Racing C's

Okay, so now it is pretty much official. I just signed up for the Men's C road race at Bucknell. Nothing like going from a longest race of the season at 17.6 miles to 36 miles. I am sure it will be good times had by all. Anyone else from D's want to join me?

Racing

Racing has been great so far. Mostly because it is fun, I have finished every race I entered, and I have seen improvement each weekend. It has been nice to finally be in the mix the last two weeks and be able to score points. I am looking forward to a great road race this weekend and the predicted nice weather. It will be a treat after starting the road race Sunday at Princeton in in 30 degree temps. All of you guys and girls out there who have not been out to the races yet are missing out on all the fun. We would love to see a few more of you out racing in the D's with Matt, Brad, and myself.

Princeton/Stevens Results

Results from the Princeton/Stevens can be found here.
Overall I can state that the weekend was a success, we all did fairly well and came back unscathed. The weather was a bit colder (30 degrees at the start on Sunday for mens D) than Philly.

Criterium
A's- 50 minutes, 52 starters

• Mike Maret- 25th
  
• Jon Marshal- 22nd
  

D's- 25 minutes, 41 starters

• Matt Conroy- 8th, 2 points
  
• Brad Quinnan-15th
  
• Pete LoBianco- 18th, 3 prime points

Road race
A's- 35 miles, 47 starters

• Mike Maret-30th
• Jon Marshal-44th

D's- 18 miles, 47 starters

• Brad Quinnan-12th
• Pete LoBianco- 14th
• Matt Conroy- 23rd

Bucknell next weekend, weather's predicted to be in the 70's!

saturday's ride

Click here.

If you don't want to do all of that...maybe just ride the first, flat 15-20 miles with us and then turn back. Whatever. It's all good.

fast

Care to estimate their finishing cadence?

grant's tomb's women

A fun little write-up in the Times about the first-timers who braved the rain last weekend at Grant's Tomb.

Spring Break Training Camp Day No. 2

A jaunt to the north...

Just 2M and I this time.

About sixty miles in about 3:20. A head wind t h e w h o l e w a y. Really. Some time during our trip up and over and back over the mountain the wind changed directions and we fought it both out and back. Why doesn't it ever seem to work out the other way (a tailwind both directions)? (I know the answer.)

But we shouldn't dwell on the negative. What we should dwell on was how awesome the weather was. Low 60s. Sun-shinny the whole ride. Spring is...springing. Super awesome.

And it was a great workout. Which is a good thing because Spring Break Training Camp Days Nos. 2 and 3 may turn out to be a bust, given the massive storm that is apparently headed our way. But I have fenders, so we'll see.

...

Good luck to Jonny M., 2M, Petey, and Chris T. at the bike games in NYC this weekend!

Spring Break Training Camp Day No. 1

A tour of South Mountain:


Seventy-seven miles in 4:15. On board with moi were Tim Cusick and 2M. It was a nice ride.

Tomorrow, the ride leaves my house at 11:30 (weather permitting). 2M is in. Tim, maybe. Me, of course. Headed up Doubling Gap. Maybe down the other side, then back...some way. Shooting for about three hours.

If others want to join, but don't want to ride the full distance, just come along and turn back whenever.

Get it in now. The weekend looks to be wet.

Race number two under the belt.

What a great weekend for racing. I managed to be in the races this weekend rather than watching the racing happen from behind the pack. The Crit went much better this week as I was able to stay in the race for almost the entire race. The front runners didn't pull away until about 1.5 laps to go which resulted in a 22nd place finish out of 63 starters. Unfortunately I was dumb enough to take a pull toward the end of the race so I wasn't able to respond to the finishing surge as well as I would have liked. Lesson learned for the next race.

Onto the circuit race on Sunday where I managed to be in the field sprint at the end resulting in a 14th place finish out of 60 starters. This race was a lot of fun and I was fortunate enough to avoid the crazy wreck on the last lap. Check out the pick where the Bucknell riders is eating pavement, the guy in the background is freaking out, and the bike is flying in the air. Hopefully everyone was okay and it looked worse than it was. I know that there are riders who have wrecked and those that are going to wreck, I just hope that when I do go down I don't eat pavement as bad as some of these guys did. This wrecked happened on a downhill surge at give or take 25-30 mph.

