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.

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?

Cellphone goodbyes...

I realized the other day that everyone seems to have their own style on the phone. I'm sure we've all done the interruption game... taking turns mistakenly interrupting the other person- ya know pretending like we're on Fox News or CNN or something.

Even more awkward than that, though, is trying to remember what kind of goodbye each person uses. Some people seem to be cool with just leaving it with "talk to ya later", and then hanging up. The odd thing is if you try and sneak a "bye" in after that, and they don't respond.... they were just in the act of hanging up right? It's not like they ignored my "bye". Or how about the:

Person 1: "goodnight"
Person 2: "talk to you later"
Person 1: "ok"
Person 2: "bye"
Person 1: thinking...what the hell, do I need to say goodbye AGAIN?

I mean... jeez how many times do you need to say, allright- this conversation is done. I'm almost to the point where I need something in my phonebook that reminds me that, hey the person I'm talking to is just a "talk to you later" person. I need not try and say goodbye after we say "talk to you later". But maybe it's just me.

PEACE.

Novel Searching.

I need some suggestions for some readin'. I don't want to read some sappy family saga drama though. Right now I'm reading about Krakatoa... volcano near Indonesia (west coast of Java) that blew to high hell in 1883. Sort of a cool read so far.
But seriously. send me some good books you've read. Fiction preferred... need some fictional stories in my life right now. Whitman, ShoJo... don't send shit about Playboy or anything with pop-up graphics.

Applications....

I finally submitted all my online applications... $400 worth. Applied to 7 schools.

1.UCI
2.UCD
3.RPI
4.VT
5.PSU
6.UDel
7.UConn

Still have to make sure all the recommendations make it there on time, and send out some transcripts and some essays which I have already written. So just a little more leg work, then I can sit back and wait for the rejection letters to pile up.

After living in State College for the last 5 years, I think I'd like to check out the urban scene for a while. Too bad I didn't factor that too much into my school choices. UCI is near LA. Sweet... LA rocks if you like smog. UCD is near SanFran. That'd probably be cooler. Other than that though... I'm looking at crappy 2nd tier cities or State College equivalents. Sucks... why can't there be any cool places in Boston, DC, San Diego? Ok there are good schools there, but MIT? Let's be serious. I don't think I could stand NYC- no place near enough to ride, and I also don't know if they have any good programs there.

On the way home for Thanksgiving I'll be stopping by Cornell, which I decided not to apply to afterall, and then RPI the next day. Can't wait for this semester to be over with.

Think I'm ready to ride outside again...

Hopefully I'm ready for an hour's ride outside.... this is the last ride I did... on the rollers. Avg power of 216W. I could easily do a ride outside and average far less than that.

Yea... the zero power in the midde was me falling off. Still can't ride with no hands on rollers. Oh well.

Sleep

The only reason I've been able to sleep this week.

Lance's new position

Lance's new position looks to be immitating Landis's TT position... all upright and shit.

PowerTap

I sort of used the PowerTap. Here is my first "ride"... 20 min jaut on the trainer which started out shitty but my knee felt better after I warmed up. Hopefully this trend will continue when I try and ride...gasp... outside tomorrow.

Serfas

usually suck, but these rock.
I'm going to buy some and then join a U2 fangroup.

Knee issues take 2

So my left knee has been bugging me since early September when I borrowed a friend's fixed gear to commute to campus a few times. I'm not sure what was going through my head, but I borrowed it because I had traded commuters with another friend so I could use his track bike to race the track. I might be the stupidest person I know. Cross season was the first victim of my stupidity, so I sold the Redline that never quite fit me right anyway. I'll get a Cannondale next year, if I'm healthy then. But my main concern is the fact that I'm supposed to start putting miles in on my road bike the 2nd week of November for the collegiate season. I'd also like to be hitting the gym now.

Well I've been doing PT for three weeks, and just had my 2nd appointment with the most incompetent sounding doctor I've ever hearrd. Got an MRI ordered this time though, hitting that tube of fun up tomorrow morning. Hopefully that will shed some light into what is going on, and I can get in to see one of the more knee specalists there and try and fix my second knee.

Seriously, if you have a fixed gear, I might break it when I see you next. No joking.

Naked Men...

I'm taking racquetball this semester. As I soon realized you get quite sweaty playing racquetball in those small stuffy courts. So after every class I hit up the locker room to change before heading out to my other two classes. First off you should not schedule normal classes right after Kines classes. Stupid mistake.

