New Posts!

All 'in-favor' of Ace, Colton, Chris and Pothole posting something new, say "I."

I

Worst day of the year!

Actually, it wasn't. Last years 'Worst day of the year' ride was much, much worse. Last year it was 17 degrees, blowing snow and I was on a road bike. This year was actually enjoyable. It was in the mid 20s and light wind. However, that is not where my day started...

That morning I woke up, had me a bowl of Cap't Crunch. Then i grabbed the bike, the trainer and headed tword Ann Arbor to Great Lakes Cycling and Fitness to workout with the Junior Team. It was a lot of fun, Mark Lovejoy had a great workout planned.It started out with us warming up and doing a make believe paceline, then we simulated riding sections and climbs of De Ronde Van Vlaanderen (The Tour of Flanders.) It was quite a hard workout, but I guess thats because a workout is only as hard as you make it, and I wanted to get some good training in. The bike shop was a great place to hold the ride. There was more than enough room for all of us, and there was a lot to look at. It was a lot of fun to be there with the Juniors watch their form and help them become more efficient riders. It will be a lot better when we get more Juniors in the program, and we will. The Junior program Mark and the others (I assume Joe and Ace had a large part in it) have come up with sounds great. Full details aren't out yet, but it has a nice structure, and there will be plenty of help for the young riders between our coaches and mentors. So if you are reading this and you have a young child (10+) you should try out cycling, it is a magnificent sport!

After the hour and a half trainer ride, I drove back to EMU to eat and change. Then I headed over to meet up with the 2pm 12 mile ride because I did not have the time to make it for the 40 miles ride which contained everyone I knew. But luck would have it, on my way down the trail to AA, I came across the 40 milers, so I turned around and joined them. I got to talk to Joe, Mark, Nick Boswell (the U of M Cycling Club President), and a few of the U of M riders. I rode with them for 20 miles or so, then went back to campus because I was tired. (Note: when I headed out for AA in the afternoon, my legs were already tired from the trainer workout)

That pretty much sums up my Sunday.

Today after class it was mid 30s and not raining, so I jumped on the bike and went out for a really light one hour ride. As it turns out, I don't know the roads around here as well as I would like. Haha. I knew i didn't know the roads, but I knew my heading, so I knew how to get back. Well I ended up in Wayne County, on the other side of Willow Run Airport, which isn't far, but I dont know roads out that way. So as I was riding around looking for a non-highway road to get back north of the airport I came across a road I thought looked nice when I went by it earlier. Turns out, from the south end of that same road, it is packed down dirt. Me and my bright mind decide to ride down it thinking "It should only be dirt for a block or so." That block turned out to be a mile. Up untill that point, my bike had stayed pretty clean....not anymore. Snowy dirt roads do that. Anyways.....to make a long story short, I made it back to campus in time to drive to Pizza Hut and get a free medium one topping pizza for filling out a credit card form. Its alright, I dont have a credit score so I wont be approved, this is the second time I have done it this year. Haha.

So anyways here are some pictures of my dirt bike. I know we have all seen a dirty bike, but i needed something to make this blog not so boring. The picture of the chainstay: I wiped off some of the dirt so you can see how dirty it is. Hope everyone is riding outside in this wonderful weather. (I hear 40s tomarrow)

Dorm Bike Wash

For those of you who are curious, or haven't seen an expensive bike hung from a dorm room shower.

Cold Cold Ride

So today after i took my physiology exam, which im pretty sure i got an A on, I had lunch and prepped the bike for some outdoor riding. I know it wasn't the most optimum conditions to ride in, 18 degrees without windchill, sunny, and semi-strong wind out of the west.....but hey, we're bicycle racers, this shouldnt bother us. Anyways it was a fun ride, after about 10 minutes any exposed skin is numb so the ride is enjoyable when you cant feel anything. I rode over to Geddes Road, east to Prospect, north to Ford, west to Dixboro, and south to Huron River Drive back to campus. I got to do a nice durability test on my frame. Ford turns into Plymouth Road, which intersects Dixboro, that half mile strech of road is really rough if your a cyclist trying not impede rush hour(s) traffic. I had my own little Paris-Roubaix, and I must say "Thanks James Knight!" this bike rode AWESOME over some really rough road, the frame felt great and I was surprised the wheels held up, but they did.

