Almost there...

This past weekend's race ended up being slightly different than we all expected. The road race course got changed due to snowy conditions in the mountains around Salt Lake City. Instead, the race was held on laps of the Miller Motorsports Park (a world class auto racing complex) outside of Salt Lake. We ended up doing 8 laps of a pancake-flat 7 mile loop, and I actually surprised myself with my performance. My legs actually felt like they had some jump in them, and I was able to take pulls at the front and respond to attacks with relative ease. We covered the 56 miles in just over 2 hours, so the race was quite fast. I ended up finishing somewhere around 20th, but not too far off the winning time. I finally feel like I'm getting some fitness back, which is encouraging. But the best news of the weekend was that our team won Conference Finals, which hasn't happened since I've been here at CU! We beat out two of the best teams in the country, CSU and Fort Lewis, which is just rad.

After a LONG drive home from Utah, it was time to face the last week of the semester. This past week I've been busy finishing up a big paper for a writing class, and getting ready for finals. I did manage to get one good ride in on Wednesday with Carter Jones. He had just gotten back from the Vuelta de Bisbee, and kicked my ass in a hill interval workout. I was sore the next day to say the least.

In other news, my roommate Chris just got back from spending 3 months in Africa. He did some AIDS education in Cape Town, and then worked with water treatment in Ghana. It sounds like it was an awesome experience for him. You can check out some of the cool stuff he got to do by reading his blog (click on the Trogdor blog to the right).

Well, that's about it for now. Finals start on Tuesday, end Thursday, and Road Nationals are next weekend! I'm unfortunately not going to be racing, but I will definitely be there cheering and gettin' rowdy. Hopefully we crush. I will leave you with one last thing... I found my new dream car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaENG1vt6-Y

Utah

So it's off to Utah this weekend for Conference finals. The last few days here have been absolutely amazing, with temperatures in the mid 70s. I got a few good rides in, but the legs are still feeling a little sluggish. Hopefully they'll be prime for this weekend though. Weather is looking like 50s and rain for Salt Lake City... boo.

Bike Racing is Hard

Yesterday was the Air Force road race. I got a few good training rides in last week, so I was hoping my legs would feel better for this race. The race started out well, but on the 2nd of 5 laps, Brad wanted me to go to the front on the big climb and set a fast pace to try to widdle down the field and help to bring back the break that had gotten away. I took 2 good long pulls at the front, and was able to make it over the climb with the lead group. However, on the 3rd lap the effort from the previous lap caught up with me, and I got dropped on the climb. I ended up soloing for another lap and a half, then called it quits. There was no way I was getting back up to the group, and my legs were shot. Oh well, at least I was able to help out the rest of the team before dropping out. Maybe after a few more weeks, I'll be back in racing shape. This entire week is supposed to be in the 70s, so hopefully I can get some good training in. It's finally starting to feel like spring is here. It's about time.

Where do I start?

Since September, a lot has gone on. I raced the collegiate mountain bike season, got a cyclocross bike and did a few 'cross races, went to a few concerts, went snowboarding, turned 21, broke my wrist/had surgery, and went to Moab. All of that with a lot of school in between. It's mostly been fun, but it's gone by way too fast.

Mountain bike season was a blast. I raced well, and just enjoyed the good times and relaxed atmosphere of each race. Collegiate mountain biking is a nice change from a summer of really uptight and intense road racing.

I decided that I couldn't go through another fall/winter in Boulder without racing some cyclocross. However, that required getting a new bike. I ended up getting a Bianchi Cross Concept from a friend, and it seemed to do pretty well. I only did 3 races, but I picked up the nuances of the sport pretty quickly, taking a 5th place at the Boulder Cup. The bike also served well to train through the snowy months.

Snowboarding was pretty fun this season too, although I didn't get to go as many times as I wanted to. I got in a few good powder days, and Mike and John came out again this year for our annual ski trip. This year we holed up at Breckenridge, and had an awesome time.

One big event recently is that I (finally) turned 21! I know my mom is probably even more excited about me turning 21 than I am. But it did feel quite good to be able to go into a bar and buy beer at the liquor store...

I also recently broke the navicular bone in my wrist. It happened at the CU crit, on the last lap of the Men's A race. I was sitting about 10th or 12th wheel, and some idiot a few riders up tried to shoot a gap that was way too small, and took out another rider's front wheel. It took a bunch of us down, and I ended up with some pretty bad road rash and my bike took a beating. I didn't really suspect my wrist was broken until hours after the crash. It just kept throbbing and hurting more, so I decided to go to the ER and get X-rays. Sure enough, I cracked the navicular bone in half. Options for recovery were to be in a cast for 8-10 weeks, or to have surgery and get a screw put in. I opted for the surgery since it would only take 2-3 weeks for me to be back on the bike. Everything went well, and now I have some metal in me. I got to race the road race this past weekend, but I definitely lost some fitness after being out for 3 weeks. I got dropped like a bad habit.

For spring break I had planned on going to Moab to do some mountain biking, but breaking my wrist threw a monkey wrench into the works. I had to schedule surgery over spring break instead. However, I did manage to get out to Moab for a few days before surgery just to camp and hangout, and it was still a lot of fun. I got to go hiking in Arches National Park and dabbled in some 4-wheeling with my Jeep. It was great to get away for a few days for a much-needed break.

Well, that's the last 6 months in a nutshell. Here's a few pictures from my adventures.

Preview of Things to Come...

As you are probably well aware, I haven't posted in quite some time. A lot has gone on in between then and now, and I hope to be able to catch you up on some of the bigger events that have occurred. I'll also try to throw in a few choice pictures. However, all of this will occur AFTER my physiology test tomorrow (don't worry Mom and Dad, I am actually studying). Sorry for the long break...

Start of a New School Year

The first few weeks of school are under my belt. Classes have been going pretty well, and I'm getting to ready for the first round of exams. I'm taking some hard classes this semester, including anatomy and the second semester of organic chemistry. I just had my first test in anatomy lab this past week, which I think went pretty well. This coming week is another anatomy test, as well as an organic chemistry test. Ouch. Lots of studying to do...

Well since school has started, I've been to 3 football games. The first one was the big rivalry game with CSU at Invesco Field in Denver. The roomates and I went down early and tailgated, and then got to watch a good game that resulted in a CU win. The following weekend I didn't get to go to the home game, but I did get to race my mountain bike at the first collegiate race of the year. I took 9th in the short track and 16th in the cross country. The weekend was fun because we also got to camp. It was kind of cold at night, but overall it was good racing weather.

Last weekend I got to go visit Mike in South Carolina. I flew in on Friday night and went to the USC-Georgia game on Saturday. It was blistering hot and much more humid than I was used to, but it was still a great game nonetheless. USC put up a good fight against the number 2 team in the country and the atmosphere was really cool. SEC football is pretty exciting. I flew back to Boulder on Sunday morning after a way-too-short visit, but it was a good trip despite the brevity. It was good to see Mike and his new apartment. He is definitely in a nice place.

This past Thursday was the big CU football game against West Virginia. It was nationally televised on ESPN and the fans decided to "blackout" the stadium. It was a really fun game to go to, especially since we beat WV in overtime! Maybe we'll make into the top 25 after the weekend is over... Tomorrow I'm off to Wyoming for another collegiate mountain bike race. I've never done this race, so we'll see how it goes. That's all for now. Until next time...

Catch-Up

Sorry for the long time between updates. I have been pretty busy recently traveling and such. A couple weeks ago Mike came out to visit for a week. We had fun hanging out in Boulder, going to Water World in Denver, and going to the Mile High Music Festival and seeing John Mayer, the Roots, the Flobots, and of course, Dave Matthews. It was a really hot day for the festival, with temperatures pushing 100 degrees, but it was still a great atmosphere and the shows were really entertaining.

After Mike left, I had a week before I flew back home. I spent it doing a fair amount of riding. To end it, though, Jacob, Chris, and I decided to go climb two 14,000 foot peaks ("fourteeners") west of Denver. The two peaks we attempted to climb were Grays Peak and Torreys Peak, which happen to be right next to each other. This is nice because it makes it easy to climb both in the same day. We drove up to the trailhead on a Tuesday afternoon, and prepared to hike part-way up and then find a campsite for the night. Unfortunately when we got there, the trailhead was already at treeline, and it wouldn't have been safe to hike and camp higher than treeline, so we just camped in a nice grove of pine trees at the trailhead. We spent the afternoon exploring the area and soaking in the amazing scenery. We cooked dinner, then went to bed early in preparation for the next day. We woke up the next morning at 4:30 a.m. and ate a quick breakfast before setting out on the trail. The first part of the hike was still pitch black, so it was nice and cool. It was neat because we got to see the sun rise over the mountains, and the lighting of the early morning was beautiful. We climbed up Grays Peak first, which is 14,270 feet high. We had to stop multiple times on the way up to snap pictures of the amazing views. It seemed like every new angle just had to be captured. After about 3 hours, we finally summited Grays Peak, my first fourteener! It was probably between 45 and 50 degrees at the summit and it was kind of windy, which made for a cold wind chill. I was glad I brought layers. After taking some more pictures and signing the summit log, we descended to the saddle between Grays and Torreys, and continued our trek to Torreys Peak, 14,267 feet. The climb up Torreys was steeper and more challenging than Grays, and I became much more tired than I had anticipated. But it was worth it because the views from the summit were incredible and we got to summit our second fourteener of the day. On the descent, we saw an awesome mountain goat that seemed to just climb up over the cliff that dropped off the side of the trail. We made it back to our campsite by about 11:00, and then packed everything in my Jeep and 4-wheeled out on the same gnarly road we drove in on. It was a cool way to top off a great couple of days.

After my mountaineering experience, I flew back home for two weeks. While I was there, I seemed to be continuously doing things. I got to go visit Lesley and Jim and the boys a couple times, see some friends, go to Gettysburg to visit family, go to VA Beach to see a Dave Matthews concert, go to Wintergreen multiple times to play golf, and I got to go on a great hike up Old Rag Mountain with Dad and Mom and Mike. All-in-all, it was a pretty packed trip. I didn't really want to leave, but Boulder was calling. Now I'm back in the 303 and school starts soon. I guess I'm excited for it, but I'm also not really ready for my wonderful summer to end. I did get to do a lot of cool stuff this summer, so I guess I can't really complain. That's all for now. Enjoy the pictures.