Week of new

Man this week has been pretty crazy, but in an awesome sort of way.  The weekend has just started and I am so beat from a combination of playing as much as possible and dealing with this incredible heat.  Don't take that as a complaint though its been a bit since I have been this stoked at weeks end.  I got my first two wake sessions on the lake this week, which means my whole body feels like I've been hit by a cement truck.  I built up at long last my first full suspension bike.  It's a burly brick shithouse affair that is short on travel, but big on possiblity for play.  My excitement to race it at Eureka is building, and I can't contain myself with the prospect of testing the new flow track at Slaughter Penn.  To continue in the trend of newness, I picked up my new best friend last night and we have been playing since.  My buddy's dogs got a little frisky this year and produced a beautiful litter of chocolate lab golden retiever mixes.  One now resides with me and soon will be my new PIC on the trail.  His name is Sol and he's already been running around the appartment with me and getting on great with my roomates dog.  I have wanted a puppy for so long and am  stoked to have a furry little friend to roam around with, he will be in the water soon and on the trail when it cools down.

Like most good stories there has to be some level of spontinaity to make life a bit more interesting.  Thrsday fit that bill to a t.  It really started as a normal day, wake up, go to work, the norm.  In normal fashion I was absolutely itching to get out on the lake.  This time of year it seams about the only reasonable thing to do.  Well six came and we were queing up for an abreviated Thurday night ride that would consist of around seventeeen miles of chill riding to end up at a new brewery in town, not exactly a hammerfest ride, but it was right in line with my new "training plan".  If you are questioning the exact method of this plan it is something along the lines of ride bike, drink beer, take every opportunity to play.  So starting the ride I see a text from my mate Heath.  "Lake???", is all it said.  Plenty reason for me to ditch my responsibilities as sweeper for the ride.  After a couple calls we decided Heath would finish his stereo install in the boat, gotta have tunes to ride, and I would finish my road ride to the bar where he could snatch me up.  Well a pleasantly uneventful ride drew to a finish at the brewery.  After about ten minutes I decided the wake session probably wasn't gonna happen and I should grab a beer.  Not two minutes in I look outside and Heath has arrived, unfortunately in tow he has a cop with his lights on,  WTF right?!  I pay my tab slam my beer and run out to put my bike in his truck.  It's a quarter to eight at this point and daylight is burning fast, luckily the cop is cool enough to not ticket Heath for the lack of trailer lights, they were working the night before.  The night seams to be slipping away, but we found the short fixed the issue and decided to try for a quick sesh.  Fifteen minutes later we are at the launch watching a massively underpowered and overused Ford Ranger fail at getting their boat out of the water.  How much can go wrong?  We gotta get in the water though, just need a little extra motivation, so we push the boat and truck out of the boat launch,  and yeah at this point I am running behind a boat in my bibs and bright ass yellow cycling shoes.  I don't think we even asked if we could help, that boat was in our way and we got them rolling, I can only imagine what the family watching this unfold was thinking.  Ten minutes later we are in the water and I am strapped in and up.  The combined energy was so high, even more so then when Heath and I normally get together which can only be described as two puppies playing around.  The conditions were perfect, beutiful glassy water one other boat on the water, a purely perfect end to the evening.  We packed in more runs in the hour we had on the water than I usually get in three.  My final set was to the sunset reflecting off the lake and just super calm, but amped all simultaneously. 

To just sum up the week so much unexpected stuff happened and for once it all just worked out awesomely.  There is still more weekend to be had,  and I am gonna do my best to find more fun shit to do.

Be well and get yo shred on y'all.

Return to Arkansas

So it's been a bit since I hace been able or motivated to write on here, but I am back in Arkansas, near a reliable internet source, and have been urged by friends to push on with my blog.  If you haven't been privy to my stories from Colorado one could sum it up with alcohol, injuries, and of course sweating my balls off in a gigantic, furry, overpriced dog costume ( it's pretty insane that suit cost over 10 grand).  Well I'm back and was extremely excited to get back on the bike to train for a good race season.  Turns out that is not going to happen the same tendinitis I battled with last year has sprung up again with a vengence and will not allow me to put in any concerted effort towards training.  So, I have retuned to my roots of street bmx and have gotten extremely slow on anything except for a downhill trail.  Since my departure from training I have sustained a fair amount of flesh wounds and have gotten a little more that platonically familiar with a rail on campus.  I also recently had the oppurtunity to take myself out on one of our group rides.  It was one of those crashes you just don't expect to happen, but when it does it just destroys you.  I severely bruised my quad and sliced my arm open on a rock.  I'm out for a bit but am ready to get out and destroy some more street and trail.  Oh, and i got a new bike build going that should not only allow me to push my boundaries and probide everyone with more ridiculous stories.  So stay tuned in for further tails of gnar.

Winter training in a matter of speaking (the untimely end to my cross season)

So between a combination of nothing of major interest happening, and running around like a decapitated chicken I haven't really been struck with the desire to get back on here.  Alas I have returned, and in one week most everything has changed to some extent.  Last weekend after having my legs absolutely ripped from my body at the ruts and guts cross race in Tulsa, OK I recieved a phone call that solidified my winter plans.  Sunday I will be leaving Arkansas to spend the next four months working as ripperoo, the Keystone resort mascot.  The winter is bound to be full of shredding beutiful snow, but as any good comes with a little bad I may have to do some serious dirtbag practice.  My past climbing skills may have to be revisited to make the first couple weeks work.  No I wont be climbing the chairlift, more the methods I explored when roadying on a budget, there may be a little food scrapping from restaurants.  This should all bring good stories and hopefully some pictures of ripperoo living up to his namesake.

More to come, and to all those down here ride some extra trail over the winter for me.  I am stoked to leave for a bit, but am bummed I'll miss all the sweet winter singletrack and the end of cross season.

Bloggificating things

     So it looks like I am going to try my hand at writing a blog.  First off I would like to appoligize to any english teacher who stumbles upon this as it will more than likely be attrociously written.  We shall see what this turns into, but I am sure it will contain a race story or two.  Mind numbing race reports will hopefully be kept to a minimum, but as I have a tendancy to race like I should be required to wear my helmet even when not on the bike there should be many a story of precautionary origin.  Lets call this Jonathan's guide on how not to race a bike. 
     Now to be as hypocritical as possible, today's cross race put on by the Bike Route was an absolute leg shredder.  The course contained one bitch of a hill, a bit of mud, and plenty of opportunity to make less than great decision.  To get the race goin there was some quality Belgian beer samples at the registration table, yes please pre race carb loading.  Now most people might try to do this the night before, but racing is much more interesting if its left till 30 minutes prior to race time.  After trying to warm up and maybe vanquish my buzz we started and I proceded to ride right off the back.  Three laps in and I have managed to squeeze my way up the field when it occured to me there may be a faster route through the mud pit.  Alas only getting one wheel over the railroad tie and taking an impromptu mud bath doesn't gain you any positions quite the opposite really.  Oh well nothing ventured nothing gained right?  The rest of the race was eventless minus the exquisite burning in everything below my waist.  After fifty minutes of the hardest race I've done in a bit I somehow managed to squeeze my way onto the podium and leave with a little scrilla.

Thanks to any that decide to browse through this, and with any luck I will continue pursuing the unpossible and in failure provide a measure of entertainment.