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.