My beef starts in the locker room. Why do old men feel the need to prance around naked? Now if they didn't have a towel handy while changing, that's cool. But walking around the locker room naked with a towel hanging around your shoulders is just unacceptable. Even better are the old men who feel the need to weigh themselves while butt naked. All of these men are overweight. Is the quarter pound towel really going to break your goal for that day? I've done a little data collection and I've found that there is a one to one linear relationship between how overweight the dude is and how willing he is to walk around naked in the locker room:
I must share, though that my most traumatic naked man incident did not occur at the IM building this semester. And no it not feature Joe Whitman. A few summers ago my boss at my co-op also frequented the locker room where I showered after doing noon-time workouts on the bike. One time he happened to be there after doing a jog on his lunch break and he flagged me down and gave me some things to do that afternoon... all while butt naked in the middle of the locker room. I had a towel on. I sort of felt like I should have taken it off and just let her fly out there in the air. Am I alone on this? Towels are there for a reason.

New Commuter....

Well I decided to go the much easier route to get a new bike to kick around town with. Lady called into the shop the other day. She was cleaning out a shed in the back of a place she rents. Had a few bikes there she wanted to get rid of. One was a Schwinn Varsity. Some other junk with some duct taped stems. But there was also a 97-98 Trek VW Mtn bike. 19". 7 speeds. So I fixed her up a bit, and will have all the parts I need once I get some stuff off my old mountain bike that was junked together from freezethaw two years ago. I haven't ridden since I almost died riding it (wasn't my dumbass fault that time though) because it's an absolute piece of shit. But the cranks/BB are good, as is the front wheel, and that's all I need to get this thing running. Maybe a 7 speed cassette too. Those aren't too spendy though.

Yeah. so it's purple... can't really tell in the picture. But it'll take some fat tires and fenders, so this will work all winter long baby. Sahweet.

Also had another idea regarding switching bikes around. I think I'm going to use my old race bike, Ti Airborne Zepplin, as my new TT rig, and sell the Nova (current gay looking yellow TT frame) on eBay. I think the better fork and stiffness of the Zepplin outweigh (pun fully intended) the weight savings of the Nova (Al) over the Zepplin(Ti). So... look out ECCC, I'm going to have a Titanium time trial bike. That kid must be really fucking fast. He has flames anodized onto his Ti TT frame!


Going to put some more flames running down the downtube, and then something where the bike brand would normally go. Ideas are welcome. Stud has already been considered and is likely. Chrono is also up in the running. Maybe I'll figure out how to do those voting online things and we can have a slugfest, and maybe JUST MAYBE Steven Colbert will find out about this and ramsack my election and I'll have to write something like "Colbert" on my bike. That would make my day.

Forks aren't supposed to bend like this...

I finally sold the Redline cross frameset, but I was oh so very close to ruining the frame, and my body, before ever selling it...

I was riding down the sidewalk next to College Ave near Hout's on my Fuji commuter, holding the Redline in my left hand. A car looked like it was about to pull in front of me, so I went to hit the brake with my right hand. Now... I have my brakes crossed up, so this was my front brake. I looked down at the caliper to see it engage the wheel, and then move forward, because it was loosening up off the nut, and then give way. So I immediately loose all braking power and am just coasting. The car doesn't pull in front of me... it sees me coming and is waiting, but it doens't matter because I never made it as far as the car. My front caliper swings once or twice in front of my bike, and I'm thinking... shit I got to stop and catch that thing, so I take my right hand off the bar and try and reach for the other brake, which I can't get with my left hand becuase I'm holding the frame that I'm on my way to sell!! But before I reach that brake...

Boom. caliper runs inbetween some spokes, and completly jams up my front end. Bike flips over. Somehow I manage to jump off my moving bike (around 10-15mph) and land, running, in the middle of the traffic lane of College Ave. Now thankfuly there are no cars in College, just that one car looking to turn onto it. Well that car waits a second, sees that I'm still living, and takes off. I slowly collect the fact that I'm the luckiest piece of shit roadie ever. If I were some BMX or mountain biking fiend, then that would be a cool dismount, but hell, I shave my legs. I never run off my bike while it's doing flips underneath me, and not while I'm holding a frameset in the other hand!!

