Pictures....

Also, check out this picture from the Redline cross race this past weekend...

This last one reminds me of the TTT from Bucknell, depicted below with artistic addition from Anna Kelso.

Eatin' good in the neighorhood

So I've been making a conscious effort to really watch what I've been eating the last few months. It's been sloooowly paying off (I'm down to about 165 on good days now). I've basically had a veeery simple diet:
Breakfast:
cereal, bannana, OJ

Lunch:
sandwich, carrots, apple, couple cookies

Dinner:
salad, pasta or stirfry

Snack:
yogurt with pretzels (don't knock it until you try it... but be ready to be addicted people).

Anyway, my main point is that today I was coming home from cross practice, and I stopped at Subway. Got a chicken bacon ranch on the cheesy bread. Not the best of choices, but I had just put in a good cross workout, and I was hungry. Probably the first "greasy" food I'd had in a while. I used to eat these things all the time... but let me tell you... I was not ready for the chaos this would have on me... I felt like I had just eaten a Big Mac or something!! I think I really got my body off the greasy food, and it didn't like going back.

Tomorrow, breakfast is oatmeal.

I'll also be posting some pics soon of new completly overhauled Kona Major Jake. Sram Rival 10spd group. Paul's touring cantis (funny story about these, and Paul himself later), and a new appropriately used left non-sti brake lever (instead of a right one). It feels faaaaaast.

More Crossin

Did the 4, and the 3/4 today at the second race in the Cross series out here. The first race went pretty well, got 3rd place, and my future teammate took the first lap by storm and never got caught. The race split up very quickly, and after about 10 minutes in, I was battling with one other guy for 2nd... so it was a good result, but it wasn't the most competitive or anything. There were a decent amount of guys there... just blew to pieces real quick I guess.

The second race wasn't quite a race for me. I got the last callup spot from my 10th place finish last week, and got a decent start, into about 4th or 5th in the beginning of the first lap. My bud Ted dropped his chain over the barriers, and myself and at least 5 or 6 others flew by. I was pretty amazed when, about a minute later, he came absolutely flying by me... I mean totally different speed. Impressive, too bad he dropped his chain again, but still ended up 10th. We're going to get that 3rd eye chain watcher adjusted...then look out. As for my race... I slid out in a corner over some pine needles in one corner, and being a little too frantic to catch back on, overcooked a fast downhill grassy corner and landed pretty hard. I was a little shook up, but probably would have ridden it out, but my shifter was on the fritz.... so not even one lap into the 3/4, I was just hobbling back to get changed back into civilian clothes. Bummer.

Good news though, is that I have a new shifter, brake calipers and tubular tyres (if you are talking about cross tubulars, they are tyres, not tires, bitches) coming... so this cross bike is going to be raging.... just need to get more comfortable taking turns at speed... still feeling overall better each time on the bike though, and it's still fun as heck...

Cross Race #1 in the bag

Did my first cross race this weekend, and it was pretty sweet. Was only about a half hour drive, up in Fullerton. It was basically an all grass course, which makes it slow and hard... but since I did the 3/4 which was the last race on the 2nd day of racing, there was a beaten down path in the middle of the course which made it much faster than my trial runs on it before the elite race the day before.

I started in the 2nd row, and was probably about 10th through the first turn and into the first set of barriers. By the end of the first lap I had worked up to 6th or so, feel pretty good. My highest position was 5th, which I held for a lap, despite skidding out around one corner. My big mishap came on a concrete slab before a few stairs. I think that I didn't get my left cleat unclipped all the way before I started to lean over to start running, and both myself and the bike went down. Picked the bike up, but when I put it back down on top of the grass, the rear wheel was locked down. Damn. The canti caliper had been jammed down past the rim, and I needed to nail it back over with my hand. Took only about 15 seconds, but I lost about 10 places in the process. I was pretty bummed, and went real easy the next lap and a half, feeling like the race was all but over, but I managed to find some motivation to suffer a bit more, and over the last two laps made a bunch of places up as people were hurting to come back and secure a 10th.

All in all a good race. I just ordered some better calipers (not that they were really at fault for the rear wheel lockup) but they do suck, despite being orange. Also planning on making some spare tubie wheels into cross wheels if I can do it cheaply enough. They are box section rims, so I might beat them up a bit, but the cross riding out here isn't too terribly tough, so I hope to be able to use them so I can run tubies. I'll post some pictures later on if the photographer uploads them online.....

Next weekend, look out for another top 10.... hopefully.

Stealing some thunder

So Andy sent me a cool link today about a dual drive "fixed" gear. The question we had, though, was whether the gear ratio had to be the same for both sides. In case you are too lazy to read the link, the setup is basically two front chainrings, with chains running parallel back to two FREEWHEELS on either side of the rear hub. (if its two fixed gears the answer is much simpler)

I believe that the gear ratios can be different. I thought about it this way:If the two concentric circles are the two chainrings, and the two cogs on the outside are the rear cogs. Because they freewheel in opposite directions, they cannot produce torque against each other, so they have no physical mechanism that connects their motion.... so I drew it this way to make it more clear. Obviously the two gear ratios above are different.

So clearly the angular velocity has to be the same for both chainrings, being constrained by the bottom bracket. But if you then express the cogs' angular velocities through the gear ratios, you see that the only way that omega2 = omega1 is if r2/r3 = r1/r4, or if the gear ratios are the same.

Physically, if you had a big gear for going forward, and a small gear for stopping, or going backward, then the whole time you are moving forward, the other freewheel (on the non-drive side, or I should say the left) will be freewheeling like crazy, but because its going backwards it shouldn't matter. If you get a cheap freewheel like I have on my single speeds, then it might sap a few watts out though!

Anyway, if you disagree with my conclusions, let me know... I'd be curious if anyone sees this differently...

Holy shit....

legit....legit....legit.




