School's Over! Time for Germany!

Today was the last day of English Class at school and tomorrow is the last day of school, except for one week in February when the kids will come back.  However today we finished our English textbook.  Last weekend was a good one.  I skiied both Thursday and went snow boarding with 2  Alex and Daniel on Friday night.  My snowboarding skill is pretty decent now but I hope to go a few more times this year so I can be even better.  Thursday I'm leaving Korea for 2 weeks to visit my parents in Germany.  We are also taking a 5 day trip to Spain, which should be awesome.  Once I'm back it will be time to do some serious skiing and start weight training for next season! I'll try to post on here about my trip to Europe a little bit too.

Skiing Time and Schools almost over!!

It finally got a bit colder last week and now they have 4 runs open at the Yangji Pine Resort.  I've been skiing twice so far but it looks like it will be warm for the next few days so I might wait until later in the week to go again.  This past weekend was pretty fun and busy! My friend Chi Ha had a birthday party on Friday night in Seoul which was a blast.  Saturday at lunch I had a co worker's wedding to go too and I drove the other young teachers who work at my school since I'm the only one who has a car.  The wedding was good and I got to see my old Co Teacher from last year.  Sunday was my  Cannonldale RPM team end of the year party.  We all had dinner together with our sponsors and other people who help the team at a really nice buffet in Seoul.  It was great to get the whole team together.  I only have a week an a half left of work until winter vacation starts and then I'm going to visit my parents and sister in Germany for 2 weeks!  Also by the end of this week I will begin to know the results of the MBA programs I've applied too!

Skiing: Almost...

The ski resort here in Yangji was set to open up last week but mother nature had other ideas.  Last Wednesday it poured rain all day.  They still haven't been able to open up the resort but the weather has finally gotten cold again so they will probably be able to open it up sometime this week.  With bike season over  I've been hiking and trying to hang out with my friends more.  I've also got a lot more free time now that my MBA applications are all finished.  I should here in the next month or 2 about what schools I get into and I'm going to post on here where I decide where I will be attending.  I'm really looking forward to the start of winter vacation here too.  This winter I have a lot of vacations planned.  For Christmas I will be visiting my parents in Germany for 2 weeks and we are going to go to Spain for a few days also.  I will also be visiting a high school biking friend of mine who lives in there now.  I'm really looking forward to seeing my mom and my little sister.  After that I will have a 2 week English camp at school and hopefully the ski resort will be fully open by then so I can get some good skiing in after work.  I plan to do a lot of weight lifting this winter too.  At the end of January I'm going to go to the US for 2 weeks!  I plan on visiting  business schools and my friends.  Should be a busy trip since now most of my friends have moved away from Purdue and I won't have the convience of just seeing everyone in West Lafayette.  Should be a busy winter! I hope this cold weather sticks around too so I can start skiing soon! 

Thanksgiving Party

It was Thanksgiving last Thursday and just because I was in Korea didn't mean I didn't want to celebrate. I was lucky enough to get to do so twice in fact!  Last Thursday my friend Brad invited me to have Thanksgiving with him and some other guys in Songtan where a US airforce base is located.  We went to the local VFW for an awesome thanksgiving dinner with all of the best Thanksgiving foods.  They even had American style sweet potatoes.  Then on Saturday night my friend Chris(who also lives in Yangji) and I hosted a Thanksgiving party together.  We had over 20 people in Chris apartment and we did the best we could to make some great food.  We ordered a cooked turkey and Chris and I made mashed potatoes using both regular potatoes and Korean sweet potatoes.  Everyone who came to the party also brough something to share.  It was a lot of fun and I was thankful that none of Chris' neighbors complained about the noise! 
On Sunday my good friend Munju got married so I went to his wedding with a few other guys who know him.  His wedding similiar to most Korean weddings I've been too in that it was pretty quick but the food after was amazing!  Overall it was a great Thanksgiving week! I have a lot to be thankful for, especially everyone who has supported me and my racing over the years.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. 

Season Recap

This last racing season was overall pretty good but it was full of setbacks and near wins. Starting last December my right knee began to hurt basically every time I rode. I kept taking time off to rest it but every time I started riding again it would hurt. It hurt in races but I was able to push through it and still managed to ride ok through out the spring. I think this hampered my training and my Tour de Korea. My spring goal was to win a stage at the Tour de Korea but my best results were 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. Not bad but still not a stage win. I was hoping to figure out how to fix my knee problems over the summer.

Finally, in August I visited a traditional Korean medicine doctor and got acupuncture on the tendon that was bothering me. It got a lot better and eventually went away completely after 5 sessions! I really wish I would have gone to get acupuncture last winter! The fall went much better but I got a really terrible cold that lasted 6 weeks. This also hampered my training and I had to miss a race that was suited to me because I got a fever. Eventually I went to a big hospital and got antibiotics which finally cleared up the cold for good after the Changwon Criterium. The last few weeks I finally started riding well now that I put all of the health problems behind me!

I was really happy to ride strongly at the DMZ race and then get a solid win last weekend in my last race of the season. Hopefully, I can put all of the health problems from last season behind me and have a great 2012 season! My first goal will definitely be to win a stage at the Tour de Korea.

I was also really pleased with my team Cannondale RPM racing this year. Everyone on the team was super nice and easy to get along with. We had a great season overall as a team with numerous indivual and team wins. I was extremely proud to be a part of my team at every race we attended. We also got great support from our sponsors and with in the team everyone was willing to do a lot to help each other out. I'm looking forward to enjoying an even better season with my team!

Now I'm gonna take a bit of a break from bike training. I plan to ski a lot this winter and do some hiking then start mountain bikeing and weight lifting in December or January. Also I've applied to MBA programs and I will decide in January where I will be attending!

HongCheon Race Report: Finally a Win!

