Losses and Some Consolation

That car engine fire has dropped my '03 Camry from the road. It happens and I will have to deal with buying a used or (with a slight possibility) new car. This situation I find myself in is why there is insurance. The total loss will not be without compensation for it and I am looking at options for my next investment.

Closer to my feelings is a loss on my bike. During a moderate hill repeat ride, my right-hand/ RD shifter broke on me. It was a little mechanism that kicks the parts under the hood around that either broke off or was just worn down. This comes as a crippling blow to my racing hopes for this weekend as I am missing the Tour de 'Toona and have to now replace the shifter. I will be contacting SRAM as soon as Monday after my dental appointment as the shifter should be under warranty. I should have called them last week, but there's nothing I can do about that now beyond being patient.

Those are the less than great things that have gone on in the past week. I have, however, found myself to be an award winning poet!

I wrote:

How many wins will

These boys take from the others?

Hold your breath, Paris.

And what do ya know?! HTC-Highroad liked mine the best out of over 150 entries! I was proud of it and fairly confident that it would be noticed when I wrote it, but to be enough for the win was a huge surprise and a welcome rush of accomplishment where it has been lacking elsewhere in my efforts.

You've all got yourselves a proper award winning writer/poet in front of you. (I'm milking this for all it's worth.)

More than I expected...

In all, I received Lezyne's HTC-Highroad Port-A-Shop kit with a bunch of sleek tools and useful stuff, an HTC-Highroad water bottle, an HTC-Highroad Tour of California t-shirt and, in a welcome "personal touch fashion," a nice postcard note from them! All I was expecting was the tool-kit! This was so mice to receive and kick my spirits up. I am going to keep this stuff for sure as possibly the closest I will get to professional cycling...

Anyway, I'm happy with the prize and I am happy to have the opportunity to look for a new (to me) car next week. It will turn into a hassle, I'm sure, but I'm not about to complain. I do hope SRAM honors the warranty and even if it takes a few more days for the process to get me that Rival shifter, the money saved will be more than worth it. You all know how it goes.

So, I'm sitting here sipping water out of my new bottle and I have to share how excited I am at a possible job connection that was extended to me through this cycling team I'm on. It's all in a preliminary stage at this point, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited and already dreaming about an apartment to call my own in Arlington, Va.

There are ups and downs in life. I am taking them as they come as best I can and am doing my best to keep my optimism up. Thanks for reading.

One - Percent Differences

I would love to be a perfectionist when it comes to my cycling equipment, bikes, position, and possibilities thereof. I guess I am making due with what I can. I want the best out of what I've got. I've got nice stuff and am limited by my lack of money and time. What I can be a perfectionist about is myself. My discipline to training, my weight, habits on and off the bike, and every aspect that has to do with my goals and aspirations. The power of the mind is my one-percent. Attitude, persistence, and drive all make the difference. Knowing when to back off, making patience a teammate, and riding to the best of my abilities every given chance is what will bring me success.

Here's what got me thinking all of this.

My Saturday Night Live

I have had a long, rather boring day. I was able to catch up with IUP Cycling club's vice president, and we worked out a few details for the club's first few weeks of this "spring" semester. After that, I hopped on the bike for a bit...

and then just kind of sat around looking for job opportunities for after I graduate. Honestly, nothing looks to promise much excitement, but I do suppose beggars can't be choosers and I just won't go into it.

While I'm on the subject of plans for after graduation, I am happy to report that earlier this week I made contact with a local cycling club in Northern Virginia. From the sound of it, they seem like a nicely knit group of riders that will help me reach my goals of becoming a cat3 cyclist... hopefully by the end of the year. I'll post more about them later I suppose.

This is the view from my window on a night like tonight and I'm not all that crazy about this snow. I'll be honest, I'm not used to being so "bored" on a Saturday night, but I had some help getting my mind off of things.

In front of me tonight is the live Versus coverage of the Santos Tour Down Under. This six-day stage-race turned into a great event on it's final day as the sprinters were keen on trying to topple the young overall leader, Cameron Meyers from Garmin-Cervelo. In a brilliant display of tactics, Garmin-C had their wits about them and played their cards right from the get-go to fend off Matthew Goss, Michael Matthews and their respective HTC-Highroad and Rabobank teams. I enjoyed the race a lot and I think it was great to see a brother of Cameron Meyers, Travis Meyers, on a rival team no less, (Sky) put in a huge effort for his brother on the last lap to not only secure a 1-2 finish for his teammates Ben Swift (fitting name indeed) and Gregory Henderson, but also his brother's overall race win.

I hope that's not all too much over anyone's head. I've had to reread it a few times to make sure I know what I'm saying. What I mean is, this race proved to be a fight all the way down to the line. I saw riders really fighting for their lines and wheels as things got fast on the last lap. Shoulder checks and body leans were happening all around the front end. It was cool to see so much aggression right there in front of me and the overall stage and stage-race wins were well deserved.

They always talk about it being a part of the sport all the time, but I hadn't seen it live, for myself, I guess other than the obvious head-butting that went on during last year's tour.

That cost HTC-Columbia's Mark Renshaw his continuation of the tour. It's a part of racing, but even he admitted that last one was probably a bit less necessary. In races, I've touched wrists and even made some handlebar to handlebar contact with other riders for position as adrenaline starts to pump and positions become more and more important. I can definitely see myself shouldering a guy, but that's really a last resort kind of thing if I feel like I'm in danger. They say to never take your hands off the bars in the final sprint. I've seen some riders lose their win over it.

I ate too much today...