The Perseverance Of Hard Times

So its kind of been a while since tour of the battenkill, which was my last post and a lot of things happened after that horrific day on my bicycle.
 For starters my awful hamstring problem was getting worse so I decided to hit physical therapy super hard and let me tell you, IT WORKS. My physio Matt is the best and worked on most of the cyclists in my area " which is like 3" but thats plenty. It felt really awkward at first because I was this tiny bike racer being prepped next to these 60 and 70 year olds with hip problems. But after a few weeks I got the hang of my workout and was able to just roll in and do my shit and leave. Also after taking a week and a few days off my bike I started a new training schedule. I used to just go out for a 90 minute ride and work on nothing, which was why i hit a wall with my training right after turing cat 4. This new regiment focusses on specific leg work in 7 day to 30 day periods, with some coaching consults once every few months. It has given me a new love for what I do because to be honest I was starting to become very discouraged.  I'm on day 2 of a 7 day plan and I'm feeling great already. I think another reason why I'm excited is that my pool is open and I'm putting air conditioners in! Threes just some fucking awesome difference in riding in shorts and seeing a nice pool and sun when you get home, instead of snow, no leaves and covered pool.
  As far as racing goes, I have about three or four races left for the year "I think". I'm looking at my race calendar ( which is a NY Rangers calendar so now I'm fucking pissed) and according to that I have a crit on fathers day in Harlem ( I hope I don't get shot crossing the finish line ) and the big objective of my season, which is the NY Capital Road Race in Albany. Since that weekend will be the first weekend I'm going to race back to back events, I'm stoked! I love traveling to races and spending nights in a hotel with shitty WIFI, it makes me feel like a shitty version of a pro racer. Isn't that what we all want? Anyway....yeah its really nice out now and after my first few rides outside, the cyclist tan lines are back. Those are awesome when you go to the beach and everyone besides your wife and a few friends know the reason you have them. If I wasn't a cyclist and I seen someone on the beach that looked like that, I would think that they either 1. had a disease or 2. was a never nude. I'm actually running out of cycling shit to talk about because I have done no racing and just have been training indoors. OH WAIT! So my back neighbors stupid fucking dog!
     As most of you know I have absolutely no luck with dogs. As far as dogs go, with the exception of my friends dogs " who are very well behaved and adorable" I cant stand dogs.  So I head out for a two hour ride and come back toasted. And the next day I wanted to head out for a nice hour stroll. So i can either go down my big hill I live on and get cold OR I can take the low road n soft pedal......I took the low road....BIG MISTAKE. First of all these owners don't keep this asshole on a leash, so the fucker bolts down the road barking and I freak out and take off sprinting. 500 meters 1000 meters and this fucking Lance Armstrong laced dog is still on my ass. Fucker chased me up a giant hill until finally he got tired.......but so was I, and that cut my hour long ride into a 30 minute gasping for air suffer fest around my area and back home. I think the next time that monster chases me I'm going to pepper spray its ass.....prob not. I love animals don't get me wrong, but I hate undisciplined animals and their dumb ass owners. Ok now I'm totally off topic.

      Anyway blah blah blah I'm on a new training plan, I'm feeling stronger already and its only day 2 of my plan. Also before I go, my team has a new clothing sponsor Castelli. They make real good shit and our new kits are going to be here soon. Ill post a pic when I get mine. So I think that's it for now. I will update more frequently when I have the time. With our pool getting in order and Erin and I....well Erin is planning some fun stuff for June, were pretty busy. And lastly Erin and I have our one year wedding anniversary this Sunday! amazing! Im so blessed and lucky to have someone like her. Shes my best friend and provider of words of wisdom when times get tough.
Until next time.......
                 Rubber Side Down
    " I don't re read my blog before posting"  Mike.
Song of the week ......" Midnight Lover" - KISSES

