I’m not sure if I ever made the varsity team

In Jason’s post about yesterday’s team ride at Poor Farm, he said he felt like he “got called up to varsity to play with the big boys”. A comment that instantly bubbled up to my already inflated ego and spawned the sophomoric drivel that awaits you if you read on.

When I was actually in high school (before the internet for you young-ins) I wasn't on the varsity team. I was in the Marching Band. My instrument shall remain a mystery... We were never really the cool kids at home coming.

A year later I remember the band instructor asking me why I was switching from Band to Drafting. I had discovered girls, guitars, and Guns N Roses. Marching Band was done! For a few fleeting high school years I was sort of a cool kid. My varsity jacket was made of denim and had an Ozzy Ozborne patch instead of a school letter.

Obsession #1

Way past college, the birth of the internet, and then the dot com boom, I had been riding motorcycles for years and was a weekend knee dragger. Every weekend I drove to the mountains with my sport bike in the back of the truck. I would unload it and ride about 300 miles of the most twisting mountain roads I could find. After many a hooligan’s outing, and getting chewed out by an off duty WV cop for passing him on a double yellow at about 120 I started to realize I needed to get on the race track, or I was going to kill myself on the street or get locked up. So I effectively hung up my leathers… my motorcycle varsity jacket. No school letter on my leathers, just knee sliders and a full face helmet.

Obsession #2

I needed something exciting and legal. My fitness also needed a lot of help. So, I started riding mountain bikes with a couple of friends from work. I paid my dues riding the JRPS way back before north bank existed and well before buttermilk was sanitized for the masses. When it came to mountain bikes I was about as Fred as you could get. However, I was a hard charger and gradually got pretty decent.

A few years later my rough and tumble mountain bike style caught up with me and I had to get help for serious back problems. It took a year and a half of physical therapy and rebuilding my core, but I had a great coach. Clarke Tanner from Optimal Solutions Physical therapy brought me back to life as a mountain biker. Did I mention that Clarke was one of the cool kids, and played college football?

Clarke asked me to race the 2008 BC Bike Race with him. That’s when I got serious about mountain biking and training. In October 2007 a 30 mile ride at Sherando was about as big as I could go, and that kind of ride left me hurting pretty bad.

I had about 8 months to get ready for the BC Bike Race, 350 miles over 7 days on the most challenging terrain I have ever ridden! I needed a training montage, err… training routine. Clarke suggested we follow AndreasHestler’s 11 week training program, and so we did. The big race came, we had many highs and lows and ultimately rocked it out! I finished the race with a finger that was taped up following a dislocation and manual relocation courtesy of my trail side body mechanic and race partner, Clarke. This race was an incredible experience and forged the serious mountain bike racer in me.

Obsession #3

A couple of years later I was searching for a cool team to race with in Richmond and I started riding for Design Physics Racing. I remember how awesome I thought it was to finally have a legit race kit and be a member of the cool kids racing team in the RVA. Years later, it turns out that the folks on my race team are an awesome bunch of riders and friends. My mountain bike varsity jacket sports our team logo and I’m always proud to be rocking it out.

My Varsity Jacket