Putting in the work...

Today I was going through the pictures my wife took this last year and man the bug hit me a little bit tonight. Something I have identified myself as for the past 3 years is something I have distanced myself from for the past 3 months. I just got burnt out from the whole racing scene.

3 months ago I made the decision to just quit racing inorder to get myself making money again. I now sell a nitch product in life insurance and becoming successful at it. The thing about this new job is it has required me to put a ton of time and energy into it. Not a ton of time like every waking moment I am working but has taken the mental focus I had reserved towards cycling. To divide that attention into two things is a challenge for me that i really do not want to divide. The time I am not working I am not wanting to throw my leg over the top tube.

Why is everything different. Well my results in my new chosen career is determined by my own efforts that I put into it. Not like a dead end job were I work so hard just to stay a desk jockey for the end of my days. I just know I was not going to go anywhere in the career path I was taking. This new one allows me to make as much money as I want by my own efforts.

This past year I was finding myself bitching a lot and not enjoying what I was doing on the bike. Showing up for some many crits just for it to end in a 50 person field sprint. I am not strong enough to break away, I sure tried. All that hard work over the winter last year just to be a mid pack rider this past year just was not very appealling to me. Why am I putting in so much work for mid pack finishes, when I can put that effort and concentration into results that count. Those results I am getting is I am now making money.

Am I racing next year? Right now I do not think I am going to. Do I miss racing, today was the first day when I got a hint of the bug. I just do not want to sabatoge my progress in my job. I actually work for myself so I am accountable for my own actions. I am doing well, but want to do better. My first month couple months I wrote 8,000 in business and this last month I did 16000. I want to do 20 this next month. If I can get the numbers that means I will be making close to 10,000 a month for being a newbie is awesome. That energy is basically garnering better results than that 13th place I got in a cat 3 race.

Who knows, I will probably still do a couple races next year. If not the year after. I think I might just go away from racing for a year. Lets see whats going on in my head in december. I can not get fat again. Plus I am running membership for ABRT so I am not staying away from the scene. I think the scene just does not make sense for me right now. Cycling takes a lot of time even though your doing basement workouts. Racing takes hours because of travel and warm up. I just can not afford that right now.

Not to be a debby downer. Things are going good for me professionally right now and that counts for a lot.

See ya around,
Kyle

Church Creek TT

I had the most fun I have ever had at a TT. I think it was because I did not do the damn thing. After 2 weeks of not really riding I did the dville group ride and saw that my inactivity left my heart rate screaming. Plus the heat just drains my power.

I am glad I am just taking the mental break from the bike. A few weeks ago I was thinking of hawking my SRM. Just kind of thinking of quitting the sport all together and just claim to be a mountain biker who never rides. But after a couple weeks away I am starting to think of next year. I will have to do it differently and I am thinking of not doing any structure in my training. Just go out and ride. It seems to work for plenty of people. I just know that when I need to ride hard that means go out and ride hard.

We will see how I feel in a few weeks. Will be in the obx getting fat like I did last year. Boston Creame Donut holes yummmm!!!!!

The New Career So far...

Ok for a while now I have been talking about getting my insurance license and started working for my father-in-law. I have only been writing up policies for 3 weeks. It has been a challenge

for me in many new ways. Like way to talk to people on the phone is a totally new experience

for me. Luckily for me the company I work for provides leads from people who are requesting the information. So it is not cold calling, thank god.

What we specialize in is Mortgage Protection(you do not need

a mortgage for most of the programs now). I totally love this product from Mutual of Omaha that we sell made specifically for the company I work for. This here will explain some of the difference of what life insurance is and what mortgage protection insurance does.

Life insurance:

Death Benefit when you die. (this is it only)

Mortgage Protection:

Death benefit when you die, but can use 92 percent of your death benefit if a doctor says you have 2 years to live. So you can do final expense planing alive or seek treatment out of the country that might cure you.

If your home sustains 25,000 dollars in damage you do not have to pay 6 months premium

Die in a plane, train or bus you get your death benefit matched.(double)

optional:

Disability up to 30 months of pay due to any injury and you can not make it work.

