A wise man told me that you should judge the quality of an area's riding by the 1 hour rides, not the 5 hour rides. The point being that almost anywhere you can get to cool areas on a long ride, but your day-to-day riding is going to be a lot more affected by the roads near your house. In that case, I'm pretty lucky, because I have some sweet 1 hour rides. Here are some pictures from my bike walk last week when I didn't need to train, but just wanted to get out and enjoy the day.

Why does this stuff always happen to me?

If this post title sounds familiar, it might be because I used the same title at about this time last year (http://christianparrett.blogspot.com/2008/11/why-does-this-stuff-always-happen-to-me.html). It was a tale of shattering bike parts, confused rednecks, and long climbs without a small chainring.

Well this latest story I have from training didn't hurt my legs as much, but was a whole lot scarier and had me worried about losing a leg. While on a nice ride on a beautiful fall day I was spinning up a road I've been on a number of times before. I was 35 miles or so from Macon, up near Barnesville, in an area I like because it has some nice climbs for around here.

While riding along and enjoying my day I heard two dogs bark and run out of their yard to cut me off in the road. Around here this sometimes happens a half dozen times in a ride, so I didn't panic and sprint off. Normally they just stand by the road and bark or run alongside you for a bit.

Well, of course these two dogs didn't, that's what makes this a story. Turns out they were both nasty looking Pit Bulls ready to eat me. The one, really nasty one kept trying to come after my leg while I was riding. When I would try to sprint away he would run right in front of my wheel. I almost ate it several times when he threw his body in front of my front wheel leaving me to skid to a near-halt. Eventually he succesfully forced me off the bike.

At this point I started attacking him with my bike, going for his mouth and neck with the chainring. unfortunately the other dog got involved and began coming at me from another side. So at this point I end up spinning in circles, waving my bike at both dogs coming at me from opposite sides to keep them off me.

This lasted for what might've been 5 minutes. Every time they'd start to back off i'd try to get on the bike, only to have them come after me again. I was starting to get worried that they weren't gonna get tired anytime soon and started trying to figure something else out to escape.

At this point an old, beat up truck flew up. The two guys in the truck saw the dogs, drove the truck straight at them, scaring them off for a bit. About a half second after the driver told me to get in the back i jumped in, bike in arms. The really nasty of the two almost jumped into the truck but the driver sped away before he could make it. We hauled butt down some country road with me bouncing along in the back. After a few miles the guys asked which way I wanted to go. I told them this was fine and they let me off at a road that was right on my planned route anyway. I thanked them and road off. Oddly enough, they seemd hardly shaken by seeing two pit bulls fighting a teenager in spandex, and headed off without a second thought.

So, moral of the story is, kindness of strangers is awesome, people in the country are either really nice or own dogs that will try and kill you, and don't get eaten while out riding.

Also, I road with my buddy Strad this weekend and he got hit in the head by a bird. He was fine so I was allowed to laugh. Plus I was just glad it didn't happen to me, for once.

macon's not so bad

Hey all,

Check out some pictures from a nice bike walk I did the other day. If you're not from Macon, be jealous. If you are a cyclist from Macon, I hope you can get out to our nicest country roads and enjoy the fall to the fullest, it's even nicer out there now than it was when I took these pictures.

And secondly, check out http://www.ghbra.blogspot.com/. It's a buddy of mine's blog that I'll throw posts up on occasionally. Sort of a place to share cool pictures and stories and a bit of a travelogue as well.

off season?

I've already caught myself referring to 2010 as 'this year.' Like I've said before, a cyclists new year is when he starts training again.

Gotta love the off season. Went hiking some in the Mtns, ate plenty of unhealthy food, watched a lot of football, enjoyed the weather. Now I'm back on the bike and loving every minute of training. Macon is beautiful this time of year (well, not right now, it's pouring down rain).

I kicked off real-talk training with a BIG ride the other day. I road out towards Pine Mtn in West Georgia where I planned to meet up with my buddy Will and ride some in the park before getting a lift back to Macon. Well, I got lost numerous times, ended up on some dirt roads, cracked 4 or 5 separate times and ended up with 6.5 hours and 120 miles when I finally un-lost myself. Still, it was an awesome day. For you Mid-Ga cyclists looking for some climbing, Pine Mtn has some great small climbs at only an hour away; as opposed to 3 or 3.5 hours of driving to the gaps.

sorry, i sort of fell off the blogging wagon for a bit. Without doing a recap of the last month and a half, I had some terrible form, some decent form, and bad form again. Not surprisingly that meant a bunch of bad racing with a couple weeks of solid rides tucked in between. Now I'm done for the year after Univest, a race that I love and hope I can do well at one day. I'm pretty run down and happy for my off season to have started. Soon it'll be back to the grindstone for 2010. I'll try and keep this thing updated more often as well.

bland

sorry about the boring updates lately. maybe i can get some pictures or some good stories going.

