from the team there in this race I'm not sure we could of done anything any better. It was also nice to race with Erin Elliot, who came to the front and helped us reel everyone in. Hopefully we'll get to race together more next season.

Had I really thought about it before hand I probably could of predicted my time trial time. That's not necessarily a good thing though. I'm stuck in this rut of averaging between 25 to 25.5 mph on my tt's. It doesn't matter the distance, 40k or ten miles, most likely it's going to be within that range. At least I'm consistent I guess. This is one area of my cycling that I would really work on and improve by next season.

Sunday mornings crit, well it sucked for me also. My legs felt a little fatigued but opened up after about 30 minutes. Not win the race good but I'm pretty confident I could of snagged a top ten and at least got a little redemption from Saturdays races. That wasn't in the cards for me I guess. Going into the third left hand turn on the bell lap I hit a small hole with some busted chunks of asphalt in it and blew my rear tubular tire. I was able to stay up and avoided washing out as I went on through the turn but it was so late in the race I wasn't able to go the wheel pit and get my free lap. Perfect way to end the weekend and my season.

Thanks Phillip, Mark and Andy for making the trip. It was great getting to hang out with you guys.

Now I'm just trying to hurry and get home to see my girls. What I've been waiting for all weekend and the only way to end my weekend on a good note.

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Right now I'm headed to Greenville, TX to wrap my season up at the Cotton Patch Omnium. My weekend will start with a 65 mile road race at 8:30 tomorrow morning then on to a 9 mile time trial tomorrow afternoon. After the tt we'll grab some grub and try to rest a little bit to get ready for our one hour criterium race Sunday morning. Keeping my fingers crossed for a win this weekend.

Hotter n' Hell

Okay, I've had this saved in my Blackberry for a while now thinking I would have time to finish it. It's not looking that way, because now I have other things to write about but here's my abbreviated race report from Hotter n' Hell.

A race is like life, you have to be able to adjust for whatever might be thrown your way. Sure, everyone has a plan for their life or even for the day, but most likely things will not go exactly as planned and if you aren't able to modify your plan accordingly you probably won't get the end result you had hoped for. The same goes for racing bikes, you have to race the race, not the plan. That is the lesson we took home from HHH.

I finished the race 8th of 65 or so riders. That result wasn't the plan. We did go into this race with a great team plan and it probably would of worked last year, or the year before or any year that it's actually hot. This year, it was nice and cool and the heat wasn't a factor. The problem with our plan was that we stuck to it for too long and had we been racing the race the end result would of been different. Would it of been better, we'll never know, but the race would of definitely been more suited to our liking. Chalk it up as another lesson learned. One more down and many more to go. This was my best result at HHH so far, and each year they get better, so next year is looking promising.

It's Getting Closer to November 20th!

Here's the new New Moon trailer. Check it out. Tickets go on sale Monday, get 'em while they're hot!

Fresh Escape

Addi with her blue cotton candy moustache. We all went down to Maggie Moos's and had a little treat once I returned from HH100. The ice cream really taste like cotton candy. My favorite is the Cherry Vanilla Vacation, vanilla ice cream, brownies, cherries and caramel. I'm a Freddy's fan but they'd be in trouble if there was a MM's closer to my house.

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My Girls

Em's .5 birthday is fast approaching and Amie thought she'd take a few pics of the girls on Sunday.

My Silly

Addi's Em

As you can see, Addi is quite the proud big sister.

Better

Monday morning, again. I wish more days started with an S. I had a great weekend. Got a short little road trip in with Zachary, a race (full report to come), and then some quality time with my girls.

I often look at my life and am amazed at how blessed I am. Do you know what it's like to get to come home to three beautiful, blond hair, blue eyed girls? I DO! You know how good that first bite of Rodney's Pizza is, or that first sweet taste of Freddy's Custard is, well going home to my girls is way better than either of those things.
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Hotter n' Hell

This weekend is the Hotter n' Hell extravaganza in Wichita Falls, TX. My homey & teammate, Zach, and I will be rolling down Subaru style right after work. I'm looking forward to it. This is always a big race. It has lots of street cred and also a big turnout. This will be my third year to race it. Every year I have big plans of winning, so I can get that jersey, but I've failed the last two years. Both years have been a learning experience. What I learned the first year was, I wasn't as strong as I thought I was and that I have a lot to learn about racing. What I learned my second year was that I race stupid. I've spent a lot of time working on both of those areas so we'll see if it helps out any this year.

Last year Zach and I were racing for CRRC. He and I had really just joined forces a little earlier in the season and it was a great time to get some race miles in together as well as get to know each other a little better. This year, we're representing Bicycle Alley Racing. We started this team at the beginning of this season and began as a three man team, we are now eight deep and have some great new teammates. Jerry Willis, one of our recent additions, will be joining us in the CAT 3 race. Jerry is a great guy and I'm looking forward to chatting it up for 100 miles. We'll also be represented in the CAT 4 race by Andrew Chasteen, and in the Masters 40+ race by Phillip Wilson and Mark Trimble. It's going to be a great weekend of racing for B.A.R. It's going to be a little different in Hell this year as a cold front is moving through and it's supposed to be in the low to mid 80's.

As much as I'm looking forward to racing, I think I'm going to miss my girls even more. I won't be gone long but I wish I could take them with me. I'm not sure if they are my biggest fans or if I'm theirs. Either way I'll be thinking of them and can't wait to see them when I get home. That's just even more incentive to do well, if I'm going to be away from them, I mine as well win...right. Hopefully, I'll be home with jersey in hand.

