Fresno State Daulton RR, TTT and Crit. (Race Report)

Today was a good day for the Aggies. I'm speaking for the men's A's. (I am sure the other categories killed it too).  We did the 5 lap road race that was on the same course as Madera's road race.  Fairly flat with a gnarly "cobble" section followed by rollers to the uphill finish.

All in all, a good turn out. Quite a few teams, considering Fresno is in the middle of CA.  Stanford was well represented, followed by Cal Poly, Berkeley, UCLA and the list goes on.. Davis was well represented too, we showed up with Bassetti, Piasta, Walters, H-D and I.  This morning I was nearly late to the race, between the long lines at reg and the porta potties. (Thank you, to the girls who let me cut line!)

This morning it started out cold, but no showers. The day warmed up and turned out to be a great day for racing. Windy (as always), which made for an interesting race.

Lap one, not much action.  Lap two is where things got good. Sam, John and I started some rotating with a UCI rider on the rough section.  After a few hard pulls (to the point where I thought I was going to explode), I realized that Stanford was not sitting on our wheel, but instead we had a fairly large gap.  At that point I told John I couldn't take another pull, and furthermore, I was so cooked that I couldn't even hang on to them!  I watched Sam, John and the Irvine rider motor away.  With two riders in the break, I knew that that was according to the plan.  I rode back to the pack and did work there monitoring the race.  Between H-D, Walters and I, we really destroyed any chance of the pack catching Sam, John and co.

What really bothered me was when we were just about to take a pee break, some SDSU rider insisted that we race and not take a pee break.  Really now?  Anyways, a couple laps later when it was obvious we were not going to catch them we got to take care of things.  But yeah, whatever.  Sitting in the pack, I enjoyed shutting things down and riding easy.  Staying "fresh", if that's possible with the wicked cross winds out there. I do not know how Sam and John did what they did. They are studs and I am glad to see my team mates bring home the win.

From what I heard, they were in a three man break (with the Irvine rider) and between the two of them they were able to use their numbers to their advantage, bringing home the 1-2 win.

Oh, and on the last lap, our group evenly took pulls and rode solid to the finish.  I flatted out on the rough section, DNF-ing the road race.




Team Time Trial.

Given that this was Fresno's first race, they did a great job pulling this whole thing off.  However, there's always going to be one or two hiccups.  One of them being that the start of the TTT was six miles away, and we had to pick up our numbers and find out our start times at the head registration. The prob was we didn't get to do that till 2:00, and our start time was at 2:32.  They did not plan to change the start times, it was our job to get there.  We pinned up numbers, threw on race wheels and literally TTT'd it all the way to the start.  We made it with a minute to spare, only to find that they delayed the start by 30 minutes.   Well, anywho, we were well warmed up!

As for the team time trial, I'd say we did well. We felt smooth, did everything technically right. The power was not there, but I think that's a given, considering two of our strongest riders were in a break away for 3/4 of the race.  I happened to be the one going through all the turns on the course, I took them pretty well. It felt so awesome to be riding all together, wearing matching kits and wheels, all that.  There's a great feeling to have four fine tuned machines racing together as a team.  That was my first team time trial, and I am glad to have been exposed to that end of racing.

Warming up during the 30 minutes we had to spare. 

Our TTT finish, catching Cal's TTT. (I love the pain face H-D has on)

The women's A TTT taking first place as well. The pink aero helmets are a new addition. 

So, when the results came out, it turns out that we won the TTT by 3 seconds, over Cal Poly.  Must have been the aero gear.. But really, we felt good with our riding, even if we were fried from doing the 80+ mile road race and Pre-time trial effort riding to the start.

 A great day so far, and I'm getting the deluxe treatment at Shana Summer's house.  Appetizers on the table and lazagna in the oven.  Time to eat, more racing to come!
Seriously though, if you're an Aggie (or friend of an Aggie) and in Fresno, this is the place to be.  It is a shame more team mates didn't stay here, because it was by far the best host house I've stayed at during any cycling weekend.  The food was awesome, the whole family was nice and I am really glad I got the chance to stay there! (I can't believe people would PAY for a hotel when Shana offered her house up for the weekend!) ;)

(And that's just the appetizers.. So much food!)

