Mike's Bike

Hodges Dam Race Report

2011-08-08T17:02:00.002-04:00

I wish I could swim better. After racing through what felt like waist deep mud puddles, trails them could have been running streams, and strong rains for 2.5 hours, I am not so sure I was pedaling as much as I was swimming.

I like hodges dam, I raced it for the first time last year, and loved the punchy climbs and quick turns which are mixed in with the roots and rocks. It is a good course for me, and last year I placed 2nd, and as I was the first Massachusetts resident to cross the line, I was the Pro Open Massachusetts State Champion in 2010, and I was looking to extend this into 2011.

The race was filled with plenty of great racers, and with overnight rain continuing to the start of the race, I knew it was going to be interesting. Last year at this race, it was extremely dusty, so although this was going to be totally different, its certainly in the cards for New England mountain bike racing. As the whistle blew to start racing everyone took off, I was able to jump into about 5th position or so, and as we went through the first round of shallow puddles I had to keep my eyes closed, a mixture of dirt, mud, water, and who knows what else was pouring into my face. When we made it to the single track, the full extent of the rain appeared, and we were blasting through deep puddles. The riders in front of my were blowing water about shoulder height as I was trying to ride in their wake. Things started to get better as it opened up a bit, but still my eyes were constantly getting covered with dirt and water I was kicking up, and most of the time I had about one eye closed and the other half shut. As we came around the first lap (of five) I was sitting in about 5th place, and kept pushing on through the streams that were once trails.

As the laps wore on my bike was getting pretty worked. On the fourth lap I noticed that my rear brake stopped working, and to make matters worse it actually completely shut on my rotor, and when I got off my bike to spin my wheel it only managed to rotate about a quarter turn. So with chain suck and a stuck rear wheel my lap times got slower, which was okay, but then the front brake went too, so at this point it was just about finishing.

I came across the line in 6th place, not where I wanted to be, but thats okay, I still managed to have fun. I wish I could have continued to be the Mass. state champion, but I will be back next year for sure.

To date, I believe this is the wettest race I have done, I have raced in deeper mud and worse conditions, but this had the deepest puddles, and the least amount of dry ground!

Speaking of dust, this is what I looked like after last years race!

And so there was Mud!!!

2011-06-30T18:55:00.000-04:00

Check out this sweet pic of Sean Kennedy, Nate Peppin, and my self after the Putney Cross country race!

Mansfield Hollow and Stratton Brook Cyclocross Races

2010-10-24T21:17:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was my first time racing cyclocross on both Saturday and Sunday (and Caroline's first double weekend of support and pictures too). On Saturday I headed down to Mansfield HollowDam Connecticut, right outside of where I spent two summers interning as an engineer. I spent plenty of time riding my mountain bike around the dam, so I was excited to race my third cyclocross race around a familiar location. When I arrived I started to ride around and I heard a familiar voice yelling my name, I turned around and it was the one and only Peter Hurst, my college roommate and stupid fast bike racer. Pete and I enjoyed trying to annihilate each on the bike while on the U. of Michigan Cycling Team, whether it be on dirt or on the road, riding up a mountain or riding through the roads of Ann Arbor, we had some good times. I finished warming up, and went to the line in the Category 2,3,4 race.

Pete and I before the race

The race started and I jumped into the top 10, ripped a few corners, and bombed down a steep hill into a straight away, at which point it was time to start moving up. I got into the lead group, and after the first set of barriers and a couple of quick turns I was feeling pretty comfortable, however then came the sections of straight away power sections. Being a light mountain biker, I am much stronger on tight corners and quick accelerations, however when it comes to the flat power sections, I lose some time.

Jumping the barriers

With about 15 minutes to go I was sitting in 4th place, and I saw a monster named Pete on the attack. Pete is the type of guy I lose time to on the straight aways, and I knew that I would have to fly through the technical sections and try to keep him from keeping up on the straight aways.

Going hard out of a corner

With the final set of straight aways to go, I could see that Pete was coming up fast. I decided to step on it through the final turns, and as I was coming out of the last one I went down, and Pete came around me. I jumped on my bike as fast as possible, I managed to get back on his wheel, but the final 30s was a drag race, and Pete got the best of me! I finished in 5th place, and had a great time, however it was time to get back home and get ready for the race on Sunday.

This time Caroline and I were off to Simsbury, CT for the Stratton Brook Cross race. I managed to put in a nice warm up and ride about half of the course, and I found that with the plethora of turns and a 200 yard sand pit I had a good chance of doing well.

The gun went off and it was a sprint to the first set of barriers, which were important for what was coming up next! I got to experience my first pinwheel! A pinwheel is a circular obstacle in which you ride into a big spiral (thick of flushing a toilet) and when you get in the middle you turn around, and spiral back out! They are awesome to say the least! This is pictured below.

Pinwheel

After the spiral I was sitting in 2nd place, and when we got into a straight away a racer attacked from behind, I immediately jumped around the guy ahead of me and onto the attackers wheel, after a minute it was down to him and I. We rode together for the first 3 laps of 5, and when we got to the sand pit I had mentioned before, I put in an attack! (as seen below)

The winning move (nice picture Caroline)

I powered through the beach like sand, and kept up the pace through the next few sections, and when I turned around I had put a nice gap on the second place racer.

Flying Solo to the victory

I kept the pace high for the remaining laps and came across the line first, for my first cyclocross victory!

I enjoyed racing both Saturday and Sunday, and to finish in 5th one day and win the next I was really excited about how the races went. Caroline also had a good time, and took some great pictures, so we are looking forward to more double headers in the future.

Crossin for Canines

2010-10-17T20:59:00.000-04:00

It was a 90 degree day in the middle of September, the perfect way to start my cross career. I had gotten my cross bike on Saturday, rode it once or twice, and it was now a week later and I was lined up to race the the Category 3-4 cyclocross race for a bunch of dogs (hence the Crossin for Canines). So needless to say I could have used a little more practice time, but sometimes you have to jump right in.

The gun went off and the group surged forward, I made a few quick passes before the first corner, and was sitting in about 3rd place. I kept this up, and when the first hill came I jumped ahead and was leading the race. We started entering some barriers and corners, and at this point a few guys started coming around me. I watched them flow through corners and glide over barriers, and then I tried to follow suit, however I sort of made it through corners, forgot which way to swing my legs over barriers, but either way I was racing!

This continued for 45 minutes, with me trying my best to get through corners and over barriers and during this time I was baked in the heat, but I crossed the line in 4th place.

It was a great first experience, and since the race I have gotten more practice, and feel much better on the bike, as you will see in the following posts!

Last 2 Mountain Bike Races of the Year

2010-09-30T09:54:00.000-04:00

Its been a little while since I have last posted, however I have raced two mountain bike races, Bikes for Bovines and the Landmine Classic.

Serious before the Bovine Race

The Bikes for Bovines race was pretty fun, it consisted of a 30 minute climb, followed by some rolling climbs, then a fun twisty downhill, and finally some speedy sections till the finish. It was raining just a little bit, so some of the rocks were a little slippery, however nothing to get too worried about. As the gun went off nobody was really going for it, as we all knew we had a big climb to overcome. About half way up the climb the pace picked up, with Adam Snyder leading the charge I jumped on his wheel, and held on as long as a could. After I lost his wheel a settled back into a group of two other dudes, and we chugged along from there. Half way through the lap I heard a knocking sound coming from my bike, and l looked down and my water bottle was falling out. I quickly reached for it and tried to pull it out but I could not, I then tried to push it through and I could not, so in a last ditch effort I yanked it out, breaking my carbon fiber cage, and one of the sharp edges slashing my finger. I started to bleed, however I was not about to slow down, so I stepped on it and got back to the group. The rest of the lab went well, blood getting and my handle bars and all, however the light rain kept everything pretty clean.

The second lap came around and I wanted to drop my group, so I got going on the climb and never looked back. I crossed the line in 2nd place, I had ridden the second lap a couple minutes faster then the first lap, and finished only about a minute behind Snyder. Overall a really fun race, a lost a bottle cage, but a got my second consecutive 2nd place, pretty great.

Me and Nate after the race

After Collecting hardware, and Apples!

The final race of the Root 66 Series was the Landmine Classic, and it was shaping up to be a great race. My finance Caroline was ready for her first bike race since moving out here, and the field was looking very strong, including the likes of Matt OKeefe, Tom Sampson, Neal Burton, John Foley, and Tim Daigneault name a few. The race started off pretty fast with the Cannondale killers Matt and Tom keeping the pace high. I was on their wheels until a hit a rock that I did not see and it threw me off the trail. However I speed back up and next thing I knew Tom was sitting on the edge of the trail with his pedal in his hand, and Matt had speed off. I kept up the pace however I came to a junction in which I had no idea which was to go, so I had to stop and wait for other rider to catch up and decide where to go. Once they got there we decided to go left, however I was planning on going right, so it was a good thing that I waited. At this point I settled into this group and rode along at a good clip for a while. I got to the front and tried to drop riders, however the nature of the course did not make this easy, and I was unable to do so. This went on for a while, until we reached two miles to go, and I really went for it, and as soon as I had put a little gap on I hit my pedal on another pesky rock and my chain fell off. As I watched Neal and Tim fly by I knew I had to be quick, so I got my chain back on and rode like crazy. I caught them pretty fast, however I was out of gas, luckily so were they. So I got back on pace, and Neal and I dropped Tim and it was off to the races. We then ran into the beginners and had to swerve in and out right until the finish line, where some dude was running his bike in over his shoulder, essentially blocking me off of Neal's wheel, and going into the last turn I could not get around the bike carrier and Neal took second place, with my finishing in third.

3rd Place at Landmine, all right!

This was a great way to end out the MTB season, finishing 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd against some very strong fields. I will now try my hand at cyclocross, it looks like a lot of fun, and should be a good way to gain some high end for next mountain bike season!

Hodges Dam Race: On the Podium! (with a dead car in the parking lot)

2010-08-15T22:37:00.001-04:00

A few weekends ago I had a very good weekend. It all started out with my sister and her two friends coming out for a Boston Red Sox game. They started driving from Michigan on Friday at noon, and left Sunday at 9:00AM, in between this we spent almost all day Saturday in Boston. The Red Sox were playing the Detroit Tigers and we all made out first trip to Fenway Park to watch. Before the game we took a tour of the Sam Adams Brewery and did a little sight seeing in Boston. Although I do not have any pictures of all of us, I did manage to put a good picture of Fenway together:

Long story short, it was a nail bitter and the Red Sox pulled off a 5-4 win, with a walk off double by Big Papi. It was great to have them come visit, but hopefully next time they can stay a little longer!

Now comes Sunday and the Hodges Dam Race. My original intentions were to go to the race to see how two nights of little sleep, drinking beer midday the day before, eating ball park food, and walking all over the place would impact my performance. I made the trip down, but before I parked I noticed a rather loud knocking in my rear end. With this I decided that I made the trip, so race first then take care of the car later. I registered, and started to warm up, and I felt pretty fatigued, it was hot and dusty (terrible for asthma), and the field was very strong, with the odds stacked pretty high, I knew this would be something.

