This Might Hurt A Little

I Decided

2011-12-31T16:43:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year!

I decided that next year this time I want my New Year's Eve view to resemble something closer to this:

Time to start planning. And that's not all I have planned!

Dates With States

2011-12-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I really only have one date with States, but the plural sounded better. Regardless, that date is this Saturday. It's on a course I've enjoyed before but from what I understand there will be some fun, new twists to make it interesting. Thinking about States got me realizing I never did a post from last year's race. Last year's race was what I call the 99% factor. In cross I think it's impossible to have a 100% perfect race. I don't care who you are. So the best you can hope for is 99%. From there it comes down to when and where that 1% decides to rear its ugly head that can decide your race.I knew I had a fair chance to win based on how I was riding leading up to the race. I had a good warm-up and had a plan going into the race. You could tell everyone was anxious based on warm-ups and pre-race chatter alone. Once we hit the starting line I planned on taking the hole shot and setting the pace for a lap before giving it up. Instead, I was about 7th into the hole shot but was riding 3rd or 4th wheel halfway through the first lap. That's when Erik came through, which I expected. When he went, I hit the gas and went with him, and Dan hit the gas and went with me. From there it was the three of us off the front. I was riding smart and was comfortable the whole time.With two to go the strategic race was coming down to tactics. I was in the lead and heard Adam yell that Travis was charging hard, which was the understatement of the day. He was killing himself working his way up to us and it wasn't too long before he was right there, and just as quickly he was gone. I found myself thinking my race for first just went to a race for second. And then his 1% hit and he had to pull over with less than one to do a little dry-heaving. Without that, the race was his. Once again, Dan, Erik and I were together and I knew I needed to hit the gas and take control at some point. That point came on a back straight away. Erik later told me he was planning a similar attack but fortunately for me I hit it first. Dan followed and we were able to gap Erik.

I wanted to lead all the way in, but Dan came back around me on a grass section, but I was right on his wheel and was thinking ahead to a final sprint. With 200 meters to go we had to ride on an off camber section before doing a 180 or sorts, and firing back on pavement to the finish line. With Dan riding a little lower on the off camber section, I saw an opening. Having passed him here a couple times previously, I made a split second decision and went for it so I could lead into the final turn and hit the pavement first. As I was going I was feeling good and then...........well, I don't really know what happened. We were both riding aggressively and the bikes were bouncing a little bit. What happened was my 1% hit me at a terrible time. Our bikes bumped enough that his back wheel hit my front wheel and in that battle the front wheel always loses. I went from thinking about sprinting for first place to finding myself on the ground debating if I should put my bike over my shoulder and run or put the chain back on and ride. As I was putting the chain back on, Erik rode through. Travis started coming up too but I was able to hold him off to get 3rd place.

I was definitely happy with 3rd place since I never thought I'd be able to get that in a Colorado cycling race of any kind. But I was equally pissed that I didn't get first. I wanted it and had a fair shot with 200 meters to go. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have gone for the pass and let him lead me out instead. I replayed that last 200 meters in my mind about a thousand times after the race, but have taken solace in knowing I was racing aggressively and going for the win. I'd rather race for a chance to win and get third than just play it safe and be content with third.

Lost And Found

2011-12-12T22:25:00.002-07:00

It took all season to arrive but finally, in the last few weeks I've been able to find some fitness. Some other small changes have helped me race better too, like getting the tire pressure right for starters. And I also changed my pre-race music from Kanye to Nirvana. I'm sure that was a big one. Regardless, it's been nice to be in the race again, fight for wheels, hold position, make strong passes, and ride with the groups and guys I feel like I should be with. That doesn't mean perfect races and podiums, and it'll be a long time before I see a podium, so being competitive in the race within the race is what makes it fun.The irony is that the race I re-discovered my fitness is one I almost didn't race. It's a tough course with a power section of uphill grass and a ton of steps. I remembered feeling awful on the same course last year and had a bad attitude going in. But when I was going, I caught myself catching people and riding strong which was only fuel to keep going. To be fair, I lost a sprint against a guy I'd been battling with and I had some good dry heaves afterwards because of the effort, but it was a big confidence boost that got me looking forward to the next day.

The next day brought 75 degrees and a fun course that suited me pretty well. Like the day before, I was able to keep moving up in the field and ride strong. I think I finished 8th that day. To be fair there were 16 people that started but that's a minor detail.

In true CO fashion, the weather changed from gorgeous one weekend to snow the next. When we lined up in Louisville it was 23 degrees and still snowing from the night before. The start was chaos and there was limited room to pass on the whole course. Areas we normally ride had to be run, the sidewalks were ice and just for some added fun, all the lines we were riding started to change as the race went on. I went down hard a couple times but I knew everyone else would too, and the key was staying within yourself, knowing where you can hit the gas, and where to just stay upright. In the end it was a lot of fun and I didn't feel the cold at all once the race was on. Apparently my toes and fingers didn't feel the same way since the second we stopped, they were pretty much frozen solid.

This last weekend was another slippery snowfest. With the lessons learned from the last one, I kept reminding myself at the start to stay calm and capitalize on other people's mistakes. Well, once the race began, it was like the entire right side never went. Fortunately I was on the left and was able to sneak up into one of my best positions off the line all year. The run ups on this course were crazy hard with limited traction, and the descents were basically ice luges where you aimed your bike in the right direction and slid down until you caught traction. Looking through the race pics and hearing stores, there were a lot of crashes. I was one of them, but it didn't cost me big. Instead, I was racing with a lot of confidence and feeling good. I had a mid-pack finish, which is a great improvement from where I started the year. Now it's rest up and get ready for the State Championships on Saturday. It's too bad that the season will end once my fitness finally showed up, but my body is barely hanging on at this point and will definitely welcome some rest.

Lesson Learned

2011-11-21T21:51:00.001-07:00

You can't fake fitness. We're at the point in the cross season with one month (8 races) to go where people are starting to go in opposite directions. Guys that started the season strong are starting to fall off their fitness, and others that had a more managed build are coming into form at just the right time. I wish I could say I fit into either one of those categories, but the fact is I didn't do the right things in the off season. I have enough base to ride a strong tempo, but not enough top end power to push through the explosive efforts, recover, and go again. At the same time, I thought I could make up my fitness by racing into shape. That works to an extent, but it results in a very narrow window to peak and you can miss it without knowing you hit it.

With a week off the bike I was hoping to find out which way my fitness was going on Sunday. When I got up and let the dogs out it was cold and windy. I was already tired and the thought of racing didn't sound too appealing. Of course, doing anything didn't sound appealing so I figured I'd snap out of it. It took until I was in the registration line and one of my racing friends reminded me that it's a perfect course for me with a lot of wind and hills. That was when I started thinking I could do well and started to get pumped up to race.

A good warm-up with JJ and it was go time. I lined up behind Travis who's been crushing it all year. Watching him race this year, I have no idea how I was in the same conversation with him last year, much less getting an occasional win. Anyway, he missed his pedal at first but it was such a loooonnnnggg uphill drag that it didn't matter. The bigger issue was the first section of tight turns. Lots of people coming in hot only to grab a fistful of brakes and have to get off their bike. It was annoying at first but I also knew the hills would eat people up later in the race so it wasn't a big deal. After the first set of hills I found myself mid-pack, which was where I expected to ride most of the race and find small opportunities to move up where/if I could. Since I have a cross-clash with my friend JJ (he was up 3-2), I locked on to his wheel and let him pull me around a bit. Knowing he'd do the same when I went by, I waited, maybe a little longer than I should have. There's a tricky, off camber corner that I debated being first (of our group) into but decided against it, sticking with my original plan. I don't know if the result would've been different, but I rode it too aggressively, trying not to let a small gap form. Good news is a small gap didn't form. Bad news was a huge gap formed because I crashed. I was up quickly but my brake got jammed into my wheel and I had to reset the wheel which was made more difficult because the skewer got jammed during the crash. Once I was going again I found myself on the back and after gaining back a few positions, I rode the rest of the race solo.

Part of crashing is being stupid, but I think there's also a part that's related to fitness. Everyone is going all out in a cross race, but the better you can manage that, the better you can make the right decisions when you have a split second to do so and can barely see, much less think. If you have the right fitness you'll make the right choices more often. Even though I'd like a mulligan on that course and the signs are pointing to having passed a peak I didn't realize I hit, there are still a couple good races left to be had if I do the right things.

Back At It

2011-11-18T20:34:00.001-07:00

I'm not back at it quite yet, but will be again this weekend. On Sunday only. It's the course where I got my first podium last year but unfortunately, I'm pretty certain there won't be a repeat. Racing this year has been different in a lot of ways, but the most noticeable has been the weather. The grass/dirt crits we usually get have been replaced by sloppy mudfests. Everyone used to complain because the races were too fast and dusty. Now it's because it's too muddy. To be fair, they're both fun but they both also suck in their own, special way. And neither benefits me more than the other so as long as there are races, I'll just be happy to be on the line.

I raced a couple weeks ago on two pretty different courses. The first was in Brighton. I've never raced in Belgium, but I had a picture in my head that this is what it would look like. Basically a pasture that's bumpy as hell and thick with mud. I had a good start and then, after running over the first set of barriers in mid-pack, some guy ran into me. I'm still confused as to how he hit me, but he did and we both went down. Back on the bike I struggled to get going and after it didn't get better after half a lap, I realized it was because my brakes were rubbing since they got jacked up when I went down. Now securely bringing up the back of the pack, I pushed my way through the race while riding in no man's land and chalked it up to gaining some fitness. When I woke up the next morning I realized that I needed to also chalk it up to getting beat up by the course with all the bumps. My entire body was tired and fatigued, and when Whiskey and Tacoma wanted to go out at 7 in the morning, I debated going back to bed for the rest of the day. Instead, I went and raced.

Race day 2 was much better for me. It was a boring course on the pre-ride, but one that I liked at race pace. Good, long straight sections where you could recover and get some speed, but were broken up by good technical sections that were loosened up with some mud. My race was solid where I went out a bit too fast and paid for it on the second lap before pulling back some ground later on. It was another bumpy course and I knew afterwards that I needed a little break. Perfect timing since I was going to get it in the way of New Orleans the following week!

Warming up on the trainer.

On the start line. Still clean.

Carrying a muddy, heavy bike.

Believe it or not, I actually do some things other than race my bike. Trips tend to interfere with my budding career as an amateur, mid to back of the pack bike racer, but I take them anyway. And knowing that the trip to New Orleans was for a friend's bachelor party, I knew it would be a long but fun weekend. The weirdness started early when the guy next to me on the plane pulled out his tarot cards. Of course,he did a reading and I'll say that it was surprisingly accurate. Once landed I began my personal assault on chocolate filled beignets. Unlike my bike racing, I won this battle with no competition. Once some other friends arrived we began the assault on Bourbon St and well, there are no winners there. I'm not sure how to explain the place but it's like a New Year's Eve party all day long. I get the 20 and 30-somethings partying, but the surprising parts were the 40, 50, 60, etc year olds that were partying full throttle. And it wasn't just at the later hours of the day. It was All. Day. Long. At 10:00 in the morning people were stumbling around like they'd been boozin for the last 6 hours. Maybe they were. At any rate, we were able to find some good bars and have some fun falling back into the same routine even though it's been a while since we've all been together. The weekend went by quickly but to be honest, one weekend is about all you really need to spend there. While I managed to make it out of town without downing a hurricane or a hand grenade, I was able to find my way to plenty of oysters (raw and grilled) and a catfish po' boy. Healthy? Uh, no. Tastey? Definitely. I went with tastey and so did the three guys that went through something like $60 worth of sliders for a little late night snack. Glad I wasn't sleeping in that room!

It wasn't all debauchery though. We had a really good dinner at August, which is one of John Best's restaurant, John Best being a James Beard award winning chef. Despite the inverse relationship between portion size and price, the food was delicious and we still left completely full and satisfied.

Where To Start

2011-10-17T16:45:00.000-06:00

I suppose I could start with something new....like cyclocross. It's officially a few weeks into the season and finally, my legs are starting to come around. You'd never know it by looking at the results but my legs feel a little better each week, and just as important, so do my lungs. Unfortunately my bike handling skills could still use a little tweaking. Every time I put myself in contention to move up a little more, I'll do something stupid and go down. Although it's only once a race, it usually happens in the late laps when I'm exhausted and can barely see straight so as the fitness keeps on comin, the mistakes should disappear. Good timing too since moving up to Cat 3 requires as fast and clean of racing as I can manage. And that's just for middle of the pack for me on a good day. Still, the lines are getting easier to ride, the pedals are getting easier to turn, and it's getting easier to fight to catch packs.

One of the things that always helps the most is just racing. This year Routine Leg Works hosted a Wednesday night series for the first 5 weeks. The races were a little shorter on time which was great for a mid-week race. Great chance to see a lot of guys I only see in the Fall, go head to head, and work on fitness and skills without blowing out your legs for the weekend races.

Not sure if the link will work for me, but on Saturday I was starting to move up in the race (to mid-pack) and went down just before a barrier. I re-bloodied up my knee and dropped back to end up battling it out with Neal who's a strong rider that also happened to have a bad lap in there somewhere. Here's a shot of the two of us right after I passed him on the last lap.

http://www.sportifimages.com/Cyclocross2011/Blue-Sky-Velo-Cup-CX/SM-35/19555419_ZT9LWs#1534101400_GGdrtn6-A-LB

Unfortunately, my lead was short-lived since Neal got me back and held on. At that point we were literally battlling it out for something like 3rd and 4th from last place but still racing like it was for first and that's what makes it fun.

