Germany and Austria are Awesome!!!

My winter break has been awesome so far. My parents moved to Germany this year and my sister and I are visiting them over the break. We spent 2 days at their house in Weinheim which is in Badem Wuttemberg in the west central part of Germany. Where they live is awesome it isn’t super cold and they have mountains with hiking trails right next to their apartment. Everyone has nice cars in Germany too. I think at least 1/3 of the cars are Audi or BMW. For the past 5 days we have been downhill skiing in Innsbruck, Austria and it has been amazing!!! They had the 1964 and 76 winter Olympics here. It is a small city surrounded by huge snow capped mountains. There are over 15 ski resorts within an hour of town and a free bus to take you to them. Yesterday we skied at a glacier on top of a mountain at over 11,000 ft altitude. They had awesome snow. The longest run I did was about 14 km long!!! They also have XC ski tracks everywhere too. If you know me you know I say I want to move to nearly every place I visit and the same goes for here. It is probably about 5 times better than Colorado because the mountains are much closer to the city and they have way more places to ski. I have been practicing my German from high school with people on the ski lift too and am not doing to bad. I remember a lot more German than I thought I did and have been conversing with people about skiing, bike racing, college and American politics. I think everyone here really likes Obama.
So here I have tried a new kind of beer every day since it is relatively cheap at restraunts and costs about as much as bottled water. One of my new favorite beers is called Radler. It is a about 1/3 lemonade and 2/3 beer which may sound gross but it is actually amazing! In German Rad means bike so Radler is a beer designed to be drunk during breaks on long bike rides! Tomorrow we are going to Munich for 2 days and then we are going to the Netherlands to visit my cousins and then go to watch a Superprestige Cyclocross race!!

Finals Week

This is finals week. It is really hard to study for some reason. I only have one class that I really feel like I need to study hard for. Micronutrient metabolism really stinks!! It is very difficult and involves remembering lots of carrier proteins and enzymes. Hopefully I can pull off a B in the class. I finish up on Wednesday and then I am going to visit 2 dietetic internship open houses. the first one is in Cincinnati and the second is in Dayton OH. Hopefully I will find one that I really like and where they like me. I have narrowed down the places where I am gonna apply to 5. I am gonna apply to programs in Peoria, IL, cincinnati, Dayton, Chicago and Indianapolis. I find out on April 20th where I get placed. I am also getting pretty excited for the winter break because I am gonna go visit my parents in Germany! We are gonna go skiing in the Austrian Alps for a few days and go see a super prestige cyclocross race in the Netherlands. It should be an awesome trip. I hope I still remember some german from high school. When I get back it will be time to get down to some serious training. Hopefully there is some snow here too so I can do a little bit of cross country skiing! This past weekend was pretty fun we had over 20 people come to our house for a dinner party potluck! We didn't have enough places for everyone to sit but it was a good time and a lot of good food. My girlfriend came from Illinois to visit me too which was pretty awesome. I am leaving Sunday for Germany. Wish me luck on my finals!

I need to start training

Last week was more fun and relaxing. We not totally. I got a cold after the trip to kentucky and it just won't go away. I don't feel very bad but if I don't get a good nights sleep or I try to do a bunch of exercise I start coughing more. I was planning on doing a cross race in Chicago but decided it wasn't worth the risk of making the cold worse. I had a pretty good weekend though! I went to visit my girlfriend at the University of Illinois on Friday evening. Saturday we went ice skating and to a christmas parade!!! We picked up a bunch of candy and got interviewed for the local news. We got to be on TV for like 10 seconds which was pretty cool. Sunday I drove to chicago to return my and my roommates( Chris and Greg) bikes to Turin. Instead of racing I watched with some people for a little bit then had lunch in China town with a friend of mine high school who is going to IIT. I have 2 weeks left until the end of the semester and have some serious studying to do. Good luck to everyone racing cross natz!

Fun Stuff

The last 2 weeks have been a blast but have not involved much training. Last weekend was the Purdue vs. Indiana football game. We went to breakfast club which is a Purdue tradition where everyone gets dressed up in funny costumes and goes to the bars at 7am before the football game. We got up at 6am to get ready. Then we hosted a tailgate party at our house which over 30 people came too. After going to half the football game we came home and relaxed. I had a big test on Monday so Sunday and monday morning were all about studying but I think it went well. For thanksgiving I went with my girlfriend to visit her best friend at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. We had a chinese thanksgiving it was all chinese food and people except for me and the turkey I cooked. It was a good time. We went hiking at the red river gorge on Friday which was absolutely amazing!! Kentucky would be a nice place to live especially if you could live close to the mountains. Saturday we explored lexington and we a few of my friends from Union College came to visit. We ate chinese hot pot which is sort of like spicy fondue soup. Today we drove back to a few inches of snow up here at Purdue. Next up for me is the last Chicago Cyclocross cup which is hosted by Turin. I hope there is snow up there. I need it to be as technical as possible to make up for my lack of training. I will get back on it soon!

UFFDA! Tough Cyclocross Weekend

This weekend was both extremely tiring and fun. For the third time we promoted a collegiate cyclocross race in the open grass and hills behind Purdue's Student Rec Center. We had a great turnout compared to previous years with almost 40 riders. Conditions were pretty epic with lots of rain last week making for some slick off camber downhills and corners. I really enjoy making cyclocross courses. it is pretty cool that stakes and caution tape can turn an ordinary grass field and a few sledding hills into a sweet and super technically challenging race course. Friday afternoon we made record time by setting up the whole course in just over 2 hours. I am really thankful that the Purdue cycling club has lots of hardworking and dedicated members to help make these races happen. Saturday afternoon rolled around and it was time to race. I forgot how hard cyclocross was especially with lots of fast guys to race with. I got a good start but quickly blew up as usually happens to me because my asthma usually kicks me in the face when I try to maintain any sort of high paced steady state effort. I recovered though and had a good battle with Kip. I placed 5th and rode our brand new volley ball court sand pit once. Saturday evening we made a back yard fire and enjoyed a few beverages and some smores! Sunday Andrew Treumper and I drove to chicago at 7am to help with a chicago cyclocross cup race that was gonna add collegiate categories for the races. It was a nice course and it was freezing cold. Again my asthma was bothering my and I blew up pretty bad in the last 15 minutes of the race and got passed by a bunch of people. I finished 3rd in the collegiate though which was pretty good. I think I need to start riding and running so that I can get in a little bit better shape for the last cross race of the year that i am doing at Montrose harbor in Chicago. People always ask me why I don't train more for cyclocross and I have a pretty simple answer. I don't focus on it because ever since moving to indiana I have really bad asthma and cant do hard efforts for very long. i have tried tons of asthma medicines and they just don't seem to help so I have pretty much given up on being really good at cross unless I move somewhere that i don't have asthma anymore. I still like cross but it is alway frustrating to race and feel restricted because you can't get the air out of your lungs. Sorry for the ranting.

Big Plans!