The race started, and I wanted to get into the single track first because of the terrible dust. I accomplished this goal, and to my surprise I actually put a little gap on my chasers, however my chain then fell out and I had to hop off the bike. Once I got it back on I had fell to 9th place or so. I then began my chase, and slowly started passing a few dudes. I then caught up to John Foley, and him and I continued to ride through the field together, and at this point I actually started to feel pretty good. We kept it on until we caught Mike Mooradian, who was in second place. At this point we rode together, which meant that our group represented 2nd-4th place, I have placed 4th too many times, so I knew this was a good chance to crack the top three. With this is mind I got up front and pushed the pace. However we were sticking together, and I just kept it on, and eventually with about 30 min left to race it was just Mooradian and myself. I knew that I was feeling good, so as we got into the singletrack I kept the pace high, and was able to put gain some ground between myself and Mooradian. I was now on second place, and knowing that Seamus Powell was up front I wanted to try to keep second place. However, I started noticing that my rear tire was losing air! I franticly put CO2 into the tire, and hoped back on. I was ten minutes out and just slammed on the gas, and as I was making a corner I went down. I got back up, and then kept up the pace until I crossed the line in second place (Nate got second in his race too).

On another note this was the Massachusetts State Championship Bike Race, and as Seamus is from New York I won the state title in the Pro/Open category (my grandparents claim that I am now the King of Mass!)

So my experiment turned out differently than originally expected. I ate horribly, drank beer, walked all over the place, hardly slept, and had the stress of a broken car and I managed my best race of the year. I do not think that I will do this before every race, however everything lined up pretty well and the course was a good fit. Check me out on the podium, still in my racing clothes covered in the dust (why you might ask, keep reading):

After the race was over I started working on getting my car home (hence not changing). I called AAA, and found out that I could get my car towed 3 miles for free, and than pay a ton for every additional mile. As I was about 60 miles from home I decided to have it towed near by, not ideal, but it would get my car out! In times like this I am always happy to have my buddy Nate Peppin around, who stepped in with his 100 miles tow card, and I called AAA back up and let them in on this new development. The tow truck showed up, as seen below, and took the car to Nate's house:

Nate and I had looked around the rear end and noticed a broken rod in my rear suspension, we thought we could fix it.

Nate took the reins and got the part ordered and installed, he then came and got me and I picked up my functioning car! I would like to thank Nate and his mom Dawn for helping me out in this situation, I am happy to have had these great people at bike races for all of my four summers out east starting back when I had my internship in Connecticut. Whether its bottle support or sitting around waiting for a tow truck and then feeding me dinner afterwards, they have truly been an instrumental part in my mountain bike racing!

Mt Snow Recap

2010-07-29T23:31:00.000-04:00

I raced at Mt. Snow this past weekend, head over to the Competitive Edge Blog to see how it went:
http://compedgeracing.blogspot.com/

Putney XC and Holiday Farm Wednesday Race

2010-06-30T23:39:00.001-04:00

This past weekend was the Putney XC race. For a full race report check out the new Competitive Edge Racing Blog at http://compedgeracing.blogspot.com/ . I will periodically be sending you over here to read race reports, but feel free to keep tabs on it, it will be over on the left hand side of my blog. The race went great, and I managed to come in 4th place in a strong field of riders!

After the excitement of Putney I decided I would make the trip over to Holiday Farm in Dalton, MA, where they have a Wednesday night race. There used to be this great Wednesday night series locally called the Bachelor St Time Trial, however this year it does seem to happening, and a fun more casual race on Wednesday was always a lot of fun. So when I had the opportunity to head over and check out this race, I was in.

Nate, Robin (Nate's very helpful girl friend), and my self made the 1.5 hour journey today, it was was the nicest weather we have had in a while. It was about 75 degrees with some slight cloud cover, which was a great relief from the 90 degrees and humidity we have been fighting recently. As we suited up the atmosphere was great, pretty casual and to my surprise the kids race had what looked like 10 or so kids. For todays race I was hoping to ride at about 90% of race pace, because the race on Sunday was pretty tough. As we lined up there looked to be about 40-50 people there, with about 15-20 in the "3 lap" field (which was the longest). As the gun went off one guy really went for it, so for the first 5 minutes the pace was pretty high, and with trying to keep it at 90% of race pace, I was trying to be as smooth as possible. The pace slowed a bit at the top of the hill, so I jumped in front to keep things in check. At the end of the first lap there was about 4 of us together, including Nate. At this point I had recovered nicely from a downhill and went for a sprint to mix it up, however as soon as I did this the course marking got a bit confusing and I had to slam on my brakes! After the four of us determined where to go, it was back to racing. As we went through the second lap I stayed up front, and had a small gap on the others. But as we came around for the third lap I put a little more pressure on these guys and was able to put more time in. I crossed the line first, and Nate battled it up for a nice 4th place finish.

Overall it was a great time, with awesome weather, a really fun course, and to my surprise I had pretty good legs and thus was able to keep myself to my original goal or not going too hard. Another awesome Wednesday race series, I suggest you check it out!

I will leave you with this nice shot I grabbed on Tuesday:

Recent Riding in Pictures

2010-06-26T21:51:00.002-04:00

Yellow flowers on a recovery ride.

Sunset before a storm

Car graveyard (there are about 5 or 6)

Stream on a nice day

A delicious meal, chicken sandwich with peach slices.

Well time to get ready for the Putney race tomorrow!

The Recovery, stress, and trying to get back to normal

2010-06-21T23:12:00.000-04:00

After the Boyne 24hr race it always takes me a little while before I start to feel good again. After the race I didn't ride for 3-4 days, which looking back I wish I would have gotten on the bike a little bit, but with travel and such things this is what happened. Once I got back on the bike it took me a few days before I started to feel good again, the first few rides back my legs always feel like lead weights, however once I worked all of this out I stated to feel again, about a week or so after the race.

The first week back I ended up going on a pretty long ride on the road bike, and it happened to be earlier in the day and the moisture in the air was thick. Below is a picture of one of the hills I was climbing, there is no rain, this is just the water hanging in the air, preventing any sweat from evaporating keeping my temperature a little on the high side.

The ride was great, however about 20 minutes after I got home it looked something like this:

Oh well!

After I started to feel good again, work started to kick in, with a presentation in Washington D.C. it was pretty much all work, and when I could play, it was shorter and more stressful than I would have liked. Long story short, and I will spare the details of late night and weekend shifts, we put together an awesome presentation, which was well received by our audience. This took an unexpected toll on me, and through this time when I did train it didn't feel very effective, and on some rides I felt just plain bad with flu like aches. I skipped a few planned races, which was a great decision as I am sure I would have felt off and just would hae made me more crunched at work. I learned that sometimes when your stress level is too high off the bike, trying to get on the bike just adds to the stress and becomes counterproductive.

With the presentation now over I am starting to feel normal again, and I am looking forward to racing at Putney, VT this upcoming weekend. For now, I should get to bed and continue to catch up on lost sleep!

24 Hours of Boyne 2010

2010-06-03T22:43:00.006-04:00

For the past five years Memorial Day weekend has meant riding my bike through the day, the night, and then finally through the day again. It has meant two hours of sleep maximum, trying to eat anything in sight, and enough chamois problems to make an almost grown man cry. I am talking about the 24 hours of Boyne, a bike race where the race starts at noon on Saturday and ends at noon on Sunday, and to complicate things they make you ride up to the top of a ski mountain. (just ask my Dad, he will tell you how terrible this is in vivid detail).

Once again the Sofa King Fast team assembled for the race. On the team is myself, my sister Kelly, my friend Nick, and the tough ol' bird, my Dad. Also in the gang is my Mom who is the master of preparatory lists, Caroline who is the feed guru, and my buddy Steve who rides solo and his girl friend Melissa, who impresses us by taking such good care of Steve. I would also like to note that the Sofa King Fast team was up against a bitter rival, consisting of four dudes from the UMich Cycling Team, so the stage was set for a tough race.

This year I decided to fly back to Michigan, so I had to get tons of bike stuff into small bags. As you can see below it was about a weeks worth of gear and food, and it all fit very well into the three small bags. Also, when flying with a bike you get to pay extra, luckily Southwest does not charge you a ridiculous amount, however as I didn't want to miss too much work, I got to leave at 6:00AM Friday morning, so it was great to start the weekend already in need of more sleep, it at least prepares you for the race. Once I arrived in Michigan it was time to head to northern Michigan, and on Memorial weekend this is always a challenge, and this year was no different, we had lots of traffic on the way up. Once we got up north, we celebrated my teammate Nick's birthday, took my bike out of its traveling box and put it together, and then finally off to bed!

Before the race went off we got a special visit from some family members. As you can see below our hang out tent was very full, my grandparetns, Aunt and two cousins made it out for the start of the race, it was great to see them there and it really makes the race more fun.

The race did not start in the traditional Le Mans fashion so it was a normal start. Right out of the gun Sean from the rival team took the hole shot, however about 20 yards into the trail there was a tight turn, and I was on his wheel, and unforuntaely Sean was going so fast that he flew right off the trail into the brush. I took this opportunity to step on it, I wanted to come around the lap first, for my self, but as I noted before our tent was full of supporters, and I wanted to send them home happy. After a few minutes it ended up being just me and another guy, and he was riding pretty fast, which of course meant that I had to ride pretty fast. Long story short we were riding pretty fast, and when we got to a longer extended climb I put the heat of and finally got rid of him. I came across the line first, got my bottle from the cutest water bottle girl in history, got some great cheers from supporters and went back into the woods for some more. This lap I slowed down a little bit, I could not keep up that pace forever, and I made it across the line again and then sent Nick out. Nick ripped it up, in fact he broke a spoke, and took Kelly's wheel for lap two, let it be known that there was literally "no time". This meant my Dad had to step up and ride the next lap out of turn. He tore it up in style, and by this time Kelly had her wheel back and then rode a rocket lap. At this point we had 6 laps, and it was my turn to start the rotation again. We continued to run smooth all day and all night (I would like to thank Brendan for his late night pacing), and when noon came the next day we had ridden 28 laps, the most of any team at the race. As you can see below, we had some pretty awesome handoffs throughout this event (my favorite being the tunnel for Kelly who rode the last lap of the race for us.)

The two teams at the banquet, Sofa King Fast got first and Arm Chair Prince Quick got second.

Overall this was my best 24 hour race to date. I rode strong the entire time, was able to eat consistently which typically gets extremely difficult around 3AM, handled saddle sore and chafing issues, and in general was in a great mood. I ended up with 10 laps, 1 less than last year, but I rode much faster on average, riding all of my laps under 48 minutes with a ripping lap of 39 minutes. Chafing is normally the most difficult part of the race for me, however this year I came over prepared, and developed a 5 layer chamois miracle system, which worked great.

So much of this race happens in the tent, and this year we put up two tents for increased coverage and awesomeness. Also, we rent a room for showering and sleeping, a necessity for a successful 24 hour race. Not pictured is my Uncle Jim, who stopped by once again on Sunday morning, thanks for the support and keeping it lively in the morning.

We always rock awesome tattoos, somehow we forgot to get a pic of everyones, so here I am sporting some PowerBar tats, as well as Thor with his hammer.

Five years ago Steve and I first entered this race as Sofa King Fast with my Dad as our pit crew. My Dad then for some reason went crazy and wanted to race too, so Steve went solo and my Dad and Nick joined me, which meant that we recruited Mom, Kelly, and Caroline for our pit support. Kelly was the next to go crazy and the past two years she has joined in and Melissa jumped into help Steve.

