'frog in a puff'

So the first running of BMX at the Olympics happened this last week.. and my predictions were pretty good. Of course I wanted Shanaeze Reade to win, but it was never going to happen. She doesn't know how to ride with her head. All the talent and power is no good if you can't control it. I am not slamming Shinny, and her do or die attitude was awesome, very un-british of course, but said she came for Gold and nothing else. I just wish someone would tell her to turn it down a notch, there was no need to canethe crap out of every lap, nobody, Ann-Caroline aside, is close to her. And why nobody was helping her with her cornering is beyond me. British Cycling's lack of interest I think, get it out of the way and get her into the velodrome. She is a star though and whatever bike she ends up on in the future, I hope she blows everybody away. Liam Phillips had a good ride in the mens, ok he got moto'd and people are bitching about it on the 'net, but who's to say Kelvin would have done different and with the likes of Allier, Dewilde, Prokop and others going out first round, it wasn't a bad effort. Strombergs won and apart from one quarter bobble, he didn't look like losing. Only Mike Day had the ability to take it too him, and he got 2nd, so the best 2 riders were up there. I am gutted for Graves (an Aussie no less), I really like that guy, he's an awesome rider and for Sifosi Nhlapo, he deserved better, but he went for it and nobody remembers second place so why not.

I've been getting back out on the bike, the safety cycle (cruiser) a little. My hand is wrapped up with a brace and supports and actually feels ok. I just can't ride with gloves on with all the strapping which feels a but weird, but it's been good to ride. Had a good session with Chris and everybody at Severn yesterday afternoon, apart from one massive over shoot on the big doubles, all was good and my hand is starting to ease up. I've put a 58mm stem on instead of the 65mm i was running before, huge difference, can manual as well as I can on my 20" now. And some new DXR brakes so I can stop. For some reason the XT's wouldn't work at all.

I desperately need some new cruiser wheels, the hub on the back is shady and making all sorts of noises. I've rebuilt it several times now, they were just cheap wheels and are now over 3 yrs old so i can't complain, they've had a tough time for sure. Still straight tho.

Friday night was Abbey 'funbags' Greenburg's leaving do. She is eloping or something and off round the world. We had a good send off for her, although why we ended up in some euro style club bar I don't know. I couldn't hear a bloody thing. My hearing is going like my mums I think. I am going to miss her funbags though, they had a mind of their own and were all over the place. marvellous.

Saturday, after a nice lie in ;) we went tv shopping and purchased a Samsung 40" LCD HD tv, or something like that. The wife was insistent on 40", i tell her size isn't everything often, but she didn't seem to want to listen so the 40" tv looks like a feckin cinema screen in the basement. 37" would have been ok, but I am really excited anyway. We watched Bank Job last night to get the wide-screen effect. TV was lovely, but i doubt they are going to win an Oscar for the acting. Still Saffron Burrows is a little treacle.

Saturday night we hit an english pub near our old place in DC, called the Commonwealth I think. Had great english food, fish, chips and mushy peas, but we were bloody raped on the bar tab. $108 for about 8 drinks was disgusting and it wasn't like they were serving stuff that is rare over here. I was drinking cider, eric and bep on some ale and C on the wine. Next time I'll have a few sherbets before I go. But the food was excellent and we'll go again for sure, even had 'toad in the hole' although they called it 'frog in a puff'' ?? Seriously.

Today I start my new training program. Chris has written me a training program to help deal with all my injuries so I can still work out and start to get back in shape after a shitty few months. My knee is still odd though, so not sure how the weights will work on my legs, but most of the exercises are non-load bearing or very light weight for the next 3 or 4 weeks.

I've got the first of my permanent residency interviews this thursday, just biometrics and fingerprints i think. I've already done this, but for some reason I have to do it again. Still, the amount of money this is costing me i want to waste their time and get some value.

Work is quiet today, wonder how long that will last? I've designed some new brochures using MS Publisher. All good fun and I enjoy doing that stuff. I'll upload what I've done.

Cheers

Amish Country

What a great weekend... and not a bike in sight. Lovely. As mentioned earlier it was father-in-laws 65th so we spent the weekend as entire family, all 10 of us.. and somehow we managed to come through unscathed and happy. We set off early Saturday morning to the Farm, where after much discussion about gas prices and where we should buy fuel, we headed out to Lancaster, PA. Just down the road from where we got married actually. The weather was perfect, mid 80's and no humidity and clear blue skies. We booked into the little hotel and hit the buffet lunch, not bad for $11 and then headed to the Hoover family. The Hoovers are Amish or Mennonite, I can't remember, or possibly neither, but certainly live a very humble life compared to the excess and trappings we rely so much on. They have 12 children, ranging from about 23 to 40 or so. Very quiet and kind, and traditionally dressed, they are wonderful people. I felt really humble and quiet embarrassed at times the way I lead my life, and the so called apparent need I have for fancy clothes, bikes, money, computers, tv's whatever. They have none of this, and not through lack of money, but through religious choice they believe in equality and therefore by all having the same there is no greed, envy, desire. What a wonderful way to live. I think we could all learn a lesson in humility and happiness from them.

