Just thought I’d give a quick update to the Swim Bike Run KY community.  I got my test results back from UBI and I am a graduate.  Thanks for following my trip out to the clinic and keep checking back for more updates.

Well I’m happy to be writing this from on my couch in the lovely city of Lexington in the state of Kentucky.  I am very glad to be home and I look forward to spending some time with my friends and family.  To give you a little insight yesterday was a long and exciting day of travel.  I decided to go to the airport early with one of my friends from bike school.  The night before Ashland was hit with a dose of freezing rain so I awoke to ice covering the sidewalks and roadways.  The shuttle came to pick me up about 7am PT and we started the 30 min drive to the Medford airport.  After a slip and slide ride to the airport and a hand full of white knuckles we pulled up to the front gate.  I was elated to be safely at the airport but disappointed to find that all runways were closed and they were not sure if the airport would open at all for the day due to ice on the runway.  I decided to go ahead and check my bags and play the waiting game as I had nothing else to do but hope for the best.  As it turns out the best (or at least good enough) was exactly what I got.  The first flight out of Medford left at noon and my flight was shuttled off quickly after.  My flight was only about 30 min late so I landed in Portland with about 5 inins to make my next flight.  I ran through the airport and made it to the next plane with minutes to spare.  The rest of the travel was pretty uneventful and I was home in my bed last night by 1 am.  As I have stated before this experience was something I wouldn’t change for anything and look forward to applying what I’ve learned.  Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.  Make sure to check back for more updates.

P.S. Don’t forget tomorrow’s my birthday if you see me be nice! 

Well, tomorrow I hop on a plane and make my way back to the bluegrass.  Although I’ve loved my time here,  I’m ready to get back to Lexington, see my family, and start applying everything I’ve learned. 

Today was a shortened day including a small lecture, a written test, and a graduation ceremony (that’s right I graduated).  The day (just like the two weeks) went by really quick.  Right now I’m sitting in my room packing a few things up so I’m ready to leave in the morning.  I’ll go out to have some dinner with one of my friends tonight; then back for one more nights sleep in the great city of Ashland, OR. 

Here’s hoping that everything goes smoothly tomorrow with all my travel.  If you’ve been reading this I appreciate your time, and I hope to see many of you when I get back.  Until next time.

I’m writing this during a study break this evening so once again I apologize if this is brief, but I plan on spending the rest of the evening studying for my test tommorrow.  The test (as I’m told) is a 100 question multiple choice test that covers all the information covered over the past two weeks.  We have 1 and a half hours to complete the test, and although I feel like there is plenty of time I still don’t want to leave it to chance. 

Today went really quickly as we spent the entire day on our feet working on overhauling bikes.  I find that more hands on and less class time make the day go much faster.  After a successful overhaul it was off to pick up a few study supplies followed by an early dinner.  Now I’m back in the room “crackin the books”, and preparing for my last day of class in the morning.  Although the class has been amazing, and I’ve learned a lot I’m as excited about coming back home as I am with finishing the class.  However, the UBI group has many different classes, and if I do have the chance I will return and continue my bicycle education. 

I’ll let everyone how I think the test goes tomorrow, until then have a great night!!

Sorry this is short but there’s not much to report today.  I have my overhaul tomorrow and after my long cold walks today I am completely wiped.  I hope to have more to report on tomorrow.  Have a good evening and GO CATS!

Good evening everyone.  I hope that the wind in Lexington isn’t blowing everyone away.  Funny enough, Beth and I spend a great deal of our evening discussions comparing weather between Ashland and Lexington.  It seems right now we have the lowest temperatures, but you have the gale force winds.  Suffice to say everyone is enjoying a different part of what mother nature has to offer. 

Today was another cold start to the day, and I arrived at UBI with frozen eyelashes, and getting laughed at by a few of my friends who had arrived at the same time.  Once I was inside the building I was happy to hear that the cold weather wasn’t in my head because the water to the building was frozen (no bathroom or water for the AM sessions.)  Despite the lack of water and bathroom facilities we forged on and completed the morning session.  After lunch we returned to running water and operating bathroom facilities.  The rest of the day went quickly, and before I knew it I was on my way home. 

I believe I mentioned it before,  but I’m making my best efforts to get back on east coast time this week.  I’ve been trying to cut a little off the night by going to sleep earlier and getting up earlier.  Tonight my goal is to be in bed by 8:30pm and be up by 4:45am.  The times are a lot easier than they seem, but my whole schedule is out of whack so sometimes it’s hard to make heads or tails of times. 

I’ll leave you with the photo to the left which happens to be a picture of me on my walk to school this morning.  As you can see I take every precaution, safety first. 

I have about a 20- minute walk in the morning from the motel I stay at to the UBI classroom.  When I got up this morning I checked the weather on my computer to find the current temperature to be 18 degrees.  I mulled around for a while getting myself ready to face the day with an estimated departure time of 7:20 am.  I decided to look at the weather one more time before I actually got dressed, and by this time the wind had kicked up, and the temperature with the wind chill was only 6 degrees.  Although it was a bit cold on the walk to class it wasn’t unbearable, and all I had to show for myself by the time I got there were some frozen eyelashes.  Needless to say I was wide awake by the time I got to class and ready to get going.