I really enjoy how this has evolved, and although we suffer in numerous ways, we all come back for more. With the future of the race in question, I would like to take this moment to thank everyone who has helped. I appreciate all the racers who compete against Sofa King Fast because without you I would not have to push so hard at 4AM to gain/catch up a few extra minutes. All of the supporters through the years, especially my Grandma and Grandpa who even in their mid 80s cheer their hearts out, my Uncle Jim for comic relief on Sunday mornings, and the countless other supporters who have come and gone over the years. The support crew holds a special place in my heart, Melissa always willing to help even though she clearly has her hands full with Steve, Caroline keeps us running smoothly during the race so all we have to do is pedal, and my Mom does so much behind the scenes work to make sure that the racers never have to worry about food. Finally I would like to thank my teammates. Steve got me out there, and when I needed help that first year he rode some laps for me, thanks Sensei. Nick who has been nothing short of astounding, riding laps upon laps while pushing me to keep my lap times down, I hope Nick knows that I really only cared about beating him (Purdont anyone). Kelly for going head over heels for bike racing, and deciding that a 24 hour race with her brother and Dad was worth losing sleep over. Finally, I would like to thank my Dad, who stated out as pit boss, getting the tents set up, making sure we have lights, deciding that a generator is a must, and most importantly making the famous team banner. He then went from the pits to the race course, and has impressed me every year with his dedication to training, getting faster over the years, and always stepping into his role when necessary.

The Sofa King Fast crew, thanks everyone for all of your help, riding or feeding, it all means a lot to me.

Gloceser Grind, fogged in, and Power Bar

2010-05-21T14:17:00.004-04:00

This past weekend was the first EFTA race on the calendar for 2010, The Glocester Grind (RI, not MA). Sean and myself represented the Comp Edge MTB Team, and because we like to roll in style we brought a dedicated mechanic Nate. I was looking forward to the race as these EFTA races are pretty fun, and the weather was looking good, so I was expecting some dry weather. When we pulled off the highway to get to the race, the area looked familiar, and immediately I realized that I was about 5 minutes from Rogers Corporation where I interned for two summers! This gave me good feelings, and when we arrived at the race I was ready to get registered, dressed, warmup and then rip it up.

The whistle went off (no guns for bike racing) and the elite field was off, immediately we were shot around a tight corner and I got into a good position and ended up going into the woods in about third place. I was here for a little bit and was feeling good, and within in a few minutes we ended up getting into the muddy rock gardens and this is where I started to get a little thrown off. There were these extended mud pits, and for some the reason the past few years these have given me endless trouble. I always seem to pick bad lines the first few times through and people eat me alive, to make matters worse a lot of these mudpits had rocks in them, so I was losing time. The course was as flat as a pancake and in general had fairly rough ground, because of these reasons I was unable to really get into a groove, and hills are ushually a good thing for me, so I just kept on pedaling, ended up running through most mud pits, and I came across the line in 4th place. I am pretty happy about this as the field was strong, and this course was not well suited for my abilities. If I race enough of these mud pit courses I am bound to get a feel for them, so I am happy to be challenged in this way.

Check out this video from Cycling Dirt of the race:

Cycling Videos on CyclingDirt

Post race legs, covered in mud, and yep that is blood. The course was pretty crowded with people from other fields, so I was running by someone who got stuck in mud, and I fell right on my knees. Also, what you can't see is that something hit me in the back of my leg, and caused a huge knot in the back of my knee. This is gone now, but it hurt pretty bad and made my leg really stiff at the time.

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Here is Nate, our dedicated mechanic, he keeps the machines running properly, and it was awesome to have him at the race, thanks Nate!

Sean came across the line first in the expert race, and now he is upgrading to elite in EFTA, should be great to have a teammate around.

Here is an awesome waterfall I came across last week, its hard to tell its scale, but the waterall is about 10 feet high.

After the race weekend I found all of these PowerBar wrappers on my passenger seat floor, I eat a lot of those!

Finally, this Wednesday it was raining, however I was scheduled to do hill repeats, and I am not going to let rain stop me, so I still rode to the top, and by the time I got there I was in a cloud, awesome!

Pictures of the area and some MTB Racig

2010-05-14T23:25:00.002-04:00

Recently I upgraded cellular devices and now I will be able to take some more pictures while riding, which should make the blog a bit more multimedia rich. The first picture below is from a cool stream I can across, there are tons of these around and I always enjoy running across them.

This picture is a lake that is fairly nearby my place but I did not realize that it existed until I ran across it last week. As you can see it is a pretty nice lake, maybe I will be able to take a swim once it warms up a little bit.

Also this past weekend the UMASS bike racing team hosted their yearly mountain bike, the Orchard Hill Assault. This is a great race as it happens right on campus, and it is a great more laid back race. On Saturday a few of us went to mark the course and right in the middle of it, the clouds decided they were getting too heavy and dumped on us. Well, this was not going to stop us, so we had to finish taping in the rain, great.

On Sunday all of the racers showed up to a great day to ride a bike, the rain the previous day had put the trails in great condition, so you can't ask for much more condtions wise. This was the first race were Sean and I were both sporting the Competitve Edge kits, it was pretty cool, and we are looking forwared to Nate suiting up as well to get the whole team together.

So although this was a more "laid back" race that does not mean that is was a stroll in the woods. The Pro/Open field was strong, and this was going to make for a great race. When the whistle went off I pushed off and missed my pedal, and had some trouble cliping in (ushually I do this very well, so I was a litte confused by the whole thing, but I eventually I heard a 'click' and it was go time), I then put some good pedal strokes together and made it third into the woods. James Harmon got in first and burned down the first hill, and then killed it up the first hill, after that he was long gone. At this point I got passed by a few guys as is customary for me in a race, as I try not to go too nuts in the first few minutes. I kept clawing my way back up and got into fourth position, and tried to chase Josh Wilcox, however it seemed that he was not coming back or getting further ahead, just dangling at about the same spot. Well the rest of the race went this way and I came across the line in 4th.

Here I am, focus.... (Photo courtesy of Gary Kennedy, awesome shot!)

Overall I had a good race. I did this race last year, and I am in much better shape now than back then, and I am feeling stronger every day. We did 7 laps and my times were pretty consistent across the board, so I think that my endurance base is holding steady (I suppose those three 100 mile rides in 8 days are paying off). I think that my top end will be coming around and it should be a good summer of racing. Sean also had a good race, and crossed the line 5th in the Cat 1 field, way to go Comp Edge Team!

For now I have races the next two weekends (EFTA race in Glocester, RI this weekend followed by Winsted Woods the next), and then its back home for the 24 hours of boyne, should be a great three weeks.

To Mt Graylock and Back: A Cyclists Story

2010-04-25T22:54:00.005-04:00

A ~100 mile ride over two of the most difficult climbs in Massachusetts, including a 2.5 miles beast that averages over 10% grade (Whitcomb Hill to the locals), as well as a ride up the tallest peak in Massachusetts, Mt. Graylock. Not your typical Saturday afternoon, but cyclists are not your typical type of people. Sean and I had been wanting to do this ride for a little while, and once we attempted but when we were in sight of Mt. Graylock the weather forced us to head back home. Today, we would have no weather issues, there was not a cloud in the sky, so today was going to be the day!

For a ride like this I decided to bring my camera along, and because of this I put an awesome saddle bag on my seat, and it carried some tools for me! Below are a few shots of actual bike riding. You can see Sean climbing up the first climb of the day around mile 15, and below I am climbing Mt. Graylock around mile 60 or so (also included is an attempt to get both Sean and I riding along this cool river.)

On good bike rides you also come along some pretty interesting sights. For instance you can see this super cheesy store complete with a tall Native American fellow as well as a fantasticly colored metal tepee. At the top of Mt. Graylock there is a cool tower dedicated to the Veterans of Massachusetts, as well as a neat metal thingy that shows all of the mountains in the area. Sean and I stopped for pictures at the top of Whitcomb Hill, and we also had some dudes that a picture of us near the top of Graylock.

And finally no good ride is complete without a cool panoramic shot (this is a picture near the top of Graylock).

So all right, good ride so far. We climbed up two really tough climbs and the sun in still shinning. We are now planning our way backhome, and on top of Mt. Graylock meet this cool guy who gave us a good route to get back home. So we are on our way back, and we are climbing out of this valley looking for the road the guy told us to find. So we are continually going and going (we are around mile 90 at this point), and then finally we decided to look at Sean's phone which doubles as a GPS. Well what we find is that either we missed the turn the guy was telling us, or the guy sent us the "Long Way" home, the GPS says that we still have 50 miles. It is also about 5:30PM at this point and the sun likes to go down around 7:30 or 8:00. So as you imagine Sean and I start getting a little worried at this point.

Below I have included a map of out route in red (we were traveling counter clockwise), and the blue line is where we actually wanted to go on the way back. All right, so now what do we do. Well we decide that is would be stupid to turn around, and we decide to just bite the bullet and head home on our current way out of the way path. As we are crunched for time we are working pretty hard to get home on time, and lets not forget that we have been riding about 100 miles at this point. We climb two big climbs and we finally feel like we are on the home stretch. However, we look over and it says that we still have about 20 miles until we are at the point where we are half and hour back home. So this is when the phones came out and we started making phone calls to everyone we know to meet us somewhere and cart us home.

Well after about 8 calls went to voicemail without anyone picking up we just put our heads down and kept pedaling. Eventually we did get a hold of someone and they were able to meet us in Northhampton and took us back home. Seen below is Sean sitting down after we finally arrived where our ride was going to pick us up. We were extremely excited to be done riding, and as Sean is showing in the picture, we were pretty much reduced to mush.

I would like to leave you with a few quick stats. We ended up riding 127 miles (my longest ever), and actual pedaling time was 7.5 hours. We climbed just about 9,000 ft and I went through around 5000 Cal. In terms of our "wrong turn" it cost us 15 miles. It may not sound like a ton, however it would have allowed us to return back to where we started before dark, and we also would have been a little more at ease the last 2.5-3 hours of our ride.

Anyway, it was a great ride and defiantly one to remember!

The most recent occurances, including an encounter with a bear

2010-04-22T09:34:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the late post here, but things have been busy over here in Massachusetts. For one, I had my first MTB race of the year at Hop Brook Dam (and my first race at this venue). When I entered the race I had mostly been training on the road bike, so I was excited to hit some dirt, however road bike training does not always directly transfer to the mountain bike, so it was going to be interesting. We ended up with great weather, and I also ended up with the #1 plate, so that was a good sign. As soon as the race went off, I jumped to 3rd of 4th wheel, and when we got the the entrace to single track, disaster hit, the loop was not clearly marked and some rider including myself made a wrong turn. Mass hysteria insued and next thing I knew I was ducking under mulitiple rows of tape and running up a hill to catch back up to the group! I caught back on and got to work. However I was pretty tired after all this early excitement and fell back a few positions, but was able to keep about 4 guys in sight. By the time I was on my second of four laps I had caught these dudes and was duking it out wheel to wheel. At this point I noticed a clunk in my bike, and was not sure what was going on. I started to look down at my rear suspension to see if anything was loose, but I could not see anything. At this point I came to the conclusion that my rear shock had died (this was a very fair assumption considering I am already on my third shock!) Long story short, I was bobbing around like a pogo stick, and my seat would kick me in the butt whenever I had to use my brakes down hills. I accepted this fate, dropped these dudes I was riding with, and came across the finish line in 7th out of ~20 guys.

I am happy with this result, it is a good start to the MTB season and I now that I am hitting the dirt more I think my results should only improve. I would like to thank my friend Melissa for her help with bottles at this race, and for taking the cool before and after pictures as seen below (notice the awesome Competitive Edge jersey!!!).

On other notes PowerBar really came through, and supplied me with tons of the best sports nutrition products around. Below is a snapshot of all my energy food, it will take me a little while to go though all of it, but I am trying out lots of new products and I am very excited about that!

