So, like most, I fell off the blog map. However, I plan on writing a bit more now that I'll have a steady job and whatnot. Also, I saw that Joe had a fancy widget on his blog that shows all his rides and ride summaries. So, I investigated this Strava website and found that it easily uploads rides, routes, and data from my Garmin 500. Pretty neat stuff. Now. you can see how much I'm riding (or not riding), whichever happens to be the case. For a second I considered the consequence of showing my training to competitors, but let's be real...I'm not racing much and I'm not doing anything ground breaking with my training schedule. Just riding when I can. I think if enough people start uploading their info, it could make training just a little more fun and add some friendly competition.
In the future, you can look for updates on my KU senior design project, Jayhawk Motorsports, which took all of my life for about 6 months or more. I'll also include some info and stories about the trips I took for project as well as a brief europe trip overview with some cool pics.
I wonder what bike I'll ride tomorrow?
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Monday, July 19, 2010
Dirty Kanza Documentary
The DK 200 was on June 5th, and this year I decided to bring along a support crew (my parents) to follow along, give me food/water, and take some video for a documentary competition. My dad, being a video production teacher, seemed to be perfect for the job and has ample equipment for the job! This is what we came up with. He did the majority of the original video edits and I followed up with some touch ups and integrated a little music. The reason this video has developed so late is because I've been racing and riding a bunch. I hurt my back on friday so to rest up I decided to edit video for a day. The videos (2 parts) seem to show my experience quite well and I think will hold this accomplishment in a unique and memorable way. I had to split the video into 2 and cut the resolution quite a bit in order to post to Youtube. The HD version looks much better!
Hope you guys can gain some appreciation for how intense this race is and I hope you enjoy this video!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Memorial Day Ride to Rulo, NE
Every Memorial Day I ride a 100 miles to Rulo, NE with my buddies from St. Joe. This year was no different, and with 20 other St. Josephites and 2 support vehicles along, we had a nice crowd. The weather was perfect and I felt absolutely great the entire ride. Took it easy for the first 35 miles or so and then motor paced one of the support vehicles on the flats into Rulo at 35 to 42 mph! It was a freaking blast and an awesome workout! You can see where I was motor pacing from the Garmin data below (miles 35-50). Also got up to 51 and 53 mph going down into the valleys (fun). Nice hills going out and some easy flats coming back. Looking forward to the DK 200 this Saturday, and feeling good about it!
(Blurry photo... click to enhance)
(Blurry photo... click to enhance)Monday, May 24, 2010
Summer Racing
The last post I wrote covered Hell's Kitchen RR in early March, so I've definitely been neglecting the whole blog scene. I'm not sure how I feel about my disregard for my inherent race-report blog habits, so I'll leave it at that...
KU Cycling
I raced in Manhattan, KS, Iowa City, IA, Lincoln, NE, and Minneapolis, MN against all teams in the NCCCC. Last year I raced as a Category C, and this year I bumped up to A so that I could have a chance to make nationals. Had a ton of fun racing with all the new KU Cyclists and saw them all become quite good racers. Everyone is sticking around for next year, so we are bound to have some epic good times again! Overall, I ended up doing mediocre in the A/B races held all seasons and wound up qualifying for the Collegiate Nationals Criterium and Road Race. With school pressing down on me, no one to travel with, and 9 hours between my school projects and racing against pros way out of my league, I decided to stay home. Next year, I will try my best to go.
As for summer racing, almost the entire KU Cycling team joined the local Colavita team, so we can continue to race together throughout the summer and into cross season. We have formed a really close group, and I'm glad we are continuing to race on the same team.
MO State Champs RR
Sam, Andy, and I traveled to Sainte Genevieve and had a good time rolling to some 50s music with the windows down hauling at 80 mph.