The last race of the season went basically perfectly for me! It was a 20 mile mountain bike race with 3 climbs on fire roads. There were over 700 starters in the race! The start was good and I moved into about 5th wheel before the first climb started which was on a forest road and was fairly smooth. My teammate Ji Haeng moved to the front and upped the pace a bit and before I knew it he and I were out front alone. Ji Haeng is a former pro mountain biker and a very strong climber so I was happy just to hold his wheel. For the rest of the race we rode together slowly building a bigger gap. The scoring was done only off age groups and not by overall and Ji Haeng was in the age group above mine and also being teammates we had no incentive to race each other. I would pull the flats and downhills and Ji Haeng would pull the climbs. The second climb was the toughest as it was full of rocks making it hard to find a smooth line but we stayed together comfortably. Coming into the finish line we crossed the line hands in the air together! It was the perfect way to finish off the season. I finally got my first win of the season in the last race. It was great crossing the line together with my teammate as well who is one of the nicest people I've met in Korea. For winning my age group I got a Hanoo (Korean beef) set. It included steaks and bulgogi. Pretty good prize if you ask me. Our team ended up placing 4th in the team competition after one of my teammates crashed and one had a not so good day but overall it was still a great race for our team. Its always great to get a clear win in front of everyone which I don't get to do very often since I usually win out of field sprints. There is one more race in 2 weeks but I will be attending a good friend of mine's wedding here. Next week I will write a recap of the season on here.

2 flat tires and a 2nd place finish

Yesterday I had my final road race of the season. The DMZ race in Hwacheon and like the name says the race was held basically right next to the border between North and South Korea. It's a really beatiful and tough course and the race was split into 2 parts. The first part was basically a hill climb and the second part has a long steep climb and a lot of flat. They don't time the descent and the race is on net timing meaning when you cross the start line your time starts and when you crossed the finish line it stopped but there were 2 start and stop points so that the descent was basically neutralized. Not really an ideal or totally fair format for a bike race but the course is pretty hard so it usually doesn't change the results too much. I rode well and stayed with the lead group up the climb and on the second part of the course. I lost a few seconds to 2 guys from my age group on teh first climb and despite a few attacks couldn't shake the winner of my age group. My good friend Brad Williams won our group and I ended up getting second. The second climb was very steep and we dropped one of the guys who beat me up the first climb on it so I made up the initial few seconds I lost on him. The weather was pretty bad about 50 degrees and raining for most of the race but once you got going it wasn't so bad. My teammate Minseok let me borrow his rain jacket and it was definitely a life saver in the race.
I also got 2 flat tires over the weekend. At the end of my ride Saturday my front tire went flat (luckily it happened really close to my house) and on Sunday my tire was flat when I took it off the bike rack after the race. I must have gotten a slow leak somewhere on the course. I thought it felt a little soft during the race. I was really lucky it didn't go totally flat during the race! I got 30kg of rice for my second place and I'm happy with how the race went overall. The course is really beatiful too. I have one last race this weekend. A 20 mile mountain bike race about an hour north east of my house. I wish the season was a little bit longer actually. I'm feeling a lot better now that I've basically finished my MBA applications and no longer have a cold. I'll post about the race next week.

Training and an Air Show!

Last week had great weather for riding. It was almost in the 70s a few days. I got in a few good training rides but with it getting dark at 6pm its pretty hard to ride more than an hour after work. This Sunday I am racing the DMZ road race which is a 50 mile~ road race. I did well last year and got second place in my age group so I'm hoping to do well again. There is a points based team competition where the top 5 from each age group get points. My team will definitely be trying to sweep the podium in my age group as we have 3 strong riders but there should be some pretty tough competition. The course is pretty mountainous for me but if I have a good day I should be able to ride well. The next week I will finish off my season with a 30km mountain bike race. I'm hoping to finish off the race season with some strong rides and then do some hiking before skiing starts here.
Last Sunday I went to the Osan Air Show with Yujin. My friend Aaron is a school teacher at the Air Force base there and we went to his neighbors house to watch the show. It was pretty cool and after he took us on a tour of the base. Its like a little piece of America in Korea with American schools, restraunts and a grocery store with basically everything. Thanks to Brad and Aaron for showing me around. I'll post a report about the race next week. Also I'm basically done with my MBA applications. I'll post on here about it again when I decide what school I'm going too. Shoud be an exciting next few months!

Chris' Second Visit and the World Amateur Criterium Championship

Last Saturday was the big race I had been trying to build up for. Unfortunately it didn't go as well as I hoped. My strategy/tactics were a bit off and my legs weren't really that good either. Thats bike racing I guess though. It was still a fun race though and what made it a lot more fun was having one of my best friends and college roomates Chris Uberti come out for the race! He arrived on Thursday night and left yesterday at lunch time. Chris raced really well this summer and he lived up to my expectation that he would win the race! It was all the way down near the southern coast of Korea which took about 4 hours to drive too. I have one more race left in 2 weeks the DMZ road race which should be pretty fun and maybe one more mountain bike race in 3 weeks but I'm not sure if I will ride it yet or not. On Sunday after the race Jason a friend of mine who used to be a teacher in Yongin gave us a tour of Jinhae which was near the race and where he now works. It was a really beatiful town with a big bay and a really pretty chain of mountains surrounding it. I'm almost finished with my MBA applicaitons and bike racing is almost over as well. I'm looking forward to hiking and relaxing a bit this November!

Tour de Dangjin

Well I said last week that I was almost done being sick but I spoke too soon. I'm still sick with a cough now but I'm getting better. I had a race on Sunday in Dangjin next to the ocean and about one hour south of where I live. I raced the same course last year and really liked it. This time because I was sick I didn't ride for 3 days prior to the race so I had some pretty stiff legs at the beginning. I missed the lead group of 3 riders but I settled in with the second group of about 10. It was a mountain bike race but was basically all on farm and dirt roads with a few random sections of single track mixed in. Our group stayed together until near the end when there were a lot of corners. A lot of guys in our group hadn't been cornering well so I thought I would attack and right when I did the lead guy crashed into a corner so I got a 5/10second gap. Unfortunately it was a lot further to the finish than I thought so I blew up and got caught by Lee Jin Ok(a 50+ year old racer who did the olympics a long time ago) and my teammate Hwangeol. We had had Yeon Deok in the lead group but he flatted and had to drop out. Hwangeol beat me in the sprint for the win in our age group but that was ok. I won 80km of rice for my effort and our team did great. We had enough points in the team competition from our good placings that we won! We got about 700 dollars for the win and had a really great lunch after the race. I really like this course because while its on mtbs it races like a road race with several tough sections thrown in. This week I'm focusing on recovering from my cold and finishing up my MBA applications! They are all due by the end of the month! This weekend is the track race that I explained in my last blog. I will be racing the missin and out with Min Seok while Yeon Deok and Hwan Geol will be doing the points race. The 4 of us will also be doing a TTT. Should be a fun race! But what I'm looking forward to most is finishing up my applications!

