As I opened up the card and flipped the bag over I found this sweet letter to me:

So I opened up the bag and looked inside and found this little present:

Isn’t it sweet? I then went to Ansley to thank her and give her a big hug and kiss for making my day. She said she just wanted to do something nice for me and made me the card and picture. I love it! The picture is of the two of us having fun and of course there is a pink heart that shows we love each other.

Then on Saturday the girls were making lots of pictures for me to take to work to hang on my cubicle walls (a favorite pastime at our house since I love decorating my cube with their artwork) and Ansley brought me this picture of a Daddy and a Daughter duck:

She told me, “the lake is in the background because a lake that small wouldn’t be big enough for the daddy and daughter ducks and because it’s far away it looks small”. Then when I flipped the picture over I saw this:

Isn’t it just adorable?!? “This is a lion, an angry lion”, she told me. I asked her why the lion was so angry. She replied, “because the grass is tickling his feet and lions don’t like to have their feet tickled.”

I was tickled just to get such a wonderful gift from my daughter whom I love dearly. What a blessing she, and all my girls, are to me. I’m very lucky to have them in my life.

Here is a picture from Kevin McDade at the Tuesday Night Criterium on April 21, 2009:

We drove to Austin on Friday and stayed with our friends Matt and Angelica Mings in Cedar Park. In addition to our usual accommodations they had made up a “bachelor pad” air mattress in Matt’s study for me to sleep in so I could get uninterrupted rest during the night and so when I woke up in the morning I could get ready for my race without waking Heather or the girls up.

My Cat 4 race began at 8:30 am on Sat morning in Walburg, TX. This was about 45 mins from the Mings house and Matt agreed to drive me out and back. I woke up at 6am, got dressed and packed my gear in his truck.

We arrived at the starting line around 7:30 or so which gave me plenty of time to use the restroom and warm up. It was pretty chilly morning (maybe 45 or so outside) so I wore arm warmers but no leg warmers and went with hot embrocation instead. The clouds blowing in from the north during my warm up looked really ominous and I had a hunch it might pour on us at some point.

I was glad to start warming up since this usually helps calm my nerves. I rode for about 20-30 mins on the hills around the starting line. Then I saw the 4s starting to gather so I rode over and found my teammates.

One of the race officials went over all the new rules for this year and how we could easily get ourselves and our team DQ-ed. She then told us race volunteers out on the course were reporting that the rain was beginning to fall.

She also explained that for this race we would be doing a neutral roll out. I had seen neutral roll outs on TV when watching the protour events but had never been in one myself. A neutral roll out is when the riders take off at the starting gun but the race doesn’t begin until the officials in the pace car give the riders the signal. Neutral Roll Outs are usually done when the road is technical and will likely cause crashes at the beginning of the race as all the horses are rested and eager.

Eventually the starting gun sounded and just as it did the rain began to fall on us. The temps also dropped about 10 degrees but we hardly noticed since we were rolling and everyone was itching to go. The NR made the first few miles of the race pretty relaxed as the bunch decided to get used to the rain the road and conditions while we got to the designated starting line and looked for the car to give us the signal.

One rider decided he was going to go out early and broke free from the peleton and rode up front just behind the pace car. He had maybe a hundred meters or so on the peleton as we started the race but no one seemed interested in chasing him down so early. After all it was a 48 mile race (2 x 24 mile loops) and we had plenty of time to reel him in.

PACC was at the front of the peleton and I was riding with Glen R., Scott B., Mike S. and Kurt P. as we took turns pulling at the front. Glen was our strongest rider so mostly the rest of us took turns pulling and keeping him protected.

At this point I should back up a little bit and say that my expectations for this race were very low. In a marked contrast from last year where I tried to win every race I entered, this year I broke out my racing season into “A”, “B” and “C” races.

“A” races are few and far between. They are races that I will try as hard as I can to win. I will taper my workouts and rest my body for the express purpose of doing as well as I can. I have 2 “A” races scheduled for this year in June and October; both in Copperas Cove, TX.

“B” races are important and usually come around the time I am beginning to peak for my “A” races. They are very important races with specific objectives but ultimately are training races where the most important thing is not to win but to glean what you can from the race as a workout.

“C” races are races which I participate in solely for training purposes. My training schedule is never altered to rest before these races and the race is essentially a hard workout for me. If I fail to finish these races or do poorly in these races it is very likely because my body is tired and worn down from my training.

With this in mind, you should know this race was a “C” race for me. My main goal for this race was to hang on to the peleton as long as I could, ride strong and get a feel for what it’s like to go really fast shoulder to shoulder again.

