Something Different

I have been thinking lately of doing a triathlon. Or even a duathlon. I can't swim very well or run, but I think I could make it up on the TT. I have been thinking of even switching to running, I kinda enjoy it. It is something different so that is why I like it. Maybe I will just be a body builder. Alot has been going through my mind lately, so we'll see what happens. I have become El Gordo, That's not good.

A Day.

Yeah, I know I haven't written anything for what feels like forever. It's because I really don't have much to say. I guess I can tell you what I do everyday, 6 days a week. Here we go-
5:00am-Wake up, eat breakfast, drink 12 cups of coffee, take a shower, go to work.
6:00am-Sign in at work, make some coffee, start the inserter. If you don't know what a inserter is, it is a big machine that folds,stuffs,seals and stamps 7,500 cards an hour.
6:30am-Start cutting the cards to get ready for the inserter.
7:00am-Start loading the inserter and run it.
12:00pm-Take a lunch.
12:30pm-Sign back in.
1:00pm-run the inserter again.
3:00pm-Get off work and go for a ride before it gets dark at 5:00pm.
5:30pm-Go to the gym.
7:00pm-Eat dinner.
8:00pm-Go to bed.
Pretty crazy.

Back.

I am back on the bike. Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh and it feels good.

New Ride.

Work

I have been very busy the last 2 weeks at work. I am putting in anywhere from 9-16 hrs days. I have 31 hrs of overtime. That gives you an idea of how busy it gets. I found out that I am going to Chicago for a few days to learn a new machine we are getting. This machine cuts and stuffs 5,000 cards an hour. The nice thing is that they pay for everything. Flight, food, hotel...
I haven't done much besides work. I haven't ridden the bike since the State Hillclimb and it feels good. I have been eating alot gaining some weight. Good stuff.
chao

Done

I have been really busy with my new job. It's a sweet job. I work at a company called SendOutCards.com. Check it out, send someone a card of something. I am done with blogging. I just have nothing to say. Nothing much is going on right now. I might even be done with racing...

LOTOJA

What a long day. I got 10th place, 9 hrs 36 min. Nice job to Cameron, Kirk and Nate.

Another Long Day.

So today I did the ride the other direction (read last blog). And finished with the climbs last. I actually liked it this way better because I got the west road over with sooner. I knew that road was going to be busy and I had 3 semi-trucks come within less then a foot of me.Seriously. And what makes it worse is that they have the whole other lane too go around. Those of you who have ridden that road knows what I am talking about. I think they should name that road- Asshole road. The truck drivers really don't care. And it's freakin' annoying. Ahhh that makes me feel better letting that out. You know what is really cool? Is that bike path up Provo Canyon. That is so much better than the canyon road. My ride took 30 minutes longer, cause I took Wasatch back. So a total of 8.5 hrs, 130 miles.

Long Day.

Started at 5:30am for a long day of riding. In prep for LOTOJA. I started from my house headed south to Suncrest. Climbed up Sucrest then down to American Fork. Up American Fork down Sundance then headed into Provo. crusied back through town and it brought me back at the base of American Fork. I headed back to Draper then shot out west to the Kennecot. Headed along the far west road to Magna. Then cruised by the RMR then home. It ended up being 8 hrs of riding. It was a fun ride. I really like riding up American Fork. I was suprised all day not one truck honked, gave me the finger or black smoked it.

Nutrition.

So nutrition is just as important as training. I have a very hard time following that. Does anyone know of a health nutritionist for the off season? and any advice will be good for the rest of the season.

Huntsville.

Huntsville went really good today. I really like it when the road turns up. Awesome job to Jeff, Mark and Nate.

Mt. Evans.

Mt. Evans went really well this year. I ended up getting 9th place. Here are the results-http://www.bicyclerace.com/2007_results/mt-evans-aca.htm

Nationals.

Nationals went good. I ended up getting 13th. 1 minute 4 seconds off of 1st. The course was good, a little of everything. It was kinda of a weird course because it was out and back 4 times.

BIG Cottonwood.

