Home Ownership

Good evening!

Not having any classes for a couple weeks is strange. There is this gap for a couple hours everyday where I wonder, 'shouldn't I be working on something?'  It is fantastic, but I can't help but wonder what happens to this feeling after I graduate? I lost my 4.0 gpa this semester, but I was taking some tough classes and it was my first tax season, so I get some slack. Also, grades were still pretty darn solid, so no issues there. I won't be going to grad school, so as long as I get a C, I'm good, right?Further, I've talked with my bosses and adviser at Davenport and we've come up with a pretty good plan for my next 2 years. I want to purchase the Becker CPA prep exam course online thing by the end of this summer. It's expensive, but it is all-encompassing and I get it for 18 months; meaning it is critical that I pass the 4 CPA exams in that 18 months, not too bad.

If I start preparing for the exams by the end of summer, I plan on taking the most difficult of the four exams in December before tax season kicks off. This will give me a solid 4 months to prepare for the most difficult test, and I think that will be fabulous. After I pass the first, I want another 4 months to prepare for the second test, meaning I'll take that around April or May. Assuming I pass the two most difficult exams, I'll take another 2 or 3 months to prepare for the final 2 exams, which I would then plan on taking next summer. And there you have it, Charlie Eaton CPA! Very loose, and a lot needs to happen of course (I've got all my classes scheduled to be able to graduate next Spring), but we are excited for this little chapter. Further, I'm taking 4 online classes this summer, so if I'm not riding bikes or at work, chances are I'm at Starbucks pretending to do homework.

Everyone knows I think, but I bought a house! I don't close for another couple of weeks, but based on what I know, everything is going super smoothly and it looks like things will be finalized without much hassle. A lot of the older men in my life (again, no offence) have asked questions about this decision and I won't go into the details here, but I am super super super excited to begin building some equity in a fantastic little house in the Westnedge Hill neighborhood, and I'll hope everyone I know will stop by at some point to have some drinks with me and chat! Ethel has been fantastic, I texted her last Tuesday morning and we made an offer Wednesday and it was accepted that evening! I was able to get pre-approved for a mortgage without any co-signers (if you haven't started building credit yet, lets chat - Betsy and Em) I've got big plans for this little place, I figure it's a 5-10 year house, I'll sell it, and it'll be a down-payment on another house for me, fantastic!

I know you all came here for the bike stuff. I've strained my hamstring. I don't exactly know what that means but it hurts. I rode a couple weeks ago out to Gobles and back and ever since there has been this pain on the back of my knee. I've been able to ride through it and still be pretty fast, but it has been there for a while. After enough concern from my parents, I went to the Borgess walk-in something and they took some x-rays and felt around and decided my hamstring was strained. Word on the street is, I don't ever stretch so that is why this happened, but goodness it isn't super comfortable and it is slowing me down enough where I need to give it some attention. So, we are going to stretch, drink a lot of water, and eat healthy. I've said this before? (: Best Pedal Thursday night ride of my life last Thursday though with the problem hamstring. I was able to go as fast as everyone else up all the hills, which I'm never able to do. I know it is all mental, but I think this may be a turning point for me. Let's hope I can do it again next Thursday.

I raced today over in Ann Arbor after having skipped the Yankee Springs Time Trial on Saturday for a couple reasons: 1) I waited too long and couldn't pre-register online 2) weather was questionable 3) my mountain biking skills are laughable. Anyway, this was my first road-race since I crashed hard in Detroit last July (really?) and it went well. Not great, but well enough to be excited about next week. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but some guy took off by himself at the very beginning. I then got up to the chase group of about 6 of us. A couple laps later, I saw a couple guys from our group take off in an effort to get up to the solo leader. I saw them leave, but didn't do anything. So that leaves 4 of us in this chase group behind 3 guys in front of us (the leader had waited for these other 2 to catch up) and our group never really worked together. We ended up lapping the field but at the end of the race, the 3 leaders also lapped us. So it was a crazy finish, as the leaders come around our group at the finish while we are coming around the rest of the field, everyone was done. I didn't realize this, but once the leaders finish the race with the correct number of laps, everyone else is done too. So I didn't really have a go at the 4 other guys I was with because I was under the impression we still had another lap to go. Looking back at this race, I think I need to do whatever it takes to make the break-away. I for sure have the fitness, especially after I can get my health back to 100%. We'll get them next week.