Return of you premium if you never use your policy, meaning if you never use your plan you get every cent back.

Now you can see there is some subtle but also big differences in the stuff I sell compared to the regular life insurance. Regular life insurance is there when you die, what I sell can be used when you live or die. Thats why I hate telling you guys I sell life insurance when it really is not life insurance. I can sell general life but it is not what I focus on.

Do I like what I do? Well yes I do. I am meeting families and helping

them out. It is great because I come into their homes and do not care how

much a policy might cost. My goal is to just provide coverage no mater how little it costs. I sold a 25 dollar a month policy to a lady the other day who is concerned she might get hurt and not be able to pay her mortgage. That feels great. I also made a wife feel secure if anything were to happen to her husband that she will be able to live in her house for a few years. So there is some satisfaction.

Plus the weird thing is I must have only worked about 25 hours last week and wrote enough business to possibly make 4000 dollars last week. That is if the people keep their plans and qualify for them. It was easy looking back on it. But this is why I am thinking of putting cycling on hold so I can get good at this and then bring some focus back on cycling.

The one thing I am excited the most about is that I also deal with annuities. The one company I work with has this one. It is a real fund, not a depiction and from a information brochure they give us agents.

Now this is if you want to save your money. Your guaranteed to make a minimum interest but if the S&P 500 does well you make more than the guaranteed min and you will not lose money if it tanks. I wish I had 100,000 to throw into this because if you do a 20 year annuity there is a 10 percent bonus and this is given at the beginning so you earn interest on it. You save money because the annuity is taxed deferred meaning you do not pay taxes on the compounding interest every year.

There is also a life income rider. Meaning if you do an annuity it will pay you from a certain age till you die. One example given to us agents if your 42 with a 100,000 dollar 20 year annuity and have the life income rider, you can possibly have something like 25,000 dollars a year for the rest of your life. I have a program that will give exact numbers and senerios. Plus the money that you saved with the annuity is yours to use after the 20 years. So if you look at the example above you have 134,000(before 34,000 dollars gets taxed, depending if the 100,000 is post tax money, if it was from a 401k it will be taxed also) to your disposal and 25,000 dollars for the rest of your life. I am going to do this and not rely on social security. This shit does exist. I would not breeze past this. If you want to save your money, would you want to do this or put it in a cd with a yield of 1.5 percent? Looks safer than other alternatives you maybe using for your retirement future, doesn't it?

If you have any questions or want to talk to me about any of the things I mentioned. Email me at pedalnaround@gmail.com or kyle.travis.jones@gmail.com

If your thinking of getting involved in mortgage protection, insurance and annuities please feel free to contact me also.

Game Over...

As of right now I feel my cycling season is over. Not that I am not felling fast, it is that mentally I think I am done. I still love riding my bike but for some reason I am starting to get the itch to hang up racing right now and just ride on whims.

I told myself that I will give myself 3 good seasons to get as fast as I could before I really start eyeing anything else. Well it is 3 seasons now and I do not feel like I have began to scratch the surface of becoming a local threat at any race I enter. Is this playing a factor in my mindset right now. No way. I am wondering if I will race next year or at least not race as much. I feel my mind is drifting to other challenges in my life. I am just finding it hard to go suffer on the bike right now when I got so much other stuff to do. I do not like signing away my weekends away when I can possibly be working and providing a great income for Amy and me.

So as of right now, this instant I think I am done racing for the year. I think only Christiana, Willmington and turkey day are left on the list. But at the same time I almost do not care, even if I have a chance at placing. My mind just is not in it. I still am competitive just my focus and desire want to chase something new. Like my new career since I really need to practice and hone my skills in that.

Will I stop riding? I do not think so. In fact I am scared to not give it up because I will balloon up to 215 if I don't. I might be just hitting the end of the year blues. Maybe its the heat but I noticed the last greenbelt I was thinking of pulling out not because it was hard, it was mentally tough to just put up with the little pain there was. I noticed that if I told it to just shut up at the moment I was fine. But when I thought about it I was thinking what am I doing? I should be working.

