a weekend of racing in nice weather

what a change. short sleeves. sun (sunburn). it was nice, for a change.

turtle pond - 47 miles, finished up a 1.5k climb. Pretty much sat in and tried to stop my wheels from squeecking (yea, I was THAT guy). Was in a terrible spot going into the last time up the climb, found nate's (brandies) wheel and he picked off about 20 ppl, I came around, dropped the hammer, felt good, came to the false flat at 50m and found myself in no mans land between 10-15 riders who were 100m clear of the other 75-80 ppl (or whatever was left of the original field of 100) with a UVM kid about 10m ahead of me. I was feeling cooked, and just rolled in for 15-20th. A few guys off the front, and then however many were ahead of me. I lost my cellphone, got a sunburn, and locked up my rear wheel, ruining a tubular. Christian had a mechnical (go figure, he doesn't take care of his bike), the girls were dumb and none of them brought enough water. Linnea dropped out in like 9th place, although she did awesome for her first race and having ridden 4 times this year, she is an animal. rose missed her start and rode solo, sarah and delia were otb pretty quickly. I beat a bunch of collegiate b riders, giving me some more confidence for riding b's. We spent the night at unh, which was fun

saco training crit - I skipped the b race, rode like 2 laps of it to warmup and spent a lap pulling sarah up to a wheel. A race was a bigger field (30 or so maybe?) no colavita pro, but a bunch of other pro guys (some team, 6 or 7 of them were there). I bridged to a few promising looking break's, made a few attacks of my own, chased, took some (rather short/wimpy) pulls, and generally raced animated-ly again. Coming into the sprint, I was 2nd wheel, but with 5 guys off the front, and another 6 came past me in the sprint (confirming I can't sprint), although I spent a LONG time in the last 1000m out of the saddle just trying to hold the wheel. This series should have a u23 leader, just so I can win by default (I think). Heck, I would prbly still take u25.

176 miles for the week (with 2 days off, 1 for rest, 1 because my head wasn't up for it). That puts me at 2005 miles for the year.

every have one of those days

where nothing goes right? I had one today. First I had to get up at 8:30 for a meeting, I don't have class till 11. Then I did terribly on my pysch midterm, thats two of them now. Then my day went up a bit as I got to see family friends who were visiting the school and a professor helped me out with research for a paper. Then my female situation complicated itself. So I decided to go for a bike ride. It was super windy, but I was pissed and riding hard. I did my ever favorite love to hate it bigalow hill, and on my way back got a flat, about 8 miles from either the shop or campus. Pissed off, I just rode the 8 miles (8.43 actaully) at ~ 22mph just hoping I wouldn't die (it was a rear flat). I was on the p.o.s. wheels, so how much more damage could I do to them? (none). On the bright side, It was a very hard 8 miles and I got in a good workout. Now I have mastik on my hands (yes tubular glue mastik) as I used some to try to glue the leather back onto the shell of my saddle, which is slowly pealing off.

Maybe tmrw will be better. I think any one of 4 packages in the mail for me, if they showed up, would make me happy.

how to respond?

how do you respond to vatech? tyler said it better than i ever could, so read what he wrote.

podium time

Rose and I decided to wake up at 4:45am to drive down to the saco training crit. Turns out we could have slept till 6 and still be fine, but whatever. I sat in most of the b race, went to take one pull and got yelled at by some guy who was just in general grumpy, so I just sat in the back with the a racers. 15 miles done. 20 or so mph avg. Flat and boring course. Rose leads out the field, and gets passed by everyone.

I roll around, a race lines up, we start, rose is there, then disappears. She took off to ride to a nearby gas station to refill water. While she is gone, some dude in a full colavita kit joins in late. At first I think, oh, guess he is on the masters team. Get closer, and he has the helmet, the booties, the gloves, the bike, his name on the top tube. Uh-oh time. I go over and talk (I sort of know 2 of the guys on colavita from targetraining last year, at least I met them once). Things are cruising, I am feeling good. I realize I have half a bottle and a pack of clif blocks...this could be interesting, seeing as I ate a muffin and coffee for breakfast. Turns out (but I didn't know this at the time) colavita guy is dan vaillancourt, from saco. Had I known that, I probably would NOT have tried to follow his every attack, but I didn't know that. So I follow his attacks, at like 32mph, for awhile. I think we are going fast, Dan probably wasn't breaking a sweat (well, it was like 44 degrees out). We come to the first preem in a group of 5, and I take second behind Dan. He won 5 bucks, I get nothing. We get caught, I recover, another break goes, another preem, I take 2nd (and no money) again but this time behind a SMCC guy (souther maine cycling club). SMCC had like easily 1/2 the field. I realize soon that dan is just attacking to soften up the field/break my legs. So after 4 or 5, I decide to just sit in and let someone pull me up. Eventually, Dan and some guy go. Actaully 4 or 5 are up there. 1 falls off. I stop paying attention, but I guess 2 more fall off. They are gone, and the race is for 3rd (although I thought it was for 5th). Some little attacks go, but SMCC pulls them back. I attack at 2 to go, but no one comes with and I don't feel like riding solo for that long, so I rejoin the 25 person or so group. Bell lap comes, and I jump up to the paceline in the first corner. Next turn, I jump up to 5th wheel. At what I judge to be 1km to go, where there is a nice little tailwind and a straight, with only 2 turns, 1 gradual false flat, and the wind, to go, I decide, screw this whole pack finish get outsprinted in crits thing. So I turn on the jets.

I put my head down, count out 45 pedal strokes, look behind, and there is a guy with me. He comes through, then me. I say, lets make this work, between gasps. We take the 2nd to last turn, hit the hill and the wind, and my legs hurt. I say, you can have it if we make it to the line, I don't have anything left, as I try to get out of the saddle to hold his wheel. We hit the real flat and a crosswind, take the last turn, have about 600m to go, I look back, he looks back, I am on his wheel, I say, stop looking back, lets go. As in, I feel good, i'll take a pull. However this passes on SMCC guy (the one who outsprinted me for a preem earlier), because he pulls me. His speed starts to slow at 300m, and I am wondering, how long untill the pack comes flying by. We pass the 200m sign, I look back, see the pack about 100m behind us, and decide to just go for it. At 125 (or so) m to go, I come around SMCC guy and just give it all I have. No looking back, just pure out of the saddle vision is going blurry hammering. My legs hurt. My body hurts. I use what little I have left to attempt a bike throw (in case anyone was near, I had no idea) and come across. While trying to hold down the puke that feels like coming up, I turn around to see about 6 guys. I have no idea if SMCC made it or not, but I know I did. I ride a cool down lap, go talk to SMCC (I apologized for coming around after I said I wouldn't, he said no worries, you played your tactics well and turns out he held off the pack). Talk to dan briefly, go over to grab my sweatshirt, and find out I took 3rd. Woot. Whatever, it was a training race, but still, I'm happy. I took a risk in a crit and it paid off. Turns out, I missed $$ in both of the preems I went for, and the payout was 2 deep. So no money, but something? Oh wait, uscf pts towards the upgrade. 4 of them, brining the grand total to 4. I am 1/4 there now I guess. If nothing, I furthered my reputation as a guy who just attacks and attacks....

181 miles for the week. 18--something for the year. UNH next week. I am feeling good. Hurray bike racing. Both HUP and COLBY kits are supposed to arrive this week, along with my arm warmers. And more clif bars. And no real schoolwork. BUT MORE FRIGGEN SNOW. BOO. (I am clearly still in post-race delerium).

that was fun

wed. ride recap -
47 degrees (semi-warmth, finally) 15mph wind (finally, a "not" windy day)
2hrs, 28minutes, 42 seconds of riding. 48.53miles travelled (thats like mid 19-20mph avg.). 4X12min 89-90% Intervals, 4 minutes recovery (ouch). Rode out by myself, got into the intervals pretty quickly and did them man-style (into the wind). Was feeling good. Just finished up with intervals when I saw christian going the other way, about halfway through the lake loop (a 30 mile loop, I had done a 15 mile loop and then done the lake loop). I turn around, he is just out to kill himself (when is he not?) and he offers to double the legnth of my pulls, as he has less than an hour on the bike, and I have somewhere shy of two. This of course doesn't happen, and I find myself out of the saddle more and more, staring at his rear hub trying to just hold it. Then he pulls through, I kill myself for awhile (at this point my legs hurt to the point I can't put my hr past 85%), and on and on we go. On the last climb (after a fairly hilly ride, not the craziest around here, but in the top 3 or 4 hilliest routes we normally do), it is I who drops christian, not the other way around (as I was expecting). We roll back onto campus, my legs hurting in the satisfied, that was a good ride, type of way.

mike, of carnegie (see pictures/stories below) took 5th in a 1/2/3/4 training crit tonight. 3 guys up the road, he was in a second group of 4, he and the guy ahead of him just avoided getting swallowed by the pack at the line. First off, awesome job, congrats. Second, collegiate crits are stupid....he is the guy usually right around me, and he can take 5th in a 1/2/3/4. The guy who was 4th is a cat 1 who won the pa state crit last year. Yet mike has 0 ECCC pts this year (that means no top 12's). Thats just dumb. Third, maine needs weeknight crits.

meh.

meh sort of describes my week. I was a bit sick wed-fri (taking thus. off) and life is chugging along. I managed to put in 205.52 miles in 12:34. I rode pretty big days both today and yesterday, in the nasty cold (well, not as bad as feb, but once you have had a taste of warmth, anything below 40 is cold). Today we had 30mph of wind, if not more. That was less than fun. For the year I am at 1648 miles. That is under 1000 miles shy of my total for last year. And this is the 1 year anniversy of me buying the LeMond, riding a few times, and jumping into a race. What a difference a year can make.

