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!