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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Oh my, that went bad!

This past Saturday was the second mountain bike race up in Winter Park, the cross country super loop. I was looking forward to this race, last year this was my first mountain bike race ever. I got second and was dreaming of a repeat performance (despite moving up a catagory).

After my week spent traveling and the stress of getting a big proposal out the door, I was hoping I would be nice and rested. Ready to go.

I wasn't. More than that, I wasn't even close.

Everything went wrong! I would guess that within a minute of the start I was going backwards. Dropped like a stone, a road block everyone wanted to get around. The biggest problem was my back. A few miles in it was hurting so bad, I just couldn't put any power in the peddles. Funny, my back actually started hurting at home before I left for the race. Injury or stress, I don't know.

The course was pretty muddy and slippery. Had to be careful out there. A lot of people went down. The rocks, tree roots and river crossings were treacherous! Despite the coarse, I was seriously deep in the pain cave and never got to enjoy any of it!

Sadly it was one of my worst days on a bike. Despite my utter meltdown, I have to look on the bright side, I didn't finish in last place. Honestly, I was supprised about that.

Time for some training changes. I am trying to stay optimistic. At least I am sure to improve at the next race.

Weekend Wrapup

This weekend was interesting, from a family standpoint. It was basically the weekend of my recovery week. While I did get some riding in, I envisioned family time. Unfortunately Nate was sick and that basically ended any hope of extra activities (pool, grandparents, park etc). The time at home was spent trying to keep him from over exerting himself, getting rest and chasing him with a Kleenex.

On Saturday, I has able to hook up with the team for a pre-ride of one of the early races, the Koppenberg. Named because of the steep dirt hill in the course, it is a pretty short hill but it will hurt after a couple of climbs. More likely, the pain will come in the first lap when 80+ folks go barreling into the hill at full speed. Last year it snowed the morning of the race and it was postponed to the following weekend. It was great to ride with everyone. Many of them I have not seen since CX this past Fall. The weather ended up being interesting, it was way cold but I think I got a sun burn on my face. Only in Colorado.

Sunday I wanted to do something different. So I got out the mountain bike and went to green mountain for a short ride. It was a lot of fun. My plan is to do the Winter Park Series this year so I might as well get the bike ready. I have never ridden at Green Mountain. It was nice. There were a lot of people there today. I can't blame them, the afternoon weather was... inviting. A map of my mountain bike ride is below, check out the elevation feature, the opening climb peaked out at an averaged of 15% for 0.5 mile.

Training calls for some more base miles in the coming week. Need to build that endurance for later in the season.