Caroline also came to visit me since my last blog post. We had a great weekend, with an awesome 18 mile bike ride on the road [no bike pictures here, but check out the one below ;)], as well as a great cook out with some of my polymer science buddies. Below is a great shot of us at the BBQ (notice the fohawk, haha, I decided to change it up a bit)!

Lastly on my bike ride yesterday I came across a rather large animal during one of my hill intervals. I noticed something moving in the woods, it was very large, black, and had four legs. If you are thinking a Massachusetts Black Bear you would be right on. This bear and I had a stare down, about 20 feet from one another, until I flexed my muscles and he went running into the woods. This is only the second time I have come accross a bear on my bike, the first being up north when I was on a ride with my Dad and my friend Kevin. Along those lines, I have noticed many interesting animals over the past few weeks, some eagles and hawks, a vulture with a chipmunk in his mouth, and now a bear, of the great outdoors!

Rest Week!

2010-04-02T07:43:00.003-04:00

This week is a glorious rest week, after four hard weeks I get to tone it down and have some easy riding. This comes at a good time in the weather, as it rained and rained the first half of the week. This upcoming weekend is supposed to be the best yet, and with Caroline visiting I am sure we will make the most of it! For example, this may not have to do with great weather, but Caroline and I will be making our way to the Hadley Sugar Shack this morning. A sugar shack is a New England fixture where they make maple surip on the spot and you can order delicious breakfast items!

On another note, I was reading some articles this week and came across the the winner of the first Tour de France, hosted back in 1903. I was thinking that I should grow my mustache in the style that this man sports:

I mean lets be honest, if a mustache like that can get you around France that fast, I would have to imagine that it would be great for the trails!

More Centuries and some good mountain bike rides

2010-03-28T14:17:00.006-04:00

Rode my third Brattloboro loop in 8 days this past week. Last year I think I only rode 100 miles once of twice, so three times in one week is a drastic increase. This past century was particularly hard, with a killer head wind combined with killer pulls from everyone made for some really tough riding. Normally drafting reduces your effort when you are behind people, but the way the wind was coming there was almost no relief, so you were either pulling directly in the wind or doing an equivalent effort! It was really hard, but that seemed to be the general consensus amongst everyone else as well, so that is always a good sign. Either way, the back was easier with the tailwind and a reduced overall pace, and I felt pretty good when I got home. I then went to upload the exercise file to my computer..... but it was not there!!! This was a heartbreaker because the first half of the ride was so hard, and my power numbers would have been great, it was pretty disappointing. But, what are you going to do?

For the weekend I was originally going to go down to Princeton, NJ to race collegiate road bikes, but I decided to stay back to get work done instead. On the bright side this opened the door for some MTB rides. Sean and I hit the woods both Saturday and Sunday, and although the temperature was a little cold, we were running some pretty hot laps :). Check out some pics from the end of our ride on Saturday:

On Sunday we went to ride the technical trails, and as Sean put it we did out first ride of the year. What he meant was that he got a flat tire! And after using all of our supplies, my rear tire than started losing air, perhaps Sean was right, maybe the season does not really start till you get a flat in the woods.

After a pretty good meal on Sunday, when it got to be later in the evening I was still hungry, and for the first time I can remember I wanted chocolate. I am not sure about your beliefs in evolution or creationism, but I made something that could be applied to both theories, my creation is seen below:

What you are looking at is toast with peanut butter, banana, and Saunders hot fudge (Grandpa be proud), I call it the Peanut Butter Delicious. From an evolutionary standpoint it started as peanut butter and toast, then evolved with banana pieces, and for its ultimate adaption it covered itself with chocolate. From a creationary view I am pretty sure the Lord would have made this thing on the 7th day for a snack after all his hard work the previous week. Either view point, I believe we can all agree that this thing is suited very well for consumption as a late night snack!

New Sponsors and Riding and Racing This Past Week

2010-03-22T19:26:00.013-04:00

I am glad to announce three new sponsors for the 2010 Season:

Competitive Edge- Glad to say that the best bike shop in New England will be helping me rip it up. From bikes to skis, its the the place to go!

PowerBar- Everything in the realm of nutrition will be provided by PowerBar, from gels to bars and recovery drinks, they make the best products on the market!

Defeet- My favorite socks and knee warmers will now be a sponsor, all right for aireators and wool!

Links to their websites can always be found on the side of the blog, check it out! I am really looking forward to their support in the coming year.

This past week has been a fantastic week for riding, with great weather and good legs I really enjoyed the riding. After racing last weekend in New York in the rain and cold temperatures it was a relief when the sun came out and temperatures warmed up. To celebrate I just rode and rode, in fact I rode over 300 miles on the road, which is the most to date. This was helped out by actually riding two centuries (100 miles rides) one on Wednesday and another on Sunday. Both rides were a lot of fun, with Wednesday being a bit more difficult, and Sunday I was riding with the Wheelhouse Racing team, which allowed lots of drafting in the pack and lots of good socializing. The ride actually took us up to Brattloboro, VT and with a cool new cycling computer that has a GPS, I can show you the map!(those numbers are the miles)

I also went to a road race on Saturday in New York state. It was a race that took us around a 6 mile loop seven times, and on the last lap we were to turn off the race loop and then finish on a straight road. I raced really well throughout the race and was feeling great, and with one lap to go I was ready to go for it! I had stayed out of the wind for most of the race, so I was feeling pretty fresh, and with about 0.5 miles to go I started to get into position to make the left turn into the finishing straight and put myself in a good position for what would end up being a sprint. I got towards the front of the pack and was sitting about 5th position on the right side of the road getting ready to dive into the left hand turn with full speed, and then right when I was about to start making my turn, no body else was..... The racers ahead of me and to my left just kept going straight, putting an uncrossable barrier between me and the finish line. As I was looking back I saw a group of riders get into a crash, and at then finally some riders made the turn, so in the end someone who was in about 30th place most likely won the race. Well, this is how it goes some days, but I got a great workout in and made it home in one piece.

Overall a great week on the bike, lots of good miles and a good race under my belt, I will leave you with this popular road sign, which apparently also applies to road bike racing.

Racing in the Windy City (not Chicago though)

2010-03-16T09:27:00.004-04:00

This past weekend the UMASS bike racing club made our way down to New York City for some collegiate road bike racing. Myself and ten others made our way down on Friday evening, and everything was going so well, until it started raining, which is what we had expected, but had feared. We got to our shady motel around 8:00 PM, after which we unloaded our bikes in the rain and then settled in for some food we made in the hotel room, which consisted or rice, beans, and tortillas, pretty good.

We woke up Saturday morning to pouring rain and gusty winds, and this was only the beginning. We made our way to the city and when we arrived the rain was coming down in buckets, and the worst part was the wind. The wind was just pushing its way around, if you didn't have a sure footing you were going to be a kite without a string, you were never coming back. Long story short, our team had a pretty good showing despite the weather. Myself on the other hand, I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but at least I didn't get blown away by the wind or drown in the rain. Now the good news, the race was at a really cool venue, Grants Tomb in Riverside Park, a memorial to General Grant. It was neat to race in a large city like this, this is what Grants Tomb looks like:

On Sunday we raced outside of the city in FDR Park. This race went better for me, however I didn't finish well, I felt good throughout the race and got some good training in , which is my ultimate goal for this road racing.

Overall it was a fun weekend, however it seemed like the 11 of us were always packed like wet sardines. We had 11 people in one van, then during the races the vans had 11 peoples wet clothes and people, and this made for a very tight wet squeeze. Also, the power at out motel went out, so 11 people were hanging out in a tiny hotel room with 2 double beds, however were not wet, but we had wet clothes drying everywhere. It is nice to be dry now.

As I look out the window now I do not see rain clouds or gusting winds, so lets hope the weather can stay like this for a little while, so next time we race we can actually catch some rays.

Weekend Update

2010-01-25T12:08:00.005-05:00

This weekend was pretty busy, and left me feeling tired. On Friday Sean and I went up to Berkshire East, a local ski mountain, and skied from 6-10PM. This was my first time here and it was fun to ski under the lights. That being said they could defiantly use more light, as sometimes you would ski in and out of dark spots, it does not inspire the most confidence especially when we had hard packed snow (it was pretty icy) to ski on.

Saturday I went for a ride outside on my single speed. I went to this snowmobile trail, and it was all right to ride on at first, but as I got deeper into the trail less people had been there so the snow was not as packed down. I then kept on falling through, so I turned around and make it back home. Next my friend Matt from high school and college who lives in Hartford came up, and went on a hike up bear mountain. As the pictures below show, it was a very nice day for a hike.

Then on Sunday I went over to Northfield Mountain to do cross country skate skiing for the first time. I have wanted to skate ski for a while now, so although the conditions were not the best I decided that I would give it a shot. To make a long story short, I tried to learn how to skate while working my way up an icy hill, and let me tell you this, never try to learn how to skate up an icy hill. I spent about 40 minutes essentially walking really funny up this hill, but when I got to the top, that is when I was able to actually practice. I was able to get down some basics and move along pretty well on the nicer snow at the top of the hill. I then spend the next two hours enjoying myself, and by the end of the day I was extremely hungry, tired, and sore, but as any good endurance athlete, I was smiling.

After all of this it was time to do some wash, and then I had to dry it all, so I installed a three line drying rack in my bedroom, check it.

Christmas break and getting going on training for 2010

2010-01-10T13:38:00.005-05:00

I headed back home to Michigan for Christmas. It was a busy time where I got to see lots of family and friends. I intended to ride the trainer, but with everything going on, I hauled my bike back for about 1.5 hrs of total riding. Things did get better when I went up north to the cottage, as I did a fair amount of cross country skiing as well as a great night of downhill skiing. Here are some pictures that capture the event.

Its the time of year when getting ready for the next season really starts. I kicked off it off by doing a step test, in which I systematically increase my effort until I fail to increase the effort (or until you want to pass out or get sick). Specifically, you start at a power output of 100 watts (W) and increase 25 W every three minutes. The test went all right, and it will establish my training zones for the next little while.

I have been feeling a little under the weather recently, so as opposed to heading outside to ski or ride I have been doing a considerable amount of yoga. I think that I will continue to do yoga, I have been enjoying it and I think that it is a nice compliment to riding.

That is it for now, I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Almost famous and varsity cycling programs

2009-12-15T22:48:00.007-05:00

There are monthly collegiate cycling emails, and this month there is a picture of me in it! Well I should say that I am not the primary focus, but at least I am involved. Anyways the article was about the status of varsity programs in collegiate cycling, and had numerous opinions on whether they should be perused or avoided. I tend to think that they are not necessary a great idea. The point of college is to get an education, and I think that some people may choose a better cycling school at the expense of a higher education. Regardless if you are varsity or not, you race the same races, fight the same battles, and still get the feel of a coherent team. The major advantage to varsity programs is the funding, you can't get beat getting every thing paid for. That being said, the two collegiate cycling teams I have been on have been fairly well funded, and I did not really feel that more money would have made a tremendous impact. Club teams are good because you can be as serious as you want, this allows you to focus on school when you need to, and you feel extra good when you beat up on the varsity programs ;) This being said, I still think it would be pretty cool to be on a varsity team.

I tend to agree with my most of what my friend Ian says here, and I am proud to be a product of a non-varsity collegiate cycling program.

Where have I been?

2009-12-14T11:49:00.003-05:00

I have not posted in what seems like forever. With winter rolling in and business to take care of at school I am not able to go on any real picture worth bike rides, so I end up not posting. But, in spite of that a few things have happened since that are at least blog worthy.

