So I have been sick for the last week. I think I just have a common cold, although I have been telling everyone that I have the swine flu so that they will think Im that hard core. The worst part about being sick is probably blowing my nose in class. I can't help it. It's a necessity if I don't want a respiratory infection, but the professors just don't understand. I went to office hours the other day and my prof. said, "Oh yeah, you're the guy that blows his nose all the time. What do YOU want?"
And also I can't ride my bike. Ally will tell you that my bike and I have a semi-platonic connection: when I can't ride, I tend to be cranky and irritable. So for the last week I have been sick, cranky, irritable, and blow my nose a lot. Let's just say I'm not the greatest person to be around.
Yesterday was the first time that I have felt good enough to get on the bike. Today, I rode with Michael Carey. We had a nice ride out east even though it was windy. Michael has been playing a lot of tennis, and it seemed the strokes weren't helping his fitness. I made him hurt even though he is a stronger rider than me. On the way back, I ran into Lance Armstrong. I said hey to him and we talked a little about the UT cycling team. I was riding next to him not paying attention, and all of a sudden, he says, "Well, this is my house, so...uh.... see ya i guess." I said, "Oh okay cool, well.... I have no idea where I am...." He asked me whether I would be able to get back, and I assured him that I could, even though I had no idea where I was. After wandering around for about 45 min, (after a 3 hr ride) I called Stark and had him come pick me up. I don't know that getting lost was worth it to talk to Lance, but whatever, I guess there are a lot of people that would kill to get to talk to him. Now, TEXAS FIGHT!!!! Time for the football game!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Texas OU Weekend
Last weekend was Texas Ou weekend, and so I was in Dallas and Garland to watch the game. We drove up Friday evening and had dinner with my parents. Mom cooked grandmother's stew and had lots of good fruit as well. Erik, Stark, Ryan and I gorged ourselves until we couldn't eat anymore. Ryan wasn't planning on eating because he had already had two dinners that day, but indulged anyways. Afterward, we went over to my grandma's old house, where we would spend the night.
After changing, we met up with Ingrid, Erik's sister. She was having a house party, and was very nice, a great hostess! After much merriment, we crashed early back at grandma's house.
The next morning, I made waffles for everyone, and we left about 9:30 am for the 11 am game. I thought it would be a great idea to take the DART light rail. It is fast and efficient, and would take us straight to the fair. The only problem was, that half the people going to the game thought the exact same thing. Train after train was completely packed! There were people crammed so tightly, that none of us could find a spot! It took almost 2 hours before we got the game. By that time, it had already started, so we missed kick-off.
Texas won! Way to go! I think the offense did not play outstanding, but the defense definitely wrecked.
After the game, we were famished and decided to get a famous Fletcher's corn dog. Everyone else seemed to want one too..... The line was enormous and everyone seemed to be okay with cutting to the front. I almost had to pull two old men apart because they were fight about who was and who wasn't in line for corn dogs. They were fighting over corn dogs! They were good though after 45 minutes of waiting. After eating, we went to the car show, which, in my opinion, is the only good reason to stay at the fair.
When were getting ready to leave, we saw this huge line of people waiting for something. I asked a guy what they were waiting on and he said the train. You have got to be kidding me. Our only way back to the cars was a two hour line for the train. We decided to take a cab. So did everybody else at the fair. A cab was impossible to find. We walked out of the fair and into one of the shadiest parts of Dallas. I called my mom and asked her to come pick us up. A cop stopped and asked why we were sitting around. He said this is a pretty bad neighborhood and should probably go back to the fair if it got dark before our ride got here. I guess he thought that someone was going to jump us!
We finally got home safely to our cars and back to grandma's house. We showered and went to Emily Snow's house, where everyone except Nick and I were staying for the night. Nick and I had to be back for church in Sunday morning, so we drove back home and got to Austin about 12:30 am or so.
All in all, a fun weekend, but waaaaay too many people! If I ever go again, I think I'll have a helicopter drop me from a rope to my seat and then come rescue me out of the stadium after the game.
After changing, we met up with Ingrid, Erik's sister. She was having a house party, and was very nice, a great hostess! After much merriment, we crashed early back at grandma's house.
