The Joys of Moving

I found it ironic that after my last post, the race in Franklin was rained out.  I can not imagine how much water the trails were covered in.  The good thing is that I was able to use that weekend to get a much needed head start on moving from my old place in Milwaukee to my new apartment not far away from Crystal Ridge in Franklin.  I am getting closer to having all of my stuff moved and unpacked with a little work to do in the kitchen and then moving my new couches from Green Bay down here to the new place.
The hardest thing has been finding time to get out for rides while moving and still working full-time.  The last three weekends have been spent unpacking, cleaning, and arranging everything in the apartment with almost no time spent riding.  Complicating matters is trying to find places to ride on the road especially due to the trail conditions at Crystal Ridge (wet).  Thankfully, I am getting into a rhythm now and have found a good route in the Menominee Falls area where there are lots of big hills (think Scray's Hill or bigger for those of you in the Green Bay area).  Maybe this change of pace will be just what my training needed for some much needed mid-season conditioning. 
This weekend will be the Reforestation Ramble back in the Green Bay area.  It sounds like Shawn is doing a great job again this year and will have a great course to ride on.  Not sure what my plans are for the race yet this weekend. Unfortunately, my rear wheel on the mountain bike is getting a lot of flats.  I sent it in to the shop to have it looked at - it looks like some sharp metal burrs, fused on the inside of the rim, were puncturing the tube even through two layers of a thick plastic rim strip!  If things are not all fixed, I will probably volunteer for the entire day and skip the race.
Should be an interesting week to see how everything will unfold.  More to come soon!


-Andy

Don't trust the weather man.

It has been a pretty busy month so far which always makes riding tough.  But I think I can say a second major reason has been working in rides when the weather is nice outside.  The forecast says sunny all day and into the night - what happens?  Rain.  The radar looks like rain and we get sunny and 75.  This month seems to have been especially bad in regards to forecast accuracy where the weather has literally been the exact opposite of the forecast.  So what does one do when cross-checking the weather between 3 sources is not working?  Plan rides opposite to what the weather says. 
This weekend offered a great opportunity to ride at Franklin, what better than to follow it up with a long road ride on Monday after work.  Check the forecast and everything looks great, especially given the rain and thunderstorms forecast for Tuesday.  While at work the weather was pretty nice all up until about 4:00 when clouds started moving in.  The forecast still says no rain for the night and the radar is inconclusive.  When I got home just after 5 I look at the sky and it says something very different from the forecast.  I look one last time at the computer and the radar shows green all around Milwaukee.  Decision time - ride with a chance of getting wet or take it safe and ride later.  Looking at the forecast for Tuesday, I saw rain predicted all day.  For some reason I decided to hold off on the ride and wait for Today. 
While the forecast said rain all day, and the radar seemed to agree, there was hardly a cloud in the sky.  Strangely, the forecast was finally changed to reflect the current conditions - Sunny and Gorgeous!  By 4:30 a few clouds rolled in making me worry about postponing the ride to today, but I stuck with my original plan to ride tonight.  I hit the road at about 5:30 and was greeted with some clouds in the sky, but by 6:00, the sky cleared up and the sun came out for some great riding weather!  After being graced with beautiful weather and a good 40 miles tonight, I am feeling refreshed to finally get a good ride.  I have also come to one conclusion - don't trust the weather man (in fact, sometimes you should do the opposite of what they say!)

Now to get some rest tonight and prepare for a fun race weekend in Franklin!

-Andy

Mid season check up (Whoops)

I figured I should at least get a quick post up to let everyone know that I am still alive...
I was going to put up an epic length recap, but after some thought on how long that will take to write (and to read) I will save the gory detail and give you all the abridged version. 
All the way back in May, I Graduated from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee with a major in Management of Information Systems.  Literally right after graduation (about 5 hours later) I was on a plane to Florida to attend the annual convention for SAP (a huge software company).  The conference was a cool opportunity that I was nominated to attend by the University.  I found out that I was only 1 of 8 other students from the US to attend this conference, which was pretty cool!  After that I have been working full time in Milwaukee at a consulting firm that deals with SAP so that conference was a big help. 
More recently, I found a new place to live in Franklin (just southwest of Milwaukee) and will start moving in there next week.  I have been trying to fit riding into my new schedule and now I just need to get into a good rythym.  Racing comp this year has been a blast so far.  I am finding the races to be very demanding, but very fun at the same time.  Not that getting lapped by other riders is a good thing, but seeing the pros fly by on the trail is pretty cool.  It really is motivating me to step up my game and get faster.  The races I have done so far have shown me a big gap in my training this year was strength.  I don't have the power I had last year and that is starting to hurt me a little in the races.  My plan is to try and incorporate some strength and power specific training into my routine and use my newly free weekends to get in some quality long rides.  I think today I am going to head out to Crystal Ridge in Franklin to ride the race course and get some good hill repeats in. 
In the meantime I will try to start updating with race pictures and more of the exciting things to come.


-Andy

Ready to Roll

I have now spent the last few months in what I will refer to as 'Top-secret Super-fast Training.' Some of this time has been devoted to preparing and riding my new weapon of choice- a 2010 Specialized Stumpjumper Expert 29'er.
Each week I have been trying to ramp up ride frequency and time as much as my schedule would allow (about 3 rides per week). The rest of the time has been spent in school, at work, and finding employment for after school. The good news is that I am nearing the end of my education and Graduation is nearing quickly. I have also taken a full-time offer at a local consulting firm which is going to begin shortly.
Given the huge time commitments to work, school, and other activities, my training is not where I would hope, but I am excited to start the season. This weekend marks race #1 in WORS 2010 and I will be doing my first race in comp, which should make for a painful, but interesting weekend. Tomorrow I will probably finish cleaning my bike and make sure it is in shape for the weekend when Don says "Gooooooo!" I am very excited for this year and I am happy to be racing with the Titletown Flyers on a new 2010 Specialized!
-Andy

Morning Coffee and a Blog Post

Well, it has been a long while since I last posted. Even with no classes, things have been busy, busy. Training is not going quite as planned, but I am finally catching up on everything. I think I will begin weights this week and really start getting organized with my training plan. Heather got me the "other" Bible for Christmas and I am planning to make some major changes in my training plan (or lack thereof). If you have not read this, I am going to highly recommend at least skim reading it. The book is like drinking from a fire hose, but there are some great ideas within.
In other news, I am working to get my final semester at UWM in line. I have 3 classes left in order to graduate, but I need one more to stay full time. Add in trying to work a full time job and that means schedule fun-ness! Also in the works is trying to get back to Green Bay to finally order the new bike!
I think that the next two weeks are going to be really busy, but it should be a lot of fun. Hopefully more updates to come soon!

Andy