Random Thoughts

Random thoughts. A few years back when I started this blog thing one of the reasons was to raise awareness about global warming and give people tips and ideas how they could take and inexpensive steps to help protect the environment. Clearly I’ve moved away from that focus, though the concern is still one I’m concerned and passionate about.

Recently I’ve made two changes to my lifestyle to lessen my impact even more. The first is I brought in silverware and dishes from home to the office. I eat breakfast nearly every day at work after riding before coming to the office. Necessitating items like spoons, bowls, forks etc. Up until about four weeks ago I used the disposable stuff at the office. The second change is with my lunches. Again, I pack a lunch nearly every day and had dutifully utilized a plastic bag to carry a sandwich for years. I’m sure many of you do the same. Recently I’ve been packing the sandwich in a Tupperware container allowing me to continually use the same package and lessen my impact. I really don’t know why it’s taken me so long to make these minor and easy changes but give it a try.

Second set of random thoughts. As a parent I’m sure many of us wonder if we are doing things right. Daily I face the challenge of trying to get Seamus to eat fruit (don’t even bring up vegetables there is no chance he’d touch those), take a shower, brush his teeth etc. When these daily distractions occur you wonder, “Am I doing this right?” Then every once in a while you get the glimpse that even though he doesn’t eat right the kid is on the right track. Last weekend we went to the Museum of Nature and Science to see the new natural disaster exhibit. There is a great section on Hurricane Katrina, including a section with recordings of people displaced by Katrina telling their stories. For an eight year old boy to sit and intently listen and show concern for these people is amazing. When Seamus shows this concern for other people who have been so tragically impacted, I know as parents Ade and I are doing something right. Good thing tonight isn’t “an apple night” at dinner.

Week 15 - A Breakthrough

Sunday was a big day in the week 15 training; we covered 70+ miles with the famed climb over Grapevine being the peak of the ride. Grapevine starts about 4 miles west of Morrison, meaning there is 4 miles of steady climbing up the canyon before turning off the main road onto Grapevine. Grapevine itself is about 3 miles of climbing with the last two being on a dirt road. The bottom of the climb is very steep in parts, causing serious pain even when in a 25 tooth cog. Prior to hitting the climb out of Morrison/Grapevine there are already 2 minor climbs of 1-2 miles to start to wear the energy level (this after 30 miles on the flats to get to the foothills).

After reaching the top a quick descent (again partially on dirt) followed by another climb of about 3 miles to the top of Lookout Mountain. This is one of my all time favorite rides as it is long, has a few really solid climbs (and you can easily add in a few more 1-1.5 mile climbs and end up with an 80-90 mile day) and the dirt road climb up Grapevine gives you a true sense of accomplishment as it is a long, tough ride. Sunday I did this ride with Kelly, for those of you who race Winter Park he’s won Expert 35-39 overall in 2007 and 2008, which normally for me means a lot of watching him pedal away. Usually for Kelly it means a lot of waiting at the top or soft pedaling waiting for me. Either way I get a great workout because I’m chasing him so hard I push myself way beyond the normal boundaries of training. On Sunday though something strange happened, on the first smaller climb I stayed right on his wheel the whole time. On the second small climb, again on the wheel and feeling good. On the road from Morrison to Idealdale (where you turnoff for Grapevine) I managed to stay right with Kelly the entire 4 miles. At this point I knew something strange was happening as I’ve never managed to hang on that long. This motivated me enough to think, ponder even, how long can I stay with Kelly on Grapevine. Right away I figured I’d hit my limit. The steep pitches at the start don’t suite my riding style and I feel off a little, but only a little and then I quickly caught back on. Once we hit the dirt we rode side by side up to a set of hairpins where I actually pushed ahead (only for a moment but still) and lead on the climb. Now by this point I thought death was near and looking over Kelly still seemed at relative ease, but even with my breathing scaring wildlife for miles around I’d never been able to stick with Kelly that long on a climb. For my ego (I admit it) I pushed hard at the top to win the imaginary KOM.