Tour of the Battenkill race report

Lets just get right into this since I have much to talk about. This past weekend was the Race that all of us work so hard to be in shape for. BATTENKILL. I will try my best and give you a good rundown from the start of the weekend till the end.
Friday morning I got up in my own bed at home and looked outside to none other than rain! Fantastic! For those who don't know, tour of the battenkill is like 30% dirt roads and that rain is most likely heading toward the town of Cambridge where it will turn those dirt roads into a giant mud puddle. The forecast looked ok for Saturdays race day so I had my coffee bitched to Erin about how my legs hurt blah blah blah. So me being a pain in the ass I decided to pack my bike inside the car, which makes everything else a bitch to back.
                                               

It looked like that

So Erin and I hit the road to our destination, which was about a 2 hour drive north. The ride is very boring because there is literally nothing to look at, but luckily for us we had sirius. We herd an awesome song on the way up that is def going to be the song of the week, but ill post it at the end of my ramblings. About 30 minutes from the start town "where early number pickup is" the rain was turning into this big white semi frozen shit called SLEET! GOD DAMN IT I CANT GET AWAY FROM THIS SHIT! I figured that overnight and into tomorrow morning everything would dry up and the roads would be clear............

I was so fucking wrong

The thing I hate the most about riding in salt is that the shit gets everywhere! One time I actually got it on my ass cheeks! HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN! but that's another post.

So we finally arrived to early registration. The sponsors were just getting finished setting some stuff up and some sponsors were still arriving to the race. I casually walked with Erin up to the number pick up and presented my USAC license and got my number, then got my free T shirt and headed  to the merch tent cause Erin wanted to pick up some cow bells to band loudly in racers faces as they ride uphill tomorrow. So before I get to race day I will leave you with the only three pictures I took from early registration to the lake house.

(mavic neutral support, you def see these guys at every pro tour race)

                                                  

( This is a $19,000 bike sitting in the rain)

( and this is how they get maple syrup)

Now that we arrived to the lake house, it was time to unpack my over packing of cycling shit I brang with me and relax for a while before Erin and I headed to dinner. After we got back from pre race dinner " which was fucking amazing BTW" I threw on my compression tights, stretched and drank a few glasses of wine to get my nerves calm. You wanna see how cool I look here........

( multi tasking like a mother fucker)

So now we come to race day!!!! The first sign of how you are going to feel for the day is right outta bed. I get up, and BOOM LEGS FEEL GOOD! Now time for breakfast, which was a banana and Nutella wrap. It was now 9AM and I needed to be at the race and warming up by 10. So in the 45 minute span before I left, I shit like 4 times "yes my nerves go wild".   So I kiss Erin goodbye for the day. I will add too that my sister in law, her boyfriend Scott and great friend Colin were on there way up to meet Erin at the lake house and get a nice spot on Joe Bean Rd to tailgate and cheer me on....AWESOME!!!!!

I get to the race parking at 9:55 and the lot I usually park in is closed....fuck! so I am then detoured to a field by the starting line that is a mud hole and I obviously get parked at the end of the field the farthest away from the line.

( It looked like that)

So I gear up and start rolling though the mud to the road, my bike starts acting up. Great if I cant get my chain to the climbing gear " which is the small ring" I'm fucked, because during this race its a must. I finally get it working and head to staging. 30 seconds.......3.....2....1....and away we go. We keep a casual pace for the first 5 miles until we hit the eagleville covered bridge, and the race is on. Theres nothing more scary than cruising at 25mph down mud roads. I don't want to bore you with lame words but long story short I hung with the peloton for about 35 miles then lost contact and could not bridge the gap by myself on the dirt roads " which was like riding through molasses". I finished in 3:17:25, 46 out of 96. Pretty bad, but considering what I went through this winter and spring, I was.....well not happy but content I should say. Well I will train harder next year. Before I wrap it up I want to thank Erin for being very patient with me all winter and spring. I am a real asshole when it comes to battenkill and I don't think she knows it, but If it wasn't for her, I would be seeing a sports psychologist by now. I also want to shout out my sister in law Aileen, Scott and Colin for making the 2+hour trip to watch the race and enjoying the weekend, and getting me drink 30 seconds after finishing. And I should also add my good friend Tom finished 2nd in his cat! stellar and more to come for him! I will now leave you with some of my favorite photos from the weekend with a little commentary from myself. Sorry this post was all over the place and short but I wanted to get it up today. Until next time....... Rubber side down. Mike

