me@travishealey.com

Been awhile since I last posted on here. Thought I’d might fill in first…

Since that Thursday night that I jumped the pro-section on the OPTS track at Rad Canyon, many things have happened. Just a few days after that night of big air, I ended up crashing (on the OPTS track on the amateur section) and broke my wrist and had a concussion. The toughest part was trying to catch back up after missing a week of school due to the concussion. About 8 weeks later, the cast was removed. I missed the GSL National due to the broken wrist. The time after the race was spent in books and homework. I successfully completed my summer semester passing Calc II, Physics for Engineers II (plus lab), and Gen Chem II (plus lab). After school ended I had about 2 weeks to prepare for the Mile High National in Grand Junction. I went to Grand Junction with Heather and Ian. We had a fabulous time. We stayed at the local KOA which was literally a couple hundred feet from the track. Ian grilled up some mean pork chops on Friday and hamburgers on Saturday. It felt great to race again, it had been since Reno last January that I had raced. On Saturday, I ended up winning A Pro (total points) and concluded an awesome weekend with a 4th. School started just 3 days after the race.

This semester I am taking CHE 2300 (Thermodynamics), CEEN 2010 (Statics), MATH 2250 (Diff Eq/Lin Alg), and CHEM 2310/2315 (Organic Chemistry). Books cost $700 this semester (ouch), but so far I am very excited about the classes I am taking. Now I am finally applying many of the concepts that I learned during HS and early college in these classes. Much more exciting than just taking the generic base building classes.

My birthday was yesterday. I am now 21 (yaye!) , but to be honest, I still feel the same. My parents got me a bottle of White Zinfandel (taste is good) and a benjamin.

I would love to go to Reno, but the funds are getting low and I’m not where I want to be as far as speed on my bike out of the gate to warrant spending the money for Reno. I think my plan now is to begin preparing for next year and beyond in my physical training for my sport. I really need to hit the weights and get stronger if I am to be able to compete at higher levels. Where I am unable to race due to school, this would be a perfect time to work on this as many of you know how difficult it is to get stronger and faster DURING  the race season. I promise you, I will be fast.

For the next few months, stay tuned for more insight on my schooling, Jazz season (I CAN NOT WAIT FOR THE SEASON TO START), and other things I find intriguing. Hope to see you at the track when I make it out!

That’s right! After attempting the first pro jump on the OPTS track at Rad, we began to realize that the take offs needed a makeover. So last Thursday, I dug out the first jump. The funny thing was on my first attempt, because I had made the lip so steep (it didn’t look too bad to me when I shaped it) it launched me really high into the air and I came down very hard on the top of the landing. After a minor adjustment, I made it easily over the first jump (with a headwind) on Tuesday.

Tonight, I worked on the next jump and finished it. Unforunately, the race finished right when I finished so I didn’t get a chance to try it yet. As soon as I get a chance I’ll fire up some photos on here so everyone who can’t make it out to the track, can see it. If you are at the track, be sure to make a stop by the other track and check it out. I’ll be jumping the section pretty soon!

I started my summer semester a few weeks ago. Taking 14 credit hours. Good thing is though, even though I really don’t want to be there, neither do the professors. I think I will only end up having to take one or two finals out of five classes. Which will be very nice come the first week of August.

Last Sunday my family and I went and watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop at the dollar theater. It was pretty funny; it had it’s parts. I’m not sure that it would have been worth seeing in the big theather when it came out, but like I said it had it’s parts. If you are a fan of Kevin James (the guy in King of Queens –> my fav show) you will appreciate some of the humor.

Well, that all I’ve got for this update. Stay tuned for more and be sure to stop by the other track at Rad.

I was bummed when I found out the time between the Spring and Summer semester was only 1 week, but I won’t have to go to school as many days during the week leaving me some time to be on my bike over the summer months.

One thing I really can’t wait for is to be able to ride the OPTS track at Rad. Ya know, the “other” track at Rad? We measured the real pro-section (in Utah) out. The first jump is about 25ft followed by 26ft and the berm jump is about 28ft. I don’t know how close these are to the 2008 Olympic track jumps, but they are pretty big. As far as I know, only a handful of riders have ever made it through the section (Bubba, DR, Mitch Ropelato… is all I know of). A few years ago, they tried to hold the pro race on the track, but since the dirt was so dry when the put it together, the dirt wouldn’t pack making it very difficult to ride. However, now that it has had a few winters worth of snow packed on it, the insides of the jumps are wet making it possible to pack the dirt.