I also had two close encounters with cars. Neither of them were my fault. The first was a car that looked like it was going to run the intersection, and I would almost understand if there were no cars around, but there was a continuous line of cars and both him and I hit our breaks hard and he came close to knocking me out into traffic. The second was on Dixboro road. I was headed south and stopped at the intersection with Geddes. There was, in order from left to right, a left turn lane, a straight lane, a bike lane, and a right turn lane. Well when the light turned green, the car to my right, in the right turn lane, decided he wanted to go straight, and cut me off. He clearly saw me as we were stopped at the red light right next to each other and he looked over at me. I swear some people just should not be allowed to drive.

Due to all of the salt on the road, I am going to wash my bike tonight, I am just waiting for my roomate to get out of the shower so I can use it as a bike wash and hang it up to dry for the night. I have never seen a city use more salt on their roads and sidewalks than dear ole Ypsilanti. Oh well, just killing the fish and water habitat. So, yeeeeeeaaahhhh. Depending on weather, I will try to make it outside, then on Sunday I get a fun filled day of riding (finally!) In the morning I get to do a trainer party with the AAVC juniors. If i understand correctly, this year I am acting as a mentor in the junior program, details are still foggy. After the trainer party it will be the 'Worst Day of the Year Ride' starting at the farmers market in downtown Ann Arbor. There are 4 different loops ranging from 40miles all the way down to 6 miles. There will be a mountain bike course if one is interested. As i understand it, the 40 miler is on all paves roads, as well as the 12 miler, so you should come out and ride (I will be doing the 40 mile ride.)

Here are random pictures of my salt covered bike.

They have arrived!

The new wheels are in, and they are light! UPS delivered them in a hugh box last night, which was funny because the wheels only took up 1/3 - 1/2 of the box. So after they got to my house, I drove back to Ypsi, and put them on my bike to see weight difference, and look. Seeing as I got them from Capital Sports and Entertainment (Team Discovery) used, they said to get them checked so they are rideable. They are, I looked them over last night, but I am still going to take them to a shop today to get looked at. They are Bontrager XXX Lite wheels, with red spokes (as you can see) My next step is to put my orange handlebar tape on, and buy the Team Liquigas issue Fizik Arione saddle (Blue and neon green). Then my bike would stand out. haha. So.....um.....yeah thats about it. I got my wheels. Enjoy the pictures.

PS: Yes the cassette is a 12-27. Deffinitly used for climbing.

Presidential Tent

Yeah I know, it is a weird post name. But it highlights the two big things im going to mention in the post. So as you know I am participating in some research here at the college. Well we finally got to the point where I actually get to sleep in the tent.

I met up with Ian about an hour before my MAOD test and we brought the tent to my dorm room. Well the tent fits over a Queen sized bed, and out living room is slightly larger than that. So against one wall is the couch with the coffee table and a chair on top of it. Then the TV is kinda in the middle of the room, and the futon is in the tent with my memory foam topper on it so I can sleep comfortably in it. So for the past three nights I have slept at (simulated) 8200 ft above sea level, as opposed to our measly 600ft here in Michigan. Our O2% here is about 20.9% the O2 in the tent when im sleeping is 15.6% which is signifigantly less. This will increase my red blood cell count and make me better on the bike.....in theory. I will let you know the results as soon as I get them. But it has been fun to sleep in there, there is a dramatic difference in the morning with I unzip the tent and can suddenly breathe so much better haha.

The next post-worthy news is that I have a new title. EMU Cycling Club President.

I went to the meeting today, where only 4 members showed up. They were all graduate students with about a year of school left, so I decided to bid for President, and no one objected, so I got it. Now I get to spend the next week doing paperwork, sending stuff to USA Cycling and organizing with the MWCCC. But in the long run, I believe it will pay off. I will get to meet people and become an influence. I will be at EMU for the next.....several years (8-9) so I would like to work with the club and bring it out of the hole it seems to be in. So if you are reading this and currently go to, are a staff member or used to attend EMU, email me at zachmaino@yahoo.com about becomming a member. We need all the support we can get.