We will see what the next few weeks brings out.

Blah blah blah blah.

Well last week I decided to grow a little pair of balls and start mixing it up in the final action greenbelt. Says I placed 6th but I could have sworn it was 5th. Does not really matter since it was a training race. I have come to the conclusion to my inability to place well in 3's races is all in my head. I am a big f-ing pussy. I mean why don't I finish high when a bunch of guys who keep telling me that I raced strong and I was hurting them, yet yield a result of 20th. WTF 20th. I honestly would be happy placing right now, period. Not winning but just placing would do wonders. I think I have hit the point in the season where I am actually more focused on doing so.

Last week was a descent week for me. I did fairly well at greenbelt, held my own at hains point in the sprints on thursday. Had a great hard group ride on saturday and on sunday held my own in the sprints against phil hepburn. I could tell the hard riding from last week effected me today on the bike at hains point today, ugghhh just could not get it up. I could not get my max and sustained power up to normal. It just felt dead to me. So that means I need to back it off a little bit. I like doing the hains ride because it works on my sprinting, something I neglected all year until the last couple weeks. I feel I can sprint half way descent, nothing spectacular but just a little better than the average cyclist. My power tells me I suck but for some reason when I have tried I get descent results. Maybe power is not the only answer.

This hits on the point Phil and some of the guys told me and that is I think way too much in the races instead of going off instinct. I think there is a lot of truth to that. Here I am thinking what ifs instead of just reacting or making the move at the end. So I think that is something I personally need to work on. I did it the first year of racing not really worrying about where I was but just fucking racing my bike without the thought of putting myself in certain spots. I was ending up placing high. Kind of like how the hell did I end up here in my racing. Cycling is really simple boiled down and I am probably just complicating it more than I need to.

The other nice thing about last week is I just did not race but got out and rode some good quality group rides. Racing just sometimes sucks all the fun out of cycling I feel at times. Always going for the result. Weekend rides can be simple, to beat the shit out of each other with the recognition of what you just did by your peers. I love group rides because everyone is there for the reason of a good work out. Races are just for the result. I am not overwhelmingly stronger than anyone in the 3's field so why am I trying to strong arm the field. I personally just hate going to races and doing nothing, trying to sit in for the sprint. I know there has to be a purpose for my actions but I have a hard time spending 25 dollars to go around an office park waiting for the last lap. That to me is no fun. Going out for a group ride and coming home destroyed is a lot of fun. Maybe I am not cut out for racing.

Anyway, I am sorry to david k. at ncvc for the lack of my participation at lost river. I love climbing but not in races. For me it is not fun to be spit out the back because my lack of ability to sustain 500 watts for 5 minutes of climbing to hang with some 140 pounder. No thank you. I am going to do the race in lancaster saturday instead. See if I can get a result this year in the 3's again.

Back on the bike this week.

I took a rest week last week after 4 weeks of riding pretty hard consistently. Boy did I need it. Not for my body but more for my own sanity. I am a guy that just needs to step away from the bike every so often. I even said fuck somewhat good eating I have been doing. I went out to dunkin donuts and ate 10 donuts in two days and finished off a carton of ice cream the next two days after that. Boy did I need to do that. Get it out of my system. After the rest week I ballooned up to 200 pounds from 190. I did not care.

The weird thing is I am back down to 189 today. That is a loss of 11 pounds in 5 days. I wish I could lose another 10 but will stop right here kind of like my fitness has done all year. I swear my numbers have been plateaued since march april. Guys must have caught up to me fitness wise because a lot of people are just flyin. I think in order for me to lose weight I am going to have to wait till race season is over. I want to do some long ass rides in the fall with no attention to my power meter but just to do some couple hundred mile weekends.

As for this week it has been harder than expected. I did a medium effort ride on saturday out of the davidsonville park and ride. It took more out of me than I expected. I do not know if it was the heat but the pace was not extraordinarily fast.