We planned on staying for an hour, but we were there for about 3 or 4 hours. They farm tobacco which obviously they sell on, as well as other produce. The tobacco process is incredibly labor intensive and when they don't use machines to harvest it either, it is amazing how much they accomplish. Can you imagine cropping the 'ears' on 84,000 tobacco plants by hand? Talk about Repetitive Strain Injury! What was awesome tho, was as word spread that we had arrived the kids all started coming in from the fields on their bikes and horse and buggies. It was such a cool sight to see. Their yard full of bikes and buggies definitely made you feel like you had stepped back in time, yet we were only a few hours from DC. Quite surreal. They make wonderful furniture and paintings and leather work so we purchased a few things for the house. I think Bean and I would be happy being Mennonites, they ride bikes - great for me, and read a lot - great for Bean. However, they work damn hard - not so good for me. I have to say I am really glad we went there, made me appreciate what I have so much, but also made me realise that actually I don't need the latest and greatest to be happy. Sadly, I live very much in that world so how long this realization will last I don't know.

Saturday evening was finished off with a cold Guinness and a great burger at a little restaurant, where Sean got the whole palce to sing Happy Birthday to Ben. Sean has a gift with people for sure. He was talking with the Hoovers as though he had known them all his life. I'm sure he'd be best buds with the Pope after 10 minutes. I think Papa Laurence had a great birthday and he seemed really happy, even if Christa did lose the plot because Beckie paid for dinner.

After some Olympic viewing and a few more vino's we hit the sack. Sunday was another hot and nice day. We played some crazy golf, I got very crazy and finished last, and somehow my wife finished second. This is twice now she has impressed me with sporting talents, the tennis and crazy golf! The rest of the day was antique shopping and eating ice cream.

So we had a great weekend in all, great to be with all the family. The kids seemed to really enjoy themselves and we got a little sun.

Frustratingly my hands are still hurting quite a bit. I am convinced I have broken a bone in my left hand. I have full movement in both, just very painful at times. I ought to get them checked out. At the moment I am starting to get fed up of all the aches and pains. It's been one thing after another since May/June, first my knees, now my hands. I haven't been able to train properly for about 3 months. My body just feels like crap. I think I may use my hands as an excuse not to go to the Grands. I am not fit enough to race, and when I am not feeling fit I know my head won't be in the right place to race hard, just like Pottstown last week. Plus, I have my Citizenship application that starts on same day of Grands, so I really ought to deal with that first. I am pissed that I won't get a good ranking. but with all the nationals done I finished 12 out of 104 in 26-34x so that's a pretty good accomplishment I think. I have to set myself some goals for the new season starting Sept 21st. That will be my target, give myself some recovery time and then plan properly, with a structured training program for 35-39x.

Maybe a road ride or tennis tonight I think.

Couple of pics from Winchester State Race

Matt Kelty (red), Leroy Moses (white, blue), both A Pro, and myself. I know they were probably not trying all that hard, but still feels good being next to the young guns - even if it was only for a straight!

ProAm Final. I'm in 3. This was about as close I got to the 'kids'. Good fun tho.

Scott, Ryan, Me and Rob in the Pro Am motos.

Good photo from Mr Larsen again

Aidan Peiser RIP

What a crap start to the day, although nothing compared to what Aidan's family must be going through right now. I received an email this morning from Marc saying that Aidan had been killed on Wednesday night. No details yet, but possibly a car accident. Aidan, like his brother, was just a great guy to be around, never stressed at races, always happy and loved our little sport for what it was. Sadly, he has left behind a wife and 2 very young children. I am gutted, absolutely gutted. RIP mate.

I came across this pic this morning, whilst surfing the news! This is what drunk driving does to the innocent. They should feckin hang the bastard.. 1 dead and 10 severely injured.

Gatsby and remains of Profile seat!