Hoping for another good race weekend in NY.

Navy Photos

Sorry about the delay, I've been wicked busy. My favorite pic is the one of Mike standing up through the cemetary. I think it looks awesome!

First race and Sunday long ride

Well now that I have done my first race and gained valuable experience, I am looking forward to the rest of the season. The first half of the race went well as I was fighting in the pack for position and sprinting out of the turns with the best of them. As the race went on and the lack of oxygen in my muscles began to affect my stellar first half performance, I fell back on the long start finigh straight. Once I had lost the pack, the head wind, and of course the debilitating lactate acid in my quads, allowed the pack to pull away bit by bit over the last few laps. I magaged to keep pushing as hard as I could and managed to pass two riders who fell off the main pack later in the race. I am looking forward to improving my performances as the season continues.

Now on to today's ride. A nice three hour ride where it snowed and sleeted for at least half of the ride, and I returned home looking like I had just finished mountain biking. Half of the salt and cinders used to defrost the PA roads for the last month were sprayed all over my bike and body. On a cool note I managed to ride for an hour with a group of Cat 2 riders I saw on the ride and asked if I could ride with them for awhile.

Upgraded from D to A tonight

I finally applied for my A upgrade tonight and got it within five min. of submitting it, pleasent. I'm a little nervous but excited to see if my winter training has paid off at NAVY this weekend. Should be fun...

Great Saturday Ride / Random Snow Pictures

Goals:::Fun Event

Yes, I'm lame... I'm the last to post my goals for this year.
Yes, they're lame goals, but they are realistic goals as well.

I'm not going to sugar coat it. I havn't been riding... at all. A deadly mix of procrastination, heavy course load coupled with fact I need strait A's to maintain graduating with Magna (maybe even Summa) Cum Laude honors, and foul weather. No excuses.. I know...

Anyways, I think I've missed my training deadlines to compete in the opening ECCC races. I'm not going to go, waste my money, and embarass myself. I am going to start today and set a goal to be physically ready for the Philly Phlyer.

So here it goes:

1. Ass(ets) in the saddle: I have plenty of movies to get in at least a 45minute spin in the basement nearly every day for a month.

2. Run: Best way to build up the cardio and lose weight. And to train for the Tough Mudder Run...

3. Lift: I will be applying to multiple police agencies in the upcoming months... I need to pass their physical fitness standards.

4. Complete a full ECCC Crit race (Cat D) without getting pulled! (Set your goals low, then you won't be as dissappointed)

5. Make it to the Philly Phlyer, Princeton/Stevens Races, Bucknell, Army, and possibly Dartmouth.

6. Be in shape to compete in the Tough Mudder Race May 2nd.

This brings me to my "Fun Event" Would anyone like to go to do this Tough Mudder Race with me. It looks insanely fun. Tough, but fun. And it would be a break from cycling before Nationals.

7 mile run through trees, water, obstacles, fire, and mud. AND>>>Live Music, Free t-shirt, and (root)Beer afterwards!

I guess I'm making it my ultimate goal. I know I won't do well, but for me, the challenge of getting in enough shape to run a 7 mile race will be a victory all in itself.

Ok. Run outside today and TNR tomorrow (weather pending). LET'S GO!!!

Tour of Qatar

I've had way to much fun following the Tour of Qatar over the last week. I've streamed some of the races live or watched parts on youtube. Check out this amazaing sprint by the Liquigas rider Francesco Chicchi on the final stage of the event.

Just advance it to 8:25 into the clip to see the final sprint, crazy stuff!

the tree and farm race is ON!

Yes, indeed. Saturday, tomorrow, February 13, 2010, marks the inaugural tree and farm race.

For an interactive, more detailed map, click here.

But, of course, the route had to be modified somewhat to accommodate the snow...which means the non-road sections have been eliminated. :-(

Hincapie disapproves...


...but what are you gonna do.

START TIME: 9:30 am, Saturday, February 13, 2010.

