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!