So back to the race…

I rode at the front with my guys for the first 7 miles of the race. I took turns at the front and got used to the rain and cold temps. It felt great to go fast (30+ mph). About mile 7 or so we hit a pretty big hill. It was on this hill where I went from the front of the peleton straight out the back. In one hill I was popped off the back! In my mind I thought to myself, “Oh great. Here we go again just like last year.” I had honestly thought I would have lasted in the group a lot longer than mile 7 but that’s how it worked out.

So I was sliding off the back and riding by myself. I got about 75 meters off the back of the bunch and I noticed the gap stopped getting bigger. I rode about that same distance from mile 7 to mile 18. At times I closed the gap to 25 meters and at other times it was about 100 meters. This meant that I was riding at the same general pace as the group but I was doing it without the benefit of the wind break from the group. I was pretty pleased with this. So perhaps I shot off the back so quickly on that hill because I wasn’t fully warmed up yet. That’s very possible. Oh well.

At mile 18 everything blew up. The rain had subsided but as we made a sharp right hand turn everyone was met with very stiff crosswinds coming from the north. These winds shattered the peleton and strung everyone out very quickly along the road. I began gobbling up riders as they couldn’t hold their pace in the winds. I found myself jumping forward from group to group trying to find a few riders who were willing to work and ride at the same speed as me. I have to say, the winds on that course were very strong that day, some put the sustained winds at 40-50 mph which I could believe; though I have no way of knowing for sure. They were definitely some of the strongest winds I have ever ridden in. Ultimately, I found one rider who was willing to work with me and the two of us took turns riding to the finish line to complete the first lap.

When we completed the first lap, I looked at the guy I was riding with and he told me he was done. I looked around and saw that many of the other riders were quitting too. I was very surprised. I knew the winds were hard, but I wasn’t about to quit racing just because of some wind. Luckily, I found an independent racer from Austin who was willing to make the second lap with me. He and I rode into that cold strong wind for the entire second lap and worked together the whole way trading pulls.

I was sure we would be lapped by other heats of racers which started after us but only one group ever did. The Pro/1/2 racers lapped us with 5 miles to go on our second lap. They were only managing about 12-14 mph in the fierce winds which actually made me feel pretty good about my 10-12 mph speeds during that time.

By the time I crossed the finish line I was ready to stop. It was a long hard race and a great start to the season. I ended up placing 48th in a field of 78 which I felt was respectable considering the conditions and that it was a “C” race for me. Despite the winds I really enjoyed the course and will probably race that event again next year.

Here are some pics of the race taken by my friend Matt Mings:

Warm ups

Waiting to start

More waiting and joking

Starting

Neutral Roll Out

Finishing the First Lap

For all the pics, click here.

2009: 56 days
2008: 106 days
2007: 230 days
2006: 229 days
2005: I was 14 miles short of 1000 miles for the whole year

If you periodically check my blog you may be surprised to find I have actually posted. The major reason why I have ridden so far so quickly and the reason I have not posted in so long are pretty much the same. I am working out more than ever before this year. In short, lots of time for riding and little time for posting on my blog.

In December of last year I began working with a coach and training to improve my fitness for bike racing. I now follow structured workouts every day of the week and record my statistics in both my own training log as well my coach’s log.

In January I performed a test to measure my Lactate Threshold which helps me tailor my workouts each day based on effort. On March 7th of this year (in a few weeks) I will have additional tests done (VO2Max, Anaerobic Threshold and Resting Heart Rate) in a sports laboratory. These tests will also help me measure my fitness and further help us dial in the exact efforts each of my workouts should be through out the year.

A typical workout each day is an hour or two long. To fit this into my busy schedule, I wake up @ 4:30 am every day and exercise from 5 – 7am. Then I help get the kids to school and go to work. After work I come home, play with the kids, eat then put the kids to bed. I am ready for bed myself around 9pm. I’m no morning person – I considered myself an evening person, but it’s amazing how quickly I stopped being an evening person when I started getting up at 4:30 every day. So I guess now I’m neither a morning nor evening person. I guess that makes me a crazy person.

I have seen a big increase in my fitness so far and am really excited to see how I progress through out the year. I did my first race of the season this past weekend which I will post about next.

