Category Archive

Yup, that’s the most popular search term used to find my blog - day after day. Not sure what that means, but I thought I’d use that for the title of this much-anticipated post. Maybe I’ll get even more click-throughs and an even higher number of visits on my blog? That is the whole point of this thing, isn’t it? “Hey Ryan, check out how many more hits I have than you.” “Ya, but I have more incoming visitors from Corey’s site than you do.” “Whatever, people come across my blog searching for interracial love more often than yours!” …er, something like that.

I prefer to leave about 2 months between blog posts. Just keeps people guessing and waiting. On the plus side, it does allow you to realize who you’re biggest fans are - ie. mine is Seth Rubin. This guy is a force of nature on the bike. They have yet to manufacture a scale able to record his mass nor is there a powermeter with a display wide enough to show all the 0’s of his power output on the bike. Don’t get me wrong, he is not a chunky human, I just worry he might eat me when he passes me during a time trial.

Usually we are racing TT’s out in the middle of nowhere, say the outskirts of DIA - with burnt out jets, cars and the like - and I’m thinking to myself, “What if he did eat me? There is no one - nobody - around to stop him.” The only evidence would be a few splinters of carbon that his palette didn’t approve of. And even if there was someone to stop him, they couldn’t. Unless it was Ryan Belew - and that’s a whole other scenario. (Picture a…hmm…A T-Rex and a double-sized stegosaurus fighting over a Eoraptor)

To help with this experience, I’ve provided some images courtesy of Wikipedia.

Approx. size for Seth

Approx. size for Ryan B (x2)

Approx. size of me, Eoraptor (the dino, not the human)

So you take the two big ones, make ‘em fight, and have the little one being pulled by the teeth of each one, or maybe the stubby arms of the T-Rex.  Today, I’m just going to get outside and try not to be eaten.

Yup, got myself all moved into the remodel on 6th st. Pretty great. My summer roommate Rachael has been enjoying (from what she tells me) so far and I even have Kevin Suhr staying here for a week in Brandon Weil’s future bedroom. Looks like it’s going to be a high school reunion come fall when Brandon and CP Martinez move in - funny how things workout 6 years down the road.

Got a grill, put it together, and grilled some massive steak on it all within a few hours to fuel up for mowing the lawn today. I’m using one of those push mowers w/no engine to help save the planet and my upper body. It’s actually pretty fun, I just need to stay on top of it so I’m not doing repeats on the “dog-friendly” areas of the lawn that grow at 4x their brothers’ pace.

Team Rio Grande threw down at the Colorado Springs Classic held at the Air Force Academy last weekend. They grouped all the P, 1, 2 and 3’s in the same category which gave us a solid field of 85 or so. Big crash after the start on a long decent into a right hand turn. Fortunately, Dan Porter, Joe Saperstein and myself were in front of it - and Ryan Hamity, who decided to skip off to the bathroom before the start, was taking a nature break in the superbowl while the field rolled out. He chased back on and rode through the carnage back into the field and I believe almost immediately out the front as well. All 4 of us rode well - Hamity and Porter were taking turns being active at the front and Joe was biding his time in the field. Strong headwinds on the climbs kept it mostly together until the last 2 laps. In the end, Hamity’s numerous breaks proved fruitful and he stayed away until near the finish with a Toyota-United rider and some others who had bridged up. Joe and Dan got up the road somewhere in the shuffle and I was in the last group still together of about 10 riders.

I finished up 16th, climbing much better than I had in previous seasons (even with poor nutrition/hydration throughout the race) and the best part was that Dan, Joe and Ryan all finished in the top 10. So with a team of 4 in a field of 85, we put 3 riders in the top ten and I was 16th. Not bad, not bad at all.

Now we get ready to leave for the Gila on Monday - driving the Rio Rocket with the RockyMounts trailer in tow (thanks in advance Bobby). Bringing down 9 guys and 17 bikes, should be a good time.

Oh and Corey has to wear 3/4 zip jerseys because the full-zip irritates his stomach-skin, rumor has it…

A cloudy day makes me tired, pretty much 100% of the time. Lately my Bialetti Brikka, otherwise known as the best stovetop espresso maker, hasn’t been running too smoothly. When the H is O (the heat is on), the “safety” valve starts to leak steam and I have to hold it in with various kitchen utensils. Small spoons work the best due to their rigidity, but I have been using flimsy metal spatulas, sharp Henckels paring knives - pretty much anything within arm’s reach when the steam starts spilling out of the happiness machine.

See valve, left side of base - ya, it needs replacement.

Gotta keep that steam in there, otherwise the pressure cap won’t pop and the perfect espresso con crema will not appear. My kitchen untensils have been working fairly well until recently, when trying to brew some espresso, steam started going in all directions out of the valve and I barely got a half-shot out of the poor bugger.

