Yesterday was almost the perfect day...

That's right, yesterday, Wednesday March 18th, 2009 was just about the perfect day.  First I had my normal structural geology class where we talked about faults and other cool stuff.  Then there was a pizza lunch with one of our professors who is currently in England running Dickinson's University of East Anglia study abroad program.  He is the man.  It's like having another kid in the department.  Then we went outside and set up the famous liquid nitrogen volcano demonstration for Ben's Volcanology class.  It goes like this:

Materials needed:

1. 10 gallon thick plastic trash can (the industrial strength kind) about 4/5 full of water. Picture this as the lithosphere of the earth.  The lithosphere is the crust and the upper mantle.
2. Piece of plywood about 10"x10" with four bricks bolted onto it.  screw a 20" threaded rod into one of the bricks and attach a metal bottle clamp with an eye hook on the end to the rod.  This is your magma chamber retention system and weight
3. Plastic soda bottles of various sizes.  This is your magma chamber.
4. Packing peanuts to impersonate tuff and other fragments being blown out of your volcano.
5. Liquid nitrogen.  This provides the explosive force.

Set your trash can in a large open area, put a soda bottle in the retention system, holding it down with the eye hook.  Fill if half full of Liquid nitrogen.  Cap it and quickly drop it in the can.  Run away.  The liquid nitrogen will sublime to a gas, increasing the pressure in the soda bottle until it overcomes the confining strength of the bottle causing a rapid expansion in volume of the gas.  This is called an explosion.  It is freaking cool.  A reference video is here.

Then after that I headed down to Brett's for an exploratory ride on some new trails.  The day ended with a dinner of Brett's Bangin' Chilli.  Perfect day...

MASHin at Michauxxxx

Don't feel like writing much because my mind is preoccupied with the Mohr Circle problem set I have to do tonight.  Instead, some pictures from the weekend courtesy of The Don

Race start: In the company of kings...

Look a new bike!

Mr. Shaggy-Hair himself, National Champion Jeff Bahnson

The always super-fast Chris Eatough enjoying some rock time

Donna kicking butt and taking names on the Nugget

Madison is angry at that rock...

Gunnar not so much...

Rolling into Culvert/High Life on my last lap

So next weekend I'm headed down the MD for the Rockburn USAC race.  First XC race on my new bike, pictured above in action.  Just waiting for one more new chainring, some more racy tires (Nevegals hook up great, but roll mad slow and are heavy), and a carbon seatpost and she will be done.  Name yet to be decided...

Friendly reminder...

Just a reminder to everyone:

REGISTER FOR THE MICHAUX MASH!!!!!

It will help send some of the best juniors in the area to MTB Nats in Colorado this summer.  What better cause can there be but showing them left coasters and "Rocky" Mountain types how to ride their bikes on their own course???

:)

Spring Break!!!!!

While most of my friends are in New Mexico enjoying a volcanology and tectonics trip with the geo department, I am sitting at home playing with my bikes.  I am sort of sad, but I really do need this time to get things straightened out so this racing season can start off proper like.  It will be good just to sleep in my bed as well.

Yesterday I accompanied Zach on his 8hr adventure.  We basically rode from above Long Pine Resivoir in Southern Michaux to Carlisle, via an area close to Boiling Springs on mostly trails and dirt road.  It was a jolly good time for all.  I rode my Intense for the first time in a while and realized a few things:

1. Gears are good for long rides
2. 26" wheels suck
3. Full suspension sucks

Things I never thought I would say.  So now my Intense is pulled almost completly apart.  I think I may sell it after my new bike is completly built...

The season is almost here...

So logically I've been sick for the past week. I had a good ride last weekend with Zach, Brett, Jeffery, Don, Tom, and Sam from west PA area. We rode the Long Pine Classic course in about 4.5hrs. I beat myself up on my rigid SS. Suspension up front will be muy necessary for the race. It's going to be pretty awesome and brutal.  Then I got sick,  I was supposed to ride again on Sunday, but woke up Sunday morning to a fever of 102, cold sweats, and complete delirium.  I went promptly back to bed.  Until 1500 hrs that afternoon.

So far this week I have felt like doing the following things:

• Sleeping
• Sitting on the couch watching TV
• Sitting on the couch watching movies
• Trolling around the intarwebz
• Sleeping
• Sleeping again

Haven't really felt like eating, until my fever broke on Wednesday.

It's now Sunday, and I'm pretty much finished my work for the weekend, and I'm probably going to head to bed within the next few hours.  I'll be back on my bike on tuesday as planned, which should feel good.  The Michaux Mash is approaching...

Oh, and I've been perusing cycling news and this happens to be the start of one of my favorite weeks ever... the North American Handmade Bicycle Show.  I will be regularily be wiping the drool off my keyboard and keyboards around campus for the next few days.  Here is my first tastey bit.  I want one of these, even though I'm no trackie...