Pictures of the Bianchi cruiser will be coming soon. 42x16 drivetrain, riser handlebars, orange grips, yellow seat. It's the shit.

That's MAJOR Jake to you

The Kona

Cockpit... cross brake levers... crossed up naturally. Yeah. Orange calipers.


Notice the brake housing.... running the whoooole length. The brazeons on the frame would not accept ferrels, so I had to run the housing the whole way, or buy these metal pieces from Kona that the deal said have a tendency to get sharp and cut people.....

Chainring... with chainguard and 3rd eye watcher. Still managed to hop the chain off on a descent the other night....don't think I'll do that in an actual race though, hopefully.

MAJOR Jake

Kona. notice the Alpha-Qness. Hot.

Fa-Fa-Fa Friday

Friday is going pretty well. I got word that the Easton wheels that I EP'ed almost a year ago finally made it to the shop, and arranged to have them shipped out to the West Coast. See this picture for why I'm so amped about that:

Full carbon rim, straight pull spokes. No J-bends where I usually break spokes.... lovely. I'm contemplating removing all the decals (pronounced deeeeee-cals) save for the E. Originally I had planned on somehow making other letters to spell out "ERIK", but I think I'm too lazy, and since watching the show "Entourage" 'E' will do just fine. So... not that big a deal, I knew they were coming, why such a 'must write in my blog about them' sort of deal?

The charge on my credit card was over $1,000 for them. What the balls? Supposed to be like 500 bucks. So I call up Easton, and after sitting on hold and listening to the same 30 second clip of a Beethoven invention (which having played it previously made it worse to listen to over and over) for 30 minutes I found out that they forgot to take the 40% off wholesale.... and they'll be cutting me a check for about $400. Even better... I even get the points on my credit card, and I get cash.

And then to top it off, I get back and get an email stating that the irDA usb hub that my old roomate Andy (see his blog for further humorous details on this debacle) bought and sent to me (to the incorrect address that I provided) had finally found its way back to the seller on eBay, and that she was sending it again.

Rocking. Now I just need to come up with a dynamic systems level model for a PEM CHP unit, validate to published data, tweak the code and then graduate and make bank. Rocking.

Cross riding... attracts cross weather?

So I went out for my first cross practice yesterday evening. I literally installed the cleats in the parking lot, then took a few minutes to spin around and practice hopping off and "hopping" on before we did a few laps around the park. It went relatively well.... need to do a lot of work so the whole process of hopping on and off is fluid and seamless, but I have some time, so I'll work on that. I did bite it once... at the bottom of a BIG hill. There is basically a large sand pit at the bottom, and I didn't realize how sloppy it actually was down there. So taking the turn at the bottom of the hill I just washed out... but it looked much more hardcore than it was due to my opening up an old cut. Sweet bloody cross.

Thursday morning... coffee crew ride. 30 miles which is usually relatively chill until the end which picks up the pace a bit, then hits two relatively good hills towards the end. The ride was completely different though. It was raining! Wasn't so bad when we started, and it didn't really even ever rain that hard on us, but the spray and all the gravel kicked up made the ride horrible. It was better out East when the constant rains drove junk off the road. There were tons of little stones in my eyes. (sunglasses were worthless). Oh well. My goal was to make it over Newport Coast Dr. (big climb at the end) with the group, but I didn't even really make it to the bottom with them... thanks rain and stoplights. Maybe it was the cyclocross that brought out the weather.... supposed to have more of it this weekend. bummer.

Harden the F&^# up

Well the cross bike isn't quite assembled yet... still need a saddle (coming) and cleats (ordered at the shop). Hopefully I'll be able to get it out a few times before the 30th, which will be the first race... that I already regged for.... sahweet.

Don't have much creative to say... but this dude does... the motivation behind Staurt O'Grady's black wristbands at the Tour...

Kona in charge

I got a cross bike! Kona Major Jake. I've got most of the cockpit assembled, but am still waiting for a few essentials in the mail... saddle, brakes... But I'll throw a picture up of the new steed up on the blog when she's all done. For now, suffice it to say... it's going to look HOT.

Took advantage of one of the last homework free weekends by squeezing in about 8.5 hours of riding. I will be taking this week reaaaal easy. Got a nice easy spin planned for early in the week up the Santa Ana river... looks like a cesspool on GoogleEarth, hope it doesn't smell too much.

Also likely switching my emphasis at work a bit... looks like I'll actually be doing work with some stationary PEM units for my MS work. Probably doesn't mean a whole lot to most people, but instead of doing SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) which are real big, high temperature units, I'll be doing smaller (though on the large size for PEM) PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells. Obviously most of the basics are the same with these different kinds of systems, but there are some big differences, which I'll highlight real quick. SOFCs have a solid electrolyte and need to be run at high temperatures so that this electrolyte can efficiently conduct oxide ions. The ion migration is from the cathode to the anode..... oxide ions. This differs from PEM fuel cells, which have a polymer (repeating chain of something or other... remember organic chemistry? neither do i... i didn't take it) electrolyte which generally require water to be conductive for protons, which originate from the hydrogen fuel. In PEM systems ion migration is from the anode to the cathode in the form of protons. The net reaction is the same for both types of cells, generally, but the actual chemical mechanisms are different. If you made it this far, then you are a trooper. Give yourself a pat on the back.

So, if you skipped down to here, don't blame you. I'll be working on large-scale PEM fuel cells, which would be placed in someone's house for example, which would provide power for the house 24/7, and the grid when the house doesn't need it (ie during the day when everyone is at work). They would run on pipeline natural gas (gasp! a fossil fuel!) which would be reformed to hydrogen (the clean answer right?? yeaaaaah). They would also provide heating and possibly cooling, through CHP (combined heat and power) equipped units. Basically heat exchangers to take advantage of the fuel cell's heat generation. With big enough units you can actually cool down air if you have hot air, by using a heat pump... but with small systems it becomes too costly, so smaller units would likely just have heating capabilities, which only require an exchanger, not a heat pump.