Next year I am really excited to say that I am going to be riding for the RGF Solutions Cycling Team. (http://www.rgfsolutionssportsmarketing.com/) It is gonna be another development team. Turin decided that next year they will not be having an elite team and RGF stepped up to pick a few of us up. It should be a really great team look out for an announcement this week about the team in the cycling media. Paul Martin is our team manager and I am really stoked to have such an experienced and accomplished racer leading our team. I plan to do a pretty similar season to this year only with a few less races so that I can hopefully perform better in the late summer.
OK next I figured out what I am gonna do after I graduate in May! My major is Dietetics and with that you need to do a 1 year internship to become a Registered Dietitian which is credential that is needed to get most jobs involving nutrition. I was debating not doing the internship and just doing something fun but after talking to my professors, parents and others I decided that I should just do it because I might not be able to do it again later. Basically there are Dietetics internships all over the country that you can apply too and most last about 1 year. They are typically unpaid but they are basically teaching you how to be a dietitian. You spend a few weeks learning about food service, a few doing hospital dietetics, a few doing community nutrition programs and other things. Right now my top pick is a program in Peoria, IL. But unfortunately you don't find out until April if you got in! I could end up going somewhere else but at least I have a plan now!
Halloween was also a good time. I was a cowboy and kind of looked like Woody from Toy Story.

College Mountain bike Natz!!!

College natz was awesome. I didn't acheive my goal of a top 10 in the Short Track but I finished 21st and 23rd in the cross country which was better than I had expected. The courses and conditions were tough! Our trip started off with driving to Kentucky and staying at the Union College boys apartment in downtown Barbourville KY. Their apartment was sweet and we really appreciated them letting us stay there. We woke up to big mountains all around and the rest of the drive was full of huge mountains and forest. We prerode on Thursday and checked into our cabin which came complete with a Sega Genesis that provided us with hours of entertainment! It wasn't raining in the XC but it was still epic and the course seemed to get more slick every lap. I got a good start and managed to ride all of the crazy rock gardens pretty well. After the XC it started raining and continued to do so until Saturday morning. The short track was really muddy and tough. I crashed 3 times and hit a lot of trees. I got a good start but my legs weren't feeling great. I also had really bad tires for the mud which didn't help. Saturday afternoon we watched the downhill and had a lot of fun on saturday night. Sunday was a long 10 hour drive home but it was beautiful the whole way. It was a pretty good way to experience my last collegiate mountain bike natz. it is hard to believe I am gonna graduate in May!

getting ready for natz

Man! Mountain bikes sure do break a lot!! I feel like I have to go to the bike shop every week to get something new adjusted or fixed. First it was my disk breaks which are now all good. Then it was the hub cones on my wheels and they are not messed up again!! I think I have gotten at least 5 flat tires in the past 2 months on the bike and just today my bottom bracket needed to be replaced because one side of the bearings were shot!!! I also had to have my fork rebuilt 3 weeks ago because oil kept leaking out of it!!! Well hopefully after today my bike is fixed and doesn't break at nationals on Friday or Saturday. Aside from all the bike fixing training was pretty well this weekend. Friday I did sprints on my road ride, saturday I did a 3 hour super hilly road ride with Greg and Today I fixed my bike for an hour and then rode both of our local mountain bike trails pretty fast. Monday and Tuesday I am gonna recovery. Wednesday we are gonna drive and Thursday pre ride the XC course. I am really gunning for a top 10 finish in the Short track and then my season is basically over unless I decide to do a little cyclocross. I think I might do Jingle cross because it is a fun course and there is a ton of money but I am finding it hard to train a lot with school. the next update will be from Banner Elk, NC and will hopefully be about how I did well at natz!

RegionalZ!

Purdue hosted the MWCCC Mountain bike Regionals this weekend and it was a blast. Pretty tiring but still awesome. We had our XC on our campus trail that is about 5 miles long and there was lots of close racing action. I was riding in 3rd about half way through the 4th lap when I ran over either a spoke or one of our little metal flags and it jammed into my derailleur jamming it and bending my hanger. so needless to say I had to take my derailleur and chain off the bike even to get it to roll. I was kind of mad but the bike shop got it fixed except that my chain was skipping like crazy while warming up for the STXC so I borrowed Travis's wheel. STXC was on Slater hill which is right on our campus and was awesome course that we designed. It had a 1.5 foot drop off and several fun downhill turns. I got 3rd and was pretty happy with it. I did the dual slalom too which switched back through a bunch of trees. it was exciting and I even got into the top 8. In my first race I did this crazy move to cut my opponent from Mizzou off. I think we bumped about 5 times in one run but I got it and then got eliminated by Weston who won in the next round. Setting up the courses and taking them down was a bit of work but the Purdue club is big and well organized so we got it done relatively fast. Thanks to everyone who came out and raced or helped out with the races.

Getting better

This past weekend I raced at Butler's mountain bike races. It went well I got 4th in the XC and 2nd in the STXC and I managed not to get hurt or crash in the downhill race. I have got to say that North Vernon is an awesome XC course lots of 1 minute-2 minute climbs and fun downhills without too much dangerous stuff. I really had fun in the cross country and it is one of the few XC races where i didn't blow up on the last lap. The Purdue Regionals race that we are hosting is this weekend and should be a blast! Also school is really tough right now I had my last of my first set of tests this morning and it went OK. I also have a huge paper due next wednesday that I have just barely got started on. i am pretty excited to get done with school in May this year.

Lindsey Wilson!!

This year's mtb season started off pretty well. I placed 2nd in the short track at Lindsey Wilson. My lungs hurt like crazy but at least I was able to breath well which usually isn't the case. I sucked in the dual slalom and should probably stop trying to do it since I seem to get worse at jumping every year. then I got a flat 3 miles into the XC race and had to quit. That was pretty frustrating but it happens. Mad props to Dallas Fowler for kicking butt both days this weekend.
School is getting pretty stressful now too. I have lots of lab reports and papers to write which are time consuming and sometimes frustrating. So I decided to forgo going to the races in michigan this weekend so that I could hopefully get ahead on all of the work and race at butler without as much stress. I am still planning on going to nationals and I hope I can get in good enough shape to get a top 10 short track finish there!

MTB season

After a weekend off of racing I am ready to start mountain biking. I plan on doing the next 4 weekends of racing and I think that our purdue team will qualify for nationals. I finally got my bike working pretty well except that the front disk brake keeps squeeling like crazy which is annoying. Adjusting hydralic disk brakes is really a pain in the but and makes me wish I still had mechanical brakes. I have been riding the 2 trails hear near purdue a few times and I think I am getting my skills back. We will see this weekend and Lindsey Wilson. It ought to be exciting and I hear they have an all new dual slalom course instead of a monster 4X course.

Last crits of the year

Saturday and Sunday this past weekend were my last road bike races of the year. They were NRC crits in Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor Michigan. Saturday went well and I placed 11th but I feel like I could have done better if I hadn't hesistated with 400m to go and had attacked. That's racing I guess. The course was awesome and had a bunch of long brick sections. Sunday's race was on a brutal course that had 2 small climbs per lab and rail road tracks. it was a fun course but I blew myself up at the beginning and my breathing got really bad. I got dropped but didn't get pulled so I jumped back in the field and actually felt a ton better. I attacked and got a prime and still finished 21st!! The money went 25 deep yet I was the last finisher. I have never been in a race where that happened before! I am taking a break from racing this weekend and then I am gonna do 4 weekends of college mountain biking in a row so that I can go to nationals with the Purdue team.

first week of school

mixing school and training isn't so bad during the first week of school. I was able to ride a lot but I think it is gonna get a lot tougher to do that once school gets going. I finally got out on my mountain bike for the first time since march and I am definitely need to practice a bit more before the first races. I did the West Lafayette Road race on Sunday and helped Boris organize it too. It kind of sucks doing a race with only 15 guys in it. I messed up the sprint between the 6 guys left the end and got 5th place so I won my entry fee back. It was hot and despite the fact that the race was here I forgot to bring gatorade which would have helped me to not suck at the end. Oh well it was just for training anyway. I am excited to get the road season done with next week and do some mtbing which should be a bit more relaxing. Mad props to my teammate Ben Renkema on winning the Giro Di Via Italia in Windsor Canada this weekend and to Greg Christian on winning the michigan hill climbing championship!

