Oscar the cat...yay!

there are only a few individuals that will enjoy this, so all 3 people that follow this you probably dont need to watch this video...unless you like seeing cats swat at mouse toys

Yay Mountain Biking!!

Tiny Tim Big City...this time for more than a day

I rode through a few cornfields today, I felt a bit nostalgic and at home. I then quickly found myself amongst subdivisions, golf courses, and cars again. Welcome to Rochester, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit located in the richest county in Michigan, Oakland County. It's not too bad here. It doesn't look like a big city. There's a lot of green space, pretty roads, and heck, I even live of a small dirt/gravel/pine tar road. Don't let that fool you, it only looks not like a big city. There is still a bunch of traffic, everything is expensive as hell, and there is absolutely no place to ride a road bike. Lame. I hooked up with the Oakland University Cycling Club and have gone a ride with them, but there are two of them and the roads that they took me on are pretty busy. They would be roads I would've been extremely hesitant to ride on anywhere else, but they seem to be pretty normal roads for here. Perhaps I'll just have to get used to it.

I have managed to get on the velodrome that is only 3 miles from my place. I even raced for the first time on the track last weekend. It was pretty sweet. I did okay in the overall for the night, and managed to get 2nd in a points race and the miss and out. I had a lot of fun, but unfortunately now that classes have started I can only get there one night a week when they are doing their "elite" training. Every night I don't have class it is either kids night or new rider night - not a good night to go rip around and get a workout in.

There are a lot of MTB trails nearby and some crushed limestone doubletrack/old railroad trails. The trails are pretty confusing and more technical than what I am used to. Some of the decents are pretty steep and tricky...and I don't quite have those skills yet. Last time I was there I flew over handlebars a few times, got some poison ivy - it was awesome. I think I am going to head over there this afternoon and get lost for a few hours, maybe I'll learn the trails then.

This sounds all whine whine whine whine, mainly because it is. I'm going to head back to Iowa all fat and out of shape since the riding here blows. Or I'll become a baller MTB racer since that's all I'll be doing all the time. Or maybe I'll become a baller track rider. Or maybe, I'll just suck it up and go ride on the road. Or maybe, I'll go buy some cheese to go with my wine.

Oh yeah, I finished off the season with one last crit on Labor Day over in Auburn Hills, about 4 miles from my place. It was a pretty big race, almost 100 people took the line and the payout was about $3500. I was pleased with how I did, especially considering my amount of consistent race training. I was able to race the race, and not just hang on for dear life at the back. Throughout the race I was in about five or six groups that got gaps on the field, each time with about 10-12 other riders. When the group would get pulled in, I'd head to the back and recover, and then try it all again. I blew up after my last attempt with about 10 minutes to go in the race (it was a 90 minute race). I tried, almost had some things go my way, but ultimately, things did not go my way and I was chewed up and spit back out by the pack. That was my season in a nut shell, and how appropriate that is how I ended it. It was a good confidence boost, though, to end the season as an animator, not pack meat.

Bring on the off season. Time for some fun riding, lack of intervals, beer, some fishing, and perhaps some school. Rode to Lake Michigan with Terry, Jenn, Kiefer, and the ND cycling crew over the weekend. Stopped at a Sweedish bakery (it was awesome) and I rode into (and out of) the bathroom at the lake shore park and used the facilities without ever getting off my bike...yeah, Im a baller.

Epiphany

so i realized i really only blog when i have nothing better to do....like homework

The possession of water dwelling rodents...within city limts...for recreational..that aint legal either

So, I figured I should throw down on the blog because I am sitting here in Jenn and Mikes apartment killing some time before the races in Waterloo (where the Trek factory is located) start up.  I took the day off of work to come up here and race and see Jenn, but unfortunately she had to work this morning so I have been up ever since waiting for live coverage of the Tour de Swiss to start up...it finally has, and now I am no longer bored. ..yay.

Anyway, I didnt post results from the last races I did about 3 weeks ago.  I threw down 17th and 9th place finishes in some local crits here in Wisconsin (the Chiropractic Crit and the Sussex Crit).  I managed to make the move both days, which was exciting.  I also managed to hang with the move for a while both days, but then I also managed to get dropped from the move both days.  Saturday I got dropped with about 20 minutes left and was then gobbled up by what was remaining of the field (about 40 started each race).  I hung out there until the finish and came in an unexciting 17th.  Sunday was better as I got dropped from a loaded break with 10 minutes left in the race.  The break had some of the guy that animated the Memorial Day Weekend races and some other guys that routinely take me behind the woodshed and brutally beat me during the collegiate season...I was pretty happy just to be there and then hold off the pack to place in the money.  That $30 made my weekend....Jenn did really well that weekend, too...in fact, way better than me (I have a strong feeling that she is pretty much always going to do better than me from here on out..perhaps even become too good to hang out with the likes me me).  She won her first race ever by lapping the field solo Saturday and then she took 3rd Sunday in the field sprint.  Shes pretty much a huge badass now, way more badass than I can aspire to be.  I suppose I need to start taking tips from her...

