NEW YEAR

Whew… The car is packed, the apartment is clean, and I now have 74 things posted on ebay. Martini, I think I may have broken any ebay record you may have set for “most auctions posted at one time”. I put in a twelve hour day on Thursday doing nothing but ebay from about eight or nine in the morning until nine at night… work sucks. The trunk of my car is jam packed with all that junk (Yes, I have junk in my trunk) that I’m selling, in a few weeks it’ll be empty and I’ll be a rich man.

I’ve been off the back with my blogging lately, but moving out has totally consumed all of my time and energy. It feels good to finally be done.

So here’s a funny story… the other day I was riding with this guy (I won’t say who he was) but we came to an intersection where I always go straight, but he was used to turning left. He was on my outside, and totally turned left right into me. We both bounced off each other in opposite directions. It happened so fast that I don’t really even know what happened; I just remember getting hit and then being on ground with some light road rash. My bike got pretty mangled though, and I had to rebuild my rear powertap wheel with a new rim and spokes. And my leg warmers and booties got trashed. Oh well, that shit happens, especially when you ride alone a lot, you forget to tell the other guy which direction to go.

Last night I was going to go see a movie, but as I started riding down to the theater, I realized, that riding my bike was way more fun… I don’t really know what got into me, but I was listening to 311 and I just started hammering. I rode my commuter way out east, and then realized that it was much more exciting in the city so I rode back and did some urban assault around town for about an hour… I was sweet, I felt like a kid again shredding the streets of downtown Wayzata or Minneapolis. I then parked my bike and walked all over boulder, just checking stuff out. It was a really good way to spend one of my last nights here. I’m gonna miss this place.

Well, it’s New Years Eve… I think I might have one more wild night of some hell-raising. I mean why not? It’s my last night in Boulder, and it’s New Years. Let’s go nuts!!

Happy New Year!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions.

Yes, it has been several days since my last post. Basically, I've just been really tired from training a lot, and in the evenings I’ve been stretching and reading a book (1984) that I started last week. My biggest time commitment right now though is trying to sort through everything I own to decide what to throw away, and what to bring with. Too many decisions! I hate throwing stuff away, even though most of it is junk that's probably easily and cheaply replaceable. But, I've made a lot of progress with my sorting in the last few days, especially tonight. I think tonight was so productive because I went to buy a decaf coffee this evening, and the girl at Starbucks decided to give me a free Caramel macchiato too. I normally wouldn't drink a couple shots of espresso at that hour, but I couldn't turn down a free drink. It was delicious, pure sugar and fat with dose of caffeine. After my first sip, I was fully committed to gettin' stuff done.

This picture of my living room may look like just a bunch of crap pilled up everywhere, but there is some serious organization happening here... it's too complicated though, you wouldn't understand.

I also rented another indie flick tonight. It's called "Me and You and Everyone We Know." Not as messed up as the last movie I recommended (Tarnation), and not quite as powerful. It's quite a bit more on the lighter side... it’s funny. It was good, you should check it out.

So my departure date is coming soon. I plan to leave around the 1st of January, and will be heading down to Tucson for the month. I'll then go to Oxnard, CA for February and March.

I finally did something that I've been putting off for far too long. I shaved my legs. I'm no longer a normal dude anymore... which is what I was going for (normalcy) for about a month when I refrained from shaving, but since I started training again, it just didn't feel or look right. Every time I looked at them I was like "these look terrible, I'm a disgusting slob". Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that other people with hairy legs are slobs, it's a self-image thing. Well, while I was transforming the appearance of my legs into beauty, I decided to keep going and get rid of the chest hair as well. And then, I said, "who needs armpit hair, that's the most disgusting hair on the body," so away that went that too. Now, I'm hairless, except of course my wavy, thick, full head of hair, and the hair above my leg tan lines and below the waist.

BEFORE

AFTER

If you don’t hear from me for the next few days, have a Happy Christmas, a Merry Hanukah, and a Kick-Ass Kwanza!!

Gotta recover

In the words of the Grinch, "Oh... so blown out." All thanks to Colby and others from the d-town crew. The last few days of riding finally caught up with me today. I'm to tired to do anything right now. I'm so glad I won't be having to deal with school after long days of training this year.

Okay, I know that was a pretty lame post, but that's all I got today... too many dead and starving brain cells.

Nap time.

Back in the Saddle Again

That's right, the metal gods AC/DC can tell you what I'm talkin' about. Honestly though, it hurts real bad. My chode is just not used to that kind of torture yet. I rode with Colby and Mitch yesterday, and those guys worked me... I'm pretty sure they worked themselves too though. The pace seemed a bit hard for this time of year, and we rode for 5.5 hours. What a great way to start my first week of base. I was totally exhausted by the end, but luckily, Myles and Colby were having a holiday potluck dinner party that night. I was easily able to replenish all those burned calories... with a lot of empty calories on top of that.

Today, Colby and I are going out again to log in some more chamois time, today we've both agreed to ride a little easier though, and a little shorter.




Durango is a great place to take a vacation from Boulder. Right now I'm kinda on vacation. Since I just finished my last final, I need a few days to unwind. I've got about a hundred things to do back in Boulder, but I think I'll stay down here for a few more days and relax... which for me means riding my bike five hours a day.

I forget the name of this dog, but he's friends with Psylo... he slept through all the commotion.

This was some damn good cake... the frosting was the best part. The secret ingriedients were two sticks of butter and five cups of sugar.

Going the Distance.

Old Reliable ('88 Plymouth Reliant), my car, lived up to her name and got me to Durango in one piece yesterday. I drove down here to meet Dr. LaCaze, who’s supposed to be the best muscle balance specialist in the country. He found a lot of imbalances with me, which I'm actually pretty excited to find out. Now I have a bunch of things I can improve on that I know will make me a stronger rider.