So I kind of feel like a train engineer trying to get the little engine that could up and over the hill. Except the engine that could is blowing steam everywhere and Collin doesn’t feel comfortable staying in the kitchen “Dude, that thing is gonna explode.”

So all in all, I take the little steam engine apart and decide I need a new valve. However, I did manage to get a nice cup ‘o espresso out of her today. Hence, bloggage.

Oh, and the “Stuff white people like” is a random blog I saw while logging in today. There was a post on whether to allow children to drink wine or not to help reduce binging when they get older. A bit disappointing in terms of content, but I read it.

Hey, look at my amazing breakfast –>

Green peppers, bacon, spinach, sauteed mushrooms, eggs and you have a worthy skillet.

And on that note, it’s time to get on my TT bike and get my ride in.  Then it’s over to the remodel to install the venting through the attic for the badass stainless steel hood.

Maybe after the Koppenburg this weekend, a bunch of us can get together and play “Dr. Roboxo.”  It’s like Edward 40-hands, but instead of 40’s, you have a box of wine taped to each your hands. Thank you Ryan Hamity for coining that term, funny stuff.

So the last two weeks have been consumed by the remodel. Over 60 hours this week (before tomorrow) into the house and not nearly enough time on my bike. I guess the serious push to get it finished was good. A bit bummed on the training I’ve missed, but following this big push on the house - I’ll be able to hit it hard on the road - especially if the weather is supposed to be as good as forecasted this coming week.

On a happier note - the house looks amazing. It’s incredible. Thanks to everyone who’s helped out along the way to get it where it is. I wish my mom was in this photo. She was painting, scraping the floor clean, wiping up the counters and picking up new paint samples everyday.

I wasn’t going to move in until later, but after putting hours and hours into the house - and pouring everything into it these last two weeks, I can’t help but want to get in there as soon as I can. So after I recharge the batteries and get my training back on track, I’ll be packing up and heading to 6th Street…

Time of photo: 2am Friday night.  From left to right: Lisa Gibbs, myself, Ryan Hamity, Corey Carlson and Lisa Marie Erickson.  Photo by Mom

These shots are from my classmate Christina - thanks!

Love the title of this one, “Allen The Butcher.”

Chef Marilyn. Marilyn is freakin’ awesome.

I earned a certificate for graduating from my Basic Cooking Techniques course. Check out my class. I can basically cook now, how cool is that.

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Vacation can mean a lot of things.  I guess the last 5 days weren’t ever called a “vacation” from the onset, but rather a “break.”  Changing it up a bit this year, I only took about 12 days off between closing out last season and training for this coming season, so Neal thought it’d be a good idea to have a few days off before the next block of training started.  Part of the break coming up involved getting myself pretty fried, both mentally and physically, before the break.  Sounds like the perfect recipe for a top sporter.

Speaking of recipes…I just finished up my 5 day long Basic Cooking Techniques course at the Culinary School of The Rockies. This cooking class was the core of my “break” - 930am to 3pm daily.  Speaking of breaks, my partner in remodel, senor Ryan Hamity, recently broke his radius in the DU Criterium at City Park last Sunday.

So this week, I’ve been in class from 930am-3pm every day and then heading over to the 6th street remodel to paint until 7 or 730 at night.  Class has been great - learning to sautee, broil, roast and braise in addition to pan sauces, desserts, salads and soups.  Very, very full days on my feet for a “break.”  I can say that I’ve been almost as, or more, worn out than I was during 20+ hour training weeks leading up to this week.  As tired as I am, it’s been great.  I tried not having coffee today and actually had more energy all day, how great is that.

If I’m ever feeling really tired, I’ll just watch the movie I’m watching once again.  The Pursuit of Happyness.  I swear, half the scenes in this movie are of Will Smith running.  Makes me tired just watching him.  His tired is easily 10x my tired.  And then there is one-handed painting, Ryan Hamity-tired.  That’s a whole other story you can find on his website - Ryan Hamity.

Unfortunately, in the DU Crit, Ryan broke his arm and Corey Carlson took a mild spill.  However, I had a great ride - putting myself in the right move with strongmen Pete Lapinto, Henk Vogels, Tyler Hamilton, Stefano Barberi, Justin England, Chris Baldwin, Dirk Friel and Jim Mohan.  Of course I probably spelled half of those names wrong, but there’s no hate - all love.  I think I finished up 7th and was pretty happy about it, seeing as I was one hour away from a relatively long break and completely toasted from the week leading up.

The best part, was that my parents came to see my race and I rode really well.  Not a better feeling out there…

I am worn out.  This past week has been a push to get my remodel done before Rachael moves in on the 22nd (yes, of March) and still get all my training in.  I broke a SRAM shifter while doing intervals up NCAR on Tuesday - after spending a solid hour getting my powertap to work - which involved going to Excel mid-ride to get a new wiring harness and doing a chamois-ed install in the showroom floor.  Classy.  Yesterday, I painted for 7 hours with Ryan Hamity which it turns out, is not the best activity the day before a time trial.  Oh well, it’s training.

