Well its official...

       I'm actually a certified Firefighter in the state of Colorado.  It was quite a long time coming and by far the hardest thing that I have ever had to do physically.  The hard part now is I need to find a job, hopefully I can test with some metro area departments in the coming months and get my name out there a little bit.  

       In other news I'm going to start my base training on January the 10th  for the upcoming road season.  I chose that date because I'm gonna be not as wrapped up with work at St. Nicks and I'll finally have some time to put in some serious chamios time.  After my little hiatus from the bike this fall, I for one can't wait to get back out there.  Thanks for reading.

We will try this again...The Red Green Show

How to make your bike cool

RIP Redline Conquest 2005-2008

Well this kind of sums up my day on Saturday. My wheel started feeling like it was wobbling around quite a bit, and I assumed that maybe I broke a spoke or had a big hop in my wheel. I spun my wheel and it was fine. I looked down near my rear derailleur, and there is my seat stay split in half. I was pretty upset to say the least but it happens I guess. I didn't even crash, which doesn't make much sense for it breaking but who knows.
Luckily Girts let me borrow his rig for Sunday's Boulder Cup race at Harlow Flats Park. I was having a decent race out of the gate, and then I blew a tire about 3 laps in. I made to the pit and got another wheel and started chasing. I caught up to my teammate Anthony Carcella, and we rode together to the finish. I think we were the last 2 not to get lapped so not all bad for such an untimely mechanical.
Anyway I stripped down the frame last night so hopefully I can get a new frame via warranty. I took a couple of pictures a couple weeks ago when I had gotten my new parts for the bike. So I will leave you with a parting shot from then. Anyway thanks for reading, I should hopefully hear back from Redline about another frame soon. There are new songs for your listening pleasure as well.

Boulder Cup Race Report

My frame broke...and today is my 100th post! More pics after tomorrow's races. Luckily Girts let me borrow his rig for tomorrow...

Autumn, my favorite time of year

Well fall has finally hit Colorado...kinda, (it was 80 degrees today). This is my favorite time of year and it always has been. I just can't get enough of the crisp days that you have outside. Unfortunately, the amount of time that I have to do what I really want to do in the fall has been ZERO!
School/Work, has completely zapped my schedule as far as riding, training, and racing in general. I want so badly to be on my bike as much as possible, but it just can't happen right now. Due to lack of time, and to the physical demands that school has been putting on me lately it just isn't working. It sucks that I have to rearrange my priorities so much, but I was going to have to think about my career one day I suppose. Anyway, enough venting onto news in my life.
I actually did get to race the first race of the season, 2 weekends ago in CO Springs. I didn't do very well, and suffered more than I have in a long time, but it was so good to get my hurt on in a cross race! I'm going to probably make it out to the race at interlocken this weekend, even though I lack any shred of cross fitness, maybe I will be the only one to ride the sand pit out of the Cat 4's like last year. If nothing else I am in good running shape from the workouts with school, being in shape on the bike is a different story though.
Anyway I have some new songs to check out, and hopefully I should have more posts coming. Thanks for reading.

B-days, Grand Lake, and Fire Academies

Yes I have been nothing short of busy the past couple of weeks. School, Work, B-days, has made my schedule very demanding for sure. To start I started school at the Fire Academy this past week, and it has been nothing short of a physical challenge. My day starts bright and early at 6:30AM and ends at about 4PM, luckily its only on Fridays so its only one day a week of actual drill ground work. On Mondays and Wednesdays my CPAT class, which is a preparatory class for the physical tests I will have to take when I actually start testing for a fire department. So far it has been a lot of running up and down the stairs at Red Rocks Amphitheater, and lots of push-ups and sit-ups. Luckily, there aren't many tests and it is based mostly upon attendance, and if nothing else I should get in really good shape. The only problem so far is trying to fit in time on the bike. I'm worried a little bit about how I am going to recover every week from the Academy and being able to race on weekends. But we shall see how that all plays out.
Also I turned 22 on Monday, my parents got me a workstand for my garage, and it definitely beats the hell out of the old Thorn Resistant tube that I had hanging on the ceiling to work on my bikes, what an upgrade! For the weekend I went up to Grand Lake with some friends and got to throw back a few, go fishing, hiking, and just sit around the camp fire a little bit.
Not a whole lot more to report other than the cyclocross season fast approaching, and I can't wait for it. Check out my new songs as well. Thanks for reading.

What a weekend!

     What an amazing weekend, I managed to get this whole weekend off, so I took full advantage.  So, late Friday night I get a offer to get up at 5:30 to head up to the mountains and climb two fourteeners.  I have hiked others in the past but it has been nearly 5 years since I have!  We set out early and started hiking by about 7:30 am.  It was a great day to do it, and I even ran into my former co-worker Colin that I worked with at I-bike in Greeley.  We first hiked Gray's peak, and it is a short walk to another mountain next to it called Torrey's Peak.  We completed the excursion in about 5 hours or so.  Pics later when I receive them.