1) I bought a power tap for my road bike. This will allow me to train more effectively as this device tells me the amount of power that I am producing, taking out lots of guess work on intensity, this should be a big help in the upcoming year.

2) I went cross country skiing for the first time this past week, I woke up to about 6 inches of new snow and I went out for about an hour, it was awesome. Good to be enjoying winter sports again!

3) I went downhill skiing for the first this past weekend, it was good, and I am looking forward to lots more of this!

and finally real training will be starting up in January, should be good!

Catch out this cool picture of some neat reflections off my rim!

The Weekend!

2009-11-03T19:09:00.003-05:00

This weekend was great for riding. Both Saturday and Sunday I hit Earl's trails (which are flowey fast trails) on my single speed. Saturday I went out with two Jeffs, and Sean, and it was my first ride on my single speed in those trails in a long while, maybe since last fall. Below is a really weird picture of Sean, one of the Jeffs (Elie), and myself, yeah really weird.

Sunday it was Sean and Jeff (Cronin), and we did some good exploring. We sort of just went which ever way we wanted, and the trail network is so all over the place that it works well. Sunday was particularly good, maybe it was because I took off the suspension fork on my single speed and replaced it with the rigid "tough guy" fork, or because the weather was just perfect, or perhaps a lot of both.

Then on the way home from that ride I found there huge leaves on the trail across the street from my house. Attached is a picture below:

The leaves around the big leaves are normal sized [for comparison :) ], and all of these big leaves fell in about three days time, it was a really cool to see them all over the place.

This was one of the best weekends of riding in a long time, it was great to just go and ride the trails with some good friends with nice weather. I really like riding in the fall, it is most defiantly my favorite time of the year to ride. Maybe its the crisp fall air, or the end of the serious racing season, or maybe its all of the beautiful colors, one way or another, it is fun.

This upcoming weekend I will be racing in my first cyclocross race, should be an interesting experience. But for now, its time to sign out.

One Year Blogaversary

2009-10-29T20:06:00.006-04:00

Tuesday Oct 27th was the one year anniversary of this here biking blog. I would say that I have more or less stated true to my original intentions, keeping the topics mostly about biking with a little bit of other jabber here and there. I will not supply a few statistics.

I made 40 posts this year, which is a little less than one per week. In turn you blog readers have visited my site nearly 1800 times, which is about 5 a day. People have visited from 20 states, and I am also an international favorite, with a few visits from Canada.

Well, enough about all that. Recently I have been getting on the bike more, and it is much better than not being on the bike. This weekend I went on a nice ride around the Quabbin Reservoir, which is a huge reservoir that supplies Boston with water. Either way it was a little more than 75 miles, and it was a great day, with lots of nice views. Below is a nice picture I took:

Well, thanks again for a great first blog year!

In the name of Science: Part II

2009-10-16T15:43:00.004-04:00

Well, looks like all the hard studying payed off, I passed the cumulative exam! This means, that I am done with those things, and with the unfortunate placement on these exams on bike races, I no longer have to worry about this conflict.

Either way, I am commuting to school almost every day, but other than that I have not been spending too much time on the bike. I have started going to the gym to lift weights, which so far has been fun. Although I would like to start spending some more time on the bike, I think things at school with be more manageable, so I should have time to get out.

Well, thats it for now, Caroline is coming into town this weekend, should be fun!

In the Name of Science!

2009-10-02T19:31:00.003-04:00

Hello again, and sorry for the delay in my posting. The last few weeks have been very busy, and little of that has to do with my time on a bike. The life of a graduate student is great, I get to do awesome research and enjoy my time at work, however it is a lot of time, especially lately. I recently started a new project, and this allowed me to travel down to Arlington, VA for a meeting on the project. This was a great trip, my research adviser, post doc in the lab, and myself headed down to the meeting where I learned some great stuff and also got to do some sight seeing. I have never been to Washington D.C., so one night the three of us decided to tour the monuments, and my adviser was a great tour guide as he had previously lived in the area. I really enjoyed all the monuments, they truly are something every American should witness. (Below is a picture of me at the Ab Lincoln monument)

After the trip I was busy making a poster for a large Polymer Event at UMASS which happens in a few weeks. And now, I am studying for my next cumulative exam which could be my last, so I am going to be working hard on passing. The exam also happens to be the same day as the Regional Championships in the collegiate race series, so I will not be competing in that race, or the race that was this weekend so I could study for the test. Either way, these tests have unfortunately been placed on the biggest races of both my summer racing and now collegiate racing, just another reason to finish these things.

Through all of us, I ended up taking about two weeks off the bike, so we will count that as my rest period, which now means that the next month or so will be dedicated to fun activities, on and off the bike, with little emphasis on racing. Lets not forget about the research, there is a conference I would love to go to in March, so I need to get some data together, so I will be in the lab for sure.

Either way, no one said that getting a Ph.D. and trying to race at the professional level was going to be easy, but it has certainly been fun so far!

First Collegiate Race of the Year

2009-09-14T21:37:00.003-04:00

This past weekend was the East Collegiate Cycling Conference opening weekend and it was hosted by none other that UMASS. The race was held in West Dover, VT (where Mt Snow is) so we were able to once again stay at Sean's place. As I did not race in August it did not really rain, so when the weather heard I was racing again it of course rained and rained. So Saturday was the cross country race, on a trail that would have been sweet if it had been dry, but like I said it was raining and it was wet. My race went all right, I was having trouble keeping control through all of the slippery mud and roots, and then came the swamp section. The swamp section was full of huge mud bogs and puddles. I was in the lead until this point, this season my single biggest problem has been extended mud bogs. I can't seem to pick a good line and I just get stuck, and then everyone blows by me. Either way I dropped back a few positions, and then had to do this for four laps. I ended up coming in second place behind a storming Chris Hamlin, who had a great race.

Sunday was short track, and luckily it was not raining, but it was still not dry from the day before. Long story short, I came in second once again, behind Chris. It was a pretty fun course that was really difficult, with a hard climb and some really slippery downhills.

All and all it was a good weekend. I am not sure that not racing for about 5 weeks is the best way to prepare for fall racing, but I may come into good form in a few weeks. A lot of thanks goes out to Hucker Joe, who nearly single-handily set up and controlled all four races from the UMASS weekend. Thanks is also due to Sean for letting us use his place, and Jeremy who like Joe placed a big part in making sure all the races went off right!

This week in riding

2009-08-30T20:46:00.004-04:00

There was a race this weekend, but I did not go to hang out with some ol'college buddies. This weekend two friends from UMich were in town, Sean M. and Mattison B. and we had planned on some pretty good rides. Thursday we did a good 3 hours at the local rocky loop. We suffered two flat tires, and by the end pretty flat arms (this thing works you!).

Friday was a rainy ride in the woods with Sean K., we got there pretty late so we only got about an hour in, but it was still pretty fun. Saturday was supposed to be a road ride with Sean M. and Mattison B. but that hurricane off the coast made for some cold, wet, terrible to ride in weather. later that night I did hit the road bike for a while, and got a sweet tailwind coming home, sweet!

Sunday was the last ride with Sean M, and Sean K tagged along. This was a confusing ride because having two Seans on one ride is tough, especially when you are yelling while out of breath you don't have enough air to add that last name letter. Either way, it was a pretty sweet ride with stream crossing (which were ripping from the weekend rain).

I am glad I got to ride with my UMich guys, especially because Mattison will be in the peace core for 2.5 years, and Sean M. knows the trails better than me, so he is always good for a ride (and yes Sean K you are good to ride with too, but you are local so I am sure I will ride with you again this week).

On a final note I have also been wipping up some t shirt designs for the upcoming collegiate season. Below you will find the almost final UMASS MTB shirt design, its first public unveiling, enjoy!

Weekend riding and those long miles

2009-08-26T23:21:00.003-04:00

This past week I rode over 200 miles, which is the most I have ridden in about 18 months (I had longer weeks on the trainer, but you don't actually go anywhere, so that does not count). The gem of the week was a ride on Saturday with Sean that was meant to be over 100 miles long. The ride was going to take us over a few big climbs and then take us to the highest point in Mass., Mt. Graylock! However as these things go, it was raining the whole time, and as fun as the ride could have been riding in the rain for 6 hours is not all that fun. So instead the ride was 5 hours long and we covered 80 miles.

We did make it to the top of a big climb where we found this sweet deer statue:

The most exciting part besides the rain came when we were about to descend for a long time. I stopped at this restaurant to get some news papers to stuff down my jersey to keep me warm, however this did not go as planned either. The guy there went looking for newspaper but did not find any. He then offered me a sweatshirt, which I declined. The guy then said "Wait one minute" and then he came back with a t shirt, which had apparently came off some guys back! I tried to decline again but he was not having it , and insisted I take it. So I did, and below you can see how amazingly good I looked in the shirt, and it did in fact keep me warm.

We will have to complete this ride another day (that is when it is drier), because of the 80 miles I say, it was great.

The Take Over, The Breaks Over

2009-08-18T22:35:00.002-04:00

It seems like I have not been on a bike in ages, however true it may be. This past week I spent most of my time on Cape Cod, hanging out with my girlfriend and some other friends. The week before I was studying till my head hurt for my exam (which I passed by the way, so it all paid off). Now with the break over its time to get back to work on the bike, and get ready for the rest of the season. I have a list of races to choose from between collegiate, Root 66 races, and perhaps even some cycle cross races. The real bummer of the whole situation is that the next cumulative exam (and my last if I pass) for school happens to be the weekend of collegiate regionals, which kills my chances of any sort of high overall placement, so I will have to focus on winning other races throughout the season. I will hopefully have it all planned out in the next week and I will post it on the side will all of my previous races. ttfn.

The updated racing schedule

2009-08-10T09:04:00.002-04:00

Well the exam is final over, and the headache it always seems to cause it also finally gone. I feel pretty good after the 6 or so days off the bike (I did commute to work a few times in there), I was due for a break. I topped off the weekend with about 6 hours of riding, with a nice easy ride on Satruday mixed in with some pretty tough riding with Sean on Sunday for about 3.5 hours.

In terms of racing the Windham race this upcoming weekend I am going to pass for a few reasons. Reason # 1, my girl friend Caroline will be in town and I would rather not spend two days of her time driving over to New York and then racing (I am sure there will be many more opportunities to race big races in the coming years!!!). Reason # 2, I still think that I could use a little more time away from racing so I can come back strong in September and October to finish the season off right.

Well thats it for now, but I think I will be heading over to Cape Cod for a few days break form work and I hope to get in some cool rides out there, hopefully I will post some pictures.

Ta Ta for Now.

Break time and one last good ride

2009-08-01T16:11:00.003-04:00

With the legs feeling a bit less than strong and with a very important exam coming up in my grad. school endeavors I will take the next week off from riding. This was a planned break but with my legs feeling drained it has come at a good time. This sort of thing happens when you start training in January, by the time August rolls around you have been going at it for 8 long months, and I am physically and mentally a bit tired. I hope to build back up in August and be ready for some more racing in September and October (might do the US MTB Cup final on August 15th if the body feels up to it).

With that being said Sean and I went out for a great 5 hour ride today. The weather was perfect, and we had a nice route with some nice climbs and cool views. By the time I rolled back to my house I was cooked, I had a head wind on my way back after I left Sean and that is a tough way to end out a 80 mile ride with 5000 feet of climbing (some of which was pretty steep!)

All right, speaking of that exam I should start studying, over and out.