The house looks great though and is coming along really quickly.  I will actually have pictures up here soon, really.  Today was the Metro State TT at Bear Creek Park in Morrison.  Very fun, winding, and hilly course that never got boring.  I had a 1.5 hour ride in Boulder in the morning with some intervals before the race - so going in, I knew it wasn’t going to be an amazing performance.  I think I ended up 6th or 7th out of 14 or so.  20:04 compared to Stefano’s winning time of 18:57.  I think he was the only person to break 19mins throughout the day.

Tomorrow is the Denver University Criterium at City Park in Denver.  Neal (coach) has me doing a workout up flagstaff in the morning for 2 hours before the race.  This should guarantee that I do not feel 100%, or even 70% for the race.  Bring it on.

Time to stretch and nap

-A

Yesterday, Vince, Ryan and myself departed on a proposed ride that sounded….well, it sounded like we weren’t actually going to finish it. 131 miles: riding the gateway group ride that leaves Saturday mornings at 10am over the top of Carter Lake, down the backside and heading north to Hwy 34 - Big Thompson Canyon. From there we would ride up to Estes Park (elev. 7,522) through Drake (elev. 7,700). Grab an espresso in Estes and a quick bite, then head down St. Vrain Canyon to the Peak to Peak Hwy south, which would take us through Raymond and on to the small town of Ward at 9,450 ft. Total climbing? Who knows, best bring some food though.

The morning started off pretty standard issue. The group ride gobbled up small packs of riders as we rolled down Hwy 36. AND I think it wasn’t until we were heading into Lyons that we were honked at - amazing. Taylor Kneuven and I rolled up to the front after passing through Lyons onto Hwy 66 heading East. Enjoying a nice chat about how Brad is strong headed (he better win multiple events down in NM at the collegiate opener for the Rocky Mountain conference by the way). We caught the Horizon Dairy (formerly known as Wild Oats) team ride and they assimilated into the all-consuming blob known as the Gateway ride. This created a blob of epic proportions - I’d say 90 riders in total. As we kept tempo on the front in a mild crosswind, the group started to stretch into the traffic lane on 66, which made the day for passing vehicles testing the stamina of their horns. It only got worse as we got closer to Carter Lake…

The organization and discipline of the ride usually goes to hell when we turn left off of 66 away from Hygiene. While attempting to coordinate a left turn of 90 riders across a hwy, the blob consumed the entire road for a half minute. More of the same as we headed towards Carter Lake. Except today Tyler said I had a nice pedal stroke - how great is that. Back to the ride…

Over the top of Carter we picked up Fred from VeloNews and Mike from Jelly Belly and headed north to 34, then East up to Estes. The ride through Drake was one of the most peaceful I’ve had in a while. Nice conversation, very little wind, almost no traffic, plenty of laughs and a nice pace. Fred has tons of energy and keeps us laughing while Mike is swerving around banging into whoever he’s riding next to at the time. He says he’s doing it on purpose, but we all know he has rum mixed with the coke in his bottles.

We get over the pass into Estes with a solid headwind. I dropped my Clif Bar wrapper and it was blown back down the climb 200 meters, “Hold on guys, I’ll get it.” (Note to self: picking up a blowing wrapper going downhill with one foot clipped in is really difficult. Don’t drop wrappers)

It was balmy in Estes at about 4.5 hours into our ride when we stopped at Kind Coffee. Burrito, small americano, and 2 gatorades should do the trick. Fred bails on the route from Estes to Ward and heads down 36 while Mike stops in the middle of a turn lane on main street, phone in hand, calling Fred to see where he is as a car honks at him. Mike is actually a good rider, I’m just giving him crap - hey it was funny.

Hamity takes us up some random residential street that’s like a 14% grade to nowhere. Thanks. I can already tell I’m entering the valley of the shadow of death after stopping and destroying a veggie burrito, which is still digesting. Mike turns around to go catch Fred when he sees it’s 30 miles to Ward from Estes of mostly climbing at 7-8,000 ft elevation, citing his training plan doesn’t call for that much riding. Probably a good decision. Soon after, I went to the dark side. Like Froto (sp?) putting the ring on his finger - everything turning dark and on fire. Hamity and Vince are riding about 30 meters up the road in front of me and I’m convinced the bearing in my currently non-functioning powertap has gone bad - resulting in significant friction, the true reason I’m going slow up this climb. But no, I was just going slow. I even had Hamity try riding my bike around when we stopped to pee - “Ya man, no problems here.” Oh ok.