If you were interested in any of that mumbo jumbo, then good. If not, I didn't tell you you had to read it. If you want to know more, ask.

Off to bed... I rode 80 miles today...

Riding

I've been out in Cali for a bit now... and I know where the grocery store is, where the closest 173 Starbucks are, and where not to take a #2 on campus. Pretty productive first few weeks. I've also been riding quite a bit. Since I don't really have anything to do in the lab, sometimes I just don't go. Now I'm all physched for when I do have work.... I like getting stuff done (not gettin' 'er done), but when my adviser applauds my simply writing a 4 page fluffer of a thesis proposal, and says its a great start.... its time to slow it down and decrease those expectations.

So yeah... not so much work means a lot of riding. And a lot of riding I did. The first week back on the bike I logged 17 hours. Granted about 9 of those were just real easy spinning around, but still... 17 hours is a good chunk for me. I've done some sweet riding in Santiago Canyon nearby (which sucks when its really hot) and also along the coast (which never sucks). Also been finding some really cool hills to do repeats on later in the year... I'm really pumped for trimming down a bit, and hitting the hills hard in attempts to not be dropped on every climb in every race this year.

Also pumped at the prospect of finally doing a cross season. Despite having two cross bikes in the past, I've never gotten a good ride and a healthy Erik in the same season.... so hopefully this will be it. Got my eyes on a few gems (and a few rustbuckets) on eBay, and also a Major Jake w/ Alpha Q carbon fork locally that I'm checking out tomorrow..... wouldn't that be sweeeeet.

California...

So for those of you who read about the cross country extravaganza here, you know that I'm already out in Irvine. Got my apartment all set up, and after Nicole helped me assemble some Ikea furniture, the place is looking pretty rocking. I'll snap some photos later...

But down to the real business at hand, I've been on a few rides, and already have a pretty funny story to tell. I did a ~50 miler (second day back on the bike after 30 days off) to Santiago Canyon. Now most people would hear "Canyon" and figure they'd be climbing a bit. I trusted gmap pedometer's profile, and thought it looked relatively flat. Wrong. It was lump enough to make my completely out of shape legs feel it quite a bit. Wasn't so bad though.... but it was getting dark as I started to get back onto the roads that I know well.... and then... passing under the 5 (that's how you call out highways here... the 5) I nailed something, and a mile or so down the road, my front wheel went flat. Balls. Changed that up pretty quickly, and got moving on.... the last hurdle was going through this gated community. I knew it was a private road, due to the large signs stating such, but I figured as a cyclist, I'd just cruise on through. Well I came up to the entrance of Jurassic Park, and thought... shit, how do I get through this? Keep in mind its getting dark, and if I have to go around this Porsche haven, then it's on busy roads with cars that all have their headlights on by now.... So I sort of skirt through the first gate, and that's when three dudes come out of nowhere and are like.... "what are you doing?? you can't go through here". So evidently there is a bike path through the rich fuckers community that I missed.... so they showed me where us mere two wheelers tread through their land, and I was off.... But it was looking sort of hilly to me, and I didn't remember seeing any hills near campus, where this was supposed to let me out. Went on for a few miles, and finally ran into a couple walking on the path. Stopped and asked them if I was close to UCI, and they said it was just ahead... so sweet, saved. Then they keep talking for a while because the husband is a cyclist, and he starts offering up all his advice on cool routes to ride around there... so that was pretty cool. Then his wife tops the boat, and is like, you know we live right up around the street.... if you want to come over for home cooked dinner, feel free any time, we're always around. What!? Seriously? Just because I shave my legs? Weird. I've already forgotten where they said they lived... but still, pretty cool I guess.

Back to work. I'll talk a bit about what I'm studying out here later. When I figure out what that is.

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Fitchburg Day 4- Crit

The last day of Fitchburg.... and I was feeling it. Crits have been my thing this year, and I really wanted to be able to have something positive to remember this race for. Got a descent warmup in, and got to the line at the right time.... second row back behind the callups. This crit is pretty tough... good uphill grade up to a 180 degree turnaround, then back down a screaming (35mph) descent into two hard left hand 90 degree turns, which places you back on the homestretch uphill grade.

Pace was pretty high at the beginning, and I quickly lost my position near the front. I dug in in the middle of the field, and spent most of the race just moving up when the opportunity presented itself to do so easily. My plan for winning this race was to get to the front for the last points sprint with 3 to go, follow the dudes sprinting, and then peg it as hard as I could after their sprint was done to try and hold on solo. I kept feeling better and better as the race went on... as I was able to recover and move up on the descent relatively easily. With 4 to go I moved to the front, but couldn't muscle my way into the top 10 places. The points sprint came and went, and someone else executed my plan.... he stayed away and won. Ben Showman... strong A rider from Army's collegiate team. Had I known it was him off the front, I would have buried myself to try and get up there... but I probably would have just toasted myself anyway.

I sat back and tried to start looking for the leadouts. Most of them came up the left side.... where noone was moving up before. I was stuck on the right side, where I had been able to move up all day. Balls. Coming into the homestretch on the last lap I didn't have great position at all. Way too far back to contest anything. I still uncorked a good sprint, passing probably 20 people from the last two turns up to the line to finish a respectable 37th. I was satisfied with how much better I felt in the race, and the placing is allright. I think I'll be setup allright for Owasco. Bring on the upgrade points.... hopefully.

Fitchburg - Day3 Road Race

I was looking forward to improving upon my last Fitchburg Road Race, when I came into it at 8th in the GC, and ended up at 99th. That was when I was a 4, and we only did 3 laps. On tap for today was 6 laps, for a total of 68 miles. There is one signifigant climb with a long false flat after it that hurts a lot... then a really fast (57mph) descent back on down. The final lap features a crazy climb to the top of Wachusset Ski Resort. Nuts.

