Sitting here at a coffee shop in Gastown BC waiting to jump in my first race in just under 2 months. Im going in with low expectations although I have a hard time actually lowering my expectations for racing so I know deep down inside im expecting myself to pop something big off. So far though this trip has been very fun. Started off playing team director at Cascade cycling classic, spent the night in Seattle which was maybe the best night of the trip so far, and now were in Vancouver getting ready to race. I will try to give a race report later and will hopefully have some amazing results to report. If not maybe ill just make something up. Hopefully I can get some cool pics from the trip up soon.
16
Jul
Vancouver
16
Jun
The recovery begins
Well I just got my cyst removed and am not on the road to recovery. I should be back on my bike 3 weeks from today. That will put me riding for the first time on the opening stage of Cascade Classic. I am going to try to keep my fitness up as much as possible but its pretty tough to get through the races at the level that im racing without some pretty specific bike workouts. Having already went through a tough race coming off of an injury im not really sure what to expect. I am excited toward racing cascade as its one of my favorite races and I had a pretty strong race there last year. We will see how some running works out with bike racing
So I was out rollerblading today and I started thinking about the different sports and the different degrees of friendliness between the sports. On my skate session today I came across 7 different rollerbladers, out of those 7 not a single one said Hi back to me. I was a bit more surprised to have actually seen 7 rollerbladers than not be greeted by a single one but still, come on guys even the cute girls in Boulder do better than you(ill explain this one a bit later) . Your numbers are so small you need to band together and be friendly! The second worst group is the triathletes. I believe the lack of niceness among these people comes from the lack of being part of a team and/or the feeling of being elite or above all other athletes. Yes you do train a lot, yes you do have nice tans, nice bodies, but honestly a lot of you are not nice people. I have seen more trash talking and putting each other down in that sport than in any other facility of life. There are the few exceptions who are actually really nice people, and DO wave to me on the bike…but most of you wont even lift a finger off of your aerobars. Now runners are a tough crowed to judge. I hardly see them but when I do they seem to be friendly enough. The tough part of the wave with them is the speed difference. The wave has to come way in advance for them to get a chance to return but usually if it comes too soon then its not even seen. I will just say that the runners always seem to have fun at the races and all seem to hang out together. They also seem very supportive of each other. So now to the friendliest group, the cyclists. Yes there are cyclists who don’t wave, but the majority will give you a friendly hand in the air as you pass by, even if they are uncomfortable with taking their hand off the bars. We do have our disputes amongst each other but most of the time that is worked out at the races or group rides. There is of course the few elitist cyclists who do believe that they are better than everyone else but every group does have those, there are just far fewer of them is cycling. So now to explain the cute girls thing…I guess there have been numerous studies and reports done on how friendly girls are here in Boulder and the unanimous conclusion has been that it is easier to talk to a super model in Brooklyn, NY than it is to talk to just a random girl on Pearl Street here in Boulder. The girls here just dont seem very friendly and you are likely to have the cops called on you for harassment if you even make eye contact. So that is the explanation of the cute girls in Boulder. Lame
So now on to explaining the cross training. I have developed an injury again that will keep me off the bike till the end of June. This has a very good chance of taking me off the travel team and ending my chances to impress the pro teams that I wanted to along with impress the Rio bosses and show them a good result as a thanks for all the hard work they have done. I am planning on staying fit and seeing where my fitness is. There is also no grantee that I wont make the Cascade team, however, the possibility is slim. Oh well, I guess all the injuries I have avoided the past few seasons had to catch up at some point, just too bad it was this season. I will get through it though and hopefully come back stronger. Also with any luck our team will get into Tour of Utah and I will get my chance to finally shine in front of all the top dogs in the US.
So thats my ramblings for now, ill be back soon.
