Well, it appears to have been an age since I last updated. My parents have come and gone, I've still not built the new bike, it's bloody freezing, and I have been up my own arse writing two proposals, although today they come to a stop for a short while which is nice.
So Mum and Dad came. It was a fantastic couple of weeks, but over too soon. Still, I did get some time off to spend with them. We hit up Mount Vernon, in VA, George
Washington's home. Well worth a visit, very interesting and in a beautiful setting. We had a great day, but it was probably below 0c outside, so it was a bit
nipply.
The good thing about having Dad here is he can't sit still, which means odd jobs get done round the house. This time round he; painted the kitchen, put new skirting board around the
kitchen to stop cats climbing into the walls and cupboards, raked the garden, installed new taps in the bathroom, fixed my leaking sunroof on green
gerty (the envoy) and a host of other things as well. Lovely.
Thanksgiving was fun. It was the first time for Mum and Dad, and 27
Laurences,
McNevins,
Deux's, Miles and other families certainly made an entertaining day. It was good, the weather was nice and we finished the evening off with a bonfire outside which ended a great day. Of course there is always a 'but' with the Thanksgiving, and in my case it's another 10lb! Well, not just Thanksgiving, but I am 205lb, well I was last Friday anyway. Feel free to call me 'fat knacker' or 'fat bastard' when you see me. I have
deliberately cut back on usual fare this week to lose a few pounds, its helped, but 205lb!!
So my training has to start in earnest now. I have been procrastinating and have not been motivated, mostly cos of hours working, but it has to start otherwise I'll throw the good results from Woodward in Sept. This week I've taken it light on the squats, although having now not done them for so long, light probably also meant maximum too! oh dear. I had a good 45
mins on the road bike on the turbo trainer to get a sweat up and my legs spinning again, and then squats last night. I need a routine, like I had last yr and early this yr, once I have that going again I'll be fine. Still, my legs feel weak, and I have no lung capacity
whatsoever. If I race at the Christmas Classic I may well puke in THE helmet. I might sit in the stands and watch the pro's I think..
Some good news, Matt 'Bo' Allen is coming over to stay in March
hopefully. He is hitting up the ABA/UCI race in
DeSoto, TX, also the
USAC Cycling Champs weekend (like our British Champs) and then is driving across country and will hopefully stop with us. Looking forward to that already. Aaron
Shrosbree is coming too, so should be fun. I might well fly out and race with them.
If you happen to be in Florida at all check out the new St Pete
Bmx track, (
www.stpetebmx.com) looks
fooking awesome, and I plan on racing there in Jan, if I don't go to Vegas with the family.
C is in LA this weekend visiting friends. I had a weekend of riding planned, but the weather may make a mess of that. Still, if no BMX, I should get out on the road bike for an hour or two each day, better than nothing. I do hate her not being here, I am not very good at being apart from her I've learned. I thought having the house and time to myself might be fun, but in fact it's an empty box, well except for the cats, so I guess I just love my wife very much.. a good thing then! :)
Taken me a couple of months to squirrel away the pennies and build her up, but at last the new Clayborn is ready to ride... well apart from some DMR Chain Tugs that are in the post I hope..
