Going in Circles

Real Life

2011-05-21T16:29:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe that I've put over 10 years of my life into my training (non-bike) only to be faced with a dismal at best job market for new Pathologists. Everyone thinks doctors have it made but I want you to know that this is most certainly not the case. I left med school with student loans of an amount that could buy a very nice house somewhere outside of a big city and even a nice condo in Chicago. Actually we could buy not 1 but 2, maybe 3 GTRs depending on the package. Down payment on a Bugatti? Yeah, why not! That daunting number combined with the fact that I may not be able to work in a place I want to is pretty depressing. Josh and I want to move to the West Coast and we're leaving it at that, since where we end up all depends on where I can get a job. Hopefully I can find something in one of the 3 Pacific hugging states. Hopefully.

Why is the job market so crummy? I think there are too many residency programs cranking out new Pathologists every year. I also think people are pushing back their retirements. There are probably more reasons but I suspect those are the big two. I haven't even finished my training (1 more year residency + 1 year fellowship) and I'm already stressing out about it. I even emailed a group in California asking about a position, hoping they would love me and hold the position until 2013. Nope, already filled. Is the answer to get more competitive by doing more fellowships? I certainly hope not. I want to start working.

Oh and then there's the stress about taking Boards. I've already started the countdown to that, 13 months +/- a few days.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally, I'm no longer concerned about that. It's just the rest of the tunnel that I'm now worried about.

The Cycle of Life

2011-05-09T22:26:00.002-05:00

The wind is finally rustling the leaves. It is Spring. Life has returned to our barren city.

A day that was so beautiful for us turned so ugly for a cyclist doing what he loved. A day that started out like any other day ...

I am reminded of the day when my friend and teammate Beth Kobeszka was lost back in June 2007 doing what she loved, racing her bike. I will never forget that day. And I will never forget Beth. Her spirit lives with me.

Love what you do and do what you love.

Spring 2007

April

2011-04-11T22:42:00.000-05:00

Keeping a blog is a real pain in the ass sometimes. I'm not very good at it, I've never been good about writing about myself and/or thoughts, and it takes me way longer to write 3 paragraphs than it should. I think my only dedicated readers are Josh, my mom and me when I google myself.

I have a few semi-important life updates:

1. I got a fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston) for 2012-13 in Breast Pathology. This probably only means something to <0.0005% of the general population so I'll summarize the importance of this ... it's a big deal. I'm really really happy that I will be able to work with, and learn from, some of the best physicians in my field. It will be a truly wonderful year. This also means we have to pack ourselves up and hike out to Boston for a year. And then after that ... who knows? It's really crazy to think that this long journey that started way back in 2000 when I graduated from college is almost over. 11 years is a long time. To put it in some perspective, and potentially depress me, a lot of the people I race with were lucky if they were teenagers 11 years ago. ... okay, next.

2. Well, I can't really share topic #2 yet. It's really exciting and I'll definitely update when I can. Suspense. For the 0-2 people who read my blog, suspense is a good thing. You pay money to watch a suspenseful movie for 2 hours and I'm giving it to you for free. Enjoy!

3. The ERV track racing season is right around the corner, just about a month away! It will be a great season and I'm really excited to get back out there again.

And that my friends, sums up my life. Pathology and track racing. I've learned a lot over these past 10 or so years, one of the most important things being to chase what you love. Determination and hard work will pay off in the end.

Spring ... almost

2011-03-05T15:29:00.003-06:00

Well, we've reached that time of year when it feels like Spring should be right around the corner. Key word, should. We all are getting antsy after spending months inside going nowhere and watching endless hours of crappy, mind numbing programming.

Every year, someone ups the competition level and I'm hoping that someone is me this year. I have big dreams and I'm going to work as hard as I can to reach them. Positive thoughts and hard work are what will carry me through the final months of winter. You never know unless you try, right?

Mid-November

2010-11-14T19:07:00.003-06:00

What is holding you back?

One step at a time. One minute at a time.

Do not cheat yourself.

Go for it.

November

2010-11-09T19:25:00.000-06:00

I like it when people underestimate me. It makes triumph so much sweeter.

Thoughts

2010-09-21T21:36:00.002-05:00

We all go through our day taking so many things for granted.   Almost too many things to list. Only when faced with losing one of those things do we realize how important it is to us.

In Pathology we are generally pretty disconnected from our patients. Our patients are little glass slides with pink and purple stained tissue on them.   We can see hundreds of them a day, frequently spending less than 5 minutes/case. It's easy to forget that tied to all those little pieces of tissue is a person. A person who's most likely scared and anxious, awaiting our diagnosis so they can go on with their life.

I'm rotating through Hematopathology right now.   In med school one of the hardest rotations for me was Hematology/Oncology. What was hard for me was dealing with the dismal prognoses that so many of those patients faced.   And I'm finding the same difficulty in Hemepath even though I have never met any of our patients.   One of the women that works in our department and sees the patients regularly always says that the cancer patients are the nicest people out there.

Why must we wait until we're about to lose something to realize how important it is to us? Why must we find fault with such mundane things that we cannot see the beauty of life around us?

Death stirs up all sorts of grief - the reminder that life is too short. The reminder that loving someone is such a risk and absolutely worth it. And that you should be enjoying every single little waking moment of it.

A quote from Jen Triplett, a remarkable woman whom I look up to for so many reasons.

September

2010-09-06T10:45:00.000-05:00

The month has started out great for our team.

Stacy with the jersey! She actually has 2!

Josh with the jersey!

August

2010-09-04T18:12:00.004-05:00

Notable August events, as pathetic as they may be:

I got an iPhone. This is news. I'm usually not one for technology. I got my first cell phone in 2003, years after most people. I lived in Boston at the time and it was kind of a big deal for me. Pre-cell phone, I would frequently walk from where I worked (Channing Lab, part of BWH) either all the way home to Cambridge or part of the way to one of the T stations. I remember listening to music on my portable cd player (god, am I getting old), listening to the same songs at pretty much the same location every night. It was nice and relaxing. Post-cell phone I still did the same thing, walking miles just to have alone time in the city. But it was different since I was no longer completely disconnected on my way home. So yeah, now that I have an iPhone I catch myself checking Facebook or the weather or whatever when I'm out. Another step forward (or back) for me and technology.