The a.m.

I know that everyone is sitting at home wondering what my mornings are like. They are actually pretty eventful.

This morning I was able to sleep until 3:45 then it was time to rise and shine and to do it as quietly as possible. I slip into the bathroom and throw on last seasons bibs and a shredded base layer top and then tip toe out to the garage.

Today my workout was just a high cadence endurance ride. It's nothing special, it's done at high cadence to get your heart rate up but not overload the legs. I just went with shuffle on my iPod today and ended up skipping songs more than listening to them. So much junk on there. To make the time pass a little faster I through on the 2003 tour de france. It was the stage were Lance's bars get caught on the strap of a fans bag and he goes crashing to the pavement. No biggie for Lance, he still put 40 seconds on Ullrich.

Once my workout is complete I sneak back into the house and get ready for work and then out the door I go. If I do all that correctly the only sounds I hear in the house is the soft breathing of my girls.

Then it's off to my first stop of the day, the new Oklahoma Heart Hospital.

Good morning!
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Morning training ride this morning. Should be good, rolling with the Willis brothers and Trimble. Hopefully this gets me out of my two day slump. Dang, someone won the lottery recently i guess, it's back to 20 million. I knew i should of bought a ticket.

My Boo's

If you haven't met my girls you're pretty much missing out on a life changing experience. I'm pretty sure they are the most beautiful two little girls in all the land, not to mention smart (in more ways than just brain smart) and full of laughs and smiles. They are just what the Dr. ordered after a long day at work. What could be better than walking in the door only to be greeted by a big hug and kiss and hear "I missed you daddy."

There's been a lot going on at the Hodges house lately. We recently switched Addi's Mother's Day Out program to one she is excited to go to and we're happy to have her in. This one is highly recommended by a friend of mine and it actually has a set curriculum and two teachers for her class. I was pretty disappointed with our other one. It didn't seem like Addi was learning anything other than bad habits and she was never thrilled to go. We're now going to the 1st Learning Center at First Baptist Church. I'm really happy to have her in a church based program also.

Her 1st day at 1LC.

While Addi is off to school, Em has learned to sit up. She is almost a master at it. She's so funny. She smiles more than anyone I have ever seen, unless you try feeding her pea's and then you better watch out. She's not a fan of the pea. She is getting big so fast. We've found her tickle spot and if you're brave enough to risk getting your hair pulled you can raise her arm and blow right under her arm. It's pretty funny and you get a laugh out of her.

That's Addi's Em

I LOVE MY GIRLS!

I'm a cyclist and obsessive about my weight. So why is it that when i'm upset or depressed i just want to eat? Why can't they have a zero calorie zero fat good ice cream?

Twilight - The Moment

Yesterday, I set out bright and early for a few hours on the road. It was a perfect morning for a ride. The temperature was cool, nothing more than a slight breeze at times and the sun stayed hidden behind the clouds for most of the ride out. The roads were clear with the first car crossing my path at 6:52...almost an hour of total piece and quiet. I was headed north hoping to cross paths with Jerry & Tommy up around the Sod Loop.


As I wrapped around Draper and hit 89th Street I saw something in the middle of the road. I couldn't quite make out what it was at first. It looked like a dog but even from a distance it seemed too big to be a dog. It walked from one side of the road to the other and then back and then it just stopped a few feet away from the shoulder. As I got closer I realized that it was a dog or wolf or something but it was big. It looked like a Siberian Husky but it's coat was more like a rusted brown color with white on it's underside. I would say it's back was somewhere around the 3' mark. At about 200 meters out it stopped and totally focused all if it's attention on me and it had quite a bit of my attention also. I was gearing up for the sprint of my life expecting him to put up a pretty good chase. Then at about 100 meters out it was kind of like our eyes caught each other and they kind of stayed that way until I rode past. It's coat was damp from the wet grass from the rain the night before. It wasn't matted or dirty but kind of standing on end. It didn't move towards me as I passed only watched motionless. I never had to sprint and didn't even get that typical adrenaline rush when you pass by a chasing dog. That's when it came to me, this wasn't a dog or a wolf, it was Jacob Black. That's right, Jacob Black. You might know Jacob from the second installment of the "Twilight" book series, "New Moon." I won't go into much more detail than that because I don't want to spoil the movie for all you Twilight fans. New Moon is set to open on November 20th. Here's a trailer though if you wanna check it out.

It's raining this morning and would be perfect sleeping weather but i'm not sleeping. I'm watching it fall outside the garage door while spinning away with some tour of cali on the tv. Every morning i realize how bad i need a new playlist but i just haven't found anything new that's great.

Testing 1, 2, 3. I just got this hooked up to blog by texting so lets see if it works.

Thus Far

You might ask, "Hey Chad, how's your season going?" To that question, most likely I would reply, "It's going okay." What I really mean is for the most part it's been pretty disappointing. Maybe, disappointing really is too strong of a word, but it has been less than what I had hoped for.

On an individual basis, I haven't accomplished anything I hoped I would. I've crashed out twice. Once helmet shattering and the other in the State Criterium Championships. I've had two top ten finishes in mass start races all season long. Not exactly what I was hoping for.

