Running, resting, and riding with the German

Hey Friends - I hope you are doing well and sipping some coffee while you read this. The late fall cold has finally arrived in Burlington, VT and it feels good. The warmth inside the Muddy Waters coffee shop felt pretty good today when I popped in for a bowl of chili and a small French roast today at lunch. And it was packed in there - so that means its starting to get cold out because the colder it gets outside the more attractive it gets to be in there.

I've been doing a trail run on Friday afternoons up at Bolton Valley that my sister has been organizing. Its really more of a mountain run because its basically up and down. There was a large group this past week and we sort of broke into naturally selected groups. We ran on some wild trails and got quite muddy. The run was a lot of fun though and there were some pretty heavenly views when we got to the top of the Heavenly Highway trail. Looking down and then across to Mt. Mansfield it felt like the whole world was a forest. Attached are two pictures I highjacked from my sister's website. The first one is of the whole group before we headed out for the run (that's me in the tree!) and the second one is of Angus, who got especially muddy while running in the same group as me (he nearly got stuck in a mini-bog).
This trail run has left me quite sore for the following 2-3 days afterward each week, but once I'm healed up from being torn apart by the mountain my legs are stronger than they were before. So, with this building of strength in mind I'm going to be running a half-marathon this coming weekend. All the local 5k races that were supposed to happen this past weekend got cancelled- so all that's coming up in this half-marathon right here in Shelburne this coming Sunday. Dan Cassidy is going to run it with me, and our plan is just to run under 1:30. That puts us at about 6:52 per mile average. I will say, the first month or two after the bike racing season ends is quite nice - to just stay at home, do trail runs and drink coffee...it is restful.

I'm going to create some suspense on the last topic of this post - it is in regards to new possible teammates for next season. These are unconfirmed reports, but there is a chance we may have a German wonder-kid and a former Priority Health rider on CCB next season. Just stew on that and let me know how it tastes. By the way, I can confirm that Chris Worden and Colin Jaskiewicz will be riding with CCB next season. So, the Burlington contingent continues to grow.

That is all for now - I've got some numbers to crunch. Be merry.

Catamount Cross

The Catamount Cyclocross Weekend has come and gone once again. There was some good racing and some good weather - very unlike last year when there was way to much snow, mud, and cold and horrible, painful crashing by me.This year I just raced on Saturday, as I had to work on Sunday. It looked like it was going to be a pretty low-key event until just about 15 minutes before the start when Josh Dillon, Dan Vaillencourt, and teammate Will Dugan all showed up. Some solid riders. I look the lead right off the bat and got to take clean lines through the first half of the first lap. Then the crashing started and I went down hard 3 times in the first lap, and lost some distance on the leaders. I even had to straighten my handlebars after the last crash and banged my leg pretty hard. I eventually got going again and found a pretty good rythme, not crashing once. I raced hard and moved up from second to last to finish 6th. Up front Will Dugan attacked in the second lap and rode to win by a big margin. Josh was 2nd and Dan 3rd. Following are a few bulleted highlights and some more pictures from the race...

-Will Dugan is so good at cross that he won again on Sunday even though half of the sole ripped off his left shoe during the race.
-Dan Cassidy, Ilke, Chris, Erin, and my sister and Helen did some awesome cheering and picture taking.
-Erik at Catamount knows how to put together great cyclocross courses.
-Crashing is bad...

Papa's got a new pair of shoes

Got some new shoes today. They are orange. So that's good.

I've been getting the cross-training going. Still spending some time on the bike, but throwing in some running, stretching, exercises, and even some roller skiing in as well. Its been enjoyable. I'm doing a cyclocross race this weekend at the Catamount Family Center and the following weekend I'm doing a 5k running race over in Essex.

So I've been getting a big ol' No-Go for turning pro next year. I'd talked to some professional teams in the end of August and beginning of September and then again while I was out in Las Vegas. I've gotten no response from anyone. Like Mike Cody said, "Its like a night club with a big long line out front and it looks like its really cool, but it really isn't actually that cool once you get inside." Still, to put two years in with that singular goal and not reach it is a little frustrating. Thankfully CCB is a most excellent team to ride for - and Steve Pucci makes sure we have all the support we need.

So, the plan is to do less bike racing around New England next year and take on some more responsibility at work. However, I'm bad at letting dreams go. So, the racing I will be doing will be more focused at the major events where a good result really means something. Also, I'm really interested in getting back to doing local biking, running, and skiing stuff around Burlington.

Oh, and on a very very very exciting note, my girlfriend Helen and I now are the proud owners off two tickets to Egypt. We booked our flights to Cairo for December 28th to January 12th. Pyramids...

Vegas Decompression Complete

So, a week after the USA Crit Series Finals in Las Vegas I feel like I'm finally decompressed from that pressure cooker of a race. Before I say anything else about the trip or the race I need to say a big, big thank you to Spike and Rodger who are my bosses at the Skirack for letting me stay with them out there and their encouragement and excitement for what I was doing. It meant a lot!

A little breakdown:
-The race was insanely scary.
-The tradeshow was highly entertaining.
-The city was majorly repulsive.
-The experience was definitely worth it.

I'm going to be writing a whole story about the race and the trip for the Cycling Revealed website (http://www.cyclingrevealed.com/) and should be finishing that up this weekend. Thanks Graham and Barry!

Here's a picture of me riding mid-race right behind Ivan Dominguez (eventual race winner). He seems to win a lot of these things, so I decided to see how he did it and just rode behind him for 10-15 laps mid-race. He's smooth. And it definitely helped imitating.

New E-mail Address

Hey Friends,

I have a new e-mail address. It is jakehollenbach@gmail.com. The days of the UVM e-mail are over. End of an era.

Some Vegas stories coming tonight!