Munich and Germany!

After skiing we drove to Munich and stayed for 2 days. Munich is very cool! The drive there was really beautiful and we passed a ton of people cross country skiing on trails around little villages. I was jealous not to be skiing any more! Our first night in Munich we went to the Hofbrau house which is kind of the hub of Oktoberfest. It was packed even on a Monday night and basically you just walk around until you find a at one of the big tables. They serve beer in 1 liter mugs here and we had a very good time and ordered pigs knuckle to eat for dinner. We stayed at a friend of my dad's apartment and rode the subway everywhere we needed to go. Munich is very crowded and everyone lives in apartment buildings with little parks all over the place. We went to the zoo and the olympic park too which was sweet. In the olympic park they made a big hill out of scrap from WW2 and they covered it in grass lots of people go walk up it for a good view of the city and at the top there were 4 guys on downhill bikes with full face helmets, goggles and the whole set up. A guy got all the pedestrians to clear the way so they could bomb off this little drop off. It was kind of lame but still cool to see how into biking Germans are! On the way home we saw a 15 car pile up on the highway!! I think that is what happens when people drive 120mph on the highway in the rain! Last night people all over the town lit off fireworks at midnight in front of their apartments. It looked really cool fireworks going off absolutely everywhere and today there were burned up fire works all over the townsquare. My dad took me driving around some of the roads by the house and this would be an awesome place to bike!!! Lots of 5k climbs and forest with mtb and hiking trails absolutely everywhere!!! This is a bikers paradise!! I might have to come out here in the summer and ride or something!! Tomorrow we are leaving for Holland to see my second cousins visit Amsterdam and watch a sweet CX race!! I hope everyone had a good new year!!!

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.