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Ready Set Go (Bang)
Written by Steven Cozza
Wednesday, 15 December 2004
And my season is already off to an insanely fast start. I went from 0 to 60 in an instant this year. To start off my training preparation for the 2005 season I headed down south to San Diego to train at the Olympic training center with the US U-23 National team. I have already spent about 2 weeks down here now and let me tell you. I have never been more pumped than ever to get my hard work and dedicated training under way. The off season cross training and fun was great but I am so glad to be back on my bike where I belong. I feel so fortunate to be able to train and start the season in such a great environment as the OTC. It is an athletes dream down here that is if you want to put in hard work and dedication to your sport. Since it is December and the racing does not start for us until March this camp was a chance for the team to get together and get use to living with each other again and of course to meet the new guys. Our days here have been quite busy waking up early and doing long endurance rides mixed with lifting weight days in the gym. The riding around here is just great especially with the 75 degree weather. The OTC is so close to the Tijuana boarder we can see the boarder lights from our rooms. To ride into Mexico and get tacos is not a problem at all. On our very few off days we try our best to go explore. The other day I and a few of the riders drove down to Ensenada to get a real feel for Mexico and its people. We ran into some pretty crazy people down there let me tell ya. The beach we went to we were able to see Dolphins swimming in the surf. It was well worth the drive. John Murphy one of my teammates birthday is coming up so I think we will be back in Mexico to celebrate that for him.
Being so close to the boarder we see more boarder control trucks than stars in the sky. It’s crazy how many of them there are. Every day the Hispanics are trying to jump the boarder so I guess that explains why. Often we here machine gun fire off in the distance. Not quite sure what the reason of it is but it sure gets your heart racing.
With only one week left here for me I will squeeze in a bunch more endurance and gym days along with two days of testing in the lab here. The testing is to get my fitness levels now when I am not in shape and than to get tested again in January when I am. It looks like all be back down here again in January too because of the track. Noel our director wants me to start racing pursuit to give it a go this year in LA at the worlds. I am going to play it by year and see how it goes but truly my heart is out on the open roads. There is nothing like riding through the mountains or the forest or along the coast. I think though that the track will help with my goals in road cycling so if that is true I am very excited to get started to give it a chance. Not only that there is the 08 Olympics coming up and if I have the capability to make it and do well there in the individual pursuit than I will strive for that along with doing road racing. They told me that the best endurance track racers do 85 percent road and 15 percent track so if I can do that and get results I will be totally happy. The racing months will be here before I know it so I am making every second of my days count. (Every second counts) that’s no joke in the sport of cycling.
Every year I set goals for myself big and small. This year I have many goals along with monthly goals. For this months Goal I plan to get a good base of endurance riding in along with loosing 3 pounds. For January my goals are to continue to get a good base of endurance along with power workouts on the road bike and track. If I want to race at the track worlds in March I need to put in some good individual pursuit times in late January.
After this camp I head back up to Northern California to spend some time with my family and friends and hopefully get to help out on some training rides with my old Junior roots, Team Swift.
I can’t think of much more at this time of the year. I hope all of you have a great holiday season. Thanks for reading.
Steven
I am going to dedicate my 2005 season to Robert Knight
Written by Steven Cozza
Thursday, 02 December 2004
Robert Knight
Born July 19, 1986
Died November 28, 2004
Robert began his courageous battle against an aggressive cancer in June 2003. Throughout his 17 month battle against cancer he showed determination, courage and a strong will to live. Many times over the 17 months he was told he only had a few weeks or months to live. Three times he was able to fight back and prove the doctors wrong. On November 28 he tried his best to fight his way back, but this time he just couldn’t make it. He died peacefully with his family by his side.
Robert wrote before he died,
“Whatever happens to me, all this has taught me one thing for sure, life is precious and value every minute of it because it can be taken away from you.”
I was only able to meet Robert once right before me and my Dad left for Mt. Everest but from that one time of meeting Robert a lot changed inside me. Robert was a special kid with the gift of love. I will never forget this moment at the Saint Vincent’s Church where I was able to meet Robert. My family and I were getting ready to go and my Dad and Mom hugged Robert and said bye and I shook his hand. As I started to walk away I noticed out of the corner of my eye his facial expressions and I could tell he wanted a hug. I have never been the best hugger or a hugger type of guy but I turned to him anyways and gave him a hug not knowing if it would be the last time I would see Robert. Well let me tell you that hug felt better than any hug I have ever had. I felt something really intense as Robert squeezed me with all the energy left that he had. I will never forget that and thank Robert for what he has done for me and others on this earth. As you move onto your next journey Robert you will be greatly missed and always remembered.
