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.