I would say the only goal that I've accomplished so far this season was coming in under an hour on the State Time Trial Championships. It's a 40K TT and I was able to finally break the hour. I got 2nd place in the state for the CAT 3's, which earned me a silver medal. It's been a never ending process this season of dialing in my TT bike and improving my TT skills is something I'd really like to work on. It's a little more difficult for me to work on my TT'ing because it's hard for me to sit on my TT bike in the morning on the trainer for longer than about an hour. It's not the most comfortable thing to sit on and at 3 or 4 in the morning it is really not the most fun. But whatever it takes I guess.

I've got a few more races I'd like to hit this season so we'll see how those go and then we'll start looking toward next season.

I would like to congratulate, Ryan Lenhart, one of my teammates on a spectacular State Criterium Championship race. Ryan was able to bring home the CAT 3 State Jersey. He easily won the sprint across the line and brought Bicycle Alley home it's first "W" of the season. Great job Ryan!

I'm in a pretty relaxed training cycle right now and it's been really nice to just get to ride my bike to ride it. It's nice to not have a workout planned for every ride. I've even started enjoying getting up in the mornings again. I even get to decide how long I ride each day, that's pretty nice because at least I don't feel like I cheated myself by cutting a workout short. My time and mileage is actually up right now and it's only that way because I want it to be. This has also given my knee a little time to heal up. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with it, just that I have had a little discomfort in it for the last few weeks or so. It's either from the maybe twisting it in the State Crit crash or from running with buckets of paint while doing one of our floors.

Here's a few pics to kind of add a little color to this post.

Em on her first plane ride. What a beautiful smile.

Lilly candid at Disney World. My Princess.

A couple of pics from Tulsa Tough. Da' team, Bicycle Alley Racing. Me, lost in a crowd. Thanks Taos for the great pics!

Is it State Fair Time?

Okay, so Disney World was a blast but I found that Disney World has a lot in common with Frontier City, Six Flags and our own great State Fair. You can get a killer funnel cake, turkey legs, it has rides just like the others but most importantly, the people have a lot in common. It's just a fact that no matter where you go, even going as far as "the Place Where Dreams Come True" you're going to find someone who is missing a few teeth, lacks good hygiene and has saggy boobs.

Like a lollipop!

Hammer Time

Monday night I took Addi to her very first dance class. Not to brag, but the girl has skillz, skillz that make millz. She did great. Once again she stole the show. I was shocked afterwards though, she chose a ring pop over some Freddy's Custard. Give here a few years and she'll be making her debut on "So, You Think You Can Dance."

Princesses

Okay, so obviously our trip to Disney World was centered around seeking out each and every Disney Princess. We not only got Addi's picture with each Princess but we also are now the proud owner of every Princess toy. I've undressed more princess in the last month of my life than I could of ever thought about when I was single. *Just kidding Amie & Mom...Amie is the only one, and only after we were married.

Anyway, one of the highlights of our trip for me was getting to hang our with Jasmine and Aladdin. We were on our way to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean ride but that part of the park wasn't going to open for like another thirty minutes when we spotted Jasmine and Aladdin taking pics with some other kids. We rushed Addi over there and Addi being the true princess that she is immediatly hit it off with Jasmine, or as well as a three year old can hit it off with anyone. She took some pics and talked and then we headed to our ride. After riding the POTC ride, Addi wanted to ride the Aladdins magic carpet ride, so we waited our turn and then ran to pick out the best magic carpet we could. Right after we got on, Jasmine and Aladdin spotted us and waived. Addi and I waived back and then they got up from taking pics with a line full of other kids, walked over to the ride, came through a special entrance, came up to our carpet and asked Addi if they could ride with her. Her face lit up like it was Christmas. Of course, she said yes and they got in our carpet and we flew around laughing and chatting it up. They loved watching Addi fly the carpet. As soon as the ride was over, they got out and took Addi by the hand and asked her if she would like to take some more pictures. We went back down to where they were taking pictures and they spent a few more minutes with Addi just playing and taking pics. When they finished, they gave her a big hug and they were off. That was it, they didn't take any more pictures with any other kid in line. They left all those kids to spend some time with my daughter and that made a really special memory for me.

That's why Jasmine is now my favorite princess.

I promise my next post will not be about Disney, I'll throw a racing post in there so I don't lose my huge racer following.

The Place Where Dreams Come True

Okay, I know I've slacked a little, a lot actually, on the good ole' blog. Things have been pretty crazy lately. I've been slammed at work, vacation, packing, moving, selling a house, unpacking, trying to race, training. Seeing it all written down makes it seem like even more. I'm going to try to get everyone caught up on all the things I've wanted to write about and all the new things that are going on...not all in this one post though.


Last week my whole family took a wonderful vacation to Disney World. Amie, Addi and I met my folks at the airport bright and early Sunday morning and headed south to our first stop in Houston, TX. We grabbed a bite to eat at Chili's while we waited on our next flight that would take us to Orlando, FL, more importantly Disney World. Addi was a trooper on the plane. I was pretty darn impressed with her. She made flying easy. Once our plane was safely on the ground we hustled to the bus that would take us to our resort and once we arrived at the resort we bustled straight to Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom is amazing! It really is like Never Never Land. They have everything you could possibly imagine and what made it even more amazing was getting to experience all of this with Addi. To Addi, this really was the place where dreams come true. All of her friends, Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Arial, Snow White, and Jasmine were all there and to her, they weren't characters, they were the real deal. To see her face light up when she saw one of them was almost enough to bring a tear or two to your eyes. That was priceless and something I'll remember forever.

