I have been a very bad blogger... Update!!!

Hey everyone,

I have been a very bad blogger and havent posted in the last bagillion years... ok, 2 months, but close enough. I will attempt to summarize my entire summer of sporting in this blog.

First off, cycling took a backseat to soccer for me for most of this summer. I was the goalkeeper for the U-20 Patriot Football Club Rhinos. We had a pretty successful season where we won the league with a 4-3-2 record

(http://www.socceragency.net/maps/MSSL/2010/U23_standings.htm)

I only gave up 5 goals during seven games in our regular season (I missed one weekend because of working (I'm a soccer ref)).



We also competed in the U-20 Region 1 Cup

http://www.usasa.com/schedules/2010/21628322.html

where we took 4th after a very hot and hectic weekend. Unfortunately my team more or less fell apart because of a multitude of personnel reasons and attitude problems. We definitely could have won this weekend, but in the end, its a team sport, and if people start worrying about other things than playing (like yelling at the refs to an extreme amount), then you will fall apart, and thats exactly what we did. Our first game we did extremely well, defeating the team 3-0 and played real quality soccer (website is wrong). Unfortunately during this game, I injured the tendon in the back of my knee which severely restricted my punting, goalkicks, and overall ability to move. The next game, people got cocky and got out of their heads and we lost 3-0 to the team that tied the team we beat. Next day was the semi-finals in 100+ degree weather on astroturf. The other team scored first, then we scored, and scored again making it 2-1. By this point people were tired, and yet our coach would not sub players who needed it even though they could barely move. This led to another goal, making it 2-2 and bringing us into overtime. We score early in overtime making it 3-2, but then on a free kick from outside the box, our team could not agree on a plan of action (very long story which led to the other team scoring. PK's are up. The other team had very talented PK shooters, and they put 4 past me. Unfortunately our team was only able to put 2 in, so we lost before the 5th shooter. For the 3rd place game, we decide we're only doing a PK shootout, no game because it was way too hot. Both teams score the first two. I make a save in the bottom 90 to put us ahead, but then their keeper makes a save too. On the 5th shot, their keeper also blocks the 4th, and I was unable to block the last one, so we lost that as well, bringing us to 4th place.

Lastly was the U-20 finals. I'm not going to talk much about this game because I was extremely dissappointed in my team and especially my coach who insulted some of my ref co-workers. Fortunately I am done with this team for good now, I'll leave it at that.

So, now time for what this blog is really about; Cycling.



On May 23, I compteted in my first ever Time Trial down in Seaside Park, NJ. The TT was appropriately named, The Jersey Shore TT. For this race, the only aero equipment I had was my new Aerohelmet. The course was flat in terms of lack of change in elevation, but the road was consistenly up and down (I guess approx. 2-4 feet change per 10-15 yards), so it really drained the legs because of all the falseflats. It was a long and semi-boring, but beautiful course

http://www.jsmultisport.com/courses/2010_js_time_trial/NEW%202010%20Jersey%20Shore%20Time%20tria.pdf

Nice ride through town, LOOOOOOOONG straight ride down the park, then turn around into the wind to repeat. Towards the end, I caught the rider who started 5 places ahead of me (so was beating him by 2:30). We then more or less start racing eachother and then round a corner and all of a sudden see people all over the road. We then realized we passed the finish line about 40 yards earlier. So on my 3rd race, I forgot where the finish line was, just like my first race. I really need to make it a habit to remember where the finish line is... Anyway, final results were not too bad. For this 18.6 mile course, I finished in 53:53.10 which averages to 20.711 mph. I finished in the middle of the Cat 4/5 competition in 35/54

http://www.njbikeracing.com/files/2010/jstt-results.pdf

On June 12, I participated in the Ride 4 Autism,

http://www.ride4autism.org/

which was truly a fantastic experience. I raised $130 for this event and rode the 50-mile course, which was extremely beautiful and slightly challenging, but not too bad. Halfway through I met up with George (after I almost got lost, which allowed him to catch me ;) ). We then road the last 25-ish miles together (and intentionally blew past any of the groups we saw doing the 25 or 10 mile rides. Once we got back (after I beat George in a spring to the finish line), we got some great food! I had a great time at this event and am definitely doing it again next year.




