6/9/11

Time Flies

Current Song: Ooh La La
What I did Today: Worked, rode the chairlift a few times!
Energy: Pretty freaking happy!

So, here I am in a flannel and sweat pants, same old same old it seems like. I realized today however that a whole year of my life has flown by, my blog has been up for about a year! Kinda weird that the only reason I noticed a year had gone by was because of my blog, but I guess thats what these things are made for, seems like a nice way to stay sane and it has certainly kept me sane! Well enough with the cliche, cheesy stuff, I do actually have a life outside of blogging.

So since being home I have done a lot of work, like more than I ever have before, which is funny because at most I am working 20 hours a week! The first few weeks of doing such hard work, I had a lot of trouble riding. I guess it was just a lot of work on top of work so I skipped it, plus it was nice to hang out with a bunch of people I haven't seen for a year. But the week before the chile challenge, people kept inviting me to ride the course with them, and how can I say no? I got a lot of riding in which was a good thing because I did have to race! I actually ended up 9th in the cross-country. I wish I had some more fitness for the last lap because once we hit the singletrack the group of three riders in front of me disappeared, but I was pumped to stay that close and not get last! Plus i was finally passing people on a descent which is something I have never been able to do because I was never fast enough. It opened up a whole new world. The next day the short track, me and Mike West showed up and that was it, we decided to race 10 mins and thats all it took to get my ass handed to me! Kinda cool to be 18 and race a guy that has been racing for so long though, it was a wide spectrum of ages. Still made my first paycheck as a pro cyclist, sadly I made more racing Jr. Ex sometimes but oh well I will get there eventually. The coolest part about the chile challenge was that it really reminded me that I love bike racing ALOT, it helped a lot with my lacking motivation, in fact I have put in quite a few hours this week! Even tried out my bike park pass today, (it was free through our family's membership). Pretty cool to watch Follow Me on the chair then rip it down as fast as I could to make last chair to get one more run in. I could see riding that park a lot just to keep tuning up my descending, might make a big difference! Especially since collegiate nationals are here next year. Can't even explain how excited I am about that. To get to defend a national title in my hometown? Of which I am the only person on the collegiate circuit that can call this town (maybe even this state) home. Pretty freaking stoked is my only comment on the situation!

Well this certainly has been a good blabber blog, to add a little more, Kody posted this video and it made my day so I figured anyone else might want to watch it! Well going to head up to durango for the weekend for some sweet riding and a good friends birthday! Until next time!

5/22/11

New Motivation

Current Song: Take a Chance, Clinton Sparks
What I did Today: Rode the fixie and finally had a day off
Energy: Newly motivated

Its been a long time, the biggest reason I haven't blogged was that there was a mess that needed cleaning up before I could talk about it so that people would not be misinformed. Since my last blog, I raced the Sea otter classic. In short, my bike was lost, I got a sweet replacement, the race was alright I should have played my cards a lot smarter but I guess that can happen in a first pro race, and afterwards the guys at sycamore cycles really helped me out also and finally I have my own bike back and it is fine. I had to wait around for it to come in before I left. Wow I also left college since my last blog. Its amazing, I guess I had not really realized how close I was to all the people I have been living with until the last few minutes, to everybody at BC, the people I might not see again who had a major impact on my life, and the people that I will hopefully see again soon, it was awesome. THANKS.


Well for the subject of this blog, have you ever seen a movie that really made you suddenly want to achieve your goals? I guess since I have been home, friends and work have clouded what I really want to do, but fortunately after watching the Lion King, I feel suddenly motivated. Don't ask why, but it really is an amazing movie. Its strange to be home, especially since I have been so busy with everything going on! I actually randomly put together a fixie, we had an old peugoet lying around, so I repainted it and fixed it! (Get it? I fixed the fixie? Not sure if anyone will find that funny at all) Anyways, on top of that I am actually experiencing a semi-full time job by that I mean I have two part time jobs that make it seem like I have a full time job! Its a good experience and luckily the way they should workout I should have plenty of time to ride and train. Well I am afraid it might be another dry blog, but its awesome to get some thoughts down and get back in the business of blogging! Thanks for reading! Don't worry, hopefully these pictures will spice it up!

Sights like this reminds me why I love Angel Fire
The finished fixie! Super fun to ride!
Also maybe a few mountain bike movies, starting to look pretty sick!

4/11/11

Peace out to In-N-Out!!

Current Song: Forever and Always, Taylor Swift (Don't Judge its been a long day)
What I did Today: Same old same old
Energy: Sleepy but pinned!

Well, tomorrow at exactly 5:40 pm I will be flying out to California. In many ways it came up so fast it seems like it was yesterday that I flipped out because well I spent all of my money on a plane ticket. In some ways its taken forever though. Either way I can not even comprehend how excited I am about flying into San Jose tomorrow. It should be great to see my dad and the rest of the family, including my grandma who has never seen me race, I am pumped this is the first race she gets to see. California should be sick but if I keep writing about it I will go crazy before tomorrow so that all I have about that.

