I'm a celebrity

Yesterday we took the boat out again and it was a little foggy when we arrived to the water...

We were out on the water for a few hours and there was no luck with the fish.

On our way in we came across the perfect sized boat for Lake Conroe...

Today I wet sanded and painted the frame- here is a picture my dad took of me painting it...

I unveiled the taped newspaper to show the classy two-toned paint job... 

Laid everything out today to prime the frame...

A snapshot after a few coats of primer...

The can lasted just long enough to get it completely primed...
Now I have to wait 48 hours for the primer to completely dry and then I am going to sand it smooth and paint it white... I am thinking about putting some jtoka.com decals on the down tube, but haven't completely thought that out... 

Woke up early and got out of the house yesterday around 7 AM to head out to Lake Conroe...

It was Chawchi's first time on the water, and hopefully not the last...
The sky started to clear out by the time we got there, and the water was as smooth as glass...
Caught the first fish of the day... Too bad it was too small to keep...
My mom's fish was a family affair...
It ended up being a 4 lb. 13 oz large mouth bass... 
The new captain was modeling...
Co-captain about to take a nap...Cocoa's getting old...
I have been wanting a fixie since I moved to Austin, and am in the process (as of a dream last night) of restoring my dad's old Raleigh from back in the 70's... Even though you can't tell, this bike will be turning heads in Austin in a couple of weeks... 
Today I sanded the oxidization and taped it off before I prime and paint it in the next couple of days... 
Today I got in a good 40 mile ride with my dad and did a 4 mile run right after it... 

I woke up super early this morning, after not getting much sleep, and headed up north to go ride in Montgomery, Tx, which is about 45 minutes from The Woodlands, with my mom and dad. We met up with a couple of other guys from the Team Pate MS150 team.

The MS150 is an annual bike ride that is going to take place on April 18th and 19th. It is a charity ride raising money for research for the life threatening disease Multiple Sclerosis. This will be my ninth year taking part in this ride and for those of ya'll that want to make a donation on my behalf please click here.

We started the ride with intentions of doing between 60-70 miles, and we were going to play the weather by ear, since no one wants to be stuck out in the 40 degree weather in the rain. We rode along and it looked like this the whole ride...



But don't get me wrong because this is my second favorite type of weather to ride in besides sunny, clear, and in the 90's.

We got to the turning point 20 miles in and my dad checked the radar and it seemed as though it was going to be a down pour with lightning, so we just continued the short loop back in and got a total of 40 miles in for the day. Since I was getting my ride cut short I decided to ramp up the pace in the state park and go as hard as I could. The rolling hills and roads out there are by far the best that Houston has to offer, but definitely incomparable to those of Austin.



Later on I went running with my long time friend Colby, and did a few miles at my high school track.

Hopefully the weather clears up so that we can take the boat out tomorrow...

It’s been roughly over a week since my last update, and it is not because I am lazy…

I have been training quite a bit, and working hard in school. Even though the weather has looked like this the past week…



If you can't already tell... the rain is brewing up from this lake somewhere in the Gulf Coast Region...



It has actually helped my training, because it gives me a reason to take an easy week after building up my endurance since I started my comeback.

My drive in to Houston last night was horrible… rain the whole way… and it is suppose to stay nasty, cold, and rainy until Monday I believe.

For a more up to date status of what I am doing, check me out on twitter, follow me, and set up your own account as well and join the conversation…

Today I took my mountain bike out for the first time in a few weeks, and I could tell by the loss of fluid in the brakes, flat tires, and the slipping grips that need to be replaced. I already got some grips for it last month so I am all set there, just need to get some tape and a hacksaw to cut the bars down.

I did a nice easy cruise down to Town Lake and did two laps around it then headed back to my apartment. This ride is now my official Monday ride, and anyone is welcome to join me since I rode solo today.

This past weekend was quite eventful, aside from not being able to finish either day, but I was still quite happy with it.

The conditions leading up to the race weren’t quite suitable. The night before I got all my stuff gathered up for the race and got to sleep by 11:30. Everything was going good because I was sound asleep and ready to wake up at 5:30 and head out to go help pre race by driving the follow car and such. 1 AM rolls around and I hear something resembling my alarm clock radio. I thought it was my alarm so I just laid there for 15 minutes listening to it until I woke up. Turns out it is 1 AM, not 5:30, and it is not my alarm clock… it is some people on the roof listening to a junky cheap boom box that they had right above my window. I try to fall back asleep but I couldn’t so I went outside and asked them if they could move it to the other side of the roof because I was tired, and being rebellious college students they just turned it up louder. Since they responded to my actions in the counter manner I rode the elevator up a whole floor and talked to them again and they acted stupid again so I just called the police and the noise was gone in literally five minutes.

After that whole ordeal I couldn’t fall asleep until 4:00.

I woke up, left my place around 6:15 and stopped by McDonalds for breakfast and ordered a nice large coffee that had me set the whole day.

When I got to Lago Vista I drove the follow car in two races: the Cat. 4/5 and the Junior 4/5’s and I found out where most of the people were getting dropped and where the course would be hard as well as getting mentally prepared for my race by recollecting everything from the many times I raced there in the past.

I think Saturday’s race can probably be marked down as the hardest race that I will do anytime soon. To start I should lay out the conditions: windy, windy, and WINDY!!! I think we started with about 140 riders or so and they were being dropped like rocks off a cliff, just completely shelled early off in the race. By the time I got dropped there was only about 50 riders or so still in the field. I was actually impressed with how well I was staying in. I continued for half the race and worked as hard as I could, but I just got completely massacred up one hill where someone was attacking really hard and I got pushed off the road due to wind and another rider, so after getting back on the road and pushing up the hill there was no way of catching back on because I was already pushing my anaerobic zone.

The wind was very troubling for everybody. After finishing up my lap solo there was no way I could ride anymore in that wind.

Heath Blackgrove soloed in for the win, congrats to him, as well as the other Team Hotel San Jose members who finished!

I wasn’t planning on racing the second day, but there were rumors being passed around that Lance Armstrong was going to show up, as well as the Kelly Benefits Pro Cycling team showing up, so I said, “Oh why not… might as well.” The wind wasn’t a factor on Sunday so I thought it would be ok. Well 2 laps were all I could last out there in the front of the pack. I was still feeling it from the previous day and an attack happened on “the hill” and I just got shelled at the spot and lost everything. I just rolled around that lap and headed back into town so I could finish up some work and not be too tired for the rest of the day.

After two weeks of racing I can already feel myself getting stronger. I still have my bike handling skills as well as a bit more leg speed, but I am just lacking in the endurance and aerobic department, so I have decided against racing this weekend so I can get some nice 4-5 hour steady rides in, plus I can already call the result of
Tunis Roubaix on Saturday… flat tires…

Well I am going to be hitting the miles hard this week and many weeks to follow as I build up my abilities.

Thanks for reading…