Note: If you read this blog, you can probably tell I'm super proud of my team's efforts today and I'm stoked out of my mind to be FINALLY racing for UC Davis!!

Good job guys, I'm proud of you. (John, Sam and other Aggie riders).


2/12/12
Fresno Criterium

Today's criterium turned out well.  I think the B's deserve a shout out for fixing practically all five of our A rider's bikes with less than 20 min to the start.  Shifting problems, what the heck! Oh, that's right, Sam planned on getting an entirely new bike.  Not my case, I just got new housing! Anyways, we got that all sorted out.  Seemed to do the trick, because our racing was pretty darn good for racing a lot yesterday.

My job was to get a sprint workout by winning primes, as well as try to shut down anything that got up the road. As it turns out, that consisted of chasing down Sanford rider after Stanford rider.  At least they are really easy to spot with their bright red and white jerseys.  There must have been at least ten riders from Stanford, and despite their numbers, they lacked the organization to really pull anything off.  That, and we (Aggies) did a good job shutting things down.  Big props to H-D and Walters for doing work.  Same goes for the brains of the group, Sam and John who were vocal during the race.

I won't go into much detail, but racing collegiate is fun!  It's really fast, like really fast.  We hit 40 at one point (with a cross wind) and my heart rate was through the roof from lap one.  Literally the first lap was a prime lap and John was like "Anthony, go get it" and I made my way all the way up the pack and got second. The rest of the race was more of the same..

In the last lap, H-D was off the front by a few seconds, followed by me on a Stanford rider's wheel.  The funny thing was, he was just sitting there! I let him do that for a while until his team mate chewed him out and sprinted madly after H-D.  That was my free ride until another Stanford rider took over, doing more of the same. I followed his wheel, dumping us right into the last turn. So, technically I led it out, but in reality I was just chasing Stanford down like no other!  It worked out well, because Sam and John dashed to the finish, along with Alex. They went 2,4,6 (Sam, Alex, John).  That, and we collected a handful of prime points.

I have to say, racing for UCD is awesome, having a team and working together is a priceless feeling.  This weekend was great, I'm stoked to see how the rest of the season unfolds.

Intersquad TT and Paskenta Race Report

This weekend was the intersquad time trial on Saturday, followed by Paskenta on Sunday.

On Saturday Dani and I rolled over to Putah creek at the crack of dawn to ride a time trial.  It was cold, very cold!  I went because it's the team's chance to see who's where in terms of time trialing abilities.  I am not a strong time trialer, and I have not spent many hours perfecting the art of time trialing.  Therefore, my time trialing abilities are somewhat limited.  However, Saturday I gave it what I had and that's that.  Fortunately, for collegiate we don't have the time trial bikes and fancy aero stuff to use.  That seems to put everyone on a level playing field. (perhaps gives me the advantage with my slim Felt AR frame?)  Anyways, I had a decent ride at 24:23.

As for the ride itself, a few notes (more for my sake than anyone elses).  I started off strong, but tried to keep it reserved for the first two or so miles.  After that I tried to keep my heart rate at the top end of my ME, in hopes that I'd be able to sustain that long enough before ramping things up in the last few miles.  Like I said, I am not the expert, but this is what I did, wrong or right.  I was able to maintain upper ME, fortunately that felt great.  I only once or twice backed off a little to not get in over my head with the effort during the middle of the TT.  Possibly next time, no backing off and see if I still have enough gas left in the tank to finish strong.  As for the finish, yeah, it got hard.  (That means I'm doing it right, right?)

The TT felt good, I think the training is paying off.

