Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I met the big goals of the weekend, neglected the mid-sized ones, and threw out the small ones.  Rides- got a late start to my Saturday ride, but it was all good once I got going on the knobbies. Rode to the greenbelt at Zilker, took it past the hill of life all the way to Lost Creek Blvd. The trail gets pretty scrubby a 1/2 mile from the bridge, but this is mountain biking. Took a slow and painful cruise up Lost Creek to 360 while an older couple chuckled “helluva hill, ain’t it?” as they squeaked by on their golf cart. Took that up to Bull Creek greenbelt. I had never ridden this 5 miles of trail in its entirety, but thought this would be a good chance to do so. The trail is hard to follow sometimes and I did get lost a few times, but all in all it was a nice 5 miles. It got dark on me with about 1.5 miles left, so on came the Nightrider. From here I headed up the dreaded far west climb and to shoal creek. Picked up the Shoal creek greenbelt at 38th st and proceeded to downtown and back home. A nice blend of trail, flat road, hills, and time in the saddle.  The pleasant weather allowed for a sleeveless jersey all day.

The sunday ride wouldn’t be as nice. Wool warmers, jersey, and base layer were all in order as the temps didn’t get much above 40, and windy. Thommy Cho came by to borrow a bike while he was in town from grad school at Vanderbilt (the same bike I rode yesterday). Since he was taking my hardtail, and I still wanted to do some trail/road riding, I threw some fat tires on the cross bike and we drove up to Walnut Creek to meet some other friends for a ride. I wasn’t nervous about riding a Cross Bike on this trail, just wasn’t sure what to expect. Rocinante held his own though, keeping up with the mountain bikes just fine. It was just as much fun on a cross bike as it is on my mountain bikes. We finished our lap, said goodbye to Thommy, and then I rode back to Nick and Dustin’s at mopac/duval with them to refill water. From there headed to jollyville -> great hills->360 ->bee caves ->Yaupon Holly -> Red Bud -> Lake Austin and home from there. It was dark and really cold by the time I hit Lake Austin. By the time I reached 6th/I-35,  things were starting to hurt, but I was able to block it out. The pain set in big time as I crested Prospect Hill and coasted 100 yards to the house. Two back to back long rides and the Sunday weather had taken their toll, but it was a feeling of accomplishment and solid training heading in the right direction for Spring.

I wish I could have has the same success with my Christmas gift making and holiday spirit gallaventing around, but I was at least able to watch the crappy 2nd half of the Cowboy game sat night. I missed my Saturday Plyometric workout due to time constraints, so moved it to Sunday after the ride. I was spent though, and my form completely fell apart after 30 minutes, so I called it a day, got some quality home cooking at Colleen’s, and some much needed rest.

Keep an eye out after Christmas for website updates-Motivation, Health Tips, and Tech Corner ( lots of component/bike reviews!)

I wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday season.

-Greg

Wow, I’ve got a heck of a weekend coming up. My good friend and fitness coach Sean Ahmadi and I met up for lunch yesterday to discuss my training for the upcoming weeks, culminating at the 12 hour Race at Warda Feb 14th. We came up with a plan to supplement the P90x strength program I will continue to do. It calls for long rides on Saturdays and Sundays, and shorter more intense rides on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, in addition to some long rides this weekend, I will be making christmas gifts for friends and family.

This year, I decided to make stuff for everybody instead of buying junk that people don’t really need and don’t really appreciate. There is something about a hand crafted gift that provokes more thoughtfulness and caring than a piece of plastic from Wal Mart. That should take up a pretty good portion of time.  And by the way, if I can’t come up with something useful to make for any recipient, I will donate to a charity in their honor. It’s a hard pill to swallow when you stop and think of all the excess and materialism our society has conditioned us to live with, while a lot of folks in the world struggle to secure their next meal. So if you’re a family member reading this, don’t be surprised if someone else you don’t even know gets a flock of chickens in your name instead of you getting scented body wash or a DVD. If you’re wondering why a flock of chickens, it’s because I’m leaning more towards this charity here. I urge you to open the eyes of your loved ones by doing something similar. While you’re at it, check out this site for more on the true spirit of christmas.