The next morning, I made waffles for everyone, and we left about 9:30 am for the 11 am game. I thought it would be a great idea to take the DART light rail. It is fast and efficient, and would take us straight to the fair. The only problem was, that half the people going to the game thought the exact same thing. Train after train was completely packed! There were people crammed so tightly, that none of us could find a spot! It took almost 2 hours before we got the game. By that time, it had already started, so we missed kick-off.
Texas won! Way to go! I think the offense did not play outstanding, but the defense definitely wrecked.
After the game, we were famished and decided to get a famous Fletcher's corn dog. Everyone else seemed to want one too..... The line was enormous and everyone seemed to be okay with cutting to the front. I almost had to pull two old men apart because they were fight about who was and who wasn't in line for corn dogs. They were fighting over corn dogs! They were good though after 45 minutes of waiting. After eating, we went to the car show, which, in my opinion, is the only good reason to stay at the fair.
When were getting ready to leave, we saw this huge line of people waiting for something. I asked a guy what they were waiting on and he said the train. You have got to be kidding me. Our only way back to the cars was a two hour line for the train. We decided to take a cab. So did everybody else at the fair. A cab was impossible to find. We walked out of the fair and into one of the shadiest parts of Dallas. I called my mom and asked her to come pick us up. A cop stopped and asked why we were sitting around. He said this is a pretty bad neighborhood and should probably go back to the fair if it got dark before our ride got here. I guess he thought that someone was going to jump us!
We finally got home safely to our cars and back to grandma's house. We showered and went to Emily Snow's house, where everyone except Nick and I were staying for the night. Nick and I had to be back for church in Sunday morning, so we drove back home and got to Austin about 12:30 am or so.
All in all, a fun weekend, but waaaaay too many people! If I ever go again, I think I'll have a helicopter drop me from a rope to my seat and then come rescue me out of the stadium after the game.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Blog for Texas Cycling
I wrote a blog recently for Texas Cycling. It can be found here.
This week starts the start of my fall/winter training. Lots and lots of riding. For now, I will be riding at pretty low intensities and racking on the miles. The only problem is it won't stop raining. We'll see how this goes!
This week starts the start of my fall/winter training. Lots and lots of riding. For now, I will be riding at pretty low intensities and racking on the miles. The only problem is it won't stop raining. We'll see how this goes!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Ride with Lance Armstrong
Thursday night I was getting ready to go to bed and thinking about where I would ride on Friday morning. I decided to log on to my twitter account, which I rarely do, to see what all the cycling stars were up to. I saw a post by Lance Armstrong that said. "He Austin, let's go ride. 8:15 am MelllowJohnny's. " Uh, okay. I'm there.
Friday I got up and put on my Texas kit and headed to Mellow Johnny's bike shop. I brought along some flyers for the Sweatin' Burnt Orange bike tour that UT is putting on to hand out to other people that showed up to ride with Lance. There were about 200 people standing around. Most were in riding gear. Some were in street clothes, just there to take pictures. I handed out all of my flyers and got some people that seemed interested in the ride. You can get a lot of riders that want to sign up when you say "3 kegs of RealAle beer at the end of the ride" as your hook line.
About 8:30 am, there he was. Lance Armstrong. In the flesh. It was a little surreal for me, considering that he is the main reason why I was standing there with shaved legs and in a Lycra cycling kit. He stood there for a minute or two as some big-whig supporters of Livestrong took some pictures with him, and then we started to ride. So many people! Because I had been handing out flyers, I was in the back, so I slowly started to move up. I knew that I would soon get dropped because of street lights. It was such a big group that we were having to run a lot of lights and people in their cars looked quite confused.
Once we got out of downtown, it was smoother sailing. I got up to the front and all of a sudden, I was riding next to Lance! He looked over at me, took a look at my Texas kit, and said "Howdy." Then he put his horns up. I smiled and gave him the horns as well. It is probably a little embarrassing how excited this made me. I fell back into the pack, and was smiling the whole time.