Sunday: Paskenta
I love and hate this race.  A lot.. As it turns out, this year I made it through the gravel without flatting.  That's a pretty big deal if you ask me.  The gravel is infamous for making or breaking the race for most riders.  That's where the attacking happens, it's where things get hard(er).
This year, the pack dwindled down one by one until we had about 20-25 riders coming into the gravel section.  Those were some pretty solid dudes too!  It'd be a fair assumption to say that all of us were P/1/2 (with some real pros in there).  At one point in the race, before the gravel, I myself had some trouble with the cross winds.  It was not easy keeping out of the wind, but fortunately from experience I knew that I had to get out of the wind.  It was not an option, there was no way I'd survive if I was on the center line (or in the gutter on the wrong side of the road) getting ripped to shreds by the wind.  I think that's what popped most everyone off the back by the time we made it to Paskenta.

As for the gravel, I was doing sorta well until we descended down the steepest of the gravel hills.  I took the turn too fast and wide, forcing me to slow it down and regain my balance which opened up a gap between myself and the three riders in front.  After that I was toast, there was no way I could motor back up to them, considering the were rotating through on the gravel.  It was rough, hard to manage!  I didn't flat, so that was a plus.  But seriously, I had to pee bad, even before the gravel. The gravel didn't help that.

After the gravel, I was back onto solid ground. That's when I snapped my chain when downshifting in the front.  Once I busted the chain, I optimistically thought that I could bend the broken link in and ride it.  That lasted all of two seconds.  The next moment I look down and my rear derailer is ripped off, hanging on top of my chain.  That was the end of my day, I was done for.  Fortunately I got a ride in with the sag wagon..

Not how I wanted to finish the race.  This is the second time I've watched the second half of the race from a vehicle. Next year I'm going to finish it!  The real bummer is, every time this happens I can't really test my fitness. How would I have done in the last twenty miles, the last ten, last mile? I don't know, but I can tell that my fitness is really coming around. I've trained consistently for the past month. That's something I'm proud of, coming from a rider who's raced his way into shape.  I used to ride when I wanted for as long as I wanted.  There would be weeks at a time where the bike would go untouched.  This year, I've done a better job being disciplined with my training plan (considering that this is the first time with a training plan, and a garmin, and strava..)

As for now, Here are some photos of the Paskenta carnage.
And I think it's possible that the mullet was just too much for my chain, it just gave me so much power that I snapped my chain.  That in combo with the Paskenta 'Stache, which is said to give one the power of ten riders. (:

Darn..

This is how I feel about Paskenta!

By the way, this sums up how my girlfriend feels about my mullet. It's quite controversial! I'd say it's hit or miss. Either you love it or hate it.  Personally, I love it. We'll see how long it sticks around.

Fresno is next weekend! See you there. 

Cal Aggie Race Report

I've decided to do a race report on the Cal Aggie Criterium.  I'm going to start up race reports now that the season's beginning.  This weekend was the Cal Aggie Crit, which typically kicks off the NCNCA racing season. As it turns out, it's our team's fundraiser race which is sweet because everyone who came out to race on Saturday helped towards our team.  Thanks everyone! It was killer weather this weekend too, so that was awesome.

As for these race reports, I might as well put in a word to mention that I am no expert in bike racing, and I'm just telling it how I see it.  My race, my opinions, observations and what not.  The reports are meant to be something to reflect on, laugh about and maybe check out some photos if I post any.  Also for the folks at home who want to keep up with my racing and feel like they're still a part of my season even if they can't see the race in person.  

On Saturday I enjoyed hanging out with the team, volunteering and what not.  When the time rolled around, I did the pre-race rituals. Number pinning, trainer business, all that.  I warmed up with H-D watching the race before us. I felt terrible on the trainer, but that's the point.

Ashley and I, with my James Franco look. 

The family, happy to see me in race in the UCD kit. Thanks for the continual support!

As for the race itself, a lot of people showed up! It was a 1-2-3 field, so that may have bulked up the numbers. Things started well, nothing too fancy.  I think everyone got the feel of cornering in a crit down again, the speeds started picking up and the real racing began after the first 10 laps or so.  I noticed a series of big holes/dips on the right side of the road on the back straight away of the course.  Those were worth avoiding!  I managed to get into position (top 20) with roughly ten laps or so to go, starting to cover anything that was starting to form.  No breaks stuck, in fact nothing stuck.  I was ready if anything was to happen.  With nine to go, I noticed the lap cards and realized I needed to save a little for the last couple laps, I didn't want to lose many spots now since I was already in good positioning.

