The Jobsite

I know most people kinda know what I do (electronics stuff) but not many people get to see the inside of the operation. Avery knows that I fix machines at the place where they make boxes. I work for Malnove Inc. as the senior electronics tech in the Maintenance Dept and I have been here since I left the Navy almost 8 years ago. I work with all aspects of the electrical, electronic and computer systems of the machines in our 250,00 square foot plant. As the senior tech, I am responsible for keeping everything running around the clock; which means I get phone calls on nights and weekends. I do a lot of troubleshooting, repairs, programming and R & D. I work with everything from the incoming 3 phase high voltage to the PLC's (industrial computers) to motors, drive systems, barcode scanners, various high tech sensors and so on. Here's a shot of my office...

And here is a shot of my world (a typical electric cabinet)...

Most of our machinery is made either in Germany, Switzerland or in the US. What our plant does is make folding cartons, or cardboard boxes. We make Little Debbie boxes, light bulb boxes, various snack/cracker/donut/cake boxes, Kleenex & Splenda boxes and the list goes on. The operation starts with a giant roll of paper, or board, and it is cut into sheets...

Printed on high speed German printing presses...


Cut and creased into boxes by Swiss die-cutters...


Folded, glued, cellophane windows installed and packed on a folders/gluer like this one...


And last everything is shipped to our customers. One new piece of equipment that we have that I have spent tons of time with in the past year is the robot. Of our 4 plants in the US, we are the only one with a robot and it has been my personal project since I got back from school in Montreal...

Great weekend in Georgia!

Friday we got to Ft Yargo park in Winder in the early afternoon after the 6 hour drive from Jax. Char rode the course a little and then ran as race prep while I chilled at the Blue Mobile lakeside. From there we found our hotel, got some free dinner at Longhorn (friends & family night?) and then got up early Saturday morning for the 8 am start of the XTERRA. Char and sbc raced in the XTERRA while Rad and I ran support. Rad and I had a blast chasing sbc around the woods heckling him yelling, "C'mon Big Boy!" sbc seemed motivated by our looney antics or he was just trying to get the hell away from us! Anyhow, Char kicked some major butt by winning her age group and finishing 4th overall. sbc scored a win as well in his age group and finished 5th overall. What studs! They also raced in the cross country race the next day. Here's a few shots of Char from each portion of the XTERRA...


After the crew got back to the hotel for some afternoon nappage, we headed to downtown Athens for the Twilight Criterium to see the women's and men's pro race Saturday night. I'd never been to Athens or any part of UGA so it was exciting to see the atmosphere of this semi-famous race in the heart of the college town. Man, it was so packed and so sxciting! Rad, sbc and myself were pumped! All the vendors, all the bike manufacturers, the tents, the teams, the fans, the WWF announcer, the beer, the college coeds... We had a great time and plan to go back again to get a better taste of the festivities- and the BEER. Here's a clip of the pro men's race as the peloton was about to catch the breakaway...

We got to sleep in a bit Sunday morning because our race didn't start until 11:30. The weather was awesome Saturday but it rained all night Saturday night so we woke up to soggy conditions. I felt pretty good going into the race minus a little soreness in my legs that I haven't been able to shake for the last few weeks. I was eager to see where my fitness was and what I would need to work on. There were 22 of us on the line in the 30-39 Expert field, including a worn-out sbc from Saturday's XTERRA. I usually go out hard at the start of the race and normally get the holeshot, but today I decided to file in where I hoped to finish- somewhere in the top 10. I actually went into the woods some where around where I would finish, 17th. I felt ok at the start, slowed like normal to recover and then never got back up to race pace- like normal. My lap times were very consistent, although consistently slow and I never cramped or felt totally bonked. I actually had a little pepper at the end of the race to chase a few guys down so I'm sure I held back in fear of running out of gas before the race ended. But once again, I didn't keep a race pace for the entire race. The good thing is that my coach was there and I have total confidence in him getting me on track. I am still relatively new to the sport, considering I have only been cycling/racing mtn bikes for 4 years and this is my 2nd year in expert. I don't think I have totally tapped into my potential yet...or at least I keep telling myself that.... Either way, I may be temporarily getting my butt kicked but I'm having a blast!

Here's a shot of me battling it out for 17th... SOLID.

