Time Flies

Well, it's been two months since I've last been slummin' around these parts.

I guess first and foremost, let's get caught up on all the racing action this summer.  I've taken part in a number of races up, down and around the mountain region of the country.

Of course, I've had to jump into the local Vail Rec District races.  I've managed to make it to three of the five races so far:  Eagle Ranch Classic, Hammer in the Hay, and Davos Dash.  Haven't had the greatest success from a pure result standpoint, but I have been holding my own, setting a PR at Davos (a three-mile hillclimb) by 40 seconds.  Pretty stoked with that one, cuz when you're 6'-6" and staring down the barrel of 200 lbs, one thing you don't do particularly well is go uphill in a hurry.

Also, I've jumped into a couple of Mountain States Cup races - Cheyenne Mountain Explosion, and Rabbit Valley Rally.  Cheyenne was a technically demanding course, but not over the top from a fitness standpoint.  Rabbit Valley Rally found me fighting some nutrient imbalance issues, and cramping out of the race.  Sucks, because I was flat out hammering in that race until I went down.

The Teva Mountain Games have also come and gone.  A lucky couple of days got the course in good prep for the race; and for only using the bottom third of Vail Mountain, my God was that a challenging track.  Steep, punchy climbs that didn't just make your legs scream - they straight up took a chainsaw to them.  Dropped the only water bottle I had with me about 5 minutes into the race...not sure why I even finished that one.  Oh well - if there's one thing I'll say for the TMG event, it's that the swag bag for athletes is stellar.  $40 entry fee, well over $50 worth of stuff in the bag.  Makes just showing up worth it.

Palisade Classic was easily my best race of the year so far.  Which is surprising, because typically I don't hang on very well in longer events.  With a 45 minute climb right out of the gate, a solid 30 minute jeep road descent immediately after, the first half of the race didn't set up well for me.  After holding it together through those two sections, the remainder of the course was flat, sandy singletrack winding all over on the mesa overlooking Colorado's wine country.  Finally - a course that had the terrain that I excel at.  Was able to keep things motoring along over the last two hours of the race, finishing up 17th in the overall standings.

The lower rock garden.  75 yards of hand-built hell.

Finally, we arrived at the USA Cycling National Championships, in Ketchum, Idaho.  First trip to Ketchum.  Definitely want to go back - the place is freaking amazing.  Beautiful vistas, a small-town feel that can't be beat (but has all the amenities you could want), and miles upon miles upon miles upon miles of singletrack.  Ironically, as good as the singletrack around Ketchum is, the race course was iffy at best.  Rock gardens had to be hand-built, the main climb of the race saw 90% of the racers walking due to a combination of steep, loose gravelly trail, large root step-ups (12-18"), and severe racer congestion.  The rest of the course wasn't bad, but didn't give you any opportunities to make up for the poorly constructed climb.  Right at the bottom of the course, in front of the entire spectator crowd to see, was the "Waterfall" - a rock garden descent (of course, hand-built) that fell away from you as you entered.  Imagine as you're riding into this section, you see rock-rock-big rock-nothing.  The trail just disappeared from you.  Interesting, but I got the better of it and crushed it on both laps.  The climb was too steep for me to hold on to the group, so I found myself dropping a lot of time on the uphill portion.  Made up for it on some flat sections - there just wasn't enough of the terrain in my wheelhouse that I could get back into the mix.  Still, I bested my target time, and hung in there with the best mountain bike racers in the country.  Great road trip, heading up with buddy Josh Whitney (took 3rd in our race) and local racer/friend Adam Plummer.  Also ran into college cohort Aaron Elwell, racing the Pro division...always a great time catching up with him.

Climbing off the start of Nat'l Champs.  Road is actually about 18% grade.

The flat rocks were actually was one of my stronger facets of the race.