I finally pulled off the ring about 15 minutes into the climb from the junction of Peak to Peak and St. Vrain canyon towards Ward. I told myself 5 times that I needed to turn around because my body just couldn’t do it. I physically could - not - ride - to - Ward. As the euro’s say in a bad accent, “It is not possible.” Instead of turning around and going down to Lyons, I just started pounding my too-sweet gatorade from the coffee shop. Amazing. Soon I was feeling good and setting pace for the three of us on peak to peak - where did this come from? Not sure, but I like it. Vince was in the hurt locker on the last 15-20 minutes to Ward. Mild headwind with the sun cresting the mountains to the west added a sense of urgency to our pace. And yes, we made it to Ward. I even went for a city limit sprint and decided to stop pedaling about 50m from the sign when my legs were going to fall off.

We stopped at the pipe in Ward to fill up bottles and descend to the backside of Lee Hill. Half way up, I was blown away to see an old lady climbing that hill. It has to be 16% in places and she was just motoring along - white hair, helmet mirror and all. After I passed her, I wanted to say that I was really impressed she was going over that hill, but then debated if that would make her feel old. So I just said, “Ah that’s a tough little bugger.” Too bad I don’t have a sweet Aussie accent to make that comment worthwhile…

We made it into Boulder and got home with around 6h 50min on the clock and 126 miles. I think it may have been the longest ride on the bike (not racing) that I’ve done. Ever. I’m feeling it this morning, that’s for sure. And hey, there is 3-6″ of snow on the ground now and it was 75 yesterday. Very motivating to get on the rollers after a 4500 calorie ride yesterday. Speaking of which, my home brewed french press coffee is starting to wear off, so I should probably get it on. I think I’ve got some romantic movie from Netflix to watch by myself on the rollers today. A Good Year, not really sure what it’s about, but hopefully it keeps me entertained for the next two hours. And if you read this far, thanks. It’s been a long one and I couldn’t have done it without you.

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Now playing: Nelly Furtado - All Good Things (Come To An End) (Kaskade Remix)
via FoxyTunes

So as I’m walking back and forth from the Oreo cookie container, each time picking up “the last one,” I remember that I haven’t written about my amazing life in a while. Normally I don’t buy Oreo’s (correction - they are “healthy” Newman-O’s), but I’m putting in two, 23 hour weeks back to back on the bike. Ya, the sugar cravings are a little higher than normal.

Anyway, I decided I was grabbing “the last two” and unconsciously put both of them in my mouth at the same time. Now this was just too much. I could barely chew the Newman-O goodness. “Allen, you have crossed the line,” I thought to myself. So those were the last two, really.

I was expecting to log in and find my “blog stats” at a massive goose-egg however, I was surprised to see that February 12th - just two weeks and change ago - was the most viewed day on my blog. Ever. Even after not writing for quite some time. Maybe people would rather I just keep my mouth (typing hands) shut?

Well too bad. I just finished painting the kitchen in my house, and it’s green. It’s great. The color is called - wait, I’m not going to share my color choice - it’ll get played out. It’s green and it’s from Sherwin Williams, that should be enough info for now. I’ll put a picture up here soon, maybe tomorrow. This is a mock up of the kitchen where I photoshop-ed in some color to get an idea of what it’d look like. Except I went with a gold instead of the green around the kitchen window.

I went down to race Valley of The Sun and it went better than expected.  Normally, I go down there and get blown out in the cat 2’s in the TT - finishing around 80th or so out of 100.  This time I was 30 something-th place in the Pro/1 TT and then overall.  Not bad for a flat TT and a 145 pound guy early in the year.  So now it’s back to work on the bike.  VO2 intervals on peak to peak highway, a couple 23 hr weeks…ah all the good times.

Oh, and Vince is back.  Proving that it is quite difficult to leave Boulder.  All for now, I’ll probably write in the AM, after a little coffee and before my time trial up Flagstaff.

My friend Vince Roberge has been staying with me for a while now. I met father Vince in Belgium at the Cycling Center and he asked if I had room for him to stay in Boulder and train - much more preferable to his home of Michigan.

I left and came back from our training camp in Austin, TX and Vince is still here. I think he’s gotten pretty comfy on our target-brand futon in the living room. He is pretty much the best house guest you could have. I think more dishes get done with Vince here than without him. So Collin, Kim and I are probably not going to let him leave.

The best part is that Vince reminds me what it means to live the top-sporter lifestyle. Water bottle in hand at all times, hat and jacket indoors is a must, and bedtime no later than 10. Cold out? Wear a facemask. Bottles frozen? Fill ‘em with tea at full hot before you leave on the ride. Friends going out tonight? Tell ‘em to have fun. The top sporter must rest.

Unfortunately, Vince must leave on Wednesday to Albuquerque for the Cycling Center (now called the Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy [for top sporters]) training camp. I’m trying to woo him back to stay again after camp and before Valley of The Sun.

Vince, we wil miss you.

The year ahead brings the 2008 season, our Team Rio training camp, the finish of the master remodel, and many more things I’m looking forward to…that I don’t even know about!  How crazy is that.

