Nathan Weston

New Blogsite

2010-02-17T22:51:00.000-08:00

I will stop using this blogsite as i have found a different site that allows more detail that I like much better. Please continue to check in on me and my life as I leave to race in Belgium for the Fuji Test Team next week. The address is:

www.daretobeuncommon.wordpress.com

This link has not been working so just try typing this address into your browser instead.

I hope to see you there as it has all the anemities this blog does but more as well. I have already posted a new blog post on that site. Check it out!

Media Week

2010-02-11T21:23:00.000-08:00

This week has flown by. It feels as though I was just writing a blog last night. It has been a hectic and stressful week. I have been finalizing all my details for my trip to Belgium such as buying my plane ticket, getting my UCI lisence, my passport finally arriving, getting a bike box (thank you Ed), getting enough Hammer Nutrition supplements for 3 months, getting new Hammer Nutrition kits (thank you Dustin), working with existing sponsors, fundraising, and training. Lots of stuff and not enough time in the day to do everything I want to. But I feel a lot better now that I have finalized all this and all I have to worry about now is the continued fundraising and training.

It has been an exciting week as far as the media goes. I got the opportunity to go on 4 morning radio shows in the past two days thanks to Bret Maverick for setting them up. Then yesterday I was suprised when KULR 8 gave me a call and came along for the ride to take some film and then a short interview afterwards. So all in all it has been a pleasent suprise to get some good media attention and will close it out before I leave with an article in the Billings Outpost here in the next week or so with a one on one interview with Jennifer Molk. Im excited to see the final product!

The departure date is only 2 weeks away and I am STOKED!!!! I will be leaving on the 28 of February at 8:10a.m and arriving in Brussels at 9:10a.m. on March 1. From there I will take a 1.5hr train ride to my new home for the next 3 months, Oostkamp, Belgium. Its about 8k from Brugges and pretty close to the coast as well. I am excited for some new scenery on my rides, and some intense racing!! Well good night yall and I will update next week.

Snow snow snow

2010-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hello from back in Billings, MT. So much snow but what can I expect in February in MT. However I am happy to say ever since returning from Bozeman, I have been able to get outside everyday snow or not. The training has been going well with being able to get in long rides outside. Been bundling up with 2 leg warmers, 2 bib shorts, multiple jerseys, coats, 2 gloves ,shoe covers, ect. Its been hovering about 0 degrees celcius the past couple of weeks, not much over (im trying to get used to celcius temps). I got to ride with Jeff Handlin this past weekend which was a great time as I had not seen him for a couple years. This guy used to be one of the strongest guys i knew in Montana cycling. We went out for 3hrs and he rode his fixie and still dropped me on a climb. INSANE! This guy took me to my first USAC race back in 2006 in Helena, MT. Great guy and super strong! Other than that its been pretty much the norm for me. Fundraising and riding. I got in a solid 144km yesterday but ran out of daylight which sucked as it got a little too cold for my taste. I woke up this morning to it snowing so we will see how the ride will be. I am determined to ride outside today even though its a short one of 1.5hrs.

Next Tuesday I will be getting my VO2max and lactate threshold testing done which I am stoked about as it is my first time doing that in the lab. It will be a good baseline for the start of the season so I can see how I improve over the spring and summer. O and my new Kona road bike is working great and feeling awesome. Thanks to P Dowd, Bill Cochran, and all of team GAS for this. I love it!!!! Also a big thanks to John and Lisa, and Jason and Malissa for letting me stay at their houses while in Bozeman. I really appreciate it.

Training Camp Update

2010-01-22T06:22:00.000-08:00

Buurrrr!!!! I am here in Bozeman, MT on one of my individual training camps (bootcamps) that I like to do throughout the season. Its time for me to ride by myself and get in long base miles and depending on the time of year and where I go to, decides what I will work on. I came here to Bozeman to work on my climbing and to see my team GAS//Intrinsik one last time before I make my trip to Belgium. I am coming off some intensity training and moving into getting my base miles in mixed with intensity before I leave. Its been a while since I have done base miles and I need to do a lot, as after yesterday of only 4hrs in the saddle, my legs were TIRED!!!! After walking through the door, I got something to eat and I was asleep by 7p.m. and I walked in the door at 6:15!!!!! Feeling a little better this morning after 10+hrs of sleep.

In the next couple days I will be getting my new bike, a Kona. Everything has arrived here at training camp besides the headset so that is messing everything up. I am totally stoked to get a new bike and one that fits me perfectly. I plan on staying in Bozeman through the weekend from which I will return back to Billings to do a photo shoot with Magic City Magazine and a sit down interview with them as well. From there I will have my massage at the end of the week with Lacee Tvetene. Now this has been an amazing addition to my training this year. I have began to get a massage once a week from her which has helped a great deal in my recovery I have noticed. Look her up if you want to start getting massages, she can take care of you. Her business is called Balanced Massage. Great lady.

In the last couple of days some major stress has hit me when I received my final details for racing in Belgium with the Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy. I was already busy getting my passport put together, getting my UCI license and releases from my cycling teams here in Montana and from USA Cycling when I realized the total amount of my trip was going to be about $6000. This is no easy sum to come up with and so I have began fund raising with sending out letters to people explaining what I'm doing and how to help. Also Allegra Printing had got those wristbands going and they will be arriving next week so if you want one please let me know. They will be $5 and 100% of the proceeds go to the trip. My chriopractor, Dr. Rick Clayton has been kind enough to set up a donation site at his office in Georgia. Thank you!!!! So if your in the area, please stop by and talk with him about it and he can give you the details of what I'm doing as well. Lastly I have made a Pledgie site where you can go and read about what I am about to embark on and make a donation by simply clicking on the "Donate" button and it will go directly to my Pay Pal account which in turn will be used 100% towards my trip. Here is the link. I greatly appreciate any help you can provide me with. Thank you and have a great day.

Update

2010-01-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

Well for all of you following me on twitter and facebook, you know that the last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic with training, sponsors, resting, interviews, ect. However I am loving every minute of it and enjoying the journey. The past couple weeks have brought ups and downs in my training but on an overall view, I have gotten a lot stronger. Also I have aquired more sponsors which is great. I would like to thank all of them as they are helping me tremendously to achieve my dream.

Cardio Systems
Golden Steel and Recycling
Hammer Nutrition
Sport Legs
Allegra Printing
Knives Infinity
Surwill Insurance
Chris Cook

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO!!!!

Also I have recently talked with the Billings Outpost Newspaper and Magic City Magazine and have done interviews with both regarding my trip. There will be an article featured in the Billings Outpost and a Q&A article in the Magic City Magazine. Both coming out within the next couple months. I will keep you posted on exact issues they will be in as I find out. I know the Magic City Magazine article will most likely be in the March issue.

In the next couple weeks, Allegra Printing will be sending me 500 silicone wristbands to help with fundraising for my trip to Belgium. They are red, white, and blue and will say: DARE TO BE UNCOMMON" on one end and "JBCA 2010" on the other to represent the Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy, which is the team I will be racing for. The quote on it comes from my favorite quote: "Common men go knowhere, you have to be uncommon". I love it!!! Thank you Allen and Allegra for the contribution. I have not decided on a price yet but all proceeds will go straight to funding my trip. Also all people/sponosors will get a free one for donating money and/or product. So let me know if you want one and I will get it to you.

Thank you for checking in and make sure to check out the twitter feed on the right side of the blog for day to day updates.

Back in Montana

2009-12-31T07:39:00.000-08:00

First thing I have to say is that there is too much snow here. I have not seen snow in a while so to come back to this is a little scary. I got back on Christmas Eve, just in time to spend time with my mom and her side of the family. It was good to see my uncle Jerry and Papa. From there is was just hanging out with my best friend Greg some more, who also flew into Atlanta to help drive back up with me. Funny though his driving privilages were suspended after driving us into a snowy ditch bank in the middle of nowhere Kansas. It was pretty funny to watch though.

This past Monday I was finally able to start riding again after getting hit by a car in Atlanta on a training ride. It feels good to get back into it and I am getting a lot stronger but still a long way to go if I want to survive Belgium. I got to ride for my first time outside in Montana since being back yesterday and it was awesome!!! Granted the altitude got me some but I did my favorite ride going up the Lockwood hills and did tempo repeats on them. On the side though off the bike, I have been working on some promising deals and and happy to announce two new personal sponsors in Hammer Nutrition and Sport Legs. I have had a 3 year relationship with Hammer Nutrition with them being a title sponsor for one year and a secondary sponsor for another of the Montana Junior Cycling Foundation who I have raced for the past twe seasons. I have been very pleased with their products and am very excited to take it to a more personal level with them. Secondly, Sport Legs is a new sponsor to me but not a new product. I have used Sport Legs to win all three of my Montana State titles and used it in college. I firmly believe in Sport Legs and refer to it as "legal doping" to my teamates. After visiting with Carl, the owner, I am very excited about this new relationship and believe that with the help from him and Sport Legs, they will help me reach my ultimate dream of becoming a professional cyclist. Lastly, me and Amber Keener are working on a special project that I hope will be very successful in the coming season. So look for this coming out towards the end of April.

This morning I had a 20min LT test and will be having lunch with my friend and 7th grade English teacher, Tracy Ellitson. From there I head up to Bozeman to spend the New Years with my team, GAS/Intrinsik, then will be coming right back tomorrow morning for more training. Busy schedule but I will update next week. Until then follow my progress on Twitter as I give the inside look at what it takes to prepare to race in Europe.

Christmas with Dr. Clayton and Family

2009-12-20T10:17:00.000-08:00

I am in North Georgia currently with my new chiropractor, Dr. Clayton and his family. It started off when I was on a training ride in Atlanta, GA on Wednesday and I was hit by a car from behind. The driver drove off and left me in the ditch with a messed up back and unconsious. I spent the following days in the hospital where I was diagnosed with a compressed disc and my fifth concussion. The nuerologist advised me to stop racing due to the amount of damage done to my brain with the number of concussions I have sustained. But anyone who knows me knows that I would rather die doing something I love than to get messed up just doing ordinary day to day type stuff. So I am on five days of rest until I can begin training again.

