Huh. I still have a Blog?

Craziness.  That's about all I can call it at this point.

Not sure why it's taken me three weeks to update the blog.  Lazy at home after work?  Yup.  Busy on weekends?  Yup.

Pretty sweet photo from Full Tilt in Telluride XC race.

So, I'm finally done with the race season.  Three weeks ago was MSC #7 - Full Tilt in Telluride.  Met up with some of Erin's friends from high school that live in Telluride now, and had a brutally steep XC race on Saturday and an equally brutally steep hill climb on Sunday.  The XC race was two laps of 12.5 miles each, and the lap started at 9700ft and topped out at well over 11000ft.  Each lap had over 1700ft of climbing.  Suffered through a wickedly gnarly muddy section twice (the second time sapped most of my energy) as well as a flat on the second lap in the XC race.  But the course was about 90% singletrack, and to be honest, would be great for a fun ride.  Racing on it was pretty damn hard, though.

Just plain suffered in the hill climb...1500 feet vert in 5 miles is going up in a hurry.  But Tee-Ride is a pretty sweet place.  Views of the mountains all around are fantastic, and the town has a lot of character.  And talk about secluded - one of the very few spots that my iPhone gets no data service.  At all.  Erin, Riley and I had a great time on our first trip to Telluride; wouldn't mind going back, either.

Rippin' the singletrack descent.  [Courtesy VastAction.com]

Getting lost in the trees at Winter Park.

Two weeks later (or a week and a half ago, depending on your point of view), MSC #8 - Winter Park Pursuit.  I took about a week and a half off the bike due to overall fatigue, and it seemed to pay off.  That, and the WP course set up very nicely for me, with a 14 mile first lap followed by a 12 mile second lap, both with about 1500ft of climbing each.  So lots of nice long flat or slight incline stretches that I could get a big gear rolling, and not very many sustained climbs.  Good for a guy of my size.  Ended up finishing 9th in XC on Saturday, and 6th in STXC on Sunday.  Followed the XC race up with a win by my beloved K-State Wildcats over UCLA in the opening weekend for college football, so all in all, it shaped up to be one of the better recent weekends.