US 100K Classic? Hell Yes.

So last Monday (Labor Day), I did this badass race in Atlanta called the US 100K Classic. Every Laby Day there is running race called the US 10k Classic held with a big festival and whatnot, and it's the biggest 10K race in the country. A pro bike race is held in conjunction with the running race and it serves as the last NRC (National Racing Calendar) race of the year. Basically, it's a big boy race and luckily I had some connections that were in charge of the race and got me in.

Anyway, I drove up in the man-van with some other racers buddies on Sunday and then raced at the crack of down on Monday. The race went well. A field of 134 riders started and it took on 2 hours 11 minutes to finish 100K (62 miles). The course was AWESOME. Hilly. Closed roads, police escorts. It was as if Orlando closed down Colonial Drive for a race. The weather was amazing too. 65 degrees at the start was amazing after racing in the Florida summer heat for the past few months. Anyway, I played it cool for the whole race and was planned on going to try and get to the front in the last few Kilometers for a good finish. Unfortunately, we didn't really know how the race finished since we road on a lap course and came off of that to do the final 3K to the finish. I had no idea that a pretty intense left hand turn was taking us off of the course and onto the final finish straight and I had to hit the breaks way too much and was instantly out of it, bam, race was done for me. But I still managed a top 50 finish out of 134 starters in a pro race. Not too shabby I guess. Anyway, the drive home sucked. But I definitely can't wait until next Labor Day, I'm so there.

Here's a video of the downhill sprint finish. The winner hit 90K an hour.

Prioirities..

The third week of the fall semester at UCF is coming to an end and so far all I can say is holy balls. I took on a pretty big work load this semester with 15 credit hours worth of classes. All sports and fitness classes. All really awesome classes that I actually ENJOY going to, but seriously, a lot of work. I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology for Sports and dear jesus it's a lot of stuff. There are 206 bones in the human body and so far I know all of them. But it's not only bones, it is also special features (lumps, protrusions, holes ETC) of every single bone. It's pretty amazing.

It's been three weeks and I'm already exhausted. Trying to balance five classes, racing/riding full time, and a possible social life is just not happening. I've come to terms with the fact that I won't really be rocking out with friends for a while, at least until racing comes to an end in October. But I'm fine with that. Because what do I want really bad? I want to focus on school and perform well in my classes and I want to focus on my cycling. So really, it is all about priorities. I spent 3.5 months living the dream. No school, no real job. Pretty much all of my friends were traveling the world and I pretty much lived like a pro cyclist. Woke up, rode for hours, come home and rested, repeat over and over and over all summer. And now, life is a lot busier. I find myself going to bed before 10pm usually, but hey, I'm making it happen, and I'm happy about that.

Roll with the punches

I haven't updated my blog in a while. I've had pretty killer ideas kick around in my head, but alas, I never got around to publishing them here as intended. Anyway, I'll give a quick rundown of current events in my life since my last post.

-One of my bestest friends ever came home from a three month excursion across Europe and South Africa. I picked him up from the airport and his beard was beastly. He got into cycling and said he wouldn't shave until he rode 1,000 kilometers. I told him I'd grow my beard along with him and so I have a small, furry animal living on my face now.

-I drove to multiple central florida airports probably about five times in the course of three days (two trips took place at 5am). When I hear people need a ride, I guess I am just too nice to say no. The airport ride is the sincerest showing of love/friendship, so I don't take these trips lightly.

-I've done more lawn work in the past few weeks than any single person should take on. Grass grows too fast in florida during the summer. I mowed on Monday and it's Friday and it already needs a cut. The process of mowing sucks, but being able to look at the finished products makes it all worth it. Not much looks finer than a freshly cut/edged lawn.

-I donated half of the crap in my closet to Goodwill. This helped me to realize that I never need to go shopping for new clothes again.

-I started reading this book about this fellow from South Africa that all of a sudden decided to ride a bicycle around the coast of the entire continent of Africa. Amazing.

