Christmas

So I know its been a while (Not as long as Darrell or Colton), but here is a new post!

Doug was asking what I got for Christmas this year. I will put up pictures later (once I take some) But the base of my gifts include all new ski equipment (skis, poles and boots). This is the first time Ive ever gotten new ski equipment since I got my frist pair about 14 years ago. Its just been hand-me-downs from my brothers.
The skis are twin tipped rossignols and the boots are the race inspired high performance Nordica "Supercharger Blowers."

The other gift (that I wont get untill January 5th) is my long awaited PowerTap. I am buying it from a friend at Eastern. He lives in Wisconsin near the factory. He took it back with him over break to get it overhauled so I am practically getting a brand new PowerTap for a third of the cost. So expect my training to go a lot better this year and look for me to be even faster (hopefully).

Other gifts include: Apples-to-Apples (fun game), Patagonia snopants, lots of Axe, Ipod case, Bose headphones and assorted DVDs.

What did YOU get?

White-er

It snowed A LOT last night. Shoveling my long driveway sucks.

White

It snowed. Back to the trainer :-(

Cold

Went riding outside for the first time in a while. 20 degrees, 8mph wind and light snow. Trails were a little slick but kept the bike upright. Sitting here 45 minutes after finishing and showering and my lungs are still burning and im coughing.

Tis the season

2009 Cycling season that is.

So this is about the time of year that I consider to be the start of the new season. Now is the time we are meeting with teams, setting goals, taking inventory of equipment and clothing, ordering clothing and starting base.

Today was day 1 of base training. I spent an hour and a half on the trainer then did 150 situps, 75 pushups, 5 minutes of wall sits and 5 minutes of planks. As the weeks go on, I will add to the off bike strengthening including running, plyometrics, weight training (already started) and other core workouts.

My goal this season is to follow my training plan very closely. I did not do such a great job last year and didn't progress like I know I am capable of. So this season I am going to follow the plan and hopefully become a force to reckon with on the road. Time will tell.

The good thing about training, I felt great today after I was finished. I felt as if I could breathe clearer and deeper, move faster.....I just feel in shape again and I have missed it. I hope all of you are training for the season ahead, there are a lot of races to be contended this year!

Vande Velde

So last night I got the chance to have dinner at the Dante Aligheri Society "100th Anniversary of the Giro d'Italia" celebration with a few of my fellow MCG teamates. The pizza, pasta and salad was fantastic.

After dinner a man did a presentation on the Giro D'Italia and introduced his friend and pink jersey owner Christian Vande Velde.



Vande Velde got up in front of everyone in the room at answered questions for about an hour. He answered everything from his amature track career to how pissed David Miller was when his chain broke. Climbing, descending, radio talk and the olympics were also covered. It was a really fun, laid back night.

Vande Velde is a very smart talented rider that has big hopes for next season and I wish him well.

After he got done talking, people got autographs, the team got a picture with him and I got to hold his pink jersey.



Whats funny, is that I was actually more exited to be with my teamates than I was to see Vande Velde. I love racing in the summer and being around the great guys that form up the Midwest Cycling Group and it was just a lot of fun sitting around the table talking about the upcoming season. Let me tell you...this is going to be one heck of a season in 2009. I can't wait!

Flying

This is 6:15 of my flying around Seattle. Nothing spectacular, the landing is pretty cool though. I cut the sound out and added a song from my music library that was about as long as the video, which turns out is Pirates of the Caribbean. I cut out the sound because 1) Pat swore and we cant let the young ones hear that 2) it was pretty much a loud propeller the whole time. So enjoy.

Home

(Seattle from the back of the Ferry)

So I figured I should update this to give people something to read. (James covered the watching part, check out Bike Boy's blog)

Anyways, I made it home from Seattle. Enjoyed the last few days there. On Thanksgiving I got to go up flying with my brother in a little Cesna around Seattle. I will edit video and put it up later. It was pretty cool taking off from Boeing Field...2 mile long runway, 300ft across...It was huge!

On Saturday we got to take the ferry to one of the islands around the city. It was fun, we had lunch at a little pizza place and I must say, it was delicious. We made our way back to the city after an hour or two of walking around. We packed and headed to the airport at 7:30pm to catch our 10:10pm flight. (1:10am Eastern Time) We landed at 5am in Detroit and I was home asleep on the couch by 6:45am. I slept on the couch because the child behind me on the plane kept me awake for the last 2.5 hours of the flight. After I woke up, I headed back to campus.


