Anyways the gist of this blog post was meant to be about my focus & motivation for 2012 & outline my goals.  Sometimes making things public can force you to never back down & push yourself to new levels.  As I posted earlier, going to be racing with Epic Pro cycling team p/b The Gear Movement.  New team, new teammates & some awesome new sponsors for 2012.  I’m excited to be back on Cannondale bikes, been a long time since I’ve ridden one, but I truly loved those bikes.  From my F2000SL (that I worked my ass off in college at Pizza Hut to pay for > Hell yes I rocked the blue Volvo logo’d frame & those crappy CODA discs, but got those swapped.  I think I only broke 2 of these frames!) to the Scalpel that took home off the demo truck, they were fast bikes.  2012, hoping to be on a Flash 29.

Flash 29

Serious team & serious goals for 2012

• PRO XCT Racing!! Texas, Colorado Springs & Missoula (will miss Wisco though as I’ll be back home for my mother’s wedding)
• Nationals!! XCO Nationals in Idaho
• Winter Park Series as I can hit them
• Steamboat Stinger (need some redemption from last years finish)

My goals are for some good finishes at the front of the pack  (race how I know I can race).  Perhaps crack the top 10 for the big races or pull some podiums up high at Winter Park/Steamboat.  Big time, hugest goal, holy crap maybe?  Get into the World Cup at Windham.  That’s not as easy as one thinks.  Need some solid UCI points for the season & not too many races will I get to hit to chase down those points, but if you’re going to dream, better dream big.  I’ll have the bike, the support & the team to do it.  I just need to bring the training into the right spots.

Yes, it’s completely true.  I’m actually training this season with a purpose & goal (see above).  The last 2-3 years have seen me mostly focused on family (getting married, moving, etc), making other people fast, & plain old having fun.  I got fit, but never truly race fit.  Did some intervals sparingly, rode my bike tons but lapsed when it came to the true dedication.  What most people call ‘soft’, didn’t push myself beyond the normal comforts of general riding.  It showed in my race results & my power numbers & even my mentality (at least according to my wife).  I would do just enough to get by & it worked for me then. It no longer will.

Not so this season, I’ve been cracking the whip at the gym.  Late evening or early morning gym sessions, crushing the core work.  Going the extra bit to get myself fit.  Riding is slowly up-ticking as well as my overall strength & general fitness.  I’m leaps & bounds ahead of the past few seasons in January & truly ready to get it on.  I’m feeling strong & it’s a great time to be alive & training hard.

Rolling with Coach Carson

First racing of the season kicks off with the Team at 24 hours of Old Pueblo.  Racing as part of a 5 person mixed team & looking to mix it up a bit. Obviously won’t be anywhere near mid-season race form, but will be nice to get some intensity in, particularly with Mellow Johnny PRO XCT only 2 weeks after.  Good chance to really integrate myself with the team & hopefully give Sam & Chris a run for their money on lap times

Clear roads & Mild temps have made for good training

That’s it for now.  Temps are looking great to load up the miles for this weekend & hopefully the snow melts.  #getsome, set some goals & get yourself focused for this season.  I am!

In case you didn’t know we got dumped on with snow this past Thursday. Not your typical w inches, but more like a foot or more.

As such have had to think outside the box when it comes to training. Road cycling was out for a bit as they really suck at plowing around here.

Thus, put some extra time in at the gym. Legs are getting sore from the hypertrophy phase, but definitely feeling strong. Friday with the day off for work, pulled out the classic skis & hit the local trail down the road. Was quite fun & peaceful. Will make for a great place to do recovery rides this summer.

Since I had already been skiing the day prior, busted out the snowshoes, grabbed the dogs & headed in the opposite direction on Saturday. Ended up being super warm & was crazily overdressed. The dogs sure enjoyed it, but had Lake along & he hated every minute of it. But we did have fun throwing snow balls at each other.

Finally was able to get out on the road bike today. Was enjoyable & nice to get out for some fun, but my legs were jacked from doing everything but cycling. Was a crazy temperature fluctuating day. Was 45 when I left, then would hit cold pockets and dip to 30, then back to 45-50 a few miles later.

And they still suck at taking care of the roads around here. Seriously with these temps, one thing I can say is every upstate road would be clear of snow. Around here the plows rarely come out & as such loads of drifts & icy sections on a few roads. Don’t even try to ride a side road… but alas, I’ve got mad skills from many a days of negotiating upstate roads & ice (while we had plenty of plows, colder temps made it tougher). Always fun to dive in to snow/ ice at 20+ & see if you’re gonna hit the deck or make it through.

Solidly warm temps are here for a bit & hopefully can get in some more great time playing this week & weekend!

