Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Back to life (on a bike)

I haven't posted in a very long time. And my previous two posts didn't really have anything to do with biking. That's because I was on a bit of hiatus. Disappointment with the September snow and early end to my MTB season made me dislike biking for a little bit.

Now I am back in Michigan for break and I am trying to get back on track. The plan is to get back into training when I get back to Montana so I am at least able to race in the summer.

I have downhill skied twice now and that may turn out to be a winter activity that I could start using as a half-time replacement for winter biking. Especially since biking in the winter is much harder in Bozeman since they don't ever plow the roads.

Skiing at Bridger Bowl with Cate and Katie


Night skiing at Nub's Nob with Kelly, Mike, and Chris

Other than skiing, I have also been dancing. This can also be a little bit of a workout, but definitely not a part-time replacement for biking. You saw the boots, now here is the hat...So I have gotten some good rides and some good XC skiing in since I have been in Michigan and I am pretty sure I will get back on track in Montana.

I never wrote about Iceman, but it was one of my favorite races ever. I raced Pro this year, in a starting field of about 80 guys. I ended up getting 48th, only 11 minutes down on JHK. The race was so much fun and it was great racing in the Pro field. The weather was 60 and sunny while I was racing, so I got to where shorts and a short-sleeve jersey, which is an Iceman first for me. When I finished, the last half mile was lined with thousands of screaming people and that was one the coolest things ever.Kelly did awesome in her first ever Iceman, getting 16th out of 48 starters with an awesome time of 2 hours 35 minutes. She also enjoyed the race, so I think she'll be back. Mr. B exceeded his expectations for his second Iceman, getting 37th out of 132 guys in his class! Steve enjoyed his second stolen Iceman as well, and only pissed off one guy that wasn't even racing either.

So I will try to keep up with the blog and also to get back to tweeting, as I have been slacking on that as well.

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Boots

If you thought I looked awesome in my Dwight glasses (Previous Post), wait until you see me in these babies...
Now I just need to get a sweet hat and a bigger belt buckle to complete the outfit...

Thursday, September 24, 2009

More Montana

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, it has been busy here between school, biking, and fun.

This post is going to be full of pictures. Most of them will be of my apartment. And I guess this post won't have much to do with biking. Here is a picture view of my apartment:
Living RoomLiving Room 2
KitchenDining Area with no tableBedroomBedroom 2And Hannah made the trip to Montana, too

So I don't actually spend too much time there, but it is a pretty good spot. It feels a lot better since I got stuff up on the walls, and when I got a coffee table and bookshelf. I was pretty happy when I got those, because now the only items left in a box is stuff that goes on my desk. I also just got satellite TV, so now I have Big Ten Network and Fox Sports Detroit. I am quite excited about that. I got to watch the Michigan football game last weekend, and now I will still get to watch some of the volleyball and hockey games. And of course softball in the spring.

A lot more of my time is spent at the Chemistry Building on campus. I don't have any pictures right now, but maybe I will do that soon, because it is a pretty cool building. I tried to get another picture of the sunset out of my office, it looks pretty cool, but the picture still doesn't do it justice.

Along the same line with sunsets, here is the reflection of the sunset on the clouds outside of my apartment one night.
The road riding is pretty good around here. There aren't anywhere near as many roads here as in Michigan, so the amount of different rides is pretty limited, but I can ride flat if I want to and I can climb if I want to. My favorite road ride here is up Hyalite Canyon. It is about an 8.5 mile climb that goes alongside Hyalite Creek up near the top of the mountain. The paved road actually stops short at the reservoir. I took a lot of pictures to try to make a panorama, but the panorama didn't look to great, so here are two of the pictures from the top of the climb. The whole route along the river is amazing, too.

On campus, there is a duck pond that is actually heated during the winter, so the ducks stay year around. There are a lot of ducks there, as you can see below. The first time we went to feed the ducks, they were pretty nice and stayed in the water, but they are getting more aggressive each time we go. Now they have been walking right into Amanda's lap and biting us to get our attention.