Almost better from being sick!

It was a pretty good week. I recovered finally from my 2 week long cold! But then I had a stomach bug and couldn't eat much for 2 days. I'm basically over it but I wasn't able to get as much training in as I wanted too but I did get a lot of work done on my MBA applications!! The first ones are due soon and the rest are due by the end of October! Next weekend I have a mountain bike race the Tour De Dangjin which should be pretty fun its 40km and mostly held on dirt and farm roads around rice paddies. I raced last year and did well so I am hoping to do well again this year. The week after that is a track race! There is a 500m velodrome about an hour south of my house and they are having amateur races on road bikes there. There is a points race, Miss and out and a team time trial with pretty good prize money. The week after that is the big money criterium in Changwon that I have been training a lot for. Hopefully I can put all of my health issues behind me and have a great race there. One friend of mine from Purdue will be coming with another maybe attending! I'm really looking forward to it. The last race of the season looks like it will be the DMZ race held the first week of November. I did it last year and its held on a gorgeous course near the border with North Korea. I'll post again next week and let everyone know how my race goes!

HoengSeong Road Race Report

Last Sunday we had a race in HoengSeong about 1.5 hours from my house. It was a team race each team had 5 riders and the top 3 riders times counted. So basically the strategy was to keep at least 3 riders in the lead group. The course was really hard and had 2 pretty long climbs in it. After the first one we still had 3 in the lead group me Hwangeol and Yeondeok but the second climb had a long section at 13%. At the top the group was reduced to 14 riders and we had lost our 3rd guy. Yeon Deok and I were still up there but 2 other teams had 3 riders at least still. I tried a few attacks but nothing was going anywhere. The tactics are a bit weird in this kind of race because its all about time so winning the sprint didn't give you anything. There were a few more small hills before the finish and we raced pretty hard up all of them but didn't split our group up anymore. Hwangeol did a good job of riding though and finished in the second group (which was only like 4 riders) he beat out all of the other teams that had 2 riders in the lead group so we got 3rd out of about 20 teams. Overall a decent result for the team. Our other 2 riders didn't far as well Minseok got stung by a bee and MyoJin ran into someone who fell in front of her on the second climb! They were both fine though. I really liked the course but it would definitely be fun to do it as an individual race rather than only as a team race next time. The next race is in 2 weeks its a mountain bike race held mostly on farm and dirt roads near the ocean. This weekend is a 3 day weekend and I'm definitely going to try to get some more good riding in. I'm also still suffering from a cold which I have had for 2 weeks now! Its gone into my sinuses and I have head aches if I don't take decongestants! Hopefully that gets better soon too!! It feels pretty much fine when I ride though.

Spoke too soon about racing(I got sick)!!

Unfortunately racing in Chuncheon as I had planned this weekend was not meant to be! I'm sitting at home sick (I have a fever, cough and stuffy nose). It all started on Tuesday. I had a small cough but I felt totally fine except that until Saturday when I woke up sore and with a fever. I really wanted to race so I still went out for a ride on Saturday hoping it would make me feel better but I felt like crap and knew there would be no point in racing if I didn't feel a lot better Sunday morning. I slept 11 hours and then woke up to go to the race but I still had a fever and didn't feel great so I bagged it in. At least there is another race next Sunday! Hopefully I'm feeling 100% before that! But I should look on the bright side! At least I have a full day to sit at home and write essays now!

Time to race! (finally!)

It was a long summer with basically no racing! But now that my knee is better and I'm training hard again I can't wait to race. This weekend is a 45km road race in Chuncheon (east of Seoul). It will be held on a 9km course with what looks like a decent hill each lap. Hopefully it goes well. The next weekend will be a team race (2,3 4 place riders from each teams time are added for a team time). That will be on what looks like a pretty brutal course climbing wise but hopefully I can ride well even on the longish climbs. The race is in Hoeng Seong and I won it last year but this time its on a totally different course. After that I have 2 weeks and then a mountain bike race probably in Pyeong Chang which is where they are going to have the winter Olympics in 2018. Then my big goal will be 2 weeks later with the big money criterium in Changwon. I enjoyed my chuseok vacation which included camping with my buddies Alex, Munju, Jinho, and Mark Friday night and was capped off with a trip to a hot springs/water park with Yujin yesterday. I had the day off today and I spent it going for a 5 hour bike ride up and working on MBA applications! The ride was great and included a ton of climbing but it was an hour longer than I expected it to be. I thought I could take a short cut on some new roads but they turned out to be really long dead end roads! Which added about 20ish more km to my ride. I'm excited to see how my legs are this weekend! I'll update next weekend after the race!

Awesome weather for biking and writing essays

The weather has been amazing in Korea this past week. I've done a few more big rides and I also got some new shoes for my road bike. I think my old shoes were part of the reason I was having knee problems. The new ones are carbon and are super stiff and more comfortable. I'm starting to feel strong riding again too. Hopefully this is a good sign since I have 2 races coming up soon. This weekend is a Thanksgiving in Korea so I have next Monday and Tuesday off. I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do but camping, bikeing and a big hike are all part of my plans. There is really crazy traffic in Korea during Thanksgiving that can make it really difficult to travel so my plans are all basically in the town I live in so I don't have to worry about traffic. My school year is going well so far and I'm working hard on my MBA applications. I'm applying for the first round meaning the applications are due by mid to late October. I still have a lot to write but I'm making good progress. Hopefully over the Holiday I can get solid drafts of my essays done for each school I'm applying too!