Peak to Peak Highway

South St. Vrain… Raced the river on the way down

Strava Route

Afterwards grabbed the whole family and rolled out to the Eagle Trail in Boulder.  Even got Bridget out there on her Giant 29er.  Still learning the ropes and would be a good chance to run the dogs.  It’s one of the few trails that dogs & bikes can both be on in Boulder.  We just rolled down to the reservoir, let the dogs get in and rolled back.  Too warm to go fast for the dogs and a little too much uphill on the way back for Lake.  Poor Lulu was so cooked by the end she was running zig-zags and I don’t think she knew where she was.  Lizzy was barely panting and asking for more!

Lizzy and Lake heading out on the Eagle Trail

Wrapped up the day with some steaks on the grill and beers in the backyard,

West Magnolia

Sunday, headed out to the West Magnolia trails with Frank and Von.  Had heard about these, but never had ridden them.  Drove up to get some extra time on the dirt.  Rolled into the lot, hooked up with Scott Upton & Randall.  They were both sporting some singlespeeds and wanted to romp around a bit on the dirt and check out the SSUSA course that had occurred on the trails the prior day.

Frank was on the gas from the go

Frank took off like a rocket and we chased him around for a bit on the super dry and super fun trails and decided to make our way up to the “Toilet Bowl’, no idea what it was, but I was just following

Wonder if Chris is home?

Went up the trail known as ‘schoolbus’ and soon found out why.  So we decided to explore a bit and check things out.

Boarding the bus

Well, if it got dark we’d have shelter

Seem like we’re on the right bus

We kept chugging upwards and onwards and found some even cooler stuff.  An old abandoned mine & equipment.  I could’ve spent hours checking this stuff out and.  Was super cool to see

Frank the Tank

Built to Last, well over 100 years old I’m thinking..

No thanks, good with plain old dirt

As we went up higher, started running into snow

We kept creeping upwards and were continually running into snow drifts that were a few feet deep.  This was a first for me.  75+ degrees and deep snow on the trail.  We made a bunch of crossings and then reached a point around 9500′ ft where the snow just made the trail unpassable.  We jumped up to the road and tried to make our way up via alternate routes, but the road was just wet and muddy.  Got up a ways to where we needed to access the trails and I believe the quote was ‘There’s a waterfall on the trail there!’ so that turned us around and we just ripped around the trails down lower.  We lost Scott and Randy to a whole bunch of flat tires and rolled on for some more over to the DOT trails.

Gorgeous view of the high country were abound

Strava Route

Ended up with just shy of 3 hours of bike time.  Trails were awesome and by far some of my favorite trails I’ve ridden around locally.  I’ll definitely have to head back.  It’s a pretty intricate network and gonna have to learn those for sure!  All together was a great way to finish of a nice solid block of training and prepare for the Bailey Hundo!

We ended up driving through Big Thompson Canyon into Estes Park.  Along the way we stopped for some lunch along the river.  Decided it would be fun as hell to play in the stream, throw some rocks, climb on the Boulders and basically just be 6 year old boys.  It was a blast and we both had tons of fun.

Immediately as we rolled into Estes Park, there was a whole herd of Elk that crossed the road.  So it was super cool to see!

Once we got inside the Park, both of us were really awed by the vistas and the surrounding landscape.  I think Lake wanted to play on the rocks a bit more.  Don’t tell mom, but a few feet back is a big drop off!

My favorite picture from the day.  We played on this rock for a long time.  Even got to pretend it was the surface of the moon and bounce around and jump on it like were astronauts.

At the day’s end we went to the museum where Lake earned his Junior Ranger badge.  He was pretty dang excited for this and I was super proud of him for earning it and answering the Rangers questions.  I think now we have to go to a few more parks for him to earn more.

Nothing is better than hearing him say “Best Day Ever” when we got home.  Full pics here on facebook .  All in All, super fun day and glad that got to spend the day with Lake!

Saturday-FoCo Fun

Managed to get out Saturday with Sonya and Jeff of Team Green (Ergon)  Go there, they have some cool pictures too!.  They are both prepping for the Julian Death March next weekend in Cali and needed a good ride with some climbing.  Temps were up near 80 for the day and I made a mistake opting for just bottles.  I really loathe carrying a pack, especially when wanting to ride at a solid clip.  The Superfly only has 1 bottle mount and I guess I just need to suck it up and carry it.  It ended up costing me big time.  I played it conservative with the water bottles as I wasn’t totally sure where/when we would get water and by the time I needed it, I had barely drank half a bottle 2 hours into the ride and was already in the whole.  We scored some before the climb up Horsetooth, but damage was done.  I started to cramp a little bit coming up the long climb, hamstrings were just not happy at that point.

