BREAK FACE

Ride Journal 08.21.10 21 miles 2 hours

2010-08-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

Hadley and I spent a nice morning cruising around kelly point. First ride on the road bike in a really long time. yay!

WOooooohoooo

2009-06-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

The new role of BreakFace: a semi-monthly cycling brain dump. Or so it seems.

NEWS

Team photo! yay. The kits look fantastic although there where some errors in the order. Replacements are on their way so everyone gets two kits for the price of one! Here we are, YEAH!

Also, the wheels are rolling again. Last sunday brought in 65 miles of skyline and around town action. More to come?

Hadley's bike is coming so close to completion as all we need (besides cables, housing and other miscellany) are cranks, bars, stem, and pedals. AWESOME!

Oh neglect...

2009-05-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

Starting things without finishing [lists, majors, projects, races] is an unpleasantly but undeniably tenacious habit of mine. At least I come back now and then. It sure doesn't make for a very good blog, but alas I vow a renewal of interest and attention to my blog-enriched life on the internet. Keep reading!

NEW:

Fact, I have fallen off the prov... [ah... I'll spare anyone the repetitious use of that word in my internet vocabulary] boat that is the road racing season. But I, like Lance, am announcing my comeback from my "retirement" in which I've enjoyed a remarkable amount of time OFF the bike.

This blog will now be simplified and will follow in suit with my other internet brain-dump !Viva Airship! [yes, that is a hyper-link, click it] I mostly want to have a self indulgent ride journal, mile log, and self-discussion of cycling without pissing of those so dear to me [who will likely be my only, and reluctant, readers. Shout out to my homez!] Of course, I'll give small bits and pieces of my life to keep readers teased and titillated, so stay with me here!

Ok, this post is for public notice so I'll stop here and continue on soon with news on my amazing comeback and my over-bearing plugs for my cancer awareness organization... I've said enough.

Headlines

2008-11-13T11:45:00.000-08:00

UPDATES UPDATES UPDATES!

1. CYCLISME: the team has had new breath breathed into it and things are looking fine. We are waiting on news about the new kit orders and showing off to the community.

2. I'm reconsidering racing collegiate this spring for PSU. I think it would be fun and would give me some true sportsman-in-college stories to tell my grandkids some day. Maybe i can even sport a letterman’s jacket. Ha. This effort, the PSU team, would not replace Cyclisme at all, just supplement my own personal riding and accomplishments. We must not lose our roots.

3. I'm building marionettes now. It’s my new hobby. So far it’s all in the experimental phase but still the excitement is great. I have made a whimsical version of a Bubonic Plague Physician Ghost and an Eddy Merckx-like racer inspired by the animation in the Triplets of Bellville. Here are some pictures of the physician and it's control sticks:

2008-10-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Well, for the last week i've been able to get out on a decent ride every day. My legs are tired but it feels incredible to be back where i was more than two months ago.

In less fortunate news, the team Cyclisme can't get its shit together and is falling apart. I don't know why i'm the only one who can put personal stuff aside and just "be on a team". There are more benefiets than not. Anyways, we'll see what happens but our numbers are dwindling faster than sinking rocks.

I've been keeping an awesome little analog riding journal but i use the online Velog site which has a little feed at the top right of the blog in case anyone is wondering.

Other than that i have not much to say so i'll leave y'all be.

~Fish Face

Heyo!

2008-10-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

Back in the game! I'm declaring my official return to the bike with todays ride. it has been two months and a week to the day since i broke my arm and although i've been out for a ride or two in the last weeks today will be on my newly assembled 9 speed ultegra road setup up on the Prologue. With this day will come frequent postings and such. So wish me luck... -Tin

Letters From Santa Cruz:

2008-09-16T15:02:00.001-07:00

The infrequency of my writing frustrates me while at the same time it leads me realize that, sadly, it is no matter to anyone but myself. So, to me i say, "I'm sorry, Justin".

Now that that is taken care of, i'll let you all know that i'm in the lovely, beachy, peachy Santa Cruz California until next tuesday, enjoying the sun and relaxation whilst attempting to forget my arm and the inability to ride a bike. However, i'll be soon celebrating five weeks of recovery, simultaneously dreading the long two or three weeks remaining for my punishment.