Photo Cred: Ken Lyon

Last couple laps, the Cal Giant team rolled up and I noticed people getting into place, including Sam (now on Cal Giant) who I know since I live with him.  Anyways, there he was and I figured hey this is a good wheel to be on. At that point I figured as long as I stay on his wheel I could try to come around him in the pack sprint and Jeff would be happy since before the race he told me my job was to beat Sam and Joe. I didn't really expect Sam to WIN it, but hey that works too!

Last lap I followed Sam (good choice) since by the looks of the P/1/2/3 GoPro vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rXUSb09blbo) posted by someone it was a real mess fighting for position on the back stretch before the last turn.  Sure enough, I stuck to his wheel after watching him fight for his team mate's wheel with some McGuire rider.  We came through the turns smoothly and I got to watch the leading out happen, it was pretty sweet to see it all unfold.  All the sudden when Sam jumped, he was gone. I had a face full of wind and I moved over behind some other guy sprinting for 3rd. I was pretty far back considering there were guys on the left side further up the road.  I bike threw and with my momentum I got them at the line. So, the lesson is, even if you're a terrible sprinter, bike throw! That was the difference of 3rd and 5th place.  I'll take third, and it was pretty awesome to watch my house mate Sam pull off the win.  He was so far up the road that he was already celebrating before any of us were close to the finish line.

(The good old bike throw. See dad, I didn't get fifth! I almost got fifth..)

And here's Sam's win.

So much for Rand Miller winning that race! Race Predictor Fail..  Maybe that's because Rand's attempted break away with five laps to go didn't stick. They had me at 14th, but what do they know.  They don't know that I'm living with Sam and I knew who's wheel to get on!  So take that race predictor.  I think it's another thing for cyclists to geek out about, just like Strava. haha.

All in all, it was a good weekend and I'm glad to be out there racing.  And boy I sure have enjoyed this fine weather! Nice racing everyone, and congrats to Sam for the win.


Good luck next weekend for those racing!
I'll be at Paskenta since I've decided to stick with the Chico tradition of ripping my legs off and blowing up my wheels on the gravel section since that's the fun thing to do before watching the Super Bowl.

Rainy Monday (Update)

This week started with rain, though I think it's all done with for a while.  As it turned out, we didn't get much rain up until last week when a storm rolled in giving everyone a change of pace.  I'm sure all the snowboarders and skiers were pleased to see the rain and snow fall. As a friend of mine on Facebook put it, "These rain drops are the tears of thousands of snowboarders finally coming together."  As for cycling, I enjoyed NO rain for as long as it lasted.  I got in plenty of riding, and I think any cyclist will agree that being cold is way better than wet and cold.  At least you can layer up and dress appropriately, but when it rains it's wet which means the ride will be miserable no matter what and all you can do is endure it. No matter how nice your rain jacket is, or your "waterproof" booties are, you will end up wet.

The forecast for last weekend.

Fortunately the rain is already gone, which means tomorrow's race ride will not be as miserable.
This week is off to a decent start. I actually understood what was going on in my statistics class, since we were talking about the gaussian function, which is "normal distribution".  Basically the bell curved shape graph when you're looking at data. Well, as it turns out there's a table that gives you ALL the values you could possibly want for any given area corresponding to a point on the graph.  That was review from my previous statistics class, so it's nice to remember something and not feel overwhelmed with information. Plus, we've got a test on Friday.

This weekend was a good weekend, I went to a leadership training camp for Young Life at Woodleaf.  The camp is less than an hour from Oroville, just up the hill in Challenge. It snowed at Woodleaf again, that was really awesome to see! I was able to stop by home after the camp and hangout with Ashley and visit the family. Even though there was a lot of driving involved (to and from Woodleaf, to and from Davis), it was worth it.  Plus, I like driving my car. I enjoy driving, but when it's raining and dark that is not a good combo. (Not to mention everyone drives ~15 mph below the speed limit which made all that driving time even longer..)