Anyway, to the good stuff... I've dominated the past three races in the Lake Louisa summer race series. With those results, I upgraded and now race in the pro field. It's really been a steady, upward climb for the past year, especially as of late, and words can't really describe the feeling I get from seeing my hard work and determination materialize into what I've set out for myself. I did my first race in the pro field this past weekend in Jacksonville and raced like a true G. Pretty interesting story.. this retired linebacker from the NFL, played with the Patriots and Jaguars got into cycling after football. It was a long transition for him coming from football to cycling, but now he's one of the best racers in the state. The first time he won any money in a race he said he cherished it more than any money he earned in the NFL. Someone snapped a pretty badass picture of me riding on his wheel during Saturday's road race.


Pretty sick!

Putting your money where your mouth is

There is something real gratifying about being able to put your money where your is, so to speak. You know, being able to set your sights high and just go out and perform brilliantly. I had a moment like this last night and I'm still riding high from it.

During the summer months a local guy puts on these bike races on Tuesday nights out in Clermont in Lake Louisa State Park. It's a 25 mile race, five laps of a five mile couse, full of a couple short but real hard, sharp climbs with the finish being near the top of the hardest climb on course. Last night was the fourth race in the series. I knew I had to perform in this race so I could get the few points left that I needed to upgrade to a higher category of racing. I put the pressure on myself and pretty much told myself I was going to do well in the race no matter what, no other options.

It was a wet and rainy race, which is only good for relief from the summer heat. Anyway, on the first of five laps I felt a lull in pace, a slight let up as we started one of the bigger hills. I literally said "phuck it" and jumped out of the saddle and accelerated as hard as I could and was away by myself up the climb and was quickly joined by one other rider. Him and I destroyed ourselves for a lap, keeping a 15 second gap on the main field until we were joined by one other rider, one of the strongest racers in Florida. We three just killed it for the remaining three laps. Our gap didn't grow so it was a definite battle knowing we were barely hovering off the front. Finally on the last night, the peleton couldn't chase anymore and we were sure to stay away to battle out the race between the three of us. In the end, the strong mofo won, myself taking second place, which I was, and still am, very happy with. I, of course, got the joy out of having a great race, but it was also that feeling of relief from doing what I told myself I had to do. Putting the pressure on myself and performing in the clutch. That's one of the most satisfying feelings in the world.

The Great Outdoors

Few things are better than outdoor adventures, especially with some good bros. Being out of school for the summer and currently unemployed I have been determined to live life to the fullest. It's the Summer Of Colin!! (I stole that title from an old episode of Seinfeld, one of my favorite shows of all time). I make it a point to not turn down opportunities to live. Well, Monday night two of my best bros suggest we go camping so on Tuesday we packed up some supplies and trekked to the edge, as far away from the city lights of O-town without going on a full-blown road trip.

Camping is fun. It provides an opportunity to get away from it all and just absorb the company of friends. No computers, television, air conditioning, whatever. It's refreshing. The most exciting part of your night is building a fire and then just chillin' around it, having a good time. I'll be honest though.. camping in FLA during the summer is a bit taxing. The tent was damn hot (I woke up in a pool of my own sweat a few times) and the bugs are relentless if you forget to pack bug repellant (we made this mistake). But all in all, it was still a damn good time and I urge you to give it a go some time soon. And check out our awesome tent-building skills!

Inspirado.. where does it come from?

I love experiences that are inspiring. You know, give you goosebumps, make you envision yourself doing something awesome. Moments that make you feel really good, and nothing else in the world matter at that moment in time. I experience moments like this a lot because I guess I'm just lucky, but I had a real good one last Friday...

It was the day Warped Tour stopped off in Orlando to rock some faces off. This was my fifth Warped Tour in my short life, and I think it was my favorite. My two favorite bands at the moment, along with a plethora of other bands that I'm a fan of and enjoyed rocking out to. The band that stole the show that day was The Devil Wears Prada. To think, a christian metal band from a small town in Ohio made up of five guys my age (19-21 yrs old) that was absolutely nothing a year ago totally owned Warped Tour. It was like nothing else going on while they were playing mattered. 90 percent of people there were fixated on this performance, and for good reason. From the second these doods took the stage, you could tell they were in their element. They went all out, went freaking crazy; they rocked races off for sure. Looking back on how passionate these guys were/are about what they do, their music, their shows, all for their love of it, made me realize that that is what people need to seek out in life. Do something that makes you feel like you're on top of the world. Do something you're passionate about, something you absolutely love. Really, The Beatles were right, all you need in life to make you happy is love.