Me and George (its funny how sweat on the lens can make a cool effect :P )

Soccer season then came up, so my next race was not until July 29 in Rockleigh, NJ for the aptly named Rockleigh Criterium. This is a weekly thursday night series on a closed course that is really perfect for crit racing. 1 mile, 6 turns, only a slight change in elevation. About 30 seconds into the race, I think "crap, what the hell am I doing?".

The week before this race really burned out my legs. Soccer game on sunday (the finals), I re-injured my tendon. Of course I couldnt take it easy because on tuesday, I drove 3 1/2 hours out into nowhere Maryland for my referee fitness test, which I aced. (1.5 miles in 11:20, 50m sprint in 6.78 seconds, and 200m in 31.something). The next day (Wednesday) I had TTT practice for the NJBA TTT State Championships (which I wound up not competiting in so I could work because I'm broke). Anyways, very hilly course, very tough on the legs, didnt help me feel better.

So back to the crit on thursday. My strategy was to stay towards the front, not work, and stay out of the wind. In reality, I really bounced around the field, but did stay towards the front for the first 15 minutes or so. After the first corner, up until after turn 3, the field always surged on the gradual uphill, so I just relaxed and let people pass me. Once they slowed back down (to approx. 17-19 mph), I just causually rode up the side of the peloton to reclaim my place at the front before turn 5. This worked very well for a while, until at one point, the field surged again about 20 minutes into the race, except faster up unto about 29 mph. My legs just did not have it after the past week, so I got dropped , but I was not alone either, there were about 5 or 6 other riders who got dropped with me, so I wasnt feeling too bad about it. It wasnt until later that I learned that all but 1 of these were riders who already raced in the P123 race and just wanted to ride around with the peloton in our race, ugh. But for the next 10 minutes, I basically just acted like a time trial and rode pretty well around the course, until after 31 minutes, I look behind me when I'm near turn 1 and see the peloton turning onto the straightaway after turn 6 and realize I wont be finishing the next 14 minutes ahead of them, so I pulled off and retired from the race. I still felt good about what I did because all of the other racers have been riding more or less everyday. I was riding less than once a week, so I was happy with what I did. I also learned from this race that I DESPERATELY need to work on my cornering skills. That was killing me in turns 1 and 2 (also part of the reason I fell back during the surge)

To make my leg feel better, my knee decided to swell up while I was reffing on sunday, and I couldnt run at all during the last game I was ARing for. So of course, I decide that it would be a great idea to do a time trial race the next saturday.



So here we are, Aug 7th in Tuxedo Park, NY for the Long Meadow TT. A very hilly course that definitely favors the guys who weigh about 40-50 lbs less than me. Good news though, I got myself some aerobars! Well, extensions, but regardless. ("I can ride my bike with my aerobars, with my aerobars, with my aerobars. Look at me, look at me, hands on my bars like its good to alive...")