Has It Been A Year?

2011-09-11T14:38:00.002-06:00

The answer is no. But it has been about 9 months or so since this blog has been updated. And the reason it's being re-visited is none other than cyclocross season started again today. It was hot, dusty, painful, and my first race as a Cat 3. Not surprisingly, I got my butt kicked. I went from the front of the pack as a Cat 4 to the back of the pack as a 3. Literally, the back of the pack. I wasn't last but I wasn't far from it. While it will probably be that way for most of the season, I'm hoping to find some form, re-learn how to ride some of the lines, and move my way into the middle of the pack. Either way, it should be another fun season.

I realize I should still provide some kind of race report about States, so maybe I'll do that in the next day or two. After that race I hung up my 'cross bike and my blog with it. Who knows, maybe I'll actually have an occasional post about things other than racing......like going to Hawaii in October and watching Rick rip it up at Kona!

They Gave Me 1st & 2nd

2010-12-28T20:59:00.004-07:00

Technically, this is a long overdue post and it's only going to consist of pictures really. And the pics are from the race in Golden where I did so well they gave me first and second......together. I suppose that really means I got 12th but who's counting?

L to R is I don't know, Frank, Samer, Me, Brad, Adam, Eric, I Don't Know.

Adam over the lone-standing speedkiller.

Samer charging to 3rd.

Praying to be done after 3 crashes.

One of these things is not like the other. Tim (blue) - 1st, Adam - 2d, Samer - 3d. Me...

Lenora Grace (Adam & Yvonne's daughter). We like to start 'em early!

Lookout Mountain in the back (Buffalo Bill's grave at the top). Also home of the Lookout Mountain Hill Climb every May. It hurts.

I got the wheels, now I need (another) bike to put them on.

That DID Hurt. A Little.

2010-11-29T20:23:00.002-07:00

After a mixed but mostly good return from my one-week cycling hiatus last week, I was anxious to see what kind of legs I'd have at Green Mountain Cross and Boulder CycleSport Series #4. I think we're on 4. After last Sunday I feel like I have pretty good form and am hopeful I can hang on to it for just a little longer. With that in mind, it was off to the races.

Green Mountain was apparently opposite day since we rode the course in reverse from last year. It was also opposite day since I spent more time riding the ground with my bike on top of me. Turns out you don't go as fast that way. From the start I was at the front with Adam and after the second turn, was in the lead. And then? Crash #1. Front wheel slipped out right before the stair run-up and a few guys went by me. I was fortunate in that I was able to get back on quickly and keep fighting. Somehow I got into second position and the guy that I was following forgot to turn. Anyone know what happened to him? He was last seen heading for Lookout Mtn. Maybe he's hangin with Buffalo Bill. Anyway, the rest of the lap was uneventful except Eric passed me and in what I'm sure was an effort to help me feel better about myself, he slid out of the first corner after the start/finish. Back near the front I wanted to show everyone who didn't see it the first time exactly how to fall while going through a corner and dumped it into a right hand turn. This time a bunch of guys got by me and I was a little slower to get back on my bike. I tried fighting for a lap or two to see if I could make up any ground but it quickly became clear that the good legs I had were only going to be wasted. I hung out somewhere around 14th for a little bit and was able to move up to 12th but not before seeing what the dirt felt like one more time. Three times down, all three on my right side. Once I got home and cleaned up my leg looked like I got into a fight with a cat and the cat won. Lots of scratches that drew blood and a couple cherries on the knee. Same with my right elbow. The problem, though, is that there's a lot of bruising underneath that and the combination was pretty sore for the rest of the night. I literally spent the rest of the night on the couch since any movement hurt my leg, even if it was just my pants brushing against it when I walked. Oh yeah, I finished in 12th which I was happy with considering I forgot how to ride a bike.

Race day 2. As painful as it can be, I really love racing both days of the weekend. Even though I was sore when I got out of bed, I got to the race with enough time to chat with a lot of the guys I end up racing shoulder to shoulder with. And even if I curse their names as they're passing me, it's still a good bunch of guys that makes the racing fun. After a few warm-up laps I knew this wasn't a great course for me and I'd end up hurting from the effort. Uphill start to a grass section that led to a staircase with about 30 steps (seriously) to more grass that slowly goes uphill to, yes, another staircase with 30 more steps. Fortunately there was a huge downhill from there and the lower part of the course was fast and a little more technical. I got the hole shot I wanted, only because I didn't want to be caught up with anyone going through the first two 180s before the steps. It wasn't too long after that that people started going by me. Eric first, then Tony. The passes were happening in the same place - the grass section. I just didn't have the power to keep up despite the encouragement as they passed. With a couple more laps to go, Frank came by me, again with encouragement. I hung on to his wheel until the final sprint and then watched as the black and red blur that was Brad sped by me and I hung on for 7th. An improvement from the day before with the added bonus of not crashing.

One more week and I'll probably hang up the bikes (literally - they hang in my garage) for the season. If I do race after that it will be purely for fun. First, though, we have to get through States this weekend. No idea what the course will be like but I'm already looking forward to it!

Needing A Break

2010-11-26T13:47:00.003-07:00

My plan for the season was to not race the Ft. Collins New Belgium Cup races despite the fanfare and fun atmosphere that accompanied it. Lucky for me, I stayed true to form and was able to see what normal people do on weekends. That obviously assumes that racing your bike almost every Saturday and Sunday throughout the Fall isn't normal. Personally, I still think that's up for debate. Anyway, that was the plan going in and I knew it had to happen since I was starting to feel a bit crispy and annoyed. During both days of warm-ups the week before I seriously considered dropping out of the race before it started. I didn't, but it was contemplated and feeling like that was all the confirmation I needed. So what did I do instead? I stayed away from my bike for all but one evening, went to a Broncos game, and slept in. It was nice.

My little hiatus may have been too nice since Saturday came and I was having a hard time getting going at AlphaCross during warm-ups. The course wasn't overly tricky with the exception of a few off camber sections, but it was almost all grass and required a lot of power. Let's just say that if this were a two, maybe three lap race, I would have been great! I was near the front and feeling........empty. I was pushing hard but couldn't do anything to sustain the effort and sure enough, nobody felt sorry for me (other than me) and I watched guys go right by unable to hang on to them. When the race mercifully ended I got 7th and Adam had a great race with a duel for 1st that he won in a sprint. We celebrated at Park Burger with one of the tastiest damn burgers I've had in a while - beef, ham, and fried egg (over easy to the snottiness gets on everything).

Fast forward to Sunday and everything felt better. Except the weather. The weather sucked. It was 45* in Denver when I was at Einstein's at 7:30 and 28* and windy in Longmont when we got there. Everything about the warm-up (and related rituals) was planned around staying in the car as long as possible. Registration, back to the car. Bathrooms, back to the car. Change....in the car. If I could have set up a trainer in the car and pre-rode the course from my front seat, you can bet I would have done that too. The warm-up was a quick 2 laps of what was a relatively shorter and fast course. The tricks were the loooong starting sprint to the hole shot, a looooong sandy section that we were running since it wasn't packed down enough to ride yet, and the bmx bike section. Once the whistle blew I somehow managed to come into the hole shot in second and held the wheel of first place. That lasted until the down/up section when first place......well, I have no idea what happened, but the guy in first didn't make it up the hill and I think he crashed. It pushed me to the side and into the course tape. I rode through and was lucky enough to not have it wrap around any part of my bike. Crisis averted, I went from 2d to 5th, and from 5th to 4th/3d. There were three of us in 2d - 4th and we worked to pull back the lead that 1st had. And then took the lead ourselves. Adam and I rode together and opened up a small gap. I was riding the back side better, he was riding the front better. As we got down to the last two laps, we were side by side when it was Adam's turn to pull and when he went, I didn't have the legs to go with. It was a small enough gap that I lost the draft and had to re-assess. Realizing that two guys were right behind me, and knowing who they were, I also knew that if I wanted 2d I had to keep pushing. Hard. While that worked, it didn't work well enough and I got passed in the last section but was able to roll in for 3d. It was a great feeling after how terrible I felt the day before. And even if I would have been passed by more people, it was as much fun as I can remember having in a race in a long time. Good tactics and charging hard the whole time changing roles from being the hunter to the hunted. There are definitely no gifts out there which made 3d all the better for me.

Apparently that's what the podium looks like. I can't say for sure since I'm not all that familiar with it, but it's nice up there. And the prizes were good too. Aside from being warm, the two things you generally need after a cross race are beer and a massage and we received a 6-pack of beer, gift certificates for massage, granola and a coffee mug. Nice way to wrap up another weekend!

It's Alive!

2010-11-15T16:23:00.003-07:00

The blog that is. It enjoyed taking a nice nap for the last 4 months or so, but that doesn't mean nothing has happened. I think the last one I did was 'My First Second.' Well, the week after that I got my first first in the mountain bike short track series. And then I quit. Yep, got my first place and hung up the bike. Or at least kind of. We headed up to Aspen for a few days over the 4th of July, then to Driggs, ID for a few days, and then I took a week long trip to Brazil to go to my friend Jamie's wedding where I had a blast. Meanwhile, the temps outside were getting ridiculous and even though mountain biking in the trees helps, there were a lot of days where it was simply too hot to ride. So I didn't and it resulted in a bit of a hiatus from consistent riding, and I'm sure a loss of some of the power I had accumulated. That's not that big of a deal but going into cyclocross season, aka, the best time of the year, it had me a little bit concerned. Last year was my second year (first full season) racing 'cross and was a consistent middle of the pack guy in the Cat 4s. This year I was bumping up to the 35+4s and was mentally prepared to be a good, solid, middle of the pack guy.

In my first race I finished 29th and followed it up with a 28th the next day. Knowing I'd made a few dumb mistakes that were correctable with a little more experience and a few more races, I thought that if I could sneak out a top 20 finish somewhere in the season it would be a success. My best case scenario was a top 15 finish. After a few races I was starting to think that I couldn't finish in a place that wasn't a multiple of 7. The 29th notwithstanding, I was 28, 28, 7, 21, 14. And no, the 7 isn't a typo. I was really happy with that finish despite a lot of the other riders not being there. But since I can't control who shows up to race, it was my 7th and the start of a little bit of confidence. The next day where I finished 21 at AspenLodge was another confidence builder. Prior to then I'd been worried about how everyone around me was riding. Not at this course. It was so bumpy, technical, and just flat out hard that I could only concern myself with my ride and focus on riding clean lines. People would come around me, and just as quickly they'd go backwards. I did have a little trip over the top of my handlebars on one section, but hey, it's all part of the game. Knowing that I could ride well helped push my confidence for the few weeks.

I've gotta say that the rest of my results were a combination of some guys catting up to 3s and clearing out some space on the top of the 4s, but if they're that good then they probably belong there. Either way I was getting stronger and have since gone 14, 9, 10, 13, 6, 3. I was ecstatic with the 14 since it was a solid and legitimate field. Again with the 9. And the 3, well, it was unexpected for sure, but every bit as good as I could have expected and I was able to go by some guys that had been beating me all year.

So what do you when the legs start coming around? Take a break of course. Or at least that's what I did this summer. This time, though, I'm not planning on 2 months of inconsistent riding. Rather, my legs were getting heavy, it was taking longer to recover, and my attitude toward racing was starting to get a bit pissy. With the US Grand Prix of Cyclocross in Ft. Collins this weekend, it would have been easy to race. I love the big events and from what I heard, they did it right and it was a great weekend of racing. However, they helped make my decision by putting the 4s at 8:30 on both Saturday and Sunday, and shortening the race from 45 minutes to 30. Tack on an hour and a half drive to get there and it meant about a 5 a.m. wake up call. If you know anything about me, it's that I don't mix well with mornings. Never have and don't expect that I ever will. Growing up grandma would have to come in to my room a few times to wake me up and after that failed, she'd resort to either a cold, wet washcloth on my face or banging pots and pans together. That's just mean! Anyway, I took a pass on this week, got a massage, and started feeling like a normal human again on Thursday. Of course, the Taco Bell I had last night may have set me back a few days but I digress.

With a bit of life back in my legs the plan is to get a few trainer rides in this week, race twice this weekend, twice next weekend, and then see what I can do at States on the first weekend in December. Hoping for good results at all of the races but nothing's ever guaranteed. With the temps finally starting to drop, the courses are starting to change from grass/dirt crits to sloppy, technical battlegrounds. I don't have as much experience in the latter but there's only one way to get it, and everybody has to race in the same conditions.

Race Day #5 - My First Second

2010-06-21T22:03:00.002-06:00

Race Day #5 was another CU Short Track Mountain Bike Race. But before we get there, maybe the Tuesday ride before is worth telling. I rode Bergen Peak/Elk Meadows with Adam, Brant, and Nate. Good ride on the way up, and descending is always a blast. Trying to move trees with your face, however, is not. Yep. Man meets tree, man loses to tree, man bleeds from ear with scratches on face, neck, shoulder, elbows and legs. It was a slow motion crash but my last thought before impact was, "I'm going to wake up in the hospital." Brant's thought was that I had broken my collar bone. Fortunately, neither of these was true and I walked away (actually rode) with only some blood. Even though I ultimately lost, I'll still take it as a win!

