My racing schedule is pretty packed in the next few weeks and my parents wanted me to organize a farewell party. This Sunday is the only weekend date that I'm not racing before I leave, so that is when it will be.
Sunday, August 3rd.
Starts 5pm - 1am?
Things to do: grilling, ping pong, games, socializing
Where: my house right by bloomer park
1026 River Mist Drive
Rochester MI 48307
Sorry about the conflict with Big M for those of you doing that. If anyone wants to go for a casual mtn bike ride around bloomer before hand meet at my house around noon or so or give me a call.. (248)840-9614
Also, anything (games, snacks, drinks) you could bring would really help out, I'm trying to do this on a low budget.
Everyone's welcome, bring the whole family (Ray)
Monday, July 28, 2008
Oh Happy Days!
This has been a week of many firsts.
- My first time riding more than 7 times in a week. (tues/thurs 2 a days)
- My first time going to cedar point this year (wednesday)
- My first top 5 at Waterford (4th as opposed to my many 6ths and 7ths)
- My first Nas-Track win of the year (partnered with Luke and we lapped the field)
- My first Elite Mtn top 5 with payout ever!
- My first bee sting of the year (I blame Robert)
hmmm how will this week compare... I don't know... maybe another Nas-track and the state crit championship on Saturday which pays 20 deep =D Morning velodrome sessions and a new Tuesday night training session with a very fast Jet Fuel dude...
Miles to date: 7,067
Leave Michigan in 21 days!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Racing in Ohio
The last few weeks have been going pretty good for me. I've been racing a lot and my short burn out seems to be over. With the lack of road racing in MI and also me not being able to afford Superweek, Ray and myself decided to hit up the Ohio racing scene at the Troy Classic. It was a 50 lap race, about 1 mile per lap and each lap had 10 turns. There was a nice headwind in the finishing straight and for the first hour we went through there it did not read under 30 mph... The Texas Roadhouse team dominated the race while team Inferno picked up the scraps. Chris Aten, one of my track buddies, was I believe the top MI finisher in 14th place. I sprinted in the pack and ended up 19th out of the 28 finishers. I think there were about 60 started the race and they payed top 20 so I was pretty happy. It was probably the fastest race I've done since the 3 day..
Speaking of track riding, today we started Kilo training at the velodrome. We timed everyone to see where we are and I was 1:16. Which would have placed me 30th at collegiate nats last year. There are still a lot of things I can work on before nats though. My standing start was horrible, I started out way to fast, not knowing what to expect and blew up with 2 laps to go. Also I will be able to use aero bars, so that should help quite a bit.. I'm excited!
This weekend is the Pancake stage race, but I don't think I'll be going. I need to start saving money and so I think I'll just be doing the local cheap races like Waterford and the Nas-track on Friday. The big upcoming races I plan on attending are as followed.
ADA State Crit Champs
Ore 2 Shore //// Btr crit ????
Detroit 6 Day //// Downers Grove Nats ????
August 18th I will be heading down to NC for school!
Miles to date: 6,907
Monday, July 14, 2008
Some food for eating!
Usually when there is a weekend with no races I jump at the chance of riding long/questionable miles. This weekend however, played out a little bit differently. Saturday was filled with numerous grad parties where I spent most of my time by the food.
This brownie probably had 10g of trans fat... but it was amazing!
The only biking I did this day was the 3 miles from my friends house to Stoney where engaged in some serious beach volleyball and some sweet ultimate frisbee. This party was catered with chicken from Outback Steakhouse and I think I had 6 chicken sandwiches...
Of course the party did not stop there. Once back at my friends house I was in the mood for more sweets and this is what we came up with!
Peanut Butter cookies with Hershey's chocolate chunks!
Top it with some ice cream!
This brownie probably had 10g of trans fat... but it was amazing!The only biking I did this day was the 3 miles from my friends house to Stoney where engaged in some serious beach volleyball and some sweet ultimate frisbee. This party was catered with chicken from Outback Steakhouse and I think I had 6 chicken sandwiches...
Of course the party did not stop there. Once back at my friends house I was in the mood for more sweets and this is what we came up with!
Peanut Butter cookies with Hershey's chocolate chunks!
