Monday, December 31, 2007

Let's bring in the New Year!

I am currently sitting on my couch watching 'The Today Show' and they are showing a year in review, so I thought I would try to do the same thing....with less pizzaz. (I don't have a TV show)

January: Plans were made to go to California

February: Got to spend a week out in California chasing the Tour of California, met Armstrong, Leipheimer, Hincapie, Basso, Danielson, Cancellara, Voigt, Rassmusen, Roll, Bruyneel, Ligget, Sherwin, Ekimov, Riis, and Zabriskie. Also got to ride my bike in the mountains.

March: Purchased aerobars for my bike. Racing season starts at the end of the month with the 'Fisk Knob Time Trial' where i managed my highest placing...2nd place.

April: Spring Break! Didn't go anywhere. Due to California, I did not go anywhere. I spent alot of time around here preparing for Graduation, and my brothers Wedding. Racing season picks up with the AAVC STS, and Willow TT where I took 4 min off my time from last year.

May: A busy busy month. Prom. That required alot of work because I was on the setup commitee. A few weeks later, Graduation. Spent alot of time with freinds making bonds before going away at the end of the summer. As far as racing goes, the big race of Kensington, which was a blast and maybe it can go to a stage race again. I was taken down in the crit part of the race and had a decent amount of road rash.

June: The month of Camp and State Championships. Cedar Creek was almost amazing. Had a fun road trip with Scott and David, which i hope to do again. We sprinted about 10 seconds early, otherwise we might have swept State Road Champs. Then I raced a hard Allen Park Crit, managed to make some money with a 5th place finish in a strong feild. Then it was off to La Crosse, Wisconsin with Colton and Caleb, packed up the Element and went to camp. I was 7th overall out of 32 riders at camp, with a 20k TT 2 min faster than my Willow time. Drove back the day before Dexter, slept in my car at the truck stop on Baker Road woke up and went on to a 12th place finish at Dexter after crashing and getting a flat tire.

July: A wonderful month. My birthday on the 10th was fun, just hung out with my freinds. Raced the 'Common Crit' with the mixed 3/4 feild. This was Kurt's first race, and I think he did alright for the first time.I managed to drop my chain and drop behind the feild. I never caught up to the feild, but i never gave up. I gave everything I had to not get lapped, but I as a single person am not as fast as 50 people. A week later I was in Houghton, Michigan for my oldest brothers wedding. (That is why I missed the Maillot Jaune RR) It was a wonderful wedding, perfect weather, ceremony held on the shores of Lake Superior. I got in some quality training, climbed 780ft in 4 miles. Fun stuff.

Augest: The month of racing. Ada, BTR, Hines, and Rockford. Ada was a fun, dangerous race. Scott and I raced hard, and I managed 11th, while Scott got 6th(?). This was the race where some of you may remember I was threatened durring the last lap by our crash causing, trouble making Cat 4 freind. (Most of you know who I'm talking about) I skipped out on BTR, so I could be prepared for Hines. Despite getting passed by David, because he is just insane in time trials, i still put in a reputable time, catching Doug at the line. I placed 4th in the 4 feild with a time 2 min faster than my Camp time, 4 min faster than Willow. Rockford was an amazing race. Eric crashed early on, but got back in the race. I spent a lot of time on the front of the feild, working for Scott. With 2 laps left, I took off on the hill. When i came across the line the bell rang, one lap to go, less than a mile, I had 10 seconds on the feild. This was it, I was going to get my first win! When I hit the hill again, my calv cramped, and I ended up 10th at the line.

September: 2 races, and the start of a new era.....College. The races were Debaets-Devos Crit, and the Priority Health Grand Classic. Debaets was a hard race, our goal was to get Scott a high placing so he could win the Michigan Challenge Series. David, Dan and I hammered that race. We litteraly rode ourselves into the ground, but on the last corner, the guy in front of Scott crashed leaving Scott with a gap, making him the leadout man for the feild. He got second in the series. Priority Health was an awesome race! I can't wait for it again! SRAM neutral support, pro racers, just an amazing race.
College...well I started college. Went for a ride one day and broke my bike.