I start tour of Namur tomorrow. 5 day stage race in Wallonia (french speaking part of belgium). Mid-length stages with plenty or 2-3 kilometer climbs and supposedly super hard. I'm excited to kick off what should be a good block of stage racing.

I've done some good training around here lately. I think I'm finally learning my way around well enough that I don't get lost as easily, and I'm starting to find the good training. It takes some effort but I've found some beautiful, traffic free roads and even some nice little climbs out in the flemish countryside.

crits with crosswinds

aka kermesses. done a few of those since i got back to europe. the form is good, but tactics, so far, aren't up to par. Missed breakaways by being too conservative, and by being too agressive. Frustrating since I have the legs, but kermesse racing ain't always about the legs. These belgies are just so crafty.

today, as a consolation prize, i smashed around the peleton and eventually got away in a group of 6 or 7. Then, i shocked myself by winning the sprint (and don't worry, the other guys were sprinting. They sprint for 30th here. actually, i think they sprint for 100th).

can't wait for some stage racing soon. first time i see a hill i'm going to be a happy bike racer.

just like that

and it's time to get back at it.

some mid season time off racing was a good thing, I have to say. Good times with family and friends? Check. A couple days off the bike and a few more pretty relaxed? Check. Getting back to training on my old roads? Check. Mini-camp at my home away from home in the Gaps? Check. Motivation to go hurt myself some more? Check. Bags packed? no, of course not.

Thursday afternoon I'll be back at the now very familiar Atlanta airport, Friday morning I'll be in Izegem ready for some more euro racing. Time to make the second half of this season count.

home

Back in Macon. Enjoying time at home and a little rest. Soon it's back to work to prepare for the rest of the season.

"Hey USA, you like Belgium?"

Pulled out of Fleche-Ardennaisse. Was in the winning move 75k in but had some problems with my knee after a crash a little bit earlier. When I first hopped up the adrenaline was pumping and i was ok, but once that wore off i was pedaling with one leg. Bike racing has a lovely way of stomping on the soul sometimes. But, I did get some cool pictures.

I love the roads and hills of the Ardennes. This race took in some of the same climbs as liege-bastogne-liege, and I hope to get a shot at the u23 version of that Monument in the next couple years.

I'm battling a case of insomnia right now so I figured I'd do a quick update on the last week's events.

Race Saturday-a 7 man breakaway got away early. I tried to bridge with two others. Went really, really hard-I could tell that was the winning move and if we'd gotten across I had a guaranteed result. Unfortunately all three of us blew up about 5 seconds from catching the move. Faded back to a second move of 10 guys or so. We were way out front and should have been gone but the breakaway got seriously dysfunctional and after 2 laps of attacking each other, then sitting up and coasting, we were caught by what was rest of the field. I paid for my early agression and blew up with three laps to go, placed 32nd.

Tuesday-big field, 200 riders on a very tight 12.5k course. We had wind, cobbles, no hills bigger than an overpass, small roads, and 12 laps for 150k total. The race was fast but never super hard. I did a good job of staying at the front but kind of raced like a wuss since I was having some stomach problems and didn't want to go to deep and dnf. Missed the breakaway with 2 laps to go but had a teammate in it. Just finished in the field. To prepare for the race sunday Noel had us do 50 more ks after the race. With the warmup I had 210k in. Really tough day.

Thursday-No race, but we did a solid training ride in the flemish ardennes with tyler farrar of Garmin/Slipstream. He lives nearby in Gent and is a former National team rider, now in the Protour and gearing up for the Tour. He was a really cool guy, easy to talk to and super down-to-earth. He even bought us pastries and coke. I'll definitely be rooting for him to take a stage win at the tour.

Now I'm resting up for Fleche-Ardenaisse. It's a 172k top competition race in the Ardennes, on the same climbs as liege-bastogne-liege. The numerous 2-4 kilometer hills suit me well so I hope I can have a good day, ride smart, and hammer out another result.