3/16 Waterloo G&G, Grass Lake, MI (Gravel) 34th Overall (221) / 4th AG (6)
3/23 Melting Mann, Vandalia, MI (Gravel) 61st Overall (255) / 17th AG (31)
3/30 Dirty 30 Gravel Grinder, Saranac, MI (Gravel) 81st Overall (215) / 9th AG (24)
4/6 Lowell Classic, Lowell, MI (Gravel) 27th Overall (239) / 8th AG (15)
4/13 Barry Roubaix, Hastings, MI (Gravel) 216th Overall (1342) / 6th AG (18)
4/28 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI 8th Overall 4/5 (35)
5/5 Fort Custer Stampede, Battle Creek, MI (Mountain) / AA STS
5/11 Hammond Region Riot, Hammond, IN
5/25 Twilight on the Square, Akron, OH
5/26 Newark Center Classic, Englewood, OH
6/1 Deaconess River City Bicycle Classic, Evansville, IN
6/9 Dirty Donut, Martin, MI (Gravel)
6/16 Vuelta a Porta Sheldon, Grand Haven, MI (?)
6/22 Athens Brick Criterium, Athens, OH
6/29 Port City Crit, Muskegon, MI
6/30 Great Lakes Classic Road Race, Marne, MI
7/13 Detroit Cycling Championship, Detroit, MI
7/14 Corktown Crit, Detroit, MI
7/28 The Divide (Gravel) / Muncie Grand Prix, Muncie, IN
8/10 Rose City Crit, Jackson, MI
8/18 Gaslight Crit, Grand Rapids, MI
8/25 Debaets-Devos Crit, Detroit, MI
9/8 Uncle John's Dirty Ride, St. John's, MI (Gravel)
11/2 Iceman, Traverse City, MI

Good stuff this week, right? Super exciting times for everyone's favorite Associate Accountant, as always, get a hold of me if you are having any issues with the IRS or other taxing agencies (: I'd love to help. There is so much more I could add, but I'll leave it alone. I was planning on doing two races this morning, but my leg had other ideas (: probably, shouldn't have done the one, but it'll be fine, right?

I can't believe it is already Monday.

Cheers! CE

Barry Roubaix

First time racing BRX; a learning experience.

The race lined up super early. I was out riding my warm-up and found Elliot riding around so joined him. My wave was set to start at 10:08, and by 9:30 the start chute was filled. No worries, I thought, as this race is timed as sort of a time trial. So it isn't necessarily what place you finish in, but the time from when you cross the start line until you cross the finish line.

Before I knew it, the front of my wave was quite a ways in front of me. So I'm in a strange position. I start in wave 3, but all the contenders for the race I'm riding are starting in wave 7, which starts 8 minutes behind my wave. For the first 20 minutes of the race, coming up the 'three sisters' - three large hills at the beginning - I was just trying to catch the front of my wave. The fastest guys in the 36 mile race still start in wave 7 - and all my teammates - but I still knew that all the guys in my age group, 19-24 started with me in wave 3. Up the big hills I was able to catch up with a few tandems that started in my wave, which are very good allies to have during the race. As I experienced with Tim last year at Melting Mann, tandems are very fast when the racing is flat, just very slow climbing. So for about 5 or so miles, it was a constant passing the tandems up hills, and then they would catch me up on the flats and I would get behind the group of 3 tandems and ride behind them for a while.

I don't think I ever caught the very front of wave 3, as I finished 6th in my age group (which all started in wave 3), one spot off the podium, darn. The top guys in my age group were in front of me the whole race. I was constantly passing people the entire time. The 22 mile route merged with my 36 mile route during the race, so the road was constantly filled with riders much slower than I was going. It was a constant cycle of riding as hard as I could to get on the group in front of me, realizing quickly they were going much slower and then coming around and chasing down the next group on the road. I was doing very well at this until we got to Sager Road, the renowned two-track, which was full of rocks and sand, it was bad. I was behind a large group coming into Sager, so I was behind a lot of people walking their bikes, with not any room to get around. With all the sand, I didn't have anything, and my race blew up. I walked pretty much the entire road and while doing so got a lot of sand in my cleats.

For the next 10 or so miles after Sager, I couldn't get my right foot clipped into my pedal. For all those concerned, I have shoes and pedals that fit together, and not being able to clip in my right foot really messed with me. I was mad about it for a while, letting a lot of people pass me and not really worried about putting in the effort to make up some ground on the riders ahead of me. I eventually got over this after a while, and just used my right pedal as a sort of platform, which was dangerous as my foot kept slipping off, causing me to go slower and not really able to hold onto any wheels ahead of me. This was a large part of the race where I lot of people came by me, and I'm disappointed with this as my fitness was good yesterday, I was really putting in some power when I could, and I was able to out-climb anyone around me. That being said, I was never really with anyone I was directly competing with. I didn't know who was in my age group so I couldn't mark anyone to make sure I stay with them.