Harden Up

So yesterday MTV was airing a marathon of this intriguing show called "World's Strictest Parents". The concept is that MTV takes two teenage delinquents and has them live in a house with very strict adults to try and instill some concept of maturity in these rotten kids. I tuned it periodically and realized something that I think is a big problem with the youth of America these days; young people are so damn lazy and soft, afraid to lift and finger and break a sweat.

These kids were usually asked to do some sort of manual labor, like cleaning and stuff of that sort. It was funny to see how much they bitched about spending a few hours cleaning or whatever. All these kids wanted to do was go out, party, get wasted, whatever. Kids like this are going to crash and burn in a giant cloud of failure. Partying is fun and all every once in a while. But come on, there are much greater things out there. I remember seeing so many of my friends back in high school drift down that path and all of them now? Working in pizza shops. It's sad to me to see it happen and I just hope these people wake up and learn something about life and what it's all about.

Got a tune in my head I can't quite shake.

Remember when MTV and VH1 actually played music videos? Yeah, it was a long time ago. If you click over to MTV at any given moment you'll probably find yourself watching some staged, bullshit dating show or some pregnant 16 year old ruining her life in front of a video camera crew. VH1 is not much different, but a little better. They actually play music videos at 6 AM and have the top 20 countdown once a week. Well two days ago I flipped over to VH1 to watch some of the top 20 countdown and I caught this new video from a band I've never heard of, but I got hooked instantly and I haven't gotten the song out of my head yet. I found an acoustic version on youtube and included the video for your viewing/listening pleasure. check it outtttt.

Getting lost in the pain cave

Lately I've been riding my bike way more than ever. It's summer, I don't have school, don't have a job, and nine out of ten of my closest friends are traveling the world right now. So what does that mean? I have a shitload of free time on my hands and no real distractions pulling me in every direction. So with all of this awesome riding I've felt I've gotten on some pretty damn good form, if not the best form of my short life so far. Luckily I decided to test it out last night at Orlando's time trial series.

Since 99% of people have no clue what a time trial (TT) is, I'll quickly elaborate. A TT is a bike race in which each rider races on his own against the clock. Each rider goes off in 30 sec or 1 min intervals and rides a given course as fast as possible, hoping to set the best time. Last night's course was a 14.5 miler, mostly flat, but wide open and windy as balls. I did this same course three months ago and suffered like a dog the entire time. I felt awesome, legs on fire last night. From the beginning I focused on catching my 30 sec guy, and I did in about 2.5 miles. After that I was focused on chasing my next carrot dangling in front of me, the guy who started 1 minute in front of me. I blew by him after a few more miles. I was raging.

When all was said and done I came in second, riding 14.5 miles in just at 32 minutes. Last time I did this TT I finished 6th, and I was two seconds behind one of my local adversaries. Last night I beat him by almost a minute.

Seeing first hand how hard works pays off gives a feeling of happiness that is hard to match.

This is my light, I'm gonna let it shine

I love that old saying "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade". That's a piece of some really great advice. Sometimes it seems like a lot of crap happens all at once, but I've learned the best way to deal is to just laugh it off and make the best of it. Hating life won't get you anywhere. It seems like I've been following this advice well lately, and today I was really tested. I went out on a ride and it seemed like everything that could go wrong happened in the span of about 45 minutes (this happened to me about a week and a half ago as well). But hell, I saw the lighter side in it all, and I literally laughed it off as I crawled home on my busted bike at 10 mph in a whaling thunderstorm. There is way too much too be happy about in life for us to get mad over pointless shit, right? Put a smile on.

Boomerang

So I was on a ride today, stopped at a red light. A guy in a truck pulled up next to me. He had his window down and stuck his head out and asked "hey, don't you have a car". I answered "yeah, but who needs cars when we've got bikes". And at the last second I added "oh, and this bike is worth way more than my car" :)

Bicycle Rights

Every single time I roll out of my driveway I have to cope with the same fearful thought that I had when I first started cycling 7 years ago. "Will I make it back alive today?"

There are sports that hold inherent risks. In mountain climbing there is always the risk of falling; hiking the risk of getting lost; mountain biking the risk of breaking bones in a crash; basketball brings sprained ankles, broken noses; soccer and tennis torn ligaments. But these risks are understood and the athlete assumes the responsibility for taking those risks with their own health. It is a personal choice.