Fast forward to the next day and I was a little sketchy on if I wanted to race but decided I would. After heading up to Boulder with Brant I didn't know what to expect. It was a tight and technical course given all the hard turns. I was able to line up in the front and was in 5th out of the hole shot. Some guy crashed in front of me and I thought I was going down too but was able to move, which meant I was in fourth. Around the first lap I bounced up to second and since the leader wasn't going that fast, and I was afraid of others catching back on, made my pass and didn't look back. That's only because I could see people after doing switchbacks so I didn't need to look back. I led the race for a couple laps but knew there was one guy gaining on me, and sure enough, he caught and passed me. Two laps later he crossed the line in first and despite my best efforts, I was about 10 seconds behind him.......in second! I realized that I really don't know how to race from the front, mainly since this is the first time I've ever had to, but I'm willing to learn and figure it out! I was also pretty pumped that I was on the (virtual) podium for the first time in 6 years of racing. Not bad considering I tried chopping down a tree with my face the day before!

Race Day #4 - CU Short Track Mountain Bike

2010-06-10T22:49:00.002-06:00

Short race, short post. Pretty easy formula. Every Wednesday there's a short track mountain bike race in Boulder. And by short, I mean it only lasts 20 minutes. What it lacks in time it makes up for in pain. Brant talked me into going up so we left, got registered, and pre-rode the course a handful of times, which proved to be invaluable.

We raced Class C and for 5:40 on a Wednesday night, there were 30 guys that showed up and made it a good crowd. My hole shots typically suck. Or at least they did during cyclocross season and I'm working on improving that (and my handling abilities). Something worked. I wasn't in the lead, but I was in about 10th from the start. Not too many places to pass made it frustrating at times so you had to make each chance count. After two laps I got in a good rhythm and had picked off a few people. Coming into the last lap I wasn't sure what position I was in and tried to pass a guy but was denied. So instead of going harder, I went smarter. It's an odd occurrence, yes, but I do have my moments. I slowed on an upcoming corner that swung us out wide, and it allowed me to cut through closer and get in front. I bridged to the group of three I saw ahead and rode with them. Once I looked around I realized..........holy shit, this was the lead group! I tried everything I could to pass but have to give credit to the guys that were riding since they were simply stronger. With the finish line in sight I rolled through in fourth place and was very happy with that result. Hopefully it's a good indicator for things to come for CX season. And since I got something like 75 points for the series, it also means I should probably go try and get some more on the next few Wednesdays if I can.

Okay, so I lied. Maybe it wasn't that short of a post.

Race Day #3 - Battle of the Bear

2010-06-09T14:17:00.005-06:00

So technically race day #3 happened about a month ago on 5.8.10. And my very good reason for not having posted about it since then is, well......, I'm lazy. Makes sense, right? Good.

Pdoo decided to come down and play official race photographer for the YOA crew which was being represented by Brant, Adam, Matt, and me. Since Brant had a cold he was all pepped up on goofballs and couldn't see straight, which led to him crashing a few times and not having the race he wanted. And in true, tell the ending before the story type fashion, Matty rode well (until he came unclipped from his pedals and racked his boys on the top tube) and got 2nd. Adam was strong as usual for a 9th place finish and I was 2'27" behind him for 12th. All of this in the M30-39 AG of the Sport division (20 miles).

Aside from the morning being pretty crisp and not knowing how to dress, the race unfolded as expected. I rode pretty clean and had a good start. In fact, I actually led the race for a bit. Too bad that 'bit' was only for a quarter mile out of the hole shot and then people passed me as we crested the hill. There weren't any tricks to this course other than not getting stuck behind people, and that's exactly what happened. First through some winding singletrack, and then catching up to some of the groups in front of us. The latter happened as we were doing a big climb and instead of being able to use this area as a strength and work my way up, I was stuck soft-pedaling and actually recovering. On a climb. It sucked. In fact, it happened both times, but both times I found the same spot to get around a handful of people that had been staying with me.

The race was really about timing when and where you could make a jump on people so they'd get stuck behind someone slower. Sometimes it worked, other times notsomuch. Regardless, when I came around the last turn to the straight away there were 4 of us together and I was able to power down and beat them to the line. A top 10 would have been nice but I can't complain about 12th either. It was only the second mountain bike race I've done and still early in the season.

Next up is some short track races and then we'll see what else makes its way on to my schedule.
Making my way through the first lap:

Getting ready for the final sprint:

Guess which of the four wasn't happy with his performance (hint: it's not a trick question):

Waiting for someone to bring me a beer:

Race Day #2 - Lookout Mountain

2010-05-02T18:08:00.005-06:00

Second race in two weeks and it was time to get off the dirt and on to the road for the Lookout Mountain Hill Climb. It's held annually and is basically about as much as you can suffer on a bike. I say that often, and I'm sure it will be repeated again, but it's an all out effort up Lookout Mountain which is 4.25 miles and gains 1200 feet of elevation. If it makes any difference, Buffalo Bill's grave is at the top. I can tell you that it makes no difference at all because it doesn't help you take in any more oxygen which is the only thing you're thinking about!

I got to the race and it was perfect weather. About 50 degrees and sunny with only a small wind. I hopped on the trainer for a 30-minute warm-up and then Brant and I went to the start line. We were at the back and when the gun went off it was a mess of people trying to get clipped in. Once that cleared out, I was able to move up and ride with the lead group for about the first mile. My legs felt good and I was surprised I was able to hang on. Of course, this race is notorious for sandbaggers and it was just a matter of time before the group split. That time happened about a mile in and when the leaders laid it down, it separated the contenders from the pretenders. I have to say that a lot of the contenders don't belong racing in Cat 4 but that's a different post.

I got spit out the back but wasn't alone. Different packs came and went and I did a decent amount of pulling along the way, grabbing drafts for the brief amount of time (and benefit) as I passed people. Close to the top there's a series of switchbacks and I was in a group of four that I needed to split from. I geared down, hopped out of the saddle and surged through, blowing open the group, and almost blowing the contents of my stomach over the front of my handlebars. I didn't have much capacity at that point to go even more hypoxic than I was! One of the guys caught me and he was clearly a stronger rider so no problem with that. I was able to follow him to another group though, and it was near the top. Knowing the course was helpful since as I was passing another guy, I was concerned he'd sit in and then swing around me at the finish after taking advantage of my draft. So when I knew a false flat was coming up, I shifted to the big ring and was ready to take advantage of it before him which paid off. I lowered my head and sprinted as hard as I could to the finish, only to follow it up with barely having enough energy left to get off my bike and cough violently from the effort. It was well worth it though since when I looked at my time it was 23:09 with average watts of 277. I was super stoked since last year when I did it my time was 25:39 and average watts of 261. Chopping off 2:30 was HUGE and it made my day. Brant did great too and came in at 26:47 (a personal best) despite having a head cold.

After the race we had a beer, lunch, and then off to a party for a friend's birthday/housewarming/Kentucky Derby. A beer or two, a couple red bull/vodkas, and of course mint julep were taken down. I was much smarter about my consumption this year though, since last year left me as a puddle that wrapped around the toilet courtesy of Maker's Mark's mint julep flavored bourbon. One or two? Good. Ten? Uhhh, not so good. I only had one this time. And since it was the Derby, the seersucker got to come out for a showing:

My strategy of drinking less paid off since I felt pretty good when I woke up today so I called Brant and we tried to beat the weather by heading out to Lair of the Bear for a mountain bike ride. Crisp air, fun and flowey singletrack, and minimal crowds made the ride a huge success. It's about as much fun as you can have on the bike and we stopped a few times to enjoy it. No pics, but lots of fun. Now, though, after basically being gone for two days I have two dogs (one with her head on my arm right now) with lots of energy that need to be walked so it's out the door for us!

Race Day #1 - Lake Pueblo

2010-04-26T10:08:00.002-06:00

Racing in April? Already? I'd like to think it was a warm-up race but I don't think such a thing exists since the effort never feels like a warm-up effort. If anything, it feels worse when it's early season! Knowing that that would be the case, Brant and I woke up bright and early on Sunday to head down to Pueblo for the Lake Pueblo Arkansas Point Challenge. Since we were making the two-hour drive it only made sense to race in the Sport category, which was 20 miles rather than 11 for the Beginner or 30 for the Expert. Rolling into the parking lot, it was evident it was a pretty relaxed vibe which was perfect. People were friendly and the typical chatter than masks pre-race nerves was abundant. Unfortunately, small races don't mean the nerves are any less. While roaming around the parking lot Brant came back and had asked if I saw the girl on the Stevens bike with quads bigger than my waist. I hadn't but was certainly curious and asked if it was Katie Compton, or KfC as she's otherwise referred to and the "f" isn't conveniently placed to tie her to Colonel Sanders. It's also not for her middle name unless her middle name is f'in (and that's being kid-friendly of course!). She's enough of a badass on a bike that she's definitely earned it. Arguably the best female cyclocross racer in the world right now and her palmares on a mountain bike and/or cyclocross bike are too long to list. My keen eye for attractive women on bikes (2 of my favorite things) had also spotted Kelli Emmett who's no slouch on a bike herself. She's an excellent mountain bike and cyclocross racer, and member of Team Giant. While she has her own remarkable palmares, one of my favorite things is her tattoo from winning the singlespeed championships in 2007. Have a look - I think you'll like it too! So here we are at an otherwise relaxed, early season race in the middle of nowhere with two of the best women that ride mountain bikes in the United States lining up with us. Pretty awesome!

Given the small overall field everyone lined up together. Expert/Pros first, then Sport, then Beginner, rightly assuming that the categories would get sorted out on the ride based on rider strength. The first 1-1.5 miles was on the road going uphill. The peloton pulled out hurriedly then slowed a touch. As it did the Expert field made it's way up the road. I was able to latch on to a guy and let him pull me up to that field and Brant followed my lead as we weaved through riders. Unfortunately for us, once we got to the back of that group they decided it was time to go and dropped the hammer. I was apparently part of the hammer since I, too, was dropped. Once at the top though, it switched to a sidewalk and the pace quickened since the hole shot to singletrack was quickly approaching and it's imperative to get in the right position. I was able to make my way by a handful of riders but got stuck trying to make my last move. This ended up costing me a little bit since I was faster than this guy early on but couldn't get by. There were little cacti on the outside the path making passing there an unattractive option. I had bumped tires with him a couple times to let him know I was there, and also verbally asked to be let by a few times. This lasted maybe 2 miles. At one point we were going uphill and he stalled. I bumped his tire again and lost all momentum so I got off my bike, pushed it uphill and hopped back on. I still didn't get by and the group I wanted to make contact with went farther up the trail. Finally he pulled over and I went off to the races pushing pretty hard trying to make contact. I figured that if I could bridge the gap, I'd be in good position to sit in and take advantage of the draft for a lot of the remaining miles. Part of the downside of early season racing is that I just didn't have the legs to fly up there on my own. A headwind didn't help. And that's not to take anything away from the guys in that group being strong riders. After all, that's why I wanted to be up there with them!

After pedaling in no-man's land I knew I had two options. Option 1 was to put out more energy than necessary working by myself and seeing if I could hold off the chase group. Option 2 was to ease up and get in that group and have people to work together. We still had more than half the race to go so I chose option 2. I led the group for a bit, then got passed by the same guy that wouldn't let me by earlier. He ended up being a strong rider at this point but we were out of tune with our abilities. I'd go up faster than him and stall, he'd descend faster than me. It made me expend more energy in/out of turns that necessary but that's part of racing. It's also solved by me having better descending abilities! Another few miles passed and one guy came through and went away, then the guy leading our pack pulled away just enough to make bridging difficult alone. We got to doubletrack and Brant pulled by me determined to get up to the other guys. Since he's 6'4", 195lbs, it's like drafting a bulldozer which worked well for me! Or so I thought it would. I went to take a drink and in the time I relaxed to do that, I fell out of his draft and didn't have the legs to get back on. No-man's land again.

I knew the race was getting close to the finish and another guy came by me. That was frustrating since I didn't want to give up any more positions. I don't know what his strategy was but since I knew we only had about 3-4 miles left, I wasn't letting him get away. I bridged the gap and hung on for 2 miles. Then it was back to the sidewalk and when I looked back there was another group working well together that was gaining ground. I told the guy I was with we needed to work together but he looked disinterested. I assumed he was playing games since he slowed down so much he was forcing me to take the lead while he would sit in for 1.5 miles and then outsprint me at the end. That kind of pissed me off so with 1.5 miles to go I did my own individual time trial. I started with a little surge and looked back to see if he was hanging in my draft. He was a little bit, but there was a bigger gap than I expected to see and that was all I needed. I shifted up to the big ring, put my head down and hammered the pedals. The effort was enough that every position caused me discomfort with each pedal stroke, but when I peaked back, my strateg was working and the gap was growing. I finally got to the bottom and knew I was safe. I was able to let up on the pedals a little bit but was still draped over the handlebars with my tongue hanging out. For 20 miles on a mountain bike, I covered it in 1hr 26min 20sec. That was good enough for 13th place out of 51 riders in the Sport category. Brant had a great race as well and finished 12th, exactly one minute ahead of me.

The normal post-race deconstruction/analyzing went on as normal, and that's part of the fun. As we were talking, I heard Brant yell and looked over my shoulder just in time to see Katie and Kelli duel it out in a sprint finish. After 30 miles (for the Pros), it came down to less than a second for these two. Goes to show that everything race counts no matter how big or small. Kelli had the inside line which propelled her to victory as she was able to keep Katie on the outside.

