I'm back!

Hello, I'm back and badder than ever. In fact, I'm the worst of the worst. 

I removed my nips.

With that said there has been a great amount of things going on in my life right now. Big transitions are right around the corner. Leeann and I are engaged to be married. She's pregnant with our third son (the other two were sold for a large profit in the white sex slave rings). I think we got a couple Big Mac meals supersized for child#1. #2 went into my bank account and I bought a Cervelo Soloist...used of course...................... So if you havent got it, we are not engaged, we have no kids on the way. I'm full of shit. I do "like" Leeann though.

A friend of mine pissed in his chamois during a race and wore it on the CSC ride the next day. Without washing it. He has issues. I just wanted to publicize this sad fact of life. I'm constantly amazed at the things cyclists are capable. We can endure pain for days on end (well, some of them, not me, I prefer pain doled out in less than 2 hours), sleep on floors to be rested for races, travel constantly for the chance at winning, or only to work for teammates (this aint a bad thing) and get 20th. I can't lecture on this though since I rode 285 miles last week without washing or even rinsing my bibs. Who am I? 

One big milestone is out of the way for me as I took my first orchestra audition up in Spokane. I think it was one of the most nerve racking experiences ever. Sitting by yourself on a performance hall stage with a committee out in the audience with a black screen in front of them so they can't see you. Damn, if they only knew how good I looked...It actually made me wonder why i bothered getting dressed up. I could have gone in my gold speedo (perhaps it may have reflected the stage lights into the audience). Anyway, I played all my shit, spilled blood and guts all over the stage, dry humped the air at the end, and lost the audition to the other person. Cool, one down, perhaps twenty or more to go before I win. Talk about competition. It was pretty intense. Plus 5th gear on my car decided to not work so I drove for around 8 hours holding the gear shifter in position.

Another big thing going on is that I've decided to start my own business with Leeann. We're currently looking into creating a music learning center in either Portland or Seattle. So now people will pay me to drop knowledge bombs. Oh yes. Also, I think I'm gonna start my own coaching business for cyclists. Nothing would please me more than to train people to kick serious ass at the races. So thats that. Music and Cycling. Sounds like a good life to live.  Peace out to the 10 people who actually read this far.  

Booyaa. Its how I roll son.

What a day.

I learned German

Thwarted the plans of a redneck bent on killing me

Played some Brahms

Imparted some knowledge to my awesome students

Ate food with some great people from the shop

Learned about the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918

Played video games

Rode around the river

Became a coach

Nowhere in there do I see the word "work". I do not know what that means.

It's time

Oh yes, it's that time of year. Like the sun setting and then rising. 

The wet becomes dry (twss)

The RR season yields to the crit season. 

So here's the plan:

Collegiate Season ends

Eric K. Track Race. 

Icebreaker Crit.

Twilight Series

Cirque du Cycling

Swan Island

Portland Twilight Crit

State Championships in Albany

Team Oregon seems to have a deadly arsenal of sprinters. This should be a good summer. My form has been mostly good for the early season. I'm looking forward this weekend to helping keep Will and Dave at the top of the Collegiate rankings.

Go Ducks, #1 Cycling Team for Division 1 Schools

Good Things in Food

- The book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day can be described as life changing. I have now made bread consistently for over a month. The grocery store has become one aisle less to shop in. I used to think that bread making was so hard (twss). hehe. The authors should sponsor the UO Cycling Team.

- Next up in my life changing foods is Fromm Family Holistic Cat Food. Now, this shit is the bomb. literally. As in, my cats do much less of that. Also, my cat Greta Bean who was diagnosed with a mouth disease Stomatitis Gingivitis, was cured. The problem was simply an allergy to the corn additives found in every pet food including the "best". She's doing really well. We've also noticed how much better all of our cats act. Just like in humans, you are what you eat.

here's one to think about. Interpretations can go 100 ways.
- Pride goes before the fall -

So this last week I took the first of my core Doctoral exams. What does that mean? hmm...lets see. They gave me a piece of music on paper, I took the music and told them it was from 1550, the composer was Palestrina, and then explained in detail why. They then gave me another one, I told them that this one was from the Late Baroque Period circa 1740, religious in nature, and then again explained why in great technical detail.

The mofo's then played 3 pieces on the mofo'ing stereo. One was from 1750, the other from 1890 (which i was close, it was from 1910) and then another from 1440. I did all the same things, jumped through the hoops, dropped some more knowledge bombs on their asses.

Finally, there was a teacher change, and they gave me yet another awesome piece to analyze. I proceeded to rock their mofo'ing asses by doing the full harmonic analysis with a 4 page written commentary.

Did I pass? I'll know in about a week or so. But I think I did. So now, its back to practicing like a biznatch and riding like I know what the hell I'm doing. See you all at next weeks Thursday nighter and then my favorite race, Eugene Roubaix. I've even double wrapped my handlebars.

Sweet Team Oregon Video

Thanks Ivar for an awesome video!

OSU Crit....blowup

woke up at 4:45 to get the vans in the rain - loaded up and drove to OSU with the UO cycling team. Spent the next 6 hours bumming around eating breakfast, hanging out, sleeping in the back of a cargo van, and cheering teammates on. Good job team today! The ladies kicked some serious ass and represented. I'm proud to be in such a good group of cyclists.

Lenny, Will and I warm up on the trainers in the rain. They tell me that they'll be trying to help me out. I'm stoked and hope this will be a good race but deep inside I'm still remembering how I couldn't clip my pedals in at the State Championship Crit and lost about 30 places almost instantly. We get warm, line up, the whistle blows and boom, its like magic. Both shoes clip instantly into the pedals. Ahh yeah! I say and get a good kick in to the head of the pack. Oh, I feel good. Let's go! All of a sudden I find myself off the front with about a 30M gap. Sweet, this is just like Lenny did yesterday! I push through the technical back section of the course turn left, do the 180 and look over to see that the pack has just started the turn. Wow! Ok, I'm off the front, but do I really have the power to hold this? Am I a TT guy? hmmmm....I think the answer right now ("now" being a very important word, I would love to be able to do this in the future) is no. So I sit up a little to wait for the guy who is bridging up and he passes me so quick I can't even get on his wheel. uh oh. How about I wait for the main group? Ok, i latch onto the back of a group of 10 and my legs are just loaded up. Jesus, these dudes kick out of corners and Im doing everything I can to maintain distance. 2 laps later of hanging on my legs are done. Will is yelling at me to "keep going dude, lets sprint!". Sprint? are you kidding me? I can't even maintain a 60 cadence.

So Will and I both drop out about a lap later. When I think about it now, we should have stayed in, got lapped and latched back onto the field for more practice. Lenny did it and honestly, I was a little bit jealous that he was still racing. It was a great course.

So what did I learn?
- no more jumping off the front at the gun until I know I can hold it.
- economy is key
- I need to adjust my workouts to more closely mimic the demands of these races.
- Clipping in quickly does not necessarily mean it's time for a solo break.

Anyway, I hope there's a good picture of me off the front somewhere (Adam???). I'm gonna try this again in a couple of weeks.

-Derek