Last week, I drove to Billings with Amanda to get her a kitten (she actually scoped it out on the internet to find the perfect kitten). Here is a picture of Wendy. She is an awesome little kitten and I never realized I liked kittens so much. Although, I am missing a lot of skin from my hands and arm. It will be nice when she is de-clawed.
I just started doing some research work in the lab this week, but for now I will be on "rotation" type work. Of course, this will just mean I will be learning skills I don't already have, and most of my work for the near future will be to grow proteins. School is going well, graduate level courses are better than undergraduate level classes. To earn my keep, I am teaching general chemistry labs. It is pretty time consuming, with three three hour labs a week plus at least three hours to grade 60 lab reports a week. Tonight I proctored an exam for Gen Chem and it was pretty fun being on the other end for once.

Last night, I went to some country dancing lessons and learned some basic steps of jitterbug dancing. It was pretty awesome. But I also learned that my belt buckle is way too small. And I need some cowboy boots and sweet cowboy hat. I think there will be more to come with that in future posts- hopefully with a picture of a super sweet cowboy outfit.

I think that is all I have for now. Saturday I will be putting on a collegiate MTB race, so look forward to a post about that. And maybe some chem building pictures and more cool pictures of Montana while we still have good weather.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Leverich Canyon Crank Up

On Saturday, I raced again here in Montana at a trail called Leverich Canyon that is just a couple miles south of Bozeman. The trail was 6 miles per lap with 1000 feet of climbing per lap. I did four laps. Here is the elevation profile they had listed on the website:
The race was really hard and to be honest, I am really starting to get sick of climbing and descending so much. They are usually equally as painful when they are sustained for so long. I find myself wishing for the downhill when I am going uphill and wishing for the uphill when I am going downhill. Its not too often I can say to myself "man, this is fun." But I guess I better get used to it...

I ended up getting fourth place out of eight riders in the Pro/Cat. 1 field. I am pretty happy with the result considering I am still new to the whole climbing forever then descending forever thing. I was talking to the guy who won the past two weekends and he said I chose the hardest two races in MT to start out on. So I guess that is encouraging.

In other news, Congratulations to Kelly for being the 2009 MI State Champion for her age class!! Kelly raced at Stony Creek on Sunday to finish the Tailwind State Championship series and she clinched her win and the free Iceman entry! She is giving Team BCB something to be proud of.
Congrats Kelly!!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Montana

Here I am. In Bozeman, MT.

It is a little different than Michigan, much higher up and much less people. There are only about 37000 people here in Bozeman. The biggest city in Montana is 110,000, not much bigger than The Big House on football Saturdays.

But the mountains are great and the mountain biking is pretty good, too. I raced this past weekend at Big Sky Resort (the tallest Ski resort in the country, according to Mike). It was pretty brutal. I heard someone say it was 900 feet of climbing per 5 mile lap. And it seemed to all be concentrated in about 2 of the 5 miles. It was very steep and I was using my W-gear a lot. I surprised myself with 4th out of 6, and I was actually sitting in 3rd for the entire first three laps. But three laps was too much climbing for me and 4 was way too much. I forgot to mention that the start line was at 7800 feet, which is 3000 feet higher than where I live in Bozeman at 4800 feet.

I have mostly gotten used to the elevation. I still get a little winded walking up stairs, but biking has helped speed the process, I think.

School has gone well so far. Classes don't actually start until next Monday, but all of last week I had proficiency exams. I had to pass 3 out of 6 offered, and I passed 4, so I have completed that requirement. That will make life easier than if I had had to retake them throughout the year.

While I was studying in my office, I was usually distracted by the great sunset view I have at night:The picture doesn't really do it justice. You can kind of see the mountains in the background. Those mountains are actually pretty far away. Here is a picture of the Bridgers, which are much closer:You can see in the picture that there is a Block M on the side of the mountain. This is the "M" hiking trail. So I can actually look out my window from my apartment and see a really big block M, which makes it seem a little more like home.

There is a lot of hiking and biking and much else to do around here. Plus school. I am pretty sure once school starts, life will be pretty hectic. But I think I will enjoy that more than having too much free time, which I have had to cope with the past few days.

I will report more soon, and hopefully get some better and more pictures up once my camera arrives from Michigan.

Feel free to call or e-mail me anytime, any contact with Michigan is quite welcome as I am dealing with homesickness...

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Stony Creek TT

This weekend I said my farewell to Robert Linden and the Tailwind circuit in my last race in Michigan for a while and my last Tailwind race probably for a long time.