Thank you Robert,
Steven
Quote of The Month
Written by Steven Cozza
Wednesday, 08 December 2004
The main thing… let’s put it as follows: you shouldn’t run after immediate success. There are no miracles in real life. No pharmaceutical wonder will make you a good rider, but, having taken a short-cut once, you’ll pay for that many times. If you plan a long life in cycling, be prepared for years of hard work and wait for your reward. ”
-Ekimov Pro Russian Cyclist
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Crazy But Beautiful Thailand
Written by Steven Cozza
Wednesday, 01 December 2004
Thailand was such an incredible place. Much cleaner and wealthier than Nepal and definitely a different experience that’s for sure. The night life here was amazing. I think the 7 days I was there I probably only got 2 to 3 hours of sleep if that and that was on a bus from the south where the islands are to the central part of Thailand, Bangkok. Since I had only about a week in Thailand I decided to spend about 4 days in the south on an island called Phuket where a lot of the movie the Beach was filmed and spend 3 days in Bangkok. I arrived at the Bangkok airport late at night and immediately asked to catch a night flight to the south so that I could get there quick and not waist a day. I flew down to phuket what is known as the party island of Thailand. Since Thailand seem to be the hub of all hippie backpackers in Asia my goal was to meet lots of international people have fun with them and get a feel for there life and culture without having to travel to where they are from. Man did I come to the right spot. I couldn’t get any time to myself. I think one night out of the seven I was able to have some time alone but it was crazy how easy it was to meet cool people in this environment. As soon as I got off the plane I met a 23 year old Swedish guy named Jonas who had been traveling already for a year and was looking to go scuba diving off the island. He did not know much about the place and neither did I so we stuck together and shared a room for the night which I ended up not even sleeping. We found the cheapest room for 600 bhat (about 7 US dollars for the both of us) and immediately unpacked and went out to check out the bars and dance clubs. Holly shit was it way more than I expected. There were hot Thai sex workers all over the place and you just could not walk down the road without getting your grabbed or dragged into a bar. It was nuts and very tempting but I made an oath to myself that I would not be lured into the sex workers game. We checked out this one dance bar and it was totally crazy crammed with totally fine Thai women who sadly were mostly all Thai sex workers. Well they did not charge you to dance with them so that was good. You walk down the street and see these trashy tattooed up 50 year old men walking with two young fine Thai girls in hand all the time. It’s so funny but weird and sad at the same time. We were desperate to meet some legate women but started to think there was no chance. As we were walking back to our place after a few hours of checking the place out we ran into two Australian girls who looked as if they were thinking the same thing. The two had just arrived so it was perfect. The rest of the time down in phuket I was glad to be spending it with them. Holley the one I thought was nice and hung out with never slept and ether did I so we stayed up all night every night. The first night I drank about 5 red bulls to fight the traveling tiredness but after that my body got use to staying up. During the days I drove around the island on a RR 600cc Honda motorcycle looking for good beaches to swim at and found a really cool one with an island near by that I swam too. In order to recover from the nutty nights I went for a 2 hour herbal message, legate one. Most of the massages in Thailand turn into sex jobs but I went to a professional one I think the only professional one in Thailand ha ha. This place was cool but after 4 days of seeing and doing everything I was ready to hop on the bus out of there and get up to Bangkok. I got a night bus to not waist a day and it was 14 hours of driving from the south to the center of Thailand. After a whole night of driving we finally made it and I hoped on another bus to the backpacker’s cheap housing part of town known as Thanon Khao San (road). This place was totally nuts. I arrived in the morning to find a 100 other backpackers my age looking for cheap rooms before the crowds came for the day. I found a shit whole in the wall for 190 bhat (4 dollars US). If you know what DP Street is like in Santa Barbara this place was like that but ten times as large and nuts. There are people from all over the world who you meet. The people never sleep and party all night long up and down the blocked off street. I met so many people here an Isralean and Danish chick named Yafit ( means Beautiful in Hebrew) and Christina. Yafit was totally cool and had been there for awhile so new all about it. She went with me to the weekend market where you can by anything there from snakes to stoves. I also got a taste of Israeli food because there is a pretty big community of trekkers from Israel so they set up restaurants for them. She brought me to one to try the food and it was pretty good. My favorite food of all has always been Thai food so I made it a goal to meet a legate Thai while I was there. I was out looking for jewelry and ran into a really hot Thai girl. I was too shy at the moment to talk much to her. Oddly later that night after eating dinner with Yafit. I was out walking around and saw three really hot Thai women. I thought dam why do they all have to be hookers and kept on walking. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that they were beginning to walk towards me so I stopped. They came up to me and I was so shocked but it was the girl from the shop I had been to earlier. She had remembered me and wanted to know if I was free to do something and of course I was. We hung out the rest of the night until the sun came up. It was so cool getting to know a Thai lady that was not a sex worker but one who is in school and is the manager of a jewelry store. I found out she was 25 years old so I was a bit timid to tell her the truth about my age but I did anyways and she smiled. She was glad I was young. I guess Thai women like younger men or just don’t care about that so I was all happy. We made plans to hang out again and again. She took me to a supper nice and tasty Thai restaurant and it had the best Pad Thai I have ever had. After all the food and drinks we got the bill and it only cost me 4 US dollars. It sure beats the 100 dollar dates back home ha ha?. The food in Asia is so amazingly cheap it is so nuts. We stayed up all night going from dance club to club. She likes dancing to hip hop and I like rock so we kept going back and forth which was funny. At the Irish pub on the strip there was a huge bar fight and was great entertainment watching a bunch of drunk guys try and throw punches. I decided to not get involved because I didn’t think that Sairana would of found that very attractive. She had the best accent. Thai women normally have kind of weird English accents but Sairana had a real British girl like one. She said she watches a lot of Manchester United soccer on TV so I think she probably picked it up from that. How funny. Well we stayed up all night and than it was time for me to fly out of there. She went with me to the airport which was cool and we said goodbye.
Well Thailand was great for me mentally and I don’t regret a moment of it. I have never been able to feel as free in my life as I did in Thailand. I really hope I can go back again someday soon.
What a trip.
Thanks for reading.
Steven
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