Let The Good Times Roll

So, with perfect weather on tap for Saturday, and nothing planned, I decided that I had neglected the ol' mountain bike and decided to load her on top of the vehicle, drive 20 miles into the mountains, and give her a go.

After doin a little debating on what to ride, I opted to ride some of the more populated trails, you know, to keep my mom happy (she don't like it when I ride by myself).

I have a habit of doing the same exact rides, time after time, just cause I know them, I've developed a comfort level.

When the standard rides look like this,
it doesn't get monotonous.

With all the rain we've been getting, the trails are in AWESOME shape. Everything is super green and purty, and the dirt is moist and tacky, Perfect!

So, after about two hours of riding the standard trails, I decided to step out of the comfort zone and go try to find some trails I've heard people talkin about.I got a little lost, but then found the way. It turned out to be super rad, fun trail. Good times where definitely had. Ended up riding for right around 4 hours, 2 of which were exploratory. I hope to get up there and again soon, stat!

This is what I found.

Here is a little video, sorry my camera sucks ass at video.
And sorry for the abrupt movements.
I thought it was funny enough to share still.

Don't try that at home.
(it should be noted that I didn't fall)

No real plans for the Fourth yet, I am leaning towards the Firecracker 50 up in Breckenridge. It's a 50 mile mtn bike race. I've done it twice, here is last year's write-up. Should be fun. Who know's, maybe catch some fireworks or something.

Welp, that's about it for now, I am in St. George and have to head down to Vegas to catch my jetplane home. Toodles.


P.S. One more, just for fun.

Sans Blunt Speed or Power

So I did the Wednesday Night Short Track race last night. I was actually on the fence about it the whole day and was hoping that I would get saved by the frequent rain that we have been getting. My legs felt like... well... they felt like shit. I got all dressed up in my finest super hero outfit, and got on the bike to ride down there. I was a little excited as there was a thunderstorm blowing in. I made my way to the liquor store to pick up a sixer of adult beverages, and continued the ride over.

I did a few laps on the course, and the legs were still a no go. It rained a little, but not enough to amount to anything. I initially thought the layout of the course sucked ass, but decided to race anyways. I payed my money, warmed up a little more and camped out to get a good start position.

Now, let me tell you about these races. They hurt. The starts are SUPER critical. You have 30-50 dudes riding balls to the wall to the first turn/singletrack. The first 5 seconds are the scariest part of the whole race. Luckily, I am pretty good at the start. I can usually pull the hole shot, or pretty close to it. Last night, they had decided to have a ~30 yard mass start, and then funnel down into a right hand single track section. It was crazy town.

Well, I managed to be second into the first turn. Perfect. My feelings started to change a little for the course, I was really warming up to it. As another write-up said, "The course weaved back and forth with several challenging hills and a couple of slick corners, making the race about technical skill rather than blunt speed and power." That actually worked out perfect on the old tired stumps I had for legs, cause there was no blunt speed or power coming out of them last night.

I finished the race in 5th, not far from the 1st-4th group, who stayed together for most of the race. It was my best placing of the year so far on the Wednesday series (I've got two 7th places, one 8th, and now a 5th). This also knocked me up into 2nd place in the overall. Yeah, I said knocked me up. Good times. I celebrated with two sixteen ounce Coors Lights.

The funny part of this story is after I rode home. After walking through the door, still adorned in bike shoes, bike socks, bike shorts, and a bike jersey (I had taken off my helmet), I decided the garbage needed to go out. I walked it over to the dumpster, and at the same time, some other dude in my complex was taking his out.

"Oh, Do you ride?" he says.

I was a little caught off guard, millions, and I mean millions of witty remarks ran through my little brain. None of witch I had the balls to say. "Um, Yep." I replied.

He proceeded to ask me who my sponsor was, when I told them who, he asked, "Oh... who's that?" He then tried to sell me some Zipp Wheels for my road bike, tell me how he was a pro triathlete, tell me ALL his sponsors, and try to sell me his coaching services.

I am pretty sure he was from somewhere else, mainly because of his accent. And his usage of the word "Flat" instead of apartment.

Well... anyways, I thought it was funny.

Big gulps, eh? Well... see ya later.

I'm alive

The Big Enchilada was eaten... but not completely, I had to get a doggy bag and save some for later.

I threw in the towel at 7pm last night in Central City, after riding pretty much since 5am. With some small food breaks thrown in. My total distance was in the 166.3 to low 170 range. My Garmin thought that it would be cool to act up yesterday, and shut off a couple times. It also has a shitty memory and only remembered (with elevation chart and heart rate and everything) the last 85 miles of the ride. I think the total climbing was somewhere around 13,000 feet.

We had an epic headwind most of the way. No joke, I don't know how one can ride a loop and get a head wind in almost every direction, but we did yesterday. Other than that, the weather held out, except for a small rain shower that lasted about 30 minutes. The funnest part of the ride was the killer crosswind at the top of Rocky Mountain National Park at 12,200 feet that we thought was going to blow the some of the riders off the road.

The legs held up. The right knee was a little sore, but no IT Band issues like years past. A little Vitamin I took care of that.

I took exactly no pictures from the ride. I had my camera in the van, but yeah, no photos. There was some taken by our van driver, I'll see if I can wrangle some up at a later date.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot, the raddest thing yelled from a car the whole day was some D Bag yelling at us to "Get Downhill Bikes!" I thought it was pretty classy. Especially since one of their bikes was strapped haphazardly to the top of their late 80s model Chevy Blazer, while the other two were secured(?) to a rear rack that's welding and craftsmanship could be rivaled by the K-6 grade local Waldorf schools arts and crafts class. (As a side note at least 2 of the 6 that I was riding with could, without a doubt school those jokers on their DH bikes, which they already own.)

The Big Enchilada

Sunday is the Solstice. The longest period of daylight of the year. I am going to try and ride my bike for as much of that time as is physically possible (by me). This route is not for the faint of heart, and I am actually a little afraid of it. The hardy group I am riding with is planning for failure. We are limiting our group number only to what can fit in our Dodge Sprinter Van sag wagon. So when we fall off of our bikes, one by one, we can hobble into the van and lick our wounds.

Part of the ride will take us up some of the course from my big ride last year.

That is just the warm up. Here is the ride in its entirety:
I think actual distance is about 197. If completed, I will hit 200 miles (cause I am riding to the start location), and about 1 bazillion vertical feet of climbing. Mapmyride.com only claims 15,000 feet of climbing, but I don't really trust their elevation all too much. I am going to map as much as I can on my Garmin, but that battery only lasts 10-12 hours. I am going to see if there is anything I can do to extend battery life.

The mapmyride page is here.

I am debating on carrying the camera. It may be too much weight.

On to the next topic. Since the origination of this blog, I have debated with myself about how personal is too personal. I have never really posted anything about any sort of relationship. Understandably, this has been a topic of contention. I have done this more to protect the innocent (not me), than to hurt anyone. I guess it is a fine line, one that I am going to have to learn how to walk.

It's Friday folks, go out and do what you do best, we've only got 2 days until we have to report back to the man.