Then next week I switch gears back into classics mode-for the IWT Classic on Wednesday, a 1.2 with Professional Continental teams like Topsport-Vlaanderen showing, and then another top competition race Saturday at the Omloop Het Niuwsblad for Amateurs-(formerly Het volk). Both races are Belgian classic style-numerous bergs, both cobbled and paved, including the infamous Muur de Gerardsbergen. Not necessarily my style of racing, but I'm excited to race on such legendary roads.

picture of the day

Photographic proof of me on the front on a climb at Tarragona. If only I could have some consistency and do this every day. Oh well, couple more watts, couple less kgs, and a whole lot more hard racing in my legs and I should be good.

We haven't been up to much here at the house this week, lots of resting and easy spins. Racing a kermesse today. Hopefully it goes well, I'd like to start riding well in the flatter races. Wish me luck.

Vuelta Tarragona

Got back last night from the Vuelta Tarragona in Spain. Very hard 5 day stage race with a bunch of ridiculously good spaniards, two strong french teams and some crazy russians. It was a 2.12 which means the field was made up of continental teams and elite amateur teams (I think some people have the misconception that most races we do here are u23-in reality the majority of them are not, so we're racing older riders. This means lots of ex-pros and ridiculous fast 30 year olds).

Anyway, the race was up and down for me. The first stage I had no legs from travel, that didn't go so hot.

Second day I made it over the climbs in the front group behind the winning breakaway. We were agressive in the finale but no dice, rolled in around 40th after I botched the group sprint.

Third day was pretty good. Again, small breakaway off the front. The last climb was very difficult, I had a wheel change right before it so I'd just chased back on. I had good legs this day and made it over the climb with the leaders, then did a decent group spring for around 20th.

4th day was again solid. The race blew to pieces on the first Cat 1 climb. I hung with the leaders for awhile but blew up about a minute before they slowed waay down...shit. Made it back on on the descent without to much trouble though. There was a cat 3 climb that wasn't so bad, then some death rollers and sketchy descents. On the final cat 2 climb I was dropped by the lead group of about 25 riders. I made a 2nd group of about 8 or 10 that never made contact but stayed ahead of the rest of the riders behind.

5th day was awful, I picked up food poisoning or some sort of virus or something. Rocking out in the groupetto has never been so painful. That made the van ride home pretty miserable, fifteen hours across France while nauseous and achy the whole time.

Now I'm back in Izegem, ready to rest up and get healthy, then have some more good racing.

catchup

After France I rested a few days and raced again at the GP Impanis against all the top Belgian teams Thursday. The race went ok, it was a tough day and I finished in the peleton well behind the sprinters. I was able to be aggressive and mix it up a bit but it didn't come to much.

Saturday I raced again near the house, I was in the group of 50 or so that was left with 35ish K to go and feeling good, unfortunately I broke the cleat in my shoe and didn't factor in the finale. I also came down with a little bit of a cold so I skipped the race I was scheduled for Sunday.

After GP Impanis I headed back to Izegem for a few days, but today I returned to luxembourg. Six of us are here training until Monday when we leave for Volta Tarragona. It's a 5-day, six-stage race in Spain that I'm really excited for. It has some tough climbs and even an uphill TT. I'm really excited for the race and also to visit a country I haven't been to before. From Spain I'll head back to Izegem for a bit.

more bike racing

raced in france this weekend. Saturday went alright. Pure 160k crosswind day. I got caught at the back a few times and generally made the race way harder than it had to be. The race ended up coming apart, a few groups got up the road and then I made it into a group with 35k or so to go that held off the peleton. Not a huge result but decent for me on a day and courrse that didn't suit me at all.

Sunday was a hilly, technical 100k road race that started off at warp speed. I got a good start and was fine until about 5k when Cole House flatted so I gave him my wheel. The team cars were way back due to the small roads and the huge number of flats so getting back on wasn't gonna happen. Surfed the caravan for awhile and ended up riding in outside time cut.

can't wait to race again

told ya this place was nice

luxembourg....

is incredible. can't wait to get some pictures from riding. some nice weather would be a nice bonus too.

The town of Wiltz, about 20k from where we are staying.