The quick descent down gave me a chance to get the heart rate down from god knows what to a reasonable 170 bpm. Upon starting the climb to the top of Lookout I figured the distance and multiple climbs would finally catch up and I’d fall back, but still be pleased with the improvement. Strangely, on this climb I again managed to stay with Kelly and again even push it a little at times. I don’t know why I’m able to hang on the climbs this year. Maybe Kelly is in worse shape, maybe I’m in better (this is what I hope), but after a few years riding and chasing somebody it is nice to finally be able to stay with them on the climbs. Rising to the challenges, even if it takes years to accomplish a seemingly minor goal is what makes cycling fun. Now if I could only descend as well as Kelly does.

Week 14, Really Late

Week 14 was a slow week for me, a rest week. I undertook very little riding, thus the late update on the week. Coming off the rest week I’ve feeling mentally and physically motivated to get on with the season. This week starts a little more intensity to build the engine for races.

I’ve started to transition my training this week as the winter is long and riding the rollers can become a little mind numbing. Since Ade isn’t working I’ve found it easier to get out of the house and ride in the morning outside. While it may be dark and cold the miles are always easier outside. With no rush to get three people out the door (and two to work on time), only one lunch to make and a little more light in the morning this transition seems smart. The other reason for riding outside now is given how mild this winter has been I know that soon days will be coming when riding outside just isn’t possible. It seems whenever Denver starts out with a mild winter in December through February that the month of March brings with it brutal conditions. When the blizzard I expect to hit comes in March I’ll still have a little mental freshness and be able to spend some time on the rollers, if I didn’t venture outside now there would be no way I could handle riding in the basement in March.

Now I’m sitting around and getting ready for big rides this weekend. Sunday is set to be 80 miles of riding with lots of hills, dirt and energy spent chasing fast guys. I can’t wait.

It's All About Choices

I often tell people “it’s all about choices”. This arises frequently when people ask how I can fit in so much time and energy for riding and racing, but the reality is it deals with all aspects of life. Many times for me it deals with another glass of red or waking up early for a long ride. A week ago the choices became a little more real, a little more important then another glass of wine or not.

I’ve talked about politics, I’ve talked about my stance on government spending to stimulate the economy and I’ve talked about the current “depression”. As one reader responded a few weeks ago the difference between recession and depression is when it happens to you it is a depression. Well then welcome to the depression. Last Friday Ade was laid off. Actually they used some term that sounds way better then that, but the fact is she isn’t working anymore and for the entire family it’s all about choices. We’ve been making hard choices this week, but the reality is, for us at least right now those choices aren’t as hard as many others in this country are needing to make right now.

We are in a good position, a decent severance package, I’m still employed and even on one income the real life expenses (mortgage, food, insurance) can be covered with a cautious eye. Some of our choices were easy, no more before school care for Seamus when mom is around. No more Starbucks everyday. Checking more books out at the library and not buying any for the time being. Other choices, while still easy aren’t as clear cut. All natural versus organic can save $10-$15 a week on food, but is it as healthy? Buying none natural even saves another $5-$10. Well for now I’ll stick to natural. Some may say that is a luxury anyway, though I’d say eating healthy is not a luxury just a smart choice. Medical insurance is on my company anyway so no change there. Yea we’re making choices but not whether to pay the mortgage or food or credit card so in that sense we’re lucky.

It’s all about choices, fewer bike races, less coffee, whatever it may be. Today we all went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to check out the new exhibit on Nature Unleashed. Our choices are easy compared to those who survived Katrina. Our choices are easy compared to those who survived the tsunami in Sri Lanka and India. Our choice today to not spend money but to spend time as a family makes this all a little easier. I can still ride my bike, ride it as fast as I want, I just won’t spend much on entry fees this year. That’s another choice I can live with.

No Leadville, Laramie Here I Come

So I got the rejection letter from Leadville yesterday, along with my voided check. While I would have loved to ride the Leadville 100 I'm not heart broken, there are plenty of other races out there to race and have fun, no mention of the cost. I've always had the back-up in mind, the Laramie Enduro. Laramie is 70+ miles (111 km) of tough rolling to climbing terrain, probably a lot of wind and something Leadville doesn't have, singletrack.

Registration for Laramie opens on Friday the 13th (cool I guess), no lottery or anything, just first come first served. Given how boring of a life I lead I might be the first person to register.