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!

Mud Festival!

Last weekend I attended the Boryeong Mud festival with 12 of my friends. It was a blast and we all had a really great time. The mudfestival is the most popular festival in Korea. Its hosted on a huge (5km long) beach and they bring mud in on trucks from a huge mud flat and set up all sorts of fun mud activities. There is mud painting, a mud waterslide, mud wrestling, obstacle courses and more! I had a really great time last year so I was really looking forward to it. We rented a huge condo near the beach and spent saturday afternoon playing in the mud and swimming. Saturday evening we had a bbq at our condo and then went to the huge outdoor concert. Unfortunately it was raining on Sunday so after eating breakfast we just went back home. All in all it was a great weekend. This week I am sort of on vacation(but im supposed to go to school even though there is no class). So I'm planning on knocking out some MBA application essays and trying to nail down the schools I want to apply too. Also by the end of the week my knee should be better and I will attempt to start riding again!

4 wheeling!

sorry for the lack of posting! The last 2 weeks have been pretty busy despite the fact that I can't ride! Last weekend I had a school trip. We went to the east sea and ate raw fish next to the ocean with all of the teachers from my school. The next day we went to Seo Rak san (which is the most famous national park in Korea) and did a short hike. It was a lot of fun and full of singing. We even had a karaoke system on our tour bus and I got to sing in front of all of my co workers in Korean while going 70mph down the highway! This past weekend I went with Yujin to An Myeon Do which is a popular island on the west coast of Korea. It had a lot of awesome scenery with great beaches and huge pine tree forests. The first day there we rode ATVs along the ocean and through the forest. It was my first time to do it and it was a lot of fun! We spent Sunday swimming in the ocean which was really fun. This is the last week of school before summer vacation so the students are really excited and hard to keep under control. I have a 2 week break before my 1 week English camp and then I will have another week and a half of vacation before school starts again at the end of August. My knee seems to be getting better. I had acupuncture at the Korean traditional medicine doctor yesterday and that is making it feel a lot better today. Im gonna try riding again next weekend I think and probably go get more acupuncture next Monday (it only costs 7 dollars)!!! The fall racing season is coming together a little bit too. There is going to be a big money criterium in Changwon(the far south part of Korea) in October. Its also time for me to start writing my MBA applications! They are due around the end of October!

injured knee update

well i took a 2 week rest and tried to bike again with my position reevaluated but my knee still hurt. So i went to a doctor about it with my good friend Ik Son who also bikes. He had a similar problem and the doctor helped him. The doctor said i need one month off with no biking or hiking or any intense exericse to try to let it heal. Its basically tendonitis so i guess the doctor might be right. At least the essay questions for mba programs are starting to come out so I can get a head start on that while im not biking or hiking!! Also there is a new community center with a gym in my town. I think I will go lift weights there (just upper body and core) to try to get some more exercise. Anyway I can basically do anything i want except sports. There is supposed to be another team time trial in August so hopefully im good to go by then.

injured knee

I've had a problem knagging at me all season long and seeing as there might not be any races until August I decided now was the time to address it. A tendon on the back of my right knee has been bothering me basically every time I ride and desite my attempts to fix it it basically never went away. I was still able to race pretty in spite of it but I kept hoping it would go a away with a week or rest and maybe some tweeks to my seat position. Unfortunately it didn't so I decided to take advantage of my teams new computer based fitting system to reassess my seat position on my road bike. It turns out that basically where I had my seat at the very beginning of the season was correct. So I have no idea what caused the tendon pain in the first place but I'm giving my self 2 weeks of total rest (no hiking even) with lots of stretching to try to let it heal before trying to ease back into some easy rides. Hopefully I can get this problem figured out. It took me 10 years of bike racing before I had a bike fit issue that actually caused me a real injury or problem so I guess I am paying for 10 years of being lucky now! Its not like I can't ride but I don't want to have pain or the risk of injury when I'm riding. The 2 weeks will be up next Monday so I will post about how the ride goes. Up for this weekend is a trip to Ocean World (the biggest water park in Korea) with my bike team.

last weekend

Since there are no races im gonna be doing for a little while ive taken a little bit of a break from riding a lot. Last weekend went hiking friday and then went on a trip with Yujin to Ganghwa island. Which is in the north east part of Korea. It was really beatiful and had lots of historic relics from wars and from being a former capitol of Korea. The best part was taking a boat ride to another small island that had no bridge connecting it to the mainland. There were 2 schools on that island. I wonder what its like to live out there!? I even got in some bikeing. They had made parts of the island really bike friendly by building huge (2 meters wide) bike lanes that block cars with cement blocks seperating the bike lane from the car lane. It was a pretty good idea and way safer than the bike lanes in the US (at least for every day people who aren't very fast bikers). This past weekend I went camping friday night with 3 other guys. It was great and we grilled a lot of meat over the camp fire. Sunday my bike team had a sports day with another team (yongsan mtb from Seoul). It was a lot of fun we played soccer, kickball, had a relay race and had a barbeque out side next to a small river. It was a lot of fun but im really sore from not playing soccer (or doing any kind of running) in a long time. Good team bonding and a lot of fun! this week i plan on trying to ride a little bit more and I don't have any big plans for the weekend yet except for a school barbeque party on friday night. Im antsy to do some more racing but there arent' too many races in teh summer here because it normally rains a lot of july and august.

