Matt Stegall

Catchin' up

Catching up is a theme here, huh? Always behind and always some lame excuse as to why I can't spend a few minutes updating my blog. This time I'm going with lots of family sickness and deciding to spend less time looking at my computer while at home. Yep, those are my current excuses.

The sick part was rough. Everyone besides Molly had the full blown flu, mine and Whitney's turned into pneumonia (Whitney's worse than mine). The icing on the cake is the discovery that Whitney will need surgery in the very near future. Good times.

The "less time on a computer" thing is the result of thinking that I have probably wasted a LOT of time constantly checking various message boards, websites, my email, etc. and it really has become a needless distraction and to be honest, a pretty hard habit to break.

The good news is that there is always some cool stuff going on. Molly and Will's birthday, planning a family vacation and day light savings time.

Molly showing off her princess cake.

Will spitting on, err...I mean blowing out his candles on his dinosaur cake.

Will cleaning up.

New big wheel!

To say Molly was excited about her High School Musical video would an understatement.

The family vacation will be heading to my aunt and uncle's (Susie and Carl) place on the Potomac in June. We are really excited about doing something new, spending time with my extended family and enjoying a kid friendly beach. Susie and Carl are great hosts and we can't thank them enough for sharing their weekend home with us.

Daylight savings time just makes life better. Longer days, warmer weather, green vegetation and being outside more (especially after the most dismal winter in recent memory). Hopefully the longer days will allow me to sneak in an extra ride during the week after the kids head to bed. Three weeks off the bike was too much and I'm anxious to get back on track. I even had to back out on my buddy Brian for the PMBAR which was a real bummer. PMBAR was what motivated me through my 20 degree rides this winter, but I'm afraid that missing that much riding 6 weeks before what could be a 10 hour mountainbike race might leave me holding up my partner.

My goal is to start posting at least once a week, so hopefully I'll be adding some words and pictures soon.

Kickin' off March...

...with more crappy weather!

My first ride of March was a tough one. Tough to get started, tough to stay out in and tough to recover from. I have never done a road ride in worse conditions. I experienced all forms of precipitation in the two hours I was out...rain, sleet and snow, all at a balmy 34 degrees. Epic conditions and I actually enjoyed it on some level.

A week ago I did the final race in the local cyclocross series. The finale was held at the Worlds Fair park. It was an awesome mix of concrete, off camber grass sections, stairs and tight corners which seemed like it was designed just for me. The slick tires (I wasn't spending $100.00 for cross tires) held me back in the mud, but not enough to matter and it made it more fun sliding around the course.

The morning of the race I decided my fitness needed more than a thirty minute race for a workout and riding to and from the race would be a great way to add some miles. The plan was to have a gentle spin (10 miles away?) to the race site as a nice warm up, but fate had other plans.

This is where your chain belongs...

...not here.

My gentle spin to the park was interrupted by "click...click...click...POW". The sound of my chain breaking. I picked the chain up and rode my bike skate board style for a mile or so before coming to the realization that this would put me at the park a few hours after the race. I called my good buddy Bob Davies (all around good guy and team mate for racing this year) who interrupted heading out to lunch with his wife to come rescue me with a master link and chain tool. Big thanks, Bob. All this put me behind, so my gentle warm up turned into a leg searing sprint to make sure I didn't miss registration.

Turns out the sprint wasn't needed as, like most races, it went off a bit late and I had plenty of time to register, chill out and catch up with some peeps I had not seen lately. I caught lots of flak with questions like "are you riding that?", "did you bring some other tires" and just general "you're doing it wrong". Good times.

The single speed class went off 30 seconds before the Cat 4's, so I had a great motivator to pedal hard and keep the real racers at bay. It lasted for a couple laps before the fast guys laid it on me, but I was happy to be able to stay away from most of the field.

Ended up third and only 20 seconds back of second place in the singlespeed class and my time would have put me in seventh in the much larger (and more competitive) Cat 4's. Overall pretty happy with the results considering most of these guys are "real" racers that put in some serious miles.

A couple pics from the race featuring my new super stylin' Bike Zoo jersey.

Photo credit to this guy, Endurance Dave.

A huge head wind and very tired legs made for a brutal ride home. Brutal.

Pisgah

Sunday morning I met a good sized group of folks to head over and enjoy the big climbs and big descents of Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. It was my first trip to the area in years and I had never been to the Fish Hatchery area that our guide was taking us to.

Half of our group stopped for Starbucks leaving K-Town and paid dearly... twice. Once at Starbucks for five dollar flavored water and then again by getting stuck behind a wreck on the interstate for almost two hours. It was a real bummer as I as really looking forward to riding with some of those guys.

Heading over the Smokies.

Regrouping on the way up the first climb.

Unfortunately, I didn't really take many pictures. The length and fun factor of the big mountain descents wasn't really conducive to picture taking, but we had a great time. The gravel ride climbs weren't very exciting, but Pisgahs downhills are fabulous with lots of rocks, roots and fast singletrack. Good times.

Next trip will be more on my terms. By "my terms" I mean a ridiculously early start time to give me more time on the trails. Driving five+ hours to ride for three is bad math.