I also got to ride outside yesterday.....amazing.

Saturday Sweat Session

So I woke up in the we ours of the morning today...8am haha. It wasn't early for me, but none of my roomates were up. So in pitch darkness I packed up my cycling stuff, grabbed my trainer and bike and tried to make it out fairly quietly. I believe I did a good job. Once in my car (parked across campus) I headed to downtown AA to pick up DMO. From there we met up with Eric and Craig at Darrell's house for a trainer session. Had we all been smart, we would have put our non-trainer rear wheel on our bikes, grabbed our warmers and head outside beacuse the weather was beautiful. But that was not the case. We set our trainers up in Ace's basement cycling office and did a 2-2.5 hour sweatfest. It was nice to not ride alone in my dorm room for once. While we spun out and did some intervals we listened to some of D's favorite music, and watched clips from the 1999 Tour de France. All-in-all it was quite a lot of fun, and hopefully we can do the same next week. I know Alexy was comming over later, but it would have been nice to have James in there with us, from what I hear, his P/W ratio is higher than most right now.

Okay Okay, THIS was 4 min of death

I had the second in a series of tests today. I was lucky enough to do mine right after Scott, so he stayed around and watched me suffer....which I did. Scott also took some pictures, as you can see below. That test hurt! I started off strong, but then I struggled to keep my cadence up and had to keep downshifting. I feel I am really really weak right now. I am not putting out the power I would like. But I have also been having bike problems for a while, and now that those are sorted out, I can reide more often now. Anyways here are pictures. (FYI the test was a 4 min all out effort)

New Wheels

If any of you are members at, and frequently read Thepaceline, you will have noticed that yesterday they posted saying they are selling off team gear to clear house. Among these items include team wheels. Aeolus 5.0 Tubulars (msrp$2200) for $1200, XXX-Lites (msrp$1800) for $750, and the Aeolus Disc (msrp$1800) for $900. These are some great deals, and these wheels were used by Team Discovery. Well it turns out this season I will be racing on formerly Discovery used Bontrager XXX-Lites.

4 Minutes of Death

Yeah I had my first session in the lab today for the experiement. It was a 4 minute all out effort. Man is that hard. It is unbelieveable how bad that last minute hurts. Anyways, the test was well run. I showed up with my bike so that could measure it and adjust the cycletron to the correct specs. Then a metabolic cart was hooked up to me to measure my oxygen consumption. They said go! and I went all out. 4.5 minutes later I could no longer feel my quads haha. Then I had a smoothie.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

In the head.

Yeah it's that time of the year, there is something going around and i came down with it last night. I am sick. I spent the better half of yesterday under blankets to keep from freezing. I made about 9 trips to the bathroom last night. I didnt really sleep, because I was up every hour or so. I hope everyone else is feeling better then me.

Switch to Linux

Found this flash animation about switching to Linux. I found it funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifUqt_pji3o

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAHA! Out of Doug, BB, Ace and I... I am the first one to blog in 2008!

Last night was fun. I met up with 9 of my freinds at the ice arena for New Years Eve skating. I havent been on the ice in 3 years...the last time I skated i was on the Jackson High hockey team. (Sophmore year) After a few minutes I was fine, I remembered how to skate and was tearing up the ice. I onlt fell once, but I was showing off.

After skating we all headed back to my house, we ate some pizza talked and then played 'Catch Phrase'. If you have never played that game, you are missing out. My Dad had to be at the hospital at 6am, so when we got loud my mom told us to go to the basement. We continued our game of 'Catch Phrase' untill midnight. Then we all cheered, drank sparkling grape juice, and shot off party poppers.

At about 12:15 Andy, Cat, Caleb and I were on our way to go sledding, and by then the snow was already pouring. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill (300 yards) we were covered in snow, thats how fast it came down. We only went down the hill 2-3 times then came back to the house and sat in the hottub for a little while. Around 2am people left and I slept on the couch. Due to road conditions, my freinds were welcome to stay the night, so Cat and Nick stayed here. Cat is currently sitting next to me, while Nick is STILL asleep (It's 5:03 pm)

I hope everyone had a fun New Years. And I am looking forward to a very successful 2008.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!