Graduation Week

Wow! it has been a long stressfull, but extreamly FUN week. Sorry i haven't written in a while, ive been busy. Where to start...well, like the title says, it was graduation week. That meant Baccalaureate on Wednesday, Honors Convocation on Thursday, and Commencement on Friday. Meanwhile having to be up at 6:30am to go to school and practice for all of those. So that took up the bulk of my day.

Luckily i was on rest and recovery week, so i didnt have to ride much, or hard.

After Commencement on Friday, and getting my GED, allthe seniors went over to the middle school for Project Graduation. 11pm-4am we partied, played basketball, rode a mechanical bull, battled like gladiators, purchased auctioned items, and the best part....played Black Jack. It was fun, one of the last times I'll see alot of those people ever again.

Well I didnt really want to get up the morning after. But Saturday was my Open House. So i was up at 10:30am, after only 5 and a half hours of sleep. (i need at least 8 or i get cranky) I had to help clean the house, then i was off for four hours to go to four of my other friends open houses. When i got home, the party started going. People were flowing in from 6pm-10pm. I saw alot of family members i havent seen in a while, along with some friends who i havent hung out with lately. The coolest part of my party was the cake. Everyone knows i love cycling, and that Lance is my hero. Well my cousin, who is a chef, decided to make my cake and have some fun with it. Here is a picture. I thought it was pretty cool.

Well around 10:30pm people started leaving, by 11pm only my freinds (and lots of them) and family remained. After four hours of "meet and greet" and "thank you" I finaly got to hang out with my freinds. We swam and sat in the hottub, but around 1am i got really tired and irritable, so i went to sleep. The funny thing is...nine of my friends were still here with three of my brothers and one of their friends. They were there untill 4am. True friends right there haha! Alot of interesting things happened, but by far the most hilarious...my second oldest brother Eric (24) had one box and two bottles of wine, so he was....yeah. Well my freinds Elisa and Cat convinced him to shave his legs from his knees down. He wrote me when he got to Seattle the next morning, it said "what happened last night.

Sunday involved sleep a few open houses, and another late night at my house full of swimming. I shouldnt have stayed up late, becasue Monday was Memorial day, and i had a parade to be in at 10am. After the parade (jackson high school marching band) i went to the lake then came home and had people over to swim, we also had a fire going to make smores.

It has been a busy week! Now you know how it happened.

Kensington Recap

Well it was a fun weekend. Painful, yet fun. Saturday morning was the 2.7 miles time trial. I did well finishing 8th out of 57 in the Cat. 4 feild, with a time of 5:47, thats a 28mph average. The turn-around point was fun, i accidentaly locked my rear wheel at 25mph trying to make a 180 degree turn. But i stayed upright and made it around semi-safely. Out AAVC team did well taking 1st, 4th and 12th along with my 8th.

Saturday evening was the crit. With the entire tour an hour behind schedual now, we Cat. 4s and the Cat. 3s had a long time to wait. Finaly came time for the start of our race. Because we started late, we had to reduce the laps from 20, to 16. The course was quite easy, with the exeption of the first corner. It was an easy left hander, but the far right edge of the road just drops off to dirt and gravel. In the opening laps, someone pushed me off the road onto the dirt, but luckily i was in front of Eric (my teamate and yellow jersey wearer durring the crit), and he let me back onto the road. It was a really timid feild, people everywhere not holding their line, swerving, breaking, just causeing chaos. Finaly someone made the stupid move, and someone was pushed of the road, and couldn't hold their bike upright, and down they went. I happened to be on the left side of the road, and this crash was on the right, so i avoided it easily. But there were some unhappy people later on. Then finaly we get down to the final lap. We cross the start/finish line were going abour 27 mph, the we hit the turn, make it through nicely, we get into the straight section...and then there was a touch of wheels. I was in the middle of the pack on the left side (again, it seemed to be safer) and the two guys right in front of me went down, hard. It was pretty cool to watch them go down, exept that i was lined up with them. So i dove left, looking for a line through i dodged a body, then his bike, another body, no im on the far left edge of the road, i look like im home free.....BAM! Im on the ground protecting my head. The second guys' bike took out my rear wheel. Well i didnt waste a second, i grabbed my bike (which was in pretty bad shape, but still functioning), and jumped back on it. I rode as hard as i could into that headwind to the finishing line, comming in over a minute behind the feild. That dropped me to 30th place overall. After i finished, i went to the car and douced my elbow, thigh, and knee with hydrogen peroxide, then i wrapped it up and headed back to the course. By the time i got there, there were 2 ambulances, and several policemen. Apparently some guy had a heart attack, and another had an asthma attack. Needless to say, the Cat. 3s didnt go off untill 7pm (they only did 12 or 13 laps)