So equipment for this race is aerobars, aerohelmet, and a bike that wont shift between my big ring and small ring. Lovely. Fortunately before the race (on raceday) I was able to find a person at the sign-up booth who was able to help me out. Did some more warming up and it shifted just great. Headed out onto the road to climb to the starting line (yes it was a serious climb to the starting line). Off the bat I was doing extremely well and was time ground on everyone around me (according to my dad from where he was standing). Unfortunately, my lack of riding came into play and I started losing ground to everyone around me (very possibly also due to my lack of aeroequipment that everyone else had, but I'm not using that as an excuse). Like I said, this course was hilly, so I went anywhere from 43.1 mph (very fun descent (For those of you who dont know, I'm a speed demon, and the faster the better)) to about 11 mph on the leg down to the halfway-ish turnaround. Immediately after that was a steep climb, followed by the steepest climb of all which everyone had to shift into their little ring for. I wound up doing between 7.5-11 for this climb. Towards the top I try to shift into my big ring for the sure to be fast descent, but of course my bike would not shift again. I see I have 3 miles to go, so I decide I need to be in my big ring since most of it will be down or a slight uphill. So I jump off my bike and manually put my bike into the big ring, then take off again (lost about 20 seconds doing this). For the last 3 miles, I was averaging about 35-25 (25 going up the incline. I kept telling myself "this is down, going down, going down", and it worked. Compared to everyone else who was training everyday, I did terribly. Compared to what I was thinking I would do because of my injuries and lack of riding, I did excellent. Finished the up and down 14.5 miles in 42:57 which came out to 20.256 mph

http://www.njbikeracing.com/files/2010/LMResults2010.pdf

Not a bad result. I had a great time riding this course and definitely plan on competing here again next year (keywords, actually competing here).

I might do the Blueberry TT this coming weekend, but we'll see. Still need to get ready for returning to GW and frankly just ride more.

Until next time!

J-Mac

First TT Coming Up

Seaside Heights is a fantastic place to go for a weekend to party. Well not this weekend. Instead, I am starting a time trial race at 7 AM. The course is absolutely beautiful though! Completely flat. 2.5 miles through town, 7 miles with wind straight down, turn around, 7 miles straight against wind, and final 2.5 miles through town. I will be aided by my brand new Aero helmet (see above).

The link for the race is http://www.jsmultisport.com/race_05-23-10.shtml

It's going to be a blast. My kind of race. Flat and fast. We'll see how it goes.

John

Crash Aftermath

So monday I dropped my bike off at Revolution Cycles in Georgtown. Unfortunately BPS was backed up for days and I had no choice. $160 to fix everything. Not too bad I figured.

So tuesday I get a call saying my bike is ready, but also that I fucked up my wheels. Dented the back rim and the damaged spokes in my front wheel caused a hop in the wheel. So now I am looking at getting a new wheelset. Both Bert and Nick recommended that I go with "MAVIC Open Pro rims, 32 spokes on each wheel, Shimano hubs (Ultegra or 105)." $350 - $450, but they will also last me a heck of a lot longer than my original wheels did. Then again, my original wheels would have lasted longer if I did crash :P

I was going to pick up the bike today but it was raining and seeing that I can't walk at any decent speed with my leg like it is from the crash, I decided that I shall delay until tomorrow.

I did however make an amazing non-cycling discovery today. As some of you may know, I am a Tuba player and a hardcore band geek, so I absolutely fell in love with this when I found it.

http://fororchestra.com/music/

This guy is amazing. Modern music written for orchestras. I will definitely be blasting orchestral Party In The USA and others on my way to the beach this summer.

J-Mac

V-Tech Criterium Race at ACCC Conference Championships (My first crash)

This weekend was definitely the most fun I had in a long time. Cycling is amazing. The cyclists are amazing. My team is even more amazing.

So today was my first criterium race. I kind of always figured that I would like criteriums more than road races or time trials because I'm a sprinter and I love to go fast (the more speed the better). So we arrive to the course at around 9 and it is freezing cold. I took a warmup lap around the course and by the time I got back, I thought the exposed part of my fingers were about to freeze off. Regardless, I skip the boring warmup stuff.

At 9:50 I head up to the start/finish line to hear names already being called (I really need to learn to get to the line sooner, but regardless, I was there before they called my name).