The girls started school in Sept.
First day of school gallery

In Sept. Ansley was baptized.
Ansley’s baptism gallery

In Sept. I did my last race of the season.
Cotton Patch Classic race in Greenville, TX gallery

Last week we bought a new Canon Digital SLR Camera.
First pics taken with the camera gallery

The kids playing the back yard gallery – Oct. 2008

McCall Elementary’s Fall Festival gallery

So I’m pretty sure that’s all the pics I had saved up. If i forgot some I will post them up later. Enjoy!

What the report doesn’t say is how many USCF Cat 4 racers exist in my zip code (or in any of the categories for that matter). I choose to believe that there are at least 500.

Anyway, the above results are for the 2 types of races I competed in this year: Criteriums and Road Races.

I had last week off from work to spend some time with the girls for the summer. Unfortunately I was sick with a nasty cold most of the time, but I did feel good enough later in the week to do a few fun things. Last Wed. I took the girls to Sandy Lake Park over in Carrollton.

They hadn’t ever been there and didn’t know where I was taking them until we arrived. We spent 4-5 hours there during the day and had a great time. It was overcast much of the time which provided some relief from the hot temps we have been seeing lately. The girls had fun riding the rides and I had fun watching them. We played a little mini golf, had some lunch and rode the train.

Here is the photo gallery.

Then on Thursday I decided to take them fishing over at the pond near my parent’s house. This little pond is great for letting kids catch fish and was one of my brother Aaron’s favorite places to fish. We had a great time fishing, pretending to catch “whoppers” (as Hailey liked to call them) and chatting about lots of different things. Ansley caught 16 fish and Hailey caught around 7 or 8. It was a great Daddy-Daughter date.

Here is the photo gallery.

I reached out and found the empty glass I had left on the counter before bed, filled it with cool water from the fridge door, (as I have a billion times since we bought this house), and drank it down. As I got to the bottom of the glass I felt something in the water hit my mouth; kinda like a piece of ice would. At first I thought it WAS ice, since I was only half awake. Then I remembered I hadn’t put any ice in the glass. Next I thought it was probably a pretzel or goldfish cracker in the glass deposited by one of my girls but I quickly remembered that I had gotten a drink just before bed using this glass and it had been free of kid food at that time. So I walked over to the kitchen light and flipped on the switch to find a little baby gecko, about 2 inches long, in the bottom of the glass looking up at me saying “Holy cow dude, you nearly DRANK ME”!!!

I have been around geckos all my life. We have lots of them here in Texas and I have always been decidedly pro-gecko since they eat bugs and make very fashionable earrings when you catch them and get them to bite your earlobe. I’ve played with geckos as a kid, I’ve had them fall on me in the middle of the night while living in South Africa and I’ve always tried to avoid touching their tails so they don’t break off and give the little dudes a tail-baldness complex till it grows back. But in all my years around geckos I have never had this kind of reptile-human mind-meld experience. Never before has the Gecko-Michael thought process been so totally in sync.

I looked down at this little guy and he looked up at me and together – in unison – we thought, “Man am I glad Michael didn’t just drink the Gecko.”

This is how I know that when the little guy got back to his home, somewhere under my fridge, he sat down at his little Gecko-computer and posted this same story to his little Gecko-blog on the Gecko-internet.

Lessons Learned:

1. Always get a fresh glass from the cupboard when getting drinks in the middle of the night.
2. My super-hero power is the ability to communicate telepathicly with geckos.
3. Geckos have blogs and the Gecko-Internet is real and not just something made up for children’s books.

Anyway, I just thought I would share. I’m now officially a USCF Cat 4 Racer. w00t!

To see my name in lights officially, check out www.txbra.org, scroll down and look for the Recent Upgrades section.

Update!
Here is a short writeup of how I did during the race on Tuesday.

—

I saw my teammate Craig attack about halfway through the race and a group of 5-6 guys go to chase him down. Remembering the strategies my team talked about in last month’s team meeting, I jumped in with the chase group and sat at the back catching a nice ride up to my buddy. When we finally caught him the group sat up – which told me it was now my turn to take a flyer (my first one). I went out as fast as I could for as long as I could and hoped that Craig would sit at the back of the group as they chased me down. When I was caught, I saw Craig and Barb (another teammate) both in the group. I tried to keep up but was pretty gassed so I dropped back and rode at my own pace to the finish. Craig ended up placing 3rd and Barb ended up placeing 10th. I’m so happy for both of them!

—

And here are a few photos from the race:

Waiting to start

First part of the race

Middle part of the race

Riding alone at the front (I’ve just about had enough at this point)

For all the pictures, go to this link:

http://whitley.smugmug.com/gallery/5263458_sQZPd