Friday, April 27, 2012

Over the hills and through the woods to grandma's old house

So today I decided to ride my grandparents old house today.  I had this ride planned for about a week and wasn't going to let anything stop me from completing it.  The day started off a bit later than usual. I could actually sleep in this morning, it was only an extra hour but it was nice.  Got up did some stuff and went to breakfast where Mary, the breakfast cook and server, made the best breakfast taco's. It consists of eggs with cilantro, tomato, cheddar cheese and on the side is sour cream, salsa and tortillas.   After breakfast I headed down to Starbucks got myself a coffee and headed to Econ.  By this time its 9 am and i'm sitting in class counting down the minutes just so I could get out and ride my bike.  Finally 9:55 roles around, I head back to my room get changed slam a Powerbar, this was a new flavor for me, and headed out for my ride.  But this wasn't a normal ride. It consisted of 15-20 MPH head winds all the way out.  After cruising at about 15Mph I finally made it to Berlin. It only takes about 30-40 minutes on a normal day, today it took an hour, not the best mental motivator, but I told myself nothing was going to stop me from completing this ride.  I kept pushing on and picked my way through small towns and wide open fields with no tree cover to shelter me from the wind.
After 2 plus hours of riding straight into a head wind I finally made it into Saxeville where one of my favorite childhood restaurants is. Its the cross roads cafe on the corner of Hwy A and Hwy W. If your ever in the area stop in and get some great diner food. Its typical diner foods like scrambled eggs with toast, pancakes, sandwichs and burgers with fried onions, which smell amazing after a long day in the saddle.









Still on my way north I make it to 24th lane where I passed this bridge. Its kinda hard to see but this bridge, which I'm pretty sure my grandpa help build, is a small bridge but holds some great memories.  As a kid I never did anything fun on this bridge but just the memories of driving through/by it signaled we were almost to grandma's house.  So I new I had to be close.  I turned north, straight back into the head wind and pushed for about another 4 miles. In this 4 miles, 2 dogs where laying outside and must have found me to be a threat. They came running and barking like crazy straight towards me.  The owner comes running out of the house yelling at the dogs.  They stop about 5 ft from the property line and bark at me while I cruise by. In the city you have to watch out for crazy drivers, in the country you have to watch out for stupid dogs and farm animals, like the chicken which almost flew right into the side of me about 28 miles into my ride.  After this little mishap with the dogs, I finally make it to my grandparents old street.  I turn on it and a chill runs up my spin signaling where at grandma's house.  With no car in the drive way, no lights on in the house and all the front blinds shut  the new owners are must be gone.  To bad other wise I would have gone in and introduced myself.  It was a great feeling that I have finally ridden my bike to her house.  It seemed so far away when I was younger, now to think i've ridden my bike there.  Now that i've made it this far I figured what the hell I'll keep on going to our old fishing grounds  Once I got to Gilbert lake, I ate my lunch, a sandwich and Clif gel, and turned around.  Now with the wind at my back I was cruising at 20-25mph with ease. It took an hour less to get home then it did going out.  After 80 plus miles in the saddle I finally got back. My legs are trash and I have a nice new burn line developing on my upper quad. I showered, did some laundry and ate a late lunch early dinner. I thought i'd try and study a bit for finals, this sounded good at the time, until I sat down and found I couldn't focus. This lasted about 35 minutes until I couldn't keep my eyes open. I crawled into bed and took a nice nap.  After waking up 45 minutes later I headed to dinner, then to a special speaker on campus. The event was called mind your money.  A guy, I don't know what his name was because I got there late, talked about different financial things.  The main reason why I went is because you had a chance to win money.  After all was said and done Sam and I were the only two who didn't win money. So this guy let both of us take a grab out of the money bag. Sam grabbed first and pulled out a 5. With one bill left in the bag, I reached in and pulled out a $20. Not to bad for only answering what does your credit score affect. After, I headed back to my room and finally got a bit of studying done before finals next week. I can't believe that my first year of college is almost done, time flew by. Also it's only 10 days till Iola, I can't wait to be racing with the Pros.  This year Ill be rockin #18 for Wheel and Sprocket/Vision which was started and run by Nathan Guerra.
 

