I can’t believe I’ve already been here for a month!! It has just been crazy!! Sorry I haven’t kept you up to date, but I certainly haven’t been doing nothing… first I was busy and life was just hectic and then I started having so much stuff to tell you and didn’t want to leave anything out that I just left everything out… sorry.
But, I guess we’ll have to jump in somewhere, eh? (Yes, Evan, you can laugh at me now because I’m Canadian…). Life in Amherst, Massachusetts has been good. Everything here is pretty beautiful, kind of reminds me of Victoria, BC. Good rolling, winding (not Alberta flat and straight) roads. Trees. Farmstands. Good people. Good food. Good beer. Warm sun. Humidity. Rain. Yeah, the Pioneer Valley is good.
But what has June been like for me?? Well, Jeremy Durrin picked me up from the airport on a Thursday night, we had some fun fitting my bike box and all my other stuff in the back seat of his car. He took me to the warehouse to meet Al and get all my team stuff. It was like Christmas!!! JAM Fund/NCC Clothing, a Focus frame, FSA parts, Rudy Project helmet and glasses, Fizik saddle and bar tape, Clif Bar food, Lake shoes… yup, Christmas!!
The next day, I built my bike and went for a ride with Durrin. Luckily it didn’t feel too weird. And then I had to remember how to pack my bag for a bike race and try and get some sleep before we had to wake up early and go to the Killington Stage Race. I drove with Al, conversing with him for the whole four hour drive (Thanks Al!). The race was good, I felt comfortable and strong and fresh. My back started hurting pretty bad and about an hour and a half in, everything inside of me just shut off and I got dropped mighty fast. I wanted to quit pretty bad, but I knew that I needed the training and that I could help the team over the next 2 days. Of course, I then flatted. Now what? No more wheel cars, nothing to fix it with, hmm… I waited a for a while. Luckily, some cat 4 guys checking out the TT course had room for me and drove me back to the start, thanks guys!! Of course that meant I couldn’t finish the race. But I did ride with the guys on the pre-TT morning spin and continued on my own, doing about 4 hours along most of the road race course. And then I drove Al’s car around during the road race and did the feed zone thing. It was kind of fun, though not nearly as much as racing…
Back in Amherst, I started training in earnest. I also moved my sprawl of belongings from Jeremy’s basement with Evan Burkhart to our own rental house about 5 minutes away. The house was kind of a disaster when we first moved in, but now it’s ours. And it’s a little more comfortable. I still can’t believe it’s already been a month!
The next weekend was the Lake Auburn Road Race in Maine, and I got to see my old friends Adam and Janice!! Unfortunately when it came to bike racing, I again found myself feeling great for about 90′ and then… poof! Which meant that I spent far too much energy and had nothing left to simply finish… oops. So I wasn’t really helping the team, I wasn’t learning how to race, I wasn’t getting any training, and I was spending money… not a good combination for a poor bike racer.
The next week was full of much anguish and stress as my powertap died and I had to send it in for service (luckily Saris customer service is spectacular!!). I was heading into a big and important week of training and I hate training without collecting data (although if you’ve been coming here for a while, you probably know that), so I put on my race wheel. Two rides later I flatted and cracked the rim, which led to a very long walk/hitchhike home in the hot sun. That was followed by more anguish and a lot of unquantified, but good (I think), training. At the Purgatory Road Race my goal, and JAM’s goal for me, was to finish. Yes, that’s all. And finish I did.
Another big hard week of training led into the Housatonic Hills Road Race. I found out after the race that it’s probably one of the hardest race in New England… Oh, so I shouldn’t have done a huge week of training and only one rest day?? Suffice to say, I didn’t finish. But I did get to rebuild my powertap the day before and have the data to prove how hard the day was.
My rest week was timed well with cool and wet weather moving in. I had a great massage from Deb Augusto on the recommendation of Jeremy Powers. I was coming back to normal and getting back on top of my routine and work.
Yesterday, Evan Huff and I headed off to the Keith Berger Memorial Crit, a very fast non-technical 4-corner crit, where we raced well, but neither of us came away with a result, nor did we come home with any money.
So that’s it. My first month in Amherst with the JAM Fund/NCC team. Of course I left out many good details and all my pictures, but they will come in time. Be patient. Don’t worry. Smile. “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!”
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