Virginia Day 2

Morning in Richmond


Another day on the road and another day filled with good times...

I woke yesterday morning in the hotel after a good night sleep and just sat around blogging it up, reading blogs, and watching ESPN. I am kind of out of the sports loop since I have been on the road, but the Padres are playing better so I am stoked. I am also stoked that the College Worlds Series kicks off this weekend.

I met Trevor and Cody at the course at 10am. While getting ready we ran into our homeboy and "Mr. Xterra" Will Kelsay. He had just got done riding and was feeling good... and was trying to convince me to come out to Colorado in early August for a couple Xterra points series races... that's not going to happen... I gotta work... some times.

We headed out and my legs were feeling pretty good and almost back to normal. I still kept myself in check but definitely punched for a couple stretches. I am still not fully recovered from last weekend and I don't want to bury myself and deeper, but the harder efforts felt good. I also took a little spill, nothing major... just a couple of scrapes, but the crash was pretty awesome. Full-on flying over the bars with my bike following me and ending up 10 feet down the trail ahead of me. Sweet! No damage to the bike either so that's good.

After the ride I rolled into the parking lot to find Cody and Trevor waiting at the Uhaul. As I got off my bike I thought I heard some one say "Blood, Sweat, and Beers" from just across the parking lot... and sure enough I was right and it was Conrad Stoltz. I guess he recognized me and then Dan Hugo came up and introduced himself and a said that he has been looking at the blog too... pretty nuts. The two fastest dudes in Xterra have actually seen and read this thing. It kind of blows me away. I also had numerous people at the Alabama race come up to me and introduce themselves to me and say that they really like the blog. I started this blog 3 years ago basically as an enhanced training log but it has gotten way out of control! I still keep it for myself so I will have something to look back on but it's rad that other people enjoy it and my family can follow along... with everything I have going on I can some times be hard to have a conversation with. Thanks to everybody out there reading and leaving me comments...

I talked with Conrad and Dan for a bit and the we headed out to preview the technical sections of the run course and to plan our attack through the boulder field. We tried a couple of different routes and I am pretty sure we have the fastest route down.

the second half of the run... it's another tough one!


After the run we hung out for a bit and then I headed back to the hotel to clean up. I was starving and headed up the street to well known taco shot that had really good reviews: Cafe Ole. I am always skeptical of "Mexican" food on the east coast. Mexican is hands down my favorite kind of food and living in southern California I am surrounded by the best you can get.

Cafe Ole.

sweet decor.

tres tacos (2 chicken/1 steak)

Chicken

steak


The food was solid, but I am still craving my staple Mahi Mahi burrito on a whole wheat tortilla from El Caribe... it's been way too long!

After lunch I headed back to the room and crashed for a bit. I woke up with a plan to head over the Trevor's cousin's house for homemade pizza and a couple beers, but I missed the last shuttle from the hotel. So I just kicked back, put on my recovery tights (with shorts over the top, not cody style), and watched some baseball and the NBA finals. I fell asleep around 930 when the Laker's had a huge lead and then woke up to find out they blew it... get it together Kobe!

cody has some killer videos on his page... check'em out.

A lot of recovery is what is on tap for today. Beth and my parents will be in town this afternoon so the good times will just keep on rolling!