Snow Hike from Zac C on Vimeo.

I'm back, but in fact, I never went anywhere. I've been right here, living my life. I'm feeling a bit pessimistic at the moment, which is not normal for me. A lot of, for lack of a better word, shit has been happening. I just feel off. Honestly things in my life couldn't be much better. The people around me seem to be watching their lives crumble. I guess my personality, and my bond with these people makes me feel their pain.
Enough of the bad, Life is great. Like I said, couldn't be much better. Banner Elk is getting cold. We got our first snow on November the 4th. Riding in the cold is hard. I have alot of school work to do.

8-8-10

Go here for the vlog. It should be better quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KE8lbykVlM

Here is Day 5, I'm a day behind but im still creating at the same pace so i should get one up a day from now on. Enjoy!
Thanks for watching!

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I'm back

I've been blogging in my head lately, just haven't had the time to write it down, but here I am. This past week has been spring break. I love the freedom of riding when I want to, sleeping when I want to, and doing pretty much what I want to, but I know that's only temporary, but that's what vacation is for right?
Tuesday My coach and I met in Landrum and began a long climbing ride. We rode up to Tryon past Natures Storehouse onto the climb at Pearsons Falls, up the Saluda Grade and into Saluda. We headed down the mountain and hooked on Hogback. I was not feeling great by this point so I had a terrible climb up Hogback. We headed into Tryon and stopped at the Natures Storehouse where I met an amazing man. I'm pretty sure that most of the cycling community of the upstate and western North Carolina know or at least know of John Cash. If you know him you know exactly what I mean when I say amazing man. If you do not, I hope that you can meet him some time and you will see his passion for cycling, friends, and overall life.
I went to the Isle of Palms on Wednesday just for the night and had fun with sis, cuz, and friend. I got kind of sunburned, and I had to cut my mountain bike ride at Paris Mt. state park short because my sunburn was killing me. Did about 80km. today and felt good. Gonna do a good recovery ride tommorrow.
Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) is tomorrow. I've got big hopes for Big G. Hopefully his BMC team can lead him to the victory.We will see.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

No matter how selfish it sounds, it is our natural way to do what we must to make ourselves happy. It is not necessarily a bad thing. Self indulgence, happiness, and self satisfaction are all vital to a successful life. There are certainly boundaries where these things become less of a necessity, and for some people... alot of people, it is hard to balance the job of keeping yourself happy and making everyone else happy. Think about the people you like to be around, chances are that they make you happy, but most of all they are happy with themselves. They exude happiness. No one wants to be around a downer! Next time your in a group of people, make sure your not the downer and try to stay happy, that will help everyone be happy and healthy.

OK enough of the philosophical stuff. I've been riding a ton the past couple of days. The rain today forced me into a much needed rest day. I beat my record of 15+ minuets up Paris Mt. yesterday. It was the first time I climbed the mountain this season. I barely warmed up, but I made it up unpased in 14.01 mins. I'm pretty happy with that, but I'd definitely like to drop it down a minuet or two by the summer. Spring break is coming up in a couple of weeks and instead of heading off to the Caribbean or the beach, I'll be having my own sort of training camp with my coach Tom Ball. We're gonna do some long climbing rides up in the mountains and I can't wait. I have to get my racing schedule together, but I'll post it as soon as I do.

In The Buffer

I feel like I'm in a buffer zone right now. I have almost exactly two months of high school left. Then the summer, then off to college in August. I'm in limbo between now and the rest of my life. I don't feel this is a bad thing though. I am just using this time to work, train, and trying to rest.
I got to have a good 2 hour+ ride yesterday with temps in the 70s. If these temperatures hadn't have shown up I might just have started believing that spring is just a myth. It's hard to find good climbing right near my house so I can either drive to Greenville, or the mountains, but now I just do multiple efforts on the "hills" around my house. My fitness is getting exponentially better every day. I'm back in the swing of training six days a week. I'm bubbling with excitement every time I think about my future in cycling. It has become a very large part of my life and I can't wait to see where it takes me!

Milan SanRemo is tomorrow. Big G and A. Ballan will lead team BMC. We'll see what happens. You can watch it live tomorrow here: http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=459508.html#watch+milan+san+remo+live

Hola, Mucho Gusto.

Hey, Nice to meet you.

I'm Zac and this is my blog. I write alot but now I've decided to save paper. I will probably end up talking alot about cycling but, what's wrong with that. I'll keep you up to date with life. Bye for now.