There is not much else to say besides a quick mention that i'll have a nice little it's-fall-time-to-be-pensive-and-moody mix up on the right hand side of the screen in the next day or two.

Enjoy!

~Justin

Page by page...

2008-09-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of downtime in the past weeks, nursing this useless arm. In this time i have truly contemplated many things. At the end of the day, braking my arm has afforded me a chance to examine my life and the choices i make. I am really happy with the direction i'm headed.

On a less existential note, i have been reading like crazy. It's my new hobby. At any given point and at any given place you will find me with one novel and one cycling magazine. The periodicals get systematically digested, each flimsy page wrung dry of words, while the novel's pages are turned slowly, with a new found loving attention. I walk around downtown with my head down, eyes tracing lines from left to right, left to right. I've yet to stumble out in front of a car, thank god.

Since this is how i'm spending my time, i thought i'd share a little about the books i'm invested in, in hopes that someone reading this might pick them up.

Book Number One: Please, please read this book

The Book Thief is truly one of the most magically constructed books i've read in a very long time. Every book that i have read that truly sticks with me has something that instantly inspires me. There are almost too many with this this book. If i had to pick one quality of The Book Thief that has changed the way i look at literature, it is the vividness of Markus Zusak's descriptions. He manipulates the very being of your senses. You have no control as you smell, hear, see, and feel what he writes. Every page has hidden shallow in it's layers one, if not many, gems. As simple as a sentence, these gems will stop you. your eyes explore them, you are lost in wonder. This writing is truly beautiful.

The story itself is a refreshing departure from the tragically necessary, yet overwhelmingly huge volume of writings dealing with Nazi Germany. It takes the perspective of a young german girl, living with foster parents in a poor suburb of Munich during World War II. The relationships she builds shape the story that is told by death himself. The people in this story will haunt you long after you set the book down, closing the cover on the final page. To say the characters become familiar would be a pure understatement, as you truly fall in love with everyone, feeling the raw sinews of humanity stretched farther than they should ever be. Please, please, read this book.

Motivation Inspiration: Notes on Team

2008-09-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a posting from my team's blog. It is something that i needed to share with my teammates, but i feel that it speaks to anyone.

FROM THEFIXEDGEARS.BLOGSPOT.COM, ONE OF TEAM CYCLISME'S WEB SPACES

When i got my track bike stolen, way back in June, i was devastated. My family, including my grandparents, uncles, ants, and cousins, all pitched in and helped me with a replacement fund. When i found out about this network of support that manifested itself without my knowing, by people who didn't even know how much that bike meant to me or what it had allowed me to do with my life, i was more than humbled. Not knowing how to thank them enough i wrote a long letter, telling a story of a rainy february day. A day of introduction. To a coach, a friend, new riders, and a sport. A sport called cycling.

From that day i have seen my life change in so many ways. I have learned so much, met so many people that i now know as best friends and role models. I have also had the chance to return these gifts by helping our kids grow, win races, and discover things they might not have known they could do. This has been an amazing season.

I've been frustrated too. When Jake left the team i was dissapointed. When i lost my track bike i was furious. when i flatted at Swan Island, what could ahve been a solid triumph was cut short. I was angry. When Serna quit, leaving his teamates, friends, and those who he had taught so much, i was confused and a little astonished. When i broke my arm i was at a loss. I wanted to give up. But at each and every moment where i was discouraged, i though of my teamates, my accomplishments, the times that i quit and the times i came back. I think of the capabilities we have as a team, as an organization, and the ways in which we can empower ourselves, help others, and blow away the field next year with an unforgiving punch of surprise, speed, and teamwork. Oh, and lets not forget benevolence, good form, simplicity and team.

Lets make this winter count. Lets get dirty and have fun with Cross, lets train our selves in body and mind, lets eat to win. We are capable of a lot and we can have anything we want if we afford ourselves the opportunity. Our succes relies on a few simple things. Trust, communication, teamwork and friendship will give us what we want and what we need.

~Dishes

A couple plates and screws later...

2008-09-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

...and i'm all sewed up. Yup, i went and broke my arm. That, however lame an excuse it may be, explains my internet absence. That and since i can no longer ride a bike (at least not until november) i have little to report when it comes to rides and races. However, a little follow up is rightly due...