Photo Credit: James Huang/Cyclingnews.com

Oh and have a look at my 09 race schedule on your right.... yes that's right... there's a 24 solo in there.  I *may or may not* be nervouse already...

It's the time of the season...

Too much work to do... too little time... all I want to do is ride...

Jake's bi-weekly MegaUpdate! (condensed form...)

So since I can only seem to find time to update my blag every other week or so I'm going to take time out of my sleep tonight to tell you what has or has not been going on in my life for the last n number of weeks since I have updated...

1. I went into Philly and took an LT Test at Cadence the weekend after the first Team camp.  My LT power is something just under 200 W (I would tell you but it might reveal my secret of sexiness...)
2. I felt crappy and was generally pretty sick for the two weeks after the first training camp.  It hampered the first part of my training cycle... boo...
3. The weekend after my LT Test was Team training camp #2 (full recap on the Team Blag).  It was awesome.  Friday night featured the Middle Run Snowy Icey Death Ride, where the majority of riders experienced some form of rapidly decreased frictional coefficients between tires and ground causing gravitationally or centripitally accellerated motion in the generally negative direction.  Jacob got of easy with a simple slide in a corner, Jeff took a berm too high and ended up sitting in the snow looking confused and holding his bum, and Zach did a full on chest plant off a ~1 m high log when he tried to bail and drop off of it.  I got of scott free *brushes shoulder off*.  Should I chalk it up to the inherent balance in a rigid SS?  Who knows.  Saturday morning featured the Turkey Point road loop with some of the DCCofD crew including, but not limited to Rotten Rob (replete with borrowed pink helmet and lack of facial hair), Fatmarc, Monkey, LaLa, Brian, and fearless ride leader Jan and staring Tom as ride support/cookie delivery guy/ sag waggon.  Some 100 km for those of us who rode from home base at Jeff's house.  Jacob, Jeff, Zach, and I were in attendence from the team as Gunnar and Kyle had to play some normal people sport called basketball.  I know not what this is.  When Gunnar and Kyle arrived, they were made to do uphill TT's on powermeter equiped bikes to maybe wear their young legs our a little.  Saturday night featured a urban mtb attack on that place with the thing and the other thing.  Many stairs were descended.  Sunday morning was our semi-epic 3-state road ride with two intermediary hill climb races up some steep southeast PA roads.  Oh and it was warm enough out that the majority of us were riding in shorts, short sleeve jerseys, and no gloves.  Totally amazing for February 8th.  Good fun.  Good food.  Good times were had by all.
4. The next week brought more work, especialy in the field of structural geology, as well as some nice warm rides.  Tuesday was muscle tension day, which I did at Whiskey Springs on dirt on my SS.  A good rocky descent was ripped afterwards.  Wednesday was a double header.  Drive to the Brett's, get on road bike, ride for an hour-ish with 3 steady states, go back to Brett's, get on SS, ride with the usual (albeit larger than normal) crew for a famous Michaux nighter.  OPEN MESSAGE TO WHOEVER IS PRACTICING FOR A CHAINSAW COMPETITION ON OUR TRAILS: MANY CURSES TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY, MAY YOUR CHAINSAW EXPLODE IN YOU GARAGE AND TAKE OUT THAT THING THAT MAY BE A BIKE BECAUSE YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T NO HOW TO RIDE IT PROPERLY.  MAN UP AND LEARN HOW TO RIDE LOGS!!!  THEY WILL BE REPLACED JUST TO ANNOY YOU.  Thursday brought more muscle tension intervals, which were done at night on the roadie.  I got yelled at by some redneck kids from the window of their house.  I believe he said something to the extent of "Oh my Gawd is that an alien?  It is an alien!  Pa go get the shotgun!"  I will admitt that it is rather weird to see someone riding up and down your street, really slowly, with a light on his head, in the middle of the night.
5. Saturday was Valentines Day, and the first one in a while in which I was not "celebrating" National Singles Awareness Day.  The lady-friend and I, whom shal henceforth be known as Ms. Geologist, made peach pancakes in the morning.  They were really tastey.  Then I went out for a 3hr road ride.  Then we had dinner and listened to some good jazz at the Good Life Cafe, watched a movie and went to bed.  Today was another 3.5hr road ride with climb repeats up Doubling Gap.  They hurt my legs.

That's all for now.  Oh and the Amgen Tour of California started Saturday.  I leave you with my ode to one of my favorite riders in the peleton Fabian Cancellara:

Fabian hammering his World Campions jersey to a TdF Prologue win, 2007:

Photo Credit: AFP Photo

Fabian hammering his Swiss Champions hersey to a AToC Prologue win, 2009:

Photo Credit: Casey B. Gibson

It's weird seeing him on a bike other than a Cervelo and in a kit other than the rainbow stripes...