Coming up after the break, more vacation stories and a whole lot more.

When you wish upon a star....

Sunday afternoon we'll be basking in the nice warm Florida sun, soaking up some rays and probably hunting that Lemon Chill guy down for something cool and refreshing. Wait a minute, exactly how many calories is in one of those Lemon Chills? Nice try Mr. Lemon Chill guy tempting me with sweet and sour delicious, especially when hot outside, treat. I will not be swayed.

That's right, we're off to Dizz knee World! I'm pretty excited. Not for myself but for Addi. She is so excited, I can't wait to see her face light up when she sees the Castle or a Princess for the first time.

It's gonna be great!

I went ahead and put some mouse ears on Addi and I even made them match her outfit. Check back this week and I'll try to keep some pictures and updates of our trip posted.

Pain in the Head

Most of you know that about a week and a half ago I took a very short tutorial on flying. It wasn't nearly as graceful as say superman did it, it was more like dropping a water balloon off a second floor balcony and watching it bust. It hurt, a lot.

We were decending Fire Hill and at the very bottom as you take that last right hand turn a fellow riders front tire blew out. That rider then accidentally hit the rear wheel of the rider in front of him. Due to gravity, those two riders fell to the ground and began sliding across the road. I was right behind the guy whose tire blew out and other cyclist were passing me on the right. So, going to the right wasn't an option. I didn't want to go straight into the "sliding" cyclist because I didn't want to hurt our bikes or run over anyone and getting bikes tangled up is never good. So, I decided to go to the left, to the left was a curb. The curb wasn't straight up and was more like at a 45 degree angle. For a split second I actually thought I would just hop this little curb and come to a stop. That didn't happen. At approximately 25 miles an hour that short little 45 degree curb launched me into the air. I remember seeing the sky and how blue it was and then I remember seeing the ground.

I hit, forehead first. I don't really remember flipping or rolling or bouncing or whatever else I did. I do know that from my first impact to where I got up was about 20 feet and from my first impact to the curb is a good 5 feet or so. So in all I traveled about 25 feet from the curb. Like I said, I'm not sure exactly how I got there. When I opened my eyes, at first all I saw was big black spots and flashes of lights. As I lie there motionless on the ground all I can think of is something is definately going to be wrong. Something has to be broken. I slowly started moving my fingers, then my toes, then my arms, my legs, then my head. Everything was moving. I felt around my collar bone to see if that felt intact. I had a pounding headache but the thought that I just smashed my head against the ground didn't really occur to me. I was more concerned with the blood running down my leg and arm. After cleaning those places up it turns out they were just small scrapes and should of been the least of my worries.

To be honest I was more concerned with just getting back on my back and hoping that my Carbon 50mm front wheel wasn't shattered to pieces. I picked up my helmet, it had flew off at some point in the wreck, and tried to put it back on. I wouldn't fit. I didn't really look it over I just loosened it up and strapped it back on. Just as I started to get back on my bike, it was pointed out to me that I had some sort of head injury and I should get it checked out. I checked it out in the trucks side mirror and sure enough, I had some some cuts and scrapes on my head. I gave my helmet a quick glance and noticed that it was a little jacked up but I really didn't give it a thorough inspection. The next morning I looked it over and realized how lucky I was. Here's a few pics of what it looks like now.

Everywhere you see a red arrow, helmet is busted, cracked or missing a piece.

Just a closer shot of the front left side. Totally busted out. It's like that on both sides.

Another shot of front. I hit forehead first.

A friend of mine, Tyler Black, he works at Bicycle Alley and is a great guy. Was the first one to the crash scene and was the first to check on me. I never got the opportunity to thank him for helping me out, so Tyler, "Thank you very much."

Tulsa Tough

Was I Tulsa Tough? Well, if you look at the results then you would probably say "No" I wasn't Tulsa Tough. I had some okay results finishing in 21st place Friday, 21st place Saturday and 11th place on Sunday. Two days just out of the money. It's kind of funny I think, I finished two days one spot out of the top 20 and when I did break the top 20, I missed the top ten by one place. I'm not sure how many guys stayed for the whole weekend but I do know that there were over 100 guys at the line Friday night. That is easily the largest field I've ever been in and I'm actually not disappointed with my result.


I was in a great spot going into the second to last left hand turn of the race but took the turn too wide and watched as several people took the inside line and taking my placement with them. Good decision on their part, bad on mine. Friday night was filled with wrecks. I don't how many there were total but I know I was effected by four of them. My teammate Ryan was taken down in one of them but managed to get back up and take an impressive 44th place. Not bad for a guy who got taken down and ran over. Zach got stuck behind a wreck and was able to pull out a 37th place finish. Everyone was sketchy Friday night, it's a huge payout, huge field, helicopters, jumbo-trons and tons of fans. It's like the real deal and it's all in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Saturday, it was looking good, I was about 7 back on the last lap and then was almost taken out on the climb at the back side of the course. I'm not sure what happened but the guy just fell over on me as I was passing by him. I was able to somewhat support his weight by steering into him and then turned away real quick as he continued to fall to the pavement. Maybe his right foot unclipped or something. I don't know but that one cost me a lot of places and I had to nail it just to catch back on and then squeeze everything I had into a 21st place finish.