Top it with some ice cream!Actually I've been pretty lazy lately. Track racing wears me down a lot so I've been taking it pretty easy the past few days. Doing slow rides on the pain creek trail with some non-biking friends, playing some tennis with Jamie, and all the rides I've been doing have been shorter in distance...
However... I haven't completely been slacking off. I'm still racing and I think I'm in my best racing shape so far for the year right now because of the recovery I've been getting. Thursday night was the Waterford race where I got in a break that stuck from 30 min in until 10 min to go. I had some energy left for attacks at the end, but then I started cramping up in the last lap. still managed to get 6th though. Danny was our top guy in 3rd and Tim was right in front of me at 5th.
Friday night was my first Friday night Nas-Track race of the year and I got partnered with Tom. Both of us raced the day before and were a little tired compared to mostly everyone who was fresh, but we managed to hang in pretty strong and consistent for 4th. The racing was definitely a breather compared to the 3-day last weekend.
I usually take Monday's easy, but tonight was a special occasion since I had slacked off this weekend. Christian and I headed out on our Trek X02 cross bikes for some dirt road action. While he can destroy me on any dirt road and on any hill, I am proud to say that I can put up a fight when we're on the pavement.
Track in the morning tomorrow and then I'll make my way to the Tuesday night ride later. I haven't been there in a while. Probably recovery rides the rest of the week if I end up going to Superweek on Sunday!
Miles to date: 6,562
However... I haven't completely been slacking off. I'm still racing and I think I'm in my best racing shape so far for the year right now because of the recovery I've been getting. Thursday night was the Waterford race where I got in a break that stuck from 30 min in until 10 min to go. I had some energy left for attacks at the end, but then I started cramping up in the last lap. still managed to get 6th though. Danny was our top guy in 3rd and Tim was right in front of me at 5th.
Friday night was my first Friday night Nas-Track race of the year and I got partnered with Tom. Both of us raced the day before and were a little tired compared to mostly everyone who was fresh, but we managed to hang in pretty strong and consistent for 4th. The racing was definitely a breather compared to the 3-day last weekend.
I usually take Monday's easy, but tonight was a special occasion since I had slacked off this weekend. Christian and I headed out on our Trek X02 cross bikes for some dirt road action. While he can destroy me on any dirt road and on any hill, I am proud to say that I can put up a fight when we're on the pavement.
Track in the morning tomorrow and then I'll make my way to the Tuesday night ride later. I haven't been there in a while. Probably recovery rides the rest of the week if I end up going to Superweek on Sunday!
Miles to date: 6,562
Monday, July 7, 2008
Some National Level Competition
This 4th of July weekend marked the 3rd annual UIV International 3-Day at the IVBP.
And it is with complete honesty that I say this has been the fastest and most grueling set of races I have ever done. With 4 National development team riders, one being the national crit championof Slipstream and another one of the riders for Rock Racing, the pace was always being pushed. Even though there are exchanges and recovery in a Madison, it certainly didn't feel that way.
Congrats to Team USA Blue (left) who won the overall!
My Partner (Andrew Armstrong) suffered from my lack of experience this weekend, but by the last day I had a better idea of what was going on and what to do in different situations. We ended up losing a close battle for 6th to Team America and ended up 7th.
And it is with complete honesty that I say this has been the fastest and most grueling set of races I have ever done. With 4 National development team riders, one being the national crit championof Slipstream and another one of the riders for Rock Racing, the pace was always being pushed. Even though there are exchanges and recovery in a Madison, it certainly didn't feel that way.
Congrats to Team USA Blue (left) who won the overall!My Partner (Andrew Armstrong) suffered from my lack of experience this weekend, but by the last day I had a better idea of what was going on and what to do in different situations. We ended up losing a close battle for 6th to Team America and ended up 7th.
Luke and Brendan had a great weekend ending up 4th!
I'll be looking for a tough partner this friday to take these guys on! This weekend has definitely changed me. It gave me an idea of where I need to be and what I need to do to get there. From now on I will be doing less random long rides and more focused workouts.
U-23 Mtn bike nationals is still up in the air, but Collegiate Track Nationals now seems to be my number one goal this year after hearing Dale's inspiring speach about track racing.Miles to Date: 6,327
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
June
June ended up with 1,167 miles leaving my mileage total at 6,142.