Unfortunately, I can only stay down here for a couple days. I need to get back to Boulder because I only have about 2 weeks to try to sell most of my stuff on e-bay, and to find somewhere to store the rest. Then I pack my car for life on the road.

Today, my new Targetraining teammate, Anthony Colby, and I are going to head out for about five hours. It's cold down here though... the guys who are riding big hours in the wintertime here are tough.

They also party a lot... or so I've heard. It sounds like someone I know is putting on a party every night for the next three nights. The first of which will be at the house I'm staying. I have no choice with the first, tonight should be fun. But, I'll probably head back to Boulder and skip the others though; I need to start getting a lot more serious about training now that I'm done with school and with some very big races looming in the near future.

Coffee, CoFFee, COFFEE!!!!!!

Done

I thought I'd just document the fact that I'm totally stoked right now! I've been slacking on blogging the last few days because they have been the opposite of kick-ass, and I didn't want to write about stuff that sucks. I did actually get a lot of good riding in this weekend though and rode with a slew of fast pros, including Moniger, Baldwin, and about ten others. It was a new crowd, but one that I need to get used to.

I just finished my last final about 20 minutes ago... it was a bitch, it took 2.5 hours and was worth fifty percent of my grade... Damn that sucked. The first thing I did when I got home was pour myself a glass of vino... it feels good to be done. I think I did well though. I made this semester really tough by trying too hard, so now I think I'll get high grades in all of my classes. Yipee. Alright, time to fill up another, than I'm off to the stir for some happy hour martinis.

Snow riding and more of the same ol' BS

It’s been three days since the snow storm covered boulder in 4 inches of white cold stuff and the temp still hasn’t gotten above freezing to melt it away. That didn’t stop the two most hardcore mountain bikers in the vicinity, Martini and Ranno (AKA Short Bus), and I from suiting up and hitting some sick snow packed trails. As usual I left my camera behind, but you can check out some sweet pics off of Martini’s blog at ridewithnickmartin.com. I don’t know how to link his name to his website yet, but I plan on learning HTML once I’m finished with school. Not only will I someday be able to link a person’s name to their websites, but I’ll be able to fulfill my dream of creating the best internet porn website ever!! Just kidding, I don’t look at porn…

So anyway, here I am back at the coffee shop studying like a good little boy, well actually, to be exact, I’m currently wasting time checking e-mail, facebook (new timewaster), and blogging. But I needed a break… my brain hurts. I’m paying the price for riding today now by having to stay up late studying, but it was worth it because that ride kicked ass, and I feel way better now because of it. Tomorrow is the kick-off of my finals, beginning with the hardest and most important one, Biomechanics.

Well, that’s all I have time to write tonight.

P.S. I’ll bring the pictures back soon… I have not been putting my amazing inherent photography skillz to work lately, but you’ll see… the pictures to come will blow your mind.

Coffee and exercise addictions

Someone I know once told me that “coffee is the Devil”. I didn’t listen to him. I’m back on the coffee program… it’s a love-hate relationship. The sweet nectar of the gods, black gold, or bean juice, coffee has been successfully fueling my days for the past couple week. Today, however, I think I may have ODed. I woke up… barely, today was a tough one to get out of bed, but I had a presentation that was worth 50% of my grade to give at 8:00 am. I decided to go with the Mate to start the day off instead of coffee with plans of taking a nap later in the day. But as usual, as the day went on, the possibility of napping became less and less of a reality.

I got back from school pretty early and the snow was dumping. The Grinch had just gotten up and the aroma of his French press was pungent. I couldn’t resist, I gave into my addiction, and I fired up the grinder on my way to making a home brewed mocha (or cafe florintine). Tis the season for hot drinks, and cuddling with your girl by a fireplace. Unfortunately, I don't have a fireplace or a girl, but I do have hot chocolate. I bought some hot chocolate the other day, so why not mix it with my coffee. It was delicious, but I think it was a little overkill. I tried to hit the books after that, and my focus was all over the place… I just kept getting up to eat another bowl of cereal or write another e-mail, or clean something… this must be what it feels like to be on crack. I couldn’t handle the energy any longer, so I executed plan B, exercise.

Exercise was the key maneuver. It’s what I really needed to do today. I went running in the snow, probably one of my favorite things to do. It was pretty cold, probably around 8 degrees, but I didn’t get too cold; running keeps you warm. I did a much longer route than I had planned, but that’s the best way to do it… no plan. I ran over settlers park and up over Mount Senitas. It’s hard to explain the feelings and emotions experienced while snow running in the mountains by yourself while setting the trail on fresh snow. It’s so incredibly peaceful too. This is the only way to train when you can’t ride outside… trainers are a waste of time.

I totally forgot about an important review that I was supposed to go to at 5:00. I still tried to make it hoping that I could catch the last hour of it, but it only lasted an hour. Lucky for me, it was actually really fun riding over to campus tonight. Riding the bike in the snow is a blast… I’m outa control the whole time.

Now I’m back at the coffee shop trying to study more… blogging is a great way to take a break from HW.

OK time to get back to work.

Peace.

Nor-dork skiing and Cross-maniacs

Yesterday, Cap’n Bob Productions (AKA Boulder Racing) put on the ACA state cyclocross race. I didn’t race, but I did spectate, which can sometimes be equally as fun and hard when the temp is around 25 with wind. This was the first cyclocross race I had ever been to in Colorado… I definitely want to race next year now. Those guys were hammering… it looked like pure suffering without recovery for an hour… Awesome! A lot of big dogs showed up for this one with JHK taking the dubs. Jonathon Baker also showed once again that he’s a fast mother f@$ker taking 2nd. And the third place guy was like fifteen years old… talk about talent. There were probably about seven TIAA-Cref guys in there too… they’re taking over Boulder! The competition in these parts is fierce! All the race did was get me psyched about racing again… it made me miss hammering really hard.

Well I did fill that “lactic acid” void today. Lynch and I drove into the mountains to Eldora for some skinny skiing. I used to race this all through HS, and skied every day of the week for 4 months a year… now I’m lucky to get out three times in a year. But, it’s just a lot easier to instead go for a ride usually in Boulder. I’m pretty worked right now, but the post XC ski high is always the best… so relaxed.

I worked my ass off yesterday doing HW and finished a big project, so I’m taking a day off from school today and just having a good time. School is just like training, you need rest days… sometimes I forget that, and just do HW everyday for too long and I get totally burnt out. But next week, finals begin, so I gotta be fresh before I start hitting the books hard. I can’t wait for it to be over and I can get rolling on my adventure. I’m already kinda starting to miss Boulder already, this town kicks ass. But, it’s also good to take a break from where you live; maybe I’ll find a new location that I like even better. I think I’ve already found a new guy to replace me here… his name is Bryan Smith and he rides for TIAA-Cref… pretty soon Boulder’s gonna have to start regulating the amount of those guys that keep immigrating here… “They took our jobs, dar de gar, dar!!!”

I tried something bold tonight, I sat down with a random chick at the coffee shop, struck up a conversation, and walked away with a phone number. She actually seems really cool, so I'm stoked! But the only thing is, I'm outa here in few weeks, but who cares, i can still have fun, who knows.

I just finished watching the most fucked-up (pardon my french) movie ever. It's called Tarnation. It's very good though... I've never seen anything like it, very original, highly recomended, but be prepared for craziness.

Well here's some pics from the cross race for y'all.

The Grinch and Dirty Sanchez

JHK = fast

The "Band" - I'm tellin' you, someday, there's gonna be cheerleaders.

JB

Let's talk about TEETH and the FUTURE

This morning was quite the adventure. I woke up around 7:00... I would have liked to have gotten an hour more, but once I'm up, I'm up. I sat around for a while, not eating or drinking, and then I suited up in my pro commuter gear and began my epic commute into the 27 degree Colorado morning air. I rode out to Lafayette, which took me about 45 minutes, and I kinda felt a little bonky the whole ride, but not nearly as bad as when I tried that juice fast, it was no big deal. I was just looking forward to eating later, which I inevitably knew was never really going to happen... just wishful thinking. After I got there I filled out a bunch of paperwork, saying that it was ok if I wake up retarded from all the anesthetics... sure, why not, that kind of thing never happens... or does it? They yanked out all four of my wisdom teeth, and now I have them in a little baggy, I'm thinking about making a really cool necklace out of them... maybe I'll use hemp. I woke up feeling great!! And, as the day went on, I'm still not feeling too shabby. But that's probably the percocet (drug) doing it's job, I'd probably be suffering pretty badly if I wasn't on anything right now. I'm also kinda on another juice/yogurt fast right now, not willingly though, and I'm not making fresh juice either (I should be though... that'd be healthy). I've just been drinking Odwalla smoothies all day... Those are damn good.

On another very exciting note (to me at least), I put up my apartment for rent on several classifieds and I plan on being HOMELESS for the next year!!!!!! Not really homeless though, I figure with all the host housing I'll have this year, it just seems like a waste of money to be spending $400 a month to rent a place I'll probably only be in for like 10% of the next 8 months. I'm really excited about this, not only will it save me a lot of money, it's gonna be a major adventure, I haven't had a great adventure in a long time and I think I'm pretty damn overdue. Sometimes I think that being really comfortable in one place is a bad thing, yet that is something that so many people strive for in there life... I guess it's called security. Well, sometimes security is a good feeling to have, but it's also kinda boring. This year will be far from boring... I can't wait to get it started.

Sorry there hasn't been any pictures lately... No I didn't lose another digital camera. I just haven't had much time at all lately, and it's not like taking pictures takes a long time, but my life has been pretty boring recently due to school taking up all my time. I also apologize to those who are squemish that had to see these yucky pictures. Soon school will be all over and I'll take lots of cool pictures for y'all. Also, I haven't been getting any comments lately, you should go ahead and leave me comment from time to time.

That's all.

In-class Blogging pt. 2

Well I tried this once before, and it didn't work... Blogging in class. I know mom, I should be paying attention... but c'mon, it's my Geography class that CU is making me take because I guess my high school didn't offer it. Right now we are watching a film on why Walmart is bad. Well to sum up the film, walmart sucks, it's really bad for people all over the world.... but what are you gonna do? I don't really ever shop there, but sometimes I have no choice, like when I'm on the road... I'm always pretty blown away aby how big that place is. It takes me about a half hour to find a toothbrush.

Speaking of teeth, I get to have four of my wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow. I'm trying to get all of my health issues/surgeries out of the way while I'm still in my off-season. I tried to begin training this week, but school is just too overwhelming right now. I've only logged in about 4 hrs this week so far and will be lucky to get 3 more with my surgery. Next week is the last week of school with my first final on Friday and my last final on Monday (dec 13) night. The next day I gonna drive down to Durango to meet with some top-chiropractor/balance specialist. He's suposed to determine all of the muscle imbalances that I have in my body and set me up on a program to fix these imbalances.

In-class blogging

New Team!!

I’m very excited to say that I’ve been picked up by Targetraining. This is a professional road team that's being managed by Rick Crawford, and Tom Schuler. Check out the team website at http://www.targetraining.com/racing/index.html. This is going to be a new chapter in my life; actually, it will probably be more like a new book. I’ve decided to take this next semester off from school to focus all of my energy into racing and training. I’m going all in, 100%. I want to succeed at this sport more than anything else, and making it onto this team is a huge step in my progression towards that goal. I will begin officially training again on Monday, and begin building my fitness for the upcoming spring racing campaign which possibly will begin with the Tour of California in mid-February.

In my last post, I talked about starting a juice fast the next day (Tuesday). Well, I failed the juice fast. I lasted about twenty-four hours before I gave into the need for glucose in my brain and protein to nourish my disintegrating muscles. By about the 20th hour of fasting I came to many conclusions as to why fasting is a pointless endeavor for someone like me. The main reason that most people fast, at least the people I know, is for its detoxifying effect. Well, I thought a lot about this whole idea of detox and I believe that there are many other ways to detox the body without having to starve yourself. As a cyclist, I believe that every time I go out for a ride, I'm detoxifying my body. The harder or longer the ride, the greater the detoxification. When I was fasting, I felt very similar to how I feel towards the end of a 5-6 hour ride, depleted. I'm sure a lot of you have gone riding the next morning after a heavy night of drinking. You begin the ride feeling tired and sick... sure signs of the toxic levels of alcohol that still reside in your system. By the end of the ride, you feel great, as if you had never even taken 5 shots of tequila, had three margaritas, and few more drink that you'd forgotten about. That is proof, my friend, that exercise is the ultimate detox. It's just that exercise is so mainstream and it can't be advertised as an alternative treatment in the homeopathic alternative medicine circles that are so popular in Boulder. In conclusion, my study disproved my hypothesis that juice fasting is a great way to detoxify the body. Intestinal cleansing is another possible benefit of juice fasting. However, healthy, clean intestines can be maintained by eating diets that consist of raw foods and avoid refined sugars and flours. Intestinal cleansing can be done by ingesting psyllium husk, using enemas (I have yet to try this avenue), or drinking a ton of coffee the morning before a bike race.

I probably would have tried to last a full three days doing this, however, my friend from out of town was visiting, and I couldn’t turn down going out and having a good time while she was in town. So that’s what I did. I also went out on the road bike and hammered harder than I have in a long time. It just felt really good to go out there and ride at my limit for a couple hours. Unfortunately, I think I sent my body way out of balance with the fasting, then not fasting, then going out and eating rich foods and drinking, then riding my bike really hard, then eating more rich food on Thanksgiving. Now I have a cold, but I’m jumping on the alternative homeopathic Boulder bandwagon again and I spent about 20 bucks on Chinese medicine and some homeopathic medicine to try to kick this virus as fast as possible. I really do believe this stuff I’m taking works though; I feel pretty dang good right now.
Good night

Moab and Juicing

Somewhere around 20 riders (most were pro MTBers) including myself made the pilgramage to the mountain bike mecca of Moab, Utah this past weekend. As part of Brian Smith's birthday celebration we rode the White Rim trail, which was around 105 miles. It took me about 11 hours to complete, which is not a fast time at all. I was not out there to set any records, but to enjoy it and take it all in. It was a fun, spiritual, painful, and revitalizing expereince. This ride will be recorded as the biggest and best epic that I've ever done. I'll definately be going back next year.

Tomorrow I will be continuing my recent theme this month by begining a juice fast. This means that all I will be consuming is freshly juiced juice and water for the next three days. I know, this sounds pretty crazy, and it probably is. But, I know a lot of people who have done it, and they all say great things about it. In many ways it makes a lot of sense to me. I imagine it will be pretty hard, but so are a lot of things. I think it will make me stronger. The third and final day will be Thanksgiving... so no turkey for me. I'll let you know how it goes.

I can run again!

Damn I enjoy running... at least for like the first 15 minutes. Then I enter the pain cave... but it's still fun. I've been shelled with HW lately, and I finally finished writing a study on drafting in cycling that I've been working on all week. I have not gotten any exercise all week because of academia. But now that I'm finished, I can go out for a run. I was finally able to get out by about 8:00 tonight. It was dark so I decided to go for an urban run. I live about three blocks from peal street now so I headed that way... I took the longer route down the Boulder creek path to 13th street, I took that to the Pearl street mall. I usually just go trail running, but I realised that urban running is pretty fun too. It's kinda like urban assualt on the bike... Damn I havn't done that in a long time... I gotta give the DHers a shout out.

Tommorow is the last day before I leave for the Moab Epic... Gotta get ready.

Well that's all for now.

Ahhhhhh, The Off-Season

I know, it's been like 2.5 weeks since my last post. Since then, much has happened. As you probably already know, I won collegiate MTB nationals for the second year in a row (XC and Omnium). The race was muddy and cold, which was expected.

Since Nationals, I have been on the off-season program... which consists of doing whatever the hell I feel like. If I had hair, I'd be "letting it down right now" , but since I don't, I'll just "grow out my leg hair", instead. Now, whenever I look down at my legs, I no longer feel like a cyclist, but just a normal dude, it's kinda wierd. For the first week, I did absolutly no exercise. I did a ton of homework to catch up from all that I missed at nationals, and have been trying hard to make up for lost party time during the season. Lynch and I have decided that we're Mexican's for many reasons, so now the only drink we consume is tequila... which always leads to a crazy night. I'm already feeling pretty much over all of that though, and starting to feel the riding/training bug coming back.

I'm also pretty much over running. I did a few hard days of running over the weekend, and my legs are destroyed. I don't know what I was thinking by doing such hard epic runs. I'm actually writing a research proposal that has to do with how damaging eccentric (lengthing muscle, from downhill running) exercise is to the muscles. Everytime I feel pain in my legs, I think about how all of my sarcomeres (contractile units in muslce fibers) have been ripped apart. At least in a few more days I'll be over this DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), and will be reaping the benefits of the RPE (repeated bout effect). I will then be able to run way more without the soreness the next day.

Next weekend I'll be joining some friends for the biggest epic mountain bike ride I've ever done. In honor of Brian Smith's 30th birthday, we will be doing the White Rim trail with a little bit extra in Moab, UT. Why is this ride so epic? It's 120 miles of mountain biking... so somewhere around 12 hours of riding. Also the guys that are doing it are all fast pro mountain bikers, so it won't neccesarily be an easy pace. Yesterday was my first time wearing chamois' since collegiate nationals. I went out for about a 2 hour ride and by the end of it I was wasted. It kinda made me a little worried about next weekend... which will be like six times longer at a much higher pace. My guess is that many of the other guys on the ride will be in my same boat though, seeing that it is the off-season for most everyone except crossers. I'll be fine.

Well time to do some HW and start my week!!

Cheers to Monday!!

My new home

Grinch and I finally found a new home after about two and a half weeks without running water while the filth and stinch in our house was growing out of control. We now live in the best location I could have possiblly asked for. I love it. The place isn't too big, but Lynch and I are easy going enough that I don't think it'll be a problem.

Here's a picture of my good friend Eric and I from collegiate nationals last year after the short track. From the forcast, it soounds like it's gonna be another mudfest. I actually jsut heard that they have 6 inches of fresh snow... Hell Yeah!!! That's gonna be fun!!

I've been taking it super easy lately in preparation for nationals and have been doing as much as I can to be physically and mentally prepared for this race. It looks like its been raining like crazy out there, which actaully makes me very happy. Most of my competition hates it when the ground gets wet, but being from Minnesota, where I did just as many mud races as dry races, I love it.

I'm flying out there early tomorrow morning so I probably won't update this until next week. But, you can try to keep up with results and stuff at either velonews.com, cyclingnews.com, or usacycling.org.

Here's a picture of my old shack, and a picture of my new living room (no furniture, only bikes.)

Ok, this is for real.

First of all, I apologize to anyone who I care about that had to read that smut in my last post... sorry mom, pop, etc., It was a joke that had to do with the races at FLC this last weekend... I won't explain this any further on here because I don't really care about it anymore.

I've deleted it because it doesn't belong on here, but thanks for the respones!!

Now, back to the good ol' boring posts of old, where I write about my trips, racing, fun stuff I did, etc.... I'll try not to sound too cocky.

Last weekend Big D (Ranno) and I rolled down to do Durango for the collegiate conference final MTB races. Saturday was the short track, and sunday was the XC. I had a bad day in the STXC and pulled out. I was still pretty stoked with how the day turned out though, because the Diesel (Ranno) put it in a huge gear and powered away for the win. My day was on sunday in the cross country. I rode the first two laps with an FLC rider (I'll protect your anonymity) and felt comfortable at the pace he was setting. But by the third lap I pulled away. By the end of the third lap I was caught by another FLC rider who attempted to attack me quickly after catching me. I stuck his wheel, we exchanged some words, I faught hard to get back in front of him, and I eventually rode away to take the win.

With That being the final race in the rocky mountain conference, I now have a little less than two weeks to prepare for Nationals in Seven Springs, PA. You don't know how excited I am for this race... for many reasons.

I will try keep you updated with some more exciting news in the coming days that will surely uplift your spirits and make you a better, happier person.

Have a wonderful day.

Stinky

This has been an interesting week. The water pump at our house decided to die, so we've been without water for about a week now. What does that mean? That means we can't wash dishes, so we have gigantically huge pile of dirty dishes rotting in the kitchen. We have to drive to the gas station to perform our morning rituals... And I always feel guilty and obligated to buy something that I don't need. And now we have to move into a new place. The timing is not the best for moving since I have muchas exams this week, and I'm also heading down to Durango for the final conference MTB race this coming weekend. I'll just pretend that I'm camping for a while... I love camping, it'll be fun!!

I had another good weekend, at least half of it. Friday night I went to see Mike Doughty (ex Soul Coughing singers new band) at the Fox Theater. It was a really good show... that guy rocks!! I was out pretty late, but I still got enough sleep for Sunday's beat down session. The XC course at Golden Gate park is more technical and rough than any xc course I've ever been on... I'm totally worked. I raced the TT in the moning and the XC a couple hours later. I won both races, the TT by only 6 seconds ahead of Ranno, and the XC I was ten or fifteen minutes ahead of 2nd. Luckily I walked away without any serious injuries, but I definitely had some close calls and one of my worst crashes of the season... I totally went over the bars and did a face plant into some lapped rider I was trying to pass and landed on my chest and belly. This was near the end of the race luckily, but for some reason it triggered my legs to cramp a couple minutes later on the final climb... This was very strange because I've never cramped (except for my lower back) in my entire life, so I had no idea what it felt like until then. I didn't know what was happening so I started punching my legs, and that actually seemed to help... I think. I walked away with a really cool trophy (picture) that the creative minds of the CU Cycling team built. This is a classic suspension fork, one of the first, probably around 15 years old. I wonder if I can ebay it??

Also, I am talking to a couple of pro road teams right now, and my prospects are looking really good. I'll talk more about soon hopefully, when I learn more details.

Golden Gate and Stuff

I've been slammed this week with school. I was up til 1:30 am last night writing a paper and getting a presentation ready that I had to give at 8:00 am this morning. I'm pretty tired to say the least. I've got a couple of exams next week, which is also fall break week (we get thursday and friday off). I'm debating whether or not to go out tonight.. some friends of mine are having a joint Birthday Party, but it's freezing out right now, and riding from my house could be pretty painful.

Saturday is the CU home race at Golden Gate state park. I went up there last weekend to preride, and the course is sick. both pictures are from last sunday. There's going to be a TT in the morning and an XC in the afternoon, so it'll be a hard day. I'm also going to see Mike Doughty at the Fox Theatre on Friday night. It should be a good time. I'll let you know how it all goes in a few days.

My head hurts real bad!!

By the looks of these pictures you can probably tell that I had a good time last night. Here's a classic Bama shot with his favorite brew, PBR. I can't decide whether he looks like a fighter pilot from Star Wars or Rick Moranis from Ghostbusters.


We got Collin good!! Duct tape is always a good weapon to have with you at a party.

Ranno gettin' shitty.

The Grinch (my roommate) diggin' for gold.

Collegiate Racing Rulez!!!

That's me, then Matt Shriver (the current short track national champ), and some other FLC punk.

Last weekend was my first collegiate race of the season. I was reminded how much fun collegiate racing is. The trip started about 2 hours later than scheduled... pretty typical. We stopped at Qdoba, the best food from here to GJ on I-70, and damn that stuff works wonders. We rolled into GJ around 11:30 and stoped at the Mesa states coach's place where we were staying. I could not believe how many people we fit into his place. It was a 2-bedroom apartment, and we managed to fit 23 people in it. When everyone was in their bags, you couldn't even see the floor... we were packed in there like sardines... sleep was very minimal. However, that didn't seem to affect my racing this weekend. I crushed the short track... setting the entire pace and eventually riding every last man off my wheel.

The XC went pretty much the same way, I rode away from everyone very early in the race, and had about a one minute lead on 2nd place until I bent my front deraileur on a rock. I had to get off my bike numerous times to try to bend it back. I was eventually caught by Hagman, who I battled with until the very end were he outsprinted me to the final DH singletrack to the finish... he beat me by about five seconds. It was a little frustrating to feel like I had it in the bag at one point in the race, and to have mechanical issues take that away from me... but that's racing, and it happens to everyone. At least I know what I'm capable of. I was able to prove to myself and everyone else that I can win nationals again in October.

I won't be racing this coming weekend... instead, I'll be having a party at my place friday night, and I plan to do another epic ride in Nederland on Sunday. The next race for me will be the CU home race in a week and a half. That's about all that is exciting right now. Oh yeah, I ordered a new digital camera... so my site will get a little better once I start using that.

Epic Rides, Tests, Wine and Cheese

So of course a lot has happened since the last time I posted, but I only have time and motivation to write about the best parts of the last four or five days. My weekend (Friday night) began with a bang accompied by Kelly and a little captain morgan... because of this my Saturday wasn't very eventful. But Sunday... Sunday was EPIC. I caught the 10:10 am bus up to Ned and rode until 6:30 pm. The majority of the time I was riding some of the most techy trails I've ridden in a while. I rode with some really good riders (Ariel and Botsy to name a couple), and they were on their cushy 4-6 inch travel Mavericks, while I was on my hard-tail. Because of this I tweaked my shoulder again a little. However, I think it'll hold up for another month and a half until collegiate nats. I was able to hang with these guys on most everything, except for the sections with the big drops. We stopped about five hours into the ride at a bar on the peak-to-peak highway for a couple of pitchers of beer, that was fun, but I was starting to get to the point of just wanting to go home and eat/shower/sleep/etc. After refueling, we shredded some more sick trails almost all the way back to Boulder. (Sorry to those who don't know the Boulder area at all, because you probably have no idea what I'm talking about).

Exams have begun!! I had one yesterday, and one today. The first exams of the first semester of the year are always the most stressful, but I think I did pretty good on them. I'm done with these for about a week, then I get to take some more... YES!!

This coming weekend I will be making my 2005 debut collegiate race in Grand Junction. I've been mainly resting since the 24 hour race (not any intensity or much riding for that matter), so I'm not really sure how I'll feel, but I'm feeling motivated and that's the most important thing. I'm mainly just not looking forward to the traveling, I need like a much longer break than a couple weeks to get me stoked on travelling again.

Tonight, Kelly and I will be acting like sofisticated mature adults and will be attending a wine and cheese party at Chris Jung's house. Wow, I can't believe I just put Chris Jung, sofisticated, and mature in the same sentence. Honestly, I don't know what the hell a wine and cheese party is supposed to be all about, I think it's just another excuse to booze it up... but hey, I like wine, and I like cheese, so why not put them together and pretend we're french!!

I'll try to keep y'all updated as cool and uncool things continue to happen in my life.

Glabal 24 hour champions!!

Yep, we won the Global 24 race in Granby, CO last weekend. It was very close battle between us and Trek/VW. In the end we ended up winning by only 6 minutes. It was actaully really fun too... especially when looking back on it, seeing that it has almost been a week. I actually enjoyed myself the most at night. The course was, overall, pretty boring, but at night it turned ito some of the sickest, fastest singletrack I've ever ridden. Also, when I would pass people at night, I felt like I was going faster than I've ever ridden a bike. Everyone on the team kicked ass, Especially Georgia, who did four laps at night, and only two in the day.. and she also posted a couple lap times that were almost as fast if not faster than some of our guys slower times. We couldn't have won if it were not for her boyfriend, Dusty, either. That dude made my breaks in between laps much more bearable, and he totally kept up on everything, so we didn't need to really think or do anything. Not only did I walk away with a $4000 ($1000 a piece), I also left knowing how to suffer a little harder, and made freinds with some really great people. FOr how hard this was at the time, and for how much I wasn't enjoying it at the end, I think I'll definately try do another one someday, especially if there is a large purse... shit, maybe I'll even try doing a solo 24 sometime.

Keystone and sleep

Hey y'all,

I haven't posted for a while due to being pissed off cause I lost my camera... but I've started to accept the fact that there's nothing I can do about it, and I'm just goning to get a new one, mainly cause I need it for Ebay.

I raced the Mountain states cup final in Keystone yesterday, and it went pretty good. I ended up third, I felt okay on the climbs, and really good on the decents (finally... it took me all season). All in all, I was pretty happy with it.

I think my string of bad luck finally came to an end because this last week has gone very very damn well. I haven't been getting barely any sleep lately though, so I'll have to try to get caught up before th 24 hour race this weekend.

Tomorrow I'm goin' night riding... I'm psyched!!

That's all for now. Good night.

What else??

Arrrrgh.... What's going on???? Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse this week, I lose my brand new digital camera. I am totally bumming about that one. Somehow, it fell out of either my pocket, or my backpack on the plane or at my gate while I was flying home today. I am really glad I didn't go to Vegas this weekend instead. Well, unless I luck out, and my camera shows up in lost and found, I probably won't be posting any pictures on here for a little while, until I sell enough stuff on ebay to make me feel justified in buying a new one. The thing is, I need a digital camera in order to sell on ebay... well, I'll figure something out.

Bad Luck and Mount Snow

This week, my luck could have been a bit better. All of the misfortune began early Thursday morning, the day that I departed for Vermont. I should’ve set my alarm 10 minutes earlier. Because of this small mistake, my whole morning turned to disaster. I was supposed to catch the bus at 6:30 am to make it to the airport leaving me with about 2 hours to spare. I just missed the bus though, so I had to catch the next one at 7:30. I thought this would be ok; I’d just have to rush when I got the airport. I also realized that I hadn’t pick up my new student ID and bus pass that I pay for with my student fees, so I had some time and decided to go up to campus to try to get those. It was obviously way too early for anyone to be working the ID card office, so I got shut down there. I then decide to call some people, and the only one up that early was my physical/massage therapist Eric. He loaned me his bus pass. Great, I thought. When I tried to get on the bus, the driver decided to closely examine my ID and Eric’s bus pass… BUSTED!! He confiscated my both of them, and I still had to pay the $10 bus fee. When I arrived at the airport I had to make up a story that Eric was an old man and that it would be hard for him to make it to the bus station to reclaim his ID. It worked, and I got it back… That was a relief; I thought my troubles were over…. Nope. When I tried to check my bags in, I was told that I was too late (I was still 40 minutes away from departure). The check-in lady told me that I could take all my bags as carry-on, so I tried to do that. Bad idea. As a cyclist, I carry a lot of things with me that security considers weapons. Before I made it through security, I was told that I could only have two carry-on bags. So then I had to try to combine all of my belongings into two bags… I did it, but those bags were so full they were about to explode. Going through security, I had to empty out all of my stuff. They confiscated my Crank Brothers multi-tool, the pocket knife I keep on my keychain, and the most threatening to them, my CO2 cartridge. The CO2 cartridge was the final cause of my missing the flight. Because of the CO2, I had to be escorted to a room and wait for about 10 minutes while they filled out paperwork, and I had to sign a few documents. Now I’m on record as a person who has brought weapons into the airport, and probably a suspected terrorist. Next I had to go back and change my flight. I was very nearly screwed. The Lady at check in told me that since I booked my flight through Hotwire.com, I would have to pay $300 to change my flight. I gave her some of the most intense puppy-dog eyes I’ve ever had to, anymore and there would be tears coming down my face. So, she felt sorry for me, pulled some strings, and allowed me to change my flight, but for $100. That still sucked, but I wouldn’t have even gone if I had to pay $300. Well, I was able to change to a flight that still put me in Albany at the same time as before.

On to the race recaps. I felt amazing in the XC. Finishing up lap two of the XC I was sitting around 15th place and feeling great. Unfortunately, my rear tire flatted. I tried to fill it with my C02, hoping that my Stan’s would seal, but that was a waste of time, and my C02. I then had to wait of for someone to toss me a C02, and eventually I got one. I put in a tube and got it going again, but I had easily lost about 10 minutes by then. After all this, I was out for blood, and still felt crazy fast. I was passing people back left and right, and eventually moved back up to around the top 25 by the end of the last lap, and then the second flat happened. Again, I had to beg racers to hook me up with a tube and C02. I finally got the goods, and fixed it, but lost about another 6-8 minutes in the whole process. I felt the best that I have felt all year, but good fortune was not on my side. At least I got the feeling back that I’ve been missing all season and I think I’ll be kicking ass for the rest of the year. No one else from Colorado had exceptional finishes… the east coast is a different world than the west. Ross Schnell was up there with me, but he also double flatted, Hagman was riding strong, but bonked hard on the last lap, and Ranno (Diesel) broke his chain (what’s new).

The STXC went alright, I got 19th, Cody (my teammate) got 15th, and Shriver (My other teammate) got 12th, his best STXC finish.

Tomorrow, I’m flying back and getting back into the swing of school… not to pumped about that. I am looking forward to racing Keystone next weekend, and hopefully can be riding at the same level that I had this weekend.

Until next time.

School and racing

Going to school and racing bikes is a stressful combination. I've been pretty worked this week from the first week of school, and have not been riding much, except for back and forth to school, I'm all of a sudden feeling like ten times busier than I was this summer.

