andy reagan only the interesting stuff

WVU Race Weekend

I had an amazing time this past weekend racing at WVU with the team. The races went well, and it was great talking and hanging out in the beautiful weather, and great atmosphere the whole time.  And I'm currently procrastinating real life (some homework) to write about how much fun I had.

Sunset tonight in Blacksburg

Friday: HW, Test, then driving!

I had a tough week of schoolwork, among other things school-related (applying to grad school...the usual) and finished up Friday.  First, with turning in my Number Theory problem set on which I was able to figure out the two really hard problems and finish up my C++ program in the morning.  And I took my second exam in Advanced Calculus, which I think went pretty well.  I studied for it as much as I though was reasonable, which probably amount to two or so hours...because all there really is to do studying is memorize definitions (4 pages of them) which I know by now already, and go over the homework.

Jumping back in time to Thursday, I had a C++ exam and I'm pretty sure I crushed it.  I was disappointed with my performance on the first test, probably because I didn't really study and the questions were just picky about the syntax.  But now that we're into more complicated programming, I like it better.  Last time I didn't do any of the Koofers, but this time I did three of them and it was getting pretty repetitive.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester I have been eating with the Tri team for lunch at D2, but they were on their way to Nationals in Alabama already so it was just Andy W and I.  Just saw Grayson in the parking lot as we got back from the races, and it sounded like they did really well, 8th overall, so congrats to them!  So my day Thursday was like: wake up, C++ koofer, Num Anal class, lunch, study C++ for three hours and work on a prime number program, C++ test, then coding for another two hours before I gave it up and went to PK's for dinner with the cycling team guys.  One of the problems for number theory was to write a program to determine whether a given really really large number was prime.  I would do it in MATLAB, but it can only factor numbers up to 2^32 (even though I'm running the 64 bit version) so I tried to learn Mathematica which can factor numbers that big.  But programming in Mathematica is super confusing, and totally unlike any other language.  It's stupid.  So I resorted to C++, and the program I wrote was like 400 lines of code, and there is still more I need to add to make it work fully.  A lot of that is a function that factors big numbers, then another one that takes bases to giant exponents in binary...and you don't care anymore.

I was going to attempt an easy ride Friday, but didn't get a chance to before I needed to pack up, and have time to submit my beer for competition before leaving at 4.  I submitted my IPA with just cascade hops that Will and I brewed under "American IPA" and my Raison D'Etre clone under "Belgian Dubbel" and I think that my belgian has a good shot at it.  The IPA...I'm just hoping that it's at least carbonated by the time they judge them.

The drive to WV is long, but we split it half and half (2.5 hrs each) with a stop at Pies and Pints, an awesome pizza place in Fayetteville, WV.  The black bean pizza that Jacob and I split was delicious, but Rogue's Chateau beer was an imperial porter, but too harsh on the roastedness.  The chocolate malt made it taste really burnt. Oh well on that.  At the hotel for the night we hung out, and drank some Yuenglings before calling it a night.

Saturday: Double Criterium

The criterium course in downtown Clarksburg is an awesome venue, with the race going around two city blocks in the middle of downtown.  The mayor loves having us out, and there are all sorts of activities with a kids race, people in costumes, and a cop on 10 foot stilts was walking around.  I even saw the mayor, who came up and introduced herself to all of us, riding around on a trike in the open area in the middle of the course where the kids stuff was going on too.

This kid got some, winning the kid's race in style

We didn't have anyone in the first race, Men's D, but there were five of us ready to get Andy W the win in the Men's C.  The race was 30 min, and it was a fast race, mostly due to Jake.  He was up front most of the race, put in two attacks, and made us all work.  I attacked at some point, and got off the front, but App State weren't the ones chasing me so I eased off.  Coming down to the last lap, Andy W and I were not in great position at all.  He got on my wheel into the last lap, and as we came around the start/finish I drilled it with him behind me and we got up near the front into turn one.  I pulled at something like 1200W, and on that stretch blew myself up.  Coming out of turn 2 into the slight uphill, I was cooked and wasn't able to communicate that to Andy who stayed behind me for too long.  App went around me to the left, and Andy was left to chase them into the last two corners, and to the finish line.  In retrospect, I shouldn't have gone too hard on that first pull, and saved enough to give Andy a real lead out, or at least let him know that I was dead.  So I pretty much screwed the pooch on that one...and it was a frustrating finish.  I think Andy got like 4th or something, but he needs wins to move up.

Ben Warren in the A race, in a 3 man break

After the collegiate races, there were also USAC category races going on.  By USAC races, I just mean non-collegiate races.  Technically our collegiate races are part of USAC, but we race in the collegiate categories of A through D.  That's unique to collegiate, and all the other races across the country have categories 1 through 5. And pro, which is above 1 I guess. But 1's and A's are the fastest, and down from there.