Josh and I got a new mattress and bed. Our first purchase together. Acting like adults or something. It is nice to have more space to hog at night.

The Northbrook track season is almost over. It went so fast this year! I had a great time and learned a lot about organizing an entire track season. It's work! Hopefully we can tweak the season next year to make it even better.

Alpenrose 2010

2010-07-21T14:44:00.004-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I had an update.

I'm out on the West Coast now, just finished the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge and am heading to Seattle for the FSA Grand Prix tomorrow. These two races are not only two of the best run track races in the country, they're two of the most fun. I can't really describe how great the past few days have been. We've been catching up with old friends, racing and having way too much fun. My first strip club experience too. Thanks Hanan for dragging me up front. It was definitely ... unique! And thanks to Jen Triplett for planting the idea of Six Days in my head. We have a lot of training to do, but we work really well together ... it's a definite possibility. Madisons kick ass and I think I found my focus for the next few months. It's amazing how much harder you can ride when you don't want to let someone down.

I don't really have time to write a full report (out to have more fun) but the short of it:
4th Scratch
1st Madison
3rd Miss and Out (finally cracked the podium at an AVC!)
Mediocre Points
Keirin ... let's just say I'm now officially an endurance racer

This weekend (and next) is my yearly reminder as to why I love racing bikes. I seem to come out here at a personal low regarding motivation and leave feeling like I'm on top of the world. I love the track community.

Track racers ride hard and party hard. One big family. I love it.

Beth, Cari and me. Miss and Out

Madison

2010-02-24T20:23:00.006-06:00

I'm a pretty crummy blogger. I guess I'm just not big on documenting things. I forget to take pictures on vacation, I start journals but never finish them, even my training journal is suffering. Oh well.

There's not much to document now anyway. Training is training. I love the work I do and how much I learn on a daily basis. It's hard having a job/profession I enjoy and want to excel at while training hardcore for a sport I love. Nothing comes easy though and working hard is something I've done my whole life. I'm not sure I would know what to do with myself if I didn't have a million things going on at once.

Kenosha, 2009

By Peter DiAntoni

General Excitement

2010-01-10T13:03:00.006-06:00

Feeling really great about training, everything seems to be falling into place and it's only the beginning of January! I'm excited to see what my improvement will be this winter, excited to start road racing again, very excited for track racing. Also excited that I'm finally starting to grasp and hack my own path through the vast, dense jungle that is the field of Pathology. I'm making correct diagnoses on large cases. Also making my fair share of mistakes but that's what training is all about, no matter if it's for bike racing or residency. Life is good!

Time for some random pictures!

Last night at Northbrook, 2009. By Gavin Gould.

Josh and I on the same night. Probably warming up or something. On this night Josh blocked for me in the Men's 1/2 Win and Out and I got second. My highest Men's 1/2 finish ever. Most of the time I'm just trying my best to hang on.

Josh practicing starts with Adam.

Josh making his bored face in his first round Keirin heat at Nats. Who does that? That's Giddeon Massie on his wheel, they went 1-2 and qualified for the Semis (Giddeon 1, Josh 2).

New Year Updates

2010-01-03T12:14:00.007-06:00

I'm procrastinating, which means it's time to update the blog.

There's really not much to say. The holidays have come and gone. My parents came down for a few days around Christmas and we all stayed at a hotel downtown. It was a ton of fun. They treated us to an amazing dinner at David Burke's Primehouse. Mmmm ... steak. We hung out in the hotel and played Trivial Pursuit and this other game that involves reading cards and trying to figure out what they say. That doesn't make much sense. I was awful at that game so enough about that.

I bought this really awesome bookcase, with glass doors, at the end of November and it was delivered last week. All my books have a home now that is not the floor! Woohoo!

I also bought a pair of shoes that have heels so I can look like an adult when I wear dress pants. I practice walking in them every day. I don't think I've ever owned heels higher than 0.5-1 inch so walking in them is a challenge. I'm getting better but not yet ready to brave the winter city streets with them.

On the bummer side of things, I discovered a huge gash in my disc wheel. A similar gash, although not as scary and probably not wheel fatal, was in Josh's disc which means this must have happened on the way back from LA in our hard wheel case. I don't blame the case (Tri All 3, great wheel cases) but TSA. Grumble. It's probably fixable in the right hands, but I still can't help but say RIP Zipp disc.

I've finished my first month of real off-season training and feel great. I'm already seeing improvements on the bike and at the gym. I can't wait to see what this first full year of training with one coach will do for me on the bike. I've also realized I've changed my goals for next season. Yeah, I still want to do the best I can and podium at the big races but I also want to have fun and take more chances. I want to be aggressive and try new things. I'd rather take a chance, fail and learn from it than wonder what I could have done had I tried. I'm going to be doing more road racing next year too. Well, maybe not road road racing ... I'll at least be at some of the local/regional crits.

Josh and I are working on the Northbrook schedule for next year. We're going to present it at the next NCC meeting in January and then probably make changes based on what people say. Hopefully it will be finalized for the February meeting and then posted on the (new) Northbrook site at the end of February/beginning of March. Josh and a few others are also working on software so results can be posted within 24 hours. And maybe even, dare I say it, by the end of the racing night.

Happy training everyone!

A random picture to help get me through the winter.

Josh and I in Milan, May 2008

Neglect

2009-12-12T11:16:00.002-06:00

I am neglecting my blog.

Josh had surgery on his shoulder 10 days ago. He's making huge steps in his recovery, starts physical therapy in 2 weeks and can ditch the sling in 3 weeks.

My training is going well. It's pretty nice right now, nothing too hard. However 1.5 months of no leg speed work made my legs feel like bricks when I actually called on them to spin.