My ride on Saturday, riding to Strawberry Valley

Snow at Woodleaf, right before we left. Made for a nice view!

Young Life was a great experience this weekend. It was nice to see friends from different areas all showing up at the Mission Community Weekend.  Even Marinda was there! They are starting a Young Life in Paradise, which is cool since she was the one who told me about UCD YL. I enjoyed the seminars, learning how to be a leader for Wyldlife, which is the middle school version of Young Life (which is aimed at high schoolers).  Believe it or not, in a couple weeks we will start doing contact work and start going to the middle school here in Davis and try to start a club.  I have been waiting to see all this develop, since this Fall I participated in all the Leadership training meetings that Jen put on at Annette's house.  I think it's good that we're starting with the middle schoolers since we hope that they will continue into Young Life when they are in high school, assuming that we will grow as a club and be able to handle kids at both the middle school and the high school.  Currently I am the only consistent male leader in our area, though we do have Ian who I hope can help as a leader in the future.  We need more people, but what we have is a start.  It was exciting this weekend to see how Davis YL was a part of all the areas that are part of this ministry.  Young Life is going somewhere, things are happening and it's exciting to be a part of that. 

My goals for the week include: Train according to the plan, study lots for school, go to class, stay focused and when Saturday rolls around I am going to help with the Cal Aggie race as well as race P12. I've won there before in the lower categories, and this year I hope to do well knowing that a P12 field looks like (having raced a whole year now as Elite 2).  I am also excited to have my family and girlfriend Ashley visit Sac and watch me race! I'll be representing UC Davis on Saturday, it'll be the first time racing in a non-green kit.  It's great too because Chico Corsa comes out strong to the Cal Aggie, so I can't wait to see team mates this weekend. 

Alright, well it's time for dinner, the highlight of my day. I think I'll make some kind of seasoned chicken with a side of veggies, with either pasta or rice. (Pasta's easier to cook).  

UCD Team Training Camp

This weekend the team got together in Bodega Bay for some nice riding. Team training camp was a success, consisting of eating, riding all day, eating and lounging around till bed time. We got our team kits just a few days before camp, so everyone was able to rock them (if they decided to.. it seems some people insist on NOT representing UC Davis, being that guy who's repping his other team).  I managed to nick my kit up on the first ride, crashing everyone out on a fast wet slippery corner.
To clarify, the crash was bound to happen in my opinion, because we were coming in way too hot, it was a shady wet corner that was not banked at all. Since we were all braking hastily, my back tire came out from under me and before I knew it I slid a ways till I stopped. I got up and watched everyone else topple like dominoes. Not a sight I wanted to see.. Some of us made it out better than others, but all in all we made it out and continued the day aside from Judd who needed a new wheel.  (Sorry Judd)

       
The rest of the ride was legit, the views were awesome and I enjoyed getting some serious mileage in with the team. Camp seems to be the first time the team feels like a team. Everyone is together, we sleep together, eat together, ride together and all that.  I stayed in the barracks, and I am glad I made that choice. I do not need to spend more time in isolation, and I am not better than my team mates. I am glad that I got the chance to bold with everyone in the barracks.  Sure, it smells like fart (deadly), but the humor and talk that goes on while waiting for dinner and bed time is worth it. Constant laughter, it's pretty amusing. Don't count on getting any sleeping in early, or doing anything productive.  After a long hard ride, no one feels like doing anything, however no matter how tired people are they ALWAYS find the energy to whip out their laptop to upload their Garmin data on Strava.  It's quite amusing. One by one, people's results pop up. You hear someone rejoicing as they get the KOM on some segment, then realizing that the "big boys" haven't uploaded their data yet. Then the cursing when they realize that they got beat by a second or two.  Anyways, Strava kills the dead time, spending hours looking up segments, routes and stalking other people (Byron is the king of that. We wake up and every morning he reads his Strava update telling us who did what yesterday).  Speaking of Byron (or Brian or Barren), that kid is quite the character. He bunked above me, putting up with him all weekend has been eventful.  Quite the character, and Byron, if you're reading this (since you said you read my blogs), then this is a shout out to you...