Sunday morning, time for the road race, 31.5 miles of unimaginable pain. After the crash the night before, i started the race pretty stiff. Alot of people were surprised that i showed up to race, comeon! this is cycling, you race no matter what! So the road race was a little less interesting. Slower speeds, but there was climbing. No one in our feild crashed, so thats good. I stayed near the back for most of the race, my goal was just to finish with the pack. And trust me, i was hurting the entire time, i got road rash on my right quad....that is deffinitly a muscle you use in cycling. So on the final lap, half mile or so from the finish, i hit the wall. I went on willpower the rest of the way, and it was a climb from there to the finish. I finished...just dangling off the back of the peleton, but i finished. I finished the tour 27th overall. Just think where i would have been had i not crashed! The AAVC did alright. Eric ended up 2nd overall after losing yellow in the crit. David finished 9th overall. It was a fun weekend. Can't wait untill next year.

T'was the night before Kensington...

...and all through the town, the cyclist were out, and not one with a frown. The bikes were decked out with componets galore, for the hope that it's faster, extra speed, just a little more. Then they went to bed, with the dream of winning in their head, and hoped that if they crashed, they didn't end up dead.

So yes! I'm up here in Wixom tonight staying at the Baymont Inn & Suites, just 10 miles down I-96 from the Metropark. Tomarrow is the big day. I have seen alot of cyclist out tonight, alot are previewing the course, and alot of them are staying here. Well im off to have a speghetti dinner, and then to the grocery store for some chocolate milk and fruit, then its off to bed. Check back tomarrow to see how it goes!

Kensington Preview

Today was fun. I only went to school for my first two hours, because seniors are sort of excused...yeah. Anyways, i came home, helped clean the house. (My graduation open house is comming up, May 26th at 6pm-12am. Feel free to drop by). So after i was done cleaning, for now, i started to pack for this weekend. I put my stuff in the car, you know, bike, race bag, med kit, spare wheels, trainer, folding chair, and cooler. (which is currently empty). Once i was finished with that, my friend, fellow cyclist, and fellow AAVC (junior) rider Caleb stopped by. I was to ajust his front derailleur. Then it was off to Kensington...
Well Well Well, this is going to be a fun race. I met up with David (winner of the Cat 4 Willow TT this year), and Eric, newcommer to the team. We checked out the TT course, rode it lightly a few times. Then we did a loop of the park, riding through the (gravel) neutral zone twice, to get to know it better.
Let me tell you about this TT, because thats where most of the race will be decided. Its short, at just under 3 miles (2.7 miles) its going to be a dead sprint from start to finish. It starts out at one of the highest points in the park (the finish line for the Road Race on Sunday). Then it goes downhill where we will pick up major speed. Then its a mile of rollers with one fairly lengthy incline. Then its a slight decline to the stop sign. We assume that somewhere before that intersection, there is going to be a cone we have to go around. A quick 180 degree turn around, then its back up, over the rollers, and up up up to the finish. The final hill isn't really steep and it's only about 1/3 mile, which will suck after 2.5 miles of hard riding. So it will be fun.
David and I did a TT practice run, to get gearing ideas, Eric just soft pedaled the course. David and I both completed it in under 6 min. He was obviously faster then me. My goal on Saturday, is to do it in 5:50 or less. It will be fun. If your in the area, stop by.
Wish my luck!

So, um...yeah

So, um...yeah.
Well Darrell started posting, then his son James started posting. I thought "heck, I'll try it." So this is going to be MY attemp to talk about everything going on with my world. I am a senior at Jackson High School, in Jackson Michigan. I graduate in 9 days. This is where the blog title come from. This blog will be about me going out into the world and trying to survive. But thats not untill college...in September. Untill then, like everyone else, ill be talking about cycling. The downside to my blog? Im not as knowledgable as Darrell, or his son James. But ill give it a shot. So, um...yeah