It's funny how small Lance is. He is actually only 5'9". When you see pro football players in real life, you are always amazed at how much bigger they look in real life instead of on TV. But cyclists seem bigger on TV, smaller in real life. That coupled with the fact that the greatest cyclist maybe ever is willing to ride with normal people, that's pretty cool. It made him seem like a person instead of a demigod.
At one point, I was up near the front, and we got on to a really nice stretch of road. A pro guy from Team Six was riding next to me and said, " What an awesome road. I'm gone." And just like that, he attacked out of the pack. He got a gap, and then Lance decided we should reel him back in. Lance took a monster pull and then some other people took pulls at the front, trying to catch. We slowly rotated through until it was my time to pull. I took a short pull and then Lance came around me to bridge the last 20 ft or so. Pretty cool experience.
We slowed down a bit to finish off the ride. Then Lance said he had to go to the airport and turned right to go toward the airport. His car followed him, and left us to ride home together. Altogether, a successful ride. I got to get some training in, and got to talk to the biggest American name in cycling. Cool.
Friday I got up and put on my Texas kit and headed to Mellow Johnny's bike shop. I brought along some flyers for the Sweatin' Burnt Orange bike tour that UT is putting on to hand out to other people that showed up to ride with Lance. There were about 200 people standing around. Most were in riding gear. Some were in street clothes, just there to take pictures. I handed out all of my flyers and got some people that seemed interested in the ride. You can get a lot of riders that want to sign up when you say "3 kegs of RealAle beer at the end of the ride" as your hook line.
About 8:30 am, there he was. Lance Armstrong. In the flesh. It was a little surreal for me, considering that he is the main reason why I was standing there with shaved legs and in a Lycra cycling kit. He stood there for a minute or two as some big-whig supporters of Livestrong took some pictures with him, and then we started to ride. So many people! Because I had been handing out flyers, I was in the back, so I slowly started to move up. I knew that I would soon get dropped because of street lights. It was such a big group that we were having to run a lot of lights and people in their cars looked quite confused.
Once we got out of downtown, it was smoother sailing. I got up to the front and all of a sudden, I was riding next to Lance! He looked over at me, took a look at my Texas kit, and said "Howdy." Then he put his horns up. I smiled and gave him the horns as well. It is probably a little embarrassing how excited this made me. I fell back into the pack, and was smiling the whole time.
It's funny how small Lance is. He is actually only 5'9". When you see pro football players in real life, you are always amazed at how much bigger they look in real life instead of on TV. But cyclists seem bigger on TV, smaller in real life. That coupled with the fact that the greatest cyclist maybe ever is willing to ride with normal people, that's pretty cool. It made him seem like a person instead of a demigod.
At one point, I was up near the front, and we got on to a really nice stretch of road. A pro guy from Team Six was riding next to me and said, " What an awesome road. I'm gone." And just like that, he attacked out of the pack. He got a gap, and then Lance decided we should reel him back in. Lance took a monster pull and then some other people took pulls at the front, trying to catch. We slowly rotated through until it was my time to pull. I took a short pull and then Lance came around me to bridge the last 20 ft or so. Pretty cool experience.
We slowed down a bit to finish off the ride. Then Lance said he had to go to the airport and turned right to go toward the airport. His car followed him, and left us to ride home together. Altogether, a successful ride. I got to get some training in, and got to talk to the biggest American name in cycling. Cool.
Monday, September 28, 2009
UT MTB Race Weekend
"Someone may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it."
-Steve Prefontaine
This last weekend, Texas Cycling was out near Comfort, Texas, for a great weekend of camping, mountain bike racing, and road riding. Some of the guys went out just to ride around the Texas hill country, but I was there to race mountain bike. I had never raced a lot of mountain bike, so this was my first real, full mountain bike race. For some reason, I wanted to win more than usual. At races, I always get a burning desire to completely demolish the field of riders that I am racing with. Now I really wanted to win!