Training hard

Last week I rode my bike a lot. I haven't done any real training since june so I figured that I had better do lots of long rides to get my self in good shape so that i can hopefully do well at the priority health classic and for collegiate mountain bike season. I did a race in Warsaw IN with Greg on saturday that went pretty well. Greg made the winning break of 6 (4 of which were from Bissell) and they lapped the field. I got a $100 prim with 1 lap to go and held on for 15th in the race. Greg didn't have a great field sprint and ended up 4th but overall a pretty good race for us and at least we got some money. I plan to keep up doing long rides this week and then next week I am gonna rest and hopefully score a top 10 or 2 at the priority health races. Today is the first day of school too!!

Washington DC trip

I went to Washington DC with my girlfriend to visit my grandma for a week. It was actually pretty sweet. DC is really cool and a pretty nice place for biking. there is basically non stop climbing or descending and even a few climbs over 2 miles long!!! The drivers there are really courteous too. I did some really nice rides. we also went swimming in the chesapeake bay and saw a jelly fish! We went and saw pandas and gorillas and lions and tigers and a huge tortoise at the zoo. We took my grandma to see a bunch of cool stuff too. Then we drove back and I raced downers grove. It kind of sucked since saturday night I had the worst asthma of the whole year and got dropped because of it. then Sunday went OK but not great. i was happy I could breathe though. Dr. Shawn our team chiropractor worked on me sunday morning which I think helped me out a bunch. I decided I should train really hard over the next 2 weeks so I have been doing lots of long rides and am racing just one day this weekend and maybe not at all next weekend. I am hoping to do well at the priority health classic. school starts monday too which should be OK. It will be fun to see everyone that was gone for the summer at least

Elk grove report

Elk grove went OK but still not great. The first day sucked mainly because we didn't move up early enough at the end and there was basically no way to get to the front because the pack was spread across the whole road. I think the first days course is probably my least favorite course of all time actually. I just didn't like how the long narrow straighaways allowed the pack to bunch up so much. Day 2 was better CC (my team director) told us to get seen so I did a few attacks including a big one on the last lap. I went out of the first hairpin turn and just buried myself but I still dont' have great legs so I blew up and then got caught and passed by everyone. It was cool and I got seen but I really should have had scholzen pull through before I was totally blown because then I might have been able to stay away to the finish with him. He had incredible legs yesterday though. Good luck to everyone racing nationals (especially Greg!!!). I am gonna do 2 criteriums in Marian IN Friday night and Saturday which should be pretty fun.

SuckWeek

Superweek didn't really go great for me or the team. The 3 races we did were OK but we didnt' get any top 20 results. I got 22nd in Racine which got me excited for the rest of the races but I was pretty tired still and basically did nothing for the rest of the week. Down town Chicago was a pretty sweet location for a crit though and racing at Downer Avenue was really great. I had a few cold refreshing beverages on my cool down lap from some nice fans. I definitely want to do that race again. I learned a valuable lesson too. Racing just for the sake of racing is dumb for me. I need to focus on a few races and doing more than 2 per week usually doesn't result in me doing well so next time I do super week I plan to only do the weekend ones so that I can avoid getting tired and sucking it up again. Hopefully this weekend in Elk grove goes better.

The Ville and Super Week

It's been a really long time since i have posted on here probably due to travelling a lot and having a very short attention span and a lack of awesome results. But actually my results really haven't been too bad with a few pretty good ones in there too. After coming back from Fitchburg and taking a few more days off the bike I finally started to feel better and managed not to get dropped from the first day of Super Week in Chicago. Then the next day my Turin team drove down to Louisville for some NRC crit action in the hottest weather of the year so far. I got 9th place which netted almost $500!!!! And now I can say that i have finished top 10 in an NRC race which I think sounds pretty cool. After a kind of mediocre next day where our team got 3 in the top 15 but no one in the top 10 we headed back up to Chicago for more super week action. I placed 20th at Richton park and 22nd in Evanston (sort of I think they put me ahead of where i really was but I am not complaining) but had a few lackluster days and crashed at Ripon. Ripon was an exciting one since it started raining with 20 laps to go and people started crashing left and right. I managed to keep it up in the rain but I blew up with 2 laps to go and finished 30th. Now I have been resting at Purdue for a few days and I am gonna do Racine, Kenosha, Downer Ave and the Chicago Downtown Criterium. Should be an exciting 4 days of racing.

fitchburg/ oh crap!

We drove to Fitchburg Massachusetts on Tuesday and went for a ride on Wednesday. I felt pretty slow and crappy but I figured I had better give the race a shot anyway. I felt really crappy in the TT on Thursday and nearly finished in last place. Then Friday I got dropped really early and called it a day. I am overtrained/overraced and I need to take a few days off. I really shouldn't have come to this race but didn't realize this until wednesday when I was riding. Oh well it happens, but it is really hard to stay motivated when something like this happens. hopefully I will feel better by wednesday and can still perform well in Super Week and Louisville.

tour de grandview

This was one of the coolest crit courses I have ever done. It finished with a .25 mile long climb that was about 6% and had a few sweet downhill corners that you could take at full speed. The race was tough with big squads for inferno, texas rd house and DLP racing. There were a bunch of breakaway attempts that got reeled back and about half way through the 45 mile race I went in a break with an inferno rider and texas road house. Then 6 more riders including Chris bridged up and the announcer said “ This could be the winning break”. That was it as we got away and worked well together until 5 laps to go. People started attacking and I and Chris traded off marking moves. I got 7th and Chris got 4th. It was a good race for our team.
We came home Sunday late I worked on my research Monday and now we are driving to Fitchburg Massachusetts for a 4 day NRC stage race. This is my first NRC race of the year and my goal is to make it to the finish with the lead group everyday which should get me a pretty good overall finish hopefully.

Finish of Tour Ohio

The last 2 stages didn't go great for me. Stage 4 I was in a break for a pretty long time in the crit working pretty hard trying to catch the lead group but our group didn't work well together and eventually got caught. Then it got really fast and with 3 laps to go I skipped a pedal in the last corner and jumped my rear wheel. I knocked the tire off the rim a bit and flatted. Oh well a nice family on the course let us join in their BBQ which was fun. Stage 5 was a flat road race with 4 super hard 1 mile finishing circuits. I got in the break after 1 lap on the course which had about a 30 second gap on the field. It started thunder storming like crazy when we were racing and it was raining when we hit the circuits. We got caught by the field on the second lap and after that I didn't want to take any risks if I wasn't gonna get a top 10 finish. I rolled in for 37th and like 45th overall. Not great but on stage 4 Ben got 5th and Chris took 4th on Stage 5 so our team still got some decent results. Overall not a bad race for our team but we could still do better and we are gonna prove it this weekend at the Tour de Grandview.