    Earlier in the week I had pre-registered for the Boulder Road Race which turned out to be better than expected.  When I registered for the race, I didn't know that I would be hiking two mountains the day before.  My buddy Girt's and I registered and I treked my way up to Boulder to try my luck at the road race.  We decided that I would be working for Girt's and try to have him go for the win.  The pace started out pretty quick, and the legs were feeling good, until we hit the first climb.  I was feeling the hike from the day before for sure.  I was put up to max on the first climb.  I sat in and tried to recover, and finally I started coming around.  The first few laps were pretty uneventful with a few small moves trying to go up the road but with no success.  The plan before was to try and launch an attack near the end and try to blow some people off the back and be able to have Girt's attack at the end and hopefully go for the win.  I made my on the last lap, and had a few people follow me.  I stayed away for a couple minutes and was then reeled in by the field.  Girt's managed to pull off a third place finish when I rolled in somewhere in the 20's or 30's I think.  Anyway, made for a fun weekend, hopefully some pics were taken at the race and I can post them.  Check out my new songs as well, thanks for reading.

Good News

     Well the death marches that I have been going on 4 times a week with Girts is paying off.  I'm actually towing around about 12 less pounds than I was 3 weeks ago!  Hopefully I have the motor to go a little faster now that I am losing some pounds.  

      In other news, I can't wait for cross season to start this year, (only a month and half!)  Problem is I have to start school again soon, and since I will be in the fire academy, it is going to be nothing short of a workout every day that I do it.  Hopefully it won't hurt my riding too much.   Soon to come I will put some pictures up of the rig that I will be riding for cross this year, with some new and improved parts!  Thanks for checking in.

Lazy on the bloggin

     Well my blog has been nothing short of lame for the better part of a month.  There is much to talk about.  Last time I blogged I had been just working and starting up my training again, and I have done that.  My fellow co-worker Girts, or as I like to call him, "the latvian nightmare," has finally lit a fire under me and we have both been logging in a lot of chamois time.  We have been riding a loop up to Conifer about 4 times a week before work starting at about 6:30 AM.  It was rough at first but I think I'm getting used to it, and its been totally worth it.  With all the climbing that is involved in the ride I am getting better all the time and its feeling great.  I can't wait to pin on a number soon and try and make something happen.

     In other news I had one of the best vacations in a long time, on the 4th of July weekend in Grand Lake.  My parents rented a cabin on a private lake right on the borders of Rocky Mtn. National Park, and got a little R&R.  I spent the majority of my time on the boat fishing and drinking beer with friends and family.  We also got to watch an awesome fireworks display on the 4th when we were literally right on the lake.  

      Other than that I signed up for the Fire Academy at RRCC for this fall, which should be nothing short of interesting.  Only a month and a half until cross!  I can't wait!   More later because my computer is running out of batteries.

Check out the new songs as well. 

P.S.

Ebay

I have Ebay stuff for sale check it out!

More soon.

Summertime and the new plan

Hey all, well summer vacation is here, without the vacation part. Basically I'm working 12 hours more each week instead of going to school in the evenings. But its not all bad, things at the bike shop are going well, I seem to have people coming in a lot to visit, and hang out which always makes the days go faster. We are actually a full service store at my store now, so I can do anything and everything on peoples bikes now!
Well since this spring was the demise of my fitness due to school, and work I'm starting to ramp it up again. I made a solid start by not driving to work almost every day this week (except today.) So I've decided that I'm only going to let myself drive to work once a week. I'm also going to start doing the Tuesday night crits up in Golden. There is also that short track series in Ft. Collins on Tuesday's at the New Belgium Brewery as well. I would like to do one of those races up in Ft. Collins but we shall see.
In other news, I broke out the cross bike earlier this week, to try and get it ready for some serious commuting this summer. I was thinking about getting a new frame for the upcoming cross season this fall, but I decided to keep the old redline and put a little money into it and make it better. I'm gonna get a new fork for it, and a Chris King Headset as well. I ordered a new Ritchey WCS handlebar for it, due to my old one getting very bent in a crash at Boulder Research Park last year. I ran it all year after that, and only noticed the bars were bent when I was in the drops, but I am a little worried how strong it is going to be, so I opted for a new one.
Well thats about all I got for an update now, I'll start throwing some pictures up when I get the cross bike ready for commuting. Thanks for reading, and check out the new songs I have up on the page!