I really like this race. It is long, hard and windy. The race started out good. It was fast from the start and everyone was fighting for the front. There was a few wheel rubs and touching elbows. Once storm mountain rolled around I did the same thing I did the last 4 yrs, set a hard pace. It is only natural to light up the storm on storm mountain, right? I was feeling good. Once up and over the top there Jeff, Nate Page and I worked together and we were going good. But once we hit the S-curve I started to hurt and I tried my best to stay with them but couldn't. They were just flying. Then something really went weird with my body, when I got to the flat section I got super dizzy and was about to fall over. I don't know what happened but it was weird. The group behind caught me and just flew pass me like I was a snell. I was just to dizzy to try to get on. So the group behind them caught me soon and I was able to stay with them and recover and rest. Where it starts to go up again at the restaurant lodge I started to feel good again and went to the front and set a hard pace and ended up getting away. I caught one or two guys from the group in front of us and ended up finishing 9Th or 10Th. Congrats to Jeff.

I am off to Nationals in 4 days, Yeah!

Work and Ice Cream.

The last several days have been really hectic for me. I have been working 10hrs a day and riding at 6 am before going to work. Sometimes I will do a lunch ride, only if it is an easy day cause it gets hot fast. Why am I working so much? because I am going to Nationals for the TT in 3 weeks and I need some money to get there. Hopefully all this work over the next 2 weeks will be worth it at the end. Today was a painful day. I went to the dentist and got my wisdom teeth pulled. I am sore. Thank goodness for pain killers. I am eating lots of ice cream right now, since that is the only thing I really can eat for a little while. Cookies and Cream yum.

High Uintas.

What a fun, crazy, hard weekend. When you have 2 pros show up you know it is going to be hard. The Road Race was really fast and hard. A group got away before the climb and they were going fast. when the climb started Jeff and Burke went to front and rode away from everyone. I held there wheel for probably 10 seconds before getting dropped. On the downhill I got caught by a group of 10 guys and we were cruising in to town at like 38 mph all the way. It is crazy that Jeff, Burke and Sandy gained 8 minutes on us. I ended up getting 14th in the RR. The TT went really good. I was warming up on the trainer and just felt like crap, couldn't get my heart rate up. Once I got out on the road I felt alot better and ended up getting 2nd, 18 seconds down from Jeff. The crit was probably the hardest crit I have done. From the start it was full gas. That all I have to say about the crit. Very hard. High Uintas is the funnest race of the year I think.

TT

Tomorrow is going to be a very tough TT, alot of fast guys are going to to be there. My race nerves are out of the roof right now. I have been riding the TT bike all week. I put some new bars on, they are Profile Design T2. I have done a couple of adjustments on the bike and it feels good. I don't like to mess with it too much since I have done alright with TT's this year so far with my position.
We'll see y'all out there tomorrow.

Crashes.

Yeah they happen. It just sucks when you go down at these races and are out for the weekend races. This weekend sounds like a killer course and I was getting super stoked on it and now I am out of it just like that. I am really looking forward to the TT next weekend. It should be fun, hard and fast.

Good days and bad days

RMR sucked last night, I think I lasted like 10 minutes before stopping. I knew I wasn't going to last very long, because I didn't feel it riding out. I have been doing good the last couple of RMR staying near the front of the pack and chasing breaks but I just didn't have the rhythm or power last night. I think the ride I did on Saturday killed it out of me. I felt flat, nadda, nothing. Last night my back started to hurt before going to bed and it was hard to move, so I had to sleep on my back. I got up this morning and it hurt like hell, I couldn't move. I don't know what it is from, but I can't move very fast or lift anything. Hopefully it goes away before this weekend.

Part 2.

Today's ride went really good. I met up with Nate Page at 7:00am at 9th and 9th. We rolled out along 9th east all the way to 9400 south, then headed up to Little Cottonwood. We didn't push it too hard, knowing that it was going to be a long day. On the descent we saw Saul Raisin, that was cool. I guess he is living here for the summer and is dating Dave Zabriskies sister. Then we headed over to Big Cottonwood and that went smooth. Good pace and it went by fast. I was hoping that the store was open up there cause I needed a drink, it wasn't open. So I went to the seven eleven. Nate took off after Big Cottonwood. He was putting the hurt on me. He is going to rock the climbs this year. Then I headed over to Millcreek Canyon and I was starting to definitely feel the legs hurting now so I just climbed slow and it was still painful. So I kept telling myself after this canyon I will get a huge coke and a bagel at Einsteins and that seemed to help. The upper part of Millcreek is good, except for a little bit of stuff on the road and water from snow. So then after the climb I got some food and a drink and just sat there for a while. That really helped me to get some energy for Emigration. I got to Emigration and the wind picked up which was nice cause it was a tail wind up the canyon and I really needed that. I didn't push it to hard climbing cause the legs were fried and it was really hot. I got to the top and saw Bart on the mountain bike, I guess he did some good trails up there. So I cruised down with him until his turn to his house. After he left I was battling a headwind that was strong but I didn't care cause it was going downhill and I was dazed out. So I made it home safe and sound and tired. It took me 7hrs 10 minutes, 123.5 miles.

