caloso

Thanks. I was joking of course. I got into this crazy beautiful sport from the triathlon backdoor.

ZeCanon

10 hrs in the car. Taking a few days to rest before the next big block.

Encouraged by my form this past weekend.

Grumpy McTrumpy

well done Ze. I've been following my teammate's son Cheyne. Looks like you finished close to him on all three days.

ZeCanon

Thanks. Not exactly my kind of racing, but I'm getting better at it. Wish I had better legs on the last day, but that's what I get for going to the bars until 2am every night instead of recovering like I should have

Grumpy McTrumpy

youth is wasted on the wrong people.

mike868y

I wouldn't have pegged you as a drinker.

ZeCanon

Never said I was drinking, just said I was out... I had two beers the whole weekend, and only because it was hot as hell.

Buddy's birthday Friday night, Soundpony Saturday night is pretty much mandatory.

ridethecliche

Like.

Dislike.

Were they atleast good beers?

mike868y

RTC, did you find it hard to keep focus on racing/training while in college?

ZeCanon

Yes they were

Alright, 3 beers actually. Because I got a beer feed after the last lap on Saturday riding past Soundpony. You can't deny a couple hundred drunk idiots shoving bud light in your face. Shlt takes like water anyway.

Absolutely insane how many spectators there were for our race (pro men). Twice as many as any other race. Hundreds of people on Crybaby hill, hundreds outside Soundpony, and a few deep much of the way around both courses. Wall of noise describes it well.

It's really cool, you feel like you're putting on a show

ridethecliche

I found it hard to focus on school work while in college. Everything else is easy to focus on. Girls, cycling, etc.

(You're asking the wrong question )

ZeCanon

ditto

mike868y

haha, ok. Thankfully Hopkins grades are pass/fail for your first semester so you get some time to figure stuff out before doing anything that will effect gpa. Damn, I'm excited. HS can end right now for all I care.

Grumpy McTrumpy

pretty cool.

I played an outdoor arena concert with a salsa band at flushing back in the 90s once for 100,000. that's some different ****

ridethecliche

The question should be: How do I stay afloat in college with academics, a social life, and other extra curriculars, while being a year-round athlete?

The point is:

College is a helluva lot harder than High school. I went to a good high school. I got all 4's and a 5 or so on the AP's I took and cared about (I realized that some wouldn't mean anything for college so I slacked). College is a whole 'nuther ball game.

I had a 3.16 my first semester, while rowing. That's not that bad, but considering I'd never had a B before in my life having a B average sucked. It was hard as hell. I studied a lot and did terrible. You have to re-learn how to study. It was very frustrating and talking to friends who were doing well really helped. Even though it is pass fail, you should try doing as well as you can because it's really hard to start caring if you don't go in with a good attitude. You're a big fish in a big pond, and there are tons of other kids who've excelled all through their lives. The sciences are graded on a curve, atleast they were at wes, so you can put 2 and 2 together...

You have to come out with a schedule for every week and then stick to it to a T. As in, when you're going to wake up, when you're going to go to bed, how long it should take you to do certain assignments, etc, etc. With work, you always budget about 2x the time you think you'll take to do it because every now and then you get stumped or something just doesn't make sense. You also have to learn how to move on and do something else while a TA or prof gets back to you. TA sessions suck, but at many of them they give you the answers and show you how to do the work. They're worth going to because it saves you a lot of effort and you learn what you need to faster.

As far as cycling goes, you need to be able to get up early and ride before class if that's what your schedule allows, or keep your afternoons open to ride if that's what it allows. You don't miss out on a social life because you can still go out and have a beer or two as long as you get to bed and get atleast 7 hrs of sleep before a training day. If you have a big team with cool dudes and dudettes, that's a great thing because you have a bunch of people with a similar schedule to yours that you can be friends with. As for your other friends, you can study together, grab meals together, chill together, whatever, but you need to be good at figuring out what you need to do and when. I've heard of too many friends at the ivy's/other top schools say that they never study with their friends. I think I made most of my close friends studying with people in my classes, and I learned the most/best while doing that as well.

I never quite figured it all out. I'd skip class to ride when I knew I could miss a day, I'd get very little sleep some nights, and I'd ride maybe 4-5 days a week during the school year (counting races).

I don't mean to scare you but you really do need to be on top of your sh1t if you want to do well in school, train hard, and have a life outside of those two things. It's not too bad just to do the first two, but then you miss out the most fun college has to offer.

ridethecliche

Wow. That was a scary long post...

Watch out cdr!

umd

I guess it depends... I found college easier than high school. Less rigid, and more intersting. I also entered with enough credits to be a sophomore and did 3 years of work in 4 years

I wasn't cycling at all, except to classes, hadn't "discovered" it yet. But I was working, nearly full time for most of it.

mike868y

Wow rtc, great post, thanks. I wasn't implying that I was going to slack off because of the pass/fail grades, I'm just thankful because I have some time to figure out what type of schedule works. I know I'm going to have to get better at time management. Assignments that should take 15min can sometimes take me up to an hour, which isn't good.

Another question (sorry everyone for hijacking the **** out of the training status thread...), did your roommate ever complain when you got up early? I don't mind it, but I feel like I'm going to be a d-bag for waking up at like 6 or 7 to go ride. I guess it depends on my roommate, I just hope they are cool with it.

mattm

You were putting on a show!! A pro race is no joke, I'd imagine.

kudude

do you have roommates assigned already? Maybe you'll get a single. It's more likely that you'll be annoyed with your roommate coming in late than he'll be annoyed with you getting up early. Likely what will happen is neither of you will give a ****.

Mike, any plans for what you want to major in? that'll have a lot to do with how hard your classes are, I suspect

mike868y

Don't have roommate assignments yet, but I requested a double - a lot of people say it's a good way to meet like a first friend, someone that you have during the first couple weeks while you're still making friends and stuff.

As of right now, I want to major in Biology or Biophysics.

ridethecliche

You'll live. Plenty of other kids have to leave for meets and stuff the next morning. You should make sure you're ready to ride before going to bed the night before. Change in the bathroom, eat a cliff bar on the road, and just roll your bike out and go.

I'd be more worried about him coming home late and sexiling you for the night.

ridethecliche

I came in doing something I love, but suck at. I didn't work full time, but did work two jobs from jr year on and one job before that. So it goes. I'm just glad I raised my gpa after first semester. I might have a shot at grad school now lol.

waterrockets 

Nice work on the new numbers. It's nice to see some light through the pain

I got my download from today's 5" and 1' tests. Things are really looking up, as my gains from three weeks ago are significant. All of these numbers are the highest since my weight loss 18 months ago. I'm still 5-6 lbs lighter than when I went higher than these (177 lbs this morning):

5" 1531W
20" 1180W
30" 1015W
1' 796W

wens

I know I wasn't asked, and I was on the varsity swim team, so different sport, but I'm going to flatter myself and say my opinion matters. I had much the same experience, I would rather blow off class to take a nap so I could make an optional workout. That worked (sorta) my freshman year, after that I had to smarten up. I also found there were times no matter how well I managed my time I would have to skimp on either studying, sleeping, or training, and during these times I usually had no social life. They weren't extended though, and most of my friends were in the same situation.

My freshman year my roommate was out drinking until after 4 just about every night, so we barely saw each other. He didn't mind when i left early for morning practice, I'm a heavy sleeper so I didn't notice him stumbling in, it worked out. One of the most entertaining things I remember about freshman year were the couple of times I was leaving for morning practice as he was coming back from partying.