Team Time Trial report

Last saturday was a TTT in Hwaseong city (about 1 hour west of where I live). The course was a really boring flat 5km oval but it was good for a TTT because it made it easy to draft and set up echeleons. We started with 7 guys and we needed to finish with 4. The race was 8 laps for 40km and after the first lap we ended up dropping 3 guys all at once! That meant that we couldn't afford to lose another rider. My teammate Hwangeol brought a TT bike and was taking nice long pulls while the rest of use were basically just pulling through for 10 seconds to give him a small break. I was behind Hwangeol and it was not very fun to draft someone riding a TT bike! We placed 3rd over all(last money spot) and we beat 4th by only 4 seconds and 5th by only 10 seconds! Our time was about 57 minutes. It was a pretty good race overall and I was really please with the way my team rode despite dropping the 3 guys right at the beginning. There won't be another race until the end of June for me it looks like. There are a bunch of mountain bike races and hill climbs but nothing really well suited to me so I guess I will just ride for fun and try to do some epic hikes with out an racing for a little bit.

Biking and a friends wedding!

Last weekend a friend of mine who I met at the summer camp 4 years ago got married. He is an identical twin and his brother was engaged too so they decided to have the wedding together! It was pretty cute seeing identical twins get married on the same day in the same place! He was a really nice guy who I did some back packing trips with when i was here 4 years ago. The wedding was good and it was fun because I got to see a lot of my old friends from the summer camp!! Not to much else exciting happened I hung out with my friends friday and met Yujin on Sunday. I had a really great mountain bike ride yesterday too and I am feeling pretty good for the TTT this weekend. I hope my teammates are also feeling good. It would be fun to take a nice team victory. Its really nice that its almost summer. The weather is great for riding and it doesn't get dark till almost 8pm so I can get in a long ride after school. The only problem is I wish there were more road races here! In june there seems to be only hill climbs and mountain bike races(which Im usually ok at if they are flattish but they tend have huge climbs in them here). Im excitied to race this weekend anyway!

Great weather for riding!

This past week was really busy and fun. After the bike race I went to Sokcho with Yujin which is on the east coast of Korea. It was really beatiful. We went to the beach, at some famous foods, and went to a hotsprings place. Overall it was really tiring but really fun! This week the weather was pretty cruddy for a few days with lots of rain but from Friday on it was great! Sunny and about 70 degrees. Saturday i went for a road ride with my friend Aaron who is a high school teacher at an airforce base here. We had great weather and a good ride. sunday i went riding with the Suwon Alpha club that I'm a member of. We did a road ride on our mtbs. That was fun too but I got super hungry at the end of it and nearly bonked. After that I met yujin in seoul and we went bikign on the han river(not hardcore biking just like 5km or so). Overall it was a really good weekend. Now I am back at school for a full week.

Children's Day Criterium report

Yesterday was Children's Day in Korea. Its a national holiday so everyone gets the day off. The race was in Gwangmyeong which is west of seoul and a little over an hour drive from my house. I raced it last year and liked the course so i was looking forward to it this year. I did the men 40 and under group on mountain bikes and my group included the winner of the tour de korea as well as another biclo (the dominant team at tour de korea) and my teammate Yeon deok were probably the fastest riders i could think of in the group. The biclo guys attacked a bunch at the beginning but there attacks were quickly neutralized basically it was a field sprint. There were 2 tough corners in the last 600m and yeon deok attacked going into that section. he gapped the biclo guy who i was sitting on by about 5 meters and held the gap through the next corner. I sprinted the biclo guy for second and he got me by about 5 inches! But they didnt' have a camera for the race finish they only used chip timing and our time was exactly the same according to the system so we both got 2nd place (they split the money of 2nd and 3rd place between us). Overall a great race for our team. Yeon Dok didnt' have the best tour de korea so it was good to see him win this one! The next race is in 3 weeks its a 30km road race in the morning and a TTT in the afternoon. The picture is me and Yeon deok mid race.

Close

Recovering and getting ready for the criterium

Well the tour of korea is over so its time to recover a bit. But this Thursday is a criterium with a pretty good purse so i had to ride a little bit this week. Im racing the mountain bike category with slick tires so i got my bike all set up and rode a little bit over the weekend. I reallly miss mountian bike riding and once the race is over i hope to put some knobbies on and get some good riding in here. This weekend was pretty fun. Saturday i met one of my best friends girlfriends for the first time since she is visiting Korea me and him and yujin and his girlfriend all went shopping together in the pouring rain in Myeong dong(one of the most popular shopping areas in Seoul). Sunday the weather was a lot better thankfully. I went for a 2 hour ride in teh morning then Yujin came and we had a picnic near my house by a creek in the woods. Now that tour of Korea is over the next thing i have to do is figure out exactly which MBA programs i want to apply too! Exciting stuff!

Tour de korea stage 7 8 9

After our rest day in Pyeong Chang (which is bidding to host the 2018 winter olympics) we woke up to 40 degrees and rain! Anyway the stage got shortened and ended up finishing on top of a climb. I was really cold and Im not usually much for long hill climb finishes so I tried hard at first but once i was out of the top 10 i just kept a steady pace and rolled in with some guys for 3rd. My team mates Yeon deok and Hyun gil did well. Hyun Gil dominated teh KOM at the tour de korea.
The next stage on paper didn't look to good for me but my teammate hyun gil told me that the hill was actually only 3km instead of the 5 that it looked like. So I became more confident. The race was under much better weather and I was feeling pretty good. The climb started and I just stayed with the biclo riders and followed wheels. I made it over the top with a group of about 10 and by the bottom there were 20 of us and we had caught the leaders. The situation was similar to stage 3 where most of the riders had been dropped on the climb but a group of 20 or so regrouped after the climb so I thought it would be another good day for an attack. I followed a few that didn't go anywhere and then when 2 biclo riders got a 50m gap i knew it was the winning break so i bridged across to them. We held a pretty good gap and rode the last 15km together. They were way stronger than i was and pretty much worked me over in the sprint but i was still happy with 3rd place and another trip to the podium.
The final stage was a flat 47km race through seoul with a narrow twisty final 3km into the olympic park. It was my last chance to win a stage and I thought it would end in a field sprint. I sat in the pack in the middle and moved into the top 10 with 5km to go. I rode the final 3km well and maintained my position but i couldn't move up in the sprint because i was gassed from biclo's lead out through the final. I ended up 5th which is still pretty good. My overall place was 19th but i wasn't really going for the overall after losing so much time on the first stage. The race was overall pretty good and im still satisfied even though i didnt' get my goal of a stage win. I placed 8th 5th 4th 3rd and 2nd and i really enjoyed the race which went through a lot of beatiful places.
Time to take a few days off my bike and then get ready for the criterium next week!

