Saturday, August 30, 2008

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.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

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.