Miscellaneous

I would like to say congratulations to Rob (my business partner) on his new baby boy. I already like this kid, he saved me from the dreaded bonk. With Rob gone I’ll be picking up some slack around the coffee shop for awhile so he can spend time with his new family. Besides, I got close enough yesterday. Ryan Hamity and I rode three-hours and I was getting close to bonking. In my rush out the door, I only packed one gel for the entire ride which wasn’t near enough. First the legs started to cramp and then my stomach started to knot.

I took this picture on my ride today about ¾ up the climb. Normally, I have a hard time stopping to take pictures but this one was too good to pass up. The best part is that it’s only a 45-minute ride from my house in Boulder. God I love this town! Now I just need my climbing legs to come back so it's easier for me to get too.

I hope your meal was as good as mine. Not only was the turkey great but the sweet potatoes with marshmallows baked on top was amazing. Maybe I missed something growing up, but I have never even heard of this before. When I saw them dumping marshmallows on I thought they were nuts. Five minutes later her dad pulled out the flaming dish which had apparently been in too long. Maybe he did it on purpose; I do that over the campfire sometimes. Either way, it tasted great and I hope to include this dish with Thanksgiving from now on. Looking back the whole night was a lot of fun.

Well, I sure felt the effects of Halloween. Remember how I was talking about how some people might do worse after a night out. I didn’t even make it to the race! Maybe the flu bug was going around because I knew a lot of sick people. On a positive note we had a lot of fun the night before and our Amish costumes were a hit. The upcoming races this weekend are a little more important to me than yesterdays. They are both UCI events and will attract most of the top dogs. Both of the races were USGP events last year but the promoter decided to do it on his own this year. Should be fun!!

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. I’m leaving right now to spend the weekend in Crested Butte for Nick Martins bachelor party. There is going to be about 20 pro and semi-pro mountain bikers there and one roadie, me. I know I’ve got the lungs but I’m not so sure about my ability to go really fast downhill on a bike that I have never ridden before. My biggest concern is that I’ll have the confidence from when I was a pro mountain biker and try to do stuff I can’t anymore. If I make it back in one piece I’ll be happy.

I attempted to do some longer intervals yesterday and I felt horrible. After four weeks of easy riding my body does not want to go hard anymore. Halfway through the first interval my legs felt dead and I wanted to puke so I pushed through it as long as I could but stopped early and turned around. The second and third intervals went a little better but I was still unable to finish a whole one. Although it was a little depressing I know my body will come back around after I remind it what to do a few more times. Besides, it was almost 100 degrees and it felt like I was breathing fire.

Since the Nature Valley Grand Prix I have been on a mid season sabbatical. Not only to refresh the legs and mind but to get ready for cyclocross season. With the exception of a few fun rides I’ve mostly been on the cruiser. My favorite is the morning stroll to the coffee shop with my girlfriend. Last night we hit up the Thursday night cruiser ride and then met some friends for sushi. The highlight of the cruiser ride was the picnic table that you can ride. Somehow they made a full size picnic table into a four wheeled bike complete with umbrella, cooler and stereo.

Monday I set out at 5:30 am from Mike Carter’s house in Littleton for Vail. It was just Mike and I as we watched the sun come up on our 140 mile journey that would climb 15,000 ft. It was a perfect day with no clouds and a cool feel to the air. Then again it was 5:30 in the morning and you’re in Colorado. We went up Deer Creek Canyon and made our way up High Dr. and then down into Evergreen. We were in Evergreen just over an hour!

SO my first blog post....wasn't sure about this whole gig until I started finally keeping up with a couple of people's "online journals" namely garciasoup.blogspot.com/ and of course, the infamous, actually famous, Clipped in with Whitey Debroux....good way to pass the time...I figured it was time to add my input to the world of cycling. Whitey was kind enough to let me be a featured blogger. This IS my first time, so bear with me and many thanks and a thousand pardons to "DaBrew" Hang on.
-On to my cycling. Or at this point, lack thereof.