Dan the Man bikes to work...

This week starting last Wednesday morning, since it's warmer, I started riding my road bike to work. I don't ride the whole way entirely, I park my car at 5 Mile Junction(other known as Pigeon Hollow) and ride from there through the beautiful back roads through Spring City and to Mt. Pleasant where the wood shop is. I don't ride on Highway 89 at all, too many cars and they put gosh damn rumble strips at the shoulders. So the back road is just perfect with only 5 or 6 cars the whole way. The commute on bike is 10 miles each way so I ride 20 miles a day plus I mountain bike twice a week. I try to stay under 150 beats per minute most of the time so I can have energy to go on intense mountain bikes rides during the week. Sometimes I ride hard on the commute too, depends how I feel, with all the mountain bike racing on the weekends and everything. I leave at 6:35 in the morning from the junction and I get to work around 7:20 which gives me time to change and stuff to be working by 7:30. The morning commute is the best because of the beautiful sunrise and crisp summer air which is a good way to start a day. After work I ride back to the car and is also a good commute because it clears my head after a rough day of work. This is probably a summer thing and I don't know after that, depends how cold it gets in the mornings when the fall comes or if I will last that long. I am not positive about how many times a week I will bike to work but at least 3 times a week but I am shooting every day but probably go 3 times a week to start with. I like doing this commuting thing because it makes work and biking funner at the same time!

A.W. Carter Furniture Works

Kitchen in a house in Spring City

Wood Shop

Mantle

I guess I haven't really talked about my new job opportunity in my blog yet so I will talk about it now. I work at A.W. Carter Furniture Works in Mt. Pleasant and it is right next to my last job at Timberhawk. At this furniture shop, we do cabinets and furniture for people. We just finished a job at Spring City and table and chairs for the owner of NuSkin. My boss does fabulous work, I mean way over profession and I am really looking forward in learning from him. Also a friend of his from Riverton comes down to help. They are both really nice and I am going to like working with them. We will pretty soon make furniture for the El Salvadore LDS Temple, like coffee tables and stuff. I will take pictures of the furniture and post them on my blog when we get some finished. Right now we are doing the laundry room in the same house in Spring City. It takes a while but a lot patience sure pay a lot!

Draper Race

This race was held yesterday on Memorial Day in Draper, UT as part of the Intermountain Cup Series and this is my 5th race this year. I never did this race last year because I had to work that day. I never prerode it either so I was kind of nervous but not too nervous because a lot of people explained to me how it was going to be.

There were a lot of people racing and a whole lot of spectators, I have never seen so many people at a local bike race before. It was great though and the day was beautiful. When I started, I had a really bad start, we were going on mostly singletrack at first of the race, maybe the first mile before getting on the 2.5 mile service road. I was like puttin' along because so many riders in front of me were going not so fast and I wanted to pass so badly but there was no room to pass at all. I think I lost maybe two minutes of my time. If I had a better start and got in front of the pack, I would have been all right but still there was the Sport Women and Clydesdale classes with a few slow riders. But all well, when I got to the major big service road, I passed people like crazy and it was nice but it would have been nice to get a better result and time.

The course was demanding and I loved it! It was in Corner Canyon near Draper and there were houses around all over at the bottom just like Park City and the top of the canyon had an excellent view with a view of the Draper Temple. I liked the singletrack trails and they were everywhere. They were fun and twisty in the oaks and maples. It was all about strength, style, and finesse.

I got 15th out of 24 riders in my class. A lot of people this time. There were 37 in the Sport 40+ class. Just what like I said, "the more, the merrier"!