This is where Dr. Clayton came in and I had only known him through twitter when he offered to give me and adjustment to help with recovery from the crash. Things led to another and he offered for me to come to his family Christmas get together for the weekend. It has been an amazing experience from getting my first adjustment done to meeting his family and having a great weekend. Great people here and some great new friends made. So I now have a new chiropractor and a PR manager in his wife, Carla Clayton. One of the things we created was a fan page for my brand management through Facebook. So please check it out when you get a chance. Click here to check it out:

I am heading to go pick up my best friend Greg from the Atlanta airport and we will start our drive back to Montana on Tuesday, arriving on Christmas Eve. Hope to see yall back in MT soon!

Atlanta, St. Louis, Sioux Falls

2009-12-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here in my dorm room writing this blog for the last time as I will be moving out of here in just a couple days. I am so ready to leave and get home to continue my training and see my family. Thanks to one of my coaches, Joe Keener, I will once again be working out with him everyday all winter long, except this time it will be much much more intense. As of right now we have designed a schedule that will last 8hrs everyday starting at 3a.m. and finishing around 11a.m.

Here is a basic schedule as of now:
3 - 5:30a.m. Gym
5:30 - 7 a.m. Meetings and or Ride
7 - 11a.m. Ride
11 - 11:30a.m. Meetings
11:30 - 12:30 Lunch
1 - 3p.m. Meetings

So thats a basic schedule of what I will be doing everyday for training. Thanks to Joe, I will have access to some of the top notch equipment in cycling. Also thanks to Billings Clinic, The Sports Plex, and Renee Soberjing, I will be getting my LT tested after the first of the year which should give us a basic idea of where my fitness is. I will test once more right before leaving for Belgium, once I get there, and once I come back. We will be able to use these markers for this years training and for future years training to gauge my fitness. I cant tell you how excited I am to have these tools at my disposal to make me a better rider and to help prepare for Belgium.

Until then my travel plans are hectic the next couple of weeks. On Tuesday I leave for Dalton, GA to ride with Saul Raisin, an amazing cyclist and amazing person. If you dont know his story, look it up or read his book, Tour de Cure. It is a mind blowing book and will inspire anyone. I will be in Dalton, GA until Wednesday evening where I will then travel to Atlanta, GA to stay with my friend Elise and train in the warm weather before I get to experience the cold MT weather. My best friend Greg will then fly into Atlanta on Sunday and we will stay to watch the Atlanta Thrashers hockey game on Monday then leave on Tuesday for St. Louis. There I will get a tiny bit of last warm weather training in before leaving for Sioux Falls, SD on Wednesday. I will be there for a just over 15hrs before heading to BMT and arriving there on Christmas Eve. So like I said, very hectic travel schedule ahead of me but I'm looking forward to it. I will give an update when I'm back in MT post Christmas so until then I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and I will talk to you soon.

Announcment

2009-12-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Ok so this is the big announcement!!

After talking with friends, family, and coaches, I have decided that I will be leaving Brevard College after the fall semester ends in two weeks to move back to Montana to train to prepare for my trip to Belgium. As I have said in a recent post, I have been selected to ride in Belgium for the Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I see it as that (not a risk) and I will be taking full advantage of it. I believe to be fully prepared I must dedicate the remaining time I have before I leave to training. This will be best utilized by me moving back to Montana where I will live with my mom and work one on one with one of my advisors, Joe Keener, and nutritional advice from Gavin Frost. I will be working as well with my team coach here at Brevard, Thad Walker. I believe with the support of my family, friends, and coaches I will be as prepared as I can be for Belgium. I want to send a big thank you out to the Brevard College Cycling Team for accepting me and allowing me to be part of the team. I also want to thank coach Thad Walker for believing in me to bring me here to ride. I understand that this is not in the best interest of the Brevard Cycling Team and I apologize for any inconvenience this brings the team, but I need to do whats best for me and seize this opportunity. However, I have talked with coach Thad Walker and I am tentatively planning on returning to Brevard next fall semester to continue my education here and to race for Brevard once again. I also want to thank Wes Dickson and Sycamore Cycles for all they have done for me from tuning up my bike when needed to providing an outlet for me to purchase top of the line equipment.

I will continue to keep everyone updated throughout the training in the coming months and from Belgium. You can check out the main site for my team at: http://www.cyclingcenter.com/

Thank you once again Brevard.

Thanksgiving Update

2009-11-26T19:48:00.000-08:00

Sitting here tonight watching the Texas Longhorns vs. Texas A&M game. Its a lot closer than it should be, hoping my Horns pull out the win.
Lately I have made a big decision in that I will be leaving school at the end of the semester to move back to Montana to train and work to get ready for the trip to Begium with the Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy. Obviously people at Brevard are not excited but I truly believe this is the best move for me to get ready to race in Belgium. I just dont have enough time to train as I need to race in Europe with going to school. Also I need to pay for my plane ticket so I need to save up ALL my money so I can afford that. I am very excited to get back home to MT, its been to long. I am excited to work with my coaches Joe Keener and Gavin Frost once I get back to prepare me for Europe.

For Thanksgiving I traveled up here to Maryland for the first time to visit Jason Bour and his family who were nice enough to have me for Thanksgiving. Today we woke up at o dark thirty to go bow hunting for some deer. I didnt hunt but was a spotter for Jason. It was an unsuccessfull hunt. After we ate a ton and shot some skeet and had dinner. I finished Thanksgiving day up with an @allystacher workout. Tomarrow I am headed to Jason's house by Washington D.C. where I will stay until Sunday when I head back to Brevard for two weeks until I move back to MT. Thats about all I have for an update now. More to come soon, especially once I get back to MT. Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving.

Update

2009-11-08T05:41:00.000-08:00

The last week has been pretty slow and non eventful as I wait for the final details on the Belgium trip. I had an exam in cellular biology that I got a "B" on which wasnt bad considering the class average was an "F". I am looking forward to Thanksgiving break as I will travel up to Virgina to see Jason and the family. Supposedly its a totally redneck weekend filled with lots of shooting guns....I think I can deal with that. It will be a short Thanksgiving break as it is only 5 days long and 2 of them will be driving days.

From there I will only have a couple more weeks of school left in the semester before I get to go home and see my family for the first time in almost 5 months. From there it is still unsure of what will happen next. It will either be coming back here after 10 days or going staying in Montana until I go to Belgium in March. We will wait and see what happens next. It all depends on when the Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy wants me to be in Belgium.

On another note, my mom is coming a week from today which is awesome! I have not seen her since the end of August so that will be nice. She will be here for a full week!!! But I will update when I get the final details on the trip to Belgium. Thanks for staying tuned.

THANK YOU!

2009-11-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

Well this week has been extremely exciting as I have learned that I have been selected to race for the Johan Bruyneel Cycling Academy in 2010. I got the email confirming this yesterday morning from the team director Bernard. I have yet to get the full details on when I will be leaving and how long I will be there for but none the less I will be racing in Belgium for an extremely talented and well drilled team. I will post more details as soon as I know more. I will be on the same team as riders like the national road and time trial champions of Finland. This is a purely international team, not an American team. I will be one of a few Americans on the team but joining riders from Belgium, Finland, France, ect. I cant explain how excited I am that I have got this opportunity but I would not be in this situation without the help of a few people I want to thank;

Fist and foremost my uncle Jerry who got me into cycling in the first place and acted as my primary sponsor, mechanic, training partner, and best friend since the beginning. He has lent me wheels, bikes, parts, money, clothing, ect. over the years and has always been there supporting me through the lows and the highs of my cycling career. I will never be able to repay him for everything that he has done for me but I hope make him proud more than anything.

Next is my mom and who has been there from the start, paying for my trips to races and gas money to get everywhere. She has been there with my uncle from the beginning and continues to make sure that I get to experience such things as this so I get every chance at achieving my dream.

I would also like to thank Dean Hatch, the Montana Junior Cycling Foundation, and Hammer Nutrition for taking me onto the team in 2008 and putting up with me the past two seasons and providing full support (paid entree fees, hotels, equiptment, supplements, ect) so that all I had to do was focus on racing. Without them I would not be able to have experienced the races I have gone to and get the results I have due to their generosity and determination to put Montana cycling on the map. They have provided me with the exposure to bigger races and are also a key part in helping me get a cycling scholorship at Brevard College.

I would like to thank Team GAS/Intrinsik for the amazing summer of racing I had this season and allowing me to race and train with the strongest guys in Montana. They provided me with food, housing, racing, jerseys, travel, and most of all friendship. I learned a lot from them this season and the dedication it takes to become good let alone great at something. These guys and girls who race for Team GAS/Intrinsik and Team Delphine are amazing people and extremely dedicated to the sport of cycling. I have made friendships here that I will have for the rest of my life. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.

Lastly I would like to thank Coach Walker for coaching me the past season at no expense to me and for the guidance and for having me come to Brevard College on a cycling scholorship. I love it here and am very grateful for what you have done for me. Joe Keener for providing me with guidance spiritually and as a friend. He provided me with a place to train all winter free of charge from the goodness of his heart, with top of the line equipment so that I would be prepared for the upcoming season. I would not have done as well as I had without a place to train for 5-6 hours inside when there was 3 feet of snow outside and -40 degrees. And Gavin Frost for the great friendship and nutritional advice that allowed me to lose the proper amount of weight to compete at the highest level possible for me this past season.

Without anyone of these people, I would not be where I am today and I would like to give out one last big THANK YOU!!! I will continue to train hard and perform to the best of my ability so your help will not be wasted and forgotten. I hope to make everyone proud whether its racing in Europe or in the U.S. This is for you :)

Website: http://www.cyclingcenter.com/abc_riders.asp

Me and Jeremiah Bishop

2009-10-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

Almost forgot, here is a picture of me and Jeremiah Bishop (pro mtn biker and cyclocross rider). I got to hang out with him at a pro mountain bike stage race that we held on our campus this past weekend. Awesome guy!

National Champions

2009-10-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

Its been a crazy couple of weeks with it all ending on Sunday as the Brevard College Cycling Team won the National Championships as a team in Trukee, CA. I couldn't believe it when I first found out that Brevard was the new national champions. I feel very privileged to be on this team and to be apart of their success.

Other than that I have been hitting the weight room pretty hard to build some lean muscle mass in hopes of getting a bit stronger come collegiate season, as I will be racing earlier then I ever have. My first race will be in February and the season will go until May where road nationals will be held at a place yet to be determined. I am guessing it will be east coast. I have also been running a lot lately which is a nice cross training to the bike and allows me some time off the bike to not get so burned out.