I felt pretty good on the first lap. We were sort of neutralized because we had been caught by the 35+ field. That kept things real easy on that false flat after the climb. So the first lap was cake for staying in the field. Second lap we went balls to the wall to try and catch a break that had formed on the first lap. We flew up the climb, catching the masters field... which was confusing as heck, and finally leaving them behind for good. I got a bit gapped on the false flat section, but made it all back on the descent by hammering out 57mph. That was fun. I knew what was in store for the next lap, however, and lights went out on the climb. I could reach out and grab the field the whole time.... and actually almost got back on the false flat, but they got a bit too much of a gap that I couldnt' make up on the downhill. Balls. 30 miles to go. A bunch of groups were behind, and they were drilling it paceline style. These people were all idiots. We're not getting back on. We're going to loose massive time, dont' kill yourself! So I rode easy to the feedzone again and stopped and hung out with my parents. When the field came by I hopped back in and finished up with them. Lapped riders finish on the lap with the field... so I rested, and did one less lap. Fresher for tomorrow right? Hopefully... The climb up to the ski resort still hurt like hell. I didn't even start with the group, as I was dropped for a second time (that's a first for me) on the false flat.

Fitchburg Day2: Circuit Race

On tap for the second day of Fitchburg was a 28 mile circuit race featuring a two block long stairstepper climb, and a fast backside to make about a three mile loop. For most, it is easy to sit in for this race.... usually finishes all together without any time gaps. Didn't quite work out that way.

Since my TT put me way out of contention for any hope at overall glory, I figured I'd try my hand at the points jersey. The first sprint was the very first time through the line. I tried to get myself up to the front, but was still about 40 back through the turn at the bottom of the hill... so no dice for that sprint. Two laps later, I got myself into the top 15 into that turn looking to snag some points... but as soon as the road went uphill, I slid back instead of passing people, which is necessary in order to get points. From there on it was a race of survival. I kept slipping further and further back, and eventually was gapped off at the top of the hill, and the lights went out. I rode it very easily, not really caring how much time I lost... turned out to be a good strategy. The field was finishing right as they were lapping me, so I blended right in, and they placed me in the field.... at the same time. If this mattered at all, I would have corrected the officials, but their mistake moved me from 85 to 70 overall, instead of moving me down to a likely lantern rouge. So.... whatever. I'll claim that prize tomorrow during the road race.

Fitchburg Day 1: ITT

Day one of the Fitchburg stage race was a moderately uphill ITT. This race always starts with an ITT, and I really prefer the flat affairs, but this one was a bit different. Not an uphill ITT like Army's collegiate event, but gradually up 600 feet over a few miles (with some pretty good kickers) and then a flat, almost downhill speedy finish.

I used my road bike with some borrowed clip on aerobars, and it probably wasn't the way to go. Should have brought out the TT rig. The climbs were not as bad as the profile made it out to be, and I think that good times were up for grabs from those with their TT bikes out. That being said, not sure I would have moved up much from my 85th, about 2 1/2 minutes down on the leader had I brought out the Zepp. So yeah... cracked the top 90.

Tomorrow is the circuit race, which features the first sprints for the points jersey, so I will be going balls out for that bitch. Hopefully snag some points and get myself into a good place for that. Need something positive out of this stage race...

All in the details

This picture is of a wiring issue in one of the 5kW units that Siemens is operating now. It's at Phipps Conservatory near CMU in Pittsburgh, so the last few days at work I've been going down there to help with some maintenance on it. Got me thinking.

Most of the problems with fuel cells aren't the fuel cells. They work wonderfully if you give them the right amount of gas, take away the products and don't let the reaction sites clog up with carbon that you'd expect to see on a grill after charring some steak. (All that is relatively harder than you may think...)

True about a lot of things... it's all in the details. You can ride your bike alot, train yourself into the ground, but if you don't look after the details of eating well, sleeping well, and doing the right kinds of riding, it won't matter much come race time. You can take time to talk with people, but if you're constantly thinking of all the other things you have to do, and stressing about what you didn't get done, you're loosing out on the big picture. So here's to taking care of the small stuff. First off is replacing these fuses with smaller ones....

See you in the details.

Update contd

Ok, so yea. I'm living in Pittsburgh with Munas, who thinks his blog is as good as mine (actually, its far superior because I have more of a life). We have real nice place neary Shadyside/Point Breeze area. A block from Walnut St, which is a happening place. The riding is beginning to be better as we find quicker ways out of the concrete jungle and streets with needles on them.

Work is actually pretty cool. Getting paid twice as much as at school has perks, and I'm really interested in what I'm working on in general, so it's pretty good times at work. Siemens is the world leader in tubular solid oxide fuel cell technology, so it's cool to be there learning alot about what they've tried, and what hasn't worked. I do do a lot of bitch excel data work from time to time, but at the same time I'm also learning all the ins/outs of the tests being run as well, so I learn from that, and they gain from me copying and pasting, reformating, making graphs and sending it out. Good trade for now. I have a guess I might be back here some summer during grad school, and I'd like to not do that kind of work then. We'll see.

Racing hasn't gone too bad. Did pretty well in a podunk crit in WV a few weeks back. Nabbed a prime and 3rd place, so about 80 bucks. Also did a crit in jersey, which didn't work out too well because the large teams represented there gave the break too much leash. Overall I'm feeling pretty good though, and I'm looking forward to doing Fitchburg in a few weeks... that'll be fun

Pittsburgh.

Lots happened since I've updated anything on here. I've gone done up and moved down here n'at to Picksburgh (that's 'pittsburgh-ese' for "I've moved to Pittsburgh"). I'm working this summer at Siemens, the world leader in SOFC technology.


Ok, something much more important just happened. Hi surprise.

I'll update all six of you about my life later.

Movin' On...

