Some racing updates...

Well it's been a little while since I've updated this. You can certainly read into that, I haven't had anything encouraging or fun to share for a while.

Some catchup: Few weeks ago I did both the 4/5 and the 3/4 at Pfieffer Hill. The course was a few miles with one pretty good climb and a few other painful uphill pitches. One lap into the 4/5 I broke my spoke. Immediately my wheel was rubbing badly on the brakes, so I just had to stop and wait for the sag wagon. The guy who picked me up was the promoter, whom I had actually contacted before about the poor quality maps he has on his website. He was a pretty cool guy, and he eventually hooked me up with a spoke and lent me some tools to fix my wheel. So I got it all patched up for the 3/4. However I just didn't have the legs to hang with the 3/4 field on the climb. I later discovered that I had broken two more spokes. Often when you break one and just replace it without retensioning, the wheel is much weaker. On a better note Luke managed to get a top 15 in the 3/4, finishing up strong in the front group... rock on.

So now onto the reason I feel like writing here again. This past weekend Munas, Kyle, Matt S., Kristine "Jersey" J., Rachel and I did the Tour de Sales at De Sale University. It was a "collegiate" race in the middle of the summer. The first day was a crit, and despite only having about 12 starters, the action was hot from the beginning. Mike Chauner from Bucknell (A rider, strong dude) attacked through the first turn, and everyone groaned. The field chased him down, and about a lap later they rang the bell for a $10 prime. Some messing around on the backside left me a lane, so I took it on a slight uphill, and had enough of a gap to take the prime. Chauner quickly bridged up to me and the break was off. I didn't take consistent pulls the first two laps or so off the front. I wasn't sure how smart it was to ride with this kid to the finish, but I figured 2nd place as a worse case scenario isn't bad. So we worked pretty well together for the next 10-12 laps. Munas, Kyle and Spohn were all chasing down people trying to bridge up during this time. Chauner and I opened up about a 3/4 lap lead, and the messing around began. We attacked each other for about a lap and a half before he finally jumped and I just couldn't respond. I finished it up for 2nd place. Good day. Munas rounded out the podium by taking the field sprint.

Sunday was a circuit race, with a pretty good climb near the finish. I felt good in the first few laps, and was trying to help keep tabs on Chauner, and possibly make him feel it a bit on the climb. That backfired a bit when I couldn't hang on the climb, and got dropped with 2 to go. Munas again sprinted well to get 3rd while Kyle came up big to get 5th. Kevin, a JMU rider, made a great move in the finale to outsmart Chaunder and Munas for the win.

And the girls won everything. Noone else showed up... sucks.

Fun weekend all in all. Only thing that sucked is that now I have two checks made out to "Penn State Cycling". Greeeaaat. That'll be easy to get money. I'll post some pictures later.

Annodization take 2

Well the second round of annodization went much better. There are moments when my high school self would have hit my current self upside the head, and my first swing at annodization was one of those. I wired up the batteries in parallel in attempts to try and add up the voltage. Well, it doesn't quite work that way, and switching to series hookups made all the difference. It was much quicker, you could hear a little crackaling, and could definetly hear hydrogen gas bubbling out from under the paper towel. Sweet. The first picture of the headtube is a bit weird looking because of the flash. I did the whole headtube in the deep blue, and then tried to bring out the "A" headbadge by holding the electrode there longer, thus making it a brighter blue. Sort of worked, I'll have to touch it up in the daylight. The last two pictures show the flames on the toptube, which came out pretty well. A little leaking occured with the stencil, but I'm confident that once I get a good stencil made for the lettering I want to put on, then that problem will be eliminated.

Annodization...part 1

I was really excited to begin annodizing my bike, but so far the results haven't lived up to the hype. I think my biggest problem is lack of voltage. I'm just using 27 volts for now, and I want to do at least 45 next time to try and get a deeper blueish color instead of the yellowish/brown there now. I'm thinking I also need a voltmeter to track how quickly I'm killing the batteries. Anyway, here are some pictures of the first round with the annodization... probably try it again later in the week when I have some more time on my hands. There is some promise though, hopefully in a few weeks time my bike will look faster than me.