Sunday's race was a hammer fest. The field was shredded fairly early on. This course has a very challenging hill, Cry Baby Hill, and it seemed like the pace never let up. I'm not sure how many laps we did but I know it hurt, a lot, early on. It seemed like the first 10 laps felt brutal. All I could think of was how bad I wanted to quit. Then we came by the line and I saw 15 laps left and it was at about that time that I felt like my legs really started to open up. Things started getting easier and the thoughts of quiting went away. I love the feeling after I break through that wall. I was able to pull out an 11th place finish this time. I was pumped. Finally, I broke the top 20. I was feeling good on the last lap and maybe should of went for more. I could of tried to drill it on the backside through the rollers or dive bomb it through that last right hand turn. I'm not sure why I didn't but I am happy with my 11th place finish. Had I done that I might of cost myself a top 20, but then again, you have to be willing to give up everything in order to have your chance at winning everything.

Amie got to meet Floyd Landis and I even talked her into getting me his autograph which will proudly be displayed in the soon to be Bike Dungeon.

What made this trip so great was having Amie there with me and all the time we got to spend together racing, shopping and hanging with my racing buddies. I took a different approach to racing over the Tulsa Tough weekend, HAVE FUN. I drank a few beers, ate what I wanted and did things totally opposite of how I have handled just about every other pre-race routine and I had a great time doing it. It was nice to get to introduce Amie to all my friends and the people I line up with a few weekends a month. Mark took me on a tour of Soundpony and that really is a pretty happening place. We were there at like 8 p.m., I can't imagine what it'd be like a little later. Thanks to everyone who helped make my weekend great and to my beautiful wife for going with me.

Now, I have to post this thing because I've been writing a little here and there for like the last two weeks and it's getting old.

Blessed

This post has been a long time coming and I keep putting it off but it's been on my mind a lot lately and I feel like I need to scratch it down.


Those of you who know me know where I stand when it comes to religion and know my background so this isn't just some Bible thumping post. I have my beliefs but I'm not the person to try to force them on someone else. I grew up Southern Baptist but have since became a little more liberal in my beliefs and life in general than what they try to feed you. So, no, I'm not preaching or standing on a soap box.


I wanted to talk about a few things. Maybe it's all coincidence or maybe it's something a little greater. Amie and I have been married for almost 7 years now. Over the course of that 7 years I wouldn't say we have had the best luck when it comes to finances or really anything. It always seemed like when it would rain, it would pour. I started to just expect things to come in threes. If I got a ticket in the morning on the way to work, I was going to get one when I left for lunch and then one on the way home. Not saying that we had the worst luck, it just seemed like things never really got in a groove.


Back in September, I think, we started going to Journey Church with our friends Christopher & Melissa. It's really a great church. I love the music and Clark always has a great message and to make things even better, apparently his wife is perfect. I always ask Amie, WWCWD...What Would Clark's Wife Do? Anyway, when we first started going nothing much really changed in our life, or I guess I should say my life because I'm not sure if Amie feels the same. Amie was pregnant with Emily and it wasn't the smoothest pregnancy so we had plenty of distractions from what God/or coincidence was doing in our life. After a couple of months of attending Journey I was driving to work one morning and going over our budget in my head. While I had all these visions of dollars signs dancing in my head I got this real heavy feeling in my heart and my thoughts went right to tithing. Amie and I didn't tithe, I had no intentions of tithing and honestly we couldn't fit it in our budget. I mean, I guess we could but we'd have to give up something. I tried to just put that out of my mind and go on with my business. But the thought stayed with me, for the next several weeks I kept going over our budget trying to figure out how I could tithe without taking anything away from my family. I didn't want me giving a tithe to effect my family at all. The only way I could figure out to do this was to give a little bit of my weekly allowance. That by NO means was anywhere close to the 10% you are "supposed" to give but it was 33% of my weekly allowance so it couldn't of went a long way for me. I felt like it was the right thing to do and I did it happily. That was an awesome feeling to me, I'm not one to enjoy just giving money away, but I was able to tithe and be happy about it.


I continued to tithe every week we went to church and only what I could give from my allowance. It was kind of weird after doing that for a couple of months my concerns about money and our budget slowly faded away. Don't get me wrong, I was always money conscious but I wasn't overly concerned like before with everything.

As Christmas got closer my job seemed to get worse, I had a jerk for a boss and I was debating quiting my job and finding anything just to get by. Amie was pregnant and we wanted her to be able to stay home with the girls once Em got here but with my current salary at the time that wouldn't be possible. The day before our two week Christmas break (when I had planned to go job hunting) the owner of the company asked me if it would be okay if she called me over the break to talk about a few things and of course I said sure. She called and we talked and right after break we had a little meeting and I also got a promotion and an increased salary and some other perks like vacation and sick days that I didn't have before. This increase in salary meant that we would now be able to let Amie stay home with the girls and not have to really stress about keeping the lights on.


On March 4th Emily was born and despite all the drama we had during the pregnancy she was perfect. I knew she would be all along but maybe we had a little help in getting us to this point.

About six weeks ago we decided we were going to put our house up for sale and try to find something bigger. I didn't want to use a realtor to sale because of the cost and we were a little concerned as to if we would even get anyone to look at it without really marketing our house. Within a month of having a For Sale sign in the yard we had signed a contract on it and were able to to work everything out to everyones best interests. Then the house hunting began for us. Within two weeks of looking we've found what to us seems like the perfect house. We go in Thursday evening to sign the contract on it and then I guess just cross our fingers that everything works out from here on out.

