Time's flyin

Well lets see folks. The trip to Portland was fantastic. I spent some great quality time with Jason and Shelly and they showed me a good time as always. My flight ended up being delayed for quite a while but Jason and Shelly were both there to greet me with smiling faces when I finally landed in Portland. We headed back downtown to their place parked the car and headed straight to Bridgeport Brewery for some delicious beer and pizza. We just hung out that night and played with Poncho (Sarah's cat Jason and Shelly are watching) and then headed to bed.

The next morning Jason and I dropped Shelly off at the Hotel downtown that Sarah and all of her ladies were getting ready at and Jason and I then headed out for some breakfast at the Stepping Stone. It was absolutely FANTASTIC! I had a chicken fried omelet covered in gravy and cheese! We had a nice little table outside and enjoyed some coffee and had some good conversation. We then headed back to the place and got ready for the wedding out on Saunie Island. The wedding took place at a farm out on the island under a big oak tree. The reception was held there as well and everything went perfectly. I got to see Sarah for a short bit wished her the best and then headed back downtown with Shelly and Jason for some dinner and then back to their place to hang out.

We got up in the morning had coffee and breakfast at their place and then they took me off to the airport to fly back. The weather was splendid and Portland is so much fun to visit especially when you have time with such great people.

It was then back to work all week keeping busy but getting on the bike for a few rides however the days are getting shorter and I am running out of time at night to ride. Looks like I will have to start putting the trainer to use during the weeks here before long.

It was a big week for mountain biking around Boulder as well as a new connector trail opened which connects Heil and Hall Ranch which are two big places to ride around here. The connector creates a 55 mile ride I can complete out the door of my apartment. It does include some time on the road but over half of it is on trail. My buddy Greg, his friend John, another guy Sean, and I all got out early Saturday morning to ride the the whole trek for the first time. We started at the parking lot of Heil Ranch so the total ride was about 33-34 miles. The weather was perfect. A bit over cast but we didn't mind as it kept the heat down. We all ended up pretty worked afterward but it was a blast and that ride is going to be my home training ground for my plans to do several endurance races next year. There isn't any horrible amount of climbing (although I don't consider any amount of climbing horrible :) ) but the power outputs on the ride are definitely difficult.

Left to right. Sean, Greg, John, and I at the top of Hall Ranch


Me, John, and Greg at the start of the connector Picture Rock Trail.


Retro Ride.


Work is pretty nasty busy and today already started out with a pretty long day with a few more to go. I am already looking forward to the weekend. Though the days may be long work is making the days go by quickly so I can't complain. Hope everyone is well.

Off to the Northwest!

I fly out tomorrow to head out to Portland to see one of my favorite people, Sarah, get hitched. I will be staying with two of my other favorite people Shellson aka Jason and Shelly. It should be a whale of a good time and the weather is supposed to be perfect so game on. Graham was supposed to be living out there but he headed back to Glacier this summer so he won't be around.

It's going to be a short trip but I look forward to seeing my hommies and hopefully hear Jason strum on the guitar as well. After this week and work and the week I will be coming back to I look forward to just having a good time.

Have a stellar weekend all!

P.S. Congrats again on your house Steph! It's SUPER nice!

Been a While

I guess it is about time I throw up a post as it has been over a month! Between a mixture of sheer laziness and then complete craziness I haven't gotten around to posting. I apologize.

Last week I went out to Boston for training for work which was interesting listening to a couple of French guys from our parent company. They were teaching us how to use a new consolidation software that is going to require a lot of work from our finance department at Spatial. Oh well gotta do what the big dog says. We also have quarter close coming up along with budgeting for next year, a sales and use tax audit that I need to complete work on, finish up the expense system I am implementing, and finally maintaining my usual daily task. Not to mention I am flying to Portland next week for my good friend Sarah's wedding. Looks like I am going to be busy for quite a while.

My Dad was in town this weekend and we had a great time eating good food and enjoying the Colorado sunshine. We went to Benehana's on Friday for a great Japanese grill dinner, Foolish Craig's for a delicious breakfast Saturday morning, cruised Pearl Street all day in the afternoon, Proto's Pizza for a delicious dinner, and then got up way early this morning to cheer on Leia Watkins who ran the Boulder Backroad's Marathon today! Great to have you out to visit Pop's!

Leia had awesome weather for the race today and she did great! She held a really great pace for quite a while but then at about the 19 mile mark she hit the wall and felt the true pain that many runners feel at about that time. She was able to push through though and never gave up. It was painful for both my Dad and I waiting at the finish line out at the reservoir because we knew she was going to be in pain when she got there. Though she said it was the hardest thing she had ever done and will never run again I know she will look back on it with a sense of great accomplishment! I admire her for taking the brutal challenge and making it through! It was a lot of fun chasing her around the course cheering her on!

