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.

Other blogs don't have shit on my blog.

If you think my blog is rambling and ultimately a little unsatisfying in the humor column, check this blog out: We Have a Better Blog.

It'll be sure to make mine look funny.

Home for the holidays

Well I've been home for over a week, and I finally finished off everything from this past semester. Needed to turn in a homework and submit my portion of a group paper... all done now though.

This spring I'll still be in State College, working at the Facilities Institute, doing database type work in support of their maintenance of PennDot buildings across the state. They basically catalog absolutely every detail about a building, and come up with a ratio of what its worth to what it would cost to fix it. Basically rating what building needs funding first. Real fun right? Not really, but it'll keep me paid, in State College, and still a full time student... which is important because I'll have health insurance, and can race my bike for the blue and white one more time.

Speaking of the bike... I've been puttinig in some more hours in the saddle. anywhere from 10-15 hours a week the past few weeks. I'll be putting in a few monster days tomorrow, taking a little tour of the Hudson Valley region... if the weather holds.

Also been picking up some other things from home... playing the piano and reading more. Hopefully I'll be doing more of both this next semester. Once I figure out a cheap way to record stuff I'll throw some tunes up here too.

Happy Holidays.

Posted...Keep Out... No Problem!

I've noticed that while riding around Central Pa, a lot of shoddy run down homes in poor areas have lots of posted signs. KEEP OUT! Don't come knocking at my trailer park door, son! Most of these places resemble the picture above... who would want to go down there? It looks like the apocalypse might be down that private road- I'm not ready to be judged yet. Most of these signs are relatively unneeded.

Even better are the handmade signs along people's driveways that say "No Turning Around". Most of these you can't actually see until you've pulled into the driveway already. then what... I'm just supposed to pull out the same way!? "Shit, I didn't see that sign, I'll have to keep on going down the wrong way until I find a more friendly driveway owner". Lots of wear and tear on your driveway there buddy...

End of the semester

Well I'm busy as hell with tons of projects and homework and stuff at the end of the semester, but make sure you don't move to Cherry Tree, Pa. I mean... I might expect that from Wyoming or something, can you be serious?