Nathrop - CRAP

Went racing again on Saturday and may as well have stayed home. The course in Nathrop is not one of Colorado's big mountain courses but it can be fun. It is held on a ranch at the base of Mt. Princeton. Racing is mostly on cow paths around the ranch. The course has one short steep climb, a long mellow grinder, a long mellow descent and a quick technical descent. That's it. Takes about 35 minutes per lap.

I got down to the site early Saturday so I could ride a lap for warm-up was feeling pretty good when just at the bottom of the on real downhill my front tire goes flat. Not overly worried I put a tube in and finish the lap, go back to the car and inspect the tire. Things look good so I grab another tube and CO2 for the race. Also make a not of all the thorns and cactus along the course. I line up in the front row for the race and right from the gun settle into 2nd place. Sitting right behind Steve who won the first race down in Angel Fire. About 1/2 through the first lap another guy surges ahead and I jump on his wheel, feeling pretty strong and liking the 2nd place position. One other guy is right behind me then a pretty big gap to 4th. On the long grind of a climb on lap 2 my rear wheel starts to go flat. I can feel it squishing along. Knowing that we had a big gap I decide to stop, give it a shot of air and hope the sealant works for the rest of the race. I drop from 2nd to 3rd and am on my bike right when the 4th place rider is coming through. Probably lost about 40 seconds, but feel confident I can catch up to the leaders. Now this is where things go bad. On the downhill I hit a rock and my front tire (now with a tube instead of my normal tubeless) goes flat and I fly over the bars. I get up thinking I'll still be ok but with the front tire flat, a cut arm and the rear wheel already losing pressure from my attempt fix earlier the race is done.

I was pretty pissed off, as I was riding strong and know another podium was in the cards. I never really felt like I was in the red zone during the race and was just waiting until the last lap to make a move. Who knows what would have happened.

Saturday Riding

Well as the race season is now at hand I'm trying to ensure I round out my fitness and get a lot of time on the mountain bike. This morning I got up early to ride at White Ranch. The early riding is good for multiple reasons; cool weather, little trail usage, and home early. I like riding White Ranch as it has a great climb that can be done multiple times and multiple options for the downhills. Considering all the climbing I did early this week I was feeling pretty good. When I rode on Thursday and Friday I was feeling dead, so was not expecting a lot on the climbs today. At the beginning of the ride I was having a hard time finding my rhythm, but about 1/2 way up the climb I started to get going and elevate the heart rate. The descent back to the base was quick (after about 35 minutes of climbing) making the second climb hard with little recovery. I stayed fairly strong but couldn't ride as much of the climb in the middle ring. Oh well the ride was good and I felt good on both the climb and the DH.

Here is a view from the top of the climb looking out over the northern suburbs. You can see North Table Mountain in the right of the picture.

Here is the Yeti with its training wheels on. I have a set of race wheels this year that drop the race weight by almost two pounds. Hopefully the training on the heavy wheels will help make me fast on race days.

I'm not sure if all the climbing training I've been doing is going to help that much in the next race. Nathrop is a pretty flat course more suited to time trials than climbing. I figure power is power though and the rest of the season is about big mountain courses so the climbing will pay off at those. Nathrop is next weekend and is the first double of the season. The cross country is Saturday and Sunday is short track, both of which count towards the season standings in the MSC. I'm hoping to do good there, finished 3rd in 2004 and 2nd in 2005; hopefully this year I can finish off the podium.

We spent Memorial Day weekend in SLC visiting Ade's family. Her sister Lisa and brother-in-law Scott just had a baby the Saturday before (May 20). We hung out with the young Calvin throughout the weekend. Shay was nervous and would never hold his cousin because he was scared. He did like him though, especially all his hair.

Here is Shay, Lisa and Calvin.

And a picture of me and the little man.

I did get in a lot of riding over the weekend too. Saturday (when we got into town) was rainy and snow in the hills so I didn't ride. On Sunday the weather finally cleared in the afternoon so I spent time on the road. From Linda's new house all you can do is climb so I did three efforts of about 15-20 minutes in the afternoon. Monday was a big ride. I went out with Eric for almost three hours and got worked over. We climb a ton, to the top of Big Mountain east of SLC. It was damn cold at the top and we couldn't make a loop of the ride because of snow. We ended up back tracking to avoid snow but it still was a solid ride. Here I am freezing my ass off at about 8500 feet. Park City is to my right (left in picture) with the valley to my right.

