Things on my Mind

1) Obviously the biggest. I think I'm leaving this Friday night to spend the weekend in Michigan. It's hard to believe it's been three months since I visited last. There's a lot I want to do when I'm there, but don't think time or my dad will allow it. If my mother was going that would be different.

2) My mom spoke to the doctor this afternoon who is now giving me the option to have surgery on my shoulder. I'm not too excited about this idea as it would most definitely mean sacrificing much of my cycling season and eliminating my baseball season altogether. I really want to do both but it's evident I cannot. Mass confusion here. I need to think this one through.

3) PLAY BALL! Opening Day is here and the Yankees did not play today. Rain has forced them to begin the final season at Yankee Stadium tomorrow. I implore all you out there to visit this historic ballpark as it will be obliterated. I'm not kidding when I say you get chills walking in there. Sounds cheesy I know, but to think Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played there, it's mind boggling. Tigers lost to the stupid Royals. Don't even want to talk about that.

Picture This!

It would help if I correctly attached a picture. I can't decide whether to keep the monitor on top or beside the computer. This think looks really industrial and also looks like it would belong in an entertainment center. I don't have an internet connection yet, but at least I can do my school work without bothering my dad to get off the computer. (The observant one can see Jeff's stellar painting skills at play)

New Computer

I can't quite figure out where to put the monitor.

Bailing Out

I'm angry at myself and the doppleganger effect was in full swing today. In an effort to gain more experience, I decided to go ahead and race with the team despite not being at full physical capacity. I barely made two laps around Park Drive and couldn't get off the saddle once! Here's an analogy. The pain in my shoulder felt like getting a cavity filled without novacaine. I just couldn't keep my arm extended. My coach is aware of my issue and was proud I made the effort to ride. In my book this is failure. My parents and my coach both think I'm being too hard on myself...I admit I can be...but this is unacceptable. I'm supposed to race next weekend too but I may be out of town. Sorry I needed to vent.

Updates

I know I haven't been blogging. I've had a fun week off from school. Dan, Chris, and Craig have spent the last few days rotating who's house we go to. The circle was complete today as they came back to my house. It was raining today so we played Playstation 3 all day and ate garbage. This is the first chance I've had to post on my blog as I am preparing for the arrival of...you guessed it...my very own computer. I should have it tonight when my dad comes home.

I have to be in Central Park at 6 tomorrow morning for the team race. My involvement in the race will depend on the status of my once again ailing shoulder. Can you just feel the frustration mounting in me? My bike will be accompanying me none the less.

Either next weekend or the following weekend I have BIG PLANS!!! I will be accompanying my dad to Michigan! He has to meet with some people from General Motors to discuss business related things. And we will quite possibly start looking for a place to move to. Woohoo! I'll keep adding details as they become available.

One final thing. I want to wish all my cycling readers the best of luck for the new season. I hope you achieve all your goals and beyond!!!

MRI Part II

My orthopedist wanted me to come in today after yesterday's ordeal. Today I felt fine. No pain or stinging of any kind. He took another MRI and assured me everything was fine. I'm at 95%. The 5% is what I felt yesterday. Jason can attest to the fact (swimming pool incident) that pain in no way shape or form unless it's excrutiating bothers me, but yesterday's pain was of the eye-tearing kind. The doc said to not keep my arm in any one position for too long. Boy did I learn that the hard way. So after my examination I went out riding in balmy 60 degree weather. Hmmm, I smell Spring.

Agonizing Pain

It was nice out again today. I went out by myself for a quick ride. About an hour or so. On the way back home I began to feel discomfort in my shoulder. By the time I got home, it was unbearable. I think keeping my arms extended for the duration of the bike ride might have re-aggrevated something in there. I'm hoping and praying I did no damage.

This Gets Me Pumped

I'm finally getting the chance to add videos to you-tube and came across this gem. As an 8 year old boy, this was the first time I ever went to a Yankee game in Yankee Stadium. This is the reason why I'm a baseball freak and always request #24 in whatever sport I play.

Interesting Day Planned / Big News

It is going to be 50 degrees today. Chris, Dan (believe it or not), and Chris' friend Craig, are coming over to raid my refrigerator and then we're going out riding. I coaxed Dan into coming with us, hopefully he can keep pace. Lol. Chris has our route all mapped out, it sounds promising. Nice hills mixed in with some flat terrain and some twists thrown in.