Today is also the last day of our fall break here at Brevard, which means we are starting the last half of the semester already!!! Wow time has flown here. I got my mid-term grades and I was pleased but there is still some room for improvement by the end of semester. I ended up with a 3.33gpa, if I keep that up or move it up higher, I will be on the honor roll which I am totally stoked about. Another recent change is that I am on the South Atlantic Conference advisory board which is a board that oversees the sports here at Brevard and we do things for the community as well. I am very excited to be apart of that. So a lot of good things have happened since coming here: national championship, member of the Deans Cabinet, member of the SAC Committee, and Honor Roll.

Even with all the great things happening here, I am ready to go home and visit my family, unfortunately this is still two months away. For Thanksgiving I will be headed up to Virginia to see Jason Bour and spend the break with him. I am super excited about that and I will get to ride with some of the locals there and hopefully meet some cool new people. Thats about it, I will hopefully have some more interesting stuff coming up soon and I will try and write more often, like next week. Until then, livestrong.

Brevard Cycling Team SECCC Champs

2009-10-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went and helped the team as they won the SECCC conference championships. Further more, we got the team bid for the national championships in Tahoe, CA. This means we will be taking 8 guys and 4 girls. Its a very excited time here as the team is trying to better their performance from last years 4th place at nationals.

Besides that, today I went and rode with the womens collegiate omnium and dual slalom national champion Joh Tuttle on a two hour road ride. It was quite an experience to ride with her and talk about her national championship experience and how she wants more next week in Tahoe. Also this past weekend I met Ally Stacher who is on team USA womens cycling team and is a professional cyclist for Webcore. She has raced in all the spring classics in Europe and even the womens Tour de France and took 20th overal, amazing!!! She is also a U.S. National Champions as well. This was also quite an experience to get to meet her and talk with her about my dream of becoming a professional cyclist. We also talked about training and how to improve my personal training and she even said she would help me out with my cycling resume and if I ever have and training questions as well. So basically the past 3 or 4 days I have been overwhelmed by riding with reigning national champions and pro cyclists. What a way to spend the weekend.

Checkin In

2009-10-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

Update

2009-09-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

Well lately has not been a good time for my health. I have been battling tendonitis in my left knee and has just seemed to get worse as time goes on instead of better. It has gotten to the point where I cant ride much longer than an hour. I have been getting 2-3 stem (electrostimulation) sessions a day with ice and stretching, nothing has seemed to work. I will be getting new pedals so I hope that that may make a difference due to finding out that my left Speedplay pedal was broken. Going into next week I will also have had a rest period of 4 days off the bike, not by choice though. So yall have heard of this H1N1 virus (Swine Flu) well guess what, I got it. It came on gradual at first then hit me like a wall. I have never been so beat up in my life from a health perspective. I have had everything from throwing up, high fever, shivers, and aches. Its basically been the flu times 10. I have been quarentined to my dorm room. I have to have people go get my food and everything and leave it at my door, pretty extreme right? They were going to send me home until I told them I live in MONTANA!!! They decided it was a bit much to send me home lol. Today I feel much better after a night from hell last night. My fever has now broke and if I keep it off for 24hrs I get to go to class on Monday and start riding again on Tuesday, thank god. I just hope my knee is up for the task. Nothing is more frustrating than being ready mentally to start my training and have to miss it due to health problems.

On the school side of things, it has been extremely busy with tests, exams, studying, the list goes on and on. The good news is my grades are ok, getting A's, B's and C's, need to get those C's and B's up to A's, then I should be good. I did get the highest grade on my Exercise Science Exam on Thursday than anyone in my class, and it wasnt that good of a grade either. Only an 87%. I know I was dissapointed thinking I would for sure pull of an A, that will change next time.

I will be coming home for Christmas after all. I will only be home for 7 days but its better than nothing. I am looking forward to seeing my family, teamates, and to get some good riding in in the cold altitude. Miss that altitude for sure. Seems like its always raining down here. I cant remember the last ride I went on that it didn't rain. My team has been doing outstanding the past couple of weekends tearing it up at the ETSU race and the Lees McRae race. They are currently racing at the Appalachian State race in Banner Elk, NC and early reports have my teamate and reigning collegiate national champ Tristan Cowie winning the XC race for the second weekend in a row. Pretty amazing this kid is. Definitely a privilage to ride on the same team as him and for him to share his knowledge with me. I went on a mtn bike ride with him a couple weekends ago and it was scary how fast this kid is on a mtn bike. Blew me away for sure. But I will update within the next week after I get back to my training.
LIVESTRONG

Transition is OVER!!!

2009-09-07T17:10:00.000-07:00

I have survived my transition period of non structured riding. It was by far the hardest part of the season, to eat differently due to not needing so many calories, finding things to do instead of ride. I did go mtn biking on Saturday and overall it was pretty fun. I only took one fall, but it cost me. I was suppose to do a 6hr group ride the following day but I woke up and I could hardly move my wrist. I went to the trainer and apparently I tore some muscles in my wrist and they said to take another 2 weeks off the bike. Well I said screw that after 10 days of non structured riding, I am not about to take two more weeks off. So needless to say I have started my training program for the 2010 Collegiate Road season. Today I did 3.5hrs through both North and South Carolina. The wrist hurt, but I gave my legs a good workout which felt amazing. So the road to the 2010 Collegiate National Championships begins now.....

P.S. The picture is of me dropping off a rope swing into a lake 15ft below me. Sooooo scary but fun!

Last Race of the Season!!!

2009-08-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

My first week of college has finally come to and end. It contained 3 tests, 7hrs of class, and lots of money spent in just 3days!!!! The best part is that there is still a TON of time for riding. My schedule is so nice, the most classes I have in a day are 3 with the earliest beginning at 9:30a.m. and the latest going till 1p.m. Its a perfect schedule considering I have team core workouts in the mornings with yoga included in there and then my training rides in the afternoons to early evenings. This week has been pretty relaxed as far as the training goes due to having two races this week. The first being on Tuesday where I placed in the top 10 and 2nd in two sprints during the race. My final race of the road season is tomarrow in Greenville, SC where I will be racing the South Carolina State Championships. I am very excited for this race. I will have my fellow Brevard teamate and European racer Marshall Hartley by my side. The course is not long and does not have really any big climbs. I am told its a rolling course with short steep climbs and a very fast field. I am as ready as I can be, being a week off of my last hard block of training, about 3 weeks off my peak (3lbs heavier) and acclimated to the elevation.

On Wednesday our team had to go get physicals done and 3 of our team were not cleared to race collegiately this weekend. One was me, which is no big deal since I am not a mtn biker and the collegiate race is a mtn bike race. I was told I have to do rehab on my shoulder and ankle. I had severely sprained my ankle in middle school and they would like me to get it stronger, and in 2007 I wrecked on my mtn bike and dislocated my AC joint. They would also like me to get that shoulder stronger as well. So needles to say I am not cleared, but it will not put a damper on my training or this race coming up as it has had no affect on me this season in racing. The other two riders on my team who were not cleared was Tristan Cowie (Cpt. America) who won 2 national championships last year in XC and short track, but he will return next week as it is just a need to have some medical records forwarded to the school, but this will dampen our roster for this weekend, and Chaput who is getting rehab on his shoulder as well.

After my race on Saturday I will be watching the U.S. Pro National Championship Road Race in Greenville. Once returning back to school, I will have 2 weeks of unstructured training before my huge base workouts start. Coach said that I will be riding more than last winter due to being able to ride outside all winter here. And for those of you who were around me during the winter months last season you know the number of 5-6hr rides I was putting in on the trainer when it was too snowy to ride outside. This winter my rides will be more in the 6-7hr range I am told with core workouts and lifting as well in the mornings. So needless to say, all the free time I had this week where I went and watched our women's soccer game and hung out with friends will be down the drain come 3 weeks from now. One last thing, please be sure and check out the newly developed Brevard College Cycling Team blog at www.brevardcycling.blogspot.com and the twitter site as well which is connected directly to the blog on the right hand side.

Brevard

2009-08-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

I am finally here in Brevard. I have been waiting a year to be back here and to be riding for this team. I got in on Tuesday night and had dinner with Coach Walker and his wife Jenna and my mom. I stayed there that night and coach got me to move in 3 days early which I was stoked about. They gave me a room number and room key, so before I went to ride I went to check out my room and there was already someone living in it. WTF. So I called coach and he got it straightened out while I went on a 4hour ride in the mtns (as if there is anywhere else to ride in Brevard). I forgot just how much climbing it is even to get out of this town and go somewhere lol. At the beginning of the ride my legs felt heavy and just blahh, I guess 3 days sitting in a car will do that to you, even with riding everynight during the trip. At hour 3 I hit the main climb of the day being Ceazers Head. It is a 7.5mile climb that hits 10% in places. At the top I grabbed a coke and headed back down towards Brevard another hour plus away. The top of Ceazers Head was only around 3,500ft wow! Thats about the elevation of Billings where I grew up, and this is one of the tall mtns in the area. I also rode over the Eastern Continental Divide at 2,800ft. Another suprise.

Today I did 3hrs with 3 major climbs. I rode on flat roads for around1.5hrs (what you call flat roads anyway here in Brevard) and then rode into Dupont National Forest. There are two major climbs there where the first one hits 13% in one spot. The first one being about 1.5miles and the second one being around 4miles. I did both at tempo with 2 surges while standing at threshold on the first and 3 standing and 2 sitting on the second. After that I did Ceazers Head again. I must say that today Dupont hurt me a lot more than Ceazers Head did.

Now I go onto a rest day with only 2hrs of light riding in the saddle then two hard days with my teamate and roomate Marshall Hartley (who moves in tomarrow) and then my last tune up before my last big race will be Tuesday night worlds. Its nuts here that they get 60 to 70 riders for a group ride at Tuesday night worlds, with pros commonly showing up. This should be a good last test of fitness before next Sunday's South Carolina State Road Race Championships. That weekend will also be sweet due to I get to go see the U.S. Pro TT championships and road championships. I am stoked. And lastly thank you to John and Lisa Curry for sending me that very inspirational video I got today. Its called Pumping Iron with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Goodbye Montana

2009-08-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

My bags are packed, bikes are packed, I'm ready to go. I leave Montana for the last time on Sunday morning to start my trip to Brevard, NC. I am ready to get out of here and start school and training with my new team for sure. The collegiate road season will start in the early spring of 2010 for road riding. So until then I will be racing on my own or hopefully with my new teamate and friend Marschall Hartley. My next race on the calendar is the South Carolina State Championships on August 29th. So I have got 17 more days until the race to prepare. I want to go into my first race down there with a bang so I will be ready in my mind but its hard to know what to expect in that race due to me not knowing anyone and how strong they are. I will have to try and get a low down from my coach on people to watch and who is on form and who is not. But until then its just hard hard training with 3 days of easy stuff when i am traveling down there.