Right outside our door.

hosingen

Race Sunday-blah. Good legs but it doesn't matter if you hit a climb at the back and the split happens there. All things I know, but I need to re-find the euro peleton skills. That has always been far more difficult for me than just having horsepower. Decent re-introduction to euro racing and I've got plenty of races to go.

Now I'm in hosingen, Luxembourg. It's raining at the moment but other than that I can't complain, it's a beautiful area and the training looks amazing. Recovery day today so I'm considering going for a short walk (can't wear out the cycling legs) to check out the countryside here.

some pitchas

Izegem
coffee stop in Kortrijk

More Izegem

New National Team Jerseys

in the belge

I'm back in Izegem. Going through the normal parts of settling in over here, jet lag and getting the bike dialed in and figuring out where in the world I'm going. I race a kermesse Friday nearby, then Sunday I do a big 1 day race in the really hilly part of Belgium. I'm pretty excited for that. After that, I head down to luxembourg where they've rented us for a house for awhile since some juniors and girls are coming over and the house isn't big enough for everyone. I'm not complaining, I here luxembourg is beautiful and the training is great so I'm excited. Got plenty more races coming up after Sunday but I'll let you know what they are when I'm sure of the schedule. got a camera and I'll try and get some pictures up soon.

getting close

Can't believe it's almost May! I'm counting down my last few days of class and finals. Only two days after my last final I jet over to Europe for two months of racing. I received a schedule awhile back, here it is below. As always, things can change but this leaves some room for either/or races so it should be pretty close (the multiple listings of each month show the different options for race schedule: 3 for may, 2 for june). Regardless of which races I do it looks like I'll be doing mostly stage races and doing a bunch of climbing, so I'm really excited.


MAY 3-4 travel Haut Anjou, Triptyque, Ardenees Ronde Isard

MAY GP Wallonie, Triptyque Ardenees, Ronde Isard

MAY Haut Anjou, Fleche du Sud

JUNE Vuelta Tarragona, Ronde de L'Oise, Haut Savoie, IWT, Omloop Het Volk June 28th travel home
JUNE Thuringhen Rundfhart, Haut Savoie, IWT, Omloop Het Volk

Other than the pollen counts making my life absolutely miserable, training is going well. Last weekend I even got out on a group ride in Macon with some of the guys from around here. I love the riding there and I owe a lot to all the people in the cycling community in Macon. Hopefully i'll make it out to the tuesday night worlds ride sometime this season.

alright, time for some training!

The Gaps

The Gaps in North Georgia have gotten a pretty fair amount of recognition as a training grounds for cyclists, and I have to say, that area is hard to beat for a solid weekend block of climbing. This past weekend I found myself staying at Will's house, yet again, for back-to-back big climbing days. It says something about your weekend when Six Gap was the "flatter" day (the other day consisted of some doubling back on climbs that meant something like 8 total, without the easy side of Woody's). It may not have a huge variety of roads to offer up endless new routes like Greenville, and it doesn't have climbs as lengthy as the ones found further up into he Appalachians, but all Six gaps are reasonable climbs that are pretty close to each other. And if that's not enough, you can add in Brasstown or any number of the "secret" 5-10 minute climbs we've discovered.

hmmmmmm

I refuse to talk about Redlands. I'm actually gonna pretend the trip never happened.

Training has been going well and I'm getting really excited for my Europe trip. If i haven't mentioned it before, I go over May 3rd this year and come back June 28th. Congrats to the guys over there now who are tearing it up. This year I'm lucky to have a really nice calendar or races, mostly stage races and plenty of climbing and time trialing. So very well suited to me. I'll also get to travel a bit more of Europe which is always great.

What's with the crazy weather? It's been darn cold in Georgia for April. With less than four weeks until I go to Europe, it's looking like the warm clothes are staying in circulation until I get home at the end of June....just think, it's gonna be July before I can put the warm stuff away for awhile. I don't mind too much though, and our Hincapie stuff is wicked nice so it's almost good to get an excuse to wear it!

Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully I can keep the updates rolling a little more consistently.



check the sweet kits.



Blair creeping into my headshot at our last team camp

rule for life #1

Will McGinnis tells me that rule for life #1 is Don't be a dumbfuck. If you follow that, you won't really need a #2.

Best way to violate that rule in a crit-yell at me about how to take a corner, then crash yourself trying to follow me through a corner on the last lap.

