Santa Barbara Weekend

This past weekend I was in Santa Barbara for the NBL CA State Series. Let me tell ya all about it. For weeks now I have been hearing how they got a new track and it's pretty gnar! So we get going early on Friday without our baggage that was supposed to come along with us. Nate & I got there, hung out for a bit, went to the track for practice on Friday. We see a new track in the same spot, new fencing allowing only 1 way in and out for spectators and not much room for canopies that even further restricts the flow. I took to the track and on first impression thought it was just misshaped and didn't flow in my opinion. We rode all evening but quickly realized with the 1st 2 turns being old school 90 degree turns that the race was already over before then so I worked on pinning down a good gate and 1st straight. We bailed after a couple hours cause it wasn't happening. 20 some riders for practice doesn't really get a sick session going. I want to take the time right now to thank the track for not playing 1 note of music over the PA all weekend. It really brought up the legitimate excitement level and kept everyone on point to watch all the exciting racing going on. We left for dinner but after realizing nothing was good and everything but our 1 Saturday night joint is the only place we care for, we went to Ventura for some crab shack. That would be the 2nd time in a day that GMaps GPS got us lost taking us to places closed down or roads that don't exist.

On Saturday morning we got up a little late, hit the track to get charged for parking. Again as usual the track throws up their arms and says they have nothing to do with it and didn't know about it. But the people charging managed to know what time to be there and to have passes made up that say "BMX" on them along with the fact that nobody else going into that park got charged but racers. The track also failed to put the info on the flier mainly in my opinion cause they wanted to hide the fact of being charged. I understand they might not get the dough from it, but it still comes out of every ones pocket and it's not supposed to at the state level. OK enough with my ranting, lets get passed that. I hit the track for practice and on my 2nd gate it doesn't drop thanks to 1 of the 3 rams that are failing at the track that with their ignorance didn't get any of them fixed. If they did it wouldn't have stuck and flipped me over the gate as it didn't drop. So now 10 minutes in I got some raging pain on my hip flexor that has been torn 3 times from those same episodes over the years. My damn finger is broke too thanks to flipping that frozen gate. Not a good thing to waste on trivial things only 20 some days before getting on a plane for a 5 grand trip to Australia. The day went on, I won all the way thru and took 1st. The track never really proved to be a racing track, it was more of a 1 line hang on and salvage what speed you had. Turn 3 is the 1st 180 turn and it's not even aligned with the 4th straight so again useless to make any sort of move. Once racing was done we were just ready to leave and get moving towards the only good about this place. The Beach! It sure isn't the overpriced hotel rooms nobody managed to think about sitting in that board meeting back in December! We spent the afternoon at the beach and it was pretty sweet to get away from all the damn training that's been going down lately. By the evening we were at our regular spot eating and some drinking then it was off to the hotel.

Sunday was the day that just didn't matter for me, I was pretty sore when I woke up and just tugged along the day. I had a class closer to my age today but got the wins and got out of there as soon as we could. We drove it home and even managed to get home in time to hit the evening training session over at the pool. Now it's Monday I am still sore, black and blue from bruising, but it's time to either go be a roadie or a runner. I guess it's my choice today but its all cardio in the books! Until something else skunks me it's back to the daily grind. It seems a little negative but all in all the State Series is still flowing along, handing out them trusty trophies that lure the kids in for more after their epic win against all the super competitive racers that show up at the state level. The winning is majestic after passing on all the thin straights the CA tracks are beginning to build and in the end that's what it's all about! (Take that how you want to)

The Oasis

Hey people. This guy doesn't update I see. I have the power to update this madness whenever I want but like everything else in life things just kinda fade away after a while. Just hit up the track with Cody tonight. On the way out of there he wanted to hit the Thirst Oasis over at the AMPM before we rocked the jacuzzi after my house. We did this plyo workout earlier today so its whats owed to us. So we go in there and he is like pro at this thing. We checked out and next thing I know we are rocking 64 ounce bladder busters and I am thinking to myself how where the hell this thing is going to sit in my car. I hope in and of course it doesn't fit in the cup holder. Cant stick it on the ground because its top heavy. Don't want it in my lap cuz I need to shift plus Mr Happy will shrink. I decided to carry it with my left hand. Seemed like a good enough idea. Well now we are going 100 mph to my house chasing each other through the residential streets. I soon realize that my arms is starting to get tired because I have a 10 lbs cup in my hand and I'm like screeching my tires around curves and stuff. There you have it people.. 5 minutes in the life of a BMX racer

Hollar
3DigitNate

June?

Is it really June? Good and bad come of that. Hey, almost half of another year has blown by. Bad part is, only a few months until I'm older and slower! Another problem is that it's June and raining on me! Not just me, but what the heck I go to Utah for the NBL Regional and hit rain driving there, pre race almost didn't happen cause of rain, then after day 1 of racing on Saturday it rained during day 2 of racing and caused a huge mud pit. Racing was cancelled after 2nd round and I got nailed with my conservative method for the day. I had to race the young guns that were hot roding the 1st straight, so I just chilled during rounds and was going for broke in the main, that never happen due to rain. I ended up with 3rd after some lame ruling of how they decided to call it a rain out? I know I sure complain when were playing slip and slide with the Boys Association and their last 5 races I have been too, but I cant decide what sucks more, racing in the rain, or just not racing. Either way all my crap was muddy when I came home, so I might as well raced.

The next 2 weekends are laying low for me and some big volume of training has been put on me. I am kind of thinking up the impossible by making plans to race at sea level in Adelaide, fly to Colorado and race at over a mile high all within a week. End of July will be UCI Worlds, and then that following weekend is the State Games. Enough with the drama of 2 months away cause coming up will be the NBL State in Santa Barbara where the CA group will try and host something bigger than a local race. Speaking of drama, the best "dam" track seems to have put up some new signs that shows they are not nibbling anymore. Whittier Narrows is back open finally so I am going tonight to check out the action and figure out if the rumors are true that there are new lips on the jumps. That seems pretty lame since it was the very best training track around. Anyway, that's the scoop, I am out!