On Hwy 1

As for the rest of the weekend, that's about it. Barracks life, lots of hills and resting up looking at Strava and cracking jokes.

I should mention that Sam was destroying every climb in sight, along side Jenkins (and Mach and Moore).  As for me, I'm riding with the rest of the folks tomorrow for a nice and easy "coffee ride" before we pack up and head back to flat, windy Davis. I hear it's supposed to rain this week, which reminds me, we had some killer weather here in Bodega Bay this weekend! Clear skies, highs of ~70's and what not. Good stuff!

One last thing! Today we did "Old Caz", or the "Ass Coach Ride", which was legit. The dirt road descending Old Caz was super sweet. Everyone decided to do it today, good for them.. But the ride itself was wicked. I had a blast, it was a nice way to mix up the riding.

Me at the top of Old Caz

Chris HD crossing Old Caz creek. (A lot of people should be getting brake pads this year)

Good riding and team bonding this weekend. I'm glad to be on the UC Davis Cycling Team. It's going to be a good season.

Fall Quarter Update

I haven't blogged in a while.  I guess that's what the quarter system does to you.. I have spent a good time the last two months going to school, riding my bike, and enjoying what little free time I have left with my girlfriend.  I've managed to see Ashley more than I anticipated, at the cost of possibly less studying here on the weekends and "adjusting" to the Davis life.. But, I do not regret that at all.  And to be quite honest, I'm adjusting well so far.  It was the off season for a while, and as for studying goes, I'm catching on to how it works down here.  It's been a good quarter, lots that I've picked up on.  The little things, things like how to organize your time and notes in such a way that when you do decide to go back you're not wasting time due to disorganization.

As for cycling, I could go on for paragraphs about cycling.  Once we got our training plan the beginning of this month, I've been riding daily, more riding than I've done in quite some time.  This whole training plan is going to be a huge help in my season.  I'm in the same "race" shape that I was in most of last season, aside from my peak during the big stage races in March/April.  Just knowing that makes me very excited for what's in store for this season.  As my room mate has pointed out, it doesn't really matter who's plan I'm on, just that I follow it religiously.  And that I've done!
To add to this cycling excitement, I decided to buy a Garmin, due to various recommendations.  I honestly didn't know what I was getting myself into.  It's like someone who wanted a car to get around and ended up buying a Ferrari that's got a crazy awesome engine, fancy interior and a sound system and various state of the art electronics inside. Oh, and a sweet set of rims.  My point is, I wanted something to track my training as well as help me with my workouts, preferrably with a heart rate monitor.  Yes, I could have gone with the classic perceived effort and time method, but no I really wanted to get something "good".  Sure enough, the Garmin Edge 500 would be just that, and more!  This thing seriously does EVERYTHING.  I won't go into detail (to spare you the time), but it records more then enough info for my rides.

The next thing that I will talk about is the new time waster.. It's the Facebook for cyclists.  I'll admit, with the recent purchase of the Garmin, I've been spending a bit too much time on Strava.  It is a social site where you can post your rides and track your results to others.  It will rank your times with others, declaring you the King of the Mountain, if you're the fastest on whatever designated climb.  It is ADDICTING!!!