In good news, I won a town line sprint today. Normally that wouldn't be exciting. Except I have never, ever, ever won a town line sprint. I have won preem's before just by being in a break and being up front that lap, but never a sprint. I was riding with one other person (some sunday easter group ride) and he (paul, fast masters racer/sprinter) destroyed me on the first one. The second one, for the first time in my life I felt like I was sprinting. Paul went first, and led untill about 10m from the sign. I pulled up next to him at like 50m, shifted up, and went past and just nipped him, bike throw and all. It really felt different than my normal attempts at "sprinting" and if I can repeat it (and beat someone who is actaully good at crits) maybe I can learn to sprint after all. Before you ruin my moment of glory by saying "that wasn't a real town line sprint" or whatever, don't, I don't want to hear it. I normally get beaten in town line sprints by a teammate who gets dropped in the D field (what does that say about me?). I'll never be good at spriting, but maybe decent? Never mind the fact I was sprinting in my little ring (39X11, the new sprint gear...) which I didn't notice untill after the sign....

some picture action

I am sick as crap. Had to take the day off. Then again, it had been 19 days since my last off day, so that isn't the end of the world. I was a few days from a schedualed off day, and my legs are still feeling good. But I woke up this morning with the head cold and figured, uh-oh, gotta be careful. By lunch it was the full on fluid in the chest cough, which = off day. Fruit, water, veggie diet for the day (it usually works for me) and a huge nap, and alot of sleep tonight and hopefully I'll be back on my feet tmrw. If not, well, I'm not racing this weekend, so a few days off won't exactly kill me right now, but I'd rather be on the bike. So I am posting pictures of when I felt good in an effort to trick my body into feeling better. Somehow I doubt it will work, but its worth a shot, I think.

Have you ever seen someone sooo stoked for a
front row start (not in a 'cross race)? Well, I gave a fist pump. Mike was talking to me.....little did we know that front row was pretty much the high point of both of our races.

Somewhere in hurty-land. In fact, it hurts so much I went blurry. Judging by the fact I'm in the drops its either the first 5 or last 5 laps, as I rode the middle 15 on the hoods. I'm gonna go with first 5, as I don't really remember following a yale kid late in the race (no offense yale kid, you are probably smarter than me and will run the world one day).

And finally, my meager attempt to sprint in the road race. Note how bundled up the guy next to me is. Wimp. In another pic from the road race, you can see a sliver of exposed leg, and you know its me, since EVERYONE else in the race had at least knee warmers if not full on cold gear on. Oh yea, I can't sprint. Then again, bundled up guy beat me, maybe I shouldn't call him a wimp, should I?

For the record, all of these photo's are borrowed from an unnamed website. Hence the proof. Mike (carnegie melon mike) told me how to borrow them, but I am no good w/ computers, so we didn't try to attempt to remove proof.

Now if only our new kits would come in. Its april for crying out loud. Teaser of the kit, or at least the picture I saw before we submitted our final design.

Come On

It is april 4th/5th. It is snowing. The last few days it rain/snowed. The next few days it is supposed to rain/snow. COME ON, ENOUGH ALREADY. I WANT TO F*CKING RIDE MY F*CKING BIKE. There, I said it. I am tough, but not BKW hardman tough (great site, check it out). I try, but lets be honest, I am a shrimpy white jewish kid from the suburbs.

Thanks to all those who came to beanpot to support the racers. Picture is from the "death corner" which was not very "deathly" this year, sort of a let down. Although riding it with no brakes for 15 laps was sort of an experience, I had the levers in so far they were touching the bars, and I was barely slowing down.....if that doesn't teach ya how to corner, I don't know what will. Look at my pasty-white arms and legs --> its clear I go to school in maine, where is snows, in april, alot.

Next crit I do, no matter how much pain I am in just holding on, I am 100% determined to get up to the front, and to make an attack. That is how you attack (not like I normally do, when the pace is slow to moderate, like a wimp) and that is how you make attacks work (see bucknell crit). I would honestly rather go for it and have my heart explode, my legs fall off, or my eyes pop out of my sockets than spend 30-45 minutes trying to hold onto the wheel in front of me for dear life, knowing that I WILL get outsprinted. Who knows, it just might work too. Odds on me really doing this vs. another make the tiny selection group and get outsprinted by just about all who made it.....1 in 10? For some reason when I am actaully in the race, my will to make said attack is far less, and just hanging on seems like the way to go.

(un)lucky number 2

The number two was the theme of the weekend for me. So many things happened in the number two:

2 crashes
2 flat tires (though one was on the car)
2 races
2 breakaways
2 pts (ECCC pts)

Road race - saturday, 40 miles - 3 laps of 13 miles, 1 big climb and 2 small ones per lap. I wake up on time for a change, get in a good warmup, meet some cool bowdoin kids (one of whom inadvertantly comes up with the best pickup line ever while oogling the c50's "hey, can I spin your wheel?" - I heart collegiate cycling), and head to the start. Things start, I am mid-pack, chillin, talk to mike (carnegie mellon) and dan (drexel). First little climb, and I feel like moving up, so I do....easily. Over the top, I sort of roll off the front. Next thing I know a kid bridges up. I don't really feel like working, and take it easy, and we get caught. I settle in up front, take a pull or two (rather slowly) and on a little rise, some kid goes. I decide to follow him. A third kid bridges. I think, why not? We start going, and don't really build up a lead. We come through to the big decent, and 3 more kids join up with us, although our gap is tiny. We get caught at the base of the biggish climb, and I grind out the climb, and recover pretty quickly. From there some kid attacks, who stays away for the win. I spend the next two laps sitting in the front 10 wheels. Some kids go down behind me shortly after the start of lap three. I make a few more psuedo-attacks and take some pulls. I try to eat my clif block shots, and half of them end up falling (with the other half in my mouth). Last lap on the climb, I am 5th wheel, some kid pushes the pace, and I follow. We pull away, and about 75 ft from the top of the climb, I blow. A second kid comes up a bit ahead of what is left of the group, I jump to get on his wheel, but am not recovered. I come over the top alone, halfway between the kid in front of me and a few guys who now make up the lead group. That group catches me and re-organizes on the descent. I sit 4th wheel hanging on for dear life, using what little legs I have left to try pulling, to no avail. No one has teammates, and no one wants to pull us up to the two guys ahead of us, who are clearly within site. I try pushing the pace one last time on the final little climb, but don't have the legs. I set myself up on dans wheel for the sprint (kid has 3 sprint wins this year so far) and watch him and the rest of the group pull away from me in the sprint. I hold off 1 or 2 of the guys in our group, for 11th, and 2 ECCC points (yay?). Some tufts kid comes up to me after the race and says "nice race man, you were awesome up there attacking and being all agressive, well done".....that made my day and made up for the fact not burning so much early, and I may have held on to that wheel on the last climb. I was stupid and didn't start eating early enough in the race either, lesson learned.

Sunday - crit, 25 laps of ?? miles. Ride to the course, as my car has a flat tire....a premonition of things to come. Line up front row (what a change from the norm) next to mike and near dan. Things start, things are fast. I turn around 5 laps in, see mike and 2 other guys on my wheel, and wonder where the rest of the pack went. (there were like 20 guys in the group). My legs really hurt and felt like rocks from 3 laps in, so it was a long race. Coming up the hill, I would have to stand and grind out 65-70rpm and try not to get droppped....every lap. Lap 10 or so, some kid went down, kid in front of me rode into him and I jammed brake but rode into him. Put a foot down and stayed up, but had to pull my handlebars out of his bike. My chain was off, my brakes were rubbing (someone hit me from behind) and my leg was bleeding --> free lap time. I ride back to the pit, and 15ft from the pit my rear tire explodes.....literally....bang (well the tube). I get a neutral service wheel, and am back in the lead group (along with 1 other kid from the crash). We chase for half a lap and catch back on, but not before my brakes are all messed up and I skid through a corner, promting me to spend awhile trying to open the little levers while riding. Sit in the pack for awhile, finally move from like 3rd to last wheel to maybe 7th wheel, but I am hurting and just fall back where I was. Last lap comes around finally, and I am stoked to hear the bell. 3rd to last turn, and the kid on front of me is on the ground. I hit him, and the kid behind me goes down. I shake myself off, see no one behind me, and decide to ride in behind the group for whatever place. A kid blows a tire in the group, drops back, but still beats me (on a flat) as I am using what little I have left to sprint....for 15th. Considering the circumstances and my being too skinny to be good at crits, i'll take it. I had a great post race talk with alexi (alumni) and the neutral service guys even gave a free tube and changed my tire for me....thats service (at no charge). We rode home, fixed the car, and got back to school....break is over :(

Week in review - 284.24 miles in 17:26.....1 crash during training (wind + sand) but a good time and lots of miles. That puts me at 1442.68 miles for 2007, so far....816 for the month of march. I think I am going to skip uvm....I love that climb, but I have 2 exams I NEED to do well on, so it may be an off weekend for me.....we'll see. Hopefully some good weather will come, and I can do the shop ride up here if I stay (I've never done it, oddly).

friggen a

Mile 69.45 out of mile 70 yesterday, I decide to lay my bike down...almost home, but hit a super sandy patch + wind, and over I went. Road rash, bent derailler hanger (well it was already bent, but I had to go get a new one this morning, luckily bethel cycles had one) but it sort of annoyed me. Now I have road rash all over my hip, in a spot that just cleared up two months ago, from a crash during 'cross. Son of a #$%. Two 4+ hour rides this week, and my legs hurt a bit. I am also starting to have some tan lines.....not yet, but I laid the foundation. I also got to a read a book, some hemmingway about paris in the '20's, it was pretty decent. For the record, yes, I know how to read (I do go to colby from time to time, after all).