Eventually, I hit a large pothole fast enough and the hole was large enough that it forced my shoe to be able to clip back into my pedal, and I was off. The last 10 miles I was with a group of about 5 people, and we cruised back into Hastings. Probably averaging upwards of 22 mph, we passed a lot of people. Unfortunately, most of these people we passed probably weren't in our race, as the 36 mile course was now the same as the 22 mile course. Basically, all these people are in the way, and no benefit to me.

3/16 Waterloo G&G, Grass Lake, MI (Gravel) 34th Overall (221) / 4th AG (6)
3/23 Melting Mann, Vandalia, MI (Gravel) 61st Overall (255) / 17th AG (31)
3/30 Dirty 30 Gravel Grinder, Saranac, MI (Gravel) 81st Overall (215) / 9th AG (24)
4/6 Lowell Classic, Lowell, MI (Gravel) 27th Overall (239) / 8th AG (15)
4/13 Barry Roubaix, Hastings, MI (Gravel) 216th Overall (1342) / 6th AG (18)
4/27 Yankee Springs TT, Gun Lake, MI (Mountain !!)
4/28 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
5/5 Fort Custer Stampede, Battle Creek, MI (Mountain)
5/11 Hammond Region Riot, Hammond, IN
5/25 Twilight on the Square, Akron, OH
5/26 Newark Center Classic, Englewood, OH
6/1 Deaconess River City Bicycle Classic, Evansville, IN
6/9 Dirty Donut, Martin, MI (Gravel)
6/16 Vuelta a Porta Sheldon, Grand Haven, MI (?)
6/22 Athens Brick Criterium, Athens, OH
6/29 Port City Crit, Muskegon, MI
6/30 Great Lakes Classic Road Race, Marne, MI
7/13 Detroit Cycling Championship, Detroit, MI
7/14 Corktown Crit, Detroit, MI
7/28 The Divide (Gravel) / Muncie Grand Prix, Muncie, IN
8/10 Rose City Crit, Jackson, MI
8/18 Gaslight Crit, Grand Rapids, MI
8/25 Debaets-Devos Crit, Detroit, MI
9/8 Uncle John's Dirty Ride, St. John's, MI (Gravel)
11/2 Iceman, Traverse City, MI

This years Barry Roubaix was one of learning. Get to the start early. Stay on wheels. Try and survive Sager Rd. without stepping off or walking too much in the sand. It was too bad so many people were in the way. It is too bad that the people I was competing with started 8 minutes after me. I wish this race was organized differently, but it is what it is. I'm happy with my fitness, I'm looking forward to more races. I'm thinking about going down to Indy next weekend to race, we will see. It might be of greater benefit to train hard this week, this weekend, and next week; just to get some more solid base behind my training. I don't really have any races on my A list until July in Detroit, so now might be a good time to really work on my fitness some more and work on some smart, structured training now that tax season is over, and school is about done.

A fantastic race from all the TCL guys and ladies, a ton of podiums. Well done!

Not too many photos this week, but lots of information; enjoy (:

Cheers! CE

Lowell 50

So the Lowell 50 was amazing on Saturday! Super beautiful area and course, and the event was very well run. From the parking to the registration and the awards, I was impressed. I'm always looking for free stuff, and I got a new PINK water bottle holder out of the race, already a winner in my book. Further, it was a beautiful day; the first real 'summer' like weather we've had, and that seemed to raise my confidence even more than it was already.

*first row, fifth from left

I think I should mention how pro I felt at Lowell yesterday, but when don't I feel pro, right? We started with a neutral lead-out for maybe the first mile or so. That means there was a car in front of all the racers, and no one can pass the car until it pulls off. So the car is leading this group of around 250 riders through a beautiful area, we are all just going nice and easy, about 15mph, through a covered bridge, and then the car pulls off. The racing started immediately. Some guy took off right at the start but he wasn't strong enough and came back as soon as he left.

We then took a right I believe, I was still sitting about 5th wheel, and a big, rocky, uphill in sight. Of course, I'm all into it and I'm fine for about 20 seconds then people start coming around me and I can't hang at all. Ugh. Who would have thought. BUT, another group came around me once it started getting flat again. It's a bigger group, maybe 10 guys, and with everything I had in me I was able to grab the last wheel in the group and hang on. This is really all it takes to get with a group, but it still takes that 10 seconds of all out effort when you're already struggling to hang.

The entire race, I was with this 'chase' group. I'd say by the end there were about 15 of us, as we were really making up some time on the lead group and we kept picking people up and they would be able to hold on and join us. Now, something to note is that a bigger team out of BC I think, Athletic Mentors, had 3 or 4 guys in this group. It was a game of trusting that this team would want to catch the lead group, so they would be setting the pace the entire time, and they pretty much did. I had to trust that these guys would want to get back up to the front so they would be making sure our group was going fast, which was very well done.