The race starts and I am hanging in the middle of the pack, moving up, moving back, etc. Mens D races can be very... interesting. On turn 3, probably my favorite turn of the course because its after a fast downhill and I was able to gain ground/pass people using it, always consisted of lots of braking and slowing from about 28 mph to 18-22 mph, so whenever possible I stayed wide. This generally resulted in gaining 2-4 places. So eventually my legs remember yesterday and start to give up on me. I kept pushing as much as I could to stay with the pack which lasted for two more laps until I fell back. Even once I fell back, I still fought and refused to give up ground. About 10 minutes into the race, this wound up to me catching up to my teammate Scott Kaplan who had also fallen behind the pack.



Here's where it gets good (just like the same reason people watch NASCAR, the crashes).

So I am always used to be that good teammate that pushes his team to do better, so as I catch up to Scott, I am yelling, "Come on Scott, keep pushing." He claims he told me to focus on what I was doing, which I was, but I didnt hear him say anything. There was a rider in front of us (from Pfeifer I believe) who was riding a little slower than us, but nothing too drastically different. Me and Scott are side-by-side and slowly moving right so we can get a good angle on the upcoming turn 2. All of a sudden, Mr. Pfeifer slows down semi-drastically (I think he hit the brakes, not 100% sure) and turns left. This really surprised me, so I had no time to react and turn into his wheel, so before I really think about it, I feel myself leaving my bike and my bike starting to lay down. Scott is screaming, "Joooohhhhnnn!!!!" while he speeds away.

So before I even hit the ground, my goalkeeper instincts kick in (thank you Paul Blodgett for making this second nature to me). While I'm more or less soaring through the air, I'm not concerned at all about the impending obstacle that is hard road, but rather how am I going to get up as fast as I can and continue. So before I hit the ground, I planned in my head that I would roll off of my left shoulder so that I could get up as soon as I stopped sliding. This works GREAT on grass, but of course we don't race on grass. When I hit the road, my jersey got a real nice tear in it (Sorry FoBoGro, but your logo is no longer on that jersey) and scraped my shoulder really well. I finish the roll and then slide down the road a little more which results in my entire left leg getting scratched up. I immediately get up, run over to my bike, set it up on the road, and promptly yell, "Fuck!". I see my right shifter bent at a 45 degree angle towards my tire. Regardless of this fact, I hop on my bike and take off hoping to god that I will still be able to shift or break with the right side. The whole process from starting to fall to riding away was definitely under 10 seconds due to my lack of brains to check if I'm ok.

I pass some Ap State guys sitting on the corner who yell to me to keep going and catch up. "With these handlebars?". "Good point, take a mechanical lap. [laughter]" So I speed up down the downhill and all the way around to the pit area. Apparently there was a rider catching me from behind, but I had no idea he was there until I saw video of it later in the day. I go to the pit area and they give me a mechanical lap so I had time to force my shifter over to a more or less straight angle. Once that is done, I hop on my bike while the refereeing is holding it for me TT style. I look down and see that my handlebars are facing way to the right (later figured out its actually the wheel facing left). The ref asks if I want to fix this, but I just wanted to make sure I didnt miss the pack so I declined and said I'll fix it later. I start pedaling and fall in line at the back of the pack just like I was supposed to and stayed with them for a couple laps until once again I couldnt stay with them. This time I believe it was more to my multitude of bike problems. Even once I got dropped, I still kept fighting until the end of the race.

Each turn scared the shit out of me because I could see my front wheel moving what seemed like an inch rapidly back and forth and making a very scary "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch" sound and vibrating. I finished the race fighting with every bit I had. Once I crossed the finish line, I immediately hopped off my bike because I was afraid to ride it anymore. I went over to the referees and asked if they had an EMT around who could help me clean the blood off my leg that went from my knee to my ankle. I shared some pretty good laughs with the refs and then headed over and met up with my teammates who immediately started taking pictues of my battle wounds and bike before I even reached them. I couldn't help but laugh and pose for them. I was very thankful I wasnt seriously hurt and was easily able to walk away. My bike on the other hand... I was extremely down because it was so damaged (at least I thought) and I thought it was going to basically mean the end of my racing for the summer until I could afford a new bike or many parts at least. My teammates have since assured me that many things can be easily fixed and it will cost very little.