Anyway, this weekend in Rome went pretty well. I didn't do anything special but felt really great on the finish climb of the road race both times over. We managed to win the tt, omnium and road race. Big congrats to Tyler Karnes who is 17, just upgraded to Cat 2s and won the road race. He made the early breakaway that ended up staying away and raced strong and smart to beat the five guys he was with soundly to take a great win.

Last weekend in Greenville-let's just say I road phenomenal, spent most of the day off the front, and took a perfect flyer out of the breakaway with 2 or so miles to go. Got caught within 200 meters of the finish. Quite the heartbreaker, but it's still just local racing and I've got my mind on the mountains of Europe in May and June.

stranded in greenville

Freak winter storm leaves me stranded in Greenville....gosh, that's just awful.

Between the roads here, the roads in Atlanta and 85 being either closed or backed up for hours, I didn't make it home in time for class monday. Thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the Helms, I am still in Greenville since I don't have class on tuesday. I enjoyed my day off the bike sunday by staying warm and inside most of the day. Of course, once the snow piled up I had to enjoy my first snow ball fight in years and some attempts at sledding.

Yesterday Strad and I used our day off school to go for a nice ride. Everyone we tried to talk into coming with seemed to think we were crazy....I actually thought we were too, but it ended up being great. The sides of the roads were piled with snow but the pavement was clear. We even got out to Caesar's head and did the first 2/3s of the climb before we hit slushy spots. We played it safe and turned around there so we didn't have to descend through ice. Climbing through switchbacks with snow piled on the sides of the road was one of the coolest things I've done lately on a bike. Now I'm chilling out, waiting to meet up with my teammate Chris to do another ride, hopefully making it to the top of the Mountain this time. After that, hopefully I'll make it back to Atlanta for classes Wednesday...and then be right back up here for the River Falls road race saturday!



Oh yeah, almost forgot-the first part of our kit order came in yesterday. So far just long sleeve jerseys and vests, but the rest should be in soon. They look great!

first race

Hey all. I'm sitting in a warm living room in Greenville watching the awful weather outside. Today's race was unfortunately cancelled thanks to the freak winter storm hitting the southeast.

Yesterday was a nice way to kick off the season. 60 miles in the pouring rain on a rolling course in Ware Shoals, SC. About 40 or 50 riders lined up for the Pro/1/2 race. My teammate Chris Butler got away early with two other riders while I enjoyed hanging out in the field and playing defense. The first rider was dropped early but the field didn't organize and chase very well. Chris ended up riding away for the solo win. I flexed my legs with a couple miles to go and got away in a little move. Thad Dulin got me for 2nd, but I ended up 3rd and was just happy to get to test out the fitness a bit. So all in all, a good day for the team. Cinthia won the women's race and our Cat 3s road well and put Blair into 4th, so solid results all around.


Me: "Cinthia! Did you win?"
her: "YES!"

counting down!!!

I was back in Greenville this weekend for the first of three straight weekends up there. No racing, but I did get my bike situation fixed and do some great training.

Saturday was one of the coolest rides I've ever done. only 5 hours, so not especially epic, but still incredible. My brand new scott addict and I headed out of Greenville northwards into the mountains. Probably half the ride was on roads I've never done before, yet somehow I managed to not get lost and turn it into a 7 hour ride. Don't laugh, it's happened before. The bike is incredible and I'm really lucky to be on such great equipment.

Anyway, back to the title-four days until my first race of the year! I'll be racing both days the next two weekends in Greenville at the Hincapie spring series. I'm planning on mostly using it for good race-effort type training, and learning to race with my teammates. I think even without much focus we can pull out at least some decent results though.

Here's a tentative schedule for the first half of the Season if anyone's interested:

February 28/March 1st-Greenville
March 7th/8th-Greenville
March 14th/15th-Rome GeorgiaCup
March 21st/22nd-Union City GaCup
March 26-30-Redlands Stage Race
April 4/5-Chattanooga GaCup or Rock Hill
April 18/18th-Chattanooga Scenic City Velo weekend

and the biggie:

May 3rd-June 28th: Europe

hmmmm

So some of you are probably visiting the blog to see what I think of the new ride; others have probably heard of the weekends events and are looking for the details.

Short Version: The bike was incredible, for the day it lasted.

