A!

I got an A on my final for my first class in my "new" college career, and the instructor said I got a "very high A" in the class overall. Higher GPA is on the horizon!

In other news, I'm still riding all the time, and feel stronger every day. I had a knee injury hiccup last week, but all is well and I'm back to normal. Other than that, my weight is back down to almost a season low, and the first local time trial is tomorrow!

Wow!

It's been like a month. I really need to get on the ball and post at least once a week. This weekend I raced 6 times from Friday at lunch till today at lunch. I did one time trial, four criteriums, and a road race. I didn't finish one of the crits, and I got dropped in the brutal road race today in which only about 20 of the field finished out of about 60. A team named Fly V Austrailia showed up and did some work on us all weekend, but overall it was a good experience.

I'm back in college now. It's not a huge deal, but my first class is a type of "intro to computers" type class, which goes into more detail than I thought it would, but in a good way. I've been studying and such which seems to be a trait I lacked when I went to college 6 years ago. So far my grades have been satisfying, but I guess I need to keep plugging away so I can fix my "teenage" GPA I achieved the first time around, which right now sits at 2.4 :( ...I guess that's about it for now!

It Has Returned!

Okay, so as of late, I've had a bit of an issue getting motivated to get out and ride. It was getting better little by little until Saturday night, when my motivation went through the roof! The team I race for, Iron Data p/b Apto Solutions, received an invitation to race in the Athens Twilight, which is the BIGGEST criterium in the entire United States. Saturday night as I lined up to race with about 180 other guys, I got so nervous that I almost made myself sick! There wasn't a single spot left on the barriers throughout the ENTIRE course! It really gave me a huge taste of what professional racing is truly about. As the whistle blew, I'm surprised my heart didn't explode from beating too fast, lol. We headed down the straightaway and took turn one, then two...CRASH! I got caught in the first crash of the night and had to head back to the pits. It's not very easy sprinting onto a raging pack of bulls running at 35mph either! Regardless, I was dropped about 10 minutes later, but it was still super fun.

Sunday was the Historic Roswell Criterium, in which I competed in the 2/3 race, followed by the Pro/1/2 race. The 2/3 race went well until the end, which some small AVX guy went down the line like an idiot and proceeded to lean into turn one touching a pedal. He took down about 20 guys, but I managed to skid to a stop on the curb within inches of where everyone else was piling up. I was dropped 30 minutes into the Pro race. All in all, I had a very fun weekend, and my motivation and reason to want to succeed in the sport has fully returned!

Zero Motivation

It's been a while since I posted. I've had zero motivation to post AND ride. I've talked to the coach, and seems it's normal, which makes me feel better. I actually CAN'T WAIT to get out and ride today just because he talked to me about it and in a round about way motivated me again.

On a side note, we got a Greyhound this weekend. They are hypoallergenic dogs, which mean they shed very little, but man is he a horse!

Time to Rest

This weekend I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee. To cut to the chase, my time trial sucked, as did my crit. I raced the time trial like I had never did any pacing in my life, blowing up on the way out, and having nothing on the way back. In the crit, I got stuck at the back from the gun, never really moved up, and finished in the pack. The road race was pretty productive, with me getting in a break with a teammate and one other guy for 15 minutes, chasing breaks, kicking up the pace, ect...In the end, I got dropped on the last lap of the road race, but my teammate we were working for got 9th. Of course there are things I should have done differently, but I'll get there.

A Minute

So it's been a minute since I posted. I really didn't realize how long it had been. There hasn't been much going on lately other than just a lot of training and racing. I'm almost finished with getting everything in order so I can go back to college, so I guess that's something. Otherwise, I got nothin...

Teamwork

So this past weekend was a bit disappointing for me personally, but great for the team. We came out for our first weekend racing as a team and took 3rd in the road race. I chased way to many breaks down, resulting in me getting dropped the first time up the climb, but I wasn't all that upset due to the fact that it was in the low-mid 40's and raining. The ONLY reason I was disappointed was because I raced like an idiot and got dropped, when I should have been able to get over the climb and into the chase group again. This weekend is Union City, and I definitely don't plan on racing the same. I'm for sure going to be there for what's best for the team, but I'm no good to the team if I'm not there the WHOLE race to help out.