I had hopes of making it on the podium for my exit, but midway through the race I remembered that endurance sports require a little more planning than a couple weeks in advance to get results. So, it was the usual deal where people pass me and I don't pass anyone back. Christian Tanguy started 3.5 minutes after me and passed me 8 miles in (out of 13). He ended up finishing with the winning time of 46 minutes, 6 minutes up on me.

The course was actually pretty tough with some challenging stream crossings and mud bogs at the end, where I actually dabbed three times, which really frustrated me. I ended up in 10th place out of 12, so I am still not getting DFL, which makes me happy enough.

Here is yet another stolen (but pretty cool) picture from Andrea Tucker:
Kelly broke her winning streak with a second place finish, but she had a great race and actually fared better than I did through the stream crossing near the end. And no bee stings this weekend, so all is well. She is still producing the best results for Team BCB and is improving like crazy.

Even though I didn't win, I was the only racer to track stand during my 30 second countdown on the line, so at least I am able to look cool while being slow. That is, after all, the most important part of bike racing- looking cool.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Big M XC

This past weekend, Kelly, Cory, and I went up to Manistee National Forest to race Big M.

We left around 11 on Saturday and drove the four hours up and over, with a little stop at Taco Bell on the way. Then we set up camp and pre-rode the trail. The trail was a six mile loop of pretty wide open trail. There was really only one technical descent. Since it was pre-ride pace, I didn't really notice the long gradual hill that lasted for about a mile and half halfway through the trail. I would the next day.

After the pre-ride, we walked around the town of Manistee and realized that there really isn't anything to do there. But we had a good dinner followed by good ice cream at House of Flavors. Sleeping on the ground was interesting. I always said I would never want to do that for a race, but it actually worked out really well, and $5 for the night is a pretty good deal.

The race was really, really, really fast. At least it was as long as I was able to hold on to the leaders, which was about 4.5 miles. When I was riding with the choo-choo train, we were cruising at 22-24 on the flats and about 18 up the long gradual hill that was much more noticeable this time. When we got to some steeper climbs and I wasn't able to keep up the crazy pace anymore, I fell off. Within ten seconds, they were out of my sight. That is how fast they were going.

Since I was pushing myself a little harder than I should have been, I blew up and about 5 more guys passed me. I held this position for the rest of the race (with the exception of passing Christian when he was on the side of the trail with a flat tire on the second lap and the subsequent pass-back with a mile left in the race). I ended up 14th out of 17.

Overall, I had a lot of fun, and I am feeling a little faster. With some training this fall at altitude, maybe I can make up for all these low placings with a good finish at Iceman in November.

Kelly fought through a bee sting on her eye in the first couple miles to finish and still beat her 14 y/o competitor. So she is still sitting on top of the Tailwind USAC series in her age/class. She's pretty tough for fighting through it all, a fight which her body objected to afterward, which required Benadryl to fix.

Cory had a large group to go up against in the Expert 19-29 category, where he placed 8th.

Sorry for no pictures.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Stony Creek Marathon XC

Sunday I did one of my favorite races of the year. At least it was one of my favorites before this year. This year I'm not in as good of shape, so it took me 40 minutes longer than last year. Granted the fastest time was also 22 minutes slower, but 40 minutes is about one whole lap of my last year's times.

After fighting myself throughout the whole race, I did finish and actually didn't get last. I was 12 out of 14 finishers and 18 starters. I was on the bike for 4 hours and 54 minutes.

There isn't too much to report, just the same old suffering (perhaps more this year). I had planned, during lap four, that this would actually be a "quitting biking for a while" post (I had the whole post already written up in my head), but obviously I am addicted to hurting myself for hours on end, so that won't be happening.

On a very positive note, Kelly has continued her winning ways, making her 4 for 4 on the season. She toughed out her longest race or ride by 17 miles in good fashion, finishing 42 miles in 4 hours 24 minutes. She was the third place sport woman out of 8. If she keeps this up, she will win a free entry to Iceman this November.

Here is a picture of me appearing to go fast...I love that pictures can never tell what place I'm in.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Ruby Campground

So I've been reading a lot of posts about the race this past Sunday and it reminded me that I haven't posted in a while.

First of all, yes, the river was high, but not as high as everyone wants to tell you. I was 5 for 10 on the crossings. I just couldn't make the first one, though I was close by the end of the race.Second of all, I am slow right now. Really slow. I didn't do this race last year, but my lap times this year were anywhere from 1 to 4 minutes slower from 2 years ago!