Back on topic, Colleen’s parents will be in town and have graciously invited me to lunch, and I’m not about to pass that one up. The Cowboys play their final regular season game at Texas Stadium saturday night, and I’m not about to miss that one either. I have to find some time in there to continue my P90x workouts, eat dinner, stretch, and sleep. If there is anytime left,  I will head over to the convention center for some holiday cheer, Austin style, for the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. I wish everyone a productive and restful weekend. Remember to spend less, and give more

The Christmas treats have now waged a full on war. Sure enough, our kitchen table here at work has acquired a steady supply of sugars, bleached flour, chocolates, and some fats.  Hell, I even brought up some of the awesome banana nut bread I made over the weekend for my sponsors (it, however, is not part of the evil axis, but is an allie. You see, it uses whole wheat flour, apple sauce instead of butter, and brown rice syrup instead of sugar, plus it’s got bananas and pecans). Temptation and hunger finally got the best of me yesterday and I indulged in a few pieces of mint white chocalate, and converted a 5 sided star cookie into an asymmetric 3 sided one, and perhaps I snagged a little reeses butter cup, but that was it. I escaped with only minor damage. It was clear that I had to lose this one battle to win the war, and win the war I shall.

Another battlefront is occurring at home in my workout room. I continue to commit to the P90X workout system. Just as the soreness had started to subside from the chest/back and ab ripper workout last Thursday, we hit some of the same muscles again with the legs and back workout + ab ripper last night. Tony Horton really loves his guns and hence a crap load of pull ups. While I am seeing progress with pull ups, it will be quite some time before I work up to the level that he is at. Legs, that is a different story. Tony doesn’t quite have chicken legs, but he doesn’t have caveman legs either.  I could far outpace and outweight him on just about every leg workout in the set. However, I was not there to compete with anyone other than myself, so I tried to focus more on form and quality rather than excessive weight and repetitions. At the end of the set is the 18 minute or so ab ripper X.  This one is totally humbling for me. I don’t know if it’s because I just finished one workout and the peeps in the video are doing their only workout for the day, or I’m just a total wuss with these movements, but it seemed as if my second go round of ab ripper x kick my tail more than the first! That’s alright, another battle lost so that I might win the war.

Both these wars are leading up to the next big race weekend, the Texas State Cyclocross Championship Jan 3-4, 2009. There is potential to win 4 state titles, but really a decent chance at only 2. Saturday is age-based, meaning I’ll go up against folks in a 19-29 age group, maybe 25-29 if enough people show up. Either way, the fastest people in the state are already in this age group. Sunday starts with the newly added singlespeed category, followed by the 3/4 race and then the open race. I stand a very good chance in the SS division, and a good chance for the 3/4 title, not so much in the open race. Good luck in your personal wars and keep fighting the good fight.

Greg

… when tasty treats start appearing out of thin air and on the kitchen table in our breakroom at the office. Working as an architect, and in an office where we share space with several other firms, there are tons of consultants with whom we engage with on a day to day basis. Since most of their business comes through us, they always feel obliged to send us a lot of calories come Christmas time. I noticed for the first time friday that cookies were starting to pile up. Before you know it, we’ll have a few gift sausage and cracker baskets, those big tin popcorn cannisters with three flavors, maybe 5 or 6 things of Danish cookies, and an assortment of homemade cakes/muffins/cookies/whatever. There are so many empty calories just sittin there, that we often can’t handle them all until a week after new years. At least they’re packed with enough preservatives to last that long. This year, I’m following a much stricter diet of fruits, veggies, yogurt, and granola bars. I’m all about getting lots of calories, but why not get some vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants while you’re at it. I will resist this sweet tasting evil-ness this season and start the new year out right.

On a different note, I’m hurting like hell today from the ridiculous chest and shoulder P90x workout on Thursday. Yesterday’s workout was the Plyometrics, and I was at least able to keep up this time since It is more lower body intensive, but it still beat me down. I’m taking Saturday off for some R&R (and a team christmas party!) and will resume with the arm and shoulder workout on sunday. Enjoy the weekend.

Greg

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkR1Wn7kHGY&hl=en&fs=1]

I threw this video in because I mostly like the music, but I like the idea behind the commercial too: progress. Today I made 2 important gains.