I didn't realize how big of a downer the crash at Nationals was for me. I had pretty much zero motivation to train/race until about a week ago even though I've been going through the motions for the past few months. It's pretty crazy how much it affected me. I guess training for a year only to see your goal disappear because of something you couldn't control has that affect on a person. But I've learned from it and moved on, hopefully it will make me a better racer.

Oh, and how could I forget. Josh and I are the 2010 co-Race Directors for the Ed Rudolph Velodrome. I'm both excited and scared. We're going to try our best to make the 2010 season a great experience for everyone.

2009-11-22T09:57:00.009-06:00

I found out on Tuesday that Sean Callahan (Team Pegasus) passed away the previous night. Sean was one of the nicest people I have ever known and a rising star in the track and cross communities as well as a super hero in the inline skating community. I met Sean a few years ago, I don't remember where we officially met but it definitely something bike related. Never one to complain, Sean was known for his infectious smile. You will be missed, my friend.

Track Nationals

2009-10-03T15:35:00.005-05:00

It's not over yet, but I'm already kind of bummed out by the whole experience. I came into Nationals with about a month of hit or miss training, thanks to work and moderate burn out. My first race was the Scratch race on Thursday night. I went into it feeling okay, not sure how my legs would feel after a month of no racing. There were 38 women registered which meant we would have 2 heats of 19 with the top 10 advancing. I was in the second heat and felt surprisingly excellent sitting in 4th with 2 to go and then it happened. We came through turn 1 hot and then the pace slowed way down in two and there was a crash. I went down with 1.5 to go, ending my goal of finishing top 10 in the Scratch. I was bummed out since this was the race I was looking forward to the most. I ended up with 4 track burns over my left hip and knee and a huge knot in my bum. Not the best way to start out the event you've been training all year for.

Last night was the Keirin. I love the Keirin. There is no way I would miss it even with 3 huge Tegaderm patches that were draining down my leg and my bum knot. And this year there were 24 women registered which is pretty good for the women. I warmed up slow and felt pretty decent given my condition. We sat around for what seemed like forever as the men did their 200s and the men and women had their pursuit heats. On to the Keirin. I didn't make it out of the first heat so went to the reps. There were four rep heats with four people, one advancing from each. I didn't have a problem getting out of the reps and went to the semis. The top three in each semifinal heat would go to the major final (1-6) and the bottom three would go to the minor final (7-12). My semi heat was pretty tough and I knew if I rode smart I would have a chance of finishing in the top 3. But I just botched things up and finished in the bottom three. I have to say this, one of the nicest women in cycling Cari Higgins. She rode up to me after the race and told me what I did wrong and what I should have done. She is such a wonderful, kind person with zero ego. I'm glad she's where she is in the sport. Cycling needs more people like her! Anyway, I managed to finish 11th in the minor final, which pretty much sucked. I know exactly what I did wrong. I had a plan when the race started and just didn't stick to it. Oh well. It's just another learning experience.

Today is the Points Race. I'm not sure if I'm going to race. My gimpy left leg hurts to bend and I'm just getting less and less motivated since I feel like I'm riding below the level that I'm used to racing at.

Kind of a bummer end of season showing, but it's all just motivation for next year.

Keirin Semi-Finals from Cyclingnews, by Rob Evans.

Qualifying for Nationals = Done

2009-08-06T20:34:00.005-05:00

Josh and I went down to Major Taylor last weekend to race at their AVC and ideally get qualifying for Nationals out of the way. I generally feel much more at ease in August knowing that I don't have to go to Northbrook and do a Thursday night qualifier race. Especially now since I never know what may come up with my current work schedule. (Why Northbrook doesn't do an qualifying weekend is beyond me.)

Mission = Accomplished.

Keirin = 1st
Scratch = 1st
Points = 1st

Hopefully August and September are productive on the training front.

Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge - July 17-19 2009

2009-07-22T21:39:00.016-05:00

I love Portland. The scenery is so beautiful, the food is so good, the track is so ... unique and the track community is so awesome. Candi and Mike "Two Beers" Murray really know how to run a track. It's such a pleasure to race there. Too bad I can't stand rain otherwise I would make a case to move.

Josh "Mad Cow" (not to be confused with Jame "Mad Cow" Carney) and I returned to Portland for the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge after our Six Day Coup (or something like that) and apparently brought the hot weather back with us. Sorry! Josh and I separated at the airport so he could get the car and I could get the bags. I got the bags and dragged them to the curb, got a call from Josh that he was on his way in our vehicle. Turns out they were out of whatever smallish SUV we had reserved (traveling with bikes is awful for the environment) so they upgraded him ... I see him about 20m down the road and, holy crap, I felt a wave of air as the "vehicle" was pushing the atmosphere towards me. Cars parted, pedestrians ran in fear ... Josh had arrived in our monster truck. As Josh said "it was as big as all outdoors". Indeed. Let the weekend begin!
Elena and Daryl (and Ollie and Daisy) were our awesome hosts (and dogs) for the weekend. And they were totally stoked to see our monster truck pull up. We decided to do it justice and go to a redneck bar, complete with 80's cover band, on Saturday night. We fit right in!

Anyway, I digress. I went to Portland to race my bike at the AVC which draws some of the best Men's and Women's fields outside of Nationals. Racing started on Friday but my first race wasn't until Saturday night which meant for a lot of sitting around both days. On Friday, Josh did his first Kilo in years and did pretty well, considering he hadn't practiced with his new aero bars. We cheered Elena as she Eddy Merckx'd (no aero bars) her 500m. Then we went to eat somewhere.

