Sam Morrison

End of the Year

2012-01-05T12:11:00.005-05:00

I'm currently in California at Deidre's training in the warm weather, it's awesome!

Next year I'll be riding with Epic Endurance again, this time in the form of The Gear Movement/ Epic Pro Cycling. First race is coming right up, the 24 hours of Old Pueblo. I'm looking forward to this year, the team has a great atmosphere to be in, and I'm sure we'll pull off some solid results! In addition, Deidre is going to be also on the team next year, which is exciting.

The mountain bike season ended with Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals in Angelfire, NM. It snowed a whole bunch before, so the course was pretty treacherous. The cross country went okay, chain suck prevented me from using the little ring so I cramped my way to 8th. The short track went better with a 4th. I was happy to finally be able to race collegiate nats, and scoring a podium felt great.

After that I did some cyclocross races, until I broke my wrist in one of them. Unfortunately it was two weeks before the Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen, which I was gunning for. I ended up taking an entire week off with the wrist, and then trying to ride a little bit before the race. Steevo and I traded wins, and then due to a dropped chain I was out front by a bit. Unfortunately my wrist started to hurt too much to pull on the bars or shift, and I decided to throw in the towel and not mess with the healing too much.

I took some time off the bike, and then started up when I got to California. It's been great here, the weather is warm and there are good roads to train on.

Fall

2011-10-15T10:07:00.002-04:00

Been a while.

Deidre and I did the Steamboat Stinger duo. The day before that I raced the Keystone MSC, and finally got my Pro upgrade. Frustrating as it was, it's nice to finally get it out of the way.

Next up was Snowmass MSC, followed by Breck Epic. Breck Epic was a really awesome event. Endless singletrack, rewarding climbs, all followed by the best descents around. I highly recommend doing at least one stage race. I ended up 11th in Pro Men. I'm happy with that for my first stage race, I definitely learned a lot for next time.

Immediately following Breck school started. With school comes collegiate racing. I've had a pretty good season, a few wins and nothing out of the top four. In two weeks is collegiate nationals, so hopefully I can pull out a good result.

After that it's school for a few weeks and then home for some cross and the Dirty Dozen.

21

2011-07-10T11:51:00.005-04:00

Well, I made it to 21. I got this for free at Breckenridge Brewery, so that was nice of them.

I spent my birthday in Breck for Deidre's sister Danae's wedding. I missed the rehearsal dinner for a day of this:

Luckily they were all quite accommodating, and I wasn't given too hard of a time for it. Deidre got me an espresso machine for my birthday, which I'm pretty excited about.

In other news, I'm riding the rest of the season with Epic Endurance. The guys at Ag3r have been more than awesome, but it will be nice to have some more local support. My first not short track race with them was yesterday, which was the Winter Park Point to Point. I somehow have gone this whole year without racing a single XC, so I was definitely hurting. I didn't finish where I'd like to, but I'm not terribly worried. Next up is Breck 100, which I am worried about. I definitely don't feel ready for it, but at the least it will be a long day on awesome single track.

The weekend after that Deidre and I are going to do the Steamboat Stinger, a 50 mile race put on by Honey Stinger, duo. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Almost July

2011-06-25T22:18:00.004-04:00

I passed all my classes, so that was pretty sweet. Came out of the semester heavier than ever... not so sweet.

Summer started, Nate came back from euro-land , and I started working at University bikes. I raced some crits, did some road racing, nothing notable.

Deidre and I decided that it would be a good idea for her to come visit PA with me. That's a big step! We did the Big Bear 2x12 together. It was fun, we both had mechanicals on the first lap that put us pretty far back, but we had a solid rest of the race. I mean, we're still together, so that seems a W.

Last weekend was the Bailey Hundo. It was my first long race in over a year and a half, so I was kind of worried. The first 60 miles were singletrack, and the last 40 were dirt road climbs. I ended up 7th on the day, which I was happy with. It was fast though, my finishing time was 7:16 I think. There were 7 or so of us all within 10 minutes, so it was pretty tight.

Right after that Henry, Ken, Richie, Ray, and my Dad came out for some riding. It was really fun, I'm glad they came. We got a few longer climbing days in, and some flatter stuff to keep the troops fresh.

I'm taking a few days off, and then starting to get ready for Breck 100. Deidre's sister is getting married in Breck on the fourth, which is turning out to be quite the awesome weekend of riding...and... wedding stuff! It's also my 21st birthday the 3rd, which should make the wedding even more exciting. Montucky Miller and his sweeter/ more enjoyable/ more pleasant half Colleen are en route to Boulder and should be crashing here for a while.

Race!

2011-04-24T20:03:00.002-04:00

I won my first SS outing. Results/awards to be held 4 hours later... so I left. Should of stayed, listed as not winning on results. I won though. 'First place' SS was on gears...

New Post.

2011-02-02T22:20:00.009-05:00

I hate it when people apologize for not blogging in forever.

Alot has happened.

I got second in the RMCCC Conference.

I did the Dirty Dozen on Gunnar and Betsy's tandumb with Montana Miller. We crushed it, but it was a little scary for me. Never again.

I took a bunch of time off this fall after collegiate. School was hard, other things were going on, and I just didn't feel like riding.

Came home for Christmas. Rode the trainer a lot. Then I went to visit Deidre in California. It was really nice.

It was really fun hanging out with Deidre and her Mom for a week, along with riding in shorts and a short sleeve jersey.
She's going to be really excited about this.

All while this was happening, roomie Nate got worked pretty hard by a truck training in Tuscon. That happened a couple weeks before Christmas, and just today he got his jaw unwired. He's handled it all pretty well, it's impressive to say the least. Pretty pumped for him to come back from home, things are pretty boring in the apartment.

Break

2010-01-10T01:09:00.003-05:00