Wally Inc

They’re like a good movie I can’t stop watching, over and over… and over.

Can’t be Superman everyday.

This is what I get to wake up to. Solitude and nothingness.
God knows me well.

I’ve had this quote in my head for a while. I think of it often, it struck a chord after finishing up Steinbeck’s book.

I’ve spent days and nights on end for more than a decade obsessing over numbers on every single ride. Watts, heart rate, cadence, speed, distance, time. I dissect these numbers everyday and they determine whether or not I’m in “shape”, and often affect the mood I’m in for the rest of the day.

The numbers on my computer work like gauges, or more specifically, a tach in a car.  A tach will tell you your car’s rpm, or how hard your car is working, but it’s not necessarily a good gauge or indicator of what’s happening inside. Oil pressure, water temperature, compression, these are a good indication of what’s really happening inside an engine.

But we don’t have gauges like a car. I do have ways of measuring how hard I’m working as I ride, but I don’t have anything that can really measure what’s going on inside as I train and go through life from day to day.

My goal is to spend a little less time reading into the numbers that I see in black and white after each ride and focus more on the one’s I can’t. I’m no longer going to let my workout data affect how I feel or behave, but I will let how I’m feeling affect what I do on and off the bike.

Time plays a trick on me and hours pass feeling like minutes.

I like pizza. No. I LOVE PIZZA.

Amen.

Nothing like a little flat tire in the morning.
Happy Tuesday!

I am going to think of fudge brownies next time I’m flipping out…

It does it by itself.
Really.

Have I mentioned that our shop has the most dope webmaster….ever?
Razor (Ramon) takes down hackers like an angry roadie taking down a Cat5 field.
The above picture has been heavily modified… cuss words are gone.

I have found out that I’ve gotten much further in life and more accomplished by keeping my mouth shut when I really feel like saying so much.

It’s one of those brands I used to look at as a poor college student and awe over at the local bike shop in Austin, TX.

It’s official, Wally’s Bicycles is now South Texas’ only authorized dealer for Santa Cruz mountain bikes!

Getting back into shape or even where I was seems like long road.
My workouts feel like I’m beating a dead horse.
Over… and over.

Early Season Goal #1: Team Mcallen TT #1
Early Season Goal #2 Team Mcallen TT #2
Early Season Goal #3 Team Mcallen TT #3
Early Season Goal #4 Find One More TT
Early Season Goal #5 State TT

Goal #1 went down as planned. I rode a good pace for the TT and was satisfied with the result to build upon. Goal#2 was brought down with a case of food poisoning. After numerous attempts to make myself to try to bounce back (and not getting enough rest), I finally broke and came down with the flu.

Game over.

I was taking mucho pills and decided to get off the bike for a good while. 15days to be exact. I didn’t touch my bike, didn’t even so much as look at it. I was exhausted and sick. Going to bed way early and sleeping way late everyday, that was the routine for 2 weeks. Today was my first ride out.

Forcing myself to do the 3rd Team McAllen TT could have been an option, but I know I would have been disappointed with the result and easing back into the saddle is probably best.

I took my last antibiotic (above) this morning. I thought to myself, you can do an Ironman while vomiting and feverish, but not a short 10mile TT? The goal of every Ironman was to finish, not so concerned with time.

But now there are numbers, watts, mph, hr’s that I’d like to hit. If I don’t sometimes it really does spoil my whole day! State TT is out of the question as well. Our annual ride to San Antonio, the SB250, falls on the same weekend. Having experienced it first hand last year, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Noway, nohow.

So here’s to staying healthy, back to training, and finding another 40k TT to compete in before the summer is over.

myveryfirstpicwithmynewcamera!

This is Champ. Fastest (home-grown) cyclist in the Valley, period. If you don’t see him on your next group ride it’s probably because he’s already dropped you. Just keep on the lookout for a blue comet.

Our shop has stuck with two lines as we’re well into our fourth year of business. We don’t claim to have the most lines in the RGV, or the most bikes in stock, nor do we care to. Keep it clean, keep it simple.

The offerings by Felt and Cervelo have hit what our shop has needed in a big way, and like every business (including ours) each company has it’s highs and lows through the time that I’ve worked with them. But I have been completely happy with the way they have helped me through the big and small problems that we’ve encountered as as we continue to grow our business.

