fitness testing

Well today was the next hurdle for me to get thru in my pursuit of a Border Patrol agent career. I had to get a complete physical ,a vision test, a hearing test and an EKG. Then I had to do 20 push-ups, 25 sit-ups and a 5 minute step test. I have been very concerned about the push-up, sit-up part as I haven't done them in probable 20 years. I was doing a few sets of each for the past three weeks and wasn't very comfortable with being able to get it done in the time allowed. I am happy to say that I gutted it out and was able to pass, but just barely. So after I got all done and calmed down a little bit I made a trip up to the new gym at the north end and got a membership. I have to get stronger and improve my core strength which should help with my cycling as well. Where I go from here I'm not sure but the doctor at the clinic said that usually with in two weeks I be back for the drug test.

Thanks again to all of you who have been so supportive in this whole process. It makes me proud to have all of you as friends.

Later
Stud

movin' on

Well I have survived the latest step in my journey to getting the Border Patrol career underway. I had to go down to the RenCen on Wednesday and have my oral interview. These guys sure seem to enjoy stressing you out before they let you in. I have not been that nervous in a long time, all dressed in my suit and shaking in my shoes. The bad thing is that the fast part is probable done now, as they now start the background check which can last months, so now I'm going to keep getting ready for the fitness part of the deal. I got a smokin' deal on some new kicks and will be hitting the high school track on a regular basis. Plus the weather is starting to get nice so out in the woods I'll be going, man I can't wait.

I also want to thank everyone for their huge amounts of support thru this process it means more than you'll ever know.

Later
Stud

Step two, done!!

Well this past Monday I went for the second test in my pursuit of a career in the Border Patrol. I am very happy to say that I passed. I needed to score at least a 70% to pass and got an 85% just for good measure.

I have to say a huge thank you to my wife Kristen. She is a huge support fixture for me, always looking on the bright side of things and a very smart girl to boot.

That was a really long day as I chose to go to a compressed test site to get results and a date for my oral interview all in the same day. Eight long hours with a nice ending for sure. So now i move on to the next step and hope for the best. This is not a sure thing, but it was a sure thing to not get in if I failed it, so I feel good for now and have to get ready for the fitness test. I have to do so many push-ups and sit-ups then run a mile and half to pass, I have a tough time with push-ups so more work to do.
later

What to do, what to do ???

As so many other people in our fine state, I have to make some tough decisions in the next little bit in regards to my employment. I work at a small local lumberyard and with the state of the building industry it is not looking good for the foreseeable future. I'm in the middle of a 4 week layoff and have been looking at any and all options to stay in the area but it is a very rough market out there. The auto industry is hanging on by a thread and homes market sucks, unless your in foreclosures that is. I have been on what seems to be all the online site without much luck.

So I have thrown my application at the border patrol program, before I get past the age of 40. I'm scheduled to take the next test down at Cobo on the 23rd of Febuary and am quite worried about what may or may not happen after that. It is an 8hr deal with the test and then they give you your results and have recruiters on site so we'll see what happens from there. If I get in, that will mean at least a year away from here. The first few months will be at the training academy, which I think is in Georgia and then an assignment in the southwest area, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona or California. I really don't want to leave but I gotta do what is best for my family and my future so stay tuned for more information.
Later
Stud

Cross dressing

Well after two years of trying to get me to try CX my bud John finally convinced me to give it try. The first thing I did was pull out the knickers to at least look the part and away I went.
The first one I tried was at Lower Huron. My first surprise came at registration when they informed me that I would have to run with the 40 and over crowd, talk about putting a damper on your spirits try being told that your a year older in one minute, the fellows had a ball with that one. The other problem with that is that those dudes are fast as heck. So I line up and Robert blows the whistle and off I go, those roadies can move down that front stretch but I had an edge with my mountain bike and the wider tires in the grass so I made up a few spots until I got to the barriers and yet another lesson was learned I would pass a guy and then he would get me in the barriers or in the sand or on that damn hill. I tried my hardest and got a top ten so I was pretty happy with that and got ready for the next one.
The Devils Soup bowl this couldn't be good. Jay drove for this one and we picked up Curt on the way so the conversation was good on the ride down. We also met Benny, T3, and John once on site. This was gonna be tough, lots of hills and another long off chamber run up. So I lined up with 40 and over dudes and off we go. All I wanted to get out of this race was to pass Jay and not get lapped. Once again my bike choice was good and the tires helped me in the grass and the off chamber stuff was apiece of cake for me. The hills were another story man I need to get stronger in the climbing dept. But I got thru it and again I got a top ten out of the deal, so I feeling pretty good about this CX stuff.
The next race on the schedule was the Bloomer race and I was looking forward to this one. I got my stuff all ready to go bike, HEED, clothes, all set. I went to bed, set the alarm and when it went off I just didn't want to get up, so I didn't. The boys had fun with that one so no excuses for the last race of the year no matter what.
The final race in the Tailwind series also serves as the state championships. The days leading up to the race didn't have the best weather predicted but I had to go or the fellas would never let me live it down. The day before they got about 6 inches of fresh snow to add to the fun. John said to bring the bike over the day before to load up in the Osgood racing trailer. Then he informed me that we had to leave at about 6:30 am the next morning,man was I regretting not going to Bloomer oh well, I set the alarm and this time I got up, ate my oatmeal and started the truck. The weather was brutal, the wind chill was something like -2. We made good time on the ride down and John kept telling me that today was going to be my day and that as long as we were going to be there I might as well do well. I was all nice and toastey in the car and then we arrived at the track, HOLY CRAP was it cold. I got all registered went to get dressed to pre-ride the course. I knew it was bad when Robert was out there with a snow plow on his four wheeler, but agian my bike choice was good(mostly cause it is the only bike I have to ride right now). John was following me and said how much trouble he was having getting around and how easy a time I seemed to be having, so my confidence was high.
They line us up as usual but at the last minute decide to combine the classes into one big group with no gap in between. OK, I make my way towards the front of the group kinda bummed cause I have had a lot of fun passing Jay at the first two CX's, that I did it seems to bother him that a old guy keeps getting him. The time seemed to really drag after they said one minute to go,probable had something to do with freezing cold blowing thru my knickers.They finally blew the whistle and off we go. I tried to pass as many guys as I could as I knew that passing would be tough today and was in the top 8 or so pretty happy with my position. I got about 2/3 of the way thru the first lap when I heard Dave Masi say two laps to go so I knew I could hold my pace for that long, just kept turning the pedals as fast as I could. For the first time I was able to keep the leaders in site and was riding with guys I don't usually see after the gun goes off, Adam Nash,Jason Melonkosky and the like, so I was feeling really good. Cleared the barriers with few problems and made all the climbs. I had a few guys try to get around me but I remembered a few lessons TP taught me and pushed right back to hold my position and before I knew it, I was done not really sure what position I finished in but pretty sure I had a top 5 so I very happy. The results were posted and to my surprise I had snagged a second place in the state championship race, man was I pumped up. I couldn't wait to find John and show off my award cause he is the reason I even started this CX stuff. I think he may have been more exited than I was.
Now comes the hard part, this off season I need to drop a few lb's and get strong so I'll be a better climber and finish better in the mountain bike races but for now I gonna enjoy the 2nd place and get on with life . Later