Today I am headed up to Bozeman, MT for my last time to ride with my team from this summer GAS/Intrinsik. They have been like a family to me all summer, allowing me to stay at all their houses for free eat their food. Amazing people and I just want to say publicly, thank you very miuch for everything you have done for me. Last week they even threw me a going away party where we had dinner and drinks. That day was interesting to say the least. So it was Tuesday afternoon and I was laying down to take a nap here in Billings, MT when my crackberry started going off saying I had an email. It was to the whole team saying "come to Nate Weston's going away party tonight" IN BOZEMAN! Shit!! So for those of you who dont know the Montana map, Bozeman is about 2hrs from Billings, and it is already 3 o'clock and there is also a race that night starting at 6 and right after is the party. So I hauled balls up to Bozeman just in time to get to the start of the road race which I was nervous about racing anyway. It was Tuesday and was suppose to be my day off the bike lol. I had just come off a semi successfull weekend taking 2nd in the state tt and being in a break away group in the Zootown Throwdown crit on Sunday for 60min out of the total 70min. So neadless to say my legs were a big tired and it showed when we started the first thing that remotely resembled a hill and I got dropped right away. At that point I though o shit, its over now, how emabarrassing is this. But I caught back up and then out of pure courage (promise you I had no legs left) I attacked about a mile from the bottom of a pretty steep climb and immediately got a good gap. Then my teamate Sebastian crossed the gap and we rode together until there was 5miles left or so and he dropped off the back (he has a newborn and hasn't been riding, if he had he would have easily stayed with me) and I crossed the line for the solo win. I was pretty stoked to have won after getting dropped. That night we had my party and I got one last picture on the podium with my podium girls, and my first win of the season.

So tonight I head back to Bozeman, MT and will return to Billings for one final day on Saturday and then my journey begins.

Tour de Bozeman and Tour of the Bitterroot

2009-07-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

What a couple of weekends. Last week was the Big Sky State Games road race on Saturday morning then the Tour of the Bitterroot on Sunday with a crit and time trial. Saturday didnt start off well with me barely getting into the race at state games when I snapped my chain. I was extremely pissed because I knew I could have won that race. So I drove 7 hours to Hamilton for the next days races. The first was the crit which I got in a couple of breaks and then led out my teamate Brian Frykman for the group sprint which he took 2nd in. I was very pleased with my efforts in that race due to Brian said that when I took the lead of the peleton for the final lap I strung out the field and dropped a lot of riders. Nothing better then being a super domestique in my book. So after having some lunch and tons of water I started warming up for the afternoon tt in the scortching windy weather. I think I found a new secret for me in the tt's, being as though I have never been good at them I tried 3 new things for this tt. I had a coke during my warm up, never let up off the gas during the tt, and got a new tt bike. Out of all three of these things combined helped me ride into a 3rd place finish in the tt and a 3rd overall for the omnium. I was super stoked about that.

This past weekend was probably the biggest race on my calendar and for sure my team's. It was the Tour de Bozeman which turned out to be a big regional race, awesome!!! It started off with 20km time trial Saturday morning. I was fortunate enough to be able to use a disc wheel thanks to Brian. I rode awesome but only came up with a 3rd place finish, 6 seconds behind the 1st place guy from Washington and 5seconds behind the 2nd place rider from New York. That night was the downtown sprints which I have never done. It consisted of 5 riders at once sprinting 3 city blocks and the top 3 advance. I made it to the finals before getting raped and taking 5th place. I didnt lose my GC spot but my teamate Scott was now tied with me. During the awards ceremony for that stage I got to be the podium boy for the womens pro1,2,3's, which was AWESOME!!! Gave the first place winner Lisa Curry a kiss and her money for winning the stage. The following day was the hardest day by far. The road race had over 5,000ft of climbing in it and it was hot out once again. At the beginning of the race a break got away with my teamates Scott and Brian Frykman. Later After Sam Krieg dropped most of us out of the pack, I was alone until my teamate Brad Morgan and the 2nd place rider from New York caught me and I joined their group. I knew that to keep my third place overall I would have to beat this guy from New York. So Brad helped me try and drop him but it didnt work. On the last major climb on a 10% grade I attacked to try and drop him but still didnt work. At this point I was starting to get worried cuz I knew now it was coming down to the final sprint which was on a pretty steep climb. So I sat on his wheel and with 200meters to go he attacked up the climb and I came around him with about 100meters left to win and take 3rd place on the day and 3rd overall in the Omnium. I was totally STOKED!!! So i got to stand on the podium twice that day for the stage and the overall. This time after I was podium boy again for the women, I recruited two of them and they were my podium girls :) AWESOME!!! Thank you Patricia and Geraldean

Coming to and End in Montana

2009-07-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Hope the summer is going good for yall. I was just thinking about how long I have been home for, I think its been just a little over a week. Already getting the bug to get back on the road and do some racing. I have been training hard since coming back from training camp and have 3 races this weekend. Yesterday I went out with my uncle and reconned the course for this weekends road race. Definitely going to be tough. I have to admit I am more nervous about Saturday's race then I have been about any race all season. The reason being is that it will be my first, only, and last race here in my hometown of Billings. I say that because there is a good possibility I will not be returning home from college during the summers, so wont get a chance to race here.

The race is called the Big Sky State Games, its not a USA Cycling race but its the only race in Billings and so thats why I am doing it. Its only 40 miles but can be a tough 40 due to its open to the wind the whole course. There is a section called Buffalo Trail that is 5 climbs that could be the deciding factor, but it also finished on a climb too, so you never know. I will do the road race, then head off to Bozeman then Hamilton for the Tour of the Bitterroot on Sunday. This race consists of a crit in the morning, which I am totally stoked about, and and tt in the evening. This will be my first true tt on my new tt bike, so it should be good.

The summer is coming down to a close for me in that I will be leaving for Brevard in about a month which I am totally stoked about. I cant wait to get to ride for them. Until then I have only 2 more races in Montana after this weekend. All that remains are the Montana State TT Championships and the Zootown Throwdown Criterium. The last month should be exciting and I hope to win at least one race here before I leave. Anyone who is not doing anything on Saturday morning should come out to watch the road race. It starts at 7a.m. from Laurel High School and ends at the Laurel Saddle Club. My guess is the leaders will be finishing about 8:30 to 8:40a.m. Like I said it will be an exciting finish with the finish line on top of the final climb. Hope to see yall out there.

Training Camp

2009-07-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

Training camp is coming to a close after me, Wyatt, and Matt spent over a week in the Big Horn Mountains at 8,500ft. There were only 3 rides you can do and each involves a major mountain pass that you must go over. It was amazing with 3 mountain passes no more than 30miles from where we were staying. We spent most of our time on the pass from Dayton up to our camp 27 miles away. The hardest ride by far was the climb from Lovell, WY up to our camp which was one giant climb with over 6,000 vertical feet of climbing. My average speed going up this climb was inbetween 6 and 7mph. The grade is 10% for 13 miles and the rest varrying from 3 to 9%. This is with out a doubt the hardest climb I have ever done, period!!! Today I did a time trial starting in Lovell where I used my tt bike to the base of the mountain, there I switched bikes to my road bike and went to the top at 9,430ft and switched back to my tt bike for the final 20 miles. I have to say although I enjoyed my time, it is a bad idea to do a tt up that mountain. The traffic was fine, but the grade and length (52miles) is just too much. Right now I feel like I got hit by a truck from that time trial.

A couple days ago a terrible thing happened as me and my teamate Eijai were descending the mtn pass down to Lovell, Eijai crashed at 53mph into a cement wall. After putting him in c-spine we waited for the ambulance to come. He was transfered to St. V's Hospital in Billings where we are told he was diagnosed with a broken back, severe neck injury, torn rotator cuff, and a major cuncussion. It was definitely the scariest thing I have seen on a bike when he went into the wall going so fast. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family after a horrific crash.

Next on my schedule will be training until the Tour of the Bitterroot in Hamilton, MT which is on July 19. After that will be the Tour de Bozeman, which is shaping out to be a huge race.

11 Days of Rest and Mustangs Baseball

2009-06-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here watching the College World Series for the fourth night in a row, getting ready for our Billings Mustangs professional baseball player to move in for four months, and going folfing later tonight. This is my 11 days of rest and light riding that I am currently enjoying. My rest will end next Friday when I travel to the Big Horns for training camp, but for now I am very much enjoying my rest. The highlight of my down time will definitely be the next best thing that happens every year next to cycling, Billings Mustangs Baseball. Yea baby!!! The first game is next Tuesday and the team is currently practicing everyday in Billings in preparation. Every year a player comes to live with me for four months so they do not have to stay cooped up in a hotel all season. This is extremely nice for me and the player because I get to hang out with professional athletes and have someone my age in the house, while he doesnt have to be in a cramped hotel room and not have a living space bigger than one room. I am the biggest Mustangs fan, you think not? Well my first game was when I was 3 WEEKS OLD!!! I have been going religously ever since. I will schedule my cycling around their game schedule as much as I can and I house Mustangs players every year. I attend every game I can possibly make, hang out with the team before and after games. Go to watch practice before the season starts, get to the games early and watch infield and batting practice, stay after the game and take my player home where you can usually find my car at any fast food place that is open at midnight getting him food (where they usually order the whole menue). If your a bigger fan than me, PROVE IT!

Montana State Championship Road Race

2009-06-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

Another race, another victory for team GAS/Intrinsik! Sunday brought on the Bearmouth Road Race acting as the state championship this year. The course was challenging in that it had 7 hills going out and then a 4 mile climb and on the way back, the same. The race did not start with a gentle warm up but rather attacking from the start. After around 5 miles a break stuck containing my teamate Brian Frykman. The break ended up sticking for the rest of the race (70 miles) and Brian took the group sprint getting his second win on the season and a excellent preview of what could be happening at next weekend's Elkhorn Classic.