With road cycling though the risk, more often than not, is death. Not because of the dangerous nature of the sport (it's actually relatively benign as far as injury is involved) but because of the carelessness, disregard, and the flat-out animosity of other vehicles on the road.

When it comes to a collision between a 2-ton steel vehicle and 150 pound cyclist, there is little wiggle room for sprained ankles and torn ligaments. The disparity between this match up almost always leads to severe and catastrophic injury to the cyclist.

After 7 years I may have honed my ability to cope with the fear induced by malevolent drivers. I don't jump and swerve anymore when someone startles me by blaring their horn when their car is three feet away. I don't run off the road when a rear view mirror misses my head by a foot (though I probably should). I have learned to swallow my anger when I get run off the road at stop signs by a driver who misjudged how fast I was going and how much time they actually had to pass me. I can even hold my line in the air-wake of a Semi blasting by me at 50+ mph.

However, that fear remains just as potent and present as it was on my very first endeavor. Flash backs from prior close calls still make me break out in a cold sweat.

However, unlike these other sports, it is not for the road cyclist to assume the risk of severe injury or death caused by an inattentive or careless driver; that is not a risk inherent to the sport. That is the direct result of actions taken by one individual which cause harm to another.

For any cyclist abiding by the rules of the road, there is absolutely zero reason for their life to be at risk. By law, they posses the same rights to the road as any other vehicle and demand the same level of respect and consideration as any other vehicle on the road.

So the next time you're passing one, remember, this isn't a matter of fucking pride. You're not clever for "teaching someone a lesson about the road." You are toying with the life of another person, this is a matter of life and death for me and I don't deserve to die simply because I like to ride my bike to places sidewalks could never go.

Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right.

So I came recently came across the title of this blog entry while lurking on someone's facebook. Apparently it's a quote from Henry Ford. But it definitely caught my eye because I agree with it 1,000,000 percent. Most people don't realize how far their own mind can take them. Just believing in yourself and your ability to succeed goes a hell of a long way. If you don't believe in yourself achieving what you set out to do, what's the point of trying at all? If I don't think I'm going to win a bike race that I enter, what's the point of me even showing up in the first place? I remember when I was a wee lad, this old janitor (don't ask me why a janitor was talking to me lol) was giving me advice so I didn't end up in a job like him and said "if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anyhting". I never really took that quote to heart for the longest time. I usually approached it with an immature mindset, arguing against it with "if I put my mind towards jumping off of a building and living, I still probably won't live". But honestly, that shit is so true. Put your mind towards something and see if you've got the balls to stick with it.

40K of nothing but pain

Ok, so I another blog post, but this one is all about a pretty crazy experience I had yesterday. I drove to Jacksonville to do a race, but it was a fawking intense racing. There are a few different types of races in cycling (road race, criterium, circuit race, etc) all challenging in a different way. One of the most intense races is a time trial. This is when each rider is sent off individually, each separated by one minute intervals. It's all about one man riding against the clock, trying to finish the course in the fastest time. It's all about aerodynamics and just going balls out. But it pretty much comes down to whoever can suffer the most. I've only done two of this type of race in the past, and I've done well considering. But yesterday's race was like nothing ever before. It was a 40 kilometer course (about 25 miles) of nothing but pain. I didn't know what to expect. I pretty much thought that I'd keel over at the finish and possibly die. That obviously didn't happen, but it was insane. I rode the course in 57 minutes, and I was hoping for 55, but whatev I still placed well. But seriously, no one really knows suffering until they do one of these. It's such a mental experience. For the first five miles all I did was question why in the hell I was doing this to myself. Once I got over that initial hump, it was just about not dying while trying to kill myself. Makes sense, right? During a race like this, you drool all over yourself, blow snot all over yourself, whatever, it really doesn't matter. You are in a completely different world for the time that you are riding the course. It's like you are in a zone where nothing else exists, nothing else matters. All you can think about is pedaling nonstop and the pain you feel from doing so. It was insane, but I'm happy to just have finished strong and not die. Other riders were not so lucky. There were a few that collapsed while riding and had to be taken to a hospital. Cycling is no joke.

oh wow

Haven't updated ye ol' bloggo in a while. Really haven't had the motivation to, but now I do. What have I been up to lately? Well, not a whole lot. It's summer. I don't have school to worry about. I don't have a real job. Most of my friends have been in Europe or China or something crazy. So I've been doing a lot of my own thing. Riding ye bicycle like a monster. Going to coffee shops to read and listen to my ipod. That is like my new favorite thing to do. I've become good at finding activities to help the time pass, and just chill really. Making time to do nothing but enjoy life is something I try to do as often as possible. You should do the same.