I'm still mulling over the "big news", but I know I'll post on it, just want it to be worded correctly, maybe this week, more likely the weekend.

Week 13 (I think)

The first week of February turned into a pretty crazy one, but for today I’m just going to cover the riding. The other, bigger news of the week can wait. I need to digest it, ponder it, determine if it is blog material and then, if it is blog material, write something that does it justice. Right now I don’t know how to do the material justice, so it will sit.

Early week training was mellow and light, knowing that Friday would be the biggest day of the year thus far. With the nice weather predicted and my approaching (now past) birthday taking off from work to log big miles seemed like the right thing to do. My quest for Leadville (which now looks unrealistic) spurred me on to go for 100 miles, so when I left the house at 7:30 that was the plan. 5:30 minutes later I returned home, 7 miles shy of the 100 but feeling good about the ride. After putting in that long of a day I’m not sure 100 mile rides are possible solo. The energy expended on a solo ride of that distance, not to mention the mind tricks are tough. I had a varied route with flats, climbs, dirt roads and bike path time, but still my mind was going a bit crazy toward the end (little did I know how crazy my mind would soon turn).

I did learn a lot about nutrition on the ride. I started eating 1 hour in and was downing about 200-250 calories of food/drink per hour. A lot of ultra endurance racers say that number needs to be more like 300+ calories per hour, which should be possible just something that needs to be practiced. I was fine food wise until about 4:40 in when no matter what I did I wasn’t able to keep the force up on the bike. In the last hour I ate about 400 calories, just too late to really help. Lessoned learned to eat more early to keep the energy topped off for the entire ride.

Saturday I was spent, the thought of a ride was there early but it never happened. Good thing the weather men on TV were wrong yet again, as I woke up Sunday to a cool/cold day but no rain or snow as promised. That made the riding choice easy and I put in 2:00 on the dirt at Green Mountain. I’ve been riding a time trail there through the winter and today knocked 30 seconds off my fastest time so the fitness continues to improve. With no Leadville on the schedule (I assume) I’ve got some time to figure out racing, fitness and training. I’ll try to get that all figured out this week.

Friday

I took yesterday off work, busted out a 90+ mile ride on the bike. Riding that long alone is hard. Put in a lot of good efforts with climbing five significant climbs. No news on Leadville, leading me to believe I didn't get in, oh well more important things to consider/worry about anyway.

Week 12 - One Month in to 2009

A recap of the first month of 2009 seems in order for the weekly training update. For January I put in 670 miles, including two long mountain bike rides (January 1st for one of them) and a lot of miles on the road. Clearly the weather this January wasn’t as bad as it could have been which made getting in the big miles pretty easy.

Each weekend of the month I did a ride of at least 4:00, which put me well over 20 hours just from long rides and the miles from those rides totaled over about 310 miles (I don’t keep great track of per ride miles, just monthly totals). In addition I put in some solid work building the body for later races, including a good amount of tempo work and a little higher end efforts on long rides while climbing. Yesterday I climbed Lookout Mountain in sub 24 minutes, which while not fast, is a good pace for this time of the year, especially given half the climb was in zone 3. The legs seem to be responding well to the training and the time up Lookout proves that.

I’ve got two more weeks of base training then I’ll move into the build process (more intensity to get ready for racing) and start to see how the body responds to the more intense efforts. Hopefully the steady work of November through January (ok mid February) will make the harder efforts faster (not easier, cause it never gets easier you just get faster). If I keep up at this pace I’ll be over 8,000 miles for the year. That may be a little extreme, but a 7,500 mile year should be realistic and that will top 2008’s 7,000.

Bachelor Living and the Current Depression

I could describe a great road ride today, but maybe that should wait for the weekly report. I could respond to a comment on the blog from a couple of days ago, about the economic situation , thought I’m not sure how to respond. In a great many ways I agree, this situation seems to be more then normal. More then a recession, at least the level any of us are use to remembering. My grandma H use to talk about the depression, as a teen and young woman. She didn’t know how bad it was because she was young, taken care of, falling in love with my grandpa. I’m sure my great-grand parents, whom I never met, worried. I know I do, as a parent it is all you can do when there is uncertainty or risk that may impact your child.

