There is a correction that I need to make regarding my last post. According to my sister-in-lawlessness(the gf's sister!), Chipotle is coming to Virginia Beach Town Center!
Chipotle:
Opening June 20th, I, Steven Locklear, pledge that I will be a frequent and loyal customer to my beloved Chipotle, even if I have to ride my bike there. Oh, how wonderful it will be to have the convenience of a savory, big, mouth-watering Chicken burrito in my tummy with just a hop and a skip away. And to wash it down with a delicious beer, even better. Thank you Chipotle, it's about damn f'n time you get your arse on the ball and set up shop close by!
Sincerely,
Manimal
Camping!!
Ok, so it's time for a new post! I just haven't been getting the same love and excitement from blogger.com like I once use to. Anyway, I haven't been doing much racing because the cost of gas has made me poor; I'm a homebody that rides a bike to wherever I need to go. The last race I did was the Kelly Cup in Baltimore and it was a really exciting race for me. It was my first time doing the race and I'll be back next year. While I was there, with the support of the girlfriend, I found myself wishing for more time because I got there about 15 minutes before the start and they almost gave my number away to someone else! I also ran into my good ol' Fiordifrutta buddies from the Tour of Virginia last year, so it was cool to see them again. The race came and went, and I stayed in D.C for 2 more days just to mingle around the streets and visit the museums with Betsy. All-in-all, I was around the Alexandria/D.C area for 3 days and all we ate was Chipotle! I thought I would be sick to my stomach, but Chipotle never lets me down and it was delicious time after time. It was a grand time, I must say; however, we went camping at Crabtree Falls off the parkway in Tyro, Virginia, and that was even more exciting. On the way there, more Chipotle! Camping was camping. Just did some hiking and fishing, drinking beer by the fire, and roasting marshmallows for smores. On the way home from camping, Another Chipotle stop. since there isn't a Chipotle around locally, I wanted to make sure that there was enough Chipootle in my system to last me a year. I'm done here. I hope everyone is doing well and riding a lot.
Farmer Steve!
With the rising food prices, I have decided to start my own organic garden. It started off as an idea and next thing you know, I bought seeds and now I have baby herbs, fruits, and veggies. Here soon, I'll be saying "screw you grocery store!" Thats not all! I got so excited about this big idea of growing a garden, I even started to build my own greenhouse. Hot stuff! Its in the works, but in a few days, it'll be finished and ready to fill up-hope it works out well, or I'll be starving in a few months.
One serious weekend of racing. 4/19, 4/20
The Tour de Beach on Saturday was a great day for a race; sunny, warm, Richmond Pro Cycling to rip your legs off. When I first started this blog, I remember I was just an overdeveloped cat 5 without enough competition and was moving up categories as fast as I could. Well, now it's a year later, I've got what I've been waiting for-competition to make me wheeze and push hard. Ok, it's not that bad, but racing now is definitely conditioning me to become a stronger cyclist. For the race on Saturday, I placed 8th. To me, I think that's a very respectable finish.
Sunday was the Casey Crit and the weather took a complete 180 degree turn on everyone. Rain and thunder is never included on my list of enjoyable things to do, but you make the best of it, I suppose. I don't mind riding in the rain, I actually enjoy it a lot, but when it comes to races and being around crazy "roadies" with no bike handling skills, I tend to worry about my well-being a little bit. Just a little! I also want to give credit to my girlfriend, Betsy, who stayed out there the whole time for both of my races. Talk about a keeper! As I was preparing for my first race, she mentioned that she had an umbrella in her trunk. I go to the truck to get it and this thing was bright green and super tiny. I don't even think it would cover up a chihuahua, honestly. Mitch hunt was parked next to me when I whipped that thing out. I'm sure that I had him rolling for a good 5 minutes. Embarrassing! Needless to say, I was going to be soaking wet anyway from racing, so I just got rid of that umbrella, quick! Moving on! My first race, I got a 4th place finish in a 4 man break-a-way. The last lap, no one wanted to do any work, so I decided to pull everyone through to the finish line and lose a good placing on the sprint. 4th is better than getting caught and finishing up in the pack somewhere. An hour later was my next race, the 1,2, 3 race. By this time, I'm dead from the previous day and the race I had just finished. Again, Richmond Pro Cycling made an appearance. With about 25 laps to go, my tired legs were giving out on me. Little cramps every time I got out of the saddle for accelerations. I placed 18th in that race and was ready to get the heck out of there.