I did Turkey Hill this past weekend. Rolling ~6 mile loop with a hill thrown in the last two laps. Not too much to report- I felt pretty bad the Friday before, and on the first small uphill on the loop I pegged my HR up to 180 very quickly. My legs felt like I had alrady ridden for a few hours.... needless to say I didn't hang on long. I've been off the bike since, trying to eat and sleep alot. Not sure why I felt so hoorible on the weekend (thanks cycling.tv) but the days afterward I was pretty well messed up I think. Constantly felt starved, but couldn't really eat much. Think I may have been a bit dehydrated. Been eating much more normally the last few days, so when I get back on the bike once I'm out in Pittsburgh hopefully I'll feel allright.

Graduation is on Friday, the 18th, then it's off to Pittsburgh for the summer. Munas and myself got a place near Walnut Ave in Shadyside- a cool hipster area of the city. Even the goodwill there has a fancy storefront. Looking forward to the J-O-B- at Siemens where I'll hopefully learn a lot of real world fuel cell stuff before heading back to school.

Easterns and the end of an era

This past weekend marked my second and last Easterns weekend. Hosted in Vassar, it was a heck of an event. TTT and RR on Saturday, and a crit on Sunday.

Day 1
Team Time Trial
I stepped down and did the TTT with the B squad this weekend, hoping to go for a "V", and because Justin and Jeff had upgraded to As for the mass starts, and couldn't do the Bs anymore. We were relatively smooth for the 11 miles. I worked it up real hard on the last lap and did a few long hard pulls towards the end, but we ended up only 3rd. I think Yale and MIT beat us out, which was a theme for the weekend, as these teams were sparring for the overall..... Yale and MIT? Go fucking study you dorks.

Road Race

This was a fun race, but not for me. Pretty epic course though. I was bitched off the back of the field on the first climb, just a few miles in. I chased for most of the 30 mile lap with a group of ~10. We got within sight, and people started saying stupid shit like... go easy, we'll catch them. Stupid. So on the next little climb I put my balls on the stem and went as hard as I could, catching Munas's Subaru in the process. I may have ridden directly behind it for a few miles... but then it was a long descent, and I went through a shit-ton of cars and motorcycles, and even swerved my way through traffic coming into a hairpin turn. That was fun. Caught back onto the group just in time for THAT climb again.... you guessed it. Bitched again, and just rode to the feedzone and called it a day. Luke manned up from our field and got himself a top 10. Legit!

Chasing back to the group next to the team car. So

Day 2
Criterium
I was really looking forward to the crit. I got to the course and was already a little disappointed. Four corners and flat it was... but the straights were so long, and the corners so easy.... this would be too easy. Noone would get shelled. Too many people would think they could win. And that's what happened. I stayed right at the front for the whole race, feeling pretty good. Got mixed up going for primes and was never really in the best position for them. People kept FLYING by on the backstretch completely voiding my good position I had fought for. I worked very hard to stay in the top 10 in the last few laps, but then when we got the bell, it all sat up. All the way across the road. Bitches! Doesn't someone have teammates? Shouldn't we have shelled half of you? Yes and yes. The BC dude Greg had a teammate, and he got a legit leadout on the backstretch and won. I botched following a strong wheel, and came across in 6th. Not the best way to end the season, but it wasn't too bad.

Cornering after taking a flyer that no one was interested in coming with for. Noooo I'm not clipping my pedal.

Next up: Turkey Hill this Saturday. Hopefully I can help some of the Dynaflo guys who's names happen to be Munas or Spohn out. Or maybe make it over the hill twice in good enough position to mix it up myself. We'll see.

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.

Boo-yah Kishah

PennState: 1,2,3

Bucknell

Got the second ECCC race weekend under my belt, and it was pretty schweet.

Day 1
Team Time Trial- We got a good warmup in, and were ready to rock the time trial. We started 2 minutes down on Princeton and a minute in front of Bucknell. Princeton is a REAL strong TTT team, so I'm sure they were going away from us. We worked pretty well together, and after the turnaround we saw Bucknell coming by, and it seemed that they were already making up time on us. And they probably were. Shortly thereafter we went flying by Princeton(!!) but they were on the side of the road with a flat. Sucks for them.... but we went real hard thinking we had a shot for the win. Turns out Bucknell took about 30 seconds on us, so we got 2nd. Still a good improvement from the 9th at Philly.

Road Race-Relatively flat 8 mile loop. Still had some climbs that I big ringed, but probably shouldn't have. From the gun Carney from UNH took off, and he kept pushing it. Two other kids bridged up shortly after. About halfway into the lap they had a significant lead, and the field was being pretty lazy about it. Smolko tried to attack to get up the speed or possibly get across. Once he settled back down I jumped and went across the gap, taking two others who helped make the connection finally. Two BC guys, Dartmouth, UNH, myself, and a strong kid from Hamilton. We worked real well, and from what I understand the field was held up real nice by the PSU boys, possibly with some help from the UNH/Dartmouth guys. I felt real good at first, but I don't think I drank enough or had enough gels. I've never cracked quite so hard. At one point I just started seeing lights.... stars all over the outside of my vision. Couldn't pull through anymore. Then I couldn't even hold the wheel. DAMN I thought, because I thought we still had about 1:30 gap like we had at the maximum. But once I popped off, I sat up for a second, and the field wasn't too far behind. I tacked on, but couldn't recover well at all. Next hill I got popped off.... turned around and went to the parking lot. I'll pack it in for tomorrow. Jeff ended up winning, with everyone else scoring points as well, so they made up for my lackluster performance.