So past two weeks have been pretty good! Got some more rest stop experience working at the Assault on the Carolinas, good representation for the team. I took the weekend off of road racing to help out and get ready for sea otter. Had some great rides on top of helping out. I got totally lost on one ride at like 6:30 which was pretty sketchy. Other than that it really has been the same old same old, it is like 80 degrees and has been all week which is amazing. Well sorry to ramble so much like I said its been a long day. Gotta keep the readers entertained, this dry blog probably won't, so here is a sick video I just found, the last trick is so sick.
http://vimeo.com/22151487

Well enjoy today! After all everything is a once in a lifetime experience!

3/30/11

All at once

Current Song: All at once, Jack Johnson
What I did Today: Class and caught up on some Sleep
Energy: feeling sick...

Finally I got to do my first road race and crit for Brevard College. It was super fun but super different. The last road race I did, when I caught the solo break, he swerved all over the road and caused me to pull him as much as he wanted. As soon as we hit the climb he was gone. So I knew I could definitely improve. Saturday it was pouring... We started off with the TTT (team time trial), it was fun to get to work with my friends to lay it down on an 8 mile out and back. Next was the road race, it was weird to have to hang back and not do anything until an exact moment. I had trouble with it because I like to attack from the start and keep up the intensity until the end, like most mountain bike races. I think this got me in the end because I really had no idea how to react to almost be out of a race and have to get back into it. I helped out the first lap and then had a lovely ride by myself on the entire 20 mile last lap. Oh well. The next day we had the criterium. It was awesome, I came into it with the plan to attack off the start, like a mountain bike race. So I did and I got the break and actually won the first lap prime! I decided I am going to go for that from now on. Well from there I just tried to control the race for my team-mates. First Caleb broke off and stayed off for a few laps! Then Brandon Milet had an awesome counter attack to get into the lead break, We worked our hardest to keep them away and they did! Brandon beasted it to take the win which was super awesome!

Other than road racing, I have been starting to really get into riding. Still getting over being sick which sucks but hopefully that will be out of the way soon. I have a week and 6 days until Sea Otter and the tension builds everyday! Very soon I will be shipping my bike greyhound which should take 7-10 days so getting it out this friday or saturday should do it! I feel the best I have I have ever felt as far as my training goes! Its going to be a challenge of course probably one that will make me very humble and teach me a lot, but is that not what racing is about? I think I am most excited about racing pro because of all the lessons I will learn. It seems this year has certainly been a year for that! Well I better get going sorry I don't have any pictures, I can leave you with this, I challenge you to learn something new about life or yourself every day of your life! All at once the world can overwhelm you, why not learn from it?

3/23/11

In other News

Current Song: Ruby Tuesday, The Rolling Stones
What I did Today: A few Classes
Energy: Does boredom ever make you tired?

Figured I would spend some time in between classes updating my blog. It seems I have slowly gotten back into it, I guess there continues to be new stuff to write about. Well to start off, the team didn't work out, so I will be racing with my awesome team from back home! I am excited, its going to be a lot easier! Meanwhile Sea Otter approaches! Basically 20 days until I leave and I am very excited. Seems like everything should work out as planned. I can't wait to see the sea otters in monterey, they are super fun to watch.

Right so finally remembered where I was in trying to write a blog! So this March has been pretty chill! I had an excellent spring break at the Dent's home (my home on the east coast). We had an awesome group head down to Charleston. We visited the beach pretty much everyday! Got to go surfing, and find star fish and basically all that good old ocean stuff that makes anyone feel like a little kid! Didn't realize it but I will get to visit both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean in the same year! Pretty pumped about that.

I have had a little trouble getting motivation to ride just because being pinned up in a classroom all day makes me tired but seems to come around as soon as the idea is in my head. Plus as soon as I am on the bike I know its awesome. The weather has certainly encouraged riding everyday, I keep thinking about putting on arm or knee warmers but end up laughing at the thought of wearing extra clothing! Speaking of extra, I have started noticing the extra hair, I think it may be time for an experiment, involving a razor. That may add a little extra out of the ordinary things that could change up this semester. It seems to be getting pretty monotonous. Hopefully that changes.

UPDATE: Hair is gone.

3/2/11

Reality Check.

Current Song: Blister in the Sun, Violent Femmes
What I did Today: Two cancelled classes have left me with plenty of time
Energy: for once, not sleepy!