Tour of Ohio (OK, Bad, Good)

Tour of Ohio started off this week with a sweet crit that had a brick straight in it. It was tight and twisty and had a gradual uphill in it. I got t the front early and tried not to fall too far back. I went with a break but struggled with my breathing as it seemed my asthma was back in force. The break came back and then a group of 4 got away and won but it was OK since Ben won the field sprint and I was 14th. Not too bad considering I am still on antibiotics and have a huge hole in my butt.
Wednesday’s stages just plain sucked for me. I started off feeling OK and thinking I would finish with the leaders but on the 4th climb or so I started suffering bad and just couldn’t do a hard effort on the climb. I got dropped hard core on the next climb and promptly got passed by 50 people. I rolled in with current world track omnium champion Hayden Godfrey though which was pretty cool. I lost 10 minutes but at least I didn’t quit or something.
Thursday was good for me but not for my team. It started off great with Chris and Greg getting in the day’s main break and looking good. I thought they were gonna stay away on the super hard hilly course but they got reeled in with 15 miles to go and it was set up for a field sprint up a 1 km steep climb. Going into the climb I was in good position and there was a huge crash next to me which took out Chris. I attacked first up the climb and thought I might win but 4 people came around me before the finish. I definitely went too early and probably could have been top 3 if I would have waited but I am still happy considering Wednesday was so bad. There are 2 stages left in the Tour of Ohio and we are planning on picking up at least one stage win!

OUCH!!!!!(Don't read if you get grossed out easily)

these 2 words describe the past couple days for me SADDLE SORE. It was actually way worse than a normal saddle sore. I tried to deal with it myself but it just kept getting worse so I finally went to see the doctor here at the purdue university student health center. the doctor who also happens to be the dad of a guy we bike race with was like "wow we need to cut that open with a scalpel it is full of pus. And it was. That was pretty painful to say the least and it was like an inch deep too. So now I have a square cut out of my butt that is deep and I have gauze on it to absorb all the blood and pus. Now Tour of Ohio starts on Tuesday so I have 3 more days to get into shape where I can hopefully ride without screaming in pain. I think I will be fine since it hurts about 50 times less this morning than it did yesterday. Also thanks to my roommates for driving me around yesterday to get the medicine and stuff and to Greg for helping change the bandage. you guys are really troopers.
Also on Tuesday I did a crit in minnesota and got 5th and won some beer in a prime and was in a break with Adam Bergman and Eric Marcotte. It was a good time but I am pretty sure it made the saddle sore a ton worse which led up to the surgery. Wish me luck in getting better soon.

UffDa back in Minnesota

Recap of the past 3 days
Saturday got up at 5 am to do the Indiana state RR championship which ended up getting cancelled due to big storms. Then went to my sisters high school graduation ceremony in Carmel. then got in the car and drove to Minnesota and got there at 3:30 am Sunday.
Sunday
Got up at 11:00 did a little 2 hour ride with a good friend of mine from high school. Then went and set up for my sisters grad party and saw a lot of friends that I hadn't seen in at least one year. It was a blast and really fun to catch up with everyone. Then after cleaning up i got lost trying to find my friends new apartment to have a few beers with him.
Monday slept again and I am gonna go bowling and do some riding and eat some ice cream and maybe go swimming or something. Also Tuesday night is the weekly criterium series and I am gonna go do that. I ahven't raced in MN in 2 years so it will be fun to see more old faces and friends.

Cash money baby!

This past weekend was the Winfield Criteriums near Chicago. Saturday evening started off great with our 3 man team of Ben, Greg and I working really well together and ben winning the field sprint for the victory! I got 9th too. We executed our plan of racing aggressively well. Greg was off the front solo for a long time while Ben and I marked moves to keep the field from catcing him. he got reeled in with 2 laps to go and then I and greg worked to keep it together so ben could take the sprint.
then Saturday night we played videogames and lazertag which was a blast! Sunday went well. also. I got in a 9 man break which lapped the field and greg was in a break and got 11th. It came down to a field sprint and I placed 2nd. I was hoping to win it but the ABD guy rob white had a pretty strong sprint. I am not complaing though as 2nd was worth $500. By far the most I have ever won in a race. Hopefully we can keep the momentum for the Indiana State road race Saturday and going into Tour of Ohio!

Cat 1 Baby

I just got my Cat 1 upgrade approved this week and I am stoked. it only took me 8 years of training my but off to get it. Now I will be able to race Fitchburg and downers grove and other races too. This week of training was pretty good. I did a 4 hour ride with Greg and Joey and cody on Wednesday afternoon. We hit up some awesome dirt roads and did a 1 mile dirt road descent that greg almost wiped out on. I love exploring new roads. that is what really gets me excited about riding so I love doing long rides to get out and see more of the area around Lafayette. This weekend we are racing the winfield crits and tonight we are gonna play some sweet lazer tag. if you are ever in Naperville definitley check out Cyberspace lazer tag. (cyberspacelazertag.com). Hopefully this weekend we wil post up some more good finishes.

memorial day report

Well as seems to be a trend with me the first few races of a series didn't go so great but the last one went great and saved my weekend! I started off OK in snake alley for about 5 laps until I totally blew up. I really need to get a smaller gear than a 39-23 next time on that one. I have never had good luck at that one not even as a junior. Melon city felt a bit better our team covered every major move but again I blew up when I had great position going into the last time up the hill. My plan was to go for teh sprint points in Rock island but I missed points ont eh second sprint cuz i missed the break so I ended up 4th while the top 3 got money. but I knew I felt good and heading into the last 5 laps our sprinter ben renkema found his way up to near the front too. so I worked to try and keep him out of the wind and move him up into the top 10 going into the last long strait. It worked out pretty well with him landing 5th and my in 8th. we made a bunch of money and I think if we practice a bit I can definitley get comfortable taking him right to the front of the race at the end. Tomorrow is gonna be a nice long ride in some great sunshine to help get some miles in before tour ohio and possibley the indiana state road race.

back to training

So my 3 days off for the week ended up being 5 because of le tour de west lafayette which I helped promote. I got to ride in the rain on Thursday and Monday though!!! My one month long statistics class is proving to be a little more work than i thought with class 2 hours per day but I am handling it OK. I got out for a 3 hour ride today and I am gonna do a little more riding tomorrow after I finish my first stat test. Basically I have been really busy with the race and trying to work and enter my data and do the stat class and biking I haven't had much time for riding or entering the data it seems like. I am getting pumped up for snake alley, melon city and rock island this weekend though. Team Turin is gonna rock it!!

3 days off!

well I am done with my little mid season break and it feels like it never even started!! I took monday tuesday and wednesday off with no biking and tomorrow I guess i had better start riding again. Also Greg Christian is living at my house for the summer so it is gonna be a big party every day sort of. It will be fun to have a new guy to bike with and travel to races with. My job for the summer of entering the data I collected during the semester is really boring too!!! I am taking a statistics class during the month of may too which is 2 hours a day and shouldn't be too difficult. I guess riding tomorrow should be pretty fun my next race is the quad cities weekend so hopefully my good form from nationals sticks around for that.

8th Place!!!

I got 8th in the Men's Division 1 Criterium at Nationals yesterday!!! I am stoked. I accomplished my first big goal for the year which was a top 10 finish at college nationals. I placed 19th in the road race and 9th in the omnium. So I got 2 top 10 finishes sort of. The races went well. The road race was tough and I managed not to get dropped on the climbs I sort of messed up the sprint though and ended up in the wind for the last kilometer of the race. That motivated me even more for the criterium which was really fast and furious and there were a bunch of crashes. I stayed in the front half of the pack for the whole race to try to avoid crashes and I moved into the top 10 with 3 laps to go. I was following behind the Colorado State lead out train and kept hearing crashes behind me. With about half a lap to go I was pretty sure I was gonna get my goal of top 10. It feels good to accomplish my first big goal. This is my first top 10 in a nationals race since the Junior expert short track in Durango CO when I was 16!!! It has been 5 years! Great job to all of the other midwest guys who came out and raced we definitely had a good showing in he crit with 4 top 15 placings!! Also Chris Ubertiy did well too with a 14th in the Road race and 27 in the crit. This helped our Purdue team to finish 20th overall which is great! Next up for me is 3 days of no biking and no race this weekend except helping with Le tour de West Lafayette which every Cat 3-5 rider should be coming to race this weekend!!!

