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.