Carbon Wheels...

So I finally got my carbone glued up, and it's smooth, and sounds schweet. I've heard carbon wheels ridden around before, but the sound from a carbon wheel sounds like an airplane taking off, which is very different than what a normal aluminum rimmed wheel sounds like. Now it's not all about sound. Style counts too.

Memorial Hall

This past Saturday I was in Philly for the PA state criterium championships. The course was about a 0.6 mile 4 corner standard course. The interesting thing was the fact that you could see the entire course from the center, and the large puddles on the outside or inside of the turns. Right from the gun the rain was pouring down, and there was even a clap of thunder or two. For a moment I thought it might be called, but the weather cleared a bit, and we were able to do the 40 laps.

It was extremely easy to move around in the field, being that the roads were extremely wide and the field wasn't too large (no more than 75 I would say). I stayed up in the top 1/3 for the whole race. About 5 or so laps in I found myself right at the front when a lone dude who had been off the front was caught. I figured now is as good a time as ever, and took a little dig for myself. I was only out for about 3/4 of a lap, but it served as a decent warmup. I didn't let myself slide back more than 5 or 10 spots when I got caught. I've had the habit of letting myself get thrown right to the back of the field when getting caught back in, and I was happy with staying up front this time. The last lap proved a bit more difficult to move up than any of the others (who would have figured) and I ended up getting boxed out going into turn 3. Coming out of turn 3 the guy I was following through, a Cornell kid (who had been pretty sketchy all race) decided to go off into a large puddle and into the field next to the course. I had to ease up for a moment to get around his ass, and that little bit was enough to kick me out of contention. Still very happy with the effort though. Kyle C. was up there and got 15th while Jeff S. flatted with 5 corners to go and wasn't able to get up for the sprint.

I'm looking forward to a hard week of training. My next stint at a paid training ride , or racing as you may know it as, should be at Pieffer. Maybe here I can finally do the 4/5 ; 3/4 combo. Look out.

Worst Speed Ride Ever

Well I did the speed ride yesterday, and it pretty much sucked right from the get go. It was a lot bigger than when I did it two weeks ago, so I was looking forward to trying and sticking around longer. I figured less pulls would mean I could stay in the wheels longer. Well it was also a helluva lot faster I think, so I was off about halfway down 45. Rode by myself for much of it, then caught Frank from Wheelworks, and some other dude caught us, so we worked for a little bit. I took a good hard pull at the front, and then was not able to get onto their wheels again. So I rode the whole way home by myself. I took the shortcut through Merango, but I still didn't catch the group, they must have been flying. I saw the slower group that did the shortcut, and it was pretty big.

Well all of that wouldn't have made it the worst ride ever, just a bit frustrating. But on the way home I also completly broke my left STI lever which had been on the rocks for some time. For now it's stuck in the big ring, and I hope that it stays like that so I can "race" Memorial Hall this weekend.

Millport 4/5 Race Report

This is my imitation of an Andy Munas race report.

Myself, Jeff Schutt, Adam Snoke and Shawn Limbert were representing the blue and white (in and out of actual blue and white) at Millport this Saturday in the 4/5.

The race started off relatively easy, with a single rider establishing about a 15-20 second lead that lasted about the first 2 of 8 laps. It was a bit windy, and there were not enough technical sections to really get an advantage on a field today, unless you were really heads and shoulders above the rest. I managed to stay in the first 10 or so places for the first few laps and found it humorous that people were yelling to get riders to come through and work hard to bring the single rider back. I never pulled, and would have bitch smacked anyone who yelled at me. The wind did the trick, and the rider was back in the field relatively shortly. About halfway through I was suffering a bit more and the rest of the PSU contingent was moving to the front as I was sliding towards the back. Coming through to see 2 laps to go, the officials sprung a prime on us, for what I'm not exactly sure. Mr. Snoke, not being too mathematically inclined, thought it was the end of the race and worked hard to get a 4th place in the 1 deep prime. Not sure exactly what happened to him on the actual last lap, but he didn't quite have it to sprint again. Meanwhile Limbert and Schutt moved up very strongly. Jeff took a top 10 spot, while Shawn took the perfect leadout from I believe some Iron Hill riders to take the win. I got caught up behind a stupid crash on the only "uphill" on the last lap. I didn't go down but got slowed juuuust enough to not be able to fight back on. Generally though, I was happy with my efforts, and am looking forward to being able to mix it up in a finale shortly.