The first straight and pro-section are pretty much done. And last time I was there, we had about 3/4 of the pro-section berm packed. The rest of the track is ride able (packed) but has weeds and many thorns on it. I put tire liners in my wheels, but found out that you should pull the thorns out as soon as you get them instead of riding on asphalt which pushes them through the liner and into the tube.

As soon as we get everything in shipshape, and when we can get a night when the wind isn’t blowing super hard, I’ll definitely be out making my way over the REAL pro-section in Utah.

See everyone out at the track for practice tonight!

When will this crazy weather end? It seems like every other day we are getting snow, rain, whatever and it will not stop!

My biggest excitement is that it is almost time to ride at Rad again. I’ve been so busy with school, that I have not even had a chance to ride since the last indoor weekend. I saw my bike parked in the garage the other day and thought, “Wow, I need to ride!” Luckily, I saw on the utahbmx.com forums, that the first track work day is in a couple weeks which means that it is nearly time to ride again.

From what I’ve heard, it sounds like they are not going to a complete redo of the track again this year. Which sucks, but I think what they’ve got right now is working pretty well. The only thing I would like to see is a new first jump. The step-up to whatever is pretty old now and I think it would be cool if they switched it up this year and made it into a double of some sort. The other thing I would like to see changed is the double into the second corner, any from a long step-up (with a smallish step) to a step double, whatever, just something different.

I just got a few weeks until the end of the semester, it has been a long one! I think I’m sitting pretty well in my classes. I just have to make sure I finish out strong. Two or three weeks after finals, the summer semester starts, but I’ll only be taking a few classes, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

This is going to be a great week for me to catch my breath from two serious months in school. I do have a few school-related things I have to take care of this week, but at least I can catch up on my sleep! The best part is that the weather looks spectacular this week. Perfect for getting out and doing some outdoor activities.

I also will have to work on my car this week. I don’t know if I mentioned it on my blog, but it has been loosing oil as I drive it (which it has always done) since my dad and I worked on it in December. We noticed that some oil was on the valve stem of the exhaust port, which leads me to think that one of the valve stem seals isn’t doing it’s job. The other possibility is that my piston rings are shot, which would take some serious labor to fix. That’s why we decided to replace those seals because they are much cheaper and quicker to fix. Good thing it is getting warmer! It was brutal working on my car when it was freezing outside.

I will also be helping my mom get her garden ready. We’ve got about 3/4s of it tilled. The other day I put some railroad ties along one side of the fence so our strawberries don’t grow out of it and so our dogs can’t dig into the garden. We also have to dig up some lawn because we made it bigger when we put in the vinyl fence around it.

I’m also looking forward to the new Call of Duty: World at War map pack coming out on Thursday, March 19th. Apparently there is a new Nazi Zombie map with new features that the old one didn’t have where you can get perks and such. There is also three or four new maps which are definitely needed to freshen the game up a bit.

When I last updated my blog, I put my PSN (Playstation username) on my bio. If anybody wants to hookup on Playstation 3, my PSN is FrozenPaw. Maybe we can play a few games?

The past few days, the weather has been wonderful! The temps are starting to climb back up to where they should be and the snow is off of the ground now. Last Wednesday was my mom’s b-day. She unfortunatly has been feeling ill the past few days, but at least she got some sunshine.

School is going well… it’s school. I think I’m starting to get this workload down now. The biggest thing I’ve had to adjust to learning to manage my time better. I’ve always gotten everything done, just that it was whenever I felt like it. Now I actually have to plan out my homework and study time so I can succeed.

Baxter, our little dog–Miniature Schnauzer–got fixed a few weeks ago. They finally approved him healthy enough (after his liver-shunt surgery) to be able to handle the surgury; however, he still has to eat his special low protein food.

Indoor is now over and now the REAL off season begins. Luckily, now that the weather is clearing up, I can get out and ride. I’m not sure what my next national will be… It will mostly depend upon how much I get to ride and whether or not I have enough money. Hopefully I will be able to make it out to a few of them this semester.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. It will be a nice break from the regular school schedule. I really can’t wait until Spring Break.

It has been 3-Weeks since school started and it is a good thing that I am still here. Anyone who has taken 17 credit hours knows what I am talking about. I hope that I will be able to find enough time to train for some nationals, or else I just won’t go to the ones that are further away than Reno. Making the trip back from Phoenix or Redmond by Monday morning is impossible. Unfortunately the cash is a bit of a problem as well as I haven’t really worked for half a year now. So we’ll just have to see how it goes. School does come first. I can always race, but school comes first. The snow is finally gone on my street. The rain we got melted everything, but then it snowed again. Which only took a few days to melt. I’m definitely going to go bust out some sprints this week!