Rolling out along HorseTooth Reservoir

Climbing up the big Climb to the Towers

I’m on top of the World!!

Trails were in Primo conditions

We came off the Towers climb on a pretty crazy fast wide-open descent (was really fun and felt like descending the ol Bristol Mt. Ski Slopes).  Grabbed some more water and headed over to Blue Sky/Indian Summer.  Climbing up Indian summer was total suckage for me.  Legs had no go and just had to back off a bit and let the 2 go in hopes I’d have some thing to finish the ride off with.  Started to come around a bit rolling back home on Blue Sky and back out, but there wasn’t any need to go after that.  All together though was a great day of riding and had some awesome fun with the Green Gang and got to ride some new trails that haven’t ridden before.

Don’t want to sound like a downer on the ride, cause it was hellacious fun and we ripped the trails.  Had some good times and now I’m looking forward to pinning on my first number plate this coming weekend at the first Mountain States Cup of the season down in Colorado Springs at the Cheyenne Mt. Explosion.  Will be a good chance to get some high intensity work and just toe the line after a long off-season.  Still have tons of fitness to build and looking forward to a long race season!

Lesson learned this weekend though, in that heat and dryness need to drink alot more!  I slammed 2 x 32 oz of Cola on the way home and grabbed a full meal and was still 4 lbs under my morning starting weight!  Ouch, I know better than to do that for sure

Jumped on the rollers here at FasCat for some Over-Under work.  Essentially 30 seconds at low anaerobic work to create some suffering, fill up that cup full of pain and then 8 minutes at 95% of threshold.  Working right at that point where the body is almost having trouble clearing lactate, then hitting it hard again the final 30 seconds.

Enough indoor stuff though, the 5 day forecast is looking awesome!!

Here’s to getting the mountain bike out this weekend for some more shredding!

With the moderate temps and winds, decided to stay down low and head around Carter Lake.  It was once my go to route last time I was out here and this was only the 1st time I’ve ridden it!

Looking back South from the end of the Lake

Managed to run into Mr. Kerkove near the marina.  He flipped it and rolled around the backside of Carter lake with me.  It was sopping wet from all the melting snow, but still enjoyable to have some company for a short bit before I fought the winds heading back to Boulder

FasCat Winter Bike League

Sunday was another FasCat Winter Bike League ride.  Our way of showing thanks to the community as we invite FasCat clients and friends for a good ride.  Had a huge headcount of around 60/70 or so when we rolled out.  Unfortunately the pace was a bit high heading north and we lost a few for sure, but it heated up even more on the climbs.

We climbed up South St. Vrain for a ways.  Held onto the front group for as long as I could until it just shattered as everyone wanted to race Zirbel to the top

Slowly picked off a few after getting dropped from the initial surges

The front group makes it way up the climb as I slobbered on my stem

Didn’t feel too bad getting dropped, such is life…

After St. Vrain we rolled up Rabbit mt, where again I was one of the first chasers off the front group

Front group is a little closer this time!

And again after we all regrouped we decided to keep on climbing and headed up LeftHand Canyon to the Ward/Jamestown split.  Not too many people left on the ride at this point and I hung on for dear life for the first mile and half or two and then picked off a few stragglers but always seemed out of reach of the front group on Sunday.  Not too bad as it was really my first true hard efforts of the season within a group setting and nothing like trying to hang onto some fit dudes who can climb in order to jumpstart your fitness!  All in all pretty happy and set some new power numbers for this season at the end of a pretty solid block.

Naturally this week is a rest week and the weather is 60′s all week!  But should be good as I’ll be doing an MLSS test on Thursday, excited to see where I stand! Hopefully not on the bottom!

In other news, got Bridget a new car!!  Having 1 vehicle was getting to be a pain in the arse and she needed something for her commute to her new job in Broomfield

Regardless, Loveland is super close, so rolled over there for a gorgeous day on the mtb.  I’ll keep it short and sweet  and let the pictures do the talking.

The Devils Backbone

View of the whole Devils Backbone from the opposite ridge looking west

Last time I was here, was on the hardtail superfly, Loved having the 110mm of suspension in the rear on the nasty rocks

Awesome view of the Valley and the aptly named ‘Blue Sky Trail’

Down in the Valley by the Cottonwoods

The Nasty rocks, I get a chuckle when the east coasters say Colorado isn’t technical, this isn’t a section, this is the entire trail!

Since I was out nice and early and got back home with loads of time, Bridget and Lake where a bit antsy and looking to have some fun, so I took em back for a nice family hike.