1. I finally got the folks at the Texas Bicycle Racing Association (TXBRA) to upgrade my cyclocross category from a 4 to a 3. For those of you unfamiliar with categories, I will spell it out real quick. Road racing has 5 categories, 5 being beginner, 1 being elite, basically a Pro level rider. Everyone must start as a 5 and work their way up in 1 of 2 ways. Gather a certain number of points in a 12 month period. Points are awarded based on top 10 finishes. If you just can’t breach that top 10 cap, but are a strong rider and finish with the pack, then they will let you upgrade based on a certain number of finishes within the top 20. In cyclocross, there are only 4 categories, with a similar upgrade system. In mountain biking, there are three categories, and then Pro. Going to a Cat 3 cross status sort of puts me in the middle. But I’ve maintained I’ve been there all along since I am a Cat 1 mountain biker and have placed well in intermediate cross races ever since I started doing cyclocross racing. The powers that be are real stingy and full of politics when it comes to upgrades, so the first time I applied in January I was denied. Then came my injury in February and after that I wasn’t worried about upgrading. Then came the race at Mason park in Houston, and that pretty much sealed the deal. With only 2 cross races left this season, it looks like I will have to wait another year to get a few more good finishes and upgrade to a cat 2. Once that happens, I can’t go back. I will have to race the big boys forever. No more B races, only A’s. That’s what every cyclist should strive for anyways. They shouldn’t be content with mid pack finishes in the B race. Put in some more hard work, move up, and let one of the C racers take your spot. Tis the evolution of the sport.

2. I began my P90x off season regiment today. Tony Horton totally kicked my ass. Circuit 1 is Chest and shoulders, and a nice little ab blaster at the end for giggles. I can barely lift a shirt to put it on. Brutal. I’m counting on this program to get me totally ripped and ready for swimsuit season. Kidding of course. While a nice looking body will be an added bonus, the real purpose I’m committing to this program is to improve core and functional strength, and get some cross training in. A lot of cyclist have incredible leg strength, at least in a forward plane. As many different disciplines as I compete in, leg strength alone will not get me to the podium in all of them. I need totally body strength and muscle balance. In the long run’ it’s much better for my skeletal system too. I could go on an on about the importance of cross training, but right now I’ve something more important. Sleep.

I decided to skip the Camp Eagle marathon mountain bike race to do a few cross races in Houston. Normally, skipping any kind of mountain bike race for a race that involves tires skinnier than 1.9” is blasphemy and not in my nature especially if it involves going to Houston. This go round, though, I wasn’t really feeling like riding 42 miles of Camp Eagle, not to mention it’s a longer drive and I’ve already been twice this year for Xterra and the XC race. I didn’t really have a good bike setup either. So, I made the decision Friday night to head for Houston in the morning.

Frustration Continues

Saturday’s race was held at beautiful Eleanor Tinsley park with the skyline as a nice backdrop. I was telling Colleen how I remember the first cross race I ever did being somewhere nearby as we were driving there, and sure enough, it was the same park that I had done my first ever cross race about 5 years ago when I raced for UT. I had the bike setup with a Shimano 1×9 drivetrain this time following the bad weekend in Dallas. It worked well at the Dirt Derby on Tuesday and so I felt good about it for the weekend. I did, however, bring my mountain bike this time to place in the pit in case something did go wrong. Same story, 1000^th verse. I have a crappy start, but begin to make my way towards the front in the middle of the race. Chain jumps off the front chainring and gets jammed in the crank while a good chunk of the pack passes me by. It is still intact, but damaged from getting it loose and back on. It lasts long enough to make it to the pit and switch bikes. The mountain bike was noticeably slower on such a smooth course, but I still managed to gain back 5 or so spots to finish 17 of 33 or so. After the race was the real fun part. Free beer and a really good local blues band. The weather was great for sitting around and watching the open race.

After my buzz goes down a bit, Colleen and I decide to go find a hotel and do something fun around town. We get a decent room close to the Sunday race site and settle in. I decide to do something with the dilapidated cross bike so maybe it’ll actually be of use tomorrow. Fed up with gears and derailleurs turning against me, I decide to go single speed once again. Unlike last time in Dallas, I brought a super rad chain tensioner with me this time in case of a situation like this. I also brought a pretty foolproof single speed chain with me. If the same model chain would last numerous miles on my mountain bike, I felt 100% confident it would handle some cross racing. After that was fixed, we went downtown and walked around a bit before having a nice dinner at Cabo and returning to the hotel.