Third, my bike frame's design really sucks when it the conditions are nasty- literally. I had fatal chain suck throughout the race, which forced me to walk up a lot of hills, which was frustrating. [This is not an excuse, just something else that happened in the race- I admit I am slow]

I got 11th out of 12. I previously thought I got DFL, but it turns out one guy didn't finish, so that's a plus (though he was definitely on his way to beating me).

Team BCB had a pretty good showing, despite my last place finish. Kelly won her class, giving her her third win of the year in three races, and Steve posted a 5th place in Expert/Elite SS.
It was actually the most fun I have ever had at Ruby Campground, especially when I got lots of cheers for riding across the river since everyone else was running. We went to a graduation party afterwards and Kelly said "We should all wear our medals...[pause]...oh, sorry Nick."

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

24 Hours of Boyne!

Once again, we all chose to inflict pain on ourselves for 24 hours straight. It was awesome.

Team Sofa King Fast once again prevailed, winning by one lap in a hard fought and very close battle. Nice job to Cory, Sean, Neal, and John for coming in second. Don't feel bad, Sofa King Fast is just the reigning champions at 24 HOB.
This year included the key addition of Kelly. She got some good training in the couple weeks before the race and rose to the challenge. Her fastest lap was 1 hour and 2 minutes, which is 28 minutes faster than she rode it just a week before. Her speed also proved helpful in that it has pushed Mr. B to speed his laps up in a little competition between the two of them. His fastest was 1 hour 3 minutes, much improved from his lap times last year.

Having a fourth team member was very luxurious and it gave Mike and me the ability to produce more consistent and faster laps. Mike's fastest was a 41 (officially 42) and my fastest was a 43. We were both able to beat our times from last year by about 2-3 minutes. Looks like next year Mr. B and Kelly will be pulling out 50 or sub- 50 laps and Mike and I might dip under the 40 mark.

Mike toughed out 11 laps, I managed 9 and Mr. B and Kelly both killed 4 to give us a total of 28 laps, which ties our total from last year.

Even though all of us had our usual doubts and gastrointestinal problems in the pre-dawn hours, it was a very enjoyable experience and (I can't believe I'm saying this already) I can't wait for next year.

Congratulations also to Steve for winning the solo single speed class with 17 laps. He did the most laps of any individual (but not really, according to the race promoter). Steve was back on form and able to have a great race because he had the tatoo sleeve again.

And of course, a big thank you goes to our always awesome pit crew Caroline, Mrs. B, and Melissa for staying up all night and feeding us and waking us up, and listening to us complain.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

First Race of the Year

Sunday, Steve and I were up in Plainwell, MI for a nice MTB TT at Yankee Springs. Luckily, I wasn't expecting much from myself because of my new training plan. I have not done really intensity work yet this year so I can build a proper base in order to not die in the fall.

So, I felt good, but not fast. First of all, they started us every ten seconds, which is absurd for an Elite TT, but whatever. I got passed in the first couple miles by my ten second guy. Then my 20 second guy came, then 30 second guy, and so on. I got passed by a lot of people.

I ended up getting 22nd out 27. Pretty bad but oh well. I was ten minutes down on the leader. It just means I have plenty of work to do before Boyne next month.

But the real reason I did the race can be seen below...
Got the free pint glass!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

March

Eh.

That's kind of what March was to me. There was some good riding, but there was also some boring riding. I was able to get out on the trails once in March, so that was nice, but all the road riding is starting to get to me.

Overall, I logged 38 hours and 564 miles over March. Fairly respectable. Not awesome.

I did the two home races (circuit and ITT), but it was more just for fun. I know everyone says that, but for those of you who know me, my legs were not shaven, so that will tell you how serious I was about the race.

Right now, with snow on the ground, the trails will be another week or so before they are rideable again, so I have a little more drudging to do on the road bike to be ready for Yankee Springs in a week and a half.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Road Racing?

Yesterday I hosted my 10th and 11th races as the Michigan Cycling president. I wasn't planning on participating in either because the weather outlook was actually pretty bad. I ended up doing both.

