Training Hard!

My knee seems to be basically better and I was able to get in a lot of good riding in the last week. The weather has been great for riding too. The fall semester of school has started again and I'm definitely going to try and enjoy my last year of teaching as much as possible. Last weekend my friend Allan had a going away party. We are best friends here in Korea and he is going back to Canada this week to go to Teacher's College(1 year graduate school to become a teacher). The party was a lot of fun and a good way to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. My next race is coming up in about 3 weeks but my big focus is on getting ready for the Changwon City Criterium (ecomobility.co.kr) I hope I can find the form I had last fall and get out and win some races. I also have to really sit down and finish these MBA applications up as well!

TTT and Jeju Island

The TTT last weekend didn't go as well as I or my team hoped we ended up 5th but our goal was to win. I wasn't in very good shape because I hadn't been riding and only one of our riders was really riding strongly. We didn't ride too terribly but we didn't ride well enough to win either. After the race I headed off with my friends Allan and Daniel to Jeju Island. We took a boat from Mokpo in the far south part of Korea with my car. The boat ride took about 5 hours and was pretty fun. You parked your car on the bottom of the boat and we shared a huge room with about 20 other people where you could sit on the floor or sleep. They had a big cafeteria, convenience store and live music on the boat too. Jeju Island was awesome we went to the beach, camped, hiked up the highest mountain in Korea and I did a little bit of bike riding too. It was an amazing place to ride and I hope I can go back this winter to train before Tour of Korea for a few days. Because its a volcanic island it had really cool nature and even had a lot of palm trees in the south part of the island. The weather was great for our trip too with temperatures in the mid 80s every day and low 70s at night. The only disappointing thing was that every time we gained any kind of elevation the mountain we would be surrounded with fog and wouldn't be able to enjoy the view. It was a great final trip with my great friend Allan who is going back to Canada next week. My knee seems to be holding up pretty well too and I'm training hard. I'm doing 2 more races for sure and maybe a mountain bike race as well. There is a big criterium with a great prize list coming up in October and I really want to ride well at it. Check out www.ecomobility.co.kr

Finally!! My knee is almost better!

I finally found a solution to make my knee feel better. I went to the traditional Korean medicine doctor and got actupuncture and something else(ultrasound something something) on the tendon and it felt way better immediately! I've been 3 times now and it only costs about 5 dollars each time. I've been riding again and only had minor pain in the tendon and it seems to decrease with each treatment. I have a TTT this Monday (which is a national Holiday in Korea) and then I am driving with 2 of my best friends Allan and Daniel down to Mokpo where we will take a boat to Jeju Island. Jeju is a huge island that is an old volcano and its famous for its scenic beauty. We are going to hike a 6000ft plus mountain, go to the beach and explore caves! It should be a really great vacation. The fall racing schedule is coming together as well with a race in Chuncheon and a race I did well in last year in Dangjin. The past few weeks I have been basically on vacation and have been really busy. I was hoping to buckle down and get some serious work done on MBA essays but it didn't happen with constantly going on trips! I went to Jirisan and Busan last week and I was focused on English camp and getting back in good biking shape this week. I only have a week and a half left of vacation now but once school starts I should be able to buckle down and finish my essays. I am extremely relieved to finally have found something that has helped my knee feel better having tendonitis is no fun and the regular doctors recommendation of just resting didn't seem to be making it get any better! Hopefully I can keep training and have a good fall race season like last year!