I am somewhat looking forward to this weekends races. These were my 1st ever races, last year. I have, well, 1000 or so miles more in my legs than I did last season at this point (plus lifting and racing experience). I know the courses pretty well, and I think the road race is pretty well suited to me. It is hilly, but not super super climbing intense (the legs aren't totally read for that I don't think yet) and I know the climbs from last year (somewhat) so I am 'crossing my fingers. Also some plans to get into a break in the 'crit with some friends maybe.....maybe. I have been feeling good all week (well, tired, but strong) and recovering well, and well, I am going to stop talking, stop putting pressure/expecations on my self, go sleep/rest some more and then race my bike.

warmth

It was warm out. Like, short sleeve top and bottom, no gloves, sweating.....warm. I rode a shade over 4 hours and did a shade over 66 miles. I did it very stupidly, doing mostly flat first 2 hours, and mostly hills 2nd two. I also was with the wind for an hour, then into the wind for two, and then with the wind to end it. Somewhere up one of the 20% + grade hills in the 3rd hour, into the wind, my soul was crushed. I also saw like 10-15 other cyclists out on the roads, first time all year I've seen anyone else out.

I also met mandy today over at TT. she seemed really nice, and it was sort of cool to meet someone whose blog you have read for awhile (though I didn't tell her that fact). She gave me an

impressivly firm/strong handshake....for a female or a male, it caught me off guard. Oh yea, she was...um...well...rather hot. While I was there I picked up some new embro (my stock of greyhound juice ran out last weekend) - its made by elite, and i guess its called o3zone or something like that "thermogel forte". It's made in italy, and has writing in english second, so you know its good. Sadly, it sort of absorbed and leaves no sheen although the package does say that the "warm tingling sensation" and "skin reddening" is "perfectly normal". At like 20 bucks for 100ml, this crap better be good. Its supposed to be not short sleeve weather again tmrw/thus, so maybe I'll give it a try.

Picture stolen off the interwebs from the weekend. One of my solo break attempts...shortly before I vom'd and dropped out. I know, not at all aero, but I was minutes from puking and was starting to feel sick, hence I sat up, and have a great look about me.

race weekend duex

Bucknell cycling classic. 36 mile road race, 30 minute crit. I stayed at the really fast bucknell guys room, thanks again for hooking that up, greatly appreciated.

Road race - felt very strong. Moved up easily on the hills early as things started out very, very slow. We are talking the D's who started 2 min behind us were gonna catch us slow. I tried a break, well, actaully three. One was solo, one I initiated and somene followed, one was me seeing a rider who I thought "looked fast" and 3 seconds later he went, and I followed. None stayed away more than a few minutes. Then I got sick, puked and dropped out. It sucked, I felt like I could have tried something with the hills, I felt super strong, but the finish (and 3 miles heading to it) were all flat, so who knows. Looking forward to boston.

Criterium - felt less than great. Actaully, the dude in front of me didn't clip in and I was near the back from the gun. 4 dudes took off, never to be seen again. Things were lined out from the end of the first lap, and I was like 30-40 wheels back. Which was bad. I had very few oppertunities to move up, and when I did, my legs weren't having it. Things were fast, and a very technical course meants lots of small gaps needed to be closed down just to stay in contact. Finally, at 4 to go, I got all the way up to 5th-6th wheel. It was clear the break was gone, so I decided to see if I had the legs for a psuedo-sprint. I was going to try a break, but wind and speed and lots of work just moving up and I wasn't really feeling it. 3 turns to go, and I get real close, and I mean super, super close to the guy next to me. Like, not just bumping elbows, but he was literally supporting me, all my weight was on him. Apparently someone cut him off, and he came into my line, and there was no room, i'm just happy he didn't freak out and kept going and we both stayed up (we talked about it after the race). I came through the last turn 15th wheel. My super amazing sprint skills put me into 13th at the line, which was good for 17th with the 4 off the front. Not amazing, but just behind the spinters, for a total climber, on a flat, windy, technical crit....isn't bad. I proved to myself I have some legs, and my speed is starting to come around.

In the A race, rkelly was one of like 7-10 guys who went away and lapped the field....hugely impressive, props to him. Ryan, if you see this, I have a sweet picture of you leading the break in the 2nd to last turn (where I was that guy screaming for you 'cross style), but my computer is broken, so if you want it i'll send it to you in like 2 weeks once my computer gets back from the spa (dell repair center).

Seeing as the week is over...185.97mi, 11:26:51. Huge week on tap for break this week (well not huge, but big). Things are coming along.....maybe?

16.6

ec90sl fork + tubulars = 16.6lbs. No pics, I am having technical issues (I broke my computer). Maybe sometime next week, or the week after that, or the week after that. It looks fast.

Shakedown ride on the wheels - hubs are buttery smooth like the other neuvation hubs I have, and the wheels turn. Good supple feel to the tubbies, seemed a bit "less harsh" and I felt they "went" at speed nicely. It's all in my head, I guess. I liked them. And they were fine in 15mph cross winds.

say what

It had been awhile since I posted a pic, and too much text blog = boring. Oh yea, the tubulars showed up today. They are stretching over at the shop, glue'd (or extreme tape'd) later in the week, shakedown ride fri prbly, and then bust 'em out at bucknell. Time to venga, if you will. The blue is the basetape, and is actaully less than the picture shows. I had the tire on only partways in the pic and it wasn't centered, so you see more blue than you normally would. You get the idea though. The tubulars were pretty cool, the sidewall almost looks like a michelin p2r limited edition, it had the same sort of diagonal goldish lines on it, as you can see in the pic. smooth center, some basic grippy tread type on the side (not tread, but small dots I guess). Blue cloth basetape. Oh yea, ec90sl fork also on the way. Maybe will get here pre-break. If so, bike will prbly be sub 17 in race livery. I have a fast bike (at least it looks fast), so now I need to be equally fast.

week 7

7 weeks of riding on the books. Somehow, this one doesn't seem like it will be one to remmeber. an astounding 4 days on the bike, some great sickness, a measily 101 miles in 6:18. Heck, I could do that in one day. Started week 6 in the gym, so I am almost done there and I am getting wayyyy stronger. I am at something like 385 miles for the month, and just shy of 1k for the year so far. Things would have been bigger, but after finding out the race sat was cancelled I opted for a day off (since my legs were none to recovered) and then partook in doghead, colby's fine tradition of waking up at 430am on the saturday closest to st. patty's, and drinking your mind out. I was planning on going home after sleeping all afternoon and sobering up to drive home and race (poorly) the next day, but that race was cancelled too. So I decided to continue my stupidness, take a second day off from riding, and go all out. At least I got it out of my system. I got in some quaility time on the rollers today, watched some free cycling.tv ( thanks tyler for the tip, and I agree, lamesauce on the race weekend).

I think I have spring break (last week of march) lined up. Drive home thus. night, drive to bucknell fri, race sat/sun, drive back home sun night, train at home mon/tues, drive up to VT with rose, train in VT (hopefully no snow and lots of mtns) wed/thus, thus night drive to boston and visit a friend, spend friday w/ said friend, get in a nice little spin, then race sat/sun in boston. Should be a good mix of places, temperatures, etc. Rose is crazy and fun to be around, supposedly her parents are nuts (some ppl stayed there for a mtb race in the fall) and I would LOVE to get to VT and do some mtn passes for a few days.

fight to the death

thats right, im calling out you, old man winter. cage match. fight to the death. although i may be a skinny bike dork, I am pretty sure I could take you. You got my second race cancelled this weekend, and I am out for blood.

I guess I should just go skiing, huh?

f you old man winter, f you

because of this "huge" "nor'easter" that is "slamming" nyc with snow, my bike race got cancelled. why don't you go to siberia or something where winter is appreciated. you are unwanted here, so go away. hopefully things will get cleaned up and we may race sunday.

maine, make up your mind

seriously, the weather games need to end. One day its 45, the next they are predicting 100 feet on snow. Then its 50 and windy, then sleeting, then 30 and calm, then 5, then back to 50, another 25 feet of snow. I know march is spring/winter, but come on, some consistancy please. Let's just hope this weekend it doesn't snow that much and we can race.