After probably an hour of walking around trying to find people, I got my wounds all cleaned up and bandaged (not until more pictures were taken though and many MANY comments received from other racers who saw me). Thanks to everyone who was worried about me!

The rest of the day was a blast. Cheering for all my amazing teammates (Way to go everyone for your great performances, especially Nick who got first place in the Mens C race where Rich also finished top 10, Dan in the Mens B race who got 3rd (so close to first, and had an amazing race the entire time), and Sam who got top 5 in the Womens A race. It definitely was a blast waving the GW flag we have around on a stick I picked up in the woods. :)



The entire weekend was amazing and I just want to thank everyone who made my first racing experience memorable.

See you all on the road as soon as I get my bike fixed!

J-Mac

Virginia Tech Road Race (My first race)

Wow. Now I know why Mona said I was brave for doing the VT course, especially for the Conference Championships. But regardless, I wouldn't say brave, probably just too stupid to think about it. Same reason I'm a goalkeeper. Just do, don't think

So my first race experience was awesome. Temperature was cold enough that most people were wearing underarmour, jackets, or arm warmers. Of course the only jacket I brought was my referee rain jacket and I just didnt feel like putting the underarmour under my jersey when I started warming up.

So we got there around 10 and Dan, Sam, and Catherine were already racing, so we immediately took up cheering positions near the parking area. All 3 did great jobs in their races.

I started warming up around 11:15. 10 minutes out, 10 minutes back. Lots of stretching. Another shorter ride. Get back, light stretching. Matt tells me to go for another short spin, and when I get back, they were already lining up (the mens C race was starting 5 minutes before us and were also lining up, so not a big deal). My goal was to stick with Scott for at least the begining of the race. Unfortunately he was already lined up and about 3 rows in front of me. I got lucky though that we had to move over 3 times for cars, and each time I sneaked up so that I started right behind Scott.

For the first 6 miles I was doing very good and was sitting in the top 8 with Scott and made it up the first little climb and was feeling pretty good. Then we had the short little flat part and then the steeper climb. I dont know what happened, but my leg just shut down during this and so I fell behind. I climbed about halfway up, looked back, and felt good to see at least 6 people scattered behind me. So I finished the climb, spinning and being kinda pissed at myself for not being able to stay with them on the climb. On the next little hill I was passed by the wheel van and officially dropped.

So I got passed by a guy from Pfefier (I believe) it was and then passed by a Duke rider couple minutes after that. By this point my legs were much better and I kept refusing to give up. The Duke guy passed the Pfeifer guy and then I passed him too shortly after. Towards the top of this climb, my calf was threatening to cramp, so I had to pedal on and off for a bit until I was near the crest and I just powered it over.

From this point on, most of the race was flying (30+ mph). It took me a long while, but I caught the Duke rider when he was having trouble up a hill and I just blasted up it. I figured he was done so I just went past him and didn't try to work with him. He then started spinning faster and was going down the hill probably about 10-20 yards behind me. He then caught me on the next short climb and so I slowed down so he would pass me and I could draft off of him. This worked a little bit, but it was obvious then that the two of us were more interested in beating each other rather than working together to see if we could catch some riders ahead of us. So we're basically just riding individually really close to eachother without letting the other one draft for more than 5 seconds. On the downhills we're both churning as fast as we can go (my max speed was 38.6 for the race, so it was definitely during one of these points), and on the uphills we're slowing and not letting eachother draft. We see the parking area and I just take off with the Duke rider right behind me. I took off because I thought the finish line was where we started our neutral roll-out from and not 2500 m or so past that. I really appreciated the loud cheers from my GW teammates though :)



