Before Work

I am realizing that the title of my blog is really quite lame. If you have any ideas about a better one, please let me know.

One thing that a lot of people don't know about me is that cycling is not the only sport that I follow. Ok, well my close friends know only all to well that I follow a number of even less known sports on a regular basis. I just got done watching the NCAA XC championships over the internet. Awesome race to watch and it reminded me of my collegiate cycling days. There were a number of runners this year from top teams that would have had a shot at an individual title, but held back to help their team. It's called team running. A team championship was more important for them than an individual one, and that is pretty honorable in my book.

That's how it was at UC Davis too. Imagine a team with Paul Mach, Phil Mooney, Will Riffelmacher, Tyler Dibble, Shawn Rosenthal, Jesse Moore, Stephen Dey, and myself.. An all-star cast of riders who on any given day would have a chance to win an individual title. However, we rode as a team and the team title was always our goal. I have never been more proud of an accomplishment than when I won my first collegiate team title.

In other news, I drove out to Suffolk last Saturday to participate in a cross race. Good course, but I swear they took a hose to one part of the course just to make it a mud pit. Either way, the race was a blast. The field was small, but that was fine with me. After a little double-teaming by some teammates, I finally had to let go of the leader and conserve my energy for 2nd place. I didn't want to the teammate sitting on my wheel around at full gas for 45min, so I started to ride a little conservatively. Coming into the last lap, we went into a trackstand since neither of us wanted to take the front. What ensued was the best lap of cyclocross that I have ever done.

He finally took the lead and I settled in behind him. I backed off his wheel, and 100 yards before the mud pit I hit it hard. I blasted through the mud, but washed out in the ensuing muddy u-turn. Luckily, this was right before a run-up, so as he came around me, I got right back on his wheel. We would pass each other 6 times over the rest of the lap, fighting for the inside of every corner. At 400 yards to go, I took the lead. At 200, he came on my inside and we came to the final barrier/u-turn section together. We both jumped on our bikes and clipped in for the dash to the line. I opted to try and shift into the big ring and immediately lost the race right there. Fun times nonetheless.

Anyways, off to work time. I am at the start of a rest week right now, but I'll stip be lifting today. Wednesday I'll be off to Cleveland for Thanksgiving followed by a Detroit Red Wings game. Should be fun