Redemption, at last

Who knew what the new day would bring. It would take an act of God or extreme carelessness on my part to break my bike today, so I wasn’t worried about that, but instead I was worrying if my single speed setup would put me at a disadvantage. On some courses it helps you because you must push harder to get up some climbs. On courses that have both steep climbs and long flat straights it can hurt you, because you won’t be able to ride the steep parts and you’ll run out of gears on the flats. I had my fingers crossed that Mason park would be somewhere in the middle, neither an advantage or disadvantage. This was a new venue to the Texas series, and I guess that kept some racers away because we only had around 19 starters to yesterday’s 35 or so. At any case, I think all I really expected was to have a good time and get a good workout. I roll up to the start line last on my one gear machine, hang over my bars and yawn a few times. I’m still looking around as they blow the whistle. I figure it’s time to get going. I sit back for most of the first lap because I can see the leader, and he ain’t getting away in a hurry. The last stretch of the lap is uphill, but you can really push it and blow by people. When it seemed like people were already starting to hurt at this point, the beast within me awoke and it was @#$%*& on! I charged to the front by the third lap and it was a constant battle between the top 4 riders. We kept attacking each other and switching off the lead. It seemed like everybody had different recovery parts of the course. The single speed was holding it’s own out there. Not only was I in the top 5 this time, I was making some moves and putting the hurt on. There was one spot on the course where lack of gearing appeared to hurt me a bit. There was a short steep hill after a flat open field. I had no choice but to push it hard to carry enough momentum over the hill, and this usually got me past riders, but the big push left me a little winded and I would get passed and gapped on the next 1000 yards of field until the run up. For the run up I was able to ride most of it, and then run the last bit fast and make up a little time, but then struggled on the downhill and the long stretch of sidewalk to keep up without gearing. That’s where riding fixed gear down Austin hills comes in handy! The sidewalk ends at some loose switchback turns and then it’s the gradual uphill towards the finish where I made up most of my time. At one point I think the leader had a 10-15 second gap. I kept having this thought “There Will Be No White Flag Upon This Bike” dance through my head (thanks Dido!) and not only caught back up but gapped him with 1 ½ laps to go. My opponent was very worthy though, and he was back on me like white on rice as the bell rang for the final lap. I knew he would probably drop me on the flat sidewalk, so I had to make the strongest effort I could on the technical sections, the barriers, the run up etc. to prevent this. It worked, I was able to stave off the threat, but he was still with me through the twisty section, so as soon as we turned the corner it was a pretty mad dash to the finish. I worked too hard and went through too many crappy races to let this one get away. Redemption was finally mine. A guy who had not finished higher than 7^th all season and 17^th the day before showed up on a bike with one gear and left with the W. Thanks be to God, for whom all glory is due, and thanks be to Colleen, my ever supportive girlfriend. The single speed cross bike is the start of something very, very good. Thanks for reading.
Greg

My brother and his wife Linda are the proud parents of two healthy baby boys. Born Wednesday night, November 26 around 9pm. Christian Blake Parham weighed in at an astounding (for a twin) 7 lbs 9 oz. Ethan Neal Parham was a more modest 5 lbs 14 oz.  They’re both feeding and sleeping fine, mom seems to be doing well too. Thank goodness they were boys. Their first child Lexie is cute as a doll, but dang she sure is a little stinkpot. Having some nephews around will bring balance to the force.  I wish the evergrowing Parham family  health, love, and happiness.

Welcome to the new website. I switched over to this publisher because they had more features and options, all still for free! Plus i like their layouts a bit better too. Over the Holiday I will have some time to update blogs since the Roller Race. Since then quite a bit has happened. Thanks for reading and check back soon.
Greg

Went out to Rocky Hill for yet another weekend of racing and adventure. Won the cyclocross race on Saturday while racing my hardtail mountain bike. Went into town to grab a bite to eat and try to catch the OU-Tx Tech game.  Got back in time to get some free beer and listen to a neat little cover band that was cranking out some good country and classic rock tunes. Hit the hay (sleeping bag) for a good night’s sleep.