Saturday was my first race, the 5 mile Scratch. That's 40 laps on Alpenrose. We had 20ish racers in our field. It was a great field, many really strong racers were there. The officials informed us that they were going to give out $3, $2, and $1 to the 1st-3rd person across the line each lap. Meh. Women usually don't jump on those lap primes the way men do. So we started out and basically pacelined for 20 laps, maybe more. It was pretty funny. I did my share and never let myself drift back further than 8th or so place. At some point, maybe with 10? to go Jen Triplett jumped off the front. No one really did anything at first but then we started to chase. I can't remember when we caught her but a few more people launched when we did. My memory is kind of rusty but I think we caught one of the attacks and then Hanan Alves-Hyde attacked and that stuck. With 2 to go I was in the first 5 in the chase, primed to move up and then with one to go I found myself behind someone I couldn't get around since she was shifting up and down the track and slowing down. Oops. Well I ended up launching out of turn 4 and passed a few people to finish 5th, just nipped at the line by Kendi. (Should have thrown my bike!) I also did the Madison with Elena, who had done the Six Day with Megan Dean, and we had a blast.

Hanan winning the Scratch
all photos by Amara Boursaw, Wheels in Focus

Sunday was the busy day. I was scheduled to do the Keirin, Miss and Out, and Points Race. A lot, right? First up were the Keirin heats. I love Keirins. I love them so much that if I could do one race forever it would be the Keirin. For that reason, Josh thinks I'm truly a sprinter at heart. Hmm, I don't know about that. Anyway, I knew there were certain people I had to watch, but a lot of the others I had never raced with before so I wasn't sure what to expect. In order to keep this report relatively short, I'm going to sum the Keirin events up really fast with minimal text and photos (all by Amara Boursaw). I'm also not going to give away what I did wrong, since I learned it the hard way and that's what everyone else should do to. :)

Keirin heats. Top 2 advance, everyone else to repercharge. I finished 3rd in my heat = off to the rep.

Getting 3rd in the heat. Already gave up at this point.

Repercharge. Top 2 advance to Semis. Won my rep heat. Sat 3rd wheel behind the motor. Heather in front of me passed Camille who was on the motor when it pulled off. I came around Heather for the win.

Winning rep

Semi Finals. Top 3 advance to Finals. I managed to win this bad boy. It felt good, hence all the pictures.

Finals. Erica Allar, Jen Featheringill, Annette Williams, Shelby Reynolds, Tela Crane and me. Fun times. I really wanted to get Jen's wheel right off but apparently so did everyone else and I ended up 4th wheel. The motor pulled off and the race was fast. We were single file for like a lap which is pretty nuts and just means we were really chugging. I ended up 5th. Not great but not awful.

5th in the Keirin Final

I should say that the Miss and Out was after the Keirin heats but before the reps. Since I wanted to do well in the Keirin I scratched the Miss and Out. It was a tough decision but seems to have turned out for the best.

Up later in the day was the Points race. We started and I knew within 2 laps that my goal of a top 3 that weekend was out the window. My legs felt really heavy and I just didn't have my normal snap. Slowly a few of the other Keirin finalists, Shelby and Annette, pulled out. There were a few attacks which stuck for a few laps and would get caught and then a group of 3 or 4 got off and I tried so hard to chase them back with 2 others but I was cooked. We were so close and I felt so bad for sucking but what can you do? Eventually the rest of the field caught our chase and I was promptly in the back of the pack. Oh man, I wanted to quit so bad but I rode through the pain. At one point Jen Triplett was on my wheel and I felt so bad because at that point I was a really slow wheel to be on. She sensed it and got around me and I settled into the yo-yo that is being on the back of the field when you're cooked. Off the back, back on, back off, back on. The break was eventually caught, when I don't remember. I found energy somewhere and I tried to contest a 4th place at some point and failed. I also managed to overcome the lead brick legs and finished 5th or 6th in the field sprint at the end. I ended up 8th, a real bummer. To make myself feel better I like to say that I finished 2nd out of the Keirin finalists.

So that was the weekend. I had a blast and got to catch up with some people I haven't seen in a while. I learned that Zak likes to do a booty dance at the line in Keirins. Elena and I danced to LL Cool J in the backseat of Daryl's car, because ladies love cool J. I got to see some track records broken, congrats to Per (Kilo), Amelia and Andrea (Team Sprint) and Kelyn, Adam and Travis (Team Sprint) and Travis in my mind you're the real record holder for the flying lap. The AVC is really a well run and fun event. I encourage anyone serious about track racing to attend. And that means you Chicago! I'll be back next year for sure.

AVC wrap-up soon

2009-07-20T16:43:00.002-05:00

Keirin Semi-Final Win!

Six Day National Champions!

2009-07-04T20:59:00.012-05:00

Indeed! My partner, Dena Eaton, and I are now the FIAC Women's Six Day National Champions. This is only the second year that the Six Day has included women. Last year's race was won by Jen Triplett and Miranda Moon, unfortunately they did not defend their title this year. It would have been nice to race with them.

By Ed Norton.

We went into the race knowing we needed to do well in the pursuit and Omnium events, at least the first few days, and hopefully gain laps on the field in the Madisons. We accomplished both in the first three days, which allowed us a little more wiggle room. I didn't kill myself today (day 6) in the mass starts, since we were up 4 or 5 laps. I think today I probably finished 5th or something and I'm completely fine with that especially since I have another big race in less than 2 weeks. Dena wanted to do well the final few days so I blocked for her when necessary, which was a lot of fun. I've never had a teammate to block for before! I did threw done some hard efforts in the Madison today to get us the sprint points and remind myself that I can accelerate when needed.

Attack! By Ed Norton.

All in all a great week. We met some awesome people and I got to see Jack and Megan from LA again! We're going to all go celebrate being done and get some fried pie tonight (I know it sounds weird).

Mini update

2009-06-25T23:51:00.004-05:00

I'm really wired from racing tonight. The (large number) mini-Reese's I just ate probably doesn't help much either.

A few highlights:
I raced the Men's 3 Keirin last week and took 3rd. It was awesome. Thanks go out to Mike Kirby (XXX) for opening that sweet gap for me in the prelim round which allowed me to advance.

