How to Spend a Friday Afternoon

I took off from work today, I want to get in some big miles this weekend to get as much conditioning as I can for the next three weekends of racing. I rode for 3.5 hours today at Mt Falcon, liar of the bear, Mt Falcon. The second time up the Mt Falcon climb was miserable. It was hot, I'd been riding for 2+ hours already and there is hardly any shade on the climb. Tomorrow and Sunday I'm planning big rides with lots of climbing again. Probably one mountain bike ride and one road ride. Two weeks from now is the NORBA National in Snowmass, lots of climbing and lots of fast experts to work me over. The week before and after that are races at Winter Park.

The final race at Winter Park, will be my last of the season. An early end to the year, but with a trip to India scheduled there is no way to make the Keystone race, so Tipperary Creek will be the end. It is a great course as I remember it, although it has been a long time since I race there. The last time I raced that course was in 99 and Lance showed up after winning his first tour. I think he got second to Jimi Killen, not bad for a roadie.

I raced in Winter Park last weekend too. Didn't do to great (19 out of 22) but felt more in the game than at Deer Valley. I was riding well until I flatted, after that it was tough to make up much ground. I'm already at my limit racing expert and mechanicals don't even give me a chance. The status on this season 6 flats in 6 mountain bike races, I guess the only good news is two of the races have been multiple (3 and 2) flats. Thank god for the "heavy bottle" that people have been passing me with co2 and tubes. Given that luck it is amazing I've only had one DNF. I'm hoping the karma changes soon, at least it can't get any worse.

A few pictures

Got up early this morning to ride the mountain bike. I headed up to Apex and rode for about an 1:15 before work. The sun was just starting to peak up in the east when I was taking off. It surprised me though, as a lot of people were out on the trail hiking this morning.
The moon was still out too, makes for a strange way to start a ride.

It ended up being a slow ride, my legs never felt like they had any punch in them. I rode the climb super easy and tried to just pick good lines on the downhill. Spent some time re-riding the more technical sections since no high end aerobic work was getting done.

Here is Shay and his cousin Morgan playing around at Grandma L's house. If you look on the couch you can see "Creepy Doll". This is a doll Shay has had since he was born. Creepy doll disappears at various times and then reappears. Seamus doesn't really like Creepy Doll, but Ade and are our continually entertained by making Creepy Doll reappear.

UTAH

So I’ve got to get the blog update out after a full week of vacation. We went to SLC to visit Ade’s family and through in a bike race at Deer Valley. It was nice to have a week off work, but it certainly was a busy week. Left Denver on Monday afternoon and rolled into SLC around 8:00 Monday night. Tuesday was a full day for the 4th with brunch and hanging out at Snowbird on tap. Shay and I swam for awhile at Snowbird, then when we were about to embark on other adventures the rains came. We ended up hanging out in our room for a couple of hours.

Shay quickly found a new friend, Ade’s cousin Evan. It was pretty funny to watch them together, two redheads with abundant energy. Evan is about 14 and was awesome with Shay the entire time. It seemed Shay found out what he/who he wants to be like when he gets older. Evan even rode down the mountain with us, sitting next to Shay and listening to his gibberish. Those two interacting was the best entertainment throughout the trip.

Later we started lighting fireworks at Evan’s house. Shay has never seen fireworks so he was pretty intrigued in the whole thing. We ended up buying a bunch more and taking them back to grandma L’s to light. Shay wouldn’t let us light all of them because the cops stopped by and said some were illegal. Not sure how Shay decided which of ours was illegal, but somehow he did.

On Thursday we went to an amusement park. Ade had a blast, Shay spent most of his time scared and I went on a roller-coaster once. Shay started crying on a log ride (water ride) because he got wet. Sometimes he is over dramatic.

On Saturday I threw down in the NORBA National Series race at Deer Valley. After pre-riding the course on Wednesday I decided to upgrade to Expert for the race. Nothing like jumping into the deep end for a first race as an Expert. The speed was way faster than a Sport race, especially on the climbs. I quickly realized if I was going to have a chance to finish I needed to ride at my own pace i.e. at the back. I fairly well got my ass kicked in the race. It has been awhile since I’ve ridden at the back end of a race so it was a little tough, but I’m excited for the move up and the work it’s going to take to be competitive in Expert. We’ll see how it goes but clearly more speed is needed.

Racing Dope Free and it Shows

This is my new race bike, it rocks!!!



Sorry race fans the only substance I use is red wine and beer, kind of like a top fuel dragster racing on alcohol. I could have used more today I guess since I dropped hard with two laps to go in the short track at Eldora. I was in a group of 2-4 and when it came time to decide the podium, my body decided no podium. I was pretty pleased with the race since it was my first short-track, but getting on the box is always good. Tomorrow we through down in the XC. The course at Eldora is pretty sweet. A lot of double track climbing and the downhills are a good mix of singletrack and service road for passing.

I did a lap on the XC course before the STXC, used it as my warm-up and remind myself what the course is like. I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow and if all goes well (I don't embarrass myself) I'm going to upgrade for Deer Valley. It will be a big step up, but getting my ass kicked should be fun.

I went to SF a couple of weeks ago for work. That town is great. I got some cool pictures and had a good time walking around. Drank a few beers at the bar by City Lights bookstore and had good Italian for dinner. As far as business trips go this one was fun.

The partially doper less tour will be won by Dave Z or Levi, I'll predictt the winner after the Alpe.