CA State Weekend

So this past weekend was busy for me. I got some training in, but also had the state race to attend to. Bringing it hometown creates way to much extra workload. I did manage to snap a picture in my spare time to stir up some thoughts. I wont get into prices, but have found out from the direct source that the cost in nearly the exact. But you better check out the photo and see what a $30 race trophy and a $10 race trophy looks like next to eachother. I know certain folks can jump the gun and tell me how there is more to the $30 race like jackets, end of year things, etc. But the plain and simple fact is that it don't cut it for attraction of the new kids. Not only is this a comparison of 3rd to 1st, but it's the only way the state really has of attracting riders with the "aww" factor when they roll in with their brigade for the weekend. It sure isn't the competition lately, it can't be the moto count, maybe it's the track quality? I just don't see much myself when looking at the poor new guy that has nothing to compare it too other than their 50+ moto, 200 rider ABA state race with some monstrous trophies in comparison. Ok, there is my rant and thought to stir everyone. We just gotta stop worrying about how many tubes, pens, and "verifiers" we have for the event, and start catching the key points that bring up rider count.

It sounds like New Mexico was pretty quiet for ABA this past weekend. Nothing to special was happening or at least I didn't hear anything over on twitter. This coming weekend is the NBL Regional in Utah. I gotta trek up there on Friday and fly back on Saturday so I can do my work thing on Sunday. The rest of this week I will be on program for worlds training. Real soon I will be hitting some altitude so I can get ready for that Colorado Springs race when I get back from Australia in August.

I don't have anything else for this morning update. So it's back to the twitter updates again!

Wow To Fresno

Finally had a minute after a taking the whole weekend and saying WOW to the Fresno track. This past weekend at the NBL National it was a treat to be able to feel like we were on a UCI quality track. It's might have been a good thing considering UCI stuff coming up. The place is turning out awesome even besides the track. It's got a super fun trail area and a whole bunch of other playgrounds for bicycles. It's a pretty sweet venue.

It's been another couple weeks since a true update but other than working it's been a pretty uneventful couple of weeks full of training until today when I hit the dentist chair. I had some classes the past couple weeks and that sidelined the program a little, but it's on now. Full training mode for the Worlds in just over a month or so.

The drama continues stirring on the NBL side of things as the boards, presidents and everyone else clashes with other peoples ideas. It's pretty funny. It's like a huge downtown LA gridlock that doesn't move! It's just bad for everything cause people get their big ideas to "get theirs". Either way it's a loss for the ones that get overlooked cause of someones power. I just might jump on the twitter during the meeting just to amuse you that care. Until I take some time to really update just keeping checking that live twitter blog. I don't skip a beat there (yet!)

Las Cruces & Blasterfield

It's been a few weeks since a real update so I figured I better sit down, rest and type something to let you know the life and times of nothing! The trip a couple weekends ago to New Mexico for the Las Cruces Regional actually turned out pretty good even though all of the road trippers bailed last minute. Bunch of corn flakes! Anyway it was left to Nate & I to drive 11 hours each way. The drive over was not that bad, then the track was amazing. We rode Friday for about 5 minutes before Nate dumped it on the pro set and got broke off. I got a 2nd on Saturday and 1st on Sunday racing everyone younger. It turned out I was the oldest rider at the damn race. We got done early Sunday and drove it all the way home. All week I did nothing but unpack and repack so we could split to Bakersfield this past weekend.

Bakersfield was the typical. Same track as the last 100 nationals there. No changes, same blast turn and sandy dirt. Flat starting gate and dusty facility. Same rain as the last 4 nationals I have been too. It rained Friday and the track got slick so I bailed on practice. Saturday was better and with a short rider count I transferred 1st round and went back to the hotel, came back for mains and bonked! My worst lap on a track in months so I ended up 6th place. On Sunday I came back ready to do better and transferred with a good lead then missed the podium in the main by an inch so I ended up 4th. We got stuck driving the long way home thanks to a windmill flying on the freeway.

The last couple days has just started a huge training routine for me. It's in preparation for the worlds and all that summer racing. It's been good and it felt good to bring up the volume some. I got a phone call yesterday about the State Games Of America and it looks like I might be heading to Colorado Springs after Adelaide. That just adds more to the schedule but it would actually replace the Prunedale national. Can you believe ABA hit a new level today and phoned up with a telemarketing message about the redline cup in Camarillo. They don't got me, I am taking the weekend off from the road and working before another 4 weeks in a row. At least 1 of the 4 will be a hometown weekend at X-Roads.

I know I got some e-mails asking for Nates update that he said he was putting up, but hey he got lazy. Keep checking and maybe he will post up. .. Im Out!

Training Week

I kind of didn't get much accomplished in the way of any work this week cause I spent the whole week doing a short training block. I did some training at the center this week and today was no exception. Next week is a drive to New Mexico. I don't know what I was thinking when I made these plans but in 700 miles I will never forget airplane in my plans again. It should be fun as it's turning into a guys road trip.

Speaking of training centers? Did you hear the new ABA national in September at the USA Otc! What happen there.. swooped. Riding should be on the agenda for tomorrow night and then I got 3 days of work before getting packed up for the trek to almost El Paso next week. I should be wanting some time off soon but I just keep searching out the next trip. I am feeling really good about this summer as my power seems to feel good and it's prior to a month of leg work to come so I sure hope come July I can spin to the podium over in kangaroo land. OK, that's it, back to twitter cause it's so much easier.