Now, I am here in Wisconsin again for the Tour of Americas Dairyland.  I am almost thinking it was a $200 donation to Wisconsin racing...but I should really just look at it as an investment of form and race experience.  While it would've been nice to stay in Iowa and have a chance to do well, I am here in Wisco to take a beating.  My goal is to just finish all the races, if I do that I'll be happy.  Of course, I'll give her the 'ole college try and take my chances when I get in a position to do so.  Hopefully these won't be as hard as I am making them out to be in my mind, but the amount of quality riders here should set things up for some fast, hard racing.  Racing at these speeds can only help me out in the future; either to make other races seem just plain easy, or so that I can get to the point where I can be in the position to win a races like these.

The end of the blog post is here and I have realized that it is pretty much devoid of any sort of humor, which is really kind of lame.  I could quote the big lebowski, but I already did that in the title for no reason.  I could just point out that I feel really worldly as I have been watching cycling online in just about any language aside from english and have been watching ultimate fighting in spanish....soon enough Ill be able to understand what the hell theyre saying

Sometimes you eat the bar...

Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar, well, it eats you...

Is that some sort of eastern thing? (Far from it, Dude...)

Anyway, memorial day weekend has come and gone. I was looking forward to it as it is a big weekend of racing (duh). I "raced" all four days, but would say that I really only raced two of the days, and at that, I was really only a factor in one of the days. My typical bad luck carried into the weekend with a flat tire Friday during a little stint off the front. There was a group of 6 or 7 up the road already and the race was just chillaxin, cruising a long at whatever speed. We didn't have anyone up the road and since I was kind of bored, Sean and I decided that I could spice things up a bit. Being a way down on the GC, way behind the other group, and rather large, they figured I wasn't threatening and let me go. I had a decent gap on the field, at least 30 seconds, perhaps some more, and was pretty stoked to be off on my 40 mile solo journey to the finish line (that is if it stuck). At that instant, though, I started to feel the rim of my rear wheel. I just hit the brakes, stood on the side of the road with my hand in the air, and waited for a wheel change. I got it, but was unable to chase back on as I think someone moved to the front and started to reel in the original break after I was chewed up and spit out the back. I rode back in the with the 3/4 field until some ref told me I couldnt after another told me I could. Lame. At least when I flatted, the first 10 people of the field gave me the old groan and that sucks expressions. That made me feel kind of good, they wouldnt have done that had they thought I were a tool...

Snake Alley - it was a short experience, only 8 of 20 laps, which was kind of lame. I just had a bad starting spot and wasnt aggressive enough in moving up. Oh well, it was still fun.

Mellon City - made it about halfway through the race. I just didn't move up enough during the race and yo-yoed off the back for a while until I popped. I guess Im too fat to go up hills?

Rock Island - I actually hung with the race, which I was pretty stoked about. I mean, it was flat so there wasn't really anything to break it up, but it was a fast race. I had worked my way up to maybe the front third once, but then I got caught behind a crash early which put me back at the end. I stayed in the back third of the pack for the rest of the race despite efforts to move up. With a few to go Bryan and I got caught behind a crash on the backside of the course. I kind of sort of went down. I was forced off my bike and my bike got tangled in someone elses bike, but I didnt hit the pavement with anything except my feet. The chainring took a chunk out of my ankle, though, and now I dont know if my PBR socks will ever be white again.