Day 2
Criterium- The course was pretty freeking sweet, with some nice turns that I thought were perfectly suited for a breakaway win. This was confirmed, I thought, while watching the Men's C... who had a break last the whole race... not common for that field! So of course, I attacked the shit out of my race. Started in the last row, and got to the front by the first straightaway. Held myself in check for about 10 seconds, and as soon as I could, took a flyer off the front. Noone came with. Didn't get a good gap... just strung the field out like crazy. Spent the next 5-10 laps attacking, and working very well with Jeff and Justin to take a bunch of prime points. Coming into the bell lap, a Yale kid took a reaaaal hard legit flyer on the homestretch. He had the largest gap of the day, and I was concerned about it, but not enough to work to bring it back. Jeff was already in front of me, and he jumped hard and put in a huge effort the whole last lap to bring the Yale dude back. Not sure exactly when he got washed up, but coming onto the homestretch I got onto Jeff's wheel, and within sight of the finish I told him to hammer it. And he did... opened it up and I was able to come around real strong. I heard Justin yell that he was on my right as I was trying to come around Jeff. Tried my best to come around and let Justin out as well... and I guessed it worked pretty well, as I took the win, Jeff held on for second and Justin rounded out the all PSU podium in third. Team PennState, fuck yeah. Jeff is now leading B's, Justin is in 5th, and I'm in 7th....based only on my 3rd in Philly and 1st at Bucknell. Once I can climb... watch out.

Props to Munas in the A field for lapping the field. Those suckers in the field did a whoooole extra lap. Those suckers.

Here are the crit results, with the team overalls up top.

Past few weeks

Well the past two weeks went by real quick. Asheville, which I was sick for was capped off by the race weekend being canceled because of a snowstorm. Pussies. I still went to NYC, only took me 5 hours longer than usual. I was the only non-four wheel drive vehicle on the road. It was a very stupid drive, but it was a good relaxing weekend.

I went out to visit UC Irvine from Mon-Wed this week. Interesting stories: missed my flight out because I forgot my alarm clock wasn't set to DST. Got out there on the next flight though, no hassle... Thank you Southwest, you rock. Then the take off coming back from SNA is very interesting. There are houses nearby the airport that a lot of rich people own... and they don't like hearing airplanes. Therefore jets taking off power up to 90%, while holding the brakes, then take off screaming down the runway. The liftoff is at a much more dramatic angle than normal as well. Oddest thing of all is that about a minute after being airborne, the engines are cut back to 50%, so you're basically gliding along. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE? It is a very very odd sensation.

Long story short I'm going to go to UCI for grad school, barring any huge changes in the next week or so. I'll comment a bit more on the school and that stuff later on when I'm not so tired.

Also interviewed at Siemens for an internship this summer. Again, I'll explain later.

For now, looking forward to Bucknell's race weekend... hope that the last two weeks didn't screw up my form toooo much. REALLY looking forward to training a lot in the next few weeks. One thing is for sure... this collegiate season isn't wearing me down yet at all.... I'll be ready to kick some ass this summer from the get go...

Philly + Asheville

Hit up my first collegiate race weekend of the season this past weekend in Philadelphia. Great event put on by a bunch of philly schools that combined the EasternI ro conference (ECCC) with its little bitch ass brother Atlantic conference (ACCC).

First day was just a circuit race, and not much went PennState's way. At least in my case I got dropped on the last little hill up to the finish. I was feeling a little bit on the rivet for most of the race, so I'm not surprised I got canned. The A race featured some crashes via some Army riders that took Munas down, though Chris managed a top 10. The C team came up big by putting three in the top 10.

Next morning was the TTT. I rode the A TTT with Munas, Spohn and Chris. We weren't as smooth as we could have been, and Munas, Spohn and myself agreed afterward that none of us were really gased after it, so we needed to go harder. We only managed a 9th, but the B squad got 2nd, and the Women's B got 3rd.

The afternoon was the crit, where there were good placings in many categories. I didn't watch much of the action as I was hanging out with a special guest and getting ready for my race. The B field started off relatively easily. After the first prime lap people were sitting up, and I was able to coast all the way from mid-pack to the front, and figured... what the hell, so I gunned it through a corner, gassed it on one straightaway, and already had like 10 seconds. I stayed out by myself for about 4 or so laps, getting a prime. I was hoping someone would bridge up and help stay out for the duration, but it didn't happen, so after my prime I eased up and made sure to stick myself in the first 5 wheels. Few little moves went, but nothing too big. With about 6 to go a group of two NCState guys took off to take the last prime. Guess they really wanted those ECCC points. After they took it, they kept trucking, and a Maryland dude gunned it to bridge across. I jumped on his wheel and he took me most of the way up. I finished it off, and there were 4 of us. Eventually the NCState dude who did all the work previously fell off, and it was just three of us. I attacked on the last lap fearing that we would get caught, but we didn't... and I lost the blinking contest. The two sprinted for it ahead of me, while I finished up alone for 3rd. Good result still. The A guys finished off the crit strong getting 2nd and 6th I think with Chris and Hoadney flexing some muscle.

We're in Asheville now, which I'll talk about more later because this is already long as crap. Long story short though, I got sick at the end of the weekend, and haven't been able to ride like I'd planned... so I'm not in recovery mode, just hoping to have some legs by Grant's Tomb, which I want to attack the shit out of.

California Take 1

Last week I went out to California to visit UC Davis, and then hang out with my brother. Weather is awesome out there. Got a few pictures of the UC Davis campus:





The campus was really cool, and the school seemed like a nice place to be, but the research going on there didn't really mesh too well with what I'd like to do. Additionally, the one professor there working on fuel cells has 17 students already, and just had his 6th kid. Nuts. So I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to Davis. However, I still might hit up Cali, because Irvine accepted me and gave me a fellowship for the whole first year. Shi-bang!

But the real fun was the bike riding. 80 mile training ride on Saturday. First 2/3 of the ride was getting out to a big (70 person) group training ride. We went up along the coast, turned inland and did a few hills which ripped the ride apart. I finished in the second group, feeling a little gassed. Nick, Lisa and I then spun around for a bit.