Nationals Update

We previewed the Road race course yesterday and man it is gonna be tough. The hardest climb is less than 1 mile after the start. It is has a bunch of 1-2 mile long climbs and the altitude definitely makes them tougher than they would be in Indiana. I think it is gonna be a tough race but a great finish is still defnitely possible. Today we went sight seeing at Rocky mountain national park. we did a short hike through about 3 feet of snow too!!! We saw some great views of awesome snow capped mountains. Colorado is definitely an awesome state. Tomorrow is the TTT which we aren't doing but we are gonna be there scouting out the competition and doing some cheering. I am gonna put up another update on Saturday after the RR.

Warsaw race and Colorado

I got 8th in the Fat and Skinny tire festival road race on Saturday. I was sick with a cold and felt like crap the whole race. It was super windy probably the second windiest race I have ever done. The first was a men’s 4/5 road race in Minnesota when I was 15 that had 30 mile an hour steady winds and we averaged less than 20 mph for a 30 mile race. Basically the race was down to less than 15 people after 2 laps of 7 because of the wind. I just wanted to get some good training in for nationals and I definitely accomplished this but I didn’t really help make myself less sick. Now I am riding in the car on the way to Fort Collins for nationals. A top 10 finish is my goal but I really want the podium. The road race looks like a pretty tough course with some good hard climbs and the crit is a figure 8 loop that should be pretty fast.

Schools over for the summer

I just finished my last final about 20 minutes ago. I am ready to relax for a day or 2 and then get back to workin on my research project but at least I don't have to take any more tests for a while. Excepte I am taking on class during May!!! Oh well I guess I will get my real summer break in June. Prep for natz has been going pretty well except a mysterious pain in the middle of my right patella(knee cap). I have never had this problem before but I am sure I can get it resolved before nationals! This weekend is a road race on Saturday and a training ride sunday then next Tuesday we drive to Colorado. I am getting pretty pumped up! Well I am gonna go celebrate school being out.

riding bikes a lot

I did a century Saturday. I wanted it to only be 80 miles but the route we chose ended up basically being one hundered miles on the dot. It was a gorgeous day and we rode some new roads near crawfordsville south of Purdue. Then saturday night i went camping with some friends which was also a blast. We cooked korean food over the fire, made smores and did some night hiking. I love showing people how to have fun in the outdoors!! I should just be a professional camp counselor. Then Sunday I did a nice easy 3 hour ride with Doza (www.fastbrownman.blogspot.com) it was a good time and we chatted about blogging it up. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thrusday I have finals each day from 7-9pm. Can't wait to get finshed with school for the summer!!!

Every thing is good!!

This has been a pretty good week. Got new shoes and got fitted on them today. They are Lake 230s. They are white and super stiff. they look pretty sweet! It has been great weather for riding too. I did a 3 hour ride yesterday and I keep forgetting to bring my camera. I really promise that someday I will take some photos on my rides. I got an A on my big exercise physiology paper as well which is great!! I wrote about what the best type of recovery drink is for aerobic exercise. Also I am nearly done running trials for my research project!!! On Friday I will be done and then next week I can get started entering the 100+ days of food records I still have left to enter. Next week is finals week and I have 3 tests but I should still be able to get out on some nice rides. On Saturday I am planning on doing a 5-6 hour ride to explore some new roads. Basically everything is going really well and i hope it is for you too!

What a weekend! We're goin to natz baby!

Regionals was great for Purdue and myself. There is a lot to tell but basically Saturday purdue missed the winning break of 4 but Chris and I took 5th and 6th by winning the field sprint. I felt great in that sprint so I knew I had the legs to win the crit on Sunday. The race went really well I took over 30 prime points but I got a flat about 20 minutes into the race. I got a wheel and got back in. The final sprint chris launche the perfect move about 100m before the last corner. Then I went started the sprint right before the corner and we got 1 2!!!! It was amazing. I felt great sprinting and when I realized we had 1,2 I was stoked. We couldn't have asked for a better way to finish the conference season!!! I think I may have earned enough points to jump into 3rd overall as an individualy for the season too. After that we drove home got home at about 12:30 and then I had a class at 7:30 this morning. It was a long but very fun weekend. And we made it to nationals as a team which was a season long goal for everyone on the team.

Feelin good with a new bike

I went out and did a nice sprint workout on the new Cervelo Soloist today and it was awesome. The new bike is ridiculously stiff and responsive. It feels like every little bit of power is going straight into the road. I really do feel faster on this bike. I am getting pretty stoked for this weekend too. Purdue is bringing 21 people and we are hoping to move from 5th to 3rd on the overall team rankings. It should be a pretty fun weekend with nice weather and good racing!!!

Turin traing camp 2

Team training camp 2
We went to Evanston this weekend for our second team training camp. It was pretty fun but pretty boring at some times.
Friday
Began with getting Korean food with a friend of mine for dinner at 5pm. Then we started driving to Chicago around 6:30 and got a second dinner at McDonalds. Then we went to Naperville to play Laser Tag and arcade games like air hockey at Cyber Space Laser tag. This was awesome!!! We played as a team and lost the first game to a bunch of 10 year olds. Then we won our next game against a couple of teenagers. After laser tag we played arcade games and ate pizza for 2 hours. It was like every kids dream come true since we had unlimited tokens for the games. Thanks a bunch to Kurt Tromp for having us we had a blast. I think we will definitely be coming back again this year for more laser tag action.
Saturday was a rainy day but it was brightened up when we got to the shop and got our new bikes. Check out the pics! Then we did this computrainer TT which was really hard and lasted like 35 minutes! I didn’t feel very good but it was just for fun. Saturday night we went to dinner at Chiles and I was able to order a beer since I am 21 now!! Pretty exciting stuff. After getting back to the hotel I was pretty much out like a light and got a great nights sleep.
Sunday we went for a cold windy ride around a bunch of really big houses on our new bikes. It was pretty cool to ride the new bikes but I am lucky I live in Lafayette and not Chicago. Riding there isn’t nearly as much fun as riding where I live. Still it was good team bonding and we rode a little around on the northbrook velodrome.
This week is gonna be a pretty good one since it is Grand Prix week here at Purdue which means there are lots of parties to go too. Also I have nearly finished my research project which is pretty exciting. I have a presentation in one class on Thursday and a quiz on Friday then it is off to Regionals in Wisconsin!! Purdue is gonna go to Natz baby!!!!!

Great Weekend!!!!