Towards the end of the race, maybe 2 miles to go, I found myself in the front of this big group. I'm not quite sure how I got up to the very front, and I didn't really have any idea how many people we still had with the group, but I decided to lay down the hammer a little bit. I could feel everyone getting pretty tired, I was too, and I thought lifting the pace might crack a couple guys and get our group smaller. This didn't work; I brought the pace up to about 22mph but it seemed everyone was able to sit in the draft and match the speed. Then we got into a few little rolling hills and I found myself at the back of the pack with maybe 1.5 miles to go; not where I want to be.

Fortunately, there was a big down hill into the finish and I was able to take my own line on the outside and work my way back up well enough to have some sort of good position coming into the sprint. There was a big left turn, I was maybe about 6th in the group, and I could tell people were starting to wind up. I was just so happy I was still with this group at the end of the race, I didn't really make a move. I was exhausted, I had done a lot of work to stay with this group and I didn't have much left. I was able to hold my position but I couldn't pass anyone, so I finished probably around 6th in the 'chase' group, only about 5 minutes off the leader. I'm super happy.

3/16 Waterloo G&G, Grass Lake, MI (Gravel) 34th Overall (221) / 4th AG (6)
3/23 Melting Mann, Vandalia, MI (Gravel) 61st Overall (255) / 17th AG (31)
3/30 Dirty 30 Gravel Grinder, Saranac, MI (Gravel) 81st Overall (215) / 9th AG (24)
4/6 Lowell Classic, Lowell, MI (Gravel) 27th Overall (239) / 8th AG (15)
4/13 Barry Roubaix, Hastings, MI (Gravel)
4/14 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
4/20 Marian Cycling Classic, Indianapolis, IN
4/27 Yankee Springs TT, Gun Lake, MI (Mountain !!)
4/28 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
5/5 Fort Custer Stampede, Battle Creek, MI (Mountain)
5/11 Hammond Region Riot, Hammond, IN
5/25 Twilight on the Square, Akron, OH
5/26 Newark Center Classic, Englewood, OH
6/1 Deaconess River City Bicycle Classic, Evansville, IN
6/9 Dirty Donut, Martin, MI (Gravel)
6/16 Vuelta a Porta Sheldon, Grand Haven, MI (?)
6/22 Athens Brick Criterium, Athens, OH
6/29 Port City Crit, Muskegon, MI
6/30 Great Lakes Classic Road Race, Marne, MI
7/13 Detroit Cycling Championship, Detroit, MI
7/14 Corktown Crit, Detroit, MI
7/28 The Divide (Gravel) / Muncie Grand Prix, Muncie, IN
8/10 Rose City Crit, Jackson, MI
8/18 Gaslight Crit, Grand Rapids, MI
8/25 Debaets-Devos Crit, Detroit, MI
9/8 Uncle John's Dirty Ride, St. John's, MI (Gravel)
11/2 Iceman, Traverse City, MI

Yes! Would you look at that. I'm very happy with 27th overall. I wasn't able to hang with the front group, but I did hop on the second big group to come around me and I was able to stay with them most of the race! YES! I have a feeling Barry may be coming a little too soon for me. I've been training well and I'm super stoked with how much I've been riding, but I need some more time. I rode with Tim, Ryan and Ben up at Yankee today, and it was rad. First time on my new mountain bike and it was the best! My mountain bike skills have much to be desired, but my fitness is good and I was flying. I went out for a second loop with Ben and Ryan and they just destroyed me. They were gone before I was even able to see where they were, ugh. But, I'm just starting out with a mountain bike and there is a lot of technique involved, none of which I have.

We've got one more week of tax season, just about another week or two of school (I think??) and then things will calm down a little bit. For all those concerned, I'm taking 3 classes this summer so I can graduate next Spring! Yes, an end is in sight. I have a feeling this week is going to be one with little sleep. I have about a million things I need to do for school, and don't tell any of my professors but I haven't really started anything yet, ugh.

I'm super excited for the rest of this year, I'm pretty fast, I'm figuring out what works for me, and I am having a super good time doing it; the most important thing. I should probably be doing some homework. Big race next week, my plan is to just hang with whoever I get with, stay relaxed and calm, and hope to do well, let's do it!

Ha, oh. Today at Yankee Springs Tim and I passed some people, and of course trying to be as courteous as possible Tim said something along the lines of, 'oh no hurry, we're fine' to which she replied, you must be in a hurry if you're riding a pink bike. LOL Of course Tim and I both have the same bright super PINK mountain bike, that was hilarious, you had to be there.

Cheers! CE