Busy past few days, but some great riding

My last post was a bit ago. Ever since moving out here to CO, things have been a bit of a whirlwind. It's been a super busy last 5 days, that's for sure. But it doesn't mean I haven't ridden my bike at all. How can one not when the weather is 75 and sunshine (meanwhile it's snowing back in NY!!)

I managed to get myself in gear and do a cross race this past sunday. Nothing like lining up against the pro/1/2 guys having very little time on the bike, at altitude and a lack of fitness. Somehow, I mistimed the start and was spit out the back immediately. I swear I never heard a countdown or anything similar. Chase hard, run up the sand, ride in the sand, run up the sand. It was a tough course, I ended up flatting at the start of my 4th lap and called it quits. At least I wasn't in last place though. So as if that wasn't enough, I went and signed up for the Boulder Super Cup Weekend, 2 UCI races in Boulder this weekend, Running with the big dog's again! Hopefully I'll do a bit better.

Speaking of dog's I managed to get Lizzy out on her first trail ride since she broke her pelvis. I took her over to Green mt. on the singlespeed on Monday. I'm guessing the loop was about 12-14k, but some good climbing. This isn't east coast trails, as she's stuck running the whole time and no place for short cuts. But, she did great! Even when she saw a herd of mule deer, she managed to heed my command and not chase!! Maybe that truck she hit, knocked some sense into her!

Today was a bit of an epic day. I was in Boulder at 8am for the group cross practice ride. There was around 100 people or so! We rolled over to the Elks club in town and did a nice 25 minute or so effort. Mine, was cut short as my tire was soft and I had to steal a pump and get some air in it as I was banging my rim all over the place and didn't have a spare tire. After some air in the tire, I managed to get some good quality work in. Shortly after we re-grouped and headed over to North Boulder Park and did a quick loop on the grass. I felt much better at that then at the Elks course, but I'm still getting used to the high intensity efforts.

The ringer for the day was the road ride with Jeff Kerkove. We met up after the cx ride, and he dragged me up Sunshine Canyon to Gold hill. Head over to his site for a nice video of me suffering in my 39x25. I need a compact.

How Badly? Here's my cadence from the ride



The little town on the top was pretty cool, and had a nice little store with some awesome homemade goodies and a kick-ass cast-iron stove!

Little Village of Gold hill

At least when I was grinding up the hill slowly, I was able to take in some epic scenery

Wasn't the only one suffering though!

Tomorrow night should be interesting, gonna meet a group for a night ride at Green Mt!

Zorro

So, riding has been tough here in Colorado. I mean it's been really hard to get out the door, explore new trail, ride in the sunshine, blah blah blah. You don't want to hear me bragging :) But I got out yesterday with a fellow coach whom I met at the USOC Coaching Seminar in Colorado Springs. Jay G. is from up in Canada country, some province where polar bears outnumber people (he's the Alberta Provincial Coach).

We decided to head over thru Bear Creek, loop green mt and then up the Zorro trail to explore.

The Zorro trail is aptly named as its a crazy "z" across the mt. Picture doesn't look like much but it goes up a few hundred feet, then turns super tech at the ridgeline.

As you can see, we are up there a bit. It was a blast to pick thru the lines and play on the rocks a bit.

We did a bit of climbing as we ascended Green Mt. then Zorro, then back up Green Mt. a few times.

Good thing Lizzy wasn't with us!

This weekend is looking awesome (it's like 65 and sunny right now). I think I'm going to go out and ride the cross bike right now and run lizzy a bit. Tomorrow I plan on busting out the roadie and venturing into the hills for a bit. Sunday though should be a blast, I plan on getting my head bashed in as I enter the Men's Open Cross race. Hopefully I'll last longer than a few laps. At least there's beer. Oh and for more bragging rights, I'm going to the Avs v Sabres Game tomorrow in Denver!!

Beautiful Weekend

Even though yesterday was an incredible day, by the time I got home from the Coaching Summit, I was wiped out. I caught up on laundry and a few other household chores and generally just lounged.

Though Today, I made up for missing out yesterday. I was up early and took lizzy for a quick run around the reservoir. 2 laps x 2 miles. It's her first real run since she broke her pelvis. She did great, I was on the cross bike and had to work a few times to keep up with her. I ended up flatting and that pretty much took us home.