At some point last year Trek bikes approached Wally’s Bicycles. We were the rep’s first stop off his flight from Wisconsin. He wanted to know how we felt about bringing Trek Bicycles into our shop.

I was flattered considering it was only a few years before I was approaching every bike company and asking them to let me carry their line. “PLEASE LET me carry your line. I promise to do it justice.” Shot down, time after time after time. Felt took a chance on me.

Cervelo came in shortly after. A bike I had lusted over for years, also taking a big chance on a small shop. What can I say, I hit it off with the rep during a short phone conversation and 7business days later we had the fastest, best engineered bikes in the planet on our showroom floor.

The rep from Trek said we would have to drastically cut down the number of one of our bike brands while completely taking out another. The direct result of this conversation we were having would dictate what he would tell the current Trek dealer in the area as well as other potential shops.

Yes, I turned down one of the biggest bike companies in the world. You don’t drop your pants for the prom queen when you’ve had a steady girlfriend that’s treated you well for a long time. Running a business isn’t about being the biggest, it’s about being nice to and understanding your customers. Staying loyal to those who took a chance on you when you weren’t so prominent.

I don’t want anyone’s sloppy seconds. We brought Felt down to the RGV as we did with Cervelo, and now with the move to mountain bikes, we’re making another leap.

And that’s the truth.

Yes I have ridden with her… and she dropped me too.

This pup.
Responsible for the only triathlon on this side of the RGV.
Stanley.

Our shop is going to begin carrying mtn bikes in a big way in the near future. And you heard it here first!

My goal is to have bicycle parking spaces everywhere. Including where you work.
One rack at a time.

Modifications I do to my bike that I would NEVER do for a customer’s ride.
(unless maybe they asked me really nicely)

1. File off the Lawyer Tabs from a fork
2.  Slam that stem and chop off every last mm of steerer tube.
3. Install Speedplay’s Cleat Extender Base Plate Kit (moving cleats 2cm further back)
4.Loosen hub axle so bearings have slightly more play but much less friction

My bike became internet famous this morning.

The longer I live here, the more it resembles my old tiny apartment.
Bike/guest room.

If Floyd and TJ’s aero postion got together and made babies, you’d get my tt position.
Fists up, elbows rubbin’ and heads down low.
Just like a real party should be.
. 

I have dreams bout riding by bike long. Long like I was riding last year. I haven’t done a ride longer than 2.5 hours since last years trek to San Antonio on the SB250. It’s almost as if there’s this switch inside my head that I’m trying desperately not to switch on again. Endurance riding is so highly addictive to me. I told myself I would go back and to the HillCountry600 again this year, but I was unsure if I wanted to put in that type of saddle time again. Unfortunately training for something like that requires that you’re 100% committed. 99% just doesn’t cut it. I think I blame all the riding I was doing to things that I thought at the time were going not so well in my life. In reality maybe that’s why I’m staying away from that type of riding. The riding was great, no doubt, but other aspects were a bit sour. No, that’s bullshit, it’s a cop out. In reality it was probably the riding that was keeping me afloat. I miss doing double century rides, but having speed under my legs these days is a great thing though. Now if I could only stay healthy long enough to use it at an event. Soon, soon. Soon.  Just need more….rest.

My solution to customers not wanting to carry a saddle bag.
Personally, I’d rather have a bag, but I have this beam under my R5′s seat instead.
Lets not forget P2/3/4/5 seatposts aren’t exactly functional to saddle bags either.
Aero>Everythingelse

Slam that stem! Go grab your own at http://slamthatstem.com/

It’s important to stay hydrated.

My Sony Cybershot was stolen this past week.
My iPhone will have to suffice for photos until I can get a new camera.

This 8Track keeps me company and it has since I was small. My Grandpa bought this truck brand new in 1986. He would drive it around and even taught me how to drive in it too. It’s sole responsibility these days is to haul around the shop’s race production trailer.

There’s What-A-Burger packets under the dash because my Dad brought me dinner the night before Stanley’s Sprint Triathlon. I didn’t go home that evening, I ate dinner in the truck. I set up for the race and hung out in the truck listening to this old 8Track radio all night long. It only has one station that works, K-TEX, and I don’t mind it at all. The marker on the dash is for body-marking.

