Its never too early to start training for Cone...

So yesterday before I went to work, I jumped on the bike and get some dirt riding in. I didn't have a ton of time (just over an hour) so I went out and averaged 3 W/kg in preperation for Cone.

Mathemagic

So the Undergraduate Symposium went well this morning. During the luncheon after the presentations, we had a guest speaker. This is Arthur Benjamin, a math teacher from some college I dont remember and is freaky fast at calculations. This guy is amazing. If you have 15 minutes to spare, watch this whole video. If you only have 5 minutes, fast forward to 10:30 and just watch the end. And if you can believe it, he was faster today than he is on this video.

The Cycling Gods Hate Me

Well I finally got to 2 days where I actually have the time to ride...and now I'm sick and can't. Been working all week at my new job at Panera on N. University in Ann Arbor and it has been eating up all my free time. (33.5 hours this week) Outside of work, on the weekdays I literally have no free time, evident by my lack of posting, because I am in class or in the lab with Dr. McGregor getting ready for Friday's Undergraduate Symposium. This afternoon and tomorrow morning were the only times I had to get some riding time in, but alas I have a pretty bad cold. Hard coughing every minute or two combined with mucus and a headache, feeling really drained and wouldn't be able to do anything on the bike.

So yeah, the cycling gods hate me. I will eventually be back in form, but it might not be untill June, which means the May and STS races are going to hurt.



So whats been up? Alot. When I last left you, I was making a trip to Houghton, Michigan with my parents and Julie. It was a lot of fun. Julie and I spent all Saturday walking around Houghton looking at the ice sculptures and going in stores. Then we crossed the bridge to Hancock and did the same thing. That night we went down to the river and watched the fireworks for winter carnival, it was scarry at one point when a firework tipped over and ignited in the launch area, but everyone was ok. Sunday morning I woke up to my brother tossing me some clothes. He said we were going XC skiing, well thats a first for me. It was a lot of fun, it took me a minute to get going, but I eventually got the hang out of it and now I want my own set.



The final week of February was my spring break. The Friday I got out of class, my dad flew to California. He met up with my brothers Eric and John to watch the Solvang TT for the ToC....I was on spring break...So instead of going to watch my favorite riders race in the USA, I was doing morning rides around Jackson. One morning I had an encounter with black ice and banged up my knee pretty good, but its all better now. I did go to the DIA with Nick Michelle and Julie that Friday. It was interesting to see what was on display. Lots of random chess sets, some very...different and others very awesome.

It was then back to school and once we hit the weekend, I went up north with Liz, Kim, Coling and Liz's family to ski for two days. On the first run on the first day, Liz's brother's friend fell and broke her wrist. It was her first time breaking somehting, but once she got pass the initial shock, she was fine. The skiing wasn't too bad for being March. I spent Saturday in a sweatshirt. Sunday was cooler so the snow was harder which meant better skiing. Liz and I raced each other a few times, and I won each time.



As some of you know, the new team kits are in. I picked mine up from Scott last Sunday, then rode with the EMU gang for a few miles before meeting back up with Scott and rising to Northville to get the LS jerseys. On our way back, from Northville to Saltz Rd. in Canton, I don't think our speed dropped below 25mph. We were each doing pulls (obviously I got the better draft) and my pulls were in the 400-450W range. It was a good ride.



I have also located an apartment I believe I am going to lease. I would be leasing with two freinds from school. It is a spacious 3 bedroom/2 bathroom condo on Washtenaw and Oakwood. It is literally on the corner of campus. With utilities and rent between the 3 of us, we would be paying roughly $350/month/person.

I am no longer coached anymore. I talked to Darrell and we ended out athlete/coach relationship. Partially because I don't have much money right now and partially because I enjoy having a coach who can watch me race and be at my races. That would be kind of difficult for D to do while in AZ.

So yeah. That's what I got going on. Hope that was worth the wait. (I know it wasn't)

Coming Soon

I swear! I will update soon. There has been a lot going on and I have no free time right now. I have class untill noon, in the lab and analyzing data for my undergrad research untill 3 and work from 4-12. Then I wake up and repeat it all. Tomorrow I have a free 3-4 hour block that I will try to get a post and some pictures up, if it doesnt happen, my excuse is because i was out riding (which I havent done since....Sunday, and the last time before then was....Monday) Yeah I am WAY out of form and the spring campain is not going to favor me.

"Lance is an amature athlete"

I hate people who dont appreciate how hard our sport is. I came across this and it made me mad. So I felt like I should share it.

Here it is

Class List

For those interested, these are essentially the required classes for a major in Exercise Physiology with Pre-Med studies (acceptable for U of M Med School)

BIO 110 - Introductory Biology I
BIO 120 - Introductory Biology II
BIO 301 - Genetics
BIO 305/306 - Cell and Molecular Biology/Lab
CHEM 121/122 - General Chemistry I/Lab
CHEM 123/124 - General Chemistry II/Lab
CHEM 371 - Organic Chemistry I
CHEM 372/373 - Organic Chemistry II/Lab
CHEM 351 - Foundations of Biochemistry
CHEM 451 - Biochemistry I
PHY 221 or 223 - Mechanics, Sound and Heat
PHY 222 or 224 - Electricity and Light
ENG 121 - Composition II
ENG 225 - Writing in a Changing World
ENG 323 - Writing in the Professional World
LIT 100 - The Reading of Literature
PSYC 101 - General Psycology
PSYC 360 - Abnormal Psycology
PSYC 366 - Health Psycology/Behavioral Medicine
SOCL 105 - Introductory Sociology
SOCL 312 - Medical Sociology
PHIL 223 - Medical Ethics
DTC 204 - Sports Nutrition
SPMD 201 - Anatomy
SPMD 202 - Physiology
SPMD 280 - Pharmacology
SPMD 300 - Exercise Physiology
SPMD 305 - Kinesiology
SPMD 325 - Practicum
SPMD 380 - Behavioral Aspecs of Sports Medicine
SPMD 410 - Lab Techniques Human Performance
SPMD 430 - Electrocardiography
SPMD 431 - Pathophysiology
SPMD 432 - Exercise Programming
SPMD 433 - Principles of Strength and Conditioning
SPMD 480 - Internship
SPMD 434 - Echocardiography
SPMD 515 - Diabetes and Obesity
SPMD 518 - Sports Supplements
PHED 260 - Motor Development
PHED 360 - Motor Learning
CPR Certification