Many people were surprised to see me in a road bike race, especially after I had told everyone I wasn't racing, but I actually had fun. The weather turned out to be pretty nice for the circuit race and there were only 16 B racers, so I didn't feel like there was a great amount of danger in giving it a go. For this race I just stayed with the pack the whole time, until the end when all the accelerations came. MTBing doesn't have those accelerations except at the beginning, so I have never been able to hold on to those, so I ended up getting 12th.
For the TT, it started drizzling, but it wasn't so bad, so I decided to do this as well. I ended up being the last rider to go out, and about halfway through, it really started pouring. It was very fun though. Because of the rain and because my TT bike doesn't have real brakes, I took the really steep downhill way too slow, which cost me a bit of time. I ended up getting second, though, by 13 seconds. I am pretty happy with that, and I still think I am right about on schedule for my training plan.

Next race is on real bikes on April 19th at Yankee Springs. Should be nice and demoralizing, as I will be making my Elite debut (again).

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Heading to Montana for the Weekend

Tomorrow I leave for Montana for the weekend for grad school interviews. My weekend is going to be packed with meetings with professors and tours and such. Saturday we are going to spend the day at yellowstone. Unfortunately, the packed schedule leaves no time for riding out there. Maybe later.

I probably won't have much access to a computer but if you actually care what I am doing, you can check it out at http://twitter.com/NickWBB.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Spring Break

So I guess this post is kind of mandatory. But I think it will be a bit of twist on the normal. Because yes, we rode more than 250 miles in the week, climbed mountains until it hurt to walk, and did six gap century and climbed Brasstown Bald, but we also actually had fun, so I am going to write about that.

First off, we did NOT get to go to Brother's Restaurant after our drive all through the night because they didn't open until 11 am this year, so we went to Waffle House instead. It was not good. Brother's really let us down...at least I thought so. Everyone else seemed to be smiling (at least fake smiling).On Sunday, we rode to Graham's cottage about 20 miles away where his parents had a BBQ for us. The cake they had for desert was absolutely amazing. On Monday, after the century, we ate at the local Mexican restaurant in Helen (La Cabana). I decided to have a nice [big] Margarita for my hard work of the day.

The rest of the week was filled with lots of riding, playing Rock Band, team meetings where every word I said was sarcastically analyzed by the whole team (especially by Mattison and Ken), and haircuts for some members of the team (Sean and his rat-tail, Cory and his way too short hair, and Mattison and his mullet). On Wednesday, we made our way down to Helen to check out the rock shops. We found a bar and all enjoyed a nice pint of local Hef-Weizen (some had other beers and of course Zachariah had his gluten free frou-frou drink).

Thursday some people went to Atlanta to check out the Aquarium, I decided to go hiking with a couple other guys, which was a very nice change from the norm (not riding)- though my legs didn't like it as much after climbing to the highest point in GA the day before.
Those of us that didn't go to Atlanta visited Cleveland that night for our yearly dinner at Ma Gooch's. I have a picture of the place just in case you don't believe it is it's actual name. That was some good country cookin'. I even tried some fried Okra with my Fried Chicken and they were absolutely amazing. I felt like a Country Boy.The drive back was pretty fun, too. We stopped at UNO for lunch and had a waiter that admitted to having too many Red Bulls and actually told Josh multiple times that he looks like a serial killer. I tried the UNO amber ale, which actually paired so well with the pizza I had that I am pretty sure it is the best food and beer pairing I have ever had...perhaps even better than at Grizzly Peak.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Twitter

You can check out my Twitter at http://twitter.com/NickWBB.

This website allows me to update what I am doing through texting.

Now I can write about myself even more.

It is actually a fun website to follow what other people are doing. You can follow me, and I would follow you too.

That is all for now, most of my updating this week is done on Twitter since internet is spotty in Bavarian Helen.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

It doesn't get much colder than this...

So on Wednesday it was really sunny out, and I was able to convince Chris to ride with me. It was 13 degrees Fahrenheit air temperature and close to o degree wind chill.

Needless to say, it was really cold. I was actually so uncomfortable that I started riding harder just so I could get home faster. When I got home, I got a look of my reflection in the door. It looked a little something like this...Pretty intense, I know. It is kind of like those mountain climbing guys on the Discovery Channel. And by the way, this was the best I could do for a smile, my face was frozen and not very movable. Also by the way, I shaved so that this won't happen again anytime soon, because it is kinda gross.