Melissa Wills also did I believe a 3/4 Woman's race, while Erica Allar, who got her cat 2 upgrade, was forced to do the Men's 1,2,3! I wasn't able to hang around, so I don't know how they fared. Hopefully Erica's "Sarah Uhl" type move didn't prove too short and she was able to hang in there.

Next Saturday: Rapho Road Race. Possibly a 4/5 3/4 double? We'll see how the legs feel this week...maybe a bit too soon to be thinking that, let's finish one first eh?

Time Trial Course

Well I went out and did the Tadpole TT course Friday morning, in the pouring rain none the less. I was dissapointed that I had forgotten about it the evening before, and I had to work instead. So I went out and put in what I felt like was a pretty decent effort. I have a new position on the TT bike, and it felt allright on the way out to the turnaround. I clocked 13 minutes on the dot at the turnaround, which was well behind my pace from last year of 12:20. I finished it off in about 27:15, a lot slower than my 24:25 from last year. I bumped my seat up about a centimeter for the ride home, and I think that'll feel better especially when pulling myself up gradients in the aerobars. So I'll have to keep on getting out on that bike and get more and more comfortable on it... My first real TT will likely be at Owasco the weekend before Toona, I hope to rip that one open.

Also the SRAM Force group looks pretty hot. I believe the retail is going to be $1,800.00, so I may be able to get it for a bit over a grand... have to start saving now. Donations are welcome.

Family Trip

I just got back from a trip out to Ohio, where my grandma, Aunt, and brother all live. I first visited Yellow Springs, OH where I saw my 1 year old neice and brother. Cheyan is walking around like crazy, and eats a signifigant portion of her body weight at every sitting. Pretty sweet if you ask me. I went for a ride with my oldest brother, and just relaxed before heading up to Lima the next day.

My grandma is in a nursing home there, and it was not a great visit. The decision was made to put her under hospice care, which is basically making you comfortable instead of actively treating your condition. She isn't all that aware of what is going on around her, and I'm not exactly sure if she knew who I was. She wants to just go, but just can't yet. I wish that she could just fall asleep and have a peaceful journey... Seems that we don't have a very good way to help our aging citizens. I can't imagine that she is very comfortable with things as they are... The nursing home itself is really nice though, they have birds to watch, activities to do... seems like one of the better ones.

Anyway, I'm back to the realities of State College for a while, riding my bike, working at the shop, studying for the GRE's (yea... have to start that).

Racin' again.

Well, I'll probably start posting some more thigns on here, but this will serve as a quick update. I started training a few weeks ago, and have been trying to get as much time in the saddle as possible, trying to make up for some down time. I raced Union Grove this past weekend. It was a 5 lap circuit race, and I hung on for the first 4, but just didn't have the punch to stay with the group on a little riser on the last lap. Still felt pretty good about my effort though. Check out the picture below of me pretending to be Cipo.

I am being a bum in State College this summer and just riding, working at the Bicycle Shop, and starting to study for the GRE at some point. If you're ever in the 814, drop me a line, I'll be around during the weeks.

Next race: Millport on 6/27

Nittany Classic + New Therapy + Roubaix

Well the Nittany Classic has come and gone, what a quality weekend. I was blown away at the effort our club put into this event. The planning was done well, but was made all the more solid by the people marshaling during races and making tons of food for the kickass dinner on Saturday night. The raffle got us some more cash and garnered excitement on Saturday, while Sunday's roadrace went off without a hitch despite a roadway sized tractor and a neutral rollout through a highway interchange 3 times over. I can't wait for next year. Myself and Andy have already been discussing possible tweeks to our weekend to maximize quality and minimize the chance that any other pretender school would get Easterns. As of now I'm the only person running for Road Race Director for next year, so... I guess I got that job. Schweet.