This weekend there were three races, TimeTrial, Short Track XC, and XC. The first race was the time trial, which was a four mile loop around a mountain that you do by yourself. My goal was to catch at least two people in front of me. The officials let people go every 30 seconds, so that means that I would catch my 30 second man and my minute man. Ordinarily, I am pretty bad at time trialing. I worked pretty hard over the summer to try to get better at it (on road) so I was hoping that things would go pretty well. I knew that my weakness was going to be technical sections, because I am not as comfortable on a mountain bike as most of my competition. But, I had better lungs and stamina, so my plan was to go as fast as possible on the straight parts to make up for my lack of technical skill. It worked. I got first in the time trial by about 20 seconds! It was also some of the hardest riding I have ever done on a mountain bike. i was about ready to quit halfway through, but knew that I had to keep going. Andrew, a guy from Baylor got second, and I immediately knew that he would be my main competition for the weekend.
The second race was Saturday afternoon. After lounging and eating under the live oaks scattered around the ranch that we were racing at, I had to get back on the bike. To say that I didn't want to race this afternoon would have been an understatement. But I was in first place for the overall competition, so I had to defend my title. The short track cross counntry (STXC) is a race that involves a very small loop that you go around many many times. It hurts. Bad. It was so cool to be the leader in points because I got to line up at the front and no one said anything. From the time the official blew the whistle until the end of the race, my legs were on fire. I started reasonably near the front, about five guys back. Andrew was second. I knew that at some point he would pass the weaker rider in front of him and then he would be gone. I had to stay on his wheel for that. Sure enough, about halfway into the race he 'got on his horse' and sprinted into the lead. I quickly passed four guys at once and got right on his tail. None of the other riders could match his pace. I barely hung on. Going around turns, I took any chance I could get to let my redlining heart rest. At three laps to go, we were well out in front of the rest of the riders. My heart had stopped beating so hard at this point so my plan was to stick to his wheel like gorilla glue until the final straight-a-way, and then outs-print him for the win. Luck would have it another way. On the next lap I heard a pssssssh come from my back tire and my back tire started to fishtail as it complete went flat. Crap. There was no chance to change it and get back in the race because there was only two laps to go. I was really mad. I tried not to take it out on my bike too much, but, well lets just say I wasn't happy. I walked back to the finish just in time to see Baylor's Andrew cross the finish in first. I got a DNF. So much for defending my lead. Later Cameron found a huge piece of bailing wire sticking out of my tire.
The Race Killer. I kept it as a souvenir.
The third race was on Sunday and was a cross country race, which is just a regular race. Nothing fancy. My plan was to stick to Andrew's wheel and not let him out of my sight. This worked for most of the race. I had him on the first section because it was flat. We dropped almost everybody except for an A&M rider that was stuck on my wheel. Then the three of us started to climb. Andrew said to me, "Feel free to go around me because I'm going to take it easy here." I said okay, but stayed behind him. I didn't want to over-exert myself on the climb. He went pretty slow. I was not breathing that hard and the Aggie was still there. I kept almost going around him, but every time I just said to myself, "stick to the plan!" So I just stuck to his wheel. After climbing we had a long section of very technical rock, which the hill country is so well known for. It was tough. Soon we dropped the Aggie and then Andrew started to inch away from me. I fought as hard as I could to stick to him, but I just wasn't as good at picking a smooth line. By the next climbing section, he was probably 200 yards in front of me. This climbing section was long and painful, with lots of switchbacks. I gained a little time on him, and every time we would go around a switchback, we would stare each other down, looking for signs of weakness. I tried my best to look in good form, but definitely was not. He was doing his best to keep the distance between us. Then we went back downhill. I could barely keep my arms straight and was having a tough time on the downhill. At one point I took stupid falls twice in a row, I screamed at myself to concentrate and things were better after that. I don't have a lot of downhill mountain skill, but I pretty much just careen down the mountain with disregard for my body. I was trying to win a race here! When we came out of the downhill, I had almost caught up with him! I pushed my legs as hard as they could go. I was gaining time on him, but he looked behind and saw me coming up on him and wisely floored it so that I couldn't catch up. I ended around 20 seconds behind him. The Aggie came in 4 minutes later. We had pushed each other to the limits of our abilities and even though I lost, I still had a lot of fun. I congratulated Andrew and he said he really enjoyed the race and that he wasn't planning on going that hard.
I ended up third overall for the weekend, with the aggie coming in second and Andrew from Baylor in first. The conference championships are next weekend, so I'm ready to kick up some more dust.
-Steve Prefontaine
This last weekend, Texas Cycling was out near Comfort, Texas, for a great weekend of camping, mountain bike racing, and road riding. Some of the guys went out just to ride around the Texas hill country, but I was there to race mountain bike. I had never raced a lot of mountain bike, so this was my first real, full mountain bike race. For some reason, I wanted to win more than usual. At races, I always get a burning desire to completely demolish the field of riders that I am racing with. Now I really wanted to win!
This weekend there were three races, TimeTrial, Short Track XC, and XC. The first race was the time trial, which was a four mile loop around a mountain that you do by yourself. My goal was to catch at least two people in front of me. The officials let people go every 30 seconds, so that means that I would catch my 30 second man and my minute man. Ordinarily, I am pretty bad at time trialing. I worked pretty hard over the summer to try to get better at it (on road) so I was hoping that things would go pretty well. I knew that my weakness was going to be technical sections, because I am not as comfortable on a mountain bike as most of my competition. But, I had better lungs and stamina, so my plan was to go as fast as possible on the straight parts to make up for my lack of technical skill. It worked. I got first in the time trial by about 20 seconds! It was also some of the hardest riding I have ever done on a mountain bike. i was about ready to quit halfway through, but knew that I had to keep going. Andrew, a guy from Baylor got second, and I immediately knew that he would be my main competition for the weekend.
The second race was Saturday afternoon. After lounging and eating under the live oaks scattered around the ranch that we were racing at, I had to get back on the bike. To say that I didn't want to race this afternoon would have been an understatement. But I was in first place for the overall competition, so I had to defend my title. The short track cross counntry (STXC) is a race that involves a very small loop that you go around many many times. It hurts. Bad. It was so cool to be the leader in points because I got to line up at the front and no one said anything. From the time the official blew the whistle until the end of the race, my legs were on fire. I started reasonably near the front, about five guys back. Andrew was second. I knew that at some point he would pass the weaker rider in front of him and then he would be gone. I had to stay on his wheel for that. Sure enough, about halfway into the race he 'got on his horse' and sprinted into the lead. I quickly passed four guys at once and got right on his tail. None of the other riders could match his pace. I barely hung on. Going around turns, I took any chance I could get to let my redlining heart rest. At three laps to go, we were well out in front of the rest of the riders. My heart had stopped beating so hard at this point so my plan was to stick to his wheel like gorilla glue until the final straight-a-way, and then outs-print him for the win. Luck would have it another way. On the next lap I heard a pssssssh come from my back tire and my back tire started to fishtail as it complete went flat. Crap. There was no chance to change it and get back in the race because there was only two laps to go. I was really mad. I tried not to take it out on my bike too much, but, well lets just say I wasn't happy. I walked back to the finish just in time to see Baylor's Andrew cross the finish in first. I got a DNF. So much for defending my lead. Later Cameron found a huge piece of bailing wire sticking out of my tire.
The Race Killer. I kept it as a souvenir.
The third race was on Sunday and was a cross country race, which is just a regular race. Nothing fancy. My plan was to stick to Andrew's wheel and not let him out of my sight. This worked for most of the race. I had him on the first section because it was flat. We dropped almost everybody except for an A&M rider that was stuck on my wheel. Then the three of us started to climb. Andrew said to me, "Feel free to go around me because I'm going to take it easy here." I said okay, but stayed behind him. I didn't want to over-exert myself on the climb. He went pretty slow. I was not breathing that hard and the Aggie was still there. I kept almost going around him, but every time I just said to myself, "stick to the plan!" So I just stuck to his wheel. After climbing we had a long section of very technical rock, which the hill country is so well known for. It was tough. Soon we dropped the Aggie and then Andrew started to inch away from me. I fought as hard as I could to stick to him, but I just wasn't as good at picking a smooth line. By the next climbing section, he was probably 200 yards in front of me. This climbing section was long and painful, with lots of switchbacks. I gained a little time on him, and every time we would go around a switchback, we would stare each other down, looking for signs of weakness. I tried my best to look in good form, but definitely was not. He was doing his best to keep the distance between us. Then we went back downhill. I could barely keep my arms straight and was having a tough time on the downhill. At one point I took stupid falls twice in a row, I screamed at myself to concentrate and things were better after that. I don't have a lot of downhill mountain skill, but I pretty much just careen down the mountain with disregard for my body. I was trying to win a race here! When we came out of the downhill, I had almost caught up with him! I pushed my legs as hard as they could go. I was gaining time on him, but he looked behind and saw me coming up on him and wisely floored it so that I couldn't catch up. I ended around 20 seconds behind him. The Aggie came in 4 minutes later. We had pushed each other to the limits of our abilities and even though I lost, I still had a lot of fun. I congratulated Andrew and he said he really enjoyed the race and that he wasn't planning on going that hard.
