Rest Weeks.

I guess I took a couple weeks off from updating here. There just wasn't that much excitement happening around here to write about though.

My parents were here a couple weeks ago and saw me race at Interlocken in Boulder and in Evergreen the next day. I didn't have great races either day, and Sunday was snowing and freezing cold.

Last weekend I did a ride with my DU kids on Saturday morning, then rode in their homecoming parade in the afternoon. Sunday was the race at the Boulder Reservoir which is always one of my favorites. It went alright, with me finishing 12th and making 45 bucks hopping barriers. Barrier hopping has become quite lucrative for me lately, hopefully there is an opportunity at the UCI races this weekend.

That's about all. I opted out of the Wednesday Worlds ride in Boulder this morning and stayed warm in my bed. That drive is starting to get to me. I'm off for a run right now to make up for missing a good workout. I wish there was a good ride like that in Denver. Oh well, thanks for checking in, enjoy your days.

Oh yeah, if anyone has pictures from this past weekend at the Res, I would love to see them. There were a few photographers around the course, but I have no idea who they were.

A big congratulations!

Goes out to The Good, The Bad, and The Nerdy for bringing home the gold at the Red Bull Soap Box Derby in Providence, RI this weekend. I was hoping to be able to make the trips with the nerds, but was unable to, and it looks like I was the one who really missed out. All the hard work, lack of dates, and overabundance of pimples has finally paid off.

On a side note, I went 5th and 4th on Saturday and Sunday respectively in Gunnison this weekend. Awesome courses, great weather (for my races) and small fields led to some good racing for me. Hopefully I'll be finishing this high up next weekend on the Front Range.

That's all for now, thanks for checking in.

Karma.

It's a bitch.

So I used to pull this mean prank on UNC group rides. Whenever I was on the front and saw any roadkill (which was plentiful in Weld County) I would slow up, allowing the person behind me to get real close, head straight for the squirrel or whatever was dead on the road, and hop over the dead animal at the last second. This would cause whoever was behind me, usually Brian, to run right through the dead creature. This was always funny, I'd laugh, we'd carry on with our ride.

So. As I mentioned earlier, the barrier hopping paid off on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. I started strong, too strong. I won the holeshot, lead for a little bit, settled in back a few spots and then continued to drop back as the race went on. The legs that were there the day before decided not to show up, and I kept losing spots as the race went on. With 3 to go, I was told I would get a 2 second bonus for ever successful bunny hop, so I decided to try my luck at the 4 pack of logs next to the pits. On that lap I made it over, just barely, got cocky and hit it with more speed the next lap.

This time, instead of making it through the barrier section, I hopped the first one, plowed into the second, flipped straight over my bars, and landed face and shoulder first on top of the third. It rang my chimes pretty good, but I got up and finished without losing any places, although I did run the barrier section on the final lap, then quickly left with my tail between my legs.

Back to the Karma. Sometimes the bunny hop pays off, literally and figuratively, but other times it bites you in the ass. Hopefully I was simply paying off my debt to anyone who has had a run in with roadkill, and it will be smooth sailing from here on out. We'll see how this weekend plays out.

I'm off to Gunnison for another pair of BCR Cross races so wish me luck.

Thanks for checking in.

Yesterday.

DU group ride at 9:00. I only went an hour so I could get up to Frisco for the first of two cross races up there this weekend. The course was good, nice mix of road and dirt with a little grass. I could have used a little more grass, but what can ya do, this is Colorado and I guess we don't really race on grass anymore.

There were a few barrier sections, two of which utilized logs from the front of parking spots, they were sitting on top of other short logs that supported each end, like Lincoln Logs I guess. Anyway, the first barrier was a real wooden one, on an uphill in woodchips. I hopped it in warm-ups, but after climbing up to it in the race I had visions of crashing like I did in Littleton, so I opted to get off and run. Then we climbed more on pavement, pavement descent (wierd) and then some loose twisty stuff, down to a tight LOOSE turn around some bleachers (which I almost ate a few times), then 4 log barriers really close together. I couldn't get my timing right through these until the last few laps, then a little more tight twisty stuff, a little grass, then a 90 degree left hander into a log barrier at the bottom of a small rise. This is where the excitement of my race happened.

I started top ten, moved up over the first couple laps, into 3rd by the end of lap 2. I was hopping that single log barrier, and it was right in front of Dave and there was a little crowd gathered around it. The crowd started getting into me hopping the log, so I think I got bigger cheers than the leaders. The crowd started handing out money, so I started grabbing it. In the end I walked away 6th or 7th after fading on the climbs, but 55 dollars richer. Boo Ya.

I'm off for round two. Thanks for the pics Greg.

Quick list of excitement in my life.

-Went to a Guster concert at The Fillmore a couple weeks ago. It was awesome.

-Went to Boise for a week with Jami to visit her sister and brother-in-law. Her parents also flew in from Seattle for the weekend. We all had a lot of fun.

-I did a local cross race out there on Saturday. It was right up there in the top 5 best courses I've ever raced. I had so much fun that I almost forgot about the way my stomach and head felt after the late night we had the night before. I still managed a 2nd place, results are here under schedules. There were a couple barriers I could hop which always makes the racing that much more fun.

-Watched the Rockies finish off the regular season in the best possible fashion they could have. We were at a bar just down the street and the whole place was on their feet, screaming the entire 13th inning. I'm just starting to get my voice back.

-I'm now working a lot this week, hopefully I'll make a ton of cash, we'll just have to see.

-This weekend is a set of races in Frisco, CO. I think I had a decent race there last year, hopefully luck will be on my side this weekend as well.

-I'm going to go ride right now with Eric Moore, the cyclocross phenomenon from the University of Denver.