Sunday I did a crit up in NJ with a couple guys. We saw only like 20 people preregistered but the race was about 60-65 deep for a 1,2,3 race. The late entrants were a Kelly Guy, a Jittery Joes guy and a Cervelo Test Team rider. It was Dominique Rollin. Wtf is this guy doing showing up in a little 1,2,3 crit in Jersey doing. Isn't he a pro tour rider who should not be allowed to race local races?

I do not know if the races up north are slower than they are down here or I am getting a little faster. Maybe it is in my mind and I do not get myself psyched out when I see other riders show up. But I made some breaks happen and I was gone for a couple laps but not the break that was the one. I was actually surprised that I was able to hang after my attempts because here in mabra it always seems like I am hanging on by a thread if I go with attacks. The most interesting thing I found in the race was how many times I found myself riding Dominique Rollins wheel. I must have been in prime location. Next thing I would know is he would come in on me and I would just happen to end up on his wheel. It happened 4 times. Like I won the lottery. Unfortunately I did not win any legs when he bridged up to the winning break. Luckily it contained one of the guys I went up there with. So one of us ended up in the money.

Tuesdays Davidsonville ride was one of the fastest ride that I have ever done. Or at least it was one of the hardest. The group just got shattered and the pace was high. I was told we averaged 25 for the whole ride. I was able to do that in a 3 man break earlier this year but I think tuesday was much harder because of the attacks put in and not a steady state. I think it was the first time I scored a 200 TSS on a tuesday night.

Yesterday I did intervals in the morning and decided to do greenbelt. Holy fucking hell that thing hurt. We averaged 27 Mph for the first 10 laps ended up lapping the 4s field during that time and later lapped them again on lap 16. We were cooking. It must have been the fastest greenbelt I have ever done, I wanted to quit a couple times but wanted to finish more. Like a 49 percent vote on quitting and 51 in staying in. I kept telling myself that the thing has to slow down any time soon. Why did it hurt?

Well the thing hurt really bad in the first few laps with the attacks. I was sitting on faders wheel. I do not know why I like his wheel so much but it is smooth and he is also a big guy. I am trying to figure out how to be a better racer by following some of the good riders. Chuck would attack so I could not follow him too much. So Tim Rugg attacks on the up hill and Fader goes with him. Since I am following them I was like well shit I should not let everyone down and let them ride away. So I chased them thinking the pack was on my wheel because they were like 10 feet ahead of me the whole time going up that hill. I was dying to catch them but kept thinking at least I have the pack on my wheel and I can rest on the down hill. I looked back and saw I was alone!! Fuck I better close the gap to them quick before the down hill I thought. I tapped in to a place I did not know I had and caught them. That hurt. On the down hill I was working so hard just to stay on their wheels. And chuck bridges up with a kelly guy. Good we have another couple riders and I can recover. Nope the screw gets turned again and I was already tapped out. Popped. Luckily I recovered enough to speed up to get back in the pack.

The rest of the race was just me trying to hold on. When we got to the hill on lap ten I thought we already did like 16 laps. When I saw we had only done 10 I was thinking ahh shit how the hell am I going to last. My legs were starting to cramp really bad(just raised the seat) and was praying for it to slow down just a bit for a lap. I looked back and we shelled a number of riders because I remember seeing about the same amount of guys earlier ahead of me and I was mid pack. Now I was in the back.

This is the time I was thinking of how do I conserve energy to finish this fucking race. On the down hill I was trying to soft pedal most of the time. I was fighting urges when it did slow down not to go to the front. And the one thing I discovered was riding in an easier gear. I was watching DJ ride and saw how fast he was spinning. My legs were beat going up that hill. They were just getting soo tired. When I saw DJ spinning I figured I should try it. For some reason it was working out for me. Previous times I have tried it and it sucked. This time I was able to match the surges and felt fresher. Unfortunately when we were racing for the finish my left calf and hamstring cramped up when winding it up. I was done. I finished.