This was probably the best weekend of the year so far! I raced at Marian in Indianapolis on Saturday and placed 7th with purdue getting 3 in the top 15! We are getting closer and closer to making it to Natz as a team!!! then today was the Purdue Road Race and Team time trial which I was promoting. It started last night with a pizza party at Hot Box pizza which a bunch of the MWCCC teams came too. Hot Box donates 15% of their sales to us from teh people we bring in. Michigan State, U Michigan, Northern Michigan, St Louis U, OSU, Murray State and other teams all came to have dinner with us which was a blast! Then we got up early today and went and started getting everything ready for the TTT. We had to trade off corner marshalling and no one got to warm up for any race but the Purdue men's A team got 3rd in our TTT anyway despite lack of aero equipement. I can't wait until we have aerobars and can really kill it at Regionals! I got to marshall during the men's D and women's B TTTs and got to see some awesome hill running up action. The TTT featured a killer hill with almost a 15% grade that really caught some people off guard. After that and marshalling the RR for 2 hours and answering and making over 50 phone calls about where to get the volunteers and how to deliver our pizza lunch to everyone I raced the RR. Chris and I made the break of 10 guys with all the major teams represented I placed 5tha nd chris got 3rd!!! It was a great day for both of us. unfortunately my legs aren't quite as good as they were back at the beginning of march but 5th is still pretty good. I was super happy too to have so many fans come out. A whole bunch of my foreign friends came out to see there first bike race ever so I should have lots of pics to post that they took. It is always more motivating when you are racing in front of your friends. After the race and getting the park cleaned up I went home showered and did homework. I also got a killer sun burn today. I guess I better start wearin sunscreen again.

gettin ready

whoa this has been a pretty busy week so far. I am super excited for the race I am putting on this weekend though. The weather looks great and we basically have everything in place for teh weekend. I think the Purdue team definitely has some more big wins coming this weekend too in all categories. Today I rode teh course with a bunch of my helpful team mates to deliver letters to residents on the course and paint arrows on the road we also did some TTT practice. I have a big paper due tomorrow that I just finished and I have a big test Friday. I will feel really relieved once the race on Sunday is all over but I am still excited by it. Everyone had better make plans to come out and cheer or race this weekend here in Indiana!

Michigan/Michigan State report

I had a dirt road race on Saturday up at Michigan State. It started off well for our team with 4 of our riders left in the pack half way through the race out of 20 people left in the pack. Then we missed a big break and had to use a ton of energy chasing it back down. After that we got Cody off in the next break that ended up winning it. He got 4th which is a great result! My roommate Will was taking some huge pulls to chase down other attacks and he placed 12th. I got 10th and Chris got 14th after flatting on the last lap but quickly getting a wheel change. It was a little bit disappointing as we were hoping to place 3 in the top ten but 4 in the top 15 is pretty good too.
Sunday we had a circuit race with a big hill in Michigan and that race went pretty well too. Chris attacked numerous times but no one would let him go. I went with a few moves but nothing stuck until a Eric from Milwauke attacked and we let him and
Alex from Marian get 30 seconds. That was it and the rest of us springted for 3rd. I ended up 5th and Chris 10th. Cody was still in the top 20 also. Then we had a 3.5 mile hilly TT in the afternoon that was pretty fun since the course was sweet. we haven't seen the results from that one yet but I will be stoked if we got 2 in the top 10 and 4 in the top 15 again.
This weekend I am organizing the race at Purdue on Sunday so I have been on the phone all day making the final arrangments and renting porta-johns. It is gonna be a fun race and hopefully I can win in front of the home crowd and bring myself up higher in the individual MWCCC points standings. More importantly hopefully the Purdue team has a good race and we get a lot of points towards going to natz!

time to get it up!

http://www.mwccc.org/sp08/results/html/sp08_rank_team_afterpitt.html
That is the link to the team overall standings for the Mid West Collegiate Cycling Conference. My Purdue Boilermakers are ranked 3rd overall and 7th on the A team standings. I am really pleased with how we are doing overall which includes all categories and really shows the depth of our team. The work we have put in to growing the team over the past 3 seasons is really starting to pay off. But we are not guaranteed a team spot at nationals currently since only A points count for that. We have 2 more full weekends of races left and we are definitly gonna need to step it up if we really want to go to nationals. I know we can do it but the rankings are providing extra motivation. Oh yeah I finally got a camera too so I will probably post some picutres here sometime soon.

Pittsburgh

I got a flat tire with 4 laps to go in the downtown Pittsburgh criterium today!! I was feeling good and had taken the last 2 primes but then I felt it go soft and it was over. Frustrating but that is how it goes sometimes. It was a really fun weekend overall though. Let’s start at the beginning. Friday we left at 5:30 and finally went to bed at 2am!!!! That’s right it was a 7.5 hour drive. Then we got up at 6am to go race in the snow. Actually I didn’t race until 2 pm but I wanted to watch everyone else race. It snowed most of the day and the course was absolutely awesome. Chris got in the winning move again and got 4th and I got 10th after trying a one lap attack. Cody got in the top 20(that means in the points) meaning it was a pretty good day for the Purdue men’s A team. Saturday night we got Korean food and sushi in downtown Pittsburgh. It was the best Korean food I have had in the US. We had a really good time. The purdue team is a really great group of people and every weekend is fun regardless of results. The other cool thing about this weekend was that we raced against East coast schools like Dartmouth, U Vermont, Penn State, and Army. All of those are really strong teams especially Penn state and Army. Well I had better get back to studying since I have 2 tests this week. One Monday and one Tuesday! Next weekend is gonna be good! I can feel it.

Oh yeah and for people who keep complaining that the Purdue road race I am organizing is too short. Stop complaining because none of you even applied to host races this year. If you want a longer road race put one on yourself!!!!

Sweatin to the Oldies!!!

No I havent' been doing Richard Simons work outs but I have been doing my spin work outs on the rollers while listening to JEFF92 our local no commercials oldies station. It has been a few days since I posted an update but I have been catching up on work since spring break is over. I got a little bit sick yesterday but I feel better today. I am glad I was able to avoid getting actually sick. I am getting pretty stoked about this weekends races in Pittsburgh (www.steelcityshowdown.com). I wanna kick some East coast collegiate conference butt!!! It should also be cool to visit a new big city. Well I will probably post again about those races.

Spring break wrap up

I had a great break in Arkansas. Perfect weather and great riding. Tuesday we rode Mt. Magazine the highest mountain in Arkansas and there was snow at the top!!! It was about a 7 or 8 mile climb at 6 percent or so. Then Wednesday we did a 100 mile ride up to the University of Arkansas and checked out the campus. Thursday was a recovery day and Chris and I went to check out the mountain biking at Devil’s Den state park which was supposed to be the best in the state. We were pretty disappointed the trails were super bumpy and didn’t take advantage of the elevation in the area. It was like riding a trail from Indiana only it was bumpy and slow. Then we came back to the cabin and I went hiking with some people and we went swimming in a creek which was freezing cold but lots of fun. Friday we rode another century out to Oklahoma. We explored lots of cool roads and it was a blast. I love exploring new roads. Now it is back to Indiana to go back to school. Next weekend we are heading to Pittsburgh for the next set of collegiate races.

Mizzou and Arkansas

Well I guess you can't win em all. I was totally prepared for another weekend of domination at Mizzou but that ended early in the day after jon myers broke away early for a much deserved win in the road race. I was pretty well marked and it seemed like every time I attacked or jumped in a move it was doomed. Chris did well with a top 10 placing and i took the field sprint for 15th or something. The next day at Lindenwood I was out to do a little better and score some points. It was a really tough course with lots of turns and climbing and the field basically shattered. It ended with Kyle jacobsen form UW milwauke getting away and I sprinted for 5th place. I was pretty happy with that finish. Then we drove down here to Arkansas where we don't have internet to train for the week. Monday was an easy day we rode as a big group and I went mtbing a little. Also the local TV station came and interviewed me and put our club on TV. So everyone in this little town called Mountainburg knows who we are now. I will try and get a clip of that to put on the blog since it is pretty cool. Tuesday we rode mt. Magazine which is the highest point in Arkansas and then yesterday we did a 100 mile ride with some pretty good climbs. Today Chris and I are gonna hit up Devils den state park which is supposed to have the best mtb trails in the state and then Friday is our last full day and we are gonna try to do another 100 mile ride. The weather has been great and the riding has been even better so far. I will probably do another blog about the rest of the camp Saturday or Sunday.

