Scooting along........

Yep just scooting right along........i was feeling really good after river gorge, hopefully that will improve going to europe. After my killer sprint workout Wens. Ive had a little cough an a sore throat. hopefully it will blow over. Im doing 2 crits down in the ATL sat, so that will tell me how im feeling.....But yea i had a killer workout wenseday, Carp forgot to give me a workout so i got creative and went back to my bmx roots! warmed up for an hr then did 5 20 second sprints starting out at 1000watts and worked my way to 1300watts by the last one. Besides that im just scooting right along with some easy rides and such......
hollar back

THE FIELD SPRINT

River Gorge Weekend

Sat. was the road race. The field was damn near the NRC level. Jittery Joes, DLP, Inferno, and Rock Racing where represented. Our plan was to set up our climbers. We started the race with like 90 guys. Unfortunartly we missed the main early move, so me and carp set hard tempo up until the main climb and pulled out. Our climbers had a bad day so the plan kinda failed but oh well....For most guys its really hard to be consistant this time of year anyways. On the bright side I felt really strong.

Crit.

So after feeling good in the road race i was really looking forward to the crit. I felt great the whole race, and raced aggressively. I missed the winning break of 4 that went almost from the gun. After that the racing got really negative. I ended up getting in great position on the last lap and taking second in the field sprint. I really thought I had it won! I was killing it the whole time, but with junior gears I just ran out of gears and 1 dude pipped me on the line.


So I was happy with my legs this weekend. I think my form is really coming around just intime for my trip to Italy. I've now come to the conclusion that im destined to be a classics rider, because I always feel great in the spring and fall.
I'll keep it updated.

aj

Cross Country Race 1

So despite not going to a single practice this season my coach is gracious enough to let me run in our first race. Before the race I knew my running form was not the greatest. I hadn't ran in about 10 months. So my stratagy was to get in the early break! lol Here is the race from my mind:

Boom! the gun sounds the race starts!

I'm on the lookout for the early move. Oh! my teammate is attacking. I'll go with him.

A third runner has joined us. We have a gap!

Damn this is hard. I begin to sit on the break.

Wow this isnt the same as cycling, im about to get dropped!

I'm still hanging on! The race favorite has bridged up! Looks like im in the move.

We pass the mile mark at 4:57! Shit i've never did a mile that fast!

Im dropped, I've hit the wall.

So yea i got dropped but then recovered and hung on for 5th place, which wasnt bad considering there were like 200 runners! And i havnt ran all year. Moral of this story is cycling tactics have no effect in running races. Oh well i got till october untill I have to run again!

So it continues.........

Yep, by this time of the year im normally eating anything and everything in sight, and goofing of at cross country practice. Not this year. I have been training fairly hard trying to muster up some form for my Europe trip in Sept. I'm racing River Gorge omnium this weekend so that will tell me how I am. I've been feeling good, but I've learned to never trust that. I guess i'll find out this weekend with this damned mountian race!!! Its probably the hardest race I'll do this year. We got some guys that can place well in it, if not win it so i'll gladly be doing the whole domostic thing. At least i'll have the good ole excuse, "I was working for my teammate." if i do bad. I'll update after the race if i don't die out there in the rugged southeast mountains!!!

Nationals

Nats. went good, but def. couldve been better. I got 8th in the crit, by winning the field sprint. My teammate Ty got 4th, which was good.....2 top 10's from one team. The rode race was on an easy course, and really crappy racing. Ty was attacking like crazy, and sometimes I would counter, but nothing got away. Finally a move got away and we missed it. I took 3rd in the field sprint for 10th. So all and all it wasnt a bad nationals, i got 2 top 10s plus im a first year in the 17-18 age group. I think i had the legs to ride better but oh well.........Time to train hard and get ready for Europe.
aj

Just when i thought nationals was it......

So my next race is nationals which is in 5 days or so in Orange County , Cali.... I thought that was the end of my season, but no.....It turns out I will be going to race a stage race in Italy in September with the USA national team. After that I am doing a stage race in Croatia. So instead of taking to my usuall off season ways after nationals, i will be doing some hard training to get ready for theses to big euro stage races. I'm actually pretty motavated for them. I have learned to really appreciate my time at home though....I think I have spent a total of less then 2 weeks at home this summer. I'm starting to learn to live the life of a pro racer. No one said it would be easy. I have really took the time lately to relise how lucky i am to get to see the world. Regardless of whether i make it as a pro racer or not I'll never regret all the years of sacrifices and hard work i have put in.....I mean how many teenagers get to see the world?
Viva La Vida baby,

aj