It was pouring rain, dumping buckets, whatever, and 42 and windy today, so Rose and I decided to go for a 2.5 hour death march. My feet and hands stayed dry for 38 minutes. at 42 minutes, my hands were numb, at 1:08 my wool socks decided they didnt want to keep the feet warm anymore and they dissappeared, and the rest of the ride sucked. I could barely see (was wearing glasses and a cycling cap) from the rain, spray, spray from wheels, etc etc. My face was covered in dirt/road grime, as was rose's. My legs felt great though. It felt hardcore, if nothing else (it really wasn't though, a century in those conditions yes, somewhere around 40 miles, no) And my bike is cleaner now than it was pre-ride (though its still very dirty) so I will have to clean it less tonight/tmrw before the races this weekend. If only my clothes would dry out before I have to pack them tmrw morning, things would be on the up and up.

fun

I totally forgot how much fun it is to ride in groups of 5-10. Went for a ride with a small group of us today, and it was a blast. Inevitably some are in better and worse shape, and the constant hills tend to break things into two groups (10 seconds gap, tops), with the occasional person riding in between. It's great being able to ride with either, tow people up, drop back, bridge back up, at will. Rotating through and chatting with everyone, having people bridge up to the front group and then "attack" and see who follows, etc. etc. It's just playing, and its so much fun. Town line sprints, etc. etc. Better yet, was my legs felt ok (still not 100%, but wayyy more recovered than during the weekend, had yesterday off). And perhaps the funniest part of the ride was christian and I riding Rose off our wheel on a climb, her hammering the downhill and breif flat before the next climb, catching us about 500m from the base of the climb, and then getting dropped again as soon as the road got steep. It wasn't like we were racing, but you could tell Rose was going pretty hard (she is the type of person who would) and was getting pissed off at not being able to hold mine/christians wheels.....we weren't going all out, but we were pushing the pace on the climbs.....It was big ring interval day for me after all. It was perhaps the most fun I have had on the bike in 07 - the fact it was 44 and I "only" needed to wear 1 baselayer and arm/leg warmers and booties and full gloves may have helped.

still me

the "new" author - josh, is also me. Allons-y was on a different account and it's way easier for me to not have to log out of gmail, log in as allons-y, log out, and then back into my gmail account every time I want to post. So allons-y will be faded out (if possible deleted, but it took me 3 months to figure out how to add someone an author). So if you see posts, comments, etc. by josh, its me. I figured this was easier than re-creating the whole blog in another account w/ new address, etc. etc. I guess I will still have to use allons-y to modify things though.

stay the course

Actaully, im not. I am rescinding part of my last post. DST sucks. Normally, when it starts to get dark, it means its time to head to foss for dinner. Last night and tonight, I am playing on the internet, and all of a sudden, its 6:48. 12 minutes before foss closes. And its still light out. wtf? DST sucks. (foss is the organic/healthy/vegeterian dining hall across campus that most of the cyclists and most of my friends eat at).

Also, justin wants me to race 3/4's at tour de kirche vs. racing 4's. I understand why, but I know I can do well on that course. I think (assuming I recover well from columbia) I could probably get some upgrade points there even. Historically, breaks of 2-3 stick, so I would be attacking on the hill or following well represented (read bethel cycle or whatever team decides to show up big) attacks, and if it does come down to a sprint, jump the corner, and then just drill the hill to the finish. I did it over the summer the one time there was no break, 15 guys jumped the corner, and I ended up 6th, and I went way, way to early on the hill. Even 6th is 1 upgrade pt, and I am currently looking for 20. However, racing 3/4's, I am somewhat doubtful I can do as well.....plus, if i really needed the 3/4 experience, why not race collegiate b's vs. c's? It just doesn't make sense. We have a phonecall upcoming to talk about it, but im confused. Then again, he knows more than I.

maine cobbles, week in review, dst

first off week in review - 203 miles in 12.5 hours. 3 days in the gym (end of week 4 start of week 5). Legs are tired right now, but things are going well. Should have been more as I wimped out an hour early today, but the legs were just cooked. It's weird how yesterday I was phyiscally tired but mentally tough, today less phyiscally tired but mentally weak.

dst - awesome, it was light at like 7pm. 3 extra weeks of riding straight to dinner and eatin in the bike clothes. As I always say, flaunt it if you have it. Plus its way easier to ride outside.

maine cobbles - not cobbles per se, but sections of pavement so broken, so potholed, so covered in sand/road grime/filth that you may as well be on cobbles, because your arms bounce around just like the pro's do in your fav. northern classics video. I had a great ride on some saturday in the semi-warmth (at least its not single digit highs anymore) but those + 2.5mile climb (my favorite love-hate hill, bigalow) + 20mph headwind.....maybe i'll toughen up at some point?

im fameous

ryan (rkelly) linked my blog to his under eccc-ers....its up at the top. I guess my posting random comments on his blog finally caught his attention or something, but my blog is now in the big-league's.

I broke my heart rate moniter and need to send it back to polar, but am being lazy.

In other news, after being sort of depressed/bummed out after the weekend, I had a good chat with justin, my mentor/coach (what do I call him? A friend who used to race cat2 who is giving me a rather comprehensive and legit training program and calls me 1-2 times a week to tweak and modify things, but I don't pay him beyond a 6-pack when I crash at his house for races. He is retired from racing at the "old" age of 29 after messing up something with his body (i think?), but did a 'cross race last fall (i beat him, although he was on a single speed) and said he is planning on doing some more next fall maybe). He basically told me what I already knew, that things are still super early and I shouldn't worry that I didn't have much speed, that I am still lifting, just started with intervals, I have a long race season ahead of me, and that I should just keep training hard and the results will come later. That it was good I didn't get hurt in the crit, and that I got in a good workout this weekend in races I had essentially no chances of winning. That I am still just getting into shape and by choosing to "sacrifice" the early season I will be faster in the long run. All stuff I know, yet somehow when he says it, it becomes true.

Also, quick shoutout to tyler for winning his race out west this weekend, awesome dude! Keep it up and get your upgrade to 2's. Also to Rose (colby teammate, the crazy one) who in her first ever weekend of road racing raced womens b for 3rd in the tt, 2nd in the crit and 4th in the circuit. Coming off nordy season she has the legs, clearly, and she also mtb's (went to nat's was top 10 dII and was 2nd at the eccc in womens a). She is a freshman, and if she ever chooses to really focus on road bikes, she could be really really really fast. the race was her 6th time on a bike in 2007. For the record, although I totally got girled in the tt (many times over), I did beat rose by 6 seconds. Gotta hold onto any last shred of dignity I can.

and more

nate asked jak to marry him on the start line of the womens a circuit. we were somewhere around the gw bridge, but she said yes and everyone was happy. maybe they will have crazy bike nerd kids someday? Seriously though, they are awesome and best of luck to them.

blah blah blah - 40 degrees, snow, and 20-30mph of wind

The title pretty much describes sundays circtuit race. I felt blah. Actaully, my legs felt pretty ok. I got a bunch of sleep, had a good warmup, and had ok legs. Nothing crazy, but not drained by any means, which is always good. It was windy, crazy windy, like 20-30mph of wind, and gusts. I met mike (carnegie mellon - rbr) right after the gun, his pink bar tape is quite distinctive. Felt fine for the first few laps (i think we did 11 or 12 maybe?). Got up to the front at like 4 or 5 to go, spent a lap or two in the front 5, didn't do any work, but just spent some time up at the front. The finish was a long uphill, maybe 2% grade. Not enough to give any climber a real advantage, especially considering it was into the wind. Each time we would hit the wind and that slight hill (more like a false flat) the speed would drop from like 25 to 18, then jump back to 22 and stay there 'till we left the wind. At the bell lap I sort of knew I didn't have it in me to sprint, especially with the wind. I slowly drifted back, was like 4 from the back halfway into it. At the 2nd to last turn, the kid in front of me lost his wheel. Sort of annoying, but who really cares if I was going to pack finish or first chase group? Right then we hit the wind, the pack kept the pace up as the sprint lead outs were in full force, and it was clear we weren't going to close the gap as it grew from 25m to 75m before we hit the last turn. Myself and those behind me sat on the kids wheel, and there were maybe 4 of us, caught a kid who lost the pack with the speed of the sprint, and then sprinted.

I was out front with like, um, 250m to go. Great. Some kid came past me and got a maybe a wheel on me, and I threw my bike to hold on to.....33rd place, great. It was actaully all not bad, as I ended up sprinting, which I wouldnt have in the pack. I took 2nd in a 5up sprint, which I was fine with. I also timed my bike throw perfectly, which was awesome. The kid I beat even gave me a fist pound for a good sprint after the line.....in the driving snow, which was sweet. What happened to sun and warmth?

Overall, it was a good weekend of training, I stayed alive, had fun, and got some experience under the belt. I was something like 85th on the TT - 7:15:XX over 2.8 miles. Winner of a's was like 5:53:XX......winner of c's was 6:10:XX. So while I am not much of a tt-er, clearly, I was pretty far off and need to get better, it was a really short tt. Jeff beat me by about 1.3 seconds, nate was about 10 seconds up on him.....nothing I like worse than getting beaten by those two.....Jeff was also like 5 spots up on me, with his 1.3 seconds. I ended up 39th in the crit, not 40th, but who the f cares, really?

