It's Late!

Well, as I did the last two years, I wanted to post my end-of-season rankings. However, being Category 5 at the end of the year it is kind of not accurate to what I was at the official end of the season. By this time, many Cat 5 who are better than me would have upgraded to Category 4, pushing me up to a better ranking than I really am. I did have a decent season though, having once reached top 120 in the nation, and top 20 in the state if I remember correctly. That is on account of placing 4th out of 4 riders in a race that I did pretty well in compared to the other riders in my category. So, let it be known that my official ranking does not reflect my actual capability.

I got big plans for 2010. By the end of this month I will be meeting with a friend of mine, professional cyclist Kim Geist at http://www.kimgeist.com, which we will be discussing coaching. I've pushed off coaching for too long and it shows in my racing results. While I may be a smart cyclist, I'm not a very strong one and without the strength needed, I'm not winning races. Now is the time to start coaching and training for the 2010 season to start somewhere around April or May. I also want a coach so I have a schedule to follow and it will "force" me out to ride. I haven't ridden much in the last 2 or 3 months. At most, I'd say I was on my bike 10 days out of the last few months, which is pretty sad, despite a scheduled 3 weeks break in August/September.

So, this is it for now. I will update about my coaching once I get that set away and started by the end of the month. 2010 shall be a great year for me, and I will reach Category 4 by the end of the season in both road and track!

Should have raced

Looking at the results from last week's criterium, I probably should have raced. Even if I finished last place, I would have still gotten some points to give me a better ranking. There were only 11 racers, and some didn't get points, I'm assuming those are the citizen riders, not license holders. But whatever, I'm 112th out of more than 2500 riders, which is still pretty damn good. Yeah, I know, I just got lucky with the one criterium where only 4 riders were present, and I got 4th.

So, just as I do every year, I will be posting my official, end-of-season rankings within the next few weeks. I don't believe there are any more big races left in Pennsylvania, or in the NE region of the US, so my rankings should be pretty much set, give or take a few places by the end of the year. Even though some would tell me to upgrade to Cat 4 with a ranking of 112th, I am just not ready yet. This winter I hope to get very serious, more serious than ever, with my cycling. I hope to hire my good friend, Kimberly Geist, as a coach within the next few months, and just start cracking down with a good training program that will get me better.

2010 is going to be a good year for me in a lot of aspects. I hope to get a job sometimes soon or within the year 2010 and I should be able to upgrade to Cat 4 rightfully (as in, upgrading and not then just getting last in all Cat 4 races). There are a few other stuff I hope to achieve in 2010, but those will just put you to sleep if I type them out.

Anyways, I'm currently on a 2-3 week break from cycling. I've felt lately no motivation to riding, but just laying around and doing nothing but watch TV and play video games all day. So, I'm going to do just that for the next two weeks. I also officiate soccer on the side, doing high school games during the week and youth games on the weekend, so I'll get my physical activity through that. I've also taken up jogging, starting on Friday, but I doubt that'll last once I get back into riding. Need to run more though...

Until my next post, enjoy life!

Official End of 2009 Season

Well, this morning I happened to wake up between 2 and 3 AM for whatever reason. I was thinking, I'm up now, I might as well go to the Yuasa Right from the Start criterium in Laureldale, PA. I got on the computer, played some games for a little, then at about 5:00 I started getting ready. My mind was not well rested though, apparently, and had the timing of my preparation and leaving for the race all messed up.

Race starts at 8:00, and I usually like to get to the course at least an hour ahead of time, more preferably an hour and a half. So this would add up to arriving sometimes between 6:30 and 7. I had that figured out earlier, but I didn't figure out what time I should leave by (which would have been 5:45ish). Then a little later I was thinking about it and thought "ok, I need to leave no later than 6:45", totally forgetting that I needed to ARRIVE at about that time. I get into the car at about 6:45 and head out. I turned around about 2 miles into my drive realizing that I was going to be late and may risk missing the race. Good thing I didn't pre-register, or that would have been $20 I lost for good.

Yes, I probably could have still gotten there by about 7:30. However, I have a strict pattern of getting ready for a race and I would have had to skip several steps, including a good warm up, in order to race.

So, having said this, my race season is officially over for 2009. I would like to give one last shout out for my only personal sponsor, Tooks International, the maker of Tooks Hats. The website again is http://www.tookshats.com/ I will have a Sponsors list to the right eventually, once I clean up all the crap all the way over there. Some things are outdated obviously.

Have a good Sunday everyone, and a good week!

My season is soon over

Tomorrow (Saturday) I am hoping to race at the track for the last race of the track season. I got my goods from my sponsor, Tooks Hats http://www.tookshats.com which includes the Tooks Classic beanie, some stickers I have placed on my wheels and bike, and a Tooks shirt to wear before, in between and after races (as term of my contract). I have mentally prepared myself (and still am) for tomorrow races, but the weather god must not be looking in my direction right now. Looks like rain for most of the day at 50% or more chance. I will be really disappointed if it does rain and the track racing gets cancelled and not postponed. I gotta think positive though, as that has worked in the past regarding races. Days that looked like rain (even up to 90% chance) would turn around and be a decent to sunny day after all.

Then, on Sunday, is a big day in Reading, PA. They got a carnival-like gig set up for the day around the race course (which is a criterium by the way). So a lot of people should be there, maybe even the news (from rumors) will be there. This will be a big race for me, as I try to keep my 4th place in state and 105th in nation standing. If I do well, who knows, I could pop up to 2nd or 3rd in state and top 100 in nation (how awesome would THAT be?!). I'll have to put that in a cycling resume I plan to start up soon.