It’s a bachelor pad at my house this weekend, Ade gone to see our new nephew Zeke, and her mom and sister. Seamus and I living the way bachelor’s do, eating out, sleeping where we want (we built a tent last night in the living room). The partying is mellow though, mostly ice cream with a little wine mixed in for me. Grandma and Grandpa watched Shay this morning so I could ride. I picked him up and we went to the zoo. A beautiful afternoon to walk around and have ice cream while enjoying the animals. We ran into my aunt Jeanine, just a few minutes of conversation, but I learned a lot from her today. Her and my uncle Marty volunteer at the zoo, and today we (Shay and I) learned from her how birds can stay on branches while sleeping . We then ended up spending over an hour in Bird World (not my favorite place, but if we’re learning it must be good).

How does a comment on the blog and an afternoon at the zoo tie together? Well the end of the comment was “I hope this is a transition period where we care less about materialistic things, and more about just enjoying the little things and leaving an imprint on this world other than buying a new Rolex.” Somehow I hope learning about birds is more important then the economic crisis, or even how we respond or how long it goes on. As a parent I can worry about money and taking care of my family constantly these days. More important though, as a parent, is to remember that kids don’t remember the struggles for money they remember the love their parents gave them. My grandma H told me about her recollection of the “great depression” when I was young, now I know the importance of what she was telling me.

A Scary Thought on the Economy

In a recent discussion on the economy and recession I was confronted with an opinion that while vastly different to mine made so much sense I finally realized we are screwed. I’ve held out hope that the worst part of the global economic crisis is at hand now and soon we will start to see companies recover. Maybe no economic boom, but certainly no depression.

Unemployment is higher then in years, savings at historic lows, ARMs still adjusting people out of homes, credit card debt high, there is no way it could get worse. But then the comment, all these people getting laid off are living off already taxed credit cards and soon, with no “extra” money to pay off debt and current living costs they will have little choice but to file for bankruptcy. This will only cause a recession to fall into a depression.

I was at a party recently and the question of how to tell when a recession becomes a depression came up. The best answer I heard, “when your mother-in-law moves in”. Well, I hope she likes the unfinished basement because there isn’t enough money around to get it finished right now.

Week 11

Saturday was one of the coldest rides I’ve ever done. I was out for over four hours, stopping twice to get hot water to melt my frozen water bottles. Days like that aren’t fun at the time, reaching down for a drink at two hours in to a ride on a climb only to find there is no liquid left. Then the real bad news strikes, at least twenty minutes of riding remain until there is a place to get water.


This is the climb where I realized I had no water or Gatorade to drink, bummer.

Add a few places with ice that altered my planned route and my long ride turned into a slow march home with lots of stops, cold feet, cold hands, cold face and not nearly the miles I had wanted. The strange thing about my ride on Saturday was how tired I felt later. Last week I rode for five hours with lots of climbing. Saturday was four hours with climbing, but much less (probably 1,200 vertical less at a minimum). Yet I was dead later in the day. I could barely stay awake to watch a movie and even this morning I’m feeling a little tired. The good news is tomorrow is a rest day and seems well earned at this point.

Two weeks from tomorrow and I should know if I get into the Leadville 100. After that I can finalize my schedule for the season. Right now I know the Lance Armstrong Foundation LiveStrong ride in late October (you can DONATE TO HELP TOO). Beyond that I’m not sure, though the Front Range 50 on May 9th seems pretty firm. Colorado’s road schedule is just out so I’ll probably figure some of those out soon and after finding out about Leadville finalize plans for the mountain bike season.

Racing Green 2009 Season Goal - Helping to Fight Cancer

As my faithful readers know (thanks to the three of you), over the past few years I’ve tried to incorporate into my cycling something more significant than just riding and racing for the fun of it. In 2007 I raised money for the Environmental Defense Fund in an effort to promote awareness about global warming. Last year I organized a team and promoted some rides to get people out on their bikes for the health and environmental benefits. So what for 2009? Well to be honest, until a few days ago, I didn’t know and wasn’t even sure I would do anything this season. But I was recently inspired by Fatty of Fat Cyclist fame to take up a new cause.