I just had a great start to the year with good friends last night. Collin cooked up some tasty pad thai, I made a couple drinks, Aliea got ready and helped cook and Ryan showed up soon after. We headed down to the Rio, running into a solid Boulder posse: Uli, Katie, Lisa, Fuentes, Abby, Alders, Bama, Jung, Collin’s friends from high school, Spencer, Brandon W, and more which I’m sure I left out. Hey I had a couple drinks before we got there!

At the Rio. Ryan, Aliea’s back, myself, Uli and Fuentes hiding in the back.

We hung out at the Rio until about 10 mins til midnight, where Katie and company told us we “had” to go to Seven. So we grabbed all the free New Year’s garb that the Rio threw our way and headed to Seven I think we danced for 400 hours at Seven, continuously. Seven didn’t have a countdown, how disappointing. All I can say is the dancing and extra large Cosmo’s pizza more than made up for it. Bring on 2008.

Three sets of nice eyes if I do say so myself. Katie, myself and Uli.

So my friend Kristin Hilger tags me the other day and I’m like, “Sha? What’s this all about.” As simple as it sounds, I’m supposed to inform you about 5 things you probably don’t know about me and then go on and tag 5 more people. So get ready to be amazed…

1. I am really 5′8″ and 145lbs. This is to dispell all the rumors that I’m both huge and tiny at the same time. (I don’t know where people get this stuff)
2. I studied abroad in Perugia, Italy for a semester. Learning international marketing, Italian language, advanced black and white photography and darkroom techniques.
3. I am an amazing lover.
4. I want to get an MBA in Entrepreneurship at CU and start a business involved in renewable energy (after my cycling career of course).
5. I actually choose the Deal or No Deal models. Seriously.

So now you know a few things about me that most don’t. And the 5 people I tagged are…

• Vince Roberge because I think he needs to keep that blog up to date. Vince might be coming to live and train in Boulder for a month.
• Corey Carlson because I don’t know enough about my new teammate and he is neat.
• I wanted to get a little more info about this Texan: Brian Kendall
• Scott Wenzel is someone who usually has something funny to say…
• Jim Camut because he touched me and I hope he touches you too.

The taste of defeat. It actually tastes a lot like when you scoop out the last remaining bites of soy-ice cream (cause dairy doesn’t go so well with Allen) into a nice bowl in your kitchen. Then as you reach down to the counter to pickup the container to take out to the recycling bin - how Boulder - you happen to knock that precious bowl of ice cream onto the floor of the kitchen. While you watch it fall, you think “Oh no, that is the last of my ice cream….” and you’re not even considering the part still to come.

The part where the ice cream flies out of the bowl and onto the floor while the bowl shatters into 6 large, and 100 tiny, ceramic chunks. Where does Ceramic-Cunk Ice Cream come from? From all the happy little chunks of ceramic-bowl that give this fantastic ice cream its texture after you’ve picked it up off the floor and put it in another bowl.

Wait, you were thinking of throwing that ice cream out? Psh, I doubt that’s carbon neutral.

Outside of inventing Ceramic Chunk Ice-Cream, I’ve been quite busy. To name a few things:

• Sold my car. Now spending the money I should be saving to live on.

• Breathing new life into KrughPhoto. I just purchased a studio lighting setup for a job which I’m still finalizing the details on. But I’ll keep you posted. I’m going to get some work into the site soon and make it much prettier.

• Remodeling the house. My parents and I went bought a house that I’ll live in approximately 6 months from now. My friend/teammate Ryan Hamity and I are doing the core of the remodel including:
  1. New wood flooring in the upstairs - stay tuned for this adventure
  2. -Framing a new floating wall w/door in the basement to convert it into a large bedroom. Removing carpeting on walls and replacing with drywall (yes, I said carpeted walls).
  3. -Recovering the flat roof/deck in the back with new paint/sealant.
  4. -Removing all the kitchen cabinets, appliances and a wall. Insulating walls and recovering with new drywall.
  5. -Removing all marble in the bathroom, replacing with drywall and insulating.
  6. - Installing slate flooring in the bathroom
  7. - Painting the interior of the house

…And that is pretty much the core of the short list…

• And I went and saw Brian Regan the other day with my family. Really funny stuff. Check out his 1 hr long stand up on Itunes. Worth the dollar or so.

  —————-
  Now playing: Brian Regan - LIVE
  via FoxyTunes

It was time to cleanup all the photos on the computer. I have something like 80gb of storage on my laptop and another 80 in an external drive and I was running out of room. So a few of the galleries I put on my site up are linked below.  Take a look…
Belgium

Gila and Bisbee Adventure 2007

Cycling Center Black and White

Independence Pass Fall 2005

Estes Park Fall 2007 - This one is a work in progress as I slowly process the images…

CU Cycling Collection

CenturyTel Team Throwback

Cass’s Regional Tennis Match

Today’s lesson is about Activated Charcoal. I was reading about it at Teghan’s house this morning and it’s basically a miracle. 1 tsp has the surface area of 10,000 square feet! You can spell m-i-n-d b-o-g-g-l-e with that fact. Here are some more amazing facts about Activated Charcoal from this site: http://healingtools.tripod.com/thn5.html.

