Pick One!

Not a whole lot to write about in the last week. Took some time off the bike to recover from break and catch up on some projects. I did manage to get a massage which is always a good thing. I was fully decided on a road bike for this year but that may have changed. I'm exploring the possibility of a totally different ride. What better gift for ones self than a bike for their birthday!

Post Break

I'm finally back home after 2200 miles of driving, 2 races, 22 sandwiches, 1 go kart race and 400+ miles of training. This is going down as my best spring break ever! I'll try to summarize the last couple days of break.

Tuesday was the first MTB ride of the year. It's so nice to ride on dirt again!

Wednesday was Cherohala Skyway- 100 miles. Logged the first century of the year with almost 9000 feet of climbing in a little under 6 hours. I don't know if it was my brain not fully functioning from it's lack of oxygen but I got the bright idea to roll back home for the last 30 or so miles with the "Pain Train". I once again survived and managed to stick with the group with the exception of the 2 major climbs. My legs were getting pretty tired but managed to keep spinning. Wednesday night was Guayabitos; our one meal out as a group. The margaritas were pretty good and the special dinner was enough to feed a small horse. There was a mustache contest over break which was hilarious with Cassey "the man beast" winning of course. Thunderdome was after dinner and off the hook as usual. I managed to not be challenged so I got to sit back and enjoy the matches.

Thursday was another MTB ride for a couple hours. I rode solo for most of the ride to take it all in and have a little alone time. I really wish we had trails like that back home here! It was good to get one last ride in on ole blue before I sell her. Friday was a travel day to Notre Dame for some racing action. Seth, Addison and myself rolled out at noon and managed to turn a 10 hour drive into a 12. We stopped to race some go-karts, eat 3 times and anything else along the way that looked interesting. Saturday was the first race of the year. 70 miles on a 10 mile loop with a couple sections of road with holes big enough to swallow a bike whole. I suited up with the Men's A field to give it a go after a long week of training. The legs felt ok and I sat in for 2 laps. I forgot my brain once again and didn't play it smart tactically towards the end of lap 2. To make a long story short I managed to make a break, and then ride myself right out of the race right after haha. Addison, Seth and myself proceeded to tour every campus in South Bend (7 or so) in the car and eat more Chinese food then we thought we could (16 plates and ice cream).


Sunday was the crit with no corners and 2 rollers. I surprised myself and finished with the pack after 70 minutes of constant attacking between the Lindsey Wilson and Marian teams. I stayed up front and out of trouble and even contributed a little work to a few of the chases.

All in all this spring break was nothing short of amazing and I would do it all over again tomorrow if I could. Now it's time to make the last push in the semester for 7 weeks.

It's also time to sell off a few bikes to make room for new ones! My cross bike and mountain bike are both for sale at this point in time. I'm asking $1500 for the cross bike and $2200 for the mountain OBO for both.

Spring Break-NC day 7

A lot has happened since my last update. Logged the first century of the year and a coupe awesome mountain bike rides. I have so much to write about but The car is packed and we’re moving shop from NC to South Bend, IN also home of the Fighting Irish. There is a collegiate race this weekend so what better way to end a long week of training with a little racing action. I’ll post a formal write up from the last couple days soon. It’s a long drive between here and there so I’m going to cut this short and leave you with some pictures from the last couple days.

Spring Break day 2

Today was another soggy day in the saddle. I manned up and decided to ride the Freshy Steve “Pain Train” ride to Fontana Dam and back. The estimated mileage was 75-80 and 5 hours. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a 5 hour ride so I wasn’t sure how the legs were going to feel. The other fact I forgot to mention about the “Pain Train” ride was that the people who generally go are the fittest and fastest people who come on break. I knew I had a rest day tomorrow so I thought I would test my fitness with the best of the best on a pretty serious ride. About 10 of us rolled out together after breakfast in a light drizzle. The pace wasn’t too bad in my opinion for the overall ride. Either I’m actually gaining some fitness or the ride has lost a little bit of its edge. I was a little uneasy for the first little bit thinking to myself I was riding with some heavy hitters until I reminded myself I was very capable and deserved to be on the ride.