Today we spent most of the day going over different styles of braking systems from different companies, and the proper ways to maintain and install them.  I suppose I didn’t realize how many different styles of brakes there were, but after today and tomorrow I should be on my way to being well versed.  After class I spent some time exploring downtown Ashland, OR.  The town is small with lots of shops in the downtown area that tend to focus on showcasing local art and crafts.  Everything here seems very slow and laid back which suits me just fine.  Apparently the town plays host to a Shakespeare festival each year that generates a large number of tourists. 

One of the most amazing things about this area is the cities awareness of conservation, recycling, renewable energy and overall organic lifestyles.  The building I am taking my class in recycles almost everything we use during the class, and the building is 60% run on solar energy.  It amazes me that back home we make an effort to try and recycle what we can, and out here they throw away almost nothing.  I know that everyone has to start somewhere, but I guess I had no idea to what lengths other parts of the country had already gone.  Have a good night and stay warm. 

It’s been a really quick weekend, and already it’s time to go back to class tomorrow morning.  Saturday was an amazing day for me as a college sports fan.  I was able to watch the UK vs. UNC basketball game here in Oregon, and although the team tried to give me a heart attack I was ecstatic about the win over another quality team.  After the UK game it was on to the the U of AL and Florida SEC Championship game.  (For those of you that don’t know me I was born and raised in Alabama.)  I spent the rest of the day catching up with friends and family on the telephone, and before I knew it the day was over.

Sunday flew by even more quickly than Saturday.  I woke up early, and met a friend to do laundry for the week.  After an invigorating bout of laundry I came back to my room, and spent the rest of the day studying the materials for the class.  Apparently a good read will make the hours fly past because the next time I looked out the window the sun was gone and my stomach was growling.  I had a delicious dinner, and now I’m off to bed with hopes of coercing my body back on to east coast time over the course of this week. 

Hope everyone has a good week, and look for more updates to come.

Week one is over and I must say, I’m ready for a break.  I have enjoyed the first week of class, but with all the information they have given us I am ready to take a break.  We finished the week focusing on drive trains. I even got to play with a few mountain bikes today.  All in all I wasn’t ready to leave, but I was worn out.  I have the weekend to myself so I’m going to try to find a place to watch the UK vs UNC basketball game, and maybe do some laundry. 

I know I’m learning a lot here in Oregon, but I really miss my family, and will be more than ready to head home next week.  I’ll have more to come as the class progresses, but for now everyone have a safe weekend.  GO CATS!

I thought for today I would give you a little bit of my point of view for a day at the UBI Institute. To the left is the view I see from my desk each morning before the lectures begin. The day starts at 8am and continues til about noon where we have a lunch break. After lunch we return for another 4 hours of fun and we get out of class around 5pm. All and all I have to say that the days fly by. Today we had the opportunity to take several hubs apart and look into their inner workings. Once again I cannot say enough about how good this school has been. If anyone cares to check it out you can go to http://www.bikeschool.com and look at the right side of the homepage. There’s a link to “Photo’s of Current Class”. See if you can find me in the page of photos. It’s like where’s Waldo. Hope you are all doing well.

Hello again.  Hope this finds everyone doing well. 

First I would like to say that Ashland, OR is a very beautiful city and I recommend that anyone come and visit.  On that same note I will suggest that you make your plans in the summer months.  The last two days the city has been stuck in ice fog, for those of you that don’t know what that is I can explain.  The concept is simple the city is in a cloud and everywhere the moisture touches it freezes.  This type of weather makes everything slick and manages to make you cold very quick.  It’s been a rude wake up for the winter months.

Ok, sorry for the rambling I’ll get to the update.

Today was a review for me on the workings of the drive train.  Most of the information was review but each day I’ve picked up something new.  The staff here is very knowledgeable and diverse.  Everyone comes from a different background so each has their own story and experience to bring to the table.  To be completely honest I don’t think that I would enjoy the class nearly as much if the staff wasn’t so engaging.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos today so I’ll leave you with a picture I took yesterday of my first wheel build.

Greetings from Ashland, OR,

This is my first blog for Swim Bike Run of KY,  and although I have a lot going on right now, I’m going to keep this short and sweet. 
If you need me in the next couple of weeks I’ll be in Oregon at the UBI professional bike mechanics school.  So far I am very impressed with the staff and curriculum of the course.  After two full days I have learned so much valuable information that I hope can help everyone back in Lexington.  Today I built my first set of bike wheels.  Spending an entire day building a set of wheels; then being asked to tear them down when you’re finished really makes you appreciate how much work goes into the process.  Despite the short life of my wheels, I did snap a few photos of the process and of the area.  I hope everyone is doing well, I look forward to coming home once the classes are finished. 

Eric’s blog is coming soon.