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Conference Championships Day 2

Thank you to everyone for informing me that I have terrible grammar skills.  I guess thats why I'm going to college

2nd Place Men C TT
Creme brulee coffee at
South Bend Chocolate
Company

Today was another great day of racing for the Ripon Red Hawks.  It started off this morning at the Econolodge hotel just outside of South Bend.  After waking up 4 times between 4:45 and 5:30 a.m I decided to roll out of bed and head to breakfast.  Good thing I always bring food because the breakfast consisted of Corn Flakes, Raisin Bran, and mini bagels.  After making breakfast I headed back to the room and got some homework done before heading to the criterium.  When we arrived, the weather wasn't looking to promising, 35 degrees with a north wind at 20mph. By 10:30 it was about 45 so I decided to keep the arm and knee warmers on for the race.  After taking a free lap we all lined up. The Marian squad was taking over the front row. I luckily got second row with Eric and Paul right behind.  Like a typical crit race a big explosion went off right from the get go.  After the first 3 turns we were headed into the wind and the pace eased up because no one wants to pull into a nasty head wind.  After making it through the first couple of laps without a hitch we rounded turn 1 and a Lindsey Wilson rider got loose and almost went down.  I was right on his wheel and almost went with him.  Good thing we both have good MTB skills. This wasn't the case a couple laps later. Again coming through turn 1 Alex, a UIC rider, slid out and I almost ran over his head. Everyone made it around him ok.  Now with 2 laps to go it was time to get into position for the finish. I was in perfect position, about 4th wheel, coming around the last turn. Eric Smith was right on my wheel. We drilled it down the final stretch and he ended up coming around me in the last 50 ft or so and took... well I don't know what he took because they didn't have him on the results sheet but I ended up 13th. Another great pack finish.  After the race I went to the South Bend Chocolate Company, I got a good portion of my paper done while sipping on creme brulee coffee and snacking on some excellent chocolate covered cashews, gotta love free samples.  After watching my buddy Leif race at 2:15pm in the men's A race we headed to the college football hall of fame for awards. 
College Football
Hall of Fame 
We only got 1 medal for the weekend and that was for the TT. Overall a great weekend for the Red Hawks. Time to get some good rest before my first Elite MTB race, Iola.

Updated Results: According to this visual evidence, provided by Ric Damm Coach of the Red Hawks, Eric took 8th or 9th.  

Saturday, April 21, 2012

New Beginning/ Conference Championships

I finally bit the bullet and started a blog. Yes I know i'm a little behind with getting one but i'm going to give it a shot. It couldn't have been a better day to start.  Some of the Ripon Red Hawks and I got to head to Notre Dome for the conference championships. Paul Meuer, Eric, Smitty Smith and myself made up the team.  Today started off a little chilly, 40 degrees with a wind chill of 34. Not the best weather for a 9 a.m time trial.  After sitting in the car for a bit, I decided to suit up and jump on the trainer.  I was bundled up in a thermal, knee warmers and arm warmers. After sitting on my Saris trainer for a bit I decided to race with only the knee warmers on.  We decided that Paul was going to lead. We planned for him to go as hard as he could and then pull off and let Smitty and I go.  After Paul pulled up Smitty and I were switching off pulls going really strong. We ended up catching the Lindsey Wilson team.  After that goal was accomplished, we now buckled down and hammered it all the way to the finish.  We ended up 2nd right behind Notre Dome. But hey not to bad for our 2nd TT and 2nd weekend of racing.  After getting some PowerBar recovery in me we drove off to a gas station to get some food before the road race at noon.  The road race started off with the pace car making a wrong turn and taking half the field with.  Good thing it was still in neutral territory.  After we caught the field the pace seemed to get slower for about the next 20 miles. I was only putting out about 120 watts. It eventually picked up and with the attacks going off the front we were finally racing. It came down to a field sprint. Eric Smith ended up 4th and I took 16th.  After a great day of fun it's time to relax and do some homework before tomorrows Crit.  Lets hope we can make something happen.