Tonight I raced solely with the Men's 3s, which is something I'm going to start doing. I love racing with the men because the racing is way more active and therefore much harder. I did pretty well, 5th in the Tempo and a pair of 6ths in the Points and Scratch. I almost won the final lap in the Points except Al Urbanski (Chicago Cuttin Crew) and Dave Moyer (XXX), who had just lapped the field, came around me. So I went from 4th (probably) to 6th. But that's okay, especially since there are 6 days of intense racing in my near future. I also put zero pressure on myself when I ride with the men, although it would be nice to finish in the top 3. Anyway, thanks guys for accepting me into your field! Hopefully you see more of my butt from now on.

Winter in June

2009-06-07T11:24:00.008-05:00

Seriously, what's going on with the weather? I have this "rule" that I try to stick by and it goes something like this: When it's under 60 and/or raining I will not race. Why? Because I've had too many interesting moments in the rain and my body just doesn't respond well to chilly air. Thankfully I never have to worry about the second part with track racing and usually not the first part either. But racing on Thursday night broke the first part of my rule, it was easily in the low 50s all night. Brrr.

Here's Lara and I huddled under two blankets. By Ed White.

It's easy to not be enthusiastic to race when you're nose feels like an ice cube and that's exactly how I felt for our first race, a Danish Win and Out. Plus there were only 3 of us, which is less than inspiring. I thought I would come around Kristen Meshberg with about 200 to go to take the win but I failed and ended up leading Francine out and got 3rd. Blegh. An uninspiring start.

Next up were the Points Races, the various mens' fields did 50 lap, 30 lap and 25 lap races which meant A LOT of sitting around for me. I was so cozy under my blanket I didn't even warmup for our race, which was a 24 lapper with sprints every 3. Since this was the marquee event of the night we were combined with the Women's 4s for a total field size of 8 to 10, not really sure. Our race was pretty active with a few primes thrown in. Tamara Fraser (xXx) and Christina Peck took a flyer for a prime and stayed off to go 1 and 2 on a points lap. It was great to see Tamara being aggressive! I remember Kristen jumping around turn 3, a lap and a half before points, which caused me to mutter (yell) something special. I put my head down and knew I had to catch her. With about 3/4 of a lap to go I closed in on her and thought about just sitting on her wheel, but I had a lot of speed so I passed her, hoping I wasn't leading Francine out again. I put my head down and went all out and won the lap. In the end, I think I got 5 of the 8 sprints and got points in the other 3 sprints, which was enough for the win. I felt really good accelerating and jumping on the points laps, a few times I even got a sizeable gap. This is good for me since this is what I'm training for this year.

During the Points Race. Note I no longer sprint with locked elbows! By Ed White.

Our final race was an Unknown Distance, just the 3 of us again in the 1/2/3 field. It was getting late, everyone was freezing so we urged Carl to make it short. We didn't have a neutral lap, he blew the whistle from the rail and I think he would have rung the bell as well except someone decided we should have a prime. We got going, Kristen had a decent gap, I caught her wheel and didn't contest the prime. Carl rung the bell when we passed. I sat on Kristen's wheel until about 200 to go, accelerated out of the saddle and won the race. It was short and fast, a perfect ending to a cold night at the track. As always it was great to race with Francine and Kristen and I was happy to see a strong Women's 4 field. There's a lot of talent out there!

Madison!

2009-06-01T17:21:00.005-05:00

I've been a bad blogger. A lot has been going on, not so much on the racing front, but in life in general. Apologies!

As many of you know, I'm going to do the Alpenrose Six Day in a month. My partner, Dena Eaton, lives in California and can boast a home track of ADT. (jealous!) I went out there this past weekend to practice, seeing that I haven't exchanged in traffic before nor ever with my 6-day partner. Just the two of us practiced a bit on Friday, nice and slow. I thought I would be way more freaked out exchanging on ADT than I actually was. On Saturday Josh and Jack joined us, along with Chris and Joerg and we practiced exchanges in a pace line. Oh man, was I nervous before that, but tried to not let it show. I quickly lost the nerves and had a ton of fun. I'm really looking forward to the Six Day, hopefully we can kick some ass!

Josh also got some track time with his coach, Adam Duvendeck. He did a few standing starts which looked like a ton of fun - yeah, right. I watched from the track and then up in the stands surrounded by very enthusiastic, to say the least, volleyball parents.

Of course all the pictures I have are of Josh. I'll upload a few and update this post with them.

Vernon Hills - May 3rd -- Women's 1/2/3

2009-05-05T15:47:00.012-05:00

I decided to break up the monotony of LFP training and headed out to Vernon Hills on Sunday to race my inaugural race of 2009 - the Vernon Hills Gran Prix. I have never done this race before but was given a primer by Mark Zionts at the track on Saturday. Basically he said the biggest factor in previous years was the wind. Big surprise, right?

Josh and I left pretty early, which was a good thing because the directions provided were wrong and we had to backtrack through suburbia to find the race. Luckily we had left early enough that I didn't get too stressed out about all of that. I usually can be quite a basket case when lost before a race.

We pulled into the Vernon Hills HS parking lot, wondering if we would see anyone we knew and just as I was parking I spotted our wonderful teammates Jon and Emily. Excellent. I went and registered. I offered Emily one of my UofC jerseys (our team kits are still MIA), she declined in favor of racing incognito in a stealthy black T-shirt. Emily is one of the strongest women I know and I figured if no one knows we're on the same team, perhaps we have a chance for some big things. I mean, who expects a woman wearing a T-shirt to win? If any one could do it, it would be Emily. She would probably lap us in the process too, she's that strong.

The next 30-45 minutes in a nutshell - Emily and I started warming up next to our cars, across from each other, not really saying much lest the other 3 women take note. Josh went off to cheer on Jon in the 3s. A few HS kids were leaving the parking lot, I got some "looks" from a car of pre-pubescent boys which I chuckled about.

(Man, I'm running out of steam with the race report and I have yet to get to the race!)