So, in short it was a challenging weekend, but thats alright. Id rather be "racing" in the 1/2 field than animating and winning the 3 race - I want to be the best, so I might as well race with the best. I hated doing well in a 3 race just knowning that I really wasnt the best, that there was someone up the ladder there that had they been in the same race they wouldve shelled me. Now, if I ever win, I can know that infact I was the fastest guy there that day. I've got a ways to go until that happens, but this weekend was a nice eye opener and it just makes me motivated to ride more and harder. Anyway, here's a quote from Bode Miller that I kind of like (thanks R2G)

"When the challenge gets bigger, I just want to ramp it up more. My only worry is that at some point Im just going to die, but Im not that worried about that because, that will be it, and up until then I usually charge pretty hard, and it doesnt seem to get any less fun the harder you push"

Double Flat

So, getting 2 flats simultaneously at mile 20 of a 110 mile road race sucks. What sucks almost as much is chasing for 4.5 hours and riding 110 miles in a little under 5.5 hours pretty much by yourself only to miss the time cut by a few minutes...

on top of that, my corkscrew broke as I was trying to open my bottle of cheap wine

Perhaps I am going to get hit by a car tomorrow?

bummer man, at least andrew is still in it

H1N1 Flu

I am pretty sure the whole H1N1 flu thing has only caught on in Iowa as it was Tom Vilsack that wanted everyone to start calling it something other than the swine flu because then people think something is wrong with all the pork in the stores. Anyway, there was a case of H1N1 flu reported here at Notre Dame and I have since contracted it and became the second US death. Yeah, I'm writing to you from beyond the grave and the only reason I am not resting in peace is because I need to spread the word on how dangerous the H1N1 flu is. I didn't get as much press because I wasnt the first (which is crap), but I guess thats how news works. Oh well.

Really, though, I wish this whole swine flu thing would die down. Its just the flu. It poses the same dangers as the flu I managed not to get this winter (and instead, I succumbed to the swine flu...yay). The H1N1 flu thing is getting as hold as the whole ND inviting Obama to speak at graduation. I understand everyone's arguments and where people have their panties in a bunch. Good, academic discussion about it is good - nay, it is welcomed - but when I have crazy activists moving from the vatican to South Bend just so they can hire a biplane to fly around campus with a pro-life banner 5 hours a day and parade around campus with baby strollers with cabbage patch kids doused in ketchup....really? Please, let's move on...the only way you are going to get it changed is by talking to the administration, not by hauling fake dead babies around campus.

Anyway, enough ranting. Here's what I put on the B2U/WOB blog about the Winona Race...

"Yesterday I threw down in a local 65 mile RR so that I could represent the B2U/WOB shops here in Indiana. After the performance I am positive people will be making the trip to Iowa to patronize the shops. Anyway, the field of about 40 guys had some good teams in it - Texas Road House, Alderfer Bergen (the team is stacked with a lot of dudes from my collegiate conference and Indiana University...IU has a wealth of fast dudes), and some guys from the Bissel club team. The field also had some solo guys that had been hauling me around the midwest during the collegiate season. I didn't have high hopes going in, being that I was flying solo, but a guy can't win if he doesn't try.

To spare everyone the gory details, a break went from the field early in the race, and then halfway through the race a chase group, including me, took off from the field. The chase of 10 was powered by the Bissel and Road House teams. We (and by we, I mean them) shut the gap down from 2 minutes to about 30 seconds, and then the cat and mousing/fireworks started to happen. Bissel and Road House ended up getting guys up the road, along with a few crazy strong guys from other teams. That left me to chase the last 5 miles with 6 guys on my wheel. No one would work with me since they had teammates up the road or were "too tired", and I didn't want to sit up as it would let a lot of guys get back into the race, potentially pushing me out of the money. So, I put the hammer down and hauled into the finish. Somehow (perhaps by the grace of all performance enhancing drugs I've been injecting?) I rode 5 of the guys off my wheel before the finished. That left one Road House guy on my wheel that routinely houses me at collegiate races. I opened up my sprint late since it seemed he wasn't going to come around until I went. The powersticks almost came through, as I was edged out by only half a wheel (when I was expecting to get absolutely wasted) for 8th place.

All things considered, I'll take an 8th place. It felt really good, especially riding everyone off my wheel the last five miles. It made me feel like I was good or something. Next up Joe Martin...woo hoo!"

PS I really didnt die from the H1N1 flu.....

