Christmas is over....YAY!!!

Another christmas has come and gone, which is great. I hate holidays because I am a very routined individual. I went home on the 23rd and after 5 hours of driving arrived at my parents house with Emily in tow. She met my parents and my dad was his normal deranged self. Then I took her to her parents house on Christmas Eve and met her mom. On the way to her parents place we almost died on I-94 near the Little Mack exit. All I will say is hydroplaning and semi's do not mix. Somehow I managed to keep my truck in one lane and not get us killed. Then I spent Christmas day at home until 3 pm and took off to avoid the weather and traffic the next day. Good thing I did because it rained all day the next day. Now I have been back in Kalamazoo for a few days and riding has been progressing. I did my first workout today just to hurt a little bit. It wasn't extravagant but it was something to get the legs burning again. That is my update for now, I hope to keep this up at least once a week for the remainder of the year and cycling season. Peace!

Grades and Life

So I got my grades on Tuesday for the fall semester and I was sure I was not going to get a 4.0. I did however end up with a 3.87 with three A's and one BA, which is like a B+/A-. That is WMU's ridiculous way of giving grades. Considering all the bullshit I had to deal with during the semester things turned out rather well. It is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you are immersed in school work, but many people helped me through the semester in different ways. Emily helped me take my mind away from everything by just being her and I find myself thinking what if this one could be "the one".....Yeah big revelation. My friend from my education classes Justin helped me stay ignorant through classes and never take anything too seriously. Next semester I am taking Mathematical Proofs, Statistics and Probability, US Monuments and Landmarks, and Special Education diversity. After this spring I will have completed my history minor and my education classes and will only have 7 math classes left to take. It is going by much fater than I thought. Finally, I am back on the bike, albeit not too seriously yet. I am just going to enjoy non-structured riding for the next 6-7 weeks and then do a little before the spring training series races. I talked with a pro cycling friend last night and realized that while cycling may be a big part of some of our lives, it is not what life should be about. That is unless you are a pro that only has that to look forward too in life. Be well and enjoy the holidays!

Done and Very Little Fun

So the semester is over and I am happy that it is done, but my one final was kinda a bitch to say the least. There were 10 problems total involving nullspaces and column spaces and eigenvalues and eigenvectors and all that good shit that no one really likes, unless you are a math dork like me. I was gonna put some of the questions on here and may below, so if u can solve them then feel free. So Tuesday I decided to hop back on the bike for the first time in 9 days and I felt like shit for an hour and then felt good the last hour. Problem is the reason I felt bad was I have an upper respiratory infection and maybe strep. My girlfriend has been sick and I have been around her a lot, but it is by no means her fault. Maybe I will just swing my way through it. Anyhow I think I ended the semester with three A's and one B. That final in math really fuct me in that department. Thats why I go to school though now, this degree I am there to actually learn and not just sit and hope for the best. Anyhow here are a few math questions to sink ur teeth into.

1. For what values of Y1 and Y2 would this system be consistent?
a)
{1 2 3} = Y1
{-2 -4 -5} = Y2

b) Find all the solutions to the set that make Y1 and Y2 consistent

2. Find the determinant of the following matrix

o o o 2
5 4 2 0
0 3 0 0
8 7 6 0

3. calculate the dimension of span (X1, X2, X3, X4)

2 6 4 8
6 -1 1 -1
4 4 3 11
-8 2 -1 3

4. Consider the following matrix and determine the following.
1 2 1 0 2 7
1 2 2 -1 3 12
1 2 2 -1 4 15

a) Row reduced echelon form

b) The basis for the row space and its dimension

c) The basis for the nullspace and its dimension

d) The basis for the column space and its dimension

5. Can the following be linearly independent in R4?
3 2 1
-1 1 1
4 3 1
2 -1 1

6. L: v->w is a linear transformation
Prove that the Kernel of (L) is in the subspace of V

7. L is on R2 which rotates 45 degrees counterclockwise and reflects the result about the x-axis. Give a matrix for the resulting solution based upon the standard basis e1 and e2.