Morning comes and it’s time to start my first ever duathlon. I wasn’t sure what to expect with this added element of running, especially with a 5k trail run-12 mile mountain bike-5k trail run format, and considering I’m much stronger at biking, but I was ready to give it all I had. The first 5k went well. I think I managed a top 10 run somehow, then it was on to the fun part.  With all the issues I had with bike malfunctions this year, I decided to run the bike with beefy parts-tires, gears, chain, suspension seatpost, handlebars and the like. It was a solid ride, but I definitely noticed the extra weight and rolling resistance from the tires. It was my goal to not leave much for the last run. Biking is my strength and I had to use that to my advantage. Fortunately, that went according to plan.  I had a smoking fast ride and was able to make up time to a few of the runners that had a quicker run than I did. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite leave enough for the last 5k run and got a killer stitch in my right rib cage on the way up Fat Chuch’s.  I told my diaphram it could not have picked a worse time to do such a thing to me and to suck it up and keep going, but the pain was nearly enough to collapse me. So i took some time at the top to recover, while a those darn runners passed me right back up. I slowly got going again still fighting the pain and was able to limit the damage to only being passed by 3 people for a a decent 7 out of 80 finish. It hurt knowing I could’ve been 4th and in the money, but I was pleased with the effort and result.  Now, If I can actually start to incorporate some more running and brick workouts into my regiment I might have something going for me. Thanks for reading.

Colleen and I drove up to Dallas this weekend for a few cross races at whiterock lake. We would roll in some family time too since we were staying with mom in Terrell 35 mins away. This was going to be the first TXBRA race on Rocinante, the new cyclocross steed. I did the derby earlier in the week with some success, but mostly to get a feel for it. A lot of people showed up for the largest ¾ category I’d ever raced in (44 starters). This made for a hell of start, especially since we hit the barriers about 300 yards into it. I had bad position from the start and fell behind early. After settling in, I started to fight back towards the top 10. My rear derailleur would have none of it though. This bike came equipped with a SRAM rival gruppo, and I was starting to like it, but the rear derailleur seems to have a flawed design. The cage is too wide. Hit a rough patch, and the chain is likely to jump of the pulley and get caught between the cage. This renders it about as useless as a lazy cat. I had to hop off about 4 times during the race and fix it, putting me way back. At this point I just wanted to finish the race. With one lap left, someone had ridden into and taken out some barrier fencing that established the hairpin turns each racer had to navigate. There were little survey flags left behind where the fence was. It is a natural tendency to hug the inside of the turn, but since the fencing wasn’t there, my chain found some tasty survey flags and sucked one up in the rear derailleur. What followed was a catastrophic failure in this sequence (I think): rear cage is mangled. Hanger snaps. Derailleur is throw into rear wheel breaking a spoke. Chain is FUBAR in the process. Race over. I was pissed it happened on the last lap, but glad I didn’t have to worry about the rear d messing up anymore. I brought a spare wheelset, but no spare chain or rear d. Jesse Moran, an old collegiate racing friend who lives in Dallas and was there offered to take me to a shop nearby and see if they could fix it. They didn’t have a hanger, but I decided to forego gears and try to set it up singlespeed. I bought some cassette spacers, a rear cog, and a half link .After messing around with it back in Terrell for 3 hours, I finally got something to work. Sunday comes and we head back to Flagpole Hill. I had a much better start and was having a blast on the SS moving up to the top three when the chain broke at the half link about halfway into the race. Another big blow, but I wasn’t going to let it get me down. Jesse offered to let me borrow his bike for the open race. I accepted. It was an unfamiliar bike, and I dropped the chain trying to figure out the shifting before the first dismount, but got it back on and got going. I pushed it extremely hard to try and catch back up and took a turn beyond the capability of the front tire and slid out in the grass. Another minor setback, but after that it was butter. I had another 55 minutes to catch up, and that’s what I did. I picked ‘em off one by one all the way from 23 to 13^th place. Nowhere near the podium, but a moral victory nonetheless, and a lot of fun. I think I might be hooked on cross.