Mt Snow Classic

2009-07-28T18:21:00.001-04:00

This past weekend was the Mt. Snow Classic cross country mountain bike race in Vermont, a true classic (as far as I understand it been going on for years, and in my past few summers I have now raced here 5 times.) I was hoping to get a great result, with a 5th a few weeks back and a 3rd last weekend I was hoping to keep up the streak. Enter the problem, a high level of fitness is hard to obtain but easy to have slip away. The past 5 weeks I have done 8 races, averaging one every 4 days, and I knew I was slipping but I was hoping to have one or two more races left before meltdown.

My friend Sean, Tom, Joe, my self and a few other stayed at Sean's house right next to Mt Snow, and I headed up Saturday to make a weekend out of the race. Saturday was pretty fun, got to watch the Mt. Ventoux stage in the Tour and had some dinner and a ride. Sunday morning we awoke to wet roads, a sign that it had rained the night before, which is to be expected with the almost constant rain the past week, which only makes Mt. Snow more interesting, however I have never raced it dry so its really hard to say.

Fast forward to the race, after an all right warm up I ended up lining up against 28 pro/cat 1/open racers, a great turnout, and the field was strong to boot. The race went off, and everyone was jocking for position as usual, and we hit the first climb and I felt all right, I was heading up the hill in 4th position or so, and feeling all right. We then went through some sloppy single track, and started the longer climb in the race, and this is where the 8 races in the past 5 weeks would either make me or break me, and unfortunately for me, they broke me. I just had nothing in the tank, and tried to keep pedaling but people were killing my up this hill. I think I dropped into something like 20th place, and seriously considered dropping out, but I like to finish races that I start regardless if I feel great or terrible. So I bit the bullet and kept grinding it out. On the second and third lap I was able to keep my head down and pass 7 or 8 guys, and I was just looking for the finish. On the last lap I was able to catch an old time rival Ben Moore, from the MidWest Cycling Conference, and pass him as I was trying to cook down the final hill to the finish line. I ended up coming in 9th place out of the 28 startes and actually not a bad result considering how I felt, but not where I was hoping.

I am now going to start building up some base fitness again, as when I was racing so much I pretty much just raced and recovered, with little actual training or nice longer rides. This should be a nice break as I will be able to get back to some fun riding, however there is a race this upcoming weekend that is tempting me, depending on how I feel I may or may not show up.

In conclusion, see the photo below:

Mt. Snow got the best of me this time, but there is always next year! (not to mention the winter when a chair takes me to the top, haha)

The Horror at Harding Hill

2009-07-20T10:58:00.002-04:00

This past weekend was mountain bike national championships out in Colorado, but unfortunately I could not make it out there, so instead I traveled with my buddy Sean Kennedy up into New Hampshire to race The Horror at Harding Hill. I also got to see and race against my friend Tom Sampson, as he said the trail was cool I hold him partially responsible for getting me get up there. The weather had been pretty dry lately (relatively speaking), with a few showers here and there, so I was hoping to break the streak of being covered from head to toe in mud. However after talking to a few people who had pre-ridden the course, they said that there was some "mud bogs," so much for it being dry.

The race was a mass start, with every field taking off within ten minutes, so as the elite riders lined up there were a lot of spectators! The race started and I was second going into the double track behind Matt OKeefe, I then got passed by Brad Perley I stayed there for a little bit until we came to the first mud bog, at this point I picked a terrible line and these two guys soared through the mud and got out way before me. We then started a climb and I managed to get back on board with them, which is where I stayed until the mother of all mud bogs, it was at least 100 yards long, and about 75 yards in I sank in and had to run the rest. Matt and Brad again found the right line and left me stumbling through the mud. At this point I was joined by Thom Parsons and another dude, which was a great asset, because as we got to the top of the next hill I blew by the trail (to my defense I say an arrow but I did not see trail so I decided to keep climbing) Thom then saved my race and was yelling telling me that I did in fact miss the trail, thanks Thom. After a lot more mud bogging and a few more climbs we finished the first lap. It was at this point that the mass start nature of the race became a problem, as I was saying "on your left" about as much as I was pedaling for the rest of the race. I eventually was able to say so long to Thom and keep on riding.

I spent the rest of the race trying to find the best lines through the mud bogs, as they were really slowing me down, however unfortunately even after 5 laps I felt that I was not able to do so. I did however, feel really good climbing, so at the end of the day I ended up crossing the line in third place.

As seen below the mud did do a number on my bike.

This bike was covered, and I had to spend an hour Monday morning before work cleaning it up!

I have to congratulate Sean for an awesome race and crossing the line at the front of the expert class, way to go! Also, I am glad I was not wearing white shorts

We ended up going swimming to get cleaned up after the race, which made the trip home much better. On the way home we also go to drive by the Bartlett Blueberry farm, I wanted to stop by to see if I got a family discount, but I decided to eat a pear instead.

Overall a good day coming in third place, got covered in mud for the 100,000 consecutive race it seems, and I will be spending the new few days cleaning up!

Domnarski Farms XC

2009-07-07T23:07:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday was the Domnarksi Farms cross country race. The week coming up to the race I was not sure if I was going to race, the weather had been pretty rainy, it was the day after the 4th of July, but it was only 3o minutes away I did want to race. So as Friday and Saturday were pretty nice, and I didn't have too late of a night on the 4th I decided I would race.

Last year I did the holiday farms cross country race, and I thought that the Domnarski Farms race was the same event, however I found out that this was not the case when my GPS told me to head south instead of north, oops. When I arrived at the race I realized that I forgot socks, great. Luckily I talked to Greg Carpenter and he gave me a pair, brand new blazing white socks, thanks Greg.

Fast forward to the start, I had a pretty poor starting position sitting at the back. When the whistle blew I tried to work my way forward, but did not make much progress and got stuck a little on the first steep climb, but after that I started to work my way up. We climbed for a little while, then we hit some two track, and this is when I realized that the course did not dry out, and was still pretty wet. The two track was like covered with huge puddles, but if you payed attention you could find some lines around the edges. I made it out of this all right, and then hit the single track again. I eventually caught up to Greg and we rode together a while, continuing to weave through the puddle when we got into double track. Then it happened, we came to the section of the trail that did not really dry out at all. One second I was flying down a hill, a came up to a muddy section pulled my front wheel up to make my way through the mud, and then nearly flew over my bars. I quickly hopped off my bike, and then sunk into knee deep mud. I made haste to run through the mud, but I was stuck, the suction form the mud just pulled me down, I then decided to use my bike as a crutch and get through the mud. There were at least two or three more life sucking mud holes and then we finished our first lap. With one lap to go I worked to try and catch the leading racers, and long story short I made up some time and eventually passed "The Monster" Ben Moore (he used to race in the Midwest Cycling Conference with me, and he was able to gobble up riders, giving him the nickname), as I crossed the line I was not sure how I had finished but I felt pretty good about the race. I was covered in mud from head to toe, and my blazing white shocks were a nasty muddy black, seems like all the races this year are mud fests, which results in an extraordinary amount of cleaning!

I ended up finishing 5th out of a field of fifteen, my second best result this year in the Root 66 series behind my 4th at Winsted Woods. The field had some pretty awesome riders, and a 5th place was a great result!

I am heading home this weekend so no racing, but I do think that I will race the Bachelor St. Time Trail tomorrow.
So long for now.

Putney XC Race and Caroline's Visit

2009-06-30T22:50:00.008-04:00

It was a busy weekend, my girl friend Caroline was heading out and the Putney XC Race was on Sunday. In order to get ready for the big race on Sunday, Caroline and I decided that it would be best if I was properly feed and race ready. So it order to prepare we went out to a great restaurant on Friday night, had a great breakfast, lunch, and pasta dinner on Saturday. We also went for a bike ride, up one of my favorite climbs, Gulf Rd. It is a tough little climb with an awesome river running down the side of it, but I figured it would be a good spin out for me and a nice challenge for Caroline. Below you can see a video I took as we rode up the climb, I must say that Caroline has a much better pedaling technique than I have video skills (or commentating skills for that matter).

The race on Sunday was at one of the classic courses in New England, and it happens to be one of the only races that I have done the past two summers. We took a team picture before the race, and with everything going on I only got in a small warm up. When we rolled up the pro/open line there were 35 racers, a very large field. The sky was a big overcast, and judging by some of the riders who had ridden a bit of the course, it was going to be pretty muddy in the woods.

My start was pretty good, I started about mid pack and worked my way through the field into the top 5 or 6 as we hit the first bit of singletrack. The first lap was pretty good, but there were a few pileups as he went from single track to double track and back, and everybody seemed to have to dismount a few times, not my cup of tea, but you have to do what you have to do. Eventually I settled in to a pack with Matt White, Matt Green, and Chris Hamlin, so three guys from the Pioneer Valley and a good friend from my collegiate racing. With two laps to go or so our train started to fall aprt, I worked hard and with one lap to go had shed my companions and was looking forward to the final lap. The course dried out a bit on the last lap and the sun came out, so things were looking good on that end, but my body was wearing down fast. I started to get the first signs of cramping in my legs, and just tried my best to stay fast but smooth, becasue it seems that when I surge in these situations sometimes I end up in a full on cramp, which whould have really hurt my race. I ended up finishing without cramping, and came accross the line in 10th place, 5:30 back on the leader.

Overall it was a pretty good race for me, I was climbing strong, but I could have ridden the descents and some sections of single track better. I found myself having to ride the climbs hard to catch the other riders after a descent, not a good use of energy. Riding with Caroline on Monady after the race was pretty tough, dont tell her, but she was going a little too fast for me! The bigger races in the season are coming up and I seem to be on track to be in pretty good shape. I just want to be careful, I have been feeling a little fatigued doing the Wednesday night timetrials, which have resulted in 4 races in only 11 days. Next weekend we have Holiday Farms just down the road from here, if all goes well I will be there and feeling good.

Housatonic Hills Road Race

2009-06-23T21:24:00.003-04:00

I participated in the Housatonic Hills Road Race this past weekend in south west Connecticut. I was in the cat 3/4 field, along with about 120 other racers. The race started out pretty good, it was a neutral start up this long hill, and at the top the race begun. Everything was going all right, I was working my way towards the front, and then it happened, people started bumping around. One guy hit the guy next to me, which then hit me hard on my left back side, I then ran into the guy next to me, and those three riders hit the pavement, and I heard the terrible sound of metal and flesh hitting the ground. I was relieved that I did not go down, nothing worse than falling because someone runs into you.

I then regained my composure and got to the top of the next hill. However on my way down this hill everyone was flying by me, and I was having to pedal hard to try and keep up. I got dropped, and then chased the pack with a few different groups. We eventually finished the first lap, and then we were going up the first climb, when I heard a grinding noise, I thought my free hub was freezing up, so I jumped off my bike. I examed the situation and then saw the problem, my brake caliper had shifted and was sitting right on my rear wheel, I could not even spin it a full revolution. I then straighted the brake and was on my way.

I rode the seocnd lap pretty much by my self, and I rode it faster than I did the first lap when I was riding with groups. Overall an unlucky race, as I believe my brake was rubbing about 15-20 minutes in after the crash. However I must congratulate my good friend Pete, as he won the Pro,1,2,3, field, and is the official Connecticut Road Race Champion, way to go Pete!

Moral of the story, crashes can ruin your race even if you don't go down, and race more like Pete.

