What Fuels Me?

Chipotle Chicken burrito bowls. A good mix of carbs, protein and fat without the bloating/lactic acid effect from white carbos (pasta, tortillas, flour based breads).

My favorite place to eat....delicious stuff.

Cavendish is ridiculous...fo' real!

Milan-Sanremo was this past Saturday...La Classicissima...La Primivera.

My pick (which can be verified by Andrew Truemper) was Heinrich Haussler, thus, you can imagine my excitement, then despair when I witnessed this act of super-human craziness:

For the record....I'm already picking Haussler for the Tour of Flanders this year.

Indian Mounds and some Racin'

On tap this past weekend was the Hueston Woods Road Race in Oxford, OH. It was the first race of the season where we had a majority of Sustainable Cycling's members all in the same race. The course was awesome....I loved it. It was roughly a ten mile loop in the Hueston Woods State Park. There were three decent climbs, two very fast descents, and an uphill finish. All qualities that suit me well in a race....and it did. I ended up finishing 4th after attacking with three others at the bottom of the final climb. My teammate Blake finished 2nd on the day (all 200 lbs of him...don't ask me how he does it....It's amazing). Truemper also had a solid top ten result on the day. 

The team did awesome during the race. We were definitely some of the big animators of the day with some solid attacks by Spencer and Truemper, I did some tempo work on the front as well as chased down a couple of guys, Pfeiffer and Blake spent some good time on the front as well putting the hurt on the caboose of the peloton. I'm really pleased with how I felt during the race. I put in some intense mid-race efforts and still had enough to have a solid finish.

Earlier this week, a friend Fink and I took an afternoon and went to the Angel Mounds down in Evansville, IN. It's a historical site of a native american settlement and a burial site as well. Both of us were pretty excited to see some sweet burial mounds as well as mentally stimulating educational experiences. We were, however, a bit let down to find a half functioning museum and a big empty field with a few lumps. The most productive part of the day was coming up with a sweet idea for a new reality TV show and how we would plan on using the money we scored from that to build Angel Mounds up to it's full potential....complete with hourly Buffalo hunts and indian battle reenactments. Both of those are stories for another day, though. Until then here's a great picture of our museum experience.

Hopefully the weather stays nice

It's been a bit since my last post...although I'm not sure that anyone has noticed (not even my mom reads my blog). Racing season is full underway, and it feels good to have something to look forward to and work for on the weekends. The weather hasn't been super nice to me, but who can complain...afterall, it's early spring in the midwest. 

This past weekend saw a few members of Sustainable Cycling down in Louisville, KY for the Long Run Park Circuit Race. It was a beautiful course around a small lake, with great pavement and fast corners. Too bad it was really cold and rainy. By the time our race ended, I was shivering so bad that I could barely get off my bike...I was soaked to the core, but after a half hour in the car with the heater blasting, I was back at it and happy to be racing my bike. I finished mid-pack (expected as my crit legs are far from being back), Blake posted a great result getting second, Spencer finished 9th, and Eric was a true trooper coming out to brave the crap weather.

Coming up this Saturday is the Hueston Woods Road Race out in Oxford, OH. I'm hoping to shoot off some fireworks in this race and grab a good result. My road racing legs are feeling good and hungry. Stay tuned for the update!

In other bike-related news, I make a few upgrades to the whip. I got a new saddle (Fizik Arione white on white), new brakes (Ultegra SL), and a new seatpost (Easton EC90). Now I can say that the only original part of my bike is the frame....everything else has been replaced by me over the past year or so. Check it out:

Murray State Survival

Well, the first race of the season is out of the way and without too much pain. We were racing this past weekend down at Murray State in southwestern Kentucky (almost Tennessee). That means that I was able to find a Waffle House and quench my post-race grease/salt cravings. Delicious.

The weather was by far the biggest factor in the race. It got, at absolute best, 40 degrees...but that was at the beginning of the race because the temperatures kept dropping as the race went on. It was drizzling a cold rain at the beginning that moved to a steady rain, then to a steady sleet, then to mini ice pellets that stung like crazy on my face at the end of the race. My dad said it best before the race that this was going to be one of those days where you're mind is going to be the strongest factor in finishing the race.

The other factor in the race was a decent size climb on the backside of the course about halfway through the circuit. The first two laps, overall were a pretty moderate pace. There were a few surges where I got caught out in the back and had to chase a bit to get on, but nothing too bad. The final lap was a lot more serious. The pace increased along with the crosswinds and on that climb, the field went to absolute shreds. At the top of the climb there was nothing left other than several group of 4-7 riders strung out all over. I ended up in a group of seven, including my teammate P-Crispy. That ended up getting widdled down to four of us at around 6 miles to go and at that point, I was done...I just followed wheels and held on as this goof from Cincy kept trying to attack out of our 4 man survival group. 

I ended up at around 15th or so, so not a bad result for the first race of the season. I feel I'm right where I need to be. After I crossed the line it was straight back to inside where I sat on a chair for a few minutes watching the water and ice drip off of my body. What a way to say farewell to February.