Spring Break 2008

BORING!

So here I sit on my livingroom floor, five days into my nine day spring break. All of my plans fell through for this week...In my first plan, I would currently be on a plane to southern California with Ace to spend a week training in Solvang. Due to lack of interest, we had to cancel the trip. So instread of semi-warm, non snowy hills in the California countryside, I get single didgit temperatures and a foot of snow so I am stuck on my trainer. Another plan I had was to travel down to Georgia with the U of M cycling team to train in the hills of the south. But alas, a clause...only U of M students could ride in the U of M vans. I would have just driven down on my own if I could, but I didn't have the money for gas. My final plan was to go to Arizona to visit my best freind Andy who moved down there recently. But I could not find a cheap plane ticket to Phoenix.

So this week I have just been chilling out here at home, reading, riding the trainer, and hanging out with some of my freinds occasionaly. I really wish I could be somewhere relatively warm so i could get in some quality training.

On a brighter note, I recieved an email yesterday stating that the EMU cycling club now has a USAC license. That means that this Saturday and Sunday, providing weather is decent, I will be in Greencastle, Indiana racing.

In random news: I purchased cork break pads so I can test ride and race on my carbon wheels. I also purchased a new adjustable stem for my Giant road bike, thus I can fine tune my TT position to make up more time this season.

Thats all folks!

ToC Feed

Hey everyone,
I am posting to let you know what I discovered today. While the Tour of California is in session...if you go to the website (www.amgentourofcalifornia.com) and click on the "Adobe Tour Tracker" on the top right you get live feed of the race.

This is really a cool website. You get uninterupted feed of the peleton commentated by Frankie Andreu. There is also a chat room so you can talk to other people watching the race. But the really cool this is the rider tracker. You can pick and choose which riders you want to watch and it will show up on a map where each rider is at. It is really neat. The best thing.... its FREE!

I was in watching the chat room, and I saw a name come ont he screen that I know quite well. The name was Joe Lekovish. It was somone asking if Joe was in the chat room. Out of the hundreds, even thousands of people watching on thei site.....I ended up talking to our very own Darrell Anderson, who was looking for Joe. I thought it was cool.

I also ended up meeting and alumni from EMU who rides, and I talked to Logan from camp last year. Pretty neat I must say. You can watch it at work, at home, in your dorm, or like me...while i was on the trainer.

I suggest you try it tomorrow, and I think all major races should have it. (Hey Joe, we could incorporate it into Kensington haha....kidding)

Sweatfest

So last night my roomate, Ryan, and I went to Jackson to hang out, bowl, and sit in the hottub. We did not end up leaving Jackson untill about 1am, putting me in my bed here at 2:30am. I reluctantly woke up at 7:20am to make it to Darrells house for a trainer party.

It was worth it. I have never been in that basement with so many people, but this was only my second time being there. We had Darrell, Scott, Me, Chris, Eric, James, and Alexey all squeezed in tight on our trainers watching an HBO documentary on the 1980 Olympics USA hockey team, then Breaking Away.

We had a window open, and 4 fans going in an attempt to keep us from dying. It was a good ride, most of us were on the bikes from about 2 hours. I got in 2x18 min intervals and 3 sprint intervals.

All-in-all it was good day. After I got back from Darrells, I slept for two hours and I have pretty much spent the rest of the day studying for my fun week of exams. I can't wait for tomorrow evening.... Versus is showing the prologue of the Amgen Tour of California live!

Is anyone else feeling like they want to toss their trainer in an incinerator? I deffinitly am. Of course, I also have a very old school piece of crap trainer that doesn't offer any quality training. Only a week and a half ago I was getting in magnificent training outside, wearing just a long sleeve jersey and a wind vest. But then the weekend comes and so does the snow. I can only get in long rides on the weekend, but due to the weather, that hasn't been possible. So my skill and fitness are not where I would like them to be, and the collegiate road season starts two weekds from yesterday.....I really don't think I am ready. I doupt I will finish the races in the first 2-3 weeks of the season. Anyways.....yeah, this was just writing down what was on my mind, no real structure or flow.

On a lighter note.....I had alot of fun Thursday and Friday. I attended the Michigan ACSM Conference. I was the only freshman there, yeah I know.....over achiever. But it was alot of fun. ACSM stands for the American College of Sports Medicine. It is the governing body of my feild of study, exercise science. It was held in Gaylord Michigan at Treetops Ski/Golf Resort. I drove up with some seniors in the program Thursday morning. We stayed the night there and drove back Friday afternoon. It was pretty much a bunch of lectures about recent research that had been conducted, and ways to improve our skills (that I do not have yet) I have never felt like I belonged, but incredibly out of place at the same time. Everyone there was interested in the same things I was, but I didn't understand anything that was said. haha. It was a great networking experience though, meeting other majors from MSU, CMU, Adrian, and somewhere else, I don't remember. Yup thats pretty much it.

The random pictures are just a look into my daily life. The first one is my at home playing with my boston terrier, Hobbles. Yes she is hanging a few inches off the ground by the dog toy....shes a strong puppy.

The second picture is my riding my bike around the dorm hall. This ended with some tire marks on the carpet and my RA not extreamly pleased.

Finaly, the last picture is me with my freinds Brandon and Fez up in Gaylord. This was a giant ice block created by constantly running water for several days. (it was running while we were there, we could hear it)

TT Helmet

Hi everyone. If anyone is looking, or knows someone looking, for a time trial helmet, I am selling mine. I just purchased this helmet two months ago. It is a BRAND NEW Small Giro Advantage 2 Time Trial Helmet. I am selling the Giro helmet because I found a deal on the Bell Meteor II Time Trial Helmet that I would prefer to wear in my races. The helmet retails for $150, but I am selling my NEW NEVER USED helmet for $95. If you are interested, please write back via my post on the midwest cycling group forum, or email me at zmaino@gmail.com