The gradient on most of the climbs was below 7% with a couple 15+% climbs thrown in randomly to keep you honest. By no means am I calling myself a climber but I feel a lot more comfortable and confident in my abilities compared to this time last year. To top things off I’m doing it on an aluminum cross bike while just about everyone else is on a carbon road bike.

The miles ticked by rather easily up until the 3 hour mark. I just started actually base training a month ago so there haven’t been too many rides over 3 hours. There was a little discomfort in my legs at this point but nothing out of the ordinary. The group stopped at a gas station around the 3 hour mark before the last leg of the day. Tuskegee was the last major climb of the day with over 1000 vertical feet of climbing in less than 2 miles. The rest of the ride home was smaller climbs by comparison and some serious rollers for about 25 miles. I’ll admit I was a little intimidated by the description so I took option B. Dallas and Julio were going to take the EASIER route (if there is such a word in the mountains) home because Julio was suffering pretty badly the whole day. We rolled through Robbinsville and gradually climbed our way out of the valley back home. Along the way on a false flat an arrow came sailing over my head just barely missing me and my front tire and landed in the grass right next to the road. I had to look twice to make sure I just saw what really happened. I snapped my head to the left where the arrow came from and found 2 little kids about 1oo yards away with bows and arrows all over their lawn. I flipped it and grabbed the arrow for our story time/meeting held every night otherwise it’s just another embellished story. I’m glad the kids missed me because it would have been hard to explain to a doctor much less my family what really happened. All said and done the ride was 85 miles and 5 hours with a little under 6000 vertical feet of climbing. Even after stuffing my pockets with food I was still starving for the last couple miles back home. As soon as I got back I went to the fridge and made this! Sorry the pictures are scarce, didn't want to flood the camera.

I’m pretty happy with my form so far over break and hope things keep rolling along this nicely. Enough typing for one day it’s time for bed. I’ll try to update every day so check back often.

Spring Break-NC day 1

Battery is almost dead so this is short. Made it to NC with only a few delays. Rode today for little over 3 hours and almost 60 miles with some respectable climbs. Riding tomorrow for 75 miles to Fontana Dam and back. The shenanigans have already begun which was to be expects. I will post some pictures tomorrow after the ride. Peace out!


Keeping it real since 85'

Street Player

Saved the day

Another weekend was spent working on the cottage in Door County. Brendan, my dad and myself left Friday morning early to get a jump start on things. The very things we left early to get a jump start on would have to wait. To make a long story short some other matters came up that involved pushing and pulling with a bobcat, truck and some shear muscles. As soon as the first distraction was finished another came to our attention. The last of the movie being shot up there ran into some trouble. They needed to shoot the last 2 scenes during dusk with a borrowed truck. The crew couldn't get the truck started and stay running on top of being scheduled to fly out later that night yet. The small crew and the 3 of us managed to get the beast running long enough to drive it down to the set and finish the last 2 scenes. We literally saved the day and the movie. It's pretty cool to say we helped in the making of a movie and I'm pretty pumped to see the trailer of the movie online soon. When it's online I'll try to post a link or small video. Ok enough about the movie lets talk cycling.

Nothing to exciting lately. Logged some decent hours over the weekend. 3 days of school and 1 midterm before spring break and some real riding. Who's going to win Paris-Nice? My bet is Frank Schleck in the last couple days.

Pre-Break #1

As promised here are a couple pictures of 2008's adventures. I'm getting pretty pumped!

T minus 8 days!

Dizzy Izzy

Busy is the name of the game! Just finished up my biggest training week for this block. I think I need a little chaos in my life but this might be pushing it. The good news is my rest week couldn't have happened at a better time. Midterms are in full swing with a couple labs and a big project thrown in for good measures.

T minus 10 days till spring break and only 5 days till more training time!

Had an eventful weekend. Brendan and myself went up to the cottage in Door County to get some work done on it. I forgot how much "fun" drywalling can be. Things are even crazy up in quiet Door County right now. Tony Shalhoub is one of our next door neighbors and is shooting a movie up there; there's an extra 50-100 people running around right now. The film crew was shooting farther back on the property when we were leaving so I just snapped a quick pic of some of the cars from the road.

The cottage is coming along rather nicely and I can't wait for the green grass and cool lake breeze to go along with my favorite place to take a nap after a long ride; the hammock.