Oh boy.

When I start getting messages from my friends about my lack of updates - I know I must be in the thick of it.

And in the thick of it, I am. I've pulled my fair share of all-nighters in my life, but I think the month of February has buried me deeper than I've ever been! These are problems I've begged for in the past - and I still know the value of being busy, both on and off the bike. My training has been relegated to the trainer, but I've had zero ability to ride for more than 1-2 hours at a time. Yikes...

As March rolls around, I'm looking to take some down time, get the house in order (see photos below), spend time with friends and family, and train like a mad man.

I'll write more later, but I have a teaser for what has been occupying my time in the studio for the last few months. (other than some sweet Israeli episodes of Music Voyager, too! - which I'll post about later)

Our Feature Documentary, 'Dave', world premieres in San Jose at Cinequest, March 2nd. Here's a link to the website where you can find all the info you need - AND a trailer.

Enjoy!

What $7 can do

Let's get to 'what seven dollars can do for you' in a second.

First, I'd like to express my gratitude for the great shoot we had with the boys from Radioshack Nissan Trek. Paul, Chris, Kim and myself were a four-man production crew capturing everything we could from high atop mountains, out of the back of speeding vans, and from the back of a high-speed moto, cruising around Mallorca, Spain. A welcome addition to our group this time was the duo of Glenn and Paige, from Capital Sports Entertainment, who were there taking superb photos and providing some much-needed athlete wrangling.

(I pulled all photos - except the blingy shoes - from Glenn Kasin's stash, which I'm truly blown away by.)





Maybe one of my favorite moments from the trip was when Andy grabbed the Super8 camera out of my hands and started shooting his own film.



Upon returning to Colorado, I found one of those boxes that has 'fun' written all over it. (read: a cardboard box with Trek logos all over it) I opened it up to find a sweet pair of racing kicks for the 2012 season.



Tom K from Bontrager has really learned how to make my day. In fact, as I tore open the box, my motivation to ride in the 31 degree(F) weather rose and ultimately, it allowed me to go through with the original plan for a 2-hour ride. Man, it was so cold when I got back! (but totally worth it)

The 2012 pre-season has started a little stranger than years past. I think I was more fit in December than I've been in the past, but with a move, a few international work trips, and a crazy busy schedule in general, my training was a little derailed. It's a strange feeling knowing that your motivation is at a higher level than it has ever been, only to be forced into 1-hour runs and short core-workouts in hotel rooms in random countries. After a jaunt to Israel this next week, I'm home for a while and looking to be ready to toe the line by April. Also, after a nice 6-day, quasi training camp here at home, I'll be ready to take a little break.

So, what about this seven dollars? Last weekend, Josh B (the suffer master himself) and I went on two big training rides. The first was my first ride after getting back to the states and I paid dearly for my lack of riding the previous 2 weeks. I made it home, but it wasn't pretty.

The next day, we jumped into another big one. Unfortunately for Josh and I, there is no going easy. Ever. We rode on the flats near Boulder for the first two hours of the ride to 'take it easy' before hitting the mountains. That wasn't the case.

After putting the hurt on ourselves for a couple hours, we hit the mountains and kept the pace going. (remember, this is less than 24 hours after my near death experience in the mountains the day before!) Josh and I may make our rides hard for one another, but we also help one another get through these types of days. Thank God I was feeling 10 times better than the day before, otherwise I'd have to be pulled off the road.

As we approached Estes Park in a nasty head wind, I realized I left my $20 bill in the car. This was to be used for a motivational refueling of coffee, paired with some sort of super rich, fattening and sugary muffin. We were crushed - knowing we had another hour and a half on the bike before getting back to the car. But wait - Josh had 7 bucks! You've never seen a better pair of spandex-clad, shivering, and hungry bargain shoppers. Not exactly sure on this, but I believe we picked up 2 muffins, a rockstar energy drink, small coffee, several free coffee samples, and a pack of starbursts.



And with that, we were on our way back to Boulder.

That familiar feeling

Five years ago, a friend of mine handed me an envelope with 30 sheets of paper inside and said, 'These will make you strong.'

On each of those sheets, which I still have, is a different indoor trainer workout. I may be one of the only people I know who doesn't mind getting on a trainer, but that's not to say I don't fear it just a little bit every time I climb onto my bike down in the basement. The attractive part of having to do this is the pureness and quality of each workout. You get what you put in...

I'm not one to watch movies or TV while the time ticks away on the heart rate monitor. It's all business and it takes as much focus as possible to survive through those workouts! I must say, after five years of doing these through the winter, the proof is in the pedaling and I'm staying loyal to the program. However, per an earlier post on this blog, I have diversified my training and I'm feeling the benefits of a new and fresh routine.

Nordic skiing has taken me in and I'm finding myself hoping for snow for the first time in almost 8 years! (I'll still appreciate the dry Front Range roads for the road riding...) AND, it's hard to imagine a better view on your way to a workout.



In other news, Filament just acquired a new Keurig coffee brewer (courtesy of Rachel) and with crazy looming deadlines coupled with tired legs and arms, it couldn't have come at a better time!

It's fun and humbling being a beginner

It's been quite some time since I've put pen to paper, er, fingers to keyboard on this dusty old blog. However, the reason for the neglect is a good one. I've started skate skiing.



Let me tell you, this is hard. Thanks to my elite and patient 3 member instructional team, I've been hitting the trails in beautiful Mazama, Washington.



I didn't think it would hit me the way it did, but yes - I'm in love with the sport. Now if I can just spend a few years working on technique, I may be able to hang with my friends out there...

To top it all off, I had an excellent Thanksgiving weekend with with top-notch company. I believe it was the first time any of us four 'young adults' really attempted a full-on Thanksgiving feast on our own. And yes - it all turned out amazingly...