stage 5 and 6

Stage 5 went ok but it could have gone better. The race was on a pretty nice course with 2 long gradual climbs and a 1km section of dirt road. As soon as the race started one of the biclo riders (the team made up of a former of olympian and 5 guys who are training to be pro bike racers that has been dominating the race) attacked. He managed to stay about 400m in front of the pack the whole race. I attempted to bridge to him 3 times once I got pretty close after attacking on the dirt road but unfortunatlely I didn't quite make it. He ended up winning the race by 3 seconds! The rest of us sprinted on a long straight up hill drag for the last 2km. It was a pretty tough sprint for me and I only ended up taking 8th. The top 10 get money each day so it was an ok result. I promised some of my co workers as well as the principal and vice principal that I would take them out to dinner for letting me have vacation for the race so I need to win a little bit of prize money! My teammates didn't fare as well getting caught behind a crash near the end and coming in near the back of the field.
Today was a big mountain stage with a 10km climb. I was feeling pretty good in the first parts of the race and when I saw a biclo rider attack i thought I would bridge up. I did and it turned out to be on the opening slopes of the climb. After bridging I kind of blew up and we were caught by the pack pretty soon after anyway resulting in me getting blown out the back of the group of about 40 riders or so. I caught my breath and managed to catch about 5 guys at the top. The descent was really fun and beatiful as the mountain pass went through Seobaeksan national park. Anyway I finished 35th but I wasn't really expecting to be a GC rider at this race anyway since i seem to completely blow up on any climb over 5km. Tomorrow is a rest day and then we have 2 more mountain days(with climbs that are basically exactly 5km) The final day is flat in Seoul and has a really twisty finish. Im gonna try my best to get the stage win there and make it over the mountains with the lead group the next few days.

Tour de Korea Stage 4 2nd place!

Today was stage 4 of the Tour de Korea. It went really well. The race was 90km long today and went through chungcheon nam province. It was really beatiful but the course wasn't very difficult. Also due to a tailwind we rode extremely fast making it really difficult for breaks to get away. I have been really impressed with how aggressive the racing has been here compared to other races I've done in Korea. It was basically non stop attacking the last 50km of the race but I knew nothing would get away today so I sat in the middle of the field and moved up to the front with 5km to go. There was a right turn with about 400m to go so I went through the last corner in about 10th wheel then moved up to the top 5 in the last 200m. I tried my best to get past the winner (which was another guy from the Biclo team who is training to be a pro Keirin racer). I was pleased to finally get on the podium and show my sprinting legs which unfortunately aren't quite as good as they were last fall. Im still happy with how I'm riding and there are 2 more stages that are likely to end in field sprints so I will still be gunning for a stage win. Tomorrow is likely to be a sprint and the last stage in Seoul is also. The middle 3 stages all have pretty big mountains but hopefullly i will be able to make it over the mountains close enough to catch back on to the pack by the bottom.

TDK stage 3 Finally a good result!

I got 4th in the 3rd stage of the Tour de Korea today. It wasn't in a field sprint though. The race started off with 20km of neutral and then started with a 4km climb that was a KOM. Our climber Hyun Gil got 3rd place on the climb and managed to keep his lead in the King of the Mountains competition. I climbed a lot better than I did on Friday and managed to catch onto the lead group of about 20 on the descent. We entered a valley and no one was pulling the group when Lee Jin Ok (a 50 year old former olympic cyclist) attacked. 2 Biclo riders followed him and I thought it looked like a good break away. My team had 4 in the lead group but no one wanted to follow the attack so I attacked and bridged up to them on a small climb. After that it was over. All of the strong teams in the race were represented in the break and we worked pretty well together. The race had a few more small hills and then had a 25km long section on a causeway on the ocean which was pretty windy. We kept working well together till about 5km to go and we had about a 3 minute lead. As I usually am i was pretty tired just from being in the break for 50km so I just followed the attacks but the sprint started with about 2km to go. I faded bad with 200m to go and ended up 4th. Im still happy to have ridden well and made the break away today. My team also finished 3rd in the team classification for today. I think we will continue to ride well we have been in the top 3 teams each day and I think we can do well in the stage team classification each day. Tomorrow should be another ok stage for me. 4th is close but I still want to win a stage before the race is over!

Tour de Korea Stage 1 and 2

The first 2 stages of the race haven't exactly gone as i or my team had planned. The first day was really hard with a big steep climb right the beginning that blew the field up. Luckily our climber Hyun Gil took the KOM points and made the lead group but our other riders didn't make the lead group of 11 which ended up finishing 5 minutes up on the next group. I didn't climb as well as I wanted too either. Today was a flatter course but long at 130km. I sat in and moved up with 5km to go but I started my sprint too early and cramped up. I ended up around 20th but I think if there are more field sprints I can do better. Our team managed to win the team classsification for the day which was good though! The next few days all have similar courses with one big climb and the rest of the stage being rolling. I plan to try to follow the lead group and then sprint at the end. Also I haven't been able to update the blog much since we haven't been staying in places with computers. The courses have been really beautiful though and the racing fun.

Misiryong Hill Climb Report

Sunday was the first big race here in Korea. It was a 20km hill climb and I raced in the mtb team category with 4 other guys from my team. We ended up placing 3rd which i was pretty happy with considering that we put all of our strongest hill climbers in the team for the road bike category. The race was really tough though but everyone who raced with me rode really well. It was extremely windy and I heard a lot of people even had to stop near the top of the climb because gusts were so strong! Im really glad i was on a mountain bike rather than a road bike with carbon wheels! I felt a lot stronger at this hill climb than i did last year so I think I'm in pretty good form. The tour de korea starts this friday! Wish me luck!

race time!

