One Week into Summer

I can hardly believe that it's been nearly a week since graduation already. This week the weather seems to be transitioning into the summer season as everyone waits for pools to open and to hit the lake on boats. My personal transition into the daily grind of work instead of going to class for a couple hours a day definitely took its toll on me this week as I was definitely burning the candle at both ends this week. Staying up late with friends and waking up early to complete various experiments that I'm a subject for marked for a long week.

Logged some decent riding this week finally as it was for the most part my first full week back on the bike with some regularity. It felt good to have the knees finally cooperate as they were starting to really bother me toward the end of Little 5 season. I was planning on racing this weekend up in Winona Lake but I feel like I'm not quite ready for the race scene and don't want to throw away any money just to get my ass handed to me. Looking forward to heading out to Iowa on Memorial Day weekend for 4 big races. This might mark my first races of the season so it will be fun as there are a bunch of spectators and lots of riders. I'd like to slip into the top ten for at least 2 of the races and want to really do well at Quad Cities which is the last of the 4 crits. The most famous though is the snake. A winding cobblestone crit that is easily the most terrible thing I've encountered in cycling.

A picture of the snake from last year. Perez said I don't leave much of a draft; I beg to differ...

Went to a few gatherings this week as well. Lylepalooza at Scholars Inn on Monday followed by a terrible movie that definitely was not my choice. Word of advice if you're thinking about going to see Something Borrowed you might as well stay at home and smash your fingers in the door instead. Tuesday I was feeling surly and so overwhelmed by how terrible that previous day's movie adventure went that I decided to go see the new Fast Five (Fast and the Furious) movie and was impressed. Of course its a little out there but nonetheless pretty sweet cars and fight scenes! Wednesday marked the infamous Wednesday Worlds but just as the legs were feeling good and opening up my back tire blew out so I limped it home and my night finished rather uneventful. Since then just hanging out and going to experiments and work. Today I went to lunch with my buddy Andy to Smoking Jack's Rib Shack and got the Catfish sandwich: so good!

A teammate of mine, Kevin set me up on a little date with a girl on the track team: Caitlin Engel. I was a little uneasy about it at first but figured I'd give a shot to go out and have a little fun. Turns out she's pretty cool and very competitive as we immediately started making bets about various games and low and behold I was the ultimate winner as I had to do a little research with the help of a friend in finding a hidden gem of a picture taken earlier this year...

She's a steeplechase runner and had an unfortunate turn of events on this hurdle. Ha she's going to be pissed about this but I just can't resist. And to be honest I've got a way better one of her but I'll save that one for another rainy day. In all seriousness though she's a badass and I wish her the best of luck this weekend at the Big Ten championships out in Iowa.

Looks like another rainy weekend in store for Bloomington; go figure.