Activated charcoal: Charcoal that has been heated to increase its absorptive capacity. Activated charcoal is sold as an over-the-counter (OTC) product to help relieve intestinal gas. It is also used to absorb poisons (as in gas mask filters), neutralize poisons that have been swallowed, and filter and purify liquids.

Modern Industry also relies on Charcoal to deodorize, decolorize and purity solutions. Charcoal can do these varied tasks because of its amazing ability to attract other substances to its surface and hold them there. This is called adsorption. Charcoal can adsorb thousands of times its own weight in gases, heavy metals, poisons, and other chemicals, thus making them ineffective or harmless.

Today doctors, paramedics and medical centers use Activated Charcoal in a number of different ways:

Tonight is the night of nights.  We are assembling at Collin, Kim and I’s house at 8pm, shelling out free candy to the youngsters and commencing a pregame/get-in-costume session with friends.  Then hit the bike path in costume to Half-Fast Subs for shinanigans  with CP around 930 and to meet up with Brad Bingham, Taylor Kneuven and company.  Then it’s Pearl St. where who knows what is going to happen.  All I can say is that it’s gonna be a Sabotage…

And the final products, a mini-photo essay:

Hour 1:

All the pumpkins…

Closeup…

So it’s raining and about 40 degrees out on a very un-Boulder Sunday. Seems like a perfect day to bump that rest day from Monday to today and stay indoors. So I get finished overhauling the garage with Collin and carving pumpkins immediately pops into my head for some reason. Maybe it’s because King Sooper’s teases you with massive containers full of near-perfect pumpkins right out in front of the store.

Brian Kendall comes over to buy Collin’s powertap which turns into a full day of King Sooper’s shopping, pumpkin carving and sports. Excellent. Teghan Tracy, Brian Kendall, Ryan Hamity, Kim Trenbath, Collin Becker and myself became the 3255 Dover Drive Competitive-Pumpkin-Carving-and-Pie-Eating Movement. The results were unbelievable.

As you can see in this hidden-camera photo, Teghan is researching top-secret carving practices online, Brian is performing his “love tap” energy transmission technique, and Ryan is just straight up getting fist deep in it.

That’s what I said to Vince and Aaron on a relaxed afternoon in Hertsberge, Belgium. “Just stand there.” Although it took about a month after I got home to take the black and white film in to get developed, I did say they would look good. Am I right?

Cycling is all about the love. Like Aaron’s love for Vince as shown in this photo.

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Now playing: Astrud Gilberto, Joao Gilberto & Stan Getz - The Girl from Ipanema
via FoxyTunes

So my coach Neal Henderson recently informed me that time off is over. “Training starts now,” he said. So I’m letting my breakfast digest before I head over to Flatiron Athletic Club to sign up and get started on the off-the-bike portion of my training. Just a very easy, “welcome back to lifting,” day of weights.

My first cyclocross race last Saturday owned me. It was Boulder Racing’s September 29th race. My hands have some gnarly blisters (note to self - get better gloves) and I feel like I was tossed in a paint mixer for an hour. It was nice to get the first one out of the way though. Neal reminded me that I’m not trying to be the best cyclocrosser (if that’s a word) and that I’m not really going to do any training to help my performance at the races. So I’ll just expect to go in and get owned on a weekly basis. At least I can leg press more than the guy next to me.

Recently I’ve gotten more into chill electronic music. Here’s a couple albums that can help mellow you out. Royksopp - Melody AM, Thievery Corporation - The Richest Man in Babylon, and Air - Moon Safari. I’m just listening to the Thievery album for the first time now, but so far, so good. Check out the link at the bottom if you want to have a listen. Thanks for the comments too, I read ‘em.

Finally settled into my place. Damn this song is good by the way. Here’s a photo of Collin spraying an agro squirrel out of a tree that pretty much sums up how great Boulder is. I think the neighbor is calling PETA now…home sweet home.

Until next time, don’t let the squirrel keep you down.

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Now playing: Thievery Corporation - Facing East
via FoxyTunes

With all the time on my hands lately, now that it’s the off season, I made something pretty decent last night and thought it’d be worth putting up here. Turned out better than I expected. It’s Chili Chicken with Chick Pea Mash, from the fitness food cookbook. And it’s really, really easy. So if you screw this up…I’m not sure what I should tell you. In a random note, the chickpea mash has a mashed pototatoes-ish taste to it that’s pretty good.

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Vital Facts: prepare in 15 mins + 30 mins marinating + cooking time 30 minutes, serves 4.