The riding was solid on Monday and I felt it. On Tuesday I went out for 1.5 early in the morning on the mountain bike. Started climbing from Lynda's again but hit the dirt this time and cruised towards the capital. It was a good ride, but after the two previous days I was tired as hell from climbing. We spent the rest of the day at the mall hanging out and letting Shay play in the fountain.

Actually Riding the Dirt

So Angel Fire got me going. I raced well but know I need more time on the mountain bike if I want to take the top step on the podium. I'm going to make sure I'm getting in more trail rides, even if my total ride time each week takes a little hit.

I got up and out of the house by 5:00 am today and rode at Apex. It was pretty nice and I saw a ton of deer. Rode for about 1.5 hours before heading in to work. It was a good way to start the day.

Here is Shay with some funky hair right after a bath.

Here is Cimarron Canyon on the way to Angel Fire (note the cracked windshield, got to get that fixed).

And some pictures from Apex this morning.

We are off to SLC this weekend to visit Ade's family. Her sister had a baby "Vinny" on Saturday so it will be fun to see the little guy. I'm going to try to bring my mountain bike to hit the trails a lot, but first I need to track down a box. Not sure when I'll have time to do that.

Angel Fire Race

So the racing season in Colorado got started this weekend with the first race in the Mountain States Cup (www.racemsc.com) in Angel Fire, New Mexico. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to race the XC race until Tuesday of race week so last minute arrangements were mad with teammates for a place to stay, taking a day off work, and most importantly clearing with my wife. With a four year old taking two days away can be difficult because of parenting, but lucky for me my wife understands how important racing is to me and I was off.

Drove down from Denver on Friday morning and got in to Angel Fire around 2:30. Found some of the team getting ready to set-up our pit area so I helped with that before pre-riding. Angel Fire is one of the toughest courses I’ve ever ridden and remembering back to 2004 when I last raced there I was not overly looking forward to the race. There is a lot of climbing, which I don’t mind; however, the downhill is tight technical singletrack which is not my strong suit. I also didn’t have high expectations as I’ve been fighting a cold for about three weeks and had reduced training significantly, along with finishing a course of antibiotics Friday before I left. I figured I’d race to get a little race fitness and pick up an “extra” race for the MSC series. Even after the pre-ride Friday I didn’t have high expectations but did feel ok, especially with my climbing.

Saturday started with my normal lateness and a limited warm-up of about 25 minutes. Given the long climb at the start I would have liked more. The start was on an open ski hill that was in terrible shape. It seems as if Angel Fire has been doing work on the hill and the start area was rough because of the earth movers. About 500 meters after the start the race turned into a singletrack climb. With the sport men 30-34 starting with my group (35-39) this start caused a mess of about 50 or so riders trying to funnel into the singletrack. I was sitting about 30th at this point, but knew to keep my cool as the trail soon opened and I’d have a chance to pass. I just kept riding steady and was passing people when the trail allowed and by the top of the short first lap (4.5 miles) I was in 4th from both age groups. On the downhill I was promptly dropped and passed by a good number of people; however, I didn’t notice too many with the “16” on their leg, signifying my group. My lack of off-road riding was showing though as I didn’t feel comfortable at speed on the downhill. In the past two months I’ve hit the dirt about 5 times total and the lack of technical skills was showing.

The good news for me was the second lap was the long lap and I knew I’d pass a lot of people on the climb. I was riding well and starting the climb thought I was in 5th or 6th in 35+. By the top of the climb I had ridden well and thought I was sitting in 3rd. I knew if I rode well a top 5 may be in the cards so I tried to follow a teammate from a different category that was in front of me to help on the downhill. I won’t say I was riding fast on the DH but clearly better than the first lap. I was passed by a couple of younger Sports but towards the bottom nobody in my category had passed me. I bobbled a corner about 1km from the line and a guy in my group passed me, so I was thinking I was in 4th (at the best as a few people didn’t have their legs marked), giving my general lack of DH skills, the course, and recovering from illness I was wanting a top 10. I made it to the line without getting passed again and was feeling pretty good about the race, but not to worried about my result.

I went back to the condo to clean up and pack since I had to leave back to Denver by Noon. After getting cleaned up I went back to the course and teammates started to congratulate me. It was then I found out I had finished 3rd on the day. Somehow I had miss counted the people in front of me. I was only a hand full of seconds out of 2nd and 2 + minutes down on 1st. Not to bad considering my expectations at the start. Now I just need to start training on the dirt and maybe I can win one of these races.