Here's a couple of pics from the race. The course was rolling and offered up some brutal short steep climbs!



The look of pain... but IT'S ALL OVER! CONGRATS LEIA!

Fingers crossed for next year...

This would be the ultimate! This is a picture of the handcrafted gold and silver Leadville 100 mountain belt buckle you get if you finish the race in under 9 hours. I have not idea if I could do that but I know I could get it in under 12 hours which would mean that I would get a all silver handcrafted belt buckle.



Only problem is that the race participants are selected on a lottery basis. That means you have to turn in your registration/fees by January 31, 2009 for the August 2009 race and just cross your fingers that your name is drawn. There are over a thousand participants each year for this race and normally quite a few big names that ride it. Last year was Floyd Landis and this year it was Lance Armstrong. From what I have heard that race is hard but the Breck 100 is harder. I would like to do both next year. I am also considering the Lumberjack 100 which is back in up state Michigan which would be completely different riding than out here and I think it would be super exciting. We'll see what happens. I know Curtis one of my roommates in college has been getting into riding as well and we might get together to do one of these races which would be AWESOME!

Bummer

Well B-RAD ended up missing his flight out of Chicago because of unusually long lines and won't be making it out for the weekend.... bummer

That's nice!

Well I don't know about the rest of you but I am officially addicted to the Olympics! This is no surprise though. I went off last night when the US won the 400m relay in swimming after the French had been talking smack! I LOVED IT! For the next few weeks my evenings will be spent cheering on the Americans!

Saturday after a rough bike ride up to Jamestown I went down to Denver to hang out with Leia and a few of her friends. It was a good time. We were going to go to this place called Boondocks that has mini golf, go karts, video games etc. However turns out someone had rented the whole freakin place out so we didn't get to. Instead we went to the driving range and killed some golf balls cause Leia was dying to hit something.

After that we went out for a delicious dinner and went out for some beers as well. The next morning I headed back up to Boulder and went up to Walker Ranch and had a solid tough ride up at Walker Ranch on the mountain bike. It has been nice lately to have a bit cooler weather and I have been feeling better about gettin on the bike.

Tonight I got out on the mountain bike again with perfect temperatures in the mid 70s and roasted it! I started out getting a good warm up riding out to the trail and then just GASSED IT. I saw this shirt the other day that had the picture of a turtle and a rabbit on it just like the throttle on a John Deer lawnmower and it said give it more rabbit and that is EXACTLY WHAT I DID!!! I absolutely throttled it around the trails! It has been the best that I have felt since the race in Breckenridge and I think it is because of the cooler temps for sure. I have to say I am back on the bikes again with regular rides and it feels good. I have been pretty lazy lately but I'm back at it.

The weekend before Stephanie came through on a flight home from Montana and we had a pretty good time hanging out though it was mellow. We went out for drinks with her sister and then the next day tried to go swimming at the Res but got there right in time for it to thunder and they kicked everyone off the beach and it never stopped so we headed down to Pearl Street to walk around. Here's a quick pic of Steph, Angela, and myself down on Pearl Street.



Brad Freshour gets into town on Thursday so I'll get some pics of us hanging out. It was a great time when he came out last year and I expect the same this year. I'm sure we'll go out, do some biking, and hiking. Until then!

First Show at Red Rocks...

So I apologize I have been extremely lazy lately. Actually in almost all aspects of everything except for work I have been doing pretty well.

So I haven't been riding to much lately kind of using the weather as an excuse which is ridiculous. But yesterday I did go out and kill it and it killed me. Ended up with a headache for a few hours. I didn't think the heat was taking a toll on me because I felt fine on the bike but turns out it did. Anywho the ride was good even though I suffered afterwards.

So Keith and Rob are in town this weekend. They are currently at the Yonder Mountain Stringband show at the Boulder Theater. I didn't want to pay for tonight and tomorrow night so I am just holding out to meet up with them later tonight. But tomorrow will be a killer show at Red Rocks for Yonder. This area is their stompin grounds and they are killer bluegrass band so it should be a good time. I can't wait.

Tomorrow morning we are going to get up and do a ride in Nederland and then were are going to head down to Red Rocks for the show. I won't be gettin crazy since Steph is flying in from Montana on her way home for the night catching a flight Sunday morning. So I will be back in Boulder to hang out with her for a bit. Leia Watkins was supposed to come to the show tomorrow but due to some unforeseen circumstances she will not be which makes me sad but we will hang out sometime soon.

Alright just a quick update. Hopefully some more posts more frequently if I get my act together and it freakin cools down out here!