Don't Stop this Train

This morning on the AM ride of Destruction i had my white phones in and was grooving to take my mind off the thousandth time riding up to the store. Attacked at the base of bubble gum and was really motoring. G Mellor was behind me. I am really working.....sweating, breathing and my legs were full and looking ready to explode when I here G....." Keep this pace" He sounds like he is barely breathing hard. Can't do and pull out....Stone can't pull through and I get back on the front to keep at it. The rest of the crew are long gone......although i couldn't even look back. My heavy breathing would have blown me over if I had looked back. Turn the corner and G says....."Now accelerate"...What.....Dude I am going full gas........OTB.

Anyway.....we are heading back and John Mayer comes on.....Acoustic Guitar....Stop this train.......I look up and see 7 or 8 guys in front. Legs spinning in sync.....spinning, chugging.....motering.....Wide smile......Don't Stop this train. What an analogy for life......can't stop the train....we just keep chugging along. Hows the ride?

Stop this train....i want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed its moving in.

I know I can't, but honestly won't someone stop this train

So scared of getting older

I am only good at being young

I play the numbers game

to find a way to say that life is just begun.

Love is the only thing that seems to freeze time and make us forget it all

This Chicken not from Foster Farms

I love bike racing. It is in my blood. Clean, pure, blood with hematacrit of 42. Could never win the tour with that, but who could. Not with guys like the Chicken racing. Today he was pulled and deep down I knew that dude just wasn't right. No telling what or who is in his blood. I have to say it is sad, but it seems that now people are getting serious about this whole doping deal.

I say, "kick them all out forever."

Nice!!

Super Sexy!!!!

Moving On

There comes a time when you know your ready…..when things feel right and the place your at seems to not. Moving on to other things to other experiences. This is a context in which many events in life can be placed. Many important places; Job, City, Girl/Boyfriend…….Important steps, decisions in ones life. Racing your bike may not seem like something that falls into this category and require such perspective, but when you can’t shake it out of your mind, it never lets go and you find yourself visualizing the race weeks before it happens, you know what place it has in your life………The Passion…….The addiction…….the need. David Walsh put it this way,

"The severity of the sport examined a man's character, illuminating his nobility but also addressing his baser instinct. Perhaps most of all, it offered a challenge that allowed man to transcend his everyday self."

Sunday caused me to do something on Monday I have thought about since I was a kid. Moving on…. up to see how fast they really are. The first time I saw a bike race I knew it was for me, eventually. It took 20 years to get to the point where I was comfortable enough to deal with the pain of training and racing. When I was 12 and did my first bike race I was dropped. The next one…dropped. Dropped, Dropped, Dropped.

Up to that point I had been doing open junior races and competing against kids 4 to 6 years older than me. Men amongst boys, beards and all, sweaty dudes racing against me, the skinny kid. Then I went to Snelling and did a 12-14 junior race. I remember riding in the pack, listening to the riders shout at each other, rubbing wheels, and standing on the pedals as we rolled up the smaller hills, the group, the people at the start finish yelling…….it could have been just 10 people, but the noise was deafening. I remember feeling good. I remember thinking about setting up on the outside coming around the last turn and launching with 100 meters to go……..Throw my arms up and releasing the frustration of a years worth of getting dropped. F’n A that felt good. I still remember it vivid, fresh, yesterday, implanted in my memory…….See the mark and go….don’t hold back, go with everything you got…….after the line… spent, overjoyed, blown….what a rush.

You see the line coming, nothing else, nobody around, you might as well be all by yourself. Last Sunday it happened again, except this time I knew, I had been visualizing it all week, thinking about it, living it over and over again in my mind. Wait, wait…see the line and go…don’t hold back, pull with your arms, put your head down and explode. But…….. this time it was as if I had already done it….seen it, experienced it, expected it. I knew……….Time to move on.


Now the hard part begins, the pain starts and the suffering will be inevitable. Before, I knew I had a chance to win every time I lined up, now, I must be satisfied with small things, little accomplishments, and when or if that moment ever comes again……It will feel just like it did so many years ago ……..after the line spent, overjoyed, blown….what a rush.

iphone

So.......I got one and I have to say it is pretty sweet. The phone has excellent sound quality and the photo/email/web browser/ipods doohickeys are all great. Now I am going to be taking pictures and blabbing on the phone all day. Hopefully I can get some work done.

Its amazing

What a few cars can do. After getting dropped by Greg on the Casino Hill....Again....we were rolling back from the store today on the Tuesday morning suffer fest. Coming down Auberry....you know the stretch.....long as the summer is HOT...need to look two or three times to make sure you don't go too early. Yeah that stretch........Brian B, took a nasty pull at 35 and I kept trying to shift down, but, behold, I was already in the 11. I wish these went to 10......

I was thinking "B" your an animal. Jumped around Stone and Britter and rolled across the line at 39.2.....fastest sprint ever......I was feeling pretty good until I remembered that about 15 cars blew past us at that moment and I was simply getting sucked along

Well......felt good anyway.

Ah...to dream

Cathy Lynn Loper

59 years ago today the world changed forever for me. An event that went unnoticed by the world.....as most do, but this event has changed the lives of many. I don't really know much about that day.......it must have been warm...it is July 6th. Fitting.......warmth and comfort have come to many.

She came from an interesting background....eccentric uncaring parents that baffle us to this day. But somehow it seems at times ......Or..... I have to wonder..... can anybody care more. Nights when I would try to fall asleep, she would come in and rub my back until my eyes would get heavy and sleep would finally invade my mind.


She saved me and my brothers from adversity time and time again....grabbing us and shaking in her gentle motherly way until we would come to our senses. Though the years as all three of us wandered aimlessly through life.......my father would wonder what he could do to get us on the right track............."Jim.......The lord will deliver." She would say. It is amazing to me, now, what faith she has. Nothing means more to her than her family, yet she would leave our fate in the hands of the Lord. Always knowing we would come around. Have we?


I often think of her living in a tiny military shack in Saint John....a young beautifull girl....following my father wherever he needed to go.

She could be doing so many other things now....whatever she wanted, but her priorities are still the same......they have never changed. She is a lover of her familly......caring and wanting to help.....giving more than she needs, but never asking for praise. She is a great lady.

I love you Mom



Happy Birthday