A few pics of Gatsby and my destroyed Profile seat after my crash this weekend. Idiot boy that I am. Oh, the wife has gone to buy tennis rackets. If anybody is in Silver Spring and wants a giggle, come and watch the two most uncoordinated people ever try and play tennis!

tough weekend

A tough weekend, perceeded by a tough week - I should never have gone near my bike! I felt tired and not wanting to ride on Friday as I headed up to Pottstown National. I wasn't too keen n going, but I had not raced a national in months and thought the laps would do me good. How wrong could I be. The track did not suit me at all, a super short first straight with a shady jump in the middle and a table into the first corner, a steep and too short second straight meant everbody was over shooting stuff, a great rythym section and a short and steep last straight. I couldn't get any speed or any flow and even dropping down to a 43-16t didn't really help. My problem was the gate, it was so flat I really struggled to balance. This is usually my strong point but I got slaughtered all day. I crashed in pactice Friday and should have gone home then, it was an omen! Saturday after some mediocre motos (4-2-2) I had a good inside lane for the semi, only to slide off the gate as it dropped. Dead last. Somehow, I think in blind rage, I made it to second going into the second corner and thats where my race stopped. 5 200lb guys on kids bike on a track wide enough for 2 something had to give. Straight over the bars I went, taking down another guy (mike hummell i think) and my race was done. I have no idea how I crashed, what caused it, if I caused it, just one minute I was upright and the next I was lieing in the corner being run over. Needless to say the concrete berm won this battle. My bike is a mess, paint all off the top tube, new pedals and grips torn to pieces and worst of all my $65 Profile Carbon seat totally destroyed. My jersey is shredded, my back has some nice scrapes, my elbow is a lovely shade of blue and both wrists are pretty swollen as is my knee! Shoulda stayed at home and played with Gatsby. Weekend was a right off, not only did I lose my hotel money, but now I have to replace all the new parts I just put on the bike for the Grands, assuming I can ride. I feel flat, pissed off and totally not into bmx. I'll be ok by tomorrow but right now my face looks like it's been slapped by a wet fish. I'm a grumpy bugger today.

The good news is, Gatsby seems to be settled in well with Joey and Chewy. There are still some hisses and fights, but when I got in on Saturday night both Gatsby and Chewy were asleep on the sofa together so all is well. He certainly is treating our place like his home already, and seeing the wife and I only bought a house so we could have more animals so he should. Although a baby would be nice at some point wifey, just a little one..

After a busy week at work last week, looks like I have the same this week. Which is a good thing, stops me wallowing in self pity for being a complete novice on my bike at the weekend. I shall take this week off the bmx and get out on the road bike to keep my legs moving.
The weather is beautiful right now, low to mid 80's, no humidity, and blue skies = perfect. Although it does feel odd for a DC August to be like this, last yr it was in the 90's and 100's.

It was father-in-laws 65th yesterday, so next weekend we are having a mini family vacation somewhere in PA. Should be fun and will keep me off the bmx a little longer so that should help with the recovery if nothing else.

Maybe I might just take my cruiser to the Grands, if it's rebuilt in time!

The Great Gatsby

Gatsby arrived Friday night. Poor little thing managed to puke in his cage and on himself on the way over. Still, I love him already. He's a real deep orange, with leopard like spots and big round eyes that make him look Korean or something. So far so good. We've had a few little spats with Joey and Chewy, right now he has taken to humping Chewy. Chewy needs to use his 17lb and put him in his place and all will be good. Although I have a sneaking suspicion he will end up the dominant cat, our two are too laid back to care. We also found out he doesn't like milk this morning just as we were leaving at 7.30 his brekkie came straight back up again! Nice.

The wife and I pretty much didn't move all weekend, we just stayed in and played with the cats. I think they liked having us around all weekend. Also it was good to spend an entire weekend with the wife, I love her lots. Sometimes we are so busy we just take things for granted, so it was good to just be together and potter around for a few days.

Saturday night we went out with Sarah, Christine's good friend from Woodley Park, and her new boyfriend. Great guy, so much nicer than the previous obnoxious little tit she dated before. Hopefully we'll get to hang out with them a whole lot more.

Sunday hit up Severn BMX. I am feeling rather angry about this, as 3 week before the national they are feckin' up all the jumps. They just have no common sense at all. They spent all their time turning the first jump, about 8ft wide at most, into a trail style jump. At the bottom of the start hill, with 8 riders hitting it! For fooks sake, it's ridiculous. Needless to say there was numerous crashes. You can't have a jump with no backside at the fastest point of the track and when the riders are closest together. However, in doing this, they totally neglected rebuilding and surfacing the rapidly deteriorating 6 pack, which would have been time, effort and money well spent. And, to make matters worse there is no concept of finishing off the jump. They just roll over it a couple of times on a quad bike and think that's it. So one good down pour, the dirt washes off and the ruts are exaggerated. I won't be at the national, but if I was an ABA racer and travelled any sort of distance I would be pretty pissed. That said it doesn't strike me as all that different from the standard of the majority tracks here - shite. Still I have Pottstown national this weekend, and whilst no big jumps, it is super smooth and full of tech fun stuff. I am looking forward to it. OK, rant over, and sorry to those people who do put the effort in, with limited resources, building tracks. I know it's not easy.

I have a super busy week this week. A couple of new projects are close to kicking off, so I have a ton of data calls to prepare for, I best go prepare then instead of sounding off.

My Dad is 21 and 40yrs today. Happy birthday pop, love you.