Bonking, snow and why this weekend was important

So today I went skiing on the Purdue golf course and was planning to do 2 hours but bonked after 1. I guess that is what I get for skipping breakfast. so now I am just focusing on making sure I am fully recovered to try to win again in missouri and train hard in Arkansas next week. Oh yeah it was 70 on sunday and then tuesday it snowed 5 inches. So no biking here for a while again!!! Good thing I really like skiing too or I would have been pretty mad.
So this weeekend was a pretty big deal for me. I have been bike racing and training very seriously since I was 13 years and never once in that time have I won any sort of road race, crit, TT, Mtb race, CX race that had more than 20 people racing. I was beginning to think I would never win a race. So to get to wins with fields of nearly 50 riders each is huge for me especially considering the caliber of riders who race Men's A. So basically this weekend is my first real win in over 8 years of hard work. Bike racing is never something that is easy and for some it takes longer than others to acheive success but I feel like I am a pretty good example of how working hard over a long period of time and not giving up when you aren't always as successful as you would like to be can lead to becoming a really good racer. Basically don't give up ever if you really want something you can get it if you work hard and are realistic.
I think it might be the last time it snows for a while so get out and go sledding while you still can! Oh yeah and here are some sweet victory pictures. Thanks to My dad and James Polivka for the photos.

2 wins!!!!!!

I had probably the most successful weekend of bike racing of my life this weekend.
Saturday was a 40 mile road race and I normally try to get in a break to win but with my asthma failing to improve I knew I that approach wouldnt work so I decided no matter what happened I would sit and wait for the field sprint. It worked there was a break that got reeled in with near the finish and I attacked with 300m to go and passed the last break away rider John Myers ( who rode and incredible race) and threw my hands in the air. I haven't ever won a non juniors road bike race in 8 years of serious training and racing so I was extremely excited. Then my coach boris who also happened to be the chief ref of the race came and told me that the race wouldn't count for series points because so many riders broke the yellow line rule causing crashes. I was mad at first but I know where he is coming from. The race still counts for Cat 1 upgrade points but it still hurt. So I declared I would repeat my win on Sunday.
Sunday
I showed up at the race and it was 70 degrees super windy and sunny. I was feeling good and ready to repeat my win and have it really count this time. Actually I talked a lot of smack and pretty much told everyone I talked to that I was gonna win. 4 laps into our 24 lap crit John and steve from wisconsin( who was the conference champion last year) were up the road so I bridged up and that was it. John pulled really hard which helped us grow the gap to 70 seconds. the break actually started with 7 guys eric from UW Milwauke, Isaac from Indiana U, and a german exchange student from U wisco. We dropped IU and milwauke and the 4 of us stayed together till the last lap. Being from Purdue I was happy to kick some IU butt (LOL)! I didn't pull hard so I wouldn't mess up my breathing and just waited until the sprint again. Going into the last corner I attacked which is what my french coach Boris told me to do and i just drilled it never looking back and won with a big gap again. This time it counted too!!! 2 wins in one weekend couldn't have come at a better time as I was getting pretty upset over the fact that my asthma is still really bad and doesn't seem to be getting better. I proved to myself that I can still do well even though I can't breath well. I guess next week in Missouri is my next goal. Maybe I can pick up another victory and help purdue qualify for natz as a team!!!!

skiing action

I got enjoy some of the best crust skiing conditions of the year yesterday here at Purdue. Crust skiing is when the snow has melted and compacted and then freezes hard again so you can skate ski over any surface on top of the snow easily. It is a blast and yesterday was no exception. I felt great skiing and I wish I could have competed in the American Birkebeiner(birkie.com) this past weekend. In high school I used to do nordic ski racing and all through out my senior year I always said I would make a skiing comeback someday. Yesterday got me thinkin about the comeback again. This weekend we have 2 more college races and it looks like it is gonna be pretty nice weather which should get me psyched about bike racing again. I think I am gonna try to ski once more today before the snow melts this weekend. I also need to study for a big food safety test on Friday!!!

OSU Road race

Yesterday was the first race of the season. It was a 40 mile road race at Ohio State University. I placed 12th and had a few good break away attempts but my lungs weren't really cooperating. My asthma was bothering me every time I had to go hard for more than 1 minute. It ended with 2 guys off the front and a field sprint. I got 12th place but I am not very happy with it because I should have jumped earlier to move myself into a better position. Good news is Purdue cycling is looking really good this year and I think we will actually have a good shot at going to Road natz as a team which would definitely take the pressure off me to qualify as an individual. I think this is gonna be a pretty fun collegiate season. This weekend is races at Depauw university about 1 hour south of Purdue. Hopefully I can pull of a couple top 10 finishes and help Chris get some points up too. Hopefully my asthma gets better too other wise I will have to race more conservatively and just wait for the sprint.

snow no!

The first race of the season got cancelled today and the second one scheduled for sunday might be snowed out too. That is frustrating but at least it snowed like 6 inches here so I was able to go for a nice long ski. We went sledding tonight too and went off some really big jumps. Even though I was disappointed not to get to race I am always happy to get to go play in the snow. If Sundays race gets cancelled too you can bet I am gonna do a lot of skiing and sledding this weekend to take advantage of this snow. Hope everyone gets out and enjoys the snow this weekend!

feelin better

It's amazing what taking a day off and actually getting some sleep can do for your recovery. I did just that on Tuesday and today I did 2.5 hours of riding and felt much better. I did some snow mountain biking on the purdue trails which had 3 inches of fresh powder on them. It was really really slippery but still fun. I only crashed about 5 times. It was pretty cold outside maybe 20 degrees but it was really sunny and didn't feel too bad. I hope it didn't snow much at Ohio State. It would really stink if we drove all the way to Columbus only for the races to get cancelled like last year.

AHHH!!!!

That is how I feel today. I went for a ride in some insane wind and cold and I just felt like crud. my heart was racing and i just didn't feel good overall. I know that what i need to do now is rest as much as I can until I feel better but it is still frustrating for me. I have learned my lesson about overtraining too many times to keep pushing now and make the same mistake again. This will give me a good opportunity to catch up on studying though since I have a test in metabolism class on Wednesday morning. I hope I feel better soon at least by this weekend for the first collegiate races. Overall it wasn't a bad day but I still feel bad when I can't train as hard as I have planned too. Hope everyone else is enjoying this crazy weather and is getting psyched up for race season.

riding and eating asian food

I did a lot of riding the past couple of days. Today I got out and did 3 hours in the 25 degree cold only to have it warm up to 40 later in the day. Last night we had a korean bbq at my house and we totally burned all of the meat. It was practially all char and no meat but still kind of good. then tonight I had chinese hot pot for my Purdue Cycling coaches girlfriend's birthday. Boris is the Purdue Cyclng clubs advisor and he also helps coach me. He is french and is has been a cycling official for over 10 years. He helps me mostly with race strategy and with races that i promote. Basically he is a great resource and I am so luck that I arrived at Purdue when he did. My racing ability has definitely improved since I started to work with him. Chinese hot pot is really good. You cook raw meat and veggies in a pot of boiling spicy oil. Tomorrow i am gonna try to go ride 4 hours out in the rain in the morning. Should be a blast!!! I can't wait to get out and race at the Ohio State University next weekend.

beatiful day!