I went out for some tropical smoothie after my first race, and as soon as I got back, there was a bad crash on the last lap of the womens race. I'm sure everyone has heard about it...I just hope BJ will take it easy and not pull off a Tyler Hamilton. Hope you get well soon.
Sunday was the Casey Crit and the weather took a complete 180 degree turn on everyone. Rain and thunder is never included on my list of enjoyable things to do, but you make the best of it, I suppose. I don't mind riding in the rain, I actually enjoy it a lot, but when it comes to races and being around crazy "roadies" with no bike handling skills, I tend to worry about my well-being a little bit. Just a little! I also want to give credit to my girlfriend, Betsy, who stayed out there the whole time for both of my races. Talk about a keeper! As I was preparing for my first race, she mentioned that she had an umbrella in her trunk. I go to the truck to get it and this thing was bright green and super tiny. I don't even think it would cover up a chihuahua, honestly. Mitch hunt was parked next to me when I whipped that thing out. I'm sure that I had him rolling for a good 5 minutes. Embarrassing! Needless to say, I was going to be soaking wet anyway from racing, so I just got rid of that umbrella, quick! Moving on! My first race, I got a 4th place finish in a 4 man break-a-way. The last lap, no one wanted to do any work, so I decided to pull everyone through to the finish line and lose a good placing on the sprint. 4th is better than getting caught and finishing up in the pack somewhere. An hour later was my next race, the 1,2, 3 race. By this time, I'm dead from the previous day and the race I had just finished. Again, Richmond Pro Cycling made an appearance. With about 25 laps to go, my tired legs were giving out on me. Little cramps every time I got out of the saddle for accelerations. I placed 18th in that race and was ready to get the heck out of there.
I went out for some tropical smoothie after my first race, and as soon as I got back, there was a bad crash on the last lap of the womens race. I'm sure everyone has heard about it...I just hope BJ will take it easy and not pull off a Tyler Hamilton. Hope you get well soon.
Uptown Greenville Crit
What a weekend to start off the first and second race of my season! Greenville is the city of the pirates! ARG! The East Carolina University Pirates, and there is never a dull moment when I visit that amazing place. This year my friend Matt traveled up with me to cheer me on and we both stayed at my friend Mary's house. when we arrived at Mary's, some of her friends were already drunk and this was around noon. Ha, thats college at ECU for ya. Her friend Gabe was stoked about a bike race and wanted to go cheer me on, and that he did. he showed up with an entourage of friends and every lap the field passed, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Steven is number one!!." he even took the extra step and made a sign in which the photographer at the race took a picture of them and put it up on the website. At the end of the race, i went over to all of my drunk friends/fans and I had seen little cups laying all around them. oh wonderful, they even brought jello shots to the race. lovely! the race went alright for me, there was a break-a-way that was caught with 2 laps to go and I gave everyone the jump start to catch them, as Bender said. I never got the official results so I don't know my exact placing, but it was somewhere around 15th. weather was rainy and there were no crashes, so i'd say it was a good race. I can tell that my performance isn't up to par yet, so here in a month or so when i get a few races in my legs, the manimal shall appear and light up the racing excitement. Right after the Saturday race, we went back to Mary's house and not even 30 minutes later, my #1 fan, Gabe, had puked and passed out on the floor. time check, 4:00pm. 3 hours later, that dude is wide awake and back to being crazy. my hero! ha. the sunday race was, again, cold and nasty weather, but a little more dry. another break-a-way happened and ended up lapping the field. no one wanted to work at all to catch it and I had brought the field so close at times but i gave up on trying and just sat in the field. there was about 6 guys or so in the break-a-way and i got first in the field, so i'm guessing i got around 7-10 place. not exactly sure how many guys were in the break. oh well. I had fun, and I'm just focusing on getting my racing legs back into shape. now that I'll be racing, there will be more blog entries!
Thats everyone, and, of course, Gabe with the sign. From left to right: Josh, Gabe, Claire, Jim, Mary, and Matt.
Gabe, passed out after the race.
Thats everyone, and, of course, Gabe with the sign. From left to right: Josh, Gabe, Claire, Jim, Mary, and Matt.
Gabe, passed out after the race.
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