One trip of groceries is enough

So Munas and I hit Wegmans for some dinner and groceries. They should really pay us to shop there, we bring the fun into the store, for real.

We get back, and I explain my hatred for coming back to the car for that pesky second load of groceries. Andy expresses his desire to not carry any groceries in whatsoever. Solution? Turner carries in all the groceries.

Not really as heavy as it looks...


Getting some momentum going...


this is NOT a muscle double...

...and the money shot.

Army... looking forward

Last weekend was the Army race weekend. Things didn't go quite as planned. Munas and Spohn both skipped out in order to try and get themselves back together. Andy did donate his car, however, which was clutch.

Team Time Trial
The Men's A TTT team consisted of myself, Chris, Jeff and Rhodney. We were not all that smooth, and had a huge difference in fitness, with Rhodney and Chris both riding extremely well. I wasn't quite feeling that great, so basically Jeff and myself would work to the front, and pull very quickly and get off. Chris was drilling it... but the Bucknell machine behind us still caught us, putting a minute into us. We ended up quite a ways down... not the best showing.

Road Race
I was looking forward to laying some hurt down on the fast finish to this race, but the uphills got the worse of me. I started the first climb right at the front, and faded a bit into the field, but nothing too major. The second lap I was the first rider starting the climb, and was the last over the top. I'd have to pull something special out for the last two laps. Well the third lap comes along and the rubberband stretches and snaps. Take a look at my Polar output from the RR. The light, bright red is HR while the darker red is altitude. (5 points for anyone who figures out what the lime green line is). You can definitely see that even though I got popped off on the third big incline (3rd lap) my HR didn't crest 180 like it had on the previous laps. I hope that this stems from not being well enough nourished to start off the race... and not some indication that I wasn't recovered enough. In any event, I'm taking it easy this week before Easterns, and eating A LOT after the TTT.

Uphill TT
What the hell am I doing an uphill TT one might ask. I weight 180lbs. Well, I want to score points, and score points I did bitch. I think that this shorter effort was more up my alley. Helping even more was the fact that I was chasing down Justin in front of me. I actually got pretty close to catching him on the second little grade near the stadium at Army. Certainly I was going good, because Justin won, but a little too good. I faded a bit near the end as the course kept rising a bit too much for me. Still managed a 6th, for 24 key points.

Criterium
This was my chance to make up even more points. I felt decent, and had a few digs off the front trying to get someone to come with and get a good break rocking. I don't think the weather was going to allow a break to roll through the corners that much faster than the small field we had, so it all stayed together. I tried my had at some primes, with only points coming out from one of them. Finished decently in 7th, but really should have been smarter on the last lap. Army had a legit leadout that I will not miss at Easterns, though I doubt I'll see those guys at the end of that crit.... I hope to be by myself.

Easterns in Poughkeepsie, NY at Vassar this upcoming weekend. Looking forward to possibly stamping my name on the Men's B field despite not having scored any points in a road race yet. I'll have to this time around, though, if I want to score a snazzy medal.

So...don't pull out in front of a truck.

I was at Hoy St. and West College Ave on Friday afternoon getting ready to take off for Poughkeepsie for some relaxation instead of racing in Vermont. I looked to the left, no traffic. Looked to the right, and saw a bunch of cars coming. Sat for a second waiting for the traffic to let up from the right. And let up it did. Being a complete and udder idiot, I pulled out without glancing well enough over to my left again. College sort of slopes off downhill, but not really enough to hide the large freeking truck that hit me. Fuck. My head hit the driver side window, and the car was pushed laterally to the extent that the right front tire rolled off the rim. Check out some pics taken by my forensic engineer I hired to investigate the wreck:There are no pictures of the rear, but if you look at the gap between the trunk and the body, it's larger on the passenger side. This indicates that the whole frame is tweaked. Sucks. This, even more than the obvious damage in the front, might signal that the car might be totaled. SUCKS! Insurance is getting me an estimate on Tuesday, hope for some good news....

Bawston Beanpot

This past weekend saw the ECCC descend on Boston for the Beanpot. Same deal as other weekends: Team Time Trial followed by a road race, then a crit on Sunday.

Day 1
Team Time Trial

For this weekend we tried using a different fourth man- our Puerto Rican sensation, Rhodney. I didn't quite get the warmup I wanted in, but still felt allright at the starting line. Rhodney blasted off the line and absolutely drilled it. Luckily we all were on the same page and got up to speed fast, and we were off. Fast and smooth over the first third of the course. After we started hitting some rollers, however, Rhodney started to feel it a bit, and we switched it around so he would so some shorter pulls. Going up one of the bigger rollers on the course I was pulling through, and probably gave it a bit too much gas. We were closing fast on UNH, and I really wanted to pass them. I think this was a mistake, as we dropped Rhodney, and I put myself a bit more into the red that I should have been at that point. Had we kept Rhodney, he would have been a great asset on the mainly downhill rolling terrain over the next few miles. I had to skip out on some pulls over the last third, and held the guys up a bit on some of the uphills. We ended up 6th out of 12 teams, but only 10 seconds out of 4th. Had we been smarter about when to drop Rhodney, I think we would have gained 10 seconds easily. I think next time we do the TTT, probably at Army, we may be trying out Jeff Schutt to see how he fares with us.