Anyway, how about dem Magic? They advanced to the NBA FINALS last night! I can't believe it. I remember being four years old and being obsessed with the Shaq and Penny duo, watching them get swept against the Rockets, being heartbroken when Shaq left the Magic for the Lakers.. so much history with this team. It's amazing to see them return to greatness. It's also amazing to see so many people that never gave a shit about the Magic suddenly become completely obsessed. I mean, yeah, support them. But I think it's kind of sad that it takes a great playoff performance for everyone to jump on the bandwagon, and they'll be forgotten about completely come July. Anywho... my birthday is in a week and all I want is a Magical Championship!

Probably the best book I've ever stuck my nose in. I love it. I plan my days around being able to read it. Just thought I'd share.

sunset's never were so bright, and the sky never so blue

So, the spring semester ended one week ago. I woke up last friday morning at 5:45 and went and took my last final (100 question biology exam) and I owned it. I walk away from this semester with two A's and one B (yeah I only took three classes). It's so funny too. With about a month left in the semester I thought I was going to fail biology and get a bad grade in statistics. I totally devoted myself to my studies in that final month. Walked away with an A in statistics after absolutely owing the last test. I had a high B in Biology in the end, just three points away from an A, so I'm pretty pleased with myself. That just goes to show that if you put your mind towards anything and truly devote enough of yourself, you can achieve anything. I've always been a strong believer in this philosophy and it's never let me down.

Anyway, my summer has been pretty stellar so far. All I've done have been ride my bike A LOT and just chill and enjoy life. Cinco De Mayo was sooooo fun. Seriously, props to all my friends for celebrating with me. Gotta love that Mexican heritage. But seriously, I'm living the dream. Yesterday, I slept all day because I was feeling kind of suck. I finally got up at like 3 and decided to go ride. I was out in the middle of freaking nowhere and I ran into a rider I know from the local scene. We rode together and just talked and cruised and enjoyed life. Riding with him added like an extra hour to my ride, but it was so worth it. And today, I woke up at 7, rode for 2.5 hours with a good friend, enjoyed it greatly. Right after that, I went downtown and enjoyed a nice hour of yoga (give that stuff a try, it's really legendary). Now, I'm chillin' downtown at a sick little spot, listening to my ipod, sipping coffee, and writing this stupid blog. This is what I do these days, and I love it.

Paper Shoes

So, here I am at one of new favorite places (the Panera downtown on Lake Eola) studying for my last final exam of the semester tomorrow morning at 7. Biology. It's a truly riveting subject. Okay, that was a boldfaced lie. Anyway, the smell of summer is lurking, and I like it. Time to live my life without the lingering thought of tests and papers in the back of my head. I need to find a job to get some bread stacks in my pocket though. I feel it's going to be an amazing summer though. Traveling all over, racing my bike, hopefully making another large leap in my chasing of the dream. Speaking of, I FINALLY have my new time trial bike in rideable condition. Took me long enough...and I had to take parts off of my other bikes just to get it up and running, but it's pretty sexy. For those who don't know what a time trial is (I'm going to assume every person that might read this blog doesn't know) it's when cyclists race alone against the clock. The rider covering the given course in the smallest amount of time is dubbed the winner. Aerodynamics play a huge role in it (since you ride alone with nothing to draft), thus the weird looking bike and wheel. You pretty much ride flat out as hard as you can, until you go cross-eyed in pain. I did my second TT ever on Tuesday night, second time riding the new bike and I got 6th...lame. Was hoping for better. I finished two measly seconds behind 5th. I rode a 14.2 mile course in 31 minutes roughly. You do the math. Anyway, I should get back to studying instead of wasting time on this here internet. Keep it hard. And here's a picture of my newest toy..

I give today two thumbs up

I skipped class today to go ride for 5.5 hours (about 100 miles). Such a beautiful day in the FLA, I had to.