We come to the line. There are 8 or 9 of us racing, better than the 5 I had expected. Jessi Prinner was there, along with Francine Haas and a new lady from Team MS racing who I had result stalked the night before (she was the only one pre-registered), Jessica Hill. I figured the 3 of them along with Emily could make for an interesting race. The usual pre-race formalities ensued and then we were off for a windy 40 minutes around a O'hare air traffic control structure that looks like a flattened mushroom. We had about 15 minutes of extremely boring, slow and negative racing. Yawn. Jessica and Jessi both laid down some strong attacks but they didn't last. Then coming around the final straight, Emily looked back at me, smiled and just laid it down. We got a decent gap but were caught going into the first turn. Then Jessi and Jessica jumped with Francine in pursuit and I knew that was it and I needed to be on that break. I caught on and we proceeded to hammer it, each taking short pulls. We worked wonderfully well for the next 25 minutes together (after I remembered to pull through with a little goading from Jessica -- I admit I was a bit rusty from the off-season).

With 2 to go I knew the cat and mouse games would start soon and I knew I didn't want to be the one dangling out in front. When we came out of the final turn with one to go, I let Francine take her pull and then I settled in behind Jessica. Francine was sensing the game had started and managed to get off the front leaving Jessica there to pull us all through the final lap. She tried her hardest to give up that front spot, but none of us budged -- not wanting to needlessly tire ourselves out in the headwind. With 2 turns to go, I looked back and saw a rider approaching, knowing that someone had been gaining ground on us for the past 10 minutes -- turns out that was Emily time-trialling up to us, told you she was strong! It turns out the person I saw was a lapped rider catching up to us. I admit it was kind of nuts how slow we were going ... 8-10 mph. Haha, it would have been funny had Emily caught us and then won while we dicked around.

We came out of the final turn, all itchy to get the sprint started. I looked up and thought we were approximately 150-200m out, so threw down a hard acceleration. It felt really good and I think I had a decent gap ... BUT ... I had jumped way too soon and got passed by Jessi and Francine. It's so much easier to tell distances on a track! Jessica was coming up as well but I was able to throw the bike and finished in 3rd. Emily finished amazingly close to us, given her time trial effort, in 5th place. Go Bouledogues!

Overall it was a great early season race. I had a lot of fun, I love racing with Francine and Jessi (my break partner from the Nekritz race last season at the track). Jessi is going to bring on the hurt for us this year, she is developing into a strong rider who I'm sure we'll see in the Pro ranks in a few years. And Jessica, newly transplanted from out East, will definitely spice it up this year as well.

My coach (Colby Pearce) wants me doing more road races and crits, so I'll be trading in my track bike for my road bike in the months to come. Exciting!

But next up: Dick Lane Velodrome for some weekend racing. Josh "Mad Cow" Ryan will be racing The Keirin and is officially slated as the "dark horse". He's #10 and will be wearing gold. Go Mad Cow! We'd also like to thank Team Pegasus for lending us both a skinsuit for the weekend. When not racing in The Keirin, Josh will be wearing pink.

Track!

2009-04-29T08:44:00.004-05:00

Finally I am counting down the days, instead of weeks and months, until I can finally go fast in circles with other people. I'm really anxious to see what a winter of proper training has done for me. I also realize I'm not done training -- with my big races still months away, I am still 100% in training mode, racking up the hours 6 days a week in hopes of stellar performances later in the summer. I also realize that the local races this year, when I do them, will be for training purposes. I want to try out some things, get in good workouts and have fun. I'll save the stress for later in the year.

I'm tentatively going to do the Six-Day with a woman who is just as competitive as I am and just as willing as I to kill herself (not literally) with six hard days of racing. We may even get some good training time in at ADT over the next few months. Awesome! Unfortunately my original partner, Anita Dilles, may be out the whole season with a lower back injury. I love Anita to death and wish her a speedy recovery!

In other news, it looks like the weather is going to behave this weekend so off to the track we go!

(Still waiting for my new tires to come in so I don't have to train on my race wheels.)

With Kevin, enjoying life
By Ed White

Spring + Rain = Spraing

2009-04-25T19:24:00.000-05:00

Josh and I went to the track today. We were going to go up to Kenosha, but crazy epic rain at the state line and a quick Blackberry weather check made us think Northbrook would be a better choice. We got to Northbrook. Waited 20 minutes for the track to finish drying, chatted with some of the XXX guys who hung around after their clinic, and got in a great warm-up and started our real workout. About 10 minutes later the temperature dropped dramatically ... as in I was riding into turn 3 and was hit by a wave of cold air. About 5 minutes later it started pouring. We huddled under the chalet and then ran the bikes over to the truck once it let up a bit. We started driving away, pissed off and then saw the sky was getting lighter. So we sat in my truck for another 30 minutes as the track dried. I threw on a pair of Josh's XL tights because it was friggin' cold. They surprisingly weren't all that big. Actually before using them Josh offered me his arm warmers, yes arm warmers, which fit on my legs. I think I stretched them out a bit though. (Sorry!) I gave them back to him since I realized he wouldn't have anything to cover his arms opting for the XL tights instead. They actually flapped in the wind a bit around my ankles.

Had a half-assed workout on the 2nd go around. I probably rode too hard in the wind yesterday without realizing it.

Also, I have to change my training wheel tires. I can't keep training on my race wheels!

One more weekend and then we're off to our first race in Atlanta!

Spring has sprung ... here's hoping at least

2009-04-12T13:40:00.000-05:00

Finally I got a good ride in outside, in the sun and didn't freeze. Yes it was chilly but I'm feeling optimistic that spring is finally here. Today I was scheduled for a "fun" 3 hours. No intervals, no thinking about LT, nothing. Just go out, stay within my prescribed zones, keep a decent cadence and have fun. It was great. I'm feeling much stronger now than I did last year, or ever for that matter. I guess that's what happens when you have a training program and stick to it. This year is still a building year, so I'm not setting any crazy expectations, but it'll be nice to be more in the mix at the big races. Ben actually posted something along these lines and when I read it, I felt like he was reading my mind.

