Sunday, November 30, 2008

Austin Rocks!


Happy belated Thanksgiving!! This past week we visited my brother up in Austin. While we were there I got a TT bike fit, went on a ride with Lance Armstrong's best friend, and watch UT slaughter A&M. Nonetheless, I would call it a fun and event-fulled trip. With only two days of school this week, meaning a limited amount of work, I would also call it a stress-free week. My parents and I made the 2 and a half hour trip up to Austin early Wednesday morning, so that I could do my one hour endurance ride then meet up with Dave at the Source Endurance Headquarters for my bike fit. After arriving at Source, Joseph Lafico took my dad and I on a "flat" ride in Austin. Upon arriving back at Source, I got started on my bike fit with Dave. He set my bike up on a trainer then attached these little circles, from a Colorado company named Retul, that show how my body moves when I ride (at least I think that's what it does). He ended up moving my saddle way up and forward, putting shims on my cleats, and moved my handlebars pretty far upwards. After doing all that we left Source to go meet up with Parker for a snack at Whole Foods Market. After eating a rice ball, some pot stickers, and an egg roll, we headed back to the hotel we were staying at to clean up, so we could go over to an outlet mall. When we got there at around 6 we only had an hour do look around before the mall closed at 7. When everyone was done shopping we headed back to Austin for some dinner. After looking around town we decided to eat at an Italian restaurant. After dinner we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel for some sleeping time. The next day I woke up early with my dad to meet at Mellow Johnnies for a group ride with Dave, Ian Dille, John Korioth, and four others. We rode out west and back for a total of about 3 hours. After riding back to the hotel I took a quick shower so that we could meet back up with Parker for our Thanksgiving lunch, before we went to the UT vs. A&M football game at 7:00. To say the least about the game: A&M got killed. The final score was 49-9. The next day wasn't that event-filled, all we really did was take the trip home to spend the rest of the Thanksgiving holidays here.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

And three weeks later...

Still not a lot to report. Only one thing has really changed. After being a much appreciated coach of six years which led me to all of my National Championhips titles (and now that I come to think of it, every other race that I won), we decided to place me under the direction of another coach. Not only has my dad been a great coach and mentor he's managed to complete the package being an excellent father. After much thought we decided to choose Dave Wenger at Source Endurance. Dave is one of the top Texas racers who recently got fifth at the State Championship RR in Chappell Hill, which helped him seal the deal for the P12 Texas Cup title. So far, I haven't done any CX races yet but I plan on racing on the weekend 12/6 for the only CX races in Houston, and I'll give it a shot at the State Championships in San Antonio on the weekend of 1/3. Wish me luck!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

What cyclists do when they are not riding...

Some good advice: Never give a cyclists more than two weeks off the bike. They might get a little antsy, and end up doing something that may be embarrassing (See photo for an example). This past week I don't really have much to report. After a week of school I had a few people over, Daniel, Shelby, and Andy, for Halloween. After some tortilla soup we decided to go trick or treating like little 8-year olds. We only went to about 10 houses before we came back and "chilled" at my place. I then volunteered at school for the family fun festival for elementary kids On another note, I have one more day off the bike until I start my off-season training. As far as cyclocross goes, I plan on doing a few races in Houston and attempt to defend my State Championship title. Wish me luck!