Like I said, I'm not preaching or bragging but I wanted to let everyone know that maybe, just maybe, by following your heart it can lead to good things. Maybe I had a little Heavenly help or maybe all the cards just fell right for me on this hand, I don't really know but I am thankful either way.

Now, God if you are reading this, I would really like to win at least one race this season (maybe it could come at Tulsa Tough so I could be on the jumbotron's) and a five door Mazda 3. If I can only choose one, then give me a win, any race really, I'm not too picky.

Brag

I just wanted to take a second and show off my girls one more time. I've been slammed at work and haven't had much time to blog and I apologize to all my loyal readers...I'm pretty sure I can count them all on one hand but I appreciate them wasting some time here.

This picture brought a tear to my eye. My little girl is growing up. She looks like a big girl here.

Em with her big beautiful blue eyes.

Big Sister, Little Sister. Addi is so proud.

Two of the three reasons I love going home.

Andy, here in a couple of months it will be family portrait time. I need your A game, make sure you get a full nights sleep because you haven't met an Addi yet!

A.C. - Andrew Chasteen not Slater

I just want to take a second and point out the Cycling Picture of the YEAR!

This photograph is killer. The perspective and composition are perfect. The blues are beautiful. I've looked at this pic over and over again since the first time I saw it. The main subject is my teammate Ryan and I'm guessing, if Ryan is anything like me, this picture is going to be blown up as big as he can get it and hung proudly somewhere at his house.

Andrew amazes me everytime I see his new stuff. His photos were already great but it seems like he is constantly developing as a photographer and things just keep getting better.

I was just telling Amie last night about my buddy Andy and how if there was anyone I was ever jealous of it would be him. The guy is an amazing photographer, a cyclist, a marathon runner, an ultra marathon runner, a rock climber, a successful business man and who knows what else he is good at but damn it he has a hot tub on his roof and I don't. Andy is a guy who is experiencing life and it's awesome to experience a little bit of his life through his blog and website. If you don't know Andy, get to know him. Check out his blog or if you're interested in letting him capture a little bit of your life from behind the lense check out his website.

No, I don't have a man crush!

Saturday

This is none of the posts I promised to write about in my last blog entry. I promise those are still to come.

The past few days have been great and I wanted to write a little about them before I forgot.

Let's start out with Saturday morning. This past weekend was a big weekend of racing, either in Texas or in Kansas. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go but I was able to hook up with one of my teammates, Ryan Lenhart, on his way to work at Bicycle Alley. I had a great ride with Ryan. I've known of Ryan for the last couple of years and this year I have the opportunity to race along side him. Despite us being on the same team I really haven't had a lot of time to get to know Ryan besides talking with him at the shop and what little time we have before our races. So, getting to spend an hour with him on the road and just talk about life was really awesome. I really enjoy riding with my new teammates so any opportunity I have to get to know them a little better is great.

After my ride, my beautiful wife and I actually had the chance to spend some quality time together. Quality time for just the two of us is a hard thing to come by now days. We were able to knock out some spring shopping for Amie and enjoy a nice quiet lunch. It's been a while since we've went to see a movie so we decided to go see the movie "Obsessed." The funny thing is that anytime we are North side and go see a movie Amie always wants to go to Tinseltown. I'm not a huge fan of Tinseltown, because that's the first place I ever got stood up on a date, but Amie likes it. So, we pull into the parking lot and notice that there are a lot of non-caucasians in the parking lot. Just trying to be funny I told Amie that they were all there to see Obsessed because it has Beyonce in it and they all want to support a Sista. Well, that little remark came back to haunt us as soon as we walked into the theater. By the time the movie started, and it was almost sold out, there were like six tanless people there, including us. It definitely made the movie more interesting, especially at about half way through the movie as all kinds of shouting erupted from up front in what sounded like a fight about to start. No one in the theater had a problem hollering back at them and telling them to be quiet, it was like one giant family reunion or something. Right after the movie, apparently those people yelling at each other had some unfinished business and the cops swarmed the theater as a fight broke out. This just might be our last Tinseltown experience.

We then had the privilege of having dinner with Zach (my other teammate) and his wife Kelly. We all met up at the Cheesecake Factory and had a great time. Thanks to the wind and our waitress Zach got some kind of Gin shower but took it way better than I probably would have. It was great to just chill with some friends, have a couple drinks and share some laughs. Some great things have been happening in Zach & Kelly's lives lately. Zach recently landed a great job and they just closed and moved into their new house. It's awesome to see good things happening in their lives. Zach has been a great friend to me and I couldn't be happier for them. I can't wait to check out their new crib, try some of the delicious grub he can cook up and maybe even become a fan of good wine.

Later that evening, we retired at the Hampton Inn and it was a great ending to the perfect day.

That's Saturday in a nutshell.

Scratch Test Dummy

After spending the weekend sulking and feeling sorry for myself about my less than acceptable result at the Fire Hill Criterium I decided I needed to do something about it. First thing Monday morning I called the Oklahoma Allergy & Asthma Clinic and was hoping they would be able to get me in sometime within the next couple of weeks. As fate would have it, they just had just received a cancellation for 9:45 that morning and I was more than happy to fill it.

