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Things have been pretty much more or less of the same on the training front.

Been riding the cross bike on the snow covered roads. Much more fun with the new powertap on her. Put in 3 hours Jens factor 4, on Saturday. It was snowing pretty good all ride. Even found a super fun deep snow seasonal road to play on.

Did a whole bunch of mtb snow riding Sunday & then again Monday night. Was good to get out on the trails and ride with the GBC crew. Plus lizzy loves it.

Last night I buried myself on the snow covered roads on the cx bike once again. At one point thought I might get buried. Was riding uphill into the blowing snow, road covered about 4 inches deep & wind howling. It was only about 1k long, but felt like an eternity climbing the thing. Much better than the trainer any day!

Weather is looking to be the same as usual. Looks like more time on the cx bike.

Well, it’s that time of the season again. Time to dig in and get ready for the 24 hour solo effort this coming weekend at the Hardcore 24 in Naples. It’s at a completely new venue this year, Ontario County Park and thus it’s a whole new ballgame.

The fellas at Park Ave and Groc have been hard at work prepping the course and cutting new trails and refining old. I was a little hesitant at first on the new course design because of the new cut trails and the way things flowed, but there’s been some steady changes and I think the course is in awesome shape and ready to roll. It’s going to be hard and it’s going to be won by a rider who’s fully on top of their game. There’s no long sustained climbing, but lots of steep little kickers and slow rolling slight uphills in the singletrack. Some parts are slow, some parts are rippingly fast for sure. You’re gonna have to have your head on straight for this one and I’m super psyched and looking forward to racing there this weekend!!

On the plus side, I feel really great and ready to go, I nailed out my best 1 minute power of the season last night and I’ve done zero anaerobic work in about 10 weeks (it’s all been 24 prep) and I’m feeling really good and really strong. Weather is looking good and I’ll be ready to throwdown come noon on Saturday!!

Been lagging a bit with the blog posts, but things have been super busy. Summer racing and training is into full swing and the push is on for the Hardcore 24 next month.

5 weeks to get in some heavy training and bring my form up in time for a solo effort at the race. Currently form is a little on the low side but that’s purposeful so I can do the work necesarry.

I did pick up a new road bike! Trek 5200, 06 closeout that the Geneva bicycle center hooked me up with. Haven’t swung a leg over it yet, but will be putting some heavy time on her over these next few weeks. I’ll get some pics up when I return.

Currently en route to NYC to visit my sister and do a little xc race in central park. Should be fun and crazy, shredding singletrack with skyscrapers. A long ways from colorado.

Got out this am and did some openers on the mtb. Took lizzy along for the ride and she was super happy to run along as usual. Feel good and ready for the race tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes.

Last night, hooked up with the Hollow-Geneva Crew for a night ride out at the MPH. It’s been quite a while since the whole gang got back together. It was a rippingly fast blast of a trail, thanks to Suzanne who had gotten out and leaf blown the whole entire network!

Lizzy even got to tag along and rip up the singletrack with us also. She was so wiped out today, she could barely make it up the stairs.

It felt great to be out on the trails and shredding gnar with old friends. The Superfly fit like an old pair of worn shoes. Just perfect. Railed every line, hooked up well in the corners, launched up all the climbs. I felt good last night and felt fast. It’s those rides, those feelings and sensations that brings up back to the bike every time. Whether they come every ride or a few times a year, if you get in the flow, you’ll know!

Tomorrow, I’ll bust out some openers, and Sunday I’m hitting up theGVCC Spring Classic at Bloomfield.

Sorry for the lack of pics, maybe I’ll snag some this weekend. Hoping to get out for a a few hours after the race on Sunday

Yesterday, I made the road trip up to Vail, CO to visit some family. It was really cool to see them and hang out and go out to dinner. They live in Georgia and I only get to see them every few years.

Had a great dinner, then walked around the ski village a bit. I had to laugh as they had to stop at every fireplace and warm-up. While it was cold (25 or so) I was fairly comfortable in just a sweater and light vest. After that went back to the condo and watch the 6!! friggin overtime SU basketball game. I don’t watch basketball, ever. But that game was absolutely incredible, one of the top 10? 5? Sporting events I’ve ever seen. Maybe I should do a post on the greatest sporting events I’ve witnessed from my perspective?