Have you ever read the blog Fat Cyclist? If you haven’t I ask that you check it out. If you are only going to read one post, make it this one-- Dandelion Seeds. Next you should READ THIS ONE(yea I know I said if you only read one, but after Like Dandelion Seeds you’ll read one more) and you’ll get an idea what I’m doing this year.

It is a long way until the LiveStrong ride in Austin (October 23-25) but it is time to sign up and start thinking about donating. Why LiveStrong and why Team Fatty? Well we all have some experience with cancer and its devastating effects, not only on the person with cancer, but also the entire family. I count myself lucky, when my grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer at 88 she didn’t suffer, had lived a long life, full of love, family, and enjoyment. Others aren’t so lucky, having pain and suffering for years. So yea, cancer pretty much sucks and anything that can be done to find cures, ease pain and suffering and offer hope to all those afflicted is a good thing and that is what the Lance Armstrong Foundation is around for. Why Fatty? I don’t know the guy at all. He’s from Utah and so is Ade, but no real connection with him. If he walked by me today I wouldn’t know it. I’ve read his blog for a while and what has always struck me is how much he is like me (or really any of us).

Elden (Fatty) loves his bike, but he loves his wife and family more. He has busted his ass to take care of Susan and his family. If I was in the same position could I do as much as he has? Probably not even close. Taking care of Ade as he has taken care of Susan I would accept and try; being driven to go beyond his personal suffering is what has inspired me to join Team Fatty. Fatty is fighting not just for his wife, he is fighting for everyone afflicted by cancer while at the same time caring for his wife and family. I don’t know anybody with that kind of dedication which is why I’ve been inspired to try to make a small difference. I’ll head to Austin in the fall and ride. Hopefully I’ll actually meet Fatty. I do know we’ll reach the goal of $1,000,000 raised for LAF and fighting cancer. To all my friends and family please link to MY FUND RAISING PAGE and help me raise my portion of the $1,000,000. My personal goal is $2,500 and I am officially 1% of the way there. Any amount helps so please donate a little if you can.

Week 10

An early morning climb at Red Rocks, just me and my shadow



Go big or go home was the thought process for the week. With great weather on tap for the weekend I looked forward all week to a big ride on the weekend. Any other week in January with weather like the past few days I would have put in two huge rides, but I had a Field Test scheduled for Saturday and felt it was important to get that in for hard data on how training is going. Sunday though, still beautiful and lots of miles.

I headed out early (7:00am) to get in a five hour ride. It was still cold but not terrible for January when I left. I went from my house to Morrison, over Red Rocks, to the I-70 side of Lookout Mountain. A good long day with lots of long climbs and even more punchy rollers to keep me going. I rolled out for a total of 4:40 and felt pretty fresh still when I got home. I really tried to focus on eating during the ride, as nutrition has always been an issue for me and if I get into the Leadville 100 I can’t risk not being use to on the bike fueling. I started eating 30 minutes in and made sure to consume something, either a gel or nutrition bar, every 30 minutes. At times this was hard to remember and force down but I never felt my energy lagging during the ride and wasn’t dead when I got home so I think the effort helped. During a race it will be a little harder to eat, as the effort makes fueling tough, but if I keep training nutrition it should be less of an issue then in past years.



Red Rocks again, it is a short climb in the park, but tough.



Climbing Lookout Mountain from the I-70 side, this leads to the Buffalo Overlook exit off I-70, from there a quick turn to Buffalo Bill's Grave and a fast downhill to food and drink in Golden.


I did skimp a little during the week and only did yoga two times. I’ve been trying to get in at least three sessions a week as it helps me stay fresh and pain free riding. On long rides the stress and pressure on the back and shoulders can be pretty bad and the yoga makes the stress far less. Even yesterday after the nearly five hours I didn’t feel sore at all so the yoga is paying off in my mind. This week I’ll make sure to get in all my sessions.

Results

Did my field test this morning and have a mixed view of results. Cold hard data shows:

Max HR 181, Average HR 176, Distance 7.2 Time 20 minutes.