I got to stop at home on the drive back, got a nice chicken parm and a break from driving, which I did 6 of 8 hours today. Wayyyy better than the drive down. I got #636 for collegiate racing, which is good, I usually do well with numbers that are sequential or symettrical, for some reason. I was 232 and 454 in my best 2 'cross races last fall, and 345 in my best crit last year.

The week is over - week whatever of training. 5 days of riding, 2 of them races. First real intervals on the bike earlier. Also 2 days of lifting. 131.31 miles of riding in 8:06:05 on the bike. Short week, should have been more but I missed my 1 hr spin on friday, and took an extra day off. Oh well. Next week will be big with no racing, more gym, and some good motivation to train harder-er.

that sucked

Day 1 of racing of 07 is on the books, and it sucked.

Things started by oversleeping by an hour. After rushing to the race, things were backed up an hour so all was good. Said hi to Miller and Jeff (unh) kids

2.75 mile flat TT. slight breeze. tt's aren't my thing. I got in a great warmup, stayed on the trainer till the last minute and was one of the last guys to go. Guy behind me graduated from colby a few years back. 20 second intervals. My head isn't really in it untill im clicked in and on the line, but when that happens its go time and my body all of a sudden is "on". I set out at a good pace, spinning ~ 100rpm, fell fine, legs fell o.k. no real burn, but they dont feel great. Hit the turn around fine, don't mess it up, get up to speed, forearms on the bars, spinning good, all of a sudden, the guy who was behind me is next to me. I turn it up a notch, and he disappears. I almost take a wrong turn, costing me 1-3 seconds, but so does guy behind me. Get to the 500m to go spot, still feeling strong. 250m to go, uh-oh, my legs are starting to hurt, my breathing is gone, and im feeling iffy. 100m to go I blow. Guy who was behind me comes flying by, I get out of the saddle and giv'er, and finish wheel and wheel with him. So I clearly couldn't have won. I think my time was about 7:13, will know official results tmrw. I think I avg'd ~ 22.8 mph, which isnt bad for a non-aero tt with roughly 5-10mph of wind, for a non-tt guy. I was actaully pretty happy that I paced myself better than I normally do.

Cool down, drive to the crit spot. Pre-ride, warm up, get a few calories in me. Feel ok still. Say hi to Katie (tufts) and Emily (bu). 2nd row, outside start to the crit. I'm not even in my pedals when I hear someone go down behind me (and then a few more) out of the start. I get in and people start to drill the pace. Group is cut in half. End of the first lap, come out of the corner, and next thing I know the guy in front of me is upside down. I have a half second to think, wow, this is going to suck, as I try to brake/swerve, but with nowhere to go I lay it down. I am fine, back up before the second group has passed us. I take my free lap, along with one other guy (everyone was fine). But i was pissed, i was riding 7-8th wheel and there was a crash. I thought I would be fine up front, but no. We re-start, I am totally mentally out of it and trying not to crash, slip off, sit up, work with the first group to catch me. Repeat the process till I am solo off the back, sit up and get pulled with 4 to go (12 or 13 laps, i forget). I am not really pissed, I was totally fine, my bike was fine, etc etc, but it was a downer. Then again, i'm not really built for crits. Cool down, watch Rose (colby teammate) take 2nd in the womens b crit (her first ever) along with a preem or two, get emily's (bu) jacket at the womens a start, cheer for people, and now I'm ready for dinner and bed. Also saw jak and alex (unh). It was fun, I'm glad im ok and didn't get hurt (knock on wood), put in some good turns with chase groups, but still a blah race. It happens though.

I know i'm not much of a tt/crit racer, but lets hope tmrw's circuit is a bit better (and maybe a hill or two). It was super nice to be out in the sun in 60 degrees with short sleeves on this morning, with only armwarmers for the crit. Beats maine, if nothing else.

what a day

in reference to friday. left colby at noon, 8 inches snow and 28 degrees. driving was rough. by the maine-nh border, it was 40 degrees and rain, by mass-ct border it was sunny, it took 3 hours to drive the 26 miles of ny thanks to a HUGE car wreck, moved 50 ft in 1 hour at one point, but we had an amazing meal, a comfy bed and a warm house thanks to our gracious hosts who stayed up till 1130 for us to arrive to eat their dinner (we originally planned on showing up around 930), which alex hooked up through his crew connections. time to get up and go bike race in, 4 hours. its on.

bike racing time

After a few hours of phone calls, nervousness, etc. We finally figured out this weekend. All register'd up, have a place to stay (someones friend, lives close by) bike is cleaned, and on the trainer for a quick spin tmrw morning, legs are getting ready to be shaven, get to drive through a snowstorm.....I can't wait. All packed with like 8 different baselayer options, tons of clifbars packed, etc. etc. Now I need some sleep, but its like an 8year old the night before you go to disneyland, we all know it aint happening.

C 5 0

look what the mailman delivered. 50mm of carbon goodness. no tires for them yet, and they probably won't be ridden for nearly a month, but they are cool to look at. I sort of like the black rim, silver nipple, black spoke, silver hub (and silver skewer) look vs. the all black look, my bike is starting to get very very black/grey/silver, so this will hopefully keep it from going to stealth. no scale, but in hand weighing them with my r28's, id guess they weight close to the 1500g claimed weight. I can get them on a scale later on maybe. I don't know why, but to me it looks like they have more than 20/24 spokes (but they don't, i counted)

Also, check out the new r28aero3 (byron's, although if he doesnt pick them up in a week they could be yours). Front feels very light, but look cool w/ black hubs, black spokes, black nipples (except silver rear drive side) and black/silver skewer (not pictured). the aero spokes are pretty sweet as well. If it weren't for the low spoke count (16/20) I prbly would have gotten these for 'cross/crit wheels.

2 in 1 day

Thats right, 2 posts, 1 day.

Normally I wouldn't do that, but today is a special day. It broke 40 degrees for the first time since like, decemeber. Cause to go out for a ride and try to remember what proper "cold" gear to wear (in prep for this weekend, when temps are supposed to be 45ish). It didn't take 3 hours to dress, instead, bibs, jersey, arm/leg warmers, 1 ss craft windbloc shirt, booties, cold weather gloves, a headsweat, and I was set. I bunched up a ls jersey just in case, but never needed it. It was awesome riding in the heat.

Not even that, but the german (soren) came out for a ride, his first of 07. Normally, he is a giant $%&*# and doesn't ride in the cold, in fact, he hasn't even gotten on a trainer. Granted he nordic ski's for fun, and he is a total diesel (I think of him as our teams version of jens voigt, he just goes and goes). So the fact he rode with me was huge. We get off campus do the little down then up, He pulls through, I look at my computer, and were doing 26mph......his first ride of the year, his first pull. No biggie, as i'm supposed to do some power intervals today, and I figure he can't sustain it for the 1.5 hours we have on tap. We start riding, he keeps the pace up, im pulling through hard figuring maybe I'll tire him out a bit. We hit the townline sprint, and as per usual he wins (I actaully got a good jump on him, but mis-shifted and almost ate it). We hit the first big hill, I pull off halfway up, get onto his wheel, and he picks up the pace. I actually have to get out of the saddle to hold his wheel, and my legs are burning. Granted he says, hmm....haven't felt the leg burn since like, october.....At this point I am starting to question my winter training, seeing as he spent most of the winter on the couch drinking. About 45 minutes into the ride he cracks, and is pulling at like 17mph......Thankfully, but still, thats longer than a short early season crit.....kid is an animal, last season we both got held up at 2 to go in a crit by a wreck, and he pulled me back to the pack by taking a beastly pull the entire .75 mile lap, and then got me up front about halfway through the last lap, before saying, sry, I can't give you a leadout, I'm cooked......he's the sprinter mind you.

On the negative, I finally lost my cyclocomputer. It shot off over some rough road, I turned back to look for it, but it was gone. Had my stem mount been here, it wouldn't have happened. Then again, it only worked about 1/3 the time anways, so I bit the bullet and stopped at mathieu's on the way home to get a new one. 20 bucks wasted (well not really). At least I will have a spare mount when the stemmount comes so if I mess up another one like I did, it won't happen again, and I'll try to take better care of this one.

ToC

I resisted commentating on the tour of california as it went down, but now that its over I'd like to make a few statements.

1. Awesome so many big names and big teams showed up (even if they werent taking it seriously). Good to get some big level racing in the US. (Lets hope they bring a WC 'cross race this fall).

2. Levi won, on a wierd ruling. If they hadn't made the stage 2 ruling, would jens have won? I'm to lazy to look it up, but had Levi not been yellow all race, things would have been different.

3. Sucks to be hincapie, that guy has terrible luck. Let's hope his clothing company doesn't bring that luck, as colby and a bunch of other eccc teams are getting kits made by them (when are they showing up?)

