Life, College, and Fitness…

December 16th, 2009 • Cycling/Fitness, Personal, Racing Update

I know I have been terrible as far as posting goes, and I am sorry for this. I have been busy and more important things have taken over writing. I can’t promise that I will continue to post frequently after today, but I do want to just post a little update on what I’ve been up to the past couple of weeks months.

College – Johns Hopkins Class of 2014

After much work on my application, essays, and recommendations, I was finally notified, at 7:02 PM on Dec. 15, 2009 via email, that I have been accepted into Johns Hopkins University as a member of the class of 2014.

This is a major milestone in my life and one which will, undoubtedly, have large ramifications on my life. I am incredibly excited for the social and academic challenges and experiences that a Hopkins education will provide me, and I cannot wait to begin my career as a Hopkins student next fall.

Fitness

My main fitness goals over Fall and early Winter have been to burn fat, build an aerobic base for next year and to build some upper body mass. My way to accomplish these goals has been…

• Eat a more refined diet – I have significantly cut the amount of calories I consume and the ones which I do consume I make sure are filled with nutrients. I have tried to all but eliminate “empty calories” from my diet.
• Long, moderately paced bicycle training rides – Admittedly, this is the part of my training which has been going the worst. The best way to build aerobic base is with long and moderately paced training. My only time to do these rides is on the weekend. Thankfully, I have been pretty busy and in my opinion, I have not been doing enough longer rides (60+ miles). However, I still am able to get in about 80 minutes (either on the road or on the rollers) after school and I using this time to my advantage with SST, 1125211 interval, 2*20′ intervals, and hill repeat workouts.
• Arm and Core Routine – Over the past few years I have developed a pretty good arm and core routine which helps to build upper body endurance. Unfortunately, once summer starts this routine often falls off my schedule. However, I have started it again and it is once again yielding good results. It is designed not to build upper body mass, but to build upper body endurance. Strength is useful for motocross but endurance is what allows you to muscle your bike around after a 20 minute moto.

Overall, my fitness plan is working quite well. I am at the leanest I have ever been (120 lbs, 5’2”) and am feeling great. I have lost a little bit of shorter interval power on the road bike (5s and 1min power are probably pretty bad right now), but this is easy to rebuild come spring. I also feel that the upper body work I am doing will help me next year in motocross as the bigger bikes have always beat me up a little bit. Hopefully with some more upper body strength and endurance I can handle my bike with more ease next season.

Motocross

As the snow and temperatures start to fall, I have begun watching a lot of motocross videos while doing my homework. After sort of turning my back to the motocross industry for a few months, the great videos on MXPTV.com, VurbMoto.com, RacerxOnline.com, and TWMX.com have gotten me really excited for next season. I will once again be competing in the 125 Amateur class, and will probably bounce around, without concentrating on any one organization. I hope to go to Florida in February in order to get some early season training, however the start of my season hinges on my Dad’s work.

Unfortunately, while in school I do not know how feasible it will be for me to continue racing. I will definitely race during the summer months, but while classes are in session it will most likely be too hard for me to make it to races during the weekends. Regardless, only time will tell and if I have the time to race during the school year, I most definitely will.

Cycling

Cycling has become a big part of my life in the past few years and next year I would like to compete in some bicycle races. Last year I did my first race, the 2009 Jamestown Classic, and finished 2nd in the Juniors 17-18 division. Next year I definitely want to do the Bethel Crit Series in March and then I will try to fit in other races throughout the year when my motocross schedule permits.

To aid in my training and racing, I have recently joined Expo Wheelmen, a startup cycling team out of Manchester, CT. All of the guys on Expo have been great so far, and I look forward to racing with them in 2010.

In addition, I would like to try my hand at collegiate racing while at JHU. Collegiate racing is allegedly very challenging, yet also very fun at the same time and I cannot wait to see how I fare against other college students.

Well that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed my little update on whats been going on with my life. I will try to post a little more frequently, but who knows when I will have the time. It is 11:12PM right now and my bed is calling me, g’night!

Tags: College, Cycling/Fitness, Johns Hopkins University, Life, motocross

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