I've had to race many times this year with no teammates so I'm hoping in the future I'll have some guys to work with in the 3s. Again, I was alone for the MO State RR champs, and midway through the brutal furnace-fest, I was feeling the effects of no racing and little riding (finals suck) since my last collegiate race in April. Kent and Eric (KC guys from Bike Shack) were kind enough to be friendly during the race, and we all found ourselves up at the front with 20 miles to go. I was out of water by this point and literally holding on by a thread, so I tried to just keep from having a heat stroke. I was dropped on the last KOM hill and managed to bridge back within the next couple of miles. Hard work and I missed seeing the break and really had no idea what was going on. I knew Kent was up the road, and there were about 10 riders in the group. Some fireworks happened in last couple of miles and I found myself at the back of a fast train going into the sprint. I thought we still had a couple of miles to go, but we were within 500 meters and guys were starting to jump. I didn't end up doing much and was really just relieved that I made it back alive. I ended up getting up and overtook some guys for a 10th place finish overall. Not bad for how I felt. I'll be looking for some placing/podiums in the near future. Congrats to Kent for taking the MO state Champs title!
Dirty Kanza is coming up June 5th, so I'll be prepping for that. I may race the Wichita RR this weekend, but it's not a definite just yet.
KU Cycling
I raced in Manhattan, KS, Iowa City, IA, Lincoln, NE, and Minneapolis, MN against all teams in the NCCCC. Last year I raced as a Category C, and this year I bumped up to A so that I could have a chance to make nationals. Had a ton of fun racing with all the new KU Cyclists and saw them all become quite good racers. Everyone is sticking around for next year, so we are bound to have some epic good times again! Overall, I ended up doing mediocre in the A/B races held all seasons and wound up qualifying for the Collegiate Nationals Criterium and Road Race. With school pressing down on me, no one to travel with, and 9 hours between my school projects and racing against pros way out of my league, I decided to stay home. Next year, I will try my best to go.
As for summer racing, almost the entire KU Cycling team joined the local Colavita team, so we can continue to race together throughout the summer and into cross season. We have formed a really close group, and I'm glad we are continuing to race on the same team.
MO State Champs RR
Sam, Andy, and I traveled to Sainte Genevieve and had a good time rolling to some 50s music with the windows down hauling at 80 mph.
I've had to race many times this year with no teammates so I'm hoping in the future I'll have some guys to work with in the 3s. Again, I was alone for the MO State RR champs, and midway through the brutal furnace-fest, I was feeling the effects of no racing and little riding (finals suck) since my last collegiate race in April. Kent and Eric (KC guys from Bike Shack) were kind enough to be friendly during the race, and we all found ourselves up at the front with 20 miles to go. I was out of water by this point and literally holding on by a thread, so I tried to just keep from having a heat stroke. I was dropped on the last KOM hill and managed to bridge back within the next couple of miles. Hard work and I missed seeing the break and really had no idea what was going on. I knew Kent was up the road, and there were about 10 riders in the group. Some fireworks happened in last couple of miles and I found myself at the back of a fast train going into the sprint. I thought we still had a couple of miles to go, but we were within 500 meters and guys were starting to jump. I didn't end up doing much and was really just relieved that I made it back alive. I ended up getting up and overtook some guys for a 10th place finish overall. Not bad for how I felt. I'll be looking for some placing/podiums in the near future. Congrats to Kent for taking the MO state Champs title!
Dirty Kanza is coming up June 5th, so I'll be prepping for that. I may race the Wichita RR this weekend, but it's not a definite just yet.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Hell's Kitchen RR
Friday night at Freestate, a group of us decided to head down to Arkansas to race in a gnarly road race called Hell's Kitchen. We spent the night at KU teammate Blake Romine's place and enjoyed the hospitality of his parents. They had a place for each of us to sleep, delicious pancakes at 5:30am, and bananas and powerade for us to take.
We arrived at the race location plenty early and had time to do a little warm up before the 60 mile race began. At 44 degrees and overcast, the day was looking to be chilly, but luckily there wasn't really much wind. The course consists of 3 laps of a 20 mile course with 1 good sized hill and then 1 HUGE hill called "Hell's Kitchen." Looking at the garmin stats, the first hill was a good 9-10% gradient and the Hell's kitchen hill gradient is as follows: 9% for awhile, 3% for a bit, up to 11% for awhile, down to 4% briefly, kick up to 18%, down to 9% (around a bend), kick up to 12%, and then gradually level off until the 11% feed zone hill. This hill is about 2 miles long from the beginning till the feed zone end.