Now, today it is 40 degrees Fahrenheit and it feels like summer. No matter what Punxsutawney Phil says, I think spring is coming soon. And if not, at least it should be warm in GA in a couple weeks.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

January

Time for the monthly update, and for the first time since September, I actually have a good month to report.

With only five days off from training this month, I put in 49.78 hours either on bike or skis, and 257.8 miles outside in this cold and snowy January.

The only time I have ever put in more training hours in one month is last May, when I put in 51 hours (and that also was completely on the bike, and more MTB than road). This month is also much better than my January of last year, with 33.75 hours.

I was actually surprised to see the total, but also glad, because it means that I have been able to stick to my plan of actually getting a good base this winter so I don't fall apart next fall. Hopefully all this work will help when I toe the line in the Elite Class starting in April.

The lack of classes this semester should really help me to be able to keep up the pace, and hopefully even step it up a little more for next month. With only 12 credits (at least on paper), and spring break at the end of the month, it could be a really good February.

That is all. Happy Groundhog's Day on Monday!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Epic Bonk

Yesterday while skiing I experienced my third worst ever bonk.

Quick Recap of the first two:
1. 24 Hours of Boyne 2004 when I was so low on blood sugar at 2 AM that I actually fell asleep (or passed out) while riding down the final downhill section. When I hit the tree, I didn't even care, I just took a little nap. When I got up to start riding again, it actually happened again. I finally got back 30 minutes after I should have (safely). (Picture to the right is before the race- 5 years ago- crazy)
2. My first ever century (solo) in 2005. The ride ended up being about 115 miles and my body couldn't handle the extra 15. When I finally got home after only barely turning the pedals, I got changed and went to the grocery store to buy ice cream. I think I ate a whole half gallon of ice cream.

So the thing about bonking is it can really suck. Especially when you are skiing and there are still about 3 miles left of hills. About two and half hours in, I just started falling apart. I didn't want to move anymore. I started getting chills, and all I wanted was to be done.

Luckily my body is resourceful and started burning something else (I am still hoping it was fat and not muscle), but I was able to recover and get back to the van with out passing out. It was a close call though. Next time I will bring lots of food for a 3.5 hour ski session at Poto.

Steve also bonked really hard, but didn't quite recover as well, so he was in the double-bonk phase by the time we finished.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Snow

This past weekend was full of fun, but hard riding and skiing.

Saturday some of us went out into the snowstorm on our mountain bikes and did some dirt road riding. The snow was coming down hard and fast and the roads were impossible. It was very difficult to stay in a straight line, and just as difficult to stay upright on the bike on some roads. There were some sections that were so icy, that if you went down, you slid for a long time. The first time I crashed, I just started laughing. But even funnier than when I fell, was when others went down. We ended up going only 18 miles in 2 hours, but it was one of my favorite rides to date.

After the ride, I ate some lunch and then Brendan and I went skiing in the Arb. We were out for a little over an hour and half. There were some really fun downhills and some good uphills that helped build up my confidence on the skis. After the two activities, I was pretty tired, but quite happy with a day full of snowy fun.

Sunday, Steve and I went skiing at Brighton. The trail was actually pretty hard packed and fairly well groomed, so it was a really good time. I only crashed about two times, so I am definitely improving. This day was also pretty tough, though. There were some tough uphills, one of which my heart rate got over 180.

So, instead of years past when I got upset when it snowed, I embraced the snow this weekend and had a lot of fun. I think it is supposed to stay cold and keep snowing all week, so the fun isn't over yet.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

2008

I thought I would put down the numbers from 2008 really quick. I ended up with 395 hours, 5129 miles, about 2000 of which was on the MTB. Half of my time was spent on the MTB- hopefully I can step that up a bit more this year.

With 5 race wins and the State Championship, it turned out to be a really good year. Collegiate season was pretty anticlimactic after such a good summer season, but with my training plan this year (a lot more base), I think that shouldn't happen next fall (of course if I go out east or out west, I am probably going to get my butt kicked anyway).

So now it is time to ride lots. Last week I put 15 hours in, with 200 miles outside. This week has been a little harder to get outside, but I am still putting a good amount of time in. (Yes, I cracked and started riding inside- there are some days it just isn't worth it to freeze my butt off.)