TigerBait! . . . and little known facts about Jacob Hester

I’ve already written about the big game, but tonight is the night. I’m nervous, but sticking with my prediction of LSU winning . . . 34-24. In honor of my favorite current Tiger, RB Jacob Hester, I’m going to steal a few ideas from timtebowfacts.com and give you some Jacob Hester facts:

• When you open a can of whoop ass . . . Jacob Hester jumps out. 
• Jacob Hester’s house has no doors . . . only the walls he walks through.
• Jacob Hester won the Tour de France on a unicycle.
• Jacob Hester knows the EXACT location of Carmen SanDiego.
• Jacob Hester can touch MC Hammer.
• Jacob Hester grinds his coffee with his own teeth and then boils the water with his rage.
• Jacob Hester has the greatest Poker-Face of all time. He won the 1983 World Series of Poker, despite holding only a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game UNO.
• If you Google search ‘Jacob Hester getting his ass kicked’ you will generate zero results. It just doesn’t happen.
• The show Survivor had the original premise of putting people on an island with Jacob Hester. There were no survivors, and nobody is brave enough to go to the island to retrieve the footage.
• Terry Tate looks over his shoulder in offices for Jacob Hester.
• There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Jacob Hester lives in Louisiana.
• Jacob Hester has counted to infinity…. twice.
• It takes Jacob Hester 17 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
• Jacob Hester ordered a Big Mac at Burger King . . . and got one.
• They say Jacob Hester bleeds “purple and gold”. They are wrong . . . Jacob Hester doesn’t bleed.

GEAUX TIGERS!

LSU Beats Ohio State 23-21 for BCS Champsionship . . .

according to the Whatisports.com game simulation. That’s right, a computer simulation determined that the Tigers triumph over the Buckeyes with a 124 yard, 2 touchdown performance by Jacob Hester.

I don’t think it will be that close. I do think Hester will have a big game (BTW, I also think he will be a solid 3rd down back in the NFL and will open a lot of eyes with a good performance at the NFL Combine). I think the Buckeyes will have a difficult time with our two-quarterback system and team speed (similar to the problems they had with Florida last year).  I’m also expecting one game-breaking play from Trindon Holliday.

My birthday is Jan. 2, but I would gladly take a belated birthday gift in the form of a 3rd Tigers’ National Championship. We’ll find out in 7 days . . .

I’m Bachelor’n it for the week

So I dropped Jess and Grant off at the airport today - they are going home to Louisiana for a week. This will be the first year that we don’t go home to Louisiana for Christmas, so Jess and Grant are going to “make-the-rounds” and go visit the Great-Grandparents, cousins, etc. Although I will miss our traditional Cajun Christmas back home (lots of gumbo) it will be nice to stay home as well - no traveling, no schedules, opening presents Christmas morning at our house, etc.

It’s funny. Whenever Jess and Grant go back to Louisiana without me, people always ask, “what will you do with all your free time?”.  My answer is always the same, “Ride my bike and watch lots of movies”.  Since we had Grant, my movie consumption has decreased dramatically. With baby #2 due in April, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. So normally when Jess and Grant head out I’ll go to the theater and catch a flick or two and also rent a couple of DVDs. The one plus of not seeing many movies at the theater is that I have a large pool to choose from if I swing by Blockbuster for a new release.

Also, my team is hosting a cyclocross race this Sunday (Moritz Cowtown Cross). So I am volunteering on Sunday to help out, which should be fun.  I am about to enter serious training mode again because I am focusing my efforts this year on a couple races in February and March (before baby #2 comes). It would be nice to get a couple good results before the baby comes and the only way to do that is to stay very focuses this off-season. This unfortunately means lots of time on the stationary trainer . . . no pain, no gain.

Saturday’s UMCA 100 Mile Championship - a disaster . . . but still a good day

So Saturday was the UMCA 100 Mile Championships at the Texas Time Trials in Cleburne.  As a reminder, I have been training for this event for a while. That includes a first for me, putting clip-on aero bars on my road bike. I put the aero bars on my bike a couple weeks ago and have been training on them exclusively (in an attempt to get more comfortable in the aero position, get my muscles acclimate, etc.).

The week leading up to the event my legs only felt so-so. Additionally, riding in the aero position was causing lots of issues with my shoulder (I have a shoulder injury that prevents me from lifting weights, swimming, or doing any activity with my arms above my head). But I figured the short-term pain was worth the benefit for this one event.

I drove out to Cleburne on Saturday morning feeling good. The Texas Time Trials is a very cool event. They have several events going on at once: a 500-mile randonee with multiple start times and both solo and team categories, a 24-hour time trial, a 200-mile UMCA National Championship, and the 100-mile UMCA national championship time trial.  People set-up tents/mini-aid stations along the road, it’s almost like Woodstock for cyclists.