Hail started to come down today towards the end of our business day. The truck got beat. Not horribly, but a banged up windshield and a few major dents through the hood and roof. I was a bit down. I just got the truck back to working order… and now this. As I drove home I remembered what the truck looked like just a few years back. It didn’t have a bed, the paint was completely burnt, and it had 4mismatched tires.

I didn’t have the money to fix it up then. Then I thought to myself. “You’re not poor anymore. Repeat after me, YOUR NOT POOR ANYMORE.” It was a good 1-to1 with myself. I left a very comfortable and safe life behind in Austin, took a big risk moving back. I’m glad I did.

Now I have the money to fix the damage on the truck. I could possibly buy a new truck if I wanted too. But I LIKE this truck. It’s my Grandpa’s truck and I’d like to keep it forever. As my Dad and I looked over the damage this evening after towing the trailer home he said not to worry about it.

I thought about it for a second and I said, “I’m not going to worry about the damage. I’m just going to wait another 5-10years and get the whole thing painted again.” He smiled.

I got in (and out) of a lot of trouble in this pickup growing up. Some things never change.

Apparently you get a star by your thumbs-up when ‘likes’ are > 100.
waycool.

Digging the new 140mm stem.
It only took me 12 years to be able to rock it.
100mm—->120mm—–>130mm—–>140mm!

One thing I had in both coaches was a lot of faith. 99% of the workouts they prescribed to me were something that I would never have done myself if given the option.

But I don’t question, I just do. We have to have faith in our coach to lead us to that place that we’re striving to get.  It’s a blind faith that we must have in them as we pound and grind through our day-to-day workouts and even sometimes curse them in our heads as we’re getting them done.

When all is said and done, in the end if you do what they say, you’ll end up a better athlete. 

-an excerpt from my upcoming article in Veloce Magazine

Fan compliments of UT Chemical Engineering Dept.
Cyclists and wall art compliments of Hobby Lobby.
Paint compliments of Penitas Wal-Mart.
Bike compliments of the best bike shop in the RGV.

I sit down on these old stairs every morning.
Put on my socks.
Strap on my shoes.
Take a deep breath
….and go.

They made me feel as if I had never left.  Like I was still part of the air-tight crew that I spent so much time in, when I lived in Austin.

Jack, Stacy, Dan, James, Angie, Logan, Brad, Mark, Terra and the rest of the crew. I was working with with them as if I had never skipped a beat. As I had just seen them the morning before at the old shop.

The ideas and more importantly the lesson I learned while working with Jack at the bicycle shop in Austin have proved invaluable the past few years. It wasn’t just about running a bicycle shop or putting on events, it was about helping people. That’s it, simple, helping people.

I was fortunate to be one of the mechanics at the Repubic of Texas Triathlon Festival this past weekend. We spent the whole weekend striking up conversation and sharing many laughs. It was good to be around the company and hear the voices that I would once converse with everyday as an Austinite.

I would help out at all the J&A/High-Five events while in Austin, but this time around it was different. Now being a race-director myself, I saw and dissected how things were done. Every little detail, I was a sponge of information this past weekend.

For the longest time I would hear about other local shop owners bragging (yet almost complaining) that they were only shop putting on local events. It never bothered me much, I had/have a certain standard to what an event, whether a tri or du, should look like.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and that’s why our local tri’s will never be any thing short of spectacular. I can only hope to put on events to the magnitude of High-Five/ J&A’s.

But the truth is, I remember it like it was yesterday when these High-Five events were tiny. Participants numbered in the 2-3hundreds. Now triathltetes are coming from around the globe to bring the participation numbers in the thousands.

I’ll build it up. Little by little. Slowly but surly, as Jack once did. I’ll get my events up there. It might take a while, but my events are going to be ginormous one day too.

One day at a time. We’ll get there.

ithinkofthiswheni’mgoingnuts

This is the road where I grew up.
This is the road where I learned to drive with my Grandpa in a little red truck.
This is the road where I’ve trained for and successfully completed three Ironman’s.
This is the road that is responsible for me lighting up watts in recent months.
This is the road I and many generations past have woken up to every morning.
This is the road that I will continue to roll and pound my bicycle on.
This road has treated me very well my whole life.
Maybe you can say the same about the street you live on, but I doubt it.