IT'S SNOWING!!!

It's been snowing here for two days now! FINALLY! This winter has been cold and dry so far, the meteorologists in Denver have been calling for a heavy march snow. So maybe this is an early beginning or something. There are several trains of thought out here when it comes to a good powder snow.

First you have the newbie, college grad, recent resident of the valley, or ski bum...etc.
"Dude, FRESHY POW POW! We gotta get to the slopes ASAP! Let's get to the slopes early so we get fresh tracks, then stay all day to hunt for freshies!........

Next you have the "old timers", residents of the valley for a 8-10 years+ Those who have seen enough snow in their lifetime to bury a sky scraper....or two.
"Nice!, Fresh snow, sleep in a bit, then we'll head out into the back country for some snow shoeing/x-country skiing. Fresh tracks all day, and sweet, quiet, solitude.

Then you have me....
Sweet!, it's snowing. What do I want to do today? Hmmm, I think I will ride my bike in the garage for a couple hours then relax and have a beer while watching the ILLINI game.

Visit from the Fam

Mom and little bro' came out for a few days of playing in the snow. complete wrap-up to follow.

Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines

On January 9th, Natalie sent me to the Big Beers festival at Cascade Village in Vail. We wanted to go to this last year, but it just didn't work out, so this year she bought me a ticket and talked Torrey into going along with me. (not sure how much persuasion it took) This is one of the top beer festivals in the country. The plan was for Torrey's wife to drop us off at about 2:30 pm, and then she would come back with Natalie around 7 ish and we would head out to eat. (that was dependent upon us being proper enough to go to a nice restaurant) Umm I think Torrey must have forgotten about that end of the deal.... Tickets were 45.00 a piece, and there 82 brewers there, mostly from the U.S., but also from the Netherlands and Belgium. Upon arriving we were handed a 10th anniversary commemorative tasting glass, and stepped into a large convention room. Brewers were set up on all 4 walls, as well as in a rectangle around the center of the room. Each brewer had anywhere from 2-5 beers that they had brought with them for tasting. Several of the brewers even had a 10th anniversary creation just for this event! There were so many amazing beers, it was kinda like a small slice of beer drinkers heaven... The reason it is call Big Beers, is because all of the beers are supposed to be over 7.0% ABV (alcohol by volume.) I would guess the average beer had 8-9% ABV, while the strongest we tasted was 15.0% ABV. Many of the beers are created in the Belgian styles of brewing, and several of the brewers had also brought along a Barleywine. This was the first time I had ever tried barleywine, but it was actually really good!
I tried to keep track of all the beers that I tasted, but after a while this became a futile effort. :) It would be really difficult to choose a favorite, but I did really enjoy the variety of Trippel Ales, and Quadruple Ales. Also, there were many superb IPA's available for tasting. I can however say which style I liked the least. There is this new thing (at least as far as I know) in brewing where brewers are creating sour beers...... This happened to be the first one that we tried, and it was from New Belgium (fall wild ale with a sour touch), and I actually threw up a little bit in my mouth after tasting it... It was NASTY! Some may enjoy the sour beers as it seemed several of the brewers had one, but it was definitely not for me!
A few of our favorites....The last beer we tasted was fittingly called "THE BEAST," (Brewed by Avery out of CO) and at 14.9% ABV, it was strong! Armed with my new knowledge of beers and brewing, I am now ready to sit around the Brummer cabin at Lake Sara and discuss the finer side of beer with cousin Tommy and brothers while sampling all of Tommy's fine creations.
Thanks Natalie for surprising me with the ticket to go to the tasting!