START PLACE: Southhampton Township Park. (See map for details. Start location indicated by green dot. Easy access from the freeway--take the Walnut Bottom Road exit. For those interested, I'll probably be rolling from my house around 9:00 am. If you'd rather meet here that's fine.)

For those not interested in the full 54.5 miles, several bailout points back to Shippensburg are available (consult the map for your favorite).

Saturday's gonna be a cold one. Wear your warm gloves!

...

TURN-BY-TURN CUE SHEET

(I suggest copying, pasting, and formatting to your liking...then zip-tying to your top tube or retaining in your back pocket for easy on-the-bike reference. I'll have a few extra day-of, but it'd be better if you printed your own. And please stare at the map a while so as to get a sense of where this thing is going down.)

START at the park.
South on Neil (1.1)
L on Cleversburg (0.2)
L on White House (0.2)
R on Walnut Dale (2.3)
R on Mountain Estates/Strohm (0.4)
R on Chestnut Grove (0.8)
R on Gutshall (1.3)
turns into Furnace Hollow (1.4)
R on Mountain View (1.9)
R on Pine (0.7)
L on Quarry Hill (1.2)
R (still Quarry Hill; 0.4)
L (still Quarry Hill; 0.9)
turns into Springfield (1.0)
R on Big Spring (3.0)
L on Fairfield/533 (2.3)
R on Bulls Head (2.7)
L on Steelstown (0.2)
R on Whiskey Run (3.6)
R on Mountain (0.2)
L on Pine Knob (0.5)
L on Woods (1.0)
R on Mountain (1.1)
L on Oak Bend (1.0)
turns into Gobbler Knob (0.8)
L on Bridgewater (1.7)
R on Gameland (0.7)
R on Mountain (1.1)
L on Zion (1.6)
L on Peebles (1.7)
L on 641 (0.1)
R on Covered Bridge (0.9)
R on E Creek (1.8)
R on 696 (0.2)
L on W Creek (1.6)
L on Burnt Mill (2.1)
L on Maclay's Mill (1.1)
L on Middle Spring (0.5)
cross 696...
turns into Gephart (1.4)
L on Mud Level (1.5)
R on Duncan (1.4)
L on Newville/533 (0.1)
R on Foltz (1.0)
turns into Kline (1.5)
R on Walnut Bottom/174 (1.0)
L on Goodhart (0.9)
L on High (0.6)
FINISH AT MPH SIGN!

It's Official

Well, I got my racing license in the mail so now I am officially psyched to race. I am sure I am not the only one who is ready to get their competition on. Only two and a half weeks until Navy which I am down for participating in. Now if only I could get some training rides in outside instead of on the trainer. On the plus side I am getting in some good upper body workouts shoveling the driveway repeatedly. Even Lance does some upper body conditioning in the off season so I think it will only benefit my cycling performance.

Superb Snow Ride

I did a solid 1hr 45min ride today. I didn't get out the last two days due to the snow and I was in no mood to ride the trainer today. I felt really really good on the second part of the ride putting in some nice efforts. Like normal, I have some cool cell pictures of the roads and my ice covered bike. I'll put those up later today or tomorrow.

I've enjoyed reading everyone's goals and I think some people still need to share---- maybe? Mike, Cody, Kevin?

Go SAINTS!!!

Only 3 Riders Brave the Snow...

Well, it was a good TNR today. Brad, Chop, and I were the only ones to show up for a snowy ride. Due to time constraints we decided to have a short and pretty hard workout... The goal was the negative split 3 laps, which we did, and was quite fun. Too bad we didn't have a photographer (Jon) to take some snow pics.

february

If anyone is feeling down, depressed, disinterested, or discontent about the weather (and riding in this weather) I'd like to remind you of this:


Get excited. Spring is coming. And the more you ride now the more you'll enjoy your riding when it's warm.

And you've all got those awesome new jackets to wear. Which is awesome.

Yup. Awesome.

(For those that haven't picked up their jackets yet--Jimmy, Chris T. (who else?)--I've got them in my basement and they're not doing any good there. Come get yours and put it to use!)