4. Congrats to adam hansen, t-mob for an awesome 1st race w/ t-mob. 6th in the prologue, in a few breakaways including the big one yesterday. Awesomely nice guy (he is zakeen on WW), check out his website http://www.adamhansen.com/ Also shout outs to Anthony Colby and Alejandro Acton of Colavita, who I both met and sort of know from them being with Targetraining last year (actually I rode with both of them and nearly died, but thats another story). Alejandro was in a huge break one stage and wore the most agressive rider jersey the next day, you probably know him as the guy who rode 100 miles solo at tour de georgia last year.

week 4

Week four of training has come to a close. Biggest week to date (by far) with 10hours, 39 minutes and 6 seconds on the bike, coming to 170.06 miles, with a pretty low avg hr (141) for the week at a slightly higher avg. speed and over far windier and hillier terrain than I have ridden previously this year. Maybe im getting into a minimal level of fitness/shape? It'd be nice, seeing as at this point next week I should (hopefully) be writing up a summary of my first race weekend. I have put in 500.78 miles this month, and am 2 seconds shy of 32hours on the bike for the month. Not terrible for february. Oh yea, I'm in the weight room too. Made the first higher weight lower reps jump, where I am at for two weeks. Felt fine, oddly, hard, but the right level of hard.

I am still a tad sick, have developed a good cough like there is fluid in my chest, but it happens about twice a day. Sore throat/head cleared up and I feel fine otherwise. Got some cough drops and hopefully that will go away.

I finally cleaned my room (no picture, sorry). It is about 3X bigger, doesn't smell, and is even partially decorated. Maybe at some point I will get it to the bachelor pad I have always dreamed of, disco light, water bed, hot tub, palm trees, naked women fanning me while feeding me grapes....ok, maybe not.

It should be mentioned a certain someone (becky) gave me an awesome back massage last night (sat night) while we were watching back to the future I, II, and III (marathon on abs family channel) and I felt awesome today.

my stupid half

Today I pretty much ignored all the signs, so if I wake up dead tmrw, it won't come as a surprise. First off, I've been sick, and while I felt fine after getting a ton of sleep, I had an occasional cough. Then its 28 degrees outside, with 20mph of wind with gusts around 40. Then I ate a bagel and some tea for b-fast, lifted, decided to go for an easy 2 hr ride outside, brough a gel and a bottle of water figuring it would freeze before I finished it (it did) and headed out. 5 minutes in I got a flat over some glass and rode 2.3 miles on the rim, into a 20mph headwind to the shop since I didn't have a tube and didn't wanna walk. My training wheels are already pretty messed up, so I couldn't have hurt it anymore. Put in a boot (not about to throw away a tire that has 2 rides on it) and headed back out, after 5 or so guys in the shop were like, your crazy. Did 2hrs fine, ran into delia heading out on my way back and decided to turn around and ride with her. She was only doing an hour, had peanut m&m's, so I figured what the heck. At our turn around spot, the sun was already down, I was numb, tired and sore. We rode back, I froze, I ditched her 3 miles from campus and just tt'ed/hammered it back because I though I was going to get frostbite, and avg'd just over 22mph on those last 3 miles, going into a headwind. Talk about motivation to get up and ride. Total mileage of 50.43 in just over 3 hours. On a bagel, a cup of tea, 3/4 a bottle of water, a gel, and some m&m's. And im sick, and its cold, and there was 20mph of wind. Time to EAT, and SLEEP, and hope I'm alive tmrw.

well, i did it - update - erm?

edit - read the below stuff first (starting with I got myself sick). I fell asleep right after posting, slept for 3 hours, woke up and felt ok, after conferring with the health center and my "coach" I decided to get on the trainer for 30 min to try to sweat it out, ended up doing 1hr, 30min feeling pretty ok, nothing hard, ate a great wholesome dinner at foss (our healthy dining hall on campus) and now feel pretty ok. Going to get some sleep tonight, which means cancelling a first date I had (with a girl from my trip to Italy). Luckily, she said it was fine, and invited me over to watch a movie. So we will be sitting on opposite sides of a couch, her sipping some sort of adult beverage while I drink tea (although I would have been drinking water) and try not to get her sick. It's like we have already been dating for a few months.

I got myself sick. After spending most of last weekend and this past week sort of battling on again off again mild symtoms, I bit the bullet and got really sick. I had been trying to ride through (inside, easy rides) little things like headaches, runny nose, not feeling right, etc. Then today I woke up and realized I wasn't going to class and went to the health center, where they found out I don't have mono (yay) or strepp, or anything for that matter. My head is spinning like I just got punched, I can barely talk, my throat is raw, I have a death cough, the list goes on and on. I spent most of the day sleeping and hopefully will be better tmrw as I had a big weekend planned and am already missing my ride today. I wish I wasn't so tired, as sitting here in the health center getting tended to by gorgeous (read 65 year old not hot) nurses would be condusive to playing around on the interwebs, but all I do is sleep, check my emails, and fall back asleep. I wouldn't mind watching ToC or something but I can't seem to stay awake. This sucks. And I know what caused it was well, staying up till 2am when I was tired/semi sick trying to adjust the postitioning of the shift levers on my bars....I just couldn't get it, sort of weird. Ok, maybe that didnt get me sick but it didnt help.

I red the school paper today and normally I read three columns and skim others to see if there is some title that strikes me. I normally read beer review, since its funny, a column by a retired english professor that is usually a satire of something about college life and funny, and the opinions editor's column, since she is a good writer and brings up interesting things. Sometimes i'll read sports if there is an article on cycling or a friend of mine. Today (our paper is weekly, comes out on fridays) I found an article one person wrote that struck me. Basically, she was a self proclaimed "dirty hippy" who at the start of spring semester started dressing super preppy to see what would happen. She found ppl talked to her more, took her more seriously, stuff you would expect but wouldn't want to think would happen. It make me think about how I come off and whatnot. Time to go back to sleep

rubber and food

I traded my p2r service course limited edition (the light blue tires previously seen) to a teammate for a pair of ultremo's and 75 bucks. Not a bad deal considering I got the p2r's for free (won them as a preem in a crit, which was awesome). Seeing as schwalbe is sponsoring colby, its not as great a deal as it sounds, since I could have gotten the ultremo's for super cheap, but whatever. Basically I traded 1 slightly used pair of tires for 1 new one and enough money to buy another set of them, and then have enough left over for a race entry fee (or a twelve pack, depending on how you look at things).

This time next week i'll be gearing up for rutgers. Im sooo stoked, you have no idea. Big weekend and week of training to get there, and the race is going to be tough, since im nowhere near form, but it'll be fun to mix things up and get back into some races.

Clif bars also showed up. Seeing as I do all the sponsor stuff for the team here, it all gets shipped to me. Not a big deal, except I live pretty far from the package center. I had to stop and take a break carrying 2 boxes of bars and stuff back, who would guess they weigh like 20lbs each? On the bright side, I have tons of clif bars, clif shots, energy bloks, nectar bars, and recovery powder. And I have even more from people that haven't picked up their own orders yet, anyone want some?

i need to clean my room + week 3 + sundy ride

I think that pretty clearly shows I race bikes, live in a single, and need to clean up a bit. Odd, because normally I keep a pretty clean room (for a guy at least, my lady friends make fun of it).

Went for a really nice 3hr, 45 mile solo ride today. Light winds, 28F, it was nice to clear the head and get in some good base miles. Headed out to bigalow (again) and did some easy repeats and got lost in the hills around there, found my way back for literally a 3:01:31, 45.2 mile ride. No frozen waterbottles or body parts, just a good ride that reminded me why I do this and how much I love it. And I ate an entire 1/2 box of fig newtons during the ride (clif stuff supposedly comes in this week)

That ride and the gym this morning capped week 3. 134.02 miles in 8:35:15. It would have been 9-10 hours and more miles, but I was sick yesterday and did a really short easy ride, which worked out, as I feel way better today. I'm at 330 miles in 21:20 for the month, not bad by any means for a cold feb at this point. Next week is supposed to be somewhat warm, like 35-40 maybe, but with snow early in the week. I should easily get to 9-10 hours. Gym has been going well still, although the rep's start to drop and weight starts to pick up now. Maybe I'll finally get out to try nordic on my recovery day as well. (I have an off day and a non-bike recovery day at this point in the season, its awesome)

17.23

17.23lbs - 7.8kg. Not that light weight was my goal, but its cool to have a decently light bike. Seeing as I weight next to nothing (about 120), the only weight I can really afford to loose comes off the bike. With the new tubulars, maybe some light cages or something, I could probably get it under 17 just to say its under 17, but that isn't happening yet.

Thanks to Dave at mathieu's for spending all morning helping me build it (we ran into hiccups last night when I tried to build it, but it resolved itself w/out a bb face). For the small details, went with crossed cables (you run the housings into the far side of the bike, then cross the cables under the downtube and slide a donut down there), figure 8 style bar tape job. Set up was easy, the bike looks great right now, and I can't wait for the roads to get better so I can take it out. Will get it on the rollers later just to play around with the shifting some more.

strip tease

not quite. if you look really hard its sram rival + ultegra crank/bb, wipperman 10s0 chain

epic

well maybe. hard core, heck yea.

