its ok, i make lamb

now that i am officially done with my ride to exhaustion testing, it is time to start hitting the roads some more. i feel like i have been doing a hardcore training camp for the last 30 days. since i only had 5 days in between every one of my 4 tests, i would typically get in 1 or 2 big rides in those 5 day gaps and spend the other days recovering. and the testing has been on my mind constantly. what with my racing over spring break, the training kevin and i did up in johnstown, pa, more racing, and my rides for the kinesiology department, i am ready to just get out on the roads for some big rides, cruisin. its nice that i just dont need to think about getting on that stationary bike ever again, because it was on my mind so much.

still getting more and more stoked to race at west virginia for confrence championships. especially if i can get a hold of jeremiah to borrow/rent a disgustingly hot pair of racing wheels. going from 2500 gram wheels (estimate) to 1200 gram wheels is certain to make it easier to pedal my bike. good ol rotational weight.

some quick and dirty math: if i am pedaling at 80rpm, for an hour (in a crit), with my current wheels at 2500 grams per rotation...the weight of the wheels i am moving over the course of the hour is 80X60X2500=12,000,000 grams or about 26,500 lbs. now change the 2500 to 1200 and you get about 12,700 lbs that i have to move. i know im not factoring in momentum and velocity and accelerations etc (im not a math/physics major). but in using his wheels, i pedal about 13,800 less lbs over that one hour. now you can start to get a good idea of how much the rotational weight matters in a bike race. the best place to cut weight from your bike if you want to go faster isnt necessarily the frame, but in the parts that move: wheels, cranks, chain, cassette.

my test on saturday was pretty uneventful. i started to cramp around 50 minutes and kept going for an hour and 7 minutes. i was a little frustrated, and it felt really weird getting off the bike so early after going for almost 2 hrs the time before. but i am done, and i will be reimbursed for my efforts soon. speaking of, if anybody out there is interested in doing the study, it pays $100 for a total of 4 trials and a vo2max test. they need a couple more subjects. let me know if you are interested and ill give you the contact info. and you don't need to be in awesome shape or anything. you just need to be able to pedal at 75% of your max vo2 for 45 minutes to an hour. feels a lot like riding into a moderate headwind.

this would be a pretty good way to summarize last night hanging out with the dude (licking) and his comrades...

the only people missing in the photo are cam, big nate, and colleen who decided to come out with us fellas. hanging out with neal and his friends is always a trip. they are that standard group of friends who have hundreds of little inside jokes and will act like complete idiots without caring what people think. its like they are in their own universe. im sure you know a tight-knit group of friends who act the exact same way. it made for a very entertaining night. definitely had a great time.

the weather is looking phenomenal this week. 60s-70s all week for the most part. 4 weeks of classes left and the weather is turning. can life get better? i submit that it cannot! well it could if i didn't have 2 presentations, 3 case analyses, and 2 exams all due this week. nar-nar. bout time i got crackin on all of that.

"Ride lots." - Eddy Merckx