It's been a busy past few weeks. From the time I got back from Oregon until the 21st of August I was homeless and car-less. Thankfully, Karl needed someone to look after his dogs while he was on vacation in Colorado. So I got to stay at his bad ass condo and look after Boomer and Copper. I turned 22 on August 17th, ouch. The lovely Ann Marie McCourt gave me an espresso machine for my B-day. It is AWESOME. Jordan and I moved in to our new apartment on the 21st, and still haven't gotten everything moved in. School, and what is now my senior year of college, started on the 24th. I forgot how tiring it was. I have been plum worn out all week. And that has been my August thus far. :)

O August 8th I competed in the Texas State Individual Time Trial. Sitting in a car for four days prior to the race did not help me that much, but through much pain and suffering I put in a time of 55:12 over the 40 kilometer race (Averaging a little over 27 mph) This put me in 9th place, not too shabby but I think I could do better.

Last night, Aug. 13th was another night of racing the Driveway Crits. The course didn't suit a break away, but I decided to go for the most aggressive rider's jersey. I did manage to get it, but just finished with the pack (it ended in a pack sprint). I'll put another update up soon with pictures from the race and what not.

Pics from the trip!

these are all from my phone. More may come from a better camera.

Small update

Sorry for not updating in a while. I've been on th road since Monday, and am on it again right now. Updating from my phone (it feels different being a passenger after more than 30 hrs of sitting in the driver's seat). The always wonderful, gorgeous Ann Marie and I are driving down to Kevin's outside of San Antonio. Tomorrow is the Texas State TT, aka 40km of pain, agony, and suffering; maybe even a bit a puke if I'm lucky, it's how I know I'm going fast ;)
Hopefully the legs will feel ok tomorrow. I hear 4 days in a car isn't the best thing to do before a bicycle race. After tomorrow I may take a few days off, then look at the remaining races for the rest of the season and plan something.

As for the last race of U23 nats, the crit went...ok. I think my body was fed up with not having any real rest in over 1.5 months, the last 2 of which was straight racing. I just didn't have any snap. Wrecks don't help out either. About 30 min into the 60km crit I was third wheel. Unfortunately the guy in front slid out around one o the corners (going over 30 mph). The guy behind him slid out as well and I slammed on the breaks. I ended up hitting one of the guys on the ground in the back, flew over my bars, and with miraculous cat-like skills landed on my feet (grabbing my bike as quickly as possible and trying not to get mowed down by the 80 plus guys left in the feild). The rest of the race was just a lot of pain with no groove I was able to get in. With bike races a lot of people tend to get in a certain rythem, and stay with It for most of the race. In crits, when you ride in a circle 60+ times you tend to do the same thing on a lot of the laps, all while looking for the right move to catch people by suprise and work some magic.

I'll try to write more about it when I have a computer. We're almost to our destination and I need to tell my lady friend where to go.


-- Post From My iPhone

At least I look fast in my TT gear.

So Peter Stetina can TT, but at least I can look fast. I passed up three people and still only managed to finished in the top 1/3 of competitors, which numbered almost 100 registered riders. My time was 50:49 on 35km course that started with a 10.5km climb. Reaching speeds upward of 47mph and spinning out a 55-11 is pretty fun to say the least. What I don't get is Stetina putting out a 45:34...geez. He put a hurtin' on every other person. Also, there is a lot of chalk on the road up here, but I never seem to read it. The only thing I read while out on the TT coure was "keep going," ...awesome motivation. I was really thinking about stopping until I read that ;) Anywho, the last race (60km crit) is in about 2 hours. Tactics include marking Alex Howes and letting the Garmin and Trek boys duke it out while trying to steal some glory.

U23 nats, aka a lot of pain and endless suffering

So the race went ok. Except for the part about little to no neutral water, and a lot of climbing.
Over 130 riders started and only 44 finished. I ended up 19th. Teams represented included Trek Livestrong, Garmin, Rock Racing, Rabobank, Waste Management, and others. Garmin and Trek pretty much controlled the race from the start and made it impossible for anyone without a team to try anything at all. A break composed mainly of Trek and Garmin guys, with a few WM went off the front about 10 miles in. Their teammates blocked and nothing could be done about it. The rest of the race was hanging on for dear life over the climbs in 100+ degree heat (glad i'm form Texas). I made all of the other splits and ended up finishing in the second group with about 10 other riders. Looking at the results and seeing the names Garmin, Trek and WM over and over again in front of my name lessened the blow. Most of those guys already get paid to ride their bike. So I'll take my 19th place and be rather proud of it.

Today is the individual TT, which can also be interpreted of about 40 min of wanting to puke in my mouth, cough up a lung, and feeling my heart-beat in my eyeballs...can't wait :)
Wish me luck!

Okey Dokey, two rest days down with some light recovery spinning. And a lot of carb loading.
I figured I have ingested about 3500 calories so far today. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little full. Tomorrow is going to hurt like nobody's business. 120 miles on the same circuit course as the last day of the Cascade Classic...Sweet Baby Jesus
Also, BIG THANKS TO CHAD SPRINGER AND RUSSELL METOYER for their donations.

Breakfast:
Two packets of oatmeal-330
Cup of coffee with cream and sugar 75
Raisin Bran cereal-189
Hard Boiled Egg-12

Ride (1.5 hr recovery spin):
Banana-62
Clif Bar-240
OS drink-330
Accelerade (2 scoops)- 240
Endurox recovery-270

Lunch:
Turkey sandwhich on rye (Spinach, swiss cheese, tomatoes, other stuff) 374
16 oz Vanilla Latte-250
Chipotle Tomato Soup-100

Snack:
OS drink-330
Pedialyte-100
Ice Cream-110
Powerbar recovery bar-260

Dinner:
Tuna Salad-350
Ice Cream-110
Physique Recovery-350
1 Beer~150

Snack:
Powerbar recovery bar-260
OS-330

=3344 calories