In regards to me going to Michigan, that is almost a certainty. My dad has been given the opportunity to expand his business back in Detroit (I think it's Detroit). The reason why we left Michigan is because business slowed down for him. Now it appears to be on the rebound in his line of work. He hasn't agreed to it yet, but it appears I might come back for good if he says yes. If that's the case, picture me doing cartwheels (if that scares you, just draw a big happy face and that's me). Even if he says no, I'm still going back for a couple of months over the summer. That kind of ruins my racing schedule, but I can live with that.

Vacation

Why am I awake at 8:20 when I'm on vacation from school?

Jeff Will Return

Yes you heard it correctly. Jeff is returning to Michigan. More details to follow.

New Shoes

I am now officialy suffering from the same affliction as my father. LLBFD. For those not familiar with it, that stands for Long Legged Big Feet Disease. I can't believe I need a size 13 shoe for cycling. I don't even wear sneakers or baseball cleats that size. That might change too.

New Computer?

One of my dad's co-workers is replacing his computer with a new one. I have made several inquiries as to where his old one is going. Since I only have a few chances during the day to use this one, I've asked my dad to please see if we can take his old one. It's in the works.

It's a tad on the cold side today but Chris and one of his friends are coming over and we're going out riding. Chris wants to ride to a bike shop that's not too far from here. I'm not a fan of walking with bike shoes on. It looks like I'm tap dancing. I could really use some new shoes. I'm slowly outgrowing the ones I have now.

Tryouts

Today was the last set of tryouts for baseball. It was also the day we find out if we made the team. The weather was a bit more bearable this time around. I was competing against two others for the starting pitchers spot. One of the guys I've kind of become friendly with because he's in my Earth Science class. He did well today and that made me nervous. The other guy I don't know and he did ok. In addition to pitching, I had to show the coach how I hit and field too. The pitching went well, no scuds into the dirt this time. The hitting and fielding left a little to be desired. Pop ups are no problem, line drives are. And I booted a fair share of them. My shoulder seems to be fully healed as I didn't have any discomfort or stinging at all. After about 2.5 hours on the field we went into the gym and sat in the bleachers to wait to hear our names called...in alphabetical order. I hated this. I was so nervous waiting until he got to the K's. Sure enough, he called my name. Yeah baby! Dibs on #24. I felt so bad for Dan. At least my last name is in the middle of the alphabet, his is the dead last. LOL! But he made the team too. And not by nailing anyone in the chest (sorry Dan, I'll never let you live that down). About twelve kids got cut and I truly felt bad for them. I have a heart in my chest unlike some of the other kids. I will be pitching and Dan will be playing 1st base. Bring on the first team!

Duh!

Guess who fell off his bike today. Well actually kinda fell over. I was stopped at the end of my street and I for some reason couldn't disengage my cleat from the pedal. I must've looked like a domino falling over.

Updates

Sorry everyone for not posting anything. I'm not a fan of cramming schoolwork in before a vacation but that's the case now. I have two reports I have to have finished by Friday not to mention baseball tryouts part II on Friday as well. Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chFfW_ykzOo. You'll see what I'm talking about with the recreation lane. The video this guy has up doesn't show it too well but there's a part of the road blocked off so runners, cyclists, etc.. don't fly out into the middle of the race. I saw two instances where a non-racing cyclists went out in the middle of the road. Probably this weekend I'll get the chance to post all of my photos and videos. I have so many things I want to post ad talk about but don't have the time right now. Peace!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Think Green. I'm putting together a slideshow from yesterday. I'm not going to bore everyone with paragraphs of descriptions, I'll let pictures do the talking. A lot of them I've had to delete because someone (he'll remain nameless) didn't put the camera in the correct mode. My dad did snag some good video footage though, one of me whizzing by. I had no time today to breathe because this is the final week of school before Easter vacation. So therefore my teachers are assigning TONS of work for us to cram in.

And So It Begins...

Good Riding

I spent all day in the city today working with my coach. We went over so many fundamentals and techniques that my head is spinning. I had fun, as did the others that were there. I got to ride for a while too to practice what he was preaching. There was a college race in action on the west side of Manahattan this morning, I missed it. So much for the weatherman's prediction of rain as it was beautiful outside. However, that is not the case with tomorrow. Snow and rain are "supposedly" ruining my chances of racing tomorrow. I'm not happy about this. On the way home today my dad was nice enough to pick me up some rollers. I'll be putting those to good use.

An Apology of Sorts

I've been kind of slacking in the photo and video posting. For that I apologize. I don't spend as much time on the computer as I used to and between school and getting ready for races and getting ready for baseball, my free time has diminished. Obviously this blog is mostly about cycling, with some baseball thrown in, but it has been mostly jabber on my part. I promise to post videos/photos of my races. Thanks to Dan for pointing that out.

