2:29am

as i write this i sit, luckily able enough to steal wireless internet on my newly revived laptop, at the barracks on a sunday night, in my 20th and 1/2 hour of my CQ shift. THIS JOB IS KILLING ME!!!! i havent had an actual break in what feels like months. years really. but the fact of the matter is that i work close to 80 hours a week, and i hardly have time to keep myself sane and healthy, much less take care of the important things i need to in order to help with billing, our soon to come move, house hold chours, or even just take care of sam. let alone attempt to train and build a new fitness level. its the most frustrating thing ive ever gone through. i constantly have to do what i hate, in which drives me from doing what i must and love. the perfect sucky situation. and we only have to go through it for 2 years, 11 months, 24 more days! wow.

other than that rant, i have been trying to go to the gym as much as possible. i guess i can credit some lack of not working out enough to lack of motivation, but either way i have a lot of gains that i need to make, and none of which are going to come with out me busting my but to make that happen. im gonna start tomorrow hitting it harder than i have been. i want to purposly loose my car keys so that i have to commute to work on bike every day. i guess 12 miles a day to and from work is better than not getting any in at all.

sam and i are thinking about gettting a husky, as an addition to our family. fun huh? well i guess i am gonna sign off for now, and this entry offically took me ten minutes closer to 6am when i get off work.
dc

its been a long long time

it has been a while since i have wrote anything. however life has been pretty busy the past few weeks. i am preparing to go to the promotion board in less than 3 weeks, so i have been studying for that. trips to and from storage getting our winter wear back out. trying to figure out where we will be living come february. stay as active on the bike and keep up with off season training. and balance a semi normal life with the wife, job, and everything else while having discovered Madden 2010.

I have made a new friend, Matt. he works with me in Alpha Company...better known to us who work there as "Alpha-traz." but this guy has gotten into cycling with me.. and is a natural. the dude is raw power and after two rides EVER has already shown me and a few others that he has what it takes to be pure awesome. the guy went on a 54 mile ride with me and flexy his FIRST ride. turned around and did a 48 miler the day after with me, Flex, and Andrew. These were not easy rides either, while they we're incredibly difficult either, they had some decent challenges in them with a couple long climbs (long for the tri-state region i mean), a few fast descents, and when ever you get me josh and andrew together, we boe our feathers up a bit and attack each other as fiercly and often as possible; so there was a lot of stomping on the pedals at high speed. he held up really well. he gets out of the army in april, but is considering going to school in dc, and if so is wanting to race for cyclelife. yea buddy.

anyways, its 530am right now, i just had some waffles, and im finishing up the last of my coffee. i need to leave for work tho. day 2 of primary. gym after. groceries after that. home by 830pm maybe. possibly in bed by 915. we'll see.

Oktober

This has been a crazy month. upon coming back from SOA ive been introduced to firing party, in which i am a part of a full honors team that conducts 21 gun salutes in Arlington for funerals. we start that next week...

other than that at work ive started fairly moderately in the gym, trying to build a base to do some hardcore strength and power workouts in the coming winter. ive tapered off the bike a bit just to try to relax, and knowing what a busy season i will have next year ill be thankful ive had the rest now rather than try to make up for it later. my bike makes the weirdest noises... i keep tuning and cleaning it, but it still persists to make annoying sounds. i dont know what it is.

oh i failed to mention that i bought a new car too.. a 2008 toyota 4runner. its pretty sweet, it was a total random move and its gonna make money so tight, but i think it will pay off in the long run by how helpful it will be to have 2 cars. made some pumpkin pie tonight with sam so im pretty anxious for that to come out of the oven. and getting ready for a long ride tomorrow with flexy and a guy matt who im getting into cycling. so thats an update.

later on

dc

In Real Life

In fairy tales typically the hero always wins, the princess finds her prince, the cute talking animal turns into a beautiful person, or the bad guys falls or realizes his own demise and changes from antagonist to pro. id like to say that real life is the same way. But in all reality the only constant that we have is that God is the Hero that wins, He is the prince of peace, the true beauty in every living creature, and is the only on capable of turning bad into good. I am none of these things, but am redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

I learned a very valuable lesson this past weekend, and am still taking notes on what it is that i learned. Forgiveness, mercy, and the ability to see someone through eyes of love.