Tyler G finishing 3rd in Men's B, solid. Lots of people at the finish, you can see the activity area on the right

On my license, I'm still a cat 5 (beginner), and so Jake, Christian and I decided to race the cat 5 race.  The guy from WVU organizing the races offered the collegiate guys a discount to $15 for a second race of the day, which was cool.  The race was 30min, same length as Men's C.  It ended up being mostly a collegiate rematch too.

Mike B enjoying the Men's B race as well

There were three prime laps (pronounced preem), which are laps in which the first person wins something.  In collegiate, every race that I've done for that matter, the primes are for more points.  Which is exciting, but not really.  Perhaps the coolest part of real racing is that there are real prizes.  So for the primes, the prizes were a sausage, tshirt, and hat for the first one, a water bottle and cage for the second, and I don't even remember what the third was.  I just remember hearing them, and thinking that first one was pretty sweet, and I wanted it.  The other races earlier had growlers from Mountain State Brewing, but we're just cat 5 I guess.  Those were half the reason I signed up.

And last random picture, Will M and Tyler on the front of the B race

From the gun, we hit it real hard.  By we, I mean Christian and Jake on the front of the race.  I felt bad that we were going so hard in the beginner category, it was definitely not a beginner pace.  I was on the back for the first 15 minutes, and then started to move up.  Within a few laps, we were already lapping people, whoops.  I was waiting on the first prime, and when I heard the bell I got up to about 5th wheel.  Coming into the finish, there is a hard turn into a short steep uphill, then a dowhill to the finish line.  Out of that last corner I was something like 6th, and got on it.  As I crested the hill and looked down at the start/finish, I was really far back from the first guy, with quite a few people in the way, but I sprinted with everything I had and weaved through them.  The first guy was still a bike length ahead of me with 50 feet to go and I was sprinting hard, and right at the line I threw my forward and jusssst put my front wheel ahead of his. Victory!  That was the best sprint I think that I've ever put in race, maybe, I made up serious ground and pimped that guy hard.

I was cooked from that sprint, and luckily had gotten far enough ahead that I could relax without anyone attacking on the next lap.  I just hung in until the finish really, going for the second prime (think I got second) but I wasn't going to burn my last match.  They put the last prime with two laps to go...which meant that the next lap was going to be fast for the prime, and then it was the last lap!  I hated it when they did that to us last time.  But I knew enough not to sprint too hard for that last prime so I could stay on the final lap, and didn't go for the prime.  Luckily no one else went for too hard either, and we were mostly together after it going into the last lap.  Into the fast downhill turn 3, Jake A was first wheel and crushed the hard corner, opening up a gap on second.  I was like 4 or 5th or something at this point, and coming uphill out of the last corner was talking to myself.  This is the last sprint Andy, give it everything you've got.  So I sat on Jake's little train, and he was drilling it so no one was about to come around.  In reality, it was a perfect leadout.  I came off of his wheel sprinting, but didn't want to nab my own teammate at the line so I think I held back a little, although I'm not even sure that I had more anyway.  Jake crushed it all the way through the finish for the win, which was sweet.  I flew around to the right for 3rd, which I was totally happy with.

I did end up getting my sausage prime, and some pretty sweet socks and a tshirt.  And for 3rd, I got $15, which covered my entry fee, sweet! Jake got $35, which was awesome for him, he was working so hard the whole race.  And I totally couldn't have won either the prime, or come in third without being able to sit in the group while Christian was working hard up front, so a big kudos to him as well.

Doing well in the race put me in a great mood, and we other really strong performances on the day as well.  Everyone was happy, it was a good day of racing.  I'll write about those other performances on the cycling website, maybe.  Getting dinner was an adventure, it's freakin tough making a decision with 15 people, but we eventually ended up at a Chinese buffet which was good enough.  We were all tired, but chilled until midnight before going to bed, talkin about girls and of course, bikes.

Sunday: Road Race

I'm out of time a little, I shall write later about the road race.  Ciao!

Horseback riding, EPIC mountain biking and Spandex Classic

First, I've got really awesome news: I'm going to be in Blacksburg this summer for the Modeling and Simulation in Systems Biology (MSSB) Reseach Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI)!! In short, the MSSB REU @VBI.  I'd been waiting a long time to hear about where I was going to be this summer, and am really glad that I got this.  Researching biology could be where I'm headed...we'll see.

And I've been working really hard these past few weeks on homework and stuff, so having this past weekend off of racing was good as well.  Although I definitely still got in some awesome riding.