I also have started physical therapy at a new place. I'm now going to the place near the hospital, Penn State Orthapedics. I like the therapist, he took a good chunk of time to talk with me, and his points made a lot of sense. The biggest issue, which was never pointed out to me before, is that my right leg has NO hyperextension right now. So if you're sitting on a bed with your legs out in front of you, hyperextension is picking up your heel from the bed while keeping your knee on the bed. My left knee can do it for about an inch or two which is normal. My right leg doesn't budge. I also stand with my right knee noticably in front of my left (due to the lack of hyperextension). So I'm doing some stretches and exercises aimed at helping the knee to reach full range of motion (something I thought I had months ago). After a few days it's already feeling better, but I also haven't been really stressing it much. I'm hopeful that this new perspective will help, but I'll try and stay grounded for the time being.

I watched Paris-Roubaix this morning. What a kickass race! Cancellra (CSC) was looking strong all day and took out the win in impressive fashion, while three riders got DQ'ed (2nd,3rd and 4th on the road) for going around a train blocking. Crazy stuff! I figured the days of trains stopping races was long gone. Boonen's group was behind the group that went around the barricades and they stopped. Throw in some crashes (poor Hincappie and Steels) and some gutsy performances (Hammond! never mentioned but the brother had stitches in his knee!! I feel ya buddy). Great race. I'll try and record it. If I can't, I'm buying it. Great trainer viewing material right there.

Nittany Classic is coming...

So it's been a while. This weekened the all knowing road race director and myself flyered the road race circuit, then did a quick lap via two wheels. I think after walking around for 2 hours my knee was ready for a rest, so the ride didn't go so well. Didn't go so well for Andy either as his back is still bugging him. Injuries suck.

Today we flyered the crit course. I get such a weird vibe from MOST of the people who came to the door and talked to me in Bellefonte. Semi-rude, semi-"why they hell are you closing my road"... but there were some nice people who wished us luck in the race.

I also did a quick Boalsburg loop, which felt great. I think not being on my feet for two hours before a ride is the key. Hopefully I can slowly... very slowly... ramp up some time on the bike.

So the Nittany Classic weekend is coming. Three events in two days. I'm excited to see the kid's race... I hope some kids show up! We are planning, in conjunction with some riders from CRBC whom know Dr. Kulakowski's family, to have a prime in his memory at our race. The idea was also put out there that we could have this prime in years to come, which I think would be a great thing to do. The money raised for it could go to the scholarship fund, and a small % to the rider winning it.

If you're around State College area this weekend and are bored, call me. I'll give you a corner to marshall.

Changing Mindset

Everything is what you make of it. I've come to the conclusion that I just need to wrap my mind around that fact. I know I need to stay positive about things, and the easiest way to do that is to change the thing you need to be positive about. In my mind I've written off this collegiate season as a loss, which is much better than hoping to race later on. I don't feel anxious to get better and ride soon. The thing I'm feeling positive about now is getting back to training sometime over the summer, doing a little bit of racing, and then finding a way to stick around and race ECCC next year. It's a lot easier to be positive about those goals, and it takes a lot of pressure off me. I don't think I realized how stressed out I was trying to get on the bike so I could get into some sort of shape for April ECCC races. Screw it. Collegiate races are fun, but they're not worth ruining a whole semester, especially some people's last semester. So here's to Rutgers, I'm going to rock that prologue.

Sike

This past weekend was the first ECCC race of the season at Rutgers University. It was my first time officiating, and it started out boring, and got a lot better as the weekend went along. I started off standing in the freezing cold doing the ITT, writing down numbers of people who passed. After not too long I swung my car around and sat in that instead. It was warmer. Mild entertainment came in the form of people who steered straight through the large line of cones, and did a much harder turn-around than necessary, and from the dude in Men's A who way overcooked the turn, went into the mud, and fell. Hilarious dude, thanks for making my morning. I later found out that two guys skipped the turn-around, and didn't bother to tell anyone... and had times minutes faster than other competitors. Needless to say they were DQed. I felt a bit better after hearing this, as I felt a bit more worthwhile.