bigbeers,belgians,andbarleywines

2010 Participating Breweries:

Alaskan
Allagash
Altitude
Anchor Brewing
Aspen
Avery
Ayinger
Ballast Point
Baltika
Bell's
Belzebuth
Bosteels
Boston Beer Co.
Boulder
Boulevard
Breckenridge
Bristol
Bruery
Carver
Chimay
Chouffe
Coronado
Corsendonk
Crazy Mountain
DeDolle
Delirium
Des Rocs
Deschutes
Dillon Dam
Dogfish Head
Dry Dock
Dubuisson
Dupont
Durango
Flying Dog
Full Sail
Fuller's
Glenwood Canyon
Gore Range
Gouden Carolous
Grand Lake
Grand Teton
Great Divide
Green Flash
Hair of the Dog
He’brew/Schmaltz
Hoegaarden
Jolly Pumpkin
LaTrappe / Koningshoeven
Left Hand
Library
Lindemans
Lion
Maredsous
Mendocino
Michelob
New Belgium
Odell
Ommegang
Orval
Oskar Blues
Pagosa Brewing
Papago
Pinkus
Pumphouse
Redstone Meadery
Rochefort
Samichlaus
Samuel Smith
Sierra Nevada
Ska
St. Bernardus
St. Feuillien
Stone
Thomas Hardy
Tommyknocker
Uinta
Upslope
Urthel
Val-Dieu
Victory
Westmalle
Wynkoop

Spanish II

So.... we finished Spanish I with flying colors. Pretty much only because our grade was based on attendance and turning things in. In Spanish I our class developed into small tight-knit group. We all had our strengths and weaknesses, and we all knew each others strengths and weaknesses. Now we are in our 3rd week of Spanish II, and we have 4-5 of the students from Spanish I, plus 5 new members of the class. I can already tell Spanish II is going to be a bit more difficult than Spanish I..... And of the new members.... several of them know quite a bit more than I do..... May have to get my act in gear, or at least start speaking with my students more.

buenos noches

Day #7

Got my 7th day on the mountain yesterday. After doing saturday school, I headed up to the Beav. It was snowing when I got up there. YES! We needed snow. I had a new board from a friend, that is just letting me use it. It was phenomenal! I haven't waxed or sharpened the edges on my board since I got it about.... well sometime in high school. So a long time. It was amazing, I was able to carve some amazing turns, and it just felt smooth and fast! Gotta get a wax job on my board. It was also nice to get some fresh snow! The sun even came out for a bit. The mountain was freakin packed, as were all the parking lots. I headed over to Arrowhead and did not have to wait in line once. In fact, I only had to share a lift twice in about a 3 hour period of time. Sweet!

Visiting Family

Yesterday, we got the chance to make the couple hour drive down the mountain to the big city to visit a cousin of mine. She just moved up here with her husband and 5 mo. old boy from Dallas. We had a nice time visiting with them and sharing stories, and seeing their house in Highlands Ranch. Little Nathan is super cute and soon after we arrived had a monster poop while jumping in his jumper....(a sign of things to come... :) We headed to B-Dubs, (Buffalo Wild Wings for those of you not in the know,) where Luke and Jodi treated us to lunch. Then after lunch got some amazing ice cream at Cold Stone. Two of our favorites in one trip. We gotta make the most of our time with access to those luxuries.


After lunch we headed back to their house for a bit to let our food digest, and watch a little bit of the Chargers-Jets football game. It was about 3 pm when we decided we should get a move on if we wanted to get over both passes before dark. When we left Denver it was 53 and sunny. When we got to the top of the tunnel it had started to snow a bit, and was about 30 degrees. When we came out the west side of the tunnel, it was WHITE OUT!!! Visibility was about 1/4 mile only, roads were completely covered in snow, and in 5 mile or so stretch down to Silverthorne there were about 10 accidents. Trucks jack knifed, rear wheel drive cars just spinning trying to get traction on the way up, cars off the road, it was a mess! The way down the pass was slow-about 10-15 mph, and snow covered, but no major accidents or issues. The subaru did great! Likewise, going up the east side of Vail pass was clear and fine, but the west side was much the same as the last. It was covered in snow, the traffic on the way up heading east was completely locked up, trucks were jack knifed, cars were off the road. It was crazy how hard it must have snowed in such a short time. We arrived home around 530 safe and sound. It was a good day, good to see some family and have them so close to us, and the puppies were happy to see us when we got home.