Ice Ice Baby!

This past weekend was the 19 th running of the midwest classic Iceman Cometh mountain bike race. This was my 7th time racing Iceman,my first with Team Sandbag. My teammate's John, Jay, Benny and Curt were able to get up to TC on Thursday night so for the first time I was able to go do a pre-ride on Friday morning. The weather was beautiful and the course was in great shape, I could tell that the course was going to be fast, as the rain had compacted the evil sand down into a smooth surface. I'm not sure if knowing the last 5 miles of the course was a good thing or not because they saved the hardest part for last with some big climbs and some fresh cut singletrack added in just for fun. I was kind of dreading the end of the course because climbing is not my strong suit but I did ok with it.
In my opinion the hardest part of this race is getting the right amount of clothing on as to be not too warm but to not freeze any of the important parts off either. I think that you have to be cold at the start or you are going to be too warm when you get riding so that was how I played it this year and it worked out just about right as I stayed pretty comfortable for the whole race. I lined up in the front row as to get a good start with hopes of a good showing and it worked well as I was the third man to the woods. I stayed there for a few miles then lost a few places. One of the things that is the most frustrating for me is getting stuck behind slower riders and I have a bad habit of not pushing past them and costing myself time which I regret later. I pushed as hard as I could in the open sections and tried to cut my loses where I could but it probable cost me my ultimate goal of breaking the 2 hour mark and I ended up in 16th out of 111 racers in my class, with a personal best time of 2hrs 5 minutes. I was kind of nervous about my choice of forks for this race as I kept the rigid carbon fork that I have been using to mess around with some cross racing. The guy who lined us up even made a comment about it as we were getting set to so that didn't help any but I didn't really miss my suspension fork very much at all and I didn't feel beat up at all, so I'm glad I left it alone this time.
As usually is the case with Team Sandbag the best part of any race is hanging with everyone after the race and this was exactly the case this weekend. Jay rented a mac-daddy cabin for the weekend and boy was that nice to stay in,way better than a hotel room, so I felt right at home and slept good the night before the race. This year my best bud John and I were flying solo so we decided to check out the Bell's after party which was a lot of fun. TP, Renee, Brad, Brandi and Brian were also in the house so that was cool to hang out with some more teammates and have a few adult beverages with them. The other cool part was when the pros showed up at the end of the evening with the Ice trophy in hand,Jerimah was really cool guy to talk too and have a drink with. For a confessed bike nerd it is kind of like seeing/holding the Stanley Cup. Very nice people all.

Happy Halloween

Well here I sit passing out candy to all the little beggers from the hood. I'm kinda sad cause my kids are getting older and this stuff is almost done for them as they soon will be too cool to dress up and go out beggin' for treats and will soon move on to the trick's. It also is fun to see all the really young ones all dressed up in their garb and get so exited when they get a few candy bars. Next week at this time I'll be up in Traverse City getting ready for my first Iceman in a few years. I haven't done this race in about three or four years because of my son's hockey usually being a conflict. Well this year Sam decided to try his hand at playing football instead of hockey so I now can have some fun with my bud's on Team Sandbag. I have really enjoyed the last couple of years racing with all the guys on the team. I count some of the guys on the team as my best friends and am so greatful for their friendships. Well there are some little ones at the door so back to giving out some treats and maybe a few tricks later.