I’d hoped to write up a nice post about races this past weekend, and about all of the clothing stuff that has been going on….but haven’t had a chance and I probably won’t, seeing as I have two tests in the next two days that I know little about.  Here’s a touch on both of those (clothes and racing).

Cycling Clothes

Finally they got here, but I was in Roanoke with Lauren when DHL was out to deliver them…..and after many phone calls was able to get a hold of Josh to be there and sign for them.  DHL called me when he got to Tech about where to bring them, and thankfully all went smoothly because when I got back at 6PM, there were 16 cartons in the hallway.  The 17th was all Men’s M jerseys, which were all extra so that was the best one they could’ve not delivered.

Lauren and I spent that whole night counting the order, and putting together individual orders, and by 2AM I called it a night, with just people from the team’s orders together for the race tomorrow.  The system of putting orders together worked great, Lauren was crushing them Friday and I got really fast putting them together Saturday and Sunday when I spent probably 20 combined hours in the hallway assembling them.  I got a good three hours of sleep Sunday night…

Friday Night's setup in the study lounge

My Lee Hall packaging center, where I spent Sat and Sun

Yesterday I spent three or so hours at the post office shipping the orders that needed to be shipped, writing the address (from and to) by hand wasn’t really that slow though, I just had >50 to ship.  I made it back in time for class, barely at 2:30, in pretty rough shape.  Monday night I lugged the ones for pickup to the meeting, and got rid of a lot of them!  So far, it’s actually went pretty smoothly on the whole!!

ACCC Conference Championships at Tech: Road Race and TTT

It definitely was not my weekend for racing….Saturday on little sleep and after being the lead vehicle for the B race (sitting for the three hours prior to mine) I wasn’t where I needed to be in terms of health or fitness, and made it up the climb but not with the lead group.  We worked to catch them, but it looked unlikely and I was doing almost all the pulling….here’s a picture of my race haha:

Max effort, trying to break to the finish

I’m not really sure where I finished…but it wasn’t so great.  The TTT, was is one of the most fun events out there and we only get to do one a year, was a complete failure, dropping James in the first mile and then Matt Londrey’s shifter breaking…so we didn’t hardly make it 5 miles before turning around.

Sunday’s Crit

The “Grandpa Frink CRC Safari” had some great potential, but short story: a guy crashed and slid right under me, taking me out completely….and so I was left with a DNF and no skin on my upper left leg.  I was pissed.  I was scraped up, gloves ripped, bibs destroyed, jersey ripped, jacket scraped, bike scraped up, pedal and cleat broken….I don’t even want to tally what it’ll cost but all the clothes were brand new and I was feeling strong for the race, and this is second race that Lauren has come to this year and my second crash and I don’t want her to think that bike racing is just crashing and getting hurt….it’s usually pretty fun haha.  Since we’ve been dating, every race she’s come to I’ve crashed haha….bad luck.  This scrape was incredibly more painful that the last crash, and I’m pretty sure I tweaked my right knee as well, but won’t know for awhile until I get back on the bike.  I’m alright really, just got two really nice and deep scrapes on my upper left leg, which make it challenging to move my leg very much….and are really just one more thing I’m going to have to deal with these next two weeks.

I have pictures of my leg but they’re pretty gruesome…

Here is one that Lauren took of the crit pre-crash:

How to not slide into other riders in a corner

The Plan

I’m pretty overwhlemed right now, with the clothing and two tests in the next two days and our bike ride this Friday and trying to keep up with all the Earth Week events and to be able to see my Lauren!

So, I’m going to keep limping around campus, working on clothing, studying for my tests, promoting the ride, taking two weeks off the bike, and hoping that this week comes to an end.  Apologies for the pessimism haha, that’s the mood I’m in.