Registration opens Thursday 10/29 for Southern Cross

Details here

Registration is on BikeReg.com

Mission: LBM

Lean Body Mass, that is! Now that I've had some down time I'm ready to go.

I've been working with a Personal Trainer but this week starts the true 12-week-training phase. Eddie and I did this on our own gym training last year but, unfortunately, I didn't keep up with any strength work so I lost it all once the season started :(

I'm still not doing anything structured on the bike, just having fun. Now I have a new fixie to figure out--that will provide some excitement in the meantime! This coming weekend is also the Halloween rides & party at Mulberry Gap. After that Cartecay Bikes will be putting on the weekly Chili Dawg rides which are 30+ miles of good ole' gravel road grinding followed by hot homemade chili...yum!

I started running yesterday, also. I'm starting small (i.e. 30 minutes) because normally I like to go from zero to 16 miles at Kennesaw Mountain (and then I don't run again for the rest of the year!). I'd like to keep it up this year so I have an option when it's too cold to ride. And, yes, I do think it gets too cold to ride in Georgia sometimes! :)

And, last but not least...I've worked out my "off-season" nutrition plan. It's more aggressive now that I'm done racing and not yet training long hours. I'm really excited about it! I've learned a ton of new stuff in the last 8 weeks from one of my classes this semester and looking forward to seeing how it works for me.

OK, it's time to go work on sponsorship, life, and....oh yeah....thesis.

fixed

Thanks, Eddie :)

Now I have no excuse to not commute this week even though it is freezing outside!

drool!

Waste no time, you must click here!

BTW, the Women's MTB weekend at Mulberry Gap was completely awesome. We'll be announcing the next one very soon, it will be in March 2009.

Dirt Rag Blog

Check it out Hodge is in the Dirt Rag blog!

I'm off to start the multi-day birthday celebration...tonight with pizza followed by espresso martinis with my buddies. There may or may not be pics depending on what happens! :)

I'm heading to the Women's MTB Weekend at Mulberry Gap tomorrow, there will most certainly be pictures of that. I'm hoping the weather warms up a bit between now and then...at least there are hot tubs there!

good things

1. I've been married for 2 years today...time flies when you're having fun :)

2. Hodge is out of the hospital

3. Eddie and I got a new camera today!! This means more (good) pics from now on.

4. We have a new event coming out for 2009...SOUTHERN CROSS JANUARY 24/25 SAVE THE DATE...STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS COMING SOON!

Thanks, again, for all the Hodge donations, so far. We are up at $2275 if I can add correctly. There is still a significant gap between the donations and the actual bills that need to be paid. Any amount is appreciated. I know Hodge is amazed at the people that have come out of the woodwork to help him out. Thanks to all of you.

great weekend, but we need a new camera

Eddie and I decided to celebrate our 2-year anniversary a few days early by going to ride Racoon Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. Wowee, it would be nice to live near these trails!! A move out of the ATL is definitely in order in the near future. In my opinion, our current location sucks for mountain biking. I go crazy reading blogs like this one and this one...Anyway, SORBA Chattanooga has done an incredible job with the 17 miles of trail they currently have at Raccoon Mtn. No wide, smooth dingo cut. Nope, hand cut trail with lots of rocks...just how I like it. I have some pics but for now you have to be my facebook friend to see them :)

We spent Saturday night at my favorite place, again. I will never get tired of being there....you're in the middle of incredible trails, roads, there is tons of good food, hot tubs, games, campfires, and more. Today we drank a lot of coffee, rode a little bit, and then went to visit Hodge in the hospital. He is doing better and will hopefully leave the hospital soon. He still has a lot of recovery in his future and will be very limited in what he can do for the time being. Thanks, again, to everyone that has donated to help out...the donation box is still open (scroll down one post).

This should be a great week...anniversary on Tuesday, birthday on Friday, and another weekend at Mulberry Gap next weekend (with the girls this time)!

Scott Hodge Donation Box

In case you haven't heard, Scott Hodge from Addictive Cycles was in a motorcycle crash and has suffered some spinal fractures.


In an effort to help (because Scott was uninsured), please donate below to help with his medical bills. Scott has been there to help all of us at one time or another and I hope we can be there for him. He is a great guy and he has wonderful and caring friends!

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE DONATIONS SO FAR!!!

CURRENT DONATION: $3595 (as of 11/2)!

Thanks,

Namrita

12 hours of Conyers

Since this was the weekend of 24 hours of Moab, I didn't want to stay home glued to the screen watching online results and feeling sorry for myself. Instead, we teamed up with superstars Chris and Tina Pic and decided to have some end-of-the-season fun at the 12 hours of Conyers.

Chris started off the rotation with Eddie in 2nd (doing 2 back to back laps), then Tina, then me. Tina was killin' it on the doubletrack sections...there was a lot of that (not much singletrack) and a big headwind for much of the course. I geared my singlespeed too hard (someday I'll admit to myself that I don't have huge muscular legs) and ended up having to change it out for my last lap. One tooth in the back made a huge difference so I felt like I was flying instead of slowly mashing everything (even though my lap time didn't really change). Tina, Chris and Eddie had really consistent, similar, and fast laps and even though we were in the lead all day 2nd place would get too close for comfort at times (probably because of me, haha), and my teammates were always able to increase the gap by several minutes each lap. We let Eddie and Chris hammer out the 3 night laps to keep a safe margin of victory.

Racing on a team was fun but HARD. No one believed me when I said I would have rather been racing solo at a slightly slower pace than having to be redlining for every second I was riding. I lost count of the number of times I almost threw up on the course. Today, I'm not sure which is more appealing. I guess both are fun in their own way. It's crazy to suffer so bad and then feel great immediatlely afterwards. I'm not used to that! And, today I feel great instead of wrecked after a 12 hour solo.