( waiting on Joe bean)

( suffering 33 into the race, and looking like a idiot )

( Erin yelling as I cross the finish line)

( aggravated)

( but still loving my RANGERS )

( Erin and Aileen )

(time to get ready for the game. Colin F TOWN)

( Shit got serious after a few beers )

( not bad waking up with a hangover to this)

Great weekend and I cant wait for next year! LET THE RACE SEASON BEGIN!

Trooper Brinkerhoff Memorial Race Report.

Well I can tell you right now that my race did not go as planned for me a few weeks ago. To put it in perspective, it pretty much went like this.........

But anyway. I woke up with a ok feeling in my legs. When you are a bike racer you know what kind of race you are going to have right when you step out of bed on race day. So I got up and had myself a cup of coffee, sprayed a little mud "as per usual on race day" and hit the road.

looks like 55-60 out

I made a quick stop on the way for a bagel and OJ. Its funny going into a public place when you are a skinny little guy and  have a multi thousand dollar bike on your roof. People just look at the bike and look at you, then repeat for about 7 seconds. I wonder what they are thinking? My assumption is something like "look at this little prick all skinny thinking he is the shit, with his nice bike and perfect body". Well its true, thats exactly what I think of myself........and add great looking onto there too. jk jk jk......maybe. So long story short, I got my crap and really got on the road.

(I did this while driving, which is way harder than texting)

I always like the drive up to coxsackie, its the first race I do every year. This year the race was bigger than ever. The promoters changed the course to twelve mile loops as opposed to the last years six mile loop, and I tell you what.....it was way more challenging for me, who had minimal training and was suffering from past injurys, but I will get into that later. The race is dedicated to a young state trooper who was killed in the line of duty and left behind a child and a wife. The state and local police always help marshal the race which is really cool, and they do a great job.

So onto race time!!!! I get out of my car to feel arctic like air and a gust of wind so hard it blew my USA Cycling license out of my hand. This race usually has bad wind every year, but this was by far the worst I have ever seen. So not too long after I arrive and get my bib number, my good friend Tom shows up. We struggle to pin our bibs onto our jerseys. Let me tell you a little secret. The reason I get to races so damn early is so I can have time to pin my number on. The shit takes so damn long and I end up pricking my fingers like 1000 times. By the end of the race season, I repeat this process so many times, my jersey ends up looking like a piece of swiss cheese. But I digress.

(about 30 before the start)

So after the bib fiasco, we roll out for a warmup. Just a little out and back to turn the legs on. We were flying the way out and im thinking to myself " oh man this aint bad", until we turn around to head back. STRAIGHT HEADWIND! I was so cold by the time we got back from a warmup. I went into my car and turned the heat on full blast to defrost my fingers............15 minutes till start. I roll to the starting line with all the other cat 3/4 racers. The race is four laps, which equals forty eight miles. As per usual, every bike race starts with a lecture from a USA Cycling official telling us the same rules we hear BEFORE EVERY RACE WE ENTER! Center line rule in effect blah blah blah. Meanwhile all of us are sitting on the start line shaking and freezing out asses off. Then the official says 30 seconds till start. At that time I really only think of a few things..........I hope I can stay with the group, I hope I don't crash, and I hope I can finish and get back to my wife safely. Then the horn blows and we are off. Before I know it, like 30 riders blow by me on the NEUTRAL START! and that puts me toward the back of the field, which on a course with so much headwind and so many turns, is a really bad place to be, because when the front of the pack hits the turn and rides casually on, the back of the pack has to sprint just to catch back up. NOT GOOD MIKE! At this point my legs were feeling like complete shitballs. Between that and the wind that cut down our speed from 27mph to 14, I was in trouble. Ive had a tough run up to this race, between moving into my house and a nagging hamstring pain, my training was really lacking. I held on for two laps and was dropped. Getting dropped from a group is a awful feeling, watching all the riders disappear up the road breaks my heart. So I did not give up and finished out the rest of the race with a few other weak riders, and actually got to see to pro women almost get into a bitch fight on bicycles! WINNING! I wound up finishing 62 out of like 105 which sucks but I finished. 