I wont get into any details, but my wife has shown so much compassion to me the past few days. I had put a lot on the line for us, and despite how much i had messed up and how very upset and hurt she was with me, she swallowed sadness and showed me love and mercy and forgiveness and in doing so we have started to grow closer together. again, i wont get into it, but i love her with so much ferocity and intensity and i will never forget who she is and what she deeply means to me. i owe my life to take care of hers.

Anyways, the lesson i have learned have been taken to heart and will not be forgotten. i had stepped aside briefly and she found me and brought me back to her, despite the hurt, despite the heartache, with prevailing love and kindness. she fought through the suffering to see the good in me and love me for who she knows me to be; sounds a little familiar to Jesus does it not? Samantha, you mean the world to me. i will never forget what you mean to me and what you have shown me the past few days. I will love you for all of time.

lazy day

so i literally sat inside all day except to take zoey out once or twice, the rest of the time i watched the veulta, then just now stage one of tour of Missouri. Cav one, and i got excited to start racing again. something about seeing circut races gets me fired up.

my riding wasnt what i thought itd be. i got about 40 miles in on me day off; 35 in on my planned 80; 64 in on my planned sprint interval day, and then 56 on me planned century. and today where i figured a group ride, i didnt nothing but sat in my pajamas all day.

so i still got about 280 miles in, but not in what i wanted to do. so now i am super tired and glad that i stayed in today. but it was rainy, so i didnt use "im tired" as an excuse, but rather the rain.

i dont have to be at work until 10 tomorrow morning. which is really awesome, but at the same time makes me wonder what time im gonna get off work... i am amping myself up for a really long and painful week.

i started looking at routes and cabins for the feb-march cycling training camp trip thing that andrew and i are planning... its gonna be relatively cheap and a lot of really good riding. im so super excited about it... really, im so anxious.

last race weekend is coming up on sunday, so i am excited about that, but the first weekend of spirit of america is this weekend...so ya.. hopefully im not too tired for it.

much love

derek

long weekend

well after a short 3 day week at work, capped with a 24 hour shift on wednesday, i am enjoying a 5 day weekend. much i believe is well earned. yesterday i slept pretty much all but 5 hours of the day, and today sam and i have hung out a lot and ive been wandering around thinking its saturday all day. i got out and road about 20 miles today, mostly pretty big hills, so, 1hr 45min of hills, pretty decent.

Tomorrow through monday im gonna hit it hard, hopefully with 80 miles tomorrow, some sprint intervals on sunday, and then a century on monday. My last ditch fitness effort before next sundays turkey day race.

Sam works all weekend so ill be mostly alone and on the bike. Im still bummed my PS3 is busted, so im trying to work that. um other than that, there are no other updates.....

well there is one, but i cant talk about it until next week. let the suspense build.

lata

d

blah

Well yesterday was a really fun day. Sam and i hung out with andrew and alyssa again, had some chili's, which is always amazing, but earlier that morning i went on a ride with andrews team, 540.

those are some pretty chill guys, and i like all of their attitudes. i really want to race with him, but this tiger still doesnt know which strips he is gonna wear next year. anyways, yea, its gonna be a huge season next year, and i plan on doing really really well, but its where, when, and how that is the question.

This week isnt gonna be so bad. i worked today, off at 5; work tomorrow, probably the same thing; i have a neurology appointment on wednesday afternoon, but am doing CQ wednesday night, then i go on a recovery day thursday, straight into a 4 day weekend. so i am off thursday through monday. pretty amazing. that gives me a lot of time to work for and train up for the turkey day race on the 13th, being that the tues-saturday prior i may get to ride once or twice.

but as for now, im gonna lay on the couch and watch stage 3 of the Vuelta. peace and love.