Well hello everyone

How are you? I guess it's been two weeks so I figured I should update.

Been riding outside a bit lately. Rode with Scott one day out on snow covered dirt roads. Was a nice 1.5hr ride. Then rode outside with Jason while he was on recovery, that was a nice 2 hour ride. Then this past Sunday I did the Worst Day of the Year Ride. Scott, Mark Caswell, James Knight and me represented MCC p/b Trails Edge on the 40 mile ride. Joe decided he couldnt make it 40 miles and opted for the shorter ride (haha just kidding, he went to represent us with Randy in another group). I took a tumble at an ice covered intersection and bruised my hip, but im fine now. The ride was fun. There were some fairly fast sections due to Brendan Benson and other racers pushing the pace. Being on a CX bike, I wore myself out and ended up getting dropped. Twas a good ride anyways.

The two days prior to the WDotY ride, I went up north again skiing with my papa. We got up there Friday night and got in 2 hours of night skiing. Then we got in 4ish hours of skiing in on Saturday. While up there I ran into my cousin and he asked if I wanted to go mess around in the terrain park. I agreed.....bad idea. I ended up falling a few times while trying to grind and strained a lot of muscles. But again, im fine now. (yay super fast body recovery) It was fun, but super cold up there with a lot of wind. I also ended up driving for 9.25 hours of the total 10 hours of driving in a period of 28 hours. My dad drove from Mason home where I slept as I had to head back to Ann Arbor as soon as I got home.

Saturday night was fun, hung out with freinds in Ann Arbor. Sat around Starbucks and talked alot. Then spent a while in Borders Books where I read a great article about DaveZ.

Im excited because next weekend (the one following superbowl weekend) I get to go up to Houghton (not houghton lake) Michigan for winter carnival. I am staying with my brother and taking my freind Julie. This is where the MTU students create awesome ice sculptures and its pretty much a 4 day party. Ill also go skiing.

After a fun weekend, it was back to school. Classe are going fine. Im learning quite a lot this semester. Other than school and training, I am just trying to get everything in order for my life haha. Im applying for jobs so I have some money and searching for appartments for the summer. I found a great one, but the landlord will not return my emails and didnt list a phone number. So if anyone reading this knows of someplace that is hiring, or of a good appartment near EMU, let me know.

And now for, I guess the big news. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I am seriously considering pursuing medical school. I was going to go for my PhD in Ex Phys, but in the same time I could be an MD. Ive always liked medicine and I think I could be really good at it. I will still keep my Ex. Phys. major, but instead of a minor I will take pre-med classes. This will add another year to my undergrad, but o well. The only downside...once I get into med school I will probably have to hang the bike up for a while. But we will see. I also intend on taking an EMT course this summer and work in an ER or on an ambulance for a few years.

So yeah, what does everyone think?

Undergrad Symposium

So leave Friday, March 27 2009 open if you can. Then come to Eastern to see my success.

Dr. Mcgregor approached me a few weeks back about presenting this year at the 29th Annual Undergraduate Symposium this spring. This is where mostly Juniors and Seniors present their research that they have been working very hard on for a while. As you know, I am not a Junior or Senior. I am a Sophmore. So this is kind of a big deal for me. All the research and analysis I am doing are based completely off classes I have yet to take.

My research is interesting to those cyclists who read this. We have a Velotron ergometer in our lab. There is no literature to support the accuracy of the power output for said Velotron. We also have an SRM power meter on this Velotron. SRM is the "gold standard" of power readings. At the most boiled down point, my research is comparing the accuracy of the Velotron to the SRM.

I have 2 months to run the research and write the paper and create my presentation. Wish me luck. Its going to be a fun semester.

Skiing

So Saturday my mom called me around noon "Come home, you're going skiing with your Dad and your brother tomorrow and you are driving up tonight". So I went back to my dorm, grabbed my skiis and made my way to Jackson.



My Dad got home from work around 7pm and we loaded up the car and drove to Harbor Springs. We stayed at the Comfort Inn that night and went to Nubs Nob in the morning. I was surprised to see almost no one at the hill on yesterday (Sunday), my Dad blamed it on the economy. Regardless it made for a great day of skiing. We never had to wait for the chairlift and no single run was saturated with skiers.



A family freind, Nick (not the one that went to all my races, a different one) went up with us too. This was his first time on a large hill on his snowboard. It made for some interesting watching. I think his record was 5 falls on one black diamond. But near the end of the day, he had gotten a hold of it and was doing much better.



It was nice to try out and use my new boots and skiis. The carving was different because the skiis are wider and the boots are stiffer, but it was fun. Due to the fact that they are twin tipped skiis, I did go down an entire run backwards and I did hit up the terrain park for an hour or so.