The GMAT is over and its time to get down to racing! This weekends race is a team hill climb. Our team is splitting into 2 groups. There is a category for mtbs and a category for road bikes. Im riding the road bike category. The way the race works is each team has 4 people. The times of the 2nd 3rd and 4th rider from each team are avearged to make a team time. The winning team wins $1000. So its part team time trial and part regular hill climb. The first rider won't help the team at all so its in their best interest to try and help pace the second rider to a faster time. I think my team looks pretty good but i dont' know exaclty who else is racing. Should be an interesting race and a good test before the tour of Korea starts next Friday! Last weekend was pretty good I did a really nice ride on Sunday up to the south Han river (남한강). Its really amazing riding around there. Great climbs with fun descents and basically no cars. I definitley look forward do exploring and doing more riding there after the tour of Korea. So my race schedule this season so far looks like this
April 10 Misiryeong Hill climb
April 15-24 Tour de Korea
May 5 Children's Day Speed Festival Criterium Gwangmyeong City
Wish me luck this weekend! I will post up the results after the race!

almost time for 2 big things!

April is a big month for me!!! This Friday im taking the GMAT and there are also 2 big races. I've been studying hard for the test and I think i can push my score up a few points. This Friday is my schools founding anniversary day so we have the day off. Next Sunday is the Misiryeong hill climb too which is the first race of the season for me. I did it last year but riding it in the team competition this year will be a little bit different I think. Finally the 10 day tour de korea is in 4 weeks! They posted the website about the race in english too so check it out. tourdekorea.or.kr im participating in the special competition not the UCI race. It should be really cool from the looks of the course profiles. There are a few climbs every day so hopefully that plays well to my strengths by softening people up a bit for small group sprints. My team should be really strong in both races so im really getting psyched up! Gotta get back to studying only 3 days until the GMAT! Wish me luck!!

nice weather and lots of school dinners

With the arrival of my new principal and a new english teacher there have been lots of school dinners lately. First our school has 12 male teachers this year so the principal (who is a guy too) decided we should make a male teachers club and have dinner together once a month and play sports. so last friday we all played volley ball and went out to dinner. The new guys are all a lot of fun. The weatehr was pretty good for bikign last week too and I got in a lot of good riding. All of this has been mixed in with trying to prepare for the GMAT too which is happening next friday. It looks like the week after the GMAT should be a really good time to get in some long rides with out having to worry about studying too. Our team should be getting our new kits soon too! I will post a pic after the first race in 3 weeks. Other than that nothing too exciting has been going on here. trying to study and bike a lot coupled with these school dinners has definitely reduced my social activity quite a bit so im looking forward to getting the gmat out of the way and hopefully boosting my score a little bit! im planning on doing 2 4 hour rides this weekend and a lot of riding after teh gmat!

riding a lot and getting read for Tour de Korea

Its official that I get to race the Tour de Korea. My new schools principal is a really nice guy and is letting me have a vacation for the race. Its going to be really cool I think and the longest stage race I have ever done. Its 10 days 9 stages and about 100km per day. I don't think the courses are going to be too killer. There will be a few hilly days with but no crazy mountains it looks like. My team is definitely looking to repeat the success it had last year (they won the team competition) and a rider placed 2nd overall. The race is going to be april 15-24th with stages all over korea. Im not racing the pro tour de korea though. They have an ameteur competion held at the same time as the pro race which they call the Special competition. The prize list sounds like it should be really good too. This is definitely gonna be the biggest race of the year so im training hard to get in shape. My goal is to win at least one stage and to do as best as I can overall. I don't have a great feel for how strong the field is gonna be really but I just wanna race hard and do as best as I possibly can. also im taking the GMAT one more time on april 1st so the next 3 weeks are gonna be busy with studying and biking.

riding and getting back into school

Last week was the first week of classes at school. I have a new korean teacher who I teach together with. She is really nice and really good at controlling the kids we are getting along pretty well! Last week the weather was really good for biking so I got in a lot of riding. I rode a new course north of where I live that was really aweome it had a lot of nice 3km or so climbs. I definitely wanna go ride there again soon. Saturday I went to everland with some of my friends which was really fun too. Im getting really excited to start racing but im really glad there are a few more weeks to train before racing starts. I need to put in some more miles and probably work on my sprint a little bit. I definitely find that training here in the mountains makes it a lot easier for me to get into really good shape though. other than that nothing too exciting happened but it was a pretty good weekend!

Germany!

I went to Germany to visit my parents over the schools spring break. It was a blast! My parents live in a town called Weinheim which is about 60km south of frankfurt and pretty close to Heidelberg which has a really famous castle. We toured heidlberg then I did some awesome biking with my dad around the Odenwald which is a huge forest preserve right behind their house. Its definitely some of the best bike riding I have ever done. Its all forested or on small farms with really well paved roads that go up gradually for 3-7km then down gradually. There are tons of roads and loops to make too. It would be an amazing place to train. After that we went to the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart which was really cool also. I didn't know that they invented the first car! We also spent 2 days cross country skiing in the black forest which had just gotten about 40cm of snow. The trails there were amazing as well with lots of gradual climbing and descending as well as amazing views! All in all it was a great trip. Came back last friday and we had a good bye party for one of my good friends Danny who is going back to america soon. Today is the first day of school here and we have a new principal and I have a new teacher to teach english with. Yesterday was a holiday in Korea too so yujin and I went to the 63 building which is the tallest building in korea. It was pretty cool and had really good views of the mountains around seoul. It is also the worlds tallest art museum and they had an exhibit of picasso up there. This week I plan to keep on biking and hopefully getting in good shape for the races in april and may.

Schools over time for spring vacation!