Last tale of pain, ciff notes style, and some other stuff

See this? This is me dishing out the pain on "the snake." Mike Moritz was kind enough to catch me ripping up the hill (I mean, its kind of hard to miss me, Im huge and obeeeeese). Seeing good 'ole Bryan in the picture means that I must've worked my way up to the front, which I guess is quite the task considering I started in the last row...87th position or some crap like that. I continued my assualt up the course and eventually made my way up to the very, very front. I rode almost half the race in either first, second, or third position. It was great - I could feel the snake alley victory within my chubby fingers. I could go with the skinny dudes up the hill, and then with gravity on my side, I could pull away on the downhill. I had the plan, the last lap I was just going to keep contact up the hill, and once we were on pavement again, I was going to let the fat take over and ride off into the throngs of people for my biggest victory yet. Right before the penultimate time up the snake, though, fate threw a large stick into my wheels. The stick didn't break any spokes, though, it gave me a flat tire. Damn. So, I'm standing at the bottom of the hill yelling for a wheel, anything, as the 2 leaders ride way from me. Im screeeaaaming for a wheel, eyeing the dude with zipps next to me, eyeing the open pro to the left of him, anything! Then, out of no where, Nick comes running with his bike! "Take my bike dude" he yelled. I told him to switch the wheels (since I was afraid i was going to trash it on a downhill...i know, im so lammmee). After a super quick wheel change (the whole thing mightve taken 30 seconds) im back and riding. By this point, though, I had dropped to maybe 8th or 9th position. I pick up Bryan on my next lap and I ride in after he blows by me in the sprint. 7th or 8th...whatever I got there, totally not bad, at all. But soooooooo close to awesomeness.....It just all came spiraling downward so fast...and then I cried, a lot. Ok, no I didn't, but you couldn't blame me if i did, could you?

Anyway, I've been crazy busy the past two months with riding and working and schooling and everything. Hit up a lot of collegiate races - I would've thrown down some race reports if anything interesting happened, but the only interesting this is that I got dropped from every road race and I was off the front of every crit for about 15 minutes in a very promising move, only to get reeled in at the end and place somewhere in the back. The college races were tough this year, 40-60 guys every race, super fast, and little recovery. It was balls to the wall for almost the entire race. There were some good dudes in those races, and while it sucks to get dropped, it can only help racing against the quality of people I raced with this spring. It can only make a guy better. I was probably more excited to watch Jenn race and do well (she's this close to getting a win, I can feel it), and watch Nate and a few of the other guys on the team get better throughout the season.

Im stoked for Iowa City this weekend. I'll be rocking the 1/2 race, so hopefully some good things will come of that. I'll be rocking a new team, which I'm super stoked about. I can't wait to race with all the guys from B2u/WOB - we look sweet, which is by far the most important thing, and we should be putting up some W's this year. Maybe Ill post something afterwards...you know, sooner than two months after this post.

Tales of Pain - Continued

So, fast forward a year from where we left off. We were no longer in Kansas (right Toto?) and instead, we found ourselves in a place that does not suit us flatlandish Midwesterners - Ft. Collins, Colorado. There were real, legit climbs in the vicinity. We had to go up a few, and while to me they were real, hardcore climbs, to climbers they were just mole hills. I'm such a pansy. The road race went fine. As always, I missed the split. It was more of a who could climb and who couldn't. I popped about 100 meters too early, right before the end of a gradual two mile climb without much of decent afterwards. I never caught back on - it was hardcore lame, I was probably the 2nd to last guy to get popped from the lead group. I brought it home in the laughing group, except none of us were laughing as there was a huge crash on the decent back into town. Mike (R2G) was in that crash, and I honestly thought he might have died. He looked dead as I rode by and as it turns out, he just had some hardcore road rash. When he was on the road, though, he just decided that it would be cool to take a nap while the EMT's tended to everyone else, specifically Sean Noonan who was really, really messed up.

While that all really sucked, the heartbreak comes the next day at the nationals crit in downtown Ft. Collins. We weren't too far away from the New Belgium Brewery - I still kick myself in the ass for not stopping by. Anyway, after a solid performance by Jenn in her race (an awesome 8th place at nationals...I have no doubt in my mind that she had the sprint to win the race, just had some crappy positioning coming in...8th aint bad though), I took the line with Mike, who was a badass and raced after a hardcore crash. He ended up crashing on the very last corner of the race because some dude ran into him and overlapped handlebars. He walked his dead cannondale synapse over the line. I was having a good race from the get go. I had some left in the tank from the day before and the powersticks were jumpy. I was a part of a few early moves that got reeled in. Of course, the move I wasn't in was the one that was going to stick. It was just really weird, though, as people kept leaving the peleton to make it up to the break. At first it was 5, then 6, then 7, then 8. After a lap or two of that, I was like screw this, Im going because no one is going to chase me. I went, and no one chased me. I chased for a lap full gas and was just about to make contact onto the back of the group. I knew this was the group that would take the win, and I was getting gassed trying to catch them. I took a few risks around some corners to make up time and it was paying off. Then, this one corner - well, it sucked. The sidewalk melted into the road and the road narrowed some. I took it going 30-some and hit the little bump from the sidewalk. It threw off my line and before I knew it, I had to bunny hop the curb and then a pile of 5 bikes. Having cleared BOTH and still being on two wheels, I slipped and ate it in the grass. I got back in the race with the pack but could only manage to yo-yo off the back. I think I bounced my head pretty hard when I hit the deck. Of course, the group that I almost made it up to sprinted it out for the win (&$%#) and I managed to flat on the last lap, not finishing.

