Strange.

Today I was riding my bike back from class. As I was approaching my dorm I saw a green piece of paper lying on the ground, unmistakably some sort of dollar bill. Just beyond the bill was a few groups of people, and just coming up to the bill were a couple more. All had already, or were walking by this money sitting 6 inches of the sidewalk. Either people not noticing or not caring. Either way no one picked it up, so I made a dollar. Only a dollar, but hey it is still free money.
I have come to the conclusion that many people at Olaf either are clueless of what is going on around them, or free money is of no consequence, which is especially strange for a college student.

In other news it is cold out. I used the spinner in the athletic center today. Set up my computer, watched a movie, chatted, it was not all that bad.

Cold

Lake Superior. 25, November 2007.
"Refreshing..."

Notice the ice I am jumping over.

I am invincable

I got shots for.
Hep A, Typhoid, the flu, and yellow fever. Now I won't get sick, or they will all mix together in my bloodstream creating a new super disease that will bring about the end of humanity...

It snowed all day, though not as much in other places. And for the first time in 3 days I went for a ride. It was good to be away from Northfield trails/roads.

I still rode single track though, and my bike looks nice against the snow.

All done in MN

Saturday brought about the end of the MN CX season. I just was not feeling well, and did not race nearly as fast as I wanted to. Oh well, it happens...



It is also Thanksgiving break, for the first time in somewhere around 6 years I will be at home for the holiday, instead of being out in West Yellowstone skiing. However, the family is out there, but I've got the dogs!

Shut your pie hole

and then open it again. Repeat....For some reason there was pie in my dorm tonight. I could not decide which flavor, so I went with both...

Today was quite windy (40 mph), and a bit of snow here and there. I decided to go for an hour run.

Then the Doughboy and I filled out Visa forms, because the day after Nationals we are going to...

Disqualified!

This weekend was the long haul up to Milaca. A two hour drive.
It was surprisingly warm for a mid-November race, which was good because I forgot all my base-layers...
Anyways, the typical warm up and pre race rituals went on without a hitch. Then late as usual the race was off. I had a worse start then normal and had to work my way through a whole bunch of people. It took a lap and a half before I was in the group I wanted to be in, Matt Williams and Micha. Things were going well for next few laps, I was feeling good and riding decently. At the bottom of the last decent of the lap I was pulling and then all of a sudden BAM! psssssss....
Some yells of surprise from behind and a destroyed tire quickly loosing any air.
Luckily this happened right before the pit. I ran in, had a bit of trouble changing the wheel. And was off again about 10 or 15 places back. I then chased hard for a lap and a half before catching Seans group. I was really quite tired at this point so I had to sit on for a bit, once recovered I went to the front and pulled. I saw two guys up the trail and Sean and I worked together to bring them in. One guy got a flat right after the pit, and shortly after we caught the other. By this time we had dropped the other two guys that had been with Sean when I caught them. With 1.5 laps to go I got a chance to attack Sean around a corner, I did so and was able to drop him, and stay away.

After the race an official came up to me and asked me about my wheel. I looked down and said, oh shit. I had grabbed the wrong wheel. In fact it was the wheel of the guy who flatted in front of us. They had been set up just like mine, right next to mine, and looked similar. With the rushing I did not even notice that it was the wrong wheel. Oops...
An honest mistake, but nevertheless it cost me the 8th place finish. Oh well, shit happens.

I hope they mark this in the future....

I just

got second place in a photo contest with this picture.

Also I have wanted to put up this little chart from Velonews for quite some time.

Finally I would just like to show what a bit of controversy does to the number of hits this dumb blog gets...

Already?

It is cold out. And snowing...

I have decided Central Standard time (see comment 1, I finally understand it) is really quite stupid. It takes away an hour of light from the evening (when I am riding bikes) and puts it in the morning when I am sleeping. Dumb.

Also everyone has his or her own opinion, I did not like the course that is it. People don't like the Olaf course, so what, I don't get angry about people saying it was no fun. No need to get all riled up about an opinion.

The edge of the Artic circle

This weekend was the Ham Lake CX and the Blain CX, both up on the north edge of the cities. Close to the arctic.
On the way up to Ham Lake we came across some road construction, we followed the 35W detour, and ended up doing a large circle, ending up right where we had been 25 minutes before. We were on track for the detour until the large 35W north sign came along. Naturally we took that, as I saw no detour signs to say otherwise. I guess MNdot forgot to make it an easy to follow detour.
Anyways all the usual pre-race stuff and it was time to go. The course was on sandy trail and a road, not to technical or hard. Just fast. The whole race held together for nearly two laps, then started thinning out. I ended up being on the front of a group of about 12. After the first barrier on the course it was the road, for some reason people were always hurting after that, I took advantage of that and really pushed the pace on there, eventually we were down to 4 that stayed together until the last lap. I screwed up pretty much every corner on the last lap and paid for it. 2 guys got just enough of a gap I could not close it in the sprint. The 4th guy got dropped.
Overall it was a good race. Fast and fun, it was great to ride with some people for a change.

Glad I was leading...

Dwindling in numbers.
(I stole these from Linda, thanks!)

Today, however, was a different story. We set off to Blaine for the "Velocross" race. Logically this would involve riding around the track and then doing some other stuff. While riding the course during warm up it was obvious the track was not going to be used. Then when we were all line up, we were told that if we did go on the track we would be disqualified. Lame, part of the reason I came up was so I could say I rode on a track. So much for the "velo(drome)" part.
The rest of the course was...dumb. In my opinion the worst I have yet ridden.
Anyways, the race was off. In a starting zone much to small, I never start fast so I was right near the back. The course was not wide at all so passing was hard. Eventually I moved up a bit. Then the course got really shitty.
A mud pit the length of a soccer field, which was actually a drainage ditch, so it smelled awful. One lap I heard some spectators saying as I trudged past, "These guys don't look like they are having any fun at all." They were right, I was not. Really slow thick mud, off camber (which I am usually a fan off) that was to steep, and in some places so muddy that I would just slip down and fall. Bad barrier placement, it was just plain bad. It was not that I was feeling bad, it was just that I could not go hard due to the course. I just got sick of riding in shit water, falling down, and the like. I just quit, I had no desire to ride any more so I just quit. I wasn't the only one...

One of the worthless additions.

Half way through the mud pit. I got yelled at for being outside of the flags on this lap...

Thinking how worthless this is.

Hurry up and wait.

That statement holds an immense amount of truth at the Mayo.
Yesterday I got there at 8:30 for an 8:45 appt and did not get in until 9:30ish. I just met with the doctor here, tried to explain what happens and all. It is quite challenging as I am not even sure what the heck is happening.
After that I got scheduled for some afternoon heart exams, to make sure I was not dead or something. The Echocardiogram was entertaining, I got to watch pictures of my heart beating.

This morning was not fun however. First off I had to be at the Mayo at 6:40 am. to get blood drawn. Which means I had to get up at 5, and could not eat anything. Soon after loosing my blood it was time for another EMG.
First they put some wires on your legs, then take what is basically a taser, and go and zap your nerves. Not very fun.
After that was the really fun part. They take a 3 inch needle and stick it into any given muscle. First while relaxed then while tensed. The tensed part hurts a fair amount. Apparently this lets the doctors hear the muscle working? That took a good hour.5. Then I got to leave. Hopefully I don't need to go back.