Since I've only been on my mountain bike about 7 times this year and have never really ridden a mountain bike seriously, I'm really happy with how this unfolded. My technical abilities need to be developed but that will come with more t.i.t.s. (time in the saddle). I said after the race that I felt like I had 45 minute legs for a race that was 1:30 and as my strength bumps up, I'll hope my results do too. Oh, and I won a sweet backpack from Specialized at the raffle which was worth about $100! Considering it only cost $25 to race, it added to the day being a success.

Fruita/Moab

2010-04-21T20:43:00.010-06:00

Last Thursday, as part of YearOfAwesome (aka, YOA), I headed down to Fruita and Moab with Brant, Matt, Adam, and Nate. It's amazing that I've somehow lived here for 10 years and have never been there. What the hell have I been doing?! Fortunately I made up for lost time with this trip.

On Thursday we drove about 4 hours to Fruita where we stopped and warmed up with some loops at 18 Mile Road. The "warm-up" laps were much needed since I've only been on my mountain bike once this year and there's very little to be desired with my technical abilities. The trails were good, open, flowy singletrack which was exactly what I needed. What I didn't need, or could have done without is some of the ridges we were riding along and steep, tight descents. Brant and Matt made them look easy. Adam almost fell off the Earth on one of them but made it down safely. I made walking down a couple of them look as graceful as could be. It was still a blast though and after about 2.5 hours of riding we got some food and went the rest of the way into Moab.

We took a backroad into Moab which proved to be the better choice since we were in no real hurry. While driving through the canyon we took a quick pit stop so the boys could have a beer and just stretch out the legs (I was driving and didn't drink).

The next day we went to ride Slickrock and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever had more pre-ride anxiety in my life. It's basically like riding on sandpaper which is great because your tires hook up and get incredible traction. It's also terrible because if you fall, you're leaving a good chunk of skin right there. Fortunately, I made it through without any really bad crashes. Uhh, or at least until I got to the parking lot. I was so excited that I started riding a wheelie and took it a bit too far. The result? Me flipping my bike and ending up on my ass with a bloodied up elbow and bruised butt. Very smooth, I know.

After Slickrock my confidence got a lot better and the rest of the week was a blast. We rode Sovereign Trail, Porcupine Rim (which has a bit of riding that's a few feet from a 400 foot ledge), and Amasa Back Trail. Here's some of the pics from those rides:

It's Over

2010-04-13T20:54:00.006-06:00

It's over. Ski season. Unfortunately it's gone now. Technically I think that A-Basin closes this weekend but I won't be around for it since the end of ski season means the weather's getting nicer and it's time to ride bikes. But before we get there, here's a few pics from the season. Okay, they're all actually from the same day but who's really keeping count. A couple weeks ago I took a Friday off work and Brant and I went up to Beaver Creek for the day. As luck would have it, it was snowing pretty good. As *my* luck would have it, we almost didn't get out of Denver. Once we did it was mostly smooth sailing. In fact, the sailing was so smooth that we drove right by the exit and kept going for an extra 15 miles or so. How two people don't even notice the freakin mountain out the left window is beyond me but it happened. A quick turn around later and we were on the hill which we almost had to ourselves. From the first run we knew it was gonna be a good day. Actually, it was probably the best day of skiing I had all year. Nice, soft powder and no lines whatsoever. We got a solid 4 hours of skiing in and could've kept going. But since we knew we were heading up to Aspen for the rest of the weekend, we didn't kill ourselves. Still, every run was as good as the last.

I started the season intent on getting 20 days in. Since that requires driving up at least once a weekend and a couple/few weekend trips, I didn't quite make it and fell about a week short. I got a total of 14 days which still isn't bad considering the snow wasn't always great. There's also the added nuisance of dealing with crowds and the cost of parking at the Vail Resorts mountains, but that's a different story. The good news is that I made some pretty good strides on my teles and am much more confident getting down the mountain on them now. It's a fun switch from the alpine skis when the conditions aren't as good. Turns out it's also fun on them on good days like when Matt and I skied at A-Basin. Perfect bluebird sky day.

MMMmmmmm...That Looks Good

2010-03-02T21:41:00.007-07:00

Wanna learn how boring things are? Write a blog! I can't believe it's been since 2/7 since I've updated it last but it has. The good and bad news are I've seemingly fallen into a routine that I've been enjoying. It's not completely set, but I've been in the weight room Tuesday and Thursday nights, yoga Wednesday nights, skiing on the weekends, and fitting other workouts in around those. That includes the resurrection of two-a-days (they're not just for football players any more!).

My eating has cleaned up a lot in the last few weeks and I've been mostly good about sticking to it. The weekends present a challenge but since I'm not dead, I'm still going to enjoy things sometimes (like taco pizza and biscuits and gravy maybe?!). I'm also no expert on nutrition but doing 5 meals a day with about 400 calories each, and of the right foods, has really helped out with my stomach issues. If I had to put the top 3 things out there it would be these in no particular order: 1) Pay attention to, and abide by, serving size! A serving size is hardly ever the entire container. Hell, a bowl of cereal is most likely 1.5 - 2 servings. And if you pay attention to the sugar content, well that's just a lot of sugar. Segue? I think so.... 2) Cut back on the....wait for it......sugar! Processed sugar has no nutrtitive value. None. Zero. Yet a can of pop has about 41 grams of sugar in it. And all the shitty sugar substitutes aren't a legitimate excuse or replacement. Just start looking at labels and you'll see it adds up really really quickly. And guess what sugar turns into? If you said "fat" you were correct. 3) Unless you suffer from celiac disease, switch from white flour to wheat. Simply put, the first ingredient would read whole wheat flour. White flour, aka the other sugar, turns into fat. If you are allergic to wheat, then lucky you, it turns out they have almost everything you can think of available in a gluten free offering. Even restaurants are now offering gluten free dishes so there's really no excuse.

Now I'm sure that anyone who knows more about nutrition than me (which is almost anyone) could poke several holes in those, but they're a good start to re-vamping a diet. In the last 3.5 weeks, by following that and working out I've lost about 6 lbs (mostly fat) and have gained muscle. I'm expecting my weight will start moving back up as I put on more muscle so no one needs to get too alarmed.

As for my guilty pleasures, just to prove that I'm not completely obsessed about my diet, I offer you the following:

Exhibit A happens to be the most delicious breakfast burrito in the west that can only be found at Pete's Kitchen (home of waitresses that have bra snapping wars while the other is holding full trays of food). A breakfast burrito with bacon, covered in red chili and cheese would look a lot like this:

And since you need something good to wash it down with, why not do it with a Wisconsin Lunchbox? I know what you're thinking and you're right. The Sconny Lunchbox usually comes before the late night food, and this night was no exception. The breakfast burrito is like a sham-wow with how well it soaks up the alcohol!

For anyone still scratching their heads while looking at that picture that's trying to figure out if I'm drinking for breakfast, or just maybe gazing upon that picture with competing thoughts of "wow, that really looks delicious" and "just what in the hell is that," let me help you out. First, you're right. It does look delicious, and it is. For anyone trying to make this at home the recipe to delicious is simple. It's a half pint of beer (usually a good domestic beer like Miller Lite, Coors Light, etc. will do - PBR has been known to be very effective as well), top it off with a splash of orange juice and drop, yes drop, a shot of amaretto. Then chug. All at once. There will be a second during mid-chug where you're waiting for what you're certain is an impending doom of grossness. While your brain is processing that, your next thought will be 'holy shit I'm done and holy shit x2, that was delicious!' You're right. And you're welcome.

Lookout

2010-02-07T19:38:00.002-07:00

With no new snow in the mountains, or at least not enough to make a significant difference in ski conditions on Saturday, Brant, Adam and I went out for a bike ride. From REI out to Lookout Mountain and back. Nice little ride, about 2.5 hours in total, gently rolling uphill on the way out and a slight decline on the second half of the way back. Oh yeah, there's also a 4.25 mile hill (Lookout Mtn) that sparked an impromptu TT/FTP test. Adam had been planning on it; Brant and I had not. Or at least I hadn't. Legs felt on and off on the ride out and when we got there I told Adam I'd carry his water bottle to make his bike lighter. Since it's always helpful to have rabbits up the road to chase, Brant went first. I waited about 3 minutes and then took off, followed by Adam about 2 minutes behind me. The first 100 yards I wasn't committed to the effort required and then......well I clearly just quit thinking otherwise I wouldn't have committed to the effort.

Tom Danielson holds the record up the hill at 16:02. On this day I was really almost right there with him, killing it with a time of around 26:00. Yes, you read that correctly. Tom Danielson can go up that hill 10 whole minutes faster than me. That's why he's a Pro Tour rider and I'm.....not. My best time up it was 24:48 on 8.31.09 and I held 273 watts (avg). The first time I ever timed it was in an annual race last year where I went up it in 25:34 with avg watts of 261. The good news is I have 3 months to add 10 watts to be on par with where my cycling was last year. Or I can add 20 watts to be where I was at the end of last season. I think it's do-able.

Changes Update

2010-01-30T21:59:00.003-07:00

So part of the changes I've made include my diet. I joined a new gym recently and with it get two free sessions with a trainer/nutritionist I can use how I want. We talked about nutrition mainly and made the decision to cut down to 2000 calories/day based on 5 meals of 400 calories each. Since I'm adding muscle now that I'll shed once my endurance activites pick up more, we're looking at 160-170g or protein per day and each meal generally not having more than 10g of fat. Keeping sugars low which means no pop or Starbucks; no white breads (not a real problem for me), not much of things like orange juice, etc.

My initial thoughts? So far I've been able to stick to it but I had a follow-up discussion and asked how the hell they expect people to stick to a diet of water and whey protein shakes. I understand the science of it but disagree with the practicality of it. That said, I'll stick to it for a bit, see if I get some results and re-evaluate.

One other thing I've realized is that with only 400 calories/meal, I'm always hungry. There may be a 30 minute window after a workout that I'm satisfied, but otherwise I'm hungry. To be fair, I was probably over-eating before and my body needs to adjust, but I also think what I've been told is more of a gym rat approach and less of an endurance approach. I owe a visit to my old coach who is very "up" on all things nutrition so I'm gonna run it by him sometime soon.

Other updates? Well, I went to yoga the day after a really hard workout (with weights) and my arms were shaking doing the simplest things. Needless to say it made for a long session. It was also a pretty hard session, but I enjoyed that aspect of it. New things I hadn't done before, including a headstand. That was going well until my arms gave out and I came tumbling down. Good thing it wasn't a crowded class!

Spent the day today up at Keystone skiing on my teles. Doing a thousand lunges down the side of the mountain two days removed from a solid legs workout isn't the smartest thing, but I felt as good on the teles as I ever had. Pretty happy with the day.

Some Changes Comin'

2010-01-26T21:17:00.002-07:00

After going back and forth for the first half of January I've finally decided to make some changes in how I train. Since this is kind of an experimental season I can do pretty much whatever the hell I want. That could mean my new plan with either be a good idea or a bust but either way I'm going to stick it out.

Let me set the stage first. At the end of last tri season when I was riding my MTB a lot more and then throughout CX season I realized I don't have a lot of explosive power on the bike. Being able to make sudden bursts with a lot of power is fairly important in those races, particularly in cyclocross since they say how you get off the line at the start is about 25% of the race. Guess where my position was coming off the line? Ready? Yep, close to last. I'd go hard but there wasn't enough power there to make a difference. That's gonna change.

I've decided to start a dedicated weight program that incorporates plyometrics, building up my core strength, and gaining some explosive power. It doesn't need to last long, but it needs to be there when I need it. I'm not getting overly carried away as I'm going to do it twice each week through March. And of course I'll still be swimming, cycling and running on every other day. I have no idea what the end result will be but I'm looking forward to seeing what happens just the same.

Along the same lines I'm making some changes to my diet. Better foods, less sugars and crap. I'm also going to start with aiming for 2,000 calories/day and adjust from there. I have a feeling that's going to leave me feeling hungry and weak but I'd rather start under than over. I'm certain this plan will by no means be executed with perfection but I'm still going to give it a real shot. Hopefully I'll have some good results to show for it once the season gets underway.

Tentative Schedule

2010-01-19T20:01:00.003-07:00

Here we go. I'm not committed to any of these races yet since I haven't registered for any of them, but it's a good idea of how my racing season will shape up. There are a couple races out there right now that aren't sure if they're able to be held this year or not so they may get added. At the same time, life happens and if something needs to get scratched I'm not going to worry about it.

Like I've said before, this season has a heavy concentration on mountain bike racing and I'm currently working on building up my new mountain bike which I'm pretty excited about. More on that some other time, but it's a Yeti ASR (alloy) with SRAM X.O. It'll be a good deal lighter than my Yeti 575, but again, more on that later.

Tentative Schedule:

5/2/10 - Lookout Mountain Hill Climb (road bike)
5/29/10 - Pelicanfest Sprint Tri (road)
6/12/10 - Winter Park Hill Climb Kick-Off (MTB)
6/26/10 - XC Super Loop (MTB)
7/4/10 - Firecracker 50 (50-mile MTB race)
7/17/10 - Xterra Mountain Cup - Beaver Creek
7/31/10 - Crankworx CO XC (MTB)
8/8/10 - Xterra Indian Peaks
8/29/10 - Xterra Lory

And oh yeah, just for the hell of it I threw my name in the lottery for Leadville 100. I'm sure they'll have record entries this year and I won't get in but it's worth a shot. If I do get in you can bet your ass I'll do everything I can to come in under 12 hours and get that belt buckle!