Sunday we did a crit up in Compton (ya know, like the rap songs). I did the 3, and felt pretty good. Stayed in the top 15 the whole time, tried my hand in a few breaks. Coming into the bell lap there was a group of two that had about 5 seconds gap on the field. I figured I would jump across to them, and then jump again on the backstretch and try and win the sucker solo. Well, I couldn't quite get up to them, and we all got caught. Got washed into the field, but managed to recover enough to at least be present in the sprint, but way too far back... somewhere near 25th. Still, very pleased with the effort for my first race.

Lisa won a $20 prime, and took 2nd place in the Women's 1/2. She also did the 1/2/3 30+ Masters race for training. BEASTLY! Nick did the 1/2/3 30+ and the Pro 1/2-doing some work for his teammates at the beginning, and then finishing it off for the training miles, or kilos as it were. Great training crit all around. Sucks that the weather won't be like that out here until June.

Racing season about to kickoff...

Well this weekend marks the beginning of the collegiate season with the Rutgers race weekend. However, I won't be able to make the first weekend of racing, which at first I was sort of upset about (and still am to some extent) but I think I'll be doing some cooler things instead....

On Wednesday after work I will be driving to Philly and staying at my friend Jimmy Devlin's place in Valley Forge. Thursday morning I'll be flying out of Philly to Sacramento California. Thursday night and Friday I will be visiting UCDavis, and likely falling in love with the city and the west coast in general. I'm not sure if I'll be able to turn down such a sweet location, but I'll talk about grad school options later.

Instead of flying home redeye to come do the Rutgers weekend, I'll be flying down to SanDiego to visit my brother Nick, and do a TT and a long training ride on Saturday, then The Deluge Sport Crit on Sunday. Even though I'm disappointed to be missing Rutgers, I'm excited to visit my brother in SanDiego, and race in NICE weather.

My goal for the collegiate season is the Men's B Overall. I don't think missing Rutgers is really going to kill me there. Last year my roomate Spohn won it, and I don't think he scored anything at Rutgers. Though I will be missing the UNH weekend in April too, so other than those two weekends, I'm looking to be on my game....

CAAD9

Well this will be quick because I'm headed to bed so I can lift da Iron tomorrow, but here are some pics of the CAAD9. I think the only thing I have left to change is swapping the odd shaped carbon bar out for the aluminum "crank the bolts on down" bar instead.

Take that Osama.

The carbon Aerus bar has these odd bumps right before the levers, and a weird shape in the drops that I haven't been able to get used to. I'm going to switch it out for a new aluminum bar I have that has a more familiar shape, and then I won't have to torque the bolts on. I'm pretty lazy.

I'll be gluing up the tubies soon, and will post the final weight. I'm hoping for sub 18, but I doubt it. My guess is 18.2lb.

Two in one day!? at least I don't play World of Warcraft

Well I'm actually pretty busy at work, but unfortunately my desire to be lazy and put off work scales directly with the amount of work I have in front of me, hence the unprecedented second blog entry of the day. PSU payroll is for suckers.

I was at the gym this morning doing a pretty light lifting workout. I go to the new RecHall facility which is really nice, and relatively uncrowded at 6:30 in the morning (That's 0630). The only problem is that on the large TVs they have there, they constantly have FoxNews on. Even without hearing the idealogical physcobable bullshit the hosts are spewing out of their mouths, I can tell that they are evil incarnate. The one male host looks like the actor who played in Thank you for Smoking just looks like he is an asshole. I can tell these things over TV. Oprah is an asshole too, you can easily tell.

What I was really thinking about is this though: Do I think these people look like hate mongers because of their appearance somehow, or is it that I've seen the channel before, and I recognize the graphics and the whole message behind their "fair and balanced" newscasts. I guess it's more of the later- really shouldn't judge the book by the cover. But by all means, once you've read the book and it makes you want to gag, please don't display it in Rec Hall.

Training Camp

Well the CAAD9, after needing to fix a stiff link in the chain numerous times, is nearly complete. Just need to add a non-annonying barrel adjuster to the frame. I'll post some pictures tonight, and also get the weight with the box section tubie wheels on board at some point. Not sure what it will come in at, but I know it's a heck of a lot lighter than my old bike, and stiffer!

Anyway, this weekend was the training camp, to help get larger groups out training, and to break in some new racers to riding close together. We definitely didn't pick the weekend based upon the weather. Saturday was 22 degrees when we started what was supposed to be a 2.5 hour ride. Probably the one enjoying the weather the least was Rodney, a freshman from Lehigh Valley campus who hails from Puerto Rico! Shouldn't have come to ride your bike in Central Pa boss. We were pretty warm while we were moving, but a stubborn flat tire had us sitting along Route 192 for about 30 minutes. We couldn't get it fixed because the kid's tire was so beat, so we ended up putting the kid in some random person's car who was headed in the right direction. We were way too cold to continue on, though, so we just rode a few minutes back to Centre Hall and got a whole pizza and hot chocolate, thanks to Rodney who had the foresight to bring along a 20-spot. Respect.

So after warming up we rode back.... in a truck driven out to Centre Hall by Asa, an employee of The Bicycle Shop. Again, respect. We owe Asa a case of beer. We got back and hit up the trainer, which we ended up being stuck on for Sunday's training too.

Oh yeah, we also had a pretty bomb-ass party with live music on Saturday night, but I'll let my roomate Andy talk about that. But just a quick preview, evidently our party was so off the hook that two of our roomates are moving out. What the balls?

PSU CAAD9

Haven't written here in a while, been too busy recently. The J-O-B is taking up about 40 hours, and when I'm not working, I'm riding, eating or sleeping.

Anyway, I'll start writing here more often when race season fires up again...first weekend in March. If you don't like hearing race reports and stories about roadtrips with 5 dudes in a car, then I wouldn't bother coming back.