(Our plane from Sea-Tac to DTW)

It was good to have a break, but now we are preping for finals. On top of that, next semester is going to be quite busy. I have 17 credit hours, 2 labs per week. Working on research with Ian in the Ex. Phys. Lab. Working with Dr. McGregor on my Undergraduate Symposium presentation. Getting a job so I have money for rent and cycling this summer. Locating an appartment to live at this summer and next year. All while staying up with my training.


(All the cars on the ferry)

If anyone knows of a decent appartment in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area, please let me know.

In other news, I am now on Twitter. (http://twitter.com/zachmaino) I also created an account for the Midwest Cycling Group so that I can update race results from the race on my phone this summer. So if you miss a race and want to know results as soon as they are final, make sure you check out http://twitter.com/MidwestCycling.

Be Thankful

So on my Thanksgiving out here in Seattle, I got to go to the supermarket with my parents, get my hair cut by my brother (see below), go flying with my brother (see below, video next week) and have dinner with my family.

Spending the day with the family made me realize that I am thankful for my family. As much as my 4 brothers and sister-in-law pick on me, I am still glad I have them in my life and that I can spend one week out of the year with them. I am also thankful for my great friends. There are 5-6 people I am friends with that I know I can count on, so I am glad I have them. Finally (not really, but for conversation sake) I am thankful for my team.

I am not saying I am thankful for my team because this is a cycling blog. I really am happy that I have the great teamates I do. I just read Jamie's blog about how cycling is a team sport and left a comment about how our team is a TEAM. We win and lose as a team, we don't focus on individuals so much, which I love. I am glad our team bonds, it gives me a group of great people I can share my passion with.

So with that said, I am thankful for my family, my freinds and my team.

For the sake of getting a few comments,
How did you spend your thanksgiving? And what are you thankful for?

200

This is my 200th post. In honor of it...here are some photos from Seattle.

Where I am

I'll be home Saturday.

Testing

So one of the upper Exercise Science students approached me and asked if I would act as the subject for his class presenataion. He was describing and running a Charmichael test. I said sure. I had to follow a 15 minute warm up protocol, then ride a 3 mile time trial.

For the sake of testing, he hooked me up to the metabolic cart for data. (it wasnt necessary) So I came away from the test with some data. Its not bad right now seeing as I am 5'6", 136 lbs and its winter and I havent ridden in a while. Here is the data:

3 miles
7 min 37 sec
Avg Speed - 23.6 mph
Peak Speed - 27.0 mph
Avg HR - 184
Peak HR - 193
Avg Power - 281 W
Peak Power - 451 W
VO2 Peak - 65/kg ml/min

According to that data, my power to weight ratio at this moment is 4.55 W/kg

Bye Bye Teeth

So this morning as soon as class was over, I drove to Jackson and went straight to my oral surgeons office. It was the day every teenager dreads...getting my wisdom teeth removed (10am appt)

The surgery didnt hurt one bit, as I was not awake for it at all. I remember them putting an IV in, and my next memory is waking up when it was time to leave. I remember getting in the car with my mom, and my next thought is waking up on the couch at home at 2pm.

I stayed on the couch untill 3-3:30. Then drove back to school. Now I am currently on Vicodin, Motrin and Amoxicillin for pain and infection.

I have a lot of homework to do this weekend, and a friend from AZ is coming to visit. She and the rest of the group want to go to the club. I will let you guys know if its interesting (because ill be on Vicodin)

A cool performance

This is a video of a group called 'Blast!'. It is a musical group that consists of only brass, percussion and dancers. They have been to Jackson twice where I have seen them both times and I have seen them in Detroit once. It is a very cool performance based on the color wheel. Different songs reflect the different colors. The first video is representative of the color black and is called "Battery Battle", its mostly percussion. The second is the closer for the show, obviously the color is red.





If you get a chance to see this group live, you should.

New President

In other news, I am sure you have heard (it was on the news a little in the past few days) Barack Obama is going to be the new president of the United States of America. I know everyone has their own opinion, so I am not posting this to start an argument. Just thought it should be posted because there is a fun story from my end.



So at 11:03pm Tuesday night I was in my friend Liz's room on the couch with her. That is when we heard that Obama was projected to win. About 5 minutes later our friends Colin and Janis come in and said we had to go outside.

When we got out there, campus was going crazy. There are many many Obama supporters on our campus and they all got together to celebrate in the streets. Literally IN the streets. The police didn't even try to break it up and cars had to turn around because they couldnt get through. It was pretty cool to see everyone united about something, its all too rare these days.



So I thought that was fun. I am not partial to any cadidate. I would have been happy with either McCain or Obama in office. Becuase no matter who won, no one can change it, so we might as well enjoy it. It is like Cat said, "They would both have had great successes, and they would both have had many disapointments. Lets hope the success outweighs the disapointment."