I like this schedule since it's a little more rear-end loaded which means I'll be starting out a little slower and starting to come around somewhere in mid-June. I'm hoping it will also set me up nicely for a solid cyclocross season and I'll post that schedule later on in the Fall.

YOA Weekend Kickoff

2010-01-18T21:14:00.003-07:00

What is YOA? Year Of Awesome. It's been so long since I've updated this that I don't remember if I've mentioned this or not. Not my idea, but one of my friends, Brant. It sounds pretty self-explanatory but that just may be because we've been repeating it for a while now. Anyway, to celebrate we headed up to Breckenridge and got a condo for the weekend. I'm sure there were plenty of highlights to go around, but in a nutshell, I still suck at beerpong. Both nights. Fortunately for me Brant does not and that's what saved us on the first night, and kept us in the running the second night. However, there is something I am good at and apparently it's choking out someone that weighs about 40 pounds more than me. Being the mature people we are, sometimes we wrestle when we drink and OG (Nate) was the instigator. Having not learned his lesson when Brant (a much more fair weight class match-up) almost choked him out earlier, I sunk it in and forced the tap. However, I think he got his revenge when we got back to the beerpong table.....

We did ski as well and were able to hit up Vail. Aside from seeing my friends Ben and Jamie who I went to Marquette with, the actual skiing was uneventful since the snow wasn't that good. Still, it was good to see them.

Workouts are still chugging along. I have a tentative schedule for my races that I'll probably firm up sometime this week. In preparation for it I'll keep sticking with yoga and the cross-training class that I do. I've mentioned it before but I really think that even though I may give up some speed by kicking out a swim/bike/run a couple times a week, I'll gain some valuable strength that will make my body more durable. I've already done a good job of neglecting the swim so maybe it's time I get in there a bit more consistently. I was hoping that the pool at my new gym would be opening up soon but it looks like that will be delayed for a few months unfortunately. It will be much easier to get in a quick swim over lunch than it is before work!

So Far So Good

2010-01-10T21:49:00.002-07:00

So far the year's started off pretty good on the workout front. Slowly working on getting back into it and getting into a rhythm again. It's a bit different without a set plan to follow but I also kind of like that. Even though I probably have a good running base from the December challenge, I've kept my runs short and around the half hour mark. One of the reasons is that I hate running on the treadmill and a half hour is about my limit on there. On the bike I've hit a couple sessions on the trainer doing some repeats of watt-based workouts I did last year. I haven't done a test just yet to see what my FTP is so I used the same zones I started with last year. The good news is it's felt easier than I remembered. Hopefully some of the CX season paying off. Also, with the weather being pretty nice this weekend I was able to get outside on my bike both days. The cross bike was perfect for those rides with some snow patches still on the sidewalks. Finally, I'm not sure which is more shocking - that I went to yoga for the first time or that I got back in the pool.

The pool was pretty uneventful. Since I haven't been in the water since August I started nice and easy. Actually, Chad and Rick probably both have more yards in one swim session than I've done in two but I'm completely fine with that. I figured I'd go until my form was really starting to suck and not surprisingly, it wore me out. I was more tired than I should have been the next day but it felt good to be that tired from a workout even if it was pretty damn short.

On the yoga front, it wasn't all that bad. I went to a place that started out with a one-on-one which was perfect since I didn't know anything. A few days later I went to a class and it went well. I can see why people get into it since, if nothing else, it makes you focus on yourself for an hour. With that in mind I'll probably go back. Besides, I'm 100% convinced that yoga pants make all girls butts look fantastic.

New Year, New Goals

2010-01-03T20:32:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year! New year, new job, new beginnings, new outlook. And somewhere in there is new goals but I haven't quite gotten around to figuring out what those might be just yet. The new job I'm excited about. It's interesting and there's a lot of information there that can complement and build on the foundation I have right now, and hopefully set me up for more in the future.

I ended December on an decent note, getting sick notwithstanding. The running challenge went okay, though I missed more days than I intended. I'm not sure of my final mileage but I think it's fair to say it was somewhere around 90 miles. To put it in perspective, that's closer to the mileage I was running when I was peaking last year, and right around the same as what I was running when I was training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. From a pace perspective, depending on the day, I'm somewhere in the low 8s or high 7s which is more of an April/May pace from 2009. Point being, my running has a good start for 2010 and now it's time to get my swimming and cycling in gear too.

So what's in store for 2010? Good question. My outlook is a little different. I'm not really making any resolutions or anything like that, and at this point I don't have any concrete goals. What I'm going on right now is 1) to be open to new things in all facets; and 2) enjoy myself more. I'm sure #1 can take on a lot of forms, but for starters, since Rick (Lapinski, not my dad), and likely Susan as well, have talked about how much they like yoga for so long I finally decided to give it a try. Haven't gone yet but it's on the way. All I'm hoping for is some help in tuning up some core strength and seeing what it's all about. As for #2, it's really about having less structure in training. I'm still planning on training hard but if something comes up and friends want to go ride on a day I was planning on running/swimming, or go fly-fishing instead, I'm not going to stress about a missed workout here and there so I can enjoy myself more.

The real change will be that I'm racing off-road tris more this year and only expect to be on my tri-bike in a couple races. I'll also be racing my mountain bike and am looking forward to that. I think in the long term it will add some good strength to my cycling and set me up better for cyclocross season and future seasons with road tris.

In the two quick runs I've done so far this year I've done the same route. Yesterday was at an 8:11 pace and today was at a 7:51 pace. No idea what the difference was but I definitely felt better today and could've kept going for a while. I like that feeling.

Winding Down

2009-12-29T21:05:00.005-07:00

The running challenge is winding down and for me, it's probably just as well. I started out strong with a minor hiccup on day 15. And then......the holidays. I got my run in the day I was supposed to fly out, but didn't end up flying out. Then I got my run in on the 24th and that's the last time I've run. Instead, I made an executive decision to visit a friend in Aspen and ski. I spent two days on my teles and one day on my new alpine skis. With the temps in Aspen in single digits (and sometimes the single digit was below zero), I opted for hanging with my friend. Besides, I was still getting a pretty good workout all of the days.

After two days on my teles (one at Keystone and one at Aspen Mtn/Ajax), my legs needed a rest and Pdoo (Ryan Pardue) and I decided to head to Aspen Highlands. One of the draws at the Highlands is the bowls, and in particular, Highlands Bowl. However, to ski Highlands Bowl you have to hike about 45 minutes (in your ski gear with your skis on your back). If you blow up the picture below you can kind of see people hiking all the way up to the very top behind the sign.

A couple spots were kind of sketchy and my fear of heights didn't help, but all in all, it wasn't that bad. The views at the top were definitely worth it.

The Maroon Bells are right behind me with Pyramid Peak over my right shoulder. Once we got to the top we enjoyed the views, talked to some people and then, of course, skied down. The snow was pretty good as it was some of the best I've skied so far in this short season. I'm also pretty sure that the hike up was a good substitute for the run I missed that day.

The only downside of the trip, and the reason I haven't been hitting the pavement since, is that I picked up a nasty cold along the way. I spent two days on the couch waiting for my head to fall off. Today I'm finally starting to feel better, but still pretty run down. I don't know if it's because of the cold draining my energy or from not having worked out in a few days, but I can feel the laziness in my legs. If I wake up feeling good tomorrow I'll try and hit the gym to get in the last few days. Nonetheless, it got me more miles than I would have done and will help set me up for some real training starting in January.

One More Down

2009-12-21T18:50:00.002-07:00

Fairly easy day at work which was nice. Still getting up to speed there and leaving some things out that should go in to reviews, but that will come. Had lunch with friends so no run over lunch. Got home at 5:30 and didn't want to go out for the run. Not really tired but not really motivated either. Mainly just hungry. Debated for 5 minutes and just went and grabbed my gear so I could head out. 25 minutes isn't too bad anyway so there's no excuses. Got in 3.14 miles at an 8:10/mile pace - nice and easy the whole time. The only downside to this challenge is that I haven't logged all my runs. I've gotten all but one in but haven't always had time to log them so I don't know my current cumulative total. I've got 50 logged, but am guessing it's somewhere closer to 65 or 70. Anyway, now it's time to eat!

Running Around

2009-12-20T19:09:00.003-07:00

That's what it's felt like since I've been back from Dallas. Lots of running and running around. First, with the run "challenge" I broke my streak. On Tuesday I went out for happy hour with Brant and some others. One drink led to another.....then another......then another. And when I got home around 10 I wasn't quite up for a quick jog. I've still been going strong though and getting things in, and probably moreso than I would have without the challenge which is really the point anyway. Today's run was particularly good. Not sure how it would go down after being on tired legs. I went up to A-Basin for some skiing on my teles yesterday with Brant, Mindy, and Matty. It was pretty cold in the morning but a blue sky day otherwise and the snow loosened up nicely. Then they opened up some more terrain after lunch and we had about a foot of fresh snow to play in. My legs were getting pretty trashed at that point so we did about 3 or 4 runs and called it. Still plenty of ski days left for the year.

Got my run in yesterday when I got home and it was easy enough that it was a non-issue, but I have noticed my calves are starting to get tight lately. So today I ran some errands and then went out for the daily run. Forty-five minutes later I felt pretty damn good, surprisingly. It's always nice when I can run outside in December in shorts so maybe that's what helped me. Still, when I went out I felt like I was plodding along but every time I looked at my pace I was moving faster than expected. All said and done, I went at a 7:41 pace. Pretty solid.

I'm Back

2009-12-13T12:51:00.002-07:00

Back from Dallas, that is. Went there for a week for work training. In general, I've decided it's the mumble capital of the world. Hotel staff, people at restaurants, you name it.....mumbles. Still managed to get all my runs in, including one night that was after we went out for Mexican immediately after work. That run wasn't fun, but fortunately it was short. Made it back and was glad to see my own bed. And the dogs. As usual, they were sleeping in the car within 3 minutes of having picked them up. Christmas party was last night. Good times but didn't get to bed unitl 4 and woke up at 7:30. Ouch. It'll be a long day of napping but sneaking in my run at some point. And then starting to eat better to make up for last week!

Weekend Update

2009-12-06T21:23:00.002-07:00

It's not an original title. In fact, it probably won't be the last time I use it or steal it from Saturday Night Live. The running challenge started on 12/1 and I've stayed with it. My pace is a little slower than I was expecting but that's not too surprising and I'm sure it will start to come down fairly quickly. I don't have goals for where I want it to be since outside of being consistent at this time of year, there's not a lot more I can do. Right now I have about 19 miles in for the month. Most of that has been outside but I do have a couple treadmill runs in there too, like the one today. It snowed last night and the sidewalks were all covered so I hit up the gym and followed up the run with some core work, lunges and a couple other things.

This week will be a little more challenging to get all of my runs in since I'm heading to Dallas for work. I'm pretty sure there's a fitness facility with a treadmill at the hotel, but I haven't checked to be certain. And since I'm already at my suitcase's limit, any additional running gear isn't coming with.

Since I'm flying to Dallas early (7:25 a.m. flight) I had to get up this morning and get the dogs to the daycare/kennel where they're spending the week. All it takes is for me to grab their beds and they immediately get excited and start running around the house like wild idiots. Actually, Whiskey catches on first and I think Tacoma just copies his excitement but the end product is the same. Two super excited dogs. So we loaded up and headed out. I had them dropped off and got back home to an empty and quiet house. On one hand it's nice that I can pick up, pack, etc. without tripping over them every five seconds, but I'm definitely not used to it. Suuuuuuuppper quiet.

In cyclocross news, my season is now officially finished. I had registered for the State Championships on Saturday, but when I woke up I was feeling pretty run down, had a headache and some congestion in my chest. I tried talking myself into going but ultimately decided against it since I didn't want to stress out my body by racing in the cold and ending up being sick while I'm away for work. I'm a little bummed about missing it, especially since I heard it was a pretty cool course and a good time, but I think it was the right move. Beyond that I was starting to feel a little crispy week in and week out. My cycling fitness is at the point where going hard like that for 45 minutes at a time is just an exercise in futility. I'm not bouncing back from it quickly and it's all just a good sign to return to some general base work for the off season. It was a fun season though, and I know that in a month or so I'll already be looking forward to the next one.

Day One

2009-12-01T21:12:00.002-07:00

Day one. Of December? Yes. Of a new job? Also yes. And it turns out it's also day one of the running challenge. While today was technically the first day of my new job, I still spent most of it transitioning from my previous one and tying up loose ends. Not a big deal and that's what most of this week will be before heading to Dallas next week for an on-boarding process. After that the learning curve will continue to be steep but I'll have a much better idea of how things work.

Day one of the running challenge wasn't very eventful but I did get out to run. Turns out there's a cold front moving in and I was a little underdressed but it was a quick run of 3.14 miles in 26:30. I took it particularly slow to be sure I stayed in zone 2 (aerobic) the whole time rather than training in the gray area when I don't have the fitnees or need to do so right now. Looks like another 20 minutes is on tap for tomorrow. It also looks like we could get some snow tonight. I'll still get it done outside though.