The crit in the afternoon was more interesting. I wrote down numbers of people falling off the back, and those winning the prime sprints. It was a little confusing, especially with the Women's B and Men's D and C fields. It was cold and windy, and I was happy to get back to CT's housing hookup for the best post-race dinner put on by a host family ever.

The next day was the circut race and it was real easy to do. Not many lapped riders, or not many lapped riders who kept riding I should say. I just sat around wrote numbers again. I was much better at catching numbers and documenting the race than the first day.

I must say that officiating is not very fun. It was allright because I got paid $100 (which is going to purchase a Mavic Carbone btw). However I'd much rather be racing.

Which reminds me- went to see the surgeon today, and he said the swelling was a lot more than he though it should be... told me to ice it more, some other stretches, and to lay off riding over an hour for a while, like May. He mentioned that 80% of people who see results from my surgery will have seen it by this point. I wanted to ask him how many people really expected to benefit from my surgery, but I think I know what he means. Sucks. I don't think I'll be making it out to many more collegiate weekends now, I can't stand going and not racing, I'd rather pretend it's not going on and I'm not missing anything. Good luck guys/gals. I will still be doing the Philly weekend, however, as I need to pick up that Carbone from Stephan... wonder when I'll get to put it to use.

Back on the road

The past four days have been pretty cool. Watching the Tour of California, taking two really easy midterms, and putting 8 hours in the saddle... all good things. The Tour has been really cool to watch, it's great such a big race is taking off in the states (no offense Georgia). For some reason, likely the timing on the calendar, this event has had a much deeper international field, and has made things that much more interesting. Mike Friedman's race has been cool to track as well, he ripped it up in the time trial in the middle of the race... beating the reigning world time trial champion in the process.

I started riding real easy, doing an easy hour, then an hour and half, and over the weekend did the "mock race" which was fun. I hung with the "fast" (A/B) group for just half a lap, but still felt good about the effort I was able to put out. Unlike my other easier rides I put in a jump or two out of the saddle which resulted in minimal speed increase (that will come) but also no pain... which I was excited about.

So look out ECCC, a mediocre kid with big goals is coming back to race. Watch out kid who thinks he's going to get 15th in the B race in NYC... you're going to get 16th sucker.

New perspectives

I always used to be rather nonchalant about saying, "yea... I'm a cyclist. I shave my legs and eat gooey honey-like syrups and layerup with many lycra garments and ride into shitty weather". I never realized that being a cyclist is such a privilege... a privilege that I'm really having trouble with not having right now. And its not just injury that prevents people from taking advantage of cycling... I'm sure the number one is money. I'm really lucky in this respect. My brothers worked over my parents so they were ready for the hundred dollar nashbar orders to build up my first bike, and the registration fees and the like. Sure I've worked during the summers and have earned a good chunk of my race money in the last few years, but without being lucky enough to have parents that first have, and secondly give the money necessary to enter our sport... I'd be a different person. (I certainly wouldn't be freaking out about how hairy my legs are at this point...)

I've also been wondering about my mental state when I start to race again. I know going into my first few races I'll be satisifed just to be there. I can't wait to be on a start line again. But I think it's going to be really hard to not expect results too soon. I know the first time I don't stack up on a TT I'm going to be really pissed.... I've come to take those for granted. I guess I'll just have to stay positive, I'm sure I'll be happy to be out there. I think it's really important to wait before I start to race, so I'm at least able to finish... I'd like to put a good month of riding relatively hard before I line up. I've DNF'ed some races when I've been training, but I just don't want to deal with it once I'm starting it back up again.

But on a more pleasant note, the Tour of California starts tonight (or rather eariler today). ESPN2 is showing an hour of coverage for each stage from 1AM-2AM. The time sucks, I don't know why they can't show it eariler.... but at this point I'm glad that it's on TV in the states, and that there is coverage for each stage. That is more than I can say about the Giro, but I'll rant about OLN much more later on.... Not really sure who I'm pulling for, but I think it'd be good to have an American on the podium somewhere when it's all said and done. It would help the sport grow in the US a bit in the vaccum of post-lance. I think Levi has good shot, and from what I've read he's pretty fit. So... go (American) German water boy! But seriously, we all know that Mike Friedman is going to take the prologue... it's made for his massive quads and large butt.

