Across the pond

So, I'm in Europe right now.

Been here for about a month, and it's pretty great. Food is good, weather is mostly nice and there's cool stuff to see. Having spent so much of my childhood over here it almost feels like coming home in a way. With that same idea, I've caught myself wondering how much of the "study abroad experience" I'm really getting. I mean, I know my way around, the food is not that strange, and my german is better than I remembered. I guess really anywhere in Europe wouldn't have been as much of a shock as Africa or asia. It's also difficult to remember that we're living here. We're here for 4 months, and we don't need to be doing stuff, and seeing stuff and busy all the time. It's also really expensive to be doing stuff all the time.

Anyways, I did decide to bring a bike with me over here. The night before I flew out, at 11 pm, I took apart my specialized and then built and packed my orca. I then had to pack my bags too, which made for a short night with a 7:30 am flight. So, I got here and the bike got here too. I think the first week I was here, we went out and checked out the Viennese version of a Tuesday night crit, Thursdays here. It was pretty cool, and the top level race definitely looked like something I could be competitive in, especially if I was in decent shape. After watching, I was pretty excited to race. The last bit of my season sucked. I think maybe 2 races in July/August? So it'd been a while. I went home, found more races, and was kind of starting to put together a last little racing block. Nothing too serious, but hey, at least I could say I'd raced in Europe then. Anyways, I encountered some major bike problems. I can't go into details, but it was a major setback. Finally got the bike together just last week, and rode for the first time on Thursday. I went out to the hills outside of vienna, and I felt pretty good considering it'd been about a month since I'd ridden. I felt like shit up the hills, but that's kinda how I felt all summer. So I really have no clue where my fitness is at. I felt fine on the flats, leg wise. I would guess we walk at least 5 miles in the city a day, which could be keeping me in some shape. I think my lungs are probably a bit behind though. We moved apartments, to one that is a lot more conducive to riding now, so maybe I can get into a routine of maybe 2-4 rides a week.

I don't know what kind of effects this will have on next season. I was going through some old emails, and I found one from last year saying that we'd start training on November first, so maybe I'll only be around a month behind when I come back. Speaking of next year, I'm still not sure what my plans are. I want it to be different and better than this year, and I think I know how, but I'm not sure of how to make that happen. There are a few things floating around, but I don't know enough yet to make a decision. One thing I've been thinking a lot about is how little I raced in town this year, and last year too. I raced one time in STL since tour de grove. Granted I was here but missed the state crit and edwardsville for other reasons, but still. That's kind of a bummer. I also feel like there are a lot less local races though, at least since my junior days. But maybe that's just seeing things bigger when you're smaller. That being said, I do love racing out of town. Tulsa, Quad Cities, Joe Martin, Dairyland and of course Superweek. I think a season would feel incomplete if I didn't at least get to do a few of those.

Maybe because I didn't race as much I'm finding myself a little jealous of the cross racing at home. It just looks nice to be racing right now, and apparently the weather is good there for it now. Maybe I'll come back and race a bit next year. I'd definitely like to get back to the front of those races where I belong. The two or so races I did last year were a joke, and not the last taste of cross I'd like to have in my mouth. I do think last year was a good year to miss though. It was dry all fall, and I got in some good training. I also wasn't missing cross last year whatsoever. And all the tech aspects of it, just seemed like more of a pain in the ass, rather than something to enjoy like I used to. I even had two bikes last year. That being said, I don't think I could race cross without putting a lot of effort into it. It's the most unsatisfying kind of racing to do if you're not prepared.

This Season

This season has been a really weird, and pretty disappointing/unfulfilling one. I've raced probably less than I ever have in the last 3-4 years. I haven't actually counted, but I really feel like it. I didn't do Joe Martin, the Herman road race, and not really much of the local stuff. I think Babler was the first thing I've done in this area since the Grove. When I lined up for the National road race I'd done two road races all year. Both of which don't really count (1 being Froze Toes, and the other being 2 laps of Hillsboro).

I also feel like I've never really been in that great of shape this year. I think I missed a lot of training in the spring with school and stress, and I feel like that zapped a bit of what I had from the fall/winter. I hardly rode long at all either, maybe a couple rides over 80 miles. One thing I've really noticed fitness wise this year, is that I have nothing up the hills. I've never been a great climber, despite my build, but I've always been able to attack and at least hang on on hills, if not move up. This year that just isn't there. I think it's from missing the longer rides out into Jeff Co. Living in the city isn't bad for riding at all, but I do think I climb a lot less. At my parents house the climb up the driveway is equivalent to the finish climb at the last day of the Grove, where I was hurting every lap this year. I bet that last year I would have felt a bit different.