I guess I have to keep losing weight if I want to do well at greenbelt or gain another 20-30 watt gain in power. The one thing I am learning is how to deal with pain and am discovering what real pain is. I was dying last night. I wish I could be dying and just throw caution to the wind and say fuck it and attack to just hurt everyone but I am not that strong.

Fat Man Power

Reston 3/4 power file:

For those of you who want to know what my weight is, it is 190 as of right now. Here is my file. I did the majority of work in the beginning of the race. It had a 5 minute power of 343 and a 10 minute power of 334. So the first 10 minutes of the race were the hottest according to my power file. I worked hard in the first minute to get my ass up to the top 10-15. Everylap I hit about 570 as a peak on the uphill, and some laps it was more because I wanted to move up or somebody slammed on their brakes causing me to slow and have to accelerate harder than I wanted. My NP was 328 for the race.

Looking at this power file it was an average race as some others I have done this year. I noticed a lot of times in both the 3/4 and 1,2,3 that there were plenty of times to rest. Last year my HR was near 185 the whole time this year it was almost 10 beats lower. Why? I think I am fitter and was playing it way more conservative than last by sitting in. Last year I was on the front half the time this year I was on or off of it 3 times.

My peak power of 941 for 5 seconds is weak on this graph. But I had no chance of sprinting since I got caught in that wreck. I have been in some races especially 1,2,3 races where I hit 1100 in the first 5 minutes and settled down to a pace of 350 average for the rest of the 5 minutes. That hurts.

Greenbelt this week I hit 1054(5 sec) in the middle of the uphill in the first 20 minutes holding evan faders wheel. And I had 700 watt(and above) spikes 19 times during greenbelt. Ughh. That gets to me after a while. I wonder why I can not hold on the very last lap on the uphill. I am no sprinter but can pound out 700 bursts for some reason. Wish it would translate to results.

WTFM: Reston 09

Coming into this race I really wanted to place in the top 10. For some reason this year it has been really elusive for me to do so. Why was it my first year racing I could place in the top ten easier than it is now. I am more knowledgeable and stronger than I have ever been but to place is hard. It is a question I am asking all the time. Why is it hard to crack the top 20 for that matter. So today I really wanted to fucking break the cycle.

I got to reston with time to get in a good half hour warm up. My legs felt great. The last few weeks they just did not seem to be firing on all cylinders. Even at TOWC they just seemed to lag. At greenbelt they just felt blah. Thursday something seemed to snap them out of it. I felt pretty good.

I got to the line kind of late. For some reason reston does not worry me where you start in the 3's race. I can get to the front in the first lap every time I do the race. I shoot down the right hand side on the down hill. Never fails. Guys always seem to be trying to catch their breath even on the first lap. So I started near the back and was like 20th from the first lap on. Great

The race went uneventful. I put in some digs and bridged up to Ryan Simpson. Ryan was just motoring and would just ride away from the pack. WTF guys were just letting him go. I did not want that to happen so I would work to catch up to him. Heres something I tried doing more than most guys in the 3/4 race. I bridged up without bringing up the whole pack. Why would I want anyone else sharing in my work. It seems thats what 1,2 riders do. Why work for the guys behind you. I just wish I could attack when we were already doing 30 mph like the 1,2,3s do.

I was comfortable with my position most of the race. I had no problems getting around. My plan was to just nail it with 1 to go. The thing I have noticed about reston is there is this surge in 3/4 racing in the last few laps when guys get antsy and blow their wad trying to get to the front with 3-4 laps to go. I noticed being in the top ten is actually hard at reston because the guys on the front like the front 5-7 are always cooked by the time the last lap comes along. I was sitting about 12th on the down hill and inbetween turns 4-5 about 5 guys come flying by me to rush the front. No problem except a couple of these knuckle heads decided to lay down their bikes in front of me. I had no where to go except into the curb. Scrubed speed and crashed. Race over. I ended up pulling the muscle in my calf. Damn it I had some matches left and was about to just book it. Because I know a lot of guys already used their matches trying to get there spot where I was going to use mine to overcome them right after the start finish line with one to go.