A day of climbing.

It is 5:57 in the A.M. and I am about to get ready to do the 4 canyon ride. It is going to be fun and hard and a looooooonng day.

I will let you all know how it goes down. It is goin to be 92 degrees today, HOT.

Morgan Loop.

Sunday was an awesome ride. I rode with Spencer, Sly Dizzle and Bart. Me, Spencer , Fox and Bart were going to just ride to East Canyon and back but fox decided we should do the Morgan Loop. Bart turned around at East Canyon, he has a little girl to play with. Fox took alot of funny pictures on our ride. He has some posted on his blog. We had a freaking head wind most of the way then once we got down the canyon and started heading south we were riding like 30mph it was crazy. We were descending down into East Canyon and fox had to be going into this corner going like 4o mph and he had to tri pod it, it was the funniest thing to see.I thought he was going to crash but he's got skills. We ended up doing 104 miles. That is a really fun ride to do. If you haven't done it yet, do it. Here's fox jumping on someones tramp in Morgan.

Racing.

I only made it 2 laps at Antelope Island before I had to stop. My asthma kicked in hard and I couldn't breath and my lungs were on fire. So it was hard to go hard with the guys. I got a sweeeet new wheel set. The Reynolds DV 46 UL. With these wheels my bike comes in at 15 lbs. I also got a new saddle, it is the Specialized Toupe. They say it is suppose to be the most comfortable saddle even though it has as much padding as an SLR. It is pretty cool, you should read about it on there website. I am still looking for a couple of guys to do the Bear Lake TT, so if anyone is interested then let me know.

Tax Day.

Tax Day is a fun course, definitely hard. There was a break that got away early and gained like 3.5 minutes. So every time we hit the downhill we were going like 5 mph, nobody wanted to chase cause they had team mates up the road. Then we would peg the rolling flats and the tough hill. With about 4 to go on the hilly flat section after the downhill hill they pegged it fast and like always I am on the back. So gaps started opening and I couldn't get up there so I got dropped and had to ride 3-4 laps by myself. I really need to learn to stay near the front because this always happens. I was feeling really good for the race just wasn't smart. Congrats to Mark, Dave and Jeff.

Weekend of Riding.

Crazy and hard is what I would call the riding I did on the weekend. Saturday I met up with the Porcupine/Specialized guys. We rolled over to Emigration and pegged it like a freaking race. The pace was really fast and hard, I was thinking wow this is going to be a fast time up. we got to the top and it was 23 minutes. that's the fastest I have done it. Then we did Big Mountain. D.H. pegged it like a climbing fool. After Big M. we went and did Big Cottonwood. Again D.H. climbed it like a monkey. I didn't see him or sleevie for the rest of the climb. I got to the flat section about halfway through and I bonked hard, I had to stop at donut falls area and get off and lay there and eat food and Wait for the guys to come down. Sundays ride was alright. I went and did Butterfield Canyon. That climb hurts really bad, it was super rocky to towards the top. After we got to the top we were coming coming down and my friend hits a rock and pinch flats, so he puts a tube in and the valve is to short, so we sit there for a while and I ended up taking a tube out of my wheel because it is a long valve and give to him. so we both have flats and one co2 cartridge, so we are both descending down the canyon with 40 lbs of pressure in our tires, it was sketchy. Then we get to the bottom and his tire blows up cause he tore the sidewall from the rock and the tube was sticking out. So we had to get picked up.

Storman' News.

I thought I would write something, I haven't written anything for a while, so here it is. I have been training more now since I am feeling ALOT better, I still have a couple of things wrong but training is a go. I will finally be able to race RMR this weekend if the snow didn't ruin it. I hope not because I want to race. I have been using an SRM lately and that is a handy cool tool, it is cool to see some numbers, especially on the climbs. There is alot to look at when riding, watts, heart rate, cadence, speed, man it is cool at the end of a ride to sit down and look at it all. On to some other Storman news. A week ago I got a truck, Toyota 4 Runner, and is it sweet. It is the first vehicle I have ever owned. Owning your own car is sweet because it is like a whole nother freedom. You get to go whenever you want and don't have to ask to borrow the car. Now I can't spend all my hard earned money on my bikes anymore. I now have to pay for stuff like insurance, gas and if there is any car problems. Talk about car problems, I woke up this morning at 7:30am to take my brother to school and I was backing out of the driveway and something didn't feel right so I got out and my rear tire was flat. crap. So 2 1/2 hrs and 4 cups of coffee later it was fixed. I hope that doesn't happen again.
We'll thats it for Storman' News.

