Why I Ride

Do you ever question why you ride?

Over the last year I questioned my riding a lot.  Is it selfish to spend so much time on a bike?  What's the purpose?  Should I be spending that time and money to help others instead?  For me those are pretty tough questions, but over time I've come to believe more strongly than ever that riding is definitely one of the things God made me to do.

When I was first racing there was a strong sense of trying to prove something, trying to prove that I could be somebody.  But that was 15 years ago and that kind of teenage motivation is long gone.  Sure I've done well at some races and got some attention for my riding.  We all seek the approval of others whether we realize it or not, we even keep tabs on how many facebook likes we can get from last weekend's podium pic... But mountain bike racing is the opposite of a glamorous sport and that hasn't kept me going.    I surely haven't kept riding to make money.

I ride because God gave me a gift and we're called to make the most of the gifts the Lord has given us.

I ride because God has blessed me in so many amazing ways through racing.

I ride because I have faith that the Lord still has plans in store for me that are greater than I can even imagine.

It only takes a couple minutes of looking back to realize that riding is one of the most meaningful things I do with my life.  Of all things it was a Texas A&M Cycling Team Pub Crawl where I met my wife Beth.  Racing was something for my family to do together and brought us closer together.  All of my best friends I know through racing.  I'm healthy!  I've been able to travel to countless beautiful places on my bike.  The busier my life gets the more riding brings balance to my day.  And I'm starting to see more and more opportunities to help others through riding...

So why do you ride?

Stage21 Custom Bike Builder for Cannondale and Pinarello

Check out the cool new bike builder page by Stage21!  You can get exact weights and price quotes for custom builds on Cannondale & Pinarello road and mountain bikes.

http://bikebuilder.stage21bikes.com/

Time Flies

Time flies when you're having fun (and working hard)!  It's been months since I've written anything meaningful here, but a lot has been happening.  2013 was a wonderful year in my life!  My faith, family, and friends really make me a happy man.  And every day Cameron has more personality and is do something new.  Overall my health, riding, and work have been going well too.  I'm so thankful for these things, but balancing them has been harder than ever and there are still plenty of daily challenges along the way.

Looking back on my racing this year leaves me a little frustrated.  I trained better than ever but ran into some bad luck and several off peak rides on race days.  I truly had what I felt were a couple breakthroughs on training rides, but definitely not at any of my races.  It was mentally frustrating at times since I've almost always been able to race above my training limits in the past and feel I did very little of that this year.  Definitely something to get back on track for 2014.

Coming into the Fall I was really happy to take a break and spend more time just hanging out with Beth and Cameron.  We had a lot of fun but it did go by pretty fast with work keeping us busy.  Up until a couple weeks ago there were plenty of days where I questioned whether or not I would be racing next year...  I want to race, but I also want to spend enough quality time with my family.  There's no need to prove anything on the bike, like I was so motivated by 10 years ago.  Sure I want to race better than I did this year and there are a couple races that I really want to win, but to me the results alone aren't reason enough for me to spend all that time training anymore.  It takes more for me to fully commit the next 9 months to a tough daily routine balancing work, time with Cameron, and hours of training.  Ultimately I want to race because God has done so much in my life through riding.  There are so many blessings I will have to write about it another time.  For now my goal for 2014 is to ride my heart out and see what else the Lord has in store for me!

Velosport / Rockform - all day training ride in the mountains!

 

 

 

 

 

Off Season

Hi everyone, I'm doing my best to take a break from my cycling obsession!  There is a season for everything and I'll be back at it in no time.  Thanks for checking in on me!

Leadville Photo Gallery

Time flies when you're having fun, and when you're a responsible adult.  It's already been almost 2 weeks since Leadville and I just now transferred some photos onto my computer...  Only have a little bit of time to upload them so my race report will have to wait for another time.

Overall the LT100 is a really great event!  I did ok, but my I was pretty far off from my best performance and that really left me wanting to try again...

Mammoth and Tahoe

"Going to the mountains is going home" -John Muir

For me it doesn't get any better than hanging out in a beautiful mountain town with my girls!  Spending a week in Mammoth and Tahoe was awesome.  Ending the week with a fun race at the Tahoe 100k Leadville qualifier made it even better.

Marathon Nationals

Over the holiday weekend I had a great trip to Sun Valley and great ride in the Marathon National Championships.  A picture is worth a thousand words...