It was an awesome weekend overall and I had a blast! Char won her sport race, sbc got 4th in my class and the International Superstar Rad won his sport race. Great time, great peeps! It was also cool chatting with all of our cool friends from the Florida MTB scene as well as some folks from the SERC scene that I hadn't seen in a while.

One last thing- here's the secret of The BigBlue Race Effort...

Headed to Georgia

Char and I are leaving for Ft. Yargo State Park in Winder, GA this morning for the XTERRA off-road triathlon tomorrow and then for the SERC/GSC cross country race on Sunday. We'll see some of you up there. Weekend recap coming soon...

Past their prime

So many pro atheletes stick around way too damn long. I know its hard for them to let go of the sport they love, but its painful for us sports fans to watch their skills dwindle and then have memories of their latter years. Michael Jordan. George Foreman. Ricky Henderson. Mohammed Ali. Joe Montana. Roy Jones Jr.... the list goes on and it is loaded with boxers. But a guy that caught my attention this weekend was 43 year old Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins was an incredible middleweight champ for a long time and scored some surprising wins in light heavyweight to grab that title as well. Hopkins plays a stellar mind game on his opponents as big time trash talker. I've always though B-Hop was a solid bad ass. Then comes along an undefeated fighter from Wales named Joe Calzaghe, who was 44-0 and had a few titles of his own. I knew about the fight but didn't give much thought to it until I saw the result and what Hopkins had said before the fight. "I will never let a white boy beat me. Never." Ouch. I like that Calzaghe laughed it off and then let his fists do the talking. But who would have won if they both fought this fight in their prime? Now Roy Jones Jr. wants to fight this Welshman and I won't be surprises when RJJ goes down too. It sucks to see our favorite athletes hang on too long and then we have images like this burned in our minds forever...

Sunday stuff...

After sleeping in and then eating too much for breakfast at Mimi's Cafe (that place rocks!), I got to see who won the Matt Serra/George St. Pierre UFC 83 fight Saturday night. I love the UFC and I try to record all of the different "leagues" of mixed martial arts on my DVR. I watch them when I am forced to ride the trainer. Anyhow, I was disappointed that I had to miss the fight but it sounded like it was a good one! After dominating Matt Serra for 3 rounds, St. Pierre scored the TKO and reclaimed the title. GSP is such a pimp! He's by far one of my favorite MMA fighters, even though French Canadians aren't necessarily my fav...;) But after watching Matt Serra on the Ultimate Fighter, he just became too damn annoying so I looked forward to GSP getting some revenge. Speaking of Ultimate Fighter, this season looks pretty solid with Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin as coaches. Did anybody see that knockout on the second show? Oh my- it was one of the worst KO's I've ever seen!

Sunday's weather was absolutley perfect! I headed out with Avery and Mayfield for a mile run in the afternoon. Avery runs 3 miles total when she's at my house for the week. She also runs with her mom at Girls on the Run on Saturdays. Sunday she ran really well and finished her mile in 10-1/2 minutes. I confident thay she will continue to make that time get lower and lower. Mayfield didn't seem too thrilled towards the end of her first run with us but she too will get better with more practice!

So the NFL Draft is next weekend. The draft hype is great but seems to have gotten out of control lately. They have too many shows analyzing, re-analyzing and then analyzing the analysis of the draft. Thats all you hear about on sports talk radio is the draft and who is going where and who wants who and so on. But the draft is still cool. I like to see who goes #1 and then see who all makes the first round. The Jaguars' picks are always fun to see and then be criticized. This year will be especially cool because of all the studs in the draft from UK. UK's offense was one of the best in the nation the last few years and several of their key players will be on the draft boards. I expect QB Andre Woodson to go maybe 2nd round and then WR's Keenan Burton and Steve Johnson should go by round 5. TE Jacob Tamme and RB Rafael Little should get drafted pretty high as well as tackling machine LB Wesley Woodyard. Another player I look farward to seeing get drafted is Louisville native and UofL star Brian Brohm, who should be a 1st rounder.

Training/Racing

This morning was the BFAS duathlon and I headed down with Char, Avery and Mayfield to cheer Char on for her "brick workout." The race was way out in Nocatee, which was a cool spot for it but the parking was kinda crazy. You had to park like a mile away and then hump it to the start/finish area. I thought it would be a good idea if Avery wore her Heelys and let Mayfield pull her during the long haul. That worked great until Avery got tripped up and scabbed her knee. Solid Dad work! Anyhow, here's Avery and Mayfield during the morning hike...