Done and Done

Well I finally wrapped up school late last night, and I'm now a certified EMT! I actually did well in school this semester for a change as well, it feels good for sure. It's going to be awesome that I'm finally going to have more time to ride now that school is over. This spring was a joke as far as my racing and training goes, and its time to ramp it back up. I'll be working full-time at the bike shop this summer again, and hopefully by this fall I might be able to get a job on a private ambulance, but we will see. Other than that not a whole lot has changed. Check back soon as I finally have time to do some better updates! As always I have new songs on the page as well, check them out!

Spring is here

Well Spring has officially come in Littleton, it has snowed a bunch, and been 80 degrees all in the same week! I havn't updated in awhile, but then again I havn't raced much either. The last race I did was the Boulder Koppenberg earlier in the month. The race was a lot of fun, and ended up being one of the better ones I've participated in this year. The course is mostly flat with one power climb that is over 17% but is very short. My kind of course for sure, I didn't end up getting in the action that much, and stayed in the group for most of it. I came to the front a few times near the end with a few teammates trying to bring the break back. I finished somewhere in the middle of the group and by the end I was pretty spent.
Since then I havn't raced much but have had some time on the road bike here and there. I started my new job at Littleton Cyclery and it couldn't be going better. I get a deal on parts again, and have lots of fun. A new cross bike could be in the works as well.
School is finally winding down a little, finals are in a couple of weeks! I'll get some pics up soon of the Mtn Bike trip to Fruita, Thanks for reading.

P.S. A couple new links on my page, as well as new songs to listen to.

Priorities

Well it has been almost a month since my last post, but a lot has happened for sure. School is finally going great for the first time in a long time, and I'm pretty sure I found out what I want to do in life. Only problem is, I have to put a lot of things on the back-burner that I wish I didn't have to put there. The amount of time that I have had to put in has made it difficult to have any kind of "routine" riding at all. I have been doing ride-alongs with various Fire Dept's and Ambulance agencies around the Denver metro area, and usually am gone for 12 or more hours at a time. Not to mention school and work all week as well. I wish I had more time to ride, but I just don't right now.
In other news, I had my first race at City Park in Denver, hosted by DU two weeks ago. It didn't go bad for my first race, considering I knew I wasn't ready for it at all, having just come out of base a week before that. I got lapped with 3 to go, so I got pulled. Disappointing for sure, but what can you do.
Yesterday was the Promontory Park Crit put on by UNC, in Greeley. Last year the race never happened due to not getting a bid for the race and other schools taking over instead. The races all went great for the most part, and it a huge success for the team for sure. Besides the issue with a security guard everything went really well, and it didn't start snowing until after we packed up all of the barricades and cones. I raced in the Cat 4's, later in the day. I got dropped with one to go and just cruised in with a couple other chasers. Not to bad considering the lack of training I have had in the past couple weeks. We had a great turn out for all of the open categories, and had over 50 racers in the Pro 1,2,3 race! Dana Curlee and Alex Lewis did a fantastic job of making that race happen and it couldn't have gone better, awesome job guys! Koch even showed up to help out as well! Also, thanks to my little brother Eric for dealing with the parking fiasco today!
Anyway, I'm still wiped out from yesterday just laying in bed, so unfortunately I'm not going to be making it out to the race at CU research park today. But on Monday and Tuesday, my brother and I are going to Fruita, CO to hit some dirt for a few days. If anybody wants to tag along let me know! Then I will enjoy the rest of my much needed spring break. Thanks for reading and check out my new songs as well.

Rocky Mounts Group Ride

I attended another another Rocky Mounts group ride this past weekend. We rode up to Carter Lake and back, and I am feeling every minute of the 4.5 hours I spent in the saddle yesterday. It was great to get to chat with some of my new teammates and I'm so excited for the season to get up and rolling. The weather was great until the last hour or so. All of the sudden the wind hit, and it seemed relentless. It was a wind that reminded me of a race I did in Wyoming a few years ago, Corey and Dana know exactly which wind I'm talking about. But I made it back to my home destination and made my way back to Littleton.
I'm sitting at school right now, procrastinating on the studying that I have to do. I just want to wish my good friend Thomas Kelly a fun and safe trip to Europe. He has said that he is going to be writing a blog, so hopefully I will have a link up soon. Until then, thanks for reading. I got some new songs as well.

Well I have finally got some consistency back in my life again. I have been able juggle school, riding and work and it all seems to be going great! I'm finally enjoying everything in school which is a big change from school in the past.
On another note, riding is going great and I'm looking forward to my season this year with Rocky Mounts. I think that I have decided that my first race is going to be the DU collegiate race at City Park. Anyway thanks for checking in and check out my new songs as well.

Homework, and lots of it

Well I spent this past weekend skiing up at Beaver Creek with a couple of buddies, and Koch offered up a place to stay up there as well. One of the better times I have had skiing in years, waste deep powder in spots, and making your own tracks! Only problem is driving home afterwards, 4.5 hours home is not my idea of fun at all, but that is the price that you pay I suppose.
Other than that I have gotten bombarded today with more homework then I know what to do with. Online Quiz today, paper due next Monday, and a test on Thursday. To top it all off, I have work for 2 days this week, all while trying to fit in riding. Pretty lame for sure, and not looking forward to much of it. Anyway enough bitching for me, I'm off to hit the books and try to get ahead of the game a little bit. Thanks for reading, and check out my new songs as well.

Jinx

Well, my last post I was talking about how nice the weather was. Today is exactly the opposite; High of 34, with gusts up to 40 mph, wind chill 2 degrees. Seeing as today was my day off of school and work, I had a long ride planned. Looks like I'm riding inside, lame. At least we aren't in Durango though, check out Todd Well's blog, they are getting a taste of what we got in Denver last year.
On another note, how about Team Quick Step? They are killing it at the Tour of Qatar and they have already blown the race apart. Here is a pretty sweet article from VeloNews about it, pretty impressive to say the least. Well time to take the dog on a walk, and its roller time, thanks for checking in.

Busy

Well things have changed since my last post. First, the weather finally took a turn for the better in the past few days. I haven't had to ride inside once this whole week! I had an awesome ride today in Boulder with my new team today, couldn't have asked for better conditions. We had easily 25 to 30 people with us off and on today. I wish that we could get a group like that here in Denver, but who knows.
On another note, I started up school this week, and I'm already enjoying class more than ever! Well I'm off to hit the books, then maybe a movie night will be in store. I managed to not bring my camera on the ride today. Next ride I will have pictures up for sure.

P.S. Congrats to Lars Boom on winning world championships today. What a ride! Check out my new songs as well, they are good.

2 posts in 24 hours. Coincidence? I think not

Well I woke up to a fresh layer of snow today,
So far I have blown off hitting the rollers and killed a good portion of the morning drinking an entire french press, and reading the paper.
Well I have killed all of five minutes trying to avoid the rollers, but here goes nothing. Maybe I will even have three updates in 24 hours...

P.S. I threw a bunch of new links up on my page, check them out.

Taking a little break

Sorry for the hiatus on the updates, but I have been busy. With the combination of the closing the temporary store at Park Meadows mall for St. Nicks, I put in a ridiculous amount of hours at work, all while trying to put base in there as well. After what seemed like a never ending week at work, I decided to take some time off before school starts this next wednesday. Some of my best friends from Socorro, New Mexico came up for a few days and spent some time in Colorado. We spent one day downtown and went to the Denver Art Museum, which I have never been too. One of my good friends Neil is an aspiring architect and had heard about the remodeling of the Denver Art Museum and really wanted to see the building and the artwork. Got to check out some really interesting pieces from just about every race and culture out there, highly recommend checking it out. We spent the next day skiing/snowboarding at Keystone, where we had an awesome day for sure. Back in the day I spent almost every moment of my free time up in the mountains snowboarding. Since I went to college and picked up cycling, snowboarding took a back seat and I hadn't done it more than a couple times since then. We had an awesome day on the hill and it was great to spend it with all of my good friends. The last day of their trip we made our way up to Ft. Collins to my younger brother, Andrew's house to go hang out and see the town. It was really good to see them and I hope that I can see them again soon.
After Ft. Collins I went to Greeley to see some friends and see the old stomping grounds. I caught up with Mark down at the International Bike's new location in Greeley. I then went to the Rio with Scott, and Dana. There is where I finally had my first Marg that everybody is always talking about. I'm pretty sure that it lived up to all the hype that everybody gives them. Afterwards, we went to a friend of mine in Greeley, and we had fun there until the late hours of the night. The next day Scott and I braved the cold weather and went and visited some people in town for a little while as well. All in all it was a great few days off, I saw some old friends, and made a lot of great new ones, all while getting some solid chamois time in as well. Thanks for reading, and check out my new songs as well they are awesome!

P.S. The picture on the bottom is of my friends, my brother and I. I never get any comments anymore, I hope it changes.

Getting Back to It

     Well I'm starting up the base today for road season, which means the party is over.  I havn't ridden my bike in about 3 weeks which is never good.  I'm mostly drinking beer, and eating...alot.  I started my first day of base off right when I cooked  a calzone this afternoon, hello delicious.  Brought me back to the days in Greeley when our training food was calzones and pizza.  Anyway, time to jump back on the horse and get to it again.  Other than base starting up, life is as usual.  With the holidays over St. Nicks won't be taking up as much of my time, which is always good.  With Christmas money and some savings, I managed to order a SRAM Force Group online.  I can't wait for it to get here and put it all together.  Well I'm off to hit those rollers on the cross bike, thanks for reading and check out whats on the pod as well.