Winter Formals, Christmas dinner, and getting my fingers pricked

WOW it has been a while since I last posted!  I have been to Winter Formals with Nicole (she was gracious enough to pay me back for going to her Semi-Formals--VERY fun time!  I am really lucky to have an awesome friend who I can take to stuff like this [and impress all of the dudes]).

I also went to a fancy Christmas dinner at the Institute for Advanced Study (Einstein was a prof there . . . need I saw more?).  My great aunt and great uncle (Mr. and Mrs. Jaffin) are Friends of the Institute and have been kind enough to take me to a lot of these cool galas!

Then I got my first lactate threshold test with Bob Blaisdell--he took his show on the road and came up to the Princeton Bike Room to test the Men's A TTT team.  Very good to get a baseline in like this, at this point in the year, so that we can really see how the team's form is coming along in preparation for Nationals in May.

Marc Hollander gave me an awesome interview for CyclingUpdate, and you can read Part I and Part II.  Part III will be coming soon, just go to the main website every once in a while to check (don't go there just because of my interview--it is an excellent site!).

Enough talk, now pictures!  (By the way, the bamboo photos document our second trip to the Delaware River to gather bamboo for the SICK fixed gear we are creating . . . that story to follow in mid-January!)

TT CLINIC!

Register for the 6:00 class or the 7:30 class!

NEW FIVE HOUR RECORD!

Well, I cannot complain about living in Princeton, New jersey . . . it is beautiful riding country, the weather is nice most of the time, and I have an elevator in my dorm building and all-you-can-eat dining halls just a few hundred meters away!

I don't know if those factors had anything to do with my new five-hour-record average power on my favorite loop, from Frenchtown, NJ to Califon, NJ (the highest point in Hunterdon County).  Maybe it was due to my nice rest week over Thanksgiving, and I am just now realizing the benefits of 130 hours in the saddle during the previous five weeks!  Whatever it was, I had a beautiful ride today.

I woke up to sun shining into my south window, and the coffee (yes, friends, I have a Rancilio Silvia machine in my room!) was especially tasty (I only made espresso because I didn't feel like taking a leak every 30 minutes on the ride!).  I read Erica Allar's new blog entry and laughed a lot, and I just knew it was going to be a great ride.

Enough gushing about roads in NJ . . . I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  Classes are done for the semester in exactly two weeks, and I am really looking forward to a great time back home with the parents, my old girlfriend, and (OF COURSE) my awesome riding buddies as we tough it in conditions that cause ones balls (balls are required on rides like these) to disappear . . . a good friend of mine once coined the term "sport-mode."  The Murphy (mom's side) family Christmas Eve is a great tradition of drunken debauchery and revelry, and I cannot wait to see everyone I haven't seen all year!!  Then my dad and I are driving out to Colorado for 4 spectacular days of skiing at Copper, Keystone, and Breckenridge.  We are meeting up with Nicole Clarke (who took me to the Charter Semi-formal) and her summer roommate and star Vanderbilt runner Amanda Scott for some skiing and dinner.  We are also going to chill with Shawn and Karl Heidgen of Pactimo, two of my best friends who I just met [ironically] on the Courage Classic charity ride for Denver Children's Hospital!

My dad and I will be back just in time for a fun New Year's Eve (hopefully with some old high school friends) and then I am going to the Iowa Democratic caucus on January 3rd . . . that should be very interesting as I have not attended them before and I also do not know for sure who I am supporting!

Thanks for reading, and I hope to have some more good stories during the holidays!

Time Pro Cycling

First off--HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  I had a great time at my aunt and uncle's house just 40 miles from Princeton (yes, I rode there) and ate enough stuffing and apple pie to kill a small donkey.

Here is an excellent account of our team's adventures on Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina!

The best part of the past week was definitely Tuesday when I flew down to Charlotte, North Carolina to meet my new teammates and do a ropes course.  After my flight was canceled the night before, and I was scrambling to prevent an overnight in Newark, an earlier flight was so delayed that I ended up getting a spot on it and got into Charlotte 30 minutes ahead of schedule!

I woke up early Tuesday morning and met the guys at breakfast before packing into the team van and some vehicles and going to the ropes course at the U.S. National Whitewater Center (with a quick stop at FourBucks).  We were immediately thrown in to challenging situations, both mentally and physically, not to mention the fact that the 14 of us didn't know each others' names!  I could not believe how well we did on the obstacles, and the team's progress was evident as the morning became afternoon.

Initially, we didn't have strong leadership, and everyone was either goofing around or trying to lead by talking louder.  After a couple tasks were completed, and our performance as a team was discussed, we realized who the natural team leaders were and began to develop our strategies before attacking the obstacle--brilliant idea, I know!  Overall, it was an excellent way to learn who everyone is, what they are like in demanding situations, and just get a feel for the group dynamics.

After an excellent lunch at the Whitewater Center's restaurant, we all stacked out spots in the conference room for the next 5 hours and discussed everything a team can possibly discuss: anti-doping, sponsorship (Dedicated Athlete's Jon Gamble gave an excellent nutrition discussion), rider expectations, lessons learned in 2007, team's roll in the sport of cycling, mission statement development, contract details, and so on.  The team is composed of a manager (Erik Saunders), a director (Pat Raines), three road captains (Adam Myerson, Daniel Ramsey, and Jon Hamblen), and the developing riders (9 of us from 19 years old to 25 years old).  The road captains are not necessary the designated "winners" but rather they are the experienced leaders who will direct call the shots on the road and also help us along throughout the season by divulging their wealth of knowledge.