The Cat. 3 group took off about 10 minutes after the PRO/1/2 field, and things seemed to be going rather slowly. Matt was up front setting pace, and I was just surveying the field in my first Cat. 3 road race. Everything held together until the 2nd lap where Matt attacked on the 1st good sized hill and 4 other guys followed, I thought I could make it, but popped and could hardly make it up with the rest of the field. From here, the Walmart guys began to chase hard because they had no one in the break. The pace was blistering, and I was hurting. We ended up catching the 1/2 field and passing them. They then passed us, and then we passed them up again for quite a while. Matt's group must have been long gone. The 1/2s didn't catch us until Hell's kitchen, where Brian Jensen was attacking hard with Steve Tilford in tow. At this point, there were 1s, 2s, and 3s all mixed up. I was blown and so were many of the other 1/2/3s. So everyone began to work together to try and catch our respective fields. I'm not sure what ended up happening relegation wise, but I'm pretty sure some guys were DQ'd for working with other categories. I know for awhile there were 1/2s sucking my wheel until I finally blew for good. About 4 miles from the end of the 2nd lap, I was done, cooked, and ready to quit. I worked with several guys who were also cooked, but I kept getting more and more weak. I ended up riding the last lap by myself, took a pee break, and talked with some other guys along the way that had also been popped and were finishing solo. I was hurting pretty bad, and didn't think I was going to make it up Hell's Kitchen the 3rd time. I suffered, but made it. With 2k to go, a group of 4 Cat 3s came blowing around me from out of nowhere. Weird, I figured all the Cat 3s had either quit or were in front of me. So I caught on, worked for a bit, and then only beat 2 of the guys out on the finishing hill.
Good race for experience I suppose. This was the first time this year that I have felt some decent form before I blew. I guess the endurance will come shortly. No idea how I finished, but dammit I finished.
Miles 15-58 of the race. Shows 2 of the Hell's Kitchen hills.
We arrived at the race location plenty early and had time to do a little warm up before the 60 mile race began. At 44 degrees and overcast, the day was looking to be chilly, but luckily there wasn't really much wind. The course consists of 3 laps of a 20 mile course with 1 good sized hill and then 1 HUGE hill called "Hell's Kitchen." Looking at the garmin stats, the first hill was a good 9-10% gradient and the Hell's kitchen hill gradient is as follows: 9% for awhile, 3% for a bit, up to 11% for awhile, down to 4% briefly, kick up to 18%, down to 9% (around a bend), kick up to 12%, and then gradually level off until the 11% feed zone hill. This hill is about 2 miles long from the beginning till the feed zone end.
The Cat. 3 group took off about 10 minutes after the PRO/1/2 field, and things seemed to be going rather slowly. Matt was up front setting pace, and I was just surveying the field in my first Cat. 3 road race. Everything held together until the 2nd lap where Matt attacked on the 1st good sized hill and 4 other guys followed, I thought I could make it, but popped and could hardly make it up with the rest of the field. From here, the Walmart guys began to chase hard because they had no one in the break. The pace was blistering, and I was hurting. We ended up catching the 1/2 field and passing them. They then passed us, and then we passed them up again for quite a while. Matt's group must have been long gone. The 1/2s didn't catch us until Hell's kitchen, where Brian Jensen was attacking hard with Steve Tilford in tow. At this point, there were 1s, 2s, and 3s all mixed up. I was blown and so were many of the other 1/2/3s. So everyone began to work together to try and catch our respective fields. I'm not sure what ended up happening relegation wise, but I'm pretty sure some guys were DQ'd for working with other categories. I know for awhile there were 1/2s sucking my wheel until I finally blew for good. About 4 miles from the end of the 2nd lap, I was done, cooked, and ready to quit. I worked with several guys who were also cooked, but I kept getting more and more weak. I ended up riding the last lap by myself, took a pee break, and talked with some other guys along the way that had also been popped and were finishing solo. I was hurting pretty bad, and didn't think I was going to make it up Hell's Kitchen the 3rd time. I suffered, but made it. With 2k to go, a group of 4 Cat 3s came blowing around me from out of nowhere. Weird, I figured all the Cat 3s had either quit or were in front of me. So I caught on, worked for a bit, and then only beat 2 of the guys out on the finishing hill.
Good race for experience I suppose. This was the first time this year that I have felt some decent form before I blew. I guess the endurance will come shortly. No idea how I finished, but dammit I finished.
