Busy!

Hello all,
Sorry about the lack of updates. Well I have had a busy couple of weeks. School started last week, and I have been having to go back and forth from Greeley because of the alcohol classes/community service. Finally got my new room set up here in Littleton. (pics up soon) Other than that I have been riding the trainer a lot and doing homework. Finally it is warming up a bit, the roads are drying up slowly, so we will see about maybe getting outside this weekend. As most of you know, I have yet to get out since the first blizzard hit us, so I'm crossing my fingers. Thanks for checking in!

Recap of 2006

Well its 2007 and I am in a completely different place then I thought I would be last year. This year went really well, there were ups and downs for sure. But I made a lot of great friends through it, and I found out who my real friends were throughout the year.
School last semester started out great with me finally having a roommate that didn't smoke himself stupid all the time and eat all my food. That was a definate plus, and finally the dorm room wasn't quite so lonely. Over the Christmas break I finally got myself my first road bike. My Giant OCR 1 was definately one of my best friends of 2006.
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As soon as I got it I started riding all the time, at first I rode solo then I started getting some groups together with Nick Morgan and a few people weather permitting and kind of just got out when I could.
My season started off with my first crit ever at our home race in Greeley. Definately and eye opener, and just pretty much struggled to hang on to the pace of everybody at the race. After my first race I knew I was hooked and that I really wanted to take it seriously. The very next day we had the race at the CSU oval. There was a large crash in the second lap that a few of my teammates were involved in, which made the race interesting, and near the end I passed Koch in the sprint. Which he wasn't too thrilled about because Dana passed him in the race the day before.
My next race was the Mines race located in Golden, with a time trial up lookout mountain, and a crit in nearby Golden. I have never been confident on hills anyway so going up lookout mountain was a humbling experience. Especially with Tommy D passing me on the switchback like I was standing still. The crit was fairly uneventful, didn't feel great all day but our team did well with Albert King taking second place for the team.
Our next race was in Durango, which I was very nervous about because of the reputation that all of the Durango kids have. The drive out was just as fun as all of the races, with Dana suffering from food poisoning, and me still being hungry after his throw up session. There was a TTT, an ITT and a road race all in 2 days. The TTT was very wet because of the rainstorm the night before. We were down a guy because Dana was not feeling well. It was our first TTT as a team, so our communication wasn't very good and we didn't know what we were doing. The ITT didn't go well for me seeing as I am so confident on the hills. The road race was very humbling with a lot of climbing, roughly 800 feet of climbing per lap of the road race. I finished somewhere near the back, I still don't know where, but it was a lot of fun. The drive home was very interesting, with having transmission problems with the van to blowing a tire all in the same day.

Next race was Grand Junction, which is where I had my best race of the year. There was a road race, a TTT, and a crit. The road race did not go well for me due to 2 mechanicals, and riding by myself the entire race. The TTT went way better with the UNC team winning the TTT. Communication was good, and we all worked together very well which was a huge step for our team. The next day was the Crit, which was very flat with lots of turns and very fast. The race went well for all and we were all in the top 12. I can't wait for that race this year. Afterwords we watched Corey tear it up and take 3rd in the A group. That weekend Corey made me love the song, "Soul Meets Body"
Last race of the year was in Wyoming which wasn't exactly fun. When we went to the road race it was 20 degrees and snowing, I ended up spending just short of 4 hours on my bike not so fun.
For my first season of collegiate road biking I felt I did pretty well, for not training a ton I improved every race and this year promises to be much better.

After school ended I moved into Corey's house for a couple of weeks, and started work at the International Bike. I loved the job right away and kept very busy with it. I got a new mountain bike, (Cannondale Rush 1000) and some new parts for my road bike. After living in Corey's bike Room for a couple weeks, I moved into my house on 11th Ave in Greeley. I really liked it at first but later not so much. The rest of my summer was spent working, riding my bike, and drinking.

School started and all of my other roommates moved in and I new that it would be a very long semester. The place started getting very dirty, and well...you get the picture.

I did a couple of collegiate mountain bike races, and had pretty good results with my highlight of the year taking 8th at the CU race. Not long after mountain biking Corey and Scott thought that I should test my legs on the cross bike. I spent the rest of the fall focused on that with Corey lending me his old Surly. Cross turned out to be more fun than I could have expected and I found myself every weekend going to races around Colorado. Never felt great in the races, but then again you probably shouldn't feel good when your on a cross bike. But we made a new tradition of the wednesday morning cross rides at a nearby park. That turned out to be a lot of fun, even if the weather was bad. I'd like to thank corey for making my cross season possible by letting me use the squirly surly!

This December I picked up Scott Wenzel as my new personal coach for all the cycling that I am doing now. I started my base training last month, and I know that this season is going to be way different than last season.

I came home for christmas to take back my seasonal job at St. Nicks selling trees and outdoor lighting to our local community here in Littleton. A big decision was made at this time though. I won't be coming back to UNC next semester. I am now going to attend Metro State College of Denver. I did this because of my wonderful living situation in Greeley, my grades, and the friends that I lost this fall living in that house.

However I did think that I made some great friends who made me realize who my real friends are.
So, As for 2007 I think it looks brighter than 2006 already and I plan to do better in school, hopefully win some bike races.

well I just did a fair bit of rambling...
thanks for checking in

Snow...I don't like it much

Well I have spent the last two weeks of my base training on the rollers...I'm pretty sure I forgot what it was like to ride outside. What are you going to do...I'm pretty done with the snow here though for sure. It just keeps coming down and won't stop!
Well with the exception of all the snow and riding my bike, I'm officially not coming back to Greeley next semester. School didn't go great this semester, and I'm not about to live in the pit that I call my house in Greeley anymore either. Not to mention practically sharing a house with my ex. So this made me make the decision to come back home to Littleton and go to Metro in downtown Denver next spring. Its gonna be tough leaving Greeley because I had a lot of great things there, but school needs to come first, so school comes first. Thanks for checking in

Base Training and Finals

Hey all time for an update. Well I started my base training and I have been going for just over 2 weeks now. Its pretty tough to do, and it takes its toll on your body. I think I am getting used to it at this point, so its getting better all of the time. Aside from the bike, I managed to pull of some not so good grades this semester. I don't really understand how I did how I did in some of the classes, but live and learn I guess. This obviously means that I need to study more because Im not doing it enough. Well Im off to work hope everyone has a good holiday...thanks for checking in

I should be reading

Well hello all, I should be reading the two books that I need to have read by next week, but I'm not so here I am. I raced what I think is my last cross race of the season on Sunday, and it couldn't have gone worse. The course was at Dakota Ridge High School in Littleton, there mostly raced on grass and washboard style trails. The first set of barriers wern't bad, but the second was at the bottom of a huge run up and was really tough. I had a pretty good position for the first lap of the race and felt ok, then I crashed once, it wasn't too bad but it definately shook me up quite a bit. I got back on my bike and tried to regain my position, then the kid in front attacked and all the kids in front of me were burying it just to try to stay with him, and it was a pace I couldn't keep up on. This led to my second crash, which wasn't bad at all I wasn't going very fast and I recovered quickly. With about 2 laps to go I was having a lot of trouble trying to get into my pedal after the barrier section, which slowed me down a lot and I continued to drop places. On the last lap I crashed really hard about 100 meters from the finish. I could have quit the race right there, and in the process one of the juniors passed me and another was coming up hard. I'm not sure what place I got and I don't really care, but it sucked getting beat by a 12 year old but not everyone has a great day on the bike.
I didn't really end my cross season on a good note, but I had a ton of fun with it all year, and it is something to work up to for next year. I want to thank corey for letting me use his bike all season and scotty for helping me out too. Well base for road season starts on monday...wish me luck!

Im tired

Well I raced in Golden this weekend and it was an interesting race for sure. Lately in all the races I've done, I have felt really bad right out of the gate, and a lot better about 20 minutes in. So I tried to have a longer and harder warm up today and it made all the difference. Right from the start it pretty much split into 2 groups, just about half and half. I got into the first group and felt really good for the first 30 minutes. Our group of 15 or so turned into about 9 then the guy in front attacked so the pace was made a lot faster. The course was very flat, lots of corners and very bumpy, I thought that keeping the most momentum and speed through the turns would be to my advantage. So I came into a corner a little to hot, bike came out from under me and I crashed hard, probably harder than I ever have in a cross race. I got up and regrouped only to find that my bars were bent one way, and I was pretty scratched up. I finished the race but did not put in any significant efforts to come back. I ended up taking second to last place I think.
I'm dissappointed with how my race went but part of racing is taking risks, and sometimes it comes out in negative consequences. Anywho, I know how to warm up for other races now and I feel that I can do much better next week! I had a lot of people cheering for me including Corey's mom, my dad, grandparents, Scotty, Ambrette, Corey and I even got a shout from our good friend Dave Towle. Scotty had similar luck in his race, broke his shifter cable and got to do his race in a 40-12, doesn't sound like fun to me. Corey's race was very fun to watch, we were all rooting for him and he pulled out 3rd place good job everybody, and thanks for checking in.