As for the rest of us, we hung onto the main group and in the end had a group sprint where John Curry took second in. The last 20 miles were tough as most of the group wanted the break to be caught, so we prepared the orange train for a lead out in the final sprint, but there was no need thanks to Brain.

As far as my result personally I took 10th overall in the cat. 1,2, 3's and 4th overall in the cat. 3's, which got me onto the podium for the state championship which I was not expecting. I was sureal being on top of the podium winning the state championship road race last year in the junior category and being on the bottom of the podium this year in the category 3 race. I was extremely happy with this result. There were 5 times I counted where we were going so hard that I thought I was going to puke, thanks to Marschall Opel's furocious attacks to try and catch the break away group.

19th Birthday

2009-06-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

Today is my 19th birthday, and I spent it in Bozeman, MT with my cycling team (team GAS). I pretty much layed around all day preparing for Sunday's state championship. Tonight though, my team took me out to dinner at 18 Miles South of the Border, excellent mexican restaurant. Had a great time and ate lots of food. Thank you very much guys for the great time!!!

I have been away from home for over two weeks now couch hopping with different teamates so I can stay here in Bozeman and get better training in the mountains everyday and to be with my team. I would like to thank everyone who has let me crash on their floor, couch, and/or bed over the past couple of weeks, the Frykmans, Josh, Ben, Jason, and Bill. Also thank you to all who have offered my a place to stay as well, I will probably take you up on that as the summer progresses. I am wrapping up the first half of my racing season this Sunday with the state championship road race. I will then have 4.5 weeks off of racing and just pure training until the second half of my season starts on July 19 at the Tour of the Bitterroot. I will also be heading home for the first time in 2.5 weeks to see family and be at home for a week and a half before I leave for Team Montana U23 training camp in the Big Horn Mountains at 8,500ft. I will be there for a week with my U23 team, then probably be back here in Bozeman for some more epic training and reconing of the Tour de Bozeman stages as it will take place the third week in July.
Mostly I am excited to get home for a week and see my parents, sis, and grandparents. I will update next after I arrive home after the state championship road race.

One last thing, I see that a lot of people have little sayings at the end of their blogs that they post as either inspiration of how they feel. Whatever the case may be, I would like to put two quotes down that I believe in.

"Common men go nowhere, you have to be uncommon!" by Herb Brooks (1980 Team USA Hockey Coach)
"Its not about how hard you can hit, its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward" by Rocky Balboa

State Championship Crit

2009-06-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

Team GAS strikes again as Alex takes the cat. 3 state crit championship. It was a very difficult race and did not turn out totally the way we wanted in that we lost the overall cat.1,2,3 race but took the cat. 3 state championship. The course was totally flat and had 6 turns with half of the course being severely windy. John Curry, Seb White, and I took turns attacking, covering breaks, and working at the front of the peleton. Our job was simple, not let any breaks go and lead Alex out for the final sprint. We did our job to the "T" except for missing one break which in the end caused us from not winning the overall. The break went about half way into the hour crit and with about 15 laps to go we realized that we needed to pull it back, but it was a little to late as the break had monsters like Josh Tack. So the last 15 laps we worked to pull them in but were unsuccessfull. Alex was lead out and won the group sprint!!!!

Then today we went and climbed Logan Pass with the team and had to stop due to snow covering the road. It ended up being a totall of 65 miles and my legs sure felt all the climbing plus the crit. I felt awesome about my contribution to the team in the crit as I worked harder than I ever have. I iniciated a couple breaks, covered breaks, and worked at the front with Seb and John the whole race. I could hardly walk after it was over, but it was all worth it as Alex got the win!!!

Traveling Again!

2009-06-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well to tell you the truth I am not recovered yet from the mixture of the race, travel, graduation, and all night party. I never stay up past midnight usually but I figured since it was graduation I might as well. So I am still totally tired mentally and physically. Went for a ride today only lasting an hour with a couple power efforts. I want to be totally rested up for this weekend due to its the Montana State Criterium Championships and for the second week in a row I am going into a race where I am the reigning champion. Next week I will be doing the same, going into the Montana State Road Race Championships as the reigning champion. This year my role will be much different I am assuming as I am racing on team GAS/Intrinsik where I am not the strongest rider. I am a domestique on team GAS/Intrinsik and I LOVE IT!!! This weekend will be the weekend I will be able to contribute the strongest due to my specialty is in crit racing. My teamate Brad Morgan has won this race the past two years so I plan on doing everything I can to get him a third straight win or one of my other teamates Brian Frykman or John Curry.

I leave tomarrow to travel up to Bozeman, MT with Hoiness where we will get in a team ride on Thursday and then travel up to Whitefish on Saturday to win a 4th straight montana cup race and a state championship. I will update continually on my twitter and on the blog from Bozeman.

Cow Country Classic Road Race

2009-06-01T17:08:00.000-07:00

I woke up to more driving!!!! This was the second day in a row that there was a transfer to the start of the race. Ganted it was only 80km. I got to the start and the weather forcast was for temps in the mid to high 80's and there was no feed zone on the 140km course!!!!! How lame is that! From what I hear this race is natorious for not having an established feed zone with last years feed zone being a cooler full of water bottles on the side of the road and you had to stop and get one out and then start riding again, WHAT!!! After I somewhat calmed down from this little fiasco of no feed zone the race started at 10:30. In the team meeting, the goal was to get either Brian Frykman, Brad Morgan, or John Curry the overall win. Going into this race our team had won every Montana race this year with two of our three leaders having won a race, but the only one who hadn't (Jonh Curry) was the Montana points leader and is wearing the pink leaders jersey.

The race started off slow with lots of wind and then I put in an attack but was covered right away :( bummer. Soon after though, me and my teamate Seb White initiated an attack and got away with 3 others. One of the riders that got away with us, attacked us after spending 15 min with us and eventually built up a 5min gap on us. The biggest gap we held the whole day over the peleton was 3 min. Our hope was that this would dwindle the pack down to where there was only a couple riders left in the lead group that would catch us and that one of them would be one of our three leaders. After about 65km of being away, the lead group caught us and I was totally stoked to see John Curry in the lead pack of about 4 or 5. I dont know how the rest of the race went for him except the ending result being him winning!!! It was an outstanding performance by John Curry and a third straight victory for Team GAS/Intrinsik. Now each one of our team leaders has a win on their belts this season as we go into a hectic next couple of weeks with two state championship races in two weeks. The first being my favorite, the state crit this weekend in Whitefish, MT. I hope we continue our dominance in Montana racing this weekend. After the road race on Sunday I finally felt that I made a significant contribution to the team and was very happy that I could help John Curry win. To me there is no better position to be than a domestique, absolutely LOVE IT!!!

Right after the race, I climbed in the truck and we drove 380km back to Billings, MT to attend my high school graduation. I mad it just in time to go through the ceremony. After that, we had an all night party at our school called the Falcon Finale where you played games and won money, prizes, food, ect. I left there with 100$ and a new coffee maker and George Forman Grill. When I got out of the pary it was 5 in the morning and me and my buddy's went folfing nine holes. Immediatley afterwards I went to sleep and have been doing so off and on all day.

Pre - Race

2009-05-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

I have just arrived in Helena, MT after a 300km transfer on my rest day. I got in an hour ride after arriving here and some dinner at the Maccoroni Cafe, great food! Tomarrow promises to be a very busy day. I leave here for a 80km transfer in the morning at 8a.m. to the start of the Cow Country Classic Road Race in Wolfe Creek, MT. The race is 140km then I get straight into the car and have a 380km transfer to Rimrock Auto Arena where I will be attending my graduation ceremony all by 6:30p.m. with the race starting at 10:30a.m.. After graduation I will be having dinner with friends and family then off to Falcon Finalle at 11p.m. until 4a.m. then back to training. I am very excited about the race tomarrow, but it promises to be a very tough race with the temps in the mid 90's and the course being all climbing. I am returning to this race as the reigning champion in the junior category, but I will be racing the pro 1,2 and cat. 3 group tomarrow. I will try and get in a quick update either on the blog or on my twitter which you can also check on my blogsite as well. Good night everyone!!!

Wennatchee Omnium State Championships

2009-05-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

To start off I apologize that I haven't updated my blog in forever. I have been really busy with school finishing up this week. I have three more days of high school left then I am DONE!!! I have recently raced in the Wennatchee Omnium State Championships. Due to having to attend my organic chemistry class I had to fly to Wennatchee the day before the race which worked out quite well in substitute of driving for 14 hours to get there. The race started off with the time trial with my first teamate going out at 8 o'clock and me going off at 11:30. It is definitely different going off so much later than everyone else. I did the 10 mile tt in 23:24 good enough for mid pack. That evening at 7:30 was my crit. Remembering the crit from last year of me getting dropped and pulled in the cat. 4 race, I was a little nervous going into it. The race started off fast as they usually do, and throughout the whole race we sprinted up the only hill in the course everytime above threshold, which gets a little tiring when going for an hour. The crit was much tougher than even junior nationals last year which at the time was extremely tough and the toughest thing I had done up to that date. Prior to the race starting, the announcer said there would be 5 priem laps and I honestly could not tell we had one until the final priem. We were going so hard that the pack was a single file ling for most of the race. I ended up finishing in the lead pack (top 25) and got a massage afterwards. The final day brought along hot weather in the upper 80's and two laps of the road course meaning I would have to climb the mountain twice, it scared the shit out of me. I was hoping the race would start off at an easy pace and gently get faster from there, but I was horribly wrong!!! Right off the bat the pace was quick and once we hit the mountain climb, the pelaton was shattered. After struggling up the mountain the first time I got in a group and rode the rest of the race with them. The race was very hard in all and I am currently resting for my next race which is on Sunday. I will be skipping my high school graduation for this race!!!

MJCF Training Camp

2009-05-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well I am finally back home in Billings after a long but nice weekend. I think I this week will be a record for how long I have been home for, 4 days, WOW! I left last Thursday for training camp in Highwood, MT for the Montana U23 team. I left Billings in 60 degree weather and no wind to Highwood where there was 25 inches of snow, but unbelievably none on the road.