8. If L is a linear operator that maps R2->R2 then solve for B if
A= 2 -8 and V= 4 2
1 -4 1 1

my hint to you is use V-1 A V. (This hint was not on the test though)

9. Find the eigen values and eigen vectors for the associated matrix.

-2 2 2
0 1 -3
0 1 5

10. Let @ be an eigenvalue of A and let x be an eigenvector belonging to @. Show that @^3 is an eigenvalue of A^3 and x is an eigenvector of A^3 belonging to @^3.

I used @ in #10 because I have no lamda on my computer here. If u have answers post them up, if not then have fun trying to solve.

Less Than a Week

Here I sit, sick as a dog with less than a week to go in school. Things have been super hectic the past 14 weeks, but its nearly over. I never thought it would be this hard being full time at school, doing a preinternship 10-15 hours a week, riding 10-15 hours a week, and working 15-20 hours. Not to mention doing all of this while holding a 3.87 GPA going into finals. I actually only have one final that I am concerned about. In my Native American culture class I need a 20% to lock an A up, and in my education classes, I have 100% thus far for both. Math is a different story when you get to this level. I have experienced my first semester where I will not get a solid A in a math class, but with all that is going on I am rather at ease with that fact. In riding terms, I have decided a week to ten days off is needed and I got sick at the right time. This is my first break since March really and it feels weird to not be out riding everyday. The weather has not been cooperating so I am pleased with my decision. One final note to those who still read this thing. I met a wonderful woman and am very pleased with her. I do not know how she can stand a crazy asshole like me, but she is a great girl and I hope things progress accordingly. Who knows what will happen over the next few months with school and the like, but right now other than the vomiting today I am feeling pretty well. I am off to finish off my education classes for the semester today so I bid u adieu.

When???

Sometimes I think to myself when did I become smart? The facts are that I act like a moron and act like I don't give a shit, but I may afterall. Today I went online to check how much my classes would be costing me. I look at my school email and see an "award letter" and I open it. To my disbelief I received a grant from WMU for my mathematics success and all the other moneys was from scholarships. So right at the moment I am pretty happy.
On top of all this Le Tour was very exciting today. Carlos Sastre has been in the GC picture for the past 5-6 years since leaving ONCE. When I saw him attack on Alpe D'Huez I was thinking he went to early. Once he got brought back by the GC contenders he went again and never looked back. It is really great to see someone who deserves to wear yellow finally achieve it. The CSC-Saxo bank team did what T-Mobile never could, they played their cards to perfection. Now this is where I get a bit brash and cocky. I did say previously that Evans, Menchov and Sastre would be on the podium in Paris. Sastre has the lead and Evans and Menchov are better time trialists, but Vandevelde may be a bit to far back to get a top 3 in Paris. So I guess I should be a DS or psychic. I also did mention Freire for the green jersey, although I was thinking Hushovd had a better chance, but with the lack of pure sprint stages, which Cavendish owned, Freire is looking even better.
Finally, I did a race this past weekend and that is all I will say. I have never ridden a TT so slow in my life, honestly. I have only ever been caught by one person and that was Josh Tarrant, but that changed on Sunday. I got caught by my 3 minute man, enough said. Smart guy is off!