Jacob Haines

Well I have had a rough couple of days. I had to go to a funeral for a friend on tuesday afternoon. If you look at the picture the kid on the far right is Jake, he was just 18. Apparently, he tried to beat a train in his car on friday morning, and didn't make it. There was easily five or six hundred people at this funeral, it is amazing how many people he really did touch. I met him this August when school started because he is a friend of one of my roommates. I remember him as the kid who always made you laugh and had the biggest smile you will ever see. His parents and friends who talked at the funeral said the exact same thing about Jake. I could only imagine what his parents are going through right now, having to bury their son. I remember the last time we talked he asked what I was doing this weekend, I told him I was racing my bike in boulder. He told me, well you better win because you ride all the time! I didn't really think about what he said until today, and it really hit me hard. Jake like you always said, if you aren't living life on the edge you are just taking up space. Jake for the short time I knew you we had a blast, and I will never forget it. Someday if I ever win I bike race I am going to dedicate it to you. Rest in peace Jake

Cyclocross

Hello all, I recently have gotten into cyclocross thanks to my good friends Corey and Scott, and Mark Cooper, for letting me use his bike. The pictures I have here are from last weekend.

This is me at the top of the run up, it was really muddy as you can tell.

This is the bottom of the run-up, Corey got Dave Towle to say my name, it may have made me go faster but im not sure.

Scotty got this pretty sweet action shot of me carrying the bike.

Well as for the race I felt kinda crappy right off the bat, and I was extremely nervous. I stayed with a group for a little while within the first 2 laps or so. On the second lap, I hit a bump and my bars decided to do a little spin on me, and I nearly hit my face on the stem. I think that it held me back the rest of the race, but live and learn I guess.

As for this past weekend it was at the Boulder Reservoir, with a lot of sand on the run up, very tough course for sure. Corey rigged up his Surly for me to race on for awhile and it worked out great. I felt really good the whole race, attacked a couple people got nice and dirty and ended up in 58th out of 90. Afterwords we watched the UCI race and cheered Corey on. Thanks again to Scott and Corey for introducing me to another type of bike racing!

Golden Gate Buff MTB

Well I participated in my last collegiate mountain bike race this season. It was in Golden Gate Canyon about 15 miles from Golden. I have a grim memory from this course from the previous year. Here is a small flashback...The course consists of a very large uphill near the beginning, no switchbacks, just straight up. I got about three quarters of the way up, legs locked up on me, keeled over on my bike and puked my guts out. I laid there and collected my thoughts for a few minutes. Used a good old goo pack, finished my 1 lap and called it a day. Today I hoped to finish the race. My parents and my puppy chester came out to cheer me on and hand me a water bottle.

The start
On this particular course I had to do 3 short laps, at about 3.5 miles a piece. Right out of the gate it seperated pretty quickly, and I found myself around about 3 other people, one from CSU and another from Metro.

I was going so fast my mom couldn't keep up with the camera, she can only catch my dust

I got my game face on here, not to sure how my mom got the picture, I was going so fast I'm not sure how she got it!

Chester cheered me on of course

The Finish

I was pleased with my performance and I crossed the line in 9th place. I didn't get to race as much mountain bike that I wanted to, but my fitness has moved a ton since last year. I'm doing my first cross race this weekend wish me luck!

Its Cold

Well I woke up on sunday morning/afternoon after a heavy night of drinking. Only to find it was raining and cold out but that didn't stop Scotty and I from going on the ride of a lifetime.

In other parts of my life, I have a lot on my plate right now with school and all the drama going on in my life. It is pretty much like a real world episode in my house. I won't get into details, but I want out of my house pretty bad right now. Wish I never moved in with everybody. Maybe it will get better but I kinda doubt it. This kind of thing makes me want to leave Greeley sometimes. But I have made a lot of other great friends that I would hate to leave. Ill figure it out i guess