It is an excellent team of guys and an excellent program.  Its goals are to develop us into top professional riders and role models in the community, which is exactly what I am looking for.  I think next summer will be like an internship, just like this summer with Ball, and I will learn a lot and see how I feel about going down the road to becoming a top professional cyclist.

Wish me luck!

AWESOME DAY!

So I broke my old record today . . .

What an awesome ride!!!  I headed out with my good buddy Austin from the Princeton Cycling Team and did the Frenchtown-Califon loop . . . it is now officially my favorite ride in NJ.  The legs felt fantastic, and I was still able to cruise at 300+ after 5 hours of good tempo.  I give much of the credit to Panera's excellent dutch apple & raisin bagels.

Then I hurried through brunch and rode 15k to the Mercer Cup USGP 'Cross race--WHAT A BLAST!!!  I saw Toby Stanton and Sherri L. (Toby's awesome gf and our old team soigneur and mom), and also ran into Nate Buyon (my old teammate from HART cycling in Boulder) and Larry Kaufman (a very fast master and supporter of the Princeton team).  It was a great time, and I got to see Trebon and Wicks just kill everyone.  Tim Johnson made a huge effort 3/4 of the way through to bridge an enormous gap, but to no avail.  We were staked out in the bleachers at the HUGE sand pit and got to see some pretty interesting riding (and crashing/flipping!).

I am hoping to ride into Philly tomorrow in time to cheer on one of my good friends, Nicole Clark, as she runs the Philly Marathon.  Then I am cruising back to the Mercer County Park to see the end of the women's pro race and the whole men's race.  Monday afternoon I am flying out to Charlotte to meet the dudes with whom I'll be racing in 2008, and discuss calendars and stuff.  Then Thanksgiving . . . SICK!!!

I know it sounds like all I do is ride my bike . . . and this post is not going to convince you otherwise!

I just got another 5MJ ride under my belt on Sunday. The weather was beautiful, and I had a nice breakfast with my younger cousin Hyland--she is a sophomore in high school at Lawrenceville which is literally 6 miles down the road from me. It was very good to see her, although I had just eaten with her and my uncle a couple weeks ago, and I am going to their place for Thanksgiving, so she hadn't grown or anything.

I am really looking forward to 7 days from now--no, not Thanksgiving, although I am looking forward to that as well . . . I am going to be flying down to Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday to meet my new teammates on the Time Factory Racing Team! Erik Saunders is the DS of this recently-upgraded UCI Continental team, and I am anxious to sit down with everyone and get to talk about our goals (both individual and team) for next season. We are going to be doing some team-building activities and the like, and then I am staying Tuesday night and flying back Wednesday morning in time for my FIRST CLASS OF THE DAY at 3PM (now you know my secret of getting in massive hours on the bike!).

I am really going to focus on stage racing next season because it makes use of my time-trialing and climbing abilities . . . I have also learned that I get stronger after a few long days of hard riding, and I am pretty smart on the bike, so I think GC riding really suits me. Here is my [ideal] schedule for next season:

Hopefully Erik has the same things in mind for me!  I will let you guys know how the team meeting goes, and hopefully they don't kick me out of school before that . . . actually, it is time to go to bed so I can get up early and be productive with me 8-pager that is due Friday . . . UGH!

Cornel West teaches here!

Bill Maher for president

MADE IT!

9 days without class

40 hours riding time

737.893 miles ridden

32,708 kJ work done

228 watts average power

2244.6 Training Stress points accumulated

I didn't think I would make it, but it has been a great time this week--what else is a college kid supposed to do when he has no classes and all of his friends fly home for break?

Light at the end of the tunnel

So today was one of my best days on the bike to date . . . I have really been taking advantage of our Fall Break after midterms, and I decided (yes, arbitrarily) that I was going to try to get in 40 hours of actual riding time in those 9 days. Well, there have been a few days where I thought it was going to be impossible, but it looks like I am going to do it! I am even one hour ahead of the schedule I had set out. The ride today is one of the reasons I am going to make it:



This ride I decided not to look at the SRM very much and instead just enjoy the MASSIVE amount of time I had to go ride up north. I rode up to Frenchtown along the Delaware River on the PA side [making sure to cross at the PEDESTRIAN bridge after the dude guarding Washington's Crossing literally tried to tackle me for riding across with traffic!], then northeast to Califon and the highest point in Hunterdon County (found an AMAZING 15-minute-climb on the way, just beautiful, steady, and NO cars), and then south to the Reservior and back home. It was the longest ride I have probably ever done in one "sitting" and it was beautiful. I REALLY like not having class!!! Below is the actual SRM graph:



In other, non-cycling news, my best friend Will Watts and I went up to Sarah Lawrence (Bronxville, New York just north of Manhattan) for Halloween. Will's good friend from high school, Carlo, is a senior and is a very fun, creative guy who is the life of the party--he has shown us a great time up there on more than a few occasions, and this trip was no exception. It was a BLAST! I dress up as Julius Caesar after being inspired while looking for cycling-related Halloween costumes.


Now I have two more full days off, and then a couple more weeks of school before Thanksgiving. I am going to be having lots of turkey and sweet potatoes at my aunt and uncle's house, like I have my freshman and sophomore years at Princeton, and it is one of my favorite weekends of the year. I am also going to be flying down to Charlotte, North Carolina for a day to meet with my new team (directed by Erik Saunders, was the Time Factory Development team this year and is a UCI Continental Team next season) for some introductions and team-building activities. PSYCHED!!!


Well, time to go chow down and try to replace my 7,000+ calories for the day :-) Any sport that allows you to eat pints of Haagen-Dazs and large anchovy pizzas while getting in better shape is my kind of activity!!!