Is it the weekend yet?

I’m dying, I want to ride my bike so bad. So bad that it’s good? My motivation to race and prepare is crazy high right now and even just a day off has me hungry for more. I’m gonna pull out the Superfly and do a nice long ride from here over to Heil/Hall Ranch and back. Should be a nice 6 hour effort. Then on Sunday, gonna head up to Fo Co and ride with the Carnizzle for some more singletrack raging. Look for lots of pics and a few vids to come this weekend.

I so wish I could bring Lizzy on my rides, for now she just gets a good walk every day and maybe a spin on the same trails when I get back from my ride. But at least she’s always happy with it!

Man, yesterday it was crazy windy here in Boulder. Although temps were decent, the sustained 40mph winds with 60+ mph gusts kept me off the bike. Luckily, monday was a nice day and I put in a nice recovery ride to keep the legs stimulated.

Seeing as today was such a nice day, but I had a few things to take care of mid-day I did a two fer’. What’s a two fer’? Two workouts fer the same day! I was up plenty early to beat the wind and I waited till about 9am for the warmth and headed out the door to do some Sweet Spot Intervals. On tap was 4×10 min on 10 min off. It wasn’t too long that I was out the door that the wind really started picking up. Lucky for me, it worked out. I slammed the first sst on the dirt roads making my way north and the second one into the wind. Intervals 3 and 4 were done climbing up Lefthand Canyon. Nice gradual grade and I put down some good power!

After I wrapped up lunch and taking care of some work, I headed down to Marshall Mesa for a ride on the singlespeed. I haven’t been on the singlespeed in months, and the legs were plenty worn through from the earlier efforts of the day.

I pretty much just took it easy, and Lucky for me, my singlespeed is a rigid 29er, so I was able to pass thru the gate

Trail was just rolling and rocky, great place to eek out another hour of fun on the bike. But it didn’t really stop there because when I got home I hit even more dirt. Wanted to make lizzy girl happy so I took her out for a run on the open space trails. She had a blast but is wiped out currently!

Tomorrow looks to be another gorgeous day, around 50 and sunshine, maybe I’ll head up to Gold Hill. Haven’t been there in a bit

It was a bit chilly this morning, and I wanted to grab the mountain bike and get out for some fun. I decided to take Lizzy with me and head down to Lookout mountain. Basically and up then down. Starting in Golden, climbing up to Windy Saddle and then to the top of Lookout Mt.

Lizzy is all happy playing on the rocks

Laying down first tracks

View from Windy Saddle on Lookout Mountain

Climbing thru the pines

I had a good climb to the top, alternating between, bone dry, mud, ice and frozen snow. Just as I as was about to turn around at the top, wouldn’t you know, Lizzy takes off on me. Well this has been my biggest fear about taking Lizzy with me riding anywhere in Colorado. She’ll chase anything from Golden to Colorado Springs. She took off after something and I waited and searched. Descended half way down the mountain, climbed back up looking for her, then decided to go all the way down and grab my phone. On the way down a few people had seen her. One lady had a baby harness on and said Lizzy freaked out, cause she saw 2 heads! I started chuckling at that. I hit the bottom and grabbed my phone (as my number is on her tag). At this point I was getting a bit worried as it had been a while. I hurriedly climbed up to the top and found her about halfway up. She was wiped out, super tired. Probably had been worriedly looking for me as much as I had been for her. Thankfully she was ok and I grabbed her and trotted her back down the trail.

Might be a bit before I take her back on the trails again.

Tomorrow, heading back to Heil/Hall with Kat and putting in some good hours. Looks to be a bit chilly, but should be dry and fun. I’ll be bringing the cam with me and re-shooting some of the best singletrack in Colorado!

Today, was the Boulder area’s big weekend ride: The Gateway Ride. Temps and conditions couldn’t have been better. A good sized group of maybe 30-40 showed up and it was gametime. I rolled over a bit early and tooled around while I waited and the group slowly formed, I decided to use the facilities, and when I emerged the group had departed. Yup, thanks for waiting…. Luckily they were only a few minutes up the road, but I had to put my head down and give a good strong chase to regroup.

