may 25, 2008

well after my back wheel mishaps i ended up buying a new set of wheels. got them from effingers for $150 and am happy with them. good training wheels :)

ive been riding to and from work and a little after work and actually felt like i was loosing my edge a little bit. that was erased yesterday.

entered my first u.s. cycling race and won! sprint finish at the end and ended up taking it by a wheel in a photo finish. awesome feeling! came around the corner in the last lap and poured it on outsprinting the four guys in front of me. nice to have this feeling and get my juices brewing again. nice as fuck out today so im going out for a ride.

pics from yesterday..

may 14, 2008

fucking back wheel. bought it to cranford to get trued and sure enough about 45 minutes into the ride i hear that wheel rubbing the frame again. i was riding hard too having a good time. so then i bring the bike to jays in westfield and mark trues the wheel again so this is the third time the wheel has been trued. and 10 minutes into their wednesday night ride the wheel is out of true. fucking piece of shit. ride;

t-1:00:55
d-18.86
as-18.6
ms-32.3

may 13, 2008

went to rahway river park to ride the group race there today. this was awesome. about 30--40 riders. all fast, riding in a tight group. this is definitely a good place for me to practice race techniques. the bad part though, my back wheel became really untrue about 18 mins into the ride. fortunately i got some miles in before it happened but man that really stunk. this means i wont be doing my tt tomorrow night with crc. oh well. shit happens. ride;

t-1:14:29
d-21.87
as-17.6
ms-30.6

may 11, 2008

t-1:00:00
d-18.36
as-18.3
ms-?

may 8-9, 2008

did the crc rr last night(8th) but wound up crashing again. :( this time wasnt so bad at all. my rear tire ended up blowing out and the bike fished tailed making me lose control. ended up bumping another rider who thankfully didnt fall and then falling over into the grass. almost ended up going all the way down the embankment into the swamp but luckily didnt. walked away with a very out of true back wheel, and some scraps on knee, arm, side of body.

so then today(9th) i got a schedule in the mail from frank at crc. he wrote a note on the top of it, "paul, congratulation on start of a good season. 1st place in t.t. - the "race of truth". please consider getting a racing license. F."

well that inspired me enough to sign up! im now officially licensed through USA cycling. i hope to race this year for the first time. posted a message on the crc forum to see if anyone will go with me so we'll see. im excited!

may 7, 2008

time trial tonight. accidentally wore a yellow jersey and caught some comments from the club members about it. it was all in fun though. got to start last tonight and ended up finishing second. but with an awesome time. rode for the first time without a water bottle and definitley felt it. just like last week though i should have started sprinting earlier. next week i will start before the last little hump in the road and hopefully can sustain until the end.

at the end of the ride i found out who i lost to was a cat 2 rider. frank came over to tell me how excited and proud i should be finishing just 13 seconds behind him. he also mentioned he used to take him to belgium to race against european riders. WOW! thats pretty awesome if you ask me :)

ride;

t-55:45
d-17.16
as-18.4
ms-?

tt time - 17:39*

*another goal for 2008 achieved!

may 5, 2008

really hard interval ride at tamaques today. started off by myself but then another ride joined in and we traded off laps. felt strong as hell today. ride;

t-1:53:38
d-37.16
as-19.6
ms-33.6

may 4, 2008

the weather people just keep getting the predictions wrong. every weekend they say its going to rain and it ends up being great out. needless to say i gotu out for a ride today. but it took a little self motivation to end up in the saddle. after sitting around most of the morning i took a stpe outside and was amazed at how nice and warm it was. a big difference from the previous day. so i headed out for a ride that took me to zion rd and down 603. got some nice speed up in the later part of the ride. wind kept hitting me head on right until the end though. cant wait for a day i have a tail wind the whole time! ride;

t-1:40:49
d-32.2
as-19.1
ms-44.1

may 3, 2008

got out today despite it looking lousy outside and a chance of rain. got in a nice 2 hours and felt pretty strong for most of the ride. there were a few moments i felt gassed especially on some of the climbs. may have been the chilly weather and the headwind for most of the ride. found the crca's road markers for the 100k they did last weekend and decided to ride it out. took me to liberty corner and down to mount hoeb. after crossing 22 and not knowing how much further the ride would be i stopped at a farm stand to get a snack and a bottle refill. while there i got a carrot apple juice made fresh by the guy there. that was a nice treat around the end of my ride. hopefully the rain holds out tomorrow and i can get in an hour or so. ride;

t-2:03:16
d-38.56
as-18.7
ms-38.2

may 1, 2008

had the crc rr today. despite clouds and predicted rain i went out and road anyway. got placed with the B+ group which was the highest group i have been in there. road with some guys who last year i knew were on a much hugher level than me. but it felt good. did 3 laps and they were all very friendly and helped me out. i talked with all of them before hand so they knew i wasnt as experienced as them. but i felt good. my legs were tired, especially in the last couple miles. ended up taking 5th though and out sprinted one guy in my group at the end. the wet road made it cautious though. overall though this was a good ride. acheived a goal in not getting dropped after having a good tt the day before. ride;

t-1:13:04
d-24.28
as-19.9
ms-35.8

rr time;

t-57:09
d-20.09
as-21.1

april 30, 2008

one of my top goals for this year, accomplished!!!

tonight i won the clubs wednesday night time trial!!! this is something i have been working for over the past 2 1/2 years!

it was kinda chilly and definitely windy. almost the entire ride there was a head or side wind. only until the last half mile or so was the wind at my back. even with these conditions i ended up beating out the next fastest rider by almost 30 seconds!

after the ride i heard mike izzo say that i had won but at that time i didnt think it was true. even though i rode under 19 minutes it didnt dawn on me to think i was the fastest rider that night. but then frank announced "there is a new sheriff in town, paul". i was stunned. but i got my bottle of wine and felt great. now, i have to defend my win! its going to be a tough season!

tt time - 18:34
place - 1st
conditions - cool/head side wind.

total ride;

t-44:34
d-15.09
as-20.3
ms-36.4