Yay Nationals!!

So, I have one more tale that makes me want to punch myself in the face. Tune in, well, sometime and Ill throw down and let you know. Maybe this is entertaining? No? Fine, well, this is probably entertaining....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7IESL-R6WE

it's the band of Jason Ellis - a skater and a dude that has a radio program on satellite radio...if you act like a 12 year old like I do (only if you ACT like 12 year olds, not date them) youll probably find him funny

My Career...In a nutshell

So, as the season creeps ever closer, I started talking about goals and races past with my super hot way better bike racer than me girlfriend. Jenn succeeded in reminding me about how painful my results at big races have been. Yeah, I have had some good results and I have had some good results in some big races, but lets take another trip down memory lane and look at some of these heartbreaks...perhaps youll be able to read the emotion as my heart break again while I write these devastating tales....I'll hit them up one by one over the next couple of days so everyone has a reason to keep checking in. First up is Collegiate Nationals 2007. This is the first really big race that I was hardcore gunning for. The best collegiate bike racers in the nation were there, and I was amongst them, even though I was in the lowly small school division. Anyway, major flooding in Kansas caused our race to be rerouted onto 1.5 mile of gravel which worked out well in our favor because we had been used to riding gravel. We had a road race earlier in the season with some gravel, and we just rode our crappy bikes on gravel for fun. The first 29 mile loop was fine. Sure, it sounded like a warzone with all the tubies popping, but I made it through fine. The 2nd time through I wasn't so lucky. Above is a picture of how unlucky I was (It was on the home page of Velonews...sweet, Graham Watson took a picture of me!). The guy in the read circle? Yeah, thats me attempting to put my head underground after I ran over a pile of people behind me. It was awesome. I ended up getting up and regaining contact with the peleton before the next gravel section, which was pleased with. There was a big hill right before the gravel section and I followed an attack going up the hill only to look back and see that the race had been blown apart. I was so stoked. We hit the gravel section and I was maybe 300 or 400 yards behind the lead group of 6 with my Maddog and R2G (Matt and Mike, my teammates) and some other randos on my wheel. I threw down to get them up to the group and I got them up there with only a little ways left to go on the gravel. This was it, this was the move. I was for sure going to be in the top 15 in the nation. I had me sweet euroburns and was strong as hell, even after wrecking once before. Check out the dirt still on my jersey, check out the extra bottle in my jersey for domestique duties. This is as e were making contact, miliseconds before some dude blew a tire and skidded right in front of me. POWWWW!!! That was it, game over. That was the day the De Rosa sustained her life ending injury. That was the day I trashed a wheel. That was the day a dream was crushed. Maddog ended up getting 8th, and Mike was off the front of the group for 8 or 9 miles. He even got to drop back to the car to get a coke. So euro. Me? It looked like a bear mauled and when a USCF official asked me what happend, I told her "What do you think happened? You rerouted 150 amatuer ROAD cyclists onto 1.5 miles of gravel when most have never seen a gravel road before. You then graded it to make sure there were no good lines through it, and then everyone with super thin racing tubies and no bike handling abilities had to ride through it. How great of an idea was that lady?"

Actually, I may not have told her that...I probably just thought it, but I gave her a dirty look....fo sho.

Check in again to hear another tale of hearbreak. Yay!

Collegiate race season starts in almost a week! yay for 8 hour drive to kentucky!

So, I failed miserably

The calorie attempt did not go to plan. I put on my spandex and went to Rolfs to hit up the precor. I brought the gigabeat and my "battered and fried stick of butter energy bars" that pound on these record attempts. The first 30 minutes went according to plan and I was on pace, but after that It all went downhill. I still burned 1650 calories, but nowhere near the 2100 that is the record. It was wicked hard, too, I felt like I wanted to die afterwards. Perhaps I was on a crazy machine last time? Perhaps in the pat 3 years I've gotten weaker? Perhaps the recalibrated the machines? Who knows? What I do know is that I need to stop playing on my computer and do some work. I think once it gets cold out again Ill go at 'er again.

Yeah, this is a lame update, but I felt bad that it has been almost 3 months since Ive updated this piece...ill do a better job again soon