Tuesday, April 25, 2006

4/20 and Grand Junction

Well I have not made a blog in awhile so it looks like it is time. Well last week after the Durango bike race I had a fun filled week of school followed by a little bit of training. One day I went out with Nick Lebejko and did a little attack crit practice, lots of fun I felt like I learned a lot. Later in the week I went out by myself for about 2 hours and did a little bit of tempo. That is going to be a big thing for me, helped me clear my mind of a lot of bullshit. Later that night I went to Corey's for a little cycling meeting, immediatly following Corey, Brian and I all decided to drink it up a little bit. Ended up being a really funny night and Corey got on videotape me thinking there might need to be more cowbell.

On Friday, I left Greeley with Corey, Dana and Mike to head to Grand Junction for the Mad Cow Classic bike race. We had a 6am wake up call on Saturday morning because Corey's road race started at 9am. We got up to go to the road race to a very nice morning perfect for bike racing. The Men's C group left at 9:45 to start their race which amounts to nearly 30 miles. I was told that there was a fairly large hill, so I psyched myself up for it a lot because that is my downfall when it comes to bike racing. I hit the hill feeling pretty good, and when I tried to shift down my chain came off and I had to fix it. In this process, I was passed by the entire group and it took me a few minutes to fix it. As soon as I was back on my bike I was pounding it as hard as I could to try to catch up to the main group. I finally caught some kid who was riding solo and I passed him up without much effort, he then tried to catch up with me and ride on my wheel. I don't mind when people ride on my wheel as long as it goes both ways and they work too. I told him that we should work together and try to catch up with the main group. He decided to give me the silent treatment and not say a damn thing. So I saved myself for a couple of minutes and then pounded it for a few minutes only to leave him back behind me. After my effort I had reached the point in the course where you pedal up a false flat for a very long ways. I ended up finishing the race thinking that I was nearly in last place but ended up placing 26th out of 34.

Later that day we had to start the team time trial in Fruita, which is just outside of Grand Junction. I came into the race with my legs not feeling great and hoping that I was able to stick with the guys for the Team Time Trial. We started out with Albert, Eric, Dana, Mike and myself on the team and had to do 2 laps of an 8 mile course. The first lap felt very good with all of us taking our turn and with lots of teamwork and communication. After the first lap Dana told us that he wasn't feeling great and told us that he would give us everything he had on the front for a minute or two. After he was dropped off, it was my turn in line to pull on the front. The plan for the day was that we would be going a lot harder on the second lap than the first. I pulled the guys up the big hill on the course and felt absolutely cashed, and told them to keep going. We felt pretty strong about how we performed and it was great to have communication and teamwork with the guys.

Later that night I got together with a couple of guys from high school and had dinner at Qdoba. We ran into the USA cycling representative later that night and he told us that we won the TTT by a very large margin. I was really surprised and it was the first victory of my collegiate career and it felt very good. Went to sleep that night feeling very accomplished, however did not want to get up in the morning.

I woke up the next morning with my legs feeling completely locked up and not feeling to great. I was a little worried about racing in a Crit later that morning. When we got to downtown Fruita and I got out on my bike and tried to spin and hope that my legs would open up before the race started. When the race started I felt pretty good and was staying with the main group nearly the whole time. Albert King made a move with 4 laps to go, and as soon as he left the peleton sped up and I was just finished. Everyone finished in the top 20 and I finished in 18th place. Corey ended up finishing 3rd with 4 guys from Durango, way to go man you did awesome.