October: A full month of nothing. Studying, testing, writing, and reading. Halloween was a drag, freezing rain, mid week = no parties. :'-(

November: Thanksgiving in Seattle. Wow I just might move out there, it was beautiful. Rode up a monster of a hill with my brother, ended up falling on my knee. It climbed 1800ft in 2 miles or something like that.

December: Finished up my first semester of college, survived. Came home to spend break with family and freinds. Went to my first SLC team meeting, its going to be a fun season with a strong tem. Got a new bike for Christmas, and I love it. Thank you James Knight. Now I am sitting here on New Years Eve writing about my year. It was a fun year, and I guess I had a tough luck with racing, but it was still fun.

If I happened to miss something, and im sure I did, feel free to tell me. I hope everone else had a good year too. Next year is going to be better, next year is going go be more fun, next year is going to be more succesful.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

At last...the new bike!










So yesterday morning i jumped into the Element and drove over to Panera on Jackson St. in AA to meet up with James Knight. I walk inside and James is sitting right at the entrance, so we head outside to his car.(ALSO a blue Honda Element) He opened the back of his car and pulled out my new shiny black LOOK 555, with full Ultegra components and Ksyrium Equipe wheels. Yes, as some of you know i was suppose to get a LOOK 585 with Dura Ace, but the 555/Ultegra was a lot cheaper for roughly the same performance. Yes James, you and I have the same bike, were almost twins! haha. So yesterday i spent 2-3 hours working on the bike, I changed the handle bar/stem combination to my favored 120mm stem and my flat top, ergo bend handle bars. I adjusted the saddle height and bar rotation, and I exchanged my pedals from the 'LOOK Keo Sprints' to my 'Speedplay X-Series'. I also zip-tied the wireless cyclecomputer and transmitter to the bike, and fastened the bottle cages to the frame. Now it is ready for riding! I will make the 'First Dozen Ride' weather permitting. Here, Enjoy some pictures...

Friday, December 28, 2007

Resolution?

There are four days untill 2008. Monday night im going to be out late partying with freinds to bring in the new year. A year of change, a year where im going to accomplish more. On Tuesday i plan on doing the 'First Dozen' ride with the SLC team, but i still dont have a functional bike, and I am not doing that ride on my dads bike, which is way to big for me. Anyways.... the point of this post. I have a few New Years Resolutions. First, i would like to change my look. I usualy wear wind pants or shorts with some type of cycling t-shirt, now im going with the American Eagle polos. pants, and sweaters. Next, I would like to be more active. Granted im a cyclist, but i want to spend more time in the gym, more time on the bike, and more time outdoors running, swimming, and playing frisbee. Finaly i want to do well in school. My first semester was hard, but now i understand and i think i can do A LOT better.


I am curious to know, what is YOUR New Years Resolution?

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

I want that...

I dont know if anyone saw this. But according to Trek, Lance Armstong has been spending alot of time in New York and so he asked Trek for a breand new Madone specifically for NYC. I understand her won Le Tour 7 consecutive times, and is the greatest Tour rider to ever live, but i really really wish i had that kind of power. "Hey Trek, give me a new bike with a custom paint job, because i said so..." That would be really cool. I should call up Trek and see if I can pull it off too. "I would like a new Madone 6.9 with Aeolus wheels, painted in SLC colors.......what?.....no?.....alright."

New Bike Trail

Here in Jackson, after i left for Eastern the city paved a bike trail from downtown Jackson all the way to Concord. Its about 15 miles long, only crosses 7-8 streets, 2 of which are busy. Today in Mid-Michigan, it was beautiful out. Temperature in the 40s sunny, clear blue skies. If only i had a bike. I decided to take my dads bike out for a spin, which is a 56cm frame, and i ride a 51cm. As it turns out, i shouldnt have spent two hours on that bike. Due to the bike geometry, i couldn't get any power to the pedals, so it was a slow ride. I hope it was the bike, and not me. Ive spent about a month off the bike, but im talking to my Dad and we are going to talk to James Knight tomarrow about that bike. I need something that fits me, especially if i want to ride with the team on New Years. I cant ride like this with the team, i would probably get dropped. So...in short, ride a bike that is the right size, it works alot better. And if anyone cares to know the stats off my HRM, here they are...
Time - 1:59'06
Avg HR - 138
Max HR - 183
Calorie Burn - 1235

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

X-mas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope everyone enjoys their day. My dad had to go to work this morning, so we celebrated christmas last night. I didnt get much last night, but i didnt expect to, seeing as i am getting a new bike this week. But i got some clothes, a frisbee, and a long needed frame pump. I hope everyone has a fantastic day!