Superweek was good

Ah so the first two races of Superweek are in the books. I am back in Kalamazoo after a good weekend in the "hood" aka Blue Island, Illinois. I couldn't tell you what the second city was because I just felt like racing. I will say that I have officially ridden a race in the hood, which is nice. The first race was in Blue Island, and Baar warmed up and said that it wasn't a good area to warmup in. So I did not listen to his halfhearted warning and warmed up while he was racing. Lets just say Detroit is a dream compared to this area, and I saw what the projects look like. Anyhow, I chose to head back and warm up around a parking lot for a bit then hop on Boer's trainer for 5 minutes. This being my second trip to Superweek I knew it would be fast. The first race was HUMID and hard. Standard 4 corner crit which was one mile in length. We were hammering around the course and the first time I looked up an hour had passed. A group of 5 got away and the field was content to let them go, as was I. I didnt feel particularly great but still managed a top 25-30. Baar got 9th in the 30+ and Boer was behind me in the 3's. Day 2 was good except for the fact that the hotel did not have Versus, so no Tour watching. I slept like a small child and we headed to the race around noon. The race was held in an almost finished suburb, in which none of the houses were yet owned. At half a million dollars it was no wonder why. The course was shitty to say the least. A Half mile crit, with the slight uphill being into a headwind and a sharp corner with some dirt in it to make it interesting. I felt blocked from the day before but still good enough to move up easily most times. Nothing got away till about 12 laps to go and chaos ensued. I saw Boer shoot past me and head right to the front. He had a gap, but the guys with him would not pull. With 3 to go there was a big crash and the field split, so for the last 2 laps I was chasing to get to the back of the group. I almost made it and came in 5-10 seconds down on the winner. After the finish I did 2 cooldown laps and see Boer bloody and dirty. I had no clue he was caught in the crash. But with 3 crashes in the last 3 laps it was hectic to say the least. All in all a good weekend as the races were well above any you will see in Michigan. I would venture to say that not many guys would finish these races at all. Twice as long as most crits around here and much faster. Anyhow, it was a good weekend hanging and racing with Baar and Boer. And if you have never traveled with kids I would highly recommend it. Chris' sons made me realize racing is so unimportant in the big picture. Just to see his kids get enjoyment running through puddles kept me relaxed and made the time pass. I would say this was the best racing weekend I have had all year long. PEACE!

Tour de France

So I have been spending the last 4 days doing nothing more than work, riding, and watching the Tour. Yeah exciting life huh! So I decided for the first time to make a fantasy team of Tour de France riders. Here is my team for Stage 4 that I chose.

David Millar
Fabian Cancellara
Cadel Evans
Stijn Devolder
George Hincapie
Jens Voigt-
Christian Vandevelde
Thomas Lokvist
Carlos Sastre
Marzio Bruseghin

Not to bad of a day with my team getting 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th.

Might as well name a street after me....

If they did it would be called 15th street. I raced rockford this past weekend and felt good heading into the race. The first few laps were rather hard and all of a sudden I feel like everything is extremely hard and nearly getting dropped. I came over the Maple Street climb and took the left and headed into the dicey right hander I almost lose it. Luckily the curb stopped my bike from going to the ground and I look down and realize I had flatted. I did not panic and knew I could get a free lap. I went to the wheel pit and got my teammates spare. I have been riding a Ksyrium Equipe rear wheel due to the hubs on all others being shot, and who would have thought a wheel with a powertap on it would be lighter than the wheel I was racing on. I get my wheel on and wait to get back in the group and right after I am in the group the break of the race goes. I think to myself oh shit because I missed the break, but had a teammate there so I was cool with that. We did get really close to catching them but no one wanted to close the last 10 meters down, so I figured hell I am not going to be the guy to ruin Boer's chances. After a few laps their lead grew to 25 seconds and I was just trying to sit pretty and wait until the closing laps. A crash in the last 15 minutes nearly derailed all my plans, but I snuck around that safely. Moving on I was feeling good coming into the last few laps, sitting up front and out of trouble. With a little over a lap to go Taylor Birrman gave it a dig and literally was 5 meters in front of us the whole last lap, and everyone jammed up the hill. I eased back waiting for Taylor to get caught and put myself out of contention for a good placing, so egg on my face. I was eager to race the TT the next day, but a respiratory infection dashed those hopes and I have not touched a bike since the race on Saturday. I really need to grow some balls and just stop thinking so much while racing. Fuck it, it is just a bike race though.

Winning stuff is good...