To the subject at hand though, I recently got my new frameset (CAAD9), and have it partially built up. I'll have complete pictures of both my bikes once they're 100% done, but there have been many requests to see what the CAAD9 looks like, so here it is:

Little overall shot. Pretty sweet paint scheme. I'll have the compact R700 cranks you see there, plus an Aerus carbon bar with some D/A 10sp shifters on board. Also switch to a Flite saddle... I had it working on the Zeppelin, so I'm hopeful I can get it working over here.



Top Tube graphics. Carbon steerer with carbon spacers... ummmm. Do not enter sign in the background.



CAAD9 on the seattube. Worst place ever for "The Bicycle Shop" logo. Seriously. Were you drunk Erik?



Better spot for some Bicycle Shop advertising. CAAD9 seatstays are the same as the CAAD8 I believe... just the shape of the toptube near the headtube is different. The vertical dimension increases as you get closer to the front...



And the headbadge.

I'll post some more pictures of the completed CAAD9, and the Zeppelin TT machine.

Zeppelin is now in TT mode

Well I've been busy as heck recently, so the blog is the first thing to get the hit. Putting in close to 40 hour weeks, trying to train as much as I can, and visiting folks on the weekend adds up to not much free time at all. I'm thinking about asking if I can do 30 hours per week, but I'll talk more about that later.

So I finally got the Zeppelin rocking out in TT mode. Finished putting the Nokon cables in last night, which are a bitch to install by the way. I didn't even do the whole thing with weatherproofing over the whole length. I just used the links to allow the housing to bend much more than normal stuff would. Looks pretty sweet I think. Worked on the position a bit last night, and will try it out for a short ride this afternoon in the bitter cold of Central, Pa. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get it all dialed in.

Hoping to get the CAAD9 in next week and have that built up ASAP as well.... can't wait for Rutgers...

PSFEI

Well after three days on the job, I feel like I'm starting to get a pretty good handle on things. Still need to set my alarm correctly, however. This morning I awoke from a relatively trippy dream to what seemed to me as a lot of light in my bedroom. Well I was right, because it was 8:15, which was late because I wanted to be at work at 8. Well... I got there before 8:30 after neglecting to comb my hair (nothing new) skipping breakfast (new) and the application of deodorant (so not new).

So I get to my desk, and pull up my stuff.... login, check my email... check cyclingnews (ya know, the important shit) and then my boss walks in. He's like, "Erik I'm sorry, I know you said you had some questions- I couldn't get down here earlier". I just sort of look at him and say, "yeah... because I've been here since 8 huh?", and he just says, "yeah sorry, so what questions do you have?" Rocking. I left at 4:30, ya know, as if I had been there at 8.

Work is pretty tedious, and what's worse, it seems pretty unnecessary. I'll elaborate later when you have recharged your desire to read my dribble.

The Bicycle Shop

Hey Bicycle Shop:

Thanks for letting this kid EP his heart's desires using a 6 month no interest credit card. Six months is looking like it's going to go realllll fast. Bicycling is an expensive habit.

Sincerely,
Indebted Engineering Student

Work.

Well I start my co-op rotation tomorrow with Penn State Facilities Engineering Institute. Not exactly sure what to expect. I know I'll be working with a group that maintains PennDOT buildings. Basically they create and update databases that calculate which buildings are in the most need of money to repair them... or better said how to spend the money and get the most out of it as far as useful improvments go. Evidently this all centers on calculating the exisiting value of the building, and summing up all the repairs needed. I know you sound jealous already.

Should find out more tomorrow, but I know the "core" hours I need to be there are 9-2. I'm really hoping that I can consistently do something along the 8-2 schedule, thus pulling about 30 hours, but still allowing plenty of time to ride after work. That way I won't be a slave to the weekends in order to finish off base miles and start adding intensity into the longer rides.

Polar Heart Rate Monitor Noise....

Anyone else notice that their polar HRM strap makes noise when it's picking up your pulse? Put it on in a quiet place. You don't even need the watch/computer part to be near you, or even on. Just put it on and listen. It produces a very quiet, high pitched beep, everytime your heart beats.

Anyone know how these things work? I guess it senses the electrical signal from your heart firing somehow, but anyone know the details of the sensors used? Why would it produce noise? My roomates have noticed similar sounds from computers when the wheel magnet goes by the sensor, so if those things are related its not HRM specific, but something in the electronics that both of those components would have. There's got to be some EE's out here... whats up??

Base Miles

The last few weeks have seen me pile on some base miles. The last few days have seen around 3-3:30 hours a day, a pretty decent load for me. I'd like to be able to be more consistent from week to week, but I'm feeling real strong already, so I think things are going real well. Started to mix in some hills while at home over break, and have been sprinkling them into rides here in Happy Valley... keeping it pretty easy until February, when I plan to start kicking my butt up them.

For the time being though, it's a great feeling to ride for 3 hours at a heartrate of right around 140. It feels like I'm juuuust about to be tired, allll the time. But when I get back I don't feel very fatigued- always ready to ride the next day. Sounds like good base mile pace to me... hopefully I'm not cooking too early. I keep picturing the start at the Rutgers Prologue.

Also made two purchases today:

Easton Tempest II Carbon Wheels. If you don't have an erection right now over these straight pull spoke, carbon rimmed, self adjusting hubbed wheels, it means you're either a girl (still not a great excuse) or you don't race bikes.




Polar CS200 w/ Cadence. Looking forward to throwing this bad boy on my new CAAD9 that will be equipped soon enough with DuraAce 10spd shifters. Yum

What's up with people?

So I was out riding yesterday, back in Happy Valley. Went through Bellefonte... and this car is going past me in the opposite direction. It slows down a bit, and this old woman, maybe in her 70s, flips me off! What the heck is up with that? It's not like I just blew a stop sign, or cut anyone off... I did those things eariler and she didn't see them. I can't flip her off back... she's old! You can't take my grandma's house... she too old! Hurry up I want to watch the hockey game later.