Fulfill the Dream

It's amazing. Really is. So here's the low down. I was totally failing my Biology class there for a while. I got a 14 on the second test. Yeah, I would've put a gun in my mouth if it wasn't for the fact that the professor dropped the lowest test grade. Anyway, I knew I had to kick it into high gear. I went to tutoring, bought the study guide textbook, everything. I did a little better on test 3, but not a whole lot. I raped myself even more. Everything. Totally scored a B on the last test and with my super high lab grade, I now have an A in that class. From F to A. All that's left is a 100 question final exam. Keeping my fingers crossed. But this isn't just a freak occurance. My Statistics class was a bomber too. I was doing like, mediocre. I had a fourth test coming up and if I did decent on it I wouldn't have to take the optional final on the same day as my huge bio exam. Even though I knew how important that exam was, I didn't study for it much at all. I've been busy stressing about other things, and spent all weekend racing my bike too. I didn't know shit going into it. I studied for it in the library for like 40 minutes before I went in to take the actual test (most of those 40 minutes were spent zoning out while listening to my ipod at that). Came out of that test thinking I bombed it. Looked up my grade tonight. GOT AN A. Missed one question. With that test grade, I am now done with the class and don't have to take the optional final. That is just like, way too awesome.

I'm building something...

Just a personal observation... People constantly talk about how making sacrifices to reach a given goal is so hard. The classic example is that of the athlete who gives up all of life's youthful indiscretions to focus on their craft. You know, the 12 year old who goes and does soccer drills for hours after school. The college student who actually doesn't go out drinking every other night but instead focuses on studying non-stop hoping to graduate with a high GPA and get into med school. I think it's all shit. If you really want something bad enough, those "sacrifices" aren't so hard to make. I constantly have possible distractions popping up in my life, but I take a second and think. I usually ask myself "how bad do I want to win" and it becomes a pretty easy decision.

Anyway, less than two weeks until my last final. words can't describe my jubilation.

Legendary

So last week was pretty shitty. My grades are not all that great and the semester is almost over. I realized I'm broke and I didn't get the job I was shooting for at the UCF gym. I felt like crap on the bike. Basically, I was just feeling sour towards everything. Then came yesterday, Saturday. One of the greatest days ever. The culmination of all the hard work that I've put in this season so far paid off. I lined up for the most epic race of the season. An 80 miles road race called Webster-Roubaix (pronounced Roo-bay). We rode a 10 mile loop eight times, but each lap had a 2.5 mile long section of horrible dirt road with the start/finish halfway through the dirt section. I'd never been so nervous before a race start. I seriously thought I was going to get raped. I started the race, rolling out on the dirt and in that first 1.5 miles of racing, there were crashes everywhere, left and right. It was completely surreal to watch people eating it all around me. Anyway, on the first lap of this 80 mile race I went to the front and drilled it, started a split consisting of me and 11 other guys and the race was over. We had a 5 minute gap on the rest of the racers, but still had about 70 miles to race. Slowly but surely, guys in the break were popping left and right. By the last two laps it was just five of us left, and eventually just three of us left duking it out. I was suffering so bad the last 3 laps. I was cramping from my feet up to my hands. My legs were locking up. I was in the ultimate pain cave, but I fought through it with every ounce of strength I had because I knew this was my day, it was now or never. Fast forward to the finish and I ended up getting third...not first but still epic. It all came down to my mustache and pink bike.

I sold my soul to the open road

Watch the first minute and 35 seconds into this video. It's pretty legendary.

Method Behind the Madness

These pretzels are making me thirsty? That's the title of my blog (and the title of my ipod) and you're probably asking yourself "wtf is that about". Well, let me clue you in. Ever since I was a wee lad I've been a huge fan of the hit television sitcom, Seinfeld. That show is just, yes. And just for the record, the character of George blows away Kramer, don't care what critics say. Anyway, there are lots of little blurbs in the show that reoccur throughout the life of the show, and only true Seinfeldians know what a lot of these blurbs are. "These pretzels are making me thirsty" is one of them. I remember seeing it for the first time with my dad, and we laughed for days about it and always say it to each other as an inside joke. But anyway, I found a short youtube video that displays some of the awesomeness behind this famous moment in Seinfeld history. 

It's been a while since my last post so I'll just do a run through of the current events in the life of colin. 