So I slowed down to about 17 mph in the hopes that he would go past me. He didnt... We pass the 1K sign and then a short bit after that, a rider on his way back says "almost there guys, keep going." Mr. Duke takes off here and I follow closesly behind him. I realized I didn't have enough left to sprint all the way so I let up a little and gave him a bit of a lead. He shut down and I took off, out of the saddle, in the saddle, out of the saddle, giving it everything I had. With about 70 feet left I realized I could definitely pass him (he was about 15 feet in front of me), and so I shove down as hard as I can, but this caused my bike to swerve out. The entire crowd gasped because they thought I was going to crash, and I just cursed at myself because that was the end of much chance to pass him. I wound up finishing 10 feet behind him. After the finish line we congratulated each other on a good race.

I was uber pissed that I didnt beat him, but I couldnt help but smile because I felt pretty good with my first race. I entered with the goal to not finish last, and I definitely didnt do that. I had some laughs with spectators on the ride back and (eventually) got back to the parking area where I finally realized how tired my quads were. If I didnt tear my quad 8 months ago, I probably would have adopted much better to this sport, but then again, if I didnt tear it, I probably would never have joined the GW Cycling and opened up this whole new world of bike racing.

I am very proud of the job I did today and proud to be a member of this great team. Everyone did a fantastic job. Dinner was pretty good too (even if I was the only person there not old enough to have a drink :P ), pizza is always a good choice with me, but cheese is not always my first choice during sporting events.



First crit race tomorrow. Should be a great day. Just hoping I dont crash or get dropped tomorrow.

Countdown : 24 hours until first race

24 hours until my first race. And to make it even better, 24 hours until the ACCC Conference Championships. Man I picked a great day to start racing. So here's whats going through my mind right now:

Helmet : check
Glasses: check
Uniform: check
Uniform is clean (sniff) : check
so on and so forth

"Am I going to get dropped?"

"If I'm going faster than everyone on the downhill, will I be able to get around them without breaking the centerline rule?"

"Will I make it up the 3 1/2 mile climb with the group so I can even be a threat on the downhill?"

"How will I work with people?"

"Gotta remember to stay on that wheel. Dont let the wheel go"

"What if I win my first race?"

"What if my chain jumps off the rail again during the race?"

"If I crash, how fast can I get going again?"

"Should I raise my seat? I feel like I should have done that a week ago"

"Whats the weather supposed to be this weekend?"

Checking weather...

"FML! Its windy tomorrow. 20 to 30 mph Hopefully its going with the downhill after the climb. If so, I'm definitely breaking from the pack if I can then."

"At least its going to be nice and sunny, but only a high of upper 50's, for the crit on sunday.

"Should I pack my underarmour just in case?"

"Ok, taking it. I hope thats clean... and I hope I can find it too"

"If I get a flat during the RR I swear to god I might just die. I should've gotten a flat from so many potholes and manhole covers already that it BETTER not happen during the race."

"Should I leave my repair kit on my bike during the race in case I get dropped and flat halfway through? We are the last race, but the one before us leaves 5 minutes earlier and has two laps, so I might be able to get a ride on the wheel truck if that happens... hopefully.... god that would suck."

"Am I forgetting anything?"

"I have all 3 water bottles. Ok. Do I need 2 on my bike for the race? If I remove one, its that much less weight. Besides, I probably will be too worried about crashing into someone to drink anyway"

"Ooo. Put multi-tool in bag."

"Do I have any work this weekend? I dont think so...... gotta check blackboard"

"Should I try sleeping on the way down? Hmmmm. Eh, we'll see"

"Ok. I should probably stop procrastinating via this blog and actually finish packing."

Will update during my races this weekend. Enjoy the nice weather everyone!

John

Possible first race this coming weekend!

So as of right now, I am supposed to have my referee fitness test on Sunday. I need to do the fitness test to be able to upgrade (4-step process and I already completed 2 out of the 4 steps). Fortunately, there are 2 other days that have the fitness test later in the year. Bad part is that I have to do the fitness test in Maryland because thats where I've done everything else even though I'm registered in Jersey. So I have to see if I'll be able to come back down to do the fitness test.