Today I have 6,187 miles.
Track time really kills miles.
The 3 day starts this Friday. It should get pretty painful..
I'm excited!
I'm also considering going to U-23 Mtn nats on the 17th... I need someone to carpool with though!
I had taco bell the other day and it was awesome!
I have no internet at home and am at my grandparents catching up...
Having no internet sucks.
My goal for July is to not ride my road bike apart from in races...
It's mtn, Cross, and Track time!
Sorry for the crappy post, I'm tired and rushed to catch up on everything...
I'll have a better one after the 3-day
If I'm still alive.......
ta...
Today I have 6,187 miles.
Track time really kills miles.
The 3 day starts this Friday. It should get pretty painful..
I'm excited!
I'm also considering going to U-23 Mtn nats on the 17th... I need someone to carpool with though!
I had taco bell the other day and it was awesome!
I have no internet at home and am at my grandparents catching up...
Having no internet sucks.
My goal for July is to not ride my road bike apart from in races...
It's mtn, Cross, and Track time!
Sorry for the crappy post, I'm tired and rushed to catch up on everything...
I'll have a better one after the 3-day
If I'm still alive.......
ta...
An intense last two weeks...
Superior Bike Fest
The gang got together early Friday morning to head up to Marquette for what was to be an awesome weekend. The Pro/1/2 Criterium started around 9:45 PM, so it was starting to get pretty dark out. The course was lit up by the street lights as well as parked cars in some of the corners. It was probably one of the coolest races I have ever done. Unfortunately a combination of over eating and not warming up enough left me off of the back. I joined forces with Ray and John and we kept riding until the race was over... It was very upsetting to get lapped multiple times by the leaders, but my main focus was for the 109 mile road race the next day where I managed to pull off 14th by getting 3rd in the "field sprint". The circuit race on Sunday was also pretty cool, all of the races had great hills. I'll be sure to be better prepared next year. I'm not going to go into too much detail for each race, that would take too long, but congrats to Danny Klein on an overall 8th place! Also, thanks to Tyler and Topher for hosting us while we were up there, it was an amazing experience!
The gang got together early Friday morning to head up to Marquette for what was to be an awesome weekend. The Pro/1/2 Criterium started around 9:45 PM, so it was starting to get pretty dark out. The course was lit up by the street lights as well as parked cars in some of the corners. It was probably one of the coolest races I have ever done. Unfortunately a combination of over eating and not warming up enough left me off of the back. I joined forces with Ray and John and we kept riding until the race was over... It was very upsetting to get lapped multiple times by the leaders, but my main focus was for the 109 mile road race the next day where I managed to pull off 14th by getting 3rd in the "field sprint". The circuit race on Sunday was also pretty cool, all of the races had great hills. I'll be sure to be better prepared next year. I'm not going to go into too much detail for each race, that would take too long, but congrats to Danny Klein on an overall 8th place! Also, thanks to Tyler and Topher for hosting us while we were up there, it was an amazing experience!
Stoney Marathon XC
I sacrificed doing the Rockford criterium in order to do this race so I intended to do pretty well. My goals included a top 5 as well as breaking 4 hours. Too bad for me my 2 flats in the first lap hindered any chance of that happening. Nevertheless I continued the race, trying to make up as much time as I could and finished with some very satisfying lap times. Robert calculated how the race could of played out when counting just laps 2-6...
1 3:14:08 SIMONSON, MICHAEL
2 3:19:53 KUHN, GREG
3 3:21:03 LAPRAIRIE, RANDY
4 3:28:44 LUMMIS, JASON
5 3:28:46 BOGEDIN, CHRISTOPHER
6 3:33:17 HERRIMAN, ROBERT
7 3:42:54 PARMELEE, MARK
8 3:46:08 BRZUCHANSKI, JOSEPH
9 3:46:42 VEGA, ARMANDO
Of course this means absolutely nothing, but I guess I'm happy with my performance. Congrats to Robert who actually did finish in the money at 5th place. Also, congrats to my soon to be collegiate-teammate Randy who got 3rd! Next time I'll be sure to hang with you guys the whole time!
Time for some rest...
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