The camp started Friday with a cold and windy ride where we re conned the road course for this weekends Belt Omnium. The course looks to be pretty tough with 6 major climbs ranging from 500 to 800 feet, with many 200 to 300 foot climbs in between. Definitely a climbers course as the last climb is the most decisive at just over 800 feet totall. This road race will take place 2 hours after completeing a 10 mile time trial with a 1 mile climb in it. Later Friday night after a big dinner me, Wyatt Hatch, and Clayton O'Leary went into Great Falls and I ended up meeting an awesome girl named Mary and her friend Annie, also very cool. I took them bowling and then ended the night. The following day we re conned the time trial course and took the ride further, riding to a town called Fort Benton, where Annie is lives, and did some good climbing there as well. We were fortunate to have a rider from one of the top ametuer cycling teams join us for our ride, Dan from team Ride Clean. After Dan totally annialated us, we had another big dinner (thanks to Mrs. Hatch) and went into Great Falls again. I went and roller skated for my first time with Mary, her sister, and friends. Had a great time, and an embarrassing one with my awesome roller skating skills. NOT!!!

Sunday was the final day of team training camp and Dan joined us again. We went and did the road course again and me and Dan did repeats up that final decisive climb working on form and knowing the climb. That wrapped up the MJCF training camp. I want to thank Dean Hatch for following us in the car on all the rides and him and Mrs. Hatch for accomodating me for the weekend at their house and preparing meals. It was a great training camp. I am now home for 4 days before I head back up to Highwood on Friday for the Belt Omnium which starts Saturday morning with the 10 mile time trial and then a 60 mile road race. Thats about it until I the end of the race on Saturday, so bye for now.

Rocky Mountain Roubaix

2009-04-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

Today was totally awesome! It was an epic day in that it rained and snowed during the race and it was extremely hard. The best part was the team effort today in getting Brian Frykman the win. He totally pulled a flyer and beat all the rest of the cat. 3 riders and pro 1,2's. Congrats to Brian awesome job!!! I think he is the toughest guy in the state right now, just purely on fire. Then on top of that Lisa Curry pulled off an amazing effort to win the womens race. I didn't get to see it, but from what I heard she just tore apart the field with a huge contribution to the other three team GAS women. Once again another great team effort. Lisa now is wearing the Montana points leaders jersey as well. Her husband John Curry who raced cat. 2 today and took a close second place to Brian, also pulled on the leaders points jersey. Its just feels so amazing to be on a team that works so well and only for the betterment of the team and not individually. I feel extremely honored to be part of the team and be able to barry myself for the team. I cant wait until the Belt Omnium to race with them again. The team is extremely nice and welcomed me with open arms it felt like. They are people that I am glad to have as my teamates!

I came up to Bozeman on Friday and Jason Delmue was gracious enough to let me stay in his rental house that is EXTREMELY nice. I can honestly say its the nicest house I have ever been in. He charges 1300$ a week I think to rent the place for vacationers and he has let me stay the night for 2 nights just to be with the team. Amazing guy! Thank you Jason, and thank you team GAS/Intrinsik for being so nice and welcoming me onto the team.

Happy Easter

2009-04-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

We are finally through the long weekend of Easter so there is no more crappy food at the house thank goodness. It was horrible trying not to scarf down all the brownies and cakes and candy all weekend. I hope everyone had a great Easter and didnt get to out of shape. For me I had a four day weekend from school which was nice after only coming back for three days from Moab, UT. Over the Easter weekend I got some quality training in while it was 65 degrees here in BMT. It was amazing weather! On top of that I even got some golfing in on Easter Sunday golfing 24 holes and on Monday golfing 18. I am all golfed out now so I can go back to concentration on my cycling. The best part of the Easter weekend was my long time best friend Greg Ruegsegger came home from Los Angeles to graduate with my high school class at the end of May. Greg had lived here forever until last May when he moved down to L.A. to chase his dream of becoming a professional hockey goalie. He is doing very well down there and the future is undecided for him at the moment due to he has some tryouts with some semi-pro clubs this summer so I hope all goes well. Its nice having him back home for a while so we can spend some time together and get some quality lifting in. He has long since been my best weight lifting partner. I mean you can imagine, a guy who lives with his professional goalie coach and lives, breathes, and eats hockey. So last night we got a great lifting sessions in and plan on doing it again on Thursday. Today I have a 20 min test on the bike that will re-test my heart rate zones from the beginning of training in December. It was scheduled for yesterday but due to a sudden snow storm that arrived here in BMT yesterday, it was not possible to do outside. I will try again today to do it outside because its the most accurate way instead of on the trainer. It is still pouring snow outside so I will keep my fingers crossed that the roads will be plowed after school. I will be here at home until the 26th of April when I head off to Missoula, MT for the Rocky Mountain Roubaix. I am very excited for this race because its on dirt, pavement, and gravel. I have never done this race so it will be interesting to see what shakes up. I also have got a notice that I might be making two trips over to North Carolina before school starts. A couple days ago it was for sure I would be making the trip in either June or July and then again in August, but after talking to Coach Walker it might just end up being one trip. If it ends up being two I look forward to seeing all the guys at least from Sycamore Cycles (Wes, St. Marie, Wells) and seeing coach again. I hope to get some great training in while I am there. So until next time have a great day.

Tour of the Frozen Flatlands

2009-04-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

Well its been a long trip and I am glad to be home. I arrived early this morning around 5a.m. from Spokane and slept till noon. It was a long night of driving, so the first thing I did after waking up was getting on the bike for a nice hour spin.

The Tour of the Frozen Flatlands went well and better than I expected for the most part. It was my first race competing as a category 3 rider. I was nervous and anxious to see how my long hours in the cold during the winter and my training camp paid off. The first stage was a 12.5 mile time trial. Everything was going good until about 4 miles into the race I flatted in my front tire. I naturally started to slow down thinking I would just get a spare wheel from the wheel car but then realized that there was no wheel car and unless I quit, I would have to ride it. So I rode with a flat front tire for 8 miles finishing with a time of 32:19. Suprisingly I didnt even take last place lol, I took third from last. That afternoon was the road race, which I just didnt want to get popped off the back of. The whole race I rode at the front and saw that I had the condition to keep up with these guys. With about 8 miles left in the race, there was a climb called the "wall" that split the peleton into many groups and I was dropped into the second group of riders. We chased to try and catch that first group after the climb but couldnt do it. I finished 13th overall which I was happy with. That night the Kelly's took me out to an amazing local pulled pork restaurant and baught me dinner to top off a pretty good day. The best part of the day though was Nate Hoiness took 23rd overall in his first race ever in the cat. 5's!!!! AWESOME!!! I was so proud of him, so congrats to Hoiness on a tremendous race :).

Sunday was the last day of the stage race and intaled the circut race of 2.5 mile course and an hour long. Once again I rode at the front of the pack and finished 10th overall this time which I was stoked about. And once again Hoiness stayed in the pack and finished 44th , which was great for his first race. So all in all it was a good weekend. My next race will be on April 26 in Missoula, MT called the Rocky Mountain Roubaix. I will be doing this race instead of Peaks to Prairie this season.

End of Training Camp

2009-04-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hello from Missoula, MT! Me and Hoiness finally arrived back in Montana after a week and a half of training camp in Moab, UT. Overall it was an amazing camp and my new teamates of team GAS are awesome! I got along with everyone and had a great time. The first ride that me and Hoiness took was a mountain bike ride on Slickrock Trail. HUGE MISTAKE! We went to a local bike shop and rented a couple mountain bikes but made the mistake of using road shoes on the course. The result was very painfull as we took alot of falls due to the slickness of the slickrock and our road shoes. It must have been halarious watching us try and make it up these climbs with speedplay cleats on lol.

The rest of the week consisted of just road rides (me and Hoiness are permantly retired from mountain biking lol). The most epic ride of the training camp was climbing the La Sal Mountain Loop. The climb was an average of 15% of grade and over 5,000 feet of climbing. We started at about 3,500ft from Moab and ended at about 8,500ft. It was very cold on the mountain and a very cold decent, but turned out to be a very epic ride. Besides the fact that I wanted to fall over sideways while climbing the mountain, it was very scenic and great experience.

Yersterday we left Moab for Missoula and got lost in Idaho and ended up spending 14 hours in the car which sucked!!! Gratefull to have a bed to sleep in last night at the Mariott, today we are going for a ride and then meeting the team to head to my first race of the season (The Tour of the Frozen Flatlands). I just put an twitter update board on the right side of my blogsite so it always puts my lattest twitter updates for more up to date info. Bye for now.

Moab Trip

2009-03-27T06:43:00.001-07:00

I am on my way to traveling to Moab, UT at the moment for a training camp. Me and my friend Nate Hoiness drove yesterday from BMT to Rawlins, WY where we stayed the night. The roads were decent except for going up the South pass. When we finally arrived in Rawlins, there was 1.5ft of snow! So we got our ride in on the trainers in the hotel room and then ate some pasta dinner. Today, once Hoiness wakes up, we will drive down to Moab where its suppose to be 60 degrees all week while we are there. We will stay there until April 2 then drive up to Missoula, MT to meet my Montana U23 team and go race in Spokane, WA on the 4th and 5th in the Tour of the Frozen Flatlands.

So all in all this should be a good trip and we will hopefully get some great training in in Moab. Bye for now.

Signed Scholorship!!!!

2009-03-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well the past two weeks have been very hectic getting back to shool from spring break and getting homework done. Last week was a rest week for me which worked out great for easing back into school. I had a 3 hour ride on Saturday which I rode with Josh and did Buffalo Trail. For the first time that I can remember this year, we did the loop in under 2 hours. This may not seem like a huge deal but to do a 35 mile loop with about 5 miles of climbing, lots of wind, heart rate under 170, and in March, it was a pretty big deal. It showed me that I was in pretty good shape, even on a rest week. I finished the weekend up with a round of golf (which my dad beat me for the first time EVER!!!!! by one stroke), a indoor football game, and a 45 min ride.

This week started out with a rest day as always and then yesterday me and Hoiness went out for a 1.5 hour ride in the wind and snow with 3x20min tempo sessions. It was going good until I heard something going through the weeds and I looked back to see Hoiness riding down into the burrow pit! I thought what the hell is he doing lol? I went back and he said his pedal had came off, so I went back to find it and it was in 3 pieces, I shit you not!!! Now I understand that his Speedplay pedals are PINK, but I dont think that had much to do with it. They split right down the middle and he had the metal part of the pedal stuck in his cleat and the screws stuck in his shoe and bent at a 90 degree angle. Never seen that before. Today I went out in the wind for a 1.5 hour ride with 4x15min tempo sessions that were extremely tough with the wind.