Now look at the previous post and you won't see much change. The differences are Max HR -5bpm this time, Average HR -4bpm this time, Distance = the same. So have I lost fitness? Is the difference in HR small/not significant? Distance traveled isn't a huge concern as it was windy this morning, about 10 mph out of the NE, my route is 20 minutes in roughly one direction, you guessed it NE.

I'll digest for a few days then let you know what I think of the test results.

Field Test

So I've got a field test scheduled for tomorrow. A way to measure how training is going. Here are results from the first one I took under the Lynda W plan (one week in).

field test - 180 bpm max 186 bpm, 7.2 miles cherry creek res

I doubt heart rate will change much but I hope the distance does. I'll post the new results tomorrow. A friend Rob and I have been emailing back and forth on this topic during the week so I know he'll at least be interested.

Week 9

The week of training that nearly wasn’t is how I’m looking at the past week. I started the week sick, so intended to take it a little easy (reducing amount of tempo work and sprints) but trying to keep the volume where I wanted it. Work had other plans though and I was lucky to eak out the 8.5 hours of training I got in.

Sometimes the stress of other aspects of life, in this case work, limits the ability or desire to train. On Wednesday and Thursday mornings I set the alarm to get up and ride. Both days I ended up sleeping more, mostly because falling asleep had been tough with a situation going on at work. The ideal way to start back to work after over two weeks off is not sitting around in conference rooms with people preparing for unexpected presentations to educate and defend your company and more importantly your own good name. I’m lucky that the other people I work with have as much passion and integrity as I do and in the end this little obstacle will just be a great learning opportunity. Last week it was a chance to limit my riding.

I managed to get in another mountain bike ride today though. There is nothing better then being 11 days into January and already have gotten in two mountain bike rides. It was cold and even a few flurries (it looks like I should have waited for the afternoon) but the ride was still fun. The ride was made more fun by the fact I just had the bike tuned for the season and it was smooth and fast. I also put on new grips, some Ergon's. I hadn't had a pair on for about six months, not sure why, as I loved the grips before and felt great with them again today. When riding a lot little things like grips and hand position can make a huge difference, guess I was dumb when I had them off during that time.



It may be a little hard to see in this picture but there is a deer eating. Along the fire road at Green Mountain there must have been 30-40 deer spread out eating the grass and watching all the people hike, run or ride by, it was pretty surreal to see that many deer.

I sent in the entry form for Leadville Trail 100 this week, I’m sure along with thousands of others. I should know by February 9th which is perfect as that will give me a little time to plan my schedule for the rest of the season. I know I want to do the Front Range 50 on May 9th which is essentially 13 weeks after finding out if I get in to Leadville. If I get in I may train a little bigger for the Front Range 50 (more miles then really I’d need to finish that race) to help with the build up to Leadville. If no go on Leadville, well then I’ll figure something else out.

Week 8

The week of training started out great, I got in some good rides, rode the mountain bike for 2:00 on New Years day and on Saturday put in a 4:00 road ride before the (real) cold and snow started. I was looking forward to a short ride Sunday to cap the week, but alas I got a stomach bug that still has me laid up on the couch and no dreams of riding.

Oh well, it is early so I’ll sleep and catch up on riding later.

January 1

Colorado weather knows how to bring in the New Year for a cyclist. This morning I got up, left the house at 7:30 and was treated to 2 hours of mountain biking. By 8:25 I had climbed to the top of Green Mountain for the first time of the day (and year) and had a chance to enjoy the city while most others were still sleeping or just beginning to work on a hang over cure.

While Green Mountain may not be the best riding around, the climbs are solid, there are some fun downhills and in the winter the trails dry out pretty quick allowing for year round mountain biking.



Part of the climb to the top, riding from the East side of Green Mountain up to the top.



A view of the city to the East from the Green Mountain high point.


Me after the first climb of the year.

Pretty sweet way to get the year started.

2008 Top 10 List

Well everyone else is doing their top 10 list for 2008 so I’ll take a stab at it, though 10 items might be a little extreme.