Good and Bad

Well the last month I have had bad things happen and good things happen, Mostly bad. I got sick before VOS, but had a good TT, then dropped out of the RR. Then I got sick again and had to go to the doctors to see what it was, it wasn't good. So I got some meds and started to feel better. So I was able to finally ride after 2 weeks of very little riding. So I started to train and felt really good. Yesterday I wake up and what do i have? A freaking cold, just before RMR. I can't ride right now cause I have no energy. Yeah it sucks, but colds dont last forever.

Warm and racing

Went out in the cold yesterday and rode, it felt good. It feels good to finaly have some sunny skies and dry roads. The weather looks good, they are saying it is suppose to get into the upper 50's to 60 degrees by next weekend. Hopefully this last snow storm was the last one. I have been getting excited for the RMR to start and everything else. 1 month and it's on!

Training and other things.

Well last week was a quiet week of training, I rode 6 hrs total. My legs were shot and every time I rode I couldn't breath, it felt like I had 1 lung. I go to a doctors tomorrow to see what is up with me, hopefully everything is ok. Ever since the TT in VOS I have been going down hill with the sickness. Being sick makes everything hard, I hate it. The weather has been weird lately, to bad I don't ski or snowboard or else I would be shredding it (not really I suck). I am working at Guthrie's in Sugarhouse, it is nice, all I do is build bikes, I don't help customers or repair bikes, just build. We have people that are on the floor to help customers and we have a guy that does the repairs and I build the bikes, yeah.
Later.

VOS race

What a race, hard, hot and FAST. The first day went pretty good, I ended up getting 3rd place, 24 seconds off of 1st. The TT course was pretty windy and hard. During the TT my heart rate averaged was 193 and my max was 198. The 2nd day I DNF. This road race was the hardest one I have done, it was sooo windy and fast. Guys were shooting off the back the first half lap. I got a cold a week before VOS and started taking some medicine and it helped I started to feel better before the race. I was still a little sick for the TT and the really hard effort I did made my cold worse over night and so I wasn't feeling good for the road race. Some how I always get sick before this race.
Congrats to Nate Page for his 3rd overall.

VOS

VOS is almost here and I am getting excited about it. I didn't do it last year because of the knee injury but this year almost the same deal happened but I was able to do somethings right away to heal it faster. I have been riding the Trek TTX alot, the position is starting to feel really good and powerful, lets just hope the rider is. My training has been off the hook the month of January and so far February, I have been doing about 20+hrs a week, trying to get ready for this race. I am racing for Canyon Bicycles and I might work there to after VOS. Mike Hanseen is a pretty cool guy and he is always super nice. I am getting tired of all of these flat rides I really can't wait until the canyons are clear and warmer to ride up. I have Emigration to keep me sane for now.
Later.

Work

Well downtown Guthrie Bicycles has closed there doors for good a couple of days ago. The building has sold. I have been there for about 2 1/2 years and it was the best job out there. Very cool guys to work with. I will miss the dart playing, playstation racing and rubber band wars.

Tendinitis.

Well I got tedinitisin knee again. Last year I got it in Febuary and had to take 3 weeks off the bike, everytime I would try to ride it would hurt about 20 minutes into my ride last year. its in a different spot so hopefully it isn't going to last as long. I have been icing it and taking ibuprofen and I wear a brace for it so hopefully that helps it fast and i can start training hard soon. I am suppose to be going to Mesquite next week for a week and I am hoping that the knee is better before then.

Food before the ride.

Here is breakfast before my ride. I like oatmeal and coffee. I don't eat breakfast much, even before a ride. I will eat a Cliff Bar before riding sometimes. I need to fix that. I am going to Mesquite in a couple of weeks to train for a week down there before heading to Las Vegas for the Southern Nevada Stage Race. It is crazy racing is almost here again, I am really looking forward to racing again and testing out the TT bike. My Birthday is Saturday the big 22 that is crazy to say that number I don't know why it just is. My dads is the same day and he will be 44. It is crazy how fast the year goes.