My mom came down yesterday and met me at the track to give me some things (like copies of my taxes - my dad still does them for me!). It was nice to see her and hopefully Josh and I can make it up to Wisconsin a few times this summer. My parents are getting a boat in a month so we'll have to go check that out at least once. I also really want to take Josh "Up North" -- northern Wisconsin -- it's so beautiful up there in the summer. Plus there's an endless supply of cheese curds and frozen custard ... Heaven!
Wisconsin, Lake Superior

Only a few more weeks and the season gets under way! Finally!

Good news!

2009-03-24T18:45:00.000-05:00

My teammate, Jannette Rho, won her first ever race last night! Way to go Jannette!

I also found out that Devon Haskell, who I raced with last year on GAG, is going to be racing in France for a month! Good luck Devon! I can't wait to hear the stories.

Team Bonding

2009-03-08T17:36:00.000-05:00

Last Friday we got together for a team meeting which consisted of an awesome night of chatting, eating, laughing and squishing into a small photobooth (we do this at every meeting) that always seems to reek of farts.

Everyone says their team kicks ass. So I won't bore you by saying our team kicks ass. I'll just say we've assembled a great group of people that I can't wait to work with this season! And we kick ass too. Oh, oops.

Alpenrose Six Day

2009-03-04T17:02:00.000-06:00

Exciting news, I will be pairing up with Anita Dilles (Gentle Lovers) for the Alpenrose Six Day, June 22-27. I'm so excited. It will be great to race hard for 6 days and hangout in Portland. Yay!

Northbrook's season starts in a little over 2 months which is so close yet so far away. I'm getting really anxious and already going over race scenarios in my head. My team, Bouledogue Tout Noir, will be sponsoring Thursday night racing at Northbrook on June 18th. We're thinking we need to do Keirins ... thoughts?

Old Race Report - Elaine Nekritz Race August 2008

2009-02-11T19:23:00.000-06:00

I'm transferring some stuff over that I wrote for the team blog, before I had a me-blog.

News From the Track
Josh and I have actually been racing all summer despite the lack of anything in written form. I graduated from medical school in the middle of June, moved across town and started my Pathology residency. And we went to Italy (that's us in Venice, nice and happy before we got lost). We have been racing Thursday nights at Northbrook, along with the occasional Saturday jaunt down to Indianapolis (Major Taylor Velodrome) and once we went up to Blaine in Minneapolis. Josh did quite well this season, especially in races he doesn't particularly like, taking 4th in the Indiana State Points Race, and in races he really likes, 2nd in the Sprints at the same event. Also lest we not forget he finished 3rd at Masters Nationals (Hellyer, San Jose) in the Team Sprint with local Kevin Perez (Turin) and someone else from another velodrome (sorry, I can't remember his name). Right now we're both getting geared up for Elite Nationals, October 1st-5th at ADT in LA.

First off, I have to throw a huge amount of thanks to Matt Daniel, one of the best mechanics in the city, for helping make my bike the most amazing piece of two wheeled machinery that has ever graced the planet. (picture above by Gavin)

Northbrook 8/21/08, Elaine Nekritz 35 Lap Scratch Race
(Women's State Championship Scratch Race)
The Elaine Nekritz race is arguably one of the best women's track races in the Midwest, with a purse of $1000. It tends to draw a lot of regional names, this year we were joined by Kendi Thomas from Major Taylor, Monique Hanley from Australia, and Elena Dorr who recently moved here from Blaine, oops I mean Minneapolis (I tend to refer to the name of the track in a city rather than the city itself). Not to mention the strong locals who were there, Kristen Meshburg, Jessi Prinner (who just returned from Junior Track and Road Nats), Francine Haas, Julie DeWerd, Michelle Dykstra, Imelda March, Wendy Gaddey, Sarah Huang and Marcie Weiss, who've been hiding out all summer in Wisconsin. I knew Kendi was coming and I figured Monique would be there since she was in town for a few road races. These two alone would make it a hard night, spice it up with some Meshburg-Prinner-Haas and the night went from hard to potentially agonizing.

We started the night off with a 15 lap Point-a-Lap race, which is everyone's favorite race. Yeah right. I think most of us viewed it a warm-up, which certainly does not equate to it being slow, rather it means no one really killed themselves for points. I sat in, tried to contest a few points, didn't win any and went into the final lap with 0 points, meaning I was tied with 5 or 6 other people for 5th-whatever place. I ended up winning the last lap, in a very gratifying way. I was sitting 2nd to last with about 150m to go and thought that I better finish with at least 1 point. I blazed around half the field in turn 3 and passed Monique in turn 4. It felt really good to lay down the speed and made me a little more confident going into the Scratch Race that I had something in the engine that night.

(photo by Gavin)

Onto the marquee event of the night. The Elaine Nekritz 35 Lap Championship Scratch Race. I've learned in my ever so short time as a track racer that, at Northbrook, I would rather do a 100 lap Scratch Race than a 30 lap Points Race. I guess some people find this strange and really enjoy the excitement of points races, and to them I say, have you ever done a Women's points race at Northbrook? I didn't think so. We can, I hate to say it, have very tedious points races that are painful in all the wrong ways. Well, I'm digressing. My point was that I actually enjoy scratch races, so I was excited for this race. And extremely nervous. We all lined up at the rail, the weather looked ominous, it had rained on and off all day and it appeared that the clouds were rolling back in. Carl and Dave came around telling us what would happen in case of rain. Ugh. Rain.

The race started, nothing too exciting for the first half. A few break attempts but nothing stuck. Then with about 12 laps to go, Jessi Prinner jumped off the front. Jessi is a really strong rider (and a junior!), I did a quick calculation in my head and figured we could work together and potentially stay off. So I bridged up to her and was surprised to see that no one bridged up with me. That was actually a good thing, as I sometimes have the bad habit of dragging the field with me. Jessi slowed down when she saw me coming and when I joined her, we kicked it into high gear. We alternated half lap pulls and consistently had a 1/3 lap lead on the pack.