I ended up third overall for the weekend, with the aggie coming in second and Andrew from Baylor in first. The conference championships are next weekend, so I'm ready to kick up some more dust.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Halo Training
It has been raining in Austin for around the last week on and off. This makes it extremely hard to ride. On one hand, it is not raining when I can't ride, which makes me want to ride. But then, when I can it is always raining! So lately, I have resorted to riding my trainer, which is never that fun. But Nick came up with an amazing idea the other night: halo training. This is where I ride my trainer and play Halo at the same time. It is absolutely the most fun, ever. A great study break for sure. I have depicted below what I think this looks like. Master Chief shooting up the bad guys on a bike. The bike happens to be one that was designed by Thomas Edison.
I found that positioning my body to use a controller and ride at the same time can be quite difficult. I either put my forearms down on the handlebars, or just sit up and spin with no hands. I also have to be careful not to sweat on the controllers! I have also found that when there are lots of bad dudes to kill, I find my legs stop as I concentrate on the game. I'll have to work to keep my legs moving!
Forgive my poor Photoshop skills, I'm an engineer, not a graphic designer.
I found that positioning my body to use a controller and ride at the same time can be quite difficult. I either put my forearms down on the handlebars, or just sit up and spin with no hands. I also have to be careful not to sweat on the controllers! I have also found that when there are lots of bad dudes to kill, I find my legs stop as I concentrate on the game. I'll have to work to keep my legs moving!
Forgive my poor Photoshop skills, I'm an engineer, not a graphic designer.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
New Pedals
At one of my last races, my foot kept coming out of my pedal when I would pedal hard. That's a great way to crash! So it was time to get some new ones.
The ones I decided on were the Keo Sports. I like them a lot! At first they were a little hard to get into because I had to get used to turning them over the right way to push my cleat into the pedal, but I have it down now. That's really good because while I was learning, I would almost fall at every stop light. I probably looked like I had started cycling last week!
This next weekend I will be racing my first mountain bike race of the season! UT is hosting the race and we are camping out! I haven't camped since my trip back to Texas with Ally so I am pretty excited. I will be mountain biking a lot this next week in order to prepare for the race. Hopefully everything will go well!!
Also, I pretty sure I'm going to take the GRE so I can be prepared to possibly go to graduate school as a fall-back plan if I don't get a job out of school. The future is unpredictable at this point, but actually I am not worried! I am enjoying the uncertainty! I don't think I have ever been uncertain of my future (2-3 years out anyways) so it is a new experience.
The ones I decided on were the Keo Sports. I like them a lot! At first they were a little hard to get into because I had to get used to turning them over the right way to push my cleat into the pedal, but I have it down now. That's really good because while I was learning, I would almost fall at every stop light. I probably looked like I had started cycling last week!
This next weekend I will be racing my first mountain bike race of the season! UT is hosting the race and we are camping out! I haven't camped since my trip back to Texas with Ally so I am pretty excited. I will be mountain biking a lot this next week in order to prepare for the race. Hopefully everything will go well!!
Also, I pretty sure I'm going to take the GRE so I can be prepared to possibly go to graduate school as a fall-back plan if I don't get a job out of school. The future is unpredictable at this point, but actually I am not worried! I am enjoying the uncertainty! I don't think I have ever been uncertain of my future (2-3 years out anyways) so it is a new experience.
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