Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Florida

Well, I have a lot of disaster control to do with blogging when I get back, but for now I will just say that I am in the Keys and having a lot of fun. Lots of snorkeling- yes I have been getting in the water (and taking my shirt off). Today was the first day of lobster mini season, so we went snorkeling for lobsters today. I caught one, but it was too small, but overall, we came home with 35 lobster on the day.

I have been running here, since I don't have a bike. I don't really like running. And it is incredibly hot here even at 7 am. So I really miss my bike. I miss it a lot. That is all.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Tales of Connecticut

So, now I am in Florida, but I was in Connecticut with Mike. That was a really good time. It all started with packing up my bike. You can see how many pieces the bike has to be in to ship it.

As I wrote about in other posts, we raced in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York the first weekend I was there and this past weekend we raced at Mount Snow in Vermont. They were both great weekends and both places had very cool (though hard) MTB trails, especially Mt. Snow. In Vermont, we stayed at the Nordic Hills Lodge and I would recommend this place to anybody because it was an awesome place. The room smelled a little funky, but they had free real breakfast every morning and they even got up early to get us breakfast so we could get to our races on time.Besides racing, my time consisted a lot of watching the Tour de France and The Office while Mike was at work during the week. Then we also rode a fair amount and just hung out. The picture below is where I slept while I was there (it is the area behind the closet- a place only someone as short as me could sleep in).

Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I had a lot of fun hanging out with Mike and it was a great trip. Now I am in Florida until the beginning of August. I am taking the next few days off from any excersize. Since I don't have a bike down here, I am going to start running once I get down to the Keys with my brother. Then I am going to do some intense training in the first half of August and ease off before collegiate season starts.

Monday, July 21, 2008

USAC MTB Nationals

I had a great time in CT with Mike, and I will write a little on that probably tomorrow, but here I will talk about my humbling experience at Nationals.

So, going into it, with good results in Michigan, I though for sure I could get a top-ten result and was seriously hoping to be on the podium- I was quite mistaken. After lots of trying to diagnose my problem, I am pretty sure I just don't have the fitness necessary to climb over 1500 feet per lap for three laps.

On Staurday, we did three laps in the XC event. It was a lot of climbing and it seemed like I was just going backwards. I was able to catch a lot of people whenever we started going downhill, because the downhill was really technical and a lot of fun, but it was not enough to make up the almost 20 minutes I lost to the winner of my class, earning me 23rd out of 35 guys.
Sunday was the Short Track event. I was really hoping to do well, because I am fairly good at pushing really hard, and there wasn't really any uphill in the course, just a couple bumps. For the first 7 minutes of the race, I was hanging out in the top 5. Then it just started getting harder and harder and some guys passed me here and there. There were points that my vision started going blurry because I was so in the red zone, but when they told us we only had three laps to go, I just pushed my body to keep going for 6 more minutes. I ended up getting 14 out 24, half a lap down on the winner. It was a slightly better result than Saturday and I was fairly happy with the result.

Mike ended up doing really well in his XC race, getting 18th out of 66 semi-pro racers, so congrats Mike. He wasn't as happy with his Short Track race, getting 30th out of 39, perhaps it was a little troublesome having a day off between the XC and STXC race.

In addition, at Windham Mtn. and at Nationals, Mike and I hung out a decent amount with some of the Bell's team, Joe and Erin, so it was cool getting to know them. Joe did really well in the semi-pro STXC, getting 8th out of 39 racers, so congrats to Joe.
It was also great meeting Mike's racing friend from last year, Nathan Pepin and his family. Thanks to them for the cheers and water bottle support at Windham Mtn and at Nationals.

Anyway, I learned a lot about myself this weekend, namely I am not as fast as I thought I was and I have a lot of work to do for the fall collegiate season and for next year for revenge at Nationals.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

UConn Trails

Yesterday, Mike and I rode the trails near the University of Connecticut. I love those trails. We rode them last year and it was the most confident I had ever been on a bike. Riding them again made me feel pretty good.