Today I did 2:45 outside on the mtb under crystal blue skies. It was great but pretty cold. I got to watch the sunset too which is always really pretty at Purdue. We had about 3 inches of fresh snow on the single track and I also rode some bike paths around town. It is always my favorite time to ride right around dusk so I can see the sun set. It also happens to be the only time I ever get to ride it seems like so that works out perfectly. Hope everyone is having a great week and getting in some good riding.

Super hardcore!

Yesterday I rode in 18 degree weather but it felt much colder. The title is kind of a joke but it was really cold. I went mountain biking on the trails at Purdue and my water bottle was completely frozen after 1 hour outside. I rode 2 hours out in the cold then came home and rode the rollers for 30 minutes. With all of the snow gone from the trails the conditions were actually pretty good and I was pretty warm while riding them. Although with all the rain we had last week most of the spots where water runs were extremely washed out. It looks like it will be warmer later on this week so hopefully I can bust out some nice long rides before the first race next weekend at Ohio State!

some good riding and hiking

yesterday was a great day for riding. it was sunny and 45 degrees outside. I did a 4 hour ride with Joey Iuliano into a really strong headwind. It was one of the longest rides of the season so far and I was pretty cooked by the end of it. Then today the temperature dropped and the high was only about 15 degrees so I decided to go hiking in a park near purdue to avoid freezing my but off on the bike. I rode the rollers for 45 minutes when i got back too. Overall a pretty good weekend of training and only 2 weeks until the first race I needed it.

nice weather for a change

It was 45 degrees and sunny here today. It was great day for a ride and i got in 1.5 hours on the bike before it got dark. Then I went and got korean food with some friends. I really like korean food and I needed to carboload for a big ride tomorrow. I am hoping to get 4-5 hours in. It fllooded even worse than before here too so I am gonnna need to come up with some new routes to ride on. Hope everyone has a great weekend and gets outside some how.

Crazy wind

Today I did a 3:15 ride in a ridiculous wind. I averaged about 12 mph going into the wind for about 2 hours and then was able to easily do 25 on the way back. It snowed periodically on the ride too. I needed to get some good training in before it gets cold again. There is more flooding here as well since it has been raining a lot and all of the snow that fell melted too. Some roads were nearly underwater. You gotta do rides like this if you wanna be good though!

Epic Riding

Today I rode in the worst fog I have ever seen in my life. It snowed 7 inches last Friday and today it was like 60 degrees for the whole day!!! The snow was melting like crazy and it was so foggy you could barely see 30 feet in front of you. So I and a friend did a ride on the bike paths around West Lafayette to avoid getting smashed by a car. It was fun. We slammed through slushy piles of snow on our road bikes and rode the Happy hollow climb 2 times. I think all of the snow melted too which is really too bad I was having fun sledding and skiing. It looks like it is gonna get cold again soon too. Ahh midwest weather is pretty crazy but at least it makes you a really tough bike rider to train in the cold, rain, wind, snow and sleet.

Skiing and sledding

I have gonna skiing both Saturday and Sunday this weeeknd and it was great! Today I skiied in a really hilly woods that Purdue owns and it was a blast. The downhills are pretty hair raising since it is basically just a twisty single track through the woods and you have no way to slow down on cross country skiis other than falling. I was happy to have no crashes yet. It is supposed to warm up over the next few days but I really hope the snow doesn't totally melt. Hopefully it makes a really good crust on the golf course for skate skiing when it gets cold again. I also went sledding on Slater hill last night which is a big Purdue tradition. I went with some friends who had never gone there before so it was a pretty good time. There was a pretty big jump I went over a few times. I really love it when it snows at Purdue. Tomorrow I need to get back to serious training again though.

day off!

wow it felt really good to take a day off from riding today. It snowed about 7 inches last night so I probably wouldn't have been able to ride anyway. I didn't really get any structured exercise though and I am gonna sleep in tomorrow so that should help my recovery to start training hard next week too. I went to an Indiana pacers game tonight which was pretty fun since i haven't been to a pro basketball game in over 10 years! The pacers lost by 3 points to the houston rockets the team of Yao Ming. I went with a 2 chinese people and a korean guy and they went crazy for Yao Ming. tomorrow I am gonna bust out the XC skis and I am looking forward too it. I will probably go sledding tomorrow night too. I can't wait to get out and play in the snow.

SNOW IS COMING!!!

While most cyclists aren't normally excited about a huge snow storm I am usually the exception. It is supposed to snow 6-10 inches here tonight and I couldn't be happier about it. I love it when it snows so that everyone at Purdue can go sledding on Slater hill together. I promise to put up some pictures this weekend of some crazy sledding action. I also like cross country skiing and the only time I get to do that is when we get a big snow storm here. I used to do xc ski racing in high school and feel that it provides a great alternative to riding in the freezing cold. We have lots of places to ski here at Purdue although none of them have official ski trails it is still fun. We have 2 full golf courses and 2 large wooded areas right on campus that are great for skiing. Today I got up early and lifted with a freshman on the bike team. I have a good feeling about the Purdue cycling team this season. I think we are gonna kick some serious but overall as a team. I am hoping we can move into the top 3 for teams this season. I hope everyone gets out and enjoys the snow this weekend.

Wow!

The weather switched really quickly yesterday. I think they said the temp dropped 40 degrees in 3 hours here in West Lafayette. It was about 20 degrees outside so Chris and I decided to go mountain biking. It was warm and fun. There were some pretty icy creek crossings though and i did a pretty spectacular crash that involved doing a somersault over my bike on one of them. Normally I am pretty good at riding over ice but I got a little cocky and started pedaling before I was off of the ice. I feel with mountain biking you didn't ride hard enough unless you crash at least once. Tomorrow I am gonna lift and friday I am gonna take a rest day for the first time in about 3 weeks which should feel pretty good. I am going down to Indianapolis to watch the Pacers vs the houston rockets on friday too. I am really tired right now and it is only 9:30. I am gonna go to bed and hopefully I will recover well this week because I have less than 1 month before the first race. Next week is gonna get serious again.

Inspiration from today's ride

Today was the first day of my recovery week. Basically I am planning on only training about 8-10 hours this week and taking at least 1 or 2 days with no biking or structured training. Today it was warm outside but it was raining and very windy. I figured it might be the best weather for a while so I went out on the Purdue group ride. It was fun. there are 2 new riders that were also there and both of them have really impressed me so far. We did a 2 hour loop with a really steep climb in it. One of the guys is on a 1980s race bike that doesn't have a very small gear and on the hill I turned around and saw him walking so I waited at the top but didn't see him. I went back down only to see him back at the bottom sprinting at the hill and then rocking up it. I was very impressed with his determination. Working hard and proving to yourself that you can do it is what bike racing is all about. So next time you feel like you can't do it remember you an always turn around and try it again. As I always say "Step Up to the Challenge!!"

I have a blog now!

Welcom to my blog. I am gonna write about my racing and training for bike racing here. I am gonna try to update it every few days about my training and write race reports every weekend.