So this weekend went well and I won some shit. The race held in Allen park was hot and I heard a few corners were a bit sketchy due to the road not being in prime condition. We started the race a bit late due to the time schedule being a little off and my legs had cooled a bit from the warmup. So I did what I do best to warmup after about 4 minutes I jumped and no one went with me. After a lap solo I heard a premium lap announced. For those of you who do not know, a premium lap is where the promoters give away free swag for incentive to liven up the race. I looked back and saw I had a decent gap, so I thought hell I might as well make this move worth it. The swag ended up being a set of Ritchey pro slick race tires, which is very nice as I hate buying tires. The group brought me back and about 8 minutes later another premium lap was announced and I jumped before the last corner, and knew I had a gap. This time I knew it was an umbrella, but did not want to waste energy for it so I figured if I can coast across the line and still win it then it would be cool. I looked back and saw a guy coming but did absolutely nothing to stop him. I am not just saying this because he beat me, everyone watching will tell you I stopped pedaling and looked back. Kudos to him though. A few minutes later I did a half ass attempt to see if anyone wanted to start some action and to my surprise it ended up being the break of the race. It was myself, Alan Antonuk, and a Wolverine rider (sorry dunno ur name), I think its Cody Brown. For the next 15-20 minutes we had anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 seconds, then people started jumping across to our break. Right before we got caught again another premium lap was a can of Jittery Joes coffee. This one was easy as I just rolled through on the front and took it uncontested. After a few more guys were with us everyone seemed unwilling to work anymore and I can't blame them. The last few laps were a blur as I was trying to recover a little bit from my efforts for the day and the sprint was upon us. Although someone crashed right next to me it was a successful day. I had fun and won some goods. I was 14th or 15th, the photo finish was very close. Hell I even had time in the first premium lap to sit up and straighten my number for the promoters and officials. It was a good day and a good race. I spent nearly 60-70% of the race off the front in breakaways be it solo or with people. I will say one thing though, Alan Antonuk is going to be a hell of a rider within a few years. Adios to all until Rockford. I love a strong mans race..... Ciao!

End of the Road

Well, after a few years of posts I am not using this webpage as a means of passing on information anymore. Reasons for this are listed below.

1) This webpage was created for friends and family
2) I get comments from those who I have not said more than 50 words to in my life.
3) It would be easier to just call my parents and explain what happened to them
4) I really do not want some people to know about my life and thoughts on cycling

OVER AND OUT

Torrential Racing

Today was the State Road Race Championships and it did not disappoint. Not only was the course longer than previous years, but the weather would make things interesting. Here are the reports lap by lap for my race.

Lap 1- Sat pretty and did nothing to see the front.
Lap 2- Chris (my teammate) attacked and got a gap, so I sat on the front and slowed things down for him.
Lap 3- all together and the fireworks began. A break of 2 easily rolled off and stayed away. While this was being done I got in a 2 man break with a South Lyon guy who obviously does not know how to work well in a break. He was pulling through trying to show me he was in better condition, little did he know he would finish behind me.
Lap 4- after being brought back I stayed active and got off the front again for a longer break.
Lap 5- Chaos ensued with 12 miles to go, and it was obvious that no one wanted to let me get any open road. Torrential downpours made things dicey so I sat up with 400 meters to go. Still ended up 15th which tells you how the race was shattered.

After the race I spoke with the promoter and rae official. We were instructed that in case of lightning the race would be neutralized. I assumed that the lightning that was prevelant in the last lap would make this statement true. I was wrong and what I thought would be a 4th place finish turned into the race official doing what he would like and did not seem to care about the riders well being. This is my opinion and should not be taken as bashing. I know when conditions are dangerous and this was above any conditions that I have ever ridden in.

Total miles for the day: 103
Place:15th
feeling after realizing that the field knows who I am: angered, but surprised.

My own worst enemy!

I am sitting here a day after the Gaslight Crit and kicking myself. There is nothing that compares to racing and feeling tremendously good. I have been playing the conservative game just to get back in the swing of things. Well yesterday I wanted to rip and I was ready, but I played the wrong tactical game and came up short. Nothing was wrong and everything went well. I was sitting 4th wheel going around the 140 degree turn with a lap and a half left. On the backside I was still sitting pretty until right before the same turn we got swamped from the left and the right. All of a sudden 20 guys are in front of me and the race ended with a bitter taste in my mouth. You live and learn and I guess I put myself too close to the front with too much of the race left. Oh well life goes on..... To those of you who may have said on your left or right during the race I will not apologize. It is not my job to let you in or help you move up if my bars are in front of yours. That is your job to make your own race.