I do have some great news concerning one of my classes. Last Thursday, we took our first exam in PHYS 2210 (Physics for Engineers/with some Calc I involved). I felt pretty good going into the test; especially since I have taken Physics in High School and PHYS 2010/2020 concurrently my senior year, and everything we have covered thus far isn’t brand new for me. So yesterday I go in at noon for my Physics Lab (1 Cr), and I find out that we can go pick up our tests from our Professor’s office. I head down there expecting anything from a D to a A. He hands me the test and says that it is out of 50. I glance down at the score… 50. SWEET! Hopefully I will be able to replicate this accomplishment on Tuesday when I take the first Calc II exam.

Speaking of school, I want to tell all of you something. Since I have begun my college experience, I have spoken with many kids at the track about how they are doing in school and how they like it. By far the most typical answer you get from kids is that they don’t like school. I ask them why? Because of the homework. Which if you think about it, anything that takes kids/teens away from what they would rather be doing (riding, hanging out, playing video games, etc). They see it as something that they are being made to do, so they either put up with it, or just don’t do it.

For as long as I can remember, my parents have always pushed me to plan on going to school and to set it as one of my top priorities. It has been something that has always stuck with me; however, I never really understood it until recently. As you begin to decide what it is that you are going to study in college you can’t help but wondering how long, how much, how hard?

When I was in high school, I remember when I looked at what I was going to study in college, my biggest concern was, how hard? Even though I did very well in high school, I don’t think I believed that I could do it. Looking at the required classes for major, I would tell myself I can’t pass those classes (higher level math classes, science, etc). My self confidence when it came to these things was never very high; which I think originated from my days in elementary–actually 5th grade now that I think about it–when I had a teacher who did not push math or science very hard. Then when I get into 6th grade, I somewhat struggled in those areas and that was where the seeds of doubt were planted. I now feel that has changed somewhat now that I have gained much more confidence in myself, especially after I realized that I was actually taking a Calc II class. And when I look at the classes I will have to take to get a bachelors in Chemical Engineering, I feel somewhat eager because they just don’t seem so hard anymore.

When you start college, you think, well how long is this going to take? It seems like forever. I am now in the last half of my 3rd year in college, and it seems like yesterday when I graduated from high school. The other day, I was looking at how long it will take for me to obtain my degree based upon the U of U’s 4-year plan for Chemical Engineering. By the end of the Spring semester in 2012, I will have completed it. Which is only 3 more years. So essentially, I am half-way finished with college. Believe me, it goes by in the blink of an eye after high school.

After you get through both of those stages, then come the last and probably most difficult to deal with. How much is this going to cost? This is exactly why those, like myself, who can’t afford to pay from your pocket need to do well in school. Looking back on my time in high school, I wish I had gotten more involved in clubs (there are scholarships for them), athletics, and higher level classes. For example, my brother, Taylor, has had a 4.0 throughout his middle school and high school career. Since I have already been through it I can give him pointers as to what he needs to do to get some extra financial support. Where he does do very well in school as it is, he just needs to make sure he does the right things like taking AP classes, doing well on the ACT, etc. Hopefully he will be able to do well next year so that he can get a full ride or a great scholarship.

Your school counselors may seem relentless in their efforts to get you to realize that not only do you need to do well in school, but you need to go to school after high school.

Well, unfortunately the weekend did not go like my other pro-races have. I ended up making it to quarters on Saturday and semis on Sunday. We looked all over the grocery stores for some liquid pull (to the first jump) for me, but we came up empty handed. The winter apparently did more damage that I had thought. Guess I’ll have to hit the road once the snow melts.

Anyway, we got back from Reno Sunday… actually, Monday morning at like 2 or 3am… and I had to get up and go to the first day of the 2009 Spring semester at SLCC. This semester is probably going to be the most challenging I have done yet. First of all, I am taking Calculus II (the hardest of the three Calc classes). Physics 2210/2215, a Calc I based physics class. Chem 1210/1215 and Engineering Computing–ENGR 1040. Totaling at 17 credit hours, I think I might have my hands full. That first day was BRUTAL. Coming off a weekend, and then trying to sit and focus for an entire day proved to be challenging.

After a week of pure… well… numbers. I think I’m going to try to relax as much as I can this weekend. Besides that I have come down with a cold, I need to make sure I am fully rested before I plunge into this semester.

I’m not sure what national will be my next… Perris looks like it won’t even be an option, so it looks like I might be going to Phoenix next.

I would like to thank Bruce at Formula for hooking me up with a new frame for the 2009 season. Be sure to check out their 2009 line.