Also the drive down was awsome. Cimmaron Canyon in NM is great and very senic. A nice way to chill out when driving that far.

It was bound to happen

It was bound to happen, I'm getting the cold that Ade and Shay had. At least it held off until after I was in NYC. It sucks to fly when you have a cold, although I think the recycled air didn't help any with fighting off the illness.

I did get to cruise around NYC and get some cool pictures. The place is a mad-house. Way more people and bigger than you can do just to in photos. Part of that is Reuters is right in Times Square, as is the Hilton. That area is just a cross road of people and culture. I wish I could spend more time and really get to see the city, instead of the hyper-tourist I feel like when on business travel.

Everyone is sick but me

Well, not really everyone just Shay and Ade. At first it seemed like they both just had a cold, but Ade's cough keeps getting worse. So far I've been spared, but who knows. I hope I don't get it soon since I have to fly to NYC for a couple of days on Tuesday.

This week was a recovery week riding. I took full advantage and only rode Tuesday for 1/2 hour. Friday I did a recovery ride, then back to work on Saturday and Sunday. After last weeks road race I'm starting to feel pretty good about the upcoming season. I really need to start hitting the dirt though, especially since Angel Fire is the first race and it has some crazy down-hills.

Shay is kicking it on his bike, says he wants to take of the training wheels. He needs to get better, but soon. I took the self portrait when I was with Shay on a ride. Should be wearing a hat with that bald head.

Saturday afternoon Shay went for his first big bike ride. We started from our house and planned on riding all the way to the water fountain. The ride takes me about five or six minutes when I'm heading out so I figured he could handle the whole thing. Here he is about two blocks from the house.

About a mile from the house Shay hit his first single track. He was riding strong at this point.

But we had to call in the sag wagon prior to the fountain as he was getting tired and it was 80+ degrees outside. The fountain was crazy, must have been 30 kids running around getting wet. Most of these pictures show Shay in his new red shoes.

Before hitting the singletrack with Shay I went up to Apex. Spent a lot of time riding and re-riding sections to work on the bike skills. Haven't been spending a lot of time on the dirt and with the first race a month away it is time. What amazes me is how little movements can make a difference between having fun and crashing. There were a couple of sections where if I moved just a little, readjusting my center of gravity, I was clearing. When I was riding to far forward I kept crashing.



Raced on the road today. Rode fairly strong and threw down in the sprint either winning or finishing second in the main bunch. Five guys had gotten away on the last climb and we could never catch them though. It was a blast to sprint like that, really different than the mountain bike. Not sure where the burst of speed came from, but somehow it happened.

Easter Sunday

Well its been a crazy week here, but now it's Sunday afternoon and finally starting to chill a little. Got in some good riding during the week, most of it on the trainer early in the morning, but you gotta fit it in where possible. It's been really crazy at work so I have been riding home, instead of driving with Ade, but the 1/2 hour ride is more transportation than training. Saturday afternoon I went out for a hard 2 1/2 hours. The hardest part was the wind. This picture of a flag only begins to show how bad it was. I spent the entire time by myself fighting a head wind or a cross wind. I've got to say this is one of the most windy springs I remember.



I went out this morning for a short ride with some power intervals. Trying to keep the ride time down since it was Easter so I went to the road behind my house with a three minute climb. Great place for intervals, especially when you see some of the neighbors.

Shay had a blast with Easter. He found all his eggs, then Re-hide them to add to the fun. It was a great day so Ade and Shay headed to Starbucks and the fountain by our house while I was riding. I met them after my ride and we all soaked in sun before going to my aunt's for Easter lunch, where we soaked in the sun more. Shay was wild all day, hard to believe he had tubes put in his ears again on Friday and was knocked completely out for it. The effects of the drugs lasted about two minutes.

Sunday

Went for a ride today at Red Rocks and Green Mountain. It was the first mountain bike ride since TC so it was nice to get out on the dirt. Ran across some deer on the trail, you can't quite see them but there were about 10 of them.

Here are some pictures of various sections of the trail, and a view of Red Rocks theater. Always a great place to hang out.