Long Version: Saturday I headed out on the new ride for a few hours of breaking the bike in, along with two of my teammates doing the same. 5 minutes from the house, at the end of the ride, we had a nasty crash. Blair missed it but Strad and myself went down pretty hard. I'm fine, but cracked my frame. Strad's bike is fine,(we hit the ground HARD, so it's a testament to the bike's durability that only one cracked) however, he came off a little worse. Luckily nothing is broken, but he does have a concussion. He's tough as nails and will be back on the bike in a few days, unless his mom forgot to confiscate it, in which case he's probably been skipping school and riding Caesar's Head the past couple days. I'm not going into the reasons for the crash on a public site-if you feel you need the full story, feel free to contact me.

Good news: When bad stuff happens, you learn a lot about the people you've got on your side. I owe a big thanks to all the Hincapie staff, and especially Rich. He barely batted an eye before getting to work on the situation. I'll be back on a Scott Addict soon and can't tell you how thrilled I am about that. It's easily the nicest bike I've ever ridden, stiff, light and very stable. Also, thanks to John James from Sunshine Cycles for checking on me after the wreck. And of course, thanks to all the friends and teammates who were calling or emailing to check on Strad and I.

Bikes are in!!!!

Our new Scott Addicts outfitted with Sram Red have arrived at team headquarters in Greenville. Looks like I am making my return to the republic of greenville to get the bike fit and break it in some. Rumor has it they are sub 15 lbs built up and crazy nice, so I'm pretty giddy right now. Here's a picture of the frame and also one of our new kit design, which should also be here in a couple weeks.

team weekend

We had another team weekend a few days ago at the Hincapie headquarters in Greenville, Sc. Originally this camp was supposed to be when we got bikes, kits and all our equipment but with things running a little late that didn't happen. We still got to view our kit design, have some important meetings and get some of our sponsor equipment. Big thanks to Oakley and Giro for the great stuff we got this weekend. I also got in a ton of training and had a great time with my teammates and the staff. I want to give a big shout out not only to our bosses Steve Carpenter and Rich Hincapie (who both couldn't make the camp this weekend) but also to Nicole Johnson and Steve Baker for keeping things organized in their absence. Also, I may be doing some guest blog posts for our team blog soon, so I'll post the link and be on the lookout.


The U23 contingent-Chris Butler and I.


aj and I doing some nintendon boxing


fi'zi:k is providing us with great saddles this year. I wanted to test the comfort of the saddle in the aero position.


I got caught posing badly in my new Oakleys.


Showing off the new Giro helmets that will match the kits-and some Hincapie casual clothing-Aubrey Moore, Blair Turner, Cinthia Lehner and Stradford Helms.

back when i was young and crazy

hmmm.....things

I got my Cat 1 upgrade just now. It almost seemed like an afterthought when I sent it off. But now, I guess I'm fairly proud. I'm hoping my license eventually ceases to have numbers on it though.

I've been training a lot lately. Right now I'm parked on the greatest couch in the world at Casa McGinnis. Thanks to will for letting me stay. After riding 5.5 hours in the gaps I was not up for driving home. I'm just now almost coherent. Also, i just want to mention that Will dropped me today. yes, he was 20 minutes into his ride and I was almost 5 hours in, totally cracked, and riding easy. But nonetheless, he put like a minute into me on wolfpen gap.

epic

I'm in Greenville again for the long weekend for a long weekend of training. Greenville, for those of you familiar with Old Greg, is definitely Greg's place.

Yesterday was pretty epic. I don't like overusing that word, but with the freezing weather sweeping the area, we left in 26 degree weather and headed North into the mountains where it was even colder. Will, Nick and my teammate Chris Butler headed up Caesar's head, turned around, headed back up another climb into the mountains and then descended back into Greenville. In between we were shredding on Greenville's finest country roads that make me want to ride all day. Suprisingly there was no ice on the roads but there were lots of cool icicles hanging off stuff and entire ponds frozen over. We got in just over 5 hours and in that weather, I'm calling it an Epic.

Also, props to Nick Savadellis for not being a whiny, complaining wussbag and actually enjoying himself on a hard ride.

Happy 2009

Since my last update plenty of stuff has happened, but not really much worth talking about. You know, training, sleeping, eating, Christmas, all that stuff. It was great to see the family and do the Christmas thing, and now I'm straight back into hard work with school and training.

We just finished our second team camp in Chattanooga. It was a solid four days of training despite some nasty weather. Everyone on the team looks fit and motivated and we are all super excited for 2009. Both my US and European schedule are shaping up, the form is headed steadily upwards, and I'm enjoying training more than ever.