I am noticing that the most popular way for me to start a blog is, its been a while. It seems I am having a little trouble keeping up with it but I think I am finally starting to have some events that are actually blog worthy! For a recap of basically all of February, School is going good. I have been doing ok in classes, my biggest problem is falling asleep. I applied to a few scholarships as well which made me feel much better. I went skiing out east! I think I may try to keep my skiing on the west coast, lets put it that way. Its weird to think I went skiing considering that since then it has been nearly 60-70 degrees everyday since. It feels like summer already and it should be a great experiment, I have never been exposed to summer for more than three months what will happen when I have a 9 month summer? For now I am loving the fact that the grass is already greener here than it is over the summer in angel fire (turned into a clever metaphor but I didn't mean it like that), its nice to lay in! Well thats my quick recap. Now for the present because thats where I like to stay!

My most recent purchase spent nearly all of my money that I am making, it is for a wonderfully golden ticket to marvelous Monterey Bay, California! I am super happy to go there and see sea otters, eat some IN-N-OUT be on the beach and what not. Oh yeah did I mention I was going to race my bike there? Oh yeah also its one of the biggest MTB races in the US, oh and its going to be my first Pro race? I have been trying to process the idea as well so don't worry if you are stumbled by my predicament. Its a hard pill to swallow, as my coach sean always said, its time to race with the big boys. I have realized its time to step up! I will admit I am a little scared, but what's life without a little fear? Now that I know I am going I am getting super pumped especially since I am getting a fair bit of riding in that by the time I hit sea otter I will actually have some riding under my belt. It should be a fun race and I know its all toward my season goal of racking up some UCI points. I know that this race will only help my development and I am excited to go there and do the best I can do!

Speaking of that, the team seems to be doing pretty good! We got some grips from AME, they are sweet,some are heated and some others are white and match my bike so good I can not wait to race with them. We also have gotten some support from a jersey company that will give us a pretty good discount. GU energy is also going to support us. Right now I am hoping to get some tires because I love getting new tires for free, otherwise it seems like the team should be a cool project that could develop over the years!

Well off to homework, cosmology, exercise science all that good stuff. Its nice to know that I can go pick out a nice spot on the river and get work done outside. Should be nice. OH and check out the team website! www.anarchistcrew.blogspot.com!!

1/28/11

Damn a lot has happened!!

Current Song: I was a Teenage Anarchist, Against Me!
What I did Today: Two classes down, One to go
Energy: As always, feeling good!

Well I admit it has been a really long time. I have been meaning to write a blog since I have been back for awhile but now its at least getting done! The last time I wrote a blog was when I got home for break. Well to start, I spent my christmas break back home. It was an excellent 30 days with way too many fun things to count! Including skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, spectating, oh and longboarding of course! I think several people would be happy to hear that I now have all the protective gear, definitely helps out a lot! Well break was too fun to even go back to because it will just make me want to go home again so to move on. There are some great pictures to follow.

The next interesting thing to happen, a first for sure, was my trip home. See down south, school gets cancelled for a forecast of snow. So obviously when it snows 5 inches well no one can function. So my flight got rerouted three times finally ending in me going to Chicago, well in Chicago my flight to Asheville got cancelled. So I spent the night in an airport! Must say it was the best airport to get stranded in. I will never forget the cleaner's faces as I flew past them on my longboard at 2 in the morning. I will admit it was creepy to wake up at a gate with a ton of people around me but it all worked out. So finally after nearly 36 hours of traveling I made it back to no bag. I didn't get to truly get back until a week later when I could finally change clothes.

Since I have been back at school, a lot has changed. I moved into a new room. With a new set-up I don't have to sleep in the top bunk and the bikes fit great. No complaints! It was great to come back to everyone, tell the stories of our breaks and continue our adventure through college life! There is way too much to cover so I can hit on some high points since I have been back. The one that comes to mind first, the Against Me! concert. We almost didn't go but as soon as I heard a song on my ipod that day I knew I had to be there and it was totally worth it. Against Me! is a total punk band that totally captures the idea. It was crazy. I had no control over my body because of all the people pushing each other, even the occasional stage jumper coming down on top of my head made it even more awesome than it could have been. It was a blast! Such a great band, got the album to show I was there so that is now two concerts I have been to. I have also gone on a cross-country ski on the parkway. Freaking awesome, I have some pictures for that. Later that week I went longboarding as well, even more awesome! I have started up a training regime, putting in 10 hours this week, 8 so far, and it feels great to be on a bike. All the company here makes the riding so enjoyable. All my classes are looking great, no completely stupid classes so thats a good thing too! Well better get going to class, Cosmology, should be fine. Meanwhile a great quote from MASH, every once and while take off your pants and slide on the ice! Enjoy the pictures.



View of Crested Butte from Gothic

Our Cross-country ski to Gothic 

Gotta love REAL mountains
This is from the parkway, I believe this is Looking Glass rock
Getting closer to being a mountain but not quite
Frozen waterfalls are cool too!