Sore/Pool

2009-11-29T15:38:00.003-07:00

I woke up a little sore today from my crash yesterday. My right shoulder, ribs and hip were all feeling it a bit. Nothing too visible; just a little minor bruising and tightness. Headed to the pool to loosen up a little bit and realized just how long it's been since I've been there. That hurt. More mentally than physically. It was only 1000 yds but there's a lot of work to be done there. No strength in the water at all.

2 For 1

2009-11-28T23:03:00.006-07:00

Race Summaries. Two races since my last post, neither of them easy. Truth be told, they couldn't have been more different from each other.

Last Sunday was the second Green Mountain Cross race which greeted us with mud. Sticky, slow, snotty, peanut butter. One lap into the warm-up and my drivetrain was caked. Two laps into the race and my entire body was caked.

Usually we get about 6 laps in but on this day we got 4; it was that slow. Every pedal stroke was an effort in itself. By the end of the race it felt like I was pedaling a singlespeed that was stuck in the big ring. It ended up not being too far from that since when I finished Ionly had two gears that worked. Mud and weeds had clogged the rest of them and if you try and force through it, there's a better than good chance that you'll knock off the rear derailleur.

I was shot out the back early on in the race, but I was fine with that this time. I knew I didn't have the leg strength to keep up with a lot of the other people out there and with these conditions, you really had to focus on your own race. In most cases you're out there to race. On this day I was 100% satisfied that I simply finished. Once across the line, it was dropping my bike and sitting down......just like everyone else did. There's usually a post-race, informal 'hey, great job out there on this part,' etc. but this time everybody was quiet in their own misery right up until we all realized we were cold, wet and covered in mud. Overall there were 42 that started, 38 that finished, and I was 29th.

No pictures from today's race, which was AlphaCross 2. I'm not sure what prompted the change of venue, but instead of the anticipated 50-minute drive, I instead only had about 15 minutes. It also made it easier for Nate, Todd, and Rick to come out and watch the race. I had no idea what to expect but when I saw an all grass course I knew it would be trouble. Riding on grass feels like velcro against your wheels. All effort and no speed to show for it. Throw in a bunch of off camber turns, some short but steep hills and a couple sand pits and we had a course. I almost missed the start because I was talking to a friend and when I got up there they were calling 30 seconds before we go. Just in time! First lap was uneventful - just fighting for position as usual and seeing who will be in your pack. It changes every week based on course and conditions. I knew a couple of people and one of the guys has been beating me all season. Once I saw he was faltering I thought today would be my day. After stopping for a dropped chain, I was able to work my way back up to him. I'm sure I burned a couple matches in the process. Once on, I settled in to see how he was riding and given the pace I figured I'd be able to make a move without him staying with. Not necessarily the case. I made my move but before I was able to see what he had in the tank, we both came around a 180* turn with me in the lead and my front wheel washed out. I hit the deck sliding, and then so did he. Another lap with him trailing and on the bell lap he came around me on a straight away. Perfect since I was always faster than him on a stretch before the finish anyway. One thing I forgot to mention was that it was windy out. The tape marking the course was blowing into the course in between each of the stakes. I knew the other rider was stronger through one of the S-turn sections so in order to get my turn right, I started wider. When I did, the tape blew up under my handlebars and somehow wrapped around them. Since it was right by the stake, it jerked my bike and I went straight over the handlebars. I landed on my right hip, got up, slowly walked the bike to top of the hill and got passed by a few people. Fixed my chain and soft-pedaled to see how things were. No problem so with only half a lap to go I sucked it up to see what I could salvage. I got two places back but lost two in the process. Out of 25 riders that started, 21 finished. I was 18th.

Even though I wasn't able to acknowledge anybody that came out to watch, it was cool to have them out there. When you're that cooked, it literally takes too much effort to even wave when you're going by. Any break in the focus is energy wasted to get it back and the way these races go, there's no energy to spare. The last two races I've come home and taken naps!

One more race weekend to go and then it'll be time to hang up the 'cross bike for the season. In the meantime Rick, Chad, Cory (Rick's brother) and I have the run challenge coming up starting on 12/1. And I also have the mountains calling for ski season to get underway!

Cross Clinic

2009-11-17T21:44:00.005-07:00

On Monday afternoon I headed up to Boulder for a cyclocross clinic put on by Boulder Cyclesport with Brandon Dwight and Joachim Parbo. Brandon's a co-owner of BCS and is a 2x U.S. National Cyclocross Champion for Masters 35-39 (2007 & 2008) and Joachim is a 3x Danish National Cyclocross Champion (2006, 2007, 2009) so needless to say, we were under good instruction. The clinic was supposed to go over some technique while riding through sand, as well as dismounts and re-mounts for about an hour and a half on the bike, followed by 2 hours of discussion over some food (and beer). Since it snowed over the weekend, there wasn't much exposed sand but the snow was a good substitute since the mechanics we were going over were basically how to center your weight and just trust the bike. Kind of tough to do at times, especially when you're riding off camber on a descent while having to turn and go back uphill. And oh yeah, they're telling you to pedal harder into the corner.

Without going into everything that we did, it turns out they knew what they were talking about. Once I started drilling it into some of the corners, I had a lot better control even though I almost bailed a couple times. That was probably the biggest take away for me - just going for it. But if that was the biggest, coming in a close second was when we were talking about managing the race. Since the race within the race always comes down to a matter of seconds, being able to pay attention to your competitors, to the course, and to how when/where you apply the effort saves energy, keeps the heart rate down a little bit more when needed, and leaves you in a better position for when it counts at the end of the race. If any of that makes the clinic sound easy, it wasn't. It wasn't super hard, but doing a bunch of repeats of sprints on the bike up a snowy hill, mashing through it after you've lost your momentum, etc. and getting some quick recovery turned out to be more of a workout than I was expecting. It didn't help that I did a quick 30 minute run earlier followed by 30 minutes of core work. At the same time, it was a good reminder (which they pointed out afterwards as well) that once winter is here full on, and I'm tired of hitting up sessions on the trainer, hop on the 'cross bike, pedal over to the park and figure out a loop to do. Good intervals and some added bike handling skills to go with it.

Once it got too dark and cold to see and feel, we headed back over to BCS to change and then went to 4580 Restaurant to grab some food and get to the discussion part of the clinic. I think we talked about everything from tire pressure, wheel choice, start and race strategy, training, nutrition, etc. One of Joachim's best points was about just enjoying it. Whether it's nutrition or training or racing, trying to program everything down to perfection will eventually end up ruining the experience. Instead, loosen up a little bit and have fun. Pick training routes that have good scenery, eat things that are good/good for you but don't be afraid to have a beer too, and remember that the world won't end if you miss a workout to go do something else you enjoy. Train hard, have fun, and go race. Then do it all again the next week. Sounds pretty easy.

Getting An Itch

2009-11-15T14:12:00.005-07:00

No cyclocross racing for me today. I did everything right to make sure I'd be there but with about 8" of snow at my house, and really slippery roads, I wasn't up for making the 45+ minute drive up to Longmont. Too bad since I did well at this venue last time, and I also like racing in the slop which it was sure to be today. Should be some good stories to come out of this race.

The snow started last night when I was out. Since I knew I would be racing, and the roads were already getting bad, I wasn't drinking. I stayed out until about 12 switching between Cokes and water. Still had a good time and slept great. It's always nice to wake up feeling good instead of groggy and hungover. I went out on Friday night and even though I wasn't hungover on Saturday, I slept like crap. That seems to be the trend for me when I drink. Awful sleep and I wake up feeling unrested regardless of if I'm having Advil for breakfast or not. I'll sleep great for about 3-4 hours and then just wake up and toss and turn. Very frustrating. So yesterday was essentially a wasted day. While Whiskey and I took periodic naps, Tacoma patrolled the backyard despite being rained on the whole time. Odd dog, that one.

When I knew I wasn't going to be racing, I had to figure out what I was going to do with all the energy I had so I came up with a list that's only about halfway complete. Nothing fun, but all necessary. I also realized I need to get a workout of some sort in, and that's when I realized that the itch had begun. That is, the itch for next season. Any workouts I've been doing have not necessarily just been going through the motions, but they weren't with any real purpose either. Now it's time to start trending that way and I'm also looking forward to when the 2010 Xterra schedule of races will come out. Right now the only one I know is Xterra Indian Peaks which conflicts with Boulder 70.3 so I'll have to choose between the two. It could be my first season in a while without a half ironman on the schedule, but with an increased focus on getting some more technical skills on the mountain bike, the shorter stuff will be a good focus. I'm sure it will benefit my cycling strength in the long run and help me race better at HIMs once I get back there. Still a lot to be figured out but things are starting to feel good again and seem to be heading in the right direction.

Even though it probably has little benefit, I moved the furniture around in my family room. It's been too easy to come in and plop down on the couch and get sucked in, either to the internet or the TV. I'm certain the rearranging isn't as good of a layout, but it's not as accomodating for laziness either. When I moved the couch I found 6 dog bones under there! I took each one and placed them on the fireplace and while I was vacuuming, Whiskey would go over and grab one off, chew on it for about 5 minutes and then go get another one until all 6 were scattered around the floor. He was very pleased with what he'd done. I told him he's a shithead. His wagging tail and smiling face told me he was unnerved by my comments.

In addition to my motivation moving in the right direction, my eating has also gotten better. Even though I'm very far from eating great, and never plan to be perfect with it, what's been going in has been a lot cleaner and I haven't gained as much weight this off season. All good things.

With both dogs sleeping right now it's going to be a good time to either hop on the trainer or go finish painting the guest bathroom. There's also some weights I'm going to go push around. Then, since I still have vacation days to burn, I took tomorrow off and in the afternoon I'm heading up to Boulder for a cyclocross clinic with Joachim Parbo, the Danish National Champion. Should be interesting and fun.

Midweek Update

2009-11-11T19:10:00.004-07:00

Not a whole lot going on but since it's Veteran's Day (thanks to any/everyone who's served or serving!), I got the day off and there's only so much of an NCIS marathon I can watch. I've come to realize that about 8:30 is all the longer the dogs will let me sleep and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Either way, I was up for an uneventful morning routine but I took it slow since, well....., because I could.

The last two days I had good intentions but poor follow-through when it's come to working out. It's a poor excuse but I'm still thrown off by getting home and having it completely dark out. Once I get out I don't mind running in the dark at all but I start feeling like I have about 3 hours less to get some other things in, including dinner. With today off, though, I was able to get out for a good ride. It wasn't long, but it was at a good pace. Too bad my powertap wasn't working since I was curious about my watts. I'll keep that up through the weekend to try and maintain some pop in my legs for the cx race on Sunday.

One of the things I did today was go to an accupuncture appointment. I won 4 sessions in a silent auction that was held for two friends that were involved in a bike accident. I paid $50 and got 4 sessions. Pretty good deal! I think there's a good balance in there somewhere between Chinese medicine and Western medicine where the body has natural healing energies that can be triggered. At the same time, science can help jumpstart the process as well. Point being, they're not mutually exclusive. Anyway, the accupuncturist/therapist is a competitive open water swimmer so while she was pricking me with about 20 or so pins (I'm guessing), we were talking about having a proper off season. Right now I'm definitely not in top shape, but that's not a bad thing. Rather, it's an appropriate thing. Still, it's time to start getting it back. I know I've said that before, but then the whole job thing happened so it's take 2.

I'll be using the last four or so 'cross races for my weekly dose of high efforts on the bike and just maintaining otherwise. I even have plans to hop in the pool starting next week. That will probably be 2-3x/week. Then in December we're working on some sort of running "challenge." Rick and Chad are in charge of details so I'm just waiting for the word. The only hesitation I have with it is that I'll be going from low volume to an initial guess of about 120 miles in one month. Maybe not the smartest thing but if I feel like I'm starting to get an overuse injury I'll shut it down. That also highlights the need to get going in the second half of this month.

No insight as to a schedule for next season just yet but I'm thinking I'll start the heavy training later, as in March. I've come to realize just how much I like riding my bikes in the Fall so instead of having my fitness start to decline in mid-August, I'm going to try and push that to mid-October. I can fake it for a couple months there through 'cross season.

There are a couple other things going on like a cycling club we're working on throwing together but that's a post for another time.

3 Days, 3 Bikes

2009-11-08T21:19:00.008-07:00

Another weekend of riding bikes. It's pretty much the only thing I do consistently, or at least kind of consistently since I haven't been on the trainer as much as I should. Still haven't warmed up enough to the fact that even though it's already dark out by the time I get home, I need to get on that dumb thing to stay fit. Maybe one of these days. Anyway, I took Friday off work and got some things done in the morning so I could meet Adam and Brant at Green Mountain for a mountain bike ride. We weren't really sure if it would be dry enough, but it was still worth finding out. Good thing is we didn't have any real problems. We were far from clean at the end of the ride but no real problems......other than lungs and legs. My aerobic conditioning seems to be good but once I get anaerobic, I fade pretty quickly to where it's just managing the process. On this ride there was a long climb to the top that tested everyone's conditioning, and everyone agreed that we failed. Other than making it to the top of course. The downhill was a bit anticlimactic since it was down a fire road rather than singletrack but we were running up against the dark so it was the quickest descent with the most light.