5am alarm, 515 start shovelling out the car (took 45 minutes). 6am depart w/ sarah (not 'cross sarah, different sarah) and find out roads are fine. 7am arrive kingfield woodsman for breakfast. 705,710,715,720 (roughly) other cars of colby kids arrive. 730 leave for sugarloaf. 745 arrive. 3 degrees F. Lots of wind. Find out lifts are going to be delayed due to wind. Dress, alot of clothing. 845am, first lift load goes. 9am.....Knee deep powder. Freezing cold, windy, but amazing. A good day on west coast terms, but "season salvaging" on east coast standards. Best snow in my two years of living in maine. picture one of adam (ski buddy) and some fresh tracks. Picture two of a car in the sugarloaf parking lot.

I was planning on going to the gym when we got back, but something to do with 3 hours of sleep made me decide to bump it back 1 day (I had the choice, so its fine). Fedex says "stuff" arrives tomorrow, we will see.

call in dead

seriously. It snowed 17 inches today at sugarloaf, with suppossedly 30+ inches falling by the time it stops around 6am tmrw. Call in sick, dead, whatever....this is the most snow we have got since I came to maine, so all of last winter and this winter so far.

The colby "elite" skiers, I guess you could call them, are all scrambling to go up tonight or early tmrw morning for some steep and deep. I have gotten calls from every half decent skier I know asking what my plans are. Even funnier is that nearly all of them (say about 25-30 kids) are in the library right now trying to get all there work down so they can peace out. We may be the only kids in the library.

My own plans are to work pretty much all night, head up around 530am, grab b-fast at the woodsman (small cheap awesome place that gives you alot of food, near the mtn) and get to the mtn around 8am.....

Its somewhat funny how much people are scrambling for this storm. Sure, its not the 10ft upstate ny got, but the post office on campus was closed, some classes (none of mine) cancelled, all sorts of lectures/events cancelled. This is maine, we should handle a snowstorm better than D.C.

Also, big props to my roommate from last year, silas, for hooking me up with a sweet colby nordic hat. (although it just says colby on it). I lost my favorite winter hat a few weeks ago, and Silas gave me the hookup. If you see a colby kid warming up on a trainer early spring or during late 'cross season, in a mostly grey hat w/ some blue lettering and some black on the bottom, and a SWEET pompom type thing on top, thats probably me. Or one of the nordy's coming to a bike race. Most likely me though. Thanks silas.

That means I need to go and write a paper and do a problem set, both due friday. So yea, I should do that.

week 2 wrap-up

My training week is sort of messed up in that my riding is on a monday start of the week, and my weight lifting is on a wednesday start of the week. It works fine, its just that my riding week is done, yet I have 1 more day in the gym for "week 1" of the lifting program. I have blog posts on 4 days in a row now, this may be a record for me.

Anyways. Week 2. 5 days riding, 1 full off day, and 1 day in the gym testing my max's for the weight program. 2 other days in the gym (with the third day of my "week" coming on tuesday). According to the training journal - 8 hours and 6 minutes and 56 seconds on the bike, for a total of 131.58 miles, avg. hr of 148.

1 real ride, yesterdays. 1 day on a trainer, 3 on rollers. 196.7 miles in 12:45:37 w/ avg. hr 152 for the month thusfar.

Weather is looking somewhat warm (high 20's, low 30's) but lots of wind next week, hopefully will be able to get out on the road, and hopefully more new parts will come (fedex says friday). Re: argentius's q on the comments, how do you go downhill in the cold? You man up, thats how. Actually, hands on the bars right near the stem, legs clamped on the top tube, face tucked down when possible, and just suffer it out. Think of it as a refreshing blast of cold air after getting all warm on the climb up the hill. It isn't as bad as during the fall when I did 3 repeats up a 1000 verticle foot, 3-4 mile climb. It would be fine on the bottom, but then I would get to the top, stop, get some water, etc, and get cold. I was shivering soo much on the way down, I couldn't really control the bike. It got to the point after the last time up, I hitched a ride down in a car because I got soooo cold (I was wearing ss top and bottom, no extra layers, and it was maybe 45 degrees on top).

define not smart

Perhaps - 2.5 hour ride in 14F temp (pre-windchill) w/ 10mph winds and light flurries? Going with Delia, for who it was her third ride of 07 (on a side note, she is going to be an animal on the bike this spring, new rider)? Going to do the biggest hills in a 50 mile radius? Having our waterbottles freeze after 34 minutes and 12 seconds and trying to eat a frozen, squished muffin about halfway through the ride? Trying out some snow biking and almost falling, not once, but like 9 or 10 times?

I wish I had taken a camera, because it was really cool riding into the flurries. We had planned on aiming for a bit more, but with no water, frozen feet/ears and foreheads despite 4 layers on top, 3 on bottom, 2 hats, booties, etc. it was still friggen cold out. After being in the gym and a long roller session tmrw, my legs are starting to feel it. I had some feelings of power however, easily cruising up the climbs and occasionally feeling like I could "go" a bit. Lets hope it just keeps on building and building.

Guess, what, we are gonna go do it again tmrw (well maybe hit the rollers, and then out again monday) We were 5 minutes late to foss brunch, but they let us in anyway. My waffle w/ stawberry's and whipped cream has never tasted better, and I tried my hardest to replace the 1200 calories my hrm told be I had burned (really, that much?) And the shower, it felt sooo good. That ride (given the temps, ice/snow on the road, etc) was labled hard-er core. Time to nap and do it again tmrw.

bling

Actually, I don't think any of this counts as bling. And the fact that only the post is new (had the stem/bar, but never mounted the bar, so maybe its still new) but the first new part showed up today. Will give the frame a good cleaning (again) this weekend, hope the rest of the stuff shows up next week so I can build it up next weekend. Still unsure which wheels I am going to go with, but I have some time on that.

Spec's
Ritchey wcs alu handlebar (classic bend) - 400mm width, 26mm clamp
Ritchey wcs alu stem - 110mm legnth, 26mm clamp
Ritchey wcs alu steapost - 27.2 diameter, 300mm legnth

I ordered a 250mm post, but the 300 is actually better. For a few measly grams, if I ever need the extra legnth i'll take it. The 250mm would have been close to the min. insertion spot anyway. Plus, the 300mm is more re-sellable since it could fit more bikes.

With the cockpit (as on my 'crosser) I went with cheap, light, and sturdy. I know you can't normally get all three in one part, but wcs (esp the alu, 26mm stuff) is pretty cheap and still easy to find, light (not super light, but light) and sturdy. Solid parts that are definately crash-able.

plans plans plans

It seems like all I did today was pile stuff into my "to-do" list, not that I have a list. Summer internships/jobs, possibily writing a column in the school newspaper, oh wait, biking? Set down in paper (well, electronic paper) a concrete plan for the next 7 weeks. 7 week's of lifting (3 days a week) including core workouts and plenty of leg stuff to build some power (and maybe some yoga) and 7 weeks of pretty much "normal" riding. 2 long rides per week, 3 short rides per week, some short "medium intensity" intervals and some big ring efforts and some climbing. A few town-line sprints and the odd group ride (well, faster ride since maine doesn't have so many groups), 1 day a week of "other" activity which will likely be nordic skiing (skate skiing) or swimming or maybe broomball (though I doubt that counts) and I should be good to go. In no way will I be in "peak" shape for march 3rd, but I should be coming into some speed around the time of the big climbing races during the last 3-4 weeks of the collegiate season, and then peak during some ucsf stuff during june, hopefully some road races or maybe fitchburg if i'm feeling strong. Also set up a weekly day off (my week starts/ends on wed) which is also the day I will call my "coach" and review and tweak things as neccessary. A benefit (I guess) of not really being in top form for the start of the season is that I will be focused on helping out some of the bigger stronger sprinters on the team in the flatter races that make up the early collegiate season, and hopefully they will repay the favor and work for me later on, at least thats the plan.

Lots of stuff is in the works, lets just hope it all sort of plays out well. So far 07 is going wayyyy better than the start of 06, and knock on wood, I could really use a good year....06 was pretty much a bad year, or at best maybe on ok year.

In my super sweet night time discussion class "meaningful work in a meaningful life" tonight I was introduced to the concept of "flow", a pyschological idea stemming from work by mihaly csikszentmihalyi. Wikipedia or google it, seriously, its a pretty awesome idea and it apply's to sports. Check it out. Really.

I was hoping some of the stuff I ordered would be here so I could post some pretty pictures, but that will have to wait. Lots of shiny new toys are being ordered, have been ordered, or will be ordered in the next week. Pictures to come as things start showing up. As if I didn't have enough motivation from ordering nice stuff to ride fast/train hard, I made my desktop background an image (stolen from the ECCC site) that depicts the "numbers" area of a collegiate rider (happens to be an a-men princeton rider) that says "2007 Road Racing" and then below "the season begins march 3rd". It's a nice sight to see and it for some reason gets me excited to race.....alot.

awesome

enough said....(yes, I know, i'm a bit late)

week 1

First week of training is in the books. Taking tmrw off after 5 days in a row. Training log shows 7:09:41 in the saddle covering 100.04 miles. All but 1 day was inside so the mileage doesn't quite count, but who cares. I got outside one day between snow/ice storms, the roads were like 'cross sandpits but it was fun, and cold, although I was overdressed and sweating from the get-go. 33F, light wind, I wore: arm warmers, ls baselayer, ss windbloc baselayer, ss jersey, ls jersey, leg warmers, windblog baselayer pant, shorts, wool socks, neoprene shoe covers, headsweats cap over a normal cycling cap, shoes, helmet, glasses, glove liners, long windblog/waterproof gloves (non-lobster though).. It took me almost more time to dress/undress than it did to ride.