Well its now April and that race was in March so im sorry for the late update, but I have been working my ass off for the biggest race of the spring, TOUR OF THE BATTENKILL. I managed to finish 10th last year, but that was with cat 5 racers. This year im cat 4 and it will be much harder but I think I am ready. Wish me luck and I will be back to tell you all about Battenkill and I promise to take more pictures because I bounce all over the place on this blog. Untill next time Rubber side down

Mike.

Song of the week = Casa Del Mirto - Killer Haze

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Let me just say that I am starting this blog back up for the 2013 cycling season only because my good friend Christine is in Finland for work and has her own blog I have been reading about her work/travels. You can check it out HERE. OK! this Saturday marks the beginning of my 2013 cycling season, and let me tell you my off season training has not gone to planned at all! For starters after my first cat 3/4 race in Albany last year, I had a awful pain in my leg a few days after the race. As the head strong cyclist I am I thought it was nothing and ignored it. Days and weeks went and it was still bothering me, so I decided to head to the doctor. He took x rays and the first thing he told me was "OK so you don't have a tumor ". WHAT THE FUCK!? a tumor that caught me off guard but I digress. He basically said I have a strained hamstring and I had to stay off my bike for six weeks.........easier said than done fucker. All I could do during the last few weeks of nice weather in 2012 was swim in the stank ass pool at golds gym. I just want to say right now that swimming laps sucks more than being on a indoor trainer! but not to worry, I pissed in the pool on my way out of it on more than five occasions. And not to backtrack, but this is the only good thing that came out of that 3/4 race that most definitely caused my strained hamstring.

                                                  ( third to last place never looked so good )

Well onto 2013 and I am healed up as best as I can be, and right from January on I have been on the road training while most people have been on their indoor trainers. I have to admit that yes I was afraid to be on the road in the 20 degree temps last winter but enough was enough and I took snookie out on the nasty salt roads in 2013 with my two training partners. Tom and Bill, who are pretty much the only people I ride with and are some tough motherfuckers! 50, 60 miles in the sub zero temps! hard as nails. And I didn't mention that the first ride we all had together in 2013 was Bills first since a full knee replacement. three weeks and hes back on the bike!

                                       (the fellas! From right Tom, Bill and my wuss ass)            
Now its March and were still getting fucking Armageddon snowstorms but I have managed to get a few 40+ mile rides in before March 23 which is my first race! The Johnny Cake RR. I am now a cat 4 racer which pretty much means longer races that are a little faster and when we crest the top of a climb the pace picks up instead of slows down.  The johnny cake race is a 12 mile rolling loop that we do like four times. I won the race when I was a cat 5 a few years ago. This year the cat 3/4 race is 48 miles and its supposed to be around 43 degrees when we roll out at 11AM. I have had some decent training and I think I am as ready as I can be. The plan is to just stay in the group and try not to get dropped, because I know there will be some strava freaks who are in top shape with a team of like fucking 5 people pulling at 30+mph right from the start...........assholes. But regardless I am happy to see all the familiar faces and get back in the peloton! I will try to take some pictures of the trip up and the pre and post race antics with my phone and write a post race report. I guess that's it for now because my ass hurts from sitting and I have no more pictures to post. until next time..... Rubber side down!

                                                 
                                                       My friends dog Bella approves!

