Pond Skating

I got to go ice skating and play some pond hockey today after work.  Cross training can be exciting:)  Still can't wait for warm weather and racing!

Flat tires in Florida

I don't want to make it sound like I'm complaining, because I'm not trying to, but the roads in FL have so much garbage lying alongside of them.  It's crazy!  I've gotten 3 flat tires in the 10 days that I've been here.  One of them was from a finishing nail straight through my tire.  The other two were just from random crap poking holes in my tires.  I only got one flat tire on the road all of 2010. 

I've taken action and now I have Continental Gatorskin tires on the way and I'll be replacing the tire liners also just to be safe.  We'll see in February if any of these new safeguards work.

Tour de Cape 5k

 Although I'm not a runner by any means I was really disappointed in my effort at the Carlisle YMCA 5k TurkeyTrot on Thanksgiving so i made it a goal to do this race to atone for my effort.
The morning temperature was cool but sunny, about 48 degrees when my sister, Lisa, and I left for the run.  The temperature did go up very much before it was time to run so it was still a bit chilly when we started.  The first mile felt like it went by quickly but it ended up taking 6:58 because of all of the start of the race pack I had to struggle to get though.  As we continued on the course we had another half mile to the turn around and then it was back along the same route plus another 0.2 miles to the finish.  Once I made the turn around I realized that the wind had been at my back and was now smacking me squarely in the face.  The sun was also in my face now which made no difference in my time but was really annoying.  I ended up passing a few people on the return trip and I didn't get passed by anyone.  I was sprinting with one other kid at the end but after I had used him for pacing for the last mile I decided it would be bad form to pass him on the line so I let him go.  Probably meant more to him anyway.

Lisa ended up finishing 2nd in the 20-24 year age group!

I ended up 1st place 25-29(age group), 13th place overall and didn't get beat by any girls.  I was kinda disappointed in my time(21:28) but I've only been running once a week since Thanksgiving so it wasn't too bad.
Race Splits:
Mile 1: 6:58
Mile 2: 7:00(13.38)
Mile 3.2: 7:50(21:28)
Placing at turnaround: 18th place
Finish place: 13th place

New Year's Day 2011!

It was a nice day to get out for the first ride of 2011 with temps in the mid 40s, sun and not much wind.  It was also my first ride outside in over 7 weeks.  It was just nice to get out and go for a ride with my dad who has been here for a month freezing.  Luckily during this ride he was kept warm by sporting my shiny, new Ag3r team winter jacket. 

Restart and Rebuild

So I just finished a ride on the trainer and went to input my ride data into an online training log that I've been using for years.  On a whim I decided to click on the link that displays the entire months ride data on a calendar.  Much to my horror I was confronted with the fact that today(the 23rd of December) was only my 8th ride this month.  Following this I selected the link to display the previous months information and saw that I only rode 11 time the entire month on November.  On the positive side of things I have been running so at least I've been staying active but with riding this little I am having a real identity crisis.  I pride myself on riding long and often but life and holidays and cold weather have been getting in the way.  I guess it's time to start rebuilding now.  Oh what fun it is to ride.......................

What a year!

2010 has been quite a year for biking.  I've done a ton or racing but my blogging about the races and bike maintenance have really suffered.  I started racing in January because I was trying to get in a race every month.  Everything was going according to plan until I managed to wreck my car off of the road while traveling to the December race and my goal was cut short.  I work the rest of the weekends this month so I won't be making it to any unless a miracle occurs.  It has been a really good year.  Thanks to all who have helped it happen.

Murrysville CX

What a great weekend!  Not only did I get to do an awesome CX race but I also got to help build the course the day before and most importantly; I got to spend the weekend with the Maher family and go to Casey's 13th birthday party.  It was a great weekend that ended too soon.  It was great to be racing in western PA and see all of my old friends.

Cincy UCI#3 Friday

It was a beautiful day out.  Hot and dry!  It also happened to be my worst day in a race EVER.  I went into the race already knowing that I was out of my league.  It was a Cat 2/3 race and the only reason I was even a Cat3 was because I upgraded specifically for this weekend so I could have a better race time. It would allow me to be cleaned up and rested when the PRO race kicked off.  Then the race started; I had repeated asthma attacks the entire race.  I think it was breathing all of the dust that threw my lungs for a loop.  I ended up getting pulled just before I got lapped by the leader.  It was still a really good time and I enjoyed it.  Racing again tomorrow and Sunday.  Weather is looking like hotter than today and sunny.  Hopefully my lungs hold out.

Another early end to my season?