Moules et Frites

Having never traveled abroad during the first 27-or-so years of my life, I've been making up for it with a vengeance over the last four. One aspect of traveling the world I really enjoy is meeting new friends. During the previous three trips to Belgium and France to shoot with the Leopard Trek athletes, I met Kim Tiebergyn, a seasoned, but young moto driver for filmmakers and photographers. Having driven for Getty Images and photographers like Tim De Waele, I felt like I was sneaking on to the back of Kim's moto. Although cruising (at 100km/h!) down a bike path (illegally!) in the town of Kortrijk following Fabian Cancellara from the back of a moto seems dangerous, I felt more than comfortable with Kim at the helm.

Turns out he and his girlfriend, Célien, have some culinary talents as well. Not taking 'no' for an answer, Paul, from Trek, and I were invited over for a nice dinner consisting of salad, mussels, and fries - the national meal of Belgium. Not sure how many mussels makes up 5 Kilos, but I can tell you it's a lot!




Another perk of being in Belgium is access to good ol' traditional waffle stands.



As November approaches, so does my memory of riding the trainer. I'm ready for it, though. And, since I don't race 'cross, my cycling updates have suffered from slow news days. For me, I'm looking forward to a new start in training for 2012. I'm also looking forward to seeing my friends out on those cold and snowy roads this winter in hopes to have some socializing during the upcoming long and chilly rides.

As Winter starts to show it's potential around here, I thought I'd share a couple nice photos from a great Fall.

Diving into the off-season (and Lake Michigan)

And.... It's a wrap on what's been a long, but fruitful bike racing season. That statement feels odd to write, but when I think back to our team training camp, it feels appropriate.

Although my season ended a week earlier than I wanted, I'm happy to be eating french fries, taking trips without having to fit workouts in, enjoying the Fall, and - of course - planning on how I'm going to be better next season. A big congratulations goes out to Josh Tostado on his 3rd consecutive solo 24 hour national championship. This man is an incredible athlete and one of the good guys of the sport. I know what I would have had to put myself through to compete against him last weekend and although that scared me during the run-up to nationals, I was looking forward to the rematch! Falling ill before your big event is never easy to swallow, but that's life. Next season...

I just had the best 4 days of Fall that you could probably have by spending them in Traverse City, MI. Having never been, I hit the ground running via the perfect local (and once local) contingent of new friends.

I could go on and on about how beautiful it is up there, but it won't do it justice. Instead, I'll post a very small slice of the photo pie here with the bullet-points of what we did.

The Bruski-Sturtz home-town reception. Wine tour. Movies and baseball at home. Great food. Swimming in Lake Michigan (in October?!). Gallivanting around town. Beautiful Fall colors. And most of all... I spent four days with great people.

No Outs.

It seems so much time goes by in the blink of an eye. (I say this, of course, when I'm under deadlines - but when it comes to racing a bike for 24 hours straight, well, that's another story)

The last two months have been filled with countless flights to everywhere for both film-making and cycling. As much as I love both, the truth is they don't always mix well. My journeys to Park City and South Dakota proved to me that you just never know what to expect when you've been traveling for weeks without a bike. The Park City Point to Point was an incredibly challenging and humbling day. I knew from the very first short climb that my time up front with the leaders was going to expire quickly - and expire it did. I cracked big time. Let me tell you, friends - when you have even a slightly bad day in a race that boasts 14,000 feet of climbing in 78 miles you will lose time. I didn't have a slightly bad day - I had a pretty disastrous day. My text message here to my friend, Kelly, the night before the race may have been the first clue into my ill-fated day! (And Kelly's maiden name is actually 'Keim' - sorry Kel)



Even with a disastrous day happening, it's hard to have a bad day on the bike for me. The PCPP is put on by some of the best promoters in the sport and the course is just amazing. I can live with that lackluster result given the fact I was treated to such great riding.

After my 'insult to injury' interval immediately following the race (I had to ride 5 more miles to the hotel where my car was) I was rushing to Salt Lake to catch a flight to South Dakota. I was pleased to open up a copy of Hemispheres magazine on my United flight and see, in all its glory, Rachel Sturtz's feature on the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. What was even cooler than that was seeing several other passengers flipping through their copies and stopping on that feature.




The Dakota Five-O is another great race put on by a great promoter, Perry Jewett. I was amazed at the fact I held on for 4th after the shellacking I received the day before. My whole family was out in full force handing up water bottles and cheering LOUDLY! The Five-O has sort of become a new tradition for my family to get together and have a small reunion and it's a weekend I look forward to every year.



A week later I found myself on the back of a motorcycle shooting footage of the Half-Ironman World Championships in Las Vegas. Paul and I are currently producing the 5th and final episode of 'Driven' for Trek.



One of the best parts about shooting with a group of athletes is that you get to know them really well and while your aiming a camera in their face all day while they suffer, I think it's a welcome face behind the camera that they appreciate.



Before the start, in the wee hours of the morning, I was grabbing some footage of Australian, Joe Gambles, as he prepped his bike and warmed up for the swim. I noticed from a distance he was hacking and coughing as he was putting his swim cap on. I knew something wasn't right, but I hoped the best for him as I knew he was on target for the worlds.

During the race he tore himself inside out and managed a respectable 5th place. Afterward I overheard him tell one of the sponsors that he woke up with a cold, but if he mentioned anything before the event he would have given himself an out. This is great information for someone like me, who feels like there are more than a couple 'outs' lingering in preparation for the national championships. The truth is, there aren't any outs. I've signed up for everything on my schedule and part of the challenge is doing the best I can.


Two weeks to go for the Solo 24 Hour Nationals. These two weeks are going to be packed full with some very exciting work happening. Stand by for some big news on the film front. (well, I hope it will be big news...)