21
May
BIGGEST pile ever
So every spring in Boulder there is a spring clean up where the you get to put up a pile in the front of your house for the city maintenance to come around to pick up. Ever since I was a kid growing up I have always wanted the biggest pile on the block and always would fall short of this dream. Today after 7 hours of yard work my dream was realized. I have now declared myself the King of Piles in Boulder. Here are some pics of the work
10
Apr
Im Heathy
Well its been 4 weeks and 4 days since I broke my left elbow and I just got back from my follow up visit to the Doc. Xrays came back good and a quick chat about my wrist which is still bugging me but was never broken and we decided that I was cleared. I had scheduled my appointment for 8am so I could immediately get home and go for a nice ride outside, however, just my luck I’m back inside today. Boulder is currently in the middle of a spring time winter storm with 8 or more inches of snow expected through tomorrow night. The weekend and following week looks like nice weather so I will just tough it out on the rollers for another few days.
Maybe a TTT and ITT this weekend, depending on how much I want to hurt myself.
23
Mar
2 weeks in
Well its been 2 weeks since I broke my elbow. The first week was very difficult trying to get through the standard daily routine. Putting on the pants, lacing up the shoes(I got velcro ones now), taking showers, drying off with a towel, driving, typing…but I managed to get through and my arm started to heal. Week 2 got better, I didn’t do much in the terms of recovery but I did manage to clock 60 hours of one armed handy capable home remodeling(pics coming sometime soon). So bottom line I’m getting better and I have a feeling that 2 more weeks and ill be back at it hard, outside. Till then, I’m gonna finish up a few things at the remodel, go down to MOB and ride the computrainer, swim a bit at Flatirons, and catch up on some rest that is needed. Stay tuned for those pics
12
Mar
Crash Report
Well here is the report, short and sweet because one handed typing is way too much fun to want to go on for hours.
Sunday i went down to race the DU criterium in Denver. The pace started out fast and the course was technical. Half the field was ready for the race and the other half made it a few laps before pulling out commenting that its only March. I fell into the group of riders that were ready. I missed the first break that had all the power of an NRC race. I was moving up the now small and shattered field to make an attempt to jump across to the break when the rider in front of me clipped a pedal and went down. I hit him and flew over my handle bars landing hard on my left hand. I sat there for a few seconds before moving to the side. I knew i was a bit shaken up but didnt think anything more. I got back on my bike and started to ride to the pits to take a free lap and continue racing. When i was riding i noticed my seat post was snapped and i wasnt going to be able to keep racing. As i stood on the side watching the race i began to feel some more pain in my arm and it became more difficult to move. I watched the rest of the race which was won by my Buddy Pete lopinto, followed by Tyler Hamilton and a crew of toyota united fast guys which included Chris Baldwin, Hank Vogels, Justin England and Jonathan Clark. My teammate Allen stuck it out there and showed off with a great ride to finish 7th. It was a very impressive ride by him considering he was fried and just minutes away from a week off.
So when i got home i began to think something was probably broken in my arm. I wasnt in too much pain so i took a shower to wash out the road rash that came with the crash and told my parents that i thought we should go to dinner(it was my moms birthday), and then maybe go get some x rays. They decided x rays were priority so we went to the ER. Sure enough i had fractured my Radius head but wasnt going to need surgery. The next morning we went to south side walnut cafe(go there if your ever in town, so good) to make up for the missed birthday dinner and i went to see the bone specialist. He decided t would not need a cast, just ace wrap. I still need to stay off my arm for 4 weeks before i get another set of x rays and determine if i can put weight on the hand and ride a bike(it was 70 degrees the day he told me i couldn’t ride).
So that is where i am at right now, trying to find jobs i can do with one arm, since construction isnt gonna work. Trying to find ways to keep and hopefully even improve the fitness i have right now. I will keep you posted on how things are going but for now my arm is about to fall off after all this hunting and pecking.
09
Mar
Broken
more to come…..
06
Mar
More with Kristin Hilger
I know that posting stuff about Kristin boosts my blog stats so I decided to do it again, ha. Here are her latest and greatest photos from Tyr and Scott, two of her sponsors. Just follow the links below
http://scottusa.com/us_en/team/23/triathlon
there ya go, hope you enjoy.
