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!

1 Week

7 days is all I have left of my time in NY. Next Thursday am, I depart for Boulder, CO. Going to be working for FasCat Coaching!! It's getting a bit close, I'm nervous, a bit scared. But this will be good, this is what I want and need. Finally the summation of a dream (moving to CO) is going to be reached.

Things have been hectic, and I've taken a few days off the bike to unwind. As a result, yesterday was perfect weather day for a little boat riding. Seeing as it's my last day to fit in a boat ride I obliged and my father and I headed out onto Seneca Lake for a slow cruise.

The lake was incredibly calm, and we just cruised down past all the houses and hung out south of the state park just off shore. Downed a few beers, chatted and relaxed in the sunshine. Couldn't have asked for anything more.

I even got to drive the boat back (I had to give captains duties back, when the William Smith Crew Team was entering the harbor at the same time as us). It's actually surprisingly easy to drive.

So after all that relaxing, I guess it's really time to get down to business. Start packing up, laying down my itinerary and get some last minute errands done this week


Currently playing in iTunes: Dancing Choose by TV On The Radio

Oh yeah, yesterday I spent 3.5 hours in the dentist chair getting a root canal done. Took a while, but the infected tooth is fixed and the pain has ceased, just means I've got to get it crowned when I get to CO. Anyone know a good dentist out there?

Weekend Wrap (Full Report)

It was a long weekend of racing and driving in the car. Friday afternoon, I set out for the 4 hour drive north to my brothers place in Malone. Giving me about an hours drive to Whiteface Mt. for saturday's race.

Got there with plenty of time to play with my nephew Peyton, eat some gnocchi with homemade sauce by Grams and watch a movie. I managed to get a great night's sleep in and then get the the race right on schedule. However, I didn't really get a great warm-up in. Being as the race was new and recently scheduled it meant a small field (3 of us in the pro class), but it did mean we were all gonna get paid! That however didn't mean I didn't race my ass off.

The race started with a little prologue section with a climb, then onto the main course and up the access rd. Suffered a bit on the start and was struggling on the first lap, trying to get the legs together. I ended up losing sight of 1st place as he disappeared in the 1st section of singletrack. I surged hard, started to feel better and raced well over all. Race was a bit short at 1:40, but every one of my 4 laps was within 30 secs of each other, so I was at least nice and consistent. I did bag $250 for 2nd!! Everybody better hit this race course next year as it was one of the baddest and best ever!

Sunday (after a long drive home saturday) I headed down to Ellicottville for the Roots, Rocks and Ridges race. I think the last time I managed to do this one was about 5 years ago. There was good number of people and it was a great day for racing. Course started with a road prologue while we were lead over to Holimont and the start of the climbing. Didn't mean it was truly neutral though as we were clicking off a good pace on the road. Knowing the climb was coming up, I got near the front and stayed there trying to shake the legs out from the prior days efforts. Hit the climb and when it turned to dirt a small group of us split the main field. I was sitting at the tail end of the group around 4th/5th and came off on the climb prior to entering the singletrack. I was busy closing the gap to the rider in front of me, when I felt my rear tire was real squishy. I jumped off to throw a co2 in and didn't do much. I decided to tube it and it took me forever to get the valve stem out. Finally go the valve stem out, tube it and the co2 barely puts any air in, WTF!?! I spend forever hand pumping my mini pump (luckily does both), while getting passed by everyone. I got the tire up and ready to go and ended up behind a large smashed together group near the back. It was tight singletrack and I really wanted to get back to the front. Riders were dabbing and falling all over the place, I ended up having to use the "pro" lines to pass quite a few of the riders. After a few minutes being stuck behind them, I finally got free and clawed my way back up. I was surging and flying through the singletrack.

I was actually feeling really great overall. I managed to catch a bunch of riders. I did have to stop at one point and put some more air in my rear as it was still feeling soft. I shot up again and was catching more riders. Any chance I got, I was doing the Big Ring Challenge and hammering through the singletrack. I was creeping way up in position and just was catching 2 more riders when I realized I had a broken spoke. Took some time to get it out of the rotor and bend it around so it wouldn't get caught on anything. I managed to catch and pass back one rider, but ran out of trail catching the other.

Total time according to the powertap lost by flats and spoke: ~8:30. Unofficially according to mom, I was about 9 minutes down on first! I finished in 10th place, which I thought was incredible considering how many riders initially passed me. It was a great course and good ride and was happy to end my season on a strong weekend of racing!

Now it's time for 'cross

Currently playing in iTunes: Revelry by Kings of Leon

Halloween at the Hollow

He-Man and She-Ra were the choice for Lindsey and I. Our Costumes are almost entirely made out of duck tape. Loads of fun!

Night Riding and A Muffin Tragedy

Last night got out with the GBC gang and hit up the local trails at Glenwood. I haven't really been on the bike as this is pretty much my rest period before I undertake the full-on training plan that starts up next month. However, the weather was great and it was time to saddle up. I pulled out the paragon and just ripped it up. I still love that bike and it rips around in tighter more tech trails more so than the supercaliber.

We had quite a large group (7 of us) so it was a pretty good turnout. I had hit the road for a short ride prior with Lindsey so the legs were ready to go. (I still gotta work on getting her up for some night riding ;) My overall fitness has dropped of a bit, but my head is crisp and clear so I think that more than makes up for it.

The Muffin Tragedy

Tragedy uncovered at the Alpine Bakery early this morning.

So I went to get my usual cup of coffee and blueberry-yogurt muffin this morning and it was awful. Apparently the cooler was mistakenly unplugged and the muffins *gasp* had gone bad! Man was I bummed. I hat to take a only slightly less delicious chocolate chip (which was supposed to be ginger, so you can imagine my suprise). Hopefully tomorrow everything will be back in order and I can resume fulfilling my cravings.