-drove down to tampa last sunday for a race. it was ridiculous. almost ran out of gas on the way there (I do this a lot). had to drive like, 90 mph to get there in time. got a flat tire on my rear wheel while warming up and had to borrow a wheel from someone. raced like a beast and only got 6th. that's a picture of me laying down some serious pain on the front. 

-totally went to this kickass show at house of blues on wednesday night. saw A DAY TO REMEMBER (soooooo good. myspace them) and THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. it was totally sold out and jammed freakin' packed! I wore crocs and that was a horrible idea. next thing I know I'm crowd surfing to get out of the pit and my crocs fall off while I'm in mid-air. by the grace of god someone threw them to me and I caught them while being felt up by 100 people at once. that show was definitely one to remember though. going to shows bring me back to simpler times. just go and rock out and have a good time. 

-got a long overdue haircut from my good buddy, dirk. he cut mine, I cut his. it was beautiful. I was rocking a mop top for a while. it goes well with my mustache. 

-yeah that's all I feel like informing ya'll about. 

anyway, life's been so awesome lately. it seems like every day, awesome stuff happens to me and I constantly find myself asking "what are the chances". like the most obscure, random things ever. every day. it's so legendary. just makes me smile and enjoy life that little bit more. 

final thoughts:

-winter park, FL is the only part of central florida worth looking at. 

-less than a month left in this spring semester=CRUNCH TIME!

-I'm sitting in panera as I'm posting this. I'm wearing my obama shirt. I have gotten several supporting comments regarding obama and it makes me happy. finally, we have a leader that has the support of more than 30 percent of our country. 

Eat this not that

So I was in a local waldenbooks store today and to no surprise, they were going out of business. Everything was at least 40 percent off so I browsed around a bit and ended up making a sick find... Eat This Not That: Supermarket Survival Guide. This book is unreal awesome and actually useful. We all want to be healthier, right? Well this book pretty much gives you suggestions of ways to easily achieve that by just making better choices when buying groceries. But what I like most about this read is that it debunks all the bullshit marketing on all these packages these days. "WHOLE GRAIN POP-TARTS ARE HEALTHY!!!" bullshit. I'm just sad that it told me twix is the ultimate worst candy bar. twix is the only one with the cookie crunch...can't beat that cookie crunch. anyway, if you're ever in your local bookstore that hasn't gone out of business yet, pick up one of these books and take a look at it. it may just blow your mind. 

Holdin' it down for the underground

If you're ever feeling down, drink a monster and you'll feel awesome!

just putting that out there...

ok I'm just going to say this now...I'm not going to worry about using perfect punctuation in my blog postings. it's just a blog, who gives a phuck? I have to worry about that enough while I'm writing 13 page papers for my biology lab or what have you. and speaking of biology labs..I just turned in my 13 page lab report, final draft. I worked pretty damn hard on it, which is like the only thing I've worked hard on this semester that is related to school. but I definitely expect something good to come out of staying up until 4:30 in the morning perfecting it..the weight is off of these shoulders fosho. I don't know what it is, but I just have so many other things I rather do than read about cell division in my biology textbook. I totally went to Panera today to kill time between classes, hoping to study. I end up having coffee with a friend, sharing great conversation for two hours. no studying at all took place, but I think I spent my time wisely. and that's another thing.. some people throw around the term "best friend" too loosely when in reality it just seems that them making time for you is an inconvenience. soooooo sorry to be a burden, right? we're all guilty of this, just try and make it right. a scholar once proclaimed "we all make mistakes, but it's how we address them that proves whether we are assholes or not". yeah I totally made that one up, could you tell? 

anyway, I drank a few beers tonight in celebration of a few things: finishing that lab report, having a sick block of riding/racing like champ recently, and for just being legendary, so this post has been kind of fun. I might be drunk again and do this all again soon. hope you enjoied it. 

blog?

Yeah, so I made the leap and finally created my own blog. I have some pretty awesome thoughts in my day to day life and I figured maybe someone out there in cyberspace would enjoy reading them from time to time. When I'm out on my bike for four hours, just pedaling, my mind can come up with some pretty crazy scheize. Or when I have a break between classes and I just sit with a cup of coffee and people-watch.. I think I see some pretty funny shit worth posting about, maybe. Anyway, check back from time to time, be entertained, who knows, have a laugh? Enjoi