One Week Left

I'm sitting here in my dormatory room, thinking about my training for this week. Next weekend is the start of the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference (ECCC) season at Rutgers, with the season opener time trial. I am really determined to place top 9 in the time trial of my category, despite my incident with a car last fall. I think on Saturday I will only be able to do the Time Trial in the morning since my sister's high school basketball team is in the State's playoff (Pennsylvania) and the first round is that same day. I plan to do the time trial as early as possible (my category's start is at 8:00 AM) and then head either back here to school or home to go see my sister's game. It all depends what time and where the game is, I may even be able to do the Criterium later in the day at 11:15 AM if my sister's game is at night in a local area to here or home. It all depends, and I'll find out early this week. Then I'll figure out if I can do the circuit race on Sunday.

Anyways, back on topic... I am trying to forget about the fact that I was off my bike for 12 weeks and lost a lot of fitness and gained weight as a result after my car/bike crash. I bought a workout video recently involving a medicine ball to help with building my core, chest and arms, as well as legs. Well, I might have said the whole body but my main focus with this video is to lose weight and tone up to how I used to be. So far I've lost like 3 lbs and about an inch off my hip and chest and I've only started 5 days ago.

I just got a new computer for my bike, with Cadence and rear-wheel sensor which is very sweet cause now I can train better when on the trainer in my dorm or our bike room on campus. Very very sweet. My last computer went dead on me and so I was forced to buy a new one. This was on a clearance sale or something, cause it was cheaper than my previous computer and has more features. Cateye Astrale 8 is what I got, and it's pretty cool.

My training for this week... I'm going out for an hour and a half or so tomorrow, monday I'll do a light ride outdoors and then my time trial training indoors on a trainer, rest tuesday, wednesday go outside for 2-3 hours doing some sprints and climbing, thursday light ride outdoors and TT training indoors, rest friday (possible light spinning on the trainer mid-day), and then Rutgers on Saturday. Anyone have any suggestion to make this better? Let me know.

Well, I'm gonna get my mind off of cycling momentarily by playing some Xbox with a buddy of mine, and then head to bed. Tomorrow, I'll be eating lunch around 12ish, and then going straight out for my ride around 1ish.

Picture, finally

Finally, as promised, a picture of my bike. because the width of these posts, the picture doesn't look as good when it's smaller, as I tried previously to post a picture in a post. So, instead of putting it in a post, I put it at the bottom of this page (scroll down) where it is a larger picture, so it is easier to see details of the bike.

I cleaned the bike after putting an hour on it in my dorm with the trainer, to get it picture perfect. Speaking of training, if any of you haven't tried a CTS video (Carmichael Training System) you have to get one. It is very motivating to use, which is better than just watching TV while pedaling. I got the VHS version of Chris Carmichael's Time Trial training video, and it is very good. I bought it cheap on eBay, and am using it to train for the Rutgers Season Opener Time Trial event. Anyways, enough said for tonight, I am very tired as I just got back from the weightroom, which I did the hour ride on the trainer prior to that. Let me know what you think of my new ride!

until next time...

Where my shoes at?!

two weekends in a row, I managed to forget my cycling shoes at school when I go home for the weekends. And what luck, today is a BEAUTIFUL day for a ride. I'm so mad!!! I may just end up buying a second, better pair of shoes to use as my racing shoes and leave the ones I have now home for those weekends I come home and forget my shoes at school. Still mad...

I know I know I know, I keep saying I'm going to post a picture... well, two weeks ago I was out for a morning ride and it was a day after a rainy/snowy day, so the roads were all pretty dirty, causing my bike to be like a truck that went off-roading... I don't want to take a picture of it while it is dirty, and although I have cleaned the easy-to-reach parts, I haven't cleaned the whole bike that you would still see some dirty spots in the picture. Yes, I know, I should have cleaned it back then because the dirt and all can affect my bike's performance, but I was just so busy with school (and lazy at other points) to clean it. I promise though, I will clean my bike this week and post a picture. Another thing, they're building a new dorm hall close to the one I'm in, which sucks because there's dirt and dust everywhere that everyday I ride I'd have to clean my bike... anyone have an easy solution to keep the bike clean without having to give it a full clean-up job after every ride? let me know! thanks for reading

Back to School/First Ride

I'm back at school, about to finish my first week of classes tomorrow. Such a relief to be back and see all of my friends, including my teammates. Speaking of which.......

On Wednesday I went out for my first ride since coming back to school with two of my teammates. I was not ready for this ride... I got dropped on all the hills and mountain climbs, my left knee started to act up, and I basically just BONKED! But, I'm glad to be back and riding with my teammates again.