So... damage to the bike: The fork is absolutely fucked. As you can see in the pictures below both blades are bent back, and obviously not planar anymore. Riding the bike now is interesting... getting out of the saddle is out of the question. I ordered a new fork for it with cantilever brake mounts, and I got some braze-ons for the back that I'm going to weld on. I'll have to remove the bridge in the back that supports the seat stays and replace it with a bridge further up, or a plate up by the seatpost. So basically I'll have a single speed cross bike. Schweet. I'll post some more about the construction of this later on...

Check out the fork... and how close the front wheel comes to the downtube....




This picture is square on from the side of the bike. You can clearly see the bend in the fork, and the fact that the blades are no where near planar anymore. Sahweet. Maybe I can make a toilet paper roll holder out of this fork.

The paint came off the part of the fork that was put under tension. The front wheel here is very close to being in dish, so you can tell that the fork is really out of wack.... The metal stretched out causing the paint to flake off. The paint is fine on the front end of the frame, and nothing indicates that the frame was effected at all.




Another shot of the paint off the fork blades, and my extremly clean braking surface.

Good vibrations

I'm sitting in class the other day and someone's phone starts to vibrate. Ya know, that quiet reminder that everyone in the room can hear. Now I know full well that my phone is turned on silent. But as the vibrating noise is heard for the third time I reach down just to make sure. Open up my phone carrier thing on my Timbuk2 bag, and nope, not me. But right when I reach down the noise stops. The teacher looks at me. What!? seriously man it wasn't me!! So now I'm trying to find a pencil or pen or something I can pull from my bag to say, "see... here! that's what I was reaching for, not my phone!". But I got nothing, so I go up empty handed, taking the blame for the phone noise. That got me thinking.

We have custom ringtones. Why not custom vibrators? Now I know the ladies out there are saying, "hell yea!! I want some custom vibrating action." But seriously. If you could also program your phone to tap out some simple rhythm, then you'd know if its your phone right away. Now certainly this wouldn't matter if you had the phone in a pocket, as you'd feel it right away, but with everyone putting phones in bags and stuff, it's really hard to tell who is vibrating and who isn't. So here is my challenge to the cell phone companies out there: get me a phone with some customizable vibration action.

No more Ivan with CSC

Well the breakup with Ivan Basso and CSC finally officially occurred today. I figured this one had to be coming since reports were circulating ever since the Tour that Basso and Riis were not talking at all. Ivan has been in contact with Discovery Channel and Team Milram. I can't see how Discovery would ever sign him. Doping has been a problem that has not been much of an issue for Discovery, and I would hope they would want to keep it that way. I'd also feel really bad for Levi if they added Basso. Levi would still be a prominent rider for them, but I don't think he'd get the same 100% support at the Tour that he is likely to enjoy if he is the sole leader. I'm not even sure Basso is going to make much more noise at the Tour anyway...

Basso is going to have a quiet future. He'll join a team, and race without doping... which for him means getting dropped on the climbs that he had enjoyed success on before. I hope to see Ivan go to the Tour next year with Milram, be in the top 5 or so going into some mountain stage, and loose 10 minutes. Then of course NOT gain 9 back the next day by injecting testosterone directly into his testicles.

I'll be happy this Spring racing in the Men's B field in the ECCC, as I'll know that no one there is doping.

Energy Consumption... by States

I'm taking an online Energy course, EGEE 101. It's basically the easiest thing I've done here at PSU, and keeps me full time. Anyway, I came across this graph below (originally shown without the colors) that shows total energy use, and energy use normalized to population.

I realize you can't read anything in the image above, but if you click it it will come up full size, and should be readable. The first graph is the total energy per state. As you can see the red/blue (as defined by 2000 Election) is relatively well spread out. But the second graph is the energy use normalized to the population, basically how much energy is used by each individual person in those states (the black one is the US average). The first 16 states went to Bush. 16 states! These weren't the states that were close either, these were the blowout states of Texas and the midwest. Ya know, the ones they colored in about three weeks before the election. What does this tell us? Republicans use more power than Democrats? Not exactly, but it's interesting to see that the Republican dominated states are much less energy conscious. Now certainly places like Alaska have the fact that they are constantly heating their homes, which is a huge part of personal energy use. Other than that though, you have 15 states in the main body of the country that says, hey... the hell with you, i'm burning some oil in my front yard in a large barrel and you can't stop me, and I'm going to vote for child molesters.