1. Racing Green the Team – I put together a team for the season with a goal to have fun, promote riding and utilize the bike to lessen your personal environmental impact. The team did good, especially given our small size and new entry to the sport (as a team). A couple of wins by riders and a middle of the pack team classification placing at Winter Park. More important were some of the extra things the team did, putting on an event in the community to promote riding that drew 25 people, we attracted some local press and the ride was pretty fun. Next year I’ll still do an event to get people riding, though probably not the team.
2. Bike to Work Day – Coordinated Bike to Work Day at my company had 50 people participate (out of 200 in Denver) a huge increase over 2007. Gave away some sweet prizes thanks to my personal (and team) sponsor Pedal Pushers www.pedalpusherscyclery.com
3. Racing – No break through results, or in reality any good results this year, but man I have fun racing. Getting out on trails, pushing myself, trying to compete with others it makes riding fun.
4. The Election – Man I’m a political geek and this was a year for geeks. A diverse set of candidates putting in serious bids, African-Americans, Latin Americans, and women, add in some divergent views and an electrifying candidate or two and this year was great for watching the electoral process.
5. Books – Damn I’ve been reading a lot this year, the most in years probably. If I didn’t spend so much time riding I’d probably sit around drinking, reading and getting fat. Bill McKiben, Charles Bukowski, David Sedaris, books on politics, books on Starbucks, environmental books, medical books, poetry and biographies.
6. Writing – All that damn reading got me writing again. Cool.
7. Drive by Truckers – Saw them live this summer, red neck rock and roll damn that was a fun night.
8. New Bikes – Two new bikes in 2008, Cannondale CAAD 9 road bike and Orbea Oiz mountain bike. Nice rides
9. Travel – Most of my travel in 2008 was for work, but I try to make sure to enjoy it when I’m out. Chicago is a new favorite. New York is cool but Chicago just fits me better. The one downside, airlines and delays.
10. Ade and Seamus – They support me in all this. The ride I put on was on Mother’s Day and they came and had fun. Long rides, days away racing always supported by my wife. Kicking back watching and talking about politics with the wife was great through the fall. A seven year old who is growing into a great and unique person. Trips to the zoo, museum and wherever else he wants to go, each day I see him grow, better himself and turn in to the person I want/hope he’ll become.

So there is my view of 2008 in 10 easy installments. Hope you had a good year and hope 2009 is even better.

Week 7

The week that wasn’t, as in minimal training, lots of eating and some relaxing. As promised I didn’t take my bike to Salt Lake with me, allowing for plenty of relaxation during the holiday. It is just too bad the weather didn’t cooperate with the relaxing. But first, quick totals from the training front; two rides for a total of 3:00 hours; two runs for a total of 1:00 hour; three yoga sessions for a total of 1:30 hours. Not a huge amount of volume but enough to make me feel like I didn’t lose any fitness and stayed on track. The riding came Monday (a trainer session early) and Sunday with a 2:00 hour ride.

On to the lack of relaxation, which can be wrapped up with two words both starting with W: windy Wyoming? We drove to Salt Lake on I-80 through Wyoming; leaving Monday night we got to the stretch between Laramie and our planned stopping point for the night of Rawlins in a dark snow storm with wind blowing about 50-60 mph. If you have never driven in these conditions try to avoid it, if you have you know the word relaxation is not possible. It took 2.5 hours to drive 100 miles, a stretch that during the summer is 1:15 to travel. The next day it was windy and snowy again from Little America (don’t get me started on a gas station that is a destination) to Salt Lake. After that travel a few days chilling at the mother-in-laws house was welcomed and allowed for a little relaxation.

Too bad we had to drive back. The good news this time is very limited actual snowfall; the bad news was even fiercer wind and plenty of snow on the ground to create white out conditions. At points you couldn’t see 20 feet in front of you and it went on like this for hours. We ended up calling it a day in Laramie because neither of us could (or wanted to) focus on driving). This morning more wind 60+ mph gusts but no snow causing white out conditions. We did see a total of 6 semis that had been blown over because of the wind; two between Rawlins and Laramie on the 27th and four just south of Cheyenne on the 28th.

The good news is we made it home safe and have vowed to never make a winter time drive to SLC again (that’s why there are airplanes). Tomorrow begins real work (bike wise) again, but I have another week off work to relax and take care of Seamus on vacation. If you’re in Denver and see us causing terror through town join in.