On Saturday I could have gone up to Louisville to race 'cross but opted against it since I was racing on Sunday. Instead I hopped on my road bike for a bit which was fun since I hadn't been on it in a while. Nothing special about the ride; just a solid tempo ride. I think it's easier to ride a steady-hard pace on the roadie after pushing (and spinning) on the mountain bike. It was good to feel the vibration of the road too - just a steady hum the whole time through.

Sunday. Race day. Actually it was race day that I almost missed. I woke up and fell into my routine of making breakfast, watching NFL pre-game and then some of whatever game is being shown while I gather my stuff and head out to the race. Well today they changed the times and the race was about 1:25 earlier. I figured it out in time, but only got one warm-up lap in. Seems to be the story as of late. Fortunately I had talked to Adam after he was finished with his race so I had an idea of what to expect. The course was pretty twisty in the front half with a lot of S-turns that were capped off by a steep run up with a barrier in the middle of it. A few more turns at the top and then flat and rough on the back with a section that was just soft. You could pedal as hard as you wanted but you weren't going anywhere fast through it. Kind of like pedaling through a moss field. Then a barrier section, turn a corner and back to the beginning.

The field was smaller than fields have been in the past. Could be that the early season saw a lot of people just giving cyclocross a try and they've fallen out, or that it was in Brighton which is basically the middle of nowhere. Judging by the caliber of people riding, I think it's the former and you're now getting the people that actually want to be out there who want and know how to ride their bikes.

As usual, my start wasn't anything spectacular. I got in a decent position and was generally able to hold it on the first lap. As the separation of groups started to occur, I could see the people up ahead of me, whether it was a couple bike lengths or 10 seconds. With all the turns on the front side you need to have some good explosive strength to pedal out of the slow corners, even if it's only for about 10-15 yards. Hit it hard, slow for the turn, and hammer again. One section had about 5 turns like that. Without the upper end strength, instead of picking up some ground, I was left to defend the ground I had and/or watch a few people pick me off.

Once to the back side, somewhere on the second or third lap I realized that it was a good long, flat stretch that I could get into a solid steady-hard effort like I did on the road bike the day before. And then I realized I could shift up to the big ring and make my effort more efficient. Lo and behold it worked and I started moving past a couple guys. No big groups but every person counts. That became my strategy for the rest of the race. Maintain on the front half, push it on the second half. There was a group of maybe 4 people that I kept playing leap frog with because of our different abilities. Finally it was down to two laps so I figured I had to make whatever moves I was going to, but be smart about it. I got to the top of the run up and passed a guy. Then another guy I'd been following (and passed on the last lap last weekend) bobbled briefly which was just enough for me to get by. Hoping I could drop him, I kicked it into gear and hammered the back stretch. I got a gap but it came at a price and coming back around the start section I saw he had made it up. I've ridden a lot of these races on my own without much of a chance to use race tactics against other people riding with me so this was a chance for that. With that in mind, since he was so close, I let him come by and figured I'd just hold his wheel on the front again, bide my time and do a repeat on the back stretch. That worked great right up until the run up.

Once I got to the top I realized I'd blown up a bit and the guy in front got a gap. It started small but kept growing and by the time we got to the flats it was too late. I was able to hold off the guy behind me but didn't get to make the move I wanted and finished 29/40.

In retrospect, knowing that I was a weaker rider through the turns, I should have held my position and made him work harder to get around me. That would have been my best bet to moving up that one spot. Either way it was fun to race like that and even though I was close to the bottom, I was happier with the way I rode than what the standings showed.

Next week is the final race of the Boulder Series so I'm expecting another big crowd at the start. Not sure of the course yet but I'm hoping for mud!

Halloweekend

2009-11-02T22:21:00.010-07:00

Hockey, bike racing, concert, looking at naughty......ness (?), bike racing. That was my Halloween weekend and it was pretty fun. By Friday night I was pretty fried and ready for the weekend and it just so happened that DU hockey was in town and I have season tickets. Went to the game and had a couple beers, and although it was a bit uncertain at times, DU ended up winning. We usually go out afterwards but since I was racing early on Saturday, I called it a night.

Saturday morning I was up at 6:30 to get ready and make the 45 minute drive up to Longmont. There were two times I seriously questioned why I race today. One of them is always about halfway into the race where you've already committed enough and know you have to keep suffering while trying to hold off anyone you've already passed and work to catch the guys you can see just ahead. That happens every. single. race. Without fail. The second time today was actually first. The alarm clock. Waking up earlier on the weekend than during the work week? Awful. Nonetheless, up I was and it was out the door. Because it was the Boulder Cup weekend (which means that all the pros were in town to race this stop on the circuit), the start times for the rest of the categories were moved around and I was starting at 8:50. I didn't have quite as much time as I would've liked to warm up but I still got to see the course. They did a good job of moving the snow off, but the ground was basically frozen ruts which made for a bumpy ride. Even though it was only about 40* when we started it felt a lot warmer, and as we raced it continued to warm up.

Once the gun went off it was up a hill, around a soft left and off the road to the dirt. Or at least to the ruts. Try as you might to hold a line, you really didn't get much say especially if you were the guy that got squeezed out of the course and ended up over the front of his handlebars. The lines were all being dictated from the lines that had been taken from earlier racers. And apparently some of the earlier racers took shitty lines! Really though, it was going all over the place but the course had a bit of everything and was set up well. The front side was some good S-turns with a couple off camber corners. That led into a paved section with a fun wall to ride up and down through a corner, some barriers and a sand pit. Then the back was just plain old sloppy. And hard. Off camber hills, muddy steps, slippery corners, and once you hit the pavement you were rewarded with a hill.

After about the second lap, right when you were starting to get a feel for the lines, it all changed. The frozen mud thawed out and turned into slimy mud and it was going everywhere. Pretty sure I ingested a good amount but I certainly wasn't alone there. Of course, it probably didn't help that I went down once. After a run up (that was rideable on the first two laps with firmer ground), there was a sloppy downhill with a right hand turn that led to some steps. The descent looked like this:

Except for when I went. Then it looked like this (pic isn't of me, but the result was the same):

What was once a nice, light bike instantly added 10 lbs of grime and became harder to pedal, not to mention lift over the barriers. But the riding also became more fun. It wasn't any easier, and in fact, just the opposite, but definitely more exciting. At one point, on about the 4th lap, I remember wondering how in the hell I was going to make it through the typical 7 or so laps. Whether it was pedaling my easiest gear uphill, trying to run through the sand or up the steps, or re-mounting my bike, I was quickly getting down to having burned my last match. The good news was first that the lack of oxygen to my brain kept me from realizing we were turning laps a lot slower. So when I came through on the next lap it was the final lap. Awesome. The next part was that everyone else was starting to get tired too, and somehow in that final lap I was able to move past 4 more people and hold off the final one on the last sprint up the hill to the finish. When it was all said and done I had finished 23/43 which I was definitely pleased with. A very challenging course, changing conditions, and always good competition, not to mention that I was able to finish ahead of a guy that has consistently beat me by a handful of spots in all of the races we've entered together.

Not a lot of pics of me from the day but here's my bike post-race:

Here's a picture of my friend Adam's bike post-race. There really is a crankset, front and rear derailleur in there somewhere. Makes for some nice, smooth shifting.

The organizers had already planned ahead to prepare for the mud and dirty bikes (and people) and had pressure washers for some post-race cleaning:

Since it was Halloween there were a few costumes rolling around, including the support from the Mavic sponsored pits:

And this guy (yes, it's a guy):

All in the name of fun, of course. Speaking of costumes and fun, that night I went to the Jason Isbell concert. It started pretty late but there were some interesting "outfits" being worn that night. None by me, but to keep this blog from quickly becoming rated R or worse, there will be no pics of the costumes or body parts that may have been seen. However, I'm pretty sure there was no shortage of nurses running around should their services have been needed. Services, in this case, probably has a pretty loose interpretation!

On Sunday it was back up to Boulder for some more bike racing but this time it was just watching. To be brief, watching the pros race was a completely different world. From floating through the sand, sprinting over the barriers, or just laying it down when they needed to, there wasn't much that they made look difficult. Pretty cool experience. More pics on that another time.

Valmont CX

2009-10-20T19:29:00.003-06:00

Mid-week update? No thanks. That would suggest something exciting has been going on. But I am a couple days behind on what seems to have become my weekly cyclocross race update. On Saturday they combined a 'cross race with the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Valmont Bike Park. I don't know the full details of the park but it does sound pretty awesome and will have a 'cross course that's there all the time. State of the art. Anyway, because of, well, I have no idea because of what, but because of something, they changed the starting times for the day. Usually Cat 4s don't race until 2:45 but today we were going off at 10. Even though my Friday night was pretty uneventful, it was still tough waking up on Saturday and I considered skipping the race. I can thank the dogs for getting me up though since they had to go outside and once I was up, I was racing.

Since I was slow going in the morning, instead of making something or stopping at Einstein's, I decided to fuel up with some delicious chocolate donuts from the gas station and topped it off with a Gatorade. All nutrition, all the time. I sucked that down on the way up to Boulder and debated how many layers I should wear during the race. It was pretty cold out in the morning and still in the high 40s when I got to the race. After I registered, switched out my wheels and started doing some warm-up laps, the temp started to rise and slowly but surely I took off the leg warmers, arm warmers, and then base layer. Somehow it had gone from 40s to 60s and was still on its way up.

Since I've been a slow starter in the past, I figured I'd start up front so I got to the line early and was in the first row. Then they did call-ups. Or at least the first half. Then they did call-ups for those people that had donated to the bike park. Then they did the rest of call-ups and then I was starting near the back again. At least I tried. The start was good in that it was a straight away for about 300 meters then turning right and going uphill. It broke some things up a little bit but with 70 riders on fresh legs, it took longer than that. The course itself was alright but it wasn't one that I was a big fan of. In fact, I was less a fan of the course than I am of ending sentences with prepositions which explains my previous sentence. But I digress..... The course was very bumpy witha lot of loose dirt that was very bumpy and mainly followed an earthmover's tracks that made it very bumpy. Kind of like parallel singletrack that was rough in between, making it difficult to pass in those sections. The backside was hacked weeds with a narrow singletrack. Again, it was tough to make passes but everyone had to deal with the same conditions. I think those with strong mountain biking backgrounds probably had the better advantage on this course. Hell, those with full suspension would have had the real advantage on this course.

Back to the race. It usually takes a lap to string out the pack and today was no exception. Surprisingly, though, I could feel my heart rate moving up but I wasn't feeling like death immediately. Second lap came and I was moving past a few people. This lap was still feeling good and so was the first half of the third. Only the first half because I was riding steady at the front of a pack and came into a turn that I knew was, you guessed it - bumpy, but you could still take it at speed. This time when I came in, I almost lost it since my back tire hit a couple bumps and I almost went down. Much to the applause of the on-lookers and fellow riders, I was able to stay upright, but it came at the expense of about five spots. Fortunately, I was able bridge the gap later in the lap and decided to sit in behind some of the riders. There were points where I really wanted to pass but decided to stay content just sitting in. And then I got impatient and decided to pass since we were close enough to the next pack that I could put in a little surge and bridge the gap. Since I had been running the barriers well all day I decided to wait until one of those sections to make my move. I could see the next group ahead, thought about running the barriers and putting in a grind on the following flats and catch them by the turn. This all worked out nicely in my head. The problem was that becoming exhausted, combined with being overly anxious doesn't work out so well. As I was dismounting, my foot didn't come out of the pedal and I face planted. Just like I was diving into home plate. I was safe from everything but embarrassment. I'm sure it was comical to watch, and while I didn't get hurt, not only did I not catch the next group, but I also let the following group by me. The good news is that I passed some of those guys back later in the race but the damage was done and I was just happy picking off anyone as I could. By the time the race finished I was pretty much cooked. I had no idea how I placed but figured it was pretty far back given my two bobbles. As it turned out, I was 40 out of 70. Not nearly as bad as I expected, but that also made the 10 or so spots that I lost on the bobbles suck that much more.

I can tell I'm starting to get some of my fitness back and briefly considered testing it again on Sunday, but with the temps getting in the mid-80s I decided it was too warm. Instead I settled for watching a Packers victory. I'm not certain I'll be able to race this coming weekend which just makes me look forward to two weeks from now when I'll be able to get out there again. The fitness will keep coming around and I'm sure my leg strength will keep getting better. And as it does, I'll be hoping for a finish in the top half of the field.

Good Thing For Weekends

2009-10-12T11:10:00.006-06:00

Another weekend, another race. And it's a good thing too since I wouldn't have any updates for Rick and Chad (you're welcome) who talked me into starting this in the first place. More than looking forward to racing, after this week I was just looking forward to not having to be at work. Fortunately for me it's a 3-day weekend since good 'ol Christopher Columbus decided to get lost, crash into a continent, call it America and give school kids, government employees and bankers everywhere the day off. I didn't wake up once before 9:30 this weekend unless you count the phone call from my grandparents at about 6:30 this morning.

I was hoping to get back on the wagon and get some solid workouts in during the last week and was off to a good start with the CX race last weekend and a good MTB ride. Monday and Tuesday were both solid and then Wednesday happened and derailed everything. Everyone from the office went out for drinks on Wednesday night and then there was just no motivation for the next couple days. Come Sunday I knew I was in trouble with fitness for the race but it was basically the highlight of the week so I was definitely heading out.