Kensington recap

Ah so the first road race of the year for me, and I can say I am happy and unhappy. As all of us cyclists know, one can not be completely fulfilled unless a "W" is in your bag. Going in I had mixed feelings, would the race be hard or would it be easy considering the hills and the extra distance to cover. I chose to stay conservative and see how things played out. First few laps went by without a hitch, a few small breaks, but nothing that would stick. On the 5th lap on "snot hill" I felt good, so I gave it a go and got a 10-15 second gap. Knowing that no one was on my wheel I figured what the hell, but this time I did not go all out or even near. I knew the field would bring me back, as I did not feel incredibly snappy. So I plugged away for 5-6 minutes until I felt the field right behind me. After that I realized each lap our field kept getting smaller and smaller. I thought to myself how the hell can all these guys get dropped and I have done very little work on my bike this year????? Then I remember that I have an incredible endurance background. Nothing else happened each continuous lap, more dropped riders, even guys who weigh very little and have beaten me all year until this point. Onto the last lap, I felt that I needed to have good position coming out of the turnaround to secure a good result. I shift down and hear a crazy noise which I would later find out was a chainring bolt falling into my chain and out an the ground. Forgot to tighten the chainring bolts down as I was told.....oops. Coming into the last 5k I realized there were 2 guys up the road. It was so hard to distinguish who was in our field and who we were catching that had been dropped from other groups. Then I look up and see a mass of cars at a standstill and hope to get through safely. During our meandering through the cars a few guys tried to pull a quick one and gain some ground before the last time up snot hill. Approaching snot hill much slower than I would have liked, I had to stand and really put the power to the pedals and for the first time in my life my legs felt like I was being electricuted by a tazer. I am not shitting you, it was awful, from my quads to my hip flexors. Must be some residual power I lost not racing last year. I stayed on the group and gave as much as I could to the finish, grinding past people while staying seated through the whole sprint. I came in 16th, but the sensations I got reminded me why I love this sport. I am also dissappointed I did not fair better, but did better than most. Onto the next weekend of races.

Note: None of the aforementioned details are excuses, they are what happened and to be honest I did not have what it took to win this race. The best rider won from our group and Kudos to him for sneaking away and staying away.

Good vibrations

Since my last post I have found out what is wrong with my bike. Lets just say the Ksyrium SL rear wheel I have is toast. Everytime I would freewheel this wretched noise would come from somewhere, so after buying a whole new drivetrain I realized this was not what was causing the noise. Oh well, I really needed some new components and it feels great to have some crisp shifting. Tonight I went to the Wednesday night ride, and this was one of the most low key Wednesday night rides I can remember. I got my workout in and did not expend much energy at all. I was hell bent on sitting up coming into the final sprint, which is uphill. Then I was sitting 6th wheel so i decided to give it a dig. Even though I was really overgeared I still felt surprisingly well. Every week, I am getting good sensations and the riding is progressing very well. Tomorrow I will join my pal Alvin for our semi-monthly coffee shop ride. Good Day!

Whew!!!

The last few days have been good. The Wednesday night ride turned into a massacre. We started with 25-30 riders and about 30 minutes in the carnage began until only 9 of us remained. Thanks to Hamilton, Myers, and the Birmanns. After taking the first sprint I was content to sit in until the last half of the ride, where I felt good and made a few decent pulls. Progress and patience are my two friends right now. After a few low key days on the bike I joined Alvin and Hamilton today for a ride. Jeff snuck away for a few hours to ride with us. Alvin had some tempo work and I did a nice LT workout (which sucked). All in all it was a very uptempo day on the roads with just us 3 and I came home with 62 miles in 3 hours. Then I headed to Mr. Frayer's house to work on my bike. Nothing feels better than a new casette, chain, bottom bracket and chain ring. I may even decide to keep this chain lubed and clean. Now while things have been going well I think it will be interesting when everyone shows up for the Wednesday night ride. When I say everyone I mean Josh Tarrant, Bart Carlson, Zach McBride, Mark Olson, and all the others. That is when I will see where I really stand, which may be a hard pill to swallow. Otherwise everything is chill right now, and I can not wait for Kensington.....