After that I kitted up and headed thru Bear Creek up to do a quick loop on Green Mt. Just put some time in and rack up the kj's.

From Bear Creek and Heil Ranch

I hooked up with the new boss, Frank from FasCat Coaching for a spin around Heil Ranch. After riding at Green Mt. My idea of Colorado trails was blown wide open today. The trails were frigging awesome and super tech. Super rocky and requiring you to really work the bike the whole time. My pics really don't do the trail any justice. It was far too much fun picking the lines and riding the trail, than to stop and snap some pics. I might need to grab me a helmet cam sometime soon!

Ended up with about 2100kj for the day! And pretty worked over. Hopefully the weather holds out

I have no friggin clue why a blue line shows up on my pics, could be time for a new camera. I'm too lazy to go through each photo and touch up in photoshop. Click the link for tons more photos of the day

From Bear Creek and Heil Ranch

From Bear Creek and Heil Ranch

From Bear Creek and Heil Ranch

Colorado Springs

So I'm in Colorado Springs at the US Olympic Training Center, learning how to make people go fast. What else to do though when the seminars are over by 3pm other than go out for a group ride? I HAD to get on my bike as there is free food here and I am probably going to weigh 5lbs more when I leave this place

Enjoy the pics! I enjoyed the scenery that's for sure!



PS I have no idea why I'm getting a blue line across my pics, guess it might be time for a new one.

Another day at Green Mt

So I decided to give it another go at Green Mt. I mean what am I suppose to do other than ride my bike out here on the trails right? After feeling like death yesterday, I kitted up and felt like a million bucks. Didn't feel at all like I was dying or not getting any air in.

I headed thru Bear Creek (quickly) and climbed the switchbacks up the Green Mt. Trail, then descended the fire-road and hit the outer loop. Somehow, I missed the singletrack I rode up yesterday, as that's what I was really looking for as it woulda been a sick descent



Ride time was short, but I did nearly as much as yesterday in almost 40 minutes less ride time! That's a huge difference, plus my wattage numbers were up a ton as I was feeling great.

For the rest of this week I'm down in Colorado Springs for the Coaches Summit. Should be fun, but a bonus is that we are done around 3ish each day and plenty of people to ride with. And the weather looks great!

1st Ride in Colorado at Green Mt!!

I'm now officially in Colorado. Made it here this past Saturday. I've since gotten settled in here with a friend in Littleton and managed to get out for a good ride yesterday on 2 trails that are right outside the door (Bear Creek and Green Mt.) Conditions were great, it was a little bit cool, but the sunshine was warm.





I'm gonna head out the door right now for another quick trip over to Green Mt., then I'm off to Colorado Springs for the Coaching Seminar for a week. Should learn some great stuff to make people fast! Hopefully I'll get in quite a few nice road rides while I'm down there.

Please, send oxygen instead of comments. I'm in need of some until I acclimate!

Busy, Busy

Been just crazy these past few weeks. Don't even know where to begin here on the blog. This past wednesday I did manage to get out for a good ride with the GBC and Hollow crew prior to my departure.

We hit up Shindagin Hollow for a few hours of play. The night prior we had played hard at the Hartman's. Suzanne served up some great chili, then it was time for some pool and mod racing. The mod crit quickly grew into a who could do better donuts. With that, we preceded to open the garage door and try to do them out on the wet driveway.

Needless to say, there was some fun that we had. Wednesday down at Shindagin was a great day. Fall foliage was in full bloom and the trails were in perfect shape.

We managed a huge crew (Jer-Bear, Casey, Der-Kaiser, Hanggi, Fry Guy, Marky Mark, Suz and I) for a wednesday afternoon. Mark was kind enough to lend me his Hi-Fi 29er. I made sure to put it to work hitting some gap jumps, riding 6 ft high skinnies, north shore bridge drops (and subsequent crashes) and tearing up the trails. Could a dualie be in my future?

The past few days were spent at a Coaching Seminar in Ypsilanti, Mi. I learned how to go real fast, and learned boat loads of info. It's going to come in real handy. Next week I have the Coaching Summit in Colorado Springs and plan on learning even more info. Believe me, if you want to be fast for next season, hit your goals, and have fun, there's nothing better than a coach