Memorial Day

Once again another weekend has come and gone as I sit here tying together all the shenanigans that happened this weekend. For the first time in 4 years I didn't head to Iowa over Memorial day weekend to race in the 4 races that take place in the greater Quad Cities and Burlington areas. Bittersweet in a way but it sounds like some of the Indiana teams fared well out there. Jon Jacob suffered a pretty severe broken wrist from reading twitter updates and I feel for the guy as he's a great competitor and ambassador for the sport of cycling.

Friday night the little one came up and we hit the circuit of the Michigan City outlet mall, picked up some wings and saw "What to Expect when You're Expecting." It was pretty decent but more of a chick flick than I would have originally thought going into it from seeing previews. Then on Sunday we hit the almighty Warren Dunes in Michigan for some fun in the sun. It was packed! The one thing that really pissed me off was the sheer amount of park rangers that were directing traffic instead of taking money and allowing patrons to pass through more quickly. I literally had a ranger wave for me to pull up an extra 4 inches like it was going to make a world of difference in allowing a car into the entrance behind me. I was so close to saying, "Why don't you get your lazy ass some dollar bills and some park passes and start walking down this row of cars to help speed up the process rather than standing there with your thumb in your ass with your cute mount-me hat on." Everyone knows you're only making 9 bucks an hour and are probably the sole reason for the economic downfall of the state of Michigan.

Slept in today for a change and jacked around outside trying to delay the studying that must be done in preparation for tomorrows neurology of motor control/learning exam. If someone knows the reasoning behind the Andrews University faculty's reason for holding exams the day after a holiday weekend I'd love to know. It's almost as though they really don't want us to enjoy the freedom's of this country or have a life what so ever. Not that I'm going to study for it anymore than I should but I know this exam ruined the weekend for a lot of my classmates. Oh well back to the grind tomorrow. 2 exams and a couple quizzes this week then hoping to knock out 200 miles this coming weekend on the bike.

In spirit of the Memorial Day holiday I extend a very well-deserved thank you to all past, present, and future military personnel. Thank you for your dedication, hard work, and commitment to making and keeping America the best place in the world!

Back to the Grindstone

Since the last post on this bad boy I've been busy indulging in the new summer semester kicking off and now in full swing and also my first race in a very long time. Going into this summer semester we were told from the class above us that this semester is a cake walk and that they spent the entire summer at the beach because of all the free time they had. I don't know where they were coming from on this one or if a lot of things have changed over the course of the year but free time is few and far between. Then again it is Andrews University so their cruel intentions of wanting us to be in class for 8 hours a day during the summer semester wouldn't surprise me whatsoever. Guess I'm getting my monies worth...

Also for about the last week and a half I've been getting on the bike more and more and starting to see the legs coming back around, well at least hoping so. I did the Winona Road Race this past weekend debuting with the new team: "Hank Smash" when in reality I'm just wearing my old Scholars Inn Bakehouse kit. It was a relatively slow race even for only riding maybe 6 times. 42 miles long so it was a stretch of my endurance that's for sure but I held up well throughout the whole thing and was sitting in the top 4-5 wheels with less than 600 meters to go. Around the last turn into a somewhat uphill finish I quickly found that the ramping up of speed by Tim Nixon for the last 3 miles wasn't what my legs had in mind. I was in position to get in the money possibly but that finishing straight and my fitness had other plans. Ended up 15th so I wasn't upset about it and know that with some more riding I should be able to mix it up a bit more instead of surfing around in the back of pack for half the race.

As I was spectating Brian DePasse bringing home the "W" in his race (he also won the crit on Sunday) I was summoned to go to the medical tent to tend to an old Cutters teammate: yep you guessed it, Skeeter. He got cut off by some idiot in the final lap of his race and had some major road rash and a really deep gash on his chin. So after some manipulating of the medical staff and talking them out of calling an ambulance (in fear of him going into shock even though he clearly wasn't) we headed to the hospital to get him cleaned up. 4 hours and 14 stitches later I finally headed home. For those Cutters guys wondering: yes, I saw Skeeter's penis again in realtion to bike wrecks as he had a nasty gash down there but his member is just fine, no homo. Feel bad for the poor kid as he can honestly say that he's been through the ringer in terms of injuries. Even though he's banged up nothing is broken and looks as though he'll be racing again soon. Heal up quick buddy.

 Sitting in that ER room brought back some wild memories while we reminisced about "the wreck" a few years back but oddly enough it's kind of cool to reflect how close you become with your teammates and other little 5'ers over the years. I know those boys would have carried me to the hospital if need be and I could only pay my dues last Saturday and appreciate how this family is something that extends past graduation. That's what it means to be a Cutters rider though: You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Or dig the cinders out...

Summer Semester

Today was full of great things and not so great things. It was the official first day of classes starting my second year of PT school so that's somewhat exciting to think I've already completed a year. Classes seem like they will be fairly interesting this semester; dry, but none the less interesting. Neurology I with lab, Therapeutic Exercise with lab, and Pathophysiology II. We'll see how they turn out.