Ohio and back

Took a little road trip out to Columbus, OH this weekend to visit Karin and my brother Todd, and my niece Cheyan. 18 months old, seriously coolest baby ever. She knows most of her colors... though most of them are usually "yeah-yo" until you tell her to guess again.

Here is a picture of me helping her pump up Dad's wheels before his cross race:


And a picture of us hanging out in the car



I drove back to Happy Valley Monday morning after the weekend and was pretty freeking tired. Stopped at a gas station that had a Starbucks attatched, and got a coffee and a lemon pound cake thing. When I went up to order, I asked for a "large coffee and a slab of the lemon pound cake". The recently employed hippy looking no good cashier looked at me and said, "You want a venti?" I just looked at her.... I wanted to say "I don't want a large Farva, I want a litre cola." But I felt like she wouldn't get that one. I just nodded.

A Venti? Are you freeking kidding me? Your company is from Seattle, shut the hell up venti. Is that italian? Starbucks? Quit it with your stupid sizes.

Bored in Engl202C

This is how much I care about Engl202C (Technical Communcation)

how about those geography skills. Don't be jealous. And yes I know I re-drew the Maine/Canada border a bit... but seriously... who cares, some moose?

Riding

Took an hour cruise around Centre County this afternoon. Knee felt pretty freeking allright for the first time in a few weeks. So hopefully the 6 advil a day and icebag of frozen corn is helping. Definetly going to keep a low profile until mid-November though, when I hope to start piling on the base miles and lifting. Maybe I'll have a powertap and a new CAAD9 frame by then... that'd be pretty sweet.

Also found out that my helium wheels I got at the swap are pretty f'ed up. I heard that some tubular helium rims had a problem with the nipples pulling through the rim, and upon close inspection the rim definelty has a lot of little micro-cracks (like the technical jargon?). So.... eBay! Fucking swap meets... good and bad. Just have to be careful... wrap it up.

Lehigh Valley Swap

Woke up at a brisk 4AM to head out to Lehigh Valley for the Fall Velodrome Swap. I packaged up a bunch of my junk to try and sell. Ended up parting with about 40 bucks worth of stuff I won't be needing. Spent most of the time working for the shop selling bikes and gloves and stuff. Big catch of the day.... 90 dollar pair of Mavic Heliums! Not bad! I'll probably use them as a low weight road race wheel set (ie when I don't want to use the front carbone/powertap) and then for cross next fall. Sahweet. Netted about 30 bucks, Mavic Heliums, and an Ultegra crankset which I realize I probably won't need when I buy this before cross next year:
I am looking forward to cross in the fall, but most of all I'm just hoping that I can put in all the training that time allows for this spring. Getting sick of injuries piling up. Therefore I will be wearing kneepads 24/7. And to answer your question Whitman, no.

Study Day

Well I took the GREs today, and I sucked it up. I don't think it'll kill me for most of my schools, but doesn't help my case for reaching for places like RPI or Cornell. I was especially pissed because I never really had trouble with the timing while practicing, but I pretty much screwed it up on the real thing. The problems were getting harder and harder, which is a good thing if you know how the GRE works, but I only had 6 seconds for the last question, and just guessed without even reading the whole question. Blows. I must have missed about 3-4 questions. I don't think I'll take it again though, time is pretty short and I'll still be able to get into a decent enough program I hope.

Also finally got a Dr. appointment for my left knee problems. Penn State Orthopedics..got in about three weeks sooner than at University Orthopedics. Freeking a man... I need to be better by mid-November to start putting some base miles in. Hopefully I can get some good tips to help get this taken care of as soon as possible.

Applied for a few spring internships too. One in State College, and one in Allentown with Air Products. I'm hoping to land something for Spring and Summer, and register the spring section as an offical internship with PennState...so I can race! I might have to register the whole thing as an internship and graduate at the end of the summer, but we'll see. Push comes to shove I'll just do an internship for the spring and work at the shop again this summer and race on my PSU CAAD9 as much as possible. I'm looking forward to that thing now... reallly looking forward to that.

GRE + Grad Schools

Well time off the bike has to be filled with something... and for the last few weeks it's been practice GRE tests and grad school hunting. After talking to professors and a bit of web searching my list is, in somewhat of a semblence of order:

1. RPI
2. Cornell
3. Virginia Tech
4. Penn State
5. UConn
6. Univ Central Florida
7. Case Western

I'm looking to get into a program where I can specalize in fuel cell technology. I really dig the elective I'm taking on the topic this semester, and I think it's a cool new wave of the future... as long as we can figure out how to get some hydrogen without raping the Earth.