The most exciting parts of this week are that prom is this weekend and my good friend Kalan is coming from Idaho to go with me :). Also my good friends her mom and dad are also coming down for the weekend, it should be a blast. Then today I got my finalized scholorship in the mail from Brevard College. So it is now official, I have signed the scholorship and mailed it back to Brevard to finalize my riding next season. I am VERY excited to be going to Brevard next season to race and to get an degree in exercise science. The team, coach, and community are amazing there and I couldn't ask for a better opportunity and place to grow as a person, student, and rider.

Spring Break Ends

2009-03-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well the break was nice! It was great to have a week off of school and to really focus on my training and recovery. I cant wait for summer to come so thats all I have to worry about. The weekend didnt go so great for me in the fact that I didn't fuel correctly and bonked big time yesterday and today we got something like 8 inches of snow, but I got the ride in before it came.

I go back to school tomarrow more focused and determined to finish off this last semester of high school with better grades and to keep up my nutrition. I will also be working out in our high school weight room doing core workouts and lifting before school at 6:30 M,W,F until school is over. For training this week I will take tomarrow off as always and then move into a recovery week to get ready for training camp in Moab, UT and my first race in Spokane, WA in the Fozen Flatlands Stage Race.

Next weekend I may have some company on my training rides as some of my new teamates from team GAS/Insintrik might make their way down to Billings and crash at my place to do some training with me before Moab. Then the following weekend, one of my best friends, Kalan Kelly, and her family will be coming down from Idaho for the weekend. Then I go to school for three days and then off to Moab with Hoiness for training then up to Spokane with the U23 team for the first race of the season.

Spring Beak

2009-03-05T09:19:00.000-08:00

Well spring break has been great so far. It has given me a chance to recoup from school and get organized with everything around the house again. It has really been nice in the fact that I have been able to really focus on my eating and recovery in that I am not in a rush to go places and get things done. The weather has been outstanding until this morning. It has been in the 60's and sunny, but this morning it is raining with a mix of snow. Not good! It will be a cold ride for sure today. On Monday I was not suppose to ride but I went out and rode with Hoiness and the famous Uncle Jerry. I was content to just have an easy day but things got carried away and we put in some good efforts, enough to tire my legs even more after this past weekend. On top of that we climbed the worst hill in Billings, Fritz Hill which SUCKS!

On Tuesday I went out by myself in the rain and did four 20 min tempo sessions on the aero bars with new bar end tape (check it out on the twit pic site). I immediatley regretted riding at all on Monday as my legs were pretty tired from seven hard days in a row without a break on the bike.

On Wednesday I went out with the team and we had a great training ride. It was a little cold towards the end but we finished just before the rain set in. We did four 15 min tempo sessions up a series of climbs known as the pictograph caves. Besides the grade of the climbs being so steap, whe had a hellashious head wind that made it even tougher. Our main climber Ej Oxy and I really pushed on the final two ascents and I was happy that I was staying with our climber. We made a couple descents at 40+ mph and headed back home. After a huge lunch we took a nap andd ate again. Aw the life of a cyclist, I LOVE IT!

New Pics

2009-03-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

New pics on my twit pic site http://twitpic.com/photos/nateweston
Check'em out!!!

Weekend

2009-03-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a great weekend for me on the bike. Going into the weekend I hadnt felt good in my legs ever since my two crashes. This week was my first week of tempo so I was very excited to see what my base training had done and where my body was at. On Saturday I had a 3 hour ride with a half hour of tempo which turned out to be tough as I did the tempo session up Buffalo Trail....a 5 climb trail.... On Sunday I did a 4 hour base ride and my legs felt even better than on Saturday. For the last hour I rode with Ej Oxy who is a climber from the U23 team.

I have all week off of school and will be able to focus on training and recovery to the very max.

Saturday Ride

2009-02-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

Today was a very hectic and cold day here in BMT. The morning started off at 6:30 a.m. with the usual coffee and pancakes to get ready for the days ride. There was suppose to be a group ride starting at 9 a.m. so I told Hoiness that we should hit that up to get some riding in a pack to get ready for our first fast approaching race. Well at 8:30 I was sitting at the place the group ride was starting from, I realized Hoiness had slept in and was not going to make it. On top of that it was a balming 24 degrees with 1.5 inches of snow, but the roads were semi clear. The wind chill was 9 degrees so nobody wanted to ride outside....except me, so I did. I quickly realized it was way too cold to ride into a head wind at this temp so I turned around and had the wind at my back until it warmed up a little. The only problem with that was I was a frikin long ways away when it got warmer lol. So I turned in a 3.5 hour ride.

At 2 p.m I had a triathlon club workout for the Billings Youth Tri Club. We did an hour of hard ass core work. After the core workout I went home to find Hoiness calling me up wanting to ride. Lol. So we went I got back on the bike and went for a 1.5 hour ride with him. We hit some climbs and was coming down whats called Black Otter Trail, and I knew then last part of the the road was torn away due to construction. To my amazement we found a very small compacted dirt path to ride the rest of the way down the hill on, but at the bottom I heard an "Oh shit!" and I watched Hoiness fall on his ass. It was halarious!

New pictures from my ride today of Zimmerman Trail....killer climb! check'em out! http://twitpic.com/photos/nateweston

Post - Wreck

2009-02-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

The past week has been an off week for me due to the two wrecks I suffered and coming down with an infection. On Saturday I was finally able to get back on my bike. I went out for a 4 hour ride in the snow and the cold. My legs felt very blllaahh, with no zap at all. After a couple hours i made a stop at my grandmas house to refuel with some rice and potatoes.....mmmmm :). I climbed Zimmerman at the end of my ride and felt ok. The following day I did the Molt-Buffalo Trail Loop. It was a pretty cold day, but the major problem was my legs. At the beginning they felt ok, but towards the end they just seemed to run out of gas and for the first time in a while I think I started to bonk. Going up Zimmerman Trail at the end of the ride almost caused me to pull over and stop my legs were so dead. I have today off and go back to training on Tuesday with a 1 hour ride.

This weekend me, Hoiness and the pro that I have been training with (Josh) will head up to Red Lodge to do some climbing on the bike. Our plan is to ride from Red Lodge as far up the Beartooth Pass as possible, then come down and do it again. Should be a blast!

Bad Week

2009-02-07T12:58:00.000-08:00

Well this week has been pretty bad week. On Thursday me and Hoiness were out riding and went accross some railroad tracks and at 25 mph my wheel got stuck in them and I went down, seperating my hip. I got it popped back in the next day and was able to ride that evening. Then today me and my uncle went out on a ride and we were sprinting for the top of a rise when my foot came out of the pedal and after doing what was apparently a funny dance according to my uncle trying to recover the bike, I went down, taking my uncle with me and I slid on my face. I am missing some skin and have a nice swollen face. I will continue my training tomarrow with a 3 hour ride is what my plan will be.

Nate and Nate

2009-02-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

Well I am changing the blogsite somewhat. The kid that you have seen in a lot of pictures lately in the blogs and my twit pic site that I refer to as "Hoiness" is now apart of the site. This blog site will now be storys about both me and him due to the fact that we are always training together and hanging out. So the only differences will be that both of us will be writing blogs on this site and you can get a hold of either one of us and keep track of what we are doing which will most likely be exactly the same. His first name is also Nate so this could get confusing for some so we will introduce ourselves at the beginning of each blog to let you know who is writing it. There is also a short section about Nate Hoiness on the left by mine and his picture is at the top of the page as well. So if look forward to hearing from both of us in the future. Also more pics on the twit pic site, check'em out.

Weekend Ride

2009-02-01T18:53:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a freezing cold one here in BMT. Me and Hoiness spent all weekend out on the bike. On Saturday we hit it out for 6 hours in the cold. My legs felt horrible all day, which I think was due to two days of back tot back muscle tension intervals. Hoiness for the first time literally took me to town all day. On the big climbs he was with me the whole way and out sprinting me on short climbs. I was very proud of the way he rode today. It showed that he is very dedicated to the sport and is improving. A LOT! After the ride we spent some time pigging out at my grandmas house and then went to a Billings Youth Triathlon Meeting where we discussed the team further and got another half hour to 45 min on the bike.

Sunday was a very cold day. We were suppose to have snow but luckily that held off. It was still a balming 25 - 30 degrees. Today i felt much better after re-carbing and getting some rest and a 6 hour ride the previous day. I got Hoiness back today up the climbs and attacking on the flats and downhill. The last hour I time trialed back home and averaged about 24 mph with two climbs at 10%. I was very happy with the result of this weekends rides with Hoiness and I am looking forward to one more week of hard training before a rest week.

Also coming up at the very end of March and the first week of April is my team Gas/Insintrik's team training camp in Moab, Utah, which I am totally stoked for. It sounds like Hoiness will be joining team Gas/Insintrik as well. I have also put on new pictures from this weekends rides on my twit pic site. Check'em out http://www.twitpic.com/photos/nateweston

Knives Infinity

2009-01-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

You might have noticed that I have added a an advertisement to my blog page. This business is called Knives Infinity. It is the ONLY place to buy knives and multi-tools! I strongly recomend that if you are in the market for any type of knife from cooking to hunting or multi-purpose tool such as for cycling, take a look at what they have to offer BEFORE you look anywhere else. All you have to do is click on the red link or the logo to be directed to their site. Thank you.

Interview

2009-01-26T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today I had an interview with a website called Loop'd. Here's how it went.

How did you get started?
My uncle Jerry has been a cyclist for over 20 years. One day he brought me a mountain bike and took me for a ride. I have been hooked ever since.

List your competitive highlights:
3-time Montana State Champion -2006 Time Trial -2008 Criterium -2008 Road Race Tour of Idaho 9th place

What are you planning for next season?
I am planning on racing for the Montana U23 team and for team Gas/Insintrik. In August I will be leaving to ride on scholorship for Brevard College.

What has been your biggest accomplishment?
Overcoming a break up with my last girl friend and finding out who I am.

Favorite Car: Subaru Outback

Favorite Magazine: Velo News

Favorite Movie: Miracle

Favorite Trick: Dont have one

Favorite Event: United States National Cycling Championships

Favorite Rider: Tyler Hamilton

What inspires you to compete?
The thought that I can win.

What has been your most embarrassing moment?
uuuhhh...cant really think of one.