PS: Doug, dont shoot down Santa next year.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Ahhhh....Le Tour

Details Later: I may potentially be on L'alpe D'huez on July 23, 2008. Yes! That is the day the tour finishes there.

We found a little christmas...

So i have two young cousins, ages 4 and 5.5. All they want for christmas is a go-cart. But we know they are too young for one. So my mom was out shopping, went by TSC (tractor supply company) and found these really nice, steel tubed pedal go-carts with a hand break. Well my mom and i took my trusty Honda Element down there this morning and bought two of them. THEY ACTUALLY FIT in the element. So my young cousins don't know about this. Tonight after they go to sleep, me and one of my brothers are going to drive over there and place the cars on the deck. When they wake up and see their christmas wish came true.....its just going to be cool. The parents only thing we got one. So they too will be surprised. Its fun to be an elf and make christmas happen.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Break

So i dont really have much to report. I am home for the holidays. So ive been hanging out with freinds. The first night back about 8 of my freinds came over and we watched Shrek 3 in the basement and played pool. I went bowling with two of my freinds, and had some of the worst games of my life. In 4 games, i only broke 100 in 2 of them. My average over the summer was like 123 or soemthing. O well. My brother got in town from Seattle last night, and my parents went to pick him up in the Element, so i got to drive the Mini Cooper, i love that car. Cat and I made Chex Muddy Buddies (aka. Puppy Chow) last night after recycling some stuff. Yeah, its been pretty layed back. My brother set up a weight room on our sun porch, so im going to hit the weights later today. Im also going to fix up Pats mountain bike and go hit the snowy trails later. Yeah, thats pretty much it. I will let you know i am working on a brand new road bike, way cooler than the one i had last season (which is now my TT bike) and i should have it by next week. But i will make you all wonder for now. Happy Holidays!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

DONE!

I am finished with my first semester of college! And i survived! I cannot tell you what my GPA is because i dont know yet. But it deffinitly wont be as high as it was in high school. I have learned alot this semester, and the major one is...study. And even if you do study, you might not get the grade you want. I was that student in high school that would pass tests and be ranked pretty high in the class, but i never did any work, or studied. This semester i have studied like no other, and i still didnt do great on tests. But hey, this is college, i guess thats what its suppose to do to ya. Sop anyway, ive just been rambling. I just got back from my (what seemed easy, not a good sign) chem exam and thought i would blog and say that i am finished! I hope everyone has a good holiday!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Not so good day

Ever have a day that starts out great but as it progresses, it gets worse. Then you are left to your thoughts for a few hours, and it just makes things worse? Yeah, thats how my day went today. I woke up after going to bed very late. Went over to the Exercise Physiology lab to meet up with some graduate students and Dr. McGregor. There we went over procedures and protocol for the testing to take place in January-February. After that i met up with some of my freinds who had made sketti, and it was pretty tasty. Then i came back here and talked online to people for a while. Thats where it all went south. I wont say what the conversations entailed, but i will say that i really dont like dishonesty. Anyways, i have sat here watching 'The Bourne Ultimatum' and thinking. Now im more upset than i was earlier. Oh well. I just thought i would blog, now im going to study for my only exam and my final exam this semseter....Chemistry

Hope everone else had a better day then i did!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Guess what!......It snowed


So it was snowing last night when i went to sleep at like 1am. But i could still see the grass. That wasn't the case when i woke up this morning. 8 inches - 1 foot of snow blanketed the city of J-Town. I started shoveling the driveway, and i dug the Mini Copper out and moved it into the garage. My brother called his freind who came and plowed the rest of the driveway, so that was cool. Then i got in my Honda Element and drove to the hardware store because my father needed an extension cord. I LOVE MY CAR! My car is AMAZING in under these conditions. (i bet Dougs amazing cavalier can drive right through this stuff) My car is all wheel drive and can just drive right over/through snow banks, its pretty cool. Anyways, my brother was going skiing today at Mt. Brighton and needed my car. So him and Ross packed their stuff in the Element and drove me back to school, then went skiing. On the drive doen I-94 from Jackson to Ypsilanti (about 43 miles) i counted 7 cars and 1 bus off the side of the road. One of the cars was completely on its side, there was a firetruck and an ambulance. The highway was trecherous. The commission cannot keep up with the snowfall. You could not see the lines on the road, so cars were driving everywhere. But i made it back safe.