Miles 15-58 of the race. Shows 2 of the Hell's Kitchen hills. Spring Fling 2 & 3
Spring Fling #2
Matt was off the front by himself the entire 3/4 race, so I had the luxury of just sitting in for 60 minutes. He ended up finishing nearly half a lap ahead, although there were times I was afraid we would catch him. Coming around the final 2 turns I had was sitting 3rd wheel and thought I had a decent chance to take 2nd, however, no sprint in the legs yet... bummer. The three of us up front never changed position during the sprint, and then someone can on the outside and edged us all. Took 5th.
Spring Fling #3
A small 3/4 field and a flat tire killed my day. About 20 minutes in, everything was together and I had my first flat tire during a race (actually it's my first flat while riding road in nearly 2 years). Luckily the flat happened around the last turn so I was able to coast to the finish line. I checked out with the officials since I had no spare, when suddenly Zach Dubas from KSU/Velotek offered his Zipp 808 for me to use. So we swapped the rear wheels out, and the officials let me go with the understanding that I couldn't contest any sprints. Fair enough, this race just became a training ride. They let me go when the field was about 200 meters out, so I casually rode up the hill waiting to catch onto the field. Little did I know, teammate Matt O had just started attacking. So Matt flys by at 30 mph, and there's about 5 guys on his wheel and chasing hard. I tried to sprint to close the gap on those 6, but failed and got sucked up by the rest of the chase pack. Those 6 got away. I made a valiant attempt to solo bridge back (and nearly did), but I failed to reconnect before the headwind section, and was left to wait for the field to catch up. KU teammate Spencer and I then took turns pulling for the weak field for the rest of the race. A 360 guy and a blue monster guy also helped out quite a bit, but no one else was going to pull through and race. This was stupid because 2 monster guys and a velotek guy were just ahead after being shed by Matt, a velotek guy, and a specs guy, and we could have stood to increase our placings if we caught those 3.
Matt was off the front by himself the entire 3/4 race, so I had the luxury of just sitting in for 60 minutes. He ended up finishing nearly half a lap ahead, although there were times I was afraid we would catch him. Coming around the final 2 turns I had was sitting 3rd wheel and thought I had a decent chance to take 2nd, however, no sprint in the legs yet... bummer. The three of us up front never changed position during the sprint, and then someone can on the outside and edged us all. Took 5th.
Spring Fling #3
A small 3/4 field and a flat tire killed my day. About 20 minutes in, everything was together and I had my first flat tire during a race (actually it's my first flat while riding road in nearly 2 years). Luckily the flat happened around the last turn so I was able to coast to the finish line. I checked out with the officials since I had no spare, when suddenly Zach Dubas from KSU/Velotek offered his Zipp 808 for me to use. So we swapped the rear wheels out, and the officials let me go with the understanding that I couldn't contest any sprints. Fair enough, this race just became a training ride. They let me go when the field was about 200 meters out, so I casually rode up the hill waiting to catch onto the field. Little did I know, teammate Matt O had just started attacking. So Matt flys by at 30 mph, and there's about 5 guys on his wheel and chasing hard. I tried to sprint to close the gap on those 6, but failed and got sucked up by the rest of the chase pack. Those 6 got away. I made a valiant attempt to solo bridge back (and nearly did), but I failed to reconnect before the headwind section, and was left to wait for the field to catch up. KU teammate Spencer and I then took turns pulling for the weak field for the rest of the race. A 360 guy and a blue monster guy also helped out quite a bit, but no one else was going to pull through and race. This was stupid because 2 monster guys and a velotek guy were just ahead after being shed by Matt, a velotek guy, and a specs guy, and we could have stood to increase our placings if we caught those 3.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Spring Fling #1
its purpose well. It was a perfect way to kick off my first build week. Also, this week looks to be nice (no absurd precipitation), so I'll get to take my bikes outside!Congrats to Matt for taking 1st in the first and second primes, 2nd in the third prime, and 5th in the final sprint. He has the overall points lead at this point. Also Congrats to Spencer Martin for a 1st place Cat 4 finish, and to Amber Markey for a 2nd place Cat 4 finish.
Next weekend is the Spring Fling #2 and the first Dam race. I'm going to be tired.
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