On Monday night we went to a club sports meeting with Corey, Dana, and Brian. Pretty freaking boring but what are you gonna do. Afterwards we went to Corey's house to make some homemade pizza, very good time we all had some laughs drank some beer and ate some good pizza.

well those have been my past few weeks, so everybody wish me luck and hope that I get a job at I-Bike, Im really hoping for it. Good Night

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The Ride Home

well the drive home ended up being just as eventful as the entire weekend. We pull into Del Norte Colorado to make a pit stop for everyone. We find out that the car will not go into park, so therefore we cannot turn it off. So finally we get the car to turn off, but the catch is can't turn it back on. We call two of our teammates who were ahead of us on the road and said that they were 45 minutes ahead and then hung up. What are you gonna do. AAA came and said that the car would be safe to ride home. About an hour up the road, Nick Lobejko says he has to pee, so we pull over and as we are going onto the shoulder, we hear what sounds like a tire exploding. Well we were right and we ended up having to fix a tire. We then kept driving and exchanged stories about random stuff, but mostly random funny stories about us and girls. Right when we were rolling up to Corey's place some cheesy song by Savage Garden came on, funny how all of us knew all the words. Well that was our trip, and I hope the trip to Grand Junction is better. Peace

Durango


what a weekend! Well on friday afternoon I left Greeley with the UNC cycling team to make our way down to durango for a fun filled week of racing. The drive was a lot of fun for sure, unfortunatly Dana got a little sick on the way there from some leftovers he had ate. I told everyone that I threw up a lot and then I added that I was hungry too. Corey sure got a kick out of it, and probably will be a joke for awhile. We kept driving with no problem the rest of the way into Durango. On the way into Durango Corey showed us what the road race course was like. When he was showing it to us I got so scared and nervous I wasn't sure what to do. Anyway we went to sleep that night to have a 6 am wake up call because we had a TTT at 8am. We started out with Me, Albert, Eric, and Matt doing the time trial for the Men's C team. About a quarter of the way into it, Albert was not feeling very good and told us to keep going. Me, Eric, and Matt kept a very good pace throughout and I felt that we would place well, but near the end we were all pretty cashed and it sort of fell apart. I thought that we worked very well as a team for the first time doing a TTT like that. I feel that it was something to build on for next year, I feel like time trials can be my new thing.


The ITT was next and I was a little intimidated because I am not a very strong hill climber, but I believe that it will help me in the long run to compete in these invents. I ended up posting a fairly good time, and again it is something that i can build on for next year.



Next was the road race, which I could have not been more nervous about, and it was the longest race that I have ever competed in. The race consisted of lots of very large hills which amounts to about 7 or 8 hundred feet of climbing within each lap. I felt ok and stayed with the main group for one lap, but when I hit that hill the second time, I could not stick with people on the hills and that was my downfall. Anywho it was a learning experience at best and a great workout as well...i will continue later for sure

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Big Week Ahead

well the mines crit ended up very well for UNC, Albert King ended up taking second place. I think we worked a lot better as a team this time, I am feeling better after every race that I do and it makes me want to train that much harder. I ended up taking 22 with Dana Curlee not far behind me. On monday I had a rest day, followed by Mexican Beer night with my friend Shawn. We woke up the next morning with plans to go donate plasma, seeing as we are extremely broke. Probably the easiest 40 bucks i have ever made for sure. Afterwards I had a history class, boring as shit. Then I went out for a ride with Jason Karimy. We rode the Kersey loop and on the way there, we saw a dog that looked semi blind walking in circles in the road. We decided we should help the little guy out because there were some cars around. We called animal control, they said they would be there in 15 minutes, turned into about 45 minutes. We called Corey to come pick us up because it was getting very dark. Scott ended up picking us up and taking us back to Wiebking hall. THanks guys we both owe you one! Afterwards Jason and I went to Abos pizza to indulge in the half off calzones there. We met up with Shawn, Pat and Joe and had a beer there too. I ended the night reading my book about Vietnam and went to bed. Elections are coming up for the cycling team and I hope I have support from my teammates. The race in Durango is this weekend, i can't wait. im gonna go get on the bike and do some tempo, im out

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Big Day on the Hill I'm waxed



