Mtnracer

Baby on the way…we’ve got about 18 days until the due date. We’ve decided to call her Lily Lin Vaughn. I’ll put up pictures when she comes. Stacey and I are both totally excited, and are ready any day now to have her come.

I’ve been riding almost every day. I get up at 5:45am and put in 45min-1 hour on my trainer. It is dark at that time, and since I think it would be unsafe for me to do either mountain or road at that time, I stick to the trainer and some good solid DVDs.

Then, on my weekends, I usually take Saturday off and spend it with the family. Sundays, I get some work done and put in a longer ride. I’ve already gotten in a couple of good 4 hour rides since I’ve been on this schedule, and I actually feel pretty good all the way throughout.

Since I started a new job at OSU Federal, Your Community Credit Union, I have been disciplined about my training. By waking up an hour early and working out, I feel more relaxed since I’ve already been active and I am much more able to concentrate while working.

I will probably not be racing a whole bunch this fall or winter, since we have Lily coming. But, I may get the occasional sneak-out to race a cross race. I tried doing one of the Eugene Short-Cross races, and holy crap did I get my butt kicked! I didn’t get lapped, but trying to keep up with the Cat A men on their cross bikes while I was using my clunky Ibis hardtail mountain bike, was near impossible!

Anyway, it feels good to write again. Keep up the good work everyone!

So, to those of you who don’t know, my wife and I are expecting a baby girl to join our family this mid-October.

We are very excited with this news, and we’ve been doing everything to stay healthy, nutritious, and active for our baby. We want her to be brought up in an environment with the pinnacle of love and good-health, and I think we’re both doing an excellent job so far of creating that environment. (more…)

I have been wanting to share this for a while now. Here is my ipod playlist that I listen to while warming up for a race. It’s a bunch of angry, hardcore rock music. So, cover your eyes if you don’t like that type of music.

The list is also not ordered, as I have an ipod shuffle, and love that I get to be surprised by what type of angry music I get to listen to next.

• Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) (Short Version) - Concrete Blonde
• Running Knees - Days Of The New
• Walk The Sky - Fuel
• Brain Stew (The Godzilla Remix) - Green Day
• Papercut - Linkin Park
• One Step Closer - Linkin Park
• With You - Linkin Park
• Points Of Authority - Linkin Park
• Crawling - Linkin Park
• Runaway - Linkin Park
• By Myself - Linkin Park
• In The End - Linkin Park
• Place For My Head - Linkin Park
• Forgotten - Linkin Park
• Pushing Me Away - Linkin Park
• Enter Sandman - Metallica
• Wherever I May Roam - Metallica
• The God That Failed - Metallica
• Come With Me - P. Diddy
• No Shelter - Rage Against The Machine
• Pressure - Staind
• For You - Staind
• Schism - Tool
• Parabola - Tool
• Lateralus - Tool
• Falling Away From Me - Korn
• Last Resort - Papa Roach
• Stupify - Disturbed
• Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
• Alive - Godsmack

Only 15lbs (6.8 kg for you Euro-folk) to go, until I reach my race goal weight of 156lbs! Yay!
I have been stable at between 170 and 172 for 5 days now, and this morning was at an even 171. So, I’m proud…6 percent, here we come!

Here’s some pictures of me with my off season weight *haha*:

With a head this big, it’s a surprise any helmet will fit.

No, I didn’t play football…

Damn trees always hit me from the left.

Feed me!

I added a page today called “motivational quotes.” It’s a list of cycling-specific quotes that I have kept over the last few years and use to get motivated to train or just “say no” to that piece of chocolate cake.

Here’s a few of my favorites:

• “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” - John F. Kennedy
• “Cycling is like a church - many attend, but few understand.” — Jim Burlant
• “Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym.” - Bill Nye, the Science Guy (haha - Stacey! I love you!)
• The bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created:  Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon. –Bill Strickland, The Quotable Cyclist

So, I hope you enjoy those. And, if not, I will!