Stupidity

So to start off I will talk about the riding, which has been going well. Last week, I caught the first Wednesday night ride that I could attend and it did not dissapoint. It basically was 10 minutes of a roll out, then 40 minutes of hard riding with half the group getting dropped, followed be on and off the rest of the way. I love that those who get dropped take a shortcut to get back in the group before the ride is over only to get dropped again. Coming into the last 10 miles or so are the usual hills that spread the group out and Alvin jumped a mile or so before the first, seeing that no one was going to chase I set out in pursuit. Usually when you chase and get on terms with the leader you sit on for a brief moment to relax and recover, but I went right to the front and pulled up the first climb, then let him take the decent, only to pull again on the second climb and right near the top I realize Alvin had eased off and about 5 guys come whizzing past and I collect the wheels of those five. Everyone regrouped and the ride ended up being a good motivator for me, as I have not put in much work at all this year. Now on to my personal stupidity that occured today after my riding. I went to Speedway to fill my gas tank, and as I step out of my car I see a piece of shit with at least 24 inch rims and a nice sound system. At that moment I thought, why do people put all this money into a car that looks like hell??? Then I realized I had locked my door......with my truck running. The joke was on me it seems. About a minute later I see an attractive blond about to pull out of the gas station and took a chance and asked her if she would drive me to my place to get my spare keys. To my surprise she was like yeah no problem jump in. She did not question a thing and come to find out she was a cycling fan who was from Italy and grew up near lake Como. I found it odd that she actually waited for me to get the apartment manager to unlock my place and retrieve my keys. She drove me back and would not accept the $20 I wanted to give her for her help, but I slid it in the car as I was exiting. After all this I never thought to ask her for her number, because she was really a cool girl, and with her thick accent and looks it made it all the more appealing. And she even was cussing in American as she almost missed the turn into the gas station to drop me off. I guess karma does exist and I have been doing something right.

Back in the saddle

Its been nearly a year and a lot has occured, but I found life very dull without my trusty bicycle adventures. As many of you know I returned to school and have been doing well enough to earn a full academic scholarship if I maintain a 3.0 GPA. Currently I have a 3.94 with one BA that I would rather forget about, and I have yet to receive anything less than an A through Calc 2. That part of life is well, and I also have been serving tables now for nearly a year. The money is much better, but sometimes the stress sucks the life out of you. Onto racing though, and how I have felt thus far in my "comeback" to the scene. I began training about 7 weeks ago now with weeks of 7 hrs, 10 hrs and 11 hrs, but have yet to do any specific speed or anaerobic work. I decided to begin my racing with the Fisk Knob Time Trial near Grand Rapids. The first 12 miles was successful as there was a massive tailwind and I was rolling, mind you this was mostly downhill. The last 6 miles was into a dreadful headwind and it was miserable. I ended up riding 45 and some change for 18 miles, so all in all not a bad start. Then I proceeded to do 2 STS races in Ann Arbor and the first was horrible as I forgot how to corner in my time away and totally forgot about the accelerations out of corners. The second race was the last STS race of the spring and I felt like Hincapie (no chain), but I was told to sit in and get used to the flow of races again. This past weekend I traveled with Alvin Nordell, my recent training companion and race traveling buddy, and it could not have went worse. I worked 10+ hours the day before spending all of that on my feet, then ate a greasy pizza for a prerace meal. I figured I would not show any ill effects. When I got to the race and started to warm up, I still felt incredibly full and sluggish. For the first time in my life I produced a self-induced vomit scene, to try to lighten my stomach. This did not ease the problem, so I thought the hell with it and got to the line with a minute to spare. I started out and didnt feel particularly snappy as I would have liked. Long story short, I could not get on top of any gear all day long. It just was not my day I guess. During the ride, I did notice two gentleman 15 seconds ahead of me going back and forth in each others draft, and anyone who rides a TT knows you stay out of the draft of a rider, as to not get a time penalty. You know who you are and should be happy that two of you could not beat someone who has been training for 6 weeks. Anyhow, there are bigger fish to fry this summer and I am looking forward to progressing into where I once was on my bike. Hopefully I will maintain this over the summer, but in retrospect this blog means very little to me. OUT!

If anyone knows where pictures of the races can now be found please leave a post, as it would be greatly appreciated.