20 minutes into a relatively easy CX practice I decided to (try to) bunny hop a curb and ended up flipping over my handle bars.  At first it appeared nothing was wrong but that appearance soon ended when I remounted my bike and found I couldn't even hold my right shift lever without excruciating pain.  End of CX practice.
I packed up (with one hand) and drove home.  I immediately iced my hand and took some Motrin to try and control the swelling.  What really scared me was that the last time my hand felt like this was after I crashed in February and it continued to hurt until June:(  I talked with my Mom and she convinced me to go to the hospital to get checked out.  I was there and got and X-ray in no time at all. After some waiting for the doctor to read the X-ray I got the good(?) news, not broken.  I had no fractures but it was still killing me.  I was splinted and told to consult an orthopedic doctor if it didn't stop hurting in 5 days. 
My hand felt good in the splint because it was unable to make any of the movements that caused it pain.  It wasn't until hours later when I took the splint off to readjust it that I realized that my hand pain still hadn't gone down. 
This morning I took the splint off to check the swelling and readjust it again and was pleased to find the swelling had gone down quite a bit, most of the pain was gone except when grasping things and my range of motion had returned to normal. 
Hopefully after a week of resting it and using the splint I'll be ready to race next Sunday but only time will tell.

Nittany Lion 'Cross

120 people in a Cat4 CX race?  That's crazy!  I started 1/3 of the way back the pack so there really was no sprint from the line.  More like a steady roll out.  For the first 2 laps I was steadily picking off riders and improving my placing.  For the next 3 laps I pretty much held my position without passing or being passed.  In the middle of the final lap(in 15th place) I hit a large hole and my right shifter slid down the handlebar pulling my rear brake tight and making my bike unridable.  I ran almost half of the course to get to the pit and then grabbed my other bike and sprinted to the finish.  While running I fell from 15th to 33rd.  'CrossFail

Notice anything wrong with this picture?  NO GLOVES!  Ask Zach how that worked out for him?

Devil's Backbone 2010

It was an awesome event.  67 miles and 6700ft elevation gain on a mix of pavement dirt and gravel.  It was a lot of fun and the ice cream afterwords made it all worth it. Here are the results(if you care)

CX time? and 2011 Specialized S-Works Road Shoes

I got my new shoes from Specialized. I cracked my old ones in a wreck early in the season and by the time I realized it my size was sold out for the year. So I had to wait for the 2011 models and boy am I glad I did. I got the limited edition neon yellow and they are awesome.


Today I did my first cyclocross practice of the year(and ever). Of course as soon as someone said cyclocross our recent drought was broken and the rain let loose. It was good just to get out on the CX bike and ride around a park. I spent about an hour working on barriers. Much more work is needed but not all in one day.
My new bike was pretty nice also. I really like Sram for CX use. Just in case you were wondering. I designed the paint job on my new bike and did the prep work. Stevie B. did the actual painting. I think it looks pretty good so far. Still needs decals of some kind.

Friday Night at the Track: 25 mile TT

I put in a 57:59 at the 25 mile TT at the Washington Bvld. Track. Normally this would be nothing special but I did it Mercx style. It wasn't a record or anything like that but I was proud of it considering my road position looks kind of like a sail boat.

P-Town Time Trial

Bad roads and bad luck
The bad luck started early when I was on my way to the start line and fell over because I couldn't get unclipped from left pedal. I managed to scratch my bike in two places and scratch my crankset also. Bad Roads- Next the race started and everything seemed to be going well enough except the roads were terrible. People talk about the bad road conditions of western PA but they've got nothing on Delaware. These roads were graded, had pot holes and we must have crossed 6 sets of train tracks. Which brings me back to the bad luck. About 12 minutes into the race I came up to one of the many railroad crossings with a stopped train sitting there. We waited there while a group of 15 riders or so congregated. Then it was a mass start for the second part of the time trial. I just continued to ride hard and put down the best ride I could and see what happened. The USAC officials had no way of knowing who waited at the train or for how long so they just gave everyone their real times. I ended up finishing the flat time trial in 38 minutes and some seconds at 23.?? mph. Looking at the results I'd have to call that a very poor effort. I really don't know who to blame for all of this nor do I really want to blame anyone. I just feel that all of this could have been avoided with better planning. From picking more well maintained roads with less railroad crossings to finding the train schedule and planning accordingly(I'm told they did this and the railroad was going to hold this train until later in the day). Oh well, now I have a reason to never go back to Delaware(as if I needed a reason).

Friday Night at the Track 15 mile TT

Lots of pictures, not much content