Bad Weather Coming

It's supposed to rain on Saturday AND Sunday. Jeff = Not Happy

Nothing to Report

I really have nothing to talk about. I've been spending lots of time exercising and I've made a whole-hearted attempt at dropping bad food from my diet. I have cut my vitamin water intake down to a few bottles a week. Now for those who know me, know how addicted to vitamin water I am. It's not easy for me but I'm sticking to my plan. I went riding after school today for about an hour and a half. I love how it stays light out later, more time to ride.

T minus 5 Days and Counting

My anxiety level is through the roof. I want Sunday to be here already.

Attack of the Dry Mouth Disease

Not so bad this time around. The nerves were in check today. The topic of discussion was steroids in sports. I am proud to say that I had full class participation. Everyone was putting in their two cents and expressing their opinions. Except of course, most of the girls. With the exception of two of them. I had my powerpoint presentation in full swing with photos and even pie charts. For my hard work (yup), I received an A. Woohoo! That meant a lot coming from a teacher who wasn't particularly fond of me a few months back. Come on, I'm a likeable guy. Lol.

A Good Day

Well it started off bad. Stupid me forgot to change my clock an hour ahead. Luckily my dad did and he ended up waking me. It was kind of windy this morning in the city but we did get to catch part of the Spring Series race in Central Park. That got me pumped. Even at 6:30 in the morning. My meeting with the team went well. They had pizzas and salads...must be a New York thing...which of course I devoured both. I met some nice people today who are just as passionate about cycling as I am. Only one kid showed up though. He was probably a year or so older than me. His name is Matt and ironically we spent most of the time talking about the Yankees.

The fun part of the day came when I got to ride through Central Park. Myself along with a few others from different teams went through a few sections of the park where races are held. One really needs to pay attention when riding here as there are many obstacles that are thrown a riders way. I learned there are really strict policies about where you can ride and where you can't ride. If you ride in the pedestrian lanes you can be banned from racing for the season. Man they don't play. I'm amped up and ready for next Sunday. I'm going in next Saturday to spend time with the coaches before my race on Sunday.

Training Day

Nasty weather outside means only one thing...training inside. I spent about an hour and a half on the trainer this morning in between breakfast and lunch. I put in some good tunes to keep me pumped and went to town. I also caught the beginning of the Yankees / Rays game. I put to use the jersey and the shorts my aunt and uncle bought me for Christmas. Thanks to them and Ryan too. I may go back for more later since the legs feel great today.

I have to finish my speech for English class today (which is nowhere near completion) since we're spending tomorrow in the city. My dad and I are getting up nice and early to check out the race in Central Park. Then my mom is meeting us for breakfast somewhere and then it's off to the meeting for me. I at least get to meet some of the other riders and pick up my team uniform. I believe it's blue and gold but it may differ for each sub-team.

Postponed

My team meeting has been rescheduled for Sunday afternoon. So maybe I'll ride after all.

Racing Update

I have to go to a team "gathering" on Saturday bright and early. I was hoping we would be doing some riding, but it appears we have a big storm coming Saturday. I need to ride Central Park due to the fact that I will have plenty of races there this year and would like to know all the nuances of it. I do have big news though. I will be starting the season two weeks earlier than expected. I will be racing March 16th. That means I only have 1.5 weeks to get ready. I don't expect to be 100% physically prepared, but I feel well enough to get going. I'm psyched. Big Blue and I are getting along just fine.

Trainer Problems

After school today I did my normal routine. Snack, homework, trainer, computer. The trainer part was a bit sketchy. Something's wrong with it. It makes this horrible high pitched noise. It's really not that old so I can't imagine what's wrong with it. I found myself turning up the volume on my stereo to shunt the noise.

Another Speech

My next speech is due next Monday. I'm unsure of which topic I want to discuss this time around. I may recycle my previous attempt at discussing steroids in sports. Now that Roger Clemens is on the hot seat, this subject may draw some attention from my classmates.

Some kid made a snide remark about cycling today and I used every ounce of will power not to open my mouth. He said something to the fact that it shouldn't be considered a sport it should be a fashion contest. I want to find him a set of nice steep hills and hand him a bike and we'll see what his response is to that.

First Ride

After picking up the bike from the shop yesterday, I went out riding for about an hour with my friend Chris. It was the first day in months where it was bearable outside. I wanted to get acquainted with the bike and also get used to the speedplay's. I need to ride more. I'm not feeling too strong and/or confident. It's really nice out today, so I'm going out again at like 12:30.

Today could be considered the official start of bicycle season here in New York. The New York Spring Series opened today in Central Park. It's killing me I'm not there to participate. But after my ride yesterday, it's probably a good thing I didn't race.