So, pray for no rain tomorrow until after 3:00. What the heck, ask for no rain until Sunday afternoon haha. I can't wait to wake up in the morning to see what the weather is looking like tomorrow.

Tooks Hats

So, I ordered one of the hats from my sponsor, Tooks Hats. It came on Friday and I haven't really had much of a chance to try them out, mainly because I don't have an MP3 player anymore after my last one decided it didn't want to charge batteries anymore. I gotta order one soon to try out, I think I'll just get a cheap 2gb MP3 player just to last me a few months until I can afford a better one.

The hat I ordered was the Tooks Classic Beanie in black. I have it plugged into my computer now as I type this and jam to some DMX, Eminem, and other Hip-Hop/Rap music. With the surprising loudness as I hear it, I thought it was too loud that people around me would hear when I'd wear this in public or whatever. However, when I took the hat it was almost no sound when I had the computer music turned up to the loudest. Just like headphones or earphones, no one around you can really hear it unless they are really paying attention and you have it on the loudest volume setting. I wouldn't suggest having this on the loudest when riding or running as you'd still need to hear traffic around you, but I think this would be safe enough at a lower volume for riding. I don't know this yet, and won't get the chance to do that until I get a portable media device (i.e. MP3 player). I will probably be ordering the skully soon as well, since I could use that under my helmet to keep my head cool in the summer and warm in the winter. This will certainly keep me entertained on long, boring training rides!

Off topic: a few hours ago I discovered on the www.usacycling.com website that I am ranked 108th in the nation for Category 5 Criterium racers, and 4th in the State of Pennsylvania. I have some other of my rankings, including age groups and total riders, to the right of this blog post. Check it out!

Weekend race report and my new profession

This weekend was the Vortex Cycling Club hosted race weekend. Yesterday was the Criterium that was different than last year's criterium, and much more of a criterium than in previous years. Today was the Circuit Race, which was the criterium in previous years. The Criterium yesterday was cut down from 30 to 20 laps because of the races already falling behind before the start of the first race, our Cat 5. I hate how they always target the Cat 5 races for cutting down. The Circuit race today was it's usual 10.3 miles, 8 lap circuit.

Before Saturday, I was the only rider pre-registered for the Cat 5. Right now I wish I was the only rider to show up haha. Just so happened we had 4 riders total, meaning only ONE was not getting any medal. And that one happened to be me unfortunately. Two other riders were Vortex teammates of mine, and the other guy was a Guys Cycling rider who I knew from track racing this season.

If you did the math, that means I got 4th place out of 4 riders. However, it did come down to a semi-sprint finish at the end among the four of us, almost. First off, I got dropped at one point because the Guys Cycling rider (Anthony is his name) attacked on the one lap just to speed up the race a little. That was totally unexpected and those three riders rode together for several laps until I was able to catch up. At one point I think I was more than 1/4 a lap behind them. They slowed down after the first preme lap and I was able to catch them. The next preme I made sure I wasn't going to get dropped again, so with no intention of going for the preme I just stayed on a wheel that whole lap.

With two laps to go I was in the front pulling everyone... it was now or never for me. coming into the third turn I looked back and saw that I was ahead of the other three by about 5 yards. I decided to attack coming out of the third turn up the slight elevation and go for the Gold. Well, when I started attacking one of my teammates got right on my wheel, pulling everyone else with him. Coming out of the 4th turn towards the start/finish line, everyone started sprinting on the last lap and I tried my best to stay with them. One of my teammates and the Guys Cycling got off the front, and I was with the other teammate until the hill where he just started sprinting. Now, I should say, my teammates were Juniors, probably 13 and 14ish, and like 100 lbs. The teammate that I was with got away from me and I tried to counter it by cranking hard in a bigger gear to catch up and pass. It did not work, and I came through the finish line 4th and last.

The circuit race went pretty much the same as last year, but this time about half the field than last year. We only had 10 riders (last year, 21 or so). Right on the first lap I got dropped on the limb and just decided to ride and not really race. I had a guy behind me, but he was behind by a good distance so I just made sure I kept my distance, but not push too hard and kill my legs because I had to run later in the day while ref'ing soccer matches. After getting lapped twice, I crossed the line in 9th place.

Overall, it really wasn't a rewarding weekend for me. I mean, the rain from Friday into Saturday and the coldness (60s) Saturday morning caused many riders not wanting to show up and race, and caused the other riders in the field to go slower. If this had been a sunny day with the four of us, I possibly would have gotten lapped.

As for my new profession... I was asked to do the announcements and stuff during the races, and turns out I'm pretty good at it. I got a lot of compliments from people, saying I made the races more interesting to watch.

Announcing New Sponsor

Tooks International
HTTP://WWW.TOOKSHATS.COM/

About Tooks Hats: (taken directly from their website)
Tooks were born in the spirit of winter sports but can be used for just about any activity. Whether you're out walking, jogging, biking, snow riding, or just hanging around the house, Tooks make the perfect companion to your MP3 or other favorite media player.

This company had offered me a sponsorship a few days ago after seeing an online profile of mine. After viewing their products and debating about it, I've finally decided to sign the contract of sponsorship earlier this afternoon.

I plan on getting making my first purchase soon. Once I get the product, I am required to make a product review (as a term of the contract) so I will let you readers know what I think of the product!

I particularly became interested in their Sportec Skully, which will fit easily under the helmet and keep the sweat from my face and the sun from giving me helmet tan-lines (as I like to call it). And, with the removable headphones, I can use the Skully during races where I wouldn't be allowed to listen to music.