Let's see.. Anything else to mention.  Well, School's going well.  And I want to address something that's tied to a recent Facebook post about the awkward silence in the room before a mid week evening ARE 115A discussion.  I was the only one in the room that was white, among-st Asians that were spread out in the room silently on their phones or listening to music.  It is not that I'm uninterested in being their friends, it's that there is a similarity between the type of students who want to do well and the time they show up before discussion. That awkward ten minutes when no one is talking, but minding your own business.  And yes, it may be eight weeks in, but there isn't a lot of "social" time to be Chatty Cathy before classes and discussions.  People don't show up to discussion to talk to their bff.. I am going to meet friends, whatever race they may be.  It's slightly intimidating to meet new friends, especially when you have absolutely nothing to go off of other than being the same class because you all are on the same path towards whatever goal or major that you've got your eyes set on.  Sure, breaking the ice before or after class, with a "jeez, how about that lecture.  Or, how's the homework going? Or, hey what did professor say about such and such?" Most people leave class the instant it's over, they literally pack up before the teacher's done talking.  When you're in a room full of three hundred people, you don't "meet" a lot of people when you end up sitting in different places every time.  If you meet someone, they're at most an acquaintance.  Nothing special, and if anything, I've found that I have a lot of cycling friends in my classes, and yes I sit next to them and we have something in common!
My point is, it's not the easiest thing to meet people when you are there strictly for an education and there's not a lot of time to make friends.  I don't spend a lot of time on campus, and I'm in two clubs which are two main sources of meeting quality people.  That's the cycling team and my Young Life Club.

I'll see people on campus that I remember from a class or something, but it's definitely not something where they know my name or I know theirs, so a lot of the time when I'm riding around campus it's just a blurr of people, people I will hardly ever get to know.  It's not like Butte college where you can walk across the quad and see people left and right that you went to high school together, you played little league baseball with or you knew from some community event.  It's just straight up different here.  So, I will make friends on my own time, and I am doing quite fine with balancing my "social" time with cycling, studying, and classes.

Now that it's my "weekend", I will go out to the other room and watch the Shark's game with my room mates who are sharks fans.

Death of the 40D

First off, this post is not meant to criticize my photography skills or style.

I'd like to talk about everything that has to do with the death of my shutter..
As of yesterday afternoon, my camera is broken.  The main mirror hinge is broken, which means if you take a picture 4/5 of the shot is black.  The shutter doesn't move up properly on one side since the plastic hinge is broken.  I've done plenty of reading over the past two hours to figure out what the heck happened and what I'm looking at to get this replaced.

This blog (written in Europe) has nifty pictures and all the nitty gritty details of how I could solve this problem.
http://canonrepair.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/canon-eos-40d-broken-main-mirror-repair/

Now, why would this break on me?
Well, I'd have to obviously conclude I took way too many pictures.  That is NOT a bad thing.  I've had my camera for over a year now, and my main point is that over this course of time I've learned how to work my camera through a process of trial and error.  This method of learning requires hands on experience, which therefore implies that I am actively taking photos of whatever is going on.  And I'm not a pro by any means, I'm not to that "wait for the perfect shot" stage in my life.  I take pictures of EVERYTHING.

With that approach, I've taken so many thousands of pictures (literally thousands) and this has taken a toll on my camera's life.  To be quite honest, I worked that camera hard.  Possibly too hard.  But I'm very happy for what it's done in my life, and all the photos and memories it has captured.

This leads me to point out something fairly obvious.  Taking care of things is a pain, but you don't realize the reward of taking good care of such things until you have had a bad experience from a not taking good care of items.
For example.  If I thrashed my Honda, odds are it would break down MORE than what it's done on me over the last year.  But, by taking good care of it I don't have to go through the nightmare of replacing stuff that I don't even want to think of.  Same goes for electronics.  Sure, you drop your phone as you get out of the car, but the less you do that the less chance you're going to have a cracked screen or some other problem. (:

My camera is broken, I'm quite sad about that.  But I don't feel bad, mainly because I put it to good use and I'm not in a rush to fix it.

To conclude all this, I'd like to point out that had I not taken so many photos, my photography skills and success would have suffered.  Had I "slowed down" my approach to photography, I'd still be learning things that only happen when you find out the hard way. (trial and error).  I know a whole lot more about my camera than I did 50,000 shots ago.. And somewhere along the way I've got some sweet shots that make me feel accomplished.

Last picture that my camera took?

Okay, the joke's on me.. I "broke" the camera, literally.  But we do make for a cute couple (: