Skinny #1 Racing

I had some pretty fun rides the past few days. Yesterday was the windiest ride that I have ever done. Me and Eric rode up Poudre yesterday. On the way up, we reached speeds as low as 11 kph, and that was working hard. The wind was just ridiculous. He ended up turning around 2 miles before the top, so I made it my goal to climb to the top and get back Newsom before he could make it back. I was really close, apparently I got to the top of the stairs only a few moments after he did.

Today I climbed up Rist and then descended Poudre. Rist is always a good climb, it's a lot of fun, too. It took about an hour today, and I was in my second and third largest cogs most of the time. I saved the 26 tooth for the steeps at the top. Descending Rist I hit 76 kph, which was pretty fast. I also took some cattle grates at 70 kph which I definitely would not recommend doing, it was pretty sketchy.

I should be going out to do some skating tonight. I think Evan's gonna use some rollerblades while me and Josiah skate so it should be pretty fun. I'm working on my ollie. I can do it pretty decent in my room, but it's totally different when you're moving on cement or pavement.

Oh yeah, I am also going to be building an IronHorse hardtail, too. It's the frame with the carbon seat stays. I'm gonna use my Sid Race, some BB7s that Andy is going to sell me, some Ritchey products that I need to buy, and a complete drivetrain that I have sitting at my workstation in New Hampshire. I'll be able to just switch my disc wheels between bikes, so that should work out pretty well. I think I'm gonna try to build (more like have somebody build me) a 700c disc wheelset. I'd like to use them at some short tracks and maybe even some cross country races this season. Also, that would allow me to not even have to bring my road bike out here next fall, so it would save me a ton of room.

So me and Josiah went to this skateshop tonight so I could finally get a skateboard. The guy working there was super cool, except for that every other word was dude. He was really helpful and hooked me up with a nice set up. I ended up with their cheapest deck, an upgraded set of trucks, some abec 5 bearings (apparently they are pretty good), and some sweet camo wheels that you'll be able to see in the pictures (or will you?). So far I can ollie on the grass and ride all right. We went skating all over tonight...to the chem building, to the student center, out to the oval, and back to newsom. It was a lot of fun. I even tried some boardslides tonight, which is why I am already looking cooler because my deck is scratched. I ended up dropping $96 on this beast.

Like I said earlier, I got my semi pro upgrade this morning so it made my entire day extremely enjoyable. It's good to know that I won't have to ever do another expert race. I can't wait to be racing with the real fast guys, it should help me improve a lot. It will be good for our team too because now I'll be able to race with Justin Finn, and Nick Leigh and Eric Carlson will be able to race together in the expert 19-29.

In other news, I had my first race of the season yesterday: the oval crit. It was a lot of fun, the course was great and everything was very well organized. I raced Bs and was off the front working and attacking and trying to get something going for the first 30 minutes of the race before my legs decided to start hurting. I ended up getting dropped and soloing the last 15-2o minutes before finishing right ahead of the field, but still on the lead lap. It was a really fun race. I think I'll sit in a little more next time, because right now I don't have the capacity to be throwing down like I was trying to yesterday.

I got some of my stuff from our mountain bike team today like my new helmet and computer. The helmet is a Bell Sweep and it's probably one of the sweetest helmets I have ever seen. It's so comfy and it fits my head like a glove (a glove that was made for a head of course). The computer is also really tight because I was able to mount it on my stem. Not only does it looks cooler, but it allows me to throw my aero bars on way easier.

I should go to a skateshop to get a skateboard this week. I want to get a Zero because they have, by far, the best promo videos. I would know this because I played Tony Hawk's Underground so much that the PS2 won't even read my disc anymore. I should also be getting my new skate shoes this week too. The new shoes, along with a new skateboard should allow me to start throwing down on that. I can skate fairly good now, but I still need to learn how to ollie and do some basic flip tricks.

I got my semi pro upgade!!!!!

I just got done watching the latest episode of the OC. It was truly a great one, it reminds me why I continue to watch that show. It wasn't on for a month, so I got used to not watching it. Then when it came back on I wasn't ready because I had forgot, and then last week I couldn't watch because I was in Arizona. So this was my first time watching in about 2 months and it was a great way to get back into the swing of things.