Lake showing us how it’s done

I love this picture with the awesome colors….. I also can’t imagine how much one of these homes would cost with a view of the Devil’s Backbone…

All in all a really awesome day on the bike and with the family.  Felt great to get my dirt fix on and definitely looking to head back to the trails again and again.  The rocks are definitely tough and I have a few dabs I’d like to get back!

Headed out with the big cat Frank himself for a short bit, up and over 4 mile, then up Poormans and down Sunshine. I dropped Frank off and headed up to Jamestown for some more climbing.

Pic above is only 1 I managed, but it’s downtown Jamestown. As you can see it’s a busy place! Rolled it back down and headed north to Lyons to loop it & head back to Boulder.

Finally feeling really solid on the bike & making the gains where needed Not quite race ready, but no longer feeling like death after every little climb. I still feel like my mouth is stuffed with a t-shirt when the going gets tough, but for now z2 & tempo feel pretty comfortable. Which is pretty much where I need to be this time of the year.

I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow as I want to ride my mountain bike on trails, it’s been way to long!

On Wednesday as I was heading out the door, my training partner Sonya Looney peeked her head in the door at FasCat as she was heading out.  She was on her mountain bike and I was on my road bike, so decided to follow along with her for a bit until we departed ways.

Rolling up Sunshine Canyon in Short Sleeves and Shorts

We rolled up Sunshine Canyon, then down Poormans road and climbed up 4 mile.   While on 4 mile Sonya decided to do a lil interview on the bike, pretty funny, check it out here…  We split on 4 mile as she headed up high to trudge through 8 foot snow drifts and defeat mountain lions with nothing but an ipod shuffle.  I rolled 4 mile till I hit the dirt and then flipped it back around to the base of Poormans.

Going up….

Climbed up Poormans on the dirt and then when I hit Sunshine, kept heading up till Sunshine turned to dirt and flipped it back down.

Gorgeous day up high can even see the High Peaks

All in all, really Can’t beat it.  2 gorgeous days in a row.  Weather is all over the place right now for the weekend, so not so certain what I’ll be doing for this weekend.  Hoping that the trails dry out, but no idea if it’ll happen or not.  Guess will wait and see

Girl Talk- All Day

We ventured up Sunshine Canyon, down Poorman rd and 4 mile making our way up Magnolia road.  It was a climb that I’d never done before, but kinda always wanted to do.  Definitely wasn’t disappointed.

Great view of the Valley Below

It definitely didn’t disappoint.  It was uber steep in the beginning, loaded with switchbacks (enough so that some silly texan ended up in the guardrail.  Sorry buddy but 3 chicks and a skinny dude aren’t gonna push you out!).  At that point Lindsay and Caitlyn turned around and headed back while Sonya and I trudged on to Peak to Peak.

It was about here that I lost all feeling in my digits, but the views of the High Peaks were worth it!

We hit the dirt section where it was nice and rolling over the top.  Temps started to drop a bit and the winds were apocalyptic.  I was a little under prepared and had some thing gloves on, thus when we stopped to flip it at Peak to Peak, I suffered from the dreaded ‘fire-hands’.  I was kinda actually thankful though, as I knew as soon as got them my hands would be warm.  But it was a bit painful and gut wrenching, I survived though and had warm hands for the descent back to town.

All Smiles with the Tailwinds!

We hit town and I dropped Looney off and rolled it for another hour home to Longmont.  In the sunshine with the gloves off!!

Magnolia 7% for over an hour…. like to hit it in the summer with the road bike, at least for a kick ass descent

Sunday

Sunday was gorgeously warm day.  But the winds were insane.  I couldn’t get out till later and they were at 20+ mph sustained and 45 mph gusts.  Made me feel the prior days fatigue twice as much.  Grinding away into the headwind.  I had planned to go up again.  Headed up Lefthand Canyon, but when I was doing 1.5mph as hard as I could go uphill due to the insane gusts, I flipped it.  Headed up over Olde Stage and Lee Hill.  I promptly broke my chain climbing up Lee Hill on the switchback.  I managed not to crash as I was up and out of the saddle pushing it pretty hard.  I think it’s all the mtb chains I’ve snapped, but this was my first road chain.  Something has been ingrained in my head to que on that sound and let off the gas so I don’t crush my knee or nuts on the stem.  I spent some time on the side of the road fixing the chain and let’s just say it definitely wasn’t PG-13.  Finally got it rolling, made it up over Lee Hill and rolled it back to Longmont.  Short a lil bit of time, but glad to have escaped the wind and not have ended up in a ditch!

Gonna be a killer week of warm riding, hoping the trails are rideable by the end of the week!