 

I realized very quickly that my chances of placing in the top 3 were slim as more and more riders showed up for my event, particularly some semi-pro triathletes with full aero set-ups (time trial bike, aero suit, helmets, etc.).  Also, there wasn’t really any place to warm-up, but I figured I could take it a little easy on the first lap to get my legs warm. My goal was to finish in under 5 hours. Since I would need to stop a couple times to change out my water bottles, I figured I needed to average about 21 mph on the road to hit my < 5 hour goal.

The race started fast, the triathletes hit the gas hard from the get-go. I tried to keep pace with the leaders without pushing myself to hard. The course was much hillier than I expected (about 1,ooo ft of climbing on each 20 mile loop) and it was very windy (mostly a strong crosswind). I had  decent pace on the first lap and finished in 56 minutes (about a 21 mph), so I was right where I needed to be. Then it started . . .

Soon into the second lap I got a flat tire. Luckily (or not) I have had some bad tire kharma recently (including a string of 4 flats in 6 days) so my tire changing skills are good right now. I was able to change my tire in a few minutes and was back on the road. I started to really push it in order to make up some time and everything fell apart. My knee started to hurt on the climbs and then several miles later my legs started cramping in a way that they never have before. My upper hamstrings started to knot up and it was difficult for me to generate any power to the pedals. I decided to keep going until mile 40 and hopefully it would get better where I could continue. By the time I got back to the start/finish at mile 40, I was done. When I got off my bike I could barely walk, it even hurt just to sit down. This was really dissapointing for me because I have never not finished a race/event.  Looking back I think it was the combination of a couple factors:

1. The aero bars. Should have put them on sooner or not used them at all. With the elevation changes on the course, I was constantly going from the aero position to hard climbing and back again.
2. Should have found some way to warm-up. Definitely pushed it too hard early without warming up.
3. Can’t make-up for bad luck. Once I got the flat, I should have called it a day and just considered it a 100 mile training ride instead of pushing so hard.

So you might think that after this I would have considered Saturday to be a pretty horrible day, not at all. The benefit to quiting at 40 miles is I was able to get home early enough to go with Jess and Grant to my nephew’s birthday party in Forney.  My sister’s family moved to Forney from Louisiana this summer and it’s nice to be able to see them on occassions like this without having to drive 7 hours (Forney is only an hour away).

My nephew, Jack, had his party at a fun jump complex. Grant had a blast (as you can see in the photo above with his cousin Hannah). I have to say that was one of the best afternoons I have had with Grant. He and I ran through the fun jump place for almost 2 hours non-stop, laughing, going down the slides and just being silly. He really is a funny kid with a great personality. So all-in-all, a pretty good day.
 

Should LSU be #1 . . . will we lose Les Miles to Michigan?

 

 As most of my friends/family/co-workers know, I am a die-hard LSU football fan. I have no fewer than six pieces of LSU memorablilia hangin in my office. So after LSU’s very impressive performance last weekend versus a very good Virginia Tech team, I thought I would comment on the case for LSU to be ranked #1.  

Right now it’s No. 1 USC and No. 2 LSU - or should it be the other way around? - going into the third week of the season. Assuming USC (1-0) proves itself at No. 14 Nebraska (2-0) on Saturday after its average performance in the opener against Idaho, the debate could rage on for several weeks, if not the whole season.

Pre-season polls aside, LSU is clearly No. 1 based on what ’s happened on the field. The Tigers were awesome in dismantling No. 18 Virginia Tech, 48-7, and have outscored their opponents 93-7 after two games. The fact USC remained No. 1 after a bye week in which the Tigers put on one of the best performance’s in LSU foootball history just shows you how illogical the polls really are early in the season.

The question now is can USC look as dominating as LSU against a good Nebraska team this week, a team that could be on the rise under coach Bill Callahan and that features former Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller?

If they don’t, then I think it’s time to make LSU No. 1 and USC No. 2 - assuming LSU dismantles Middle Tenn. on Saturday (Note: Middle Tenn played respectable against a very good Louisville team).

So life is good right now for Tiger fans . . . right? Well, maybe not. I will be very interested in the Michigan-Notre Dame game this weekend. Why? Another Michigan loss would only add fuel to the fire that is LSU coach Les Miles is potentially leaving LSU at the end of the season to take over the Michigan job. Miles, a Michigan alum rumored to be a candidate to succeed the suddenly embattled Lloyd Carr, actually has a clause in his contract that lets him leave LSU for the Michigan job; although, he must pay a $1.25MM penalty to do so and void his LSU contract. 

 

But I’m not going to let that get me down, it’s just too painful. I still haven’t gotten over Nick Saban/Satan leaving us for the Miami job - only to come back and take the Alabama job (I won’t be happy unless we beat them by 50 in Tuscaloosa).