Tuesday I couldn't ride outside, well I could have, but it would have been crazy, so I rode the trainer for 2:20:00. It was pretty long and I had my most intense workout of the year. I simulated 7 2 minute big gear climbs with my heart rate at about 180-182 beats per minute, followed by 4 7 minute cruise intervals where I maintained my heart rate in the high 160s to low 170s. It was pretty intense for this early, but it was on the schedule for this week and I have a race coming up so I knew I had to do it.

Yesterday I rode the trainer for an hour easy. Today I rode up Poudre Canyon with a 60 minute zone 3 tempo. It was great, I love riding up the Poudre. The only downfall is coming back down it. The wind is always blowing right into your face and it sucks so much. I almost always get disillusional while descending. My eyes always go all blurry and I can't even open them all the way. On the way back into town though I had to stop at CVS to get some chapstick. My lips got so chapped in the past few days and they hurt real bad. I'm not even joking, my lips were starting to kill me on my ride, it really wasn't cool. And of course, I couldn't go into a store without buying a king size Nutrageous and eating it right away.

Like I said before, my first race is this weekend: The Oval Crit. I'm gonna do a little training on the course on Saturday morning and scope out how everything might play out. This is my first collegiate road race and I really don't know what to expect so I'm going to race Bs. I hope I'm strong enough to throw down attacks and use all the tactical stuff that I've been learning from watching so much road racing lately. I really want to do well and not just sit in the whole time, but we'll see how everything goes on race day.

I knew that riding here for a eight days straight would be a lot of fun. I just didn't know how much I was going to be in for.

I guess it was enough fun to give me some pretty sweet tan lines. I also have the ankle one going on, that's not quite as good, as well as the upper arm tan line. Not to mention the fact that I didn't use any sunscreen so my arms are starting to peel pretty good now.
My bike definitely likes the trails here a lot more than the ones in New England and Fort Collins. If only I could get my brake rotors trued then it would have loved those trails even more cause I would have been going a little faster. Actually, I must have blown through about three corners that I was just carrying too much speed into and went flying out into the desert...
I was definitely testing my speed on some days, mainly those days when I blew through the corners and ran into bushes and stuff. If there's one thing I learned, it's that nothing in Arizona is soft. Even the bushes that look soft are hard...my arms and legs are pretty scratched up.
Lucky enough, I didn't fly into anything that looked like this.
Look at this cute little guy I ran into. I never thought that there were turtles in the middle of the desert, but I guess there are such things. I don't know how they stay hydrated, because there was no water around at all.
For St. Patty's Day they dyed the fountain green. It's pretty cool looking when you're there in person. It's really weird because there's all these natural colors and then this bright green that seems so out of place.
You can't see that well from this picture, but those peaks are actually covered in snow. It was pretty cool, who ever would have thought that it would snow in Phoenix.

I got Off Road to Athens in the mail yesterday and watched it immediately. It was a great movie, and I loved seeing all the coverage from the World Cups. I cannot believe Felipe Meirhage (whatever his last name is) and the stuff he said. The part about people cutting the course and how they are cheaters, while he's hitting the EPO at that same moment. I was so mad at that guy by the end of the movie. I loved watching the parts with T-O-Double D though, they were great. I had read about the race in Calgary, but I didn't know it was that bad.

Last night I was trying to get people to let me jump them on my scooter. I finally proved to them that I could when I jumped over a skateboard deck with 3 obstacles after it spaced apart. So, Eric decided that I could clear him. The moment of truth came and I crashed so hard going down the hall trying to get my speed up. It was pretty embarassing and it hurt quite a bit, my thigh is still a little bit sore. Anyways, I turned that around and jumped him twice perfectly.

I only have my chemsitry lab and then my calculus test and I am done with school! I just booked my reservation for a ride to the airport, so I'm all set to go. I've got my bike vouchers, Evan's bike box, and I'm ready to roll. All I have to do is do some laundry and pack my bags and wait around all day Friday and then I'm out of here!

After a demanding three week block, I now get my second rest week of the year. That means I will be well rested going into spring break and I'll be ready to put in some serious time at McDowell. I decided that I'd bring my mountain bike so I can ride the sweet trails in McDowell all day long. They say that there are about 55 miles of trails, and I've only ridden about 20ish of them, so I'll be pretty busy while I'm there. I got a call today on my ride from Aunt Becky and it looks like Maddie will be my chofeur from the airport to the pad in Fountain Hills. I can't wait to be riding in shorts and a jersey for 9 days straight, it's going to be wonderful.

