Camp Wrap up

No, I did not just get back from Fayetteville, however, I did manage to just now catch up with my life. I was waiting for some pictures from camp to post this up, but it may be a few days yet, so here it goes.

I rolled down to Rolla Thursday night to hang out with my folks. Friday morning, I met with a local chiropractor who is an alumnus of Logan and consequently a cyclist. Dr. Peterson seems to be a great practitioner, and I would highly recomend him to all the peeps of R-town. I got on the road a bit later than expected to Ar-kansas, but I managed to get there in one piece.

The first night, we just hung around the house, waiting for everyone to arrive; over dinner, we discussed the purpose of the camp, and the expectations of the season. Our director, Andres Angulo , is a great guy. He has a great passion for the sport, and generally cares about people. I think it will be a good relationship for the team. After dinner, a bunch of relaxing and talk of the upcomming year filled the house with excitement.

Saturday brought some pretty challenging weather, as Fayetteville is usually pretty mild throughout the winter. They experienced season lows (14-22 degrees) wind and snow to boot. The snow was not heavy enough to stick, well at least for the first few hours. Our morning ride (which began at 7:30am) was pretty chill. Andres had us do a few drills, then drill it up the Hell's Kitchen climb, which we will be seeing again in less than a month. Good thing too, because I blew my entire wad on the not-so steep section of the climb, which left me red-lined for the part that hits the fan. Towards the end of the ride, we began to ride very smoothly together.

Our afternoon ride was posponed due to heavy snow dumping from the clouds above. We finally got out on the bike around 2:30 and began spinning through the white fog. At one point, I looked up the road, then at Fiddler, and asked if he could see any further than 10 feet in front of him...his reply, "you can see 10 ft?". Yeah, it was snowy. We cut the ride just a bit short, and rolled back to the Irwin's house (another team mate, who's family was gracious enough to let us take over their castle). More chatting about the season and team building commenced in the evening, as we all sat around exhausted from the day.

Sunday we woke up early to get our ride on, however a bunch of ice was keeping us off the road. We waited a few hours, let the ice melt, and got out on the road. Originally, we were planning on riding Friday's stage of Joe Martin so we could take a peek at Mt. Gaylor: instead of riding the entire loop, we rolled up the back side of Gaylor, decended the race side, then climbed back up out of Mountainburg to check it out. I have never felt as good going up that climb, (which, in the three times I have done it, I was pretty satisfied) so hopefully I won't lose 45 minutes to the leaders this year. More drills and paceline work took us back into town. After a short team lunch at Flying Burrito, a quick triple americano for the road, I was back in the car and back to Columbia.

I have been taking it easy this week, and riding when I can. Monday was a day completely off, then yesterday, I rode with TJ and K for about an hour.5. Wednesday was, you guessed it, a core workout, and today will be a short ride at tempo.

For V-day, K and I had Wes and Anne over for Thai food, and then went out to The Forge and Vine for some drinks. We stayed out a bit later than normal, but time just slipped away with the good times. K was trashed, and spilled water all over the place. She provided much of the entertainment for the evening. I also had an interview with Progerssive Spine and Rehab ; I found out yesterday I got the job, and will be starting on Monday. I will still work at Walt's, in a slightly more abbreviated fashion, and keep on turning pedals.

School is almost finished, and that will be a huge weight off my shoulders. On another note, K may go to STL this weekend to become a USCF official. It would be nice to have the option to pick up some extra sctatch each weekend, but the fact that she will be learning more about he sport really excites me. We will see. Pictures soon: