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.