Tomorrow I'm getting up early to catch my flight out to Mt. Snow. It's gonna be a long day of traveling, but it will also be a good oppurtunity for me to get caught up in school (yep, I'm already behind and it's only the third day).

I looks like We've finally put togther a full team for the Global 24 hour race in Granby, CO. Our team is going to be Cody Peterson, Eric Ransom, Georgia Gould, and me. I'm very excited about this team, all these people are really strong, and I think we have a good shot at winning. Again, We are looking for support people, and we will pay around $100 for your help. Also, leave me some advice on 24 hour racing if you have any. I'll try to keep you updated from the road.

Snowmass...

Another weekend of racing before I head out to Mount Snow. The competition was thick this weekend... which is nothing new for a local race in Colorado. The fun took place in Snowmass, CO today on a hard course with lots of climbing and some rough singletrack decents that required use my entire body. The race started with Walker Fergusen killing it from the start with Brian Smith, Nick Ranno, Schnell, Hagman and I chasing. Ranno rode really strong pulling away from all of us for second, Schnell held onto third, HAgman flatted, and I came in fourth. I felt ok, but far from great... oh well though, fourth is pretty good for feeling shitty. Hopefully I can get myself togther for Mt. Snow and bust out a good result. Well, now I'm debating whether I should go out and enjoy the Boulder night life on the last night of summer before school starts... I'm tired and I should recover for Mt. Snow, but I'm also single now, so I should bust out of my shell and have some fun damnit. Well... Hopefully Ranno doesn't puss out, cause I'm game!!
Here's some pics from the race. The top one (from left to right) Cory Collier (probably drinking), Ross Schnell (eating Watermelon), Brian Smith (getting psyched), Me (picking my nose). Below pictures: Me, racing. The pro field lining up for the start. I think in this picture at the time Ranno was rocking out to the Metalica that was playing in the background, I was looking at Walker's hairy legs, and Doug Ryden was thinking about something funny.
Until next time....

Flaggstaff Tuesday!!

Today I did a TT up FLagstaff, one of the best climbs ever. It's about a 25ish minute climb and I ussually do this once a week as my hard ride. I felt okay going up it today, but my time was about a minute slower than my record... I wasn't really expecting to break any records today though. My time was pretty average. I felt awesome on the descent though.

The big news right now for me is that I'm flying out to Vermont next week for the Norba Finals at Mt. Snow. I hope to do really well out there. Most of my best results have been at lower elevation, and I love east coast singletrack, so I'm pretty excited about this one. However, school starts next week also... I'm all of a sudden not feeling ready to go back to school, to much other stuff happening in my life right now. But, that's how it always is, and then I adjust.

In other news, I am tenetively planning on doing the Kona Global 24 hour race in Granby, CO (near Winter Park) on Sept. 10th. I was going to be on a team with Nick Martin and Tristen Shouten on the Trek team for that, but instead Cody Peterson and Matt Shriver, my 3D teammates are pretty sure they want to do it, so we are trying to organize. We are definitely going to have a race on our hands with teams as strong as these two. We are also looking for a girl to ride for us. Teams are supposed to have 3 guys and one girl. If anyone has any experience racing 24 hour races, any advice/info/etc. would be greatly apreciated, as I am a rookie. We are also looking for people to support us at the race, and we will be paying our support people.

Well, it's time to be productive.

Here are a couple of race pics from the Angel Fire World Cup. I didn't have any race pics on here yet, so I thought I'd add some. Yeah, really, that's me rocking my 3D!!

Racing as usual

I set my alarm early for today at 6:30 because I was going to go race the ACA state championship MTB race at Keystone. Keystone's only about 1.5 hours away from Boulder, so I decided to skip preriding and just chill at home and sleep in my own bed on friday. When I woke up it was raining and dreary, and I was considering bagging it and just staying down here like a weak little pussy. Well, I took my chances and it was beautiful up there. On my way I stopped for some coffee that later led to a near disaster in my pants and some evasive manuevers in my car to make a sudden stop at the nearest shitter. Nothing like getting jacked on coffee and losing a few pounds from it to make you feel like racing. I was able to to get a pretty good warm up in, and was checking out the competition. Mainly a bunch of ACA roadies and the Austrailian junior and U23 national team. The race started out well for me. I dropped everyone right away and built up to a 2 minute lead on 2nd place. I held onto my lead for almost the entire race, but ended up losing a water bottle and was not able to eat anything which lead to me bonking. Jonathon Baker (fast roadie guy thats been tough to beat all year in all disciplines) caught me at the top of the climb on the last lab which resulted the race coming down to a dual downhill race to the finish. He got ahead of me in the singletrack and I was never able to pass him. I ended up coming in second. After the race I headed straight to my favorite Burrito joint in Boulder, Illegal Pete's. If you don't know this already, Burritos are the shit!! They are the best food for recovery out there... Just ask Tommy D, he writes about them in every journal entry he lists. But sorry Tom, the Durango burritos that you speak so highly of are crap compared to what we have here in Boulder. Well that's all for tonight. I forgot to put the battery in my camera today, so no new pictures. But don't you worry, there will be many to come soon. Thanks for reading.

This is my Dean from last year. I posted this picture cause I'm trying to figure out how to post pics. The bike is currently for sale. I'm asking $2999. This was a sweet ride... it's a little hard to part with. 

My first post

Hey anyone??? This is my first post to the blogspot, so I don't really no what the hell I'm doing yet. Soon, this site will be badass though. Props to my hommie Nick Martin for turning me onto this and Ebay of course, the struggling pro cyclist's way of making a salary.