I know I promised a few pictures of my bike in my last post, but I just didn't have time to set up my bike and take a picture, and I've also forgotten my camera at home so when I go home this weekend I'll bring it back and take some pictures of my bike in my dorm room and then post in one of the next few posts. Keep checking back!!

12 weeks = ENOUGH

12 weeks is enough to get you out of shape. But today, I finally had my first training ride since the crash, and I felt good on the bike. Despite knowing I've lost shape and gained weight, I was just very happy to be back on the bike. Unfortunately with the losing shape and gaining weight, my MPH average dropped to about 11-12 MPH, when I was able to do 14-18 MPH in September and October prior to the crash.

I was out for an hour and a half (1:30) earlier today, just a basic training on some old familiar roads I usually go on. Monday I hope to have a better training session, and I may give this new route I came up with a try.

Pictures of my bike will post tomorrow, be on the lookout for them!!

Tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty

Finally, it's here! I have brought home my Trek 2100 D from the bike shop and what better timing, TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!

As soon as I brought it home, I put my bottle cages on, my Shimano pedals on, and put my new cleats on the shoes. Then I took it up and down the road for a quick test ride, and man, it rides really nicely! I may need to do just a bit of adjustment to the pedals (because of the new cleats) and the front derailleur that is a little choppy. I just had the bike set up on the trainer in my bedroom to do a workout while watching TV, and I can tell you that this bike is definitely a nice upgrade from my Trek 1000! Tomorrow, I go out for my first real ride since my car/bike crash 12 weeks ago today. I will update, and I will soon be putting some pictures up, hopefully in the next post or two.

2007 Reflections - Part 2

Just a few more reflections I feel I need to talk about.

Looking back to 2007 and with the start of my cycling career, I've learned a lot just from the bike alone. The bike is my best teacher in other words... what I mean is that I've learned time management, responsibility, determination and how to just deal with stuff that is beyond your control. To elaborate a little more, I've learned time management in that I had a summer job over the summer, 40 hours a week working 7 to 3:30 Mondays through Friday. I got lazy at the beginning of the summer and let my training slip... by the 3rd or 4th week of the summer I finally decided that I needed to find a better way to train and still work 40 hours a week, and I've come up with a weekly schedule that worked for me. No more staying up until 2 in the morning talking to friends over AIM, no more taking afternoon naps on a bad day, etc. I would also sometime go into work at 6 in the morning (as some of my co-workers did) and be out by 2:30 so I could have more time training in the afternoon. Either way though, once I get home after work, I'd grab something to eat, maybe take a quick nap, get dressed and get on that bike. This also helped me with my responsibility and determination aspect, in that I've learned that in the end I am responsible for my own training, and I'm the only person to force myself out there on the road.

I view 2007 as my "trial" year for the cycling season. I've gone to races clueless of tactics, skills, etc. and I would always learn from my mistakes that would often put me near last place, if not last. Like at the Allentown Sportsfest criterium race, we had like 15 laps and I was doing really well sticking with the peloton, no one was leading and no one was dropped yet. However, I made a stupid mistake by becoming greedy and wanting to get towards the front of the peloton and made the mistake of jumping on a hill too early on the 4th or 5th lap which killed my legs and I ended up getting dropped with someone else and came second to last. I believe I could've gotten top 15 in that race if I would've waited for a better time. Mistakes like those are very valuable in the first year or two. Hopefully there won't be as many mistakes this year, and I will remember the mistakes I did make last year.

I've also learned that you could be the best darn cyclist in the world, but all it takes is one bad driver who fails to see you determining whether you make it home or not. My friend and I were in a motored vehicle/bike crash within two months of each other. She got run over by a tractor trailer that cut her off, and I slammed into the side of an SUV that cut me off at an intersection. Motorists are just sometimes so oblivious to cyclists. I'll be the first to admit I used to be before becoming a competitive cyclist and riding more roads than I did as a kid. Where I'm from, cyclists are rare. Very few people are seen in spandex shorts and jersey riding a road bike. Most of the "cyclists" around here are moms, dads, kids, etc. out for a nice stroll in town on single-gear or mountain bikes. There is a really good 15 page article on this topic of cyclists getting hit and injured for life or killed by drunk drivers, cellphone users, etc. that I read in the January/February edition of Bicycling magazine. Read it, it is an interesting article! You can also find it at http://www.bicycling.com

That is pretty much for my reflections of the year 2007. I can finally say goodbye to 2007 and hello to 2008.

Tomorrow is my 23rd birthday (YAY!) and I hope to get my Trek 2100 D from the bike shop. Hopefully it is built by now, but if not I will ask them to build it by noon or 1:00 so I can get it and go out for a quick slow ride around the neighborhood. I cannot wait, the anticipation has been killing me. Tomorrow will also mark 12 weeks since my car/bike crash, which means 12 weeks I've been off the bike.