I spent the next four hours of my day undergoing asthma and allergy tests. For the first time, in probably my life, I was happy to spend some time with a doctor. I have known for the last two years that I have asthma but here lately it has been really bad. Probably due to the fact that my allergies have been worse than usual. I don't have any problems on just a normal day to day basis but any time I'm under exertion it's like someone is strangling me and I'm left gasping for air. It doesn't matter if it's jogging, climbing stairs, or riding my bike if it's a hard effort I'm at a loss and usually waiting several minutes to recover. This is not a good thing in a criterium race when a majority of the race is spent jumping, accelerating out of corners, and pretty much red lining the entire race. I knew at Fire Hill my race was over before we hit the hill the first time. For those of you who weren't at Fire Hill or know the course, there's about a 200 meter straight to a sharp right hand turn up a hill, so in those short 200 m's I was toast. The jump off the line left me "breathless" so to speak. It didn't matter how hard I tried I couldn't get my breathing under control. It sucked. I don't think I have felt more disappointed in myself in a race than that day. I spent the whole drive home thinking and being pissed off at everyone. I hate failure, failure at anything not just on a bike. I love racing but for the rest of Saturday and some of Sunday I really considered just giving it all up and forgetting about it. If I was going to have to race with a limitation like this, it wasn't worth it to me. I'm not going to race and just hope to finish, I'm racing with the hope of winning or helping one of my teammates win. I wasn't even able to help them in that race, they did excellent and I wish I was part of that.

Then, I guess I don't know what happened but I stopped looking at it in such a bad way and started thinking maybe I could fix this. Maybe if I went to a specialist who knew what I was talking about something could be done. I started feeling motivated again, this is just something new to overcome. This is like it's own race. So, Monday morning at 8 a.m. I dialed up the Clinic and BAM they had an opening for me. Call me crazy, but I think God wants me to race my bike. Maybe it was just luck or coincidence or maybe it was someone saying, "don't give up on yourself just yet."

I'm pretty behind in my posting, so stay tuned. I've got some great pics of Addi's birthday, our trip to the zoo and a post I've been meaning to write for the last month about some great things that have happened in my life.

Definition

When I define myself as a person, I think of myself as these three things. Husband, Amie and I have married for almost 7 years now. Father, I have two beautiful daughters, Addi will be three years old in just a few days and Emily who just passed the six weeks mark. Cyclist, but I think of myself as more than just a cyclist, I race bikes. Apparently I have been trying my best to be my best at all three and have fallen short at all of them. I am not the person who is content with doing something 99%, it's all or nothing. I don't want to be the second best husband, father or cyclist...I want to be my best and right now that's not the case. I don't even have the words for exactly how I feel. I don't want/need anyones sympathy, I feel sorry enough for myself without anyone elses help.

For the last three years I have raced bikes. I've had some moderate success, I was by no means the best but I was competitive. That's gone. Where did it go, I don't know. I still get up crazy ass early and spend my mornings on my trainer and for the most part complete all my workouts as specified. But come race day it's just not there. I'm getting dropped by people that I could of easily kept up with last season. It is very demoralizing. I have been very fortunate this season to get some great sponsors, a brand new team and some great teammates. I had all these ideas, hopes, goals for myself and my team. Well my team is doing great, unfortunately I haven't been a part of that success. I'm not the person that will show up to a race only to fall off the back. I do have a little pride. I'm also not the person to become the washed up racer. I'll hang all my shit up before I let that happen. I don't want to ride a bike, I want to race my bike.

To be honest I really don't know what my problem is. I don't get a lot of rest, but I never have. So, I don't think that's my problem. I'm sure it has it's place in the equation but it's not the cause. I'm having a little bit of problem with my breathing. I find myself short of breath after the first few initial jumps and by the time I recover from that it's too late. Maybe I need to go harder in my warm up and get things more opened up. Maybe I need to get to the doctor and see what is going on. I have a great coach, so I know fitness and being ready for my races isn't an issue. It's something other than that.

Giving your best is all anyone can ask out of you, what I hate is that right now I'm not able to give my best. I've had a lot of crap going through my head over the last couple of weeks and maybe it's all just eating away at me.

HAPPY EASTER!

Have a Happy Easter.

Artwork provided by Addison Lynlee Hodges.

Proud

I'm pretty sure that Addi is the proudest big sister in all the land. It's hard to believe that in just a few weeks she'll be three.

Yesterday

This morning, like any other morning, I got up early and hit the trainer. I had my iPod ready to go along with the third disc from the 2008 Giro. I had my iPod on shuffle and didn't pay any attention to what was going to play, and then it started. I'm not going to say what song, but it brought back so many memories of my life from the past 8 years. It was like a highlight real of Chad & Amie's happiest moments. It's not often that I get to sit down and just think, heck if you ask Amie, it's not often that I remember anything that's not work, bike or a specific date related. So, this was a special moment for me. I am so thankful for my beautiful wife and the life we've shared together over the last, almost, 8 years now. We have had our good times and our bad times but hopefully she remembers more good than bad. She has been my best friend, sometimes my only friend, and a huge inspiration to me. We have brought two beautiful girls into this world both of which are the loves of our lives. Amie has blessed my life and continues to do so each and every day.

Amie, thank you for sharing your life with me. Your smile makes the worst of days wonderful. I love you with all my heart and would be lost without you.

FINALLY!