Mid week Race

2009-06-18T13:10:00.002-04:00

Last night I participated in the Bachelor Street Time Trial series. Bachelor st. is a trail head to some of the local trails around here, in particular, the rockier more technical ones. Four weeks ago a time trail series started where you ride two laps around this 20 minute or so loop. The loop is awesome, it has a few nice climbs, a few ripping descents, and in between a bunch of cool rocky single track.

Long story short, I ran two hot laps a finished with a total time of 36:45, setting a new time trial series record. The legs felt all right, but it was just a lot of fun ripping through the trails, dodging rocks and roots left and right.

I think that I will continue to participate in the time trails series, it was a great bunch of guys and girls, and overall just a lot of fun. Racing on a Wednesday, yes please.

Skipping the Pinnacle Race

2009-06-14T09:17:00.002-04:00

This was a rough week. I had a cumulative exam, which is a qualifying exam to become considered a doctoral candidate. Through the week I had planned to ride, however I started to have constant head aches starting on Wednesday, followed by flu like body aches Thursday and Friday. It was most likely a combination of studying 10-14 hours a day with the added stress. Either way, body aches and head aches are not what you want going into a race.

There are a few local races on Wednesday that I will hopefully feel up to jump in. I am also thinking about adding a road race next weekend to get a race in, otherwise its a little while till I am scheduled to race again. Races help you get fast, and I want to get fast, therefore I should race...

Tubeless Tire Fiasco

2009-06-04T23:48:00.000-04:00

So I noticed that a few of my tubeless tires were starting to loose pressure quicker than normal, so I decided to fill them up with more sealant. My first tire had no problems, I just had to use some CO2 to get it inflated, not abnormal. Then I went to the next tire, which has a removable valve core, and decided to fill this one up with an injector. I then filled up the injector with sealant and screwed it onto valve and tried to push the plunger... but it was stuck. So then I tried a few tricks to clear up the hose, and then I gave it a little harder push, and then all of a sudden the hose popped off the valve and sealant went everywhere, as pictured below!

What a mess, the cost of tubeless tires.

On another note, last week I took the entire week of in order to recover from the 24 hour race and take a mid-season break. I went on a hike with my roommate to the top of a local park. I often ride my bike in this park and I ran across this weird circle of rocks, and on the hike I took a picture. It is some sort of Buddhist peace circle thingy, I forget the technical name for it, but thats the gist of it. Pretty cool, maybe one day I will stop by and try it out.

24 Hours of Boyne

2009-05-30T18:45:00.013-04:00

The 24 Hours of Boyne is quickly becoming a tradition, 4 years in a row now, and by the sounds of it, more to come. This year we would be defending our title from last year, the stakes were high, and this time we would have a fourth member. So let me introduce you to the 2009 Sofa King Fast team:

The Tough Old Bird, my dad Bob Bartlett.

The Newbie, my sister Kelly Bartlett.

The Seasoned Veteran, Nick Boswell.

The 4th man, myself Mike Bartlett

And the ones who keep us feed, happy, and pedaling, the pit crew (Caroline, my Mom Diane, and Melissa):

We were also joined by the single speed machine Steve Cain, riding solo.

The day started like any other, set up the tent, register, get the room set up, set the food out, fill up bottles, get dressed, etc etc, and lastly take the front wheel off my bike and head over with the rest of the starters for the LeMons start. They said go and we were running to our bikes to get the front wheel on and then hit the single track. I was able to get to my bike and install my wheel first and was off into the single track. I then rode a pretty good lap and was the first guy to complete a lap, completed two personal objectives for the race, now only one more, ride ride ride until noon the next day. After my second lap I handed off to Nick and he was out for two laps himself. He then tagged off to Kelly, who rode one lap and then she tagged off to my Dad, who rode his lap, and tagged me back in for two. This is how the process worked for the entire race, until the last few laps where we mixed it up a bit.

At the end of the day I rode 11 laps, Nick rode 9, Kelly 4, and my Dad rode 4 laps including the final lap for the team, which totals up to 28 laps, the same as last year. 28 laps ended up being enough, as our team won the race, beating "The Coolish" team composed of our friends Corey, Sean, Neal, and John, who rode an impressive 27 laps.

I must say Nick and I ran some hot laps, but Kelly and my Dad are the true heros of the team. With Kelly knocking off 23 minutes from her previous fast lap, and my Dad knocking off 10 minutes from his fastest lap the previous year, for times of 1 hr 2 min for Kel and 1 hr 3 min for my Dad. Way to go guys, and next year I am hoping something under 1 hour. I also hope Nick and I can knock a few minutes off our times, making Sofa King Fast that much faster.

Also congratulations to Steve, riding 17 solo laps, and winning the single rider class. I do not know how he does it (I think Melissa helps!), but what a ride!

The race was fun, but all of the spectators made it awesome. Grandpa and Grandma showed up, providing lots of support, it was great to have them out there. Also Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy stopped by for a few hours, Uncle Jims a regular at this race now but Aunt Nancy made her first appearance. I really appreciate your support, and it was great to see you all on my visit back home.

Also, I would like to extend a special thanks to the pit crew, Mom, Caroline, and Melissa. My Mom was in charge of food, an enormous task, but she got us everything imaginable, and she also made sure we knew we had it (I think she had the entire menu memorized!). I would like to thank Caroline for staying up for 24 hrs with us, making sure we were up for our start times, making bottles and keeping track of our laps times, thanks again! Also Melissa was a great addition to the pit crew, and I hope that she will be here for years to come. Some "people" shots can be seen below.

Lastly I would like to thank my team. The Tough Old Bird was especially tough this year, I mean he forgot his helmet inserts, so he had to make due with bandannas, and he still ripped around the course (but next year please bring your inserts, and hmmm...... take off the bandanna!). Kelly made her 24 hr debut in excellent fashion, pushing through the tough morning ride and ensuring that we were able to stay in the race. Nick was riding strong, and made sure that I was going hard on my laps as well, knowing down some key laps. Some pictures of the "machines" doing some handoffs can be seen below.

Long live Sofa King Fast!

The New Fork and the First Race

2009-05-11T00:01:00.000-04:00

Recently I have been getting used to the new bike; swapping stems, changing positions, playing with the suspension, tires, there are lots of variables. I also have a new fork, and guess what, its white instead of the standard issue red. I had some problems with the previous fork and when I got it warrantied I got a color choice, so I decided it would be cool to have a more custom bike, and white does look nice.

So as if trying to figure out the new bike was not enough, I had my first mountain bike race this past Saturday. The race was held on the UMASSS campus by the team here, so I got to be a part of setting, running, and also racing in the event. I must say, for the a small patch of woods and some field the course was awesome, and the race itself went off smoothly, so thanks for all that helped, participated, and spectated. For my race I was a little nervous as it was the first race of the year, and I am still getting bike figured out, oh yeah, and it had to rain, making much of the trail section wet and slippery.

The race started off great, I got the hole shot and was the first one into the woods. Then I started to slow down, and people started to come around me... I guess my mind remembers my fitness last fall, but my body does not. Either way, I rode 6 laps with 2300 ft of steep climbing and came across the line in 7th place out of 10 starters. Not a great result, but I got to race against three of my collegiate friends from the fall (Tom, Chris, and Sully) and some other pretty fast guys. I felt ok throughout the race, it seems that my base miles are paying off as my laps times were almost identical throughout the race. However I am now starting periods of higher training intensity, so I am hoping that in the next few months I will see those lap times go down, and my placement go higher.

Also congratulations to my good buddy Sean who took the victory in the Mens Cat II field, way to go!

First Race of the Year

2009-04-26T22:25:00.002-04:00

Today was my first race of the year. It was the Quabbin Reservoir Road Race, only about 15 minutes down the road. It was also my first road race in about a year, so I knew I was in for something. Got there and was a little behind getting ready and only had about 10 mintues to warm up, but for a road race, that seems like enough time. The first half was pretty moderate, however there were a few extended climbs and some fast decents. I stayed at the front of the pack, I was not about to get involved in a crash, and kept up just fine. They were some fast sections and some slower sections, but nothing muched happened, as no one really works together in a Category IV field, but every now and then one or two guys would get a little ways down the road. At this point the group ushually decided to chase them down, however when I say group I really mean me self and my friend Sean, as only one or two other guys were helping at all. The final climb came and unfortunately I didn't know where finish line was, so I got a little late in the final seconds but came in 7th place, one place out of getting paid! Sean came in a little after that, and my other friend double flatted, so he rode almost the whole coarse by himself.

It was a hot (85 degrees) beautiful day and it was a nice start to the season, my fitness felt really good considering that I have not started high intensity training, and it is a good sign for the rest of the season.

The New Machine

2009-04-12T23:30:00.000-04:00

The new bike has arrived and it looks great. The bike is totally redisigned from last year, and much changed from my bike from 2005. The suspension design looks pretty good, and the fork is entirely different, so I am excited to see how it will feel out on the trail.

The crankset is similiar to my roadbike, so I think it should be nice and stiff.

The bike has Avid brakes so I need to learn how to deal with a different brand, because if they are anything like my old brakes I will need to learn how to adjust them!

I wish I could get out on the bike but I left my shoes back at the bike shop and I wont have them for a few more days, nothing like having a brand new toy and not being able to pllay with it....

Thanks to the guys up at Bikers Edge for getting me set up on this thing, I will try to return the favor by getting up on the podium, I certainly have no escuses about the equipment.

First Mud

2009-03-24T22:23:00.001-04:00

So the past few days have been pretty good on the bike, well at least in theory. On Sunday I decided to head over to the famous Quabbin reservoir, never heard of it you say, well prabley not, but its a big lake down the road. The ride was very hilly and very windy, but I made it back home in one piece, and 70 miles under my belt. Along the way I stopped in front of this neat church to snap a shot.

In other news I got back late from work today but I decided to just head out on the bike for a few minutes before it got dark. In doing this I somehow decided to take a right and not a left, and then took the wooden bridge into the woods. I tooled around and it was not that bad, dry in most spots with only a few wet areas. As you can see below, I got my first mud of the season on the bike.

Its been like four weeks or something, time for a new post!

2009-03-22T21:37:00.004-04:00

Well it appears that I have once again gotten behind schedule.
I suppose the biggest news is that last week I created my first ever training plan. I have always toyed around with sort of making one, but I never really ever finished. However this time I sat down and decided to give it an honest effort. The long and short of it is that I did some self evaluations trying to figure out my strengths and weaknesses. I then picked the important races for the year and said "I want to be my fastest here!" and then I work backwards planning my weekly hours and training objectives. As I sort of decided to do this about two months into my training I had to make some adjustments, but it looks like it should be all right. In doing this I realized that before I really only had three different rides: slow, medium, and race. I would throw some other types in before, but in general I was always just sort of going medium. With my new plan it is more specific on what types of rides I do, so it theory I should be fast this year, haha, we will see. Hopefully when June and July role around I am not sick of riding in a particular manner according to the plan, but time will tell.

In other news I visited home this past weekend and it was sure nice to be back. I went up north over the weekend then spent Monday and Tuesday in Ann Arbor with Caroline and saw some other good friends. The weather was great up north, as seen in the following photo take at the summit of Nubs Nob:

In Ann Arbor on I got to spend some nice time with Caroline which included a run which took us past the football stadium, it is certainly looking different these days. Tuesday was St. Patricks day and it was nice to be in Ann Arbor around some familiar places and faces. To top off the night we got to drink some green beer, and after we were done it was easy to tell that we had, as Nick and I show below:

Thats it for now!

