Gettin there...

I've been feeling better everyday. Today was 2 weeks. I still have some shoulder pain but feel its getting better. I went for a couple rides this week. I went out wednesday morning and rode down to colfax and back on the road. Just like an easy 5 miles but didn't hurt except when pulling on the bars when climbing. Went out early friday morning just after sunup before work. Had an hour to cruise around east side. Went down to hit the rail trail but it was closed at the tunnel so went up to the BMX track to check it out. Haven't been up there to ride all summer (could be good or bad). Rode around it easy a couple times then back out to the road and home over sawmill hill. Felt really good, although out of shape, but my shoulder didn't bother me too much. Plan on trying to get out tomorrow morning with chuck before he heads off to cincinnati for a week. We're heading over to the other side of valley falls. The trails are mostly grown over jeep and 4 wheeler trails and shouldn't be too bad. We'll see.

Today was the downhill race at nationals. I've really been bummed the last few days. I'm not for sure i could've raced competitively, and didn't want to hurt myself worse. It just sucks because it is the last collegiate nats for me. I've been to so many over my collegiate career and it sucks to miss this one. i've been to new york, new mexico twice, 7 springs twice and boone, nc.

Rotation has been good this month at giant eagle. 3 more days left next week, then 4/9 done with rotations. Next month i am at Judy's in petersburg doing diabetes education. I've got a little practice this month since GE does some diabetes stuff.

Wednesday afternoon I signed with CVS. Mainly because i've been there for a few years now and they've been good to me and i've heard good things from the pharmacists that work there. Not sure of the exact store where i'll be working but it's somewhere in the north central wv area.

Mondays the dentist, i'll try to get an update in this week before i head to petersburg agian next weekend.

Ride on

Dave

Ouch!

So the weekend started off perfect! Everyone was ready to hit up the ride. Camelbak stuffed full ready to roll. head out of camp with the crew for some road sections before the trail. Go to ride over the gravel pile at the state road garage-nothing out of the ordinary, then it happened. I was the first to hit it and there wasn't really a backside to it. Pretty much caught my front wheel halfway down the backside and splatted head first at the base. Don't think i knocked myself out b/c i knew what was going on, but really couldn't control myself either. then i realized i busted my tooth, or later find out 4 teeth. As i sat and talked with the crew they realized my helmet was split in half. I insisted that they go on, but we hung out and talked for a bit then i headed back to camp to recover and they went on. I got my shoulder/collarbone area pretty good and it is still sore a week later part of the reason i didn't update for so long because it hurt to type. I don't think it's broken, it's just hurts on the ends, nothing puffed out or anything. My neck has been stiff but is getting better everyday. I'm just taking some time off now till i feel better. My head is still hurts to the touch and shoulder is only about 30% of normal.

All criminals return to the scene of the crime and so i had to later in the day to see how it all went wrong. My track is the small streak in the middle of the other two where my front wheel grazed it before impact:

This was monday morning before work, tooth is patched for now:

i hung out with the crew at camp on sat night then went down to snowshoe with them on sunday. Amber and I walked some of the trails while they were riding. Chuck gave me his tricked out camera and i took a ton of pictures, as long as i could hold my arm up. It was nice to be able to do some walking and slow down and see what it looks like to see other people riding.

I went to the dentist on tuesday to get my tooth fixed. they began with xrays then the assistant came back and i asked if it looked like it could be filled. Her reply the dentist will be in to talk to you. He looked at it and the nerve was sticking out of the broken tooth, and the other side needed a cavity filled, so i gotta get a root canal on the tooth. Effffff. They filled it temporairly and gave me an estimate on the remaining work. gotta go back on the 27th.

Been working alot this week mainly because it doesn't bother my shoulder too much and I don't have anything else i can do. So this week i got in 52 hours.

With my wreck i completely blew my shot at nationals. I'm not even able to go now. Super bummed since it's my last collegiate nationals. Probably stay home and work now.

It seemed like such a regular routine over the bars wreck but i guess i just landed the wrong way. Take some time off. Slow down a little, and possibly try to ride at tline one day before they close. Hope everyone else can get out and ride this fall and enjoy the weather.

gravy

Stoked!

It's coming...this weekend...the grand finale to summer. This could possibly be the best 2 days of riding ever put together. What does it consist of? Saturday morning-North fork mountain epic ride rolling out at 8am with the wv crew from seneca and returning 70 miles later. Sunday is dh at snowshoe the last day of the season for riding there. The fall colors should be perfect. The roster so far is: Me, Jon, Chris, and Andy. Chris and andy have never done the ride before. I can't wait! Hopefully i'll get a ton of pics.

Been working alot lately 6 out of the last 7 days between my real job and rotations. Got the next couple of days off though. This past Sunday i went down to camp and did a little work and went for a ride. Hit up a close by road ride down there out and back on lower timber ridge. The 30 mile ride is uphill both ways. It'll kick anyone's ass. The leaves are starting to change over there and should be killer for this weekend.

Looking out toward north fork mtn:

The usual 1st checkpoint/snack spot on the spruce ride along lower timber:

Dolly sods/Roaring plains in the distance:

Get out and ride!