Cross weather has arrived! I'm not sure that's a good thing or not, but it's here. Cold, snowy, slimy conditions that make you question what the hell you're doing out there during the entire warm-up. Usually you're only questioning what you're doing when you're about ready to puke up your lungs from the effort, and now we get to add the conditions to the mix. MMmmmm, Tasty. When I race (usually at 2:45), it's 2 slots behind the Open Men which means I get to watch the guys that are good. And be cold for a while. When they were going down on off camber descents, around slippery turns, etc., I knew it would be an interesting day.

See the smiles and laughing in that picture? It's a good indicator that it's before the race. AJ (my triathlon coach with D3 from two and three seasons ago) and I headed over to the call-ups but guess what.....neither of us got called up as expected so instead I lined up in back. Mainly because I was slow getting over there. I realize this isn't rocket science but I've come to realize just how important the start is. It can really make or break your placement throughout the race. There are guys that finished 10-15 places in front of me that I can ride with, but they either had better starts, or better positions at the start. Something to work on.

Once the gun went off it wasn't long before the first crash happened. I didn't go down but got caught up in the bottleneck and lost a few spots. Surprisingly, though, there weren't as many crashes as I expected. The course was snotty but had a good flow to it where you could recover on a couple sections, hammer it on some others, and just gut it out on a few more. All those sections were well-balanced. On about the third lap I was working my way up to a group of about 5 riders and I knew if I caught them I could pass them. I got within about 2-3 bike lengths and was waiting to make a move. We came down a sweeping righthander. It wasn't a sharp turn but the descent combined with the slippery/muddy conditions kept you honest. Apparently I was most honest when my bike slid out from under me and I ended up on my side. The crash didn't hurt but I lost that group, and while I was getting back on I got passed by another five to seven riders. That sucked. I was able to catch some of them, but definitely not all.

It looks like I'm walking in this picture but I really was trying to run through the barriers. This was the toughest section on the course since it went from this to this:

And then mount the bike and ride back through the sand. By the time you got out the other side you were leaning over the bars trying to suck in any air so you could get ready for the next section.

All said and done I finished 57/80. Throw in a better starting position and not crashing and that's probably 40/80 but that's part of what makes CX so much fun and interesting. A couple bobbles can really cost you. Now it's time to get serious again about my bike fitness and ride with some more strength. I'll be back next weekend and am considering a back to back effort for the weekend. Saturday is the official groundbreaking for the Valmont Bike Park in Boulder that's being brought in with a 'cross race. Should be awesome. Then depending on how I feel, there's a race in Golden on Sunday. Hup hup.

Rubber Side Down

2009-10-04T22:43:00.008-06:00

Seems like the pattern the last couple of weeks has been to back up a day of cyclocross racing with a day of mountain biking. It's fun, relaxed, and nice to get out into the foothills for some good riding, especially while the leaves are changing. Perfect riding weather! I went up to Bergen Peak with Brant and Nate and apparently it was cute girl hiking day. I'm all for it, except maybe next time I should try and bring some MTB'ing skills to even mildly impress anyone.

To be honest I felt a bit squirrely on the bike all day. It didn't matter the terrain or speed, I just didn't have it. My legs were a bit fatigued but nothing terrible. There may have been a part of it that was from crashing on my CX bike three times yesterday, but I don't know that that really played into things all that much. The climb to the top was pretty uneventful while passing by plenty of, yes, cute girls hiking. Seriously, who knew?! As got close to the top, around 9300 feet, it started snowing. Not hard, and it didn't really feel all that cold, but it was still coming down.

And of course since the only real reason we ride up is to ride down, that's when the fun usually begins. Usually because this time going down didn't just mean going down the hill, it also included two more crashes. The first one was a non-event. My rear derailleur got caught up on a rock while going around a corner and I went down. The second one, however, was definitely a spectacle. I was coming up to a technical part just before a switchback that Brant and Nate had already cleared and were on the path just below me heading the other way, but waiting for me. Somewhere in the middle of the technical section I realized I wasn't going to make it through so I put my foot down, which slid out from underneath me since it was on a slope. Then I completely lost my footing and somehow rolled but was bringing my bike with me because my other foot was still clipped in. As I was rolling I was headed straight for Brant who was perfectly in the way of this disaster. When the bike started coming over top of me and almost into him, he was able to grab it and chuck it over his shoulder, but not without getting knocked down and tumbling down the hill himself. Nate had the best seat in the house and watched it all happen and was laughing after he realized we were both okay. I would have laughed too but my left hand hurt too damn bad! It took a while (as in hours) before it started feeling normal again, but I think it's just bruised and no torn ligaments. I also have a few nice cherries on my legs, but they're in places that I'm pretty sure would be inappropriate to post on here. Most importantly of all of this, aside from nothing being broken and the bike being okay, is that it didn't happen in front of any of the cute girls hiking!

After the crash we rode the rest of the way down and were still able to salvage a pretty good day of bike riding. So now with five crashes in two days, I'm hoping that's all out of my system for a while. And even if it's not I'll still be back on the bike before too long. If I start crashing while I'm on my trainer though, I may have to reconsider!

Cyclocrash

2009-10-03T20:25:00.006-06:00

Headed up to Frisco to race Day 1 of the two day Frisco-X races. My races with the Cat 4s aren't until around 2:40 or 2:45 all season so normally I get to sleep in a bit, eat breakfast while watching GameDay, get some things done and then head to the race. However, I rode up with Adam and Yvonne and their 2.5 y/o Lenora Grace, and since Adam races earlier, we were out the door at 8.

The weather in the mountains was pretty much perfect all day long as it warmed up to about 50*. Maybe a little higher. Only a little wind and some clouds that were off and on. All in all, a great day to be in the mountains, a great day to race, and one more thing that's just great about living in Colorado in general.

Adam raced in the SM35+ Cat 4s and did really well finishing around 11th or 12th. While we hung out for the few hours in between his race and mine, we watched the Open Men race which included some guys that simply stated, are ridiculously good. Jake Wells, who finished 12th at CrossVegas, took 1st and did it without looking like he ever got tired.

I pre-rode the course a few times and realized that the tubeless wheelset I was running wasn't going to work so I switched it up and put tubes in and was ready to roll. It was a good course with an uphill right out of the start that was followed up by a winding descent with some tight turns, all of it being over woodchips. A few more tight turns led to a straight section that spit you at a technical downhill into a righthander and then a hairpin lefthander. The next tough part was a tight left hand turn on gravel that was pretty dug out and made things tricky. Then it was over some barriers, up and around the frontside, over some more barriers and a place to actually breathe before heading back up the hill. All in all, I thought this would be a good course for me. All in all, it probably would be if I had my cycling fitness from two months ago!

There were around 60 people starting and I got stuck near mid-back; not where I wanted to be. Nothing really changed going uphill and the first lap was pretty tight, but without incident. Feeling like you can't breathe deeply enough isn't enough of an incident to mention while racing since that's how everyone felt. Since most of the laps blurred together, here's what happened at some point. First, coming into the gravel-rutted lefthander, there was another rider that didn't make it through clean and when I came in carrying speed, I slammed my brakes, hit the rut and went straight over the handlebars. No biggie - get up and race. I was more pissed that two guys got past me than anything. On the next lap coming down the technical descent into the right hand turn, my wheels slid out and I landed on my side. Two laps later who knows what happened but my bike ended up being caught by a pine tree and I was on the ground about five feet in front of it. Again, two more riders got by me. Aside from that, I was lacking the leg strength needed to ride like I felt I should have. I was running the barriers well and re-mounting the bike well. That was probably the highlight since I was able to pass some guys there. The laps came and went and at the finish I think I was somewhere around 40 out of 60. Not my best day but it was still fun to be out there.

I think I'll round out the weekend with a good mountain bike ride tomorrow, and then hitting the trainer pretty hard during the week so I can start to get some of that cycling strength and fitness back!

Getting It Back

2009-09-27T16:15:00.009-06:00

Since the end of my tri season I've kept working out and have even had a schedule. However, I've more or less just used it as a very general guide and over time it led to me doing what I want when I want. Again, it's not a terrible thing, but in the last week or two I've started to notice the loss of fitness. And a gain in weight. Not terrible, but I don't need it to be terrible to be noticeable. So now it's time to get it back. My fitness, that is, and it started this weekend.

Yesterday I raced CX which was good and hard. In fact, it was even harder than I thought since I zonked on the couch a while after I got home. The legs are expected to be fatigued, but what's really draining is the amount of energy it zaps from the rest of my body. Trying to keep it together when going over all the bumps (yesterday was pretty bumpy throughout the whole course), and the occasional running while carrying the bike doesn't sound like much, but doing it repeatedly while redlined did me in. Today I backed it up with a mountain bike ride outside of Golden with Nate, Brant, and Ed. The ride is pretty tough from all aspects, including a hard climb and a very technical downhill.

Early on I knew I didn't have the top end strength I'd need for some of the more technical uphill sections, but was able to get in an okay groove one I got warmed up some. Still, I was gassing pretty early but since it wasn't a race I was able to back off and take breaks as needed. My legs just weren't there, which is just another sign of the fitness and strength that I've lost since the season ended. Finally, after dodging a bunch of hikers (who were all very courteous and stepped off to the side to let us through) that were out chasing leaves that are changing colors, we made it to the top before turning the wheels down over a lot of technical terrain. I was definitely glad to have my Yeti 575 for that since my technical abilities are far from fantastic!

Even with the technical terrain being above my head, it was still a lot of fun. I took a couple runners off the bike but never went down hard and didn't get hurt. And with the leaves changing like they were, it was gorgeous scenery and a great day to be out there. Definitely need to take advantage of these nice weekends while we still can since it's going to be hats and jackets before too long.

Now that the ride's done and I have two solid days on the bike in, it's time to get back at training on a little bit more regular schedule. As long as I'm doing something each day, I'll be happy. In addition to simply enjoying working out and how I feel afterwards (and all the food it afford me the opportunity to eat!), I want to maintain a good base this off season so I can build on it next season and keep getting faster. In the meantime, it's nice to get out and ride a bike because it's fun and not have to stare at a power meter to maintain watts. There will be plenty more time for that over the winter.

I'm Not Belgian

2009-09-26T19:41:00.007-06:00

I'm not Belgian. Seriously, I'm not. Maybe Norwegian, German, Irish, English, and I thought somebody once said Luxembourgian, but Belgian is not in there. I've studied in Antwerp, been to Brussels, Gent, Brugge, Charleroi, Namur, and a bunch of other places, I've been hammered off of Hoegaarden and Duvel, and have eaten my weight in frites that I'm pretty sure just solidify into one giant potatoe once in your gut, but still not even close to being a Belgie. My newest bike though? It's Belgian.

I recently got a Ridley X-Ride, just the fork and frame, so I can race cyclocross. The bike is great. The rider is not so great. Sven Nys, Niels Albert, Erwin Vervecken? They're great at cyclocross. And Belgian. Go figure.

Today was my second CX race of the year. I raced last week and it was hot and dusty, but I felt like I was riding well right up until I got a pinch flat with two laps to go. Being too far from the pit to switch out my wheel, I dropped out. I wanted to make up for that today, which was the first race in the Boulder CX Series. I got there early, watched some others, including the Open Men race, and did my warm up laps. I was told the course was very bumpy and tough, and there were a few places to watch out for. This was all confirmed on my warm-up.

Heading over to the staging for Cat 4s, it was warm - somewhere in the upper 80s. Cyclocross racing is used to rain, snow, and otherwise cooler temps, not 80s. And when you're riding the rivet for 45 minutes, there's a reason why that's better than the upper 80s. I lined up closer to the back than the front since I'm still learning how to race and didn't want to ruin someone's hole shot that would be a contender. Apparently, I felt that most of the ~ 80 people were contenders. Once the gun sounded, we were off on a nice straight path to get the legs and lungs moving. We worked our way through a sand pit and up a big hill that required most to dismount. A little chance to recover and then on to a bumpy, winding descent, on to some flats, over some barriers, up another hill that required dismounting, and back near the staging area. First lap done. That wasn't so hard and I moved my way up a little bit. Second lap was more of the same with another hill and more barriers added that we skipped the first time through. Again, no big deal. Not sure what happened between the second lap and third, but my lungs were beyond capacity. Legs weren't bad, but my lungs were cooked. This is generally the point in the race where the selection has occurred and even if you're not racing for the win, you've figured out those you're racing against and go for the race within the race. They pass you here, you pass them back there. Little mistakes can lead to big gaps. That's where I was, and apparently lots of others. I was also starting to feel like I was going to pass out from the heat. The good news was that I was figuring out the rhythm of the course even if I wasn't destroying it. One more lap and then, coming down a hard turn, I almost rolled my wheel off the rim. It stayed on, but felt different. Riding a little more I realized it was leaking air but I was able to ride and run it most of the way back to the pit, switch out the wheel and keep going. It also led to me getting lapped but that happens. With a new wheel I was able to ride out the remaining laps. Maybe not as hard as earlier on, but I was willing to take that if it meant I didn't DNF. By the end, I ran (kind of) my bike up the last hill, re-mounted and cruised across the finish line......then straight to the grass to lie down and decide if I needed to puke or not. It turned out to be not. That's also a very normal decision for me after each of the CX races I've done. Just a nice little way to cap off the race really.

When it's all said and done, it was a fun race. The flat cost me, but I still finished even if the course didn't play to my strengths at all. Chalk it up to more experience, and next time maybe I'll be able to ride a little bit more like I'm Belgian. But probably not.