Catching Up

I finally decided to come back over here and catch up. To be honest there really is not much going on.  Last week I tried my first race in about 10 years.  After a few laps I was loosing contact with the field when I hear a "ping"  from my back wheel.  Yup my race wheels could not take the load of my fat muscular carcass cranking out the watts.  This may have been thanks to all the minutes I spend on the indoor trainer since the weather, up until now has really sucked.  The first broken spoke took out another one and ripped the wheel.  So much for my first venture out in the peleton. 

 I should have just rode one of these.

Here's my Union Grove race.  Notice the green dot does not match up up to the red one.  That's where my wheels broke.....

Season Start

Its back!!!!!! The winter is finally over and the cycling season has begun. Last weekend I traveled almost three hours to photograph the race in Warrenton, VA. It was worth every minute of it. For the first time since December I truly enjoyed a weekend! This week I'm going to do my first race in about six years. Unless I lost count that leaves only six more races until I Cat up! Proally not going to happen this year.

That's not me but one of my GamJams team. I'll probably not see too many of them as most of them race in Southern Maryland, Northern Virginia. But best of luck to us all!

Thanks SmugMug

There's a new option called Badge in SmugMug. This is really cool.
Not much else to say the weather sucks!

NHABS

Yesterday's trip down to North American Handmade Bike Show was a big relief from the  usual gloomy weekend.  My reputation must be getting around because the person that I requested the press pass from actually knew me.  Builders are passionate about their craft.  Creating art you can ride on.

I was really happy to see that Richard Sachs did use some of my photos in his booth.  Most were by Anthony S from CyclingCaptured.com.  He's one of the best local racing photogs out there.

Wandering around I found a new object of desire.

That one's from IF.  Mountainside could proally get me a deal on it.  Say frame for $5K....

And I found a lost love at Tom Kellog's (Spectrum Cycling) booth.

OH joy I just noticed its snowing again!  YAAYYYY!  more indoor trainer.

Wintertime Blues

Most of us feel this way by now. We just want to run away from winter and go swimming.  Last week, tons of virgin snow, lots of outdoor things to do.  And days off from work.  I really appreciate the last one.  One of the benefits of my current job is there is not as much pressure to come in on really bad days.  It's not like when I used to manage a hospital lab 40 miles away.  Often, it would be just me and the night shift stuck there on bad days.  I digress...as I sit here looking out my window on the gloomy gray muck that was the snow I so enjoyed, the realization has hit me.  Its time for the snow to go.  Yesterday was a bit of fun photographing the Harrisburg Polar Bear Plunge.   But that is the highlight until the snow thaws.  For now its back to work.  Lunch times spent at the gym and four night a week trainer sessions in the small space I manage to keep clear in the unfinished part of our basement.

 I built up a new commuter bike but so far most of the miles have been on the rollers.  Hopefully by the start of  my "official" get off my fat ass and really start to train on March 15th, things will be better.

Photosite Update

I know all my loyal fans have been asking for an easier way to visit my photo galleries at SmugMug.  By popular demand, actually I'm home sick and tired of laying around and bored as hell, you no longer have to type in joemallis.smugmug.com to see if I have captured your photo at the last race.  Now all you gotta do is remember my name with a .com after it.  I sprung for a custom domain a bit ago so now JoeMallis.com gets you to the photos.

Time to go back to bed......being sick sucks!

Been Away for a While

The long cold days of winter have set in.  Later on if I'm bored enough I'll start writing about my winter "training plan", or lack thereof.  Christmas has come and gone, fortunately, my family is old enough so we can just sit around enjoying each others company for a few days.  The days of spending Christmas Eve fooling around with getting stuff ready for Christmas Day are long gone.   Note the lack of toys with the three dreaded words in the English language....SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED!
  I remember laying awake the night of December 23rd wondering if we were going to be able to put together that Super Galactic Space Robot Death Station or some other toys in time for Christmas morn.  Usually we made it, but the kids seemed to have more fun playing with the boxes!
A few weeks ago my wife got herself a present.  Yup we got another pup!!

I'm trying really hard not to like it but I she's just too cute!