I'm taking the GRE's on Friday... all the way down in Harrisburg, the closest testing center to State College. I'm not too worried about them, as I've done as much practice as possible. For those familar with the test I keep screwing up those damn quantitative questions dealing with the graphs or figures. I don't know why, I guess I'll just have to make sure to take enough time and not rush through those. Everything is pretty easy, you just have to figure out the easy way to think through the problems.

I'm getting pretty close to having the cash for the PowerTap. I have about 400 on hand, will be getting 130 from my security deposit (and another 130 once I keep threatening legal action) and whatever my Redline cross frame gets on eBay. I'm hoping to get at least 350. Hopefully I'll get the PowerTap and can put it to good use right away. Also trying to put some cash away for a CAAD9 PSU custom painted frameset for 375. That would rock... need to get some paychecks for that though...

And one more note, the party was off the hook. Thanks for those that showed up, and thanks to those who got girls to walk all the way from Burrowes. Clutch. Look for another 1105 bash when the weather is warm again... it's not an indoor party kind of place. This weekend we'll be crashing our neighbors party though, feel free to join us.

Cross delays...

Well cross hasn't started yet... at least for me. Went out on a 2 hour easy ride on the cross bike a few weeks back before a cross clinic I was really looking forward to. Unfortunately I tweeked my left knee pretty good. I think it was a combination of commuting a fixed gear for a few days, and the q-factor being off on the cross bike. Seriously people, check to make sure you're not an idiot like me and that you don't have a 113 BB in there... piece of junk. Been hitting the ice and advil like it's my job for the last few weeks... and finally today I went out for my first real easy road ride that didn't want to make my cry when I got home. Schwell.

Other goings on... finally got a list set for grad schools I'll be applying for. Somewhat in order of preference: RPI, Cornell, PennState, Virginia Tech, UConn, UCF, Case Western, UDelaware. That's a whole lot of application fees. I'm also saving up for a PowerTap SL. Also throwing down for an extra receiver for the TT bike, so no matter where I go, I'll be dishing out the power. In a months time or so expect to see an influx in the number of graphs that correspond to my base training on this site.

Other than that, normal last semester at school. Trying to land an internship of some sort that will keep me in State College and as a full time student. Trying to find a paid one, but one without money is cool too... keep me insured and racing my bike.

One final item: party at 1105 West Beaver Ave on Saturday. Come on down. Keg of yuenling, some imports, some domestics, and some high school chicks. Rockin'

My first MTB race... or was it a cross race?

I skipped out on the XC course this past Saturday, saving the demo bike from further damage. Instead of racing I slept in and iced my knee which was bugging the heck out of me. I was relieved to see a bunch of bruises surface on it though, confirming that it was likely just inflammation that was causing the pain and not anything more serious in the joint. I felt a lot better by Sunday and decided to do the Short Track Cross Country race (STXC).

Now I haven't even raced my cross bike in a cross race yet. I haven't even really taken many turns at speed or done much technical riding at all on it. So this was quite an intro to handling a bike at speed offroad. One turn was about 160 degrees, and thankfully somebody had worn out a New Jersey style jughandle to make the turn easier to take (not necessarily faster). The other dangerous turn was a pretty fast turn covered in gravel. I fell in both of those spots once on the course, and possibly twice at the sharp turn, I don't remember. I made up a lot of ground on the smoother sections of course on the parking lot and along the top of the course though. I felt bad about crashing in front of people, especially Matlin who I would pass a few times and get passed back due to my being on the ground. It all ended up well and dandy though, with Chris Ruhl taking off by himself and lapping almost the whole field, some UMass kid getting 2nd, and myself taking 3rd. Matlin was not far behind in 5th. Good start to my cross season. I think I'll consider this race a cross race without any barriers.

Looking forward to this weekend which should feature my first real cross training. Ry Leech and some other fast dudes are putting on a cross clinic, and I intend to soak up as much cross knowledge as possible.

Mountain Biking is hard.