I've been riding the scooter the past few nights, and I think I'm at my peak right now. The other day I stalled the stairs, and tailwhipped off. I can land tailwhips like you wouldn't even believe. I was also throwing down some 180s and 360s. I have this sweet stall where I go up to the curb and pop my back wheel up onto the curb. I can't tailwhip out of that yet, it's way too hard, maybe I'll perfect it tonight is Josiah gets back from Navs anytime soon.

I've only got one test this week and it's in Calculus. I'm pretty decent at that subject and I just did the review homework that I was assigned so it shouldn't be too bad...

Yes. Horses really do suck. My favorite trail out here is in Laurie State Park, and it's just this nice cruiser of a trail that runs side by side to the main dirt road. Well, remember a little while back when it was snowing out here? Well, the trails turned to mud, and the mountain bikers weren't allowed to use them. Horses, however, were allowed to. So, the horses walked all over our trails and now there are giant hoof marks everywhere, that are now hard as cement. When I first got on the trail I thought I had flatted because it was so bumpy, so I stopped to check my tires. The pressure was fine in both of them. Not to mention the fact that the trails are also covered in horse crap. It really is ridiculous. Mountain bikers have to fight for their rights to use the trails but horse people just get to do whatever the heck they want. I really don't think that's fair!

Other than that, my mountain bike ride was pretty good today. I rode up the Maxwell Trail, and then the trails along Horsetooth, and then the small road section to get to Laurie State Park, then the crappy (pun intended) trails there, then a monster climb up to Horsetooth State Park and some trails in that vicinity, before taking the road back to town and finishing the ride with a lap around the Dixon Reservoir. It was good to get out on the mountain bike, I forgot how nice my new rig is.

In other news, Josiah's been working on solving the Rubik's Cube. He got his time down to one minute and 15 seconds today. It's absolutely ridiculous to watch the kid at work. I can't even get one side of the stupid thing, and he can do the entire thing so quick. He keeps telling me that he's gonna go for a four hour bike ride so that he can say he can do anything that I can do.

Earlier tonight, we started with a dunk contest in the stairwell, before we switched to a scooter contest. (For a side note, I took a volleyball to the side of the head from some chick that was trying to serve the ball, right as somebody opened the door and I came flying out from the hall.) Anyways, that got too boring so Matt brought out his skateboard. So, to make things simple, Josiah and I are going to take up skateboarding. I think I was the only kid that didn't have one when he was little. I don't even know how to ollie so I have a lot of catching up to do. Micah is going to bring his skateboard here after Spring break, so that we'll have a few of them to play with. Only 5 more days till I leave to the bright skies and warm weather of Arizona...

So this site hit 1,000 views. Thanks to all of you who actually take the time to read this site. I really appreciate it. I now know that all my typing isn't ignored.

Last night we had a huge game of capture the flag on campus. We played North side versus South side, and about 60 kids showed up to play. I cancelled my ride earlier that day so I would be in prime shape for the running that I was about to be doing. The course that we played on was huge. It basically went the length of campus North to South, and from the library to the railroad tracks in the West-East Direction. It was a really fun game, and the South side (my team) ended up winning in about 2 hours. I played really aggressive on offense, but next time I want to play a little D and see how that goes.

Today I went on a ride where somehow I had a headwind for 90% of my ride. It was absolutely ridiculous. I had a headwind up Poudre Canyon, up Rist Canyon, down Stove Prarie, and then I finally got out of that headwind periodically when I hit Masonville. Descending down Stove Prarie was pretty scary with all that wind. Cruising down those hills at 40+ mph with wind that seemed even faster than that made for a sketchy ride. I'm gonna go out on the mountain bike tomorrow, so that should be a lot of fun. That will be my last ride before I get a rest week before I head off to Arizona for some good riding.

We are having some big poker tournaments tonight. This is our second game, and I was the first one out, again. (Notice I'm not in the picture). It's only 9:00 right now so hopefully we'll have enough time for another game. The $1 buy ins aren't hitting me too hard because I have a gatorade mix container full of change.
Harm's trying out his new poker look. I think it's working for him, too. I have my look all planned out too. Dark sunglasses didn't work the first time, so I went with the sunglasses and hood up for the second game. Next game I'm gonna wear a helmet liner, sunglasses, and a hood so nobody will be able to know...
Haha, and this is my roommate for next year. He is the only teenager in the US to have said the word "blooming" in the past year. I mean honestly, who says the word "blooming."