This Weeks Action

Wow, is it Friday already. Sweet.

Things are starting to get back to normal after my, and the families, cold. I am better but the kids and especially Melissa still have a little cough and runny nose. I think they have just been passing it around to each other.

The weather sure has been strange this week. I'm not complaining about the cool temperatures. Twice these week I took rides in the morning before work so I would miss the rain and both times I was needing extra warmers to stay comfortable out there. Wednesday morning I went up Lookout mountain and the humidity was so high you could see it. That doesn't happen ... ever ... in July!

The weather lady on the news said yesterday was a record low for a high temperature. Snow on Pikes Peak (sorry everyone, you'll have to put your shoes back on, you can't run around without shoes until the snow melts off the peak).

Maybe global warming really means the loss of seasons. I remember having days in January that were as warm as it was yesterday.

Anyway, in another interesting cycling and marketing related story that has been buzzing around on the Internet. There was an ad in ROAD Magazine for a supplement that helps you ride faster. They are obviously a sponsor for Team Astana as shown by this photo of team blasting to a Team Time Trial victory in this years Tour de France. So elegant, so beautiful, working together, putting other racers hopes and dreams ...... wait a minute, who is that dude in the background and what is he wearing? What does this product do for you? How in the world did this photo end up as and advertisement? Which Corn Dog Hut is the editor working at now? I'll take my dog with no nuts please. Priceless!

A Weekend for Recovery

As I mentioned in previous posts, the entire family has been sick. Including me. This weekend all of our plans were cancelled. It was time to get everyone better. We spent a little time out walking around, watching TV and resting. As the weekend passed and people were feeling better we got in more outdoor activities. We enjoyed being outside as the weather was great and the pile of disgusting snotty tissues was growing ever larger.

No racing and minimal riding provided time to catch up on bicycle maintenance. I have had some items that needed attention. I got the CX chain rings put on the cyclocross bike, meaning the bike is ready for fall but the wheels still need some attention. I re greased all the pivot points on the mountain bike as well as overhauled the rear hub. It was in pretty good shape, I am impressed with how well the dust covers have held up on these Shimano XT hubs. The road bike even got a little attention, I rebuild and greased up the bottom bracket. Now to pre-race ride the bikes to make sure everything is ship shape.

This morning things appear to have gotten back to normal. The Tour de France is over and that provides some additional time in the mornings. So I got out for a short run followed by a core workout. The kids and family are back to their morning routine.

Thanks for reading

Proud Father!

This morning my daughter Kailee had a goal. She's been sick all week but got up, got dressed and went outside to learn how to ride her "2-wheel bike". (Her neighbor friend learned how to ride yesterday and she watched from her window)

Within about 30 minutes and doing it by herself she got it.

Must be genetic, notice any similarities? She's only been riding a few hours!


Exciting times are ahead! I am so proud of her!

Quarantined

Everyone is SICK!

Basically everyone has fever, coughing, sneezing and buckets of green crap running out of their faces.

It is truly joyful.

Enter at your own risk

Jens Crash

Jens is a super rider and had a bad crash today. See the video below.

It almost looks like something happened to his wheel. You see his rear wheel come off the ground then he looks ok. The wheel tracks correctly for a couple of seconds. Then the wheel suddenly shifts to the right. Maybe the white line, but its dry... hard to tell.



I wish him the best... speedy recovery. The Peloton won't be the same without you.

Raining Cats, Dogs, Large Horses, Cows and the Wicked Witch of the West

Wow, we had crazy rain last night. I don't think I've ever seen a storm like that. The sky opened up and dropped buckets of rain, wind and hail last night around 10:30pm. We were up closing windows and hoping things went ok. Fortunately everything at our house appears fine. Amazingly the kids even slept through the entire thing. A little water in the basement from a window that didn't keep the water in the window well. We vacuumed that up before it got too far from the window.

I think we were the lucky ones! I road my bike to work this morning just so I could check it all out. See the photos below. Some aren't that good but you get the idea.

A New Perspective

This past Saturday I got new perspective on the local bike racing scene. I was a volunteer at the Mt Evans Hill Climb. Its been a couple of years since I raced this event but when I found out my race team was going to be promoting it, I jump at the opportunity to help out.

1. Because the team will benefit

2. Because it's a prestigious event that should be run well

and

3. Because I don't have to suffer up the hill!!! (mostly this should be number 1)

I got there early, helped wherever I could. Had a fun time, watched the pro's start and basically enjoyed myself. No stress. I was driving the follow vehicle for the SM35+/3 category. A group of about ~30 racers. People quickly started falling off the pace until a lead pack of 7 was established. This group stayed together until about tree line. I stayed behind the top 5.

There was a lot of suffering going on. The weather was great and people had fun, smiles all around once it was over.

As for me, it was great. I set my personal best for getting up that hill and I felt great the entire time!

Video of the starting pro field, Tom Danielson narrowly missed beating his existing record.

The citizens starting field was huge!

The lower slopes of the climb for my group
Seeing up the mountain can be demoralizing! See the road on the mountain a head? Yes you have to climb that too!
The top!

Midweek CSP Crit

Hit the 30+ open crit race last night. It's a fast group. My goal.... hold on. I actually did pretty good despite still having a little tightness in the legs from this past weekends race. Sadly I did get lapped... along with 5 others (one of those guys kept opening a gap). Anyway, I got a good workout.

My cheering squad was out in force!

Venga Venga Venga!

Here they come!

Hold on!

Improvement.. Maybe

Winter Park Valley Point-to-Point was this past weekend. I've been working on my fitness issues so my expectations were not very high. Basically, if I could have a good clean race without all the agony I had last time, I would consider it a success. It's amazing how relaxing you feel at the start line when your only goal for the race is survive and don't worry about those other guys.