The ride today was pretty hard, tried to keep the pressure on the whole time. I did a race simulation (on the road) yesterday so was pretty tired already. It always feels good though to get in the tough efforts. After riding Shay and I went to the zoo. I think he has more fun playing on the statues then actually looking at the animals. Here he is playing with some polar bears. Getting ready to BBQ, it's about 80 outside and grilling is a must.

Hard work

Well after getting my ass handed to me the last two weekends on the road I've finally started to bust out the intervals for this year. It's always hard those first few efforts and I'm feeling it today. Tuesday I rode for about 1.5 hours with 2 sets of 12 sprint intervals. It was a great day, with temps in the mid 70's when I left work. The heat and intervals killed me but starting to get some sun.

Wednesday I did some longer intervals in the morning on the trainer. Didn't feel to bad after those, but I added in a run at lunch and rode home from work. By the time I was home my legs were dead. I got up this morning to ride the rollers and the legs were still dead and I was stiff as hell. Rode for 1.5 hours to loosen up the legs. Hopefully the recovery ride will help.

I don't have any pictures of my actual new bike yet, but here is a picture from the Yeti site, mine is still pretty stock, but once I finish changing everything out I'll post some pictures of the real bike.
I'm hoping to get in a mountain bike ride this weekend, as I haven't been on the mountain bike since TC. We'll see as I'd like to get in a big week as well and travel time to the trail cuts down on ride time in the real world. Especially this time of the year with Shay playing soceer. If not maybe I'll leave work early at some point next week.

damn its been awhile

I've really been slacking on this blog, seems to me to be cool though computer guys usually are slackers so I fit right in. Been doing a lot of riding up until about two weeks ago. The good news is I feel I have a great base in now I just need to round out the fitness. I always seem to go through this phase in early spring where the motivation to spend time on the trainer is gone, but there isn't enough light to ride after work yet. Good news is the time change was Sunday so I can start riding after work and skip some trainer time.

I went to Moab in early March for the COMotion training camp. Got in a few days of long rides on the mountain bike. The new Yeti rocks, but I have to admit it is not a great way to break in a new saddle with two 4.5 hour rides in a row. My ass took a couple of days to recover. I've also had the Yeti hidden in the basement since TC, working to lighten it up for racing. I got some new wheels just for racing and those wheels will knock about 1.5 pounds off the bike. Also bought some SRAM X.0 twist shifters to replace the paddle shifters. Cost was about $60, but weight savings is in the 90 gram range. Overall the bike will be about 2 pounds less then the original set-up. Cost was less than $500 so seems like a good investment.

I've done a couple road races the past two weeks to help work on conditioning. I'm clearly lacking in high end fitness but it is good to get out and put in some race miles. I made the initial lead group in Sunday's race, but didn't have the juice to stay with the leaders. It was a super windy day and as soon as I got dropped there was no chance to catch back on. Ended up working with a strong chase group that fell apart in the last 2 miles as each of us hit our limits. I put in a sprint at the end after a guy who had been drafting me the last 2 miles attacked on the finish climb. We were fighting it out for 21st, but I had my pride and couldn't let a guy who didn't do any work at the end beat me. The effort should pay dividends later and hopefully by May I'll be ready for the mountain bike season.

another cycle of base done

Another week of base done and man am I feeling it. The past three weeks have been 12, 11, 12 hours of training each with some building intensity. The intensity hasn’t been crazy, but definitely building each week. Saturday I went out for four hours and did my first significant climbing in a long time. Rode to Lookout and up. The first ride up Lookout every season is always a hard ride. I can’t ever really find my rhythm so it is a lot of stand, sit, stand, shift, sit, stand, shift type riding. The gears get a workout even if I don’t. I felt like I was riding pretty well though, given the time of the year. I started the climb with another rider and put about six minutes on him by the top. Not sure how good of a rider he was but he was hanging with me for the first part of the climb then just past the “M” really started to fall back. On Sunday I went out for about 2 ½ with a tempo effort of 50 minutes. It was hard to get flowing after the work from Saturday. The nice part was getting home and testing out the new furniture we bought. We got a new couch, love seat and recliner for the house. I must say the recliner will be getting a lot of solid work after long days on the bike. It was great to just sit back and not move. I put a blanket over myself and when Ade got home she said I looked like an old quadriplegic covered up and propped up on the recliner.

I’m looking forward to the recovery week this week before my last cycle of base. The legs will get recovered then I’ll ramp up some big miles again. If I can get the weight down over the next few weeks I’ll be feeling good for the upcoming season. Plus by the end of the last base phase I should be getting my new mountain bike. That will make the training for the season a little more fun. New bikes always help with the motivation, not sure why but they make riding fun.