There was some sketchy riding for sure. I did not understand why some riders wanted to go through turn 5 3 wide. What was to gain their. You should move up on the straights. Guys were doing it worse on turn 7 and we would almost come to a stop in the top 10 wtf. A 540 rider was notoriously doing this every lap. Like wtf dude. Move up on the fucking straights like I was every lap to get around you. Oh well that is racing I suppose.

I put in some strong efforts this race. I raced positively. I wished I could have gotten a result.

-1,2,3 Race

My goal for this race was to just to try and hold on for as long as I could. It was like 7 laps in when I got pulled. I was not struggling all that much but was defeated by my mind. The rain earlier made some spots slick. I was having trouble keeping my rear wheel down in turn 6 for some reason. I think it was I kept applying a lot of pressure when I accelerated out of that turn would cause me to fish tail a little. Every lap. Making me nervous as hell. Ramon started yelling at me at what the hell was I doing. I was trying to not take such of an aggressive line so I would not have that problem. I just felt uncomfortable and went to the back.

I figured I would tail gun it and shut small gaps down. For being a big field it was so much smoother than the 3 race. I was not having any problems sitting there. I sat back there for about 3 laps then 3 haymarket guys exploded right after I passed an ncvc rider who popped. Ok I was making ground to catch back on and then a saroff rider took the corner wide bringing me way out. My race was over. Damn. I felt pretty good but could not jump hard enough to catch the back of the pack. My mind was still getting played with on turn 6. Just wish I would have taken more air out of my rear tire because it was not enough. I am just glad I did not crash again.

-------

Luckily the season is only half way over and I can make some adjustments to my racing. I have to. I am going to keep my chin up. I really want to perform to the best of my abilities when it counts. I do group rides and am one of the fastest riders most of the time. But I would love to come to a race and just put down and seal the deal like wahl or elliot has been doing. Or just to place in the top 5 again. Like I have said I have done it 3 times this year but that has not been for 2 months. I just gotta keep at it I guess. People say I ride strong. Today I do not think I rode stupid, if I did, I would not know it.

Wounded Warrior

Hey Y'all,

my old team released some of the prizes they are giving away for a great cause that is personal to the team.

- $100 Gift Card from Bicycle Pro Shop in Georgetown. (Get some sweet new
gear.)
*- *A weather radio valued at $100. (Know when to bring your rain cape.)
- $50 worth of car washes. (Keep the team car looking pro.)
- 5 pairs of GamJams socks. (Look like Dave Fuentes *
http://tinyurl.com/n5zl5u )
*- Lots of restaurant gift cards including a $50 gift card to Clyde's.
(Kyle, it's food, I expect lots of entries from you.)
- Multiple free massage and personal training sessions. (Kyle, it's not
that kind of massage.)
- Lowe's and Willams Sonoma gift cards -- $50 each. (Buy the spouse
something as amends for all your time spent training/racing.)
- And more ...

So if you can just give a little bit for this good cause it would be greatly appreciated. To read more about the wounded warrior project just check out gamjams. If you win the Restaurant or massage gift certificates I would be glad to take them off your hands. And they say not that kind of massage, I doubt that.

Offensive Friday

Well MJ kicked the bucket. Here is a video that I will best remember him by:

Now if your not offended by that I am sure you will be offended by this. This is not safe for work. Well it is not if anyone can't walk up behind you. But if you were to type up "read a book" up in youtube this will come up. Damn I got the song stuck in my head. I hate rap but for some reason I can remember this one. I found it funny. Hopefully you do too. Don't blame me, send your complaints to notarapper.com for this material.

And if you did not catch any of the music videos that I had hidden in my quiz wednesday. Here is another one. I might put up more of these on like hump day. Rayman told me of this guy. He has it on his ipod for warming up.

See you guys at reston. Want to place pretty bad. Just say Tutti Fruiti Summer Love. Now you can not have a bad day.