Gravy

Home Sweet Home

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. I had hopes of updating more often but was kept busy in Petersburg the last couple weeks and trying to get moved back home. So here's the ketchup:

Had a good collegiate race at big bear. Ended up with 5th place in the tt and 4th in the xc race. I felt godd in the techy stuff but was struggling on the hills and speed sections. Returned to petersburg with hopes of getting a solid training plan in for the remainder of my stay there. I rested on Monday, did hill climbs on the 2 mile climb on tuesday, then set out wednesday on a moderate ride. My legs felt really bad so i decided on a flater route up towards moorefield. The rid eto more field was kinda short so i kept on riding past it, just trying to get a couple hours in. I was averaging 18mph when i turned around and was able to keep it all the way back to petersburg. Then i rode around town to make it 45 miles in 2:30. The fastest long ride i have probably ever done by myself, although it was all flat. I took the the rest of the week off-a little recovery and a little busy. Wroked on saturday in fairmont, after work i went to the store and felt my sinuses getting tense. Effffffff. I got a cold. The next day was the final race at wisp for the season. I showed up in the morning trying to get as many practice runs in as i could. it was a familiar course that we used for many collegiate races. i had it pinned on the top part but bobbled slightly on the bottom part and i'm guessing that's were i lost time. I ended up 4th i think. There were only seconds between all of us. I felt like crap with the cold the following week. I went out on really easy road rides on tuesday and wednesday do just spin the legs a little. I finished up with my rotation on friday and packed up and headed south to camp at seneca rocks. Amber met me down there on friday night. I've been trying to get the camp cleaned up and ready to roll all summer. Although i still have a few things to do-painting and landscaping.

Saturday brought the revenge of the rattlesnake. My body told me no all week with this crappy cold but i went ahead and raced. It was an epic race-going into dolly sods and then crossing over to the trails on canaan mt before finishing in davis. pretty much 2 totally different areas linked together in a race. I had an absolute blast. I tried to pace myself for the whole race. After the sods lop and heading to canaan mt i started to feel a little tired and got passed a couple of times. I reached into my camelback on loop road and pulle dout the emergency red bull and when i got back on plantation i felt great and it was all gas to the finish. I probably saved a little too much or taken the red bull too late because i felt like i could've rode some more at the end. ended up with 19th place overall and 11 in the open class. pretty good for not riding the mtb since big bear.

Finishing up crossing the blackwater river in davis:

Met chuck and bobbi in davis and headed over to camp with some sirianni's garlic chips and pizza. Sunday was the double down dh race at timberline. It was their 1st dh race in a long time. It had poureed the rain for days and didn't want to stop for the race either. I had put on the mud tire on the back the night before and was so glad for it on the first practice run. i was able to get a couple practice runs on each course before the race, so i knew what was coming. i registered for expert since that's what i always race. the start order was pro's, exp, spt, beg. there was one registered pro. the name sounded familiar but didn't know him. then it was experts. I wanted to go first and get my run out of the way. I knew the pro time before was like 4:10. i took off out of the gate stuck the slaloms at the top,blew a high speed turn but hopped back up on the trail and pinned the steeps and across the flat to the finish-3:45. I couldn't believe it. i expected someone to beat it since i blew the turn and had to climb up the hill but as the riders came down noone did. so i ended up with 1st in the first race. the second race course was totally different. Start order was the same as the first race. I was really stoked from my first run and really wanted to pin it even harder. i took off out of the gatet cleared the first rock garden cleaned the shole run and still mustered up the legs that i had left to do all the sprints to the finish. When i finished jr the race director came up to me and said we lost your run. it really took it awhile to set in. i think he told me like 5 times. then he was like i'm not kidding you gotta go again. I was cool with it, it really didn't bother me too much my fears were being able to clear the rock garden agian and trying to get the sprints in. I told him that i would go last. back int he starting gate again. Cleared the rock garden again and headed down the mountain. At the sprint sections at the bottom my legs said no. i sat down once and tried to keep pedaling to get to the next trail section. then managed to sprint for everyone at the finish-4:32. The fastest time on this course too. I ended up winning the whole shebang! I couldn't believe it.

Sprinting at the end of race #1

Sprinting at the end of race #2 (1st run):

JR telling me i had to go again:

Yeah it was muddy out there:

Maximizing lift time with the crew:

Afterwards the whole crew-johnny, lb, chris, chuck, andy, and i hit runs until they shut down the lift, then it was to siriannis for more pizza and garlic chips. i spent sunday evening at camp. Monday consisted of some more work there, then packing to head back to fairmont. tuesday was spent unpacking and doing laundry all day. Wednesday started my oct rotation at giant eagle in motown. I to work 12 hour days whcih is pretty cool because i already got in 24 hours this week and only had to work 2 days. i had today off of rotation but the weather looked crappy so i decided to go in to cvs and pick up some extra hours today. Gotta work there again tomorrow. Might go back to camp on sunday not sure yet. I have to work in motown on mon, tue, and fri, next week. Next weekend is the closing weekend at snowshoe. I'm planning on heading down there at least one day. Collegiate nats are coming up in a few weeks. I'm hoping to sneak down for the Dh. It's kinda sad this is the last i'll ever get to do.

that's all for now.

Gravy

btw, i'm always heckling folks to ride a wheelie but since i was out racing at the revenge here are a couple from the race: