Well,
The tour finished and I think I am finished for the year. It has been a great year of riding capped off with the 26th annual Tour De Tucson. I was without my wingman. Not sure how Maverrick did it without Goose, Bo without Luke, Arnold without Willis, Kevin without Wayne, Victor without Nicki. You all get the picture. I think I could have trained a bit more, but overall I felt good. In spirit of thanksgiving, here are the things I was thankful for during my ride:
* STP 2008 training....got me ready to take on anything
* inspiration to feel a part of my tire in the dark and find a staple before the race started
* Keele and Jonathan for allowing me to crash out their new house the night before
* Peanut butter and banana sandwich...a tradition before any ride
* at mile 20, this guy who was huge and you knew was going to burn out, pulled us for 10 miles into the wind....he dropped immediately after that...I thought of him often during the rest of the ride and how he must be suffering.
* Title Nine Team....A group of ladies from Boulder,CO who set a nice pace...thanks for the miles
* AZ Weather in November....you can't beat it...78 degrees....for most of the ride
* Pulled off a pack of riders right before they all went down.... scary!!
* Kristin and Briggs cheering me on at mile 65....So great they came down...I love em!!
* Tangerine Hill....10 free miles of all out flying
* Cold Orange slices at mile 85....
* Old man Gus who i swear this guy was 70 and pulling a group of us in the last 10 miles....I said I want to be Gus when I am his age
* That final turn before an endurance ride when you feel like a million bucks....love that adrenalin kick...
* Again, K and Briggs cheering me on
* Tranidtional In-n-Out Burger, Fries, Dr.P and strawberry shake.....throwing it down
* Drive home time to reflect
* Nap
As you can see, it was a good ride. I actually knocked off about an hour from last year...however last year we farted around more. My Buddy Dan did it an hour faster then me....Beastmaster
anyway...I think I am done until next March....Solvang is calling. Will be good to ride w/ Beecher clan again.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Humble Pie
When you have rode 204 miles in one day on your bike..you think you can do anything. Iron Man....no problem, posting up Shaq...no problem, allow Kristin to drive on a road trip...no problem, sing in a chorus....no problem, hang with the peleton in one stage of a TDF.....no problem.
So when I went on a Tour De Tucson training ride with a group of guys...I thought...I could hang with these guys...no problem...I rode 204 miles before. They did not care...nor did they know...they just said..."Hey new guy, welcome to the pain train". I was suffering after mile 10 and had another 50 to go. It was windy like I have never been in before so the need to stay in the pack was that much more critical. I pulled for a few miles thinking I would be ok......when I dropped to the back to let others take their turn....I realized how those guys feel at the back of the peleton when they know the inevitable is about to happen...and it did.....I got dropped. It was me and the wind and the road. I knew we would be climbing soon as the route took as to Tortilla Flats and I thought again..... I used to climb Mt. Hamilton weekly....I can catch them......once again....Humble Pie. I finally ate some of it and just did my own ride. Thankfully my buddy came back at the top of the hill and we road all the way down. On the way back...it was not bad since I got my second wind and the wind was at my back. All in All....it was a great training ride but I feel like I still have some work to do before the tour next week. Stay tuned to my TDT post....
JD
So when I went on a Tour De Tucson training ride with a group of guys...I thought...I could hang with these guys...no problem...I rode 204 miles before. They did not care...nor did they know...they just said..."Hey new guy, welcome to the pain train". I was suffering after mile 10 and had another 50 to go. It was windy like I have never been in before so the need to stay in the pack was that much more critical. I pulled for a few miles thinking I would be ok......when I dropped to the back to let others take their turn....I realized how those guys feel at the back of the peleton when they know the inevitable is about to happen...and it did.....I got dropped. It was me and the wind and the road. I knew we would be climbing soon as the route took as to Tortilla Flats and I thought again..... I used to climb Mt. Hamilton weekly....I can catch them......once again....Humble Pie. I finally ate some of it and just did my own ride. Thankfully my buddy came back at the top of the hill and we road all the way down. On the way back...it was not bad since I got my second wind and the wind was at my back. All in All....it was a great training ride but I feel like I still have some work to do before the tour next week. Stay tuned to my TDT post....
JD
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Fantasy Sports
Well....I have to admit I had a good time playing with a bunch of guys at work Fantasy baseball. Although my team did not even make it to the play-offs, I had fun and actually learned a ton about my players. Now we are doing an NBA league. Here is my current roster....(we had our draft last week and I ended up with the 9th spot out of 12....reason #1 why I did not pick up Kobe, LeBron or STAT)......Anyway...I still think I did ok: (Match-ups are based on FT%, FG%, 3PT's, Pts, Reb, Ast, Stl, Blks)
PG = Steve Nash - Why not!!
SG = Paul Pierce - Riding the Wave from last year
G = Brandon Roy - Could be his year
G = Baron Davis - Stats machine...(although he just got fat contract so I fear he will be hurt this year)
SF = Charles Lamar Odum (feed me the ball Kobe)
Pf = Ben Wallace (rebounds guy only)
F = Luol Deng - (Hot & Cold)
F = Ron Artest - (Gamble pick...but so far paying off...)
C = Nick Collison (I know....I know....but only a few centers left)
C = Emeka Okafor (Good Center pick)
Util = Matt Barnes (Steve Nash is going to make this guy look REALLY good)
Util = Mike Finley (Not mush left to pick from when he came up...always killed the suns)
Bench = Al harrington (Staying on the bench until the cry baby gets traded)
Bench = James Posey (good back-up if one of my big guys gets hurt)
Bench = Manu Ginobli (please don't "flop" on me this year when you return)
PG = Steve Nash - Why not!!
SG = Paul Pierce - Riding the Wave from last year
G = Brandon Roy - Could be his year
G = Baron Davis - Stats machine...(although he just got fat contract so I fear he will be hurt this year)
SF = Charles Lamar Odum (feed me the ball Kobe)
Pf = Ben Wallace (rebounds guy only)
F = Luol Deng - (Hot & Cold)
F = Ron Artest - (Gamble pick...but so far paying off...)
C = Nick Collison (I know....I know....but only a few centers left)
C = Emeka Okafor (Good Center pick)
Util = Matt Barnes (Steve Nash is going to make this guy look REALLY good)
Util = Mike Finley (Not mush left to pick from when he came up...always killed the suns)
Bench = Al harrington (Staying on the bench until the cry baby gets traded)
Bench = James Posey (good back-up if one of my big guys gets hurt)
Bench = Manu Ginobli (please don't "flop" on me this year when you return)
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Feeling Inspired Today
I like to shuffle songs in my ipod and occastionally I come across a song that rocks my world, wakes me up and makes me want to be a better person. There are few songs that penetrate my soul more then this one does. It does not seem to get old and MOTAB really nailed this one...you can find it on the album " America's Choir". I looked up the story behind the song...
Robert Robinson, following the tradition of ministers of the time, wrote "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" as a hymn-poem for the conclusion of his sermon for Whitsunday, 1758. He was 23 years old at the time. It was published the following year in A Collection of Hymns used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopsgate (1759). There has been some speculation that it was written by the Countess of Huntingdon, but it is generally agreed to be the work of Robinson.
Originally "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" had four stanzas. The fourth stanza was omitted by Martin Madan in Psalms and Hymns, 1860 and has not been used since.
The statement in stanza two, "Here I raise my Ebenezer" refers to I Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." Ebenezer is the Hebrew for "Stone of Help." Israel had suffered defeat because of its sin. But the people had repented of their sin, God had helped them and they were victorious. Samuel placed the stone to remind Israel that God had them, their victory was because of Him.
In stanza three, Robinson speaks of being "prone to wonder, prone to leave the God I love". This seems to be a forecast of his later life, when he lapsed into sin, unstableness and involvement with Unitarianism. There is a well-known story of Robinson, riding a stagecoach with a lady who was deeply engrossed in a hymnbook. Seeking to encourage him, she asked him what he thought of the hymn she was humming. Robinson burst into tears and said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then."
1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.
2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
3. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
Robert Robinson, following the tradition of ministers of the time, wrote "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" as a hymn-poem for the conclusion of his sermon for Whitsunday, 1758. He was 23 years old at the time. It was published the following year in A Collection of Hymns used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopsgate (1759). There has been some speculation that it was written by the Countess of Huntingdon, but it is generally agreed to be the work of Robinson.
Originally "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" had four stanzas. The fourth stanza was omitted by Martin Madan in Psalms and Hymns, 1860 and has not been used since.
The statement in stanza two, "Here I raise my Ebenezer" refers to I Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." Ebenezer is the Hebrew for "Stone of Help." Israel had suffered defeat because of its sin. But the people had repented of their sin, God had helped them and they were victorious. Samuel placed the stone to remind Israel that God had them, their victory was because of Him.
In stanza three, Robinson speaks of being "prone to wonder, prone to leave the God I love". This seems to be a forecast of his later life, when he lapsed into sin, unstableness and involvement with Unitarianism. There is a well-known story of Robinson, riding a stagecoach with a lady who was deeply engrossed in a hymnbook. Seeking to encourage him, she asked him what he thought of the hymn she was humming. Robinson burst into tears and said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then."
1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
mount of thy redeeming love.
2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
3. O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
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