Holiday survival

So I survived the thanksgiving Stuff your face till you puke fest. Barley. It all started on Thursday with the Dark Horse cranksgiving group ride. We rolled out a little before 9:30am and I can tell you now, it was rather chilly. From my legs to my waist I was nice and toasty, but me being not able to drop 80$ right away on winter cycling gear, was not equipped upper body wise. Needless to say the first 20 minutes of the ride was cold for me. I think the temp was like 35. But as it warmed up I did also. We were about 12 deep in our crew, it was a no drop ride so we kept a nice speed and goofed off for our 2hr 30 mile ride. It was really fun! I got back to my fiancée n my apt with time to spare, so we hung out untill we had to go to her parents to eat some turkey. After we spent time with erins fam, we headed to my parents for dessert and drinks. After seeing my family and having a bunch of drinks on our two day stay, it was time to go home. Great times!

Everything gets slow in the winter months, as I found out today. On my typical " just need to get on the bike and pedal " 20 mile loop, i can usualy push 19-20 most of the way. On this 38 degree weather day, it was a bitch to hold 17. It's so annoying! Anyway.... I ended my four day vacation/ holiday with a free food tasting with my fiancée at a venue we really like. We were the only guests there and we ate a ton and had awesome cocktails. The two of us spent 3 1/2 hours in a big room with no music just tasting foods, and we both had a blast! We laughed and talked the whole time. No wonder she is the girl I want to spend my life with. Well I guess I'm going to try and sleep. I had more to say but I forgot. I have alot on my mind with planning a wedding and getting ready for my 2011 race season. Talk to you soon.

Rubber Side Down
mike

It's been a while.

Yeah not in terms of that shitty song. But in it's true self. I have not posted in a long time. Its pretty hard to write every day. But I'll try n let you know what Ive been doing and will be doing on holiday.
First off, it's offically dark at 5pm now. So that means gym time. It's actually going well. I'm on the stationary bike just to keep weight, then hit the free weights and end it with a run. It's not fun but it works. Starting after thanksgiving I will be starting to train for the 2011 cycling season with the darkhorse dudes, and some other riders I can't mention at this time. But what i know is...it will be cold and it will be brutal. Sounds fun right! I've been riding bmx also. It's great cross training and I'm getting great footy for the upcomming scene wolf video. So my weekends usally consist of, up early to go cycling then ride bmx and then spending the best times with my fiancée. Not bad eh?
The dreaded hiday of overeating and drinking is upon us. Yeah that's right, thanksgiving! I'm excited to see my family, and meet some of my future family on erins side from Ireland. So needless to say, I'll be watching football with my fam, Considering my brother in law and myself are hudge eagles fans. So that is that! I'm riding bmx when I can and cycling when it's light out. Either way I'm staying in somewhat form.
Well that's it I guess, so inleave you with my top music for the week
1- Arcade Fire
2- Coconut Records
3- Maritime
Rubber side down
Mike.

Happy Haloween!

Yeah that's right! This weekend was fantastic, from what I remember. I kinda browned out. But I can tell you that I was it's always sunny in philidelphia character Charlie Kelly. I went as far as growing a beard for this one. " one which I don't want to shave lol ". The reason I don't wanna shave is cause I have what Erin calls a " firebreathing hangover ". I did stay up tonight for the first episode of the walking dead, it actually just got over. It was nothing less than amazing! The party lastnight was great and I can def tell you what everyone was. Just to name a few I seen, bank robber, Patrick batemen, beeker, a twister board, knight, zombies, Dexter and victim, a griffin lol, a fat chef and a baby. So fun! We had some beers and no fights and a great time.
And now onto what this blogs really about. BIKES!
So now that I'm not sick anymore I will b back on the bike. I think it may be about time to take my deep dish wheels off and put my beater rims on. When it starts to snow I will be riding bmx. I just went to the shop and ordered some brakes! So I'm excited to hit up some skateparks! Well I'm tired, so sorry this is so short. I'll post a longer blog this week.
Rubber side down
mike