The start is on a pretty good climb. It's a service road used to spread the field out before dumping us into the first single track. Two weeks ago, I knew things were going wrong at this point. This week, I felt pretty good. Hell, I was even moving up... passing people! Sweet. (maybe it helped that I started at the back of the pack this time, I had to pass someone.. right) The first descent I wasn't killing it but I wasn't getting dropped by the guys in front of me. At that point, we started to come across the carnage of the leaders. Dudes off in the trees, crashed or flatted. My teammate Amir off the trail working with his bike, I know he had a good chance to win today but didn't finish.

Across the first long technical "flat" I was hanging "strong", getting passed but also passing folks. Then the yo-yo dropped. I tried to stay calm and just keep pedaling. Get in a short recovery. Food, drink... breath. Things started to turn around. Ok, I started to real back many of the racers that had passed me during my down point. I was right on their wheels during the next big climb. Once over the climb the group in front of me started to pull away. I had never been on this trail before and my courage wasn't supper high. At the next hill I again got within eye sight of my group but the yo-yo feel again, this time on a hill. I didn't see them again.

The last section of the race was on trials I used to ride way back in the day. About 7-8 years ago, we used to go camping up there and ride that area. It was fun, more importantly it was an up section for me. Even after 20 miles of the race, I was going faster over these trails than I used to. When I reach the race finish, I was so glad it was over. Unfortunately I had 6 miles to ride back to the base of winter park and my car. That was like adding insult to injury. I crawled back, passed by some lady on the bike path pulling two little girls in a trailer. I asked the kids if they could push over and let me ride, they looked at me like I was crazy.

Over all, this race was better than the last two. So, while not very good in the results department, I'm calling it a personal ..... better but Improvement Required.

Final stats: 24 miles raced in 2:20. 35 mile round trip back to the car (with warmup). 4948 ft gained, 2694 calories burned!, Avg speed 9.8 mph, max 32.9 mph. Mx HR 174. Oh and the pro that won the race did the exact same coarse in 1:32.. WOW!

If you ever get up to Winter Park for some riding. You have to hit these trails. Phenomenal!


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Priorities

I've been getting in a little rest before tomorrows race. The last two winter park races really haven't gone all that well. I'm finding rest is hard (feel like I'm missing something). I like to ride so staying off the bike is a little difficult. My expectations for the race aren't very high. I'm hoping I can just get through ... quickly... and enjoy the single track. Some of it I haven't been on in over 5 years! Then I will have a couple of weeks to refocus the training effort.

During this time of rest, I have been focusing on more important items; things that work well.

Swinging -

Eating -

And listening to Kailee tell me about her animal science book and how she wants to visit Uncle Tyler and see his frogs. (Sorry Karen, no mention of you)

Refreshing the Mind, Body and Spirit

Yesterdays workout consisted of hooking up the "trailer" bike and riding with Kailee and the family to the store, then the park. We all had a great time. Kailee is getting very comfortable on the trailer bike because "Dad won't let me fall". She can really swing that bike around now making me have to work to keep in going straight.

On a side note, it's hard to have a recovery ride when your attached to a four year old drill Sargent yelling "Dad, peddle like you race, Venga Venga Venga! Go faster!"

Kailee did learn one biking lesson last night. One I am sure everyone who has ever ridden a bike learned..... don't free wheel when one leg is on the ground. The peddle will nail you in the shin every time!

I Just Couldn't See It

Last night I got out for a great ride on Lookout Mountain. When I left work it was pouring rain. But I could see the sun was shinning towards Golden. Once in the car I think the rain got even heavier. Huge drops. About two miles from Golden it stopped, the sun came out and the road was dry. Score, luck was on my side, I was going to have a good/dry ride.

I met up with a couple of other board members from my cycling team. They're a fun group of very knowledgeable folks. I always look forward to riding with them. I got to talking to my friend Will about my training dilemmas and recent poor performances at the past couple of mountain bike races. I can't tell you how helpful it is to have someone who has been through it before listen and objectively say "sounds like your doing too much X or too little y." When he said it, it just rang in my head. Duh, I knew that, I just couldn't see it.

Will, thanks for listening and offering some ideas!

Now I have a little more focus on the training side. Some ideas that should get things back in order. Get rid of some of the fatigue and speed everything up.

The primary item on the agenda was the Mt Evans Hill Climb. We are putting on the race this year. It's the single largest race on the ACA calender, climbing to the top of the highest paved road in North America. Riding your bike above 14,000 feet is HARD! The race is in need of volunteers, if your interested please click the link above and check it out. I will be volunteering instead of racing, hauling my big carcass up that hill is a lot of work. Volunteering will be more enjoyable!

The Tour stages have been great! Hope your watching. In celibration of the tour I ordered some new CX parts: tires, cassette, Stans, chainring. Because with the tour ends it's time to change gears and get my hup on.

After the parade

Everyone running through the sprinklers. It was nice and cool.

Nate's Parade

He was ready!

4th of July

Kailee had some issues getting to the parade. Hard start to the all the fun she had.

CSP Crit

Well, the thunderstorms were rolling through again this evening. I was planning to race the CSP practice crit to try my legs. It was sprinkling rain at work but I went over the the CSP track anyway. When I got there the sun was shining and the roads were dry. Sweet, I started changing.. because.. why would the race be cancelled.

Shortly after I started to get ready two ladies, also getting ready to race asked if the race was cancelled. I said "why, it's great out here." They agreed. Another guy made the call and sure enough, Cancelled.

Bummer. Another race opurtunity missed because of the threat of bad weather. Granted, bad weather on top of south table mountian could be deadly. Maybe it was the right call.

Maybe next week.