Chocolate cake

What's better than chocolate cake?

surprise chocolate cake.

Thanks for helping me push the 190 barrier. I'm officially fat now.

Officially Official

On Saturday Dave Matlin, the highly qualified CTS administrative executive Alyssa Gaebel and I traveled to Emmanus, Pa to partake in a USA Cycling Official's Clinic. It was an easy day... I learned the most on the structure of how the officials work, and how they get paid. Basically there are chief Referees and Judges, and Assistant Referees and Judges. I am now a "C" official, so I can, in most cases, only be one of the assistants, which means all I do is watch and write crap down- I'll almost never be called upon to make any sort of judgment or snap decision. We ate lots of bagels, went over some slides, and then got a rulebook and took an open-book exam. The questions were relatively entertaining:

A Cyclocross course is defined as:
a. completely unreadable
b. composed of varying terrain
c. having at least 2.5" of mud around the entire course
d. being full of snow

In many cases all of those options may be applicable...

Now I'm officially official:

We also had the honor of being enlightened as to the coming of Christ. Thank you central Pennsylvania.

Swap Products and a cross bike

Yesterday, on Superswap Sunday myself, and at least 10 other members of PennState Cycling, took to the road at 5AM to get to a swap down in Maryland. (For you non-cycling people a bikeswap is a large garage sale with 99.9% of the merchandise being cycling parts/bikes/clothing/junk). We ended up getting there about an hour earlier than we needed to which sucked, but at least we were first in line. Waiting to get in was made more stressful than necessary by the people behind us who must have thought we looked like savvy enough swappers to buy up all the good deals before they had time to get into the 10,000 square foot space. Seriously now people. As Chris Thompson stated, it felt like we were staging for a race.

I didn't really need anything. Except maybe a chain tool. I wanted a whole lot of other things, but didn't bother to make a list or anything this time around. There was no reason for me to come with $150. There was no reason for me to leave with $2. Oh well. I got a Thomson stem for my cross bike for $25, a used tubular-clincher cross tyre for $10, ugly Ti-railed old style (that doesn't eat my ass) selle italia saddle for $15, wireless computer for the TT rig, chamois cream, arm+leg warmers, mudflap for a commuter or cross bike....oh yea, and the thing I needed, a chain tool for $2. The chain tool doesn't work. oh well.

One of the best purchases must have been these green "crocs". Me and Matlin went in and got a pair each for $20 a pop:
After getting back to State College I watched the first half of the Superbowl while building up my Redline Conquest Pro cross bike. Featuring red housing, and blue peace sign brake cable anchor things (what are those called?), and when racing... some reddish Tufo tubular-clincher tires... should look cool. I'll look good getting lapped this fall...

More Food Please

I did my longest ride in a long time yesterday. Had plans of doing Penn's Cave, went out and did the finishing climb for our race in April, and then just did the Sprint Ride (out to Centre Hall and back). All and all it was about 40 miles in 2 1/2 hours. Nothing crazy, but I was still pretty drained after getting back. Hoping to put in a good hour and a half today to keep the riding up.

When I stopped riding in August my food bill went from about $50 dollars a week to about $30 dollars a week. But I think the 10 or so hours I put in this past week is revving the engine back up... I had two dinners and a snack before going to bed last night. So here's to forking over 50 bucks every week. It's well worth it if I can ride though.

I'm excited about this weekend. Going to the bike swap in Md and watching the SuperBowl on Sunday... Go Seahawks! The last time I was at a swap I didn't react quick enough in grabbing the full DuraAce 9speed groupo for $100. I was using some of Stephan's visualizing last night to ensure that such a mental blunder does not repeat itself. I've been grabbing at shifters and cranksets in my sleep....different than what I usually grab for in my sleep.