1, 2, 3!

My team acheived its goal at the Seoul Rally Hill climb this weekend of getting 1 2 3 in my category! It was in a different order than I thought it would be though. The course was really well suited to me and I was able to take the win! It wasn't a regular hill climb. It had 2 1km or so hills followed by a 3km hill to the finish. The hills had some steep parts and some flats and some gradual which works a lot better for me than a long steady hill. It was freezing cold and my hands and toes were basically frozen after the race! It was a great way to close out the season. My whole team went to Saipan(a US territory near Guam) this week for a vacation and one final race but I had to work so I couldn' t join them! Im jealous but today is the first day of skiing at the yangji pine resort. This was a great bike season for me! Im really looking forward to continuing next spring with Team Cannondale! Its a great group of guys and its great racing with 5 guys who can legitimately win most races here! The race was in down town seoul and was near a famous Palace so after the race I went there with Yujin! It was really cool. I guess now that I don't need to bike for a little while I should buckle down and study hard for the GMAT

Getting ready for the last race

Last week was pretty uneventful. After the race last week my team said how cool it would be to get 1,2,3 in my age group with the other 2 guys my age from the team. so I have been riding still trying to stay in shape. Its a 6km hill climb in seoul this sunday. Last sunday my bike club Suwon Alpha came out to my town to go riding. I took them on a new trail I found outside of my town that they really liked. Its a 1km climb followed by 1 mile of rolling single track and a 1.5 mile twisty tight single track downhill. About 15 riders came out and we had great weather. We had goat soup for lunch too which was suprisingly good. They love taking me to eat foods I have never eaten before. The Yangji pine ski resort opens next tuesday which is only about a 5 minute drive from my house. Its perfect timing with the last bike race! 2 of my other friends have bought season passes this year too and I found a korean ski club that goes every weekday after work that I can ski with as well. Should be a pretty good winter! Im looking forward to a little time off the bike even though compared to the last 10 years of my life this is by far the least I have ever ridden but my best season in terms of results. The last race of the season should be fun though hopefully I can follow my teammates wheels to acheive our goal!

race photos

Climbing during the race

Podium Shot! My team mate Hwan Geol got 3rd

This is the best victory shot I've been able to find.

Tour de Korea pre test = WIN!!!!

Sunday was the qualifying race for the 2011 tour de korea which is the biggest ameteur race in Korea. My team and I went down on saturday morning to check out the course and enjoy the ocean. Teh race was in Tae An county on the west coast of korea. It started and finished right in front of a huge beach! We rented a condo near the beach and grilled clams and other shells on the barbeque saturday night! The course was a pretty good one for me. 50km with 3 1-2km climbs. The climbs were fairly steep but were followed by fast downhills immediately so I didn't think a break was gonna be able to go on this course. 2 of my team mates Yeon Deok and Hwan Gol (who are about the same age as me and really fast riders) said they wanted to attack and I said I wanted to wait for the sprint. so we had a pretty good game plan going in. The race played out just like I thought it would with lots of peopel getting dropped on each climb. The race started with over 300 people and after the final climb there were 30 or 40 left in the lead pack. The final 15 km were flat with a tail wind and no one really attacked. The final 300 meters had 100m of up hill followed by 200m of down to the finish. I attacked with 300m to go and held a good gap till the finish. I will try to post some pics soon!! My team took some good shots. my teammates also took 3rd and 4th place. There is one more race like I said in my last post. I don't think im capable of winning but we made a team goal of taking 1,2,3 in the senior men mtb cateogry with myself yeon deok and hwan gol. they are both really good at hill climbs so hopefully I can hold their wheel at least!

hiking in the fog, nami island and it turns out there is one more race

Last week was another good one! On Saturday I went out to Yongmun mountain about 1 hour east of seoul with John (who used to race for inferno racing) (what a small world), khai and alex. It was super foggy but not raining. Unfortunately we couldn't enjoy the view because we couldn't really see more than 20 feet in front of us! The mountain was over 3300 ft high and the trail was awesome really challenging and rocky. Sunday I went with Yujin to Nami island which is an island in a reservoir thats part of the han river also north and east of seoul. You had to ride a boat to get to the island. It is a popular place on the weekends and we had to wait in line for almost 1 hour to get back on the boat to the car!! It was a big flat grassy island and they had ostriches walking around!! It was a good weekend but a lot of driving!! My legs are super sore from the hike too because john and i decided to run down part of it which basically destoryed my quads!! I have this whole week to rest before the race. Which it turns out isn't the end of the season after all. There is one more race in down town seoul at the end of november. it starts in down town and finishes on top of a mountain. Should be a pretty cool race but probably really cold if the weather keeps up like this! I got my huge GMAT book in the mail on monday and im ready to start studying! I should have plenty of time to study during december as my work will calm down a lot when my after school programs finish. Im feeling pretty good about the race this weekend and will write a recap after its done!

good weather training for the last race of the year

so my last race wasn't great. my front derailleur cable slipped at the start and I coulnd't get into the big ring. anyway I fixed it now and I have one more race left so im focusing on that. its an 80km road race with a few 1-2km hills in it. should be a good course for me. I got new disc brakes for my mtb. the ones I had for the last 4 years just stopped working well for some reason I put new pads and cables but they just didn't stop well so I got some hydralic XT brakes and they are awesome!! I have been riding single track almost every day since I got them. I forgot how much fun mtb riding is. It rained a lot this summer and I didn't ride off road because my brakes sucked for the past 5 months. but now they are great and the http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5009105113109272929weather has been really dry so the trails are in great shape. I have about 5 single track courses that all take about 1 hour or so right around my house so I have been exploring them again. I will write a review of my race season after this last race!
In other news. My friends Kazuki and Asami who showed me and allan around japan came to visit korea. We took them to the big amusement park near my house on saturday and had a party with a bunch of friends on friday. It was great to get to help them have a good time in korea after how much they helped me in japan.
I'm going to take the GMAT during the first week of january. I need to start studying. If you have any good business school advice let me know!