So, lets go over my plan in case I'm racing this weekend.

Monday - Already did a 12-mile ride to help get my legs loose from reffing the PDA Spring Challenge tournament this weekend. My legs are definitely not happy with me so thats probably it for today, although I think I'm going to raise my seat a tich (yes, a tich is an official measurement :P ). Possible bike cleaning too, but thats more doubtful.

Tuesday - Go for a ride depending on how my legs are feeling. Will definitely be stretching for a while at some point. Will probably wind up doing some sort of ride since my last class ends at 10:50 AM and I dont have anything to do until Symphonic Band at 5:40.

Wednesday - MAJOR stretching session during the day (minimum 30 minutes, probably closer to an hour). Team ride at 8 PM and with the new tradition of hitting up Heidi's Brooklyn Deli (so good its only 1 block from the White House).

Thursday - Very light ride with a couple sprints thrown in. Probably going to play one of my obscure sports like squash or raquetball to get my mind off of cycling so that way I'll be able to focus when it counts this weekend.

Friday - NADA. Off day. No work. Zip. Only things to do on friday will be waking up too early to turn in my econ problem set and then FYDP presentation with my group later in the day.

Saturday - Race time! Don't get dropped. Finish in the top half. Rep G-Dub!

Also currently working on making a new working song. Got 4:30 done so far. If you wanna hear it, let me know. I'll send you the MP3.

Breathe Damnit Breathe! (A blog about lung power)

So throughout my past bunch of years, I've always been involved in activities that required lots of air and control, so I've come up with some traditional and some non-traditional ways to improve the amount of air one can hold and control of their air support.

1.
Equipment needed : none
Place learned : Voorhees High School Concert Band

Breathe in (as if yawning) until you cannot anymore.
Hold for 10 seconds
Make a small "o" shape with your mouth
Push all the air out fast and controlled until you have no air left
Hold for 10 seconds
[Repeat multiple times]


2.
Equipment needed : A pool and a friend
Place learned : Bernardsville Swim Team

***note: Only do this when you have a friend with you. There are stories of swimmers who have died doing this by themselves***

Stand on edge of pool
Breathe in deeply and fill your lungs to maximum capacity
Slowly release all the air in a controlled stream with an "o" shaped mouth
[Repeat 3 times]
Fill up lungs to maximum capacity, jump in the pool, and swim to the bottom
Stay at the bottom for as long as you can handle and then rise back up to the top

***note : If you have a problem staying on the bottom, you can reverse this by releasing all the air from your lungs and then jump into the pool***


3.
Equipment needed : Bike (optional) and iPod
Place learned : Training by myself

Very simple and very effective
While running or biking, sing to the songs you are listening to.
Works best if you pick songs with lots of words, not techno or house music.


Hope these helped you all out. I will update as I come up with/remember other ways to help build lung strength and size.

Introduction

Hello everyone!

So, before you start reading this blog, I figure I should probably introduce myself and this blog.

This blog is about my adventures in the sport of cycling (The good, the bad, the ugly, everything).

I have been a successful athlete most of my life. From soccer where I was ranked #1 in the nation for Goalie Wars, competed at Nationals in Fencing, and was a part of the GWU Rowing team before I had to stop due to my torn quad.

So how did I get into cycling. I have been mountain biking for many years, and have decided that I'd like to start competing with a bike. This is when I heard about the GWU Cycling Team. I got in contact with a member who got me involved. Since then I've bought a new bike (Cannondale CAAD 9 - 5) with a bunch of new gear and swag.

Already managed to crash the new bike right in front of a huge group right in front of the Lincoln Memorial (those poles come out of nowhere!). Sadly I was unable to bring my bike home over spring break, so most likely no posts for the next week or so, but I will update as much as possible whenever possible.

Happy trails!