Thanks to Marc and Mark P for coming out to spectate and hang. Cesar Grajales and his dog even made an appearance and hung out for awhile. Thanks again to Hodge and Cody from Addictive Cycles for the awesome support. Big thanks to Dirty Spokes for putting on a great race.

Congrats to Krista Park for placing 3rd in the mens 6 hour SS race, Shane from Dedicated Athlete for winning the 12 hour solo overall on his SS, and Mark B for placing 5th in the 6 hour despite a flat on his first lap. Mike Livingston came in 4th in the duo 12 hour. Good racing!

Now, it's finally time to end the 2008 season. It was quite successful for me, despite the recent happenings. I'm really looking forward to putting all the nonsense behind me now and gearing up for 2009 which will be a big year. Thanks again to all of my sponsors, check out their stuff because not only do they make great products, they are also great people that truly support our sport.

Ergon Bike Ergonomics

Twin Six Alternative Cycling Apparel

Hayes Disc Brakes

Thomson stems and seatposts

Crankbrothers

Swiftwick socks that make you 5% faster

Tifosi Optics

Addictive Cycles

Squirt long-lasting Dry Lube

Beyond Clothing

No Tubes

PowerBar

Dedicated Athlete

BURN Energy Drink

Wicked Fast Sports Nutrition

Paceline Products

Cyclingnews

Raxter Bike Racks

This should be interesting!

Quick post...Eddie and I are racing on a 4 person team at the 12 hours of Conyers race tomorrow. We haven't raced on a 4-p team since 2004! Tim, the race director, put together a nice variation of Conyers that actually has a lot of smooth doubletrack and wide open stuff. That's not such a great thing for me but I have three really fast teammates (Eddie, and Chris and Tina Pic) that can hopefully make up for my lack of roadie-ness and XC-level speed. It will be a nice change of pace and fun to hang out and enjoy the endurance "scene" a little bit while I'm not racing.

Moab.....

Well, hey, look at that:

For the women's series win, look for Liz Baumgardt-Kays attempting to claim her first 24-hour race victory. With series leader Namrita O'Dea unlikely to attend following the sudden withdrawal of her sponsor, Baumgardt-Kays is virtually certain to win the series.

- Cyclingnews.com

Yeah, it stings. A lot.

As far as the women's race, it will be an interesting battle between Pua and Jari Kirkland who placed 2nd OVERALL last year. But, Pua's got the Wobble-naught fit ;) Good luck to everyone racing. Sorry I will miss it.

life

life seems to be getting in the way. i had a good weekend of riding, though with daily bike commuting now + personal training + longer weekend rides with fast boys i don't seem to be recovering as quickly.

i had to take a hiatus from bike commuting this and next week...along with working my normal schedule at school i have to finish up my final clinical rotation off-campus. that means 1) i can't ride my bike and 2) i have several 12 hour days in the next two weeks...eeeew.

eddie went out of town this week for his uncle's funeral. i hate cancer.

i actually cannot ride much this week due to my new crazy work hours. maybe that means i'll be somewhat recovered (probably not) for this weekend's race. we were planning on racing co-ed duo in the 12 hour against our really fast friends but now they may want to race as a 4-person team. i actually prefer the duo rather than the 4-person team since i don't know how to ride really fast laps one at a time with 3 hour breaks. i'd rather go out and race for 6 hours and be done but i think they are scared to race against eddie and me ;) haha. the good thing about racing with them is that they and eddie are so fast that the three of them can make up for my slower lap times. i'll be the only one on a singlespeed. i swore i'd never race a SS at conyers again...yet here we are. i am actually pretty nervous for this one!!

i should be working on sponsorship stuff but i haven't had time. i have to be honest, i'm really happy with all our current sponsors (see them on the <---- left side). i have no reason to use anything else as i really do think they make the best stuff. the big question is...what bikes will we be riding? hmm...i know that whatever they are they will be awesome and i will be happy :)

Endurance Magazine October 2008

Twin Six October Sale

$15 t-shirts, $45 jerseys, $8-10 socks, $5 bottles - get em here. Their sale stuff never lasts so waste no time...

Dick Lane Velodrome

I have been wanting to check out the track for a long time now...and then Eddie won those super sweet track bars at the FM.24.08 race. At that race I met Brian Sullivan, one of the guys that does a lot for the velodrome, teaches clinics, races, etc..and he invited Eddie and me out to come down out today. Brian is actually one of Eddie's fitting clients, so it would be cool to see his skillz on the track, too.

We rode from the house, had a nice tailwind going out there. As soon as we arrived I immediately felt sick to my stomach. The banked turns, especially turn one looked really steep and I have never even ridden a fixie before. Brian assured us that it would be nothing for experienced riders such as ourselves. OK, fine. We picked out some rental bikes, Fuji, I think and threw our pedals on and adjusted the saddle. Being that both of us are extremely anal about our bike fit this was far from ideal but today was going to be a short day just to learn the ropes anyway. Brian gave us a 5 minute class and took us on the warm-up track. Honestly, the hardest thing for me was to get going. The bars were really narrow and I wasn't used to clipping in on my Speedplays (which are kind of hard to step into even on a road bike) with the cranks moving. Once I got the hang of this I was good. Riding the track was waaaaaaaaay way more fun than road riding. I will definitely be doing my intensity/interval work on the track (as soon as I get a bike). I might as well take advantage of one of the few cycling-related advantages there is of living in the city of Atlanta. The fixie thing is cool but I would never ride one in the city...especially without brakes, ugh.

So..you can expect to see pics here as soon as I get the new bike. My birthday IS coming up soon..hint hint (Eddie).