The one area I have felt good in this year is the flat fast crits, at least once I did a few and kind of got in shape. Our second day at Dairyland, and also a USA Crit race, was probably my best race all year. 90 minutes with an average over 28, and being the only one from my team to finish. But still, I didn't have a result from it. The national crit was the same way, long and fast and I felt good about finishing. Feeling good about finishing isn't exactly a great thing though. That should be a given. Still, those are the races that I've liked doing the most. I'm pretty bummed I'm not at superweek right now. I'd definitely be going good by the end of it, and it's also my favorite race series of the year. I still don't understand why I'm not there.


I've also learned this year that I'm just bad at training. I'm bad at following a plan, and I'm bad at pushing myself in workouts. I've long felt like the more racing I do the better shape I get in, even if it's tuesday nights. I guess this is really the only year that I've not raced as much, and I can feel the difference.

This fall I'm going to be studying abroad in Vienna, Austria. Right now, I'm not planning on bringing a bike at all. I feel like it'll be sitting there, making me feel bad about not riding it when I walk out the door everyday. I don't want to feel obligated to train while I'm there. I think it will be a really good break. I talked with Austin at Nationals, and I know he's having a similarly disappointing season. He pointed out that having the fall off will really make me see how much I do or don't like racing/riding my bike, which is a good point. I'm also considering buying a bike there, or even just shipping over my singlespeed Orca, but I think that's something I'll decide when I'm over there. Maybe I'll start running or something when I'm there, I know my parents always liked running through the city in the morning.

I'm already thinking about next year. The races I have done this year have been so disappointing, both from a racing and just environment standpoint. I really haven't had fun racing my bike, or really at many races this year at all. I have a few things in mind to change that for next year but I'm not sure about anything yet. All I know is that if I have another year like this, aka not having fun, next year, I probably would stop racing my bike.

Forest Park

Last weekend was the Forest Park crit. Pretty much the first race of the year, that actually feels like a race. I rolled over to the race from my house with Keaton. It was pretty awesome being able to ride to a race, once we figured out how to secure our spare wheels to our bags. The weather was also unbelievable. It was pretty much perfect when we left around 12:30, and by the time we raced my garmin said 85. It was also windier than it's been all spring, and only got worse the later it got. We rolled up to see a pretty stacked field. Austin was in town, Dogfish had around 30 riders, and Jonathan Jacob & Jeff Schroetlin were there too. Suddenly this race got elevated from just a local early season crit. My race was pretty miserable. The pace was really fast, and the wind unbearable. I followed a few too many moves early, and just don't have the stamina to do that over and over again, with nowhere to recover when the bunch is single file in the gutter. I was trying to bridge to the chase group and Matt Brandt came past me. I never quite got on his wheel, and probably got 50 feet from the chase group and just blew completely. Pretty sure if I'd gotten there, I could have stayed, if I'd been able to recover a bit. I got popped way too early, turned off the course and almost threw my bike off a bridge because I was so frustrated. I rolled back to the course and watched a couple guys get popped every lap. It made getting shelled hurt a little less, because I'd at least been active in the race when I was there. Thinking about it today, I'm reminded how much I love racing my bike. And how much I love crits. I've raced everything but track, and I'm pretty positive there's really no better form of racing, and nothing nearly as exciting to race.

Mardi Gras

So last weekend, while you were training, I was working Mardi Gras. For those of you that don't know, I work at McGurks in Soulard, which is somewhat of the hub for Mardi Gras in Soulard, which is the hub for Mardi Gras in St. Louis, which is the 2nd biggest Mardi Gras in the country. It was insane. I helped set up and worked the friday before, from 4pm-2am and then got to work the next morning at 8am. It was crazy pretty much all day. At 10:30am I saw a girl being driven on a Gator, completely passed out drunk. I've never seen so many people knocked out drunk. That being said, it was a pretty awesome time. Basically being paid to pour beers, get ice and more liquor and dance. I was barbacking for the two busiest bars outside on Russell and at the corner of 12th and Russell. The corner ended up being twice as nuts as the one right next to it, and thats where I was all day. We had a DJ right next to us. I was changing around 2-4 kegs an hour, on 6 taps. I think the two bars I was working went through 12 jugs (big white things on the bars) of hurricanes.

This was pretty much where I was all day.



I also took a few videos throughout the day. Click them to become full screen or something, blogger made them really small.








I still don't know if I'd ever go to Mardi Gras as a participant. I'd definitely work it again though, 14 hour shift and all. I was definitely on the right side of the bar. I also made bank.

In other news, I'm trying to get a lot of hours in this week on the bike. 34 is apparantly the goal. I dont think I'm going to break 25 realistically. Maybe not even 20. I'm supposed to work St. Patrick's day this weekend too.

maybe

I'll go with a zef style haircut for the season this year? He's already got the fresh shades.

i miss this era

if

someone gave me this bike, i might consider racing cross again. serious drool.