Its been like four weeks or something, and all I see is that thumb

2009-03-05T22:40:00.005-05:00

The title of this post is a direct quote from my Dad and was hinted at from many of my loyal readers, time for a new post!!! It has been a busy month, lots of very important exams and Caroline came and visited for a whole week. But things are getting back to normal here and I am started to get back to riding. Well I gotta go for now, but I will fully update this weekend!

Thumb Therapy: Day 1

2009-02-06T22:49:00.005-05:00

Today was the first time that I did exercises at physical therapy. When I got there they treated me with therapeutic ultrasound, its not the imaging type, but the sounds waves are supposed to help reduce swelling and help get my thumb back in action. I also performed a number of exercises with a puddy designed to strengthen and stabilize my joint.

For some color commentary I decided to throw in a picture of me performing one of my exercises:

Don't worry, doing the exercises is much more exciting than it looks, but either way you better believe I will be doing them as prescribed.

The Current Thumb Situation

2009-02-04T23:07:00.000-05:00

So I sprained my thumb back in Novermber, and it has not really been healing like I would have liked it to. So on Tuesday I went for my first visit to the physical therapist. They did some tests and determined that my strength and range of motion were the same on both thumbs. My problem is that it is still swollen, and I just dont feel confident if I were to fall on it again, so gotta get it fixed. I have another appointment on Friday, to began the real therapy, but in the mean time I am wearing this wrap. In case you were wondering this wrap is made of a high tech polymer called a shape memory polymer, cool stuff!

The Third Week of January

2009-01-29T22:07:00.007-05:00

The third week in January I was not training quite as much (only 1 hr on the bike). I didn't feel that great on Thursday and Friday, and with my girlfriend Caroline coming to visit, I didn't want to risk getting worse. I did do some good cross training with some weight lifting and a few days on the cross country skis.

But the best part was Caroline's visit. We had a great time, made some really good meals, did a little bit of shopping at the Hadley mall, and went cross country skiing. Below is a picture of our skiing adventure, isn't she pretty?

A nice shot of my favorite horses:

In other news I renewed my Blockbuster online account, so I will be able to get more movies for the trainer. I am starting with the first season of the TV show 24, it comes highly recommended by Nick, who once claimed then when he grows up he wants to be a mix of "Jason Bourne, Jack Bower, and Bruce Wayne." That is a direct quote, and Jack Bauer is the hero in 24 series.

On another note we had a snow day on Wednesday, my first one in about five years. So I decided to celebrate and Sean and I went skiing up at Mt. Snow. It was snowing the whole time and the conditions were great. Below is a picture taken by Sean before we ripped the double diamond:

Training in the second week of January

2009-01-18T21:19:00.004-05:00

The second week of Januray was a pretty good week for training. As I am working in the lab full time I unfortunately can't do too much outside because when I get out its dark outside, this leaves me with the weekends and indoor activities. I rode the trainer like ushual, watching some great movies like Joe Dirt and Ray. I hit the gym one day and actually enjoyed myself, doing lots of reps and sets at a lower weight, so I am looking forward to this Wednesday when I plan to hit the gym again. But the highlight of the week was going skiing at Mt. Snow on Sunday. I went with Sean and we were out for about 4 horus. We had some fresh snow, the temperature was just right, and it has been about two months since I skied last, so it was great.

On another note, I got my new UMASS kit (jersey and shorts) and I have to say they look great. They are from Giordana, a brand I have not had before, and they made a great initial impression with a nice fit and nice initial quality. Below you can see my sporting the new outfit, unshaved legs and all, and below that you can see a close look at the back.

The First week of 2009

2009-01-11T23:44:00.004-05:00

The first week of 2009 turned out be a great one. I started working in my lab and throughly enjoyed that, and after work I pretty much just rode my bike. I was fortunate enough to be able to sit on the trainer for the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, those movies are great. I also watched Get Smart, which although it looked a little cheesy, was actually pretty funny. Another movie I watched was I Spy, it is not very popular but it had Eddie Murphy and Owen Wilson and it is absolutely great, perhaps my favorite comedy, you should check it out. I also purchased Joe Dirt today, so I am looking forward to that (it was $5, worth it in my opinion). I should start up a blog about movie reviews, hmmmm.

I also made my first trip to the gym to lift weights. For a warm up a ran a mile, thats right, a entire mile. I then just did some really light lifting to get my legs back in the swing of things and practice technique on the squats. I ended up being sore for about four days even though I liften relatively lightly, I am sure the sorness time will decrease as I get used to lifting.
On Sunday I was originally going to go downhill skiing with Sean, but I ended up cancelling because I was still sore from lifting (so I made an awesome breakfast).

The day ended up being beautiful so I grabbed the cross country skis and headed out for about an hour. It was a perfect day, and it was fun to explore some of the cross country options. I had some great views, including one with a horse with everything covered in snow, and Mt. Sugarloaf in the background, it was pretty nice (but I didn't bring my camera!)

Goodbye Cycletherapy, Hello Bikers Edge

2009-01-07T23:26:00.006-05:00

I am happy to announce that for the 2009 season I will be riding on the Bikers Edge Cycling Team. The team is based out of the Bikers Edge bike shop in Bristol, CT . I went down to meet the team manager Matt and the owner Bob in December and I was really impressed with the shop, so I took a bunch of pictures and made a panaromic shot showing the lower level (if you click on it you can see it better):

Although I am very excited about the new team I am sad to leave the Cycletherapy Racing Team. I had two good years on the team, and many good years with teh bike shop. I would like to thank everyone involved for the great experience, especially the shop owner Ernie, who helped me get my first racing bike and was very supportive throughout my time there. I hope the team continues to grow and improve, and I look forward to stopping by the shop when I head home.

Cross Country Skis

2008-12-12T00:19:00.003-05:00

I got some cross country skis today! I got the Fischer Outbounds, they should be good for me because they are a backcountry (off the beaten path) model with a metal edge, so this should allow me to take them most places, and the metal edge should help with going down the hilly terrain over here in Massachusetts. They are resting in my closet for me, as all we have for precipitation is some freezing rain, but when they snow hits I will be ready to take them out for a spin! The picture below does not do them justice, but they look a lot like skis. haha

Training Update

2008-12-07T21:17:00.003-05:00

The past two weeks have been a mix of trainer and some outside road biking. On the indoor front I have watched some good movies such as Sin City and Office Space to name some highlights. On the outdoor front I have been braving the mildly cold weather, a few rides below 40 and one ride below 32. I have also found this great climb about ten minutes from my house, its about 1000 ft of vertical gain and it runs along this great stream. So the whole way up you ride next to this New England river with lots of little waterfalls and other obstacles.
We got our first snowfall last night and today so outdoor riding is going to get a little scarce, looks like I am going to have to get some crosstraining in!

The End of an Era, The Beginning of a Season

2008-11-23T10:38:00.003-05:00

On Wednesday night at 8:30PM an era had come to a close, my yellow mountain bike was sold to a Texan. Over the past three of four years me and my yellow bike have had many good rides, with good friends, all over the country. Over the years I have replaced nearly every part with a hand selected part, and she was just like I wanted her to be, but as with all good things they must come to an end. So goodbye yellow bike, you will be missed but never forgotten. I sent her off in style, check out the packing job!

On a brighter note I opened up the downhill ski season on Saturday at Mt. Snow in Vermont. I bought a student season pass this year, and it was a great deal, so when Mt. Snow opened on Saturday my friend Sean and I had to head up. Its about an hour or so away, so the drive was just like going up to Nubs Nob from the cottage. They had 5 top to bottom runs open, and an impressive amount of snow, more than I had anticipated. It was actually really cold and windy, but other than that it was a great day to be on the snow, and Mt. Snow seems like it will be a good place to have a season pass. I have been to Mt. Snow 4 times before, but that was on a bike, so seeing it covered with the white stuff was different, and going down was different than having to climb up, but it was most defiantly a welcome change!

New Record

2008-11-18T22:06:00.003-05:00

Today I believe I set a record, I spent 4:05 on the trainer. I managed to watch Braveheart and half of the Simpsons movie. I mean who would not pedal for three hours watching William Wallace kicking a bunch of English guys around? Homer Simpson was also up to his ushual, so it all helped me sit there and pedal for more than 4 hours. All this means is that I am going to have to spend 5 hours on the trainer this year to break this record, and if I keep that up, well, I might start to hate the trainer as many other cyclists do.

The Trainer

2008-11-17T21:38:00.004-05:00

This week has begun the part of the cycling season that many cyclists fear more than anything else, the long winter on the trainer. Luckily for me I actually like the trainer. This is what a typical trainer set up looks like:

So you sort of just sit there and pedal, and then you pedal some more. I usually put a movie in and sit and pedal for 2-3 hrs at a time. If all goes according to plan I hope to watch all of the Bourne movies this week, so that should be exciting.

This winter I also hope to get into the weight room more, and also I want to get some cross country skis so I could do that as an alternative to being on the trainer. Either way I am optimistic for this upcoming season and its just about time to start getting prepared.

This Weekends Interesting Rides

2008-11-01T11:24:00.006-04:00

This was one of the most interesting weekends on a bike in a little while. Friday evening I went out on a ride to a park down the street just to get out for a little bit, and as it was getting dark I brought my light. So I rode around for a while and then decided to turn around, and it turns out I did not know which way I came from. So I went in the direction I believed I should travel in, and well I started going up hill and I was pretty sure this was the wrong way. I kept on going this way in hopes of coming out on a familiar trail, although it was totally dark so nothing looked the same. Long story short, this did not happen, I ended up hopping from rock to rock in knee deep rivers and rode in one direction until I finally came out on a road, and managed to get back home. Below is a map of where I believe I was, the red point is my exit point, the blue line is my route back home and the blue point is home (click on the map to expand). So getting lost in unfamiliar woods at night is not a good thing, but here I am telling you about it!

Saturday was a 4 hr road ride on some new roads, nice weather and overall a nice ride, until the last mile that is. I was at 68.7 miles or something and wanted to make it an honest 70, so I rode about 1 mile down the road. I turned around and then got a flat, I could almost see my house! So I fixed it, and then I needed a bit more distance so I took the long way home, and guess what, another flat! Oh man I had to walk the rest in and only ended up with 69.8 miles, oh well pretty close. Check out the French King Bridge over the Connecticut River, pretty nice view.

Sunday was a 3 hr Mountain bike ride in the local trails. It was a rough ride, I got another flat and when trying to repair it the metal washer on my rim strip was stuck, so I had to rip off the valve, ruining the rim strip and then putting a new tube in. Then on the last descent I was ripping around this corner and I slide out and hit the ground hard, and ended up digging my thumb into the ground. The thumb is not doing and well, and tomorrow I am going to head in for an xray, lets hope its not broken.

All of this adds up to another weekend of good riding, even considering all the mishaps.

First Post on the new Racing Blog

2008-10-27T23:49:00.000-04:00

With another year of racing coming to a close I have decided to start keeping track of my progress through this blog. With fall in full swing and leaves almost all off of the trees New England is getting ready for winter, which means plenty of good riding left. This past weekend my friend Sean and I had two great ride, about 4.5 hours of mountain biking on Saturday and just over 4 hours of road bike on Sunday. Its easy to want to ride when the trail looks like this:

Riding the rocks with the leaves on the trail is a nice challenge, because rock gardens as far as the eye can see is simply not enough. The ride was great with a little rain mid day, but the single speed felt good and it was nice to see some new trails.

The road ride on Sunday took us to some of the hill towns as Sean called them. There was a few good climbs at by the end of the day we had gone 65 miles and had climbed 4000 ft, which left us a little tired after the long day on Saturday, but the weather was nice and route was very fun and had some great views.