Well, it finally happened. I finally got the opportunity to join my new teammates this past Sunday in Prairie Grove, AR for the NW Arkansas Classic Road Race, which was my first race of the season. Zach and I hit the road around 4 a.m. Sunday morning for the three hour drive to visit our neighbors to the east. The trip down seemed pretty short as we talked about bikes, races and family life. I always enjoy the day trips on race days. Getting up early doesn't really bother me, I do it every day, plus, I really like the conversation. Zach and I have been day tripping since we started racing together late last season. Once we got close to Prairie Grove we stopped at Braum's to grab some breakfast. Pancakes, the breakfast of champions. FYI, Braum's will not let you trade you piece of sausage for another pancake. After breakfast it was straight to the staging area to pick up our race numbers and meet up with Ryan.


Prior to getting to the starting line there are always some very important decisions that need to be made. The biggest one is what to wear? It's like 36 degrees right now but supposed to be in the mid 50's by around noon. So, what exactly should I wear without having to shed clothes or freeze. This is usually decided by asking everyone around you and then in my case adding a little extra. Seems like I get cold easier now with my old age.

Now that everyone is all dressed, Zach, Ryan and I all made our way down to the starting line. I was stoked, it was great to see a lot of familiar faces. I was even happy to see people I'm not too crazy about. Just to be lined up there with everyone else...it was great. After roll call, we were off. This race is a 23 mile loop and we will be doing three laps for a total of 69 miles. I had already decided that I was going to race fairly conservatively and try to be smart about the moves I made...the exact opposite of how I raced last year. I knew with this being my first race of the season I couldn't be too certain as to how many "matches" I had to burn and didn't want to find myself burnt out when push came to shove.

The attacks started earlier than I would of expected. There were guys attacking early in the first lap. For this race, that is way too early. We still had someone cover the attacks, just in case, but they were short lived and didn't take too much effort. The good thing about the early attacks is they really help get things opened up. You get that initial burn in your legs and kind of prepare your body for what is to come. This course has a little bit of everything, it's got your flats, some rollers, a nice gradual climb and one fairly steep climb about 3 miles from the finish. This course is perfect for a break. If you can get with some guys who are willing to work you can have a successful break. There's a lot of blind spots on this course so it's easy to be "out of sight, out mind" and with those climbs mixed in it's easy to shell some of the weaker riders who might be mixed in with your break.

Early in the third lap Zach was able to position himself in a break that had at least one rider from each team in it. As his break started to establish itself I moved to the front with two Team Accelerade guys and we set a nice tempo pace. This bought a little time but with everyone knowing that could be the winning break we started seeing guys jumping around us to bridge up. The break was eventually reeled in and they rejoined the field. To me, and probably to everyone, that looked like the winning break. Shortly after that break was reeled in Brady, Fossil1, jumped and was immediately able to open up a nice gap but he was solo and there was too much time left so I didn't really worry a lot about it. Brady is strong and the guy can motor but I couldn't see him doing it by himself. Then a few guys jumped to bridge up to Brady, two of them being his other two teammates. When I saw that happening I knew I had to go. So, I jumped on and before we knew it there were like 13 guys in the break. It didn't seem to take too long before we were established and I started settling in. I knew Zach and Ryan would be holding tempo at the front of the field helping to buy us time, so I just kept pushing and trying to motivate everyone else to do the same. I love breaks. Next to winning a sprint, it is my favorite part of racing. You put yourself in a group of guys 5, 10 or 13 and it's you against the rest of the field. A game of cat and mouse. After about five miles or so I was totally invested in this break. I knew this was my chance and this was very possibly the winning break. The crazy thing about this break was that the team with the most to lose actually did the least amount of work. I didn't expect that at all. In fact, I would say that one member of that team did 90% of the teams work. It doesn't usually work that way. The main reason this break stayed off was because there were enough of us who only had one guy from our team in the break and we put everything we could into staying off. If we would of been caught my race would of been over. Something else that kind of surprised me was that no one tried to nail it up the last hill. I was prepared for someone to kill it there and was hoping I would be able to hang on. It didn't happen, we pretty much all climbed it together and then nailed it once we reached the top.

The big scare came shortly after that climb. The wheel truck pulled up along side us and let us know there was a group about 500m back trying to bridge up. That gave us the needed incentive to turn it up a notch and try to ride this one out. All I could think of was, "were in the hell is the 1K marker" at least once I saw that I would know how much further we had. My PT cpu was jacked up and wasn't reading right so I was just guessing the whole time. I knew that I wanted it over. As we came into the final stretch a few guys started to pick up the pace, I went with those guys hoping for the best. I was hoping to be able to catch Fossil's train and contest the sprint, however, that didn't pan out. When we hit the 200m mark everyone accelerated and I was able to match that acceleration but as we came up to the 100m mark I was toast. The sprint opened up and as I stood up to give what little I had left my legs started to lock up. I weighed my options real fast, 1) sit back down and roll it in for a top ten, 2) try to hook it up and sprint it out and risk my legs totally locking up and finishing last out of the break. I chose to sit down and roll in for a 7th place finish.

Overall I am happy with this result. Sure there are things I wish I could of done differently and hopefully I remember those things at my next race. I raced smarted this race than what I normally do. I'll be the first person to admit that I race stupid a lot, or did last season. My problem is I want to race and it's hard for me to just sit still and wait. I came to race 69 miles, not 200m. This was my first race this season and first race since Emily was born, so I really couldn't ask for more.

It's time to race boys!