August 12, 2005 - Prelude to Track Nats

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So this season has been a real bummer for me from about December 30th on. Constant problems and headaches have just kept pounding me like a big evil squirrel with monstrous feet and jacked up teeth. Try to keep away from these vegetarian b*****s, they can't be trusted. This is the beast that has been haunting me in my recent nightmares. I always have something crazy like that going on.

Since I have written last, a lot has happened and a lot hasn't happened so I will give you a quick flash dance.

1. I moved back to T-town. It is hot and humid there in the summer. Perfect weather for insects. They rule. Try riding there without glasses on and your eyes will become catcher's mitts for them.
2. I got maliciously crashed intentionally on June 10th. For all the true details, you can visit fixedgearfever.com and look up the old articles and see the video. It was a moment I'll never forget.
3. My back, which wasn't doing super flash in the first place, got totally screwed up from that crash. I have two herniated discs now and have had two epidural shots in my spine to help relieve the problem.
4. My juniors rode well at their National Championships. They all medaled and/or won. They all were psyched.
5. I went up to Portland after Junior Natz to maybe race the AVC up there because I already had a ticket to go but I wasn't ready to compete yet. Instead, all I ended up doing there was spending a lot of money on stupid stuff that I really didn't need. I left and felt used and abused. Portland can be a trap like that. I need to learn to control my impulses better. No more high drama on the high seas.
6. I had my big conference call with USAC. It was for the Carney vs. Lakatosh hearing. It went fairly well - I had never done one of those before so I had no idea what to expect.
7. I was going to physical therapy about three times a week in July and it worked wonders on my back. Thanks Joel!
8. I finally started to train around July 22nd, about six weeks after my spill, and began to dream the dreams of winning some events at track Nationals. We'll see...

On with the show: So let's start this out from about July 29th. It's Friday night and that means racing at T-town. I pass on these race from here on out but that is a subject that I might elaborate on later. Anyhow, I have a whole group of my pupils out there and they are ready for action.

It's omnium night at Lehigh County Velodrome for the dudes. The guys have three scratch races; a two mile, a five mile and a ten mile. The only extra little trick is that there are half way sprints in these scratch races that count for Omnium points

The first race goes as and nothing really super exciting happens. Dirty Dan Larsen took the mid sprint with a flyer and Mike 'Free Hams' led out 'BLT' Lea for the win at the end.
In the 5 miler, a break got off that didn't have any of the top 5 from the previous race in it. They were all watching each other like eagle eyes in the skies with diamonds. It was all Ham in the break; he won the half-way sprint and the final sprint. He was the man; myth and legend of the event.

The next event was the 10 miler. A crash mid way stopped the race and it had to be neutralised. After a restart, it just rolled fast. BLT tried to give it to the pack and attacked from the back, front and side but could not escape from the madness. He did the 'pay back thank you' move of the month and led Mike out for another win.

Mike finished first overall, Ryan Miller was second and Bobby ended up finishing third. My little boys got one, two, three, and it was cool to see.

The next day I went for my first real training ride since my accident. I'd gone for some easier ones in the previous week but nothing that would give me any fitness. I decided that if I was going to give Track Nationals a shot I had to push it and find out if it was possible. I went for a six hour road ride with some Zone 5 lactate power hill efforts and I felt really good. I was psyched. I decided to take the next day off so I could give it a really good push on Monday and Tuesday. I was planning on going to LA where Nationals is being held on the Wednesday.

My training went well in the morning, but then I think I got Sam Vanilla (salmonella) poisoning that night. Sam is a sick disease. Warning - avoid it at all costs. It sucks the life out of you. The only cool thing about it is that it puts you through so much stress that you can't help from losing a bunch of weight. I didn't sleep for about a week, I threw up a couple times, I was visiting the porcelain throne about every other hour on the hour and I just felt betrayed by my beloved food. Kids, be careful, you don't want this grief. I must have lost about 4 real pounds of mass throw, because everyone here in LA is commenting on how skinny and fit I look. More proof that looks can be deceiving; I have less than 10 rides in my legs since that nice assault I endured on June 10th.

This brings us to Sunday, the 7th. I decided to do the club racing at the Home Depot Center ATD Velodrome. This was my first race back from the grave. I was smoked in the kierin, I got third in the scratch race but then I won the 'devil take the hind most'. I did play the devil for the last 10 laps or so and that helped me smoke JoJo Starbucks Ng for the win.

The confidence built over the night. Now I just needed to ingest and digest my food. If it was the 'Son of Sam' poisoning, I pretty much put it all behind me that night and vowed to be much more careful from here on out. No one can hurt me now, especially with my cheese helmet.

Other flashes:

My Team Pursuiters are looking hot like Salsa Picante. They rode a flying 2:02 2K last night

Peace outs, high fives and thank yous for all that have supported me through my recent tough times. I made it through all this crap because of you. For all you others on the flip side...(I don't think commenting is my best option)...

Natz start now. Two hard days of training should test me like a Swan, a Black Swan.

Jame