Friday

After finishing up HW and class, I spent pretty much all day running around with Ruthie (her running me around really, she was driving) and I rode her horse Scribby, we bottled beer, and all in all it was a really fun afternoon.  This is the second time I've ridden, and it actually was pretty scary this time.  Ruthie has been leading me around on the horse so far, and at the end she was just walking next to me on the horse, and we split up a little bit.  Then Scribby decided to go the other way, and it's all a blur now, but before I knew it, I was out of the stirrups galloping across the ring.  I pulled tighter on the reins, and got scribby to stop before hitting the fence, then he ran again, this whole time me thinking about whether or not I should just jump off, but somehow I balanced and stayed on, and by pulling hard on one rein got Scribby to stop until Ruthie could get there.  So...no riding solo for me yet.  This whole riding horses thing isn't nearly as simple as it looks.  I lean my bike right, and we go right.  A horse is a whole different animal.  We also made it downtown to see Kati riding for Bike and Build, ran like a thousand other errands, and bottled beer and made dinner before I called it a night.

Saturday: Epic Ride

Riding in hail and a 30mph headwind, crossing rivers, climbing up into the storm itself, and across the rocky ridgeline of Dragon's Back was quite the feat. Andy W, George, and myself definitely got more than we bargained for out there, but we made it back and it was actually a lot of fun.  We set out at 9AM, planning a four hour ride, and didn't get home till 6:30PM hungry and frozen.  I rode Dave's 29er, which was sweet, and I think I'm going to buy it to ride this summer.

As soon as we started, and were on 311 heading toward the trailhead, it went from sunny to blistering headwind and hail.  The hail stung like no other on my legs, and it was so so cold that I was definitely thinking that we might not be able to attempt this.  When we got onto the gravel road it felt warmer, the hail held off, but the "3 stream crossings" turned out to be 6 attempts at crossing this huuge stream.  It was fun, the strategy by the end was just to get as much speed as possible and bomb into the water.  Once the wave from hitting the water collapsed back, we would get totally soaked and it was so deep that at one point I was pedaling with the whole drivetrain underwater.  I wonder if Shimano designs for that...

After a lot more riding on fire road, we saw Kirby (who was helping put on the race the next day) driving, which was good timing.  We thought that we had passed the trailhead by our mileage, and we were right, he told us it was 1.5mi back.  I think we at 16mi at that point.  The climb up to the top of the ridge wasn't that rediculous, and we made it up pretty quick.  The riding on the ridge was awesome, super rocky and gorgeous views.  Some parts were so steep and long that it wasn't the technical skills that made it hard, but having the fitness to pount for 10 minutes up those super steep climbs.  We could see the ridge the whole way out, and they call it Dragon's Back because it looks like the back of a dragon, with all the spikes along the top.  Those were what we were going up and down.  We were literally on the ridge too, it was steep down on both sides and we could see the mountains on either side of us.  It was also pretty cool that we were up along the cloud line, and when we're in the storm up top, it was snowing but not hard, like we were riding through the snow that was barely falling.

Andy and I bonked pretty hard, and the last few climbs were really tough.  George was crushing it, but eventually his legs gave out too.  Kirby caught up with as he was marking the route, and we all rode back which was cool.  The front derailer cable on Dave's bike finally bit the dust entirely at the end, and I could only use the smallest ring...but I didn't want more!

Andy W and George, we just got onto the ridgeline. Not the one picture I would think of from this ride, it was so beautiful with mountains on both sides as we went across the ridge, and the walls of water looked sweet when we bombed into the river crossings...but oh well.

Saturday night: Spandex Classic

A tradition in the Blacksburg cycling community, Spandex Classic consists of an impromptu, costume themed, le mans start, single speed, 3 lap race of the Drillfield with a huge "awards ceremony" that follows.  This year's rendition was organized largely by Will Massey and myself, and it was major success.  I rode in on the trike, with my single speed over my shoulder, in full Spartan gear for a pretty epic entrance.  Though I was tired from 6 hours of ridiculously hard mountain biking, so my legs weren't quite up to the challenge of winning it, but Will Massey came through (traffic) for the win!  Next year...

Sunday

Today hasn't been very productive, but I went on a really fun group ride to the River and back with the triathlon team.  There was a huge turnout, as they're preparing for Nationals next weekend, and having that many triathletes on aero bikes riding in close proximity was definitely scary, but got better towards the end.  Triathletes, not to hate, aren't used to riding in big groups and it gets pretty hairy when they all get together.  It was so crazy at the beginning with 20 tri bikers that Justin almost regretted coming to this thing haha, but he Chris and I kept our distance at the back and it was fine.  It really was fine, and there was a noticable improvement by the end of the ride of how comfortable everyone was.  Advertised (on the listserv) as an easy ride, it was definitely very far from that, with some attacking and then hammering the climbs.  But after getting warmed up, my legs actually felt great, which suprised me after bonking super hard the day before, and then all that SC entails.

Since then, I've showered, taken a nap, and worked a little bit on C++ (remember the quiz too, make that 5/8!).  I'm going to pick stuff up from Will's that I left there, and do some laundry now to get ready for the week.  Two tests (boo), two wheels to build (yay), and then to WVU this weekend, chyeah!