It's Official: School is out!

As a student, the last exam is sort of like the end of the semester. Suddenly, there are no more commitments such as studying and working, but there is still a cloud lingering overhead as if it really is not all over. This metaphorical cloud is of course the grades from the semester. I seem to check every day until each grade appears in the table for the semester. When they finally come in, I can relax and know that everything is in the books. Most of my grades came in quickly, but as luck would have it, I had to wait the longest for the grade I was most concerned about. I could have predicted all of my grades (except for this one) weeks before they were in, the problem was my finance class. This semester I had the pleasure of being taught finance between 5:30 and 8:15 one night each week by an adjunct professor (a person hired for one semester to teach a class - i.e. not a true university professor). To say the least, I sat by as a good class went from bad to worse. I will spare the gory details, but at the end of the semester I found myself fighting just to pass the class. After a long semester and after taking all the exams, I had to sit and wait just a little longer to see what the damage would be. After more than a week, I had the answer. I watched as my cumulative GPA slid nearly 2 tenths of a point from one class. The good news is that my other grades helped to keep my GPA up and hopefully still on the Dean's List.
Better yet, school is now officially over and I can focus 100% on racing this summer. I think I may just celebrate by doing a good 40 miles tonight after work!

-Andy

Weekend in Green Bay

This last weekend came and went very quickly as I headed back to Green Bay for Heather's graduation and her trip to Ireland. Sunday was her actual graduation from St. Norbert College and then Monday morning, we took her to the airport so she could leave for two weeks in Ireland. Once she took off, I spent the rest of the day working on getting my mountain bike back in order. The fork is in the shop for a rebuild, the bike got stripped of everything and given a good deep clean and polish, I replaced the bottom bracket and started cleaning the other components. After the fork is finished, it will be time to put it all back together and hopefully get in a couple rides before Rhinelander.
On the training front, I am quickly regaining my fitness and I should be ready to go for Rhinelander. Overall things are feeling good, but the knees have been feeling a little pain after a ride. Looks like that 3-D Fitting with Rebecca at the hub will not be too far in the future. For now, I have been making small changes and trying to isolate what is causing the pain so I can keep riding.
Last but not least, I just wanted to give a shout out to all the Flyers who represented the team in Iola. Hopefully we can see this sort of showing to every WORS race this summer.

-Andy

Have You Seen My Fittness?

With my last exam complete as of Wednesday night at 7:30, I am officially finished with another semester of school and onto summer. The last few weeks have been rough as far as riding and I knew it was not going to end well. Classes picked up and I watched as my time disappeared before my eyes. After a rather long break, I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather this afternoon and get out for an easy ride. Quickly I felt it. I had lost all I gained over the last months of hard work and training. After a cool 40 miles today I am thinking it is not too far gone and with some careful planning, I should be back on track.
I think it is time for a little more recovery food, then later I'll be back with some details of my road season.

-Andy

Where am I?

All I can say is that school is crazy nuts. Three exams to go starting with one tonight at 5:30. Then one tomorrow afternoon and the last one Wednesday night. I'll head to Green Bay this weekend for Heather's Graduation and to take care of important things like getting my mountain bike ready to ride for one more season. Then Heather leaves on Monday for 2 weeks in Ireland and I head back to Milwaukee to start working and hopefully getting in some more ride time. I am sitting in a much better position (fitness wise) now than I was last season, but that is not saying much. I'll be sure to post a little recap of the collegiate road season as I gain time. Until then, it is time for me to dive head first into more studying for my exam in t-minus 2 hours.
-Andy

Iceman, Training, Racing

Like I said in my last post, I really underestimated how much work 12 credits could be. Especially with three night classes, it seems like my workload effectively doubled from last semester where I had 16 credits of classes. To say the least - work and school are kicking my butt. The good news is that I have been able to get in some workouts about every-other day right now. Yesterday also offered some beautiful weather to get out for a good long ride on Lake Dr. I put in 34 miles, feeling like I could do more; though my small amount of food and water along with my schedule would just not allow for more.
Besides training, I have been working to figure out my racing calendar from now until November and it has been no easy task. As some of you already know the Iceman Registration was just nuts and still is. I was lucky enough to accidentally log in and register before registration was actually open (maybe this is part of the reason they were having problems?). So I am now officially doing the Iceman, though we shall see who else from the Flyers get in! Collegiate racing started Feb 28 in Kentucky and there is another race today in Indiana. Between the sheer number of races and the fact that I will be in Florida from March 13-23, work will not let me do any races in March. Right now I am hoping to be able to do a couple races in April still before regionals. So it looks like my collegiate road season for 2009 will be 2-3 race weekends. I guess the up-side is that no matter what, I will be in better shape for summer racing and a little closer to moving up a category this year.

-Andy

What's been happening!?!?

I am officially back. I think I am going to call the last two months, the true off-season. Obviously school finished and winter break came and went quickly. Lots of things have been happening over those two months. Over break, I spent a fair amount of time trying to get my old XC skis in working order only to find out that there is a place down here that rents skis for no cost other than the annual membership... Sold! I was able to get out to do some cross-country skiing through the Urban Ecology Center at least a few times over break. I was also happy to get a fair amount of weight-lifting in. Over the last two weeks I have been doing more cardio on the spin bike and a little running on the indoor track (much to my knee's dissatisfaction...). Thanks to the weather over the weekend and decent temps this morning, I finally got outside to get in some real saddle time!!! Meetings for Both the Titletown Flyers and the UWM Cycling team have started and collegiate road racing starts on Feb 28th, though my first race(s) are likely to be March 7 and 8th. Besides training and such, school is now entering week 3 of the spring semester, though I can hardly believe it. My schedule consists of about 4 classes, Monday through Wednesday and work 5 days a week. My biggest challenges are without a doubt my 3 night classes from 5:30 to 8:10 each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It's pretty hard to get used to staying attentive at night instead of in the early morning. The nice thing about the night classes is that I get a lot of time Monday and Wednesday mornings to get in a long ride or workout before classes start.
I'll have more to come, as I am making some (hopefully) big purchases over the next month or so, and as training builds towards collegiate road season!

-Andy

Snow Anyone?

Today was to mark the last day of school for the fall semester with my last final at 10:00 AM. This morning I woke up to the sound of snow blowers and lots of commotion outside. Looking out my window, I saw what I had feared; 12+ inches of snow and more on the way. I was hopeful that my exam would not be canceled, so I checked the computer and yep, exams are delayed due to the snowstorm... As a kid and even now, I loved snow days and always looked forward to them. Today is different, I really wanted to take this exam and get the semester over with. Now I need to try and get off from work tomorrow morning so I can go back to school and take the exam 24 hours from now... Not fun. In the meantime, I guess I will study a little more for the exam and have a lazy day watching all the people that have real jobs try and get to work.