These trails are filled with rock gardens and tough downhills that made my arms sore to the point where I had trouble lifting things later. It would have been really cool if I had been able to get the research position out here at UConn, because then I would have been riding these and other great trails around here all summer. Oh well, it is awesome right now.

This weekend is MTB Nationals at Mount Snow, Vermont. I am going to try my best to get a higher placing this weekend in the cross country race, and I feel really good about my chances in the short track race on Sunday because my sprinting ability- I will just have to maintain it for 25 minutes.

Monday, July 14, 2008

We're not in Kansas anymore

So on Saturday, Mike and I went to the Catskills in NY to race a Nationals Series MTB race. I learned a lot in the race.
1. People don't care about the hole shot out here- I got it with ease and was feeling good as I stayed away for about 5 minutes, until everyone started passing me.
2. Everyone started passing me because when the race promoters say you climb 1500 feet per lap, they mean you do it all at once. The last race I did (in Michigan) probably only had about 200 feet of climbing at most.
3. When you get the top and people say "It's all downhill from here," they don't mean it is easier, just faster. It actually turned out being just as hard if not harder going downhill. My hands have never hurt so bad.
4. I am not very good at sustained climbs- the short steep ones like what we have in MI seem to work better for me.
5. Being good in Michigan doesn't mean anything at a Nationals level race.
6. The picture to the right is how you know who is passing you (or for others, who you are passing.


So, this race was a very good learning experience for me. The course was very fun and exciting and it was really fun to race at such a big event. I am glad I was able to do this race because everyone says this course is very similar to Mount Snow, which is where Nationals are next week, so some valuable lessons that will help next week are quite welcome.


I ended up getting 9th place out of 15 in my class. Mike ended up not so good, but only because he flatted three times on his last lap. He says he was in the top fifteen when he got his first flat.
Overall- a very good time.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Connecticut!

I flew in yesterday to Connecticut. I am here for a week and a half to visit Mike. It should be a great time. Tonight we are heading to the Catskills for the fifth race in the National Mountain Bike Series. Right now, there are 10 guys signed up in my class and 34 signed up in Mike's class. Mike should have his work cut out for him and I really don't know what to expect.

Anyway, I am excited to be here. Look forward to posts after this weekend.

Monday, July 7, 2008

4th of July Weekend

This weekend I went out to Kalamazoo to celbrate Independance Day and my Dad's b-day.

It started with a nice ride back to Jackson with an average speed of 21.5 mph. Then I mowed and we headed over to Kzoo.

Saturday was filled with the first day of the Tour de France, a nice ride in the rolling hills and vineyards of Lawton, MI and a bunch of new beers. Sheldon (Arika's boyfriend) and I went over to the Bell's Brewery Bar and tried a sampler. We had the Amber Ale, Poolside Cherry Wheat, Double Brown, Kalamazoo Stout, Mild Ale (which is never actually bottled), and the Third Coast Old Ale. Of these, I had only ever had the Amber, so I got to try 5 new varieties of Bell's there. And Sheldon had bought Bell's Consecrator Dopplebock earlier that day, which is a beer I have wanted to try for a very long time. The Dopplebock was very good, one of my favorites from Bell's. Of the six sampler, I like the Amber, Cherry Wheat, and Mild Ale. The other three were very strong. The Double Brown was undrinkable because it tasted like someone just dumped vodka in some beer.

Well, to get off the topic of beer, Sunday also consisted of Tour de France watching and a nice ride out to Lawton. I also watched the Wimbledon finals and we celebrated my dad's b-day. Then Sheldon and Arika brought me back to AA and we had dinner at Potbelly's.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

June Wrap-up

So June was a pretty good month. Two race wins out of four tries. There was also a 2nd place and a not so good 4th place in the Brighton TT.

Here is the Stony Creek podium.Training was a little more laid back than May, but was still very consistent. I only had 3 days off the bike. 618 miles total, half being on the road and the other half on the MTB.

Besides that, right now I am just looking forward to going out East to visit Mike and do a National Series race and Nationals.