So in Korea the students come back after their winter vacation for 1 more week of school in february and then the 6th graders have a graduation ceremony. On Wednesday we start our spring vacation which is about a 2 weeks long. Im going to Germany this Thursday to visit my parents. Im really excited. They live about 60km south of Frankfort. I think we are going to do some biking and hiking and maybe a road trip to switzerland. I rode this past weekend for about 4 hours on Sunday. I realized I hadn't ridden single track in about 2 months and the trails were nice and frozen with about half being frozen dirt, 30 percent being packed snow and 20 percent packed ice! It definitely made my usual trails a litte more difficult. I did a nice loop which had 4 of my favorite trails around Yongin the last of which was a 5km double track climb on mostly packed snow and ice and a down hill which was totally shaded and handn't been hiked much so it had 6 inches of snow on it still and basically no packed in line for 3km at 10-20%. Im glad I got in a nice ride I definitely want to be in better shape this spring than last spring. The first race is going to be april 10th at the Misryeong Hill climb. My team is racing teh 5 man team hill climb. I think they take the time of the 4th rider across the line or they average the times of the top 4 riders from each team. I did the race as an invidual last year and its a pretty tough climb so I definitely wanna be in good shape so I can help my team. Last weekend I also went hiking with allan and Melanie to cheong gae san in seoul which was really fun since we did a new course I had never hiked before. Other than that nothing too excitin happened but i have to keep studying, riding and get ready for germany this week! Its valentines day today too! So happy valentines day! Im sure I will have some good posts to write about germany!

Ahh I got sick!

Last monday when chris went back to America was also the start of me being sick for the week! I think I ate some bad food on monday but I couldn't really eat all week! Sunday I finally got better and now im able to eat pretty much normally again. This kind of sucked because it was Lunar new year so I had the whole week off work but I had to spend most of it recovering at my house! The weather was really good and I was able to bike and ski a little bit though. I guess I kind of started my training for spring which Im hoping includes racing the tour de korea. School starts for a week again tomorrow and then I am off to germany on Thursday next week! Which Im really excited about! This week im just gonna focused on staying recovered and starting to study for the gmat again!

Chris is going home!

Well chris is going back to the US today! We had a good time and are both exhausted now from the trip! The road trip to gangwon province was really fun. We skiied a lot, ate raw fish by the ocean and visited the DMZ. We got to look into north korea across the border but all we could see was mountains! After the trip we went skiing at the Yangji pine resort one day, had lunch with my co teacher and went out to Hongdae. Chris also got to experience Nore bang or singing room which was a lot of fun. This last weekend we went to Wolmi Island in Incheon one day and we ate grilled clams by the ocean. It was freezing cold so the last day we went to the Korean war memorial and shopped. Now that the trip is over its time for me to get refocused on studying for the gmat and get ready to go back to work at school in a week. I still have a week of vacation to relax and recover though! I think I will ski, do some hiking and if the weather is good get back out on my road bike.

Chris arrived

My friend chris made it out to Korea on Friday night. and to my surprise he is barely jetlagged. We had a pretty long and packed Saturday. We woke up and went into seoul to meet some of my friends that worked at the summer camp I did 3 years ago here. It was really fun and they got to practice their english a lot with chris. Then we met up with Yujin and one of her friends and allan and melanie and went to namsan tower at night. We were basically totally exhausted after this and headed home to sleep for about 10 hours. Its sunday morning now. The plan is to hike a small mountain before driving into seoul for the afternoon of sight seeing with Yujin and a few of my other friends. Monday we are heading out to Phoenix park for skiing!

English camp is over and Chris is coming!

Today 2 big things are happening! My 2 week english camp at school just finished and my old roommate from Purdue Chris Uberti is coming here to visit me and will be here in 4 hours!!! Im excited I think it will be really fun. This weekend we are gonna tour around seoul mostly and then Monday tuesday and wednesday we are going on a road trip to gangwon province to ski and tour the DMZ (border between north and south korea). thats as far ahead as I planned for certain but I think we are probably going to visit incheon and do a boat ride, as well as have dinner with my bike team one night. My english camp was actually really fun and easy this time around. The only part about it that is tiring is that it is 6 classes a day which is a long time to be teaching. I think ive become a much better teacher since coming here and thats a big part of why it is more fun and more easy. After Chris leaves it will be time to get back down to business as far as studying for the GMAT goes. Im going to give it one more go in April because I know I can improve my math score a lot if I study and practice a little bit more. But this week should be really relaxing and fun!

Test, Chi Ak San, Skiing

Well I took the gmat! I did pretty well but I think I can do better so Im gonna take it again on April. I think I can definitely improve my math by a few points and my verbal score was pretty good. After the test I got on a train to Wonju city. It was a beatiful but cold day. I met a really nice old guy on the train and we talked the whole way! Once I arrived I figured out where a jjimjilbang was that I could sleep at and bought some eisens for my boots. Eisens are like metal chains that fit onto the bottom of your hiking boots to give you more traction on snow and ice. They were well worth the 20 bucks I paid for them! There was about 2 feet of snow on top of Chi ak san and I hike for about 8 miles along a a snow covered ridge. I ate pizza for dinner with my friend Raymond and woke up at 7:30 to catch the bus for the hike. The view from the top was absolutely amazing!! I have some pictures on my facebook of it. It was a really tough hike but im glad I did it. It was really refreshing! I wanna get out and do some more epic winter hikes this year for sure! Last week my English camp at school started. Its basically just normal class that lasts for 2 weeks 6 classes a day. Its pretty fun actually. This friday my old roommate and panther teammate Chris is coming to visit me in Korea for 10 days!! Im really excited. We are gonna do a 3 day road trip to gangwon province for skiing and touring the DMZ! Its going to be really fun to show him around korea.

Test time!

Im taking the GMAT in 2 days! So ive been busy studying but also trying not to get stressed out about it. I got to meet Greg one more time before he went back to the US too. We went hiking at Bukhansan on Monday which is the biggest mountain in Seoul at 800 some meters. There was a lot of snow too which made the hike more challenging and fun too. I realized I haven't really been to any epic mountains lately so I decided that after the GMAT im going to go hike Chi Ak san which is a big mountain about 70 miles east of Yangji. Im going to take the train out after the test and then hike it all day Friday. Its about 400o feet of elevation so there should it should be a pretty good challenge and a great view! Not too much else exciting has happened here but it should be a good week!