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Calories: 321

Protein: 36.8g

Carbs: 15.3g

Sugar: 1.5g

Fat: 12.9g

Saturates: 2g

Fiber: .06g

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Ingredients:

4 skinless, about 5oz/each
1tbsp olive oil
8 tsp harissa (chili) paste
salt and black pepper
CHICKPEA MASH
2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
14oz no salt/sugar canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 tbsp semiskin milk
3tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Make shallow cuts in each chicken breast. Place the chicken in a dish, brush with olive oil, and coat both sides of ea. breast with the harissa paste. Season well with salt and pepper, cover the dish with foil, and let marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 425 F. Transfer chicken breasts to a roasting pan and roast for about 20-30 minutes until they are cooked through and there is no trace of pink in the center.

3. Meanwhile make the chickpea mash. Heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the garlic for 1 minute, then add the chickpeas and milk and heat through for a few minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the fresh cilantro.

4. To serve, divide the chickpea mash between 4 serving plates, top each one with a chicken breast and garnish with cilantro.

Hey guys, let me know how I can get in touch with you - email addresses work well. Just leave a comment and I’ll get it. Hope the travel back home went smoothly and you’re rockin’ the domestic scene. And what is the word on the street with CC for next year? If you’ve heard anything…(gotta love this time of year)

The last day or two has been filled with an unusually high number of cool new things for me. So I made a list. And you can read it. If you want.

1. The Red Bull Air Race

2. The Ipod Touch

3. Oakley Radar Shades

4. Cyclocross and my Redline
First, the Red Bull Air Race 2007. I thought cycling might be dangerous, but Air Racing blows cycling out of the water in the danger department. I was eating lunch after a ride, turned on the tv, and there was the Red Bull Air Race. Be sure to watch the video link under the photo, it’s insane. Really.

Check out the video! Below:

The Ipod Touch. 8mm thick and browses the web? Damn. Where have I been?

Ah the new shades. Notice the name on the lenses, very nice. They just showed up in the mail two days ago. Test drive comin’ up.

Cyclocross season. We just hit a cool snap of weather and it felt nice. Real nice. Yesterday was my 2nd cross ride ever and it was awesome. Met up with the 8am Walnut Amante group ride and there had to be 70 people there. Quite organized - very impressed. Here’s the ride that’s going to take me to the top.

Get ready for my cyclocross season predictions coming soon…

Well I also have a little one, but this big one is for special occasions.

It’s pretty exciting - looks like it makes about 1.5 liters of coffee. This is a group ride-sized french press. That’s exactly why I picked it up - so when the brave souls join me in the morning this winter for 6 hours of pedaling and conversation, I’ll have the coffee at my place. 3255 Dover. I’ll come up with some regular time and days to meet, but for now, just know that there’ll be coffee with your name on it.

If you’re wondering how hunting went in Phillipsburg, Kansas…I can still say I have not killed anything hunting in my life. I shot twice in the 4 hour adventure which was actually pretty fun. More about driving/walking around some nice rolling countryside than posting up somewhere waiting for a bird to fly by. I wish that I would have gotten a picture of Phil and myself, riding in the back of a chevy pickup with guns across our laps, Phil slapping the top of the cab anytime we saw a dove nearby. Good times.

I feel like I’m finally back into the swing of things. Getting to bed early, waking up and cooking my gourmet breakfast and riding. It’s a great feeling. About one week left in the road season followed by a couple weeks off and then some cross racing. My prediction for this cross season is that the fields will be huge. Everyone has been talking about their plans to race cross for the first time this year, including me. Time to get on the bike for a power test up Flagstaff - 20 minutes all out. Glad I had my coffee…

On the road. St. Louis, MO to Phillipsburg, KA for part one, followed by the final leg to Boulder on day two. With a stomach full of McDonalds (soon to be followed by nausea), Phil and I are truckin’ through northern Kansas on Hwy 36 – two lanes of heaven in the countryside. Although I can’t see anything outside because it’s almost 11pm, Phil tells me it’s beautiful, really.

On the agenda for tomorrow is a “a little morning dove shoot” as Phil would say. We’re meeting his dad and friend to go out on a piece of land they own, to get some Kansas culture in before we end our trip to the Midwest. Of course I’ll just be along for spectating purposes as I don’t own a hunting license, haven’t taken a hunter’s safety course, and ya, no gun. Phil tells me I can “shoot stuff” with his though…yeehaw! Let’s gitterdun.

The racing finished up nicely at Gateway Cup. Phil and I were just out of the money yesterday, they didn’t pay me for the prime I supposedly won (per the race announcer), and I pulled out of the race early today. As we waited on the start line, my head pounding from a late night last night, I glanced over at the thermometer on the officials’ trailer – pinned at 100 degrees for the second day in a row. Awesome. Read the rest of this entry »

Before I even mention why I’m in St. Louis, Missouri; the song of the trip is - “The Way I Are” Timbaland feat. D.O.E. and Keri Hilson. The great thing about how popular this song is right now is how you can always get it on the radio. Not on the station you’re listening to right now? Scan two stations up…yup there we go. Song’s over? Four stations down…perfect - it’s just starting.