Cycling 2009 Recap and 2010 Goals

2009 - This year was a very up and down year for me. I found a crack in my carbon fiber road frame, so I was no longer able to ride that bike. It was replaced by Specialized with a brand new 2009 model. Thanks Specialized and Wheelfast Bicycle! My mountain bike was on top of the car when we tried to pull into the garage. That frame was destroyed. Got a brand new mountain bike (NINER) and after 2 weeks of riding discovered a cracked rear triangle. Soooo, had to ship another bike back, and it was replaced with a different frame, (once again thanks to NINER and Matt at Wheelfast), with a new frame to come in spring of 0'10. It's hard to train consistently when you are constantly taking apart and rebuilding old bikes and new bikes. The first mountain bike race of the year, I crashed and landed on my face. That hurt a little bit.... I cracked my helmet in that crash and had to borrow a helmet for the next race. Eventually I was able to get a new helmet. I spent more time this year talking with bike companies and working with Matt on getting new bikes, than ever before. Hopefully I am done with that for a while. I like to ride, not so much a fan of the business side of it...Despite all of the downsides, there were some upsides to 2009. I did a time trial near Glenwood Springs, CO, where I averaged 26.98 mph for 20k. That was over 1 mph faster than my previous avg in a 20k time trial. That was much faster than I expected, and I was super pleased with that time. At this time trial, I also got to meet and shake hands with Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong who showed up from Aspen for a little pre Tour de France time trial action.The only other notable result on the road bike was a crit at Copper Mountain where I got 6th in the 3's. This result was exciting in the fact that I didn't think the race was that difficult, and people afterward were complaining about how hard it was.

On the mountain bike, I gained much invaluable experience in the valley race series. I raced Sport this year, and kind of struggled at the beginning of the series. But as the summer went on, and I dropped a bit more weight to get down around 175 lbs, and worked on my climbing quite a bit. I also figured out that I had to ride "my" race instead of trying to stay with the leaders on the climbs. On one of the races I without any huge long climbs, I was able to grab a 5th place. This was pretty awesome, especially since my teammate got 1st place. That was some good points to help out the team. Pic. In the last race of the series at Beaver Creek, I was feeling amazing and was climbing really well....then I got a flat tire and took about 20 minutes to change. It was refreshing knowing that I had been going so well.

To end the season I headed down to MOAB with my entourage.... (Natalie and Torrey) for the 24 Hours of Moab. It was a blast and an awesome challenge. I ended up with about 115 miles and 7 laps in the 24 hour period. There were many highs and lows in that period of time. Highs included heading into the dark for the first night lap, and seeing the sun come up on the last night lap. Lows were definitely the cramping that occurred early in the race. Another high was the support at camp! Natalie and Torrey did an amazing job of taking care of me and making sure I had everything I needed. 24 hours of Moab will come up again in the future I am sure. I believe I can do 12+ laps solo with the proper training. Maybe not anytime soon, but it will call again sometime I'm sure. pics

With all that being said, I'm not sure what 2010 holds for me. A new addition to our family! This will be the most exciting thing to happen this year I'm sure. I still have cycling goals set for 2010, they are just set to allow me to be home with my wife and child as much as possible.

Cycling Goals 2010:
1.) Break an average of 28mph in a 20k time trial on my road bike.
2.) Get enough points (and hopefully a win) in the Vail Rec Mountain bike series to help my team win the overall, and to help me move up to Expert class.
3.) Beat Torrey and Jeff in the swim/run portion of the triathlon we are doing in April, while hopefully achieving a top 10 position in the overall.

Here's the catch. I will achieve the first two goals while only training for 1 hour/night with 1 longer ride per week. I believe I can do this by being very specific with my workouts. By doing this I will be spending much less time on my bike than any other year, while being able to spend much more time at home learning to be a daddy! :)

This above anything else will be most important to me this year. Being the daddy my baby needs, and being the husband that my wife needs me to be.

A few Thank You's:
Thanks to Matt at Wheelfast in Chatham, IL for all your bike help this year, and for being such a good friend!
Thanks to Torrey for your help at Moab when I needed a fire started at 4:15 in the morning so I could have something to eat before heading out for a lap.
Thanks to Charlie at Mt. Pedaler for all your help in building up new bikes at the last minute!
Thanks to Paul from school for trying to teach me how to put my own bike together.
Most of all, Thanks to my beautiful wife for being so supportive and allowing me to chase my dreams even when they sometimes seem kind of extreme or crazy.