What happened last week?

Another week down and the few remaining issues with the new bike have been resolved, thanks to Jason and Steve at Pedal Pushers. The week of training was somewhat light in terms of days, but I ended up with almost 11 hours for the week. The long ride on Monday followed by a 3 hour ride Saturday made up for some lost days in the middle of the week. Sunday I started out on my own for a 2 hour ride and ran into some teammates after about 45 minutes. I rode with them for another 45 minutes before heading home.

It was good to ride with people but this time of the year fitness levels seem to vary a great deal. Chong must have eaten to many fruitcakes at Christmas because he kept falling off even on the little hills we were riding. I shouldn’t talk to much though, since when the season comes around he is racing Expert and I’m riding Sport. I’m also looking forward to getting back in the gym and lift again. It’s been about three weeks but I can tell the work has been helping my fitness so I’ll head back in today.

Tomorrow I’m going to have to start riding the trainer in the morning again. I’ve been somewhat lazy with doing this the past few weeks. It is hard to get started at 4:30 in the morning, especially the first few days. After that it isn’t so bad but that first week can be hell. Hopefully I’ll make it tomorrow.

It's been over a month

Well, it’s the 5th day of 2006 and training is well underway. December was a solid month of riding and training in a lot of ways; however, the miles were a little low between travel for work, Seamus getting sick, me getting sick, bitter (record) cold, and of course the holidays. Add in bike problems and the miles I did ride may have been as much as many other riders. The good news is the bike problems have led to a new road bike for me with a new mountain bike on the way.

The old road bike was showing its age and everything started when I decided to replace the rear derailleur since the old one was seven years old and didn’t really shift anymore. When I installed the new derailleur I couldn’t ever get it to shift correctly which led me to notice the frame was out of alignment. I did some searching and found a new frame on the internet to buy. Of course this led to the need to buy multiple new parts over the course of December including a new headset, bottom bracket and ultimately a new crank and shifters. So what had started as a cheap fix, a new derailleur, has turned into about $500 worth of frames and parts to get a bike going.

Ade would probably kill me for this, except for one unfortunate ordeal that happened on December 23, the old Fuji frame broke. I had left work early to try to sneak in a ride after a week off and something felt wrong. I looked over the bike and realized the rear chainstay had broken so the new frame that was sitting in the garage became a clear necessity.

The new rig is finally up and running and I’ve put in some solid miles on it now. Right around New Years I put in two four plus hour rides and a couple 2 ½ hour rides. I am finally starting to feel the fitness come around and am getting ready for the season. Since I started base (on some levels) in November I may now be in my last phase of base; however, since training has been somewhat sporadic at times I may add one more four week block of base, lasting through mid February. Given that the first mountain bike races of the year are in mid May the lack of intensity early shouldn’t really matter.

November and no SNOW

So, We're all moved in at the new house. Most boxes are unpacked, thanks Ade, pictures are on the walls, and both cars fit in the garage. If that isn't moved in I don't know what is. Sure the walls are all builder beige, but paint will happen sooner or later. As for the bike, well the first week of base is done. A total of 8 hours of riding this past week (plus an hour in the weight room).

Three of the hours were pre-dawn rides in the basement. This year for a new adventure I bought rollers and have the trainer sitting. The first day was nerve wracking and crazy, the second I had to stop to drink, the third starting and stopping with no support and I could drink while riding. Rollers sure are different than a trainer but add some "fun" to riding inside. My goal for the winter is to ride no-hands on the rollers. Wish me luck.

And the good news is...good weather in Denver. Saturday I got in a 2 hour mountain bike ride and Sunday a 3 hour road ride. Saturday was at Green Mountain which will be the primary mountain bike spot for awhile, since snow melts quick there. It was windy as hell. I actually had to walk a few sections for fear of crashing while riding. I got in an awesome workout and felt dead tired later. A few pictures from the day...

A storm blowing in:

The view of Denver from the top of Green Mountain:

This is one of the few technical sections at Green Mountain, tough to see in this picture, but ass to wheel for 30 meters.

Sunday was a long ride to Cherry Creek. Felt tired the whole time from yesterday's mountain bike ride and cheap red wine. That's what base is about though, long hung over miles, kind of like a stage race.