Friday, December 14, 2007

DOUG!!! HELP!!!

So i was sitting here in my dorm last night, talking online and studying for exams. Then i went to open firfox on my 3 month old laptop, and i got the blue screen o' death. And i had to shut it down. Then i coudnt get it to reboot. So i called my brother eric who works for Microsoft and we worked on the problem untill 2:30am this morning. I gave up and went to bed. My brother will be home in a week and will work on it. So i ask thee, computer master doug, what do you think i should do?

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Day Off

So far this week, mon-wed, i have had 6 tests and turned in one submission draft packet. Its good to have a day off, my brain is fried. Tomarrow I have my Biology and Math finals, then Saturday will be a good day, Sunday i have to study, Monday i don't have testing, but i do have to meet in the Ex. Phys. Lab to go over procedure for collecting and storing data for the cycling research. Then comes Tuesday, and i have my Chemistry final, and i should be home by noon. I will return to school on the 6th of January, for classes to start the 7th.

Monday, December 10, 2007

I almost want to cry

Exam week is Finaly here :'-(

Monday: Chem Lab Practical, Math Exam

Tuesday: Chem Exam, English Portfolio Due

Wednesday: Math Exam, Bio Exam, Sports Medicine Final

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Math Final, Bio Final

Tuesday 18th - Chem Final

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Party over here, party over there!


So yesterday i made a trip to Livonia for the Midwest Cycling Group end of the year party. This is where we celebrate our season, and meet the new guys (me being one of them) It was pretty cool to see everyone again, seeing as the last time we were all together was the Priority Health Grand Classic in September. We got pizza (BBs favorite) breadsticks and salad, then took our places at tabels and listened to a presentation about the SLC Team. We talked about races, sponsors, and commitment. Its interesting to got from a 4-6 man Cat 4 team for the AAVC, to a 14-18man elite cat 3 team. After the presentation there was a raffle where i won a shirt and i got a pair of socks from someone who didnt want them. After the raffle we tried on uniforms and purchased extra stuff from last year. I believe i can now ride in any type of weather and still be fully outfitted in sponsors logos. After the raffle, i headed home. It was really just a gathering to see what our team will look like next year, and it looks strong.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

YOUR Chrustmas List

Just leave a comment, on what you would like for Christmas. Im curious to know. I am in with the 'Big Man' so i could put in a good word for you......maybe not Doug. haha kidding.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Christmas List





So for christmas i have a list of things i would like. Ace, BB, Doug, and Colton...you guys talk amongst yourselves and decide who is going to get me what.... thanks! haha

- 2008 Madone 6.9 with Aeolus 5.0 Tubular Wheels
- Cervelo P3 Carbon with Zipp 999 Wheelset (race bend bars)
- Garmin Edge 305 GPS with cadence sensor
- Giro Ionos Helmet (Small)
- A Skoda Octavia Combi 4x4 detailed in South Lyon colors and sponsor with one of those cool Pro Tour bike racks (to be the official SLC Team car)

I think if you all work together, you could accomplish my list. Especially you Doug, you could be the benefactor.

Next Semester

Well when i return from winter break for the start of my second semster here at EMU, i will have a new class scheduel. And here it is....

Music 107 - Music Appreciation
Math 107 - Plane Geometry (i took it in 8th grade, but its required)
English 121 - Researching the Public Experience
Sports Medicine 201 - Human Anatomy for Sports Medicine
Sports Medicine 202 - Human Physiology for Sports Medicine

Mon, Wed, and Fri i have class from 8-12 then i am done
Tues Thurs class from 2-3:30pm

Its going to be fun!

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Exam/Finals

So i figured out my last week of school for this semester...and it sucks. I have 3 exams and 4 finals in one week! Not fun.