Road Race
My roadrace was a 52 mile, 4 lap race. There are some climbs on course that break up your rhythm, and some fast sections after the climbs that were usually strung out single file with people trying to keep the pace up over the climbs. I got a normal warmup in, and felt pretty good at the start line. Few miles in, though, I got a stitch in my back that just wouldn't go away. From time to time over the next 52 miles it bugged the hell out of me and made me feel like hell. It moved around a little, sometimes making its way all the way to the front of my ribcage. I spent a lot of time right on the back of the field deciding if this was worth it or not. In the meantime Jeff managed to hit a pothole just right and his bars slipped down. I went back to the follow car to investigate our options. The official there told me we had no neutral support, and that the wheelvan didn't have tools. So... Jeff just had to ride it out. Later in the race he was able to pull them back, but he still had to be careful knowing they were a bit loose. On the last lap my bars slipped too when I smacked a RR crossing really hard. I learned later that the explosive noise I heard was the threading letting go in my stem. Somehow it stayed tight for the finish of the race, but I needed to borrow one from a teammate for the crit. So I followed wheels up the last climb, staying with the lead group. Worked very hard to stay in the middle of the group coming into the last few miles. An Army guy brought me to the front for the sprint, but I had nothing left. With how tired I was I went way too early- I basically sprinted to the front of the field, and once I got there the sprint started, and I was left way behind. I cruised in for a finish in the twenties. Afterwards I had to lay down in a fetal position for about 20 minutes until the muscle stopped cramping up in my side. That was fun, and freaky. Same thing that landed me in the hospital at UnionGrove a few years back. All in all I was happy with the road race- finishing in the front group after hurting pretty bad with a bad cramp is a good sign for the upcoming races I hope. I hope to score some points at UVM, and be ready to hammer out some big points at Army and Vassar.

Day 2
Criterium
The Boston Beanpot crit is infamous for eating people alive. I have seen cyclists literally swallowed by hay bales and sewer grates. Seriously, very seriously. It's a 1kilometer-6 turn love fest with one relatively good incline coming into the home stretch which is always full of headwind. I put my rollers next to the staging area a full two (albeit intro) races before our race was slated to go off. I think I was one of the first ones down there. I warmed up pretty well, and was feeling pretty good. When people started to congregate, I got off the rollers and lined myself up. When the scuffle ensued to get to the line, I somehow ended up in the 4th row. Balls! It would have been a huge difference to be in the 1st row, but I was feeling good, so it was allright. The first 5-10 laps I spent working my ass off to get to the front. I got up there in time for the first prime, but was so gassed that I couldn't contest it. On the backstretch after the prime, however, I jumped and got a bit of a gap. Came through the homestretch alone, with about a 5 or so second gap (absolute silence on the homestretch...) Then again on the backstretch Steve from Hamilton came up to me and we both worked for a second there, but upon looking back the field was strung out and chasing us pretty hard. We sat up and went back into the front group. Not a whole lot happened for a while, just suffering a bit to stay in the lead group. I then got caught behind a crash, which opened up about a three bike length gap in front of me. I tried not to freak out and chase slowly and consistently, but upon chasing for a half lap, the gap was going out. SHIT! I chased hard for the next lap and a half, bombing into corners until I finally made it back into the group. Somewhere in this mess a UVM kid went off the front, and was motoring away. At this point Mark Abramson blew his load all over the mic, talking about this kid with the gap. Fuck you Mark. At least say "here comes a PennState rider off the front" while I was off. It's a bit legit because the UVM kid won, and he was attacking at the end, not the middle of the race, but seriously. Stop hating on PSU, dick. Had I been able to get to the front, I would have worked my ass off to try and get him back for Jeff, but I was too gassed to even get there, so I just sat in, waiting for the sprint for 2nd. Had myself in good position coming into the final stretch, and Steve attacked, and Jeff took his wheel and got him on the line. I followed as closely behind as I could, getting 9th. Decent day in the saddle.

Didn't expect it, but I moved from 7th to 5th in the overall, though there is a big jump to get into the top 3 or so spots. Some of the guys ahead of me have already moved up, and some I anticipate will be moving up soon. I think when all that upgrading dust settles, I should be looking at 2nd in the B field. I hope that I can get some points this weekend at UVM, and move myself up the ladder even further, we'll see!

I'll post some sick pictures later. Matt Gross came with us and took some amazing shots- when I get the real ones without "proof" all over them, I'll throw one or two up here.