Hell, I'll just get to the results. Char won her age goup. Very nice! sbc won his age group. Great success! Our buddy Brett got 2nd to Sean with pretty much no training as of late. Some people just roll like that! There were also quite a few of our friends there who also placed well. It was a cool morning kicking it with Avery, Steph, Cathy and our good little roll dog Mayfield.

Here's a few shots of Char kicking some ace and sbc finishing strong!




On the training side of things, this is my last build week before the Southeastern Regional/Georgia State mountain bike race next weekend in Winder, GA. Char will be doing the XTERRA Saturday and then joining me for the XC race Sunday. I've been busting butt the last 3 weeks of this build phase hitting intervals and long rides. While next week is not a high priority for me, I'm still set up in my training to have a good race. I am eager to see where I am fitness-wise and where the first month of working with a coach has gotten me. Not that I expect to see any huge gains, but my results in the expert class can only get better! I am hoping to peak for the 14th Annual Bump n Grind national MTB race in Pelham, AL on June 1st. This will be my 4th time going to this race as it is an awesome venue and an awesome course. I would really love to score a top 5 at the BUMP!

Today I have an "easy" 3 hour road spin on the schedule so I better get started on that...

NBA Playoffs

Man, I love the NBA. While I don't get too excited during the regular season, I tend to get pumped for the playoffs. Being from Kentucky, I don't necessarily have a favorite team- I tend to follow players- mainly former Wildcats. This year I am pulling for the Celtics partly because of Rajon Rondo (Louisville native!) playing point, partly because I am intrigued that the Big 3 (Allen, KG and Pierce) can actually play together and partly because I've always kinda thought the Celtics were cool because of Larry Bird.

This year is going to be very interesting because of the matchups out West. Man, the West is stracked! I am still surprised that Kobe led to Lakers to a 1 seed and I think they will handle the Nuggets easily in the 1st round. Landing Gasol during the seaon was huge for the Lake Show. Hornets/Mavs? Wow, Hornets a 2 seed? Is Chris Paul really that good? Tough call on this one but I hate to see Dirk lose again. Toss up. Spurs/Suns? Another epic battle. The same old boring Spurs against the slower Suns now that Shaq is in there slowing the tempo down. I really like Steve Nash and Amare but this will be a 7 game toss up also. Jazz/Rockets? Not intrigued by either team and don't see either team getting past the second round. But can T-Mac finally get somewhere and do it without Yao? Probably not. I'm calling the Lakers getting back to the Finals.

The East looks a little clearer as far as matchups. Boston will sweep Atlanta. Detroit will beat Philly in 6. I think the Magic will get past the Raptors but be too young to get any further. Look out for Dwight Howard and the Magic down the road... I think the Cavs and Wizards may go 7 with LeBron pulling it out almost by himself. I doubt Cleveland will have any chance of making it back to the Finals because again, the supporting staff isn't that great. So is it really Boston's year? If Detroit, and my man Tayshaun, are playing like their old veteran playoff selves, then it will be tough. But I see the new look Celtics in the Finals and a classic Lakers/Celtics showdown!

MVP? Hell, thats tough. Kobe? KG? Chris Paul? LeBron? Who knows what the voters will be thinking this year.... All I can think about are my Converse Weapons from back in the day! Bird or Magic?? Ha!

Boys of Summer

Ahh...the Cubs. As far back as I can remember, I've loved the Cubs. When we got cable when I was a kid, we had WGN and thus I met the Cubs. Every year I've had hopes that they would finally get over the hump and get to a series. I was hoping to see them play the Red Sox when the whole Bartman thing happened. Last year they got swept by the D-Backs after getting back to the postseason. So many years, so many disappointments. What about this year? Soriano just went on the DL but they have some solid backups. Lee's bat is HOT and Zambrano is tough as usual. Hopefully Wood will become a good closer and hopefully Ramirez will get back to his slugging ways. How about the Japanese guy Fukudome? So far so good. Anyhow, if they can get their pitching in order maybe they can make a little run. Maybe. I'm tired of the whole 'Lovable Losers' thing or the whole 'Maybe Next Year' deal. C'mon Cubbies!

Speaking of baseball, I need to get to more Suns games. I think I've only been to the new stadium 2 or 3 times. Its such a great atmosphere and the Suns always field a competitive team. Anyhow, Char and I need to hit some Thirsty Thursdays!