Why do you like this sport?
Its challenging. I believe that not everyone can be an elite cyclist. It takes dedication and sacrafice that most people are not willing to put out. It takes pushing yourself to the limit almost everyday and wanting to do it again and again.

Why do you compete?
My competitive mind set really. I always am looking to one-up people and to be the best. I always have to be better than everyone.

How's Life Treating You?
Its ok. All I have been doing is training, recovery, school. Thats about it so boring to some, eventfull for others

Billings Youth Triathlon Club

2009-01-25T19:11:00.000-08:00

Today I had a meeting with the brand new Billings Youth Triathlon Club. Very stoked about what came out of it. There is lots of potential there. As of now there are six members from West, Skyview, and Senior High schools. We are currently looking for team sponsors who are willing to contribute in any way possible. If you are interested let me know asap. Also anyone interested in joining, let me know as well. Thats it for now.

Fit-test

2009-01-24T13:20:00.000-08:00

Today was a cold snowy day outside, so i had my first fit-test on the bike for this year. I have not done one of these since last May where I recorded a new best. I do this test to see where my fitness levels are on the bike compared to the same time of last season or seasons before. I also use this test to see how far away I am from my peak levels and how many minutes or seconds I need to cut down to win certain races. My uncle has a basic idea of what times I need to produce to perform at certain races throughout the year.

The test is a 10mile time trial that contains 4 climbs and the steepest of which is 5%. Since these tests are always done on a compu-trainer so the conditions are as accurate as possible, the 5% grade on the compu-trainer is not the same as 5% outside. It roughly is 5% higher give or take. The average watts is also a little under as compared to outside. But when I did this test last year about this time I recorded a 30:07. And when I tested again in May at around my peak, I recorded a 27:52. This was a all time low since I started cycling, which made me very pleased. My uncle's best time is 26:17, so I was still a long ways off that pace.

Today me and Nate Hoiness did the test. He has been training with me since the new year and will continue to all through the season. It was his first ever fit-test and after a month of training with me, he scortched the course with a 29:17. Very impressive, showing that his fitness level is very good at this time! I warmed up while he did his test and so I then hopped on and recorded a new low of all time for me, even when I was at my peak last season, which was the best shape I had ever been in. I slayed a 26:59. I was very happy with the result and my uncle estimates that I need to cut off about 2 min, give or take a couple seconds, to win the Peaks to Prairie time trial. He estimated me in the top 10 as of right now. These predictions are based apon past years times and the times he has put out on the fit-test and his results in peaks as well as mine.

So all in all I am very happy with my results and I will test at least once more closer to the Peaks to Prairie to know where I might stand and where my fitness level is. Thats all for now...I have uploaded 3 new pics from the fit-test today. Check'em out http://twitpic.com/photos/nateweston

College Announcment

2009-01-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Here is a video taken of me announcing my decision to ride for Brevard College.

Training

2009-01-22T06:33:00.000-08:00

It has been a long couple of weeks. Sorry about not getting photos up on the night I said I would. I was a bit busy with finals. If you want to check all my photos out from my training rides go to http://twitpic.com/photos/nateweston. I have been training very hard the last couple of weeks non stop. This past weekend I cam down with a horrible cold and lost my voice, didnt stop me from riding. Me and Nate Hoiness went out on Saturday and did 5 hours in the wind with 3 big climbs. We hit Zimmerman Trail, which is a 1.5 mile climb at 12%, with 4.5 hours in our legs. I totally slayed that climb. The next day we did 6.5 hours with 7 big climbs. We did Zimmerman Trail again, and once again totally slayed it. We were joined by Nate Hoiness's dad for 3 hours which was nice, but I want to thank Nate's wife Lindsey for driving behind us for 6.5 hours. Your the BEST! I am still suffering from my cold and home sick today unfortunately. But I have started teaching spin classes at Anytime Fitness on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6 a.m. If you want to come you are more than welcome. Have a great day!

New Pictures!

2009-01-15T07:59:00.001-08:00

I will have some new pictures to add from my training rides tonight!

FRS

2009-01-06T20:33:00.000-08:00

Well its been a very busy week going back to school and its only Tuesday. I have finals next week but two half days as well where I will be riding off the stress of finals! A new exciting thing is that at Casablanca Coffee Shop in St. Vincents Hospital you can now buy FRS, the energy drink that Lance Armstrong endorses. I use it everyday before my rides and I believe it makes a big difference in my intensity of training. It works for some and not for others so try it and see if its for you. Its only 2.50$ and its a 16 oz. can. Bigger than normal energy drinks. The one huge thing you will notice about it is that it is not carbonated which some people like. Its more of like drinking juice. There are 5 different flavors, 3 low-cal and 2 normal. TRY IT OUT!

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

First of all I would like to wish everyone a happy new year. I am very happy for 2008 to be over. Lots of good and lots of bad came from 08 but its time to move on. I am very excited about the upcoming year for college, cycling, and business with Cardio Systems. I will be racing for GAS/Insintrik out of Bozeman, MT and the U21 Montana Cycling Team as well. I am also looking at a personal sponsorship with Kona Endurance. I have been doing a tremendous amount of training over the Christmas break. I have been waking up, riding, eating, napping, and sleeping some more. Its the life! It has been very chilly the past couple of days out on the rides. Yesterday I had 3 hours and it rained at the first part of the ride and by the end it was snowing, adding on to the three or four inches already on the ground. Today I took the TT bike out for a 1.5 hour ride and froze, literally. It rained at the beginning and then froze. I had a layer of ice on my bike and on my cranks, it was NUTZ! Good ride though. I have 4 hours tomarrow and 5 on Sunday then back to dreaded school. Thats about if for now. I will update in the next week or so. Have a happy new year!

Hammer Nutrition Road Series Win!

2008-12-19T05:58:00.000-08:00

Well its been pretty busy for me here lately. For some reason school is really putting the hammer down on us with tons of homework which is leaving little time for me to ride my bike. I am trying desperately to get in all my hours. The snow and sub-zero temps have'nt helped at all. Last night I found out that I won the overall Hammer Nutrition Montana Road Race Series in the junior category. I am happy that I was able to win this for the first time. I am continueing training inside at Cardio Systems but hoping to get outside as soon as possible. I hate riding inside, its boring. I have watched more movies in the last couple months than my whole life combined. Well its good bye for now.

Twitter

2008-12-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

Everything has been going pretty good since committing to Brevard earlier this week. I am in my week of recovery in my training and will resume long hard hours next week. I am very excited about possibly starting a wellness program with cycling through the YMCA and Cardio Systems. It is still in the making but is looking promising. Also I have put in an application to become an area organizer for the Lance Armstrong Foundation organizing charity events to help the LIVESTRONG cause. Also started using a new site called Twitter. From what I can tell hardly anybody in Montana use it. Its just a site to update what you are doing and can post pictures ect. People like Lance Armstrong, Dave Zibriskie, and Velo News use this as well. Its a good way to keep in touch with what everyone else is doing on a day to day basis. Check it out www.twitter.com. Its free, and all you have to do is type in the name of the person you want to follow and it gives you updates on what they are doing. People can also follow you as well. Its Twittering baby yea!

Brevard College

2008-12-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

Since returning from North Carolilna and Kentucky it has been very busy with Thanksgiving, make up work, and finally settling into a concrete schedule with training. The weather in no means has been permitting for my training but thanks to Cardio Systems I have been able to train indoors while snow and rain have come and gone. I recently got a job as a cycling instructor at Anytime Fitness where I will be instucting spinning classes at the downtown location after the first of the year which will help greatly toward time on the bike for training. But by far the biggest thing that has happened just occured tonight, after talking with my parents, close friends, and family, I have decided to attend Brevard College to major in exercise science and ride for their varsity cycling team. I feel that Brevard is the best fit for me in an educational setting and cycling setting. The people there are amazing, and I connected with the coach, team, and community members there very well. I am very excited to attend there next fall.

Colleges

2008-11-26T16:11:00.000-08:00

Well today I finally got back home from the south. All in all it was pretty amazing to see the sights of the east coast and the south and to ride with two of the best collegiant cycling teams in the country. I have a very difficult decision to choose one of the schools to go to, due to both of them offering me a cycling scholorship. I want to try and make that decision by February 1st of the new year. I will keep posting updates.

Lindsey Wilson was a pretty amazing school. I got to ride with riders who have been racing in Europe all summer and meet a couple pro cyclists as well. I have been in contact with the coach David Grigsby for about a year now and am very pleased with how he runs the cycling team. This team is much bigger than that of Brevard's. Lindsey Wilson has around 30 members on the team and 20 of them road riders. I am very excited about the opportunities at both schools and I have no clue which one I will choose.

2008-11-23T17:23:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last four days here in Brevard, North Carolina where I have been visiting the college and getting to know the team and the coach and get some good rides in. On Friday I went on a ride with one of the roady guys from the team and found out just how beautifull it is here and how good these guys really are. I found myself going up a climb at 5 mph, afterward I asked what that climb was called and Marshall said man its just a normal road, you just wait to see climbs! So thats when I fully understood how good they are here and what a normal ride consists of. I went to my first cycle-cross race on Saturday and watched a pro race for my first time ever. It was SWEET! Today we did a 5 1/2 hour ride where we did two major climbs. The first being Ceasers Head which was 6 miles ranging from 14% to 27%, it was nutz. The second climb was Dupont where it only lasted 2 miles but was very tough at 15%. All in all it has been an amazing experience and I could definitely live here. I fly out to Kentucky tomarrow to visit Lindsey Wilson College which I am looking forward to. I hope to get some great rides in there and head back home for Thanksgiving.

The Beginning

2008-11-16T22:20:00.000-08:00

Well another chapter in my cycling life has started again. I have now began training for the 2009 racing season. I am in the phase where its time to lose all that extra weight I gained in the off season and build lean muscle. I have been stuck inside for the past couple of weeks due to daylight savings time making it so I only have about an hour after school of light left. So thanks to Joe Keener and Cardio Systems, I have been able to train inside on top of the line equipment. This year I will be working with Thad Walker of Carmichael Training Systems to help me pursue my goals in cycling. I am currently deciding what college to attend to ride for and to further my education. I will be looking at Lindsey Wilson College and Brevard College, both highly respectable schools which is making it extremely tough on me to choose. I will be visiting both of them at the end of this week and the beginning of Thanksgiving week.

I will do my best to update this every couple of days to every week.