Hey everyone, well the hill climb today end up being pretty good today. I rode the course in 33:02 which was good for me, when i practiced it last week i did it in about 44 minutes. I wouldn't consider myself a climber at all, but it was a good workout for sure, and i definatly learned a lot. The highlight of my day was being able to meet Tom Danielson. Me and Koch were sitting chilling out before our race, we see this guy roll up in full on discovery channel shit, and we are like who is this douche bag?! Then this guy told us it was Tom Danielson were extremely surprised. Anywho me, Dana, Nick Morgan, and Koch went and took a picture with him and watched him start the climb of lookout mountain. He did it in 16:02 shattering the old record of i believe which is 16:55. Pretty amazing to watch this guy climb hills and just be in his presence. Definatly made me want to go faster up the hill. Anyway i have a 5:30 wake up call this morning here is the picture of a few of us with Tom Danielson. Peace Out

Friday, April 07, 2006

The eve of The School of Mines Race

hey everyone, ive been pretty busy so i havn't updated lately, but i have had a big week on the bike for sure! Well this past weekend i went home back to Littleton to see my family and help out with the new puppy. On friday I went for a little spin with my friend Shawn and I noticed that my total ride distance for the week had been nearly 180 miles! Thats a new milestone for me and it definatly felt really good. That night my friend Amanda and her boyfriend Justin came by to see the new puppy we hung out for awhile and Justin and I enjoyed a couple of beers. On Saturday morning I woke up to go meet my fellow teammates for a little hill climb practice of lookout mountain, and then a crit practice afterwards on the mines course. It was really good to get out there as a team and practice, and i hope that it becomes a regular thing. Lookout mountain was probably one of the first real good climbs that I have done all year. I figured out that I am not a climber and I do not enjoy climbing that much, but it was a great workout. Matt, Dana and I all went over to a little sub shop in golden and ate lunch afterwords it was really good. On Sunday Shawn and I went up to Waterton Canyon in Littleton to do a little mountain biking. This was great beautiful day, and just the road in front of us. Felt great to get out on the mountain bike again, even better because i was on my dad's 4000 dollar Yeti, that made it even better. (For those of you who don't know my mountain bike got stolen last fall) We had a great ride that day and was a lot of fun. My brother drove me back up to Greeley later that day, and we indulged in a little bit of Big City Burrito. The next morning I had class and that was my rest day finally! I realized that I have not had a rest day in over a week in a half, and my legs were absolutely cashed. On Tuesday, Jason and I finally got out together to get in a ride, a little bit windy but we just went out and spun for a little while. That night I went to a Jazz concert for my music class in some restaurant, fairly entertaining for sure, ended up having a lot of fun. I ended the night with Conor, we watched Led Zeppelin and passed out. On Wednesday, I got a call from Steve at the Roubaix Bicycle Co. my new saddle came in and i needed to go out and test it. Nick Morgan, and Mike from the team went out with me to go test it. The weather was very windy and it smelled like rain, but we were lucky, no rain. Well seeing that it was wednesday it is the night of drinking in Greeley we had to live up to tradition. Jason realized he blew off a 5 page paper, so he was history. Conor informed me that he had a little liquor and there seemed to be no parties around, so we started drinking. Then we got a call from 2 ladies that live in our neighboring dorm, and they said that they would join us. We ended up having a great time, and having a great night. Luckily i don't have class until 12:30 on Thursday, because it was hard to get up then! I went to class that day ended up just spacing out for most of it. That night we had our cycling meeting at Corey's place to decide who was going to run for officers for the 06',07' season. I am running for VP so we will see how that goes. The night ended up being very entertaining, Corey was putting new bar tape on his bike for him, Matt recieves enough crap from the whole team about his LIVESTRONG bracelet around his seat post. So corey proceded to wrap parts of Matt's bike in yellow tape, very funny we all got a laugh. After the meeting Corey help me put on a UNC cycling sticker on my frame, and we had a little talk about our lives for awhile. Crazy how our lives are the same a lot. I went home and watched the Big Six, the highlights from Lance Armstrongs Tour De France wins. Very good, i would reccomend it. Well i have my Hill Climb tomorrow, and the crit on sunday wish me luck.