I went out to Rothrock to test out the XC course today after class on the shop's Epic demo. Full suspension means I'll go fast right? Goddamn mountain biking is hard. First thing I noticed right off is that you need a lot more arm strength than road riding. Pushing and pulling that front end around is a lot more effort than even wacking my bars around in a sprint on the road. I progressively took better lines through obstacles while doing the technical loop on the course. I got to a point where I figured if I were lucky I'd probably be able to ride all the level rock gardens during the race. I handled the steep rocky downhill section a lot better than I thought I would. I just placed my nuts all the way behind the saddle and tried to touch the brakes only when I really needed to, which was most of the time. I did sucessfully hold a front wheelie for what seemed like 10 feet, but I'm sure was closer to 2 feet, over one of the steeper sections. Endoing on that descent would fucking hurt.

Speaking of endoing....I was riding the smooth back section of the course and being a bit lazy taking my lines through things when I pulled my front wheel up onto a large rock thinking I'd just ride over it. Well it was steep as shit on the other side and I quickly found myself flying over my bike. Fucking a. Bust up both of my knees and must have landed oddly on my left hand because it's sore as hell. I noticed later on that my right knee is swollen pretty bad, pretty near to my surgical site... not a good memory. I'm not sure if I'll race tomorrow at this point, I'm sure it'd be fun, but I don't want to push myself if I'm swollen for a race that ultimately doesn't mean much to me.... props to mountain bikers, that shit is hard. I had fun when I took good lines through the gardens, but I really don't see myself consistently going out to Rothrock with the desire to beat the shit out of myself.

Last Bikereg Transaction until March

Andy Munas (notice which way he is eating the bananna), Ben Smith, a WVU rider Geoff Moy and I descended on Waitsfield, VT for the Green Mountain Stage Race.

The first stage was a hillclimb up past our humble abode of a ski lodge, to the top of "App Gap". The 3 race featured such exciting features as a nasty wreck in the fast "neutral" section and yours truly getting dropped from the leaders relatively quickly to end up in 78th. Geoff notched the biggest gain by getting 6th, while Munas was up there in the points as well. Ben featured pretty well in the 4s, somewheres in the teens. The juniors were fast as fuck, and the triathlete chicks who were climbing up the climb were hot.

Second day was a rolling circuit race. I got dropped right off the back on the feedzone climb on the first lap. I worked up into the field after a few miles thanks to the help from my brother's buddy Kyle from ECV. Each sucessive lap I got dropped less than the previous, so I was able to catch back on after the climb on the last lap relatively easily. When I got up to the front, there was a group off the front who was looking to soak up the 100pt finish bouns from the field, and my bitch Andy. So I worked with the guys in the front as much as I could. Did a few turns and the group came back somewhat. On another little riser before the finish I had trouble staying in the group, and it was all I could do to finish with the group at that point. Andy snagged a 10th place for the ever important 1 bonus point to go with the 100 finish points that stemmed from that group getting caught riiiight on the line. Geoff got dropped, as the 70 or so miles seemed to take their toll, but Ben finished up in the points again to keep his spot on GC in his race.

Third day was a nightmarish road race, on a good day. On a bad day it was freeking fun, but painful. We started in 50 degrees and pouring rain. The course featured three climbs, with the last being an absolute beast with pitches up to 24%. I thought I flatted on the flat sections before the first climb, so I stopped and got a front 404. Really I just wanted to be like Munas though, as he had broken a spoke the day before and sported the Zipp then. Motorpacing back to the group is fun, and highly reccomended. So of course on the first climb I got dropped, but descended like a son-of-a-bitch and made it back to the albeit slow moving field before the real fireworks went off. I managed to get up to Munas and Geoff and made sure they didn't need anything. Once again I got dropped on the first hints of uphillness leading up to the final two climbs. I was impressed with my effort anyway though, as I paced myself up the whole last part of the course, slowing picking off everyone I got within sight, and was only passed on the climb by some 40+ finishers who were duking out the finish.

I think I picked up a bug from somewhere on that rainy day though, as I was in absolutely no condition to race the next morning. I literatlly was running to the bathroom every 10 minutes in the morning. So I packed up my stuff and went up to the big city to watch the boys crit race. Ben was feeling allright in his race, but got caught in a crash and possibly fucked up his carbon stays. Geoff had some trouble from the getgo with a bad start and apparent lack of motivation in crits, while Munas stuck it in the group to finish off the day.

Then we drove a quarter way down the eastern seaboard to go to classes. I'm looking forward to collegiate season again...