JasonHilimire.com

Things have really started to mesh well the last few weeks. Been getting some good ride time in on the bike & all the snow is starting to melt. The sun is even shining!

Few days last week I managed some early morning road rides along the lakefront. Something quite serene & peaceful about it. Everything is still & it’s nice to have the solitude. Unfortunately so early in the am causes some unawakened legs also, but just takes some getting used to.

This weekend was great. The sun was out & got to race my bike on Saturday & get in a good ride again on Sunday. More importantly spent loads of time with Lake! Bridget is in NYC for a few days so we’ve been hanging out. Went for a bike ride, played some snow soccer & played some indoor hockey (don’t tell Bridget!) & all the fun stuff that little dudes do. He’s way too much fun, gotta keep it coming in doses though!

Thus week should be another killer week. Fitness is rapidly climbing & another giro again this weekend. Might skip Sunday & go climbing the hills of Naples for a big ride. Gonna be gorgeous! Maybe I’ll even get some pics up on thus thing & blog more than once a month!

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.

3rd times a charm right? Typed this out 2x on the phone already & failed to post. Oh Well. Keep it short.

Hit up some snow covered roads on the cross bike last night. Way more fun the rollers. Super serene & peacefull out there.

I’ve not kept up on the blogging front, but I have been training! You might just call it stealth mode training I guess nowadays. As everytime someone goes on a bike ride apparently there’s suppose to be a blog post with pictures and powercharts/tweet/or facebook update. (I’m guilty on the twitter/facebook thing as it’s just so much easier and faster)

But you see I’ve just gone and put on my ninja mask, and disappeared.

Slowly silently, I’m training. Stalking and killing will be the name of the game. It’s not about being the biggest baddest wolf. I’m thinking it’s more about being swift, & nimble and using some well timed attacks this season, like a golden eagle. For Reference: This is how you bring em down

Been quite a bit of roller time this season. I decided I had to lift my 4 year indoor bike ride boycott. Especially since my Minerva Design Cycling teammates are counting on me to be ready in the early spring, and ready for the Spring Giro’s (7 weeks away!)

I even pulled out my xc ski’s this past weekend. Thank god I don’t do that in public anywhere. I flop around a bit, but get the job done. And man was I sore for a few days….

Temps are warming up after our deep freeze, So that means loads of time on the bike outdoors this weekend! (this ain’t the south or the west, so 25 degrees is warming up)

It’s ok really, I’m still alive. My off season has come and gone. You can call off the search & rescue crew, I’m finally making a blog post. I’ve even ridden my bike a few times…

So I took a few weeks off the bike, drank some beers, hung out with the family. Played alot of video games. Lot’s of Modern Warfare 2 and I still suck online. The only thing I could kill was the people in the airport as they were unarmed…

I’ve finally swung myself back into training mode. Been getting myself motivated enough to get into the gym for every workout. Though I swapped with Bridget and started going in the mornings. Let me tell you, getting up at 5 am really sucks. I’d much rather lift at midnight than that early. There really isn’t any amount of coffee that will awaken me enough. Though, I gotta do what I gotta do otherwise she’ll wear the dreaded sweatpants. If you’re a guy, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re a girl, why?

Seriously, can feel the raw power in the legs coming. Just wait till next week when I’ll try to get my scrawny ass to lift more than just the bar. My legs are gonna be HUGE!

I even actually dragged my ass out of bed at 4:30 am this morning in the midst of major snowstorm, and drove to the trails to ride. Mark & Suzanne couldn’t make it out due to the weather, and they had Burt’s bike. I made a unfruitful attempt to ride in the deep snow and decided to turn arond and go back to bed. Ah well, chamois time is training time right?

Maybe I’ll get some miles in this weekend on the roadie, I even bought me a new sweet blue race lite front wheel for her and everything. I don’t have to steal the one of my cross bike anymore!

Maybe next post I won’t wait an entire month!

Weather didn’t looks so nice today for a bike road. Besides, every now and then you gotta switch things up and keep things fresh. With that in mind I headed up to the Eldora Nordic Center to put in a solid 4 hours on the xc skiis.