Even better than my Pisgah trip was celebrating my kids birthdays. We had a combo party for all three and everyone had a great time.

Spencer on the big slide

Molly doing it her own way.

Spencer playing air hockey.

Spencer and her BFF's.

Headed to hell in hand basket.

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"
- Ronald Reagan

Couldn't have found a more appropriate quote for the situation our Congress has us into right now. After scaring the living hell out of us for a year to get themselves in the White House (Bush didnt exactly help), the Dems are now leveraging the countries financial worries to pass the most ridiculous, wasteful legislation this country has ever seen.

Like President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel said "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste". No worries here, they are taking full advantage to bundle all of their wasteful projects into the stimulus bill and making the country believe we have no other choice, less we watch our country fall apart.

An excerpt from John Kerry's speech the other day.

"A tax cut is non-targeted. If you put a tax cut into the hands of either a business of an individual today, there is no guarantee they're gonna invest their money. There's no guarantee they're gonna invest their money in the United States. They're free to go to invest anywhere that they want, if they choose to invest... The fact is, none of those people are guaranteed to invest that money in any of the new projects that we are... So government, yes government, has the ability to make a decision that the private sector won't necessarily make today."

In other words, we simpletons wouldn't know what to do with our own money and luckily we have the government to spend it for us! What a blue blood jackass.

What's the answer? A painful, but quick cleaning of the weak banks and companies that sold their future. The strong will remain and we will all come out ahead. Subsidizing companies that acted like fools will only extend the problem and delay our road to a real recovery.

Oh yea, I've been playing with my kids and riding my bike some lately. More on that next post.

Climbing

Spent another Sunday morning on the Foothills Pkwy. This time I brought gears and did both sides for a total of 35ish miles. Two hours with 75% of it spent climbing.

Not the most fun, but this is where I need to be if I want to be strong in the spring. The fun will be next Sunday riding around the big mountains in Pisgah, NC.

A little too much.

I had a little "too much" Sunday. Climbed Foothills Pkwy to the observation tower at Look Rock. The too much part came when I chose to do it on my singlespeed road bike. Had to stand up nearly the whole way up. Good times, in a sadistic kinda way.

Hoped to get started before sunrise, but couldn't seem to get out of the house in time. Clear and crisp on the way up.

Once I finally reached the tower, the fog in the valley was lifting/burning off. Sun too high and too much haze for a nice photo, but you get the idea.

Cold, cold and more cold.

"A little too much is just enough for me" - James Agee

I love the quote above. I'd also love to say I ran across it while reading great literary works, but I didn't. It's posted on the wall in a bar we stop at on our weekly Greenway ride.

I love "too much". Not too much drinking which is the context in the bar poster, but too much in general. Biting off more than I can chew is always my goal and it's lead to some great times and spectacular failures. Those spectacular failures always make you better.

Back to the title of the post. Cold.

So much for global warming, this is the coldest winter we have had in many years. The alarmists will have to find something else to scare us with....oh wait, they found it...the economy.

In past years, a winter this cold and wet would have left me without any bike riding, but the Greenway has given me the chance to log some serious miles despite the conditions. Logging the miles is secondary to the good times and new friends I've made with my new downtown rides. Haven't been on the mountain bike in two months and haven't even missed it (yet) as the Greenway offers a cool combination of a leg burning workout and a few ours of social time. Good stuff.

Hopefully all this riding will allow me to do some big events this year that will be "a little too much". Checking the calander now.

Still going

Lots and lots of rain this winter, so that means lots and lots of Greenway rides. Lots of Greenway rides means more socializing, beer stops and good times.

The greenway rides always include a trip by the local skatepark. The kids at the park are really impressed with us old guys, our tight fitting lycra clothing and dorky bikes.

Pub stop.

Henley street bridge as seen from the Greenway. Click for big.

Catch up number 3

January trip to the Zoo. This pic is not a fair representation of our kids normal behavior.

Spencer helping Molly see a rattlesnake. Again, this level of sibling cooperation is rare in the Stegall houshold.

The new Stegall kid exhibit.

Catch up time part 2

Spencer is growing up.

Turned 6!

Whitney keeping the party under control and really wanting me to
put the camera down.

First lost tooth!

Catch up time.

Spencer and her friend Lilly Kate.

Molly at Halloween

Bike riding.

Will found my old skool Syncros cycling cap.

Leaner nations bike, walk, use mass transit - MSNBC Wire Services

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28235890/

Matt

Busy

New tasks at work and home have really cut into my goof-off on the internet time which in turn has left my blog postless for a few weeks (ok, months). Lots of stuff to write about, but no time to do it.

Spencer is a full-on school kid now. I take her every morning and it's one of the best times of the day for me. It's kinda sad that sitting in traffic every morning for thirty minutes is one of the highlights of my day, but we just don't get a lot of time to talk one on one time throughout a normal day.

We have all heard this a million times, but I can't believe how fast time with your kids goes by. Seems like just a few months ago I was bringing her home from the hospital.

A great trip to the beach in the last of October. The weather was great. 75-78 every day and coming off the summer, the ocean was still fairly warm. The trip was chock full of catastrophes (two kids with stomach flu, a blow out on the way there and a trip to the ER for me) and we still had a great time.