Cold, Again

Eight below zero on my way to work this morning.

In the words of Stewie from Family Guy -

"I'm freezin' my nips off out here."

It's Official...

...it has finally snowed in the Vail Valley.  For real.  Which left one question in most of our minds up here in the mountains:

Where the F&#K has this been!?!?

Last week the area managed to get a decent blanket of snow.  And it kept snowing.  And kept snowing.  And kept snowing.  Finally, by Sunday this week, both The Beav and Vail were hit with enough of the white stuff that you couldn't find a spot on the mountains that sucked.

Made it out on the hill last Sunday morning for a couple hours.  Yes, I know it was President's Day weekend.  But you see, there was a new 9" reported at Vail; this being the first potential Powder Day of the year for me, I had to make the trip.

I was completely setting myself up for a letdown.  I thought that the snow had been sooooo bad this year, that they were inflating the snowfall.  I figured it would be the average male snowfall:  reported as 9", but really only 5 or 6 inches, and so-so quality.  [note:  yes, I thought of that joke on one of the chairlift rides.  Made me laugh out loud just thinking about it.  So I had to use it.]

And I was completely wrong.

While all you President's Day vacationers were heading straight for the Bowls or Blue Sky, I was chillin' easy style on the frontside, just running some laps over above Lionshead.  Couple of trips down Bwana and Simba, followed by four straight runs down Minnie's (pic above) - a field of bumps covered in thick, soft, creamy powder.  And each time I went back down it, my tracks were the only ones I saw.  It wasn't 9".  It was more like 12".

The key is, it kept snowing all week.  This past weekend was even better...good enough that I made it out both Friday afternoon and Sunday.  Sunday ended up being an all-day crush-fest with the B-Lob, ripping through the Back Bowls repeatedly.  Shin-deep the whole day.  No pics - you don't get to know where my secrets are...

OK - rant of the day:

$15.35.

Fifteen effing dollars.  AND thirty-five cents.

For this:

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you.  That's:

• A brownie, albeit with dried cranberries, toasted coconut, etc.
• A 20oz lemon-lime Gatorade
• A 12oz yogurt parfait, with fresh blueberries, raspberries, and toasted oats.

To Vail Resorts:  Yes, I really like skiing at your mountain resorts.  Especially when you cloud-seed, and we get a bunch of fresh powder.

But fuck it, I'll starve next time.

Yup...it's Friday.

The latest news on the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC -

Lindsey Vonn's Gold Medal from the Women's Downhill has been taken away.

The new Gold Medalist is Barack Obama - apparently he's been going down hill faster than anyone else in the world.

Yeah, it's Friday.  Deserving of a blatant political partisan ignorance joke.

Brutality On A Saturday

Holy cramped quadriceps, Batman!

Strength Application workout today. Leg Press - loaded to 175lbs, do one rep a second until muscle failure. Repeat for 5 sets.

If you're scoring at home, that's FOUR HUNDRED reps.

Talk about not being able to walk straight.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Task Complete

Step 1:  Put bike in box.

Step 2:  Put wheels in box and close.

Step 3:  Reassemble bike at destination.

Apparently, it works for a 23" 29er.

Task At Hand

It's Friday, which means I have the afternoon off.

Today's task:

Fit this...

 

 In here...

  

So I can travel here in April.

Umm...riiiiiiiight.

Whaddup Dog...ma?

Ahhh.

Another crazy-ass workweek has almost passed us by, which receives no complaints from yours truly.

Yesterday was my first trip to Dogma Athletica - a fitness/training/pilates/yoga establishment that is very, shall we say, supportive of the local bike community.  My prize for winning the Hammer In The Hay race last spring was a 10-trip punch card to Dogma, and I figured it was time to start using it.

You see, they've got computrainers.

You hook your bike up to what looks like a normal resistance trainer; relatively similar to what I have at home.  Unlike my fluid trainer at home (constant resistance; as you shift gears, the intensity increases or decreases), these are electronically controlled to change the resistance to its programming, so you don't have to shift.  All you do is pedal.

And suffer.

First day consisted of a 15 minute warmup, then 6x5x3 intervals with Jono Ridler.  (For those that aren't "in the know", 6x5x3 means six sets of 5 minutes high intensity, with 3 minutes of lower intensity/recovery.)  We set up at 80% threshold during the interval, then 50% threshold during recovery.  Since I had never done power training in my life, my coach told me that I should set my threshold at 290-295 watts, and try it out.  What I didn't realize is that 295W - which is what I set it at - was the highest in the class.  Singlespeeder Jay Kocks was in the class - and had it set up at 290W.

Crap.

Actually, it wasn't that far off.  For six sets, I didn't really hit a solid 9 out of 10 on the exertion scale until midway through the fourth set.  So I was pretty pleased with that.  The other thing this computrainer does for you is give you feedback on your power output.  I was pretty pleased with where I came in at:

- Power-to-weight ratio:  Maxed around 3.20 W/kg, averaged 2.75 W/kg
- Average power output:  Over 200W (including recoveries, warmup and cooldown)
- Average HR:  157bpm
- Average Cadence:  96rpm
- Total Distance:  31.46mi in 1 hour

All in all, not a bad workout.  Too bad I had to go back to work until nearly midnight afterward.

On other fronts:
- The Fightin' Willies of Kansas State University keep on keepin' on.  Wins on the road at Nebraska and Iowa State - both very solid road wins - have allowed the Wildcats to jump into #9 in both polls, at 19-4.
- The trip to Seaside,CA for the XC race at Sea Otter is becoming a reality.  Hotel reserved, hard-shelled bike case ordered, and as soon as I can guarantee my Stumpy will fit in it, the plane tickets are getting booked.
- This has been one of the worst snow years in recent memory.  However, it appears that it is going to let me get outside on the bike more often, now...so that's good.  Made it out last weekend for an easy 2hr ride from Eagle to the top of Glenwood Canyon and back.  It was relatively calm, sunny, and 35F at 3:30pm...just a beautiful day.

Birthday is coming up in less than two weeks.  Yay.

It's nearly time to start thinking about heading to Fruita for some mountain biking.  As soon as temps start hitting 50F there - I'm going.  Period.

That way I can...GO RIDE!