Jessi and I in our break (photo by Gavin)

I kept looking back when we were coming out of the turn 2 and 4 each lap, fearing I would see the pack gaining on us. But amazingly they never did, probably due to some disorganization on their part (hey, that's fine with me). All this time my insides were hurting, my legs were burning but I was determined to keep us off the front. I tried to not look at the lap counter but ended up doing it every lap, telling myself "you can do this for 8 more laps, 7, 6, etc.". With 2 to go I was pretty sure we had it in the bag, and with one to go I knew it but we were still only 1/3 of a lap ahead of the pack so that meant no cat and mouse games with Jessi on the final lap. It just so happened that Jessi's pulls were from turn 3-turn 1, so she pulled off with one to go, which put me in a less then ideal spot pulling through turn 2 but I figured maybe I could outsprint her in the end. Coming into turn 3/4 Jessi came around me and I tried to sprint but I had nothing left. In the end I finished 2nd at arguably the biggest Women's race at Northbrook. Not too bad. I raced aggressively and actually made people react to what I did, instead of reacting to what others did. All in all it was a great night and those last 12 laps were probably the hardest I've worked all season. (And it never rained!)

There was a Points Race after the Scratch and honestly I don't remember much of it since I was still pretty gassed. I can't even remember what place I finished. Ha!

More reports to come.

Josh from that night, not sure what race(s), just some awesome shots by Tim Strege (Half Acre):

Spring in February

2009-02-07T20:22:00.000-06:00

Today was amazing. The bank clock/thermometer across from our alley read a whopping 15°C. We're (slowly) learning to comprehend Celsius, thank you Chicago Community Bank. At one point this winter it read -20°C, which I think was the day that my pipes froze and my truck almost didn't start.

Yet another short post because I'm tired and want to read a non-work related book.

Women's Madison

2009-02-04T18:33:00.000-06:00

At Track Nationals this year!

How exciting!

"It's not that bad"

2009-01-28T19:13:00.000-06:00

This was brought to my attention today, the promo video for this year's Alpenrose Challenge.

Women going at it at the 2008 AVC

Watching this video made me feel 2 things:
1. I am really excited for this next season.
2. I am really pissed I didn't go last year.
(Okay it made me feel 3 things ...)
3. I am really glad the season doesn't start for another 4 months.

Between blog-stalking other racers and seeing videos like this, I find it really easy to come down on myself for not doing enough in the off season. But thinking about it, I'm doing more than I did last year at this time. Which is a good thing. And I have a real job now that can be pretty demanding at times -- like now, I should be preparing a presentation but instead I'm typing this. Overall good thing. I live in Chicago, it's not like I can go hangout at the track. Or even ride outside. Grr. Bad thing. The days are getting longer, slowly. Good thing. Okay, so yeah, here I go with the Chicago line, "it's really not that bad". 6 months from now I will have successfully blocked out all but the worst of winter and will look back at this post and probably think something about how naive I was because I hadn't experienced the 2009 February from hell yet. And I guarantee I will have forgotten about this presentation I keep procrastinating.

From Hyde Park Co-Op to President of the United States

2009-01-20T21:26:00.000-06:00

New Year, New Team

2009-01-18T10:43:00.000-06:00

I was so proud of myself for starting a blog and actually posting to it that I forgot to mention a very important thing!

A few friends and I have started a new team for 2009, Bouledogue Tout Noir (All Black Bulldog). I'm really excited to be on a team that focuses more on community than money. To that end we will be choosing a few local, national and international organizations to promote via our jerseys and literature on our website and at races.

I'm especially excited that one of those organizations will be the Yojimbo's Track Cats, an amazing program designed to get kids from Chicago out to the track.

Goals

2009-01-14T15:29:00.001-06:00

I guess now is as good of a time as any to talk about my goals for next season. I have two big events that I'm shooting for - 1. the FSA Grand Prix in Seattle and the Alpenrose Challenge in Portland, which I'm counting as one event since they're on back to back weekends and 2. Track Nationals. And while Nationals is one of my goals, I don't know if I'll end up going this year -- only if I'm convinced that I can do better than the past two years. I really shouldn't have gone last year, I had just started residency and moved, so my life off the bike was pretty hectic. Plus I ended the season really flat, probably from a mix of not knowing what I was doing since I had no training plan and just not riding enough, or rather, not riding smart. I just felt like crap from about August on. Excuses. I still did fairly well in the Keirin at Nationals. Just a few spots off the podium, which sounds great on paper. But we all know that the Keirin is a mix of tactics, fitness and just plain luck. And unfortunately my 8th place was probably due to more of the latter. But there it is.

Keirin final for places 7-12, I'm sitting 4th in this picture. Liz Reap-Carlson is sitting 2nd, she ended up getting relegated in every heat that day

As for smaller goals, I hope to be racing well with the Men's 3s this year. I really enjoy racing with the men. I find the races more dynamic, you can never really zone out with the men. And they use, or try to at least, tactics. A big component of track racing is tactics and the only way to get good at them or be able to respond to people using them is practice. I also love putting kinks into some of the bigger local teams' tactics ... just because. Like chasing down a break even if it means I'll finish towards the back to show them that they can't just break off during one of the early laps and expect to win.

Another goal is to ride before work, once the weather gets nice again ... in like, May. Ugh.

Downtown today. Snow + a high of 0, yes zero, tomorrow. This makes us tough, right?

I love you Chicago.

Track in January

2009-01-13T21:34:00.000-06:00

All I think about these days are ways I can get better for next season. It's pretty overwhelming and a little annoying. Sometimes I wish I just didn't care about bike racing, but then I remember how much fun it is, how much I love the rush of racing and how good it makes me feel. I'm feeling pretty motivated and hope this late night/early morning riding and lifting pays off. Oh yeah, I remember thinking last year how lucky I was to be a student and train whenever I wanted. Man, do I miss being able to ride at a normal time of day.

So after tonight, thanks to Josh, we have a bit of a grasp on my lactate threshold and will go from there for awhile.

I actually look forward more to lifting than riding these days. I guess the indoor hamster wheel training is finally getting to me.