Vets Park

Ok I know, I know, I know. It's Thursday and the races were Saturday and Sunday. "Why aren't you updating your blog Zack?" I know many of you were thinking that (or I hope you were.) Anyways, school has been busy and I have been tired. After taking an 8 week break from competition after Ann Arbor, then jumping in and doing two mens B cyclocross races at Vets Park back-to-back takes a lot out of the system. So when I havent been studying, in class, doing homework or eating...I have been asleep trying to recover. Which let me tell you SUCKS! Ace had me resting and not on the bike Monday-Wednesday and it was SO NICE outside and I couldn't enjoy it. Oh well, it's still nice today and I have to get in some intervals. Anyways...the cross races.



Saturday
So this was my first ever cyclocross race. I had debated doing the C race or the B race, but due to the amount of crap Joe L, Rob P, Rich S and Mark L would have given me for doing the C race, I lined up for the first ever time on grass with the Mens B field. I really had no idea what to expect, I had watched two cyclocross races in my life, attended two practices and had successfully jumped over a set of barriers once.

The whistle sounded and everyone gunned for the wholeshot(holeshot?) I didn't get a great start and was sitting about 18th or so back out of the 30 of us. We wound our way through the course and soon it broke up. I was in no form to stay with the leaders but there were these two guys about my strength battleling in front of me, so I stayed with them and eventually got passed them.

Comming through the middle section by the pit I took a corner a little fast and the front wheel went out and I went rolling across the ground. I got back up and hadn't lost a spot.



About halfway through the race John Marymor from U of M passed me. I decieded that I wanted to try and beat him, so he was my target. I eventually worked back up to him and passed him, eventually making it to the finish in 16th place. Not bad for a first timer. (and I made it over all the barriers safely and swiftly)

The coolest part of Saturday was that Ace and BB had brought a drum and Joe had scored a few flags of flanders. So the Southl Lyon team set up camp on the top of the hill where we could see the whole race and cheered on everyone in the race banging drums ringing bells running and waving flags. It was pretty cool.



Sunday
COLD! Sunday was just cold. The cool thing about Sunday was that the Specialized Demo Truck showed up. So people could test ride (and race) specialized bikes. On the downside, there was less cheering as Ace, BB, Joe, John R. and Doug (who said he was going Sunday) weren't there. However I was happy to see both of my parents show up, along with my trust soigner Nick and our friend Michelle.

Well I warmed up and lined up for the second time in two days and the second time in my life for a cross race. I was deffinitly feeling the effort of the day before. Again the whistle sounded and everyone took off. I got a little better start this time, sitting about 10th out of 40 ish people as we rode away from the line. I hit a hole and got tangled with a guy on a mountain bike for a sec, but we get away from each other without causing a problem.



As we cruised towards the middle section by the pit, it was a sharp left hander. I was trying to move up on the right side to gain a spot or two...which resulted in my losing 15. I went into the tape because I carried too much speed through the corner. I had to get off re-adjust and jump back in way behind the spot I was in. Had I not gone off course, I probably would have stayed with thr group of 7 guys that fought for 5th(?) place. Because I nearly caught them while I was making up spots, but never actually did.

Again John Marymor was one of the few people I was trying to beat. I had a nice gap for a while, but started tiring out and John caught up with me. With one lap to go he was sitting on my wheel. On the last time up the big hill, I put in a hard effort that hurt a lot. But it gave me a small gap on John that I barely held to the line. Again I ended up in 16th place.



It was fun racing cyclocross. I will deffinitly do it again as soon as I can. The problem, the next one in Michigan (other than Iceman) is three days after I get my wisdom teeth out. The next one is while I am in Seattle, and the next one is the day after I get back (yeah...I'll be at that one)

After the race, Nick tried one lap of the course on one of the specialized bikes. He said he would never do cyclocross, he doesn't like technical stuff, which is why he loves the road. Michelle said it was deffinitly more entertaining than road racing. After it was all said and done, my mom my friends and I went to Mongolian BBQ. Tasty.

Happy B-Day BB!

Happy Birthday to James "Bike Boy" Anderson! Turns the big 14 today! Now he gets to race in a harder junior category. Here is to another year of a wonderful life!

Painfully Fun

I did my first cross race today, went and raced the Bs at Vets Park. Finished 16th out of like 30 starters and crashed once. Not too bad. Afterwords I partied it up with the South Lyon guys (and BB) cheering on our teamates in a way we never have.




More pictures and a full report will be up tomorrow after the next race.

Fail the Press

Anyone catch this? It was on "Meet the Press" when they went to Waterloo Iowa to interview John McCain. They showed a map of the battleground states for this election. Apparently Virginia is a huge battleground state! haha



(If you are geographically challeneged, that is not Virginia, thats North Carolina)

Its Alive, ITS ALIVE!