Trails were groomed, temps were perfect was looking to be a good day.

Hmm, forgot to grab a map, guess I’ll just wing it and head to the top of the mountain. Head up the snowshoe trails and bomb down, close as I can get to singletrack today!

Looked nicer than the groomed trails, little did I know it was about 2,000ft elevation gain straight up! Damn that was tough!

At least when I got to the cabin, the lookout wasn’t very far and I was blessed with fresh tracks on the way to the tippy top!

Look ma, I’m on top of the world (close about 10,500ft or so!)

Yup, started waaay down there by those slopes

All in all it was an awesome 4 hours of xc skiing and I only crashed a few times on the way back down . 4 solid hours on the skiis and the legs are quite sore as I sit here and type this out.

Tomorrow looks like a great day (mid 40’s), should be a perfect day to nix six hours on the bike!

Last day here in NY. Nothing like heading out for a nice ride on the frozen tundra. Short but sweet, managed to get in a workout and stay off the trainer.

I did manage to fall once on the icy roads though and crack my elbow pretty good. Hurt like a mother. It was solid ice under that snow!

PS Turn your volume off before you watch

Simple test upload and video with the new vholdr camera, nothing special, but captures how hard it is to ride on the roads.

Hitting the Roads tomorrow

Tomorrow, I head back to Boulder. Looking forward to the warm temps ahead.

Not going to miss this weather!

My Article on Power Training comparison of Mt. Bikers vs. Road is posted up over on Bike Radar!!

Short and sweet, but loads of snow here in Upstate NY. Nothing to do but bust out the xc ski’s and have some fun. Yesterday was solo over at Glenwood with Lizzy.

It’s amazing how calm and serene it is out in the woods. Absolute peace. No headphones or technology. Just the crunch of the snow

I have no idea what this is, but it appeared randomly in the fall. And is that a ghost?

MPH

Today headed over to MPH with Mark, Suzanne and Lizzy (C-dog is on the injured reserve list). Put in a few more hours in the early am and had some fun.

Lizzy just loves the snow

Where they went, I followed.

Great Day!

Temps were on the upswing today after the cold and snow blast we received in the latter part of the week. So what else was there to do than, grab the cross bike and ride up to Gold Hill? Trails aren’t dry enough yet, roads have a little slush in a few spots, so the giant tcx was the tool for the moment. Besides, thoughts are bouncing in my head if I should race the CO State Champs tomorrow?? Seeing as even if everyone fell over before the finish line and I won by some miracle, I can’t hold the title (no ACA license), the plans are to put in a 4 hour endurance ride then go race. Now that sounds like fun!

Sarah and I met at Vic’s and headed out to 4 mile via the Boulder Creek Path. After a bit, it was unmaintained and slushly, snowy and icy. Sarah’s “southern style” skills hadn’t ever seen anything like that before, so we jumped out onto the road and ground out the 9.5 miles to the top.

Roads had some mud, but were pretty firm for the most part

No need for the head gear today!

The roads were drying out quick, I rode most of the climb in just my jersey and even without the gloves.

About 3/4 way to the top and looking back down

Sarah wins the Super Trooper bad-ass award for the day. About 2 miles to go from the top, she snapped her chain (She-Ra like power!) and seeing as I was on the tcx, I had no tools and neither did she. Luckily, her chain had 2 power links in it. We decided to make her bike a singlespeed. It worked and worked pretty well. She grunted out the last 2 miles and entered the mystic realm that is Gold Hill.

We chilled for a bit, grabbing some coffee and discussing the finer points of mountain living with some of the weathered locals. I seriously might be the only person looking forward to being an old geezer who can just sit by the fire, drinking coffee all day and spitting out eclectic tidbits of wisdom. Especially to wide-eyed cyclists who are uncultured in the finer aspects of mt living.

Quick cruise back down the mountain (hey didn’t crash today) and dropped Sarah back off at Vic’s and made the jaunt home. Good fun day of 3.5 hours of riding!

All of today’s pics can be found here

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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