Why St. Louis you ask? The Gateway Cup is four days with four crits back to back, with good fields and decent purses (prize purses, that is). Sounds like a nice trip, only 15 hours on the road…

-Meet Phil at I-25 and Hwy 7 around 4pm Thursday, complements of Teghan (thank you) and get on the road for the next 9 hours.

-Get in to Kansas City around 3am and stay at Phil’s house - passing out asap on arrival.

-Get up around 830 and get on the road for 4 hours to meet Phil’s friend Jess, whose apartment we’ll be staying at for the next four days.

-Show up at Jess’s. She’s awesome - sample sized stuff in the shower for us, extra bedding, towels, and a sweet 2 bedroom in the University City area - but she has a roommate just like the girl in Saving Silverman. Jess takes off until Sunday for some family/friends stuff and we hit the sac.

I wake up on the couch, mid-nap, to the sounds of someone packing and walking around the apartment. Look up and I see this girl, who I instantly knew was pure evil. “Hello,” I say to her and in return, get a short and inpolite “Hi.” She walks out the door with some stuff, assuming she’s headed to her car. Hmm, I would have expected her to at least introduce herself to someone staying in her home for the next 4 days. Back to sleep. She walks in again and I wakeup, again. Straight to her room, grabs a duffle bag and yells at her dog Bosco (very original name by the way) to “Come.” I say goodbye and there’s no response. Nice to meet you too!

Turns out she called Jess on the phone to complain about us and her end of the conversation went something like this…

“You didn’t tell me BOYS were staying at our place…BOYS are dirty!! Agh. I’m staying at my fiance’s house while they’re here.” Click.

Mind you, the fridge is covered with cliche, senior-portrait-y, engagement photos, prominently displaying her wedding ring on her fiance’s shoulder. I guess she wants to deal with as few dirty boys as possible. What girl would want that? Only one of pure evil I say. Well at least she’s gone. Time to race… Read the rest of this entry »

So after my weekend of racing up in Summit County, which only went mildly well, it was time for a day off. With a high of 96 and a calm lake, I dialed up my brother Kevin to get out on the Boulder Resevoir for an impromptu wakeboarding photo sesh. His girlfriend came along as well as his buddy Steven from school down in Florida. And the rest is history…

I would like you to take note of the FLIP FLOPS in this photo. Skills. No wakeskate? Just take the bindings off a wakeboard and toss on some sandals. Good to go. More photos on the whole post… Read the rest of this entry »

Well I made it back from Hertsberge fairly smooth last week. In an almost 24 hour long travel day, the only hiccup was Scott Tietzel and my train trip from Brugge to Brussels International.

So maybe we missed the first train out of Brugge because of the extra 5 minutes I spent putting my awesome gifts away in the kitchen: a large cup that’s actually a vase I bought, because none of the glasses at the CC are big enough…a 3.75 euro teflon skillet that eggs CANNOT stick to…and all of my groceries I which gifted away the night before.

Or maybe we missed that train because we couldn’t haul our bike box/oversize duffel/backpack combo to the top of the train platform 2 minutes faster…

Either way, the train that we got on a half-hour later quickly became overstuffed with Euro-band campers complete with multi-day camping packs, therma-rests, cymbals and snacks. Stop by stop, the train was slowly packed full of these high school kids. Scott’s bikepro soft case was knocked over in the entryway of the car we were in and one of the campers asked if they could put their stuff on it. Being the nice guy he is, Scott said “ya that’s ok.”

…And that was mistake #1. Read the rest of this entry »

Time to kill? Yes and no. On a pre-race day at the Cycling Center in Hertsberge, Belgium you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, yet none at all.

Here’s my checklist for days before a race:
1. Get out of bed.
2. Make the hearty breakfast: Oatmeal with brown sugar the slow way, 1 whole egg and 2 whites dropped into a pan in no particular order (break the yolk with the broken egg shell), coffee via french press filled with evian water on a real good day, 2 pieces of toast with butter, and a banana + a kiwi.
3. Eat the hearty
4. Get on the bike and do the super secret pre-race ride
5. Shower and shave legs
6. Lunch it
7. Stretch and foam roller to throw some pain in the mix
8. Clean the bike. Diesel fuel on the chain, gets ‘em every time.

(As I type this, the massive Cycling Center semi-truck is backing into the driveway and the Namur stage race team is probably going to be home soon - yep, here’s the team van…everyone seems happy, always a good sign)
— Just finished helping to unload the stage race vehicles and I’m back. To give you an idea of the amount of “stuff” we bring to a race…here’s a photo of the vehicles. —-

…Back to the checklist… Read the rest of this entry »