So I've decided that I've spent far too much time off and away from the bike. I was getting the itch to get back on the horse and pound out some miles around the time Little 5 was ending and still riding the high off that weekend but that was right when school decided to get all crazy. Excuses aside I had to put the priorities where they lie and ended the semester with a 3.68 bringing my cum to 3.5 so I'm happy. Considering many of my fellow peers spend countless hours studying to my mediocre amount I'm satisfied and feel like I'm learning a ton while still maintaining my sanity somewhat. So this summer and having only 5 classes instead of 9 I sat down and figured out how much time, and money, that could be saved from me riding to class. I found a decent route taking me through the winding roads of southwest Michigan ("Pure Michigan" as they say in commercials...) that comes out to be 28 miles in length so nothing unbearable by any means. With this means of transpo it always saves roughly $9.37 in gas per day. It's actually quite ridiculous.

I've ridden twice to school thus far and while sitting at lunch today cruising the Internet and feeling surly I decided to renew my racing license. Thinking that this is probably the last summer that I'll be able to actually race competitively I figured I'd jump in a few of the local races. What the heck. The first one will be this coming Saturday at the Fat/Skinny Tire Festival in Warsaw, IN. It's a 45 mile long road race but I'm a little leery only having ridden about 200 miles all spring. Should make for an interesting Saturday afternoon to say the least and I'll be taking the same approach the Delts do every year to Little 5: Suck wheels and hope to make it til the end. Maybe the finish will turn out like theirs did this year.

Not much else going on in this neck of the woods. I've got a little poison ivy on my wrist and ankle from mowing down the forest at grandpa's house but other than that things are just peachy.

Bloomington visits

Its always a blast coming down to Bloomington to visit the little one and friends and this trip down has thus far been just as great. Graduation celebrations, going to kilroys and playing Mario Kart, and reminiscing while completing old routes that used to be done weekly without much effort but now I feel like I've ridden 900 miles when in reality it's 40. Funny how father time has a different plan for you from the one you originally thought possible. I am however converting the cervelo to a time trial machine with the help from fowler and have my sites set on doing the whirlpool ironman 70.3 in August this year. Suppose I should start training... Heading to Lake Monroe and seeing what kind of trouble I can get into while out on the infamous "Party Boats" all after the completion of my first round of golf in over 7 years where there's plenty at stake with the silly little retard Caitlin. I can hit balls like no other, no pun intended. She's bitten off more than she can chew on this one as I'm a gamer and fully plan on using all sorts of psychological warfare tactics and other mind games to have her beat before we even start! Wish me luck!

First Year of PT School

Alright I know its been quite some time and I'm sure everyone is curious to what I've been up to. Well here you go; I am hoping to update this baby at least once a week starting now...

Most notably is the completion of my first year of physical therapy grad school. To say this year wasn't challenging would be a blatant lie. I pretty much cruised through my undergraduate studies without a real challenge with the exception of a few classes so this year was a punch to the gut of reality. Every single week this spring semester classmates and I stared blankly into the face of at least 2 to 3 exams every week and polished it off with 7 exams over a three day period. 10 different classes will make a man crazy in some regards. Hence, why I am writing my first post in months at 4:30 in the morning: my sleep schedule is severely off. I could go on and on about all the things that I've learned this year ranging from gross anatomy to pharmacology agents but I'll spare everyone as even I'll admit some is somewhat irrelevant.

Besides school I had the privilege this past year to coach the Collins Women's Little 500 team. It was a great experience for my personally and I think the girls showed a lot of determination to get this thing rolling, no pun intended. A small group of friends who maybe were getting a little bored or felt their college experience was getting a little stale decided, "what the heck let's restart this Collins team from the ground up?" With no equipment, bikes, clothing, or any idea of what to expect they jumped in head first and tried to float. When I thought about it and the challenge that it presented, along with a way to stay involved in the race that really shaped my own personal college experience I committed to be a coach. In the beginning I wasn't expecting much and just wanted them to enjoy the experience. With that being said I told them I was going to push them hard in workouts and I wanted them to fully commit to this endeavor. That they did! Sparing all the details there were many emails, texts, and phone calls with questions about workouts, pit selections, quals, and pretty much anything that one could possibly think of concerning this event.

Spring series weren't exactly a huge focus for us. Maybe dating back to my days with the Cutters and a little bit with the idea that they've only been riding for a month and a half I didn't think going full blow into these events would heighten spirits, etc. Nothing spectacular to speak of outright but they held their own flying under the radar and ultimately we had a great first quals run and qualified for the 25th running of the women's little 500 in the 18th position. We're in!

The day of the race I remember sitting around all day thinking about the strategy that I had in mind all the while trying to not think about the rain that was sure to come. Secretly I wanted it to pour though as I figured it would help a team of rookies that wouldn't necessarily know what to expect. Boy did that define their race more than I thought as everyone rode spectacular and finished all 100 laps and a tremendous 7th place. It was absolutely incredible to experience it from the perspective of coaching and to watch a group of individuals come so far in such a short amount of time. To think they went from not even having bikes at the end of January to placing 7th? Come on  that's awesome! Looking forward to working with the ladies in the years to come if they decide to keep me around (I've got at least one more year on my contract and received a sweet signing bonus of an Upland growler and some cookies!) We're losing Megan who will be studying abroad next year in France. Hard shoes to fill as she was voted Rookie of The Year by her riding peers but they're up for the challenge and should be fun to see if we get some new riders interested in carrying on the tradition.
 Here's a link to their blog. http://collinscycling.wordpress.com/