Soldier Hollow 2010

Third place!
Trying to keep away from the slick trail, also snow in the background.
Almost to the finish! And having a blast.
Soldier Hollow this year was different but always fun. This time it snowed and rained in the morning. I actually thought about not doing the race at and go straight to Park City with my mom like what we were planning to do afterwards so mom and my sister Becky can go shopping. I just wanted to go straight to the motel hot tub. When we got to Soldier Hollow, the rain and snow stopped around at 8:30. I thought for sure they were going to still have the race but shorten the course. But good news, they didn't shorten it that much, just maybe a couple miles or could be three. They took out the very the high altitude part of the course which was at the very top of the mountain above Soldier Hollow Resort. I guess because of the trail conditions, they wanted us to stay on the grass. It was still fun and there were some slick parts but most the trails were all tacky. At the start line, it's funny, I had to pee so bad but I couldn't go because we were starting all ready. I rode with having to go to the bathroom but I didn't survive, I gave up, stopped, and went about halfway of the course right at the side of the trail. It felt so much better and then I jumped on my bike and continued. While racing on the big climb, another guy on the side of me and said, "you're in beginner 30-39, aren't you?", then I said, "ya, guess I am." Later on I said, "I got to peeee!" He laughed and said, "then I will stay at your pace". I had a good time on this course and I felt great. There were a lot of steep uphills and mostly this trail was all up and down. I guess it's because it's actually a cross country ski course, well it's the 2002 winter olympics course.
I finished in 42 minutes and got 3rd place. I was excited about getting on the podium this time and got a gift certificate and a ribbon. It was a fun experience. Mostly I had a good race. This time I am not complaining because my knees didn't bother me anymore and my achilles tendons felt better. I have got brand new pedals 2 days before and that definitely fixed my problems with my feet and knees.

Sundance Spin Bike Race 2010

Bad ass! The best scenic race of the year, I can't miss that!

The more, the merrier!

Showdown At 5 Mile Pass

As I was driving to the race, when it started raining(pouring hard) from Santaquinn through Lehi and Eagle Mountain to Fairfield, I thought this race wasn't going to be good, like last year when we just had to do the 12 and under loops because of the mud and rain. I was pretty upset because I wanted to the whole course but when I got to Fairfield(right next to 5 Mile Pass), I could see the sun shining down the race course(looked like heaven). So then I had a feeling this was going to be a good race. I was so excited and I felt good. Everybody were wearing their arm/leg/knee warmers to get the chill out during the race. At the starting line, I ate a half of Powerbar and was ready to go. I had a pretty good start but not the best but thank goodness this course had a lot of room for passing and I passed a few riders. I enjoyed the fast rolling hills and cleaned every climb. My legs felt great in this race and I was glad I was there in the race instead of home in a snow/rain storm. When I got to "the wall" (Yellow Page Hill), everybody got off their bikes and hiked up it, I got off as well, it was so steep that it made my calves hurt so bad hiking up it. My shoes kept slipping off at the hill and I strapped them down more. After that was the Middle Ring Hill and the Bob Sled Descent and I just gunned it. Then back to the finish line were some major set of hills and I got so tired and barely made it at the last climb. I finished at 6th place at exactly one hour and 24 seconds. Better position than the St. George race.

Gone Out Of The Wind

This is lower Ephraim Canyon, there is a new singletrack trail from the hydroplant to New Canyon Road then ride on the New Canyon Road(the smaller one on the far left) for a while and get back on singletrack again to the A-Frame house on the main Canyon Road then from there is nothing but a bad ass singletrack downhill back to Ephraim.

Flume Trail

Finally the snow melted on the Flume Trail and I waited all winter for this ride. It was a very windy day today but when I got in the canyon after 10 minutes from the house, there was no wind at all. Wind doesn't blow in the canyons, that is what is so nice about them. There were some downhill dudes at the top of the Flume Trail and I said hi and all but didn't stop. The climb up to it from the hydroplant at the bottom of the canyon is my favorite part because I LOVE TO CLIMB! I always enjoy the climbs more than the downhills on every ride I go. Because climbing to me is more challenging every time. The trail downhill was pretty packed down already, by a lot. I guess people like to shuttle up and go down it. The uphill trail, I was third tracks for this year. This is a good old training route that lasts for an hour total time, from the house to the house(point A to point A).