Last thing- for all you Yankee haters...isn't it great seeing the Red Sox as the new class of the division? I became a Sox fan in the Navy in response to all of they annoying, die-hard, loud-mouth Yankee fans. A Cubs-Sox series would be one for the ages...

Slight Change

Most of you know that I spent 6 years in the Navy. As a reward for serving my country, I got the GI Bill, which is enough to pay for a bachelor's degree. I've been working slowly the past few years towards a BS in Electrical Engineering since I've been working in the electrical/electronics field for the past 14 years. Once I got to the half way point I realized that with my job position and schedule, it is almost impossible to finish the last 2 years of EE school. So I changed plans... With my age and experience I've decided that a degreee in Management could be more beneficial. So, I've changed from the College of Computing, Engineering and Construction to the Coggin College of Businees at UNF. The bad part is that I may have completed all of the engineering prerequisites (Calculus, Physics, etc...) for nada. Oh well, at this point I just need to get that dern paper!

Clean Bill of Health!

Today Mayfield had her last visit with the vet as a foster dog. We had adopted her from the local boxer rescue and decided to take her before she was done with her heartworm treatment. Once she was cleared of all medical conditions, the adoption became official and thus the foster-to-adopt came to an end. Welcome home Mays!

To celebrate, Char & Avery headed over to the UNF track to calibrate Char's new Polar heart rate monitor. I'm sure I'll get into it later, but Char and I just got new Polar S725X's this past week. This makes life a lot easier as far as logging our training into Training Peaks, which is the program our coach uses to plan and monitor our workouts. Seems we've been logging workouts like we're from the dark ages or something prior to this week... Anyhow, Avery was feeling a bit frisky and busted out a mile at the track! Solid.

Weekend Recap

Saturday started early, like 7 AM early. I met my man sbc for a 3-1/2 hour road ride. We warmed up by riding from Jax Beach to Atlantic Beach and then headed to the PV Lodge to join the Lodge Ride. Both of us intended to sit in for this ride but since only 5 or so people were willing to do any work after the fast group broke away after the bridge, we ended doing a lot of work taking pulls and covering gaps and whatnot. Seems we were not the only ones who intended to sit in. Anyhow, it was annoying but still a good workout. From there we headed down A1A to the Gate Station with a solid group of 5 top notch guys from the ride. The ride back to sbc's pad was nice considering we had a tail wind.

Sunday, Char and I headed to Hanna Park after sleeping in and hitting brunch at Jerry's Grill over on Atlantic & Hodges. It was a mellow ride for me while she had some intervals planned. Besides the brown ice, the trails were in good shape and we both had a good ride. Char even busted her lap PR! Solid.

Its amazing how many people at Hanna never see these signs...

And its even more amazing how many people in cars out on the road are oblivious to this one...

Just another day

From the bike lair...

To the rig...

To the pavement...

To the plush scenery along the coast...

And finally down the long, bike-friendly stretch of A1A...

It was just another great day on the bike.

Quantum Leap...

...but without the face that TJ makes... Anyhow, I finally got around to starting a blog so I think I'll just pick things up right where they are. I basically had a blog over in the Team Bicycles Etc section of the Florida MTBer's forum because I was in there posting constantly. But unless you were in that forum or see me daily, you probably don't know what in the heck I have going on these days besides the fact that I probably still work and still race mountain bikes. Considering that I have a lot of friends and family NOT in the state of Florida (mostly in Kentucky), I now have a means of keeping in touch that isn't the phone or email. My skills in the latter 2 have diminished quite a bit over the years but my ability to spend too much time on the internet has flourished! So BAM! It's 2008 and I'm blogging like a MOFO!


I'll get this party started with a picture of Avery and Mayfield...

Hooray wind!

Or not... Last night's 2-1/2 hour training ride included a hard 20 minute interval, which turned out to be cake compared to the head wind I fought for the last hour and a half of the ride. I started my ride at the tennis courts on 16th, headed down PV Blvd and then down A1A to Vilano Beach. That part of the ride was a blast! Coming back sucked. Not to self: check the wind and direction before starting rides at the beach. The winds on my San Jose route don't affect the ride too much, even when they are kind of strong. But anyhow, don't the Noth Florida Bike Clubbers have some motto about the wind???

Day 1

Stand by...