Rippin w/ the Rowell's PART 1

This weekend was FANTASTIC!!! I spent the weekend "Rippin w/ the Rowell's!" Below AJ, Heather, and myself Saturday morning under Colorado Blue Skies!



The good times started when I picked up AJ's Parents from the airport Wednesday night after work and we made our way up to Breckenridge. They were supposed to fly in the night before with AJ & Heather however Jim (AJ's Dad) had a kidney stone episode and was not able to make it onto the plane as planned. Horrible timing. However, his symptoms soon passed and Jim & Rena were able to catch a flight the next morning and catch a ride up with me. We had some good conversation and clear roads getting up to Breck around 9-9:30 and then went out for a Mexican dinner.

After dinner we stayed up chatting back at the condo waiting for Jennifer (our hostess) and her family to arrive from Houston. The bunch showed up around 11-11:30. At that time we met Sam, Jennifer's husband a Louisiana fellow who was in the Navy, Jacklyn, their 9 year old daughter and actress extraordinaire, Nathan their 8 year old question asking extraordinaire, and Abraham, their 4 year old who is much wiser than his size!

Everyone was pretty whipped so we headed to bed and woke up to gray skies however it was snowing which was great to see since there has not been much snow out this way on I70 until the last 2 weeks! Mother nature seemed to know everyone was showing up and looking for some good snow to rip! Jim, AJ, Heather, and I all headed out to the slopes and rode away the morning listening to the bombs go off on the higher slopes above the tree line. With the snow falling and the bombs going off we never made it over to the higher slopes as they kept most of it closed which was fine by me because that meant it would all be prime real estate for Friday morning or afternoon.

We all were pretty hungry from the breakfast of champions that we had which was either PB & J's or PB & Nutella, so we headed in for lunch a bit prior to noon. Rena hadn't quite made it back from the store yet so we sat in the hall way with no key and stuffed our faces with a Pro Bar that I had and Peanut M&M's that Heather had in her pocket. Rena was back shortly after that to find us waiting in the hall and we refueled on sandwiches and chips. Rena looked out for getting us fed the whole weekend which was awesome! Kudos and thanks to her!

After lunch we headed back out to the slopes to more new snow and made some good runs. AJ, Heather, & Jim had plans later in the afternoon to teach Jacklyn, Nathan, and Abraham to ski as they had never been! We didn't really see the point of them getting lift tickets until they at least tried it once so after we were done on the big slopes in the afternoon we headed down to the teaching area which was unoccupied and pushed the little ones up and down the hill teaching them the basics.

The kids did absolutely amazing!! It was awesome to see their excitement and how quick they picked it up. They were excited to hit the bigger slopes the next day! I'll have some video posted of the youngin's learning once I stitch it all together!

Once we were done working with the kids it was time for dinner. We had veggie lasagna lined up for dinner along with SNOW CREAM! I am assuming most who read this don't know what snow cream is! I sure didn't! But I am glad I do now!

And I'll continue with that in the next post! Lost my horrible writing mojo at the moment!

TO BE CONTINUED!

Night fall from Sandy's Condo (Jennifer's Mom) She was kind enough to feed us all on Friday night. More to come.

Time Flies

Been a while again since the last post. I have sat down a couple of times to try and write a blog and have things to blog about but just haven't been in the mood. So alas without further adeu I blog.

In the last couple of weeks my summer race schedule has taken some turns mostly due to not making it into the Leadville 100 and remembering a wedding I will be attending in August. I was extremely bummed at first about not making it into Leadville but I once again remembered shortly there after there are a lot of other races out there that have a much better course so no worries. Though yes it is prestigious to race at such a high elevation for so long. I was going to do Pierre's Hole in Wyoming the week after Leadville since I didn't make it in there but I remembered I will be heading back east for Scott and Leia's wedding and of course seeing family since it will be where I grew up. So August is going to actually be more of a recovery month with a Winter Park Race or two instead of a big race which is probably more of what I can handle anyway! End of July I have the Laramie Enduro if I register in time and then a month later will be the Park City Point to Point with a bunch of the guys from my team so that will be a great setup.

Another change to the schedule will be in July. I am going to race the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge on July 4th as the Team is being so kind as to pick up my entry fee which is absolutely awesome and I can't thank them enough for the opportunity. I was contemplating doing the Breckenridge 100 since it got the best of me last year but I will do the Firecracker 50 instead as it is a new experience and the Team is supporting it.

In other news we have gotten up to snowboard a couple of times. Still not much snow but good times. Ellen, Tim, Amy, and I all went up and stayed at Carl and Angela's house in Eagle since Stephanie came into town (Angela is Stephanie's sister). We all had a good time hanging out, eating breakfast and riding at Keystone.

Snowboarding at Keystone



I have also been able to get in more time on the trainer trying to rebuild myself and also been out for a few rides on the road bike outside. I rode for about 2-2.5 hours on Saturday with Greg which was a good time. He rode out from Louisville and I met him out on the road and we looped back around to his house and I then made my way back to Boulder. I had planned to stay out for 3 hours or so but the wind sapped my energy coming back into Boulder and I called it early feeling a bit drained. It was a great ride though.

Today I had probably the best ride yet. I was out for almost 3 hours enjoying the sunshine on the Superfly 100 mountain bike getting acquainted with my new saddle and trying to dial in my setup so I will be all ready to hit the trails if they ever dry off. Since the trails are wet I was out on a mix of road and dirt roads but it is perfect for trying to set up my position on the bike. I absolutely cannot wait to race this bike!!! This season is going to be an absolute blast!

Superfly 100 (Horsetooth Res in Ft. Collins)


Another item on the Trek Bicycle Store Team agenda is the team training camp which will be held out in Fruita on some of our favorite trails. We will spend a three day weekend out there in April getting to know the new members and enjoying great bike time with everyone. I can't wait!!

Lastly, my buddy Lincoln has set up plans to hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park (Moab, UT) on March 26 at 6am for his 30th birthday! My plan is definitely to attend as my birthday will be right around there as well. On top of that Rob might join me and we are going to turn it into a bike trip as well since for those of you who don't know Moab is a prime biking location. Rob hasn't rode out there since he has been living in Colorado so it is a must do. It will be great training for me as my first race inches closer May 8th.

Oh so beautiful Delicate Arch


All for now will try to update sooner. Work is going to be super busy this week and next then I am going to take a couple days off to ski with AJ, his sister, and his Dad who will be staying up in Breckenridge for 5 days! AJ's sister has a hook up in Houston, TX where she is living who has kindly allowed them to stay in there ski in ski out condo! Good times to be had!

Ellen made bomber crepes this weekend


PS I have added a link on the right to my Flickr account and You Tube page so you can see videos and pictures I have uploaded recently if you haven't seen them from Twitter or Facebook.