From Jan 17, 2009

Things were pretty civilized till we hit the switchbacks at Carter Lake. I took a decent pull off the front then sat in on the apron to the climb and waited for the fireworks to begin. The group jumped on the gas and it took me a good minute or so to settle in. I fell into 2nd chase group (a few went off the front, and then the main chase group of about 8 or so were about 30 secs up on us). As I climbed I picked off riders and headed to the front of the group and dropped it a few gears to give chase. Worked in the paceline a bit, but nobody truly wanted to work together. I took off on my own to give chase and give the group some incentive, but they only wanted to chase me down and not the group in front of us. At the top of the climb we reconvened.

From Jan 17, 2009

We headed down the descent on the backside and settled in for the long slow grind heading south. Surprisingly felt good on this and settled in, even taking a few good pulls at the front of the group again.

From Jan 17, 2009

As we headed south the group stayed mostly civilized and then I could tell a few were getting antsy. Stupidly, I got chopped coming through a corner and just didn’t have the legs to close the gap (I have zero sprint power at the moment, were talking like 800w max!) and the group just rolled away. I latched on with a group of 4 and we gave chase, eventually coming within a few seconds, then where caught by the stoplight. We pacelined for the rest of the ride back, but nobody really wanted to drill it home.

All together the legs were scary responsive considering, I haven’t really done any big group rides or even any super hard efforts yet this off-season so this was a first test. And like yesterdays ride, I set some 5 min and 20 min personal bests (far and above yesterdays)

Hiking with Lizzy

I decided that Lizzy needed a good stretch of the legs too. It’s only fair. I feel bad, since she hasn’t really been riding with me that much here and I walk here in the same open space nearly every day. Today I took her for a ride down to Marhall/Mesa area in South Boulder. We had a blast and got a nice hour plus of hiking in. Also found out that you can ride there and the dogs can be off-leash, so guess where I’m headed on Monday!

The view of the flatirons was incredible

From Jan 17, 2009

Lizzy always cracks me up, I think she should have been on America’s top dog. She loves getting her picture taken. We did come across a few people on horseback on the trails. I’m pretty sure this was Lizzy’s first encounter with a horse. I was afraid she was going to give chase and try to eat them like they were a deer, but I think she was dumbfounded. She just kinda looked at them like, “WTF is that?, them are some big-ass dogs!”.

From Collages

You know it’s been a good day when you eat an entire box of mac n cheese with your dinner!

Tomorrow will be a fun day. 5+ hours in the mountains with Kat Statman , gonna be another gorgeous day!

I’ve used up my flickr quota for the month, so my pics are up on picasa; but I am loving the new Picasa app for the mac, just might replace iPhoto…

The past few days have been quite cold. There’s still a bit of snow on the ground and in my never-ending quest to stay completely off the trainer, I’ve strapped on the xc ski’s a few times and even hit the gym. This week is a rest week for me so it pretty much works out well that I haven’t needed to pack on the layers and figure out how to get a ride in!

Lizzy loves the snow, she loves to just run and barrel roll in it and even snow-plow with her nose. It’s always humorous. Right now, she’s passed out cold on the floor from today’s efforts.

The weather is looking to be much nicer these next few days, then dipping back cold (no problem for me as I’ll be on my way home to NY).

Hopefully tomorrow and Friday will see some time out on the road bike!

Currently playing in iTunes: Murderers by John Frusciante

Today was the first day to break out the xc skis. The few inches of snowfall and the cold temps are only here through today, so I had to utilize. I don’t think I was even on the xc skis at all last season. I know that the Lizzy girl was certainly happy to get out in the snow. Dog’s certainly love snow and she is no exception.

Temps looking to kick back into the 50’s this weekend, so I’ll be back out on the bike for some looong fun rides around the area. Anyone care to Join?

The flatirons were awesome to see this morning

Lizzy was having a blast running around in the snow as usual

Could I ski all the way to Nebraska?

Lizzy was so excited she was drooling on herself

Can’t beat the views!

Damn, missed out on first tracks!

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