The resevoir was all frozen, I didn't see another cyclist out on the roads (come on CT, stop being lame) and a cop pulled up along next to me and asked me if I was ok, if I needed anything, and gave me the advice "its friggen cold out, make sure you don't stay out to long and call us if you have a flat tire or anything, we don't need you freezing to death out here"......while he was nice/funny (gave me my speed readout as well) it was 33 F.....its not like it was -33 F.....


Whatever. Heading back up to school tmrw where I have a package waiting for me....is it ??? a. new laptop battery to replace the one I lost in a drunken haze at paris airport trying not to miss my flight back from the states, or b. new seatpost (ritchey wcs aluminum), or c. something I didn't buy this week....someone sent me a package? Going back to school is good because it means I get to start ordering things to put back together my road bike......fun. I have the frame (lemond tourmalet) which fits me, is comfy, cheap to replace, rides well for a cheap alu roadbike, etc....all in all a good road race bike for broke kids like me. I have wcs stem/bar, and the post I just ordered. I have a set of brakes (cane creeks) that I may use, or may sell, depending on if I buy a full grouppo or piece together something used. Then its either used ultegra parts (or Dura-ace if its cheap enough) or.....making the leap to sram rival. Then another big one, neuvation c50's.....thats right, 50mm carbon tub's.....or perhaps not buying a crazy wheelset and just getting another r28 (prbly the aero to have both of them)....I have plenty of tires lying around as well, but would need tub's....time to decide just how much I want to spend on this thing, especially with a new custom 'cross frame in the works. Though my dad offered to split the c50's with me, which would be sweet. At 175 rim replacement, I could even partially afford to wreck them....knock on wood. Any idea's please post.

And lastly my mom went to look at a new bike today. Looks like she is going to end up with a custom serotta, like my dad. Not fair they get 6k ti/carbon bikes w/ campy, mavics, etc., and I have to scrape together parts for an 1k alu bike (though with all these new parts, it'd be worth around 3k, although i'd have spent about 2k on it) oh well, I guess that's life, you get the nice bike if you really are that good, or when your old and can afford it (but don't exactly need it). Then again, a tourmalet running sram rival, wcs cockpit, c50's, and my other stuff (slr, keo's) would be a pretty sick bike, prbly weighing 17lbs, if not below 17. Plus it'd be comfy (fit to me), aero, wreck-able, and just an all around sub 3k bike that gets the job done....i'd have no excuses, just the engine.

january wrap-up

Well with only 2 on-bike days (the last two days of the month) there isn't much to report other than I started training for 2007 3 months before I did for 2006. For that matter, I owned a bike 3 months before I did at this point last year (and now I have 2).

I put in a solid 2:31:04, and 34.89mi according to my log, although that was on the trainer, so the miles don't really count. That is a blistering 13.8mph avg....at that pace I could win the world TT championships come summer. In non-bike workouts done in italy though, I was in the gym 3 days a week for the entire month, ran 3 days a week the entire month for min-1hr, max-1.5hr, and did my daily stretch and did core strengthening routine 30/31 days (missing new years day, of all days). So I'm not as out of shape as I would have been, but im certainly not where others who did a month of base are. I really have noticed the core and upper body stregnth in my 2 rides thusfar. No sore back, no sore arms, no problems riding in the drops for extended periods, etc. Obviously its inside and who knows what it's like outdoors, but it feels nice.

Speaking of outdoors, I was going to go out today but the roads were in terrible shape. If they clean up a bit tmrw I'd like to head out, otherwise I'll go to targetraining for the thus-evening 1.5 ride, and then head out if it stays warm (about 35 F) on friday or saturday. I really want to get outside in the "warm" before I head back to maine.

So here's to knowing I will have way more than 34.89 miles each month for the rest of the year (hopefully) and that january wasn't really all that bad of a month. It was nice time off the bike after a long road and 'cross season, and I am really loving being back into a "normal" routine including rides into my day.

up and.....riding?

Started on-bike training today. Nothing crazy, an hour on the trainer to just get the feel back. Felt good, hopefuly will still feel good tmrw, and hopefully the core and other work I have done will have paid off a bit. Watching free tour of qatar on cycling.tv was pretty nice as well. Steels's crash 30m from the line looked terrible.

It feels good to be back home in the states and I actaully am not jet-lagged (yet)....staying up all night and then sleeping on the plane, staying awake all evening after landing and then crashing again last night may have done the trick.

time to work

Italy is wrapping up. No more traveling around, a bit of packing and walking around for the last time tmrw, then a final dinner and night out, and then a daaaaarnnnn early bus ride, short flight, long flight, car ride, and ill be home for a week before heading back to school. On-bike training starts the night I get home on the trainer, and will be intense from now until mid-july. Since I am a bit "behind" everyone I am going to have much less of a base, a shorter build-up period, and a later peak, which hasn't been set as the racing calender was just released, but should be post-collegiate and will probably be either fitchburg or housatonic or some other decent climbing race....unless things go really well and I aim for the last month of the season which is super hilly, however getting to peak in 2.5 months from 0 could be alot of work. All this is fine because it will provide me with a break and two or three weeks off mid-summer to come back to europe hopefully, and then really work super hard ahead of 'cross season, with the pan-mass, a crit or two, the gmsr and then the late season crits all as training. Planning time is over, action time is about to start, and I am very excited.

italian bike shops

Verona apparently has something like 50 clubs in town, and more than enough shops to serve those teams, rec riders, etc. I have seen about 10 bike shops in town, which is 300k people (or so I was told, feels smaller than that though). I finally had some time and went and checked one out. I ended up spending 45 minutes talking with the wrenches there in a mix of broken italian/english about road racing, 'cross, racing in the states, racing in italy, pro racing, and bikes in general. They said they had heard of wicks and page, but not trebon...we were talking about the upcoming 'cross worlds, and if I understood correct Hanka kuperwhatever is either friends, used to be a team with, has the same sponsor, or something related to one of the wrenches, because he showed me a picture of her and talked about her for awhile. I just said "si' and nodded, as per usual. They talked about Cunego, they love him here (he's from here).

In the end, I bought a long sleeve jersey, size XXS (usually im S or XS) but darn italian sizing....it took me 2 weeks to find a belt for the equivelent of a 28 waist.....Anyways, the long sleeve jersey is not only my first ever ls jersey (although I'm getting a colby one in a month or so) but it is awesome (I won't freeze in maine anymore) and says a bunch of stuff in Italian on it (see below), plus being the colors it is, it's highly visible, another first for me and bike clothing. It cost 35 euro, but the dude gave it to me for 25......Imagine buying a very nice, full-custom, full zip, top of the line ls jersey for roughly 30 bucks in the states.....I was tempted to buy a pair of bibs, which were like 40 euro, but they didn't have my size. Time to write my last paper for this class, one more idea to flush out, edit, and then I have till monday to enjoy Italy.

sooooo-euro

It's my birthday, at least here on Euro time...no craziness tonight, in fact, its 2:11am and i'm about 30 minutes from finishing a paper. Tmrw, however, will have celebrations.

Last night I think I offically became euro-trash. I spiked my hair into a faux-hawk, wore a blazer over a sweater with the blazers collar popped (not really popped, just up, like euro's wear them) with tight jeans on, and sneakers that have graffiti-style painting on the side. In fact, my shoes don't even match, and its on purpose...one is camo w/ a bulldog painted, the other white with a rose....So euro in fact, I got told at a bar that I looked like a euro (by an american living here) and at another bar I shocked some austrian chic telling her I was from the states....

In important news, I messed up my ankle. Something is wrong, seriously. I can't walk normal, I have to walk on the outer edge of my right foot, otherwise it hurts worse than a knife stabbing. This all started friday in Venice. I took sat. off from excersise, but walked a bunch on it in Bologna (where I saw a sweet commi-rally, flags, bullhorn, everything). Today I took off again and sat arond and read/wrote my paper, but it still hurts. It does not feel any worse today, and is maybe marginally better than it was yesterday. Hopefully with some more sleep and rest, and ice and elevation (its somewhat swollen) it will get better in time to do some more running/lifting by the middle of the week. It hurts alot more like when I tore a ligament in my ankle then when I sprained/twisted my ankle, which isn't good. The pain isn't as severe, but the location and the type of pain and the motion that causes it is the exact same. Hopefully, it will heel and be fine and won't mess up riding.

Monday (in addition to being my birthday) marks 1 week untill I come home. I am looking forward to riding (alot) but not looking forward to leaving europe, I really like it here. If only we got cycling on tv (im sure we do, but I can't figure it out)...I would have liked to have seen page/trebon take 9/10 in the worldcup 'cross race today. Alas, I need to write this paper so I can go to bed, and then celebrate.