Guess what! As of 11:43pm I have a fully functioning, raceable cyclocross bike. I am going to the AAVC Cross Practice at Vets Park tonight to get a taste of this side of the sport. Wish me luck. Enjoy the pics.

Cross Pictures

For the sake of making another post, here are some random pictures.

Lower Huron Masters

So here is the video I shot of the masters. This pretty much showcases Joe L, Mark L, and Rob P.

Lower Huron Mens B

I decided not to edit the video at all. I just threw it together in order, no music, no transitions or credits. The video pretty much features Chris Aten and Roger Bowser with an interview with Chris at the end. There is not much dialogue, Im sure many of you will get annoyed with me saying "come on" and "get up there" a lot. I also have clips from the Masters race, so look for that tomorrow evening. Enjoy!

Half Built

So I spent some time today assembling what I had. I have a chain, a 46t chainring, cleats and pedals too, but without a crankset and bottom bracket I cant do much. So this is what I have. I know its really pretty isn't it. Remember I have been buying as cheap as possible. Its not amazing, but its not the bike that makes the rider.

Almost...

So as of 11:36pm last night, ALL of the parts for my cyclocross bike have been ordered. That means that I should have a completely built and functioning CX bike by the middle of next week.

Downside...I wont be able to race Lower Huron this weekend. But I will be there with my cameras getting some footage for the team.

College and Cyclocross (or lack there of)

Hello Hello Hello,

So lately I have been spending hours in front of the computer burying myself in work. Physics, Pharmacology, Math, Speech and Listening Behavior keep me pretty busy with the homework. When I am not doing homework or in class, I am riding, in the gym or building up a cross bike.

I am almost done with the build. I lack a crankset and shoes. Other than that I have all the other stuff for the bike. I have been having trouble getting the components from my source lately, so I might just get on Nashbar and get a cheap crankset and shoes. I doubt I will be at the race on the 19th to race. I will be there with my cameras, but I probably wont have the bike (and deffinitly not the form) to race.

In other news, this past weekend I went home Saturday to hang out with my friend Mark. But before that I went to the AAVC Junior picnic. I took the road bike because there was a little racing going on. Mark Lovejoy had set up a short "cross" course for the juniors. After a few warm up laps we had a 5 lap race. Darrell and I waited a lap or two before going around the Juniors. Once I got a gap on Ace, he couldnt close it. I eventually ended up winning, even after running into a pole. The juniors seemed to enjoy themselves (though BB didnt take part in the race) and I think we might have inspired a new generation of cross racers. After the race, I went to
Jackson.



Mark goes to school in Illinois and was home for a few days so I met up with him. After lunch we met up with my brother out in the country and shot some rifles. This is only the 3rd time I have shot a rifle and it was fun. I was shooting about 80% taking my time to make sure the shot counted.




I am back to training 5 days a week now after a long break to rest. It feels good to get back on the bike to ride. I have missed it. I am very weak right now only being able to sustain 22-23mph for a couple of miles.

I had a meeting with Ace and we discussed my year ahead. It looks like I will be doing some early season racing in the south durring March and April to get some Cat2 upgrade points. My goal is to upgrade the Cat2 by the end of June. If you want to travel with me this season south to race, let me know. There is always room.

2009 Race Info:
Cone-Azalia - CANCELLED unless picked up by another group
Gaslight - CANCELLED
Rose City Crit - Back for 09'
Maillot Jaune - Becoming "Tour of Mount Pleasent" 2 days
Priority Health - Adding a 3rd day of racing (Friday)

So it looks like we have a full calender for the 2009 season. I hope you all will be ready to race and assemble strong teams. If you do not have a team, or are thinking you want to switch teams...the former South Lyon Cycle Racing Team is looking for talented Cat3 and Cat4 bicycle racers who fit in with our team atmosphere. Interested riders can contact Darrell Anderson (darrell@velospeedtraining.com)or Scott Gifford(on facebook)for more information.

Hello?

So just wondering...I know its the off season (for road) but does anyone actually read this anymore? With the exeption of Cat's spitefull comment about Priority, the last comment was September 4, 2008 9:56 PM. Thats 25 days I have not heard from Colton, James, Doug, Darrell or others. I almost miss Dougs posting sprees.

Lately...

So here is a picture montage of what I've been up to latelty. Currently I am watching the World Championships online.

I am still around!

Still hanging out with Cat.

Ryan doing some reading.

Making friends and playing darts.

Playing table tennis

Marching Band at homecoming.

Still riding a little.

Getting free ice cream.

And eating it with friends.

Campus at night

My friend Karl playing his guitar and singing one night.