I, most unfortunately, did not end up making any money at all that fateful weekend. If it weren't for Pacificare, i would have actually lost several hundreds of dollars. Saturday, the swan island crit, proved to be very fun and very easy, winning me a Maxxis tee shirt for getting first on the one sprint lap and allowing me to sit comfortably on the ignorant wheels of the few stubborn leaders who, graciously, led the pack over and over and over, and over again, affording me and many others good rest for about twenty five or thirty minutes. Then i got stung by a bee lodged in my glasses and flatted a tire on the 2nd to last lap as i chased the winning break away.

"Oh well," i sighed [after a mini swearing fit and a near destructive bike throw] " Better luck tomorrow."

Apparently not. Dave Wingard and i got dropped like dead weight off the fast action cat5/4 pack leading me to spend 4 laps time trialing it up to the "back of the pack" which ended up being another break off of two guys. Just as i reached them we all got pulled out. Then, after celebrating the [extremely bitter] end of the criterium racing season, i snapped both bones in my right fore arm landing me in the hospital for a morphine drenched two day "piss-in-the-bottle" oxy binge. Thankfully i learned a lot about my friends and family who showed me the most incredible, surrounding support and comfort in the following days.

So yeah, now i play the waiting game.

Time to make some money

2008-08-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yes. It is. This weekend will bring a lot to my short but growing career as a road cyclist. Saturday is the Swan Island Criterium which is sure to draw a large field and many spectators. The plan is for me to race in Cat 5s and try my hardest to take as many premes (points/prize laps) as i can, hopefully finishing in the top three (which means first :-), i hope) The next day promises an even crazier race as we troop out to Gresham for the OBRA Criterium Championships. The same plan will be set in to action, pushing me as hard as i can go. Wish me luck, and i hope to bring back much more money than i will have left with.

Busy busy busy...

2008-08-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I wrote anything but i'm trying to change that. This last saturday at four o'clock began the annual 24 hour Velo Vulture put on by Damien and friends. Man, i had no idea what i was getting into. Alex and i teamed up to take 8th after a relatively grueling 24 hours of solid riding and no sleep (except for alex who finished it off with a four hour nap, but whatever) Over all i logged in very close to 95 miles but it felt like more, let me tell you. The afternoon, evening, night, morning midday, and following afternoon took me everywhere from SE Flavel drive to Rocky butte at 90 something and Fremont to St. Johns to Swan Mart up Barbur blvd [and into our backyard kiddie pool at around 2:45 AM.

It all payed off in the end with a good story, good company, and a prize of a Castelli winter jersey with fuzzy micro fleece lining that i will cherish in not too long as fall sets its cold fingers on our lovely city.

In all, it was great. There is no way i'd ever do it again... until next year. ~Justin

2008-08-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, so apparently it is dark at five in the morning. Oh the shortening days and chilly air of fall... Yes, I awoke at 5:00 this foggy morning and met up with my friend Dawn at her house in NE. Her other riding partner for the day was Natalie. I noticed that they both had Sweatpea bikes [a locally based frame builder who builds specifically for women, amazing!] and i commented accordingly. Turns out Natalie is Sweatpea! How cool. anyways, 2 hours and 27 of lovely conversation, bitchy climbs, wet fog, and eye tearing descents later i arrived a Stumptown Downtown. Being awake and done with a ride at 8:00 am is a bit disorienting. Ran into George of Team Beer. He said that the races at the 'Rose are canceled today due to the awesome Crit in the park blocks this evening featuring many monsters from Cats 1, 2, and 3. See you there.

Oh yes, please visit Sweatpea's website for a taste of local masterpiecery.

http://sweetpeabicycles.com/

And so it begins...

2007-12-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

Portland, winter, 2007. The year is ending and so, apparently, is the world. Oh wait, that's just winter, never mind. It seems as though little pieces of chaos keep jutting there way through Portlands safety bubble. We've had a turn for the worst with cycling/car incidents, floods, and something about the air is just not quite right. But in all actuallity, the City of Roses is hunkering down for the impending rain and wind of the mighty NW. Carefull, don't get trench foot.