oh yeah. in november '11 i did a cross race.

that's me on the left, and frank on the right.
at the start of our first cyclocross race.



i'd raced alleycats on my track bike.
i rode mountain bikes before all this 700c business.
i even had a SSCX bike for a couple years and took that to the trails.
it spent a bunch of that time set up fixed too. that was fun.
but i had sold that bike to fund a disc CX riserbar bike.. aka a hybrid,
which ended up being my do-it-all rig.
i never planned on racing. especially being back east, off the bike, and out of shape.
especially in cyclocross, a discipline renowned for being painful and vomit-inducing.

when i goaded my good friend frank into getting a cross bike,
all i wanted was a partner to ride trails with.
i should have known that he'd want to race it; he was an ironman racer.
and i couldn't disappoint him; he had purchased cause i had told him to.

so i bought a clipless setup (i was a clips n straps or flat pedal guy), trained barriers one night,
and went out to staten CX to play in category 4.

to my surprise, i didn't get dead-fucking-last!
i started mid-pack, got passed a few times,
and i even beat my ironman friend by one (1) spot.
74/100 for zero training and having rode maybe 10 miles that month,
i was happy. and amped to race more than just once next season.

then i can have some goals (gasp!) to shape training (gasp!) around.
i thought bike riding was supposed to be fun.
but there will always be weirdos like this:

my blog
by: nofinishline

see you out there in the dirt!

2012 begins

and what did i take with me from 2011?
like every year before, it came with experiences
that change the shape of what it means to do good,
and the idea of who and what i do right by.

i didn't realize what that even meant for me.
not until i considered what my highest values were,
or that they could change over time.

throughout life everyone will gain some things and lose others.
last year, in order to move forward with one teacher, i had to leave another.
that also meant leaving a brotherhood that for a time meant a lot to me.
i didn't feel like i had a choice.
my pursuit of higher knowledge could not be put into question,
but in its wake i was exposed to others' feelings that made me see their truths.
i crossed the bridge and cannot turn back.
here, the highest value is knowledge.

in 2011 i also left behind what had become my west coast home.
oakland gave me four brilliant years of sun and rain and friendship and paths.
i met many likeminded people who i hope to know for many years.
the weather was fantastic and a winter of rain was easier to endure.
my bike rolled out with me every day, and i got used to it.
...
some day i will ride oakland daily again.

until then, here i am, back in new york!
with much of the family and many old friends,
in the hometown landscape that i used to hold more highly.
i know the city well, so well that what i love and hate about it
are clear to me and that clarity amplifies the love and hate.
so it is as good, as it is bad, to be back.
new york is the city of ambivalence.

that doesn't mean these next years will be happily unpleasant!
these next chapters simply have a more complex landscape to flip through,
and the challenges will be as difficult as the rewards will be worthy.
2012 will see developments, progression, and maybe some big decisions too.

within the past several years, many of my written entries have rounded back,
to the idea that everything anyone does should be done with consideration.
that the right reasons be the cause,
and that even if there is no goal,
there should be progress.

i hadn't in those entries considered the greater values at the roots.
knowledge, justice, ethical responsibility and personal responsibility.
i need these to be strong in my mind, to encourage them,
and move forward with them.

things i dislike

"the market"
making intangible money off "the market"
consulting about how to make intangible money off "the market"
outsourcing
pretending to care about local economies and still outsourcing

chemicals that are bad for us
chemicals that are bad for us in things we ingest
the approval of chemicals that are bad for us in things we ingest

unsafe practices
unsafe practices with heavy machinery

"the system"
routing "the system" to harm others

not doing something about aforementioned things i dislike

-----

i'll add to the list if i come up with other things later

happy 2011! let it be a healthy year.

at the end of 2010, i smugly remarked during some conversation
that i had managed to avoid getting sick all year.
then i got the flu. (i really thought i had knocked on wood!)

it was awful; it set in right before i had to fly back to the bay.
6 hours cramped into a window seat, choking down recycled air,
trying not to sound like a biohazard while coughing uncontrollably.
adrenaline got me through the airport and i managed not to collapse.
thank goodness for those moving walkways!
no thanks to having a duffel instead of a wheeled suitcase..

then i crashed hard. several days worth of mostly laying down.
drinking soup and relying a lot on nicole to keep house and my head up.
it had been so long since i'd been this sick, i had forgotten what fever felt like!
though after a few days i certainly had a better grasp of them;
so well that i can almost guess my own temperature (when it's high).
100 degrees just feels slightly warm. can still do most things.
102 degrees makes sudden movement a little tough. and starts aching the neck.
104 degrees is stifling. pretty much bedridden (or couchridden, as the case was).
luckily i'm fairly tough and 104 did not last nor hospitalize me. yay!

now after a week and a half i am nearly a normal person again.
i can teach my classes without coughing up my throat,
and ride my bike (though nearly coughing up my throat in this weather).

fortunately the rest of my time spent back east was mostly pleasant.
i trained a lot with my guro and ironed out some key elements in my training.
got to spend time with just a couple friends who i happened to bump into.
my brother's family brought a new life into the world, my second niece!
she is little and gorgeous and pink and i can't wait to get to know her.
that was amazing, as she was originally expected after i was to leave for ca.
i also got to walk through a blizzard and shovel lots of snow!
then go back inside to spend time with mom and dad.
the house was the haven.

so now we're back west and getting back into the groove.
i plan to ride more, train more, teach more, and shoot more this year.
hopefully i can tell you and show you more this year too.
be well.

aquatic park sunset

aquatic park sunset
Originally uploaded by mo yun

muir woods

muir woods
Originally uploaded by mo yun

landing at JFK

landing at JFK
Originally uploaded by mo yun