Mountie Scum Update

Well its been a while since I've posted anything, so here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to:

August 5th-12th- I was on vacation in Nags Head with my family. We had 19 people staying in one house, and things rapidly got out of control. Kyle's family was down there as well and we engaged in forced-march 6:30am rides nearly every day, while my family and I engaged in marathon happy hours stretching from 1pm till 1am, with blatant disregard for the drinking age.Not the most relaxing week, but it was a ton of fun. Plus I didn't even get sunburned this year!

August 13th- The Cranky Monkey XC at Fountainhead! Two years ago, the Cranky Monkey was my first ever bike race series, and the Fountainhead race was the hardest one. I was racing beginner and pushing really hard, so hard that I apparently didn't notice when I lacerated my calf open to the tendon on my big ring, finishing the race as a bleeding cripple. Last year I was out of contention with a broken collar bone, so this year would mark my emotional return to the Monkey. Normally, I screw up my pre-race ritual and don't warm-up long enough, so I decided to err on the side of caution and put in a thorough warm-up. This caused me to roll up to the line in approximately 70th place, as they had staged while I was cruising. Someday, I'll get it right. From the gun, we had about a mile and a half of road to string out the field, and I managed to move up to about 40th position and hold it into the single track. My strategy for this race was pretty simple, sit in for the first lap, and then gradually accelerate into the 2nd, and hopefully pick off as many as I could before the finish. I ended up 25th out of 63 finishers, not too shabby, but I bet if I had lined up closer to the front I could've pulled off a top ten. Ah well, there's always the series closer next weekend at Quantico.

August 13th- 16th I spent my final days in the burg, essentially just riding, drinking and almost getting us evicted (through ill-advised use of fireworks, beer, and shouted profanity in a downtown area). Roadie Fag and I did a huge ride with 7 contested sign sprints. I took 3 and Andy took 4. All the ones that came down to a mano a mano sprint I took, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt what the power-off indicated; I am a tight sprinter. The 4 Andy took were on massive attack Jens-style break-aways, proving definatively that he is just plain faster than me.

August 16th-Today I am currently back home in Fairfax recovering from wisdom tooth removal. I look pretty ridiculous, and I can spit blood...its pretty tight.

p.s. Pictures to come when I figure out why this stupid blog page won't let me upload them.